Monthly Archives: August 2013

Working on the dream…MLK, Jr…50 years later…

28 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

,

UnknownAugust 28, 1963 – Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his beloved “I have a dream…” speech. Wow – 50 years ago! For many of us, it wasn’t simply a history class lesson. We were there to hear about it from television commentators, read about it in newspapers or listen to our parents talk about it around the dinner table. Some applauded Dr. King for his call to end racism. Others were less than positive. Worse yet, some reacted with total apathy.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.                                                                               Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

To many, his dream that his “four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” summarizes his message. He challenged a society to look past appearance and see others as God sees them. It contained a spiritual context and extended well beyond the ethnicity issues that continue to plagued our culture today.

Many don’t know that Dr. King was more than an American civil rights movement speaker.  He held a doctorate from Boston University in systematic theology and served as a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama. His message of love, acceptance and forgiveness was centered in his faith – a faith that he studied, lived, preached and offered to the nation.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality…I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.                                                                     

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.                                                           Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“To live together as brothers” resonates with the echo of God’s message as given to us through the living example of Jesus Christ. In all reality, to dig into Dr. King’s quotes is to dig into Christ’s message to us. It’s a message of love, hope, forgiveness and plain old getting along with others. It’s loving God enough that we instinctively love each other – even if they are different than we are. It’s taking the time to reach out to the woman at the well. (John 4:4-42) You know her. She’s, well…different. She’s a Samaritan, for crying out loud…a half-breed to the Hebrews. She’s been married 5 times and lives with a man to whom she is not married. She’s even shunned by the other  Samaritan women. She comes from the wrong city, has the wrong skin color, lives the wrong life and shouldn’t be noticed by a nice Jewish leader. What was Jesus thinking anyhow?

Have you seen her? Maybe…but maybe not. She remains with us today in many forms. Maybe it’s her skin color. It might be too light for some crowds, too dark for others. Maybe it’s her job, her family, or her nationality. Maybe it’s the way she thinks, her ability to do things or her deepest desires.  She might be liberal or conservative; bright or mentally challenged; straight or gay. Maybe she is not a woman, maybe she is a man or a child for “she” represents those who live outside of the acceptance and compassion given people who live up to the expectations of a culture. It happens when we see or hear something about and assign generalizations to an individual based on appearance or a singular event.

Look at it another way. What divides us? Politics and religion seem to have the corner on that market. We climb onto our pedestals assuming that our exclusive club is right and support that concept by making anything outside of our comfort zone “wrong”. We sink deeper and deeper into our perspectives until anything challenging our beliefs must be confronted, belittled, and defeated. Our boundaries become so pronounced that compromise appears as weakness, when in reality it should be the blending of the beauty in differing opinions to reach a solution which is better than either side could achieve on it’s own. It should be about compassion, about love, about looking at “the other” as part of God’s divine creation and treating them as if they matter. It’s about loving our neighbor as ourself…even if they don’t agree with us or look like us. And, it’s about navigating life in God’s creation as we embrace the good; discern what to speak out against; and generally grow in wisdom as we learn from each other.

I wonder what Dr. King would think if he were to join us for the day.

Reading scripture and mac and cheese…

22 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

The variety of macaroni and cheese options seems endless. For example, there is the kind that you can nuke, eat quickly and walk away wondering what just happened. It’s satisfying, but only for  the moment it takes to scrape the carton with a spoon and bring it to your mouth. It’s a momentary fix. Not a meal to fuel the body, it  exists for the moment as something to consume before getting on with life.

Then, there is the mother lode of macaroni and cheese. We’ve all had it. It’s the typical restaurant variety with 7 exotic cheeses, butter, maybe and egg or two, cream, more butter in the brioche crumbs on top and – drum roll please – bacon. It tastes amazing, but you quickly realize that it is going to stay with you in an uncomfortable way. It’s there for hours…days…and nothing seems to make it go away. Heartburn, bloat, guilt and your skinny jeans tear at your conscience. Even a hefty workout doesn’t negate it’s effects. It just hangs around as a stubborn reminder that you might not want mac and cheese ever again when in all actuality it’s not the macaroni and cheese that got to you. It’s all the stuff that was added to it.

There is basic mac and cheese, made with, well…macaroni and cheese. This variety might have a little milk in it, but it’s just as good without it. It’s the kind that makes you smile as it satisfies your craving for comfort food as well as your appetite. It’s simply enough to make a tough day better. It reminds you of home, family, belonging and feeling loved. It leaves you looking forward to having it again…and again…and again…

And so it is with reading scripture.

Sometimes we read scripture quickly. You know, just to get it done. It might be for a season during the church year, or for an event like confirmation or baptism. Most likely it’s Sunday morning in worship and it’s actually read by someone else. Occasionally we might follow along, if there is a Bible in the seat pocket and the passage is relatively easy to find. Although, if the reading is from Habakkuk, Obadiah or Haggai, we might choose to just listen least we spend the entire time of the reading looking for wherever it is that those little known prophets hang out in the Bible. It’s nice, it’s there and we got our dose for the week. It doesn’t really stay with us, but it was good to hear before we go on with the day.

