Forget-me-not ~ Mary's Eyes

These For-get-me-nots are blooming along the edge of the woods here. Also known as Mary's-Eyes, these sweet, humble, ground covering plants are vigorous self-seeders, turning up where they were not planted. Some gardeners would write them off as an invasive species and to be yanked out. I find them charming in their loveliness and their meaning.

But I want my religion to be much more than admiration: admiration for Jesus, admiration for Mary and the saints, admiration for the natural world. I want my religion to grow-me-up. Grow-me-up religion is a challenge, even a personal threat. It offers a new vision; a new way of thinking and seeing. Maybe Mary had that when at Cana she told Jesus, "They have no more wine." Admiration religion says, "Oh, Mary was so sensitive." But wine in the ancient world of Judaism was symbolic of an alive, creative life with a living God. So get it — running out of wine at a wedding could very well mean that the marital relationship of God with his people is exhausted, empty, run out. In a full length interview some years ago, Pope Benedict XVI said this of the Church in Europe - "It is exhausted." That doesn't mean the priests and nuns are tired from working so hard; it means the religion itself is empty and spent.

This little flower ought to call to mind the many times Jesus asks us to wake up and see. Maybe we need to wake up and see ourselves truly, without deception. A young man, recently relocated, said of his new state, "We're just soft, overfed consumers here." 

In the May 3, 2020 issue of The New York Times Sunday Magazine section there was an article by Linda Villarosa reporting on the racial disparities of Covid-19 deaths in America. Here are two responses that reveal new seeing.

Reading "Who Lives? Who Dies?" brought tears to my eyes as the writer eloquently laid out why African-Americans are at greater risk of dying not just from Covid-19 but from other chronic and infectious diseases, and the impact of these on the families in New Orleans. I have worked as a public health professional for over 50 years and found public health efforts have had little impact on decreasing the health disparities between white and black Americans. Only massive system changes will make a difference, and I see little chance that the American majority is interested in change. Baltimore

What a stunning article. I had to reread many portions to let it all sink in. One of the most incredible ideas is that the stress of being black can affect people so severely. The good coming out of this virus will be people becoming aware of the massive inequalities in the U.S., and the absolute necessity of a health care system for everyone, free to everyone, as a human right. Americans are learning, perhaps for the first time, about other countries and their health care systems. This will certainly be an eye-opener to many.  Mexico City

We're so divided now in this country, someone might say, "Oh, these letters sound like pinko socialism." I wouldn't agree. I'd say they sound like the Gospel of Jesus Christ — the Incarnation — Christmas — the Madonna — the God who made the universe has come into our world with human eyes to show us how to see. See what? Jesus is always looking at people in their vulnerability and loss. Even through infant-eyes, the first people he sees from the manger are the marginalized shepherds — God's anawim (the broken, powerless, empty, bent over ones.)

Intercessions ~ Pentecost Sunday

While red is customarily the Pentecost color,/ all the more,/ the color of Holy Spirit is green./ May we grow and green into the mind of Christ,/ with all of its challenge to change and evolve./ We pray to the Lord.

During the Coronavirus pandemic,/ the rates of domestic violence are increasing dramatically./ We pray for a national healing,/ where there is currently uncertainty,/ and feelings of isolation and powerlessness./ May we be freed of any sense of owning or controlling others./ We pray to the Lord.

For the President of the United States,/ our congress,/ and leaders across the nation./ May they truly care for the people they have sworn to protect in national emergencies,/ sharing sacrifice,/ working to save lives/ and honoring the dead./ We pray to the Lord.

While we pray for those who reveal what is best in us,/ we also pray for those who are resentful,/ filled with ill-will,/ even mockery,/ who politicize this time of grave sickness./ When we say, We are in this together,/ may we mean it./ We pray to the Lord.

The nation is blind to its own original sin of racism./ In the Holy Spirit,/ may we confront our own prejudices,/ be discomforted by this national failure/ and boldly broaden our pro-life witness./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the more than 100,000 who have died in this country from the Coronavirus,/ and for the loved ones who mourn them./ We ask for the Pentecost gift of comfort and healing./ We pray to the Lord.

Psalm 45 ~ God is my refuge and strength

Verse 1: Look at how this beautiful psalm begins - at once heaping up words to describe God as refuge, strength, helper. To take refuge in God is to trust God. God is reliable. Behind this trust is the belief that God's strength or power are in control: not our menacing enemies (inner or outer), not the troublemakers, nor the people who claim they have absolute power and authority. And God's rule is (as a better translation says) a refuge, strength and help for us. 

Verses 2-3: Now the psalmist spells things out a bit. Even if the earth should rock (is he thinking of an earthquake?) or the waters rage and foam (is he thinking of a category 4 hurricane?) no - much more dreadful than that. Remember, the ancient worldview envisioned the dry land as floating on and surrounded by a watery chaos and that the sky was held up in place by the mountains which served as pillars. So the psalmist is thinking, even if that entire cosmos fell apart, collapsed, (the sky is falling!) imploded, fell apart into utter awfulness—even then God would still be trustworthy. What about our own time? Rising temperatures which will have unthinkably dire consequences, storms of increasing destructive intensity, extinctions of plants and animal species, the creation of new expanses of poverty. And all of this while we have the nuclear capacity to utterly destroy our planet, how many times over now? Even then, the psalmist would say, God is with us as a trusted stronghold.

Verses 4-7: And while all this trouble unfolds, the psalmist imagines humankind will be shaken and in tumult. The words to describe the human collapse are the same words used to describe the cosmic trouble. Everything cosmic and human may be in motion—a kind of swirling trouble—yet the one thing that remains is God's reliably strong presence symbolized by the words, City of God.

This City of God is Jerusalem. And while the Jewish people never believed that God was locked in or confined to Jerusalem, the glorious temple on Mount Zion did house the particular presence of God. Health crisis, financial crisis, international crisis, sex abuse crisis, constitutional crisis: God is to be trusted.

Verse 8: This little refrain calling God, the Lord of hosts may be a reference to the Ark which contained the stone tablets of God's law—the Ark carried on poles and covered with golden cherubim - a kind of throne for God. But hosts can also means armies. Maybe Jerusalem was under attack by outside enemies. "The waters of the river that give joy." But there's no river flowing through Jerusalem, then or now. This is a poetic or metaphoric word—rivers bring assurance. The people will never starve or die of thirst if there's a river nearby. The river referenced here is meant to symbolize yet again, that God is a reliable, unfailing provider, even if the worst un-doing should take place. 

Verses 8-10: "Come, consider the works of the Lord," the psalmist invites. We might remember the apostle Philip inviting Nathanael to come and see. Here the psalmist is inviting us to come and consider how God has provided peace for his people. The words, "be still" don't mean take it easy but would be better translated: "Stop" - as in "Stop, put your weapons down—God is in charge." We're very far away from heeding that holy advice. 

Bottom Line: We live in a dangerous and scary world. And in that world, our presence of God is not a building, however splendid, but the person of Jesus Christ. He's the temple now. "God is with us" is his nickname (Matthew 1:23). To enter and live in the Kingdom which Jesus announces is to enter and live in dependence upon God - to find in God our place of security and trust, instead of in myself, what I own, our purported greatness and military might, the political party and those in positions of power and authority.  

Remember years ago, the new systems of positive thinking? It's not even that. The psalmist has his own version of the worst that can happen and we have ours. He invites us not to fear in the face of it. The angels of Easter morning announced it to the women: "You came here looking for death - he's risen - don't be afraid." This is the very great challenge put before people of faith today: Where do I put my trust?