May 30, 2008

a friday aside

One aspect of serving others is listening to the call within to express your gifts - those talents you have that make you feel infinite when you are doing them. When we express those gifts, the Holy Spirit works through us in ways we may never know directly, touching the lives, hearts, and minds of others.

- Joanna Bates

I gave up caffeine a couple of weeks ago. It was time. I was drinking far too much again. And my usual grumpy and sour demeanor was hightened by its presence in my body. Ever since then, my brain has been more a muddle than usual. Some may say that this is hard to imagine, but it's true. Caffeine would offer a manic focus when I needed it. Now...well...every day is a sunny day in a field with all the time in the world to muse on daisies.

I'm doomed.

I have been working through the sermon. It's going to be okay. I need to finish it this morning. There's too much going on this weekend for me to have to write then. The difficulty is that I have this message that won't leave me alone. It's different than the direction I thought I would go. And I am exhausted from trying to sort the two out. Here's the lectionary for those who are interested. There are a lot of options this weekend. So, I chose Deuteronomy, Romans and Matthew. Psalm 46 is another option. The quotation in the box is a Sojourner's reflection upon it. Thus its inclusion in today's post. I may incorporate it somehow. I am finding it to be a helpful bridge.

You see, I cannot get Myanmar out of my mind. I thought I was going to get to use this Deuteronomy passage as a platform to reflect on our Children and Youth Sunday last week. But Myanmar won't leave me alone. Homes have been washed away. Were they foundations built on sand? Or is the end of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (the Matthew passage) asking us to think of another way to get at this crisis in Myanmar?

God does not send the flood. No longer. Can it be that the house that is truly washed away is that of the Burmese government? Perhaps that is God's wish...and the fruit of Jesus' proclamation. And those who perished are the poor (in spirit) who Jesus extols at the beginning of the sermon. It's hard to muddle through.

We're supposed to have rain today. That'll be interesting. The garden could use a little watering. And One of the Girls has a gig this evening. I hope you'll come out to see us. It should be a good time.

Posted by tripp at May 30, 2008 06:35 AM
Comments

Your internal debate about Myanmar sounds like one version of the "Problem of Evil." When I was an undergrad, Emory offered an interdisciplinary class with that title -- to this day, I wish I had been able to fit it into my schedule.

As you look at Myanmar, or China, or Iraq, or South Africa, etc. etc. - you're stuck with the question, "Why does the God I believe in permit, or cause, bad things to happen to good people?"

I wish you well with that question. You're in great company among those who have wrestled with it down the ages.

Posted by: Megan at May 30, 2008 11:23 AM

Yeah...

I am going to say that God doesn't do it to us. But the other question of "why does it happen" still lingers. The question I am going to address is "why do we insist on making it worse?"

Posted by: Tripp at May 30, 2008 11:28 AM