I’m going to borrow some thoughts from Fr. Ron Rolheiser for today’s column. I knew Fr. Rolheiser briefly, while he was Roman Catholic bishop of Saskatoon, mainly through the enthusiasm he inspired among his staff. Fr. Rolheiser is now president of the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. Like me, he sends out two columns every week. This one apparently came out first in 1996. 
Fr. Rolheiser started by telling about Daniel Berrigan, addressing a university gathering. They expected profound thoughts. Instead, Berrigan described how he went to a hospice for the terminally ill, each week, to sit by the bed of a young boy who was totally incapacitated. He could not speak, or communicate with his body, nor in any other way express himself to those who come into his room. But Berrigan went regularly to sit by this young boy’s bed to try to hear what he might be saying in his silence and helplessness.
And then Berrigan said, “The way this young man lies in our world, silent and helpless, is the way God lies in our world. To hear what God is saying we must learn to hear what this young boy is saying.”
Fr. Rolheiser expanded on that thought: “This is an extremely useful image in helping us understand how the power of God manifests itself in our world. God’s power does not overpower with muscle, or attractiveness, or brilliance, or grace, as does the speed and muscle of an Olympic athlete, the physical beauty of a young film star, or the gifted speech of a brilliant orator or author. 
“God’s power in the world has a very different look and feel to it. How does it feel to feel as God must often feel in this world?”
He offered some examples: 
If you have ever been overpowered physically and been helpless, if you have ever felt powerless to defend yourself or fight back, then you have felt how God is in this world.
If you have dreamed a dream and found that every effort you made was hopeless and that your dream could never be realized, if you have cried tears and felt shame at your own inadequacy, then you have felt how God is in this world.
If you have felt the mortality of your own body and its weakness, then you have felt how God is in the world.
If you have been shamed in your enthusiasm and not given a chance to explain yourself, if you have been cursed for your goodness by people who misunderstood you and who couldn’t see things in your way, then you have felt how God is in this world.
If you have ever felt like a minority of one before the group hysteria of a crowd gone mad, if you have ever felt the sick evil of a gang rape, then you have felt how God is in this world -- and how Jesus felt on Good Friday.
“God never overpowers,” Fr. Rolheiser concluded optimistically. “God’s power is more muted, more helpless, more marginalized. But it lies deeper, at the ultimate base of things, and will, in the end, gently have the final say.”
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Copyright © 2016 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.
        To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca
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YOUR TURN

I had only two letters about last week’s column on snowflakes and water. Maybe that’s all who wrote. But just in case you wrote something, and it doesn’t appear below, please get in touch with me. I got fed up with the amount of spam I was receiving – hundreds of junk mails about sex and money every day – so I invested in a new spam filtering program. It’s proving very effective. Possibly too effective. If it’s screening out your e-mails to me, I need to know that, so that the techie-people can tweak the program. 

Anyway, Tom Watson wrote, “In an overall excellent column, the line ‘Water may be the ultimate miracle’ caught my attention. We in Canada possess a good share of this miracle. I doubt most of us think of that when we turn on the taps in our sinks and showers. Many people in the world do not have the same access.
“There was a segment on ‘60 Minutes’ a few weeks back about Kenya where users pay for things via their cell phones, and this allows the poorest people to buy small quantities of goods. One example was a person buying a cupful of water at a vendor's stand -- not a 4-litre jug as we might do, but a cupful. We, having water in such abundance, can't even imagine having to buy a cupful!
“Apparently Canada has some 20% of the world's freshwater resources, the fourth largest freshwater capacity on the planet. The catch is that less than half of that is renewable. Most of our freshwater supply is fossil water retained in lakes, underground aquifers and glaciers. It makes me wonder about the effects of climate change on this miracle of ours.”

Bonnie McTague sent along a story she loves, from Synchronicity -- The Inner Path of Leadership by Joseph Jaworski. I had heard this story years ago; I remember using it in a magazine called Currents that I used to put out. But I hadn’t knowm the source until Bonnie provided it. 

“Tell me the weight of a snowflake," a coal-mouse asked a wild dove. 
"Nothing more than nothing," was the answer. 
"In that case, I must tell you a marvelous story," the coal-mouse said. "I sat on the branch of a fir, close to its trunk, when it began to snow -- not heavily, not in a raging blizzard -- no, just like in a dream, without a wound and without any violence. Since I did not have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the 3,741,953rd dropped onto the branch -- nothing more than nothing, as you say -- the branch broke off." 
Having said that, the coal-mouse flew away. 
The dove, since Noah's time an authority on the matter, thought about the story for a while, and finally said to herself, "Perhaps there is only one person's voice lacking for peace to come to the world." 

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PSALM PARAPHRASES

Psalm 36:5-10 seems appropriate for the beginning of a new year. 

5   Your door is always open, God. 
You stand at your door, and welcome all who come to it.
6   Entry to your home is not limited to your friends, your associates, your social class. 
You extend your welcome to everyone and everything: 
Beggars and outcasts, oppressors and victims, 
People who have handicaps and drifters who huddle under bridges and in culverts. 
From the rats cowering in their sewers to the birds soaring among the clouds --
You make them all welcome in your home. 
7   All of creation is your household, God. 
All can live together in harmony under your roof.
8   In your kitchens they are fed; 
In your living room, they are entertained and uplifted.
9   For you are life itself. 
10   Continue to give us life, Holy One. 
Show us how to live together in harmony in your home. 

For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

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YOU SCRATCH MY BACK…
Ralph Milton has a new project, called Sing Hallelujah – the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca
Isabel Gibson's thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com
Alan Reynold's weekly musings, punningly titled “Reynolds Rap,” write reynoldsrap@shaw.ca
Wayne Irwin's "Churchweb Canada," an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>
Alva Wood's satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not particularly religious, but they are fun; write alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” – ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at twatson@sentex.net

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TECHNICAL STUFF

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