{"id":1387,"date":"2014-03-07T15:17:54","date_gmt":"2014-03-07T20:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/?p=1387"},"modified":"2014-03-07T15:17:54","modified_gmt":"2014-03-07T20:17:54","slug":"poem-less-than-eternal-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toppun.com\/blog\/2014\/03\/07\/poem-less-than-eternal-question\/","title":{"rendered":"POEM: Less Than Eternal Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Rev. Medley<\/span>
\nHad risen<\/span>
\nTo the highest position<\/span>
\nHe would ever<\/span>
\nIt was only down from there<\/span>
\nAn awe too common<\/span>
\nOccupational hazard<\/span>
\nOf moderate irony<\/span>
\nAnd accumulating lessens<\/span>
\nJust falling short<\/span>
\nOf making one cross<\/span>
\nFacing that less than eternal question<\/span>
\nIf only Jesus<\/span>
\nHad bothered to develop<\/span>
\nBetter retirement plans<\/span><\/p>\n

Here is a poem that I wrote before the Lenten season, and now that we are in Lent, I realize that it is an appropriate Lenten poem.\u00a0 I have always admired Jesus for being “all in” this thing called life.\u00a0 While Jesus’ way of being in the world raises difficult questions, his life powerfully juxtaposes finding meaning in life with finding meaning in death.\u00a0 Lent is a time for Christians to reflect on such things.\u00a0 For years I have often joked that I have given up Lent for Lent.\u00a0 More to the truth, my ascetic tendencies and frank goals of living simply leave me in a sort of permanent Lent.\u00a0 In practice, I see that Buddhists seems to model better than Christians simple living and prudently avoiding attachments to material goods. Materialism has such a powerful and normative presence in Western civilization, that Christianity, at least as practiced in Westernized communities, seems to have accommodated rampant materialism quite well.\u00a0 I see the divide between serving God or wealth (worldly power) as primary in my understanding of the message of Jesus’ life and death.\u00a0 The conventional wisdom of sensible retirement planning, as alluded to in this poem, seems second nature to what is considered the good life in modern times. I have witnessed way too many fear-filled discussions in church settings about more financially secure appointments, health coverage, and retirement benefits for clergy.\u00a0 In sharp contrast, I have found little traction for providing a living wage to janitors, secretaries, and many other employees of churches or faith-based organizations.\u00a0 Church folks are too polite to crucify you for suggesting providing a living wage to low-wage church employees, but the resounding silence kills nonetheless.<\/p>\n

In reflecting on the often lukewarm leadership of professional Christians, often called clergy, outsiders are at little risk of ever guessing that the founder of their movement was publicly executed by the state for his revolutionary, uncompromising life.\u00a0 In sharp contrast, outsiders have little difficulty understanding that religious elites were complicit in Jesus’ murder.<\/p>\n

I admire the Buddhist spiritual practice of meditating on your own death.\u00a0 This practice seems like a powerful way to elicit the value and importance of life in the context of death.\u00a0 Followers of Jesus have a profound leader who made such meditations an incarnate reality.\u00a0 Jesus is the way.\u00a0 But the retirement plan is a killer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Rev. Medley Had risen To the highest position He would ever It was only down from there An awe too common Occupational hazard Of moderate irony And accumulating lessens Just falling short Of making one cross Facing that less … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,9,15],"tags":[294,554,25,262,384,229,385,108,432,462,65,267,24,500,146,359,169,310,89,486,54,548,454,379,110,544,601,31,185,239,260,131,30,186,529,421,111,85,389],"class_list":["post-1387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-poems","category-political-and-philosophical-musings","tag-awe","tag-buddhist","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-church","tag-conventional-wisdom","tag-death","tag-elite","tag-faith","tag-fear","tag-god","tag-irony","tag-jesus","tag-joke","tag-leadership","tag-life","tag-living-simply","tag-living-wage","tag-materialism","tag-meaning","tag-meditation","tag-modern","tag-murder","tag-nature","tag-power","tag-questions","tag-reality","tag-religious","tag-revolution","tag-revolutionary","tag-risk","tag-silence","tag-spiritual","tag-state","tag-time","tag-truth","tag-wealth","tag-western-civilization","tag-wisdom"],"yoast_head":"\nPOEM: Less Than Eternal Question | Health, Poems, Political and Philosophical Musings | Top Pun's Poetry, Funny Puns, Free Posters, Public Health Radio Show! 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