The Lord Is My Shepherd and You’re Not!

Here is an interesting thought as I read through the lectionary texts for this Sunday to prepare for a sermon. In my exegesis and study of the text, I came across several interesting ideas regarding the 23rd Psalm.

It seems that we are used to this Psalm being read at funerals and it has become associated with death and dying. However, let’s give it some thought. Shepherds provided everything for their flocks – food, water, safety, place to rest. Kings were considered to be shepherds of the people so to recite this psalm as a prayer in David’s day is a slap in the face towards kings. God provides for my needs and you don’t.

In light of my Isaiah sermon this past week for my preaching class, I realized this scripture could have worked as well. In fact, I am thinking of preaching my sermon in light of this text and adapting it.  As Americans, we do not have a king per se, but we do have the American Dream which says we need no one to care for us or provide for us. The American dream is independence defined to the the individual person.

The more I think about it, the deeper the irony. This is a beloved psalm and yet we are not reading it beyond the surface. It is a deep political statement! It is a challenge to our way of life! I am going to ponder this and work it into my sermon for Sunday. I am leaving anyway so they surely can’t fire me sooner…oh well.

Just my random thoughts from my run/walk today and it is good to be back to running.

It Takes Boldness

This morning I was reading the lectionary texts for Easter. I am not sure why but I flipped open my book and there they were and so I read them. Part of the text from John caught my attention.

The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down and saw the linen wrappings lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. -John 20:4-6 (NRSV)

As I read this passage, I had to smile because Peter was being Peter. He stumbled into the tomb to see for himself because he is never satisfied with someone else’s words. Then I realized that Peter represents us and we would be the ones doing the same thing.  But wait, before we shake our heads at Peter and write him off as an idiot, think about what he does – he is bold in his actions and in his faith. He stumbles into the tomb because he wants to see. Are we really like Peter afterall?

In the early days of the church, Christians were bold in their beliefs and their actions. They knew they were most likely facing persecution and death but they worshiped anyway. People joined the church because they saw the boldness of the believers and despite the odds against them, they continued to grow in faith and love for one another. They were bold.

Today, we do not face persecution or death (okay not in the United States but in other parts of the world they do) and we could be openly bold about our faith because we have Constructional protections but yet we are the most timid lot of people I know.  We simply accept things as they (yes I am making broad generalizations) and lament about it. I had a discussion yesterday with someone who was concerned about the growing number of Muslims in this country (not necessarily immigrants but converts). He couldn’t wrap his head around why people would be attracted to Islam. I suggested that it is because Muslims are bold in their practice of their faith (not intended as a negative). I shared that my dry cleaner invites me to Friday prayers and frequently answers my questions and enjoys a discussion of faith. Many Christians I know will push Jesus but not have a discussion about their beliefs or things in their beliefs that trouble them (that is being bold).

When I was 17, I had some serious faith questions and I went to my parish priest (I was a practicing Catholic then) and he dismissed my questions and suggested I go someplace else. I spent the next 5 years searching for answers and stumbling through things I shouldn’t have. Imagine if he had been bold enough to answer my questions. Martin Luther had questions and he boldly stood up and demanded answers to his questions. He was not timid and yes he caused an uproar but he also set off a series of discussions, councils, and reforms that caused people to reflect on their faith and their beliefs.

Back to my discussion yesterday, my colleague continued to grieve over the growing number of Buddhists, Muslims, atheists, and humanists. If I look back to the groups he mentioned, they are willing to share and talk with people who have questions. They are willing to look at the weaknesses of their faith/beliefs and address them. I admit there are parts of Christianity that trouble me – there are scripture passages that trouble me, there are days when I have doubts about my faith and I am willing to discuss them.

What is missing today is a boldness to have a conversation about our doubts and our beliefs. We would rather guilt people into believing or dangle hell in front of them than sit down and have a serious discussion about what troubles us with Christianity.  We won’t admit that we have doubts in our faith and we simply push people away because we appear to be strong and not willing to discuss questions and doubts. What do you think happens? People feel that they are wrong or different or unfaithful and wander off to seek out the answers they have.

It is time we begin to have dialogs about what we believe and what we question. Let’s be bold in our faith and bold in our questions and bold in our doubts. Afterall, we are only human – just like Peter.

A Glimpse of Kairos

In the heart and spirit we are less restricted by time.  We are given glimpses of kairos in our own living, moments that break free of tie and simply are.  It is fascinating that music is bound up with time and yet some of the greatest monets of music are the silence between the notes.  We all have moments of kairos though we seldom recognize them until afterwards.  One such glimpse I remember with particular delight happened four years ago.  After waiting for years, I became a father and I remember when the nurse handed me my daughter for the first time and I glimpsed kairos as I heard the angels sing. The time I held her – well I have no idea how long it was because it seemed like forever and the shortest time at the same moment. Happy Birthday, Sophia!

A Seed of Doubt

This morning, I feel the need to write a journal entry (since my blog has taken the place of  my journal for now).

I will admit it – I am a doubter. There is a scene in The Polar Express where the boy picks up a bell from Santa’s sleigh and shakes it only to hear the bell say “doubter“. That is me. I am the one who perpetually doubts despite everything God has shown me and despite everything God has done for me.

Why am I talking about doubt? Because I am doubting this morning. Yesterday was the accomplishment of a goal and the culmination of a year’s work and I should be excited and ready to go. Instead, I am doubting and worrying about what is next. I am my own worst enemy. Everything God accomplishes in my life and I still doubt. It is days like this that I really hate myself. Why do I do this to myself? Why do I sink into self-doubt and begin to question what God is doing in my life.

I don’t know if there is an answer to all of this or not but it is part of who I am and something I do struggle with each and every day. If I am not careful, my doubts can consume me but I know that God is there and God breaks through my doubt in the end.

The Oath

I  do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

There it is. The oath of office for military officers.  At first glance it seems innocent and simple but I have sworn an oath or made covenant. As a minister, I understand the importance and the power of covenants. God entered into a covenant with Abraham. To this day, we base part of our hope that Abraham’s covenant is still in effect. A covenant is something you are bound to uphold to the best of your ability. When we invoke the name of God, it is more so. I have taken a oath before another and in the name of God.

It is a significant event because I am now bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice and yet I am also bound to God. It is not something I have entered into lightly nor is it something I consider lightly. Not only will my life potentially be on the line but I will be faced with moral issues on a regular basis – how does a Christian serve in the military? How does a Christian serve in an organization that makes war. How do you defend the Constitution while also representing God and God’s word against violence?

On the other hand, today is the culmination of a year long journey (though it may ways it is longer than that) in which I worked to follow God’s call and reach the standards required by the US Army. I wanted to give up and I found myself in a funk for a time but in the end, with faith and encouragement from my family and friends, I kept on the journey.

