Column on DOMA ruling: on SCOTUS and Church

Just this week, the Supreme Court handed down two long-=awaited cases dealing with gay marriage. Before I became a minister, I taught judicial process, so I am well positioned to look at issues of law and Christian ethics in regard to its decisions. Our eldest daughter came to visit this week, and I recalled with her my consternation at President Clinton’s craven political calculation to sign the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and his recent discovery that he should not have singed it.

Some of our readers may be a bit confused how the equal protection clause of the 14^th Amendment, directed toward states, could be used as a gloss on the fifth Amendment, dealing with the national government. Ever since 1954 when the Court struck down state-imposed school segregation in the District of Columbia, the Court ruled tha the liberty portion of the due process clause of the 5^th amendment was made more clear and precise by the wording of the 14^th Amendment.

Justice Kennedy has made a long personal journey himself. he signed on to the :anti-sodomy” decision in the eighties, but authored its repudiation I at the start of the new century. It is striking how often the word, dignity, appears in his decision. Part of equal protection analysis is determining if a law’s distinction is based on the creation of a ‘suspect” class of citizens. Kennedy over and over refers to the bigotry and bias inherent in the DOMA law. Equal protection means that government needs a reason to separate classes of people, especially if they are a minority class who has been subject to invidious discrimination. To him, we cannot admit two standards, two classes of marriage, or we run afoul of the sense of the words on the court’s edifice, equal justice under law. For years, the court has ruled marriage to be a fundamental conern for the liberty, the private decision for a couple. Now it has been extended to more of our citizens.

Some in the church will see the case as preaching the gospel to the church, and others decry it as an intrusion into matters of private morality and an attempt to dictate a new morality apart from religion to our citizens. For forty years, my own denomination, the PCUSA, has struggled with the issue in varying ways, in a see-saw of tolerance and prohibitions. Part of the struggle has been one of Biblical interpretation. Some pull the relatively few comments against same-sex relations and seek to make a principle from them. Some have moved a long way on the issue. Jim Wallis, the religious evangelical but  political liberal, has moved a long way a the issue and has come to the point where he sees people of good will able to take up either side of the issue. He is troubled by the wholesale rejection of the young of the judgmental, hypocritical, and negative morality of so many church leaders.

For me the Supreme Court decision has something to teach the church about ethics as a consistent approach. It calls the church toward a responsible view of sexual ethics across the board for heterosexuals and homosexuals alike. Both are called to the same ethic of love with an aspiration toward fidelity and the knowledge that chaste behavior is rarely fully practiced. it calls us to a high definition and support of the remarkable pledge of marriage to be faithful to one’s partner for a lifetime. It calls us to treat all people with dignity, as they deserve as reflections of God’s image and the face of Jesus Christ. Marriage is a sacred public bond to announce a private and intimate circumstance. May marriages live fully and well for both church and sta

Devotional thoughts Week of June 30

Sunday June 30-Ps. 77 In the night, the psalmist seeks the Lord, but “my soul refused to be comforted.” Sometimes prayer is a great comfort. sometimes the circumstance or the mood is so extreme that it feels wrong to even try to seek comfort. At times, we may not want comfort and prefer the familiarity of a trouble, as it starts to seem part of our life.

Monday-Ira Kent Groff wrties.”A rabbi friend tells me that the burning bush was not the real miracle, but rather that Moses "turned aside to see" (Exodus 3:3-4). The Hebrew word for "turn" is shuv (often translated moralistically as "repent"): simple turning creates spiritual awareness. That's why twentieth-century Christian mystic Evelyn Underhill says, "Prayer means turning to Reality"--because Reality includes the mundane and the sacred. Real prayer begins with simple turning to what is, opening to awareness, then seeing more than meets the eye.”

Tuesday-why are we determined to fix people? Surely part of it is a sincere desire to heal. Part of it may be a way of calming our own inner critic. Part of it may be an element of wanting to control even the attitudes, let alone the behavior, of another, Is it not based on the idea that our decision for them is superior to one they make for themselves?

Wednesday-Rev. Ralph Mitchell reminded me of the myth of Tantalus recently (yes origin of tantalize). When we want something and it seems just out of our grasp, or it recedes from us, we are understandably frustrated. When is it better ot reach for th elow-hanging fruit, and when is it better to keep striving for something a bit out of reach? Do we settle to easily, or do we succeed more in torturing ourselves with what turns into coveting?

