tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47594057629587401942023-11-15T05:37:49.619-08:00The Right Reverend RantThe Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.comBlogger3350125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-7499259342792297342020-04-03T18:03:00.000-07:002020-04-03T18:12:43.233-07:00My Obituary<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Pastor</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>al: </b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> aka. - knuklehead, aka. - hey you, aka. - gramps, aka, - luddite, aka. - apostate, aka. Al Debelak, F. Allan Debelak, Frank Allan Debelak. He is survived by his wife Karen Riccio who married him despite his antics and ceaselessly continued to do so though many folks thought she might be a bit mistaken. Jamela Debelak, who is able to see through his bull and always accept his antics, Jamie Scythes the best person a father would want to be with his daughter, EmmyLou who simply lit up his life. Brother Chuck (Helene) who taught him about grace and excellence though they never really heard it from him. brother Dale (Judy) who was alway in his heart and mind. His aunt Joanne who sponsored him at his baptism and whose love was always held close. Beverly Bennett who let her daughter marry someone who was at least one 'in the right direction.'</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">His life was blessed by so many people who simply were present to help him see the glory of life no matter how it looked or acted. He was graced by colleagues who could laugh and cry and stand up for the welfare of all and then, put it to life. He was inspired by the children who really only knew him as pastor al - because who can really pronounce Debelak.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">He was mostly an anonymous presence who cherished the unlimited creativity of God that appears everyday in the midst of what most might call nothing at all. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 19px;">
<br />
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">He had a sweet tooth - loved to cook for friends- always thought we could do more to comfort mother earth - even as too many wanted to abuse her. He was so supportive of a woman's right to choose he saw each day of volunteering as possibly his last. </span></div>
The Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-85782923124434025582019-12-24T08:16:00.001-08:002019-12-24T08:16:20.433-08:00Incarnation - putting it to life - violence or love<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b>John 1:1-14</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 12px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">What’s the Word? Huh.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">What word was with God?</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">In John’s storytelling —</span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;"><b> it was God.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(87, 134, 37); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #578625; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;"><b>It was —</b> ‘</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>gratuitous self-donation</i></b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><i>.’</i></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;"><b>It was</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> self-giving.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>It was what was</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"> </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">before there was</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">rejection - violence - prejudice</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">accusation - condemnation.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>The utter brilliance of </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>John’s prologue</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>is that it does not let </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); color: #932192;"><b>any power</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> — speak first</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); color: #932192;"><b>any culture</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> — set the norm</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); color: #932192;"><b>any ruler — </b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">dictate what is to be</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); color: #932192;"><b>any gods of the day</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b> </b>— tickle our fancy.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">It is as though John</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>will let — no other story own the day </i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">among those who say they </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">follow Jesus.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">It is as though John </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">is setting us up — with </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;"><b><i>this word</i></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">that has no place to abide among us</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>and yet it does.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff; text-decoration: underline;"><b>This Word</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i> becomes vitally alive</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>even though </i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>we want nothing to do with it</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>even though</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>we will not accept it or receive it</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">John is writing in a day</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>when violence was — </b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 38, 0); color: #ff2600; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>the word.</i></b><i> </i></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Some might even say it was — the way.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Some might say — the necessary evil.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Some might say — the rule.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>In other words</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>it is like every other day</b> - <b>even today.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;">It is how </span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>we — become </b></span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>us</i></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b> </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;">and </span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>they — become </b></span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>them.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"> John’s storytelling right from the beginning</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">sets before us </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">a word that had been</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>the word of the day - </b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); color: #932192;"><b>violence.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Think of it this way.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">One child is in a room full of toys.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">She is loving it — all is well.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Then, child #2 enters this room </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">that is completely full of toys.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Where does child #2 head?</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>You got it — that one toy in the hands of child #1.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Ahhh,</i></b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"> </span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>the desire</b> — to have </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">what is in the hands of another.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>and then it meets</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>the desire</b> — to keep what is in hand.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">As a parent and a grandparent</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">I have seen it happen again and again.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">The little buggers explode into </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"> acts of violence - screaming - tantrums </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>that I would never have expected </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>from my child - my grandchild,</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">It may be a bit much to call it warfare.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">It may be a bit much to call it violence.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">I may be a bit much to give it any</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">consideration at all - <b><i>they’re just kids, right?</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">But then again, </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Cain and Abel were brothers.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>That - didn’t end well.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">And the whole story line </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">that makes up</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"> humanities storytelling since then</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>hasn’t gone well.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">I would suggest that the gospel writer John</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">is handing everyone who reads</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">his version of the Christ story</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">an opening </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">into a whole new life</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">that really has no witness </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">since</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(87, 134, 37); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #578625; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>God’s gratuitous self-donation - in the beginning.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>In the beginning</i></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>was a love meant to be</i></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>the substance — the character</i></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>of God’s creative masterpiece — </i><b><i>Humanity.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Hmmm.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>But that love…that </i></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(87, 134, 37); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #578625; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>gratuitous self-donation</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>that </i></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(87, 134, 37); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #578625; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://www.apple.com/"><b>light</b></a></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i> that shines in the darkness</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>that </i></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(87, 134, 37); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #578625; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Word that became flesh</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">was…well…it was</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>voted off the island.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">The gospel writer John follows up this </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Prelude to his Gospel</b> </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">with a storyline</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(87, 134, 37); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #578625; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>in which self-giving love</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">has no place</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">in a world</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">that is always trying to preserve</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">a fundamental principle</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">of human society:</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>us verses them.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Within the vision of John’s gospel</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">that he received </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">through coming to grips with the life and death of Jesus</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>he finds there is a love</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"> </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">that will never abide by</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>us verses them</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">no matter who the </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); color: #932192;"><b>US</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> is </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">no matter who the </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); color: #932192;"><b>THEM</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> is.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Therefore, we will see in John’s writing</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">the story of Jesus</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">[ presented also by Matthew, Mark, and Luke ]</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">that the world ( <b>now </b>- <b>get this )</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>did not know — did not accept.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">We look back at this Word of Love</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">and wonder </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">how could they not see it - know it - accept it.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Well, that goes back to who</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">the Creator is:</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(87, 134, 37); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #578625; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>gratuitous self-giving</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>A love that gives</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">without condition</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">without meeting goals</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">without being nice or when we are naughty.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Yikes - that’s sheer foolishness.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Isn’t it?</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">As we sit in the season of the birth </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">of the Christ of God - the Word of God</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">the love of God translated into everyday human life,</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>I have a suggestion.</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">The National Alliance on Mental Illness<b> ( NAMI )</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">has put out a commercial this year.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">It shows a reflective Santa</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">sitting on the roof of a house</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">distraught and embarrassed and ashamed</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">about his participation in over a 1000 years of </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">labeling people as either</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 38, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #ff2600; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>naughty or nice</i></b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><b><i>.