I love to read. I find it to be the most excellent of all our invented human forms of communication. But how often do we really think about what we are doing when we read? I recently read a brief, Near-Eastern/Western history of reading on www.liveink.com that summed it all up rather nicely. To paraphrase:
Verbal communication is millions of years old, but it was only about 6000 years ago that the Sumerians began drawing pictures in clay to portray ideas and keep track of supplies and events. This is our first evidence of written communication.
About 2000 years later, in 2000 B.C., the Phoenicians came up with the first symbols to represent the sounds of human speech. This first writing was a string of consonants crammed together to represent spoken words (THSFRSTLPHBTWSSTRNGFCNSNTSCRMDTGTHRTRPRSNTSPKNWRDS).
Around 1000 B.C., the Greeks invented vowels(AROUND1000BCTHEGREEKSINVENTEDVOWELS)...
Around 200 B.C., the first punctuation appeared (AROUND200B.C.,THEFIRSTPUNCTUATIONAPPEARED.)...
Around 700 A.D., lowercase letters were developed by Medieval scribes (Around700A.D.,lowercaselettersweredevelopedbyMedievalscribes)...
About 200 years later, in 900 A.D., words were finally separated by spaces, making it possible finally to read silently, rather than sounding out letters out loud. This was a big deal.
Notice that most of the tweaks and advancements in writing and reading were developed concurrently with or even after the writing of the individual books of the Bible, which took place here and there roughly between 1000 B.C. and 150 A.D.
Realizing that we have no original scripture documents – NONE – we can see how remarkable (yes, even miraculous) it is that we have a Bible at all. Our sacred documents come to us from copies of copies of copies of copies of texts written in nearly indecipherable blocks of letters on animal skins, clay or papyrus, each and every letter of which was painstakingly read and rewritten by oil lamp or candlelight by tired monks with aching eyes. A single misplaced, skipped or repeated letter out of millions could change entirely the meaning of a word or passage. In time, these writings would be translated into other languages, and those translations updated as languages evolved. Eventually, scribes would be replaced by movable type, then... you get the idea. The Bibles we read today have passed through countless human hands to get to us. God is God, but writing and reading are uniquely human. It may be God's word, but our mortal fingerprints and thinking are all over, around and through it!
Let us also recognize that we read different materials differently. I suspend disbelief for a good work of fantasy. I read over the same lines repeatedly and open my imagination to complex metaphor for poetry. A text book requires interactive attention, maybe even the taking of notes. I may find myself checking for author bias, or weighing statements against other sources in a work of biography. In short, when I enter the library, how I will read depends on the section in which I am reading.
The Bible – from the Greek Biblios, meaning library – is a collection of books of various sources from various eras in Near-Eastern history: Some of it is the written preservation of stories and rules once memorized and spoken around campfires and communal tents (Torah – The Law or The Teachings). Some of it is a collection of social and political commentaries of various eras (the Prophets). Some of it is the collected wisdom and sacred songs of this or that ruling class (Psalms and Proverbs). Some is the collected accounts of the life, teachings and ministry of our Messiah and his common followers (The Gospels and Acts). Some is the collected letters of itinerant preachers to local churches (the letters of Paul, Peter, John and Jude). Some is political polemic written in veiled terms and thinly disguised code (Revelation). How we read each of these books in our holy library depends on which book we are reading. So, when we read Psalm 137, we should not take it as God's will that we dash the babies of our perceived enemies on the rocks! No, we should read the anger and frustration in the sacred Blues sung by an exiled people toward their captors, the Babylonians. We should feel their sheer desperation for God to rescue them and restore justice. We should, in short, use Psalm 137 as a reminder of what happens to a human soul robbed of its freedom and dignity, and strive to neither oppressed nor oppressor be!
And while we're thinking of it, let's consider the human authors of these books. There is a German term – sitz im leben – which literally means “life setting” of a text. Who was writing this? What was their station in life? What was happening around them when they wrote it? Consider, for example, Paul's admonition from 1st Timothy 2:
Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve; and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.
This is written in our Bibles! Does that mean that we should bar women from preaching and teaching men? Should a man turn off his radio if Joyce Meyer comes on? For the misguided literalist, yes!
But suppose I don't simply read these verses as a timeless command directly from God, but rather, as an excerpt from a letter written by a devout man in 1st century Palestine? In his day, women were almost entirely illiterate and unschooled. In his day, there were only a few men in larger villages who might have access to scripture and theological training. That was this letter's sitz im leben.
Would we remove a female seminary professor or pastor in this day and age solely due to her genitalia and a surface reading of 1st Timothy? Yes, some of us would, despite the vast difference between the era in which this verse was written and our own. This is an example of the damage that can be done when we insist on a childish relationship with scripture. We must not lean on our own understanding, but rather trust in God and the wisdom imparted through the ages. We can dig deeper than our own surface understanding of a text to encounter God's will in scripture. It takes prayerful dedication and hard work, but isn't Godly wisdom worth it?!? If we prayerfully, carefully apply the standards of Paul to our modern reality, we may instead say:
Let those who are unschooled learn in silence with full submission. I permit no ignorant person to teach or have authority over a church. For it was through ignorance and deception that Adam and Eve became transgressors. Yet they will be saved through their life roles, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.
I did not simply pull this interpretation out of thin air, but did my humble best to consider what God may be communicating to me through Paul. I do so humbly, recognizing that I might not have it quite right, and leaning hard on my years of training, research, study of ancient languages and cultures, and my continuing life in Christ and Christian community. If you plan to do the same, I would recommend you do so in community with others, including (as Paul insists above) one or more leaders well-schooled in scripture and tradition. This is very much in the tradition of the rabbis from the first days through today, including Paul and ESPECIALLY Jesus.
Scary? Overwhelming? Darn right it is! But we are called by the God of the Living to no less than our best efforts. In other words, dig in, think, discuss, pray, learn, apply and live!
