Category Archives: Society

Lisa and Phoenix

06 Monday Aug 2018

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I met Lisa a few months ago.  She, her husband Wes, their son Phoenix, and their dog bear were passing through the area and stopped at the church to seek some assistance for one night – a place to sleep.

They told me the story of how they were from Maine and had traveled to West Virginia so that Wes could start a job there.  They packed up all their stuff into their van and headed down.  They had a place to stay waiting for them.  Turns out the job fell through when they got there.  So they turned around and started to head home, stopping in Carlisle for the night.  They happened to find out church and sought out some help.  We put them up for the night in one of the local hotels and offered one of our handmade blankets to the family.  They were grateful and had expressed a good deal of their faith during my time with them telling me at one point that God provides for them always.

Fast forward to last week – I received an e-mail from Lisa telling me that she and Phoenix would be traveling through the area again.  Turns out that Wes had to finish out a parole sentence in a distant state from years ago and so it was just her and their son.  They were heading back to West Virginia to be with family who could help them out.  They would get housing in exchange for doing child care.

She still had Bear, their small dog who was friendly as ever.  I met up with them when they arrived and got them taken care of for the night.

I learned a few things from my encounters with Lisa.  First, no matter the situation, Lisa was always joy-filled.  She always has a smile on her face.  She doesn’t have much, but what she has she is grateful for.  Second, Lisa has great trust in God.  God always provides is what I heard Wes say.  And here was God providing for this family again – this time through the church.

I couldn’t help but think of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus traveling when I encountered Lisa, Wes, and Phoenix.  This time it felt more like Mary going to visit Elizabeth.  Different circumstances of course, but the idea was there.

God shows us in mysterious ways.  God invites us to participate in the unfolding of the kingdom too.  God had invited me to participate in the unfolding through Lisa and Phoenix and Bear.

We have no idea how many people there are who are in similar situations.  It’s easy to turn a blind eye to things like this.  But that’s not what we are called to.  Instead, we are called to answer the e-mail that is sent to us, to answer the door when the bell is run, to answer the phone when there is a call, to answer.

My prayers remain with Lisa, Phoenix, and Bear – as well as with Wes.  I pray that they are reunited sooner rather than later and are able to get back on their feet.

Sometimes I wonder if we have this preconceived idea of what participating in the unfolding of the kingdom of God is like – what it looks like.  I wonder if we think it’s all nice and neat and organized.  But then I get an invitation to participate in the unfolding of God’s kingdom.  And it comes at the door right when I’m getting ready to leave for the day.  Or in a text.  Or at the Flying J truck stop.  Or at Dinner with Friends community meal.  Or in the elevator of the hospital.  Or in the parking lot as I’m getting into my car.  The invitation comes at random times – usually when I least expect it.  And that’s probably a good thing.  When it happens, I have moments to either accept the invitation or reject it.  It seems that in the spur of the moment, I’m more likely to accept the invitation.  God has different plans than what I’ve come up with.

And sometimes those plans come in multiple parts, with the knock on a door and an e-mail follow-up separated by several months.

Be ready.  You don’t know when God will send your invitation.

The Sheltered Homeless

01 Wednesday Aug 2018

Posted by in Humanity, Society, Theology

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I met Lynn by accident.  She is a housekeeper at a motel just off the interstate about 20 minutes from the church I serve.  I was there to assist a homeless person get emergency housing for a couple of days for herself and her dogs as she made plans to move in with her sister in Maryland.  She told me her sister couldn’t come to get her for a couple of days and she had no money and nowhere to stay.  Lynn overheard this and as I was leaving, she approached me to seek assistance for herself.

Lynn shared with me that she lives in the motel.  She is paid just enough to cover the weekly cost of living there, with a little left over for her other expenses.  Not a great life for her and her two children.  But it’s what she had to do after her husband walked out on her.  She was trying to save up some money to move out to an apartment, but just couldn’t get any savings going.  And she isn’t alone.  Somewhere between 50-75% of the rooms of this particular motel are occupied by people who live there and pay their bill weekly.

Jeff lives in a motel just a few miles from the church I serve, along the Miracle Mile, just outside of Carlisle, PA.  Jeff’s been there for several months, along with his two cats, which keeps him company.  During his time, he’s racked up a debt and owes the motel owner enough that eviction proceedings have gone forward.  Jeff will be evicted by the eighth of the month – becoming homeless in the more traditional sense of the word.

But really, Lynn and Jeff are homeless.  They are what I call sheltered homeless – living in a motel, but not secure in their housing.  They have shelter, but it’s hardly home.

In recent months I have spoken with several motel managers and front desk employees about people who live in these motels and pay weekly.  Depending on the motel, anywhere from 25%-75% of the occupants of these motels are weekly residents, meaning that they pay an ongoing weekly rate to stay in a motel room.  And that doesn’t count the more traditional homeless who will “splurge” for a night or two by getting a room at one of these motels in order to get out from the heat or cold, get a shower, and a free continental breakfast.

