Can our nation survive politics?

The House of Representatives passed a health care bill late last night. The lone Republican who voted YES was Rep. Anh Cao from Louisiana. No matter how anyone feels about the bill in particular, or the general movement toward universal health care, EVERYONE should be disgusted at the following sentence from a post on Newsweek - "It's unclear whether Republican leaders will discipline Cao for breaking ranks and allowing Democrats to claim the bill had 'bipartisan support.'"

Why should any of the people's representatives be "disciplined" for voting his or her conscience? Talk about loving the party more than the country, or more than one's principles. UGH!

Nobel Peace Prize

Did Barak Obama receive the Nobel Peace Prize because he deserved it or for political reasons? I certainly don't know and I don't care. He was honored with it. Why dump on him? He didn't ask for it.

Even if it was for political purposes, what's so bad about that? EVERYTHING in the public sphere is done for political purposes. Politics doesn't have to be a dirty word. One thing that the President has done during his short time in office is to change the way much of the world looks at the United States. That's no small accomplishment. What's wrong with us that so much of the world affirms the President while so many of our fellow citizens hold him in such disregard?

The old saying by Scottish poet Robert Burns comes to mind: "O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us to see oursels as others see us. In "American English" that would read: "O would some Power give us the gift to see ourselves as others see us!"

I pray that "The Power" would give our nation such a gift.

HOW SPIRITUAL ARE WE?

That is the question asked on the cover story of today's Parade Magazine. It reports on various indices of religiosity such as beliefs, church attendance, frequency of prayer, etc. Since Jesus said that the world would know we are his disciples by the love we have for each other (John 13:35); and that "a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit," (Matthew 7:17) it seems to me that the better measure of how "spiritual" we are as a people is by looking at the kind of lives we lead.

St. Paul outlines a rather straightforward measure of spirituality: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Galatians 5:22) If that's the measure of "how spiritual are we?" then all the noise in our nation and world today would tell us that the answer is a resounding "not very." UGH!

STICKS AND STONES

Thomas Friedman's syndicated column today (October 1, 2009) is very sobering indeed. I wish everyone would read it and take its warnings seriously. I won't try to summarize what he said, only encourage you to "google" it and read it for yourself. The article is called, "Where Did 'We' Go?"

Remember the childhood saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me." Not so. Names can be just as destructive. The Letter of James says that the tongue is capable of "great exploits". It's like a small rudder that guides a boat through the water. It's like a small fire that can set ablaze a forest. Wild animals have been tamed, but no one has ever tamed the human tongue! It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. (James 3:1-12)

The tenor of communal discourse in our nation has sunk far below civility. Our tongues just might be our undoing.

The "NO NO" Party

Thank God the US has abandoned plans to build a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. I thought it was a dumb idea in the first place. No wonder Russia felt threatened. Why would they believe us when we said it was not a threat to them any more than we believe Iran when it says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

The President said he was acting on the advice of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs (Admiral Mike Mullen) and Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates (who I believe is a registered Republican and also served in the same position during the administration of George W. Bush). Yet the Republicans are all a twitter, claiming Obama has sold out to the Russians and that he has weakened our defense. Would they prefer that the President ignore his military advisors?

Are the Republicans ever FOR anything? It always seems as if they are AGAINST everything. Maybe they'd prefer to go back to the days of the cold war. Well, I'm for this move. It shows that the United States is confident about its strength. It should help the world know that we don't want to be an empire after all. And it reflects a more Biblical theology (God forbid that we should mix a little religion and politics). "A king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great might it cannot save." (Psalm 33:16-17)

Why the fuss?

Now that our children have been "exposed" to the President, maybe people will be able to reflect more seriously about all the furor. It has not been one of our finer hours as a nation. Thank God for Laura Bush who spoke up and said it was most appropriate for the President to address school children. She had better say that -- her husband and father-in-law both did during their time in office. I saw on the NBC Nightly News that one group of parents, where the school would not allow the speech to be shown and heard, kept their kids home so they COULD watch the speech live. Kudos to such reasonable people.

In today's edition of SOJO, the e-mail version of SOJOURNERS Magazine, Brian McLaren has a powerful piece that begs for more moderate and reasonable Republicans to stand up and take leadership. You may want to check it out at this link -

blog.sojo.net/2009/09/08/a-plea-for-a-new-generation-of-republican-leadership

(I just checked this link and for some reason it doesn't work. Sorry about that. But if you type it into your browser, it should work -- at least it does for me!)

