Devotions-Week of July 29

Sunday July 29-Ps. 14 is a replica of Psalm 53. It is a psalm of not recognizing the moral culture in which the psalmist lives. It reminds me of those who always say that the world is going to hell and seem incapable of seeing anything good. Like so many laments, it ends with a surge of hope for restoration and imagines how glad people will be when that happens. Monday-I’ve been reading Alyce McKenzie on proverbs and wisdom lately. She’s made a career out of an area that started in her desperation to get a paper project started in graduate school, where the book of Proverbs had little scholarly interest at the time. she loves to line up popular slogans with biblical material and see what happens in the hybrid. I just hear Allison Krause sing “I don;t know the answers, but I know who to blame.” What material in Proverbs would fit or respond to that? Tuesday-Assumptions can get us into trouble. We assume someone is fine with what we are doing, and then we get surprised. We assume we can read into the intentions of others and find out we are wrong. We assume the best about ourselves and the worst in others. At the same time, our intuition can be spot on occasion. Wednesday-We speak often of the church as family, and that is good and bad. Whom do we treat as in-laws in the church? How do we treat newcomers? Do we put up with unhealthy behaviors and attitudes because we put up with them in our families? Along with loyalty, what are some other virutes of viewing the church as family? What difference does and should it make ot speak of the church as not only a household, but the household of God? Thursday-I worked through most of a church history book A.D. 381. We read the Nicene Creed, started in 325 but it was brought to conclusion in 381 in the capital of the Eastern Empire, Constantinople. I am troubled by it in that the book argues tha the completion of this creed served a political agenda: to stifle dissent and differing opinions for both the state and the church. In other words, the church was being seduced by power. Friday-We read the additions to Daniel in the Apocrypha in Bible study recently, the prayers of Azariah and the glorious praise song of the three men in the fiery furnace and their rescue. It’s a remarkable set of prayers as it accepts sin fully and even sees it as a proper pretext for punishments from heaven. Do we ever feel that way anymore? Second, it has a litany-like movement through aspects fo creation from the inanimate all the way through the human. Saturday-Perseverance is a powerful virtue for good. I think of a dentist who fell in love with the old Negro league baseball teams. So many great players lie buried in unmarked graves. He has worked to bring a bit of recognition and dignity to them in their final resting place. It takes a lot of digging and effort for him to be able to continue this project, but he does continue. Where is the source of this virtue? When have you failed to persevere? Do you regret it or accept it? Where have you persevered and been proud of it?

Sermon Notes July 29 II Sam. 11, Eph. 3:14-21

I notice in school that children are told that they make good or bad choices that are connected to consequences. When a celebrity or a politician does something untoward, we say things such as ‘what were you thinking” or how could they have been so stupid. I was very disappointed with President Clinton’s memoirs, but he did say something insightful about the Monica affair, he did it because he could. Sin is not a rational process, nor is it only making a mistake. It can be heedless of consequence; its desires well up again and again not in spite of the harm they cause but perhaps due to the harm they cause. When I was young I hung out in bars a bit and listened to the talk. (Perhaps, I was learning how men talk, as my father was killed when i was very young).One time, a beautiful woman appeared on the TV and the chorus of comment started. Then a man said something that stuck in my mind: “no matter how good-looking the woman is there is a guy tired of being with her.” Sin feeds and grows in the empty recesses of the self. Its outlets are always on the prowl. King David has plenty of wives, but it seems that he has become indolent in his power and bored with royal duties. From his high vantage point, he sees a beauty, and he treat her as a thing to be possessed: the verbs carry the freight: take, send.I wonder if she is ever a person to him until, perhaps, he gets the word that she is expecting. We don’t get a hint, as I read it, about her feelings, if any, but being used, at this point.Then, he treats that as a political machination, and the machinery of state works overtime to eliminate the problem. It amazes me how quick we may be to read into the story and try to find a way to blame Bathsheba for being david’s latest conquest, especially as he moved away from battlefield conquests. Mel Brooks had a character say: “it’s good to be the king.”Power is an aphrodisiac said Henry Kissinger. It can also be an attempt to fill an inner or natural power void with another. David’s power allows him to first try to cover-up his sin. God sees. The desire goes all the way back to Adam and Eve,and their denial. Senator Edwards apparently created a pool of money to keep one of his apparent mistresses quiet when she was expecting, but it also appears that his minions lifted the money for themselves. What causes his desire to cover up his wrong, what causes him to eliminate his rival? Would this multiplied-married king have fallen into disrepute for being with yet another woman? Insecurity may be part of his sin’s root. Maybe part of him is always the young brother, the surprise anointed one.He needs to prove to himself that he still has it, even as he has grown older and is not longer the young brigand. When sin senses being invisible and insulated, it wait sfor a chnace. . Great power means not being told you’re wrong. Great power creates a cocoon of insulation around consequences for one’s actions. Sin has many sources:rebellion and boredom, the sight of people being mere pawns or objects, senses of lack v. abundance, what am I missing?. From the outside it can appear that one has it all. that does not quell the gnawing sense that more should be mind that fuels both lust and gluttony. sin feeds and grows in the empty recesses of the self. Its outlets are always on the prowl. Ephesians has enormous confidence that being rooted in love, being empowered by the Spirit, seeing oneself as part of the Biblical pageant. Only such a large faith can counter such a large force.

