September 20, 2022
Thought for Today
"It is not a fragrant world."
Raymond Chandler
Quoted Colin Watson,
Radio Times April 21, 1987
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
Monday, September 19, 2022
BODY AND BLOOD
The title of my thoughts for today is, “Body and Blood.”
This will be a poem, poetic, the me that’s me – some of the
time.
Yesterday I sat back and said, “I have a conference to give
tomorrow.”
Next. I asked, “What is there to talk about – or wonder
about?
“What is needed?
What would be helpful? Where are the priests who will be here tomorrow? What’s on their mind? How’s their health and their hearts?”
What do they hunger for?
What do they thirst for?
Hello!
Answers: I don’t know.
Should I talk about aging …. I’m almost 83 …. Should I talk
about the country …. The world …. The church …. The still going on aftermath of
the Corona Virus…. The Queen’s funeral …. Who, what, when, where, why, how?
For some reason, the first word that hit me was bread.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Next, I said to myself: “Bread and Wine – the body and
blood of life – the body and blood of Christ.”
Then I began thinking: Life 101 – the liquid and the solid,
the flow and the firm, the ocean and the shore, the river and the river bank,
the bottle and the liquid inside.
Life – the known and the unknown – the what has been and what will be next…?
Life – birth and death – birth day and death day – the
numbers on our tombstone and death card – as well as the flow of birthday cards
and cakes and presents – down and up – through the years.
Life: what’s the date on the package? Is there and expiration
date?
Those wrinkles on my skin – especially on my arm – just before my inner elbow - sometimes looks like script
or numbers.
Life has the solid and the soft – the solid and the sag.
Life: the solid buildings we sit and sleep in, the ground
we stand on – the roads – the highways, and streets we move - and travel on like the flow of blood
through our system. Sometimes we’re the blood and sometimes we’re like the
vessels that hold it. Sometimes we’re in cars and traveling on rubber tires;
sometimes we’re in shoes or bare feet.
Blood – liquid – flowing ….
Body – solid – the steady unnoticed.
Life: standing still in place – and movement from here to
there.
Life: 101.
I began wondering about when did Jesus come up with the
idea of giving his body and blood to us.
Great poem – not a bad idea – and it fits most of the time - in our life.
Was he sitting at table or the place where he was eating –
looking at bread – watching and seeing someone break bread and pass it around
the table.
Some smiled and said, “Thanks!”
If anyone had some Greek in them – they might have heard
the word “thanks” sounding like “Eucharist”
when someone was thanking someone. I don’t know the sound and derivations of
Aramaic word for “thanks”.
Thank you – delicious bread. Thank God for bakers and bread
makers.
Good bread - solid
leavened bread – the sending and shifting of the wonderful scent of bread
around the room – people eating together – people being and becoming a body
together – family, friends, marriages, communion, holy communion with each
other.
Life.
Life: moments at a table.
Life: sometimes it feels like a banquet.
Life: filled with great gifts.
Not all the guests, the invited, show up.
They have other things on their plate….
Disciples – seeing the empty seats – might have gotten the
idea to head for the highways and byways, the back roads and the hedge row and
invite all in – the banquet needs to be filled.
Life: 101
Life: roaming on our roads – with food – bread and wine –
sheep and salad - tomatoes and beans in our bellies – the miles of our life.
Life – alone and with others.
When did Jesus come up with the message and meaning of bread and wine? How old was he when he figured that one out?
Did Jesus see and hear people drinking and laughing and
enjoying wine together – toasting and clinking cups and chalices together?
Did he inwardly say: “Wonderful. This is it. Life. This is what it’s all about?”
Did he stop into bakeries – or simply watch Mary – and
Martha and Mary make bread?
Did Jesus do a lot of thinking and learning and listening to
people while he walked around Nazareth and Capernaum.
Where did he get his sermons from? Where do the preachers of today get theirs?
Did he ever meet the man born blind again – or that deaf guy
he stuck his finger into his ear and healed – or the woman at the well?
How about Samaritans?
Did Jesus mean a few on the road to Jericho.
Did he stop to see grapes growing – being picked – being
crushed – becoming wine.
Did he think: this is life – people grinding out a living –
drop by drop – wow does wine look like blood at times – especially when people
get cut.
Was the world he walked in – the marketplaces, the
carpenter shops, the synagogues, the homes he visited – classrooms for him?
Did he see shepherds with sheep on their shoulders – and a
smile on both their faces – the lost and the found?
Did he see fields of sheep and goats and did he wonder: how
do they separate them?
Did he stop to check our soil and our fields, wheat and weeds, good trees and bad,
fig trees that were producing and those who were doing nothing?
Did he think about Mary and Joseph, Martha and Mary and
Lazarus after he left them?
Why in the world did he choose bread and wine? Was it to
tell people about the meaning of life – sacrifice – giving and receiving – that
everyone is called to hold out their bodies to everyone else as they say: “This
is my body. This is my blood. I’m giving me to thee. Take. Receive. Eat.”
Why in the world did he choose bread and wine? Was it because food goes inside of me. The
intimacy of food – sometimes. Sometimes minds are elsewhere during meals –
where people are sitting – or when betrayal is taking place – or how many
pieces of silver is so and so worth?
Did Jesus see his possible death on a cross – if and when
he ever really told others what life is really about – the dying for others –
the giving of our lives for others – the laying down and laying out of our time
– no matter how many hours we’re in the vineyard.
Did Jesus see how tough forgiveness is – sometimes when brothers won’t welcome brothers – back
after they messed up – but parents will – and this makes one worse than the
others?