While going over some material that I wrote years ago, I found this quote from Madeleine L'Engle. It addresses the issue of faith, but I think it also speaks an appropriate word for the times in which we live as a nation: "All I have to know is that I do not have to know in limited, finite terms of provable fact that which I believe. Infallibility has led to schisms in the Church, to atheism, and to deep misery. All I have to know is that God is love, and that love will not let us go, not any of us."

God deliver us from the "know-it-alls" and let us learn the fine art of dialogue and real conversation.

A nation divided

Today's Sarasota Herald-Tribune reports on the President’s plan to address the nation’s students in their classroom so he can challenge them toward excellence in their studies. I can’t believe this has met with such a political firestorm. It sounds like a great idea to me. What a powerful statement it makes to our children and youth that the President of the United States wants to take the time to speak to them a word of encouragement at the beginning of the school year. Some parents in Sarasota and Manatee counties and other locations throughout the nation, are objecting and threatening to keep their children home lest they be exposed to the President’s “socialist” views. Give me a break. Are we so divided as a nation that we would teach our children such disrespect for the Presidency? Some parents and educators want to see the text of the speech before it is delivered so they can approve or disapprove. Is there no such thing as trust left among us? Is not this the land of free speech? I was never a fan of George W. Bush and his policies, but I never hated him and I can’t imagine keeping my children home if I learned he wanted to speak to them while they were in the classroom. Like him or not, he was still the President. Of course, George W. Bush did address our children, soon after September 11, 2001. His father also addressed the nation’s children in 1991. I wonder if their speeches had to be approved beforehand. I am increasingly uneasy about the future of our nation, not because of the threat of foreign enemies but because of the enemy within. To paraphrase the familiar words of Pogo, “We have met our enemies and they are we.”

The Kennedy Funeral Mass

Whether you agree with it or not, whether you understand it or not, you have to hand it to the Roman Catholic Church -- it knows how to to ritual. Witness today's televised funeral mass for Sen. Edward Kennedy. Tomorrow's sermon is based on a story in Mark 7 where Jesus is criticized because his disciples were eating without washing their hands. Of course, the Pharisees were not concerned with hygiene, but rather with tradition and ritual. Jesus wasn't against good hygiene, but he was against empty ritual and worshiping God with our lips while our hearts are far from God.

The skeptics might say that what they saw on TV today was nothing but empty ritual. Maybe it was, but maybe it wasn't. For many it was, but for just as many, if not more, it represented the innermost devotion of their hearts.

The highlight for me was when the honor guard made up of the different military services carried the flag-draped casket into the cathedral. Mid way down the nave, they stopped, the flag was removed and the soldiers departed. The priest sprinkled the casket with "holy" water to recall the Senator's baptism into Christ. As he was baptized into Christ, so he will also be raised with Christ. (See Romans 6) Then members of the family helped to place a while pall over the casket -- white symbolizing new life in Christ and a pall, which would be placed over the casket of anyone for whom a Christian funeral was held, symbolizing the fact that before God we all stand on common ground, regardless of our nationality, race or station in life.

Some may call it empty ritual, but I believe that for most who were present in that church, and for myself, it was one of the most meaningful and poignant aspects of the service. Right now I'm wondering how I can work that scene into my sermon without seeming to be needlessly political.

One other observation -- I appreciated so very much how clear the connection was made between the Senator's faith and the teaching of the church and his political life. The way some people see it, only Republicans are moved by religious convictions. Surprise, surprise, Democrats can be people of faith, deep faith! Maybe they like to DO their faith more than TALK about it. "Religion that is pure an undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." (James 1:27) That represents a different reading of the Biblical story than the one we hear about from the other end of the theological spectrum and which is regularly reported in the media.

The Biblical story in today's events

From everything I've read, Ted Kennedy was a very effective politician and was highly respected by people of all stripes and persuasions in spite of the flaws in his personal life. Reminds me of how King David, who had similar personal flaws, was still used by God for great purposes. As they say, NEVER SAY NEVER!

Sunset

This is just an experiment about adding a picture to my blog. First time ever! BTW, this is sunset at Lido Beach (Sarasota) on August 22.

Will the real America please stand up!

The whole world WAS watching on election night last November when Barak Obama was elected President. No one believed it could ever happen. People of diverse races and cultures embraced each other in celebration. America at its best!?

The whole world IS watching when the TV news shows footage of people screaming at each other during town meetings about health care reform. Whether they are real grass roots people or pawns who have been goaded into disrupting civil discourse by those who oppose any reform -- it makes no difference. America at its worst!?

I wonder which picture the world will regard as the real America.

Wherefore art thou, Pentecost?

I was talking to some folk yesterday who attend a different church than we do.  (I won’t disclose their names or the denomination to protect the innocent!)  It is a non-liturgical church where the concepts of the “Christian calendar” or the “church year” are almost unheard of.  I was not surprised, therefore, to discover they had no idea that yesterday was Pentecost.

