Ahem

In honor

of Memorial Day, I had the pleasure of watching Readings From Howard Zinn's "Voices of a People's History of the United States" on Democracy Now.

It was such a strong reminder that some of the most extraordinary things about America are the complex voices that have come out of its greatest mistakes and bloated self importance, listening to the voices of these people that make up our joined history reminds me of the inner fire that marks our humanity, and I would argue, the inner knowledge of being Created for living in a better and truer way than the path we have been on.

Listen for yourself here.

Do not adjust your screen; you are simply recovering from a random act of kindness....

Yesterday was not a good day.  It started off in the way most bad days begin, insidiously small miss steps that lead to a general sense of stress, anxiety, frustration, and reminders that these days are particularly notable because they are not a constant state of being, thanks be to God.  It all started the night before at a friend’s bon voyage party…. (Insert ominous music here)

 

As we toasted her next step in life, my own future began to loom large with its interviews out of state and the final days of grad school fast approaching.  My friend lamented leaving friends and a city she has grown to love and yet the call to move on was too strong for her to ignore.  It was an enjoyable and melancholy evening, as I imagined myself having a similar evening with loved ones in the coming months. 

The next morning I woke tired and stressed, feeling the weight of the day already heavy on me.   Rushing in to town for work I made a quick stop to capture the breakfast of champions, a cup of coffee and bagel. Around lunch time I felt in my bag for my purse…. Hmmm, not in there…..

 

Perhaps in the drawer? Nope

Perhaps in the office? Nope

Perhaps in the office bathroom? Nope…

 

Ahh we have now entered the irrational, my-purse-has-been-stolen-stage where the afore mentioned insidious misstep pops by to say “hello there, and how is your day going?”

 

My boyfriend arrives on the scene as the dual role of freak out control and wallet reclaim strategist. (impressive guy, I know) Meanwhile, somewhat internally and mostly verbally, I am cursing like a sailor, lamenting trying to fly out of Portland on Saturday with no picture ID, imagining my bank accounts dwindling to zero, and the Prada shoes I was kind enough to furnish for my new wanted-in-three-states friend.

 

As I canvass the neighborhood in a (I am certain) fruitless query of local businesses near the coffee shop for possible purse sightings, Nathan is calling my cell phone (one of the missing items) to see if someone has returned my purse. Mercifully, someone answers my phone and explains a woman has my purse in safe keeping, while another friend of hers returned my damaged cell phone to the bakery up the street from the coffee shop. Not only did this woman pick up all the items of my purse that were scattered across the street, (still not sure how that happened), but she brought it to my house and hand delivered it to my housemate.

 

I find it astonishing that this stranger would go so above and beyond to return my belongings, but more importantly restore my sense of security. She had to have known that I was concerned and stressed over the loss of my purse and the exposure that loss could have meant. It reminded me that how I respond or choose not to respond shields or exposes those around me to kindness and love, or harm and exploitation. It really is that straight forward.

 

We spend a great deal of time in my church talking about community, talking about caring for our own people in the building, the logic being if we don’t do it here, we won’t do it there. I would disagree. What is so powerful about this woman’s act was that she had no reason to do it. We have no relationship; we have no connection other than our own humanity to recommend caring for one another. I find it fascinating that Christ, when questioned as to a definition of neighbor told the story of cultural enemies joined by one man’s compassion for another in the story of the Samaritan.  He defines a neighbor in that story as a person lying naked and abused by the side of the road, totally exposed, in danger, and in desperate need of rescue. He defines the actions of a neighbor as the person who responds to that need in a tangle way. Yesterday, I was in need of help, of rescue, of someone having my back and caring for me though they had no information that would indicate I was “worthy” of that action. I was simply a name and a face strewn across a random street in Portland. I believe, much to my grief that I have been socialized to believe the worst of those around me. I believe that “the other” is not always to be trusted, or that people outside “my camp” however arbitrary that line might be, have no motivation to care for me, a stranger, though I would expect myself to step to their aid. I fear it is the arrogance of “the chosen” that I can feed into and that I fear our community can feed into. The idea that as Christ followers there are expectations of behavior that is a marker of whom we follow, but people outside of that community don’t tend to acknowledge. It’s a sneaky way to pat ourselves on the back for what we believe we are a part of rather than acknowledging the Truth, that there are many people who live beautifully honorable lives, lives Christ would be honored by, who do not acknowledge Him.  It also reminds me that while I was stressed and rushed that morning, which laid the framework for my stressful day, it was Christ that overlaid all of it with Hope.

