When it comes to life after death,
My wife and I decided many years
ago.
That whatever happens, it'll be okay.
It's never been high on my list.
Because I had good preachers and teachers who
Didn't dwell on it, but on life, instead.
So, whatever happens, it'll be okay.
Whatever God decides.
it'll be okay.
Okay?
Okay!
With one caveat ... for others who've suffered
Much and had life cut short.
For them, I'd like something more.
A full belly.
A safe bed.
Some toys.
Okay?
Okay!
Whatever God decides.
But I hope ... for their sake ...
I'd be okay with that.
Okay?
Okay!
Showing posts with label Justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Justice. Show all posts
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Missing Out on the Sermon on the Mount
I grew up in a mostly evangelical environment, Dutch Reformed specifically.
It was very much about salvation, but with a clear intellectual dogmatic foundation. Folks weren't afraid of thinking, but it was clearly determined by boundaries, beyond which one didn't go, because there was no need for anything more than what was already available within the tradition. We had the answers, and we knew how to read the Bible.
One of the ways of reading the Bible was how the Beatitudes were read - primarily as something quite ideal and beyond our reach, of value for reminding us how much we're sinners, and how badly we need the atoning death of Jesus - who, having died for our sin, puts us right with the Father, so that we can have eternal life. To safeguard our eternal God, we're careful not to violate the essential and personal moral strictures that have mostly to do with alcohol and tobacco, theater attendance, card-playing, and sex. Making money, as much as you can, was just fine. If you had money, you gave to your favorite charities including the church, to maintain buildings and programs and missionaries - locally, perhaps, a rescue mission, retirement homes, colleges and seminaries.
The fact that the Sermon on the Mount is the longest discourse given by Jesus doesn't register with evangelicals - fact is, much of the Gospels fail to register, drawn to Paul as evangelicals are, and if they're reading the Old Testament at all, drawn primarily to the historical books dealing with conquest and war, temple building and priest-craft, kings and queens, power and punishment.
By sidestepping the Sermon on the Mount as an ethical discourse for daily life, evangelicals relieve themselves of a tremendous ethical burden, and if pushed, will often reply, "Well, no one's perfect."
True enough, but Jesus, who seems to understand that rather well, yet proceeds with the Sermon, even saying that one might be as "perfect" as the Father in heaven is perfect, or complete; meaning: that one can ethically love others, be fair and decent, and treat all with kindness. In other words, as the word in Greek rightly means, one can be "complete" - i.e., one can have all the components of divine benevolence - not on the same scale, but with similar intensity and broadness.
Granted, we're not perfect, not even complete, whatever that means, but lack of perfection shouldn't stop anyone from trying. I mean, is this not what we learn in school, in sports and music and painting and marriage? Just because we're imperfect is not reason to give up, but rather reason all the more to persist.
Yet in the evangelical community, the lack of perfection becomes, when it comes to the Sermon on the Mount, not an encouragement to try, but a reason to simply "flee to Jesus for mercy and salvation."
I missed out on the Sermon on the Mount when I was growing up ... I was clear that I was a sinner in need of grace
I learned that fornication and Onanism were sinful, and so was drunkenness. I heard plenty of sermons about sin and salvation and Jesus "dying for my sins." And likely these days, I would hear plenty about homosexuals and abortion. But I never heard anything about justice, poverty and war; I remember hearing a bit about Communism, but never a question raised about Capitalism.
I never learned the great ethical lessons of the Christian faith, rooted in the Prophets and given new meaning in Jesus, and, yes, even Paul, when read finally in the light of Jesus, and not the other way around, as was the custom in preaching and Bible Study.
It was only years later that I discovered how important is the Sermon on the Mount and that Jesus offers this ethical discourse with a full realization that it was not going to be easy, but that it was possible "to be perfect as our Father in heaven."
It was very much about salvation, but with a clear intellectual dogmatic foundation. Folks weren't afraid of thinking, but it was clearly determined by boundaries, beyond which one didn't go, because there was no need for anything more than what was already available within the tradition. We had the answers, and we knew how to read the Bible.
