Current Events: A Reflection on Ferguson

“…those who love violence, the Lord’s soul hates…”  Proverbs 11:5

It is so very troubling when violence erupted in the aftermath of the shooting of Michael Brown.  It is troubling when any city experiences riots to the point where the National Guard needs to be called in. 

But perhaps it is more troubling when violence does not break out.  Wait, what?

Violence does not break out over the tens of thousands of people killed by guns, drugs, beatings, murder and intimidation, by preventable means.  Violence does not break out when death occurs along racial or gender or economic lines.  Only one case in how many will spark some kind of reaction, violent or otherwise.

And we are not talking about cop violence, teen on teen violence, violence in the commitment of a felony, domestic violence, or any one bit of the violent spectrum.  So many will die and, except for family and friends, and maybe a sound bite, it will pass unnoticed.

I don’t know if violence has hardened us or broken us down or simply led us to wall off our emotions to any reaction.  We are apathetic and helpless.  It is ‘the cost of doing business’ in life today.  Even in Ferguson, the issue is racial, not violent.  White cop kills black kid.  Did it turn violent from the shooting itself, but from the aftermath?

For hours, the body was visible on the street.  It shook that community’s apathy and helplessness.  It released pent up frustration and anger.  And if we don’t find another way to release that energy, we will have nothing to deal with but violence.

 

Lord, help us to find another way to deal with the cruelty and inhumanity of the sinful world in which we live.  Amen.

 

Thoughts for a New Year

Is there a fine line between hoping you’ll never be called upon to use the skills you’ve learned and hoping to practice those skills to the fullest?  Time, money, and effort are put into the preparation of firefighters to serve as a First Response to whatever might happen.  Agreements are forged between communities to support one another.  Layers of support from the county, the state, and the federal governments stand behind the local firehouse.

On any given day, there might be the ‘big one’, the crisis that calls for ‘all hands on deck’.  It might be accident, it might be deliberate, it might be terrorist in origin.  When driving through the City of Perth Amboy, one can see homes and businesses or one can see worst case scenarios. 

As a chaplain, I pray to God that it won’t happen, and I pray to God to protect those responding when it does happen.  As a minister, I pray to God for any and all who are affected by the crisis. 

But maybe it is not about the skills.  Those are important, they keep firefighters alive.  But maybe the challenge is not about using the skills or not.  Maybe the challenge is about testing oneself.  How will I respond when the crisis comes?  Will I rise to the occasion, drop to my training, break completely? 

Is that the challenge of 2015, not wishing for a fire, crisis, or disaster, but looking for the opportunity to test yourself, to press your limits, to overcome the greatest difficulties and emerge victorious?  Then, for 2015, I pray to God that every man will have the spirit, the courage, and the skill to be the master of their vocation.

Bethlehem

It only took a couple of hours.  The roads were surprisingly empty of travelers.  It is late in the season for the census, most people have already arrived.  Bethlehem is something of a tourist town, being where David was born.  Perhaps like the Heartbreak Hotel across from Graceland, the home of another King, there were rooms to be had.

Usually.

But today, the inns are full.  And even if there were “No Vacancy” signs posted in bright neon, Joseph would still have gone door to door.  It wasn’t for him, he’d sleep on the ground.  It was for Mary.  Her time had come, to put it biblically, ‘after the way of women’.  Maybe her water broke, maybe she was in labor.

But they were in a strange city with no friends, no family, no connections to help them out.  They were at the mercy of strangers, strangers with inns already filled up.  One of those innkeepers took pity.   Maybe his wife saw Mary’s condition.  Maybe she cried out in pain from the donkey as Joseph tried desperately to negotiate some place to stay…any place to stay…  This kept up, maybe past midnight.

Until…  It was around back.  It was the stable.  Room for the donkey and room for them.  Maybe they were charged double, maybe the innkeeper sent for the midwife, the bible doesn’t say.  We do know that Mary was able to lay down, that while she was in labor, preparing to give birth…

And “in that region, there were in those fields, shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night.  Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them…”

Merry Christmas.

One Day To Bethlehem

You can practically see it from Jerusalem, practically roll down the hill in a wagon to get to Bethlehem.  Not that Joseph would want his VERY pregnant wife rolling in a wagon.  But, having come from Galilee, they were from a different province of Herod the Great’s kingdom.  Likely taxes were due, more registrations, more paper work, more red tape.  The world is on the move and the land of Israel is then, as today, a place of high security.

For Mary and Joseph, it probably amounted to a whole lot of waiting.  When it came to collecting money in general, taxes to fees to tolls, the Romans had the system built for efficiency.  And they were at the city that David built.  They were the parents of David’s heir, promised by God to take up the power of his forefather.

They were probably very quiet while under those walls.  It was well-known how paranoid Herod was, how many relatives who might have been threats to his reign that he had executed.  When the magi would come from the east to lay gifts at the feet of their son, would Mary and Joseph remember back to this day, when they were well within the grasp of Herod, if he’d only known, before they made their escape to Egypt?

Sometime on the date that we call in the modern calendar, Dec. 24, they gained their permission to go.  Once more upon the donkey, maybe their purse lighter due to some extra payments to get things moving, and they are on their way, finally.

Two Days to Bethlehem

Jericho would have been a layover on the way to Jerusalem, a security check point.  Jerusalem was the capital, full of intrigue, hotbed of headaches for the Roman overlords.  How much more so with people on the move to respond to this census?  Jerusalem is the gateway to Bethlehem.

The reason they came down the Jordan Valley was due to the hills and valleys that marked the lands between the Jezreel Valley and Jerusalem.  But Jerusalem sits at the northern edge of a long ridge that runs south through the land of Judah into the wilderness beyond.  It is where you crossed over to get to the coastal highways that led on to Egypt and Africa. 

Now it is uphill, with a pregnant wife, forced onto the donkey as the climb would be too taxing, stomp, stomp, stomp.  They were probably part of a convoy now, a group of travelers vetted by the authorities and cleared to head up the ridge. 

They would have seen the City rising up before them for almost the entire trip.  It is about seventeen miles, approximately the distance from exits 10 to 8 on the NJ Turnpike.  The temple is up at Jerusalem, built on top of the ridge to be seen from afar.  In the entire bible, it always talks about going up to Jerusalem, because that was the only way there.

Seventeen miles, uphill, in a crowd, just trying to get there, just trying to arrive.  Once at Jerusalem, it is about 5 miles south to Bethlehem, a couple of hours walk.  You could do it all in one day, in normal times.  But these times were not normal.

Three Days to Bethlehem

They have arrived in Jericho.  It is the southern end of their trip along the Jordan River.  Only a little further south is the Dead Sea.  It is a place where nothing will grow, where the water is poisonous to drink.  That is the place where God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, while saving Lot and his two daughters from destruction.

The couple will pass the night in Jericho.  There are inns inside and outside the walls of the city and they will find a place to stay.  It is a traveler’s city, for travelers coming and going from Jerusalem, for travelers going into the lands beyond the Jordan, to the east. 

So much history exists in this place.  This is where God knocked down the walls to allow his people, under Joshua, to come into the Promised Land.  Here is where Rahab, the prostitute, and her family were saved from the destruction of the city because she hid Joshua’s spies.  She, a Canaanite woman, would be the great-great grandmother of King David and ancestor to the baby Mary carried.  

How big a deal would that be for us?  To be in Jericho, to know what bible stories took place there?  For Mary and Joseph, it is the history of the land, passed through at least once a year.  It’s like the Statue of Liberty for us, such a wondrous sign of what it means to be an American, but how many of us have actually been there?

For them, it’s a rest stop.  They will be waiting to join up with other pilgrims making the climb to Jerusalem and beyond.

