Free Speech in America

Free Speech is a hallmark of the American Way.  We can speak our minds, express ourselves openly and freely, lay it all on the line.

So when Richard Spenser, speaking at a rally, says "Heil Trump! Heil our people! Heil victory! To be white is to be a striver, a crusader, an explorer and a conqueror..."  he is expressing his freedom of speech.  When members of the audience hold out their arms in the Nazi salute, they are expressing their freedom of expression.

Our President-elect also expresses his freedom of speech, his freedom to protest what he considers to be worthy of his attention.

Twitter, 11/20/16:
"The cast and producers of Hamilton, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologize to Mike Pence for their terrible behavior."

And also from 11/20: "I watched parts of @nbcsnl Saturday Night Live last night. It is a totally one-sided, biased show - nothing funny at all. Equal time for us?"

Okay, SNL and Hamilton...but nothing thus far about those individuals who would compare him in a positive way with Adolf Hitler.

Just an observation.

He's Going To Be President...I Thought She Was...

I truly thought we were going to be celebrating the First Woman to be President of the United States.  So did the pollsters, the news commentators, the pundits, the markets, the Free world, the Nearly Free world, need I go on... 

Why did people vote the way they did?  After all the negativity and dangerous rhetoric that has come out of the mouth of Donald Trump, why did people vote for him?  His attitudes about women, advocating sexual violence for personal satisfaction, who says that in the 21st century?  Who says that in ANY century in this country?  As I read back, my last post was all about his trip to Mexico, so I do not need to repeat that. 

And then, in the last forty eight hours, it has all gone away, forgotten, parked on the back burner.  Hillary Clinton called him to concede.  She did not take up his own words and rally the masses to protest.  President Obama has too backed off all the charges he has made about how unfit this man is to rule and promised a smooth transition.  Mr. Trump himself has made the conciliatory speech of 'uniting the people'.  How does Washington change gears so completely?

And what is up with that FBI email stuff and nonsense?  Bring it out, take it back, bring it out, take it back...  Before I swore off the news, I looked, with pain, at the election maps.  I think the margin of victory was too large to blame that as the tipping event.

So then, what was the tipping event?  What was it, what is it in Donald Trump that brought so many people out to vote?  Can we blame voter turnout?  A hundred more million people were eligible to vote than actually did. 

I would like to believe the following: "What is wrong with the country that they voted in Donald Trump?"  But at the end of this time of reflection and anger and deflation, the question I have left is "What is wrong with me that I am so troubled by the election of Donald Trump?"

I firmly believe that by his words and his actions and his lifestyle that Donald Trump is unfit to govern this nation.  To hold what he has said and what he has done up to the measure of the my Christian morality and faith, I find him wanting.  I am not saying that forgiveness is denied him, but I have seen NO movement to ask for the forgiveness bought for us by the shedding of Jesus' blood.  I have seen no movement to even acknowledge that he has done or said things that are wrong.

Yet, he spoke to people and overcame the offensiveness of his campaign in their lives and attitudes because of something more.  He promised to return manufacturing jobs that have disappeared due to automation.  He promised to return coal mining jobs that have disappeared due to cleaner, safer ways to provide energy.  He has made free trade and Mexico the scape goats for all that is wrong in the economics of this nation.

What need did I fail to take into consideration in this country that I am so troubled by his election?  The piece that pokes at my gut is the piece of his being a political 'outsider'.  His comments and his attitude, his preference to go off the cuff instead of off the prompter, his willingness to say everything and anything that no one else was willing to say, his willingness to promise the moon, what chord of abandonment and disenfranchisement did he touch in these United States?

He tapped into a source of anger and pain that he claims he can heal.  I do not believe that he can truly provide healing, but there is a desperation that people were willing to take him at the word they wanted to hear, filtering out EVERYTHING else. 

What is wrong with me that I am so troubled by the election of Donald Trump?  I missed the pain and the desperation that my fellow Americans would turn so far outside of common decency to seek relief.  Grab a woman by... C'MON!!!

Not since the Civil Rights Movement and the protests against the war in Vietnam have the President-Elect and the country as a whole been in so desperate need of prayer.  Because right now, I do not know what else to do.

Nominee Trump is Going to Mexico...

An NPR commentator asked about what the Mexican President should do concerning his upcoming meeting with Republican Presidential Nominee Donald Trump, especially in the face of comments that the Republican Presidential Nominee has made concerning Mexico, Mexicans, and "The Wall".

Who remembers when "the Wall" was the symbol of the Iron Curtain when it stretched across Berlin?

What can President Pena Nieto really say to Nominee Trump?  In a world where all was fair and equal, the President of Mexico could call him out for his comments, could yell at him, could hold his feet to the fire in the court of public opinion.  But can he really?  

The Mexican Press might be screaming about this, but there is no way to know with patterns of reporting in this country.  

The reality of the situation is that there is a mathematically significant chance that Nominee Trump might become President Trump let us bow our heads in prayer... and Mexico will have to get in line with the rest of us to 'live' under such a regime.  There is only so much room in Canada...

Historically, there are four reasons why President Pena Nieto must be politically correct with Nominee Trump, at least on a superficial level.  Those reasons are Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California.  Please forgive the limits of my historic memory if there is more Mexican territory that we, these free United States, seized from our neighbors to the south.

Politically, the world is divided into two hundred countries according to my World Maps Game App and we like to pretend that they are two hundred equal partners in the running of Mother Earth. 

Sure.

The United States is the preeminent power in the Western Hemisphere.  It the world, China, what was the Soviet Union...well, that is about all I can think of...in the world, that might form a balance of power with us.  But over here?  Canada?  Mexico?  Brazil?  Argentina? 

Historically, Mexico is wise to fear the United States and her expansionist policies.  Economically, for all the crying that goes on in the US press about jobs 'heading south', is there any measure of parity between these two neighbors?  Militarily, what would it take for the US to decide that, for its own good, it should intervene in the Drug War going on 'down there'?