Column for July 27 On Fighting Evil

I continue to be bothered by how easily we fall into protecting an organization and let evil do its damage. As I was preparing for a sermon for August 26 on spiritual weapons from Ephesians 6, I was forcefully reminded of a small village in France where people did not acquiesce in evil. The village was Le Chambon in France. The Vichy puppet regime was supporting the Nazi campaign against Jews in France. André Trocme was the pastor at a Huguenot church, a Reformed wing of the Protestant church, in France. He had not been there very long, but he saw the storm of Nazi ideology on the horizon. Trocme organized ways to try to save people. At one point he was arrested and held religious service sin the prison. He was released as his captors thought he caused more trouble with his services inside the prison than he could do outside the prison. When released, he was forced into hiding, but the non-violent resistance continued. Philip Hallie calls the process he started a “conspiracy of goodness.” Sometimes people can face evil with courage. We are all tempted to fall into an organizational line, salute, and try to protect reputations and live in the deadening half-life of denial. People do find complicity with evil easier than fighting it, but it is not always the case. I am pleased that the former POW and presidential nominee John McCain was willing to stand up to the unwarranted, bigoted attempt by Michele Bachmann and cronies to investigate American officials on the basis of their ethnicity and faith. When Trocme’s wife was asked about her courage, she replied that she felt it was not a difficult decision. ‘Are we brothers or not?” Trocme’s cousin, Daniel, taught Jewish children in school along with the residents of Le Chambon. Like his Biblical namesake, he was caught in the lion’s den of arbitrary political power. Eventually the Gestapo caught on to him, and he was sent to a concentration camp. Pierre Sauvage made a film and interviewed surviving members of the resistance in the 1980s. As he reviewed the film, he realized that the source of their power was religious. They saw Jews as the biblical children of the promise. They tried their best to live out the basic admonition: to love one another. Schindler’s List reminds us that people can discover their courage when they are not only irreligious but proud agents of vice. Somehow a greedy industrialist found the courage to transform his enterprises in havens for Jews. In the movie, at least, Schindler decisively turned when a little girl was taken. The state of Israel memorializes those whom they call righteous gentiles. The people of Le Chambon and Oskar Schindler are both honored. It is not clear to me how people find the virtue of courage to oppose evil. Part of the drive seems to be a capacity for empathy, for placing oneself into the position of another. Part of it could be a willingness to see what we hold in common over what divides us. Part of it is a rebelliousness that is willing to oppose authority and will refuse to leave authority unquestioned. Part of it comes from a realization that we are capable of action and are not merely passive recipients of forces larger than ourselves. Part of it is the capacity to peer past of desire to live in denial and see things from a different, clearer perspective, a courageous act in itself. I don’t know why these virtues did not appear in the Penn State case until so late in the game. I do know that evil depends on our turning a blind eye to its depredations.

OT Notes 2 Sam. 11:26-12:13

Nathan-This is a classic instance of speaking truth to power. 1) Bathsheba mourns Uriah. After the mourning period, she marries David and delivers a son.This must be an especially complicated grief. It could be a gateway to speak of complicated losses in our lives. 2) Notice how Nathan does not dare speak directly at first but softens David up by involving him in a story first. Look with care at how Nathan sets up sympathy for the poor man. I would note that it is noteworthy that the right wing plays the victim card constantly. See the new book, Pity the Billionaire, by Thomas Frank. David rediscovers his sense of justice. 3) Why can a story break through David’s defenses and rationalizations? Notice that anger is what breaks through in David. Is it a righteous anger do you think? 4) One could continue to explore the linkages of sexuality and power here. Kissinger famously called power an aphrodisiac. Lately, American politicians have been involved in more tawdry sexual dalliances than financial corruption. Why? 5) Go with care through Nathan's description of God's reaction to the sins of David. 6) This includes prophecy as prediction as David's family will now cause ceaseless trouble. 7)Why does God decide to make public problems a punishment for David's attempts to keep things secret? 8) Immediately after the condemnation, David learns that he will be spared, but the child will die. Sort through the justice and injustice of that. 9)The psalm for today, 51, is said to be in response to this episode. 10) When have you had a moment of clarity aobut sin such a sDavid's, if ever? Think through why the word sin is in abeyance and replaced by all sort so alternatives, mistake, weakness, poor choice, etc.

