4/28/2008

John 17:1-11


7th Sunday of Easter

One
Called to be one
with the Creator
with Redeemer
with the Spirit who leads
and sanctifies us all
One
Called to be one
with the sisters
with the brothers
with the mothers and fathers
of us all
United through Christ
and through all time
to be your children
and preach your word
to all who would hear
to tell the world of your love
and the life you offer
one called to be one
guide me Lord Jesus, I pray

Don't look up

Sunday May 4th, Acts 1: 6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." OK, this had been fun, but Now are you going to choose sides on who will be the winner in business as usual? It would have been appropriate for Jesus to ascend into Heaven shaking his head in disbelief over the cluelessness of the disciples. Instead, he gives them once again, directions on what they are to be about. Go into the world and bring the news of salvation for all. Go into the world and announce the Kingdom is near, where ever they are, whoever they are, go announce the good news. It is not about Israel, or the US, or any other artificial set of boundaries, it is about the kingdom of God. Before we too shake our heads in disbelief, remember all the times we wanted and still want to claim the Kingdom of God for ourselves alone. Jesus sends us out also.

Don't look up

Monday May 5th, Acts 1: 9 After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. 10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11 "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven." All too often we find ourselves standing there looking up also. As long as our eyes are heavenward, we can justify not using our hands and feet to do heavens bidding. Jesus will return, not in some sadistic fiery apocalypse, that is all made up stuff. But Jesus is there each and every day in the eyes of the neighbor being served. Looking up keeps us from looking in those eyes. Looking up helps us feel holy. The risen Christ calls us instead to look around and announce in word and deed that the Kingdom is near.

Yahoo

Tuesday May 6th, 1 Peter 4: 12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Being a child of God is not easy. The empire does not like it. Being a child of God calls one to care for the least, lost and lonely, the empire would just as soon forget. It means speaking a word against the concentration of power and profit and for justice. It means being counter-cultural. When you get flack for it, send up a yahoo- the kingdom is showing through.

Counter-cultural

Wednesday May 7th, 1 Peter 4: 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. Being a counter-cultural Christian is not easy. There are constant temptations we all succumb to, having said that, there are also moments every once in a while when the kingdom shines through. Rejoice, and ground yourself in the word each day for the many encounters with the kingdom that lay ahead.

Counter-cultural

Wednesday May 7th, 1 Peter 4: 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. Being a counter-cultural Christian is not easy. There are constant temptations we all succumb to, having said that, there are also moments every once in a while when the kingdom shines through. Rejoice, and ground yourself in the word each day for the many encounters with the kingdom that lay ahead.

Hmmmmm, maybe I will try nice

Thursday May 8th, John 17: 1 after Jesus had finished speaking to his disciples, he looked up toward heaven and prayed: Father, the time has come for you to bring glory to your Son, in order that he may bring glory to you. 2 And you gave him power over all people, so that he would give eternal life to everyone you give him. 3 Eternal life is to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, the one you sent. Jesus was given power over all people so that he would give eternal life to everyone given to him. Eternal life is to know God. To know Jesus is to know God. Can it really be any more simple than that? Jesus was given power over all people to give them eternal life, which is to know God. Our job as the children of God is to live out life knowing that everyone we meet is a brother or a sister through Christ. If we don’t like it or if they don’t like it, well that is our problem to deal with. So far humanity has tried to deal with that problem by trying to be big deals (Manna & Mercy, by Dan Erlander) piling up stuff and killing other brothers and sisters. Maybe we should try being nice for a change.

Jesus loves me

Friday May 9th, John 17: 6 You have given me some followers from this world, and I have shown them what you are like. We can speculate all we want about God up in Heaven, and we may say a lot of words, but we will get nowhere. Jesus comes to us to show us what God is like. It might not be all of what God is like, but it is all we need to know or perhaps all we can fathom. But to know Jesus is to know God, now hum a few bars of “Jesus loves me.”

go

Saturday May 10th, John 17: 10 All that I have is yours, and all that you have is mine, and they will bring glory to me. 11 Holy Father, I am no longer in the world. I am coming to you, but my followers are still in the world. So keep them safe by the power of the name that you have given me. Then they will be one with each other, just as you and I are one. So now it is our turn, to go into the world and “be” the face of God, the hands of Jesus, with a heart of love. You are not alone, ever. So go, announce the nearness of the Kingdom of God in word and in deed.

