United Methodist Church is a Connectional Church

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Our United Methodist Church is a connectional church. Every United Methodist congregation is interconnected to other churches throughout the denomination via a chain of area conferences. This is the opposite of the non-denominational or independent churches we see popping up out of the blue all around us. At the Mill Creek Fair there was a booth for the Redemption Church – I had to look it up. Canyon Creek Church recently purchased the only American Baptist Church on 35th. Like many of these churches Canyon Creek was started by a single person. On the Church website it says: “Canyon Creek Church started as a final graduate school project for Brandon.” Connections are not mentioned. In these church websites there is often a tab called Our Story – but as a historian I find the story short and lacking. It is simply about a person or small group of people on their own starting a church. Pretty consistently these churches are fundamentalist. They believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, exclusive salvation in Jesus Christ. Sometimes I wonder if the people who flock to these churches ever read the stated beliefs on the church websites? A teller at our bank, noting my check was from a church asked about our church and when I asked her where she went to church she said, “Blue Sky Church in Bellevue.” One day the lead pastor saw the blue sky come out of the clouds; an unusual and attractive name for essentially a Calvinist Church. They purport to believe in election: “We believe that God acted before creation in choosing some people to be saved.” Of course, this implies that most people are not saved. I wonder if the teller knows this. When these churches do have a deeper story they do not claim it; they don’t disclose their roots in the Reformation and John Calvin. This is reflective of our culture. Historical connections are often seen as a liability.

As a connectional church we may be counter-cultural but we are not counter-kingdom. (That is, Kingdom of God, Kin-dom of God, Economy of God, Rule of God, etc.) I’m quite sure that heaven is connectional. One of the problems in our society is an emphasis on the individual, independence and freedom at the expense of relationships and communities. In a sense, the election of Donald Trump is a product of these values. We have elected a person who is a narcissist! President Trump is critically concerned about himself more than anything else, especially the things that connect us. Naomi Klein has written a new book: No is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics and Winning the World we Need. She says that we respond to a Trump presidency as a united front; we must become more connected. People who are concerned about the environment, Black Lives Matter, abused women, people who are outraged by healthcare in America all need to recognize the ways we are hurting and fearful, and work together. I am encouraged by a resurgence of passion for better values like compassion, equality and justice. I want to believe that this energy can be used to bring another “Great Awakening” in America. And we have an important role in this as a connectional church.

In this context our connectional character is not merely how we are organized, it is a part of our message. To be connected is the way to create peace and justice; the way to mirror the Kingdom of God in our world. We want people to come to our Church because we are oriented toward that Kingdom in a way that more independent and non-denominational churches are not. We have an important mission in the world, especially now. We cannot be complacent or mum about it. How can we get our message out there? I think our booth at the Mill Creek Fair was a good thing to be doing. What else can we do to share with the world our vision of a connectional heaven?

P.Jim

A Winning Attitude

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Recently I’ve been following college NCAA baseball; the Oregon State Beavers are rated #1 in the country! It is exciting, anxiety provoking and ultimately… sinful. We often talk about having a “winning attitude” which can mean having a positive approach toward the game being played – but it isn’t just a positive approach to the game, it is restrictively attached to the results of the game, and when that is done things get problematic. Winning necessitates the defeat of the other. The experience of going through a losing season with a child who is playing a sport will tell one about the negative power attached to being the one often defeated. This is no simple matter in our culture. Sports are serious business – emotionally and economically. Winning brings power and losing brings shame. We don’t see it; how this dynamic of having a winning attitude becomes a sinning attitude.

This week David Brooks wrote an op-ed in which he quotes another op-ed written by H.R. McMaster and Gary Cohn of the Trump Administration: “The President embarked on his first foreign trip with a clear-eyed outlook that the world is not a ‘global community’ but an arena where nations, nongovernmental actors and businesses engage and compete for advantage.” Brooks says that this sentence, essentially, exposes the “Trump project” as one of selfishness and competing for gain – that is, a winning attitude. I am upset with the Trump Administration for backing out of the Paris Accord on the environment for reasons I have often expresses – concern for the environment and future generations. But what also upsets me is the attitude that we must take care of ourselves regardless of others. Brooks says that Trump went to Europe and stuck his thumb in all of our allies. Brooks goes on to claim that people are “wired to cooperate.” I would say more than that, people are interdependent – inextricably connected to each other so that the actual path for success (winning?) is through cooperation.