“With [hu]man[s] this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” -Matthew 19:26 (NIV)

I am living proof of this verse. I could not not have achieved this and made it to this point on my own. I tried but I became discouraged and frustrated when I didn’t see success or failed at something. Then I remembered that God ordained me in this calling and I found the strength and the courage to keep going.

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. -Philippians 4:13 (NIV)

The Isaiah Sermon – Finalized

Here is the Isaiah sermon for class tomorrow.  I have labored over this sermon but it seems to be complete and makes sense. Again, I would appreciate any comments or feedback. It is based on Isaiah 10:1-10:

The judgment of God thundered down on Israel as Isaiah spoke out to the people on their actions. I can see this scene in my mind – the people of Israel were gather in Jerusalem as Isaiah spoke the words of God to them. I imagined they looked around to see exactly who Isaiah was addressing – just as you may be this morning. The very words of Isaiah would have been difficult to hear – to those that actually listened. As they listened, I imagine they looked at themselves and asked a simple question: “When did we oppress?  When did we do this?” Centuries later, this same question would be posed to Jesus as it is recorded in Matthew 25 and we find it offers an answer to these questions as Jesus answered, “when you failed to live as I told you” and when you lived as the world lives.

Have you ever considered the idea that justice is blind? Recently there was a story on NPR on Lady Justice – you know the statue of a woman holding scales and wearing a blindfold. We find her at courthouses around the world and we are happy to see her because she is a sign that justice will only hear the facts and not judge us in any other way. We want our justice to be blind to all but the facts of our case. Have you ever considered the idea that injustice is blind? Lady Justice has a sister called Lady Injustice who also wears a blindfold because she doesn’t see anything around her. Like Lady Injustice, we often have our own blindfold on, as we simply do not see injustice around us. “When did we oppress? When Jesus, when did we do this?” I am not sure whether it is because we choose not to see injustice around us – the case for some – or that we simply do not see injustice around – the case for most of us.

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools tracks information that relates to its students including economic data. We live in a data driven world so it should not be surprising that even our schools make decisions based on data. The most recent economic data revealed that nearly 40% of the students in the Antioch High School cluster – the one my subdivision is zoned for – live in or near poverty. That means four out of ten students that I pass at the bus stop each morning live in poverty. I pass them nearly every morning and they look perfectly normal to me but then I simply do not see. Maybe I don’t see the shabbiness of their clothes, or the fact they are not smiling as much as others, or even that they stand aside from the others or maybe I simply don’t see because I can’t see or accept that poverty exists in my neighborhood. When we begin to realize that poverty exists in our very neighborhoods and affect our own neighbors we begin to see what is around us – our eyes are opened. “When did we oppress? When Jesus, when did we do this?”

I wonder how the poor become poor? How does someone suddenly find himself or herself living in poverty? I wonder if they wake up one morning and decide that today is the day they are going to become poor and live in a life of poverty. I wonder if they choose a life of struggle and hardship as they deal with poverty. No doubt, there are some who choose to do that as part of a religious devotion or vocation but I believe a great many more people find themselves in poverty for reasons beyond their control and perhaps they do not even realize it is happening at first. What could possibly cause it? I think of the American dream – you know the very idea that has called immigrants to this country over the past 3 centuries with hopes and dreams for a better tomorrow. The idea that America is the promised land flowing with milk and honey. The idea that leads people to want to buy houses, cars, and stuff just to keep up with the Baranoski’s. We celebrate the American dream and celebrate when we see it happen in our midst. The late Geraldine Ferraro said on the night of her nomination as the first female vice-presidential candidate, “My name is Geraldine Ferraro. I stand before you to proclaim tonight: America is the land where dreams can come true for all of us.” There was thunderous applause at the mention of the American dream. The result of our celebrated view – no our worship – of the American dream is that people are oppressed by the very thing they are trying to achieve. In trying to keep up with those around them and in the middle of this are a group of people who have no control – children. “When did we oppress? When Jesus, when did we do this?”

It is interesting that God’s words of judgment through Isaiah following the announcement of a coming birth of a child. The verse which tells us that “unto us a son is born, unto us a child is given, and the government will be on his shoulders and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” We celebrate this verse at Christmas time with pageantry and carols as an announcement of the future coming of Jesus the Messiah but what does it mean? What would it mean to the people who heard the birth announcement followed by a pronouncement of judgment? Jesus came as a Messiah to free the people – not from the government directly – but from the Roman dream. You have heard of it. The one that told the people to pay their taxes so the Pax Romana could continue. The one that told the people to stay in their social order so that the Pax Romana could continue. The one that told the people to get along with the government and religious authorities so the Pax Romana could continue. The one that said to simply do what you are told so the Pax Romana could continue. The Roman dream that said if you do what you are told, you will not wake up to a nightmare. Jesus came to free the people from this dream. To show the people a better way to live their lives. To show the people that the kingdom of God had drawn near and living in the kingdom would change their lives forever. “When did we oppress? When Jesus, when did we do this?”

Many of us live the American dream but at what cost? Four out of ten children standing at the local  bus stop live in poverty. Those children may only get two good meals each day – those that are served at school. They may not sleep at night because they worry about being hungry or they because they simply are hungry. They may act out in school because they are frustrated and tired. They may even join gangs as a chance to escape the bonds of poverty and embrace their piece of the American dream. The American dream – full of hope and promise – is driving our children to the streets to fend for themselves. “When did we oppress? When Jesus, when did we do this?”

God’s judgment on Israel followed a call to see the world differently and to live in the world differently. We are not called to give up our houses, our cars, our gadgets – unless that is a specific calling from God. Instead, we are called to live differently as part of God’s kingdom, to embrace others, to see others in their woes, and to open our eyes to injustice. When we begin to realize that our actions have consequences – even buying a house – then our eyes are opened to all that is around us. When we begin to look and see – really see what there is and not what we want to see – we begin to see that the American dream is not a dream for everyone but a nightmare.  The child who is born unto us has come to free us from our nightmare and live into the dream – not the American dream, but the dream of God’s kingdom.

Bearing Much Fruit

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour. ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. – John 12:20-33 (NRSV)

 

“Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Death bearing new life — a mystery for sure. Even though Jesus was talking about his physical death, this passage makes me consider my own state of affairs. What needs to “die” in my life? What am I holding on to, out of fear, out of comfort, out of refusing to change, that is actually keeping me from living life at the fullest God intended for me? What is keeping me from bearing much fruit?