Along the Miracle Mile there are well over a dozen hotels and motels.  At least half a dozen of these have weekly paying residents.  Add this up and it’s easy to estimate that there are hundreds who live like this in just this area alone.  At one motel, of the 64 rooms available, 16 had weekly residents.  Other motels had higher percentages of weekly residents.

Homelessness is a growing challenge in the US, especially in the region of the country I live in – South Central PA.  Our congregation comes in contact with the homeless regularly: doing ministry twice a month at the local Flying J truck stop where we make sure the homeless who live in their vehicles in the parking lot there are able to get their laundry done, can take showers, and get a meal.  We also come in contact with the homeless and poor through our monthly Dinner with Friends community meal held in our fellowship hall and we do what we can to help these folks with emergency food and connecting them to other agencies that can help them.  Sometimes the homeless will call or stop by the church during the week, seeking food, shelter, or references to agencies that can help.

Homelessness is on the radar for many people.  But it’s also something that remains an abstract issue for many, especially if a person doesn’t know a homeless person by name or know their story.  If you don’t know someone personally who is homeless, you probably never think about homelessness at the end of the day when you go to your own comfortable home that is warm in the winter or cool in the summer.  It’s just another issue that can be debated by politicians, or it’s something that we can be against generally, as long as it doesn’t directly impact us, make us uncomfortable or inconvenienced.  But when you know the homeless by name and know their stories, going home at the end of the day becomes another day in which you see how broken our world is.

People like Lynn and Jeff are a different variation of homeless – the sheltered homeless.  Or rather, the trapped.  They are caught in a vicious cycle that keeps them on the edge.  While they are paying anywhere from $250-$300 a week for their small motel room, they are often going without other necessities like food, upkeep for vehicles, medication, and more – things they need to survive.

Often times, these sheltered homeless are working, but are not being paid enough to meet their living expenses.  These are not lazy people.  And they aren’t blowing money on frivolous things, unlike the false stereotypes that persist around homeless people.  Those exist because someone, somewhere, worked the system and so the popular thought is that this must be true of all poor or homeless people.  Except it isn’t.

They are spending anywhere from $1000 a month for their housing up to $1200 a month.  That’s almost a mortgage payment for most Americans.  All for a motel room.  Not a house or an apartment.

The challenge arises because many of these people don’t have enough savings to pay for a security deposit and first month’s rent for an apartment that would in the long run make more financial sense, costing almost half as much as they are paying for a motel room.  But they make enough money to pay for the weekly expense of a motel room.  They end up getting trapped in this cycle – not enough for a long-term solution, but enough to stay off the streets or their vehicles.  And the government assistance offices don’t help pay for motel and hotel rooms, considering these as not a long-term housing solution.  Considering how much a motel room costs over the course of the month, I agree.

And then the trap really takes hold – an unexpected expense comes.  Maybe it’s their vehicle that needs a repair.  Maybe it’s a medication.  Maybe it’s a death in the family.  Maybe it’s all of those things.  A bill comes due for several hundred dollars.  Where does the money come from? And that’s how people get behind so easily.  When there is no room for error or accident, errors or accidents are bound to happen and suck a person down.

Often a challenge in talking about homelessness is getting an understanding of a different sense of time.  For many middle-class people, their focus is on the future.  They have a bright future ahead of them.  Middle class people are concerned about things in the future too – saving for a vacation, education for their children, retirement, etc.  But they are always looking ahead.

But someone who is in poverty, either poor or homeless, doesn’t have that luxury.  The only time that really exists for them is the present.  There are immediate needs that need to be met and met now.  And when someone is poor or homeless, there isn’t a lot of hope for the future.  The future becomes daunting and unbearable.  When you don’t really have a future to look forward to, why would you plan for it?  No wonder Jesus kept saying that he was bringing Good News to the poor.  He was bringing hope for a future for people who lacked any sense of future.

Crossing this bridge of understanding difference in time is important.  It’s what allows us to connect with the poor and homeless.  It’s what allows us to be where they are and also hopefully assist them in getting out of their situation if they so desire.  Often that starts with a simple question – what are your goals?  Not our goals – your goals.  This isn’t a silver bullet, it’s only a start – a baby step.

When I asked Jeff what it was like to live in a motel, he said that there are benefits – you get everything you need: a bed and TV and Linen and towels.  You don’t have to worry about utilities.  Most places give coffee and juice and bread in the morning (his breakfast).  And the most striking statement of all – You can move fast to a cheaper place if needed.  People who live in what they consider home don’t try to move fast to a cheaper place.

Jeff, Lynn, and many others are the sheltered homeless among us.  When we think that homelessness is just about making sure someone has a roof over their head, we are missing several things.  Homelessness goes beyond just material needs.  It involves people, relationships, and being trapped in an endless cycle that feels like a black hole.  Just when you think you get a step away from it, it sucks you back in and keeps you down.

If we are ever going to eradicate homelessness in our midst, then we need to acknowledge the extent to which it exists in its many forms.  From there, we learn people’s stories, we walk alongside them as best we can, and we celebrate with them when they finally do get a step away from the black hole that grips them.  Overcoming homelessness, whether sheltered or not, is about relationships and community.  It’s about value and worth of each person.