They won’t even forgive once. Heck. Hell, Heaven, the
difficulty of forgiving 7 times 7 times – 70 times if necessary.
The title of my poem is, “Body and Blood.”
Maybe it would have better, if I called it, “Bread and Wine.”
Either way: something to digest.
September 19, 2022
Reflection
2 KINDS OF PEOPLE
There are 2 kinds of people: those who see what's there and those who see what's missing.
I went to the library for a certain book. The book I wanted wasn't there.
That experience taught me to go to the library in order to be surprised - not to look for a certain book.
Surprise! There are a lot of books in the library.
There are a lot of books out on loan.
I don't go to the library for books that aren't there.
I discovered the same thing at art museums. Here and there I noticed blank spots - which had an index sized notice - "On Loan,"
That caused in me a slight feeling of emptiness - I was missing something - and it carried over to my viewing of other paintings - instead of simply enjoying what was there.
I then began to notice the same thing happening to various people in restaurants - as they looked at menus. They spotted things that were missing - delights that were dropped for some reason.
Next - because of my growing awareness of this human phenomenon - I would hear people say things like the following: "There are a lot of empty seats in church today - or at the baseball game - or the restaurant - or wherever."
Or, "Where's Charlie? I thought he'd be here."
Or, "Do you have and Dijon mustard?"
Or, "Do you have Sam Adam's beer here?"
Or, "Do you have any hand wipers?"
So are there 2 kinds of people: those who see what and who's there and those who see who and what is missing?
Am I one of those who tend to spot the missing?
Can I change?
Is all this an, "It all depends"?
Sunday, September 18, 2022
September 18, 2022
Reflection
LISTENING SKILLS # 3
We used to do a neat listening exercise in small groups.
You put 6 people together and give them the following instructions.
Starting with the person in the group who has the earliest birthday in the year, that person tells the person to their right - with the other 4 people listening - "I think the main reason why people have trouble listening is this: ______________."
Then they tell what they think that main reason is.
Next step: that person who has just heard that first person's response - has to tell that first person - with the whole group listening - what they heard - not word for word - but the substance of what they heard - and in their own words if they want.
If the first person is satisfied with the listener's response back to them, then good. If they are not, then that first person repeats what they said to the person on their right - and then that second person tries again. Sometimes they really mess it up,
I noticed that sometimes this takes a few times.
When the exercise is all over - comments are made. Sometimes - it seems - the speaker is not clear about what they are saying. Sometimes the listener is just not a good listener. Sometimes the listener gives back to the speaker their comments in a neater way.
The second speaker - after being given a moment to think - after the first person is satisfied - then gives his comments to the third person - what he or she thinks is the reason people have trouble listening.
The third person - always going to the right - listens and then gives back to the second person - what he or she heard.
And on and on around the circle.
Great exercise.
It takes time.
The time - afterwards - for group comments - as well as - comments in a larger group - if there are many groups of 6 - is also very valuable.
I learned that I think the number one reason why people get messed up in listening - is because the speaker is not that clear in speaking.
Saturday, September 17, 2022
September 17, 2022
Reflection
LISTENING SKILLS # 1
I would suspect - think - that awareness of what another says triggers my memories - the stories inside of me.
I would think being aware of that - is the first step in getting to the number one skill in listening.
Jack says, "When we were kids, we used to go to Coney Island." Then he adds, "I loved that - especially going to Nathan's - and getting a hot dog and an orange drink - before we headed back home by the subway."
Jill hears that.
However, the words, "Coney Island" triggers memories of the parachute and the Cyclone roller coaster and the Steeplechase Amusement Park and the beach and running down into the water.
She could hear and listen to Jack's words - but instead, she first hears and concentrates on the images that come flooding and flowing into her upper room - into her mind and her memory.
Now she's ready for Listening Skill # 1.
If Jill says to herself, "Okay, I have these memories - these my takes - on Coney Island as a kid - but let me go back to what Jack just said.
If Jill then says to Jack, "I have my memories. You just triggered a bunch for me, but tell me again what you loved about Coney Island as a kid."
If Jill does that, then she is using skill # 1.
She's actually listening.
Listening is that decision - to put myself aside - and really listen to another - to their stuff and their takes on life.
Everything another says triggers our stuff.
But listening is looking at and sorting out another's stuff.
Our memories are 1 million buttons.
Others and other things keep hitting those buttons.
Turning them off and listening to what other's buttons hit - is real listening.
Dementia is the loss of memory.
As we age we have more and more trouble with names - of persons, places and things.
So having our memories jarred, is a good thing. It shows we still have them and we make connections.
As a preacher - speaking to 800 people on a Sunday morning - wow I'm hitting lots of buttons.
I pause - saying to myself - I'm triggering a lot of stuff right now. I imagine the inner conversations going on in the minds and memories of those present - a tiny bit of which I triggered. They have stuff from yesterday and last week to sort out - and church time is as good as any time to chew on them.
As a preacher I have to laugh at myself at the times I thought everyone was listening.
I say the word "orange".
Imagine what that word could trigger: Halloween, Florida, a basketball, throwing an orange that broke a window, West Orange, New Jersey, a girl friend from 31 years ago who love orange laces in her sneakers.
So what am I saying here?
Skill # 1 in listening is the trying to be aware of what another is saying - yes it triggers my past - but if I want to really listen to another - I try to hear their past.
Dwelling on my stuff - my memories - diminishes my listening to another - and what they are saying and thinking.
But when I say, "Shut up my memories - and hear this other person's memories" watch what happens?
The other feels recognized and heard - and a moment of receiving Holy Communion.
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