"Signs of the Times"

For Sunday, February 28th, 2010

(Photo of March 2009 protesters in front of the U.S. White House)

Lectionary Scripture - Philippians 3:17-4:1 (NRSV)

“Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.”

Signs of the Times

Biblical commentary for the above scripture available at Homiletics Online (subscription required) notes that the Apostle Paul had great appreciation for the Philippians congregation. They had helped and supported him through many of his trials and struggles in ministry and mission.  But even in that congregation, all is not well for there are people in that faith community who constitute a threat to its future. From his place of prison confinement, Paul shares these concerns and even calls the troublemakers dogs and evil (Philippians 3:2).

He urges therefore that it is important for the congregation to keep its eyes on these individuals because they are in opposition to the sacrifices that Christ demands. For rather than the way of the cross, they are driven by their own needs and desires. They glory in things that have little to do with genuine discipleship and exult in things which should be an embarrassment. They set their minds on earthly things and achieve little more than walking in the wrong direction. The commentary then notes that Paul condemns such behavior as well as the individuals involved. So he pleads with the Philippians to set their minds again on Christ and embrace his own example as a follower and apostle of Jesus. As his affection for the congregation is so great, he hopes for them to be his crowning achievement in all that he’s done on Christ’s behalf. In that regard, he comments on his own impressive past but essentially considers it garbage in comparison to the future for which we strive, i.e. God’s Peaceable Kingdom which he considers as what should matter most. Paul hopes therefore that the Philippians will see their past means nothing, however God’s future kingdom is everything and nothing must stand in its way.

I find that the above commentary brings to mind so many different individuals and situations. All of which leave me thinking that many of us have felt similarly to the Apostle Paul at some point in our faith journey. What I mean is that for any specific thing that keeps humanity at enmity with itself (and from the Peaceable Kingdom), there’s always a person or situation to embody it.

In that regard, I’m reminded of attending the “God at 2000” conference that author scholar, Marcus Borg, hosted at Oregon State University that same year. The conference was a two-day event intended to encourage interfaith dialogue and understanding. Some of the world’s most impressive minds had come together to present at the event, i.e. persons such as Karen Armstrong, Diana Eck, Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, Joan Chittister, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and of course Marcus Borg himself.

Each of these presenters had been asked to respond to the same question which was, “Given your lifetime of study, experience, and reflection, how do you see the sacred? What have you learned about God that seems most important to you?” Their responses and presentations richly blessed the hundreds in attendance as we heard perspectives reflecting the major world religions of Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

The closing session of the conference served to be the best as the presenters joined together with attendees for a panel discussion. The spirit of that last session was a moment that has been in my dreams forever, a moment wherein human beings come together in peace as persons of faith in both affirmation and appreciation of the spiritual and theological diversity that comprises our planet. Diana Eck, representing Hinduism, said it best, “Perhaps the most important thing human beings can do in the coming century is commit themselves to engendering a culture of interfaith dialogue.”

Hardly a second after Diana’s remark, an outburst occurred on the main floor. It shocked everyone back to seeing how far we have to go as a young man stood and shouted, “This is all wrong. The Bible says that only Jesus is the way and the truth.” He shouted out more things and then uttered this condemnation, “You’re all going to hell.” The conference began clapping to drown out the man’s shouting and then security ushered him out.

As the conference adjourned and people left the auditorium, the man and a handful of his followers picketed outside. I saw the angry young adult more clearly now than before and noted that he was dressed in military camouflage, beet red in the face, shouting at each and every person as they went by yet never making eye contact with anyone. Off to his side, there stood a large sign labeling us as condemned blasphemers and idolaters. Another very graphic sign was also close by which read, “Accept Jesus or burn in hell.” Meanwhile, the young man continued his menacing shouts of, “You’ve just paid a trip to the devil. You’re helping to form the one world government. You’re the tools of the Anti-Christ. You’re going to burn in hell unless you repent and accept Jesus.” One young woman went up to the man and tried hugging him. I heard her telling him that she loved him. He responded by shoving her away and shouting condemnations at her.

Most everyone chose to walk on by though for me I stopped nearby for a few moments trying to sense and understand this man’s fear and hatred. In those moments, it seemed painfully obvious that the young man knew little of the Jesus who ate and drank and kept company with criminals, the oppressed, and the diseased. It seemed clear that he knew nothing of the broad expanse of God’s compassion or gracious love. Walking on to my car, I hoped and prayed that for him there would come a day when someone or something might touch his soul and heal whatever was driving his madness.