Four Days to Bethlehem

The longest stretch of the trip is along the Jordan Valley, south from Jezreel to the city of Jericho.  It will take about two days, maybe a little longer.  The good thing is it’s a pretty safe road, patrolled by Romans and by local troops.  It is also a familiar road, the main transit route between Galilee and Jerusalem.  Mary likely traveled this way when she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, as recorded in Luke 1.

The big difference is that this is a one way trip.  Everything familiar has been left behind.  Every pace along the way is another step Joseph is taking to a place where he does not know how he will provide for his wife and child.  The bible says there was no room in the inn, which means that they had no relatives, no host family, no connection to this new place.

Mary is following her husband, every pace of the donkey feeling like she’s getting picked up and dropped and, when she can’t stand the beast, every waddling step a reminder that there is nothing lined up for them at the other end of the trip. 

This is not what one would call a honeymoon.  There may well have been no conversation going on, just Joseph’s stony silence, feeling the weight and measure of his failure as a husband in not being able to provide for his wife.  Maybe she started the trip trying to draw him out, trying to talk like newlyweds should.  But how long before you take the stony stare and deafening silence personally?  Did she add guilt to the burden of her pregnancy?  Was the trip ever going to end?

 

Five Days to Bethlehem

They would have been departing from Jezreel today.  Yesterday, Mary and Joseph would have made the journey from Nazareth to Jezreel, from their obscure little village in the outer Jezreel Valley inland to the capital. That is where they would the cash out their lives.

They are on their way to Bethlehem, by order of the Emperor.  Everything they had in Nazareth was essentially illegal, because they were in the wrong place.  You live where your ancestors come from, unless you are privileged, which Mary and Joseph were not.  It is the way of Empire. 

So his business, their home, just set up, all is gone, converted to currency to take them to the ‘old country’.  Unless they already owned a donkey, probably not in a carpenter’s business, they would have picked up one in Jezreel.  It was a necessity.  In addition to whatever worldly possessions they carried, it would carry Mary-very pregnant.

Well into her third trimester, probably somewhere past week thirty six, eighty miles was far too far.  As the crow flies, the distance is about half that, but the highways did not run straight north-south.  They couldn’t.  The country south of the Jezreel Valley was all hills and valleys, as far as Jerusalem. 

More than one army had gotten lost in those badlands.  No, for the couple, it was traveling east to Jezreel and the Jordan Valley, then south, almost to the Dead Sea.  From there, they would climb the ridge on which Jerusalem sat, but south, where they would arrive at Bethlehem.

From Jezreel, they could expect the journey to take about four days.  They should arrive around about December 25 according to the modern calendar.   

Healing at Christmas

“Goodwill to all humanity…”

We’ve done a lot to promote healing in this holiday season.  We’ve brought joy and smiles to members of our church community who can’t come to church with Christmas caroling.  We held a healing service focused around the four prophetic titles of Jesus in Isaiah 9.  Our children will tell the story this Sunday in our Pageant.

And I had my moment tonight during our Cookies, Cocoa, and Crafts party.  I had a fussy youngling on my shoulder, alternately relaxing and crooning tears at the world.  I baptized him not so very long ago.  I was starting to get him to relax (or so my ego would like to believe) when dad came along to take him home.

It has been years since I had a young one on my shoulder, trying to help them (and me) find the gift of sleep.  It was simply a matter of being there, being present, holding them, going through whatever they were going through until they went to sleep.  I had to trust in God that sleep would come, because I doubted.

But the reason it works is because God fulfills my belief, I must simply be there till it happens.  This is the healing power at Christmas.  Mary and Joseph each received visits from God that Jesus would be someone wonderful.  As parents, they had to endure for thirty years until Jesus began his ministry.

Believe that whoever is injured in spirit can heal as surely as a broken arm can be mended, believe God will bring such power as He did at Christmas, and you will see the healing take place.

Setting aside the “Job”

Ecclesiastes 3: 2b “…and a time to pluck up what is planted…”

For First Responders

You put down roots in this Job.  For some, twenty five years out, for others it comes far sooner, due to injury or illness.  Some wait for whatever Social Security mandates as the time to go.  The nature of the Job is ultimately debilitating, by chemicals and toxic substances; by interactions with people who were devastated, injured, maimed, killed.  Are you haunted by the one you couldn’t help?

There is the trouble from ‘your side’, budget, public perception, and “management”.  One day you are the hero, the next day someone steps up with their boot to your neck.

You do not ‘quit’ the Job.  Because it is not a “job”.  When helping others, it is a vocation, and the closer to the line of death that you help them from, the deeper that vocation burrows into your heart.  And when you open your heart, you leave yourself vulnerable.  It lets you care mightily and it leaves you to get hurt mightily.

When the time comes, pluck up what you planted.  The Job will always be a part of you.  Enjoy the relief of being off THAT clock.  Grief the loss of this life-saving work.  Decide right now that you are going to move on.  Find the people to help you make the transition. 

Because there is a new place waiting for you to put down roots once again.

Canceling “The Interview”

Proverbs 26: 12a “Do you see persons wise in their own eyes?”

They should have let it be.

They believe they were “successful”.  After hacking into Sony Studios and threatening the lives of movie goers, the terrorist-hackers have gotten “The Interview” pulled before release.  It has been shelved, “permanently”.

Do they not know who they are dealing with?

In light of Pearl Harbor Day not long passed, do they not realize how dangerous it is to poke a sleeping bear?  I am not saying that we are headed to war, but retribution will be swift and humorous.

Despite what he has done, Bill Cosby epitomized what will come next.  He read a letter on a television special from a Representative to the Dental Industry, protesting how he makes fun of dentists.  He read the letter solemnly, with dignity, before pulling out all the stops, the lesson being: “Lighten up.”

The sleeping bear of the American Entertainment-Industrial Complex has been awaked!!  In the land where Jon Stewart is the most popular ‘news anchor’ since Walter Cronkite, where all the worst excesses of consumerism come out of Hollywood, do they truly believe there will be no response?

They should have let it lie, endured it, let it get panned at Cannes, ignored at the Academy Awards.  When Randy Moore released “Escape From Tomorrow”, filmed surreptitiously at the Disney theme parks, Disney did not react or retaliate.  When Al Franken wrote “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot”, Rush Limbaugh ignored its existence.  Each had its  time and we moved on.  Had either target reacted, we would see the true definition of something ‘going viral’.

They should have let it be.

One Thing I Love About Christmas Is the Music…

            Christmas music can be divided into three broad categories.  One is faith-based, two come out of the popular culture.  In church, we sing Christmas Carols, they are the music of our worship services for the Season of Advent and Christmas.

            In the popular culture, Christmas music falls into two broad categories.  There are the “Santa tunes” and the “Experiential tunes”.  The Santa tunes run from the obvious, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, to Christmas specials including “Frosty the Snowman”, where Santa makes an appearance. 

            The Experiential tunes fall into two groups.  The first group of songs celebrates the Meteorological experience of the Season, “White Christmas” or “Let It Snow”.  The second group of songs celebrates an experience of Personal Transformation brought about by the Season.  My personal favorite in this group is the song about Snoopy and the Red Baron, when, at Christmas, the Red Baron chooses not to shoot down Snoopy, but wishes him a Merry Christmas.

            The thing about Christmas music is that there is very little of it that does not make me happy during this Season-except when it gets played early, pre-Thanksgiving.  I do not think there is any popular Christmas song that I do not like-although I do have my favorite versions.   Most others versions, I do not care for.  

            What is the place of the ‘cultural’ Christmas songs in the life of a Christian?  I believe they should be enjoyed, we should let them make us feel good.  Because they point to a reality bigger than themselves.  The joy of the snow, the transformation that happens within us, even the celebration of Santa Claus, these songs make us aspire to goodness beyond ourselves. 