My son Kenneth was signing up for classes in the fall at American University and one of them will be When Worldviews Collide, and that is what we have here: a winning attitude and a cooperating attitude. Let me quote a part of the Social Principles on Justice and Law:

Believing that internationally justice requires the participation of all peoples and nations, we endorse the United Nations, its related bodies…WE commend the efforts of all people in all countries who pursue world peace through law. We endorse international aid and cooperation on all matters of need and conflict….

These words are rooted in a cooperating attitude. A Christian worldview is a cooperating worldview. It uses words like invite, welcome, include, etc. Jesus even said “the last will be first and the first will be last.” Which worldview do we want to live by? How do we respond to a worldview based upon a winning attitude, when it means win at all cost – even at the cost of the planet?

This Sunday is Peace with Justice Sunday and there cannot be peace or justice if we live by a winning attitude. This isn’t about politics. This is about faith and discipleship – David Brooks will tell us that.

P.Jim

Shaking Things Up

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Confirmation class is underway. Last Saturday, the topic was Jesus and we talked about the different images of Jesus that we have. The starting point is the gospels – four of them in the canon. Each gospel presents an image of Jesus. The gospel writers were not writing history, they were telling the story of Jesus in order to evoke faith in their particular community. Therefore, each gospel is tailored to move their community in a specific circumstance. Before Constantine became Emperor of Rome there were many communities with various understandings and image of Jesus. Constantine did not want this diversity; if Christianity was to be the religion of the Empire it had to be uniform and united. Thus the creeds were born. But the creeds say little about Jesus. Though history different images of Jesus have come and gone (See Jaroslav Pelikan’s Jesus Through the Centuries).

I see our task is not to give these youth a single image to believe in, but it ignite in them the question about who Jesus was to these different communities, and what it means to follow him. The first three gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke) are similar in structure and content; they are therefore called the “Synoptic Gospels.” The Gospel According to John is entirely different. Particularly in regard to the image of Jesus. In Mark, Jesus is truly struggling in the Garden of Gethsemane – please take this cup, but if it’s your will… In John’s picture of that scene Jesus is in total control, saying that this is all happening as he had planned it. Mark’s Jesus is more human and John’s is more divine. In the Synoptic Gospels there is a sense in which the future remains unknown, that Jesus had a real choice – things were in process. In John’s gospel everything is foreordained. Depending on which of these images one uses following Jesus will be different.

I grew up believing in the plan; I didn’t really think about it much, but it seemed as though that’s what everyone else believed. Historically, in America the Gospel According to John has become dominant, in that the image of Jesus in John is assumed as is the concept of Jesus being divine. My image of Jesus changed by the time I was in college, when I really read and studied the Bible. I was moved by Marcus Borg’s understanding of Jesus as one who shook things up. I also remember reading Paul Tillich’s book, Shaking the Foundations about the prophet’s role of challenging the powers that be. Jesus was one who subverted the conventional wisdom and challenged the powers and because he did that he was crucified as a political agitator.

In our last Adult Sunday School class somehow we got to talking about “shaking things up.” Part of the discussion surrounded the response of people to the proposed American Healthcare Act; the response influenced the decision, some said. I believe that part of following Jesus is being a trouble maker… but being a trouble maker in the name of Jesus. Usually if we go to a rally, or call a legislature or write a letter of talk to people in a way the is prophetic we do not associate that rabblerousing with our faith in Jesus and our conviction to follow him, in life, death and resurrection. Quite honestly, the reason I was against the American Healthcare Act was because it would deny millions of people healthcare and give rich people a tax break. I think that if Jesus witnessed this he would be turning over the tables, so to speak. We need to identify what we do for justice and peace in the world with our faith in Jesus. And we need to share with others, incite conversations about our images of Jesus who directs us to our opinions and convictions about such things as the AHA. I believe we need conversations with those we disagree with. But I believe they need to be about the center of our faith, Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus for us that compels is to act and believe in a certain way. I’m hoping to instill in the confirmands this question – I hope it helps transform the world.

