Kingdom of Heaven

Learning how to worship on-line with Zoom has been an adventure to say the least, and has led me to swear more than once (but never on camera). It's also challenging to have the level of engagement we normally have on a Sunday morning, but during the sharing of the peace we've had a question for people to "chat" their answers.

Jesus spoke this last Sunday about proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven has come near so the question was, "What does the kingdom of heaven look like?" I loved the answers.

Listening
Mercy
Praise
Music 
Smiles
Peace
Reunions
Alaska
All my loved one who have gone before, including my canine kids
Joy
God being the center of everything
A celebration of creation
Imagination
Forgiveness, acceptance
Creativity
Music, peace, joy
65 F and Sunny
Surrounded in love
Wholeness
Welcome
Love
Delight
Beauty, brilliance, awe
A wedding celebration - focused on love
Unending love

Community

I want to begin by humbly recognizing the great sorrow and righteous frustration and rage in our nation for the violence against people of color. We will identify actions and do some imagining as a family and as a church for how we can enact better practices for a community where all may flourish. 

I also need to recognize that slogans like "kill the police" and "f%$# the police" are freaking our family out a bit. I know someone chanting "kill the police" should be the most upsetting, but it strikes me as the language my brother and I used when we fought. Or maybe it is just so disturbing that I repress my reaction to it.

I'm finding myself distressed over "f%$# the police". Perhaps it was inappropriate to tell my husband that everyone found out what a great lover he was and that's where it came from, but I have to keep making jokes or I'm not sure I will stay sane through this. Perhaps it is the vulgarity of it that bothers me, but I don't think so.

I think it is the undercurrent of sexual violence that so disturbs me. I know people don't really want to have sex with the police, but use of the f-word is such a violent rejection of their humanity. We recently reread the story of the Sodom from the Bible where all the men of the city nearly knocked down the door to rape two male guest who were visiting (and happened to be angels). It is not a story about same gender relationships; it is a story of sexual violence to humiliate and dehumanize the other. 

It is a story about what happens when the "other" becomes something to violate instead of someone to welcome. 

We've had enough dehumanizing, enough violation, and perhaps there is another way. I worry that the police have become a common enemy to unite people and give clarity of mission in a tumultuous nation and time. (I also fear the reverse is happening and we see it in some of the police reactions to protests). 

God bless our recent rally in Juneau. What an amazing showing of support, but when I read through the demands from the protestors for the police, I was struck by how many of those procedures are already in place. How different the experience could have been for our community if the police were part of the conversation instead of targeted as the problem. 

I'm not defending the institution of policing, but I know that they see the depth of human depravity and have to step in. They get called in at people's worst moments and often see some of the worst we can do to ourselves and each other. I often suggest in our family's discussions that a social worker and chaplain on staff would be incredibly helpful because police are asked to do everything. 

I do believe that violence is the least creative and effective way to solve a problem. I don't believe we can do away with it, but I do think we can create community conversations and relationships where violence in language and action are the last tools to be used not the first. 

Social Distancing

I asked one of the kids today at summer lunch what we should do differently tomorrow and his response was, "No more social distancing." 

I second that emotion, but alas I'm trying to be thankful that we can be in the same general area and still figure out how to eat with each other. I only stuck one forkful into my mask today.

No great words have come to me to direct us in this time of crisis. I'm struggling, but I just finished two articles in The New Yorker and one talked about "spiritual fatigue" and another about the need for "transformative spiritual work." 

I find it interesting that a magazine that tends to be pretty secular is recognizing that what is wrong with us takes more than a mental or physical fix. 

It got me wondering if there are spiritual shock collars to buzz us into bigger hearts and greater compassion. Your spirit is corrupted with pettiness and self-righteousness - BUZZ. Your spirit is torn by anger, envy or hate - BUZZ. Your spirit is tired - BUZZ. 

I'm always a little freaked out when people jump on the spiritual train because spiritual work is always deeply bound to carnal work. I'm not sure that one can contemplate your way out of division, anger and violence. Maybe you can, but my guess is that I'd forget all my learning as soon as I had to deal with someone in the flesh who is really annoying. I can manage "serenity now" until I have to be around people. 

I was joking about the shock collars, but not about the fact that spiritual work has to be lived out in the flesh. That's why we share meals with a messy and beautiful crew of kids. They make our hearts big through exercise. We get to gather with such a wide mix of kids and know them and love them as they are. 

Yes, we do need to observe social distancing, but we are learning how to close the gaps between our hearts and our lives. 

M*A*S*H

There are many thoughts bouncing around in my head this Memorial Day, but one of the top is the last episode of M*A*S*H. 

Watching M*A*S*H was as consistent of a family ritual in our home as saying "God is great, God is good" as fast as humanly possible before meals. Does prayer count when it is a race with your brother?

I will admit something now that I never could have then - I was disappointed and confused. Mind you, I was in middle school, but today that episode clicked.

I remember Hawkeye telling the shrink Sidney Freedman about how he was on a bus and they were in danger, but a woman couldn't get her chicken to shut up so he hollered at her to silence it and she killed it. He tells this story several times and it is only in the final telling when he can confess that it was a child not a chicken. Sorry if I spoiled the ending for you, but it has been 37 years. 

It was unbelievable and confusing to me as child that he couldn't just tell the truth to begin with and get on with the tearful goodbyes. After twenty years as a pastor, in the midst of so many competing truth narratives, I have some understanding.