One quote that I have found to be very helpful is a quote from Marianne Williamson, which was read at Nelson Mandela’s 1994 Inaugural Address, that names our need for releasing well:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that almost frightens us.
We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?”
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.
There is nothing enlightening about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us;
It’s in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

We release not only for our sake, but for the sake of the world. We release so that fruit might bear abundantly, so that we might not only feed ourselves, but also feed others. And we feed others by allowing them to see us living fully out of the core of who we are — out of who God created us to be — and in turn, invite others to do the same.

———-

 

Give Me a Drink!

Here is today’s sermon based on John 4:5-42:

Scientists and nutritionists tell me that I need 64 ounces of water each day, eight glasses of eight ounces each and tap water is not my only option. Just walk down the beverage aisle of the grocery store. What a dazzling set of choices awaits me!

I find not just water but also soda water and tonic water. I find mineral springs water, artesian springs, mountain springs, imported from Poland, imported from France, from Maine, fluorinated, and non-fluorinated water.

I know that juices could satisfy my thirst, too. The latest displays hold not just grape juice, apple juice, or orange juice, but all sorts of creative combos: pineapple-banana juice, cranberry combined with raspberry, cranberry combined with strawberry.

I can choose among milks: regular milk, 2% milk, lowfat, buttermilk, lactose-free milk.

I can choose among sodas for weeks and never drink the same item.

I have a new coffee every month, not just regular or decaffeinated, but liqueur-flavored, cinnamon-flavored, Columbian, French roast, Ecuadorian, Honduran, European.

I have beers, nonalcoholic beers, lite beer, imported beer, domestic, micro-brewery, local beer, malt beer, hop beer, honey beer, wheat beer.

Somewhere in the world, right this minute, someone is thinking up a new way to quench my thirst. But I am overwhelmed! Give me a drink!

Two thousand years ago, a Samaritan woman came to an ancient well with the same need. She needed a drink. She was a human being with the same physical needs that I have today. She had probably been coming to Jacob’s well in Shechem, naturally, every day. There were no crowded grocery shelves in those days. She satisfied her thirst daily, with water from the well. It was routine.

But on this day, a stranger is there, the prophet Jesus. She does not recognize him, and he begins to puzzle her. He puzzles her by the mere fact that he, a Jewish man, seeks a conversation with her, a Samaritan woman. He was crossing two social boundaries at once, for Jews had little to do with Samaritans; long-standing theological disputes separated them. They disagreed on worship practices, too. And, secondly, a man would never engage a woman in conversation such as this.

“Give me a drink,” Jesus says. Yes, Jesus asks for a drink from the well. I like verses like these from the Bible, verses where Jesus expresses ordinary human needs. “Give me a drink,” he says here at the well. Later in his life, he would ask his disciples, “Do you have anything here to eat?” Jesus was hungry and thirsty in his time. We sometimes forget in our hyper-spiritual age that Jesus was deeply human. There were days when Jesus craved the same physical satisfactions that we do. It was noon on that day at the well, and Jesus was thirsty.

This Jesus asks the Samaritan woman for a drink. But, soon, he also begins to speak of water, that is, living water, a water that will leave a person never having to thirst again. At first, the Samaritan woman thinks he means flowing water-flowing water as opposed to flat water.

Yes, I suppose that there were meager water choices 2,000 years ago. One could drink flat water, water perhaps that had gathered in a cistern or one could drink flowing water from a spring or well. I figure that the comparison today would be between fizzy and non-fizzy water. Jesus says he has some true fizzy water. It is alive!

“Sir,” the woman asks, “where do you get this living water?” Jesus responds that whoever drinks from the water that he gives will have a river of living water flowing up from inside them!

“Sir,” she says, “give me this water.”

“First, go get your husband,” Jesus commands.

Ahhh, but she has no husband. No, wait. She has had five husbands. But the one she is living with now is not her husband. The image we see now becomes confusing indeed. Does the Samaritan woman live in any formal, committed relationship at all? It looks like she has consumed husband relationships in the same manner that many of us choose something to drink today. We have so many choices that we try to choose them all. Those relationships have not satisfied the Samaritan woman. She has ended up now in a relationship that is not marriage at all.

Yes, human beings may not have always had so many choices about what to drink. Truly, our beverage choices in this day can overwhelm us. But we have always had other kinds of choices. We have always had choices about how to satisfy our deepest needs, our deepest needs for intimacy, for love, for security, for truth itself.

We choose, we choose, we choose, trying to satisfy those deep needs for refreshment, but our meager choices never satisfy. The Rolling Stones were right: I can’t get no satisfaction, and I try and I try and I try.

“First, go get your husband,” Jesus commands.

“I have no husband,” the Samaritan woman says. I have chosen and chosen, but I have no husband.

You and I today have tremendous choices, don’t we? We choose and choose and choose. We try and try and try, but our choices rarely stay with us. We have to choose again the next day.

When Jesus declares that the man she is with is not her husband, the Samaritan woman realizes suddenly that she is face to face, not only with Jesus, but with truth itself. “I perceive you are a prophet!” she exclaims.

A prophet speaks truth, for sure. But a prophet also scares us with such truth. Here is Jesus, offering living water, but that water comes in an awesome package: It is packaged in a truth that reveals us as who we truly are.

In Seminary, I participate in the usual theological discussions that led to fascinating mind games sometimes. I am in school with all sorts of Christians, not just with those of my own denomination. And our denominations disagree on some important matters, including matters like baptism itself. A frequent question is asked of one of our professors. Maybe you have ask it, too. Some folks baptize in the river, we noted, and some folks baptize with just a few drops of water. And so we asked, “How much water does one need for a valid baptism? How much water is sufficient?”

Our professor looked at us seriously, maybe just as seriously as Jesus looked at that Samaritan woman at the well. Our professor put down his pen and said, “A valid baptism needs as much water as it would take to drown in.”

Drown in? What a scary thought! We thought baptisms were supposed to be joyous and happy and renewing! No, he reminded us. Baptism also involves death itself. Baptism means dying to the old life and being born again. One needs enough water, symbolically, to remind us that something is dying here. That is the truth of what we do.

“Sir, give me a drink. Give me some of this living water.” The request of the Samaritan woman is our request today. Give me something that will stay with me, that will keep me alive.

But Jesus’ answer speaks an awesome truth to the woman. Jesus’ answer is spirit and truth. Jesus’ answer is that living water comes very close to being deadly water. Yes, you may drink of this water, but this water will show you the truth about yourself and the truth about your world. That truth may overwhelm you. It may come close to killing you with its clarity.

But it is alive. It is alive with spirit and truth.

After this encounter with the Samaritan woman, there is one other time in Scripture that Jesus is thirsty. Can you remember? It is when Jesus is about to die. Jesus is on the cross. Among his short and plaintive last words are these: “I thirst,” he said. Jesus, remember, is human, deeply human, with the same sets of physical cravings that each of us knows today. Ah, not just physical cravings, but spiritual cravings, too.

