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How Shall I Receive You?
As an ass, playing the role of jester?
As the outlandish actor in the scene,
cast to make the comfortable laugh
and the disenchanted daydream?
As a stone, the unseen understudy?
As the patient watcher in the wings,
ready to leap up and shout one line
if only the leads will share the light?
As cloaks and palms, a garish set?
As the paint splashed underfoot in
greens, purples, blues, and golds—
the backdrop of a dystopian circus?
How shall I receive you on your way?
How shall I meet the holy ridiculous,
the laughingstock of stately triumph,
the momentary flash of impossibility?
A Jar of Oil
The widow of one of the prophets cried to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and now creditors come to take my two children as slaves.” Elisha said to her, “Tell me, what do you have in the house?” She answered, “Nothing except a jar of oil.” (2 Kings 4:1-2, adapted)
Let’s not pretend with one another that loving God means you will never be broke. Let’s not repeat the lie that you are guaranteed to have plenty so long as you serve God.
Because I’m not the only person of faith who ignores the 1-800 numbers of creditors calling.
Bad things do happen to good people. Bad circumstances. Bad relationships. Bad environments. Bad credit. And you’re on the hook for dealing with the consequences, regardless of whether it was your fault or not. Rise to the occasion. Repair your heart. Fight the system. Reassess your budget. Use whatever you have and do the best you can.
Even if it’s just a jar of oil.
Devastated by the death of her husband, the widow now faces compounding crises. She is not well-off; prophetic work doesn’t exactly come with a pension and life insurance. The stress of calling creditors keeps her awake at night. And now the worst of all nightmares: they will tear her children from her, enslave them for their own profits.
What good is “take nothing with you” if everything has already been ripped from you?
If there’s really nothing, or the threat of nothing, then fight like hell to not be alone, at least.
Cry out to those who will listen. Call for community. Protest against those who would separate you from love and loved ones. Resist the despair that lies to you when it says nothing means no one.
Bring your jar of oil, and stay together.
Prayer: Let there be love and companions along this weary way, O God.
published through the Daily Devotional
Advent II: Earth
"Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain." Isaiah 40:4, NRSV Peace to the valley, the cradle of death. Peace to the mountain, the beacon of change. Peace to the...
Advent I: Water
Walk on the water, O Sister; leave behind the weight of fears that anchor you to a battered and sinking boat. Walk on the water, O Sibling; step onto the miraculous expanse by which life is nurtured, eroded, and renewed. Walk on the water, O Brother; dare to trust the...
Satisfied
You silence the roaring of the seas, the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples. You visit the earth … and water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. You crown the year with your bounty. - Psalm...
Stop the Clocks
Joshua said in the sight of the people, “Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and Moon, in the valley of Aijalon.” And the sun stopped in mid-heaven and did not hurry to set for a whole day. There has been no day like it before or ever since, when God heeded such a...
Eye for Eye, God for God
Blessed are the unwavering, the resolute, for theirs is the unstretched heart. Blessed are the bold, the undaunted, for theirs is the unbended knee. Blessed are the unapologetic, the loyal, for theirs are the judgmental eyes. Do not trade eye for eye; take what you...
To What End?
The Israelites came into the wilderness of Zin. Now there was no water for the [people], so they quarreled with Moses and said, “Why have you brought the assembly of the Lord into this wilderness for us and our livestock to die here? Why have you brought us up out of...
Remember the Beginning
Moses said to the people, “Remember this day on which you came out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; no leavened bread shall be eaten. Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out. When the [Sovereign] brings you into a land flowing with milk and honey, you...
The Sandwich Generation
These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. … Then Joseph died, and all his brothers, and that whole generation. -...
Dreaming of God
On his way from Beersheba to Haran, Jacob stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven …...
