tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24093874455818577302024-03-05T18:05:52.770-05:00Were the Deer and the Antelope to Play...online musings of Chad Gurleychadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comBlogger485125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-38044819036602125372019-01-11T22:41:00.000-05:002019-01-11T22:41:17.554-05:00#sign<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A sign I saw in Jerusalem. <a href="https://t.co/aDSkTqF6kS">pic.twitter.com/aDSkTqF6kS</a></p>— Chad (@chadagurley) <a href="https://twitter.com/chadagurley/status/1008174174379134976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 17, 2018</a></blockquote>
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chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-75463869111932463412019-01-11T22:39:00.001-05:002019-01-11T22:39:39.035-05:00#Unacceptable<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Unacceptable?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Unacceptable</a><br><br>Whites get a pass<br>Blacks and browns <br>Have to be perfect <br><br>Unacceptable</p>— Chad (@chadagurley) <a href="https://twitter.com/chadagurley/status/1007771014665777154?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2018</a></blockquote>
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chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-63999099101047207742019-01-11T22:38:00.001-05:002019-01-11T22:38:08.104-05:00#Corporations<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Corporations?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Corporations</a><br><br>Corporations<br>Have no need<br>Of nonprofits<br><br>Unless one’s good<br>For optics</p>— Chad (@chadagurley) <a href="https://twitter.com/chadagurley/status/1007763504986763265?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 15, 2018</a></blockquote>
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chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-8660153839319250862019-01-11T22:36:00.000-05:002019-01-11T22:36:19.544-05:00strange<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How strange<br>In a land of Christians<br>There is no<br>Grace</p>— Chad (@chadagurley) <a href="https://twitter.com/chadagurley/status/1007083708355137537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 14, 2018</a></blockquote>
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chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-71903262251106681242019-01-11T22:25:00.003-05:002019-01-11T22:25:41.506-05:00Love, love, love!chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-41194360739237269762018-08-14T19:50:00.002-04:002018-08-14T19:50:49.096-04:00#Bethetide<div class="p1">
Rushing ashore</div>
<div class="p1">
Every wave counted succinctly<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></div>
<div class="p1">
One behind the other</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Building and building</div>
<div class="p1">
Climbing and climbing</div>
<div class="p1">
Falling and falling</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Until crashing upon one</div>
<div class="p1">
Another and gasping with</div>
<div class="p1">
Every other ripple</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
We spill out again</div>
<div class="p1">
And surrounded by</div>
<div class="p1">
Friends we slow into a</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
Flow towards the shore</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Into pink sands</div>
<div class="p1">
Lapping at Your</div>
<div class="p1">
Feet</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-78443393494063165022015-04-05T10:34:00.002-04:002015-04-05T10:35:14.082-04:00Easter 15<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My Easter Prayer: God please help me to really care again.
Truly! I used to care; I used to preach; I used to advocate, but since Mom and
now Dad died, apathy has seduced and nuzzled me. Daily I’m trying, but I am oh
so tired. Somehow, Living Christ, Your unwarranted, dear Grace has been
crucified, lost, and forgotten by Your followers. In Arkansas and among some of
my family and friends, my being Christian and gay is an affront. Your
unconditional Godly Love and your human Empathy have become contingent. Thus my
grief, depression, further drown any zeal, any joy. So this Easter, I pray, resurrect
me, my dear God! Today! In Jesus Christ’s Name, I pray… Miraculously Your LOVE
just won’t let me go! As exhausted as I may be: I stay Woke. And Hope!</span><o:p></o:p></div>
chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-62083733117250316832014-07-23T21:54:00.001-04:002014-07-23T21:54:53.659-04:00my sound<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m like wings flying at a window<o:p></o:p></div>
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Before the air conditioning cuts on<o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
And drowns out my sound<o:p></o:p></div>
chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-8397854444513826592014-04-20T16:44:00.003-04:002014-04-20T16:44:53.255-04:00Easter 14those who are about to die<br />
are listened to far too infrequently.<br />
their loud urgency scares us<br />
and we try to rationalize their pushing.<br />
we tell them that the world is not<br />
ready now and that they should slow.<br />
so, unfortunately, our no is how<br />
the whisper goes.<br />
<br />
still...speak<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-33384299552101720612013-11-21T22:27:00.000-05:002013-11-22T21:57:10.984-05:00The Feeling of the Kingdom of God<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark%204:26-34&version=NRSV" target="_blank">Mark 4:26-35</a></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span><br />
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New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span class="text Mark-4-26"><span class="versenum" style="vertical-align: top;">26 </span>He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, </span><span class="text Mark-4-27" id="en-NRSV-24348"><span class="versenum" style="vertical-align: top;">27 </span>and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. </span><span class="text Mark-4-28" id="en-NRSV-24349"><span class="versenum" style="vertical-align: top;">28 </span>The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. </span><span class="text Mark-4-29" id="en-NRSV-24350"><span class="versenum" style="vertical-align: top;">29 </span>But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span class="text Mark-4-30"><span class="versenum" style="vertical-align: top;">30 </span>He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? </span><span class="text Mark-4-31" id="en-NRSV-24352"><span class="versenum" style="vertical-align: top;">31 </span>It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;</span><span class="text Mark-4-32" id="en-NRSV-24353"><span class="versenum" style="vertical-align: top;">32 </span>yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”</span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><span class="text Mark-4-33"><span class="versenum" style="vertical-align: top;">33 </span>With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; </span><span class="text Mark-4-34" id="en-NRSV-24355"><span class="versenum" style="vertical-align: top;">34 </span>he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.</span></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">In
an episode of the Golden Girls, over the kitchen table probably eating
cheesecake, one comforts another mourning the loss of a friend by saying,
“Maybe it was just a blessing in disguise.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The wise elder, Sophia, replies, “I always wondered why blessings wear
disguises.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I was a blessing, I’d run
around naked.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be honest, that’s kind
of how I’ve thought of Jesus speaking the <quote><unquote> Word in
parables.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the Word is what we, as Christians,
believe to be a healing word, a saving word, a transforming word, why
complicate the message in parables?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
rather than Christ rely on our feeble attempts at deciphering His Word in the
parables, shouldn’t He have just let the Word run around naked for all to
see?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></unquote></quote></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Parables.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are not quite nursery rhymes, where the moral of the story is made
abundantly clear by the happily-ever-after end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And they are not quite riddles, for I do not believe Jesus was
attempting to confuse or trick anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead,
they are vague references, analogies, to something profound and mysterious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are hazy reflections that require our
individual interpretation; individual interpretations that necessarily complicate
corporate dogmatism, doctrines, and creeds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For instance, those of us raised in church think we know what Christ’s
