Free of Encumbrance

2012-01-28T18:05:00.000-08:00

What demons must you silence?

(The Possessed, 1973, see: www.jesusmafa.com and www.SocialTheology.com)

Lectionary Scripture - Mark 1:21-28 (NRSV)

They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God." But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, "What is this? A new teaching--with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

Reflection on the Scripture:

Did you know that Jesus’ first public act of ministry involved demon exorcism? Yep, that’s right. Jesus was in someone’s home one day where synagogue (i.e. house church) was being held that day and some guy comes in off the street and clearly he’s beside himself. In fact, he’s not himself at all. The voice or thing possessing the man is so disruptive and disturbing that Jesus heals him with a few simple words of, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And with some convulsing and crying out, the man is freed and he returns to himself. Do you ever wish you had such power over your own demons? I wish I did and would want nothing less for everyone else.

In a Zen Buddhism daily calendar that my wife got me for Christmas this year, one of the readings this past week is from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It reads, “The man who masters himself is delivered from the force that binds all creatures.” Or to express the statement more inclusively, I would re-phrase to say, “The person who masters herself or himself is delivered from the force that binds all creatures.” One of those areas of mastery for most any person is finding one’s voice. In that regard, there are so many people and things tamping down our voices and taking them over and telling us how we ought to be or not be that it’s simply crazy-making. For most of us, if we stop and are truly honest, can any of us say that we truly know ourselves, or know our voice, apart from an institution or person(s) we’ve been attached to for years or perhaps our whole lifetime?

Take for example what happened today. My wife and I met up with my elderly mother to celebrate her 80^th birthday over lunch at her retirement center. At one point during lunch, my mother mentioned that a friend of hers had asked with concern about how I was doing since leaving membership, ordained ministry, and employment with the Community of Christ. To my mother’s credit, she said, “Well, I really think you ought to ask Brad. I know he’d love to talk with you. All I can tell you is what I’ve observed. And what I see is that he’s happier, far more relaxed, and much freer in his thinking and voice. You really ought to give him a call.” Not long after that, my mother asked, “Now you’re going to bring me communion next Sunday, right?”

My mother’s request took me back for a moment as I found myself “possessed” by old institutional thinking in which I thought, “Man, I better not do that or I could find myself damned to hell.” But then I realized that rather than submitting to this form of possession and dismissing my voice, I had to exorcise that crazy demon and step up to the plate and new way of being human and new way of believing as God envisioned and communicated to me last May (see posting titled “My Recent Journey, My God Encounter”). It’s then that I found myself rather amused and thinking how interesting it is that a human religious institution tells others that I no longer have authority to minister and I’m about to go along with it. That is, until I hear my own mother saying in so many words that my walk with God carries more than sufficient authority to administer Christian communion to her. So I ask you, who am I to believe? Do I believe the institution or do I believe the woman who brought me into this world, nurtured me into the soul I am, and encouraged me to always follow God’s Spirit no matter where it leads? I bet you can answer the question for me.

The Community of Christ worship resource for this week says that Jesus spoke from and with personal authority. It also says that Jesus used the resources and context of his day to teach a new way of being human. Additionally, it notes that reconciliation and healing are at the core of good health and then asks what demons possess you and what is Jesus saying to you today. Well, after today, I think Jesus is telling me to own my personal authority and speak with a voice that reflects that authority and isn’t controlled by an institution of anyone else’s voice. Reconciling myself to that is very healing and if my mother (a retired psychiatric nurse) is any judge of things, than I am in better health than I have been in a very long time.

Furthermore, it’s amazing how useful blogging is in terms of the resources and context of the day for getting out the message God wants me to share – a message that calls for you and me to establish a church universally free of the encumbrances of the world so that apostles like you (i.e. “messengers”) can prepare that beloved world for the Divine One’s coming – a coming that will be nothing less than the just and peaceable reign of God. Only an unencumbered people living an unencumbered faith will be able to make it happen. What demons must you silence and exorcise for that to happen?

Brad Shumate, M.S., M.A., LMHC

Free of Encumbrance

Vancouver, Washington

2012-01-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

Respond to God’s Call

(Artwork titled "Calling Disciples" (2001) by Dr. He Qi, professor at the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary in China.)

Lectionary Scripture Focus – Mark, Chapter 1, verses 14-20 (NRSV)

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

Reflection on the Scripture:

What if someone told you that most of what’s happening in churches today isn’t very compelling? Are those words that gird you for battle? Or are they words that cause you to nod in agreement out of the frustration you live with day in and day out?

I think most of the people who would do battle over such comments have largely written me and others off as nutcases. Believe me, I more than understand. And for me, I’m glad you’re comfortable and at ease in your faith as you presently experience it. I wouldn't have it any other way. But if you ever grow weary of it, grab me hard by the ear and drag me off for whatever kind of conversation you need or want to have -- even a heated debate will be fine.

And why is that? It’s because I care about you very much and would rather you have far more compelling “follow me” moments like Simon and Andrew had with Jesus than settling for what you put up with week in and week out at your non-compelling church. I’d rather have you angry with me and arguing with me than having you settle for an encumbered life dominated by oppressive encumbered faith. And if I need to be the fall guy so you can ultimately explore a broader more liberating way of being and believing in God, then I’m the guy to blame or the minister to blame or whatever you need me to be.

On that note, I have to give a big hand up to a very dear friend of mine for over 23 years. She called me recently and said that I was getting too bold and edgy with the blog. She then said, “I don’t know whether to kiss you or hit you upside the head.” She then commented that it seemed I was grandiose lately and asked if I was psychotic. I responded by saying that I didn’t think so. She then asked, “How do you know?” Well, since both of us are mental health professionals, I suggested that we do a mental status exam together. We proceeded and by the end of it I said that even my employer thinks I’m doing a great job and loves my work and “the only voice I hear in my head right now is yours! So what you do you think? Am I crazy?” We agreed that I wasn’t off my proverbial rocker. Figuratively however, she asked that I quit setting people’s houses of beliefs on fire. I replied by saying I didn’t think I had done any such thing, but there were a few bonfires going in some people’s backyards. All I was trying to do was to get people thinking again about the “belief-nets” they have been tending so faithfully for so very long with so very little satisfaction in terms of what’s truly compelling enough to foment change and sacrifice for the just and peaceable reign of God.

Yesterday, I think I did get a bit of additional vision on that while conducting extended orientation for new staff at the mental health and addictions treatment center where I presently work. Most of my time and purpose in that session was to speak to the importance of fundraising and how every single one of the young clinicians in attendance was critical and essential to the task of bringing in additional dollars for serving and helping those who suffer emotionally and psychologically and who have no means for alleviating their suffering in a culture and society hostile to their needs and hostile to universal healthcare for each and every living soul.

I subsequently told them how they are the face to the community of gifted and devoted professionals willing to live with less so those less fortunate can heal and become whole. Thereafter, I then told them of two judges I toured recently through one of our residential drug recovery centers for moms and their kids. I told them how one of the judges saw two women at the center who had been before his bench. I then spoke of how deeply the judge had been moved by seeing the women safe and getting treatment and reunited their children. He way even more joyful and elated when they saw him and yelled out to everyone, “That’s my judge!!” Such joy and elation on the part of the judge and the residents had been possible only because of the hard work done by dedicated staff like the young clinicians sitting before me in orientation.

And lest anyone was still skeptical, I took them through my credentials of being a licensed mental health professional who had put many years into publically funded mental health. And on top of that, I had been a pastor in three urban based congregations trying to shepherd those faith communities toward sacrificial living and the kind of generosity desperately needed by struggling persons in the larger community. Ultimately however, I had to come back to public mental health in order to make a genuine and compelling difference.

At the end of my presentation, I looked around the room of mostly young adults. The gratitude and validation in their faces was palpable. One young clinician approached me after orientation and said, “Did you say you were a pastor and lived in Missouri?” I confirmed those things to her. She then said, “I really appreciated hearing that. I just moved here from Missouri. My father was a pastor. I’m a preacher’s kid. The adjustment has been hard because of all the rain here in the Pacific Northwest.” We talked a bit longer and I assured her that I knew exactly what she was talking about in terms of the adjustment. I assured her that it would pass and she would get used to it and might even like it. I did confide that it took me two years to make the adjustment but I wouldn’t live anywhere else. Hopefully in time, she’ll make the adjustment too as I sense that her compassion for others runs very deep and will undoubtedly be a blessing to our larger community. In one very limited sense however, she heard the words “follow me” and hopefully that means she’ll be with our community of sacrificial professionals for a long time as she seeks in her own prophetic way to bring the just and peaceable reign of God nearer to the lives of those who so desperately need the gifts, skills, abilities she has to offer.

At the beginning of this blog post, I asked how you would react if someone told you that what’s happening in churches today isn’t very compelling. It wasn’t me who originally made that comment but rather a Luther Seminary professor in a podcast done jointly each week with three other colleagues. The professor then went on to say that Jesus never told anyone what they should believe – wonderful words to my ears. Instead, Jesus only urged people to “follow me”.

The professor then asked, “What would it take to make you change, to make you leave, to make you follow and go to something truly compelling?” My young clinician friend decided that for her it was the Pacific Northwest and the employer for whom we presently work. Her meeting a fellow disciple in me makes that easier. It surprised me when she then asked if I had left ministry completely. The best and most honest response I could give in the moment was that “I’m working on a little something.”

God's Peace be with you,

Brad Shumate, M.S.,M.A., LMHC

Free of Encumbrance

Vancouver, WA

Email: brshumate@freeofencumbrance.net

Has God called you lately?

2012-01-14T15:59:00.000-08:00

Has God called you lately?

Icon of Samuel from the Orthodox Church in America

First Samuel, Chapter 3, verses 1-11 and 19-20 (NRSV):

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was. Then the LORD called, "Samuel! Samuel!" and he said, "Here I am!" and ran to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call; lie down again." So he went and lay down.

The LORD called again, "Samuel!" Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." But he said, "I did not call, my son; lie down again." Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, 'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as before, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant is listening." Then the LORD said to Samuel, "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.” [So] as Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD.

Reflection on the Lectionary

Has God tried to call you lately? Perhaps it sounds strange to put God’s name in such a question. More often we use the name of a loved one or friend, school mate or co-worker instead. For instance, “Has your brother tried to call you lately?”

In terms of God however, it’s not likely that most of us wait around, wonder about, or anticipate a call from the Divine One. We’re in a time like Samuel’s where words from God are rare and visions not widespread. With that said, would you like a call from God? Could you use one? How about a wake-up call? If so, I imagine your next question is, “How do I go about getting God to call?

Well first off, you will need to open yourself to seeing how things you’ve taken for granted for a very long time are actually in conflict. For instance, I love the main points or observations about this week’s scripture’s focus as stated in my former denomination’s worship resource. The reality in church life however is that people are pretty closed off or hostile about the points below:

· It was not God’s refusal to speak [in Samuel’s time]; it was the people’s refusal to listen.

· If we are listening [as Samuel was], God speaks new things in the midst of struggle and uncertainty.

· Sometimes those whom God calls are not ones who are on the “expected” list.

· We live in hope that God will continue to speak a new thing.

· It takes courage to speak that which we have heard from God.

Given my experience from last May, all I can say is, “How true, how true, how true!” For me, and for a number of other people today, God is speaking a radically new and different thing that will make “both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle.” And what I believe that to be is that God has let loose into the world a whole hell of a lot of prophets; far more than we might have ever thought possible.

On that note, I remember a former denominational president saying several years ago that he no longer wanted his followers to be regarded as a people with a prophet. Instead, he wanted those persons to see themselves as prophetic people. The purpose of this was so the prophetic task could be shared far more broadly than it ever had been before. For me, I think it was also an acknowledgement that the prophetic work of God has always been shared far more widely and broadly than people have ever wanted to acknowledge. It has to be if the earth and humanity are to ever heal and become whole again – not only within themselves but together as well. We have to once and for all get beyond any belief systems or theological notions that any faith is “the one true religion.”

I loved it yesterday at an “all staff” training provided my current employer, LifeWorks NW. The presenter was Dr. Donna Beegle of Communication Across Barriers. The title of her presentation was “Understanding Poverty: The Impact of Poverty for Individuals, Families and Communities.” Specifically, Donna spoke to the debilitating isolating nature of generational poverty and the societal/cultural changes that must take place to break the cycle of such marginalization. Her message was a refreshing counterpoint to the all too familiar bigotry of “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” mentality.

One thing that I greatly admired at the very beginning of Donna’s presentation was when she said that people tell her that she’s a prophet. People even call her a prophet. But whether or not she is one, Donna says, her task has been clear. Not only was it to lift herself and her family out of grinding hopeless poverty, but to help others do that as well. And through a phenomenal compassion uniquely her own which Donna summons every moment of every day, she calls us to do the same for one another and for the world that God wants to be healed and made whole.

So Donna, as far as I’m concerned, it’s time for you to own the prophet label and simply say that you are one. Like Samuel, God has called you -- and in my mind, you meet the bar to a far greater degree than a number of others who have assumed or taken that mantle to themselves.

It’s here then that I must confess something of my own. After my May 26^th experience last year (see My Recent Journey, My God Encounter), I met with a friend who possesses a brilliant mind and is an evangelist in my former church. I met with her to share the encounter I had been through -- but let me share as well that several years ago after an act of civil disobedience for which I was arrested -- she told me she found my life and calling to be in the tradition of the prophets. So after hearing my experience of calling this past year, my evangelist friend said, “You really need to begin work with a spiritual director as soon as possible.” Taking that advice seriously, I learned of a local university professor who had been doing spiritual direction for over eleven years. To my joy, she knows and values the interfaith world and teaches spirituality across the Islamic and Jewish and Christian traditions. Even greater was my joy when my May 26^th experience didn’t surprise her at all and she would be very glad to help me work through its discernment -- something that would not have been possible with my former denomination.

Within weeks of beginning discernment, my spiritual director pronounced my path as that of the mystic. And then a few weeks later, in a matter of fact way, she said, “Sorry, but you’re a prophet as well. God has chosen to work with you directly. God does not require a human institution to connect with you, call you, or work through you. Your message is huge and unlike any other. And don't worry, what has happened to you is happening to people all over the planet. Take comfort knowing you are not alone. Prepare yourself however for being criticized, denigrated, and maligned. You will be called heretic. This is why it became necessary for you to move on from your church.” At that point, I’m sure I looked like a deer in the headlights. When something finally came to my mind, it did so quite forcefully and I said, “Well, if that’s true of me, it is also true of a great many other people I know, love, and admire. So we’re going to keep that prophet thing to prophet beginning with a lowercase p rather than a capital p.” I felt relief when my spiritual director nodded her agreement.

So back to my original questions, “Has God tried to call you lately? Would you like a wake-up call from God? Could you use one? Are you ready to start seeing and doing something about things that stand in conflict with each other?” For instance, by sharing the following story in this public blog, I’m doing something about the conflict I see between who is prophetic and who isn’t. The story is rather amusing to me anymore. It involves an incident a few years ago when a general officer in my former denomination made a strongly assertive public proclamation that, “There’s only one prophet!” The person of course was her boss the prophet-president of her denomination. In my sense of things these days, the general officer’s statement is nonsense because God has decided to have prophets everywhere throughout the world and in many cases, like me, they’re not on the “expected" list. Now lest it seem that I’m being critical of the general officer, the only thing I am critical of is her statement and her mindset in that particular moment on that particular day. I have no way of knowing if she stills believes what she said then. What I do know of the person is that she has a great love for people, particularly people struggling with gay-lesbian concerns/needs in their lives. On that score, I do admire her.

As a young child, Samuel heard his name called several times. A number of those times, he was confused about who was actually calling him and from where and for what reason. Man, do I ever appreciate Samuel’s dilemma. The great thing is that as Samuel grew and matured in his calling, everyone from from Dan to Beer-sheba came to accept Samuel was a trustworthy prophet. I can only hope the same will be said of me in time as I continue to call people to live unencumbered lives with unencumbered faith. The thing is this, you’ll have to come to some wrenching honesty with yourself about how encumbered your life is -- along with casting off the encumbered faith you’ve chosen to settle for. And please hear me, if that gets too heavy for you to bear, or you simply need a listening ear, just drop me an email or give me a call. I’ll be glad to help out in any way I can. Why so? Because there’s a planet and world that needs healing, justice, peace, well-being and happiness for every living soul – and you, prophet, are integral to making that happen.

God's Peace be with you,

Brad

Brad Shumate, M.A.,M.S., LMHC

Free of Encumbrance Ministries

Vancouver, WA

Email: brshumate@freeofencumbrance.net

God Out of the Box

2012-01-07T14:40:00.000-08:00

Dear Readers: I have determined that a little more lead time is necessary for completing preparations for the first blog talk radio webcast of "Free of Encumbrance". Originally, the webcast was scheduled for Sunday, January 22. The delay is so I can be certain of providing as much interaction opportunity as possible between hosts, guests, callers, and listeners during the webcast. I also want to be sure of maintaining momentum once the webcasts have started. So, the new date is the first Sunday in Spring which will be March 25. Something about that feels very good and wonderfully symbolic. Thank you for your patience, support, and understanding. I look forward to us sharing together on March 25th. -- Brad

*********************

"God Out of the Box"

Scripture Focus - Mark 1:4-11 (NRSV)

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Now John was clothed with camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, "The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."

Message for this coming Sunday:

Do you get frustrated with faith communities putting God in a box? Ever wish you could get God out of the box? You probably can if you’re willing to make the sacrifice.

Listening this week to a podcast done by a group of professors from Luther Seminary, they bravely stated that religions exist for the purpose of putting God in a box. Their sentiments are echoed by the Muslim-Atheist-Jewish-Christian author named, Samir Selmanovic, who critiques organized religion as little more than God-management systems. I couldn’t agree more, particularly in terms of my own recent journey and the sacrifices made so God could be out of the box for me and my life. With God out of the box, there have been blessings and insights beyond what I would have thought possible.

Both John and Jesus let God out of the box. From there God came alive for them in ways that organized religion and the governmental powers of their time would not allow. Ultimately those sources of authority couldn’t tolerate it and killed them. So let’s not be mistaken about the sacrifice entailed.

Another effect of “God out of the box” is that a person may be led to eccentricities. John decided that the only thing he wanted to wear was camel’s hair and eats locusts with a bit of honey. I wonder if that eccentricity symbolized something for him. John also railed continuously against the tyranny of religious and governmental authorities. He didn't worry about losing his nonprofit tax-exempt status or worry about offending some old fart in the church pew, but his rantings did cost him his head.

By contrast, Jesus had a bad habit of routinely breaking the law and doing so in God’s name. He did this to stand over and against injustice, absurdity, and things he found to be utterly contrary to an unconditionally loving God. Possessed of a phenomenal intellect and reasoning skills beyond most any of us, Jesus showed up absurdity for what it was at nearly every turn and he did so with breathtaking compassion for those on the receiving end of such foolishness -- those who suffered most because of the autocratic malignantly narcissistic persons who ruled over them. Repeatedly Jesus’ intellect and compassion served as foils in his fight against the tyranny dominating people’s lives. In the end, as with John, the religious and political authorities decided to snuff out the “Jesus effect” through one of the most humiliating and tortuous forms of execution, i.e. crucifixion.

Today, in this country and many others, one’s beliefs and the right to speak out about those beliefs will not land a person in jail for the most part. However, there’s still a price to be paid and sacrifices made. For some of us that involves the need to move on from "official" ties with faith traditions we were raised in, ordained by, and in some instances were our employers. Sacrificing “formal” ties is painful but I am deeply grateful for those persons who chose to remain in friendship and contact with me. They are truly life's priceless blessings for they allow me to speak freely and fully about the God who calls me to establish a church free of the world's encumbrances rather than belong to an institution that wants me yoked to its particular God-management system.

On that note, a quick story comes to mind. I remember a baptism incident several years ago as a jurisdictional officer in the Pacific Northwest for my former denomination. Brian, the minister for a baptism, felt led to baptize Edith with these words, “I baptize you into the community of Christ.” He then put Edith beneath the lake's water and brought her back up. To the delight of everyone, Edith gleefully shouted out her joy in the radiant sunshine bathing that moment.

The incident horrified the religious legalists. Why? Well, Brian hadn’t used the proper spiritual incantation of “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” So in their minds the baptism hadn't taken and therefore it angered God and upset Jesus. As the area officer, I heard more complaints about that event than I had of any other in quite a while. Finally a higher level church official pressed me to counsel, and if necessary, discipline Brian about his error. I refused to do so and made clear that the official had not been present, and that the official had not witnessed the beauty of the event nor the power of God’s Spirit that attended it. Therefore I made clear that I would not detract from Edith’s baptism by counseling or disciplining Brian. In short, I said that God was big enough to cope with the situation and everyone else needed to do the same. Naturally, as you might imagine, my higher-ups were displeased and the incident caused me significant career capital. The memory of what happened however for Brian and Edith and the entirety of their real church family -- not the institutional one -- will be a blessing I treasure forever. And if those words frustrate religious legalists, then so be it. Feel free to chalk it up as one of my eccentricities due to God being out of the box for me.

“God out of the box” allows the mortal and spiritual worlds to come much closer together that we might ever imagine. When that happens for you, God and the world are going to name you and identify you. The scripture above is clear on that, e.g. John was the Baptizer and Jesus was the Beloved. For me, given my experience last May, I might be Brad the pure of heart. For Brian, he might be Brian the baptismal rebel and for Edith it could be Edith the joyful. But then again, I'd want to get Edith's input on that as she's an iconoclast of epic proportions!

So if you’re willing to make the needed sacrifices and let God out of the box for you and your life, what will the identifier be for you? What will be the eccentricity that takes hold in you and makes you a little wild? Believe me, you can trust whatever happens and it won’t take away your goodness. And if you need a little help on that end, just remember the following portion of an old children’s story. In the story, a child is curious about the nature of a new animal that’s arrived to the forest. The little girl feels anxious and unsettled, even upset over the animal's behavior. Finally, out of her concern, she goes to Mr. Beaver and asks, “Is he good, Mr. Beaver?” Mr. Beaver responds by saying, “Oh, of course he’s good -- but he isn’t tame.”

Pastor Brad Shumate, M.A., M.S., LMHC
Free of Encumbrance Ministries
Vancouver, WA
Email: brshumate@freeofencumbrance.net

2011-12-29T14:59:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends: Please join us for the first webstream broadcast of "Free of Encumbrance" to be held Sunday, January 22nd, at 3pm Pacific. Details to be announced soon.

What's in a Name?

Lectionary Scripture Focus – Luke 2:15-21 (NRSV)

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us." So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Lectionary Reflection:

The scripture above reflects blessings that follow on the heels of life-changing experiences. As those blessings continue and accumulate over time, we name and identify them by some means or another. As with Mary, we ponder them. We remember them. We retell them. We treasure them. In the end, the blessings mold and shape us. They lead us to do right by others in a world struggling to find its way.

For instance, many of us ponder and treasure names like Gandhi, Buddha, Mother Teresa, the Prophet Mohammad, Moses, Jesus, Martin Luther King. We equate these names with accomplishing much good in the world. Their names and memories exist as statements of faith and promise for what is possible in our troubled world, especially because of the great sacrifices each one made or endured trying to help the world be a better place for us all.

For me, I also think of lesser known prophets and teachers. Having returned to publicly funded mental health work this past August, I am in awe of my mental health colleagues where I work now. A staff of six hundred accomplishes a phenomenal amount of good every year for 16,500 people at or below the poverty level who need mental health and addiction services. Miraculously, the staff accomplishes that mission each year with very limited resource. For instance, most of their workspaces need repair, updating or outright replacement. An insufficient amount of equipment and up to date equipment challenge and frustrate work efforts almost daily. Office space lacks adequate climate control. In fact, my team calls our space “Siberia!” The word “cramped” describes everyone’s workspace. Storage space barely exists and the space that does qualifies for a TV episode of “Hoarders”. Many staff could command higher salaries elsewhere, but they stay with the organization out of commitment to a mission to help the poor who suffer addictions or mental illness. Overall, the sacrifices of these lesser known prophets and teachers are herculean. And when one asks the name for such an organization, one simply answers by saying, “LifeWorks NW”. What a name for a phenomenal community of staff and clients.

If we pause to consider what’s in a name as I did above with LifeWorks NW the answer is, “Everything!” In the shepherds’ case after leaving the presence of Mary and Joseph and Jesus, it was the very same thing. They went to make known to others what had happened to them regarding Jesus. If we stop to ponder everything in terms of you and me, the same results occur if we have been responsive to the blessings God has placed in our lives.

For instance, after applying last summer to LifeWorks NW and the agency subsequently decided it wanted to hire me, my references needed to be checked. In other words, LifeWorks NW needed to talk to people that had a history with me, i.e. people who had known and worked with me. One of my references later told me that when he was called by LifeWorks NW, he jokingly said, “What would you like to know? I can tell you about the time Brad walked on water or when he parted the Red Sea. Which one would you like to hear first?” My friend and I had a good laugh over the comments, but as you might imagine his remarks and affirmations touched me deeply. Most certainly his words helped me get the job.

So what’s in a name? Everything! Names obviously have influence. Names have power. Recently I met with a senior vice president of a corporation headquartered here in Portland, Oregon. The visit involved me seeking a charitable donation of several thousand dollars. When calling to request the appointment, I casually asked what most of us tend to do, “How are you today?” The executive replied, “Well, I’ll answer that question honestly if you will do the same in return.” Jokingly I replied, “Well before you start, let me warn you that you not only have a fundraiser on the phone but also a pastor and mental health professional, the last two of which I have been doing the past thirty years.” Laughing and delighted, the executive and I spent the twenty minutes visiting on the phone. At the end of our conversation, we made an appointment for a week later to further discuss the charitable gift. “Dennis” is the man’s name and his name will always have the power to evoke this initial first memory of him as well as the memory of the gift he later made. Both memories constitute blessings and I shall not forget them.

All the names noted above have power and influence because of the blessings associated with them. And lest we be confused over what constitutes a blessing, one religious scholar defined it best this past week when he said that “a blessing is when one commits oneself wholeheartedly to the well-being of another in tangible action.”

So here’s my request of you: Leave a comment here or on our FaceBook page describing a time when you committed yourself wholeheartedly to the well-being of another through tangible action. And if you can’t think of such a time, please feel free to share a story about someone else. I realize you may feel a bit self-conscious about such a request, but I’m asking that you trust yourself and get beyond that and share your story openly with the part of our world that visits here at Free of Encumbrance Ministries. In doing so, your tangible action will be a blessing to others. If you have difficulty posting your story, please email it to me and I’ll be sure it gets posted.

Blessings and Peace,

Pastor Brad Shumate, M.S.,M.A.,LMHC

Free of Encumbrance Ministries

Vancouver, WA

Email: brshumate@freeofencumbrance.net

Please remember to mark your calendar for the first webstream broadcast of "Free of Encumbrance" to be held Sunday, January 22nd, at 3pm Pacific. Details to be announced soon.