 

 

 

Ahhh Dobson....

As the Dobson Camp sounds off with their usual stance on all things non anti-abortion and anti-homosexuality, according to them, the only things Christian leadership should be concerned with/talking about, (don't you miss the days of plain old parenting advice *sigh*). They called on the President of the NAE to demand the resignation of  Richard Cizik, the NAE’s vice president of governmental relations, for his scandalaous behavior as  'an outspoken advocate of evangelical involvement in addressing the problems created by global climate change', FOR SHAME , Mr. Cizik.... ;-)

A community that I greatly respect known as Restore Eden, has fired back, (respectfully) in an open letter to outline not only the realities of gobal warming, but also why Christians, in particular, should care about these issues.  Well done, friends!

An open letter in reference to the call of Dr. James Dobson and fellow family ministry leaders for the National Association of Evangelicals to either silence or dismiss NAE vice president Richard Cizik

On March 1, 2007, Focus on the Family’s founder and director Dr. James Dobson and a group primarily composed of leaders in Christian family ministries (the “Dobson group”) sent a letter to Dr. Roy Taylor, chairman of the board of the National Association of Evangelicals (“NAE”). In it they urged him to call for the resignation of Richard Cizik, the NAE’s vice president of governmental relations, if Mr. Cizik did not cease from being an outspoken advocate of evangelical involvement in addressing the problems created by global climate change. The Dobson group stated that because global warming is “a subject of heated controversy throughout the world,” and because it is uncertain “why it might be happening and what should be done about it . . . we believe it is unwise for an NAE officer to assert conclusively that those questions have been answered, or that the membership as a whole has taken a position on the matter.”

We respectfully disagree with the Dobson group. Although Restoring Eden understands that the matter of climate change due to global warming is politically controversial, it does exist and its consequences now and in the future remain a reality that must be addressed by the church. Global climate change, along with multitudes of proven negative human impacts on God’s good creation, has practical implications for followers of Christ in their thinking, living, and working. Many evangelicals have for more than twenty years pled with James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Gary Bauer, D. James Kennedy, Jerry Falwell and the leaders of several other conservative evangelical ministries to stop ridiculing and criticizing how creation-care advocates believe we ought to live in obedience to God, and to instead add to their own ministries the biblical mandate to love and care for our Lord’s creation. We call on the Dobson group to come to a common table to discuss with evangelical leaders in the creation-care community how we can support each other in our work and Christian living by adding creation care to the foundational framework of all our ministries.

It is certainly true that Richard Cizik’s personal beliefs regarding climate change—as well as those of many other prominent evangelicals concerned with the health of God’s creation—have received a great deal of coverage in the national media for over two years. The Dobson group has characterized this coverage as coming from the purported “liberal media” as the result of a “relentless campaign orchestrated by Cizik.” This characterization, however, reflects primarily the Dobson group’s bias, not that of the media. It would be more accurate to say that because Mr. Cizik is a conservative evangelical and former pastor, his outspoken advocacy in the evangelical community for an attitude and behavior change in the church regarding our stewardship of God’s good creation—including the call for us to change our human behavior in order to combat the effects of global warming—he has raised the attention of all media that report on public policy issues. Mr. Cizik’s comments are newsworthy because the Dobson group and other large parachurch ministries have for years reinforced a notorious perception in America that the evangelical community does not care about the world’s environmental crises and the suffering and loss created by them. To have a representative of the NAE speak in favor of evangelical involvement in addressing the problems created by global warming and other environmental degradations is indeed news.

Mr. Cizik’s statements and beliefs have received media attention because they are strongly opposed to the statements and beliefs about environmental matters that have been a part of the nay-saying media blitz of Focus of the Family and similar organizations for years. Their organizations have been perceived by many in the national media as the dominant voices for America’s evangelicals for some two
decades. It is not in any sense surprising that the emergence of a new and strikingly different evangelical voice should attract media attention.

Restoring Eden is disappointed that the Dobson group seems blind to its own culpability in forming the impression in America that  evangelicals as a whole do not care about the state of the environment, the very world that came from the hand of the Creator whom we say we honor and worship.  Indeed, the letter from the Dobson group reflects a shocking haughtiness concerning what issues evangelicals should be concerned about. For example, the letter states that Mr. Cizik and others are using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from “the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children . . . . We implore the NAE board to ensure that Mr. Cizik  faithfully represents the policies and commitments of the organization, including its defense of traditional values.”

