Hope

Web meditation 27 Feb 2009

Hope has gotten a lot of press in the last year, from Pres. Barack Obama's book The Audacity of Hope to the ridicule of his understanding of hope by his opponents. Since the time of the Apostle Paul, Hope has been a Christian virtue, a characteristic that promotes our individual and joint well being. I believe hope is a characteristic that helps us love God with all our heart. For us Christians, I believe, hope springs from knowing that the way things are, are not the way things will always be. Furthermore we are hopeful because we know we are not alone in our darkest nor our bightest hour.

We are hopeful that the world as it is will not always be as it is because we believe the resurrected Jesus Christ to be the first born of a new creation called the kingdom of God. We are all able through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus to be new creations as well. This new creation is not run on fear as our current world is; rather it is run on love, not on separation or individualism; rather on community. In the new creation we are in communion with God, communion with our neighbors, and in communion with nature. We are hopeful for this new creation because we know the great stories of the past and want to be a part of the great stories of now.

We are hopeful because we are not alone. This is one of the great messages of the cross. God incarnate, the divine one in human flesh, was willing to suffer and die. God is not separate from our suffering. God has experienced it too. To put it colloquially, God has been there and done that. Hope does not deny the suffering of the world. It is not Pollianna with rose colored glasses. If God incarnate wound up on a cross how we could we expect anything different. Hope is motivation to keep moving forward despite the pain and suffering common to life. Hope is knowing that God will be with us no matter what we do or what is done to us. Hope is a christian virtue.


Questions for today:
How would you define hope?
When do you and what makes you feel hopeful?

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This meditation is also posted on the website of the Church of the Resurrection under lenten meditations.

Ash Wednesday Sermon

"And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.”

May only God’s word be spoken and may only God’s word be heard. Amen!

I have always marveled at the irony of the scripture selections for Ash Wednesday. On this day when we begin our Lenten journey; when many mainline protestant and Roman Catholic Christians get serious about practicing their faith on a daily basis; on this day when we are marked with ashes on our foreheads for all the world to see; we have this Gospel reading: "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.” And that is just the beginning. Jesus goes on to draw contrast between how some give alms, pray, and fast and how we should give alms, pray, and fast.

Jesus seems to be arguing that piety, the things we do to practice our faith, should be done in private. Indeed many in this day and age believe that our faith should be practiced in private. That living our faith is something we do in the privacy of our own homes and maybe a church, but it should be separated from our public life, kept away from our jobs and communities, where we shop, and what we buy. This attitude seems to be in line with what Jesus is teaching.

But yet, the church, the institution tasked with teaching and proclaiming good news, the institution that is supposed to teach us what to do to follow Jesus, invites us this day into a very public journey. We are invited to examine our selves, to critically take note of all the ways we are different from Christ today. Then we are to set about shedding those differences through our Lenten disciplines to come out at Easter more like Christ then we were on Ash Wednesday.

These Lenten disciplines get lived out in public. Whether we are giving up chocolate, alcohol, meat, or bagels; whether we are reading our Bibles every day, spending a half hour in prayer every morning, or pledging to not cuss while commuting, all these actions are done in public. They affect how we interact with people. Furthermore, if you have noticed around town, Omaha works differently during lent. Several of the Roman Catholic churches have fish every Friday night. The school systems still avoid Wednesday night for scheduling events because of Lenten and confirmation programs at churches. Even Taco Bell, I saw the other day, is advertising its Lenten menu. Lent is public. Yet Jesus seems to say that we shouldn’t practice our faith in public.

At least that what he seems to say at first glance, is we look closer to the reading we’ll notice that Jesus is speaking more about the spirit of our practice versus the venue. He warns against practicing faith in public so that one could better establish one’s self with others. He says don’t practice your faith in public in order to draw attention to yourself. Don’t do it to win friends and influence people; rather practice to build stores in heaven for where our treasure is, be it money or prestige, is where our heart will be.

A friend mine here in town, Chris Heuertz, is the executive director of the international mission organization Word Made Flesh based right here in Omaha. He recently published a book about the spiritual lessons he’s learned serving all over the world. Recently, I heard him speak about his book, and he talked specifically about fasting. He said when he was younger he fasted because that is what you did to show you were a serious Christian. Look at me, I’m Sandra Dee I don’t this and I don’t do that method of fasting. That is building stores on earth not in heaven. Chris what he has learned about fasting from both the scriptures and from living in some of the worst slums, ghettos, and barrios on the planet, is that you fast to make space in your life for others. To fast from eating does no good spiritually, if you do not help some else eat. To fast from shopping, does nothing to help you grow in Christ, if you do not clothe someone else. To fast from speeding does nothing for you unless you help safe guard other people on the road. To say, I will watch a half hour less tv every day and spend that time studying my bible doesn’t help unless you take the lessons learned from the word of God to create a more just world for all to live in.

That is why in our reading from Isaiah today we hear these words,

"Why do we fast, but you do not see?
Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?"
Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,
and oppress all your workers.
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.
Is such the fast that I choose,
a day to humble oneself?
Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush,
and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?
Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
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 them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator 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 for help, and he will say, Here I am.

My Brothers and Sisters, I invite you to this holy journey of lent, not so that we can make ourselves better Christians, as if by our own power we could do such a thing. No, I invite you to this holy journey of lent so that with the help of God we can make a better world. “Won’t you come along and ride on that fantastic journey?” Amen!