Reader Comments:

In response to your request, I can’t help but relive the two years that I cared for my mom until her death a few years ago. Having not had the best of relationships with her for many, many years – I moved into my parents’ home. Doing so meant that I lost all freedom that I had. I now had no furniture of my own, no home, limited books, etc. My stuff had to go because of course it was their home. But more than the physical items that I lost, I also lost my freedom to worship in my own home. I no longer had a place for a worship center, I could no longer play the Christian music throughout the house every day. My life became a very routine, get up, fix mom and dad coffee and maybe breakfast, go to work, come home, fix dinner, attend to mom’s needs, spend time just talking with her and then going to bed. All to start again the next day. I felt alone and lost in this new lifestyle but there were those who cared enough to make sure I was fed some spiritual food on occasion. As I sat by her bed, as I watched her take her last breath, I said, “Mom, Jesus and Timmy are waiting. Can you see them?” She opened her eyes, looked up and smiled, then passed quickly. (Tim was my brother who was killed almost 30 years ago in a plane crash. Mom always called him Timmy and never really got over his death) Blessings did come from that experience, none the least of which is a firm belief that God does hear us and provide for our need. And, I now am more qualified as I care for my father in the same way. Blessings come in many ways. I found many in those few years – a new relationship with my mother, not as a child but as her friend and caregiver, a deeper understanding of the pain God felt as I watched her past to another place and a feeling of love as never before. Blessing still abound.

Cheryl

2011-12-23T06:02:00.000-08:00

A Promise Kept

(graphic used with permission from churchpowerpoint.com)

Scripture Focus – Luke 2, verses 1-20 (NRSV)

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirin'i-us was governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered.

And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!"

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Lectionary Reflection:

There’s a scripture from Isaiah 9:6 which uses the words “wonderful”, “counselor”, “prince of peace” to describe and promise that a special child will be born to us. The scripture further promises that the presence of God will reside in this child. For many Christians, Jesus was the fulfillment of such a promise. And when Jesus comes again, he will usher in an era of endless peace and justice for our world. Many Christians today wait in fervent hope for such a time to come.

I wonder though if my non-churched friends take seriously such hope and promise of endless peace. Many of them ask quite skeptically, “When will this eternal peace happen? It couldn’t come any too soon, you know.”

No doubt many churched persons reply with words like, “Have faith, accept Jesus as your personal savior. Everything will work itself out.” I can also imagine the un-churched being told to…..

simply wait out the times,
endure the injustices committed by the greedy and powerful,
not be distracted by the ever widening gulf between “the haves” and “the have-nots”,
regard everyone as the author of their own troubles and responsible for their own solutions,
always avoid taking a stand on anything, or be so nuanced that no one will be made uncomfortable,
make sure government and political leaders are always empowered to commit acts of war, acts of impoverishment, acts of domination, and crimes against humanity whenever they wish,
lastly, make sure that the 10% of the world’s population controlling 85% of the world’s wealth gets all the advantages possible so they’re enriched even further and their wealth trickles down a bit to ease the sufferings of the poor.

In light of these realities, both today and millennia ago, there isn’t much reason for anyone to believe that a small child born into poverty and obscurity could be anything promising in terms of worldwide justice and endless world peace.

But what if the promise from so long ago meant something very different today, something other than waiting around for the sky to fall or the heavens to part? What if all those events about Jesus from ages ago were actually signs of a promise to the world about you?

What if Jesus was merely the forerunner of you and what you, at your best, can be and do for the pursuit of peace, justice, reconciliation, and healing of the human spirit? What if all that stood between you and the promise you represent for the world was simply your willingness to be the miracle you are? Wouldn’t heavenly host sing of you, like they did about Jesus, that God is well pleased? “No way,” you say? Well, I beg to differ because that’s precisely what’s going on.

Over twenty years ago when I began to preach routinely as a minister and pastor, I would use a particular sermon illustration from time to time from Knight’s Master Book of Illustrations (1956). For a long time, I never grasped completely why the story meant so much to me, but in recent years, I came to know why. The story dates back to a medieval time in a small European village. The village baker and his wife had a young daughter whom they adored and loved very much. Next door to them lived the blacksmith who owned a large dog. Both men had thriving businesses from their trades.

One day, villagers heard terrified agonizing screams from the baker’s daughter. Everyone ran to her aid. When they arrived they saw the blacksmith’s dog mauling the young child. Quickly they pulled the dog off the child but unfortunately they were too late. Severely injured, the girl died soon after the attack. Devastated, the baker and his wife mourned the loss of their beloved daughter as did the rest of the village.

Racked with guilt and remorse, the blacksmith tried to makes amends with the grieving parents and village but his efforts availed him nothing. Soon after, no one patronized his blacksmith business and the village shunned him completely. With no resources and no where to go and no one caring if he lived or died, the blacksmith grew depressed. Before long, he sickened into a shell of the man he’d been. Even the field of crops he hoped to raise for food languished because he was too weak to plow the ground.

Seeing the blacksmith’s plight, the baker lay awake in bed night after night unable to sleep. Something about the situation and everyone’s treatment of the man and the baker’s beliefs in a forgiving God conflicted with each other.

Finally the night arrived when the baker could stand things no more. So he got out of bed and went to the blacksmith’s field. There, by moonlight, he plowed the field completely and returned home.

When the baker crawled back into bed by his wife, she asked where he had been. He told her what he had done. Upset and wondering why he would do such a thing for the man responsible for their daughter’s death, the baker replied, “I did it so God might be.”

Whenever any of us does such things for such reasons, we are -- in that very moment -- a manifestation of God. In that singular moment we have eradicated poverty. In that singular moment, the distinction between “haves” and “have-nots” no longer exist. In that moment, the powerful have no greater standing than the least and poorest person on earth. In that moment, endless peace and healing occur. In that moment a promise has been kept because an incredibly gifted child, whom God gifted to the world, came into the world with a calling to show us what it means to honor the God Presence who resides in each one of us. And if we did so over time and as fully and completely as possible, this child of God affirmed to us a critically important teaching, “Greater things shall you do than I have done.”

So just as a village struggled so very long ago through a horrible tragedy and ultimately found its way to healing and peace because of a small prophetic kindness by one of its members, so also are you needed “so God might be” for others. With enough of us getting beyond the ways in which we wall ourselves off from the world -- and yes that even means the walls of our churches – a promise is therefore kept and a time of endless peace approaches.

When people have asked me about the changes in my life over the past several months ( My Recent Journey, My God Encounter) and why I have done the seemingly senseless things I have done and been so public about it, I can’t think of a better answer than to say with the baker, “I did it so God might be.” Nothing carries more hope of a promise to be kept than what each of us does every moment of every day “so God might be” for someone else.

May the Blessings of God's Peace and Hope for God’s coming attend you always,

Pastor Brad Shumate, M.S., M.A., LMHC

Free of Encumbrance Ministries

Vancouver, WA

brshumate@comcast.net

P.S. Mark your calendar for the first online gathering of "Free of Encumbrance" to be held Sunday, January 22nd, at 3pm (Pacific). Details to be announced soon.

He Shall Be Called Son of God

2011-12-16T06:13:00.000-08:00

(Graphic used with permission from ChurchPowerPoint.com)

Lectionary Scripture - Luke 1:26-38 NRSV

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you." But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end."

Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I am a virgin?" The angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God." Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

Lectionary Reflection

In summarizing a worship resource for Sunday, December 18^th, it comments that God’s greatest gifts to us may not be convenient or increase our personal security, but they change the world. It goes on to state that God’s means for bringing us such gifts often involves surprising people receiving surprising blessings. In this regard, our trust and courage and respect toward such persons -- and the blessings God has given them -- are things far more important for us to pay attention to. They are far more important to pay attention to than the status a human institution might grant to a particular person. They are far more important than the expertise we regard someone to have because of their education or training. Lastly, such things are far more important and impactful than what the wealth of money or wealth of power or wealth of influence a person, or persons, might have or wield. For when we see surprising blessings happen to surprising people and subsequently witness the things those persons set in motion, it draws believers together in extraordinary ways -- no matter what their faith tradition or faith journey has been.

Relevant questions from the resource then ask us to think of a time when has God gifted us with a calling that conflicted with one’s personal security? Another good question is how God brought more wholeness to your life from a surprising calling? And if you have experienced such things happening to you, what character or promise from scriptures do you most identify with?

As I reflected on Mary’s experience this week, it certainly seemed the case that a very surprising blessing came to a very surprising person. Little more than a child herself, yet at a state of physical development that made her capable of bearing a child, an angel of God confronts Mary with a calling that changes the world. The calling involves her birthing a child so gifted and attuned to God that others will call him “Immanuel” or “God with Us”. And what’s amazing about it all, is that everything that Mary needs for completing her call of birthing, raising, and nurturing Jesus into the man he becomes, is completely and totally within her grasp and abilities. And what’s not within her grasp, God sees that it is provided, even in matters regarding the personal safety of Jesus; that is until Jesus fulfills his own calling upon the tortuous cross of the Roman Empire.

I appreciate and understand the fear Mary experienced when a divine presence broke through human dimensions of space and time to enter her mortal reality with a profound calling for her life. For me, it happened this past May. And in response, I ended up in largely the same emotional and spiritual space reflected in Mary’s words, “Here I am, let it be with me according to your word.” If you’re confused and wondering what I’m speaking of, you can go to my blog post “My Recent Journey – My God Encounter.”

Ultimately, like Mary, I knew that broadcasting my “God Encounter” with the world meant considerable risk to my personal security. And so, like her, it remained a treasure in my heart, shared with only a few close and trusted friends, until the time was right to announce it to the world. Mostly that involved the need to move on from my former denomination which was also my previous employer, only because it lacks the freedom and ability at this point in time to embrace a calling like the one I have received.

What also speaks to me in the scripture above is God’s recognition and understanding of our need for independent corroboration. Many of us know such needs all too well when decisions regarding a calling have to be made. For when surprising blessings come to surprising people life then life can never return to what it was, especially if we are the kind of person who says, “Here I am, servant of the Lord, let it be with me according to your words.”

So in the case of an invisible naïve poverty stricken teenage girl from millennia ago, or an aging obscure insignificant minister like me, what are persons like Mary and me to do when God enters our lives so profoundly and brings with that encounter a new calling ? What sense are we to make of such phenomenal happenings in our lives?

Being someone who is also a mental health professional, the first place my head goes is to the question of my own sanity or the question of having some severe form of ego dysfunction. So I ask myself how could it be that in all my years of ministry and mental health training and related work did I miss confronting and attending to such serious personal issues. Thankfully God knows our self-doubting, self-questioning, and self-defeating ways before we even go there ourselves. For Mary and her bewilderment, God provided the sign of her cousin, Elizabeth, as being with child though everyone long ago considered her barren. When Mary subsequently visits her cousin, Elizabeth reveals her pregnancy to Mary. Thus, the word and calling of God are confirmed.

For me, God provided independent corroboration through friends and loved ones. The most recent of these corroborations took place this past weekend after remarking to a long-time friend that I continue to struggle trying to figure out what to do next in response to God’s call “to establish a church free of the encumbrances of the world.”

My friend who’s a very quiet and reserved fellow, and never goes to church, said these words to me, “I have no problem understanding what has happened to you, Brad. I want you to know that you have my support.” It was a stunning “pregnant” moment that renewed my energy. I would have never anticipated or thought my friend would say such a thing to me. Later the next day, I received an email from another friend telling me she had been reading and re-reading my experience as shared in blog post “My Recent Journey – My God Encounter.” Her email then expressed the following:

I am continuing to pray that enlightenment will come. You are a very strong person to have left what you’ve always known and embark on the unknown. Not many would do that. I wish you God’s peace through this joyous season and look forward to our continued friendship.

My friend’s email could not have been timelier and as I look to next month’s first online gathering of “Free of Encumbrance” for Sunday, January 22^nd at 3pm (more details to follow); I realize that God had been answering my friend’s prayers. In turn, her prayers had sustained me.

With each passing year, it can often become harder and harder to sustain what you have known. If that’s the case for you, just remember that God gives surprising blessings to surprising people. May you accept the blessing God has for you, may you have the strength to move on from what you’ve always known. May you have the courage to embark into the unknown. May you, like Mary, proclaim to the Being of Light who touches your life, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Pastor Brad Shumate, M.S., M.A., LMHC
Free of Encumbrance Ministries
Vancouver, WA
brshumate@comcast.net

"The Lord has Done Great Things"

2011-12-08T07:49:00.000-08:00

Lectionary Scripture - Psalm 126 (NRSV)

When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, "The LORD has done great things for them." The LORD has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.

Restore our fortunes, O LORD, like the watercourses in the Negeb. May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.

Reflection on the Scripture:

A worship resource for the above scripture states that God can be trusted to bring us from despair to hope, from sadness to joy. It affirms that God has done wonderful things for us and we’re blessed as a result. It also goes on to affirm that even in difficult times, God is with us and will restore us. The reader is then asked to consider when he or she has felt the need to be restored and how was God present to the individual during that time.

A number of years ago as a young pastor, I was living my dream. I and my family had been called to serve a well-established small church. After visiting the church and its lay leaders and scouting the area for a home, we eagerly accepted the call. We did so with much hope and anticipation for a successful ministry and many years of association with our new church family.

After a couple of years, a small circle of antagonistic members made it their mission to get rid of me. The reason is familiar to a lot pastors, i.e. the antagonists did not want things to change. Two individuals in particular nursed grudges almost a decade old against others in the congregation. The individuals and their followers determined that until injured feelings had been repaired to their liking, the congregation had no right to any other focus or mission.

For me, the situation constituted my first dealings in a faith based setting with persons struggling with personality disorder. As a mental health professional, I had dealt in the clinical setting with such matters, but never in a church. In the clinical setting, these health concerns were much easier to treat and manage. In a church setting, I found my efforts at interventions to be nearly impossible. This occurred mostly because my denominational overseers failed to grasp the concept of such disorders, let alone how to intervene appropriately and effectively so the congregation could be healthier for mission. Eventually, I came to see that this lack of understanding and willingness to intervene existed throughout the denomination I had been part of all my life.

After two years of trying to bring enlightenment and understanding, especially to the persons suffering such disorders, I finally realized I could achieve nothing that God hoped for the congregation. My options basically amounted to little more than being a care-taking maintenance-oriented pastor who spent his days and weeks and months trying to get people through the relational messes caused repeatedly by the congregational antagonists.

Eventually -- because of who and what God is in my life -- there was no other self-respecting option than to resign and relocate. The blow of that decision devastated my family and me. I felt a failure as a minister and pastor. I felt that I had let my family down. For a year, I remembered that our very young daughters kept saying they wanted to go back the town we left. I think for all of us, the move to a different metro area felt like its own kind of exile. Great sadness occupied our thoughts and hearts. For me, I despaired in thinking that I had failed God and failed my call from God to further the cause of God’s just and peaceable reign. My wife eloquently described the time as “the death of a dream.”

But God did wonderful things for us in that we found a home in our new community that we absolutely loved. I also secured a job with a mental health center under the supervision of a man that to this day I would describe as a saint sent by God during that trying and difficult time. Nearly twenty years later, some of our first friendships in our new community remain our best and closest friends today. In time, I rose through the ranks of local public mental health to have oversight for the entire adult system of care in our county. There couldn’t be a more apt description than the Psalm's proclamation that God “restored our fortunes.”

In time, I tried working again for the church and did so for over twelve years. Once again however, when serving as a pastor, the same kind of problem with a small circle of antagonistic persons occurred. As one bright and perceptive supporter in the congregation told me, “You must feel like you’re going through the same thing all over again.” The person couldn’t have been more accurate. This time, when resignation became necessary, the devastation was much easier to manage. I was older, understood people better, and was far more aware of my limitations (and my former denomination’s limitations) in trying to intervene with a group of toxic individuals.

And once again, God did wonderful things, particularly as reflected in my recent post of “My Recent Journey – My God Encounter”. Today, I’m back working full time in publicly funded mental health services. I feel that I am a part of something truly making a difference in people’s lives in the community. Lastly, I have the hope and call from God “to establish a church free of the encumbrances of the world.” Indeed, God is doing wonderful things. And the future, in my humble opinion, couldn’t be brighter or more hopeful for what such a church will be and do and accomplish for God.

Brad Shumate

Vancouver, Washington
peace-n-justice@comcast.net

My Recent Journey - My God Encounter

2011-10-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends, Readers, and Loved-ones:

Something wonderful happened to me in May of this year. God reached into my life with a new calling so profound that I must share it with you. The story began Thursday afternoon, May 26^th, 2011 in my hotel room in Austin, Texas. I had been in Texas to deliver an estate plan to friends in Harlingen, Texas, a community near the Mexico border about six hours south of Austin. Having returned to Austin, my flight home to Portland, Oregon would not leave until the next day, Friday, May 27^th. Thinking about how to spend the rest of my time in Austin, I considered sightseeing or going to a movie. Eventually, I decided to stay in my hotel room and watch TV.

Making that decision as I finished lunch in my room, I sensed God’s presence filling the space around me. Soon thereafter, the presence flooded throughout my being. From its intensity, I knew there would be no escape from what followed. All I know is that the experience began around 1pm. It lasted until I fell asleep from exhaustion around nine or ten o’clock that evening.

The experience was unlike anything I had been through before in my life. All I can say of the presence which flooded through me is that I became tearful, unsettled and deeply anxious. I kept saying, “Please don’t do this to me. You can’t do this. Please don’t do this.” Despite my tears and distress and when I could no longer resist, God’s message streamed uncontrollably from my mouth. Repeatedly the same words forced themselves out of me, “You are called to establish a church free of the encumbrances of the world. You are called to establish a church free of the encumbrances of the world. You are called to …….” Over and over the words flowed out irrepressibly. I have no idea how long this went on, but eventually the words stopped when it seemed the phrase had etched itself unforgettably in my mind.

Things didn’t stop there however. God’s energy surged into me again and this time I pleaded through even more tears saying, “You can’t ask this of me. Why is this necessary? There are others much better suited for this.” And then, like before, another phrase forced itself repeatedly out of my mouth, “You’re to do this so my apostles can return and prepare the world for my coming. You are to do this so my apostles can return and prepare the world for my coming. You are to do this…..”

In response, I desperately complained that I did not have the strength, intellect, skills, or stamina for such things. Seemingly dismissive, God responded in a manner like the previous utterances, “When this has happened, then you can rest. When this has happened, then you can rest.” Over and over the words repeated and forced themselves out of me.

Finally when it seemed that I had no strength left and with sleep coming over me, I pleaded through what tears I had left, “Why me? Why does this have to be me?” As I drifted into sleep, God’s love swept gently through me and I heard, “Because your heart is pure; because your heart is pure.”

After returning home, one person with whom I shared the experience said, "This changes everything." For me, the words were prophetic for much has changed. The extraordinary experience led to weeks and months of soul-searching, extensive consultation with others, some private crises, and several life altering changes. Taken together, all of these have consumed a great deal of time. In many respects, the time and journey have been a wilderness wandering of my own.

In turn however, the wandering has brought clarity. And with that clarity there followed several personal decisions necessary for embracing a new call. As some of you are aware, those decisions included me ending formal ties with the church denomination in which I had been raised, and ordained when I was a young adult, and professionally employed with for 18 years. These decisions became necessary only because the denomination itself is not free to embrace a church like the one God is calling me to establish.

In the months since May 26^th, the feedback that I have received the most consistently from consultations with others is the importance of the words “free of encumbrance” and keeping myself open to what all this might lead to. What has also been expressed is the great care and patience that must be taken in going forward. On that note, one pastor shared the following: “Keep your spirit open, God may have broader and bigger plans than you think. You don’t know what this will lead to or what it will look like.” Because of those words, what is clear is that God wants others invited into discernment of what a church “free of encumbrance” is to be and do.

On that note, please know that if it was possible to specifically determine whom God is trying to reach and invite through this letter, then I would only approach those persons. Since that is not possible, I feel led to share this letter as openly and broadly as possible. If it speaks to you, then please consider it God’s invitation to you. As such, it is therefore an invitation to join me and others in a journey of discovering and living out an unencumbered faith -- a faith that will be unlike anything you or I have previously seen.

It will also be a journey to carefully examine and reconsider what words like “church” and “apostles” and “free of encumbrances” and “my coming” need to mean if humanity’s common good is to overcome the greed and need for power plaguing our world today. In my heart, I also believe that it will be journey to discover what these things need to mean if the rich spiritual diversity that God has placed in this world is to be honored and affirmed across all faith traditions.

If you are interested in this journey and invitation, then I hope you will contact me at your earliest convenience since I plan to initiate a discernment community for this new calling in January. Gatherings will occur face-to-face and utilize online video/audio conferencing so as many can participate in the process as possible. Discernment may last weeks or months or even a year before a church “free of encumbrance” is established. Should you become part of this exploration, I assure you that our journey together will occur in the healthiest and most deliberate responsible manner possible. Only in this way is it possible to know what is of God and what is not.

Ultimately, what this journey does entail is overcoming the world’s old order and bringing forth God’s “new earth” – a day free of encumbrances of all kinds:

Then I saw new heavens and a new earth. The former heavens and the former earth had passed away, and the sea existed no longer. I also saw a new Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down out of heaven from God, beautiful as a bride and groom on their wedding day. And I heard a loud voice calling from the throne, “Look! God’s Tabernacle is among humanity! God will live with them; they will be God’s people, and God will be fully present among them. The Most High will wipe away every tear from their eyes. And death, mourning, crying, and pain will be no more, for the old order has fallen.”

The One who sat on the throne said, “Look! I’m making everything new!” and added, “Write this, for what I am saying is trustworthy and true.” And the One continued, “It is finished. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To those who are thirsty I will give drink freely from the spring of the water of life. This is the rightful inheritance of the overcomers. I will be their God and they will be my daughters and sons.”

---- Revelations 12:1-7, The Inclusive New Testament

May the Peace of all God’s prophets, apostles, and teachers be with you.

Brad Shumate

peace-n-justice@comcast.net

"Called by Your Name"

2011-05-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

(Graphic is "Jesus the Good Shepherd", a stained glass composition by J. Le Breton, glass studio of Gaudin, Paris, 1933)

Lectionary Scripture - John 10:1-10 NRSV
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers." Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So again Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

Reflection on the Lectionary

“I am.” In 1908, G.K. Chesterton inked these cryptic words in response to the London Times’ question, “What’s wrong with the world?” For me, I think Chesterton got it right, i.e. we human beings make up a whole lot of what’s wrong with the world. Thankfully, some people strive to help us recognize and understand the related mental and spiritual illnesses. One such person is Tom Shadyac who directed the movies “Bruce Almighty” and “The Nutty Professor” and “Ace Ventura”. One of Shadyac’s latest works is “I AM”, a documentary film that asks the question, “What’s wrong with the world?” But also asks the question, “What can we do about it?”

Struggling through debilitating depression from post-concussion syndrome after a deadly bicycling accident, Shadyac nearly gave up on life. Despite all his life success, its accompanying wealth and prestige, the multiple lavish homes he owned, he felt hollow emotionally and spiritually while recovering from his injuries. What previously gave him pleasure and contentment no longer provided that for him. “What’s wrong?” ultimately led to “What’s wrong with me?” and then to “What’s wrong with the world?” From there a quest began in order to discern what could be done about it.

For me, I think this dark night of the soul was God calling Shadyac out into the light of day to show this creative genius what having life is truly about and how to have it more abundantly. In turn, the experience blessed not only Shadyac, but it also blesses everyone else with an ear to hear and a mind open to seeking and understanding. As New York Times best-selling author Marianne Williamson put it, “Entertaining and enlightening. The I AM Documentary is a spark of light and a work of love.”

The documentary’s ministry (at least to me) is its affirmation that at a very deep, intricate, inherent level, particularly in terms of what physics has to teach us, we are all interconnected. And not only us, but that interconnectedness includes all of nature. As stated in the movie, what we do at the individual level truly affects outcomes elsewhere in the world. Here we discover the documentary’s most crucial and engaging message which is that a new narrative is forming. The narrative says that we are far grander than we have been told and capable of experiencing what each other feel at a much deeper level than we previously thought. Furthermore, technology is carrying all of this forward with phenomenal speed and enhancing its ability more so than we ever thought possible. Long and short of it, from what the most influential minds of our times have to say, there truly is no other option for our survival but authentic cooperation and full democracy.

Alternately, this means that the mental illnesses of rampant consumerism, unbridled capitalism, greed for power and control and domination over others must end. As “I AM” puts it, “The shift is about to hit the fan.” For Shadyac, one of his own healing steps involved selling his lavish residences and buying a manufactured home in a trailer park. Good for you Tom! And who knows, Jeri and I might even do the same when our local market improves. Lord knows we tried to sell our home and downsize for six months last year. We simply couldn’t find a buyer despite dropping the price three times for a total reduction of thirty-six thousand dollars. Maybe God has something else in mind.

While watching “I AM” something else struck me, i.e. Shadyac’s long hair and beard. I thought to myself, “There’s even a Christ-like quality to the guy’s appearance.” Being a follower of Jesus, the effect may have allowed me openness to the documentary than I might not have had otherwise. What really snagged me however was Shadyac blending together two of my passions, i.e. science and scientific minds along with notable thinkers and persons of faith such as Desmond Tutu, Thom Hartman, Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, and Lynne McTaggart.

I loved the film’s even more succinct statement, “The shift is about to hit the fan.” It describes for me a sense of something deeply felt for a long time now; something that seemingly eludes churches, ministers, even denominations and other world religions. It’s something theologians, especially Christian ones, dismiss or denigrate for they fear their version of God and/or Christ will no longer dominate the airwaves or their adherents’ way of thinking. And sorting through it or making sense of the mess (that will surely follow) is not an undertaking they want at a time when organized religion is becoming increasingly fragile, declining, fragmenting, and needing money -- and lots of it.

To what am I referring? Simply this, there is interconnectedness between all faiths and religion traditions. God wants us to discover it. Jesus wants us to discover it. Mohammad wants us to discover it. Buddha wants us to discover it. Mahatma Gandhi wants it discovered as does Mother Teresa. Any other great teacher or prophet walking on the earth now or in the past wants it discovered – unless of course you don’t believe these great souls exist any longer. And from this discovery, what’s also wanted is that we realize our spiritual interdependency no matter what our faith of origin may be. Finally, if there is to be any chance of a lasting and just peace upon the earth, I and you must become as completely at ease worshipping in an Islamic mosque or Jewish or Buddhist temple as we would be in our home congregation or home faith community. As the Catholic theologian Hans Kung once put it, there can be no genuine world peace until there is peace among the world’s religions.

