Column Notes on Ferguson and Clergy

One unarmed person is too many to die at the hands of police. Partial data indicate that at least 100 people die in that situation. W ith the crackdown on crime especially drug-related crime, we imprison many and given more power  the police officers on the beat.

Policing is difficult demanding work. Over 100 police officers get killed in the line of duty every year.We as them to know the law, be good at community relations, be physically fit and technically competent. Keeping public safety is a virtue.

I am proud of clergy who have tried to calm tensions and even serve as a buffer between police and protesters in Ferguson. Violence helped precipitate the display of military weapons and tactics of the police there.I have been surprised at the reaction of some in the religious community. In taking what they assume to be a page from Amos, they wish to thunder in the pulpit about white racism. They even excuse or condone the violence in the small town. They are hostile toward police activity, while others are working to try to calm the situation daily and preach of peace on Sunday. If truth be told, some of us like the image of thundering against injustice, of “afflicting the comfortable.” The image of standing on high and shaking a finger at folks seems to be the image of a renewed jeremiad. I would like some empirical evidence, but I have rarely encountered anyone who changed in attitude or behavior from such a sermon. It could be wise for us to remember that prophetic denunciations usually seemed to fall on deaf ears. Prophetic denunciation comes from within a shared community, not standing apart or above it.In part, clergy may yearn to be part of a renewed movement that calls to mind the days of Martin Luther King.

I have followed political life for years and sometimes think I have a handle on it. Years ago I dismissed the Tea Party movement as a flash in the apn. Now I am slow to either dismiss the Ferguson protests as temporary or a catalyst for a new social movement on the role of police force.

I agree wholeheartedly with the cry for justice. At the same time, is it a Christian claim to seek retribution for wrongs? I continue to hold to Martin Luther King’s call to aspire to non-violence.

We accept too much ordinary violence in his country. We have tens of thousands of gun-related deaths a year. Violent family abuse is a daily blot on our communities.

We are moving toward the 60th anniversary of the great school desegregation decision of Brown v. Bd. and just passed the 50 year mark of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We have made enormous strides in seeing the emergence of an African-American middle class. We have also seen a persistent poverty far above that of other groups.whose numbers are also reflected in homicide rates three times the unacceptably high numbers of homicide in our land

The church can issue the clarion call that all are created in the image of God. That means that all lives should be equally respected.

President George W. Bush was rarely eloquent, but one of his lines has stayed with me. “the soft bigotry of lowered expectations.We often seek to explain away violence as a predictable reaction to poverty. ”I would prefer that Christians take a stand against violence, period. That is our higher calling in the slow march toward justice.

Sermon Notes Ex. 1, Romans 12:1-8

August 24 Exodus 1, Rom. 12:1-8

The Bible is directed toward underdogs. Today we read of Israel enslaved, the unlikely Peter getting slotted for leadership, and the shared leadership of communities on the very margins of society in Romans. They are great examples of moral transformation.Puah and Shiphrah are midwives to help bring life into the world. they may be Egyptian midwives serving the Hebrews. The Pharaoh want them to be midwives to the death of infant boys born into slavery. They make an ethical decision to save lives, and they lie about it to buy some time.At one level they are powerless, but at another level they exercise what power they have to throw obstacles in the way of state genocide.Power does turn to violence as a policy tool. The weaker in society can be its victims. In an autocratic system, who is to stop the policy? The two people whose names are kept here, evne while Pharaoah goes unnamed, resist evil.In so doing they are transofrmed from midwives to freedom fighters.(Shiphrah means pleasing and Puah means splendid)

   Transformed by renewal of mind v. being conformed-build up the whole body-spiritual worship-rational-=ethical. mind= praxis, imagination and whole person Important in our fragmented and compartmentalized age when I was in seminary, I was assigned Christian Science for a church history class. i learned that this line in this chapter is of central importance to Mrs Eddy and her followers over the years. Certainly we live in an era where we assign astounding power to mental attitude in a weak version of Christian Science thought. We praise positive mental attitudes as a key to health, a key to success. After seminary, I lived near Amish communities who sometimes cited this verse as  a warrant for refusing to engage in what they called English styles of dress.

