For Sunday 12/31/17 - Blessed No Matter Where or What Temple is For You

Luke 2:22-40  (NRSV)

22 When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord 23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord"), 24 and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons."

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Messiah. 27 Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, 29 "Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; 30 for my eyes have seen your salvation, 31 which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel." 33 And the child's father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, "This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed 35 so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too." 36 There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37 then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem. 39 When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. 40 The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him. -- NRSV

Lectionary Reflection:

"Blessed No Matter Where or What Temple Is For You"

What captures my attention in the above scripture is God's fulfillment of a promise to Simeon that he would see the Messiah before he died.  Upon seeing the Baby Jesus, Simeon proclaimed he could now be dismissed in peace and with that proclamation Simeon blessed Jesus and prophesied things about Jesus and his family -- such as the falling and rising of many and piercing of loved ones' souls.  I make no such proclamations for myself, either in terms of the rising or falling of others or having been blessed in a temple.  I do resonate however with Simeon's desire for the consolation of his country's sorrow and his desire for a divine promise to be fulfilled so Simeon could be dismissed from Temple ministry to go live his life in peace.

In August 2010, I took an extended vacation.  It was three weeks long and more of a staycation than going anywhere exciting or new.  Most mornings I went fishing to reflect and contemplate at Frenchman’s Bar, a park beside the Columbia River in Clark County WA.  It was a time in my professional ministry that I felt broken and dejected.  I was 53 years-old.  Nothing I understood or saw about my life and ministry at that point made sense -- particularly in terms of the visionary calling dream I experienced at age 19.  A scripture connected with that calling experience reads as follows, I have adapted the scripture to be more gender inclusive:

"Prosecute the missionary work in this land and abroad, so far and so widely as you may.  All are called according to the gifts of God unto them; and to the intent that all may labor together, let those who labor in the ministry and those who toil in the affairs of business and of work labor together with God for the accomplishment of the work entrusted to all.”  -- Doctrine & Covenants Section 119:8

One morning late into that staycation, it rained quite heavily while fishing.  Prepared for the downpour, I dressed in my water repellent raincoat and pants.  As the rain pelted me, it seemed like the tears I often had during my prayers and contemplation that vacation.  A frequent reflection during those days was the age 19 calling experience and these words that often accompanied reflection: “God, release me from the calling given so long ago.  Let me have peace with life as it is now.  For whatever the reasons may be for how I failed you, let’s just say that I either wasn’t smart enough to make it happen or I possessed too many faults, too many deficits, too many shortcomings.  I take responsibility for failing you.  I ask your forgiveness.  I pray that from out of your unconditional love you grant me peace to serve humbly, meekly, submissively in whatever role your church has for me the balance of my ministerial career.”

At the conclusion of praying such thoughts, the downpour stopped, blue sky returned, and then a rainbow formed across the river in front of me. Feeling peace as I marveled at the rainbow, God then spoke words I did not want to hear, “I keep my promises.”  Moments later, a very dear friend in the faith called me.  After we exchanged greetings, he said, “I felt impressed that I should reach out to you.”  Those precious simple words buoyed up my spirit giving me courage and hope to carry on.

Months later in May 2011 in an Austin TX hotel room, after visiting this friend in Harlingen TX, a life altering ecstatic experience took place.  It changed my life direction entirely.  I have come to call it, “My God Encounter.”  Everything since that time echoes the words of the Prophet Jeremiah:

“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” – Jeremiah 29:11

These days, I also find God bringing to my mind additional verses connected with Jeremiah 29:11, and wonder if God may one day have other exciting possibilities for me to consider.  Whether there are or not, I have decided I am where I am supposed to be and that I shall wait upon the Lord:

"For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.  For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you.  When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord..." -- NRSV Jeremiah 29:10-14 

Nearly 6.5 years later in my ministry now as a board-certified licensed psychotherapist, I am doing the best work of my life as I am finally free to engage in “carrying on the healing mission of Jesus Christ” through the Catholic healthcare organization for which I currently work. It is a ministry that I always hoped in some fashion I would get to do through the denominational church organization in which I was raised and for which I labored forty years as an ordained minister, nearly twenty of those years as one of its professional ministers.  Why did I have such a hope and stay with that organization so long?  I did so because it billed itself as prophetic.  I did so also because of a Jungian psychiatrist with whom I had the privilege to work with for a few years -- a deeply compassionate physician who during one of our supervisions expressed profoundly prophetic words, words that I hoped to bring to reality, “Churches could be wonderful places of healing for our patients.”  As my spirit soared hearing such words, then came his sobering words, “The only problem is that their God is not big enough.”  In the years that followed as I returned to full time ministry, I came to discover that no matter how hard I tried to inspire, lead, and motivate churches, the good doctor’s words proved all too true – simply too many churches with gods far too small. 

Some things are not to be as I learned from my “God Encounter” in May 2011, however God never gives up on you or me especially if our hearts are pure with desire for “accomplishment of the work entrusted to all” – an interfaith work otherwise known as God’s Just and Peaceable Reign here on Earth.  There are those actively seeking to tear down the bridges and roads built towards a more just and peaceable betterment of Humanity's Common Good.  POTUS 45 is one such person, Putin is another, and the sickening ilk of their followers who collude with them.  None of them know or understand God's Peace.  In your corner of the world and mine, we must continue our efforts at what we do best until such persons fall and no longer trouble us and we have our consolation and healing and assurances that never again will persons like them rise up.

My daily walk with God now encompasses most weekday mornings the privilege to walk by the biblical “writing on the wall” as I head to my office in a clinic dedicated to healing the human spirit.  The writing on the wall is my employer’s mission statement, “We carry on the healing mission of Jesus Christ…..” – I then realize that I am right where God wants me to be -- a wonderful place and space that St. Teresa of Avila shared about in one of her prayers.