Martin Marty on Jeremiah Wright

The Chronicle Review issue dated April 11, 2008

Prophet and Pastor

To his former professor, congregant, and friend, Jeremiah Wright has been both
By MARTIN E. MARTY

Through the decades, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. has called me teacher, reminding me of the years when he earned a master's degree in theology and ministry at the University of Chicago — and friend. My wife and I and our guests have worshiped at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where he recently completed a 36-year ministry.

Images of Wright's strident sermons, and his anger at the treatment of black people in the United States, appear constantly on the Internet and cable television, part of the latest controversy in our political-campaign season. His critics call Wright anti-American. Critics of his critics charge that the clips we hear and see have been taken out of context. But it is not the context of particular sermons that the public needs, as that of Trinity church, and, above all, its pastor.

In the early 1960s, at a time when many young people were being radicalized by the Vietnam War, Wright left college and volunteered to join the United States Marine Corps. After three years as a marine, he chose to serve three more as a naval medical technician, during which time he received several White House commendations. He came to Chicago to study not long after Martin Luther King Jr.'s murder in 1968, the U.S. bombing campaign in Cambodia in 1969, and the shooting of students at Kent State University in 1970.

Wright, like the gifted cohort of his fellow black students, was not content to blend into the academic woodwork. Then the associate dean of the Divinity School, I was informally delegated to talk to the black caucus. We learned that what Wright and his peers wanted was the intense academic and practical preparation for vocations that would make a difference, whether they chose to pursue a Ph.D. or the pastorate. Chicago's Divinity School focuses on what it calls "public ministry," which includes both conventional pastoral roles and carrying the message and work of the church to the public arena. Wright has since picked up numerous honorary doctorates, and served as an adjunct faculty member at several seminaries. But after divinity school, he accepted a call to serve then-struggling Trinity.

Trinity focuses on biblical teaching and preaching. It is a church where music stuns and uplifts, a church given to hospitality and promoting physical and spiritual healing, devoted to education, active in Chicago life, and one that keeps the world church in mind, with a special accent on African Christianity. The four S's charged against Wright — segregation, separatism, sectarianism, and superiority — don't stand up, as countless visitors can attest. I wish those whose vision has been distorted by sermon clips could have experienced what we and our white guests did when we worshiped there: feeling instantly at home.

Yes, while Trinity is "unapologetically Christian," as the second clause in its motto affirms, it is also, as the other clause announces, "unashamedly black." From its beginning, the church has made strenuous efforts to help black Christians overcome the shame they had so long been conditioned to experience. That its members and pastor are, in their own term, "Africentric" should not be more offensive than that synagogues should be "Judeocentric" or that Chicago's Irish parishes be "Celtic-centric." Wright and colleagues insist that no hierarchy of races is involved. People do not leave Trinity ready to beat up on white people; they are charged to make peace.

To the 10,000 members of Trinity, Jeremiah Wright was, until just a few months ago, "Pastor Wright." Metaphorically, pastor means shepherd. Like members of all congregations, the Trinity flock welcomes strong leadership for organization, prayer, and preaching. One-on-one ministry is not easy with thousands in the flock and when the pastor has national responsibilities, but the forms of worship make each participant feel recognized. Responding to the pastoral call to stand and be honored on Mother's Day, for instance, grandmothers, single mothers, stepmothers, foster mothers, gay-and-lesbian couples, all mothers stood when we visited. Wright asked how many believed that they were alive because of the church's health fairs. The members of the large pastoral staff know many hundreds of names, while hundreds of lay people share the ministry.

