So What?!

There are times when my words feel impotent.  As a pastor/preacher I seek the welfare of the people I love and serve.  I want to inspire the best in all of us.  In the words of Reinhold Niebuhr, I hope to offer “comfort to the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable”.  But it doesn't always work out that way.

One day I whined to my colleague:

"So what if my words are articulate and reasonable?!  So what if they are based on tradition and spiritual truth?!  It doesn't make the suffering they go through any easier.  Do my words really make any difference?  Are people even paying attention anymore? So what?!"

She was gracious and patient with my self-indulgence and simply answered, "The 'so what' doesn't belong to you, Pastor.  The 'so what' belongs between them and God."

Once again in my relationship with this wise pastor she stopped me cold.

I was taught long ago by one of the most outstanding preachers of the twentieth century to begin the work of each sermon by writing at the top of my page “So what?”   Rev. Dr. Fred Craddock argued that it wasn’t enough to dazzle people with your eloquence.  Neither was a sermon the opportunity to teach the “unlearned” of one’s vast biblical and theological wisdom; which for me would take about five minutes!

To respect the intelligence of the people with whom we are privileged to share our thoughts and faith, the exercise of a sermon has got to matter.  It has got to address a real hurt or hope in our lives and the world.  Worshippers need to leave the service with a thought, assurance or dream that has made a difference for their hour or so in the sanctuary.  A sermon points to a "so what".  It has to matter.

Now 36 years into this preaching business there are moments when I really wonder if, for all my craft, any of it really matters.  Such doubts are few and far between....thanks be to God.... but they are there.  Which is why, in part, my colleague's response was so profound.

We call the Bible the "inspired Word of God", which it is.  But that inspiration, that spirit available, isn't locked into the ink on the page or papyrus.  Rather it exists in the relationship between the reader/listener and God.

We love to hurl Bible verses at each other as if gauntlets in our debates but in that vast source of literature just about any notion, however misconstrued, can be referenced to a Bible verse.  Even the Devil can quote the Bible (Luke 4:10-11).

Members of White Supremacist groups or the Ku Klux Klan can read the words of scripture to justify their hate.  Well-meaning people can read the same verses and come to the opposite conclusions as to their application; note the church's history with slavery, women's rights or sexual orientation.

The "so what" of the Bible isn't a static fixture of the printed words.  Rather those words lead into a dynamic relationship to which the reader/listener brings all sorts of input and expectations that frames one's experience of those words.  Grace and love can be found there.  And if one is looking for violence and bigotry they can find it there too.  The "so what" doesn't belong to the words alone, nor the history and traditions out of which they have been passed down.  The "so what" of scripture belongs to the relationship between us and God in the here and now.  A wise lay man once reminded me that's why we call it "the living Word of God."

My colleague was suggesting that the same is true of a sermon.  With the best of intentions, preparations and skill, a preacher offers his or her best attempt to plant a seed of illumination and inspiration.  This calling is a privilege indeed and an enormous responsibility.  Yet where the seed may fall, how it will grow and whether it will bear fruit is not up to the preacher.  Rather the "so what" depends on who receives it and how it is received, interacting with the reality of the Spirit to which the sermon points.  Jesus knew that to be true as well (Matthew 13:1-23).

My colleague was reminding me of Who was actually at work in my modest efforts to preach.  And the reminder was a "so what" I needed to hear.  Indeed!

PDP: Public Displays of Piety

In India one can more often than not identify another's religion by their dress.  Sikh males wear turbans, well-kept beards and silver bracelets.  Muslim women wear head coverings for varying degrees of modesty, depending on local traditions of orthodoxy, from simple scarves to full body "burkas" with only a slit out of which to see.  Hindus, male and female, will often wear makeup on the forehead to identify their sect.  Certain members of the Jain religion and some Hindu hermits called "Sadhus" will wear nothing at all.

In North American Jewish communities Hassidic males can identify their degree of orthodoxy by the manner in which they manage their haircut and beard and by the type of hat they wear.  Amish communities wear distinctive handmade clothing.  Black Muslim members of the Nation of Islam can be identified by their bow ties for men or a sash worn by women.

Public displays of piety are more common place than we might think.  Consider the crucifix or Star of David necklace, the singing of God Bless America at the seventh inning stretch of a professional baseball game, our currency's "In God We Trust" or the Pledge of Allegiance phrase "...one nation under God..." added in the 1950's. 

