"Open my lips, oh Lord, and my mouth shall proclaim your praise!  Create in me a clean heart, oh Lord and renew a right spirit within me."   Lines from the opening prayer of Morning Prayer for Individual Worship in Book of Common Prayer, taken from the lines of Psalm 51.  How many mornings have I repeated these lines and how many times during the day do I think them- as opposed to how many times I have actually put them into practice?

Not nearly enough, as my inconsistency in writing this blog attests.  I have been and remain one of those Christians who snarkily believe that my actions will reveal the light of the Holy Spirit in me, and that is enough.  But is it?  Is it enough to rely on works and actions, while good in their own right, or is it better to speak as well?  Especially in these times of meanness, where venomous language rolls off the tongues of so many, and from every direction.

Jesus brought a message of peace, forgiveness, acceptance and transition.  Transition is what redemption is all about in my estimation.  Redemption means that there is no longer a place for anything approaching hate, or fear for that matter.  Redemption means that what was there has been traded in for a better model, a different mode of thinking, seeing.

To me it means that conflict with the world is something I must put aside, and live freely in the light of God.  It doesn't mean that conflict goes away, it means looking at it with new light. In that light there is nothing other than living in the happiness of every new day.  I think John Lennon was trying to get to this idea in his much loved and reviled song "Imagine".  Taken literally it sounds foolish. Taken to heart it makes perfect sense.  Just like the Bible.  Just like Jesus. Just like all of the people that we love to resent.

The world wasn't made for a chosen handful, it was made for everyone, with term limits on each life.  Why waste life trying to control it for everyone else?  Open my lips, oh Lord, create in me a clean heart and a right spirit.  Teach me to live.