As St. Teresa of Avila’s prayer states, so I wish the following blessing for you this coming year:

May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.  – Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon USA

(For aiding others who have experienced a "God Encounter", Brad Shumate provides spiritual direction ministry in-person, via video-conferencing, by telephone, or through email consultation. If you are interested in benefiting from the healing ministry of spiritual direction, please complete the contact form in the right column of this blog.  Brad will respond within twenty-hours.)
       

For Sunday, 12/17/17, "Testify to the Light"

For Sunday 12/17/17, “Testify to the Light!”

"Miracle" 1975 by Edward Ruscha, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA

From John 1:6-8 NRSV

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.

“Testify to the Light” – Lectionary Reflection

This morning, Sunday 12/10/17, I had one of the most precious pleasures a father and grandfather gets to have.  I and my fiancé, Dawn, enjoyed a video “Messenger” call with my daughter Bree, son-in-law Jason, and my two year-old grandson, Jaxson.  The call was not long, perhaps fifteen to twenty minutes at most.  It was however a few precious minutes that I will treasure forever – for when the light bulb of recognition went on and Jaxson shouted out to his dad pointing to his mom’s phone saying, “Grandpa!” – my heart skipped several beats.  I was at a loss for words as joy took over my heart thinking to myself, “Jaxson indeed knows who I am.”

I wonder if this might be how God experiences you and me when our light bulb goes on -- when a moment of awareness lights up and we see, even encounter, the God reflected in Jeremiah 29:11….

"For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11 NRSV)

Increasingly as people of faith come to me these days overwhelmed and traumatized by our politicians and government, I find myself, as a follower of Jesus and as a psychotherapist, pondering quite frequently the words of the Prophet Jeremiah.  When appropriate, I remind individuals of such words in the scared writings of their faith traditions.  I offer such words to comfort, soothe and calm so individuals can move on from their fear and open themselves to a future that an unconditionally loving and accepting God wants for them.  As such sharing brings comfort --- it is as if a light flips on and gratitude fills the individual at being reminded of God's words to the Prophet "....plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope."  Following such conversations, I am confident that persons of faith carry Jeremiah's words of light, hope, and encouragement to others. 

My beloved friends, and those whom I hope to one day call “friend” -- I am the light and you are the light whenever we together testify of “The Light”.  You testify to “The Light” when you stand over and against those who pretend to be the light such as POTUS 45.  You testify to “The Light” when you stand over and against those embrace POTUS 45 as “The Light”.  Those who embrace a “Light Pretender” like POTUS 45 are individuals like  Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Roy Moore, Steve Bannon, and many “moore” like them.  Those who embrace a "Light Pretender” lack Jesus' sense of social justice and moral courage.  They lack understanding of the Jesus who is “Light’ and cowardly they excuse themselves from responsibility saying, “Let the voters of such and such decide.”

Be “The Light” my friends.  We are “The Light” together to the extent that we courageously set aside our tribal affiliations.  The only affiliation that should define you and me is what the Prophet Isaiah prophesied, “They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” (Isaiah 11:9 NRSV).

I pray for you, my friends, the resolve of God’s Peace, a resolve that treats each person in a loving, accepting, caring way --- an unconditional non-judgmental loving that lives and let lives.   I stand ready to support and encourage your journey in this regard.  I stand by for your grandkid and my mine to know and experience a world at peace -- a world that has plans for them, plans for their welfare and not for harm – plans to give them a future with hope!

Let us courageously testify, witness to, and stand for "The Light" that unites -- unlike the darkness of POTUS 45 that divide you and me from one another.

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon USA

(Brad Shumate provides spiritual direction ministries in-person, via video-conferencing, by telephone, or through email consultation. If you are interested in benefiting from the healing ministries he offers through spiritual direction, please complete the contact form in the right column of this blog.  Brad will respond within twenty-hours.)          

 

For Sunday 12/10/17 - "One More Powerful is Coming!"

For Sunday 12/10/17 - "One More Powerful is Coming!"

The Proclamation of John the Baptist  - Mark 1:1-8 (NRSV)

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God, as it is written in the prophet Isaiah:  See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”  John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.  Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.  He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.  I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

Proclaim the Good News – Reflection on the Lectionary

An individual once told me that they deserved for nothing good to happen in their life.  The individual went on to say that their poverty, loss of loved ones, and various disabilities was God punishing the person for wrong living, poor decisions, bad thoughts, and more.  Taken back by the persons statements, I asked where such thoughts and feelings came from.  The person said it was what they had learned from their faith tradition and faith community growing up and so the person “knew” that a normal life would never be possible.

We sat quietly for a few moments pondering the years of sadness and emotional suffering the individual had been through.  I reflected on the injustice and harm the person’s faith tradition had grievously inflicted.  Empathy filled my soul as memories returned of the harm I had known and witnessed in the faith tradition in which I grew up.

Looking back on the conversation, I see now that being called out of my faith tradition “to be on the way” -- engaged in a journey of recovering my true self – took me into a wilderness where I eventually discovered a new home.  The new home was myself, the power of my being immensely and unconditionally loved by God -- full of happiness and freedom of Spirit and blessed with a diversity of human life and human perspective divinely intended to eternally enfold itself into the life and being of God, its creator.

Knowing that such a journey is not easy nor quick and involves the long-suffering effort of letting go of evil that has tormented and defined so much of a person’s life and reality, I replied to the person before me saying, “I have known of such faith traditions.  I find it very hard to understand why they believe as they do.  For the God they speak of is not the God I know.  The God I know is the God who authored the Universe, who loves me for who I am, who loved me for who I have ever been in the past, and who will love me for whoever I am in the future.  The most important thing for your journey ahead is will you love and accept yourself as God already does.”  Truly, this is the task of forgiveness and restoration of one’s soul.

