30th Anniversary of My Ordination

On this day in 1983 by the grace of God I was ordained as a minister of Word and Sacrament by the Metropolitan Association, New York Conference of the United Church of Christ. I solicit your prayers that I may continue to keep my ordination vows and fulfil my duties of ministry by serving God's people, building up Christ's Church, and glorifying the holy and undivided Trinity. Soli Deo Gloria.

Interview with Jim Wallis

Recently I had the opportunity to speak to Jim Wallis of Sojourners .  Since my college years I have followed and admired the work of this community. 

"Sojourners is a national Christian organization committed to faith in action for social justice. We seek to inspire hope and build a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world. With a 40-year history, Sojourners is a nonpartisan leader that convenes, builds alliances among, and mobilizes people of faith, focusing on racial and social justice, life and peace, and environmental stewardship. Working through Sojourners magazine, Sojourners’ website sojo.net, public speaking events, media outreach, educational resources, books, advocacy, and trainings, Sojourners is an internationally influential voice at the intersection of faith, politics, and culture." (from their website).

His recent book is entitled "On God's Side: What Religion Forgets And Politics Hasn't Learned About Serving The Common Good".

This interview was originally broadcast on KBOO community radio on June 10, 2013.

Progressive Portland: A Bitter Divide

The flouride ballot measure unveiled a deep divide within Portland progressive community. It became clear early on that the election would follow the all too familiar pattern of American politics of viewing one's position on an issue as the only moral, correct, logical, fill in the blank, position, and those who took the opposing view as immoral, incorrect, illogical, fill in the blank. Rather than bringing out the best, the campaigns brought out the worst. Forgive the pun, but it leaves a sour taste in my mouth. 

If those of us who call ourselves progressives are unable to model a way that allows for disagreement in a way that builds rather than destroys trust among ourselves, how can we hope to bring together communities with even stronger more fundamental differences? We all lost this evening. The winners were self righteousness and cynicism. We did not model the beloved community we often profess is our goal. We should pause, reflect, and repent. We should commit ourselves to seeking a better way together. In the words of St. Benedict, "always we begin again".

Epiphany Proclamation: 2013

JESUS MAFA. The Three Wise Men, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=48399


In the first lesson for the Feast of Epiphany the prophet proclaims, "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you" (Isaiah 60:1 NRSV).  For those in the Northern hemisphere who must rise out of their beds in the early hours of the morning it may be difficult to affirm this insight.  Yet, if we are observant, we notice that it is lighter earlier this week than last week, and that next week the sun will rise earlier. 

For many the fussiness of Christmas is over, except for packing and storing Christmas decorations, the thank you notes for soon to be forgotten gifts that parents ask their children to write to distant relatives, and paying the bills that will arrive in January.  Yet, before we return to the humdrum of our ordinary lives, we are called to stop and behold the child.

The light has come. 

Like the wise rulers we behold the infant and return to our worlds by a different route, intrigued and perplexed by our experience of beholding the divine in human flesh. However we soon realize that today does not look any different than yesterday, or a thousand yesterdays.  Torture, hunger, climate change, domestic violence, human trafficking, continue. Yet, we can not help but affirm the prophet's proclamation:

The light has come.

Perhaps it is because the incarnation reminds us that we are not alone.  The  struggle for justice and peace is a difficult one.  But we are not alone. 


Dorothy Sayers wrote: -->

"That for whatever reason God chose to make man as he is - limited and suffering and subject to sorrows and death - he had the honesty and courage to take His own medicine. Whatever game he is playing with His creation, He has kept His own rules and played fair. He can exact nothing from man that He has not exacted from himself. He has Himself gone through the whole of human experience, from the trivial irritations of family life and the cramping restrictions of hard work and lack of money to the worst horrors of pain and humiliation, defeat, despair, and death. When He was a man, He played the man. he was born in poverty and died in disgrace and thought it well worth it" ("The Greatest Drama Ever Staged: Is the Official Creed of Christendom", in Christian Letters To A Post-Christian World, published by Eerdmans. 1969).

God is with us.  Emmanuel.  The light has come.

And so we enter Epiphany and Ordinary time (from the Latin, tempus per annum, time through the year)  and are invited to accompany Jesus on a journey. As we journey we will encounter wonders, disappointments, miracles, and hardships. Yet we believe. 

God is with us. Emmanuel. The light has come.

Soon the season of Lent will be upon us.  We will examine our lives, priorities, hopes, and fears. Maybe we will experience metanoia, a radical change. God only knows. Yet we know we are not alone in this journey.  

We are with our community.  God is with us.  Emmanuel.  The light has come.

But, we should not rush ahead too quickly as we are culturally programmed to do. Instead, let us recall and reflect on an ancient practice of the church. 

Before personal electronic devices, before the printing press, before most people could read, Christian communities gathered on Epiphany  to hear the dates of the liturgical year, and to be reminded how to live, that is, by following Jesus who guides us on our journey.  "The Proclamation proclaims not only dates but the reality that our lives are to be lived in rhythm with and according to Jesus’ life." (Michael Marsh). This is called the "Epiphany Proclamation".  Today many churches are embracing this ancient practice.

The Rule of St. Benedict reminds us, "always we begin again."

We are with our community.  God is with us.  Emmanuel. The light has come.

The Epiphany Proclamation 2013:

Dear brothers and sisters,
the glory of the Lord has shone upon us,
and shall ever be manifest among us,
until the day of his return.

Through the rhythms of times and seasons
let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation.

Let us recall the year's culmination,
the Easter Triduum of the Lord:
his last supper, his crucifixion, his burial,
and his rising celebrated
between the evening of the Twenty-Eighth day of March
and the evening of the Thirtieth day of March, Easter Sunday being on the Thirty-First day of March.

