Gospel of John, Ecotheology and Word of the Day

Just finished this book; Tom Thatcher's Greater Than Caesr; Christology and Empire in the Fourth Gospel. Most of my studies have focused on the Synoptics so I'm trying to do some studies in John. Thatcher's basic thesis is that the Christology of the Gospel is written through 'countermemory' in which the gospel writer re-interprets key events in Jesus' career so that they do not reflect the power of Rome, but instead the power of Christ. Think specifically of the extended dialogue with Pilate.

Thatcher see's Rome's Empire in three key character's in the gospel; Caiaphas, Pilate and the Cross.

I'm still very new to Johnanine scholarship, but I thought his argument was interesting and would recommend the read.

Currently I am reading this book; Ecologies of Grace. Quite technical and I am enjoying the mental exercise. Jenkins begins with an overview of secular environmental ethics and then begins to survey Christian environmental ethics. Will write more as I go along as he raises a number of interesting questions.

For now I will offer a quote from Larry Rasmussen that Jenkings includes;

'fidelity to earth is an imitation of God' from; Earth Community, Earth Ethics.

Word of the day; paideutic: The science or art of teaching.

Special thanks to my friend Jonathan Malone for helping me to define this word. I had a difficult time finding a definition on-line so called malone. He didn't know exactly, but offered a really close educated guest and we finally found a definition on-line. Quite a brain on this guy!!! check out his blog and you can find sermons here... look in the upper right corner of the page.



finally a new website I found in the Providence Journal today. If you'd like to know how the products you buy affect your health, or the companies environmental policies and ethical record... go to this website. GoodGuide.com For instance, the Journal article explains that the site's creator investigated and discovered that the sunscreen he used on his kids contain carcinogens. Its a new site, so they might not have complete info on the product you are curious about, but it also offers connections to other websites and their info... so check it out.




a new member to our family.... Lidl... We wentto the pet store to buy filters for the fish tank and came home with her!







Oh, and I almost forgot... Oldest son completed his first triathlon

Domination and Preservation

Another Environmental Sermon
Same warnings as before... some abrupt jumps and endings that I just planned in my head, didn't write down and don't now recall. As before, I didn't make copious note of where I got all my info... but i did try to attribute sources a bit more carefully.

Environmental Sermon Series
Sermon 1: Domination or Preservation?
Texts:
Domination:
Gen 1:26; ' Then God said, ' Let us make humans in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'
Gen 1:28; ' Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over he fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.'
Gen 9:2-3; 'The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands... Everything that lives and moves will be food for you.'

Preservation:
Gen 2:5b; '...no plant of the field had yet sprung up... there was no [human] to work the ground.'

Gen 2:15; 'The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.'

One of the basic assumptions that humanity has developed and operated under and which shapes our relationship to nature is summarized in the first chapter of Genesis... the natural world is in place to be 'ruled over.' We were placed here to have 'dominion over' In King James language all of nature. At the close of the story of Noah and the ark the human relationship to nature is phrased in even more shocking language; 'fear and dread'... nature will have fear and dread because of our dominion, our God given right to dominate.

An example of this assumption which comes from our own history is found in a letter from then President Thomas Jefferson to Andrew Jackson... informing Jackson that he must advise the Native Americans to sell their 'useless' forests and become farmers. Notice the assumption that Jefferson is operating with... the forests are useless or valueless,until farmers add value by transforming them into fields. (I believe that, philosophically, comes from Locke) Jackson later wrote, after a mission of 'advisement' which was a polite and sophisticated term for 'slaughter,' “In their places [the dead Indians] a new generation will arise who will know their duties better... the wilderness which now withers in sterility and seems to mourn the desolation which overspreads it, will blossom as a rose and become the nursery of the arts.' (Takaki, A Different Mirror pp 84, 86) A sermon on the treatment of Native Americans will have to wait for another day. For now I would suggest we focus on Jackson's assumptions. The forest withers away for lack of production. It groans in anticipation of salvation from 'the ignorant savages' and will now be reborn under the grace of farmers of European descent. Indians were not adding value to the forest and so the forests were wasted and languishing, awaiting a savior to give them value.

This assumption, one that we are perhaps, not even conscious of, shapes our modern economic system and its philosophy. Herman Daly, a former professor of Economics at LSU and former senior economist for the World Bank says; 'Human beings add utility to matter/energy. This is what we mean by production... Useful structure is added to matter/ energy by the agency of labor and capital stocks. The value of this useful structure imparted by labor and capital is what economists call 'value added.' In other words matter and energy has no value until we add value to it. Daly goes on to say 'modern economists have remarkably little to say bout that to which value is added. It is just' matter' and its properties are not very interesting (Daly in Ethics of Consumptions pp.21-22) In short, it is our dominion over nature that give nature value... Water, trees, natural gas, sunlight, fish, have no value until we, through production give it value.

This particular view of human relationship to nature has not always served us well.

One obvious example is the Dust-bowl era of the 1930's in the plains states. In the 1920's technological advances in agricultural equipment; the development of the tractor, combine, plow and truck lead to what some have called 'the great plow up.' These technological advances and the theories of leading agronomists that suggested that continued plowing of fields would lead to greater water absorption were intended to increase productivity. The amount of value that farmers could both give then receive from the land would increase. And it worked for a few years. Until a strange confluence of heavy rains and drought lead to the great dust-storms. The ecological equilibrium was disrupted by continual plowing and the anomalies in the weather patterns, which probably could have been mitigated previous to the great plowing, were left unchecked. Only 15% of land designated for crop production at that point, could actually produce anything. This lead to poverty among the people living in the plains states and a mass migration to California. Special hospitals had to be opened up to treat 'dust-pneumonia' as great numbers of people contracted respiratory diseases due to inhaling vast amounts of dust particles.

A couple of months ago I shared a story of an American billionaire, who decided to add value to the Brazilian rain forest by stripping almost 9 million acres of native flora in the Amazon to both plant new trees which could be developed for a wood pulp business and also to create an agricultural project to produce beef and rice among other crops. He imported trees better suited for pulp production from Africa and planted them on a half a million acres. Since the trees were growing outside their own ecosystem they were vulnerable to diseases that they were not accustomed too and the project failed completely. (Leonardo Boff, Cry of the Earth, Cry of the Poor; pp 91-92).

Now, I'm not saying that production and development is evil. I am not saying that this value adding is bad. I am well aware of the fact that without this production I would be in the state of Adam and Eve in the garden. From socks and shoes to suit and skivvies, my clothing is value-added to natural resource. Without production I wouldn't have a roof over my head or heat for my apartment. But I do believe that these stories strongly suggest that our view, our assumption that nature is valueless until dominated by us, has weaknesses. Weaknesses that can have serious and dangerous consequences not only to the natural world, but to the people who live on, in, with and depend upon the natural world for home, food, health and safety. Perhaps we should be a bit more humble about our relationship to the natural world. Perhaps we should be more aware that we always have a relationship with the natural world. (need more)

The Bible does give us an alternate view, a different model for thinking about our relationship to nature. It too is found in Genesis. In Genesis 2:5 we find a hint of a new way of living with the earth. Genesis 2:5 tells us that there was no man to work/till the ground. And in Genesis 2:15 we read that the Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden to work and care for it. Literal translations of the original Hebrew make this alternate view more clear. The word that we often read as work or till is more literally translated... serve. And the word that we often read as 'care for' is more literally translated as guard or protect. The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden to serve and protect it...

We don't necessarily hear a lot in the Bible about human relationships to the rest of Creation. We do find it again in Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy. In Exodus and Deuteronomy God gives the 10 Commandments to Moses and one of them is to observe Sabbath. Take a rest, God says to the people of Israel. Specifically in Deuteronomy God ties Sabbath to the Exodus... You observe Sabbath to be reminded that unlike the Egyptians, I value you not for what you develop or produce for me... but just because you are. Israel was treated like matter/energy without value until the Egyptians added value to them by using them for development, building, production. But to God, Israel's value was inherent... they were valuable just because of their existence. And that Sabbath applied also to... livestock, animals, they too were to have the benefit of Sabbath... they were valuable to God beyond productivity... They were valuable because they too, were created by God. In Leviticus Sabbath is expanded even to the land. Every 7 years give your crop-land a rest... God said.

This could just be good land management which would ensure good crop return in the future. But it wasn't a practical suggestion, it was a commandment. God commands you to observe Sabbath, you, your livestock and even your land... all are valuable to God.