When we get to Good Friday, on the cross, Jesus’ thirst is our thirst. “I thirst,” Jesus said, and he takes the thirst of the entire human condition to God.

That is the truth also revealed on the cross. Of all the endless varieties of ways we humans devise to quench our thirst, none of them is finally true. The true satisfaction of our thirst comes from a face-to-face encounter with God, in spirit and in truth. This is satisfaction.

This encounter can only be awesome, even terrifying. It will take us to a realm of spirit and truth where we have never before been. It will involve the shedding of blood and even death itself. Yes, something inside us will die.

The old choices will die. The shallow waters, the flat waters, will dry up, like our shallow and flat relationships will dry up. But God provides living water. God will raise us up to new life, just like God raised up Jesus from the dead, no longer thirsty, but spilling forth water and blood for the salvation of the world.

Give me a drink of that living water, the blood of Jesus poured out for the salvation of the world. Amen

Here is today’s worship bulletin.

Jacob Neusner: Three Religions, One God

The three monotheist religious traditions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, have more in common than in contention. All three believe God is one, unique, concerned with humanity’s condition. Each takes up the narrative of the others’ — Christianity and Islam carrying forward the story begun in the Hebrew scriptures of ancient Israel that define Judaism.

Christianity affirms the vocation of Israel after the flesh, and Islam affirms the validity of the antecedent monotheist revelations, regarding Muhammad as the seal of prophecy and the Quran as a work of God.

Falling into the genus of religion and forming a single sub-species of theistic religions, the three monotheisms among all theistic religions bear a unique relationship to one another. That is because they concur not only in general, but in particular ways. Specifically, they tell stories of the same type, and some of the stories that they tell turn out to go over much the same ground.

Judaism, with its focus upon the Hebrew scriptures of ancient Israel, tells the story of the one God, who created man in his image, and of what happened then within the framework of Israel, the holy people. Christianity takes up that story but gives it a different reading and ending by instantiating the relations between God and his people in the life of a single human being. For its part, in sequence, Islam recapitulates some basic components of the same story, affirming the revelations of Judaism and then Christianity, but drawing the story onward to yet another climax.

We cannot point to any three other religions that form so intimate a narrative relationship as do the successive revelations of monotheism. No other set of triplets tells a single, continuous story for themselves as do Islam in relationship to Christianity, and Christianity in relationship to Judaism. What demands close reading is this: Within the logic of monotheism, how do Islam, Christianity and Judaism represent diverse choices among a common set of possibilities?

The three religions of one God concur and contend. The basic categories are congruent, the articulation of those categories is not. By showing the range and potential of a common conviction — that God is one and unique, makes demands upon man’s social order and the conduct of every day life, distinguishes those who do his will from the rest of humanity and will stand in judgment upon all mankind at the end of days — the three religions address a common program. 

But differing in detail, each affords perspective upon the character of the others. Each sheds light on the choices the others have made from what defines a common agenda, a single menu: the category-formations that they share.

What are the theological issues subject to debate? 

• Does the interior logic of monotheism require God to be represented as incorporeal and wholly abstract, or can the one, unique God be represented by appeal to analogies supplied by man? 

In line with Genesis 1:26, which speaks of God’s making man “in our image, after our likeness,” and the commandment (Ex. 20:4), “You shall not make yourself a graven image or any likeness of anything” in nature, what conclusions are to be drawn? 

At one end of the continuum, Islam insists that God cannot be represented in any way, shape or form, not even by man as created in his image, after his likeness. At the other end, Christianity finds that God is both embodied and eternally accessible in the fully divine Son, Jesus Christ. In the middle Judaism represents God in some ways as consubstantial with man, in other ways as wholly other.

• God makes himself known to particular persons, who, in the nature of things, form communities among themselves. God addresses a “you” that is not only singular, a Moses or a Jesus or a Muhammad, but plural — all who will believe, act and obey. Islam, Christianity and Judaism concur that the faithful form a distinct group, defined by those who accept God’s rule and regulation. But among all humanity, how does that group tell its story, and with what consequence for the definition of the type of group that is constituted? 

Judaism tells the story of the faithful as an extended family, all of them children of the same ancestors, Abraham and Sarah. It invokes the metaphor of a family, with the result that the faithful adopt for themselves the narrative of a supernatural genealogy, one that finds within the family all who identify themselves as part of it by making its story their genealogy too. 

Islam dispenses entirely with the analogy of a family, defining God’s people, instead, through the image of a community of the faithful worshipers of God, seeing Muslims as supporters of one another and caretakers of the least fortunate or weakest members of the community.

Where Judaism speaks of a family among the families of humankind or of “Israel” as a nation unlike all others, sui generis, Islam takes the diametrically opposed view. Its “people of God” are ultimately extensible to encompass all humankind within the community of true worshipers of God. 

Here Christianity takes a middle position. Like Judaism, it views the faithful as a people, but like Islam, it obliterates all prior genealogical distinctions, whether of ethnicity, gender or politics. So Christians form “a people of the peoples,” “a people that is no people,” using the familiar metaphor of Israel. At the same time, they underscore, like Islam, a conception of themselves as comprised by mankind without lines of differentiation. 

• God has set forth what he wants from his people, which is the love and devotion of his creatures. This comes to realization in a program of actions to be carried out and to be avoided. These concern acts of prayer, study, contemplation and reflection on divine revelation (in the case of Judaism, study of Torah; in the case of Christianity, the realization and enactment of the image of Christ within the individual believer and the community; in the case of Islam, particular prescribed ritual acts of piety and worship: testimony of faith, ritual prayer, almsgiving, fasting, pilgrimage as well as recitation of God’s word, calling upon him in personal prayer and obedience to His will). 

All three also require deeds of philanthropy in charity and acts of loving kindness, above and beyond the requirements of the law. Judaism and Islam share certain food laws (e.g., not to eat carrion but to eat only meat from animals that have been properly slaughtered), and Christianity in its formative age forbade the faithful to eat meat that had been offered to idolatry. Where Islam requires a pilgrimage to Mecca, the observance of the festivals of Judaism encompassed a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem when it still stood and Christianity portrayed all the faithful as pilgrims to the new, heavenly Jerusalem that God was preparing for his people. 

In these and comparable ways, the three religions aim at defining acts that realize God’s will and that sanctify God’s people.

How is God’s people to relate to everybody else? What are the consequences of the conviction that the one and only God has made himself known to humanity at large through one community or person or family? Specifically, what is the task of the believer vis-à-vis the unbeliever?

