We’re going to a birthday party for an old family friend this week. It’s going to be a pretty big affair: you see, even though this lady is well-advanced in years, she still knows how to celebrate.
She wasn’t always the most popular woman in town, you know. She’s had her share of controversies. It seems like every time you turn around, she’s in a tiff with somebody. The next door neighbor across the row of hedges; the man across the street whom she swears doesn’t have any other job but to make her agitated; the postman who accidentally lost an important piece of mail. Why, she argues so much sometimes it even seems like she’s fighting with herself.
But, man, she loves people. All those people, even the ones she’s angry at or griping about. She loves people. You’d never know it, but if the mood is right she can be the most generous person you’d ever want to meet: volunteering at the local soup kitchen, and buying school supplies for kids who need a little help, and cutting flowers from her garden to take to families grieving a death. Sometimes it doesn’t come across well because she gets wrapped up in little unimportant details, but when she puts her mind to it, she can’t be matched for caring.
You know, this lady’s getting on up there. I was sitting at the coffeeshop the other day and I heard a couple of guys joking about her, talking about how out of touch the “old lady” is, and how they can’t believe she’s still kicking somehow, and so on. I didn’t say anything. Didn’t want to start a fuss. But I just smiled, because I know that this lady, the one who’s so out of touch? She owns the coffeeshop. Matter of fact, she and her husband darn near own the whole town. You’d never know it, because she doesn’t seem trendy or influential or anything like that. But she knows how the world is. She might seem old, but I’m telling you, you come to this birthday party on Sunday and you’ll see: just because she’s old doesn’t mean she’s a relic. She’s just as full of life now as she’s ever been.
Oh, but I’m getting way ahead of myself. I haven’t even told you her name yet; and I’m sure you know her.
Her name is Church.
Happy Pentecost.
5.29.2009
2.04.2009
Quote of the Week
On how the Obama administration is making America less safe by refusing to use illicit interrogation techniques or to imprison suspected terrorists indefinitely:
"These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek." -former Vice President Dick Cheney
Just goes to show you: you shouldn't let Jesus anywhere near foreign policy.
"These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek." -former Vice President Dick Cheney
Just goes to show you: you shouldn't let Jesus anywhere near foreign policy.
1.20.2009
An Inaugural Prayer
Gracious God, you surprise us with your presence in various ways, and it is a delight to us. On this day, we are most grateful for your reflection seen in the processes of reconciliation, through which you provide the chance for us to not only draw near to you, but also to become closer to each other.
We rejoice that in this country where people of color, defamed as inhuman, once were the victims of a “compromise” that assigned them the value of three-fifths of a person, that today four-fifths of people approve of the incoming administration of the nation’s first African-American president.
We give thanks that, in a place where scarcely forty-five years ago African-Americans ordered from separate lunch counters and used separate water fountains, that today an African-American person (scarcely forty-five years old) became president for all Americans, of every race, color, religion and orientation.
And we give thanks to you that, in spite of the mistakes of the past and the challenges of the present, that you have allowed us to take advantage of this one opportunity to be reconciled to each other, to acknowledge our common sisterhood and brotherhood in you.
Bless the outgoing president, George W. Bush. Give him aid to do good in your name as he returns to private life. Forgive his transgressions, as you are gracious to all of us in our own, and teach him your ways aright.
Bless President Barack Obama, that his administration might work, by your grace, to fulfill the hopes of many in working for fairer markets, more transparent government, and, most importantly, the common good.
Bless us all to do your will, and give us the courage and the strength to proclaim your grace to all the world. Despite our perceived differences along whatever lines, help us to break through those barriers in the name of your justice and your compassion. And give us the wisdom to ask the right questions: when we think of this day, help us not to ask “Where else could this happen?” so much as we ask, “By who else’s grace could we have come this far?”
With thanks in our hearts for that grace, we pray in the name of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Ghost, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
We rejoice that in this country where people of color, defamed as inhuman, once were the victims of a “compromise” that assigned them the value of three-fifths of a person, that today four-fifths of people approve of the incoming administration of the nation’s first African-American president.
We give thanks that, in a place where scarcely forty-five years ago African-Americans ordered from separate lunch counters and used separate water fountains, that today an African-American person (scarcely forty-five years old) became president for all Americans, of every race, color, religion and orientation.
And we give thanks to you that, in spite of the mistakes of the past and the challenges of the present, that you have allowed us to take advantage of this one opportunity to be reconciled to each other, to acknowledge our common sisterhood and brotherhood in you.
Bless the outgoing president, George W. Bush. Give him aid to do good in your name as he returns to private life. Forgive his transgressions, as you are gracious to all of us in our own, and teach him your ways aright.
Bless President Barack Obama, that his administration might work, by your grace, to fulfill the hopes of many in working for fairer markets, more transparent government, and, most importantly, the common good.
Bless us all to do your will, and give us the courage and the strength to proclaim your grace to all the world. Despite our perceived differences along whatever lines, help us to break through those barriers in the name of your justice and your compassion. And give us the wisdom to ask the right questions: when we think of this day, help us not to ask “Where else could this happen?” so much as we ask, “By who else’s grace could we have come this far?”
With thanks in our hearts for that grace, we pray in the name of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Ghost, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
12.16.2008
Bethlehem
Bethlehem is not the place to look
If you’re looking for a Messiah.
It’s not that it’s a bad place necessarily
(Certainly not as bad as Nazareth);
It’s just that Bethlehem isn’t notable.
David was born there, but that was a long time ago,
And if you are going to have any power now,
You’d better come from Jerusalem.
If you’re looking for a military coup, you go to Jerusalem.
If you’re looking for a high priest, you go to Jerusalem.
If you’re looking for someone to follow, you go to Jerusalem.
Bethlehem, it’s a cute little town, but you just know not to expect too much.
No one from Bethlehem believes they can grow up to be a leader anymore.
