It is that time again. It is the last day of 2008 and now is the time to make the New Year Resolutions. I have a number of friends who tell me that they don't make any because they never keep them. What is the use? I prefer to make them because I think they do at least two things.
One, they are a confession that I am not perfect now. To make a resolution to do someting next year that you are not doing this year or to quit doing next year something that you are doing this year is to confess that your life is not all that you want it to be. You are not perfect as you are. The resistance to make New Year Resolutions maybe that some people do not want to have to admit that there is anything about them that needs to be changed. "God loves and accepts me as I am, why should I change?" To make a resolution is confess the need to be different to change.
Two, they are the affirmation that I still believe that change is possible. Perhaps that is the harder affirmation. It is a affirmation that santification is possible. Conversions do take place. A resolution not only admits that I need to be different, but that I can become different. It fights the forces of inertia which say "You can't change the spots on a leopard. You can't teach an old dog new tricks. Those people will always be that way. Trailer park bred trailer park dead." The resolution is rooted in the faith that redemption is possible. I am a sinner, but by the grace of God and by that grace working in me, I can become something better and different.
I have made lots of resolutions and my friends are correct. There are lots of them that I have not been able to keep fully, but I suspect that I am a better person now than I was years ago from the trying and from the things I did do to honor them.
A New Year's Resolution is the fulfillment of the old line, "By God, I am not what I ought to be; I am not what I am going to be, but thank God, I am not what I used to be." Happy New Year.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Just one look!
No sooner do we get the baby born on Christmas, than two days later we have the family in the temple for the presentation of the child to the Lord. The story focuses on those two temple fixtures: Simeon and Anna. Every church or place of worship has them. The people who just hang out there and do stuff. Most of the time nobody knows what they do. They fix the candles. They fill the water jugs. They take out the trash. They fix the broken door. They just are there. Simeon and Anna. They are there because they have this great passion to be there when it happens. They want to see it from the beginning. They have this absolute faith that God will move in history for the redemption of his people, and they want to participate from the moment it starts. Anna was 84 years old and it says she never left the place. She was going to be first in line when it happened.
The story does not say what made this child so different. There is no explanation as to what caught Simeon's and Anna' eyes, but suddenly there he was, and they were satisfied. Just the one look and they yearnings were fulfilled. They had seen the one who in whom God was acting to redeem his people.
For many of us it is a hard story to understand. Most of us are not looking or waiting for God to move in history with that kind of endurance. We expect our blessings from God on a much more immediate basis. We want God to do it now or the heck with it. We talk about wanting world peace or everybody to love everybody, but one looks long and hard for those for whom that hope is the central fact of their being. Nor is our longing for peace as corporate at Simeon's and Anna"s. Most of the time my longings and passions are for a much smaller group. Nor is it likely that we would feel like we had received what we were waiting for if all we got was a glimpse of a baby.
But maybe we did get a picture of that kind of moment in the faces of those African American Senior Citizens who struggled to get to the polls this November and who, on Election night as Obama stood on that stage, had tears streaming down their faces. All their lives they had waited and hoped for the coming of the day that they would see a black person elected as President. Vance County had seen the same thing when they saw a black man elected to the position of Sheriff. The position of power which had always been the hammer of the law that oppressed them. But this was so much more. This was enough to see that moment. "Now let thy servant depart in peace for I have seen with mine own eyes the deliverance of my people."
One of the most difficult parts of the Christian story is that so often God is a minimalist. Oh, there are passages that talk about God pouring out his blessings "pressed down and overflowing," but there are just as many stories where all his disciples get is just a glimpse, just one look, just one moment, and it is enough.
The story does not say what made this child so different. There is no explanation as to what caught Simeon's and Anna' eyes, but suddenly there he was, and they were satisfied. Just the one look and they yearnings were fulfilled. They had seen the one who in whom God was acting to redeem his people.
For many of us it is a hard story to understand. Most of us are not looking or waiting for God to move in history with that kind of endurance. We expect our blessings from God on a much more immediate basis. We want God to do it now or the heck with it. We talk about wanting world peace or everybody to love everybody, but one looks long and hard for those for whom that hope is the central fact of their being. Nor is our longing for peace as corporate at Simeon's and Anna"s. Most of the time my longings and passions are for a much smaller group. Nor is it likely that we would feel like we had received what we were waiting for if all we got was a glimpse of a baby.
But maybe we did get a picture of that kind of moment in the faces of those African American Senior Citizens who struggled to get to the polls this November and who, on Election night as Obama stood on that stage, had tears streaming down their faces. All their lives they had waited and hoped for the coming of the day that they would see a black person elected as President. Vance County had seen the same thing when they saw a black man elected to the position of Sheriff. The position of power which had always been the hammer of the law that oppressed them. But this was so much more. This was enough to see that moment. "Now let thy servant depart in peace for I have seen with mine own eyes the deliverance of my people."
One of the most difficult parts of the Christian story is that so often God is a minimalist. Oh, there are passages that talk about God pouring out his blessings "pressed down and overflowing," but there are just as many stories where all his disciples get is just a glimpse, just one look, just one moment, and it is enough.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Which is the greater evil?
Jesus was at a party and this woman, which all commentaries suggest was a "lady of the evening," came in and washed his feet with her tears and dried his feet with her hair. According to the story, that act evoked a massive discussion about the purity of Jesus and his prophetic powers because he did not recognize who she was and he allowed her to do those things. But Jesus turned that discussion into a debate about who has the greatest sins, and who gets forgiven more, and who might love more. Jesus says that the woman, whose sins were many, had been forgiven much, so loved Jesus much. The people at the party did not think they had sinned much, so did not need to be forgiven much and so did not love Jesus much.
This question about "which is the greater evil?" flashed to the top of the screen this week as the debate about the evil of one person's homosexuality raged in one place and the report of the fraud of Bernard Madoff was being reported in another place. Which is the greater evil? One person's personal sexual activity or one person's deceit, fraud, and greed. Who has done the most harm to life, to others, to society, to the whole work of doing good?
The Bible does call them both sins. The list of things that are contrary to the will and providence of God include both the homosexual activities and the greed, false witness, the stealing, and fraud. But certainly the actions of Madoff are far more evil and destructive than one person's sexual activities. Certainly the impact of the deceit, the betrayals, the destruction of so many charitable foundatons, the fraud that involves major banks from across Europe far exceeds the impact of one person's lesbian encounters. Madoff is a Jew and he has ripped off and destroyed a vast number of charitable foundations which had been established to help Jewish people.
