My soul is disturbed after having seen the movie, “Precious.”
It is disturbed for a couple of reasons. One, because it was real. I sobbed after seeing the movie because I know so many people, so many children, live like that. Mothers have babies and then in essence destroy their lives; they do so because they are destroyed themselves. Those who have not known love cannot give love, and it is a fact that too many children in our community do not receive love. They are told they are worthless; they are blamed for everything wrong, and then society wonders why they act out. Too many young girls in OUR community are being sexually molested by fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and mothers’ boyfriends, and having their babies. The cycle of despair just keeps spinning … That thought, that reality, hit me squarely between the eyes. The blessing for movie character Precious was that she had a teacher who cared. Someone cared. One person taking the time to care can change a person’s life. That is not an opinion; it is a fact. Precious, in that regard, was lucky in spite of all she endured.
The other reason my soul is disturbed is because “Precious” will probably win a slew of awards, which is good, but it seems that movies with African Americans win critical acclaim only when they depict African American life the way most white people think most African Americans live. Denzel Washington, an amazing actor who has done amazing work, won critical acclaim for “Training Day.” While I was proud, I wondered why he hadn’t won that kind of recognition for his depiction of Malcolm X? It seems that America is still caught in the need to nestle in the bosom of stereotypes or fantasy about African Americans.
I am bothered still by another fact. There is so much mission work to do on these shores. People go gallivanting off to Africa and India and Honduras, where there is despair, for sure, but there is plenty of despair in these United States. Somehow, Americans have glamorized, or made more acceptable, the suffering “over there,” while ignoring the suffering, pain and despair that runs rampant within our own boundaries. There are people here who need Christian love. Jesus’ compassion works as well here as it does in a forlorn village in Africa. We somehow demonize those who suffer here; we blame them for their situations, if not openly then certainly surreptitiously. The myth is that anyone who wants to do well here can, and while it might be easier here to “succeed” than it is in other countries, it is not a given. There are scores of horribly poor people here who cannot get out of their poverty, aided by a capitalistic system which specializes in keeping poor people poor, but using those same poor people to maximize their profits. There are scores of working poor who are working their fingers to the bone without any possibility of climbing out of their holes of financial despair. Prosperity gospel notwithstanding, the playing field is not even in this country, and poor people are suffering big time here. There are lots of children who, like Precious, are caught in a culture of despair aided and abetted by our economic system.
My mind goes to what we as a church do to address and alleviate the suffering, to provide help to children who, like Precious, need to know that someone cares. What ministries can we do to help? Remember, it was education that helped Precious. It was a teacher who took time to talk to her, and listen to her, and help her to know that she had abilities, that she was special, and that she was worthy to be loved.
That seems to me to be the most basic “missionary” work a Christian can do. And it seems that the more we address and alleviate suffering on our shores, the more foot soldiers we will have to send to other parts of the world. We really cannot sufficiently help the world until we help ourselves. If our children are suffering, we are not equipped to help the children in other parts of the world. We have to put our own oxygen masks on before we try to get the oxygen masks on others.
I doubt that I will read the book “Sapphire,” on which the movie “Precious” is based. Too hard to become a co-partner in that kind of suffering on that level. But I am praying for us as a church to have “mission” work flourish in 2010, working with the children in our community in ways that will help give them hope.
It has to be that we recognize what we can do to help “the least of these” who live amongst us.
Happy New Year! Let’s get this party started!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Finally, Hope for Health Care Reform
I don’t know what the final health care reform bill will look like but I am glad that it feels like we’re on the road to something being different, so that “the least of these” will have access to health care.
When President Obama began his drive to get a health care reform bill passed, I had no idea that health care reform had been an issue since the days of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I had no idea that President Richard Nixon had worked on the issue as well. I have learned so much.
When I have listened to Republican senators say that we need to slow down, to wait, I have been flabbergasted. Wait? How much longer ? Why? What about the people, the poor, the working poor, and others, who are suffering? Could they have been serious?
They were and they are …but there comes a time when there’s been enough waiting. Martin Luther King Jr. said as much in his book, “Why We Can’t Wait,” responding to Christian ministers said to him that he and African Americans must wait for justice and for civil rights. Huh? Are you kidding? It had been hundreds of years already when the Civil Rights movement got into its rhythm, pushing steadily toward its goal of justice. Wait??? Only those who have all they need can admonish others to wait. They have no vantage point, no place of personal knowledge, to fuel their arguments. It is easy to be an ideologue.
But people are suffering, and in this nation, when it comes to health care, that kind of suffering makes no sense. The government is not controlling people; big business is, in the form of insurance companies. Insurance companies do not care a hoot if patients live, die or suffer. Their concern is their bottom line: their profits. If people suffer, tough. So be it. That’s life. Or…at least that’s the way the capitalist mind thinks.
President Obama is to be commended for taking on health care reform and for sticking with it. It may cost him, politically. The bill that may pass the Senate (I am writing this four days before Christmas, when it is expected to pass) is not perfect. It does not contain the public option. It doesn’t extend Medicare benefits …there is a lot it doesn’t do, and Liberals are angry …
But Conservatives are angry, too, because some of the way improved health care will be financed is by increasing taxes on people who make more than $250,000 annually. Some things, like getting botox treatments, will be taxed … and there are other things that will be taxed that will make people angry …but at the end of the day, what is important to me is that more people who do not have health insurance will be able to get it. At the end of the day, the insurance companies will not be able to refuse coverage to people who have “pre-existing” conditions.
Thank God.
I think that having access to health care is a right, not a privilege, especially in this country. I am glad that the President, the House and the Senate have pushed this. It’s been mean and unkind, the war of words…but I am glad that the momentum was never stopped.
It’s a wonderful first step toward giving “liberty and justice to all.”
Have a good week as we end 2009 and enter 2010! See you at Watch Night Service!
Pastor Smith
When President Obama began his drive to get a health care reform bill passed, I had no idea that health care reform had been an issue since the days of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. I had no idea that President Richard Nixon had worked on the issue as well. I have learned so much.
When I have listened to Republican senators say that we need to slow down, to wait, I have been flabbergasted. Wait? How much longer ? Why? What about the people, the poor, the working poor, and others, who are suffering? Could they have been serious?
They were and they are …but there comes a time when there’s been enough waiting. Martin Luther King Jr. said as much in his book, “Why We Can’t Wait,” responding to Christian ministers said to him that he and African Americans must wait for justice and for civil rights. Huh? Are you kidding? It had been hundreds of years already when the Civil Rights movement got into its rhythm, pushing steadily toward its goal of justice. Wait??? Only those who have all they need can admonish others to wait. They have no vantage point, no place of personal knowledge, to fuel their arguments. It is easy to be an ideologue.
