A Little Help - from Wine?

A glass or two or more
of Ampelos Wine
feeling good
fine

It's a good world
Oh yes, I know
all the junk
plenty

There's lots of sadness
and suffering
and hurt and
pain

But I'm not giving up
I'm not turning away
I'll press on with
hope

Does the wine help?
Perhaps it does
But who doesn't need, now and then, some
help?

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."

"Views" - are all "views" created equal?

Someone on another's Facebook thread mentioned "views" - that it's all just "views" we have ... but is that true?

Here's what I wrote:

"Views" are one thing ... heck, some folks view the moon as made of cheese, and the world flat, and the earth no more than 6000 years old ... what's one view vs. another? How about Hitler's view of things and that of Churchill? Or Stalin and Truman? Or how about Lincoln and Davis. Mandela and Botha? Governor Wallace and ML King, Jr. They all had their views, but history makes it clear that some views are closer to the moral character of the universe.

If we're gonna yak about "my views" vs. "your views," we need to talk about the moral character of the universe - creation isn't neutral. Though Cain kills Abel outta jealousy, and God graciously protects Cain afterward, God sees to it that Seth comes along, to sustain the moral universe that Cain killed. The powers-that-be, the wealthy and the religious, pretty much always join forces with Cain to kill Abel. But there's always Seth; God sustains the moral bent of creation.

There are views, and then there are views - not all are created equal.

So, what's your take on the moral bent of creation?

I think the moral bent of creation favors the poor, not the rich. Favors helping folks, not putting 'em down. Is kind and generous toward the needy, not judgmental and scornful. Favors giving things away, not piling 'em up in off-shore bank accounts. Sides with peace-makers, no war-mongers. Has no borders instead of steel walls and armed guards. Welcomes all, and turns none away.

How I see the universe is how I read and receive the news.

Black Friday, Women's Suffrage, England, 1910

From the pages of English Suffrage History:

Black Friday, November 18, 1910, London ... when a bill to allow at least 1 million wealthy women to vote as denied time for further consideration, a delegation of 300 women demonstrated in front of Parliament. In an attempt to run past police, at least 200 of the women were assaulted and arrested, and two women were dead. 

While the Press was generally on the side of the women, many a politician distanced himself from the effort, even as the British public was generally against the enfranchisement of women.

It's been a hundred years since these terrible days in England, but sometimes I wonder - there is still within certain religious and political elements in America a deep resentment toward the rights of women, seen as a violation of "god's eternal decrees about the sexes, home and family values." And a certain romanticism: "If only women would stay home, be quiet, cook, sew and rear children, all would be well with America. Remember, the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world."

This, and a lot of other poppycock about the role of women in society, was written mostly by men who, I think, wrote this claptrap to quiet their conscience, even as they witnessed the women in their lives denied the basic rights of life and liberty enjoyed by every man. But shout a lie loud enough, and soon folks come to believe it, and even better if the lie is rooted in something so "sacred" as being a mother.

That we should still be fighting about these things strikes me as absurd, but, then, what do I know?

Jesus and His No-Borders World ... and the Children

Jesus and Paul demolished forever the reliance upon borders to define God's People.

One God, one world, and we're all sisters and brothers, one to another.

Let the little children come unto me.

This is not some spiritual thin soup, but realty - how many times Jesus watched adults push children away.

For me, I say, LET THEM COME ...

I bet our brightest people and most compassionate of leaders will find solutions.

I'm willing to say that if we can fly to the moon and mount trillion dollar wars, we can find ways and means of providing for these children and their families, and maybe doing something constructive for the economies of Central and South America that our crazy trade-practices have ruined.

As for "God's Christian People," here is a place for us to make our Christian voice heard - defending borders is the talk of war and violence. In Jesus' world, there are no borders - when some would have gone around Samaria, Jesus went through it, and met the woman at the well.

His bold hometown sermon talks about God's prophet's crossing borders for widows and healing the foreigner. No wonder the hometown folks, who thought he was pretty cool, suddenly turned on him when he dismissed their beautiful boundaries.

In a world where borders were everything, Jesus makes it clear: he has no borders, nor should there be any for those who follow him. For God so loved the world ...

Having "Fun" with an Evangelical

If you wanna see an evangelical turn into a pretzel, quote, first of all, what Jesus said to Nicodemus: "You must be born again" (not all translations put it this way, but for evangelicals, this is the touchstone verse of the Bible).


They nod their heads in agreement - this is it. This is the truth. This is the heart and soul of the Christian life.