P. Jim

Thoughts on preparing for SUMYT Retreat

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After my birthday, it came to mind that I might be the oldest person to be the speaker at the youth SUMYT Retreat. I have attended this retreat occasionally over the years between my two sons, and I don’t recall anyone my age as the speaker. One year two seminary students shared the role. I also recall two colleagues speaking and they weren’t “young” like the seminary students but they were younger than I am now. I was surprised to receive the invitation for this reason; how can someone so elderly relate to youth today? I know that the youth are the ones who choose the speaker, and two of the youth on the committee are youth at our church – that likely explains it. If adults were the one’s choosing, particularly clergy, I wouldn’t have been invited to speak. Bishop Hagiya once said that we cannot relate to anyone who is over 20 years different in age. I realize that in a changing world with all sorts of new technological devices it’s hard for people over 50 to keep up. Nonetheless, I have problems with assumptions that are made ere.

First of all, it seems to me that in our culture what is new and young are valued rather than what is old. We are inculcated to wait in anxious anticipation for the newest version of a game, phone or device. Older versions of programs are insufficient and frowned upon. This is where I may be a little old, but I detest when the newer versions come out because it takes so long to adjust; I still don’t like Windows 10. In the church I hear constantly how important it is to reach out to millennia’s; we need to understand them and adapt to their generational needs and habits. This is why younger clergy are appointed to the larger churches where there a lot of younger families. (I am no longer in the pool of possible pastors for those churches.) I also perceive a superciliousness in some younger clergy as if they have the needed knowledge and I don’t. And the question arises: Why don’t we lean the other way and wonder about what wisdom older people have to share?
When I lived in Japan and was introduced to Japanese aesthetics I learned about the concept of wabi sabi. It is beauty found it what is old, rusty, slightly cracked and imperfect. This aesthetic was also a part of the culture; whether we know it or not, art is the life blood of a culture. There is far more respect for the wisdom of the aged. Graphically, I remember when a Zen Master visited our local Temple in Oasa where I lived. It was a gold carpet, but metaphorically it was a red one.

Every stage of life has gifts and liabilities. Watching my sons grow up there are things I miss and envy – not the least of which is physical prowess. I also see things I don’t miss – the anxiety of youth. It is a mistake to over emphasize any of these stages over others. While technology is changing things so fast that older people have trouble keeping up, younger people today live largely disconnected from animals (accepting pets), streams, forests and the glory of climbing a mountain. (I’m speaking generally and comparatively here.) There may be some truth to the belief that one cannot relate to a person over 20 years different in age, but I don’t find it to be a helpful idea. It isn’t something we want to accentuate or use as a reason not to appoint an old fogey to a younger church. The real benefit comes when we are able to learn from each other.

I don’t know how SUMYT will go. I feel the need to use some technology to show that I’m up to date. I also know that in the end it isn’t about what we know or don’t know – it’s about the heart. And I want to believe that heart knowledge reaches across generations. That the youth at the retreat deep down are more hungry for meaning than for the newest gadget. We will see. Pray for me.

P.Jim

A Call to Resistance

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I have thought about having a Social Justice Committee or Task Force at Cedar Cross United Methodist Church for a while. Different from a Missions Committee, Social Justice Committees work at political advocacy. For example, to be in a relationship with Faith Action Network, the lobbying group that represents churches in the Puget Sound area; or Earth Ministry, and educational and lobbying group in Seattle. But it could be much more than that involving ourselves as a church in issues that concern us: healthcare, the environment, homelessness. What I feel is that after our election it may be a good time to organize this group.

On Sunday, I felt a lot of grief and fear in the congregation; tears were flowing. I myself have been devastated by the election of Donald Trump. His rhetoric has been mean spirited and threatening. We don’t know what Trump will do as president; he may surprise us and not follow his rhetoric. However, at this time there are many people, people or color, women, our LGBTQI brothers and sisters, who are afraid. I believe that we need to stand by these people in the name of Jesus Christ who loved the “least of these.” As I said on Sunday, I believe we have to testify to the gospel and continue to speak out against racism, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia and torture. The word that has come to my mind through all my mental gymnastics since the election is resistance.

Do we all remember our membership vows: One of the questions is, Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves? Do we? It seems to me that this is a critical time to do that. This coming Sunday, I will be recruiting – I will be passing around a sign up for anyone interested in exploring being a part of this “committee of resistance”, otherwise known as a Social Justice Task Force. You may also email me and let me know you are interested.
This is not meant to be about partisan politics, but to recognize and embrace our call to care for “the least of these” in the world.

