Conversation Point

Discount Kingdom

This past holiday weekend, like every one on the calendar, provided endless opportunities to SAVE! SAVE! SAVE!. If Congress has legislated a postal holiday there is an equal and AMAZING BLOWOUT! or EXTRAVAGANZA! to spend money you would have otherwise been earning that day. Just in case you can't make the actual EXTREME SALES EVENT! you can take in a PRE-HOLIDAY or POST-HOLIDAY SALES EVENT! I believe I have actually seen the before/during/after television sales campaigns inadvertently converge late at night, creating a sort of time warp shopping wonderland in which people are always giddy with delight over FANTASTIC SAVINGS! I seriously wonder if, or why, anyone would pay full price for anything anymore.

But apparently there is a story, told long, long ago, from a time since past, about a soul who paid full price, and then some, for something so glorious that it could not be passed up. Matthew's gospel recounts Jesus' words in the Parable of the Pearl of Great Value. "The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it (Matthew 13:45-46)."

Today's shoppers would call this man a fool. Why pay full price when waiting a few days, maybe a few weeks at the most, will net you the same product and keep more money in your pocket to spend elsewhere. Only a fool would pay full price, and only a bigger fool, or a crazy person, would pay more than full price. That's the problem if you let a merchant know how much you want something. They take you for all you are worth. Never let your guard down when you are trying to be a savvy shopper.

But our Biblical shopper was probably as savvy as they come because he was a merchant himself, someone who knew the ins and outs of smart bargaining and smarter purchasing for resale better than most. It's quite clear that he was on the hunt for fine peals because he knew what he was looking for and was eager to find them. He'd had success on his quests before and intended this venture to be equally successful. This merchant was no novice, but a seasoned professional striking out on a trip designed to continue building his business and his professional reputation.

Imagine his surprise then, upon discovering this one, magnificent pearl of great worth, an unexpected treasure-among-treasures right there before his eyes, but in another merchant's possession. What should he do? How should he proceed with the situation? He knows this pearl is meant for him, but he doesn't have enough money with which to purchase it. He must go home, gather all his resources and pray that no one else purchases the pearl before he can return. His one hope rests on the merchant holding his pearl (for he has now come to regard the pearl as his own) seeming oblivious to the value of the treasure he holds in his stock.

So our merchant travels home as fast as he can, counts his money, sells literally everything he owns to make up the difference and hurries back to his fellow merchant to retrieve his pearl. The other merchant feels he has made an incredible deal, selling a single pearl for an outrageously large sum, much more than he would have ever expected. He is quite surprised that his colleague was willing to pay so much, but he doesn't question the fellow's motive or integrity.

It is an interesting sort of twist, to realize that the search for the kingdom of heaven isn't about making the best business deal or appearing wise in its transaction. The kingdom of heaven isn't about putting our nose to the grindstone, living in the real world or taking advantage of whatever life offers us either. The kingdom of heaven appears more to be about discovering the mystery and wonder of God's presence among us , for us, when we bump into it on an ordinary day, even during a simple shopping trip.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 12:14 PM 0 comments

Faith Talk

The ABC network recently offered up what appeared to be an interesting program promising discussion about faith in the United States. While I prepared for a yard sale I was hosting on my front lawn the next day, I observed several women considering a vocation in a cloistered convent, statistics indicating how many of us say we believe in God (91%) and a young high school woman's anguish for being ridiculed by teachers and students because she is an atheist. I turned the channel as previews of the next segment's exorcism began. At that point I also wondered if this was a rerun of a program I had already seen. Either I had seen it before or this attempt at addressing faith dialogue in our country completely missed the mark as so many others before it had.

A friend also saw parts of the program and concluded that whoever conceived and developed it was not a person who embraced her or his own faith perspective. I agreed and we also came to the conclusion that religious issues sell if they are limited, extreme views that can be sensationalized. The closest anyone came to discussing faith was a man connecting these values to appreciating nature and falling in love. Billed as a discussion of faith, these two hours did a better job of talking around faith, almost avoiding it all together. Perhaps in an unintentional way this show did address faith dialogue in the United States for what it is, existing only in extreme forms and carried on by people who don't really have a chosen, growing faith perspective. Perhaps now is the time to change that.