OT Notes 2 Sam. 7, 11

2 Sam. 7 1) This is a major messianic theme here, of course. In the dark ages when I wa sin seminary, we spoke of this as the core of a Zion theology. 2) If you were a religious person during the fall of Jerusalem, centuries later, how would you respond to these words of a permanent dynasty? 3) do you trust David’s desire to build a house for God?do you think it sincere, or does it have an admixture of political calculation? 4) Examine Nathan’s change of mind due to the dream. 5) What do you make of God’s preference for the mobile ark? 6) Consider working with Ps. 89 as an example of Zion theology. 2 Sam. 11- 1) Bathsheba (daughter of the south or daughter of the oath) - This is a projective text to some degree. Is Bathsheba pure victim of power here, or not? On the other hand, is it possible to admonish David’s multiplying sins enough? Few stories show the inter-relationships of various sins better than this cascade of wrongs. Is David an example of power corrupting? 2) Why do you think David has become indolent? 3) Given David’s power, what is pushing the cover-up? This could be an excellent device to look at political cover-ups from Watergate to the RCC and priestly abuses or the P{enn State horror. 4) Uriah is a foreigner but follows the rules of the faith better than David. This is a classic example of finding the ability to do small sacrifices enables one to face bigger moral issues. What must be going on in David to see such honor? 5) What pushes David to keep his hands clean from taking Uriah’s life directly but pushes this indirect deceptive approach? 6) Pay attention to the verbs chosen in this passage. What effects do they have on building up a character as well as narrative?

July 20 column on Exotic Marigold Hotel

I love movies. When my eyesight started to deteriorate it became difficult to watch a movie in one or two sittings, so many slipped by me. Since my eye surgeries, it is easier for me to watch them again. I am doubly grateful to watch them easily, as it was a chore for some years. I am also so grateful for video and DVD that allows us to watch all sorts of movies from the recent or distant past. Our confirmation group watched scenes from the 1925 silent King of Kings, for instance. Recently, I went across the river to see Exotic Marigold Hotel. (I planned to go to see it in Edwardsville, but it did not last long there). It is an oldster version of Love, Actually. It is an ensemble piece, with fine British actors, about a set of retirees who find themselves strapped for cash in England and are lured by a web site advertisement for the “elderly and beautiful” to be pampered in exotic India. The movie set me to thinking about a number of things. How little we plan for retirement, not only financially but in terms of time and activity. It shows how difficult it is for children to deal with their parents as they age, but both generations are still concerned about their own children as well. It is a meditation on the loneliness of age. That can be present in a marriage gone off the rails, for the widowed, or those who have been proudly independent but now fear the creeping need for support as the body or mind starts to weaken. It also is a meditation on how connection can help heal the pain of loneliness and the fragility and regrets that we carry as we age. For me, one of the most meaningful parts of a service is the confession of the truth about our lives, good and bad and the declaration of pardon we offer to each others as ambassadors of Christ. As I think about it, the \vulnerability of aging makes us less able to bear some of the burdens we carry. My mother used to say that her resilience was weakening as her bones were growing soft. One of the healing aspects of the faith is the ability to receive forgiveness, to receive pardon, from the hand of God through Jesus Christ. That is part of a love so rich and full that it can counter our regrets. After all, can we really, truly regret what we do, say, or feel out of loving at the utmost of our capabilities? In the movie, characters are seeking redemption: connection from the past, or have been cut off from connection, whether single or married, or fight through social stigma to claim the connections they have forged. It is also a meditation on the doldrums we encounter in work place or retirement, the taken for granted episodes of family life, the ruts we fall into out of fear of what change could bring. One of the marks of character in the film is how people react or respond ot the vast cultural changes they encounter in their new environment. will they be able to call a new place, home again? The new life we celebrate in our baptism is open to us every single waking day we have given to us. We are too precious to live halfway, caught in a rut, when the bright sunshine of Easter life beckons us daily. I sometimes think that Jesus would make movies to help spread his gospel message in 2012. I love watching movies with the eyes of faith, and in so doing see Bible principles, the very way of God, come to new life before my very eyes.