We at Restoring Eden are astonished that the Dobson group would criticize Mr. Cizik’s wider beliefs about what are “great moral issues”  and “traditional values,” and yet be blind to the extreme narrowness of their own list of legitimate concerns for evangelical Christians. We know of no Scriptural support for narrowing the list of Christian moral issues to abortion, the integrity of marriage, and the teaching of sexual morality to our children. Further, for the Dobson letter signatories to fail to recognize that care of creation is a vital aspect of  valuing and saving human life is a strong indication that these leaders are ignorant of the meaning and scope of humankind’s stewardship role regarding the Lord’s creation—and of evangelical Christians’ egregious failure to address creation’s degradation. It is as though they have so insulated themselves from the other biblically mandated moral issues that they have made spiritual blinders for themselves. It can only be for this reason that they seem shocked and scandalized to hear fellow evangelicals advocate caring for creation as both a biblical “moral issue” and a Christian “traditional value.”

Dr. Dobson and many of these other self-professed leaders have often spoken of being instructed and motivated in their ministries by the beliefs and conclusions of Francis Schaeffer. Since Schaeffer was himself an outspoken advocate of caring for creation as a biblical moral value and a traditional Christian value, it strikes us as odd—and deeply saddens us—that the Dobson group consistently misses making the care of creation an aspect of their own foundational frameworks. It seems they were not paying attention to Schaeffer when he said these things in his 1970 book Pollution and the Death of Man:

God’s calling to the Christian now, and to the Christian community, in the area of nature—just as in the area of personal Christian living in true spirituality—is that we should exhibit a substantial healing here and now between man and nature and nature and itself, as far as Christians can bring it to pass . . . . So man has dominion over nature, but he uses it wrongly. The Christian is called upon to exhibit this dominion, but exhibit it rightly: treating the thing as having value in itself, exercising dominion without being destructive. The Church should always have taught and done this, but she has generally failed to do so. And we need to confess our failure.

Another architect of modern evangelicalism was Carl F. H. Henry. Dr. Dobson and many of his fellow parachurch ministry leaders honor Henry as a great teacher and mentor to them in their calling to ministry. It seems, though, that they missed Henry’s words as well:

God has much more in mind and at stake in nature than a backdrop for man’s comfort and convenience, or even a stage for the drama of human salvation. His purpose includes redemption of the cosmos that man has implicated in the Fall. Today the ecological problem is often stated in a way that accommodates the divorce and alienation of history and nature by exaggerating the importance of man and downgrading the importance of nature; the ecological problem thus becomes one of man’s survival . . . . It is unfair to blame Christianity for the ecological crisis; what’s more, Christianity is best able to arrest it. The Bible has timeless relevance for ecological problems; neither heirs of nor strangers to the Judeo-Christian outlook can afford to overlook its message. [Vol. II, “God Who Speaks and Shows: Fifteen Theses, Part One”]

Even James Dobson’s fellow conservative, Charles Colson spoke to the issue in his book The Body:

We should be contending for truth in every area of life. Not for power or because we are taken with some trendy cause, but humbly to  ring glory to God. For this reason, Christians should be the most ardent ecologists. Not because we would rather save spotted owls than cut down trees whose bark provides lifesaving medicine, but because we are mandated to keep the Garden, to ensure that the beauty and grandeur God has reflected in nature is not despoiled. We should care for animals. Not because whales are our brothers, but because animals are part of God’s kingdom over which we are to exercise dominion. Francis of Assisi should be our role model, not Ted Turner or Ingrid Newkirk.

Undeniably, Creation is the source of all material life, which will one day be redeemed and restored along with God’s people. If the Dobson group had paid better attention to these and many other evangelical voices of the past and present, they would recognize what both Schaeffer and Henry saw—and Colson in his more introspective moments—sees: because we worship and serve the Creator, we have a responsibility to wisely use, earnestly protect, and faithfully serve His creation.

This is clearly and absolutely an evangelical call, and Richard Cizik has just as legitimate a responsibility to issue that call from the platform of the NAE in the same manner as the Dobson group has issued calls from their own platforms regarding the sanctity of life, marriage protection, and the teaching of biblical sexual morality to our children. Their strident and narrow messages have caricatured the beliefs of evangelicals, and have for years drowned out the voices of many, if not most, others who identify with the NAE.

