What Is About One Is About All, What Is About All Is About One
Published in Blog Posts. Tags: Meditations.
Day one, week forty five, year 2017. Today is Sunday, Oct 29, a day to concentrate on meditation and prayer.
Today’s Scripture: Deuteronomy 34:1-12 and Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17 • Leviticus 19:1-2, 15-18 and Psalm 1 • 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 • Matthew 22:34-46
Prayer: Allow each verse in the scripture to prompt a thought in prayer.
Lord, the story of Moses viewing the promised land brings peace to my soul. He would not enter the land, it is there I am given freedom to let go. I know what I touch, what I care for is not mine to own, it belongs to your service, to your desire to love your people.
Lord, we are not masters of our legacy. We cannot control the words of the people. Please be gracious to those of us who have battled everyday a power that often controls our behavior, controls the conclusions of our desires.
Oh Lord, take the work of our hands, the tasks we do, the thoughts we share, the hope we communicate, may they be as bricks that build a mighty building. May the work we have done stand against this illness. Let each brick of hope be added to this tower of healing. May our words, our caring, our actions keep offering a reality that will one day bring us each to the promised land.
Lord, let us know of your holy way that we may be as people of the way.
Remind us we are not justice, we stand for justice, we are grace, we walk in grace, let us not determine special rules but let us all stand for the common rule of life.
Let us applaud a love that says we cannot love you without loving our neighbor. Let us applaud a love that says each time we love our neighbor we are loving you.
Our bodies reflect the war our world is experiencing. Help us to understand each healing moment is not just for us it is for our world as well.
Take our thoughts and words now use them for the common good. Amen.
Music (please select music as your spirit is moved):
My son just called. We talked. During the conversation he mentioned watching a documentary. It told the story of First Nation Youth. I select music in honor of the pilgrimage and hope of many of my First Nation family.
Lakota Dream Song from The Last of the Mohicans
Meditation:
What is about one is about all, what is about all is about one.
Or is that only wishful thinking.
As I start writing I am listening to the music in the background.
My thought today centered on the passage in Leviticus 19:1-2. It simply translates “what is good for one is good for the other.”
Before moving to Canada I had been raised in and out of the U.S. welfare system. When the invitation came to move to Canada I was moved to tears thinking Canada had a better understanding of the human person. When I got there the problems were similar to what I had grown up with. I came to understand the world I had left and the world I had joined was full of voices and powers tugging, pulling and ultimately shredding itself apart.
In the back of my mind were the words from Leviticus. Justice and judgement are a necessary part of wholeness. This concern ultimately plays out in the way we do medicine and medical care.
Sistered with the educational system, modern medicine has a license to justify why we can only do so much.
When I first went to Canada, the Province of Alberta paid for Medical costs by owning all the liquor outlets. It was one way to pay for healthcare. Eventually the argument was made that this process wasn’t working. A group argued against it and ultimately opened the door for others to argue for their positions. Some of those positions were experimented with, a snip here, a snip there and voilà, a renewed health care system was born. The fact the door was now open for health care to respond to the “squeakiest wheel” did not seem to matter.
At the same time the people in the US were experimenting with what was called the “HMO.” Later the “PPO” was added. Again with the backing of new “doctoral” programs the research based treatment process was born.
Recently I walked into a clinic. My doctor had ordered an MRI to be done. The physician I was now seeing changed the orders. I raised a question, why? I was then told, “I am the doctor here.” I had been reading about the new emphasis for doctors to be a part of a team process. Apparently that process has not been refined yet.
Leviticus talks about justice. Perhaps we need to add to that discussion a piece about learning how to transition from one way of practice to another.
The morning text continues. The story is told about Jesus beginning to work with people. What he was doing was people centered. He was saying let’s go back to people first. The people in authority argued, in due time, but first we must work within our own system. Authority must be honored. When Jesus challenged the basis for authority they shut him out of the conversation.
Time after time, post after post (in the Facebook dialogue) words are given about how we who wrestle with disease do not have the right to challenge authority.
My purpose for writing this meditation, these words today, is not to create a new authority structure. It is however to say the system is already changing. It wants each of us to be a part of our healing team. I write simply to remind you, you are a part of the healing team, it is your turn to stand up and be heard. Amen.
In Conclusion: “Amazing Grace”