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?