            These songs find their root in the Christmas Carols, which in turn are rooted in the message of the birth of Jesus.  At Christmas, when the magic of faith is working, the world is a little better, the weather is a little more invigorating,  people are a little nicer.

            Are they all believers?  No.  But the faith of the Season, the joy of the birth of the Christ child, is enough to change everything it touches for the better.

 

Merry Christmas! 

Ferguson

I tried to start this post as a prayer, something of noble faith to bring peace and calm and justice to what happened in Ferguson, Missouri.  I guess I don't pray that well.  Or maybe I simply need to process things, to discern the spirits, to see what prayers really need to be said.


Because there are two great truths that have been confused in Ferguson.  And if we can sort them out, maybe we can truly make some progress.


Here is the first truth.  It is very possible that Darren Wilson's shooting of Michael Brown was justified.  Nobody wants to hear that, and I know I am going to lose readers right now because I am entertaining that possibility.  From all the reports of all the evidence that I have read about what was given to the Grand Jury, it looks to support the officer's story.  I am not a judge, I am not on any jury, I am simply trying to follow the facts as they have been presented.


From my experience and preparation as a law enforcement Chaplain, I begin to understand and appreciate the unique pressures of that vocation.  As a society, we have entrusted to our police officers the power of life and death, but in very specific circumstances, the protection of life.  And every time an officer must exercise that power, we must scrutinize the circumstances with the greatest care, for the sake of the community and for the sake of the officer.


Here is the second truth.  Racism exists in America.  From where I sit today, the most cynical thing written in the documents that establish the foundation for this nation is the phrase in the Declaration of Independence that there is this self-evident truth that all men are created equal.  Set aside gender issues for a moment to truly consider how cynical that statement is in light of the United States Constitution.  In the Constitution, we set aside a whole group of people, defined them by the color of their skin and their economic circumstances, and we called them slaves.


Yes, I am judging the circumstances of the 1700's and the 1800's by 21st century standards.  But those guys all went to church and they all must have heard what Paul had to say about being in Christ, that there is neither male nor female, Jew or Gentile, SLAVE OR FREE!!! 


In the 21st century, we don't have slavery, we fought the Civil War over that, and other issues.  We don't have Jim Crow laws and segregation because of the Civil Rights movement.  But economic divisions, racial stereotypes, urban and suburban "ghettos", all of these still exist.  And there is a deep and abiding anger in the soul of America about this. 


And we should be protesting, because this should NOT be happening in this nation.  I think the words of Martin Luther King Jr. should be the battle cry.  Let every person be judged on the content of their character.  From Civil War to Civil Rights to Civil Potential!  Let every American, regardless of color, creed, gender, or ethnic origin be given equal opportunity to develop to their fullest potential.  Economics and education would be the foundations of the new protest.  


What makes me so very angry about Ferguson is the confusion of these truths.  I am very angry at all the comments about how everyone was certain Darren Wilson would not be indicted, not because he was innocent, but because the 'system' would conspire to get him off.  I am very angry at what happened after the shooting, when Michael Brown's body was out in the middle of the street, in plain sight, for hours.  It looked to me like the authorities didn't care. 


I am very angry that we live in a country with widening divides between the rich and the poor, between people of all different racial backgrounds, not just black and white, that our response to the tensions has been one of arrest and incarceration instead of engagement and meaningful social change. 


So, I guess my prayer would be this: God, change our hearts and our minds.  Amen.

Ebola: The Spirit Best Minister, Because I am Useless...

I went to a County training yesterday in putting on the Personal Protective Equipment that would be used by Health Department personnel in case of an Ebola outbreak in Middlesex County.  My God, what a humbling experience.


Everything that I equip myself with for the role and office of pastor is sealed up under plastic and packing tape.


Ebola is carried in human liquids, thus to prevent its transmission, one must be self-contained against spills, sprays, splashes, and spittings, especially to the eyes, nose, and mouth, or to an open wound.  So, there are surgical gloves underneath and kitchen-scrubbing gloves over top, duct-taped to the Tyvek outfit.  There are my glasses, a breathing mask, a hood, and a face shield on top of that.  Even my shoes were covered.  And eleven to fourteen steps just to put them on correctly.  And this is just to go in and see someone.


When you emerge, expect to be hosed down with a bleach mixture against any liquids that found there way onto your person.  And pray the plastic and packing tape didn't rip!


You got nothing but the Spirit in that moment.  There is no way to carry in a bible or prayer book.   Crosses and jewelry are forbidden because they might tear the suit.  There is barely even the ministry of presence available.


There is NO skin to skin contact, there is layered eye contact, there is no facial expression or physical expression of love or hope to offer under that armor.  Even my voice is muffled under the hot and smelly mask.  I had nothing.  


All the patient has is the sure and certain knowledge that even God's henchman comes in outfitted like every other anonymous Health Worker.  What we have done, with our marvelous modern technology, is kept the patient confined to a box in quarantine.  Is this more humane, a better way to preserve their dignity and the 'public good'  than allowing them to walk abroad while crying out "UNCLEAN" to every normal person they meet?


I am not enough of a fool for Christ to think God would keep me from getting infected (and that would defy the whole 'thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God section), that I could defy the plastic and packing tape and go in human to human.  Because, besides that patient, I have my family, my co-workers, my parishioners, the public to think about and consider. 


So I have to assume that if I am ever called upon to suit up and stand like a human-esque form in plastic and packing tape, that the Spirit will still bring the power of the faith, even when I am not sure I do.

Are You In The Image of God?

The thesis of the next set of sermons in my church goes something like "the more the Holy Spirit is active in our lives, the more in the Image of God we are."  The premise of the thesis ties together the 6th day of creation, where God says we are created in His image and the '2nd' creation story where it talks about how we were created, out of dust and breathed in with the breath of life directly from God. 


It would have been nice to find a Hebrew 'code word' to explain this process, because the breath of life is expressed-at least in the English translations-as being there for the animals as well as humanity.  A good specifically defined term in the Hebrew would have been nice. 


But this is some rambling about the first couple chapters of Genesis.  What's in it for the rest of us?  Well, unraveling what it means to be in the image of God would answer a challenge that has faced the Christian community for its entire history.  It might also be a part of Rabbinic interpretation of the Old Testament, but that isn't my area of expertise.


Why were we created in the image of God?  Why was this different from the rest of creation?  Because we were given dominion over the creation.  We were put in charge on God's behalf.  I have to admit I don't like the soft pedaling I have heard of us being 'stewards' of the creation, sort of like a community Denethor to God's being Aragorn.  I guess that is part of it, but we were put in charge, and we have used that authority to exploit, destroy, and rip apart whatever we want to make a profit from the Earth.


We have a lot to be held accountable as those but in charge of the creation.  We have a lot to work at to enter into the image of God to do better.  Can't do it on our own.

Does Anyone Really Know How Tough Peace Is?

In Hebrew, it is Shalom.  In Arabic, it is Salaam.  It is a word, a concept, a dream, an ideal, and more hard work than all the wars in history combined!  Destruction has always been easier than construction.  The nearest we've come to equalizing those two was the Genesis Project portrayed in Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan, and Star Trek III: Search for Spock.  Even then, we came to find out that they used protomatter in the matrix that made the whole thing unstable...




We need to turn to science fiction to get close to an answer.  My daughter and I share an affinity for dystopian teenage angst fantasy and in those circumstances, peace is found in conformity.  That is not a new concept, I grew up reading "1984" and watching Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" (which I think carries the spirit of George Orwell's fearful vision to its most effective portrayal on the screen).




