2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Proper 7 (12) - Year B
Moving from moments of great endurance to expressions of the tools of righteousness to a series of antitheses. A comment that struck me from the NISB regarding this last list is that they "reveal the contradictions of this difficult life, especially when opposition is encountered from those whom one serves."
This issue of betrayal is still alive and well. We face it periodically. There is always hurt involved. It feels like dying, punishment, bankruptcy. And yet we don't have to respond in kind. Our hearts can yet stay open.
By now you know that I have trouble with the religious right, the conservative renewal groups. On this Tuesday I will be deep into our Annual Conference and decisions/votes of people to send to General and Jurisdictional Conference. I pray I can still stay open to those I sense are participating in the betrayal of the best of our United Methodist tradition by limiting us to piety and to creeds of the distant past, who would make limiting loyalty oaths part of our life and dismiss those followers of Jesus who don't live up to their standards. As you may be able to tell from that so-called sentence, my prayer quickly got eaten up by my fear of their power.
Let me try again, I pray to be able to keep an open heart.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/june2003.html
A couple of days ago, reflecting on this same passage, I prayed for an open heart.
That prayer does not seem to have borne specific fruit. I find that my heart can only be most open when it is not dealing with closed minds. To have an open heart toward a closed mind is counter-productive for myself and the other being related to.
It is at this point that the virtues of endurance and righteousness need to be reoriented. There is no particular virtue in enduring bigotry. There is a virtue in continuing to see the closed-minded as capable of change and to keep open to that while not letting the limits of a smaller-horizoned life limit our inclusion of them.
All of this means that the whining/accusation model of behavior so often employed by the more constrained viewpoint needs to be addressed and suffered. I find that the alternation of whining with accusation, and back again, switching whenever confronted directly so change can be avoided, is among the most difficult tasks I have. I keep getting sucked in and worn down by such behavior.
I appreciate Paul's process in verse 11, "We have spoken frankly to you, our heart is wide open to you." Frank/openness may be the antidote to whining/accusation. Thanks, Paul. I pray for this polarity to be more real in my life, and yours.
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Mark (Reader)
I'm going to be working on Sunday primarily with the reading from 1 Sam and will be talking about the giants we allow into our life and which we also allow to control our lives. In 1 Sam the giant is Goliath. In Mark the giant is the storm at sea and the fear it spawned. The 2 Cor passage's "heart wide open" would work well here too. The wide open heart is wide open to God's work, word & will.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/june2003.html
Here is quite a list of afflictions. If one took the time I expect we could each come up with examples in our own lives that would illustrate the difficulty listed. Go ahead, give it a try.
affliction ____________
hardship ____________
calamity ____________
beating ____________
imprisonment ____________
riot ____________
labor ____________
sleeplessness ____________
hunger ____________
dishonor ____________
ill repute ____________
treated as impostor ____________
seen as unknown ____________
being of no more account than one who is dying ____________
punished ____________
poor ____________
having nothing ____________
What holds these from being defining realities and allows an alternative action in their midst is having an open heart for others.
For Paul this openness is not passivity, but an active voice of speaking frankly, honestly, openly. How open is your heart in this regard?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/june2006.html
Today is the acceptable time for salvation.
Now is the only time we have to act to bring wholeness and health to ourselves and others.
We wish we would have been wiser sooner. We plan to be more helpful. But, we only have this moment in which to actually show, through our endurance, another viewpoint on or way of responding to affliction, hardship, calamity, etc.
Regardless of the outcome, honor or dishonor, we have this opportunity in which to affect and effect relationships between ourself and ourselves, ourself and others, ourself and G*D/Creation. We don't decide to act on the basis of some hoped for result, but on our best understanding of who we are and the movement of life in the midst of difficulty.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/june2006.html
Open wide your heart, let's go to the other side where we will be in the presence of mystery and openly challenge impossible situations. In so doing, praises will be sung and thanks given.
- - -
open wide your heart
let's go to the other side
in the presence of mystery
open challenge will be given
to impossible situations
in so doing
praises will be sung
thanks given.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html
There is a time for everything under the sun – Paul's been reading his Ecclesiastes again – now is the acceptable time to commend myself/ourselves as G*D's partner(s) whether right or left-handed, honored or dishonored, anonymous or famous for more than 15 minutes.
Of course paying attention to the details of how that partnership gets enacted will be of the utmost importance. Will truth be told and hearts opened more consistently than not? In hard times; tough times; bad times; beaten, jailed, and mobbed times; working times, fasting times will we recognize our companionship with G*D and one another? Or is our partnership with G*D only acknowledged in smooth times.
When such truth and hearts grow, Expansive and Expanding Love grins all over itself and the rest of creation. We might even want to go past an emerging church into a Spacious Church. Wouldn't you rejoice to be a part of a Sixth-Degree-of-Separation Spacious Church?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html
G*D is sometimes imaged as a slot machine. You puts your money in and, at an acceptable day and time, bounty is heaped upon you.
You may have to put up with a lot of being ignored, but through great afflictions and by great patience, what looks to others as a waste becomes for us the possession of everything.
So, open your heart - your heart where your treasure is - your resources. Feed the slot machine.
We are always in the midst of such a perfect storm that we never think twice about putting our last nickel in. We have cut every other choice but that of random luck to see us through the destruction of our ability to make any choice other than bet on today being an acceptable day for a big payout.
Dear Corinthians and any others listening in - you pays your money and you takes your chances.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/06/2-corinthians-61-13.html