 

I must admit that Pentecost was no big deal, if it was mentioned at all, in the Presbyterian congregation in which I grew up.  But times have changed.  Although Presbyterians don’t fill the pews on Pentecost the way they do on Christmas or Easter, the festival is celebrated with increasing enthusiasm every year with special music, balloons and many congregants wearing red clothing.

 

I like to think that I’m too good a liberal to believe that I am right and those non-liturgical churches are wrong, but I am sad that so many church-goers know almost nothing of the Biblical story.  They hear bits and pieces of the Bible that support whatever topic is being discussed, but not much sense of the whole Biblical story.  They do celebrate Christmas and Easter, so why do they forget Pentecost?

 

Our pastor did a great job of emphasizing that Pentecost is not the first time the Holy Spirit is given to God’s people.  She showed how the Spirit has been present every step along the way in our faith story, beginning at the very beginning in Genesis, and is present with us today.  My favorite definition of the Holy Spirit is the present tense of Jesus Christ.  An excellent statement about the work of the Holy Spirit is found in the Confession of 1967:

 

God the Holy Spirit fulfills the work of reconciliation [among us]. The Holy Spirit creates and renews the church as the community in which [we] are reconciled to God and to one another. He enables [us] to receive forgiveness as [we] forgive one another and to enjoy the peace of God as [we] make peace among [ourselves].   In spite of [our] sin, he gives [us] power to become representatives of Jesus Christ and his gospel of reconciliation to all [people].  (Adapted)

 

No, Pentecost is not the first time we see the Holy Spirit at work, but it is a celebration of the Holy Spirit and the traditional birthday of the Church.  How can we be Trinitarian and not take note of Pentecost?

 

 

A Prayer for Those Getting Older

During my first sojourn in Florida, I was, of course, much younger.   Many of the “letters to the editor” in the newspaper seemed to be written by retirees – “too much time on their hands with nothing else to do,” I thought.  Now, for my second sojourn in Florida, I’m retired and I fear that I am becoming like the caricature of older people I used to have.    I’ve written to the editor, only to be rejected.  So, I started a blog.  More clutter in cyberspace!  Therefore I share this pray which I recently found in The Complete Book of Christian Prayer.  Its source is not known, other than it’s from the 17^th century. 

 

Lord, though knowest better than I know myself that I am getting older and will some day be old.  Keep me from the fatal habit of thinking I must say something on every subject and on every occasion.  Release me from craving to straighten out everybody’s affairs.  Make me thoughtful but not moody; helpful but not bossy.  With my vast store of wisdom it seems a pity not to use it all, but though knowest, Lord, that I want a few friends at the end.

 

Keep my mind free from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point.  Seal my lips on my aces and pains.  They are increasing and love of rehearsing them is becoming sweeter as the years go by.   I dare not ask for grace enough to enjoy the tales of others’ pains, but help me to endure them with patience.

 

I dare not ask for improved memory, but for a growing humility and lessening cocksureness when my memory seems to clash with the memories of others.  Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be mistaken.

 

Keep me reasonably sweet; I do not want to be a saint – some of them are so hard to live with – but a sour old person is one of the crowning works of the devil.  Give me the ability to see good things in unexpected places, and talents in unexpected people.  And, give me, O Lord, the grace to tell them so.

 

To which I can only say, Amen and Amen!

 

 

On being LIBERAL

Liberal has become a four-letter word.  I’m not ashamed of the word and I hope that would never regard conservative as a dirty word. 

 Yesterday morning, a letter to the editor in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune lifted up the “L” word by quoting from his Random House College Dictionary definition of liberal: 

“1. Favorable to progress or reform as in religious or political affairs; 2. Pertaining to representational forms of government rather than aristocracies or monarchies; 3. Favorable to concepts of maximum individual freedom as guaranteed by law; 4. Favoring or permitting freedom of action; 5. Free from prejudice or bigotry, tolerant; 6. Open minded; 7. Characterized by generosity; 8. Not strict or rigorous.”

That same evening I attended services at a local Southern Baptist “mega-church.”  One of the points in the pastor’s sermon was that we all need to “know we don’t know.”  (To me, that’s a classic characteristic of being a liberal.  I also have to admit that my prejudice was showing because I was most surprised that he would say something like that.)

I just finished listening to the President of Notre Dame introduce the President of the United States, noting that while Notre Dame does not waffle in its beliefs about abortion, it is not afraid to talk with people who hold differing views.   He honored the President by saying that he, the President, wants to engage people who hold opposing views and was not, therefore, afraid to come to such a potentially hostile venue.