In other words, awareness of the environment and care of the environment is a matter of faith. It is a moral as well as ethical matter commanded by God. Care of Creation, through the sabbath, becomes a spiritual practice like prayer, devotion, Bible study, and worship... When Rhonda drives her hybrid car that is a spiritual practice, caring for the earth. When people bring clothes to the clothes closet and we redistribute them, that is spiritual practice that benefits the natural world as cotton is one of the most damaging crops to the soil that grows it. When Bob and Missy support the American Chestnut fund, that is a spiritual practice... they are caring for the earth not because scientists have told them too, or politicians... not because they will receive benefit from it... but because they care about the American Chestnut for its own worth. It may not be a constant theme in the bible, it may simply be a minority report, but still, these verses make it clear... we were placed here not simply to dominate, but to guard and care for, to preserve the rest of creation. Sabbath makes it clear that care and keeping of the natural world has a spiritual dimension... when we care for the earth we are connected to God... when we ignore the earth... we are separated from God. This matter of how we interact with the earth, utilize its natural resources, clearly is a practice of connecting to God. To ignore this earth and the warning-signs of its suffering due to our domination, is to ignore God.

The earth is the Lord's, we gabbled
and the fullness thereof --
while we looted and pillaged, claiming indemnity:
the fullness thereof
given over to us, to our use--
while we preened ourselves sure of our power,
willful or ignorant, through the centuries.

Miswritten, misread, that charge:
subdue was the false, the misplaced word in the story
Surely we were to have been
earth's mind, mirror, reflective source.
Surely our task
was to have been
to love the earth,
to dress and keep it like Eden's garden.

That would have been our dominion....

Glacier and Grace

I'm gonna post the polar bear sermon, but until then, I'm posting a couple of other environmental sermons for those of you who may be interested.
this is a draft as I often don't tie everything together or type up everything I plan to say to how to end... so it may seem to jump from point to point or to end abruptly, that is because I add that stuff on the fly... but I think you'll get the point. the poem at the end is not mine, but I don't recall now where it came from.

Sunday April 6, 2008
Environmental Sermon Series
Sermon 2: The Big Bang, Exploding Stars, Glaciers and Grace
Texts: Gen 1:
Ephesians 1:3-10

The Big Bang and Exploding Stars

In the beginning God created, earth and sky, trees and birds, land and sea,
and it was good.

Steven hawking explains the beginning, the good beginning,
with these words...

If the rate of expansion one second after the big bang had been smaller by
even one part in a hundred, thousand, million million, the universe would
have re-collapsed before it ever reached its present size. If, on the other hand,
the expansion had been a little greater, one part in a million, there would
not be enough density for the formations of stars and planets and hence, life.

The numbers that Hawking uses are more than I can even comprehend. How infinitesimally minute the variables were that kept the birthing universe in balance at the point of its inception, I can hardly imagine. But what seems plain to me, is the wonder of that moment, so perfectly tuned, that started the process that lead eventually to the milky way, our sun, mars, jupiter, venus, earth, and the skies, plants, waters, amoeba, amphibians, birds, mammals and you and I, that Genesis describes as...
good.

If that does not evoke a sense of awe and wonder in you consider:

If the weak nuclear force had not held its level all hydrogen would have
turned to helium...the newly forming stars would dissolve and without
Hydrogen, life as we know it on this earth would not be possible.

If the strong nuclear force had risen by simply 1% carbon would never
have formed in the stars. Without Carbon, DNA, which stores the basic
information for the formation of life, would not have ever appeared.

If the electromagnetic force were just a little higher, the stars would turn cold.
They would not be able to explode as supernovas and such explosions would
not thereby give rise to the formation of planets, neither would the formation
of other elements be possible, elements such as nitrogen, or phosphorus,
which are crucial for the production and reproduction of life.

To ponder the fact that all the elements that make us up as we sit here right now, were formed in that initial big bang and scattered by cosmic explosions and nurtured by such finely tuned balances, with just the slightest of shifts causing them to no longer exist and hence, you and I to no longer exist... well, to me, it is just breath-taking to imagine the precision of such an event.



Glaciers

Because it is so well known, it is easy for us to brush quickly through Genesis 1. It seems like a laundry list, a repetitive litany that we can skim quickly. God speaks and creates sky, land and sea and calls them good. Plants and trees and all vegetation and calls them good. Sun, moon ans stars all named good. Sea creatures and birds, livestock and wild animals and all creatures that crawl on the ground are called good. We usually just want to skip to the 'good' part for us, where, humans are created in God's image.
But pause again to consider the research of James Lovelock a physician and biologist
who discovered that
CO2 makes up 96.5 % of the atmosphere of Venus and 98% of the atmosphere
of Mars but only 300 ppm (and climbing) of our own atmosphere here on earth.
Oxygen is completely missing from both Mars and Venus. Nitrogen, which
nourishes living organisms is only 3.5% of the atmosphere and biosphere
of Venus and 2.7% on Mars, but 79% on earth.

Mars and Venus, roughly the same size as earth, created by the same supernovas, nourished by the same sun...yet devoid of the conditions that nurture life.

Lovelock was doing this research for NASA, so as to discover models for space exploration seeking the possibility of life in space. But what he discovered... That there is a delicate balance of factors and forces that allowed life to begin on Earth and to continue on earth... lead him to focus his research not on other planets, but on this fragile and powerful system called Earth. A system dependent on
High levels of oxygen released billions of years ago by photosynthesizing bacteria
in the oceans. A system dependent on the Low levels of carbon created by the photo- synthesizing of bacteria, algae and plants. This research discovered the vast and complex connections and interactions that started life on earth and the interplay of forms of life that created an environment conducive to yet more life. 'Lovelock drew attention to how the
conditions of all those elements useful for life are maintained under relatively
steady conditions. This balance if fashioned by by the planet wide life-system itself.'

As I said before, we tend to fast forward through Genesis 1 to get to 'God created humans in his own image.' But Lovelock shows us that all those other verses aren't just a laundry list of things for us to use or abuse... seas, plants, earth and sky.. these were God's process for getting to Humans in his own image... these were to tools that in turn created the forces that God chose to utilize to get to Adam and Eve and you and I.

Grace

Now, stay with me as we make a jump here from science and Genesis to the letter of Ephesians.
The churches of Ephesus were afraid. They were afraid of the universe, the cosmos.
A group of Christians called gnostics followed Paul to Ephesus and taught these new Christians there that all things physical... all created things were bad, evil, and weak... and that God only loved and cared for the spiritual. The forces of the universe were considered evil and only the spirit was good.
This is very foreign to our way of thinking and perhaps hard to identify with so let me put it this way...
When you are watching the news or reading the paper and you hear about another shooting at a school, or a teenager killed in a drunken car crash, or a child abducted or major lay-offs in a huge company that will effect thousands... perhaps you, like me, experience a sinking feeling in your stomach, that there are just forces out there that you can't control or contend with. Which can lead to despair; how will I keep my kids safe, how will I pay my own bills, how can I hope to have a truly good life with so many forces out there that seem to explode unexpectedly to keep me from my good life? Have you felt that way? Then you know how the people in Ephesus felt. They perhaps understood the cosmic forces differently than we do... They really felt that the universe as they knew it, was against them... but the result was the same... there are forces out there that I can't control which cause trauma and pain.

To which Paul replies in the opening verses of his letter, with a great hymn of the the cosmic force of God and the cosmic plan of God. The Heavenly realms are a blessing, Paul says to us, not a curse and not against us... the cosmos is for us because God has created it. To tie it with the science that Hawking and Lovelock have described, The weak and strong nuclear forces, the electromagnet forces, gravity are created by God to be a blessing to us... they are a part of the plan of God. Photosynthesis and the myriad other biological processes that surround us... are a blessing from God and a part of God's plan.

And then Paul calls all of these cosmic forces that are not against us, but for us... 'grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ' These cosmic forces that The Ephesian Christians feared, which you and I now, through science can begin to understand, are not evil, and they are not chance, they are the visible signs of God's grace.

Now to those of us raised in church, grace is a spiritual gift that God sent through Jesus, that forgives us of our sins and connects us to salvation and eternal life. And I am not arguing that this is no longer our understanding. What I am suggesting is that we have missed something. Grace is not limited to a spiritual force or a spiritual transaction. Paul is telling us here that grace is imparted through Jesus, who was present at and in the creation, and also imparted through the cosmic forces and the natural world that surrounds us... to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, Christ.