I am one crying out from the wilderness – and you are one too to the extent that you free yourself for recovering your true self!  Far too many voices in far too many places, even places of great power capable of annihilating our world, seek to demoralize us and make us frightened little sheep fearful of anything that doesn’t look like us, walk like us, talk like us.  POTUS 45 and those who embrace him are but one example.  Together, let us stand over and against such ungodliness, let us “prepare the way of the Lord” and let us “be on the way” -- for One who is more powerful is coming!

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon USA

(Brad Shumate provides spiritual direction ministries in-person, via video-conferencing, by telephone, or through email consultation. If you are interested in benefiting from the healing ministries he offers through spiritual direction, please complete the contact form in the right column of this blog.  Brad will respond within twenty-hours.)          

For Sunday, 9/24/2017, God’s Generosity, "Senator Graham Return to Sunday School"

Men Weeding a Field by Dhammika Heenpella

Matthew 20:1-16  NRSV

“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.  After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard.  When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same.  And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’  They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’  When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage.  Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage.   And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’  But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?  Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you.  Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?  So the last will be first, and the first will be last.” 

God’s Generosity, "Senator Graham Return to Sunday School"

The GOP Republican Congress and POTUS 45 just don’t know when to stop regarding their efforts to dismantle the Affordable Healthcare Act.  They also seem to have no ability to recognize when they should embrace Single Payer Universal Healthcare and get on task and get it done.   When it comes to healthcare, they know only how to bitch that there should be levels of reward versus healthcare being a citizen’s right. They gripe like the workers recruited early in the day as in Jesus’ story above.  Senator Graham is patently offensive for putting forward a healthcare bill that would leave millions upon millions of our fellow citizens without healthcare coverage.

Personally, I think Senator Graham should have to live day in and day out for the next five years in the homes of families he would throw off healthcare coverage and that he would have to share in their suffering like any other member of those families when they can’t get medicines or can’t see a doctor or have a mental illness they can’t get treated.  Perhaps Graham’s appalling and disgusting lack of compassion would transform to something that’s truly Christlike, because he evidences none of that now.  I have an even better idea that in addition to living with families he would throw off healthcare coverage, Graham would also have to go back to Sunday School to pick up some crucial spiritual lessons and teachings regarding that we are one another’s keepers.  Lessons that he has somehow forgotten during his time in public service and becoming a typical GOP tool of the rich and powerful.  

Workers in the parable recruited late in the day were paid the same as workers who spent the entire day in the field.  Those who worked only a few hours, as complained by the day long workers, shouldn’t get paid as much or benefit the same.  Applying this notion of things to our healthcare system is that our fellow citizens should only have health insurance coverage to the level they deserve and can afford because of the job or work they do.  The social justice notion of Single Payer Universal Healthcare, such as present in every other western democracy, is utter anathema to people like Senator Graham.  They think the working poor or the sick only have the coverage they can afford to buy – sometimes Senator Graham, that comes down to a choice between food and the rent.  How in good conscience and as a person of faith, so heartlessly abandon our fellow citizens to making such decisions.  And don’t give me any of that bullshit about what the states should be responsible for and what the Federal Government should tackle.  In case you hadn’t noticed, Senator Graham, we are all in this together and ignorance of that and how uneven the playing field would be from state to state, simply reinforces a perspective that you are disastrously out of touch with how greatly healthcare concerns every family in this country.  When every person in this country gets the same level of Cadillac healthcare coverage and benefit you do as an elected representative, that’s when the healthcare system in this country will truly be socially just.

Why is it that POTUS 45 and the GOP Congress foam at the mouth over Universal Healthcare issue and not others.  Why for instance when it comes to national defense, they don’t apply the same principle that the level of benefit should be commensurate to what a person can afford.  Why for instance when it comes to our infrastructure like bridges or dams or our electrical grid they fail to foam at the mouth that the rich and powerful should have much better bridges and better dams and better electrical power than the working poor or the sick and disabled.

The thing that repulses me even more, is that our so many members of our GOP Congress proclaim themselves to be Christians!  If so, they hardly understand the principles of God’s Generosity as Jesus taught.  They understand it so poorly that senators like Lindsey Graham truly need to go back to Sunday School and repeat it all over again.  What I wouldn’t do to have photos of Graham sitting on a tiny chair in Sunday School relearning Jesus’ message of God’s Generosity week after week and year after year until he finally gets it down – especially after his latest attempt underway in Congress to push a bill that will eventually eliminate Medicaid/Medicare altogether and get the Federal Government out of being involved in healthcare at.  Graham, I don’t think I want to be you on Judgement Day when God deals with you and your soul-less ways toward your fellow citizens.  You are a severe disappointment as a human being for putting forward a bill in Congress that will throw untold millions off their healthcare coverage.  You understand absolutely zero relative to the principles of God’s Generosity as taught by Jesus.

Single Payer Universal Healthcare is a perfect example of God’s Generosity.  It takes care of all of us without regard to whether you or I have worked all day, all year, or just a few hours, or no time at all.  It only asks that people get the healthcare they need when they need it, nothing less and nothing more.  Like whatever crop needs to be harvested so people can eat and not starve and therefore be healthier, Universal Healthcare is a commodity that benefits us all, just like our National Defense benefits us all, just like the Food and Drug Administration keeps us healthy and safe too.