I do not believe that any of these scenarios is likely, but I am also not the President of Mexico or the United States.  But we do not live in a world where every nation is equal to every other one.  Nor do we live in a nation that has a spotless record as preservers of rights and freedoms for the world.  And the rhetoric coming from the Republican Nominee is...intense...to say the least. 

Racist?  Classist?  Hateful?

I do not know that President Pena Nieto is going to say to Presidential Nominee Donald Trump.  I can guess-probably with some accuracy-what he would like to say, and that is for more reasons than because I follow a religion that believes in prophecy. 

But he cannot.  Because he has the 'joy' of considering that the Nominee for President may actually become the President that he has to deal with.  And that sends shivers down my spine.

Slaughter of the Innocents Versus the Law of God...

The last two posts, one leading into this week's sermon, the other lamenting the contrast of the multiple lives lost in the nightclub attack in Orlando versus the tragic loss of a boy to an alligator in Disney, illustrate a sad point.  My lamentation was that we would too soon forget.  And I am the proof of the matter.  What a unique ability we have to compartmentalize our feelings and our focal points.

Do these points of life really intersect?  Actually, they do in a very vicious way.  The slaughter at "the Pulse" came under the point of view that the law is still our judge, jury, and, when necessary, our executioner.  If this view of the massacre is not the proof of how wrong it is to take the law as our means of judgement today, as our means of daring to stand in God's shoes, as our means of the most extreme arrogance that a human might hope to achieve, then I do not know what is.

Yes, it was the presumption of Muslim law that the killer used to justify his killings, but there have been enough active and passive nods of approval from Christendom to make this our issue as well. 

One of the points often made in the debate about the salvation of the LGBTQ community is that Jesus never talks about them.  The condemnation comes from other places, like from Paul the misogynist or from the antiquated and backward reaches of the Old Testament.  The point being made is that since Jesus does not see fit to mention the issue of 'those' people, then it is not an issue.  In other words, if Jesus does not condemn the LGBTQ community, then condemnation is not to be considered.

That is fair, as far as it goes.  But Jesus did things broadly with the law that make this argument very difficult to sustain.  He made the law harder.  He included motives and thoughts in the stable of guilt-making offenses, not simply the activities.  His point of view was that the law was impossible for anyone to follow, that everyone was condemned under it, not just the LGBTQ community but also the Christian community who accuses them of being so particularly evil.

Because Jesus was getting at something.  He never said, "the law is the way, the truth, and the life, nobody comes to the Father except by the law."  Going by the law, NOBODY gets to the Father at all!  He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."  All that condemnatory stuff died with him on the cross.

What the law has become is a means of instruction in the life of faith.  It is a presentation of the love of God and the love of neighbor.  And all the Christians who take the law, point the finger, and claim the authority to condemn somebody else, anybody else, they have missed the point most completely.

Because every single person Jesus comes across, every person he would point the finger at, every one he would call out, he would call them out and declare "You are beloved by God."

The Law...What Shall Be Done With the Law of God?

This Sunday, I am preaching about the Ten Commandments.  It is the second in a cycle of sermons this summer offering an overview of the bible, from one pastor's perspective.  The tough part is in the consideration of what the Law still has to offer in light of Jesus Christ.  I grew up in a Calvinist tradition where the Law pre-Jesus condemned us for our inability to obey it, but post-Jesus, teaches us how we ought to be reshaping our lives in the presence of Christ.

I got really excited about a bible-nerd discovery connecting the Ten Commandments to Jesus' summary of the law, loving God and loving neighbor. 

But it is truly challenging to apply my conclusions to the popular judgments that are so much part of Christendom.  This is not simply another rant about how so much of Christendom condemns the LGBTQ Community, not simply that, but it is more broadly focused.  When judgment is passed about something, what is the Church doing with the law?

I should define terms here, a little bit.  Christendom is the sum total of the Christian cultural and societal presence in the world, at least it is to me.  Liberals, Conservatives, Fundamentalists, Christo-communists, you name it.  Some are great, in my opinion, some are wacky, in my opinion, some are dangerous, in my opinion.  We are all gathered together under one roof.

The Church is a more organized part of Christendom.  For me, it is the assembled voices of pastors and church leadership.  Kind of what shows up in the news, I suppose.  It is drawn from Christendom, but is not exhaustive of Christendom. 

If the Law of God has changed roles, as I argue, from the condemnatory tool to the formation tool that I believe it is, then we have a new world order to bring into being.  Speaking in the name of God to condemn is an awesome responsibility to undertake.  And I am really no longer sure that is what the Church is called to do. 

The responses are already forming in my head, 'if not us, than whom?'  Is everything then acceptable?  What are you, crazy?  But Jesus died that I might live.  He did not die that I might condemn someone else to death.  There are some big questions to shape here.  I hope you will walk with me to seek to shape them.

Tragedy Versus Tragedy

There was a very odd contrast going on for a number of days last week.  First, 49 people were killed at the "Pulse" nightclub.  Then a young boy was killed by an alligator in Disney World.  It was a double whammy of pain and grief for Orlando.  Watching the coverage and listening to the commentators and conversations going on around the pair of events, I felt an undercurrent.

Anyone read "Mad Magazine" growing up?  Anyone a fan of "Spy vs. Spy", the character in white versus the character in black blowing one another up?  I had a sense of that in the aftermath of Orlando. 

Maybe I am being overly sensitive to the whole matter, but there seemed to be a sense out there that the life of one boy killed in Disney was on par with 49 killed in the nightclub.  Maybe it was an attempt to move the hate crimes of killing homosexuals off the front burner with something-anything else.  The tragic circumstances of the death of a toddler in one of the most famous places on earth, could that have been a coincidence to be exploited to take eyes off the issue of tragedy and homosexuality?