Thursday-I always enjoyed the 4th of July. I always try to read the Declaration of Independence, but I usually skip fast through the bill of particulars. toward the end, it speaks of pledging lives, fortunes, and sacred honor, to the cause of liberty. We are not so quick to pledge the same to the faith. What festival of faith deserves fireworks the most, do you think?

Friday-We have our VBS potluck today. I like the idea of the parents and grandparents getting to share some food together with the workers and the children. I always wonder about the utility of VBS, if it is reaching unchurched children or merely emphasizing what they are expose to already. It is a good idea to share hospitality in a program that emphasizes being a neighbor. What are your best ways of extending hospitality? How do you extend hospitality toward the presence of God?

Saturday-I was asked to scout out some 12 step groups for family members dealing with “co-dependence.” Sure enough, we have a number of groups across the river. it has the sense of enabling someone in their addictions, almost to give us an excuse ot be the rescuer or the martyr, so we depend on their weakness as a demonstration of our “strength and virtue.

OT Notes 2 Kings 2

1) This is a great place to talk about legacy. I remember a scene from Family ties when the father talks to Alex about not wanting to work with his father. So many people feel guilty about not wanting to stay with the family firm or to depart from the plans parents have for them.Sometimes the mantle does not fit us, and sometimes it is a perfect fit without an alteration needed.

2) we could talk about public legacy, in church or country. I think of Springsteen's "the flag flies over the courthouse/means certain things are set in stone/ who we are/and what we'll do...and what we won't.

3) One could talk about afterlife, as Elijah doesn't seem to die as much as be transported. Stories built up around him. some thought he had to return at the end of days. Recall that he appears at the Transfiguration with Jesus.

4) Why does Elisha want a double portion of charisma? did he feel un equal to the task/ Was he power-hungry?

5) why does Elijah perform a reverse movement at the Jordan, as the entry to the Promised Land also went on a dried riverbed?

6) What do the priests know and how do they know it?

7) How would you use this accounbt to address the grieiving?

8) One could also use this story to talk about either boundaries, liminal places, or crossing the border moments in lfe.

10) Notice her ethe heavenly hosts ar enot an avenging army but more of a processional guard into a new realm for elijah.

11) Do you find the motif effective of going from place ot place?

12) Elisha's name is similar to Joashua, god saves/helps/delivers

Sermon Notes on Demons and silence Lk. 8 I kings 19

June 23 Lk. 8, I  Kings 19

I like the idea this morning about talking with you about: silence, When people are in sync, silence speaks of easy comfort and no pressures.. Silence can be also a deadening sign of a relationship going south. We cherish the silence of a cold winter morning, but are chilled by the silence of the grave.

In a region of the north Jesus encounters a demon-possessed person. I would like to highlight a few points. If you read this as a man afflicted by some sort of evil force,so be it. I have certainly seen the toll addiction takes when it overtakes a person’s will and reason.I assume that a demon-possessed person would be what we would call mentally ill. In our time, we are not much better than the people of the Gerasenes as we have made a decision to let the mentally ill  not receive the help they need for a generation since we closed the major large facilities. So many of the homeless are also mentally ill.In terms of our gospel reading, it is a living death, or a deadly life.

Notice that he lives in the tombs. The evil that has possessed him has robbed him of life.

When I was starting to work on this, I received a letter from a mother whose son committed suicide at 17 as he was in solitary confinement. I am not arguing prison policy but want to use him as an example that he was doubly imprisoned by his mental illness and the bars of solitary confinement. In family systems approaches, we refer to a member of the family as the identified patient. it is as if a lot of the troubles fall on that person, and the family continues to go on, with the understanding that the IP is the troubled one.My sense is that this demon-possessed man was the identified patient for an entire community. All of thier fears and problems were foisted on this man as a symbol as he lived in the silent tombs.

I love the political sarcasm of the name of the demon, Legion. OK the poor guy is beset with many (around 5,000 soldiers in a legion), just as Israel is beset by human demons called the Roman Legion.(they lived with Legion, but they want Jesus to leave). Unable to speak about their political plight, the raving man is left to live among the dead. The early readers of the gospel must have gotten a kick of demons asking to go into unclean poigs and go tumbling into the sea.