One of the things I love best about Jesus is how he drew people into talking about what they believed. He spent a good deal of time doing the talking among his preaching, storytelling and sharing of parables, but he also asked a whole lot of questions. He asked people what they wanted from him before he healed them. He asked his disciples who people said he was, then asked them directly who they believed him to be. His, "I'll answer your question after you answer mine," style with the Pharisees almost appears comical to us because they fell into the trap so easily and so frequently. I don't believe Jesus was trying to trap them. I suspect he hoped that if they stopped to consider their own motives, and how Jesus' message may connect with their own faith, they may come to appreciate how different the present and the future Israel could be. Jesus asked lots of questions, not to elicit specific responses, but as a tool to help people understand their own faith as it existed, exploring it more fully in the process of seeing where they were heading.

Which brings us back to the preaching, storytelling and parables for which Jesus is also well-known. As Father Mulcahy, chaplain to the fictional MASH 4077 unit, replied when complimented on a sermon, "You can't miss when you've got good material." Once primed to think about what they believed, the people responded to Jesus' words because it kepi them thinking, stirred up their faith and expanded their vision of who this God of Abraham, Isaac, Sarah, Jacob, and now, Jesus, was to them on a daily basis. Jesus talked about who was blessed, how they were salt and light, and that the kingdom of God already existed among them. Imagine the conversations as friends and families came together after Jesus had preached or taught in their communities.

The Biblical Epistles tell us that conversation continued and expanded even further as the early church grew. The Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians and Philippians, as well as the individuals Timothy, Titus and Philemon, all received letters from Paul discussing specific issues each had raised in long distance dialogue with him. Christianity was an exuberant, vibrant faith movement that took root, survived and flourished when other religious groups did not last. Surely God's grace and the Holy Spirit moved among these people striving to integrate the teachings of their savior into their hearts and lives. But even as they aimed to embody their beliefs they talked about what their faith meant to them, how they applied its tenets in their communities. When confusion, frustration or roadblocks occurred, the conversation didn't end. This is to say that the faith of the early church wasn't blindly accepted. It was lived as Gospel.

Valiant effort that this latest attempt to explore faith in the United States was meant to be, it didn't show viewers that there are people out here who think about what they believe, aim to grow in those beliefs and live them each day. Are these ideas part of your faith experience? Who do you talk with about your faith? Who challenges you to educate yourself, to grow, to dig inside yourself for the richness that God's grace provides? How can we continue to hear Jesus' questions, listen for his stories and lessons, and continue to talk to each other about what they mean to us?

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 6:32 PM 0 comments

A Mother's Day

This Sunday marks one of the busiest days for our nation's telephone system. Sunday is Mothers Day and we are told that moms like flowers, jewelry, appliances, family gathered around the table and phone calls from those unable to present themselves in person. Whether or not your mom fits with the traditional marketing profile it makes sense that those who bore or adopted us would want to be remembered and appreciated for the effort.

But also know as you lay your head down on your pillow tonight that 28,000 mothers around the world will remember this Sunday as the day they buried their child.

Shocking as this may feel to us, it is a simple, horrifying truth. Ten million children under the age of five die each year, mostly in developing countries, mostly from treatable infections, waterborne illness and malnutrition. That number averages out to 28,000 small children never seeing their first day of school, let alone the joy of a long, productive life that celebrates their mother's love and commitment to them.

Before hopelessness settles in and you feel you can't do anything that really makes a difference, stop and realize that everything we do does make a difference. Jesus started his public ministry out by stating, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor (Luke 4:18)." Being God's agent in the world meant Jesus was empowered to make a difference. Jesus also empowered his disciples to do the same. We as followers of Jesus Christ are therefore uniquely and ably equipped to carry this legacy of hope, faith and lovingkindness into the world to today's poor. What Jesus saw most clearly is that he could change lives by preaching good news to the poor. We too can change lives by preaching good news to the poor.

We preach good news to the poor when we accept the reality that we are all the same and we are all connected to one another. It is time we stop isolating ourselves from he rest of the world. It is time to educate ourselves about how other cultures live and what we can do to make the world safer and healthier for all of us. CARE, Save the Children, UNICEF, World Vision and the ONE Campaign all have web sites that are easy to access, easy to maneuver and eager to share important information about the daily lives of people like us in developing countries around the world. It is harder to blame or objectify people in their poverty if we have a better understanding of their circumstances. Jesus taught this lesson each day of his ministry.

One such example is the children of Iraq. We sometimes see them on television, playing amid the rubble of blown up streets and buildings or lying on hospital beds connected to tubes to sustain their lives. Andrew Buncombe, reporting for The Independent, a UK publication, addressed the issue of the dramatic increase in infant mortality in Iraq. Although the country has suffered two wars since 1990, it has also endured U.S. supported sanctions against the Saddam Hussein regime after his invasion of Kuwait. From 1990 to the coalition invasion of 2003 some of the most wide-ranging sanctions ever imposed affected Iraqi health care and infrastructure. The number of children who died during this time is unknown, but the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) suggests an additional 500,000 children died between 1991 and 1998. Dennis Halliday resigned as UN humanitarian coordinator in protest at the sanctions, saying, "We are in the process of destroying an entire society. It is as simple and terrifying as that. It is illegal and immoral."

