{"id":17963,"date":"2019-04-17T09:51:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T13:51:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17963"},"modified":"2019-04-17T09:58:56","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T13:58:56","slug":"17963","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=17963","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/urwSe-eKR3c\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>David,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I am so honored that you take the time to read my Daily Meditations! As I grow older and limit my travel, they are one of the most meaningful ways I can continue teaching and ministering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You may wonder, as many have, if I am personally writing and sending these emails precisely at 12:00 midnight U.S. Mountain Time each day. Well, let me assure you I do not have to do it alone! A dedicated team from the Center for Action and Contemplation helps me curate the meditations, bringing new life to previous writings, clarifying and fact-checking, and incorporating other authors I deeply respect. Every week I edit and refine each meditation before it goes out to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While all religious language is metaphor, I believe that words are important. We have all seen the damage that a mis-use of the Bible can cause. The words I use aren\u2019t dictated by any religious institution or outside influence. I simply try to be a conduit (as my German last name suggests) of Spirit and share my evolving understanding of Scripture, the Christian tradition, and my own experience. I believe the best criticism of the bad is the practice of the better, even when it\u2019s unpopular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have&nbsp;<em>you<\/em>&nbsp;and over 320,000 people around the world in mind\u2014and prayer\u2014as we craft messages that we hope will heal your heart, challenge your thinking, and move your body toward compassionate action. I know that each person comes from a different perspective, be that religion, age, or geographic location. And yet, somehow, we are all connected and part of the universal Body of Christ.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Twice a year we pause the Daily Meditations to ask for your support. Take a moment to read our Director Michael&#8217;s note below about&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-pfjkit-yhltihduht-r\/\">how&nbsp;you can help<\/a>. Tomorrow we\u2019ll continue reflecting on Jesus\u2019 crucifixion as we look forward to Easter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-pfjkit-yhltihduht-y\/\">If you\u2019ve been impacted by the Daily Meditations, please help the Center for Action and Contemplation continue this labor of love.<\/a>&nbsp;To the team that helps me publish these messages day in and day out, thank you! And to&nbsp;<em>you<\/em>, a reader and supporter, thank you for making our work possible!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.cmail20.com\/ei\/d\/D4\/377\/E89\/035631\/csfinal\/RR-full-sig-9906db06db028a3c.png\" alt=\"Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Dear Friends,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Father Richard often describes his work as keeping God free for people and keeping people free for God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this year\u2019s Daily Meditations, he\u2019s helping us move beyond harmful ideas about God that have locked us in fear and violence. At the same time, he\u2019s reclaiming timeless wisdom from contemplative Christianity to help us connect with our truest selves, each other, and God.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-pfjkit-yhltihduht-j\/\">Will you help us keep the Daily Meditations free with a donation?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I love this familiar saying Richard quotes in his new book&nbsp;<em>The Universal Christ<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>Everything will be all right in the end.<br>If it\u2019s not all right, it is not yet the end.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes it\u2019s hard to hold out hope for our politics, our planet, and even our faith tradition. Thankfully, we\u2019re still in the midst of evolution. This is not the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I can\u2019t predict the future, but I know that our participation fundamentally matters. Our community\u2019s past generosity helps us keep resources like the Daily Meditations free for hundreds of thousands of people. You fund scholarships for our conferences, online courses, and Living School. You help us provide a living wage for our staff and help us create free resources to help spread transformative teaching, like our newly released&nbsp;<em>Universal Christ<\/em>&nbsp;podcast and companion guide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Please consider&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-pfjkit-yhltihduht-k\/\">making a one-time donation<\/a>! If just 5% of our readers donate, it will fully fund the Daily Meditations\u2019 production, allow us to increase our scholarships, and share transformative wisdom with more people!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As director of the Center for Action and Contemplation, I hope to see this work protected and continued to serve future generations and to help shape a more transformative and hopeful Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thank you for being an agent of peaceful change in this ongoing evolution of Christianity and the world!