Then I listened to President Obama.   In urging a humble approach to life and life’s issues, he reminded the graduates that God is greater than any of our understandings and beliefs.

Some days it all comes together.  There was a pervasive theme to my week-end:  There’s  lots to like about liberal.

What is a Christian nation?

The debate goes on ad infinitum – is the United States a Christian nation?  A brief note in the May 19 issue of The Christian Century quotes Brian McLaren who wonders when it was the U.S. was a Christian nation.

“Was it when Americans wantonly killed native peoples, taking their lands and breaking promises to them?  Was it during the era of slavery or segregation, which were justified on biblical grounds?  Was it when the U.S. dropped the first nuclear bombs on civilian populations?  Or was it when the nation plundered the environment and turned a blind eye to torture?  Was it earlier this week when I turned on the TV or radio and heard people scape-goating immigrants and gay people and Muslims?”

 Perhaps the fact that more and more people raise these questions today is an indication that, despite the dwindling numbers, those who do confess the faith are more serious and intentional about it.  Could it be that we are more “Christian” as a nation today, not because we open the school day with prayer and a Bible reading; not because the majority of us attend weekly worship; not because a copy of the Ten Commands is posted on public buildings, but because more and more Christians understand that more important than rituals is the way we care for each other, and especially the “least of these.”  (See Matthew 25)

 The Constitution won’t allow us to be a “Christian nation” in a sectarian way, but there is nothing to prevent us from trying to “do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with God.”  (Micah 6:8)   It excites me that I find more Christians reflecting such concerns than when I first began my ministry.  My excitement is short-lived, however, having just read the report that “the religiously unaffiliated are the least likely (40 percent) to support torture, but the more you attend church, the more likely you are to condone it.  Among racial / religious groups, white evangelical Protestants were far and away the most likely (62 percent) to support inflicting pain as a tool of interrogation.”   (Leonard Pitts, Jr., The Miami Herald , May 6, 2009).  That’s my group.  Ugh!

 Speaking for myself, instead of saying “I am a Christian,” I prefer to say that I’m trying to become Christian.  It’s a journey, one on which some days we take two baby steps forward only to be followed by days when we take three giant steps backward.  As they say on the Fidelity Investment Group's commercials -- keep going, but STAY ON THE LINE.

Fencing the Table (Altar)

Last week, Senator Bob Casey, a Democrat from Pennsylvania and a devoted Roman Catholic who is also pro-life, voted to confirm Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.  Pro-life groups opposed her nomination because as Governor of Kansas, Sebelius vetoed legislation that would have restricted abortion providers.   Now Scranton (PA) Bishop Joseph Martino has warned Casey that he might not be worthy to receive Holy Communion.

This is becoming a common occurrence in Catholicism, withholding the Sacrament from those who step outside the box of church teaching.   I don’t know why Casey followed party line rather than his conscience, which is typically pro-life.  Maybe he didn’t think that Sebelius’ confirmation really violated his conscience.  My purpose is not to comment on abortion rights, but to wonder what would happen to the Sacrament if the church withheld it from everyone who strayed from church teaching.  The current example is from the “right wing” of the church.  What would happen if the “left wing” withheld the Sacrament from everyone who is a racist?  What would happen if the church at every point along the political and theological spectrum withheld the Sacrament from those it regarded as “sinners?” 

 Jesus’ reputation among the religious leaders of his day was well known – “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”  (Luke 15:2)  Would that his reputation was just as well known among the religious leaders of today’s churches, whatever the denomination, because not one of us is worthy to come to the Table or the Altar.

Wine Into Water?

Chances are more than good that you are familiar with the story of Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana of Galilee.  (See John 2:1-11)

You may also have heard the story about a pastor driving to New York to see a Broadway show and he’s stopped in Connecticut for speeding.  The trooper smells alcohol on his breath, and then seeing an empty wine bottle on the floor, says, “Sir, have you been drinking?”  The pastor replied, “Just water.”  The trooper retorts, “Then why do I smell wine?”  The pastor looked down at the bottle and said, “Good Lord, he’s done it again.”

You probably have not heard about a project that turns wine into water (though I have used that expression in sermons to refer to the way the church has often watered down the wine of the Gospel).   The following is from today’s (5-1-09) CNN web site: 

BLOWING ROCK, North Carolina (CNN) -- Behind the bar at a local restaurant, Doc Hendley leans in to hear his customer over the band. "You like the pinot? Cool," he says.

It's a seemingly average interaction, but Hendley is not your average bartender. As he pours wine in the United States, he's also helping to save thousands of lives on the other side of the world -- and he's tapped into his regulars to help.

