Conversation Point

Now Thank We All Our God

2008-11-06T23:07:00.001-05:00

I remember watching civil rights workers being hosed down by police on the national news. I remember the march on Washington to which hundreds of thousands of people traveled on a hot summer day to hear that "I Have a Dream" speech. I remember President Johnson signing into law the Voting Rights Act. I remember the days, forty years ago this past April and June, when Dr. King and Senator Kennedy were gunned down. I remember wondering if we would ever overcome these losses as a country.

Now I have new memories, and these are realized hope. Last night I watched as the United States of America elected Senator Barack Obama as our next president.

As a person of faith, as an ordained minister, I have never separated what I believe about God from what I practice in my politics. I do not believe that God is a member of the Democratic party, but I do cherish the theological understanding that God always stands with the poor, the downtrodden, those who cannot defend themselves, those who must rely on those who seek justice to pave the way for something better to emerge in the lives of all people. This is, quite simply, what Jesus did with his life.

This is the hope I see for our country once more after eight very long years of leadership from people who by all accounts appear not to share my perspective, theological or political.

I believe we now have a chance to transform ourselves into a country that cares more about people than about controlling the world through aggression. I believe that shared power strengthens people, just as informed faith expands our vision of who and what God is and can be. I believe that allowing ourselves to be instruments of God's faith, hope and love can and does change the world in ways of which we can never conceive or possibly dream. I believe that God With Us is the most powerful force on the planet.

Many people shook their heads, amazed at what they were watching as the electoral map unfolded. "I never thought I would see this in my lifetime," became a mantra. Tear-streamed faces reflected the truth that, indeed, we have overcome something significant and having come this far we can never go back. We can no longer pretend that change isn't possible, that hope is not an active verb, that we cannot create a larger reality of peace and justice that is inclusive of all people. We can no longer ignore the contributions of all Americans as the will of the few without calling those few to accountability for their actions. As people of faith this election and its results have called us to a new beginning of hope that can no longer be denied or passed off as an impossible dream.

The Letter to the Hebrews speaks of these things called hope and faith in two, concise sentences that remind us of what we can do when we hope, when we believe that God gave each of us the opportunity to be here and to make a difference in the world: Let us hold fast our confession of hope without wavering, for God who has promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23); Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen(Hebrews 11:1). We didn't think we would see this day in our lifetimes, but we have. Our faith has brought us here and it will lead us into the future if we allow ourselves to be led by God, a God that seeks truth and justice for all people, through all people.

Recognition

2008-10-31T20:25:00.001-04:00

On a recent trip to Wisconsin I fully realized just how much things change while staying the same.

Where once there was one bridge to link the Door Peninsula to the mainland there were now three, the last completed only the week before I arrived. But its original predecessor stood patiently waiting for the state to roll in and begin repairs that would bring it back to full use.

Where Peterson Builders, Inc., once stood was now virtually open ground with a bay view for the cluster of condos that had sprung up. No more ships were going to be constructed at a company that once employed hundreds of people. Even the Fred J. Peterson Memorial Pool right next door was in the middle of demolition the day I arrived. Mr. Peterson had donated the indoor facility to the city at least forty years ago and many of us had learned to swim there.

Where Draeb's Jewelers, the Bank of Sturgeon Bay, Woerley's Bookstore and Boehn's Pharmacy once resided now found another jewelry store, Harmann's Photo Studio, Book World, Inc. and the Inn at Cedar Crossing, the last a beautiful combination restaurant/bed and breakfast. Online pictures I had seen hadn't done it justice.

Where other shops, restaurants and local businesses had been new ones had taken their place as if they had been there all along. Despite the enormity of turnover the transition still felt seamless, a convincing portrayal of small town life from then to now. Enough was still left to make me feel I had been a part of things, but enough had changed and improved to keep up with the times, such that they were. The town was still recognizable.

But some of the people weren't. And I wasn't to them.

Take. for example, the three people who approached me while I was sitting outside the Kick Cafe, sipping my fresh, strong coffee on a gloriously sunny Saturday afternoon. Their question: Are you a tourist or a native? Of all the questions I anticipated on this trip that was not on the list. And it was a tough one to answer, especially when the people asking it were looking for answers to touristy questions like where the nearest bathroom was located and how to get back to the highway out of town. I was dumfounded. All I had was a garbled version of, "I'm from here, but I don't live here anymore, blah, blah, blah.

Then there was church, a place that hadn't moved in the shuffle and still contained a whole lot of people that I knew and who would know me. Or so I thought. Although I don't look much different than I have for the last thirty-five years, many people haven't experienced that sort of luxury or are simply further along in their lives and have still weathered the time with grace and just a few more wrinkles. Not having daily or consistent contact with people over the course of time and all kinds of confusing moments can arise. It wasn't easy, searching faces for a spark of former knowing, only to realize I was looking at people I never knew in the first place. There were, however, some wonderful reunions with people I had known literally forever. They had aged, but didn't seem to look any different to me. This is the simple grace of heart connections that never fade. As I wandered around the church that had been a second home to me growing up old stories and memories walked up to me to say hello too. These were instantly familiar because we had stayed acquainted even in my absence.

The whole experience reminded me that we all expect to recognize each other, no matter what the circumstances. Of course, anyone who has attended high school reunions in the double digits knows better. After a certain point our lives become too divergent and our waistlines too expansive to pretend that life doesn't change us as we engage its joys and demands.

Jesus' own disciples didn't recognize him after the resurrection. Mark tells us in his gospel that Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene and then to two of the remaining eleven disciples. They all went back to the larger group, sharing their wonderful story of Jesus' raising from the dead, but were not believed. "Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table; and he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen (Mark 16: 14)."

Perhaps seeing is believing, but I also suspect having an open heart, mind and soul clarifies some of life's deepest mysteries. Some people recognize God's spirit more easily, more readily than others, not because God doesn't choose to be revealed to those who struggle more with seeing, but because they don't make the choice to see look with faith instead of sight. Our whole lives can be shaped by these individual choices of perceived reality over faith, placing emphasis on what people tell us instead of what our hearts know from believing in a God whose promises are always kept, no matter what.

It would make sense, then, that if we look to our surroundings or the people who once occupied them with more than our eyes we would see them as we remember them, and hopefully also see who they have become along the way. Equally wonderful is being seen in the same light through their eyes, both physical and spiritual.

What Brings Us Joy

2008-10-10T22:10:00.001-04:00

Joy.

It's a simple word that somehow defies description on a broad scale because it is so specific to each person's life and spirit. Happiness is a little easier to grasp, at least as a concept. Happiness lights up a room, has long term effects and many sources over the course of time.

But Joy, that is something unique, special and more deeply felt, way down in our souls. I believe joy, like wisdom, takes time for us to understand before we can savor just how much it changes both our perspective and our very being. My best understanding is that joy can be described as a tremble of intense delight and hope that never wavers, but keeps resonating.

How do you describe joy? Joy can be a feeling of elation over an accomplishment, our own or that of a loved one. Joy can also be a moment of deep satisfaction or peace. For others, joy is a sense of relief at having survived the unimaginable.

But, perhaps, there is an even more important question. How do you live joy?

Joy isn't one of those things we can fake, especially to ourselves. Putting on a good show for the people around us doesn't equal living a joyful life, although many have given a pretty good effort toward that effect. The Bible often speaks of God not being easily deceived either. When we claim a faith based in God as central to our daily living joy takes on another whole meaning, that of truth and grace as we seek to live according to our purpose. And there is joy built into that promise of God's love and faithfulness. The Bible shares many moments of rejoicing at a deep soul level. Biblical images of this very thing are abundant: David dancing with his people; Mary and Elizabeth sharing the news of their children's impending arrivals; Paul's letters to the emerging churches expressing his joy in their love of Christ.

When we consider joy as inherent in our spiritual practice, it becomes much more tangible, something solid we can hold onto fiercely. At other times we must let joy be without clinging to it for dear life. It is this duality that makes joy almost poignant as it weaves itself through human dreams and lives. The prophet Isaiah said, "For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth in singing. and all the tees of the fields shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off (Isaiah 55: 12-13)."

What brings us joy may very well be the belief that joy itself is already in us, that exercising its power makes it alive in the world around us as an act of faith.

Kindness

2008-08-29T23:06:00.001-04:00

Have you ever watched Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella?

The Broadway musical became a television special in the 1960's and a cherished memory from my childhood ever since. The story itself is timeless: boy meets girl; boy loses girl; boy finds girl once again to live happily ever after. The addition of a fairy godmother, magic pumpkins and glass slippers that had to be impossible to walk in brought drama and suspense to a tale whose ending was known to us all along. We didn't watch Cinderella to discover the ending, but to become a part of the story itself. For just when we think the Prince will not have a chance to try the glass slipper on his true love's foot, Cinderella's fairy godmother urges her to offer the Prince a cool dipper of water to refresh himself on his arduous travels. Against the protests of her stepmother and stepsisters, Cinderella offers the Prince a drink. He recognizes her, and they know they belong together.

Moral of the story: kindness extended can welcome miracles into our lives in the most unexpected of ways.

Have you ever heard the story of the traveler who was attacked and the man who helped him?

Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jerico, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then, he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend I will repay you when I come back.' Which of these do you think proved neighbor to the man who fell among thieves? He said, 'The one who showed mercy on him.' And Jesus said to him, 'Go and do the same (Luke 10: 29-37)."

Moral of the story: kindness extended becomes an example of mercy for others to follow and through which they may experience newness of life.

Some would say that fairy tales and scripture readings do not mix well as theological underpinnings on which to base our lives. I believe that God welcomes each of us to search out divine activity and reason wherever we may find it. In wise observations we also understand ourselves to be instruments of God's compassionate, loving action in the world. Kindness is perhaps one of the most important acts of faith we can perform in service to our fellow human beings.

Kindness is simple: friendly, gentle, benevolent, generous behavior toward another person. Think about that for a moment. Consider some of the opportunities through the day that you have to be friendly, gentle, benevolent or generous with another person in how you think about them, speak with them and act toward them. I'm not only asking you to ponder the nice people who cross your path, but also those with whom you don't feel completely comfortable and those whose response to you may not be anticipated as positive.

How difficult is it for you to offer a friendly, thoughtful attitude to a co-worker who rubs you the wrong way?

Is it possible for you to be gentle and considerate with a family member or an acquaintance who doesn't listen very well?

Can you generously share your pocket change with a street beggar?

Are you able to set aside your own agenda to benevolently direct or lead a visitor to your city to their destination?

Kindness is always an act of faith, an assurance of a hoped for outcome that will benefit someone else and increase our own belief in God's friendliness, generosity, benevolence and gentleness for us. Kindness extended stretches our faith, makes it bigger, more inclusive, whatever the response we get from the person to whom we have reached out. Being kind doesn't guarantee a fairy tale ending to the story, but simply includes us in God's story.

Reconsider our storybook heroine.

Cinderella should have been, by all rights, a miserable young woman. Her parents were dead and she was stranded in this household serving her rather selfish, rude stepfamily. At best she was taken for granted in all her efforts at cleaning and caring for these ungrateful people. At worst she faced a life of uncertainty and abuse at the hands of those who thought nothing of her. But somewhere in her heart she still found it possible to remain friendly, gentle, generous and benevolent as a way of life. That way led her to her future in one simple gesture of kindness.

Reconsider the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Jesus distinguished this man's behavior between that of the Jewish priest and the Levite because there was no love lost between Samaritans and Jews in Jesus' time. But still the Samaritan extended friendliness, gentleness, generosity and benevolence to a man he didn't know who would potentially never repay him. The Good Samaritan crossed cultural, religious, financial and personal security boundaries to help a stranger in a time of deeply-felt need.

Moral of the story: kindness moves us outside our usual ways of thinking and behaving to become one with God's story of love.

Practical Beauty

2008-08-26T16:53:00.001-04:00

Decorating has always been a part of my life. My mother's subscription to Better Homes and Gardens rarely made it to her hands before mine. Especially during the summer months, when school didn't impede my camping out on our front steps until the mail carrier arrived, I relished each issue and all the magical ways it offered to imagine and manifest lovely, comfortable spaces. Even then, decorating for me was synonymous with inspired living. Creating a beautiful environment equaled shaping a room or a house into my own world, even if that world existed only in my own mind.

Today is no different, except that the subscription to BH and G is now in my name.

Memories of pouring over pages and pages of rooms filled with pretty fabrics, finely-crafted furniture and fresh flowers positioned just so on a fireplace mantle motivated me to rearrange my bedroom this past weekend. Ever since I moved in last summer I had pondered the next steps of how I would translate the room into its most wonderful state of being. Standing back and surveying part of my kingdom satisfies me immensely. Watching it unfold as I drag the furniture around the room, reposition prints and mirrors to align with the new arrangement and shift the accessories to new locations, dusting and vacuuming as I go, is about bringing out the best that each piece has to offer in relationship to all the others with which it is associated. Sometimes that means moving an object to another room or giving it away so someone else can enjoy it. While I am still about creating my own world it no longer exists only in my head, and I am very clear that I am about achieving harmony, balance and peace with whatever resources I have at my disposal.

I tend not to look at objects as only being beautiful unto themselves, but also in how they can be utilized in everyday living. My favorite things are those that create beauty in their practicality. Baskets that hang on the wall in my living room transform themselves into serving trays and Christmas ornament displays. Teapots on bookshelves can be plucked from their perches and placed on the table ready for brewing. Pillows resting on chairs and sofas provide visual texture and interest, but also feel really good against a tired back or under a weary, nap-ready head.

So it isn't about the dollar value of what I possess, but about the extravagant application of my creativity that means much more to me. I feel wealthy after I complete such an adventure, standing back to again survey my kingdom, knowing that inspiration is truly a God-given gift that can be applied anywhere we see fit to make the world a better place.

My next door neighbor knows inspiration is a gift in her work as an occupational therapist. Her job is to help people reclaim their bodies after such devastating occurrences as strokes and accidents. Even being able to help someone relearn how to move a finger makes her day. To achieve these goals she employs all the tools available to her: her education, training, dedication and most importantly, her faith. She talks about how her soul resonates with the souls of the people with whom she works. That resonance, God's spirit communicating between them, is what guides her to help her patients draw on their own strength to heal. Although not in her job description, she styled a patient's hair last week, giving the woman a whole new outlook on herself and the world. Three extra minutes of my neighbor's time made her patient feel beautiful again. From that moment of delight came a movement forward in her therapy on which she continues to build each day.

My guess is that home decor and occupational therapy are not linked in your mind as equal avenues to creating a better world. Perhaps you had an inkling that I had waded into the shallow end of the theological pool talking about decorating as a spiritual experience. Maybe you are not aware that whenever God's spirit is made tangible there is beauty to behold if you are willing to see it.

Jesus was certainly not above enjoying the beauty surrounding him or using beauty as a tool to expand people's understanding of where and how God resided in their world. He encouraged those willing to hear to let go of their anxiety and to, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow'; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these (Matthew 28-29)." From that observation I can only surmise that Jesus used beauty as a practical teaching tool and also saw beauty in people's souls. It is poetic to look beyond what others see and feel the depth of truth that lies within living beings, whether they be flowers, animals or women, children and men.

Have you ever wondered who you would have chosen as your disciples if you were in Jesus' place? It's endlessly fascinating to me how clearly Jesus could see through to the core of who he selected as his closest allies. He didn't choose these people based on standard hiring guidelines but on how their characters and gifts resonated with the work that needed to be done in that time and place. He chose them for the truth, the beauty of who they were and how they would apply themselves to the simple and complex practicalities of what was and what was to come. Whatever mistakes they made along the way, their one decision to follow Jesus set them on a path that would bring forth everything they had to offer.

We are no different, called as we are to give the best, the most beautiful parts of ourselves to whatever purpose we are here to serve. Beauty is often pushed aside in favor of the harsh realities of living that overwhelm us, even on our best days. But God did not separate out the beautiful from the practical in the process of creation, and God never told us to separate out the beautiful from the practical in our own process of creation. If either were true the sky would not provide such endless supplies of clouds and stars, and there would surely be no graceful variety in architecture or food. Homes could all look the same and food could be food. We would be housed and fed just the same.

Making the world a better place, a more beautiful place, is about perspective and action. There is great beauty in the truth of living because everything we create comes from God from whom all blessings flow. How that is made real, welcomed into the vast creation in which we live, is as individual as we are. How all that energy and abundance works together is how God continues to work among us engendering harmony, balance and peace as both simple and ample grace. We dance together as God's people, each giving to and receiving from one another all the gifts God has given us. Beautiful and practical, just like God.

Wanting To Grow

2008-07-24T14:42:00.001-04:00

Strolling up to the deli at my local grocery I didn't expect a conversation about the recession with the kind man plopping my tofu burger into its plastic take-out container. But that is what I got, an informed opinion about how the store was no longer carrying some items that hadn't been great sellers. Some of the clientele weren't pleased about these cost-cutting measures. According to my guy the store was maintaining, and that was about it. I mentioned that maintaining didn't seem like such a bad thing to me, but he only shot me a confused look, as if I didn't understand how dire the circumstances about which he spoke really were.

Checking my emails an hour or so later I bumped up against the bold statement that the Southern states are suffering the most impact from rising gas prices. Honestly, I didn't look further to discover the reason why. Reading more about these sorts of things doesn't make much sense when I can't control other people's car choices or driving habits. But I have heard rumblings from many folks that echo the deli counter attendant's belief that people feel they can't get ahead anymore, that they are treading water, maintaining, and don't see much hope of that changing any time soon. For the first time in our history we in the United States are looking at the real possibility that the next generation may not be economically better off than its predecessor.

It may be a good time to remind ourselves that money isn't everything, particularly since we live a very privileged life compared to most of the rest of the world. Economic increase, personally and nationally, has become our heritage, but also our obsession. Focusing so heavily on our needs for more does not bode well, no matter what spin we want to put on it.

But even in the midst of our recession-based angst there are a few things that remain stable and clear. One of those things is potty training.

I am not presently teaching, nor have I ever taught someone else how to manage toilet use, but I did speak with a woman at my local bookstore who was about to begin the process with her own child. She was looking for resources because he had shown signs of being ready to go for it. I stood in amazement before this serene, obviously capable woman, wondering aloud how one knew these mysterious things, let alone how to transfer such knowledge on to another human being. She said, simply, that children want to grow.

That's all there is too it, really. It isn't about profit margins, dividends, economic swings and debt management. Kids have it all figured out, something we adults have lost somewhere in the shuffle, that it's all about wanting to grow.

Scripture tells us that Jesus welcomed children to sit with him and learn, despite the best efforts of the adults around him to keep the children at bay, lest the master's patience be tested or his attention be drawn away from really important matters affecting the rest of the world. Luke's gospel recounts the story. "Now they were bringing even infants to see him that he might teach them: and when the disciples saw it they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to him, saying, 'Let the children come to me and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it (Luke 18:15-17)." Children aren't always the best behaved creatures on the planet, but most often they do their best to pay attention, listen and follow what the grown ups are saying. Children are also usually excited about life, eager to know more, build on what they already have stored up in their brains and create glorious adventures to carry them forward. How could Jesus not want to be around that kind of energy and joy? Enthusiasm is contagious, brightening each life it touches and envelopes.

Scripture also tells us of Jesus' best moments of clarity and purpose regarding the stories he told the adults when their turn came to hear what Jesus had to say. Parables, confrontations over points of religious law, sermons expounding on familiar teachings, healings performed among crowds of people and individual encounters with fellow travelers, called those who paid attention, listened, to grow beyond what they already knew and into something more. But unlike children, who seem to have a natural inclination to reach out and stretch themselves into new shapes and sizes, not all the adults who were privy to Jesus' offerings wanted to grow.

The rich young ruler is a good example. In the verses just after Jesus welcomed the children, Luke's gospel recounts this interchange between Jesus and a would-be follower. " And a ruler asked him, 'Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' And Jesus said to him, 'Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: Do not commit adultery. Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Honor your father and mother. ' And he said, 'All these I have observed from my youth.' And when Jesus heard it, he said to him, 'One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.' But when he heard this he became sad, for he was very rich. Jesus looking at him said, 'How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God (Luke 18:24)!" This fellow clearly was eager to please, but only to a certain point. His beliefs had limits that were quite obvious, even to him as he waked away, very sad at not being able to have the life he wanted. He was unwilling to let go of his need to be wealthy, sacrificing his entire life to hold onto his possessions. His faith apparently receded into the background as he walked away from the man he hoped to follow.

Perhaps the recession, real or imaginary, isn't the most horrible thing that could happen to us. Our financial well-being continues to attract our attention, as well it should. We live in a world in which we need to manage our material wealth with care and consideration. But what we make, have and store up for future use may not need to be our central concern. Reattaching ourselves to that remembrance of wanting more, visioning our future and stretching to bring ourselves to those hopes with pure joy, that is the stuff of which Jesus spoke This is faith, this wanting to grow, and faith is recession-proof.

Hope Quest

2008-06-26T18:04:00.000-04:00

Remember the old days?

So many answers for one simple question. In this case, I am reflecting on how far we have come in securing directions from here to there, wherever here and there may be. Used to be that maps were needed, sometimes several maps, all spread out on the kitchen table or the living room floor. Travelers-in-waiting, we would find our location, pinpoint our destination and start connecting the roads in between. Eventually the American Automobile Association (AAA) enhanced that process with small, flip chart specimens known as TripTiks, eliminating the constant "open the whole map, refold the whole map, uncrumple the whole map" process that frustrated the most gifted map reader. Make no mistake: map reading is a gift. For those of us not blessed with the ability to glance at a paper full of multicolored, squiggly lines and be able to determine our immediate destiny, map reading is torture in a foreign language. Maps mock us.

Enter MapQuest.

Whoever thought of MapQuest deserves a metal, a large page in the great annuls of history and a big ice cream cone for getting this one crucial thing right.
All MapQuest requires of us is to type in where we are, where we want to go and hit enter.

Then, a miracle happens.

All the directions, from backing out of your driveway to pulling into the driveway at the end of your journey is right there in front of you. Granted, all of this needs to be printed out, kept in order and followed to the letter to arrive at one's destination. And, admittedly, sometimes there are glitches and errors. But overall, what a great system!

Hope is a lot like trying to figure out our journey with a map, whether it be a paper one or the computerized version. We need to understand where here is, where there is and what roads we will need to use in between to get from here to there. For hope is not an ethereal concept, a false belief couched in sentimentality and shattered dreams. Hope is tangible, realistic and necessary for we human beings to fully live our lives and our faith.

Where does hope begin? Hope is the belief or understanding that something we can's see, touch, smell, taste or hear already exists or can be created. Hope begins, makes its debut, when we acknowledge something as possible that we don't yet have in our grasp. Finding hope means looking in the right places, searching with an open heart and mind for that which can be made real by our thoughts, words, actions, even our faith.

Jesus spoke openly, boldly and frequently about hope. Each time he asked a damaged human being what they wanted, he invited them to step into the grand arena of hope. Whenever Jesus preached and asked questions about where the kingdom of heaven could be found, he beckoned his listeners to follow him to a place called hope. While Jesus ate with reviled tax collectors, told parables about the hated Samaritans and welcomed the least obvious souls as his cherished followers, he extended a hand to everybody around him to join him in the promised land of hope. Jesus embodied hope, the belief, the understanding that something unseen, untouchable, unfathomable already exited and could be created in the present moment in the lives of the people around him. These became the people of whom the author of Hebrews spoke: "Let us hold fast our confession of hope without wavering, for God who has promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23.)." Ordinary people choosing to believe the extraordinary was not only possible, but immediately available.

That immediacy of Jesus' presence in that ancient world is enviable. Many of us ultimately use historical distance as a buffer against living our own faith. But centuries of wars, human strife, births, marriages, deaths and taxes don't provide us with any excuses not to hope. In fact, they only serve as a collectively solid reason to keep hoping, keep embracing the truth that hope prevails despite the human condition.

While pondering the idea of hope today I did what many of us do each day: I browsed through the newspaper and perused the breaking headlines on the internet. Most of what I read could not be said to inspire hope. I didn't see much overtly good news. Floods, cyclones, fires and tornados led the natural disaster category. A number of beloved public figures have passed on in the last several weeks leaving grieving families, friends and fans behind. The economy is dismal at best. Gasoline prices are soaring. Many people are losing their homes to foreclosure.

So in all these circumstances, where does hope begin?

Hope begins as the belief, the understanding that something unseen, untouchable, unfathomable already exits and can be created in the present moment in our lives and the lives of the people around us. Hope begins with ordinary people choosing to believe the extraordinary is not only possible, but immediately available. The author of Hebrews also wrote that, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1)." When we hope we are bridged to faith as the assurance that what we believe is real and getting ready to be welcomed into our lives.

Hope begins as the belief that something unseen already exists and can be created in the present. There are floods, cyclones, fires and tornados in abundance. Hope continues as faithful action when ordinary people willing to help those who have suffered through these disasters come forward to relieve that suffering in extraordinary ways. People die everyday, known and unknown to the public community. Hope continues as these lives move from our daily interaction to become our cherished memories. The economy is dismal, gasoline prices soar and many people are losing their homes to foreclosure. Hope lives on in the creativity of those seeking to empower each other with realistic ways to live well in a changing world.

I continue to believe that hope is a lot like trying to figure out our journey with a map, whether it be a paper one or the computerized version. We need to understand where here is, where there is and what roads we will need to use in between to get from here to there. Where we are may not look very hopeful, but it is where we are. Where we are headed is our choice. For hope is not an ethereal concept, a false belief couched in sentimentality and shattered dreams. Hope is tangible, realistic and necessary for we human beings to fully live our lives and our faith. If we are headed for hope as the promised land to which Jesus invited, beckoned and led his followers, that place of making real that which we are not quite able to touch, we will understand hope from its inception and recognize each sign along the way. We will then be living the journey of hope itself.

God's Paper Cups

2008-06-06T15:48:00.001-04:00

My mom sold our family home last year, the one in which I grew up, so when I make my visit this fall I will only be doing a drive-by visitation of the old homestead. Fortunately, the people who bought the house rehabbed it and had it posted on the web with a local realtor for a few months. That satisfied my curiosity about how the place looked, and it was pleasing to note how they had cared for it. Hopefully, whoever now lives there will love it. My hope, too, is that they will keep the lovely birch tree that has stood proudly in the front yard for over thirty-five years.

The property on which the house stands, while small, is standard for the neighborhood. What made it special for our family was the bounty my parents created, bringing in pear, apple and plum trees, as well as asparagus, raspberries, rhubarb and Concord grapes, all of which we enjoyed, each in their seasons of plenty. A summer garden grew green beans, onions, tomatoes, carrots and cucumbers. What we didn't eat fresh or share with friends was canned by my mother, something a lot of moms did then, even though the process has fallen out of fashion with my generation. I appreciated the plums and raspberries most.. I have also retrofitted my honor for the richness of the past with respect for what asparagus and rhubarb cost at my local market.

While I remember the whole of the backyard bounty with fondness, the trees did more than feed our bodies. They also fed our souls. What is better on a warm Wisconsin summer afternoon than to welcome a tree's imagination into your own, establishing a whole world within the boundaries of its shade and strong branches? Perhaps they were simpler times and often I think that is a good thing, at least for me. I'm glad I still have the memories because the trees and the gardens are now gone.

Which brings me back to the birch tree out front.

I remember the day the it came home to us. A new Walgreens had opened downtown. As a promotion the store was giving away seedling birch trees in large paper cups. Our cup turned out to contain three trees, but only one was sturdy enough to withstand the traffic outside our front door. Once it took root it grew quickly and beautifully. It never was quite tall enough for me to sit under and dream, as I had done so often with the fruit trees out back, but it was graceful, peaceful in the way that only birches can be. Their cream-colored bark, interspersed with deeply brown knots, lend themselves to an especially romantic nature. Our birch became my birch as it grew tall outside my bedroom window. As it reached for the sky, so did I, and soon I left home for the rest of my life.

We all have these stories. Growing up and moving on is the stuff of which life is made. What caught my heart's attention at this time in my life isn't only the anticipated trip home and all the changes that have occurred in my absence. It is to recognize, again, that containers, boundaries, are good for us, but only for certain periods of time. If we stay stuck in them past their intended function we risk stunting our own growth and potentially our future lives. The birch tree would never have been if we had needed to keep it cloistered in its original holder, but by the same token the tree would never have made it to our door if not for the same cup. Nature gives us some clear-cut, obvious lessons, but they are usually a bit challenging to apply to human lives that usually have more gray areas, doubts and questions than seedling trees. Perhaps this idea is somehow related to human beings needing both roots and wings to flourish. Considering all these things my mind also wanders over to the inherent faith lessons.

