Renewal Leave

I’ll be riding a bicycle across the USA this summer, which means I’ll not be posting to my blog (wouldn’t make sense to post “No Weekends Off” when I’m taking the whole summer off!).

Anyway, I will be blogging about my journey on Pedaling to Stop Traffic with YouTube clips as well.  Follow me on this adventure if you will.  Thanks to all my readers and supporters!

Rabbits, Pens and Grace

You’ve heard the phrase, “multiplying like rabbits,” which attests to the prolific way in which rabbits reproduce their own kind.  I have noticed the same thing with ball point pens.  There is no shortage around my house.  While there never seems to be one at hand when I need to make a note, I need look no further than the desk in the den, the kitchen counter, or table, to find half-a-dozen pens of various species.  There are promotional pens from businesses, churches, and schools.  There are pens of different girths, lengths and colors.  There are cheap pens that don’t write so well, and fancy wooden pens, skillfully turned on someone’s lathe.  We have enough, indeed, seventy times seven more than enough, pens to last us our lifetime of use.

And so it is with grace.  Grace is a concept that is often difficult to grasp.  People say grace at meal times.  Dancers show astonishing grace as they twirl and dip.  Some women are named Grace.  British royalty are often addressed as "Your grace."  But grace, as a religious term, means more than that.  Grace means love given without strings attached – love without conditions.  This is the way God loves.

At least that’s what the apostle Paul says in his first letter to the church in Corinth, “love does not insist on its own way.”  At least that’s the way Jesus seemed to love everyone he encountered.  Even as he hung on the cross he is reported to have said, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”  To the very end of his life Jesus loved the world unconditionally. 

Grace is a word that Christians use to describe that kind of unconditional love.  That means there is enough, and even more than enough, love in the heart of God to love everyone, even those we find difficult to love, who seem mean, unloveable, even wicked.  Like the pens that multiply in my house, there seems no end to the love of God.  And like the diversity of pens that proliferate under my very nose, God meets each one of us as we are, where we are, with exactly the grace we need. 

There is a pen of grace which has your name on it.  But you have to pick it up in order to write your story.  I can’t wait to see how your life in grace turns out.        

Do You REALLY Need It Yesterday?

I was thinking about the phenomena which most of us experience as we grow older concerning the relative speed of time.  As we age time seems to go faster.  Given the rapid speed of change in our culture these days, the perception of time’s speed is accentuated.  I marvel at the changes that today’s nonagenarians have witnessed and wonder how they maintain a grip on life.  Changes in technology, communications, and media in the past decade alone are staggering.  How does one keep up? 

Which begs the question:  Does one have to?  Keep up, I mean.  Do we have to try to keep going at the speed of our culture or is there an alternative?  I remember a trip I made to Brazil several years ago and my tour guide’s description of the relative sense of time experienced in the different regions of the country.  He mentioned Carioca time, a more relaxed sense of schedules lived out by the citizens of Rio as compared to their more driven counterparts further south. 

Even in my home state of North Carolina there is a different approach to time between those who live in cities and those in the country.  In Charlotte you might hear, “Time is money,” while in some remote corner of the mountains “There’s always time for fishing,” may be a more common sentiment.

I’d like to propose that one need not feel pressed by those around us to keep up with their pace.  In Judeo-Christian circles we have a tradition of Sabbath which engages us not only to slow down but to stop what we’re doing altogether for a day, and if, for a day, why not for moments in every other day?  Who needs to go at the speed of light?  Why not choose the speed of life, which I submit is slow enough to smell the roses along the way?

It takes great concentration and discipline to not be caught up in the current of culture.  And to go in the opposite direction may require mutual support from a community that is willing to be counter-cultural along with us.  I think there is more life to be gained from slowing down, lingering over coffee, taking a leisurely stroll through the neighborhood, than from the frantic rush in which we often get caught up. 

Do we really need it yesterday?  

Human Trafficking

A man claiming to be Abubakar Shekau, leader of a militant Islamist group, issued a statement this past week that he plans to sell the school girls that his band of abducted recently in Nigeria.  Whether sold, or kept in bondage, the fate of these girls is a nightmare which is likely to result in sexual slavery to those who hold them in chains. 

