3/30/2009

WAR

Governor Sarah seems more interested in supporting her base than being governor. Kertulla for Dem rep from Juneau, nope, She questioned Sarah’s claim to supreme authority in the troopergate thing. Let us go with a Dem who has been a Dem for two weeks after being a republican, yup do onto others…… AG, let’s see, who is far right of Rush? That would be non other than Hummer driving, homo hating, Vanity plate WAR owning Mr. Ross. Ash, Snow, Sarah. Don’t you just love it????????? No!!!!!!!

Sunday of Passion


Mark 14:1-15:47

Some knew
--at least in part
what you were saying
some heard the words you spoke
so gentle
--so clear
about what was to come
your death
the kingdom
some heard
--and followed you because they heard
without fully understanding it
--there was an urgency in your eyes
----they could sense the pain
----the anguish
--in the moment
and silently
--lovingly
she anointed the one who would be the messiah
for what was to come
blessing that which was to be given
for all humanity
while the rest of the world was about its business
--its agendas
that pit one against another
this one knew
of the bud that was to burst into beauty
in a kingdom breaking in
to the business and agendas of our lives
with love

Hope of the world

Sunday April 5th, Mark 11: Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, "Hosanna!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" The people were ready for a real King, not just a foreign dictator. The celebration was festive and the crowds were caught up in excitement and hope as Jesus entered the city from the East. At that same time, entering the city from the West, was Pilate dressed in all his military might and followed by the legions of soldiers. He represented that foreign power and was moving into the city to maintain control during the Passover. The Passover after all celebrated a time when the Jewish population won it’s freedom from an earlier political empire, Egypt. Pilate was the essence of military authority who was here to protect the integrity and the image of Caesar, who was known as “the son of god.” The timing and method of entry Jesus chose was a direct confrontation to the political and religious and military power represented by Pilate. Hosanna to the prince of Peace, not the lord of war. Hosanna to the Hope of the World, not the control of the world. Hosanna to “The” “Son of God,” not the son of god wannabe. Hosanna to your hopes and dreams, but not necessarily your safety and security. Hosanna, today……..

we've got the power

Monday April 6th, Mark 14:1 Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. The chief priests and teachers of the law were a part of the ruling elite. They had figured out their niche in this foreign domination situation. They were the large landowners that possessed some of the land that Herod taken from the peasants. They were the ones who had the authority and power to rule under Pilate, maintain control and collect the taxes, and reap a good profit, while Pilate lived in more pleasant accommodations in Caesarea by the sea. It was just another case of religion and politics working together hand in hand, to maintain control and the status quo. It is the natural tendency of any religious organization, whether they call themselves organized or not. When it happens, it is always the integrity of the religion that looses. How are these same scenarios being played out today?

at least someone gets it

Tuesday April 7th, Mark 14:7 She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her." Jesus has been telling the twelve disciples, on their journey from Caesarea Philippi to Jerusalem, what leadership entails. They, like you and I most of the time, didn’t get it. Judas takes a very pragmatic approach to ushering in the kingdom by forcing a confrontation between Jesus and the authorities. Some say it was a plan he and Jesus had worked out all along, most others, and I agree, say didn’t get it either. I think most of us, most of the time, don’t get it. Mark inserts the story of this unnamed woman between those two points. In the midst of it all, she gave of herself totally and worshiped Jesus. She was at her wits end which means she had very little of her ego to push and only Jesus to seek. She exemplified the servant leader Jesus was trying to get through to the disciples. She becomes the first Christian, worshiping what would be the risen Christ even before the crucifixion. She got it. Sometimes in the midst of life and, yes, even death, we forget what the center of both life and death is all about. Sometimes we don’t get it. We still think it is about “us” singular and not “us” as a part of the body of Christ. Look to the example of this unnamed woman and follow Christ by being a servant leader.

do nothing

Wednesday April 8th, Mark 14: 10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. Judas does get a bad rap. It is nice to have a villain on which to place blame. It absolves us of our responsibility. What Judas did was place his own agenda ahead of Jesus’ plan. He tried to get Jesus to do what “he” wanted him to do. The messiah was recreated in “his” image. Not much different from the rest of the disciples. Not much different from you and I. It has been going on since that tree thing in the garden. The disciples didn’t get what the unnamed woman got. Judas didn’t get what the unnamed woman got. Judas just acted on his inclinations as opposed to the other disciples who did nothing. It is so easy to get caught up in that take charge doing. It is so easy to use Christianity to control others. It is even easier to not get it at all and do nothing. It is so easy to choose power and death over servant and life. Judas stands as a warning to us all on how easily we can, and do slip into that same mindset as Judas and set in motion what we would want Jesus to do. It is also a warning to slip into the mindset of the rest of the disciples and do nothing. Where are you on that continuum?

Relationship

Thursday April 9th, Mark 14:22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take it; this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it. "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” Jesus renewed the covenant God made with Moses, not with more laws, but by sharing a meal. Jesus redefined what had been understood as right and wrong, with hospitality and the communal concept of sharing, servanthood and relationship. It was the continuation of the practice of Jesus to include everyone at the table and to see that all were feed. This meal was a reminder of the feeding of the five thousand where the miracle was when the masses were inclined to share what they were hording and there was an abundance left over. This meal was the Passover meal that celebrated the liberation from captivity from Egypt, and in practice now celebrates the liberation of humanity from all bondage. Finally it is the taking of the body and blood, of the total giving of the self for the sake of the kingdom, to which we are all called. It is servanthood, it is sharing, it is relationship, it is life.