I type that out, repeat the phrase out loud to myself, and I feel like a conspiracy theorist.  This seems beyond consideration.  Tragedy is tragedy.  The nightclub massacre and the death of the toddler are both going to result in grief and emotional destruction for their families.  49 versus 1?  Do we even make such numeric comparisons in the measure of tragedy?  Can it be?

I do not know.  But in the aftermath of the "Pulse" massacre, hearing stories of clergy who refused to carry out funerals for the fallen, hearing stories of certain types of Christians who will go so far as to protest at those funerals, hearing-if not outright approval-certainly approbation that the justice of God has been carried out by the hands of an insane shooter. 

But, as always, time moves forward and news slips into the past.  The stories will come off the front page, off the lead for the nightly news, fading from memory and consideration.  What shall we learn?  What shall we consider?  What shall we do to prevent this from happening again?

When we pose those questions, will people think more quickly of Disney?  Or of the "Pulse"?

Standing Up Against The Church

The church may appear to be this megalithic structure with structures on every street corner in some neighborhoods.  Many towns even have 'holy row', a particular street where you can't swing a dead cat without hitting some hallowed hall.  Some have their brand names on the signs, "Catholic", "Presbyterian", "Baptist", "Methodist", "Lutheran", "Episcopal" and so on and so forth.  It's like Cath, Presby, Bapt, Meth, Luth, and Episco were disciples or something.  Okay, maybe not Meth... 

In my church, we follow the disciple "Presby", the patron saint of committees.

The 'church', as a single minded entity, is how I fear most people without direct experience about us see and feel the church's presence.  And the loudest voices from the 'church' seem to be crying out about who God is going to hate/punish/exterminate/hell-ify or they are claiming a Godly 'wealth-management' scheme, where the wealth you have is directly proportional to how much God likes you.

To be serious for a moment, the 'church' seems to use a disproportionate amount of its sound volume to tell us who to condemn.  Jews, Muslims, Women, American Indians, people of pretty much every color other than White, Homosexuals, Communists, Liberals, whomever.  Notice, I said sound volume.  Anyone who is on the edges of need will see that there is truly a 'silent majority', to borrow a VERY loaded term, doing real work in the name of Jesus to help others.

I am an employee of, vocationally devoted to, and irretrievably linked to the 'church' when it is seen as a monolith.  You have to get closer to see the cracks and splinters, the multitude of voices that speak in many different directions in the name of Jesus.  Some of them are all about loving, some are all about judging, some are all about helping, some are all about saving, some are all about wandering alone.  Most of them have a combination of all of the above and more.

Tomorrow night, from one obscure, urban corner of the 'church', one pastor, probably far more self-confident and overbearing than he ought to be, is going to speak, at least in part, against that 'church', the monolithic, judging entity.  It is Father's Day, but the followers of Presby do not have 'fathers' running the church the way the followers of Cath do. 

I am a father by virtue of having children, not being a priest in the service of one of the slices of the church seeking to serve Jesus.

The message is pretty straightforward-love.  The tone is probably going to be a little on the angrier side, given the lack of love this pastor has seen coming from too many of his colleagues in the 'church' monolithic.  My prayer is to avoid the double whammy of anger and insult that Jesus teaches is murder in the Sermon on the Mount.

Forty nine people are dead because they were declared unfit to live by a man who completely missed the mark of the power and focus of Islam.  Forty nine people are dead and my faith, the faith of Jesus, throws out hateful vitriol and condemnation of those innocents in the name of a perverse sense of God's judgment taken into their own hands.

There is a huge part of me that does not want to be part of the 'church' that feeds into so much of that hatred.  But there is not another game in town.  I do not have the energy to start a "Pete" that will run in contradistinction to the 'church'.  No, I have to be arrogant enough to believe that Jesus is going to speak to me as I cry out to my brothers and sisters across the 'church' and ask them to share love and not hate, that they re-evaluate what they think the Bible says, and they GET WITH THE PROGRAM.  (All-caps, that is yelling in texting and typing and the such, yes?)

Jesus has a great line about bringing a sword into the world because of what he taught.  I get that, maybe for the first time.

The Pain of Fifty Fathers

In the darker places in my heart, I imagine a conversation taking place at some Father's Day in the future.  On that day, the father of the shooter who killed 49 in Orlando is going to have to try and answer the question of the shooter's son, his grandson, now three years old.  "Why did he do it?"  That three year old is going to have ever Father's Day to consider that question which is going to haunt the hearts and minds of every father of every victim.

Why did he do it?

This Sunday, we are having a memorial service and vigil in our church to remember those killed at the "Pulse" nightclub.  I was reminded it was Father's Day-that this may not be the best choice of dates.  As a father myself, I do not know a better date.  There will be no celebrations for the fifty fathers of the dead.  I would offer this small tribute to them.

We need to grieve, we need to give people the place and opportunity to grieve.  But too many won't.  Too many are too jaded or too numb or too judgmental of the lifestyles of those who were killed to even consider grieving.  It implies they have something to be sad about. 

What is a father to do?  What is a religious father like me supposed to do?  The shooter was a religious father, but he twisted his faith beyond recognition.  Maybe the answer is that our children must come first.  If our faith traditions do not grant us the permission to look to our children first, maybe it is time to change our faith traditions.

Because if we truly put our children first, if they are the most precious things in our lives, how could we ever, ever consider putting somebody else's most precious thing at risk?  How could we pick up a gun?  How could we scope them out?  How could we tolerate a God or a faith that told us that the children of 'those people' need to be punished?

Even as I say that, I must admit I come from a religion that defies that basic premise.  The God I work for sacrificed His only Son on the cross.  Sacrificed one child that the rest of us can become Children of God.  Don't get me wrong, I like being a child of God.  I am grateful for the sacrifice that Jesus made for me on the cross.  But it is indicative of what is so sick and twisted in humanity that God considered this God's only option.

My other option is to consider my God to be so sick and twisted as to kill His own Son.  That, I cannot bear.

These children are dead and their fathers will grieve.  In some small, insignificant way, I will grieve with them, but it seems woefully inadequate.