P.Jim

Pastor Jim’s Blog: Faith and Politics

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I know that many upon seeing this title will cringe. Faith and politics should not mix! I think people believe this less for ideological reasons these days than for practical reasons. It will bring conflict and then division; it will hurt our church. For quite some time that has been the practice. At the same time there is a clear biblical mandate to engage the world and that cannot be done without becoming political. As I believe we all know, the federal tax code does not allow us to endorse candidates or party platforms. That doesn’t mean we can’t be political. Taking on an issue is political while not being partisan.

In Adult Sunday School class we have been reading Jim Wallis’ book, On God’s Side. It is unabashedly political. Wallis grew up in an evangelical home where he says he never heard about the Sermon on the Mount. He experienced a conversion and started an alternative community in the poorest section of Washington D.C. – Sojourners. Subsequently he has edited Sojourners Magazine. His goal is to try to understand all sides and direct them to seeing God’s side and to be reconciled. For example, he lifts up both personal responsibility and responsibility for the community, suggesting that God would value both. Finally, he believes that aim is to work for the common good. So, how’s that been workin’ in our current election cycle?

I think we are all tired of this election, for many and diverse reasons. A man from Quebec came to Kenneth’s French class and explained the Canadian political system to the class. Kenneth noted that campaigns usually last one month. Can we imagine how much less stressful our lives would be if we did the same? The pundits wouldn’t like it though. I want to make a few observations about what is happening in American politics today that make it so frustrating.

I have never heard such name calling in politics in my life! The vitriol is unprecedented and alarming. What is exhibits is, at least in part, the radical nature of the division in America. There is no dialogue – no conversation. The tone of the debates is toxic. It’s about making the opponent look bad. In this election the division has become so severe that it is disturbing families, causing people to avoid people. I have one friend who posted on Facebook a request that if they supported a certain politician to please unfriend her. Wallis wants us to seek the common good, how do we do that when there isn’t an inch of common ground. And why is this? How can we as Christians/the Church create an space where we can have a conversation? Even the churches are reflecting this divide; people don’t want to go to church where there are people who would vote for him/her. If we are the church of Open Hearts and Minds, how do we live that out in the current political climate? Wallis would say we need to ask about what God’s Side looks like – can we do that?

The division is exacerbated by social media. Any new technology offers an equal opportunity for good and evil; Facebook allows us to be connected with people, but it also nefariously encourages us to connect with people we agree with. I saw on YouTube recently parallel red and blue posts on Facebook about the same events. It’s like they were talking about different events they were so skewed. Groups of people live in alternate virtual worlds. Twitter also corrals certain people – followers. And by limiting tweets to 140 characters it dumbs down discourse; it becomes verbal abuse. I try not to be political on Facebook – I did once in a moment of anger and I regret it. In the Church we have to encourage better communication – ideally face to face communication.

Another division that has welled up in this election has to do with gender. The election of our first woman president coupled with the revelation of Donald Trump’s treatment of women has exposed our shortcomings has opened up a can of worms. We may think we are doing well regarding gender I this country but what is happening in this election says otherwise. I recently watched a video of Chelsea Clinton and there were tweets running along the margins. The hate speech was so “nasty” that I had to turn it off. I believe that Hillary Clinton has been criticized and attacked for years because she acts like a man and many in our country are still not comfortable with that. In that context she had little choice but to be calculating, secretive, and very determined. The kind of hate speech that was tweeted while Chelsea was speaking was irrational and deep down, I think, misogynistic. There was also published on the internet maps of the electoral vote if only men, women, white people and non-white people voted, respectively. If it was only men Trump would win, if it was only white men he would win in a landslide. If only women voted Clinton would win by a substantial number; if only people of color voted Clinton would win every single state. Also, in all the projections the state of Washington was blue. This illustrates the severe divides that exist in America both ethnically and in terms of gender. We need to wonder about how we can heal these divisions. What role can the church play? What can our Church do?

To state the obvious, money still rules in American politics. Until Citizens United is overturned there will be no fairness in our election process. It isn’t only money it is the economy as well. As I said in a recent sermon, we had three debates and there wasn’t a single question about climate change. Our vision is myopic. We are afraid of many things but forgotten about the one thing; to see things from God’s perspective. It seems to me that it is our duty to raise the larger questions. We don’t question economic growth; we should be talking about how we can slow things down so as to preserve life for future generations and not about expanding energy production. How can we, if we want to be on God’s side, continue what we’ve been doing?

