Howard Thurman writes about two alternatives faced by the Jewish minority of which Jesus was a part - to resist or not to resist. He then writes of secondary alternatives to these two. #1. Imitation - which can fall under the general plan of nonresistance. He notes that Herod was an excellent example of this solution. #2. Another form of a nonresistance pattern is to reduce contact with the enemy - keeping one's resentment under rigid control and censorship. He notes that all imperialism functions in this way. Subject peoples are held under control by this device. #3. Resistance - to which he notes that even nonresistance is a form of resistance. He then really focuses on the Zealots as an example of this - a form of fanaticism. Then, Thurman notes another way. #4. The Kingdom of Heaven is in us - as the alternative Jesus brings. He quotes Vladimir Simlhovitch to flesh out this point. Jesus had to resent deeply the loss of Jewish national independence and the aggression of Rome...natural humiliation was hurting and burning. The balm for that buring humiliation was humility. For humility cannot be humiliated. ...Thus he asked his people to learn from him, "For I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
What I like about Thurman is he keeps moving with his images. For example, if #4 was to be all that which was said, it would be - in my words - religious bullshit. It could be the opiate - the doormat ready to be stepped upon. But, No! In fact, he recognized that such language and imagery became that used by the powerful and the dominant as an instrument of oppression. He goes on to write: Wherever his (Jesus') spirit appears, the oppressed gather fresh courage; for he announced the good news that fear, hypocrisy and hatred, the three hounds of hell that track the trail of the disinherited, need have no dominion over them.
God's Reign or the Kingdom of Heaven is a life - a life within all of us - a life that is meant to come to life right in the middle of all the violence and crap of the day - a life that is contrary - a life that sides with those whose lives are usually taken from them or shaken down as though they mean nothing. I hear this vision Thurman notes to be a vision of transformation. It is not a vision of a life that comes to all after our life is over. It is the power that resists all the powers that make the world - their world. So when Jesus walked along the way - he was walking within God's Reign - as God's Reign. Then to make a more powerful position of resistance, he invited others to follow in that life. In that invitation comes the power of resistance that is available to those pronounced and treated as the least and those who stand and live and love and share life with them.
When I use the phrase Read and Blue and Purple Too, it is a simple reminder that those who rule - those who stand within the halls of power - those who understand quite well how to keep the divisions of our lives alive and well, will not be those who walk in the way of The Kingdom of Heaven that is in us. Oh, they may talk well of such a Reign - but it is used to unleash those three hounds of hell in order to keep in power those who hold power and cause others to run for their lives. Thurman lifts up a resistance that is a life that pulls us into a contrary position and actions. It will not be found within the labels of Red and Blue and Purple Too - not even Green. It will be made available as we become vulnerable to all the powers within lives that do not go along. This is not mere protest - this is not rioting - this is not violence in any form. Rather it is the action of those who touch and heal and eat with and walk with all those folks we read about in the gospels. The note we must hear at this point is that those situations in which Jesus walked - are not distinct to that time and his life. We are not called to merely study them. We are invited to walk in that same way.
The complexity of our day - in so many ways - makes it difficult to walk humbly with our God - to resist the deep need to win or be called right and good and in power. Yet, whether Red or Blue or Purple, if we say we are followers of Jesus (people who live within the Reign of God in this day) no side can own our hearts or lives. We must do what I hate and fear - risk being left out and not in control of the day. Yet, what we may gain is the wealth of life that comes when we step down from our desire to win the day and turn to walk humbly with any who are left behind. It is there - the place we do not want to be - that we begin to change - see with new eyes - speak in a new voice - let go of the life we are absolutely sure we must save. Then within the embrace of those crowds of people who longed for healing and touch and food, we find ourselves full and healed and open to face the powers of death - for they cannot take away the life we are invited to share with all people without the need for Red or Blue or Purple Too.
TRRR
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Monday, January 7, 2019
Red and Blue and Purple Too (Take 2)
Howard Thurman notes, 'It cannot be denied that too often the weight of the Christian movement has been on the side of the strong and the powerful and against the weak and oppressed - this, despite the gospel.'
We have all had the opportunity to live within and through times that can be set up as politically Red and Blue and Purple too. In our country, we are obsessed with saying that we are a Christian nation. Yet, that claim does not follow the way of Jesus. It is not a statement about how the broken are healed and the enemy loved - even unto death. It is about power. It is about giving validation - even a blessing - to the mechanism of violence that becomes us - defines us - preserves us no matter what the cost will be to others.
