Conversation Point

Christmas Shopping

Where were you this morning as dawn's early light crossed the sky? If you were shopping at the mall I used to work at, or the one up the road, you had probably already made several trips back to your car with goodies galore at discounts so fantastic you may also be able to finance a down payment on a house with all the money you saved. Or so we are told.

Many malls, shopping centers and department stores opened at earlier hours than ever before on this secular holiday known as Black Friday. Traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year ( the busiest is the Saturday before Christmas), brings retailers back to profitable status, and brings retail workers to their knees in prayer for stamina to make it to close of business on Christmas Eve, a full month away.

If you aren't driven to participate in "Wild Holiday Savings You Won't Want to Miss!!!" that require hauling yourself out of bed in the middle of the night, or not going to bed at all, perhaps you are at a loss as to what possesses those who do line up hours in advance in the cold, darkness to save an extra ten or twenty percent. Count me in on the wondering. Nothing of material value means so much to me that I will give up sleep to call it my own. Nothing. But I am sure you and I are in the minority. Several early risers quoted in my local paper talked about their holiday shopping experience in terms of the "thrill of the hunt." Are they harking back to our cultural roots as hunters and gathers? Or are we really in need of a wake up call other than, "Welcome shoppers! The mal is now open for your shopping convenience?"

My confusion, and sadness, over what I can only describe as rampant consumerism, would not run so deep if its dual nature were not culturally systemic complaining about having to please so many people with all these purchases. The majority of our United States population seems to believe that they must spend lots of money on relatives and friends or their holidays will all be miserable and it will be their fault. Charlie Brown raised this issue years ago, and it has only become much worse. Interesting that we equate money and gifts and misery with what is billed as the most loving, generous season of the year. But, we do. Somehow we have managed to effectively turn receiving a joyful, loving gift from God in the Christ Child into love as an all-consuming attack on our planet's resources and humanity's will to live in peace and harmony.

Perhaps this is why some folks get so angry with God over what they feel they should have in their lives, but don't. If God really loved them they would have everything they wanted and needed without having to work or struggle for it. It is amazing, then, that people put so much energy into things they don't really need or want, things like lifestyles they can't afford and relationships that are not nurturing or loving. But many people feel compelled to create images and reputations based in material wealth, and although God doesn't seem to begrudge people enjoying the abundance of creation, the love of money does have its ill effect in distancing us from our Creator. When we turn ourselves toward loving money over loving God, we have chosen a new God to worship. No wonder that that distance is felt, fear sets in and anger follows. We human beings aren't much for feeling left out of the pleasure of being loved unconditionally.

Granted, God's gifts can be a harder sell, at least when measured up against electronics and jewelry, the anticipated best sellers of this holiday season. I Corinthians 12 displays a fine catalogue of what is on God's gift list for the body of Christ. I'm sure you are familiar with some of them - knowledge, faith, wisdom, healing. Paul goes on to tell us that, "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God that activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good (I Corinthians 12:4-5)."

It would interest me very much, even intrigue me, to see what each of us could create and offer to other people out of the gifts God has already given each of us. What would a gift born of wisdom and faith look like under the tree and shared with the kind of love with which God created us? How does hospitality blossom in the hands of one who cherishes its richness and can't help but delight in passing it on to others in every way imaginable? That is a Christmas shopping spree I would drag myself out of bed to behold and in which I couldn't wait to participate.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 9:53 PM 0 comments

Blessed Hope

Where are you planning to be for Thanksgiving this year? Personally held as my favorite holiday, I love the aromas of traditional foods blending with the feast of friends and family gathered to share good company, good food and lots of stories.

I am also not delusional. Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday by President Lincoln during the middle of the Civil War. Many families, with no Christmas gifts to distract their attention, have annually reenacted that dark time in our country's history at their holiday tables and will probably give it another go around this year. Traditional behavior patterns sometimes are part of the family festival landscape and are even more difficult to adjust than the menu.

Nonetheless, here we are. Thanksgiving is two days away. Last year at this time President Bush, with extraordinarily low approval ratings, was talking troop withdrawals while he pardoned a turkey from certain death-for-dinner. This year, that low presidential approval rating was brought home at the polls in a midterm election that handed the House and the Senate back over to Democratic control. As a result, the reality of dialogue between the White House and Congress is at hand, and U.S. involvement in the deteriorating situation in Iraq is already poised to be reconsidered and redirected. My assumption is that last year's pardoned turkey will be joined by a similarly-saved buddy. Each will have their chance to live a peaceful life of solitude down on the farm.

