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   How's it going? Did you have a good week? We hope so. You're well-being is important to us!
   Things have been perking along here in the Land of Hope. A group of our friends met with consultants for the City who wanted to know about the needs of impoverished people and ways in which some federal funds could be used to help . . . one of our friends from Our House volunteered to mow the lawn . . . the floors in two rooms were refinished . . . painting was done . . . our friends from Holy Cross Monastery sent some great food to Our House . . . Ko, the hair cutter made her official debut . . . the New Jim Crow Working Group met in the parlors to plan a brainstorming breakfast that will be held next month with local clergy . . . and Steve was in Ithaca teaching all week . . .
    In addition to reminding you about the need for funds to keep Our House running (see links over there to the left), you'll find below some info about our efforts at community formation and Steve's musings about parables and the kingdom of heaven.
Speaking of Mary Martin . . .
     The community in residence here at Hope is about to get bigger. Last Monday evening, three prospective members dined with Ruth, Tommy, and Ben to get to know us a bit better and to talk about what life together might be like.
   As that sentence rolled from our fingertips, we realized that you may not realize what's up here at Hope. Sure, you know about Our House, the drop-in center that we need your help funding and running. And, you've got some sense of the programming that goes on. . . But, the community may be another matter.
   When Ecclesia acquired what is now the Hope Center, part of the dream was to establish a residential community in which each member was responsible to and for one another and for the place in which we all live. Each one would also contribute according to her/his means. (There is, of course, more to it than that but that's the big picture.)
  Anyway . . . there currently are five of us living at Hope (We'll introduce you to everyone over the next few weeks) and we feel comfortable enough with one another that we think it's time to add other members. That's great because we've just about finished refurbishing one room and two others will be all spiffed up by the end of August.
   And, that's what Monday's meal was about.

Another Field of Dreams . . .
     "Is this heaven?" asks the character Shoeless Joe Jackson in the 1989 move Field of Dreams. "No this is Iowa," responds farmer Ray played by Kevin Costner. (Of course, the most famous line is "If you build it, they will come.")
   The movie is a metaphor about faith and redemption and all sorts of stuff. In fact, it's a metaphor involving another a metaphor, baseball.  If you haven't see the movie, do yourself a favor - watch it.
   Parables are particular kinds of metaphors or, at least, metaphorical stories. My favorite Jesus scholar describes a parable as a "story that never happened but always does - or should."
   I tell you all of this because we've been looking at parables for the past couple of weeks in our journey with Matthew. And, next week, we've got a serious batch of them including three that are unique to Matthew - Matthew 13:31-33 and 44-52. (Actually, you can also find some version of each in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas.)
   Each one begins the same way: "the kingdom of heaven is like . . . " I find that a bit annoying, don't you? I mean, why doesn't Jesus just come out and say what he means? Was he figuring that some day, there'd be a whole lot of people making a living telling the rest of us what Jesus meant and doing all sorts of intellectual gymnastics to explain the ethics of finding a treasure in someone else's field, reburying it, then gathering up all the money one can to buy the field from its unsuspecting owner?
   But, maybe that's just the point. Maybe, in perhaps all of his parables (or, at least, a lot of them, hedged Steve), Jesus is making the point that the kingdom of heaven [God] is very different from the way things are in the here and now. Maybe the idea is to challenge us to look beyond what we see, what we're used to, to imagine what the world would be like if God really were running things. Maybe the idea is to challenge us to come to a different understanding of God and the way in which God "operates" in the world, discover the kingdom of heaven that is within each of us and live into the truth of that.
Thank you for all you do to make this world a better place.

 

The Rev. Steve Ruelke

Ecclesia Ministries of Newburgh

P: 845-527-0405

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