When we minister to and with a homeless person or family, we make a great deal of effort to ensure that they are reminded of their humanity, we hear their stories and get to know them, we invest ourselves and our time into their lives, we remind them that they are loved and that someone cares about them and their wellbeing.  We empower them and tap into their value.  We tell them that they are not alone – and we try to live that out.  We proclaim Good News to them.  We pray with them.  We do what we can with them.  We be with them.

And a big part of this ministry is about not being satisfied – not being satisfied that people have shelter even though it is keeping them poor and trapped.  There is a different way – a much better way.  We can do better.  We are called to be better.  Let’s eradicate homelessness here.

Does it affect you?

31 Tuesday Jul 2018

Posted by in Society, Theology

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Information is powerful.  It can give you great insight and guide you in where to go.

Recently I used a program that provides demographic information, along with trends, and insights into the area our church resides in and serves.

It was quite enlightening.  I found out that the area is aging, getting wealthier, and has a growing number of people with higher educational degrees.  There is also a growing middle age segment of the population.  The overall trends regarding religion are that people are less influenced by religion and are engaged with religion less and less.  As for interests, it seems that people in this region are most interested in their own health, their finances, and their futures.

When I read this, I see the connection of these things – an aging wealthier and smarter group of individuals who earned their success and are trying to figure out how to keep it.  This isn’t a judgement – it’s a summary of who the people around the church are.

And there is also a segment of the population that doesn’t really show up in the demographics – the poor and homeless, the prostitutes, victims of human trafficking.  That population is smaller than the main population, but it’s there.  I know – I encounter them often.  The overall trends regarding religion are that they don’t feel they are worthy of being a part of church, but they love the message of Jesus.  They interact with the church typically in non-worship functions that the church offers – social ministry and hands on ministry.  As for interests, they are concerned with where they are going to get their next meal, do they have enough for somewhere to stay, and how to pay this or that unexpected bill.  The focus is on the present tense.

Apparently then, there are two populations that don’t intersect very often.  If they do, it is usually pretty negative in society.  An example that I witnessed was in Harrisburg.  I was walking down the street to a meeting and a woman was in front of me.  We crossed the street and there was a man waiting on the corner.  He looked as though he were going to ask for some help.  She must have been hit up by him previous because she shouted at the top of her lungs at him to stop begging for money – to stop taking people’s money.  She swore at him, all while she was walking along.  He mumbled something, but didn’t respond directly to her.  I reached my car and the women went on.  The man came over to approach me and did ask for money.  I often don’t have any cash on me, so I told him I didn’t have any.  He looked disappointed.  He said he was just trying to get on the bus to go to work.  I went on my way to my next meeting.  Could I have done something different? Sure.  I could have taken him to work – or at least asked him where work was.  But I didn’t.  Too busy I guess.  I have no idea if this guy was telling the truth.  But really it didn’t matter.  I tell you this story in order to make a bigger point.

Homelessness, human trafficking, poverty, prostitution, and more affect you.  You may not experience people caught in these things directly, or maybe you do.  But they affect you.  They affect you because when one person is caught in these, it impacts the whole of society.  I saw an estimate once that claimed that one homeless person uses $250,000 a year worth of medical services.  How so?  Well, a homeless person probably doesn’t have health insurance.  They have limited money and therefore buy the cheapest food they can find to fill their stomachs.  They typically have health challenges – many are diabetic.  When there is a health problem, they don’t go to their doctor because they don’t have one – they go to the hospital.  Guess who pays that bill?  If there is trouble with the law, guess where they go – jail.  Guess who pays that bill?  It’s paid through our taxes.

Imagine a different way of handling these situations.  Imaging offering housing first in order to get someone off the streets.  To recognize their humanity.  Taking that burden off of someone makes a big difference for a person.  It is one stress they have taken care off.  And it allows a person to start tackling other challenges.  In the long run, it cost far less, and is more caring and compassionate to pay for housing for someone who is homeless than it is to do nothing and end up paying for all the services they use.  The cost isn’t just in terms of money, but there is also a human cost.

The point is, if all we ever care about is ourselves, then we blind.  And it will cost us a great deal more than if we pay attention to the greater needs of society.

Only the strong survive

23 Monday Jul 2018

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Except they don’t.  They end up dead.  Just like everyone else.  It’s just a matter of when and how.

Think about the phrase for a moment – “Only the strong survive.”

It’s patently false.  No one survives life.  In fact, it’s a ridiculous statement.

“Only the strong survive” is linked to the ends justify the means.  Except if the strong aren’t getting out of life alive, then do the ends really matter at all?  Those who subscribe to these ideologies are lying to themselves if they really think they live by them.  The strong are going to die.  And the ends don’t really matter if you are going to end up dead.

But following Christ offers a different way of thinking and living.  Jesus calls on us to face the reality of death – not to run from it.  But it doesn’t end there.  Jesus makes us a promise – that death will not have the final say.  It’s not the strong that survive.  It’s that God’s children will be resurrected.