Good Friday, Ha, Ha, Ha

Good Friday, April 10th, Mark 14:30 "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "today--yes, tonight--before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times." But Peter insisted emphatically, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." It is not something we like to admit, but most of us have either laughed at or told off color or racial or sexual jokes. These jokes deny Christ in your life. To tell or laugh at them is to scream to the world, “I DO NOT KNOW HIM.” By screaming, “I DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE VASTNESS OF THE BODY OF CHRIST.” We have all disowned Christ, not three times but three times infinity, and the beat goes on. Pray today that God would kick you extra hard when you are about to laugh at or tell a “I do not know him” joke. And I mean, Extra hard!!

alone?

Saturday April 11th, Mark 15:34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?"--which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" There are times when we feel alone and abandoned. On the cross, Christ faced the total abandonment of our love that sin represents. When did you last feel alone? Abandoned? Christ understands. When did you last feel forgotten and misunderstood? Christ understands. When did you last feel used and abused? Christ understands. Often when we feel most alone, it is not that God is absent, but rather that we are in such a hole that all we can see is darkness. Off in the distance there may be a glimmer of light, but we refuse to acknowledge it. Find a copy of the poem footsteps, read it. I know it is well worn and schmaltzy, but there are times it is still worth rereading. Remember your alone time, and know that God was with you then and will be with you in your next alone time, and always.

3/27/2009

ELCA Presiding Bishop's 2009 Easter Message

"Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified ... has been raised."
Mark 16:6

When Mary Magdalene, Mary and Salome came to the tomb, their hopes and fears intersected. They wondered aloud about the impossibly large and heavy stone that presented an obstacle to their immediate plans. Worse, what they thought lay behind the stone was unspeakably devastating. Jesus, who embodied the hope of God's promise in a fully human life, was not simply dead, but crucified -- executed in the most extreme humiliation, a savage mockery of the hope that had lived with him.

But the stone was gone, the grave empty. Where they had expected to hear the silence of death's mockery, they were met by an astonishing message that the crucified one was raised from the dead, that their hope was victorious over humiliation, and that Jesus lives and is leading the way into an unexpected, surprising future with God.

Jesus lives and resurrection hope beckons. Jesus' resurrection on the third day signals that God is not finished until the life of Jesus renews the whole creation. Sinners once haunted by the threats of judgment will live forgiven, restored, renewed and freed. All lives broken by sin's injustices and haunted by death's terrors will be transformed by joy and transfigured into the new creation in Christ.

You and I are witnesses of this new creation. You have been baptized into Jesus' death and resurrection and have heard his promise. Your lives are hidden in his and he feeds you with a foretaste of the eternal feast of joy. He will meet you in your hope. He claims your daily work and makes it into a holy calling. He lives in you and sends you into the world as an ambassador of reconciliation, a testimony of God's incomparable love. Jesus lives! Your life in him is resurrection witness.

"This is our God; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation!"
Isaiah 25:9

The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
---
An audio version of the ELCA presiding bishop's Easter message is at http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/2009MSHEaster.mp3
on the ELCA Web site.

Lutheran Bishop Testifies Before House Subcommittee on Climate Change

WASHINGTON (ELCA) - The Rev. Callon W. Holloway Jr., bishop, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Southern Ohio Synod, Columbus, was one of seven witnesses who testified before the U.S. House Energy and Environment Subcommittee on March 25 in a congressional hearing, "Preparing for Climate Change:
Adaptation Polities and Programs."
Holloway said that the United States "must acknowledge its role and moral responsibility" in the global climate change crisis and "commit to providing substantial financial support reaching between $7 billion and $21.5 billion a year by 2030 and further increasing over time."
"For many people of faith, the conviction to be good stewards of the earth is grounded in God's command in Genesis to keep and till the earth," Holloway said. "We do not view the riches of our earth simply as material to be exploited, but rather as treasure we are called to protect, preserve and utilize in sustainable ways for the well-being of God's people and God's creation."

The full text of the "Climate Fairness Agenda: A Religious Call to Address Global Climate Change and Poverty" is at http://tinyurl.com/cbmlos on the Web.

3/23/2009

John 12:20-33


5th Sunday in Lent

Perched on the end of its stock
Out of the reach of the ground
A grain grows
Golden
Full of life that is
And is to be
In the bringing forth of life
Not only to itself
But to all who partake

Lord help me
--(unless)
to face
--that which has been faced
--for generation after generation
--(a grain of wheat)
that which makes no sense
and yet is the only thing
--that makes sense
--(falls)
I fear what is to come to all
I fear accepting my death
As real
And facing the unknown
--(to earth)
even Christ’s soul was troubled
and felt agony
at the facing of what
--was
----to
------be
--------(and dies)
But I know
--in my innermost self
that to live
I must let go
To truly live
I must accept all of life
--even death
and not hang on to my self
--as god
--(it remains alone)
I thank you Lord
For your Son
Who died
--(but if it dies)
that I might live
--(it bears much fruit)

just grow up

Sunday March 29th, Jeremiah 31: 31 "The time is coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt. As children grow in years, parents change the way they deal with them. The household rules for a 10 year old are much different than for a 3 year old. The Lord took the children of Israel by the hand and gave them a covenant at Sinai, the covenant we call the Ten Commandments. It was a good set of external rules for where the children of God were in life at that time. Now that they no longer need to be lead by the hand, now that they have grown up a bit, it is time for something different. Well, net really different, but a new way to get to the same old ideas. The reason we as a society hang on to the Ten Commandments so tightly is that it is easier to pretend we are in control with external rules than with love. God calls us to a higher calling, to love one another. We are called to move beyond the “what is in it for me, to what would be best for us”, and the move does not come easy. AIG is a case in point. What they just don’t get is the “us.” It would be fun to just point fingers if there were not four coming back at me.

