josephholubblogRocky Mountain Musing
Wanted - Bridge Like Leaders!
This is what I am looking for in the candidates
running for election this year from the president on down - those who have
the characteristics of a bridge.
In our hyper-charged world of polarizations and accusations, I am looking
for those who have a quiet and humble confidence about them, like a bridge.
I am looking for those who have deep roots in a solid foundation of
compassion and longing for justice that connects especially to those who
have no or little voice. Bridges connect people on different
sides of things without calling undo attention to themselves. Bridges
are so secure within themselves they offer themselves freely and don't seem to mind if people walk on
them or even drive over them to connect with those on the other side.
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From "Press On" - a sermon by Joseph Holub
If you think about it, so much of who we are, our
makeup and identity, is a clinging and clutching to the past, so much
so we can get stuck in and entrenched in what was.
The result is who we are today is merely who we were yesterday.
Dear God, that sounds depressing to me – to be trapped in my fears, prejudices, self-justifications and limited knowledge of yesterday!
Who I am today is merely who I was yesterday?
It’s the cessation of growth and the expiration of wonder.
I see following Jesus to be about something radically different – transformationally different. Who I am is rooted not in who I was, but in whom I am yet to be as I “press on to make it my own” - to follow the one I name as Lord Jesus and the totally amazing grace of God revealed in his life – and to trust the process of death and resurrection into which I am called and invited and transformed.
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God always was...
always is -
always will be -
never will there not be God.
What is this life
and this world
and this universe
of which we are a part,
but the explosive expression of the being of God
in which everything that is -
is included and within -
good and evil -
holy mystery.... ever expansive realm...
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Oh God, Where Are You?
One of the deeply mysterious, yet revealing verses in the New Testament is found in Matthew 25 in the Parable of the Sheep and Goats. The king in the parable says, “Just as you did it to the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” To me this parable declares that God is not far away and removed from us living somewhere beyond everyday ordinary experience, but God is imminent – right here.
Progressive Christianity often uses the term panentheism – that is the belief that everything in creation is in God. God is not a separate being living “out there” or “up there” beyond the circle of the sky, but God is all around. We and all creation are in God. As we relate to the world and the people around us, we relate to God. Respecting creation and people is to respect God. Exploiting creation and people is to exploit God. To experience God you need not begin looking any further than into the face of your neighbor, and if Matthew 25 means anything at all, the face of your neighbor that is suffering.
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The Deficiency of Doctrine
Since The Enlightenment especially, but even long before that Christianity has been preoccupied with doctrine – faith defined as a set of right beliefs. Christianity is spoiled, grossly distorted and loses its heart when it is turned into a set of correct doctrines that I must accept or else. I mean read the Apostle's Creed. There's nothing much there that really stirs the soul and lights a fire in one's heart. There's nothing there about loving one's neighbor or enemy or anybody else. Doctrines and correct beliefs don’t make disciples but eventually turn us into narrow and intolerant fanatics. Jesus is not a doctrine. He is the expression of compassion and radical inclusive love who invites us to follow him on an adventure called discipleship that just may cost us our lives as we give ourselves away in the pursuit of love, compassion and justice. He calls us beyond the narrow boundaries behind which we protect and isolate ourselves from others. What Jesus asks for is our faith defined as trust and commitment in his way of loving and living. Unfortunately somewhere along the line being Christian came to mean accepting beliefs about Jesus rather than actually following Jesus.
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Unusual Agreement
I rarely agree with conservative political pundits since I am far from being politically conservative. However, I must agree with conservative columnist Kathleen Parker that Sarah Palin is "out of her league" when it comes to national and international politics and in qualifications to be vice-president of the United States. In her interview with Katie Couric, Sarah Palin clearly demonstrated that her knowledge of key national and international issues is grossly limited, and in some cases non-existent. She attempts to compensate for her lack of experience and knowledge with impulsive brazenness and excessive decisiveness, hardly good qualities for a national and world leader. She is not qualified nor ready to be the vice-president of the United States, let alone the president, from which if elected, she would be only a single heart-beat, of a 72 year old man, away! The prospect of it is frightening to say the least!
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From "Calculators and the Realm of Grace" - a sermon by Joseph Holub
When Joseph threw away his calculator, his brothers
were freed from any demands that might have stemmed from their offense
against Joseph. The door was now open to enter the realm of grace; the
possibility of reconciliation was alive. When we are hurt, we often
proceed with a calculator in one hand and a list of demands in the other
that we be appeased and gratified. We feel that the person should be
made to suffer and atone in some way for the offense against us. But the
whole time, what's really happening is that we are refusing to let go
of our resentment, and in so refusing we keep the other person, and
ourselves locked into the past -- locked into the living hell
resentment! Metaphorically that’s
what the last two verses of the parable in Matthew 18 are about.
It’s says that the unforgiving slave was handed over to be
tortured. It’s as metaphor
for being locked in the miserable prison his own resentment – a place of
his own choosing.
Current State and Beyond...
I was listening to some old favorite songs the other day and popped a John Denver CD in my player. As I listened to a few lines of "Calypso" I suddenly came to the realization that a few of his lyrics described the state of my current spiritual journey. Recently, I have let go of looking for God in the certainty of creeds and doctrines, proofs and piety - and instead expect to meet God in the profane of the everyday; in the questions and doubts; in uncertainty and the unpredictable; in the not knowing and not being sure. The lyrics express it best:
"To work in the service of life and the living
In search of the answers to questions unknown
To be part of the movement and part of the growing
Part of beginning to understand"
The greatest delusion is to think that my understanding of God is God. God is bigger and leading me always to a place and understanding beyond where and who I am! The best I can ever do is only begin to understand...