It’s not that the ends justify the means, it’s that Jesus is the means and is far more important than the ends. Jesus says he is the way, the truth, and the life.  The means justify the ends.  This is why followers of Jesus can’t just claim the label of Christian and then ignore what Jesus says.  Or to quote Jesus: “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ but do not do what I tell you?”  Jesus very much cares about the means.

We can live by “Only the strong survive” and “the ends justify the means.”  But really, why bother?  There is nothing special about these arguments.  They don’t offer us life.  they don’t offer us anything really.

There is a different way.  A much better way.

Control

19 Thursday Jul 2018

Posted by in Church, Health, Organizational theory, Politics, Society, Theology

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I think there is a valid argument for saying that the biggest sin that humanity commits is control.  It’s a sin that puts the created in the place of the creator – crafting ourselves as a god.  The sin of control is the ultimate broken relationship with God.  It’s us saying to God: “We don’t like your ways.  We’ll do it our way, thank you very much.  You go sit over here for when we need you to bail us out.”

The first commandment states “You shall have no other gods before me.”  (Exodus 20:3)  This applies to how we make ourselves into a god as well – not just idols that are created and worshiped.

We do this when we try to control things by keeping them the way they are or try to re-create the past.  Except we can’t.  Change will happen, does happen, and there is no way to stop it.  We can certainly adapt to it.  We can resist it to some degree, especially if the change is not healthy and good.  We might even be able to redirect the change.  But that isn’t the same as trying to stop change and keep everything the same – forever.

Look at the effort we give to trying to stop change from happening.

The most obvious way this happens is with ourselves.  We try to stop the aging process instead of embracing it as a part of life and adapting to it.  Our bodies change – that is a fact.  Look at yourself in the mirror.  Is this what you looked like 20 years ago, 10 years ago, 5 years ago?  Of course not.  Your body changed, regardless of how you wanted to stop it.  You couldn’t.  Even if we cover it up, have surgeries, exercise, and have procedures, the fact remains that your body is still changing.  Yet, we are told a lie that we can stop aging, that we can hold onto our youthful look, that we can make our bodies youthful again.  And many buy the lie that we can stop change in ourselves.  There’s a lot of money to be made with selling a nostalgic self-image.

We try to stop change in our institutions as well.  Church is a good example.  Many want it the way it was, the way we see it through an idealized lens in which the pews were full, the pastor did all the ministry, everyone in town came to worship, everyone dressed up, and the culture assisted the church with laws and mores that gave the church a privileged position in society.  We want church to be a steady rock that never changes, all the while we will voice a desire for change, mostly because it seems like the right thing to say.  That is until we actually consider how that change will impact us, not just other people.  We want change in church, but change that doesn’t require us to change, only other people.  Often the change that is voiced isn’t so much a change with progress forward, with adaptions, and new ministries to serve new peoples in our ever-changing communities.  Rather it is a change by looking backward to nostalgia.  We want the world and the church to go back to the way it was – ignoring the challenges and sins that existed in the church and in the world.  We want to make church a steady and stable rock again.  We want a sense of control over life.

Yet, when Jesus calls people to follow him, he is asking for a huge change – a personal change.  He’s saying drop everything – all the nostalgia and the desire to control and stop change – and follow me.  Die daily so that new life can take hold.  Don’t just voice it, actually do it.  Jesus said:

“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do no do what I tell you?  I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built.  But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.  When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of the house.”

(Luke 6:46-49)

We try to stop change politically and as a nation.  We hear it in the slogan “Make America Great Again.”  Many desire a change to some romanticized time in which all was well, that we were great, and everyone thrived.  Except this time never actually existed.  It’s a change backward, a reverse of time.  And it’s a lie.  There has never been a time in this country when all was well and where everyone thrived.  Never.  Certain groups of people certainly have, but not everyone.  And often there have been and still are groups of people who not only aren’t thriving, but are struggling to survive – pushed down by those in more privileged positions in life.  This is what the desire to control does.  There is a cost.

Things that are alive change and adapt.  Any science book will tell you that.  Things that are dead don’t move on their own and don’t adapt.  They wear away and decompose.  In that respect, even things that are dead change.  And eventually, they become unrecognizable and become dirt.  Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.

And in the end the question remains – what is the point of trying to stop change completely?  Or of turning back the clock?  Change is coming.  It is already here.  It walks with us.  Why not spend our energy adapting to it, maybe even steering it in a positive direction towards something that actually can allow for more people to thrive?  What if we took some of the good things of the past and adapted them for our present circumstances as opposed to trying to recreate the past?

What is the point of trying to change things in a backward fashion – to a time that never actually existed and certainly can’t be recreated.  Everything else has changed around us.  The environment in which we find ourselves has changed.  We can’t go back.  We can’t be any of those things again.

Change means there is newness.  There is no “again.”  No matter how much we desire it, we can’t go back in time and have those beautiful memories become reality again.  There is change.  There is life and there is death.  And out of death comes new life.  We allow the past to die so that there is new life in the present and the future.  Shackling the present and the future with the past doesn’t bring us back to the past and the way it was.  It just holds us hostage.  And in the mean time, the world continues to change, without our consent.  Because we are not in charge. And we fall further behind.  This makes adapting to changes more difficult and costly.