I do not mean to discount the pain felt by the mothers of these children.  That one piece of news footage of one mother outside the club, crying piteously for some sign that her child-grown matters not-still lived will haunt me.

But my experience is fatherhood and I want this Father's Day to be one where we can comfort the fathers and families that are grieving and where fathers can come together to do our part to keep this from every happening again.

So say we all?

When It Comes to Guns, Lets Back the Constitution!

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."  Second Amendment to the Constitution, I love it.  There are T-shirts with slogans about this that I have not bought because they were just too good.

Bring back real, well regulated Militias.  Want a gun, be in a 'militia'.  I am not talking about military-style units akin to the National Guard units.  I am also not talking about those 'militias' forming up to do battle with our governmental authorities.

What I am talking about is a place where people can receive proper instruction on gun use and gun safety, where they can practice, where their guns can be inspected to be in proper working order, where they can be disposed of if someone so chooses.  There are enough military vets, retired cops from agencies local to federal, and capable, trained individuals to lead these militias.  The NRA has done fantastic work on gun safety so there are materials ready to go to teach and train people.

The Constitution speaks of the right to keep and bear arms.  Those are two different things.  The first implies collectability.  The second implies competency.  That is where the militias come in.  Register and regulate these militias at the state level.  Mandate some level of competency and responsibility for the leadership of the militias.  Provide some minimal standards of safety and competency. 

The right of the people to keep and bear Arms is not a right that exists in a vacuum.  This right is derived from the necessity of the security for our nation.  That requires some kind of standard.

Standards exist.  I cannot drive a car unless I have passed a driver's test.  I cannot get drugs legally unless I consult with a competent medical authority.  I think it is reasonable to demand that people have some competency and responsibility when they exercise their right to keep and bear arms.  A well regulated militia is tailor made to answer those concerns.

And it is already there for us, right in the Constitution. 

In A Time Of Need, Who Might Be Hating?

In the aftermath of the Orlando shooting, as my heart ached for the families and friends of those so ruthlessly gunned down, my head is in a far darker place.  This was a religious killing, the gunning down of 'the guilty' in the name of God-in this case known by the Arabic translation, Allah.  But this is not a diatribe or an accusation against Islam.  No, I fear for those of my own faith. 

I wonder in what corners of Christendom there are those who feel this was for the best.  Maybe they will not jump on social media and tell the world they thought that this man was carrying out the justice of God, but in their hearts and in their halls, this was the consensus. 

It grieves me to wonder when the mercy of the Lord will outweigh the vengeance of the Lord in the hearts of so many of my fellow Christians.  How many people have to die before someone says 'enough'?  Or are we so jaded that, while we might not pull the trigger, we will not condemn the nut who does.

I was "we" because, in other circumstances, I might sing to the Lord with brothers and sisters of such belief.  I may not know about it, because I know not their hearts.  But someone else might know their hearts and assume that I am as they, haters and not lovers of forgiveness. 

It is my conviction that the love of God will overcome the prejudice that stalks the church.  Many, many Christians rally with thoughts and prayers and good wishes to those who were lost.  Sexuality is not a measure of faith.  But for many more, this incident may cause stirrings of the mercy of God, but when judgment is so ingrained, it seems only the power of God can overcome.

May God's power overcome the prejudice against people because of their sexual orientation.

From Hebrew BIble to New Testament to Koran

When I responded to the Huffington Post article in my last blog post, there was a tug at the back of my skull.  The very thing that I was writing against in connecting prophetic predictions of Mohammed in the New Testament is exactly what the Christian faith has done with prophetic predictions from the Hebrew Bible.  Christianity draws upon Judaism for its place in the world.  It does so with a long list of chapters and verses from what we call the Old Testament-the Hebrew Bible-the Tanakh.

I believe my rabbinic and Jewish colleagues in ministry and faith would react very much the way I did were I to express my views on how I believe the Tanakh and the New Testament are one book, gathered around the person and work of Jesus.  And I would respect them for their skepticism and for any annoyance they feel toward the presumption of Christianity in this regard.

Because Christianity wobbles between two poles in regards to Judaism.  On one extreme, we feel that we 'complete' the Jewish faith because of the person and work of Jesus.  On another extreme, we feel we correct the work of the Jewish faith because of the recasting of the faith by the person and work of Jesus.  We will even grant the honor to our Jewish brothers and sisters that Jesus himself, was Jewish, as was the entire first generation of what has become the 'church'.

And maybe we could, as a religion, in good conscience, have that conversation, if our religious history was not so bloody in regards to our Jewish brothers and sisters. 

A few years ago, my friend and I were traveling in England when we came to the City of York.  There is a site in York that is forever seared in my memory, Clifford's Tower.  On that site, in 1190, the majority of the Jewish population in York committed suicide rather than die at the hands of the Christian community or undergo the malicious indignity of forced conversion.  One hundred and fifty died there, wives and children killed by their husbands and fathers before their fathers killed themselves by setting fire to the Keep.

Up till that moment, this smug young Christian knew the story of the Jewish suicides at Masada, the Jewish defenders keeping themselves from the torture that awaited at the hands of the Romans.  But the Romans were barbaric, look what they did to Jesus.  Sure, but Christians are also barbaric.  Don't let anyone ever tell you different.  There are words like 'pogrom' and 'Holocaust' that have their origins in the barbarity of a Christianity Jesus would not recognize.

And while my forebears in the faith were causing the deaths of Jews in England, we were killing Muslims in the Middle East in the name of God while on Crusade.

I do not delve into the history of my faith looking to bring condemnation or seeking absolution.  I delve to celebrate the miracle that is today.  From my perspective, it is a miracle that Jesus continues to use the Christian faith, despite its history, despite its current lack of perfection.

There is the real potential for an end game now.  The Earth needs us to dig deep into who we are as people of faith, to transcend our wars, our histories, our differences.  We are united in our humanity, united in love, in caring.  It is to that future that I believe we must work.