I may be wrong – in fact I’m sure I am sometimes. But I assure you that I attempt to connect my politics to my faith. In this way I think faith and politics belong together. I think we need to be talking with each other about how issues of gender, the use of social media and other technology, how money is involved in our political process, and the use of energy all have to do with who we are as Christians. These are the questions we need to be asking each other. As we move ahead my vision of the church is that we will continually be able to do so. It is a challenge both internally and externally; internally because it is very difficult to align some of our political views with our faith, and externally because we may find ourselves in conflict. There is the promise of transformation if we work at it. And if we don’t try then I’m afraid we are doomed to more name calling, intimidation and meanness. See you in Church.

P.Jim

The Force of Gravity

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Pastor James Clarke’s sermon for Sunday, October 9, 2016. This is the first sermon on Stewardship. You can listen to the sermon here.
I just can’t understand how in the world Issac Newton figured out gravity. I have this image as a child that he went up into a tower, dropped the apple and said…

Hmmm…. Gravity!

It’s not something we feel or see or experience. Unless we get out of gravity and we recognize that something’s there. But generally our “normal” is gravitational.

Consider all the other forces that we do not see.

What do you think would happen if a person from biblical times heard a radio? A cell phone would be over the top, I think.

I remember a movie that was set in French Canada in the 18th century in which this person first wrote down something on a piece of paper and handed it to the other person and they said what it said. And all the natives were amazed. It was a miracle. Can you imagine what they would have done with WiFi?

I have trouble understanding WiFi. I just don’t get it. It’s not natural. And I think Issac Newton would have been blown over too.

You know that Wifi is based on quantum physics which Newton clearly did not understand.

These forces that make up so much of our lives are really remarkable. Think of it just for a moment… how all that information is traveling in the air!

It’s spectacular. And we don’t have to really go back to biblical times or 18th Century French Canada to feel that, because, when I was young these things didn’t exist and if I had known that they were going to exist when I was a teenager, I would have been wiped out.

And then we simply accept that they are our new normal.

At the same time, we are oblivious to other forces that are all around us that are also invisible and not detectable by our senses. Forces that people in biblical times were very aware of. As aware of as gravity.

Spiritual power. Principalities and forces.

We are so Newtonian in how we see the world that our perception simply has not caught up. With quantum mechanics or relativity.

We see the world through the lens of science and Newtonian physics and reason and everything is material and substance and that’s when something is real, material and substance, when actually it is all energy, that is changing all the time.

A book is not simply a book, it’s “booking.” A rock is “rocking.” A tree is “treeing.” We are “we-ing” and the spirit is around us all the time. There are fields of force in our world that are not material and that we cannot learn about through our five senses.

Athletes know well about mojo. I can remember a time when I was playing basketball and I felt like I was connected to the rim. You know that feeling for a while that just every time you throw it up it’s going in.

Momentum is real. I’m not talking just about Newtonian momentum.

When people join the church, as we just did a little while ago, I have to ask them these traditional questions. I make sure and tell them there traditional questions because I’m a little worried that the language of “the spiritual forces of wickedness” is going to scare them to death.

But I believe it.

Not as personalized demons but as fields of force. Hatred is a field of force. The Klu Klux Klan. Racism is a field of force. They’re not just ideas, they are forces in people.

Addiction is a force.

I believe that owning guns influences people. It is true of any object, but it is particularly true of objects that have particular power. Guns exert force. Remember the gun is not just a gun, it is “gunning” all the time.

Simply by owning and touching and using something it can exert power over us and change us. Trump is a field of force. It is not about him as much as he would like to be about him.

It’s about the power and the feelings and the griefs and the aspirations of all those people who are following him. Not ideas. They don’t even talk much about ideas. It’s a field of force.

Love also is a field of force.

I remember the time in seminary when I was reading Romans. I took a class in Romans and the professor was telling us that the thesis for Romans is in the first chapter 16th and 17th verses and it says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God. For salvation to everyone who has faith…

Did you hear it? It’s not the idea, it’s the power of God. Real power.

In the book we are getting this material from is a book called Defying Gravity by Tom Berlin. He talks about financial gravity and when he’s doing this he’s talking about money as a force, not just as material stuff but as a reality that exerts power in the world.

Just like with guns, when you handle money, it’s going to influence you.

