My Little Butter Cup

My little buttercup has the sweetest smile

Dear little buttercup, wont you stay a while?

Come with me where moonbeams paint the sky,

And you and I might linger, in the sweet by and by

Oh

Dear little buttercup, with your eyes so blue

Ah little buttercup, you’re a dream come true!

You and will settle down in a cottage built for two

Oh

Dear little buttercup I love you

My little butter cup has the sweetest smile

Dear little buttercup, won’t you stay a while?

You and I will settle down in a cottage built for two.

Oh

Dear little buttercup

Sweet little buttercup

My little buttercup

I love you

Boondoks MLK Speech of 2006

..he did what every great leader does when he sees his people are in need. He told them the truth.

“Will you ignorant niggas please shut the hell up!

"Is this it? Is this what I got all those ass-whoopin's for? I had a dream once. It was a dream that all the little black boys and little black girls would drink from the river of prosperity, freed from the thirst of oppression. But low and behold, some four decades later, what have I found but a but a bunch of trifling, shiftless, good-for-nothing niggas. And I know some of you don't want to hear me say that word: it's the ugliest word in the English language. But that is what I see now: Niggas. And you don't want to be a nigga because niggas are living contradictions. Niggas are full of unfulfilled ambitions; Niggas wax and wane, niggas love to complain; Niggas love to hear themselves talk, but hate to explain. Niggas love being another man's judge and jury, niggas procrastinate till it's time to worry. Niggas love to be late, niggas hate to hurry....Black Entertainment Television is the worst thing I’ve every seen in my life!...Usher, Micheal Jackson is not a genre of music!...Now I wanna talk about Soul Trian...I've seen what's around the corner, I've seen what's over the horizon, and I promise you, you niggas have nothing to celebrate. And No I won’t get there with ya, I’m going to Canada. "

MLK: “Thank you Hewey.”

H: “Thank you, Dr. King.”

MLK: “Do what you can.”

Illustration Friday -- Your Paradise

Illustration Friday

Mighty Casey

Romans 5:1-5

John 16:12-15

My father had a habit of making my brother and I memorize poetry. Well, I say that he made us, but after a while we were happy to it, a kind of game between my brother and I—who could remember more of what poems. My dad was a huge Longfellow fan, and both us kids too a shine to it as well, really enjoying sometimes to afternoons in recitation of Paul Revere’s Ride, and the Song of Hiawatha, and the Village Smith. “Under the spreading chestnut tree the village smithy stands. The smith, a mighty man is he with large and sinewy hands; and the muscles on his brawny arms are as strong as iron bands…” That is to say, that we were total poetry nerds.

At this same time, my brother got to be interested in baseball and Dad brought home from school a copy of “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Thayer. Reading it and going to my brother’s T-Ball games really created in my mind a sense of the imagery and of the emotion that come together in the poem. If you’ve never read it, the poem recounts a game, with the home team Mudville down by two and nearly at the end of the innings. Second and third get a man each, and the fans are holding their breath as the mighty Casey steps up to the plate. Here is the savior! The favored Mudville boy to hit the ball out of the park. But he lets two pitches go by, in a vain attempt to drive up the suspense, and then as the third pitch comes we hear in the last stanza of the poem:
Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and little children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.

It was one of the first poems I read where it ended with such a decidedly sad and unhappy ending. After all, I knew what a defeated crowd looked like from the games we sat through on my brother’s behave (which isn’t commentary on his playing). The poem stuck with my though because the imagery bothered me, why write a poem with a sad ending?

