America the Beautiful

Being American is not so much protecting your own rights as it is protecting the rights of your neighbors. And the land. Yes, definitely the land that we share with those neighbors.

Our truest patriots have always been selfless. Look at the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. They didn't fare well. What about those who have given their lives in war and peace for the defense of our nation? Not everyone gets to come back to the states.

What makes our nation great is how we join together for a common good.

Is it just me, or is that what makes America beautiful?

I was told recently that the ideals shared in Church (Jesus-talk, I think was the point) bodes well for how we should live our lives personally, but it would be disastrous for the United States to adopt policies that make sense in Church. This specifically was directed to the respect for life and the avoidance of violence and oppression. In your personal life, you should turn the other cheek (Jesus-talk) but if the United States did that, we'd get run all over (sensible, logical, and nationalistic talk)

To put it another way, Christ is for sissies. America, is not. What America really needs is to beef up our own infrastructure, stop caring about everyone outside of the USA, and be serious about doing what we do best - dominating the world and pushing people around with our might.

I would beg to differ. Look, I love Intercontinental missile defense systems as much at the next guy, but being American isn't just good for America (and bad for Korea, China, Uganda) - being American can be good news for everyone. It might help if I conjure a biblical image.

Remember that country Israel? The one we read about, not necessarily the one that exists today. But the one in the Bible. Prophets of old spoke of a place that was different. It was a nation not ruled by mere humans. But by a god. Not just any god, but THE god, YHWH. This god had a distinct idea about who his people (Israel) would be. Their role, as the chosen ones, was to be a blessing to the world. It was through this nation that others would find healing and prosperity.

In a world tired of war, greed, and destruction, people would flock to Israel to learn how to be peaceful, loving, free, and above all, alive. The only problem is that Israel didn't pull this off very well either, so, you know...the whole forgetting who they were, needing to be reminded thing kept happening. The whole Bible is a journey remembering who we are and remembering who God is.

I would love for America to be that country. To be a country where all the other countries in the world place their trust, come for help, and expect not manipulation but cooperation. To be a place that is holy and special and distinct.

Isaiah 52:7 says,

⁷ How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
"Your God reigns!"

To come back to my point, America can do something that isn't for sissies, its for the toughest among us. Are you tough enough to give up your own rights for someone else's? Are you tough enough to live on less so that some kid doesn't starve? Are you tough enough to not match nuke for nuke? This is the kind of country Israel is and its what the Kingdom of God looks like.

I believe America is beautiful. It has been, and it can be. Because wherever we go, we can bring with us a selfless nature and a determination to make the world a better place. We can proclaim peace, bring good tidings, and proclaim salvation - not domination. America might not be the biblical Israel. But it sure can emmulate it.

I believe in that America, and I think you do too. This country is supposed to be about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I know a God who has always been about those things - and he knows more about them than I do. So I'm going to try to make America as much like the Kingdom of God as I can.

Libraries.

Books. Remember them? Ink, paper, and a little glue.

One summer, I think my Freshman year in College, I decided to read crazy books. I've always been a sucker for classics and after watching Conspiracy Theory (with Mel Gibson, remember that crazy movie?) I decided to give Catcher in the Rye a shot.

That is one crazy book. JD Salinger. Then came Catch-22. Joseph Heller. 1984. George Orwell. Brave New World. Aldus Huxley.

And finally, I read Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury.

It was a strange, wonderful, and enlightening summer. Since then, probably the craziest book I've read since was A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Did I mention I love Jesus and still do?

Imagine my surprise when I find out the guy loves libraries and is working to save them. Not Jesus, Bradbury.

The link is here, HT to Mental Floss.

Dude is still alive! And while the article quotes Bradbury as saying the internet is meaningless, its obvious that information (in print form) has a dear place in his heart.

It has yet to be determined if the work-horse of the digital age (magnetized metal) can compete with the longevity acheived through putting your thoughts on paper.