Driving away, my mind drifted back to Rabbi Kushner’s presentation at the conference and an image he shared of what matters most. He described how in different places around the world people wear different clothing according to the need they have in that place and culture. Some wear fewer clothes such as in warmer zones while others wear more in colder ones. Some clothes are colorful and full of symbol and meaning, others less so. Yet behavior is similar for most everyone when going up a mountain. At the base, temperatures are warmer and people wear less. But as they climb the mountain and pass through different temperature zones, they progressively add more and more layers to keep themselves warm and keep out the chill.

Having set this image in our minds, Rabbi Kushner then made the point of his analogy: We are all climbing the same mountain. We’re all heading the same place. We’re simply wearing different clothes.” The mountain is simply the mount of peace, a place of rich spiritual communion between you and me, our neighbors and persons of all faiths, and with the Holy One of our respective understandings.

For me, Rabbi Kushner describes a place and spirit that I believe we all shall find, a place and time and condition that will simply be God’s Just and Peaceable Kingdom for each and every living soul. There are words that I have often quoted which describe the task, words from the Catholic theologian, Hans Kung. Those words bear repeating whenever possible, “There can be no genuine world peace until there is peace among the world’s religions.”

So when evil tries to have you collude with the notion that only one religion is the right religion, or evil wants you to be satisfied with the status quo, or evil hopes you’ll focus more on your own needs and comforts and preferences, or evil wants you setting your mind on earthly things or has you glorying in that which should rightfully be an embarrassment, have courage to speak the words of Paul. Have courage to live his example rather than be a collaborator with evil. Think about Paul’s sacrifices and for God’s sake, stop walking in the wrong direction. Do and support instead what matters most rather than what is easiest and therein become a crowning achievement for the Peaceable Kingdom.

"I am the Church..."

For Sunday, February 21, 2010

Lectionary Reading - Luke 4:1-13 (NRSV)

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'" Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'" Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

“I am the Church”

My denomination’s worship resource for the above scripture comments that in the devil’s temptations of Jesus, there exists the fundamental division between the world as it is and the world God wants for us. The resource notes that in our present world, we prefer to worship power. It also notes that satisfying our physical needs, comforts, and preferences is often our highest priority. But what Jesus lifts up through each and every temptation is a vision of the world where meaning is more critical than meeting physical needs or comforts or achieving power and control. The vision Christ offers is nothing less than the Peaceable Kingdom of God, where instead of ruling the world, we care for it. Where instead of honoring ourselves, we honor God’s will. Where instead of doing what we want, we respond to who and what we’re called to be.

For me, the above things describe what “church” should be about. But I’ve also had the good fortune this week of being reminded about that in another way. The reminder came in the form of a simple song at an older adults’ spiritual retreat I attended this week in Phoenix, Arizona. The song is considered a children’s song and was written and composed in 1972 by Richard K. Avery and Donald S. March. It goes as follows:

I am the church. You are the church. We are the church together. All who follow Jesus, all around the world, yes, we’re the church together.

The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple, the church is not a resting place, the church is a people.

I am the church. You are the church. We are the church together. All who follow Jesus, all around the world, yes, we’re the church together.

We’re many kinds of people with many kinds of faces, all colors and all ages too, from all times and places.

I am the church. You are the church. We are the church together. All who follow Jesus, all around the world, yes, we’re the church together.

Sometimes the church is marching, sometimes it’s bravely burning, sometimes it’s riding, sometimes hiding, always it’s learning.

I am the church. You are the church. We are the church together. All who follow Jesus, all around the world, yes, we’re the church together.

And when the people gather, there’s singing and there’s praying, there’s laughing and there’s crying sometimes, all of it saying:

I am the church. You are the church. We are the church together. All who follow Jesus, all around the world, yes, we’re the church together.

So if we’re not to be tempted into making the church a building, a steeple, or resting place but rather a people who march, learn, pray, laugh, cry, and care – what then does the church look like?

I think it looks and feels something like the spiritual experience a close friend shared with me nearly two years ago which involved nothing less than letting the Spirit breathe anew in his life and expand his understanding in fresh and precious ways. What seems to have precipitated this experience was nothing less than a dark night of the soul for Jim while trying to recover in the hospital from a hip replacement surgery that had not gone well.