spiritual maturity

Monday March 30th, Jeremiah 31: 33 "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time," declares the LORD. "I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. God will still be our God and we will still be God’s children, but we are older now. Everything shouldn’t have to be laid out in black and white in front of us. Now that we are older and wiser as the children of God, we have some responsibility. We are not told what to do in every situation except to operate out of the love that God has shown us. It makes for disagreements and disunity, but also opens the door to opportunity and growth. Our spiritual maturity shows in whether we use the disagreements for discussion and growth or judgment and regression. We now see the economic results of going toward the judgment and regression. Hopefully a little discussion and growth can happen as we move in the other direction.

pontification

Tuesday March 31st, Jeremiah 31: 34 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." The trouble with most expressions of Christianity is that we still try to teach our neighbor what is right or wrong according to us, and assume that it is what is right or wrong for them. Instead of inviting others to join in the conversation, we want them to sit down, shut up and listen to us as we pontificate. God would rather that we trust the word of God also in their hearts and join in conversation rather than coercion and correction. If they make mistakes along the way??? It just proves that they are more like us than we want to admit and for that God has promised to remember their sins no more. The good news is that same promise extends to our pontification also.

stagnant violence

Wednesday April 1st, John 12: 20 There were some Greeks in town who had come up to worship at the Feast. 21 They approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee: "Sir, we want to see Jesus. The Greeks refers not just to those from Greece, but to all from outside the Jewish faith. This new thing that Jesus was ushering into the world, it is not just for a few, it is not just for the frozen chosen, it is not just for those who have the correct knowledge or understanding, it is for all. It is that all inclusive love that is the essence and attraction. They will find out what being a part of the community of God entails soon enough. For now they want to see Jesus. Our job as the children of God is to help people see Jesus and announce that the kingdom is near. Soon, they as we will work out what this new community, with these new people is, and how it operates. Soon we will discover together the dynamics of this communities expressions of God’s love, forgiveness and calling. That is when change happens again and we get to discover anew the new and ever changing dynamics. When that ceases to happen, community dies. Remember, violence is inviting someone into a situation that must remain unchanged.

healthy growth

Thursday April 2nd, John 12: 24 "Listen carefully: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground, dead to the world, it is never any more than a grain of wheat. But if it is buried, it sprouts and reproduces itself many times over. We see this enacted again and again, year after year, and yet, it seems to escape us, or does it? Jesus uses the metaphor to explain not only his need to go to the cross, but our need to pick up our cross and follow. The more we hang onto life, the smaller that life becomes. As the days are getting longer and warmer, and as the wannabe green thumb begins to itch, see what nature can teach you about the God who created nature. Birch trees grow in groups of three or more; last year’s plants that die to self, rise to new life; small little seeds, when nurtured and cared for can grow into amazing, life giving organisms; all the different plants need one another in order to grow healthily, bio-diversity, like all diversity, helps maintain that health. The easy part is learning, the harder part is applying.

fluid relationships

Friday April 3rd, John 12: 25 In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal. Lest you missed the lesson in nature, Jesus gives us a great big hint. This lesson spoken just before the crucifixion carries a double message of not holding on to your life, your ideas, you ego too closely and to pick up your cross and follow. Holding on tightly to your life won’t bring it to life; instead it will have the effect of snuffing the glory out of it. We are called rather to pick up our cross and love recklessly. In doing so, not only is our life saved, but the lives around us come to life a bit more. God’s love is about relationships, not rules. Rules always tend to become about us and maintaining the status quo over time. Relationships must always be fluid to grow and when they stop growing, they start dying.

theological bio-diversity

Saturday April 4th, John 12: 27 "Right now I am storm-tossed. And what am I going to say? "Father, get me out of this'? No, this is why I came in the first place. 28 I'll say, "Father, put your glory on display.'" A voice came out of the sky: "I have glorified it, and I'll glorify it again." 29 The listening crowd said, "Thunder!" Others said, "An angel spoke to him!" 30 Jesus said, "The voice didn't come for me but for you. Jesus began his ministry when he was baptized in the river Jordan by John, and the voice came from heaven saying, “this is my son in whom I am will pleased.” After teaching the disciples Jesus took Peter, James and John up on the mountain and was transfigured before them and the voice of God spoke, “this is my son, my beloved, listen to him.” Jesus then began the journey toward Jerusalem and the crucifixion, teaching the disciples along the way the meaning of being a self giving child of God. And now in the garden, the Greeks, those outside the Jewish tradition came seeking this new teaching, this Jesus, and again the voice of God glorifies Jesus’ name for the sake of the whole world. The voice is for us. The message of God’s love, forgiveness, wholeness, the message of God’s kingdom breaking in, lives, primarily in the sharing of that message beyond our borders of comfort. It is the theological equivalent of bio-diversity.