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers; but their delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night. - Psalm 1:1-2
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Sermon from Sunday, October 12, 2008 on Becoming an Open And Affirming Church
Fundamentals, Not Fundamentalism
I have fielded a lot of requests for transcripts or recordings of this past Sunday's sermon. Mike, our fearless High-Tech leader, is out of town for a few weeks, so there will be some delay in the posting of the podcast of the sermon (eventually available, as are most of my sermons, at http://wbccucc.blogspot.com). So, in the interim, here is an ever-so slightly cleaned up transcript of the sermon.
It begins with three readings from the Revised Common Lectionary for the day:
Exodus 32:1-14 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."
Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me."
So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!"
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD."
They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.
The LORD said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;
they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'"
The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.
Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation."
But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, 'I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'"
And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
Philippians 4:1-9 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Matthew 22:1-10 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying:
"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, 'Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.'
But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.' Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen."
Our sermon this morning is Fundamentals, Not Fundamentalism. Our readings this morning are all pretty fundamental. In our Gospel reading you heard a story of an invitation that went out in this parable from Jesus. The invitation went out to everybody who was already a part of the faith community...all who were the Chosen People – all who were Jewish – to come to this banquet. And the banquet was Christ. And many, during his life, refused to come. So he said “open it up to everybody.” And they did open it up to everybody, and many came, and there was much rejoicing.
Then we get to this confounding part in Christ's story where someone who was just pulled off the streets was there at this wedding banquet, and he's chastised for not wearing a celebratory wedding robe. And it sounds unfair, as most folks aren't walking down the street wearing a wedding robe. But remember, this is a parable. You have to treat it like the story it is. You have to dig a little deeper.
What are we really talking about? We're talking about someone who was invited into a faith that wasn't really theirs to begin with. Much like just about anyone Christian. We didn't start out Jewish. We were grafted onto this tree with this God. This parable speaks to anyone who was invited into this faith, accepted the invitation, came in and enjoyed the blessings, but who didn't change in any noticeable way: Came right in and kept right on with the same attitudes and prejudices they'd always had... came into the feast of Jesus Christ and showed no external evidence at all that they had embraced anything life-changing at all. And Jesus tells this fable as if to say: “those people who refuse to redress their crimes or correct their misconceptions – the ones who won't make the least little change to show gratitude for this free gift they are given – are not going to be a part of this banquet.”
-------
In the Epistle reading from Philippians, Paul is heartbroken because two of the women with whom he started up that church – two who rolled up their sleeves and labored side by side with him – were having some kind of argument that was splitting the church. And so he appealed to the others of this faith community: “help these women get along.” He doesn't address the exact issue and say this one's right, this one's wrong. He is not searching for some empirical truth that will shut one of them up. Instead, he says: “find a way to help them put this behind them, end the conflict and recognize any disagreement as petty compared to the greater task of serving Christ.”
So we've talked so far about two fundamental points of a healthy Christian faith:
1.not carrying in your own prejudices and fears when you enter this new life, and
2.not using your faith as a source of conflict and strife.
And then we have that reading from Exodus, which is as fundamental as it comes for our faith. THE GOLDEN CALF.
Now most of us have a Cecil B. DeMille image of that calf...with some woman sensually polishing it with her long, dark hair, while all the loin-clothed, movie lot extras dance and grind around her in a state of debauched arousal. We also naturally equate gold with money. No. No. No.
What is the problem with an idol? Simply this: It is an attempt by finite beings to contain the eternal in a nice, manageable package. Put God in a little, portable box, and stick God wherever you want to. You can move God over here. Don't like the view over here? Move God over there. And you can manipulate God anyway that serves you, shape God into any form that is agreeable to you. THAT is the sin of the golden calf.
Now we Christians don't have any idol like that nowadays, right? We don't have anything that we use to try to put God in our box, right? Nothing we use to say “God agrees with me and God is shaped like this,” right?
Hmmm.
Nothing in Christianity is turned into more of a self-serving idol than this book on the pulpit. We use our Bibles to spread more hate, more division and more oppression than any shiny cow statue could ever bring around. The Bible is our false idol.
- - - - -
Once, long before I went into the ministry, I had a conversation with a gentleman in South Carolina who knew me as a Yankee, but not necessarily as a Christian. And he told me that he was almost kicked out of his church. He was the deacon in charge of scheduling weddings, and he was nearly drummed out of his church for giving a couple permission to marry there. The couple was black, and it says right here in the Bible “each to their own kind.” Black people shouldn't get married in a white church! It says right here in the Bible! THUMP!!
- - - - -
One of my favorite authors is Dr. Eugene Petersen, who wrote a modern translation of the Bible called The Message. And he also wrote a few books for pastors that really strengthen clergy and give them cause for joy, hope and strength. He was raised by a single mom, a beautiful lady and Christian.
His mother was a missionary to the rough and tumble logging camps of the Northwest. Eugene and his mother would travel from remote camp to remote camp by sled, and she would sing and preach and lift up these men so far from home and civilization. She did this for years, and then suddenly it stopped, and she traveled no more to preach and teach.
It wasn't until years later that Dr. Petersen asked his mother why she stopped. And she told him of a group of men confronting her outside a camp meeting, opening their Bibles and reading “women, be silent in the church,” and “it is not right for women to instruct men.” And how many lumberjacks...how many men far from everything they knew and loved, didn't hear the Gospel because a group of self-righteous prigs lifted up their idol and went THUMP!!!
- - - - -
How about a brand new Anglican bishop who, as he goes through his glorious installation, has to wear a bullet-proof vest under his beautiful vestments because there have been so many death threats from his fellow Christians? Gifted pastor or not, he's gay, and “it's an abomination,” THUMP!!!