Purpose

Recently I read a book entitled, The Winners Manual, by the head football coach of THE Ohio State Buckeyes Jim Tressel. He is a coach who has won a lot of football games, yet he does not define success as winning games. He argues that success arrives when we know we have done all we can to fulfill our purpose. He goes on to talk about the relationship between our purpose and our goals. According to coach Tressel our purpose is who we are, our inner most being. It is not our jobs, our status, or our education, or even our possessions; rather our purpose is who we are at our deepest level. Goals are related to purpose in that our goals are the things we do to fullfil our purpose. Therefore purpose is being and goals are doing.

I believe that our purpose as Christians is given to us by Christ. In Luke 10:25-28, Jesus is confronted by a lawyer who asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus famously responds that he must love God with all his mind, with all his heart, and with all his soul, and his neighbor as himself. Of course, when Jesus speaks to someone in scripture he is speaking to us as well. Our purpose in life is to love God with heart, mind, and soul, and to love our neighbors as we love our selves. Our purpose is to love. Over the next few days I will write a little bit about different attitudes an areas of spiritual practice that we can set goals in order to love God, love ourselves, and our neighbors.

Question for today:
How would you define the word success?

This meditation is also posted on the website of the Church of the Resurrection in Omaha, NE.

Ash Wednesday Meditation

Why do I go to Church?

A first glance this may seem like an odd question for a priest to answer. I am, what we in the business call, a paid believer. It's my job to go to church. However, this is not the reason I participate in the communal worship God, which is what a church service is. I worship God with groups of people gathered in praise because that is how I come in contact with the beyond. Now, I'm not talking about the psychic hotline here. I'm not saying I channel the spirits of the fallen during worship or any such nonsense. I'm saying that often in worship I and, I believe, all of us experience transcendent moments; connections to God that are beyond my ability to fully comprehend or explain. From this contact, I am re-aligned with my proper place in the universe. Simply put, I am reminded that God is God and I am not.

Now, you might be saying at this point that all this can be done in private devotions at home. What's the need to get to church on Sunday morning? First, actually going to church is important because I am reconnected with my fellow believers in worship. This common practice of praising God affirms within me my connections to my neighbors. Consequently, I am inspired to live more justly in all my relationships be they with my family, my neighborhood, city, state, and world. Furthermore, actually going to church is a lot like going to the gym. I can and do workout at home, but when I go to the gym and take an exercise class I work harder. Maybe I don't want to look weak in front of my wife, or maybe I just want to keep up with the guy next to me lifting twice as much weight as me. Either way working out in public does not allow me to slack off. Worshiping with other people provides a helpful discipline so that I can grow in my relationships with God and others.

Why do you go to church?

This Meditation can also be found on the website of the Church of the Resurrection in Omaha, NE.

Thoughts on Unleashing the Scripture

So, some friends of mine and I are making an attempt at having an online book club. We read a book and post reflections about the assigned sections. What follows are my reflections about the first part of the book Unleashing the Scriptures by Stanley Hauerwas:

• His basic argument is that the bible can not be read individually. There is no "true" meaning that lies unchanged in the scriptures that can be understood by an unaided solitary reader. We can not read scripture outside of an interpretive community. The myth of the rugged individual, so prevalent in the psychology of the United States, has corrupted our reading of Scripture.


• on p. 16 he says, that he doesn't believe that each person has the right to interpret the scriptures.
  
  • I agree with this, however, considering the fallen nature of institutions, I'm nervous about giving institutions sole interpretive power.
  
  
• I think he suggests but I wish he would say outright that the bible can only speak to us when read in the tension of relationships, specifically the relationships of Christian Community


• When we read the bible as individuals we cannot resist the demonic temptation to interpret the scriptures in a manner that requires the least change in us.


• On the other hand when we read scripture in community, especially a community that already has binds on us, we have correctives available to us that keep us from creating the bible in our own image nor making an idol of the bible


• I can agree with him to the extent that the community has a mechanism for self correction. For example in my tradition, we have a hierarchical structure, which presents some problems in its own right, but there are methods by which the community as a whole prayerfully discerns the corporate interpretation of scripture and direction of the Church


• because of the fallen nature of institutions I could not get behind a top down interpretaion of scripture where there is one individual, or even a small group of individuals, deciding what everyone else is to believe.


• I agree that a community is needed for the rightful interpretation of scripture in so much as everyone exercises a voice in the community.

NEW JOB!!!!!

I am excited to announce that I have been called to be the Rector of the Church of the Resurrection in Omaha Nebraska. I begin working there in February.

BE AWAKE!!!!!

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”

I speak with you in the name of the eternal God: Speaker, word, and breath. Amen!

Happy New Year!!!! No, I haven’t started to hit the holiday egg nog. No, I’m not so frazzled by Christmas shopping already that I want to skip ahead. No, I haven’t lost my mind. I know that it is not even December yet. I know that the New Year by the calendar on the wall is over thirty days away. However, I do seriously wish you a Happy New Year. This weekend is the Christian New Year. We have ended the long season after Pentecost, and we have entered into advent. As you have probably noticed we have changed colors from Green to Purple. We have also entered a new year in our lectionary cycle, the three year cycle of scripture readings appointed for each Sunday. Last year we were in year A where the Gospel according to Matthew was featured, or as a church geek friend of mine calls it the "wailing and gnashing of teeth Gospel according to Matthew." Now, we are in year B where we will read the Gospel according to Mark together.

Liturgically, Advent is what we call a penitential season. It is a season of preparation. We prepare ourselves spiritually by physically preparing for Christmas for the feast of the incarnation of God in the form of the man Jesus Christ of Nazareth. We decorate the church and our homes, with symbols of Christ. We fast from saying “Alleluia” during the Eucharistic prayer. We sing songs about the coming of the Christ child. All of these actions are taken to help us expect Christ, to expect the coming of the light of God during the darkest time of year.