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Well, consider this — was</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus the — <b>son of God</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus the — <b>incarnation of God</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus the — <b>Word of Love</b> made flesh</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>who lived</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>within — </i></b>the daily likes of the world</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>within — </b>the cultural norms of the world</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>within </b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>—</b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b> </b>the values of his people</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>within — </b>the fundamental principles of society </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 38, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #ff2600; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>considered naughty?</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 38, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #ff2600; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>Was he?</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Well…it all depends on the lens you wear.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>If he is seen as one who would dare to</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">unveil the violence of the world</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">violence that is too often covered over - </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">violence that is even condoned</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">with words like:</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>kids will be kids</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>family before others</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>those folk are not like us</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>they are all to be avoided</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>we have to think of ourselves first</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>then</i></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 38, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #ff2600; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>yes, Jesus was as naughty </i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 38, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #ff2600; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>as one can be.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 38, 0); color: #ff2600;"><b>If </b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>— he is seen as one led by</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of Truth</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">the Paraclete </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">(that is translated as the </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;"><b><i>Defender of the Accused</i></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> )</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">who</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>always placed himself among and alongside </i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>the rejected</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"> - </span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>the expelled</b></span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"> -</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b> the convicted</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>the ones society counts as </b></span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>less</i></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b> or </b></span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>no one</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">then</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 38, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #ff2600; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>yes, Jesus was as naughty </i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 38, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #ff2600; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>as one can be.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 38, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #ff2600; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>AND YET,</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i> for us</i></b> — he is the </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); color: #0433ff;"><b>Savior</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><b><i>for us</i></b> — he is </span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>God in the flesh</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><b><i>for us</i></b> — he is </span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>the life of God’s eternal Reign</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">walking around </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>as though</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 38, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #ff2600; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>it was — and is — and will be</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>the life that is meant for us all. </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">And yes, </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">according to the four gospels,</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Jesus was </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(255, 38, 0); color: #ff2600;"><b><i>naughty</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">for he did not - would not</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">go along with </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>the word of violence</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>that works so well in the world</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">but has no place</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>in the life of Jesus</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>and </i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>the life of Jesus’ followers.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">Let me end with this story.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">There was a King - a powerful King.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">His ego was big. His heart was small.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">He was ruled by fear - He ruled by violence.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">In what is designated as the gospel for </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(87, 134, 37); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #578625; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>this First Sunday after Christmas,</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>this King </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">( we know him as Herod )</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>was so afraid</b> </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">that one day </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">his family would lose their place</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">as the power and authority of the day</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>this King became for us</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">the incarnation - the embodiment</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(147, 33, 146); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #932192; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>of the violence of our fear-filled world.</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>And the Word of Love</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">had to flee into exile until it would grow into </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>the Jesus</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(4, 51, 255); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0433ff; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black;"><b><i>who</i></b><i> </i></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>as one person notes</i></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(87, 134, 37); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #578625; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>becomes the love that </b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>puts up no resistance to violence</b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">in order that </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>this Word of Love - this God in the flesh</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">becomes another way </span><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><b><i>for us</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">to live in a broken and violent world.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(87, 134, 37); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #578625; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>And the Word became flesh and lived among us,</i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(87, 134, 37); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #578625; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>and we have seen his glory the glory of a father’s only son, </i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(87, 134, 37); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #578625; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>full of grace and truth. </i></b></span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(87, 134, 37); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #578625; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i></i></b></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b><i>AMEN</i></b></span></div>
The Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-8391610195210039672019-12-21T08:26:00.002-08:002019-12-21T08:26:59.468-08:00Hope holds the whole world in its armsThe Nativity of our Lord. If you are not a follower of Jesus, this may mean nothing - that's fine. And yet, what I will say about that bit of storytelling may still resonate.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Hope holds the whole world in its arms. </i></b>The nativity of our Lord is about incarnation. It is about an inclusive embrace that extends beyond anything I would consider embracing. If and when you see someone and you <i>make up the notion</i> that they do not fit in or belong or look they way you look or act the way you act - you have no connection to the hope of the incarnation. Oh, there is still hope. The incarnation is a hope-filled creation in which even a rejection of its creativity cannot prevail over the hopefulness intended in its earthy and cosmic expression. We cannot diminish hope. It will carry us, without partiality, into a life where people open doors, invite others in, and share their bounty or their scarcity. In many of my days, I am not hope-filled. I am self- absorbed. It is easy to be when all I need do to have things my way is to simple turn my back - walk away - make judgements. Oh how I long to be filled with the hopefulness of the vision of our faithful storytelling that enters into poverty and violent systems and homelessness and fear in order to touch us no matter where we find ourselves.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Hope holds the whole world in its arms. </i></b>Those are not big strong arms. Those are the arms of a mother who takes a risk and then continues to risk her life and her babe's life by raising him within that embrace of hope - even when it will be bring about what appears to be the end of him. Such hope is life offered to the least and shines in front of those who appear to be the biggest and best. To be born into the stream of the hopefulness of creation is not something out of the ordinary. In fact, within the storytelling of the incarnation, we are handed nothing more than the ordinary. This is where hope springs eternal - makes itself know - gives vision - lasts beyond our own lives - demonstrates the ongoing nature of creation. In the arms of that peasant woman and that man who would become her husband there is promise that cannot be realized without being realized in each and every ordinary day.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Hope holds the whole world in its arms. </i></b>When we see the incarnation in such a light - a light that bids us to come into the unfolding glory of the hopefulness of creation - the crazy notion of making these days at the end of December and the beginning of January into a place of a warfare of words is strange. When we live in this hope, <i>those folks</i> become <i>our folks</i>. The differences we long to keep in place lose their glitter and we begin to see those differences as odd and unnecessary. The lines we are usually able to draw so well and make so definitive - hold no power - have no control. Hope lifts up our eyes to see the glorious mountaintops and drops our eyes to see the rich valleys. In the meantime, we do not miss the amazing splendor of the ordinary of the day that is too often that which we look past. Hope sees and holds the baby. Hope sees and hold the wounded. Hope sees and holds the forgotten. Hope sees and holds the abused. Hope sees and holds those previously overlooked and ignored. And then, hope uses all those lives as the palate of hope's creativity in order to paint us into a new world.<br />
<br />
<b><i>Hope hold the whole world in its arms.</i></b> Celebrate the hopefulness of the ordinary that challenges us to be utterly creative for the well-being of all. Hope is looking for a manger into which the future might take shape. We are invited to hold that wonder-filled life as if it is our own.<br />
TRRRThe Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-84277568837595617222019-12-18T09:37:00.000-08:002019-12-18T09:37:01.156-08:00Imagine ThatImagine a powerful person being frightened of the most vulnerable. Imagine people so full of themselves they are unable to feel the plight of others - especially those of meager estate. Imagine people so wealthy they get anything they want - whatever it is - no matter what it may cost - even if the cost comes at the expense of others. Imagine someone whose pronouncements, whether they dribble from their mouth or are placed upon a page, were enough to ruin the lives of individuals or malign - to the point of complete rejection - a group in their disfavor. Imagine people so afraid of the power of these people that they would do anything to stay within the good graces of their daily whims. Imagine that<br />
<br />
Imagination need not be about that which is not. Imagination is not about fantasy. Fantasy is fantasy. Imagination is not magic. Magic is magic. Imagination invites us to live with eyes wide open to that which is and thus, that which may come to be. Unfortunately, imagination can be a part of the most evil acts of our humanity. Imagination is also the springboard into great benevolence. Imagination provides vision for acts of destruction. Imagination ignites wonderful creativity. Imagination is able to raise the dead. Imagination is able to drag people to the grave. Imagination takes us beyond the events of the day that attempt to keep us just as we are. Imagination creates and shapes how our days will unfold. Imagine that.<br />
<br />
Imagine Mary, who becomes the mother of Jesus. In one gospel she is approached by Gabriel - an angel. Imagine that. Imagine a peasant young woman whose life will be that of a peasant - whose family and friends will never be more than the peasants they are. Imagine this peasant girl being told by this angel that she was to be the mother of a new king - whose reign will be anointed by the Most High God who was at the very heart of the life of her community. Imagine this peasant girl as she pauses to take in this extraordinary event. Now, imagine if she said to Gabriel - <i>I think not</i>. Imagine the power of choice in that moment. Imagination helps us make choices - it is how we take ourselves into a new place. And yet, no matter what the choice, life comes out of that choice. What will that life be - how will it be shaped - what will come of it? Imagine Mary attempting to imagine something other than the world of poverty as she knew it. Imagine that.<br />
<br />