This, my friends, is our golden calf. This beautiful, sacred series of writings that has so much in it about love, joy and how to be a living, loving child of God; and how to live and celebrate and share all the blessings that are ours; this, my friends, is what we use to put God in a box that we can control. This is what we use to dress up our same old prejudices and fears. This is what we use to come into the pews and not change a thing about ourselves. If we read this book and it doesn't scare us, rip out our hearts and challenge our prejudices and pre-conceived notions, then we aren't reading it deeply enough. If it doesn't give us the occasional headache, then it is nothing more than another lousy golden calf.
Now there are people in this very community who need God, love and a place where they can come and hear what is pure, honest, true and hopeful. And the reason they are not here is what we have done with and to this Bible. We are better than this.
You right now are sitting on a hill in a church that in 1834 – when the only support they had in this wilderness was the Presbyterian church – severed ties with that, their only lifeline to civilization back east because the Presbyterians refused to take a vocal stand against slavery.
You are sitting in a church that in 1893 – 26 years before women had the right to vote, and at a time when women were supposed to be silent in the church – hired it's first female pastor.
You are sitting in a church that, at the height of the race riots of the 1960s, traveled en masse into downtown Rochester to worship at an urban, African-American church, and then invited that same church out here to worship in these very pews with us.
This is our church. This is our scripture. These are not blunt instruments. The fundamentals of our faith are that we love our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength; and that we love our neighbor as ourselves.
“And who is our neighbor?” as the devout, uber-religious man asked Jesus. Jesus answered that man in a parable in which he lifted up the most detestable of people to the Jew: a Samaritan. Who is your neighbor? The one you detest the most right now. The one you are most prejudiced against, uncomfortable around, fearful of right now is the one Christ points out as the person to love and accept. That is the one who should be here with us now.
Let's take off our prejudices. Let's not cast our prejudices, fears and short-sightedness on God. Let's love our neighbor. That is FUNDAMENTAL.
Now FUNDAMENTALISM is different. It is what we are trying to avoid. Fundamentalism is someone's interpretation of scripture that is only 150 years old. Our scripture is 2000-3000 years old. That OLD TIME RELIGION is NEW. It was a response to something called the ENLIGHTENMENT, when common people finally had their scriptures in a language they could read and began to apply their God-given reason and logic to Biblical thought, just as scholars, rabbis, prophets and priests had done for thousands of years. They had the power to read and discern and influence their own destiny. And some took it even further and said “wait, we can use these same principals to govern ourselves,” and our nation was born. And yet, there are those who would shut us down, using this same Word and saying, “No, it is not your reason. That is not our TRUTH!” And they claim “this is not what the Bible says,” as if the Bible had a mouth and vocal cords and as if what they were doing to it was anything but a bad ventriloquism act supporting their own prejudices.
Let us, my friends, not put words in the Bible's mouth, but, rather, faithful, prayerfully dig deep into all that is written here. With awe, and trembling, let's recognize who and whose we are, and, especially, WHO WE WILL WELCOME regardless of sexual orientation, economic status, race, gender or any other thing that we cynically, faithlessly use to bicker with our brothers and sisters.
That's FUNDAMENTALS as opposed to fundamentalism.
I have fielded a lot of requests for transcripts or recordings of this past Sunday's sermon. Mike, our fearless High-Tech leader, is out of town for a few weeks, so there will be some delay in the posting of the podcast of the sermon (eventually available, as are most of my sermons, at http://wbccucc.blogspot.com). So, in the interim, here is an ever-so slightly cleaned up transcript of the sermon.
It begins with three readings from the Revised Common Lectionary for the day:
Exodus 32:1-14 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."
Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me."
So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron. He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!"
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a festival to the LORD."
They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.
The LORD said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;
they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'"
The LORD said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.
Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation."
But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, "O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, 'I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'"
And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.
Philippians 4:1-9 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.
I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
Matthew 22:1-10 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying:
"The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. Again he sent other slaves, saying, 'Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.'
But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city.
Then he said to his slaves, 'The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.' Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.
"But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, and he said to him, 'Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, 'Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen."
Our sermon this morning is Fundamentals, Not Fundamentalism. Our readings this morning are all pretty fundamental. In our Gospel reading you heard a story of an invitation that went out in this parable from Jesus. The invitation went out to everybody who was already a part of the faith community...all who were the Chosen People – all who were Jewish – to come to this banquet. And the banquet was Christ. And many, during his life, refused to come. So he said “open it up to everybody.” And they did open it up to everybody, and many came, and there was much rejoicing.
Then we get to this confounding part in Christ's story where someone who was just pulled off the streets was there at this wedding banquet, and he's chastised for not wearing a celebratory wedding robe. And it sounds unfair, as most folks aren't walking down the street wearing a wedding robe. But remember, this is a parable. You have to treat it like the story it is. You have to dig a little deeper.
What are we really talking about? We're talking about someone who was invited into a faith that wasn't really theirs to begin with. Much like just about anyone Christian. We didn't start out Jewish. We were grafted onto this tree with this God. This parable speaks to anyone who was invited into this faith, accepted the invitation, came in and enjoyed the blessings, but who didn't change in any noticeable way: Came right in and kept right on with the same attitudes and prejudices they'd always had... came into the feast of Jesus Christ and showed no external evidence at all that they had embraced anything life-changing at all. And Jesus tells this fable as if to say: “those people who refuse to redress their crimes or correct their misconceptions – the ones who won't make the least little change to show gratitude for this free gift they are given – are not going to be a part of this banquet.”
-------
In the Epistle reading from Philippians, Paul is heartbroken because two of the women with whom he started up that church – two who rolled up their sleeves and labored side by side with him – were having some kind of argument that was splitting the church. And so he appealed to the others of this faith community: “help these women get along.” He doesn't address the exact issue and say this one's right, this one's wrong. He is not searching for some empirical truth that will shut one of them up. Instead, he says: “find a way to help them put this behind them, end the conflict and recognize any disagreement as petty compared to the greater task of serving Christ.”