David came from Bethlehem, but no one since.
No great kings. No great priests. No great prophets.
It’s just a little mill town in the work-a-day world. Nothing fancy.
Nobody really believes that peace and redemption will go out from Bethlehem.
But it will.
If you’re looking for a Messiah.
It’s not that it’s a bad place necessarily
(Certainly not as bad as Nazareth);
It’s just that Bethlehem isn’t notable.
David was born there, but that was a long time ago,
And if you are going to have any power now,
You’d better come from Jerusalem.
If you’re looking for a military coup, you go to Jerusalem.
If you’re looking for a high priest, you go to Jerusalem.
If you’re looking for someone to follow, you go to Jerusalem.
Bethlehem, it’s a cute little town, but you just know not to expect too much.
No one from Bethlehem believes they can grow up to be a leader anymore.
David came from Bethlehem, but no one since.
No great kings. No great priests. No great prophets.
It’s just a little mill town in the work-a-day world. Nothing fancy.
Nobody really believes that peace and redemption will go out from Bethlehem.
But it will.
12.09.2008
Advent Hope
Click here for a link to Isaiah 40:1-11, the text for this devotional.
It’s hard to see God coming when you’re in captivity.
Ask the Hebrew people. Sitting in Babylon, enslaved by their enemies, trying to figure out what happened, and how their God let it happen. Trying to be faithful even though their temple has been destroyed and their religion itself is trying to grapple with the harsh realities of a harsh world. Ask the children of Israel whether pithy little slogans about sweet by-and-by and I’ll fly away have any meaning in a strange land, oppressed by a strange people, wondering whether there will ever again be reason to hope.
It’s hard to see God coming when you’re in captivity.
And then all of a sudden, there’s a voice out of nowhere. “Comfort, O comfort my people,” says God. God is going to raise them up. God is going to bring them out. It’s going to be a departure of such great magnitude that God’s messengers are even going to go out in front, level the ground, fill in the potholes and pave the road, so that God’s people can walk home on a highway instead of hiking home through the wilderness. Every valley will be exalted, every mountain made low, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people shall see it together. God is coming to put things right. Praise God.
It’s hard to see God coming when you’re in captivity.
Ask the world today. Losing homes because of a global recession, or not having ever had a home to start with. Losing property, possessions, family members, and lives in violent confrontations around the globe. Being crushed underneath the wheels of a huge machine of global capitalism that is powered by greed and desire…or being the people driving the huge machine and forced into patterns of greed and desire in order to keep the machine running. Being in slavery, whether slavery for labor or sex slavery or debt slavery. Waking up and going to sleep wondering whether the children will starve to death tomorrow or the next day.
It’s hard to see God coming when you’re in captivity.
And then all of a sudden, there’s a voice out of nowhere. “Comfort, O comfort my people,” says God. God is building a highway through the wilderness, and even though it doesn’t look like it right now, all God’s children are going to be able to walk down it to a place where there is only love and peace. There’s something going on in Bethlehem, and you can’t exactly see yet what’s going to happen because of it, but you can bet that the glory of the Lord has something to do with it. It’s happened before, and now it’s happening again. God is coming to set things right.
God is coming.
Christmas is coming.
Praise God.
It’s hard to see God coming when you’re in captivity.
Ask the Hebrew people. Sitting in Babylon, enslaved by their enemies, trying to figure out what happened, and how their God let it happen. Trying to be faithful even though their temple has been destroyed and their religion itself is trying to grapple with the harsh realities of a harsh world. Ask the children of Israel whether pithy little slogans about sweet by-and-by and I’ll fly away have any meaning in a strange land, oppressed by a strange people, wondering whether there will ever again be reason to hope.
It’s hard to see God coming when you’re in captivity.
And then all of a sudden, there’s a voice out of nowhere. “Comfort, O comfort my people,” says God. God is going to raise them up. God is going to bring them out. It’s going to be a departure of such great magnitude that God’s messengers are even going to go out in front, level the ground, fill in the potholes and pave the road, so that God’s people can walk home on a highway instead of hiking home through the wilderness. Every valley will be exalted, every mountain made low, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all people shall see it together. God is coming to put things right. Praise God.
It’s hard to see God coming when you’re in captivity.
Ask the world today. Losing homes because of a global recession, or not having ever had a home to start with. Losing property, possessions, family members, and lives in violent confrontations around the globe. Being crushed underneath the wheels of a huge machine of global capitalism that is powered by greed and desire…or being the people driving the huge machine and forced into patterns of greed and desire in order to keep the machine running. Being in slavery, whether slavery for labor or sex slavery or debt slavery. Waking up and going to sleep wondering whether the children will starve to death tomorrow or the next day.
It’s hard to see God coming when you’re in captivity.
And then all of a sudden, there’s a voice out of nowhere. “Comfort, O comfort my people,” says God. God is building a highway through the wilderness, and even though it doesn’t look like it right now, all God’s children are going to be able to walk down it to a place where there is only love and peace. There’s something going on in Bethlehem, and you can’t exactly see yet what’s going to happen because of it, but you can bet that the glory of the Lord has something to do with it. It’s happened before, and now it’s happening again. God is coming to set things right.
God is coming.
Christmas is coming.
Praise God.
11.26.2008
"The Cold Within"
An amazing poem that was shared as part of the homily at the West End Interfaith Thanksgiving Service last night. More Thanksgiving meditation to follow, but this is enough to contemplate for now:
Six humans trapped by happenstance,
In black and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood,
Or so the story’s told.
Their dying fire in need of logs,
The first woman held hers back,
For on the faces around the fire,
She noticed one was black.
The next man looking ’cross the way
Saw one not of his church,
And couldn’t bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes;
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store,
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.
The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight,
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.
And the last man of this forlorn group
Did naught, except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave,
Was how he played the game.
The logs held tight in death’s still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from the cold without.
They died from the cold within.