Word had reached me that Jim’s recovery was going poorly due to complications from his rheumatoid arthritis. As we live thousands of miles apart, I gave Jim a call at the medical center where he was hospitalized. On the phone, he shared how deeply despondent, alone, and spiritually abandoned he had felt. The complications from the surgeries and infections left him in a thick darkness suffocating the very life from his spirit and soul. As a nurse practitioner and lay pastor for our congregation in Anchorage, Alaska, he felt as well that his hopes for the congregation’s future might be slipping away from him, extinguished forever. He knew things were not looking good in terms of returning to the quality of life he’d known previously.

But in that dark night of the soul, the Spirit breathed into Jim’s life and vision opened to him from within that darkness, the resulting light and warmth Jim described as like a beautiful summer day sitting on his front porch and then he said to me, “Brad, I’m going to be a little emotional as I tell you this but God walked by me every single doctor, nurse, medical assistant, janitor, and visitor who had been caring for me directly and indirectly and he said, “All these have I sent to care for you.” Two years later, Jim is largely recovered and moving forward the vision for his congregation – a vision that is nothing less than a church without walls.

I am the church. You are the church. We are the church together. All who follow Jesus, all around the world, yes, we’re the church together.

"Brother Andre"

For Sunday, February 14th, 2010

Lectionary Reading - Luke 9:28-36, (37-43) NRSV

Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, "Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah" -- not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen. On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. Just then a man from the crowd shouted, "Teacher, I beg you to look at my son; he is my only child. Suddenly a spirit seizes him, and all at once he shrieks. It convulses him until he foams at the mouth; it mauls him and will scarcely leave him. I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not." Jesus answered, "You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here." While he was coming, the demon dashed him to the ground in convulsions. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astounded at the greatness of God.

The Cause for Brother Andre

The mystical has a way of confounding us. We’re never quite sure how to respond when it confronts us. Peter’s response in the scripture above makes obvious how inadequate or misguided we can be. He reflects the all too human tendency to enshrine the moment when God has some other end in mind. Not that I or anyone else can claim to know the mind of God, but it would seem from the lectionary reading that God decided to stop Peter, James, and John dead in their tracks in terms of any shrine or monument building. What it appears that God wanted instead might be captured in the following, “Listen to the one whom I have sent, he sojourns among you for the purpose of beginning a mission to all humankind -- a mission which will one day usher in my Kingdom, a Kingdom of Justice, a Kingdom of Peace. Therefore, no monuments or edifices -- people will institutionalize and idolize them. Go instead and heal the world the way my son does.”

For me this past week I had the opportunity to understand the above in a new way. It occurred while attending a day long retreat for the Theological Education and Dialogue Committee of the Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon or “EMO” as it’s often called. During our lunch break, I had the opportunity to sit with the Chancellor for the Portland Oregon Catholic Archdiocese. Deeply devoted to her tradition, yet a bit of an iconoclast as well, I have found over the years that Mary Jo can be a contradiction in terms. On the one hand, she can wryly cut to shreds unenlightened obtuse outdated notions about something. But on the other hand, she can take a centuries old institution like Catholic sainthood (a form of enshrinement) and enliven it with fresh meaning for our times.

The latter is what I experienced from Mary Jo at our table during lunch. Joining us for the conversation were two other ministers, both of whom are bright articulate compassionate individuals. Following a bit of small talk at the table, Mary Jo began to share about the coming sainthood or canonization of Brother Andre. Mary Jo’s story about Brother Andre was fairly succinct, so to do right by him I want to share the following from the Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Montreal website:

Brother André was a lay brother of the Holy Cross order who was devoted to Saint Joseph (the Virgin Mary's husband). André especially related to the carpenter Joseph because of their shared experience as laborers and migrants.

Born Alfred Besette in 1845 and orphaned at 12, Brother André joined the Holy Cross Order at 25. Due to his poor health, he was assigned the humble duties of receptionist and doorkeeper at the College Notre-Dame in Montreal. However, another of his assigned tasks was visiting sick students and he soon gained a reputation as a miraculous healer through his prayers to St. Joseph.

Before long, a new venue for his fast-growing healing ministry became necessary. Brother André raised $200 from small donations and giving student haircuts at 5 cents each to build a small wooden chapel in 1904 near the site of the modern basilica. Grandly named Saint Joseph's Oratory, the chapel was just 15 feet by 18 feet.

Brother André's powers attracted pilgrims from great distances and he performed his healing work until his death in 1937. In 1916 alone, 435 cases of healing were reported. Interestingly, Brother André never witnessed a miracle himself. He counseled and prayed with the sick, but they were cured after he had gone. He later said this was his greatest cause of suffering.

André's popularity was so great that he soon attracted the attention of church authorities, and a special commission was set up to test the alleged cures and André's integrity in 1911. The commission recommended that pilgrimages continue, without commenting on the miracles.