Within the days leading up to and entering into the new configuration in the House and Senate, there has been a disturbing mix of memes going around on Facebook. The ones that have been able to pull my strings are the ones in which the person who is posting wants a response to the use of different religious books for swearing in ceremonies. Usually there is an air of disgust that a book other than the Judaeo/Christian Bible would be the book upon which someone would pledge to uphold the constitution and carry out the duties of a government official. I always look at the comments in those posts. It is as though the use of a Quran means that the persons entering their office will eventually become a traitor or try to overthrown the country. Really!?
I find it more devilish that many politicians use the Bible as they book upon which they will make their pledges and promises. I use devilish in the sense of evil - in the sense of being an act of disrespect - in the sense of being an apostasy. I'm not saying that a religious person who faithfully engages in the life that their faith tradition teaches cannot be in politics. Rather, I find it morally reprehensible that one would think that their pledge of allegiance to the country will be better fulfilled if they say some words with their hand on a book. My Facebook encounters seem to forget that a person does not even have to swear on a religious book in court - it is unnecessary. We swear to the air - to the world - to the cosmos - to ourselves and those in the room that our yes will be yes and our no will be no. There will be no need to fudge. A book used in the pledge does not make one holier than others or more truthful or more trustworthy. I mentioned in a comment that if I had to make such a pledge - I would bring out my Calvin and Hobbes Anthology. I think I would do that so that any and all holy rollers would endlessly question my actions and motives and wonder about my sanity.
To be quite honest, I have a number of friends and acquaintances who love Calvin and Hobbes and they would understand the importance of using the Anthology as a way of mocking the state of things and also alerting folks to how the world may become different. And that, is why I do not want Bibles or Holy books to be used for a holy photo op that insults any and all faiths. We are not invited to swear to God to make our country be one that ceaselessly pursues justice. When we say we are a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or a Hindu or whatever faith folks claim to be, we are to come to life within the teaching of those faiths. Screw the book - be the followers. Unfortunately, we have turned the image of the country into one that cannot function without a specific religious imprimatur to which we say we adhere. And yet, that is and always has been a lie. Our nation - any nation - falls flat when placed alongside the character of faith teachings. We have the good fortune - some might say we are blessed - to have a country that does not rise or fall because we say we identify with the teaching of a certain religion. In fact, to claim to be a Christian nation is to say that we are willing to act contrary to the teachings of Jesus and the prophetic line from which he lived. We need only look around. Thurman said it well in the opening quote.
I love to see people of faith take the risk to live and speak and engage the world out of their traditions. What I see as that takes place is the appearance of lives dedicated to a crazy notion that all people are created equal. That is not a principal owned by one group of people. It is the wonder of humanity making incarnate the creativity of life needed to transform everyone. I don't care what your faith tradition is - I want to be a witness to how you help take us all into a new life in which all people - means all people, and hatred and violence toward others is the manifestation of the lowest form of being human. And therefore, we are needed to offer ourselves to those who are filled with hatred and violence so that all will experience what I usually call the Peaceable Reign of God - or - as MLK, Jr. often called - the Beloved Community.
So, rather than bitch about people who may be different - rather than fear that which we do not know - rather than live and think as though we are hiding behind a wall that will save us, do this: if you are a Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist, Christian - let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. That's how hope works. We begin to see the reality of promises that the present powers of the world never attain. It may be that our critique of those who hold power may not be about whether or not they are like us - but how they embody the best of a humanity led by a spirit of peace and love - for all.
TRRR
We have all had the opportunity to live within and through times that can be set up as politically Red and Blue and Purple too. In our country, we are obsessed with saying that we are a Christian nation. Yet, that claim does not follow the way of Jesus. It is not a statement about how the broken are healed and the enemy loved - even unto death. It is about power. It is about giving validation - even a blessing - to the mechanism of violence that becomes us - defines us - preserves us no matter what the cost will be to others.
Within the days leading up to and entering into the new configuration in the House and Senate, there has been a disturbing mix of memes going around on Facebook. The ones that have been able to pull my strings are the ones in which the person who is posting wants a response to the use of different religious books for swearing in ceremonies. Usually there is an air of disgust that a book other than the Judaeo/Christian Bible would be the book upon which someone would pledge to uphold the constitution and carry out the duties of a government official. I always look at the comments in those posts. It is as though the use of a Quran means that the persons entering their office will eventually become a traitor or try to overthrown the country. Really!?