But people are suffering, and in this nation, when it comes to health care, that kind of suffering makes no sense. The government is not controlling people; big business is, in the form of insurance companies. Insurance companies do not care a hoot if patients live, die or suffer. Their concern is their bottom line: their profits. If people suffer, tough. So be it. That’s life. Or…at least that’s the way the capitalist mind thinks.
President Obama is to be commended for taking on health care reform and for sticking with it. It may cost him, politically. The bill that may pass the Senate (I am writing this four days before Christmas, when it is expected to pass) is not perfect. It does not contain the public option. It doesn’t extend Medicare benefits …there is a lot it doesn’t do, and Liberals are angry …
But Conservatives are angry, too, because some of the way improved health care will be financed is by increasing taxes on people who make more than $250,000 annually. Some things, like getting botox treatments, will be taxed … and there are other things that will be taxed that will make people angry …but at the end of the day, what is important to me is that more people who do not have health insurance will be able to get it. At the end of the day, the insurance companies will not be able to refuse coverage to people who have “pre-existing” conditions.
Thank God.
I think that having access to health care is a right, not a privilege, especially in this country. I am glad that the President, the House and the Senate have pushed this. It’s been mean and unkind, the war of words…but I am glad that the momentum was never stopped.
It’s a wonderful first step toward giving “liberty and justice to all.”
Have a good week as we end 2009 and enter 2010! See you at Watch Night Service!
Pastor Smith
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
The Advent Conspiracy ...and Other Thoughts
The Pastor’s Page
There were two moments this week, no, maybe three, where I inhaled what this season is all about.
One was when I read online about something called “The Advent Conspiracy.” A group of religious leaders have banded together and taken a stand: do not spend yourselves into debt, but rather, “conspire” to serve others.” If there is something to be given, they say, let it be yourselves, and your willingness to serve God.
Hooray.
Then, I was getting my nails done, and my technician said that the shop had voted, instead of exchanging gifts, to adopt a needy family, and give to that family. “We have enough already,” she said.
She said that the family chosen was a lesson to all of them, helping them to keep things in perspective. The mother has died, and so the 31 year old father is raising his four children alone. He recently lost his job and his home, so the family has moved back in with his mother. They have no healthcare.
Their situation was hard to listen to, but what they asked for warmed my heart. The grandmother wants a cross to wear around her neck. One of the children wants a mattress for his bed. One of the daughters wants new socks; all of hers have holes.
As my technician was talking, my eyes filled with tears. That’s what the gift-giving should be about: giving to those who do not have, not even the things many of us take for granted. Christmas isn’t the time to go into debt buying things just to buy things. If the truth be told, if someone is close to you, he or she ought to be worthy of receiving gifts all year long, not for a specific holiday, but just for being in your life.
This is not “bah, humbug,” this is “yes, Lord!” theology.
Whoever told us that we don’t love someone unless we go into debt buying them “things?” How did Christmas get to be that? When I was little, Christmas wasn’t so much about getting a lot of things; we children usually got one book and one toy…but we were happy. Why? Because there was the Christmas tree, and there was the smell of all those cookies and pies and cakes that my mother baked. There was the fudge that my father made once a year. There were Christmas lights in the house, and in the stores. One of our traditions was to go down to the J.L. Hudson Department store to see all the animated figures in the windows. I loved them. It was enough. It was simply enough.
I like that Advent Conspiracy thing. I like what my nail shop is doing. And I am hoping that nobody in this congregation, or reading this piece, feels bad if he or she cannot buy lots of “stuff” that supposedly says “I love you.” Love isn’t stuff. Love is giving self. That’s it, plain and simple. A pair of expensive sneakers does not say “I love you” if you cannot spend time with the one whom you say you love. More clothes, when one’s closet is already filled, doesn’t do it. Actually, one little gift that says, “I know you and I appreciate who you are,”something that will be around when you are dead and gone … something that the receiver can always pick up and remember you …that’s love.
I think that’s what Jesus would do.
Well, I think that’s what Jesus DID do. He left us … himself.
Have a good week.
Pastor Smith
There were two moments this week, no, maybe three, where I inhaled what this season is all about.
One was when I read online about something called “The Advent Conspiracy.” A group of religious leaders have banded together and taken a stand: do not spend yourselves into debt, but rather, “conspire” to serve others.” If there is something to be given, they say, let it be yourselves, and your willingness to serve God.
Hooray.
Then, I was getting my nails done, and my technician said that the shop had voted, instead of exchanging gifts, to adopt a needy family, and give to that family. “We have enough already,” she said.
She said that the family chosen was a lesson to all of them, helping them to keep things in perspective. The mother has died, and so the 31 year old father is raising his four children alone. He recently lost his job and his home, so the family has moved back in with his mother. They have no healthcare.
Their situation was hard to listen to, but what they asked for warmed my heart. The grandmother wants a cross to wear around her neck. One of the children wants a mattress for his bed. One of the daughters wants new socks; all of hers have holes.
As my technician was talking, my eyes filled with tears. That’s what the gift-giving should be about: giving to those who do not have, not even the things many of us take for granted. Christmas isn’t the time to go into debt buying things just to buy things. If the truth be told, if someone is close to you, he or she ought to be worthy of receiving gifts all year long, not for a specific holiday, but just for being in your life.
This is not “bah, humbug,” this is “yes, Lord!” theology.
Whoever told us that we don’t love someone unless we go into debt buying them “things?” How did Christmas get to be that? When I was little, Christmas wasn’t so much about getting a lot of things; we children usually got one book and one toy…but we were happy. Why? Because there was the Christmas tree, and there was the smell of all those cookies and pies and cakes that my mother baked. There was the fudge that my father made once a year. There were Christmas lights in the house, and in the stores. One of our traditions was to go down to the J.L. Hudson Department store to see all the animated figures in the windows. I loved them. It was enough. It was simply enough.
I like that Advent Conspiracy thing. I like what my nail shop is doing. And I am hoping that nobody in this congregation, or reading this piece, feels bad if he or she cannot buy lots of “stuff” that supposedly says “I love you.” Love isn’t stuff. Love is giving self. That’s it, plain and simple. A pair of expensive sneakers does not say “I love you” if you cannot spend time with the one whom you say you love. More clothes, when one’s closet is already filled, doesn’t do it. Actually, one little gift that says, “I know you and I appreciate who you are,”something that will be around when you are dead and gone … something that the receiver can always pick up and remember you …that’s love.
I think that’s what Jesus would do.
Well, I think that’s what Jesus DID do. He left us … himself.
Have a good week.
Pastor Smith
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Advocate for the Children!
The Pastor’s Page
Even as the Senate begins debate on health care reform, and the House celebrated the passage of its version of a health reform bill, one very vulnerable segment of our population remains in danger of not having adequate health care benefits.
Children.
A report on National Public Radio said that if the Senate bill passes, childrens’ hospitals will suffer because they will get less funding. That will compromise their ability to treat a large segment of their patients – children who are on Medicaid.