However, all this preparation for the beginning leads us to and odd situation. Why do we focus on the end right here at the beginning? On this day where we celebrate the new year, the beginning again, our Gospel reading is from near the end of Mark’s gospel and is about the end of the world. Where we are in Mark’s gospel today, Jesus has already preached in Galilee, he has done the miracles and taught the parables there. He’s already processed into Jerusalem on a donkey, taught subversive parables in the temple, and broken with the temple establishment by predicting that the temple would be destroyed. Where we are in Mark’s gospel Jesus has retreated to the Mount of Olives just outside of Jerusalem to prepare for the passion, his suffering and death on the cross. Why, when we are preparing for Jesus’ birth, are we reading about him preparing for his death?

To unravel this a bit, we need to understand a little about what the disciples were hearing when Jesus talked about the end of the world. Just before our gospel reading today, Jesus predicts the destruction of the temple. Then the disciples ask about the end of the world, and then our passage for today regarding the end of the world occurs. For the disciples, the end of the world was the destruction of the temple. The temple was the center of their worldview and identity. It held the symbolic meaning of all their foundational stories, the stories that formed their identity and told them who they were in the world. To the disciples, the temple was literally the earthly house of God. It was the place that Heaven and Earth commingled, that the veil between this world and the next was thinned. This is a little hard for us to understand as American’s because our identity isn’t attached to a building so much as an idea. For Jesus to say that the temple would be destroyed would be to us saying that the Declaration of Independence and the constitution would be destroyed; that we will no longer be Americans.

So, it is not surprising that just after Jesus makes this pronouncement, the disciples ask when is this going to happen. In Jesus’ response to their question he says two things of interest to us today: no one knows when this will occur, and look beyond history. Jesus says to them, “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” We aren’t to ponder or predict the end of our world, because no one knows the time except God. Furthermore, we are to look past temporal things such as worldviews and institutions, governments, markets, and societies. Jesus said that “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” He saying that the center of their world, the temple, would pass away but that God is eternal and they are to look beyond the institution and see God. Jesus was calling them to rely not on the temporary buildings and institutions of this world but on God.

He says to them to be awake, to be alert, to be conscious, to notice “how things cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new…” Jesus begs us to be awake this day as well. This is why we ponder the end in expectation of the beginning. This is why we read this passage at the end of Mark’s gospel at the beginning of our new year: so that we are reminded to look for the coming of Christ in every moment. We are reminded to be mindful of God’s presence at all times. We are reminded that the cultural institutions of our day are temporary we are to be alert enough to see through them. We can not shop our way to Jesus. We can eat fancy food and sweets and drink egg nog our way to Jesus.

We can only come to this simple table. We can only come to this stark altar and receive meager bread and humble wine. We can only join our hopeful prayers with our fellow Christians in this house of praise that this meager bread and humble wine will be for us the body and blood of Christ. My brothers and sisters, be awake! Peel away the layers of temporal trappings this holiday season. Peer into communion at this table and see the everlasting word of God. Amen!

God's Peace,
FJ+

Post election reflection

Greetings,

I was second in line at my polling station yesterday morning. The guy in front of me got there at 5:45 a.m.--there would be no beating him to the polls. I had to pause and blink my eyes a couple of times to assure myself that I really was voting for the First African American nominee. I cast my vote and late last night, after a day of volunteering and an evening with friends, Jodie and I bought airline tickets to D.C. for the inauguration!

But there is still work to do. While we voted in the first African American president yesterday, Nebraska also voted in a ban on affirmative action that is so broad it could prevent the government from funding things like Breast Cancer screening, Prostate Cancer Research, and domestic violence shelters.

WE must work to bring our nation together to combat the challenges before us. WE must create the spirit of care and concern for our neighbors that denies the rhetoric of "every man for himself" and lifts up the ideal that I prosper when we all prosper. One leader, no matter how strong, can accomplish what we need done. It takes a community, dare I say an organized community, engaged in the local issues that effect our common interests. It takes people engaged in the process, willing to hold leaders accountable for both their action and inaction. It takes faith in something more, that the way things are, are not how they have to be. It takes desire, hope, and determination. It takes work.

The vote is cast; now, the work begins. J+

Real Voter Fraud makes me angry.

MDGs

In 2000 world leaders gathered at the United Nations to adopt the following goals:

Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger
Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education for Children
Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality
Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Other Diseases
Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Goal 8: Create a Global Partnership for Development

All to be accomplished by 2015.

As I look at these goals I can't help but think about wealth and grace. I might miss a meal every now and again for scheduling reasons, but I do not know extreme hunger. The same goes for poverty. I have a job that not only pays a living wage, but also allows me to sit at a computer and blog about the MDGs. I am very educated, and if I have children someday I'll worry more about the quality of their education versus whether they have one available to them at all. My wife is a professional teacher and is moving up the educational career world. She exercises a great deal of power in a variety of forms. For goals Four and Five, my wife and I are insured by our employers and have access to prenatal vitamins and care. Relatively speaking these are at our finger tips. We took over seas trips this summer and it was quite easy for us to get anti-malaria medications for the trips. Plus, condoms can be bought just about anywhere from book stores to gift shops in the U.S. Again, health care at our finger tips. For goals seven and eight, once again, the tools for doing this are readily available for me to contribute to this process.