All this got me thinking about two things:

1. Libraries are important - as a professional librarian, my Mother often took me to the library. I don't remember reading books much there. Despite her best efforts, I'm afraid my short attention span did not encourage me to do anything besides run around through the shelves, find places to hide (libraries have lots of wonderful places to hide), and rely on my imagination to stave off boredom. The treasure trove of information in the books went first to my brother, who, as legend has it, could read a newspaper in second grade. So be it, but libraries are still important to me if only for the event horizon I can see created by the wealth of knowledge in one place.
2. Books are vitally important to people because of their reliability and the catalytic properties. The best books change the very nature of your world. But they aren't as important or as catalytic as relationships.

Relationships are more important than books. The interaction between two people is more important than a person and a book. Sure, books are awesome and great. But God sent His Son, not his book.

Sure, the Bible is important and has given to us by God, but why? The only reason the Bible is important is because it talks about the Son. It talks about relationships.

In reading my crazy books that summer, I discovered that no book, no matter how crazy, flawed, or difficult should be overlooked. They are all valuable and worth enjoying or wrestling with. The same is true about people.

I hope you never miss out on books, or people. Either way, I have to say the one person/book I continue to wrestle with, love, and enjoy, is Jesus. I think you'd enjoy him too, some think he's crazy though.

What a world we live in.

Have you watched the news lately? Its kinda crazy.

Feels like things are tearing apart... I don't know why, but people seem so desperate.

Maybe its the Iranian chaos. We watch (most of us) as spectators in a world that won't, or can't, change what is happening there. Is it not a blessing that America is a country where elections happen without bloodshed? Is a sham election worse than no election at all?

Maybe its the swine flu. I kinda laughed at the first wave and all the news coverage, but in truth it won't go away. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic. The first time they've done that since 1968 (I think). All our medical technology still can't hold back everything.

Maybe its the economy. I have friends who are losing jobs. Men who are working in New Jersey while their family stays in Alabama.

Maybe its the government. I have friends who celebrated and lamented Obama's democratic victory. Regardless of whether you are conservative or liberal, I think many of us watch anxiously while the results of our (yes, our) decisions as a country change the world.

Maybe its the guns, the healthcare, the poverty, the foreign policy, the tornadoes, the hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, crime, drugs, bills, rock and roll, death, new life, religion, or whatever it is that is bugging you.

Have you ever read Ecclesiastes? The book starts like I want to...

meaningless! Its all meaningless! Just read the first chapter. It is.... familiar somehow. Aren't we supposed to know better? This is 2009 - shouldn't we have improved the world?

¹⁶ I thought to myself, "Look, I have grown and increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge." ¹⁷ Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

¹⁸ For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
the more knowledge, the more grief.

Much sorrow... much grief.

You know, our society lives under the illusion that simply because we are moving forward in time means we are improving. We call it progress. But do we really believe that things are better now than they were? Or that they are worse than they once were?

How do you measure something like that!?

¹⁸ Then I realized that it is good and proper for a man to eat and drink, and to find satisfaction in his toilsome labor under the sun during the few days of life God has given him—for this is his lot. ¹⁹ Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God. ²⁰ He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart.

Gladness of heart. Can you hear it? Feel it? Desire it?

Wouldn't you love to be so occupied in God that nothing could shake your world? In my best moments I'm well assured in my God. In my worst moments, I question and worry my little head off.

The end of the Book of Ecclesiastes ends focusing not on us, but instead on God. Read it for yourself.

The end of the matter is not for us to say, but instead for God. Take heart - we have a Lord who loves us and has not forsaken us. If you are yourself worried about the times we live in, you weren't the first. And you won't be the last. But God is good, and will always be with us.

The divides among us.

You don't have to live in Alabama long to know that there are important issues that divide people. The foremost being football. You think I'm joking - when I went into the ministry I was told there are two things you don't talk about from the pulpit (mainly because they are so divisive). Football and politics.