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From "Pulling the String on 'Love Your Neighbor'" - a sermon by Joseph Holub
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” So who exactly is my neighbor?
If I take seriously all the biblical
connections that this verse ties together, it’s the ones who look a
little or a lot like Jesus, that’s who! The ones who are sick, lonely,
lost, imprisoned, thirsty, starving, frightened, oppressed, poor, homeless,
disenfranchised, displaced, grieving, refugeed, rejected and dying.
The ones who look like Jesus on his way to the cross: the victims of
devastating hurricanes; those dying of HIV/Aids; starving and orphaned
children in sub-Sahara Africa; the unemployed and under-employed; the lonely
teen-ager; the abused woman; the forgotten aged, and also the “aliens” among
us, who have been branded with a disparaging name by our culture –
“illegal”.
“Love your neighbor as yourself” is a verse that ties all things and all
people together in the heart of God. It’s a verse that ties all
humanity together into one neighborhood. It’s a verse that ultimately
brings us to Jesus to be led into a fuller humanity, beyond our lack of
neighborliness, and empowered to
“love our neighbors as ourselves.” Amen.
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From "Keys" - a sermon by Joseph Holub
I remember going to the movie Gandhi for the first time. I’ll never forget the reaction of the crowd at the end of the movie. First, there was a silence, as deep and incisive a silence as I have ever experienced in a crowd. Second, many people just sat in their seats after the closing scene of Gandhi’s cremation fire filling the screen. In the life of this skinny-legged, bespectacled man with his spinning wheel, bare feet, selfless passion for peace and passionate opposition to every form of violence, we, in that theater, had gotten a glimpse of something – a glimpse of a kind of life - that made every other kind of life seem empty and wanting.
I believe the disciples and early Christian community experienced that kind of vibrant God presence in Jesus and it set them on fire! They understood that his life was about unlocking formidable boundaries. He unlocked boundaries of race and ethnicity. He unlocked forbidden religious boundaries that separated the clean from the unclean, the righteous from the sinners. He unlocked any boundary that dehumanized or diminished another human being. The “keys” with which we are entrusted are these special keys of sacrificial love that always focus on building others up, and hence, they are “keys” that unlock rigid boundaries that devalue human beings.
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Wildflowers
The wildflowers around our home in Buena Vista are stunning this year. Here are some samples. Do you know the names of them? I know some, but not all. Click on photo to enlarge.
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What Is The Voice?
What
is the voice I hear
beckons me:
to a place beyond where I am,
that would have me trade security for uncertainty,
to convert cherished realities to blessed memories?
What
is the voice I hear
that
calls
to trust what I do not yet know,
to seek what I cannot see,
to yearn for a wholeness I do not yet have?
What
is the voice I hear
that
calls
beckons me:
that thunders and whispers unceasingly,
that I cannot silence,
inviting me to a self not yet?
What
is the voice I hear
that
calls
beckons me:
to love more than I have loved,
to live more than I have lived,
to be more than I am?
What
is the voice I hear
that
calls
beckons me:
that only promises if I heed its call,
tomorrow I will be different than today,
on a journey of becoming that never ends?
What
is the voice I hear
that
calls
beckons me?
Could it be the same voice that the ancients heard,
Abraham, Sarah and Moses and such,
calling them beyond into a holy purpose?
What
is the voice I hear
that
calls
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From "Called Out of Fear" - a sermon by Joseph Holub
In my own life: Fear has distorted my decision-making and my attitudes by blinding me to facts and truth and reinforced my prejudices; Fear has prevented me from overcoming insecurities, from trusting in others, and from being willing to become vulnerable and take risks in order to grow; Fear has hindered my willingness to let go of old ways of thinking; Fear has caused me to ignore the imperatives of love more times than I can remember; Fear has made me hesitant to venture beyond boundaries of safety I draw around my life, making me a prisoner in my own solitude; Fear has stifled my motivation to pursue goals and objectives;
I have decided (made a resolution) that during the balance of this year’s election campaign, if I am watching the television, and a political advertisement comes across my screen that in any way employs fear in the message, I will turn it off. I don’t care who it is for, I will turn it off! I will not be manipulated and baited by fear. I simply will not!
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From "You Give Them Something To Eat" - a sermon by Joseph Holub
The early Christian Community experienced something incredible in Jesus, an astounding abundance that alleviated their personal hunger pangs of fear, nourished them beyond their pervasive sense of inadequacy, and propelled them into the world to be bold and daring disciples for Jesus.
This morning we gather around the banquet table of God and re-enact elements of these great feeding stories. Once again Jesus is handing out bread that he has blessed: “The body of Christ.” The blessed bread is placed into our hands by one of his disciples, and we take it into our bodies – the whole ritual becoming a powerful living metaphor that points to the gospel truth that God will not allow us to stay trapped in our fear and confined by our sense of inadequacy, but empowers us out of his amazing abundance with grace and compassion to be his body in the world – on fire with is love – equipped with his compassion – taking the abundance we’ve experienced in Jesus out to feed a hungry and needy world.
The real miracle then ends up being not the multiplication of loaves and fishes so long ago, but multiplication of love in your soul and mine and in this community that turns us inside out, away from ourselves and toward others.
“They need not go away. You give them something to eat.”
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