I think it’s here that some of us we need a lesson from the historical Jesus, a man who like Shadyac heard his name called and responded. In answering that call, Jesus took on the organized religious establishment of his time and dared to claim “I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” Jesus made that claim and lifted that banner high while teaching a message of compassion and unconditional love. He did so over and against a religious system that had lost its way and mired itself in rigidity and harsh judgment. In the centuries and millennia that followed, Jesus’ claim reached around the world.

Regrettably, distortion of that message occurred. Much evil has been done in the name of compassion and “loving the sinner” but hating the sin. What reaches the ears of many contemporary persons about Christianity is that it is a religion of harsh rules and intolerance. For example, “Get Jesus, get saved, or spend eternity burning in Hell.” Entire non-Christian religion traditions have been left to see themselves as God’s rejects -- or at best to be benignly avoided while we tolerant Christians focus of matters in our house yet secretly believe that God still choses us over and above persons of other faiths.

If like with Jesus, there’s a proverbial “shift about to hit the fan” then it’s time to end our silo mentalities of faith and embrace the Divine’s prophetic activity. Activity I believe that is calling each of us by name to the mission of fully embracing our interconnectedness, our interdependence upon one another -- even fully embracing and affirming the spiritual and religious diversity that God wisely placed into this world and blessed it with. For me, I am convinced that there is no other means by which we will come to a full and complete appreciation of our common humanity unless we do so. It is the key to a full and just peace for every living soul upon the earth and requires nothing less than abolishing poverty and end suffering for everyone.

I apologize for such words to the world’s ultra-wealthy and corporatocracies, but you have had your chance to be altruistic. You have chosen instead to live within the sheepfold as a thief and bandit, even then you had a chance to selflessly make the world a better place, not only for yourselves but for all those who suffer and die each day. You opted instead for greed, power, and dominion over others – particularly for dominion that allows you to throw away people the instant they no longer create profit or serve your bottom line -- whether that involves one person or thousands. The shift is coming for you too. Maybe not today or tomorrow or next year or next decade, but it’s coming and it will bring an end to the dysfunctions, disenfranchisements, mental illnesses and suffering you perpetuate. In its wake you will hear these words eternally echoed in your ears, “I came so they may have life and have it more abundantly!” Rest assured, I AM is here and here for you.

A Suggestion for Your Easter Celebration

2011-04-23T22:08:00.000-07:00

See Tom Shadyac's movie "I AM". A very timely and appropriate take on the dominant mental illness of our times. Who knows, your own resurrection might be just around the corner. "The shift is about to hit the fan."

"Receive Your Sight!"

2011-04-01T16:43:00.000-07:00

(Artwork is "Jesus Cures the Man Born Blind" from JESUS MAFA which is a response to the New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings were selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and these were then transcribed to paintings. See: http://www.jesusmafa.com/)

Lectionary Scripture - John 9:1-11 (NRSV)

As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man's eyes, saying to him, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (which means Sent). Then he went and washed and came back able to see. The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar began to ask, "Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?" Some were saying, "It is he." Others were saying, "No, but it is someone like him." He kept saying, "I am the man." But they kept asking him, "Then how were your eyes opened?" He answered, "The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and said to me, "Go to Siloam and wash.' Then I went and washed and received my sight."

Receive Your Sight!

(Dear readers, my post this week draws heavily from Homiletics Online resource, “The Placebo Effect” dated March 14, 1999. Homiletics Online is a resource available for preachers that frees them from plagiarism concerns and generously allows ministers to massage a particular resource into the message they need to preach. As said on the Homiletics website, they’ve done the grocery shopping, the preacher does the cooking. Such is the case for me for this particular post. That said, Homiletics comments that if someone feels the need to cite a particular person in terms of the resource, the person to cite is Homiletics Online Senior Writer, Bob Kaylor. Bob also serves as Senior Minister for the Park City United Methodist Church in Park City, Utah. Thank you Bob for your generosity – and the material)

I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly wondered whether Jesus actually needed the mud to heal the blind man. Whether he did or not, one thing is for certain, the poultice of dirt and saliva focused the man's faith and gave him a distinct memory from which to begin a new faith journey. For us today, we might stop and consider what faith-building mud-balls need to happen for us and our individual faith journeys.

One thing we might consider about the poultice Jesus made is something called the placebo effect. It’s quite real and not magical at all, but simply the mysterious ability of our bodies to sometimes heal what ails us, if only we believe. In medical research, it refers to a pharmacologically inactive substance - like a sugar pill - or a phony medical procedure that is administered as a control in testing the effectiveness of a drug or course of action.

Scientists and researchers at the forefront of study into the placebo effect are trying to learn why 30 to 40 percent of the people who suffer from conditions ranging from asthma to high blood pressure to depression actually benefit from taking a placebo. Researchers say, “Make no mistake, the healing affects of placebos are real and not merely delusions or wishful thinking." They tell us that it is easy to document and prove the effectiveness of placebos. So hear it again, 30 to 40 percent of people suffering from a range of illnesses benefit from taking a placebo.

So here in the ninth chapter of John, a man born blind receives sight. Jesus puts mud on his eyes and tells him to go wash in the pool of Siloam. When the man comes back he is able to see. At first the man says that he does not know who Jesus is but later he says that Jesus is a prophet. Finally, he stands before Jesus and says, "Lord, I believe." Although he never figures out just how Jesus has healed him, he knows that if Jesus were not from God, he could not have done anything to heal him. Call it the God Effect – or the mysterious ability of people to be healed when they allow God into their lives. But, at the same time, it is a placebo effect, because mud and spit play an important part in the healing that took place.

What a strange and wonderful story this is. Jesus refuses to put the label of "sinner" on either the blind man or his parents, but says that "he was born blind so that God's works might be revealed in him". With such an introduction, one might think that Jesus would go on to treat the man with courtesy and respect, but he does exactly the opposite: He treats him like dirt. Jesus spits on the ground and makes mud with his saliva; then he spreads the mud on the man's eyes.

He uses wet, sticky, soft, dirty earth. He uses mud - a symbol of all that is degrading, such as when a person's name is dragged "through the mud." Jesus puts this man in an awkward position. In effect, Jesus may have been the first person to utter the humorous drinking toast, "Here's mud in your eye"; hardly the sentiments you expect to hear from a teacher who is healing by the power of God.

And yet, the man born blind keeps himself open to this experience. He believes enough to follow the command of Jesus to "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam," and to stumble through the streets of Jerusalem wearing a ridiculous mask of mud. We don't know exactly how far the man had to walk after receiving his mudpack in the eyes. Hopefully it wasn’t far and hopefully friends or family assisted him, but the distance could have also been quite a hike. John tells us that Jesus encounters the man after leaving the temple, but does not reveal the precise location of their meeting. From what we do know about the location of the Temple and the pool of Siloam, if Jesus put mud in the man's eyes right outside the temple compound, then the man walked at least 500 yards to the pool of Siloam - the length of five football fields! Quite a distance for a blind man to cover, groping and stumbling and trying to ignore the reactions of the crowd which could have been anything from:

“What happened to you?”

“Are you all right?”

"Hey, filth-face!"

"Nice look! Be glad you're blind, boy."

So, it's not a pleasant walk. At the least, the blind man is feeling self-conscious. At worst, he feels embarrassed and humiliated. In any case, the blind man is willing to suspend disbelief as he has been touched by God’s agent who in this case is Jesus. From this encounter, he’s hopeful that an end to his lifelong darkness is about to happen. He probably asks himself what has he got to lose for he will be mocked by townspeople whether he had mud on his face or not. Remember that such a disability at that time was considered a mark of God’s punishment.

When news of this event reaches the Pharisees, they and their religious authority are immediately threatened. So they summon the blind man to question him and attack his story. But the blind man sticks his story and proceeds to testify that it was Jesus who gave him his vision. Standing before the Pharisees, he says, "He put mud on my eyes. Then I washed, and now I see. He is a prophet."

The Pharisees counter that these things could not be for Jesus is a sinner. The man says, "I do not know whether he is a sinner. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." And mockingly the man then asks the Pharisees, "Do you also want to become his disciples?" He might as well say to these religious leaders: "You need some mud for your own eyes!"

After this inquisition ends, the blind man is later face to face with Jesus. Jesus sought him out after the disgraceful experience to which the Pharisees subjected him. Not having seen the man who healed him, Jesus reveals that he is the one who did performed the healing. Out of gratitude, the former blind man becomes a follower of Jesus.

All of this probably sounds crazy to the skeptical world we are a part of today. Whatever our reaction may be, we shouldn’t scoff at the power of the placebo. Don't assume that dirt and spit had nothing to do with the healing of the blind man. At the very least, it helped to focus his faith.

What helps to focus our faith? Sometimes it's the unpleasant experiences that life throws at us. A number of years ago at a party, a church friend developed hiccups he couldn’t get rid of no matter how hard he tried. Eventually he asked me to lay my hands on his head and pray for him. From the moment I did so the hiccups disappeared. Several months later a similar episode occurred when with our spouses we were lodging at the Oregon Coast. As before, when I laid hands on his head, the spasms stopped immediately. I was unaware of this while praying, what I did note during that time was that my friend broke down in tears. When I finished praying and asked what was wrong, he told me he couldn’t believe that like before the spasms immediately ended.

What do such things mean? Why is it that in some circumstances people have these kinds of experiences and in others they don’t? I won’t even pretend to have answer to that question. What I choose to affirm however is that when we take even a small step of acknowledgement and belief in God, despite however uncertain the path ahead may be, we will discover that God is alive, active, and working.

I think it something like the experience a close friend shared with me nearly two years ago during a particularly dark night of the soul while trying to recover in the hospital from a hip replacement surgery that went bad. I heard that Jim’s spirits were very low due to complications caused by his rheumatoid arthritis. As we live thousands of miles apart, all I could do was to call Jim at the medical center where he was hospitalized. On the phone, he shared how deeply despondent, alone, and spiritually abandoned he felt. The complications from the surgeries and infections left him in a thick darkness suffocating life from his spirit and soul. As a nurse practitioner, he knew that chances of returning to his previous quality of life were slipping away from him -- to be extinguished forever. But in that dark night of the soul, the Spirit breathed into Jim a light and warmth he described as like a beautiful summer day sitting on his front porch. He then said to me, “Brad, I’m going to be a little emotional as I tell you this but God walked by me every single doctor, nurse, medical assistant, janitor, and visitor who had been caring for me directly and indirectly and he said, “All these have I sent to care for you.” Two years later, Jim is largely recovered. His mobility is considerably more limited than it was but he thanks God for the understanding and affirmation placed into his being that night in the hospital.

There's nothing magical about all this my friends, but one thing is for certain, it is certainly mysterious and miraculous. In simple terms, what happened was Jim’s own “mud-ball” experience. The application of a "mud ball" can lead to the healing of our bodies, minds and spirits - it only requires that we but open ourselves to the possibility of what can happen when God touches our lives, particularly through someone else.

The question facing you and me is what do we need packed onto our eyes in order to really open them up in these challenging times so we too can be God’s agents for a healed, just, and reconciled world. What are the dirt-and-spit placebos that Christ wants to use to motivate us out of our complacencies, mediocrities, comfort zones, and spiritual disabilities so God’s Peaceable Kingdom can be a reality here and now upon the earth? What kind of pain and humiliation must we suffer in order to see again and be vibrant and alive for the cause of the Kingdom?

Oddly enough, one of the placebos that can help us to be healed is pain itself. Yes, pain. Pain as unwanted as a mud-ball in the eye, pain that may be physical, emotional, or spiritual. We may want to deny or avoid such pain for it threatens to disrupt our happiness and destroy our well-being, but we should not, because pain is what God uses to arouse a blind and deaf world.

In his book, The Problem of Pain, C.S. Lewis wrote, "I am progressing along the path of life, enjoying friends and work and holidays, when suddenly a stab of abdominal pain threatens serious disease, or a headline in the newspapers threatens us all with destruction and sends this whole pack of cards tumbling down. At first I am overwhelmed, and all my little happinesses look like broken toys. Then, slowly and reluctantly, bit by bit, I try to bring myself into the frame of mind that I should be in at all times. I remind myself that all these toys were never intended to possess my heart, that my true good is in another world, and my only real treasure is Christ. And perhaps, by God's grace, I succeed, and for a day or two become a creature consciously dependent on God and drawing strength from the right sources."

So pain can be a placebo: a surprising bit of mud in the eye that reminds us that our true good lies in another condition, a condition called the Peaceable Kingdom which in my faith tradition we affirm as no closer nor further away than our spiritual condition justifies. The blessings of struggles in this life can help to take our eyes off worldly pleasures and give us a vision of the kingdom for which we should always be striving as long as there is breath in us. Financial problems can focus us on the priceless treasure of investing in faithful personal stewardship. Even illness can help us to see that health is far more than freedom from disease but rather a pathway into deeper relationship with God. And pain can be a placebo reconciling us to the work and challenges of the Zionic condition.

To these things -- and engagements -- let our lives be committed.

"Born of the Spirit"

2011-03-17T00:01:00.000-07:00

(Graphic is photo of Nicodemus, part of a sculpture at The Great Saint Martin Church, a Romanesque church in Cologne, Germany. See the full sculpture at the end of this post.)

Lectionary Scripture Reading – John 3:16 (NRSV)

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

"Born of the Spirit"

The context for this scripture takes us to a secret after dark conversation between the notable Pharisee Nicodemus and a controversial young rabbi named Jesus. Captured by Jesus’ words and teachings, Nicodemus admits privately what he cannot attest to publicly. “Rabbi,” he says, “we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God."

Conflicted over what his conscience tells him and that most religious authorities of the time detest Jesus, Nicodemus knows that his life and reputation could disintegrate before his eyes if he openly affirms Jesus as sent from God. Even now he risks all in coming to see Jesus privately. Yet, he needs greater understanding of what Jesus advocates for on God’s behalf. Frankly, it’s quite simple and goes something like this: “Understand that God loves unconditionally. Do not condemn others. See in my life the kind of love God wants everyone to have.” Then, like now, the radicality of such words threatens the foundations of society and culture.

In the time of Jesus and Nicodemus, the livelihood and stature of organized religion and its priestly authority relied heavily on atonement. The system wrung offerings from people given their spiritual bondage to what the religious establishment identified as sin which must be atoned for. By contrast, the way of being and living that Jesus advocated left all of that behind. It was necessary in order to follow a God who loves without condition, who refuses to condemn, and who desires that our lives express the same.

Such teachings represented a cataclysmic shift in the order of things. For the priestly authorities, it amounted to a complete nullification of Torah, the Jewish law. Long and short of it, the religious authority refused to let it happen. Conspiracy followed against Jesus. Thereafter, his life abruptly ended when nailed upon on object of scorn, derision, and torturous humiliation. Ultimately for his part, Nicodemus embraces Jesus. With Joseph of Arimathea, the two men ensure a respectful burial for a man who only wanted for people to understand how much God loved them.

For those today who understand this Jesus, the challenge of the young rabbi’s message continues. It continues because we human beings fail to grasp the full dimensions of the love that God is and that God wants us to be. For me, one contemporary manifestation of this challenge has been the U.S. healthcare system. Surely when the time of God’s Peaceable Kingdom finally arrives upon the Earth, God’s love intends that each child, each man and woman have full and unfettered access to all the medicines, treatments, and healthcare professionals they need. How could it be otherwise in the Peaceable Kingdom? Yet, while every other country in the developed world has seen to it that their citizens receive a basic level of healthcare, we contently let fifty million fellow citizens go without it. And while every other country in the developed world can provide basic healthcare for every citizen at significantly less than what our system costs per person, we insist that substantial and ever increasing monetary profits must be gleaned from people’s medical needs. My guess is that Jesus frowns deeply on the U.S. healthcare system since he advocated receiving no coin or purse from healing the sick. As the physician, Apostle Luke, quoted Jesus, “Cure the sick and say to them the kingdom of God has come near to you.”

Today, in this country, we’re not coming near you to cure anything unless you produce a health insurance card or have the cash to pay upfront. There may be some hope that over time this will change, yet even now there are those who angrily seek to undo new healthcare laws intent on providing more of our brothers and sisters the healthcare they need. The incredulous thing is that many of these angry persons consider themselves in greater favor with Jesus than anyone else. Some are even professed appendages of various organized religions today. And a number of them gladly proclaim that anyone not seeing things their way is on a speed train to everlasting torment. Guess they better punch my ticket.

In my mind, I truly wonder if such persons have ever been born of the Spirit. I wonder if they will ever become followers of the Jesus who advocates for a world that's just and peaceful and full of God’s unconditional love for all.

Many years ago, I experienced one small moment of this love as a young adult. If you have heard of this from me before, I apologize and ask your indulgence for those who haven't. My need to share this experience is because that brief and fleeting moment was so powerful and overwhelming that it changed me forever. The memory of it will never die and happened one summer day while working as a bank teller. Completely focused on counting a large amount of cash from a night deposit bag, I felt a surge of energy and emotion rush through me. Tingling from head to toe, I sensed someone loving me so powerfully and overwhelmingly that I had to lean against the counter where I was working. Frankly, I feared I would collapse to the floor from the intensity of what raced through me. A voice in my mind then spoke these simple words, “You’re okay Brad. You’re really okay.” It was then I realized God had spoken and touched me in a way that I could never deny or ever turn away from.

Traditionally, one might think of one’s baptism or confirmation bringing on such ecstatic experience. Mine however had been years earlier. Put simply, I accept the experience now as my moment of being born of the Spirit, a moment that would leave me desiring for all to know such love. In time, I came to realize that this love and the hope for God’s Peaceable Kingdom were realities inseparable and mutually inclusive. One cannot exist without the other.

We must therefore ask ourselves what we should turn from and what we should turn toward. Perhaps my sharing indicates one possibility, i.e. turning from the soullessness of greed and selfishness and condescension toward life and generosity filled and overwhelmed by God’s love – a love that when it happens to you, and for you, may well occur in a most unremarkable place and unsuspecting moment. Rest assured however that it will be a moment and place of God’s own choosing – one that will mark you for life.

Photo of sculpture at the Great Saint Martin Church in Cologne, Germany. Depicts the tomb burial of Jesus by (from the left) by Nicodemus, an unidentified helper, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, John the Apostle, and Joseph of Arimathea, circa 1509

"Solid food, please."

2011-02-11T13:32:00.000-08:00

(graphic of Apostle Paul, citation unknown, if you have a reference please advise)

Lectionary Scripture – First Corinthians 3:1-9 NRSV

And so, brothers and sisters, I could not speak to you as spiritual people, but rather as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food. Even now you are still not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For as long as there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving according to human inclinations? For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely human?

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you came to believe, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building.

"Solid food, please."

There are some weeks that my denomination’s worship resource provokes interesting thoughts and considerations for me. In terms of the resource for this Sunday, it observes that relationship with God just doesn't happen. It’s something that takes time to grow and develop into maturity for us. And as that growth and development happens in people’s lives, there are those who chose to become part of a faith community like ours. By their choice and God’s choice to give us that growth, God subsequently makes us responsible for those new faith adherents. And in carrying out that responsibility, we’re counseled that we should marvel at each person’s uniqueness and celebrate the new forms and expressions of unity that become possible.

Sadly however, we are far too often caught up in the differences and distinctions between us and try to determine whose way is right and whose way is wrong. We’re asked then to stop and think more deeply about these differences and do so in a way that reflects on how our own individual relationship with God has changed over time. We’re asked to think about how it has changed, grown, and matured over time. We requested to open our eyes and see how God did not judge against us but simply loved us. We are then encouraged to consider the limitations and dimness of our own human perception that keep us from widening the embrace and patience of our love. We’re next asked to consider all the additional things that God wants us to have as a result of love capable of embracing greater diversity. We must therefore ask how we’re allowing God to give growth and how we’re celebrating differences in others. Deliberation on these things does necessitate however that we ask how we’re preventing the generosity of God that would give new growth and opportunity.

A few years ago when serving as a pastor, I met with a small group of fellow ministers in my congregation; essentially they were my leadership team. The question of growth weighed deeply upon our minds given our many years of declining numbers. An eventual end to the congregation was not far off, perhaps another ten years. As the leadership team for the congregation, we undertook an eighteen month journey of study and discernment. During that time and journey, God blessed us with abundant insights as we followed along a process outlined by Alice Mann and Gil Rendle in their book Holy Conversations. From that process and the resulting insights, we envisioned growth and blessings far beyond anything our minds considered possible at the outset of our discernment work. A wonderful new world awaited us, rich in new diversity from lives touched by new forms of ministry we would offer in our local communities. Through these ministries, lives would heal and find new skills for living ably and meaningfully in today’s troubling times. The major challenge however would be embracing a wholly different way of life as a church – i.e. essentially becoming a church without walls or without a building so our resources could more directly support healing ministries.

After a subsequent eighteen months of conversation with the congregation, an alternate idea found favor. It called for hiring a youth minister and that growth in numbers would come through youth ministry. As I was not a youth minister and my position as pastor represented the only discretionary resource for staffing, it became my responsibility to vacate my position and transfer to another congregation. I did this because in all fairness, I had to acknowledge that perhaps I was wrong regarding the growth God wanted to give. Certainly, I did not want to hinder growth the congregation itself discerned God wanting to give. A few years have passed since those decisions were made; the only thing obvious now is that growth hasn’t occurred. Some in the congregation would say that its end is even closer than ever before.

The situation reminds me of Paul’s counsel to the Corinthians which by standards then as well as today was a pretty messed up a congregation. There were those claiming to be one person’s followers and those claiming to be another person’s followers. Each group claimed their own particular brand, source, and degree of authority. And in each congregation, mine or the Corinthians, there was those persons whose goal was simply for their agenda come out on top. Generally in the face of these forms of competition, no one wins and God cannot give growth. Sadly, it’s all too common in long-established congregations these days, and most new faith adherents choose not to participate in such faith communities. Over time, it has resulted in great disillusionment wherein society and culture have become dismissive of the church and even hostile toward it. Thankfully, scholars and sociologists are helping us understand this, but the news is not good as it’s quite likely most of the nation’s three hundred thousand congregations will close shop over the next twenty years.

Thankfully again for those scholars and sociologists studying church decline, they have discovered where God is giving growth. It’s what they have come to call the Emergent Church. It’s a broad and wonderfully diverse movement that began with about 1 million adherents in the early 1990s. Today it numbers about 20 million and is projected to reach 40 million in the next 10 years. The Emergent Church is reaping the growth God wants to give. Existing primarily as small purpose driven missional groups untethered to religious denominations and authority in order to preserve their autonomy and sense of calling from God, these forms of organic church or simple church are reaching into people's lives in our communities through ministries that are phenomenal, powerful, and full of blessing and healing and potential.

Whether these forms of being the church are a faith-based group of mechanics doing car repairs for the poor, or a 26 member group of Hispanic families meeting in a two-bedroom apartment whose mission and ministry is keeping kids out of the gangs, or a minister holding church at a local tavern during halftime of the football game, these ministries represent what church is becoming and how the church is growing. Long and short of it my friends, we can continue to struggle against one another and say we are going to follow or not follow or how something is to be done or not done and face a pitiless end for which only God can have compassion. Or, we can embrace the ever-growing and ever-increasing spiritual diversity of the world and receive the blessings God wishes to abundantly bestow upon us.

It will mean being much different then who or what we are today. With that will come fears of the unknown and perhaps a seeming loss of the security we have found in the past and how we have traditionally been the church. For some that challenge will be too great and too uncomfortable to even consider, like the actor Charlton Heston at an NRA rally they may defiantly claim that only from their cold dead hands will tradition be pried away from them. For others however, particularly those of the younger generations for whom this form of organic and simple church speaks most, the relationship that they will have allowed to mature between them and God will be one that takes humanity forward in leaps and bounds towards the time of God’s Peaceable Kingdom here on earth.

To the young adult generations of today’s Emergent Church, I would counsel patience. Though tradition and organized religion may appear intransigent at times, eventually the fossilized and nonlife-giving parts of them will be surpassed, overcome, and transformed for this is what happens when relevancy is lost. Sooner or later fossilized things are shelved and become history, but the life-giving portions of tradition and organizational life will always stand ready to serve and grow and mature. Whatever irrelevant things and their generational guards keeps from you now and fail to embrace and resource for your sense of calling today -- all of those will one day pass on and the resources that have been held so tightly from you will come into your orbit and be at your disposal. With those resources you will be free at last to help, free at last to heal, and free at last to reconcile and move this world toward peace, justice, non-violence, non-manipulation, security, and opportunity that will be everlasting and of great blessing to your children, your grandchildren, and their grandchildren.

It will require however that you not lose hope and that you not allow yourself to be lulled into places and spaces of helplessness or thinking you have no voice or that you have no opportunity to change the world in the way you feel called to do. You do have a voice, you do have influence, and you do have the ability to make decisions and affect things for good. And hopefully when the time comes that your generation has passed on, your legacy will be that you left the world a far more promising stewardship for the care of the earth and care of humanity than any generation that preceded you. The times are challenging and tasks seemingly insurmountable when considering the overpopulated world we live in and what we do that makes it more environmentally toxic each passing day. Remember, God wants to give you growth in every dimension of understanding that word can entail. Let no one keep you from it simply because they think the survival of some institution or organization takes precedence. For example, nothing takes precedence over the disease, greed, organizational or political dysfunction and malnutrition that allow 16,000 children die each day.

To deal with all this, as one theologian put it this week, there needs to be a reckoning in our lives, a calling back to the most fundamental foundational thing there is. And what is that? Well, it’s not the relationship you have with your denomination or local faith community. It is simply the relationship you have with God; that I have with God; and the relationship that we have with one another. Whether we claim to be a follower of Jesus, or a follower of Mohammed, or follower of Buddha, or any other great prophet or teacher of faith, we look to the most basic foundational thing of our lives and existence which is experiencing and touching that which is greater than ourselves. Some of us call that God. Some of us call it nature. Some of us think of it as life itself. According to Bishop John Spong, author of Why Christianity Must Change or Die, he found meaning in the words of the theologian Paul Tillich who referenced God as being itself. Whatever or whoever God may be, the greatest manifestation is you and me and those for whom we love and care and the quality of life and well-being we create together and for one another. If we could truly come to an understanding of that rather than always competing in some form or another to achieve dominance over one another, then our world would find its way to healing, peace, and justice in a very short order.

As I sat at my desk this week writing these words and looking out the second-story window of my home office, I witnessed storm clouds and then blustery wind, and then rain, and then a break in the clouds occurred. Ever so faintly a rainbow began to form. At first I could hardly detect it, just some slight hues of pink and then blue with white sandwiched between them. It was a rainbow quite different from any I’d seen before. Blocking my view of that rainbow were leafless tree branches and evergreens. Eventually however the rainbow became quite clear, distinct, and brilliant but the colors remained the same. Rather odd I thought given there were no other colors. But from out of my faith and the scriptures, I began to recall what a rainbow symbolizes. In short, it’s a symbol of promise that forevermore God will seek after our welfare and well-being even when we are unable to do that for ourselves.