So we've talked so far about two fundamental points of a healthy Christian faith:
1.not carrying in your own prejudices and fears when you enter this new life, and
2.not using your faith as a source of conflict and strife.
And then we have that reading from Exodus, which is as fundamental as it comes for our faith. THE GOLDEN CALF.
Now most of us have a Cecil B. DeMille image of that calf...with some woman sensually polishing it with her long, dark hair, while all the loin-clothed, movie lot extras dance and grind around her in a state of debauched arousal. We also naturally equate gold with money. No. No. No.
What is the problem with an idol? Simply this: It is an attempt by finite beings to contain the eternal in a nice, manageable package. Put God in a little, portable box, and stick God wherever you want to. You can move God over here. Don't like the view over here? Move God over there. And you can manipulate God anyway that serves you, shape God into any form that is agreeable to you. THAT is the sin of the golden calf.
Now we Christians don't have any idol like that nowadays, right? We don't have anything that we use to try to put God in our box, right? Nothing we use to say “God agrees with me and God is shaped like this,” right?
Hmmm.
Nothing in Christianity is turned into more of a self-serving idol than this book on the pulpit. We use our Bibles to spread more hate, more division and more oppression than any shiny cow statue could ever bring around. The Bible is our false idol.
- - - - -
Once, long before I went into the ministry, I had a conversation with a gentleman in South Carolina who knew me as a Yankee, but not necessarily as a Christian. And he told me that he was almost kicked out of his church. He was the deacon in charge of scheduling weddings, and he was nearly drummed out of his church for giving a couple permission to marry there. The couple was black, and it says right here in the Bible “each to their own kind.” Black people shouldn't get married in a white church! It says right here in the Bible! THUMP!!
- - - - -
One of my favorite authors is Dr. Eugene Petersen, who wrote a modern translation of the Bible called The Message. And he also wrote a few books for pastors that really strengthen clergy and give them cause for joy, hope and strength. He was raised by a single mom, a beautiful lady and Christian.
His mother was a missionary to the rough and tumble logging camps of the Northwest. Eugene and his mother would travel from remote camp to remote camp by sled, and she would sing and preach and lift up these men so far from home and civilization. She did this for years, and then suddenly it stopped, and she traveled no more to preach and teach.
It wasn't until years later that Dr. Petersen asked his mother why she stopped. And she told him of a group of men confronting her outside a camp meeting, opening their Bibles and reading “women, be silent in the church,” and “it is not right for women to instruct men.” And how many lumberjacks...how many men far from everything they knew and loved, didn't hear the Gospel because a group of self-righteous prigs lifted up their idol and went THUMP!!!
- - - - -
How about a brand new Anglican bishop who, as he goes through his glorious installation, has to wear a bullet-proof vest under his beautiful vestments because there have been so many death threats from his fellow Christians? Gifted pastor or not, he's gay, and “it's an abomination,” THUMP!!!
This, my friends, is our golden calf. This beautiful, sacred series of writings that has so much in it about love, joy and how to be a living, loving child of God; and how to live and celebrate and share all the blessings that are ours; this, my friends, is what we use to put God in a box that we can control. This is what we use to dress up our same old prejudices and fears. This is what we use to come into the pews and not change a thing about ourselves. If we read this book and it doesn't scare us, rip out our hearts and challenge our prejudices and pre-conceived notions, then we aren't reading it deeply enough. If it doesn't give us the occasional headache, then it is nothing more than another lousy golden calf.
Now there are people in this very community who need God, love and a place where they can come and hear what is pure, honest, true and hopeful. And the reason they are not here is what we have done with and to this Bible. We are better than this.
You right now are sitting on a hill in a church that in 1834 – when the only support they had in this wilderness was the Presbyterian church – severed ties with that, their only lifeline to civilization back east because the Presbyterians refused to take a vocal stand against slavery.
You are sitting in a church that in 1893 – 26 years before women had the right to vote, and at a time when women were supposed to be silent in the church – hired it's first female pastor.
You are sitting in a church that, at the height of the race riots of the 1960s, traveled en masse into downtown Rochester to worship at an urban, African-American church, and then invited that same church out here to worship in these very pews with us.
This is our church. This is our scripture. These are not blunt instruments. The fundamentals of our faith are that we love our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength; and that we love our neighbor as ourselves.
“And who is our neighbor?” as the devout, uber-religious man asked Jesus. Jesus answered that man in a parable in which he lifted up the most detestable of people to the Jew: a Samaritan. Who is your neighbor? The one you detest the most right now. The one you are most prejudiced against, uncomfortable around, fearful of right now is the one Christ points out as the person to love and accept. That is the one who should be here with us now.
Let's take off our prejudices. Let's not cast our prejudices, fears and short-sightedness on God. Let's love our neighbor. That is FUNDAMENTAL.
Now FUNDAMENTALISM is different. It is what we are trying to avoid. Fundamentalism is someone's interpretation of scripture that is only 150 years old. Our scripture is 2000-3000 years old. That OLD TIME RELIGION is NEW. It was a response to something called the ENLIGHTENMENT, when common people finally had their scriptures in a language they could read and began to apply their God-given reason and logic to Biblical thought, just as scholars, rabbis, prophets and priests had done for thousands of years. They had the power to read and discern and influence their own destiny. And some took it even further and said “wait, we can use these same principals to govern ourselves,” and our nation was born. And yet, there are those who would shut us down, using this same Word and saying, “No, it is not your reason. That is not our TRUTH!” And they claim “this is not what the Bible says,” as if the Bible had a mouth and vocal cords and as if what they were doing to it was anything but a bad ventriloquism act supporting their own prejudices.
Let us, my friends, not put words in the Bible's mouth, but, rather, faithful, prayerfully dig deep into all that is written here. With awe, and trembling, let's recognize who and whose we are, and, especially, WHO WE WILL WELCOME regardless of sexual orientation, economic status, race, gender or any other thing that we cynically, faithlessly use to bicker with our brothers and sisters.