The Bible does call them both sin, but Jesus suggests that there are some evils that are greater than other evils. The Catholic church has categories of sins. They are both sins, but the fraud of Madoff is certain greater than the sin of one person's homosexual life style. But you would never know it from the preaching of the Christian community. The fraud may get mentioned once or twice, but the sin of homosexuality will be a constant part of the preaching in many congregations. The evil of homosexuality will be forever mentioned, but there will be little mention or focus on the sin of greed, stealing, fraud, and bearing false witness. There will be little preaching against the greed that motivated Madoff; little preaching about the greed for greater and greater returns that brought so many willing people to his funds; little preaching about the greed, self-centeredness, betrayals, that allowed Madoff to carry out this deceit and exploitation of his Jewish friends and foundations.
Lets see the sin of one person with another person of the same sex or the sin of destroying more than 50 billion dollars in investments and altering the lives of hundreds of people, foundations and European banks? Now let me see which one should I preach about? Which is the greater evil?
This question about "which is the greater evil?" flashed to the top of the screen this week as the debate about the evil of one person's homosexuality raged in one place and the report of the fraud of Bernard Madoff was being reported in another place. Which is the greater evil? One person's personal sexual activity or one person's deceit, fraud, and greed. Who has done the most harm to life, to others, to society, to the whole work of doing good?
The Bible does call them both sins. The list of things that are contrary to the will and providence of God include both the homosexual activities and the greed, false witness, the stealing, and fraud. But certainly the actions of Madoff are far more evil and destructive than one person's sexual activities. Certainly the impact of the deceit, the betrayals, the destruction of so many charitable foundatons, the fraud that involves major banks from across Europe far exceeds the impact of one person's lesbian encounters. Madoff is a Jew and he has ripped off and destroyed a vast number of charitable foundations which had been established to help Jewish people.
The Bible does call them both sin, but Jesus suggests that there are some evils that are greater than other evils. The Catholic church has categories of sins. They are both sins, but the fraud of Madoff is certain greater than the sin of one person's homosexual life style. But you would never know it from the preaching of the Christian community. The fraud may get mentioned once or twice, but the sin of homosexuality will be a constant part of the preaching in many congregations. The evil of homosexuality will be forever mentioned, but there will be little mention or focus on the sin of greed, stealing, fraud, and bearing false witness. There will be little preaching against the greed that motivated Madoff; little preaching about the greed for greater and greater returns that brought so many willing people to his funds; little preaching about the greed, self-centeredness, betrayals, that allowed Madoff to carry out this deceit and exploitation of his Jewish friends and foundations.
Lets see the sin of one person with another person of the same sex or the sin of destroying more than 50 billion dollars in investments and altering the lives of hundreds of people, foundations and European banks? Now let me see which one should I preach about? Which is the greater evil?
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
A New Christmas Pageant
William Muehl, a teacher at Yale Divinity School, had a great story about a Christmas pageant that had three Mary's and the climax of the story was when one of the children could not find her position yelled, "All the damn angels are covering up the spots." So local conditions have a way of changing the Christmas pageant. The selection of the family for the holy family, the family with the youngest baby, resulted in a new reality for a Christmas pageant.
The new discovery of theological import at the First United Methodist Church in Henderson, which I attended this last Sunday. Seems in their Christmas pageant they came to the Holy Family. Here came Mary with a baby, that is in the script, but then here came Joseph with the older brother. I have heard of multiple Mary's (kind of like the Trinity) but never before had I heard that Virgin Mary had had a baby before Jesus. So the "big brother" present a whole new range of theological issues. The Church Fathers never touched it as far as I know. So we now have a whole new theological debate before us. They have managed to keep the surprise in Christmas.
The new discovery of theological import at the First United Methodist Church in Henderson, which I attended this last Sunday. Seems in their Christmas pageant they came to the Holy Family. Here came Mary with a baby, that is in the script, but then here came Joseph with the older brother. I have heard of multiple Mary's (kind of like the Trinity) but never before had I heard that Virgin Mary had had a baby before Jesus. So the "big brother" present a whole new range of theological issues. The Church Fathers never touched it as far as I know. So we now have a whole new theological debate before us. They have managed to keep the surprise in Christmas.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
A Small Christmas
There ought to be something grand and revolutionary about Christmas. The story talks about Angels, Kings coming long way, and Herod wipes out an entire generation of two year olds. The cry is "Peace on Earth, Good Will towards humanity." There has to be something amazing and unbelievable. That God would come to visit earth in a form that humanity could experience. Dorothy Sayers, who wrote wonderful mystery stories, said that the Christian story was the most amazing story ever told. She marveled at the ability of so many of us preacher to make that amazing story boring.
And that is just thing that strikes me so amazing. That we have this world changing story: an overthrow of the powerful, the disregarding of the wealthy, the pious being embarrassed, the lowly being welcomed as aristocracy. Yet we keep reducing it to a story about God wanting to make each of us happy. God comes inviting us to join a mighty revolution, and then we turn that revolution into a message that God wants us all to be happy, prosperous, kind middle class citizens of our country. It is the Jesus coming into the country recruiting people for this movement to struggle to change the world and we keep preaching it as if it was an invitation to let God make us happy, contented and cooperative citizens of the very world he wants to overthrow. The dynamic summons of Christmas is reduced to a be kind to your brothers and sisters of Kindergarten teachers. We need a larger Christmas.
And that is just thing that strikes me so amazing. That we have this world changing story: an overthrow of the powerful, the disregarding of the wealthy, the pious being embarrassed, the lowly being welcomed as aristocracy. Yet we keep reducing it to a story about God wanting to make each of us happy. God comes inviting us to join a mighty revolution, and then we turn that revolution into a message that God wants us all to be happy, prosperous, kind middle class citizens of our country. It is the Jesus coming into the country recruiting people for this movement to struggle to change the world and we keep preaching it as if it was an invitation to let God make us happy, contented and cooperative citizens of the very world he wants to overthrow. The dynamic summons of Christmas is reduced to a be kind to your brothers and sisters of Kindergarten teachers. We need a larger Christmas.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Private Matter?
Private Matter?
It is a very old issue. I am old enough to remember when the liberal left was marching and calling on people to be Christian and to stop the war in Vietnam and to integrate the South, and people were telling them to keep their religion to themselves. “Religion is a private matter.” I have watched as the Religious Right has grown and attempted to impose its religious view of life on society and have heard the left claim that “Religion is a private matter.”