3/16/2009

4th Sunday in Lent


John 3:14-21

Lifted up amid the people
Lost and wandering
On their way
--to wherever God would lead them
full of hope
--and wonder
but lost
--without a country
--or land
--or a life
and at time illness would come
in this land far from any land
--that could be called their own
--or home
and for those people
--feeling so lost
--and ill
God gave them hope
That if any should look upon the serpent
Raised up amid the pain of their existence
They would be healed
Made whole
--through the gift of God
--to live again
--to love again
--to praise again

and for us
wandering in our desert
--of loneliness
--and pain
living so far from our longing
God has given
That part
That life
The Messiah
Christ of us all
Lifted up upon the cross
In an act that was meant to bring death
To Christ
--to hope
but instead
--brings life
to all who gaze upon
this love of God for the world

and the beacon shines bright
in our lives of pain
illuminating the darkness within
and filling our lives
with the love of God
and forgiving us our sin

so you wanna go back to Egypt

Sunday March 22nd Numbers 21: 4 They set out from Mount Hor along the Red Sea Road, a detour around the land of Edom. The people became irritable and cross as they traveled. 5 They spoke out against God and Moses: "Why did you drag us out of Egypt to die in this godforsaken country? No decent food; no water--we can't stomach this stuff any longer." So you wanna go back to Egypt where it's warm and secure. Are sorry you bought the one way ticket when you thought you were sure? You wanted to live in the land of promise but now it's getting so hard. Are you sorry you're out here in the desert Instead of your own back yard? Eating leaks and onions by the Nile, Ooh what breath for dining out in style, Ooh, my life's on the skids, building the pyramids. Well there's nothing do but travel and we sure travel a lot, 'Cause it's hard to keep your feet from moving when the sand gets so hot. And in the morning its manna hotcakes, we snack on manna all day, and we sure had a winner last night for dinner flaming manna soufflé. From Keith Green’s song, “So you wanna go back to Egypt” Some people just want to complain no matter what God gives them. I think it is the old wanting to be in charge thing, I prefer to let God be God. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foUH4No_SVU&feature=related

O Look! A Snake

Monday March 23rd Numbers 21: 8 GOD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it on a flagpole: Whoever is bitten and looks at it will live." 9 So Moses made a snake of fiery copper and put it on top of a flagpole. Anyone bitten by a snake who then looked at the copper snake lived. The first thing to do with a life threatening issue is to face it. Only then can you start to deal with the issue. Sometimes the issue is so great it is difficult not to face, like the economy. Cramer on the Daily Show is a punctuation of that point. Sometimes, the big issues of the day only serve to hide some smaller, but very important issues, like our continued new racism of rejecting gay marriage. There is even the continuing resistance to deal with climate change. Time to face the issue. Whether or not there is a natural cyclical pattern that is contributing to global warming, dumping millions of tons of garbage into the atmosphere, rivers and oceans is not helping. Hell is truth seen too late.

all, all, all

Tuesday March 24th Ephesians 2: 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. The “us” God has great love for and are saved by grace is not just the “you and me.” The “us” is the “all” of us. One of the real tragedies we constantly have to deal with is the loss of the “all” feeling in the word us. When the young man tried to get Jesus to define who the neighbor was, Jesus told him the story of the Good Samaritan and asked who acted like a neighbor. It is not about who they are, it is about who we are. When we find ourselves defining “us” in the narrow sense, it is because our hearts can only conceive of love in a narrow sense. God loves all creation, all cosmos, all children. The reality is that God deals with all of God’s children with grace, and fortunate are the ones who “get” that. Our job is to not narrow the focus, but to go into all the world with the message that the kingdom is near, God’s love is near, God’s grace is near, and we, your brothers and sisters are near. That is when we start getting it also.

Grace and Works

Wednesday March 25th Ephesians 2: 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. What good works has God prepared in advance for you to do? It is true we are saved by grace. The next step is to reach out and be graceful to others. In the midst of every crisis is an opportunity. The crisis we are now facing is a crisis of economic change. This ripple in the comfort zone of the haves is getting much more attention than the plight of the have nots has ever gotten. Can we grasps this economic difficulty as an opportunity to embrace the economic changes that will change direction of the last 30 years and open the door to the poorest in the world? As we cut back on the number of times we go out to eat, can we find an opportunity to allow someone we don’t know to feed their children at home? For the sake of our brothers and sisters in Christ we have never met, and never will meet, can we give up 1% of our future wealth to help bring about an increase in their survival? In the story of the Good Samaritan, who do you want to be remembered as, the one who passed by or the one who stopped to help? We are saved by grace it is true, but it is not, as Bonhoeffer would say, Cheap Grace. It is Costly Grace that compels us into action. Not action to be saved, but action because we are saved, because we are the children of God, because we are brothers and sisters in Christ.

You're so vain

Thursday March 26th John 3: 16" For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. A better translation is that God so loved the cosmos that he gave his one and only Son. It is not just about us, it is about the whole world. When we give little heed to the destruction of this planet, we give little heed to the cosmos God so loved. When we allow our addiction to oil to drive our ways and wars, killing not only our brothers and sisters in Christ over there, but also our own grandchildren and great grandchildren right here, we give little heed to the cosmos God so loved. God so loved the cosmos, and we are called to do the same. For God did not send his Son into the “world” to condemn the world, but to save the “world” through him. Like the old Carly Simon song, You’re So Vain. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B7bVD_DkM4) I bet you thought this verse was about you. It is about “us.” All of us.

step one

Friday March 27th John 3: 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. Christ came into the world to bring salvation to all of humanity. God so loved the cosmos he gave his only son. Yet, humanity still finds ways to live in the shadows. It is the shadows where we can justify our bailout bonuses as something good. It is in the shadows that we can read of the economies affect on wall street and not see what is happening were there are no real roads. Looking at something in the light sometimes hurts, but as with the snake Moses held up in the wilderness, looking at it in the light is the only way we can begin to be cured. It is the first step and any twelve step program for good reason, with first looking at it in the light, there is no cure.

into the light

Saturday March 28th John 3: 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God." The call for Christians is to come into the light and look around. As you view all of creation as important to God, and as you view all of humanity as important to God, and as you view every generation as important to God, what one thing would you do to show God’s love and grace in the world. Change one thing in your life today for the sake of the cosmos God so loved. Shine a little light around your life in the process.