I sign off on much of my correspondence, electronic or otherwise, with the word "Peace".  It sounds pastoral and something Jesus would do if he sent emails.  But I can't ever do so without feeling a twinge.  The word is so easy to say, so easy to define, but so very hard to live.  We fill our country with "Peace Officers" who in turn fill our prisons with more people per capita than the entire world except for the Seychelles (with a population of 90,000 as opposed to 330 million plus in the US.


Jesus came to bring Peace and they killed him for it.  Gandhi came to bring Peace and they killed him for it.  Martin Luther King Jr. came to bring Peace and they killed him for it.  Malcolm X started in the War Camp but found Peace as his Mission on the Hajj and they killed him for it.  I am blessed as a Christian to follow the one on this list that God brought back.


We don't achieve Peace very often.  We talk about eras like the Pax Romana or the Pax Britannica, times of relative Peace in the world which happened because we had powerful nations big enough to stomp out any opposition. 


I guess it might be helpful to define "Peace".  It is NOT the absence of war, that is called "Ceasefire", like what we've had with North Korea since 1953.  It is not the Exhaustion from war, which existed in the Arab Israeli relations after 1948, after 1956, after 1967-70, after 1973...get the picture?   It sure is not Cold War (as opposed to Hot War) which had two generations in our nation fearing a Soviet nuclear attack.  It is NOT conquest, which existed behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War.


The Peacemakers who died, what did they seek?  Jesus sought love, Gandhi sought liberation, King sought equality, X sought advancement, all of which go into peace.  And their movements did bring about real steps towards achieving peace.  But we've never really gotten there. 


Consider Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X as a test case in our country, seeking to bring peace between 'blacks' and 'whites'.  In the 1860's we fought a war on that issue.  In the 1960's it was a peaceful protest made around that issue.  Now, in the 20-teens, we pay lip service to the 'equality; won, but by the 2060's, will lasting peace have been achieved in this one issue? 


And peace will NOT be won by whites and blacks coming together to keep the next ethnic group (Latinos?) at bay.


I do not consider myself to be naïve.  "War no more" is a pipedream.  The only way that truly leads to peace is when EVERYBODY signs on.  One side giving up war invites conquest by the other side.  We are a violent and bloody race.  War is never good, war is not the answer, but all too often war is what there is.  And sometimes going to war is better than the alternative, appeasement or capitulation, as in against Hitler or against Tojo. 


Salaam, Shalom, Peace, a worthy state of being.  Worth the costs.  But do we really know what those costs will be?

A Revisit to Harry Potter...

A fellow blogger who shall remain anonymous...okay, Mark Sandlin at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/thegodarticle/2014/09/the-harry-potter-re-write-christian-style-is-everything-thats-wrong-with-christianity/ made me go look.  I read the first posting for "Hogwarts School of Prayer and Miracles" and cringed.  I think I would prefer to read some of the Chinese knockoffs translated into English, where, among other things, Gandalf was written in as Harry's grandfather (if memory serves). 


Over the past year, I have been revisiting Hogwarts and my old friends.  We did a marathon of the movies over the summer and I wanted to come back to the real thing.  (I am a snob when it comes to that, books versus movies).


But something was tickling at my mind about how a Christian could respond to the world of Harry Potter in a way other than this...fan fiction.  I would recommend Connie Neal's "The Gospel According to Harry Potter".  I read it back in June 2003 on the recommendation of my wife.  It takes us through the first four books, but with a remarkable degree of subtlety and balance.  She has since released an updated version taking us through all seven books (I am putting THAT on my Amazon Wish List!)


Stack Harry Potter alongside Lord of the Rings (professing a Nordic-esque pantheism), Star Trek (professing a humanist progressiveness), Dungeons and Dragons (where do we even start?), or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (did God tell the computer the answer was 42?), and we have the makings of systematically undermining the Christian faith through the ages or we have voices of God's creation that, like the Bible, must be taken thoughtfully, deliberately, and, with proper perspective, can deepen and delight our hearts and imaginations.


Re-writing fiction to "Christianize" it is about as effective as trying to rewrite history to "Christianize" it.  It makes everything all nice and neat and denies the truly messy, dangerous, and deadly world in which we live.

Recalibrating...

For the last six months, I have had the privilege of serving as the chair of the Executive Board of the Middlesex County Long Term Recovery Group.  This group came into being at the Evacuation Center set up at Rutgers University following Hurricane Sandy.  Now, after twenty two months, the work continues, and I will continue to be involved, but in other roles. 


I am not one...to write for six months...to do a diary-form of journaling or blogging.  But maybe I can be more reflective.  Couldn't say for sure.


So, in the last two years, I've had the roles of 'case manager', 'grant writer', 'program designer', 'trainer', 'administrator', I've had a hand in mental health training, survivor advocacy, community organization, ceremonial remembrance, in networking, leadership design and implementation, all in addition to the creation of and participation in our Neighbor to Neighbor spiritual care program.
It was a crash course in community participation. 


One of the questions I have for all this is how the past and ongoing participation in the LTRG connects to my ministry as a pastor.   It was an experience, an education, it pushed the boundaries of what I know to be possible in the Lord's name. 


I think that is going to be the goal of the blog for a bit, to consider the experience, to see what can be learned, to see what can be shared.

Why no posts in five months?

I just realized I have not posted to this blog in almost six months.  It isn't because I haven't anything to say or do.  But it is a symptom of a larger syndrome that I suffer from.


Are you a bouncer?  Not like Patrick Swayze in "Roadhouse" bouncer, but a bouncer from thing to thing to thing?  I have been wondering about that since watching the World Cup in Brazil where the "flopper" seems to be an integral part of the game.  I thought hockey players could take a dive...


Bouncer, one who bounces from thing to thing to thing, maybe in cycles, maybe not.  Maybe there is a central theme that connects the things bounced to, maybe not. The ministry is an example of the bouncing connected by a common theme, or at least it can be.  There are always at least six more things that can use my time in place of what I am doing right now. 


I am told that the first step to correcting a problem is recognizing that you have one.  Is 'bouncing' a problem or simply endemic to the job description of a pastor?  Perhaps it helps to consider jobs where 'bouncing' is rare or non-existent.  I don't know what those jobs might be because I am a pastor. 


I should pause for a moment to reflect on the fact that this is a stream-of-consciousness thing, not a polished essay. 


Are there times in the pastorate when I am not bouncing?  Absolutely.  Pastoral care emergency.  Delivery of Sunday sermon (the sermon may bounce and wander, but I don't).  Dealing with problems that demand a solution.  What is the common theme?  Adrenaline.  I suppose the theological response is 'passion for ministry'.


I am NOT saying that the job doesn't get done.  I will admit that the job is never done.  For every one thing given time, there are six more things (at least) that demand of my time. 


It helps to have a clear vision of what you are trying to accomplish.  It helps to have practiced time management skills (I have them, the practice, not always).  It helps to have a routine.  It helps to recognize that much of the job is in the details. 


Notice how I am calling this 'job' as opposed to 'vocation' or something else equally life-gathering.  That is an intentional choice.  Not because the ministry is not something, by its very nature, that stretches beyond the typical definitions of 'job', but because 'job' provides a paradigm by which to wrestle with the very subject of bouncing.


I am not saying that being a 'bouncer' is a bad thing.  It is a necessary skill for a multi-tasker (something I believe is more damaging-but still necessary-to the job than bouncing).  It is a forest and trees thing.  If the forest is the full extent of the ministry, and the trees what we keep bouncing between, how do we set up the time and opportunity to move between the two? 


I am not sure I have a solution to this, but as I have been told, recognizing the issue is the first step to figuring a solution. 

Numbers 22-24; Acts 24-26

These three chapters in Numbers are the story of Balak and Balaam.  Balak is king of Moab, the next target in the journey of the Israelites.  Balaam is a prophet of the LORD who lives over in what is modern day Iraq, on the Euphrates River.  Balak hires Balaam to come over and curse the Israelites.