I find it more devilish that many politicians use the Bible as they book upon which they will make their pledges and promises. I use devilish in the sense of evil - in the sense of being an act of disrespect - in the sense of being an apostasy. I'm not saying that a religious person who faithfully engages in the life that their faith tradition teaches cannot be in politics. Rather, I find it morally reprehensible that one would think that their pledge of allegiance to the country will be better fulfilled if they say some words with their hand on a book. My Facebook encounters seem to forget that a person does not even have to swear on a religious book in court - it is unnecessary. We swear to the air - to the world - to the cosmos - to ourselves and those in the room that our yes will be yes and our no will be no. There will be no need to fudge. A book used in the pledge does not make one holier than others or more truthful or more trustworthy. I mentioned in a comment that if I had to make such a pledge - I would bring out my Calvin and Hobbes Anthology. I think I would do that so that any and all holy rollers would endlessly question my actions and motives and wonder about my sanity.
To be quite honest, I have a number of friends and acquaintances who love Calvin and Hobbes and they would understand the importance of using the Anthology as a way of mocking the state of things and also alerting folks to how the world may become different. And that, is why I do not want Bibles or Holy books to be used for a holy photo op that insults any and all faiths. We are not invited to swear to God to make our country be one that ceaselessly pursues justice. When we say we are a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim or a Hindu or whatever faith folks claim to be, we are to come to life within the teaching of those faiths. Screw the book - be the followers. Unfortunately, we have turned the image of the country into one that cannot function without a specific religious imprimatur to which we say we adhere. And yet, that is and always has been a lie. Our nation - any nation - falls flat when placed alongside the character of faith teachings. We have the good fortune - some might say we are blessed - to have a country that does not rise or fall because we say we identify with the teaching of a certain religion. In fact, to claim to be a Christian nation is to say that we are willing to act contrary to the teachings of Jesus and the prophetic line from which he lived. We need only look around. Thurman said it well in the opening quote.
I love to see people of faith take the risk to live and speak and engage the world out of their traditions. What I see as that takes place is the appearance of lives dedicated to a crazy notion that all people are created equal. That is not a principal owned by one group of people. It is the wonder of humanity making incarnate the creativity of life needed to transform everyone. I don't care what your faith tradition is - I want to be a witness to how you help take us all into a new life in which all people - means all people, and hatred and violence toward others is the manifestation of the lowest form of being human. And therefore, we are needed to offer ourselves to those who are filled with hatred and violence so that all will experience what I usually call the Peaceable Reign of God - or - as MLK, Jr. often called - the Beloved Community.
So, rather than bitch about people who may be different - rather than fear that which we do not know - rather than live and think as though we are hiding behind a wall that will save us, do this: if you are a Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist, Christian - let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. That's how hope works. We begin to see the reality of promises that the present powers of the world never attain. It may be that our critique of those who hold power may not be about whether or not they are like us - but how they embody the best of a humanity led by a spirit of peace and love - for all.
TRRR
Sunday, January 6, 2019
Red and Blue and Purple Too
None of us are meant to be observers as the world moves through today and into that which will be. We are to be participants. You may not agree with this, but we are participants even when we sit back and let ourselves merely look on or simply bitch and gripe about the world as we hold it out at arms length so that it will not touch us and we will not have to touch it. When I encounter people of various faith tradition a common thread that is woven into all of our lives is the necessity to have our lives become a part of the fabric of the society in which we live. It does not mean we work to transform the culture or society into our kind. Rather, there are foundational ways to be vitally concerned and a part of our communities. It would be easy to simply say we are invited to love one another - without boundary - without bias - without partiality. But those words, unfortunately, get blown off too easily. The infectiousness of sentimentality within the rubric to love has made love an indecency - for it has become the means to war, tribalism, and the need to destroy the other out of love of our own. What a shame. I must say that the call to love that comes from people outside of a faith community can be powerful and yet, it too, can be nothing more than an sentimental familial journey.