One of the ways of reading the Bible was how the Beatitudes were read - primarily as something quite ideal and beyond our reach, of value for reminding us how much we're sinners, and how badly we need the atoning death of Jesus - who, having died for our sin, puts us right with the Father, so that we can have eternal life. To safeguard our eternal God, we're careful not to violate the essential and personal moral strictures that have mostly to do with alcohol and tobacco, theater attendance, card-playing, and sex. Making money, as much as you can, was just fine. If you had money, you gave to your favorite charities including the church, to maintain buildings and programs and missionaries - locally, perhaps, a rescue mission, retirement homes, colleges and seminaries.
The fact that the Sermon on the Mount is the longest discourse given by Jesus doesn't register with evangelicals - fact is, much of the Gospels fail to register, drawn to Paul as evangelicals are, and if they're reading the Old Testament at all, drawn primarily to the historical books dealing with conquest and war, temple building and priest-craft, kings and queens, power and punishment.
By sidestepping the Sermon on the Mount as an ethical discourse for daily life, evangelicals relieve themselves of a tremendous ethical burden, and if pushed, will often reply, "Well, no one's perfect."
True enough, but Jesus, who seems to understand that rather well, yet proceeds with the Sermon, even saying that one might be as "perfect" as the Father in heaven is perfect, or complete; meaning: that one can ethically love others, be fair and decent, and treat all with kindness. In other words, as the word in Greek rightly means, one can be "complete" - i.e., one can have all the components of divine benevolence - not on the same scale, but with similar intensity and broadness.
Granted, we're not perfect, not even complete, whatever that means, but lack of perfection shouldn't stop anyone from trying. I mean, is this not what we learn in school, in sports and music and painting and marriage? Just because we're imperfect is not reason to give up, but rather reason all the more to persist.
Yet in the evangelical community, the lack of perfection becomes, when it comes to the Sermon on the Mount, not an encouragement to try, but a reason to simply "flee to Jesus for mercy and salvation."
I missed out on the Sermon on the Mount when I was growing up ... I was clear that I was a sinner in need of grace
I learned that fornication and Onanism were sinful, and so was drunkenness. I heard plenty of sermons about sin and salvation and Jesus "dying for my sins." And likely these days, I would hear plenty about homosexuals and abortion. But I never heard anything about justice, poverty and war; I remember hearing a bit about Communism, but never a question raised about Capitalism.
I never learned the great ethical lessons of the Christian faith, rooted in the Prophets and given new meaning in Jesus, and, yes, even Paul, when read finally in the light of Jesus, and not the other way around, as was the custom in preaching and Bible Study.
It was only years later that I discovered how important is the Sermon on the Mount and that Jesus offers this ethical discourse with a full realization that it was not going to be easy, but that it was possible "to be perfect as our Father in heaven."
Friday, February 15, 2013
Fairness
I think, for much of my adult life, I've had a sense of fairness - what it looks like, and what it's like when it's missing. So much of my current interests and work with CLUE, for example, are all about fairness for people who are otherwise targets of those who would strip away what's fair and replace it with a system that degrades the worker, humiliates them in front of fellow-workers, threatens them with termination, decreases or takes away benefits and job-security, reduces wages, and cuts back on full-time work and substitutes part-time work instead. There's something about all of this that smells to high heaven; it's unfair, and that means it's wrong, contrary to our creation as fellow-creatures, one to the other, and sharing the image of God with one another. And it's all driven by money, the God Mammon, the god of greed. How weird it is that these days the takers are not the poor, but the rich, and the companies they control, and the government agencies they have populated with their own kind, and the rich have convinced millions of Americans to praise greed and condemn the poor. I love America, and we've always loved money, but there was some restraint, even shame. But these days, starting with Mr. Reagan, greed has become good, kindness a waste of time, social justice defined by "I'll keep mine, and you and you can keep yours, and generosity limited to charity, which can mitigate suffering, of course, but does nothing to alter the system that perpetually creates suffering. More than anything, I'm saddened by huge segments of American Christianity that closes its eyes to the growing unfairness of American labor practices and environmental degradation, while singing praise songs and doing Bible study, "to know Jesus all the more." To which Jesus says, "I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers" (Matthew 7.23).