Now, for the hard business: the sermons, which have been mercilessly chipped into for wearying television clips. While Wright's sermons were pastoral — my wife and I have always been awed to hear the Christian Gospel parsed for our personal lives — they were also prophetic. At the university, we used to remark, half lightheartedly, that this Jeremiah was trying to live up to his namesake, the seventh-century B.C. prophet. Though Jeremiah of old did not "curse" his people of Israel, Wright, as a biblical scholar, could point out that the prophets Hosea and Micah did. But the Book of Jeremiah, written by numbers of authors, is so full of blasts and quasi curses — what biblical scholars call "imprecatory topoi" — that New England preachers invented a sermonic form called "the jeremiad," a style revived in some Wrightian shouts.

In the end, however, Jeremiah was the prophet of hope, and that note of hope is what attracts the multiclass membership at Trinity and significant television audiences. Both Jeremiahs gave the people work to do: to advance the missions of social justice and mercy that improve the lot of the suffering. For a sample, read Jeremiah 29, where the prophet's letter to the exiles in Babylon exhorts them to settle down and "seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile." Or listen to many a Jeremiah Wright sermon.

One may properly ask whether or how Jeremiah Wright — or anyone else — experiences a prophetic call. Back when American radicals wanted to be called prophets, I heard Saul Bellow say (and, I think, later saw it in writing): "Being a prophet is nice work if you can get it, but sooner or later you have to mention God." Wright mentioned God sooner. My wife and I recall but a single overtly political pitch. Wright wanted 2,000 letters of protest sent to the Chicago mayor's office about a public-library policy. Of course, if we had gone more often, in times of profound tumult, we would have heard much more. The United Church of Christ is a denomination that has taken raps for being liberal — for example for its 50th anniversary "God is still speaking" campaign and its pledge to be open and affirming to all, including gay people. In its lineage are Jonathan Edwards and Reinhold and Richard Niebuhr, America's three most-noted theologians; the Rev. King was much at home there.

Friendship develops through many gestures and shared delights (in the Marty case, stops for sinfully rich barbecue after evening services), and people across the economic spectrum can attest to the generosity of the Wright family.

It would be unfair to Wright to gloss over his abrasive — to say the least — edges, so, in the "Nobody's Perfect" column, I'll register some criticisms. To me, Trinity's honoring of Minister Louis Farrakhan was abhorrent and indefensible, and Wright's fantasies about the U.S. government's role in spreading AIDS distracting and harmful. He, himself, is also aware of the now-standard charge by some African-American clergy who say he is a victim of cultural lag, overinfluenced by the terrible racial situation when he was formed.

Having said that, and reserving the right to offer more criticisms, I've been too impressed by the way Wright preaches the Christian Gospel to break with him. Those who were part of his ministry for years — school superintendents, nurses, legislators, teachers, laborers, the unemployed, the previously shunned and shamed, the anxious — are not going to turn their backs on their pastor and prophet.

Martin E. Marty is a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School. His most recent book is The Christian World: A Global History (Modern Library, 2008).

4/21/2008

mud


6th Sunday of Easter
John 14:23-29

She ran in the door smiling
covered with mud
in little splotches here and there
with a smile of love
plastered amid the streaks of dirt
just smiling
and that was enough
it said love
with no agendas
---- strings
-------- ifs
it just said love
and that was enough for the whole world
in that moment
just love
Christ’s Spirit is here
to guide us
---- love
to gently nudge this way and that
---- love
so that as we stand before God
amid our smudged and streaked hands
and faces
the God and Creator of all
sees only the smile
---- love
of Christ

for me

Sunday April 27th, Acts 17: 22 So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, 23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about. 24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, All too often we hear the rhetoric of one religion or another saying they have the truth for all of humanity, and if everyone would only just believe the way they do they would be saved. On the other hand, if they do not believe the way they do, well, get the asbestos suit ready. Paul on the other hand recognizes the spiritually yearning of those he meets and calls them to consider his vision of God. God comes to us all in many ways. For me, the Grace of the Lutheran emphasis fits who I am. For others it may be some other form of expression. Instead of God being either/or I think that God is both/and. Lutheran is right for me, Judaism for you, Islam for someone else. Is there more than one God with a capital G. There are more than enough small g gods that fill our lives; all the variations of the capital G just show the vastness and diversity of God’s love.

from correctness to calling

Monday April 28th, Acts 17: 27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ One of the pivotal stories for me is the Good Samaritan. The question, “who acted like a neighbor?” is central to the teaching of Christ. These teaching of finding God in others are also central to Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. It is also significant that the religions scholars of the day passed by. Their focus was more on correctness than on calling. There is a short distance between righteousness and self-righteousness. One calls us to follow the God of love, the other to follow God as one would an idol. Too often in Christianity, we place Jesus on a pedestal and worship him as one would an idol, worshiping the person, as an object. We are called to follow Jesus as the son of God, the one who teaches us the way. That way leads us to our neighbor, not around him.