Notes for July 22 Sermon Eph. 2:11-22, Mk. 6:3-4, 53-56

July 22 Eph. 2: 11-22 Mk 6:30-34, 53-56 One big surprise to me here is the sheer weight of the need of the hungry, the mentally ill, the needy who offer up a barrage of cries for assistance. A local church has run out of funds and helps only its members. I saw a sign on another church door that says they are helping only in absolute emergency, life-threatening situations. At the edge of the Roman Empire, Jesus was confronted by immense need, but that is easy for us to forget when we see the clean vista of movies and Sunday School materials to inhabit our imagination. A crush of need threatened to swallow him in its vortex. the lectionary keeps two short pieces on the edge of miracle stories. They certainly also define the ministry of compassion that marked the short work of Jesus of Nazareth.One gets the sense that Jesus feels like a mother who works outside the home when there seems to be no time to rest. Even the disciples are besieged, as they are not at leisure even to grab a bite to eat. Jesus does not worship busy-ness, instead, he asks them to go to a deserted place to find some rest and peace. After the feeding of the 5,000 and the walking on the water, still they are drawing desperate people in droves who are seeking healing.It sounds like a rampaging army of the dispossessed chasing their captain. Pope Paul VI said, if you want peace, work for justice For me, justice is about structures that allow people to be treated fairly and a system in place to move people from handouts to be able to give hand-ups in due time. Social security strikes me a s a just way of handling the issues of retirement, more than the old poorhouses we used to have. We used the national credit card to fund 2 wars, but I hardly heard a peep of complaint about the billions spent. Our reading from Ephesians has a wonderful image of structure and important words about reconciliation, of bringing people together.. Suffering tends to isolate us. We tend to keep our distance from suffering. We have gotten to a terrible place where we blame those who suffer for their suffering and how they respond to their suffering. Human beings slip from conflict into violence very easily, and we cite differences as the root of the violence.It is so easy fo rus to erect dividing walls of hostility and find 9it so diffiuclt to dismantle them. The letter points to a different sort of human nature being established in a Christian. One of the difficult things about charity is that it converts people into objects of pity. I find myself expecting clients to be polite and grateful. It often feels like an assault on one’s dignity to receive handouts. Our derision knows no bounds when people try to game the system or depend on charity as some sort of expectation, even a right. The dividing wall of hostility is a marvelous image. Those of us of a certain age recall the quarter century when the Berlin Wall divided sections of that city. We maintain a careful hedge between us and the needy, socially, economically, politically, even spiritually. On a different level that dividing wall of hostility exists within us, between different segments of our personalities, our desires, our own divided selves. Perhaps our mania about being busy and constantly active is a way of not having to face a divided self. We rightly use images of inclusion; we are in this together;we are a family; we are all in the same boat. Before we are capable of living out those images, we need to continue to do the work of making our own selves whole, integrated, at peace.

Devotions week of July 22

Sunday July 22-Ps.89:20-37 is today’s lectionary selection. It is a prayer of unending support for David and his legacy. The monarchy was destroyed, so did the promise die? No, it was transmuted into a messianic expectation. Religion can look beyond the facts on the ground and perceive a way of interpreting the old words in ways that bring new hope. With the advent of Jesus Christ, we read Scripture with a different set of glasses, do we not? Monday-We read the prayer of Manasseh in Bible Study. It is part of the Greek language additions to the Old Testament that is honored by many Christians. It is a short prayer, and one of its line struck me of “bending the knee of the heart.” Many of us do not have the sense of sin as threatening our relationship with God, let alone each other. Humility is not a virtue from what I see in this new century. When do you feel the need to bend the knee of the heart? Tuesday-We had music in the park by the Wadlow statue last week. It’s a wonderful community event. Songs speak to us in a way beyond what separate lyrics or music finds possible, even when they are magnificent alone. Sometimes I get as much spiritual insight from secular songs as I do a hymn. Maybe that is more proof of our faith being an Incarnational one, where we can find traces of God throughout the creation. What songs move you and in what ways? Who are some of your favorite musical artists? Wednesday-I was uncomfortable during the second month of radiation treatments. I am now frustrated that my system seems out of whack again lately, even as I try to follow the guidelines. Frustration occurs when we want to hurry things along. When we can see the goal in sight and find impediments toward the goal, we get frustrated. I wonder why I do not get as upset when I encounter impediments in my spiritual progress as I do with physical ailments? Thursday-Henry David Thoreau, that quote machine, said: “there is no remedy for love but to love more.” I wonder if he was thinking of a cure for a broken heart? A while ago, a friend posted of her own heart braking as her daughter had her first heartache over a young man. Part of that brings up the memory of our own first heartbreak. We think it will never mend. I wonder if that is how God feels when we harm each other? Friday-As I write these, the old blues song Crossroads is on the radio. That has me think back to the final scene in Cast Away where Tom Hanks is parked at a crossroad after delivering a package that had stayed with him in his being marooned on an island. I like the image of making a decision about direction, even if we do not know precisely where it will lead. At the same time, I sense something irrevocable about that direction, for it is not so easy to turn back, like a battleship on maneuvers. Saturday-The summer has been hot and dry, and I have been praying for rain to our Creator God. Reformed Christians stress god’s providence and governance of that creation. At the same time, I realize that God grants much latitude in the complexity of weather systems. I pray that God does work through natural systems. If it doesn’t cause too much trouble elsewhere, I continue to pray for weather relief.