Balaam seems to have no contact with the Israelites, yet still serves the LORD.  He is not the only character who shows up in the text from seeming nowhere to interact with the LORD's people as a fellow worshipper.  There is Melchizedek in Genesis 14, "King of Salem", and Moses' father-in-law, Jethro, in Exodus 4 and later in 18, described as "the priest of Midian".


I am sure there is some common thread running here that I just don't see this time through.  That is a joy of continuing to read the Bible.


Balaam is a character study.  First the LORD forbids Balaam to go, no matter the price Balak is willing to pay.  Then the LORD says he can go.  Then three times, the LORD sends an angel with sword drawn to stand in Balaam's way, which, at first only the donkey can see.  The donkey saves Balaam's life each time, but gets a beating for its trouble. 


I would like to see the expression on Balaam's face when the donkey talked back to him.  Here is the parable within the parable.  Balaam beat the donkey because he thought the donkey was making a fool of him-because Balaam couldn't see the angel of death waiting.  The donkey's response was to inquire whether this had ever happened before?  Was this a habit of the donkey?  Maybe Balaam could have responded differently, recognizing something different was happening.


Next, Balaam becomes the donkey and Balak takes the role of the foolish rider.  Four times, Balak will take Balaam to some place to see and curse the Israelites.  But to do so would disobey the LORD.  Was this the habit of Balaam?  Balaam's response was to inquire of Balak whether this-disobeying the LORD's command-had ever happened before?


After four times without a curse, Balaam goes home in peace.


Through Acts 24-26, Paul's time in Caesarea is detailed.  It covers a span of years.  First is with Felix, the governor.  He finds nothing in the Jewish leadership's arguments to turn Paul over.  In fact, he is fascinated by Paul and speaks with him a number of times, expecting a bribe for Paul's release. 


So Porcius Festus takes over, in 25.  He gets the reports of the Jewish leadership and seeks to release Paul to stand trial in Jerusalem.  But Paul invokes his rights as a Roman citizen to take his case directly to the Emperor.  Festus agrees to send him along.


Before he does, Herod Agrippa, the local monarch, and his wife, come to pay respects to the new governor.  They get pulled in to the discussions and examination of Paul, and their conclusion is that Paul could have been released, that there were no sustainable charges against him.  But because Paul invoked the right of appeal to the Emperor, he must see it through.


To take Aslan's argument that Paul was in conflict with the Jerusalem church, these chapters seem like they should be most pivotal.  Paul has been detained, his accusations and trial are being set up.  The Jewish leaders (not the church leaders) want him dead.  A couple of conspiracies to kill him have been outlined.  One was averted when the tribune got Paul out of the city and the second was to take place when Paul was in transit back to the city of Jerusalem-which never happened.


I don't see it.  Now Aslan talks of Luke essentially setting up a whitewash, being a fan of Paul, thus writing the Acts in such a way to bolster Paul's position in the church while at the same time not directly attacking the church in Jerusalem, but reflecting their contrary opinion to Paul's work among the Gentiles that undercut the law of Moses.


What I read in Acts is that Paul has enraged the Jewish leadership by fraternizing with the Gentiles.  At this time, the followers of Jesus are still very much integrated into the Jewish community in Jerusalem, so that Paul's work is still seen as Jewish work, not as a separate thing-not as the Christian faith comes to be in separation from the Hebrew faith.  But it also seems like the leadership of the Jerusalem 'church' don't do much to stand up for Paul.  This whole thing is not about the message of Jesus and how it will change the world.  This conflict is over a presumption that Paul is bringing Gentiles into the temple and the hallowedness of the Jewish faith.


And all of it is not a defense of the faith, but rather a pretext to get Paul to Rome where he may share the gospel in the First City of the Empire.

Numbers 19-21; Acts 22, 23

Numbers 19 completes a section on the work of the Levites.  After establishing that they in charge of the Tent of Meeting, where God is centered and worshipped, 19 gives the authority of the Levites to restore those people who are made ritually unclean and unable to be in the camp. 


The clean/unclean distinction is one of religious ritual, God centered on life and proper worship, the unclean those things of even every day life that take away from that.  These rules have been fulfilled in Christ, whose death and resurrection have transcended the rules of Moses, the rules that set aside the Jews as God's Chosen People, to all of us.


In 20,there are disasters in the life of Moses.  He loses his sister and his brother at the beginning and end of the passage.  When the people complain yet again, this time that they have no water, Moses gets so angry and frustrated that he disobeys God's command and, instead of commanding rocks to bring forth water, he strikes them with his staff.  The result of his disobedience is that Moses too will not live to see the people enter the Promised Land.  In the midst of all of this, as they are traveling, the Israelites try to go through the lands of Edom, of Esau, their relatives.  Remember that Esau is the brother of Israel (or Jacob), the father of the tribes of Israel.  When Edom refuses, they have to go around the long way.


In 21, the Israelites begin that journey.  They are moving across the Negev, the desert in the south of modern Israel, then around to the western edge of modern day Israel, in the modern country of Jordan.  First is a battle over Arad, a Canaanite fortress city on the southern edge of Canaan.  Then, as they move around Edom, they complain to God yet again that they aren't in Egypt.  God responds with poisonous snakes taking their toll on the people (last time was a plague).  A brass snake is built by Moses to end the plague.  Finally, they move up into position across the Jordan River, marching through Moab, and defeating the kings of the Amorites and Bashan to get to the place where they will be ready to cross.


In Acts 22 and 23, Paul tells his story to the Jewish leadership, who aren't too interested.  The Roman tribune pulls Paul out, and would flog him to get the truth until the tribune finds out Paul is a Roman citizen.  Then the game changes.  Roman citizens are subject to one set of rules, the rest of the people to another set.  Roman rules require due process, courtesy, and humane treatment and protection.  The rest of the people were little better than animals.


So now it is on the tribune's shoulders to find out exactly what Paul is charged with to respect Paul's rights as a citizen.  So they appear before the High Priest and the governing Council.  It appears to be going nowhere good for Paul, so Paul confounds the Council by playing on the differences between the Pharisees and Sadducees.  Once again, the tribune has to pull Paul out for his own safety.


Where the Jerusalem church is in all this fuss is unknown.  Follow Aslan's reasoning and they might be abandoning Paul to his fate at the hands of the Jewish authorities to maintain the local peace.  In 23:11, the Lord speaks to Paul and tells him this arrest is how Paul is to be sent to Rome.


Things begin to move more quickly.  Paul is summoned to come to the Council yet again on the next day.  But a conspiracy forms where 40 or more bind themselves to come out and kill Paul in his way that morning.  The conspiracy is that large to overcome the Roman escort Paul is sure to have.  Paul's family gets wind of it, tips off the Romans, and the tribune evacuates Paul from Jerusalem completely, 200 soldiers and 70 cavalry to get Paul to the relative safety of the Roman fortress city of Caesarea on the coast.


Notice how things have shifted since Jesus was put on trial.  Pilate, the Roman Governor, served in Jerusalem, at least for part of the time.  Felix, the new governor, appears not even to set foot in Jerusalem, instead leaving the Roman governance of the city to a Colonel (tribune) in the Roman Army.

"House of Cards", Season 1, Episode 1

Just got Netflix back after a long break.  After watching the Academy Awards Sunday night, with Kevin Spacey showing up in a few memorable moments, I succumbed to the hype and watched the first episode.


Never read the book, but I did see the British version back on Masterpiece Theater on PBS some years ago.  I was riveted to that one and I am riveted again.  I remember back to the PBS commentary that an English politician had written the book on the potential excesses of what might be done in a democratic, parliamentary system, but that things like this "don't really happen".


I love stories of "what might happen".


