Extravagant Community

I cringe when I hear Christians respond to the "spiritual but not religious" by extolling the importance of community. Yes, we all need community for spirituality. We are social creatures. 

They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each
as any had need. Acts 4:35 NRSV  Photo by Tim Graves

But, while there is truth in this response it is based upon an unproven assumption. That is, that the "spiritual but not religious" lead the lives of hermits never talking with friends about their faith journeys. The community-defense also assumes that community must take an organized form. It does not.

More troublesome about the community-defense, however, is that it allows followers of Jesus to avoid our own failings. Too often churches are not places of community. Community is about caring for one another in deep ways. It is about assuring that everyone has their basic needs met. The reality is we spend more time worshiping consumerism and capitalism than we do sharing with our neighbor--even those within our churches. 

Too many churches have within their midst those struggling in very real ways while others live in relative laps of luxury. Aside from this being contrary to the teachings of our purported savior, the attitude of the relatively wealthy community members disturbs me. In my experience, when help is provided it comes with strings and pettiness. We reflect the resentment of a culture that elevates rugged individualism to idolatry.

Within this context of blaming the victim, we operate not out of extravagant love but out of begrudging duty. We do not believe that Jesus fed the whole crowd with a few loaves and fish. We fear that if we give too much to someone, even someone within our own community, there will not be enough for us. 

Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” The second is this, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.’ Mark 12: 29-31 NRSV (Read in context.)

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.  Acts 4: 32-35 NRSV (Read in context.)

Trustworthy God of Abundance,

You give extravagant,

   undeserved grace.

We give out of love,

   limited by our human fears and worries.

Help us to trust in your abundance,

   help us to love you as you love us.

Help us to give lavishly to others,

   within the koinonia,

   and to the whole human family.

Amen  

What if?

What if following Jesus isn't about the big things? What if it is about the small things we do: kindness, forgiving, smiling and laughing, listening, and even self-care? What if it isn't about professional ministry or earning a living but about a way of life lived in humble service? What if this service lacks vestments and collars or professional titles but is marked by our giving of ourselves emotionally, physically, and spiritually? What if the barely noticed, little things we do out of love are what God calls us toward? 


What if it is in each of these moments we allow God to speak through us? What if this is truly following Jesus, the One who took the very breath of God (1) into himself, and breathed it out into a broken world? What if we can be the very breath of God?


It could change the world.

...and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. 

Genesis 1:2a RSV

Read this in context.

****

(1) Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses, Kindle Book edition, loc. 994. Robert Alter translates the Hebrew rua  as breath. It is variously translated as wind, spirit, and breath.

It's All Made Up Anyway!

Painting by Anthony J. Kelly. Image retrieved 
from Rev. David Eck's blog.

"The Holy Trinity is all made up, anyway!" My friend thought I was joking. I wasn't and I'm not. I'm not an atheist; I believe in God. I'm even trinitarian with a higher sense of the Holy Spirit than many other mainline Christians. Still, it's pretend.


I perceive a divinity that connects us, that flows through us, and encourages us to lovingness. Our stories and theologies -- including trinitarian theology -- reveal truths that are beyond the rational, scientific explanation. They are not, nor were they ever intended to be literal, historical retellings of facts. 


Through the Christian biblical narrative, however, God continues to speak. For me, Jesus is,

"the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have really known me, you will also know the Father." (John 14:6-7b CEB Read this passage in context.)

This is the path upon which God has lured me. This is the only way for me to be the loving, unique person that God created me to be. It is in the life of Jesus, that I enter into a relationship with the love that underpins all of creation. It is in the human Jesus that I learn how to be who God calls me to be.


Jesus functions as a gate for me (John 10: 1-10 CEB). However, just as it is naive and ineffective to expect all children to learn via only one modality (e.g.; visual, auditory, or kinesthetic), it is naive to think that God's love only opens through one gate. The arrogant teacher is one who thinks there is one -- and only one -- way to reach all children. This assumes the gifts, skills, challenges, and experiences of each individual is the same. 


Arrogant Christian spirituality, is one that projects its own gifts on all. When we do this we deny the truth reflected in Paul's writings to the Corinthians. That truth is that as we seek to follow the One, we each have unique roles and gifts.

Certainly the body isn’t one part but many. If the foot says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not a hand,” does that mean it’s not part of the body? If the ear says, “I’m not part of the body because I’m not an eye,” does that mean it’s not part of the body? If the whole body were an eye, what would happen to the hearing? And if the whole body were an ear, what would happen to the sense of smell? (1 Corinthians 12: 14-17 CEB Read this passage in context.)

