When the Rough Winds Blow God is The Windbreaker
When the Rough Winds Blow God is the Windbreaker!
"26. He also said, 'This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the land. 27. Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know. 28. Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29. And when the crop is ready, at once he starts to reap because the harvest has come.' 30. He also said, 'What can we say that the kingdom is like? What parable can we find for it? 31. It is like a mustard seed which, at the time of its sowing, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth. 32. Yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.' 33. Using many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, so far as they were capable of understanding it. 34. He would not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were by themselves."
Mark, 4 - Bíblia Católica Online
Monday June 7, 2021
Mustard branches are gangly, and no bird of any size could make its nest in one. The nest would slide off, or the branch would break. Few would find much shade under the cover of a mustard branch. So either Jesus was an ignorant townie or else he was gently, lovingly teasing. The dream of Israel, Ezekiel tells us, was to become like a magnificent, towering Lebanon cedar, the greatest tree in the Middle East. But Jesus says that God's promise of home was to be fulfilled in this tough weed, and was without any pretentions or glory. Once it has been sown, the mustard bush is hard to get rid of. Barbara Reed remarks, "So too is the tenacious faith of those who seem to be of no account." Despite all efforts of opposition to get rid of it, the bush hangs on, as it will untill the Lord comes again and humanity finds its home in God.
Through the years, one question which has been asked of me, "how much longer are you going to stay in San Francisco?" And the answer is when I came here, I took a vow to God, of "stability," and I have been praised, condemned, and ignored through these years, but I stay. There are times I want to walk away, but I stay, and in staying like the mustard seed become tough, thorny, and unable to be sit on or walked on.
I see that toughness in the one's on the street.
Haight Street is a street of wealth and tourism, but at the very bottom or the street kids. Each day one encounters the toughness of the mustard tree. One afternoon there Sue who was drawing, and another individual spit and hit her, a cop standing nearby, told Sue to leave, she "was causing trouble," an older man screamed at me and threw his food in my face saying, "that's not what I want," I sat with one twenty two year old for several hours, as he babbled about suicide, finally he he moved on to another suject, and than there was another trying to sell me his wisdom tooth.
June 8, 2021
Today most of the day was spent in zoom meetings, and as I began the last one on Pride, my mind went to my young friend , throwing the term of pan-sexual around in his Texas town, and the response resulted in his suicide; and as I was walking into Walgreens, James, asked me for some canned beef stew. He is 50ish, on the street for as long as I have been here, dirty, haggard looking; his face went ino the a smile that shines like the stars when I handed him three cans of beef stew. All are mustard trees, who will stand strong for eternity, and will hear the words of the Apostle Paul: "As surely as God is trustworthy, what we say to you is not both Yes and No. The Son of God Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed to you by us. .was never Yes and No; his nature is always Yes. For in him is found the Yes to all God's promises and therefore it is through him that we answer Amen to give praise to God. It is God who gives us . .a sure place in Christ. (2:18-20).
The Rough Winds Blow But God Always is the Wind Breaker
June 9, 2021
Today will be spent mostly in solitude, for in the words of Henri Nouwen: "in solitude, we come to know the Spirit who has already been given to us. The pains and struggles we encounter in our solitude thus become the way to hope, because our hope is not based on something that will happen after our sufferings are over, but on the real presence of God's healing Spirit in the midst of these sufferings. The discipline of solitude allows us gradually to come in touch with the hopeful presence of God in our lives, and allows us to taste even now the beginnings of the joy and peace that belong to the new heaven and the new earth."
Each time I walk out of my door there is pain in the doorways surrounding me, physical and psychological pain; there is pain in my on life, but what I have found to ease my pain, and that of others is found in the prayer of Caesar Chavez:
"Grant me the courage to serve others; for in service there is true life."
The Rough Winds Blow But God Always is the Wind Breaker
June 10
". .Now this Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us with our unveiled faces, like mirrors reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the image that we reflect in brighter and brighter glory; this is the working of the Lord who is Spirit.. 2 Corinthians 3:16-17
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This past year of wearing masks and staying a has kept us isolated, very much alone, and out touch with others. In the hospital when I stood by someone breathing their lasts I always took my mask off, so they could see my face, and my expression of being present. Working on the street I very seldom wore a mask, but keeping separation six feet a part because wearing the mask prevented them seeing my reflection, my humor, sorrow, happiness, and seeing my face made people feel comfortable.
Unmasking we can also show our anger and hate. This morning walking home from the post office, wearing a "Black Lives Matter" teeshirt, a young guy carrying flowers in front of me began screaming "Take, that damn shirt off," not wearing a mask I could see his hate, and anger, his eyes bristled, as I moved rapidly across the street. He moved on shouting racist remarks.
In reflecting on my lack of fear, smiling with compassion, and moving away without saying a word, the words of Henri Nouwen came to mind:
In true solidude three is an unlimited space for others because we are empty. In this poverty nobody stands over and against us, because our enemy is only our enemy as long as we have something to defend. But when we have nothing to hold on to or protect, when we have nothing we consider exclusively ours, than no body will threaten us.
Rather, in the center of our solitude we meet all men and women as brothers and sisters. In true solitude, we stand so naked and so vulnerable before God, and we become so totally aware of our dependency on God's love --that not only our friend's but also those who kill, lie, torture, rape, and wage wars become a part of our flesh and blood.
Yes, in true solidtude we are so totally empty and poor that we find our solidarity with brothers and sisters everywhere. Our hearts, full of God and empty of fear and anger, become a welcoming home for God and for our whole human family on earth.
For once I hit a home run. Fr. Henri teaches us well, let us unveil our faces and find true freedom.
Nouwen sums up the teaching of the mustard seed, we unveil our faces, and stand in poverty, and nothing will hurt us.
The Rough Winds Blow But God Always is the Wind Breaker
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Fr. River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
www.temenos.org
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