Benediction

Rabindranath Tagore

Bless this little heart, 

this white soul that has won the kiss of

heaven for our earth.

He loves the light of the sun, 

he loves the sight of his

mother's face.

He has not learned to despise the dust, 

and to hanker after gold.

Clasp him to your heart and bless him.

He has come into this land of an hundred cross-roads.

I know not how he chose you from the crowd, came to your door,

and grasped your hand to ask his way.

He will follow you, laughing while talking, 

and not a doubt in his heart.

Keep his trust, lead him straight and bless him.

Lay your hand on his head, and pray that though the waves

underneath grow threatening, yet the breath from above may come 

and fill his sails and waft him to the heaven of peace.

Forget him not in your hurry, 

let him come to your heart and

bless him. 

Our

(meditation on each word(s) of the Lord's prayer)

You made us.

I can understand

why You call us 

Yours.

But it’s only through

Your gift of 

grace

that we can begin

in prayer with 

“Our”

Father

(meditation on each word(s) of the Lord's prayer)

You love us

unconditionally.

You desire 

relationship.

Yet,

You allow us to wander

away.

No Amber alert.

No pictures on a milk carton.

Just

the confidence

that Your children will

 repent their sins

and understand

there is no place like Home.

Meal Blessing

(From a prayer book)

Blessed are you, Father

who gives us

our daily bread.

Blessed is your only begotten Son,

who continually feeds us

with the word of life.

Blessed is the Holy Spirit,

who brings us together

at this table of love.

Blessed be God

now and forever.

Amen.

Avarice and Usury and Precaution

When the accumulation of wealth

 is no longer of high social importance, 

there will be great changes in the code of morals. 

We shall be able to rid ourselves

 of many of the pseudo-moral principles

 which have hag-ridden us for two hundred years, 

by which we have exalted

 some of the most distasteful of human qualities

 into the position of the highest virtues. 

We shall be able to afford

 to dare to assess the money-motive

 at its true value. 

The love of money as a possession — 

as distinguished from the love of money

 as a means to the enjoyments and realities of life — 

will be recognized for what it is, 

a somewhat disgusting morbidity, 

one of those semi-criminal, 

semi-pathological propensities 

which one hands over with a shudder

 to the specialists in mental disease.

 But beware! 

The time for all this is not yet. 

For at least another hundred years

 we must pretend to ourselves

 and to everyone

 that fair is foul

 and foul is fair; 

for foul is useful and fair is not. 

Avarice and usury and precaution

 must be our gods for a little longer still. 

For only they can lead us out of the tunnel of economic necessity into daylight.

John Maynard Keynes (1931)

The Radical Priest on Luke 16:19-31

Luke 16:19-31

Sometimes,

when I think of the afterlife

the question I have is:

“Will it be much different than now?”

(In other words: on earth as it is heaven (really?))

Consider this as

we read this parable of the

one percenter.

Does his world view change

with fires of Hades

lapping him?

To start, he still treats

those in power 

with respect.

(Father Abraham)

And as usual,

 the conversation

of the powerful turns to 

how the 99ers can do their will.

(Send Lazarus to cool my tongue)

Next, there we hear

of a chasm.

Except the tables are turned.

The earthly who 

amassed and stockpiled

the gains of the economy

and separated themselves

from the rest of society

now live in a gated community

that eternally faces an abyss.

(A physical and spiritual one)

And the last aspect of

this parable is the benefit

of those who have

power and influence:

inside information.

He pleads with

Father Abraham

to let his family know

to tell them 

his story 

of Breaking Bad

by sending Lazarus.

And Abraham 

tells him,

“They just need to listen

to Moses and the Prophets.

They told the truth."

And the Patriarch concludes:

"Anyway, remember 

where you came from!

Do you really think 

Lazarus would be able to

ring your door bell?"

The Powwow at the End of the World

BY SHERMAN ALEXIE

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall   

after an Indian woman puts her shoulder to the Grand Coulee Dam   

and topples it. 

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall 

after the floodwaters burst each successive dam   

downriver from the Grand Coulee. 

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall 

after the floodwaters find their way to the mouth of the Columbia River 

as it enters the Pacific and causes all of it to rise. 

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall 

after the first drop of floodwater is swallowed 

by that salmon waiting in the Pacific. 

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall   

after that salmon swims upstream, through the mouth of the Columbia   

and then past the flooded cities, broken dams and abandoned reactors   

of Hanford. 

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall   

after that salmon swims through the mouth of the Spokane River   

as it meets the Columbia, then upstream, until it arrives   

in the shallows of a secret bay on the reservation where I wait alone.   

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall 

after that salmon leaps into the night air above the water, throws   

a lightning bolt at the brush near my feet, and starts the fire   

which will lead all of the lost Indians home. 