This is what it means to follow Jesus.  We aren’t called to go backward in time with the church.  We aren’t called to go backward in time with our nation.  We aren’t called to go backward in time with our bodies.  We are called to go forward and to let past things die, so that new life can take root.

To another [Jesus] said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

(Luke 9:59-62)

These would-be disciples wanted to go back, to hold onto the nostalgia – to bury their dead and to say farewell.  To look back.  But Jesus knows that a look back will only hold us back.  You can’t plow looking backwards.  You can’t drive a car looking in the rear view mirror.  You can’t walk forward while you keep your eye behind you.  It doesn’t work.  You can’t be the church, or you, or a nation by having a tight grip on the past, holding the present and the future hostage, with an old model that doesn’t meet current conditions and challenges and cultures.

Jesus calls us forward, not to a time of nostalgia.  The kingdom isn’t in the past.  The best days of the kingdom of God are unfolding now and are to come.  They aren’t in the past.  It’s unfolding right now.  It’s causing a change.  Will we be embraced by it, or will we resist it?  In the end, resisting it and trying to stop it will never win out.  It can’t.  Because change is always taking place.  The kingdom is always unfolding in new ways, in ways that are different from the past.

The church model

09 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by in Church, Society, Travel

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For as long as anyone can remember, the model the church has used is to have a building, a pastor, a musician, and to make worship the primary function.  There has been other support involved – education, fellowship, and special gatherings like funerals and weddings, celebrations, etc.  The church grew because people in the denomination moved and found similar churches, or had babies to help replace members who had died.  The culture assisted the churches too – ensuring that “blue laws” existed, telling the story of Christianity, etc.  In other words, the church held a privileged position in American culture.  It was expected that this would continue.

Except that’s not happening.

“The model we have used — a church, a pastor and a commitment by people to support the enterprise — is getting harder and harder to maintain.”

(Source – click here)

That’s a quote from an article about churches closed in Minnesota.  But it’s not only about churches in Minnesota.  It’s nationwide.

The church needs to face the reality that the times have changed.  The church no longer has a privileged place in society.  But the church still acts like it does in many cases.  The church no longer can count on members of the denomination moving into the area to fill the pews.  There are more and more “nones,” people who don’t believe.  The church can’t use the same model it did before because the circumstances have changed.  But that’s exactly what many churches are doing – holding onto a model that doesn’t meet the current challenges.

Fashion changes, sports teams change, businesses change, politics changes – but somehow many in the church don’t think that change applies to the church.  The problem with this is that there are fatal consequences for this.  If the church doesn’t change its model, it will die.

What would a new model for the church be?  I don’t think there is just one model that will work.  I think it depends on the people gathered together in community.  One church may thrive by turning to ministry in the community, another by a focus on worship, another by selling it’s building and the expenses that go with it.  The point is, we’re in a new era where a new model is needed – or rather, new models are needed.

A good set of questions might be, if we were gathering together as believers in Jesus for the first time, what would this look like?  What would we be doing?  Where do we see the Spirit at work?  What is drawing in people?  What allows us to best carry out the mission God has for us?

Numbers don’t lie – even in the age of fake news.  Trends tell us important information.  We can either ignore the trends or learn from them.  This much I know – continuing with an old model, because it’s what we know, will lead to many more churches closing their doors.  Adopting a new model is a risk – a big risk.  It could be a complete and utter failure.  Or it could mean new life.  The first option isn’t a good option.  The second option is a risk.  This is where the church has to ask itself this question – are we all in?  Do we trust Jesus and where he is sending us? If so, there really is only one option.

Safety

28 Thursday Jun 2018

Posted by in Humanity, Politics, Society, Theology

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There are anchor people on certain networks complaining about and blaming protestors for disrupting the private lives of Administration officials – as if this is disconnected from actions the Administration is taking.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Administration’s travel ban was legal.  Children, who seek asylum and are trying to escape from violence, are housed in cages with little hope of ever being reunited with their families.  There are reports of increased violence against Muslims, African-Americans, and those with foreign ancestry – harassment for being who they are.  The Administration admitting that there are planned detention centers.  ICE raids in businesses.  The President stating that people don’t deserve a hearing and should be deported immediately – regardless of whether they are a citizen or not.

Is this what it means to make America great again?

Is this what you believe it means to be a follower of Christ?

Do these facts and questions make you uncomfortable?  Are you angry that I bring them up?  Are you coming up with excuses and rationalizing these activities?  Are you telling yourself that these things will make you safer?

Were you unsafe before these things?  How so?  How exactly are they making you safer?  I want you to actually voice it so that we can all hear the reasoning.  So that you can hear your own words and what thy really mean.  Be really clear.

How many more of these things are needed until you reach this mythical state of safety?

At what point do these actions actually make us less safe?  If you don’t realize it, we have already moved to that point.

What is it with this idol-like worship of safety anyway?  Jesus certainly doesn’t call us to safety.  He calls us to be risky – to be vulnerable. To take up our cross.  There is no safety in following Christ.