"[They] sit on the same stool, drink the same drink, pay the same tab every day. I felt like they really did want to be a part of something," Hendley says. "They just were waiting for somebody to bring that something to them."

That something is Water Into Wine, Hendley's organization that provides clean water to people in developing countries through funds raised at wine tasting events.

Since 2004, Hendley has traveled to Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda and Cambodia, working with local communities to build clean water wells and sanitation systems.

Check out the web site:  winetowater.org.  It’s a most interesting idea, another sign of the creative genius in the human race.  Didn’t Jesus say that we, his followers, would do greater things than he did?  (John 14:12-14)

So there you have it for today.  A story from the Bible that points to the transforming love of Jesus; a joke (we can all stand a good laugh in these troubled times) and a concrete example of a common person – a bartender, yet – making a difference in the life of the world.  It doesn’t get much better than this!

 

 

Do you want to get well?

For the better part of this past year, I’ve had increasing discomfort and restricted mobility in my left shoulder.   My primary physician kiddingly called it a “65-year-old shoulder,” meaning bursitis, arthritis, some kind of “itis,” maybe even a slight tear in the rotator cuff – whatever!  I tried to grin and bear it as long as I could, but a few months ago I saw another doctor in the same practice who specializes in sports medicine.  He gave me a shot of cortisone.   What welcome relief, almost instantly. 

It didn’t last, however.  A few weeks ago I noticed my right shoulder was going sour and the left was getting worse again.   Last week I went to see the sports doc again (fantasizing that I was some kind of athlete).  I expected he’d give me another shot, but he said he wouldn’t give me two, one in each shoulder.  Instead, he prescribed an oral medication AND physical therapy, three times a week for six weeks.  “You don’t have to do the therapy if you don’t want,” he said.  “But I want to do what you think is best for me,” I replied.

Several years ago I had a prescription for physical therapy to deal with a herniated disc in my lower back.   My positive experience leads me to anticipate a positive outcome once again.  After only three therapy sessions I’m finding relief, hopefully the kind that will last.  As I was doing some of the exercises this morning that I have learned from the therapist, it struck me as to how interactive physical therapy is – the patient participates with the medical team in the healing process.   It takes work and effort on my part, but I believe it will bear good fruit.

So often when people are sick and infirm, they are totally passive and sit around waiting for some doctor or some pill to fix them.   One day the Great Physician came upon a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.  (Read John 5:1-9)  Hundreds of people beat the man to the punch and were already in the therapeutic waters of Bethesda’s pool.  Jesus’ questioned the man, “Do you want to get well?”  That may seem insensitive, but it points to a most important ingredient in our health – we have to want to get well enough to do something about it.   

Whatever happened to common sense?

News today (though it was hinted at weeks ago) is that General Motors will stop making Pontiacs.  Here are the GM sales figures for 2008:

Chevrolet - 1,801,131

GMAC - 376,696

Pontiac - 267,348

Saturn - 188,004

Cadillac - 161,159

Buick - 137,197

Humer - 27,485

Saab - 21,368

My question is -- why would you discontinue the line that is 3rd in sales out of 8 product lines? I'm sure there is some intricate thinking of which I am unaware that leads to such a decision.  But to the common person on the street, it just doesn't make sense.   

Perhaps the current difficulties in the world are due to complicated and convoluted reasoning rather than common sense.   We like to complicate everything -- economics, international relationships, domestic politics and even the Gospel.  Look at what the church has done over the past 2,000 years with the very simple, and "common sensical" commandment to "love God with heart, soul, mind and strength and one's neighbor as one's self."  UGH!

Is Christianity growing faster in Russia than the U.S.?

The cover story of the April 13, 2009 issue of Newsweek was “The Decline and Fall of Christian America.”   The leading indicator is found in a survey showing those who claim no religion have almost doubled since 1990.

Numbers are a funny thing.  It has been said that you can prove anything with statistics!  Personally, I don’t know what “Christian America” means.  No doubt the Founding Fathers drew on religious principles – though not necessarily Christian – in the drafting of the Constitution, but by definition, we are not and never have been a nation with an “official” religion.   Were our values as a nation more “Christian” 50 years ago than they are today?  Maybe so, maybe not.  It depends on where you find your values.

Coincidentally, the April issue of National Geographic reports on the resurgence of the Orthodox Church in Russia.   Does that mean Christianity is growing in Russia while it is declining in the United States?  If you look only at numbers, perhaps.  But remember, numbers are a funny thing.  They reveal nothing about the soul of all those souls who are counted.