Each Easter -- as on each Sunday --
the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed
by which Christ has for ever conquered sin and death.
From Easter are reckoned all the days we keep holy.

Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent,
will occur on the Thirteenth day of February.

The Ascension of the Lord will be commemorated on the Ninth day of May.

Pentecost, joyful conclusion of the season of Easter,
will be celebrated on the Nineteenth day of May.

And, this year the First Sunday of Advent will be
on the First day of December.

Likewise the pilgrim Church proclaims the passover of Christ
in the feasts of the holy Mother of God,
in the feasts of the Apostles and Saints,
and in the commemoration of the faithful departed.

To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come,
Lord of time and history,
be endless praise, for ever and ever.

Amen.

December 28: Holy Innocents, Martyrs. A Necessary Stumbling Block?

Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs. It is a most difficult feast to understand, let alone celebrate.  Especially in light of the recent mass murder of six and seven years old children in a Connecticut school and the continued drone attacks on civilians I find it difficult to think of the massacre of infants as a Feast Day.

Madeleine L'Engle writes in The Irrational Season:

"Holy Innocents' Day is a stumbling block for me.  This is a festival? this remembering the slaughter of all those babies under two years of age whose only wrong was to have been born at a time when the three Wise Men came out of the East to worship a great King; and Herod, in panic lest his earthly power be taken away from him by this unknown infant potentate, ordered the execution of all the children who might brow up to dethrone him. "

We celebrate calculated human acts of violence upon the most innocent of all? Tragic events happen everyday.  A man being pushed in front of a subway car, a mother and her children losing their home and are tossed out into the cold, a child is raped by someone she  trusts, environmental destruction is accepted because it is profitable for the shareholders, are all examples of this cruel world. Do we celebrate these?  If we confronted these tragedies head on, we should begin to question our trust in a benevolent God.

It makes no sense!

But then  neither does  the incarnation, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth make sense.  What does not make sense is the faith of oppressed people in all ages and lands who affirm their belief in  a better tomorrow by surviving and thriving to overcome the forces of evil.  What does not make sense are my  ancestors' affirmation and trust in a loving, caring, and omnipotent God while their children were being snatched from them and  their mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, beaten in front of them?  What made them  continue to sing the songs of freedom?

Perhaps the proper response is compassionate presence.  Refuse to offer an explanation.  Can we?  Instead perform acts of mercy: dry the tear of a heart broken mother; hug the grieving father, change the diaper of an orphaned baby.

Their will be time to question our faith.  And we should.  There will be a time to act for justice.  And we will.  But now it is the season to sit, remember, reflect, and be present.

We remember today, O God, the slaughter of the holy innocents of Bethlehem by King Herod. Receive, we pray, into the arms of your mercy all innocent victims; and by your great might frustrate the designs of evil tyrants and establish your rule of justice, love and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(Collect. Feast of Holy Innocents. Book of Common Prayer. 1979).

"Love, The Stairway to Heaven": Reflections on the Feast of St. Stephen, First Martyr.

In recent days I have been thinking about when we perceive God is absent. The slaughter of children in Connecticut, the mall shootings in Portland, the murder of volunteer fire fighters in New York, the ongoing drones attack in Pakistan, the neglect and rejection of the poor by our political leaders seem to point to a world without God.

Yet  Christians affirm that God is not absent. We confess that God became human and endures human hardship, pain, and death. As at the first Christmas, God's presence may not be recognized easily. Perhaps we look in the wrong places for God. God is where we do not expect the divine. The Apostle John reflects on God's incarnation and states God came to God's own people, but they did not recognize God. "He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not" (John.1:10-11. RSV).

Today we remember St. Stephen, Deacon and First Martyr. In the midst of Christmas we are confronted with the horrors of humanity. This week, in addition to remembering St. Stephen's death at the hands of a lynch mob, we recall the slaughter of children by a vicious, power hungry ruler (December 28: Holy Innocents). What little we know about Stephen we read in the Acts of the Apostles (Chapters 6 and 7). St. Stephen shows us that although we are surrounded by powerful forces of hatred and destruction, we are called to live, even in the midst of death, by ministering to the needs of ordinary people, speaking truth to power,and forgiving instead of seeking revenge.

In his sermon entitled "Armor of Love", St. Fulgentius of Ruspe proclaims that  for St. Stephen,

 "Love inspired him to reprove those who erred, to make them amend; love led him to pray for those who stoned him, to save them from punishment. Strengthened by the power of his love, he overcame the raging cruelty of Saul and won his persecutor on earth as his companion in heaven. In his holy and tireless love he longed to gain by prayer those whom he could not convert by admonition...
Love, indeed, is the source of all good things; it is an impregnable defence,- and the way that leads to heaven. He who walks in love can neither go astray nor be afraid: love guides him, protects him, and brings him to his journey's end.
My brothers, Christ made love the stairway that would enable all Christians to climb to heaven. Hold fast to it, therefore, in all sincerity, give one another practical proof of it, and by your progress in it, make your ascent together."
The love ethic of Jesus and embraced by St. Stephen, does not  answer to everyone's satisfaction the universal and persistent questions about evil. Yet  we know that a child born in an obscure village to a poor young couple has changed how many people confront evil.  We may not have lasting and  satisfactory answers to that which we experience as evil, but the Christian can assert the mystery of the Incarnation means in part that God is with us (Emmanuel) and calls us to love.

"We give you thanks, O Lord of glory, for the example of the first martyr Stephen, who looked up to heaven and prayed for his persecutors to your Son Jesus Christ, who stands at your right hand; where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen" (Book of Common Prayer. 1979).

Great Advent - O Emmanuel. Antiphon for December 23

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expected of nations and their Savior: Come, and save us, O Lord our God