Things have changed a bit here in the United States this past year. We have mutually agreed to keep a few things in place, including the turkey pardoning, but mostly, our voice has said, "No More." If we want to move forward as a country and make a positive impact on the world, we must change our perception of ourselves, our agenda with other countries and accept the reality that we don't have the right to do as we please, whenever we please.

What I am most grateful for this year, as I prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family and friends, is the blessing of hope. This majestic turn of events in our government means people are paying attention, making conscious choices, and for that I can only breathe a prayer of gratitude to God. If we can begin to govern ourselves more sensibly, I hope and I believe that we can offer that same consciousness to supporting the people in the world who need us most. We have great wealth, we have great influence, and we can implement this blessing of hope to protect the people of Darfur, heal the HIV/AIDS victims in Malawi, Kenya and Zimbabwe, and help rebuild Granada, Indonesia and Pakistan, countries who still suffer the effects of hurricane, tsunami and earthquake. Our blessing of hope can be realized as resurrection in the lives of people who are most yearning for new life.

Advent is about to welcome us to prepare for the coming of the Christ among us. But, before we begin that journey to Bethlehem, for a moment we have the chance to pull back from our tables of abundance filled with food, love, joy and laughter, and take hold of what we already have. We are blessed as a country, we are blessed as many communities, we are blessed as individuals. Remembering all that we have sets forth the path of faithful gratitude to God, who blesses us with all good things. Knowing this, we must seek to embody our hope as justice for all of God's people. "Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for God who has promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23)."

Happy Thanksgiving.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 5:31 PM 0 comments

A Test of Faith

If you aren't already a citizen of the United States, and you are planning on becoming one, you may be interested to know that the Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services has some news for you: they are changing the citizenship examination. The old test was comprised of one hundred questions, including trivia like the number of stripes on the flag and which state was admitted forty-ninth to the Union. The new test will still have one hundred questions and some trivia, but will focus more on the the Bill of Rights and the meaning of democracy. "The idea is not to toss up roadblocks, it's to make sure people who apply for citizenship and who want to become citizens understand and adhere to the values we have as a society, the values that are part of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights," said Shawn Sauder, spokesman for the Office of Citizenship and Immigration Services. "The current exam doesn't guarantee knowledge of those values. We want them to study and look at this information, not toward the eye of memorizing it for a trivia exam."

That big sigh of relief you hear belongs to those of us who, by birth or naturalization, are already citizens. Despite the common sense embodied in this new approach to acquainting our future fellow citizens with our government and societal traditions, we wouldn't want to be put to the test ourselves. If citizenship were like a driver's license, renewable every four to six years only if you passed a vision and road test, how well would any of us do? Betcha that evokes a little more sympathy for people trying to enter the United States with the intent of a better life for themselves and their families. Once here, they will now be required to envision what this country was created to look like, and then map their way on a road trip through what we have become.

No less daunting, really, than what those of the Christian faith have been doing for centuries. We have struggled to understand the concept of faith that Jesus laid out in his three years of public ministry, which was then interpreted by Paul and other early church leaders. From there, the church became institutionalized in both Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions. Among all these historical facts are settled small pieces of information you may or may not find enlightening or important: On what day of the week was Jesus crucified? When did Martin Luther tack his Ninety-Five Theses to the church door at Whittenburg? What year did the Episcopal Church begin ordaining women? But, facts they are, ones that point to who our faith community was at that point in time, and to what we had struggled with before and after each of those historic events occurred.

But here is where our government is actually on the right track. They want people to know what this country is about so that these newest citizens can participate fully in the process. The also want us who already benefit from our citizenship to know we can learn from this new exam and can use it as a springboard to deepen our commitment to our country. Pretty good stuff, if you ask me.

Can we as people of faith do the same?

Paul's letter to the Colossians spoke of this fulness of life we can have. "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving (Colossians 2:6-7)." Paul's words imply teaching in the facts and important values that were a part of how people, then and now, come to an understanding of what the Christian faith is about. Then, the real test: live your lives in God through the example Jesus lived on earth. This sense of faith being an ongoing project, including continuing education, is more than implied.

