Mission Trip (Day One)

Well, this afternoon 17 of us will be heading to San Luis Potosi, Mexico to work in the Casa Hogar children's home. It's already an eventful trip and we haven't even gotten to the airport. Sara Northerner, who had been planning all summer to go with us, had to cancel because her father is in the ICU in Evansville, IN. We will be keeping her and her family in our prayers, as her father faces some critical surgery on Wednesday. So, I did some fast calling and found someone to use the ticket--our very own Bart Mattingly, Stephanie's brother, who sings in and helps direct the choir.

Then, I woke up this morning to find that the 25 year-old Bartlett Pear in the back yard off our deck is now on our deck, not to mention our house. I'm not sure what got it, wind or rain--but it's now an ex-Bartlett Pear. Apparently, there's a Home Depot rental chainsaw and some serious saw dust in my future.

Our flight leaves at 6:30 this evening, and we are scheduled to arrive in San Luis at 10:30. It's a great group we're going with! Every day we're down in Mexico, we will be blogging (pictures and all)--assuming our internet connection holds up--to bring an account of our journey.

Pray for us, for Sara and her father, and our poor tree, which has gone on to meet its woody reward. Watch this space.

Grace and Peace,

Derek

Marriage Equality

Check this out. Of all the stories I expected to read in the NY Times this morning, this wasn't among them. I was actually under the impression that Ted Olson was a passenger on the plane that hit the Pentagon on 9/11, but I guess I just dreamt that.

Substantively, Ted Olson's position shows that the case for marriage equality under the law is distinct from the messier issues arising out of societal discrimination and inclusion. Of course, law can act as a lever for creating movement in society, but as the case of Roe v. Wade and abortion shows, it doesn't always resolve social and political disputes. It also exposes the utter emptiness of labels like "judicial activism" when it comes to the Supreme Court. Unless we mean to turn back the clock before Marbury v. Madison in 1804, we have to recognize that judicial review entails that sometimes the court has to fill a vacuum in constitutional jurisprudence-- i.e. "make law." The dispute is not over whether this should happen, but rather over how the court should exercise that power, and on behalf of whom.

For another take on marriage equality I highly recommend, see Martha Nussbaum's excellent article here.

be gloriously silent...

I have been thinking a lot about what I believe. Perhaps, that I may hide from my convictions that I am a wolf in Christian clothing. For all intensive purposes, I have no right to be in ministry.

I hold so many biases that one could open a bizarre with my prejudices and misgivings of people. I clam to be a pretty open fellow. The more I question this idea that more I realize that I am a messed up mucky muck kind of guy.

The middle of last year Mere and I moved to Louisville, in an area that has a large African-American population. Our building had ten apartments with two occupied by Caucasian families [us included], two were vacant, and the rest were occupied by African-Americans.

I grew up with Hispanics, Asians, and Caucasians. I had very little exposure to African-Americans. Elementary school I had no African-American friends. In middle school I had a few African-American friends, none of whom came to my house nor did they live in my neighborhood. In high school I had maybe a dozen close friends that where Africa-American that I played football with and spent quite a bit of time with. I never went to there homes. I never entered their neighborhoods. I never entered their world. It was always on my terms, my space. I was at advantage in the relationship.

College, university, and seminary I had a sparse encounter with Africa-Americans. It may have a lot to do with the institutions I attended. They were largely Anglo funded and fueled, geared towards Anglo institutions.

I would not have identified as racist in any of the above situations. I kept my nose clean. I made sure what I thought was never used to impact a situation or event. I made sure to seek out quality friends and meet quotas so that I could not be accused of racism. I jogged on in life blissfully unaware that I am a much larger part of the problem that I imagined.

I arrived here with my partner, my new life, my new chance at life. We arrived excited and ready to forge ahead and claim our stake in the American dream. Only one snag…we live in a totally foreign context from what either of us are used to. We arrived in that building and we were surrounded by booming hip-hop music, tricked out cars with giant rims, and a sea of black faces.

With all of this “difference” surrounding me here I begin to question my reactions. Would I feel safer if all of the music, clothing, language, and relationships involved a white face? I am afraid my gut reaction would be, yes. If I saw a sea of faces that looked like me I would feel safer. I write this realizing that my every move is routed in classism, racism, sexism, and elitism. I am deeply part of the problem and it hurts.

I am part of this problem even if I have never actively subjected others to injustice. Systemic injustice takes from some to give to others. Systemic injustice perverts the beauty of Gods creation as it creates “us” and “them.” Systemic injustice can only be destroyed when we all become aware of its presence and are moved to act. This is at the core of the gospel message.