First and foremost, I firmly believe that God didn't create me or anyone else to stay stuck romanticizing our childhood if we were fortunate enough to have one with some positive attributes. Starting life with a connection to creation unites us in a tangible fashion to our Creator. A whole lot of love from my parents went into that backyard too. They both remembered growing up during the Great Depression and wanted us to always feel we had good things in our lives that would not be taken away from us by economic downturns. God does provide in many and various ways.

Second, God urges us on to the rest of our lives in ways that only God can. Think you can find a nice, safe hole to crawl into, one in which God will never find you? Maybe for some length of time, but not usually forever. Crawling into a hole means you have seen the light of day long enough to realize a step forward is indicated. Hiding, pretending we are not ready for what God has in store for us, only takes time away from what can be, from what we were created to be.

Occasionally, I've heard grown ups, people who have been blessed to have a faith perspective their whole lives, say they attend a particular church because it's a place that "gets back to the basics." To say that attitude confuses me is an understatement. I have asked one or two of these dear souls how their faith informs their lives, only to be met by a confused stare. My understanding is that their beliefs have not kept up with their ability to quote scripture, and they have numbed themselves to hearing God's voice and feeling God's nudging, loving spirit. Of course they are not lost forever, but they have dug themselves a very deep home, one that may take some time and experience out of which to pull themselves.

Third, God is patent as we dig ourselves out of the holes we all inevitably dig for ourselves, always hoping more for us than we ever hope for ourselves. God has a whole lot of paper cups available for us, some to grow out of and some to grow into. The fitting rooms for trying them on are quite spacious, too, and have very forgiving mirrors.

Coming Home

2008-06-04T14:14:00.000-04:00

Travelocity.com and I are becoming intimately acquainted on my diligent quest for flights home sometime in the next few months. Many other state tourism bureaus clam the title "God's Country" for their neck of the woods, but Wisconsin's Door Peninsula, where I grew up, is surely the place God rested on the seventh day. What better place to enjoy the land, water, fresh air, sunshine and homemade ice cream after six long days of constant creative activity? I once told a friend that I thought the whole world would be as beautiful as this place. She laughed, saying I must have been quite disappointed on discovering that wasn't the case.

Perhaps.

Something else to consider is whether or not we can ever go home, at least to whatever imagination holds, together with our heart, soul and memory, as being that perfect place in which we believe we feel most comfortable, most ourselves. That definition could easily describe an entirely different place than the physical boundaries our of which we found our way to adulthood. It's a fair question to ask ourselves: How do we think about home? All the implications contained in the answer each of us comes to inform the rest of our lives.

Having just celebrated my fiftieth last week, I am also living my jubilee year, something the Biblical book of Leviticus tells us is hallowed, a special time of reflection, reorganization and renewal. Another part of the jubilee story is that this is the time in our lives in which we find ourselves going to the land that God is giving us. Jubilee is not only a time to kick back, smell the roses and drink very old, very good Scotch. There is also some deeply felt movement in our souls that requires paying attention in new ways so as not to miss the next steps of the journey. For myself, I am not sure where the land is that God is giving me, anymore than I feel fully comfortable calling where I grew up home.

Is this uncertainty about home also a Biblical tradition, a sacred trust handed down to us through the named and nameless faithful ones preceding us? How did Adam and Eve feel after they were booted from Eden? What was their next address? Did they long for the only home they had ever known? I think of them, and I think of the Israelites wandering the desert for forty years, feeling a sense of kinship, an understanding of that confused, rootless state in which I have found myself each time I have moved. Excitement only carries me so far, and then I must find new places to grocery shop, get my hair cut and my teeth cleaned.

And what of Jesus' life? The Gospels don't mention his desire to find a good chiropractor while he was on the road working those three years, but they do mention that he stayed wherever he was welcomed. My guess is that translated into some pretty interesting accommodations, some of which he probably never mentioned to his mother. But he appears to have appreciated the hospitality of friends and strangers alike, those who had permanent pillows on which to lay their heads each night and who understood the needs of those who did not enjoy the same luxury. Sometimes home is carried for us by compassionate souls until we can find our way back there for ourselves.

Perhaps home isn't so much a physical place as much as it is how we find our way though life. If that is so, we are always coming home and God welcomes us, not as a treasured guest, but as family. Knowing that one basic truth is what carries us.

Graduations

2008-05-31T11:36:00.001-04:00

Pomp and Circumstance, the traditional graduation processional, echoed outside my door a few days ago. A local high school presides over the entire block across the street, so I shouldn't have been as surprised as I was hearing their rehearsal for this year's big day

But graduation already? Didn't we just celebrate Christmas?

This whole sense of time moving faster as we get older carries a good sized chunk of truth. I'm celebrating my fiftieth birthday this year and it was an equally surprising event the day that the first piece of literature arrived in my mail box from the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). How did they find me so fast? Turning fifty isn't particularly traumatic to me and, in fact, it feels quite nice to consider how many years I have managed to enjoy so far, but it seems a more private matter, an important piece of my journey that I want to preserve and shape for myself with no interference from outside sources. Perhaps the good folks at AARP were simply not aware of my wishes, and if they were, I am sure they would have held back a little until I was ready to receive their grand offers of value-priced health insurance, travel discounts and spa treatments that will keep me looking younger than they already know I am.

So here I am, reflecting back on some remembered high points: my high school, college and seminary graduations, first meetings with friends who are still a part of my life ten, twenty and thirty years later, great loves gained and lost. Quite frankly, though, I don't remember many of the details of any of these moments that have impacted my life in profound ways. I do have a few cherished stories, but even those don't make up the bulk of what has transpired to be a rich and happily-lived life. What I do know is that appreciating how my education, relationships and accomplishments inform my life now matters more to me and keeps me stepping in rhythm with God on what I believe to be spiritual journey.

Biblical references to life and cultural graduations and transitions are abundant. The Israelites headed out for the Promised Land and kept on going. Moses snagged the Ten Commandments, led his people out of Egypt and they still kept going. Forty years in the wilderness, learning what it meant to live as God's people outside the framework of slavery was a daunting task, but they did it. The New Testament continues the saga of God's people facing issues of relational quality, how to balance faith with government rules and regulations and translating what is into what can be according to their understanding of Jesus' definition of the Kingdom of Heaven. And they, just as we, encountered life issues that are as beautiful and ordinary as God's grace woven among us. People kept being born and dying, marrying and giving in marriage, working and paying taxes. Daily life may look different than ours in its details, but the basic human quotient remains the same today as it did then.

A simple thread of human understanding of how life works at its best binds us to our spiritual ancestors as surely as our hearts and souls remember all the gifts they have given us in how they lived their lives with faith and hope. The decisions to move forward always expand our lives, but the ones that shrink us into less than we are are the ones that look to the past as a safe place to escape the living that is left to do and enjoy. Remembering all the places from which we have grown is quite wonderful, but expecting to be preserved in history before our time on earth is completed only serves to assure that we will not be remembered at all, but left for dead long before our time.

These life transitions serve a solid purpose for our souls and our hearts, teaching us to pay attention, live with intentionality in our moments, so as these moments stretch into seasons and years we are able to recognize the miraculous intent of God With Us over the course of our lives.

T.S. Eliot once wrote that, "We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time." I take great pleasure in these words, approaching the second half of my life with hope, joy and peace in the journey. I feel a new sense of graduation, a step into a whole new adventure filled with possibilities and wonder. Starting out in one's twenties holds a certain level of panic that I don't often feel anymore. I have frequently said that forgiveness and forbearance are the great gifts of middle age: some days you give and some days you get. But I also believe that a confident soul is a treasure worth celebrating, along with taking nothing fro granted.

Wedding Meditation

2008-05-27T17:08:00.001-04:00

My great good fortune has been to know Allison since just before she was born.

I was returning home to Connecticut from performing another wedding. Allison's parents, Tracy and Brian, were in charge of transporting me from Milwaukee to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. But it wasn't to be because Allison decided this was her time to arrive.

However, I missed her actual coming into the world. Having delayed my breakfast that morning, I decided to take a trip down to the cafeteria for a hearty repast of cheese curls and quick read of People magazine.

Suffice it to say I also learned an important theological life lesson that day: always eat a good breakfast in a timely fashion so as not to miss out on God's finest moments of love and grace.

From the beginning God has been about the creative process of these fine moments, miracles really, of simply being among us. In Genesis we are told how God formed the world, then continued on by bringing us into being to care for it. Then, through Paul's first letter to the church at Corinth we discover how to care for one another.

How we are to go about this is with patience, kindness, humility and gentleness. Caring for one another means letting go of our need to be right, our need to be offended, our need to be cranky and our need to be resentful. Caring for one another, loving one another, means rejoicing in what is true, bearing and believing all things, hoping in and enduring all things, and doing this together. No exclusions.

It is not uncommon to hear these words at occasions such as we celebrate today. Romantic as our human notions of love can and should be, so should our understanding be of what love means as it grows and deepens through experience and time.

Marriage is one of the relationships in which love can show itself between people, but it does not stand alone. We hold out our hearts and souls each day and welcome others to do the same with us. God has blessed us with many kinds of relationships in which we can express the love about which Paul spoke. Parents, children, siblings and friends can all share this love with one another, the same love that God used to create the world. We were all created for community and we are all in this life, on this journey as one people.

T.S. Eliot, in a similar fashion, once likened our lives to a great exploration. He wrote that,

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time

Today we celebrate the love that Allison and Francis have chosen in each other. In their love, they bring together two families, two countries and all of us here today. We celebrate that love as their people, their community, their family. We shall not cease from loving, and the end of all our loving will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.

And, so as not to miss out on another of God's finest moments of love and grace, I assure you that I ate a very good and timely breakfast this morning. I hope you did too. Amen.

Traveling Lightly

2008-04-22T11:59:00.001-04:00

Sad news greeted me a few weeks ago through a friend who works for the airline industry. The days of unlimited baggage are coming to a close. From now on we get one checked bag and one carry-on bag per person. If you can't contain yourself in that amount of space you will have the option to pay for additional bags.

Perhaps you have already been put in your place regarding your packing practices by the fifty pound weight restriction I first encountered preparing for my last flight. While surprised air travel had come to this, I really couldn't complain too much: I'd once recovered a suitcase at baggage claim wrapped in bright yellow caution tape announcing, "HEAVY LOAD - LIFTING ASSISTANCE RECOMMENDED." So, it's fair to say I helped put that policy in place and may have even been the poster child for the corporate discussions that cemented the deal.

Despite my past as an over-packer, someone who created and lived by the creed, "If you think you may need it, bring it; if you don't have room, bring another suitcase," I was ready to turn over a new leaf even before I heard the airlines had beat me to the punch. After all, it makes sense that less weight in the plane reduces the fuel draw and therefore supports caring for the environment. From an economic standpoint it also makes sense that the people who feel a need to bring extra should pay extra instead of all of us bearing the burden for a few.

There is also a theological notion to this idea of traveling lightly. Luke's gospel tells us that, "Jesus said to the disciples, 'When I sent you out without a purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?' They said, 'No, not a thing (Luke 22:35)."

I could learn some serious packing skills from these folks.

What to wear, what shoes will look best with what outfit and be comfortable for anticipated activities all figure into my choices about what I will bring because I like to have choices when I arrive. If I forget a few things or don't plan ahead properly I feel as though I won't be comfortable the whole time I am away. But reading those few words exchanged between Jesus and his disciples has already relieved me of some deeply-felt need to make sure I have what I need when I arrive at my destination. Because if the disciples were sent out with everything they needed to do their work and live their lives, why would I be treated any differently?

Attracting and manifesting abundance continues to be a hot topic. I believe many people still equate abundance with material wealth and all its perceived pleasure and security. Abundance as a spiritual concept is so much more than things and striving for more things. Security is a larger concept than financial accumulations that we feel will give us freedom and protect us from the world's catastrophes. Jesus' words to his disciples implore us to remember that we are whole, just as we were created, and that we lack nothing when we go into the world in service to God and our community. We already have everything we need.

Equally so, I am humbled by this exchange between teacher and students. My guess is the field trip on which Jesus sent his followers was designed to empower them, to reveal to them just how much God had invested in them as they were out and about assisting people they met in the most miraculous of ways. The disciples weren't able to preach, teach, inspire, or heal people because they traveled with the right clothing, shoes, accessories or hair care products. They weren't successful in helping those they met on their journey because they carried large sums of money to ease people's financial burdens.

The disciples were successful in doing these practical aspects of ministry Jesus had taught them by example and instruction because, consciously or unconsciously, because they relied on their wholeness in God. Any good coach will tell you that they are only passing on the tools they have used for themselves to those who already have the answers to their own questions inside of themselves. Jesus was a very good coach who then reminded these people closest to him on their return that they had relied very well on themselves and their faith. It was traveling lightly, not bringing excess, unnecessary religious baggage along that allowed Jesus to touch so many lives in such a short time. The same could be said for the disciples as they learned what they would need to know in order to continue Jesus' work after he had left them.

And so, we need to ask ourselves what it means for us to travel lightly as we live our lives each day. What can we let go of that hinders our personal growth or perhaps denies us our hope and faith in the future? What old patterns limit us from being our truly whole selves? Are we carrying so much extra, unnecessary stuff along that we are paying too heavy a price from which we could release ourselves?

My new packing creed is, "Think twice, pack once." Much shorter and easier, and I think my back will appreciate the lighter load.

Mercy for All

2008-04-16T18:28:00.001-04:00

Election coverage continues here in the United States.

John McCain has been the decided Republican presidential candidate for what seems like a good long while. Democratic hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are still wooing potential voters with their ideas and plans to make our country a better place. All three are members of the U.S. Senate and each believes they can lead us forward into prosperity and a stronger position as a world leader.

I hold my own thoughts on who may be the best person for the job, but what I find most interesting in this race for the White House is the conversation around leadership itself. Leading other people means knowing what to do and simultaneously being able to convey to others what they must do . Pulling double-duty, so to speak. Some thrive under these circumstances. Many do not, no matter what their best intentions may be because leadership also requires, demands, the ability to look ahead and share the vision for those following behind so they may continue to act with faith and hope. How a leader views their followers indicates how they share the vision.

This is the position Jesus found himself in as recalled in Mark;s gospel. "Jesus saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things (Mark 6: 34)."

Mark's insights into Jesus' vision of those who were becoming his followers succinctly sum up the whole of Jesus' ministry. Jesus saw people where they were at in their lives and cared for them. Recognizing that they needed what he had, he offered it to them in abundance.

How many leaders have you known like this in your life?

Perhaps Jesus just had a unique style of working with people that is not able to be replicated, but I'm not ready to concede that point yet. Traditionally business folks are taught to keep their personal feelings and professional actions separate. "It's nothing personal, it's just business," is a phrase I've heard more than once as the precursor to downsizing, layoffs, and assorted other business practices that disassociate upper management actions from the humanity of their co-workers. What kind of vision do these kinds of leaders have for the continued development of their companies, and how do they really think the remaining workers will respond to them in the future? How much trust is denied and destroyed in the process?

Somehow, understanding that he could connect with a wide range of people simply by caring about them worked for Jesus. Also, Jesus knew his own strengths, knew that he could teach these people many things. He extravagantly shared his wisdom, knowledge, love, compassion, forgiveness, hope and his vision for the kingdom of heaven in as many ways as he could. He continued that work even as he was dying on the cross. That is some serious investment in his followers. Jesus didn't see the multitudes as people he could manipulate into who he wanted them to be to support his own need for power. Jesus stood in his own authority and welcomed people to him who wanted to claim their own authority as God's daughters and sons. He saw people with eyes filled with mercy and taught them with lovingkindness. Jesus saw his followers as already belonging to and living in the kingdom of heaven he helped them envision.

As I mentioned, I hold my own thoughts on who may make the best president for where our country is at in its history. I admit my bias is based on this leadership image that Jesus embodied. Mainly, Jesus was inclusive, valuing who people were and what they brought to the table. I want a president who looks at the citizens of this country in like fashion. And not just U.S. citizens, but people who live around the world, especially those in the poorest countries. My prayer is that we never have the luxury of excluding humanity from U.S. domestic or foreign policy based on our need to disassociate ourselves from other people's suffering to justify the means to our collectively-held end. My hope is that whoever becomes our next president has merciful eyes to see and wisdom to share what is ahead if we care for one another as our first objective.

Wednesday Evening

2008-03-18T13:13:00.001-04:00

Scripture tells us that Jesus and his disciples worked in and around Jerusalem from Palm Sunday through the early part of that week.

Much of their work remained as it had been for all the years they had shared their journey. Preaching, teaching and healing those who came to hear Jesus, to experience his authority and power, filled their days and continued on into their nights. Perhaps there was a greater sense of urgency on Jesus' part. But between the increased numbers of people in town for the Passover and the tensions brewing among the Temple authorities which added to their own ever-present exhaustion, the disciples could easily have brushed aside any concerns they had that something felt different, not quite right, even ominous. Jesus' messages focused on servanthood, the kingdom of God and watching for the trials and tribulations to come, all of which were well-received, Chief Priests and Pharisees excepted, of course. Jerusalem was their territory. Confrontations between them and Jesus were inevitable and had been expected. Having faced violence here before it had been a risk to come at all. But Jesus had insisted, here they were and any potential threats seemed to be at bay. It was unlikely any troubles would erupt with so many followers of Jesus close at hand.

Then something unexpected happened.

Unlike so many times before, as the daylight neared its end, Jesus rounded up the disciples and led them to Bethany, just outside the city, to rest privately for the evening. No crowds, no fitting themselves into a gathering of strangers filled with tax collectors, laborers, shepherds and tradespeople, sitting around a table eager for refreshment, both physical and spiritual, after another long, grueling day of life. They would have time together to eat, rest and pray with Jesus by themselves. None of them could remember the last time this had happened. It felt good to be away from all the noise and excitement, all the people jammed into the narrow streets of the city. Many of the twelve had families with whom they would not be spending this sacred time. To be able to pull back from their work, if only for an evening, was a luxury they didn't think they would be afforded, especially tonight. They would savor it, cherish it, for a long time. Who knew when they would have this chance again?

As Jesus and his disciples walked along, several of the twelve began to feel the shift. They glanced back at Jerusalem, then looked to Jesus, and a new awareness took hold of them. But only for a moment. In an instant, it was gone. Jerusalem was loud and bustling and Jesus was simply as worn out as they themselves were.

Tomorrow evening the Passover would begin. Who knew what miracles Jesus would perform? Perhaps this would be the night Jesus claimed his full power. Maybe they would witness the Messiah of God coming into his glory and see God's kingdom established on earth before their very eyes. What would that be like? What would the Chief Priests and Pharisees say to that? What would Rome do in the face of God's almighty reign? Time would tell.

But for tonight, they would rest.

To Jerusalem

2008-03-11T20:14:00.002-04:00

What do you do when you are the Savior of the World, have a little over a week left to impart your message to your disciples and still have to make the journey to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover?

If you are Jesus of Nazareth, an itinerant rabbi and preacher, it appears you keep going about your business, even as you know you are about to face your own death.

On our calendar Palm Sunday arrives this Sunday. For Jesus and his disciples their journey to Jerusalem marked returning to a city that had attempted to stone Jesus earlier in his ministry. The twelve closest to Jesus had strong memories for that time. This place frightened the disciples even to the point of questioning Jesus' intention to return to Bethany, outside the city, to visit Lazarus, Mary and Martha to raise Lazarus from the dead. They had all survived that visit, Lazarus was brought back to life, his sisters were grateful to Jesus for saving their brother, but more ill will had been stirred up among the religious leadership. Jerusalem held great religious significance, but also intense political rivalries and fear that each Passover would only remind the Jewish people of a freedom from bondage that would never come again.

They were not alone on the road Thousands of Jewish pilgrims would be making their way to the city for the holiday. The road would have been hot and dusty, a grueling trip at best. Jesus' work with the twelve was almost completed as they traveled toward the City of Jerusalem, but His sense of urgency in letting His disciples know what they were about to walk into was clear to Him, if not to them. "And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, 'Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him, and after three days he will rise (Mark 10:32-34)."

As they all continue walking, only James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come to Jesus to ask him for leadership positions as his closest allies when he comes into his glory. "But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized (Mark 10: 38)?" The two men assure Jesus that they can fulfill these obligations, but Jesus tells them that he cannot promise them any kind of permanent positions next to him because those places are prepared by someone else.

Next on their journey Jesus stops to help blind Bartimaeus, a fellow traveler on the side of the road looking for a handout who instead receives healing and a new way of life as a follower of Jesus.

The ordinary and the extraordinary seemed to have merged for the disciples. Was it so commonplace to be a part of Jesus' life that they no longer heard His words or their implications? Had healings become so usual that the disciples just assumed a few would happen every day? Perhaps those closest to Jesus were simply used to his language, aware of the danger they were always in, but also caught up in the mystery and power of this fist century celebrity with whom they had aligned themselves. Perhaps they were also weary and fearful that if they listened more closely to what Jesus was saying they would be too frightened to forge ahead. Ironic, then, that the only two who spoke to Jesus after hearing His profoundly prophetic words of what the days ahead would hold, chose to discuss their place with Jesus after all the messiness was done. The bickering among the twelve for position in Jesus' kingdom would eventually catch up with them at the Seder table later in the week.

I often wonder what Jesus thought as he laid his head down to rest that night. Would the disciples understand what he was saying to them in time to become the leaders Jesus needed them to be? How many more times did he need to tell them that he was about to be arrested and put to death? How would he get through any of this without knowing they were still with him? Perhaps prayer was his only answer, the one that gave him the comfort to fall asleep, rise the next day and continue on to Jerusalem.

Grace To Be Ourselves

2008-03-09T22:38:00.000-04:00

Brett Favre, quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, announced his retirement this week. At a news conference yesterday his simple explanation for the move was that he was tired. At thirty-eight and possessing graying hair, Favre and his family have been through multiple tragedies and upheavals in the last few years, but he kept on playing, even the day after his father died.

Having given more to the game than most and played the game with more joy than anyone, Favre had a right to his reasons and wanted his loyal fans to hear those reasons from him, not filtered through the media, which has been known to have quite vivid imaginations regarding the facts at times. Favre was emotional during the hour broadcast from Lambeau Field, home of the Packers and all they have accomplished. It seemed he embodied every uphill battle and triumph the team had delivered to the people of Wisconsin during his sixteen seasons.

What was quite wonderful, and rather poignant, was that of all the records that Favre holds - most yards passing, most starts, most passes completed among them - he claimed none solely for himself. He believes everything he did was a team effort and the whole team deserved credit for what are labeled publicly as his achievements. And what matters most to him is that he is leaving at the top of his game by his own standards, not anyone else's.

That said, Brett Favre is the first to tell you his is not perfect. His battles with prescription drug dependency and alcohol abuse are well-known and almost cost him his marriage and family.

But between the public hero and the private man who struggled to work through his issues to reemerge in wholeness and health lies grace. In this respect Brett Favre, Jesus and the rest of us have grace in common.

Grace is one of those words that gets tossed around like a Frisbee at a church social, so for the record, my dictionary and I are defining grace as, " unmerited favor or generous courtesy granted." Take your pick. Either way, grace is something we cherish when we are the recipients and something we have a lot to learn about offering up more often. So I think it is important to take the time to say that we may not be as familiar with how grace functions as we may pride ourselves.

With that settled, please know that I am not calling Brett Favre a messiah in any way, shape or form, nor do I believe he had a messiah complex. I don't think Jesus did either. Jesus lived His life with humility, kindness, faith and a complete boldness that was unheard of in His time and unmatched in our own. His public ministry, marked by frequent run-ins with religious authorities and filled with conflict, also contained instances of insightful teaching, miraculous healings and speaking events that drew crowds simply by word of mouth. The level of warmth and acceptance He felt for the marginalized people of His culture - women, children, tax collectors, prostitutes - drew controversy, but didn't distract Him from His work and did little to damage His image with the general population. People loved Him for who He was and what He brought to their lives: hope.

Meanwhile, scripture tells us that Jesus did struggle with this work He was called to do, and even more so, the brutal end he foresaw for His own life. Frustration with the disciples is evident. They can't be blamed for not quite getting the full depth of Jesus' thoughts and ideas. We have barely scratched the surface of that ourselves and we possess two thousand years of hindsight. I am fairly sure Jesus didn't blame them either. Having grown up in the Temple, Jesus also never left his faith behind to pursue or create a new religion. He understood, better than most, the power religious institutions can have over people. So even in his verbal scuffles with Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees He knew they were trying to preserve a history and a people which had known more slavery than freedom, while He was pointing the way to a newly-defined freedom in God's love. Crowds followed Him day and night, hardly giving Him any opportunity for sleep, let alone personal reflection and prayer, but for these and the many people who were never able to grasp what Jesus was offering them, Jesus only had mercy and compassion.

And yet, in all that he thought, said and did, He didn't take credit for His knowledge, insight, teaching or preaching abilities, but always pointed back to God as His Sources of being. It may have been easier to smile and say, "Thank you," but He didn't. We remember Him today as One with authority, but also great humility. We remember Him as a man of grace, a man who gave unmerited favor and generous courtesy to those least deserving and those most in need of its transformative power.

And so, we are back to Brett Favre, expressing humility in the face of great opportunity to take all the credit, smile and say, "Thank you." Instead he chose the grace of shared experience, shared victory and shared credit with the people who helped him make it all possible. He chose grace, giving favor to those who had not asked him for it. He offered generous courtesy when no one would have faulted him for doing otherwise. He chose grace.

We too have the opportunity to express humility in the face of opportunities to take all the credit, smile and say, "Thank you." But instead, we can choose to extend grace to others at times when unmerited, unearned favor or generous courtesy may take some effort on our part. The effort is worth it, particularly when we may be blessed with grace we have not merited or earned, or have generous courtesy extended at a time when someone else makes the effort for us.

Primary Moments

2008-03-05T17:06:00.001-05:00

Tuesday was a big day in United States politics.

In case you haven't heard we here in the US are in the process of figuring out who our next president will be. Final elections won't be held until November, but state primaries proceed through early summer, determining how many delegate votes each candidate will bring to their party's convention.

Senator John McCain earned the Republican party nomination last night, winning enough votes for Mike Huckabee, also running for the nomination, to concede defeat. Democrats, many of whom believed they would awake this morning to Senator Barack Obama defeating Senator Hillary Clinton for the party''s top spot, were met instead by Senator Clinton's three primary wins in Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas. Her hopes live and the Democrats still have a choice to make before the final leg of the campaign trail commences.

Presidential politics are usually more cut and dried, but this year is different. We have no incumbent president or vice president running for the job of leading the country. Many of us are discouraged over our involvement in the Iraq war, our own sagging economy and the general downward turn the country has taken during the last seven years of the Bush presidency. We want change, and people seem to be waking up to the fact that this is a democracy and we all have to participate to make it function like one.

Because this year is different, we have choices and we appear to be exercising them. More people are actually discussing politics again, stating their opinions, saying who they like and why. Some people are also listening to each other, considering what points they may have missed about a particular candidate. It's been a long time since we Americans cared enough to carry on a conversation about the future of our own country. We are desperately in need of this thing called hope.

We are also desperately in need of this thing we call faith.

Although it is said that religion and politics don't mix, I would contend that faith and politics cannot be separated on an individual, a more personal level. I don't so much care about large scale religious battles over land, communicant members or Best Church Band of 2008. My interest settles on those simple conversations we have when our guard is down and we feel we can trust another human being with a small part of our souls. These moments of personal exposure can be fleeting, but hold deep wells of hope for what we can mean to each other as God's people.

Consider how you may express your faith in a study group at your church. Would you be ready to quote scripture or a memorized passage from a prominent author familiar to most people sitting in the circle around you? Is the level of intimacy you feel with your fellow worshippers strong enough to withstand differences of opinion between political candidates or scriptural interpretations? Would you be willing to tell the person next to you that a mistake you made in your personal life may cost you your home or your family? Yet every day these kinds of truths are told and intimacies are shared among perfect strangers on commuter trains, in grocery store lines and at public restroom sinks. We find it easier to be ourselves, speak of our beliefs and our lives with people who know nothing about us and who likely will never see us again.