Let‘s pay attention that the people want Jesus to leave. My guess is that they had projected a lot of their own troubles on to the demon-possessed man. Scapegoats have been with us for millennia. (Girard) (Lovejoy grave here is a monument to a martyr, and its looming disrepair is a symbol of decline as well)

In our time we seek God in natural beauty, and many seek God in the energy and bombast of the visual and the aural of a contemporary worship service.I am pleased for that, but we have other options. Elijah was looking for God in the theophany of the mountain of the 10 Commandments. Instead, the God who defeated the priests of Baal just a chapter before is present in a still, small voice, or perhaps more accurately, sheer silence.What did Elijah find in that silence: a presence, a sense of security, of hope, of an enveloping love and warmth? In our spiritual lives, we do well to learn to quiet the demons of our unquiet souls. we do well to find some peace and quiet to give the divine whispers a chance to enter our awareness.

Devotional Points June 23 Week

Sunday June 23-We have dual psalms this morning, as they are pretty clearly connected. A line in Ps 43 that speaks for me is the question, “why are you downcast o my soul?” Soul in Hebrew is nephesh, and it means to me me the inmost self, one’s whole being, more than an isolated spiritual element. Sometimes, being downcast is a matter of circumstance, but the sense may rise up unbidden, for no apparent reason at all. To know that I have a conversation partner in prayer helps me to get through those downcast spells.

Monday-We participated in a fundraising trivia contest.I like the idea of them for fundraisers. So often our spiritual lives get clouded with trivia. We have to work hard to learn to bear down and seek the essence.When do your prayers seem trivial? When does emotional life get swamped with trivia? When is it fun to have a mind filled with trivia, and when is it deleterious to thought?>

Tuesday-Micah 4:4 inspired the founders of our nation. they saw one of the outcomes of their struggle as a promise toward human security beyond oppressive designs.Adams quotes it in a letter, for instance. What would be your model of peace and security? How would you put it in 21st century terms? What would be a way of speaking of one’s spiritual life with similar metaphors?

Wednesday-When do we know we spend “good money after bad?’ At some point we make a decision to pull the plug on a money pit: a house, a project, a need.When do we keep pouring energy into a project, even a church, and find it is still dying, or seek signs of renewal? When is it more gracious to pull the plug? On the other hand, we are the church of the resurrection, so even death has no finality for us.

Thursday-In one of the Yale Reflections pieces, I noticed an article by John Collins on biblical interpretation. he writes of the breakdown of reading the Bible in one way alone. “The situation poses an obvious danger of disintegration...the breakdown of consensus can be salutary, as it forces us to look again at assumptions we had taken for granted.” (p.6 Spring 2008). I like how we have moved toward a variety of approaches for the Bible speaking to us today. it has certainly informed my preaching for the better, to read the bible more like a literary reader.

Friday-levels of communication certainly are a feature of our interaction., my sense is that women usually work on multiple levels more easily than males. That is not always to the good, as one can seek complexity where none is intended, or we think we know the motives for a statement better than we are capable. I wonder if we could look at our prayers as having multiple levels of meaning and intent?

Saturday-recipes are being featured on-line, so I think the cookbook is not long for this world.Some folks read the Bible as a recipe book, but I doubt that is its purpose. Some seek foolproof recipes for spiritual development, but I doubt that those are of much avail either.Instead, the ingredients are the raw material of human nature and action, and that is necessarily messy and uncertain. I am always captured by the notion that we discover ourselves in the passages of the bible, more than discovering five steps toward financial health.

A Reverie Around Father's Day

I took study leave at Yale Divinity School last week, and didn’t get a column in last week. I was  working on a prayer-poem for Father’s Day at church, but this one started to percolate unbidden. I grew up in southwestern Pennsylvania in a working class community. My father was killed in a ship explosion before I was three, so I watched the other fathers. Some of this comes from the memories of others, especially Pete Hamill and Connie Schultz, but I wanted to share it.

My Dad said he

graduated from the school of hard knocks.

His poor man’s university

was the thick Sunday paper.

He worked his way up

through the classes the union offered.

He studied late at night,

a beer on the counter.

“Get yourself an education.

You won’t have to work like this.”

He read the picture books

when we were little.

I never really noticed

that he stopped reading to us

when we could read the big words

quicker than he could.

He wanted us

to make a little something for ourselves,

to do better than they had done.

When we started to do just that,

he was caught between pride and envy

One by one, the black lung

sucked the air from the fathers’ lungs.

They couldn’t even have a catch soon.

So they spent too much time

in the dank, dark bars, and

their hearts grew as sour as Iron City beer.

They would still manage to corral us to a ball game.