And the Children’s Defense Fund points out that both the House and Senate bills threaten the vitality and survival of CHIP – the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
CDF says that the House bill will keep CHIP only until 2013 and then require as many as 10 million children to enroll in a new and untested health insurance plan that will be more expensive with fewer benefits.
The Senate bill keeps CHIP until 2019 but fails to fully fund it or make it easier for uninsured to become enrolled in the program.
The Children’s Defense Fund, under the guidance and direction of Marian Wright Edelman, has been working tirelessly to get all children health care. Statistics show that it is poor children who too often have no health care benefits, and in addition to that being a travesty in the so-called wealthiest nation in the world, it is also a death knell to many children who end up seriously ill or even dying from what have come to be known as preventable diseases and illnesses.
Not much talked about is the reality that many children in urban areas who are labeled “behavior problems” are very often more likely to be sick and untreated. Youngsters with everything from abscessed teeth to psychiatric disorders to chronic disease are being sent to school ill and are in effect being blamed for being sick because their illnesses affect their behavior.
Not only do these children suffer physically, but their ability to be educated goes lacking, which in turn affects their self-esteem. What ends up happening is that sick, untreated children grow into sick, untreated adults, often with behavior problems related to their illnesses, and then become labeled as criminals. They end up, too many of them, in prisons, still untreated, regarded as monsters or bad people, when if they had been able to receive adequate health care, many of their problems, and the problems they end up causing society, their paths in life might have been dramatically altered.
It is chilling the way all these things – inadequate health care, untreated illness, compromised ability to learn, “acting out” behavior, antisocial behavior and finally, prison – are related. There is a thread of “injustice” which ties them all together. Because the poor are so often and too often seen as objects and not as people, these children fall through the cracks, with nobody to advocate for them.
I am including in this week’s bulletin a flyer of information about an amendment to the current Senate health care reform bill being sponsored by Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA). I urge you to read this information, and then call Ohio’s senators to urge them to vote FOR his amendment. Our senators are Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican George Voinovich. Senator Brown’s phone number is (202) 224-2315, and Sen. Voinovich’s phone number is (202) 224-3353. I am going to also give our Social Justice Ministry the job of getting the word out to the Columbus community about what is at stake for children, and I urge you all to ask people to read this pastor’s page on our website, www.adventucc.org
If we don’t advocate for our children, nobody will. When a person is seen as an object, it is very easy to either step on or step over him or her. It is our job as people who say we love the Lord to make sure that we advocate for the children, who are surely amongst “the least of these.”
Have a good week!
Pastor Smith
Even as the Senate begins debate on health care reform, and the House celebrated the passage of its version of a health reform bill, one very vulnerable segment of our population remains in danger of not having adequate health care benefits.
Children.
A report on National Public Radio said that if the Senate bill passes, childrens’ hospitals will suffer because they will get less funding. That will compromise their ability to treat a large segment of their patients – children who are on Medicaid.
And the Children’s Defense Fund points out that both the House and Senate bills threaten the vitality and survival of CHIP – the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
CDF says that the House bill will keep CHIP only until 2013 and then require as many as 10 million children to enroll in a new and untested health insurance plan that will be more expensive with fewer benefits.
The Senate bill keeps CHIP until 2019 but fails to fully fund it or make it easier for uninsured to become enrolled in the program.
The Children’s Defense Fund, under the guidance and direction of Marian Wright Edelman, has been working tirelessly to get all children health care. Statistics show that it is poor children who too often have no health care benefits, and in addition to that being a travesty in the so-called wealthiest nation in the world, it is also a death knell to many children who end up seriously ill or even dying from what have come to be known as preventable diseases and illnesses.
Not much talked about is the reality that many children in urban areas who are labeled “behavior problems” are very often more likely to be sick and untreated. Youngsters with everything from abscessed teeth to psychiatric disorders to chronic disease are being sent to school ill and are in effect being blamed for being sick because their illnesses affect their behavior.
Not only do these children suffer physically, but their ability to be educated goes lacking, which in turn affects their self-esteem. What ends up happening is that sick, untreated children grow into sick, untreated adults, often with behavior problems related to their illnesses, and then become labeled as criminals. They end up, too many of them, in prisons, still untreated, regarded as monsters or bad people, when if they had been able to receive adequate health care, many of their problems, and the problems they end up causing society, their paths in life might have been dramatically altered.
It is chilling the way all these things – inadequate health care, untreated illness, compromised ability to learn, “acting out” behavior, antisocial behavior and finally, prison – are related. There is a thread of “injustice” which ties them all together. Because the poor are so often and too often seen as objects and not as people, these children fall through the cracks, with nobody to advocate for them.
I am including in this week’s bulletin a flyer of information about an amendment to the current Senate health care reform bill being sponsored by Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA). I urge you to read this information, and then call Ohio’s senators to urge them to vote FOR his amendment. Our senators are Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican George Voinovich. Senator Brown’s phone number is (202) 224-2315, and Sen. Voinovich’s phone number is (202) 224-3353. I am going to also give our Social Justice Ministry the job of getting the word out to the Columbus community about what is at stake for children, and I urge you all to ask people to read this pastor’s page on our website, www.adventucc.org
If we don’t advocate for our children, nobody will. When a person is seen as an object, it is very easy to either step on or step over him or her. It is our job as people who say we love the Lord to make sure that we advocate for the children, who are surely amongst “the least of these.”
Have a good week!
Pastor Smith
Monday, November 30, 2009
A Special Day
The Pastor’s Page
Today is a special day.
Not only is it the first Sunday of the last month of 2009, the year we dedicated to understanding and keeping covenant, but it is the day when one of our own, Dr. Cynthia Tyson, completes the covenant she made with God about a year ago when God called and she answered, “Here I am, Lord.”
She completes that covenant in the sense that today, she is ordained. She has completed a year of study and mentoring, and now goes through the ceremony which marks the end of that process, but her work as a deacon has just begun.
Being a deacon is no small thing. The first deacons were appointed by apostles who noticed that there was bickering among the church people. The Grecian Jews were complaining about the Hebraic Jews, saying that the widows of the Greeks were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
It was church mess, and was growing in intensity, as church mess does.
These first deacons – there were seven of them – were appointed by “The Twelve,” who said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”
Deacons are called to help the undershepherd of any church. They are called to be full of the Spirit, to be serious about their relationship with God. They are called to be servants in the deepest sense of the word, attending to the needs of the people, whenever there are needs to be met. They are the right hand of the pastor, and they are the smiled upon of God.
I watched Dr. Tyson struggle through her call to be a deacon. I heard her first whisper, her suspicion that God was calling her, her timidity in wondering if she would be shunned because she is a lesbian, but her conviction that she would have to risk that because first and foremost, she would have to be faithful and obedient to the God who called her. I watched her break down in tears when she finally walked the aisle at one service, a service where I called forth people who had been “called.” She sobbed in my arms as she said she’d been called to be a deacon. She whispered, she sobbed, but she came forward.