The Geographic article implies that the growth may be more an expression of nationalism than Christian discipleship.  “The Russian Orthodox Church was rising everywhere from the ashes of the Soviet era, and millions of Russians were rushing to be baptized.  Most were only dimly aware of the religious significance of the sacrament but eager to reclaim a past and an identity that the communists had for 75 years worked to erase … Would the Orthodox Church become a potent force for reform, speaking truth to the Kremlin’s power?  Or would it resume the role it had played over centuries of tsarist rule and again become an ornament and tool of an authoritarian state.”

The numbers don’t answer those questions.  Neither do these, but they put into perspective the talk about Christianity growing in Russia:  “About 60 percent of Russians today identify themselves as Orthodox – they may be baptized, married, and buried in the church – but less than one percent actually enter a church at least once a month.  [Some] sources put the figure close to 10 percent.  One reason for the sparse attendance may be that the Orthodox Church is not entirely friendly to people who are casual or clueless about its hallowed traditions.”

I’m in no position to comment on the religious scene in Russia, but I’m not the least bit concerned about the declining numbers in the United States.  My observation and gut feelings are that if our numbers are down, spiritual depth among the people of God is growing.  Those who participate regularly in a church community do so because they are moved to do so, not because it is the “thing to do.”  It is no longer important to your neighbor, your employer, your teacher whether or not you attend a church.  They could care less!  Yipee!  Participation in the life of the church is much more a movement of the Spirit than it was when I first started ministry.  There is much more integrity among those who sit in pews on a Sunday morning.  To my way of thinking, that’s much better than being an ornament in the American way of life.

 

 

We pray ESPECIALLY for...

During worship at the church we attend, when it's time for the Prayers of the People, the liturgist will often say something like this:  "We pray for those who are ill, especially those with cancer."  Those who are undergoing cancer treatment are also highlighted in the prayer list in the bulletin.  Why is cancer the darling of diseases that gets all the attention?  Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, yet I've never heard anyone pray, "especially for those with heart disease."

This puzzles me, even irritates me.  Maybe it's because I've had surgery to remove a malignant tumor, along with the follow up radiation and chemotherapy.  So far, I'm surviving cancer.  Maybe I don't like to be reminded every week.  But honestly, when I was going through all that stuff, I never once thought that I should be singled out for special attention.   I was showered with cards and gifts and flowers and all sorts of well-wishes.  However, I'm sure that's because I was the pastor of a congregation (and pastors always get more attention than they deserve!), not because I had cancer.   There were always many others in the congregation who faced more difficult battles than the one I did.

All this is a lead-in to an article in the April 21, 2009 issue of the Christian Century that made a lot of sense to me.  William H. Willimon is the United Methodist bishop in North Alabama and was well known before that appointment when he served as the Dean of the Chapel at Duke University.  He always writes and preaches with an acerbic wit.  He tells about an unpleasant accident he had with a chainsaw a few months ago.  Lifting out a few sentences does a gross injustice to his article (Accidental Lessons), but with his forgiveness (for which I did not ask) I want to share some of them with you, hoping that you'll seek out the article and read it for yourself.

When people asked him if his accident caused him to do a lot of praying, he'd answer,  "Not really.  I did a fair amount of cursing my stupidity during my nights in hell, but I offered few petitions to heaven.  It's not that I lack faith in God's ability to heal ... so why was I, cast into extremis by a chainsaw, reluctant to pray?

"For one thing, I hoped that God would be busy with the mess in the Middle East and wouldn't find out about the mess I had made of myself with a chainsaw...."

He then talks about the long list of ills that are often shared before the congregation's prayers -- a dreadful occurrence that I encountered more Sundays than I care to remember.  It's not that people's ills are unimportant, but why do we pray especially for those who are sick?  Too often, especially has come to mean only.  I led worship services for over 40 years and I seldom heard individuals express concern for God's world and especially lacking were prayers of thanksgiving.

Willimon continues:  "This is not prayer as Jesus practiced and taught it.  Bread and debts are mentioned in the Lord's Prayer, but infection and discomfort are not.  Prayer in Jesus' name is noted for his demand that we pray for our enemies, not our illnesses.  I've recently heard prayers about radical mastectomies, testicular tumors and sprained index fingers but can't tell you when I've heard a really good intercession for Osama bin Laden.

"We've given ourselves over completely to obsession with physical health.  People who otherwise never see their pastors do see them when they're sick.  Sickness has become the most interesting thing that happens to us, that which gives our lives significance -- and prayer is a remedy of last resort when other methods of treatment have failed. God, though lacking credentials, is reduced to being a member of the health-care-delivery team...

