I took the odd path to preach about demons vs. mental illness/difference, A friend went off his meds recently and his wife (my best friend) has been so very stressed. Question is, who decides what’s normal? Could have gon many ways, yet it wound up with the healing power of Jesus, through prayer. And that healing may not be the way we expect.
So glad I « found » your website. Blessings and light, RevPam. (gone)
What wonderful musings - thank you for sharing those. The Merton quote reminds me of a song that Alana Levandoski wrote with narration by James Finley titled “4th and Walnut”. Have a listen...
Thanks Diana, I love the mention of the crowd. As I have got older I feel I have moved to the edges of the crowd at times but move away when my ego takes over.
When I read this I began wondering why we aren’t preaching on the crowds— they have so much to share with us— so much we could learn from their struggles. I so believe in the power of story—. Thanks Diana
Beautifully written. It is always interesting to step back and become aware of the vantage point one is relating to a story. Much like a movie, we sometimes see it more than once, and in doing so, it allows us to identify with a different character, even, say the villain. Oh perish the thought. Don't we love villains, or should I say, love to hate them or fear them? At least they are not us? But change the context, change the plot, and voila, we can be indeed, be the villain. I remember a time, when I was extremely poor, had a broken down car, which had gotten stuck in the snow, making it impossible for me to go anywhere. I began digging it out by myself, feeling quite resentful of my situation. To make matters worse, I lived across the street from a church. It happened to be a Sunday and people were waking to church. Not one of them offered to help me. Not one! As you can imagine, I became indignant, until I remembered the beatitudes. Now here is where it gets interesting. I became quite judgmental of these pious church goers as they passed me by, so much so, as to decree the whole lot of them hypocrites. Perhaps some were, not my business. But years later I had to reexamine my thoughts,I could have asked form help. I didn't. Wasn't it I who was arrogant? Didn't I allow fear to dictate my thoughts? And didn't I twist the narrative, oh so cleverly as to create my own superiority? Of course now I am so much older as to even see the humor in my own behavior. In the end it ois quite simple, In what way am I a sinner and in what way am I a saint? How freeing it is to accept our many sided personas.
Thank you for these words. I have been thinking a lot about the crowds this week, too, and wondering if most of the people listening to Jesus, and, indeed, most of the people around, weren’t ones suffering from those physical ailments, mental and emotional ailments, spiritual troubles… there were few medical remedies for things…. And so many physical problems were reasons to be outcast - so in my imaginings, most of the people there were very needy.
Thank you for this message about the crowd that Jesus is speaking about and to.
During the recent “atmospheric river” storms in my state, we all had a chance to experience being part of the crowd of the unfortunate but maybe didn’t yet realize it. I didn’t even lose power to my house and no trees fell on my car or roof.
I don’t feel sympathy or empathy for those who have not been so lucky. I know I am basically in the same situation as those others, just not quite yet today.
I am hopeful that we can break the habit of separating ourselves from the others in the crowd. We are blessed with more opportunities to do this, due to the changes in the earth’s climate.
Thank you! I was deeply moved by your interpretation and so I decided to read it aloud to my husband. He and I were still in bed so he was sort of trapped. Hehe! As I was getting near the end, all of a sudden I was overcome and started to weep. Your interpretation touched my soul.
Thank you for bringing in this contemplation on "the crowd." As a white, middle class, ex-clergy woman, I identify with "outcasts." I was in the first group of women to be ordained. One elder told me, after we sat down from serving communion, that I had nice legs. (I was fully robed). My primary connection with the Divine comes through that prodigal child of the Church, Dance. Talk about an eye-roller! I lost a church after dancing down the aisle on Pentecost, fully robed! My family history is riddled with addiction. My daughter and I made it through the opiod crisis, after she nearly died from Heroin and Meth. Struggling mightily with racism, I collaborated with Soyinka Rahim, a child of black nationalism, telling personal stories, moving, and singing in order to change the racism in our bodies. I felt the taboo against addressing racism l like a formidable wall of terror. I walked the line of being cast out in my own community when I renounced my ordination. All that being said, I remain white, privileged, comfortable. and an inheritor of resources from depression era parents. Am I in the crowd? Jesus's crowd includes people like me. Oddly, today his resplendent sacred heart calls me away from over-work and over-bearing it all. I am welcome to be just another human in the crowd, playing, grieving, limping and dancing along with others who are forever changed by love.
I have been pondering the collective interconnected field of being and find that here there are no separate broken poor people. We are all included in the crowd of the created continually being created without exception. Thinking of ourselves separated from this crowd is the very consciousness that keeps us separate.
Thank you Diana for the crowd meditation. It struck me that Jesus was the Instagram influencer of his time. He drew so many to him with his words. Blessed are you . Did they know that later his wounds , love and life
Would be the shining light drawing them day after day to come back ? Would I be willing and courageous enough to take a selfie with him then?
You define the crowd too narrowly. Yes, the poor are there but also the seekers, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and the meek. I am in that crowd as all of us are.
I took the odd path to preach about demons vs. mental illness/difference, A friend went off his meds recently and his wife (my best friend) has been so very stressed. Question is, who decides what’s normal? Could have gon many ways, yet it wound up with the healing power of Jesus, through prayer. And that healing may not be the way we expect.