Though Paul wrote to a squabbling community of Jesus followers, to expand this truth beyond Christianity is to hear the voice of God in a new time and place. Paul -- and the other authors of the canon -- wrote contextually. That is, the biblical writers spoke to specific people in a specific era, place, and culture. When we read and study the texts thoughtfully, communally, and prayerfully, we hear God's voice for today. We can find truths.


The gospels interpret the life of Jesus as he challenged the prevailing human-defined circle of acceptable behaviors and the people that were worthy of God's love. The Good News of the unfolding Realm of God (love) is that it is for all of us. God's love is expansive and extravagant! The One is love. The One, who I call God, reflected in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament reveals an arc of loving inclusiveness and justice for all.


To find God through Jesus, does not require dismissing others. On the contrary, to follow the teachings of Jesus is to engage in loving, respectful relationship with others. Other peoples have stories, metaphors, and narratives that describe their experiences of the One, the divinity that I perceive. Just as the Christian Bible reveals truths, the sacred writings (or verbal stories) of Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Rastafarians, and others reveal truths. They reflect the ways that others have experienced the One. Is it really that hard to believe that the mysterium tremendum that is God, might speak to others in ways that make sense to them?


Rather than limiting God, I accept the Trinity as a metaphor that helps me to describe how I experience the One. It helps me to follow the Divine's call on my life. I don't need to idolize it into a literal fact anymore than I need Jesus to be the only way to the extravagant, expansive love of God. 

Theologies Evolve as We Seek the Divine

A tweet by @MattRWilkins crossed my Twitter stream this morning. Wrote Wilkins, "Many are redefining the theology of the church today & in so doing they are redefining God. Mark it down, God is NOT up for redefinition!" Wilkins' implications in this tweet are problematic in many ways. I will address five in this post. 


1) He implies that theology is somehow "of God." Quite the contrary: theologies are "of people." Theologies are human attempts at understanding the inexplicable. Much of the biblical witness is a collection of theologies by the original authors. They often vary because God is the mysterium tremendum. They conflict because each of the ancient's experiences of the Divine were filtered through personal experiences, culture, time and place in history, and scientific understanding of how the world works. The same can be said of contemporary theologies. 


2) He implies that the church has unanimity of opinion. The historical record contradicts the idea that "the church" has ever been of one mind theologically. The times when the Roman church had multiple popes, the Protestant reformation, and the Catholic counter-reformation are but a few examples of times when theologies were far from singular. The only way to argue that the church has ever had one theology is to exclude vast numbers of followers of Jesus from the church. 


All who profess Jesus and seek to follow his teachings, however imperfectly, are part of the church, of the body of Christ. We all have spiritual gifts to contribute to the whole.


3) He implies that the theologies of the church have never changed. As humanity has sought to understanding the spiritual realm ideas have evolved. This is true within Christianity. In seeking to understand the nature of God, for example, followers of Jesus developed trinitarian theology over centuries.


The trinity is a post-biblical interpretation of the scriptures which expands upon themes within the Bible. I tend to use trinitarian language because it helps me describe my experiences of God. This language is not the literal nature of God. It is a human construct designed to understand the Divine. Other followers of Jesus, part of the church, do not subscribe to trinitarian theologies. 


4) He implies that God is silent in our age. To suggest that our understanding of the nature of God was complete at some point in the past, suggests humans can define God. He intimates that God no longer speaks. To do so is to deny the entire Pentecostal movement, the everyday experiences of billions, and to restrict the Divine. A silent God is a dead God.


5) Most alarming is that he implies that he owns God. In dismissing all but his own theology, and those who agree with him, the tweeter himself defines God. To maintain this arrogance he must dismiss the experiences of those who find the Divine in other ways. He lays a stumbling block before others and acts as the gatekeeper to Jesus' love.


Reading this tweet, I imagined a man standing with his arms crossed stubbornly in front of Jesus. Those willing to define God in the way in which he defines God, are welcomed and hugged by Jesus. Those who do not, are forcibly removed.


I experience God differently. The One I experience, stands before us all with open arms. Encouraging us forward, smiling and exuding joy in our mere presence. Like a toddler attempting a first step, if we fall God picks us up, brushes off our knees, sheds a tear with us, wipes our eyes, and wraps Divine arms around us. If we are able to take those first toddler steps, God's face lights up and divine arms of joy wrap around us. Whether we fall or toddle forward, the God I know, whispers in our ear, You are my Beloved.