-James Patrick Kinney
Gracious God, shine on us and warm our hearts that we might boldly love without regard to nation, race, language, orientation or affiliation. With gladness and hope let us welcome your kingdom as the focus of our lives, giving thanks to you at all times and in all places for the redemption of the world through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Six humans trapped by happenstance,
In black and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood,
Or so the story’s told.
Their dying fire in need of logs,
The first woman held hers back,
For on the faces around the fire,
She noticed one was black.
The next man looking ’cross the way
Saw one not of his church,
And couldn’t bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes;
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store,
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy, shiftless poor.
The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight,
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.
And the last man of this forlorn group
Did naught, except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave,
Was how he played the game.
The logs held tight in death’s still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from the cold without.
They died from the cold within.
-James Patrick Kinney
Gracious God, shine on us and warm our hearts that we might boldly love without regard to nation, race, language, orientation or affiliation. With gladness and hope let us welcome your kingdom as the focus of our lives, giving thanks to you at all times and in all places for the redemption of the world through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
11.05.2008
The kingdom of heaven doesn't need our votes...it just needs US.
Twelve hours out now from the end of the presidential election, this is what I see:
I give glory to God that God has made it possible for a country that scarcely fifty years ago was segregated, and had an utterly evil record on race relations, to this year elect an African-American president. I think that President-elect Obama is a good man who will try his best to do what he thinks is best. I do not, however, believe that the answers to the world's problems, or the hope of any country for that matter, rests in a political candidate or a political party. I think hope rests in God and in God's son Jesus Christ, because through Jesus, God is drawing all people into one humanity. That is what I understand to be one of the central tenets of the Christian faith.
Having said that, I am reminded yet again this election cycle of how many people think that God somehow needs a political party in order to see God's will accomplished. Contrary to the belief of many of the Facebook comments I've seen over the last twelve hours, God does not chair the Republican National Committee. And contrary to the belief of many Obama supporters with whom I've spoken, Barack Obama is not a messianic figure. He's just another candidate. Good man. But just a candidate.
Amazing, isn't it, that the Christian church in America (particularly so the evangelical wing) is quick to proclaim an all-powerful God, but just as quick to proclaim gloom and doom when "the other guy" wins. It's equally amazing for these same people, who believe that God has a hand in everything that happens to quickly place an asterisk and footnote at the bottom: "except for the election of President-elect Obama."
"These are hard times" has become the mantra for this election. But the world has always seen hard times. There is always war. There is always poverty. There has never been a time when things were perfect everywhere. The job of the Christian church is not to attack the candidate they disagree with and then mope for four years until next election (I've already heard the newest tack: "1/13/09, the end of an error." Cute.) The job of the Christian church is to get out of our collective plush religious armchair and live out the Gospel. Feed the poor. Heal the sick. House the homeless. Give a child a cup of water. These are real solutions; these are solutions that Jesus endorses. God can use each one of us to do good, just as God can use President-elect Obama to do good.
God doesn't need one person or the other in the White House. God just needs people to live in the kingdom of heaven. In God's kingdom, there is no partisan bickering. There are no elections to see whose will will be done for the next four years. In God's kingdom, results are measured not in votes cast or exit polls, but in people fed, clothed, and told the good news that God is saving the world through Jesus Christ. And that, dear sisters and brothers, is change we can believe in.
Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.
Amen.
I give glory to God that God has made it possible for a country that scarcely fifty years ago was segregated, and had an utterly evil record on race relations, to this year elect an African-American president. I think that President-elect Obama is a good man who will try his best to do what he thinks is best. I do not, however, believe that the answers to the world's problems, or the hope of any country for that matter, rests in a political candidate or a political party. I think hope rests in God and in God's son Jesus Christ, because through Jesus, God is drawing all people into one humanity. That is what I understand to be one of the central tenets of the Christian faith.
Having said that, I am reminded yet again this election cycle of how many people think that God somehow needs a political party in order to see God's will accomplished. Contrary to the belief of many of the Facebook comments I've seen over the last twelve hours, God does not chair the Republican National Committee. And contrary to the belief of many Obama supporters with whom I've spoken, Barack Obama is not a messianic figure. He's just another candidate. Good man. But just a candidate.
Amazing, isn't it, that the Christian church in America (particularly so the evangelical wing) is quick to proclaim an all-powerful God, but just as quick to proclaim gloom and doom when "the other guy" wins. It's equally amazing for these same people, who believe that God has a hand in everything that happens to quickly place an asterisk and footnote at the bottom: "except for the election of President-elect Obama."
"These are hard times" has become the mantra for this election. But the world has always seen hard times. There is always war. There is always poverty. There has never been a time when things were perfect everywhere. The job of the Christian church is not to attack the candidate they disagree with and then mope for four years until next election (I've already heard the newest tack: "1/13/09, the end of an error." Cute.) The job of the Christian church is to get out of our collective plush religious armchair and live out the Gospel. Feed the poor. Heal the sick. House the homeless. Give a child a cup of water. These are real solutions; these are solutions that Jesus endorses. God can use each one of us to do good, just as God can use President-elect Obama to do good.
God doesn't need one person or the other in the White House. God just needs people to live in the kingdom of heaven. In God's kingdom, there is no partisan bickering. There are no elections to see whose will will be done for the next four years. In God's kingdom, results are measured not in votes cast or exit polls, but in people fed, clothed, and told the good news that God is saving the world through Jesus Christ. And that, dear sisters and brothers, is change we can believe in.
Our Father, who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.
Amen.
11.04.2008
Prayer for Peace
My prayer for peace in our world, at the end of this election cycle. It needs not know who the new president is, for this prayer means the same either way:
Lord of Hosts and God of Love,
We praise you this day that you have not burdened us with making things come out right.
And yet so often, out of desperation for security and in fits of unbelief, we set out to do that which is impossible, to make things come out right.
So often, we beat our plowshares into swords and go out to kill in the name of peace.