We keep certain boundaries around ourselves when we believe we are around good church people who expect us to be a certain way, sound like them or believe the same things they do because we believe in God, just like they do. We don't want to admit that famous author makes no sense to us, or that the political candidate another is supporting does not speak to our values. We don't want to fully admit who we are because we are afraid of being judged, even if we may be equally judgmental of someone else.

My point is that even though we like the idea of religious freedom in our country, the same we we value democracy as a whole, we don't much like to have discussions that embody that freedom because then we would have to actually think about what we believe. Agreeing with the group at church functions or sharing what we really feel and believe with total strangers in public places brings about the same result: we stay hidden, our faith stays stagnant, never integrating with our actions and allowing us to live fully as God's people.

I have heard mentioned that our faith, though personal, is not private. But living a public faith takes courage, resilience and the willingness to listen. Not everyone shares the same religious beliefs, even people sitting in the same pew with us on Sunday morning. Faith, like democracy, is not a spectator sport. Challenging each other, through discussion, education, open-mindedness and faithful observance to grow what we believe beyond a childhood memory of "Jesus Loves Me" is part of who we are called to be for and with one another.

Love in These Times

2008-02-14T16:33:00.000-05:00

Valentines Day here, but I must admit that I miss the way love used to be. We don't think or talk about love with that old fashioned charm that once warmed our hearts. Love used to be about romance, flowers, candy, sweet notes secretly passed between lovers as private, delightful gestures. Love was a treasured commodity at one time, something sought after, cherished and protected. Love, longed for, and then, finally claimed, was honored with constant care and affection.

But talk of love is different now. Conversation about love seems to be stuck somewhere between intensely practical and completely unrealistic. So much of life boils down to the everyday details that hold our lives together and love has become just one more of those practical applications that bind us to each other like crazy glue. The other way love is often considered is as a magical adventure between soul mates who never misunderstand or hurt one another and live happily ever after like characters in a children's fairy tale.

Personally, I find the former rather stifling and the latter more pressure than I could ever live with. While my head tells me there are a hundred and one things that truly need to be done every day, my heart is quite clear in expressing its needs as well, and those needs have a good bit invested in being attended to with warmth, kindness and generosity of spirit. Would that love might be a place to be extravagant, whimsical, delighted in all that we can do and be for the people we love best.

There is Biblical precedent for this rich display of God's greatest gift to humanity. I Corinthians 13, often quoted at weddings, offers a stunning portrait of what Paul's interpretation of how God's love looks, what it clearly does not resemble and how we make it visible. Deceptively simple, each verse offers a mirror to the reader to help them determine how well they are giving what they so dearly wish to receive for themselves.

For starters, love is second to nothing in its importance in our lives, including vast language skills, prophetic pronouncements, faith and martyrdom. Next, what love looks like is described in detail. Love is patient, kind, not jealous or boastful. Love is not arrogant or rude. Love doesn't push its own agenda, nor is it irritable or resentful. Love is happy when things go right, not when they go wrong. Love is very strong, bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, enduring all things. Love doesn't end.

Then Paul points out the things that aren't quite as important as love, telling us that while love endures, these other things eventually fall away. Things like prophecies, languages, knowledge don't last the way love does. Paul finally draws us to understand that love, while enduring, is also perfected in allowing ourselves to know and be known by God, and by extension, each other. It is in this rhythm, this dance of life to which we are called to be with each other, that we come to fully grasp what it means to love each other. While faith and hope are valid companions, love is the greatest, most abiding force in our world.

The question then, each to ourselves, is to figure out how much we are helping or hindering our own process in knowing and being known in the world's most extravagant of all adventures. Rather than wondering what our beloved is going to present us with this Valentines Day, perhaps we can set aside some time to think about our own ideas of love and how they inform our daily lives with the people we love. We are constantly being reminded that our thoughts influence our lives as nothing else can. I believe this is true, and because of this truth we have a grand opportunity to reclaim some territory for that old fashioned, charming way of talking about love. You remember, that kind of love that endures, that inspires love songs and love letters. The kind of love that bears all things, believes in what can be and hopes with a full heart that all good things will come to pass.

New Year Confession

2008-01-03T22:09:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the Year of Our Lord 2008.

If you are following tradition and doing your homework, you have sent last year out with all its triumphs, celebrations, regrets and mistakes. You are ready to move smoothly into this bright, shiny new year with a clean slate, a light heart and a positive outlook on what is to come.

If you haven't quite gotten around to handling these year end closeouts, let me offer you the opportunity to enter into a personal confession. I have a confession to make. Perhaps you do to.

Confession? Yes, confession, but not solely in the way most of us consider the practice. Confession isn't just about listing all one's faults to a priest or to God, although that is part of what I am proposing here. Confession is also about declaring what we believe, saying out loud what principles we hold to in our defining moments. Confession could be summed up as understanding what we believe, but also understanding how we have fallen short of living by what we believe.

Start this process of personal reconciliation by asking yourself what matters to you most in life. On what do you place value? Family? Friends? Hard work? Justice? Mercy? Integrity? We all have specific ideas of what is important to us. We bring these values into our lives by how we choose our behaviors. If we value family we find ways to make time to include our relatives in our lives. If we consider justice to be a moral commitment we find ways to act justly and create justice in the world. If we value mercy we extend mercy to those around us.

Confess to yourself now what principles guide your existence on this planet. Then take a few moments to identify how you are living our these principles.

Confession also, in the more well-known usage, offers us the chance to let bygones be bygones with ourselves, giving us the freedom to move forward in our lives without the burdens of what has already passed and over which we no control. Looking with honesty and humility at actions we have taken or words we have spoken that have not matched up with what we value is the process of confession. In other words, to confess our sins is to identify where we have separated ourselves from what we would have done or said if we had lived by what we believe. Take a few moments to see what you would have done differently and where you feel separation from who and what you want to be.

How we confess those missteps, those separations within ourselves is quite personal. Some people prefer the privacy of prayer, speaking directly with God. Others prefer the support of another person, be they minister, priest, rabbi, counselor or friend, a human being by whom they will not feel judged or criticized. Others write letters to themselves or keep a journal intended only for themselves. The how of confession is important only insofar as we each must choose what method is appropriate for us. No one can or should direct another to examine and revitalize their life.

And this brings us to the most important aspect of confession, particularly in our present world: confession isn't about inflicting guilt or shame or blame on ourselves or each other. Confession is the process by which we redeem our true selves, the person God delighted in creating, thereby bringing us back to a closer union with our Source of Being. In confession we remind ourselves to Whom we belong. Confessing what we no longer want to repeat from the past allows us the grace to look to the future with a renewed spirit of faith.

Oh Jesus Now Appear

2007-12-13T22:37:00.001-05:00

In two weeks Christmas will be here and almost gone. Two weeks. That doesn't seem like much time to prepare for such a life-changing event as the coming of our savior to earth. As I've been out and about, finishing my holiday shopping and just taking care of the details of everyday life, I've noticed a distinct change in the the past few days. Perhaps people are beginning to realize that the time is almost at hand, that Christmas only comes once a year and it is time to pay attention.

However, we are still at war with Iraq and contemplating an extension of this violence into Iran. Mall shootings make headlines. The people of Darfur suffer as they have for the past two years we have been aware of their plight. But still, Christmas is coming, and we must pay attention for where God is calling us to see this great, mysterious gift. We collectively stand at a crossroad between our hopes for the world and our expectation that God's will prevails, even if we aren't sure what that means.

I feel this space between my own hopes and expectations quite keenly today. A dear friend is beginning a second battle with cancer that has arrived unwelcome at her door. My faith tells me she will survive this and come out the other side whole. My heart and soul agree with unbridled hope. Not that last resort variety of hope that is pulled out when everything else has failed. This is the hope that believes, without condition, that God is with us all, always.

How many other people are living in an advent of hope that staves off fear of the unknown? What of this world is nagging at us, pulling our attention away from that grace that leads us forward in truth and righteousness to where God always is and always will be? Perhaps too many. And, perhaps, not enough. Odd as that may sound as we expect Jesus' arrival, more of us need to be conscious of what is actually happening in the world, and most importantly, in each other's lives. This wonderful intimacy God offers us in this reconciling relationship with the Christ is only squandered when we distance ourselves from its implications.

How deeply do we want to love and be loved? That is the question God asks us to ponder as we welcome God With Us. God sent a child, the place where love begins, to remind us of all that goes into being with and for one another. How we respond to this question tells us how much we are invested in living by what we believe of who God is and how we can embody God's love for each of us and all of us. Do we care for ourselves and each other enough to think about love and its hopes and expectations as our primary concern? Do we care for God enough to consider that God abides with us now and always will, despite everything?

Creating Hope

2007-12-04T12:59:00.001-05:00

The Christmas season is upon us and with these days of holiday preparation come certain expectations and memories that are as integral to our celebrations as traditional foods and decorations. Cherishing each moment, and the rich blend created among many moments, makes each year special, adding to the oral history passed through generations of friends and family gathering together over time. Evergreen trees brought into our homes, cookie exchanges, Advent wreathes, carol singing, last minute gift shopping and squeezing extra guests in at the table and into spare bedrooms are all part of the fun. Little of this is accomplished without some grumbling and frustration, but that is part of the season too. Life doesn't stop, even for this most miraculous time of year.

For many of us this is first and foremost a season of miracles. The Christian tradition holds that the birth of the Christ Child, Jesus, fulfilled the prophecy that God would send a Messiah to deliver and redeem the people of Israel. The ordinary way in which Jesus arrived still doesn't appear very miraculous, but somehow, in its simplicity, still carries awe and reverence even today. How Jesus of Nazareth carried out his life mission measures as a humble existence at best. He was possessed of absolutely no material wealth, never traveled very far from his hometown and constantly relied on the kindness of strangers for his most basic needs. Despite what appears to be a rather nondescript life that ended in a horribly brutal death, Jesus' message of God's love, forgiveness and hope extended to include all those who would choose Him to be included in their lives.

But hearing a good bit of, "Bah, humbug!" spirit around me with the Christmas season barely begun, I am inclined to believe that a whole lot of people have lost touch with their sense of the miraculous and of hope itself. More so, I am seeing that even more people don't have a desire to welcome hope into their lives. There are certainly always good reasons not to hope. The world is filled with hatred, evil and just a general mean-spiritedness that overwhelms even the most joyful souls. Hopelessness is a heavy burden to carry and a difficult one to lay down once we have become accustomed to its weight. Hopelessness curves our spines and twists our souls into believing that there is nothing else for us. Hopelessness, if we let it, becomes our faith, and we lose our hearts in the bargain.

You see, for as many reasons as there are not to hope, there is always the best reason of all to hope, and that is that we can. Hope, like anything thing else is a choice, a decision or a series of decisions made throughout our lives. Hope is actively believing that something can happen when logic says that it won't. Hope doesn't exist in a vacuum, but resides in the will and the hearts of those yearning for more and knowing that it can be. Hope isn't for the faint of heart, but for those strong enough to have a vision of what they want and know it can come to be. They can then focus their attention on making that happen. In this sense hope is a form a prayer, a preparatory step of longing toward the reality of what isn't quite tangible.

I love this time of year because even among all the extra shopping, parties, stresses and strains we put ourselves through, we still have this opportunity to reflect back on the Christmas story of Jesus' birth, remember the ages of hope and expectation the preceded that simple moment that changed history and consider how it has changed us. How we live and interact with one another is still the same as then. We still gather as friends and family to share our lives, share stories and live with hope, yearning for what can be. Although we are surrounded by twinkling lights and sparkling ornaments, we are also nestled beneath the same starry night that helped lead some weary travelers to a small stable in the middle of nowhere to a newborn and his befuddled parents.

How did they know that this small baby was the person they sought? And even if he was, how old would he be before he assumed any kind of leadership role as king of his people? Perhaps that is what hope is most about, seeing the miraculous in the most ordinary of circumstances and trusting in its power to transform lives, and sometimes, even the world.

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

2007-10-17T16:33:00.001-04:00

So much of history repeats itself.

Consider conversations swirling more vividly regarding the United States' use of torture during interrogations with Iraqi insurgents and suspected terrorists imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay. President Bush continues to deny that our government uses torture. Perhaps he hasn't seen the pictures that came out of Abu Ghraib prison only a few years ago. Andrew Sullivan, once a Bush supporter, was quoted this past weekend in The Sunday Times of London as saying that the "enhanced interrogation" techniques used in our country have their roots in the German term Verschärfte Vermehmung, which means enhanced or intensified interrogation. The Gestapo coined the phrase during World War Two, applying it to methods of torture that left no marks, but was effective in its efforts.

Aren't we proud to have exported such a fine example of how to treat people from one of the most ruthless military regimes in history.

In contrast, Frank Rich, in a recent article for The New York Times, speaks of an elite unit from our own World War II military which was responsible for interrogating some of the worst Nazi leaders. These men have expressed great pride in getting the most information our of their prisoners by playing chess and ping pong, and in not surrendering their humanity in the process.

Mr. Rich goes on to speak of other situations with which we have become all too familiar over the years of Mr. Bush's presidency, encompassing many, many extensions and abuses of power of the executive office. His point in doing so is to say we have become so numb, so used to what is happening that we, and Congress, have ceased to care. Or at least we aren't saying or doing much to stop it. I would suggest we are all biding our time until we finally elect someone else. We've abdicated responsibility for everything that is happening as a result of this presidency, but we still must live with its consequences.

Having read Mr. Rich's article this morning, I have thought long and hard about what he wrote, finally realizing how closely this scenario resembles the events that occurred the night Jesus was betrayed.

We all know the story. After three years Jesus' ministry came to an end in dramatic fashion. Deserted by his closest followers, Jesus was left to be interrogated, ridiculed, mocked, beaten and spat upon by the governor's soldiers after Pilate had washed his hands of the situation. Leaving no names by which to call these people, we can only assume that those who interrogated Jesus had long ago compromised their integrity and humanity in pursuit of a safe spot in the juggernaut that was the Roman Empire. Jesus was one more prisoner to them. They may not even have been as hard on Jesus as they were on other prisoners. We do know that next came a long walk through screaming crowds calling for his execution, then the crucifixion itself. People who loved Jesus, had worked with him, had clamored for the chance to hear him speak or be healed by him, stood by and did nothing to help him. Many of their voices were included in the chorus to crucify. Self-preservation is a powerful motivator.

Mr. Rich's article has stayed with me through the day. He talked about something I have known all my life, that just as there were those around Jesus who knew he was innocent, there were Germans who knew what was happening in the concentration camps and they did nothing. Our country has held onto that as a reminder of how easily we insulate ourselves against that which we feel we have no power. But we here in the United States were supposedly different. We were different because we lived in a democracy, a place in which all people had a say, a vote and a responsibility to use that power for the good of humanity.

But we apparently are no different than any other people or nation that doesn't feel a hand, claim ownership in what their government is doing. It is tempting to simply complain, blame President Bush, Congress and Vice President Cheney. They do deserve the blame. But so do we if we think we are not culpable for what is being done in our name, with or without our active support. Consider the announcements made over and over in airports as we scramble to get to our gates in time for take off: Our bags, our bodies, can be seized and searched without cause. Most people think this is just fine because they believe it keeps us safe. That's all well and good, but do you remember voting away your Fourth Amendment rights? I don't. But that airport announcement states loudly and clearly that we no longer enjoy those protections against unlawful search and seizure. We didn't agree to this change of our constitutional rights, but we are subject to its consequences.

It is time to seek God's help in delivering us from the evil of neglecting our responsibility to our fellow citizens. We must raise our voices, reclaim our commitment to community and remember that everything we do - or leave undone - matters. Ignoring what is before us will not make it go away. We are called to be more than we have been. We are called to do more than we have done.

Carrying a Torch

2007-10-12T20:00:00.001-04:00

The Dream for Darfur Torch Relay began it's twenty city tour yesterday here in Cincinnati, Ohio. The torch was carried around the commons of the University of Cincinnati by local heroes, raising awareness and imparting an urgent message for advocacy and action. Emphasized was the critical and constructive role that China can play in ending the ongoing atrocities,

One of those local heroes, Nick Clooney, offered first-hand knowledge of what is happening in this African nation, having visited there last spring with his famous son, George. Mr. Clooney spoke with warmth and affection for the people he met on that visit with whom he remains in contact. This is, after all is said and done, a human tragedy. When tragedy strikes, we gather ourselves together to care for one another. Mr. Clooney most poignantly wished that his friends in Darfur could see us standing together to support them, to let them know that they have not been forgotten.

What lessons has God taught us so that we may help these people who are our sisters and brothers? As people of faith we are obliged to do more than those who do not know God's love and grace.

The words of the Biblical prophet Isaiah are integral to our understanding of how God works among us. Isaiah anticipated the birth of The Messiah, informing the people of his time what to look for in this new leader. "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called 'Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.' Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this (Isaiah 9: 5-7)."

Isaiah also spoke openly about God's directive to care for the poor, the lonely, the lost, the suffering, with whatever we had to give, saying, "Is not this the fast that I choose; to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, Here I am (Isaiah 58: 6-9)"

Between these two portions of scripture we understand what we are to do and who leads us to do it But we also learn that our own futures are at stake in this venture. How we behave, how seriously we take Isaiah's words as God's prophet, directly impacts our lives. If we recognize the leadership God presents to us in The Messiah, whom we know as Jesus the Christ, we will honor God's imparative to care for each other, and then our light will arrive, we will be healed, our righteousness will go before us, God's glory will follow us and guard us. We will call out to God, knowing that we will be heard and answered. God will say, "Here I am." It is in giving that we receive, and in helping others we help ourselves. Time and time again the prophets have spoken, extending the opportunity to do what we know to be right, just and loving in God's eyes.

Prophetic voices still speak among us.

After Mr. Clooney spoke, Mrs. Homa Yavar, co-chair of the event and the Greater Cincinnati Advocates for Darfur, led us in prayer for the people in Darfur, honoring the dead and upholding the dreams of the people who still live. Her voice broke as she eloquently bound us to the vision God carries for us, for them, for all of humanity.

How then can we embody this Biblical precept and stop the violence in Darfur?

We can pray. We can write our congressional representatives to put pressure on President Bush to act decisively to end the violence. We can divest our money from companies that do business with the Sudanese government, architects of this horrific slaughter. We can stop buying all products produced in China. We can stay conscious, educated about what is happening in Darfur, and we can tell others what is going on and urge them to act in anyway they can.

Prophetic voices still speak among us, requiring us to pay attention, take note and to act. Our own voices must be added to this historical litany so that everyone who needs to hear has the chance to make a difference.

What Not to Talk About

2007-10-08T18:58:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading, To Find Out Something Only Dead Men Know, an article by Christopher Cooper posted today at Common Dreams, a web site dedicated to liberal news and views. Mr. Cooper compares watching Ken Burns' The War, a documentary about World War II, to watching the drama we're funding in Iraq unfold on the news each night. But a lot of what Ken Burns included in his footage is not shown on any network broadcast. Close up, wars all look pretty much the same. Bloodied bodies, ripped apart, strewn over the landscape like grotesque piñata fillings at a child's birthday party. Fuel-driven fire being shot into caves to flush out the enemy. Civilians dismembered and burned beyond recognition. Perhaps Burns is allowed this time of truth-telling because it is PBS and they make a habit of doing these sort of things. Maybe years of distance breeds enough emotional numbness for us to be able to at least glance at such horrific images.

Most likely it is because we can claim moral distance from what happened before we were born, before we were able to vote, before we had any say in what went on in our own country, a country founded on the belief that the government should be of, by and for the people. If Brian Williams, Katie Couric or Charlie Gibson ever makes an attempt to show us where our war tax is going, who and how it is killing, we may begin to think differently about this whole, messy business of invading other countries. We may hold the Bush administration responsible for the choices it has made on our behalf, and therefore, hold ourselves responsible for believing, if only a little, that this war was justified in any remotely sensible way.

But we don't want to see these images in our homes, and we especially don't want to harbor the chance that our children would catch a glimpse of mutilated moms and dads being cried over by young, orphaned children. We don't want to talk about what doesn't concern us on a daily basis, what doesn't threaten our lives or our families' lives, what makes us squirm at our very core.

War isn't the only thing we aren't supposed to talk about these days. Religion, politics, gay rights, poverty, the decline of education in our central cities, our crumbling US economy, global warming. Pick a topic, any topic, that demands some conscious awareness, educational consideration and a sense of the impact it makes on real, live human beings. Most folks have an opinion, but that opinion isn't based in their own understanding. It is based on media images and words pointedly honed to a fine-tuned simplicity for easy digestion and dismissal by the general public. Either a whole lot of people don't care anymore, or we have come to believe that caring is too hard, too costly and not our concern to begin with.

But Jesus would have us believe and behave otherwise.

As a child, hearing scripture read from the pulpit fascinated me, compelled me to listen for truths that transcended culture and time. I wanted to be right there when Jesus stood to speak with the crowds on grassy knolls, in front of the Temple and when he listened to them over family meals in their own homes. I wanted to search the faces of those Jesus confronted on their own turf, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, Scribes and Chief Priests. What would it be like to see them sidle up to Jesus and his disciples, carrying on a conversation with some locals, ready to interrupt, set the trap and wait for Jesus to step into it? Then, the tables would be turned, effortlessly, and these religious men would be left speechless in their tracks. That would be something to see.

But as a child I was only aware of the drama, the desire to see good triumph over evil in the most profoundly felt ways. I wasn't aware of the sadness that probably also accompanied Jesus' interactions within his community. The people who could most effect change in their world were desiring nothing more than to keep the crowds from simmering out of control, lest Rome get wind of the troubles and limit their power even more. The Temple leadership and Rome kept an uneasy truce. If that was disrupted, the future would become even more uncertain. Using Jewish law and the prophets to keep the peace was their job. Jesus knew where his colleagues stood, politically and theologically.

However, Jesus knew the time had come to talk about what before had been kept silent. Good News is hard to contain, once you have heard it and understood it.

We have heard the Good News, and, hopefully, we understand it. We can, and should talk about all the things happening in the world. With our friends, within our families, with our children. With our council representatives, our congresswomen and men, our senators, our governors, and yes, with our president. We must talk about all the things that are difficult to think about, let alone say out loud. What if this war in Iraq, this war that has already outlasted World War II, doesn't end for years? How will this affect our communities, our economy, our educational system? What happens if President Bush decides one war isn't enough and he wants to pick a fight with Iran before he leaves office? Whether we like it or not, we need to start talking to each other about things that matter.

Please remember, we have heard the Good News. Do you understand what that means? Whether we like it or not, we have a unique perspective as people of faith, as well as a unique responsibility to be ready for the Pharisees and their buddies when they come sneaking up behind us, ready to make us fall flat on our faces. It is time to pay attention, educate ourselves and be ready to confront those who would rather keep us and our faith perspective silent.

Learning Abundance

2007-10-03T15:08:00.001-04:00

What images come to mind when you consider the word abundance?

Are beautiful homes, shiny cars, lush resorts filled with palm trees and expansive beaches what you imagine? Perhaps sparkling jewels, closets overflowing with designer clothing and endless nights out on the town at first class restaurants are more your style. Would a big screen television, a computer so advanced it could almost run the world and a houseboat on the Mississippi be to your liking?
Maybe a full bank account is all you need in the world.

Financial comfort and material wealth easily accommodate one definition of abundance, the most common one, particularly here in the United States. Our American dream of single family home ownership, two new cars and great annual vacations pits itself against the realities of daily life and fluctuating economic patterns. Simply put : many of us aspire to look successful by creating a lifestyle of material means. We barter our future for lovely things, but don't necessarily feel accomplished, prosperous or content in possessing them. A consumer-based society has little else with which to work. Richness in things doesn't guarantee richness in relationships, spirituality or appreciation for our planet's natural resources.

What are some other ways to contemplate this idea of abundance? How do we shift this paradigm of abundance equals stuff? Where do we look to find ideas and examples that can broaden our perspective, maybe even change our lives? How can we learn abundance?

One resource is the Bible, which speaks of both wealth and abundance in many forms. The general perception is that God considers money and what it can leverage as evil. It's time to let go of that old, false myth and realize that God isn't so much concerned about what we possess as how we use it. The apostle Paul's first letter to his friend, Timothy, tells us, "The love of money is the root of all evils(I Timothy 6:10)." Loving money can become a temptation, a distraction from living one's faith, if it becomes a lifestyle choice. The Great Commandments encompass loving God, each other and ourselves. There is no room for the love of money in a world view that seeks to learn and live abundance. Letting go of the idea that money is the central source of abundance opens our minds to the possibility that there is more out there.

Jesus called many people blessed, abundant, throughout his three years of ministry, and explained what he meant, particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter al kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so people persecuted prophets who were before you (Matthew 5:3-12)."

Jesus turned the idea of abundance on its head, pointing to those who appeared to have the least as being the most blessed. Jesus preached a new way of seeking out and discovering abundance in everyday life, places most people would never think of looking. The merciful and the meek, the peacemakers and the persecuted, lived and shared their abundance each day. Giving mercy creates an abundance of mercy in the world. Giving peaceful responses, makes the world a more peaceful place. Mourning that which has been lost to us helps others understand the importance of connectedness in community. Seeking God's righteousness in all that we do makes justice tangible and real for all people. Jesus' teachings draw each of us back to what we already have that we can share.

Recognizing we are already blessed, already abundant just as we are. is the most important thing we can know. Giving that blessing away is the most important thing we can do.

In a world that says scarcity is king, giving is uncomfortable business. If we give too much away we will have less for ourselves and less than our neighbors. So much for keeping up with the Joneses. But shifting gears, feeling that we each have more than enough to give, begins to redirect our sense of empowerment. Sharing a blessing like mercy or kindness takes nothing away from the giver. If fact, Jesus pointed out that anyone who offers blessings to another out of their own abundance will receive the same back automatically. It isn't how much we have that makes us abundant, but how much we give.

Learning abundance actively places us in the circle of wholeness that is creation itself. We each represent a portion of God's graceful riches to be shared with all of humanity. What are the blessings you hold in your life? How can you share with others out of this abundance?

Great Luxuries

2007-09-26T14:38:00.001-04:00

My upstairs neighbors are moving out today.

I wasn't aware of their impending departure until around eight o'clock this morning when the hustle and bustle of furniture and belongings exiting the building began. I have to say I feel a little sad at the thought, even though I would have to check the mail boxes downstairs in the lobby to see what their names are. Having bumped into them occasionally on the elevator ride to our respective homes, I feel a nice sort of connection that comes from pleasantries exchanged over time.

A friend of mine had lamented my move from single family home ownership to apartment rental. He couldn't conceive of being surrounded by the noise of other people's daily lives. Dishwashers running, toilets flushing in the middle of the night and doors opening and closing were more than he could imagine, let alone bear, on any kind of regular basis. I imagine many people feel that way, considering the American dream is to cozy up to one's own fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa, a thirty year mortgage and the peace and serenity that come from knowing your neighbors are at least a hundred yards away. More peace and quiet, more distance, less hassle. Dealing with strangers in close proximity on a consistent basis takes time and patience. Believing we are the only people in the universe must be suspended, as does the need to feel offended by a good bit of other people's behavior.

Mostly, its about forgiveness and forbearance.

I was first introduced to the companionate relationship between forgiveness and forbearance by a woman in the first congregation I served. Offered up as some comfort regarding a nasty little church squabble, her words stuck with me, and I now have come to regard them as two of the greatest luxuries of being a grown up.

I didn't pull them back out of my memory for real use until years later during my stint as a retail manager. It was then, while addressing customer service and employee management issues, that I began to realize how much better it felt not to hold grudges, plot revenge or react to situations with rancor and rage. Forgiving people their foolishness, poor communication skills and rudeness made it much easier to simply get to the heart of the matter and deal with the problem that needed to be fixed. I felt much better not needing to be right, but instead invested my energy in correcting the situation and moving on to whatever else needed to be done.

The forbearance part came into play most often with disgruntled employees who either felt compelled to pick fights with customers who had hurt their feelings or had made them angry. Taking a deep breath, letting oneself unhook from those kind of feelings and moving into a helping stance is very had to do. It takes consciousness, loads of practice and the ability to stay engaged in situations that frequently feel as if you are being blind sided by a truck. What helped some of my sales associates and assistant management staff become more familiar with the concept was seeing me work with customers at different levels of irritation and rage.

Most people just want to feel heard, so listening was key, and making sure the customer could see I was paying attention to them was doubly important. Eye contact, affirming nods and verbal agreement made it clear to them that they were my focus. After that, it was simply a matter of figuring out what they wanted, giving it to them if I could or offering another suggestion if I couldn't and following through on that offer. With rare exception the customer was thanking me, giving me a hug and offering to buy my coffee before they waked back out the door. When they came back to shop they sought me out, showed me their children's latest school pictures and inquired about my life as if we were old friends. It feels as miraculous now as it did then.

