what do we "deserve"?

WHAT DO WE “DESERVE?”

Again this morning I heard another commercial which claimed that I deserved something. It was a tax preparation company claiming that their product would help me get back all the money I deserved. This was not the first time somebody wanted to sell me something because “I deserved” it.  I have hear vacations of a life time being pushed towards me because “I deserve it.”  I have been offered automobiles of outstanding excellence because “I deserve it.”   Some may remember the music, “you deserve a break today, so get up and get away.”

Where did we get this impressive notion that we deserve anything?  Teachers tell me that there students think that because they showed up and took the test, they deserve a good grade. It appears that many colleges and universities, especially the more selective ones, have a problem with students and parents who think they deserve great grades.  If we are paying $40,000 a year tuition, then our child deserves to get all A’s seems to be the argument. 

When did we start thinking that our mere existence on this earth entitled us to all of these benefits?  What did we do to deserve these blessings?  It seems like this attitude is showing up everywhere. The passengers on the crippled cruise ship are now suing the owners because “nobody deserves to have to be in those conditions.”  But what makes them special? Why do they deserve not to be in those conditions and people in Katrina were in those conditions, people in the Northeast are in those conditions after Sandy, and a billion people around the world live in those kind of conditions every day.  Granted the passengers paid money for the trip, and expected something different and better, but the people in New Orleans and the Northeast had paid for their homes and their communities and expected something better of life. Stuff happens. How come the passengers “deserved” not to be subjected to life’s unpleasant surprises? 

Don’t you have to do something to be able to claim that you deserve something? Isn’t a pay check only given if you work?  The people working hard at terrible jobs for minimum wages do have a right to argue they deserve a higher wage. They have earned it, but it is amazing how much some people are paid who do not deserve even minimum wages. They have harmed their companies and still get paid amazing salaries.

The idea that we are entitled, that we deserve what we get, that we deserve even more than what we have already has a horrible impact on our ability to be grateful and thankful for what we have been given.  There is no way anyone in the developed world can claim to deserve the life he has and that those in the developing world deserve the kind of life they have. All we can do is say a thank you, to be humbled by the immense blessings we have been given, that we did not earn, and to enjoy what we have without the constant unpleasantness of thinking that we have been cheated or denied something we were supposed to be given.  Just because we are alive does not mean we deserve anything. Lots of people in this country have been blessed by gifts, by opportunities, by help from others, by luck, by circumstances, and by timing. There is little place for this “deserve” attitude, and a much large place for “thank you, thank you thank you.”

Sanitize Faith - A Blind eye to the human side

From time to time I have seen and read some of those descriptions of the physical pain that would have been inflicted upon Jesus during Holy Week.  I was reading this morning a sermon about the physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual pain that Jesus must have endured.  It caused me to reflect upon the fact that in my Presbyterian experience we have exhibited our intellectual tradition by ignoring or downplaying the grimy and bloody part of the story.  We might talk about the pain of being betrayed by one of the people you had picked and trusted. We might mention the torture of the guards with the crown of thorns, and we might talk a little about the sweat of blood in the garden, but we would not be comfortable, I don't think, with a focus of the sweat, the strain, the stumbling, the fatigue of Jesus as he carries his cross. Certainly to spend a lot of time talking about what happens to the body of a human on a cross would not be appreciated, I don't think, by a Presbyterian congregation.

Perhaps I am wrong, but I do not think that many Presbyterians would want a preacher to dwell too much on the labor pains, the sweat, the hurt, the blood, the afterbirth of Christmas either.  The human reality, the spit, the dust, the dirt, the tired, the frustration of teaching disciples who do not get it, the git and grim of the ministry of Jesus is not something that has been a big part of years in the church.

And I wonder if that has been a loss to us or a matter of little consequence?

A soft voice, a gentle heart and a quick word

It is not so much that things were better "back in the day." The McDonald's commercial speaks to that issue with its morning breakfast biscuit. It is just that I have been reading some of the sermons of a few of the minister who had retired by the time I had begun to do ministry.  I bought a lot of books of George Buttrick, Paul Scherer, Arthur Gossip, James Stewart from Scotland, Ed Steimle, Gardner Taylor and others.