Single Payer Universal Healthcare that benefits everyone the same, just as the workers found out in Jesus parable above, is a powerful step toward God’s Kingdom here on Earth, or what I like to call the Just and Peaceable Reign of God here on Earth.  Why is this so hard for GOP Congressional Members to see, especially those like Senator Graham who proclaim themselves to be followers of Jesus.  I don’t know what Jesus you follow Senator Graham, but whoever your Jesus is -- he’s utterly unrecognizable to me and to millions of other persons of faith in this country.  The only way healthcare is going to work and do right by everyone in this country is not to put it back onto the states but to make it a right – an inalienable right covered and protected by our Constitution.  Senator Graham, you have forgotten and disastrously lost sight of the preamble of our Constitution and so I remind you of it by repeating it here:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America..”

Get your act together Senator Graham.  Make Jesus proud of you again.  Single Payer Universal Healthcare insures domestic tranquility, provides for the common defense by helping our citizenry be healthy --- and capable of engaging in defense.  Without doubt, Single Payer Universal Healthcare promotes our citizenry’s general welfare and secures blessings not only to ourselves but also to our posterity --- for now and evermore.

Single Payer Universal Healthcare – get it done Senator Graham, and get it done now!

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon   

(Brad Shumate provides spiritual direction ministries in-person, via video-conferencing, by telephone, or through email consultation. If you are interested in benefiting from the healing ministries he offers through spiritual direction, please complete the contact form in the right column of this blog.  Brad will respond within twenty-hours.)          

For Sunday, 9/17/17 - Forgiveness' Blessings & the Costs of Unforgiving

Millennium Chapel for Peace and Forgiveness 

Matthew 18:21–35 NRSV 

Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?”  Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.   For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.  When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him and as he could not pay his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made.  So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’  And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.  But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’  Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’  But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.  When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place.   Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.  Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’  And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt.  So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Forgiveness’ Blessings & the Costs of Unforgiving

My heart is often heavy as a psychotherapist when hearing the stories of young adults and/or their families struggling with college loan debt.  When I reflect on the financial aid I received thirty-five to forty years ago for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees, I feel appalled and ashamed at what we Americans are allowing to happen to our young adult citizens.  My total indebtedness of $6,000 at the end of my schooling in the mid-1980s would be roughly $13,500 today -- a manageable loan.  In addition, I had a very low 3% rate of interest with a term of 25 years.  Those school loan funds bought a bachelor's degree and a professional master's degree that has allowed me to enjoy the blessings of an upper middle-class lifestyle.  The $6,000 that I owed was paid off long ago and long before the twenty-five year term I was originally allowed.  All in all, it was and has been a workable journey.  The life lessons learned along the way have brought many wonderful and phenomenal blessings.

By contrast, today's young adult college graduate averages indebtedness of $37,172 per the The Economist in June 2014.  A total of 44 million borrowers are represented in that figure.  For most of us, we recognize that's a lot of money to owe, especially when real wages for the past several decades, when adjusted for inflation, are going down or stagnant while the cost of living outpaces people's ability to keep up.  Increasingly we have become a society and culture of the haves and have-nots and it is demoralizing, distressing, and pissing off a lot of Americans. Many of our young adults rightly feel they have bestowed them little hope as climate change, indebtedness, automation, and evolving artificial intelligence take their toll -- making it harder and harder for individuals to find sustainable lifestyle and employment.  The frightening results are what our world is becoming as the wealthy become richer, the middle class disappears, and the working poor poorer, leaving few with any sense of safety or security -- especially as they age and the ravages of aging takes its toll. Governments, particularly the unified GOP government of the USA, is now powerfully influenced and manipulated by the wealthy who steadfastly erode the well-being of citizens by working relentlessly to demonize any notion that government is good for us.  The foundations of Western Civilization and illusion of the USA Empire are crumbling.

Globalization was supposedly the answer that in time would right the ship of the ills stated above, but it proved only to be a tool of the wealthy -- adding to their wealth in a filthy insidious way.  For example, whenever the bottom line doesn't please the shareholders, CEOs and corporate boards of directors whack off employees and cast them adrift into seas of hardship.  I am always amazed at what little responsibility corporations and employers have for the workers they lay off.  Western Civilization has this highly disturbed mindset that corporations must survive at all costs while the lives of people they devastate through layoffs is really of no concern.  There is no real and complete responsibility for helping workers find new employment that interests/motivates the laid off worker, there is no responsibility to help laid off workers obtain education and training related to new jobs.  There is no obligation to support those workers financially and ensure their have good healthcare coverage until they are securely established into their new jobs.  There is virtually no social contract with respect to any of this and frankly it ends up being a pretty shitty thing that the wealthy and corporations get away with.

Today, no one personifies these dynamics better than rage prone billionaire POTUS 45.  According to CNN reporters, Dan Merica and Kevin Liptak, in their 9/16/17 article titled "He cut your heart out" -- if a person makes 45 look bad in anyway shape or form, intentionally or unintentionally, you will face a withering torrent of verbally abusive rage that might include 45 ripping the door off a wardrobe to emphasize his point.  Who in their right mind cares to live with that kind of a person, either at work or at home?  And what in the world has become so disturbed in the minds of those voted for 45 that they wanted such an unfit person to be their POTUS?  Perhaps, they have lost all hope and feel there is little to care about anymore, so why not have a rage filled man be constantly on a rant demeaning and throwing people under the bus anytime the whim strikes him?  I guess it probably makes for some kind of entertainment.  

Human family whom I call my church family, we can have things better -- much better.  It will however require engaging our imaginations.  It will require our creativity and resourcefulness.  It will necessitate in each of us gentleness, compassion, patience, forgiveness and generosity that passionately creates safety and security for each and every living soul here on earth.  The prophet Isaiah described this sense of safety and security so poignantly in the Hebrew Scriptures.  Persons of faith refer to such a time as the Just and Peaceable Reign of God,

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

It has been this vision of Isaiah's that drives my own life and ministry as a spiritual director and psychotherapist.  It is this vision that gives me hope.  God has not abandoned us.  If that were so, humanity would have destroyed itself long ago.  Instead, God calls us as the faith community that is the human family, to become something more than we are, something that cannot be achieved through greed, dominance, or toxic raging shaming like that to which POTUS 45 is accustomed.