So often, we pound our pruning hooks into spears and attack our brothers and sisters in the name of justice and truth.
And so often, trusting in our warfare to accomplish our purposes, we forget that plowshares and pruning hooks are the very weapons you give us: weapons against hunger and thirst and disease rather than against flesh and blood and humanity.
Forgive us, good Lord, when we fail to see that you are the one to set this world right, or worse, when we do see that agenda and still fail to get behind it.
Redeem us, good Lord, from violence, warfare, malice, envy, pride, and every thing that causes us to respect our own self-interest over the needs of others.
And open our eyes, good Lord, that we may see your work in this world, labors of love and compassion and kindness, and so spend our days bearing witness to our Lord Jesus instead of hiding him under a bushel, or a platitude, or an armored vehicle.
We pray this in the name of Jesus our Lord, the Prince of Peace, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
Lord of Hosts and God of Love,
We praise you this day that you have not burdened us with making things come out right.
And yet so often, out of desperation for security and in fits of unbelief, we set out to do that which is impossible, to make things come out right.
So often, we beat our plowshares into swords and go out to kill in the name of peace.
So often, we pound our pruning hooks into spears and attack our brothers and sisters in the name of justice and truth.
And so often, trusting in our warfare to accomplish our purposes, we forget that plowshares and pruning hooks are the very weapons you give us: weapons against hunger and thirst and disease rather than against flesh and blood and humanity.
Forgive us, good Lord, when we fail to see that you are the one to set this world right, or worse, when we do see that agenda and still fail to get behind it.
Redeem us, good Lord, from violence, warfare, malice, envy, pride, and every thing that causes us to respect our own self-interest over the needs of others.
And open our eyes, good Lord, that we may see your work in this world, labors of love and compassion and kindness, and so spend our days bearing witness to our Lord Jesus instead of hiding him under a bushel, or a platitude, or an armored vehicle.
We pray this in the name of Jesus our Lord, the Prince of Peace, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
10.30.2008
Labels...and tables
It’s five days before Election Day, and one needs not search too far to find the reasons for one of Mark Twain’s many poignant quotes: “If we would learn what the human race really is at bottom, we need only observe it in election times.” A cynic, many called Twain. A delightful realist, I call him.
But surely, in the midst of the muck and mire of electoral politics, the guerrilla warfare that has come to characterize campaigning, the “politics of personal destruction,” or whatever terminology best suits the frenzied process in which we find ourselves, surely there is something to be learned. I’m just having a terribly hard time finding any redemptive lesson here at all. Or at least I was, until I was in that dreamy state right before falling asleep last night. Then it came to me.
The thing I have learned is this: elections don’t work without labels. For example, it’s not enough to vote for Senator Obama on principle or policy. Fervent Obama supporters all know that they would be crazy to vote for McCain because he is “old,” or “crazy,” or a “warmonger,” and because Governor Palin is “ignorant,” “inexperienced,” “dangerous.” Likewise, every good religious conservative knows that Barack “Hussein” Obama is “a Muslim,” “socialist”, and a potential “domestic terrorist.” And the hits just keep on coming.
I’m trying to imagine an election without these labels. I’m trying to imagine an election where issues, crises, and proposals can be discussed reasonably, acknowledging disagreements in worldview and perspective while agreeing together to work for good. I’m trying to imagine this but I can’t. The election wouldn’t work. People wouldn’t be whipped into a righteous indignation and be willing to light torches and crusade against “the other party.” It wouldn’t be American politics.
If only there were a place where people could talk, put differences aside and abandon rhetoric for acts of love and kindness. If only sisters and brothers from any party, any country, any ideology, could gather to talk and eat together instead of simply biting and devouring each other. If only the “kitchen table” were not simply another knot on the campaign stump speeches, but an actual honest-to-God place to sit and talk and be family.
I think this is what Jesus meant for us when he gave us the beautiful model of the table. It’s a place where we can peel off the labels that the world sticks on us and substitute them for real, substantive conversation about our needs, our joys, our visions for the world. We can circumvent the all-too-convenient process of relegating people who are “different from us” to categories and generalizations, so that we don’t have to deal with them on a personal level. We don’t have to be a Pharisee, a scribe, a Zealot or a tax-collector. We don’t have to be a rich, arrogant conservative or a bleeding heart, traitorous liberal. All we have to do is sit down and share a meal with one another. Jesus is at the head of the table, and God has invited all the world to share God’s feast. For in Jesus, God is making one new humanity. In Christ, all the world have become brothers and sisters. And the whole family can come sit around God’s table. And there is enough for everyone. And there are no labels, just love. How heavenly.
Glory to you, Lord Christ…and please pass the bread and wine.
But surely, in the midst of the muck and mire of electoral politics, the guerrilla warfare that has come to characterize campaigning, the “politics of personal destruction,” or whatever terminology best suits the frenzied process in which we find ourselves, surely there is something to be learned. I’m just having a terribly hard time finding any redemptive lesson here at all. Or at least I was, until I was in that dreamy state right before falling asleep last night. Then it came to me.
The thing I have learned is this: elections don’t work without labels. For example, it’s not enough to vote for Senator Obama on principle or policy. Fervent Obama supporters all know that they would be crazy to vote for McCain because he is “old,” or “crazy,” or a “warmonger,” and because Governor Palin is “ignorant,” “inexperienced,” “dangerous.” Likewise, every good religious conservative knows that Barack “Hussein” Obama is “a Muslim,” “socialist”, and a potential “domestic terrorist.” And the hits just keep on coming.
I’m trying to imagine an election without these labels. I’m trying to imagine an election where issues, crises, and proposals can be discussed reasonably, acknowledging disagreements in worldview and perspective while agreeing together to work for good. I’m trying to imagine this but I can’t. The election wouldn’t work. People wouldn’t be whipped into a righteous indignation and be willing to light torches and crusade against “the other party.” It wouldn’t be American politics.