Yet the media is having a field day with Tim Tebow's public displays of piety.

The Denver Broncos’ young quarterback has made national news with his amazing, 'last minute' football miracles; winning 6 games in a row during the regular season after the team got off to a terrible start; beating the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime in the Broncos’ first playoff win since 2005.  Denver's loss against the heavily favored New England Patriots will only dim "Tebowmania" for a while.

Tim Tebow's public displays of piety have been a major interest in the media since he was a successful football player at the University of Florida.  Throughout games, especially after a touchdown, he unashamedly bends down on one knee, places his forehead on his fist and thanks Jesus.  At press conferences he is quite natural and sincere about the role of faith in his life.  He doesn't appear to be a phony which is driving the mass media wild with speculation, parody and criticism.

Tim Tebow

The cynical are using Tebowmania to recite the litany of the all-too-many religious hypocrites whose public displays of piety did not match their immoral and/or criminal behavior as if the pundits are just waiting for this young man to stumble and fall.

In an increasingly secular North America Tebow's public display of piety is perceived as an irritant by some and offensive to others.   Reminiscent of the French controversy banning the Muslim head-covering "hijab" or scarf for girls in public school, a secular majority wants religious minorities to keep their religion to themselves. 

When was the last time we heard a word in the Mass Media about the faith communities' response to Hurricane Katrina?  Millions of donated dollars and volunteer hours have been spent by communities of faith to aid in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast in the last 6 years.  Such compassionate service continues in Haiti in response to the 2010 earthquake.  It happens in North America's urban core each and every day, where churches, synagogues and mosques feed, house and clothe the poor.

We might find a human interest story every now and then; the usual holiday articles around Thanksgiving and Christmas.  But no headlines, no in-depth analysis.  We won't find Saturday Night Live parodies of volunteers digging houses out of muck on YouTube.

Are such public displays of piety invisible to the editors of our society's media outlets?  But let a young football player bend to his knee in prayer and few can talk about anything else.

Religious identification by dress, custom, posture or slogan is superficial of course.  In the end the only real way we identify our core beliefs is by how we live our lives, which suggests that how we judge celebrity athletes' faith may say a lot more about us than it does about them.

Floating in Beeman Stone

Many years ago the Mackey family, owners and operators of the Canyon Creek Ranch outside of Alturas in Modoc County, California, acquired the old Beeman ranch adjacent to their property.  Its 300 plus acres weren't prime land, to say the least, but it was a good investment at the time. 

Entering Canyon Creek Ranch

Running through the property is a vein of iron rich volcanic rock.  The Northwest corner of California remains an active geothermic area with ancient volcano cones, ash deposits and obsidian everywhere; it’s only a few miles from the Klamath Basin, Tulelake and Lava Beds National Monument in Oregon.

Iron rich volcanic deposits are unusual; those two materials are rarely found together in such concentrations.  Dick Mackey, current operator of Canyon Creek Ranch, has had a life-long interest in the ecology and geology of Modoc County and in this particular vein of rock on his property.  It’s rare enough that he has spent years trying to figure out how to mine such a resource.  So far there seems little commercial use for "Beeman Stone".

This is not to say it’s not the source of great wealth!

Dick Mackey is also an avid and accomplished potter.  Years ago out of curiosity Dick dug up a bucket full of Beeman Stone to test as a possible glaze material.  A ceramic glaze requires glass (silica), a flux to reduce its melting temperature (Na₂O) and a refractory (alumina) to make it durable.  Volcanic ash is known to have all three elements and with the addition of iron Beeman Stone would also include one of the most common colorants in ceramic glaze formulation.  So Dick ground it up into powder and tested it in his kiln with nothing more than the addition of water for application. 

Beeman Stone has turned out to be a staple in the Canyon Creek Pottery pallet.  A natural rendition of a Japanese "tenmoku", dark iron brown, breaking with color on texture.  It is used with great pride at Canyon Creek as a local resource.

Just a few years ago the Federal government made it possible to irrigate challenging properties like the Beeman Ranch and the Mackey family took advantage of the opportunity.  They discovered a source of deep water under the property that could support pivot sprinkling for grasses and alfalfa hay.  This geothermic water, warmed by the fires of the molten earth, comes out of the ground at 120 degrees, which is just fine for this operation.  Today they harvest hay off of land that previously couldn't produce much at all.