Throughout her walk, her fierce love for God has shown through. When I could not “be there,” she was. When I said I needed a huge tree for the front of the church, to tell the message that “Jesus is the light of the world and that we are the light of the community,” she went looking for a tree, and found one. When I announced that we were going to study covenant this year and that I wanted a rock in the sanctuary to remind the people of the Biblical story of how a rock was to be the testimony of the people that they had made a covenant with God, she and Dr. Judy Alston went and found that rock.
She comes to Bible study. She teaches others. She studies like no student I have ever had. Her seriousness about her call is evident and obvious.
I think God must be smiling, for here is one who has said, “Here am I Lord, send me!” and means it. The Deacon Board is blessed to have her. Advent United Church of Christ is blessed to have her …but mostly, God has to be glad that she came forward and said “yes” to the call to serve.
We embrace you, Dr. Cynthia Tyson. We embrace you and your ministry. We celebrate the work you have done and support the work you have yet to do. The work has really just begun, but this far on the journey, God must surely be smiling.
Today is a special day.
Not only is it the first Sunday of the last month of 2009, the year we dedicated to understanding and keeping covenant, but it is the day when one of our own, Dr. Cynthia Tyson, completes the covenant she made with God about a year ago when God called and she answered, “Here I am, Lord.”
She completes that covenant in the sense that today, she is ordained. She has completed a year of study and mentoring, and now goes through the ceremony which marks the end of that process, but her work as a deacon has just begun.
Being a deacon is no small thing. The first deacons were appointed by apostles who noticed that there was bickering among the church people. The Grecian Jews were complaining about the Hebraic Jews, saying that the widows of the Greeks were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.
It was church mess, and was growing in intensity, as church mess does.
These first deacons – there were seven of them – were appointed by “The Twelve,” who said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”
Deacons are called to help the undershepherd of any church. They are called to be full of the Spirit, to be serious about their relationship with God. They are called to be servants in the deepest sense of the word, attending to the needs of the people, whenever there are needs to be met. They are the right hand of the pastor, and they are the smiled upon of God.
I watched Dr. Tyson struggle through her call to be a deacon. I heard her first whisper, her suspicion that God was calling her, her timidity in wondering if she would be shunned because she is a lesbian, but her conviction that she would have to risk that because first and foremost, she would have to be faithful and obedient to the God who called her. I watched her break down in tears when she finally walked the aisle at one service, a service where I called forth people who had been “called.” She sobbed in my arms as she said she’d been called to be a deacon. She whispered, she sobbed, but she came forward.
Throughout her walk, her fierce love for God has shown through. When I could not “be there,” she was. When I said I needed a huge tree for the front of the church, to tell the message that “Jesus is the light of the world and that we are the light of the community,” she went looking for a tree, and found one. When I announced that we were going to study covenant this year and that I wanted a rock in the sanctuary to remind the people of the Biblical story of how a rock was to be the testimony of the people that they had made a covenant with God, she and Dr. Judy Alston went and found that rock.
She comes to Bible study. She teaches others. She studies like no student I have ever had. Her seriousness about her call is evident and obvious.
I think God must be smiling, for here is one who has said, “Here am I Lord, send me!” and means it. The Deacon Board is blessed to have her. Advent United Church of Christ is blessed to have her …but mostly, God has to be glad that she came forward and said “yes” to the call to serve.
We embrace you, Dr. Cynthia Tyson. We embrace you and your ministry. We celebrate the work you have done and support the work you have yet to do. The work has really just begun, but this far on the journey, God must surely be smiling.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Thanks in a Different Way
The Pastor’s Page
Thank you, God, for another year.
This year, it hit me that I no longer take being alive each Thanksgiving and Christmas season like I used to. When I realized that it really was Thanksgiving, and that I was/am alive and in good health, I said a different kind of thanksgiving prayer.
So many people do not make it to “the next Thanksgiving,” and my prayer is that every day, I am in alignment with God’s will for my life so that whenever God calls, I am as ready as I can be.
Not only did we all make it to this Thanksgiving, but I am presuming that we all ate. How about the Associated Press reported that in the United States there are about 17 million families who do not have enough to eat. I doubt they had big Thanksgiving feasts.
There is so much to be thankful for.
I know that some of you are sad because you do not have much money, and that even with “Black Friday,” you will not be able to swarm through department stores and spend a lot of money. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe not having the diversion of shopping like we would like, spending money we do not have, we can pause and thank God for what really matters.
There are two young teens, one black and one white, who were set on fire by “friends.” I pray for them both and for their families, and thank God that my children are OK.
There is a little girl, Shaniya Davis, who was raped and murdered after her mother allegedly hired her out as a prostitute. She was five years old. Her family is devastated. I thank God that I have never had to experience that kind of pain.
We as a church were able to give out 100 baskets for Thanksgiving, in spite of many of us being unemployed or underemployed. You went out and bought food for others, when I am not sure all of you have enough food for yourselves. I thank God that I have that kind of church.
There are families of 13 victims who were killed at Ft. Hood, whose holy day season will be really hard this year…
All these things made me pause and think and thank God in a new a different way this year. I hope that I never waver from this place of new awareness and I pray that more of us will embrace this kind of awareness…because at the end of the day, it’s not about turkey and dressing, Christmas decorations and gifts.
It’s about acknowledging that God is good all the time …and is worthy to be praised, no matter what.
Thank you, God, for another year.
This year, it hit me that I no longer take being alive each Thanksgiving and Christmas season like I used to. When I realized that it really was Thanksgiving, and that I was/am alive and in good health, I said a different kind of thanksgiving prayer.
So many people do not make it to “the next Thanksgiving,” and my prayer is that every day, I am in alignment with God’s will for my life so that whenever God calls, I am as ready as I can be.
Not only did we all make it to this Thanksgiving, but I am presuming that we all ate. How about the Associated Press reported that in the United States there are about 17 million families who do not have enough to eat. I doubt they had big Thanksgiving feasts.
There is so much to be thankful for.
I know that some of you are sad because you do not have much money, and that even with “Black Friday,” you will not be able to swarm through department stores and spend a lot of money. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe not having the diversion of shopping like we would like, spending money we do not have, we can pause and thank God for what really matters.
There are two young teens, one black and one white, who were set on fire by “friends.” I pray for them both and for their families, and thank God that my children are OK.
There is a little girl, Shaniya Davis, who was raped and murdered after her mother allegedly hired her out as a prostitute. She was five years old. Her family is devastated. I thank God that I have never had to experience that kind of pain.
We as a church were able to give out 100 baskets for Thanksgiving, in spite of many of us being unemployed or underemployed. You went out and bought food for others, when I am not sure all of you have enough food for yourselves. I thank God that I have that kind of church.