3/12/2009

Corrective rape

This is sad, very sad.......

The partially clothed body of Eudy Simelane, former star of South Africa's acclaimed Banyana Banyana national female football squad, was found in a creek in a park in Kwa Thema, on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Simelane had been gang-raped and brutally beaten before being stabbed 25 times in the face, chest and legs. As well as being one of South Africa's best-known female footballers, Simelane was a voracious equality rights campaigner and one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in Kwa Thema.

Her brutal murder took place last April, and since then a tide of violence against lesbian women in South Africa has continued to rise. Human rights campaigners say it is characterised by what they call "corrective rape" committed by men behind the guise of trying to "cure" lesbian women of their sexual orientation.

full text and video at the Guardian web site: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/12/eudy-simelane-corrective-rape-south-africa

recovering

As a man I consider myself at best a recovering chauvinist. As a white person I am a recovering racist, and as a straight person a recovering heterosexist. To women, African Americans, gays and lesbians, I am deeply grateful for stretching my mind, deepening my heart, and convincing me that no human being should ever be patient with prejudice at the expense of its victims.

Creedo by Wm Sloane Coffin

3/11/2009

refloat the boat


Help refloat the boat. The only floating church in the ELCA is dry docked. You can help. Help refloat the MV Christian, a floating church in South East Alaska that visits many communities and provides many ministries that otherwise would not be there. Go to the facebook page at: http://www.02.01.snc1.facebook.com/people/Mv-Christian/1414172133#/profile.php?id=1414172133

and see how you can help.

Pastor Dan

Monbiot's royal flush: Top 10 climate change deniers

Genesis 2: 15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."


but sometimes you just want to play god and forget about caring for creation, it is our way of saying to hell with God and the grandkids, I want mine now!!!!!


My shortlist of people who have done most for the denialist cause - in playing card form

With the Heartland Institute's annual jamboree for climate deniers in full swing in New York here's my shortlist of people who have done most for the denialist cause - in playing card form.


Our Own Sarah made the list:

An Alaskan denying climate change is like a Saudi Arabian denying sand. But can she do it? You betcha. The eagle-eyed governor can – or so the satirists claim- see Russia from her house, but apparently not the melting permafrost, shrinking glaciers and disappearing sea ice closer to home.


During her vice-presidential campaign, she embarrassed John McCain by maintaining: "I'm not one though who would attribute it [climate change] to being manmade." She has refused to classify the polar bear as an endangered species on the grounds that the sea ice is here to stay, but is making plans for opening up the Arctic Sea to oil drilling, on the grounds that the ice is due to disappear. Could her ambivalence towards climate change have anything to do with the fact that Alaska is a major oil state? You betcha.

Scientists discover the brain's 'God spot'... and show that faith helps human survival



Scientists searching for a 'God spot' in the brain have found three areas that control religious belief.


A study of 40 participants, including Christians, Muslims, Jews and Buddhists, showed the same areas lit up when they were asked to ponder religious and moral problems.

God on the mind: Areas of the brain involved in religious belief

MRI scans revealed the regions that were activated are those used every day to interpret the feelings and intentions of other people.

'That suggests that religion is not a special case of a belief system, but evolved along with other belief and social cognitive abilities,' said Jordan Grafman, a cognitive neuroscientist at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland.
Scientists, philosophers and theologians continue to argue about whether religious belief is a biological or a sociological phenomenon.

3/09/2009

3rd Sunday in Lent


John 2:13-22

So pure was the water
So clean and pure
As Jesus came out of the river Jordan
And the dove came
Landing there
So pure
So simple
Was the moment
And the words
----this is My Son

so pure was the mist
so clean and pure
as the Light enveloped Jesus on the mountain
and the voice came
and was heard there
so pure
so simple
was this moment
and the words
----this is My Son
--------Listen to Him

Listen to Him
Can you hear amid the drone
Of the voices calling
And selling
--the doves
----and oxen
------and sheep
on the steps of the temple
dedicated to the worship of God
turned now into
a respectable place
where budding capitalist can ply their trade
turning the burning desires of humanity
drawn to a closeness with God
into a reasonable profit
----in their definition
in the name of love

This Is My Father’s House
But you have made it into
A temple of human desire
And lust
For power
----(money)
and it will fall
fall from the weight of those
--------on top
weighted down by the greed
of an honest living
amid the poor

so pure was the air
so clean and pure
as Jesus’ life slipped from him
and a world changed
as Christ arose in three days
the temple rebuilt
so pure
so simple
and the words
were remembered
This is My Son
Listen to Him

Grace, in the midst of humanity

Sunday March 15th, Exodus 20: 2 I am GOD, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of a life of slavery. 3 No other gods, only me. Here we take our stand, sort of. We like to let the words roll off our tongue, talk as if we believe them, confess it when asked, but then our lives tell a different story. When it comes to the bottom line however, “GOD your God” ends up taking a back seat to our passions for today. This is what the temptation in the garden with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was all about. Which comes first, your desires and wants or God’s desires and wants? You can get at the answer by answering some other questions. How many hours a day to you spend in study and prayer? Have you ever taken a Sunday off from worship? Do you invite more than 50% of the people you meet to join you in worship? Do you go out of your way to serve others, knowing that in doing so you serve God? The list goes on and on. The promise for GOD to be our God also goes on and on. We all fall short, God comes through. I am GOD your God is the promise of grace in the midst of our humanness.