If only there were a place where people could talk, put differences aside and abandon rhetoric for acts of love and kindness. If only sisters and brothers from any party, any country, any ideology, could gather to talk and eat together instead of simply biting and devouring each other. If only the “kitchen table” were not simply another knot on the campaign stump speeches, but an actual honest-to-God place to sit and talk and be family.
I think this is what Jesus meant for us when he gave us the beautiful model of the table. It’s a place where we can peel off the labels that the world sticks on us and substitute them for real, substantive conversation about our needs, our joys, our visions for the world. We can circumvent the all-too-convenient process of relegating people who are “different from us” to categories and generalizations, so that we don’t have to deal with them on a personal level. We don’t have to be a Pharisee, a scribe, a Zealot or a tax-collector. We don’t have to be a rich, arrogant conservative or a bleeding heart, traitorous liberal. All we have to do is sit down and share a meal with one another. Jesus is at the head of the table, and God has invited all the world to share God’s feast. For in Jesus, God is making one new humanity. In Christ, all the world have become brothers and sisters. And the whole family can come sit around God’s table. And there is enough for everyone. And there are no labels, just love. How heavenly.
Glory to you, Lord Christ…and please pass the bread and wine.
10.08.2008
Prayer for Redemption
A prayer based on this week's readings from the lectionary (Proper 23, Revised Common Lectionary):
Gracious God,
That we are in constant need of your presence and your grace is a reality of which we are keenly aware and yet a reality of which we are all too forgetful. So often, we delight not in the good gifts by which you have blessed our lives – gifts of warmth, love, and grace – but in our own passions and desires.
When we do this, O Lord, we are familiar with the darkness that is cast across our lives – a darkness that comes not from the turning of your face away from us but from the turning of our own faces, in attempted secrecy or in debilitating shame, away from you. Your face, Lord God, is a delight to us, as a parent’s face to her young child, and when we lose sight of it, we are lost indeed.
Forgive us, gracious Lord, when we exchange our own wants for your glorious will.
Redeem us, merciful Savior, from those things over which we ourselves are hopeless to triumph.
Convince us, wise God, that you never leave us, not in our darkest hour or our deepest valley.
Turn us, loving Shepherd, into the ways of righteousness and peace, so that we might not make gods for ourselves to worship them, seeking our own gratification.
Recast us, powerful Creator, into different persons – persons that do not exploit our fellow-people as objects, but rather persons who bring you glory and honor by respecting, loving, and serving all our brothers and sisters.
In that day, O Lord, will we sing as did the prophet Isaiah: “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
In the name of our Redeemer Jesus, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God in glory everlasting. Amen
Gracious God,
That we are in constant need of your presence and your grace is a reality of which we are keenly aware and yet a reality of which we are all too forgetful. So often, we delight not in the good gifts by which you have blessed our lives – gifts of warmth, love, and grace – but in our own passions and desires.
When we do this, O Lord, we are familiar with the darkness that is cast across our lives – a darkness that comes not from the turning of your face away from us but from the turning of our own faces, in attempted secrecy or in debilitating shame, away from you. Your face, Lord God, is a delight to us, as a parent’s face to her young child, and when we lose sight of it, we are lost indeed.
Forgive us, gracious Lord, when we exchange our own wants for your glorious will.
Redeem us, merciful Savior, from those things over which we ourselves are hopeless to triumph.
Convince us, wise God, that you never leave us, not in our darkest hour or our deepest valley.
Turn us, loving Shepherd, into the ways of righteousness and peace, so that we might not make gods for ourselves to worship them, seeking our own gratification.
Recast us, powerful Creator, into different persons – persons that do not exploit our fellow-people as objects, but rather persons who bring you glory and honor by respecting, loving, and serving all our brothers and sisters.
In that day, O Lord, will we sing as did the prophet Isaiah: “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
In the name of our Redeemer Jesus, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God in glory everlasting. Amen
9.25.2008
Heaven and Hell
"In hell, people starve because their hands are chained to six-foot-long chopsticks, too long to bring the rice to their mouths. Heaven is the same, only there, people feed each other." - Vietnamese proverb
Wow.
Wow.
9.19.2008
Thanks Be to Thee
Dear people of God,
Our choral anthem for worship at Vine Street this week was “Thanks be to Thee,” a beautiful and moving setting of a familiar Handelian melody, whose lyrics are:
Thanks be to thee, Lord God of Hosts
Thou broughtest forth with mighty hand Israel, safe through the sea
Lord, thou hast led us as a shepherd
Lord, with thine hand tenderly in ages past thy people hast led
Emotion is ever more potent when set to music, and so it positively gives a chill to think in this way about the reaction of the Israelites to the triumphant climax of the exodus narrative. The Red Sea parts to allow their safe passage from the land of slavery to the land of promise, only to collapse on and swallow up the pursuing Egyptian army. Thanks be to thee, O Lord: the children of God are safe on the other side. But as Thomas, our pastor, observed during the service, the people dry on the riverbank were the fortunate children of God. But the Egyptians, drowned in the sea, were also the children of God.
We humans tend to align ourselves in groups fairly quickly. Let’s face it: it’s nice to be able to pal around with a group of people that you know you are a part of. It gives a rush to be an exclusive club, a special clique, a “chosen few.” After all, we all want to belong. And when we find the group where we belong, we cling to it voraciously. It’s nice to be part of an “us.”
But that’s not where it ends. For too often, “us” becomes a pronoun of separation rather than inclusion. “Them” against “us” is a dynamic with which we are all too familiar, because it is an all-too-human tendency. So when we speak of the “people of God,” it’s altogether obvious which people we’re talking about … the people of God are “us,” not “them.”