Mackey creativity and ingenuity also produced yet another wonder as a result. 

In the process of installing the pivot sprinkler system, the family hired a large earth mover to dig out a hot tub and swimming pool in a prominent spot in the Stone ridge.  The temperature of the natural rock hot tub is a constant 103 degree, the swimming pool between 85-90.  The water is pristine as is the joy the family has in using this new discovery, especially in the cold of winter.  It is not unusual to swim in the tub or pool while there is snow on the ground!

Doing just that the other night, Dick and I conversed about the amazing circumstance of Beeman Stone.  Floating in a hot tub of perfect water held in place by the very stone with which we glaze our pottery we felt connected to the earth and the stars that filled the jet black night sky.  Our creativity joined with the divine's.  All my Buddhist cowboy friend could say of the stone, water, fire and sky that has made such a difference in our lives, "..it is a gift...it is all a gift..." floating in Beeman Stone.

I Am Already Against the Next War

Just saw a new bumper sticker and it hit a nerve:  "I Am Already Against the Next War".

CNN News had been reporting on a Pew Research Study regarding the attitudes of US Military Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars in comparison to the attitudes of civilians about those wars and military service (CNN.com, 10.05.11).

The research suggests that “half of post-9/11 veterans said the Afghanistan war has been worth fighting. Only 44% felt that way about Iraq, and one-third said both wars were worth the costs.” 

“Most Americans remain supportive of their all-volunteer military. (Only one-half of 1% of the population has been on active-duty service in the past decade.) Nine out of 10 expressed pride in the troops, and three-quarters say they thanked someone in the military. But 45% -- higher than among military respondents -- said neither of the wars fought after the September 11, 2001, attacks have been worth the cost……Half said the wars have made little difference in their lives.”

I am not a pacifist.  I feel strongly that the use of deadly force for self-defense or the defense of others is justifiable and at times necessary.  It is an evil, of course, but to stand by and do nothing while we are aware of the real threat of violence by another makes us complicit in that violence.  I have the highest regard for those who serve honorably in our military services, police and first-responder services.  They daily put their lives on the line for others, which for me is a Christian calling (John 15:13).

Yet I am very anti-war.  As a student of history I question its value for anything other than self-defense.  As a Baby Boomer I remain highly suspicious of our nation’s use of war and support of proxy war since the end of World War II.

I suppose those attitudes put me squarely in the conclusions of the Pew research.  I honor and appreciate our military very much while questioning the way our government spends their valor and sacrifice. 

The fear of not being prepared to deter an enemy born at Pearl Harbor has continued and expanded long after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Cold War paranoia justified preemptive war in Vietnam, proxy wars in Angola, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, CIA covert disruption of Chile and direct military incursions into Laos, Cambodia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Grenada.  The justification for the preemptive invasion of Iraq in 2003 was contrived on misinformation and accepted by the public based on our outrage over 9/11 and our fears of future attacks. 

We can debate whether our world or our nation is better off as a result of our constant war footing since World War II but it would be hard not to argue that the United States is convinced that war is the answer to our security.  

As the Pew survey suggests our population is quite satisfied that fewer and fewer of our country men and women actually serve the military and pay the direct price for our militarism.  Few citizens question the morality or efficacy of the increasingly successful use of robotic weaponry to eliminate our adversaries in targeted assassination.  Few question the trade off in military strategy that has "only" lost 1,800 US combat deaths in the ten years of war in Afghanistan compared to the 58,000 in the eight plus years of official war in Vietnam.  The direct collateral damage to tens of thousands non-combatants has remained among the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan while thousands of US families welcome home their wounded loved ones or bury their dead.

Is this peace? 

Why do we feel so afraid, suspicious and angry about our nation, the future...even our neighbors of different race and religion...if all this war was supposed to buy our security?

The Tenth Anniversary of the Afghanistan War motivated me to sit down and calculate.  In my 59.75 years our country has been at war for 22.75 of them….or 38% of my life!* 

I thank God for the men and women willing to defend me and our nation from the actual threat of attack.  And...I am already against the next war.