The plan, Paul says, was that God would provide all that we would need for a full life, for our salvation... we know salvation through Christ...who then brings all the other forces of grace together. Paul is expanding our understanding of what grace is... and giving us, in the natural world, in the creation, visible, verifiable proof of God's love and the power of God to give us life. The natural world is one aspect, a concrete facet of God's grace.


This may sound like a bit of a stretch to those of us raised in church... Because I'm not suggesting that nature is like grace... I'm saying that nature IS grace, not in full, but in part, a neglected part.
But if we look to the rest of the Bible, we see the same theme, that grace is understood and seen in and through the natural world...

Deuteronomy 33: 13-16, Moses is offering a blessing to Israel, letting them know that God will love and care for them in this new promised land, and that they will see this love this grace bursting forth in the natural world around them;

May the Lord bless his land with the precious dew from heaven above
and with the deep waters that lie below
with the best the sun brings forth and the finest the moon can yield
with the choicest gifts of the ancient mountains
and the fruitfulness of the everlasting hills
with the best gifts of the earth and its fullness
and the favor of him who dwelt in the the burning bush...

the favor of God, love, grace, made known in the dew and sea, the sun and the fields...

In Psalm 136 we find another hymn to God's love and grace

to him who alone does great wonders, his love endures forever
who by his understanding made the heavens
who spread out the earth upon the waters
who made the great lights
the sun to govern the day
the moon and stars to govern the night
who gives food to every creature
Give thanks to the God of heaven his love endures forever

A song that says Israel would have proof of God's steadfast love when they looked at the sun, moon and stars...

And in Joel 2
Israel has failed... as all humans do
they have failed to stay faithful to God
they have failed to care for the poor and the impoverished
they have loved more the things they produced with their own hands
their own comfort and profit are more important than God or other people...
And God is angry
Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming
a day of darkness and gloom
a day of clouds and blackness.

But then God says,
return to me with all your heart

and if you return to me here will be the proof that I have forgiven you and still love you

Be not afraid, O land;be glad and rejoice.
Be not afraid wild animals, for the open pastures are becoming green.
The trees are bearing fruit; the fig tree and the vine yield their riches
Be glad of people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given you the autumn rains in righteousness
he sends you abundant showers
both autumn and spring rains as before.
The threshing floors will be filled with grain
the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

You will have plenty to eat until you are full

then you will know that I am in Israel,
that I am the Lord your God, and that there is no other
never again will my people be shamed.


We are the benefactors of 15 billions years of grace...
Cosmic explosions and blazing supernovas which laid the chemical foundation for life
We have received grace on this planet for the life that formed interacted
with the chemical environment changing and forming it to be
conducive to yet more life... eventually to our life...
the conditions for which; air to breath, water to drink
soil to grow food, and on and on...gracefully and patiently
held together in Christ says Ephesians...waiting for us...this is grace.

The thing about grace is that Jesus expected us to not only accept it, but to create it.
Judge not lest ye be judged
forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
Love one another as I have loved you

Fishing

My youngest and I went and bought new fishing poles, hooks and worms and went fishing in the mill-pond today. Well, he did the fishing, I was busy worming his hook, helping him cast, and rescuing the sunfish that he caught. He had a blast and Miss Roberta took pictures. This afternoon, while they were on the Wii for their aloted hour, I snuck back down to do a little fishing of my own. Which made me remember why I never used worms. You spend more time putting the little suckers on the hook than you do fishing, and with one or two hits, your bait is gone and you start all over again. gotta find better bait.

The coolest part of the whole day was that when I reel in after casting, it lights up in bright blues and oranges, like kids sneakers. I think the guy was trying to sell it to my five year old... but he got me with it. Miss Roberta's response. Is that your pimp fishing pole?

Westboro Baptist Church in Rhode Island II

So here is the update on Westboro Baptist Church's appearance in RI.
I attempted to get some American Baptist Clergy to attend one or two of their 'protests'.

Let me explain that. I wasn't aiming for a 'counter-protest' as it is apparent to me that one cannot engage in a well-reasoned and respectful dialogue with this hate group. However, I thought an American Baptist presence at their protests would be an act of service to our Jewish sistes and brothers. Instead of leaving them to bear the brunt of this hate on their own, we as Baptist clergy could stand in solidarity with the jewish community and as a silent, peaceful, barrier to the hate of Westboro. I also felt that many in this state mis-understand the baptist denomination and will mistake Westboro's form of being 'baptist' for all 'baptist's'.

Not many seemed interested and leaders at the state lever, Catholic Bishop, Episcopalian Bishop, Executive of ABOCORI and a number of Rabbi's decided that ignoring Westboro's protests, responding in the following week with an ecumenical letter condemning their hate speech would be most appropriate.

I was concerned about this also. With all due respect, I feel it was a bit easy for the Catholic and Episcopalian responce to be; 'ignore them' They call themselves baptists after all and the majority of RI's are terribly ignorant of what Baptist means to begin with. There is no danger for the Catholic or Episcopalians to ignore Westboro, no one will associate their hate with those churches. But most people hear 'Baptist' and think we, like the Catholic church, all espouse the same theology. Still, I respected the decision and cancelled any further discussion of a peace barrier.

Article have filled the papers; the Rhode Island Catholic had an article as did the Providence Journal and despite the hopes of our states religious leaders, the Westboro folks were NOT ignored by the press; see ABC 6 and WPRI.

So we ignored them, but East Providence High did not, nor did others. So is the religious community conspicuous in its absence? Apart from some 'letters to the editor' of various papers, no Baptist Clergy had any skin in the game.

But given the tenor of the 'counter-protest' I'm not sure I would have wanted to be there. The Projo reports that at one point the counter-protesters errupted into obscenities. One young man is quoted as saying that 'It's anybody's right to do what they want.' Now, while I am can support one man loving another, or woman, and even support their marrying, this quote above is an example of the liberal idea of an autonomous individual that not even the most skeptical or atheistic of ethicists could support. According to the ProJo, at Brown some signs quoted the Bible back at Westboro, but the very idea of the Bible being used as a weapon is disgusting, turning it around to return fire at Westboro is no less distasteful to me.

In the end, I fear the largely hate was met with hate, where Jesus taught us to love our enemies and offer prayers for them. I don't think anyone was praying for Westboro, which would have been the point of the action I wanted to propose.

I wasn't happy to remain silent in the face of this rhetoric, but in the end, perhaps silence was the best response.

Westboro Baptist Church in Rhode Island

Matt 5:21-22

21 "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool !' will be in danger of the fire of hell.

This week a hate group that markets itself as a Baptist church, ‘Westboro Baptist Church’ will be appearing in the state of RI at various sites including the State House, the Naval War College, Brown University, The Jewish Community Center and a couple of Temples in the state. You can find more information about this hate group at their website www.godhatesfags.com and the name of the website probably tells you all that you need to know about these folks. I thought for a moment I might quote them in this statement, but their words are so disgusting and evil that I couldn’t bring myself to even ‘cut and paste’ them.
Westboro Baptist Church first came to national consciousness as far as I know by picketing Matthew Shepherd’s funeral and then placing on their website a picture of Matthew Shepherd’s face bouncing on flames (suggesting his place in hell). The picket with a number of absurd and filthy signs such as; God Hates Fags, You’re Going to Hell, Fags Die God Laughs, Thank God for IED’s, Thank God for Dead Soldiers, etc. I think it is obvious, but still needs to be said, that these people do not speak with any authority on the Bible, the Christian faith, or for Baptists.

My first concern is primarily the people who will come into contact with these people and who are target of their hateful rhetoric. I am also concerned with the fact that they call themselves a Baptist church. In a state like RI, which is predominantly catholic, many of our neighbors do not understand the Baptist tradition. Many times I have had to explain to well-intentioned but uneducated Catholic neighbors that Baptists DO worship God, Do believe in Jesus, and are in fact the same religion as they are. Westoboro Baptist Church does not represent the Baptist tradition in any way shape or form. We believe in a God of love and that God made ‘himself’ known through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, whose words in Matthew I quoted above. Jesus expected that the first mark of a Christian community would be speech that is loving and patient. People would know that we follow Jesus just by listening to us talk to one another, for our words and tone would be honest and true, but loving and intended to lift up. The members of Westoboro Baptist Church, in all of their Bible quoting, have read right past the essential building block of being Christ’s body on earth, speak with honesty and love. According to what Matthew wrote, in speaking this way, they are condemning themselves through their own condemnation. The Hell that they threaten is the Hell they themselves will receive through their own hurtful, hateful speech.