Let us open ourselves therefore to the solid food and solid growth God has for us. Let us no longer satisfy ourselves with milk and contesting and competing with one another and thereby lose sight of where God is at work among God’s children. There’s growth possible of some twenty million new faith adherents over the next ten years, growth that God wants to give. Let us open ourselves. Let us open our ears, open our hearts, open our minds and hear what God is saying, “Look, I am here over in this place or out over there in that place. I am here among these people and there among those people. I need you to be me here and over there. I need you to bring healing, end suffering, and give my peace – that peace which passes all understanding."

Changing Frequency of Posts

2011-01-29T15:44:00.000-08:00

Greetings readers, in the past I have tried to maintain a weekly post in support of the coming Sunday's lectionary. The pace has been challenging to say the least, especially in light of other needs and demands upon me. To offer the best writing and reflections possible, I will be reducing the frequency of my posts to once or twice a month. As the saying goes, sometimes less is more. Thank you for your time, attention, and readership and I hope you'll continue to visit this blog. May Christ's Peace be with you.

Brad Shumate

"Here, See What's Written"

2011-01-15T18:17:00.000-08:00

For Sunday, January 16th, 2010

(Graphic is St. Vitale - Jeremiah, mosaic panel on the spandrel of`the north wall of the chancel depicting Jeremiah opening a scroll. Date: 521-547, Basilica di S. Vitale; Ravenna, Italy)

Lectionary Scripture - Psalm 40:1-11 NRSV

I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.

Happy are those who make the LORD their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods. You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.

Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, "Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart."

I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD. I have not hidden your saving help within my heart, I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. Do not, O LORD, withhold your mercy from me; let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever.

“Here, See What's Written”

Psalm 40 is part of the lectionary scriptures for this coming Sunday. It’s a psalm that speaks to me. In it, there are words and phrases I take to heart in times of crisis. Those phrases are the ones that witness of waiting patiently upon God, seeking for God to hear cries for justice and God’s nature being inclined toward answering those petitions. Lastly, perhaps most importantly, there are the psalmist’s affirmations that even in the desolate pit or miry bog of some situation or circumstance, God comes and lifts us out of it, putting our feet back onto secure ground, pointing the way ahead, and getting us moving.

Like the psalmist, I witness that God has done the above in my life -- time and time again. And with each time, a new song has found its way into my heart. It’s much like a professor friend of mine who when we have our long chats, he will recall a song that touched him at a particular point in time in regards to some life situation. The situation might have been a crisis, something challenging, or a moment of utter joy. For each of those, he bookmarks the experience with a popular song that captures what he has been through. It’s a rather amazing thing he does and from our thirty-three years of friendship, when those moments occur for him, I’ve learned that in this way he makes a spiritual connection to the sacred and divine which ministers to him.

In my life, when there have been those times of the desolate pit and miry bog and God lifted me out of such things and placed me securely into healthier circumstances, blessings have multiplied beyond what I would have thought possible. When I found it necessary in the early 1990s to leave full time ministry and return to public mental health practice, I had no idea that within three short years I would go from being a night shift psychiatric crisis worker to care-managing all adult mental health services in our county. It seemed nothing less than what the psalmist affirms that God multiplies wondrous deeds and blessings. In the end, I knew that God had been with me and my family from that point of disruption in our lives to points of new opportunity. Even mental health colleagues would observe and comment on this and knowing my background in ministry would ask that I officiate at weddings, funerals, visiting and blessing the sick. I remember one occasion that a colleague approached me and urged that I start my own church. Out of loyalty to my current faith tradition, I pleaded, “Please don’t tempt me. You have no idea how often I have thought of doing so.” To which my colleague replied, “There are people in this community Brad who would like to see it happen and would support you.”

We ministers are criticized at times for sharing our life experiences. There are those who grossly generalize and tell us that no one wants to hear such stuff. They tell us to quit sharing so openly and limit ourselves to expounding on scripture. In my experience, I find that this criticism mostly comes from folks who have long histories of being churched. Interesting how the witness of a psalmist’s life story from so long ago and the witness of a modern disciple are considered by some churched folks as incompatible.

For the non-churched, research tells us the sentiment is exactly the opposite. The non-churched want to hear our life experiences and need to see our lives in action so they can determine our spiritual authenticity. This is why I share and witness as I do. The purpose is not self-aggrandizement, but rather to offer a contemporary witness as did the psalmist offer his witness to his circle of influence so long ago. Together, we boldly testify, “Here I am, in the scroll of the book it is written of me…….”

What is it that will be written in the scroll of the book of life regarding you, your story and your witness, what your life became because of God’s influence, and what your life accomplished for the Common Good. A small glimpse of that came during dinner with my father one evening long ago in my young adult years. He said a rather intriguing thing during our time together. He told me that God made known to him that I would one day enter full-time ministry and that my denomination would ask me to do so. He then expressed hope that I would not do so. He said that such a life would be full of trial, conflict, deep heart-wrenching sacrifice, and ultimately quite hard on me. He then said that should I decide to do so any that God would always be with me and that efforts by others to diminish, undermine, or harm me would in the end not stand. He then said, “God will protect you. God will see you through.”

From time to time, I stop and think regarding the things my father said. They have buoyed me up and allowed me to hang in there with touch situations longer than perhaps I should have. His words carried me through heartbreak and times of abandonment, especially by people who I thought were in my corner and had my back. On that note, I recall words from an evangelist’s blessing I received years and years ago. It’s a sacrament in my faith tradition that we liken to a personal page of scripture to guide one’s life. In the blessing, one of the most powerful things I experienced and felt were when the evangelist said, “May he have the courage to serve you, even when others do not, even if he must serve alone as did Daniel in other days.” Sometimes it has been a very lonely road and when I feel that way I think back to those words and think back of Daniel and then I’m able to move forward again with God “making my steps secure”.

Trusting God and finding courage as the psalmist urges makes a difference in how the world perceives you and it’s what the world wants to know about you. A couple of years ago at a dinner roast in a judicatory that I served for sixteen years, a colleague I barely knew from another judicatory came to provide guest ministry. At one point during the meal, he stood and commented that I have a reputation among my colleagues “for taking things to the mat” when necessary. When I heard that I was touched. I was touched for the simplicity, eloquence, and imagery of my colleague’s statement. One thing for sure is that my colleague had no way of knowing that I wrestled in high school! What an incredible thing to say, especially from someone who barely knows you. Maybe that one will make its way into the scroll of the book the psalmist mentions.

So I share the above in my posting this week to honor words from Psalm 40 that say we should not hide in our hearts the witness of God’s saving help. Instead we must take opportunity to speak out to the great congregation of God’s faithfulness and God’s deliverance and acknowledge that even in times of trial we have a heavenly parent who will be there for us no matter the challenges we face. So to the congregation that reads this blog let me end with saying, “Here I am, see what’s written…...”

"Let It Be So"

2011-01-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

For Sunday, January 9th, 2011

(Graphic is Baptism of Christ, a mid 12th century mosaic at the Cappella Palatina di Palermo in Palermo, Italy. Used under Creative Commons license. See http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=47779)

Lectionary Scripture – Matthew 3:13-17 NRSV

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

“Let It Be So”

Lifting her up from beneath the water and then at the edge of the stream, my young friend turned and said, “Thank you for doing this for me.” As her pastor, those gracious sincere words touched me deeply and I could do little more at the moment than thank Christine for having me baptize her.

At different times in the intervening years since Christine’s baptism, I have wondered if it would ever be possible to have a congregation full of people with her kind of personal and spiritual authenticity. My guess is that such a thing will remain out of reach given the wounds and brokenness that so many of us carry around and carefully hide and disguise. Yet I hope that one day such a possibility will arrive. I think the principles, tools, and means exist to create such faith communities. For many existing communities however, God is kept small as I heard one theologian describe it recently. God is kept conveniently small so no one is ever uncomfortable and the ones who generally win in such situations are whining malicious egos. Their placation, rather than attending to the healing needed in their lives, remains forever the orders of the day.

What I remain hopeful for are the Christines in our world, i.e. basically anyone whose life has been through hell or is in hell and realizes that if things are going to get better, they have to ask God for help and a hand up. Baptism can be and has been for many that iconic moment to stay the course toward healing and well-being. I miss my friend, Christine, as today she lives on the other side of the world. I am however so pleased at the direction her life has taken as she has married, lives in Europe with her husband, Erik. She’s expecting and the couple awaits the arrival of their child due in April. Robert, who is Christine’s son from a previous relationship, eagerly awaits his new sibling and is learning Dutch. I wish all of them well but regret the loss of their presence, yet I was reminded recently not to lose hope for my dream of a truly healing faith community. The reminder was actually quite simple when Christine recently sent me a note via Facebook and said, “….you mean the world to me. Thank you for being there in some of my darkest times. I like it much better out here in the light.”

The lectionary focus on baptism, Christine’s message, her faith journey, and reflecting on her baptism cause me to think more carefully about this sacrament in the Christian tradition. More often than not in the past, I have thought of baptism as a ritual or a rite of passage. Other times, I have felt quite discouraged about it due to those ministers for whom a baptism is little more than their latest bragging right or the most recent notch on their evangelistic gun-belt. At other times, it serves as a statistic of primary interest to denominational authority figures. When I’m confronted however with the effects of baptism upon someone like Christine, I find myself enticed into very different space, a strangely familiar space.

The strangely familiar space hearkens back to my own baptism and confirmation at the age of eight in my home congregation at that time in Coalville, Iowa. To that point in my life, I don’t have much memory of feeling loved by God. On the occasion however of my baptism and confirmation, when elders in our church laid hands on my head to prayerfully induct me into church membership, I was completely unprepared for what followed. And what followed was a complete and overwhelming sense of being loved, basically an infusion of God’s Spirit I had never felt before which permeated my entire being. The warmth and calming influence of that experience coupled with the sense of belonging made this singular impression, “So this is what it’s all about it. Everyone should have this!” Maybe someday everyone will.

There are those who would consider the above experience as justification for why everyone needs to become Christian. I don’t see it that way. What I do see is that baptism is one of those iconic moments through which God touches our lives in very real and concrete ways. After all, the purpose and function of an icon is simply that it assists in bridging our human souls to the nurturance which only the divine and spiritual can bring into our lives. For lack of a better analogy at the moment, consider an icon to be the fork or the spoon we use to take nourishment into our bodies. And as we all know, such implements can be quite simple and utilitarian or incredibly ornate and artistic.

Iconic moments that bridge to the Divine will be different from one faith tradition to another, they will be different even from one adherent to another in the same tradition. In the late 1980s, a co-worker learned that I was soon to leave the mental health profession to go into full time ministry. She was curious as to why I would do that particularly in terms of the Christian faith for in her perception Christianity was the last place anybody should think of investing a career anymore.

When I asked why not, I heard about her faith journey from Christianity into Buddhism and how it was far more satisfying and far less judgmental. From the conversation, I also learned that she was soon to partake in an iconic moment of her own, i.e. enshrinement -- a rite/ritual which would complete her induction into her particular Buddhist tradition. Touched by her description of this sacred event, I mentioned that my new supervisor in the church was Buddhist-Christian. Surprised, she wondered how that could be, so I shared some aspects of the faith tradition I belong to.

At the close of our sharing, I said to my co-worker, “It is my belief that in the end, no matter what our faith may be, we’re all seeking the same thing and hoping to touch the same thing. In time, I think we humans will finally discover what that is and perhaps then there will be peace for everyone.”

My co-worker closed our conversation saying, “I wish my minister could have talked about Christianity the way you do. If he had, I doubt I would have ever left it.” Thinking back on that conversation now, the words above from Jesus come to mind, "Let it be so now -- for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness."

"God with Us"

2010-12-17T17:50:00.000-08:00

For Sunday, December 19th, 2010

(Russian icon of the Prophet Isaiah from first quarter of 18th century, Iconostasis of Transfiguration church, Kizhi monastery, Karelia, Russia. Artist was an 18 century icon painter. Artwork in the public domain)

Lectionary Scripture – Isaiah 7:10-16 NRSV

Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test.” Then Isaiah said: "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.”

“God with Us”

Ever felt you’d rather trust in a sure thing than something vague, hazy, ill-defined? Would you rather have what you’re accustomed to than taking a risk? By and large, that’s the context and dilemma in the above scripture and for his part Ahaz preferred the sure thing, especially since it meant he could stick with life in the form he had manipulatively obtained, fashioned, and maintained.

Yet even as distant and estranged from God as this made Ahaz, God continued efforts to reach the man’s soul -- primarily through the Prophet Isaiah. Through this prophet, God offered protection from impending doom for Ahaz’s kingdom. Through the prophet, Ahaz had opportunity to receive a “sign” that God would keep faith -- and not just any sign but whatever sign Ahaz chose.

Problem is that Ahaz wanted mostly to satisfy his carnal desires. An opportunity therefore to be closer to God had all the appeal of being force-fed the food he hated most. So for a price, Ahaz decided instead to sell out to one of history’s megalomaniacs, Tilgath-Pileser III, and let his country become a province of the Assyrian Empire. For Ahaz, the rationale might have gone like this: “Better to be ruler of your own little dung heap than risk and chance everything on God.”

Perhaps Ahaz knew what he was talking about since Tilgath-Pileser passed over Judah after tribute payment, going on from there to conquer the North Kingdom of Israel. Ahaz’s decision may have been expedient in the moment, more likely it was self-serving. In any case, his people never forgave him for failing to take a stand against Tilgath-Pileser – even his own son, Hezekiah, came to revile him. As a result, when Hezekiah came to power, Ahaz was never allowed burial with his kingly predecessors. Hezekiah also cleansed Judah and the Temple in Jerusalem of his father’s influences, evils, idols, and transgressions. In time, Biblical writers extended to Hezekiah a legacy of being a great and good king.

Taking the story of Ahaz at face value, it’s quite intriguing that anyone would pass up God’s offer of a sign and protection. And let’s remember that the option for the sign was any kind of sign Ahaz wanted or needed that would assure him God was with him and the people. Strange as it may seem, Ahaz opted out of the opportunity. Likely he did so as a life of having things the way he wanted held far more appeal than the challenges, risks, and unknowns of being a warrior-king.

If we stop and think about it however, people opt out all the time to be closer with God. The reasons are varied of course, but sticking with the kind of reason an individual like Ahaz might have, I'm reminded of clergy visits I made a few years ago to a county jail inmate. As the visits progressed over the months of the young man's incarceration, he periodically mentioned that when he got out of jail he planned to return to the community where he grew up. Currently it was the community where his parents also lived. He felt conflicted however about the plan as he no longer cared for the cultural, political, and religious conservatism of his parents and the faith community he would be expected to participate in.

Eventually, I suggested that he consider staying in our community where his criminality had occurred. I encouraged him to use the opportunity to make amends with the community through serving and volunteering in ways meaningful to the community. In essence, it would be a journey toward healing for him. It would provide opportunity to know a much different God from the judgmental God of his youth. During our pastoral counseling about this possibility, there were times not unlike those Isaiah had with Ahaz – that is times when it seemed that my words fell on a king’s deaf ears for certainly this person had been a king in his own sphere before he fell victim to criminality resulting from his manipulations of others – persons he used to satiate his carnal whims.

Yet through the prayers we shared and the talks we had about faith and the nature of God, something seemed to shift in this person. Many times the Spirit of God came so powerfully into our visits that God’s presence was simply undeniable. By the end of the young man’s incarceration, he made the decision to stay in our community and start his life over again. My role, per his request and his own words was “call me on my shit” if I thought at any point he was straying from the faith journey he wanted to begin.

One would hope for a better outcome than what resulted since the person made progress for a few months after leaving jail. Eventually however he fell back into isolating himself and isolating his live-in girlfriend. Once again, he began manipulating others into the care and feeding of his appetites and idols. My efforts, like Isaiah’s with Ahaz, fell again on deaf ears.

Finally things came to the necessity of confronting the person about his return to sociopathy and emotional manipulation of others. It followed shortly after a verbal altercation he had with the girlfriend who stood by him through all the jail time and legal matters leading up to, through, and after his incarceration. The issue in particular was his cheating on her and seeking sex with women he met over the Internet.

When the young man and I sat down to talk, he filled the air with excuses and avoidances of responsibility – a trait and tactic intrinsic to any manipulator, criminal and non-criminal alike. Using such things to gain control of the conversation/situation, he then stooped to telling lies about things I simply knew were untrue. Before long I interrupted and said, “Stop, just stop.” I then reminded him of what he asked me in jail to do for him after he got out. Readily he acknowledged but then said, “I want you to know though how vulnerably I’m feeling.” To which I replied, “Well that’s probably a good thing if you’re still serious about turning your life around.” I then said that the only thing I wanted to hear next from him was a yes or no to a simple question. Reluctantly the young man agreed. I then asked, “Have you participated in anything not compatible with the journey you committed yourself to in jail?” He then launched into another round of obfuscation and so again I said, "Stop, it's a simple yes or no question.” Struggling uncomfortably, he finally said, “Yes.”

The moment of honesty seemed to lead productively to other conversation, such as the need to end the social isolation he’d set up for himself and his girl-friend and that they regularly participate in the life of a spiritual community meaningful to him. Eventually he decided that a Twelve Step Recovery group would be good for him as that kind of group experience in jail had been meaningful. I offered to help identify a possible group through friends I knew in Recovery. With the offer accepted, we prayed together, then hugged and I went on my way to contact my Recovery friends.

Not surprisingly, I learned later that the moment of honesty was never genuine. It was simply a tool of the manipulator to end an uncomfortable conversation and move me out of his presence. Guess one could say I had been “Ahazzed”. Soon after that encounter, I heard that the young man left the community and he hasn’t been back, at least to my knowledge. I’m sure however that there has been a trail of victims behind him ever since, both psychologically and emotionally.

Sadly a trail of victims and tears are typically the case with any manipulator whether we encounter them in the workplace, community, family, or even in our faith community. What it means essentially is that for some manipulators, there can never be a genuine “God with us” moment no matter how repentant or remorseful they might seem to be. It also means that “God with us” moments will come much harder for their victims who because of their vulnerability and the harm experienced will wonder how God could ever let them suffer at the hands of such persons.

Spending the day yesterday in a seminar about “emotional manipulators”, I thoroughly valued the material covered by the psychologist-author. He affirmed for me things I had always suspected about such persons as he shared developments from recent scientific study – including research into their highly covert thought processes, behavioral practices, and victim strategizing. Clearly layers upon layers of planning, subtlety, and anticipation take place – all for the purpose of bringing people into a space and sphere of control that provides the manipulator with life on the terms they want it.

As I reflected on the manipulators that I and friends and family have encountered in the past few years along with the harm they have caused, I sensed the restorative presence of Immanuel. “God with Us” came to me during several times during the training assuring me of a rising tide of awareness where fewer and fewer wolves in sheep’s clothing will get away with the things they do. “God with Us” also affirmed to me a skill set I’ve long suspected as necessary for the task, i.e. skills wherein we learn how to quickly modify, confront, bend, and even break the very rules manipulators use against us in order to make us their victims. The clarity of that “God with Us” moment became even more evident as participants in the packed seminar willingly shared stories of manipulators they suffered through in the workplace, the family, the community, and even in their faith communities.

There’s a common thread running through all of this which is that contemporary living has generated an over-abundance of emotionally vulnerable space – space that growing numbers of manipulators exploit for their own needs. The means to counter it can only be found in the company of psychologically healthy persons and the kind of creative community that comes to life through such persons. As the psychologist put it yesterday, manipulators hate creativity and they seek its defeat and distance their victims from creativity as far as possible in ways that are phenomenally subtle and covert. Sometimes their strategy is as simple as being neglectful. Manipulators do such things because a creative mind is an independent mind and independent minds can’t be controlled and control is what the manipulator wants.

As I listened to those words, a vision unfolded once again for me – a vision of a faith community rich in creativity and resourcefulness, a vision of faith community independent in spirit down to even the least most seemingly insignificant person, a faith community rich therefore in “God with us” moments, a faith community thus able to recognize manipulators of any kind, a faith community of tough-love insistent upon manipulators attending to the healing they need, a faith community readily able to show repeat manipulators the door so they and their evil can head on down the road.

Such a vision may seem hazy or ill-defined or hard to give a try. It’s far from what many of us may be accustomed to or what we’ve grown up with -- but experiences and growing awareness like that which I encountered in yesterday’s seminar are for me a sign from God – a sign of hope, a sign that we’re learning and a sign of promise that in and through these “God with us” moments, evil will be overcome. For me, I see now a generation that’s coming – a generation wherein children while still quite young will know how to refuse evil and choose the good. And even before this, manipulators and their evil will have deserted the land.

"I Just Knew"

2010-12-02T00:02:00.000-08:00

For Sunday, December 5th, 2010

(Graphic is "Peaceable Kingdom of the Branch," by American artist Edward Hicks. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of Reynolda House Museum of Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Used under Creative Commons License)

Lectionary Scripture - Isaiah 11:1-10 NRSV

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.

They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

"I Just Knew"

Thrust up into my face, a young girl offered me a beautiful lily. The child offering it looked at me with a big smile as grandmother tried to move her along. Remaining where she stood until I acknowledged her gift, I smiled and said, “You made my day giving this to me. Thank you so much.” Pleased with my response, the child moved along at grandmother’s insistence. The truth of course is that the moment stayed with me the whole day as did the flower; even its dried remnants remain on my desk nearly a month later

Moments like the one above intrigue me. While marveling at the child’s generosity and altruism, I found myself praying and hoping that the young girl’s innocence remains with her always. So far the child seems in good hands, particularly with a grandparent who allowed her a protected moment with a stranger – a moment that affirmed the soul and budding personality God placed in the child.

In time however, the child will be in the world’s hands just as each of us have been or are. The people connected to those hands and those moments will be a mixture of persons who are beneficent, indifferent, or evil. Sometimes there will be a confusing mix of those traits in a single person -- from which only time and experience (and heartache) reveal which trait dominates and drives the individual and how one must protect themselves from such persons.

I imagine that for most of us, we prefer that a child’s innocence remain undisturbed rather than wilting and drying up like a picked flower. Perhaps we hope for a return ourselves to innocence as in that space we probably experienced life’s most peaceful, joyous, and amazing moments.

For me, one innocent yet profound moment with my youngest daughter occurred when she was about seven or eight years old. Her remarkably social and popular personality seemed to be going through a time of few friends since starting a program for gifted children in the school district. Eventually I decided it might be a good time for dad and daughter to do something together, so we spent a portion of one Saturday at the local children’s museum. A large imposing place, we had to wait inside the building in a long line with other parents and children until it came our turn for the ushers to take our tickets. Standing in the slowly moving line, I told Bree that I wanted to put some of our things in one of the available lockers. She held our place in line among the other children and parents while I dashed quickly to the nearby locker area.

Paying for our locker and stuffing in it what I could, I put the key into my pocket and dashed back to my daughter. She smiled at me and then said, “I bet I know which locker you got.” The challenge surprised me. I then replied with something to the effect of, “Well, that would be pretty amazing kiddo because the lockers are completely out of sight. There are a couple hundred of them and you were standing here in line all the time and there’s no way our things can be seen. You haven’t seen the key with the locker’s number because it’s been in my pocket. Okay, go head and give it a try because I’m really curious.”

Bree shot off to the locker area and came back a few moments later. She told me the number of the locker she thought was ours. I pulled the key from my pocket and showed it to her after which she smiled quite proudly having guessed the locker number correctly! When I asked how she knew, she simply said, “I just knew.” It was one of those phenomenal moments that stayed with me the whole day as we wandered through the museum’s exhibits. Like Mary, the parent of Jesus, I treasured in my heart this small but incredibly amazing feat my child had done. Often, it and other events led me thereafter to ponder what the future might hold for this child God had placed into our lives.

The subsequent years for my daughter have had their challenges and heartaches. She has struggled through relationships with persons who at first seemed beneficent but later proved to be neglectful. There have also been impacts to her life from a person or two driven and dominated by evil. Largely, she has come to terms with these realities and it’s great to see her life back on track with college studies and plans for a rich and rewarding future.

Many of us consider Bree’s heartaches and challenges to be a routine part of the life lessons we learn. For me however, I want a time to come when that’s not the case for any child. I want instead a time that’s so peaceful and gentle and selfless and generous that the fullness of God’s gifts in anyone of us can be realized without hesitation or impediment of any kind. So periodically I have to stop and ask myself what might that kind of world look like, feel like, act like? What am I willing to do and sacrifice and fight for to make such a world possible?

For me, I can’t help but think that such a world would be a deeply joyous place to live. In such a world there would be no threat of poverty, homelessness, starvation, disease, ignorance, bigotry, and continual war – a pestilence which we’ve become so attached to. On that note, one person I know tells me her congregation wants to become a peace church. What keeps that from happening however are the military people who bristle at their church having such an identity.

If however the world could be peaceful, gentle, generous, and selfless like the portrait Isaiah paints, I then think of what life might be like for my oldest daughter who we consider the artist in the family. Rather than slaving away at a job which is not her life passion but rather a means to pay the bills, she would be free to explore and fully develop the artisan God has placed in her such as we have seen through her painting, photography, sculpting, drawing, interior design and decoration, clothing design and decoration, and last but not least -- her creative cuisine.

Ultimately, if the Peaceable Kingdom is to ever happen -- or to ever be a success -- it comes down to each and every child -- and each and every one of us -- readily having the means to be all God intends us to be. No creed or totalitarian state can give that to us. No single faith tradition or school of thought or process or philosophy can make it so.

The measure of it will be when a child can lead – even if the only reason to follow is because they “just knew” what to do.

"Disarm my life? Hmmm...."

2010-11-24T09:31:00.000-08:00

For Sunday, November 28th

( “Let Us Beat Swords into Plowshares” statue at the United Nations garden in New York City; the statue was a gift to the UN in 1959 from the then Soviet Union. Made by Evgeniy Vuchetich, the bronze statue represents the figure of a man holding a hammer in one hand and, in the other, a sword which he is making into a plowshare. It symbolizes humanity’s desire to put an end to war and convert the means of destruction into creative tools for the benefit of all humankind.)

Lectionary Scripture - Isaiah 2:1-5 (NRSV)

The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. In days to come the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say, "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!

“Disarm my life? Hmmm…”

A worship resource for the above scripture asks, “What steps can you take to disarm your whole life?” It’s a question offered after an earlier statement in the resource which says, “Disarm your minds, your hearts, your hands, your taxes, your nation, and the world.”

Initially when I read the material, I wondered if the author meant ridding myself of any distress, anger, indignation, or need to take action over the horde of unjust malevolent ways people are treated in this world. If that’s the intent, I am unable to do so.