"Health is always temporary.  Some get better, some get worse; none is fixed.  The Creator has decreed that no one gets out of this alive.  So before you pray, consider the sort of God whom you address and the possible cost of asking this God, 'How then shall I live, now that I'm sick?'"

That is a pertinent question for each one of us for who among us is not sick?  All have sinned and fall short of God's glory!  (Romans 3:23)  Just two more sentences from Willimon and then you can take on the rest of your day:

"There was a day when health didn't mean just freedom from pain and physical soundness -- it also meant wholeness, even holiness.  For Christians, healing, as a gift of God, is always subservient to the gifts of fidelity and discipleship."

Stop the world, I want to get off

Today's headline announced the bankruptcy of General Growth Properties.  I understand that some of the upscale shopping malls are included in those properties.  It is said to be the largest real-estate failure in U. S. history.  How many times in recent times have we heard about "the largest bankruptcy" in this or that area of business?  One does get the feeling (at least this one does) that things are spinning out of control.  I really don't think the government, or the economists, really know what to do.  John McCain must be counting his lucky stars that he was not elected!

Obviously I'm no economist and probably not much better at biblical knowledge (I'm getting very good at retirement, however), but I've been thinking about the Year of Jubilee in the Hebrew tradition.  (It's too long and complicated to describe here, but read Leviticus 25 to get a better sense of what it's all about.)   As I understand it, after a period of 49 years (seven periods of seven years), the 50th year was to be a kind of Sabbath for the land and the economy, a Jubilee.  Wikipedia says that "slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest."   Also, any land that had been sold would revert to its original owner, so no Israelite could permanently lose an inheritance.

What if we turned back the calendar some 49 years and and cancelled all debts?  That would take us to 1960.  I graduated from high school that year.  What little I remember, it was a pretty good time in our history.  Let's start over again and go forward from 1960!  I think I remember a seminary professor saying that the Jubilee was in the tradition, but it was never practiced.  If that is true, the reason was probably because it was considered too impractical, if not too simple an idea.  "You just can't do things like that; sort of like loving your enemies -- how impractical is that!?"  

Indeed, most of what Jesus taught is impractical. That's why discipleship is so difficult and leads toward a cross.  So as G. K. Chesterton would conclude,  "It's not that Christianity was tried and found wanting, but that Christianity was found difficult, and left untried."

Don't judge a book by its cover

Just in case you haven't heard about it, there's a touching story out of Britain regarding Susan Boyle.  She recently sang on Britain's Got Talent and brought the house down.  What's the big deal about that?  She is not among what today's culture would call "pretty people."  Susan is 47 years old, rather dowdy (my prejudice is showing), is reported to have never kissed a man and she lives at home in Blackburn, West Lothian, with her cat.  When she walked out on stage, laughter filled the room -- laughter at her, not with her.  When she started to sing, "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miseerables, everything changed.  Better than my talking about it, go to this link and watch for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnmbJzH93NU

One who the world would otherwise reject became an inspiration.  "The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.  This is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes" (and in our ears).  (Psalm 118:22-23) This is, in part, what Easter is all about.  "[Jesus] died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.  From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view (not even the Susan Boyles of the world) even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way." (2 Corinthians 5:15-16)

Authority and Obedience

Conservative columnist, Charles Krauthammer, takes the President to task in today's column (published April 11 in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune).  The headline reads, Obama celebrates U.S. decline.  As I read him, and other critics, it seems that any effort on the part of an American President to seek cooperation and mutuality among the nations of the world is regarded as weakness.  "It is passing strange for a world leader to celebrate his own country's decline."  Does he seriously think Mr. Obama did that during his recent European tour?

Coincidentally (providentially?) the reading for April 11 in Henri Nouwen's Bread for the Journey reads:  "Authority and obedience can never be divided, with some people having all the authority while others have only to obey.  This separation causes authoritarian behavior on the one side and doormat behaviors on the other.  It perverts authority as well as obedience.  A person with great authority who has nobody to be obedient to is in great spiritual danger.  A very obedient person who has no authority over anyone is equally in danger."

Nouwen is obviously not talking about international politics, but neither is it irrelevant.   The days when the nations of the world would bow before America and cry "uncle" are over.  Those days have not served the cause of peace in the world.   Empires don't last forever.   What is the change we can believe in?  I would not claim to know the details, but the changes we often fear the most just might be the changes that save us.

Why did God become a human being?

I recently joined a book club made up of retired Presbyterian clergy.  The first book I read with them was BLUE LIKE JAZZ by Donald Miller.   It's basically a slam against the institutional church and Christianity as a religion.  The author finds life outside the church in Christian spirituality.