Scripture Readings for the Week of May 8, 2016

Our Scripture on Sunday includes Nehemiah 8:1-12, when Ezra reads the law once again to the people of Israel once they have returned from the Babylonian Exile.  The daily readings this week take us up to that story. 

This week, read the backstory to the Scriptures we shared from Nehemiah this Sunday.  For "extra credit", read on to the end of the book.

Mon. May 9: Neh. 1 and 2

Tue. May 10: Neh. 3

Wed. May 11: Neh. 4

Thu. May 12: Neh. 5

Fri. May 13: Neh. 6

Sat. May 14: Neh. 7

YES, the Time Has Come for Christians and Muslims to Make Peace!

The following link was circulated to members of our local clergy association.  As I enjoy and appreciate the Huffington Post as a source of information and given the intriguing title, I read the article with interest.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ian-mevorach/did-jesus-predict-muhammad_b_9762934.html?ir=Religion%3F

I am in total, one hundred percent agreement with the first two paragraphs.  Every Christian and Muslim in the world needs to pay attention to what is being expressed.

“The time has come for Christians and Muslims to make peace between our communities. Christians and Muslims already make up more than half of the global population, and these numbers are expected to grow in the coming decades; according to the Pew Research Center, by 2050, two thirds of humanity, some 5.7 billion people, will be either Christian or Muslim.



Our planet simply cannot afford another century of misunderstanding and violence between these two communities. The challenges we face as a global human family are profound: ongoing warfare and nuclear proliferation, global poverty and economic inequality, climate change and ecological degradation. How will humanity handle these crises and others if our two largest religious communities are embroiled in constant conflict, if misunderstanding defines our relationship? As contemporary theologian Hans Kung has argued for decades, there will be no peace between our nations without peace between our religions. Now is the time to transform the way Christians and Muslims see and relate to each other. “



That is so well said and it needs to be spoken over and over and over again.    



As I read the article, I was struck by the memory of pictures I have seen from the end of the Second World War.  Somewhere in conquered Nazi Germany, troops from the Soviet Union and the United States met, shaking hands, and exchanging cigarettes.  For me, those images are even more iconic than the cover shot on Life magazine of the sailor kissing the nurse in Time Square on V-J Day.  They are not iconic for what was, but for what could have been, no, SHOULD have been.  Although the Cold War started too soon after those pictures were taken, the possibilities they represented cannot be understated.



What SHOULD be, must be, truly accomplished is a similar meeting of Christianity and Islam.  It is critical for the survival of the planet.  We share one God, whom we Christians call ‘our Father who art in Heaven’, and, if I understand correctly, our Muslim brothers and sisters Allah, may His name be ever praised. 



“Now is the time to transform the way Christians and Muslims see and relate to each other…”  Unfortunately, I do not see what Ian Mevorach describes as the way to see this done. 



As a pastor, trained as an academic, I do not believe that we can draw from the Christian bible that Mohammed is to succeed Jesus.  Mine is an outsider’s view of Islam, but I believe that Islam accepts a line of prophets, including Jesus of the Christian tradition, that concludes with Mohammed as Allah’s final and greatest prophet. 



I do not agree that references to the ‘spirit of Truth’ in the Johannine portions of the New Testament or the ‘prophet’ in the book of Deuteronomy refer forward to Mohammed.  I think that makes assumptions about a progression of religion that does justice neither to Christianity nor Islam.  But that is an argument for the Academy.



What I do believe is that we are brothers, the quarreling sons of our father Abraham, and the time has come to stop quarreling.  The threats to the very created order of our planet make our religious quarrels pale by comparison.  To those of either faith who would claim that it is more important to prepare to stand before God in the next life, I would challenge them with the question of how God will judge us for what we have done with the gifts God has given to us here?



How then can we move on a path of greater understanding and cooperation? 



To that question, I am happy to return to John.  In John 13: 34-35, Jesus says “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another…By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (NRSV).  This is the message that I proclaim to all my brothers and sisters of the Christian faith-in all its broad stripes, in all its various denominations, in all its streams of interpretation-this is the message that we must lead with.



I know that there are brothers and sisters of the Islamic faith who will stand with us, responding with like teachings of Allah from the Koran.  It is there, in that commonality of purpose and understanding of the things of faith, that we can reach out and embrace in the name of Allah, in the name of God.



When Capitalists and Communists shook hands in 1945, to celebrate their common cause in defeating Fascism, the peace did not last long.  They gathered under what is arguably the greatest unifying principle of history, an alliance against a common enemy.  What Christianity and Islam have to accomplish is far more enduring.  Instead of the catalyst of a common enemy to defeat, we must instead reach from the very core of our respective faiths.  From that core, we must draw forth an alliance based on love, love for one another and a love for where we live.  Then, I believe, we can properly care for our Earth. 

"Bearing With One Another", some further Biblical readings

Verses to Ponder-Interactions with One Another

Monday-Apr. 11: Colossians 3: 12-18  The central passage for the next few weeks of how we achieve peace amongst ourselves.

Tuesday-Apr. 12: Galatians 6: 1-5 Herein Paul extends the Mission, bearing one another’s burdens, not just with one another.

Wednesday-Apr. 13: Psalm 55: 16-23 David shares with us the early promise that we do not carry the burdens, but cast them upon God.

Thursday-Apr. 14: Matthew 24:1-14 Here we consider the flip side, how to fall away in the End Times will cause us to hate one another. 

Friday-Apr. 15: 1 Corinthians 9:1-14 Paul here begins his discourse on Christian freedom.

Saturday-Apr. 16: 1 Corinthians 9: 15-23 Continuing this discourse, Paul speaks to us of how we might curtail our freedoms to carry the burdens of our brothers and sisters in faith.

What Does the Bible Have to Say on the Lord's Supper?

Verses to Ponder-The Lord’s Supper.

Monday-Apr. 4: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34  These are the earliest written words we have about the Lord’s Supper.  Paul’s letters are considered the earliest written parts of the New Testament.