Between mud and doormat

Tuesday April 29th, 1 Peter 3: 13-18 If with heart and soul you're doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you're still better off. Don't give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick. I am a political junkie, and I am fed up with our political process that draws the best among us to the lowest level of the collective “us.” Then I think, why should I expect one of the candidates to be better than the rest of humanity. Whether we are talking about Zimbabwe or the Ivory Coast or the US, those who run for office are all subject to being human. Throwing mud or throwing bullets come from the same human frailty of getting caught up in the tactics of the other. We have met the enemy and he is us is the way Pogo put it. Jesus calls us to a third way, neither door mat nor mud thrower, but rather someone who actively helps put the spotlight on injustice, and there helps bring about change.

mini me, mini god

Wednesday April 30th, 1 Peter 3 : 19 He went and proclaimed God's salvation to earlier generations who ended up in the prison of judgment because they wouldn't listen. God’s salvation is for all people, in every time and in every place. We all succumb to the prison of judgment. It is the opposite of grace and it is the human tendency, some may say the original sin. It is the tendency to slip from receiving God’s grace to feeling somehow we are in control of it, or at least have a handle on it and others do not, which is another way of saying that it is not grace at all, just forewarning. Just as there is a short distance from righteousness to self-righteousness, there is a short distance from a follower of God to being a mini-god. Rather than judging others, we are called to walk with others as God walks with us.

A higher calling

Thursday May 1st, John 14: 15-17 "If you love me, show it by doing what I've told you. I will talk to the Father, and he'll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth. Which is more important, following Jesus, or following Jesus teachings? When asked to love one another, pray for our enemies, forgive 70 X’s 7, care for the least lost and lonely, act as a neighbor even to the stranger and sojourner among us, most of us chose Jesus the person. Jesus calls us to a higher calling.

Try it again

Friday May 2nd, John 14: 18-20 "I will not leave you orphaned. I'm coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you're going to see me because I am alive and you're about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I'm in my Father, and you're in me, and I'm in you. In growing up on the farm I road along many times with my father as he was plowing. I learned every little thing there was to learn about plowing on our farm. When it came time for me to plow, well, let’s just say the rows were not quite as straight as what I had imagined in my mind. Making straight rows took time and doing it myself rather than just watching and learning how it was done. Jesus left us with the spirit for the same reason. With Jesus here to follow, we would never learn what it means to be a child of God, only to follow The child of God. It is our struggle and striving that that put it all together. It is the Spirit that calls us to turn around and try another row.

Come Alive!!

Saturday May 3rd, John 14: 18-20 " I will not leave you orphaned. I'm coming back. In just a little while the world will no longer see me, but you're going to see me because I am alive and you're about to come alive. At that moment you will know absolutely that I'm in my Father, and you're in me, and I'm in you. Come alive in the word of God. Come alive in caring for one another. Come alive through the Grace of Christ and come alive knowing that it is the Spirit of God that dwells in one another, sister, brother, friend and enemy. Come alive!!!!!! And know that you are surrounded by the love of God and the Spirit of God and the presence of God in those around you. Come alive!!!!!