For Berlin, money exerts power in our life and it’s an invisible power. And it is there when you go shopping when we invest and we look at our checkbook and we go into debt and he says:

The problem with financial gravity occurs when you feel it with such intensity that it changes the way you live your life. You sense it at certain moments, such as when you examine your bank account, noting the balance is lower than you had hoped for, or when you see that your credit card bill is higher than you would like. You feel it when you open up the Internet browser and see ads posted for items that are magically in the styles and colors you like. When you walk down the street of the local town center, with its eclectic mix of retail stores, specialty shops, cinemas, and restaurants, you can almost reach out and touch the force I am describing. Enter a shopping mall, and it is palpable. There is something attempting to pull you inside each store as you pass.

I feel that force every time I go into the mall, and it gives me the “willies.”

Most of the time we think of money, we believe that we have the power because we can decide what to do with it. It’s all ours, and that’s the way it should be. But we rarely think about money having power or exerting power over us.

In I Timothy, he says that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. He’s talking about money as a force.

For the love of money that is allowing ourselves to moved by the power of money to the point where we see the price of everything but we don’t know the value of anything.

Maybe we should consider the credit card as a “spiritual force of wickedness.”

I think about that. We introduced the credit card in the 1980s and look what happened to us.

It became a force in our lives. That changed our lives.

Berlin also talks about two kingdoms. He calls it the kingdom of the self and the Kingdom of God.

He says the story in Matthew about a young man who could not sell all he owned was a good person. He was trying his best to live a good life. But, he felt financial gravity exert its pull in a way that suddenly was palpable. His emotional response in that moment is a testimony to the confusion and disorientation he felt.

The young man was torn between two worlds. Haven’t we all been torn between two worlds?

I read an editorial in the Seattle Times this week by David Brooks. He’s the conservative commentator on PBS each week. And he’s with The New York Times.

And he contrasts the difference between a taxpayer and a citizen. A taxpayer focuses on the individual, the goal is to pay as little tax as possible, obeying the law and looking out for oneself. A citizen, on the other hand, on the other hand considers more than him/herself. There is a sense of civic duty to paying taxes. So that the goal is to determine one’s fair share and pay that.

A healthy nation isn’t just an atomized mass of individual economic and legal units. A nation is a web of giving and getting. You give to your job, and your employer gives to you. You give to your government, and your government gives to you.

If you orient everything around individual self-interest, you end up ripping the web of giving and receiving. Neighbors can’t trust neighbors. Individuals can’t trust their institutions, and they certainly can’t trust their government. Everything that is not explicitly prohibited is permissible. Everybody winds up suspicious, defensive and competitive.

This is the Kingdom of Self.

And just like the rich man in the Gospel we also live between these two worlds: financial gravity and the gravity of God.

Tom Berlin talks about wealth as if it is the planet Jupiter. The largest planet in our solar system. Exerting massive gravity on all of us.

Having wealth, simply having it, changes us. It has a great deal of power over us. And frankly, confessionally, I have trouble trusting people who have extreme wealth, because I know the power it exerts.

In the same way that wealth is like Jupiter, then I would say that generosity is like Saturn. It too exerts influences on us.

That giving is not just a decision we make in our brains. It’s not just for tax purposes.

It is a spiritual discipline.

Spiritual because it changes our hearts, in the same way the accumulation of wealth shapes us, so does giving. Giving defies gravity and transforms our hearts.

There are all sorts of forces all around us. It’s not that everything is physical. Reality is different than we thought it is. It’s more like energy. And everything has energy.

Have you ever had resentment take over your life? Resentment can be a force.

Patriotism is a force for good and not so good at different times. Did you see how people responded to Kapernick?

Xenophobia and homophobia are forces in the world that defy reason.

Did anyone see the story about the mother in Tennessee who pulled her child from the school because her child was learning about Islam?

Macho locker room talk is a force. And I confess, I have participated in that force… when I was 13, and even then I felt guilty!

School loyalty is a force, most of the time it’s a good one! Beaver Nation is a force. It’s one of the weaker forces!

Money is a force too. Financial gravity. There are principalities and powers in the world, and spiritual forces of wickedness. Can we not feel it?

There are all sorts of forces in the world and the question that we have to be asking is not what do you believe, but which force are you going to give your life to? What forces are you going to allow to move you?

Amen.

Reflecting on priorities in our vision of reality

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In the Cedar Crossings, I wrote about how we have stories before beliefs. Then, in my sermon on September 18, I shared about how we are lost before we are sinners. After that service someone asked if the sermons were printed so she could remember what precedes what. So here they are:

Story precedes Belief: Since I already wrote about this last week I won’t repeat myself – only to remind that people’s beliefs connect to the lives they have lived, and if we want to understand why they believe the way they do it is imperative to learn more about the stories of their lives.