At one end of the continuum, Judaism asks the faithful to avoid participating in, or in any way affirming, the activities of the idolaters in their idolatry. Amiable relationships on ordinary occasions give way to strict isolation from idolatry and all things used in that connection. At the other end of the continuum, Islam, for reasons equally systemic, takes the most active role, undertaking to obliterate idolatry by wiping out its worshipers. 

Judaism in its classical statement defined its task as passive avoidance, joined with a willingness to accept the sincere convert. Islam called for active the extermination of idolatry, joined with an insistence that, to live, the idolater must renounce his error and acknowledge the one true God and his own. 

Yet, early Islam took a very different position vis-à-vis Jews and Christians and a few other “people of Scripture.” These were to be largely tolerated so long as they did not threaten Muslims or the practice of Islam. 

Christianity found its position in the middle. On one hand, like Judaism and Islam, Christianity forbade the faithful to utilize anything that could serve idolatry and to refrain, even at the cost of death (“martyrdom”), from all gestures of complicity with idolatry. On the other hand, like Judaism and unlike Islam, Christianity in its formative age contemplated not a holy war of extermination but an on-going campaign of evangelism, to win over idolaters. True, in due course, Christianity would slide over to the Islamic side of this continuum, but that happened many centuries beyond the classical age. 

In its formative centuries, Christianity’s logic dictated a policy toward unbelievers that placed the religion in the middle, between Judaic passivity and Islamic activity. 

What of the end of days? Here is where the interior logic (as well as the articulation) of the three monotheisms both converges and diverges. As told in common, the story finds the resolution of the dialectic of how the one omnipotent and just God can account for a world of manifest injustice. 

All three religions concur that God will bring the end of days, when all mankind will be raised from the dead and judged, and those found worthy will enter Paradise. At issue is, what do the faithful have to do to advance the end-time? 

Predictably, Judaism, at its end of the continuum, asks the faithful to carry out God’s will as stated from the beginning, sanctifying the Sabbath of creation one time in accord with the Torah. So Judaism looks inward, within Israel, for the salvation of humanity through Israel’s own act of sanctification. Then who is saved at the end, if not all those who acknowledge the one true God? And that will encompass, the prophets say, all of humanity. 

At the other end of the continuum, Islam holds that no human effort can advance or retard the Last Day. God alone will recall His creation to Himself in His own good time. All human beings can do is prepare themselves for the Day of Resurrection by living daily lives of piety and probity. At the Resurrection all who have died before will be called forth with all who are living to face the accounting of their earthly lives and inherit accordingly either Paradise or the Fire as their eternal abode. 

And Christianity takes a middle position, insisting that the world as we know it, down to the very bodies we inhabit, is to be changed definitively. But in that transformation, a metamorphosis from flesh to spirit and death to life, the identities that we have crafted during the course of our lives are to endure. All people, with or without an explicit knowledge of the Son of God, have known his image in their human experience: So from the point of view of the eschaton they have fashioned or have refused to fashion an existence which is commensurate with eternity.

These topics show us similarity and difference: a series of single continua, different positions within each continuum. 

The interior logic of monotheism raises for the three religions a common set of questions. But then each religion tells the story in its way, and the respective narratives — in character, components and coherence — shape the distinctive responses spelled out here. 

That is how the three religions of one God converge and diverge: They converge in their basic structures, which are more symmetrical than asymmetrical, and they diverge in the way their systems work out the implications of monotheism as monotheism is embodied in the continuing narratives, those of Judaism, then Christianity, finally Islam.

 

via Jacob Neusner: Three Religions, One God.

The Isaiah Sermon (3rd Revision)

I am still plugging away at this sermon but nearing some form of conclusion. I am posting it again and asking for some feedback and thoughts.  I would appreciate any comments and some guidance in a conclusion (it is sort of hanging right now).

The judgment of God thundered down on Israel as Isaiah called the people on their actions. I imagined they looked around to see who Isaiah was addressing – just as you may be this morning. “When did we oppress? When Jesus, when did we do this?” Matthew 25 offers an answer to these questions when Jesus answered “when you failed to live as I told you.”

Recently there was a story on NPR on Lady Justice – you know the statue of a women holding scales and blindfolded.  We find her at courthouses and we are also happy to see her because we want our justice to be blind to all but the facts. We want our justice be blind but we also keep our injustices blind as well.  We simply do not see injustice around. “When did we oppress? When Jesus, when did we do this?” We so often fail to see the poor around us.

Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools tracks the economic data that relates to its students.  The most recent data revealed that nearly 40% of the students in the Antioch High School cluster – the one my subdivision is zoned for – live in or near poverty. That means four out of ten students that I pass at the bus stop each morning live in poverty. They look normal to me. It is when we begin to realize that poverty exists in our very neighborhoods and affects our own neighbors that we begin to see. “When did we oppress? When Jesus, when did we do this?”

Have you ever thought about how the poor become poor? How does someone suddenly find themselves living in poverty.  I wonder if they wake up one morning and decide that today is the day they are going to become poor and live a life of poverty. No doubt, there are some who choose to do that as part of a religious devotion but I believe a great many more people find themselves in poverty in poverty for reasons beyond their control. I think of the American dream – you know the very idea that has called immigrants to this country over the past 3 centuries. The idea that leads people to want to buy houses, cars, and stuff just to keep up with the Baranoski’s. We celebrate the American dream and celebrate when we see it happen in our midst. The late Geraldine Ferraro said on the night of her nomination as the first female vice-presidential candidate, “My name is Geraldine Ferraro. I stand before you to proclaim tonight: America is the land where dreams can come true for all of us.” The result of our celebrated view of the American dream is that people are oppressed by the very thing they are trying to achieve. “When did we oppress? When Jesus, when did we do this?”

It’s interesting that God’s words of judgment through Isaiah following the announcement of a coming birth of a child. The verse which tells us that “unto us a son is born, unto us a child is given, and the government will be on his shoulders and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” We celebrate this verse at Christmas time as a announcement of the future coming of Jesus the Messiah but what does it mean? What would it mean to the people who heard the birth announcement followed by a pronouncement of judgment? Jesus came as a Messiah to free the people – not from the government directly – but from the Roman dream. You have heard of it. The one that told the people to pay their taxes so the Pax Romana could continue. The one that told the people to stay in their social order so that the Pax Romana could continue. The one that told the people to get along with the government and religious authorities so the Pax Romana could continue. The one that said to simply do what you are told so the Pax Romana could continue. The Roman dream that said if you do what you are told, you will not wake up to a nightmare. Jesus came to free the people from this dream. To show the people a better way to live their lives. To show the people that the kingdom of God had drawn near and living in the kingdom would change their lives forever. “When did we oppress? When Jesus, when did we do this?”

