Sealed (poem)

Posted on March 26, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

What would you do
if I told you
that the same oil
used to mark you
at your baptism
is the same
used to anoint
priests, bishops, kings, emperors?

You, in being marked
as Christ’s own forever
have a share in his kingship,
a part in his priesthood.

You, yes, you.

It was not for nothing
that you were born.
You are anointed,
consecrated to God.

Royal. Holy.

This honor is not limited to those
in the royal family.
Look at David.
A poor shepherd boy,
the youngest in the family.
Look at Moses,
raised in a stranger’s house.
They were nobodies until God called.

God called you too,
marked you as God’s own at your baptism.
Sealed. Sanctified. Saved.

What would you do now,
knowing this?

Why are you giving away your power,
your calling, to others?
Why do you follow priests and pastors, bishops, popes?
Your one teacher is God,
and God only.

Jesus says that we will do more and greater than he did –
more and greater than
restoring sight to the blind,
making the deaf hear,
making the lame walk,
making the dead come alive.

Us.

Imagine the healing of the world
at our hands,
the power of God
coursing through us.

It is here, now.
Anyone who tells you otherwise,
who keeps this to themselves,
is misleading you.

What is the job of the church?

Posted on March 6, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

I find I miss the “church experience” but I can’t stand that so many churches seem to worship Jesus rather than follow him. They’ve turned him into an idol.

I’m not into a “church” that just gets together to hang out. A “church” that is more about socializing than social work isn’t a church. It is a club.

A church needs to do real work in the world – and I don’t mean “evangelizing”. I’m for “bringing Jesus to people” rather than “bringing people to Jesus” – we are to act like he did – healing, helping, loving.

A church needs to have a strong presence in social justice causes.

I don’t want to preach the Gospel. I want to live it out loud.

I want to serve people like Jesus served them.

Jesus healed people by forgiving them, by letting them know that they are loved beyond measure by the very God who created them. He healed them by uniting them – by removing differences and obstacles. Nobody was excluded or deemed “unworthy”.

When did the Good News become the guilt trip? That needs to stop today.

Don’t worship the door.

Posted on February 11, 2016 by betsybeadhead | 1 Comment

“Jesus once said ‘I am the door’ – and he was correct. A door is something to go through. The church, however, has remained at the threshold of the door, worshiping it, afraid to enter.” – former Episcopal priest Peter Calhoun in his book “Soul on Fire”

“We worshipped Jesus instead of following him on his same path. We made Jesus into a mere religion instead of a journey toward union with God and everything else. This shift made us into a religion of ‘belonging and believing’ instead of a religion of transformation.” – Richard Rohr

“A rich young man approached Jesus, and kneeling down before him, said ‘Good Teacher, what do I have to do to attain eternal life?’ Jesus asked him “Why do you call me good? There’s only One who is good, and that is God. If you want to have eternal life, then keep the Commandments. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not lie about anyone, honor your parents, and love your neighbor as yourself.” — Matthew 19:16-17, Mark 10:17-19, Luke 18:18-20 (from The Condensed Gospel rendition, in “The Rich Young Man”)

Jesus never wanted us to worship him. Jesus wants us to follow him to God. Only God is above us.

Remember all the times that Jesus walked away from the crowds who were trying to make him king? He didn’t want it. Even today, the Jews use the fact that he wasn’t an earthly king to prove that he was not the Messiah. They also say that it is idolatry to worship Jesus as God.

Jesus would agree.

Remember the commandment to “have no other Gods before Me”? That includes Jesus. He constantly pointed people back towards God. He didn’t want to be worshipped. He wanted people to follow him to God.

Christianity has made an idol out of Jesus, rather than seeing him as a teacher and a guide.

Poem- we are all sheep

Posted on February 11, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

One of the problems
with the modern way that church
is done
is that there is a hierarchy
of minister
and congregation,
of leader
and led,
of shepherd
and sheep.

Jesus wants us to feed his sheep,
not be them.

Jesus wants us all
to be equal,
to be strong,
to do the will of God
together.

There is no lesser-than.
We are all servants.

Our only leader is God,
not a minister,
not a bishop,
not a pope.

We must remember
to never let any human
get between us
and God,
even if that person
says
they follow God too.

If s/he really did follow God,
s/he’d remember
that Jesus said
we were all to be equal,
that we weren’t to be
above each other,
that we weren’t to have
titles of authority.

For anyone
to lead in Jesus’ name
is to prove
that they do not know
the message of Jesus
at all.

Jesus came to give us back our power.
Jesus came to teach us
that we are all
equally worthy
before God.
Do not follow anyone
who says
otherwise
through their words
or actions.

Do not give away your power.

Go, feed people.
Clothe them.
Heal them.
Visit them when they are in prison.

But don’t join them in the prison
of following a person,
of feeling second-class,
second-rate.

Your freedom was bought at a high price.
Don’t give it away.

What should Church be?

Posted on January 18, 2016 by betsybeadhead | 2 Comments

For many people, church looks like this at the most basic level

Yet remember that the angel said to the women who went to find Jesus at the tomb –

The angel said to the women “Do not be afraid! I know that you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. Why are you looking among the dead for the living? He is not here – he has been resurrected!” (Condensed Gospel rendition)

The church as we know it is dying.