Even so, it was they who cut the grass

and changed the oil, the plugs and points.

After all, they always drove the family car.

Somehow the sidewalk was magically clear

in time for the early paper boy to walk up easily.

When I was maybe five,

we went to the bakery after church.

He let me be big and do the ordering.

One day, a raven-haired beauty was behind the counter.

I prayed she would wait on me.

Instead, a familiar hair-netted crone

asked me what I would like.

I said, “I want her to wait on me.”

Everyone laughed, and I blushed fiercely.

We got our order, and he put his meaty paw

on my shoulder, “I would have prayed for the same thing.”

One torpid night he teased me about

giving me a five to go out with friends.

“Do girls really like that damned long hair?”

Late that night I

got up to get some water,

after draining too many beers

and striking out with too many girls.

There he was leaning on the counter

in the soft kitchen light,

touching my college books as if

they were sacramental treasures.

He flipped through the pages

with exquisite care

the way he handled his best tools

He noticed me there,

blushed and asked me:

“You mean one person read all of this stuff

and wrote all of this by himself?

I almost forget how to hold the pen

to make a out a grocery list with your mother.”

I made a weak mild joke

about it being some boring old textbook.

He shook his head.

“How could one person know so much?”

I need to show this

to the guys at the bar,

or the plant.

Especially I need to

show it to Smitty.

He wanted to write

when we were kids.

He got beat up ’cause of it.

None of Smitty’s kids went to school.

“Wait ‘til he sees this.”

“Do you think you could do this?”

Yeah, Dad, in time, I could.

My God, he replied.

Week of June 16 devotional points

Sunday June 16-Ps.51  I have not forgotten it is father’s day, as I asked for my present from our daughters long in advance. It is with some shame that I note that the psalm for today is a penitential one over sin. Lord knows that fathers are imperfect creatures, but this seems over the top to me. So, I will shift gears. Please consider forgiving your father for imperfections. Fathers, consider forgiving the disappointments of children. After all, we are all human beings, all imperfect, all in need of forgiveness.

Monday-I got to see an old friend at Yale. Inevitable, it seems we go back to common memories. It’s striking how much we forget, recall, and slightly alter over time.Who are some of your oldest friends? Who are some that you send the christmas letter to, but that you rarely see. Why is that? what permits friendship to continue over the years, and what are its primary obstacles? Have you been able to re-ignite a friendship that seemed lost? One of the better things I have done is to tell lost friends how much they meant to me voer the years of absence.

Tuesday- Our class at Yale was what I hoped. we used a variety of art forms to illustrate a religious idea. So often Christian devotional literature seems sappy to me, so I get more rleigious influence from a secular piece that moves me in a religious direction. What works of art o are meaningful to you? Are they overtly or more covertly religious for you? Do you have osme sort of spiriutal shrine or center in your home, or even your heart?

Wednesday-I saw a lot of art this week. One painting has stayed with me, the Veteran, by eakins. It was painted around 20 years after the civil War, and it is a portrait of a handsome, now middle aged man, with the scars of war on his face. His haunted eyes bespeak emotional scars. You look closer and see a medal of honor on his lapel. Compare it to Homer’s the Veteran In a New Field.

Thursday-Last week, exactly, I saw one of the oldest printed Bibles by Gutenberg and the frist book printed in English.It came off his printing press fairly early. I love the idea that a bible was among the early printed works. It was a revolution to put it in the hands of everyday people. What do you think that the new media will offer in the way of religious growth and change?

Friday-Absence works in strange ways. We miss someone terribly, or we easily forget about someone in the spate of introductions and new places to explore. With our unseen God how do we react to a visual absence? How do we respond when God seems distant in our dry prayers? How and when does God seem closer to you? When do we prefer god to seem absent?

Saturday-It was pouring one day during my stay in Yale, so lunch became an issue. Being a semi-glutton, I am rarely ever hungry, but no lunch meant real hunger pangs. How rarely do I hunger so for the presence of God. Maybe it’s OK, as I picture God always in the scene, always involved in the activity of creation, of life. Maybe it is not, as it shows the surface nature of my relationship with God, so i have to make analogies of human yearning and realize how insincere and weak my feelings toward God often are.

June 16 sermon notes on forgiveness from Lk.7

June 16 Lk. 7:36-8:3

I have said repeatedly that the church could do a better job in  definition and process on certain basic notions of the faith. I wrote my bible study on judge not out of this notion, I always use forgiveness as an example. I think we do better in a workshop format with the issue, but I will use this occasion to speak a bit more on forgiveness.We say we are in a hospital for sinners here, not a rest area for the righteous. If truth be told, we oftne think the prayer fo confession, in its vague statements, still applies to others and not us.