There are families of 13 victims who were killed at Ft. Hood, whose holy day season will be really hard this year…
All these things made me pause and think and thank God in a new a different way this year. I hope that I never waver from this place of new awareness and I pray that more of us will embrace this kind of awareness…because at the end of the day, it’s not about turkey and dressing, Christmas decorations and gifts.
It’s about acknowledging that God is good all the time …and is worthy to be praised, no matter what.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
We Count
The Pastor’s Page
I keep thinking about the double standard of the way news is reported.
In Cleveland, Ohio, at least 13 women have turned up dead. They were African American women …some with serious problems, but they were human beings, and they had been missing for a while. It turns out that they’d been murdered by one Mr. Anthony Sowell, a convicted sex offender.
Thirteen women gone. Missing for a while, and yet, I do not remember hearing any stories about the women being missing.
I think of Heather Ellis, the college student who was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer after she was accused of cutting into a line at Walmart …and who faces 15 years in prison for this minor offense…and yet, the coverage has been minimal.
I think of the young African American boy, Walter Currie, who lives in Poplar Bluffs, Missouri, who was set on fire by another teen. The coverage, again, has been minimal.
Yet, Sarah Palin is all over the place!
There are countless sad and discouraging stories about what is happening to people of color all over this country, and yet, we hear little about them. If a young white girl is missing, we hear about it; it is a sure thing that if 13 white women were missing, be they of ill repute or not, the entire nation would know about it.
And yet, our people have horrible things that happen to them, and scarcely a word is said.
There is a need for us to be vigilant and to tell the stories ourselves. I firmly believe that we should not whine about what is “not,” but work to make a difference ourselves. In this age of the internet, and the “I reporter” phenomenon, there is no reason why our stories should not be getting out.
If the police will not look for our missing, and if the media will not cover stories about our missing, or, as in the case of Walter Currie, our injured and misused, then we ought to make sure the news gets out.
Of course, when there is something untoward that someone in the African American community has done, it’s front page news. The horrible story about the young African American mother who apparently sold her 5 year old daughter out as a prostitute, and who consequently ended up murdered, deservedly made the news.
And so did the story about John Allen Muhammad, who was executed last week for the people he randomly killed as the “DC Sniper,” make the news. I have no problem with that.
But so should reports of our missing women and children make the news. We count. Our children count.
The fact that the officials in Cleveland ignored the stench of death in a primarily African American neighborhood should be big news; there ought to be a big time investigation going on, and the results ought to be made public.
Like I said, we count.
The tendency of the media to focus only on the misfortunes of our community, while ignoring the tragedies that occur in our communities, is a travesty and professionally unforgivable.
I write this, again, to say that we need to care about our community enough, care enough about our women and our children to make sure the world knows about what is going on. If we don’t tell the stories, they will not be told.
That is obvious.
Rather than waste valuable energy, though, complaining, I say we look at our problems and issues and work to make a difference.
That is what we, I believe, as empowered Christians, are called to do.
I keep thinking about the double standard of the way news is reported.
In Cleveland, Ohio, at least 13 women have turned up dead. They were African American women …some with serious problems, but they were human beings, and they had been missing for a while. It turns out that they’d been murdered by one Mr. Anthony Sowell, a convicted sex offender.
Thirteen women gone. Missing for a while, and yet, I do not remember hearing any stories about the women being missing.
I think of Heather Ellis, the college student who was arrested for allegedly assaulting a police officer after she was accused of cutting into a line at Walmart …and who faces 15 years in prison for this minor offense…and yet, the coverage has been minimal.
I think of the young African American boy, Walter Currie, who lives in Poplar Bluffs, Missouri, who was set on fire by another teen. The coverage, again, has been minimal.
Yet, Sarah Palin is all over the place!
There are countless sad and discouraging stories about what is happening to people of color all over this country, and yet, we hear little about them. If a young white girl is missing, we hear about it; it is a sure thing that if 13 white women were missing, be they of ill repute or not, the entire nation would know about it.
And yet, our people have horrible things that happen to them, and scarcely a word is said.
There is a need for us to be vigilant and to tell the stories ourselves. I firmly believe that we should not whine about what is “not,” but work to make a difference ourselves. In this age of the internet, and the “I reporter” phenomenon, there is no reason why our stories should not be getting out.
If the police will not look for our missing, and if the media will not cover stories about our missing, or, as in the case of Walter Currie, our injured and misused, then we ought to make sure the news gets out.
Of course, when there is something untoward that someone in the African American community has done, it’s front page news. The horrible story about the young African American mother who apparently sold her 5 year old daughter out as a prostitute, and who consequently ended up murdered, deservedly made the news.
And so did the story about John Allen Muhammad, who was executed last week for the people he randomly killed as the “DC Sniper,” make the news. I have no problem with that.
But so should reports of our missing women and children make the news. We count. Our children count.
The fact that the officials in Cleveland ignored the stench of death in a primarily African American neighborhood should be big news; there ought to be a big time investigation going on, and the results ought to be made public.
Like I said, we count.
The tendency of the media to focus only on the misfortunes of our community, while ignoring the tragedies that occur in our communities, is a travesty and professionally unforgivable.
I write this, again, to say that we need to care about our community enough, care enough about our women and our children to make sure the world knows about what is going on. If we don’t tell the stories, they will not be told.
That is obvious.
Rather than waste valuable energy, though, complaining, I say we look at our problems and issues and work to make a difference.
That is what we, I believe, as empowered Christians, are called to do.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Not Sad About Muhammad's Execution
The Pastor’s Page
I had a horrible spiritual struggle this week.
John Allen Muhammad, one of the so-called “DC Snipers,” was executed on Tuesday, and I found, to my horror, that I was not sad and I was not sorry.
I am opposed to the death penalty. I do not think it deters anyone from crime, nor do I believe it brings “closure” to the families of victims. Murdering one person, even if it is done legally, does not assuage the grief of another.
I also think that it is horribly criminal for a legal system to kill another human being. Murder is murder…which is why normally, I am sad, even to the point of being sickened, when someone is executed.
But this time I was not sad and I was not sorry. I would not have voted for Muhammad to be executed, but I was not sorry he had been.
I tried to explain my feelings to myself. I was angry at Muhammad, not only for indiscriminately killing 13 people over three weeks, but also for pulling in Lee Malvaux to help him, and also for thinking that killing people like he did would make it easier for him to kill his wife, and thus, get custody of his children.
The gall!
I did think about the fact that he leaves behind those very children who are probably very sad. They are sad that their father did what he did, and, even if he had not been the father they needed, that he has been killed. After all, he was their father.
And I did think of my normal response to the fact that people do heinous things: that they must be mentally ill and were never treated. In my mind, I just do not want to believe that people can do things like kill lots of people and not be sick. Normally, I argue that these people have probably been mentally ill since childhood and were never diagnosed, never treated.
I still believe that, and I think something was wrong with Muhammad. I think that in addition to maybe having been sick from the beginning, that illness was probably exacerbated by the time he spent in military combat.