Such ways of being must be -- and can be – transcended.  “For this reason,” is what Jesus typically said before sharing a story for through his stories and teachings he worked to enable our imaginations and creativity for ushering in the Just and Peaceable Reign of God as have done other diverse prophets, teachers, and healers before him and since him!

So herein is your calling and mine --- to be prophets and teachers and healers.  Not just one of these, but all three.  Obviously there will be, and can be, many pretenders to such a calling, even POTUS 45 can be an excellent pretender.  The authentic prophet and teacher and healer is one who has known forgiveness and extended it – whether that’s forgiveness you extend to yourself, or others, or for a situation or circumstance that harmed or injured you in some fashion.  Jesus demonstrated this during horrifying torture when Roman soldiers pounded metal stakes through his wrists and feet.  As the soldiers did so, Jesus prayed, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Several years ago, I had a dream of being in paralysis and laying chest down on my bed.  A person climbed on my back and attempted to strangle me with a piece of rope.  I knew that I had but one chance to free myself and as the moment approached, the dream abruptly ended as I woke up from screaming and crying out in my sleep.  Not long after that dream, I took steps to remove that person from my life and in time accomplished doing so.  The person went on to live their life the way they wanted and I did the same.  About a year later, during a period of intense work in therapy and spiritual direction, I had another dream.  It was nighttime in the dream and I stood high up on the side of a mountain.  The stars gleamed and sparkled, there was a deep sense of peace within me.  My hands opened with palms up and I saw the rope laying in my hands that had been used to try and end my life and soul.  Slowly the rope began to transition to sand in my hands which I then cast it out toward the sky.  As the sand rose toward the sky it became gleaming sparkling stardust taking up residence as distant new stars.  Warmth and peace came again to my soul for I knew I was free, that I had let go, that I had moved on from that which had bound me and sapped life from the prophet, the teacher, the healer within me.

Today, I embrace the prophet, the teacher, the healer with me.  May you do so the same so the Just and Peaceable Reign of God’s Holy Mountain takes up residence with you -- and through you.

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon USA

(Brad Shumate provides spiritual direction ministries in-person, via video-conferencing, by telephone, or through email consultation. If you are interested in benefiting from the healing ministries he offers through spiritual direction, please complete the contact form in the right column of this blog.  Brad will respond within twenty-hours.)

"Who Do You Say I am?" -- For Sunday, August 27th

Matthew 16:13-20  NRSV

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?"  And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"  Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."  And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.  And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."  Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

But Who Do You Say I Am?

Our weekday routine is that my fiancé gets up at 4am.  To get more sleep and leave the master suite bathroom open for her use after her morning meditation, I head out to the loft and snooze in the recliner until she’s ready to leave for work at roughly 6:30am.  Occasionally during those hours sleeping in the recliner, I dream.

A morning or two ago, I dreamt of being in priestly garments and serving Communion to my congregation.  The line seemed endless as one parishioner after another came before me to partake of the wine, symbolic of the blood of Christ shed for our sins.  At one point, we ran out of wine, and so I asked my helpers to bring water and we kept serving water for wine until the water ran out, but luckily everyone had been served.  

Next it was time to serve the bread of communion, symbolic of Christ’s body broken for our sake.  In the place of bread however was oatmeal, and I served the oatmeal to each individual until all had been fed.  For some reason, the process had gotten a little messy, so at times I used my garments for wiping my hands.  I remember being near to exhaustion by the time all had been fed and my helpers had removed the Communion emblems.  I felt relief and satisfaction that all had been served.

All of this was followed by a lay leader in the congregation who came forward as I tried with a wash cloth and towel to clean the sticky oatmeal from my hands and garments.  She said to me, “It was beautiful to watch you serving Communion to our congregation this morning.”  The look in her eyes struck me far more than her words as I felt humbled and touched to the core of my soul.

Who do I say that you are my Lord?  You are the one who calls me to believe that I can capably serve others no matter the circumstances.  You are the one who helps me to serve creatively and resourcefully when challenges arise in the midst of serving the needs of our human family.  You provide me means to comfort and heal.

I am who I am because of you! 

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon
USA   

Will POTUS 45 & Steve Bannon issue call to arms???

Roughly 1/3 of the USA supports POTUS 45. Of 45’s supporters, about 2/3rds (or 22% of the USA population) say that no matter what 45 says or does, they will support him. These are the folks that 45 spoke of when he said he could walk down a city street and shoot people dead and his base would still support him.

So let’s do a bit of math. The eligible voting population in the USA numbers approximately 235.25 million citizens – 22% of that number is 51.75 million citizens in the USA who say they will have 45’s back no matter how he behaves, what he says, decisions he makes, or actions he takes. If 45 issues a call for his base to weaponize into some form of rebel militia, i.e. “The Second Amendment” people, and if just one-tenth of 45’s base were to answer his call, 45 will have an army/militia of nearly 5.2 million of USA citizens at his command. No country in the world has an army that large – a very concerning prospect when I reflect how unfit and unhinged 45 has become. His buddy, Steve Bannon, has now left the White House and barely out the door, Bannon says he left so he can go to war. These individuals taken together believe profoundly in the Constitution’s statement that the people have the right to overthrow the government if that government has become oppressive.

Religious scholar, Martin Marty, once wrote that a very distinct portion of American society has become so disillusioned, angry, and hateful toward our increasingly pluralistic culture that the only thing they haven’t done yet en masse is to take up arms.