Football. Auburn versus Alabama. That is a rivalry my friends. And you know what makes a rivalry? Good old fashioned hate.

Politics. The division, eight years ago, was as easy to see as red states and blue states. And as difficult to define as a blue spot within a red state or red spot within a blue....whatever. But politics can often divide us.

What is more important? The things we disagree about or the way in which we disagree about them?

There are gobs of things that can separate humanity. Heck, there are gobs of things that can separate Christianity (or Methodism!).

But what really divides us is not our stance on abortion or whether you worship Allah or Yahweh. What really divides us is the way that you divide the world into "us" and "them."

You can't fault a person for categorizing the world into such stark contrasts - it makes things easier. If that guy is dressed funny on the street, certainly he's a beggar or a drunk, right? Or if that person is slick and dapper, of course you can trust him, right!? You can easily stereotype a person and it is precautionary measure. Right? Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called Blink that describes the very nature of humanity to make snap decisions. Right...

The only problem, is that often, "us" and "them" are not worlds apart, but worlds similar. If we leave judgment (in the grand scheme) to God and witness to the divine image in each person (see them as Jesus does) we would be much more apt to bring people together than separate them.

I can't once think of a time when Jesus shooed someone from his presence because of their beliefs about homosexuality or whether they believed in a just-war theory (he mostly hung out though with the Bernard Madoffs and Jenna Jamesons of his time - i.e. tax collectors and prostitutes, the rejects of society).

This deliberate attack (by Jesus) upon not the beliefs, but the handling of those with different beliefs, is I think truly the heart of Jesus' message.

The Good News is this: Jesus Christ lived and died for the forgiveness of sins.

That truth is good news for everyone, regardless of their beliefs. Christians who use the above statement as a wedge will find their Jesus never did the same. St. Paul might have been concerned about the unity of the Church and so some very pointed things about who is in and who is out within the Body of Christ (thus pulling an Old Testament trick that had already been tried - eschewing everyone/thing non-Jewish) .

But Holiness has NEVER been about who is in and who is out. It has always been about become distinctly different - God-like actually. To be like Jesus is to see things like Jesus. Jesus makes us holy. Not your anger/bitterness/pride/indignation at some group different than yours.

Which is harder? Being in fellowship with like-minded individuals or being in fellowship with people who will test you, bend you, challenge you, and give you opportunities to be more Christ-like?

Yeah. The divides among us don't have to divide us. Jesus Christ can bring us together. Not because its going to (necessarily) change all your beliefs, but it will change how you handle those who don't believe like you do. I'm not saying you shouldn't be passionate - I'm saying you should be passionate about different things.

You don't want to be like Jesus. If you did, you would be passionately opposed to oppression and constantly sharing the love of God with even your enemies. Everyone can love their friends/family.

It takes a Godly, holy, christian to love an enemy. The divides among us are all of human design.

entitlement

So I got ordained on Friday and I have to admit it was a good time. Lots of friends, family, and Jesus all in one place. As I have been thinking a lot on what it means to actually be ordained, lately, I want to share with you one of my struggles...

LOTS of people have told me congratulations. Many have accentuated this with a "Good job!" or "You've finally made it!"

and not too uncommon, some have even said, "One last hurdle!"

Now, I figure the main reason people are congratulating me is because this is an accomplishment in life that shows that I can work hard (10 years in the making) or impact the world in a positive way (voting at Annual Conference?) and all in all, be the person God has called me to be. Surely my ordination should be celebrated. I certainly have felt loved these past few days, and for that I am sincerely thankful.

But with ordination, another shadow lurks in the background that must be dealt with. This is a feeling of entitlement.

When someone congratulates me and implies that I'm a better Christian now than those who aren't ordained - the shadow pops up.

When someone tells me I'm the future of the Church and they are lucky to have me - I get a huzzah! from the peanut gallery.

When someone congratulates me and showers me with accolades, fancy clothing, or some pride petting, Mr. Entitlement is there to pat me on the back and whisper into my ear...