Let us be in prayer that God will protect all those who are attacked by these people, and use this opportunity to explain to our RI neighbors that Baptists, specifically Berean Baptist is a place where we talk about God’s love for all humanity.

Easter Sermon

The End (Period) THIS IS THE END (Question Mark ) And Then (Comma)

I don't much care for tv shows or movies that end...
leaving you wondering what the end actually is...
Some of you who were fans of the HBO show Soprano's know what I mean
The last episode after what six, seven seasons... goes dark with the possibility of the main character Tony Soprano getting
whacked in the restaraunt...
or maybe not...
but that is the end
maybe... maybe not....I don't care for that....
artsy movies that show the characters driving off into the sunset with no resolve to the story.
Give me thelma and louise... they drive off a cliff... at least you know what the end is... I'm not glad it was a cliff by the way but at least there was some closure...
And I find season finale's particularly frustrating Do you remember the 'Who shot JR' uproar in the 80's? My mother was a devoted fan of Dallas and that summer waiting to find out who shot JR
it was all anybody could talk about!

And that is kind of how I feel about Easter Morning stories in the gospel... What exactly IS... the end of the story?

In Mark (if you read the original ending) you get... Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.
We've talked about this before if you recall in the original greek it is even more disturbing and unsatisfying because the last words are 'they said nothing to no one!' Now what are we supposed to do with that!

Luke doesn't like that ending so he finds some other versions of the story of Easter Morning...It goes like thisLuke 24:13-24
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
17 He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"
19 "What things?" he asked.
"About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. 20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; 21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. 22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning 23 but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. 24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see."

Now, I like this a little better... Jesus appears But notice that the ending is still up in the air for most of this story. Cleopas and his friend are wandering on the road... perhaps feeling the way I feel... This can't be the end.... Jesus was supposed to be the one to redeem us... but we saw him die and even though Jesus is right there with them... they can't see him.... What are we supposed to do with an Easter morning story where JEsus is there... risen... but the people don't see him and just wander back to life the way it was before Jesus?

And John. Well I read John...some of John... it has two or three endings I suppose. Peter and the disciples have all gone back to fishing And in Johns version Jesus appears and they see him
but they still head back to life the way it was before Jesus..
nothing had changed...
And so Jesus chases after them and challenges Peter
Follow Me! All of the Gospels (except Matthew) have this same theme
the disciples, afraid, doubting, disappointed...
wander back to life the way it was...
and Jesus appears (or in mark an angel appears)
and the message is... follow me!
In John, Jesus even seems a bit put out by Peter and the others for going back to life the way it was... don't you love me more than this? he asks When Peter answers in the affirmative, Jesus challenges him then follow me!

And I want to ask Jesus… What did you expect? You showed them miraculous power and promised them authority. But your life ended with arrest, with abuse, with surrender, with meakness and humiliation. No wonder they went back to their fishing career. It didn’t offer the benefit of changing the world by joining the Jesus cause. But neither did it offer the disappointment of watching all your hopes and dreams for a better life for you and your family and your people ripped from your hands by a cruel empire. The most disappointment of fishing is a slow day, a torn net, low prices for your catch. No wonder they went back to what they new.
Your Follow me started with fireworks and lazer light shows and voices from heaven. But follow me ended with silence and moaning, weeping and defeat.

The first time that Jesus said to his disciples ‘Follow Me’ he took them to the synagogue to preach and a scraggly bearded, wild haired, twitching, moaning and yelling at the empty air possessed man walked up to him and Jesus threw the demon out like smelly old sneakers. The man was finally right, finally what God intended.
At the beginning of Jesus saying, ‘follow me’ to the disciples, he was teaching on a mountain, and as he strolled down through the crowds of admirers who yelled for a word from him, or grasped at his robe for a handshake or a touch, a man, pale white almost the color of death approached him; fingers missing, sores weeping, clothes tattered, ragged, stinking; saying can you heal me, no one else can, can you end this misery?And Jesus reaches out, I imagine it in a movie scene, slowly the two hands, one clean and flesh-colored and strong, the other pale and stumped and scabbed slowly meeting. And when they touch, the one, hardly a hand at all, grasps, pink and new the hand of Jesus. That was the beginning of ‘Follow Me.’
At the beginning of Jesus command to ‘Follow Me’ he and the disciples were on a boat ride crossing the lake. Jesus slept, he had a nap in the back of the boat. And the wind whipped up all of a sudden from across the mountains surrounding. Clouds rolled in and brought rain that fell in sheets and stung the face like stones. The boat tossed and bobbed and weaved and the best of the sailors among them grasped the side of the boat for dear life. And then jesus awoke and said ‘peace be still’ And there was. That was the beginning of ‘Follow Me’
But toward the end of Follow when Jesus gave the disciples the task of tossing a demon out of a man they could not do it. Toward the end of Follow me, Jesus began to explain that his ministry would end in death
toward the end of Follow Me Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor." He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. And he was amazed at their lack of faith.
Toward the end of ‘Follow Me’ Peter saw Jesus betrayed by Judas for better salary.He heard himself say that he would die for and with Jesus, but when the soldiers came to arrest him he and the other disciples ran and hid in the garden. At the end, Follow Me, meant flogging, being spat upon, struck, crowned with thorns, nailed to a cross, pierced with a sword and left to die.


The End of Jesus command, ‘Follow Me’ was very different from the beginning of ‘Follow me.’ The beginning was of healing, of eating, of sharing, of feeling connected to people and giving them home. The End of Jesus command ‘follow me’ was the danger of cold dark cells and chains, of swords and spears and pain. The beginning of follow me meant the hope of make a whole new world. The end felt hopeless, it was about loneliness and rejection and betrayal. The end of Jesus command to follow me was very different from the beginning.

Do you see what I mean by the ending... the gospels end... the screen goes blank and we are left wondering... what will the disciples do?
what has Jesus death and resurrection actually accomplished?

Instead of a nice clean close to the story a clear resolution... THE END PERIOD
We get... THIS IS THE END (QUESTION MARK)Perhaps the disciples are struggling with this same issue... Where is the end? Jesus, you were suppose to be the end, the period... no the exclamation point at the end of this story and all we got was a question mark. This is the end?
The story ends the way it began with questions... the same question...
Will you Follow Me? Let me say that again...
The Gospels end with the same question that opened them... Will you Follow Me?

and then the apostle Paul comes roaring in... Not into the gospels... but into our thoughts this morning.
Rom 6:3-123 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.
all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death and united with him in his resurrection...

And suddenly it became very clear to me That Jesus life and death and resurrection wasn't meant to be the end period...
or even the exclamation point...We are united with him in resurrection, new life It was meant to assure us that there would never be an end period... but instead

And THEN comma

We, like the disciples, often go right up to the edge of Easter sunday glory... but not all the way...
the message of Jesus sounds too hard seems to cost too much Forgive and it will be forgiven you Turn the other cheek, Pray for your enemies
Do unto others as you would have them do to you You cannot worship God and money Sell your possessions and give to the poor Loose your life and find it
Take up your cross daily.Like the disciples we grow afraid and run away or wander with lots of questions to Emmaus where nothing ever gets done or even worse... after Easter Morning
like Peter we find we have better things to do , we are just too busy
like head back to fishing...
with nothing about us changed at all.

Like the disciple we wonder, if we give ourselves totally and fully and completely to that way of life it could mean our end... period
the end of life as we know it as we are comfortable with it... period
and it couldn't possibly work could it... to forgive to choose peace to let go of the lifestyle to which we have become accustomed and live more generously.... question mark

On Easter morning the question is answered once and for all
This Easter Morning God turned what seemed to be the period of Jesus death the question mark... how could this be... into a comma... Jesus death on the cross was merely a comma and Jesus resurrection the beginning of a whole new story... And then...

which is why Jesus has a question of his own for us this morning. NOW will you follow?

With God all ending are new beginnings With God sorrow becomes hope
anger becomes peace
disappointment becomes resolve
With God there is no more period... end of story
Only a comma, And then,

a new beginning... for those who answer Jesus call Follow Me....

Comma And Then.... the rest fo the sentence

is up to you...

A Cruciform Life

I haven't posted anything for a while... busy...
anyway... this past week was the busiest preaching week of my life; At Ebenezer on Tuesday night, Berean on Sunday Morning and then at my friend Jonanthan's installation at First Baptist East Greenwich. So I'm gonna start posting some of them... just to get something up...