I may be one of the slowest readers in the world. Then, if you throw on top of that the fact that I must read early in the day or else I will fall asleep within moments of a few turns of the page - I can be pathetic. I say this at this point of this blog because I have been doing some of the best reading of my life within the past few years. It is theological and biblical - but it makes my heart stir and my mind work to bring words to life. And yet, I want to read novels. Harry Potter had me for years. John Irving can still grab me - though at times it takes too long to flip my switch. So, in this time of retirement yearnings, I looked up at the books I still have from my years of being a pastor. I gave away many - yes many - of my books. I kept ones I knew I would read again or use as a reference for myself or those few that I had only dipped into for a brief moment. Yesterday I looked up from watching some news and saw a very thin book. At the top of the binding it said, Thurman. As I am doing now, I smiled. It was Howard Thurman's book Jesus and the Disinherited. When I started to flip through the pages, I was glad my wife was not near by. For throughout the book I had marked it up without any regard for the conservation of yellow markers or marginal comments. It was then the I was a bit shaken - but that was good. What a foundational book for me. The book was published in 1949 but he had been writing decades earlier. Even the new 'theological' stuff I'm reading has not stirred my soul like my first review of the first chapter - actually the Preface.
But let me go back to my opening concern about love and engagement and that which I would consider the basic gift of our humanity - keeping our eyes open for the well-being of all. Anything less than that is sheer violence. I for one can be one hell of a violent person. Fortunately, I have voices all around me that hold up visions of peacefulness and the common good of all and the need to never forget those who are too often forgotten within the world I occupy. Let me step back a few sentences. Hell is the violence of this world of ours. Hell takes on so many faces, we often do not see it sitting at the bar stool next to us or the Thanksgiving dinner or our favored groups or the news we watch or the fear brewing in our hearts or the anxiety blowing in the winds of change. To keep things as we want them, in voice and act and gesture we let ourselves lean into the violence of separation, accusation, condemnation, and self-focused love.
Though I do not read as much as I would like - I read. I take a look at how this side and that side argue. I endure the endless ways everyone seems to attempt to make themselves shine and make sure the other is diminished. I am so sad to hear the violence. It comes from all sides. For example, I am one who strongly supports and even started my career as a pastor in community organizing. It is an important way to be connected to the community in which one lives. In Detroit, that meant a mere section of a big city. It meant I learned so much from neighbors. But I also learned that just like so many ways we move through life, we build an us and a them. Yes, even the most well meaning people know how to be violent at some level. One day at a meeting of about twenty five community members, there was some discussion about including a predominantly Chaldean neighborhood into our community organization. For a few moments, I sat back like a young child eavesdropping on a wise adult conversation that was beginning to implode. There were those (white and black) who were saying they worked with them and - they smell. Hmmm. Then the elder African American member of the board started laughing - one of those deep Heh-Heh-Heh laughs. When faces turned his way he said, 'Do you hear what we are doing? We are describing them in the same way (then he points to some of the white members of the board) they used to talk about us.' Everyone looked around and joined his laughter and follow with a vote to expand the table. The community was not miraculously healed - but, we saw and heard the movement of a humanity that was considering how truly human we all can be - even if it was just in one act of solidarity mixed with laughter and action.
Red and Blue and Purple Too will be my way of talking about the way we continue to be a violent culture and the call to be something new. Some of that will have to do with how we must face the lies that come from the two political parities that attempt to run our country. You may have noticed that both parties have a long history of promises and none of them are kept. Even prophetic voices fall to the side as the mechanism of the way things are marches on under banners promising new life and better times. Unfortunately, over the change of powers and words and parties, the violence of the culture persists.There is no trickle down. There is no program for the hungry and insecure. There is no action to expand the middle class. There is absolutely no action to see to the well-being of the poor. There is no mutual respect for people of all backgrounds. Even when folks attempt to talk of compromises by using words like purple to describe a political reality - purple is nothing more than nothing more.
So, while the same violence of our cultural leaders owns the day - what are we to do - what can we do? I'm one who needs to maintain an imagination and have others expand that imagination. I am one who also needs someone to help move my ass into action that will never forget the least, the lowest, the left out. For those of you who consider yourself bothered (even oppressed) by changes in society and feel threatened by how the world is moving in directions you may not like, I may not be writing for you. I hope I will be drawing into question the violence we have at the core of how we move through the day and how that movement is a hell of a way to live.