Forgiveness and forbearance are indeed miracles, luxurious in ways that cannot be quantitatively measured. Like fine wine, each takes care, caution and time to produce, but are worth the necessary effort. Forgiving is giving something to another person before they may deserve it in our eyes. Forbearance is continuing that practice of forgiveness for as long as it takes. I believe Jesus said something about "seventy times seven," but I don't think he was being literal, just expansive and generous.

Perhaps those are two more luxuries of being a grown up.

Taking Offense

2007-09-21T16:14:00.001-04:00

You may have heard of Kathy Griffin. Ms. Griffin has been around for awhile, both as an actress and as a stand up comedienne. She's also filled in a few times as guest host on ABC's "The View." This past week she even won an Emmy for her role on "My Life on the D List," a reality program based on her own life. Her acceptance speech included the sentiments that Jesus had nothing to do with her winning the award and that her Emmy statue was her new god. This didn't sit well with a few folks. A Christian theater group from Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, even spent over $90,000 to place a full page advertisement in a Los Angeles newspaper protesting her comments. It appears they were morally offended about how Christianity is portrayed in our society and this was the straw that broke their collective, religion-driven lives.

And you wonder why people think Christians have no sense of humor.

Having watched a variety of awards programs over the years, I've seen a whole lot of people thanking God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for being able to stand on a stage and accept their statues. But I'm not so sure they are expressing true, faith-based gratitude, or simply filling in air time until they can get their bearings and thank people they actually include in their lives on a regular basis. It was pretty clear to me that Ms. Griffin was having some fun at her show business associates' expense.

It is equally clear to me that many people find ways to feel miffed or offended on a pretty regular basis. To paraphrase Wayne Dyer, an internationally-known self-help and self-improvement author, some people wake up every morning looking to be offended and they are not disappointed.

Jesus was well aware of this seemingly human need some of us have to bristle at whatever crosses our path. One such situation, an exchange with the disciples of John the Baptist is shared with us through Matthew's gospel account. "And when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities. Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, 'Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?' And Jesus answered them, 'God and tell John what you hear and see; the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me (Matthew 11: 1-6)."

It would have been quite easy for John's followers to be upset that Jesus was claiming his authority as the promised Messiah for whom generations of faithful people had been waiting. The leader in whom they had placed their trust, and likely years of their lives, was imprisoned and at the mercy of Herod's whims. While John may have been willing to recognize his role in the grand scheme of God's work, they may have resented him for giving up and passing over the mantle of his own authority to Jesus. If John was asking, he surely had a sense that Jesus was the Messiah, but he wanted to be sure. Hindsight, especially with regard to spiritual issues, is so much more clear than when we are standing in the middle of them.

But John's disciples followed their leader's direction, received word from Jesus that the scriptures were being fulfilled in his work with the blind, lame, lepers, deaf, the dead and the poor. He assured them that the people who took no offense at this were blessed. Jesus didn't blame them for how they may or may not have been feeling, but simply let them knew that they could make a choice about their response to the information they were seeking and would pass back on to John.

It's very easy to feel offended when something in which we are invested is challenged or if a situation we had hoped would turn out a certain way comes to a different conclusion. We've all been there, wanting to displace the feelings of frustration, hurt or even anger, that seem to flash through us like a rocket at take off. Getting it off our chest is supposed to be good for us, right? It's only human to let off some steam, vent a little, let it go before it eats us alive? Personally, I'm not sure any of those things help, especially if they are feelings that have nothing to do with the person at whom they are directed. Offended though John's disciples may have been, Jesus is telling them they have a choice about their feelings and their response to him, and they are blessed if they can find it in themselves to take no offense at him.

Offended though we may be at various opinions, behaviors and ideas that may cross our paths, we have a choice. We can stay stuck in our reaction of feeling offended, carrying on and dragging negativity into as many conversations as it takes to make us feel right. Or, we can remember Jesus' words, taking no offense at him or anyone else who contradicts what we expect from them. Sometimes they are right, sometimes they aren't. Sometimes it isn't about right or wrong at all. Sometimes it's about recognizing a joke when you hear one.

International Gossip

2007-09-18T17:01:00.001-04:00

While managing a retail furniture store I had the pleasure of working with a woman originally from Moscow. Not Moscow, Idaho, but that grand city in Russia. Svetlana had emigrated to the United States with her mother, Victoria, a few years before we met. The daughter wanted a better life for herself, and the mother couldn't imagine life without her only daughter, despite the fact that she spoke only minimal English. Svetlana and I worked together enough to decide we liked each others company, developing a friendly dialogue on all sorts of topics. She taught me a few Russian words and phrases, shared recipes from her childhood and talked about her prior work experience as both a nurse and a film producer. Her studies here focused on business. What I remember most about Svetlana was her warmth, kindness and generosity.

What was interesting to both of us, in one fascinating exchange, is how each of our countries chose to misrepresent the other during the Cold War. Svetlana's mother survived the Stalinist era and saw her daughter's generation welcome a more open society. As the Berlin wall came down, so did some of our preconceived notions about what life in the former Soviet Union was really like. One day Svetlana, planning a trip back to Russia to visit friends and extended family, asked if I wanted to see her old passport. Of course I said yes and found myself perusing a small relic of a Communist culture that no longer existed. It was then that I told Svetlana that the United States government used to tell us that people in her homeland were cold, uncaring, didn't love their children the was our parents loved us, and that her people didn't value life the way that we did here. She said her government told her people the same things about us.

Clearly, the Cold War was not about people hating each other, but governments participating in a gossip session to end all gossip sessions. While no great surprise, it was a wonderful sort of epiphany to see and experience just how much more we had in common than not.

My favorite Biblical example of this very concept is the story Jesus told, that of the good Samaritan. "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him, and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance, a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back (Luke 10:29-35)."

The fact that Jesus emphasized that this was not just any Samaritan, but a good Samaritan, frames the story in a way that made his listeners sit up and take notice. Jews and Samaritans were not cozy with one another and did everything in their power to avoid dealing with each other. A Samaritan would no more stop to help a Jew than the latter would stop to help the former. It just wasn't done. So Jesus turns the concept of cultural images and societal norms on its head by telling his listeners that this injured man, who was left for dead, was ignored by two leaders of his own community, men who preached the law and the prophets as their life work. The priest and the Levite definitely saw the man in his woundedness, but only acted by turning away and putting themselves at a distance from him physically, emotionally and spiritually. One would assume that these pillars of the community would go out of their way to help a fellow traveler, but clearly that was not the case.

Then, along comes the good Samaritan, someone of whom no one would expect a pleasant courtesy, let alone the magnanimous gesture of kindness that transpired. What the Samaritan did defines going out of one's way to help a stranger. And then Jesus posed a question to a lawyer in the crowd. "Which of the three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?' He said, 'The one who showed him mercy.' Jesus said to him,"Go and do likewise (Luke 10:36-37)."

The Cold War kept us at a great distance from the people of the former Soviet Union, making us believe these people whom we had never met were Communists at best, and heartless barbarians at worst. Now our former enemies live among us as cordial, productive residents and citizens of our country. Our mutual misconceptions, based on government lies, are all but forgotten.

But a new war has created new Samaritans for us, people we don't really know very well, people about whom our government is spreading new gossip, lies and misinformation. These new Samaritans are those who claim Islam as their faith. Our government would have us believe that there are very few good Muslims, that most are ready to kill us, take our land and take over the world. Emails zoom across the internet, full of fear-based messages that tell us to support immigration laws that prohibit all people from the Middle East entering our country. The Muslims that already live here face suspicion and discrimination. Public prayer by Muslims is considered radical, suspect and dangerous.

Based on our own history and Jesus' story, what do we really think is going on here? Who do you think is going to help you in your time of need? Do you really care, as long as someone is willing to help you at all?

Serving Your Purpose

2007-09-17T11:45:00.000-04:00

Purpose is a pretty big deal.

In the context of life, purpose matters. Our purpose is the answer to the age-old question, "Why are we here?" When we find ourselves wondering what difference our lives make or even why we were born, our purpose is the reason. We each were created and came to be here on earth with a specific mission that would serve humanity in a uniquely powerful way, a way that could not be manifested by anyone else on the planet at this time. We all share in our collective gifts, skills and talents, and we are all served by each other's purpose.

What is your purpose? Discovering your reason for being, at whatever point in life you find yourself, is a prospecting expedition filled with unexpected treasures. Serving that purpose, nurturing it to its fullest capacity to give to others, can deepen into a life-long passion full of wealth and happiness.

Where are you in your life journey? Take a few moments right now to consider what you enjoy in your life. What do you feel good about? What brings you pleasure or a sense of fulfillment? Perhaps the relationships in your life, family, friends or co-workers, are satisfying and special to you. For some people work is much more than a paycheck, but also a source of creative inspiration. For others hobbies, such as gardening, decorating, camping or canoeing bring them endless delight. Chances are very good that what brings you pleasure is somehow connected to your purpose.

Does that surprise you? For some reason purpose has gotten the bad rap of being difficult, miserable, even a burden, and as far away from what we naturally love doing as can possibly be. Simply put, it's not. Our purpose is a part of us, a part of what we love about ourselves that we can't wait to share.

Having identified what brings you joy, how do you share that with other people? How are other people served by what you bring to life? Are you a parent whose home is open to the neighborhood children? Perhaps your purpose is listening and advising young people. Do your organizational skills benefit the efficiency and over-all positive energy of the company for which you work? Perhaps your purpose is to create a framework for those around you to do their jobs well. Do your skills in food preparation bring praise from those who are lucky enough to sample your culinary delights? Perhaps your purpose is based in hospitality.

Most of us have come to believe that purpose is grand, larger than life and only valuable if worthy of being made into a Broadway musical extravaganza. While the stage is meant for some, our own, individual stories are profoundly more interesting. Being able to make a friend laugh, presenting a solid talk about values at a PTA meeting or teaching someone how to write a love letter may make much more impact in transforming the world than we will ever know. Purpose matters because we never know how many people we will touch by living into what we have been created to do and be.

Now, one more thing to consider. How will you serve this purpose you have identified as your own? How will you nurture it, care for it, so that you may continue to use it well in service to others? Based in these questions is the simple truth that we must care for ourselves before we can care for others. It may seem selfish or out of order to care for ourselves first, but the reality is no one else is going to do it for us, and feeding and growing our purpose is a crucial part of living our lives fully and happily.

My guess is that gardeners understand this concept very well. Known for their gift of producing great displays of color and texture, quite literally from dirt, they are also aware of the time, planning and grunt work it takes to produce these natural marvels. What motivates them? Seed catalogues, florist shops, appreciation of other gardeners' efforts and results. They give themselves the gift of loving what they do best in all kinds of forms and shapes and sizes. They nurture their purpose by connecting to it everywhere they can find it. It's a great example we can all follow. Pay attention for ways you can serve and nurture your purpose every day.

Whether you have recently discovered your purpose or you are an old hand at sharing your gifts with others, we each have the chance to make a difference in other people's lives while enriching our own. The wealth of living one's purpose well may or may not be financial. But true abundance can be measured in as many ways as we can make a positive influence in the world each day.

When There is Peace

2007-09-12T15:39:00.001-04:00

Children heading back to school here in the United States are used to the routine. New clothes, study supplies, bus schedules and lunch money all fit together, settling into a steady rhythm focussed on building the foundation for a solid future. Not all students, past or present, appreciate what an education combined with hard work can mean because few of us have ever considered life without public education. We are a privileged people who take education, among many other things, for granted.

Refugees from Darfur, gathered together in camps just over the Sudanese border in Chad, have a great deal to teach us about our sense of entitlement, about what to them is a joyful opportunity for relative normalcy now and a glorious hope for the future. You see, according to information I recently received from the International Rescue Committee (IRC), this organization has committed itself to providing a quality education for the children residing the refugee camps as a result of the genocide taking place in the Sudan. Two million people have been killed. Two million more have been displaced from their homes and their lives. Total numbers at the camps vary from day to day. But thirty thousand children, having made it to relative safety, will study science, math, history and language skills, exactly what our children will be studying this year.

Something you may need to pause to realize is that this is possible, not solely through international support, but because some of those two million displaced Sudanese people from Darfur are professional teachers. Whole societal structures, including the educational system of a people, have been uprooted, denied their due place and pleasure. But the resiliency and tenacity of the people of Darfur means the next generation will not be denied its place in the world. Melissa Winkler of the IRC shared her vision of this miracle in photos and conversations with those making it happen. One student who embodies this hope for the future of all the surviving people of Darfur is given a voice here through Ms. Winkler. "Some forty young women gather in a tent for a history lesson. Moda Abdajala Gasser tells me how happy she is to be able to go to the next level and continue learning, otherwise she would never be able to go to university. 'I will become a doctor some day,' she says resolutely. 'When there is peace in Sudan."

When there is peace.

How many times have these words been uttered through the course of time? How often have we found ourselves believing our lives were on hold until that great day of peace finally arrived? But how many people through time have decided, like Moda, not to wait, but to make their lives full and ready to act when the day of peace does come?

Jesus addressed this issue time and time again, telling those who would listen that the kingdom of heaven was already among them. The Roam occupation was a fact, but so could be their faithful activity as God's people. Jesus shared many stories about what the kingdom of heaven looked like here on earth: a grain of mustard seed that starts out small and grows to be a huge plant; leaven in a baker's loaf; treasure hidden in a field; a pearl of such worth that a merchant sells all their goods to purchase it; a fisher's net that, when thrown overboard, rewards its owner with unimaginable bounty. Jesus' audience knew poverty, desperation, hopelessness and fear, as surely as the Sudanese people carrying on their lives as strangers in a strange land. But he was also directing his listeners' attention to something more, something useful and tangible from which they could gain perspective and strength. Jesus was guiding them to their faith, pointing them to ways they could see God's presence and join in actively embodying God's spirit to build for the future to come.

Not all children in the United States take their education for granted. Many are eager to make a contribution with their lives to make the world more than it is today. Not every young woman or man in the refugee camps of Chad possesses the strength, determination and hope that Moda does. But for those who hold the light in themselves, for those who lift this light up to guide others, we are grateful. They show us what it means to live the kingdom of heaven on earth. They reside in a world that appears devoid of all good things, but they see much more and know they can make it happen.

Home Again

2007-08-22T16:28:00.001-04:00

Hello.

It's been a few weeks since last I wrote for this space and a good bit has happened in the meantime. One house packed up, sealed into cardboard boxes and a place in my heart, has now been reopened, realigned into a new place, still working on feeing its physical comfort and spiritual solace. Prints are still in their transport packaging, leaning against the dining room wall, in consideration among the spacious rooms for permanent locations to call their own. Next to them, stacked in twelve neat boxes, are the last of the books urging me to order new shelving so they too can breathe a sigh of relief at finding their new place. My three cats are also repositioning themselves as only cats can. Peering into vacant closets filling up with familiar items and scents, testing out new nap sites and window patrol posts, each of my girls is determining her niche. We are, my possessions, my cats and I, all discerning our niches, but we are also clearly residing in foreign territory.

For anyone who has moved, across the country or across town, you know the feeling. Reaching for your morning coffee cup in a cupboard that is no longer there. Hearing the phone ring and forgetting it now sits on the hall table, not the bedroom dresser. Wandering grocery store aisles for daily bread, only to encounter weekly confusion and frustration. New doctors, dentists, merchants and hair stylists must also be found and new relationships forged over time. Until new habits mold and reshape our lives, there is little comfort for the soul that yearns for what home used to mean, but no longer does.

The Bible holds many stories of people aching for what home has meant to them while struggling to survive or place roots as aliens in a foreign land. Isaac, facing a devastating famine in his homeland traveled to Gerar for counsel from Abinelech, king of the Philistines. But God intervened to redirect his path to true home. " And the Lord appeared to him, and said, 'Do not go down to Egypt; dwell in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you, and will bless you; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands and I will fulfill the oath which I swore to Abraham your father (Genesis 26: 2-3)." The Exodus from Egypt which Moses would lead years later designed itself into a people's story of hope, longing and perseverance still spoken of today. Ruth and Naomi found themselves stranded, both as women in a patriarchal society and as human beings with no means with which to care for themselves. Jesus' soul might have been imprinted for life by being born while his parents were on the road, having no home to call his own for the last three years of his life. His disciples knew the perils of the road less traveled, the emptiness of being away from their families. Over the centuries missionaries have lived the tangible dichotomy of home in their hearts and life in foreign lands. Many people, including myself, find themselves far from where they were born, for work and personal reasons. For all of us, we have discovered that home becomes what you make of it.

More than stories of faith and endurance, the Bible also tells us that, " Here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come (Hebrews 13:14)." Ironic that some folks never leave their birthplace, but that this scripture applies to both their lives and to those of us who call multiple places home over the course of a lifetime. The verse calls us to remembering that our constant home is with God, and God with us, no matter where we are. What is quite wonderful is that this place of being is also always ahead of us. We carry God as our Homemaker into each room, apartment, condominium or house to which we sign our names as renter or owner. And, as any good homemaker, God freshens each space with a creative hand, a sustaining spirit and redeeming grace that helps us make it our own for the time we claim as ours.

More so than any other move, God and I together have planned a space that tells me I am truly home. By a larger plan, I am not here forever. I have come to where I am going for now, and will keep going when I know to do so. But, for now, I am home again.

To God Who Tends Us

2007-08-14T21:41:00.000-04:00

Great Earthly Gardner, you gently tend our souls, hurture our hearts and sustain our spirits. Like fresh flowers dancing with the wind, you partner your energy with us at creation, forever linking your vitality and generosity to our growth and strength. Thank you that we are rooted in you, and through you, to each other.

This Place for Today

2007-07-10T17:52:00.001-04:00

Packing is arduous business.

Finding myself relocating to a new city means participating in the age-old, time-honored practice of pulling up stakes, shutting off utilities and looking ahead to another part of my life as it unfolds. The packing is simply the physical rendition of sorting and filing memories, moments and hopes that evidence the truth of the time spent in any place we choose to call home. Having done this a few times before, I am familiar with the process, its delights and its pitfalls. Gathering one's life together, releasing its unneeded portions to the universe, fitting the remainder into a box on wheels and trusting it will be intact and ready to be welcomed into a new space at the other end of the road, is both an act of will and faith. This move calls forth a good measure of the former and a greater measure of the latter than any other move has required.

My mother's family started their journey in this country in upstate New York in the early nineteenth century. Eventually making their way through the Midwest, my great grandparents met in Iowa in the latter part of that era and continued their travels to Minnesota by way of South Dakota. My mother remembers that they returned to Iowa each year to help with the cattle drives, the women running the chuck wagon to provide home cooked meals for the cowboys. Their son carried on the tradition, moving his wife, son and daughter through Wisconsin and North Dakota before settling in Chicago. When my mother speaks of where she grew up, it is Chicago she remembers as home. While I know my grandfather moved his family to accommodate his work, I am not sure why his parents kept to the road for so long.

But what their movement across the land tells me is that they were strong people with dreams, willing to withstand endless days walking next to covered wagons containing their whole lives to the frontiers of a place completely unknown to them. Each generation pushed a little further West, following a hope for more than what they had or could envision for themselves where they were. What few pictures I have of these people I never met reveal great beauty and joy so poignantly real I can feel them with me, directing me to take my part in the adventure. The unknown didn't seem to phase them, which is a gift, like their faith, that they have passed down to me. My people are people of faith, courage and abundantly joyful creativity, an ancestry of which I am proud to share, a legacy I hope to embody with grace.

The heat of these last days spent in this place that has been my home for seven years also reminds me that I am not carrying out an Exodus journey of Biblical proportions. There will be no hot desert winds on my face or burning sand under my feet, no blazing sun relentlessly beating down on my head with each passing minute, hour or day. There is an address to which I am headed, unlike the Israelites, who would wander for forty years with only the hope of God's assurance that there would be a promised land.

There is progress in the journey. Years later Isaiah would go on to speak of a new Exodus for God's people, a journey to a new Eden-like place. "For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting sign which shall not be cut off (Isaiah 55: 12-13)." Sometimes what we can't see immediately is as important as what is within each task and step of the day. Within the tangible moments of living are housed the grace and mystery of God's purpose and promise. Herein lies our home, wherever we are.

Shining Lights

2007-06-25T14:03:00.001-04:00

The ONE Campaign is becoming quite well known as an advocate for the poor and marginalized throughout the world, but particularly among the people of Africa. Initiated around the time of the 2005 G8 Summit, ONE's goal is simple: eradicate extreme poverty and its effects in our lifetime.

Having settled in for the long haul on making this goal a reality, ONE recently launched a new effort, ONE Vote '08, directed at engaging the American public, one by one, to include the world's poor in our decision making process as we elect a new president next year. ONE is asking us to put eliminating poverty, and its impact, on our agendas because in doing so we can change the world. We can contribute our voice to United States foreign policy, telling the presidential candidates that for them to be elected they must take seriously our desire to help our fellow human beings. We are being given an unprecedented avenue by which to make a difference here in our own country and to literally make the world a better place for people who at present have no hope. How often do you get the chance to embody life-changing, life-saving hope in your life?

Matthew's gospel tells us that Jesus spoke of what it means to embody God's Spirit so fully and deeply that we can indeed be this kind of hope to the world. "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do we light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before all, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:14-16)." Quite simple, isn't it? We are God's, and we light the world when we live our faith in the way we have been blessed to do so, sharing our gifts with everybody in the household of God. By doing so we point directly back to God as our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, the Source of all that we are.

But we are not called to hide our gifts away for safe keeping, or diminish them under the auspices of false modesty, fear or despair. We are not called to deny ourselves or pretend we are something other than we are. We are not called to cheat anybody else out of who or what they are, dimming their light in the process. And in the end, we are not called to pretend with ourselves or anybody else, that our actions do not reflect back on the God we serve. When we identify ourselves as people of faith, people pay attention, whether from curiosity, awe or confusion. People look to us to understand how what we believe shows up in our lives.

Our questions to ourselves must be about how we are being light in the world, and how we can reflect even more of God's light to the world. If we are serious about our faith, believing that God really does make a difference in the world, how can we be or do anything else? To do otherwise is to limit God, God's love, God's activity, by not opening our hearts, minds and spirits to more of who God can be in us, through us, and for us. Considering where our nation stands among others in the world today, we have our work cut out for us. But the world has always endured difficult times, some so much worse than our own. Conning ourselves into believing these are the worst of times only serves to disempower us, lessening the great light of grace and purpose we enjoy as God's people.

The ONE Campaign, whose membership is populated with many people of faith, including myself, is a way to remind ourselves that we each make a contribution when we make a choice to do so, rather than stay stuck. If we want to bury our heads in the sand or place a bushel basket over our heads, we can. But if we do, we are shutting ourselves off from the potential strength and beauty our collective light can bring to the world in all the good works that can point to our loving God whom we serve. Does it really make sense to do that?

Think about it.

Think about trying to stumble around your home when an electrical storm snatches your lights away, leaving you in utter darkness. Immediate fear melts away once you can grope your way to a candle and a match. Striking only once means striking away both fear and darkness, bringing back the light.

Think about it.

We are being given the opportunity to change the world for the better. Forever. Isn't that what Jesus did? Isn't that what God calls us to do? We are being given the opportunity to strike a match, strike out the fear and the darkness, and bring back the light that is God, and God in us.

Think about it.

Stopping the Blind

2007-06-11T19:50:00.001-04:00

Between immigration laws and new passport regulations, some people can't get into the United States and others are having a hard time leaving. President Bush's immigration bill, the center of his remaining domestic policy agenda, came apart at the seams yesterday and will most likely not be revisited any time soon. The bipartisan bill seems to have been dismantled by an even stronger bipartisan effort, perhaps redefining the term "business as usual," even by Washington standards. Meanwhile, Homeland Security and the State Department are engaged in a turf war over implementing new measures for passports use by U.S. citizens, resulting in a backlog of unprocessed documents for people ready to travel. Those measures have been temporarily relaxed for those traveling by air to Canada, Bermuda, the Caribbean and Mexico who have already applied for their passports and have a receipt for the transaction. God help you if you have travel plans in the next few months and you delayed applying because you may be stuck. Or, as Rep. Heather Wilson (R-NM) so succinctly put it, "To say people must have a passport to travel and not give people a passport is right up there in the stupid column."

Interesting that these two issues sat side by side on the front page of my local newspaper this morning. Interesting, and not all that coincidental. We are at odds with ourselves these days over who should be allowed into our country and for what reasons. So it is not surprising that the desire to know where all of our own people are at any given moment would come back to haunt us in such a basic way. Some might call this passport nightmare a bit of political karma, or even poetic justice in the "what goes around, comes around" school of thought. We want to control who has access to the wealth and opportunities our country has to offer, but we are now potentially either held captive or not allowed back in if we leave because our government can't keep up with its own paperwork. One could also make a good case here for bitter irony.

The gospels contain a number of stories surrounding Jesus' interactions with his followers that speak of this same human need to present their own interests while shoving others aside in the process. One such case was while Jesus was traveling with his disciples. "As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging; and hearing a multitude going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him, 'Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.' And he cried, 'Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!' And those who were in front rebuked him, telling him to be silent; but he cried out all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!' And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him and when he came near, he asked him, 'What do you want me to do for you?' He said, 'Lord, let me receive my sight.' And Jesus said to him, 'Receive your sigh; your faith has made you well.' And immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God (Luke 18:35-43)."

By the time Jesus encounters the blind beggar on the way to Jericho, he has begun talking with his disciples about what lies ahead for himself and for them. Needless to say, they aren't quite getting it, having become so wrapped up in the ongoing saga that had become their lives. Thinking past experiencing day-to-day events as they unfolded may have never occurred to them. But for the larger communities among which they traveled and worked, Jesus' arrival, and subsequent teaching, preaching and healing, would have potentially been a one time only event. It is more understandable in this context to see that some people would do anything in their power to be a a part of the moment, even telling a blind beggar to shut up while pushing him out of the way.

While understandable, it didn't pay off as expected. The blind beggar didn't comply, Jesus heard him, and he had his moment to state his request. Interesting that he asked to receive his sight , and Jesus used the same language in return, adding that the man's faith had made him well. Is this blind beggar our own vision of a pious, faithful believer? He was loud, insistent and completely uncaring of what anyone else thought of him. His entire focus was on laying claim to his opportunity to trust his faith and be healed by Jesus. But most importantly, he didn't limit or take away anyone else's chance to connect with Jesus or also be heard. He furthered his own cause at no one else's expense. Perhaps that is why Jesus heard his voice above so many others that day. In trying to subvert another's access to Jesus' presence and power, more than a few people likely left empty handed.

What does our own desire to control our borders to an unprecedented degree tell us about ourselves? What do we become when we think shutting people out of our country is a good thing, while expecting to be welcomed to other people's countries with open arms? When we make choices to exclude people or deny them access to the United States, what part of our faith are we suspending to shove people out of the way so our own interests will be protected?

The blind beggar's story ends on a happy note. He receives his sight, follows Jesus and glorifies God. And somehow the crowd which witnessed the miracle of new sight in one man was changed too, and praised God as well. Those who had scorned and disrespected someone more vulnerable than themselves were also healed and transformed. Perhaps we can be healed as well, lifted up from our bunkers of fear, back into the light of hope and grace. We just might be able to reclaim our strength as a country that invites people to become, and in the process, we may also reclaim our own freedom to come and go as we please, passports in hand.

We Gather Together

2007-06-06T17:05:00.000-04:00

Today marks the beginning of the Group of Eight, or G8 Summit, a meeting of leaders from the world's wealthiest industrialized nations to discuss global economic and development issues. Germany, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, hosts France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, the United States, Canada and Russia, the countries that make up the G8 membership. The agenda for these meetings is growth and responsibility in the global community, as well as on the African Continent. Chancellor Merkel has clearly stated her belief that we need all global players to make this happen, implying a commitment to carry on the moral agenda set forth by the 2005 G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.

Although these Summits are held annually, it was the historic agenda at Gleneagles that drew the world's attention. That gathering settled on the reality that in order to help Africa move forward and heal, we the wealthiest countries of the world would need to increase aid, forgive the debt Africa owes to us and remove trade barriers that hinder African exports. These broad-based goals centered on the intent of eradicating extreme poverty in our world in this generation. Quite remarkable is that in this point/click/delete world we have not lost hope for ourselves that this vision can be made real. In that there is immeasurable grace.