Below is my sermon for Ebenezer entitled 'A Cruciform Life'


2 Cor 5:20-6:10

Have you ever seriously considered putting into daily practice something that you've read in the Bible... like stoning someone? AJ Jacobs in his book The Year of Living Biblically does. He decides that for one year he will try to live the Bible literally, growing a beard, not cutting his hair, not wearing clothing of mixed fibers, observing sabbath... that kind of thing. One of the funniest moments of the book is when he tries to practice public stoning of people who work on the Sabbath. He doesn't really want to hurt anyone or even cause a scene... so he picks up some tiny pebbles in central park and tries to sneak up behind people and casually flick the pebble at their backs... but he keeps missing. So he changes his method and decides to subtly drop the pebble on peoples feet...this works a little better, but he immediately apologizes for stoning their shoes. Walking along he is approached by an elderly gentlemen who asks him why he is dressed so funny... he is wearing a robe and a prayer shawl and sandals. He explains that he is trying to live the bible literally and that he is looking for people to stone for breaking the sabbath or adultery or something. You want to stone adulterers. Well, they are really only pebbles he replies and he shows the man a handful. Well, I'm an adulterer... want to stone me? Yes please... that would be very helpful. Try to stone me and I'll punch you in the mouth and the scene erupts into a little stoning war as they throw pebbles back and forth at each other.
Trying to practice what we believe... even if it isn't stoning... is a challenge... love thy neighbor...
This is the season of Lent and we are focusing on two beliefs that are central to our faith... the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection on Easter Morning and we focus on how it is that we practice what we believe.
Wendell Berry in a poem entitled Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, writes one line , one phrase... actually... that really caught my attention when I read it... practice resurrection. before reading that poem I had never really thought of resurrection in that way... sure I believed in it but... how would one practice resurrection. How would the resurrection impact the way I practiced my faith.
But as ripe as that topic is... That is for Easter... Tonight I want to consider Crucifixion
I've been wondering about practicing crucifixion.


The church at Corinth, which Paul is exchanging correspondence with, is a bit of a mess.
There are many issues that Paul has to deal with... We find the list of problems detail in the first letter to the Corinthians.
Factions are forming around who has been baptized by whom...Peter, Paul, or in the name of whom... Jesus... cliques about whose baptism is... correct... those who baptisms are (quote unquote) correct consider themselves to be of higher status than the others.
A man is living with his father's former wife
while other groups are espousing abstinence from marital intimacy
both again based on their... enlightened faith... both those who have an anything goes view and those who have an abstinence only perspective...feeling themselves superior
there are groups fighting about meat sacrificed to idols... some say that their faith means that it does not matter where the meat has come from... others thinking that practice of eating meat sacrificed to idols is a sin... both thinking themselves better than the other.
Some speak in tongues and think themselves superior... some prophesy and think themselves better...
The wealthy members are starting communion with cocktail hour and are inebriated... with little food or drink left for the poor members to share in the agape meal... at the Lord's supper that they are supposed to share. They assume their economic status enables them special benefits that the poor members are not worthy of.
Some of you may have heard your grandmother's say in reference to someone who thought highly of themselves... a peacock struts cuz he can't fly... well there were a lot of peacocks strutting about the Corinthian church. But theologically I would say that in Corinth there is a resurrection celebration... a resurrection attitude... without the crucifixion... without the sacrifice... And a resurrection practice without a crucifixion practice leads to this superiority complex which for Paul has no place in the church of Christ.
This is what I am talking about when I say... practice crucifixion. I am not suggesting in any way shape or form that we do bodily hard to one another... that we start practicing violence against others, even those we don't like, disagree with, or who have hurt or threatened us. I don't mean we stock up on nails...
but I do think that we have witnessed in the culture around us the same phenomena that Paul saw in Corinth... the resurrection celebration without the cruciform life....
For two decades now we have witnessed an increase in the wages of those at the highest levels of business, while the working folks, the blue collar people, have not reaped these increases... our wages have stayed the same or even declined.
But we have been trying to appear as if we wealthy and blessed... haven't we..
its in the name brand on our clothes, or the size of our houses... or the size of our vehicles...
we need the right kind of shoes or the right kind computers or the latest in gadgets....the biggest tv's and the smallest cell phone
Because it makes us feel good, special... others will admire us and aspire to be like us
because of the things we own...
13 trillion dollars... that is the consumer debt in our nation right now... 13 trillion dollars owed for the right car, the right suit, the right shoes....the right stuff....
And it has even invaded the church... this idea of resurrection celebration without a cruciform life.
Go to any book store... Barnes and Noble, Border... look at the religious section and you will see Christian books that tell you how to have a successful life and more times than not that successful life is defined as the world defines it... with houses and pools and clothes and money...
status... a sense of importance... dignity
all gathered up from the things we own
especially satisfying if we can have it and others will see it and covet it... want it too...
Thomas Merton says about this...
I use up my life in the desire for pleasures and the thirst for experience, for power, honor, knowledge, and love to clothe this false self and construct its nothingness into something objectively real.
Now listen to this...
I wind experiences around myself and cover myself with pleasures and glory like bandages in order to make myself perceptible...
We are mummies wrapped in rags, trying to gather to ourselves things that give us worth... empty shells ... wrapped in rags... thinking that these rags will somehow give us worth... make us real.

It is not a bad thing to want your dignity.
It is not a bad thing to want to be respected and to be treated with worth and value.
Many of the people that comprised the church at Corinth were slaves. People who had been devalued, used, and treated as expendable... without worth. A horrendous thing that I can hardly imagine.
So before we rush to judgment on these peacocks strutting about... I can understand why they would want and need a place where they could find value... be reminded of their worth... be treated with dignity...
and that the church was that place... that is a wonderful thing.
But Paul's sees a danger in their dignity.
It comes at a price.
For they need to feel better than others... to be better than others to have this dignity
and in this way they are but reflecting the world around them. A world... a society in which I put others down so that I can lift myself up.
They are doing it with spiritual language... lifting themselves up with speaking in tongues and prophesying, those are the rags they wrap themselves up in...
but in the end, Paul sees that it is no different from the world that they are trying to escape.
It is an empty dignity.
Which is why Paul teaches them true dignity... true value when he talks about himself... what he finds pride and dignity in for himself... we are...
2 Cor 6:8-10
genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
Value, dignity and worth... Paul says... does not come with the things that we have... He is referring to spiritual gifts... I think it applies to our culture's focus on material wealth....
Instead, Paul tells Corinth... dignity comes in living the life of Christ... a life of service and sacrifice.
We find our value and our dignity in the cruciform life... when we let ourselves be crucified...
to go back to Thomas Merton... the cruciform life is the life of unwrapping our mummified selves from the things that we have or own that we thought gave us value and worth...
ripping off the rags that we thought gave us substance... but that instead constrain us and hold us back from the life God would have us live.


If you are still finding it hard to accept that before celebrating resurrection... we must practice crucifixion... listen to these words of Jesus...
Matt 6:25-34
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life , what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matt 10:37-39
38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

I submit to you... Dr. King once said... that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live...

Mark 10:38-45
Jesus said. "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?"
now.. he is referring to his crucifixion....
39 "We can," they answered.
Jesus said to them, "You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, ...and then he goes on to say....whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first must be servant of all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

It seems plain to me that in all these words of Jesus one thing is clear...
He expected those who would follow him to live cruciform lives...
that they would allow themselves to die to their old life... that they would part from their dearest possessions and risk the comfort and the ease of their present lives....
that they would rip off the rags of a life they had constructed for themselves
that they would allow their own hopes and plans and desires and agenda's to be nailed to the cross
with faith in what God would resurrect in them and for them... if they would let themselves go to the cross with Christ.
This is where our value, our worth, our dignity will be found... not in spiritual gifts or in possessions gained... but in the giving of our lives to the kingdom...
in the sacrificing of our lives for the sake of others...
in the cruciform life
in practicing crucifixion....


2000 years ago... on the shores of Galilee
Jesus issued a call to Peter, James and John...
fisherman... not destitute, but certainly not wealthy
to leave everything behind... family, friends, business, comfort... to let that all go
to give that all up for the kingdom

Are ye able, said the Master,
To be crucified with Me?
Yea, the sturdy dreamers answered,
To the death we follow Thee.

Surrounded by the hungry multitude...
5000 of the hungry and the poor and the forgotten
desperate for a meal... jesus called... not to the wealthy
but to the poorest of the poor themselves...
what have you to give... a loaf of bread
a piece of fish... will you let that go... give it up... for the kingdom

Are you able to relinquish
Purple dreams of power and fame,
To go down into the Garden,
Or to die a death of shame?