There are a few things that seem to be consistent in a lot of their sermons that I am just now getting around to reading. Too late to do me much good, but there is a joy in reading them.  They do have their different styles and some of them have a voice of conviction and confidence that is interesting to hear. Paul Scherer has a wonderful way of dismissing the false and misleading ideas of faith and worship. Buttrick had a quality of voice and writing that put things simply and directly.  He was not heavy handed or overbearing.

Gardner Taylor is most impressive for his great pastoral heart that keeps showing up in paragraph after paragraph.  He does not try to pretend that everything is well. He constantly is reciting the things that may be wrong in our lives. If he is talking about the problems in society most of the time it is from how those challenges affect the reader.  His tone is gentle and sympathetic.  And what is even more impressive is that he quickly makes his point about what God in grace and do and leaves it there. He seldom tries to convince and "argue" you to faith.

If he were to preach on the 13th chapter of I Corinthians, he would talk about how faith can disappoint. How you have had faith in an elect official and he has failed you. How you have had faith in education and you still are looking for a job. How you have been kind and gracious with charitable acts and the people who have gotten the gifts are not thankful.  How you have sacrificed for you children and they have turned out poorly. We have had faith, hope and love, but they have not lived up to their billing, but the love that Paul is talking about is not your Love, but God's love for you. God's love for you never fails. Never ends.  And he is through.  No long attempt to defend or validate his claim about God's love. Just the statement.

I am not sure that our society is prepared or receptive for that kind of preaching now, but I know it is vastly different from what I heard.  I just know I am ready to read those kinds of gentle simple words.

A Straight Path to Citizenship

When I met with couples about to be married, one of the questions that always had to be asked was about children. Did they want them?  How many did they want?  Often there was a little debate about having them, but the larger question would be how many, and when.  When would they want to start a family.  I was always comforted when I heard them give me a plan. "We intend to work five years, save our money, buy a house, and in year seven begin to try to have a family." That was definite and precise. Those who said they would have them when they could afford them were confused and too vague.  They would never get to the place where they would think they had enough money to have them.

I have the same concern about the plans for the path to citizenship for the immigrants in this country.  Those who suggest that the path to citizenship has a clause that the citizenship will not become real until the "borders are secure" give me and others the "willies."  They can always say that the borders are never secured enough. Now if the plans suggest that there will need to be so many new border guards, so much money in the border budget, or any other kind of precise definite number then it might work. I would rather see just a straight clean path to citizenship.  It may be high and hard, but it ought to be straight forward and honest.  I think it was Jesus who said your "Yes" ought to be "yes" and your "no's" no, and there is not even a need to swear because you are speaking truth. We need that in this plan.

Christmas, 2012

Gun downed children in their schools

Congress playing with the rules

Wall Street living off their greed

Christian name without the creed.

The unemployed still worry lots

The voters give okay to pot

The shoppers seek the desperate deals

And kitchens serve a Christmas meal.

Our games are full of blood and gore

The NRA just begs for more.

There is darkness deep within

That once was labelled human sin.

We need the  child in the manager stall

Who came with grace to offer all..

rcb, 2012

Violence And Change

     It is obvious that the shooting in Newtown has lifted the issue of violence to a new level.  I was among those whose first reaction to the news of the shooting was that we have to do something about guns.  But I am pleased that the President has not made any statement about what we need to do. He has indicated that we as a people need to do something different. We should not tolerate having this kind of tragedy every year. We have to do something different, but he has not said what that should be. He has said we need to talk about it.

     We need to talk about it because there are so many factors which are a part of these events.  There is the mental health issue.  How do we reach and treat those people who are different from the rest of us. The loner, the bullied, the gifted but different, those who do not have all of the talents and gifts of the main stream?    Certainly that is a major part of these stories.