I am forced to ask myself why I deserve these things. Why do I have access to all these opportunities, care, and tools when Juancito, a boy I met in Nicaragua this summer, doesn't. Juan is five years old, has full blown aids, is deaf, and his family is in extreme poverty. What have I done to deserve any of this. What contribution have I made to deserve the education I have received, or the health care, or the money in my pocket? The answer is of course that I haven't and I do not deserve any of it. It would be tempting to say that I have been blessed by God to have these things, but that is dangerous. Do I really want to worship a God that capriciously blesses me and denies others without cause? The fact of the matter is that the fates of Juan and I are not solely affected by God they are also affected by the politics of the nations we live in. Because of the policies of my nation, the state of things in Juan's is dire. If I am going to be grateful, the act of accepting God's grace, for the things I have then I must ask why my nation prevents Juan's from flourishing. Furthermore since I am, by chance, a citizen of a nation that allows me to exercise my voice and political will then I must speak up and call for my nation not to thrive of the enslavement of other nations. Hence, why I blog today. I believe this onus is not just on me but on all of us to "love our neighbors as ourselves," to love as Christ first loved us. Then we must question how our societies are formed and engage our leaders to structure policy more justly. Hence, why I engage in community organizing.

Now, I'm not lifting my self up as somehow better because I think about the MGDs and act for a better world. There are a myriad of ways that I could be acting but am not. There is much more work that I could be doing on these issues, but I haven't yet done them. I merely wish to offer examples of ways that people can get involved. The collection of small actions joined together are powerful.

You can give money, you can lobby your leaders, you can talk to your friends and neighbors, you can think about how our smallest actions from buying groceries to how we cut our grass affects our neighbors. The goals will not be accomplished for us. They will only be achieved by us, by the faithful action of people who care about their neighbors near and far. Please get involved.

God's Peace,
Jason+

IAF Seminar with Stanley Hauerwas

Today and tomorrow, I'm at a conference sponsored by the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) with Stanley Hauerwas and Romand Coles. They have recently written a book entitled Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary. I'm posting my notes from the conference. They are out of context, but mostly quotes from Hauerwas that I find interesting. I'll do the same with Coles tomorrow. If any of them agitate you to think, to anger, to agreement then please post a comment so that we can converse and learn from each other.

IAF Seminar w/Stanley Hauerwas
22 Sept. 2008
Morning Session.
Christianity, Democracy, and the Radical Ordinary

* Beautiful Ghost -- Murder Mystery Novel
o "you're in a world that is not based of facts"
o "People here live by truths not by facts"
o "to truly learn you must turn your back on what you know"
* Hauerwas has tried to get us to reclaim the oddness of Christian language
o If the world has been redeemed then it takes a lot of training to see the world that way because it must be a world always open to miracle
o therefore you can not anticipate what will be
* Radical Ordinary is
o Hauerwas is being in conversation that will open up possibilities that would not exist otherwise.
o Hauerwas was shaped by mainline protestantism identified with Reinhold Niebuhr
o R. Niebuhr wanted the church to support the democratic order
o Influenced by John Yoder, S.H. realized that christian language had been domesticated by Niebuhr
o Niebuhr had made Christians modest killers, he wanted posted above the State Department doors "when in doubt, kill as few as possible"
* S. H. believes that we should not be killers at all
o Therefore we must see the truths not the facts
o "The first task of the church is not to make the world more just, but to make the world the world."
o We must articulate the world. We must articulate how the world has us by the short hairs and impedes us from imagining Resurrection.
o Niebuhr, despite his modesty tries to defeat violence by the politics of glory (America is the name of the politics of glory)
* Goal of the book:
o We only understand what politics means through the slow hard work of Relationships
o Christianity is not good for democracy. Christianity is good because it is true and it helps us live in the world of small achievements.
* Hauerwas contribution to the book
o Will Campbell understands the role of memory in politics and that America has not come to terms with what it means to be a slave nation
o There is nothing that can be done to make slavery right, but must be remembered.
o S.H. Lifts vanier's work with l'arche to tell us that we must take time in a world that says we have no time
o We have the time to discover the goods we have in common, the common good
o By Gregory Nazianzus S.H. tries to show that who we are will be determined by how we treat the "poor and the lepers"
* The state is justified by moving people from citizenship to consumers
o the power of the modern state and modern medicine are relatives in that they help us deny reality specifically the reality that none of us gets out of life alive.
o security becomes all in the modern state, therefore our imagination becomes blunted and domesticated
* Counter to this idea is the state centered around a "lepersorium connected to the university"
* This requires a training in the language of the faith that makes the familiar odd
o Christian language has been domesticated in America to accept things the way they are as opposed to imagining the way things could be.
* Church sets about making the world the world by the practices that create the Will Campbells, the Ella Bakers, and the Martin Luther Kings


Responses to comments and questions by organizers

* What is the status of the claim "Jesus is Lord"
o Jesus is very God and very Man
o If we say Jesus is Lord then we must rethink what we mean when we say God
o Most people think when they say the God that they know what they are talking about, Christians do not.
o Orthodoxy is radical business it does not state a given it articulates a radical commitment to the recognition that to worship the God that will show up in the belly of Mary will always upset what I mean by the notion of God.
o Christian under construction
o Politics is always about speech. The ability to speak truthfully is the ability to not say more than should be said. It is the attempt to shut you up before that which you do not know.
o There is assumption in the book that unless we get better at small achievements then we won't have the communities that are able to resist the temptations of empire/totalitarianism
o There is an ethos in America that we should not be held accountable for the actions we take when we don't know what we are doing.
+ This allows an amnesia that allows us to act without memory
+ this allows the illusions that we choose our story when we have no story. that we choose who we are even when we have no clue
+ this allows us to be sheep but not follow the Great Shepherd rather follow the spiritual forces of empire blindly.
o IF the church does not give you meaningful work to do, then where will we get the people to do the meaningful work?
o Engage the world to teach the lesson that we need each other in order to survive.
o When Christians are no longer angry then you know they are just Americans.
o Christianity is about learning to be forgiven without regret. Learning to remember the shit that we do with repeating it. We do not forgive, we are the forgiven.
o Any moral commitment works in so much as the people around you help you live it, because you certainly won't be able to on your own.
o God has promised to show up at the Eucharist, which should scare the hell out of us, but God is not limited to showing up there.