What does being transformed mean? The same basic material is there but it seems different.

being conformed to an Egyptian mindset v, slave mindset v., a Godly mindset. What does it mean the renewal of our minds? We’ve always done it that way before means that we do not go about re-inventing the wheel, but it can also be a deterrent when change is necessary. Sometimes transformation can be instantaneous. Our American brand of churches emphasize this constantly. While we tend to honor this type of experience, we tend to emphasize the more slow=going process of time as God works in and through yus daily.In a fine episode of Star Trek, Captain Picard laments his youthful extremes and the time wasted. He is shown in a dream sequence that he would never have been the remarkable man he had become had he not undergone steady transformation in curbing his youthful excesses into maturity. George Washington spent a lifetime controlling his temper and learning to project a public face of utter rectitude.Be not conformed. One of my items of disquiet in the clergy response to Ferguson has been an utterly secular recording of some on the political left. Yes, of course, the message of the church can oppose or dovetail with the common view of life. At the same time, it seems that the church should also have a more independent voice that can add something different to the  varying voices out there and within.Far too often, we try to fit the faith into our existing points of view.

Be transformed Paul says. We are more the recipients of transformation than we are its agents.

Still, he seems to speak of an inner transformation. the Spirit works within the raw material of our lives it form us into people carrying the banner of Christian.

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Week Of Aug 24 devotional points

Sunday-Ps.124 I am pleased that I will try to sit in on Dr. McCann’s class at Eden Seminary, as he is a noted scholar of this great prayerbook.This one is a prayer of thanks for being delivered from enemies. I like to expand the image of enemy to anything that harms us, including illness. When have you felt most fully the thrill of deliverance.

Monday-At the heart of life and in its heights glory shines. Within creation and beyond,glory has its source. Guide me to the heart of lifethat I may know its heights.Lead me further within, O God ,that I may know you as beyond.In the sufferings of my heart. and the brokenness of creation-open to me further the doors of the eternal that through the pain that is within me and the struggles that are around me,  I may be guided to you as the heart of life, that through the pain that is within me and the struggles that are around me I may be guided to you as in and beyond all that has life. John Philip Newell

Tuesday-James Finley, Saturday. A quote from his book, The Contemplative Heart, : "We seek to live a more contemplative way of life so that we will not have to wait until we are dying to learn how to live."

Wednesday- John S. Mogabgab-In every experience of true listening, especially to God but also to another person, there is a mysterious moment in which the one who listens steps out from a fortress of self-concern and dwells silently in the truth of the one who speaks.

Thursday-St. Hilda-”

"Send your minds to holy learning that you may escape the fretting math of littleness of mind that would wear at your souls." St. Hilda pray for us and especially for those in high places.”

Friday-James J. Martin:A New Serenity Prayer-"God, grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, which is pretty much everyone, since I'm clearly not you, God.At least not the last time I checked.And while you're at it, God, please give me the courage to change what I need to change about myself, which is frankly a lot, since, once again, I'm not you, which means I'm not perfect.It's better for me to focus on changing myself than to worry about changing other people, who, as you'll no doubt remember me saying, I can't change anyway.Finally, give me the wisdom to just shut up whenever I think that I'm clearly smarter than everyone else in the room, that no one knows what they're talking about except me, or that I alone have all the answers.Basically, God, grant me the wisdom to remember that I'm not you. Amen."

Saturday-Before I was twenty I never worried about what other people thought of me. But after I was twenty I worried endlessly — about all the impressions I made and how people were evaluating me. Only sometime after turning fifty did I realize that they hardly ever thought about me at all.— Anthony de Mello in One Minute Wisdom

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Column on Robin Williams Death and Mental health

I was doubly saddened by the death of Robin Williams. First, I was hit with the loss of an exuberant, gifted person form our common lives, Second, I relived a bit of my brother’s death by suicide almost 25 years ago. At least 39,000 people committed suicide in the last reported year.I will not pretend that I can peer into the heart and mind of someone who dies of a self-inflicted wound. I do surmise that they respond to a deep set of wounds that show no sign of healing.

Why does a celebrity death hit us so hard? I was reminded by Judith Wells in bible Study that television is a most intimate medium, as we invite people into our homes, and our very psyche. Maybe we project our yearnings on to the characters they portray. It is jarring to find that someone with such a seemingly inexhaustible exuberance could fall prey to the dark, yawning pit of depression. In a way we think we know celebrities, maybe even live vicariously through them.

Suicide evokes our confusion about mental illness and its results. I would guess  that different causes for suicide are present, but I have no doubt that mental illness is frequently present. In its wake, we seek to blame the person committing suicide as in the raving of Rush Limbaugh or one of the seemingly saner Fox broadcasters inveighing against cowardice. We persist in trying to frame suicide in terms of a rational act, the product of a process.Others try to romanticize it, as in the spte of comments that quoted his character as the genie in Aladdin of being at last free.