To be taken at face-value. Literally ... without question. No ifs, ands or buts - this is the gospel, this is the warning, this is the chance, the command, the opportunity, God gives to all.

Okay ...

Now quote what Jesus said to the rich young man: "Sell everything you have and give it to the poor" as a condition for following Jesus.

And out comes the hermeneutical bag, and every linguistic tool that can be mustered to make it clear that Jesus is only speaking spiritually, metaphorically, NOT LITERALLY.

Oh well ...

Hey, we all have our interpretive tricks, but what's needed is honesty in what we're doing. Yes, we all read the Bible selectively, through our own personal filters of culture and circumstance. But let's be honest with one another and simply say, "This is how I see it," or maybe, "This is how the community of faith to which I belong sees it."

Our Presbyterian History - a Bumpy Ride!

Biloxi, Mississippi, 1984, I attended General Assembly with a great deal of hope - the two major branches of American Presbyterianism had only recently merged, and one of the tasks before the Biloxi GA was to settle upon a new headquarters for the reunited church.

As well as all the other tasks before the church, including a new moderator.

As it turned out, I “lost” on three votes:

My choice for moderator was defeated.

My choice for headquarters was defeated.

And one other issue, that seemed important at the time, beyond my recall these days, was defeated.

I went home chuckling, sort of, thinking of baseball, with a miniature Louisville Slugger in my tote bag, one of the promo items used to persuade GA to move to Louisville, rather than KC (which had my vote, and to this day, I think would have been the better choice).

There was no doubt in my mind that I had “lost” and so had the church, on this one, as I saw it. The moderator? O well, that would be of lesser consequence (I don’t even recall who who won or the candidate I backed), and the other major issue, not a clue, now lost amid a welter of ups and downs for GA.

And of ups and downs, plenty over the years - though what some label as “up,” is likely a “down” for others, and so forth.

Or, call it a see-saw struggle, or even battle, as first the church is pulled (by God? by the Devil?) in one direction, and then the other.

Charles Augustus Briggs

Stop by 1892, the Presbytery of New York City, as it charged Charles Augustus Briggs of Union Seminary with heresy; the case was appealed to GA where Briggs was suspended from ministry in 1893. As a result of this decision, Union Seminary withdrew from the Presbyterian Church to become independent. 

A generation or so later, another epic struggle resulted in Princeton professor, John Gresham Machen, leaving Princeton (1923) when the GA appointed two Auburn Declaration signatories as seminary trustees; Machen joined forces with others to organize Westminster Seminary. 

John Gresham Machen

Later, in 1933, he and others formed the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, which was then declared “unconstitutional” by the next GA - the ministers involved were given an ultimatum to cease, and when they refused, were suspended. Ultimately, Machen withdrew from the Presbyterian Church to form the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

The Briggs and Machen periods are but two examples of the epic struggles in which we Presbyterians have engaged (not to mention the Grandaddy of them all, the split of the church into northern and southern factions prior to the Civil War, and before that, Old School-New School and New Light-Old Light). 

If one wants to push back even further into church history, all the way to the Jerusalem Council and the split between Paul and Barnabas, so much is at stake, and we’re so frail in mind and heart.

None of these were easy, all resulted in tears and anger, and fractured the church.

So, now with Marriage Equality and the decisions of GA. 

Some feel the joy of victory.

Others feel the sorrow of loss.

With all the subsequent fallout …

I have no immediate answer, but our history has always given me some hope - we have gone through terrible storms, we have seen the church shattered, splintered; we have fought tooth and claw for the spirit of the church. 

But the church goes on, sometimes limping (as Calvin suggested for how we go through life), yet the church goes on.

Never as it was, and in those periods of great transition, no one could foresee what it would be like.

And these days, as always, the world changes, too … everything around us, values and modes of communication, music and art and literature. And along with all of this, a fading Christendom. What the church will be like in fifty years, or a hundred, who can say?

For me, when I’ve been down for the sake of the church, I’ve found solace in this:

We limp on, having gone through the storm, until the next one hits. Jesus continues to build his church, and we continue, mostly in fractured ways, to love one another as he loves us. 

Voices of hope are lifted up in the wilderness, justice is done, lives are transformed by the gospel, churches are planted, folks get ordained, children go to summer camps and enjoy mission trips, people pray and study their Bibles, and we sing the great hymns of faith, sometimes thrilled by all of it, seeing beyond seeing, the hand of mercy and the glory of God!