We applaud the decision of the NAE board to reaffirm their commitment to Cizik. Evangelicals are called to give attention to all of God’s mandates as they are verbally communicated in His special revelation and non-verbally articulated in His general revelation, the natural creation, which declares God’s glory and His love.

In closing, we again earnestly plead with our dear brother in Christ, James Dobson, and his fellow ministry leaders to come to a common table to discuss with the NAE and with evangelical leaders in the creation care community how we can support each other in our work by reaffirming that creation care as foundational to all our ministries and by promoting it as a legitimate biblical mandate. We owe that to ou  great Creator and Savior.

Sincerely,
The board and staff of Restoring Eden

Preach it, Sister!

   

 

        Wednesday, March 21, 2007

       

Bernice Powell Jackson: Hope Does Not Disappoint Us    

                         

Bernice Powell Jackson was one of several speakers at the March 16 Christian Peace Witness for Iraq service at the National Cathedral. This is the prepared text of her message that evening.

+ Watch video of the entire service

Hope. In English, one syllable. Four letters. But beneath those few letters is a breadth and depth of meaning, a bridge between life and death, a beacon leading out of the darkness. In the fifth chapter of Romans, Paul wrote:

And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Paul knew that it was hard to be a Christian in Rome. So he wrote to the Romans those words: Hope does not disappoint us.

It’s hard to be a Christian in Washington. We live in a time of cynics. Many years ago I visited South Africa and on my last day of my trip I met a woman who was 126 years old. I came home and often told the story of meeting this remarkable woman. On more than one occasion I was asked, "How did you know for sure she was 126 years old? Did she have a birth certificate?" My response was, "They probably didn’t have birth certificates for anyone in South Africa 126 years ago, but they certainly didn’t have them for black people. And besides," I would ask, "even if she was 10 years off in her age, she was still 116 - and how many of us have met someone that old?" A time of cynics.

Cynics who do not understand that war can never lead to peace. Cynics who do not understand that violence can only beget violence. Cynics who do not understand that guns can never lead to democracy, and that lies can never lead to truth. But Paul’s word is an antidote to cynicism. Paul’s word is that hope does not disappoint us. Now hope is something different from optimism.

When the imprisoned Czech writer and later President Vaclav Havel was asked about hope, he said that hope is a state of mind, a dimension of the soul, an orientation of the heart that transcends the world that is immediately experienced and is anchored somewhere beyond the world’s horizons.

Hope, for Christians, is anchored in the understanding that with God all things are possible. Hope is that thing that allowed my slave forebears to know, deep down in their souls, despite all that the world told them, despite all that the world did to them, that one day they, or their children, or their children’s children, would be free. Because this is God’s world.

Now, war is the absence of hope. War is the declaration that only violence can conquer the hearts and minds of a people. We are here tonight to dare to say that is not true.

Hope, for Christians, is inextricably linked to the love of God, which is the message of Jesus, which is Jesus himself. On this day, in this place, at this time, Jesus’ words resound throughout the rafters and among the pews of this hallowed place. Words of hope and not words of despair. Words of life and not words of death. Words of love and not words of hate.

I give you a new commandment that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. Jesus’ words and Jesus’ actions.

Hope, for Christians, can never just be a word – it must become an action. Hope for Christians must be a public commitment to follow Jesus in the non-violent struggle for justice and peace. Hope for Christians must be a public sharing of the love of Jesus. Hope for Christians must be a public witnessing to the power of love to overcome hate, to overcome cynicism, to overcome war, to overcome death itself.

So, tonight, we pray. Tonight we march. Tonight we love. And in doing so, we hope. Because hope does not disappoint us.

MISSION LEARNING DAY + THEOLOGY PUB DINNER: APRIL 21

MISSION LEARNING DAY + THEOLOGY PUB DINNER: APRIL 21
with Brian McLaren (in Seattle). Sponsored by Church of the Apostles,
Praxis Mission Center.

A 'NEIGHBORHOOD MISSION LEARNING DAY' (9 am to 4 pm)
(for up to 250 participants) at Seattle First Nazarene (Wallingford area of Seattle).
Come and explore new/old possibilities for doing local, neighborhood church and mission in today's emerging culture.

THEOLOGY PUB CONVERSATION and DINNER (7-9 pm)
(for up to 55 participants): Chef prepared food, community, networking, drinks, and conversation with Brian and local NW emerging cohort and missional leaders. Held at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center (Fremont area of Seattle).

Registration for each event is separate. - Between events, you can explore the Wallingford or Fremont neighborhoods, or join Church of the Apostles for our Saturday, 5 pm liturgy. We meet at the Fremont Abbey Arts Center.