Having grown up through the 1960's and 70's believing that anything was possible, many of my generation have held onto our idealism through personal and societal struggles, long enough to see the cycles with which life blesses us. We have enough of ourselves in place to be comfortable with what we don't know, but are equally grounded in what we do know, and what it can mean to live into that knowledge for all it is worth. From such places comes care for our communities, our country, our world, our people, and faith at how education, healthcare and housing can begin to make lives whole. From such places comes wisdom that recognizes that these problems of AIDS and malaria, polluted water and inadequate sanitation, trade injustice and poverty, are not new or easily solvable, but they are indeed able to be addressed and steadily diminished over time. Perhaps because of our idealism, or maybe because we are uniquely positioned as a generation between World War II and the Iraq War, with a thick layer of Vietnam sandwiched in for good measure, we recognize that some things never change, but that many,many more can and do with an investment of will and compassion. We are fortunate materially, more so than generations which preceded us, and perhaps even those following us, but we are also blessed with an embodied hope that cannot be denied.

My own memory of this kind of hope had fallen a bit dim, unbeknownst to me until I opened an alumni update bulletin from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay a few days ago. While leafing through its glossy pages I happened upon the familiar face of Julie Brickley, my favorite professor who had passed on almost ten years ago. Two of her close friends and colleagues had established a scholarship in her honor. You see, although Julie was my favorite professor, she was cherished by the university community as a whole. She was the first woman to receive the UW-Green Bay Founders Award for teaching excellence, and she founded and chaired the Women's Studies program of which I was a part. "Julie believed passionately that language lived at the heart of learning in every discipline," said her colleague. " She brought its joy and beauty to her daily teaching." This woman who had inspired me to connect with my own heart and dreams, with my hope for the future, was inspiring me again.

Perhaps the G8 Summits will function in this way for our world this year and for all the years to come. The Summits are no longer just a small group of white men (and the occasional woman) meeting for a couple of days each summer, ruminating on the world's ills and delivering heady economic solutions for them. Now the G8 Summits will always be linked to the simple hope, the ready belief that we can eradicate extreme poverty in our world in this generation. Our generation. It will not happen overnight, but the process is already begun. We are doing it, one step at a time. The Biblical concept of hope is deeply rooted here, it is strong and it grows in us each day. And, indeed, we are assured that, "Hope does not disappoint us (Romans 5:5)."

Discount Kingdom

2007-05-29T12:14:00.001-04:00

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.

Faith Talk

2007-05-15T18:32:00.001-04:00

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?

A Mother's Day

2007-05-11T17:10:00.001-04:00

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.

People We Know

2007-05-07T18:56:00.001-04:00

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.

False Prophets

2007-05-01T18:40:00.001-04:00

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.

The Most Important Step

2007-04-20T20:19:00.001-04:00

It has been a very long week.

The victims of Monday's shooting rampage at Virginia Tech are on their way home. Their parents, families, friends and colleagues have grieved with dignity before us and now are due their privacy to continue that journey.

For myself, I have stopped watching the news and reading the articles about that day. I am numb with the retelling, but also the senselessness of questions that appear to inspire insight, but instead are aimed directly at our fears and our need to rest blame. Did the president of Virginia Tech act in time? Should the Blacksburg police have sealed the campus into lock down? Why was there no system in place to deal with such a potential situation? Should the shooter's now obvious problems have been dealt with differently when they arose? Sometimes we simply need to stand in the pain and confusion, the unknowingness of what is before we can begin to understand what the next best step will be.

Through the din of voices discussing this horrific event, a little bit of hopeful sense has gleamed, a light in a dark tunnel. A young man whose sister died at Columbine High School eight years ago has spoken eloquently about carrying his sister's legacy of love and compassion to schools all across our country. His belief is that had he not been able to forgive his sister's killers his own anger and grief would have consumed him, perhaps pushing him to kill someone else. Focussing on those who lost their lives, not what the shooter did to cut those lives short, is something he also stressed. Who they were still matters very much. His work has prevented numerous acts of violence that would have otherwise only come to light after the fact on the evening news.

Another young man, Garret Evans, was in Jamie Bishop's Intro to German class on Monday when the gunman entered the room. Evans was shot in the leg and is thankful that three of his classmates held the door against the gunman's attempt to reenter the room. While discussing his experience with Harry Smith of the CBS Morning Show, Evans said he didn't blame his attacker. He wished he had met him before this happened so that he could have reached out to him in some way. Smith asked, "Do you know how crazy that sounds?" Evans replied that he did, but he had forgiven the shooter because the most important step is to forgive.

We have a hard time with forgiveness, whether it comes to call between friends in the middle of a heated disagreement or a situation as grave as Virginia Tech. We see it as giving in, giving something undeserved, and giving up our own power to continue the grievance. Often, people will say they forgive, but will not forget. A devotional I receive from a United Church of Christ radio ministry pointed out that a lot of people think this is a Biblical tenet. But no, it is not. The only thing the Bible says about forgiveness is that when we forgive God forgives us.

The Amish of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, testified to this most basic portion of our Christian theology when their children were gunned down last year. I remember a newscast from those sad days as well, sharing the profound moment of a man called out of his fields to tell the world that, "We believe we must forgive or Jesus won't forgive us." That night, a group of people from this deeply wounded community went to the family of the man responsible for their grief to offer their forgiveness and embrace them as among their own.

When we forgive we are forgiven and we can heal. Then we can go on to live and grow and change the world for the better. Forgiveness takes courage, wisdom and strength. But it also demands letting go of destructive, limiting, paralyzing fear. Forgiveness is necessary at the most inconvenient times, and required when it destroys us not to. When we forgive we are assured that we are forgiven. It is another moment to remember that forgiveness is the most important step. Forgiveness is everything.

They Who Now Mourn

2007-04-16T21:14:00.001-04:00

The Virginia Tech web site simply states: "Two shootings on campus today have left 33 dead. Thirty-one, including the gunman, died at Norris Hall; two died at West Amber Johnston Hall."

Where to begin? With prayer, I think.

Prayer for families who are about to hear or have already heard that their child died this morning at the hands of an unknown gunman. Prayer for the wounded and their families. Prayer for the people who witnessed these attacks and came out alive. Prayer for the faculty and staff and students who will be back on this campus in the days to come. Prayer for the medical teams who cared for those who lived and attended to those who died. Prayer for law enforcement authorities who will be investigating and sorting through the pieces of information to understand the whole of it, what happened and why.

Prayer is where we must start because it is too soon for anything other than making our way to the love of God from which nothing can separate us. We must pray for those touched by this tragedy because they may not be able to pray for themselves. This is our time to carry their burden of sorrow and grief until they can carry it for themselves.

Tonight we pray and tomorrow the Virginia Tech community will gather to begin the process of healing. The university's president, Charles Steger, has said this is what must come first so that they can decide what must come next. We will be with them in prayer through whatever comes next.

Public Stoning

2007-04-12T18:29:00.000-04:00

Don Imus may or may not have a job by the time you read this. While still clinging to his long-running morning radio show, albeit on a two week suspension, his MSNBC simulcast program is gone, along with most of his reputation. You probably already know why, but in case you don't, Mr. Imus directed a comb platter of racial and misogynistic slurs against a Rutgers University women's sports team last week. More than one public personality has called for retribution. Firing is almost too good in their eyes. There seems to be a theme requiring his suffering and humiliation in equal or greater measure to what he inflicted on the women who were his targets. What he said was wrong and he has made other comments in his years on the air that were also wrong. Up until this point he has been tolerated by some, enjoyed and encouraged by others. Clearly, times have changed.

Interesting that times have always been changing. "They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, 'Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?' This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, 'Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.' And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest. Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' She said, 'No one, Lord,' And Jesus said, 'Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again (John 8:1-11)."

We do like a good public stoning, don't we? Imus' behavior makes us feel superior because we would never be so stupid and hurtful. We can add Isaiah Washington, Mel Gibson and Michael Richards to that list too. They made equally questionable choices in their behavior and have suffered the consequences. We do like a good public stoning. We like complaining about people, judging behavior, language, parenting styles, clothing selections and assorted attitudes so very different than our own. But in the end, they are not so very different than our own.

Two thoughts occurred to me in watching the Imus situation unfold that Jesus also dealt with at the temple that day. The first is how willing we are to call for swift, exacting punishment when someone's behavior morally offends us. The second is that if we were held up to the same scrutiny we would have few choices but to turn and walk away, hopefully with enough time and awareness to hear Jesus' final words of grace.

Think how far that simple understanding would carry us if only we chose to hear and believe it. We are not condemned. We are directed to continue on, unified with God and God's purpose. Choose not to sin. Instead, choose God's mercy and grace. We can receive these gifts from God for ourselves, and then continue God's purpose by extending these same gifts to each person we meet who is in need of them. And really, who wouldn't welcome grace and mercy into their lives if given the chance?

Easter Morning

2007-04-08T10:20:00.001-04:00

The Passover travelers to Jerusalem were starting to pack up to go home. The crowds from the last week had already thinned significantly, enough to make the tragic events of the last few days seem distant. Sunday morning had dawned as usual. More people and animals on the streets as those leaving town got an early start, but not like last Sunday. Was it only a week since Jesus had entered Jerusalem, greeted by people praising his name as the next King of Israel? It was only a week, but also a lifetime ago. Jesus was dead, his body still waiting for a proper preparation before final burial. The disciples were still in hiding and Jesus' many followers had carried their fear and grief to the privacy of their homes.

Although Jesus' preaching, teaching and healing had inspired hope and new faith in so many, he would now become a part of the oral tradition that held his cousin, John the Baptist, and other Jewish leaders who had served their God and died in the process. Life would go back to the way it had been before Jesus became known as a public figure. He wasn't the Messiah they had hoped for, but he had kept their hope for that Messiah to come alive for a few years. Whatever happened next, at least they had that, that and the hope that God hadn't forsaken them and would still be with them while they waited. The quiet sadness was palpable and the steady stream of people leaving Jerusalem that day seemed to carry with them what little energy and life the city had left in it to keep believing and keep going.

But, daily life is what gives us the structure and support to get up, face each day and keep going, especially when we are grieving. The women who had been a part of Jesus' life knew that better than most. It was they who would now gather at the tomb where Jesus had temporarily been laid after his death late Friday afternoon to prepare his body for permanent burial. With so little time before the beginning of the Sabbath at sundown, this had bee the only choice. Perhaps it had been a good choice for them as well. The horror of Jesus' death was overwhelming. A few days of distance might make their task a little easier. Regardless, the time had come to honor Jesus and what he had meant to them in the only way left to them.

"When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, 'Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?'

When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. But he said to them, 'Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go tell the disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you (Mark 16:1-8)."

It was a new day in a new world of possibilities. God had not forgotten them.

Good Friday in Jerusalem

2007-04-05T18:31:00.001-04:00

Do you remember waking up one day in June 1968 to the news that Robert Kennedy had been shot and was near death? Having just finished a triumphant speech to support his run for the United States presidency, Kennedy embodied the hope the country craved after years of escalating military involvement in Vietnam, the assassination in April of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the shadow of his brother's violent death only a few years before that. The news from California didn't reach the Midwest until that morning because the last speech of Robert Kennedy ran late into the evening on the West Coast, and we had all assumed that the worst was over and the best was yet to be. The cheering crowds anticipating Kennedy's speech were the last television image most of us remember from that night. While his brother, John, had led the country through the Cuban Missile Crisis and set the vision for the moon landing that would come the next year, Bobby represented a far greater hope: equality and justice for all. Lyndon Johnson had signed the Civil Rights Act into law and the presidency Bobby Kennedy envisioned included making this law a part of the fabric of American life.

Robert Kennedy died later that day. His passing was one more blow to the country that felt like the death of hope itself.

The grief of that June morning is as close as I can come to grasping what Good Friday in Jerusalem felt like to Jesus' disciples and followers. Having welcomed Jesus back to Jerusalem with joy and excitement only days earlier, the city now faced a very different rendering of Jesus as a public figure. While the most holy of Jewish holidays was celebrated around the Seder table the night before, Jesus had been arrested and would be executed that afternoon. How did the City of Jerusalem hear the news? Word of mouth would carry the news quickly, particularly among travelers who may have sensed the tension between the Romans and the Temple priests over Jesus' influence among the crowds. Matching history's lessons to the powerful impact of Jesus' message meant it wasn't a complete surprise that this latest preacher's life would end violently at the hands of Rome.

But as families awoke that day, having just remembered in the Passover how their ancestors had been brought out of Egypt, many of them could not have helped but hoped that Jesus might be the Messiah, and that hope of a new Jewish redemption may be near. Gathered with family and friends, celebrating the Passover in a place and time of such great hope for the future was an incredible gift. But soon the news of what had happened the night before would travel from house to house, family to family and heart to heart. In this time of chaos and confusion people also had to be asking themselves and each other what had gone so wrong so quickly.

The morning presented the stark reality of how Jesus had spent his Passover. The people of Jerusalem poured into the streets as they heard the news about Jesus and were confronted by Jesus himself, clearly having been beaten and tortured, dragging a heavy timber across his shoulders as his Roman captors taunted him with verbal abuse, sarcastically calling him "The King of the Jews." His disciples were no where around. The crowds filing the streets weren't waving palm branches and shouting hosannahs anymore. They were joining in with the Romans, yelling and screaming at Jesus, spitting on him and kicking him when he collapsed under the weight of the timber. The crowds knew he was carrying the beam onto which he would be nailed as soon as he reached the crucifixion site outside of the city. Whoever did care didn't speak up too loudly.

Walking this day out, step by step, cannot have been anything less than a horror show in slow motion. We frequently complain about the world moving too fast today, wishing it would slow down to a more manageable speed. Perhaps some days this speed could be a blessing, the days we want to forget and not ever relive in the gruesome detail that still takes us apart from the inside out. How did these people who had known and loved Jesus, having hoped against hope in his message, decide how much they could bear that day? Would they run away at seeing Jesus struggle on the street? Would they follow, staying at a distance in case the Romans were looking for more people to execute? Would they turn back to the safety of their homes and families until Sabbath worship that evening? Could they draw on their courage to go to the cross on the hill and let Jesus see them there so he knew he was still loved? What would Sabbath be like that night? How could they worship God, wondering if their Messiah had just been murdered before their eyes?

How does anyone keep living when they believe that hope has died, and the future has died with it?

Wednesday Evening

2007-04-02T22:12:00.000-04:00

Palm Sunday

2007-03-30T15:44:00.000-04:00

The evening before Palm Sunday is not traditionally as busy as the preparatory days before Easter. There are no big meals to plan, no eggs to decorate, and no special outfits to pick out or iron. There is no need to try to go to bed early in anticipation of an early rising for a sunrise worship service. While Palm Sunday worship can be exhilarating, shaking off the somewhat heavy mantle of Lent, and a bit special because of the token palm branch many churches offer on the way out as an object lesson for the day, there isn't much that distinguishes the day from other Sundays. That is unless you take a serious look at what this day meant to the people whose voices were the strength of the hosannahs Jesus heard that day as he reentered Jerusalem with his disciples.

What was that Saturday night like? How did people prepare to welcome Jesus, this man some were calling the Messiah? What was it like to consider that Jesus might be the one who would lead them out from under Roman rule as they gathered to celebrate the Passover and remember their escape from Egypt with Moses as their guide?

I can only imagine the energy and the hope buzzing through the crowded city as the sun went down, Sabbath services came to a close and discussions about the next day's events became the central focus for the rest of the night. How would Jesus enter the city? How many people would come out to welcome him? With so many visitors in town for the Passover would the Romans leave the crowds alone or would they try to show some extra force to keep the everything under control? What would Jesus talk about? Surely, with an audience this size he wouldn't miss the opportunity to share his message. Maybe this would be the moment he would choose to announce that he was indeed the Messiah. Maybe this Passover would also be the year that God would save the Jewish people again.

Perhaps there was even some conversation about Jesus spending some time with individual families, sharing a meal or a simple visit. He had been known to socialize with many people during his travels. He had also been known to heal those for whom there appeared to be no cures. Were there families in Jerusalem that night praying for their miracles as Jesus prepared to enter the great city? Were others ready to take this opportunity to learn what they could from this man they had heard about by word of mouth, but had never seen in person? His teachings had astonished many, and rumor had it, angered the Jewish authorities. Whatever tomorrow held, it would be a day to remember, a day to share with children and grandchildren for generations to come.

And then it was Sunday morning.

"The great crowd heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, 'Hosannah! Blessed is the who comes in the name of the Lord - the King of the Jews! (John 12:12-13)."

And then it was over.

The crowds dissipated. Shops stayed open for the extra visitors in town for the Passover later in the week. People went home to feed their families and attend to the rest of their lives. As exciting and glorious as the morning had been, Jesus would likely stay in the area through the holy days and they would have other chances to hear him preach without so many people clamoring around him. Still, it was good to be a part of his arrival. Something so wonderful had not been seen in Jerusalem for quite some time. Whether or not Jesus was the Messiah, his presence could make the world better. Maybe there was still hope.

Defining Moments

2007-03-28T19:28:00.000-04:00

How many ways can life change as a result of unattended to choices?

Step off a curb into oncoming traffic before the light changes and we take our lives into our own hands. Wait a few moments, traffic comes to a halt and safe passage across the street is secured. Eat whatever we choose, ignore our health in every possible way and suddenly, a stroke or heart attack puts us into a hospital bed hooked up to monitors that go beep in the night. Choose to care for ourselves over the course of time, eating properly, drinking enough water, sleeping and exercising in appropriate proportions and we live long, stable lives. Spend time with people who are miserable, unwilling to examine their lives, grow as human beings or treat other people with respect and bit by bit, our lives get worn down to dimly lit nothingness. Seek out people who inspire us, share joy and peace just by being and our lives become filled with light and new life.

As we near completion of our wilderness journey, it becomes increasingly clear that faith is not a once and done decision, but a series of choices that shape our lives over time.

Discipleship was tricky business for the New testament Twelve. Called and welcomed to what became a three year apprenticeship with a carpenter's son, they signed on for what they assumed would be a glorious future filled with redemption and hope. They expected the world to change with magnificent military triumph that would bring Israel back to the full power of its past. "Now it happened that as he was praying alone the disciples were with him; and he asked them, 'Who do the people say that I am?' and they answered, 'John the Baptist; but others say Elijah, and others, that one of the old prophets has risen.' And he said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' And Peter answered, 'The Christ of God.' But he charged and commanded them to tell this to no one saying, 'The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised (Luke 9:18-22)."

Imagine their surprise and confusion as this thread was woven in and out of the tapestry of those three years they spent together. Teaching, healing, praying, public speaking, walking from town to town, living among the people, tending to their own lives and families, only to be reminded that Jesus didn't expect anything to come of it all but his own death. Who would raise him from the dead if he were dead himself? Courageous and obedient as they were, we cannot blame the disciples for not quite getting it, no matter how many times Jesus spoke with them about the future. We cannot blame them for not wanting to consider losing their leader, teacher and friend, let alone the whole hope for their people.

But what wasn't lost on them was that this was a lifetime commitment, something to which they would be giving of themselves consistently and fully. "And he said to them, 'If anyone would come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me (Luke 9:23)."

And so we are called, welcomed to continue the teaching, healing, praying, public speaking, traveling from town to town, living among the people of God and tending to our own lives and our families. We are called to remember that Jesus' life and work did mean something, then and now, and will continue to through all of us who live our moments defined by this belief.

Casualties of War

2007-03-23T18:09:00.000-04:00

Yesterday marked the beginning of the fifth year of U.S. involvement in what has now become known as the Iraqi Civil War. The troop surge pressed into service by Bush administration policies backs a weary American army that many military experts say cannot hold out much longer. With many troops returning for third and fourth fours of duty, with much shorter breaks at home between tours, it is amazing we have kept our presence alive so far away from home for so long. But we are learning a very hard lesson in this country today: the United States is not all-knowing or all-powerful. Neither is our leadership, despite their best efforts to pretend otherwise with themselves.

What we have today is the mess we have made based on incomplete thoughts processes and poor decision-making practices. Somehow there has to be a shift away from discussions of winning and losing to making life livable again for the Iraqi people with their own resources and leadership. Somewhere amid the weapons of mass destruction, the roadside bombs and the images of tanks and artillery traveling the streets of Baghdad each night that we see on the national news, we have forgotten that Iraq is not the fifty-first state. We have forgotten that this is not our country, not our war and that the future of Iraq is not within our decision-making power to decide.

We have also forgotten what it is like to host a war on our own land. The last time we did so was during the 1860's. Next month marks the 142nd anniversary of the end of our own Civil War. We picked that fight among ourselves, only receiving help on both sides from other nations after the battles had begun. That war, like the one going on in the Middle East, was fought on main streets and family farms, on backyards and front porches, places where parties, ice cream socials, weddings and baptisms had previously welcomed human warmth, kind heartedness and generosity of spirit.

War changes everything.

My Great Great Grandfather Henry fought in that war, something I happened to discover only this week. He marched with the Michigan 4th Regiment, Company 13 Infantry to places far from home that now sound familiar to us: Antitam, Gettysburg, New Orleans. He was among the fortunate who came back to his wife and two children and went on to have two more sons, including my Great Grandfather Charles. My Grandfather William went on to serve in World War I, but he never spoke of that experience or his own grandfather's participation in a war that surely seemed far removed from our quiet lives on the shores of Lake Michigan. All my questions about what Europe was like while he was there did was cast a shadow over his face. Wars, even those in the distant past, were not discussed.

Perhaps that needs to change because war changes everything.

Our Civil War residue still lingers in race relations and regional economic development to this day. Maybe we need to each spend time looking at the old photographs of our land strewn with lifeless bodies belonging to loved ones who may be our own ancestors or the ancestors of our friends and neighbors. Reading the newspaper stories and memoirs of those whose homes became command posts and emergency hospitals may help us grasp what it was like to lose control over one's destiny to a cause that had lost its course and meaning. Visiting with these people who are not so removed from us in our own time, these people whose lives were blown apart, destroyed by cannon fire, malnutrition, disease and limited medical care, may help us feel what they felt and understand a little of what war really does to a country and its people.

Because war changes everything. We seem to have forgotten.

We have distanced ourselves so far from this war we are waging in Iraq that we no longer remember why we are there. We are ignoring the impact war waged in people's neighborhoods has on them and their children. We choose to deny the long-term ramifications that will be felt for generations to come, whether discussed or not. We have removed ourselves so far from God's intention for us that we have forgotten, are ignoring these important words from the prophet Isaiah calling us to repentance: "Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:6-9)."

It is time to pay attention to what we are doing, to how our actions are affecting the Iraqi people. It is time to remember what war up close does to people's minds, bodies and spirits. It is time to decide what our faith tells us to do to help the Iraqi people govern their own country and heal their lives. It is time to help them reclaim their lives and their peace.

Pharisees Among Us

2007-03-19T19:08:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I wonder if we really grasp the power of technology.

I suspect that Karl Rove, Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush, is kicking himself this morning over his own ignorance of what can be dredged up from the depths of a hard drive that has no ethical or moral issues causing it to withhold information. Eight U.S. attorneys were recently fired despite excellent reviews. There have understandably been some questions raised. It appears the prosecutors were released from their work because they wouldn't follow the lead set by the Bush administration's blatant disregard for the law. The White House has denied anything but minimal awareness of the Justice Department's actions in the firings.

But America Online reported today that Karl Rove's emails say he knew a lot and was involved heavily with making the decision to remove the prosecutors from their positions and that the actions were politically motivated. Specifically the article said, "Emails released this week, including a set issued Thursday night by the Justice Department, appear to contradict the administration's assertion that Bush's staff had only limited involvement in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, which Democrats have suggested were a politically motivated purge." Although not uncommon for a president to replace federal prosecutors at the beginning of a term, there is a right way and a wrong way to handle such things. Pushing people out of jobs at which they have excelled because they annoy you, and then lying about it, would clearly be the wrong way to handle such things. It never fails to amaze me how people with power forget that they are both human and accountable. Human, because they can easily trip themselves up. Accountable, because their arrogance has made them an easy target of demands for the truth.

It is not uncommon for those who perceive themselves as powerful to feel immune to public scrutiny or remain unaware that they will eventually face consequences for their actions. As we of the Christian faith continue our journey through these forty days of Lent, we are reminded of how the Pharisees constantly fumbled and bumbled their way through every encounter they had with Jesus. Used to dealing with a populace which followed their leadership with minimal fuss, when they did come up against someone who seemed to question their authority they bristled. Jesus wasn't the first public figure lifted up by the people as a prophet or potential Messiah. He likely wouldn't be the last. The whole Jewish community longed for redemption from Roman oppression and the Temple leadership was no exception. But their job was to hold the religious culture together until the Messiah actually arrived. Any threat to that enormous task was considered a threat to the Jewish faith and the Israelite nation as a whole. Any threat to that faith was an assault on them personally as well. Who would they be if they did not fulfill their obligation to their people?

But Jesus pushed the Pharisees in ways no one else had before, even John the Baptist. He put human needs above religious law, then claimed the law and the prophets as community property, fulfilling his own call to refocus and redirect his people with God's loving kindness. Undercutting the Pharisees' authority left them feeling powerless, which in turn led them to a point of desperation so deep they cooperated in the death of their kinsman in order to preserve their religious heritage and its future.

Luke shares one memorable encounter that points to the conventions to which the Pharisees subscribed as usual practices and Jesus' attempt to help open their eyes to the larger picture. "While he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him; so he went in and sat at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, 'Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of extortion and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give for alms those things which are within, and behold, everything is clean for you (Luke 11: 37-41)." For all we know, the Pharisee was attempting to make a connection with Jesus, understand more about who he was and about his perspective as a rabbi. Asking Jesus about his personal hygiene habits may not have been a rude comment, but a simple dinner conversation designed to hold the meal until Jesus had time to prepare himself.

What we do know is that Jesus took this moment to raise an important issue and teach a lesson. Our actions must align themselves with our beliefs or both are rendered meaningless. Our credibility as believers, as people of faith, is destroyed if we say one thing and do another while we think no one is watching or if we think we won't be discovered in the lie. Jesus pointed out the discrepancy between the Pharisee's actions to hold the Jewish religion together at the expense of the faith of the people who embodied it. Clearly that did not sit well with the Pharisees as a group. Jesus saw what was coming, but continued his work anyway.

Meanwhile, Karl Rove has accused his critics of making the firing of the U.S. attorneys political. I'm sure Mr. Rove feels his actions were designed to serve the American people. But the distance between his actions and his words is growing. There is a good bit of space open for ambiguity and confusion, but perhaps also, some truth. Mr. Rove may be attempting to serve his country, sustaining it for future generations to come. but he is also serving his own interests as a person who perceives himself as powerful and who wants to remain so.

On Being Spiritual

2007-03-09T18:20:00.000-05:00

How is Lent treating you? It's a long road to Jerusalem and Palm Sunday, almost three weeks by my calculation. A clergy friend of mine once remarked that Lent would be easier if it were only four weeks long, like Advent. She was right, of course, and mainly speaking from an administrative standpoint. It is easier to get congregational investment in shorter length programming because people's lives are over-stuffed with so much already. And, culturally, we don't like thinking about scaling back and focusing in on parts of our spirituality that deal with pain and suffering, our own or someone else's.

Lent has that reputation, encouraging us to peer under the tarps we have thrown over our shame and guilt. Exploring that less cultivated side of our beliefs rarely inspires enthusiasm or excitement, kind of like a rainy day off from school. What can you do with it that doesn't feel like work? Cleaning our rooms, doing homework ahead of time or helping our parents out with some chores should not fill up precious free time. Lent fees like open territory that has been given to us, but using it well feels like entirely too much work.

Lots of people think living a faithful life anytime of the year is not supposed to be hard. If we think that God exists, cares for us and won't ever leave us, what's all the rest of this religious behavior supposed to be about? That seems to be the defining point for a number of people who consider themselves to be spiritual, but don't feel they need religious structures in order to connect with God. God being everywhere, they can connect with God anywhere. That makes sense to me. What doesn't is the caveat that they practice their own form of spirituality, but can't quite give any examples of how they do that. Hmmm. I would guess not so much. Sounds more lazy than personally creative or faithful to me.