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Peace and Every Good,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i2.cmail20.com\/ei\/d\/D4\/377\/E89\/035631\/csfinal\/michael-signature-9903cf0145028a3c.png\" alt=\"Michael Poffenberger, Executive Director\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Michael Poffenberger<br>Executive Director, Center for Action and Contemplation<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>P.S. Please consider making a contribution to the Center for Action and Contemplation (tax-deductible in the United States). We invite donations of any size! You can donate securely online at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/email.cac.org\/t\/d-l-pfjkit-yhltihduht-u\/\">cac.org\/dm-appeal<\/a>&nbsp;or send a check (USD only) to CAC, PO Box 12464, Albuquerque, NM 87195. Learn more about charitable giving at&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/cac.org\/support-cac\">cac.org\/support-cac<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><br>Doing the Victim Thing Right<\/strong><br>Tuesday, April 16, 2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The deep-time message of Jesus\u2019 death is presented through a confluence of three healing images from his own Hebrew Scriptures: the scapegoat whom we talked about on Sunday; the Passover lamb which is the innocent victim (Exodus 12); the \u201cLifted-Up One\u201d or the homeopathic curing of the victim (Numbers 21:6-9) who becomes the problem to reveal the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Numbers 21:6-9&nbsp;New International Version (NIV)<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>6&nbsp;<\/sup>Then the&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;sent venomous snakes&nbsp;among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died.&nbsp;<sup>7&nbsp;<\/sup>The people came to Moses&nbsp;and said, \u201cWe sinned&nbsp;when we spoke against the&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;and against you. Pray that the&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;will take the snakes away from us.\u201d So Moses prayed&nbsp;for the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>8&nbsp;<\/sup>The&nbsp;Lord&nbsp;said to Moses, \u201cMake a snake and put it up on a pole;&nbsp;anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.\u201d&nbsp;<sup>9&nbsp;<\/sup>So Moses made a bronze snake&nbsp;and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The victim state has been the plight of most people who have ever lived on this earth, so in all three cases we see Jesus identifying with humanity at its most critical and vulnerable level. It is God in solidarity with the pain of the world, it seems, much more than God the omnipotent who, with a flick of the hand, overcomes all pain. But Jesus walks the victim journey in an extraordinary way.&nbsp; He neither plays the victim card himself for his own aggrandizement, nor does he victimize anybody else, even his murderers. He forgives them all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Hebrew tradition, the Passover lamb was a perfect, unblemished sheep or goat that apparently lived in the family home for four days before it was sacrificed (Exodus 12:1-8). That\u2019s just long enough for the children to fall in love with the lamb. What could this symbolize? I personally think it is an image of the first (false) self that is thought of as good, adequate, and even innocent. It is who I think I am before I do any shadow work and see my own dark sides. It is when religion stops at the \u201ccleaning up\u201d stage and never gets to \u201cgrowing up,\u201d \u201cwaking up,\u201d or \u201cshowing up\u201d for others. Only when we let go of our attachment to any good, superior, or innocent identity do we begin to grow up spiritually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is precisely the beloved and innocent \u201clamb\u201d that must die. We must accept that we are all complicit and profiting from the corporate \u201csin of the world\u201d and no one is pure or innocent. \u201cNo one is good, not even one,\u201d as Paul daringly quotes Psalm 14:3 (Romans 3:10-12). This is an offense to our ego, and is precisely the status that Jesus accepts and allows. This is a huge but necessary recognition and surrender for most people.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The \u201cLifted-Up One\u201d is the image of the bronze serpent that Moses lifted in the desert which has become a symbol for doctors and healers to this day. YHWH tells Moses to raise up a snake on a standard, and \u201canyone who has been bitten by a serpent and looks upon it will be healed\u201d (Numbers 21:8). The very thing that was killing them is the thing that will heal them! This is the nature of vaccines and other medicines that give us just enough of the disease so we can develop a resistance and be healed from it. The cross was meant to be an inoculation against all sacralized violence and hatred.&nbsp;<em>The cross dramatically reveals the problem of ignorant killing to inoculate us against doing the same thing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus becomes the seeming problem and the cure for the same\u2014by exposing it for what it is, \u201cparading it in public\u201d (Colossians 2:15) for those who have eyes to see, and inviting us to gaze upon it with sympathetic understanding. The prophet Zechariah calls Israel to \u201cLook upon the pierced one and to mourn over him as for an only son,\u201d and \u201cweep for him as for a firstborn child,\u201d and then \u201cfrom that mourning\u201d (five times repeated) will flow \u201ca spirit of kindness and prayer\u201d (12:10) and \u201ca fountain of water\u201d (13:1; 14:8).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe we are invited to gaze upon the image of the crucified and to realize that God the Father suffers with Jesus. This softens our hearts toward God and all of reality. We see that God\u2019s heart has always been softened toward us, even and most especially in our suffering.<em>&nbsp;<\/em>This softens us toward ourselves and all others who suffer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>David, I am so honored that you take the time to read my Daily Meditations! As I grow older and limit my travel, they are one of the most meaningful ways I can continue teaching and ministering. You may wonder, as many have, if I am personally writing and sending these emails precisely at 12:00 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17963"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17963"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17963\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17965,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17963\/revisions\/17965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}