Reflection (The readings are below, for your reference)
In case you haven’t noticed, we live on a planet that spins on its axis and orbits around the sun. The ground that seems so steady one day decides to rumble and quake on another day. Plus, the water on this planet is relentlessly sloshing from one shore to the other; it evaporates upwards, rains downwards, freezes and melts. The air also gets into the act: it moves constantly and sometimes so fiercely that it can pick up a house in Kansas and drop it on a witch in Oz. When the air and the water play in concert, look out! Just ask anyone who lives in Louisiana or Haiti or Indonesia. Even in New England the outside world is a festival of surprises … as Samuel Clemens once said, “If you don’t like the weather just wait a few minutes.”
In addition to a perpetual motion planet, we live as people on the move … nomads. One day you’re working long, hard hours and the next day you get the lay-off notice. One day you receive a rejection letter from a book publisher and the next day the acceptance e-mail arrives. One day congress is primarily Democratic and the next it’s Republican! Children are born, age, and die. People move across town and across the world.
There is absolutely nothing you or I can do to stop change! So let’s look together at how we can learn to go with the flow (as they say).
Isaiah’s chapter 11 is wrapping up his first really big rant. He’s just finished a long diatribe of calling out the local leadership as iniquitous, oppressive, calamitous, godless, proud, arrogant, drunkards, liars, evil, corrupt, and … well … kinda stupid. And here in chapter 11 he does what we all do (I think); he fantasizes about how life would look on the other side of the rainbow, where skies are blue and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true. In this magical place, the hunter and the hunted make peace with one another; Miss Almira Gulch and Toto snuggle together. He hopes that in the future there will be a change for good. If you were to place yourself in this vision, who would you be? The wolf or the lamb? The leopard or the kid? The flesh-eating lion or the vegan ox? As for me, I picture myself as the innocent one and I picture my enemies as the bad guys. I am a good girl so the people who yell at me are wicked. I am a Democrat, so Republicans are bad. Okay, poor example. Republicans really ARE bad. :)
Likewise the Psalm prays for leadership to be virtuous, wise and just and Paul enjoins the Romans, who live in the capital of the ancient world, the leadership headquarters of the time, to live in harmony with one another. There is no missing today’s theme of a peaceable kingdom – a top-down change for good.
I have learned from my Buddhist mentors that every creature, large and small, powerful and weak, desires happiness. Even the Wicked Witch of the West is motivated not by a desire to be evil but rather to be free of suffering. Even the most despotic ruler has a soft spot somewhere. So if I am to pray for a change for good, I might start by praying for my enemies. If I do that, at least two things happen:
1. My prayer might just work and my enemy’s heart may soften. Whatever hard-shelled barriers are preventing their innate and natural kindness and goodness from showing forth will be melted away and the world will be a better place.
2. I will see my enemy with new eyes – the eyes of compassion and love and forgiveness. And whatever hard-shelled barriers are keeping me from seeing the Christ in this person will melt away.
Who will you pray for? Who is your enemy?
A family member, co-worker, classmate?
A political or church leader?
A whole class of people?
A political party?
Your inner critic? The voice in your head that says you are unworthy?
Gracious loving God, I pray that I may know happiness and be free of suffering.
Gracious loving God, I pray that my loved ones may know happiness and be free of suffering.
Gracious loving God, I pray that my good friends may know happiness and be free of suffering.
Gracious loving God, I pray that my enemies may know happiness and be free of suffering.
Gracious loving God, I pray that the whole world may know happiness and be free of suffering.
May I (and we) learn to age and change with grace. May the Spirit of God rest upon us. May we grow and change with a spirit of wisdom and understanding,
a spirit of counsel and might,
a spirit of knowledge and the fear of GOD.
And may our delight be in this wonderful GOD of change.
If happy little blue birds fly beyond the rainbow, why oh why can’t I?
Namaste! Amen!
The Readings
Isaiah 11:1-10
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of its roots.
And the Spirit of GOD shall rest upon this branch,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and the fear of GOD.
And the delight of the one who comes shall be in the fear of GOD.
That one shall not judge by what the eyes see,
or decide by what the ears hear;
but shall judge the poor with righteousness,
and decide with equity for the meek of the earth,
and smite the earth with words of judgment,
and slay the wicked with sentences.
And wear righteousness as a belt around the waist,
and faithfulness as a belt around the loins.
The wolf shall live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire, and the holy dwelling shall be glorious.
Psalm 72:1-2,7-8,12-13,17
O God, with your judgment and with your justice, endow the leaders.
They shall govern your people with justice
And your afflicted ones with righteousness.
Virtue shall flower in their days,
And world peace till the moon is no more.
May they rule from sea to sea,
And from the river to the ends of the earth.
For they shall rescue the poor when they cry out
And the afflicted when they have no one to help them.
They shall have pity for the needy and the poor;
They shall save the lives of the poor.
Blessed be their name forever;
Their name shall remain as long as the sun.
In them shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;
All the nations shall proclaim their happiness.
Romans 15:4-9
For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,
‘Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles,
and sing praises to your name’;
Matthew 3:1-12
In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,
‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.” ’
Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
‘I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing-fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’
With one exception, the readings are from the website below, with tiny adjustments to make the text more inclusive. The Psalm is from Psalms Anew, St. Mary’s Press, 1986.
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