Just as we all know life is difficult, faith is work. Let me say that again: faith is work. My dad liked to say that work wasn't a four letter word, but somehow easy is a strong selling point for everything from preparing meals to preparing for a career. If something is difficult, challenging or takes effort we shy away from it. Hence the idea to skip through Lent on an Ash Wednesday prayer and a Palm Sunday hosannah. All that messy, gut-wrenching stuff in between isn't particularly pretty or fun. Those hard questions of what tempts us away from God and how we end up serving so many false gods get by passed or completely ignored because examining our lives too closely means we likely will be forced to make some adjustments to realign our faith with our actions. A bit of a bother, eh?

A bother, perhaps, but an important one. Clearing out our closets now and again is a bother, but one with benefits. It's satisfying to find your way clear of old clothes, wrinkled Christmas wrapping and magazines from decades ago that you no longer need or use. Putting back only what has a purpose in your life leaves an organized, clean space in which you can locate items quickly and easily. The sorting process doesn't take so long if you do it regularly. But leave a closet to it's own devices for a few years and you have some serious work in front of you.

Worshipping the false god of impatience, for example, can fill up a spiritual closet inside of us with anger, bitterness and resentment until it is packed to overflowing. Keeping the door shut on that mess can become a full time job. It's tempting to just leave it alone for as long as we can. But every time we curse out a driver who doesn't move fast enough for us, or tap our foot at the person fumbling for change ahead of us in line at the grocery store, or tell our own children to hurry up when they are going as fast as they can, we place ourselves for worship at the altar of the god of impatience and say a prayer that adds another burden to that closet inside of us. False gods abound wherever ill behavior makes us believe we matter more than the people around us.

Lent is the time to consider, to examine what tempts us to do other than what we know will strengthen and support our faith. Lent is the time to bring our focus to the false gods we have closeted inside ourselves, clear out the space they have occupied in us and welcome our one true God back to our freshly-cleaned spiritual spaces. Lent is the time to do some spring cleaning in our souls. It may not be glamorous, but it feels really good when we are done.

Enough is Enough

2007-03-06T18:13:00.001-05:00

After picking up some essentials at my local grocery store, I remembered hearing a radio ad saying that Power Ball was up to $109 million. For fun I stopped at the courtesy counter on my way out to pick up a lottery ticket. While the clerk finished helping another customer, I mentioned the jackpot total to the woman standing next to me in line. Pleasantly surprised, she added a ticket to her own purchase. We laughed about splitting the total between us. By then the clerk had returned, mentioning that earlier this month a woman had won $10,000 with a ticket purchased at this store. I thought that was pretty great, even after taxes! The clerk shook her head, saying nothing less than $50,000 would be enough to make her happy. That amount would allow her to pay off everything except her house and also allow her a little money to play with.

Both interesting and surprising, isn't it, to be confronted with someone else's bottom line for happiness.

There is a certain level of anxiety underlying these moments, as if a giant tally sheet exists somewhere, listing for all time what we hope to walk away with at the end of this game called life. If we settle for too little too quickly, everybody else will out pace us and leave us trailing in the dust of their luck and good fortune. That happiness can be placed on a monetary scale of one to who knows how many thousands or millions of dollars is another bit of proof that we believe more in the power of financial influence than the God we seemingly credit as the Source of all being. Perhaps there is a reason money doesn't grow on trees after all.

The sixth chapter of Matthew's gospel places the balance of money and faith in human lives among the important issues of piety, prayer, forgiveness and fasting. Jesus addresses each subject directly, telling his listeners that piety, prayer and fasting are to be conducted privately, between themselves and God, not displayed for show to impress others. Forgiveness, exemplified with what we now call The Lord's Prayer, when extended to others is a representation of how God also forgives us. If we choose to withhold forgiveness, we are only hurting ourselves. By not forgiving others the slights and hurts perpetrated against us we seal off God's avenue of forgiveness to us.

It is at this point that Jesus draws the crowd to consider earthly possessions. "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness. No one can serve two masters; for either they will hate the one and love the other, or they will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6: 19-24)." Jesus follows up with assurances on how God's divine order works, how God cares for all of creation in concrete, consistent ways: the birds are fed, the lilies are dressed, and rather well, more beautifully than
Solomon, who was rumored to be wealthy enough to have the best of everything. If God looks after the smallest of creatures and the plants growing in the fields, why wouldn't God also attend to our needs?

Jesus nails the problem. We are anxious because we believe money will solve our problems. Money is the world's loudest language: money talks. Money cushions us against impending disaster. Money protects us from the pain of loss. Money soothes what ails us. Money gives us control and power in a world that makes us feel out of control and powerless. Because money is tangible we trust it to be for us whatever we need or want it to be. But if we attempt to deceive ourselves into believing that we can love money and serve God, we are wrong. Eventually, the two paths will diverge and we will be forced to make a choice. Loving money has a way of distracting us from our true purpose in service to God like nothing else. Just like piety, prayer and fasting, faith in God isn't meant to be displayed in public ways to show off for other people. If our faith is in money, instead of God, it will show up very clearly, very quickly, in ways we cannot hide, especially if we think someone has outstripped us in accumulating what we love most.

Jesus understood uncertainty and anxiety as part of the human condition. What he does with these words is convey the full measure of what God's presence among us means. "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day (Matthew 6:33-34)." When we put serving God first our needs are attended to and we can put our priorities in order. We don't focus our attention on worry or an elusive happiness based on material wealth that can slip away as easily as a thief in the night. We look to God who shows care for all of creation in loving detail. God makes sure we have enough.

Til Death

2007-03-04T20:30:00.000-05:00

Anna Nicole Smith was finally buried in Nassau, The Bahamas, today, three weeks after her sudden death at age thirty-nine. News reports indicate that her mother's last minute push to be allowed to bring her daughter back to her native Texas for burial were denied. The only certainty at this, the end of Ms. Smith's tumultuous life, is that her final resting place will be next to her twenty-year-old son, Daniel, who died only six months ago while visiting his mother after the birth of his sister, Danielynn. The rest, the cause of her death, the paternity of her daughter and the management of her massive estate, are left for science and the courts to decide. A bystander to today's media frenzy, an American tourist waiting for shops to open for business across the street from where Ms. Smith's funeral was held, was surprised at the furor surrounding her death. The woman pondered aloud that Ms. Smith wasn't a president or a queen, and in fact, she was a nobody. I'm sure Anna Nicole Smith's family, friends and fans would disagree. I am none of the above, but it is clear to me that she mattered to a lot of people who will miss her. It is also sad that her daughter will never know her mother. That said, I am sincerely hoping the media will let Anna Nicole Smith rest in peace and give us a new focal point for our attention.

What draws our collective attention in this country is fascinating to me. Celebrities and outrageous behavior represent far too much air space on news broadcasts and entertainment programs. Brittany Spears' personal and professional life has not defined the importance of quality education in our schools. No Hollywood couples' relational status determines the price of bread at my local market. Details of Paris Hilton's most recent birthday party does not contribute to peace in the Middle East. This is to say, as numerous other people have said before, that while we are allowing ourselves to be distracted by so much foolishness, there is a whole bunch of other stuff going on in the world to which we should be paying attention. In a way we should be grateful Jesus lived, died when he did because I'm not so sure he would have made the evening news, let alone the Bible, if he had lived in today's drama-hungry, paparazzi-infested media climate.

Considering Jesus' life, his work and the culture in which he found himself, it is even more amazing we in the twenty-first century know anything about him, especially as much as we do. Jesus' locally-focused world centered on contained communities and the oral tradition. People didn't often leave their hometowns in search of fame, fortune or adventure. Limited resources, limited choices and assumptions about how life was and was supposed to be were the invisible fences that held people in check. There was also that little thing called the Roman army, which was pretty effective at keeping people in their place.

But somehow, against heavy odds, we know about Jesus' life and his death, and we know how the surrounding community responded. Luke's gospel gives a stark account of betrayal, torture and brutality. Many of those closest to Jesus deserted him. Those who did stay to the end were left feeling helpless and hopeless. "And the people stood by, watching; but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, 'He saved others; let him save himself. If he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One!' The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering vinegar, and saying, 'If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself (Luke 23: 35-37)!"

Jesus wasn't the only person crucified that day or that year. Effective as a deterrent against political uprisings, Rome used this particular form of execution as often as necessary to prove the point of its own power. But Because Jesus was a public figure, a celebrity in his own way, we do know more. It was to Rome's advantage and the advantage of the Temple authorities, to use that horrible day's events for all they were worth to keep all those people who had hoped on Jesus as their Messiah under their control. Hopeless people are easier to manage. What is truly remarkable, indeed, miraculous, is that the rest of the story got through. Jesus did rise from the dead. Despite all the Roman power and coersion to the contrary, that one piece of information made it into the best-selling book of all time. Someone was paying attention.

So, despite the barrage of intimate information about Anna Nicole Smith, Brittany spears and various Hollywood types, there are other, extremely important things going on to which we must pay attention and on which we must act while we can. We have more choices, more opportunity, than most people can ever dream of. Our faith is calling us to remember how Jesus lived, died and rose to new life. Our faith is calling us to remember, pay attention and act.

Tomb Raiders

2007-02-28T16:49:00.000-05:00

Rumor has it that the burial tomb of Jesus has been found. They've even made a movie about the discovery. It's only a matter of time before some enterprising soul opens the Jesus Was Here Theme Park and Gift Shops. Visitors will be able to stop by and see where Jesus' final resting place is tucked into the hills of the Holy Land. They will be able to have their pictures taken outside the tomb with the angel who met the women on that first Easter morning and then purchase souvenirs as mementos of their trip back in time. Who could resist drinking their morning coffee out of a rock-shaped mug asking, " Where's Jesus?"

Crowds will gather at the park's trendy restaurants, fashionable hotels and night spots to experience life as Jesus and his disciples knew it over two thousand years ago (Realistic food interpretations from way back then will be neatly sidestepped - we hear it wasn't so tasty. No need to discourage the tourists). Historical figures from the time of Christ will mingle among the park guests to answer pertinent theological questions that may arise during their visit. Dramatic moments, like the Sermon on the Mount, will be recreated at one, three and five each afternoon, except major holidays. Ride the Jesus Was Here tram, driven by a Chief Priest, Scribe or Pharisee, robes flowing gently in the breeze, bringing you full circle on a journey back to when our Savior walked the earth. Yes, I can see it all now.

Pardon? You aren't worried about a consumer-driven theme park springing up overnight as much as that part about Jesus still being in the tomb? And you're a little concerned that there were other people discovered with him there, his parents, Mary and Joseph, and Mary Magdalene and a boy named Judah, who the archaeologists believe may be Jesus' wife and son?

Apparently you aren't alone. Clergy from a variety of denominations denounced the story as fiction as soon as it hit the internet and then again on the evening news. How could anyone of the Christian faith possibly buy into this foolishness? Of course Jesus physically rose from the dead. Without that, we don't have a leg to stand on for everything we say we believe. What happens to that new building fund drive now? We just spent half our education budget on new curriculum for the fall. What about all those Easter lilies people have already paid for?

One brave soul spoke out, raising a voice of reason and reflection up amid the knee jerk reaction of so many others. My apologies for not getting his name, but he appeared on the NBC Nightly News on Monday night. He may even have been the film producer who brought us this documentary. What he said was simply put: more information was not a bad thing and could serve to strengthen people's faith, not destroy it.

He's right.

Along these lines are some of the lyrics from a song by the late John Denver called "Perhaps Love." One of the verses tells us that, "Perhaps love is like a window, perhaps an open door. It invites you to come closer, it wants to show you more." What could be better than to love someone, know them inside and out, backwards and forwards, and still be welcomed farther into their embrace, trusted even more fully to enter their life, know them for who they truly are, warts and all? Take that thought into your being and experience it for a moment. Pretty amazing stuff, isn't it? Sometimes we catch glimpses of this deep knowing between people, but living that kind of relationship, as friends, soul mates, or life partners can only be understood by people who have opened themselves to the experience as it has come to them. Clinging to old ideas of what any type of relationship is supposed to look like means we stay stuck in old fairy tales whose lessons become rigid and brittle with time. Flexibility and open hearts are instruments God uses to share new stories and expand our knowingness of God through faith.

Not a fairy tale, but the cornerstone of the Christian faith, the resurrection of Jesus Christ settled the debate and the fear of being separated from God's love after death. Entering our second week of the Lenten wilderness journey may be a very good time to see how settled we are in our faith and particularly with how we feel about our own eventual death. Maybe not. But this archaeological revelation does give us a chance to understand how much we depend on specific facts and Biblical references to define our faith as we know it. We laugh at and scoff over the Sadducees and Pharisees, especially their need to hold Jesus to the letter of the law. But are we so different?

"On a Sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some of the heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. But some of the Pharisees said, 'Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath?' And Jesus answered, 'Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him; how he entered the house of God, and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him (Luke 6:1-4)." What could be more foolish than to starve, rather than break a rule about who can eat certain foods? The Pharisees didn't think it was at all absurd because it challenged their beliefs and their personal authority in the religious community. Only a few verses later, after another confrontation with Jesus over Sabbath rules and regulations, the Pharisees began plotting to rid themselves of Jesus once and for all. Amazing what a thought-provoking nudge can cause people to do.

Whatever comes of this latest archaeological find remains to be seen. The ramifications for Christianity and its historical context will play out over time. How we use these ideas to understand our own faith underscores that what we believe is person, if not private. Last year's presumed uncovering of the Biblical Ark was a rallying cry for proof of God's existence. Perhaps we mostly need to stop looking for proof and step out into the unknown of faith.

Gorilla Evangelism

2007-02-26T14:00:00.000-05:00

A headline in my local paper caught my attention: Italy Indicts CIA Agents in Abduction. Come to find out, our U.S. government has established a habit of seizing suspected terrorists from European countries, then interrogating and sometimes torturing them in secret locations. The case referenced in the article was of an Egyptian cleric who disappeared near his mosque in Milan on February 17, 2003. He says he was kidnaped, and was freed from an Egyptian jail only two weeks ago. The CIA term for such circumstances is "extraordinary renditions." The European response is anger, anger at the blatant disregard for their countries' laws and rights afforded its citizens. If circumstances were reversed, there would be an outcry from the American public heard around the world.

Sometimes we get so caught up in our own world view that we forget how our actions affect other people. Our country's leadership seeks to impress us and the world by being tough on terror, forgetting that there are designated limits to our power and authority. And sometimes the only way we understand that reality is to turn the tables on ourselves, to look at our behavior through someone else's eyes.

Take, for instance, the basic tenet of the Christian faith known as the Great Commission. Matthew shares Jesus' words to his disciples as he sends them into the world to continue the work they began together: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28: 16-20)." What many people assume is that we are to Christianize the entire population of the planet with no regard for anyone's existing faith perspective. As a general rule, this hasn't worked very well Consider the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, and the attempted destruction of North American Aboriginal cultures, all based in the belief that everybody must be Christian because the Bible tells us so.

This persistent perspective ignores one simple truth: the Great Commission never even implies that we are to force people to believe or become disciples of Jesus Christ against their will. The Great Commission is directed squarely at those who are already disciples. We are to make new disciples throughout the world through baptism and teaching, and God will be with us in that process. But there is no way to force faith onto people, ever. To assume otherwise means we are questioning one of God's great gifts, that of free will, and disrespecting each person's right and responsibility to choose and work out their own salvation.

Consider your own beliefs, how you came to them and have incorporated them into your life over the years of your faith journey. What may be different now if some well-meaning soul had come along, attempting an ambush of the seedling faith you were nurturing with judgments that confused you or sent you spiritually adrift? How would you feel now if another person, someone who may hold a completely different faith perspective believed it was their responsibility to baptize, teach and convert you to their beliefs? How would you come to terms with their message to you regarding your own faith?

Another point to be made about the Great Commission is that we don't do the converting, even if we are present when someone welcomes faith into their life for the first time. Conversion is God's business. We are merely the instruments of God's loving grace in action. We are called to be disciples, baptize and teach others about God's love and leave plenty of room for the Holy Spirit to work.

Nothing more and nothing less.

Into the Wilderness

2007-02-20T13:22:00.000-05:00

When I was growing up our church camping program included opportunities for all ages, from grade school children to adults, to enjoy the great outdoors. Housing ranged from teepees to wood frame cabins with built in bunk beds lining the walls like shelves in a storage room The bathrooms were never down the hall, but across the way, past the trees near the lake. More ruggedly basic experiences were also available, adventures that featured canoeing around Minnesota with a pack on your back and a song in your heart. I never asked the people who took that trip where the bathrooms were located. And while I participated in the cabin-based senior high camp, I have never been anything other than reticent about walking away from indoor plumbing, a comfortable bed and a fully-functioning kitchen to live in a tent among whatever surprises nature has to offer. The great outdoors is not for everyone.

But the cycle of the church year has brought us around to Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent once more, and what Lent offers us is the simple reality that while some of us may choose not to camp, none of us can avoid the wilderness. Not even Jesus.

It is interesting to me that, according to the Gospel writers, Jesus' forty days in the wilderness being tempted comes before the beginning of his public ministry. Luke's account tells us of Jesus' baptism, then gives his ancestral credentials, a resume in application for his upcoming work, then presents Jesus' job interview at the hands of the devil himself. But Jesus clearly passes through all the hoops placed in his path with grace, and moves onto Nazareth, his hometown, to return to his childhood synagogue to read the prophet Isaiah's words to his people. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4: 18-19)." As you may recall, the hometown crowd did not embrace Jesus in his homecoming, and in fact ran him out of town in an attempt to throw him off a cliff. That is what could be termed immediate feedback and good preparation for what was to come a few years down the road in Jerusalem.

Consider what Luke is telling us about Jesus' wilderness experience. Jesus had been baptized in a very public way by his cousin John. Jesus claimed his connection to his Jewish faith in this act of baptism before setting off to seek understanding and further guidance from God in the privacy of the wilderness. As it turned out, Jesus wasn't alone dealing with the temptations of balancing his spirituality with his humanity. He was supported by the legacy of his ancestors, those before him who had also struggled in their wilderness, many much longer than the six weeks of Jesus' employment interview. His faith was tested and challenged, but never wavered.

Walking back to Nazareth, Jesus now was equipped to do the work set before him, regardless of the reception offered him after worship that day. What Luke tells us is that Jesus knew and accepted God's love for him and his people before he went into the wilderness. Jesus also knew what job he was applying for when he set off for the interview. Jesus put everything he had into answering the questions thrown at him and the answers themselves put him on the road to Nazareth. Three years later they would carry him to the Garden of Gethsemane.

What Luke recounts for us in these first chapters of his Gospel is not a wilderness experience that surprised Jesus. Jesus chose to head into the wilderness specifically to prepare for the three years of work ahead of him. While many of us consider the wilderness times of our lives as coming upon us unawares, not all are bred of confusion and desperation. Some wilderness experiences, times apart to pray, think and struggle with the balance of our spirituality and our humanity, are conscious choices to prepare for the work we know God has for us to do.

While the Gospels tell us that Jesus preceded the beginning of his public ministry with this time of fasting, praying and preparation in the wilderness, we draw this portion of Jesus' life to us just as his ministry is about to end. Perhaps we are aware that our own ministries begin as Jesus passes from life to death, and that the passing to us of this work needs to be underscored now more than ever. Being not too many months removed from Christmas, it is easy to hold Jesus in our hearts as a chubby infant and to restrict our faith and faith's work to the conformities of that season as well. Lent is not as fun, festive or popular as Advent and Christmas for that very reason. Lent calls us to claim our baptism, our heritage, our personal ministries, and then calls us to return home as adults before stepping out on the road to Jerusalem to perform the ministry to which we are called. Lent calls us to consciously choose our faith, and live into our faith as adults. We each have a contribution to make to our faith community that adds to the heritage for the next generation of believers.

How does your faith speak to you as we embark on this Lenten journey again? How do you plan to prepare for the inevitable questions of balancing your spirituality with your humanity in your life and ministry?

Wait Lifting

2007-02-16T15:15:00.000-05:00

Are you aware that the United Nations is voting this week on sending peacekeeping forces to Eastern Chad? Refugees spilling over the border from Sudan have increased from 30,000 in May 2006 to the present120,000. Above the need to physically care for people who have literally escaped their homeland with only their lives is the greater need to protect them from the persecutors who chase them across the border to continue their killing spree.

Have you heard that heavy flooding has all but disabled areas of Mozambique? Those who already live a fragile existence teetering on the edge of destruction have been nudged past the balancing point. They now cling to the hope of international aid arriving in time to keep them and their families alive. Did you know there are many children in developing nations whose nutritional intake is so limited that their hair turns orange?

Have you heard on our own national news here in the United States that fully twenty-five percent of our population does not have health care insurance? You have heard of Hurricane Katrina. Eighteen months have passed since the Gulf Coast collapsed under the weight of wind, water and government stagnation that still leaves the city of New Orleans at half its pre-storm population levels. What was to be a temporary displacement has turned into a permanent relocation for many people.

These are a few of the realities with which the world is coping today.

Overwhelming doesn't begin to describe the sense of futility any sane person feels as these tragedies unfold and lay themselves open for judgment and scrutiny. Each picture of need begs the questions and choices that brought them into being. But eventually we must move past the how to deal with the now, before it becomes too late. But where do we start? What is our task" Where does our responsibility lie? What can we do from our corner of the world to change the whole world?

I think God likes these kinds of questions. They lead to more questions and a dialogue among us that encourages us to think beyond ourselves to the larger community of God's grace. The Biblical Church of Galatia appears to have been full of questions too, as indicated by the abundance of information Paul shares in his letter to them, talking about community relationships, fruits of the Spirit and baptism. Paul was used to hearing and responding to practical questions of faith in action, so we can head there now with our questions and be reminded of a simple truth: "Carry each other's burdens , and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2)."

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. The first image that comes into my mind is one of women and men crossing the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic to sell their products at an open air market in the village I visited last spring. They carried everything they were selling because that is all they were allowed to bring with them by government regulation. Human beings piled high with clothes, shoes, housewares, food and linens, moving in steady, rapid succession to attend to the business that would sustain them until the next market day. There would be no staff meetings, register training or motivational exercises. Each merchant possessed all the resources they would need to accomplish their task. They carried product, merchandising, sales and service departments with them and used their tools well.

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. Sometimes we can carry our own weight. There is a basic assumption that we all will who can. When those who can't are made known to us it is time to pick up some of what our fellow human beings cannot do for themselves. We may feel as if we don't know what to do or where to start, but that is why we have libraries, the internet, community service organizations and faith communities. All of these places can offer direction on what to do.

Deciding to use all the tools God has given us, as did the itinerant shopkeepers, is what Paul is telling the Galatians and us to do. Carrying each other's burdens isn't solely helping out in times of need, but is a moral choice to unite with another person in giving them respite from their pain, suffering or anguish in whatever way we can. Carrying another's burden is the motivation that sparks the call to the United Way, urges us to volunteer our time to Habitat for Humanity or inspires us to pray and march and speak out so others will be able to help carry the burdens too.

Lest we become overwhelmed thinking about all the places and people for whom we can ease a burden, it is important to remember we are called to what we can do. The wait of confusion, frustration and stagnation is over. It is time to pick ourselves up and help shoulder the burden.

What Makes for Peace?

2007-02-12T17:38:00.001-05:00

Watching the movie Gettysburg on DVD last night started out as a tentative, wait-and-see event. Over four hours long and dealing with tough subject matter, the movie called to me every time I passed by it sitting on my coffee table. Finding ourselves in the middle of another war, its brutality displayed each day on the nightly news. was its own caution. Although this newest war is far away, being fought outside other people's homes, it is our war too because we have made it our business to be there. Did I really want to invest a whole evening looking at people killing each other? Having been encouraged by a group of Civil War historians to make the time to see this particular film for what it had taught them about the war, I settled in to see what I could discover for myself.

The Battle of Gettysburg was fought during the summer of 1863 in the hot, humid farmland of Pennsylvania, in a country that had already been at war for too long. North and South both understood that this meeting would be a turning point for ultimate victory or defeat. General Robert E. Lee saw what lay before him as something greater: an opportunity to make this the final battle of the war. A letter to President Lincoln outlining full peace terms was already drafted and was ready to be placed on the Union leader's desk when Lee would lead his men back home to Virginia via Washington, D.C. We now know, of course, that this war that most assumed would last only a month still faced another twenty-two months time before it would run its course to conclusion at Appomattox Court House.

Lee's desire to end the war sooner, rather than later, strengthened his resolve. But it also shadowed his ability to adequately consider the advice of his key generals, particularly Peter Longstreet, who repeatedly urged Lee to avoid direct conflict with the North at this point. Longstreet believed a defensive stance in another location would be a better choice. Lee's decision prevailed. As they say, the rest is history.
But this battle wasn't just about aground gained and lost, or even about winning the conflict.

What was most evident were the relationships among the men fighting and those leading the troops. Our Civil War, as any country's war within itself, pitted brothers and sisters against each other in the most hideous ways. The generals at Gettysburg all knew each other well, having trained together at West Point. They were also comrades, friends with shared histories that could not be overcome, even by the use of infantry and artillery against each other.

What did I learn, pressing myself to pay attention to a war that happened almost one hundred years before I was born? Wars don't seem to be based on what we feel for each other, not when we fully view our own humanity and those against whom we are fighting. Attempts will always be made to dehumanize our enemies, even if they are our own people, to make it easier to justify our own position and silence those with whom we disagree. There is something about fighting with each other that is easier for us than creating a world of compromise, equality, justice and peace.

The prophet Isaiah spoke of a time when the Messiah would come and this would all change. "He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore (Isaiah 2:4)."

It is time to stop fighting wars and time to stop training for wars.

Newsworthy/Noteworthy

2007-02-07T18:21:00.001-05:00

My hometown church newsletter arrived a few days ago. Unlike some congregations, it doesn't have a fancy title for this monthly exchange of information, preferring to stick with the basic Moravian Church of Sturgeon Bay as its first page topper. Well-organized and straightforward, a casual reader would see articles about worship, education, missions, youth activities and the annual congregational retreat focusing on fellowship and renewal at the Moravian Mt. Morris Retreat and Conference Center later this spring. Included, too, are reminders that Lent is around the corner, Easter lilies can be ordered, summer camps are scheduled and church board reports that update parishioners on decisions made at recent meetings.

But mine is not a casual eye glancing over activities common to many faith communities. This particular newsletter is communication from home, a warm bundle from the bitterly cold Midwestern winters of my childhood that keeps on giving long past the first read. By virtue of these seven pages, back and front, I know the comings and goings of people I have known all my life and am a participant in the ebb and flow of the inevitable progress and change that is life's true constant.

So it was rather interesting to open my February issue of the Moravian Church of Sturgeon Bay and discover an article called "Some Thoughts on Worship: Quantity and Quality." Although not signed, my assumption is that it was penned by the senior pastor, a colleague of mine who followed a year behind me in seminary. The "Quantity" dealt with the joyful problem of a packed sanctuary for Sunday morning worship, encouraging the regulars to make space in their pews and hearts for people new to them. The "Quality" focused on applause in worship. My colleague had this to say: "I believe that applause is a worthy act of praise. Though worship is not entertainment, applause - at times - can be an honest expression of giving thanks to God for what we are experiencing in worship. We need to remember that worship is not separate pieces just jammed together. Everything that we do in a service is carefully crafted to compliment and build on what has happened before and to prepare us for the next moment."

My first thoughts were that we didn't applaud during worship when I was a child, but most other churches didn't either. Music, supplied by a massive pipe organ, brass and woodwinds, was traditional and inspirational, but didn't draw people to stand up and cheer. Wisconsin was settled by Swedes, Norwegians, Danes and Germans, all rather private, pious folk who, while devoted to God, are not particularly prone to clapping, hand waving with uplifted arms or shouting words of support to the preacher or the choir. We leave that to our Pentecostal sisters and brothers.

My second thoughts were that something had shifted in this distant community of mine of which I was completely unaware. Having only this announcement to go from, I can guess that there were possibly several things going on that caused its creation and distribution through the newsletter. Were long-time members uncomfortable with too much change or too much noise? Was the influx of new members, not familiar with the old ways, bringing with them joyful delight and worship practices from their other traditions? Were the pastors feeling jostled or unnerved at the flow of worship being interrupted in ways they couldn't immediately control in a public forum? In the midst of the growth so coveted by other churches, had they simply run into some growing pains? Whatever confusion, complaints, or communication lags caused this sharing of words, it is almost guaranteed there will be more discussion as time goes on and the applause continues in more moderated tones.