The question was presented again recently in the stories about medical doctors who will not give out birth control pills, who will not help with contraceptive information, who lecture their patience on sexual conduct when the patients ask for birth control pills. The doctors affirm that they are practicing their religious convictions and have a right to bring their practice of medicine in accordance with their religious and ethical views. Those who believe this is inappropriate behavior suggest, “Religion is a private matter.”
It is not a new issue. G.K. Chesterton in his essay on August 16, 1919 right after World War I wrestled with the same statement. Religion is a private matter in that the convictions, affirmations, values have to soak into the core of a person for them to be real. But “… if he (the maker of the statement) means that a man’s religion cannot have any effect on his citizenship, or on the commonwealth of which he is a citizen, he (the maker of the statement) escapes from being platitudinous by being preposterous.”
So that if religion is a reality in a person’s life, it will be a reality in the public life of that person. But the more difficult part of that reality is how does the public expression of religion interact with the common life of others who have their own expression of religion or lack of it.
If the doctor were in private practice by herself, then it would seem acceptable for her to say that she does not approve of the practice of birth control, and refuse to prescribe contraceptives. It seems to be that it gets a little more complicated, if she is a partner in a medical practice in which the other doctors do prescribe contraceptives. It is even more complicated; it seems to me, when the doctor is in a hospital that follows the guidelines of the American Medical Association, which says they believe in providing good health care for all people including help with reproductive medicine.
There are no easy solutions to the struggles of private ethical behavior and demands and expectations of the general public. On this small issue, it would seem to me that the provision of contraceptives and birth control measures would be much preferred to the alternative of abortions. The person who asks for birth control pills has already indicated that there is or maybe sexual activity and the prevention of conception would seem to be more moral than the destruction of a fetus.
It is a very old issue. I am old enough to remember when the liberal left was marching and calling on people to be Christian and to stop the war in Vietnam and to integrate the South, and people were telling them to keep their religion to themselves. “Religion is a private matter.” I have watched as the Religious Right has grown and attempted to impose its religious view of life on society and have heard the left claim that “Religion is a private matter.”
The question was presented again recently in the stories about medical doctors who will not give out birth control pills, who will not help with contraceptive information, who lecture their patience on sexual conduct when the patients ask for birth control pills. The doctors affirm that they are practicing their religious convictions and have a right to bring their practice of medicine in accordance with their religious and ethical views. Those who believe this is inappropriate behavior suggest, “Religion is a private matter.”
It is not a new issue. G.K. Chesterton in his essay on August 16, 1919 right after World War I wrestled with the same statement. Religion is a private matter in that the convictions, affirmations, values have to soak into the core of a person for them to be real. But “… if he (the maker of the statement) means that a man’s religion cannot have any effect on his citizenship, or on the commonwealth of which he is a citizen, he (the maker of the statement) escapes from being platitudinous by being preposterous.”
So that if religion is a reality in a person’s life, it will be a reality in the public life of that person. But the more difficult part of that reality is how does the public expression of religion interact with the common life of others who have their own expression of religion or lack of it.
If the doctor were in private practice by herself, then it would seem acceptable for her to say that she does not approve of the practice of birth control, and refuse to prescribe contraceptives. It seems to be that it gets a little more complicated, if she is a partner in a medical practice in which the other doctors do prescribe contraceptives. It is even more complicated; it seems to me, when the doctor is in a hospital that follows the guidelines of the American Medical Association, which says they believe in providing good health care for all people including help with reproductive medicine.
There are no easy solutions to the struggles of private ethical behavior and demands and expectations of the general public. On this small issue, it would seem to me that the provision of contraceptives and birth control measures would be much preferred to the alternative of abortions. The person who asks for birth control pills has already indicated that there is or maybe sexual activity and the prevention of conception would seem to be more moral than the destruction of a fetus.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Not All About Me
Text : Matthew 25: 31-46 “When did we see You?”
NOT ALL ABOUT ME.
November 23, 2008
Northminster Presbyterian Church
Roanoke, Va.
“Did you ever have to make up your mind? Pick up on one and leave the other behind? It is not often easy and not often kind, Did you ever have to make up your mind?
Did you ever have to finally decide? Say yes to one and let the other one ride. There are so many changes and tears you must hide. Did you ever have to finally decide? Some of you may recognize those questions that the Loving Spoonfuls used to ask. Of course, we have. All the time. Everyday we make those kinds of decisions. Paper or Plastic? Fast food or salad? CNN or Fox News? Take this product and ignore that one. Hire this person and fire that one. Life is constantly forcing us to make choices. But at the same time, we think having choices is what makes life good. We like having choices. We think it gives us a sense of power, a sense of being in control of our lives. Did you ever have to make up your mind? Certainly, I do it every day all day.
Not only do we have all those choices and decisions but most of the time we make those decisions in our favor. I make most of my decisions based on whether or not it will benefit me. I make them from my perspective. I pick up the one that is best for me. I chose those things that benefit me the most. I think that is pretty cool, but my sisters never thought it was very nice. I cut the pie so that I get the biggest piece and I am very happy, but the rest of you are not very pleased. When my sisters got to make the decisions and made them in their favor, I scream for justice. It was not fair, I yelled.
Virginia does not like it when North Carolina tries to make all the decisions about the use of the water from the Roanoke basin in North Carolina’s favor. Most of your co-workers do not like it when you make most of the decisions at work in your favor when you try to turn up the thermostat. The people in the Middle East are not happy when the U.S. makes all our decisions in their countries on the basis of American self-interest. Yeah we have often had to make up our minds and make decisions. We have made most of those decision on the basis of what is best for me, from self-interest, and yet somehow, somewhere, we realize that somebody else will have settle things a different way. Isn’t that the most common comment you hear when there is all this talk about bailing out Wall Street or bailing out the auto industry? They are not bailing out me. They are not helping me pay my mortgage.
So maybe that is why this story of the Son of Man coming with all the host of heaven, coming as the one who does finally have to decide, coming with the nations of the earth before him, coming to finally have to separate those who are part of the Kingdom of heaven and those who have no interest in that kingdom is such a blessing. Immediately the story forces us beyond where we live most of the time because the story is not just about “just me.” It is not a story about individual salvation. It is not concerned just about getting you or me to heaven. It is a story about all the nations of the earth. It is a cosmic story about the fundamental reality of the kingdom of God. The text underscores the completeness of the Son of Man’s decision in two ways – the Son of Man is surrounded by all the angels in heaven and all the nations of history are before him. The Son of Man is having to finally decide.
