"God with Us"

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"

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...."

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"

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

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"

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!"

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"

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!

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"

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"

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.