      What part do all the violence and killing on T.V, movies, comics, video games play in the development of these events?  Do these games give ideas to these people as they live out their pain and isolation?  Do these movies and games prepare the person to know about body armor, about weapons, about how to get the most damage from the least effort. (I would have never even imagined using what they use to kill cattle in slaughter houses as a weapon until I saw the movie "No Country for Old Men.")  Is there something we need to do about the amount of violence we pour into the culture?

      Morgan Freeman has complained about the amount of publicity that we give these shooters. That part of what they seek is the recognition and fame that comes from the actions. They may have been ignored, pushed aside, bullied, but "look at me now. Now you won't forget me or ignore me. You will remember my name now." And the power and satisfaction that comes from the national attention. So maybe we should not give these events as much publicity as we do?

      And of course, there is the whole gun issue.  I think that we all recognize that we are not going to eliminate guns from our country.  There is a second amendment in our constitution. But the right to bear arms does not necessarily, it seems to me, mean that we are entitled to every kind of gun there is available.   We regulate the kind of drugs that are available. We regulate the kind of beer and alcohol that is made. Can we not regulate the kind of weapons that the public citizen can own?  Can we not develop a national registration of weapons and background checks for all owners?  The weapons used at Newtown were all legal and properly registered? What about automatic weapons? Could we not limit how many shots a weapon can fire in a certain time?  Just some ideas.  Australia and Great Britain have instituted gun limitations we need to talk with them about what they did.

      I hope that any legislature introduced now is the product of this kind of discussion that may have been had after the previous events.  But I hope that this Newtown tragedy does give us the energy and the determination to press to a conclusion and to make some significant changes.  The old argument that guns don't kill people, people kill people is a pretty empty argument. How many people would have died in Newtown if Adam had had to use an axe? or his hands, or a knife?  Sure he may have gotten a couple but the size of the tragedy would have been much smaller.  If we are serious about being a nation of Love and Justice, we need to make some changes.

christmas war

       It appears that certain media outlets in order to keep the pot stirred up have begun to talk about the liberals' war on Christmas. When you say "Happy Holidays" you are fighting against Christmas. When you do not protest because the city council will no longer pay for the creation of a Nativity scene in the public park, you are waging war against Christmas.  It is all a part of a great satanic plot to undermine the greatness of our country and lead the USA into the dumps. The malls that play "seasonal" music and not Christmas carols are part of the infantry that is fighting the war against Christmas.

       The truth of the matter, as it seems to me, is that there is a great war against the mass of Christ and it is not the one that the media people are talking about.  This is not a new war that has just begun in the last couple of years.  This is the war that Santa Christmas is waging against the Christ child's birth.  This is the push of the retail merchants to encourage more and more focus on the Santa of giving presents and buying stuff,  and ignoring the religious dimensions of the season.

       There has been, and it is a blessed thing that needed to be done, a push to dissolve the parasitic relationship between a kind of generic Christianity and the public policies. The promotion of the Christian faith in public schools, the opening of public meetings with Christian prayers, the honoring of Christian holidays with vacation days.  There has been a slow recognition and movement towards the principles of separation of church and state. The state will not seek to destroy or limit any religion by taxation and oppression, nor will it promote one religion over the other by special privileges.  Our country has become more and more religiously diverse and our eyes have been opened to how much of our public support has been totally given to the vague notion of the Christian faith.

       So it is entirely appropriate that in this time of the year when several religions have special celebrations that the government not give one of those celebrations more attention than others. But that is not a war on Christmas. It frees Christians to focus more joyfully on the coming of the Christ child.

        The real war on Christmas is the assault of the Santa Claus culture that continues to dominate the month of December.  Who is this holiday really for? Santa or Jesus.  Did you see the question asked by the Jewish child about whether or not Santa comes to Jewish children?  The Santa culture is invading the Jewish traditions. The really powerful and effective war that is being waged against Christmas is the commercialization of Christmas to the extent that the ideal image now is Santa driving Mercedes Benz cars and coming to your home.

      Saying "Happy Holidays" is not a problem for me, but hearing "Santa Claus is coming to town!" fires another shot at the Christ child in a manger.