get on up

well folks...i'm taking a break for a couple weeks from blogger. yes, for some of you that would be your normal rate of usage, but let's be honest. i'm textually active.

in the meantime...come see me!

it's pretty good...as i closed out my undergraduate experience, i was praying that i could meet and form relationships with more Jewish people. so, naturally He has me working at a church. i've always had a critical attitude toward church coffee shops for various reasons. and i've said several times that i would never want to own or manage a coffee shop after working  in several and seeing  what that entails.

that said, here i am. somehow. i probably needed a slice of humble pie, and i don't doubt that this will simply be another stretch of the adventure i'm on with Him. i'm ready for whatever it will look like! i'm thankful He is patient with me and keeps doing what He does with me even when i have a bad attitude. i'm also thankful for a new season and a new challenge.

hope to see y'all's (double apostrophe, yes) lovin' faces...let me pull you a shot or something and we can chat it up. this is not an advertisement; more like an invitation. i think.


Common Grounds 
at Evangel Church
1414 E. 103rd St. 
Kansas City, MO 64131


North (Back) Entrance
Hours: 7am-2pm (for now) M-F

waiting (cont'd)

dance around the point
like harmless intuition
and do unto thyself as thou
would unto thy neighbor

dry the flowers picked
from top the mountain
and water plants
on windowsill
He hears your silent prayers
and remembers vacant stares
as you gazed into unseen
distance just behind your
paperwork

He heals your many papercuts
and ices all your bruises

as you're waiting waiting waiting
for something to arrive

He meets you on the water
in the canyons and cafes
and speaks of things much better
than nasty paper ships
whose bottoms dissolve
and disintegrate
til all there is is pulp
on water tainted  by ink

trust Him as He works
and you lie still on the table
let consciousness slip pass
and spirit come to voice

let eager hearts meander
toward vacant school houses
and build something to talk about
in lofty days to come
where eager hands will read
and write and learn of better days
and feel the ridges of the Heart
Who felt and knew it all

Whose every sentence ending
marks earthquake's jagged line
on papers inked by needles
as we measure what was said

sit and wait and want
for April's green and laughter
and smell the crisp
December as you linger
in your sleep.

A Bloody Bridegroom

Exodus 4:24-26
CJB-At a lodging-place on the way, ADONAI met Moshe and would have killed him, had not Tzipporah taken a flintstone and cut off the foreskin of her son. She threw it at his feet, saying, "What a bloody bridegroom you are for me!" But then, God let Moshe be. She added, "A bloody bridegroom because of the circumcision!" 

NAS- Now it came about at the lodging place on the way that the LORD met him and sought to put him to death. Then Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son's foreskin and threw it at Moses' feet, and she said, "You are indeed a bridegroom of blood to me."So He let him alone. At that time she said, "You are a bridegroom of blood "-because of the circumcision. 


This small and often overlooked snippet of a story, wedged  between Moses/Moshe's commission at the burning bush and his return and reunification with his brother, Aharon, has been one that I've been throwing around in my mind for a while.I'm having a hard time understanding what actually happened here, yet the story captures me and takes me away in my imagination.


Why did the L-rd pursue Moshe to kill him? What did that look like? Did the L-rd appear to Moshe and chase Him? Or did Moshe become ill? And how did Tzipporah/Zipporah know the circumcision of her son was the problem? Or was it the solution of a different problem in that it provided  some sort of atonement for Moshe?


In Tikva Frymer-Kensey's book, Reading the Women of the Bible: A New Interpretation of Their Stories, she discusses a lot of these questions. Note: questions- not a lot of definitive explanations for what was going on here. She mentions the significance of the use of the flint. This was long after metal was being used for weaponry, yet a traditional flint would have been used for rituals such as circumcision. Frymer-Kensey notes that although some translations (like NAS which I listed above) specify that she threw the foreskin at Moshe's feet, this isn't necessarily concrete as she could have thrown it at their son's feet, or even G-d's feet, as the antecedent of "his" is unclear. What is also unclear is to whom she was speaking when she proclaims, "you are a bridegroom of blood to me." Could have been Moshe, but also could have been the L-rd. Tzipporah's name means "bird", which is significant because birds are some of the most protective animals when it comes to their young. She also notes the continual weight that blood carries for atonement, which almost goes without saying. I'm glad she said it, though.

Lastly, I will say that Moshe was rescued or delivered by three women before he was called by G-d to be the deliverer of the Israelites. His birth mother, Yocheved, (with the assistance of Miriam, which actually makes four women), his foster mother, the daughter of Pharaoh, and Moshe's wife, Tzipporah. This serves as a foreshadowing ("four"shadowing? nyuk nyuk) as well as a reminder to Moshe and all his readers to respect your women.

While we are on the subject of Israelites, I will leave you with this song, a component of the album I've been camping out on all week. Get it, Patty!

Watch the full episode. See more Austin City Limits.

 

Hasta Luego, 76-731a

The following turn of events in the news brings interest to me (and sadness, I suppose). For my senior thesis I wrote about immigration policy and public opinion, comparing these nationally and locally. For my research I was able to study all of the Kansas session law relating to immigration. One law in particular caught my attention:

      76-731a.   Certain persons without lawful immigration status deemed residents for purpose of tuition and fees.  

Notes: This statute came as a result of a federal statute that requires all children to be educated, even if they are undocumented immigrants. Here it states that if an undocumented immigrant meets certain requirements such as three years in a Kansas high school and applying for citizenship after becoming eligible, they will be considered a Kansas resident for the purpose of tuition and fees for postsecondary education.
            It was not written into law until 2004. Following this, Kristen Day sued Kathleen Sebelius, the Kansas governor, in Day v. Sebelius in 2005. The constitutionality was challenged of allowing undocumenteds to pay in-state tuition. Hispanic interest groups intervened in the case and the plaintiff lost, upholding the statute.

In fact, this law made me feel pretty proud of Kansas.

Recently, a bill went to the Kansas legislature to repeal this law.

Foes aim to repeal in-state tuition for illegal immigrants’ kids - KansasCity.com
You can read the full article above, but I found the following section noteworthy:
"Andrea Pardo-Spalding moved with her parents from Mexico to Kansas City, Kan., when she was 15. She paid in-state tuition at Kansas State University thanks to the law. She came to Tuesday’s hearing to thank lawmakers for passing the law and to urge them to keep it on the books.
“I have big plans for the future,” she said. “That’s what this country and this state have taught me. I want them (lawmakers) to know we’re not criminals. We’re the people who make America.”
Now 24, Pardo-Spalding is a legal resident who hopes to become a citizen in a year. Asked what she’d be doing if she hadn’t gone to K-State, she smiled. “I’d be waiting tables,” she said."


Unfortunately,

Final approval for bill repealing tuition for illegal immigrants - KansasCity.com

Sorry, Andrea.

I know there are many differing opinions on this topic, so if you're out there opining, bring it on.