My Questions/thoughts

* When he says "the first task of the church is to make the world the world" does he have a different meaning for the word world for each usage of the word in that sentence? If so, what does he mean by each usage?
* His notion of story recognises a fault in the American Dream.
o American dream despite your past, you may leave it behind and make yourself into anything you want.
o Problem this denies the role of our history in becoming who we are.
o The narratives of our past informs who we are and provide meaning to our possible future
o We are not without agency; however our agency is bound to our relationships and if we exercise our agency without respect for these boundaries we are own the path to self-destructive/self-harming behavior.


Afternoon Session

* Problem with America is the great experiment in protestant social formation. And the agony is that Christian has become synonymous with American and that has left the church castrated and impotent to maintain a discipline of offering an alternative community.
* The religious symbol in American life is the American Life.
o Book Book Nation what is true is what you are allowed to kill for. We are not allowed to kill for the cross, but we are for the flag.
o part of being the church is to offer an alternative to the account that we should sacrifice our children's natural hesitancy to kill for the sake of what we think is our greatest good.
o We allow our kids to choose whether they want to be Christian, but we do not allow them to choose whether they want to be American
* Submission is imperative to christian spirituality
o We must be submissive to the vulnerability of our brothers and sisters because they may tell us a much different story then what we think we hear from God.
o The community tests the call
+ Hauerwas did this right in front of us
* We need to get over as Christians the habit of assuming that I understand you but you do not understand me.
* The deepest enemy of Christianity is not atheism rather it is sentimentality
o specifically people's desire to have children so that their children won't have to suffer for their convictions
o However the example of Jesus on the cross is that we should be willing to die for our convictions, but never kill for them.
* We must become separate from the idea that we [the church] are the chaplains to the American Society
* The church is a group of people that are about formation.
* Charity is Sin when it is enacted out of relationship with the people we serve.

Is Gov. Sarah Palin a Feminist?

This article is interesting regarding why some women are not being duped by the reight attempt at promoting a woman with helping women!

A worthy read!

This article I find to be very focusing. I hunger for a significant debate, something along the lines of Lincoln and Douglas from back in the day. However, I am becoming more and more convinced we won't get that this time either.

A work of art!

This wasn't shown on network tv, which I'm not surprised about, however more people should watch it.



God's Peace,
Jason+

Non-violence

“No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow until the harvest;…”

I speak with you in the Name of God who has won the victory, Amen!

That’s an interesting Gospel passage don’t you think? I mean the first part is odd enough with some enemy planting weeds amongst this farmer’s wheat. Sounds like a lot of work in order to do someone harm? Furthermore, the farmer does not weed the field. What farmer doesn’t weed their garden? Then we get to Jesus’ explanation of the parable and we appear to be in the land of fire and brimstone and eternal damnation. Jesus says, “Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them in the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Where’s the good news in that? I thought God was merciful and compassionate. This sounds vindictive and punitive. What’s up with that?

I need not remind y’all that I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church. This text was, and often still is, the fodder for many a fire and brimstone sermon. It has been used to cause fear in both individuals and communities using graphic descriptions of a fiery hell that awaits anyone who strays from the cultural norms of the time. I still believe some of those old school preachers can literally get fire and brimstone to come out of their ears when they really get going. They can rile up a crowd and have everyone shaking with fear at the possibility of being a weed come harvest time.
Indeed, this interpretation of the whole gospel is so much a part of American Religious history—from the famous puritan sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God to modern day TV evangelists—that it is hard to read this scripture and not immediately hear those preachers with that “behave-yourself-or-the-wrath-of-God-will-descend-upon-you” interpretation and be afraid. I mean, which one of us has not failed to hear the word God and follow it completely. I know I have sinned come short of the glory God, and I don’t doubt that whether I want to or not I’m very much likely to sin again in the future. So what are we to do with this Gospel passage? Are we all doomed to wailing and gnashing of teeth at the end of time?

Well, no, we are not. There is more to this gospel then meets the eye. When we read it we must keep in mind both the historical context and the context of the entire gospel of Matthew. I believe Jesus was trying to tell his audience and us too, not to be afraid of the evil in our own hearts and community. I believe Jesus was trying to teach us to be non-violent in our responses to both the internal evil in our hearts and external evils as well.

First let us look at the historical context. Jesus is speaking in first century Palestine using an agricultural metaphor to an audience of agriculturalists; they grew food in order to survive. Now, it was common in his culture at that time for blood feuds to exist between families that could be started by the smallest of perceived insults. This would typically be the reason why someone would plant weeds in a neighbor’s wheat field. The general reaction to having your crop vandalized would be to take violent retribution—usually trying to slaughter your neighbor and his entire family. Taking this into account, our farmer’s reaction to let the weeds grow is shocking to his servants. He takes a non-anxious, non-violent approach believing, as one commentator put it, “that the wheat is strong enough to tolerate the weeds’ competition for nutrition and irrigation.” Plus, come harvest time he will not only have wheat to eat, but fuel for his fire as well. So instead of being anxious and vengeful, he is shrewd and savvy.

As we move into Jesus’ explanation this theme of non-violence is continued. It is the angels of God that are to do the sorting not us. We are not God’s agents of retribution. It is not our purpose to punish ourselves or anyone else. God does the sorting through the angels. To know our purpose we have look at the whole of Matthew’s gospel.