André was beloved throughout his life and still remembered today for his life of simple faith, continuous prayer and unfailing kindness. When he died in 1937, a million people filed past his casket despite bitter winter cold.

André's dream of building a great shrine to Saint Joseph became a reality in 1955, when the present basilica was completed. Brother André is buried in the basilica and was beatified (declared "Blessed") by Pope John Paul II in 1982, a status one step below sainthood.

If you’d like to read further regarding Brother Andre and his coming sainthood, there’s an even more interesting piece that you can peruse at the Catholic News Service website for December 22, 2009.

After Mary Jo recounted some of the above information, she shared that there have been reports of hundreds of miraculous healings attributed to Brother Andre at Saint Joseph’s Oratory since his death in 1937. And as some of us are aware, only three miracles have to be determined by the Vatican as scientifically inexplicable in order to be eligible for sainthood. So it would seem that miracles during Andre’s life as well as miracles following his death have continued to be quite numerous.

Mary Jo then noted that with sainthood or canonization in her faith tradition, it’s almost always coincides with fame an individual had in mortal life. Brother Andre’s sainthood would be vastly different however, for as she put it he was simply a person who opened the door for people at the Oratory and greeted them as they entered and prayed with those who were ill or diseased. In essence, Brother Andre was being sainted simply for the person he was and not for grand or glorious deeds.

Silence followed for a few brief moments at our table. It seemed like a Peter, James, and John moment from the scripture. We didn’t seem to know what to say or do in response to what Mary Jo had shared. None of us proposed building shrines of course, but providing affirmation escaped us as well. I have wondered in the week since that conversation that if Jesus had been at the table might he have felt simiarly exasperated toward myself and the other two ministers as he did toward the crowd when he came down from the Mount of Transfiguration?  You know, something like the words in the above scripture which began with, "You faithless generation......”

Eventually words did come from the other ministers. They were fine and very respectful words which reflected the men’s impressive minds -- but the words seemed a bit of an intellectualized response. For me, I had no fine words to speak. For me, all I had was what I was feeling and what I was feeling welled up so greatly that all I could tell Mary Jo was how grateful I felt for her sharing and that I would be looking further into the story of Brother Andre’s life. Interestingly enough, the other two ministers then echoed my sentiment as well. With a loving and appreciative smile coming upon Mary Jo’s face, she then got up and excused herself from our table. For me, it suddenly felt as though the four of us had had a Peaceable Kingdom moment. Perhaps we even had a healing ecumenical moment, a moment wherein we experienced being “one” – maybe something like the moments of silence which followed for Jesus, James, Peter and John after God had spoken from within the cloud on the Mount of Transfiguration. Then again, maybe Brother Andre had just paid a visit.

To Sacrifice and Follow

For Sunday, February 7th, 2010

Lectionary Reading – Luke 5:1-11 (NRSV)


"Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him."

To Sacrifice and Follow

As I reflected on the reading from Luke this week, I remembered that at different points in the past I have wanted to do what Simon, James, and John had done. I’ve wanted to drop everything and go -- go and swim the truly deep waters for the cause of God’s Just and Peaceable Kingdom here on earth. And in that existence, I have wanted to be so completely absorbed in that work of the Peaceable Kingdom that there could be no mistaking that lives and communities were healing and finding wholeness, wellness, and enthusiasm.

More often than not, what I have found instead is life that is hemmed in by a bevy of systems and processes and individuals so full of complacency, self-serving interests, and intentional resistance toward God’s Peaceable Kingdom that little if anything ever does change -- and little if anything ever tackles this kind of evil in order to better the common good. Sometimes out of that frustration I’ve even taken a long hard look in the mirror and thought, “Well, I’m just not smart enough or wise enough or rich enough or powerful enough or talented-enough or charismatic enough or good-looking enough (sorry, I couldn’t resist that) to be any genuine force for change.” And sometimes that script has been so loud in my head that I’ve simply decided that it was no use to struggle against the powers that be and therefore wiser to leave such situations and move on. I thank my psychology background for helping me to realize when I’m in such situations and have banged my head against a brick wall longer than I or anyone else should have ever had to do.