If you haven't seen it, here is the setup (not much spoiler alert here).  Kevin Spacey is Francis Underwood, the Majority Whip in the House of Representatives of Congress.  Robin Wright plays his wife to eerie perfection.


The President-Elect promised him Secretary of State for his work on behalf of the newly elected leader of America.  Then he renegs on his promise.  Kevin Spacey does not even get the benefit of a meeting with the President-to-be, just a meet and greet with the Chief of Staff, whom Francis Underwood got into her job in the first place.


Francis is needed in Congress to shepherd the new President's legislative agenda through.  The decision was made some time before.  They just got around to telling him.  The Majority Whip doesn't get mad, very much.  He decides he will get even.


Therein lies the premise to the show.  Cut to a scene in the National Cathedral.  The priest is preaching to those who have just won electoral victory, and he is trying to temper their fervor with humility.  And he delivers a line about how defeat can teach and promote humility within the human soul. 


I am going to have in my head the theological notion of Christ-like humility as I am sure there will be a human-level systematic humiliation of the new President at the hands of Congressman Francis Underwood.  This promises to be a lot of fun, especially if they keep coming back to church.

"Pastrix" by Nadia Bolz-Weber

Bolz-Weber, Nadia  Pastrix, New York: Jericho, 2013.




In a seminar on how to read better (but not really talk 'better') for my walk with God, I was encouraged, as was the class, to include biographies and autobiographies of the saints of the church in our reading calendars.  The examples of their lives can be inspiring to us.  I wonder how Rev. Bolz-Weber would react when I consider her biography to be a seminal work among the 'Lives of Great Christians'?


I don't know how we would get along.  I find her a little arrogant, a potty mouth, with very strong opinions about the world and the people in it.  She's kind of fringe, but happily married and raising a couple of kids.  She doesn't ride a Harley, but I haven't decided whether or not that works in her favor. 


She is one of those Mainstream Lutherans, from the ELCA and I am one of those Mainstream Presbyterians from the PCUSA.  Don't know if I have as many capital "P" Personalities in my congregation, but I got my share.  But here are some takeaways that make me glad I am not alone.


She's dealt with toxic personalities in the course of her ministry and had to let them go.  The takeaway: We can't always be nice to everybody. 


She's found herself in the middle of Spiritual Warfare, which is not popular thinking in the mainstream of Christian thought.  The takeaway: The devil exists and *****'s with us.


She single-handedly tried to bring off the Big Event to jumpstart growth and it fell out of the sky like every spacecraft in "Gravity".  Done all of that, even the Costco run!


But my biggest takeaway: Find God in the day, in the moment, in the next step. 


I think the last Christian biography I read was of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (old country Lutheran...)  OMG, am I going to put Nadia Bolz-Weber next to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred for the faith in a Nazi Concentration Camp? 


Yah.  Both of them have forced me to reconsider and realign my ministry priorities back to the people God's given me to serve.  It is too easy to wander up and off into spiritual utopias that don't relate to people who are boots on the ground and trying to live their lives day by day. 


Thank you Rev. Bolz-Weber.

Numbers 17, 18 and Acts 20-21

Following the put down of the attempted coup against Moses and Aaron, in 17, the LORD confirms His choice of Aaron.  Each tribal leader puts in a walking stick with their name on it.  Aaron's turns into an almond tree, complete with nuts.  That staff, along with the tablets with the ten commandments written on them and a jar of manna, are enshrined in the ark as a memorial to the LORD's power.


18 lays out the rights and responsibilities of the Levites in the work and leadership of the people surrounding the tent of meeting.  Their allotment of the tithe is laid out, the tent of meeting is isolated to their control and protection, they are told to be faithful or else.  This is the tribe set aside by the LORD to conduct the LORD's work on behalf of the people.


In Acts 20-21, Paul is finishing his last missionary journey.  He travels back through Ephesus, where they weep for him, because (vs 38), "...they would not see him again." As Paul returns to the region of Judea, the prophet Agabus predicts that he will be bound and handed over to the Gentiles.  Here we are looking at the stark contrast between his ministry to the Gentiles and what Reza Aslan indicates is his full conflict with the church in Jerusalem.


The conflict is laid out in vss 17-26.  Paul is going to be accused of leading the Jews and Gentiles away from the provisions of the Jewish law.  The leaders in Jerusalem are going to come after him for that.  In an effort to forestall those accusations, Paul is ordered to join four men who seem to be undergoing the ritual of a Nazarite (we had a hint of that a few chapters ago when Paul shaved his head).  James and the church leaders then issue a letter reiterating the decision made at the Council of Jerusalem that loosened the restrictions of the Mosaic law on Gentile believers.


That seems to be the textual rub.  On the one hand, ordering Paul to undergo the Nazarite rituals to what looks like atonement for his ending the Mosaic practices in the missionary churches, while still supporting his ministry with the letter saying its okay.


But the real conflict comes when the Jewish leadership gets wind of a rumor that Paul has actually brought a Greek up into the temple.  This may be reflective of a division within the city over the work of the Jesus followers and the Jews as a nation.  A riot ensues and Paul is arrested by the Romans to quell the riot.  Jerusalem is a powder keg, ready to explode.  The tribune, the Roman Colonel, clues us into that when he talks about the Egyptian whose raised an army of 4000 in preparation for revolt. 


The chapter ends as Paul prepares to make his defense before the people.

Numbers 15-16; Acts 18, 19.

Numbers seems to be a non sequitur.  End of 14, Israel has their butt handed to them by the Canaanites.  They disobeyed God, they are not allowed into the Promised Land.  15 starts with sacrifice rules "When you come into the land you are to inhabit..."  Then they move to sacrifices for unintentional sins, then the death penalty for Sabbath breaking (by stoning), and then a fringe rule to remember the covenant.


I see it as a promise renewed.  They can't go in now, but the LORD hasn't abandoned them.  Unintentional sinning, here is a way again to make up to the LORD.  The LORD hasn't gone away just because the people did.


Now, the Sabbath death penalty...seems harsh to my ears.  But it kind of explains why the Jewish leadership got all riled up when Jesus was healing on the Sabbath.  And probably why Jesus did so much intentional healing on the Sabbath.  The LORD makes the rules of the Sabbath, not the people.  It is a day to honor the LORD, the day the LORD rested from creation.


16 is a crisis of leadership.  Korah, Dathan, and Abiram lead a rebellion of 250 leaders of Israel against Moses and Aaron.  The charge: Arrogant leadership and (unsaid) failure to deliver up the Promised Land after yanking Israel out of Egypt.  But Moses and Aaron are not the leaders, the LORD is.  They work for the LORD.


So the rebels are swallowed up by the earth and a plague runs through the camp, killing a lot more of the people 14000 from a population of 1.4 million (or so).


SIDEBAR: The LORD...you see this in the text a lot, Lord in all caps.  God told his name to Moses at the burning bush.  Jewish leaders thought that name too holy to pronounce, so in the scripture verses, they annotated the name so people would read Adonai, the Hebrew word for Lord, instead.  LORD is how that is designated in the translation into English.


Acts 18 and 19 are the conclusion to Paul's second missionary journey and the beginning of the third.  Paul meets Priscilla and Aquila, fellow tentmakers (Paul is bi-vocational), who will appear in letters Paul has written.


I was raised on these stories like they were road trips.  But Paul spent 18 months in Corinth, and two years in Ephesus on the third journey.  (There are letters of Paul to both churches).


At the end of his second journey, Paul cuts his hair for a special vow, 18:18.  It is probably the vow of a Nazarite (see Numbers 6). 