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall   

after we Indians have gathered around the fire with that salmon   

who has three stories it must tell before sunrise: 

one story will teach us how to pray; 

another story will make us laugh for hours;   

the third story will give us reason to dance. 

I am told by many of you that I must forgive and so I shall 

when I am dancing with my tribe 

during the powwow at the end of the world.

A Sham Argument

James 2:14-26 / Matthew 11:28-30

Someone will say: "You have faith, I have works." (Vs 18)

This unidentified person

has wasted so much time

for Christians.

Debating whether 

the gift of

eternal life rests on 

faith,

works,

or both.

Yes,

God grants 

all who believe

in the saving power

of the Cross

and Resurrection 

eternal life.

But

Jesus gives

to all

who are

born from above,

born again,

saved,

slain in the Lamb

another gift.

The gift of the Holy Spirit.

And that gift 

working 

in a transformed life

will be evidence of  

those who

  will receive the 

reward of

eternal life. 

The sola fide

people

give the impression

 that works 

are a 

checklist to go to heaven.

Instead, it is

God

(in the third person of the Trinity)

working

through

your weaknesses 

so you 

can do His will

on earth. 

The works alone assembly

(a much smaller crowd)

work on their projects

as if they were going submit

their resume 

to the Almighty.

All this talk

of work

and deeds

is making me tired.

Lord,

Thank you for

Your yoke is light.

Walk with me

the rest of 

my days

as I do Your will.

Today on earth

and for eternity

in Paradise. Amen.

“The Vacation”

Wendell Berry

Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.

He went flying down the river in his boat

with his video camera to his eye, making

a moving picture of the moving river

upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly

toward the end of his vacation. He showed

his vacation to his camera, which pictured it,

preserving it forever: the river, the trees,

the sky, the light, the bow of his rushing boat

behind which he stood with his camera

preserving his vacation even as he was having it

so that after he had had it he would still

have it. It would be there. With a flick

of a switch, there it would be. But he

would not be in it. He would never be in it.

That’s what Easter’s all about, Charlie Brown.

Believing in the resurrection 

does not just mean 

assenting to a dogma 

and noting a historical fact. 

It means participating 

in God’s

creative act.

If it were merely 

a historical circumstance, 

we should simply say: 

‘Oh really?’, 

register the fact, 

and go on living 

as we did before.

But if it is a creative act of God’s, then – 

if we really know and understand 

what it is about – 

we shall be born again to a new life. 

A faith like this is the beginning of freedom

Resurrection is not a consoling opium, 

soothing us

with the promise of a better world 

in the hereafter. 

It is the energy 

for a rebirth 

of this life. 

The hope doesn’t point to another world. 

It is focused on the redemption of this one.  

Jurgen Moltmann (Jesus Christ for Today’s World)

The Cast of Christmas Reassembles For Easter

Take the wise men to the Emperor's palace.

Wash their hands in water.  

Get them to say something about truth.

Does anyone know any good Jewish jokes?

The one about a carpenter

who thought he was a King?

The one about the Savior 

who couldn't save himself?

The shepherds should stand with the chorus.

They have a big production number -

'Barabbas, We Love You Baby'.

Mary? She can move to the front.

We have a special section reserved

for family and close friends.

Tell her that we had to cut the manger up.

We needed the wood for something else.

The star I'm afraid I can't use.

There are no stars in this show.

The sky turns black with sorrow.

The earth shakes with terror.

Hold on to the frankincense.

We'll need that for the garden scene.

Angels? He could do with some angels.

Avenging angels.

Merciful angels.

He could really do with some angels.

Baby Jesus.

Step this way please.

My! How you've grown! 

**Steve Turner

A blessing for one who holds power

May the gift of leadership awaken in you as a vocation,
Keep you mindful of the providence that calls you to serve.

As high over the mountains the eagle spreads its wings,
May your perspective be larger than the view from the foothills.

When the way is flat and dull in times of grey endurance,
May your imagination continue to evoke horizons.

When thirst burns in times of drought,
May you be blessed to find the wells.

May you have the wisdom to read time clearly
And to know when the seed of change will flourish.

In your heart may there be sanctuary
for the stillness where clarity is born.

May your work be infused with passion and creativity
And have the wisdom to balance compassion and challenge.

May your soul find the graciousness
To rise above the fester of small mediocrities.

May your power never become a shell
wherein your heart would silently atrophy.

May you welcome your own vulnerability
as the ground where healing and truth join.

May the integrity of soul be your first ideal,
the source that will guide and bless your work.

John O'Donohue,  Benedictus, a Book of Blessings.

Batter my heart (Holy Sonnet 14)

Batter my heart, three-person'd God; for you

As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;

That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend

Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.

I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,

Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.

Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,

But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,

But am betroth'd unto your enemy;

Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,

Take me to you, imprison me, for I,

Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,

Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

**John Donne