That's FUNDAMENTALS as opposed to fundamentalism.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Where's the Honor?!?!?
I just spent a most detestable hour reading through blogs and watching videos from the presidential campaigns. This is ridiculous and brutal. The hatred, half-truths and outright fabrications meant to assassinate character and prejudice voters is reprehensible. There is no honor in any candidate allowing such activities to take place in their name...in OUR name!
I read up on the candidates' positions on important issues. I followed their statements at debates. I take each at their word on their plans for the nation. I made my choice and am ready for the voting booth.
I do not appreciate the desperate, win-at-all-cost politics of innuendo and character assassination. I do not like cheap shots and impossibly twisted "facts" in front of hand-picked, hate-filled crowds. I do not care for these assaults on the democratic process.
I am ashamed for those who apparently have no shame of their own.
I read up on the candidates' positions on important issues. I followed their statements at debates. I take each at their word on their plans for the nation. I made my choice and am ready for the voting booth.
I do not appreciate the desperate, win-at-all-cost politics of innuendo and character assassination. I do not like cheap shots and impossibly twisted "facts" in front of hand-picked, hate-filled crowds. I do not care for these assaults on the democratic process.
I am ashamed for those who apparently have no shame of their own.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
School's In
Well here we are at one of my least favorite days of the year. The house is empty as the wife and kids have headed back to school. Going home for lunch isn't any great treat right now, as I have to get used to the empty rooms.
Life is moving so terribly fast! Suddenly I've got a kid in 10th and another in middle school. Gone are the days of waiting together for the bus to come. Present are the days of engaging conversations and occasional advice (and my kids are as likely to offer it as ask for it). I definitely enjoy these times with my kids, but it really does seem like the clock is accelerating and they are just a few breaths away from heading out on their own. I love my life too much not to get a little misty over the passing of eras. I am that blessed.
At the birth of my children so many of my elders said "hang on to these times and enjoy them. They are gone before you know it." Wisdom. Wisdom
Life is moving so terribly fast! Suddenly I've got a kid in 10th and another in middle school. Gone are the days of waiting together for the bus to come. Present are the days of engaging conversations and occasional advice (and my kids are as likely to offer it as ask for it). I definitely enjoy these times with my kids, but it really does seem like the clock is accelerating and they are just a few breaths away from heading out on their own. I love my life too much not to get a little misty over the passing of eras. I am that blessed.
At the birth of my children so many of my elders said "hang on to these times and enjoy them. They are gone before you know it." Wisdom. Wisdom
Monday, August 18, 2008
This Just In: China Still China
From the Times Online, London:
Michael Sheridan, Beijing
The mystery of the half-filled stands at many events at the 2008 Olympic Games has been solved, according to Chinese internet users, who say it is the result of a policy to prevent the gathering of large and possibly uncontrollable crowds.
They claim ticket sales to the public were secretly restricted. Blocks of tickets went to government departments, Communist party officials or state-owned companies, which have quietly obeyed orders not to hand them out. “People are so angry because they slept all night outside ticket booths and got nothing and now they see this,” said one blogger, Jian Yu.
Official explanations eroded swiftly because internet insurgents have rapidly identified cracks in the perfect facade constructed for the Olympics.
In the nine days since Chinese leaders presided over a grandiose - and, it turns out, partly faked - opening ceremony, one fact after another has eluded the censors and fuelled public indignation at the costs and the charade. Protected, they hope, by online anonymity, some of China’s 1.3 billion people are daring to wonder where it will all end.
Related Links
Anger turns to uprising along the Silk Road
At some football matches in the northern city of Shenyang, only a third of the seats were taken. Even some gymnastics finals, usually one of the biggest attractions on the programme, were not sold out.
Nobody seems to have explained it to the International Olympic Committee, which is baffled by the empty seats, or to the sponsors, who are disappointed.
The policy meant that some British supporters have been deprived of the excitement of seeing the Games. Even parents of competitors, such as those of Rebecca Adlington, the gold medal-winning swimmer, have complained about being unable to get seats.
Jeff Hunter, group operations director for Sportsworld, the official travel and ticket agent for the British Olympic Association, said: “It is surprising that not all the venues have been as full as they could have been.”
Lower-ranking Chinese officials hastily bused in paid “volunteers” to populate the stands in Beijing, appreciating the embarrassment caused by leaving them half-empty, but public relations remain a matter of indifference to most guardians of public order.
Security has been heavy-handed from the start. As the film director Zhang Yimou’s extravaganza kicked off with a boom, I watched on a giant screen in a park, one of the few venues where ordinary Chinese people were allowed to gather.
They cheered as the fireworks exploded, few looking up to find that there were, in fact, none to be seen because the sequence was produced by software, not gunpowder.
They cooed at nine-year-old Lin Miaoke, hardly caring that her lyrics were obviously mimed, and as she sang they went into a patriotic delirium when goose-stepping soldiers raised the national flag. Yet even these loyal citizens could not be trusted. We were surrounded by dozens of police who locked the gates to keep us in and others out.
Chao Chanqing, an exiled journalist widely read on web-sites accessible in China, has accused Zhang, the director, of playing the same role as Leni Riefenstahl, who filmed an epic documentary for Hitler at the Berlin Olympics of 1936.
The director scorns the comparison but he admitted that a Chinese leader ordered him to make changes to the ceremony. “I had no chance to reject his opinion,” he told the Nanfang Weekend newspaper. Analysts said he was referring to vice-president Xi Jinping, heir apparent to the top job.
Government officials swept thousands of migrant workers out of Beijing – the very people who built the stadium, at least 10 of them paying with their lives. Police arrested hundreds of provincial petitioners who sought justice in the capital and sent at least 58 to labour camps for “reeducation”.
The sick were told that routine surgery was cancelled in every hospital and officials shut some psychiatric patients inside their wards.