Anyone who has hung out in a church for very long has heard the ramped up version of scripture and interpretation. This has to do with writing styles, commentaries, Bible translations, theological perspectives and doctrinal influence. You know, the stuff that is added to scripture so we know what it should really mean. The result can lead us to think that Biblical interpretation is confusing, like something we would never try to do at home – so we leave it to the professionals.  Alternatively, it can make scripture dangerously simple – “when Paul says…he means…”. Oh, and by the way, that means for all time. Unfortunately, the standard interpretation and meanings can be twisted and warped as we relate the stories from one generation to the next. I mean, if our original restaurant mac and cheese recipe was 2000 years old, or older, it might tell us to milk the cow – or goat – as a first step. While we are waiting for the milk to become cheese, we might think about grinding wheat into a powder fine enough to make our desired pasta, which, by the way did not exist in Paul’s time. Then there is the pig and processing the bacon. All of which would make us head to some other eatery least we spend the better part of a year waiting for our mac and cheese. We would never actually try to make it ourselves! It would be too overwhelming, as would listening to a chef explain just how it was prepared. What the ancient chef accepted as something everyone just understood, would seem like hieroglyphics  to us today. It’s too much trouble and we simply don’t have the time.

So, what good is scripture? Why should we even try to read it? What if we get it wrong? Worse yet, what if traditional interpretations seem too overwhelming or like they just don’t apply to our lives today? I mean, is there even a place for this ancient text in our 21st Century lives?

In case you don’t yet know, I absolutely love macaroni and cheese. I play with a basic recipe by changing out elbow macaroni for rotini or shells. Although american cheese is a favorite in our house, I will occasionally use cheddar if that’s what is on hand. Salt is good, as is a sprinkle of paprika or dry mustard and some pepper. But, when it comes out of the pot and is put in the bowl, it is typically just macaroni and cheese. Two major ingredients that really can’t be improved upon.

Scripture is kind of like that, too. These amazing narratives detail how humanity and the Divine rub together as those who came before us share their stories about navigating this crazy thing called life. The basic plot repeats itself we read tale after tale where God provides love and humanity responds to that love. Some things, like the 10 Commandments, tell us what that response should look like – love God; don’t lie, cheat, steal, kill or covet. Jesus gave us his living example of how we can live life as fully as God created us to live it. Our response to God’s love is to love God above all things and love our neighbor as ourselves. (Matt 22: 37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:28; Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18) It’s the golden rule of treating someone else as we would want to be treated. (Matthew 7:12) It’s recognizing that God is the creator and all of creation is loved by God. When we begin to experience the depth of God’s love for us we cannot deny our individual responsibility and natural tendency to care for those in need.

As we continue to read the prose, poetry, and songs of scripture within the framework of God’s love for humanity and humanity’s response to that love, we find ourselves deep within stories about who we are and Whose we are. We learn what it means to live with God in this amazing world and find comfort in knowing the ancients’ struggles were like ours. We hear their voices telling us, from the perspective of their era and culture, what it looks like to trust God as if we truly believe in God’s love. It is our challenge to take that information and keep it new and fresh and alive so that we continue to live knowing that God’s plan and creation were as God saw them…good, very good.

Kind of like the simple, homemade mac and cheese…

Aside

Hope, yokes and grim, bleak shit…

15 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

“Hope is not about proving anything. It’s about choosing to believe this one thing: that love is bigger than any grim, bleak shit anyone can throw at us.” –Anne Lamott

It seems like everyone is in the middle of ‘stuff’ these days. Some of it is pretty big, like finding out your 5-year old has autism; or your parent’s cancer is back; or your future isn’t going to be what you thought because of a failed class, a relationship break-up, or an unexpected situation at work.

Some of the stuff is smaller – but seems bigger because the small things always come in batches. Like when the dog poo’s in the house just as the UPS guy rings the doorbell with a package you have been waiting for and it needs a signature. At about the same moment the washing machine overflows and the cat knocks over the remains of your cold coffee from this morning that you never did get to drink because the phone wouldn’t stop ringing. I don’t even have a cat, but you get my point. It’s the flat tire when you’re already late for work; the scorched dinner when 10 guests are arriving in 5 minutes; the realtor who shows up unannounced with potential buyers when all of your children are home with the flu; or the jeans that used to fit, but will only close today if you lay on your back and use a pliers to get the right leverage to zip the zipper.

The grim, bleak shit that comes our way…

Matthew 11: 27-29 reminds us that Jesus will give us rest if we only remember to bring our burdens to him. And, that we can take his yoke and learn from him for he is ‘gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.’