For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8: 38-39 NRSV (Read this passage in context.)

Hospitality & Resurrection (Sermon about Sodom & Gomorrah)

I preached this sermon at Hood River Valley Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) on May 20, 2012. The scripture lesson is Genesis 19: 1-25. 

Our friends didn’t always appreciate our sense of humor. I remember one particular evening at the IHOP when the rest of the group moved to another table because the two of us - supposedly - were giggling too much. Bill had that effect on me. We were best friends. We were in high school. That meant it was his job to get me to snort my soda. 

At the end of the evening, I pulled into his driveway and turned off the car. We always talked one-on-one at the end of an evening with our friends. Our giggles out, the tone would become more serious. As two young men growing up in the late seventies, this is when we talked about girls, about our families, and about all the things that mattered most to us.

***

We all have that relative who we love dearly. You know the one who's a good person but always seems to find trouble? (My brother had some years like that.) You just wish Uncle Joe or cousin Millie would live up to their potential. You just wish they’d stop making bad choices, sabotaging themselves, and hanging out with the wrong crowd.

Lot seems to be that relative for our patriarch Abraham. He’s a good guy. He wants to do right by God. He really tries but somehow he always finds trouble.

***

So, before our reading begins today, Abraham is walking with God and God’s two messengers -- the NRSV describes them as angels --though that’s not a perfect translation. Messenger, still not a perfect translation, seems to fit their role in this story better. 

Now, this is after God's bombshell visit to Hebron, a visit in which the righteousness of Abraham and Sarah is evident in their hospitality. This is immediately after that bombshell visit in which God tells Abraham and Sarah that, despite Sarah’s old age, she’s going to have a baby.

So God, perhaps sensitive to the enormity of the news just dropped on the elderly Abraham, debates whether to discuss with him what’s next on the agenda. Ultimately, though, God decides, to tell Abraham. “I must go down” to Sodom, God tells Abraham, “and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know.” (Genesis 18: 21 NRSV)

I can imagine Abraham rolling his eyes. I would if I were him. Not out of disrespect to God but because Lot had found trouble...again. Lot has fallen in with a bad crowd. He’s moved to the plains, to Sodom. That place that, according to Ezekiel 16, had “pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty, and did abominable things.” (Ezekiel 16: 49b-50a NRSV)

Abraham intercedes on Lot’s behalf. He barters with God, what if there are 50 good men, will you save the towns? Of course, Abraham probably expects God to offer a higher number. Maybe 100 good men? As some commentators have suggested, however, God surprises even Abraham with his mercy. 

God does not want to punish the righteous with the wicked. 

***

And so we arrive in Sodom in the evening along with God’s messengers. What happens next is familiar in our culture, at least vaguely. Even if you’ve never read Genesis, you’ve probably heard about Sodom and Gomorrah. As told in secular and in many church settings, this is the story of a God who punishes two cities because of their evil ways. 

God gives up on their ability to change or transform. Evil now, evil always. No resurrections. 

In this interpretation God rains fire on Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexual acts. This ferocious god -- fed up by the disobedience of the townsfolk -- saved Lot and his two daughters only because Abraham interceded on their behalf. As a result of this we even use the term sodomy and Sodomite to refer to a kind of sexual behavior and those who engage in it.

Of course, the problem with allowing the secular culture to interpret the Bible for us is that we miss the nuance. We miss hearing God’s loving voice. We fail to allow the Holy Spirit to envelope us and guide us. Our sacred text must be read and studied prayerfully or we will be led astray. 

Perhaps even turning its meaning on its head.

***

Imagine Lot...

I remember that evening well. The sun was setting when I noticed the two men near the town gate. Why had no one offered to put these strangers up for the night?  

Well, I know what my kin Abraham would do; he would offer hospitality.  Like Abraham, I love our Lord, the maker of all that we see, the one who led our people out of Egypt, the one worthy of our worship. 

And, so, I did what my God requires, I approached the two strangers and offered to put them up for the night. At first they hesitated but I insisted. They were strangers and didn’t know how hostile this town could be to those from the outside. As an immigrant myself, a resident alien with some rights, they still reminded me from time to time when I got too “uppity” that I wasn’t “from around here.” 

So, I brought the strangers home and made them a feast! We were lingering over coffee and my wife’s famous cherry pie when I heard the commotion outside. There were so many of them! Sounded like the whole town. They called to me, “Lot! Lot! LO-OT!”  They were getting louder. 