The idea of suicide as sin persists. If we see sin to be a deliberate act of evil, it is difficult for me to go there, as it is often the product of a mental illness, so it would be akin to someone choosing genetic kidney disease.Since 1983 the Roman Catholic Church has offered burial rites for the families of those who have committed suicide.While I am loath to term it a sin of deliberation, it bears some of its features. To take a life is a formidable act. In the end, our lives are not our personal property, as we live within the governance and grace of God.

Suicide has lasting, haunting effects on family and friends.It expands outward, and it is not solely left to the surcease of unendurable agony for the one.What ifs multiply. We start to engage in savior fantasies of how we could have saved someone. We replay our moments with them, especially the last times we encountered them. Survivor guilt weighs down the lives of those who knew the person. A pall covers the life of those who knew and loved a person who has committed suicide.

I hope that we can have a catalyst for change. Yes, we continue to progress in our understanding of mental illness, but the stigma of it has not kept pace.

First, I applaud the decision to not keep people in large institutions indefinitely. At the same time, we failed to have safe, competent places for people to go when they should be committed. The jails should not be our first line of defense for the mentally ill. Our streets are full of people unable to take care of themselves, unable to make rational judgments, but we blithely make them part of the environment.Then we need to have more well-staffed group homes to provide a stable place for them to ease back into society, not be cast into a chaotic swirl.

I imagine that God deeply mourns the loss of a precious lie by any means including suicide. God’s own imagined future is altered  by that act.I do pray that they are granted a peace that eluded them in this life. i pray that all of us can see life as a gift to be faced not only with courage, but with hope.

devotional Pts for week of Aug 17

Sunday- Ps.133 is a short prayer. In our time of strife, it is a good prayer. It has the sense of abundance and a hint of Ps. 23 or Ecclesiastes wanting oil to never be lacking on one’s head. What precious thing would you like presented to you in abundance with regularity?

Monday- O holy and life-giving Spirit, enable us by thy grace to root out from our common life the bitterness of ancient wrongs and the thirst to avenge the betrayals of long ago. Save us from the tyranny of history and set us free in a new obedience to serve each other in the present hour. Accepting the redemption wrought for us, we believe that all our sins of yesterday are covered by thy mercy; Grant us therefore grace and courage to give and to receive the forgiveness which alone can heal today's wounds. Draw us, O Lord, towards loving kindness and guide us into the way of peace.

Tuesday-"Longing for peace, our world is troubled...longing for hope, many despair...Your word alone has power to save us,. Make us your loving voice...Christ, be our light! Shine in our hearts, shine through the darkness. Christ be our light! Shine in your church, gathered today." -- "Christ, Be Our Light" Bernadette Farrell,

Wednesday-While none of us can save the world, we can create sanctuaries in our lives, places where compassion is the automatic response rather than fear, where we turn to hope and trust before anxiety, love rather than judgment. From Abbey of the Arts

Thursday- Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention.

They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go to next.F. Buechner

Friday"We find a path that is more about following one’s own ripening and unfolding rather than looking for the straight path and plan.from Abey of the arts

Saturday-And I can't believe that, when we have all been changed and put on incorruptibility, we will forget our fantastic condition of mortality and impermanence, the great bright dream of procreating and perishing that meant the whole world to us. In eternity this world will be Troy, I believe, and all that has passed here will be the epic of the universe, the ballad they sing in the streets. Because I don't imagine any reality putting this one in the shade entirely, and I think piety forbids me to try.”Marilynne robinson from gilead

Sermon Notes on Gen.45 sand forgiveness and a bit on Mt. 15

August 17 Gen. 45, Mt. 15

We have a wealth of riches this morning. i do wish to continue a bit on the story of Joseph. he has his ups and down but to the delight of a colonial  person he is a high official in Egypt. His dream will come true in a most unusual way, this prince/master of dreams. His forgiveness of his brothers is intriguing. First, his series of cruel tricks show that he wasn't going to forgive if he did not see if any change has occurred in their moral character, and he selects his full brother as the clue. When he notices that they are willing to sacrifice themselves for the welfare of the youngest brother, when they easily could have concocted another false story has him burst into tears. :Like many of us, joseph cries when overwhelmed with a melange of feelings. Yes, he ahs tested them; yes he was grievously harmed by them; ye shtye have broken the heart of their father, but still he loves them. He will not use his power for revenge. that is perhaps the great step in forgiveness: to forego revenge.Joseph has not forgotten them, but he also is not going to forgive until he sees some change in their attitudes and behavior.(Hear our repeated Lord’s Prayer here) This is a rare story when we see the hurt one and the ones who victimized both offered better positions. The tears of Joseph are, at least in part, tears of release.