Frankly, I don’t know how any of us can disarm our hearts while so much of the world suffers. I realize that some individuals manage to achieve this in ways that are appropriate, honorable, and enlightened. But I suspect that for most of us not routinely abused or suffering or ignored, we disarm mainly by turning our attentions to things more pleasurable or distracting. Perhaps we do so -- or justify doing so -- out of a sense that there’s little we have power to change. As a result however, substantial portions of humanity watch from the sidelines while thousands or hundreds of thousands or even millions suffer daily. For me, I’m not able to watch from the sidelines, so I do what I can to effect change, particularly systemic change. Sometimes there’s an abundance of opportunity and I simply cannot keep up. Other times I have long dry spells before I’m in a position to do something. And then there are those occasions where the only thing I can do is sit down and share here what’s on my mind and heart.

Regarding the above, one thing I have consistently advocated for years is that churches critically examine their use of assets and resources. Typically I urge less focus on themselves and more on what they can do to address needs and alleviated suffering in the communities where they reside. For me, it’s must be done if God’s Peaceable Kingdom is ever to be a reality here on earth. At times, people hear my plea and petition and make needed sacrifices. Other times, I’m ignored or shown the door. Mostly this happens where people have established a comfortable community for themselves and they don’t want their boat rocked. Speaking figuratively, these faith communities unsheathe their swords at the slightest threat of change to their way of being. Generally in my experience, these situations are the most difficult to transform into Isaiah’s plowshares and pruning hooks unless confronted with the crisis of their own death and demise.

No matter if the swords and spears are real or figurative – an empowering yet disarming symbol for me is the UN “Swords into Plowshares” statue in New York City. Much is captured in that symbol which represents for me a multi-step process of beating something harmful into something life giving. As I see it, the first step is simply that of identifying, acknowledging, and labeling what is a sword and what is a spear in today’s world. For me, I imagine the continuum running anywhere from a nuclear warhead to a landmine to a despicable CEO’s behavior to law-breaking board members of a non-profit to an abusive faith community to a person or group of persons making someone’s life hell. All of these kill life or take well-being from it.

After arriving to a clear and defined sense of today’s swords and spears, I see the next step in Isaiah’s “swords to plowshares” being that of obtaining control and/or possession of the above harmful things so they no longer undermine, injure, or destroy. In the case of the unscrupulous CEO and his/her minions, there’s jail time, lawsuits and new regulations to prevent such immorality or criminality. For the person or persons whose self-serving interests create hell for others, there are a remarkable number of powerful and diverse behavioral and psychological interventions capable of modifying such behavior and setting healthy boundaries. When appropriately employed and maintained, these tools accomplish great good in calming an emotionally or psychologically chaotic environment. In a symbolic yet very real sense, they are like the hammer on the UN statue for they re-form and redirect negativity from its life sapping ways into energy and focus that betters the Common Good.

Transforming another part of today’s swords and spears involves the implements of war. As most of us know, this endeavor is an endlessly challenging battle. Who knows how and when the world will ever arrive at peace sufficient to disarm ourselves militarily? Who knows when and how we will finally accept that the astronomical costs to massively and shockingly kill each other are no longer worthwhile. As many of us know, hundreds of billions, even trillions of dollars get spent ensuring our lethality – all of it at the expense of those who are suffering. I think U.S President Dwight Eisenhower (a Republican) said it best in the following:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children…. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. —From the “Chance for Peace” address delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953.

Inspired of God, the Prophet Isaiah envisioned an end to this theft. The imagery God placed in Isaiah’s mind was simple and powerful – swords to plowshares and spears to pruning hooks. Our minds, hopes, and spirits have been stirred by these images ever since. Yet in 27 centuries since Isaiah’s vision and prophecy, plowshares and pruning hooks have eluded us. And all this time later, the danger we are to one another grows greater every day.

For some persons, they have had all they can take. One of those taking hammer in hand is poet, activist, and Catholic priest, Dan Berrigan. Writing for this week’s lectionary resource at Sojourners, Father Berrigan puts it like this:

IT WAS IN THE SUMMER OF 1980 that a group of us "discovered" Isaiah. It seemed as though we had all accidentally broken the crust of an ancient cave and come upon a treasure in a stone jar, a veritable Dead Sea scroll.

He had of course been there all the time, all our lifetime. But now he was "our" Isaiah.

That summer we were seeking in scripture a metaphor, an image that would lend strength to an as-yet-nascent purpose. Finally it came to us, through Molly Rush, mother and grandmother, of the Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh. The text that would turn life on its head: "God will wield authority over the nations and render judgment over many peoples. They will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their spears into sickles."

All great moments are finally simple. We took our small household hammers (and our smaller courage) in hand, and on September 9, 1980, entered the General Electric Reentry Division plant in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

Armed, so to speak; disarmed by Isaiah. Preparing for these nefarious goings-on was, I reflected often since, a perfect way of doing scripture study. There we were, willy-nilly, under the nudge of conscience, rueful, dead center. In some place known as the geography of faith, a terrain, icy and torrid by turns, in which Isaiah himself had stood.

He stood there, in his own time, a time uncannily like our own. And then occurred to him this oracle, swords into plowshares! A word highly unlikely, absurd even, given "the facts" (his, ours), "realism," "big-power diplomacy," "just war theory," the curious game known as "interim ethic."

A vision of peacemaking, in a bloody, unpeaceable time. The century of Isaiah, the seventh before Christ; turbulent in the extreme. War and rumors of war. In the grand tradition of prophets in action, Isaiah intervened directly in political, military, and diplomatic events. He predicted the invasion of Palestine; it happened twice. He lived to see the threat of siege laid to his beloved Jerusalem.

A time like our own. A time of whetted swords and rusted plowshares, of immense violence and social conflict and neglect of the poor.

Need one go on with analogies that fit, hand to glove, sword to hand? Social and military crimes; and then the worship that smoked and muttered away, all honor to Gog and Magog, all mockery to the God of compassion.

Enough said. We need Isaiah, this last-ditch voice of sanity, this unlikely and practical visionary--somewhat as his own times needed him. Our times, it goes without saying, are plain mad; and not the times only, but those who presume to speak up, to speak for us; and who in fact concoct the imagery, betrayal, and moral decrepitude that lead us headlong into the ditch. Blindfolded we go, and who shall give us sight? (From Sojourner’s sermon preparation resource for November 28, 2010; http://www.sojo.net/, subscription required)

To be more specific regarding Father Berrigan’s protest and activism of September 1980, he and his brother Philip and six others known at the “Plowshares Eight” began the Plowshares Movement in August of that year. Subsequently, they illegally trespassed onto the General Electric Nuclear Missile facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. There they damaged nuclear warhead nose cones with small household hammers. According to Wikipedia information, they were arrested and charged with over ten different felony and misdemeanor counts.

On April 10, 1990, after ten years of appeals, Father Berrigan's group was re-sentenced and paroled for up to 23 and 1/2 months in consideration of time already served in prison. Their legal battle was re-created in the film “The King of Prussia” which starred Martin Sheen and included appearances by the “Plowshares Eight”.

To this day, at the age of 89, Father Berrigan remains involved with the Plowshares Movement. I imagine that Father Berrigan constituted more than one migraine headache for his congregation and his ministerial supervisors and overseers. For me, I want to be clear that I do not condone Father Berrigan’s form of activism. It goes beyond the civil disobedience which I would engage in. What I want to encourage as a result of his life witness is that each of us carefully consider what we can do to come off the sidelines and what we can do to ensure that swords and spears transform into plowshares and pruning hooks. If we fail to do this, who knows what the next 27 centuries will bring since our lethality grows so insidiously each passing year – far surpassing anything from Isaiah’s time.

It seems then to me that the last and final step of humanity’s swords and spears into plowshares and pruning hooks begs a certain question, e.g. what shall we beat and transform these hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars into? Shall we (meaning the world) take a portion of them to ensure formidable disaster response when earthquakes or tsunamis or hurricanes devastate a community or a country or a people? Shall we take a portion to ensure eradication of hunger, poverty, disease, and provide universal healthcare, and safe and secure housing, education, and employment opportunity for all in need? Shall we take a portion to repair the environmental damage we have caused to God’s precious creation? Shall we take a portion to ensure that corrupt unethical unqualified people cannot occupy positions of power and influence in our governments, communities, and marketplaces? What all shall we do when war is no more? What all can we do?

Modern day swords into modern day plowshares – share you dream of it, share your hope – then pick up a hammer and let's get to work.

"Today, you are with me in Paradise"

2010-11-18T21:32:00.000-08:00

For Sunday, November 21st, 2010

(Cropped photo of the 11th Station of “The Way of the Cross” at Ta Pinu Sanctuary located in Gozo, Malta on the southernmost tip of Italy. Photo taken by Hans A. Rosbach, provided under Creative Commons License)

Lectionary Scripture – Luke 23:33-43 (NRSV)

When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, “This is the King of the Jews." One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

Today, you are with me in Paradise

Luke’s words above capture a defining moment in history. In that moment, some mocked the innocent one dying upon the cross. Others considered him part of a typical day in the life of the Empire. Others grieved inconsolably for a loved one executed so tortuously and shamefully. Yet some see and understand that a shocking new beginning is about to take place, one from which there will be no turning back. And nearly two thousand years later, from that utterly dark and agonizing moment, two billion souls now claim to follow and pursue the cause of one who died so scornful a death. It was a death that made all of us of responsible for what’s not right and what’s not just in the world. In short, it made each of us responsible for doing justice, speaking justice, and creating justice that will bring about God’s Peaceable Kingdom here on earth.

Most appropriately, scholars and theologians therefore ask in what sense do we see ourselves responsible for bringing about the Peaceable Kingdom? In what ways are we doing justice, speaking justice, creating justice? What are our individual responsibilities? And if we are doing those things, what then does the process of establishing the Kingdom here on earth look like? What does the Kingdom itself look like?

I doubt that I have answers of any real use to anyone. I know however what drives me at the core of who I am. It slipped out during a prayer I gave at an interfaith service in September 2001 following the events of 9/11. Surprising to me, local news media picked it up and broadcast it that evening on the eleven o’clock news. Simply put, I had prayed these words, “No living soul should ever suffer a single moment of terror.”

Looking back at that statement, and if there’s any truth in it, what does it mean that our world should look like here and now? Well first and foremost in our current economic climate, it would mean that no one person or groups of persons should have the ability or even the remotest opportunity to throw world markets into any kind of tailspin that takes years or decades to recover from. Whoever allowed such sociopaths to gain this upper hand anyway? The short answer is me and you. Who can correct the problem? You and me. How so? We do it by making sure no one can ever again get away with financial speculation based solely on thin air. We keep it from happening again by jumping on even the smallest sign that someone somewhere is cooking the books. We keep it from happening again by protecting the whistleblowers that courageously come forward and say that something is wrong, illegal, unethical, or immoral. We do that instead of erecting walls through laws or processes that allow various parts or pieces of our legal system to intimidate whistleblowers seeking after justice. For the truth of it is this my friends that there are plenty of moments of terror in watching all one’s savings go up in smoke and there are plenty of moments of terror when one no longer has a job and cannot provide for oneself or one’s family.

And what about the moments of terror when a man or woman cannot obtain healthcare and medicines for their child? What about the moment of terror a child experiences seeing their parent in pain or dying because some fool somewhere thinks God’s children shouldn’t bear the burden together of ensuring that every parent and every child and every person gets the healthcare and medicines they need for having as full and beneficial a quality of life as possible.

What about the wars? What about the terror wars always proliferate such as the destruction of life, destruction of the quality of life, the rapes, the beatings, the torture, the disease, the famine, and the grinding debt created by war on behalf of leaders who dismissively think it unnecessary to pay for a war and casually toss that burden of debt onto younger generations. In the days of God’s Peaceable Kingdom, God will have a very special place for such leaders and promulgators of death and terror.

So what does the Peaceable Kingdom here on earth look like? It looks like the most splendid comfortably warm and sunny summer day ever experienced in your life. On that day, the Spirit of God and the Spirit of the Prophets and the Spirit of Peace will be everywhere permeating every living thing and every living soul with their message of peace and justice. There will be no poverty. There will be no disease. There will be no one experiencing hardship. There will no one seeking advantage over others. There will be no one worried over their institution or business or church or family or community surviving into the future.

And what will we spend our time doing in the Peaceable Kingdom? We’ll spend it exploring and learning and understanding the vast potential of life that lies beyond the dark and evil influences of our times. For when we find the courage to be the Peaceable Kingdom now, we will have finally arrived to the day Christ says to us, “Truly I tell you, today you are with me in Paradise.”

"Rejoice in God's New Creation" - Guest Blogger Lana

2010-11-11T17:08:00.000-08:00

For Sunday, November 14, 2010

I’m pleased to introduce to you to my friend, Lana, who is peace-n-justice’s first guest blogger. Lana is a Canadian living in Vancouver, British Columbia. As a favor to me, she has regularly and faithfully “pre-read” my blog postings. This hardly means that I have routinely won her stamp of approval -- far from it. What I have mostly sought from her is her objective criticism born of a spirituality in her that has blessed my life many times over. Below, you will hear from her how that spirituality came into being and how the prophetic nature of it brings joy and empowerment to those that society and culture cast aside.

Some twenty years ago, Lana awakened a similar call in me to be courageous and prophetic while serving as her pastor in British Columbia. Because of her, I have never turned back though Lana and I would probably agree that sometimes I’m a bit too edgy and don't rejoice enough in my blogging or consider often enough what lies beyond indignation or frustration that I have expressed. In a recent phone conversation together about these things, an epiphany took place and I felt I should ask her to guest blog at peace-n-justice. With a little persuasion, Lana agreed and this Sunday’s lectionary from Isaiah worked out as the perfect opportunity. I think you'll agree that in what Lana has written there are some wonderfully inspiring thoughts. So with no further ado, let’s turn you over to Lana, one of God’s blessed children. -- Brad Shumate, Vancouver WA

"Rejoice in God's New Creation"

(Graphic is “Peaceable Kingdom” by Edward Hicks, 1780-1849, a primitive American painter who is well known for his folk depiction of the Isaiah prophecy contain in the scripture below)

Lectionary Reading - Isaiah 65:17-25 (New International Version)

"Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.

I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach [a] a hundred will be considered accursed.

They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands. They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them.
Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain," says the LORD.

"Rejoice in God's New Creation"

A man I love shot a wolf this past week. I never would have believed it had I not seen him beside the lifeless animal in a photo emailed to me from my mother 600 miles away.

As I stared at the hunter’s smiling face, I could not make sense of what I was seeing. I found myself trapped in the space where feelings begin and the thoughts that finally articulate them. In my family we had been raised with an honor code of hunting values. One of those core values is that one does not kill animals not sanctioned for eating. We would no sooner harm a wolf than shoot the family dog. When words finally came to me, I emailed back and asked, “Why did Dad shoot the wolf?”

For as long as I can remember my dad always wanted to see a wolf up close. He would share about hearing their soulful cries and following their tracks. Once or twice he had even seen where they lay or left other markings, but always that close up sighting eluded him.

As a result of my father’s sharing and hunting experiences, he instilled in me while I was quite young a sense of awe and wonder while in the presence of nature. Sometimes he did this through funny tricks of getting birds to land on his hand and eat bread crust stolen from our sandwiches. At other times, he taught us how to catch fish with recycled milk bags. There were also the challenging times of being perched on a fallen log or out-cropped rock to see who could be quiet the longest. In this way we could hear (and later identify) the sounds around us.

Dad always took time to appreciate every beauty of nature, even the death of a lone wolf which I eventually learned he had not killed but simply happened upon it while hunting. His smile in the photo resulted from his happiness seeing this wolf close up before Mother Nature reclaimed it back into the earth. Compelled by his love of nature and love of wolves, Dad examined and marveled at what had always eluded him. The photo captured that moment of joy in his life.

For all his love of Nature, what amazes me is Dad’s non-belief in God. He is absolutely unable to credit God for the beauty he reverences in Nature. Ironically, the moments he provided me atop mountain peaks as a child left indelible marks on my soul. I came therefore to a faith in God that my father never intended. In time, I found a community with whom I could share that faith.

One of the central values of my faith community is an appreciation of the inter-connectedness of the whole of life. In the spring of 2000, I co-led a Northwest Washington youth retreat with Paul Lucero, an Oneida Elder and Native American Ministries Leader in my faith tradition. During that retreat, Paul shared with us a sacred story from his Native American tradition. It’s a story that communicates the value of all that has been created in the eyes of the Creator. The story goes that….

A great celebration took place where all the animals were asked to gather so that the Creator could bless them and give each of them a distinct gift. Rabbit being, both highly distractible and highly fearful (even of the Creator) chose to avoid the ceremony. When the Creator finally sought him out, after all the other animals had received their unique gifts, Rabbit was found hiding with his bottom sticking out of a hole in the ground. The Creator, not to be cheated out of an opportunity to bless Creation, allowed Rabbit to keep his jitters and keen fears. The Creator then gave him strong legs and the ability to warn his community with a firm strong stomp.

When I hold this sacred Oneida teaching and the above Isaiah scripture in my mind at the same time, I am struck with the thought that perhaps we are not wholly in God’s image as individuals, but together in community we are the whole image of God. Like Rabbit, we are often too busy, too afraid, or feel too insignificant to “show up” when there are blessings to be had, or when God calls us to some specific task or responsibility. Each of us must therefore learn how to live out our calling. And we must each show up to be blessed and sustained by the community that forms God in us. In short, none of us can escape the blessing or gifting intended by our Creator.

My journey toward accepting my gift and blessing began at age nineteen. At that time, God impressed upon me a spiritual calling to bridge together people of differing faiths. Philosophically, I embraced the call easily and in different employment and social situations, I try always to live out that perspective. When I met Elder Lucero however, he also discerned a call in me to “prophesy”. On hearing that from him, I felt very much like Rabbit with his bottom sticking out of the hole. And as the retreat wore on that weekend, there was much laughter as I learned that even though I was young, I still had a very old fashioned view of what “prophetic” is.

On that note, I was reluctant to embrace the idea that I might be gifted with prophesy. “What would that mean?” I wondered. Elder Lucero discerned and clarified for me that I “carry with me” a very large idea of what God could do with people’s lives no matter what the circumstance. So my calling to be a bridge between people of differing faiths was only one small part of a greater gift or responsibility of “prophesy”. The next thing to embrace in my life’s work would be seeing and speaking of God’s possibility in the world where it often seemed impossible or unspeakable. In the past five years, this task has become quite clear for me in my work as an employment counselor in the poorest postal code in Canada where I have been helping people to invent new possibilities for themselves. In no uncertain terms, it is a place where people are labeled “addicts”, “sick”, “unemployed”, “criminal”, and “chronic”. For me however, it is a place of unlimited grace, for each day brings an opportunity to meet new people for whom a relevant infusion of Isaiah’s prophetic message is sorely needed, particularly in the following:

"Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy."

Long and short of it, we are free to put our past behind us and to confidently claim a new future. I have witnessed this process many times as I saw people leave behind labels and claim new lives. Sometimes this process happened by finding work. Other times it occurred through finding shelter or simply being received into space that fostered healthier alternatives to the person’s current reality. For the past year I have worked on a mental health team exclusively devoted to helping persons with mental illness envision new space, new lives, new careers and healthier alternatives that give meaning and purpose to their lives. My work on this team involves advocacy with employers and communities to change how they view persons with mental illness so that new and greater opportunities and possibilities are continually created. Prophetically, I am compelled to find and create hope where others do not. What carries me through this demanding endeavor is my firm belief in the Spirit revealed in Isaiah 65:24-25:

Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent's food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain," says the LORD.

This scripture is a prophetic call to action for me and for you. The Spirit claims “the wolf and the lamb will feed together”. When, one might wonder? Well, it will be when we make it so. Earlier I mentioned that I felt a bit like Rabbit when I was learning from Elder Lucero as what his stories teach about is the animals and their relationship to the Creator. In turn, those lessons teach us about our own natures as human beings.

In the above scripture, we are therefore called to look at alternate possibilities for our own natures. For instance, if the lion can eat straw like the ox, perhaps we can do a better job of feeding the hungry in our cities? If the wolf can feed with the lamb, perhaps we can have a better relationship with our ex-spouse? What situations are we living with where we are seeing only the typical or stereotypical solution? The Isaiah passage is a call for us to look into our lives and see where we can make new lives through being agents for reconciliation, transformation, even creation.

I do not know the nature of your individual calling. I do believe the teachings of Elder Lucero that the Creator will find and bless you wherever you are and that your gift is meant to be shared within the community gifted to you. Find something that seems impossible to do, and go take it on.

Lana
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada

"God of the Living"

2010-11-05T16:36:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, November 7th, 2010

(Graphic is a lectionary drawing by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Peru, available at www.mscperu.org)

Gospel Lectionary Reading - Luke 20:27-38 NRSV

Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. Finally the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her."

Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive."

"God of the Living"

My goodness, where does one begin with a scripture story/event like this? There are many wonderful and empowering commentaries of this encounter between Jesus with the Sadducees. In most of them, the comments center upon the rub between the “organized religion” of the time and new insights offered by a controversial young rabbi who we know by the name of Jesus.

For their part, the Sadducees were a highly rigid and puritanical priestly sect. Almost always, they’d be engaged in some kind of minutia or micro-management that would make most people’s heads spin today. For instance, they insisted that the high priest light the kindling for the Temple altar fire outside the Temple so the smoke from the kindling’s burning enveloped and wrapped around the high priest before he entered into the presence of God in the Temple. My guess is that the smoke somehow minimized or disguised human essence so its depravity did not anger or offend God’s divine being.

The Sadducees tended to be hostile toward rabbis and the rabbinic law; however they were not above using its own methods against it. In the above case for instance, the Sadducees employed a rabbinic tool for reasoning things to whatever absurd extreme they find necessary to make rabbinic teachings like those of Jesus appear nonsensical. They hope in the course of their efforts to trap Jesus into saying or teaching something that could be labeled heretical, dangerous, and therefore a reason to get rid of him. It didn’t matter that they didn’t believe in an afterlife to begin so why even engage in such a discussion with Jesus. The main thing is that they – the religious authority and establishment -- wanted him gone and banished from the Temple altogether. They would therefore employ whatever means they considered necessary to achieve that end. Organized institutional religion would have its way with a contrarian like Jesus, so either he better get with the institution’s program or he better get lost.

Jesus turns such misguided effort back on to itself. From a seemingly insignificant piece of the Hebrew scripture, Jesus points out to the Sadducees they’re failure to grasp the depth of Judaism’s own sacred writings, i.e. that those who have passed on from “this age” into “that age” to come, remain very much alive. In that regard, God has said, “I am the God” of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, not “I was the God” of these persons. As Jesus points these things out to the Sadducees, one can almost imagine the “Ah, yes” expressions of the crowd and all the heads nodding in agreement with him. Not content to let things end there, Jesus cuts the Sadducees’ absurdity to shreds when he takes the position that marriage is a product of “this age” however it will not be part of “that age” to come. Undoubtedly angered at their embarrassment before the crowd, which most self-righteous people would be, it’s likely the Sadducees withdrew to watch for their religion’s next opportunity to take Jesus down. Score one for Jesus and zero for organized religion.

As we know however, the followers of Jesus eventually promulgated a new religion. In time, they evangelized a considerable portion of the world. In time, they became the organized religion dominating people’s reality and governing thought and governing lives. Even today in an increasingly secularized and pluralistic world, the followers of Jesus continue to wield significant influence and power in people’s lives. Yet as most of us realize, that power and influence is waning with more and more prophetic contrarians of our time. With information technology being what it is, they are far more prolific and vocal than at any time in the past. From many of their points of view, they offer a singular insistence which is that all paths to the love and grace of God are good. There is no one path that people must adhere to or only one way into the family of God. Voices suggesting that such is the case reflect only the prejudice of “this age” rather than the thinking of “that age” which is to come and which is already manifesting itself in various forms. To the degree therefore that organized religion ignores this or speaks or plots against it, it does so at great peril. For it will be a peril that ultimately judges and rules against organized religion as an utterly irrelevant archaic thing. The sad thing will be the memory and tradition that gets lost rather than the memory and tradition that transformed itself into a new creation capable of blessing generations long into the future – generations in turn which would have generously honored those which preceded them.

For the generations that follow you, may you always find the generosity to embrace and resource their needs so the memories and monuments they erect to your foresight can bless you in “that age” to come; remembering always that our God is the god of the living and never the god of the dead.

"Hurry and Come Down!"

2010-10-30T11:48:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, October 31st, 2010

(Graphic from http://www.churchpowerpoint.com/, used with permission)

Lectionary Scripture -Luke 19:1-10 NRSV

He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today." So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him.

All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner." Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much." Then Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost."

Hurry and Come Down!

Over the centuries, the primary theme emerging from this scriptural story has been that Jesus came to save the lost. According to that theme Zacchaeus is among the lost, mostly because he’s a tax collector. Distain for him was even greater distain since his life brimmed with wealth, power, and influence. For most Jews, he personified evil. As things go with this particular theme, the good in Zacchaeus won out over the evil. Jesus helps Zacchaeus see the error of his ways and subsequently he invites himself to Zacchaeus’ home. Zacchaeus’ sinful ways turn to ash. He no longer forestalls the transformation taking place within him. Scrambling down from the tree to stand before Jesus, he publicly renounces his former evils. He then offers restitution for any and all he has offended or harmed by his actions in this past. Following this, Jesus declares Zacchaeus and his household saved.

There is however a lesser known alternative theme. It revolves around a certain verb tense that gets lost in translation. If that verb tense receives the full and just attention it should, as some Bible scholars and theologians think it should, it changes the entire lesson or teaching the scripture has to offer. For instance, when Zacchaeus talks about fraud and the poor in front of Jesus and the crowd, he describes what he’s already doing rather than how he will change his ways. In this way, the scripture would read a bit differently and have a much different tone. The tone becomes in essence Zacchaeus protesting to Jesus the crowd’s perspective of him, e.g. “Look Lord, half my possessions I give to the poor. And when it’s clear that I have erred in my tax collection and have taken more than I should have, I restore the error to that person four times over.” In the course of things, Jesus discerns Zacchaeus to be an honest man doing the best he can at a very difficult and unpopular job. The proclamation from Jesus to the crowd is largely a slap to their faces. How so? Well after Jesus learns from Zacchaeus how he lives his life and how he always endeavors to do right by others, Jesus proclaims Zacchaeus part of the family of God and most decidedly a child of Abraham. To seal his point, Jesus goes to Zacchaeus’ home and shares a meal with him and his household, all of which delights Zacchaeus.

The teachings and lesson one can glean from this alternate theme/approach are several. First, it speaks to the prejudice a society and culture can have toward one of their own simply because of a job that must be done which few others are willing to do. Second, it points out the injustice of shunning behaviors from those who live judgmentally toward others. Third, it reflects the vulnerability we all have toward the herd mentality. Lastly, the scripture speaks powerfully to the importance of authority figures pre-emptively standing over and against prejudice, ignorance, and bigotry.