The Sheep are divided from the goats. It is not just Christians from Jews, Jews from Muslim, Americans from Iranians. But those who are sheep from every nations are separated from those who are goats in every nation.
Jesus tells us that the separation comes about on the basis of the things that we have done in our ordinary average days. As we went through the routines, the car pools, the junk mail, the emails, the fast food lunches, the quick trips to the grocery stores, the things way we acted form the forks in the road that separated us from others. Which of courses, means that there really is no “ordinary time.” All time is touched by eternal significance. This is Christ the King Sunday in which we bring to an end the 33 Sundays which have been called Sundays of Ordinary time, and on this Sunday we declare there really was no ordinary time, all time is charged and full of the holy and eternal purposes and opportunities.
When the Sheep asked how they got over here, the Son of Man says it was pretty simple. When they saw Him hungry, they fed him. When they saw him naked they clothed him. When they saw him thirsty, they gave him water. When he was sick, they came to help. Ahh, but the real secret is that they did not know it was Jesus. The sheep did not know who they were helping. The Sheep did not know they got brownie points for being good to those who needed help. Those ordinary people who the sheep felt compassion for and helped because those people needed help turned out to be the incarnation of Jesus. The sheep offered their help with no anticipation or understanding that helping those who were in need had any way of helping themselves. Their acts of compassion were not rooted in self-interest. They did not do them as a way of helping themselves. The gift of food, water, clothing, visits, and care were given because there was response of the human heart to a need.
There is a tv ad that is being shown in my community, it is a national ad so perhaps you have seen it. The commercial starts with one person doing an act of kindness for another person, and a third person seeing that act of kindness. Then third person does an act of kindness to a fourth person, and that person does an act of kindness to a fifth person, and all of them do the acts of kindness without there being anyway for them to benefit or to make it pay off for them.
The goats have continued to live out of their own self interest and even when they asked why they were goats, and told that they had not feed the hungry, clothed the naked, given drink to the thirsty, and so they had not shown compassion to the Son of Man, the goats said, “Hey, if we had known it was you and that it mattered we would have been more than happy to feed, cloth and visit the sick.”
Those who are welcomed into the kingdom of God are those who have discovered that great joy of compassion for those God loves and who live out of that compassion instead of living out of their own selfishness. Marcus Borg, a New Testament scholar of national reputation, says that we follow Jesus when our passion, our love of God, is so great that we forget ourselves in God’s passion for those things God loves, the world. Those who find themselves in the kingdom of God are those who find a way of forgetting about self and what is best for them and find a way to live and enjoy life for the good of all. The Kingdom of God is available and visible wherever we find that we are able to pick up the needs and the concerns and the opportunities for all creation and leave behind that constant temptation to make our decision on the basis of what is best just for me. The Kingdom of God is enjoyed and visible now and always in the times when we become caught up in the delights, in the pains, in the work, in the struggles for justice for others that we forget all about whether the decisions we make are beneficial to our self interest or not. We see some sheep begin to gather when right after a tornado people begin to show up to help the victims collect their belongs.
Isn’t that what Jesus says in other places about those who would follow him must be willing to lose their lives so that they may gain their lives. The Son of Man comes to finally decided and we are shown again that the finally decision is given to those who get so involved in the ordinary lives of the ordinary people in the ordinary days that they forget about protecting their own self interest and become full of the joy of sharing that life with others.
Which brings us to this table. Which is why this table is so central to what we believe about life, about God, about salvation, about love. It is the table where we remember that the one who comes as the Son of Man and who welcomes into his kingdom those who triumph over their own selfishness, is, in fact, the one who put aside his own self-interest, but did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but gave it up so that He might assume the nature of a human being, a slave, and bearing that likeness of humanity, he humbled himself and in obedience accepted even death –death on the cross. The Kingdom of God comes to those who make their decisions out of compassion for others, and not just the others in our own family, and offers to them the same importance they once thought of themselves. This is a table which celebrates the kingdom that is created by those who can finally decide not to live out of their own agendas and their own personal wishes, but who live out of God’s compassion for all creation.
Come now to the joyful feast of the people of God.
NOT ALL ABOUT ME.
November 23, 2008
Northminster Presbyterian Church
Roanoke, Va.
“Did you ever have to make up your mind? Pick up on one and leave the other behind? It is not often easy and not often kind, Did you ever have to make up your mind?
Did you ever have to finally decide? Say yes to one and let the other one ride. There are so many changes and tears you must hide. Did you ever have to finally decide? Some of you may recognize those questions that the Loving Spoonfuls used to ask. Of course, we have. All the time. Everyday we make those kinds of decisions. Paper or Plastic? Fast food or salad? CNN or Fox News? Take this product and ignore that one. Hire this person and fire that one. Life is constantly forcing us to make choices. But at the same time, we think having choices is what makes life good. We like having choices. We think it gives us a sense of power, a sense of being in control of our lives. Did you ever have to make up your mind? Certainly, I do it every day all day.
Not only do we have all those choices and decisions but most of the time we make those decisions in our favor. I make most of my decisions based on whether or not it will benefit me. I make them from my perspective. I pick up the one that is best for me. I chose those things that benefit me the most. I think that is pretty cool, but my sisters never thought it was very nice. I cut the pie so that I get the biggest piece and I am very happy, but the rest of you are not very pleased. When my sisters got to make the decisions and made them in their favor, I scream for justice. It was not fair, I yelled.
Virginia does not like it when North Carolina tries to make all the decisions about the use of the water from the Roanoke basin in North Carolina’s favor. Most of your co-workers do not like it when you make most of the decisions at work in your favor when you try to turn up the thermostat. The people in the Middle East are not happy when the U.S. makes all our decisions in their countries on the basis of American self-interest. Yeah we have often had to make up our minds and make decisions. We have made most of those decision on the basis of what is best for me, from self-interest, and yet somehow, somewhere, we realize that somebody else will have settle things a different way. Isn’t that the most common comment you hear when there is all this talk about bailing out Wall Street or bailing out the auto industry? They are not bailing out me. They are not helping me pay my mortgage.