So glad I « found » your website. Blessings and light, RevPam. (gone)
What wonderful musings - thank you for sharing those. The Merton quote reminds me of a song that Alana Levandoski wrote with narration by James Finley titled “4th and Walnut”. Have a listen...
https://open.spotify.com/track/1LX3xO7NWYt8QsB6pnofc7?si=c7jLkZaRSa6MmOcL7M91fg
You have blessed me with your insight into the context of this passage of scripture. Thank you.
Thanks Diana, I love the mention of the crowd. As I have got older I feel I have moved to the edges of the crowd at times but move away when my ego takes over.
Wow, thanks!
When I read this I began wondering why we aren’t preaching on the crowds— they have so much to share with us— so much we could learn from their struggles. I so believe in the power of story—. Thanks Diana
Diana, making the Merton quote the companion piece works really well. Thanks.
Beautifully written. It is always interesting to step back and become aware of the vantage point one is relating to a story. Much like a movie, we sometimes see it more than once, and in doing so, it allows us to identify with a different character, even, say the villain. Oh perish the thought. Don't we love villains, or should I say, love to hate them or fear them? At least they are not us? But change the context, change the plot, and voila, we can be indeed, be the villain. I remember a time, when I was extremely poor, had a broken down car, which had gotten stuck in the snow, making it impossible for me to go anywhere. I began digging it out by myself, feeling quite resentful of my situation. To make matters worse, I lived across the street from a church. It happened to be a Sunday and people were waking to church. Not one of them offered to help me. Not one! As you can imagine, I became indignant, until I remembered the beatitudes. Now here is where it gets interesting. I became quite judgmental of these pious church goers as they passed me by, so much so, as to decree the whole lot of them hypocrites. Perhaps some were, not my business. But years later I had to reexamine my thoughts,I could have asked form help. I didn't. Wasn't it I who was arrogant? Didn't I allow fear to dictate my thoughts? And didn't I twist the narrative, oh so cleverly as to create my own superiority? Of course now I am so much older as to even see the humor in my own behavior. In the end it ois quite simple, In what way am I a sinner and in what way am I a saint? How freeing it is to accept our many sided personas.
Thank you for these words. I have been thinking a lot about the crowds this week, too, and wondering if most of the people listening to Jesus, and, indeed, most of the people around, weren’t ones suffering from those physical ailments, mental and emotional ailments, spiritual troubles… there were few medical remedies for things…. And so many physical problems were reasons to be outcast - so in my imaginings, most of the people there were very needy.
I did preach from Chapter 4, but didn’t go as far as you did. Loved it. ‘What crowd?” exactly!
I had to leave room for Tyre Nichols & the Micah reading. We quote Micah so often; are we doing Justice? What would that even look like?
Thank you for this message about the crowd that Jesus is speaking about and to.
During the recent “atmospheric river” storms in my state, we all had a chance to experience being part of the crowd of the unfortunate but maybe didn’t yet realize it. I didn’t even lose power to my house and no trees fell on my car or roof.
I don’t feel sympathy or empathy for those who have not been so lucky. I know I am basically in the same situation as those others, just not quite yet today.
I am hopeful that we can break the habit of separating ourselves from the others in the crowd. We are blessed with more opportunities to do this, due to the changes in the earth’s climate.
Thank you! I was deeply moved by your interpretation and so I decided to read it aloud to my husband. He and I were still in bed so he was sort of trapped. Hehe! As I was getting near the end, all of a sudden I was overcome and started to weep. Your interpretation touched my soul.
Thank you for bringing in this contemplation on "the crowd." As a white, middle class, ex-clergy woman, I identify with "outcasts." I was in the first group of women to be ordained. One elder told me, after we sat down from serving communion, that I had nice legs. (I was fully robed). My primary connection with the Divine comes through that prodigal child of the Church, Dance. Talk about an eye-roller! I lost a church after dancing down the aisle on Pentecost, fully robed! My family history is riddled with addiction. My daughter and I made it through the opiod crisis, after she nearly died from Heroin and Meth. Struggling mightily with racism, I collaborated with Soyinka Rahim, a child of black nationalism, telling personal stories, moving, and singing in order to change the racism in our bodies. I felt the taboo against addressing racism l like a formidable wall of terror. I walked the line of being cast out in my own community when I renounced my ordination. All that being said, I remain white, privileged, comfortable. and an inheritor of resources from depression era parents. Am I in the crowd? Jesus's crowd includes people like me. Oddly, today his resplendent sacred heart calls me away from over-work and over-bearing it all. I am welcome to be just another human in the crowd, playing, grieving, limping and dancing along with others who are forever changed by love.
I have been pondering the collective interconnected field of being and find that here there are no separate broken poor people. We are all included in the crowd of the created continually being created without exception. Thinking of ourselves separated from this crowd is the very consciousness that keeps us separate.
Thank you Diana for the crowd meditation. It struck me that Jesus was the Instagram influencer of his time. He drew so many to him with his words. Blessed are you . Did they know that later his wounds , love and life
Would be the shining light drawing them day after day to come back ? Would I be willing and courageous enough to take a selfie with him then?
You define the crowd too narrowly. Yes, the poor are there but also the seekers, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and the meek. I am in that crowd as all of us are.