parables mean because we have been taught time and time again what they are
supposed to mean based on our tradition’s interpretation of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And those not raised in church may think they
know what the parables mean because if one really looks at the stories hard
enough he can tease them out logically and rationally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a kind of universal ethic or reason
that can ultimately be discerned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But I’ve started to wonder, do we really
know what they mean?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can we ever really
know what they mean?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Over the course of my life, I have been
taught so many things, so many contradictory things in fact, that I
consistently find myself hesitate before giving an answer because I’m afraid
the hearer will believe me to be wrong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I over-intellectualize, over-think, over-analyze the problem and then
the possible solutions, so much so I have to remind myself to stop, take a
breath, BE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I look for the pieces of the
puzzle and then look to how to arrange them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even now as I offer this sermon, with sensing your expectation of my
providing answers to these parables we have read, I cannot help but stop and hesitate
and ponder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tax my brain while my brow
creases and my head aches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure, there
is a part of me wants to offer an interpretation of the parables we read about
Christ’s explanations of the Kingdom of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But another part of me is much more like the bumbling, simple-minded,
dumbfounded disciples than I wish to admit, who asked more questions in not
trusting their discernment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That part,
like them, ironically fears that Christ, who loves me so dearly, will actually shake
his head sadly and, like he did to his disciples, say, “Do you not understand
these parables?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then how will you
understand any parables?” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately,
I have not been afforded the luxury of having Jesus explain everything he meant
to me in private. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Some of this insecurity I will blame on
my own Christian tradition which demanded an absolutism of faith and condemned
doubt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Either you had the right answers
or you had the wrong answers, and if wrong, well, that was a very bad and hot
place to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of this insecurity I
will blame on the academy which advocates for critical thinking but in many
cases still has its mind made up about what is right and wrong, liberally or
conservatively speaking, historically speaking, contextually speaking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But really a lot of this fear of being wrong,
of not having the right answer, I blame on Christianity’s historical attempt to
strip any authority from our bodily senses, from our own embodiment of the
divine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I blame our theological
traditions for negating the Spirit’s voice coming from our feelings, as if our
feelings are too tumultuous to be of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead, what is still lauded when doing interpretation is that we do it
with our minds, with our mental faculties. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As if we are still living in modernity, where
every “if” has a “then,” or every “plus” or “minus” has an “equals” sign, we read
the parables and try to “figure them out,” “decode them,” “unravel the meaning”
from them as if they were holding onto true meaning with cold, clinched fists. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Honestly, because of such bias, I would
be relieved if I could look up these parables in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary
and see if my definition of the Kingdom of God is right. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the Gospel writers themselves perpetuate this
in attempts to give clear, distinct answers about their faith in Christ, a faith
that was being challenged from all sides during the contexts of their writings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But the more I’ve thought about it, the
more I have sat with these stories Jesus told, trying to figure out what he
meant was the Kingdom of God, trying to figure out what I should offer you
today, I’ve started believing that’s not what Christ wanted us to do at all
when he told parables.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He didn’t want us
to hear the story and then walk away with the one solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, I believe Christ offered parables to
those to whom he spoke so that they, we, anyone and everyone, are able to
connect to and embody the narrative with the raw sense, the emotion, the feeling
he wanted to portray so as to find a treasure of answers, from God to you. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus, himself, had personally, humanly
experienced the content of his parables.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He touched the soil with the skin of his fingertips, felt it under his
fingernails when he scribbled something in the dirt, breathed in the dust of
the roads and the odor of livestock.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus
heard birds singing from their nests, saw them carrying food to their chicks
there and lamented that he had no place to rest his head unlike them calling from
their homes in the branches above.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He even
felt alone, out of the know, misunderstood, when his extended family thought he
was insane and sent him packing with the family he had to create in the
disciples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And even if these parables
were stories that had been told to him as a child, it is likely that he knew
farmers personally and probable that his mother or aunt grew a mustard shrub
and other herbs in their gardens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because
Jesus lived, he felt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He lived and
breathed his narratives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Therefore, for Jesus and his followers, I
believe these parables are not about a clear picture, a mirror image of what the
Kingdom looks like, but instead about the deep feeling the Kingdom evokes from
the core, from our hearts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he says,
if you have ears, hear, eyes, see, I believe he says, use the gift of your
humanness, your human senses, those profoundly mysterious parts of your
embodiment to become fully aware, to interpret from your experience what God is
saying to you, God’s children, heirs to the Kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Move through the barriers you have between
body and soul, mind and heart, and just feel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So my dear fellow-intellectuals, whether we
like it or not, these parables about the Kingdom of God are really more touchy-feely than mathematic formulae.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They require all your senses to come
alive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you read them, you must
smell the soil of the earth, let it cake your hands when on your knees as the
sower.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You must walk through the wide,
open field and hear rows of stalks that seemed to appear overnight rustle
against one another in the breezes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You
must see the bright color of the grain’s head to know that it is ripe for
harvest in autumn and feel your stomach ache for the warm bread it will soon make.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you read the parables, you must feel the
tiny mustard seed in your fingertips.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
then in amazement years later, cool under its expansive shade on a hot, summer
day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You must hear the birds in spring making
their little homes above you in that wide mustard shrub, flitting from branch
to branch with beaks full of twigs while chirping their unique melodies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After hearing the parables like those who
heard them for the first time, you must sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You must tingle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You must feel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So in thinking about these parables read today,
I ask not what does the Kingdom of God look like to you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is the answer to the parable offered by
Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But rather, I invite you into an
exercise, to wonder along with me, based on your human experience along with