In her book Unbroken, we meet a miler, Louis Zamperini who fought in the Pacific theater and was terribly tortured and abused by his captors, after he survived harrowing weeks on a raft. The war ate him up inside, and only after finding himself able to forgive his captors was he able to stop having nightmares and find some peace.

Jesus uses an example of debt to get at the idea of amounts of forgiveness- who was forgiven more? Once again, Jesus shows great solicitude over a sinner as opposed to the righteous looking down their nose at sinners.

   In  the January Theology Today,the editorial makes a case that we should see forgiveness asa fundamental Christian practice, but we have to be careful about judging the time and process people may require to reach that point. We show a hard heart when we regard peoplewho do not forgive as we have decided they should. Yes, forgiveness is clearly a christian aspiration, but the route toward it may be varied and may well depend on the type of harm caused as well. Is the push to forgive , in effect, minimizing the damage caused by a wrong? Not every person receives the release  that Mr Zamperini did. Let me give a personal example. Over time, I have worked on forgiving a priest’s refusal to grant absolution to my aunt. She  had 9 children and her life became more threatened with each delivery. When she grew older, she was not expecting as regularly as she was when younger and the priest thoughts she was using birth control.

What makes it so hard for us to forgive? One reason is self-image. We see ourselves as the hurt party, as a victim. We use that as proof of our moral superiority. We like being one up, to feel that delicious sense of looking down on a moral inferior. To play the martyr is an attractive role. How we nurture grudges on top of a wound staying in the memory anyway. It’s a continuation of the issue in the elder brother of the prodigal.  His dutifulness has created distance between him and his miscreant brother.Two, we tend to see that wrongs deserve punishments. We are afraid that forgiveness will make us doormats, people asking to be abused and taken advantage of.Forgiveness seems first to make a decision to relinquish retaliation. Second, if we don’t; we we can yet ofrgive, we may to well to pray for the willingness to begin to forgive.It does not seem self-interested. What benefit do we derive from forgiving? It should be noted how little we consider our need for forgiveness, we tend to see ourselves as the party hurt, but we do expect, even demand forgiveness, When we are in the wrong.Notice Jesus does not minimize her wrongs. He does not condone them. He is fully aware that she has seen many times. He does offer the gift of the open door to another chance,I think we know when we forgive.When it does not pain us that the person who hurt us is doing well,When we are able to pray for that person, we are on the road to forgiveness.

I Kings 19 Notes

1) I don't recognize this Elijah from the one at Mt. Carmel. I can aspire ot his courage, but this guy I understand. Do you feel at times like Elijah at the broom tree?
2)Notice that the angel gets him physical help not merely virtues.
3) Why 40 again?
4)what draws him to Horeb/Sinai?
5)What is your reaction to god's therapist question at the cave? One could go far with man cave, cave as symbol, even linking to the French Cro-Magnon caves or the cave in Cast Away.
6) Why do the theophany elements of Exodus not appear here? What does this say about our search for a "worship experience?"
7) I tend to translate still small voice as utter or sheer silence. This is a great entry point to meditation and prayer.
8) Why does Elijah repeat his issue in the divine presence?

I Kings 17 Notes

1) Here is a great example of Elijah being a template for Jesus.How does elijah know he picked the right widow?
2) what was the condition of widows before social safety nets?She certainly is at her last legs when we met her.
3) Some think that Elijah risked his life with this act to save the boy.
4) I love where the widow goes on the angry attack. I have felt the same way many times when things go bad.
5) How does the lasting oil affect your view of scarcity and sufficiency?
6) How do you react to her closing words?
7)Remember the word for breath and spirit, ruah, is the same in Hebrew.
8) why is the story outside Hebrew territory? Note we are in Jezebel territory

Devotional Notes week of June 9

Sunday June 9-Ps 146 is another praise psalm. it’s a way to tell that the book is edited with its penchant for ending its section with praise.This one is more oriented to justice than many praise songs. How do you react to that? when I read this psalm words and deeds of Jesus come to mind. How about you? the ancinet chruch even thought that the psalms soke with the very voice of Christ.