We cannot begin to understand the radical nature of the Gospel until we understand the insurmountable action it demands from us. St. Francis of Assisi said “Proclaim the Gospel always, and use words when you must.” It is my conviction that I far to often speak when I should be or do. It is my prayer that one day I may be gloriously silent as injustice retreats from the light of the gospel proclaimed.

Groups and Authority Claims

Derek's Pastor's Class this past Sunday continued the topic of functional prerequisites for the existence of social groups. I found myself thinking of that class when reading William Burroughs's Naked Lunch. Scattered among the drug-addled scatological passages we find the following gem:

"Democracy is cancerous, and bureaus are its cancer. A bureau takes root anywhere in the state, turns malignant like the Narcotic Bureau, and grows and grows, always reproducing more of its own kind, until it chokes the host if not controlled or excised. Bureaus cannot live without a host, being true parasitic organisms. (A cooperative on the other hand can live without the state. That is the road to follow. The building up of independent units to meet needs of the people who participate in the functioning of the unit. A bureau operates on opposite principle of inventing needs to justify its existence.) Bureaucracy is wrong as a cancer, a turning away from the human evolutionary direction of infinite potentials and differentiation and independent spontaneous action, to the complete parasitism of a virus."

One of the functional prerequisites we discussed was the "preservation of order." We didn't really explore the topic, but it sounded like the preservation of order involved something like the kinds of claims to authority traditionally made by states. Certainly it wasn't anything like the "cooperative" Burroughs describes above.

Is a cooperative in Burroughs' sense possible or desirable? To what extent could a religious body like a Christian church function as a cooperative in this sense?

Prophetic Language

"The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious" (Isaiah 11:6-10).

I admit that this passage from Isaiah sounds a bit fanciful given the current state of our world. We're much more apt more apt to take sides as the wolf and the lamb face off. We're more comfortable with policy decisions that help us avoid the terrible truth that the leopard and the kid lie down together only when one feasts on the bones of the other. Our world is situated such that only dewy-eyed romantics and ungrounded idealists ever really believe that a little child will actually lead this unlikely menagerie-especially when we see the cold, hard facts.

And the fact of the matter is, when it comes to the wolf and the lamb actually living together, we main-line Protestants are the least likely to share the same space in peace. Speaking about the relative lack of mixed-race congregations, Nancy T. Ammerman said, "Mainline folks, for all their talk about diversity, lag significantly behind." The charge, of course, is that we who are the putative gatekeepers of the "true faith" are much better at talking the talk, than walking the walk. And no doubt this is true. The numbers apparently don't lie.

Implied in that indictment against main-liners, however, is the notion that somehow talking the talk isn't that important. But I would like to suggest to you that it is impossible finally to walk the walk, if nobody has told us where to go. Somebody has to hold forth a bold vision of what we believe life will look like under the reign of God when it is fully revealed. Somebody has to talk bigger than we are, or we'll have nowhere to reach. Somebody has to talk about wolves and lambs and leopards and kids, or people will begin to think that their animosity toward one another is normal, natural. Somebody has to talk about how God doesn't think that the hostility that exists between the strong and the weak, between the haves and have-nots, between the powerful and powerless is either normal or natural.

But just because we haven't gotten it right yet, doesn't mean that we shouldn't stand up and talk about what right is. Just because it sounds simple or naive to announce a rapprochement between the lion and the ox doesn't mean that we shouldn't hold that in front of us as God's view of reality. Just because bears still kill cows when they inhabit the same space, doesn't mean that we shouldn't press on toward a vision in which they graze the same fields in peace.

We can, of course, never be excused from trying to get it right. Living with a vision requires no less. What we can be excused from is thinking that it's somehow our responsibility to get it right. Because when the reign of God is finally realized, it won't be because we made it happen. It will be because we left ourselves open to the movement of the Holy Spirit and to a vision of what God believes life is really like. Lord knows, somebody better keep talking that talk.

Where Is Our Allegiance Pledged?

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15b).

“I, the undersigned, by my signature do certify, swear, and affirm: That I am a native born, or fully and legally naturalized citizen of the United States of America. That I owe no allegance [sic] to any other country or ruler other than the United States of America. . . . That I will pledge my allegance to the American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan . . .” (Application for membership: American Knights of the Ku Klux Klan).