Who is safer as a result of these actions?  Not even the people who they are designed for.  Because when our government can impose such actions on a group or groups of people, then where does it end?  When will you be the threat and need to be removed?

Is this really about trying to keep us safe?  Then where is the concern about safety for the asylum seeker?  Where is the concern for the safety of African-Americans who are just living their lives but are having the police called on them by white people?  Where is the concern for the safety of those who wish to carry out their freedom of speech in opposition to these actions?

Why do we seem more concerned with patriotic displays of nationalism, rather than the safety of our military personnel when we start insulting our allies.  Are we not putting them in harm’s way unnecessarily?

Why are we not concerned with the safety of our veterans – many who find themselves homeless, hopeless, addicted, and many completing suicide?  Granted, this has been going on for many years.  But it certainly hasn’t improved in the last two years.  It continues as it did before.  We are really good at taking a civilian and making them into a soldier to do things that most people would never want to do, nor should have to do.  We are terrible about taking that soldier and making them into a civilian again and giving them the support they need.  Too often we toss them aside once our leaders are done using them for their dirty work.  We don’t honor them, we scapegoat them.  What does it say about a country and it’s concern for safety when we have private organizations that are dedicated to helping homeless veterans.  Homeless veterans – let those two words sink in.  Why are any veterans homeless at all?  Is this how we treat those who are most loyal to the country – who gave up years of their lives and risked their lives, for the country and what it supposedly stands for?  This is how they are repaid.  Lost, hopeless, forgotten, and in the way.  And we are supposed enjoy the pomp and circumstance of flag waving?

And we claim to be concerned about safety and civility?  What part of any of these actions is civilized or safe?  Or patriotic?  Or following Christ?

Why are we more concerned with the safety of some privileged people who don’t want to be uncomfortable or inconvenienced, rather than the safety of all – including those considered to be “others” by those same privileged people?

We have a serious problem in our nation.  A sickness that is getting worse.  A disease that is spreading.  But it is not new.  It has been operating under the surface for a while, but now is full-blown – no shame.  And we aren’t taking any medication for it.  Instead we are feeding it.  We are lying to ourselves and saying that we feel great again.

In reality, we are advancing towards our own death and cheering loudly for it.  If we continue, we will reach a point that we become terminal. And I’m not even sure we’ll have the benefit of hospice care at that point.  We’ll get what we deserve – to be thrown out with the trash.  That’s where we are headed if we continue on this course.

Prophecy isn’t about having some kind of special knowledge from God.  It’s looking at where we have been, where we are, and seeing what’s next if the course does not change.

Prophecy is not set in stone though.

This doesn’t have to be the course we continue on.  Realize that not everyone will be onboard with a course correction.  Many will resist.  Some will become violent.  So be it.

I for one am not interested in continuing on this path.

Here are some vital questions we need to ask ourselves – do we really believe in the ideals of this nation that we claim to believe?  Or are they just nice things that sound good when the times are alright?

Or were those ideals made for a time such as this?

Christians, do you really believe Jesus?  Do you believe his call to serve the poor, to welcome the stranger, to love your neighbors and enemies?  Do you believe in the Sermon on the Mount?  Or is Jesus full of it?  Are they just nice things that sound good when the times are alright?

Or are Jesus’ teachings made for a time such as this?

Is your faith from God?  And do you believe that God is love and that Love is God’s way?  Then love is the only way to proceed.  Love all people and God’s creation.  There is no other option.  There are no valid excuses for dehumanizing people, for caging children, for causing anxiety among entire groups of people, for creating fear.  These are not things of God.  Anger and fear are not the way of Christ.

God is love.  Love is the only way.  Let us live that love.  If your top priority is safety and by that it means devaluing, dehumanizing, restricting freedom, and fearing, then you are way off the path of love.  You are invited to come back to the path.  The way is narrow, but it is worth it.  You will not be alone.  There is forgiveness, mercy, grace, peace, and joy on this path.  It isn’t safe, but it is thriving life.  When our primary focus is safety, we are only looking to survive.  When our primary focus is love, then we will thrive.

 

We have a choice

28 Monday May 2018

Posted by in Humanity, Society, Theology

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There are many in this world that think that the only way to get what they want is through force.  Some will choose violence to get what they want and what they think is right.  Violence can come in many forms – physical, verbal, mental, emotional, etc.  It can come through dehumanizing comments, how people are treated, and by destroying property of targeted groups and individuals.

And we have a choice of how we respond.

There are many in this world who live their life in fear – fear of “those” people who are coming here.  They fear they will lose something – maybe the status quo, maybe some kind of rights or privlege, maybe a job or a job opportunity, maybe their definition of “normal.”  And so these people who live by fear and in fear strike out.  When someone feels cornered, sometimes they strike out.  Especially when that person had authority, or power.  They have lost their status and get angry about losing it.

And we have a choice of how we respond.

