Romans 7:15-25a
Proper 9 (14) - Year A
"I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?" [The Message]
Here are some other "real questions" from a Google search.
The real question is, "How should we be measuring and controlling risk?"
The real question: Whose world is it, anyway?
The real question is... What is student outcomes assessment and what's the connection to Virginia Woolf, anyway?
The real question is whether the Internet makes us more stressed.
The real question should be: Does it matter?
The real question: Will any leader truly re-think the peace process?
The Real Question: Which basic principles will sustain Distributed Education over time, and across changing technologies?
The real question is: Why should we have to put up with any of this?
The real question is what will be the effects of globalisation?
The real question is, Would you want to be put on machines if you weren't going to get better?
What is your "real question"? How do things get set right in this world of contradiction? Isn't that where GOD and Jesus and Spirit and Church and You come in?
Ask a real question, live a real response.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2002/july2002.html
One of the aspects I most appreciate about the progressive understanding of not fully understanding is living in the midst of ambiguity. I've been accused, more than once, of appreciating it too much. However, given the choice between choice and non-choice I choose choice.
We know the difference between good and evil, it is our birthright. Hope keeps us from doing all the evil we know and fear keeps us from all the good we know. Now we can work out whatever salvation might be within these realities.
Jump to, O saint and sinner, there's living to be done.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/july2005.html
Here we abide -- 'tween sin and grace. What a glorious place. We are not puppets, even of grace. We are co-creators. We are partners. We are free to do what we do do, well.
Obviously this is going to have political overtones whether that is making decisions on our own, in some semblance of family or community, or in governmental arenas. As far as we know each of these impacts the others. So we might as well be bold about announcing that and proceed to be involved at each of these levels.
There will be no time to second-guess ourselves, even when we don't understand what it is that has prompted us to particular responses to opportunities. It is important to choose a clear governance that acknowledges our tendency to mess up even when we are so careful not to. Checks and balances are a spiritual matter, as are regulations.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/july2005.html
A first or most recent glance at a beloved calls forth action. A first or most recent whisper of a beloved calls forth action. Whether from or toward a beloved, we are called beyond sitting and theorizing/creedalizing/speculizing.
Even with the threat of messing up, of mistaking a dream of a beloved for a beloved, there is no real option (though lots of unreal ones) for following a heartbeat that resonates with one's own. There are no guarantees where such action will lead, simply a prayer that love will find its way.
Such love is our birthright. It is G*D's way that we re-image. It is a source of thanks that eases our journey through life.
- - -
stamp your foot
play your flute
throw your tantrum
there is no getting around
a wisdom of deeds
lived into and through
eventually we all
arise and come away
to a beloved space
in such wise
prisoners are freed
from dryness unto death
in such wise
prisoners are made
of restored hope
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html
The Message puts it: "What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God's command is necessary."
What Paul seems to have forgotten is that he is created in G*D's image. Do you remember G*D having times of remorse after the flood, promising never to do that again, looking for a reason to repent in Jeremiah 26:3, and regretful of making Saul king? Trust and dealing with the aftermath of mistakes is a big deal for G*D, and for us.
Sometimes G*D blesses and sometimes curses. And so do we. Sometimes blessings are rued and curses were correct. Sometimes not.
Even with all the dangers, would be assisted to move away from language demanding external commands to the more intangible, but ever so real, presence with one another. This will help us define and redefine what it means to be on the winning side, always a desire for validation and comfort? Better dealing with inconsistency and intuition is unlikely to come from the outside, life simply turns much too quickly. The best-intentioned command leaves much to be desired as the world turns. It is inappropriately institutionalized. It operates from a single perspective rather than in 3, 4, or 5-D. It is dissective rather than vivifying.
To party? <---> To fast? Now there's a question.
So what presence (not what command) do you carry into parties? into fasts? so you might be alive in either setting?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2008_07_01_archive.html
So many fractures in life.
death - life
sin - good
mind - flesh
spirit - body
law within - law without
No wonder Paul finally exclaims - I'm Wretched.
I recommend a book by RW "Obie" Holmen, “A Wretched Man: A Novel of Paul the Apostle” wherein much good contemporary scholarship is conveyed in novel form. It will get your thinker going again.
Where is the going on?
From the cross Jesus cried out, “I commend my life.”
In Paul’s last days we might hear him finally say, “Catch me.”
In these two we find parentheses, fore and aft, of lives well-lived - Fromgrace to draw near to G*D as a life’s work to finally allowing grace to simply proceed in the midst of all the contradictions and paradoxes and blockages of life. Wherever you are on that spectrum, rejoice.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/07/romans-715-25a.html
First a reference: A Wretched Man: A Novel of Paul the Apostle uses contemporary Pauline studies to look again at Paul. The novel form allows for additional context for key phrases and ideas from Paul.
Second: There is no rule against doing good. While “good” can get one in temporary trouble, its long-term arc is to benefit both oneself and generations to come. Sometimes it only assists others, but that’s good.
Don’t get too dualistic here between spiritual law and fleshy sin. Even G*D has done things that have needed repentance and a resolution to not do that again. Note the interplay between these idealized states and continue the work set out at Pentecost to move from our fear, our wretchedness, and move into a polyglot (some would say sinful) community to better wrestle out how we care for weary ones. Do we give them our yoke or teach them to find their own?