What this bit of community outreach illustrates is something I recently mentioned about the Biblical Epistles: We only have in front of us what Paul wrote to the churches he served. We only know what he thought in his personal letters to people like Timothy and Titus. We aren't clear on who wrote the letter to the Hebrews, or who comprised the letter's readership, but we do know they left us great reflections and important directives we can apply to living a faithful life. All this is to say what our parents liked to point out to us as children: There are two sides to every story. We only know what has been saved and included in the Bible, but if we read between the lines we can see what might have been going on and why Paul and the other Biblical writers responded the way they did to specific situations in specific congregations. Looking at how they dealt with specific situations teaches us how these early leaders and churches worked together to explore and define their faith. Basic principles of respect, mutuality,love and commitment were at work here, along with normal human frustrations. Give and take, as well as generous portions of grace, helped them shape themselves into an image of hope and faith that we use as our touchstones today.

Church struggles happen. Congregations are full of people working out their own salvation, working together in search of God's kingdom and making it visible here and now. Who knows what is going on in the Moravian Church of Sturgeon Bay? It seems as though the congregation and its leadership does and is dealing with it openly and honestly. Various opinions will continue to be expressed, I am sure, and that is important. Making a joyful noise to God is good, but so is listening to the rhythms of the whole community, whether they show up in print or not.

Molly Ivins

2007-02-02T18:54:00.000-05:00

I miss her already.

Molly Ivins, syndicated columnist with a progressive, liberal voice and a warm, spirited heart, died this past Wednesday night after battling her third round of what she called a "scorching case of breast cancer."

She will be remembered.

In a statement from The Texas Observer, a magazine for which Ivins worked over thirty years ago and loved until her last breath, it was said that, "Molly was a hero. She was a mentor. She was a liberal. She was a patriot. She was a friend. And she always will be. With Molly's death, we have lost someone we hold dear. What she has left behind we will hold dearer still." Having never met Molly Ivins, I can only say I wish I had because she inspired me to be a better person, a better writer and a better speaker of truth to power. That is a prophetic stance, you see, living in the present and calling people to take a good, hard look at what the future will hold if we don't wake up, brew some coffee and create an action plan to get things moving in the right direction again.

In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus included theses words to redirect his audience to establish a new action plan as well: " You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored (Matthew 5:13)?" Obviously, Jesus had Molly Ivins at the back of his mind in crafting this strong, important image of what a difference we each make in the world, but only if we embrace and embody the seasoning that we are in our place and time. More than one tribute to Ivins has made it clear she could have joined the big leagues, working among the White House press corps or staying with The New York Times longer than she did. But she wasn't interested in running with the big dogs. She was committed to seasoning the pot and then stirring it, well and often. She never lost the desire to hold the powerful accountable and uphold the powerless in their efforts to create a better world for themselves and each other.

John Nichols, in an article published in yesterday's The Nation, said, "Keeping a promise she'd made when her old friend and fellow Texan John Henry Faulk was on his deathbed, Molly accepted a steady schedule of invites to speak for local chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union in dozens of communities, from Toledo to Sarasota to Medford, Oregon. Though she could have commanded five figures, she took no speaker's fee. She just came and told the crowds to carry on for the Constitution. 'I know that sludge-for-brains like Bill O'Reilly attack the ACLU for being 'un-American,' but when Bill O'Reilly's Constitutional rights are violated, the ACLU will stand up for him the way they did for Oliver North, Communists, the KKK, atheists, movement conservatives and everyone else they've defended over the years,' she told them. 'The premise is easily understood: If the government can take away one person's rights, it can take away everyone's." Molly Ivins understood our mutuality, our profoundly simple human connectedness, better than most. United, we stand. Divided, we will fall.

Scripture supports her observation. No matter how much we try to isolate ourselves from believing we are really in this together, we really are in this together. Hear these words from the prophet Jeremiah: "But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare (Jeremiah 29:7)." We are in exile in this country as long as we pretend that we are not them and that we can protect ourselves from undeniable unpleasantness by continuing to deny it in its most basic forms. Poverty, injustice and inequality in various forms don't spring up out of nowhere. Seeking the welfare of all by seeking the welfare of each person is the simple Biblical truth of loving each other as we love ourselves, doing to others as we would have done to us.

Molly Ivins seasoned her words, stirred them well and served them to a hungry table surrounded by fellow travelers in need of nourishment, encouragement and a swift kick in the behind to get moving and do what needs to be done for our own sakes, the sake of those on the journey with us, and those who will follow.

Thank you, Molly.

Return to Sender

2007-01-31T14:47:00.000-05:00

Have you ever received or sent a letter to the wrong address? I once discovered a missive destined for Missouri at a post office box in Connecticut. The zip codes were similar enough that no one along the way noticed the problem until I realized it wasn't my name on the envelope. In another situation, the people who lived in my house before me still receive some of their mail here, even after an almost ten year lag in the living arrangement. I read online a few weeks ago that a letter had been delivered after it had been sent forty-five years earlier. How many places did it land before finally reaching its intended recipient?

Misdelivered mail always seems rather sad, like a displaced person anxiously looking all around for some clue as to what to do next. Having a clear sense of where it has come from, it can't quite figure out what its next step should be. So it waits for a kindly soul to label it to be returned to its origination point. Once back home, the letter can be cleared of a smeared address, put in a fresh envelope or have added postage attached and be sent back out on its journey once again.
Perhaps there are days we feel as if we are letters gone astray. Do you ever feel so confused and befuddled as to your purpose in life that you just want to curl up in a padded envelope and be sent back to where you started so you can begin again? Are there days when you feel shredded and mangled by every encounter and exchange, so much so that you can't wait to be stuffed into a little baggie and returned home to lick your wounds? There may be other days when you know you can make it if you just get a little help from someone, friend or stranger, who is willing to direct you along to the next step, simply because they can and they want to. There are also probably a few days when yelling at the person or persons you feel are to blame for you being a lost letter in the first place might feel like the best option.

In his second letter to the church at Corinth, Paul wrote, "Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all; and you show that you are a letter of Christ, prepared by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts (II Corinthians 3:1-4)." Paul's words directly address the issue of whose words we value when determining the character of the people we meet. Most often, then as now, employers want references, written proof of who we are, what our moral and work ethics are comprised of and how we have proven ourselves by our past behavior. Since whatever ill behavior we have displayed is not included in such offerings, the character of the person providing the reference on another's behalf is just as important to know as the potential employee. "Consider the source:" was never more appropriately applied then when searching to fill an empty slot in an organization. Letters of recommendation have also been used in a personal manner, to confirm someone's identity, who they know and where they come from.

While we are used to significant access to all types of information about each other's lives, Paul's Corinthian church couldn't boot up a computer and order a background check on each person they met or who wanted to be a part of this new faith developing in congregations all across the Greek and Roman Empires. So Paul tells the Corinthians, who most likely raised the issue to Paul in another letter or on a prior visit by Paul, to think about this concern a bit more. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Are we thinking so highly of ourselves that we have forgotten our mission and who calls us into being? Why do we need letters to prove who we are to each other? You are the letter that has already been written, written on all our hearts. Everyone can know and read this by who you are. Paul tells the Corinthian church he loves, a church which has had great challenges in working out what it means to be a faith community, that they show themselves to be a letter of Christ to the world, prepared by all of them. It is a letter etched on their hearts by God's Spirit, something much more clear, solid and lasting than words chipped into stone tablets. Having lived through the turmoil implied in his first letter to them, it wouldn't be a surprise for the parishioners at Corinth to feel a need to set some boundaries, clamp down and know where they stand, and to let everybody else know too. Accountability can feel like nine-tenths of the law.

We are not so different. When we feel mangled, maligned or mistreated we want to feel safe, know where we stand and set a new standard, a new starting point for ourselves. We want to feel whole again. But holding other people accountable to prove themselves to us in this process is as futile as the Corinthian church expecting letters of recommendation to solve their communication and relational issues. Accountability may feel like nine-tenths of the law, but living by the letter of the law is not what we as people of the Christian faith are about. Paul goes on to say that "Our confidence is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of letter but of Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (II Corinthians 3:5)."

Paul directs his people back to their Sender and their belief in the the Spirit who guided them in creating their community in their hearts. Returning to our Sender, that same Spirit, will help us refocus, help us remember who we are, Whose we are, and to whom we belong as a continuing community here on earth. Our hearts always speak the truth as the letter of God's grace.

A Sacred Cow

2007-01-25T18:42:00.000-05:00

You may have heard about Star.

Star is a calf who was born in Rural Retreat, Virginia, this past December 27. Her birth would not be singled out among the thousands of calves born every year but for the simple fact that Star was born with two faces. While forty to fifty people stopped by the Heldreth family farm each day to see the two-faced calf for themselves, Kirk Heldreth, Star's owner, considered donating her to Virginia Tech for research purposes or selling her for show. But Heldreth and his family grew attached to Star, deciding they would like to "keep her around for awhile and see how she does." What is most interesting, and touching, is that Heldreth believes that, "the unique thing about Star is she's got the will to survive more than any calf I've ever seen." Spoken like any proud parent, seeing beautiful strength where others see only grotesque deformity.

What do you think Jesus saw as he got up each day and headed out to do his Father's business? It would appear that Jesus had an understanding of what he needed to do each day and sought out those most open to receiving his help. With his growing reputation came more and more people, many living on the fringe of the excitement generated by the hope that Jesus was the Messiah, but still very much interested in his message and work. It is fascinating to me that for all the times that Jesus encountered, engaged and healed the blind, the lame, the comatose and the deaf, his disciples and followers never ceased to be amazed at his power, his ability to transform lives in short ordered, simple conversations ending with people getting up and walking away to new lives. It's easy to identify with their perspective. A steady diet of miracles takes a little getting used to.

Although it would appear that Jesus went out each day looking for woundedness, poverty, shame, disability and broken spirits to make whole, I don't think anything about Jesus indicates that he held that perspective. I don't think Jesus went searching for what was wrong in people's lives. Jesus traveled the land making connections with people who happened to be struggling with physical, emotional and spiritual issues. Since Jesus' own life wasn't particularly easy, my guess is he felt a kinship, a unity of purpose and hope as he moved among the men, women and children, Jewish and Gentile, that he met each day. You see, there is a difference between defining other human beings by what you think is wrong with them and opening yourself to a person created in God's image. It would appear that Jesus was more about the latter.

And this is where we come back to Star, the calf with two faces and the family who loves her.

While I'm sure the Heldreth family was a bit startled by Star at her birth, their immediate concern was not how to fix her deformity, but to love her and keep her alive. As it turned out, her own will to survive allowed her to drink from a bottle, which solved the problem. It also allowed her caretakers to "spoil her," cuddling her as she ate. Other farmers may have decided she wasn't worth saving, but the Heldreths saw their Star as unique, not for her physical appearance, but for her spirit. The crowds coming to see the calf with two faces are only coming to see something odd, something unusual that they might never have the chance to see again. Granted, the daily gathering of gawkers will not get to know Star personally, but because of the Heldreths' example they do have the chance to look at her as something more than a freak of nature, to see her as a living being created by God, which is by its very nature something quite wonderful.

The Gospels give accounts indicating Jesus performed a number of healings privately and then urged those recipients to keep silent about what had happened. I'm not quite sure how that would be possible. But I suspect these private moments and their more public counterparts were offered to anyone paying attention as an opportunity to explore their own perceptions. Jesus may even have posed the question, "If you have come to see to be able to believe, what is it you now see? What is it that you now believe?" We have not been privy to all the personal stories from people who came to hear the Sermon on the Mount, those who assembled for Jesus' return to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday or those who gathered at the cross on the day of his death. We don't know if or how people's lives were changed by their observations of how Jesus saw other people, and from that awareness, how he interacted with other people.

Suffice it to say that Jesus didn't look at anybody as if they were a calf with two faces. He looked at each person he met, seeing their beautiful strength and their faith. He saw the best of who God created them to be and he loved them. That is how God sees us and responds to us now. That is, by this example, how we can look at and respond to each other.

Living With The Existence of God

2007-01-20T16:58:00.000-05:00

Thursday night television has become a weekly ritual for me after many years of reticence on the subject. Indeed, I had my doubts at the beginning of this season last fall too, seeing a whole range of episodic dramas that demanded immediate, long-term commitments. Difficult to accomplish if missing one program means losing track of the story lines or the potentially good series is canceled prematurely. There also seemed to be glut of crime shows involving forensic work. While I enjoy a good mystery, I'm not a blood and guts kind of gal, at least not five or six hours a week.

But Grey's Anatomy is now a personal favorite. It is a limited purveyor of people's insides, and said people usually start out their scene alive, even if they don't make it to the commercial that way. Less about the patients, Grey's follows the personal and professional lives of a group of doctors at fictional Seattle Grace Hospital. Truth be told, the program is about the emotional insides of its characters, which can be much more raw and graphic than the physical counterparts.

Last night's episode closed with the death of George O'Malley's father. George is a surgical intern. His father came to Seattle Grace, along with his wife and two other sons, for treatment for a perceived heart condition that turned out to be a double dip into a cancer that had spread too far. George's family looked to him for guidance and strength in making the decision to let his dad go. Afterward, Christina, a member of George's Seattle Grace family, with whom he had feuding, came to find him, to welcome him to the "dead dads club." It was a club, she explained, that you could only join when it happened to you. Her own father had died when she was nine, and she was sorry to include him at that moment. George told Christina that he couldn't imagine going on living in a world in which his dad doesn't exist. Christina bluntly, but compassionately, told George the truth, that that simple fact never changes.

Having lost my own dad over half my own lifetime ago, I know Christina is quite right. For the first time in years I thought to myself a few days ago that I should ask my dad a question about his parents for my ancestry research. He has not been a part of my daily life for almost twenty-five years, but I imagine that he is still here. That certainty of him being gone and me remaining seems to be divided by such a thin line that he should be able to cross back and forth, at least for basic information and an occasional hug. But he can't.

Pondering George and Christina's conversation, I began to consider the certainty of God's presence among us on earth. The majority of our United States population says they believe God exists, but that is where the surveyors complete their fact finding mission. There doesn't appear to be much collected data on why people believe God exists or how that impacts their lives. Is the fact of God's existence like accepting that Niagara Falls and the Rocky Mountains are there, even though you haven't seen them? What do these people who believe in God think God does all day? Where does God live? How much power does God possess? Does God control all the stop lights and the lines at Dunkin' Donuts? Is God judgmental, mean spirited, unfair? If God is all-knowing, does God care how often we clean our bathrooms or if we tip the paper carrier at Christmas? I'm sure you have your own list of questions to draw up for those who care enough to survey all the believers in God's existence in the future.

As with George, Christina, me and everybody else whose dad has died and must live with the fact, so too those of us who say we believe that God exists must live with that fact. We must define what that means for us and how that impacts our lives.

Engagement with Grace

2007-01-11T18:13:00.001-05:00

Traditionally, June is wedding month. I'm not sure why. Perhaps because high school and college graduations are generally held in late May, summer vacation time is available for families to travel for such events, or people like the natural flow of life's milestones to move as steadily as possible. Whatever the underlying cultural currents, the fact that January is bridal expo month should come as no surprise. With Christmas festivities now completed and Valentines Day still several weeks into the future, retailers are ready to entertain and engage us in this lull between the two holiday celebrations. It is an interesting shift from trying to out-bless each other in our giving to the big business of creating the wedding of one's dreams. Bridal expos showcase everything we associate with the modern wedding: bride and bridesmaids dresses, tuxes, flowers, caterers, reception halls, bands, honeymoon trips and invitations. There are even wedding planners available, routinely presenting themselves for busy couples who can't carve time out of their lives to handle all the details.

One choice most women and men still cling to is choosing the engagement ring. The romantic notion of a man elegantly dropping to one knee while opening a small velvet box to reveal a dazzling expression of his intent is completely endearing, especially if accompanied by a string quartet or the soundtrack from Sleepless in Seattle. Once a woman starts to announce her engagement, the first two utterances she hears are, " How did he propose?" and " Show me the ring." Having seen this scenario played out many times, it finally dawned on me why something felt off, not quite right about the whole deal. It's because it feels like a DEAL, a business transaction with lots of sugar coating. Before you write me off as jaded, cold-hearted or nuts, bear with me.

Proposing marriage is, after all, a risk. Any time a yes or no question is raised either answer is an option. Courage is required when one's heart is on the line, as well as a certain amount of hope and faith in what each person has already given and received in the relationship. Asking someone not only to accept all that you are, but also be willing to offer all that they are to you, forever, is an awe-inspiring, terrifying moment. What if either party feels a little less than adequate to live into that kind of commitment, or simply feels they don't have the work ethic to carry it off?

An exquisitely expensive piece of jewelry does a whole lot to distract from future incidentals like money management, extended family and household chore distribution. While you and everybody else are looking at the ring, the engagement and wedding plans take on a life of their own, frequently superseding what this small business project was initially meant to be, a union of hearts. What other relationship in our culture mandates such an exchange of material wealth? If we promised our children relatively equivalent goodies in exchange for their undying love we would call that a bribe.

Perhaps we are also culturally attuned to expect that God is supposed to offer us an engagement ring of sorts, proof that the love is real. We feel entitled to fine houses, hefty bank accounts and premium living because we have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. If God calls us into this relationship, then it follows that God would only want the best for us, the best of everything. What we are missing is that the ring, the house, the money and an extravagant lifestyle doesn't make the relationship, and the best of everything is definable by our belief in things mattering.

Closing the cover on that bright, shiny ring may help us see a little more clearly what God is offering us. God comes to us bearing much more than pretty stones artfully arranged in precious metals. God brings a love for us that has been since before we were born, patience with any ill behavior or temper we can muster, a deep understanding and kindness for all our hurts, and forgiveness when we have caused pain for someone else. Most poignantly, God interweaves all of this with a rich thread of grace, a generosity of spirit that is immeasurable.

What God gives to us we can give to one another. While easier to rely on tangible goods to express our feelings, the simple truth is that feelings matter more, and sharing them, living into them, is everything. Offering one's genuine self in a relationship, as friends, siblings, parents or partners, is riskier, but more valuable than any treasure on the planet. Loving relationships, with God or with each other, aren't easy, but they are good.

We Hold These Truths: An Open Letter to President Bush

2007-01-08T20:59:00.000-05:00

Mr. President,

Why do you feel compelled to read my personal mail?

I'm having a hard time with this concept, so please, bear with me as I get my facts in order. You have claimed some broad, new powers to open any American's mail without a judge's warrant. Having signed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act into law on December 20, 2006, you then issued a signing statement that declared your right to open our mail under "emergency conditions." Most of this act dealt with basic reform steps, but it also explicitly reinforced protections of first class mail from searches without court approval. Your claim to be able to access our privacy as American citizens in this most profoundly invasive way goes against current law and contradicts the bill you signed less than a month ago. It also surprised the people who voted the bill into law. " Despite the President's statement that he may be able to circumvent a personal privacy protection, the new postal law continues to prohibit the government from snooping into people's mail without a warrant," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California), the incoming House Government Reform Committee chairperson, who co-sponsored the bill.

This all feels vaguely familiar to me. Perhaps it is because last year around this time your focus was absorbed by tapping into personal telephone conversations. Having been caught illegally eavesdropping, I trust you have corrected that lapse in judgment. Assuming you are no longer listening to me arrange vacation cat care with my neighbor, I would like to say thank you and please continue to mind your own business. I am not appreciative of those who are not willing to deal with me directly and honestly, and that seems to be your trending behavior. You have to know that what you are doing is simply wrong and disrespectful in both the short and the long run of things, but I am not so sure. I think you have forgotten by whom you were elected and in whose service you are now called to act.

Luke's gospel tells us that the temple leadership had become, shall we say, a bit full of themselves, and rather concerned that Jesus was becoming more than they wanted to deal with. As Jesus' popularity grew, their own power began to wane. "One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and telling the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came with the elders and said to him, 'Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Who is it who gave you this authority?' He answered them, 'I will also ask you a question, and you tell me: Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?' They discussed it with one another, saying, 'If we say from heaven, he will say, Why did you not believe him? But if we say, of human origin, all the people will stone us, for they are convinced that John is a prophet.' so they answered that they did not know where it came from. Then Jesus said to them, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things (Luke 20:1-8)."

Mr. President, your authority does not come from your ability to manipulate facts, fears or the United States' popular need to believe it is the best country in the world. It does not come from your own sense of entitlement to shape your time in this office you now hold to suit your own needs, spoken and unspoken, whatever they may be. We the United States citizens you were elected to serve, are not on trial. We do not need to prove our innocence or proof text our constitutional rights. My understanding is that you swore to uphold the constitution that guarantees us the liberties and freedoms you say we are fighting for in this war in Iraq that has gone on far too long. I am deeply concerned that you have lost sight of your role in our country's present and its future. Trying to label your fellow citizens as wrong, and sneaking behind our backs to do so, indicates to me that you have aligned yourself with political chief priests, elders and scribes who see the truth, but choose to ignore it.

Faithful Servant, Child of God

2007-01-03T22:50:00.000-05:00

Our thirty-eighth president, Gerald R. Ford, died the day after Christmas and will be buried today in Grand Rapids, Michigan, after what has become our national standard of state mourning rituals this past weekend. President Ford returned to the House of Representatives in which he served for twenty-five years, his casket resting in the Capital Rotunda for us to come and pay our respects. Two of his children, Susan and Steven, met those who mourned their father. As a fellow Midwesterner, it occurs to me that this is a common practice of our people. The funeral held yesterday at Washington's National Cathedral included four eulogies, the Marine Orchestra and a homily designed to remind us that while President Ford was a true public servant, he first served his God.

That combination, rare in any age, was quite a necessity and a relief for the American people as Mr. Ford took office near the end of the summer of 1974. President Nixon's resignation after the twists and turns of Watergate summoned us to witness this televised historic event. So did President Ford's pardon of his predecessor within one month of his taking office. At the time, many Americans wanted Nixon held responsible, accountable, even wanted his blood. President Ford knew that, but also knew that what we really needed as a country was to let go of the past, move on and heal from our wounds.

In the twenty-eight months of Mr. Ford's presidency that followed his pardoning of former President Nixon, he would lead us out of Vietnam, contribute to helping end apartheid rule in South Africa and, by participating in the Helsinki Accords, open the door through which Ronald Reagan would step to shake hands with Mikhail Gorbachov to end the Cold War. If we had been stuck back in striking back at all the wrongs Nixon had perpetrated against the country, President Ford may not have been able to do this work on our behalf. President Ford chose to extend mercy at an inconvenient time. Many people believe ti cost him the 1976 election against Jimmy Carter. Those who show mercy, especially in such public ways, do not always see mercy extend back to them, except by the hand of God.

Rev. Robert G. Certain, former President Ford's pastor at St. Margaret's Church in Palm Desert, California, in his funeral homily reflected on this mercy extended to former President Nixon, but also to another fractious situation with which they were both familiar, the debate in their own Episcopal Church over homosexual relationships. Mr. Ford did not think the issue should be splitting Episcopalians. "He asked me if we would face schism after we discussed the various issues we would consider, particularly concerns about human sexuality and the leadership of women," Rev. Certain said. "He said that he did not think they should be divisive for anyone who lived by the great commandments and the great commission to love God and to love neighbor."

Clearly, former President Ford did live by those commandments, in both his public life and personal beliefs. Who he was and how he managed his life was consistent with how he saw God as active and alive in our world. Sometimes the choices of faith do not reap the benefits, immediate or long-term, for which we would hope. But, looking back, we can see what a difference this one man made in all our lives, the life of our country and in the world because he chose to live by what he believed.

Tender Mercies

2006-12-23T14:23:00.000-05:00

Travelers stranded at Denver International Airport and London's Heathrow Airport awoke this morning with a bit more hope in their hearts that they may make it home in time for Christmas. Two days and two feet of snowfall have paralyzed one city, while fog embraces the other in a steadfast hold not due to ease until sometime Saturday. Tens of thousands of people worldwide are affected by flight cancellations and delays that will take days to untangle.

Meanwhile, people are making the best of the circumstances in which they find themselves. There has been no mail delivery, no holiday shopping and basically no movement in Denver since the blizzard started whirling around a city used to dealing with such things. At a time of year when people credit themselves with feats of productivity that become legend, different stories emerge that respect this pause in time, unexpected and unavoidable. If home really is where our hearts are, then those living in Denver are finding that this storm brings opportunities to listen to those still, small voices residing in each of us. At the airport, a small city of makeshift cardboard shelters and blanketed cots cradle the souls of its community of several thousand. Airport workers, themselves stranded, are keeping the place clean and tidy. In London, people are being cared for with food and alternative sleeping arrangements in the terminals.

When we are faced with these kinds of brutal realities that we simply can't ignore, we relinquish control to what is, and our human agendas shift, revealing important truths of which we may not have been aware. A young woman, stranded in Denver and late to her own wedding, told a reporter, "I've given up on crying." A man expecting a seven hour layover at the bus terminal, a wait that is now at forty-eight hours and counting, said simply, " I am ready to go home." A traveler in London en route to Paris summed up the refrain in so many hearts: "We're so close, I hope we don't miss Christmas."

"In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was great with child. and while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. and she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them at the inn.

And in that region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, 'Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace among all with whom he is pleased (Luke 2:1-14)!"

We are so close. I hope we don't miss Christmas.

False Labor

2006-12-18T19:25:00.000-05:00

My friend's congregation has longed to return to worship in its own sanctuary since a fire put them out of their spiritual house and home last fall. As their pastor, she has shepherded them through this transition with grace and loving guidance, seeking out lessons of hope and faith that would otherwise have not so tangibly entered their lives. Anticipation rose high that the first Sunday in Advent would also be the first Sunday back, but it was not to be. Last Sunday passed on the honor too. Frustrated by the hold ups, my friend expressed her discontent with the situation as " false labor." Having birthed two babies herself, she knows of what she speaks. After so many false starts, be it with a construction project or a baby that can't make up its mind when to be born, it is easy to lose sight of the goal and to lose heart for the hope of ever realizing its joy.

Paul speaks to this yearning for the labor to be over, for this new life we can see on the horizon to be manifested. "For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Romans 8:18-25)."

The ancient world engaged a different relationship with what it means to be patient than we twenty-first century inhabitants. We can call across the world in seconds with small contraptions that effortlessly slip into our pockets for safe keeping. Emails fly back and forth between computers as fast as we can write them and click on send. We can grab our morning coffee at drive-through windows, drive to the expressway and travel as far to work in an hour as our ancestors would have taken days to walk or ride on the back of a pack animal. We are used to living with little patience because we occupy a world that demands very little of it from us.

For Paul to be writing this kind of letter to the church at Rome gives us pause to consider what it meant to these people to live with patience and a living hope in God. I suspect the rhythm of their days as city dwellers included much of what we do today: getting up every morning, caring for themselves and their children, going to work or caring for a home. Their stress level would not have been born of rush hour traffic or a long line at Dunkin' Donuts, but of Roman soldiers patrolling their neighborhoods in search of people unwilling to bend to the Emperor's will.

Understandable, then, that there may have been some mental toe tapping as they lived each day, wondering when this Jesus Christ of whom Paul spoke would be coming back. Christianity was not a legalized religion. Practicing its tenets too publicly could be contrued as a threat against Rome, and could result in violence against oneself or one's family. There were no safe places to worship and support each other through these times of confusion, despair and hopelessness, not even in the memories held by a burned out building on the mend. Our faithful ancestors met in each other's homes, privately and prayerfully, feeling the pangs of hope dissolve, but then felt them rise again, and knew their labor was not in vain as they passed this birthing of God's kingdom on to the next generation.

We are not far off now. The birth of the Christ is almost at hand. As we gather again to take our part in laboring this hope of generations into being, we also claim the promise delivered in God Who is With Us Now.

A Christmas Story

2006-12-11T18:26:00.000-05:00

An Iraqi baby has a chance at a new life, thanks to the efforts of a marine battalion that took on this mission, then carried it out to completion, even after losing several of its own.

It is an amazing story. Soldiers under attack hear the cries of an anguished mother seeking help for her critically ill daughter. In a split second the military troop sets aside the pursuit of its enemies and attends to the immediate needs of this mother and child living out their own crisis under fire. Offering continued care that eventually results in the child's transfer to an American hospital for successful treatment becomes their new mission, even while navigating regular combat patrols that claim the lives of three men leading the child's care team. At that point, the mission translates to include honoring the men who had lost their lives. They will be remembered for making a difference in someone's life.