Some thoughts after walking a picket line at the LAX Hilton Hotel, February 15, 20123
Some thoughts after walking a picket line at the LAX Hilton Hotel, February 15, 20123
Friday, November 30, 2012
My Mind Churns
My mind churns with so many thoughts these days.
Can't keep track of 'em.
But like planets around a sun.
They swirl around a central idea.
Some call it justice.
Others fairness.
The world could do better on so many fronts.
The powerful could be less afraid of losing some power.
The wealthy less afraid of helping others.
And less afraid if they have a million or two less at the end of the year with a better taxation structure to benefit the common good.
If only the pulpits of the land could speak a greater wisdom.
Salvation is for here and now and this good earth.
Whatever eternity means, it ought not to be the only interest of preachers.
God takes care of eternity just fine.
It's here and now that concerns God.
And should concern us, too.
Heaven talk is meaningless without earth talk.
Earth talk is all we need; it will take care of heaven just fine.
Grow up church.
And the same to the powerful and the wealthy.
Grow up.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
What Does God Love?
Heard this hymn on radio yesterday ...Impacted me ...
The first verse ...
Breath on me, Breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love
What thou does love,
And do what
Thou wouldst do.
I've sung that hymn ten thousand times.
But yesterday, I heard the words.
That I may love what thou does love ...
And what is it that God loves?
And yesterday, it was Bible Study.
The first 5 Chapters of Isaiah.
What is it that God loves?
The justice proclaimed by Isaiah?
Help the oppressed.
Defend the orphan.
Plead for the widow.
Or the glorious Year of the Lord.
Proclaimed by Jesus in his home-town sermon?
And, then:
That I may do what thou wouldst do ...
And what is that God does?
God creates and empowers?
God saves and makes new?
God raises the dead?
And makes life where none previously existed?
Is this what God does, among other things?
Isaiah offers it clear:
God will judge between the nations.
And settle disputes
Of mighty nations.
Then they will beat
Their swords into iron plows
And their spears into pruning tools.
Nation will not take up sword
Against nation:
They will no longer learn how to make war.
Is this what God does?
Paul says, He's the one who comforts us in all our trouble.
So that we can comfort other people who are in every kind of trouble.
We offer the same comfort that we ourselves received from God.
I want the breath of God, for sure.
I want life.
For myself, my family, my friends.
Like Miss American, I want world peace and everyone to love one another.
But do I love what God loves?
Do I do what God does?
Big questions?
Yeah ... big questions.
And they hurt.
If I let them roll around in me, bumping up against my
Carefully placed spiritual furniture.
Big questions, for sure.
They cry out for some answers.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Women's Day - March 8
World Alliance of Reformed Churches
News Release
7 March 2008
Women challenged to create a better world in WARC’s
International Women’s Day message
Women are being challenged to bring about a world of justice and
human rights in the International Women’s Day 2008 message of
the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) released in Geneva
today.
“On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2008, women
are called upon to rise to this great challenge of bringing about
a better world of justice, human rights, with freedom from
hunger, peace and human security at its core,” said Patricia
Sheerattan-Bisnauth, executive secretary of WARC’s Office for
Church Renewal, Justice and Partnership.
March 8 is celebrated around the world as International
Women’s Day, providing an opportunity to recognize the
contribution of women to society. It is also a time to assess the
status of women and reflect on their engagement in the issues
affecting the lives of their communities
“Men and women are encouraged on this International Women’s
Day 2008 to celebrate the fruits of their labour and the courage
of those who have struggled relentlessly for gender justice and
for partnership between women and men,” Sheerattan-Bisnauth
added.
International Women’s Day has its roots in the early 1900s.
Women have come a long way since those pioneering days when they
were mobilized in the context of rapid industrialization and
economic expansion that created grave disparities between rich
and poor, food shortages and a social crisis for families.
