Thursday, December 31, 2009

Jeremiah 2010!

New Years Eve. The world needs hope. We need Jeremiah 2010! Some commentators are calling the first decade of this millenium one of the worst in American history. I would add this past year has been filled with more disappointment than expected.

First the worst. 1) A stolen election in 2000 and the inappropriate intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court which should have turned the process back to the Florida Supreme Court; 2) The invasion of Iraq, based upon a blind will to war and doctored intelligence; 3) Tax refunds of surplus funds and tax cuts which benefitted the upper upper classes the most and punished the middle and lower classes; 4) The failure to capture Bin Laden and premature pull-out in Afghanistan, both which led to the present surge into this "Graveyard of Empires"; 5) Inadequate regulatory efforts leading to the recession; 6) Greedy and risky bank mortgage loan practices; 7) Abuse of the Constitution, twisting its intention to justify torture and invasion of privacy; 8) The rich getting super rich and the middle and lower classes getting poorer; 9) Lack of prosecution of those who violated the Constitution; 10) There must be more! Let us count the ways!

Disappointments. 1) In too many instances, Obama's action failing to match his soaring rhetoric, particularly relating to his backing off from the public option and making a sell-out deal with the pharmaceutical companies which will cost the taxpayer more out of pocket expense; 2) Bailing out banks without getting them to sign-on to tough loan practices and adhering to restrictions on certain high risk transactions; 3) Favoring Wall Street over Main Street. There should have been funding for both; 4) Weak response to creating jobs and funding infrastructure projects; 5) Hiring Summers and Geithner to guide the economic recovery when their past actions helped create the problems we are sinking into; 6) Inadequate legal guarantees for detainees. Each needs to be given the right to habaeus corpus rights and prompt trials; 7) Inadequate regulatory reform actions, giving the banks and Wall Street too much freedom to engage in the practices that created this economic mess in the first place; 8) No significant help for people losing their homes due to mortgage defaults; 9) Inadequate jobs creation efforts; 10) Inadequate reigning in of corporate bonuses and salaries; 11) Lack of political courage to adopt a progressive environmental policy; 12) Troop surge in Afghanistan and seeming failure to make strict expectations of the Karzai government, with a tougher exit policy; 13) Timidity in getting into the health care fray, not insisting on a more progressive bill (he needs to be more Bush and LBJ like); 14) Failure to close Gitmo; 15) Democratic majorities buckling under corporate pressures, leading to a disjointed response to solutions; 16) The unjust power of corporations buying influence which hurts the American people. The increasing rise of an oligarchy; 17) The rise of Sarah Palin as a potential "answer" to all of our problems. Scary thought!; 18) Failure to adequately address GLBT issues; 19) Could there be more?

Hopes. The disappointments are corrected.

In fairness to President Obama, he inherited a huge banquet of problems, but he is the main man responsible for the solutions. Also,he inherited a convoluted system which needs straightening. Furthermore, to his credit, he has begun to address many issues, and working with such a polarized Congress makes dramatic change difficult. I commend him for seeking to expand the scope of health care.

President Obama and the entire Washington leadership need our prayers, letters, phone calls, emails, and presence to demand righteousness for all. Especially we within the Colorado Confession, because I think we understand these issues enough to faithfully and intelligently address some aspects of the problems and posit solutions. We can take heart in Jeremiah's words in Chapter 31:7-14, when he speaks words of grace to a people in exile: "I will gather them [from exile],....I will let them walk by brooks of water,....I will turn their mourning into joy. I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow".

Hope abounds! Hopeful New Year!

Peace!
Ron

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Why Was Jesus Christ Necessary?

It's Christmas. We celebrate God becoming flesh. Why? Or the larger question: Why was Jesus Christ necessary? I would submit that God wanted to remind us what it means to be a human being; what it means to be created in the Image of God. Humanity had forgotten its humanity. Instead of living in God's Image, we chose to live in our own. A favorite professor of mine put it this way: "Glory to Man in the highest, the maker and master of things"! Or, as George Bernard Shaw explains: "We were created in the Image of God, and then we decided to return the favor".

Why was Jesus Christ necessary? Ask Elie Wiesel. Standing with another thousand or so of his fellow prisoners in Auschwitz, they were forced to watch the execution of a 13 year old boy, being hung from a steel railroad track. An inmate asked "Where is God now?" Elie replied: "He is there, hanging on the gallows". We didn't kill God. Instead, we forgot that we are created in God's Image. God's Image is the true character of our humanity. We are called to reflect God's Image through our humanity.

A couple of stories, one true and the other perhaps not, but the point is true. In Bulgaria, 1943, Jews were being rounded up for shipment to their doom. Sensing the urgency of the time, Metropolitan Kiril, dressed in full official ecclesiastical authoritative regalia, marched into the compound, brushing aside the rifles, laughing and talking with his Jewish brothers and sisters, and repeated the words of Ruth: "Where you go, I will go. Where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God". The outcome of the story of the Bulgarian Jews is that NONE of them ended up in the furnaces of Auschwitz. I'm sure there were many other forces at work to prevent their holocaust, but the theological point is made: the Metropolitan reflected the Image of God through his humanity, and his humanity contributed to the Jews salvation. He reflected the humanity of Jesus.