R & R

Monday March 16th, Exodus 20: 8 Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Work six days and do everything you need to do. 10 But the seventh day is a Sabbath to GOD your God. Don't do any work--not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. 11 For in six days GOD made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore GOD blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day. The Sabbath was made for humanity, not humanity for the Sabbath. When we don’t take time to rest and reflect on God’s love in our lives, life just seems to start loosing meaning and beauty. It is not about embracing sloth one day a week, it is about dedicating your refreshment in life at least one day a week. Spend it in the yard, spend it on your family, you can even spend it going fishing or snowmobiling, but never forget to spend it with God, with worship. You won’t go to hell for ignoring Sabbath worship, but you will make your life, slowly, one week at a time, a living hell as all those relaxing activities simply become hollow and just more work. This is another one of those laws that is really grace in disguise.

more salt please

Tuesday March 17th, Exodus 20: 16 No lies about your neighbor. 17 No lusting after your neighbor's house--or wife or servant or maid or ox or donkey. Don't set your heart on anything that is your neighbor's. This is the covet, or lusting thing that gets us all in trouble. One problem is that our economy. Not that it is tanking right now (remember now is the time to buy low) but rather that it is based on getting people to want something they do not have, or even need and then selling it to them. That is what advertising is all about and as we can see now, it is rather a house of cards. When this advertising works we find that if we don’t want (lust after) what or neighbor has, we want (lust after) something better. What God is trying to warn us about is how easy it is to move from lusting to action. It doesn’t matter if it is drug addict, David and Bathsheba, AIG or the couple that lives at the end of the street, in the movement from lust into action we are all capable of mowing down anyone or anything in the way of something we lust after, especially if it or they are close. It is all too easy to justify our actions and not even see our ethics or the other guy lying in the dust when we are through. Lust is the desire for salt from someone who is dying of thrust. In the end we only make things worse for ourselves.

Change is seldom easy

Wednesday March 18th, John 2: 13 Not long before the Jewish festival of Passover, Jesus went to Jerusalem. 14 There he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves in the temple. He also saw moneychangers sitting at their tables. 15 So he took some rope and made a whip. Then he chased everyone out of the temple, together with their sheep and cattle. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins. To change the focus on temple worship, there needed to be a bit of housecleaning. Change comes hard, we are experiencing that now. Worship is more than going through the motions, more than bringing your offering, setting through a sermon, singing a few songs that you would never listen to if they were on the radio, and talking to a few people until you can get out the door and onto your own life. Jesus replaced simply doing sacrifice with his own body and blood, now people complain about the wine and the bread. What thought systems in your life need to be changed to return church to worship? What in worship needs to be changed to change church to Worship? Remember that answer is never going back to what we used to do. What will be fresh about your worship this week?

but it works so well

Thursday March 19th, John 2: 16 Jesus said to the people who had been selling doves, "Get those doves out of here! Don't make my Father's house a marketplace. The doves and all the other animals were used to sell to people who had traveled to Jerusalem to make a sacrifice at the temple. It was convenient. They did not have to travel a long way with the sacrificial animal. The money changers also helped because they could exchange the people’s money for coins that did not have the face of one of the various local rulers on it. To use such coins was considered a form of idolatry. All the systems in place were for very good and helpful reasons. They also made a good profit off the poor who had traveled long distances. The system worked so well no one ever thought about how it worked against the down and out of God’s creation. That is until Jesus came along. The system worked well, but what needed changing was the system. How convenient is church for those who regularly attend, and how is that keeping others out?

what is in charge?

Friday March 20th, John 2: 18 The Jewish leaders asked Jesus, "What miracle will you work to show us why you have done this?" 19 "Destroy this temple," Jesus answered, "and in three days I will build it again!" In trying to trivialize Jesus the temple rulers tried to set the rules of engagement. Jesus caught them off guard with the “destroy the temple” thing. They had replaced God as the balance point in their life with the temple. They couldn’t control God, but they could run the temple. Jesus was just trying to give them a hint about rebalancing things. How has the church simply replaced the temple? How has the liturgy (the way we worship) the dogma (the way we think) the hot button issues (the way we act) taken over for the love and grace of God? After the resurrection some in the temple even got it, do we?

What would make worship work?

Saturday March 21st, John 2: 20 The leaders replied, "It took forty-six years to build this temple. What makes you think you can rebuild it in three days?" 21 But Jesus was talking about his body as a temple. 22 And when he was raised from death, his disciples remembered what he had told them. Then they believed the Scriptures and the words of Jesus. Actually, Jesus was talking about the whole structure of religious activity for all of humanity. Things were changing, the temple was no longer the center, and the church is no longer the center, it is Christ. Later when the talk of the resurrection was in the air, they remembered. Have you ever had one of those Ah Ha! Moments? The world was out of balance, things just don’t seem what they should be, and then Jesus sets things running smooth again. Not even the disciples saw it coming. How could your world improve by centering it on Jesus? How would your church change by centering it on Jesus? What if you just threw out the whole worship service this weekend and started the service with the question: what would make today’s worship experience meaningful for you to experience the love and forgiveness of Christ?

The washing machine 'liberated women'

This may be one reason the church is declining, which reminds me, I have some laundry to do today while I work on my sermon and two powerpoints. I could not find a related article at the site for the National Organization for Women NOW.

I mentioned the article to my wife as she left for work this morning and she agreed with the article saying, "Yes, with the washing machine, she can be liberated and go to work and her husband who is staying home today can do the laundry because it is finally easy enough for men to do, so therefore it is liberating for women." I think I married her for her logic!!! and good looks, and, and, and................................

As International Women’s Day is celebrated, the Vatican had a novel message for the women of the world: give thanks for the washing machine. This humble domestic appliance had done more for the women’s liberation movement than the contraceptive pill or working outside the home, said the the official Vatican newspaper, Osservatore Romano.