So maybe that is why this story of the Son of Man coming with all the host of heaven, coming as the one who does finally have to decide, coming with the nations of the earth before him, coming to finally have to separate those who are part of the Kingdom of heaven and those who have no interest in that kingdom is such a blessing. Immediately the story forces us beyond where we live most of the time because the story is not just about “just me.” It is not a story about individual salvation. It is not concerned just about getting you or me to heaven. It is a story about all the nations of the earth. It is a cosmic story about the fundamental reality of the kingdom of God. The text underscores the completeness of the Son of Man’s decision in two ways – the Son of Man is surrounded by all the angels in heaven and all the nations of history are before him. The Son of Man is having to finally decide.
The Sheep are divided from the goats. It is not just Christians from Jews, Jews from Muslim, Americans from Iranians. But those who are sheep from every nations are separated from those who are goats in every nation.
Jesus tells us that the separation comes about on the basis of the things that we have done in our ordinary average days. As we went through the routines, the car pools, the junk mail, the emails, the fast food lunches, the quick trips to the grocery stores, the things way we acted form the forks in the road that separated us from others. Which of courses, means that there really is no “ordinary time.” All time is touched by eternal significance. This is Christ the King Sunday in which we bring to an end the 33 Sundays which have been called Sundays of Ordinary time, and on this Sunday we declare there really was no ordinary time, all time is charged and full of the holy and eternal purposes and opportunities.
When the Sheep asked how they got over here, the Son of Man says it was pretty simple. When they saw Him hungry, they fed him. When they saw him naked they clothed him. When they saw him thirsty, they gave him water. When he was sick, they came to help. Ahh, but the real secret is that they did not know it was Jesus. The sheep did not know who they were helping. The Sheep did not know they got brownie points for being good to those who needed help. Those ordinary people who the sheep felt compassion for and helped because those people needed help turned out to be the incarnation of Jesus. The sheep offered their help with no anticipation or understanding that helping those who were in need had any way of helping themselves. Their acts of compassion were not rooted in self-interest. They did not do them as a way of helping themselves. The gift of food, water, clothing, visits, and care were given because there was response of the human heart to a need.
There is a tv ad that is being shown in my community, it is a national ad so perhaps you have seen it. The commercial starts with one person doing an act of kindness for another person, and a third person seeing that act of kindness. Then third person does an act of kindness to a fourth person, and that person does an act of kindness to a fifth person, and all of them do the acts of kindness without there being anyway for them to benefit or to make it pay off for them.
The goats have continued to live out of their own self interest and even when they asked why they were goats, and told that they had not feed the hungry, clothed the naked, given drink to the thirsty, and so they had not shown compassion to the Son of Man, the goats said, “Hey, if we had known it was you and that it mattered we would have been more than happy to feed, cloth and visit the sick.”
Those who are welcomed into the kingdom of God are those who have discovered that great joy of compassion for those God loves and who live out of that compassion instead of living out of their own selfishness. Marcus Borg, a New Testament scholar of national reputation, says that we follow Jesus when our passion, our love of God, is so great that we forget ourselves in God’s passion for those things God loves, the world. Those who find themselves in the kingdom of God are those who find a way of forgetting about self and what is best for them and find a way to live and enjoy life for the good of all. The Kingdom of God is available and visible wherever we find that we are able to pick up the needs and the concerns and the opportunities for all creation and leave behind that constant temptation to make our decision on the basis of what is best just for me. The Kingdom of God is enjoyed and visible now and always in the times when we become caught up in the delights, in the pains, in the work, in the struggles for justice for others that we forget all about whether the decisions we make are beneficial to our self interest or not. We see some sheep begin to gather when right after a tornado people begin to show up to help the victims collect their belongs.
Isn’t that what Jesus says in other places about those who would follow him must be willing to lose their lives so that they may gain their lives. The Son of Man comes to finally decided and we are shown again that the finally decision is given to those who get so involved in the ordinary lives of the ordinary people in the ordinary days that they forget about protecting their own self interest and become full of the joy of sharing that life with others.
Which brings us to this table. Which is why this table is so central to what we believe about life, about God, about salvation, about love. It is the table where we remember that the one who comes as the Son of Man and who welcomes into his kingdom those who triumph over their own selfishness, is, in fact, the one who put aside his own self-interest, but did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but gave it up so that He might assume the nature of a human being, a slave, and bearing that likeness of humanity, he humbled himself and in obedience accepted even death –death on the cross. The Kingdom of God comes to those who make their decisions out of compassion for others, and not just the others in our own family, and offers to them the same importance they once thought of themselves. This is a table which celebrates the kingdom that is created by those who can finally decide not to live out of their own agendas and their own personal wishes, but who live out of God’s compassion for all creation.
Come now to the joyful feast of the people of God.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
That's it!
A good friend of mine sent me one of those emails that gets sent to everybody. He had sent it to me and said that he could not wait to get my reactions to it. I think that question was what made me think about this more. It began with a marvelous, warm, tender story about love, friendship, hope, and compassion. It was a delightful story. I was charmed to tears by the tenderness of the story. I was most grateful to him for sending me the story.
But then came the second part. It was a long list of instructions of things I was supposed to do if the story had moved me. I was supposed to immediately send it to ten of my best friends. If I did not send it, I was being ashamed of God and afraid to bear witness in pubic. I cannot here remember all the instructions that were suggested, but I did not do any of them.
So I thought about my reactions to that email. I realized I did not like being manipulated. I did not like being told what I had to do with a gift. The story was a great gift from my friend, but it was not really a gift, because, he, or the first sender, felt enough in charge of the gift to be able to tell me what to do with it. If it were truly a gift, then I could do whatever I wanted to do with it. But it was gift in disguise. It was really a trap. The email was sent to push me into a corner and make me feel guilty if I did not send it on and to make me ashamed or proud of myself if I did send it on.
Unfortunately for all of us in the Christian community too much of our efforts to share the great story of God's love is given in the same way that the email is given. When we talk about God's gift of grace, we try to use that as the means to make people do certain things. Give more, vote in certain ways, no dancing, believe certain things. I loved the story, but I will refuse to let the one who gives it to me tell me how to react to grace. That is it. That is why I do not like those emails.
But then came the second part. It was a long list of instructions of things I was supposed to do if the story had moved me. I was supposed to immediately send it to ten of my best friends. If I did not send it, I was being ashamed of God and afraid to bear witness in pubic. I cannot here remember all the instructions that were suggested, but I did not do any of them.