Yesterday I saw a video that showed a “Christian” family videotaping themselves going around degrading a Mosque – teaching their children hatred of Muslims and tearing down fliers about the Mosque.  There was dehumanizing language about Muslims.  This video was on Facebook, and it was meant to show how some people are hate filled.  Unfortunately, all these videos really do is give free rein to the message that is being proclaimed – a message of hate.

And we have a choice of how we respond.

We can respond in kind – saying all sorts of terrible things about this family.  We don’t have to think very hard to come up with some very harsh comments, belittling statements.  We don’t have to work very hard to dehumanize the dehumanizers.

But does that make us any better?  Or are we just using the same tactics that have been used – an in doing so, legitimizing the approach?

Oh how badly I wanted to let my comments rip this family a new one.  Oh how badly did I want to label them.  Oh how badly did I want to respond in anger.  Oh how badly.  My insides were hot with rage.

And yet, we have a choice of how we respond.

As I was watching, willingly exposing myself to this anger and fear, a small voice inside me whispered a passage of Scripture – 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

The whisper was powerful and strong in a different way than the anger.  It offered words that touched the very heart of me.  It offered words that I needed to hear.  It offered words that others needed to hear.

And so I posted parts of this passage of Scripture in the comment section, along with a prayer.  A prayer that highlighted a response of love.

We have a choice in how we respond.

We can’t control what others will do, but we can control how we respond.

For those of us that are Christians, or Christ-followers, the question is this – do we really believe Jesus?  Do we really believe that love will win?  Do we really that peace is a way of life and not a destination – it is the now, not someday?  Do we really believe that love will conquer?  Do we really believe that 1 John 5:3-5?

For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Do we really believe?

We have a choice in how we respond.

Here is what I will be doing going forward, when I see a disturbing or upsetting or angering or fear-filled article, video, or comment – I will be responding to it with Scripture and prayer.  I don’t promise that I’ll do this for everything – but for ones that I feel a response is necessary.

We don’t stop fear and anger and violence and hatred and prejudice and the -isms through fear and anger and violence and hatred and labeling.  We stop it by changing the focus completely.  You can’t put a fire out by adding more gasoline.  You can’t stop a war by dropping more bombs.  You can’t stop shootings by adding more bullets.  You can’t stop hatred by adding more anger.  You can’t stop fear by adding more anxiety.  You can’t stop dehumanizing by dehumanizing in response.

You stop it by changing it – you change how you respond.  You change how you talk and interact.  You change how you show respect.  You change by loving, being peaceful, offering mercy and grace. You change without expecting others will change, but inviting them to change too.  Jesus didn’t confront the Empire or the Temple authorities by using violence.  He didn’t use the same tactics that those in authority used.  He presented an alternative way of living, and invited others to participate in this way of living.  And by doing so, he change the world.

We have a choice in how we respond.

I choose this.  I invite you to join in.  Especially if you are tired of being angry, living in fear, and being upset at the world.  There is another way.  You don’t have to be fluent in Scripture – you can google passages that seem appropriate to the situation.  If you are going to respond, respond out of faith and love.  We have a choice in how we respond.

Live the way that Christ calls us to live.  Some will join in, some won’t.  You can’t control it.  But there will be an impact.  It’s how the world is conquered.

We have a choice in how we respond.  Respond well.  Offer a response that changes the world.

But the economy…

21 Monday May 2018

Posted by in Politics, Society, Theology

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Acts 16:16-24 tells the story of Paul and Silas being jailed in Philippi.

One day, as we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave-girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners a great deal of money by fortune-telling. While she followed Paul and us, she would cry out, ‘These men are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.’ She kept doing this for many days. But Paul, very much annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.’ And it came out that very hour.

But when her owners saw that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market-place before the authorities. When they had brought them before the magistrates, they said, ‘These men are disturbing our city; they are Jews and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us as Romans to adopt or observe.’ The crowd joined in attacking them, and the magistrates had them stripped of their clothing and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After they had given them a severe flogging, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to keep them securely. Following these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.

In this story we see a radical message – that when the kingdom of God is proclaimed and where it is unfolding, the status quo will be upset.  Often in Scripture we see a linkage between evil and profit-making at the expense of humanity.  Profit itself isn’t evil – profit-making at the expense of humanity is.

And in this story we see it vividly.  The owners of this woman only cared about her as long as they could exploit her and make money off of her.  And when they could not do that, it wasn’t her well-being they were concerned with.  It was the fact that she no longer made money for them.  She became worthless to them.

They saw it as an attack on them and on their profit motive – or really, their abuse, manipulation, and power trip.

Paul and Silas literally affected the economy of Philippi through their proclamation.  This is what happens when God’s kingdom comes near.  The status quo is flipped on its head.  And many weren’t happy about it.  When people’s money is affected, people start to pay attention.  They know that what is happening is real – and they see that they are not in control.

But as long as the economy is humming along – allowing some to benefit at the expense of others – many turn a blind eye.

When money becomes prime in life and society, humanity suffers.  When money is more valuable than people, then everything is out of whack.  People are not valued for who they are, but rather for what they produce.  Humanity ends up with a price tag.

When money takes this type of central role, then it becomes an idol, a god.  No wonder Jesus spoke about money more than any other subject.