Regarding the above, I am reminded of African American, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was a person highly despised by numerous segments of Americans for taking on the job of ending racism in America and ensuring civil rights for all, particularly the voting rights of African Americans in the state of Alabama in 1965. At the time, society and culture of the 1960s employed various means of ignoring and shunning persons like Reverend King, even turning to violence against him and his fellow advocates in Selma, Alabama in March 1965 through beating men, women, children, ministers, and civil rights protesters -- all of which had been sanctioned by varying levels of Alabama law enforcement. In response to the violence, Reverend King issued the following call to action:

“In a vicious maltreatment of defenseless citizens of Selma, where old women and young children were gassed and clubbed at random, we have witnessed an eruption of the disease of racism which seeks to destroy all of America. The people of Selma will struggle for the soul of the Nation, but it is fitting that all Americans help to bear the burden. I call therefore, on clergy of all faiths, representative of every part of the country to join me in Selma for a ministers’ march on Montgomery Tuesday morning.”

Progressive faith leaders from across the country were enraged at the violence that had taken place. By the busloads and planeloads they left their pulpits and congregations in the spring of 1965 to go and walk alongside King in the “Ministers March”. Fearing that the worst might happen, people from all walks of life pressed then President, Lyndon Johnson, to intervene with Alabama authorities before all that was left of the Minsters March was human carnage. In response, President Johnson took to the bully pulpit that was his as president. He spoke out against the ignorance and bigotry and violence that had taken place in Alabama. The following is a portion of his words to the American people, delivered before Congress, at that critical time in our history:

“I speak tonight for the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy. At times history and fate meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom. So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it was at Appomattox. So it was last week in Selma, Alabama. There is no cause for pride in what has happened in Selma. There is no cause for self-satisfaction in the long denial of equal rights of millions of Americans. But there is cause for hope and for faith in what is happening here tonight.

For the cries of pain, the hymns and protest of oppressed people, have summoned into convocation all the majesty of this great government. In our time we have come to live with moments of great crisis. But rarely in any time does an issue lay bare the secret heart of America itself, a challenge, not to our growth or abundance, our welfare or our security, but to the values and the purposes and meaning of our nation.

The issue of equal rights for American Negroes is such an issue, and should we defeat every enemy, double our wealth, conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and a nation. For with a country as with a person, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Last time a president sent a civil rights bill to Congress it contained a provision to protect voting rights. That bill passed after eight long months of debate. And when that bill came to my desk for signature, the heart of the voting provision had been eliminated. This time, on this issue, there must be no delay, no hesitation, no compromise.

Even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and state of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause too. It is not just Negroes, but all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice.

I say to all of you here and to all the nation tonight, that those who ask you to hold on to the past do so at the cost of denying you your future.

The real hero of this struggle is the American Negro. His actions and protests – his courage to risk safety and even life – have awakened the conscience of the Nation. His demonstrations have been designed to call attention to injustice, to provoke change and stir reform. He has called upon us to make good the promise of America. And who among us can say we would have made the same progress were it not for his persistent bravery and his faith in American democracy. For at the heart of battle for equality is a belief in the democratic process.

President Johnson’s speech had the desired and intended effect. Congress subsequently sent him the Voting Rights Act which he signed into law on August 6th, 1965. The State of Alabama had to once and for all cease its bigoted, violent, and discriminatory practices. Within one week of the Voting Rights Act becoming law, federal registrars set up shop in Alabama and six months later nine thousand African Americans in Selma, Alabama were registered to vote.

For me, the events and dynamics surrounding Selma and those involving Zacchaeus have important things in common. The first is that none of us have any business denying rights to happiness and affiliation and association to anyone. Jesus forced that realization upon the crowd regarding Zacchaeus. King forced that realization upon a nation as did President Johnson in terms providing civil rights to Africa-Americans. In my book, there are many persons today striving for the same in terms of ensuring the happiness and well-being of our gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgendering brothers and sisters. For them, there is a continuing “struggle for the soul of the Nation” and a “crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice” in this country and those who rise up against them seeking to obstruct their right to happiness want little more than “to hold on to the past at the cost of denying” us our future.

Progressive persons of faith and progressive faith leaders everywhere, there are far too many people forcing far too many other people “to hold on to the past” over so many different things; all of it happening at the “cost of denying” us our future. We’re long overdue for doing the right thing. The task before you is simple. It involves little more than saying, “ Zacchaeus, hurry and come down….”

"But for the Grace of God"

2010-10-21T00:01:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, October 24th, 2010

(source for graphic unknown, if you have information for it, please let me know)

Lectionary Scripture – Luke 18:9-14 NRSV
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."

“But for the Grace of God”

“There, but for the grace of God, go I.” It’s a saying we often hear and may even use ourselves from time to time. Supposedly it was first said by a Church of England priest named John Bradford around 1553 when he saw a criminal led to execution in the Tower of London. Imprisoned himself at the time on trumped up charges of stirring up a mob, Bradford was eventually executed as well; a deed sanctioned by Catholic Mary Tudor. Zealous upon her assent to the throne, Queen Mary (aka Bloody Mary) sought to abolish the Church of England set up by her father, King Henry the Eighth. Called “Holy Bradford” out of respect for his deep dedication to God, Bradford had embraced the Church of England. Coupled with his popularity among the people, Bradford constituted a serious threat to Mary and her inner circle. He was a threat that had to be eliminated so Mary could restore England to Catholicism.

Humble to the end, authorities burned Bradford at the stake before a large crowd that came to witness his execution. Reportedly before executioners lit the fire, Bradford encouraged a similarly condemned prisoner to, “Be of good comfort brother, for we shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night.” It is also said that before Bradford died he asked for forgiveness from anyone he had wronged. He then extended forgiveness to those who had wronged him. Vilified eventually for her murderous arrogance trying to return England to Catholicism, a marble tablet monument commemorating martyrs like Bradford was erected three hundred years later in Smithfield London. Known as the time of “Marian Persecutions” the monument in Smithfield is named obviously enough as “The Marian Martyrs Monument.” There are several other such monuments in England honoring those whom Mary burned simply for being Church of England adherents.

“There, but for the grace of God, go I.” It’s something I can even imagine Mary saying, or at least thinking, on an occasion or two of the burnings she allowed. Out of arrogant self-righteousness like that of the Pharisee in the scripture above, she felt justified and acceptable before God for the actions she took. I can also imagine that she pitied most everyone she burned. She pitied them like the Pharisee pitied the tax collector for not seeing and understanding and obeying God in the manner she did. Unfortunately this strange, distorted, and dangerous thinking has but one end and Jesus makes clear what that is, i.e. such persons will not be justified but split off from God and in God’s own time they will be forcibly humbled.

Human history is replete with other examples of sanctimonious arrogance like Mary’s. Hitler and his Nazis are one example. Saddam Hussein and his followers are another. Idi Amin and his murderous band killed hundreds of thousands in Uganda. One can also add those who are religious and/or political extremists of any stripe. All are individuals who proclaim their way as the right and only way to live before God. It’s a kind of arrogance that exists not only at the national or macro level but also at the micro level such as a faith community or even a family. In Mary’s case, one might wonder that if her relationship with her father, Henry the Eighth, had been stronger and more loving, perhaps Mary herself might have been burned at the stake by some religious zealot.

For most of us, we can probably see the Pharisee’s arrogance and personal aggrandizement. He strokes his ego. He exalts himself. He anoints himself with his own brand of salvation. He makes the assumption that he and God are in good stead with each other and there’s tremendous personal satisfaction as a result. But Jesus’ take on the Pharisee is something quite different, “Not so fast,” he says, “things aren’t quite what they seem. You won’t be the one leaving the Temple justified. Instead, it will be the tax collector prostrate on the floor who is justified. See him, he’s there beating himself up for everything he is now and all that he’s been in the past.”

All the above begs a certain question, i.e. “Who of the two men would you rather spend time with and why?” For the persons who answer that they’d rather keep company with the Pharisee, they probably have certain things motivating them. My guess is that one of the motivations is this, “I would rather keep company with an educated person like the Pharisee.” Another comment might be, “The Pharisee looks successful. If I hang out with him, some of that might rub off onto me.” Others might say, “The Pharisees are part of the societal upper crust. I want to be part of that even it means that I get but a few crumbs.” Others might be attracted to the authority the Pharisees wield, so their thinking might be something like this, “The Pharisees have power over others because of rigidly adhering to certain ways of living and being in the world. If I do as they do and live as they say I should, I too will become influential and powerful.” There are also those persons who simply need someone to look down on them condescendingly because it’s all they have ever known. Such individuals lack the means, perspective, energy, and perhaps the courage to tackle a more constructive and empowering life journey. They choose to live in such space because they have been beaten down all their lives by those wanting dominion over them.

Again however, Jesus makes one thing clear, i.e. justification will not happen for such persons. It will not happen for the Pharisee nor will it happen for those seduced into following the Pharisee. This is why Jesus offers such a parable to his followers and raises their awareness to its lesson which is that justification cannot be self-administered. It is alone an act of God and the experience of such forgiveness is so incredibly phenomenological and emotional that it can never be forgotten. And as Jesus points out, this will be the case for the tax collector.

So let’s further consider the tax collector. Jesus declares that this person will be forgiven, justified, and made righteous. What can be said therefore of his condition and station in life? Well most of us know that in any established society or civilization there will be taxes. Most of us know that taxes must be collected and that workers will be required to collect those taxes. Then, like today, most people experience tax collection and tax collectors as scary. To a large degree, we want their involvement in our lives to be an absolute minimum. Many of us shudder at the thought of going through a tax audit. Some people even revolt and don’t pay their taxes. I have a relative who felt that way and behaved accordingly for quite a few years. Eventually however the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) caught up with the person and back taxes had to be paid. Hardship resulted. Lastly, I’m sure there are situations that break the hearts of even tax collectors. Today those stories are probably countless such as families being foreclosed on and their homes seized because of taxes that couldn’t be paid. Families get evicted to the streets because of parents who lost jobs as a result of the follies of Wall Street and the mortgage and banking industries. If you’re a tax collector with a conscience and you’ve had to seize property and people experienced hardship as a result, my guess is that you have had occasions of feeling like the tax collector in the above scripture.

While I have never had to seize property, I can recall heartbreaking occasions of forcing others to do things they didn’t want to do. One example comes from enforcing civil commitment laws a number of years ago. The situation involved a poverty-stricken mentally ill young adult suffering schizophrenia. He would not work with me to get attention for medical issues debilitating his physical health and jeopardizing his community boarding home placement. The time finally arrived that either the young man hospitalize himself voluntarily or I would commit him involuntarily. The young man refused and told me to leave his room at the boarding house. Later that day, deputies took him into custody and transported him to the hospital. That very night, his hospital roommate attacked him and blinded him in one eye. For me, there was no forgiving the guilt I felt.

A couple of weeks later I saw the young man in the community. With a big smile he eagerly approached and said it was great to see me. In my mind, I did not deserve the friendliness and I felt my guilt all over again as he showed me the injury to his eye. “Why are you not cursing me,” I thought, “why are you not angry with me?” In time I realized the young man did not hold me responsible for his misfortune. Yet for me, I would always feel responsible and always feel regret for what happened. Perhaps however in the young man’s demeanor, there was something I needed to consider – something which said that even God forgave me when I could not forgive myself.

This week at a community appreciation luncheon for local faith leaders, one of our number reminded us of the importance that people of faith hold for the community in these hard and difficult times. She challenged us to see that our only reason for existing is to care for the poor and if that’s not happening then there is really no reason for our existence. She then issued a call to care less about our churches and public images and to do more in terms of keeping staff on board and keeping staff resourced for their jobs. This is not for our benefit, she said, but for the benefit of the burgeoning numbers of the poor who we must be care for. They are our responsibility now because of the sanctimonious self-serving arrogance and greed that brought on their plight. Whatever may or may not have been our collusion in this state of affairs, our collective guilt must drive us to the altar of their care. There, like the tax collector, we dare not look up nor dare we declare ourselves justified. Only when God has declared our task done, when poverty and injustice and war have been eradicated along with the evil that begets them, then will God justify us. And perhaps something like a blinded eye or a martyrs’ monument will remain behind to remind us forever of our culpability so in the Temple of our souls we will pray unceasingly for the mercies we so desperately need.

Computer Down!

2010-10-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

Greetings Readers, I must apologize for not posting last week or this week. My computer crashed and I have had much to do to get back online with some semblance of a usable workstation. My hope is to return to regular blogging sometime next week. Meanwhile, may Christ's Peace be with you. -- Brad

"It's All about Humility"

2010-10-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, October 3rd, 2010

(graphic from ChurchPowerpoint.com, used with permission)

Lectionary Scripture - Luke 17:5-10 (NRSV)
The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" The Lord replied, "If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey you.

“Who among you would say to your slave who has just come in from plowing or tending sheep in the field, 'Come here at once and take your place at the table'? Would you not rather say to him, 'Prepare supper for me, put on your apron and serve me while I eat and drink; later you may eat and drink'? Do you thank the slave for doing what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were ordered to do, say, 'We are worthless slaves; we have done only what we ought to have done!'"

It’s All about Humility

The worship resource my denomination makes available for the above scripture says that a small amount of faith can bring big results. It also says that faith exists for the purpose of bringing life and bringing grace to oneself and others. Faith however is not for purposes of demonstrating or obtaining power which at its core is fickle, impulsive, self-serving, self-aggrandizing, and capricious. Such displays of counterfeit faith defeat the purpose of genuine faith. Why? Because genuine faith exists for one reason alone and that reason is to deepen our relationship with God and with one another. The resource therefore asks that we closely examine our motivations when seeking an increase of faith. Part of that examination must include discerning if we want God to do something that we ourselves should do. We’re then asked to reflect on a time when we experienced an increase of faith and how it helped in the situation or circumstance and what was subsequently accomplished. Hopefully this contemplation leads to understanding when it is appropriate to ask God for increased faith and when it is not.

For me, when I see displays of counterfeit faith, I am often intrigued. I remember traveling to a congregation some years ago to preach. Church school classes were still in session so I decided to wait in the lobby until classes were finished. It wasn’t long before I started hearing one of the teachers emphatically yell the name of God every few words or so. God’s name was being used appropriately but the pronunciation was loud and angry. It carried the kind of intensity of when someone uses “God” in a swearing tirade. I then imagined being in that adult class and probably blanching each time the fool repeatedly yelled “GOD!” Before long, I recognized who was teaching the class and smiled to myself. I smiled because I knew the individual’s longstanding reputation for being full of himself. In fact, it always amazed me the number of people willing to follow this person year after year given his blatantly obvious self-serving, self-aggrandizing, impulsive, temperamental, capricious personality style. Furthermore, he never really did any heavy lifting as a minister. For that stuff, he always cajoled, ordered, or intimidated someone else into doing it for him. In my estimation, there was little about his faith that was remotely genuine. I suspect however that he would say he has the richest spiritual life of anyone he knows.

Fortunately, there have been many other people in my life whose faith I can gladly affirm as genuine and even as real as mustard seed. They are people devoid of any ego dynamics related to control issues. They are devoid of needing to impress others, or impress themselves, or seek high office, or for that matter seek any kind of position or influence over others. Extending compassion is, and will always be, their first order of business. They are persons so humble and comfortable in their own skin that it would take a tree uprooting itself and being cast into the sea before they’d get ruffled or nicked by someone’s careless insult. Honesty, integrity, humility, and generosity define their way of being in the world. One needn’t ever feel self-conscious in asking for their help and support. These people of faith live in ways so utterly foreign to those whose lives comprise drivenness for position, influence, achievement, power, or riches. People of real faith – people of genuine faith – seem like aliens from another planet for they see the world so utterly and wholly different from the rest of us. They realize that we are caught up in an eternity, an eternity in which the current ills will last but a short while. Year after year, this is the faith I want and the faith I seek after. Jim Wallis of Sojourners is someone who exudes that kind of faith for me.

Wallis’ faith became an inspiration for me when we were arrested together in Washington D.C. in December 2005 for protesting cuts to the federal budget. The House of Representatives wanted those cuts, which would have harmed the most vulnerable persons in our society, so at the same they could also wanted generously decrease taxes upon the richest of the rich; talk about robbing the poor to pay the rich. Wallis wasn’t going to have it and neither would I. He therefore summoned people of faith from around the country to protest and be arrested in Washington D.C.

The evening before our arrest by Capitol Police, Wallis led a prayer service vigil at a local church. The intent of the prayer service was to keep our spirits and faith motivated for the next day’s protest. Wallis closed the service that evening with a text from Hebrew Scripture in Habakkuk. It’s a scripture he carries with him at all times. It reads as follows, "Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision, make it plain on tablets so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay." The vision of course is nothing less than God’s Peaceable Kingdom. After the scripture, we joined hands and sang the spiritual, "We Shall Overcome." Following a benediction, we were asked to turn to each other and say, "Hope to be arrested with you tomorrow." Laughter and hugs followed as we left the church sanctuary. These people of faith made the protest a peaceful success the following day.

Thanks Jim for your faith and for your courage. To me, they are the real stuff, nothing counterfeit about them. They are more than mustard seeds. They are the boulders, uprooted trees, and obstacles that must be placed in the way of counterfeit faith whenever and wherever we find it. Long and short of it my friends, ask for the genuine article, i.e. genuine faith, whenever and wherever you need it. For God will supply and provide.

"Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision, make it plain on tablets so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay."

"The Dead Cannot Save Us"

2010-09-21T19:53:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, September 26th, 2010

(Graphic from http://www.churchpowerpoint.com/, used with permission)

Lectionary Reading - Luke 16:19-31 (NRSV)

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man's table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.

The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. He called out, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.'

But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony. Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' He said, 'Then, father, I beg you to send him to my father's house – for I have five brothers – that he may warn them, so that they will not also come into this place of torment.'

Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.' He said, 'No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"

The Dead Cannot Save Us

Professor Emeritus Walter Wink of Auburn Theological Seminary is a great inspiration to me. He’s a Methodist minister with Master of Divinity and Ph.D. degrees from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He is also a Peace Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. Recently, on the Sojourners’ website for sermon preparation, he shared a story that should give any of us pause to think:

There once was a rich nation that consumed almost half the world's resources. Landed elites in the poor nations became rich by producing cash crops for export to this nation while their own people lacked adequate nutrition. Even in that rich nation, many were hungry and homeless, unemployed and ill. Yet the rich nation ignored them, or had them arrested. Because the rich nation really was not religious, but only pretended to be, it had no fear of divine punishment. And because it was so powerful politically and militarily, it was able to protect itself against revolts abroad and revolutions at home.

In short, this rich nation had nothing to fear from any quarter. Yet, inexplicably, it began to fall apart. The judgment it scoffed at in the future began to eat away at it like acid. In desperation its people began to arm themselves. Soon this rich land had the most heavily armed populace in the world. But still the acids continued to eat. They built walls to shut the emigrants and "inferior races" out. But still the acids continued to eat.

They called for the death penalty, for more prisons, for more arrests, for greater surveillance, for tougher sentencing. Their politicians got elected on platforms of resentment, fear, and greed. The people cried for the restoration of traditional values, not recognizing that these values had landed them in the soup they were now in. And still the corrosive acids continued to eat at the fabric of society.

It never occurred to them that salvation lay in solidarity with these poor within and outside their borders. Like the rich man in the parable, this rich nation could not understand that the gate outside which Lazarus perpetually lies is an opening, not a barrier. All he had to do is go out and connect with the poor, and seek a common destiny. All he had to do was recognize what lay before his very eyes.

This parable is not about an afterlife (on which we may be willing to take our chances). The poor are at our gate—now. The judgment is already ineluctably working. It is stark warning and desperate compassion: If we won't do what's right because it's right, will we at least do it out of fear?

The above is what this blog is all about, i.e. do what’s right because it’s right. I have to credit and thank one of my readers for making that succinct insight about my blog when visiting her and her husband several months ago. I then have to thank someone like Wink for the courage he demonstrates in speaking so frankly and pointedly about those who would keep what I call the Lazarus-Rich Man Syndrome alive and well.

I am now approaching the first anniversary of this blog. I had no idea what insights would come from it or even if there would be any. I am grateful however that a recognizable theme and dynamic have arisen. I’m quite glad to be in the company of voices like Wink’s. I extend my warmest thanks to my readers for their encouragement and feedback.

So here are some conclusions I have reached after nearly a year at this effort. The primary thing, as Ernest Hemingway once said, is that writers must write first for themselves. The focus of that is I must write about “doing what’s right because it’s right.” Secondly, I must not concern myself with others finding my writing palatable. If my writing is good then readers will follow – also something Hemingway once said. Lastly, through sharing my stories and insights and the insights and stories of others, my mission is the end of any and all forms of oppression or abuse whether those are knowingly committed or unwittingly supported. I want subtle manipulative forms and systems unmasked and cast out. I want egregious forms dealt with visibly and forthrightly. I demand justice, dignity, equity, and well-being for each and every living soul on God’s good earth. The Lazarus and Rich Man syndrome must end.

Walter Wink put it best in an October 1978 Sojourners article titled, “Unmasking the Powers” when he wrote:

It is God's will that we live corporately, sustained, nourished, and served by these supra-personal structures [economics, politics, systems, social structures]. Yet at the same time, these powers are also demonic, seeking their own advantage as the highest good, regardless of the long-term, best interests of humanity.

Wink then stated that many powers encompass us; they serve and exploit us, benefit and burden us. The names of these powers and principalities are well known to us. We call them economics, politics, systems, social structures. Their managers in this world are often the wealthy, the powerful, the self-absorbed, the malignantly narcissistic, or some combination thereof.

There must be a new dream, a dream that transcends our world managers, a dream that rightly extends to each and every person now living or ever to be. The dream is uncomplicated. Stated simply, it must be that in making a meaningful contribution to one’s community, we must guarantee that a person will have full and unfettered access to all resources needed for their well-being and that of their loved ones. And a meaningful contribution will be defined such that even the least among us will be empowered to offer their unique gifts and abilities.

There must be no more Lazarus at the gate with only dogs to provide comfort and lick wounds. There must be no more of the checked-out wealthy, powerful, influential, or any narcissistic or sociopathic self-absorbed persons allowed to knowingly, or even unwittingly, toy with people’s lives in pursuit of their own wants or needs.

The message, the dream, the mission must be our reality now. The dead will not arise to save us from ourselves.

"The Dishonest Steward"

2010-09-16T06:59:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, September 19th, 2010

(Graphic from ChurchPowerPoint.com, used with permission)

Luke 16:1-13 (NRSV)

Then Jesus said to the disciples, "There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.'

Then the manager said to himself, 'What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.'

So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' He answered, 'A hundred jugs of olive oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.' Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.'

And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes. "Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."

The Dishonest Steward

Jesus makes a profound point in the above teaching. Basically he says that secular persons pursuing their goals in the secular marketplace do so more cleverly, astutely, resourcefully and wisely than do communities of faith, i.e. the children of light. The goal of course for the children of light is God’s Peaceable Kingdom here on earth. Certainly it’s no small task, however Jesus makes clear that we must pursue it more shrewdly and aggressively than we do.

In the above scripture story, the lazy and dishonest manager sees the writing on the wall and what his self-serving ways are about to get him. In great desperation, like a celebrated but out of shape athlete wanting to hold on to his title, the manager resurrects his previous skills and calls upon all his past experience. If there’s to be any hope of keeping his status and the quality of life he’s accustomed to, he must get things back in shape. And if he’s unable to keep his job and status, he will need the support and help of friends, so he cuts favorable deals here and there with the master’s debtors, thereby creating a network of appreciative persons now indebted to him for his generosity. Surprisingly and despite the odds against him, the manager’s shrewdness impresses his master. The master gives him a reprieve and decides to keep the manager in the game – much to the manager’s relief as we might guess.

So if we take the above and apply it to communities of faith (i.e. the children of light), Jesus is pretty much telling the faith communities of his time (and ours) that they need to get their acts together for the Peaceable Kingdom cause. If not, then they will be cast out, passed up, and passed over.

Now in Jesus’ time, the faith communities he frequented and criticized were likely the unreceptive synagogues where his message and healings and teaching about the Peaceable Kingdom were ridiculed or dismissed. In short, Jesus is saying that faith communities (then and now) must become less self-serving or risk being passed over and their operations ultimately closed down. If these groups were however to fully realize and grasp their situation like the dishonest manager, they would see the writing on the wall. They would change their ways. They would become more productive. They would achieve the things God actually wants them to and they would do so more cleverly, astutely, resourcefully and wisely than they have ever done before. For as Jesus puts it, we cannot serve two masters; either we must choose to serve ourselves or choose to serve God.

In light of the above, one commentary states that the wealth and blessings that God has placed in our lives are for the benefit of all and not just our own self-focused desires. With that in mind, the commentary asks us children of light to think on the future we want for ourselves, our families, and our communities. What will it take to achieve it? What holds us back from working toward that goal?

For me, I think communities of faith across all faith traditions could be powerful amazing advocates for the common good envisioned by God’s Peaceable Kingdom. What holds us back is our need to compete with each other and our phenomenal irrational resistance to change. In fact, the problem and battles have become so bad among U.S. Christian churches that scholars now estimate that most of these 300,000 churches will close down and disappear over the next twenty years. Long and short of it, we children of light have managed to leave a pretty bad taste in the mouths of those we most desperately seek. We are perhaps our own worst enemy in holding back the cause for the Peaceable Kingdom for we try to serve two masters, i.e. our own vanities and our God.

Perhaps however we can see the writing on the wall as did the self-absorbed manager. Perhaps with renewed effort we can resurrect our resourcefulness, shrewdness, and creativity. Perhaps we can rediscover the cause for the common good and once again have the Peaceable Kingdom become our mission rather that opting for a Sunday morning social club gathering. We have much to attend to if the Peaceable Kingdom is ever to be a reality. Communities of faith all around the world could be, as they have been in the past, powerful advocates of God’s Day of Peace for all living souls.

I would not be so bold or arrogant as to suggest that rediscovery of the common good be an American vision, but I think the issues and tasks involved were meaningfully articulated by U.S President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, over 66 years ago in a State of the Union address before the U.S. Congress in June 1944. In that address, Roosevelt called for a second Bill of Rights or what some have come to identify as an Economic Bill of Rights. Introducing those rights, Roosevelt shared the following:

…..political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness. We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. "Necessitous men are not free men." People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all — regardless of station, race, or creed.