What would these men be remembered for if they had not heard the woman's cry for help or if they had chosen instead to stay with pursuing the mission to capture their attackers? Perhaps they still would be considered honorable warriors, men who served their country well and sought to do justice for the Iraqi people. But in that moment they chose human need over revenge, they chose a legacy of hope, healing and new life. A child who most likely would have died has been reborn to a life of promise, a life with a future.

This story speaks to me through this mother's yearning for someone, somewhere, somehow, to help her child under the most desperate of circumstances. She must have faced her own moment of truth as this battle literally raged outside her door. Wondering whom to trust and when to make her plea, the moment came when she decided to make her move, rather then stay huddled fearfully inside her house, a lack of action that would then claim her child's life. He daughter would not be a casualty of war, but a victim of her mother's fear. In that moment, this woman reached into herself for strength and courage, and reached out to the saving grace of strangers willing to make that same leap of faith.

Whenever we face such a challenge, we must call upon more of ourselves than we ever thought we knew. We must trust that depth of ourselves, unknown and untried though it may be, and believe we have what we need to do what we must. There is no time to ponder relative outcomes, risk factors or potential consequences. When the time comes to "do or die,:" what you need is in place and grasping it with all you've got is the choice. It is the leap of faith that claims the space between what was and what will be. Because two people made that split second leap of faith and claimed strength over fear and revenge, hope and new life have been given another chance to flourish in the most unlikely of places.

God appears to specialize in welcoming we human beings to these moments of hope and triumph. Wanting us to abandon the bonds of the usual and embrace the extravagant mystery and wonder of what life can be when we embody the unexpected choice, even to ourselves, is what God most conveys to us at this time of year.

Consider this story of simple human life that labors and births our Christian faith into being as it unfolds against the dramatic background of a violent, unyielding military regime that specializes in conquering and oppressing almost every culture with which it comes in contact. We don't know how much time Mary had to decide whether or not she would participate in this outrageous plan to have a child with God. We don't know how long Joseph took to accept Mary's explanation and choose to stay with her on the adventure. We don't know how long the shepherds took to believe they had been in the company of angels and then seek out this newborn child. We don't know how long the three wise men took to decide to follow the star to Bethlehem or to make the decision not to return to Herod with their findings. We do know that all these decisions, these leaps of faith, came together, drawing the best these people had to create what we know as the birth of the Christ.

We also know, deep inside ourselves, that we are called to these moments of hope, new life, and truth by virtue of an shared ancestry of faith. No one in what we call our Christmas story, and indeed, no one in this new story of hope which has come to us from Iraq, was what would be termed an extraordinary person. But what they did do was allow their faith to lead them. When we allow our faith to lead us, we are capable of the extraordinary, even when we didn't know we had it in us.

Because of Deep Love

2006-12-06T17:19:00.000-05:00

Three seemingly unrelated news items caught my attention over the last few days. In one story, George Clooney, celebrated actor and director, lost his pet potbellied pig, Max, after eighteen years together. Max passed on while his owner was out of town promoting his latest film. When the subject of Max came up in the myriad of interviews associated with such things, Mr. Clooney's eyes welled up with tears as he reflected on how much animals can become a part of our lives, and how sad it is to see them leave.

In another story, former President George H.W. Bush had his own tearful moment while speaking at a leadership conference. Recalling the 1994 Florida governors race, which his son, Jeb, lost to another candidate, the elder Bush started to cry as he shared his pride in the grace and dignity his son had shown at that time. Governor Bush came to the podium, hugged his dad and the audience applauded. Mr. Bush smiled and said that he was the emotional one in the family, and while he didn't like breaking down in public, these things happened as you got older.

Finally, Academy Award winning actress, Gwyneth Paltrow made headlines as she sought to clarify a European newspaper's misquote saying she believed that the British are more intelligent and civilized than Americans. Ms. Paltrow made it clear she would not make that kind of comparison to begin with, but that she also felt lucky and proud to be an American.

Grief at a loss, love for a son or daughter and pride in our heritage and country are poignantly common experiences with which we are all familiar. Whether famous or intensely private, we are all human and united in these most simple ways. In that simplicity, these are moments that catch us off guard, and we remember what it is to care deeply and without reserve.

Although I have not welcomed a pig to share my home, I am blessed with the gift of cat love. There are those among you who are nodding knowingly as you read this, and others who are more prone to invite dogs, birds, ferrets, fish and hamsters to share your life. There is a special joy in making space for a new creature in our hearts and homes. It is so effortless, even if we are keenly aware of the maintenance an animal requires, to look into their eyes and know you belong together. There is no thought in that moment that eventually that time will come to a close. We all know this, but we open ourselves to the experience anyway. Children and parents are a lovingly volatile mix of guidance and freedom, trial and error. Those moments in which we see each other as whole people, apart from our relational history, are perhaps too rare, but they are filled with an unspeakable grace and wonder. Having the opportunity to stand in one's integrity, one's faith in the land that produced you and helped shape your character, is also rare, and quite stunning.

During this time of holiday frenzy, most of us hunker down and push our way toward the finish line, that time when the gifts are purchased and wrapped and settled under the perfectly decorated tree in the clean house with all the cookies and treats ready to pass around to family and friends. Advent has become less about preparation of our perspective on God and almost all about beating the to do list rush. But these moments of pause in our lives reveal to us how much of our hearts we have given without a second thought. These are the moments that reveal how much we are like God who created us and loves us. The gifts of God With Us opened the door to an extraordinary love that bears thoughtful consideration, appreciation and renewed faith in God and ourselves.

And so, Advent continues.

Prince of Peacemakers

2006-12-04T17:37:00.000-05:00

The saga of the Colorado Peace Wreath appears to have come to a close. In the most simple of terms, residents of a condominium development hung a peace sign-shaped Christmas wreath on the outside of their unit. Some of their neighbors, including several members of the condo association board, found it objectionable and divisive, the latter grounds to require its removal, or face $25 per day fines through and until its removal.

The inevitable questions about who determines what is appropriate in a housing development, whether it be parking spaces, plantings, trash disposal or holiday decorations, can seem rather petty and insignificant because that is what they are. Having lived in one such neighborhood for ten years means I won't be headed down that road for a long time, if ever again. Something about being able to enforce rules on one's immediate surroundings and fellow human beings appeals to a certain mindset of people, some of whom gravitate to what can be a very nice lifestyle in shared community. But, as we all learned in kindergarten, one or two people who don't want to play nice and share can make for a miserable time for all. Keeping the peace becomes only a stop gap measure. Eventually, making peace becomes the issue, and working for peace usually stirs up the stink a bit.

One of the problems stated for requiring the wreath be removed was that fellow condo owners have children serving in the Iraq war. These parents were said to feel insulted, as if the people displaying the wreath were not being respectful of their children's service to the country. According to several news reports, no one directly approached the wreath hangers with those feelings. That being said, I suspect these negative feelings existed in the minds of association members who were not so much concerned with the war as they were with their own need to control. In the three plus years we have been fighting this war in Iraq, I have not heard anything but support for the people actually employed to deal with it on our behalf. My guess is that almost to a person the people fighting this war would say peace is a very good thing indeed, and something we should all support. If we are not waging this war toward the goal of a lasting peace, why are we in Iraq?

Speaking of peace is hazardous business these days, just as much so as when this time we call Advent invested itself among a people aching for even the slightest hope that their God would save them from the oppression and turmoil under which they had suffered for far too long. Many prophets spoke their visions of a Messiah, a Savior who would lead them to peace in righteousness and truth. Many of those prophets had short lives because the present ruler was uncomfortable with their message.

Isaiah was one of them. "The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness - on them has light shined. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. For the yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppression, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For all the boots of the trampling warriors and all the garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire. For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forever more. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this (Isaiah 9:2-7)."

Later on, years later, Jesus would speak of his own mission to bring not peace, but a sword. Those who speak of peace openly often expose old, deep wounds that shriek their pain in many ways that don't make immediate sense. What is happening now in Iraq is looking more and more like Vietnam forty years ago, a time when our troops were not given credit for their support for their country, or support to deal with what they endured while serving. Talking about peace now, openly, means dealing with the murky waters of wars long declared over on the battle field that we have not finished fighting among ourselves here at home. Jesus would also, in his Sermon on the Mount, speak of peacemakers as the children of God. Leaders open the dialogue, and the followers must carry on the work together.

After the story of the Colorado Peace Wreath became public, so did a huge amount of support from all areas of the country, including people who saw the wreath as supportive of their children serving in the military. The condo board said the wreath could remain in place, extended their apologies and then, three board members resigned. The couple who hung the wreath were pleased that their message of peace was heard. That was what they wanted. And therein lies a great lesson as we enter the season of Advent: let the message of peace be heard.

Between Gratitude and Expectation

2006-12-04T13:24:00.000-05:00

Most of us are back to work after the Thanksgiving weekend. The Christmas shopping season has officially kicked off and now we are clamoring to survive all the added stress placed on us by family obligations, financial expenses and social commitments brought on by the holiday season. At least that is what I hear from television commercials, talk show hosts and the woman behind me at the grocery store. I don't believe that this is how it should be, or must be. We have choices we can make about our lives, especially during this time of year. Pause for this moment and realize that, having celebrated Thanksgiving only a few days ago, we have come to the end of the church year with gratitude to God for everything in our lives. Hold onto that thought, that feeling of strength and peace that comes with remembering how fortunate we are in all that we have. Next we will shift our gaze to Advent, a time of expectation that prepares us for the coming of the Christ. That is what this week between Thanksgiving and Advent is about. Thanksgiving is about gratitude. Advent is about expectation.

Standing between gratitude and expectation can feel a bit precarious at times, like traveling over a very narrow road between two scenic canyons: all your concentration is focused on moving forward instead of stopping to appreciate both views and how they merge into one in the distance.

There seems to be some sort of explanation for understanding this time of year right in our own refrigerators. Thanksgiving leftovers are traditional, tangible abundance that everyone is willing to share. We make jokes about how many ways to use up the white meat, the dark meat, the stuffing, potatoes and cranberry sauce. But it is a playful teasing, a gentle game of creativity and invention with foods that warm our tummies and our souls, no matter how may times we render them into new forms. We work with what we have, willing to see past its inherent simplicity, and appreciate it for all it is worth, and then some. But sooner or later, the bones are picked clean, the soup is stored in freezer-safe containers and we must move on. We have an empty refrigerator in front of us, ready to stock with food for upcoming meals. But meals take planning, an investment of time and energy to figure out what might taste good in the days ahead.

How do you plan for meals? Do you look through recipe files, cookbooks or newspapers for new treats or old favorites? Do you make a grocery list of ingredients you know will work with past dishes and with your fertile imagination? Do you buy prepackaged meals because they are easier? Each of us has our own way of handling meal planning and preparation that works for us. Our understanding and application of expectation may parallel our meal making strategies. Some of us do research before attaching ourselves to any expectation. Some of us make lists to see the pros and cons of a future choice, hoping to avoid a mistake of major proportions. Some of us trust what we already know and lead with this inner knowledge. Some of us buy into other people's expectations because it is easier, although not always as satisfying. In the end, expectation is about looking forward, and Advent is the expectation of a renewal of faith in God's presence among us.

Endings demand new beginnings, and beginnings come with expectations, stated out loud or tucked away deep in our hearts. If it is true that when God closes a door God also opens a window, then it is never experienced more keenly than at this time of year. God is closing the door now, and opening a new window for us, beckoning us forward to see what the Messiah will have for us next. We have enjoyed the abundance of the harvest, shared it with family and friends, but now we must close the chapter on what was and move into the unknown, the mystery that is God With Us once more. It is a time of anticipation, hope, expectation.

Christmas Shopping

2006-11-29T21:53:00.001-05:00

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.

Blessed Hope

2006-11-21T17:31:00.000-05:00

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.

A Test of Faith

2006-11-15T19:57:00.000-05:00

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.

A Collective Voice

2006-11-13T17:53:00.000-05:00

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.

Dear God

2006-11-07T21:48:00.000-05:00

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.

War Stats

2006-11-03T18:24:00.000-05:00

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.

Rubber Masks 50% Off

2006-11-01T15:11:00.000-05:00

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.

Blessed Are The Givers

2006-10-30T15:32:00.000-05:00

Midterm elections are less than two weeks away. Although we have been hearing about them from the national media for months, the real indicator of how close they loom is the increased frequency of candidate exposure through television ads, newspaper coverage and the lawn signs dotting our streets. Our political process in the United States is unique, still relatively new, and carries with it the heritage of the marketing manifest destiny that more is always better. Inherent to electing our leadership by plastering communication systems with messages claiming to say what a candidate supports, is the reality that we are not being told what the candidates support. We all have come to expect that what we will be seeing, hearing, and eventually avoiding, is all the negatives each candidate wants us to perceive in their opponent. My own conclusion, after muting the third round of commercials between "My Name is Earl" and "The Office," is that I can tell you who is running for the senate in my state and their party affiliations. But I don't know what each person running would like to accomplish if they get the job.

Personally, whenever I have interviewed for a position, I have made it a point to answer all questions directly and honestly, and I especially don't slander other people interested in the same job in the hope that I will look better. This whole campaign process seems to defy the Biblical concept of treating other people how we would like to be treated. We tell our children not to be mean to each other, not to speak badly of other people, but we adults really seem to struggle with that. What if we considered for a moment what a political campaign of common courtesy and respect might look like? Going even one step further, what if political candidates decided to say only positive, hones things about each other and they had debates that focused on making our country a better, healthier, more hopeful nation? What would that say about us as a country?

The potential for that kind of open dialogue in a political campaign simmers with possibilities. We might witness well-thought out questions designed to welcome another's genuine concerns and ideas to improve education, the environment, tax reform and any number of issues. Whether or not the candidates agreed with each other would be a moot point because each would want to understand the other's position and how they came to their beliefs and convictions. The mutual courtesy and respect inherent in that kind of exchange couldn't help but spread the word that working together means more to all of us who live in this country than getting our own way, being right or controlling the overall process of government. My guess is that living that kind of message would translate more positively to a world that mostly sees us as a country with a need to exploit other nations for our own gain.

God's principle of abundance comes into play here, and that is in direct opposition to what we can describe in far too many places in our world today. But describing the world isn't where Jesus based his ministry. He acknowledged his surroundings - the oppression, the hardness of life, the struggle to survive. Then, he asked those around him to take a step back and view the world, not through rose-colored glasses, but through the eyes of a loving God who intends only the best for each of us. If we can learn to stand next to God and act as God would, with love and grace, we would always be able to feel the double blessing that giving imparts. We are often told it is more blessed to give than to receive. Removing that observation from Christmas gift giving, imagine instead applying that principle to daily exchanges between human beings that matter the most: conversations with our families, communications with co-workers and the simple courtesies of smiling, saying hello or holding a door for a stranger as we pass by each other on our journeys. Individually these would add up to innumerable opportunities to give strength, hope, courage, joy, peace and kindness to each other. When some of that comes back your way, it is easy to see what Jesus was trying to convey.

Jesus' lesson is about giving the way God does to us, without attachments to how we have responded in the past or how we may behave in the future. We aren't, as people of faith, to be about basing our choices and behavior on how we see other people acting and reacting, but on what God's abundant mercy, compassion and grace have already given to our lives. Simply because other people are behaving badly, whether it be a co-worker, friend, spouse or political candidate, it doesn't mean we have to respond in kind or expect that the world will never change because that's the way it is. For all those children who jumped off the bridge despite what their parents told them, more of us can walk across that same bridge and meet the people on the other side with a handshake and an appreciation for what can still be.

Abiding Grace

2006-10-11T16:31:00.000-04:00

While puttering at my computer last Friday night, I decided to search out an old friend whom I haven't heard from in years. Unbeknownst to me, another friend from this same era of my life was searching online for me. I believe this practice is held safe in the Biblical concept of, "Google unto others as you would have them Google unto you." Both friends had been on my mind lately, so when the latter friend's email popped onto the screen yesterday, the surprise revealed a two-fold blessing. His own life is rich, meaningful and filled with love. He had also been in touch with our mutual friend, the woman I had been searching for, and was able to share a bit about her life. My hope is to contact her in the next few days, completing a circle begun thirty years ago. I have missed them both much more than I was aware.

Our lives, as a general rule, are like that. We move through them at warp speed, doing the best we can with what we've got, only to wake up one day trying to remember who and what matters to us. Planning our lives as 20-year-olds around a university commons table is so very different than reflecting back from middle-aged moments at our kitchen tables before turning out the lights and heading to bed. Somewhere between the two points of passage lie our hopes and dreams, blended thoroughly with the circumstances, events, choices and relationships that have shaped us. Perhaps "The Way We Were" isn't only a song, but also a way to understand and accept our own history.

As I stand in the doorway of my own kitchen each evening, I am circled by three impatient cats, ready to settle in for the night, and a life that is much more than I ever imagined it would be. All the steps that have brought me to flipping the light switch and walking down the hall to my bedroom are stored somewhere in my memory. Although I have a very good memory, I don't nave a need to bring up every finite detail of every experience from day one to the present. It's all there, I have used my time well and, like a casserole with just the right mix of ingredients, it tastes better and better each day.

There is also that unifying factor known as sauce. A classic Midwestern potluck dinner will always include several dishes with noodles, hamburger and vegetables. Depending on the cook, there will be a cheese, mushroom or tomato sauce, frequently supplied by the Campbell's Soup Company, blended with the other ingredients. While wholly practical, and completely un-exotic, the soup infuses what once was merely a pile of leftovers with something warm, inviting and nourishing, usually better than we expected.

What sauce is to a good casserole, God's grace is to our lives. What can feel like years of experiences and encounters that make no sense by themselves, are all joined together by grace, the grace by which we are called to something warm, inviting and nourishing, something much more than we ever imagined.

It is grace that surrounds al of us, inspires all of us, to share our lives with one another, bringing out the best we each have to offer at the table. It is grace that stirs and refreshes our souls and helps us find ourselves in each other again.

A Simple Act of Forgiveness

2006-10-05T17:30:00.000-04:00

Four Amish girls were buried on a hill in Nickel Mine, Pennsylvania, this morning. Charles Carl Roberts IV, the shooter who invaded their schoolhouse, took their lives and shattered their community's private world, took his own life as well. Roberts' wife and three children live nearby. Two other acts of school violence, one in Colorado, one in Wisconsin, occurred only a few days before Roberts' rampage on his neighbors. Trying to understand what is happening in our country, and why, is a confusing struggle of faith and fear.

But the Amish community has startled our nation into subdued silence with its simple offering of forgiveness to Roberts' family and the sincere hope that they stay because they will also be offered friendship and continued support. As an article posted on AOL;s news service pointed out, "In just about any other community, a deadly school shooting would have brought demands from civic leaders for tighter gun laws and other security, and the victims' loved ones would have lashed out at the gunman's family or threatened to sue."

But that's not the Amish way.

Gertrude Huntington, a Michigan researcher who has written a book about Amish children, has said of the impact of the tragic loss of these children, "The hurt is great. But they don't balance the hurt with hate." Before Roberts' body had been removed from the scene, members of the Amish community began gathering outside the schoolhouse where the tragedy took place. It was that night that neighbors came to the Roberts family home to offer their forgiveness for what had happened that day. On the CBS Evening News, one young Amish man simply said, "We must forgive or Jesus won't forgive us."

We are not accustomed to forgiveness in our culture. We are uncomfortable with the vulnerability it implies, the righteous anger it steals from us. Most of us know The Lord's Prayer by heart - Our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Forgiveness, asked for and offered, has no boundaries, no limitations, no timeline and no prerequisites. Forgiveness simply is what we must do if we expect forgiveness in return, from each other and from God. Luke's gospel also quotes Jesus as saying, "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back (Luke 6:37-38)."

It will be said of this tragedy, as history has recorded many times before about other, equally tragic circumstances, that it is impossible to forgive such horrible acts against innocent people. And yet, the Amish of Pennsylvania have already proven that blanket statement false. While their lifestyle is quite different than our own, we share a common humanity that cannot be denied, even by our own fear to consider embodying this straightforward, honest faith we have witnessed this week. For this is our faith as well, and even though we have laid claim to technological advances and material wealth unprecedented, even in our own United States, we need to step back and see where we have lost touch with its most basic tenet. Forgiveness has never been about what has been done to us, but about what we can offer now.

God's blessings,
Cory

Relational Faith

2006-10-04T15:35:00.000-04:00

"Computers Loom Large in Preschoolers' Lives."

This headline caught my attention as I leafed through my Sunday paper this past weekend. While my own computer and I are rather close, spending a pretty hefty portion of our days together, I hadn't really considered what an impact this staple of everyday life has had on our youngest community members. Apparently there is a considerable impact, a lasting influence we may want to redirect while we still have time.

This particular piece of technology is here to stay for a lot of good reasons. Teaching our children to respect computers as a tool, and educating them on how to work with them in productive ways, is important. But Lowell Manke, an associate professor of education at Whitenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, suggests that, " Kids ought to be digging in the ground and playing with dogs and listening to their grandparents tell stories. Computers take that time away from them." Another educator, Lucy Payne, an associate professor of teacher education at the University of St. Thomas, said, "I'm afraid if we keep pushing this technology, we're going to have a whole bunch of people who can do data entry, but nobody who can solve problems." Having managed a retail furniture store for a number of years, and struggled to train and coach many young employees in customer service problem solving, I hear these words of caution loud and clear.

My question is where does this leave us as people of faith? Do we still want to share our faith with our children? Or have we chosen a new god in technology, one to whom we are giving our children in the name of living in the modern world?

From Genesis forward the Bible communicates how God created us for community. The Lord's Prayer begins with the familiar words, "Our Father who art in heaven." Paul's letters to the early churches talk about early Christians as being brothers and sisters in Christ. Most specifically, we speak of the relationship we each have with God through Jesus Christ as the Son of God.

We also know, sooner than not, that relationships aren't always easy. Human beings aren't mass produced off of an assembly line. And while we share many similarities and we are all made up of the same basic components, we are individuals, we are unique and getting along with each other requires our understanding and acceptance of one another's humanity. If our young people's life experience is dominated by a point/click, cut/paste mentality, it is no wonder they have trouble making sense of the larger, richer worlds of feelings, communication and respect for personality quirks and differences.

It follows that understanding and living a life based in faith is likely an even more foreign concept. How do we then pass on our faith to this generation?

Basically, we have some things to think about. We carry a legacy of faith, passed down to us in trust, a heritage we want to give over to this next generation. How we do that needs to convey the truth of God's love and the integrity of the community that embodies that truth. Technology, computers especially, inform our society in ways of which we are not yet fully aware. But what we do know is that digging in the dirt teaches a child about God's planet, and keeps us grounded as well. Petting and playing with a dog evokes the blessings of joy and compassion in loving all of God's creatures. Old stories, from those who have them to tell, show us the way on our own journeys to come. We pass on our faith as we live it the way God intended, through relationships with other people. If we lose sight of that, or feel we don't have time, or think our children can get the same message reading Bible stories online, we are wrong. Reading the story of God's love and faithfulness off a computer screen is not the same as living that story among God's people now.

Computers are machines designed to make our lives easier, tools that can be applied in numerous creative and practical ways. People are designed to interact with each other, to nurture each other and simply, to love each other. We are the conduits of community and the most important way to pass on this legacy of faith.

Common Ground

2006-09-28T19:35:00.000-04:00

Former President Clinton has been in the news the last few days. Appearing in a series of interviews as he entered a three day Global Initiatives Conference, Mr. Clinton mostly has been seen defending his attempts to protect the country from terrorism during his administration. At odds with Fox Television's Chris Wallace during their conversation, Mr. Clinton was later postured against Secretary of State Rice. It is not uncommon for the media to highlight conflict whenever possible. Conflict attracts attention, and sells almost as well as sex.

What is more interesting to me is Mr. Clinton's conversation with Tim Russert, host of NBC's Meet the Press, on whose program he also appeared this past weekend. Mr. Clinton told Mr. Russert that the biggest problem facing the world today is "the illusion that our differences matter more than our common humanity." This simple statement seems to have been all but lost in the shuffle and squabble. The illusion that our differences matter more than almost everything else, especially our common humanity, is strong. We live on it, feed from it, defend the deep reality of it, and question the common sense and sanity of those who don't. If we aren't invested in this illusion, though, it becomes much easier to recognize the deeper truth, that we are all united in this life we live.

We all share some basic human experiences. We are each born, learn to walk and talk and eventually we all die. In between there can be hundreds of thousands of wonderful scents, sounds, sights, dreams, hopes and longings. it is among these tangible moments that we find each other, and grasp the reality that other people outside our own circles also enjoy sunsets and family gatherings. It is easier to accept that we are individuals with common bonds of love and forgiveness that are woven among us in small, yet significant ways everyday. We are more alike than we know.

And so, we also have Jesus' words to consider. "In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets (Matthew 7:12)." The illusion is that we are different in more ways than we can count crumbles at the idea that we might be able to try treating other people how we would like to be treated. It is an easy enough concept. If we want to be treated with respect, we simply treat other people with respect. If we want to be treated with kindness, love, dignity and grace, we simply treat other people with kindness, love, dignity and grace. How we think about other people and treat other people has little or nothing to do with how we perceive them, and everything to do with how we see ourselves. If we would not treat ourselves badly, we have our answer on whether we would treat someone else badly.

Behaving toward others based on what we would like takes all the guesswork out of any number of sticky situations, personal and professional, national and international. My guess is that most of us would like to be treated with care and kindness. If we come to the table with this in mind, we will be on solid, common ground, and be able to set the illusion of our differences aside.

Following Our Voice

2006-09-25T16:30:00.000-04:00

Perhaps you have already heard. The United States Internal Revenue Service is investigating All Saints Episcopal Church of Pasadena, California.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the IRS targeted All Saints because it is stepping up its probe of allegedly improper campaigning by churches. All Saints has historically been involved in social activism, so it was a surprise that an antiwar sermon delivered by its former rector should trigger such a response. Our tax code bars nonprofits from endorsing or campaigning against candidates in an election. This includes churches. Although no candidate was endorsed in the aforementioned sermon, the IRS is treating the matter as if All Saints had publicly supported a particular candidate.

Facing a potential loss of their nonprofit status has ramifications for All Saints, as well as the understanding of how we are to live our faith in churches across this country. All Saints must decide if they will comply by turning over all documentation related to the sermon in question. If they choose not to, the case could be turned over to the Department of Justice or the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, USA, stated, "I'm outraged. Preachers ought to have the liberty to speak truth to power. There is a lot more to be done about this, and it may include some actions of nonviolent civil disobedience. Since 9/11, the IRS, like the FBI, has been moving back to the 1950's and 1960's when a great deal of such activity was propagated against church leaders like Martin Luther King," said Rev. Edgar.

If you aren't sitting up in your chair at this point, you should be because timing certainly is everything. The midterm elections are weeks away, and since President Bush did no achieve a landslide victory from his reelection campaign, threatening the voices calling people to think before they vote more of Bush's policies in through senators and representatives who support him, must seem like an effective strategy. The IRS holds great power in our country, much more than it should. Not only would this investigation, also reportedly being waged against numerous other congregations, attempt to silence the prophetic voices from our nation's pulpits, but it would seek to close houses of worship permanently. Keeping most churches running is a pray as you go venture. Taking away tax exempt status, or simply the threat of that being held over a congregation's head, will make many, many preachers think twice before quoting Jesus or expounding on his message in ways that clearly inflamed a few other Pharisees. They will feel, and potentially will be, forced to choose: Will it be faith they will live or the fear of financial reprisal on both their personal and vocational lives? And, if their church is choosing faith, do they and their people have enough money to fight the legal battle against their own government for their very right to exist and worship?

These are the times, the moments, that call us to look at what we believe and how we will choose. We may not personally be opening a letter from the IRS. We may not be sitting in the pew of a parish about to realize the literal cost the government is putting on discipleship. But if we believe that God called us into being as a community as the body of Christ, then we are as much a part of the scenario being played out at All Saints Church as its rector and parishioners . They are a part of us and we are a part of them by virtue of Who lives among us and gives us life.

Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me (John 10:27)." The people of All Saints Church have heard God's voice over the years, and have shared what they have heard with great consistency. The sermon that attracted the IRS' attention was delivered in the same church that heard sermons that opposed the Vietnam War and sermons that supported women clergy and gays and lesbians in the church. Its rector spoke out against the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It is the congregation which will determine whether they will comply with the IRS or face what comes next. Having heard God's voice all these years is a reminder that this is a two-way conversation initiated by God, who is known for sticking around when the going gets tough. God speaks, and if we have been listening, we know the voice we must follow.