We’ve just come through the July 4^th weekend, and it got me thinking. The United States is a nice enough place. There are a number of opportunities made available to us due to the simple reason that we happened to have been born on this soil, and for which we ought rightfully to give thanks. We take for granted many things that people in other parts of the world would die to have. But this great experiment in the ordering of public life we call “the United States” is not without its flaws; and these are significant. In fact some of these defects are so perplexing that, regardless of the political party in power, we have been unsuccessful in addressing them. There are some things that, despite our best efforts to date, defy our most capacious political efforts to remedy them. We live in a country, for example, that still commits violence in the name of peace and sees some children go to bed hungry, while others sleep with full bellies. We make our homes in a country in which healthcare is a commodity available not as a right but as a privilege, in which anyone who doesn’t claim to be heterosexual has to take a back seat on the cultural bus. We reside in a culture that accounts worth as principally tied to what one possesses, and love as an emotion of the heart, rather than a commitment of the will. In fact, regardless of the great work that has gone into addressing the problem of racism, there are still benighted individuals who believe that “separate” and “superior” are modifiers that ought rightfully be attached to human beings and their social arrangements.

Christians, on the other hand, are a people who envision another kingdom where our loyalties to another ruler compel us to tear down the walls that divide us from each other. We realize that short of the hand of God, some things are beyond our capacity to heal them on our own. If the church, the followers of the one who finally gave himself over to the hands of hate, cannot stand united against the many masks of hatred, there is no hope. If we cannot offer up to God our brokenness, including those who would seek to undo us, we are doomed already. Because—bad spelling, poor grammar and a complete misreading of what it means to be a child of God notwithstanding—the people who make up hate groups are also people for whom Jesus died; we must be in prayer even—perhaps most especially—for them.

We refuse to submit to the servants of the night. We pledge our allegiance to another ruler. “The kingdom of the world” belongs to him anyway—even though, apparently, some have failed to realize it.

Sunday, July 19

Hey folks! In an act of shameless self-promotion, I want to announce that I will be subbing for Rev. Derek this coming Sunday (July 19) as teacher of the adult Sunday School class that meets upstairs at 9:30 am. After consultation with Derek, I will be leading us in a discussion of theories regarding the relationship between God, religion, and morality. My understanding is that I may be doing this for multiple Sundays, depending of course upon class interest and Derek's desire to have us discuss other topics upon his return. I encourage all of you to come, not because what I have to say is all that interesting, but because our group of regulars never fails to make our discussions lively and exciting.

As a starting point for our exploration of the relationship between God, religion, and morality, I intend for us to spend this coming Sunday considering divine command theory. If you have never heard the phrase "divine command theory," I trust that once you get the basic idea you will find it immediately recognizable. It is, in fact, one of the most common positions ordinary folks take on the relationship between religion and morality (at least in places like the U.S., where monotheisms are the predominant religions). Many of you are aware that the theory has significant problems, but regardless of where you come down on it, we all have something to learn from stopping for a while, getting together, and taking the theory seriously.

I encourage all of you to come and join our discussion!

Crying Babies and Broken Carpenters

            “The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them” (Isaiah 11:6).

            “Most people today, whether or not they believe in God, think that God is about power and that power is about the domination of others, through violence if necessary, just as human success is about wealth and career advancement and national greatness is about military triumph” (William Placher, Narratives of a Vulnerable God, 4).

            Bio-terrorists.  Bunker-busters.  Attack helicopters.  Speak softly and carry a strategically big stick.  It’s a dog eat dog world out there.  Don’t go looking for fights, but be sure you don’t back down from any either.   One of the chief criticisms of President Obama’s speech at the University of Cairo centered on his refusal to exercise power when dealing with a potentially hostile Muslim audience.  To admit past failures on an international stage is thought to be a projection of weakness.  The thinking seems to be that if we’re ever going to whip these Muslims into shape, we better make sure they know who’s calling the global shots.

            Strength.  Power.  Might.

            Look in a magazine to any advertisement for the good life.  What do you see?  Floridians on oxygen?  No.  You see young, tanned folks frolicking wherever it is that young, tanned folks frolic.  Six-pack abs and square jaws make it abundantly clear that it isn’t you who’s making the rules; it’s people named Lance and Margo, people with healthy investment portfolios and the appropriate degrees on the wall.

            We know what success looks like.  The images are ubiquitous.  It’s all about power; and we modern folks know where the power is located—and it ain’t located in Shawnee, or Watts, or Appalachia.  If you want to get anything done in this world, you’ve got to have the juice and you’ve got to know where to find it.  Which is why Christianity must always appear so weird to the world.  Christianity worships at the altar of a God who, rather than throw thunderbolts from the heavens, deposited a wrinkled bundle of skin in a feed trough.  How are you going to make that look good on Entertainment Tonight?  You wouldn’t last five minutes on Meet the Press with that strategy. There aren’t any sunglasses, no bronzing gel, no overweening paparazzi; there aren’t any thousand dollar suits, no power ties, no manicured hands, only a few raggedy, bottom-of-the-food-chain shepherds, and an assortment of livestock. 