According the U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2010, the number of adults and children currently in forced labor, bonded labor and forced prostitution is 12.3 million. Worldwide, 1.8 per 1,000 persons is a victim of human trafficking, increasing to 3 persons per 1,000 in Asia and the Pacific. Sixty-two countries have yet to convict a trafficker under the U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, and 104 countries have yet to establish laws or regulations regarding human trafficking. (Fact Sheet)

Did you know that the Super Bowl is the highest money-making weekend of the year for those who profit from human trafficking?  As football fans descend on host cities, many of them will also be going online on their computers, or making phone calls, to place an order - an order for a human being.  An order for a child made in God’s image.  They may order someone Caucasian, or African, or Asian, or Hispanic.  They may choose any gender and almost any age, most likely very young.  And they will pay for it with cash or a credit card.  And I was naïve enough to think that slavery ended with the Civil War.  No, those who profit from slavery have just become more sophisticated about how they ply their trade.

And lest we think this is a problem for Third World nations or big cities, only, my sister recently told me about an incident in a small town in western North Carolina last month.  Modern day slavery is happening right under our noses.

This summer I will be riding a bicycle across the United States.  I treasure the freedom I have to take on such an adventure, and I ache for those who have been denied their freedom to flourish, to do meaningful work, to have the leisure to play.  Even more, my heart breaks for those who are oppressed and forced into demeaning sexual exploitation.  So, as I ride I will be hoping to raise awareness and funds to help put a stop to human trafficking, or at least to put a pinch in this criminal economy which is second only to trafficking in drugs. 

To read a bit more and to donate, click here --- Pedaling to Stop Traffic. 

Body and Blood

How does one explain what Christians do with bread and wine?  How would I explain what’s going on to a non-believer, especially when she hears the language, “This is my body, broken for you,” or “This is my blood, poured out for you.”  Jesus was even more graphic in The Gospel of John, Chapter 6:51 . . . “the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” As one sceptic said to me, “It all sounds like some sort of ancient pagan ritual.”

Ancient, for sure, but hardly pagan.  Anyone with a poetic sensibility should grasp the metaphoric use of language.  While Roman Catholics might declare that the bread and wine actually become transubstantiated into the flesh and blood of Jesus, we Protestants are not quite so literal.  Nevertheless, we do agree that there is something going on in the breaking of the bread which, while not magic, is more than symbolic.

So, here’s my attempt at an explanation of a mystery that cannot be fully explained.  Christians believe that Jesus Christ is present in the breaking of the bread and the drinking of the wine (or grape juice in many churches).  We disagree on how he is present, but we agree he is among us, bestowing grace for every need. When Christians pray the Lord’s Prayer, with the familiar line, “Give us this day, our daily bread,” it is a reminder of the constancy of God’s providence, reaffirmed whenever we gather ‘round the bread at the Table of the Lord.

We are also affirming the goodness of creation.  God’s providence includes not only grace for our struggles, but the blessings of the earth – grain, the fruit of the vine, animal, vegetable, and mineral.  When Christians come to the table we are giving thanks for God’s mercies and forgiveness, as well as offering gratitude for material things that are necessary to life --- “our daily bread.”

Perhaps the language of flesh and blood seems too graphic, but it serves a purpose.  In the context of ancient cultic practices, Christianity sprang up with an alternate vision.  There are obvious parallels between the language of sacrifice from Israel’s temple practices and Christ’s crucifixion understood as a sacrifice, but there is a difference in how Christians historically described what was happening.  Many ancient mystery religions were practicing rituals which promised a spiritual escape from the fleshly, temporal, material world.  The Christian doctrine of Incarnation offered a different perspective.  When Jesus spoke of his body and blood being offered for the life of the world he was declaring the essential goodness of fleshly existence.  He was not offering an escape from, but redemption of the world.  Body and spirit are not separate entities but constitute one, whole soul. 

Too many Christians today misunderstand this, eagerly looking for Jesus to “rapture” them out of the world, forgetting that “God loved the world,” and that the “home of God is among mortals.”  And for those non-Christians out there who spend way too much effort trying their own forms of escape – drugs, alcohol, TV, shopping, etc., the doctrine of Incarnation offers an alternative view of the world.  God saw everything that God had made and saw that it was good.  When Christians gather ‘round the table we celebrate the goodness of creation, and we give thanks for the redemption of the material world, ourselves along with it.

All that talk of flesh and blood is simply Jesus’ poetic, even if graphic, way of getting our attention that God is concerned with saving the world, not just saving Christians out of the world.  While personal salvation is certainly a part of that for which we give thanks, God’s purpose is so much larger --- to redeem the whole creation.  Even some Christians need to come to terms with what we’re affirming when we break the bread and drink from the cup – flesh and blood, indeed, but so much more.