Imagine the poor being lifted up. Imagine the rich bending down to lift up the poor. Imagine terror that drives powerless people to foreign places- even places known for oppression - yet they go. Imagine mercy extended within a world that is so easily ruled by mercilessness. Imagine strength appearing as a bended knee that positions people to serve even though they were once raised to break the backs of others. Imagine a vile world encountering the imaginative life of unbounded reconciliation and healing. Imagine enough - enough food for the hungry - enough room for those without a room at the inn - enough compassion to let no one go. Imagine those without - being considered and treated as guests to a dinner. Imagine parents like Mary and Joseph who see the world as it is and yet they nurture the imagination of their child so this one will risk losing life to make life new. Imagine that.<br />
<br />
Imagine being more afraid of today than open to what might be. Imagine having enough - maybe even a little extra - yet feeling the need to gripe about not having more. Imagine what it might be like to be someone who is nurtured to live in fear of others. Imagine a child who has seen parents and elders point at and speak about and put down those people over there. Imagine not being able to see the power of privilege that comes with the color of ones skin, the neighborhood one was raised in, the schools one attended, the access to generational wealth - and therefore casting down the lowly. Imagine having the power to shape the world as you want it and walking past the rest of it. Imagine the luxury of not caring what happens over there. Imagine that.<br />
<br />
I find the incarnation to be all about imagination. I find the incarnation to be a wake up call. I find the incarnation to be that statement - that phrase - that joke - that voice - that cry - that plea - that light - that turns my head to see beyond my own world. I find the incarnation in a stable of any kind in any place to be how I am pulled out of my place and must imagine life within the simplicity of the ordinary. Within the ordinary, being there - taking time to see it - being graced to feel it - marveling at its texture - stumbling over its mess, comes the gift of peace that promises to wrap us up as a gift to the world that tyrants and evil powers and foolish people cannot dismantle. Imagination that knows not the bounds of a creativity for the well-being of all, unveils a life in which death in all its many shapes and sounds does not rule us. Imagine that.<br />
TRRR<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />The Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-61878636765757683462019-12-16T12:28:00.002-08:002019-12-16T12:28:51.079-08:00Tis the Season - upper case or lower case GThis is not merely a seasonally specific rant. It just so happens that this season tends to tickle me a bit more than other seasons. That tickle becomes more and more like an annoying itch when folks attempt to dress themselves in a perverse piety that longs for God to be present and yet there is an unwillingness to allow that presence to be manifest among us. From what I hear, the only way God is to be present is in the way folks want - or shall I say demand - that presence.<br />
<br />
For me we are no different from many of the biblical stories in which faithful people had to deal with their own unfaithfulness as they attempted to make something divine out of their own likes and loves and wants and desires. I irreverently call this the g-spot. It is and eternal conundrum among those who call themselves faithful. We convince ourselves that we are faithful to the one, true <u><i>God</i></u> only to turn to that which we can own and use to promote or bring pleasure to our lives as we want them. Thus, we turn our backs to this God we say we praise and trust and make for ourselves <u style="font-style: italic;">gods</u> whose image we create. Being created in God's image is thus lost among us.<br />
<br />
So, the story for me is one of upper and lower case images. One is the God whose image is to become the shape of our lives. The other is the god whose image is one we shape to fit our lives. This is no new insight. Read the book of Judges. It is a comedy of <i>Oh God we long for you to save us - they are rescued - they fall for the gods of the day - they get betrayed by their gods - they cry out Oh God...</i>again and again and again.<i> </i>Faithfulness becomes tribal - faithfulness becomes convenient - faithfulness becomes the pull to be nothing more than who we want. Therefore, all of us have to be on the watch for the gods that we long to have lead us and guide us. Unfortunately, too often we are all suckers for the sweet taste of self-love - a golden calf - a partisan promise - a time in the past - a stock market surge - a magical ride to a better place. Falling in love with the gods of our lives makes for both great comedy and tragedy. When we see they are only gods and then laugh at ourselves for falling for them, we understand the power and wisdom of comedy. When we long to keep them as our gods it is a bitter tragedy that will drive folks to destroy those who are able to laugh at the gods we make.<br />
<br />
More and more when I hear folks take about putting God back into - schools or Christmas or the country or those folks over there - all I see and hear is the little g - the lower case g. Part of that has to do with my understanding of the eternal presence of God - always present - always with us - always bidding us to come and reflect the joy of God's eternal Reign. This God has never been removed from any place or time. But, the gods-of-the-day that we work so hard to keep in place often fall to the side and fail us. So, what are we looking for.<br />
<br />
Are we sure we want the God of the Scriptures to be present among us so as to come alive in that image <u style="font-style: italic;">or</u> are we simply so consumed by our personal wants we will settle for any god that ultimately will make us die from our self-consumption. Do you want God back in Christmas? Then for Christ's sake look again at the character of God in the flesh. Christ is not missing - we are missing the Christ. Do you want God in the schools? Then we must stay aware of the gods of the day that will teach us to love ourselves - our kind - our own - more than those <i>others</i>. Do you want God in politics/government? Then get ready to let go of the systems that let so many of God's beloved be dismissed and disenfranchised and devoured so that we can establish our own gods to rule our lives. Do you want God in your heart? Then learn how to spot how slavishly folks run after the gods of their liking and laugh. Yes, learn to laugh at the foolishness of our self-concern and self-consumption. When we can see those gods among us, our hearts will be filled with that promised joy. Joy of our God - for every season.<br />
TRRR<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />The Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-15159712907127662842019-10-22T09:33:00.001-07:002019-10-22T09:33:14.335-07:00When a Post Becomes DisgustingThere are so many ways to poke fun at the politics of the day. It is even easier to poke fun at some of the politicians who are in the middle of the politics of the day. Much of this is the kind of stuff that fills the posts on Facebook. I don't like some of the posts. I find some of them to be foolish and completely out of place. Yet, I read them. More and more, there are a number of people who must spend their day posting many times a day. These usually involve the placement of memes that are meant to attract attention. Most often, they are met with the usual emojis to show a like or various degrees of dislike or strong feelings. For me, those visual comments give a feel for the thoughts and feelings circulating in the air. There are also written comments that show agreement - expand on a topic - display disagreements - and even point followers to additional information. I find that some of this can be a positive aspect of posts. I know I post quite a few photos of pieces of art in museums - but then I also often use the picture to say things the painting was never meant to say. Most of it is meant as political or social humor. And yes, I receive a spectrum of emoji comments. That fine.<br />
<br />
Today I need to rant about the responses made to memes in which the comments are used to degrade the character of people simply because of who those people are. Sometimes they add nothing to the stream of conversation. It may just be a complete insult - a smear - a bigoted display of fear or hate. The comment that finally pushed be into a rant position was when one person referred to Pete Buttigieg as being a '<u><i>pee pee toucher</i></u>.' There was no stream that was headed that way - it just came out as a display of the kind of ignorance and intolerance of others that can turn very ugly, dirty, violent, and demonic. I place such a comment on line with someone who uses a disgusting term to refer to people of color or people of other faiths. It has no place. It shows us how how far people will go to trigger the fear, hatred, bias, and ignorance that too often sets people against one another. This kind of comment does not fall into the category of humor. It is the kind of remark that would make a venue remove someone from the stage.<br />
<br />
This doesn't mean we cannot poke fun. I remember when Clinton used 'deplorable' during the 2016 election. In my view, she was the deplorable one - and people went back and forth about that. Trump seemed to be a self-proclaimed pussy grabber. No one would have said it if he hadn't used it himself. So let the humor carry on. I have said many times that I really appreciate editorial cartoonist who are able to make us all look like stooges at times. Yes, they can be biting and they can piss people off, but never do good satirist or cartoonists or even political pundits disparage or degrade other people for their sexual orientation, ethnic background, religion, or race. When folks begin to slam others or take them down because of who they are, we are seeing the violence of a culture being put on display. No one needs to be physically touched - the words of disgust or ignorance or fear become the triggers that open up the door to actual violence toward others. There is much history to back that up. First the words fly - then fists - then.<br />
<br />
If we see something in another person and we are alarmed or offended by what seems to be the character of that person or group, it is proper to point it out. For example, I will read something about Christian leaders who appear to back people and actions that I would never associate with being a follower of Jesus. Yet, I also know that my actions or words may solicit a similar view of my comments. We can then argue about those points - disagree - agree - change our thoughts. But when a person from a minority group is diminished by others for simply being who they are, I think we must more quickly and more purposefully disagree. But I must also say that as part of a majority group that has a long history of being in a position of power, I really find it hard to listen to people make blanket statements about 'gray haired, older, white men. I'm usually not bothered by it unless the statement is meant to be definitive of who I am or meant to degrade or attempt to not give me a voice in the room - simply because of some parts of my identity.<br />
<br />
Our task, in my opinion, is to never cease to see with gracious and open eyes - those we would be tempted to disparage - those we fear - those who look and sound different from our own folk - those for whom we have no contact or never have met - those upon whom we can throw labels in an attempt to diminish them. The high ground is really not a place above others - it is the ground we share with those at whom we think it would be so easy to throw stones. It is when we stand alongside - them.<br />
TRRRThe Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-43110462806861633682019-08-06T09:57:00.001-07:002019-08-06T09:57:13.731-07:00Bullet holes in walls in Bosnia - are you afraidPlease allow me to rant through storytelling. It is about guns - so hold on to your firearms of preference. This is a story that I have shared in portion on Facebook and used in part in the <i>Welcome to Worship</i> this last weekend of what seemed to be endless bloodshed in the land of the free and the home of the brave.<br />
<br />
It was back on our last full day staying in a small village outside of Dubrovnik, Croatia. Karen and I decided that we wanted to take one last adventure before we headed out of town. We hired a driver from a company we used several times in Croatia. We were both amazed at the story of where he lived and how he lives away from this wife and child as he earned a wage to support them. He was a really good guy who was very willing to address himself to some of our basic and often tourist-like questions.<br />
<br />
Our destination was to be Mostar, Bosnia-Herzgovina. He suggested to additional side trips to small scenic spots not too far off the beaten path we were taking. Mostar is a quaint small town. The arching walking bridge over the river that divides the town is one of the most picturesque scenes we encountered on that vacation. It was also a scenic wonder to me because as we approached the town, the minarets from a dozen mosques dotted the skyline and there was one lone church steeple. Quite a change from the cities and towns of Ohio.<br />
<br />
Mostar was also known as being a place that was part of the battlefield of the Balkan war in the early 1990s. As we prepped for the day trip, we read about the fighting that went on there and how many bullet holes could still be seen dotting a number of buildings in the town. One source noted that many of those holes were turned into parts of graffiti art. This was once a divided town but now was a symbol of people with differences living together in peace.<br />
<br />
Well, as we were driving to Mostar we asked our driver about his family and he asked us about the United States. He told us some of the tensions that still exist between Croatians, Bosnians, and Serbs. Quite enlightening. Then - we may have come to a light or an open expanse of road - he asked us if we were afraid. Karen and I were confused for a second and Karen said something like,<br />
"You mean afraid to be in Bosnia?" He said, "No. To live in the United States with all the guns."<br />
Wow. Here we were passing road signs of the towns that are infamously associated with bloodshed and genocide and he is asking if we are afraid to live in the United States. He was not merely referring to a story he may have heard. He really knew the statistics about guns and death by guns and military type weapons that anyone can own.<br />
<br />
In a bit of shock, we tried to tell him that we were not afraid - but we agreed that there are so many guns out and about that if you only heard the about the number of guns in the hands and homes of Americans, it should sound frightening to anyone. Yet, there in that van we were once again hearing a story we had heard quite often on our latest trips to Europe in the last two years. The image of the U.S. is becoming more and more deflated. And worst of all, it comes as a great disappointment to people 'over there.' The old term Ugly American that was heard often in Europe during the months I was in England in the early 70's has intensified. Now, it is not merely about how we carry ourselves and know only one language and have a lack of understanding of other cultures. Now, it refers to a culture of violence and hatred and an inability to live within a diverse population - in peace. Our young driver sounded sad and discouraged about who we were becoming. It was as though we were a beacon - a light - that had gone dim.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, as we all know, as a nation we will not work on us. We are too busy trying to fix the blame for all that is wrong on someone out there. Even though we are not made secure by the number of guns we have or the availability of guns, our lust for more is growing as we whip up the fear among us. And, others in the world see that in us. They see a country allowing fear to cause the brave and the free to fire away at will.<br />
<br />
By the way, we found a small artisan who was making metal plates in his little shop. We went into to watch him work and yes, we bought stuff. But here is what really hit us. He had turned empty casing of large caliber bullets and mortars into pieces of art. I thought: to hell with letting death rule us and make fools of us by worshipping the weapons that enflame a warring madness among us. Here was an artist who understood the reality of a population - a homeland - being devastated by violence. He may not be an artist who turns swords into plowshares, but he knows how to turn bullets into vessels of beauty and life. I say, unleash the artists and the people of grand imagination and let them lead us out of the grip of death we seem to love so dearly.<br />