Sermon Notes for July 15, II Sam. 6, Mk. :14-29

We have 2 palace stories separated by about one thousand years. We witness human heights and depths in the intrigues of family dynamics. If anyone thinks that human morality has gone downhill, just look at these accounts. Look at Penn State, for proof that empires, athletic or otherwise, can be seedbeds of corruption. To the extent that the Baptizer is a trailblazer for Jesus this is a foreshadowing of evil times ahead for Jesus.Hollywood often puts this scene in pictures about Jesus. Actors outdo one another with the evil, drunken leers of Herod. look at Christopher Plummer in Greatest Story Ever Told.Herodias was the daughter of Herod of the slaughter of the innocents infamy. One of his sons who survived their murderous father married his niece. the herod of our story is infatuated by his niece, Salome. Our Herod stole the bride of his half brother away from Rome and brought her back with him, so he also seduced and married his sister-in law/niece. Given that background it s not usrprising how much sexual content we project on to this story.In the opera one hopes for an attractive Salome. (how old would she be?)Not that long after this she will show loyalty to her husband by following into exile in modern day France, but here she uses her own daughter as a pawn in her thirst for revenge. Sin can be calculated and patient. The Baptizer spoke against this moral cesspool and was arrested. He lived because Herod seems to fear and respect him as well as loth him.We are told herod found a certain pleasure in listening to him.Maybe John was the only person who ever told him the unvarnished truth. Michal, as you all know was Saul’s daughter. the narrative indicates that she loved David, at least at first.David risks his life to marry her and Saul asks him for vulgar proof that he has slain 100 enemy soldiers. She ingeniously helps save his life from the grip of her murderous father. Time passed, and david was on the run.He marries others ( I S 25), and Saul gave her in marriage to Palti. Her brother the new king sends her back to David,even though it is obvious Palti loved her deeply (2 Sam. 3) I’ve been reviewing some pre-marital (I typed martial originally) materials. John Gottman has viewed tapes of thousands of married couples, and when he notes contempt on the part of one of the partners who can usally consign the relationship to doom.by this time david had added to the number of wives, but Bathsheba is still on the horizon. Familiarity can breed contempt of course, so can defeated expectations.Often a marriage lives in a rhythm of distance and closure, but if it gets out of its pattern, the distance can get stuck. Gottman notes that a carping, harping criticism can doom a relationship. Michal certainly gives a classic bit of sarcasm to the king here. David punishes her with a perpetual distance. It is perhaps the best illustration of sin’s ability to distort what is best in us. Love can flourish, but sometimes it curdles into something unspeakable, something far distant from its state. My favorite wedding pictures are usually of a couple cutting the cake, as they start to relax a bit. How do those pictures turn into ugly scenes down the road? Our palace passages remind us that evil is carried like a plague among the rich, the well-born, and the able, just as it appears everywhere else. Cover-ups or eliminating the perceived problem person are seen by the Just One. I continue to see salvation as a synonym for healing. We all require healing from the corrosive effects of power and the fragile states of our loves.