Even as the nation is supposed to be keeping a keen tally of the gold medal count, dissenters are daring to raise the issue of how much the Games have cost the people of China.
For all its export might, China is still a poor, largely agrarian country with perhaps 700m farmers and 150m migrant workers. The size of its economy is huge but, measured by wealth per head, it ranks 109th in the world, comparable with Swaziland or Morocco.
It faces an acute crisis as its people live longer but fewer are born; the old lack pensions and healthcare must be paid for. Half the population does not have clean drinking water and 16 cities are among the most polluted on earth.
So why, asked the mainland Chinese writers in a Hong Kong magazine named Kaifang (Opening Up), did China blow more than £20 billion on the Games?
They calculate that the total costs may exceed £30 billion, more than the Chinese government will spend this year on education or public health or relief for the Sichuan earthquake. These are questions that would make any ruler nervous.
Chinese leaders prided themselves on the splendid reception for dignitaries and 10,500 athletes. They rejected criticism of their policies on Darfur, Burma and Zimbabwe, brushing aside foreign demonstrators complaining about Tibet.
However, they remain worried about political undercurrents among their people. These can be unexpected. Despite pervasive internet control, censors could not stop nationalist criticism about the diplomatic price China has paid for mounting the Games.
Exhibit one for the ultra-patriots was a border treaty signed on July 21 between China and Russia to settle disputes over their Siberian territories that led to armed clashes during the cold war. Official accounts of the treaty emphasised the return to China of 1½ islands in the icy Amur River that divides the two nations.
Online critics were enraged because the foreign ministry appeared to have recognised the 19th-century conquest of thousands of square miles of land by Tsarist Russia. “These lands belong to all the people of China,” a blogger called “Tiger” wrote. It was only on the day the treaty was signed that the attendance of Vladimir Putin at the opening ceremony of the Games was confirmed.
Exhibit two was an agreement on June 18 between China and Japan to embark on joint exploration for oil and gas in a disputed zone of the East China Sea. It was only after this agreement that Yasuo Fukuda, Japan's prime minister, confirmed that he, too, would attend the opening.
It may seem remote to the athletes and sports fans in Beijing, but national pride is central to the Olympic message that China's government has crafted for its own youth.
Few foreigners will make their way to the Stalinist palace in west Beijing that houses the national military museum, but thousands of schoolchildren were trooping through a new exhibition there last week.
They saw a version that traces their country's descent into poverty and chaos to British aggression in the 1840 opium war. "The imperial powers descended upon China like a swarm of bees, looting our treasures and killing our people," the exhibit reminded viewers.
There was no mention of the famines that may have claimed 30m lives after Mao's "great leap forward", of the decade of chaos in the Cultural Revolution, which killed 1m more, or of the democracy protests in 1989 which ended in the massacre at Tiananmen Square.
Despite the precise attention given to such a perfect display, somebody seems to have missed the bold headline on a student newspaper published in 1919, when China was in a ferment of idealism and its Communist party did not exist.
It stated: "Democracy - a government for the people, by the people and of the people - our motto."
Michael Sheridan, Beijing
The mystery of the half-filled stands at many events at the 2008 Olympic Games has been solved, according to Chinese internet users, who say it is the result of a policy to prevent the gathering of large and possibly uncontrollable crowds.
They claim ticket sales to the public were secretly restricted. Blocks of tickets went to government departments, Communist party officials or state-owned companies, which have quietly obeyed orders not to hand them out. “People are so angry because they slept all night outside ticket booths and got nothing and now they see this,” said one blogger, Jian Yu.
Official explanations eroded swiftly because internet insurgents have rapidly identified cracks in the perfect facade constructed for the Olympics.
In the nine days since Chinese leaders presided over a grandiose - and, it turns out, partly faked - opening ceremony, one fact after another has eluded the censors and fuelled public indignation at the costs and the charade. Protected, they hope, by online anonymity, some of China’s 1.3 billion people are daring to wonder where it will all end.
Related Links
Anger turns to uprising along the Silk Road
At some football matches in the northern city of Shenyang, only a third of the seats were taken. Even some gymnastics finals, usually one of the biggest attractions on the programme, were not sold out.
Nobody seems to have explained it to the International Olympic Committee, which is baffled by the empty seats, or to the sponsors, who are disappointed.
The policy meant that some British supporters have been deprived of the excitement of seeing the Games. Even parents of competitors, such as those of Rebecca Adlington, the gold medal-winning swimmer, have complained about being unable to get seats.
Jeff Hunter, group operations director for Sportsworld, the official travel and ticket agent for the British Olympic Association, said: “It is surprising that not all the venues have been as full as they could have been.”
Lower-ranking Chinese officials hastily bused in paid “volunteers” to populate the stands in Beijing, appreciating the embarrassment caused by leaving them half-empty, but public relations remain a matter of indifference to most guardians of public order.
Security has been heavy-handed from the start. As the film director Zhang Yimou’s extravaganza kicked off with a boom, I watched on a giant screen in a park, one of the few venues where ordinary Chinese people were allowed to gather.
They cheered as the fireworks exploded, few looking up to find that there were, in fact, none to be seen because the sequence was produced by software, not gunpowder.
They cooed at nine-year-old Lin Miaoke, hardly caring that her lyrics were obviously mimed, and as she sang they went into a patriotic delirium when goose-stepping soldiers raised the national flag. Yet even these loyal citizens could not be trusted. We were surrounded by dozens of police who locked the gates to keep us in and others out.
Chao Chanqing, an exiled journalist widely read on web-sites accessible in China, has accused Zhang, the director, of playing the same role as Leni Riefenstahl, who filmed an epic documentary for Hitler at the Berlin Olympics of 1936.
The director scorns the comparison but he admitted that a Chinese leader ordered him to make changes to the ceremony. “I had no chance to reject his opinion,” he told the Nanfang Weekend newspaper. Analysts said he was referring to vice-president Xi Jinping, heir apparent to the top job.