*I calculated the dates as follows:

Born in January 1952

Korean War                            

          June 25, 1950             -           July 27, 1953

Vietnam War                          

          July 30, 1964 Gulf of Token   -           April 30, 1975 Fall of Saigon

Gulf War I                              

          August 2, 1990            -           February 28, 1991

Invasion of Iraq:  Iraqi Freedom

          March 19, 2003           -           to date

Afghanistan:  Operation Enduring Freedom

          October 7, 2001          -           to date

[This reckoning does not include the covert wars in Latin and Central America, Africa and Asia supported directly and indirectly by the United States during my lifetime as well.]

Occupy Philippi

In the book of Acts while visiting the Macedonian city of Philippi the apostle Paul and his colleague Silas are beaten by a mob, whipped by city officials and thrown into jail.  Their crime was healing a slave girl of the demon possession that allowed her to tell fortunes in the market place (Acts 16:16-40).  Her owner objected to the healing of the slave girl because it took away from his profits.  

The story contains an extraordinary scene as the two missionaries, beaten and chained in the Philippi jail, are praying and singing hymns together.  Miraculously an earthquake breaks open the jail and their chains.   Before the jailer can commit suicide, due to his failure to keep the prison secure, Paul and Silas intervene on his behalf saving his life. Paul and Silas are freed, the jailer takes them home to clean and feed them; then he and his family are baptized.

Was this a first century version of "Occupy Philippi"?  Were Paul and Silas trying to make a public point of the inequality and injustice of institutional slavery?   Probably not.   Paul and Silas were more concerned about the evil possessing this young woman and making a public demonstration of the redemptive power of Jesus. 

Then again the proclamation of the Reign of God has always had economic implications. 

There are strong traditions of private capital and personal wealth in the biblical record. As there are strong traditions expressing concern for justice and equitable access to and control over the means of production.

The Hebrew traditions of Sabbatical set a 7-8 year cycle of land use by owners and insisted that the poor and disposed be given free access to harvest surplus (Ex 23:10-11, Lev 25:1-7, 20-22, Deut 15:1-6, 31:10-13).  The Jubilee set a 50 year cycle when land ownership would return to its original status and all people would have equal access to the means of food production, and all debts would be forgiven (Lev 25:10, 23; 27:2).   Both traditions assumed that a minority of people would use their time and talents to create wealth while the majority poor would be assured the basic necessities in dignity and fairness.

There is no historical evidence that the Jubilee tradition was ever practiced.

Yet as we listen to Jesus in the Christian scriptures, we can clearly hear the echo of these ideals.

   18 The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

   because he has anointed me

   to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

   and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

   19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

(Luke 4, quoting from Isaiah 61:1-2; 58:6)

"The year of the Lord's favor..." refers to the Jubilee tradition which by Jesus' time also referred to the hope for the End of the World.  It was the expectation of the Hebrew people in the first century that at the End of Time God would liberate the Holy Land from Roman occupation as well as restore the fortunes of the oppressed and downtrodden.  That is why Mary joyfully sings of the impending birth of the messiah, "....the hungry shall be fed and the rich sent empty away...".

The story of Paul and Silas illustrates a central point in Jesus' teaching.  People are more important than profits.

-To illustrate the radical nature of grace, Jesus tells a parable in which a land owner pays a worker the same daily rate for an hour of work as the owner pays a worker who has labored all day (Mt 20:1-16).

-Irate that the money changers have taken over the courtyard of the Jerusalem Temple Jesus turns their tables over in a violent protest against the corruption that limits access to worship privileges by class (Mk 21:12-17).  

-Jesus invites himself to dine with Zacchaeus, who has grown rich by collecting taxes for the Roman occupation government (Luke 19:1-10).  The pious see Zacchaeus as a traitor and sinner yet Jesus is not only willing to eat with Zacchaeus but to forgive him, the result of which is a reversal of fortunes for the tax collector and the collected.

People are more important than profits.

In a pastoral prayer not too long ago Pastor Dirk Damonte said, "....oh God help us to imagine ourselves the way You imagine us....". 

For some reason the "Occupy Wall Street" scene flashed through my mind.  Here's a group of people, becoming a movement, that knows something is wrong in a society that allows, encourages and tolerates the enormous inequality in the distribution of its wealth.   And the Occupy movement feels empowered to say it.  What their dream is for the future, how they imagine it, doesn't appear clear at this point but they know it’s got to be better than the future that human society is producing now.

The God worshiped and adored in the Judeo-Christian tradition has a compelling imagination, especially for our future.

5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle

   and every garment rolled in blood

will be destined for burning,

   will be fuel for the fire.