your embodied embrace by God’s Love, how do these parables Christ offers about
the Kingdom of God make you feel? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Using
all of your human senses, your emotions, body, and spirit, what does the Kingdom
of God feel like to you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Look, listen, touch, taste, and smell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“The kingdom of God is as if someone would
scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the
seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The earth produces of itself, first the stalk,
then the head, then the full grain in the head. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in
with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>[T]he kingdom of God…is like a mustard
seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on
earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs,
and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in
its shade.</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In closing, I would be remiss if I did
not very briefly offer you what these two parables feel like to me, what the
Kingdom of God feels like to me, today, this moment in my life as I hopefully
graduate and head off and away with some uncertainty into my own narrative, so
let me just offer this:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After feeling the parable of the sower,
for me, the Kingdom of God feels like the following living parable in my
life:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The time of my looking out the
window to the sky to pray on a day I was especially worried, distraught, and afraid
and seeing a bright red heart-shaped balloon suddenly rise up into view towards
the big white puffy clouds, which immediately caused me to remember Christ’s faithful
love, so I exclaimed, no matter what - it’s all going to be okay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the continuing seasons of God’s Love
ever there for me to harvest, that’s what the Kingdom of God feels like to me
today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After feeling the parable of the mustard
seed, for me, the Kingdom of God feels like the following living parable in my
life:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The time on a chilly twilight in
New York City when I was walking back to my apartment among the crowds, lonely
and brokenhearted after a bad breakup, when on 8<sup>th</sup> Avenue and 34<sup>th</sup>
Street near Madison Square Garden, amidst all the steel and concrete and glass,
a single firefly dropped and passed in front of my tear-filled eyes, blinking
its natural light, causing me to smile, and leading me down the street towards
home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How a tiny insect of my rural
roots flew into the massive, anonymous city and made me feel safe, secure…
Home. That’s what the Kingdom of God feels like to me today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Possibilities, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Security, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Home:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Radical Supernatural Love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>That’s what the Kingdom of God feels like
to me today.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>After feeling these parables and after
reflecting on your own living, embodied parables, what does the Kingdom of God
feel like to you, today?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-40726504554648284972013-10-02T16:38:00.000-04:002013-11-21T22:10:30.371-05:00The Call of the Newness of Life<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=romans%206:1-14&version=NRSV" target="_blank">Romans 6:1-14</a></span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><br /></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> Every morning, I continue
the same routine. I usually wake before my alarm sounds and swing my legs
over the left side of my bed where my toes search for the flip-flops I
discarded there the night before. After a dash to the bathroom, I pull out
a coffee filter, fill it with grounds, fill the coffee maker with water and
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the rooms, I listen for the bubbles and clicks and dripping of my coffee into
the coffee pot and the relished [beeping] that indicates it is ready.
Once my coffee is poured and my granola bar is in hand, I sit at my
computer, open e-mails, and quickly scan Facebook before diving into my news
page of trusted news sources reporting on today’s world and U.S. news. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And every morning, though
the stories’ details may change, it happens. I read through the news and
witness mass deaths across the globe like those in Nigeria and in Kenya.
I read how our own U.S. government is again acting like spoiled little
children throwing tantrums because they are not getting their way while their
hungry constituents watch from the cold. I read of violence, of wars on
the horizon, of human aid diverted. I read of atrocity after atrocity, of
crisis after crisis, like it’s a sports page of winners and losers in team
colors and wing-tip tennis shoes. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And then, it hits me, it
rolls over me, the “newness of life” Paul mentions in Romans. It’s
uncomfortable and annoying, like a pebble stuck in my shoe, but nevertheless,
it forces me to think of all the people, all the many, many people, all those
members of my human family that are suffering, crying, gasping for air. I
shake my head disgusted. As I take another sip of my coffee, the “newness
of life” convicts me again and whispers that whether I want to accept it or
not, I am actually responsible for some of that mess out there. As I sit
in my cozy apartment drinking coffee from Seattle and eating granola sold to me
by Food, Inc., the “newness of life” judges me rightly. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">To be honest, it is enough
to make me want to go back to my bed, crawl under the covers, and go back to
sleep literally and figuratively. It is enough to make me want to go back
to before the newness of life, before I had died to blissful ignorance, to
reenter the tomb, cover my eyes, and hope and pray that maybe God will swoop in
one day and fix this disaster of humanity, that maybe Christ will return and,
like the money-changing tables in the temple, turn this immoral human system we
have built upsidedown right side up again. Ahhh, but the “newness of
life” won’t let me slumber. It echoes Paul and says, “What shall we say,
then? Shall we go on living in complacency so that God may someday save
us?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">When I first read this text
in Romans, I had no idea that the phrase the “newness of life” would become of
such profound interest for me. Nor could I have imagined how this
“newness of life” would evoke response and action beyond my simply answering
“no, no, we shouldn’t sin” to Paul’s seeming rhetorical question. Being
raised in the Christian tradition, I have heard the phrase “newness of life”
countless times when referred to becoming Christian, or embarking upon a
Christian life. And while I figured I understood its meaning all these
many years, Saturday before last, I was surprised in discovering its even
deeper impact. You see, last week, my baby sister had her very first
baby, a son she and her husband named Flint, and “newness of life” took on a
fuller, personal, substantive meaning. With respect to this passage in
Romans, I believe that, like the experience of the birth of a newborn, our
Christian “newness of life” inspires us, convicts us to be God’s grace in the
world, to be God’s embrace of our world in its suffering, vulnerability, and
nakedness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja21avy5js7yGsF3Pq542s8ztZE8wTsZt3EeFaQJP5kxv05PPF8zavTZxa0hRMLKZXu5esBiARadFwQEX7Sc0Lkp922XngKP1bX8yeMXM9VkEA7wQxZdEfdMq-pOp2m6bEt9xfwQyT888/s1600/IMG_0014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEja21avy5js7yGsF3Pq542s8ztZE8wTsZt3EeFaQJP5kxv05PPF8zavTZxa0hRMLKZXu5esBiARadFwQEX7Sc0Lkp922XngKP1bX8yeMXM9VkEA7wQxZdEfdMq-pOp2m6bEt9xfwQyT888/s1600/IMG_0014.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">As God would have it, I
happened to be in town at the time Flint decided to grace the world with his
presence, three weeks early, as my sister, Tara, and I in the process of
touring nursing facilities to care for my Dad who is suffering from the late
stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Suddenly, in the midst of our grueling,
grief-filled week, arrived Flint, that “little bundle of joy,” a cliché I
finally now truly understand. Smiling widely with joyful tears in my eyes,
I sat in amazement over his teeny-tiny fingers and toes, his even teenier-and
tinier fingernails and toenails, and his plump, rosy cheeks framed by his soft
strawberry-colored hair. This sleeping, still newborn caused all my
experiences of nursing home smells and somber, sad elderly faces to seem
distant, like an entirely different life divorced from mine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as I watched little Flint sleeping, I
believed that perhaps our family had finally embarked upon a happy era.