I think now perhaps it was written to reflect the suffering that is going on in reality. After all, the author must have thought; there is a loser in every game. Now too, we have many sufferings that come to us. Not only in the world at large though that is surely enough. More soldiers killed in action, more people destroyed and displaced by war, children trying to get an education gunned down needlessly… In our local community too there is surely suffering, even in our churches and our families.
The face of the human world is well acquainted with suffering.
One of my students at Buffalo commented to me that the prayer list sometimes depressed him because there were so many people on it! Perhaps we don’t do as good a job as we should at keeping the list updated, but it is still a long one.
So, this is our world, and this is our experience from which we operate. And yet, in the lectionary reading for today we hear Paul is telling us that we should rejoice in our sufferings!
Paul might have been crazy. I actually have heard a lot of things about poor Paul, that he was a drug addict, that he was a homosexual, that he wrestled with unbridled lust… It can go on and on. More likely than any of those things is the fact that Paul was a man afflicted with suffering. There are places in the Letters that he talks about not being able to see, and the thorn in his side quite literally could have been a painful scoliosis. Paul knew what suffering was about.
And yet, in his letter to the Romans, he suggests that there is to be found in that suffering a kind of joy. Beyond that he outlines a cyclical journey that suffering can and must take to ultimately lead to hope and therefore joy. Suffering he says, leads to perseverance and perseverance to character and character to hope. I ask again, is Paul crazy?
Paul is obviously a man afflicted. In the Letters we know that the “thorn in his side” was prayed over for removal and relief and yet Paul found none. Rather than doctrine could this message from Paul simply be a way that a godly man has to deal with a persistent pain? How can we trust what Paul is saying? Do we just take it on faith and by proof of his miracles that these words he says now can be included in the Gospel truth? Let’s come back to that in minute.

In our reading from John we hear Christ speaking about the spirit. Last week at Buffalo we had a little celebration of sort in honor of Pentecost, and the birthday of the church of Jesus Christ. This week in the reading we actually go backwards in time to a point where Jesus is getting the apostles ready for that day when the Spirit comes. The First purpose of the Holy Spirit is to be the connection to God that we would have lacked after the death of Christ. It is granted to every believer today only by the salvation we receive through Jesus, but was present in the lives of the prophets before.
Jesus is telling the followers what to expect from the Holy Spirit. It was described as a mighty rushing wind with the appearance of tongues of flame. Probably something pretty mind numbing if you didn’t have at least a little warning of what was to come.
The Second purpose of the Holy Spirit apparently is to continue to reveal truth to us about the nature of God and the nature of his will for us here on earth. In the first line of the reading Jesus says that He actually has more to say to the apostles about the nature of things, but he knows that right now it is more than they can bear. An education in Christianity it seems is like all other forms of education. We must first go through primary school then secondary then collegiate, and so on. It’s the most basic form of our earthly wisdom to know that you have to “walk before you can crawl.” The same applies here. The story of the faith is building upon itself and even though Christ knows that there is more to come, he knows also that the followers just aren’t’ ready for it at that time.

So with this in mind look back to the teachings of Paul in Romans, and even to all the books of the Bible that comes after the Gospel of John. These are the parts of the Bible that have been led and directed by the Spirit. This is the Spirit of Truth in essence using the authors of the later books to reveal more of the Godly truth that was in store for us.
But there is more. We come now into a more full understanding of what the Spirit is, that it is a living essence that demands we too think and live and gain understanding under its guidance. In other words if Paul seems crazy then it is right for us to seek the counsel of the Holy Spirit on the matter. Or see if Paul can be trusted as the spirits representative. And of course Paul is trustworthy. The acts and the conversion of Paul are designed by God to show the believers that he, in fact, does have the hand of the spirit working in his life.
So then we are forced to look at this cycle of joyful pain that Paul describes.
Recently I was visiting my uncle who has been battling a disease for several years. It’s been a slow degeneration of his muscles and for a man who held two black belts in the martial arts it has been a painful process, physically and emotionally. I read this verse to him to see what he thought of it, and gave him my perspective which stems from a more accurate translation of the Greek in the phrase. When we read that word suffering the Greek is actually dokimen. Which could lend itself more to troubling experiences. What I said to my uncle was that they could be counted as Experiences of Trail. He seemed to like that, and find some peace in it.
Our experiences in life will try us, and if we can find the way to persevere, or to come through these trials with a faith in God’s power in tact then we build up a stronger character, we invigor our resolve, we look to a heavenly reward and at the end of that is a renewed Hope. And what is hope, but that wonderful expectation of what God can do. It is an anticipation, a looking and longing for, a desiring and a trusting on the Will of our God.

And know that God does not try us willfully to see if we will survive. But this broken and sinful world can hardly do anything but try us at every turn. That’s the way the game works. Only heaven and Eden were created to be a place of perfection.
Look again now to the end of the reading in Romans. Paul has outlined how to deal with experiences that test us, that seek to weaken our belief and strength in Christ, and now he makes us a promise. Hope will not disappoint you. Look to the Lord with anticipation and trust and you will not be disappointed. God pours out his Love for us. And this is the man who has been met with silence at his constant prayers for healing and the removal of a painful thorn in his life.