The other story is about a young boy, standing shoeless in front of a store window on a cold December day. A woman noticed him, walked up to him and asked, "What are you looking at?" The boy responded, "I am praying for a pair of shoes". The woman took his hand and they entered the store. The woman asked the clerk for a bowl of water, a towel, and some socks. She washed the boy's feet and put on the new socks. She then asked for some shoes, and after trying on some pairs, the boy made his choice. Walking out of the store together, the boy looked up and asked, "Are you Mrs. God"? Okay, a bit schmultzy, call it a parable or metaphor. But the woman reflected the Image of God through her humanity.

Why was Jesus Christ necessary? Because we forgot what it means to be created in the Image of God, and to reflect the humanity of Jesus through our humanity. To my knowledge, Jesus never killed anyone, never told his disciples to kill or abuse anyone, never beat his mother, never threatened his father, never.... But I did read about truth telling, reconciliation, forgiveness, repentance, justice, righteous anger, and that stickler, love. I did read about him lifting the status of women and children. I did not read about him condemning GLBT folks. I did remember him telling about the birds of the air and lilies of the field, riding the waves with his disciples, eating and drinking with the outsiders, and then sharing himself with us in the Lord's Supper. I did read about him sacrificing himself for us, making himself a bloodbath for us, becoming a holocaust for us.

I'll confess. It has been hard watching the Rachel Maddow Show, Hardball, Keith Olbermann, Dylan Ratigan, Morning Joe, the U.S. Senate and House, President Obama, the "sausage making" of the Health Care Bill, the influence of the lobbyists and the religious "Family", the increased war funding, and.... I ask: "Can't we do better?" There are evidently an abundance of Christians in leadership positions. How about reflecting the Image of God through their humanity? Christ's humanity has been bastardized on the cross of influence and profit.

Why was Jesus Christ necessary? Because we forgot what it means to be created in the Image of God, and to reflect the humanity of Jesus through our humanity. Yes, in our humanity we will fail everyday, but the divine humanity of Jesus puts us together again, so we can reclaim our humanity and reflect Christ, not as we ought, but as we are able, again and again and again.

"And the Word became flesh...."

Blessed Christmas and Peace!
Ron

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Democracy is Messy!

Democracy is messy! Following the health care debate, waiting patiently for President Obama's decision on Afghanistan and Pakistan, hoping for positive recommendations for job restoration, are an exercise in muddling through, give and take, ebb and flow, excitement and depression, Good Fridays and Easters, stirred with a mix of blah, boredom, and calm. I am reminded of what President Bush once said in a news conference, something like "It would be easier being a dictator, as long as I am the dictator". Democracy is messy.

Ideological rigidity helps create this messiness. It is disappointing to see such unwillingness to consider even some of the merits of the other side, for the sake of the common good. Gracious! Isn't there a maturity factor that says no one gets everything they want? The politics of destruction is alive and well. Too often we see and hear our leadership acting like spoiled children. Democracy is messy.

We have created a system where the corporate wealthy pull most of the strings of power, and exert unbalanced influence on our representatives, to both of their benefits. The rest of us are out there, living day to day, becoming more vulnerable to the whims of the powerful. Elizabeth Warren has caught on to the plight of the middle class in her article on "America Without a Middle Class". Scary stuff. The rich get richer, and then there are the rest of us. Democracy is messy.

Someone once said: "Democracy is the finest form of government around, if you can keep it". Churchill echoed the sentiment. At its best, democracy nurtures debate, openness of mind, engagement of opposites, all towards thoughtful decision making for the greater good, the common good. The rub comes when amidst the debate the heart and mind are closed to listening and learning; when there is no humility, when civility takes a hike, when profit trumps justice, when greed silences compassion, when survival crushes the common good, when blaming negates oneness, when might becomes right, all in the name of democracy. Democracy is messy.

This is where the mission of the Church steps into the fray. The Church is also messy. We, too, are diverse and divisive. Niebuhr reminds us of the power of sin, and our history provides ample examples of how the Church has "fallen short of the glory of God". Yet, there is also confession-forgiveness-repentance which recall our being created in the Image of God. Our core is not ideological, might makes right, profit over compassion, prejudice over oneness. Our core is Christ. Christ the healer, Christ the just, Christ the compassionate, Christ the truth teller, Christ the teacher and preacher, Christ the one who is not from this world, Christ the challenger of the status quo, Christ the transformer of persons, Christ the reconciler, Christ the One who enters our messiness and blends us into a complementary stew for the common good, with no one tastier or less necessary than the other, a stew where each ingredient maintains its taste yet allows itself to influence the other tastes while also being influenced by the other tastes, giving and receiving our common tastes for the fuller taste. In the words of Jim Carrey: "Tasty!"

Democracy is messy. The Church is messy. Democracy needs the messiness of the Church. Christ is the Master Chef who mixes democracy and Church so we can make real a "messy" Reign of God. This gives me hope. This is Advent!

Blessed Advent Hope to all!

Ron