Chocolate Pudding

I saw something on car rider duty yesterday that I can’t unsee.

A 4th grade boy,

Constantly dirty,

Excitedly went up to his 2nd grade brother,

Also always dirty,

And exclaimed with wonder,

“Look what I got in my bag!”

He was holding up a chocolate pudding cup.

He was talking about the bag of food that he gets each week from backpack buddies.

He was so happy.

A few moments later,

The 2nd grader asked Heidi The Librarian if she liked popcorn.

She said yes.

He then pulled out a bag of microwave popcorn from HIS bag of food.

He tried to give her his precious food.

And food to these boys is precious.

I know that sometimes they go without.

He explained that they didn’t have a microwave.

So Heidi took the popcorn with the plan to pop it for him and give it to him tomorrow for snack.

He was thrilled.

There’s a 3rd brother, too.

Older.

All three boys are being raised by a single dad who is doing his best

To raise them right

While working his blue collar job.

They may be dirty.

But they never stink.

They may be hungry.

But they are not neglected.

They are good, respectful boys.

And if I could,

I would give them

All the chocolate pudding in the world.

Dog

Jesus called her a dog.

The Syrophoenician mother in Mark 7

Was desperate for her daughter to be healed

So she went to Jesus and fell at his feet

And he called her a dog!

 

Scripture tells us that

Jesus hadn’t wanted anyone to know that he was in Gentile territory,

So maybe Jesus wanted a break.

But the mother didn’t give him one.

Instead, she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.

In response, Jesus did what absolutely no one expected.

He said, “Let the children (the Jews) be fed first.

For it is not fair to take the children’s food and

Throw it to the dogs (the Gentiles).”

He called her a dog.

 

Maybe Jesus was tired.

And grumpy.

And he had a tongue slip.

As a Jew, he’d probably heard racial slurs for the Gentiles

And had them floating around in his head

Like annoying song lyrics that we wish we could forget.

And in this moment,

Maybe one of those slurs slipped out of his mouth.

 

Don’t fret. I’m not doubting Jesus’s perfection.

On the contrary,

I think that Jesus was perfect because he was perfectly human and

Perfectly divine.

We all have days when we’re tired.

And grumpy.

And have tongue slips.

Because we’re human.

But what Jesus didn’t do that so many of us simple humans do

Was stay in that negative space.

Because the woman answered with deep humility by saying,

“Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs”

Jesus changed his mind and employed his full divinity to  

Heal her daughter.

Maybe Jesus realized that he had been quietly called out

And responded by doing the right thing.

 

I don’t know.

All that I know is that Jesus called the Syrophoenician woman a dog.

And that it’s strange.

Yet, somehow, I love him all the more.

 

Amen.

9/11

I’m feeling out of sorts today.

 

I know that some of it is residual memory and trauma

From the attacks of September 11, 2001.

While I wasn’t directly affected by the attacks,

I, like everyone else, have been indirectly affected ever since.

The constant threat of attack in unsuspecting situations hangs over us.

And with gun violence and school shootings become more and more commonplace,

That threat of attack hits closer and closer to home.

 

Some of it is the residual effects of acting out of my comfort zone.

I am an ENFJ.

My natural way of making decisions is filtering everything through my feeling function,

Which is the sense of how everything will affect the relationships involved.

My least natural way of making decisions is filtering everything through my thinking function,

Which is the objective sense of right and wrong.

I recently did something that I objectively know was right,

But it put strain on the relationships involved.

It’s amazing how draining it’s been.

 

Some of it is financial frustration.

I make ends meet,

And I’m able to do most things that I want to do,

But there is no wiggle room.

And recently, I’ve wanted to wiggle into a Myers Briggs training that

I just can’t afford.

And, teachers making what we make,

And me being stuck in the10-year step freeze,

I’ll never be able to afford it.

 

Some of it is the general political climate in America.

The name calling,

The looking for the negative,

The spreading of lies,

And the down-right mean-spirited nature of it all

Sucks.

 

And some of it is having a cold and trying to teach music.

 

And so.

I’m feeling out of sorts today.

 

And yet.

God still is.

 

I’m holding to that fact today.

 

Maybe you are too.

Loneliness and Community

If you go to a mainline church and/or follow the lectionary,

Then you know that yesterday’s gospel reading from Mark 7 was a tough one.

It was the passage in which Jesus heals the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter

And in the process calls them dogs,

And then moves on to heal a deaf man

Bought to him by “them.”

I’ll write more about the name calling on Thursday,

But for today,

I want to write about a lesser-known theme that runs through the reading,

And that is the theme of community.

 

In both stories, it is an “other” who brings their loved one to Jesus.

In the first story,

It is the mother begging for her daughter to be healed.

In the second story,

It is “they” who bring the deaf man to Jesus to be healed.

We don’t know if “they” were friends, family members, or community members tired of hearing the man beg,

All we know is “they” bring the man to Jesus

And that after Jesus heals the man,

“They” are told not tell anyone what has happened,

Yet “they” do anyway.

It is hard to keep quiet the good news of Jesus.

 

…

 

We live in a society that is increasingly connected online

But decreasingly connected in person.

In 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services produced a report called

Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation.

According to this report,

Loneliness is more detrimental to health than

Cigarette smoking, drinking, obesity, and lack of exercise.

This is HUGE.

And this is where community comes in.

 

Community is so important.

Community can combat loneliness.

Community can bring others to Jesus

When the others can’t come themselves—

For whatever reason—

Disability, anger, resentment, hurt, fear, depression, trauma.

Community can pray for one another,

Lay one another at Jesus’ feet,

And check on one another to make sure

No one

Feels

Alone.