   

God's Affirmative Action

“In a fractured decision that revealed deep divisions over what role the judiciary should play in protecting racial and ethnic minorities, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a Michigan constitutional amendment that bans affirmative action in admissions to the state’s public universities.”   --- N.Y. Times April 22, 2014

“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us . . .” --- Paul to the Romans 5:8

God believes in affirmative action.  This is a theological truth before it is public policy.  But because it is a theological truth it eventually has political consequences.  The whole purpose of being a God-person/Christian is to try to the best of our ability to imitate the things that God does. 

The Biblical narrative is the story of God taking affirmative action on behalf of God’s people.  God chooses Israel, not because they were a great nation and had proven themselves worthy, but because God loved them, simple as that (Deuteronomy 7:7-8).  God’s choice is an affirmative action, unrelated to merit.  The same is true in God’s incarnation in Jesus Christ, extending God’s affirmative action to all the nations, “God so loved the world . . .” (John 3:16).  And so, Paul is able to make the most concise statement about God’s affirmative action, “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  Regardless of our credentials, or lack of them, we have been chosen by God.  God has acted affirmatively toward us.

In public policy, affirmative action seeks to do what God does, to choose someone regardless of accepted standards.  There are indications that “accepted standards” are not race- or culture-neutral so that affirmative action is an artificial but necessary means of providing more opportunity for some in our society who have been denied such opportunity because the weight of historical prejudice has been their burden to carry.

So much of the opportunities I have had in my life have been mine simply because I was white and born to highly-educated parents.  I could easily claim that I have worked for everything I have achieved; but by virtue of my birth I was given a preferential option, an automatic “leg up” according to societal standards.  In a sense, because of my whiteness, society was offering me an affirmative action, a preferential position that had nothing to do with what I merited.  This preferential position gave me opportunities that my more ethnically diverse fellow citizens do not enjoy.  When schools are required by law to correct this cultural bias by offering a preferential option for ethnic diversity, this seems like a valuable counter-balance to the entrenched and systemic racism that continues to be a part of our society.

If affirmative action seems inequitable, it does so only if we believe our society is a pure meritocracy, which it is not.  We are born with great differences in opportunity.  Affirmative action as public policy is one means of expanding those opportunities to a wider spectrum of people.  Such preferential options might be among the more god-like things we humans might do.

Movies and the Thought Police

Lots of movies coming out these days.  Many of them on Christian themes – God is Not Dead, Son of God, Heaven Is for Real.  There is also, Noah, a retelling of the Biblical story of the flood.

I don’t go see many movies, so this is no review of any particular film.  Most films I have seen have been rather disappointing of late.  So, if you want to drop $10 or more to go watch a mediocre story, be my guest.  Maybe you will be pleasantly surprised by a rare gem of a film every now and then.

My comments are aimed more squarely at the self-appointed guardians at the gate, or ticket booths, of America.  We have many voices, unfortunately of so-called Christian leaders, telling their flocks what they should or should not see, to save them from having to think for themselves, I suppose.  Particularly, there have been pious public outcries against Noah, many of them from people who have not seen the movie themselves.  Again, I haven’t seen it, but because of the hateful nature of these critiques I am tempted as, ironically, I suspect their congregations are tempted, to go see for myself.  Well, very good.  That’s what should happen.  Let’s all go see for ourselves and draw our own conclusions, then come back and talk with our friends, pastors, Sunday School classes; weighing the good against the bad, the edifying versus the outrageous, and then, maybe, we will have learned something worthwhile.

Surely people of faith won’t be threatened by a Hollywood movie, eh?  And if they are, what kind of faith do they have in the first place?  We may be zealous for the faith without trying to control what other people see, or think.  If people are getting the gospel they can discern for themselves what’s worthwhile and what’s not. 

I don’t understand what people see in horror films.  Don’t we have enough horror going on in the world?  I don’t understand why people allow their children to watch so much of what’s on TV, or to play the gory video games that seem so popular.  But crying out, “Don’t watch this!” just makes people want to watch it all the more.  I think you have to stick to the basics of what is good and true and beautiful, and allow people to make their own decisions.  It’s a risk, but that’s part of the cost of freedom.  And freedom is not only a value of democracy, it is also a basic gospel value as well (Galatians 5:1).

I think I will go see Noah, but I’ll wait for it to come to our local second-run theater where it’ll only cost me $3.  I can wait.  Besides, I’m not that crazy about Russell Crowe.