            God became like us.  In a world of upward mobility, God always seems to be moving in the wrong direction.  And that’s why the incarnation is such a scandal: it is the audacious declaration that the God of the universe privileged weakness as the ultimate display of power.

            We thought that “God is about power and that power is about the domination of others, through violence if necessary.”  The gospel reorients our thinking to life in God’s kingdom by redefining power through reference to a new reality in which “a little child shall lead them.”  Our expectations of God’s overthrowing of the powers and principalities are always tempered by our memory that God’s greatest show of power is the power of restraint.  Retributive justice is what the world has told us we ought to give and receive, but God has steadfastly refused to give us what we deserve.

            Potency.  Force.  Muscle.  These are what we’ve come to expect are necessary to rule the world.  But God’s got different ideas about what it takes to run a universe.  I mean, after all, what do you expect from a God who can’t do any better for power than crying babies and broken carpenters?

Death, Where is thy Sting?

I was asked to participate in a service honoring Dr. George Tiller last Thursday. I wrote a little sermon to deliver there. I have included it here for your reading pleasure. You may find the Courier-Journal coverage here.

Celebrating the death of anyone is contrary to the Gospel that I read. Most certainly Dr. Tiller’s family and friends must be embraced this evening as we mourn their loss with them. The 55th verse of the first letter to the Corinthians reads, "O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?"

This day the sting of death weights upon the hearts of those whom Dr. Tiller sought to serve as he protected the rights for all women to decide what they shall do with their body.

This day the sting rests upon the shoulders of those that speak out against the violence that claimed Dr. George Tiller’s life.

This day the sting of death cannot and must not be ignored. Let us embrace this pain, this sting as we gather here today unified against violence as a way of political power. Violence shall lead us all down a road to which there is no return.

The sting of death is real for us all, but the victory of death has no place here. There was no victory gained by anyone in the death of Dr. George Tiller. Left are a widow grieving the lose of a friend and confidant, a son that shall no longer share his life with his father, and us the mourners that chose not to forget.

There is this part of a verse from the prophet Micah that I love. It says, “…act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” This is a response to the question, “what does God require of you?” I think Dr. Tiller understood what it meant to answer the question in a profound manner.

Dr. Tiller gave his life answering this question, “what does God require of you?” For Dr. Tiller God required the total reorientation of his life. When George Tiller was entering the work force his life was transformed by circumstance. He lost his father, sister, & brother-in-law in an airplane accident. This gave Dr. Tiller a life’s calling. He took over the family business in Kansas and he raised his nephew. The nephew became a son and the family business cost him his life.

Dr. Tiller was not short on acting justly, loving mercy, walking humbly. With great compassion and mercy Dr. Tiller resisted the pressure to cease his mission to provide all women with options. Dr. Tiller did not retaliate when his practice was threatened or when his life was attempt to be extinguished. In humility Dr. Tiller mended his wounds and kept walking the path to which he was called.

There is a story that I am drawn to in this moment. It is a story by Bernard Malamud called, The Mourners. This is the story of Kessler a poor old man living alone having left this young family many years ago. He lives in a meager apartment. He is full of meager ways. He keeps to himself and a chaos surrounds him he remains clam…a non-anxious presence.

He has a quarrel with the tenement janitor, Ignace. Ignace spreads rumors and lies about Kessler. Kessler is pushed to his non-anxious limits.

Ignace punishes Kessler unjustly and goes to the owner, Gruber, and asks him to rid the building of Kessler. Kessler’s rent is denied and eviction notice is given. When Kessler ignores this and returns his rent once more a confrontation ensues between Kessler and Gruber.

Kessler is thrown out by force on to the streets. He is left in the harsh cold and rainy element. The tenement residents see this and bring Kessler and his stuff back into the building.

The final scene is Gruber full of anger returning to kick Kessler out again. He opens the door and sees Kessler on the floor a huddled mess reciting the Kaddish. Gruber’s response to this is to don the bed sheet as a mourner himself and recite the prayers with Kessler. For his humanity is gone, it left with the dignity he forbade Kessler in their dealings.

We mourn here today so that the injustice perpetrated in the name of God shall not pass without a witness. We mourn the death of Dr. George Tiller so that the threat of injustice shall meet the resistance of justice. We mourn today to answer the question, “O death, where is thy victory? Where is thy sting?" with the justice loving mercy that inspires us to walk humbly with our God.

Amen

Welcome

Welcome to DBCC!