2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12
Proper 26 (31) - Year C
This is not negative advertising. Can you imagine a message as late as today coming from either of the candidates to the nation that would approximate Paul to the Thessalonians - an adopted country?
"I and my advisors boast of you among the countries for your steadfastness and faith during these last months of persecution and afflictions you are enduring. Our attempts to solidify your vote have continued to drive wedges between family members, making winner and losers - winners of the losers who will have a new cause to rally behind and losers of the winners who enter the waters of poisoned communal decision-making.
"Knowing the heritage of a living and loving GOD experiencing the very same persecutions and afflictions of negative advertising, closed ears, hardened hearts, unjust laws restricted expressions of choice, betrayers and loyalists misrepresenting intentions and yet working to powerfully fulfill every good resolve and work to connect our best dreams with our practical day-to-day decisions - we will do our best to represent you to others and represent to you a sense of abundance in the midst of the fear of too little and putting our common money toward expressions of healing each one and binding us all together. In such a manner we will really fulfill the ancient vision of our land of a general welfare of all, no matter what, and a common defense of this value, no matter what."
To what end will you pray these days that we might be worthy of this creation and one another?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/october2004.html
It would be nice, I suppose, to always have something bright to say about every bit of sacred writ. It would keep me thinking I understand what's going on around. But, today, at least, as Jon Stewart would say, "I've got nothing."
In theory this keeps me honest and humble. But I'm proudful enough to boast that I've got plenty of nothing.
Isn't it amazing how we can turn our deficits into pluses, at least for the moment we acknowledge a deficit.
So, to some apocalyptic or whimpering end, pray for me. Who knows, it may draw you closer to Paul and myself closer to the Thessalonians.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/october2004.html
Who are you? Who you talk'n to? What's your best shot? Will you stick it out?
Who are you? While politicians are famous for naming their own name, almost erasing who it is that is speaking as they speak about the image of themselves they want to project, we might yet do a better job of stating who it is that is speaking. What is our identity? How much energy can we put behind an encounter with another? If you haven't done it in awhile, you may want to stand in front of a full-length mirror and practice an energetic, positive, progressively-open presentation of yourself, saying your name out loud in a fashion that intends to engage another at your respective best places.
Who you talk'n to? Regardless of your strength of identity, if there is not an intentional speaking to another real person, folks aren't going to stick around for a potential growth opportunity for you both. If you haven't done it in awhile, you may want to intentionally look at people's eyes to note their color. In addition to this specific, use your Sherlock Holmes skills (practice will improve them) to note specifics about their bearing and aura. To speak with another means knowing something about them and if you need to spend time to so learn it will be worth the expenditure of time in effective communication.
What's your best shot? Can you go Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy one better on the shorthand version of your best that you will add to as the relationship deepens. They begin with Grace and Peace (they named their sources for such, but these generics are a good starting place). What would you substitute for one of them or add to them? You don't have to give a whole load at one time, trust that there will be ample kairos-time to get in what needs getting in.
Will you stick it out? Finally, there is this moment, well-encountered, that can be an eternity. There is always time enough to make a difference if that is intended by all concerned. Our apart time can also fulfill this moment and prepare us for another through an on-going sense of being joined at the root, in prayer.
- - -
it would be so wonderful
for grace and peace
to find a place and time
within my life
to be even further glorified
it would be so wonderful
for faith and love
to find a place and time
within your life
to be even further glorified
it would be so wonderful
for life together
between us
to be even further glorified
it would be so wonderful
for glorified living
within and beyond
to be fruitful and multiplied
it is already wonderful
simply to imagine
these possibilities
gloriously playing together
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy are able to identify two keys to living as a significant group of people, a covenant group, if you will. Clarity of what it means to grow toward G*D in both individual and corporate arenas stands everyone in good stead. My individual faith encourages and challenges where we as a group place our trust. That which we are discerning together affects where I place meaning in my own life. Growth in all directions is key to a dynamic fellowship, in this case Christian (pre-Constantine). This is a different dynamic than later when formal doctrine will cut some off and homogenize the Church which will lead to authoritarian leadership and a one-right-answer willing to name others as heretic and kill them.
A second key is how we express love for one another. Our neighbors, even those in the "church", are different enough from our self that it is no small matter that we honor one another with our different stages of growth in faith and trust. This is a different dynamic than both of us gazing toward officialdom and trying to measure up to a distant and theoretical way of being in the world.
These dynamics are still worthy ones to search after - growth and love. In fact when they are split from one another we find ourselves splitting from one another. There is no church growth product that will substitute for these basics of growth in meaning (individually and together) and love beyond reflections of our self.
What individual or group within your "church" needs your prayer that these two gifts might surface in their life?
What individual or group outside your "church" needs your prayer that these two gifts might surface in their life?
When growth beyond our current understanding and love beyond our self happen, new hope is born and borne, regardless of religious or non-religious expression/tradition in which they occur.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/10/2-thessalonians-11-4-11-12.html