The Christian faith tradition must change what it looks at in order to survive. It must change from being a religion of rites and creeds.

It must stop being an institution focused on
the historical Jesus
and the future Jesus
and learn to BE Jesus right now,
to the people in the world.

It must stop the idea of “Bringing people to Jesus”
(preaching the Gospel)
and start living the idea of “Bringing Jesus to people”
(living the Gospel)

Many people have left church because they know that something is missing.

There are many large abandoned church buildings.

And at the center of them is the altar, a shrine to death, to sacrifice.

For many, church is a place of divine insight, of sudden epiphanies

But then when they leave, the everyday world is dull and boring.

For many, church is a sanctuary against the storms of life

But does this teach them to live in the world?

Perhaps Church can be seen as a boat, to rise above the dangerous waters, or to safely travel to visit or help others.

Each person gets their own boat. They learn how to row it themselves. They develop the strength to help themselves and to help others.

It is a place where we can each learn how to learn and grow safely. Others watch our progress and make sure we are not going to get hurt. They cheer us on.

It needs to be a place where we can learn that right here is where God meets us – that God loved us enough to come down to Earth to be with us and live among us. That God loves us enough to still be with us right now, right where we are. That God wants to work through us, and with us.

Church should be small, human sized.

It should be intimate and personal.

Why have we so long built churches that are immense, that dwarf us, that make us feel insignificant?

They feel lonely, cold, isolating.

They are out of proportion with us.

When God came to earth, God came as our size. The Temple is not a place, but within us.

Often churches are built far away, high up, hard to get to.

This is especially true of monasteries. They are places to retreat from the world.

Jesus tells his disciples that they are to be in the world – not apart from it. Jesus trained them to feed, to clothe, to help – everyone, not just those who are “in”.

For so many, God is seen as immense, and difficult to get to.

There are narrow paths, and gates, and boundaries in the way

We need to break apart the idea of church. We need to see through it, to reinvent it.

Even modern churches, while looking different, still have the perspective wrong. The focus is on the preacher – on one person. The people sit passively, staring in the same direction. If they speak at all, it is from a script (a hymnal, a prayer-book) Only one person is allowed to speak something different, to direct the service.

This sets up a hierarchy – of one person higher than the rest. This is directly opposed to what Jesus wanted, who wanted us to have only God above us. To have a person above us is to make them into an idol.

I’ve met many people who’ve left church for all of these reasons. They felt lost, alienated, alone. They too read the Gospel and met the real living Jesus and made a home for him in their hearts. They know that Jesus says that the Church is us – people, doing the will of God here in the world.

Yet, God says that people were not made to be alone. We are meant to be in community. We are meant to live and work and be together. No one person has everything required. We must work together.

Church needs to be all of us working together to help others. It isn’t a building or a place. But even if we remove the idea of the church being a building, we still have to remember the ideas that have long been part of church, so even when we take the Church out of the building, we must still make sure the old ways don’t come along.

It must be open to all.
It must be human-sized.
It must not be led by a single person – all must participate.
It must be a place where all can grow.

Again- it sounds like I’m talking about a place – an institution. I’m not. Certainly, people need to gather together occasionally. People cannot truly connect online. But, the money raised from members cannot go to a building or a salary. It cannot be inward-based. This will cause self-collapse, and is the opposite of what Jesus wants. The Church cannot support the church. The Church – the Body of Christ, must give aid to the world. That is where tithes must go. Outward.

People can meet in small groups, in each others’ homes.
They can meet in school gyms (they are not being used on the weekend)
They can meet in community centers or hotels.

There are plenty of already-built places that have meeting areas that are either free or inexpensive.

But when they meet, it must be a place to organize to go out into the world, to bring Jesus to people, by feeding, clothing, healing, visiting.

Not by preaching the Gospel,
but by living it.

(All pictures are from Pinterest)

Poem – what Church really is

Posted on January 2, 2016 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

I dream of a world
where people understand
that you don’t
go
to church.
You are Church.

That service is what God wants,
not hymns,
not prayers from a book.

Where people see every window
as a church window
and see the whole world
through it.

Where church buildings
are more like
thrift stores,
the Red Cross,
food banks,
soup kitchens.

Where they aren’t a place
to escape the world
but to equip people
to serve it

– not by preaching the Gospel
but by being a living example of it.

Letter and envelope

Posted on May 15, 2015 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

There are those people who are simply the carriers of tradition but yet they don’t hold the heart of it. They are more interested in the rules and the rituals rather than the spirit.

They are the envelope,
but not the letter.
They are the vase,
but not the flower.
There the cup,
but not the wine.

These things need containers to hold them, certainly. How much of the awakening right now is because tradition has kept things going all along, held it in trust for us? It is as if our ancestors have saved up money for us all these thousands of years and now we are finally able to buy what they were saving for. Not only do we finally have enough saved up but finally what we need to buy is available. This is a time of ripening, of fruition, of opening.