So I thought about my reactions to that email. I realized I did not like being manipulated. I did not like being told what I had to do with a gift. The story was a great gift from my friend, but it was not really a gift, because, he, or the first sender, felt enough in charge of the gift to be able to tell me what to do with it. If it were truly a gift, then I could do whatever I wanted to do with it. But it was gift in disguise. It was really a trap. The email was sent to push me into a corner and make me feel guilty if I did not send it on and to make me ashamed or proud of myself if I did send it on.
Unfortunately for all of us in the Christian community too much of our efforts to share the great story of God's love is given in the same way that the email is given. When we talk about God's gift of grace, we try to use that as the means to make people do certain things. Give more, vote in certain ways, no dancing, believe certain things. I loved the story, but I will refuse to let the one who gives it to me tell me how to react to grace. That is it. That is why I do not like those emails.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Christmas Shopping in July
The email from a close friend said that they used to scorn those who spent so much time in June, July, and August doing their Christmas shopping. My friend said that he looked around in the middle of October and already had all of his shopping done. He said it was funny how life pulls yours strings.
For me the act of having Christmas stuff in the stores before Thanksgiving has always been an exploitation of the Christmas meaning. Thanksgiving is a holiday which is supposed to remind you to be happy and thankful for what you already have. Christmas is now supposed to be the season where you suddenly have to be unhappy with what you already have so that you can make a list of all the things you just have to have. So Thanksgiving, except for the food industry, is not a big marketing season. So we can forget Thanksgiving and start to push the sales by the first of November.
This year the Christmas season skipped over Halloween as well. Christmas stuff in the stores in October. There is a potential bright side of this for the Christian community. The more and more they move the commerical Christmas marketing season away from the time of the Christmas celebration within the worshipping community the easier it may become for Christian people to teach their children the differences between Santa and Jesus. The longer the marketing and the more disconnected it becomes from the Christmas day within the Church, the more chance the believing community has for separating the commericalization of Christmas from the holy day of the faith community.
It was a couple of years ago when a Muslim student in the Duke University newspaper marveled at what the Christian community had allowed to happen to its high holy day. She said Look at what they have done to your story, look at how they exploit the Christ, look at how awful they manipulate the message. We Muslims would never allow that happen to our holy days. And judging from the reaction to some cartoons, they do not take kindly to people messing with their Prophet.
But it may just be one of those hopeful acts of providence, that the marketing people will so try to expand the marketing time to exploit Christmas that they will get it started so early that it loses all connection with Christmas and Christian community can have its holy time back again.
So we can pray.
For me the act of having Christmas stuff in the stores before Thanksgiving has always been an exploitation of the Christmas meaning. Thanksgiving is a holiday which is supposed to remind you to be happy and thankful for what you already have. Christmas is now supposed to be the season where you suddenly have to be unhappy with what you already have so that you can make a list of all the things you just have to have. So Thanksgiving, except for the food industry, is not a big marketing season. So we can forget Thanksgiving and start to push the sales by the first of November.
This year the Christmas season skipped over Halloween as well. Christmas stuff in the stores in October. There is a potential bright side of this for the Christian community. The more and more they move the commerical Christmas marketing season away from the time of the Christmas celebration within the worshipping community the easier it may become for Christian people to teach their children the differences between Santa and Jesus. The longer the marketing and the more disconnected it becomes from the Christmas day within the Church, the more chance the believing community has for separating the commericalization of Christmas from the holy day of the faith community.
It was a couple of years ago when a Muslim student in the Duke University newspaper marveled at what the Christian community had allowed to happen to its high holy day. She said Look at what they have done to your story, look at how they exploit the Christ, look at how awful they manipulate the message. We Muslims would never allow that happen to our holy days. And judging from the reaction to some cartoons, they do not take kindly to people messing with their Prophet.
But it may just be one of those hopeful acts of providence, that the marketing people will so try to expand the marketing time to exploit Christmas that they will get it started so early that it loses all connection with Christmas and Christian community can have its holy time back again.
So we can pray.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Providence?
The old hymn reminds us that God moves in a mysterious way his wonders to perform. Isaiah the Prophet reminds us that God's ways are not our ways. The magnificent black preacher Gardner Taylor once commented that God had used the Second World War to prepare the black community for the Civil Rights movement. He argued that the government had taken thousands of black young men and trained them. The government had sent them to foreign lands where they could and experience all kinds of different things. The government had put them in leadership roles in the army. The government had paid for their education upon return. As a result the black community had a great body of black leadership ready to step forward in the Civil Rights movement. Dr. Taylor's faith perspective gave credit to the moving hand of God's providence in that history.
With the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States, one might suggest that the Providence of God was at work in this country over the last eight years preparing us for this incredible moment. I am one of those who had come to the place where I did not care who the Republican nominee was, I was going to vote for the Democrat because the Republican Party in power for six years had ruined our country. They had abandoned their own principles. They had arrogance in their power. They had irresponsibility in their leadership. They seemed to be concerned only about the prosperity of the rich. There are many observers who suggest that I am not alone. That there were many people who had come to the place where they recognized that the party in power needed to be removed. That those six years of suffering as a nation prepared us for a major change and into that opportunity Obama came. It is a major and dramatic change that has already happened in his election. There is a new reality that cannot be reversed. It has happened.
Like Dr. Taylor from my faith perspective I celebrate that Providence of God at work in our history to bring us to this point and to give us this new beginning and this new reality. There is an old affirmation that God can make a way where there is no way. There were many who said that the election of a minority candidate for President of this country was a "no way, jose." I rejoice in my faith perspective that celebrates that God has made a way. Perhaps that is part of cross and resurrection of God, that we had the cross of the pain and suffering as a people to prepare for this day of new life? It is my reading of the Bible that it is how God works to bring about new creations. So rejoice. This is the day that the Lord has brought.
With the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States, one might suggest that the Providence of God was at work in this country over the last eight years preparing us for this incredible moment. I am one of those who had come to the place where I did not care who the Republican nominee was, I was going to vote for the Democrat because the Republican Party in power for six years had ruined our country. They had abandoned their own principles. They had arrogance in their power. They had irresponsibility in their leadership. They seemed to be concerned only about the prosperity of the rich. There are many observers who suggest that I am not alone. That there were many people who had come to the place where they recognized that the party in power needed to be removed. That those six years of suffering as a nation prepared us for a major change and into that opportunity Obama came. It is a major and dramatic change that has already happened in his election. There is a new reality that cannot be reversed. It has happened.