Now things would be delightfully different. Everything will change.
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">However, with newborns,
especially those that you don’t have to live with, it’s a bit too easy to get
caught up in the idea of the “newness of life” as the bundle of joy. The
reality is that true newness of life also comes with screams and wailing, with
the discomfort of leaving the old, that which provided so much contentment before.
Stripped of his comfort, his warmth, his endless supply of nourishment,
and his lullaby of tossing water and muted sounds, the new baby was jarringly
pulled into the poking, prodding, loud, static-filled world. Its newness
is uncomfortable and scary. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And yes, it’s true that
everything changes, but the transition is not always so smooth. Similar
to the Gentile and Jewish believers learning how to live with one another to
whom Paul is writing, even the parents of the newborn have to adjust.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“This is so much harder than they say it will
be,” my sister has confided. Her marriage has changed. Her sleep
has changed. Her ability to go meet friends for lunch or go for long
contemplative walks has changed. The newness of life is not just the
rainbows and butterflies of nurseries. The newness of life is also storms
thundering overhead and caterpillars writhing in the dust. The life my sister
had is gone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">As for the newborn, Flint,
well, now Flint means everything – EVERYTHING!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Our devotion to his livelihood, his well-being, is unsurpassed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is nothing in the world anyone of us
wouldn’t do for that new little life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The amount of love we feel for him simply cannot be adequately be
expressed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">I
think this experience I have described of welcoming a newborn into the world
resonates as something familiar when thinking of our own Christian lives,
doesn’t it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is not the death to the old
self and resurrection into the newness of life that Paul describes much like
this experience of a newborn baby being thrust into the world?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, newness of life is beautiful and joyful,
but the reality of it is also startling, scary, and ever life-changing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And doesn’t this incite more than a simple
“no” answer to Paul’s question about sin, but rather a resounding “yes”
response to actively engaging a life lived toward God?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">Imagine
it for a moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is as if before our
“newness of life” we simply wandered a womb that was like a tomb where we lived
in blissful ignorance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were never
skeptical of the structures and systems of existence, never questioning of the
information we were provided, never challenging of the identities to which we
were bound, the allegiances we were innately given.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, we found odd comfort in being told
who we were, whose we were, and what we were to become.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Easy answers made for easy living, and we
bounced along in our insular lives believing that everything was exactly as it
should be, as it had to be, that any change was not just impossible but
unwarranted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">But
then Christ came along and invited us to see ourselves as He sees us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we accepted His hand, that’s when we
were birthed; we were awakened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like Neo
in the movie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Matrix</i>, we gulped
down the red pill, and were bolted, startled and screaming excitedly, into the
newness of life, acutely aware of the true reality in which we live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our eyes were opened, and we could see.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Together, we experienced and uncovered our
interconnectedness, and we discovered that we are all a part of the same
newborn body.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We became aware that when
one breathes, we all breathe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this
newness of life, we died to the self-sufficient self or the victimized self
that separated us from one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
became disbelieving of the lies we’d been told to keep us content, lies that
told us we were powerless, insignificant, ugly. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">And
yet, in the newness of life, as joyous and liberating as it is, we also
uncomfortably see our own complicity in our participation in turning the wheels
of an immoral human system, a machine that simply uses humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus we change significantly when we watch
our own hands churn the machine’s gears that chomp at our sisters’ fingers and
slice at our brothers’ feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Outside of
the tomb, we see how the wheel of economy fits in the grooves of government that
springs into action both drones to kill and aid to revive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, being in the newness of life lifts us
out and up to see us as God sees us, newborn, suffering, vulnerable, and
naked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And thus, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">our glorious but cumbersome Christian “newness of life” inspires
us, convicts us to do the hard work of being God’s grace in the world, of being
God’s change of the system, of being God’s embrace of our united tiny fragile
body.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">So I guess the answer
to Paul’s question of shall we go on the same as before really is, “No, by no
means.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No, we cannot go back to sleep
and simply pray the human system will change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No, we cannot sit idly by and watch our human family suffer at our own
hands, at the whim of our government, or for the profits of the companies we
financially support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead, we must
act, we must work, we must advocate for change!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If we really live in the newness of life, if we care, we must rise up
from behind our coffee and computers, and become incensed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We must, to quote the movie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the Network</i>, “get mad as hell and say we
aren’t going to take it any more.” We must scream that we are ALL human beings
in this together and every one of us has value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In the newness of life, we must share, love, embrace!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we must, MUST, treat each and every
person as if they were our very own newborn for whom we are responsible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;">For God did not resurrect us into the newness of life <u>just</u>
so that <u>we</u> may live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God
resurrected us into the newness of life so that <u>all</u> may live.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Therefore, let us go and BE God’s abounding