When this happens, we lose the vision of the Hebrew prophets about the new world that God is creating:
“In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say,
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” - Isaiah 2
We forget this. Our testimony as the church is that God has created a new humanity in Jesus Christ. But too often, we revert to the traditional “them” and “us” mentality, forgetting that we all are children of God. There certainly is something special about following our Lord Jesus, but we ought never forget that God’s love for others is no less simply because they are different than we are, whether the difference is ethnic, political, social, or religious. God is looking forward to the time when all of humanity comes together to the mountain of the Lord to live with God.
When the Israelites had safely crossed the Red Sea, they sang praises to God for rescuing them from their aggressor. But the Talmud, as Thomas also pointed out, contains a midrash (commentary) about the exodus story: as the Israelites are singing, the angels begin to sing with them. But God says to the angels, “My children are drowning in the sea, and you are singing songs?!?!”
The love of God recognizes no “us” and “them.” Our God is a God who loves without boundary. Whether Israelite or Egyptian, Samaritan or Pharisee, American or Iraqi, Republican or Democrat, Christian or Muslim or anything else, we are all beloved children of God. Thanks be to thee, Lord God of hosts … for that. Amen.
Our choral anthem for worship at Vine Street this week was “Thanks be to Thee,” a beautiful and moving setting of a familiar Handelian melody, whose lyrics are:
Thanks be to thee, Lord God of Hosts
Thou broughtest forth with mighty hand Israel, safe through the sea
Lord, thou hast led us as a shepherd
Lord, with thine hand tenderly in ages past thy people hast led
Emotion is ever more potent when set to music, and so it positively gives a chill to think in this way about the reaction of the Israelites to the triumphant climax of the exodus narrative. The Red Sea parts to allow their safe passage from the land of slavery to the land of promise, only to collapse on and swallow up the pursuing Egyptian army. Thanks be to thee, O Lord: the children of God are safe on the other side. But as Thomas, our pastor, observed during the service, the people dry on the riverbank were the fortunate children of God. But the Egyptians, drowned in the sea, were also the children of God.
We humans tend to align ourselves in groups fairly quickly. Let’s face it: it’s nice to be able to pal around with a group of people that you know you are a part of. It gives a rush to be an exclusive club, a special clique, a “chosen few.” After all, we all want to belong. And when we find the group where we belong, we cling to it voraciously. It’s nice to be part of an “us.”
But that’s not where it ends. For too often, “us” becomes a pronoun of separation rather than inclusion. “Them” against “us” is a dynamic with which we are all too familiar, because it is an all-too-human tendency. So when we speak of the “people of God,” it’s altogether obvious which people we’re talking about … the people of God are “us,” not “them.”
When this happens, we lose the vision of the Hebrew prophets about the new world that God is creating:
“In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; all the nations shall stream to it. Many peoples shall come and say,
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” - Isaiah 2
We forget this. Our testimony as the church is that God has created a new humanity in Jesus Christ. But too often, we revert to the traditional “them” and “us” mentality, forgetting that we all are children of God. There certainly is something special about following our Lord Jesus, but we ought never forget that God’s love for others is no less simply because they are different than we are, whether the difference is ethnic, political, social, or religious. God is looking forward to the time when all of humanity comes together to the mountain of the Lord to live with God.
When the Israelites had safely crossed the Red Sea, they sang praises to God for rescuing them from their aggressor. But the Talmud, as Thomas also pointed out, contains a midrash (commentary) about the exodus story: as the Israelites are singing, the angels begin to sing with them. But God says to the angels, “My children are drowning in the sea, and you are singing songs?!?!”
The love of God recognizes no “us” and “them.” Our God is a God who loves without boundary. Whether Israelite or Egyptian, Samaritan or Pharisee, American or Iraqi, Republican or Democrat, Christian or Muslim or anything else, we are all beloved children of God. Thanks be to thee, Lord God of hosts … for that. Amen.
9.13.2008
Gated Community
The apartment community in which my wife and I live is now officially a "gated community." Although it took approximately four months longer than expected to accomplish this task, we have now joined the growing ranks of those who live in exclusive human preserves, with honest-to-goodness gates at all entrances and exits to keep out those who don't belong.
It is a great feeling of freedom, you know...to be able to leave knowing that after the gate closes behind me, all of my things are safe inside, locked away from the world. It is the assurance that we can go to bed at night knowing that we are separated from "the others" by imitation wrought-iron gates, which guarantee us the safety that we DESERVE. Or at least this is the theory.
So imagine my surprise when in a surreal moment tonight, I realized that these gates have actually TAKEN something from us. Now I know it seems like the ideal situation, to live safely behind these gates, but here's the dilemma: until the gates started clanging shut, I never worried about who was driving into our apartment complex. It never occurred to me that someone "didn't belong" until the first time I saw someone tailgating behind someone else into the complex to save the 15 seconds that waiting on the gate to close and re-open would have required. And then I thought to myself, "What does that person think they are doing? This is a gated community. If they have a key, they should wait. And if they don't, they have no business here. A natural reaction, I should say, to watching someone circumvent my new security system.
But what is it about barriers, about walls, about deadbolts and window locks, that takes away both our trust in others and our freedom to not worry about OUR STUFF? Why is it that I never thought about who was coming in the entrance to our apartments...until they had to enter through the gate? And it must be this, I think. It must be that at the moment we take advantage of gates and locks and bolts, we begin to realize just how important OUR STUFF is. And after that realization, we simply refuse to return to a time when we did not think to worry about who does and does not belong near OUR STUFF.
We refuse because we are fixated on preventing thieves who would "break in and steal."
Now if we could just do something about the moths and the rust.
"...for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." -Jesus
It is a great feeling of freedom, you know...to be able to leave knowing that after the gate closes behind me, all of my things are safe inside, locked away from the world. It is the assurance that we can go to bed at night knowing that we are separated from "the others" by imitation wrought-iron gates, which guarantee us the safety that we DESERVE. Or at least this is the theory.