“Give us those strangers! They don’t belong here. They probably don't even speak English!" I feared they wanted to dehumanize my guests...rape them...treat them as women. I hoped my guests had not heard their hateful words because it was my job as host to protect my guests.

I went to the door. My guests followed and closed the door behind me. I stood on the front stoop and looked at the townsfolk. They were ticked --  no, worse than that -- they were in a frenzy of hatred and hostility. Some of ‘em had been drinking. It really was the whole town at my door. 

So, I put on my most charming voice, my most respectful voice,“I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly,” I said. And, though I'm ashamed to admit it, I offered them my daughters. It was horrible to do so, but I am under an oath sworn to God to protect the vulnerable, the stranger. Hospitality is just that important.

Fortunately for my daughters, the townsfolk were too intent on the foreigners to take me up on the offer. They weren’t trying to satiate their sexual desires; they wanted to inflict their evil on the outsiders!  And now I had just enraged them even more. 


They reminded me that I wasn’t one of them, either -- that I was an alien, an immigrant --and they were prepared to do even worse to me! 

I had failed in my duties of hospitality when the two men had to protect me. They pulled me inside and -- somehow? -- blinded all of the wicked townspeople so that they could not find the door.

***

I don’t know about you but I get angry when our sacred text is used as a weapon. The Bible is a powerful testament of our ancient kindred’s experience of the Divine. When it is used for hatred, stumbling blocks are put before people. 

Recent surveys have shown that those under 30 associate Christianity with hatred. Is it really any wonder... when we let the media and the secular culture define us and interpret Jesus? Jesus: our upside down savior? We let the voice of abundant love that overcomes death be drowned out by those who don't study the Bible prayerfully and thoughtfully.

According to the U.S. Religion Census released on May first, Portland -- our Portland -- is the least religious city in the country. Religious is defined as having an affiliation, even marginally, with a religious body of some kind. Only 32% of Portlanders are connected to a church, mosque, or synagogue. We’re not much better. In Hood River County only 38.4% of people are associated -- even slightly -- with a religious body. 

We're failing to teach the loving core of our faith. We're failing to teach the Bible and make it relevant to the twenty-first century. We've allowed the secular culture to limit God’s extravagant love. In the case of the narrative of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, we’ve allowed others to tell people that it is a story of punishment for homosexuality. 

It is not. 

This is a story that reveals the truth about the importance of hospitality to the stranger, to those who are not like us. As Disciple scholar Rick Lowery puts it, this narrative is a reminder that, “When you declare war on the poor and the vulnerable, you declare war on YHWH,” on God. We should all be appalled that one of the stories of our faith has been used for hatred when it is about the importance of love. When it is about radical hospitality.

Jesus himself referred to the meaning of this story in the tenth chapter of Matthew. As he sent the apostles out to teach, Jesus said, “If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town. Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgement than for that town.” (Matthew 10: 14-15 NRSV)

*** 

College came and I went away to school. On my weekends home from college, our friends would still gather. And Bill and I would still end the evening in his driveway.

It was in Bill’s driveway that he told me about the girls he dated, and how it never seemed to last. It was in Bill’s driveway that I first told him about the girl in the college cafeteria. The one with whom I flirted -- religiously -- after every meal. It was in his driveway that I would later ask him to be my best man.

One weekend home from college we pulled into Bill’s driveway. This night, Bill stammered and hesitated. His nervousness -- his fear? -- filled the car. Eventually, he got out what he wanted to say to me. Bill came out to me. My best friend told me he was gay.

It’s not that I didn’t care, it’s just that a best friend’s love is unconditional. It didn’t matter to our friendship. 

It’s not that I didn’t care, it’s just that I grew up in the church. Heck, I was born in the Disciples of Christ’s Vatican City. I was ushered into life in Indianapolis where my dad served Speedway Christian Church.

I threw paper airplanes made from church bulletins off the balcony at First Christian Church in Salem. I went on hay rides on a Missouri farm with the youth group. I went with my grandfather -- who wore his perfect attendance pin -- to the Disciple church in Irvine, Kentucky. I gave my Good Confession at a storefront Disciples church on Palm Sunday because I know a god who loves all of God’s people extravagantly. 

And, so, I accepted my friend for who he was because that is what Jesus taught me.

AMEN.

Careful What You Wish For

A woman I know likes to characterize us this way: "We play well with others." Like me, a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), she emphasizes the denomination's ethos of ecumenism [See note below]. Disciples have been at the forefront of the movement for church wholeness throughout its history. This, despite two Restoration movement splits which resulted in three streams of the Stone-Campbell movement [2]. 