grace!</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-67587089010476245462013-08-21T20:09:00.002-04:002013-08-21T20:09:56.456-04:00"Kindness" by Naomi Shihab Nye<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI6y-1IwbAdaobMssTTTvKUWBzmuTqYKm2gnKfG7u71HyAGNtlgP9jAcNADghXTw8HC4Yl839G027uGnuu1w5aCJtaajeQt03_yFnMXr9r4ZXLW7jgJFprc0gjbLha2hpqxLTpo9NAL-s/s1600/pathalley.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI6y-1IwbAdaobMssTTTvKUWBzmuTqYKm2gnKfG7u71HyAGNtlgP9jAcNADghXTw8HC4Yl839G027uGnuu1w5aCJtaajeQt03_yFnMXr9r4ZXLW7jgJFprc0gjbLha2hpqxLTpo9NAL-s/s1600/pathalley.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
Before you know what kindness really is<br />
you must lose things,<br />
feel the future dissolve in a moment<br />
like salt in a weakened broth.<br />
What you held in your hand,<br />
what you counted and carefully saved,<br />
all this must go so you know<br />
how desolate the landscape can be<br />
between the regions of kindness.<br />
How you ride and ride<br />
thinking the bus will never stop,<br />
the passengers eating maize and chicken<br />
will stare out the window forever.<br />
<br />
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,<br />
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho<br />
lies dead by the side of the road.<br />
You must see how this could be you,<br />
how he too was someone<br />
who journeyed through the night with plans<br />
and the simple breath that kept him alive.<br />
<br />
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,<br />
You must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.<br />
You must wake up with sorrow.<br />
You must speak to it till your voice<br />
catches the thread of all sorrows<br />
and you see the size of the cloth.<br />
<br />
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,<br />
only kindness that ties your shoes<br />
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,<br />
only kindness that raises its head<br />
from the crowd of the world to say<br />
It is I you have been looking for,<br />
and then goes with you everywhere<br />
like a shadow or a friend.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>{Read by Prof. Trudy Hawkins-Stringer the first day of Senior Seminar, <a href="http://divinity.vanderbilt.edu/" target="_blank">Vanderbilt Divinity School</a>.}</i></span>chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-72056194094938808812013-07-15T21:32:00.000-04:002013-07-16T12:06:31.705-04:00Why go and do likewise?<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="http://www.heqigallery.com/GALLERY%20NT%20B/images/30_good_samaritian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.heqigallery.com/GALLERY%20NT%20B/images/30_good_samaritian.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">[My first sermon: Preached at <a href="http://goodshepherdnwa.org/" target="_blank">Good Shepherd Lutheran Church</a>, Fayetteville, AR, Podcast @ <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/why-go-do-likewise-luke-10-25-37/id626318984?i=162583726&mt=2" target="_blank">Why go and do likewise? Podcast</a></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>Just then a lawyer stood up to test
Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Teacher,” he said, “what must I do
to inherit eternal life?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus said to
him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He answered, “You shall love the Lord your
God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength,
and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Jesus said to him, “You have given the
right answer; do this, and you will live.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my
neighbor?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus replied, “A man was
going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who
stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now by chance a priest was going down that
road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So likewise a Levite, when he came to the
place and saw him, passed by on the other side.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But a Samaritan while traveling came near
him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He went to him and bandaged his wounds,
having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought
him to an inn, and took care of him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take
care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you
spend.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which of these three, do you
think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The lawyer said, “The one who showed him
mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” ~Luke 10:25-37</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Go and do
likewise.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When Pastor Clint asked me to preach on
July 14<sup>th</sup>, I practically sprinted from his office to the Book of
Worship to read the lectionary for the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I would love to report that I did so like a child skipping toward his
presents on Christmas morning, full of glee and anticipation; however, to be
honest, since this is my first sermon, it felt a little more like going to the
dentist; you need to and you know you’ll be glad you did but still... <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I read the scripture lessons and saw that
the gospel reading was the story of the “Good Samaritan.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, that’s easy enough, I said to myself
smiling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean, growing up in church, I
must have heard the Good Samaritan parable hundreds of times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it does seem pretty obvious what Jesus is
trying to say to the lawyer who wonders about who his neighbor is, right? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Everyone is your neighbor, the entire human
family is your neighbor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure, it may be
a rough pill to swallow sometimes, for we don’t generally like all people all
the time, especially those who are not like us and those who don’t live in our
neighborhood. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Jesus sternly says to
the lawyer and to us, “Go and do likewise.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ve always heard that as, “Go and be like the Good Samaritan.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you see someone hurting or in need, help
them, assist them, care for them, love them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Anything less is simply sinful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Be like the Good Samaritan. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be a
good Samaritan. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be a “good” Christian. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sermon ended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Word has been given.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>May I sit down now?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But as I thought
about this, something troubled me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You too have probably heard this
parable many times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You may have even
seen some dramatic interpretations via television or YouTube or in the
theatre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a new teen, I remember one
Christian youth drama group coming to our church to perform, and one skit they
performed retold the story of the Good Samaritan in modern-day junior high melodrama.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just like a teen movie, up on the stage, a
group of bad guys with black t-shirts walked down what was an imagined school hall