column on Penn State July 13

I was accepted to Penn State’s main campus when I was considering college. I always admired the aura of Penn State running a clean, honorable program in college football under the estimable care of Coach Paterno. When the horror of the child abuse scandal came to light, I was sickened by the specter of all those boys abused. Another part of me had real sadness at the realization that the Penn State program had feet of clay. I turned away from the thought that maybe the program was in reality no better than others. Sally Jenkins, the Washington Post writer, wonders if we grant moral stature to coaches on the basis of their record as winners. I started using Facebook a while ago, and a number of people on my postings are proud graduates of that fine school. All of them were careful to blast Coach Sandusky but also to protect the school and especially Coach Paterno. They tended to end their postings with the phrase, we are Penn State. I have not seen as many postings from Penn State alumni this time. Other folks wanted to fire all of the school administration without much evidence other than their hurt and anger. Others wanted and now clamor for the entire football program to be shut down. It is difficult for me to see this as a condign punishment. Following the quick response of talk radio, fire them all and shut it down comes all too quickly from our lips. Blind loyalty or blind fury are not resources when considering policy and the aftermath of a wound. Former FBI Director Freeh’s report points toward a pattern of discussions that sought to protect the reputation of the school, its vaunted football program, and about “humane” treatment toward Coach Sandusky. I agree with the Paterno family that the document seems to make assertions and inferences with insufficient information. Whenever I see a culture blamed, without citing actions, as the report does toward the trustees, I grow skeptical. It does seem that some in the administration had knowledge of trouble as early as 1998. In seminary, we were assigned Niebuhr’s book on “Immoral Society.” His argument was that human collectivities were capable of grievous acts of social sin in ways beyond the conception and capacity of individual sinners. I am leery of the arrogation of being judge and jury in these matters. We seem so willing to try to balance the moral books of the degree good deeds and intentions may balance willful negligence and a cover-up. The mechanism of fight or flight occurs in organizations too. Denial is the flight from information, especially information that we do not want to face, or can’t bear to face. Information does not flow up the administrative hierarchy easily. Imagine it as a series of valves that open and close the flow of information. It appears that organizations are not only the occasion for heinous evil, as individual responsibility gets concealed. Organizations seek to cover-up to protect members within the organization and to protect the reputation of what is in the end a mere mental construct, the organization itself. The four listed administrators seemed more concerned about protecting the program while leaving children unprotected. The sportswriter Frank Deford suggests that the desire to keep player eligible for games was transferred to Coach Sandusky. Building custodians saw Sandusky violate a boy, but they kept silent. They were fearful for their jobs. We don’t know if their fear was justified, but the university had already protected Sandusky by the time they were witness to a crime. Gen. 3 has Adam and Eve trying to hide after they broke a command. Soon in church we will read of David’s horrific ploys to cover up his adultery with Bathsheba. Crimes and cover-ups are twins.

July 8 Sermon Notes Mk. 6:1-13, 2 Sam. 5:1-10, 2 Cor. 12:2-10

July 8 Mk.6:1-13, 2 Sam. 5:1-10, 2 Cor. 12:2-10 We have disparate readings today, but they do show reactions to success and failure. Jesus faces failure in our account this morning.. We usually picture Jesus floating about from success to success, until the cross. We forget how obdurate were the disciples then and are we disciples now. Here his vaunted power as a miracle worker is sorely tested. Failure is threatening to our self-esteem, the script of our our life should go. It throws us into a sea of speculation. We fear that it is more about us than the circumstance.Still, he manages to continue to heal and moves on. when his disciples encounter failure, he urges them to shake the dust from their feet and go to the next village. he does not dwell on it, nor does he curse the experience. It is said that we can learn from failure, but I tend to think we learn from success as well. sometimes, we learn to fail again, but not how to pull out of it. David faces success. He was anointed to be a king fairly young, but it was a private ceremony. Along the way he was in Saul’s court, a brigand, and a traitor to his country.Now power is consolidating in his hands. As we will be reminded this year, campaigning requires different skills than governing. When a dream is fulfilled, then what? I recall Richard Nixon saying that he had spent a life on the upward climb and he did nto know where to turn when he reached the summit.Success brings temptations, just as surely as failure does.Success breeds hubris, a sense of being above it all, of being impervious to attack.An annoying genre of books on leasdership include lessons of successful people examples, where the writer trumpets their own success. Success can breed mistakes and hubris. A number of successful business people canonized in the business press soon learn some difficult lessons. Paul balances a vision with success and trouble.. Paul is recounting a deep mystical experience. In his circle, Paul has reached perhaps the summit of mystical vision. In its way, it reminds me of Paul is playing a rhetorical tactic here. He has been attacked as not being a spiritual adept. His response is that he could tell about the depths of his mystical experiences, but he is too modest. It would be like Gov. romney saying he is too modest to speak of the enormous wealth generated by Bain under his direction. Paul then moves to the thorn in the flesh, left, as was the vision, undefined. It reminds me of the Transfiguration, as the disciples could not stay on the mountaintop but took the vision with them down in the valley, where life is lived. I am not a particularly mystical person, but I certainly respect that type of spiritual person.Paul uses his spiritual prowess, but he does not dwell on it. Some of us spend our lives searching for spiritual highs. some of us look for ever new ways to stoke our spiritual energies. some look for pentecostal signs over and over. For Paul the vision fades in comparison to the import he places on responding to suffering. Notice that he does place the suffering in the hand of god but on the forces of evil. He discovers that God’s way in the world need not be deterred by suffering. There, he finds the clear presence of Christ. There, he finds a grace sufficient for any circumstance. There he realizes that success can puff us up, but trouble brings a humility that opens us to the presence and the support of the divine. In the end, God is faithful toward us, in success and failure, in any guise.