In the busy streets of Jericho
crowded on market day...
the sound of vendors selling their wares
Jesus issued a call to Zacchaeus too
who lived in wealth and oppulence at the expense of the poor
will you sell it... Jesus called... will you give it up this life to which you are accustomed... for the Kingdom

Are ye able? Still the Master
Whispers down eternity,
And heroic spirits answer,
Now as then in Galilee.

2000 years later the call still echoes
to nurses and night-watchmen, to janitors and lawyers...
day-care workers and teachers....
faithful disciples all... Jesus call still rings
to you and to me in this season of lent
are ye able... the master still calls... to be crucified...
to give and not count the cost
I know its a frightening time...
with lay-offs and pay cuts and down-sizing
with no jobs and rising prices
but the master still calls... are ye able to be crucified.
Will you be crucified for the children living in poverty
for the homeless on the streets
for the woman diapering her baby in paper towels
or heating her home with the oven...
are we able, for these 40 days to show our communities... our state... our nation
the value of a heart broken for others
the worth of a meal shared
the dignity of loosing my life... for the dignity of my sister and my brother?

May Our Easter celebration at the end of these 40 days be
the time when we can say with Paul
2 Cor 6:4-8
as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report;
NIV
2 Cor 4:8-10
8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
Rom 8:36-39
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons , neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

and then our Easter worship will be a time in which we sing with confidence
Lord, we are able. Our spirits are Thine.
Remold them, make us, like Thee, divine.
Thy guiding radiance above us shall be
A beacon to God, to love and loyalty.

Random Thoughts

1. So much for change with President Obama; three of the appointees 'forgot' (wink, wink) to pay taxes. next time I'm voting Green Party... I've had it with both Democrats and Republicans
2. As much as I didn't really want to, I liked Dark Night, but Christian Bale is an ass.
3. Why is it so important for the Holy Father to guard against schism by undoing the excommunication of an obviously anti-semitic bishop, but women who are ordained stay excommunicated, just because they are women?
4. Some of the penalties in the Arizona Pittsburgh game reminded me of an elementary school playground. Highly paid bullies. I've had it with football too.
5. The latest facebook game of listing 25 Random Things about yourself should come with some minor rules such as; 'list anything but your personal hygiene regimens.' I don't want to know.
6. If you want to watch some funny TV get yourself the Vicar of Dibley, the Immaculate Collection. I spent the entire weekend laughing!
7. My son is in the first grade and I'm already having a hard time helping him with his math homework. Why homework in the first grade by the way?
8. They are threatening to raise cigarette taxes in RI. I bet I still won't quit.
9. Never eat chinese take-out for three meals in a row... trust me.

Christmas has just begun

It looks like Santa Claus and his giant sack of toys have exploded in my living room; despite that fact that my wife and I try to reign in the commercial aspect of popular American Christmas celebrations by enforcing spending limits on our gift giving for the boys. She is helping one build legos and the other is playing with his Power Rangers action figures. I find myself thinking, 'I love Christmas, but I'm glad it's over.' But actually it isn't is it? Christmas has just begun and will last on the Christian Calendar until January 5th if my calculations are correct... which means two more sundays of Christmas.

Nothing makes me more aware of how influenced we are as Christians by popular culture than the Advent-Christmas season. No one goes to church on Christmas Day. I did once. A couple of years ago Christmas Day landed on a Sunday. The church wanted to continue with services... five people showed up. There were many people who didn't come to Christmas Eve services, which are usually quite popular.

So how do we practice religious devotion during Advent/Christmas? It isn't by church attendance for many. It is shopping and cooking and office parties. Many will call this their 'Holiday Celebration' completely unaware of the fact that Holiday used to mean Holy Day, a day devoted to religious observance. I feel slightly cranky and judgmental observing this and thinking some of the things that I'm thinking. Such as pondering how many people go through the season thinking that they really understand the 'reason for the season' while at the same time spending thousands of dollars on presents and never attending any sort of service or observing even private religious practices to celebrate this special season. Can we really call ourselves Christians if we go through Advent doing more to celebrate Capitalism than Christmas. So while the church is meant to be the presence of Christ to the world, in the world but not of it, St. Paul once wrote, I fear we are no more of the world than at at this season.

The thing I struggle with is, how to impress upon folks this point without sounding bitter or angry or (horror of horrors!) preachy.

I've given some thought lately to how it is that I will teach my children the meaning of Christmas. We read the Christmas story during the Advent season and we decorate the Christmas tree with hand made decorations that symbolize the Christian Christmas story... Angels, stars, crowns. We limit our own spending on them and engage them in shopping for the families that we adopt through our church. But now I must think about how to celebrate Christmas with them for the next two weeks, so that they learn that the season is not over, but has just begun. And then, do I mention any of this in church? or do I remain silent and let people enjoy a joyful season?

Dignitas Personae Cont

It is with great pleasure that I share a couple of comments from my good friend 'Theological Snob' regarding my posting on Dignitas Personae.


Darin,I'm assuming that you are agreeing with the Catholic Church that the main purpose of sex and of marriage is to have children.

No, I am not saying I agree with the Catholic Church that the main purpose of sex is to have children. I think that sex is meant to deepen and strengthen the emotional ties in marriage and be a catalyst for the emotional grouth of the two partners. Sex has a vital and important role in marriage regardless of procreation. So while I would not agree that the main 'purpose' of sex is children, I do think that the Catholic Church offers an important and necessary alternative to the purely recreational view of sex that is predominant in our culture. In my humble opinion this 'recreational view' leave sex devoid of any meaning or purpose but pleasure itself. 'Recreational Sex' is not primarily interested in a deep and intimate experience with another, but in personal happiness and satisfaction, which, in my opinion, leads to a culture which makes the sex partner, an object for the self's pleasure and which leads to the commodification of sex. In everyday life this looks like unwanted pregnancy, disease, marital infidelity and divorce in my experience (not personal experience, by the way) So while I do not necessarily agree with every conclusion the Catholic Church draws as a result of calling procreation a mystery in which humanity co-creates with God, I do think it is the best alternative to 'recreational' ethic of popular culture.



On another point, and this is where I struggle, ideally the community should come together and help the single mom (or dad) to raise the child. Somone once said, "it takes a village..." but as Ian remarked above, the reality is that churches do not have their sh-- together enough to provide that community and some people are left in a no-win choice...You can take the idealist approach and say that all abortions are wrong in every case, but how does that minister to the mother in the impossible situtation? The danger with such an idealism is that it leads to a critical legalism of categorical oughts and shoulds.

Theological Snob raises an important critique of the idea that the church should be the alternative family for single mothers who feel ill-prepared and unready to raise a child. First, the practical application of that idea, that the church becomes a global adoption agency, is unrealistic. I'm not sure I want to go that far and this is where I ready admit I 'punk out' on my own ideas. I am not suggesting that the church becomes a social service agency. I am suggesting that the churches stance should be clear. We are a community for which abortion is not a viable option. In this way we stand as a prophetic voice to culture, offering a critique to the practice of abortion and showing an alternative way to deal with the 'no-win' situations that Theological Snob mentions. (in this area I am admitedly very influenced by Hauerwas).

As for Theological Snobs concern, that such a view becomes critical legalism, I think that is an excellent point. The alternative, however, leaves us no ground upon which to do pastoral care, which TS is concerned about. If the church does not have a clear and concise theological understanding of what marriage is, sex and procreation... if we do not clearly state that procreation is participation in the creativity of God, that children are such a high value that they should be created in the state of marriage and that abortion is a violation of who God is and how God acts in the world (which by the way the church is meant to be, the ebodiment of a Creative and Grace-full God) than what how do we determine our pastoral counsel? My fear is that if we refuse to have a clear statement about abortion, we have no ground for our pastoral care. If our pastoral care is not grounded on theology, than I fear we end up sliding towards the view expressed in the Nation, where the best way we can serve an un-wed mother ill-prepared and frightened, is to take up a collection for her abortion. Haven't we then ceased to be the church? In other words, how do we do pastoral care if we don't take a definite theological stand for life? If we do not offer a theological or spiritual view of the matter we are nothing but very poorly trained social workers.

While some may use a clear and concise theological statement regarding marriage, sex, procreation, and abortion in a legalistic manner, to throw away a uniquely biblical and theological view of a complex situation simply because some misuse it, is to throw the baby out with the bathwater (in a what is not an attempt at a clever pun). So while there is danger to 'idealism' I think the Liberal Christian church has discovered the danger of 'pragmatism' which is silence and apathy in regards to the issue of life, abortion and human sexuality.