I hope Martin Marty’s fear/concern never becomes reality, but 45 keeps moving the USA citizenry closer and closer to the edge. It is time for Republicans and Democrats to come together and remove 45 from office and actively prepare for managing and healing the backlash and aftermath that will surely follow.

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon

GOP Senators - "The Kingdom of Heaven is Like..."

Walking & talking with my mind stayed on #healthcare4all @BRepairers @TheRealFPL @RedLetterXians @AuburnSeminary #BlackClergyUprising pic.twitter.com/HnsXnUPBji

— Macky Alston (@MackyAlston) July 18, 2017

(Middle Collegiate Church leaders via Twitter @middlechurch and retweeted by @MackyAlston) Matthew 13:31–33, 44–52 (NRSV)

31 He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches." 33 He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened." 

44 "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 45 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; 46 on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it. 47 "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; 48 when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 51 "Have you understood all this?" They answered, "Yes." 52 And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."

Dear GOP Senators & Faith Leaders Everywhere:

The Kingdom of Heaven is God's Just and Peaceable Reign for all. It is happening NOW!!  It is for the benefit of all God's creation -- not just some.  The mustard seed is the smallest of seed, but when it is grown it is the greatest of shrubs and trees, even birds come and nest with their young in the safety of its branches.

The ACA is like the mustard seed, it is our healthcare system growing, maturing, eventually becoming Single Payer Universal Healthcare that protects and provides for the well being of all American Citizens.  Single Payer Universal Healthcare will be half the cost of a system that now has to make obscene profits for insurance corporations and other entities.  Those obscenities will become even worse if the healthcare system is allowed to revert to the old days of insurances corporations being in charge of what they will pay for and what they will not.

Reverting to the old days of insurance companies in control and Congress handing our states severe cuts to Medicaid and/or elimination of the Medicaid Expansion means that American lives will again be devastated and bankrupt by expensive medical costs that only the rich and powerful can afford.  Employers will no longer have to provide health insurance coverage.  Essential Health Benefits will no longer be covered.  The ACA repeal-minded congresspersons will continue to enjoy their extravagant and luxurious health coverage while seniors, the poor, and working poor will suffer tortuous bare bones totally inadequate despicable McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare policies.  Pro-repeal advocates claim Americans have been hurt by ACA -- that is bull.  Millions upon millions have healthcare coverage they were never able to access before.  Frankly and rightly in the eyes of God, all American citizens should have the very same incredibly generous health insurance you have Senators!!  Why is that so hard for you to figure out and compassionately advocate for??? 

Yes, costs need to come down and come down now!!  You, GOP Senators, along with your democratic colleagues, have the power and means to do so -- if you would simply find the courage to stand over and against the so-called leaders driving our country to the brink of disaster with McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare.

Your fellow citizens call on you, GOP Senators, to find and discover the pearl of great value that is Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  As your Republican Party once did so sacrificially freeing Americans from the evils of slavery, the pearl of great value that is Single Payer Universal Healthcare will free all your fellow citizens from having to ever worry again about skyrocketing medical costs financially enslaving and bankrupting their live and their families           

GOP Senators, you are like the earliest followers of Jesus, you are having "....to learn what it means to be in relationship to God and with others in new ways"* -- to learn that you are in Washington DC beholden only to ALL the citizens of the state you represent, not just some -- especially when only 16% of Americans approve of McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare.  You are not beholden to a political party, or a wing or leader of that party.  You are especially not beholden to a POTUS who makes and breaks promises to Americans about their healthcare.

Stand over and against all the evil that acts against the interests of the Americans you represent.  Be the voice of your constituency that's calling for courage to buy the pearl of great value, the pearl that is Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  The pearl that the third richest man in the world, Warren Buffet, said we can easily afford because we are such a rich and great country.  Single Payer Universal Healthcare is an expression of The kingdom of heaven for it will be like "yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened."   

Single Payer Universal Healthcare is that mustard seed in the above scripture.  A senator only need have the smallest bit of faith and Single Payer Universal Healthcare will grow into a solid foundation for all Americans.  It will be a means of safety -- as crucial to our nation's well-being as presently are our Military and Defense.

Have but a mustard seed of faith, Senators, and you will be able to move mountains like POTUS out of the way.  You will be able to cast nets far and wide and drag in all fish regarding Single Payer Universal Healthcare, and then begin to sort the good from the bad -- what should be kept alive and well in our system of healthcare and what needs to be discarded.

JESUS MAFA - "The Hidden Treasure"

For those who have forgotten themselves and what they are in Congress to do in this most urgent of times, there will come a day that they and their evil are separated out and their constituencies will replace them in Congress with persons more ably suited to serve and likely those individuals replaced will leave Congress weeping and gnashing their teeth -- for they never truly cared and never truly understood that God's Just and Peaceable Reign requires our compassion and generosity for all to have and lead healthy lives.

Your small act of faith to vote against repeal of the ACA and to instead set in motion a bill for Single Payer Universal Healthcare is enough to set change in motion -- a change that will move us and humanity one step closer to the time of God's Just and Peaceable Reign here on Earth.

May God's Peace be with You as you contemplate your vote this coming week.

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon

GOP Senators - Become Children of the Kingdom

Become Children of the Kingdom

Religious News Service, Faith Leaders five days ago arrested for protesting GOP healthcare bill outside Senator Mitch McConnell's office in the Capitol, Washington DC

Matthew 13:24–30, 36–43 (The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat) NRSV 

24 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ 28 He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Dear GOP Senators:

“The Kingdom of Heaven” which is “God’s Just and Peaceable Reign” will witness your vote on repeal of the ACA or on a vote for McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare.  Some of you may yet be good seed as described in Jesus’ story above – unfortunately you are having to live among the weeds sown by POTUS 45 who has clearly declared himself an enemy to American citizens and their right to Universal Healthcare.  45 has made clear that he intends for millions upon millions of American Citizens not to have Universal Healthcare.  

