Happy Weekend! I finished an amazing book this week. The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness by Father Greg Boyle. Father Greg is one of my heroes. I got to hear him speak live at the end of August at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Father G lives out his faith daily and truly invites me to be more like Jesus. Father Greg founded Homeboy Industries over thirty years ago and it is now the largest gang rehabilitation program in the world. Not only do gang members learn to love themselves, they learn to love and work along side their rivals, their enemies. Homeboy industries is now a global community of healing with partner organizations around the world. And Homeboy Industries provides job opportunities that run the gamut from catering to tattoo removal, electronic recycling to a wonderful bakery. Now you can go on line and order products to give or enjoy from their bakery or if you are in LAX you can go to get a snack or a meal from Homeboy Cafe in terminal 3. Not to mention their catering business. All of this is done in a community of kindness and compassion where everyone belongs.
I don’t know about you, but in our current world, where people are so divided and filled with bitterness and hatred, I need the words of Father Greg!
Here are just a few his words to ponder. Pick one that resonates for you today.
“Choose to live in the generous light of God’s outsized love! “
“It will always be less exhausting to love than to find fault”
“God knows your true royal nature, yet one doesn’t become NOBLE we locate our nobility. The hard part is embracing our inner nobility, beauty and goodness. “
“Define one’s self by donation rather than deficit”
“If you talk about health instead of hate, there is no severed belonging. If you say , “Terrible, instead of “ Evil, “ there is no severed belonging. Not “ Erase the Hate, “but increase the Health.”
“I think we settle for just forgiveness when we’re being offered very. I think mercy’s more spacious. Let’s embrace mercy. In this way, s my friend Jack Kornfield say, we “se the compass of our heart. “
“We need to welcome our woundedness so we don’t despise the wounded.”
Like Jesus, Father Greg flips the script of what is expected and invites us to see those on the margins as our teachers and as honored ones. In our gospel lesson for this Sunday, Jesus invites us to consider which road we want to travel. The way of power, or the way of the least of these. The way of dominance and control, or the way of suffering. Are we going to keep arguing along the way with our brothers and sisters, or are we going to embrace the wonder of a little child?
Mark 9: 30-37 NIV
30 They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
36 He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them,
37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
Mark 9: 30-37 FIRST NATIONS
30From there, Creator Sets Free (Jesus) took his followers on through Circle of Nations (Galilee) but stayed away from the crowds 31so he could further instruct the ones who walked the road with him. “The True Human Being will soon be taken and handed over to men who will kill him, but on the third day he will come back to life from the dead.”
32But his followers did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask.
33They returned again to Village of Comfort (Capernaum) and settled down into the house there.
“What were you talking about as we walked the road just now?” he asked them.34None of them would answer him, because they had been arguing about who among themselves was the greatest. 35So Creator Sets Free (Jesus) sat down and gathered his twelve followers around him.“The one who would be first must be the one who will serve all the others—and become last,” he told them.
36He then stood a small child in front of them.
“When you represent me and welcome a child like this one, you welcome me.”
37He then took the child into his arms and said, “When you welcome me, you do not welcome me alone, but also the one who sent me.”
What do you tend to argue about along the way? What stuff tends to bug you that distracts you from the real plot of living like Jesus?
What do you argue about with friends, family, strangers or even with in yourself? Does it ever get you what you really want/desire?
LISTEN to Richard Rohr’s homily on this gospel (first bit is rough sound wise, homily is more clear) this is from 2015
Richard Rohr says this gospel passage reveals
a comparison of the two roads we can travel,
the Road that seeks power and upper ward
mobility and the road that is about the weak, powerless And suffering.
What is it in us that seeks power over Being with those who are on the margins?
Why does the Church choose power over service to all ? What would it take to change this ? How do we choose and help others choose to be servants rather than to seek power ?
Children were not valued or considered to be equal to adults during the time of Jesus. Especially girl children.
When you think of the child in the midst of the disciples, do you picture a girl or a boy? Does this change anything for you?
Looking back at this gospel and in relation to Father Greg’s book, I know that I didn’t grow up with a tender Jesus or a tender God, or a very tender faith. God was always mad, or judgng my behavior and if this was true, then I was never going to be good enough for God. One is never Good enough especially if one is a performer rather you just feel bad a lot!
I am ready to embrace a tender God, a tender Jesus who sees us just as we are and loves us before we do anything. Before we are repentant or healed! Before we do any more work for the Kingdom. We are greatly loved and seen as Beloved.
Let’s become these children of King Jesus…living out love and hope and not being judgemental, but being curious and loving and totally accepting of one another.
“When you welcome me, you do not welcome me alone, but also the one who sent me.” Today, let’s welcome ourselves as this child!
PRACTICE: Imagine that you are the little child that Jesus holds and points to as the example in this story. How do you feel? What do you notice? What does it take for you to sit in the lap of Jesus and be held in his love? Be still. Sit in the lap of Jesus today.
HOMEWORK:
Consider children…childlike wonder, joy, acceptance, etc. How can you practice more of this joy childlikeness this week? Swing, pick flowers, shoot hoops, dance with abandon?
Some of Father Greg Boyle’s talks…just know he uses profanity in case this is triggering for you.
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
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