TRRR<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />The Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-72080589400651944532019-08-03T09:54:00.002-07:002019-08-03T10:34:44.371-07:00Dark Psychic Forces and other powers that whip us up - let us downI am not familiar with the work of Marianne Williamson. She is presently one of the Democratic candidates for president who has been able to demonstrate that she has followers and she is able to generate donations - the present standard for a stage appearance.<br />
<br />
I bring her up because she makes me think of what could be an interesting aspect of these debates - even when we come to the debates between the Republican and Democratic candidates. I would not call it a third party - that is a tainted term. I will call it <b><i>another voice</i></b>. It is the voice that many people turn to when they are trying to be grounded. It is the voice of people who ponder the well-being of the earth and all that is therein. They do not have to be people of faith - yet that is where we often will hear such voices. It is also the voice of tried and trues atheist and those who have deliberately pulled out of the domains of organized religion in order be attached to a vision of peace that is often tossed to the side.<br />
<br />
As much as I have heard folks discount Williamson's presence on stage, in my opinion she did offer the most critical voice to the listening public and the other candidates. Embedded in one of the few times she was given the mic, she warned us of the <i style="font-weight: bold;">dark psychic force of collective hatred. </i>She was playing the important role of Toto pulling back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz and the young child saying what needed to be said in The Emperor's New Clothes. The games of politics often lead us in circles - never moving ahead - just spinning in the same space. It is a place that seeks to settle for what I would call the demonic. I think it is what Paul called the <i style="font-weight: bold;">principalities and powers. </i>It may also be what I have learned to call the mechanism of culture that no one dare counter - less you be crucified.<br />
<br />
<b>Imagine this</b>. MSNBC or CNN or FOX gives a panel made up of people who are respected within their circles of faith or their work in society for being wise - insightful - prophetic - courageous - nonpartisan - and let them offer comments and suggestions and critiques and take the clothes off of that which is down right demonic but dressed up to shine on stage. No scapegoating will be allowed. No us-them will be tolerated. No party line or party talking points can be tossed around. The voices of the candidates must be met with the fire of truthfulness that benefits all of us. I would expect that candidates would be called out - dissected - and their comments put under the fire of a wisdom that most of us do not want to hear when we are so tied to this party or that - this race or that - this social status or that - this line of work or that - this neighborhood or that.... We would also have to make sure that the folks on this panel were not like the court prophet of the Hebrew scriptures - those who went along with and stood behind the powers of the day. We would want ones more like the Great Prophets or Jesus or - yes, put your prophet person here. Trust me, the false prophets would be completely exposed if they started spreading the manure of the voices of hate or political correctness or any other voice that continues to build the status quo of what we have learned to accept as how we must live.<br />
<br />
This would not be a religious show. Just as debates do not need a live audience present, there would be no live audience here. But afterwards, let the pundits go after them - let the editorial writer have their say - let the teachers and preachers within congregations quote them and challenge them. I don''t want any of them to be people of faith whose jobs are now tightly wound up in the mechanism of political parties or the web of religious money and status or the seats at news tables under the moniker of analyst/consultant.<br />
<br />
You may say, I'm a dreamer. Yes. I'd like to think I am being a bit foolish. I know that no one would be pleased with the selection of this panel. So, select a second one for the next debate. Or bring the panel together for a special event and let folks listen in to the back and forth, the places of complete disagreement and complete agreement, and places of compromise and clarification.<br />
Have this panel take on questions from the public. What damage could it do. Instead, what a gift it would be to people who care about the well-being of our country and the well-being of all who make up the land of the free and the home of the brave.<br />
TRRR<br />
<br />
<br />The Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-17677958796054567452019-07-29T11:35:00.000-07:002019-07-29T11:35:00.682-07:00The energy of resurrectionLong time since the last post. I have not been keeping note of the notes I write myself. That means I write and rant less and less. That is odd for I like to write and at times - I rant with some joy.<br />
<br />
I find myself mystified by preaching that focuses on heaven and hell. I once wrote that both of those concepts or realities are violent. By that I simply mean they are used to get something done. To encourage a life or discourage a life. The violence comes when folks are left out or welcomed in for this and that reason. The promise of heaven and hell leaves too many folks forgetting about the power and energy of today and how we are a part of the energy for life that makes creation eternally vibrant and alive.<br />
<br />
For some, heaven and hell will be a part of their future. That future is constructed on conditions. There is a <i>one day</i> that will confront us and we will have to face going in this direction or that one.<br />
More and more, I am empowered - even energized - by how the simple promise and announcement that I am beloved and I am a gift to the world and I am full of the potential for a peaceable existence is inspiration for the day. Personally, I find that affirmation within a traditional view of a God who creates - endlessly - and I am invited into that creativity without any need for coercion or violence.<br />
<br />
If I had to put a title on this rant, it would be <i>the energy of resurrection</i>. It is the energy that continues to transform life even when I am not here anymore. It is the energy that nudges lives beyond my own to live benevolently and peaceably and within the depths of mercy and kindness and a renewing and reinvigorating justice. It takes energy to step into such a life. So this is where I am moving a bit differently than usual. Our death becomes the energy for life after us. Today I see it in two ways - not at all new thinking. First, when it is the death we face when we take our last breath and the brain waves have ceased the room is filled with the energy of our lives that appears to be gone but it is swirling in the room and the world around us. The energy of resurrection moves others off into the present. It has the power to awaken and disturb and move others. Can we see it? Hell no. Is it there? Damn right it is. The second way death becomes energy for life is within the day to day ways we face the death of ourselves - our ego - our way of seeing - our way of holding onto the world as we want it and expect it. Within the grasp of so many existential run-ins with death there is an energy that is the power for miraculous change that becomes available within a dying-to-self that invites life in others.<br />
<br />
I live within a generation and culture that has been afraid - maybe even anxious - to let go and allow the energy of resurrection to be released. One way I see that manifest itself is within our rituals of death and burial preparation and burial itself. Here is one image that always confounds me. When taking a cab or Uber from LaGuardia airport over the years, we drive right alongside a sprawling cemetery. And why? It is as though we want to box up and contain and control the energy of resurrection - as though we can save it for another day. We embalm to keep things as they were before our last breath - the energy of resurrection is halted. We seem to be afraid to let decomposition become the possibility of new life. I have a love for that which decomposes - thus our compost bins. The energy from that decomposition becomes new life - energy moving into new shapes and forms.<br />
<br />
I really don't want to get into a rant about our burial practices in our society, but they are odd at best. I have grown to appreciate the cultures - religious and secular - that dispose of bodies in ways that release them - allow for decomposition - expect that the energy of resurrection is already at hand. In all circumstances, we grieve for those who have died. Often we even grieve for ourselves. Resurrection comes as the energy of one's life is allowed to move others into a new space - a new time - a new understanding of life full of the energy that is endless - hope. I find hope to be some of that energy of resurrection. It is able to kick my butt and move me beyond myself and see myself within a grand life-giving agenda. I love the scene of Jesus telling the women at the tomb to tell the others to meet up with him in Galilee - the energy of resurrection. Keep moving - keep stepping out of line - keep decomposing - keep taking what is and make it what can be.<br />
<br />
There are so many powers in our lives that attempt to embalm us so that we cannot be a part of the energy of resurrection. The power to keep things as they are become for me the power of death - the power of the demonic. Think of the man from Jesus' parable who not only had barns that were full - he torn those down to build ones that could hold more and more. Where is the energy in that story. It is put in a box - a vault - a silo. It is utterly contained. Death rules and the possibility of an expansive new life is shut down. He is so out of touch with the energy of resurrection he only consults with himself as to what he is doing. Yes there is much for him - but it is like a dead weight. Yet if he looked up and looked around that grain could energize his life and the lives of all his neighbors - both the rich and the poor. The energy of resurrection opens our eyes and opens our hearts and opens wide the life of a peaceable reign for anyone and everyone. That is some kind of energy - some kind of life coming out of death - some kind of resurrection to new life. Let it out of the box.<br />
TRRRThe Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-43139280804428526992019-01-09T16:25:00.004-08:002019-01-09T16:25:48.125-08:00Red and Blue and Purple Too (take 3)Howard Thurman writes about two alternatives faced by the Jewish minority of which Jesus was a part - <u><i>to resist or not to resis</i></u><i><u>t</u></i>. He then writes of secondary alternatives to these two.<b> #1.</b> <b>Imitation</b> - which can fall under the general plan of nonresistance. He notes that Herod was an excellent example of this solution.<b> #2. </b>Another form of a nonresistance pattern is to <b>reduce contact </b>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. #<b>3.</b> <b>Resistance</b> - 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. #<b>4. The Kingdom of Heaven is in us</b> - as the alternative Jesus brings. He quotes Vladimir Simlhovitch to flesh out this point. <i>Jesus had to resent deeply the loss of Jewish national independence and the aggression of Rome...natural humiliation was hurting and burning. </i><u style="font-style: italic;">The balm for that buring humiliation was humility</u><i>. 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."</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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: <i>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. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
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.<br />
<br />
When I use the phrase <b>Read and Blue and Purple Too</b>, 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 <i>three hounds of hell</i> 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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
TRRR<br />
<br />
<br />The Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-56898700939480302052019-01-07T11:45:00.001-08:002019-01-07T11:45:42.103-08:00Red and Blue and Purple Too (Take 2)Howard Thurman notes, <i>'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.' </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
We have all had the opportunity to live within and through times that can be set up as politically <b>Red and Blue and Purple too</b>. 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.<br />
<br />
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!?<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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, <i><u>do this</u></i>: 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.<br />
TRRRThe Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-73896772684728223652019-01-06T08:45:00.001-08:002019-01-06T08:45:48.602-08:00Red 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 <i>our kind.</i> 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.<br />
<br />
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 <i>Jesus and the Disinherited. </i>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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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 <i>an us and a them</i>. 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 <i>them </i>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 <i>them </i>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.<br />
<br />
<b>Red and Blue and Purple Too</b> 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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
TRRRThe Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-79672241503693847852018-12-10T18:09:00.001-08:002018-12-10T18:09:35.712-08:00It is really quite a Lame duck - Ohio at its worstLast week I was standing on the steps of the statehouse listening to words of hope in a time when I see that a minority has more say in our lives than the majority. It is a time when a few are able to install - as truth - a lie. When this cracked system is allowed to codified as the rule of the day - a lie, the majority is raped. That may be a strong image, but as history shows us, women - the majority - face the fear-filled power of men that cannot stand up to the nurturing and life-giving power of women. Men attempting to exercise an exaggerated masculinity - a possessive machismo - do so at the expense of turning their backs on the image of God into which we are all created. For without a respectful, loving, and equal commitment to the welfare of the other, the image of God is left concealed.<br />
<br />
I use God language here because those folks who want to command control over the life choices of women have become masters at using the violence of religious words and images to design their kind of a world. It is my contention that this world they seek to create is not at all a reflection of God's reign of peace and justice that brings hopefulness to all and healing without partiality. I have read through the pamphlets folks attempt to hand out to people arriving for care at the Planned Parenthood clinic where I volunteer as an escort. I find their picking and pecking of scripture to be masterful. They attempt to sew together words of love and words of utter condemnation as though love and condemnation belong tightly wrapped together. It is a lie that has a long history among religious folk. Their notion of love, though, is not love at all. For it thrives on punishment, threat, shame, guilt, and the never-ending story that demands that you must have the correct ticket to ride - or to hell with you.<br />
<br />
I find it confounding that those who like to take command of heaven and hell and act as the self-empowered stewards of those domains are only able to do one thing - embody a living hell that they attempt to make the mandatory way all people are to live. When folks play the game of heaven and hell, a hellish life wins the day. Oh, that life is painted as an orderly and controlled way to bring about a world of love, but, unfortunately, hell is the controlling power. When that power controls the day, there will be no creative love - there will be no conversation - there will be no give-and-take - there will be no room for forgiveness - there will be no kindness without limits. There will only be a pride-filled gathering of self-righteous folk who thrive on claiming to have the power to condemn others. What a hell of a place to be. Promises of a reign of peace and love are hung out to dry and die in order to keep the hellishness of fear in power.<br />
<br />