We preach good news to the poor when we align ourselves with them as fellow human beings and take action to support them in any way we can. Some of us can give financially at the above mentioned web sites or other organizations doing similar work. Others of us can volunteer our time directly to service that improves the lives of people living in poverty here in the United States and around the world. Yesterday morning Congress introduced the U.S. Commitment to Global Child Survival Act. If passed, this act would provide resources for simple, cost-effective tools to save lives. You can go to the ONE Campaign web site to email your Congressional representatives to support this bill. You can also participate in the Standing Women Project. Based on the book The Great Silent Grandmother Gathering, this Sunday, May 13, women around the world will join each other to save the world. To stand with other women, children and men to save the world go online to the Standing Women Project.

We preach good news to the poor when we remember that Jesus did not separate himself from the people who needed him the most. We preach good news to the poor when we align ourselves with those who need us to know them, help them renew their hope and feed their children. We preach good news to the poor when we act to make a difference in someone else's life simply because our faith compels us to do so in the name of the One who sent Jesus as our leader and example. We also honor our mothers and all women who have nurtured us to wholeness when we carry on their good work to hep others on to wholeness in their own lives.

Helping other people may not keep Hallmark in business, but it may keep some of today's 28,000 children from dying. Helping someone else may make this Mothers Day memorable to the moms of those children for all the right reasons.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 5:10 PM 0 comments

People We Know

Among all the disturbing stories to come out of the Iraq War, now into its fifth year, one more, which I heard last week on a syndicated political talk show, chilled me to the bone. Prior to the war, Sunni Muslims and Shi'ites lived side by side in neighborhoods around Iraq in peaceful coexistence. Most people knew their neighbors, but usually didn't concern themselves with categories and labels. Now, four plus years later, the first thing people want to know about each other is whether they are Sunni or Shi'ite because not knowing could kill them.

Please take a moment, right now, to step outside your home and look around at your neighbors' houses. Consider the people who live in your apartment complex or condominium development. What if your life depended on knowing what political party they belonged to? What if your children's future hung on the knowledge of what religious affiliation each of these people claimed? What if their lives depended on knowing if you were a Democrat or a Republican, a Methodist or a Roman Catholic?

We have already started the early rounds of this game of societal Russian roulette. Arabs and Muslims living in the United States, many second or third generation Americans, are being vilified for their heritage and their beliefs, especially when shared openly without remorse or apology. We don't seem to grasp that a few people from a large group do not define the group as a whole. We let our fear take over, let it falsely accuse innocent people and then are shocked to hear on the evening news that well-respected, good citizens have been attacked or killed. Immediately after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers I personally heard a passerby on the street expressing hatred of all people of Middle Eastern descent, wanting to attack them wherever he could find them. More recently, I have heard serious talk of closing U.S. borders to all Arabs and deporting those who already make their home here. Although the United States did create internment camps for Japanese and German Americans during World War II, the present U.S. leadership seems to have not taken a public step toward that end. Yet.

If we are headed in that direction, there is a Biblical imparative we will have to maneuver ourselves around. "Do not plan harm against your neighbor who lives trustingly beside you (Proverbs 3:29)." This passage from Proverbs has no addendum, no caveat exonerating us on the basis of our neighbor's religious or political affiliations and gives us no excuses based on someone's ethnicity or nation of origin. We also don't get to define the level of harm based on our own tolerance of violence in all its forms. Speaking against someone who lives down the block or across the hall can be as detrimental as attaching a bomb under their car if it means their reputation or morals are unwittingly called into question by someone else. That's where the term "character assassination" comes from.

Neighborhoods are microcosms of larger communities and the world in which we live. Most often we can, and to a certain extent we must, trust ourselves and the people around whom we live, to not plot or carry out harm against each other. Without that basic understanding we find ourselves aligned with the Iraqi people in the most sad and horrific of ways.