There are two themes from Matthew’s gospel I would like to point out here. First, Matthew’s gospel is also where we hear Jesus say, "…Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven;…” This seems a pretty clear teaching of non-violence by Jesus. As I have seen on a bumper sticker, “When Jesus said love your enemies, he meant don’t kill them.” Indeed there is scriptural evidence for non-violence not just in Matthew but in all the gospels.
Now that being said, I am stepping out on thin ice here because the Gospel of Matthew is also where we Jesus says “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' while the log is in your own eye?”

Jesus is articulating the stark reality that we can never change another person and the only person we can possibly control is ourselves. I swear to you, as much as I believe that Jesus teaches non-violence I fail to live up to that teaching. Therefore, know that this and hopefully every sermon that I preach is the sermon I most need to hear on a given weekend. I do not stand in judgment of us or even myself. However, I do lay a challenge before myself and all of us. Jesus is teaching in our gospel passage that we need to trust God. As one commentator put it, we would do well to ponder the “confidence of the landowner that his grain will survive the effect of the weeds…A trust in goodness that is greater than the fear of wickedness could be a powerful weapon against rampant, senseless violence.” There is historical precedence for this trust in goodness. It worked for Gandhi in achieving India’s independence from Britain, it worked for Martin Luther King, Jr. during the civil rights movement, and it worked for Arch-bishop Desmond Tutu in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Most importantly it worked for Jesus in the ultimate struggle against sin and death as well. In Jesus’ refusal to retaliate, in his willingness to die rather then harm his enemies, in his forgiveness of his disciples for abandoning him, he gives us confidence that we need not fear resisting evil and we need not do harm to evil doers in order to resist. The resurrection of Christ is proof that no sacrifice is too great, that even our lives can be given in the pursuit of justice because this life in this world is but rubbish compared to the life to come.

This all begins with individuals, like us, however. If we are not able to leave our anxiety and fear at the altar, then we can never expect the world to be at peace. So the challenge before me and us, I believe, is to begin to practice non-violence in the small spheres of our individual lives. We cannot begin to succeed in peace on a global scale—much less on the scales of nation, state, and city—if we cannot be non-violent in our own thoughts and actions. As I told a couple going through pre-marital counseling this week marriage is a chance to focus on one relationship and practice who we want to be. As we get better at that relationship it makes us better at all our relationships. To use a sports metaphor, practicing one aspect of your golf game improves your entire golf game. So it is with life as well. The more we practice non-violence in our most intimate relationships the more we will be non-violent in all our relationships. Furthermore, the more people practicing on the small level the more peaceful the entire world will be.

As I said, I lay this challenge before all of us and myself today. We will make mistakes along the way, but I simply challenge us to practice, and when we do slip and stumble God will be there to pick us up. God will not let us go, no matter what. If ever you doubt that then come to this altar. God is present here and wants so intensely to be present in our lives that God will become broken and poured, bread and wine to literally be consumed by us, to be in us so that we can be what we consume, to be the body of Christ just as it is given to us.

My brothers and sisters, grace happens here. Forgiveness happens here. True redemption—that can never happen through violent means—happens here at this table. I invite all of you come to this table, surrender all that you are to God and receive the body of Christ so that we may then go and be the body of Christ in the world. Amen!

Dettachment

“As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.”

I speak with you in the name of God in whom there is no fear. Amen!

Well, it is good to be home from vacation. My wife and I had a stupendous and rewarding vacation and I thank you wholeheartedly for opportunity for some time away. During our trip we had the opportunity to see the movie from a few years back Hotel Rwanda. It is a gripping true story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager in Rwanda that was able to protect over a thousand refugees in his hotel and eventually see them out of the country during the Huntu genocide of the Totsies in the early 1990’s. It is as hard to describe the atrocities that occurred during this uprising as it to explain why the world set by and did nothing. This man somehow was able to hold himself, his family, and this group of refugees together.

In one scene he has left the hotel with an army officer to procure items with which to bribe the officer to lead them to safety. The general does not want to return to the hotel and Paul could not get there on his own. Paul convinces the general to return to the hotel because Paul is the only one who could testify on the general’s behalf some day in war crimes trials. The general responds by threatening to shoot Paul. Now, I doubt that many of us have had a gun pointed in our face in sure certainty that the holder is quite capable of pulling the trigger. Furthermore, I doubt that our response would be the same as Paul’s as well, he laughs at the General. He says to him, “It would be a blessing for you to kill me and my entire family. I would pay you to do it. You can not hurt me.”

Now by this point you are probably thinking that Paul is insane and has cracked under the pressure, however the phrase that catches my breath is, “You can not hurt me.” See Paul is a man of faith and his confidence in God allows him to be truly free from the atrocities of our world. Neither the General, nor any other earthly power has dominion over him. His willingness to physically die exists because he is spiritually alive. He is free to do the right thing no matter the cost.

As I was meditating on our Gospel passage this week, I thought a lot about Paul Rusesabagina. See Paul is like the seed that falls on the good earth. In order for a seed to grow and bear fruit, it must die to being a seed. At the cost of staying comfortably as it is, the seed must give up its current state to become what God intended. To often we are choked by cares of the world and the lure of wealth, which prevents us bearing the fruits of justice and righteousness.

Also, in today’s readings the Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Romans of dying to flesh to live in the spirit. Paul is talking about a process of faith development that can best described as emptying. By emptying ourselves, by letting go our attachments to the material we are free to enjoy the spirit. Generally, we are attached to things, people, and even our emotions. Anthony De Mello, describes this as listing to a beautiful symphony and when the orchestra plays a particularly beautiful chord, we stand up and say play that chord again. We want the orchestra just to play that one chord over and over and again. Consequently we are not able to enjoy the entire symphony because we are stuck on that one chord.