PRICES are DISCOUNTED for 'EARLY BIRD' REGISTRATiON



REGISTER for the NEIGHBORHOOD MISSION LEARNING DAY here:
http://missionlearningday.eventbrite.com

REGISTER for the THEOLOGY PUB DINNER here:
http://theologypubdinner.eventbrite.com

as another blogger I admire says:

no apologies

I am taking a bit of a hiatus from the blog scene for the time being.... happily my writing is being put to use in far more meaningful and Kingdom building work as I join with a few different ministries in  putting words to their vision and helping them shape their most meaningful messages to those they seek to communicate to.  Its exciting and challenging work, and I feel honored to be a part of it. 

I will be back, and for now this site will be taking a backseat to more pressing and important keystrokes.

Blessings all.

Potty Talk

A sure sign that we, as a society, are descending into a state of impolite existence, on the elevator to my office this morning two women were discussing their success in kicking the coffee habit.  Excellent ladies, good for you. Out in to this congratulatory air flows (pun totally intended) the following comment, “it was really wreaking (or was it reeking) havoc on my digestive tract, and once that goes you just don't know how it is going to come out....."  uh, Eeeeewwwwww....

Seriously ladies, save it for the water cooler.... sheesh...  ;-)

American Fascists?

Currently listening to a fascinating interview with Chris Hedges, while I am not in agreement with all of his statements this is a bright, well spoken and thoughtful man, the implications of his arguments are well worth consideration...take a listen...

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

|  Chris Hedges on “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America”
|  http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/19/1545218
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+


Chris Hedges's new book examines how Christian dominionists are seeking absolute power and a Christian state. According to Hedges, the movement bears a strong resemblance to the young fascist movements in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and '30s. Hedges is the former New York Times Middle East bureau chief and author of "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning." [includes rush transcript]
This story continues at:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/19/1545218

Interesting read....

Working on some thoughts, and since they are in process I thought I would offer someone elses blah blah blah for a change, I know, you can thank me later, dear readers... ;-)

Half-assed ascetic

by Nicholas Klassen

As much as I’d like to consider myself an ascetic, I probably get drunk too often to qualify. And even without that specific vice, it’s hard to imagine ever being able to match the big leaguers like Saint Francis, Gandhi, and those fellows who permanently hold their arms above their heads to the point of disfigurement out of some sort of Hindu devotion.

The exploits of that crowd tend to intimidate me. But I love the stories. Like in Suketu Mehta’s book Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, where he describes the members of a wealthy Jain family of diamond merchants who take diksha – renouncing all their worldly possessions to become wandering, barefoot mendicant monks. Their grand send-off consists of a parade through the streets in elephant-drawn carts so they can lob handfuls of money and gold to the cheering crowds. As if that weren’t enough, they then renounce each other; the husband departs in one direction with his sons, the wife in another with her daughter. Their subsequent days are spent begging for food with nothing to their names but an alms bowl and two unstitched pieces of cloth to wear. Pious Jains praise the selfless act. Cynics speculate derisively that the local mafia must have been after them or that there must be a trust fund in place should the family have second thoughts. Mehta catches up with the man months later to update the story. His bare feet are “cracked, calloused, split, and blackened” from his trek, but his heart, he insists, is at peace.

So what does this mean for me? Should I follow suit? Cash in my savings so that I can hand out crisp $100 bills on the streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and start walking to Prince George?

Probably not. I can’t even match my favorite ascetic, Uncle Ernst, who lives year-round in a lakeside, uninsulated cabin that has neither electricity nor plumbing. He maintains a rigorous meditation regimen and once holed himself up in a Thai Buddhist monastery for a month, meditating all day and subsisting on rice and water. I wouldn’t have lasted more than a few hours [[before needing a diversion, a beer or something]].

But I do strive for a degree of self-denial based on my religious convictions, though an objective observer might question my adherence to austere ideals. For starters, I’m not interested in banishing the great pleasures of good food, drink, and general merriment. A world without frothy pints of pale ale would not be for me. So that’s why I’ve decided that it doesn’t have to be an “all or nothing” venture. Take my ’89 K-Car station wagon. Automobile ownership may automatically exclude me from being an ascetic, but what about the fact that it’s a $400 beater that I went halfers on with my brother – the two of us have our own car co-op. Or that it sits parked most of the time because I only bought it so I could visit my folks – who were largely responsible for any ascetic inclinations I have – and go camping – surely an exercise in asceticism, MEC gear notwithstanding.