6 For to us a child is born,

   to us a son is given,

   and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

   Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

   Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the greatness of his government and peace

   there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne

   and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it

   with justice and righteousness

   from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the LORD Almighty

   will accomplish this.  (Isaiah 9)

   He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,

   or decide by what he hears with his ears;

4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,

   with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;

   with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

5 Righteousness will be his belt

   and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

 6 The wolf will live with the lamb,

   the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling together;

   and a little child will lead them.

7 The cow will feed with the bear,

   their young will lie down together,

   and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,

   and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

9 They will neither harm nor destroy

   on all my holy mountain,

for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD

   as the waters cover the sea.  (Isaiah 11)

   My soul glorifies the Lord

 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48 for he has been mindful

   of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed,

 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—

   holy is his name.

50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,

   from generation to generation.

51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;

   he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones

   but has lifted up the humble.

53 He has filled the hungry with good things

   but has sent the rich away empty.

54 He has helped his servant Israel,

   remembering to be merciful

55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,

   just as he promised our ancestors.  (Luke 1)

These are but a few of an entire tradition in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures that imagines the future of the human society with recurrent themes:

-no war and violence

-the inequalities between the rich and the poor will be addressed and reversed

-social systems such as financial institutions, courts and government will be just, with access to all, not just the privileged

-those who have been marginalized will experience healing and hope

However we understand these traditions there is no escaping that within the biblical record at least, God imagines a future where human society lives in peace, equality and justice.   Although framed in metaphor with apocalyptic personalities and implications, this future is also historic, to be played out in this world, in human time.

On paper the world is a much better place than it was a century ago and positively ideal compared to a 1,000 years ago.   Today our wars "only" kill and maim in the thousands rather than the millions.   "Only" 24,000 mainly women and children die of hunger related disease each day now compared to 40,000 just 25 years ago.   Most of the world's governments are democracies or include democratic institutions to greater or lesser degrees compared to a handful just 100 years ago.   The global per capita income distribution has increased dramatically in the last century, especially with growing middle class populations in China and India, the two largest nations by population.

The world is a much better place than it was.

Yet as a member of earth's privileged class that is easy for me to say.   The statistical truth of such a statement gives me little comfort.   Admonitions to the "only" to be patient, to work harder, study more may be realistic but seem painfully trite if not outrageous when 20% of the world's 7 billion people live on $1 a day.   My conclusions about the state of the world must be framed within my social status.    I do not know what it is like to go to bed at night not knowing if my children will eat tomorrow...or if they will be collateral damage in someone else's war.

Jesus and the tradition on which he stood didn't condemn private wealth per se but the greed and corruption that restricts fair access to and control over the wealth that belongs ultimately only to God.   It is greed that has driven the global economy to the verge of collapse; as governments have set policies to ensure their power rather than sound economics; as the financial elite have rigged the system of capital exchange for their own benefit at the expense of others. 

And it is greed that allows a slave owner to keep a slave girl in the market place telling fortunes for his profits at the expense of her soul.

Paul and Silas were not in the Philippi marketplace to advance their version of the Occupy Movement.  Yet their miracle story confronts the spiritual reality of economic injustice.

Doesn't it confront ours as well?

Do we imagine a future of peace, justice and equality where all human societies have enough?  Do we share God's dream for us, God's imaging of what we might become?  Or have we reduced our dream to the boundaries of what’s possible for 'me and mine and forget the rest'?

Long Live God, Long Live God...

I am trying to make sense of three tragic deaths in our parish during a two week period; good people ages 55, 20 and 3.5 years are gone from family and friends who loved them, from lives full of accomplishment and potential.  And there is no sense to be found.

When an aged one dies of natural causes there is grief to be sure and celebration for lives well lived.  But when one dies too young, their lives swept away by accident, illness or crime, the platitudes of religion seem empty.  There is no sense to be found there either.

For some reason I have been listening to music of the Broadway play "Godspell".  Don't ask me why, I don't know why, but I've found this good old 1960's music so comforting right now.  In the Finale after the crucifixion scene the chorus sings softly in repetition, building into a crescendo, "Long live God, long live God...".  It's the musical's answer to the death of Jesus and the Easter resurrection.

As I struggle to deal with these parish losses, the cross is about the only thing that does make sense to me, not that making sense is all that important in the face of tragedy.  Yet somehow we seek it, maybe to reorient ourselves after being knocked off center? 

