Pondering a Coming Hurricane

So?

So I am sitting on my back deck reading my insurance policies and feeling sorry for myself.  “The worst hurricane ever,” is headed toward our home at the beach and is then predicted to come “our way” inland to have dessert after the main meal.  So, I am in the dumps.  Find me some worms to eat.

            And then she appears, quite uninvited but welcomed.  Her painted arms lay still for a moment and then there is the whisper in the breeze;

            “So, take a deep breath O creature of the dust. That is what you are you know.  You

                        think yourself big and strong but as I look your way you seem O so fragile

                        just now.  All that stuff you have in those buildings, what is it really?

                        Here I am looking at you with all that worry on your strained face.  I

                        only have a few more days to spread my wings and you worry about

                        your future.  Look my way and remember life is always fragile but

                        you forget it so often.  Be thankful and ponder what someone once

                        said, ‘Look at the birds and flowers, do they fret and yet the Creator

                        not only created them but cares for them.’  Breathe deep and be

                        grateful.”

            So, does this butterfly bring me a message from beyond?  I suppose if I pay attention the lesson is most real.  All my need for control is laughed at by the voice from beyond.  So I shall pause and be reminded that life is so much more than the dwelling places we build with our hands.  The one who once spoke of a “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens,” must have sent me a winged messenger to get my attention about what is really important.

            So, thank you.

So Why am I Crying: a poem written after watchng John McCain's funeral

So Why am I Crying?

(a poem/prayer after watching John McCain’s Funeral)

So divided we are

and yet

there they were

all lined up

next to each other

like maybe

it is supposed to

be that way

Presidents all, of

different colors

and stripes

competitors for

a season

but now

united in grief

and honor

What have we become

all hiding in

our prideful tribes

afraid that

someone or anyone

might “tread on me”

or get

something undeserved

Can we find the good

that rests beneath

the need to win

and gain notice

so that we

will be

right while

others are wrong

God you were there in that

room listening

to all those noble words

about a man who wanted

more for our nation

not less

Please whisper into the stopped

up ears of our leaders

to clear away the

clutter of” me and mine”

and find a

new way to

“ours”

Rest in peace, John

but haunt us

 with your restless presence

that stirred within your

wounded chest

You and the God whose

face you now see please

come visit us

with a new vision

that allows us to

again see

what true

greatness is….

Jody Seymour

September 1, 2018

"In the Light of Day" A peom in response to our need to label each other

In the Light of Day

(A poem about our apparent need to label each other

based on the story in Genesis 2: 18- 3:11)

In the light of day

faces reflect a

kind of brightness

that was meant

to be

in the beginning

But too soon shadows

appeared and darkness

revealed a creeping

sadness that

continues

even now

The Earth Being was

given the power

to name all

that was

but

names became labels

So now we reap the whirlwind

of our efforts to

control others by

putting them again

in the shadows

with our words

So east of Eden having

chosen the lesser way

we continue

our naming-

Gay – Straight

Legal – Illegal

White – Black

Right – Wrong

Me – Other

Ah but in the light of day

we are none of

those labels

We are crafted dust

with a broken

memory

So again we need to

hear the call

coming in the

cool of the evening-

“Why are you hiding,

regain your nakedness-

Be not ashamed

Cease the naming

You are simply

mine,

in the light of day”

Jody Seymour

August 2018

Privatizing Religion

Privatizing Religion

            One topic for the constant debate that seems to be ongoing in America are voices that call for “privatizing.”  There is talk of privatizing Social Security and privatizing Medicare.  Before we ever get to those topics it seems that a privatizing of religion is happening.

            In my tradition this is not supposed to occur.  Faith is not to be co-opted in order to fulfill individual needs.  The ethic of Jesus is based upon the call to share in the context of community needs.

            I feel like I woke up one day and all of this got turned upside down.  Faith is being used to promote that American needs to be “great” again.  What kind of great do we desire?  The followers of Jesus were confronted about what being great really means.  It seems that Jesus offered a kind of “greatness” that is related to service.  True greatness is linked to those in our community who do not feel so great; the vulnerable, children, older people, the stranger, the naked, the hungry.

            A group of religious leaders recently penned a kind of affirmation which speaks to all of this.  Richard Rhor offers the following;

In light of this, I will be sharing parts of a document I helped compose with a group of twenty-three Christian leaders and elders of various denominations. We presented “Reclaiming Jesus: A Confession of Faith in a Time of Crisis” to the White House on May 24 in a pilgrimage of over 1,000 believers. As a Franciscan Catholic, I proudly wore the habit of St. Francis. For the vulnerable who have been rendered more vulnerable by the current United States’ administration, we lament and pray and promise to stand with you. We acknowledge and affirm:

We are living through perilous and polarizing times as a nation, with a dangerous crisis of moral and political leadership at the highest levels of our government and in our churches. We believe the soul of the nation and the integrity of faith are now at stake.

[As Christians,] it is time to be followers of Jesus before anything else—nationality, political party, race, ethnicity, gender, geography—our identity in Christ precedes every other identity. . . . “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

            The part that haunts me is the statement, “We believe the soul of the nation and the integrity of faith are now at stake.”  The Christian religion is not to be privatized.  I have no need to bash President Trump.  I am tired of watching news channels that I used to think at least tried to really offer “fair and balanced” reporting now constantly pile on negative stuff about Mr. Trump.  PBS is about the only voice that tries to “report” the news rather than editorialize about it.

            I am not a reporter or a politician but I am one who for 47 years tried to offer the gospel of Christ.  It is a challenging gospel that both offers grace and judgment.  When we push aside the vulnerable in our land because the economy is doing “great” we forget the words of the Old Testament prophets who condemn those who “sell the poor for a pair of shoes.” (Amos 2: 6)

            I used to say to teenagers who longed for more “freedom,” that there was really no such thing as freedom.  The true choice is what you shall be “bound to.”  To tie yourself to unbridled freedom leads to a kind of bondage.  I often used the story of Ulysses from the Odyssey where Ulysses makes the crew of his ship bind him to the mast so that he can hear the tempting sounds of the “Sirens.”  The Sirens were women’s voices calling to the passing sailors to come their way only to find their ships destroyed by the waiting rocks.

            Ulysses, knowing that the temptation would be too great, decides to be bound.  His men are ordered to put wax in their ears so they will not be “free” to follow tempting voices but Ulysses wants to hear them.  Sure enough he screams for his men to untie him because he wants to go the way of freedom.  His bindings keep him really free to sail another day.

            One root meaning of the word religion means “to bind back.”  We are not free to privatize religion and make both God and faith in our own image.  I am not sure what kind of great America desires but I am sure that long ago words of wisdom were shared with those who would listen:

            “And what is it if you gain the whole world and lose your soul…”