What if our membership in the faith community were also like a driver's license, only renewable if we passed vision and road tests, proved that we understood what the Christian faith was about and could apply that knowledge on a road trip through reality when called upon to do so? What if you couldn't pass the test the first time? How many retries would you want or need? I can only imagine how many people would come to a new practice of prayer, and new definitions of forgiveness and mercy, especially if they believed they were on their last chance to do it right.

But many of us have faced "last chances," only to discover that God never gave up on us, and that we were in the middle of a very long licensing process. We were never going to be refused the privileges of faith, or its responsibilities. we were only going to be required to keep living as citizens in God's kingdom.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 7:57 PM 0 comments

A Collective Voice

Midterm elections came to completion on Wednesday as Virginia decided to elect a Democrat to the Senate. That race signaled the end of politics as usual over the last six years of full-throttle Republican rule of the Executive and Legislative branches of our United States government. The Democratic Party has to go back to 1994 to remember its majority voice in Congress. Twelve years may seem like a blip on the radar over the course of time, but living through those twelve years, witnessing the havoc wreaked first hand, elongates those years dramatically. Parents watching their teenagers walk out the door on first dates also recognize how time expands to accommodate fears and anxiety. How much deeper the feeling when we gather up what our country has lost and compare it to what might have been. But now we have hope, the hope of a dialogue with a President who now has no choice but to listen and work with a Congress that will not take no for an answer.

But this new leadership will be held accountable in a way that its predecessors have not been. Even as Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-California) began appearing on network news programs as the next Speaker of the House, we were reminded that this victory was as much a vote against President Bush as it was for Democratic values. Basically, it is great to win, and win very well, but it is now time to make good. Rep. Pelosi, as House Minority Leader, seems to have already started that ball rolling. In order to gather the resounding results she and her party achieved this week, she made it the Democratic Party's job to take on every criticism, every question raised by Republican opponents during the campaign. No assault would be left dangling or unanswered. People would know where Democratic candidates stood. Person by person, interchange by interchange, the Democratic Party would raise its voice as one. That the country responded back in kind, I'm sure, is no surprise to Rep. Pelosi. These election results are the efforts of many people charted together toward a common goal.

Would that we in the faith community could do so well getting our point across. I believe we can learn a lot from soon-to-be Speaker Pelosi, the Democratic Party and the American people in presenting our message, responding to voices that would seek to divide us and welcoming the country to give us honest feedback on how well we are doing. In short, we need a goal, we need a plan and we need a vote.

We don't have to go very far or look very hard to determine the goal before us as a people of the Christian faith community. The first commandment given to Moses is quite simple: "I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other Gods before me( Exodus 20:2-3)." This same sentiment is picked up a few books later: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord God is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might (Deuteronomy 6: 4-5)." Years later, when pressed by the Pharisees to determine the greatest commandment, Jesus didn't miss a beat: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (Matthew 22: 37-40)." This is our goal, defined by our God through our community: love God, love ourselves and love our neighbors.

Inherent in our goal is a simple plan. In everything we do we must put our love for God into action. Into every thought, word and deed, we are to infuse God's love for us and for our neighbors. We must start our day with loving actions toward ourselves, continue through the day being loving toward other people and complete our day in gratitude, blessed by God's loving kindness. Every time we meet opposition to our goal of loving God, ourselves and each other, we must confront it with the blessing of God's love in our own actions. Every time we act as if we really believe God loves us, we become more authentically Christian, and it is easier for people to believe God is making a difference int he world. Every time we behave as loving, caring, accepting people, we share God's love and our collective voice grows stronger, more joyful, more loving.

Putting that action plan to the test of a vote among our United States constituency might be an eye-opener for us all. Would we be willing to hear what people have to say to us about what the Christian faith looks like in practical application in the real world? As much as we like to lean on the crutch of imperfection, I believe we are not so willing to parcel out that kind of mercy to our politicians. If you were running as a Christian and were called upon to define how you live your faith in realistic terms, could you?

There is no mystery about what our collective Christian voice can be. We can talk all we want about our perceptions about religious practices and systems, what is moral and how we think Jesus would handle any variety of obscure circumstances. But what we know now is most likely the first thing we learned about faith: God loves us. The second is that we are to love ourselves and each other in practical, concrete ways. Not just the people we like, but everybody. That is the collective voice by which we can be recognized and known.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 5:53 PM 0 comments

Dear God

Maybe you've heard about the bag of letters discovered under a pier in New Jersey. All were addressed to God, meant for the altar, blessings and prayers of a church led by a minister who could have hand-delivered them two years ago when he passed on. Perhaps he was able to in his own way. The person who happened upon these personal exchanges between God and God's people made an attempt at selling them on Ebay, then thought better of his decision, and instead gave them to the minister's daughter. What she will do with them remains unknown.