But still, I was not sorry.
I heard one of the former police chiefs of Washington, D.C. say that what Muhammad did was calculating and planned, which it was. That being the case, he deserved to die, he said.
I found myself thinking that sick people can be manipulative and calculating. They can know the difference between right and wrong and not have the capacity to make right choices. I found myself arguing, internally, with this chief, saying he was being too hard. Nobody deserves to be murdered.
Then I stopped myself. How hypocritical. Here I was, not sorry and not sad that Muhammad was gone. I had no box to stand on, no legitimate perch from which to sing my song of self-righteous indignation.
I feel so bad about not being sad or sorry that Muhammad is gone that I have had to resort to deep prayer, asking God for forgiveness. It is up to God whether or not he wants to forgive me for this one. Theology has it that he will…
But God’s forgiveness notwithstanding, this week of wrestling with my feelings has humbled me, and has shown me a page of my soul that I had not before come across.
And no matter how hard I try, I still cannot say I am sorry or sad that Muhammad is gone.
I had a horrible spiritual struggle this week.
John Allen Muhammad, one of the so-called “DC Snipers,” was executed on Tuesday, and I found, to my horror, that I was not sad and I was not sorry.
I am opposed to the death penalty. I do not think it deters anyone from crime, nor do I believe it brings “closure” to the families of victims. Murdering one person, even if it is done legally, does not assuage the grief of another.
I also think that it is horribly criminal for a legal system to kill another human being. Murder is murder…which is why normally, I am sad, even to the point of being sickened, when someone is executed.
But this time I was not sad and I was not sorry. I would not have voted for Muhammad to be executed, but I was not sorry he had been.
I tried to explain my feelings to myself. I was angry at Muhammad, not only for indiscriminately killing 13 people over three weeks, but also for pulling in Lee Malvaux to help him, and also for thinking that killing people like he did would make it easier for him to kill his wife, and thus, get custody of his children.
The gall!
I did think about the fact that he leaves behind those very children who are probably very sad. They are sad that their father did what he did, and, even if he had not been the father they needed, that he has been killed. After all, he was their father.
And I did think of my normal response to the fact that people do heinous things: that they must be mentally ill and were never treated. In my mind, I just do not want to believe that people can do things like kill lots of people and not be sick. Normally, I argue that these people have probably been mentally ill since childhood and were never diagnosed, never treated.
I still believe that, and I think something was wrong with Muhammad. I think that in addition to maybe having been sick from the beginning, that illness was probably exacerbated by the time he spent in military combat.
But still, I was not sorry.
I heard one of the former police chiefs of Washington, D.C. say that what Muhammad did was calculating and planned, which it was. That being the case, he deserved to die, he said.
I found myself thinking that sick people can be manipulative and calculating. They can know the difference between right and wrong and not have the capacity to make right choices. I found myself arguing, internally, with this chief, saying he was being too hard. Nobody deserves to be murdered.
Then I stopped myself. How hypocritical. Here I was, not sorry and not sad that Muhammad was gone. I had no box to stand on, no legitimate perch from which to sing my song of self-righteous indignation.
I feel so bad about not being sad or sorry that Muhammad is gone that I have had to resort to deep prayer, asking God for forgiveness. It is up to God whether or not he wants to forgive me for this one. Theology has it that he will…
But God’s forgiveness notwithstanding, this week of wrestling with my feelings has humbled me, and has shown me a page of my soul that I had not before come across.
And no matter how hard I try, I still cannot say I am sorry or sad that Muhammad is gone.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Right and Wright
There is a difference between liberating truth and oppressive lies and vitriol.
This week, I listened to an interview of President Barack Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe. He has written a new book called, “The Audacity to Win.”
Every time someone uses that word, I bristle, especially when those people are part of the group that helped vilify Jeremiah Wright.
In his book, “The Audacity of Hope,” the president cited a sermon by that same title preached by his then-pastor, Jeremiah Wright. I remember that sermon. It was a masterpiece. It shared how African American people had the audacity to hope in spite of a nation, a culture and a religion that so actively worked against them.
The sermon was liberating truth. If the goal was to lift some of the burden of oppression off the shoulders of his listeners, Jeremiah Wright achieved that.
Pastor Wright’s sermons were typically like that. They were a fine blend of history, sociology and theology, an amazing mix that was able to penetrate minds, hearts and spirits of people who wanted and needed to know that God cared for them.
Never was there hatred preached against a people. The history of Africans in this country was told, but hearing that truth was liberating. It made oppression make sense, in a weird way. Being oppressed just because one was black didn’t work. Being taught the history helped us understand how oppression could thrive.
We could begin to move past that which we were beginning to understand.
Wright always taught us how the government was not for “the least of these.” The government was about money and power. That is true, always has been. We needed to be aware of the government’s role in our oppression if we were to know how to navigate through the mine-filled waters. Because at the end of the day, he would teach, oppression could not be the excuse for us not doing what God had equipped us to do.
Our ancestors died so that we would have the right to read. So, he taught, you’d better get your education.
Our ancestors died so that we could apply for jobs that had previously been closed to us because we were black. So, he told us, you had better go through the doors that had been opened to us.
Yes, it was audacious to think that we could overcome oppression, but, he taught us, our ancestors had done it, and their ancestors before them. Now, it was time for us to pick up the baton and look up. We were to look back only for what lessons we were supposed to use as we moved forward, but we were never to forget what the past had taught us.
It was liberating. In true prophetic form, Pastor Wright criticized the government, not only for being racist, but for its classism, its homophobia and its sexism. He taught us that we were not to be racist, homophobic, or stuck in classism. He was as hard on black folks as he was on white folks when it came to not living up to the life God demands of us.
He would not allow us to forget that the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence – were all documents that professed to be “for the people.” This was a government that was supposed to be “of the people, by the people and for the people.”
We were not to forget that we were part of the “people” that the government was supposed to protect. We were to remember that God made no mistakes, and that we were as precious to God as were all of the other people God created.
In the end, his messages were about this God who did not condone bigotry or racism or sexism or homophobia or militarism or classism. This God, Wright taught, had an agenda for humankind that people on earth just did not understand, or if they did, just would not follow.
The people surrounding President Obama’s campaign did not understand any of this. They reacted to that 10 second sound bite. The talk show hosts were only interested in fanning the flames of dissent and hatred so that possibly, Mr. Obama would not be elected.
Limbaugh, Beck, O’Reilly, Hannity, Coulter … pride themselves on their Conservatism. What they say, though, has little to do with God, as opposed to Wright’s messages. In the Bible, God did say he would damn countries that did not follow God’s words and keep God’s covenant.
The word used over and over was “cursed.” Cursed be those who do not listen to God and do what God commands.
Why it is that intelligent people, news people, cannot take the time to separate the truth from the lies, why intelligent news people will not call out the hatred from the sources from which it is really coming, I do not know.