TRRR
I may be one of the slowest readers in the world. Then, if you throw on top of that the fact that I must read early in the day or else I will fall asleep within moments of a few turns of the page - I can be pathetic. I say this at this point of this blog because I have been doing some of the best reading of my life within the past few years. It is theological and biblical - but it makes my heart stir and my mind work to bring words to life. And yet, I want to read novels. Harry Potter had me for years. John Irving can still grab me - though at times it takes too long to flip my switch. So, in this time of retirement yearnings, I looked up at the books I still have from my years of being a pastor. I gave away many - yes many - of my books. I kept ones I knew I would read again or use as a reference for myself or those few that I had only dipped into for a brief moment. Yesterday I looked up from watching some news and saw a very thin book. At the top of the binding it said, Thurman. As I am doing now, I smiled. It was Howard Thurman's book Jesus and the Disinherited. When I started to flip through the pages, I was glad my wife was not near by. For throughout the book I had marked it up without any regard for the conservation of yellow markers or marginal comments. It was then the I was a bit shaken - but that was good. What a foundational book for me. The book was published in 1949 but he had been writing decades earlier. Even the new 'theological' stuff I'm reading has not stirred my soul like my first review of the first chapter - actually the Preface.
But let me go back to my opening concern about love and engagement and that which I would consider the basic gift of our humanity - keeping our eyes open for the well-being of all. Anything less than that is sheer violence. I for one can be one hell of a violent person. Fortunately, I have voices all around me that hold up visions of peacefulness and the common good of all and the need to never forget those who are too often forgotten within the world I occupy. Let me step back a few sentences. Hell is the violence of this world of ours. Hell takes on so many faces, we often do not see it sitting at the bar stool next to us or the Thanksgiving dinner or our favored groups or the news we watch or the fear brewing in our hearts or the anxiety blowing in the winds of change. To keep things as we want them, in voice and act and gesture we let ourselves lean into the violence of separation, accusation, condemnation, and self-focused love.
Though I do not read as much as I would like - I read. I take a look at how this side and that side argue. I endure the endless ways everyone seems to attempt to make themselves shine and make sure the other is diminished. I am so sad to hear the violence. It comes from all sides. For example, I am one who strongly supports and even started my career as a pastor in community organizing. It is an important way to be connected to the community in which one lives. In Detroit, that meant a mere section of a big city. It meant I learned so much from neighbors. But I also learned that just like so many ways we move through life, we build an us and a them. Yes, even the most well meaning people know how to be violent at some level. One day at a meeting of about twenty five community members, there was some discussion about including a predominantly Chaldean neighborhood into our community organization. For a few moments, I sat back like a young child eavesdropping on a wise adult conversation that was beginning to implode. There were those (white and black) who were saying they worked with them and - they smell. Hmmm. Then the elder African American member of the board started laughing - one of those deep Heh-Heh-Heh laughs. When faces turned his way he said, 'Do you hear what we are doing? We are describing them in the same way (then he points to some of the white members of the board) they used to talk about us.' Everyone looked around and joined his laughter and follow with a vote to expand the table. The community was not miraculously healed - but, we saw and heard the movement of a humanity that was considering how truly human we all can be - even if it was just in one act of solidarity mixed with laughter and action.
Red and Blue and Purple Too will be my way of talking about the way we continue to be a violent culture and the call to be something new. Some of that will have to do with how we must face the lies that come from the two political parities that attempt to run our country. You may have noticed that both parties have a long history of promises and none of them are kept. Even prophetic voices fall to the side as the mechanism of the way things are marches on under banners promising new life and better times. Unfortunately, over the change of powers and words and parties, the violence of the culture persists.There is no trickle down. There is no program for the hungry and insecure. There is no action to expand the middle class. There is absolutely no action to see to the well-being of the poor. There is no mutual respect for people of all backgrounds. Even when folks attempt to talk of compromises by using words like purple to describe a political reality - purple is nothing more than nothing more.
So, while the same violence of our cultural leaders owns the day - what are we to do - what can we do? I'm one who needs to maintain an imagination and have others expand that imagination. I am one who also needs someone to help move my ass into action that will never forget the least, the lowest, the left out. For those of you who consider yourself bothered (even oppressed) by changes in society and feel threatened by how the world is moving in directions you may not like, I may not be writing for you. I hope I will be drawing into question the violence we have at the core of how we move through the day and how that movement is a hell of a way to live.
TRRR
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)