As I was standing on those stairs I thought, 'What would a follower of Jesus be doing here when fear attempts to reign and condemnation seeks to control the day through laws of the state? I think they would listen to those being condemned and lean in to hear every story and hold the hands of the meek and honor the boldness of those who do not fade in the face of threats and stand in awe of those who persist to make shalom reign and resist the hellishness that comes during a time that is rightly labeled - lame duck.<br />
TRRRThe Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-64786199163765543472018-10-30T11:12:00.001-07:002018-10-30T11:12:16.593-07:00The character needed to be a real characterIt is important for all folks to stop asking Will it affect me?' or How will it affect me? as a way of gaging how or if we will stand with and alongside others as we take our place in the ever-present task of making the world/neighborhood/city/country a better place for all. Rather, it would do us well to consider how we will be a part of a life that works and stands and lives for all. That demands that we avail ourselves to those who are not us. It means we do not shy away from people with whom we have no similarity or connection - even those we fear and despise.<br />
<br />
I have been reading some bits of history (rare for me) and listening to podcasts that focus around the character of some of the folks in our country who stood within the circles of the great ones. It is so interesting to hear that they could be buttholes like any of us. Some had their biases. Some lived within lives of privilege. Some were self-consumed and unable to empathize with those unlike them. But then, they were moved to see that which was other than the life they had and wanted - and they saw the worth of those others - the value of their lives as part of the whole of us. They had the ability to live with a vision in which the concept of One Nation - indivisible - was a vision into which they knew they had to move their lives. There could not be an us and a them if we were to be this people who some folks called blessed. It is important to note that differences may exist and they must exist if we are to continue to grow and be transformed - blessed.<br />
<br />
Now, for me, being blessed is not magical term. It is not a greeting or a send off. It is a character. So for me, blessed is not a religious term. It is a term full of vision. It is the shape of what is possible when people of character actualized the fullness of a humanity that leans into the well-being of all - and those people of character also understand the importance of <u style="font-style: italic;">all</u>. A blessed community or a blessed country or a blessed family is one in which walls and borders and well-drawn lines are dropped so as to allow the blessed to side with those folks who may be unknown - strangers - outsiders. A community of character is made up of a community of characters - <u>odd balls</u> - who will become available to others without making their every move and decision on the basis of how their actions will benefit them first. We are blessed - we are characters - when there are needs and we step in to fill them - without a payback. We are blessed - we are characters - who see how others <i>unlike us</i> are still a part of a greater us. We are blessed - we are characters - who step into and expect to step through our fears no matter how those fears are made to sound and look as though they are a real threat. We are blessed - we are characters - who let go of the need to defeat the other but wonder about the ways we can be a reconciling power with them.<br />
<br />
I wonder what it would be like to live in the middle of a community of characters. As All Saints Day approaches, I was thinking of Bishop Oscar Romero. Had he not become a real character and simply stood by and with the powers of the day, he would have never seen the majority of people in El Salvador who were poor - who would become his teachers - who would inspire his day-to-day actions and enrich him with a vision for life rather than coins put in the coffer of the cathedral. Characters cannot be erased - though some folks find it necessary to try and do just that. Characters - the blessed - persistently open doors and reach across lines and risk touching and standing alongside the likes of them and those - and then, quite miraculously, their character changes - it is transformed - they expand how they characterized themselves. They now become a part of a universal character - a blessed mess of folk - who no longer go to war with that which they fear but are able to give their lives for the well-being of those they fear so that a new creation will begin to be exposed right in the middle of all the stuff we may consider the shit-of-the-day.<br />
<br />
How will we become the characters that disrupt the flow of the day? How will we bless the day by being people who walk within the vision of life that humbles itself and therefore opens us up to be those strange characters who welcome the world of other characters we have yet to experience? So, look for characters - look for the odd-balls who seem to be willing to give life to others without any reward - look for lost souls who may be the ones who surprise us by helping us build and shape and give life to us. Ah, blessed are you.<br />
TRRRThe Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-35460959229413539832018-10-21T10:51:00.003-07:002018-10-21T10:51:30.527-07:00Beware: we often make the monsters that try to devour usSo, I must admit, I write in my books - extensively. I know it is not right on so many levels - but I cannot help myself. Don't worry, if you lend me one of your books I will not write in the margins or underline stuff along the way. That would just be wrong. Since I have turned to Kindle for some of my reading, there is no fear of me marking things up - no margin notes - no comments - no political or biblical or theological points and counter-points. I go back into those books I mark up in order to find quotes that disturb and those that inspire. My book reading memory is one that places points of interest on the page. So if I remember that there was a really inspiring or troubling piece in a book, I usually am able to flip through the pages looking for - let's say - something on the bottom of a page on the right. It doesn't always work.<br />
<br />
I also take notes as I read. This is especially the case if I know that I will be using the material as an important <i>go to</i> on certain subjects. Most often it is when I think a theological point or a biblical reference used in a unique way will help me deal with something in the social, cultural, or political world around me.<br />
<br />
So, here's what happened today. I was listening to several people discuss the Cruz/O'Rourke senatorial race in Texas. One of the people on the panel referenced the Trumpian insults thrown at Cruz during the 2016 presidential election. They were awful - remember? Trump's personal attacks on appearances and rumors and caricatures were called out by Cruz as being disgusting and cheap and unfit for someone running for president. In that day, these two republican candidates looked as though there would never be any reason for them to entertain the other's company - let alone share the same stage - ever. But, then we are in a new election cycle and it appears as though Cruz is not a sure bet to remain as a senator from Texas. Even the thought of him winning by a slim margin has created a degree of fear and trembling from the Cruz campaign and that of the national Republican party. All that anxiety over a possible defeat is quite normal. Many politicians on both sides are going through some of that in these day prior to the midterm elections.<br />
<br />
Yet, in the midst of this situation of fear and trembling, there has been an erasure of differences. It has been happening ever since the 2016 election of President Trump. The bitter, biting warfare between Trump and Cruz that raged as they both sought out the office of the President, has been put aside. No reconciliation. No repentance. No agreement on truthfulness. Their differences have been put aside as their mutual desire for political self gain can be reached - it is as simple as that. As one writer noticed, their desire has <i>reached a crisis stage</i>. Now, here is the quote that has ignited my rant today: <i><b>distinctions are blurred - human identities melt together - and, monsters appear.</b></i> When that happens (and it happens on all sides of our culture/politics/religions) the powers that cluster together and form their bonds do so in order to preside over a sacrifice - a lynching - a way to win the day and make sure it is done at any cost. Therefore, values fall to the side - decency descends into the abyss - hope is abandoned for the order of the day even when it is fueled by fear. Rather than look to our better angels, we settle for our common demons that are able to infect us so that we do not seek justice, honor truthfulness, and work for the well-being of all.<br />
<br />
When monsters appear, the least among us are devoured. Those of wealth and influence and power need not fear - monsters align with such people - monsters are controlled by such people - monsters give birth to such people - monsters are the incarnation of such people who must devour others in order to keep themselves alive and well.<br />
<br />
In an anxious time when the voices of threat and humiliation and degradation and untruth become the pattern of the day, there are always signs of hopefulness. There are people who step up and laugh at the monsters. There are those who point out that the monsters have no clothes. There are those who insist on truth-telling even when monsters call them lies. There are people who speak and act <i>off-script </i>so that monstrous acts are exposed. There are people whose vulnerability gives a witness to the life where monsters have no power. Remember, monsters do not exist - unless we let them. That is why a parent will accompany a child and open the closet door or check under the bed or go into the dark basement. Monsters need darkness to be able to get away with murder. Unfortunately, monsters often create the darkness that helps them thrive. Yet, I rant.<br />
TRRRThe Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-48997374479067683432018-10-20T12:25:00.001-07:002018-10-20T12:25:07.531-07:00The Lynch Mob always starts with Voices before ActionsIf a group of people act out in non-violent ways, is that group a <u><i>mob</i></u>? I tend to associate a <i style="text-decoration: underline;">mob</i> with stuff getting broken - damaged - destroyed. When I think of a <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u>, I think of a group that whips up chaos. This is not the chaos that often accompanies change or the creation of something new. The chaos that comes out of acts of creativity is temporary because it is moving into something new - a new creation of sorts. Just think of a new team that has just come together to play ball together. At first, no matter how good the players are, there will be some chaos until all the variously gifted players engage in a give-and-take that helps produce a unit that can and does work together. We will begin to see a sense of order or, better yet, relationships that honor the others in a respectable manner.<br />
<br />
A <u><i>mob</i></u> whips up the kind of chaos that attempts to rule by force - force directed at others - forced used for ones own well being - force that will try to destroy that which is different or that which simply appears different. The <u><i>mob</i></u> will turn to violence in order to have the world be as they would like it to be. The violence will be directed toward <i>those </i>and <i>them</i> - outsiders. Now it may appear that I am merely talking about physical violence that is perpetrated against the other. Not. The language of the <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> seeks to destroy or harm or discount the life of the other - in some way. I immediately thought of the <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> that yelled out 'crucify him' before anyone even picked up the spikes and the cross beam for the lynching of Jesus. Eventually, a <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> uses words to create an atmosphere within a group that is able to move the <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> to acts of violence that bring their words to life.<br />
<br />
When I think of a <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> taking shape, my anxiety level increases. It is so easy to sense that something is about to happen and it is not a celebration of life. Rather, the <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> will not and cannot coexist with the life of others - those who are different from the direction they want to go. There is no ability to call for acts of reconciliation. Even dialogue, that may be the gift needed to create mutual respect, is taken off the table. We are left with curses - threats - insults - ridicule - foul language. Having said all this, there is still no physical violence that is associated with a <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u>. But just wait. There can be a deliberate act of violence - something small. There can be an act of mistaken identity. There can be a word - a label - a trigger that is pulled. Then, the <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> morphs into that which we know as a classic picture of how a <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> begins to rule the moment. We all know some of those characteristics - they are constructed from fear and envy and desire that is willing to turn the moment into warring madness.<br />
<br />
As of late, I have been shaken to a greater degree by the language of our President. He looked at the many women and men who protested around the hearings of now Justice Kavanaugh. He has freely used the word <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> to describe them. But not just that. He now uses <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> to describe those people who may hold a contrary view to his side. He even demonizes the media as the ones who stoke the fire of this <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> to which he refers There are so many other ways to address or describe those who do not go along with our choices and opinions. To call them a <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> is to pull back the hammer of a gun and make it easier for someone to pull the trigger and fire. He is setting the stage for violence to be nurtured and more accessible. It is a quite, brilliant move. The violence of those who are not included in his branding of a <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> will be considered a violence that is righteous and good and a saving power. Saving America from <i>those</i> not like us becomes a tribal cry for a limited view of reality. In the past few weeks we have moved away from <i>those </i>people being people of a different race or culture or religion or gender to also include <i>those </i> people who do not go along with his plans. There have been many historical examples of such verbal condemnations that have led to a variety of lynch <u style="font-style: italic;">mobs</u> allowed to express their violence as they please.<br />
<br />
Along the way, we must remember that there really are <u style="font-style: italic;">mobs</u> that form and know no other way to be involved with the society than to take parts in acts of violence. When the President calls one group a <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> and he is citing their peaceful protests as examples of <u style="font-style: italic;">mob</u> behavior, it takes very little to tie the acts of violence of a group like Antifa to the many and massive expressions of peaceable protests. That is disturbing. I have heard people say that the protests against this Trump era are fueled and backed by acts of violence - even if it is not backed by facts. With great awe and respect, I look to the teens of Parkland and the women of the Women's March and the people who raised their voices around the Supreme Court nomination. I also know of groups forming who intend to speak out and act out within non-violent protest in the upcoming months. If those voices allow themselves to become full of nothing but hate and violence-filled rhetoric, we must be willing to call them out and press for acts of nonviolence, truthfulness, and reconciliation. But I rant.<br />