We know Jesus as the Forgiving One. Rarely would we even consider forgiving jesus. Few stories make Jesus look so bad as this one in Matthew. The desperate woman will not let rudeness deter her from seeking healing for her daughter.Jesus had just called Peter one of little faith, but now this woman has great faith in his estimation.She bests Jesus in a verbal bout, and jesus learns about himself and his ministry from her.Like a basic joke, this story is patterned by three rebuffs, and then we get the surprise at the end.We are in border territory in this story, so expectations are bound to be confounded or confused. Somehow she knows of Jesus and a proper religious title (has anyone else used this fully  yet in Mt, we have heard son of David) At the same time she is not polite but screaming, shrieking out the title. It is difficult to tell if the disciples want jesus to dismiss her or to give her what she wants to get some peace and quiet. they speak in the imperative however.She kneels/worships and impedes the journey this time.(Is there a hint of the messianic banquet in her response?) Were dogs allowed inside? Is the child with her all along, if we discover the instant healing? We will fight fo rourselves, but we become lions for our children.We look past slights in a rellentless effor tto get osme help.

In both instances, the offense is not merely passed over, repressed, or said to be no big di eal. Forgiveness is not the same as forgetting, so we do lose that easy excuse. In both instances, the other parties are made ot understand the pain of their actions and words. We often identify with the one hurt when we encounter forgiveness. we tend ot resist faicng up to our need ot be forgiven as well.

Our confession of 1967 uses the great theme of reconciliation as its core.Reconciliation is the restoration of relationship.Forgiveness offers the key to unlock the possibility of reconciliation. It is the most powerful weapon in the Christian non-violent fight for loving relationships.

Column Draft on Hospitality

Scripture tells us that hospitality can involve “entertaining angles unaware.” I was privileged to be part of two extended examples of hospitality in the past week. In a minor miracle, once again churches and agencies planned a block party on Market Street. I stand in awe at the organization, the money, the time, and the sheer labor it takes to pull off something like that, and it seems to improve every year. The groups show obvious hospitality to ward new ideas.  It included bounce houses, free food and ice cream, music, arts and crafts. A number of agencies provided vital health and human services materials in the Episcopalian church center. A number of the folks participating lack some financial resources.

I am most pleased that it helps provide hospitality for education with school supplies and even backpacks to help ease the way into the school year. My prayer would be that the students demonstrate as much hospitality to the gift of learning as they did in grabbing up ice cream.

This past Monday, our Presbyterian church fed a large number of young German musicians from the Bavarian region form an academy of St Bonaventura. Of course, they requested the traditional fare of Spaghetti and meatballs. We had a salad bar and an astonishing range of desserts. Greg Fletcher and Susie Delano made sure that a surprising number of dietary requests were honored.

Hospitality offers a safe and accepting place. It is a place where we try to make others comfortable, to try to offer them a place where they can be themselves. It makes room for others in our lives. it is a testing ground for the abundance of God’s economy in everyday life, not of the fear of scarcity, but where we have planty to offer.

On Wednesday, the group played at a number, not one, a number of churches and a park for free. they played at First Presbyterian for 90 minutes. The choral music was followed by a string ensemble and then an orchestra with music quite ancient and contemporary, well to those of us who are gray, at least. Some of the folks spoke English, but what thrilled me was how their music spoke to the crowd. It is a thrill to see young people become hospitable to something well beyond their own years and then share it with an audience. Since I have live dint he area, I have noticed that audiences in this region are more giving with their apllause and approbation than other areas of the country in which I’ve lived. A number of folks mentioned that they rarely avail themselves of the choices of the arts in our area. It is a marvel to see people become open indeed and open hearted enough o embrace a variety of musical styles and respond so fully.

Marjorie Thompson in Soul Feast, introduced me fully to the idea of hospitality as a spiritual practice. We are not made to be hermits; we are made to be in a variety of relationships. Kathleen Norris, the spiritual adept wrote in Dakota-“True hospitality is marked by an open response to the dignity of each and every person. Henri Nouwen has described it as receiving the stranger on his own terms, and asserts that it can be offered only by those who 'have found the center of their lives in their own hearts. “We worship an open-hearted God who even throws open the divine existence into our very creaturely lives  in Jesus Christ. That same jesus received and offered hospitality. I was privileged to witness a vbersion of secular Communion. People gathered, not under