I deserved this. I worked hard. I am soooo cute and clever and intelligent and God needs me way too much to let me fall to the wayside. I am, after all, young clergy. Which automatically makes me effective, holy, and better than you.

barf.

Mr. Entitlement doesn't really like the idea that I've been ordained by the grace of God and for one purpose alone: to glorify that same benefactor. My ordination should no sooner point to me than it should point through me to the one who celebrates it the most: Jesus Christ.

The best congratulations I got came from a $200.00 gift to a non-profit that I serve with. I'd tell you who they are, but that's not why they gave the $200.00 dollars. If YOU are interested in congratulating me, I encourage you to support either Isaiahsixeight or Camp Sumatanga. Both are wonderful ministries in need of generous friends.

I have to beat Mr. Entitlement down. My friends, pride lurks just around the corner for me, and I need your help keeping myself lower than the angels. This is precisely why, whatever you might hear, the Board of Ordained Ministry has such a thankless job. Pride doesn't like being brought low. It never has.

So here it is - and I might not always feel these statements, but I sure hope so.

I am not ordained because I am suddenly entitled to a position of power. I am, if anything, entitled to be the first servant. It is a position of service. Call me to clean your toilets or drive your mom to church. That should be me. I am entitled to a lifetime of servitude that others simply cannot match. If they could, they should be ordained. I'm the one who should be washing feet, serving communion, taking the fall when something goes wrong. Why? Because I'm ordained, duh. Its why I'm in the ministry.

For me, this isn't a political game or a "who has the hardest job" type thing - I have been ordained not to lead through power-brokering and intimidation (I'm ordained and you aren't) but instead to lead through service and humility. May God help me in that endeavor.

The truth is, I am lucky to have the church. Without it I would have to find somewhere else to serve. This isn't about me getting to a position to have my way, but instead getting to a position where I can get God's way into the church.

When that small voice tells me I deserve this, may I remind that voice how great our God is. Earned it? How do you earn something given to you? Deserve it? As a creation of an amazing God, don't we all deserve much more?

I don't want to knock whatever gifts or talents I've been blessed with - but I do want to remind myself that none of those gifts or talents entitle me to any more pride or power than God has already entitled every human being with.

There have been a few people who have approached me... congratulated me. And in their voice and handshake were not the temporary joys of a singular moment - but a wisdom, a sadness that I couldn't miss. Don't get me wrong - they were happy for me. But they were also sad for me.

Who in their right mind would label themselves to be a whipping boy for the church and the world? Who could, in all sanity, accept responsibility for attempting to bring the Kingdom of God in its fullness. You want to talk about why God could allow evil into this world? Or why bad things happen to good people? I ask why God would send his chosen and beloved into the world with such piddly weapons. What kind of promise is that? Wolves, demons, and blissfully ignorant folks who will tear us limb from limb abound. And that's just in the church! Imagine what happens when we "ordained" venture outside these walls!

Of course, it is the promise of a God that is not finished with this world. If I am going to be like Christ, I am going to lean heavily on the insanity, the improbability, and the love that comes from faith in a God who works different than the world we know.

Our annual conference was about empowering a new generation. For me, the most God-honest people there felt genuine pain for the calling we were going into. One that will not be an easy road and will be joyful at times and bitterly lonely at others. But the present sufferings are not to be compared to the glory we will experience in the age to come (Romans 8:22-27). I will continue hoping, dreaming, and loving this world as my savior continues to hope, dream, and love me. I am incredibly happy right now. But I hope I don't get to feeling entitled.

The retiring elder that put a stole around my neck said something that almost made me cry... he said, "Congratulations, Christ is counting on you."

And to that I say, I am counting on Christ.

Question for you...

Some people are so offended (or torn up) among Christians that they see no alternative other than division.

What, if anything, do you consider reason to "break fellowship?"

What could bring more Christians together?

as an aside, I am completely slammed this week and won't be able to get a post in edge-wise.  I miss you too. ha!