So the question arises for me of what is it about life today or life in the past that makes change so hard for us or makes the idea of doing what Simon, James, and John did so fearful? Even from the words Jesus told these men millennia long ago in a much simpler time and existence, we can sense how they feared for how they would provide for themselves in leaving their livelihoods behind and following Jesus. And what Jesus said in response may not have helped them much. In fact it might have seemed rather nonsensical to be told “fear not” because from that point on they would be catching people rather than fish. Maybe those words implied something that might be hard for us to understand even now.  My only guess is that Jesus meant they would sustain themselves from the hospitality that others would show them in the course of providing their ministry, message, and mission regarding God’s Peaceable Kingdom.

Now some of us would probably consider that to be a pretty thin thing to depend on, especially in today’s self-absorbed world. Even for those of us who work full time for churches and denominations today know that such hospitality appears to be growing thinner with each passing year as Christian church membership ages and declines in number.  There simply is less and less resource from the good-will of members and friends to pay ministers’ salaries and benefits. Staff are being let go, laid off, even retirements are being postponed by some denominational authorities because there isn’t enough young people entering professional ministry, mostly because of the poor salaries and highly stressful nature of the work.

So I’m not sure what one can say or do in relation to the need for courageous no-nonsense change agents willing to leave everything behind and the horde or bevy of things that keep people pinned down, constrained, discouraged, and demoralized in terms of making God’s Just and Peaceable Kingdom a reality here on earth. It seems somehow that we have to find a way to stand over and against the selfishness that’s behind so much of life and is so pervasive at the individual, group, and larger collective/corporate level. We have to do that because such selfishness depends upon breeding helplessness and keeping things helpless. I’ve known and seen it in so many different terms and forms, both within ecclesiastical life as well as secular life. Perhaps United Methodist minister and contributing Sojourners editor, Bill Wylie-Kellerman, said it best in a Sojourners Magazine article in April 1985 when he wrote that so much of life depends upon our brokenness, infirmity, blindness, division, and even death in order to rule over us.  And for me, I think that we often fail to see or understand our collusion or complicity with it and we’re even more glacial when it comes to confronting it.

What it seems that we must do is not allow our voices to be silenced by anyone. It’s here that I have felt a sort of amusement toward colleagues who have suggested directly or not so directly at one point or another that I move on from a job. I find that such things tend to happen because my outspokenness is not convenient or comfortable for them.  More often than not that outspokenness has been related to a clear issue of justice, but speaking out on the matter and calling a spade a spade and advocating that something be done about it and even challenging a colleague regarding their own collusion and complicity can get pretty uncomfortable or annoying for that person. So it becomes easier to maneuver the outspoken person out of the way, and truth be told, sometimes in some situations it simply makes sense to move on.

For the courageous person however who’s willing to move out into the deep water and at the bid of the Spirit try something completely different even as Simon, James, and John did at the bid of Christ, do remember that you too must find community and/or a medium through which your voice can be heard and magnified for the cause of the Peaceable Kingdom. I found that opportunity this past Sunday at a local church where I provided the morning message. The message was comprised mostly of the blog content from my last posting which is why I maintain this blog since my job entails preaching from time to time. What surprised me about the blog that became a sermon is how overwhelmingly positive the response was from people, including the pastor who thanked me for how I shared about healthcare reform as a justice issue for which people of faith ought to advocate.  The pastor then noted that the congregation had been trying to envision peace and justice advocacy and that what I shared will help to inform their next steps.

So my friend, even if things seem constraining and it feels that a Simon, James, and John option is not workable in your life or you feel that you’ve got no one is in your corner, just remember this – you have your voice and people want to hear it. Exercise that voice, let it say what it needs to say, and if it seems there isn’t a physical world place for it, then know that there’s an online community of countless millions and even billions who are ready, waiting, and willing to know what's in your heart.

After reading the above, a friend of mine illustrated the point I’m trying to make with this post.  She said, “Last night I went to a movie with a friend. She recently quit a job at a non-profit because there was a woman there who was misusing her power in their board meetings. She would block decisions the rest of the board favored because no decision could be ratified without consensus of everyone. My friend watched this happen for a period of couple of months and then began to speak up. She soon found out that the board was afraid of this woman who was so petty that she refused an opportunity to rent much needed inexpensive space simply because she didn’t like the owner. It soon became apparent that the woman had zero ability to put the organization’s needs ahead of what she herself wanted. Finally my friend quit as she could not change what was happening and she could no longer support the dynamics of what was going on. Interestingly enough, the petty board member is now gone and the first thing that happened is that the board has asked my friend to come back and implement the constructive and creative ideas she had suggested before.. She has decided to accept the offer as originally she had taken the job because she felt called to work for the organization and their social purpose -- then she felt called to speak up when everyone else was afraid.  Truly it reflects the power one voice.”