Column :"After the Fireworks"

After the fireworks comes living in their light and aftermath. July 5 or 15th continue on, as the concerts, cookouts, and colors recede into the distance. John Adams predicted that the celebration of the Declaration of Independence would occasion fireworks. That prediction has been followed. After the fireworks, how do we live out the meaning of the Declaration of Independence day after day, when the light is dimmed by quotidian troubles and cares? For Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, the very mark of a free people would be increases in positive social indicators, from GNP to the number of colleges, to more subjective measures of well-being. He did believe in negative liberty. He wanted the oppressive hand of government off the backs of people to discover and employ their skills. He also believed in positive, communal liberty that people were able to achieve great things together such as his beloved University of Virginia. After all, governments exist to “secure the rights of liberty.” Pursuit of happiness had an active sense for him, not chasing after some phantom. Notice that he has governments erected to promote the “safety and happiness” of a people. I do not recall the anticipation for a Supreme Court decision as intense as this recent interest in the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) decision. Our paper added its own fireworks by giving a good deal of space to two physicians who blasted the decision in a rhetorical display. I would have liked to have seen a good deal more careful analysis of the decision on legal and policy grounds. Even as people saw that the law was Constitutional, on taxing grounds, the Supreme Court signaled a remarkable retreat on the powers of Congress on spending and commerce grounds that could have enormous ramifications. It was signaling a move away from a consensus on congressional power that emerged out of the New Deal during the Great Depression. After the constitutional fireworks, the embers of the law itself need to be kept aflame, and the slow creation of regulations should commence. A number of prominent Republican governors are already refusing to implement the law. It seems to be more fulfilling to say no, take one’s ball and go home, instead of the hard struggle to stay in the competition. Every advanced nation has a form of national health care. We pay more for health care than other nations. Until this law, millions of young people prayed that they would not need to go to the hospital. I would have preferred a different approach to health care than mandatory insurance, but that is the decision that the President and Congress made. Put in terms of 1776, the extraordinary costs of medical care threaten the economic and social capacity of most Americans. I do not grasp how we can call ourselves a free people when tens of millions of our fellow citizens are a diagnosis away from financial ruin. Bombastic rhetoric and virulent criticism is more fun and easier than the hard work of proposing, implementing, and evaluating policy. We have it in our hands the work of bringing better health and healing to millions of our fellow citizens. I fear that we want the spectacle of fireworks but not the work of building and presenting them. We like the emotional rush of political fireworks, but we avoid the hard work of examining with a policy with care Data would have an unfortunate way of casting doubts on our bumper sticker preference for labels. We’ve had our childish tantrums. Adults admit disappointment, and then roll up their sleeves and get to work.

Week of July 8 devotions

July 8-Ps.48:9 “within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.” For all of the talk about worshipping god outside of worship, nothing collects our thoughts into prayer as surely as being in worship together. What is a service other than a meditation on unfailing love? What are the sacraments but demonstrations of god’s unfailing love? What does it say about us when we are so willing to skip meditating on that unfailing love together? Monday Ira Kent Groff wrote recently of learning to ask the right question, or even good ones. Sometimes our search for answers is deterred because we do not take the time to formulate good questions. It saddens me when I hear that churches inveigh against asking questions in their working through the faith. Do you have persistent questions on the faith? Do you think some of them need to be reworked or sharpened? Tuesday-I saw a cute movie recently, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, a cultural clash movie of retired British folks and the old and new India. The young owner of the hotel decides that he can outsource the elder care, as “lots of countries don’t like their old people.” It demonstrates our need for community and for love and respect. One turn of phrase is going to stick with me, as one of the women comes into some money and she is “turning left.” she means that when she enters the airplane she will turn toward the first class cabin. Wednesday-Listened to an old version of Bridge Over Troubled Water and its religious links hit me harder than usual. It starts with images of trouble but moves toward “your time has come to shine/all your dreams are on their way.” As baby boomers grow older, some now read it as God guiding one from death into heaven. I read it as a version of What a Friend We Have in Jesus. Thursday-Much of my adult life, I’ve used the 1955 red Presbyterian Hymnbook, so I am still learning my way through the blue one, even as it is to be replaced within the next few years. I complained that we needed some healing songs in the old book, so I love the words from #380: “release in us those healing truths /Unconscious pride resists or shelves.” Perhaps one of the great gifts of salvation is that healing of the internal acids that gnaw away at us. Friday-Grudges damage the soul of the one who keeps them, more than keep, but keeps them alive and kicking. The longer a grudge is held, the more precious it seems to become. The longer a grudge is held, the more difficult it may be to forgive. What helps you to hold on to grudges/ What helps you to release them/ Is it always about a hurt, or is it more about the person who hurt you? Saturday-Bastille Day tells us a lot about the impact of repression. Its roots lie in seeing people as things, as objects, and not people of value and inestimable worth. It also points us toward the vile effects of revolution without controls. That makes the miracle of South Africa even more startling, that it could establish a truth and reconciliation group. Revenge is what wants to emerge after repression, but the Christina principles of Archbishop Tutu managed to channel those.