“In the 20th century, what contributed most to the emancipation of Western women?” questioned the article. “The debate is still open. Some say it was the pill, others the liberalisation of abortion, or being able to work outside the home. Others go even further: the washing machine.”

The article is entitled, “The washing machine and the emancipation of women: put in the powder, close the lid and relax”, taking its name from the Washy Talky, the Electrolux bilingual-talking washing-machine launched in India seven years ago, which would remind the absent-minded housewife how to use the appliance.

The Catholic Church was never likely to laud the pill for its transformative power on women’s lives. Since Pope Benedict became the leader of the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics, he has published a religious document condemning contraception for “negating the intimate truth of conjugal love, with which the divine gift [of life] is communicated” and has urged pharmacists to refuse to dispense the morning-after pill. The Osservatore Romano held the pill responsible for polluting the environment and contributing to male infertility.

American Religious Identification Survey is Third in Landmark Series

HARTFORD, Conn. - The Catholic population of the United States has shifted away from the Northeast and towards the Southwest, while secularity continues to grow in strength in all regions of the country, according to a new study conducted by the Program on Public Values at Trinity College. "The decline of Catholicism in the Northeast is nothing short of stunning," said Barry Kosmin, a principal investigator for the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS). "Thanks to immigration and natural increase among Latinos, California now has a higher proportion of Catholics than New England."

Conducted between February and November of last year, ARIS 2008 is the third in a landmark series of large, nationally representative surveys of U.S. adults in the 48 contiguous states conducted by Kosmin and Ariela Keysar. Employing the same research methodology as the 1990 and 2001 surveys, ARIS 2008 questioned 54,461 adults in either English or Spanish. With a margin of error of less than 0.5 percent, it provides the only complete portrait of how contemporary Americans identify themselves religiously, and how that self-identification has changed over the past generation.

In broad terms, ARIS 2008 found a consolidation and strengthening of shifts signaled in the 2001 survey. The percentage of Americans claiming no religion, which jumped from 8.2 in 1990 to 14.2 in 2001, has now increased to 15 percent. Given the estimated growth of the American adult population since the last census from 207 million to 228 million, that reflects an additional 4.7 million "Nones." Northern New England has now taken over from the Pacific Northwest as the least religious section of the country, with Vermont, at 34 percent "Nones," leading all other states by a full 9 points.

"Many people thought our 2001 finding was an anomaly," Keysar said. We now know it wasn't. The 'Nones' are the only group to have grown in every state of the Union."

The percentage of Christians in America, which declined in the 1990s from 86.2 percent to 76.7 percent, has now edged down to 76 percent. Ninety percent of the decline comes from the non-Catholic segment of the Christian population, largely from the mainline denominations, including Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians/Anglicans, and the United Church of Christ. These groups, whose proportion of the American population shrank from 18.7 percent in 1990 to 17.2 percent in 2001, all experienced sharp numerical declines this decade and now constitute just 12.9 percent.

Most of the growth in the Christian population occurred among those who would identify only as "Christian," "Evangelical/Born Again," or "non-denominational Christian." The last of these, associated with the growth of megachurches, has increased from less than 200,000 in 1990 to 2.5 million in 2001 to over 8 million today. These groups grew from 5 percent of the population in 1990 to 8.5 percent in 2001 to 11.8 percent in 2008. Significantly, 38.6 percent of mainline Protestants now also identify themselves as evangelical or born again.

"It looks like the two-party system of American Protestantism--mainline versus evangelical--is collapsing," said Mark Silk, director of the Public Values Program. "A generic form of evangelicalism is emerging as the normative form of non-Catholic Christianity in the United State s."

Other key findings:
• Baptists, who constitute the largest non-Catholic Christian tradition, have increased their numbers by two million since 2001, but continue to decline as a proportion of the population.
• Mormons have increased in numbers enough to hold their own proportionally, at 1.4 percent of the population.
• The Muslim proportion of the population continues to grow, from .3 percent in 1990 to .5 percent in 2001 to .6 percent in 2008.
• The number of adherents of Eastern Religions, which more than doubled in the 1990s, has declined slightly, from just over two million to just under. Asian Americans are substantially more likely to indicate no religious identity than other racial or ethnic groups.
• Those who identify religiously as Jews continue to decline numerically, from 3.1 million in 1990 to 2.8 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2008--1.2 percent of the population. Defined to include those who identify as Jews by ethnicity alone, the American Jewish population has remained stable over the past two decades.
• Only1.6 percent of Americans call themselves atheist or agnostic. But based on stated beliefs, 12 percent are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unsure), while 12 percent more are deistic (believe in a higher power but not a personal God). The number of outright atheists has nearly doubled since 2001, from 900 thousand to 1.6 million. Twenty-seven percent of Americans do not expect a religious funeral at their death.
• Adherents of New Religious movements, inc luding Wiccans and self-described pagans, have grown faster this decade than in the 1990s.

Professors Kosmin and Keysar are, respectively, director and associate director of Trinity's Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture. The Program on Public Values at Trinity College comprises the Institute and the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, which is also directed by Professor Silk. ARIS 2008 was made possible by grants from Lilly Endowment, Inc. and the Posen Foundation. To receive a copy of the ARIS 2008 Summary Report click on the title above or go to: http://www.americanreligionsurvey-aris.org/

3/02/2009

2nd Sunday in Lent


Mark 8:31-38

These words are so hard to hear
So hard
Why?
--why must our master walk in this direction
Why?
--when we have left our families and work
do we have to hear these words of doom and death
Why?

