Oboedire
"Nonviolence: A Way Through" by J. Steven Harper for Monday, 28 November 2016Athletes use visualization before they perform. A gymnist sees herself executing her routine. A golfer sees his put rolling into the hole. Basketball players mentally trace the trajectory of their free throw into the basket.
This is not magic. It is envisioning the accomplishment of a task they have practiced over and over. And now, they prepare to do it one more time.
This is how nonviolent participants operated in the civil rights era. In Nashville, for example, Jim Lawson cast the vision and taught the principles of nonviolence for a year before the group took its first action. They had seen the way through before they ever sought for it.
Some years later Martin Luther King Jr. spoke out the stanzas of "the dream," describing what it would look like when the Beloved Community was a reality. He painted a picture with words which then had to be lived out over and over in very specific ways.
And interestingly, those engaged in nonviolence had no guarantees that they would succeed in their lifetime. The trajectory of "the dream" unfolded without being on a precise timeline. In fact, they knew that it generally takes generations to enter the promised land. It did so with the emancipation of slaves, the ability of women to vote, the freedom of India and South Africa from colonialism and apartheid, etc.
Nonviolence is action based on a vision of making it through--if not today, then some day, because the quest has the backing of the Universe behind it. Patience is not resignation, it is confidence that is willing to endure.
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J. Steven Harper
Monday, November 28, 2016
Categories: Nonviolence
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Oboedire "Advent #1: No More Arrogance" by J. Steven Harper for Wednesday, 23 November 2016
The Book of Isaiah is the focal Old Testament text for Advent this year, both with respect to the Sunday Lectionary (Revised Common Lectionary) and the Daily Lectionary (Book of Common Prayer). I will write each Wednesday about the upcoming Sunday lesson. Each reading from the prophet looks to a time when an undesirable thing will be no more.
The first Sunday in Advent (Isaiah 2:1-5) anticipates a time when there will be no more arrogance.
Jerusalem (not only a city, but also a symbol) will fall, Isaiah says. It will fall because of arrogance-- because of reliance upon silver and gold, horses and chariots. Isaiah summarizes the downfall in these words: "they worship their handiwork, what their own fingers have made" (2:8, CEB).
Advent begins this year with an undoing--the fall which must come when we trust in the "principalities and powers" and tout our self-made greatness. Advent undermines personal, collective, national, and international egotism. Advent subverts our civic and ecclesial systems whenever and however the thirst for power and partisanship attend them. The babe of Bethlehem overturns any and all Herods.
Sadly, it took the fall of Jerusalem and an extended exile to dethrone Israel's embedded pride. Egotism is always the last thing to go. The prayer of the Pharisee, "I thank you I am not like other people" (Luke 18:11) is the apex of pride. Our "sacred cows" (the fattest/most-bloated one being the false self) must be slaughtered in order for God to be seen and served. The road to hope passes through the desert of the judgment of arrogance. "What goes up must come down."
Advent lands hard in the land. In Advent, knees bow. Mangers replace thrones. Where God is, there is no more arrogance.
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J. Steven Harper
Oboedire
"Advent #1: No More Arrogance" by J. Steven Harper for Wednesday, 23 November 2016The Book of Isaiah is the focal Old Testament text for Advent this year, both with respect to the Sunday Lectionary (Revised Common Lectionary) and the Daily Lectionary (Book of Common Prayer). I will write each Wednesday about the upcoming Sunday lesson. Each reading from the prophet looks to a time when an undesirable thing will be no more.
The first Sunday in Advent (Isaiah 2:1-5) anticipates a time when there will be no more arrogance.
Jerusalem (not only a city, but also a symbol) will fall, Isaiah says. It will fall because of arrogance-- because of reliance upon silver and gold, horses and chariots. Isaiah summarizes the downfall in these words: "they worship their handiwork, what their own fingers have made" (2:8, CEB).
Advent begins this year with an undoing--the fall which must come when we trust in the "principalities and powers" and tout our self-made greatness. Advent undermines personal, collective, national, and international egotism. Advent subverts our civic and ecclesial systems whenever and however the thirst for power and partisanship attend them. The babe of Bethlehem overturns any and all Herods.
Sadly, it took the fall of Jerusalem and an extended exile to dethrone Israel's embedded pride. Egotism is always the last thing to go. The prayer of the Pharisee, "I thank you I am not like other people" (Luke 18:11) is the apex of pride. Our "sacred cows" (the fattest/most-bloated one being the false self) must be slaughtered in order for God to be seen and served. The road to hope passes through the desert of the judgment of arrogance. "What goes up must come down."
Advent lands hard in the land. In Advent, knees bow. Mangers replace thrones. Where God is, there is no more arrogance.
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J. Steven Harper
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Categories: Advent 2016
URL: http://wp.me/p101na-1H1
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