This isn’t a promise that everything will be okay as long as we have enough faith. You know, the twisted belief that Jesus is the magic vending machine in the sky who will give us what we want as long as we put in the right prayer. Unfortunately, that irresponsible concept has been perpetrated by too many doctrines for too long. Although, I would be lying if I said there was never a time I hoped it would work that way. There is a part of most of us that longs for life to simply work out the way we want it to happen. My agenda, my plan, my hopes, my dreams and my desires. Oops…

The thing is, Jesus-God has something else in mind for us. Matthew 11:27-29 is really an invitation to us: ‘Come to me…’ And, if we do, we can find rest. Now that part sounds pretty good! The really good news is he is ‘gentle of heart’. I hope that means he understands when I offer up my tirade about the disparities of life! There have been several lately…

We have to also recognize there is a middle section of the passage that talks about ‘taking a yoke’ and ‘learning from him’. Some invitation! This is beginning to sound like work! However, when we put the entire passage together, it is a simple beaconing from the one who loves us more than we are capable of knowing to come to him, to walk with him and he will help us learn his ways. It is in and through this formula that we will find peace.

Side note: For those of us from the city or suburbs, a yoke is a wooden beam strapped to two oxen so they can carry a load together. ‘Take my yoke’ doesn’t tell us we are on our own with some horrible burden. It tells us we will have help through love and find that seemingly elusive ‘peace’.

If you are like me, it’s difficult to recognize help. I want the big-guy; the royal telephone; the divine bullhorn!!! Okay, I would settle for the still, quiet voice in the wilderness and I might even stop screaming long enough to hear it if I knew it was going to say something that I could physically hear. The problem is, I want something that I recognize as a sign from God that all is right with the world, or at least my corner in it. It doesn’t work that way.

It does work when we recognize God is truly working in and through all situations; that God is always and everywhere; that God simply is. Help comes through the neighbor who asks if they can do anything for you in the situation and really means it. Help is the moment when that same, autistic 5-year old looks up at you and says, ‘I love you’. And, as we recognize those things that help us through a situation, we recognize that light will always, always, always, always, always come after the darkness.

Light…hope…come to me all who are weary with heavy burdens…yokes…we’ll work through it together…come to me…come to me…love…hope…

Now that’s a message I need to embrace!

Aside

Just as I am…

07 Wednesday Aug 2013

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

“God doesn’t love things because they are beautiful, things are beautiful because God loves them” 

I wish I could remember where I read that one so I could give credit to someone with amazing insight. I mean -it’s beautiful! It says it all. It puts the focus back on God and not on some silly notion that we have to be something, or become something to be loved by God. It’s the old, “Just as I am…” concept. Remember that one? We used to sing it in Sunday School when I was growing up. “Just as I am, thou wilt receive, wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve…” There is nothing in the entire song that says I have to be anything. I simply need to show up “just as I am”.

The problem is, do we really believe it? Do we fully appreciate that no matter who we are, no matter what we have done, no matter who tells us otherwise – God loves us? And, it’s not all about me or you or what anybody defines as the formula to gain God’s love. We just need to know that we are loved by God.

Now, peeling the whole quote apart it’s possible to get caught up in the word beautiful. Unfortunately, our culture seems to put a heavy focus on the right age, looks, clothing, make-up and hair as we figure out this ‘beauty’ thing. Do you remember the 1999’s song “Always wear sunscreen…”? The lyrics were originally written by Mary Schmich and published in the Chicago Tribune as a commencement speech she would like to give someday…that is, if she were ever asked to give a commencement speech. (If I were to meet her, I would, without a doubt, like Mary Schmich very much.) It’s a great list of advice that includes, “do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.” There must be more to this beauty-thing than the lotions and potions of the cosmetic and fashion industry.

The dictionary will support our pervasive cultural idea to a point, but it impresses us with a meaning deeper than appearance. It defines beauty as, “pleasing the senses or mind aesthetically; of a very high standard; excellent.” What could be a higher standard or more excellent than what God created us to be? Flowers and butterflies are beautiful and they aspire to be nothing more than what they are. What if we were so bold as to believe it’s enough for us, too?  It’s not about becoming something so God will notice us.  “Just as I am…”

That said, let’s go back to part 2 – “things are beautiful because God loves them.” In all reality, that packs it’s own punch. It’s foolish to think we can blissfully and naively blunder through life doing whatever we choose to do because, after all, God loves us and therefore anything and everything we do is, well…beautiful. When we fully embrace that love, like grab onto the idea that this perfect entity which epitomizes all that is good looks at our chaotic, broken lives and loves us…loves us in spite of everything we have messed up, botched, ignored, and ruined; loves us when we have morning breath, wrinkles, thinning hair and warts; loves us when we berate others who aren’t like us; loves us no matter what…well, it can be a bit overwhelming. How do we know we are loved? In Romans 38-39 the Apostle Paul assures us that there is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from God’s love. “All of creation” covers a lot of territory!

The thing is, if we listen to God’s beaconing call to us and we come “Just as I am…”; when we truly believe we are loved just as we are, we are changed. The gratitude goes so deep that it envelops our entire being and we become beautiful as we transition into all that God created us to be.

Now, excuse me for a moment while I take some magazines to the recycling bin.