God’s judgment followed a call to see the world differently and to live differently. God’s judgment came to those who refused to live a new life. God’s judgment came on those who used the present system to their advantage and turned a blind eye to the injustice that their way of living was creating. “When did we oppress? When Jesus, when did we do this?”

Both justice and injustice are blind at times. We see what we want to see and many times, we miss what is around us because we do not see (or we do not want to see).

Lord, Awake Faith!

My God, I bless Thee that Thou hast given me the eye of faith, to see Thee as Father, to know Thee as a covenant God, to experience Thy love planted in me; for faith is the grace of union by which I spell out my entitlement to Thee: faith casts my anchor upwards where I trust in Thee and engage Thee to be my Lord.

Be pleased to live and move within me, breathing in my prayers, inhabiting my praises, speaking in my words, moving in my actions, living in my life, causing me to grow in grace.

Thy bounteous goodness has helped me believe, but my faith is weak and wavering, its light dim, its steps tottering, its increase slow, its backslidings frequent; it should scale the heavens, but it lies grovelling in the dust. Lord, fan this diving spark into glowing flame. When faith sleeps, my heart become an unclean thing, the fount of every loathsome desire, to cage of unclean lusts all fluttering to escape, the noxious tree of deadly fruit, the open wayside of earthly tares.

Lord, awake faith to put forth its strength until all heaven fills my soul and all impurity is cast out.

From Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers.

 

The Isaiah Sermon: A Work in Progress

Here is the text (so far) of my Isaiah sermon. I am going to be updating this post as the sermon progresses but I would love feedback and comments (please add your comments) as this is a tough scripture and topic to wrestle with. Thanks!

The judgment of God came down like thunder upon the people of Israel. You may be looking around this morning wondering what kind of oppressive decrees or systems Isaiah is talking about. You may even be wondering if you had anything to do with this at all. The 25^th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew famously has people asking, “When Jesus, when did I see people in poverty? When did I create a system that oppressed? When did I make decrees?” You are probably thinking the very same thing.

Recently on NPR, I listened to the story of Lady Justice – often depicted in statues at courthouses around the world. The most interesting feature of Lady Justice – since the 15^th Century – is that she is often portrayed as being blindfolded because we expect that justice should be fair and impartial. We expect justice to be blind to all factors except the facts when we go to court and so we depict justice as being blind hoping it is a true thing. The interesting thing about justice is that we are often blind when it comes to justice and injustice in our own communities around us. “When Jesus, when did I see people in poverty? When did I create a system that oppressed? When did I make decrees?”

Our eyes are often closed to the injustice, which is most obvious around us. Recent economic data from the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools indicates that 40% of the children living in the Antioch High School cluster – the cluster my neighborhood is zoned for – are considered economically disadvantaged. Our eyes are closed to the injustice around us because economically disadvantaged is a nice way of saying living in poverty. In considering this startling statistic, I realized that 4 out of 10 children standing at the bus stop in my neighborhood are economically disadvantaged. You know I am going to call it for what is – poverty. My eyes were blind to the poverty in my very neighborhood among children I see on a regular basis. “When Jesus, when did I see people in poverty? When did I create a system that oppressed? When did I make decrees?”

It is so easy to point fingers at others or blame the government or banks or credit card companies but it is harder to blame ourselves. You see, I think we all have a part in the creation of poverty in this country. The American Dream. The ideal has brought immigrants to the shores of this country for centuries. The hope of a better future. The dream of being wealthy and free. We have all bought into this dream in some form or another. We have all wanted a better life for ourselves and for our family. Many of us bought homes. Many of us buy new cars. We find ourselves drawn to the latest fashion or gizmo. Geraldine Ferraro once said, “”My name is Geraldine Ferraro. I stand before you to proclaim tonight: America is the land where dreams can come true for all of us.” Why? Because it is part of the American dream. We have to keep up with the latest and the best because we are Americans and we are living the dream. A dream that forces people to buy things so they can be like their neighbors. A dream that forces people to appear as if they are living the dream that everyone else lives. Keeping up with the Baranoski’s. “When Jesus, when did I see people in poverty? When did I create a system that oppressed? When did I make decrees?”

In the ninth chapter of Isaiah, we read of the coming of a child, a special child who will have the government on his shoulders; who will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. We have long read this passage to be a sign of the coming Messiah – Jesus. What if this passage really did announce the coming of Jesus? What would that mean for the world. During Jesus’ life, he spoke against the Roman dream – the idea that we had to accept the system as it was. The idea that we had to follow the rules of society that kept people oppressed and in poverty. Jesus reached out to those who were not living the Roman dream; those who were lost because society was blind to the injustice around them. Jesus showed that the kingdom of God could be here and now around us.

Thoughts on My Isaiah 10:1-10 Sermon

I am working on a prophetic sermon for a preaching classing – prophetic meaning dealing with an issue.  My scripture comes from Isaiah 10:1-10. I have been working on children in poverty and what all that means.  I am working through it but wanted to share some of the ideas/thoughts that I have developed as I wrestle Isaiah into submission for this sermon.

Did Jesus view poverty as evil, in itself? Was poverty something that justified human manipulation, destruction of societal infrastructure, and enslavement of all children born into that society? Can a nation properly be enslaved under the guise of helping the poor? Is it poverty that keeps people down? The last question is one I have been wrestling with quite a bit lately.  Is it poverty that keeps people down? As I have been researching this topic (especially on children in poverty in Nashville) I have discovered that poverty is all around us.  It is in my very neighborhood according to statistics (I used MNPS data to determine where poverty is most common). I determined that the high school zoned for my neighborhood has nearly 40% of the children living in poverty which means statistically 40% of the students I pass at the bus stop are living in poverty. This has put a face on poverty and it brings me back to my question – does poverty keep people down. I don’t think it is poverty but rather the “American dream” that keeps people in poverty. My neighborhood is a typical middle class working neighborhood in Nashville and we have a diverse population of people. However, the American dream says you have to own a house and have two cars, etc. and I believe it is sociological pressure that is putting people into poverty. We have all these systems that keep people in debt and the debt grows and then people cannot get out of it.

Poverty is an issue of justice. I had a thought that justice is blind because we want justice to be fair. However, we are also blind to injustice around us. I mentioned above that my eyes were opened when I realized that 40% of the children in my own neighborhood are living in poverty. I have been blind to poverty until it was exposed to me. Now, I wonder which children are in poverty. In a similar way, my church is an upscale community and I recently learned that there are federal housing projects in that community (and I was surprised). I wonder if the people in my church have been blinded as well (not meaning a negative thought but rather blindness due to a lack of awareness).