Courageous women dared to break societal constructs of gender
and therefore defined new parameters for women. Women saw their
roles as being important in bringing about change in the world.
“Women who paved the way have given the world much to
celebrate,” said Sheerattan-Bisnauth of Guyana.
“Today’s women continue to build on this legacy, offering
alternatives for a better world. Their experience, knowledge and
survival strategies need to be recognized, valued and celebrated
as a remarkable resistance to the forces of the global economic
system.
“Women have been crying out for an end to violence and
conflicts, calling for urgency in addressing brokenness in
communities and urging transformation based on peace with
justice, where respect, dignity and collective accountability
become the basis for living.”
The women’s movement has been a source of strength in
broadening the agenda of women in ecumenical circles to include
the struggle against slavery and racism.
Still there is a need for a revival of women’s activism and
engagement with civil society and social movements. “Women need
to dialogue with their sisters across borders of race, ethnicity,
class, caste, nationality and religion,” Sheerattan-Bisnauth
said.
The Alliance has been working with churches and other partners
to provide a platform for dialogue between women and men, drawing
attention to gender justice. Through WARC’s scholarships for
women in the South, its education, advocacy and accompaniment
programmes, women have made significant progress in claiming
their rightful place in church and society.
“Women are making a difference in the life and mission of the
Alliance, bringing critical perspectives to key life issues and
shifting the emphasis of the communion so that it has a more
inclusive approach and worldview,” Sheerattan-Bisnauth
concluded.
News Release
7 March 2008
Women challenged to create a better world in WARC’s
International Women’s Day message
Women are being challenged to bring about a world of justice and
human rights in the International Women’s Day 2008 message of
the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) released in Geneva
today.
“On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2008, women
are called upon to rise to this great challenge of bringing about
a better world of justice, human rights, with freedom from
hunger, peace and human security at its core,” said Patricia
Sheerattan-Bisnauth, executive secretary of WARC’s Office for
Church Renewal, Justice and Partnership.
March 8 is celebrated around the world as International
Women’s Day, providing an opportunity to recognize the
contribution of women to society. It is also a time to assess the
status of women and reflect on their engagement in the issues
affecting the lives of their communities
“Men and women are encouraged on this International Women’s
Day 2008 to celebrate the fruits of their labour and the courage
of those who have struggled relentlessly for gender justice and
for partnership between women and men,” Sheerattan-Bisnauth
added.
International Women’s Day has its roots in the early 1900s.
Women have come a long way since those pioneering days when they
were mobilized in the context of rapid industrialization and
economic expansion that created grave disparities between rich
and poor, food shortages and a social crisis for families.
Courageous women dared to break societal constructs of gender
and therefore defined new parameters for women. Women saw their
roles as being important in bringing about change in the world.
“Women who paved the way have given the world much to
celebrate,” said Sheerattan-Bisnauth of Guyana.
“Today’s women continue to build on this legacy, offering
alternatives for a better world. Their experience, knowledge and
survival strategies need to be recognized, valued and celebrated
as a remarkable resistance to the forces of the global economic
system.
“Women have been crying out for an end to violence and
conflicts, calling for urgency in addressing brokenness in
communities and urging transformation based on peace with
justice, where respect, dignity and collective accountability
become the basis for living.”
The women’s movement has been a source of strength in
broadening the agenda of women in ecumenical circles to include
the struggle against slavery and racism.
Still there is a need for a revival of women’s activism and
engagement with civil society and social movements. “Women need
to dialogue with their sisters across borders of race, ethnicity,
class, caste, nationality and religion,” Sheerattan-Bisnauth
said.
The Alliance has been working with churches and other partners
to provide a platform for dialogue between women and men, drawing
attention to gender justice. Through WARC’s scholarships for
women in the South, its education, advocacy and accompaniment
programmes, women have made significant progress in claiming
their rightful place in church and society.
“Women are making a difference in the life and mission of the
Alliance, bringing critical perspectives to key life issues and
shifting the emphasis of the communion so that it has a more
inclusive approach and worldview,” Sheerattan-Bisnauth
concluded.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)