Government officials swept thousands of migrant workers out of Beijing – the very people who built the stadium, at least 10 of them paying with their lives. Police arrested hundreds of provincial petitioners who sought justice in the capital and sent at least 58 to labour camps for “reeducation”.
The sick were told that routine surgery was cancelled in every hospital and officials shut some psychiatric patients inside their wards.
Even as the nation is supposed to be keeping a keen tally of the gold medal count, dissenters are daring to raise the issue of how much the Games have cost the people of China.
For all its export might, China is still a poor, largely agrarian country with perhaps 700m farmers and 150m migrant workers. The size of its economy is huge but, measured by wealth per head, it ranks 109th in the world, comparable with Swaziland or Morocco.
It faces an acute crisis as its people live longer but fewer are born; the old lack pensions and healthcare must be paid for. Half the population does not have clean drinking water and 16 cities are among the most polluted on earth.
So why, asked the mainland Chinese writers in a Hong Kong magazine named Kaifang (Opening Up), did China blow more than £20 billion on the Games?
They calculate that the total costs may exceed £30 billion, more than the Chinese government will spend this year on education or public health or relief for the Sichuan earthquake. These are questions that would make any ruler nervous.
Chinese leaders prided themselves on the splendid reception for dignitaries and 10,500 athletes. They rejected criticism of their policies on Darfur, Burma and Zimbabwe, brushing aside foreign demonstrators complaining about Tibet.
However, they remain worried about political undercurrents among their people. These can be unexpected. Despite pervasive internet control, censors could not stop nationalist criticism about the diplomatic price China has paid for mounting the Games.
Exhibit one for the ultra-patriots was a border treaty signed on July 21 between China and Russia to settle disputes over their Siberian territories that led to armed clashes during the cold war. Official accounts of the treaty emphasised the return to China of 1½ islands in the icy Amur River that divides the two nations.
Online critics were enraged because the foreign ministry appeared to have recognised the 19th-century conquest of thousands of square miles of land by Tsarist Russia. “These lands belong to all the people of China,” a blogger called “Tiger” wrote. It was only on the day the treaty was signed that the attendance of Vladimir Putin at the opening ceremony of the Games was confirmed.
Exhibit two was an agreement on June 18 between China and Japan to embark on joint exploration for oil and gas in a disputed zone of the East China Sea. It was only after this agreement that Yasuo Fukuda, Japan's prime minister, confirmed that he, too, would attend the opening.
It may seem remote to the athletes and sports fans in Beijing, but national pride is central to the Olympic message that China's government has crafted for its own youth.
Few foreigners will make their way to the Stalinist palace in west Beijing that houses the national military museum, but thousands of schoolchildren were trooping through a new exhibition there last week.
They saw a version that traces their country's descent into poverty and chaos to British aggression in the 1840 opium war. "The imperial powers descended upon China like a swarm of bees, looting our treasures and killing our people," the exhibit reminded viewers.
There was no mention of the famines that may have claimed 30m lives after Mao's "great leap forward", of the decade of chaos in the Cultural Revolution, which killed 1m more, or of the democracy protests in 1989 which ended in the massacre at Tiananmen Square.
Despite the precise attention given to such a perfect display, somebody seems to have missed the bold headline on a student newspaper published in 1919, when China was in a ferment of idealism and its Communist party did not exist.
It stated: "Democracy - a government for the people, by the people and of the people - our motto."
Thursday, August 14, 2008
A Mother's Cry
My Dear Friends,
I recently received an anonymous communication from a Christian parent with an unusual request. I have no way of knowing if or how this person is affiliated with our church, but I recognized a deep hurt, anxiety and confusion, so I will honor the request, which was to offer a Word this Sunday regarding the role of a Christian parent whose adult child has strayed in a particular manner.
Whoever you are, you rightly seek spiritual wisdom to lead you through a complex situation. I offer you this Word from the fourth Gospel:
John 8:2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them.
3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them,
4 they said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.
5 Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"
6 They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."
8 And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
9 When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
10 Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?"
11 She said, "No one, sir." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again."
Concerned parent, whoever you are, I ask you to prayerfully reflect on this reading and the path Christ chose. He sheltered the individual from the harm others would inflict, regardless of guilt. He identified himself with and stood up for the sinner, no matter who was watching and what they might think. He did not condemn, but offered instead a steadying hand, quiet forgiveness, simple encouragement and the grace-filled freedom to move on and do better.
Whoever you are, you are in my prayers.
I recently received an anonymous communication from a Christian parent with an unusual request. I have no way of knowing if or how this person is affiliated with our church, but I recognized a deep hurt, anxiety and confusion, so I will honor the request, which was to offer a Word this Sunday regarding the role of a Christian parent whose adult child has strayed in a particular manner.
Whoever you are, you rightly seek spiritual wisdom to lead you through a complex situation. I offer you this Word from the fourth Gospel:
John 8:2 Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them.
3 The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them,
4 they said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.
5 Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?"
6 They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."
8 And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
9 When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
10 Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?"
11 She said, "No one, sir." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again."
Concerned parent, whoever you are, I ask you to prayerfully reflect on this reading and the path Christ chose. He sheltered the individual from the harm others would inflict, regardless of guilt. He identified himself with and stood up for the sinner, no matter who was watching and what they might think. He did not condemn, but offered instead a steadying hand, quiet forgiveness, simple encouragement and the grace-filled freedom to move on and do better.
Whoever you are, you are in my prayers.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Materialism and Corporate America
“I know a man, he lost his head. He said: 'The way I feel I'd be better off dead.' He said: 'I've got everything I've ever wanted, now I can't give it up...It's a trap. Just my luck.' ” -- Laurie Anderson, Monkey's Paw, from the album Strange Angels, (C) 1989, Warner Bros.