There are times we can only handle so much truth. There are some ugly places in our lives where we twist our stories so we don't have to admit how destructive we have been. 

I long for private confession and forgiveness to be a regular part of the church; I'd even really like the little booths with the sliding door. I used to be slightly envious of Catholic churches, but most Catholics don't even do that anymore. 

People need places where they can tell true stories even when they are brutal and ugly. Therapists definitely fulfill part of this role, but the gift of confession and forgiveness is you begin and end the story of truth with the eyes of love and grace upon you. It might not always feel like that in the church, but that is the goal. 

There are stories that must be told in all of their ugliness so we don't have to be in bondage to their secrets any longer. We can speak the worst thing we've done without blame or justifying it and then hear the promise that we are not defined by our sin, but by the love and mercy of God. 

I think that's some of what the cross and resurrection are all about. We cannot escape looking upon how cruelly we treat boundless love in this world and we cannot escape looking upon God's continued faithfulness to mercy. That's the story that frees us to tell the truth. 

Eggplants

I wore my new eggplant mask to Costco today. 

It makes me laugh for so many reasons.

I'm not a huge fan of shopping and even less of trying to chit chat while shopping and now a mask cranks it all up a little bit more. The eggplants definitely help and there was a sweet lady today who complimented my beautiful mask. I love my town.

And I've really loved the PSAs on the radio reminding us that we are all in this together. There is a gift to being off the road system and knowing we are all stuck in this together so we need to figure it out together. 

But here's my question for today: how did this pandemic become so politically divisive? 

Political leaders have moved to the top of my prayer list. I don't know all the pressures on them. I know that I'm feeling the weight of responsibility on my little decisions and I can't even imagine what they are feeling. 

I'd be okay if we dropped the party system and asked every leader to spend time with people they love and respect who disagree with them. We could set up dates where leaders have to wear eggplant masks and discuss a whole range of ideas about how we will get through this economically, physically, and mentally. It's going to take all of us and our perspectives to get through this without imploding. 

I'm concerned that the fringes have become normal and I miss arguments where I walk away with new insight instead of shaking my head wondering if this person lives in the same reality as I do. 

If we can't achieve some sense of togetherness and civility in crisis, and we can't use eggplant emojis without it meaning something erotic, then I'm voting for mass production of eggplant masks for all politicians. How hostile and divisive can you be staring at someone's beautiful eggplant face? 

Fitbit

I don't accessorize well. I actually don't even wear my wedding ring anymore. Some of it is laziness and some is my fear of losing another one. Both of our rings are curled up together taped to the sound machine - that's maturing romance.

But, I recently realized my phone tracks my steps so now I'm slightly obsessed. I've never thought of it before and it will probably pass soon, but my beloved saw it as a prime chance to buy an accessory. 

I now own a Fitbit. I haven't worn anything on my wrist since my Kermit the Frog watch, which I still miss. Kermit was the first motivational speaker for my generation. Speaking of my generation, I immediately pretended like the Fitbit was a CB radio, "Breaker, breaker, this is Stagecoach, any smokeys ahead." 

I walked 20,255 steps today. The thingy buzzed when I hit 10,000 but didn't give me any reward at 20,000. I feel cheated. 

I'm not sure I want to track my life with this much detail. I used to journal and that seems much more helpful in tracking life. I don't go back and read them often, but every now and then I pull one out and see where I've been and what tools I used to survive.

Swearing is a consistent one, but also recognizing that when I am tired and stretched thin I'm not good to anyone. I found in my journals all my "shoulds". I put in there all the things I should be doing or thinking and then I  let them go and gave myself permission to do what I needed to do to be the healthiest person for myself and others I could be. 

The Fitbit feels a bit like a "should" enforcer, instead of soap on a rope it's guilt on a wrist. I'm going to reframe it from guilting me into 10,000 steps a day into an opportunity to accessorize, pretend like I'm a secret agent, and have some idea of how healthy I am today.

Skunk Cabbage

Skunk cabbage should be named something more majestic in the spring. She is such a beautiful reminder of color and life; she is the first to break through in the forest and hopefully the first food the bears who are waking up. 

I find "skunk cabbage" so belittling for the comforting creature who makes me smile every spring. Yes, she will soon make the mud around her smell so bad that you might have to throw away your shoes if you get stuck, but for now she is stunningly gorgeous. 

As a bonus, soon it becomes a good chance to talk about sex education with your kids. The skunk cabbage has a fascinating reproductive cycle. I'm a far cry from an expert on plants, but my favorite quote in a short synopsis of the skunk cabbage is, 

"skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus renifolius), can produce massive heat during the female stage but not during the subsequent male stage in which the stamen completes development" 

I'm feeling you there. I do know something about producing massive heat. It's also pretty obvious to even the casual observer when she becomes he. I actually thought I just imagined that's what happened until I read the scientific account of its development. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19640927)

Anyway, I'd like to name her King Cobra or Swamp Princess or Yellow Enchantress. Sometimes I think we all should have lots of names because one label doesn't capture who we are or all that we can be. 

One of the weirdest and fascinating of stories in the Bible is Jacob wrestling.

Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." Then the man said, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed." Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him.

Jacob is renamed Israel (wrestles with God) but he never gets to know the name of the man. I have no brilliant insight other than to acknowledge that sometimes letting go of labels and identities can be a fruitful thing.