TRRRThe Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-37613421166240782662018-08-22T11:30:00.000-07:002018-08-22T11:30:08.558-07:00Cheap phrases and Quotes - they sell nothing new Today was a day for noticing religious bumper stickers. That usually means Christian bumper stickers. I could become very cynical here - but I won't. Instead, I want to play with images and words and simply ask, <i>what do you mean when you say that? </i>Today's bumper sticker was actually the frame around a license plate. It is a well known quote even for folks who are not religious. In fact, if you live in Ohio, it has been the motto of our state since 1959. <u style="font-style: italic;">With God - All things are possible</u>. I will probably try to say three things here - but when I start ranting, I'm not promising anything.<br />
<br />
First of all, let's look at it like this. This can mean <u style="font-style: italic;">all things</u> - just as it says. That means it includes the corruption in government - the violence in our lives - the racism - the hatred - the housing that is built to exclude - crooked politicians - unkind remarks - inequality - this and that and then some more. Yep, with God, all things are possible. It is as though when we say we believe in God or say we have God in our lives, that which is possible is endless. Sounds good. Usually it is a way religious folks try to tell others that if they would believe in God - their lives would be better - because all things are possible. That simple motto or that biblical verse is of no moral worth - it is weightless - it permits anything - it encourages nothing of benefit to the world - it simply says everything is possible. So, why even say it - why use it - why hang onto it as though it is the way to make your or my day any better. It is like saying: With God, All things are status quo...but could be better or even worse.<br />
<br />
Another look at this well quoted verse points us in the direction of the weightless lie associated with prosperity religious/secular thinking. <i>With God - All things are possible</i> becomes the beacon for those who want people to follow their preaching and teaching - so that the preachers can become prosperous. It is so easy to think that someone who has become prosperous has had that happen because they believe in God. How else could that ass have changed - right? How many stories by well-worded preachers have been used to promise wealth and a good life? They are able to convince folks that the mantra - if often spoken - will change their lives. On another note, it also has a wonderful way of convincing people who get shit on every day - or find themselves at the end of a rope - that they can endure it. God will open up possibilities for you. Yet, most often, the people who are shit on in our society, rarely experience those possibilities. God becomes a type of magician - a power that can change what is, so as to give us what we want, or maybe, what we think we deserve - maybe more than others.<br />
<br />
To be quite honest with you, I do not think this motto/verse has a thing to do with God giving us what we want or hope to have or expect will make things better. What if we are really being invited to look a bit deeper? What if this use of God and this mention of possibilities begins with the notion that there is a life in which peace prevails - race prevents us from going color-blind - justice and mercy rain down on all people without partiality - hope transforms us - forgiveness and reconciliation make up a stream that takes folks into a new world? To be quite truthful, all the stuff I just wrote down is a bunch of wishful thinking - foolish thinking - naivete to the max. Hmmm. Thinking like this is as easily dismissed as hearing John Lennon sing 'Imagine.'<br />
<br />
But - and please pause with me - what if <i>With God - All things are possible</i> means that all the things within the Reign of God - the Kingdom of God - the Kingdom of Heaven - the coming of the Messiah (whatever you call it), will come among us only as we let go of our ways of trying to bring it all about - which is usually by warfare - coercion - self consuming actions and policies - threats - control of others. Even though I don't have to write sermons anymore, I find that I count on the stories of the great Prophets and Jesus and any number of saint-like folks to lead me into that which is possible - The Peaceable Reign - or as MLK called it: The Beloved Community.<br />
<br />
With the power of God - the power to dismantle the violence of the world's ways that are all around us (and including us) - I have been coming to the awareness that all things within the vision of God's Reign are possible. They don't just come - they become among us. That is the launching pad for the life that is able to turn into that possibility - no matter what the cost may be. Boom - that's the part that we usually kiss goodbye. We are each invited into the impossible of God's reign of justice and peace and endless healing and wholeness. It becomes possible - all of it - as we enter it and become a part of it - as we are able to take ourselves out of the cycle of death that is so much of our lives - as we side with those who seem to be push out of every side - even if we begin the adventure for mere moments at a time. Even more, if you are a coward like I am - a Peter who would rather blend into the crowd rather than stand within the vision of a new creation - then we need to lean into the lives of those who take the risk to walk into that which is called impossible so that we can begin to wander within God's expanding possibility for a new life. Folks learn about possibilities when they see them moving from the realm of impossibilities into the lives of ordinary folk taking the risk to be trampled but also taking the risk to build something in the image of God's creativity.<br />
TRRR<br />
<br />
The Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-81826202704334042202018-08-16T11:53:00.002-07:002018-08-16T11:53:48.323-07:00The Violence of Heaven and HellViolence is evil. It is always a part of the evil complex that is willing to deny the worth of the other or to consider one person to be worth more than others. One of the most evil - let's say devilish - forms of violence is when the wolf dresses up as a sheep - in order to consume sheep not be one of them. Why is it that the most vile form of violence has a history of being perpetrated by the institutions so many call sacred - blessed - holy? It could be that they have the best collection of weapons to use on ordinary people. I will call it the <i style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;">violence of heaven and hell</i>. It is the violence of a system that seeks the welfare of the institution - the stability of those in power - the positions of privilege.<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
How many priests have held over the lives of the innocent ones they have consumed the notion of heaven and hell? It happens in many and various ways. It is a part of how much of Christianity has operated. It is part of how the Church has been able to prosper and grow. It is how the truthfulness of a gracious and loving God is thrown away for a domain of violence that allows some to prosper and others to be abused. Unfortunately, this violence works. It always has. The power of evil comes dressed in words and actions that have been labeled as holy but really are tools to allow violence to disregard, dismantle, and desecrate the true holiness that comes as one is a living, breathing human being - made in the image of God. Once again we are seeing in PA., how easy it is for the Church to be vigilante at destroying the image of God in young people. They have become masters of betrayal. They have let the robes and pectoral crosses and head-coverings of religious institutions mean more to them than the lambs - the innocent - the blessed one. Ah, but that is how violence works best - isn't it? It comes disguised and it spins a story that works like hell to sound as though it stands with the innocent. Yet, it is life stealing - the fox always views others as food for its dinner table. Therefore, the master of religious violence work like hell to make life a living hell for those they need to devour to stay alive.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I wonder if the real imprimatur (mark of approval) of the Roman Catholic Church is the mark that let's those in power know how to create victims for the welfare of the institution. Just as the Basilica in Rome was constructed with the threat of the violence of heaven and hell, so too does it seem to be able to sustain itself within walls of violence that understand how to <i><u>abuse</u></i> victims, but also, it know how to <u><i>use</i></u> the threat of condemnation to hell or the reward of heaven to subvert grace and love and nonviolence and peace. The hierarchy knows what is to be announced - the grace and love of God for all without condition. And yet, the hierarchy also knows what wins the world - what will keep power in place as it always has been and always hopes it will be. It does this by using simple, manipulative, sincere sounding words that actually ignite violence and control. Therefore, the system of violence is maintained and other words - words of truthfulness and hopefulness and graciousness and forgiveness are held off and doled out only when the institution sees fit to do that. This action - this doling out - this holy action - this demonic action - this wolf in sheep's clothing action - this blasphemy, is violent to its core. It may be clothed in words of love and protection and honor and purity and discipline but it exists outside the bounds of love - it does not protect it perverts - it has no honor it only shames - its purity is pure evil and its discipline leads the innocent to a death march while the institution thrives.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Now this may sound anti-Roman Catholic. Well, the ongoing violence of that church body did toss me off my chair as this new episode in PA fell in line with a long line (both revealed and still hidden) of how religious folk are too often some of the most violent people in the world. That was a bit too strong, sorry. Religious folks are just as violent as others. But we, have these weapons of mass destruction - heaven and hell. The way they are used is not to inspire the best of our humanity. They are used to make sure that the image of God that attempts to nurture new life in us is halted - twisted - and weaponized. It is so important that we all - all religious folk - take a long look at how we use the words and images of our faith to commit violence against others. Some may say we must defend ourselves against the powers of evil in the world. But in our language of condemnation and reward, we become, quite quickly and quite masterfully, a part of the violence of heaven and hell that promises to crucify any innocents that long to live into the image of God.</div>
<div>
TRRR</div>
The Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-70267218808192937042018-08-04T10:08:00.003-07:002018-08-04T10:08:42.809-07:00Reach up - Grab hold - Now is always a good timeI find that it is easy to simply coast. That can be taken in a number of ways. I tend to mean it as a way to live, as in, I can just coast until this passes - or - not much I can do, so I will coast for now - or - this is too big, what can I possibly do.<u> Coasting is easy</u>. It is both easy to do and - it is easy to justify. When I was doing my poll on the last presidential election, over 50% of the riders said they were not going to vote - what will one vote mean? So many folks chose to simply coast - let others do the work - the thinking - the acting.<br />
<br />
Today as I was going about my usual daily routine, I saw a bunch of litter on the road in our neighborhood. It looked like shit. Some of the stuff has been there for some time. In fact, I had been coasting by some of it so much I should have been taking daily photos to show how it was deteriorating. Instead I kept walking. Months ago when my daily walking schedule was early in the morning I was inspired to carry a bag to pick up the trash. I saw a friend doing it every morning and thought - I can do that. I did - for awhile. But the trash never stopped. Duh, trash does not stop - it keeps coming. So why did I stop? In some way I was giving in to the notion that I cannot solve this issue and if other are not picking up stuff - just coasting - I should probably just coast and do other things.<br />
<br />
This notion of coasting - getting away with doing nothing or little - continues to be biting me on the ass. That's another way of saying - nudging me - making me more and more aware of something other than the stuff I want to do just for me - while I coast through my life. Today, in the last hour, there have been a handful of moments when I could have changed the day - stopped coasting - gotten up off my butt and made a difference. In several of those moments, it turned out to be nothing grand. I even got a refusal when I stepped-in to offer a hand. That's fine. At least the hand was there. And, to be quite frank, nothing I did for someone else made me lose anything. Helping someone doesn't mean I give up or lose anything. In fact, I'm finding it lifts up everyone.<br />
<br />
I'm going to be sharing some words as to why my wife and I took on the task of organizing and then hosting a reception/fundraiser for Richard Cordray for Governor of Ohio. I can be such an introvert at times I don't even raise my hand to say something. But, there can be no coasting through the political arena of today. Though it is too simplistic to paint things red or blue, this does not mean that we simply let things fall to one side or the other. That is coasting. And just like bending over to pick up trash, we can put out a little energy and be engaged in what seems to be an impossible adventure - an election.<br />
<br />
Here's is the center piece to my brief remarks I will be making. MLK used this powerful and poetic vision:<i> the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. </i>What an image of hopefulness. But then, a writer made this comment about that remark. <span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica;">He </span><span style="-webkit-font-kerning: none; -webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica;">writes: <i>It carries the risk of magical thinking</i>. </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica;">Then he adds that </span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica;">some may come to think - that there is no reason to work for justice - </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">if the arc inevitably bends toward justice. I know that someone else has written that the arc bends with the weight of those whose lives stand on that arc. My thought was - wow, it can take quite a bit of </span>energy<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;"> and extroversion to </span>climb up onto that arc - visible - exposed - almost attention grabbing. So, my thought was a bit different. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">That arc - that arc that bends toward justice - is a vision of the end that breaks into this moment at hand. I'm not going to bring about the end - but - but, I am able - right here and now - to reach up and grab hold of the arc and take part in the energy that is available for ordinary people to take part in the future - on even the smallest scale. I can do something - I can be someone - that is a part of the healing of the universe - the well-being of all things - the mercy that comes when justice is available to all. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica;">I know I choose to coast quite often. I also know that I have the ability to step off into the dynamics of the day that most folks would say are best left to others to handle. Then again, when I choose to coast - stay to myself - let others deal with it - the vision of justice for all continues - and yet, I'm missing out on the vibrancy of its life right now. Even if that means, reaching up and grabbing hold of that arc gets my hand slapped or my life beaten or my opinions shouted down, at least, for a moment in time, the fullness of a future of hope and justice and peace and mercy is present. In those moments, the story I am writing with my life is not <i>all about me.</i> I also know that when I see people around me living in the moment with their hands wrapped around that arc - they inspire me - they encourage me - they help me do the bowing and bending that takes into consideration the well being of others that takes place when each of us reaches up and grabs hold - even for just one small moment in time. </span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;">TRRR</span></div>
<br />
<br />The Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-8129361374555846102018-07-08T18:17:00.000-07:002018-07-08T18:17:20.684-07:00To live within promise - we cannot be alt-f(right) or christian f(right)Ah, I have started referring to those who see themselves as the white saviors of the land by tweaking some words they often use. Even though a one one-time devotee to the white supremacy movement has strongly urged people to never use the alternative labels for white supremacy - alas I found a way to corrupt their labeling preference. He said that all the labels like alt-right and nativists - for example - are labels white supremacist have put out there to soften what they are. They want us to use their words to cover up who they are: white supremacists.<br />