I see where the Pope spoke to young people in Australia, challenging them to abandon the headlong pursuit of material wealth. I assume he then flew his private jet back to his palatial apartments alongside the opulent, gold-, silver- and marble-filled St. Peter's Basilica. (I am not anti-Catholic. I am pro-irony.) I can only imagine what the humble fisherman-turned-itinerant servant of the Gospel would think of the towering, multi-billion dollar structure that bears his name.
The love of money is the root of much that is evil, Paul warned Timothy (1 Timothy 6:10). I must admit, if I don't love money, I am at least exceedingly fond of it. We don't get nearly enough time together, money and me. But I cherish every moment we spend.
For the thinking, self-examining American Christian, it is difficult to reconcile anti-materialistic Gospel messages with our hotly promoted civic shopping duties in this consumer culture. It is a struggle to wave bye-bye to all of the voices alternately whispering and screaming “BUY BUY.” But many of us view this American life as hopelessly perverted from the pursuit of happiness to the pursuit of MORE.
I believe we as a nation have lost our moral compass. Deregulation has been the mantra of the past four administrations, with devastating results. I provide as evidence the state of our supposed “free-market” economy: The deregulated media has bought out and shut down all competing and minority voices and given us pap in place of substance. The deregulated energy industry has given us the likes of Enron and oil companies that jack up profits to obscene margins as they rape the earth and consumers alike. The deregulated banking industry has given us mortgage and credit crises far worse than anything this nation has ever before seen. The deregulated investment industry has given us Bear-Stearns and many others whose uppermost executives fly off with their millions, immune to the common folks who have seen their retirements flushed down the drain. Deregulated airline industry? A poorly maintained fleet, lousy service and bankruptcies. Deregulated food industries? Outbreaks of food-borne illnesses, reprehensible land and animal stewardship, and brutal labor practices.
Deregulation will only work if the deregulated are willing and able to police themselves. This requires an awareness of – and allegiance to – a higher moral authority. But the current leaders of the corporate world in general seem to suffer from spiritual bankruptcy, doing things to boost stock prices that undermine our lives, our communities, our government and nation.
A for-profit corporation as a legal entity is an artificial person, born selfish and self-absorbed. A for-profit corporation “lives' to make as much money as possible. Such corporations love mammon, as it is the full defining measure of success and self-worth. A corporate entity has no conscience beyond that which its human handlers carry in their Armani briefcases. What's best for the stock price is seldom equivalent to what is best for humanity. But what's best for the stock price is inevitably the focus of the for-profit corporation.
The current state of for-profit America hearkens back to the days of the robber barons, doing whatever it takes to corner markets and eliminate the competition, regardless of what is best for the nation and her citizens. We are encouraged to remain addicted to that which does not satisfy. We are encouraged to help spread the disease of rampant consumerism to every foreign shore. We are encouraged to adopt the every-man-for-himself approach of the soulless corporation.
There is nothing inherently sinful in honestly pursuing prosperity. But I strain to find honesty in today's marketplace. How about you?
I see where the Pope spoke to young people in Australia, challenging them to abandon the headlong pursuit of material wealth. I assume he then flew his private jet back to his palatial apartments alongside the opulent, gold-, silver- and marble-filled St. Peter's Basilica. (I am not anti-Catholic. I am pro-irony.) I can only imagine what the humble fisherman-turned-itinerant servant of the Gospel would think of the towering, multi-billion dollar structure that bears his name.
The love of money is the root of much that is evil, Paul warned Timothy (1 Timothy 6:10). I must admit, if I don't love money, I am at least exceedingly fond of it. We don't get nearly enough time together, money and me. But I cherish every moment we spend.
For the thinking, self-examining American Christian, it is difficult to reconcile anti-materialistic Gospel messages with our hotly promoted civic shopping duties in this consumer culture. It is a struggle to wave bye-bye to all of the voices alternately whispering and screaming “BUY BUY.” But many of us view this American life as hopelessly perverted from the pursuit of happiness to the pursuit of MORE.
I believe we as a nation have lost our moral compass. Deregulation has been the mantra of the past four administrations, with devastating results. I provide as evidence the state of our supposed “free-market” economy: The deregulated media has bought out and shut down all competing and minority voices and given us pap in place of substance. The deregulated energy industry has given us the likes of Enron and oil companies that jack up profits to obscene margins as they rape the earth and consumers alike. The deregulated banking industry has given us mortgage and credit crises far worse than anything this nation has ever before seen. The deregulated investment industry has given us Bear-Stearns and many others whose uppermost executives fly off with their millions, immune to the common folks who have seen their retirements flushed down the drain. Deregulated airline industry? A poorly maintained fleet, lousy service and bankruptcies. Deregulated food industries? Outbreaks of food-borne illnesses, reprehensible land and animal stewardship, and brutal labor practices.
Deregulation will only work if the deregulated are willing and able to police themselves. This requires an awareness of – and allegiance to – a higher moral authority. But the current leaders of the corporate world in general seem to suffer from spiritual bankruptcy, doing things to boost stock prices that undermine our lives, our communities, our government and nation.
A for-profit corporation as a legal entity is an artificial person, born selfish and self-absorbed. A for-profit corporation “lives' to make as much money as possible. Such corporations love mammon, as it is the full defining measure of success and self-worth. A corporate entity has no conscience beyond that which its human handlers carry in their Armani briefcases. What's best for the stock price is seldom equivalent to what is best for humanity. But what's best for the stock price is inevitably the focus of the for-profit corporation.
The current state of for-profit America hearkens back to the days of the robber barons, doing whatever it takes to corner markets and eliminate the competition, regardless of what is best for the nation and her citizens. We are encouraged to remain addicted to that which does not satisfy. We are encouraged to help spread the disease of rampant consumerism to every foreign shore. We are encouraged to adopt the every-man-for-himself approach of the soulless corporation.
There is nothing inherently sinful in honestly pursuing prosperity. But I strain to find honesty in today's marketplace. How about you?
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