Initially growing as one at its inception on the American frontier, a primary difference between Disciples and the other two streams is our work with other church bodies (e.g.; Methodists, Catholics, etc.) wherever possible. Disciples tend to interpret the Restoration principle that "We are Christians only but not the only Christians" as a mandate for ecumenism. 


Juxtapose this with the Disciples' traditional laments that,

1. We have an identity problem.
2. Disciples who move from one community to another often change denomination becoming Baptists, Presbyterians, or UCCers.

While I recognize that some of these laments are shared by other Christian denominations, as a multigenerational Disciple, I wonder. Why should we be surprised - or disturbed - that folks who relocate do not necessarily end up in another Disciple church? Do we or do we not believe that "We are Christians only but not the only Christians"? Perhaps, our ecumenism and work for wholeness of the church has been at least partially successful. Maybe the Holy Spirit moves in the world, nudging you, encouraging me, and whispering in someone else's ear that denominations need to fall? 


Careful what you wish for, you might find it coming to pass.


***


[1] Ecumenism refers to cooperation and collaboration within Christianity. Ecumenism is sometimes confused with interfaith, which refers to cooperation and collaboration between faiths. For example, a Thanksgiving service  conducted by Roman Catholics, Methodists, and Disciples is an ecumenical gathering. If Reformed Jews and Buddhists joined the Roman Catholics, Methodists, and Disciples at the same Thanksgiving service, it would be interfaith rather than ecumenical. At an ecumenical service it is appropriate to pray “In the Name of Jesus Christ”. This would not be appropriate at an interfaith service.

A Prayer

Jargon rarely furthers the extravagant love of the Divine beyond those already on the inside. Jesus calls us to borderlands where outsiders have been discarded & too often forgotten by those in-power, on the in-side, & who are in-focused. 

God, today & everyday push me to the borderlands that I might not only be your presence but see you in everyone I meet. AMEN.

Living Outside the Boxes

I spent much of Monday making phone calls and visiting websites, doing those things that one does before a move: scheduling utility starts and stops, reserving a U-Haul. I struggled through the questions that used to be so simple. Have you lived in your home at least twelve months? Where are you employed? 

This image is by artist Rhea Brown.

In the last year, I've already moved out of two homes, this is the third. If you count my efficiency at seminary, this is the fourth move in less than twelve months. I am on a Spirit-led journey that was spurred by a "Holy Spirit moment" in the summer of 2010. I perceived a call to new church ministry. I am in what church bureaucracies call, discernment. I'd argue that I'm not so much discerning as waiting, listening and responding, and waiting some more as the Spirit reveals the form of this new thing (Isaiah 43).

This journey makes answering where I'm employed even more difficult.  My primary vocation is following the lure of the Spirit. Unfortunately, that doesn't pay much. To help cover a few bills, I substitute teach in several early childhood programs. I've actually turned down two full-time teaching positions in my commitment to a Spirit-led life. You can see why corporate America and our mainstream culture don't know what box to check regarding me. 

Even some church people don't seem to "get" me. Yes, some understand what it is to be Spirit-led but there are probably more folks in the pews who don't. They  smile and affirm me in that way that exudes respect but lacks understanding. You know it's like they think I'm crazy but they love me anyway. Some institutional (including judicatory-type) churchfolk try to fit me into their institutional models or suggest I send out my search and call papers. Even the traditional discernment process doesn't seem to fit me. I am convinced that I'm called to something radically different. Consequently, I even feel uncomfortable with the term "new church." 

None of these challenges of striving to follow the Spirit are helped by God. God seems to have a need-to-know policy on where this is all headed. How hard would it really be for God to email me a copy of God's business plan! There are times when I grow weary of this counter-cultural path upon which I find myself. Often I feel devoid of the language to describe to others who I am and what I am experiencing. 

After my Monday of squeezing myself into corporate boxes, I was blessed by a tweet quoting Henri Nouwen.

"Jesus . . . asks us to move from a leadership built on power to a leadership in which we critically discern where God is leading us. . . ."

In less than 140 characters, I felt my angst of following the Spirit validated. Nouwen encapsulates my struggle between living in a world of taking charge and a world of being who God calls me to be. Our culture, within and outside of the church, is based on power structures, hierarchies, planning, deciding, and doing. Success is defined by the matrices of popularity, dollars, bodies in attendance, endowments, and of doing. I am striving, however, to discern the Spirit's gentle nudges, to be who the One created me to be. When Jesus called James and his brother John, they got up and left their father and their fishing business behind. They did this to follow Jesus (Mark 1: 14-20). 