But making money into an idol, a god, has deeper ramifications than this – When producing becomes the prime directive, then the Sabbath is broken.  Sabbath doesn’t mean sitting around doing nothing all day.  It’s about resting from work in order to pay full attention to God – to focus on God and listen to what God is calling us to.  If there is no room for Sabbath, then there is no room for God.  Instead of listening to God, we listen to what the almighty dollar instructs us to do.  And people suffer.

We are no longer made in the image of God, but rather, we are just workers whose purpose is to make a profit.  We snuff out the Imago Dei in which God created us.

This is why Paul and Silas were beaten, stripped, and jailed – upsetting the entire belief system that worships money.  It was an act of defiance against the entire empire, its economic system, its message that salvation comes through the empire and Caesar.  Paul and Silas’ proclamation meant that the empire, Caesar, and their economic system of exploitation were empty and valueless.

Another blog I visit often said it best:

Jesus knows that the greatest obstacle to entering into and living in the kingdom of God instead of under the reign and rule of man is our own economic self interest.   When we are dominated by economic self interest it’s like squeezing a camel through the eye of the needle, and it’s hard.

For several decades our politicians have been giving us a message that needs to be weighed against the Gospel.  Sometimes it comes through a question – “Are you better off than you were four years ago.”  And other times it comes in campaign slogans – “It’s the economy, stupid!”

The economy is a powerful pull.  It has the power to determine our elections more often than not.  Candidates, politicians, and presidents of both political parties are often very flawed – caught in controversy, investigations and scandals, sexual philandering, and dehumanizing rhetoric, supporting policies that do not support the general welfare they are sworn to uphold, but rather to support the status quo where some benefit at the expense of others – where people are valued for what they produce, rather than who they are.

But if the economy is humming along, many are willing to overlook these character flaws.  Many are willing to put blinders on to the plight of our neighbors because “the economy.”  Many are willing to rationalize away dehumanizing policies and rhetoric because there is more money in some people’s pockets – maybe even our own.

But Jesus has a different message.  An upsetting message.  A message that conflicts with our own economic self-interest as we turn a blind eye to our neighbors’ plight.  A message that doesn’t always match up with our national narrative and what we value politically.  Ouch.

Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

(Matthew 16:24-26)

Jesus is asking us – what’s more important, the economy or humanity?  Money or God? And he is speaking in economic terms – savings, profit, gain, return.  Jesus directly confronts the economic systems that exploit others and those that maintain these systems and benefit from them.  Maybe that doesn’t sound very American.  But then again, Jesus wasn’t worried about wrapping himself in the flag.  He had another kingdom to advance – one that is everlasting.

Or as Jesus once said in the Sermon on the Mount:

‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

(Matthew 6:24)

So which is it?

 

The appeal of violence

17 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in Society, Theology

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Violence has an appeal to it.

This may sound surprising to you.  But think about it a bit.  Violence makes up a great deal of our entertainment – from movies about war and crime to our professional sports that celebrate the hard hit.

Violence is celebrated when we attack whoever is considered the enemy.  Think back to the celebration that erupted with the news of Osama Bin Laden being killed.

But violence goes beyond just the physical.

We experience violence when we drive – how many times have you or have you wanted to give the finger to another driver on the road?  Or have it happen to you?  Or just witnessed road rage?

We hear stories of violence in relationships with others, even those that people claim to love.  We hear yelling and screaming.  We see violence through social media – people who are distant politically or on other identifications yelling at each other, demeaning and dehumanizing one another.  We may even participate in any number of these things ourselves.

We hear violent rhetoric from world leaders threatening others with weapons of mass destruction.

Violence has a great appeal – it is used often.

The late Walter Wink is quoted as saying “We trust in violence because we are afraid.”

I think there is great wisdom in this.  We are afraid that we won’t be in control, and so we turn to violence to get our way.  And it usually works. But it’s not a permanent solution or a solution that causes others to change internally.  People will comply when threatened with violence, but they will also look for a way to either escape it or return the violence.  Violence doesn’t bring about a positive change long-term.  It doesnt’ produce a thriving life.  It is totally focused on the short-term.  And, like any drug, it requires a greater dosage as time goes on.

How do we conquer the world?  The world answers with two answers – force and might.   The world conquers through violence and fear.  And it always falls and fails in the long run.  Once the person who has been doing violence to another goes away, there are very few who will remember fondly that person.  And they shouldn’t.  Violence leads to death.

Instead, Scripture gives us another option.  In 1 John 5:4, we are told:

for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.

And John 3:16 says:

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Violence doesn’t conquer the world.  It just brings destruction.  Faith and love conquer the world.  Not just for a short time, unlike violence, but for eternity.

Faith and love are both vulnerable.  It’s scary to be vulnerable.  And so when we are afraid, we turn to violence.  We take matters into our own hands.  We enact our own version of justice.  We put ourselves in the place of God.  And we end up suffering the consequences of these decisions.

Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.

(Matthew 26:52)

Put your sword down Christ-follower.  We are not called to fear and violence.  We are called to vulnerability – faith and love.