4/16/2008

TED talk on Climate by Al Gore

Last Sunday and this Sunday we are focusing on the ELCA social statement, "Caring for Creation." As a part of this, please take time to listen to the new presentation by Al Gore on the Environment http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/243

4/14/2008

John 14:1-12


5th Sunday of Easter

How can I go
How can I get there on my own
(I am the Way)
How can I
can I
I
and they looked and saw they were naked
and ashamed
from the beginning of creation
we have tried to be gods
to bargain
plead
beg
all the while not knowing
or hearing
of God’s love for us
be with me Lord and guide me
take away the insistence of being in charge
and fill me with your freedom
to see who I am
a child of God
(the truth)
loved by the Creator
(and the life)

cutting edge

Sunday April 20th, Acts 7: 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." 57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. New realities are often seen as a threat to entrenched orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is not bad, it is the keel in the water that keeps the church from being blown off course by every little change. Sometimes however it can prevent the winds of change from taking the church in along the path of relevance. Today on the other hand orthodoxy helps keep part of the church from being blown off into the stormy waters of fundamentalism. It is when it closes the door on possibility and clings to absolutes that it goes astray. Good theology is always on the cutting edge between orthodoxy and blasphemy.

The cost of Saul to Paul

Monday April 21st, Acts 7: the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he fell asleep. Saul later had his name change to Paul. The enforcer of entrenched orthodoxy would be swept up in these new teachings of Christ. In the name of God we must always be wary of the desire to silence the voices of opposition, either by force, or by fancy footwork. This story of Saul and Stephen is a stark reminder of what happens when a marriage takes place between church and state and the state starts pushing faith based initiatives. The true motive is never about faith and always about power. Grace is the victim.

Smile, God loves you

Tuesday April 22nd, 1 Peter 2: 2 Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3 now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. A good nurturing foundation is a gift that continues for the whole of ones life. Too often the curse of living in an affluent society is that there are so many choices for our children we tend to skip the foundational nourishment and go right for the sugar. With a foundation of love and acceptance children grow to know God as love and acceptance. Are children a part of the worship service? Are children welcomed at communion? One of the best gifts in our congregation is families serving communion together. Young children may not be handling the common cup but they can carry the tray to pick up the empty cups. The most important gift is the understanding that they are included. Do they understand communion, sure, most of the time there is a big smile on their face as they reach out to accept the bread. That smile tells me they know they are included and are an important part of the family of God.

If it ain ‘t grace, it ain’t God.

Wednesday April 23rd, 1 Peter 2: 4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Those living stones are often rejected by humanity. Love one another, care for the least lost and lonely, pray for your enemies, forgive one another, all good things to say in church but try them in the real world and you will get some mighty strange looks. And yet, they are the foundation on which the church is built. If it ain ‘t grace, it ain’t God.

How long is this going to take

Thursday April 24th, John 14: 1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. Sometimes those rooms are for others who do not see the world as we do. Sometimes those rooms are for our enemies, you know, the ones we are to pray for. Sometimes those rooms are for those who seek God through other faiths. Sometimes we get the point that we are not the ones in charge of deciding who gets a room and who doesn’t. What if Chaney and Osama were roommates? Would they consider it Heaven? Maybe heaven is an eternity because for some it takes that long to forgive.

Inclusive or exclusive?

Friday April 25th, John 14: 6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." This text is often interpreted as exclusive rather than inclusive. From Fredrick Buechner’s wishful thinking we get the notion that when it says that not everyone who cries Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom, perhaps the corollary is that not everyone who wouldn’t be caught dead saying Lord, Lord, will be damned. If Jesus is the way does that mean that only those who lift high the name of Jesus or even call themselves Christian will be saved, or does it mean that only through the grace of Christ are all saved, even if they wouldn’t be caught dead uttering the name of Jesus in a positive way or claiming Christianity. One way lifts high the name of Christ, the other lifts high the teachings of Christ. I go with the second one.

Go and do likwise

Saturday April 26th, John 14: 9 Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. God hidden and God revealed. There may be many aspects of God on which we can speculate, but when it comes to knowing God as God wants us to know the Almighty, we have Jesus. All those stories of the vengeful god we find in places in the Old Testament, perhaps a bit of human desire showing through and calling it the will of God. We have plenty of examples of that today. We all know a pre-emptive war has more to do with money and power than with the other god we call God. What must I do to be saved? The young man asked. Love God and Love you neighbor was the answer. Who is my neighbor the young man asked? The story of the Good Samaritan along with the question who acted like a neighbor was the answer. Go and do likewise was the command.