This is what I strive to do as the Spirit beckons me forward: to follow the One who breathes in God and lived the life he was called to live. Though I stumble over questions asked by utilities and sometimes give in to the temptations of a culture more concerned with things than people, I have left my boat. I've left my fishing business to follow the One who embodied the extravagant love of the Divine.

Unladylike: Disciples Have Gender Bias, Too

I have yet to read this recently released book by Portland's Pam Hogeweide. My comments today then are in response only to the following promotional trailer. 

While my own denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has been ordaining women since at least 1888, and we were the first mainline denomination to elect a woman as General Minister & President we are not without problems of gender bias. 


How many women who are called by God and confirmed by the church, do not receive calls to serve churches because of systemic gender bias? What about subtle bias against women leaders in our churches that call women as elders and pastors? Do we name it, claim it, and do the hard work among God's people to change it? Too often in my experience the answer has been no. The comment in this video about non-essentials and essentials of the Christian faith is particularly important to us. If it is an essential, we need to address the injustice directly and lovingly but address it we must.

Intolerance of women in positions of leadership is doctrine in many Christian bodies. In our drive to be ecumenical, do we too often throw women under the bus in the name of unity? Is our polar star of unity trumping God's justice when we tolerate injustices against women? I do not suggest we refuse to talk to our Christian kindred who come to different conclusions about the scriptures. However, we need to be far more outspoken about the injustices inherent in that position.


Before we are able to speak with prophetic authority to other bodies of the church, however, we need to remove the log from our own eyes. Intolerance of women in positions of leadership is still practiced within a minority of Disciples congregations. (This is possible because we practice congregational governance.) What does it say about our commitment to God's justice when we refuse to allow women to serve as elders or ministers within our own denomination? Are we accepting that which is unjust simply to avoid losing a congregation from the denomination?


So, before we get smug about our tradition of ordaining women since nearly the beginning of our movement, we need to address injustices within our own body. 

****

Follow Pam Hogeweide on Twitter at @pamhogeweide 

Children, Occupy, & the Church

Children

My 50-something body aches and has sharp pains from spending more than 8-hours a day with two-year-olds. (I could list the aches in order of their annoyance value but then I'd sound like a crochety old man.) My body also aches because I didn't get enough rest over the weekend, spending time at Occupy Portland when I "should" have been resting.

But it is my heart that aches the most. My heart aches because of the emotional energy it takes to meet the needs of children whose families are undervalued. Children need my presence and compassion. I give what I can but I can only do so much. We have a systemic problem.


Because children in our country are themselves undervalued, the societal priority is not on children's needs but on keeping costs low. Parents can't afford to pay the true cost of quality child care, they can't afford to stay home, and so we end up with programs that hire under-qualified and under-resourced adults struggling to support their own families. 


Occupy

The Occupy movement is about reforming the economic injustice that harms the children with whom I'm spending my days. It is about overturning the plutocracy that harms the vast majority of Americans (and people around the world). This is what the movement is referring to when we talk about the 99% and the 1%. The 1% represents the plutocracy, the wealthy who rule, and the 99% represents the rest of us who are struggling in various ways to get by financially.

I am tired because the disregard for the U.S. Constitution, for civility, and for citizen redress of grievances is discouraging. Heck, it's deeply troubling and it should disturb anyone who believes in our nation's professed values whether one agrees with the particular views of the movement. 


The coordinated assault on Occupy camps across the country is an indication that plutocrats and governments (politicians) are perceiving a threat. My heart aches because it is not just the protesters but our children who are being violently abused by an unjust economic system that favors those at the top. Why else would our Congress be seriously turning back school lunch nutrition guidelines because, "the federal government shouldn't tell children what to eat"? (Huffington Post, Congresses Pushes Back on Healthier School Lunches) 


The Church


Amos prophesied in the mid-eighth century. It was a time of security and prosperity--for some classes of people. A thriving commerce and trade created a context in which “an affluent society composed of a small, wealthy upper class [whose] vast accumulation led to a luxurious life style.” (2)


The prophet chastises the people for their hypocrisy. Worship had become about them.  “The essence of Godʼs demand [in Amos]” is not on sacrifices, tithes, and offerings but in the “moral and ethical spheres of life.” (3)


So, it is today. Many churches busily talk about changing worship, making it more upbeat and relevant. That'll bring folks back, they say. But the church has lost its way if it focuses on worship at the expense of justice. Amos was not opposed to worship itself but contended that by using worship as the litmus for being right with God, it was impossible to be right with God. Worship is celebrated to alleviate the worshipers feelings, to meet their needs to feel pious. (4) 


So, where is the church in this time of economic injustice, in this time of plutocratic abuses worldwide? In fairness, some of us are involved in justice but all of us need to be involved in God's justice and compassion or our worship is hollow.