45 has also made clear that he intends for one American in every 830 uninsured Americans to step forward and die because of the lack of Universal Healthcare.  45 expects many of you to be automatons and mindlessly support what he intends for Americans and their healthcare.  As a GOP automaton, you GOP senators, are to vote on healthcare exactly as Putinesque aspiring POTUS 45 tells you or 45 will have a temper tantrum and “be very angry”.  How childish a statement can a Putinesque aspiring POTUS make?  Thankfully 45 does not have the power to snuff out a life as effortlessly as Putin does, though 45 is clear that we are to understand how much he admires Putin and that the American Constitution is archaic and obsolete. 

Jesus freely sowed hope and freely sowed healing to any and all who came to him.  The only people he could not heal were the rich and powerful.  As Jesus said, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  The weeds in Jesus story above are the senate colleagues of yours who as 45’s GOP automaton senators who would seek to undo the Medicaid Expansion that gave so many Americans access to comprehensive healthcare.  45 and his GOP automatons pursue this end despite the bipartisan protests of American Governors throughout our land who valiantly stand over and against the insanity 45 will commit on our healthcare system and the lives of Americans who will be harm including seniors, the middle class, the working poor, and those living in grinding poverty.

GOP Senators, some of you may yet be children of God’s Kingdom.  Isaiah prophesied of you, prophesied that a time would come upon the Earth when nothing will harm or hurt.  You are the key in this time and this place to moving Humanity’s journey forward toward that end through being brave souls willing to establish Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  Have the courage to vote “NO” on repeal of the ACA and/or vote “NO” on McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare.  You GOP Senators are supposedly so concerned about skyrocketing healthcare costs, do the one thing that makes the most sense, cuts costs in half, and achieves the greatest efficiencies -- establish Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  Warren Buffet, the third richest man in the world, says it makes sense and that we are such a rich country that we can easily afford it.  It’s also what every other developed country in the world has done.  Stop being so foolish – get the job done.  Establish Single Payer Universal Healthcare.

Single Payer Universal Healthcare is akin to gathering the wheat into the barn that will bless American lives with well-being for countless generations to come.  The GOP healthcare bill attempts represent nothing more than enemy activity toward American Citizens, an enemy sowing weedy, seedy, and sickening fictions that will mire American lives in suffering and devastation because of healthcare the Congressional Budget Office says Americans will not be able to afford or cannot access.      

The Kingdom of Heaven is a work in progress.  It takes great sacrifice, one that requires your courage to stand with the governors and citizens of your states – and to do so over and against the GOP POTUS 45 who has never truly understood healthcare and who breaks his campaign promises of Universal Healthcare for everyone.  Have courage like the faith leaders who protested McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare in the photo above this week in the Capitol of our great nation.

POTUS 45 is a man who promises the sky – but always he ends up handing out nothing burgers.  One day, the Master will come and the harvest completed and 45 and McConnell and Ryan will be bundled up with all the other weeds like them never to hurt or harm Americans again.

GOP Senators be courageous, be courageous as the faith leaders below who call you to be prophetic agents for God's Just and Peaceable Reign.

An ecumenical group of African-American clergy gathers outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on July 18, 2017, in opposition to the proposed budget and the health care bill. RNS photo by Madeleine Buckley

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon

GOP Senators – Plant Wisely! - For Sunday, July 16, 2017

GOP Senators – Plant Wisely! - For Sunday, July 16, 2017

Matthew 13:1–9, 18–23 NRSV

1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears listen!"

18 "Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23 But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."

GOP SENATORS - Plant Healthcare Wisely!

Dear GOP Senators:

Pay attention!!  Warren Buffet, the third richest person in the world (and far more successful than POTUS 45), said 26th of June 2017 during a PBS News Hour interview that Single Payer Universal Healthcare makes the most sense and since we are such a rich country we can afford to cover healthcare for each of our citizens.  Buffet notes that healthcare costs have gone from 5% of the GDP in 1960 to 17% now – with no end in sight!!

GOP senators, especially those of you who proclaim to be persons of faith seeking God’s Just and Peaceable Reign for all --- put a bill forward now that establishes Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  Such a bill will cut our healthcare costs in half when it removes the profit motive from taking care of the health of our citizens.  Healthcare coverage is as necessary to our way of being as is Defense, Highways, Bridges, the Electrical Grid,  Food Safety -- and the list goes on and on!!

Senators, get your act together and release Americans from the financial slavery healthcare binds them in.  Returning half of 17% GDP back to American citizens will strengthen our economy in profoundly creative and imaginative ways that will be certain to make America great again.  Stop POTUS 45 from fiddling while America burns to the ground – send the House AHCA bill back to Paul Ryan and his GOP House members who never read the bill they sent you to begin with.

Many of you GOP senators proclaim you are persons of faith.  Prove it!!  This week, you may possibly sow seed through your vote in terms of McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare.  If you are a GOP automaton senator -- after the manner that POTUS 45 wants you to be -- you will robotically do as told and vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act without enacting anything close to what most makes sense, i.e. Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  This is because POTUS 45 is only interested in a legislative win.  Only a thorny heart like that of POTUS 45 peddles an agenda that would leave tens of millions of our fellow citizens vulnerable like seeds thrown on rough hard ground for birds to gobble up.  And those citizens who will be gobbled up will be our fellow citizens forced into financial crises and bankruptcy over medical costs that you could have safeguarded them from.  If you fail to safeguard American citizens from skyrocketing medical costs, then you will have committed democide.  Each of those seeds gobbled up by financial predators will one fellow citizen in every 830 uninsured fellow citizens who will have to step forward to die due to lack of healthcare coverage.