So, as we go out and deal with the inevitable trials of experience that the world has in store for us, we can choose to follow Paul’s example. It will never be as simple as making lemonade from lemons, the trials we face will truly test us and push us to the limit. Like the fans in Mudville our grief will be palpable at some points. Yet, with the idea of Hope in our minds we can persevere with the strength of God and the community of faith at our side. We can allow the experience to build us up instead of tearing us down and with a renewed sense of Hope and the promise of God we can be ready to help hold up others who will surely need us.

Even the author of Casey I think had some sense of hope. After all, he says in the first line of the poem that they are playing the game with one inning left to play, which can only mean that even though Casey strike out much to the disappointment of his fans, there is still one more at bat left for the team.

Then when we are faced with the trials of life, remember Paul in the batter’s box, next in the batting lineup, looking forward with hope to that last inning to conquer the visiting team.

BFF

Friendship is an odd thing. There are levels of course and there are degrees and all of that. True friends often are found at the end of grueling tests that come in one form or another. It's as if life is really against you having deep friendships and throws obstacles in your way. "Can you survive THIS?" Obstacles of time and distance sometimes make the difference. But then you have those friends who supersede all of that. People that you form a deep bond with and then, as trials of distance or time come and go, the bonds are still there. It takes only a few tentative moments to re-establish them.

As if when we meet these distant cousins again our spirits wait and say, "Is it still the same? do they care for me? can i still trust them?" All of which are essentially answered in the first few moments together.

Friends are perhaps the most dear relationships we can have on earth. Aside from spouses, which is however, and entirely different relationship. Because, even those with spouses still need close friends, and even must have them I would say in order to continue in a healthy spousal relationship. But the friend, the pure and true, is something that can transcend the confusing morays of sexual tension, and tack closer to the heart of love. Agape? If the spousal relationship is the best expression of Eros, then friendship is--perhaps Philloi would be a better description. Agape, perhaps is for the deepest kinds of friends. In which one could treat the other with undeserved mis-care, and then, years later, want and receive a reconciliation.

There are lots of people out there saying that friends must be of like minds. In fact Amos states as much in 3:3, but is perhaps better fulfilled in Proverbs 27:17--stating that iron sharpens iron. Friends can be different, in fact very different, in fact are sometimes better friends the more different they are! We need to have people that challenge us in a loving way to expand our opinions, to believe new things to take interest in new things. Not to shake the foundations of our understanding with accusation, but to certainly tend to us and ask us to believe differently.

Philloi (Philia) is the key then. That love that must direct our actions the love that resounds within us the idea of caring for this person. Aristotle says in "Nicomedian Ethics" that only the lovable are loved. We tend to think on that the wrong way I think. We think of lovable as pretty or cute, or fuzzy and cuddly, but the scripture can put that into perspective. Proverbs 18:24 says that one who would have friends must show themselves freely, and be willing to stick with people in trouble. Being "lovable" is nothing more than making yourself able to be loved. By being a trustworthy person, by being able to stick it out for your friends, to care for them, and most importantly to be open with ourselves.

People, then, who have shallow friends....

I've spent the weekend with some very dear friends. Friend who accelerated my own Christian journey on the path. From them I learned a great deal about Christ, about His will in this world, and about the inspiring power of His blessings. I've had some friends show their true colors and turn out to be complete bastards, and I've discovered friends where I thought them least likely to appear. Proverbs 11:14 also talks to us about the fact that having counselors and supporters in our lives will ensure our success. How often, when we feel alone, or troubled, do we simply need the kindness of good friends to uplift and support us. And again, as a part of being emotionally available in order to be a friend, we must allow people to hold us and help us.

Jesus' closest friends were people of all types, some got it, some didn't. Some where there at his last moments, some hid in their fear. But all of these friends responded out of committed love for their friend Yeshuah. Not out of obligation, or need, or want, but out of friendship and love that they had for the boy from Nazareth.

I'm glad for my friends in all the places they are, they are a blessing in my life continually regardless of their actual presence. They are the strong council that lifts me up. They are the teachers that help me re-examine my life, my thoughts and my decisions. They can hold me accountable, and give me some slack when I need it. They are the hands of Christ in my life here on earth.