Monday-”Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." The psalm does not pretend that evil and death do not exist. Terrible things happen too, and they happen to good people as well as to bad people. Even the paths of righteousness lead us through the valley of the shadow. Death lies ahead for all of us, saints and sinners alike, and for all the ones we love. The psalmist doesn't try to explain evil. He doesn't try to minimize evil. He simply says he will not fear evil. For all the power that evil has, it doesn't have the power to make him afraid.” F. Buechner

Tuesday-Tolerance has always been a virtue to me. lately, it is under fire, as to many it take son the mantle of defining what is normal and proper , but it does decide to allow differences to exist. It is less than acceptance but barely tolerating something sinister or foul-tasting.

Wednesday-At a recent meeting, i was stunned when a theologian disparage work on the Bible.It alerted me to how much of my energy, spiriutal and mental goes into examining the Bible. for me it is the foundational material  of faith and practice, and that applies ot theology too. I don;t read it as a duty for spirutal reading, but in opening hte pages I feel as if I am being discovered and directly addressed by the divine voice. It creates analogies to our time and place all of the time. what are some of your favorite passages?

Thursday-Taoism is an ancient Chinese system. One of its policies is to learn to flow through life as does nature. for instance, water seems weak, as it moves when we step through it. On the other hand, it seeps into rocks, and when it freezes, over time, its force breaks the rock. With minerals a steady drip can make a tower in a cave.Water flows over or around obstacles, and perhaps so should we. When a tree is rigid, it breaks in the wind. So suppleness and flexibility are virtues in this system. Have you learned good points from other faiths?

Friday-Eboo Patel, the author of the books we read at Reformed roundtable was influenced by dorothy Day. In her autobiography, she spoke of the ‘long loneliness.”  I am not sure quite waht she means, but it is clearly a longliness for relationship with god and with others. its only cure is living in community in helping others, especially the least of these. otherwise d she did not find peace. Hav eyou been struck by a long loneliness? Have have you coped?

Saturday-A person at our meeting is someone who has been castigated by folks with whom he disagrees. he really tries not to return their feelings. recently, he was just attacked at a presbytery meeting by some dissident folks. When the meeting moved toward Communion, it was he who offered his most vociferous opponents the bread and cup.

sermon notes june 9 I Kings 17 Lk. 7:11-17

June 9 -I Kings 17, L. 7:11-17

In the days before Social Security in the ancient world, widows were among the most vulnerable  in society. Socially, they may well still be so in our time. Widows take up lead roles this morning. Zarephath is between Tyre and Sidon on the coast of Lebanon. Elijah is on the lam from Ahab. We get a miracle., where a family at the edge of despair gets enough to eat. No they survive, only now the boy dies.. The widow asks a wonderful question, here they have lived, and now she who has seen too much death already, loses her son. so, they were kept alive only for  the boy to die too young anyway? Some think that Elijah is risking his life by taking on the boy’s ailment, a sort of exchange could be going on in ancient thought.Three times, he places himself on the child, and the boy’s spirit, the breath of life, re-enters his being, and the boy is raised. for wha tkind of life will he be rasied?

As we all know, Joseph disappears from Luke’s narrative after Jesus is 12. Either Joseph divorces Mary or perhaps he dies. I have a feeling that Jesus reacts the way he does as he sees his mother in the widow. Nain is south of Nazareth about 8 miles. It seems to me that Jesus performed this miracle without much forethought. Seeing the consternation of the widow, he restores the child to her. We are told Jesus is moved by compassion, but a better rendering is that the sight was gut-wrenching forJesus; he was torn up by the sight.Of course, the widowed mother of Jesus will see her son dead and buried. She is also with the disciples at Pentecost.Luke is clearly using the Elijah story as a template and uses the exact words, he presented him to her.

In the back of my mind I recall a poem or story about the son raised at Nain but cannot locate it. Maybe it was a story that the nuns told us at school. At any rate, I wonder what both figures did with their gift of new life? Were they haunted by it like Buffy in the TV show? Did they yearn to go back? Were they even more afraid of death? Did life have more savor. part of me suspects that after a while, they fell back into routine and rut. did they waste their new lives? Did death continue to have its fears or were they now able to face it resolutely.

I do not know what to make of the spate of accounts of people who report similar experiences after death. Not everyone has them. My sense is that we continue to be Doubting thomas and seek empirical proof for life after death. I recall inventors around the time of Edison wanted to try to measure the soul leaving ghe body as they imagined it had some sort of weighable substance.