In the eighth century Amos called the people of the northern kingdom out for their elaborate worship while they ignored the great issues that were important to God. The church today, sitting in aging buildings or in new state-of-the-art facilities, seems to deserve some of Amos' mocking sarcasm and threatened action:


Hear this word, you cows of Bashan
   who are on Mount Samaria,
who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,
   who say to their husbands, ‘Bring something to drink!’ 


Therefore, thus I will do to you, O Israel;
   because I will do this to you,
   prepare to meet your God, O Israel! 


--Amos 4:1, 12 NRSV (Click here to read these verses in context.) 


God of All,


Show us our failings,
as we worship without acting on your behalf.


Move us to get out of the pews,
that we might fight for justice for the oppressed.


Move us to give up our comforts,
that all might have what they need.


Envigorate us with your love,
that we might be your loving arms and hands of justice in the world for all.


Amen




Footnotes


(1) Marvin A. Sweeney, The Twelve Prophets (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2000), 191-192.


(2) Shalom M. Paul, Amos: A Commentary On the Book of Amos, ed. Frank Moore Cross (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 2.


(3) Shalom M. Paul, 139.



(4) Jörg Jeremias, The Book of Amos: A Commentary (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), 139.

Coexist?

You've undoubtedly seen them. The bumper stickers with one word: coexist. That word is made up of the symbols of various faith groups. Well, I bristle whenever I see one of them. Yes, the sticker bothers me.


For those who don't know me, you may think you know why I don't like it. It's unlikely you do. 


I'm not an exclusivist. I do not accept the interpretation of John 14: 6 that insists there is only one path to the Divine. After all, the author of John was writing to people in a specific time, culture, and place far removed from the twenty-first century. My experience of the Divine is of one loving energy/power/entity that is in relationship with all of humankind. The Divine is within and between all of us. We each interpret our experiences of this energy/power/entity within our own experiences and that of our communities.


So what is my problem? 


It's not that I don't empathize with what the sticker says to so many people. Of course people are fed up with the sins of the church and other religions. As humanity we do indeed seem to be able to find ways to mess up.


My problem is simple. Human beings are entwined in a tapestry of relationality that precludes coexistence. We couldn't coexist if we tried. Coexistence implies that we  do not influence one another. It implies that what I do has no bearing on my Muslim, Hindu, or atheist neighbor. Of course, it does. Everything any one of us does influences in subtle or not-so-subtle ways every other living creature on this planet. 


I've dabbled with "collaborate" as a better word for a bumper sticker. There are advantages to this word but it probably doesn't quite capture the essence that begs capture. I've played with other words and phrases, too: shalom, interact, be one, and relate. Even "love" has connotations that not everyone would understand on a bumper sticker.


Maybe I will one day come up with the perfect bumper sticker word. In the meantime, I will continue my journey of striving to love my nearby and far-a-way neighbors. I will try to remember that who I am influences them and that who they are influences me. We are one, we just don't act like it much of the time.




  

Occupy Portland: "Take one or two others along with you."

I confess I have trouble with the "Jesus was a socialist" claims. Likewise, I am disturbed by those who conflate capitalism with democracy and Jesus. Jesus' times had no sense of democracy or socialism. When we make these claims, and others like them we're creating Jesus in our own images. We are manipulating the faith for our own purposes.


Still, there are indeed things that we can glean about Jesus from the biblical texts. This is best done in conversation with the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible, what Christians typically call the Old Testament and the culture of the time. The most significant core part of Jesus' teachings is about having loving compassion for others and a sense of hospitality, of welcoming the outsider. In the literal words of the text, Jesus makes it clear that God's people are to show their love for God by caring for the "least of these" (Matthew 25). 


Jesus, and to an even greater extent, the Acts of the Apostles and the letters attributed to Paul, advocate a communal living. A sense of community and hospitality was not new in Jesus' time. It is a theme found throughout the Hebrew Bible. In fact, the punishment meted out at Sodom and Gommorrah was due to the failure of that community to be hospitable to the stranger.


