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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
Wild Things
Praise the LORD from the earth, you sea monsters and all deeps; wild animals and all cattle, creeping things and flying birds! - Psalm 148:7, 10 (NRSV) Listening to a 45 RPM vinyl as a child, I learned from the Irish Rovers why there are no unicorns in the world: they...
Christmas Praise
"Let there be rest for the weary, O God Most High, rest and peace to the brokenhearted, peace and pleasure for the despondent, and let freedom come like an angel to the earth." So sing the stars and constellations, the leviathan from its depths and the dragon from its...
Love
What we have confined, O Love, you have exploded. What we have defined, O Love, you have confounded. What we have constrained, O Love, you have released. What we have diminished, O Love, you have overflowed. What we have cast in stone, O Love, you have made to dance....
Song of the Prophet Mary
Let this breath be an insight into your glory and this flesh be alive with your joy -- for who else is so powerful yet so merciful as to be revealed through me for the sake of blessing? It is the same One whose name is told through generations and whispered in...
Cry Out!
How long, O Peace, will we hold one another hostage?How long will we demand endless penalty for every debt? "Make straight and wide a path in the wilderness so that all might travel safely in God's presence,"said the prophet -- but no, we insist, it can't be so easy....
Rock Bottom
O God, the nations have defiled your holy temple; they have laid Jerusalem in ruins. They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the air for food. - Psalm 79:1-2 (NRSV) The bleakness of early Advent – these first few days when the lectionary readings...
Riotous Reign
The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice! Clouds and thick darkness are all around the Holy One. Fire goes before the Lord, consuming adversaries on every side. God’s lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the...
In the Wee Small Hours
On that day when the Lord gave the Amorites over to the Israelites, Joshua spoke to the Lord; and he said in the sight of Israel, “Sun, stand still at Gibeon; and Moon, in the valley of Aijalon.” And the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, until the nation took...
As Far as the Western Sea
Not me, O Life, but us. Not mine, O Life, but ours. As far as the eastern horizon, as far as the western sea, all that is and all that can be. Not us or them, O Life, but every. Not us or theirs, O Life, but all's. From the first wisp of dust to its final sighing...