2 Sam. 6

2Sam. 6- 1-This is a great entry point into speaking of a dissolution of a marriage. Michal had helped David. Now she heaps scorn on him. Look at the marriage from an alternate lectionary text I Sam. 18:10-16. this is a sad story of how love can deteriorate. 2) Is David’s public piety here sincere? 3) Are you comfortable or not with this sort of merger of church and state? 3)How do you work out the death of Uzzah. Is it like the power of the ark in the old Raiders movie? Why do mortals die in the face of the divine? it is not at all clear about the slipping of the ark or uzzah. We are not sure about the oxen either. 4) Look underneath the fear of David about the ark.Patrick Miller has thought long and hard about this passage. See for instance Religion of Ancient Israel. 5) It extends past the reading, but examine how sexuality becomes a power weapon toward her. 6) I suppose one could do an interesting piece on the ark of the covenant itself and some of the traditions surrounding it, even in Ethiopia. The ark had the word of the commandments, the instrument of help, the rod, and the wilderness food 7) Uzzah (strength) had it on a cart, not carried on the poles as usual. Was it an attempt at managing God? Was it a slap in the face of required ritual? 8) David seems to be acting as a priest here.

Against the Bishops Column

I have concern that Roman Catholic doctrine is one of the few religious groups in America where people feel that they can routinely trash. Part of my sensitivity is that I am one of the last of the Latin Mass altar boys and maintain a real affection and respect for the church, even as I suffered at the hands of the nuns in parochial school. I used the bishops’ statements as exemplars of liberal political thought in the messages on the economy and peace in the 1980s. The rhetoric of the bishops has moved to an extremist fringe: when someone compares a health care provision to the worst of Hitler’s Germany, when the bishops consider this provision some sort of deep assault on free exercise of religion, we are no longer engaged in reasoned discourse. I won’t cast aspersions on Catholic doctrine any more than I try not to cast aspersions on the doctrines of other faiths. When those groups enter in the arena of public political discussion, then the marketplace of ideas of engaged discussion comes into play. On matters of public policy, I am willing to disagree or agree with their contentions. The American bishops have been quite vocal in opposing a contraceptive insurance requirement for employees of social service agencies such as hospitals, schools, and the other institutional supports of the church’s mission. I disagree with the bishops on our interpretation of free exercise of religion. Their argument seems to rest on an assumption that a declaration of free exercise gives a blanket immunity from regulation. We have never given an absolutist reading to first amendment rights. The bishops are not content to seek an exemption; they attacked the entire mechanism of the health-care law, even as they speak of support for the provision of health care to Americans. the government may mandate contraceptive coverage as they would be able to mandate a hospital run by Jehovah witnesses provide blood transfusions. it is an arguable part of health from a secular perspective. It is disingenuous of the bishops to claim that merely because some contraceptive measures could possibly be abortifacients somehow renders them off the table for the purpose for which they are intended. Second, their analysis is seriously misleading on the issue of coercion. Yes, the regulation is coercive to their desire to keep their employees from receiving contraceptive services. The obverse is closer to the mark. The church has no right to attempt to coerce non-Catholic employees from receiving services under a public health mandate. Coercion does not only exist from a governmental level. Indeed, it is possible to construe a government exemption for employees of social service institutions to be coercion of the sincerely held religious beliefs of employees who do not find themselves in accord with the particular Roman Catholic teachings on contraception. After all, the church has seen signal failures in having its own members follow its dictates on contraception, but now it seeks to burden employees with a load that it has been unable to convince its own members. I have not detected a similar concern for coercion when it comes to voucher programs that support parochial education. One suspects that it is a cover for what is a principled opposition to contraception itself. Again, the church has no right to attempt to coerce its employees to act in a way consonant with its proscription against contraception. Most Americans do not hold to the idea that marital relationships should be measured by fertility. Most Americans regard contraceptive decisions as a matter of individual conscience or a matter between partners in relationship. When engaged in public health, the Roman Catholic church, or any church, plays on the same field as everyone else.