So imagine my surprise when in a surreal moment tonight, I realized that these gates have actually TAKEN something from us. Now I know it seems like the ideal situation, to live safely behind these gates, but here's the dilemma: until the gates started clanging shut, I never worried about who was driving into our apartment complex. It never occurred to me that someone "didn't belong" until the first time I saw someone tailgating behind someone else into the complex to save the 15 seconds that waiting on the gate to close and re-open would have required. And then I thought to myself, "What does that person think they are doing? This is a gated community. If they have a key, they should wait. And if they don't, they have no business here. A natural reaction, I should say, to watching someone circumvent my new security system.
But what is it about barriers, about walls, about deadbolts and window locks, that takes away both our trust in others and our freedom to not worry about OUR STUFF? Why is it that I never thought about who was coming in the entrance to our apartments...until they had to enter through the gate? And it must be this, I think. It must be that at the moment we take advantage of gates and locks and bolts, we begin to realize just how important OUR STUFF is. And after that realization, we simply refuse to return to a time when we did not think to worry about who does and does not belong near OUR STUFF.
We refuse because we are fixated on preventing thieves who would "break in and steal."
Now if we could just do something about the moths and the rust.
"...for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." -Jesus
9.11.2008
Vengeance – or Jesus?
The epistle reading for this week from the Revised Common Lectionary is Romans 13:8-14:
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
“Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
Powerful words, particularly when considered in the context of this week in American history. Seven years ago today, a group of men carried out a plot to fly airplanes into strategic American monuments. It was, to paraphrase FDR, a day that constantly lives in infamy, especially given the presidential politics of this election season.
It was wrong. It was evil. It was a horrible act of terrible proportions committed by a group of people convinced that their God was calling them to kill. What could possibly cause something like this?
Is it the fact that Muslims and Christians have been killing each other over “religion” for hundreds of years? Yes, but more than that. Is it that America has wrapped the cross in the American flag until you can’t tell one from the other, until the loving God of Jesus Christ has actually been perverted into just another civil god of war? Yes, but further than that. Is it that the United States, the world’s most wealthy and powerful “superpower,” continues to propagate a global model of commerce that props up a few thousand of us in luxury at the expense of billions of people who live in abject poverty the world over? Yes, but even deeper than that. I propose that the cause of September 11, and of other terrible incidents throughout time and all over the world, is the quest for vengeance.
There is something in the human spirit that cries out for justice. This is heard throughout the Scriptures, and mirrored throughout life…people say, “that’s not fair” or “that’s not right,” and we recognize that bad things happen. But along with that positive yearning for justice often comes the desire to get justice for ourselves, whatever the cost. This, too, is seen in the Scriptures…and usually with negative consequences. It is called vengeance.
Saint Paul addressed exactly this in quoting the Hebrew Scriptures just a few verses before the selected reading: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Saint Paul knew something about vengeance, and that is this: it never stops. It is an endless cycle of rage and violence that ultimately ends in harm for all. Because if you decide to take vengeance for yourself, it can only be expected that the party against which you have a grievance will do the same. And you think you’re right, and he thinks he’s right, and round and round it goes. This is directly contrary to the way of Jesus, who forgave even those who nailed him to the cross. For Jesus, an enemy was not a person to be killed, but rather a child of God in need of love and grace.
For America, the question of how to respond to September 11 is a hard one, fraught with geopolitical challenges and political obstacles. But for the Christian church in America, the answer for how to respond to September 11 is not open for debate, at least according to St. Paul…and Jesus. The church is to love and not repay evil; to care for enemies and not kill them; to not let evil distort our Christian mission, but to overcome it with kindness. For as Saint Paul says, “the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
This is no time to resort to works of darkness such as hatred, bloodshed, and warfare. This is the time to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” – even…nay, especially…vengeance.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
“Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
Powerful words, particularly when considered in the context of this week in American history. Seven years ago today, a group of men carried out a plot to fly airplanes into strategic American monuments. It was, to paraphrase FDR, a day that constantly lives in infamy, especially given the presidential politics of this election season.
It was wrong. It was evil. It was a horrible act of terrible proportions committed by a group of people convinced that their God was calling them to kill. What could possibly cause something like this?
Is it the fact that Muslims and Christians have been killing each other over “religion” for hundreds of years? Yes, but more than that. Is it that America has wrapped the cross in the American flag until you can’t tell one from the other, until the loving God of Jesus Christ has actually been perverted into just another civil god of war? Yes, but further than that. Is it that the United States, the world’s most wealthy and powerful “superpower,” continues to propagate a global model of commerce that props up a few thousand of us in luxury at the expense of billions of people who live in abject poverty the world over? Yes, but even deeper than that. I propose that the cause of September 11, and of other terrible incidents throughout time and all over the world, is the quest for vengeance.
There is something in the human spirit that cries out for justice. This is heard throughout the Scriptures, and mirrored throughout life…people say, “that’s not fair” or “that’s not right,” and we recognize that bad things happen. But along with that positive yearning for justice often comes the desire to get justice for ourselves, whatever the cost. This, too, is seen in the Scriptures…and usually with negative consequences. It is called vengeance.
Saint Paul addressed exactly this in quoting the Hebrew Scriptures just a few verses before the selected reading: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’ No, ‘if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Saint Paul knew something about vengeance, and that is this: it never stops. It is an endless cycle of rage and violence that ultimately ends in harm for all. Because if you decide to take vengeance for yourself, it can only be expected that the party against which you have a grievance will do the same. And you think you’re right, and he thinks he’s right, and round and round it goes. This is directly contrary to the way of Jesus, who forgave even those who nailed him to the cross. For Jesus, an enemy was not a person to be killed, but rather a child of God in need of love and grace.
For America, the question of how to respond to September 11 is a hard one, fraught with geopolitical challenges and political obstacles. But for the Christian church in America, the answer for how to respond to September 11 is not open for debate, at least according to St. Paul…and Jesus. The church is to love and not repay evil; to care for enemies and not kill them; to not let evil distort our Christian mission, but to overcome it with kindness. For as Saint Paul says, “the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.”