We also find out that it is not just through Jesus that the Way (the Acts name for the church) is spreading.  We meet Apollos at the end of 18, gifted preacher, but baptized by John the baptizer, not Jesus.  It was a 'baptism of repentence, to believe in the one who came after' according to Paul in 19:4 at which point they too were baptized into the Holy Spirit.


Through 19, Paul is carrying on like Jesus did, preaching, performing miracles, casting out evil spirits.  He made inroads into the professional magician community, a bunch of them converting and burning their magic books (this becomes a parable for me growing up about teens who find Jesus and then burn their heavy metal rock music collection).


In Ephesus, Paul causes a riot because of his economic influence.  He is apparently so successful in preaching that the local economy, built on the tourist trade for religious articles related to Artemis, Greek goddess of the hunt and patron of Ephesus, the local economy begins to suffer.  It got so bad that the proconsuls and the regular assembly met to deal with it. 


There is not a lot here explicitly in the conflict between Paul and the Jerusalem church expect for the press exposure Paul is getting.  It is going to lead up to another conversation.  Whether that conversation is a challenge to the power of Jerusalem or simply a growing church going through growing pains, that remains to be seen.

Numbers 13, 14 and Acts 16,17

Numbers 13 and 14 conclude the first attempt to come to the Promised Land.  Spies are recruited, leaders from each tribe, and dispatched on a mission.  Of note, a renaming ceremony: Moses renames Hoshea to Joshua, so, in biblical tradition, expect great things from him.


Mission does not go well.  Ten say the land is unconquerable, despite God's promise of victory and despite the very nice produce they bring back.  Only Joshua and Caleb, of the tribe of Judah, side with God (always a good side to be on).


Interest reaction: God appears, ready to destroy the people, Moses intercedes in prayer, God relents, but the punishment is the death of this entire generation, everyone 20 and older except for Caleb and Joshua.  So, it is back to the wilderness for 40 years.  The people's reaction is like that of a naughty kid.  God forgave us, everything is okay, we don't believe in consequences.


They actually move to invade the Promised Land but without Moses and without the Ark of God to lead them, and they are defeated. 


Acts 16-17
Paul begins his second journey, but with Silas.  He also selects Timothy, Jewish mom and Greek dad, as a companion, and Timothy undergoes circumcision as an apparent full vetting to lead the Way with Paul.  Taken in context of Paul in potential conflict with Jerusalem, one might interpret this as Paul appeasing the church of Jerusalem by making sure his ministry team is fully obedient to the law of Moses, even if the converts do not have to be.  This will become an issue later.


Note in vs. 6 and following that the Holy Spirit prevents them from going to certain places.  Then, in verse 11, the text switches to a first person narrative, almost as if Luke has gone from using the notes of others to his own travelogue. 


In Philippi (where Paul wrote his letter to the Philippians), a few noteworthy things happen.  There is a girl with the spirit of divination who focuses on them and becomes rather annoying.  The response of Paul and Silas get them thrown into prison and beaten.  When the earthquake comes and they could have escaped (parallels to Peter in ch. 12?), things end very differently with the jailer.  This is where we find out that their being Roman citizens carries certain privileges.


Into chapter 17, the pattern from before reemerges.  They go to the synagogue in Thessalonica, preach and convert, provoking the jealousy of the Jewish leadership, who then rouse the authorities to push them out.  Happens again in Beroea, when agitators catch up to them from Thess.  Paul is sent on to Athens for his own safety while Silas and Timothy finished up business in Beroea.


Then comes one of my favorite stories in Acts.  Athens is a most superstitious city, the cradle of the Greek religion fully taken over and exploited by the Romans.  Every god and goddess and divine creature seems to have an altar there.  This includes an altar to an 'unknown God'.  That becomes Paul's lever.  There is a history to that altar to the Unknown God.  I heard the story in "Eternity in their Hearts", the author of whom came to seminary while I was at Westminster. 


But that is a blog post for another day.

Games Criminals Play, part 3

Finished it last night.  Didn't have a lot left, but the final section I wanted to be able to focus on.  It was the cautionary tale, what to do to protect yourself in case of the set up.  We don't want to believe that people will seek our manipulation.  Trusting fellow humans is a strong core strength of being a human being, and to have that basic strength betrayed is difficult to say the least.




We are encouraged to trust our gut instinct.  If something feels off, it very well might be.  Beware of someone trying to give you something for nothing.  That is NOT how life works, no matter how we might want it to work like that. 


The prison is a fixed entity in which their research was conducted.  The lessons learned there and documented in the book do translate powerfully to the world beyond.  We don't like to think about the FACT that there are some very sinful people out there who will do their best to take advantage of us. 

Numbers 10-11-12, Acts 14, 15

Things started out well, but ended badly.  Silver trumpets, meant to summon the people for marching, for emergencies, hearkening to the Final Trumpet of Revelation, opens this section.  Then the people are marching out, headed for the Promised Land, and that is a happy chapter 10.


The next two chapters begin to explain why they do not march into the Promised land, but return to the wilderness for 40 years.  First the people complain about their God-provided manna.  They want meat.  Moses intervenes, and God sends quail, so much meat that it will be coming out their noses by the time they are done. 


The second is a round of sibling rivalry and leadership questions.  Moses' brother and sister, Aaron (the high priest) and Miriam, come at Moses "because of the Cushite woman he had married".  You can interpret that a couple of different ways.  Cush is south of Egypt, and is used in a couple of different places in the bible as a marker for people with 'black' skin.  This might be a racial challenge.  It might be a Gentile challenge, because Moses did not marry a "nice Jewish girl".


But at the end of the day, Miriam is punished for the both of them because Aaron is the High Priest and can't endure God's displeasure.


In the book of Acts, Paul and Barnabas complete their first missionary journey.  It was marked with great success.  But there is an undercurrent.  There is a group from the Jerusalem church that is declaring to join the Way of Jesus, you must get circumcised according to the Law of Moses.  Paul has preached that those portions of the law of Moses have been fulfilled by and transcended by Jesus' death and resurrection to a new life and a new way. 


Here is the cusp of the 'challenge' between James, the brother of Jesus and Paul, the upstart newcomer.  In the middle of chapter 13, John, who was traveling with them, left to return to Jerusalem.  It seems that he brought back reports of Paul's teaching style.  The circumcision party is then working off that information.  It leads to a Grand Bargain.


Paul can continue to teach in the 'new way', but a few pieces of law of Moses are to be preserved, no eating of meat offered to idols (sacrificial worship), no 'fornication' (my best guess, no sexual practices involved in the worship of other religions, and no consuming a strangled animal or its blood. 


God taught the people in the time of Moses that the life of the animal was in the blood.  Killing (I refuse to call it 'harvesting' the animals like it is talked about today) the animals for food was done in such a way that the blood was drained from them.  The blood was then used as part of the sacrificial offering to God in the temple.  The lifeblood holds again a worshipful significance that is to be respected by the new converts, Jew or Gentile. 


At the end of the Council in Jerusalem, Paul and Barnabas are about to head out on their next journey.  John pops us to go along.  Paul refuses to have him along again-was it because he carried back reports to Jerusalem as a spy?  So, Paul and Barnabas split, find new partners, and move forward.


The interpretation of the Grand Bargain in Zealot is that Paul is being reined in, that the power is still in Jerusalem, that this is a glossed over power struggle.  I see the rules laid down in Jerusalem as hedges against other forms of worship being seen as a part of the faith being practiced in Jesus' name. 

Numbers 8 & 9; Acts 13

Numbers 8 & 9-The lampstand to make light for the Lord leads off these chapters.  It is another of the accoutrements of the tabernacle.  But then we come to the cleansing of the Levites.  Their role replacing the first born of all Israel has already been outlined.  But now they are cleansed, washed to begin their service before God's priests (Aaron's family). 