This talk makes no sense
We could have it all
We could live
We could live in a world so kind
With none of the pain
We left behind
A world far better than any have seen
A world that for many is just a dream
We could have it
We could have it all
The power that comes with the ones
Who lead
And show the way
That people want to follow
They really want to follow you
Away from Romans
--and poverty
----and hardship
we could be a great power
A Nation
--that is looked up to and feared
----by nations
Master!
--Rabbi!
-------listen to what you senses
-------and to what the people are saying
-------listen

and Jesus turns
and faces all
--who have come this far
--and hung on every word
--and lived on every morsel of life
----dropped from his lips
--who have lived as they have never lived before
--with a hope they had never known
Listen, this is my Son
His eyes said
As he looked through the crowd
In a stare of ice
And the thoughts turned to those unexplained moments
That raised the questions
And the hearts raced with fear
--as they knew
----once more
they were in for something more
than they had ever known
--or dreamed
----or bargained for
in the collective memory of all creation

GET--------THEE--------BEHIND--------ME
------(take)---------(up)---------------(thy)--------(cross)
with you temptress minds of humanity
and live
LIVE
--beyond the limits of your perceived reality
and a world that
-----changes
--hatred for hatred for hatred
until all see only the gain in their world.
See and feel and hear that glimmer
That goes beyond the mere pretense of happiness
And see the children’s faces
--for what they could be
LIVE
--(and follow me)

will you still love me when I'm ninty nine?

Sunday March 8th, Genesis 17: When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord came to him and said, "I am God All-powerful. Obey Me, and be without blame. 2 And I will keep My agreement between Me and you. I will give you many children." 3 Then Abram fell on his face. Did he fall on his face because of the joy that the promise would finally be true or did he fall on his face because of the fear that the promise would finally be true? I must say that I do hope and pray that the Lord does not visit me when I am 99 and tell me I will be a new father. At many years younger than that my wife and I may joke about it, but believe me, IT IS A JOKE, OK God!!!! But that is that old control thing going on within me again. God made the promise and was true to that promise. The wait for Abe and Sarah was to show that it was God who was doing this great thing. What we can take from this is to trust in God. Trust in God always, even when it seems impossible, or laughable, or frightenly laughable. Trust!

What's in it for us

Monday March 9th, Genesis 17: 7 I will make My agreement between Me and you and your children after you through their whole lives for all time. I will be God to you and to your children's children after you. We often see religion as a “God and I” thing. God however often sees it as a “God and all people” thing. The promise was less about the covenant with Abraham and more about God’s promise for all humanity for all time. That promise extends also to us, and to our children, and to our children’s children. Ever since that tree in the Garden thing, we tend to get hung up on the old “What’s in it for me” thing. When we do that, we are only one step from getting out of step. Life makes sense when we get back in step and remember that it is a God and All People thing. It is then we can look around and see in the faces of one another, God, and begin to treat the other as we would treat God. Then the world will be better for their children and for ours. Remember God cares for all of God’s children. All of them!!!

heart change

Tuesday March 10th, Genesis 17: 15 Then God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, do not call her name Sarai. But Sarah will be her name. 16 And I will bring good to her. I will give you a son by her. I will bring good to her. And she will be the mother of nations. Kings of many people will come from her." Here is where the priestly writers during the Babylonian captivity moved from one set of stories about Abraham and Sarah from Israel to another set of stories from Judah. In the languages of the two kingdoms, they pronounced and wrote the names differently. The priests inserted these transitional phrases to move from one set of stories to another. They also explain how God can change our lives. When God enters, everything changes. You might not change your name when God enters, but God will change your heart.

not regime change

Wednesday March 11th, Mark 8: 31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. Peter was scared. What he had envisioned was a Messiah which would ride into town on a white horse to the praise of the crowd and the kingdom would be established on earth with great fanfare and little cost, and he and his buddies as the new ruling party. Peter wanted regime change. God wanted a heart change. What he was to find out was that the cost of discipleship was and always is, high. If we allow God to be ruler of our hearts, the cost will be high for us also. Following God is not a “Sunday Only” thing. It is a life changing, life altering thing that brings about change in your world, change in their world, change in the world.

Time, time, time is on God's side

Thursday March 12th, Mark 8: 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men." Satan is not always seen as the harbinger of evil as we often see Satan today, but as the tester. After his baptism, Jesus was tested by Satan out in the desert for 40 days. Here Satan comes as a tester in the form of Peter’s desire for the easy way out. For Jesus however, the path ahead leads not to the easy, what’s in it for me way and to personal salvation, but rather leads to the salvation for, and of, the whole world. When we seek only our own satisfaction, we tend to short circuit what God has in mind for our mission. Don’t worry about God. Gods plan will prevail, remember, God has time on his side.

life as cross training

Friday March 13th, Mark 8: 34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. We are called as the children of God to be aware of our cross and to be aware of our brothers and sisters crosses as well. We are asked to carry them not to feel somehow humble and therefore noble, but to carry them to help ourselves and others. This may come as a shock to some, but this is not a perfect world. One of the greatest imperfections humans have is the pretense that we need to appear perfect to others. When we carry our imperfections, bathed in the insight we have from facing them and bathed in the forgiveness we receive through Christ, bathed in the light of Christ, then they can become the instruments through which others may receive blessings. Take up your cross today and follow Jesus.

new birth

Saturday March 14th, Mark 8: 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? One of the paradoxes of this life is that the surest way to get to the end of the line is by trying to get to the front of the line. The tree in the garden thing is the first sin mentioned for good reason. The very essence of sin is the desire to be like God and therefore take over for God. This is your choice daily; trust God, even if you have to wait until you are ninety-nine years old like Abraham. When we do so, we also find new life born when we least expect it.

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