That may sound absurd, but think on it a second. Too often our happiness is precluded upon other people staying exactly the same as they were in the moment we enjoyed them this most. We do not want people, things, or even our emotions to change. This ironically produces anxiety and fear more than happiness. When we are detached, however, we recognize that our happiness is dependant on no else but ourselves. We are free to love those in our lives because we no longer place conditions on how they should be in order for us to love them. We are even free to love God because we allow God to be free to be God and not how we want God to be. It is not through control that we are safe, rather in recognizing our lack control, in releasing our desire to bend the world to our will, that we are free and safe. We are free because we because the world doesn’t have to meet our standards in order for us to be happy. We are safe because we have nothing to lose.

Recently, the vestry has been studying the book of Philippians. In it the apostle Paul talks about his own process of emptying. See, he had within his society every marker of success and power. As he put it he was, “circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” Paul lays out quite a pedigree of his. This is analogous to being a Kennedy, a Vanderbilt, or a Rockefeller. To place it in Nebraska terms, he was a black that won the Heisman trophy and two or three national championships. But yet, Paul drops, discards, and detaches himself from all these titles and positions. He ultimately regards them as rubbish as compared to gaining Christ.

Now this might sound like a daunting task laid before us. Indeed it is one I struggle with daily. However, it is no more then what Jesus did. Also, in the book of Philippians, Paul quotes an ancient hymn saying, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, tacking the form of a slave, being born in human form.” Jesus was willing to empty himself of divinity. He was willing to give up being God in order to love us, in order to show us how to love. If Christ is willing to give up ultimate power for us, what should we be willing to give up for Christ?

Like I said, this is a challenge. We are conditioned to be dependant upon products, goods, and other material things for our happiness. We are conditioned to fear the loss of these so we accept the injustices of the world. For the Paul the manager of Hotel Rwanda, as is often the case, it took a major catastrophe for him to empty himself. His worldview, his perceptions and foundations for understanding his world, had to be eradicated. However, it is possible to enter into this process of faith development without being victim of genocide. We can practice detachment and there are things we can do to empty.

First, be generous. I don’t just mean by tithing to the church, though that is certainly welcome. From buying an officemate a cup of coffee to donations to Goodwill to large scale philanthropy, the intentional practice of generosity, helps free us from possessions owning us. Anything we have has less power over us if we are willing to give it away.

Second, enjoy nature, music, and poetry. Now, with this practice how you do it is as important as simply doing. The trick is to not try to hold on to it as you enjoy it. Simply let the beauty of it flow through you without trying to get the orchestra to play the same note over and over again. Enjoy the vision of nature without possessing it. Enjoy it with the realization that it is alive and it will never be the same as it is in that moment. Accept that moment as precious gift and then let it go.

Finally, worship God through the reception of Holy Communion. In the simple things of broken bread and poured wine we are re-created in the image of God once again. At this table, where all are invited, we are challenged to accept that we are accepted and leave our insecurities, brokenness, and shame behind. Here we are re-membered as the body of Christ freed to live without fear, to be motivated by love rather than competition and challenged to bear the fruits of justice and righteousness. Amen!

Sermon, Proper 5, Year A 8 June 2008

“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Not me, oh Lord, but you; Not us, oh Lord, but thee; Not our ideas or concepts of you, oh Lord, rather you; not even your bountiful gifts, oh Lord, but you and you alone do we seek. Amen!

Why are you here? No, I’m not asking an existential/philosophical question. I am being specific. Why are you here in this room at this hour? There are a plethora of other things that you could be doing right now. From gardening to golf, from cook-outs to croquet, from sports to sleeping, you do not have to be here. So, the question remains: why are you here?

It is my hope that you are here to worship the one true God, the God of Abraham and Sarah, David and Bathsheba, Mary and Joseph. The God that Jesus of Nazareth called Father. It is my hope that you and I are here to enter into the presence of the divine, to commune with God so that we may know God in an intimate and transforming way.

Now, whenever we come to worship God, we are confronted with an ironic sinful temptation. This phenomenon is alluded to both at the end of our lesson from the Hebrew Scriptures and from our Gospel reading. The end of our reading from the Hebrew Scriptures says, “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” Why does God appear to disqualify sacrifice and burnt offerings when God had handed down the decree to sacrifice in the first place?
See, way back about 25 books ahead of Hosea in the scriptures God lays out the manner God is to be worship from the location all the way to what sacrifices and burnt offerings are to be done for what offense or thanksgiving. Yet, here, in the book of Hosea, God speaking through Hosea seems to renounce God’s earlier proclamation. This is seemingly a tangled contradiction and we need to know something of the human condition and historical background of this passage to unravel it.

In regards to the human condition we can never forget the creation story and that all of creation is fallen from what God intended it to be. Our relationship with God is impaired. We are not able to come to know God on the intimate level that God desires on our own because of our fallen-ness. Now, this doesn’t stop us from trying to know God, which is a good thing. However, because we are fallen we can start to believe that our ideas about God are indeed God instead of being in relationship actually with God. Abraham J. Heschel, the wonderful commentator on the Hebrew Prophets says it like this, “An idea or a theory of God can easily become a substitute for God, impressive to the mind when God as a living reality is absent from the soul.” (P.1) He goes on to say that the prophets, Hosea included, do not speak about the nature of God. He says “They disclose attitudes of God rather then ideas about God.” They are trying to call us into the presence of God not to describe God. However, we being fallen humans can begin to think they are telling us about God and we can begin to worship these ideas of God instead of God. This is true for worship as well. Worship is to call us into the presence of God, but we run the risk of answering the temptation to worship the worship instead of worshiping God. We are tempted to make an idol of the liturgy, instead of letting the liturgy bring us closer to God.