of lockers and then shoved to the floor the stereotypical smaller, thin boy,
wearing glasses, knocking all the books out of his hands and yelling, “You nerd;
get out the way you wimp.” Then they walked away laughing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surrounded by his scattered books, the boy
sat on the floor and hung his head frozen in sorrow, humiliation, and
shame.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before too long, a group of three
“mean” girls in cheerleader uniforms were talking and giggling as they
approached the boy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When one of them saw
him, she stopped the others and pointed, and they began whispering with one another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then they walked past him in silence, making
a large arch around the boy and his books littered across the floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As they walked past, one of the girls looked
back over her shoulder with disgust and they disappeared off-stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just
after them, a group of guys walked onto the stage acting “too cool for school”
in their sunglasses and popped-collars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When they noticed the boy crumpled there before them, they looked around
to see if anyone was watching, then snickered together and bolted past the boy
without a second glance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then a very
pretty girl walked onto stage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cross
around her neck indicated her Christian faith, and she immediately noticed the
boy on the floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Touching her cross,
she then walked over to the boy and lifted his head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She looked into his eyes, and pulled him to
his feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then she gathered his books
and gave them to him, patted him on the back and put her arm around his
shoulder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The boy smiled widely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This girl was beautiful inside and out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Good Samaritan of Hard-Knocks Junior
High.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lesson had dramatically been
given:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you are a Christian, you
help people who are down and out, even while the rest of the world thinks they
are above such kindness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As an impressionable young Christian, I
remember watching the skit and thinking, I want to be just like her – like the
Good Samaritan – the attractive one with the really good skin and the good,
shiny hair who helped that poor little boy with glasses bullied by those mean
guys.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My own personal movie came into my
mind: “The Good Samaritan of Blytheville Junior High” starring Chad Gurley.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the Man of Steel, I would help the
helpless, aid the distressed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would be
a SUPER Christian.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But as I thought
about this, something troubled me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My sister,
Dad, and I were at a gas-station getting gas not too long ago when a man walked
up and knocked on my sister’s window saying, “My wife and child and me are on
our way to my mother’s and are out of gas.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He pointed towards his car and passengers and
asked,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Could you happen to spare some
extra cash?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My dutiful sister reached
down into her purse to discover that she actually had no cash, only her debit
card, and told the man that she was really sorry that she couldn’t help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After he walked away, she looked back at me
and said, “Gosh, I feel like such a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bad</i>
Christian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should I go to the ATM and
get some money for him?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said no, no.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A voice that sounded like my mother’s came into
my mind adding, “You don’t know what that money is really going to go for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He could be buying alcohol or drugs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By not giving him money, you might really be
helping him.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then I told my sister that
someone else would likely help him and that she shouldn’t worry about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, later, overthinking the way I often do,
I started worrying about that moment with my sister and my flippant response to
her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did we miss an opportunity to be a
Good Samaritan and help those people?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Were they angels in disguise, as we have sometimes heard people claim,
testing us to see if we were good Christians?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Then, two weeks ago, at a gas station near where I am living this
summer, the same situation happened again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A man walked up and knocked on my window and asked for money for gas
while pointing to his car where there was a child sitting in a car seat and a
woman in the front. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt so guilty about
the situation with my sister that I pulled out a 5-dollar bill and handed it to
him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“God bless you,” he said as he
walked away towards another person pumping gas to ask for money again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Self-satisfied, I drove away patting myself
on my back and thinking what a Good Samaritan I had been.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believed I “went and did likewise.” Wasn’t
that so Christ-like of me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ahhh, but guess what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I thought about it, something troubled me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So what was it
about Jesus Christ’s Good Samaritan story that troubled me? - a parable we’ve
all heard countless times, watched demonstrated in plays and movies, and have
even attempted to emulate ourselves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why,
when the parable’s meaning seems so cut and dry, so matter of fact, was God
troubling me about it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What was I
missing? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it perhaps that I am,
perhaps WE are, in need of some “spiritual wisdom and understanding?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Because you
are here attending worship today, because you have come to church without being
made to come here, well, most of you anyway, I’m willing to bet that many of
you really do try to be a Good Samaritan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ll bet that some of you even stress your comfort zone by helping those
less fortunate than you, by aiding those who are extremely different from you, and
by assisting those who live outside your own neighborhoods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of you try really hard to be a Good
Samaritan, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I think the question with which God keeps