My main concern (I think, because this is all just a theological thought experiment right now) is that the liberal church has failed to be a witness to its faith in regards to this issue. I am not trying to find a way to set social policy, but to return the church to its calling, which is to bear witness to the powerful presence of a living God. How can we do that if we remain so wishy-washy about a topic like Life?

Dignitas Personae

It may seem strange that an American Baptist pastor would place a link to a Roman Catholic Document. But I have long felt that Catholicism offers the most clear and concise thought available in regards to bio-ethics especially in the area of Abortion. The document 'Dignitas Personae' offers an excellent summation of Catholic thought in regards to these bio-ethical issues. Note especially under the heading 'Faith and human dignity' the statement; 'God has created every human being in his own image, and his Son has made it possible for us to become children of God.' Nothing new I suppose, but profound when compared to a recent post on 'The Nation' which is meant to lend a 'down to earth' approach to thinking about abortion. While in Dignitas Personae the unborn child bears the image of God and is therefore to be highly valued, in the Nation, the unborn child is a 'threat.'



the problem with the argument that Katha Pollit offers is two-fold, the first of which is the subject for today. First of all she vastly over-simplifies the perspective of those who are 'anti-choice'. Notice how she describes the perspectives of those who disagree with her in negative terms. The perspective of those of us who feel that abortion is the ultimate violation of the image of God that the unborn infant is created in, do NOT think that this child is 'one of life's little challenges.' As a matter of fact Dignitas Personae takes the conception and birth of a child in the most serious of terms. Under the heading 'The two fundamental principles' we read' 'The origin of human life has its authentic context in marriage and in the family, where it is generated through an act which expresses the reciprocal love between a man and a woman. Procreation which is truly responsible vis-a-vis the child to be born must be the fruit of marriage.' The child is not a slight inconvenience, but a gift that is to be treated with the utmost respect, care and responsibility. Under 'Faith and married life' we read; 'God, who is love and life, has inscribed in man and woman the vocation to share in a special way in his mystery of personal communion and in his work as Creator and Father...' Nothing could be taken more serious than the birth of a child for it is a mysterious cooperation between humanity and God in the process of creation.



I think that protestants could learn a thing or two from this Catholic document. That a man and woman are cooperating with God's creativity through conception may not be very romantic, but it does lend theological clarity to the sexual act, a necessary corrective to the 'purely recreational' view of sexuality that is rampant in our culture. And it reminds us that there is something sacred in every child. Every child bears the mark of the Creator, whether its life is viable outside the womb or not.

If you read Pollit's article carefully you find the second problem with her thought process. There a young woman, pregnant, who stands the very real risk of physical abuse from family, should she return home as an unwed mother. Pollit is admittedly a 'pro-choice' thinker. Being 'pro-choice' means assuming that sexuality is the choice of the individual, as is procreation and giving birth. Pollit hopes that we will support this womans personal choice to have an abortion. But her argument for abortion shows the weakness of the whole idea that ther is anything personal about sex, conception and birth. It requires the concent of a community, whether that is the community of father and mother in the act of conception, or the concent of the family is helping to raise the child. A child is not the choice of the individual, but the responsibility of a community, parents, family and yes, God. The family does not consent to this child, and so Pollit offers us an illustration of the weakness of her perspective. having a child is NOT an idividual choice.

Pollit offers the support of a community in her article... a community that will pay for an abortion. This is where the church must be more active in my opinion. It is not enough for us to be simply against abortion, but to be for the family, even the mother and unborn child that has no supportive family. We have to offer our consent to life by offering support, safety, home, and help to this mother who is in such danger. I am particularly reminded of Mary. We do not know exactly how her own parents felt about her pregnancy. We do know that her husband, despite some doubts and fear, consented to the child in her womb... and then the Holy Spirit created a supportive community around her; her cousin Elizabeth, the shepherds, the Magi. I see in the gospels the creation of an alternative family for the Holy Family that would support them in birthing and raising an unexpected child.

God Against Religion

My friend theobilly and I went to the Paulist Center in Boston yesterday to hear Matthew Myer Boulton, currently associate professor at Harvard, formerly of my own school, Andover Newton, give a short lecture based on his new book 'God Against Religion; Rethinking Christian Theology Through Worship'. I have NOT read the book, so this is a short review of his lecture. To be honest my initial reaction was that Boulton's argument was thin... but upon more reflection I think that was more because he had 45 minutes to summarize the argument of an entire book.

This morning I am having a different reaction. In the lecture Boulton begin by referencing the second creation story of Genesis where humanity is created to serve, protect and enjoy the earth. He notes that no mention is made of worship of God in the purpose of humanities creation and existence. This part of the lecture I did not find helpful to his argument. He went on the story of Cain and Abel, and his reading of this story I found interesting. He notes that this is the first act of worship in the Bible and notes (something I have never notices) that this appears to have been completely the initiative of Cain and Abel... in other words, God did not ask for this or command it. Boulton asserts that this story serves as a warning about religion. The details of why Abel is 'regarded' or 'noticed' by God in this act of worship and Cain is not are non-existent. Genesis does not explain why. The point is that Cain reacts with anger and violence and we witness the first murder. Boulton reads this as a critique of self-centered religion and relatedly, worship. Cain was more interested in gaining God's favor than in truly making an offering of love to God. His religion and worship was self-centered, not God centered and this leads to violence. Boulton also notes that God speaks to Cain and reminds him in his anger (previous to the murder) that if he 'does well' he will be accepted. Boulton ties this 'doing well' to prophetic texts that voice God's rejection of Israel's worship because their lives outside of worship are not lived well; they do not live ethically. Boulton notes Amos 5:21-24, Micah 6:6-8, and Hosea 6:4-6 as prophetic expression of God's rejection of religion through the emptiness of worship. Worship is focused, as Cain was, upon gaining God's favor... but does not lead to acts of justice and kindness, and so offends God and does not please God. Boulton does not intend this to be a critique of Judaism or Israel, but a mytho-poetic story about all religion and all worship. All Worship and religion holds the dangerous potential to be more about the worshipper and his/her comfort, than about the God we worship and the righteousness and justice God expects.

I think that Boulton's work may be very important and I intend to buy and read this book. The very idea that God could 'be against' anything, is revolutionary in this day and age. Since so many think of God as a largely non-intrusive idea that can be largely ignored until times are tough and we want some comfort (think Cain) the idea that God is much more invested in the daily living of our lives an the trajectory of our values (toward or away from justice) is an important addition to discourse on God.

And I also think this offers interesting potential for a clear discussion of popular Christian worship in Christianity in America. While we are busily arguing, one way or another, for praise bands, praise choruses, fancy projection tech, etc. Boulton may indeed be offering us a theologically clear star upon which to fix our journey through troubling waters... justice. Is our worship focused on justice and does it inspire us to live just lives? This is what I hope Boulton gets to in the book... his lecture inspired me to think more clearly along these lines. If you are interested on some other thoughts I have had on worship and justice click the link to Tradition, Progression and Justice in Worship

Would Jesus Shop on Black Friday

CNNMoney.com has an interesting little article on Black Friday spending. Unless you live in a cave or spent Thanksgiving under a rock you couldn't miss all of the dire economic predictions for this years Christmas season. But now that the totals are in Black Friday spending was up 3% to over 10 billion dollars. Which leads to a prediction of a 2.2% increase in total holiday spending, totalling 470 billion dollars.
Just for some perspective Bread for the World has projected that $4Billion dollars would cut world hunger by 50%. something to consider as we light the advent candles.

Also in the same article is the mention of shootings and other violent tragedies as shoppers rushed about trying to get the best deals on Black Friday. A friend told me that while waiting outside for a store to open a woman in front of her in line felt that a man had tried to cut in front of her so she grabbed him by the throat and wouldn't let go until the police got there.

Here is the thing. Churchy folk, we like shake our heads and click our tongues at this thought. But very few of us would abstain from shopping on Black Friday altogether. And perhaps we should. It seems to be getting particularly dangerous. You could get choked or shot. And it is particularly dangerous for the rest of the world... we would rather spend 470 billion dollars on video games than 4 billion on world hunger.

Today marks the first day of preparation forthe birth of Jesus. This same Jesus would warn us that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. I wonder if Jesus would want us to celebrate his birthday this way? Maybe he would just tell us to quit and start over.