Tuesday-Apr. 5: Exodus 12:1-13  The Command for the Passover meal that Jesus shared as the Last Supper.

Wednesday-Apr. 6: Exodus 12:21-29  These verse command why the Passover is to remembered every year, down to the time of our Lord Jesus and until today in the Jewish faith.

Thursday-Apr. 7: John 13:1-20  In John’s Gospel, the story of the washing of the disciple’s feet is told.  It would happen before the meal, and many churches mark this occasion during their Maundy Thursday services. 

Friday-Apr. 8: Matthew 26:17-30  This is the Institution of the Lord’s Supper as recorded in the first of the Gospels.

Saturday-Apr. 9: Rev. 19:1-10  Jesus said he would not partake again until he and his disciples were in his Father’s kingdom.  This might be that meal.

Jesus Did All The Work for Our Salvation

Isaiah 53: 1-12

This is known as the song of the Suffering Servant.  We share this passage at the conclusion of our Tenebrae service on Good Friday, a prophecy from centuries before of Jesus being sent to us.  We share it on this day without.  This one, full day without Jesus.  Unlike a full three days as we might think of it today, in the gospel, the days of death and the day of resurrection are counted among the three.
 
Something that repeats itself time and time again throughout the gospels are how Jesus fulfills expectations, prophecies,  and echoes from the Old Testament.  From being the First Born of God, paralleling the Tenth Plague in ancient Egypt, through this passage which points at Jesus, to echoing Psalm 34:20 that no bones of Jesus would be broken on the cross.

It speaks to the fulfillment of an ultimate plan.  Jesus is the final step in a series that began after creation.  In each generation, God would renew his covenant with the people, we, the people, would fall down yet again, until the moment when it was no longer left to our devices.  In Jesus, all the work comes from God. 

As we celebrate Easter tomorrow morning, keep that in mind.  Jesus has done all the work that needs to be done for us to be right with God.  From there, we are invited to live lives that show our gratitude to the Savior who sacrificed His life on our behalf. 

The Last Supper: Jesus' body and Jesus' blood

Preparing for the Readings for March 24, 2016, Maundy Thursday

This reading is about Jesus' final Passover meal, the celebration of the Angel of Death passing over the firstborn of the Israelites back in the time of Egypt.  However, by the end of all this, that Angel of Death is going to claim the firstborn of God.

Mark 14:12-16  How irritating is it to be present for a conversation where everything seems to require inside knowledge?  For example, the boyfriend who is spending Christmas with his fiancé's family, people he’s gone off to the family abode in Vermont to see, for the first time.  The stories, the family rituals, the shorthand that goes on between people who have grown up together, how irritating can it be to the new person trying to break into the crowd?

These verses are the same way.  They assume two bases of knowledge.  One includes the practices of Passover as outlined in the laws of Moses, from Exodus 12-13 if you would like to read up on it.  But that is only half the story.  To truly ‘get it’, we’d need an understanding of how the traditions of Passover are carried out centuries after the original law was given, adapted to Jesus’ time with the use of the upper room.

It does not mean that these verses are useless to us, not by any means.  But it does mean that we need to recognize that this practice of the Lord’s Supper will be as different for us as Jesus and his disciples coming to our church to participate in the Lord’s Supper for Maundy Thursday services.

Mark 14: 17-21  We know who the traitor is.  He went to the authorities in yesterday’s reading.  Most people, even unfamiliar with the bible, still understand the metaphor that a Judas is a traitor.  But put yourself in their shoes, Jesus and his top twelve, taking in the Passover meal, when they are told one of their own, right there, is going to sell out the Savior.

Mark 14: 22-25  The Last Supper, an adaptation of the Passover meal, the Seder, for use by the Christian church all through our history.  And here it is done in three verses.  The Last Supper, the Eucharist, the Mass, Holy Communion, plain old communion, all names for this meal where Jesus talks of his broken body and spilled blood.  It is a metaphor for him hanging on the cross, spear stabbed into his side.

In Anticipation of Jesus' Arrest and Coming Death

Notes for the Reading for Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Mark 14:1-2: The plan is coming to fruition.  The leaders have had enough and the final plan to arrest Jesus is underway.

Mark 14: 3-9: The preparations for Jesus’ death are made.  This passage has been used as ‘proof’ that Jesus did not care for the poor.  Consider instead what she is doing for Jesus instead.

Mark 14: 10-11: The only way they will get Jesus is by the ‘inside job’.

Exodus 13: 3-10: The people are forming into a nation, forged in the fires of the Exodus desert.  The Festival of Unleavened Bread shall be the backdrop against the arrest and execution of Jesus.

Exodus 13: 11-16: Consider the law of the first born, done in response to the deaths of the first born of the Egyptians as the last plague.  Jesus is a first born son not redeemed, but sacrificed, but for our redemption.

Continuing on the Worst Week of Jesus' Life

Notes on Readings for Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Mark 12:13-17:  It is an attempt at a double entrapment.  Either Jesus will anger the people because he supports Rome, or he will speak sedition to Rome over the question of taxes.  These are the Pharisees-teachers of the Law of Moses-and the Herodians-royal supporters-who are coming after Jesus now.

Mark 12:18-27: The Sadducees are a sect of aristocratic leaders of the Jews.  They have a theology which does not include resurrection and are taking their shot at Jesus.  His response is to tell them they are flatly wrong.  Again, not the way to win friends and influence people.

Mark 12: 28-34: Here come the scribes, experts in the law, going after Jesus.  Could not get him on taxes, could not get him on resurrection, can they get him on the finer points of the Law?

Mark 12: 25-40: The scribes, Round Two.  This time it is the question of his being the Son of David, as was cried by the people during Palm Sunday.  They have a special place in Jesus’ hell, described in vss. 38-40.

Mark 12: 41-44: Against all the attacks by the leaders, here comes the balance of the true believer.

Mark 13:1-8: Jesus prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in forty years.