Jesus' Teachings Reflected in Occupy Portland Document


I was reminded of Jesus' teachings about dealing with conflict within community by the, "Collective Agreement on Community Safety and Well-Being" developed by Occupy Portland. This ostensibly secular occupation in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street in New York, is a living community that seeks to welcome all people. (See my previous post about some members who draw too great a separation with "the 1%.) In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is quoted as saying,

“If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.  16 But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses.  17 If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." Matthew 18: 15-17 NRSV

Compare this biblical passage to the Steps for Dealing with Threats to Safety and Well-Being developed to address conflict within the community by the Occupy Portland General Assembly earlier this week. Notice that the individual is "empowered to tell the person to kindly stop the behavior" (compare to "point out the fault when the two of you are alone" in the Christian gospel.) A little further in the document the Occupy Portland General Assembly addresses actions to take if the person with whom the individual has conflict does not respond: "If you approach the person and the threat continues, ask for community support (2-3 others, not a mob) in re-approaching the person posing the threat." Again, compare this to the Gospel, "if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you." 


If the individual brings other community members along to assist in reconciliation and the person still does not act in good faith, the Occupy community agreed that  the person will be barred from the camp. This, too, is similar to the gospel in which Jesus is reported to have said "let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector." In essence the gospel means that the person is to be treated as an outsider to the community. 


Much to Learn from Portland's Occupy Community 


I am convinced that the Divine, by whatever name we refer to it, is moving in our era. I share this view, this intuitive sense, with many others. It is reflected in multiple writings within the Christian community (e.g.; see the writings of Phyllis Tickle) as well as in other spiritual traditions. The similarity between how Occupy Portland has agreed to deal with conflict and the teachings of Jesus is one place where I see the Spirit moving. (Spirit is the term I use for the Divine luring and movement within and between people.) 


In what has been called a "post-Christian" city, a community has formed in protest of the dominant culture's economics. This secular protest has developed a nurturing, non-violent method of dealing with conflict which is similar to the teachings of Jesus. Admittedly, Occupy Portland may be subtly influenced by Judeo-Christian cultural values as is all of western culture. Yet, unlike too many churches which have embraced the non-Christian values of rugged individualism, Occupy Portland is reflecting Judeo-Christian values in its method of dealing with conflict. Unlike too many churches which have rejected inclusive community, the caring for the "least of these," and communal living, Occupy Portland has inadvertently "developed" a process for dealing with community conflict that mirrors Jesus' teachings in the Gospel of Matthew.


Indeed, the Spirit is afoot. The Divine is once again changing the world in surprising places.

Dear Spirit: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Standing at the Deli the other day, Should I Stay or Should I Go? began playing. Spontaneously, I said, "I love that song!" In a moment, my current struggle was revealed. Freud would be so proud. 


You see, I am torn between being a part of our crumbling institutions or leaving them entirely. "If I go there will be trouble, if I stay there will be double," sing The Clash in this song. I don't see a clear path. I'm wandering in the wilderness. Throughout my five decade life I've often felt that I am just a bit out of sync with the world around me. I can look the part: I have short hair, own a suit, a white shirt, and boring ties, and I can even talk "white guy" language. Yet I am never happy in those situations. I never feel I'm my authentic self, or on my true life path, and rarely feel I'm following God's will in those situations. The pull of the culture is strong. The pull of the "you must fit in to be worthy" messages dominate our culture. 


And, so, I've spent much of my time dancing on the border between the ways of the world and outside the world. I've been wandering in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, in the neutral zone between the Romulans and the Federation, and the space between Egypt and the promised land. In the last month this dance has become less satisfying. Our culture is changing. We are moving into postmodernity whether folks like it or not. I yearn to live in postmodernity while many fear it. 


So, today my prayer is from The Clash: 



Darling you gotta let me know 
Should I stay or should I go? 
If you say that you are mine 
Ill be here til the end of time 
So you got to let know 
Should I stay or should I go?


Always tease tease tease 
Siempre - coqetiando y enganyando 
Youre happy when Im on my knees 
Me arrodilla y estas feliz 
One day is fine, next is black 
Un dias bien el otro negro 
So if you want me off your back 
Al rededar en tu espalda 
Well come on and let me know 
Me tienes que desir 
Should I stay or should I go? 
Me debo ir o que darme


Should I stay or should I go now? 
Should I stay or should I go now? 
If I go there will be trouble 
An if I stay it will be double 
So come on and let me know



(full lyrics available at http://www.theclash.com/lyrics/?search=Should%20I%20stay%20or%20should%20I%20go)