The Existence of God and my Experience

Is it possible to convince someone of the existence of God if they are already predisposed to doubt?
This question has begun to haunt me recently as I've been doing some studying. I've been reading two book simultaneously; Christian Theology, An Introduction to Its Traditions and Tasks edited by Peter C. Hodgson and Robert H. King, and Essentials of Christian Theology Edited by William C Placher. I like to review the basics of theology occasionally. I learned some French in High School, but didn't keep up with it and so its gone. So I review the basics of theology now and again to stay 'sharp'. In 'Essentials' an essay is included by John B. Cobb Jr. entitled 'Does it make sense to talk about God' in which we addresses some of the doubt and skepticism regarding a belief in God in our age. Interestingly enough I have been encountering this same skepticism recently. Cobb addresses the skepticism of those who trust only in experience in order to believe. Since they have not experienced God in a direct way, the idea of God cannot be accepted or trusted. Cobb makes an astute but simple argument to this skepticism by showing the logical progression of this line of thinking. If we can only trust in that we have directly experienced, then history does not exist.
Since I did not meet George Washington, I should be skeptical of his existence. Since I did not witness the Holocaust with my own two eyes I should be skeptical of its reality, and so on. (Cobb doesn't say that specifically, that is my example, and I don't believe it... this is just an example. Just to explain, there are photographs from WWII but not of Jesus... yes, but photographs can be faked. When I explain my trust in the Biblical witness this is the nature of the argument... it could have been faked. A fanciful myth that I cannot trust. Could we not wonder this about a number of things? including our own birth-certificates?) Personal experience, he posits, cannot be the sole authority for belief since it would mean that history would no longer have any bearing on our present or future.
I think he makes an excellent argument. But I wonder if it would hold any influence 'on the ground' so to speak. I could offer that argument to those skeptics that I have met recently, but I wonder if they would find that argument compelling.
So my questions are...
is a sound theological or philosophical argument for the existence of God compelling? If not, what will be?
given Cobb's argument re: Experience, isn't the Bible a collection of personal experiences of the living God? So isn't the Bible itself built upon experience and the telling and re-telling of personal experiences?
Should there be room in church for skeptics... people who have doubts about the existence of God or the divinity of Christ? How do we make that room for those who are seeking or open, but still doubtful... or for those who are comfortable doubting frankly, but who want to be a part of a community of integrity, honest, compassion and generosity?
My next few posts will follow this line of consideration and I look forward to your input.

A Rose By An Other Name

Lately I've been viewing some 'evangelical' blogs such as Jonathan Merritt's. He is a young Southern Baptist very interested in among many things, I am sure, the environment. I was raised evangelical, biblically literal, actually. I am grateful that my mom raised me to be a follower of Christ, but I found the evangelical, biblically literal mindset very constricting. As much as I love the Bible, I cannot accept the idea tha the earth was literally created in six days despite what Genesis says.
Upon moving to Rhode Island and attending Andover Newton I found a home in Liberal theology and felt very comfortable there. Recently, due to study (reading Hauerwas) and conversations with pastor friends I have found the idea of being identified as 'liberal' wanting and so I have dabbled in the 'evangelical' blogosphere to see if there might be a place for me to feel comfortable.
But nope, I can't do it. Jonathan Merritt's most recent post sealed it for me. As intelligent at he is (much moreso than I) and as much as I admire his work for the environment, his latest post addressed the issue of women in ministry in the Southern Baptist Church. while he was being critical of the SBC, he stated that he remained undecided about women being in ministry. I can't do it, be associated with a group that is stuck on this issue. It's absurd.
so here I sit not liking the options; evangelical won't work, but neither will liberal. Post-liberal gets thrown around by some but it sounds too jargony to me. Even Baptist is problematic, as proud as I am to be Baptist. but it is problematic because so many assume that because I am Baptist I am against women in ministry, (just one example of the assumptions people will make).
So what am I exactly? What name will explain briefly to people where I stand in Christendom?
Does it really matter that much

On Voting

On Theolog Christopher Benson reflects upon whether or not a Christian should vote. He draws upon Nietzsche who had such a poor view of politics that he wrote suggesting that one should simply, could simply not participate. I quote Benson below...
I face an existential dilemma: endure the “great frescoes of stupidity” painted by the political parties or vacate the voting booth. As this presidential campaign draws closer to Election Day, with sludge flying, I am seriously considering Nietzsche’s proposal “to keep out of politics and stand aside a little,” as he did.
When too many people are speaking, as in our bloviating 24-hour cable news and blogosphere, Nietzsche advises silence. He says that for the few conscientious objectors, “seriousness lies elsewhere; they have embraced a different concept of happiness; their goal cannot be embraced by any clumsy hand with just five fingers.”
G. Scott Becker concurs in an essay in Electing Not to Vote, saying there will be circumstances when “a sudden, widespread Christian abstention from the electoral process could serve to expose the hypocrisy that has seeped in it.”
Which is the great dilemma is it not? Paul spoke of it when he wrote that Christians should live in the world but not be of the world. But how is it exactly that we think about the world we live in? Is it good as Genesis tells us, or, is it fallen as is also told? As Christians are we to tend toward the ascetic, as Benson seems to suggest, monastics set apart from the electoral process which Benson accurately sees is fraught with problems? Or are we to engage fully in the process, knowing the danger that Paul suggests, that by being in, we become of... instead of influencing we become influenced?
Although I find myself sympathetic to Benson's dilemma about participating in the electoral process and agreeing with the reason's for this dilemma, I cannot agree with his answer to the dilemma, which is simply to abstain.
The issue is that whether or not I vote, I receive the benefit of the policies set by the President, Congress etc. As a pastor I depend upon the members of the church to tithe, so that I can provide for my wife and children. But in turn, these members depend upon their employers, who depend upon the demand of customers, all of which is tied, in greater complexity that I can fully understand, to the economic policies set by the President and the President's economic advisors. Whether I like the electoral process all the time or not, I depend on it, it affects me, and it affects Benson and Becker too. Although infrastructure such as paved roads, oil to heat my home, police to quiet my neighbors or search for my children when they are missing (God forbid), are largely provided by local and state government, still, federal government provides policies, guidelines, and finances indirectly that make these things possible. My education, which enables me to work is in large part due to federal loans. The taxes I pay fund many programs, some I like, such as relief and assistance programs and some I don't like, such as funding weapons for war. My point being that my tax money contributes to a greater good, and also in some cases to that which is not in keeping with my faith. But I cannot simply choose not to pay, not simply because the IRS would imprison me, but because there are people who depend on federal dollars, that I provide.
So in the end I find the idea that I can get a paycheck, call the police, get loans for an education, buy oil, and then either naively or condescendingly choose not to participate in the system that provides so much, well, frankly foolish. I then become a leech on society. Oh so elite because I can criticize the establishment, but still tied to it in so many ways and dependent upon it for many benefits that I would miss should I move to Central America or Africa for instance.
As to exposing the hypocrisy of the system, well, that is a bit optimistic. To think that if Christians stopped voting that suddenly Congress would collectively sit up and slap their foreheads in sudden epiphany is laughable. Nietzsche may describe eloquently the problem, but his solution simply sounds elitist and offers no solution. A bit like my two-year-old holding his breath so as to get his way.
Having said all that, what would the life of Jesus as recorded in the gospels say to us about Christian voting. Voting obviously wasn't even an option in his culture and society. Jesus did overturn the tables in the temple which N.T. Wright has suggested was an implicit suggestion that the system of connection between humanity and God that the Temple both symbolized and offered was broken beyond repair and replaced by his presence. Should this be our example when dealing with the electoral process? It is a broken system promising what it cannot deliver? We replace the electoral system by abstaining until it is 'overturned?'
On the other hand, would it be reasonable to present the preaching, teaching and miracle working of Jesus was both a criticism of the exercise of power by the elites and the creation of alternative communities which would embody power in service, sacrifice, generosity, honesty, and forgiveness? Could we then say that Jesus didn't simply abstain from the a culture and society that was broken, but stayed engaged so as to be critical with the intention of creating Kingdom. Is is possible to see Jesus' ministry not as asceticism, but the kind of 'in but not of' that Paul speaks of. Is that not the point of incarnation, that creation can only be returned to the goodness that God initially intended only when God engages with what is broken, instead of remaining separated?
Should we not then stay engaged in the process as Christians, in the world, incarnating our hope and faith in the Kingdom as we vote. But not of the world, placing our trust completely in this electoral system, voting to be critical of its weaknesses, but also grateful for its strengths?