 

Oh God: Ideally, the church is a safe place of community. Forgive us when we make it anything different, and help us to be more open to meeting people where they are and offering them a space to be than we are in changing them. YOU are the one who changes and heals when we bring others into your presence. You show us that in scripture. So help us to remember. And help us each to find communities where we belong—even, God, if it’s not in the church. Amen.  

Lectio Divina

 

I just got back from a retreat.

The topic at hand was sermon writing.

While the teacher gave us tidbits of wisdom,

He mostly led us in two exercises of Lectio Divina,

Or divine reading of a text.

He suggested that we engage in this practice

Before we do anything else in sermon preparation.

If we can do this with a community of faith,

Then all the better.

 

Here’s what we did.

 

Step One: Read or listen to the text. What words, phrases, or images immediately jump out to you? Jot those down.

 

Step Two: Read or listen to the text again. What do you notice? What questions do you have? What do you not understand? What moves you or bothers you? Mark up the page (the passages were printed out), and really engage with the text. If in a group setting, then after about six minutes, share your thoughts with a partner and listen as the partner shares with you. Report to the large group one key point that your partner raised.

 

Step Three: Read or listen to the text again. Respond with a poem, song, prayer, or story.  

 

Step Four: Read or listen to the text one last time. Sit in silence as a response. Ask yourself what you’re feeling. Peace, confusion, hope, fear, leading in a certain direction? Jot down your overall feeling, and, if you’re working on a sermon, then jot down a working sermon title.

 

We didn’t open commentaries

(Although we talked about good commentaries to use).

We didn’t reference the original Greek

(Although we talked about how we could).

We didn’t come up with a right or wrong way to interpret the passage.

We simply listened to and read scripture together as a faith community

And watched it come alive.

 

In a time when the Bible is used as an authoritative rule book

From which we find the misguided power to

Point fingers and judge,

Thus creating an us-against-them separation

That was never meant to be exist,

Maybe we should engage in more Divine Reading,

Learning how to dialogue through differences,

And accepting that there is no one right way to interpret

The living, breathing, life-giving

Word of God,

Jesus Christ.

 

Amen.

 

PS. An alternate form of Lectio Divina comes from Africa: 

Step One: Read/listen to text. Silence. What word, phrase, image jumps out at you?

Step Two: Read/listen to text. Silence. Where is this text intersecting your life? What does it say to you today?

Step Three: Read/listen to text. Silence. Where is God leading you after reading this text? How is God speaking?

Step Four: If you’re with a group, pray for the person to your left, based on the answers they gave.

Step Five: Pray “The Lord’s Prayer.”

Cats

 My cats are weird.

(I think all cats might be weird.)

And they have such different personalities.

 

Annie Mae is spicy and aloof.

Sigma Ray is docile and loving.

 

Annie Mae will only eat turkey directly from my hand.

Sigma Ray will only eat turkey off the floor.

 

Annie Mae will only drink water from her personalized water bowl upstairs.

Sigma Ray will drink water from anywhere, including my dad’s cups.

 

Annie Mae will only eat cat food if it’s been freshly poured into her bowl.

Sigma Ray will eat cat food anytime it’s available.

 

Annie Mae refuses to let you touch her pretty, fluffy belly.

Sigma Ray doesn’t care if you touch his belly, his nose, or his tail.

 

Annie Mae stirs if you come upon her sleeping.

Sigma Ray sleeps hard and long and just keeps right on sleeping if you come upon him.

 

Annie Mae likes boxes.

Sigma Ray doesn’t know what to do with them.

 

Annie Mae likes to hunt.

Sigma Ray is a lover, not a fighter.

 

Annie Mae is calm and content with the ground.

Sigma Ray is spastic and curious and climbs all over everything.

 

Annie Mae knows her name.

Sigma Ray does not.

 

Annie Mae will sometimes respond when I say “comeeer, baby.”

Sigma Ray just looks at me like I have a hole in my head.

 

Annie Mae is a secret purrer.

Sigma Ray purrs very loudly and makes no secret about when he’s happy. 

 

Annie Mae has sort of figured out my schedule.

Sigma Ray has not.

 

Every day, when I come home from work,

Annie expects me to come upstairs

So she can sit beside me

While I do my blackout poem.

If I don’t immediately do this,

Then it throws her off, and

She acts out of sorts until I do.

I think this is funny.

But it warms my heart.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

My cats are weird.

And I bet yours are too.

Or your dogs.

Or your bearded dragons.

Or your hamsters or ferrets or snakes or cows or any other pets that you have.

 

Pets are some of life’s greatest blessings.

Amen?

And amen.

 

Fidgeter

 

I’m a fidgeter.

But not with fidget toys.

I mostly fidget with my rings and earrings.

Without thinking about it,

I reach up and twist my earrings numerous times per day.

And without thinking,

I take my rings on and off,

Or I spin them around on my fingers,

Throughout the day, every day—

Especially while teaching!

 

I bought a nice spinner ring in Charleston a couple of years ago,

But one of the spin rings came off.

So in March, I searched Etsy until I found a ring that

I liked and was affordable.

The advertisement said that it was a

Solid 925 Sterling Silver ring,

So I bought it.

 

Fast forward a recent Friday night.

 

In a rare moment, I took off all my rings.

I looked at my fingers.

My right ring finger where I wear the spinner ring

Was green.

 

At first, I thought that the ring must not be sterling silver.

But then, after some research, I realized that sterling silver is not solid silver,

Rather, it is 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metals,

Usually copper,

To increase the silver’s strength.

And so…the tarnish.

 

When I told a friend about the ring,

She said, “So what? If you like the ring, wear it.

Who cares about a little bit of green on your finger.”

 

Honestly, I did!

 

And so…

I bought a new spinner ring at the art gallery last Friday night.

And this one does not turn my finger green.

Yay!

 

The end.

 

😊