Can we do this, live into not plotting harm against each other before it is too late? As President Bush calls for escalation of a war we said no to back in November 2006, as the economy stagnates and gasoline prices soar, as our own people suffer through hurricanes and tornados with little to no federal assistance, tensions are rising. Our choices seem more limited, our patience is strained to its breaking point. Can we let go of our need to blame others, plot against our neighbors whose homes are out our sight, but are still a part of the global community? Our live depend on our ability to do so as surely as if we all lived right next door to each other.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 6:56 PM 0 comments

False Prophets

My mail carrier and I had a discussion about the state of our nation a few days ago. We are both fed up and frustrated with the damage done to our economy, our leadership position in the world and our involvement in a foreign civil war in which we should never have had a part. We are not unusual or alone. Both being about the same age, we cannot remember a time so desolate in the United States during our lifetimes. Who would have thought we would ever remember Ronald Reagan's presidency as a kinder, gentler time? My mail carrier thought our current president made Nixon look good. I couldn't disagree. At least Nixon had the courtesy to be paranoid and mean spirited when discovered in his conspiracies and lies. George w. Bush just pays his $187,000 plus in taxes, pretends the world is perfectly in order and tucks himself into a sound sleep every night.

Meanwhile, what we want and need as a nation goes unnoticed. Our voices, raised in unity and purpose last November, are being ignored. Completely and utterly ignored. George W. Bush can talk all he likes about winning in Iraq with a troop surge, the necessity of torture to obtain information from illegally held prisoners in secret locations and the certainty he feels about the strength of the U.S. economy. He is either lying to himself, us or both. This is one of those moments in time at which we cannot give back what we are being given. We cannot ignore the reality of our President's actions and his unwillingness to respond to the demands of those he is supposed to be serving. We must claim our constitutional rights to free speech, to assemble peaceably and make our voices heard in ways that cannot be ignored any longer.

But we must also respond to this national crisis as people of faith who claim salvation through a Speaker of Truth who leads us to live as a resurrected people.

It is a Biblical principle, this understanding that some people in leadership positions have integrity and seemingly many more do not. How do we tell them apart? "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes grafted from thorns, or figs from thistles? So every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit (Matthew 7:15-17)."

While hindsight may be 20/20, how many of us got all excited when President Bush handed out a tax rebate in 2001 because we had a surplus in the national coffers that he wanted to share with us? Number one, it's not sharing when it was our money in the first place. Number two, with what did we expect to continue running the country? But this President's idea of a booming economy is, indeed, a continuing legacy of spending other people's money, our money, without our permission. While President Bush may see this as the Biblical principle of redistribution of wealth among the poor and needy it has not proven itself to be so. By their fruits we will know them.

We did not need to invade Iraq to prevent future terrorist attacks, and evidence now indicates that our hand stirring this Iraq War pot has probably given new life to terrorist cells forming in the chaos of this besieged and beleaguered country. Because we have spent hundreds of billions of dollars illegally occupying another country, we can't care for our own wounded soldiers when they return home. We don't have the resources to tend to people who willingly put their lives on the line for us. Why does President Bush have us there? Why does he have a need to keep us there against our will and our very public better judgment? By their fruits we will know them.

What other ways has our country and our world suffered because of this man's approach to leadership that can only be described as acting as a false prophet to his own people? Could our educational systems be bolstered by redirected tax dollars? Could we have a national health care system that would include all of us? Might we be able to extend ourselves to other countries in need out of our own wealth of spirit in order to bear good fruit in as many places as possible? If charity can begin at home, how can we use what we know about bearing good fruit, exemplified by Jesus, to change our country and our country's reputation in the world to one of grace, truth and integrity?

We live in a consumer-based economy here in the United States that is driven by our belief in "bigger, better, more" at all costs. Our President lives a lifestyle of conspicuous consumption and encourages us to do the same, even as we cry out for mercy and are brushed aside. There is absolutely nothing in Jesus' teachings that says that the fruits of a faithful life are disclosed in how much stuff we own. That may come as a shock to our President who claims a Christian faith in a God I do not recognize.

Based on these reflections, my mail carrier has a plan for us. We can act, feel heard and make a difference if we are willing to work together to accomplish it. If we all take our cars and a brown bag lunch to every major highway in the United States and simply park for the day, we could change the world. No one could get to work, the economy would grind to a halt, Congress would have no money for the President to spend and we may have a chance of being heard. We may be able to end the war, put our tax dollars toward projects that will enrich our nation and help end poverty in the world. Stretch that out to a few days or a week and we may be able to get a national health care system in place too. Hmmm. We could also get to know each other a little better hanging out together on the highway and talking. We may not be completely right, but we do have the right to feel heard and we have a responsibility to act.

By our fruits we will be known.

posted by Cory L. Kemp @ 6:40 PM 0 comments