Mark 13:9-13: A dark view of the End of Times.

Mark 13:14-23: A passage that sounds like the worst the book of Revelations has to offer.

Mark 13:24-37:  But Jesus does not leave his disciples without hope.  The promise of his coming again is made, as is the demand to be watchful.

From Entering in Triumph to Alienating the Leadership

Notes for the Readings for Monday, March 21, 2016

Mark 11:12-14: Very strange story about Jesus cursing a fig tree.   As you continue to read, note the other references to the fig tree, further in this chapter and in chapter 13 during tomorrow’s readings.

Mark 11: 15-19: Passover saw a massive influx of pilgrims coming to Jerusalem from all over the empire.  Two things they did not often have were the right money or a proper sacrifice.  Money of the Roman Empire had the image of the Emperor.  That was no good in the temple, according to applications of the law of Moses.  So, for the convenience of visitors, money-changers would provide them with the proper funds.

The Temple still required animal sacrifice.  Carrying a couple of doves from the far reaches of the Empire was impractical.  Better to get them locally. 

The implication is that the Temple had become a place of religious commerce, with huge fees for money changing and very expensive sacrificial doves.  The Temple leadership most assuredly received a cut.  Jesus is reacting against this.

Note: verse 18-they want to kill him!

Mark 11:20-25: Round two with the Fig Tree.  Is it simply a demonstration of the power of faith?  Note what can be asked of God in faith.  It is pretty amazing.   

Mark 11: 27-33: Making an authority figure look like a fool is a sure way to make an enemy.  The chief priests, the scribes, and the elders are the senior religious leadership of the Jews.  How do you think they feel after this exchange?

Mark 12: 1-12: Consider the parable as a history of the Jewish faith.  God is the man who planted the vineyard, the tenants are these religious leaders, his prophets were sent, finally his Son was sent.  And they figure it out.

Mark 12:12: The chief priests, scribes and elders want to arrest him.

Reflection on Mark 11:1-11; Psalm 118:22-29

Palm Sunday: March 20, 2016

Mark 11: 1-11                    Jesus’ Triumphant Entry

Psalm 118: 22-29              The passage around the cries of the people

Mark 11:1-11

Jerusalem was a walled city, set up on a ridge, with a normal population of maybe five thousand.  One end of the city is dominated by the Temple, the House of the Lord, the center of the Jewish religion.  It is Passover, the Festival celebrating the Angel of Death passing over the Jewish houses in Egypt, the houses protected by the blood of the Lamb.  For this Festival, the population of Jerusalem has swollen in size.  Estimates put the population anywhere between fifty and two hundred and fifty thousand people. 

When approaching Jerusalem, coming over the Mount of Olives, between Bethpage and Bethany, the vista of the City suddenly stretches out before you.  Imagine the walled city now stretching several times its usual width under the roofs of tents and temporary shelters.  Similarly, from the City, if a crowd were coming over the Mount, it would look like they appear from nowhere as they come into view.  This is the direction that Jesus chose to approach from for the Triumphal Entry.

This was a Royal Entry, fulfilling the expectations of the Son of David.  He rode upon a colt, but not upon the ground.  The people spread their cloaks and palm branches as a veritable red carpet for Jesus to ride in on.

Consider what their cries are.  They are right and wrong.  Yes, he comes in the name of the Lord.  No, this is not the militarily established kingdom of the King and Warlord David.  It is God’ kingdom.  As Jesus enters on a ‘royal tour’, it says he toured the temple, the house of His Father. 

Psalm 118:22-29

In verse 26 is the line sung out by those greeting Jesus, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”  But the remainder of the passage does not celebrate the kingship of David.  This psalm is not even one that is attributed to being written by David. 

Rather, consider verse 22, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”  In the next chapter of Mark, chapter 12:10, Jesus will speak these words, in reference to himself.  As you read these verses, do you see a different intent then what the people cheering Jesus intended?

An Offering Of Readings for the Holy Week

This year, we are going to follow the Gospel of Mark for Holy Week Services, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.  However, there are days we do not meet to worship during Holy Week and there is Scripture between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday that we do not read.  So, here is a weeklong set of readings for your own devotional times to read the entire Holy Week Story as hold in Mark, with some fill ins from the Old Testament to round out the story

Holy Week Scripture Readings

Palm Sunday: March 20, 2016

Mark 11: 1-11                 Jesus’ Triumphant Entry

Psalm 118: 22-29           The passage around the cries of the people

Monday, March 21, 2016

Mark 11:12-12:12          Teachings and interactions raising tensions around Jesus

                                          Consider how each event is ratcheting up the pressure.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Mark 12:13-13:37          Jesus’ Final Teachings

                                          See how these readings either

                                     1.       Continue to make Jesus a target

                                     2.       Look to what will happen afterward

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Mark 14: 1-11                 The Ceremonial Preparation of Jesus for his Death

Exodus 13: 3-16              The Old Testament commands regarding Passover

                                          Compare Jesus’ death as Firstborn to the Passover discourse

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Mark 14: 12-25               The Lord’s Supper is instituted

                                          These verses shall mark our Maundy Thursday Service

Friday, March 25, 2016

Mark 14: 26-15:47         The Death of Jesus

                                          These verses shall mark our Good Friday Service

Saturday, March 26, 2016

Isaiah 53:1-12                 Mark is silent about the Sabbath when Jesus was dead. 

                                          Who is Jesus for us in his death and resurrection?

Sunday, March 27, 2016

Mark 16: 1-20                 Mark’s story of the Resurrection of Jesus

                                                                                               

So How Do We Explain When God Picks One Out Of Ninety?

My daughter leant me "Humans of New York", a book form of a popular blog (which I have yet to check out, but I think I will).  They are pictures of New Yorkers and their stories, maybe a line, maybe a few paragraphs.  One of them stabbed my heart.