Roosevelt then laid out the following vision for an Economic Bill of Rights which detailed the following things:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education

The above needs massage in terms of gender inclusive language and rephrasing of some things into more contemporary terms, but that aside, Roosevelt's words constitute in many ways a compelling vision for God's Peaceable Kingdom vision. As Roosevelt drew his State of the Union address to a close, he expressed these finals thoughts:

All of these rights spell security. And after this war [World War II] is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

There are those in this world who fight tooth and nail to keep the above from ever becoming reality. They do so even while claiming they too are “children of light.” For my part, I doubt that I will ever understand the kind of Peaceable Kingdom vision that resides in such persons. Perhaps they think that one day God will simply wave a magic wand to rid our world of all its ills and until then they’ll simply resign themselves to a strange kind of notion that God destined some people to suffer homelessness, poverty, joblessness, disease, hunger, ignorance, and insults or assaults or losses or disasters wrought by the criminality of others. They will be comfortable with such things until they – like the dishonest manager – become personally affected. When they become affected – as ultimately they will – perhaps then they shall reflect anew on this week’s teaching from Jesus, i.e. that a person cannot serve two masters.

If each of us would therefore become the shrewdest and wisest manager we can be over what God has placed into our care, let us serve then the master for whom our best efforts matter most.

"The Jesus Approach"

2010-09-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, September 12th, 2010

(JESUS MAFA. The Pharisee and the Publican, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48268. Used under Creative Commons license)

Lectionary Scripture Luke 15:1-10 NRSV

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable: "Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.' Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance. Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

The Jesus Approach

Commentary from my faith tradition on the above scripture states that God loves all people. Therefore, in God’s eyes, no differences or divisions exist based on culture, social standing, or personal achievement. Consequently, the disciple’s mission in our tradition requires that we uphold the dignity and worth of all persons and invite them to share in God’s Peaceable Kingdom cause. So my faith tradition asks this question, “What is your passion and commitment for upholding the worth of all persons?”

For me, such passions and commitment are the core of who I am. They drive me so thoroughly that if I encounter someone who takes others for granted or abuses or misuses their authority or mistreats another person, I can become incensed. I feel that way if I find it happening at a personal and individual level and I feel that way if I find it happening in a more macro and/or systemic way. So what particularly appeals to me in the above scripture is Jesus’ courage to intervene with such persons who in this case are the Pharisees. In my book, I have typically regarded the Pharisees of Jesus’ time to be little more than judgmental controlling bullies. In effect, Jesus is my hero and model when for the sake and well-being of those whom bullies despise, he dispassionately uses reason, logic, and story-telling to assert undeniable truths. Through this nonviolent approach, he disempowers the intimidation and oppression of such tormentors.

With these things in mind, I reflected further on the question raised by my faith tradition. The reflection sent me wandering through different memories. Some were from childhood and youth and some from adult life. Memories from childhood seemed to have a commonality as I considered the “passion” aspect of the question. Mostly in my childhood immaturity I would beat up kids who beat on other kids. On one occasion, I even broke bones in my hand. In time however, I realized this behavior was an outlet for the abuse I and my siblings and mother experienced from my father. Eventually, I learned to confront my father directly and take stands with him when necessary. Generally, these confrontations involved speaking my mind and telling him what I would not allow. Usually this calmed him and therefore I came to appreciate Jesus’ way of handling things nonviolently -- an approach some call pacifist when taking a stand on behalf of others or even myself.

As the Jesus approach took greater hold of me in my youth, I seldom found the physical or violent approach necessary. I remember an incident one summer during high school years when a friend and I went swimming at the city pool. Finished with our swim and in the men’s dressing room, the local bully showed up. He verbally tormented my friend for no reason at all. He then shoved him around hoping to provoke a fight. Knowing the bully’s history, he wanted an excuse to beat my friend to a pulp. Wisely, my friend put up no resistance hoping the bully would lose interest and leave. When that didn’t happen and it appeared that things might escalate into physical assault, I stepped between the two of them and said, "Stop." I smiled at the bully and said, “He’s done nothing to you. He’s no threat to you.” The bully turned his angry stare toward me. I expected the worst to follow and steeled myself for an all out brawl – not only with him and but also the buddy at his side. All that happened was a shove and the bully turned around and left. What a relief!

In adulthood, I’ve learned more about such people through my professional training in psychology and clinical experience in public mental health. I have come to understand a great deal about the issues of bullies and rigid judgmental controlling people like the Pharisees. I have discovered how the Jesus approach is even more important in dealing with such persons. The primary thing a Jungian psychiatrist once told me in supervision is this, “Recognize when you are in the presence of evil. When you can do that, you will be able to deal objectively with the situation before you.” Later, I would learn from this gifted and compassionate doctor the highly subtle forms evil can take in persons. From out of such learning, I came to understand when to let go of someone or some situation and when to advocate with all my soul for the well-being of another, even if that meant demanding for action to be taken to contain evil and set boundaries around it.

From my perspective, Jesus understood the above distinctions with a sophistication and finesse born of his brilliance, his commitment to the worth of all, and from the inspiration God gave him in tough situations. He could distinguish between the evil of sinners who could be called to repentance, e.g. the tax collectors. And he could distinguish between the evil of grumbling Pharisaical persons who would despise him from the start of his mortal ministry to its ending upon the cross. Such persons could never be called to repentance. Such persons would remain forever committed to their own ends. Such persons always needed others over whom they lorded or controlled.

So when these grumbling persons whispered in disapproving voices from the sidelines of situations where Jesus extended grace, he would mince few words illustrating the love of God to these rigid individuals. Yet, his illustrations and story-telling would only enrage them further in his depictions of God as a shepherd seeking the lost sheep. For as you may or may not know shepherds were regarded as little more than thieves and low life. “Outrageous!” would also be their reaction at the depiction of God as a woman searching for a lost coin since women had no standing in Jesus time and were little more than property. Such evil Jesus silenced as through his calm presence, storytelling, reasoning, and truth telling evil could find no grounds by which to refute him.

Having been a pastor in three different congregations, I can affirm the Jesus approach as a potent and critical combination when evil must be confronted. I remember one lay minister congregant in particular with a long history of intimidating judgmental controlling behavior. I would call the person a Pharisee in spades. When this person didn’t like how things were going at any given point in time, the individual would tantrum so badly and intensely that others in the congregation suffered panic attacks. From my mental health background, I knew that such hysterics had no real substance to them and simply occurred as attempts to control others. This was particularly so as the person never had the courage to tantrum in my presence. Nor did the person have the courage to approach me directly about issues that were upsetting. Instead, the person would upset others in an effort to manipulate them into taking on the individual's issues as their own.

The day came that enough was enough and that such childish behavior had to stop. I conveyed the message that the behavior must end or the matter would be referred to superiors. Such an approach is necessary as pastors in my tradition have little authority to discipline or intervene with a disruptive antagonistic lay minister congregant. Almost always, a higher level of authority in our hierarchical structure becomes involved when there’s a behavior or discipline concern in a congregation. Sometimes this works out well and sometimes it doesn’t. The laudable goal of course is avoiding congregational splits or divisions or losing even one member of the flock. In this particular instance, the strategy worked and the tantrums stopped – at least within the church building. For a while, a greater measure of peace came upon the congregation. Dignity and worth of persons were upheld and honored for the entire body.

May you in your discipleship always be found as committed and upholding the dignity and worth of all persons, no matter in what setting or circumstance you find yourself. As I was once counseled, may you also have the courage to recognize and accept when evil is before you. May you not be its plaything. May you have the courage to accept when something must be done. May you do so in a way potent enough to resolve the problem yet compassionate enough to make Jesus proud. Do this so Jesus may have admiration for you -- for those whom he admired he called blessed. Such is my hope, may it be yours as well is my prayer for you this week.

United Methodist Church "Call to Action" independent research study

2010-09-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

Dear North American Readers

I seldom do posts other than my reflections on the lectionary, however my wife who works at First United Methodist Church in Portland, Oregon, recently learned of an independent research project commissioned by the United Methodist Church (UMC) demonination regarding vital North American UMC congregations. Knowing of my passion for this kind of effort and information and my desire to see my denomination's congregations become effective and vital to their communities, she told me about the UMC "Call to Action" study. So I have eagerly researched the project.

One telling statistic of the independent research is that of 32,228 North American UMC congregations studied, only 4,961 (or 15%) congregations were rated by the independent researchers as having a "high-vitality" index score. As a result of the study's findings, UMC Bishop Gregory Palmer of the "Call to Action" project steering group shares some frank thoughts about UMC congregations ceasing defeating and ineffective behaviors and ending ways of being that are disconnected from addressing the larger issues and needs of our times in North America. He urges congregations to embrace information and behavior and principles that will aid connectedness and meaningful relationship with their communities. Below are some links that readers may wish to explore:

YouTube - UMC Call to Action - Intro/Research - Bishop Gregory Palmer

Keys to Building Vital Congregations - UMC.org

UMC "Call to Action" PDF presentation

"Freedom to Follow"

2010-09-04T14:20:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, September 5th, 2010

(Graphic is from www.ChurchPowerPoint.com, used by permission)

Lectionary Reading from Luke 14:25-33 (NRSV)

Now large crowds were traveling with him; and he turned and said to them, "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.' Or what king, going out to wage war against another king, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand? If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace. So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

Freedom to Follow

In the above scripture we have several hard sayings of Jesus. Most of those sayings reflect that Jesus had a knack for seeing when crowds followed him simply to be part of the new “in” thing. Periodically therefore, he stops them dead in their tracks and forces their realization of what being a follower entailed. In fairly short order, he makes clear that his mission for God’s Peaceable Kingdom involves dire costs. In detailing those costs he pointedly says that nothing else in life can matter as much as the Peaceable Kingdom cause. Secondly, one must willing give up all one owns in pursuit of the cause. Lastly, the cause will require that one loves the mission for the Peaceable Kingdom more than one’s own life. It should be no surprise then to any of us that if we say those things with our backs to the crowd and then turn around, few if any will remain to see the cause through to fulfillment, especially in our day and time. Most will prefer to hang on to the possessions they have and keep to the routine that has defined their lives day in and day out, year after year, decade upon decade.

Some of us might reason that in Jesus time it was easier to drop everything and follow him and go wherever the Peaceable Kingdom mission might take a person. Most of humanity at that time had very little. Most everyone was poor. Having little more than the clothes on your back and a few possessions that could fit in a small satchel or backpack or be bundled onto the back of a donkey actually made for a kind of freedom. It’s a kind of freedom few of us have today if we reside in one of the world’s more affluent societies. In terms of North America and trying to live out such a freedom, it may sound intriguing and interesting, but how would one do it?

Recently, I daydreamed and then suggested such a possibility to my wife. Given that my current ministry in estate planning covers an eleven state region in the western United States, I pretty much determine what I need to be doing and where I need to be doing it and when I need to be in that particular. So I suggested selling the house, buying a modest RV, getting rid of most of our possessions, storing the rest, my wife quitting her job, us hitting the road, and her writing “the Great American Novel” which has long been one of her dreams. It was there and then that I first heard the phrase from her lips “nomadic lifestyle” followed by “no”. By and large, it was a repeat lesson for me in terms of two things in our marriage. My wife prefers to set down roots in a community and stay there. Secondly, she utterly detests RVs (or Road Whales as some call the vehicles) as she considers them an extravagance and poor investment and not good for the environment. Humorously, we’ve come refer to RVs and the nomadic lifestyle as marriage “deal breakers.”

Despite those realities, we think however that some degree of giving up possessions has sunk in for us. In striving to live more simply and with greater harmony toward the scripture above, we have the house up for sale. If the housing market ever recovers, we hope to downsize into a home half the size of what we have now. We anticipate the extra income will allow us to better support good works for the cause of God’s Peaceable Kingdom, perhaps even retirement travel (no RVs of course) to assist in worthy efforts such as Habitat for Humanity projects. In essence as we age, we increasingly turn to the question of legacy and what our legacy will be, especially the legacy we leave to our two daughters. Will it be that we simply looked after and tended to our own wants and needs and comforts? Or did we do something demonstrative, something selfless and wholly for others that eased their struggles and gave their lives dignity as God would have things be for every living soul in the Peaceable Kingdom.

Watching the movie “Syriana” this past week I had to question if the legacy we’re considering is enough in a world so driven and corrupted by greed, self absorption, lust for power, and satisfying narcissistic needs. Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn’t. After all, my wife and I are but two insignificant souls out of billions who live upon on this planet. Who are we to matter, who are any of us to matter? Yet Jesus makes clear that we do matter and we can impact the world around us tremendously but only to the extent that we willingly turn loose of the things that keep us in bondage to who or what wants control over us. In that regard, Syriana is a painful movie involving heartbreaking lessons about what matters most and then having the courage to pursue it. It provides a sense of that struggle from a position of great wealth and power but also from the position of living in grinding poverty and being considered expendable. If a person isn’t incensed by the end of the movie and willing to stand firm with Jesus or whatever great teacher or prophet one follows for the cause of God’s Day of Peace for all, then that individual needs to watch Syriana again and again until the message of peace and justice and generosity toward all sinks in.

May you and I be persons for whom the message sinks in; may we be numbered among those who find the freedom to follow – the freedom to remain committed to God’s great cause even after hearing the hard things Jesus had to say. Such is my prayer, my hope for you.

The Exalted Humbled, the Humbled Exalted"

2010-08-29T16:19:00.000-07:00

(Graphic from Church PowerPoint at http://www.churchpowerpoint.com/, used by permission)

Lectionary Reading - Luke 14:1, 7-14 (NRSV)

On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely. When he noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, he told them a parable. "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet, do not sit down at the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited by your host; and the host who invited both of you may come and say to you, 'Give this person your place,' and then in disgrace you would start to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down at the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he may say to you, 'Friend, move up higher'; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."

He said also to the one who had invited him, "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

The Exalted Humbled, the Humbled Exalted

The Peaceable Kingdom envisions no systems of domination. For those who want systems of “pecking order” to remain in place, they do so at great peril to themselves for their needs to dominate and control others will come to a startling end. This is the message that Jesus makes clear in the scripture above. And ominous end it will be for those who consider themselves exalted over others as the exalted shall be humbled and the humble exalted.”

Jesus words mean one thing, i.e. hierarchies must eventually pass away. They must be transcended, turned on end, utterly reordered. Behind Jesus words are the reasons why. First, hierarchies mostly feed and massage egos. Second, they reward dysfunctional needs for status and acclaim. Third, they concretize unhealthy unhelpful dynamics in which the needs and wants of a minority oppress and supersede those of majority.

Listening one morning this past week to progressive radio talk show host, Thom Hartman, I was reminded of the truth Jesus spoke in the above scripture. Hartman noted how the American government (which is very hierarchical) became a pawn over the past thirty years for corporations and the wealthiest portion of our citizenry (some 20% of Americans). This dysfunctional dynamic led to an incredible enrichment of wealth already held by this select portion of our societal hierarchy. Meanwhile, for the other 80% of Americans, their real incomes fell and their purchasing power dropped to all time lows. Driving these dynamics for the most part, according to Hartman, is one specific minority made up of five to six mega-corporations. Together, they exert tremendous downward pressure on our society’s working class. Through busting labor unions, outsourcing jobs to other parts of the world where people work for little compensation in squalid conditions, these mega-corporations generate profits, enrich shareholders, so in the end the ultra wealthy of our social hierarchy are kept happy and satisfied.

From my perspective, mega-corporations don’t look or sound very egalitarian. They're powerful hierarchies and there’s little I see in them that suggests they want life for the poverty-stricken, diseased, starving, disabled and disadvantaged to resemble anything close to a banquet. I especially think this when I hear about a CEO of a large healthcare corporation who makes $774 million dollars annually. What on earth do such persons accomplish for the common good that justifies such a salary? If such persons and entities truly care, as many seem to want us to think they do, then let them lift up and project a global corporate mission characterized by unceasing passion for a mission and presence in the world wherein the pursuit of profits utterly pales in comparison to what does matter. And if they have no understanding of that which truly matters then let them read in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Prophet Isaiah’s vision of God’s Holy Mountain. A world wherein…

The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9 NRSV)

To the monolithic corporations, to their leaders and shareholders, to the wealthy of this world, and to anyone who believes they number among humanity’s most exalted --- you must learn the value of continually serving and uplifting those for whom life is nothing but struggle. For in meeting the needs of anyone lesser than you and providing them solid dependable ongoing possibilities for improving their lives that we, humanity in turn, become a true and blessed gift to our creator. Therein lays your ultimate happiness and truest wealth.

Therefore be generous, be just and reconciling, not only toward individuals but also transforming of any system lacking in aggressive pursuit of the blessed day for which we seek – the day of God’s peace for all living souls. Become this and surely God says to you, “Friend, move up higher.”

"Righteous Indignation"

2010-08-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

(Graphic is an illustration found in "Standard Bible Story Readers, Book Two" by Lillie A. Faris, published by The Standard Publishing Company, 1925, and illustrated by O. A. Stemler and Bess Bruce Cleaveland. Artist is unknown)

Lectionary Reading - Luke 13:10-17 NRSV

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day."

But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?" When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

Righteous Indignation

Freedom depends on those who act, one commentary says. The same commentary also states that by taking action, one’s speaking out might harm relationships at first but then bring healing in the end. For me, Jesus has long been my inspiration for those situations that involved taking a person, or group of persons, by the horns to speak plainly to them. When this happened, it always occurred for the purpose of accomplishing a greater good. Jesus proved that quite obviously to the hypocrites and crowd with his Sabbath healing of the long crippled woman. Clearly his speaking out – and acting out -- brought healing to the woman and rejoicing from the crowd. For it was nothing less than an amazing moment of blessing and miracle that suddenly and irrefutably reframed Sabbath. Furthermore, it put the religious authorities to shame for their self-righteousness and rigidity which purported that Sabbath could only exist and occur in a certain way and form. One might hope that the embarrassment and reframing from Jesus accomplished a change of heart in the religious authorities, but as most people realize – there are those individuals who remain hardened or untouchable. No matter what you do or try to do, they’re simply rigid unreachable micro-managing unhappy people too attached to their own sense of how things should be done. Most of us know when we’re up against such persons and situations. And most of us know that nothing we do will bring such persons into a healthier, happier, more relaxed and productive space. So like Jesus, it’s simply best to speak forthrightly in such situations or circumstances and let your indignation show. It gets the message across – and as you can see from Jesus’ example -- it gets across unmistakably so.

On that note, I remember a situation a number of years ago while care-managing the adult system of care for publicly funded mental health services in the county where we live. One of my tasks involved getting our county residents back home from the state psychiatric hospital which was a two hour drive away from our community. Typically our residents were hospitalized in that facility when there was a bed shortage in our local hospitals. And as you might guess, those individuals wanted to get back to their home community as soon as possible as did their families and loved ones. Problem is that once they landed in a long term state-run psychiatric facility, patients tended to be kept longer than was necessary. Generally, the problem was two-fold in that either the state hospital would hold on to the patient too long for revenue purposes or the community did not have an adequate discharge setting for the person.

In one such situation, the hospital contacted me about a patient. He wanted to get home – nothing new there. The nice thing however was that the hospital felt he was ready to return to the community but the local mental health center wasn’t doing enough to make discharge happen. The issue involved the person’s inability to get himself out of his bed in the morning. A few days later, I drove to the state hospital to see the person and review his medical record. Long and short of it, the person’s need was quite simple. He only required that someone come into his room and get him sitting upright on his bed. Once that was done, he was able to take care of his needs such as transferring himself to a wheelchair and getting on with his day.

Returning to the office, I contacted the director of our local transition facility. I reported my observations and urged the necessary accommodation so our resident could return to the county and move forward with recovery from the psychiatric crisis that had landed him in the hospital. As often occurs in the poorly funded world of public mental health services, the subsequent conversation between the director and me occurred via voicemails to each other over a period of several days.

At one point, after a particularly annoying voicemail, I finally arrived at exasperation and vented with my office colleagues. “Hypocrites,” I said, “why are these people working in community mental health if they refuse to accept a patient back to his community simply because he needs a staff member to get him sitting upright in his bed? He’s a small guy. It won’t take much effort at all.” I then said to my colleagues that I had to cool down, get my head back into rational space, and make one more attempt to persuade the facility director. To my amazement my colleagues said, “Absolutely not!” They then said, “Brad, you never let your anger out at these unjust situations because you never want people to feel that you don’t respect or appreciate them. You need to trust your anger. You need to trust that it’s right and just and appropriate and not disrespectful. We know you and we know that nothing less would ever come out of you. Don’t think about what you’re going say. Just call back and say what needs to be said.”

Long and short of it, I made the call. And once again it had to be a voicemail, but I said everything in that message which needed saying including how incredibly angry I felt over the situation and how woefully inadequate I felt the mental health center’s response had been to this particular situation. I then demanded a meeting with the transition facility director as well as his supervisor who was the mental health center’s executive director, and lastly their medical director. A day or two later the meeting occurred during which the executive director apologized to me personally and apologized that more hadn’t been done for the patient to return him back to the community in a timely fashion. I was also assured the situation would not happen again.

Righteous indignation, there’s always a place for it my friends even if some fool of a person tells you there isn’t – and believe me there are plenty of fools who will tell you so. Mostly it’s because they are persons incapable of handling intense feelings or situations themselves – no matter how righteous or appropriate indignation may be.

Main thing for you to understand about righteous indignation is that it says the game is over. It also says that you will no longer allow another person’s manipulations and scheming and need to control to go on. Trust such indignation my friends even if in the end your anger generates but one therapeutic result such as a crippled woman healed or a physically disabled man with psychiatric issues to come home. When righteous indignation becomes necessary, trust it, for it moves the world closer to God’s Peaceable Kingdom. And that means everything!

Resources Utilized:

1) Commentary from Community of Christ 2010 Worship Helps for Sunday, August 22, 2010
2) New Revised Standard Version of the Bible

“I Came to Bring Fire”

2010-08-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, August 15th, 2010

(Graphic is liturgical art of the gospel lectionary reading from http://www.4catholiceducators.com)

Lectionary Scripture - Luke 12:49-57 (NRSV)

"I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! From now on five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law." He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, 'It is going to rain'; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat'; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time? “And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?”

“I Came to Bring Fire”

Another version of the above lectionary scripture from the Contemporary English Version (CEV) expresses Jesus’ words a bit differently. In that version one part of the scripture reads this way, “Do you think that I came to bring peace to earth? No indeed! I came to make people choose sides.” And in the last portion of the CEV version, Jesus says, “You can predict the weather by looking at the earth and sky, but you don't really know what's going on right now. Why don't you understand the right thing to do?”

Reflecting on the CEV version of this scripture, it struck me that at times in the past I have felt like Jesus. I then recalled occasions of preaching in a congregation that I have visited a few times over the years. What I have discovered through the years about this congregation is that a fair number of individuals have constructed for themselves a wonderfully sanitized Jesus. The purpose of their Jesus is to make them feel warm and fuzzy about who they are and what they’ve accomplished in their lives both individually and collectively. They see their Jesus as someone who rewards all their hard work. Their Jesus never makes them feel guilty about their wealth. Their Jesus never makes them feel self-conscious about the poor, the starving, the sick and afflicted, or those who suffer from social or economic injustices rampant throughout our country and the world. In fact, their Jesus is so comfortable to them they have no problem saying,

“Well Jesus said the poor would always be among us. So here’s what I have to say: I have worked hard to get where I am and have the things I have. No one’s taking it away from me. In fact, I want a lot back that the government takes away from me through taxes. And I think a good place to start is with the poor. They need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get off the government dole. I made it without such help, so can they.”

So in this congregation, there’s a fair amount of judgmental attitudes toward the poor which it expresses itself in right-wing political prejudice and ideology toward those mired in poverty. There’s also a fair degree of theology and congregational life that’s focused on “spiritual needs” to the exclusion of addressing social injustices and economic injustices. For these individuals, the cause of the Peaceable Kingdom is not a transforming reality for which we struggle and fight to make real here and now but rather some kind of magical Disney-like thing that happens after we shed this mortal existence. Brian McLaren in his book titled Everything Must Change identifies this form of congregational life as follows:

It has specialized in dealing with “spiritual needs” to the exclusion of physical and social needs. It has specialized in people’s destination in the afterlife but has failed to address significant social injustices in this life. It has focused on “me” and “my soul” and “my spiritual life” and “my eternal destiny,” but it has failed to address the dominant societal and global realities of [this] lifetime: systematic injustice, systemic poverty, systemic ecological crisis, systemic dysfunctions of many kinds.

Now I want to state that there are a number of persons in the congregation I speak of who are quite concerned about social injustices and economic injustices and all forms of dysfunction that burden and paralyze efforts toward the common good. I know who those persons are and how frustrated they feel by the congregants who demand and expect the congregational focus to be on the “spiritual.” For these frustrated persons, they experience the congregation as stuck in neutral, spinning its wheels in the mud, getting nowhere fast, aging and declining because their way of being compels little interest in others to join the congregation. The unwritten law is that the congregational boat must not be rocked. Discipleship defaults therefore to being little more than a member of a community social club. In turn, one’s faith journey achieves little, if any, transformative influence upon society and culture toward Christ’s Peaceable Kingdom being reality here on earth. So while everyone in this congregation projects an outwardly friendly face, there’s a tension, negativity, discouragement, and judgmental hypocrisy that’s alive and well beneath the surface. Like a dysfunctional family, everyone colludes to not rock the boat and keep the lid shut on Pandora’s Box. Debilitating mediocrity results while complacency orders the nature of congregational life.

Knowing these things about the congregation, I often bring with me into their pulpit the Jesus who is not sanitized. Instead, it’s a Jesus who’s quite “prickly” as once stated by the former Duke University professor and United Methodist Bishop William Willimon. It’s the Jesus who without reservation says, “Do you think that I came to bring peace? No, I came to make people choose sides.” And this Jesus tends to get pricklier, “Who do you think you trying to fool? Why do you not know how to interpret the present time? Why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? Why do you not understand the right thing to do?”

As I rarely ask such questions directly when preaching in this congregation, it’s the stories I share and the moral of those stories that seem to reach down into the congregation’s Pandora’s Box; doing so in a way that urges movement beyond the status quo toward a mission that’s potent and powerful in their community for the Peaceable Kingdom. I do think that something of my friend, Prickly Jesus, must break through the congregation’s façade. I say this because two things generally happen. One thing is that there always seems to be one of the “spiritual” oriented persons who’s part of the worship team when I visit. And almost always those individuals have some kind of opportunity to follow me in the order of service after I preach. It may be that the person has a reading or a prayer to do or may be the worship leader that day. What I and others attending the worship can invariably count on is that the individual will take opportunity in some way or another to distract the congregation from the message I’ve shared or be completely dismissive of it. The behavior happens so dependably and systematically that it truly amounts to one of those systemic dysfunctions of which McLaren writes. In fact, this regular kind of incident has been embarrassing enough for some congregants that I’ll get emails after a visit that apologize for what happened and comment on how annoying the behavior was.

But the above “dysfunction” is typically offset by the second thing which happens. And what that is are the positive and touching things said to me by other congregants. Things said to me such as, “I so appreciate it when you visit us. You always bring us a message that forces us to think outside of ourselves and beyond what we do here. Thanks so much for coming. Your message today was the best one yet.”