For me the cross rather than an altar of atonement speaks to me of God's response to the suffering of the world.

The story of Jesus' life, death and resurrection has left us pondering lots questions over the years.  Not the least of which is whether God is omnipotent, in control of each and every event in our lives, and in Jesus' life.  If so, did God plot the death of his only begotten son?  Did God temporarily abandon omnipotence on the cross?  Or did God never have it to begin with?   Godspell's answer is trust in God no matter what.  In the face of mindless violence and the suffering of the innocent we sing "Long live God, long live God...."

Is it a shout of naive arrogance in the face of unwavering fate?   A sad hope on which to cling?   The insistence that love cannot die and in the end all that really matters is love.  Overwhelmed with grief and confusion I find the music so compelling.  What's that about?

The Christology of substitutionary atonement suggests that the cross is God's final and complete act of reconciliation, paying our price for sin in the sacrifice of his son; the supreme scapegoat of atonement for the sins of humanity.  Nothing need stand in the way of our relationship with God anymore.  God has done something for us that we could not do for ourselves (Romans 5).  "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" says John the Baptist (John 1:29).

Citing the cross, orthodoxy offers that what we perceive as evil in fact God is using for a greater good to be revealed to us at the End of Time (Augustine).  The notion of an omnipotent God named "love" (1 John 4:8-f) requires some greater purpose in the suffering death of Jesus, or any innocent for that matter, if such a loss is going to make sense.

Over the centuries people of faith have found great comfort in these doctrines as they deal with the suffering of the innocent.  These doctrines give reason to the unreasonableness that so permeates our living. 

I find them hollow justifications.  These doctrines rely on notions of divine omnipotence that leave God the author of violence, tragedy and brokenness for "a greater good".  And we call this God "love"?!

The primary word used for "love" in the New Testament is "agape" or "the love that seeks the welfare of another", even at the expense of one's own.   On the cross we learn that God's nature is so completely love that God shares our destiny with us...death, even the death of senseless violence (Philippians 2:8).  

In so doing the cross reveals the illusion of death's hold on us.  Death is not the opposite of life. The opposite of life is fear, the fear that drives us to find false security in greed and power as if such could cheat death; the primal anxiety that moves us to settle for an existence of survival rather than abundant living. 

This is not to diminish the impact of death.  Death is a real enemy of living to be sure, the "final enemy" all too often capricious in its brutality (1 Corinthians 15:26).   But death is a part of life as inherent as breathing or sleeping.  If God seeks to share our life incarnate (John 1:14) then there is no escaping death for God.  The Jesus story would suggest that as God embraces life so God embraces death on the cross and in so doing transforms both with resurrection (Moltmann).

The process of life, death and resurrection is found throughout the created order as the tree decays in the forest to build the humus for the next generation, as the seed dies to be planted in the ground for the next crop (John 12:24, 1 Corinthians 15:36), as the stars die in space to generate the stuff of new ones.  Death and rebirth are organic to life itself.  As organic as the human drive to avoid it.

If we accept that divinity is at the heart of the natural order, then as cruel and real as death can be it would not be suspended even for God.  The death of Jesus of Nazareth on a Roman cross more than a sacrificial altar is then a testament to the God that shares life with us, completely.  The God that weeps with us in grief (John 11:35).  The God that laughs, and walks and talks with us.  The God willing to share his wounds with us that we might be in relationship (John 20:25-f).

This is not an idol of omnipotence, in control of all events with its followers labeling those that result in evil "for a greater good".   Rather this is an incarnate God revealed in the life and death of a carpenter from the backwaters of Israel 2,000 years ago, whose teachings and examples are still very much alive in spite of the failures to institutionalize the message.  This God is a Fellow Traveler, a "friend" (John 15:9-18), the one Jesus called "daddy", the one we can honestly call "love".

Vulnerable to everything that humans face and their freedom to choose, divinity's power resides in the yearning for the best in each moment, the lure to greater and greater complexities of life and enjoyment, the spirit that binds all of life and time together.  The natural order is organized for life affirming, expanding, extending agape/love that cannot be snuffed out by death even when it is present throughout, in fact death is and must be a part of its journey.

Does this "make sense" of the sudden unexpected death by accident, crime or illness?  In no way!  There is no sense or reason to be found in such loss, only sorrow.  Yet these very tragedies may be occasions for great love.   And it is in that love that we can find redemption; something much different than rationalization.  