troubling me is WHY?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>WHY?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>WHY are you, why am I, trying to be that Good
Samaritan?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Is it because Jesus commanded us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it because we believe God will prosper us
if only we follow God’s commandments?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is
it because we desire to be “good?” Is it because our culture teaches us that
the star is the selfless hero of the movie, and we long to be stars?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it because we think that if others see how
kind we are they will want to be kind too, that we’ll be a witness for
Christ?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is it because deep down we want
to affirm ourselves, give ourselves a pat on the back?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or is it because we believe we are better
than others, better off than others, and so we are able, perhaps entitled, to
give? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I’m to have integrity, I have
to ask myself these hard questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
have to ask ourselves these uncomfortable questions, troubling questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So you’re a Good Samaritan; that’s
great, but why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why do you do what you
do?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Although
sometimes unsettling, I’ve learned that it’s actually productive to have these
questions, to “live the questions” as the poet Rilke wrote to a young aspiring
poet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The questions scratch at the
surface of our lives and grow meaning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The questions sheer away superficiality and create depth and
intensity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Struggling with the questions
strengthens our faith, and can even grow our relationship with God, when we
ponder the answers in conversation with God prayerfully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They demand us to live fully, ironically by
never outgrowing the question so often uttered from mouths of children, “Why?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Well, in this
instance, an answer begins to be found in the Samaritan, a much more complex
character than our title of “Good Samaritan” allows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To illustrate,
let’s briefly look back at the play I saw as a teenager.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now, if the youth drama group had really
wanted to portray the Good Samaritan parable authentically as Jesus told it to
His listeners, especially the lawyer, yet still via a teen film genre, then the
stereotypes would be quite changed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Instead of cheerleaders, it should have been the Bible Club teens
donning crosses that would have passed by the boy on the floor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead
of the cool dudes, it should have been the boy’s own friends out fear of
association that would have left him crumpled there –the one’s you do not expect
to leave the boy languishing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the
Good Samaritan, well, if they really wanted to startle us like Jesus had shocked
and appalled his audience by using a Samaritan as the hero, a Samaritan who was
<quote nquote=""> “outside the pale of orthodox Judaism,” they should have
made the Good Samaritan the token African-American character who was the brunt
of jokes yet watched with suspicion and </quote></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">apprehension</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">; or perhaps the Good
Samaritan should have been an effeminate, skinny boy with highlighted hair and a
limp wrist who schoolmates attacked with homophobic slurs.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If truly echoing Christ’s drama, the Good
Samaritan would have been the one already on the margins of junior high society
according to teen films, who helped the little boy because of seeing himself in
the boy, and so he joins him on the ground, rescues him from his shame, and
helps him to his feet, all the while doing so with sincerity and without a
single thought, with absolutely nothing to gain, without a fantasy of an expectation
of approval or reward, without ever being told to “go and do likewise.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So then why does this parable have any
relevance for our lives as Christians if a teen movie can make the point?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I believe it is because it profoundly
demonstrates our faith in Jesus Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Further,
our faith matures in Christ when He is the focus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because for us, Christ is the true Good
Samaritan, our Good Samaritan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our
ostracized, marginalized, crucified Savior daily, hourly, finds us upon this
road of life stripped of our dignity, beaten by the world’s circumstances,
situations, and injustices, robbed of our joys, our passions, our hopes, and
left for half-dead, soulless beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
every moment of our lives, Christ finds us and embraces us, passionately loves
us, and shows us immeasurable kindness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mercifully, he bandages our hurts, our wounds both self-inflicted and
otherwise, and anoints our imperfect loving with unwarranted forgiveness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then upon the wings of His Grace, he carries
us to God’s Heavenly Banquet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christ had
everything to lose and nothing to gain, but He loves us anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Thus what I’m saying here today, what I
believe Christ really asks of us, is to truly engage our human family as we
engage Him, deeply, authentically, to be in real relationship with others
genuinely, and not out of a sense of duty, not superficially, not because Jesus
happened to say, “Go and do likewise.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
echoing Luther, understand that we not do good works to establish our own
righteousness, to prove to others or ourselves our own good Christianship, but
instead because we live our faith in God’s love and mercy for us out-loud.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus the transformative message of Christ,
the Love He offers us, the Grace He freely gives us, ignites love in our hearts
for others so that - we do - simply because we do – not because we’re told to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To truly love your neighbor as yourself, to
truly love your enemies, a love Jesus Christ perfectly embodied unto his
crucifixion and beyond, is a way of being, a way of living your faith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So yes, even
after all the questioning, I still invite you as Christ invites you, do go and
do likewise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go and show unfathomable mercy to your
human family.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go and love each and every person you
meet unconditionally.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go and be Christ’s physical embrace of
a broken and wounded world.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But don’t do it to be good.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Don’t do it to be a hero.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And don’t do it because you were told