These are important things to consider as we wrestle with poverty but we have to be careful about how we address it. Isaiah was clear in his words from God – systems that oppress will be destroyed and the oppressors will be punished. This language can quickly lead us to change policies to redistribute wealth and make things equitable but does this create new systems of oppression?   Just some morning thoughts as I wrestle with Isaiah and this prophetic sermon.  I think I am getting a handle on it but this is a touchy issue and one that needs careful consideration.

The Silent Self: A Reflection on a Sabbath

This morning, I felt the need to take some sabbath time. In the process, I closed up the computer, ignored my smart phone, did assignments with pen and paper, and read though I did peak at social media from time to time but for the most part I ignored technology.  It was a powerful time of reflection and peace.  It was a time to simply spend in the presence of God and to be still and aware of all around me.  It was a time that I needed.

I also realized that we can be too connected.  It seems we share so much and are so connected that we often need some disconnected time as well. Today gave me that chance and I enjoyed it so much, I am extending it longer. I am sticking with email this week and even then no so much. Maybe it wasn’t so smart getting a smart phone.

In the course of my reading today, I came across a prayer/poem in which part of this blog title comes from.  It was written by Harry Alfred Wiggett and seems to capture what I felt today as I spent time alone in the presence of God.

Silence is
sitting still
standing still
lying still
consciously
gratefully
gracefully
breathing
inspiring-
being inspired with life
and love
from him from whom these
gifts to come-
the Lord of life and love-
the living Lord Jesus.

And in the stillness
knowing
and joyfully acknowledging
that in Jesus alone
the silence of life and love is found.

Then to humbly rest
sit
stand
lie
to bow the knee
in all that satisfying silence
and be fulfilled.

Silence with God is a powerful thing and I am fulfilled and satisfied from my sabbath. I am at peace and I realize that while technology is a wonderful thing, it can consume us and drain us and even abuse us.  Thank you Lord God for your presence in the silence. Thank you Lord God for your presence in all things.  Thank you Lord God for being.

WWJD? II

I have been reflecting on this idea for several days now given some personal experiences and events. I find that I am troubled what the church does in the name of the Jesus.  Yesterday marked the anniversary of the martyrdom of Oscar Romero who spoke out and called the church to act like Jesus and he was assassinated.  You know Jesus acted like Jesus in the world and he too was murdered!

I read in the news recently that there are some churches that are being exclusive in who is allowed to attend and enter.  One church posted a sign that in essence said only straight believers may enter.  I want to go to the church and shake someone.  The temple in Jerusalem had specific areas for specific people to worship in. If you were not a Jewish male, you were pushed farther and farther away from the Holy of Holies.  Jesus rejected that idea and reached out to the people who would have been in the outer reaches of the temple.  Now, in the name of Jesus, we do the exact same thing – it is like we have become the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  I am deeply troubled by all of this.

I would think that other Christians would be as well but it seems like we have lost our focus.  Lately, there has been great interest in what Rob Bell things (and recently criticism).  We are worried about whether Rob Bell is a universalist or whether he believes in hell.  First I would think that Rob Bell’s beliefs in hell would be between himself and God but then again, I see people talking and that is not a bad thing.  Personally, I steer clear of pushing hell in people’s faces (my grandmother disagrees with this).  I am not sure scaring the hell out of people is the best approach.  In my mind, the focus should not be on hell.  If we keep preaching hell, fire, and brimstone to people to make them love God (yes I said make), we have made people love God out of a fear of going to hell.  Is that even a relationship? It is like an abusive relationship – you love someone because you don’t want to get hit.  Jesus didn’t do that.  Jesus loved everyone and showed them what the kingdom of God is like through his actions.  Read the gospels – Jesus’ entire approach to damnation and hell is a small part of the entire ministry.  Most of his focus was on loving people and reaching out to them, not condemning them.  Yes, I know he had harsh words for those who rejected him but he loved them anyway.

“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? –Matthew 7:3-4 (NIV)

I am a sinner who is in need of grace as much as anyone. I do not want to be the person or the reason someone rejects God. That is what I see happening.  Christians, as a rule, have become self-righteous and judgmental of others. We are condemning people rather than loving them. We are serving as their judge and deciding who is worthy and who is not (last time I checked that was reserved for God).  We are doing things in the  name of Jesus that I don’t Jesus would approve or appreciate that we are doing.

I titled this post WWJD? but I think a better a better title would be What in the hell are we doing in the name of Jesus?

A Morning Meditation

Today let me touch the Earth with gentle hands and build anew.

Tomorrow let me remember that all I have built belongs to Earth alone..

And always let me ask for no blessing than the one that God has already given me: To Be.

-Daniel Roselle

Renewal

Lord, unwrinkle my tired soul
Unsnarl my garbled thoughts and words
Unwind my gnarled nerves
And let me relax in thee.

-Marian Wright Edelman

Love at All Costs?

Today marks the anniversary of the assination of Oscar Romero,  the Archbishop of San Salvador. He preached a radical message in a fallen world as he spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations, and torture.  In his part of the world, speaking against any one of those things could get you arrested or worse yet he continued.

“We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves, to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us. The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword, the violence of hatred. It is the violence of love, of brotherhood, the violence that wills to beat weapons into sickles for work.” – Oscar Romero

Unfortunately, many people did not approve of his message and he was assassinated while celebrating the mass.  He knew the risks and he was willing to take them to preach the radical message of Jesus to the world.  Yes, Jesus’ message is radical and still would be if we hadn’t tamed it so much.

This semester, I have two powerful classes – one on the resurrection and the other on social justice.  Oddly, they are compatible with each other.  In the resurrection class, we of course look at resurrection but also the death of Jesus.  Read the gospels, Jesus did not use violence, did not fight back, and didn’t really commit a serious crime except to ignore social rules. Jesus was put to death because he was focusing on the poor, social injustice, and torture.  He spoke out against the oppression of the people and called for a new social order (aka the Kingdom of God). Rome didn’t know how to deal with this because Jesus’ message was dap ingerous but he wasn’t using weapons – he was using love!  They had to put him to death to stop this message because they couldn’t stop it any other way (of course it didn’t stop the message anyway!).

In my class on social justice, we are looking at how Jesus’ message unfolds in the world today.  Not surprisingly, many of the people who are sharing the radical (yes it is radical) message of Jesus are oppressed, imprisoned, or assassinated.  Following Jesus’ teachings are just as radical today as they were 2000 years ago.  You might that think that death is not likely but think back 31 years ago to the death of Oscar Romero and countless others since.  In our country, it may not be likely that we will face death for preaching the radical message of Jesus but we still face risks.  We may lose family, friends, our jobs, even our credibility.  That is the cost of preaching the message of Jesus – that everyone, yes I said EVERYONE, is welcome to the table to embrace grace.  My professor yesterday shared words of invitation to the table from a former colleague of hers:

“All who know themselves in need of God’s grace are welcome at this table”

That is what is radical about Jesus’ message.  It is open to everyone.  No one is different in the eyes of God. We are all equal.  We are all loved.  Look around you today. Do you see people who are not loved? Are you loving everyone? Are you preaching the message of Jesus – not the prosperity gospel, not the feel good messages – but the true message of Jesus that of radical hospitality, love, and justice.