In a recent funeral for the murder of an innocent 20 year old college student Rev. Dirk Damonte answered the question on many minds, "Where was God when Kristina was murdered?  Where is God now as we are left with broken hearts?"   The Pastor said God didn't cause or allow her death for some mysterious "future greater good". 

The Pastor said God was with the community first-responders who did everything in their resources to assist the victims and their families and protect the public from the violence of the perpetrator.  To dedicate your professional life to serve and protect the public, whether police, fire, paramedic or hospital personnel is an act of agape.

The Pastor said God was with the community that gathered to support and comfort each other in the face of such tragedy, for it is in such community that we see the face of love.

To make sense of the senseless is certain human folly.  Yet to embrace love and affirm it in the face of suffering and death may be the only thing that can redeem the madness of this world.

There are things worse than death.  To never know love certainly is one of them.

"Long live God, long live God...."

"God is Great, Beer is Good, People are Crazy"*

Billy Currington's hit country and western song describes a fictional encounter between a "good old boy" and an aging millionaire at a honkytonk bar.  They are strangers to each other but fall into an intoxicated friendship.  After reviewing their lives, all the ups and downs, loves and losses, the wise old man says to the young one, "God is great, beer is good, people are crazy".   The cynicism and irony of such wisdom may be funny but it speaks volumes about our times; maybe one reason this song is still popular.

For example:

20% of the American population controls 84% of all its assets (Federal Reserve). 

The top-earning 20 percent of Americans receive 49.4 percent of all income generated in the US.  (Census)

Yet 52% of Americans think it is wrong to suggest that the United States is divided by class, by economic differences between "the haves" and the "have nots"; if they had to choose 48% would identify themselves as "the haves", 34% as "the have nots" (Pew Research Center, San Jose Mercury News, 09.30.11, p.A-3).

Or:

64% of Americans support the death penalty in cases of murder; 70% in California.  A majority of Americans agree that innocent people have been put to death by capital punishment.  A majority also say that the death penalty is not a deterrent to murder.  People know the facts about the death penalty and they support it anyway.  Religion makes little difference when it comes to capital punishment; as an example, the poll cites statistics showing death penalty support among the majority of Roman Catholics in spite of a long held tradition by its hierarchy against it (Gallup Poll, NPR,"Its All About Politics", 09.23.11).

Or:

At a recent Republican Presidential debate, FOX News arranged for an openly gay Army officer to ask the panel of candidates what they thought about the end of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that discharged openly homosexual members of the military services.  When members of the audience booed the service man, stationed in Iraq, not one of the candidates objected...until it was brought to their attention the next day by the media. (09.23.11)

Currington's song suggests that in the end all that one can really count on in life is God and "beer"=the personal experience of pleasure.   People can't be counted on; in fact all you can count on is their irrationality.

I wouldn’t question his conclusion about beer or necessarily the irrationality of human beings but what does such a conclusion say about the nature of God?   What does it mean to "count on God" when it would appear that God is irrelevant or ignored by the majority of God’s people?

Where is God in the lives of a consumer nation, the most blessed among all on earth, which is so seduced by materialism that we don't even recognize our own marginalization? 

Where is God in a nation which affirms revenge and retribution as social policy, ignoring our own religious traditions? 

Where is God when those seeking elected office, all quick to assert their religious convictions, refuse to stand up for military volunteers when it isn't politically popular to do so?   Or are they asserting their religion by condoning such ridicule?

This God is either so passive as not to interfere with human history, content to watch it spin on its own (Aristotle) or so impotent as not to be able to affect the behavior of its followers.

How can one count on a God like that, let alone affirm "God is great"?!

It’s unfair of course to make too much of this song's theological assumptions but you have to wonder if they are not accurate.   Are we as a nation comfortable embracing God as long as the Divinity doesn't interfere with our preconceptions….as long as we keep God on our terms?

The God that Jesus of Nazareth calls “father” promises a future when the fortunes of the “haves and have-nots” will be reversed and everyone will have enough (Isaiah 11:4, Luke 1:52-53, 4:16-21), when justice will be tempered with forgiveness (Luke 22:42-43) and when the social outcast will be welcomed as an equal (John 4).

That’s a God that is great, One that can be counted on.

*(Bobby Braddock, Troy Jones 2008)