Attached to the series of online articles about this cache of letters was a poll asking readers if they have ever written a letter to God. Seventy-six percent said no, twenty-four percent said yes. I had to look at the results twice to be sure of what I was seeing. Almost everybody in the United States claims some sort of faith in a higher power, but even God who knows us before we are born, surrounds us all our days and allows nothing to separate us from the love that created us doesn't even get a thank you note now and again from three-quarters of the population. Moms and God have a lot in common in the under-appreciated department., don't you think?

If you did take a few moments to jot down a few lines to God, what would you say? How are things going? Where do you pan to spend the holidays? What is new at work? That may be part of the problem. Encouragement to write anything is nonexistent in our culture, something I have lamented here before. Thinking about what we believe and identifying that in our actions is limited at best. So, these two entities joining forces is where that seventy-six percent failure to communicate rate comes into play.

Perhaps another part of our problem is that we presuppose that letters are about finding information out, instead of sharing with someone else our world view, our thoughts and ideas, or our love. It is polite to consider the recipient, their feelings and perspective, but writing a letter is mostly about us, sometimes revealing more about ourselves than we want to see or we want others to see. In that respect, writing a letter to God is like playing a game of don't ask/don't tell with someone who knows us so thoroughly there is no place to hide in which we cannot be known. That level of emotional intimacy is also not something we know much about. Maybe it's time we learned. Maybe writing a letter to God is a good place to start.

God may enjoy being asked how the day went or about plans for the holidays. God seems to have a pretty heavy work load too, so checking in to see how that is coming along may be appreciated. God may also like to hear about our day, what we plan for the holidays and about our work. Was your day joyful, strenuous, sad, lonely? Are you anticipating the holidays or dreading them? What do you like about your work? Are you happy? How is it with your soul today?

Writing a letter to God is praying in print, extending a verbal contract of love and grace to be etched on your heart, soul and spirit. What you write is between you and God, and the postal rates are a pretty good deal too.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 9:48 PM 0 comments

War Stats

Watching the evening news, despite my desire to stay aware of what is happening around the world, has become more heartbreaking than informative these days. Particularly difficult for me are the reports coming out of Iraq. The devastation to the Iraqi people, their homes, businesses, places of worship and the culture itself, may not be repairable. Ever. Building a country from scratch in the middle of a civil war is impossible at best. No matter how bad we may think it is in Iraq right now, it is much worse. Unless we have lived in a war zone, we do not understand the physical loss and human suffering caused by bombs and bullets fueled by fear and hatred. What we do have is an estimate of how many people we are losing to this latest military road show we are financing. Each nigh, Katie Couric, Charles Gibson and Brian Williams tell us how many U.S. soldiers have died that day, then give us the total for the week, month and/or year when those statistics hit gruesome milestones. These statistics are why I turn away from the news.

One of my earliest memories is sitting down to dinner each night with my family, and with Walter Cronkite, who also grimly shared the accumulating numbers of young men dying in another war halfway around the world. At the time it was all I knew. World War II and the Korean War were much closer memories, and our country was not so expert at questioning our government's authority, motives or integrity. We have gotten better at requiring the truth from our elected officials. We have also become more adept at discerning when it is time for war and when peace has not been given its due process.

The Old testament is filled with wars and rumors of wars, some resulting in victories for the Israelites, some never coming to be for reasons we can only ask God about in retrospect. We do not know how we will leave Iraq, as victors with supreme military might or as the defeated invaders with only moments to spare as our helicopters take off amidst a spray of hostile fire from below. What we don't want to face is the tremendous toll waging war in foreign countries takes on those of us minding the home fires. While we are pouring billions of dollars into this war machine, we are stealing money away from educating our children, maintaining our infrastructure and figuring out how to not be so dependent on the oil under the land we are fighting on in the Middle East. Complaining about the high cost of gas at the pump this summer became a national past time. Would that we had some impromptu discussions groups on how we can invest more money into our school systems.