Again, I have to thank Bishop Willimon for reminding me of the importance of bringing “Prickly Jesus” into the pulpit. In case you don’t recognize Bishop Willimon’s name, he is the second most widely read author among Protestant pastors. Henri Nouwen is first. You might recognize Nouwen’s name from the book he wrote titled The Wounded Healer.

So if you as a minister or follower of Prickly Jesus ever think you need to take on a sanitized warm-fuzzy Jesus whose only concern is a heavenly hereafter, then consider the following from an article the good bishop wrote for the March-April 2003 edition of Sojourners magazine:

There is a peculiar pastoral burden of having to preach Jesus Christ and him crucified in the midst of a nation of prosperity, particularly if the affluent are among us when we preach. Most of us preachers (to the discredit of the American church) preach to relatively affluent congregations. Jesus makes a prickly pulpit partner when, in the pews, sit those for whom he appears to have had deep antipathy.

We were guests at an affluent Episcopal parish in the mountains of western North Carolina where rich people go to retire. We made our way through a parking lot of Cadillacs and Lincolns. The liturgy went well enough until we got to the sermon. The lectionary's assigned text was from 1 Kings, the reign of King Solomon. The priest told us that Solomon was the world's wisest man, king at a time when Israel at last stood at the summit of national development. No longer was Israel jerked around by larger nations. Israel had a big army and lots of chariots. The economy was booming. A great temple was being built as a sign of national prosperity.

Then he paused and said, "And yet Israel learned that the reign of Solomon was a time when the nation was as far from the heart of God as it could get...." Then the preacher hammered us for our stock portfolios, our pointless leisure, and problems with our spoiled children. Where else but church would you get a read like that on a "well-functioning economy"?

It’s all too easy these days to let our souls wander from the heart and purposes of God’s Peaceable Kingdom. Trust this however that Christ (or whatever great teacher or prophet you follow) will come to you in some way or another and you will be asked who you’re trying to fool. You will be asked why you persist in self-defeating, self-serving, self-absorbed behavior. And you can bet that your teacher, prophet, or savior will point to dominating unjust dysfunctional things, dominating unjust dysfunctional people, and dominating unjust dysfunctional realities. And quite uncomfortably, you will be put on the spot and asked why you fail to understand these things and why you fail to do what it right.

The time has come my friends, the fires for transformation and justice are being lit -- and lit now!

"The Rich Fool"

2010-07-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, August 1st, 2010

(Photo of an icon in Galway, Ireland, of Jesus teaching his disciples. Taken by Fergal OP, posted on www.flickr.com and used under Creative Commons license.)

Lectionary Scripture Reading – Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to him, "Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me." But he said to him, "Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?" And he said to them, "Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.

Then he told them a parable: "The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, 'What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?' Then he said, 'I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.'

But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?' So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God."

“The Rich Fool”

This week’s Lectionary scripture is part of an extended period during which Jesus alternates between teaching the crowds and teaching his disciples. Sometimes in teaching his disciples, Jesus did so publicly. This created opportunity for other people to gather around often with the hope they’d glean some gem of insight or wisdom they had not heard from Jesus previously.

It is in such a setting that Jesus tells the "parable of the rich fool" as this particular passage of scripture has come to be known. What prompts the story is a man who breaks into the conversation Jesus is having with his disciples. Like a bull in a china shop, this self-absorbed self-centered man has no awareness for what he’s disrupting. Narcissistically, he pushes everyone aside and demands Jesus attention.

The character of the man’s personality is all too apparent to Jesus as he pesters Jesus to make a judgment between himself and his brother. At issue is the estate of the parents. It’s likely that the man feels he is getting the short end of the stick and that may be true. For in the Mishnah, a Jewish book of laws, the elder son gets twice the amount of inheritance as does the younger son. Then like now, people quibble and fight and contest things before authority figures to get the estate portion they feel should be theirs.

Wisely, Jesus refused to enter into the debate as a judge between the brothers; whether he did this because he believed the man seeking his judgment was unworthy or Jesus was simply unwilling to get involved in the haggling is not important. What Jesus decides to confront is the man’s greed and selfishness. So he turns from the man to tell the disciples and crowd the tale of a rich fool. He does so because the man’s situation demonstrates a need to counsel against any kind of greed and selfishness. And what Jesus teaches is that one’s “life” is not about what one possesses.

As usual, the object lesson from Jesus’ stories provides both a warning and commentary. So he tells about this man who is already rich and who then has a plentiful harvest. The bountiful harvest is not the result of the man's wrongdoing. He did not cheat anyone to achieve his gain. He is careful and conservative. He planned well and planted well. In turn, the soil and rain and sun and wind rewarded him with a lavish harvest. Eventually the man has an internal conversation and makes a decision and says to his soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, and be merry.”

The decision he makes is that he’s going to use his wealth to ensure a life of ease for himself. So he plans to stop accumulating and instead "store up" all his grain in bigger and better barns. He then anticipates sitting back and enjoying the good life.

Jesus does not praise the rich man for tearing down his barns to build bigger ones but neither does he condemn him for that action. What Jesus speaks to in the story is the man’s behavior and foolishness. This rich man believes that he is capable of hoarding up enough stuff to sustain and protect his soul for as long as he lives. Clearly however, he envisions only his own pleasure over the coming years. What makes him the fool is that he lives for himself, talks to himself, plans for himself, and congratulates himself.

The rich fool has forgotten that his soul does not exist apart from God and its well-being lies in hands other than his own. His soul is not his possession and not under his control. When life inevitably or suddenly ends, the soul moves on to God. All that one has had on earth, one must leave behind. And whatever one leaves behind, it passes to others in some form or another.

What Jesus points out that should have occurred to the rich fool is that our souls can go to God at any time. This happened to my father the morning of April 2nd, 2005. Having been out enjoying a breakfast of biscuits and gravy with friends and then returning home, a fatal heart attack suddenly took his life. I know this because my brother found the restaurant receipt next to my father’s body. And so it is that death continues to happen abruptly and tragically. We never know when death will come for us. For Jesus, he knew that God’s mission for him would require his soul and he knew that death would happen tragically and brutally as it had happened for many martyrs.

The rich fool in our scripture story never considered such possibilities. He’d done a great job of looking out for his self but failed to adequately instruct his soul in terms of its welfare and security. As scripture in Luke 9:25 puts it, "What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?" The rich fool had forgotten about God. He’d forgotten about death. Anticipating and providing only for his mortal happiness, it never occurred to him that he should also have a plan for his soul’s eternal joy. Had he planned for such a need, he would have known that such joy comes from knowing that his resources in this mortal life had helped and nurtured others. "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” Jesus says, “Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom."

Throughout this year’s lectionary focus on the Gospel of the Luke, we’ll see this physician and apostle continue to set the standard for the disciples as persons who voluntarily share their resources with others. He will lift up the importance of being generous individuals, of being persons living outside the barn or box we construct for ourselves and who do so with the conviction that one's bounteous possessions are to be shared.

Often such teachings are lost on the rich, especially the rich who are narcissistically self-centered and self-absorbed. They do not see that sitting on their resources and accumulating wealth for themselves and their own enjoyment deprives others. And yet, it’s very easy to lose perspective on this in the course of life for us who do not consider ourselves wealthy. For me, it was very intriguing three years ago to hear a representative from an international non-profit development agency share that it would require four more planets like Earth to bring the rest of the world up to the average standard of living for most Canadians. Since the United States is much larger than Canada, the statistic is that it would take four more Earths to bring everyone in the world up to the poverty level as identified by the United States government.

So take a little time this week to consider how well off you are. And then think about whom will die today from starvation and the lack of access to healthcare and from the lack of safe and sanitary living conditions. Think as well about who will die tomorrow from those things and let us ask ourselves, do we really need all the stuff we surround ourselves with. Is there a better way for us to use our resources for the cause of God’s Peaceable Kingdom here on Earth? Let’s get outside the box we’ve constructed for ourselves. Let us share Christ’s conviction that our bounteous possessions are to be shared and shared for one reason only -- for accomplishing the Peaceable Kingdom that God has entrusted to us all.

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Resources utilized for this post:
• New Revised Standard Version of the Bible
• Community of Christ worship helps for August 5, 2007
• Luke 12:13-21 commentary for August 5th, 2001 from Homiletics Online at http://www.homileticsonline.com/.

"God's Dream"

2010-07-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, July 25th, 2010

(Graphic is a January 2009 photo by Lawrence Op, a Dominican Friar. Photo used under Creative Commons License. Photo is of a 1946 stained glass window done by Comper. The window is on the east side of St Cyprian's church in London. The window depicts Saint Paul holding a book, open to Colossians 1:23, exhorting one and all to: "continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel... of which I, Paul, became a minister.")

Lectionary Scripture – Colossians 2:6-10 NRSV

"As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority."

God’s Dream

Chris Haslam of the Anglican Diocese of Montreal provides commentary noting that Colossae was a city in what is now southwestern Turkey. In his commentary, he also notes that Colossae had flourishing wool and textile industries and a significant Jewish population. It seems however that most Christians in Colossae were Gentile. Although this letter to the Colossians was long thought to be written by Paul, today it’s considered by a number of scholars to have been authored by someone else. There are a number of reasons for this. The most compelling is that it emphasizes what God has already done for God’s people and what God is going to do in the future. The author then goes on to provide detailed descriptions of teachings incompatible with this future as well as being a follower of Jesus. Problem is that the things the author speaks of were promulgated after Paul had died. So for many scholars, this represents evidence of later authorship. It also fails to reflect the broader more inclusive view of God’s love that Paul espoused -- a love in which I am deeply grounded and which I hope will one day heal our troubled and distressed world.

The day of God’s great inclusion for all souls is what I believe the Apostle Paul saw in his own dreams and visions. For me, I have seen such a day in my own dreams and visions, but there’s a dreamer and visionary who many of us know of and whom I’ve had the pleasure of listening to twice in person through my ecumenical and interfaith work. His name is Archbishop Desmond Tutu and it’s his dream I’d like you to be aware of today.

Specifically, the Archbishop put it this way in his book God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time. He puts it this way in terms of the Spirit’s inspiration to him, “I have a dream, God says, please help me realize it. It is a dream of a world whose ugliness and squalor and poverty, its war and hostility, its greed and harsh competitiveness are changed into their glorious counterparts, when there will be more laughter, joy, and peace, where there will be justice and goodness and compassion and love and caring and sharing. I have a dream that swords will be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, that My children will know that they are members of one family, the human family, God’s family, my family. And in God’s family, there are no outsiders. All are insiders. Black and white, rich and poor, gay and straight, Jew and Arab, Palestinian and Israeli, Roman Catholic and Protestant, Serb and Albanian, Hutu and Tutsi, Muslim and Christian, Buddhist and Hindu, Pakistani and Indian – all belong.”

And then Tutu shares some unsettling thoughts, “Sometimes we shocked them at home in South Africa when we said, the apartheid state president and I, whether we liked it or not, were brothers. And I had to desire and pray for the best for him. As Jesus said, “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all to me” Not just some would be drawn, Tutu says, but all. And then he goes on to say what a radical thing it is that Jesus says, that we are members of one family. We all belong for God tells us that all are his children. It’s a dream Tutu says that has been passed down through all the prophets and great humanitarians of our times. In particular he points out the Reverend Martin Luther King Junior who at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 shared his dream that one day the children of former slaves and the children of former slave owners would be able to sit down at the table of brotherhood; and then Mahatma Gandhi who in 1929 wrote that his goal was not just the brotherhood of Indian humanity but rather the brotherhood of all human beings. The truth, Tutu says, is that we need each other and that we cannot survive nor thrive without one another.

To that end may we engage in the work of God entrusted to us all -- for you are called, and each and every one of us is called according to the gifts of God to us. For soon comes God’s Peaceable Kingdom and all who believe shall be redeemed.

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Resources for this post:

• New Revised Standard Version of the Bible

• Tutu, Desmond – God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time, 2004.

• Lectionary commentary for Colossians 2 by Chris Haslam at http://www.montreal.anglican.org/comments/

"Listen and Learn"

2010-07-15T00:01:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, July 18th, 2010

(Painting titled “Christ with Mary and Martha”, done in 1654 by Johannes Vermeer, located in the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, Great Britain. Used under Creative Commons license.)

Lectionary Scripture - Luke 10:38-42 NRSV

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

Listen and Learn

Progressives, where would we be without them? And visionaries, where we would be without them too? This week’s lectionary scripture contrasts the ways and behavior of traditionalists with that of progressives while a renowned visionary is among them.

For Martha, the traditionalist in the above scripture story, attending to matters of religion and theology was not her place or lot in life. Millennia of tradition dictated that as a woman, she should focus on being a meticulous host for the men who had come to her home. If she managed to glean meaningful crumbs from the discussion taking place beneath her roof, then it couldn’t be helped. Most certainly it wasn’t intended.

We’re not exactly clear as to the reason for Martha’s complaint about Mary. Was she truly annoyed with her sister? Was she envious of Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet? Or was she simply overwhelmed with the crowd in her home and upset that because of her duties as host she might miss out on crumbs of wisdom that would have been hers to hear once the men had been attended to?

Clearly the situation was something altogether new and different for Martha. The men had just arrived from where a lawyer in a crowd pressed Jesus about who one’s neighbor is. The teaching Jesus offered stunned the crowd who included not only lawyers, but priests, scribes and anyone else who had been listening carefully. Jesus’ words in that situation turned the notion of neighbor on its head. Now the neighbor could be someone from a despised ethnic group. Now the neighbor could be a seemingly dead person lying beside the road. Tradition and laws about defiling oneself no longer meant a thing when an innocent party had been wronged and maliciously injured, even if that led to loss of one’s livelihood, or loss of one’s standing in the community, or expending precious resources to care for one who had been wronged. A good neighbor was nothing less than one who showed and extended the greatest mercy despite the circumstances confronting them.

So in one fleeting story told by a phenomenal young rabbi, the whole world had changed for those following Jesus and with it thousands of years of tradition. The followers would have questions, want further explanation, some might even fear the fallout from the religious establishment and want to prepare and strategize for it. Quite possibly, these things were the purpose for gathering at Mary and Martha’s home. My guess is that Martha didn’t want to miss a moment of the conversation which is why she petitioned Jesus to have Mary help her.

Tradition took over however for Martha. Whatever progressive or curious piece in her had been touched by the news and story of who our neighbor is, it had been tossed out the window by Martha in a mindless sort of way. Jesus’ gentle and loving rebuke was a means of calling Martha out of tradition and out of her habits and typical way of doing things so she could do what she really wanted to, i.e. be at Jesus’ feet listening and learning as was Mary.

Have you ever had a time where you should have been listening and learning but your habits, usual expectations, or typical manner of doing things (i.e. your traditions) got in the way? I remember several years ago being approached by a YWCA youth worker trying to help teens learn skills for living on their own. The worker shared about a teen for whom she had grown quite concerned. The teen would have moments where she seemed quite detached in class and would lay her head on the table while closing her eyes and covering her ears. The worker later discovered that the teen suffered from hearing voices and seeing things that weren’t there and these happened quite frequently. At first I thought the young woman might have a form of childhood schizophrenia or depression with psychosis and suggested that the teen be further evaluated. Problem is that I didn’t feel quite right about what I had surmised.

Eventually, I realized my mistake. I had spent so much time working with persons suffering major mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, psychotic depression, bipolar disorder that it I failed to understand what the teen was actually struggling through. Finally, it came to me, but not until I had been through an opportunity to sit and listen and learn regarding PTSD, i.e. post-traumatic stress disorder. I later had a chance to speak with the youth worker and learned that the teen had been in a very disturbing home environment resulting in the need for foster care. There, she finally escaped her traumatizing upbringing.

In Jesus’ time as well as in ours, numbing and traumatizing circumstances readily occur in the religious establishment. Things had become so mindless and numb at the Temple that Jesus overturned the tables of moneychangers and chased out the merchants with a whip demanding that the Temple return to a place of prayer. On another occasion, he condemned the scribes for swallowing up the property and resources of widows. And in this week’s scripture story, he compassionately but straightforwardly differs with Martha and does so by telling her that listening and learning are at times more important than our usual expectations or ways of doing things. And as most of us know, eventually enough listening and learning occurred that a whole new faith movement came into being and now billions claim to follow Jesus Christ.

In our time, I suspect Jesus would say to some followers that their busyness and typical way of doing things on his behalf is little more than a Martha approach to life. He might compassionately but straightforwardly say that a "Mary way of being" needs to be recaptured as there’s been too much loss of the kind of listening and learning necessary for making Peaceable Kingdom progress. Too much of it has been lost in terms of a greater preference for mindless ritual or proscribed behavioral expectations that support some form of tradition that no longer serves a good purpose.

On that note, I remember a few years ago meeting with some lay ministers regarding their distress that certain denominational rituals and traditions were no longer being upheld. One of those issues involved that an ordained minister should always lead congregational worship services. For me, I never understood the magical thinking accompanying such a thing or why the intermediary of an ordained minister was considered as always necessary for ensuring Spirit filled worship. After all, wasn't it because of Jesus that humanity had listened and learned that relationship and encounter with God was primarily personal? Only until I produced documentation from denominational leaders saying worship services could be led by non-ordained persons was the issue finally moot. Just proves that today, as in Jesus’ time, there will always be the Marthas, the traditionalists, and the legalistic individuals who value more that which limits others rather than frees them.

Meanwhile - and thankfully - there will continue to be those progressives and visionaries who emulate Mary and Jesus and other followers who down through time sought after "the better part", the "listening and learning part", they will do so because they want God's Peaceable Kingdom to be reality for all living souls.

To that end, summon the courage to be a Mary – to be a person who sits at the sage’s feet listening and learning so you can be for others whatever is needed whenever it’s needed.

"Go and Do Likewise"

2010-07-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, July 11th, 2010

(“The Good Samaritan”, done in 1973, is part of JESUS MAFA, a response to the New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings were selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made and transcribed to paintings.)

Lectionary Scripture Luke 10:25–37 (NRSV)

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live."

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.

Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, 'Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" He [the lawyer] said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."

“Go and Do Likewise”

Jews in Jesus time incurred a status of being unclean if they came into contact with a dead body. It was considered, and still is by some, the ultimate impurity. If I have it correct, cleansing involved a person being sprinkled with the ashes of the red heifer. The rarity of such an animal (and perhaps the expense of its ashes) could have meant that a priest or Levite might never return to their religious duties or responsibilities. So checking to see if a seemingly dead person was truly a corpse represented too great a risk to one’s livelihood and social standing. Thankfully Judaism and most other faith traditions have largely moved on from such thinking. It doesn’t mean however that we don’t get squeamish around seeing a dead body or coming into contact with one. What it does mean is that we extend generosity like that of a Samaritan when the situation calls for it.

For me, this occurred some years ago while serving as pastor for a congregation in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Our family had come into friendship with another young family. They were not members of our Canadian church family but they seemed drawn to us and the life of faith we lived. I believe they even came to church with us a time or two. Not long into our association, the wife and mother in this family discovered that she had colon cancer. Determined to fight it and be around to see her two kids grow up, she bravely engaged in every chemotherapy and radiation treatment she could. For my part, I would make visits to see her in the hospital during those treatments and had opportunity to meet her parents and some of the extended family, most of whom described themselves as lapsed Catholics.

Eventually however the cancer won out and early one morning her husband called me from the hospital just down the street from our home. He met me outside on the sidewalk and hugged me so tightly as waves of grief and sobbing consumed him without stop. I don’t know how long we stood there but in some ways it seemed an eternity. Time had stopped and with it Mary had stopped. All I could think was, “Mary, why you, why your family?” Eventually I said to her husband that we should go in and be with Mary and the rest of the family. On arriving to the room, Mary was lifeless. The nurses informed me they would need Mary’s body quite soon in order to obtain her corneas for transplant.

As the priest on the scene, I sensed from the grieving family members that they needed me to do something in order that they could have closure in the moment and then leave the hospital room. Knowing that something akin to last rites would have the most meaning for them I searched my heart in terms of sacramental options out of my own tradition. Just the previous day, the family had witnessed me engage in anointing Mary with consecrated oil and then laying hands on her head to pray. They saw this ritual providing peace and comfort to Mary. Despite the sacrament’s intent for the living, I felt led in the moment to offer it for the dead, though one could say it obviously blessed all the living now in that hospital room. Anointing Mary’s forehead, I gave thanks for her life, thanks for her valiant struggle, thanks for all who loved her and cared for her throughout her life, and thanks for all whom she had loved and cared for in return. I then gave thanks for her generosity and the choices she had made to bless and benefit others through the gifts that would now come from her earthly body even as she was assuming her heavenly one. All I can say of that experience is that Christ’s Spirit and Christ’s Peace filled the room blessing every one present with the calmness and love needed for the days ahead.

I have shared the above story with precious few in my faith tradition primarily because some legalistic individuals will consider my use of anointing and laying on of hands in the situation as sacrilege -- sacrilege because I provided it to a lifeless body that no longer possessed a living soul. If that’s the case for you I apologize for my offense, but know this, I have no regrets. I did in the moment what I felt I should do. As a result lives were blessed and understanding of “neighbor” enlarged. If you disagree, feel free to tell me which was the greater mercy -- to have or have not provided the ministry I was led to offer.

"Put Hand to Plow"

2010-06-24T09:03:00.000-07:00

For Sunday, June 27th, 2010

(Russian icon from the first quarter of the 18th century of Saint James the Great (son of Zebedee and one of Christ’s twelve apostles); located in the Transfiguration Church, Kizhi Monastery in Karelia, Russia. Image is in the public domain.)

Lectionary Scripture – Luke 9:51-62 NRSV

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

“Put Hand to Plow”

My faith tradition’s worship resource notes that the above scripture is a call to follow Christ as well as a call to proclaim peace and proclaim the kingdom of God. Responding to these callings requires us to let go and to move forward into the future without hesitation. At times, this means that we will need to challenge cultural and even institutional understandings with which we grown comfortable. So the resource asks some very specific questions such as what ways do you and I try to “soften” the proclamation of the kingdom so it’s more “palatable” for the context or culture that makes up our lives? What would it mean if we quit doing such things and put our hands to the plow and didn’t “look back”? Lastly, what conditions would we therefore let go of in order to follow Jesus and go where he wants us to go?

For me, I deeply appreciate it when my faith tradition asks such pointed questions. Often however, I don’t know what to make of my tradition when it asks or advocates such frank and piercing things. Why? Well in my experience there are a significant number of congregations, pastors, denominational ministers and even some denominational leaders who continue a way of being that’s largely “business as usual” – this seems particularly so in terms of how precious local and global resources get used; resources which in actuality are God’s and not the property of one specific individual or group of individuals. Long and short of it, I can easily imagine a “Spiritual But Not Religious” person challenging my naiveté and saying, “What on earth did you think organized religion was about Brad. It’s mostly about ego, power, and money of a group that exists to serve itself. It’s not about your dream for healing humanity’s ills and returning the Earth to health.”

A while back I had some of these things affirmed to me during a meeting with judicatory heads from different faith traditions. As our conversations tend to go at these meetings, the subject eventually turned to the overall health and well-being of congregations in our judicatories. The concerns were numerous and weighty and centered on the subject of congregational decline. After a while I made the following comment, “I don’t wish to upset anyone but the trends of decline have been going on since the mid 1960s. At this point, it seems pretty clear to me that church as we have known it is passing away. For me, I believe that church will eventually transform into something quite different, however my sense of what that will ultimately look and feel like has yet to manifest itself.” One judicatory official responded quickly and said, “I believe you’re right and so the question for me becomes what 50 of my 350 congregations do I close in the next 5 years.” Nearly everyone nodded in agreement.

One individual then commented, “What’s capturing my interest is the Emerging Church.” I responded saying that it had captured mine as well and that I sensed God’s Spirit stimulating that movement. I also commented that in previous pastorate work I tried to communicate a vision for becoming part of the Emerging Church movement but I had failed to be persuasive in putting hand to plow and embracing the necessity of the movement’s principles and dynamics for our times. The congregation gravitated instead toward other things it thought would be helpful so it became necessary for me to move on from that pastoral role.

One other person commented that, “I have a problem with Emerging Church groups. Typically what defines them are the things about traditional church they’re against. For me, it means they’ll eventually run out of steam due to their negativity.” But another leader challenged those words and said, “Some faith movements got their start by what they were against, take Lutheranism for instance. It began with nailing a list to a church door of 99 things it was against. Look at what it eventually became.” No doubt our discussions on these things will continue as we labor, minister, and plow through to whatever transformation is coming. However the words of Christ echo repeatedly in my mind and they bear repeating for any person or faith community who thinks “business as usual” is just fine or who thinks that trying things they’ve before or tried elsewhere will save them. Regarding such situations, I think Christ’s words of, “Let the dead bury the dead,” may be their fate. Church as we have known it is passing away. Church will transform and become a new creation and “no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back” will be fit for the work that needs doing in proclaiming the Kingdom of God – a kingdom that is coming and here already if we can but open our hearts and extend the generosity of resources, both individually and collectively.

Since the time of moving on from the pastorate mentioned above, proclaiming God’s Peaceable Kingdom, and the generosity that encompasses it, has expanded from one metro area to 13 states in the western USA and nearly 100 countries due to where this blog reaches. What I can say of the experiences I’ve had in that time? First is that I must no longer “soften” the kingdom proclamation nor make it “palatable”. Lastly, I will no longer “look back” wistfully nor wish that I could return to some period in the past. Neither will I limit what it takes to live more modestly and respectfully in relation to the Earth and my brothers and sisters around the world.

One thing that feels good about such efforts is how my wife and I have decided that our faith walk necessitates the smallest home we can possibly manage. And what we’ve discovered, at least for now, is that downsizing means going from nearly 2500 square feet of living space to about 1100 square feet. Our realtor asked, “What will you do with all your stuff?” We told her we would sell, donate, or recycle all we can. Main thing is that we want to live as modestly as possible so our generosity can increase toward the Earth and others for the sake of God’s Peaceable Kingdom. We’re ready to put hand to plow and not look back.

What about you? Are you ready to put hand to plow and not look back? What are you ready to give up so your generosity toward Kingdom-building can increase? A new spirituality is about to envelop us. It will be one not tainted by ego, or power needs, or the inability to face down the evil of situations or circumstances that exist primarily to serve themselves rather than help humanity heal and reconcile. As Jesus said, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Can you be content with having less so others may have more? Dream for a moment about the life of a nomadic Peaceable Kingdom builder then drop me a line and say what that dream looks like for you. Where would you go? What would you do? Whom would you help? What generosities would you extend?

On Vacation This Week

2010-06-16T07:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings Readers, I'm on vacation this week. I will return with a new posting next week. This preacher is recharging his batteries by fishing for Shad on the Columbia by Bonneville Dam on the Washington side of the river. Have a great week!

Brad