Most of us are most drawn to people most like us. But the Scriptures give us quite a different and higher vision.
The Hebrew Bible in one verse commands, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” but in no fewer than 36 places commands us to “love the stranger.”, last Friday night a car with three young men of Mexican back ground were stopped at a Jack in the Box, for appearing to be “different”. Those boys were searched, check out, and heard racial comments. This is not an isolated event, across the Bay area this happens countless times every day. Each day homeless people of color find themselves put in second place at meals, and always the first one’s on the street to be questioned.Racism is heavily present. We all need to look at ourselves and see our own racism, for it is there, it is ever present.
Jesus makes loving our neighbor the supreme goal of following him. Loving our neighbor does not mean liking a person, but of seeing each person as a human being who must be cared for..Dorothy Day said that “love is a harsh and dreadful thing,” for loving others means to move out of our own tribes and seeing people not with labels, of homeless, black, red, white, but as simply as a human being on the journey and to walk with them on an equal basis sharing of what we have.
Change comes from our own individual acts. Let us follow the One who called us to love one another, to give up for one another, so that all may know love and care. Deo Gratius! Thanks be to God!
Dr. River Damien Sims, sfw
punkpriest@gmail.com
Cooking With the Fallen One’s
“Wisdom built her house;
she has slaughtered her animals,
mixed her wine,
and set her table.
She sends out her female servants;
she issues an invitation
from the top of the city heights:
“Whoever is naive turn aside here,
she says to those who lack sense.
“Come eat my food,
and drink the wine I have mixed.
Abandon your simplistic ways and live;
walk in the way of understanding.” Proverbs 9:1-6
“Jesus said to the crowds: I am the living bread that came down from heaven; who ever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
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There was a movie about a young boy who was deformed in a way that he learned to walk upside down. He found the world to be unique, fun, and its creatures wonderful beyond compare. Finally his physicians were able to fix his handicap and he walked as every one else. The world became dirty, people became mean, and filled with people doing what was expected of them.
Our Scriptures today call us to see the world from an upside down position and to live a life of being upside down, lives of radical simplicity, love, and appreciation for life.
Our dissertation written last year, Cooking With the Forgotten One’s, presents our view seeing ministry as not a “job”, but as way of life, lived twenty four hours a day, on the same level of all people. This comes from our experience on the street, but it began with the ministers and priests who have shaped our life. We are hearing a lot about the “rotten apples” in the ministry these days, but we hear so little about the majority who are hard working men and women, who give and have given their lives to the service of God.
We now remember a few of those ministers who have turned our life “upside down” , who have shaped our ministry into one that is “Cooking with the Forgotten One’s,” and who through their witness have taught us that life is a journey, one that is tough, but one that is fun.
Our three childhood and adolescent ministers, Rev. David Richardson, Rev. Claude Stone, Rev. Bill Shamberger, all three from different theological perspectives, but were the same in being a pastor, walking with us as an equal, sharing our pain, and working with us in moving toward ministry; we have the Fathers’ Philip and Daniel Berrigan, Fr. Louie Vitalie, Bishop Oscar Romero, Presbyterian Rev. Ed Loring, whose lives reflect “living outside the box” in their ministries of social justice; Rev. Frank Tucker, Dr. John Doggett, and Rev. Jack Montgomery, Jr. our three District Superintendents, who saw us as a “rebel” and worked with us through our ordination process; Rev. Dana Corsello, the priest who believed in our ministry and supported us in working out of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and has been our pastor these past eight by years, and who wrote in her parting gift of a Bible to us a summation of ministry and life:
“Life is short.
We do not have too much time to gladden the hearts
of those who travel the way with us.
So be swift to love.
Make haste to be kind.
And the peace of God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit–will bless you and be with you always. Amen.”
Dana’s words are a reflection of those of Dr. E.W. Bartley , our first District Superintendent, written last year on his hundredth birthday, a few days before his passing:
“Life is not to be neat, tidy, well put together,
but an adventure to be lived wildly,
so that when we slide into home base we are
saying, “What a ride, what a ride!