Lost-ness precedes Sinfulness: This also is repetitive since I was preaching about it. The focus in the theology of most Protestant churches is that we are saved from our sin – Jesus died for our sins – and this is understood as moral failure. I believe that there are many ways that God in Christ can transform us – healing our waywardness is one of those ways, but it isn’t the only way. Long ago I read a book by Paul Tillich entitled The Courage to Be about the various kinds of anxiety we experience. One of those is the anxiety of condemnation – this is the need to be reconciled with God because of sin. There are other anxieties: death, isolation, meaninglessness. The idea is that we all feel separated from in different ways, expressed in different anxieties. The anxiety of isolation is, for example, a common one in today’s world. Many young people, particularly boys feel that they are all alone – that God doesn’t love them. They don’t necessarily feel that they’ve done anything wrong and to tell hem that Jesus died for their sins would not be helpful. They need to know that they are loved and can be connected – they need community. Each of these anxieties represents a way of being lost. Being a sinner is one way to be lost but lost-ness precedes sinfulness.

Theology precedes Morality: This comes from one of my Old Testament professors, James Sanders. It means that when we read the Bible we need to ask first, what is this saying about God before we try to extract any moral message. Those who wrote the Bible for mostly trying to say something about God; any moral meaning is secondary and must be read in the context of what is said about God. This is a refutation of the belief that the Bible is a playbook for life. Too often we emphasize moral precedence over the overall character of God. And too often that can lead to judgment of others.

Biology/Ecology precedes Economy: I didn’t mention this one on Sunday, but it bears mentioning. It is a reminder that when God created the first thing created was the economy. The biology, geology, ecology of the creation is more basic to reality that economics. Yet, our lives and our politics are consumed by economic issues. And often these issues stand in conflict with the needs of the earth. I can easily see an Old Testament prophet telling us that to choose economic growth at the expense of the environment is folly. To frame it in the context of our current adult study, it would be to choose one’s own needs rather than the common good. And just as eventually the people of Israel paid for their folly, so will we if we do not understand that ecology is more fundamental than the economy.

Justice precedes Peace: There was at the time of Jesus something called Pax Romana – the Peace of Rome. It was the peace that Roman hegemony brought to the world. There were no more wars, aside from Rome continuing its conquest of Germania and elsewhere. But the Peace of Rome was bought at a price – domination. Sure, there were fewer wars but not less violence – it came in the form of persecution. Jesus was a victim of that persecution; Jesus was a martyr to the Peace of Rome. Any real peace must be preceded by justice for all people. Any nation or corporate entity in the world that has real power must keep this in mind – and we must keep it in mind when we vote. Does this person have the vision of Justice for all – or some variation of Pax Romana?

Generally this has to do with how we see the world – what is more important, more fundamental? We need to reflect on our priorities, not only personal priorities but priorities in our vision of reality. See you in worship.

P.Jim

We have stories before we have beliefs

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We have stories before we have beliefs. Often people think that church is a place where we are united by beliefs that we share; we are united in a person, Jesus Christ, who has a story too. To be a follower of Jesus is not to believe things about him but to live in his story. When the image of a church is a place that requires certain beliefs it becomes very difficult to invite or encourage people to join us. Many times I have spoken to people who say they are not sure if they believe in God, or that they probably don’t believe all they things they think they are supposed to. My response to such comments can be to ask them about the God they are not sure they believe in, or to tell them that I’m sure the people in the church aren’t sure they believe all they are supposed to. That is, the people in the church struggle with beliefs too. I prefer an image of the church of people struggling together to live in the story of Jesus. What if we went into the world with this image rather than thinking we need to share what we believe?

Not only do we have stories before beliefs, our stories are never created in isolation. In our culture there is an idea that we make up our own lives be ourselves but this is wholly impossible. We are always in relationship with others and are formed in and through those relationships. Reality itself is interdependent and we are dependent upon all who have come before us, and are who we are as we are connected to others. The church is a place of connections; it is an environment in which as we relate to each other we form each other and become a part of each other’s stories, and together a part of the Story of God.