<br />
After he laid out his history in and then his movement away from white supremacy thought and life, I considered putting his suggestion into my working vocabulary. So I have been using white supremacist much more. But now, I found my way to confront the beast of white supremacy and their racist antics by pointing out the power that keeps it alive. Therefore, my substitutes for white supremacy will be <i>the alt-f(right)</i>. A similar change will work well for the religious folk who have an interesting way of making their faith white, exclusive, judgmental, and accusatory: <i>the christian r(fright). The power of fear is great - </i>but it is not the final word (read the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures).<br />
<i><br /></i>
The more I listen to people in both <i>f(right) </i>groups (yet, often their devotees overlap one another), I hear the voice of fear and then the anger that fear generates and then the threats that anger ignites and then the threats that are meant to exclude and demean and objectify. The <i>christian f(right)</i> has become a master of taking the words of love and grace and endless forgiveness and using them in a conditional manner. In that way, fear rather than love, becomes their gift to the world - but it is a nasty and corrupt gift. It is wrapped well in words of love - but, please note, whenever love is forced to flow through filters like <i>if you... </i>or <i>when you... </i>or <i>unless you... </i>their use of love may be the love they use to control their own little world - but it is not the love that is to be the image of our lives to which the Scriptures give witness.<br />
<br />
The<i> alt-f(right) </i>masterfully tells us how 'those other folks' are making it impossible for us - to be us. And yet, with all their <i>alt-f(right)</i> words and action they are indeed being just who they are - fright-full racists who have never learned to see the world through more lenses than the one that was given to them at birth. Therefore, a story line outside their polaroid snapshot of only those who were able to fit into their family picture, is a foreign story and therefore a story to be ignored. But, when those other story lines cannot be ignored because they are filled with the lives of neighbors and fellow citizens and those longing to a part of the melting pot of this country, the alt-f(right) freaks out. They gnash their teeth. They try to tell us and show us how strong they are but their fear-filled emperor has not clothes.<br />
<br />
The <i>alt-f(right) </i>and the <i>christian f(right)</i> are unable to see the coming of that peaceable reign of life that is referred to as the Holy City coming down to earth in John's apocalypse. They are blind to the creativity of God who takes humanity - the whole spectrum of folks who often do not even look or act as though we are one people - and they attempt to demonize those who are created in the image of God's Peaceable Reign - but not <u><i>their image</i></u>. The <i>f(right) </i>must be nurtured into a life in which we need not fear - we need to touch and love and welcome and listen and share and offer up out lives so that the <i><u>other</u></i> may live in peace with us - as one of us. To resist fear we must be present with open arms. That is not easy - that has even proven to be dangerous - that can be life-changing for all sides.<br />
<br />
It is not easy to resist a world built by those who can only hear and live by stories from the far <i>f(right)</i>. The risk can be great. In addition, it may even mean confronting those who claim to be the opposite of the devotees of the world of <i>f(right).</i> Yet within their multicultural - open arms posture - and rants (like mine) they still find that <i>f(right) </i>finds a way into our living and talking and condemning.<br />
<br />
To resist the <i>f(right) </i>that longs to rule all of us - takes work. It is work that demands our attention every day - listening again and again - saying yes and saying no - offering something new when we are living as people content with what has been. I do not want our country to be run by people who cannot see beyond their skin color or ethnic background or cultural patterns or the way they think it has always been (which is usually a non truth). That, takes work. I find it also means we live within the realm of promise not one of control. Damn, that's hard. Yet we are meant to put our whole humanity into it so that we will become (all of us) truly human. For many of us, it is almost impossible to do that - yet we must.<br />
TRRRThe Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-55993564185010235432018-07-05T17:05:00.003-07:002018-07-05T17:05:50.577-07:00Facing the faces we have learned are right and good - and racistIs the church really a people who bring new life to the world? Maybe I need to ask if your congregation is a gathering of people who bring new life to the world? Then again maybe I need to look in the mirror and ask if I am a part of the church - of our humanity -the brings new life to the world?<br />
<br />
Even in retirement - and more so when I served as a pastor in a parish setting - it seems as though we are too often involved in the sacred exercise of keeping things as they are. Obviously that is not true. Many folks will point out how much the church has done to change the world. Then again, just like the steamboat that keeps on rollin, the character of our society keeps on the path of keeping on the path of what has been - and with that - following the path of how it can keep on keeping on just as is - that is often the violence of a humanity that wants nothing to do with the peaceable Reign of God - whether religious our secular.<br />
<br />
What is the new life we bring to the world? Is it a uniform and universal stance against racism? Not yet. More and more, it seems as though we speak well of the end of racism yet the church too often fades into the wall when race is brought into a conversation trying to uncover the ongoing game of racism - a game in which we - are the active pieces on the board. I am working my way though Tim Wise's book <i>White Like Me.</i> It is a life story that open up the subtle yet powerful way that we white folks are sucked into a false reality - a reality that closes off the wide wonderful spectrum of the diversity of our humanity. Wise presents an honesty and painful personal history that too many of us white folk try to dismiss - too, too easily.<br />
<br />
When recalling a story of how his very, liberal thinking and living mother - having had too much to drink - said, Goddamn nig... He shut her down. It was a point of painful recognition. When I read it, it made so much sense - painful sense. Let me quote something Wise wrote:<br />
<i>Racism, even if it not your own but merely circulates in the air, changes you: it allows you to think and feel things that make you less than you were meant to be. My mother, by proving her own weakness and exhibiting her own conditioning, taught me that one can never be too carful, can never enjoy the luxury of being too smug of believing oneself so together, so liberal, so down to earth with the cause of liberation that it becomes impossible to be sucked in, to be transformed. </i><br />
<br />
Then he writes; <i>People never hurt others in moments of strength and bravery, or when we're feeling good about ourselves. If we spend all of our time in places such as that, then fighting for social justice would be redundant - we would simply have social justice and be done with it, and we could go swimming, or dancing, or whatever people do. </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Within our diversity - within our world that draws lines between neighborhood - within the places we claim as safe as we point at those that we see as dangerous - within the wonderful way our humanity is expressed in different colors and languages and life experiences, there is one truth that too many of us are afraid to hold onto and not lose our grip: <b><i>we are one</i></b>. But that, that truth, is something we have learned, somehow, is not true. Where in the hell did we get that? Well, we were born into it and we drank its poison even as it was hidden within the love of wonderful family and friends. Today, we must not accept poison or lies. We must be vulnerable people who question. We must be people who know how to bend and bow and not make others into our image - but listen to the story of their humanity that is as human as ours - maybe more so.<br />
<br />
We have come out on the other side of of another Independence Day. We, especially people of faith, need to divest ourselves of the stuff that has given us so much. So that - we will be open to the humanity of those we have been taught - however subtlety - is not like ours. Until then, the same old power of death will lead us - we will draw lines - we will move away - we will talk about them - we will see ourselves as the blessed norm. Yet, the norm has never been blessed. It has always been the power of the beast that the Lamb - through its love - dismantles through sacrificial living.<br />
TRRRThe Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-14983013302014307562018-07-03T10:33:00.003-07:002018-07-03T10:33:49.617-07:00Please, continue to inspire me<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>When we are seduced by fear,</b> by what will come, it is easy to restrict life by closing in our minds - closing in our circles of acquaintances - closing our doors - closing off our hearts - closing our borders, and making up boundaries that we come to trust as the way our lives will be saved. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>When we are seduced by fear</b>, we search for ways to be saved - saved from them - saved from all that is different and unknown - saved from harm - saved from the influences of that which is new or previously beyond our experience and our desires. In all these ways, we are fooled into believing that being saved has to do with keeping life as we want it.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>When we are seduced by fear,</b> we lose the vision of how scripture uses the word <i>saved </i>or <i>save. </i>Fear attempts to twist our minds and hearts into trusting that God <i>saves </i>us from a scary and troubled world - <i>saves</i> us from those powers out there - <i>saves </i>us from the life that is here and now - <i>saves</i> us from a Hell of a place - <i>saves </i>us like fragile figurines that are quite lifeless.</span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">So, <b>when fear attempts to seduce us</b>, we must remember that we are <b><i>saved for a life</i></b> that faces trouble - opens our hearts and minds - risks harms way even when it means stepping out of our safety net to rescue others - greets and protects the alien - sacrifices what is, so as to enter what might be - and even breaks wind at threats of Hell. It is within this kind of a saving adventure that religious lines are able to be crossed and the brutality and bigotry and condemnation that upholds those lines can be exposed for the violence they proclaim and produce. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>When fear attempts to seduce us,</b> we are invited to turn and face the lies that attempt to keep the world around us within the grasp of the many beasts of violence. Such beasts, never want to be seen as beasts. They want to be seen as upright - pure - law abiding - keeping the world safe and sound. In the face of such beasts, we are invited to pull the veil back on such images that attempt to color the world with the lies of self-righteousness. In other words, we are invited to get off our butts and act contrary to any and all laws - norms - society assumptions - and religious mandates that adhere to the violence of the culture. That, for instance, is why the great prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures were great. They uncovered the brutality of the acceptable and that which was considered holy and above reproach. We also saw such action from Jesus as he walked through the living lies of the religious and cultural establishment of his day that were sold on and were selling fear and death rather than saving folks for a boldness of life that is vital to crossing all boundaries and borders and walls in order to being peace - shalom - and wholeness to all people. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>When fear attempts to seduce us,</b> we are invited to, toss off the threats that come from the beasts around us and that live under another rule - another way - another power that promises some kind of salvation - a promise that has never been fulfilled throughout history. The beasts around us are like foxes - able to trick us into their ways - always bringing about violence and death and control and more fear. Yet, I am overcome by the Hen. When the beasts and foxes come dressed up as old-time religion or patriotic warriors in order to have their way - the Hen does not follow. The Hen gathers its young - places them beneath her and shelters them. The Hen will not be seduced. The Hen will not follow. The Hen will protect the future by being a nonviolent witness that sits down - resists - takes the hit and gives the future a picture of life that fears not. That is life that is not undone or seduced by fear. That is life that sees a gift in bending to serve all - no matter what the cost. That is life that needs no affirmation from the structures of the day - for those structures keep everything as is. That Hen life is life that knows that no power - no beast - no well-mannered rule - will bring about the well-being of all. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Fear is attempting to win the day around us even today,</b> and unfortunately, it is so easy to be seduced and to keep things as they have always been. That always seems safe - yet, such safety is a lie that offers comfort supported by endless lies. That is why people are so taken back by the words of visionaries who are able to speak of another way to be truly human. That is why just a few words from a prophetic voice are able to turn our heads and, at times, our hearts and, at times, the whole way we step out into the day at hand. </span></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">I have found that it is not easy for a self-described coward, to speak about the boldness of a Hen and the need to confront lies and speak in words that offer a new world and a new life. Yet, with the voices of discrimination and hate and intolerance and self-absorption and fear attempting to seduce us yet again, I know I must face my fears and become the unending love I claim to hold dear. Today, I was driving along and I was quite overwhelmed with fear. I started to think that my voice should become softer - my presence less noticed - my advocacy for and with the least among us more controlled. I became so upset with myself I wasn’t sure what to do. I felt threatened and disposable. That can be enough to make ordinary folks, like me, into a piece of the beast that thrives on fear and anxiety. It sure had me by the chest while I was driving. But then, I thought of you - and you - and you - and you - and you - and those others I know only by the stories I hear. I need stories of Hens who do not give up - never give in - resist unto death - offer up new life. So, continue to inspire me so that fear will have no power to seduce me.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-kerning: none;">TRRR</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-kerning: none;"><br /></span></div>
The Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-13034147539028177122018-06-26T11:29:00.001-07:002018-06-26T11:29:24.800-07:00Fences - Walls - only create a hell among usEach time I volunteer as a Clinic Escort for Planned Parenthood, I expect I will have at least one person from the other side of the fence - among the protestors - tell me how I will <i>rot in hell</i> or <i>face eternal damnation </i>or have to deal with the <i>wrath of God. </i>These 'kind' words are magnified for those protestors who have found out that I am a retired pastor. It is quite odd that these followers of the Prince of Peace - the Lamb of God - really get off on images of apocalyptic destruction and condemnation. Since I am on the wrong side of the fence in their eyes - I'm dirt - I'm misdirected - I'm a follower of Satan - I'm vile. Words of grace are not for me or any of the women and men who enter into the clinic - unless we abide by the rule of death from the other side of the fence.<br />
<br />