4/07/2008

Tote bags




The next two Sundays we will be looking at the ELCA Care for Creation Statement. As one small step, we will encourage one another to use reusable tote bags instead of paper or plastic. the two bags pictured can be purchased at either of the following two sites. The Praise Nurture Serve bag or the Luther Rose Bag or the Lutheran Reduce, Reuse and Reform bag.


4th Sunday of Easter


John 10:1-10

I hear the cry from all sides
come follow
See how I have put together the facts
Hear the story I have woven
airtight
that sounds by all reason
like truth
I yearn to follow
but where
I hear the cry from within
(I have come)
and know that voice
I see not
I hear not
the seamless reason
of carefully crafted facts
I know only the one who was
on the cross
(that you might have life)
Who tasted death
And life
Before me
Who has risen
To bring life to me
Peace to me
Hope to me
that I may now shout for Joy
and Live
(life in its fullness)
Life

Sounds like a commune

Sunday April 13th, Acts 2: 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. This is a little part of the Acts text that has not found favor with the free market group. I dare say it is a market strategy that would not work on a very large scale. Not because it is a bad strategy, but because humanity tends to be not quite mature enough to handle this kind of calling from God. It is however something toward which to strive. To view our worship communities as a place to share and care for one another, to work toward economic equality and justice, these are the lofty goals of a loving and caring community in Christ. It is the vision to put before one another, recognizing the distance between ideal and reality, but always turning toward the ideal in our journey.

Threshing bee

Monday April 14th, Acts 2: 45 Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. When older people, like myself, remember the good old days, what they often remember is how the need to work together played out in community. My dad was one of the last holdouts to get a combine for harvesting the grain. Threshing required community, people working together for the common good of all, and that is what we did. In the Midwest there are a number of places where they hold thrashing bee’s where all those who remember can come and spend a day participating and remembering the good old days of community’s working together for the common good. Sometimes they bring their children or grandchildren along to experience the joy of those days of yore. When it is over they go home and at the next election vote down the next set of school bonds because they don’t have any kids in school and property taxes are already too high. The lesson of thrashing remains back on the farm until next year. Who needs community when you’ve got it made? Maybe that is the problem.

but I can do something about....

Tuesday April 15th, 1 Peter 2: 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21 To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. Suffering is not high on the list for most people. Today we have even developed the idea that those who suffer somehow deserve it. I pulled myself up by my bootstraps, with the help of community, why can’t “those people” pull themselves up by their bootstraps without the help of community? You might not hear it much in most praise music, but suffering to a degree is what we are called to do. There is plenty in this world for everyone’s needs, but not everyone’s greed. And greed is not relegated alone to the oil executives $400 million plus severance packages, you and I manage a bit of it on our own also. I may find those severance packages sinful and obscene beyond words, but I can do something about my own greed, and haven’t managed to get around to it yet.

Fear not

Wednesday April 16th, Psalm 23: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. There is a ravine south of Jerusalem which during the days of monarchy, was the scene of an idolatrous cult involving the passing children through fire (II Kings 23:10) In the 1st Century B.C. the name began to change in usage from Gil Hinnom, or the valley of Hinnom, to one word, Gehenna. This name began to denote a place of fiery torment reserved for the wicked after their death and ultimately after the last judgment. Today we use the word Hell. Even though you walk through Hell, remember you are not alone, God is with you and ultimately even reconciling you with those you consider your enemy. Fear not! Even in Hell itself.

go with the joy

Thursday April 17th, John 10: 1 "I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. In Gerhard Forde’s book, “Where God Meets Man” he describes humanity as being in sort of a pen call this world. At one end is a gate, and in the middle of it a cross. Most try to find some other way out. Jesus is the gatekeeper. He is the one on the cross who says, “Come follow me.” Most of us, most of the time, want to follow the one who came over the wall. It doesn’t work and we know it, but we try anyhow. Jesus continues to call us to follow. In the end we all follow. Many of us however miss the joy that actually comes from carrying that cross a way in this life.