I do know, though, that Jeremiah Wright did not preach hatred. Someone needs to have the courage to say it.
I just did.
This week, I listened to an interview of President Barack Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe. He has written a new book called, “The Audacity to Win.”
Every time someone uses that word, I bristle, especially when those people are part of the group that helped vilify Jeremiah Wright.
In his book, “The Audacity of Hope,” the president cited a sermon by that same title preached by his then-pastor, Jeremiah Wright. I remember that sermon. It was a masterpiece. It shared how African American people had the audacity to hope in spite of a nation, a culture and a religion that so actively worked against them.
The sermon was liberating truth. If the goal was to lift some of the burden of oppression off the shoulders of his listeners, Jeremiah Wright achieved that.
Pastor Wright’s sermons were typically like that. They were a fine blend of history, sociology and theology, an amazing mix that was able to penetrate minds, hearts and spirits of people who wanted and needed to know that God cared for them.
Never was there hatred preached against a people. The history of Africans in this country was told, but hearing that truth was liberating. It made oppression make sense, in a weird way. Being oppressed just because one was black didn’t work. Being taught the history helped us understand how oppression could thrive.
We could begin to move past that which we were beginning to understand.
Wright always taught us how the government was not for “the least of these.” The government was about money and power. That is true, always has been. We needed to be aware of the government’s role in our oppression if we were to know how to navigate through the mine-filled waters. Because at the end of the day, he would teach, oppression could not be the excuse for us not doing what God had equipped us to do.
Our ancestors died so that we would have the right to read. So, he taught, you’d better get your education.
Our ancestors died so that we could apply for jobs that had previously been closed to us because we were black. So, he told us, you had better go through the doors that had been opened to us.
Yes, it was audacious to think that we could overcome oppression, but, he taught us, our ancestors had done it, and their ancestors before them. Now, it was time for us to pick up the baton and look up. We were to look back only for what lessons we were supposed to use as we moved forward, but we were never to forget what the past had taught us.
It was liberating. In true prophetic form, Pastor Wright criticized the government, not only for being racist, but for its classism, its homophobia and its sexism. He taught us that we were not to be racist, homophobic, or stuck in classism. He was as hard on black folks as he was on white folks when it came to not living up to the life God demands of us.
He would not allow us to forget that the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence – were all documents that professed to be “for the people.” This was a government that was supposed to be “of the people, by the people and for the people.”
We were not to forget that we were part of the “people” that the government was supposed to protect. We were to remember that God made no mistakes, and that we were as precious to God as were all of the other people God created.
In the end, his messages were about this God who did not condone bigotry or racism or sexism or homophobia or militarism or classism. This God, Wright taught, had an agenda for humankind that people on earth just did not understand, or if they did, just would not follow.
The people surrounding President Obama’s campaign did not understand any of this. They reacted to that 10 second sound bite. The talk show hosts were only interested in fanning the flames of dissent and hatred so that possibly, Mr. Obama would not be elected.
Limbaugh, Beck, O’Reilly, Hannity, Coulter … pride themselves on their Conservatism. What they say, though, has little to do with God, as opposed to Wright’s messages. In the Bible, God did say he would damn countries that did not follow God’s words and keep God’s covenant.
The word used over and over was “cursed.” Cursed be those who do not listen to God and do what God commands.
Why it is that intelligent people, news people, cannot take the time to separate the truth from the lies, why intelligent news people will not call out the hatred from the sources from which it is really coming, I do not know.
I do know, though, that Jeremiah Wright did not preach hatred. Someone needs to have the courage to say it.
I just did.
Monday, November 2, 2009
A Convenient Definition of "Blight"
The Pastor’s Page
Every time I drive downtown and see the fences around City Center, I get mad.
It’s going to be demolished. It’s called “urban blight.” Something else, a park, I think, is going to be put in its place.
Meanwhile, blighted houses in poor neighborhoods are allowed to remain. They become havens for drug traffic, eyesores for the neighborhood, a danger to children, bringing down property values.
The city cannot just up and tear them down. There are laws, you know. And it seems that the absentee landowners know those laws, and do just enough to keep their property from being torn down, but they do nothing to improve that property and thus improve the quality of life for the people who live in the neighborhood.
But the City Center … ah, there’s blight that cannot be allowed to remain!
We don’t have enough money to take care of our neighborhoods, put more parks in our neighborhoods for our children, so they will have something to do other than run the streets. Budgetary concerns make it impossible for more recreation centers to be built. In fact, many of them are being shut down.
But the City Center … there’s enough money to make a park downtown. Or something.
This week there was also a report that several central Ohio hospitals are going to be building new facilities. There’s going to be a new heart hospital somewhere, and another cancer hospital.
The current structures just will not do.
Of course, there are no plans to build a new hospital on the city’s South Side. The people there are too poor. Someone said in a radio interview that the only patients a hospital on the South Side would have would be those on Medicaid, Medicare, or “no pays.”
“A hospital just cannot be sustained like that,” he said.
So, the new hospitals will be built, driving up health care costs, even while the debate about health care reform is going on. Oh yes, we the taxpayers will be paying for all this new construction – going on in the north side of the city.
What about the people on the South Side?
The poor people are always the ones least served. Profit-seeking ventures do not care a hoot about the “least of these,” nor do they treat their needs as “holy,” as Obery Hendricks says in his book, “The Politics of Jesus.” Poor people are taxed; you bet they had better pay their taxes “like everyone else.” But they are not cared for “like everyone else.”
I would not object to the City Center being torn down if I felt a passion on the part of city lawmakers to really deal with the real neighborhood blight in our city. I would not object to a lovely park in downtown Columbus if I saw the city trying to build more parks and recreation centers where there are kids standing around with little or nothing to do. It would seem …right … then. There would be some equity, and some real concern for the masses of people who help keep this city moving.
As it is, though, there is no equity. In the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew scriptures, it says in Chapter 8 beginning at verse 20: “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and are not saved. Since my people are crushed, I am crushed. I mourn and horror grips me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?”
There is no healing because we the people are far from God with our hearts. Otherwise, with the “blighted” City Center being torn down, some of these horrible properties would be coming down, too. With a passion.
Have a good week.
Every time I drive downtown and see the fences around City Center, I get mad.
It’s going to be demolished. It’s called “urban blight.” Something else, a park, I think, is going to be put in its place.
Meanwhile, blighted houses in poor neighborhoods are allowed to remain. They become havens for drug traffic, eyesores for the neighborhood, a danger to children, bringing down property values.
The city cannot just up and tear them down. There are laws, you know. And it seems that the absentee landowners know those laws, and do just enough to keep their property from being torn down, but they do nothing to improve that property and thus improve the quality of life for the people who live in the neighborhood.
But the City Center … ah, there’s blight that cannot be allowed to remain!