This becomes clearer when we look at the historical context in which Hosea spoke. See, way before Hosea, Moses led the chosen people out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and to the Promised Land. Once there they at first lived as twelve loosely federated tribes. Eventually under Saul and David they united to become the Kingdom of Israel. Within a short time, they went from nationhood to empire. Being an empire led to division of the people and abuse by the institution. The kingdom split into the northern nation called Israel and the southern nation called Judah. One of the disputes and abuses was over worship. The southern kingdom said it should be in the temple, and the northern kingdom said it should be on their mountain. Meanwhile the religious leadership was in cahoots with the state and the needs of the people ignored. They were more interested in getting the ritual right then with facilitating the moral and spiritual transformation of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah into the kingdom of God. They had come to worship the worship rather then to worship God.

So, God speaks through Hosea and says that sacrifice and burnt offering do nothing if not done in spirit and in truth. God desires a changed heart through intimate relationship not robotic ritual performed for rituals sake. God does not care if we are immaculate liturgists and champion genuflectors, if we are not awakened to the presence of God in our worship. God does not care if we follow all the rules and do all the right things the right way with all the right people, if we are not transformed into the image of God, the image of mercy and compassion in the world.
In our Gospel lesson today, we see Christ acting and speaking against this checklist faith active in his own day. Matthew echoes Hosea and many of the prophets when he tells the Pharisees to learn what, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” means. Jesus does not just talk a good game however. In this passage we hear today he also, displays mercy in three ways that he wasn’t supposed to. First he calls Matthew to be his disciple. Now, traveling rabbis were common in that day and they often called young men to be their disciples, students who would follow them everywhere. However, they called only the best and the brightest. They only called those who had great intellectual ability with the highest character and moral fiber. Matthew, on the other hand, was a tax collector. Basically, he was a traitor to his people who worked for the occupying Roman oppressor. Not what I would call the highest of moral fiber, but Jesus calls him anyway.

Next, while Jesus is on his way to heal a child, he is touched by a hemorrhaging woman. Blood was considered unclean, especially if it came from a woman. Women who were bleeding were not supposed to be in the community much less touching a distinguished rabbi. Yet, Jesus does not condemn her, does not denounce her in aggressive fashion as would be expected of a leader. No, he looks with compassion upon her and proclaims that her faith has made her well.

Finally, Jesus heals a dying or already dead girl. Once again he is flying in the face of convention. Not only were rabbis not to touch females they definitely were not to touch anything dead, human or animal. So this is a double no-no, a dead girl. Jesus does not see the stigma or taboo, he simply sees pain and heals the girl. He is not limited by the ideas of God that surround him. He is detached from concepts and conventions so he is free—free to love where love is needed, free to serve God where service is needed, free to see God wherever God desires to be seen.

This pure desire for God and God alone is how we should be excellent in our worship and preaching. The late Jesuit brother and international speaker on spirituality Anthony De Mello says that often when someone points to God we get caught up looking at their finger instead of looking at God. We use a lot of things in our worship to point to God: music, prayers, scripture, bread, and wine to name a few. None of these things are God, rather they are evidence of things unseen as the writer of Hebrews points out. They are signs and symbols that point to God.

I challenge us this day and everyday that we gather to worship that we worship God alone, that we do not get caught up looking at the finger but at where the finger is pointing. Let us get caught up in the glory and majesty of God, the transforming power of God that can relieve our suffering, heal our world, and make us what we were intended to be. I challenge us to come to this house of God, not because we always do so, but because we want a closer relationship with God. I challenge us not to kneel and pray just because we’ve always done it that way, but because we are thankful for what God has done for us and we seek further transformation of our hearts and minds. We can and should come to this table, not seeking our individual wants and desires, but seeking the majesty and splendor of God. Come, offer sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving not out of route habit, but out of gratitude and humility. Come, for God desires steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God and not burnt offerings." Amen

Pride

So, this weekend my sister graduated from a healing arts institute. I'm not sure I can describe what the three year experience she went through was. In fact, I know I can't, because she had a hard time explaining it to me. I know it was part of her preparation to be a therapist. She is already a massage therapist and she is looking to merge spoken therapy with body work. Preparation, is not the right word for what enables her to do this was already present. I think the experience honed skills innate with in her.

My sister is gifted.

That is not flippant sibling pride talking. I've seen her work. I witnessed one gift in particular this weekend: when she walks into a room of people she greets every person like they are the most important person in the world. She greets each and every person like it is the highlight of her day to converse with that person in that moment. This is a talent, and I am awed by the skill with which she exercises this talent. There are a host of people out there that specialize in making themselves appear great. (On some days, I might even be one of them.) My sister on the other hand specializes in reminding other people that they ARE stupendous, monumental, lights of God shining in the world. I'm proud of you sister. The world is a better place for the work you do, even when, and especially when, you don't even know you are working.

God's Peace,
Jason+

random self centered post

Greetings,

--my friends sonjia and john got married today, yea them, and the world is a better place because of their love for each other!

--I was not at the wedding because I had a vestry retreat. At first i was not happy about missing the wedding to be at the vestry retreat, but it ended up being the greatest vestry retreat in the history of vestry retreats. Therefore, I am so glad I didn't miss the retreat.

--My friend David is not feeling well so that worries me.

--My friend Lara is preaching tonight and tomorrow we get to give her gifts. I am so stoked, that I can not articulate my excitement. For the old school imokers, "words can not describe how stoked I am."

--God is good, and the miraculous happens therefore one should expect it!

God's Peace,
Jason+

For a Good Laugh

The definition of preamble: What an old man does before he goes for a walk.