At the fence, if you listen closely, you will hear how the peaceable Reign of God is turned into a way of intolerance - distain - condemnation - promises of death (horrible death). Unfortunately that is how the Scriptures are perceived by many folks today - both young and old. Many have turned the bible into a book that nurtures violence. The violence is always against <i>them.</i> The <i>them </i>are people who must be <i>saved</i>. I suppose I am one of them for I do not follow along with the words and images at the fence. At the fence (as in most other contexts) being <i>saved</i> has nothing to do with being made whole and well and restored into the fullness of our humanity in the image of God. It is a word of threat. So someone is <i>saved </i>if that person goes along with the notion that some get to go to heaven and the rest are to go to hell. Get it right (our way) or to hell with you. Doesn't that just sound comforting? Get it right (our way) or God's wrath will come down on you.<br />
<br />
Some colleagues and I read <i>Compassion or Apocalypse </i>(James Warren) last year. near the end of the book Warren turns to the John's Revelation. That's the last book in the Christian Scriptures and it is a book that is often used to try to scare the Lord Jesus into your life. First of all - just to be clear -the peaceable Reign of God that was embodied in Jesus is not brought about through fear or threat. But in that book, we hear about the kings and rulers and magnates and generals and the rich and powerful and everyone, slave and free running and hiding from - get this - <i>the wrath of the Lamb.</i> The Lamb, he writes is the hero of that last book. The hero is utterly vulnerable. The hero only practices a life of peace and reconciliation. The hero embraces all - without partiality. The hero will be slaughtered for the well-being of any and all. Now, why would one be afraid of a figure who gets nailed. Well, it is one of a judge who judges in favor of us - even when we are on the wrong side of the fence. The <i>Lamb</i> models a new humanity that never abides by the powers of the world and those who really, really want to be able to pass judgment on others - because this judge - the Lamb - refuses - at every instance - to be on the side of the powerful and rich and rulers and all who have a whole world history of bringing about the same old - same old - kind of world without end. As one writer noted, <i>all hell (literally) breaks out around the Lamb - </i>because they cannot abide by such a world - such a vision - such a unending welcome and embrace and forgiveness and healing.<br />
<br />
But at the fence, folks seem to thrive on the battle - the zero sum game - the us and them - death or life - and, of course, their own biblical literalism that is always ready to support their need for control over the lives of others - most often noted as <i>in the name of Jesus</i>. One of the aspects of being a Clinic Escort is that we do not engage those folks at the fence. That would be an endless back and forth that is nothing more than hell itself. Instead, I have witnessed men and women whose focus is on the well-being of those people who have come to the clinic. Yes, some come for abortions, some come for other forms of medical attention, some come for educational materials, some come for contraceptives, but all come from a world that often violently rejects who they are and the lives they choose to live. I have also noticed that our silence - our hospitality toward people coming to the clinic drives those folks at the fence into a fiery frenzy that, in many ways, portrays the hell in which they choose to live and try to pull others.<br />
<br />
We are such a divided society that the fence becomes a metaphor for our differences. These will not go away. No wishful thinking. No prayers. Unless, of course, we stumble upon and enter into a miracle of dialogue that is utterly beyond us - as long as we know only the violence of a life that manufactures division - blame - hatred - and self-righteousness. God is not violent. God is love. We are made in the image of God. How is it that we keep looking for life that is not within that image? Maybe we love our fences and the hell they create more than the open spaces of reconciliation and kindness and sacrifice of life for the welfare of our sisters and brothers and any who may even be our enemies today.<br />
TRRR<br />
<br />The Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-64594518053516859322018-06-20T11:28:00.001-07:002018-06-20T11:28:10.271-07:00They 'did not do what the king of Egypt commanded them'In a prominent place in our kitchen is a big multimedia piece of work done by one of my favorite local artists - Cody Miller. Women and babies are placed throughout the work. It is very colorful painting. With the use of lips and eyes and clothing cut out from magazines along with his brilliant and life giving use of paint, Cody brings to canvas - <i>the great imagination of Scripture</i>. He makes you see Scripture in a new way. His paintings are not the mere repetition of memorized verses for which people rarely know the context and even more rarely have a notion of the context of the story before any storytelling was put to paper. That's the key. He blows open the viewers mind so that we will no longer look with eyes that claim to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Years ago, we had our sanctuary filled with Cody's original works. During that month, I knew that folks were drawing inspiration and vision and hope and joy and a call for justice from simply gazing around the sanctuary. Wonder-filled images. My words were probably secondary - if that high on the list.<br />
<br />
This morning as Karen and I were going over the news from my periodontist and attempting to make some kind of plan to pay for it, I was once again looking at Exodus 1:17 - Cody style. <i>'But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live.' </i>The great and mighty Pharaoh was afraid and troubled. There were all these damn immigrants - slaves - foreigners who had wandered from their home during hard times and made it to Egypt. During their sojourn, they had grown great in numbers and therefore the king put hardships upon them. (Note: there is a long history to rulers who fear those not like them - especially the foreigners. That is why we are told throughout Scripture to take care of the foreigners and travelers and neighbors - do not fear them - care for them. That is what makes us a biblical people.)<br />
<br />
Well, the midwives - the weakest of folk within the domain of powers - <b><i>did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them</i></b>. The text says they did not act as the king demanded because they feared God. No. They honored and were in awe of and understood who is the eternal author of life. So, they simply blew off Pharaoh's pompous policies. They were going to protect those Hebrew boys - the seed for the future - those little ones who caused this ruler, who thought he was the greatest gift to the world, to be anxious and full of fear of that which he did not control - life. Yes, Mr. Pharaoh, Mr. President, Mr. Supreme Leader, Mr./Ms in charge and in power - the midwives will keep out of your deadly control the most vulnerable - the infants - the easiest to destroy. Ha!<br />
<br />
This depiction of Exodus 1:17 also drew me down to the border that the U.S shares with Mexico. Fearful rulers and policy makers need to attack the children - weakest - least - lost. That is who the powers of death like to defeat - that is usually all they are able to defeat - that is a frequent target. For when they are able to do that, they also have gone a great way in killing the soul of a people - a nation - a country - a family - right when they thought they were making a nation great. When those who are fearful and in need of self-aggrandizement and self-security and self-adoration act; they act-out. Like bullies. Like a Pharaoh who cannot see the worth of all people. Therefore, they gather up stories that make themselves seem as though they are doing what is just and right and greatly needed to protect the privileged of the land from the hordes at the boundary.<br />
<br />
Let me switch gears. When we are able to suggest the building of a wall - one that cannot ever be completed as promised or able to do what it has been promised to do - and, when we are being promised a parade of military might so that <i>our </i>supreme leader can stand there and act like they represent his strength and power, then - I would suggest - we have the funds to do that which walks the moral high ground in regard to border and immigration action. But, what in the world is going on with Pharaoh? In the land of the free and the home of the brave, why does Pharaoh fear frail children fleeing lands of violence. We have been and still are a land full of hope. But to the world, we are becoming a land where a vision of hope is becoming one that is led by a person afraid to risk offering a life full of hope to the hopeless. Also, I want to pose the same question to congress. When our supreme leader lacks moral substance, how is it that the hundreds of men and women with leather seats and lifetime salaries and healthcare will not stand up and take over their respective sides of the Capitol and demand that we let the children go and when Pharaoh whines - veto him!<br />
<br />
Just to throw in another rant, I really think it does not help to use the same color to paint a picture. So, when I dislike how a station like FOX will have each of its employees engage the same word to describe a situation - other cable stations like MSNBC and CNN fall into the same ugly language trap. I have been keeping track of how often 'Ripped' has been used - as in children ripped from the arms...' Please expand your vocabulary - give us details, and if you don't have the words, don't fall into the trap of a loss of words. A teacher and mentor used to say that folks who would call everything a f...ing this or an f...ing that - simply had a limited command of adjectives. We can do better to describe the events around us. Paint a better picture.<br />
<br />
Like comics and writers and poets, I find artists relentlessly draw us various images that attempt to pull us out of ourselves so we can be self-critical and self-aware and then see the world around us a bit more clearly - honestly - compassionately. With eyes wide open. Paying for my oral repairs are nothing to the price the soul of our country is taking when we go after the children and families fleeing danger for a land of hope.<br />
TRRR<br />
<br />
<br />The Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4759405762958740194.post-9131550252320054002018-06-16T13:07:00.000-07:002018-06-16T13:07:08.513-07:00It will take me a few days to be able to hear againSo I was clanging my cowbell - mostly in a way that blended the cadence of the Hater on his portable megaphone and whatever music was passing by our spot along the Columbus Pride parade. It would be only partially correct if I said the guy on the megaphone was pissed at me. He had a memory - we were in this same position last year - me on cowbell and him on megaphone. I must say that once he told me not to do what I did last year - in a tone and with language that was pointed and bitter - he then said, 'I like your sunglasses.' I'm a nut in some ways because even when things are quite black and white and tend to be quite obviously so, I am able to see and hear some of the other colors. It is an odd place to be.<br />
<br />
It was my task to drown out the hate talk. For me, plain old hate talk is hard to hear. It becomes a matter of a mission when the hate talk is being ascribed to Scripture - especially when the Scripture being used - is not meant to be hateful. For example, within a few breaths, this self-righteous preacher cursed those walking by and reminded them how much his God hated them for who they were and what they do. Then he read from the creative verses of the prelude to John's gospel. Within moments, the creator of all things - the one who <u style="font-style: italic;">creates</u> with a word - is cast as one who destroys and condemns. Which word was this guy using - Hmmm.<br />
<br />
It sounded a bit like Jeff Sessions quoting the opening verses of Romans 13 and using them as though they give credence to the separation of children from their family because Paul said we should abide by the governing authorities of the day. Yet, Sessions quote doesn't go far enough - as biblical scholar Stephen Colbert noted when he said Sessions should have read Romans 13:9 and 10. There it speaks of love - the law of love - the one law we are to abide by - love of neighbor. It will be those verses that instruct us to follow that new command - to love - over any laws in any place and time. THOSE verses show the fulfillment of the law of love.<br />
<br />
But, let me not digress, while I was a clanging cowbell trying to tame a clanging cymbal of hate and - in my understanding of the good news of the Reign of God presented in Scripture - silence a bit of biblical literalism that demeans scripture and tries to create a life that can be shoved on folks, the woman next to me kept telling me to listen to what he was reading. I looked at her and in one of my very few words of the day said, 'I know those words quite well already - that's why I'm here playing this cowbell.' Our band of ragtag bells, horns, toy xylophones, kazoos, and one nice drum corp drum were on site to attempt to put a lid on the words of hate that were intended to intensify the words of condemnation and biblical confusion that was printed on their many signs.<br />
<br />
I've walked in the Parade in years past - with a cadre of ELCA congregations. The haters who find it necessary to come to Pride to harp on their vision of the good, the bad, and the ugly have a knack of simply making everything ugly. And yet, in a crowd of 500,000 their voice is but a drop in the bucket - we must remember that. Yet, it is a drop that too many of us find acceptable - or - we simply say nothing - we let it go on without offering another word. These folks cannot be simply dismissed. We must speak a different word - I will call it the Good News of the Reign of God - sound familiar? I will also call it the words of peace that come from other faiths and the voices of atheists whose arms are dedicated to being open wide rather than ready for a fight against all that differ from us. The haters do not think they are haters. In fact, a few of the folks I did talk with were just like me - committed. Yet, we are committed to a different reality - a different vision - a different way of walking in and being part of the way of endless love for neighbor, any neighbor.<br />
<br />
One of the men within the haters group who was trying to encourage the preacher, came at me with the claim that I was afraid of what his colleague was saying. He then went into a bit about first amendment rights - why was I not honoring their right to speak. Without getting into it, I simply said, 'I'm interpreting his words into cowbell.' That was not appreciated. Thing is, they can rant all they want. But when they do it in the public square and attempt to use their words to batter and beat down and demean and dump a vision of life on others not wanting their vision, I suppose our band can play along with them just as freely. It is unfortunate that those folks who got all dressed up in their cross baseball hats and red, hate shirts have to hear this kind of biblical interpretation in their own churches, and yet it is shameful that they bring it out onto the street to bash others. I have never witnessed them convert a person at Pride to their vision. I don't think they are there to convert nor do they have the ability. Many of those in the parade are free thinkers and would never by into such violent speech. Image a group of Pride folk going to their church and hearing about a love of God that is ready to condemn. I would think those folk would be quick to leave.<br />
<br />
There are so many different people who take part in the Pride Parade. Even as I look at and walk with and talk with so many folks, I really don't get some of their actions or words. Yet, I will be their ally and march with them for I have seen the many ways people have been saved by the work of the GLBTQ community - in the church and on the outside of it. I know, you may have a knee-jerk reaction to my use of the word <i>saved - </i>especially if <i>saved</i> simply has to do with getting to heaven. So hear in that word - healed, made whole, welcomed and nurtured into life that knows no end - love. I find that such a community as this has <i>saved </i>me - made me whole - helped me love more than the limits I tend to put on love - given me breath for another day - turned me from being controlling to jumping into a world of creativity and hopefulness. Clang - Clang.<br />
TRRRThe Right Reverend Ranthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04395588044664388969noreply@blogger.com0