[Propertalk] 2 Lent a 2017 - part 2

Thu Mar 9 19:26:38 EST 2017

Hi Bob,
I read the comments at the end of the article you cited and saw this, which no one disputed later:

, 2015 at 6:09 am
It says she was motivated by Blessed John Henry Newman and the Bishop of Munster, but she was not a Catholic. She was Lutheran.
Maybe check further if this is indeed correct, but I think it does make sense that she was a Lutheran.
Peace and blessings,
Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: Joe Parrish <joeparrish at compuserve.com>
To: robertpmorrison <robertpmorrison at charter.net>
Cc: JoeParrish <JoeParrish at compuserve.com>
Sent: Thu, Mar 9, 2017 7:13 pm
Subject: Re: [Propertalk] 2 Lent a 2017 - part 2

Sophie knew the answers; Nicodemus was looking for them from Jesus and still couldn't decide.
Sophie put the answers she knew into motion and began changing the whole world with her life. 
Thanks for this very thoughtful approach to the lesson of 2 Lent, Bob.
Peace and blessings,
Joe

Sophie Scholl was an ordinary girl – devoutly Catholic, she fell in love with one of her fellow conspirators, she loved the countryside, she adored her parents. She was very ordinary, just very, very brave

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert P Morrison <robertpmorrison at charter.net>
To: 'propertalk at stsams.org' <propertalk at stsams.org>
Sent: Thu, Mar 9, 2017 6:50 pm
Subject: [Propertalk] 2 Lent a 2017 - part 2

           “The man looks down and notices the feather. As it moves toward him, he lifts his briefcase to let it pass. A smile forms on his face.
            “Then he begins to dance. He hops from one foot to the other in his polished leather shoes, keeping time with the feather as though, together, they are listening to the same imaginary song.”
            In that Lent – or some New Yorkers may call it Purgatory – in that Lent of silence, or inconvenience, yet of pregnant possibility for thinking over one’s life; in that Lent, that man was able to discover how to inject some pleasure, some sheer joy into his life. There’s no telling who he was, but he DID have a briefcase, so maybe he, like Nicodemus, held some sort of authority, no matter in how small a jurisdiction. Maybe he was looking for some answers. Perhaps he would have been glad to have found a Jesus somewhere with whom he could sit down for some clarification of purposes in life.
            I love that final comment to the newspaper column: the man and the whirling, fluttering feather were listening to the same imaginary song.
            THAT’S what Nicodemus wanted and needed – to find the song for his life. THAT’S what Sophie and The White Rose wanted and needed – to find some dance steps which they could coordinate with their belief in God that would enable them NOT to fit in to society, but to help them transform society, to make it a safe place for everyone; to make it a place where there would be justice for everyone; to make it a place where people could dance different steps to the Song of the Universe that Jesus sings, different steps yet ones which would not make them feel awkward or self-conscious, but empowered, knowing that they were all being born again.
            Nicodemus was right at the point of admitting that he wasn’t quite there. Abram – Abram must have had all sorts of thoughts that kept him from even asking God where the nearest Arthur Murray School was. But they, and those in Munich seventy-five years ago, were at least willing to admit that even if they needed a few more dance lessons, they were still willing to go out on to God’s dance floor, no matter how dangerous.
            These people recognized not only THEIR need to be born again, but also the need of society to be born again. They saw the direction their communities and countries were going.
            Abram – well, maybe he wasn’t sure what was happening in his homeland, but he had to leave.
            Nicodemus – he saw where the occupying Romans were imprinting their ways on every part of every culture, trying to stamp each into conformity, and he saw how his own friends, the others who shared his authority and privilege; Nicodemus saw the other leaders were falling into lock-step and accommodating the Romans.
            But Nicodemus couldn’t go along with that. He had to meet Jesus and to apply His teaching. He had to discover, rather painfully, just what it would mean to be born again, and how much of an effort it would take to begin to reverse the direction that society seemed determined to take.
            Even IF Nicodemus were are the man on the New York train, even if he were alone in working for renewal in Jerusalem and the whole country, he discovered that he has to dance as that feather on the breath of God, a feather directed to show joy in expressing and revealing love in the drabness of a rail car.
            Jesus challenged what Nicodemus thought were certainties. Nicodemus thought he knew it all. Into that thought pattern, Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be willing to loosen up, to accept the seeming uncertainty of a feather bobbing and gliding on a draft of air in a train, of all places.
            And this may be the gift of God to us this Lent – to discover the possibilities, the contacts, the partnerships, as we work against all that would try to contain the Spirit and prevent it from blowing into every corner of every single person’s world.
            “Sophie Scholl was an ordinary girl – devoutly Catholic, she fell in love with one of her fellow conspirators, she loved the countryside, she adored her parents. She was very ordinary, just very, very brave.” 3 So was Nicodemus, when you come right down to it. Neither of them ever had to give up having questions. That’s NOT what Jesus asks, ever. But, for them – for us? – cover of darkness worked, even as they were aware of the danger that would come when someone would reveal what they were doing, how they were making Jesus’ life and work the model for their own.
            Maybe this Lent we’re waiting to find the feather. Maybe this Lent we’re waiting to hear, for ourselves, the invitation to the dance. Maybe we need to slip off quietly to some dance studio where we may pick up a few steps, a few ideas, and find the courage to work in both the dark places of this world and the light.
            The music is playing.

NOTES:

[1]           https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Rose 

2           'This Is Canal Street', Metropolitan Diary  The New York Times, 14th February, 2017 http://p.nytimes.com/email/re…

3           “They were guillotined 72 years ago today. And they deserve remembering.” Posted: February 23, 2015 Political musings  https://wellthisiswhatithink.com/2015/02/23/they-were-guillotined-73-years-ago-today-and-they-deserve-remembering/

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