At the very least, eternal life means life in full relationship with the eternal, in this world and the next. As baptized Christians, we are promised eternal life. Paul sees baptism as dying with Christ and rising to new life with Christ. Why do we so often live such insecure, fragile lives. Why are we  so timid, so mundane, in such a partial embrace in life, like the hug you give a rarely sen aunt when you are little.? In baptism, we live a new life as full as the new life given the boy by Elijah and the son of the widow of Nain. The mothers were given new life too, to see their child restored. So can our lives be, surrounding not by the living dead, but those of the new life.

Column on Interfaith

I was raised in a strict Roman Catholic grade school. the nuns told me to walk on the other side of Protestant churches. Being a smart-mouthed child, I asked them what to do when I crossed through the public school, as a Presbyterian church and a Baptist church flanked them. They called out the principal to beat me with a large, thick paddle. The nuns told us to pray that JFK would be elected the first catholic president. Our next door neighbors, with whom I played all the time, told me that I was going to hell, since I was a Roman Catholic. Look at how far we have travelled in those years. Senator Kerry caught more grief from his own Roman Catholic church than he did Protestants.Gov. Romney’s Mormon faith raised little comment, although I fear that he were a Democrat, things would not have been so easy.

Twice a year, I am invited to an Indianapolis conference, the reformed roundtable to study and reflect. This year we read two books by the young interfaith leader, Eboo Patel. He was raised in a moderate Muslim household, and discovered a deeper faith in adulthood. Part of his journey has been his abhorrence of religious violence and prejudice. In response, he has started programs all over that emphasize two points, service projects by different religious adherents and a forum where differences are heard , shared, and respected. Using social science research, he discovered that religious prejudice decreases when we actually know a person from another faith, understand their beliefs and practices, and work together on a project of common interest with them.

My experience in interfaith discussions has always been disappointing. usually, folks will speak with force on their own views and even try to speak for other views. My mainline Christian groups are usually achingly polite, anxious to cause no offense. I get annoyed when we do not correct misimpressions, but we do not dare to offer any counteract or criticism of another faith tradition. It seems as if we come with the premise that only we have religious sins of which to repent.

One of our speakers went further than Patel or my experience. He said that we should, as a rule, seek to respect those who speak from their religious tradition. Second, in discussion, he urged us to avoid debate, but to seek to understand as well as we can, other views. Third, he urge dus to be as clear as we can be about our own views and where we are weak in understanding or living them out. In other words, we can make it clear that we are not seeking to convert someone, but that we stand on solid ground and are not interested in being converted.

Then, he moved to a new level. He asked us to seek to appreciate not only the different aspects of faith and practice. he called on us to appreciate the differences, to admire spiritual practice, sincerity, and images of God that they may hold. Indeed, not only may we appreciate them, but we can actively seek to appropriate certain ideas and practices into our own faith systems. Instead of seeing religious faith and practice as sealed off from each other, a secure potion allows us to grasp what we admire and appreciate in other systems of thought. For example, he uses the images of nature of the Dao to help deepen his creation spirituality within a Christian context. Secure in our faith, we need not fear losing our anchor. Think of how Israel fought syncretism, but at the same time, it appropriated prayers and wisdom from other cultures and wove it into its own Scripture.

In that light, we move beyond tolerance as putting up with error and lesser faiths. As an aspiration, we can learn to worship more richly, live more fully, in a plural environment of religious diversity. T

Week of June 2 devotional notes

Sunday June 2-Ps.96 is part of the clear editing hand in the psalms that arranges some praise material in line with the acclamation that God is king. In the blooming buzzing summer, it is not very hard to hear all of creation joining in songs of praise of God. On the other hand, our dangerous storms elicit prayers for protection. Some find scientific discoveries putting praise and awe into the background. where does praise emerge from your inner being?

Monday-I’d like to think about teasing a bit. Among men, it can be a sign of being comrades, but it is always a fine line into cruelty. Teasing is a way of boring into a vulnerability without saying so openly. when someone takes offense, we respond that I was only teasing. Teasing usually is aggressive, as it seeks ot put someone in their place, and it is rarely complimentary.

Tuesday-I had a question about cremation recently. At some point in the past it was frowned upon, but that seems ot be fading. It seems beyond me that the creator of heaven and earht can be deterred by a method of burying remains. My father was blown to bits in a tanker explosion, so we do not have a body to be buried, merely marked on the Delaware River. So, I do not see it as impeding the resurrection of the body. It refers to this embodied l9ife of ours, so our very self, not a ghost, our very self, will perdure within the very life of God.

