Chapter 8<\/p>\n
Good Monday Morning to this week 9 of 2020<\/p>\n
Thinking and speaking about compassion and mercy I came across this passage from Walter Brueggemann speaking on generosity. I’ll leave you with this, as this week emerges out of the shadows:<\/p>\n
Walter Brueggemann, 11.03.1933 <\/b>\u00a0an American Protestant Old Testament scholar and theologian. \u00a0He is known in modern progressive Christianity and argues that the Church must provide a counter-narrative to the dominant culture or forces of our time.<\/p>\n
On Generosity<\/strong><\/p>\n On our own, we conclude: we are going to run short we should seize the day and in the midst of our perceived deficit and we watch while we watch It dawns on us \u2013 late rather than soon- By your giving, break our cycles of imagined scarcity Sink your generosity deep into our lives Finish your creation, in wonder, love and praise. Amen.\u201d
\nthere is not enough to go around<\/p>\n
\nof money
\nof love
\nof grades
\nof publications
\nof members
\nof years
\nof life<\/p>\n
\nseize our goods
\nseize our neighbor’s goods
\nbecause there is not enough to go around<\/p>\n
\nyou come
\nyou come giving bread in the wilderness
\nyou come giving children at the 11th hour
\nyou come giving homes to exiles
\nyou come giving futures to the shut down
\nyou come giving easter joy to the dead
\nyou come \u2013 fleshed in Jesus.<\/p>\n
\nthe blind receive their sight
\nthe lame walk
\nthe lepers are cleansed
\nthe deaf hear
\nthe dead are raised
\nthe poor dance and sing<\/p>\n
\nand we take food we did not grow and
\nlife we did not invent and
\nfuture that is gift and gift and gift and
\nfamilies and neighbours who sustain us
\nwhen we did not deserve it.<\/p>\n
\nthat you \u201cgive food in due season
\nyou open your hand
\nand satisfy the desire of every living thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\noverride our presumed deficits
\nquiet our anxieties of lack
\ntransform our perceptual field to see
\nthe abundance\u2026\u2026\u2026mercy upon mercy
\nblessing upon blessing.<\/p>\n
\nthat your muchness may expose our false lack
\nthat endlessly receiving we may endlessly give
\nso that the world may be made “Easter” new,
\nwithout greedy lack, but only wonder,
\nwithout coercive need but only love,
\nwithout destructive greed but only praise
\nwithout aggression and invasiveness\u2026.
\nall things “Easter” new\u2026..
\nall around us, toward us and
\nby us, all things Easter new.<\/p>\n
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