bread on the water

Bread on the Water

“Send out your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will get it back.“ Ecclesiastes 11:1

Yesterday I was privileged to be with a group of interfaith ministers at the Clinton Presidential Library hoping to work together and share resources about addiction in face of the opioid crisis. The Clinton Foundation sponsored the event and will be working with all of us in the coming year. They started a similar dialogue in Houston, and now Little Rock is the second city to be involved. I think their next city is Jacksonville, Florida.

It was thought provoking to be the beneficiary of an international foundation in our own locality that we have supported. I could only remember this well-known saying from Ecclesiastes of bread cast upon the water returning.

The stories from the faith groups were similar and different depending on their view and personal experience with addiction, but we share a common problem. As I sat there in that Great Hall overlooking downtown Little Rock, I kept remembering that our strength overcoming a difficult situation is in community. We each add our experience and contribute to the solution. Recovery occurs in community. Solutions to recovery occur in community. Support of those trying to help others experience recovery occurs in community. None of us has all the answers.

I have learned all this by meeting with and staying connected to spiritual friends who keep reminding me of how I most experience the God of my understanding in community. I come full circle like the bread on the water as I am reminded each morning at Morning Prayer in the Prayer of St. Chrysostom. “.. and you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them.” Book of Common Prayer, p. 102.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com

Guest writer and painter Jeanne Fry

Instructions to Painters

delta dawn fry

Guest contributor and artist Jeanne Fry

[Panhala] Instructions to Painters & Poets (excerpt) -- Lawrence Ferlinghetti (Redux)

Instructions to Painters & Poets

“I asked a hundred painters and a hundred poets
how to paint sunlight
on the face of life
Their answers were ambiguous and ingenuous
as if they were all guarding trade secrets
Whereas it seems to me
all you have to do
is conceive of the whole world
and all humanity
as a kind of art work
a site-specific art work
an art project of the god of light
the whole earth and all that's in it
to be painted with light

And the first thing you have to do
is paint out postmodern painting
And the next thing is to paint yourself
in your true colors
in primary colors
as you see them
(without whitewash)
paint yourself as you see yourself
without make-up
without masks
Then paint your favorite people and animals
with your brush loaded with light
And be sure you get the perspective right
and don't fake it
because one false line leads to another

***

And don't forget to paint
all those who lived their lives
as bearers of light
Paint their eyes
and the eyes of every animal
and the eyes of beautiful women
known best for the perfection of their breasts
and the eyes of men and women
known only for the light of their minds
Paint the light of their eyes
the light of sunlit laughter
the song of eyes
the song of birds in flight

And remember that the light is within
if it is anywhere
and you must paint from the inside.”

~ Lawrence Ferlinghetti ~

(How to Paint Sunlight)

God's Politics

God’s Politics

“ “The Gospel is not partisan, and God is neither a conservative nor a progressive. As Christians, we must not begin with our secular political beliefs, convictions, and commitments and to use the Gospel to prop them up. Rather, we must begin with the Gospel and allow the Gospel to shape our politics whole-cloth.” Barkley Thompson, In the Midst of the City, p. 21-22.

Yesterday was the first day of early voting in Arkansas. Robert and I went to two polling places to try to vote. In one civic center there was not a parking place to be found. In the second venue, a library, the line was out of the building and around the block and again no place to park. We both had never seen anything like it even for the presidential election of Arkansas’ native son. Today is two weeks until the election. We plan to try again in a few days. I hear from friends all over the country about the same situation. It is encouraging that so many people want to have a voice in the direction for this country.

A frequent question among spiritual friends is “what is the relationship between politics and religion?” I am reading Barkley Thompson’s new book, In the Midst of the City, the Gospel and God’s Politics. Barkley reminds us that the great theologian, Karl Barth told us to read with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. However, what is often left out is Barth’s mandate to interpret what the newspaper tells us is going on in the world in light of our knowledge of the Bible, not the other way around. We are not to use the Bible to support our political views but to support our politics according to our knowledge of God’s politics as presented to us in the gospels.

Thought for the day and perhaps the next two weeks. The gospels are political but not partisan.

Barkley will be at St. Mark’s April 27, 2019, at the Literary Festival to speak more about how we can discern God’s politics in view of the political situation in our world.

Joanna joannaseibert.com