Wednesday-I’m hoping to see our younger daughter at a meal or meals while I am at the Indianapolis Reformed Roundtable.No matter how oftne we speak on the phone or through other electronic means, it is no substitute for actually seeing them and breaking bread with loved ones. Just recently on the phone, I heard her becoming more sophisticated in her watching of movies; her mind is growing and deepening; her awareness is heightened. Iwonder if God shares such wonder at our signs of development over the years.

Thursday-I’m working on images in Zechariah lately.for a projected set of essays on the Minor Prophets/ Book of the 12. One is the flying scroll. We could make a CGI of that or a book, or use the old RKO radio signal from a tower.What messages do you think of utmost importance to heaven at this point? What message would you like to send worldwide for all to hear?

Friday-an old song says that”sometimes it’s better when we don;t touch our dreams.” One reason for that is that reality has a way of failing to live up to our expectations or dreams.In time, we may learn that the striving for a dream is as important as its completion. The very distance of a dream adds to its allure.What dreams are you holding dear? Do you have aspirations for your spiritual life?

Saturday-Addiction may well be a powerful way to speak of sin. I was listening to some people speak of their struggle with stopping smoking. Some were able to do it cold turkey, and others needed help. Many of them needed to make some changes in places and in triggers that called them to smoke.What would be the impact if we took some of these practices and sage advice and applied them to the areas where sin is addictive in our lives? where does grace come into the picture? Do we require external aid to be able ot battle the inner demons that drive us into sin?

Sermon Notes Lk 7, I Kings 18

Jesus  was willing to offer healing to anyone, it seems. Here, he is faced with a difficult choice. he is approached by a centurion, a leader of the hated Roman legions,to save someone. If he says yes, would he be a collaborator? If he said no, then what? Notice that the crowd seems to give permission by saying that the centurion is an OK benefactor. Recall that even suggesting that God’s blessings could go outside the fold enraged the hearer at the inaugural Nazareth sermon.It would be hard to take to have the person with a boot on your head be called a model of faith, even if he had done philanthropic work. One of my seminary classmates teaches in seminary, and he puts a lot of weight on the social system of patronage in the ancient world, where  you were involved in an intricate series of favors received and granted. the elders are looking to help the centurion because they owe him, a sin the godfather reminding people tha the will request a favor of them when he helps them.Jesus looks past his social role and seems to be moved by the centurion’s certainty about his healing power. Perhaps he is also moved by the relationship with the servant that would have the centurion seek out a healer among the occupied people.The child is either valuable or valued, as the word entimos has a link to intimate..

Luke is impressed with his military understanding of authority. Preachers have used this passage as a model for years. .we speak of the preaching task as being as one under authority. Jesus does not ask him a series of dogmatic questions, or the state of his spiritual health or emotions. Jesus responds to  a real n, desperate need.

Elijah’s  rite seems a demonstration of pure power and smug assertion. perhaps an element of healing is involved to save them from the specter of the false worship of false gods, idols.Our tradition has used that notion with some flexibility and pwer, more aobut our creation of godlike figures and practices and priorities that do not relfect the biblical witness.

At a recent ministers meeting here, it was argued that we should have special privilege for the underdogs in society.To an extent, I gravitate toward that, but the bible does not permit it so easily.Perhaps we wold do better to see it as a privilege for the suffering, no matter who they are. This is a good example, the centurion is part of an occupying army and  in all likelihood, a pagan. He can cross those cultural boundaries to seek the help of Jesus, and Jesus, the bridge from us to God also acts as a bridge between two competing groups.

I am going to the Reformed Roundtable in Indianapolis this week, and we are to read two books by Eboo Patel on the importance of interfaith discussions. he walks a tightrope, a she does not want debate but a sharing of perceptions and views of the divine in various religious discussions, but he does not want people to search for easy commonality either. He want folks to present their views fully and unapologetically. It is popular to sya that all religions offer different paths to the same goal, but that strikes me as dream more than reality.Perhaps it is better to see most faiths as poised between tolerance and exclusion.

I wish that I have the strength, the certainty of the centurion and Elijah. I do not grasp why some prayers are answered and some are not.I do know that a collision of truth claims rarely ends in agreement. Tolerance of difference is a derided concept of late, but is allow us to live together.To posses the whole truth is beyond our limited capacities. At best we catch a glimpse  in the light.