There was a former pastor, been in the faith for years, now challenged out of his faith with questions of God's favoritism.  Why would God save one person out of ninety in a plane crash? (I am paraphrasing)  The one is championed, the others are forgotten, how do we process a God who acts that way? 

How do we indeed?

I am not preparing to leave the ministry over this question.  But I am challenged by it.  Am I comfortable in my own skin with how I answer that question?  Should I be comfortable in my own skin with how I answer that question?  Is there even an answer to that question?

One of the first stories that I read that touched on the theme of life and death outside of a 'churchie' environment was "The Most Dangerous Game".  Man hunting man.  It speaks to how central and how trivial questions of life and death can appear.  Because the story was thrilling, who would live?  Who would die?

But that is a story.  And yet, I am seeking the story to answer the question of "why God chooses certain people..." 

The easy escape is to immediately confess ignorance.  Put it all back on God.  God does what God wants.  God's purpose is greater than our understanding.  Tie that in to a basic presupposition that the Christian God is good and does things for a reason, and we can just blame our own ignorance for not 'understanding why'.

Consider some more reasoned responses:

Lining up human understanding of death and disaster with a presupposition that God is Good even in moments of disaster can erode our faith in that God. 

Assuming that life is random, a "crap shoot", that 's--t' happens, that divorces God from the bad things that happen.  God either cannot intervene (lack of power) or will not intervene (lack of will) in this definition.  If God isn't in the game, why bother with God?

Here is where I have gotten, thus far.
Bad things happen.  It's life, bad things and good things happen.  I focus on the human response.  What can we do after to respond, reply, and recover?  9/11 is the basis of this thinking.  Such a horrible occurrence generated such a powerful, good response.  I do not see God in the moments when the planes struck the Twin Towers, but in the hearts and lives of those who stepped up to respond. 

And this is a start.  My theology of disaster isn't finished, not by any means.

Jesus and Some Film Noir

Do you think Jesus was above using his Godly knowledge and power to inject a little dark humor into the gospel?

John 8: 12 and following is the basis for my sermon this Sunday.   Jesus says “I am the light of the world”, a reprieve of John 1, turning back the darkness as the light of life.  And the Pharisees are on him like grit on sandpaper.  You can almost hear them whining, “You can’t testify about yourself…your testimony is no good…”  They cannot stand up to the arguments that Jesus is making, so they try and undercut the person.

Jesus, being Jesus, turns their argument against them.  How about this? He suggests, how about the fact that in the law of Moses, there cannot be the testimony of one, but there must be at least the testimony of two?  Now, me, sent by the Father, is one.  And…the Father…the one who sent me, Creator of the World, Speaker through the Prophets, Bringer of Plagues to Egypt, Giver of the Land of Israel, the Big Kahuna, well, he is the other one who testifies for me. 

So, Jesus cannot be believed because he is testifying about himself.  On top of that, there need to be at least two witnesses to make the testimony rise to the litmus test of the Law of Moses.

Now flip back a dozen pages or so to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14 to be exact.  It is time for Jesus to be executed.  We are on the cusp of Good Friday.  He is in front of the High Priest and an assemblage of leaders that want to see him dead.  And they have witnesses, lots of witnesses.  But the litmus test is that two of them have to agree on their stories.  And none of them do.  Lots of false witnesses, but they can’t get their stories straight. 

They do find a little something, something that sounds seditious about Jesus destroying the temple and rebuilding it.  Yes, that was a Jesus-ism, but the testimony of two witnesses cannot even be put together for that.

Then the high priest puts the screws directly to Jesus.  ‘Have you no answer?’ the high priest demands, ‘What is it that they testify against you?’   But Jesus was silent and did not answer. Again the high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Messiah,^* the Son of the Blessed One?’ ⁶²Jesus said, ‘I am’.  And it all hits the fan.

Jesus is condemned because of the testimony he gave about himself, exactly what the Pharisees state does NOT count in John 8.  They could not find witnesses to testify as per the law of Moses, they said they could not use the self-testimony of Jesus, until they had to, because it was all they had, in Mark 14.  In John 8, Jesus’ testimony was the basis for a conspiracy to kill him.  In Mark 14, it would be the means of killing him.  Is that not in the tradition of the Film Noir?  A little dark humor?

And the rest of the story is history, and theology, and the basis of Holy Week.  And I leave you to consider whether Jesus pushed the Pharisees in John 8 precisely because he knew what was going to happen when they did try to line up the witnesses.

Love, a Word Unspoken, but an Action that Saturates the Magnificat

⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel,
   in remembrance of his mercy,
⁵⁵ according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
   to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

She doesn’t say love.  Nowhere in the piece does she say love.  He has ‘looked with favor’ on the lowliness of his servant.  Is that love?  Perhaps love is not found in what Mary says about God, but rather, it is found in what Mary says about what God does.  Would God favor His lowly servant if He did not love her?  Is it not love that is being expressed when she says all generations will call her blessed?  God has indeed done great things for her.

Love is also evident in the way that Mary ends her Magnificat, in vss. 54 and 55, “He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’  What God has done for Mary is in fulfillment of the promise He made to her ancestors, to Abraham and his descendants for ever.  It is the promise of Jesus, who will be Emmanuel, God With Us…Them…

As peace rests upon love, we must know it is not simply a word.  Love rather is an attitude, it is an activity, it is ongoing.  It does great things.  It is assumed by Mary as she sings.  When God “scattered the proud”, bringing his justice into the world, that is an expression of his love.  When his faith is raised within, “my soul magnifies the Lord”, that is an expression of his love.  Indeed, God’s whole plan, his whole purpose, from the promise he made to Abraham to making Mary blessed, all is for the expression of His love. 

The argument could be made that ‘all you need is love’.  Love as an activity, peace as an activity, they could be considered synonymous.  But Jesus has developed his thinking about love in his recap of the Law.  First, love the Lord.  What is that but faith?  Second, love your neighbor.  How can that be better expressed but in the provision of justice?  After all, everyone is my neighbor. 

Upon these three, we build ‘peace’.