Bill O'Reilly, host of Fox Television's The O'Reilly Factor, seems very fond of asking people who challenge his ideas whether they want the United States to win the war in Iraq. The question has no relevance, no foundation in logical thought or faithful perspective. Rather than asking if we want to win this ill-timed, ill-planned, ill-conceived blunder, perhaps the question should be more about hoping for what we can still manage to do to not make the situation any worse. What do we hope to accomplish before we are able to leave Iraq on our own terms or are booted out because we are no longer welcome?
The only statistic I am interested in seeing is how many days are left until every American troop is withdrawn from Iraq and the Iraqi people can breathe a sigh of relief that this war is over for them. It is time to move our focus from a need to win this war to making peace happen. Peace too can be measured in statistics, of lives saved and dollars redirected to building our future. Peace must also have its time. We are God's children when we make peace.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 6:24 PM 0 comments

Rubber Masks 50% Off

How many trick or treaters do you expect at your house tonight? By the number of candy sales and costume displays out there, I would anticipate a lot if I were you. Halloween appears to be increasing in popularity and with that popularity comes more opportunity to eat untold amounts of miniature candies and play dress up for one wonderful night, no matter how old you are or what diet/exercise program you subscribe to. Halloween suspends our logic and opens our imaginations. Who would you like to pretend to be? What personality would you like to try on for size? There are, even for adults, the classic king and queen ensembles, tigers and bears, and nurse or police uniforms, for those who also want a new job without the fuss of training for the actual work. There are always historical figures and fictional heroes like Wonder Woman and Spider Man to consider too. So many choices and a decision must be made before all the good stuff sells out.

To that end, many retailers started marking down their Halloween goodies several weeks ago. Apparently mask sales were down this year because they were receiving a helpful boost out the door last week. Fifty percent off original price seemed like a pretty good deal if you were in need of such things. A mask surely is a quick, easy addition to any costume to make your disguise more identifiable, more fun, more playful.

Unfortunately, masks are also really uncomfortable to wear, especially rubber ones. Hot, sweaty and smelly, they are also hard to see out of. And you can forget about chowing down on candy or party food while wearing a mask. Simply not possible. Thankfully, Halloween masks are a once-a-year situational problem. When we get tired of bothering with them, we can peel them off, toss them in storage and really mark them down for next spring's garage sale.

But there are those other masks we create all on our own, false faces we put on each morning and wear every day, hoping to pretend well enough to fool even those closest to us. They usually aren't visible, but sometimes people use special props to keep these emotional and attitudinal masks in place. A certain way of smiling, a set of gestures, a specific voice can be very useful for keeping a protective mask in place, while our true selves are kept safe behind them.

Each of us play a number of roles through our lives, daughter/son, spouse, student, employee/employer, leader/follower. Unlike an annual dress-up day, these roles are real and sometimes come with expectations we inadvertently take on and push ourselves to fulfill, even though they have nothing to do with us. Tough stuff, this living in the real world, but here we are, hopefully aiming to do our best and make a difference along the way.

One of the reasons Jesus is such a compelling historical figure, beyond his importance to the Christian community as our Savior and Redeemer, is that Jesus did not pretend to be anything other than who he was. What you saw is what you got. He wore no masks to fit in with the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the tax collectors, prostitutes, tradespeople, his own relatives, or anyone else. That lack of facade on his part didn't stop people from placing their expectations on him, and neither did his straightforwardness stop him from being blamed for issues and problems that existed in people's lives and social institutions long before he began his public ministry. Many people wanted him to be the Messiah that would win a war against all the enemies of the Jewish people and welcome a new Kingdom of God on earth. They were not all happy when Jesus told them the Kingdom of God was already among them. The Sadducees and the Pharisees wanted to blame Jesus for stirring up the people whom they sought to continue to control. Every time they attempted to corner him, humiliate him in front of his followers, Jesus answered them directly and honestly, and as one with authority. No tricks, no treats, no masks to hide behind. Jesus ended up being crucified, in no small part because he refused to be something or someone other than who he was.

We are not called to follow a set of expectations other people may have for us or that we have for ourselves. But the more we live wearing these false selves, the harder it becomes to see who we really were created to be and the harder it becomes to nurture our true selves. Being hot, sweaty and smelly under the mask becomes so familiar we don't remember what it feels like to breathe deeply of God's Spirit and enjoy the riches of God's grace. We are not called to meet our own or other people's expectations. We are called to believe in God, to serve God and each other as our authentic, genuine selves.

Pretending to be someone else once a year can be fun. Being who God calls us to be the rest of the year feels pretty good too.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 3:11 PM 0 comments