We don’t have enough money to take care of our neighborhoods, put more parks in our neighborhoods for our children, so they will have something to do other than run the streets. Budgetary concerns make it impossible for more recreation centers to be built. In fact, many of them are being shut down.
But the City Center … there’s enough money to make a park downtown. Or something.
This week there was also a report that several central Ohio hospitals are going to be building new facilities. There’s going to be a new heart hospital somewhere, and another cancer hospital.
The current structures just will not do.
Of course, there are no plans to build a new hospital on the city’s South Side. The people there are too poor. Someone said in a radio interview that the only patients a hospital on the South Side would have would be those on Medicaid, Medicare, or “no pays.”
“A hospital just cannot be sustained like that,” he said.
So, the new hospitals will be built, driving up health care costs, even while the debate about health care reform is going on. Oh yes, we the taxpayers will be paying for all this new construction – going on in the north side of the city.
What about the people on the South Side?
The poor people are always the ones least served. Profit-seeking ventures do not care a hoot about the “least of these,” nor do they treat their needs as “holy,” as Obery Hendricks says in his book, “The Politics of Jesus.” Poor people are taxed; you bet they had better pay their taxes “like everyone else.” But they are not cared for “like everyone else.”
I would not object to the City Center being torn down if I felt a passion on the part of city lawmakers to really deal with the real neighborhood blight in our city. I would not object to a lovely park in downtown Columbus if I saw the city trying to build more parks and recreation centers where there are kids standing around with little or nothing to do. It would seem …right … then. There would be some equity, and some real concern for the masses of people who help keep this city moving.
As it is, though, there is no equity. In the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew scriptures, it says in Chapter 8 beginning at verse 20: “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and are not saved. Since my people are crushed, I am crushed. I mourn and horror grips me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?”
There is no healing because we the people are far from God with our hearts. Otherwise, with the “blighted” City Center being torn down, some of these horrible properties would be coming down, too. With a passion.
Have a good week.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Martin Luther King Jr. , in a speech given about the Vietnam War in a speech at Riverside Church in 1967, said there is a time when silence is betrayal. When you know something is wrong but you say nothing, that is betrayal, betrayal to the person wronged, betrayal to God and betrayal to all that is right.
Christians have a way of being silent, in the name of “not hurting anyone’s feelings,” or wanting to be “in” with a person in power or perceived power. I have done it: been silent when I’ve known I should have said something because I didn’t want to offend anyone. Everyone has done it, but the fact of the matter is, there is a time to speak and a time to be silent. The Bible says that.
The Beatitudes say “blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” We spent a lot of time differentiating between “peace lovers,” those who want peace at all cost and who therefore will not say anything, even when they know something is wrong, and peace-makers, who sometimes bring about peace for drawing to attention something that is wrong and therefore inspire a different action.
I am not talking about mess-makers. Mess-makers do just that: make mess. They see something they do not like, and instead of doing what they can to improve it, they talk about that situation, that person and do nothing but rile up the emotions of people.
No, I am talking about people who have a heart for God, want to work for God, and in that desire, see much that is not in keeping with what God would want.
We are in a nation which, in spite of great wealth, has become poor. Our descent into poverty came early on, as we watched our government destroy Native Americans, sanction racism, and in general, sacrificed godly work with demonic vision which included racism, materialism and militarism. We, the United States of America, have been ruthless in our quest for power and for things, and in the process, scores of people have suffered.
In this nation, there has been created a class of beggars. As this economic situation worsens, I imagine that class will widen. We have grown comfortable to having things; it is inconceivable to us that we not be able to have a car or enough money to feed our pets, yet more and more people are descending into economic despair, while a tiny number of people fight to stay in power, hoard the money and resources, and in effect echo the caustic reply said long ago by a heartless French monarch when told that the people of France had nothing to eat.
To keep silent when people are suffering is a betrayal of the purpose of resurrection. Too many people are still on a cross of suffering, when, as we all know and say ad nauseum, “Jesus died for my sins.” Part of “our sin” is being silent and doing nothing, sitting in saucers of comfort and self-righteousness while so much of the world is begging for a touch of God’s grace.
They will only be touched when we touch them. They will be shown the love of God through our actions, not by boasting about the denomination to which we belong, or the church. They will be convicted that the Christ died for them, too, when the smug stop being smug about the resurrection, and realize that there are still too many people on a cross.
We who have been blessed know better. The word is that we do better when we know better. We really DO know better. Now, in the name of resurrection it is time TO DO better – so that all may be one, as the Christ prayed it would be.
Happy Resurrection Sunday!
Pastor Smith
Christians have a way of being silent, in the name of “not hurting anyone’s feelings,” or wanting to be “in” with a person in power or perceived power. I have done it: been silent when I’ve known I should have said something because I didn’t want to offend anyone. Everyone has done it, but the fact of the matter is, there is a time to speak and a time to be silent. The Bible says that.
The Beatitudes say “blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” We spent a lot of time differentiating between “peace lovers,” those who want peace at all cost and who therefore will not say anything, even when they know something is wrong, and peace-makers, who sometimes bring about peace for drawing to attention something that is wrong and therefore inspire a different action.
I am not talking about mess-makers. Mess-makers do just that: make mess. They see something they do not like, and instead of doing what they can to improve it, they talk about that situation, that person and do nothing but rile up the emotions of people.
No, I am talking about people who have a heart for God, want to work for God, and in that desire, see much that is not in keeping with what God would want.
We are in a nation which, in spite of great wealth, has become poor. Our descent into poverty came early on, as we watched our government destroy Native Americans, sanction racism, and in general, sacrificed godly work with demonic vision which included racism, materialism and militarism. We, the United States of America, have been ruthless in our quest for power and for things, and in the process, scores of people have suffered.
In this nation, there has been created a class of beggars. As this economic situation worsens, I imagine that class will widen. We have grown comfortable to having things; it is inconceivable to us that we not be able to have a car or enough money to feed our pets, yet more and more people are descending into economic despair, while a tiny number of people fight to stay in power, hoard the money and resources, and in effect echo the caustic reply said long ago by a heartless French monarch when told that the people of France had nothing to eat.
To keep silent when people are suffering is a betrayal of the purpose of resurrection. Too many people are still on a cross of suffering, when, as we all know and say ad nauseum, “Jesus died for my sins.” Part of “our sin” is being silent and doing nothing, sitting in saucers of comfort and self-righteousness while so much of the world is begging for a touch of God’s grace.
They will only be touched when we touch them. They will be shown the love of God through our actions, not by boasting about the denomination to which we belong, or the church. They will be convicted that the Christ died for them, too, when the smug stop being smug about the resurrection, and realize that there are still too many people on a cross.
We who have been blessed know better. The word is that we do better when we know better. We really DO know better. Now, in the name of resurrection it is time TO DO better – so that all may be one, as the Christ prayed it would be.
Happy Resurrection Sunday!
Pastor Smith
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