When this season comes around, probably more than any other, with children going back to school and summer vacations over and we gear up for the fall, I feel the need to share with the world what a wonderful gift the church is. I see a lot of lonely people in the world – people who are cynical and feel defeated – people who feel that they have to do everything by themselves and depend on no one; people who see the church as a closed community of people who believe the same thing, who do not know the transformative power of living in community. And I want to share this different image of the church and of faith. We do not invite people into our community because we want them to believe like we do, we invite them into our lives, as persons and as a community. And our first question to visitors is not about belief but about their stories. Where do you come from? Who is your family? How do you spend the time of your life? Who are your communities? One can disagree with someone’s beliefs, but one cannot disagree with another person’s story.

I feel that there are many people who are waiting for us to ask these questions. We have had many visitors and new people will be in the church through the Preschool. Now is a good time to reach out to people and invite them into our lives and community. We have the power to transform the world.

P.Jim

All Lives Matter, Yes, But…

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“If you spend time in hardscrabble, white upstate New York, or eastern Kentucky, or my own native West Texas, and you take an honest look at the welfare dependency, the drug and alcohol addiction, the family anarchy – which is to say, the whelping of human children with all the respect and wisdom of a stray dog – you will come to an awful realization… The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that the deserve to die. Economically, they are negative assets. Morally, they are indefensible. The white American under-class is in thrall to a vicious, selfish culture whole main products of misery and used heroin needles. Donald Trump’s speeches make them feel good. So does Oxycontin.“ — Kevin Williamson of the National Review, quoted by Jelani Cobb in The New Yorker.

What galls me about this quote is the judgment and lack of empathy. “They deserve to die?” Really? As a follower of Jesus Christ I want to shout, “These lives matter!” I suspect behind Williamson’s dismissive attitude toward the white under-class is the myth of equal opportunity; underneath that is the Lockean notion that that we are born with a clean slate in life. I’ve said this before, because it is so critical. In fact, we inherit most of who we are, our decisions play a vital role but they do not form us. Some are born with less opportunity than others simply because of when and where they are born, who their parents are, their genetics, and yes, their race and ethnicity too. All of these things play into determining a person’s relative chance at becoming “successful” in life. The idea that a person born in Appalachia has the same opportunity as did Donald Trump is simply ludicrous. What the myth of equal opportunity does is permit us to judge people like under-class whites. “They had their opportunity and they wasted it.” They deserve to be poor and addicted to heroin… although it is an extreme step to also say they deserve to die. From a Christian perspective, all lives matter therefore the goal is not equal opportunity but simply equality. Finally, regarding Kevin Williamson, it is ironic that he complains to the selfishness of the white under-class while exhibiting selfishness himself. If he wasn’t so selfish he might have some empathy for “these people.” Furthermore, it isn’t just the white under-class that is selfish and addicted – the upper-class is also, as the crash of 2008 demonstrated – they are addicted to money, and they can hide their chemical addictions. For me, Kevin Williamson displays something that is critically wrong with America. That we do feel that some lives matter more than others.

To God, all lives matter, of course, but to make that the chant misses the point; it dilutes its meaning. It is far more gut wrenchingly powerful to say the drug addict in eastern Kentucky – that his /her life matters. It is with this perspective that I think we need to hear that Black Lives Matter. I heard someone on NPR say not long ago that we shouldn’t say “All Lives Matter” unless we are able to first say, “Black Lives Matter.” To say the latter invites empathy; “All Lives Matter,” while true doesn’t do that. What concerns me is the speed at which we move to judgment rather than empathy – as Kevin Williamson’s words demonstrate. I believe that our response as followers of Jesus must be compassion and empathy, even if it feels like it doesn’t make sense. Empathy, for black men who are shot – trusting that their experience of maltreatment is real.

On the Daily Show Trevor Noah says with annoyance, ‘Why can’t we be for the black men who were shot and for the police? Well, partly because we are judging rather than empathizing. It is a part of what we have inherited as Americans; competition, winning and losing, getting ahead and being critical of others in order to do so. The change that needs to be made is a spiritual one: from judgment to empathy as our primary response to any tragic event that happens. I have great empathy for police officers. Their job is difficult and dangerous. And I have empathy for the spouses of officers – is it really that hard to simply imagine what it is like to consider than your spouse may face a violent event any day? Likewise, is it that hard to imagine what it is like driving as a black man, knowing he could be stopped at anytime? Taking sides is not the Way of Jesus. As President Obama has said: “We can do better.”

P.Jim