Like Dr. Taylor from my faith perspective I celebrate that Providence of God at work in our history to bring us to this point and to give us this new beginning and this new reality. There is an old affirmation that God can make a way where there is no way. There were many who said that the election of a minority candidate for President of this country was a "no way, jose." I rejoice in my faith perspective that celebrates that God has made a way. Perhaps that is part of cross and resurrection of God, that we had the cross of the pain and suffering as a people to prepare for this day of new life? It is my reading of the Bible that it is how God works to bring about new creations. So rejoice. This is the day that the Lord has brought.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Depressing
There was a story of the Embarqmail Home page. The story says that The Crystal Cathedral and Robert H. Schuller have relieved the Rev. Robert A. Schuller of his duties as preacher at the Cathedral. The Elder Schuller had placed the mantle of authority on his son in an emotional service in 2006. Now in a written statement from the President of the corporation of the church the two Schullers had different visions of what the ministry was to be and how the ministry should be conducted.
There were two thoughts that came to mind: One, that God seldom calls families to preach. One of the great Old Testament leaders, Samuel, whose children turned out to be failures. It does not appear that any of the disciples had children who became leaders in the church. At least, I know of none. Martin Luther, John Calvin, do not seemed to have had children who followed or lived up to their father's place in the church. Franklin Graham is no Billy Graham. Joel Osteen is the son of a successful preacher, but Joel's father was a powerful pentecostal evangelical preacher and Joel is a long way from his father. David Buttrick is not the preacher that George Buttrick was. The list could be expanded. Robert A. Schuller is not the entertainer or motivational speaker that his father was. Actually the few times I hear the son, he had a lot more Christianity in him than his father.
The second fact was where this story was reported. It was reported in the Entertainment section of the news. What a sad and disappointing reality! The preaching of the Christian faith in the Crystal Cathedral is considered simply entertainment. Surely the presentation of the Christian faith has to be something more and different than entertainment where the events of the life of Britney Spears are reported. Perhaps that is what was eventually wrong with the Crystal Cathedral: the father was a better entertainer than his son and the ratings dropped. The church is not called to be a place of entertainment.
He came to bring a sword, to lite a fire, to cause a division of the house.
There were two thoughts that came to mind: One, that God seldom calls families to preach. One of the great Old Testament leaders, Samuel, whose children turned out to be failures. It does not appear that any of the disciples had children who became leaders in the church. At least, I know of none. Martin Luther, John Calvin, do not seemed to have had children who followed or lived up to their father's place in the church. Franklin Graham is no Billy Graham. Joel Osteen is the son of a successful preacher, but Joel's father was a powerful pentecostal evangelical preacher and Joel is a long way from his father. David Buttrick is not the preacher that George Buttrick was. The list could be expanded. Robert A. Schuller is not the entertainer or motivational speaker that his father was. Actually the few times I hear the son, he had a lot more Christianity in him than his father.
The second fact was where this story was reported. It was reported in the Entertainment section of the news. What a sad and disappointing reality! The preaching of the Christian faith in the Crystal Cathedral is considered simply entertainment. Surely the presentation of the Christian faith has to be something more and different than entertainment where the events of the life of Britney Spears are reported. Perhaps that is what was eventually wrong with the Crystal Cathedral: the father was a better entertainer than his son and the ratings dropped. The church is not called to be a place of entertainment.
He came to bring a sword, to lite a fire, to cause a division of the house.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
What is normal?
She sells real estate on the coast of North Carolina. When asked how things were selling now in the midst of the "credit crisis," she said that things were back to normal. Things were now back to the way they were when she started the business. Things were back to the times when the customer had to have some money to put down. Things were back to where they had to run credit checks and the buyer had to have good credit to get a loan. Things were back, she said, to the way the business used to be.
She made me realize how much of a fantasy world we have been living in. The dream of everybody getting rich in real estate, the dream of Social Security investments in the market that would just keep getting larger and larger, the dream that all of our problems would be solved by capitalism were just that dreams and illusions. I am not happy losing a third of my value in my investments. But as one who has made a life of trying to live by the stories in the Bible, I must confess that I am not surprised by the greed that has consumed us. The man who was working out with me in the Y said he used to believe that his broker at least had an interest in seeing that his clients made money as well as himself. Now he is not sure. Speculators, hedge funds, investment rating firms, CEO's with amazing salaries, million dollar bonsuses, all suggest that greed was working overtime. But the sin of greed was in all of us. The Christian story is such that we are never surprised by the presence of evil in all of us.
The other thing that the real estate salesperson's remarks did for me was to make me terribly thankful for the things I do have, for the life I have had, for the fact that what I have is paid for, for the fact that the normal life was always good enough. Even now in the midst of the world wide economic challenges when we look around at the world around us, it takes a lot of gall to complain. We have so many blessings that we take for granted that we do not even acknowledge. We just keep forgetting what "normal" is.
She made me realize how much of a fantasy world we have been living in. The dream of everybody getting rich in real estate, the dream of Social Security investments in the market that would just keep getting larger and larger, the dream that all of our problems would be solved by capitalism were just that dreams and illusions. I am not happy losing a third of my value in my investments. But as one who has made a life of trying to live by the stories in the Bible, I must confess that I am not surprised by the greed that has consumed us. The man who was working out with me in the Y said he used to believe that his broker at least had an interest in seeing that his clients made money as well as himself. Now he is not sure. Speculators, hedge funds, investment rating firms, CEO's with amazing salaries, million dollar bonsuses, all suggest that greed was working overtime. But the sin of greed was in all of us. The Christian story is such that we are never surprised by the presence of evil in all of us.
The other thing that the real estate salesperson's remarks did for me was to make me terribly thankful for the things I do have, for the life I have had, for the fact that what I have is paid for, for the fact that the normal life was always good enough. Even now in the midst of the world wide economic challenges when we look around at the world around us, it takes a lot of gall to complain. We have so many blessings that we take for granted that we do not even acknowledge. We just keep forgetting what "normal" is.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
From the other side
For forty years every three years there would come a time when I had to read the story Jesus told about the farmer who hired day laborers. Once every three years the story would come up in the list of scriptures to read on Sunday. This is the story of the farmer who went early in the morning to the place where day workers gather and hired the people who were there. When he hired them they agreed on the price he would pay them for the day's work. He took them to the farm and put them to work. Then about noon, he had to go back to town so he dropped by the place and saw some more people, and he hired them. Turns out he was back in town about three o'clock and he rounded up the workers who had gathered there in the afternoon. When the end of the day came, and the farmer paid off the workers, he called out the last ones hired and he gave them the pay that he had agreed to pay the workers he hired in the morning. He gave those who were hired last the same pay.