What is the cost of sharing love?

Lord, Have Mercy

Here is a reflection on Lord, Have Mercy: Praying for Justice with Coviction and Humility by Claire Wolfteich.

Lord, Have Mercy: Praying for Justice with Conviction and Humility explores how communities are using prayer as they attempt to respond faithfully to complex social issues—whether war in distant lands, strikes by laborers, stem cell research, or any of a number of other issues—especially when they are divided on the issue confronting them. Claire Wolfteich does not provide easy answers or blueprints for prayerful discernment concerning the social justice issues she explores. Instead, she presents six carefully researched case studies of Christian communities who prayerfully considered the issue before them; in doing so, she provokes thought about the place and power of prayer in social justice decision-making processes. Among the stories she examines are those of prayerful antiapartheid leaders in South Africa, farm worker advocate Cesar Chavez and his followers, participants in pro-life rallies outside abortion clinics, and a Miami congregation divided over the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas.

 

The congregational church in Miami immediately caught my attention. The pastor of the church, Donna Schaper, wanted to use her position in the church to live out her interpretation of following the gospel. This is not unusual as many pastors do shape, or at least attempt to shape, the mission of the church s/he serves. In this particular case, a liberal-minded pastor served a moderately conservative congregation who engaged in social work in the community but not to the extent, that Rev. Schaper wished. Tension developed and the congregation struggled. While the pastor, along with some members, continued to push the congregation towards social justice, other members resisted because they did not like the direction.

 

As I considered this tension, I realized we all have specific calls from God that may or may not match up with others. Each side in this case believed they were doing the right thing. Where does this leave a church or individual? I believe there are times when we have to follow the will of God even if we are against the norm or against those who love us. This particular story is a great example of what it means to work for justice in the world because it shows that there are times when we must do it alone.

 

However, I cannot help but wonder what would have happened if the pastor of this church toned back her activism or at least slowed it down. If she took the process slower, encouraged the congregation, and engaged them in prayer, would things have worked out differently? I think this is something to be considered as more people can make a bigger impact. I believe we need to weigh our convictions for justice with those around us and determine the best approach to work towards the end. Alienating those who can help you is not always the best approach.

 

The South African movement to pray for justice is an example of gathering people to your side and convincing them of your conviction to work for justice. While there were some opposed to praying for justice and the end of apartheid, many agreed it was a good approach. It was a risky move as politics and religion were coming together but seeking justice is not without risks.  This raises some questions for me. I wonder when the need for justice outweighs the risks. When do we, in the first example, go out on our own to seek justice for others?

 

As I was reading the book, the events in Egypt were unfolding on live television. The people were seeking justice for their lives against an oppressive government. As I write this paper, missiles and bombs are falling in Libya as the world seeks justice for those who are attempting to do the same thing. I wonder what our responsibility to the world is. Where do we step in and do something to help others find justice. Are our actions in Libya worth the risk as we work to stop oppression?  These are not easy questions to face. In South Africa, the ministers had to face the possibility of inciting riots and violence though their prayers but the greater good was at stake. What is the greater good in Egypt or Libya? Are the bombs worth it?

 

I find myself in a unique position. I serve as a chaplain in the US Army – an organization that to the world is not just or justice seeking. I wonder what my role in all of this is. Do I conform and live the mission because I am a member of the Army? On the other hand, do I risk my career and speak out for justice and peace. There is risk involved and I have to weigh my risks. I can speak for peace and justice and face the possibility of being forced out of the Army. If this were to happen, I would be free to protest and criticize military action while seeking peace and justice. However, I could not minister to those who are in the Army and charged with making war. They need an advocate; they need someone to care for them pastorally; and they need chaplains. In this case, I have to accept the need to keep quiet when I do not agree with something in order to work for inside for the greater good. I weighed the risks and they are not worth it in my opinion. 

 

The author closes the book with a look at specifically praying for justice and conviction. The examples I cited above and my own personal experiences would be moot if they did not involve deep prayer. In a sermon in the Duke University Chapel, Barbara Brown Taylor talks about praying until we have worn holes in the carpet. As we seek to do justice in the world and find our role in work of justice, we need to engage in this sort of prayer. We need to pray to be convicted of the work of justice. 

 

However, we reach a point when we have prayed enough; we reach a point when the answer is clear; and we reach a point when God says, “go”. At this point, we need to go and do justice in the world.  Rev. Schaper and her church prayed over their mission of justice in the world and while I do not know if they prayed holes in the carpet, they felt they were convicted of their calling. They worked as if their conviction was right. The ministers in South Africa prayed for guidance and when they were convicted, they worked for justice. I have prayed holes in the carpet as I sought God’s will for my chaplaincy and now I work for justice as God has called me.

 

The work of justice in the world is never easy. However, if we work for justice out of our own personal motives, we will find insurmountable obstacles that prevent us from accomplishing what we seek to do. If we work for justice our of a conviction from God, we will find insurmountable obstacles but we will have the ability to work around those obstacles.

WWJD?

Yeah, I am titling this post WWJD and for good reason.

A few days, I shared some comments from people in a recent article and asked your thoughts on them.  Since then, I have had a few other experiences and conversations with people that have caused me to shake my head.  I am worried about people and their perceptions of religion and what it means to be a Christian.   It brings me back to my title: WWJD?

What would Jesus do if he met someone of a different faith?  What would Jesus do if he met someone who didn’t believe in him?  What would Jesus do if he met a gay or lesbian?  What would Jesus do?  It makes me squirm to think about my own actions on behalf of Jesus because I think I know what he would do but do I really?

I am deeply troubled what I see happening in the name of faith.  People are attacking one another for believing differently or not believing at all.  Instead of dialogue, we have attack.  What would Jesus do?

If we look at the gospels, Jesus challenged the righteous (read self-righteous) in their understanding of their faith. Many times, Jesus would tell them they really don’t understand what is going on. Jesus does not condemn those who are different, think different, believe different, or act different.  Jesus can to be with those people who are different where they were. What would Jesus do?  Jesus would be Jesus.

That is my challenge to everyone today. Open your eyes and see the world around you.  Stop labeling people and see that as Jesus would see them – as people.  Christian, gay, lesbian, Muslim, atheist, poor, rich, etc. are labels for our personhood.  We are people of God. We are children of God.  We are all the same – just different flavors :). 

WWJD? Jesus would love them for who they are regardless.  What a concept.