Repeal of the ACA is not the action of a chief executive who protects American lives, it is the action of a despot who wants to wield absolute power.  Too bad if 45 tantrums himself over failure of McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare -- just too damn bad.

GOP Senators, all Senators, it is time you exercise prophetic vision for the future.  To all who want to make our failing healthcare system be profit driven benefitting big corporations and big pharma, your message needs to be, “Friends, it’s time to part ways, thanks for all you’ve done through the years but we’re going to take it from here now and plant wisely and plant deeply in good ground, Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  It’s time to end poverty and end suffering.”

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon

For GOP Senators - "I Only Want to Heal." - Sunday, July 9th

Matthew 11:28–30  NRSV

"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

Find Rest for Your Souls – “I only want to heal.....”-

“I only want to heal…,” the person said tearfully to me.  Hearing those words, concern surged heavily for the person because GOP Senators -- led by Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, devised a healthcare bill in secrecy and with lobbyists that will leave tens of millions of US citizens without insurance.  What this means is that McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare requires one US citizen in every 830 uninsured US citizens (mostly the working poor) to step forward and die per findings reported in LA Times article titled, “How many people will die from the Republicans' Obamacare repeal bills? Tens of thousands per year.”  Long and short of it by 2026, McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare could mean demanding that 92,000 to 96,000 citizens, again mostly our working poor, to step forward and die so that you and I have the privilege of transferring wealth -- nearly $1 trillion dollars -- to the richest people in the United States, and so a few other citizens have the privilege of not paying for any pieces of health insurance they don't want.  

“I only want to heal ….” – are words that mean nothing to 40% of this country who voted POTUS 45 into office.  Many of them are followers of Jesus and a considerable number think 45 is Jesus returned.  They love 45’s unrelenting pressure tactics to repeal Affordable Care Act (ACA).  They aren’t the least interested in fixing ACA.  They, like 45, are not interested in who is harmed and who can’t heal if ACA is repealed.  I don’t understand who their Jesus is because their Jesus bears no resemblance to the Jesus who freely healed – the Jesus to whom I was introduced as a child and in whom I subsequently came to believe.

“I only want to heal…..” – is a not a right but rather a privilege under McConnellcare/Trumpcare/Ryancare.  They fail to see Single Payer Universal Healthcare as essential to our infrastructure as Defense is or as our Interstate Highway and bridges are.  Supporters of Trumpcare/Ryancare/McConnellcare have the audacity to say they shouldn’t have to participate in healthcare costs that affect all of us.  Well, how about if I and untold other millions of citizens say that we shouldn’t have to pay taxes for the brand new $13 billion dollar Gerald Ford Super Carrier and more such aircraft carriers currently under construction.  We already have ten more aircraft carrier groups than any other nation on the planet, why can’t I opt out of those aircraft carriers I’m not interested in or opt out of the parts of that I have no interest in.

“I only want to heal…” is so plaintively a tug at the heart of anyone with capacity to feel another person’s pain that we must not stand idly by.  Like all other developed nations of the world, it is time for Single Payer Universal Healthcare in the USA.  Take the profit motive out of healthcare and big pharma and watch the tax payer’s cost instantly go down by half.  While we're at it, let's send Health Secretary Price back home where he belongs -- hopefully rehabilitating his moral and ethical priorities toward being able to support for Single Payer Universal Healthcare.

“I only want to heal….” - is a Mental Health Recovery journey advocated by the US Department of Health (SAMHSA) that existed long before Secretary Price ever entered Washington DC politics to promote Trumpcare/Ryancare/McConnellcare.  Mental Health Recovery’s Ten Guiding Principles (2006) will be there long after Secretary Price leaves the scene – precisely because the “Guiding Principles” are enduring and Price's moral and ethical principles are disasterously short-sighted and will contribute to one US Citizen dying for every 830 uninsured US citizens.  Such principles are not consistent with the Christ whom I know who bids us that heavy laden should come and receive rest for Christ's yoke is easy and his burden light -- especially when we all share the yoke and burden of Single Payer Universal Healthcare.

“I only want to heal….” – is a statement that took a person with severe and chronic PTSD profound courage to say.  It took a year and a half through psychotherapy to build trust and feel safety for voicing this healing need of a traumatized human mind.  Thankfully the emotional healing that took place to this point happened because of the Medicaid Expansion.  Now it gets hammered down by a POTUS who selfishly tweets violent videos at the press --- violence like that which the person in this post suffered for years at the hands of others.  Well done 45, very well done.  There will come a time when you stand before God and will account for your self-absorbed life and the darkness you harbor in your soul.  If I thought it would do you any good, I would gladly offer you psychotherapy -- but it’s pretty clear there is no room for the yoke of Christ in your life.  I once told you that if you were to redeem yourself, it would require that you exercise toward all other human beings the exact same generosity you extend to loved ones you hold dearest – the exception being that you do so without expectations of anything in return – just as the Christian hymn goes, “Freely, freely, you have received, freely freely give…”

“I only want to heal…” – means that you, POTUS 45, must finally awake out of you stupor of self-absorbed living and look around you at all who are weary, heavy burdened, living in tears from pain and suffering, fearful that medical costs will bankrupt their lives --  and that you give them rest through Single Payer Universal Healthcare.  Right now, the weary and heavy burdened is the life of every citizen in this country who Trumpcare/McConnellcare/Ryancare would throw way, expect to die, or be rendered bankrupt or vulnerable to financial crisis by out of control healthcare costs.  As recently stated by the World’s third richest man, Warren Buffet, only Single Payer Universal Healthcare gets the USA and its citizens out of our current morass.

Brad Shumate
Free of Encumbrance
Eugene, Oregon
USA