Those who had worked all day were upset and angry that they did not get paid more if they had worked more. But they got paid what they had agreed was a good pay for a day's work.
This is a hard story for those who want life to be fair. It rubs against our sense of justice and equity. Fairness is not present in this story. But for the forty years I have worked with this story, I have never met a person who read this story from the point of view of the person who got hired last. Everybody who has discussed this story with me took the position of those who had worked hard all day, and they were outraged.
Nobody has thought about the hard working people who cannot find work. Those who show up at the day labor site every morning hoping to get picked up for a day's pay. Nobody has imagined what it must be like to have a family and children and worry every morning whether there would be somebody looking for workers so that you might make enough to buy food for the day. Nobody I have ever taught this story too thought about what it must have been like for those who had not been picked or who had not been able to get to the place on time. Maybe somebody was sick at home and the worker had not been able to get out of the house by early morning. Maybe there were other complications. The best they could do was to get there by mid-day and worry about missing a whole day. Where would they get the money for supper? Then they get hired by the farmer to work. At least, they think they will get a little something. Maybe enough for bread and milk. Then he pays them the whole day's pay. What a delight. What a surprise. What a wondering thing. They were going to be able to take food home tonight. They did not have to go home and be a failure at home for not getting work. They had been given a blessing.
After all most of us have not worked for all the blessings we have gotten. We have worked the last few hours on major projects and gathered the great benefits. We have not put in the sweat and labor to develop the internet, but we get the full benefit of it. We have not produced the food, but we get the full array of products we can choose from. Most of us get more than we deserve and are treated better than we have earned. There is something terribly wrong with the Christian church that has nobody in its midst that rejoices at the hearing of this story. For we are all the ones who have come to the work late and get the full benefit of the master.
Those who had worked all day were upset and angry that they did not get paid more if they had worked more. But they got paid what they had agreed was a good pay for a day's work.
This is a hard story for those who want life to be fair. It rubs against our sense of justice and equity. Fairness is not present in this story. But for the forty years I have worked with this story, I have never met a person who read this story from the point of view of the person who got hired last. Everybody who has discussed this story with me took the position of those who had worked hard all day, and they were outraged.
Nobody has thought about the hard working people who cannot find work. Those who show up at the day labor site every morning hoping to get picked up for a day's pay. Nobody has imagined what it must be like to have a family and children and worry every morning whether there would be somebody looking for workers so that you might make enough to buy food for the day. Nobody I have ever taught this story too thought about what it must have been like for those who had not been picked or who had not been able to get to the place on time. Maybe somebody was sick at home and the worker had not been able to get out of the house by early morning. Maybe there were other complications. The best they could do was to get there by mid-day and worry about missing a whole day. Where would they get the money for supper? Then they get hired by the farmer to work. At least, they think they will get a little something. Maybe enough for bread and milk. Then he pays them the whole day's pay. What a delight. What a surprise. What a wondering thing. They were going to be able to take food home tonight. They did not have to go home and be a failure at home for not getting work. They had been given a blessing.
After all most of us have not worked for all the blessings we have gotten. We have worked the last few hours on major projects and gathered the great benefits. We have not put in the sweat and labor to develop the internet, but we get the full benefit of it. We have not produced the food, but we get the full array of products we can choose from. Most of us get more than we deserve and are treated better than we have earned. There is something terribly wrong with the Christian church that has nobody in its midst that rejoices at the hearing of this story. For we are all the ones who have come to the work late and get the full benefit of the master.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Telling the Truth?
If you ask them, they would all say they are telling the truth. There is probably no better time to see so clearly how complicated and relative truth can be than election campaigns. Each side says tells things about the other side which they claim are true, but make the rest of us realize how misleading those charges can be. One candidates claims that the other voted to raise taxes. Turns out the other candidate did raise the rate of taxes but reduce the amount on which the taxes would be applied and so actually reduce the tax bill, but did vote to raise the rate. Another candidate claims that the other candidate drove the state into deep debt. But what really happened was that bond issues for important projects were passed by the voters upon the recommendation of the committee this person was the chairperson. Yes the state did increase the debt of the state, but it was a debt that was accepted by the voters. Or one claims that the other is for big government, high taxes, and spending programs when it has been their own party who has always increased the national debt and who has had spending programs not even on the budget.
The political campaigns are just a small piece of the bigger question that Pilate asked about what is truth. The campaigns show us that by taking just a piece of a story and using it truth can sound so different and so contrary to what we would like to see. But the same story is told by the people in economic positions. What is the financial reality? Bearish or bullish? Each person picks pieces of data and selects some facts. Then they declare their version of the truth.
Educators, military advisers, and all sorts of experts pick out a few of the aspects of their field and declare they are telling us the truth.
We are certainly engaged in that kind of fight within the great Christian community. Different groups of believers pick out different passages of scripture they want to focus on and then call what they have the truth. The struggle between religious also works on the different claims to ultimate truth.
What I find so fascinating about what I understand about the Grace Jesus gave and offered is that you and I do not have to be right. God in Christ has already made forgiveness happen, and we are invited to live in a world where we can care about each other, the planet, and ourselves without having to be "right" and without having to prove the other people wrong. I don't know whether or not this is the truth, but the story that has been a blessing to me says that God has already made forgiven available to everybody.
The political campaigns are just a small piece of the bigger question that Pilate asked about what is truth. The campaigns show us that by taking just a piece of a story and using it truth can sound so different and so contrary to what we would like to see. But the same story is told by the people in economic positions. What is the financial reality? Bearish or bullish? Each person picks pieces of data and selects some facts. Then they declare their version of the truth.
Educators, military advisers, and all sorts of experts pick out a few of the aspects of their field and declare they are telling us the truth.
We are certainly engaged in that kind of fight within the great Christian community. Different groups of believers pick out different passages of scripture they want to focus on and then call what they have the truth. The struggle between religious also works on the different claims to ultimate truth.
What I find so fascinating about what I understand about the Grace Jesus gave and offered is that you and I do not have to be right. God in Christ has already made forgiveness happen, and we are invited to live in a world where we can care about each other, the planet, and ourselves without having to be "right" and without having to prove the other people wrong. I don't know whether or not this is the truth, but the story that has been a blessing to me says that God has already made forgiven available to everybody.
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