I figure I’m downright Gandhian by North American consumption standards. Our society is so unaccustomed to – and in fact, scared of – Spartan living, that the Unabomber’s defense attorneys cited the stark 10’ by 12’ shack he lived in as proof of his insanity. That’s part of the appeal for me; if mainstream society looks down on simplicity, then it must be good. But more than that, I seek simplicity because I have stood with refugees queuing for their meagre food ration and I cannot gorge myself with the knowledge that they are always hungry. I seek it because the Earth cannot sustain our appetite for resources. I seek it because I have long since tuned out the foot soldiers of turbo-capitalism constantly imploring me to buy. I seek it also in deference to my religious heritage – though I am careful not to romanticize the asceticism of my Anabaptist forebears that grew out of persecution, displacement and poverty.

And despite all these stated motivations, my affinity for simplicity is ultimately rooted in some intangible spiritual considerations; considerations that are a shrouded mystery, and, as far as I’m concerned, can remain so.

I also recognize that I do self-denial on my own terms. If I didn’t enjoy biking, it would likely not be my primary means of transportation. If I didn’t like toasted peanut butter and cheese sandwiches, that would likely not suffice for dinner. If I didn’t hate to shop for clothes so much, I would probably wear new duds more often.

Still, I do genuinely believe that my inroads toward asceticism – fully recognizing that others have made far greater advances than I – count for something. And I like to think I’m taking cues from the Buddha, who left the opulence of his father’s palace to embark on an ascetic search for enlightenment. But after six years of austerity and severe fasting that almost sent him to an early grave, he realized the ascetic path just increased suffering rather than bringing enlightenment. Go figure. Turns out the path to take is a ‘middle way.’ Mind you, after this realization he then proceeded to sit under a tree for seven weeks until he achieved enlightenment himself, and then slogged through the India countryside for the next 45 years to share this epiphany. Pretty harsh middle road.

I don’t aspire to be Buddha, or Saint Francis, or the Jain diamond merchant-turned barefoot monk. I simply try to tune in to the curiously satisfying mystery of austerity. I may not get it all right and maybe I should beat myself up a little more over whether my life is austere enough. But I don’t want self-denial to become self-flagellation. So I fumble along and cherish the thought – presumptuous as it may be – that even my half-assed version of asceticism has me pointed in the right direction.

Nicholas Klassen is a former senior editor with Adbusters magazine, and now a senior partner at Biro Creative

The Things We Carry

As often happens when I find myself on an overcrowded Max ride into the city, I seek out some mental breathing room. As I considered the ridiculous weight of my bag on my back I began to think about the things we carry. While I pondered that idea, a short story came to mind that I had read years ago. The story followed a group of soldiers into the jungles of Vietnam, while one by one, they opened their bags.

Each precious piece of their history was carefully unwrapped and laid bare, with hungry study of each fold of the paper, a deep inhale of the perfumed envelope, or lingering exploration of the silken softness of a pair of stockings. Each element tasted, smelled, and fondled like a talisman. Each one holding fast to a fragment of what was their past life. That last remnant of another world would be the lifeline to the unraveling thread of memory.

How like them I am. Lingering over my past, with smell and touch, wrapping its decaying shreds about me like a protective covering. Hoping that clinging to that which has come before will give me some comfort, some spark of illumination for the mist covered road ahead of me. I can look at my past logically and say, that is not where I want to be again, and yet, it still whispers to me. Like a burial shroud it can wrap my mind in fear and death.

Gently and carefully the Great Comforter, the Compassionate One, is removing this second skin we beg Him not to take from us. He washes us with tenderness as He knows our wounds have wept into its folds and bonded with this Fear in an unholy union. Each of us carries the markings of life on our bodies, our minds, our hearts, our souls. These whisperings are as soft and silky as a pair of stockings and yet cling to the weeping wound, covering the festering flesh. Christ kneels before us, carrying his simple bowl of water. We tremble with a mix of longing to be free of the rotten flesh and a dread of what is to come. With a steady gaze in our eyes he moves closer to us, dipping his cloth to begin the circular motions of cleansing.

                                                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist,  and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.

  When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied,

“You don’t understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.”

“No,” Peter protested, “you will never ever wash my feet!”

Jesus replied,

“Unless I wash you, you won’t belong to me.”

Simon Peter exclaimed, “Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!”