Jesus' baptism came to my mind as I read this passage.  It was at that moment that Jesus received God's Spirit and truly began his ministry.  Up to now, all the pieces have been put in place for the Levites, their camping order around the tent of meeting, who takes care of what pieces of the tent of meeting, etc.  The rest of the people have offered their sacrifices prepping for the reception of the tent of meeting (Tabernacle, portable house of God).  Now, the Levites are actually set aside to begin their service.  It was at Jesus' baptism that he truly moved forward to begin his service.


Chapter 8 is inclusive of the universality of Passover.  Jews ritually unclean or traveling away from their lands are allowed to 'break' the rules of cleanliness because the act of worship to God in Passover, the passing over of God's Angel of Death of their houses to affect only the houses of the Egyptians. 


Jesus has been called the Passover Lamb, come to save the world from its sins.  I see the universality of the celebration of Passover as a parallel to the universal salvation Jesus has brought through his death and resurrection.


Finally in Numbers, when the cloud of God moves, the people move.  When it stays, the people stay.  God is in control and guiding their lives.


Acts 13


Paul and Barnabas begin their first preaching journey, sent out from Antioch.  On Cyprus, they convert the Roman governor.  The magician Bar-Jesus (interesting play on Jesus' name), tries to defy them.  So Paul sees him struck blind (how Paul started his process of conversion). 


Then we see Paul's sermon, drawing upon the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) to lay the foundation of Jesus' coming, preaching Jesus' fulfillment of the law of Moses.  This is the foundation of the conflict in Reza Aslan's Zealot, Paul undercutting the law of Moses in his preaching and the Jerusalem church seeking to reign him in.  The results are impressive.


Paul starts in the synagogue but the people who really pick up on his words are the devout, Gentiles attracted to the Jewish faith, some who have even converted, others who simply find the Jewish faith to be compelling-though out of reach.  The Pauline interpretation of the Jewish faith through the lens of Jesus is liberating and brings them to the gospel in droves.  Following the Mosaic law kept such people out of the Jewish faith.  Jesus' liberating power brought them in.


The argument in Zealot is that Paul intentionally undercut the message of the Jerusalem church for his own take on the gospel, that Jesus never intended this undercutting of the law of Moses.  I would agree.  Jesus pushed for the absolute, yet impossible, total obedience to the law of Moses.  Yet when the law was broken, sacrifice had to be made to restore right relationship with God.


It looks to me that Paul is drawing on that, the sacrifice, the final sacrifice of Jesus.  Jesus opened the way of direct intercession from God for forgiveness, not a system where sacrifice had to be made first to please the God whose law was broken.  And the system of sacrifice was in place for the Jews.


Gentiles seeking to follow the law of Moses, to follow what God wants, had no way to enter into the temple, to offer sacrifice and receive forgiveness under the old way.  But Jesus' final sacrifice, Jesus freed them from those obligations so they could come directly to God. 


The final result was jealousy on the part of the Jewish community.  The Gentiles turning away from their support of the synagogue turned them against Paul and Barnabas.  The Jews then turned to the local power brokers and they forced the missionaries out.

"Games Criminals Play", Part 2

The body of the work is a more detailed explanation and Case Studies of the attempts by inmates to set up and take advantage of prison employees.  The fascinating piece seems to be that if the employee recognizes and resists the set up, they gain respect among the inmates and are actually able to do their work.


People targeted are either seen as too soft, therefore easy to manipulate, or too hard, where it is assumed that their hard attitude is a veneer that covers up a soft or uncertain underbelly.  The authors use the term mellow to describe employees not so easily set up.  The mellow employee knows their limits, when to be soft and supportive, when to be hard and rule-enforcing.  They are, in other words, professionals in their work.


To anyone seeking to help others, there is the takeaway.  We are compassionate and seeking to show the love of Christ.  But we must also recognize that there are people out there who are going to try and play off that loving spirit to take advantage, to use emotion to manipulate, to lie for their own purposes.  And their own purposes may not be noble, stealing to eat for example.  Messing with us is simply the game they play, a game that might either lead to prison or be learned from prison.


The value of this work, being done in prisons, is that the data was be systematized and quantified.  As a pastor, with a book devoted to the stories of manipulated pastors, the evidence is from the case studies, from the anecdotes, patterns are harder to find, and the consequences far harder to document.  What pastor is going to admit being conned?


The conclusion of the work is on spotting the setup.  That may be the most useful tool that we can take away from the book.  More to that tomorrow.

The Sacrifice Refrain and Acts, the End of Act 1 (pun intended)

Numbers 7, a longer chapter, the extent of my reading yesterday.  Weekends may be a little problematic for the weekday bible reading with Sunday preparations underway.


It is a longer, but highly repetitive chapter.  Each tribe comes forward, gives dishes to the Tabernacle and an identically prescribed set of sacrifices.  This after an introduction where oxen and carts are given to the Levites to carry the materials of the Tabernacle.  Well, it is given to most of the Levites.


Certain key articles of the Tabernacle are NOT to be carried on carts, including the Ark of the Covenant (portrayed pretty well in Raiders of the Lost Ark), the Table of Consecration, and a few other specified items.  The Levite clan in charge of those was not given a cart.  Now David is going to forget this.  When he seeks to bring the Ark to Jerusalem as he is building God's City, it is on a cart, and when one of his men goes to steady it, they are struck dead, because David did not bother to check out God's law before moving the thing.


The end of the chapter is a description of when Moses is talking to God.  He goes before the Ark of the Covenant and God's voice comes somewhere from over the Ark.  I take away the idea that the Ark is God's footstool and that he is enthroned (divinely speaking), up and away, toward heaven.


But secondly, by the time of Jesus, only the High Priest could go in before the Ark once a year to make high sacrifice for the people of Israel, and nobody else could see it, lest they died.  But apparently Moses when it any time he felt the call to converse with the Almighty and, when they moved from place to place, the Ark was set on the shoulders of Levites and paraded at the front of the entire nation.


It is also recorded in the Gospel that when Jesus died, the curtain in front of the Ark was torn in two.  There was a sign that Jesus, the final sacrifice, opened again the direct access to God for all who believed, the kind of access Moses had throughout his own life.


Now, Acts 12.  It seems to be the conclusion to a composite narrative that will, in Acts 13, switch over to a focused narrative on the life and times of Paul as Missionary and Traveler for Jesus.  Perhaps there, the implied tension of Paul and the Jerusalem Church will be focused on more.


But in this instance, Herod is seeking a repeat of the "success" that came at the Passover when Jesus was killed.  He starts with the second martyrdom, James, the brother of John, is 'put to the sword'.  Peter, the spokesperson for the church, is then arrested, and it appears Herod was going to parade him out in front of Jerusalem pre-Passover in a sequel to Jesus' death.


But then Peter is miraculous released by an angel of God.  He is chained between two soldiers, locked within several layers of the prison facility, but none of it matters.  I love the detail that when the angel first shows up, Peter thinks it's a vision of release, like maybe the release of death to go to be with Jesus.  No, Peter gets up, gets dressed, and walks out a free man.  Rhoda, the maid, leaves him standing in the cold, she is so thrilled to hear his voice, but then he is brought in among friends.


From that moment, Peter doesn't stick around but goes into hiding, for his safety and the safety of his comrades.  Herod is so furious, he has ten guards executed.  But then the chapter ends with his demise, worms bursting out of his guts, explained as punishment for assuming the rank of God. 


At the moment of Herod's death, the first round of persecutions for the Way (the name given to the church in the Book of Acts), seems to come to a close.  We've pursued various stories of the exploits of the Apostles, the opening prediction that the church would come to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth has come to pass with a series of deliberate arrivals of the Holy Spirit during times of baptism, Saul is now Paul and on the rise as a missionary and apostle, and Herod the Persecutor is dead.