The tradition bearers are confused when the younger generation has started to fill the tradition with heart and meaning. They think the tradition is more important – that it must be kept. They are afraid something will be lost in translation and that the unbroken (they think) chain of transmission will fall apart and the efforts of many generations will be in vain.

It is as if a family kept a house up for many years, cleaning it, repairing it, painting it exactly the same way it had been painted thousands of years ago. They have used the same materials that their ancestors used. But nobody lived there. It was a house, but not a home. Then a new generation comes in and says now is the time for people to live here, and the old generation balks. They are afraid the tenants will damage the house – not understanding the house was maintained for this very purpose.

The same thing is happening with faith traditions right now.

New Sabbath

Posted on May 11, 2015 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

“Hear, oh Israel, the Lord your God is one.” The Shema.

The goal is oneness of people, of union, reunion, communion, with God.

The hope is for Sabbath every day, the Sabbath without end. This is a sign that the Messiah has come.

Jesus acted like the Sabbath was every day. He worked on the Sabbath, yet took time to rest whenever he could -on a boat, on mountain tops, in lonely and deserted places.

Perhaps that is the answer. Once we start living as if the Messiah has come we will experience our own personal transformation. Once we live this way, we are freed from the old ways of living.

When we don’t, it is as if we are keeping ourselves in exile, wandering through our own personal deserts for far more than 40 years – for our entire lifetimes.

Sometimes birds have been in cages so long they won’t leave, even when the door is left open. Sometimes we are the same – stuck in old ways, so even when we are told we are free we won’t change.

Jesus frees us. Jesus says we are forgiven and loved. He’s unlocked that cage. Now you have to walk out.

So now, act as if every day is the Sabbath. This doesn’t mean do nothing. Your work is your way of serving God. You serve God through your work. But praise God, delight in God’s creation, and rest, knowing that you don’t have to do anything to get God’s favor, because you already have it.

Living church

Posted on January 23, 2015 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

Jesus uses the word “church” only twice in all of the Gospels, and both of them are in the Gospel of Matthew. (MT 16:18 and 18:17) This is significant because if Jesus came to build a church in the way we have been taught to think of it, he would have talked about it a lot more often and we would have had references to it in the other Gospels.

In the Gospel of Matthew, he renames his disciple Simon after he declares that Jesus is the Messiah.

– Jesus continued, saying “Your name is now Peter, because you are a rock, and upon you I will build my living church, and the gates of death will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you join together on earth will be joined together in heaven, and whatever you separate on earth will be separated in heaven.” – (MT 16:17-19, Condensed Gospel)

Most translations cite verse 18 like this – “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the forces of Hades will not overpower it.” (HCSB)

I have learned from my studies that the word that is translated as “forces” (or sometimes as “powers”) literally means “gates”, and that Jesus is not indicating Hell (as “Hades” is sometimes translated) with the word “Hades”. Hades isn’t a place, but refers to the “power of death” according to the notes in the Harper Collins Study Bible. This source also refers back to a note on MT 11:23, saying that Hades is the “Greek equivalent to Hebrew Sheol, realm of the departed dead.”

This is why I interpreted that scripture in the manner I did. We’ve read that line over and over and it doesn’t mean anything real to us until we dig further.

Peter, and all of Jesus’ disciples, including you and me, don’t have power over Hell. We have something far greater. We have power over death. Being a disciple of Jesus means that we embrace and affirm life. This isn’t about “coming back from the dead” or simply having eternal life after we die. It is about being fully alive now, and sharing that life with others.

What we are to unbind or loosen on Earth is the same as what the disciples were charged to do elsewhere in the Gospels – to forgive sin, exorcize demons, and to heal the sick. We are to free people from the death of not being fully alive.

Jesus came to build a living church, not one of stones and wood. He came to free us, right now, from the death that is not being fully alive. This isn’t about the future. It is about the present.

He came to let us know that all of our sins are forgiven. And then he wants us to go share that good news with others. We aren’t to make new converts so much as bring people back to life by forgiving them in the same way we are forgiven, and re-joining them to the community. We are to include everybody who has been kicked out. We are to seek out the lepers of our time – those people who have been excluded from society. We heal them and bring them back to life by welcoming them.

Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah

Posted on January 23, 2015 by betsybeadhead | Leave a comment

When Jesus and his disciples came to the area of Caesarea Philippi, a town north of the region of Galilee, he asked his disciples privately, “Who are people in the crowds saying I am?” They replied “Some say you are John the Baptist. Others think you are Elijah, and yet others think you are Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.”

Jesus faced them and said “But as for you, who do you say I am?” Simon answered him saying “You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God!”

MT 16:13-16, MK 8:27-29, LK 9:18-20

Jesus responded “Simon, son of Jonah, God has blessed you with this knowledge because you didn’t learn this from a person but directly from God!” Jesus continued, saying “Your name is now Peter, because you are a rock, and upon you I will build my living church, and the gates of death will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you join together on earth will be joined together in heaven, and whatever you separate on earth will be separated in heaven.”

MT 16:17-19

Then he gave them very strict orders not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

MT 16:20, MK 8:30, LK 9:21a