The question, "why did God become human?" has been asked since day one.  Many theories have been offered in response -- most having to do with the idea of providing a substitute sacrifice to pay the penalty and satisfy God's anger over human sin.  Such theories, particularly the idea that God is bloodthirsty, have always left me cold.  (A quick read of history would reveal that it's humans who are bloodthirsty, but that's another "sermon".)  Miller tells a story (parable?) that resonates with my spirit.  The story was told by a folk singer whose friend was a Navy SEAL.  (page 33ff)

"The folksinger said his friend was performing a covert operation, freeing hostages from a building in some dark part of the world.  [The] team flew in by helicopter, made their way to the compound and stormed into the room where the hostages had been imprisoned for months.  The room ... was filthy and dark.  The hostages were curled up in a corner, terrified.  When the SEALs entered the room, they heard the gasps of the hostages.  They stood at the door and called to the prisoners, telling them they were Americans.  The SEALs asked the hostages to follow them, but the hostages wouldn't.  They sat there on the floor and hid their eyes in fear.  They were not of healthy mind and didn't believe their rescuers were really Americans.

The SEALs stood there, not knowing what to do.  They couldn't possibly carry everybody out. One of the SEALs got an idea.  He put down his weapon, took off his helmet, and curled up tightly next to the other hostages, getting so close his body was touching some of theirs.  He softened the look on his face and put his arms around them.  He was trying to show them he was one of them.  None of the prison guards would have done this.  He stayed there for a little while until some of the hostages started to look at him, finally meeting his eyes.  The Navy SEAL whispered that they were Americans and were there to rescue them.  Will you follow us? he said.  The hero stood to his feet and one of the hostages did the same, then another, until all of them were willing to go.  The story ends with all the hostages safe on an American aircraft carrier."

Religion, with all its rules and regulations, can suck the life out of people, the very life Jesus wants to give.  The story echoes a thought I once quoted in a sermon:  "God comes to us in Jesus who is the way.  We are like people who have fallen into a pit and in that fall have been injured.  Our legs and our arms are broken.  For anyone to lower a ladder into the pit and say, 'This is the only way out, climb it,' only adds to our desperation.  But if the ladder is lowered not for us to climb out, but for one to climb down and life our broken body into his arms, carrying us upwards and to safety -- that is good news indeed."

Is the story of the Navy SEAL just that, a story, or is it a reporting of an actual event?  Who knows?  Either way it's a great parable and points to a great truth.  As Jesus might say, "Let those who have ears, hear!"

The word of the day

It's fun to learn a word you never heard of before.  I was recently driven to the dictionary when I saw the word besotted in the following quote from Marcus Borg in The Character of God:

"For just a moment think of the difference in your life if you knew that at the deepest level of you being that God is besotted with you, that God yearns for you, yearns that you turn and be in relationship with God as the beloved of God."

Of course you can guess the meaning from the context, but the dictionary defines besotted as "strongly infatuated."  An archaic meaning is "intoxicated; drunkenness."  That's strange language to describe God's desire for us.  Maybe not.  Consider the words of a hymn attributed to Paul Gerhardt, 1653:

Love caused Your incarnation,

Love brought You down to me;

Your thirst for my salvation

Procured my liberty.

If God is really thirsty for us, the question of the day is:  how can we assuage God's thirst?

Getting started

For several years I sent an occasional devotional or commentary via e-mail to members of the congregation and friends who asked to receive it.  It was called MOUSE CALL (a variation of pastors making "house calls" -- an idea I got from one of Leonard Sweet's books).  I ran out of gas about a year before I retired from the pastorate.   Now that I am retired, my "tank" is pretty full.  After all, I have no more captive audiences to listen to me.  I've even sent two letters to the editor of the local newspaper which were promptly ignored.  I preached this past Sunday at the church my wife and I attend and I commented that by not preaching every week, I had more material than there was time to share it.  

I've not paid much attention to blogging, but since everyone else is clogging up cyberspace, I thought I'd add to the space junk.  This will be an outlet for my heretical views or whatever else comes to mind.  I don't know how often it will happen, but those who learn about this can check from time to time.

Now that I'm not on any church's payroll, I can venture into areas I never would have touched before.  Such as ... President Obama has been criticized quite a bit for his handling of the economy.  Some say he has absolutely no executive / administrative experience.   All that may be true, but this week's journey to Europe makes me proud that he is our President and makes me once again proud to be an American.  Newt Gingrich blasted him for showing weakness regarding North Korea and not asserting America's position of leadership in the world.  He said Obama was living in fantasyland.  But there's more than one way to lead.  You don't have to do it with arrogance or by beating others over the head.   Maybe once again the world will discover that the United States is their friend and, more often than not, is a force for good.  That's my hope.

Enough for now!