Dorthy Day once said that “Institutions are dirty and rotten,” and the institutional Church, (all of its denominations and varieties) are “dirty and rotten”, because they are made up of broken human creatures, but through her comes those who show the light, the love, and the care of the living God. There are far many more of these than we acknowledge and give credit for. Let us walk upside down, and see more of the positive in life than the negative.
Let us live our lives in such away that when we slide into the home base of the Great Communion of Saints, we can say “What a ride, what a ride!” Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!
Fr. River Damien Sims, D.Min.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
temenos@gmail.com
I have hanging a beautiful piece of art painted by a lady who admires our work. It is of a painting of a bleeding heart, with the words “counselor” and the phrase, “Love endures,” written across.
I am reminded it now, as many of us weather a season of loss, life transitions, and letting go. This season is difficult, painful, and one in which we wonder if there is any hope and if we can make it. Life is changing, and it is scary. The print reminds me of the communion of saints, in which we all share the timeless mystery of God’s love for each of us.
These are times which call us to go deeply into that communion of energy in prayer, loving servce, and a contemplation.
St. Tikhon of Zadonsk in the seventeenth century said:
“No longer should our brothers and sisters be seen wandering the roads and in the squares, starving and trembling with the cold, under the icy north wind, naked members of the Body of Christ. .There ought to be beggars and destitute persons no longer. All should be equal.”
Change and care come from a one on one approach to personally caring for others, and moves out like ripples in water to a larger ocean. We are joined together in the Mystery of Love and Life.
Fr. River Damien Sims, D.Min., D.S.T.
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
415-305-2124
Punkpriest1@gmail.com
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As the sun leaves, rippling layers of fog
Stereotypes and Bullying
“F-E-A-R has two meanings:
Forget everything And Run
or
Face Everything and Rise
The choice is yours”
There is a story of a man in Northern Missouri who bullied people in a small town for many years. He could be charming, and when a person would not give him what he wanted he would use stereotypes such as calling him “old” “lazy”, “faggot”, “nigra”, and so on, and run the person down until he gave in, and than walk away ashamed, he shamed him through stereotypes and used stereotypes as a means of separating himself from the person and not see the person as a human being.
He would hit people or threaten them.He would cut them off half-way in a conversation when the person disagreed with him and ultimately reject the person.
One day in broad daylight, in the middle of the street, he was murdered, and to this day no one has ever been arrested.
One young United Methodist minister, new to the town was the only clergy who would have his funeral and minister to the family, the rest were afraid. From that experience that young minister learned two things.
First to withhold judgment, to treat every one equally, for it is God’s place to judge, and to serve the living;
Secondly to never tolerate bullies.
“F-E-A-R has two meanings:
Forget everything And Run
or
Face Everything and Rise
The choice is yours”
Bullying comes in many forms. Withdrawing support when one does not get one’s way; being unwilling to listen, simply to shut the person down, unless one gets one’s way; negative gossip; stereotyping: labeling a person old, a faggot, a nigra, a dim wit, a dumb ass, and so on. It comes in always having to have the last word, regardless of whether we are right or wrong, in controlling relationships, and the living habits of people, it come in not letting people be who they are.
We deal with that person, and the bullying by facing our own fears, our own need for their approval, our own loneliness and neediness, and rising and simply saying “No”, and then walk away saying good bye. If a person continues to come than we fight, and we fight hard,win or lose. If they threaten to walk away–we say “goodbye”. We never tolerate being put down, or threatened again. Loneliness ends when we learn to love ourselves, and loving one’s self starts by standing up for one’s self, and than move into loving others.
We can love the person with all of our heart,but when they hurt us, knowing they hurt us, it is time to let go, and say good bye, and when through the grace of Jesus Christ they change, we can talk and enter into a new relationship, but we also must know that the chances are few and far between for those changes to occur , so we move on, kicking the dust off our feet, into a new life.
Dr. River Damien Sims
P.O. Box 642656
San Francisco, CA 94164
415-305-2124