This is no time to resort to works of darkness such as hatred, bloodshed, and warfare. This is the time to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” – even…nay, especially…vengeance.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
"The War Prayer" by Mark Twain
After saying (READ IT!) I realized I could post the text of "The War Prayer" where you could...so here it is:
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.
Sunday morning came -- next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams -- visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation
*God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!*
Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory --
An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"
The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside -- which the startled minister did -- and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:
"I come from the Throne -- bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import -- that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of -- except he pause and think.
"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two -- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this -- keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.
"You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it -- that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the *whole* of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory--*must* follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.
(*After a pause.*) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"
It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.
It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.
Sunday morning came -- next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams -- visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation
*God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!*
Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory --
An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"
The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside -- which the startled minister did -- and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:
"I come from the Throne -- bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import -- that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of -- except he pause and think.
"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two -- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this -- keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.
"You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it -- that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the *whole* of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory--*must* follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!
"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.
(*After a pause.*) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"
It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.
On Political Maps and the Church
A friend of mine posted "The War Prayer" by Mark Twain on Facebook the other day (if you haven't read "The War Prayer," READ IT!) and has gotten numerous replies, a couple of which, from a Christian presently serving in the military, are frightening. This is the soldier's initial response:
"well, I have another prayer.
'Oh Lord, grant me fidelity and strength enough to do my duty, Protect my brothers, and fulfill my obligations. Lord let my rounds fly straight and true, and theirs run amiss. Oh mighty God of Gods, as they pray to their false god, ignore their heathen prayers.'"
This was so horrifying to me, I couldn't help but spend my two cents. So my response to the ensuing dialogue, which is probably the clearest synopsis so far of my Christian belief vis-a-vis geopolitical conflict, is as follows:
"Dear people of God,
At the beginning of the church, the early leaders believed without exception that participating in warfare was wrong. This was based not on high-minded ethical discussion or on educated Greco-Roman philosophy, but on the firm conviction that in Christ, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free...all are one in Christ Jesus." The tragic irony of the current ethical debate over Christians and warfare is that, by the time those who believe in Christian non-violence begin to argue pros and cons of Christians as soldiers, we have already conceded the argument.
The basic question to be addressed is this (simply put): Does the fact that you happened to be born in one region of the world separated from other regions by imaginary poliltical boundaries make it okay for you to commit warfare against others of God's children who happened to be born in another region? For when serving in the military, one certainly is "pledging allegiance" to a system built on nothing more than imaginary lines drawn on a map. Jesus of Nazareth would, I believe, be confused about why the Christian church accepts such a system of thought, because Jesus DIDN'T ACCEPT THE IMAGINARY LINES.
[Aforementioned soldier], to give yourself for something greater than yourself is noble, and I certainly pray for your safety, and for the safety of all involved in political conflicts around the world. The question is, when the God of Jesus Christ looks at the globe, does God see countries defined by imaginary lines worth killing over, or does God see a lot of children arguing over nothing?
Glory to God in the highest, and peace to people everywhere on earth."
It's not that I don't get why someone would want to be patriotic. It's not that I haven't experienced those nationalistic urges to defeat "the enemy" in the name of all that is "right and good." It is simply that, if the Christian church is to be true to its title, we must be prepared to accept our own catechism: that Jesus is powerful enough to bring all people together into one humanity, irrespective of political, national, or cultural affiliation. Otherwise, the focal point of our worship is not really the crucifix, the Scriptures, the table, or the Lord: it is whichever nation's flag under which we happen to be living.
Peace of Christ.
"well, I have another prayer.
'Oh Lord, grant me fidelity and strength enough to do my duty, Protect my brothers, and fulfill my obligations. Lord let my rounds fly straight and true, and theirs run amiss. Oh mighty God of Gods, as they pray to their false god, ignore their heathen prayers.'"
This was so horrifying to me, I couldn't help but spend my two cents. So my response to the ensuing dialogue, which is probably the clearest synopsis so far of my Christian belief vis-a-vis geopolitical conflict, is as follows:
"Dear people of God,
At the beginning of the church, the early leaders believed without exception that participating in warfare was wrong. This was based not on high-minded ethical discussion or on educated Greco-Roman philosophy, but on the firm conviction that in Christ, "there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free...all are one in Christ Jesus." The tragic irony of the current ethical debate over Christians and warfare is that, by the time those who believe in Christian non-violence begin to argue pros and cons of Christians as soldiers, we have already conceded the argument.
The basic question to be addressed is this (simply put): Does the fact that you happened to be born in one region of the world separated from other regions by imaginary poliltical boundaries make it okay for you to commit warfare against others of God's children who happened to be born in another region? For when serving in the military, one certainly is "pledging allegiance" to a system built on nothing more than imaginary lines drawn on a map. Jesus of Nazareth would, I believe, be confused about why the Christian church accepts such a system of thought, because Jesus DIDN'T ACCEPT THE IMAGINARY LINES.
[Aforementioned soldier], to give yourself for something greater than yourself is noble, and I certainly pray for your safety, and for the safety of all involved in political conflicts around the world. The question is, when the God of Jesus Christ looks at the globe, does God see countries defined by imaginary lines worth killing over, or does God see a lot of children arguing over nothing?
Glory to God in the highest, and peace to people everywhere on earth."
It's not that I don't get why someone would want to be patriotic. It's not that I haven't experienced those nationalistic urges to defeat "the enemy" in the name of all that is "right and good." It is simply that, if the Christian church is to be true to its title, we must be prepared to accept our own catechism: that Jesus is powerful enough to bring all people together into one humanity, irrespective of political, national, or cultural affiliation. Otherwise, the focal point of our worship is not really the crucifix, the Scriptures, the table, or the Lord: it is whichever nation's flag under which we happen to be living.
Peace of Christ.
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