to.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go and do it because you live your
faith,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">the faith that Christ loves you so very
much </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">that He does it for you!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-28584332869708198982013-06-17T22:23:00.001-04:002013-06-17T22:23:11.524-04:00Rainbow connection reflections<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje2OEwI3Asf4cfZYfzGrPw0hlX6nFctJrbty_mlFcNP_pNG0K8_e31inQryvGx00-R9bq0KJoMEMuo3QLm4D4gN_fIkn5BFQo26Pn4dY7oM43vsjozqGZcHRuictHIxeB6giLo0JI5HME/s640/blogger-image-1239851902.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje2OEwI3Asf4cfZYfzGrPw0hlX6nFctJrbty_mlFcNP_pNG0K8_e31inQryvGx00-R9bq0KJoMEMuo3QLm4D4gN_fIkn5BFQo26Pn4dY7oM43vsjozqGZcHRuictHIxeB6giLo0JI5HME/s640/blogger-image-1239851902.jpg"></a></div>chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-88674174711078153292013-05-16T16:14:00.001-04:002013-05-16T16:14:13.398-04:00Beautiful new day<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZwJ7WdhFzwJuVxL6JVMVzytXX-5QvjSbn9v41CnDKpOger4NlW44EA7M5ohyphenhyphenLCdplWF3iveMMtYa1HSWqJGiTgH-1sPYIbJIyZTIcsFfhF-TwhvMMss5nf2-2R_cvS6PkhMJxKkgt9PY/s640/blogger-image--761993675.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZwJ7WdhFzwJuVxL6JVMVzytXX-5QvjSbn9v41CnDKpOger4NlW44EA7M5ohyphenhyphenLCdplWF3iveMMtYa1HSWqJGiTgH-1sPYIbJIyZTIcsFfhF-TwhvMMss5nf2-2R_cvS6PkhMJxKkgt9PY/s640/blogger-image--761993675.jpg"></a></div>chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-17112827363026268512013-05-09T21:16:00.001-04:002013-05-09T21:16:20.506-04:00sunset<br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWlMPmEBvpMI-Eqzl7mh4aj91c7ZdVm7dhlBPn7euvwOHkSJc-cCs097g8SvYLdazRnsot5uA6187gxvO5_l5FQRDGoiXAFiPqjq3ONzc6RXs4YRLP9eyiHO6n5hDzVvd2frFa3ZqpoU/s640/blogger-image-780662712.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAWlMPmEBvpMI-Eqzl7mh4aj91c7ZdVm7dhlBPn7euvwOHkSJc-cCs097g8SvYLdazRnsot5uA6187gxvO5_l5FQRDGoiXAFiPqjq3ONzc6RXs4YRLP9eyiHO6n5hDzVvd2frFa3ZqpoU/s640/blogger-image-780662712.jpg"></a></div>chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-20752087711073019122013-05-09T21:13:00.001-04:002013-05-09T21:26:25.294-04:00tryingIf she will understand <div>Or if she won't </div><div>I'm still trying.</div>chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-23848649714080802262013-05-02T21:00:00.003-04:002013-05-03T02:38:28.237-04:00Angry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYaWTLvwp8e0bimHOr-OpOaDEiFPUIsMQtorBXQJIgQBMwpzJf6wk-XlxJUvF0C0Fz9P4ocoah7ixtxDF8dWem9YpjaaMj24vomrob0R0PwxgLURaxOJXSsZLcKO9rj1g4E2reMMWlAAI/s1600/TebowCollins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYaWTLvwp8e0bimHOr-OpOaDEiFPUIsMQtorBXQJIgQBMwpzJf6wk-XlxJUvF0C0Fz9P4ocoah7ixtxDF8dWem9YpjaaMj24vomrob0R0PwxgLURaxOJXSsZLcKO9rj1g4E2reMMWlAAI/s1600/TebowCollins.jpg" height="307" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">I am so very righteously angry over this continuing Christian versus gay argument, now after Jason Collins had the courage to come out in a hetero-privileged, Christian-privileged (and there can be no argument about that, truly), macho/masculine-privileged American society. So let me just say it boldly and with dignity: I am a gay Christian. Chad Gurley is a gay Christian. My life has not been perfect nor has it been easy or without tragedy. But nevertheless it all, the joys and the heartbreaks, I am proud of who I am, who my parents raised me, and who God has called me to be: A loving human being with Grace. I only pray I can give some little tiny piece of hope to others; the hope that God has given to me.</span>chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-6068212013909326202013-05-02T18:09:00.002-04:002013-05-03T03:10:29.019-04:00QUEEN...the anthem<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px;">anthem! ”Even if it makes others uncomfortable, I will love who I am.”</span></div>
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chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-75463087865243364142013-03-31T19:29:00.001-04:002013-03-31T19:29:45.832-04:00Day 47 Easter: LifeAn ultrasound image of the foot of my niece or nephew to be! Happy, Happy Easter! <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijauJ7Y4mPdsLE__mLbiS3947r4_Z38hXuJSFtc1RYB0YWT-QfSWbvLRsWMZtUSt_lOgDsLpYtZKklPpQMLPn84Juf0x4Nl_YAJXsSewzT_IiNDEgP-IUUiXGMG4mTurPwirJQRef6lFo/s640/blogger-image-985432560.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijauJ7Y4mPdsLE__mLbiS3947r4_Z38hXuJSFtc1RYB0YWT-QfSWbvLRsWMZtUSt_lOgDsLpYtZKklPpQMLPn84Juf0x4Nl_YAJXsSewzT_IiNDEgP-IUUiXGMG4mTurPwirJQRef6lFo/s640/blogger-image-985432560.jpg" /></a></div>chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-38549346887524069532013-03-30T14:54:00.001-04:002013-03-30T14:54:25.277-04:00Day 46: roots <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM-SoR_bJBsaUS0euD0Y8jqer781BiF0UYa3URJVgXw4om-k4t8jlz4P7e7JLMzzTyMLwI8XyshnqsbcEXpmTxgc3FuK_Uw41jYw72WrRPXCqMKQfVDln3qrUUlGl2sJvG-58ckm1N_iY/s640/blogger-image-2024084336.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM-SoR_bJBsaUS0euD0Y8jqer781BiF0UYa3URJVgXw4om-k4t8jlz4P7e7JLMzzTyMLwI8XyshnqsbcEXpmTxgc3FuK_Uw41jYw72WrRPXCqMKQfVDln3qrUUlGl2sJvG-58ckm1N_iY/s640/blogger-image-2024084336.jpg" /></a></div>chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-23422454529804819682013-03-29T14:29:00.001-04:002013-03-29T14:29:43.526-04:00Day 45: far <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidujm9ADH3zdwYlFVeWIBjmsYBBLnvYBMm2H-3_jEeWXR7VE22waJ5rjO7m6jtUbOIWtDca3uPnTx5Jxgl6sKjpd9IO1sKLPmlj4xXisKoOAQ0pXgGlSA9g2Fp9pleyZsdJRJCcVotCXs/s640/blogger-image-378811960.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidujm9ADH3zdwYlFVeWIBjmsYBBLnvYBMm2H-3_jEeWXR7VE22waJ5rjO7m6jtUbOIWtDca3uPnTx5Jxgl6sKjpd9IO1sKLPmlj4xXisKoOAQ0pXgGlSA9g2Fp9pleyZsdJRJCcVotCXs/s640/blogger-image-378811960.jpg" /></a></div>chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-70097025345566867852013-03-28T12:11:00.001-04:002013-03-28T12:11:52.038-04:00Day 44: cup <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEighsd1vsLrQYpWqfn2jYx_N6K3SxDvW0V2SrQ6EdDKwlg16ha5xv2cKZSW-USrNDEXNErQfk_gNuQwzVJ9wlVMjKxwXqfHjwKEZgwjyX_Us1R2iRBlnromkOW_b_acY8pD4Uie3Gvfd7A/s640/blogger-image-146078208.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEighsd1vsLrQYpWqfn2jYx_N6K3SxDvW0V2SrQ6EdDKwlg16ha5xv2cKZSW-USrNDEXNErQfk_gNuQwzVJ9wlVMjKxwXqfHjwKEZgwjyX_Us1R2iRBlnromkOW_b_acY8pD4Uie3Gvfd7A/s640/blogger-image-146078208.jpg" /></a></div>chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-79141457500545572562013-03-27T17:32:00.001-04:002013-03-27T17:32:28.483-04:00Day 43: help <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoniab46WkzoKPaAO0W3nTskd_begwfZ_XPv2QDCFBTZmQE3Zp9zPEYTtV2YkJmLeKegjv9eq0RyGdp5VKZYnw7cWUepPumoCLTl-Gxs0RkMykhMtyZY0yBeE9HYEOU0juSlLfbH55ElI/s640/blogger-image--995569207.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoniab46WkzoKPaAO0W3nTskd_begwfZ_XPv2QDCFBTZmQE3Zp9zPEYTtV2YkJmLeKegjv9eq0RyGdp5VKZYnw7cWUepPumoCLTl-Gxs0RkMykhMtyZY0yBeE9HYEOU0juSlLfbH55ElI/s640/blogger-image--995569207.jpg" /></a></div>chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2409387445581857730.post-57886465775278894982013-03-26T18:03:00.001-04:002013-03-26T18:03:24.788-04:00Day 42: light <br/><br/><div class="separator"style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha39qZZyDNHdwZjl4YuhZMEAenZgKS2S_8Z1cQqrzbTHNar9dGb0Jan5A_afzsCsj_6S1gnovCO4JPZRorySF4kyy4c23nCUyIeSwRi8c30bpR8FQ7TvHyI1q9Phe8g8k_H5LQkqGxrqA/s640/blogger-image-1674579730.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha39qZZyDNHdwZjl4YuhZMEAenZgKS2S_8Z1cQqrzbTHNar9dGb0Jan5A_afzsCsj_6S1gnovCO4JPZRorySF4kyy4c23nCUyIeSwRi8c30bpR8FQ7TvHyI1q9Phe8g8k_H5LQkqGxrqA/s640/blogger-image-1674579730.jpg" /></a></div>chadagurleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09449436450346122015noreply@blogger.com