chattle and cAu

Friday April 18th, John 10: 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." There were two ways to get the cows when I was working on the farm. At home, most of the time we could call them, one cow would pick up her ears and start to wander, although not too fast, home. When I started milking the cows on Moffit’s farm in Alaska, I would go out to get them at 2am and my dog “Cau waubos” (in the language aUI, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AUI_(language) ) would have to chase them from behind. In time a few barks and some calling would get them moving toward the barn. Christ is always out ahead of us, calling, trying to move us forward toward home. For most of us it might take a few nips at the heels and some barking to get us moving. Even that is grace, like cows, we just don’t see it as such.

go with the 1st method

Saturday April 19th, John 10: 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. Through Christ we have life. We go in and we come out and we find that which sustains us. Without Christ we have work. We may find that which sustains us, but talk about work. God provided the way of Christ, and sometimes we even turn that into work. But the life of a child of God is one of being in the presence of Christ, and there finding our meaning in life, rather than working up to some high that almost makes it. You can go through the gate, pick up your cross and be on your way or you can try to go over the wall, and eventually pick up your cross and be on your way. I recommend the first method.

4/04/2008

Promised land: Are we there? by Clarence Page

Chicago Tribune
April 2, 2008

Words do matter. Forty years ago Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. ended a rally speech in Memphis on a note that was eerily prophetic, since it would turn out to be his final speech. "Like anybody, I would like to live a long life," he said, speaking without notes to the church rally on April 3, 1968. "Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."

King was assassinated the next day. Which leaves a probing question for us black Americans 40 years after King's prophetic speech. Have we reached the promised land? The answer is: It depends. We, as a people, have reached the promised land, if you believe the old James Brown song of the late 1960s: "I don't want nobody/to give me nothing/just open up the door, I'll get it myself." How far has the door opened up?

It's obvious that black multimillionaires like Oprah Winfrey and Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson have made it, thanks partly to hard-won opportunities that the civil rights movement opened up. Yet, how you feel about how well black America is doing can be a defining issue as to where you stand along the nation's black-white, rich-poor cultural divide.

A young community organizer discovered that in 1985 on Chicago's South Side, where he came to work for a church-based group seeking to improve living conditions in high-crime, low-income neighborhoods. One day, the 24-year-old activist, a biracial Ivy League graduate, was trying to make a point to a prominent black pastor. Black problems were becoming more economic than racial, the organizer said. The minister wasn't buying it. "Cops don't check my bank account when they pull me over and make me spread-eagle against the car," the pastor said. "These miseducated brothers, like that sociologist at the University of Chicago, talking about 'the declining significance of race.' Now, what country is he living in?"

The allegedly "miseducated" black scholar was William Julius Wilson. His 1978 book, "The Declining Significance of Race," was changing the national conversation about where black America was headed. It analyzed the impact of shifting economic forces affecting Americans of all races and called for economic remedies over race-specific ones. But the pastor was a proponent of black liberation theology who responded to every one of the younger man's class-based views with race-based answers. Even the growing black middle class brought no comfort. "Life's not safe for a black man in this country, Barack," the pastor said. "Never has been. Probably never will be."

Yes, the young organizer back then was Barack Obama, who's now seeking the Democratic nomination for president. It was his first encounter with Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ, as recounted in Obama's 1995 memoir, "Dreams from My Father." The sharp contrast between their views takes on new significance, now that inflammatory snippets from Wright's sermons have turned Obama's 20-year membership in Wright's church into a political embarrassment. In a landmark Philadelphia speech Obama denounced Wright's remarks, but not Wright, and called for a new conversation on race. Obama pointed out that the basis of black rage is real, but race relations in America are not static. America already has progressed enough to enable him to be the Democratic front-runner for president.

I'm sure King would agree. At the time of his death, King was helping black Memphis garbage workers organize for better working conditions and the same respect that the city afforded white workers. In the wake of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, King was expanding his focus from fighting racism to fighting poverty. Since then, black America reduced its poverty rate to about 24 percent by the mid-1990s from more than 50 percent in the '60s. Progress is being made by Americans of all races. But not even a black president could do everything that needs to be done.

The biblical promised land, it's important to remember, was not a place to relax. It was a place to work, provide for your family and achieve economic independence. In that sense, I don't think we African-Americans have reached the promised land. We're only beginning to see it from here.

Clarence Page is member of the Tribune's editorial board. E-mail: cptime@aol.com

  • Facebook me