Monday, March 26, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Spring
It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.
~Charles Dickens
Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!
~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"
In June as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day. No one can heed all of these anniversaries; no one can ignore all of them.
~Aldo Leopold
A light exists in spring
Not present on the year
At any other period.
When March is scarcely here
A color stands abroad
On solitary hills
That science cannot overtake,
But human nature feels.
~Emily Dickinson
Monday, March 12, 2012
yuk.
Irony - long on the sick list - has finally died.
No, not died. Irony was brutally assassinated, point blank, mafia style.
It is a cynical world and I'm not naive, but this latest news is so over-the-top as to be nearly unbelievable.
I'm talking, of course, about the latest news about the new Lorax movie.
You remember Dr Seuss' beloved book, The Lorax - a silly but powerful warning against the twin dangers of commercialism and attacks against the environment. This book has been an environmental primer for over a generation.
And, as things go, there is now a CG animation movie made of the story which is fine, as far as that goes. But along with any new kids' movie these days, there is always the commercialism that goes with it. And that is to be expected, if deplored.
But this time, they have really gone over the top: Mazda is using the Lorax (he who "speaks for the trees") to shill their "Sky-activ" SUV!!
In the commercial, you can see a pristine Seuss Land with the colorful Truffula Trees and humming fish and clean skies, and then, driving through this Eden, you see the clean pretty Mazda SUV.
To use The Lorax to shill something so diametrically opposed to the message of the book... it's just disgusting and amazing (they actually say that this SUV has the "Truffula Seal of Approval..."!!) Did Mazda really think there would be no pushback to such a cynical display of the worst sort of commercialism?
yuk. yuk. yuk.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
The Bible and Economics
Continuing in Job...
[Job speaking...] I cry out to you, God, but you do not answer; I stand up, but you merely look at me...
Surely no one lays a hand on a broken man when he cries for help in his distress.
Have I not wept for those in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
Yet when I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness. The churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me.
...I have become a brother of jackals, a companion of owls...
~Job 30
[Job, still...] If I have denied justice to any of my servants, whether male or female, when they had a grievance against me, what will I do when God confronts me? What will I answer when called to account?
Did not the one who made me in the womb make them?
Did not the same One form us both within our mothers?
If I have denied the desires of the poor or let the eyes of the widow grow weary,
if I have kept my bread to myself, not sharing it with the fatherless - but from my youth I reared them as a father would, and from my birth I guided the widow -
if I have seen anyone perishing for lack of clothing, or the needy without garments, and their hearts did not bless me for warming them with the fleece from my sheep,
if I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing that I had influence in court, then let my arm fall from the shoulder, let it be broken off at the joint.
For I dreaded destruction from God, and for fear of his splendor I could not do such things.
~Job 31
[Job's friend speaking...] Is God not the One who says to kings, ‘You are worthless,’ and to nobles, ‘You are wicked,’
who shows no partiality to princes and does not favor the rich over the poor, for they are all the work of God's hands...?
...God's eyes are on the ways of mortals; God sees their every step...
God punishes them for their wickedness where everyone can see them, because they turned from following God and had no regard for any of God's ways.
They caused the cry of the poor to come before God, so that the Lord heard the cry of the needy.
~Job 34
As noted in the previous post, Job moreso than most books of the Bible must be handled carefully. Job's friends speak, but not every word from them is a good word. Job speaks, but not every one of his rants speak for God.
Having said that, I think we can see clearly in Job, the great reverence/importance that ancient Jewish folk placed on the treatment of the poor and otherwise marginalized.
How one treats the poor and marginalized and how one deals with one's employees and customers is a measurement of one's morality. Even the "friends" of Job with their sometimes flawed reasoning echo this great biblical concern, and do so frequently and emphatically.
Friday, March 9, 2012
The Bible and Economics
Part of an ongoing series looking at all the many passages in the Bible that deal with wealth and poverty issues. You can see the links to the other passages in the series under the heading "The Bible and Economics" below.
Today, I'm looking at the book of Job, which is a different sort of book than most of the Bible. The book is included with the books of Poetry (along with Psalms, Ecclesiastes, etc) and tells the story of Job.
Job is a very wealthy man who was always considered to be wise and moral. Then suddenly, terrible things happen to him. His children are all killed. He loses all his wealth. And finally, he becomes ill with a painful skin disease.
The majority of the book involves conversations between Job and his three friends (although, perhaps not such great friends) about the nature of life, God and human suffering.
Because of the poetic/parabolic nature of Job, one must be especially wary of lifting individual verses out of context. Not everything that Job or Job's friends suggest is reliable or morally sound.
With that said, here are some passages that touch on their ideas of wealth and poverty and related issues...
[Job's friend speaking...] If I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before God... provides rain for the earth; God sends water on the countryside.
The lowly, God sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety...
God saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; God saves them from the clutches of the powerful. So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth...
~Job 5
[Job's friend speaking...] Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, he will perish forever, like his own dung...
His children must make amends to the poor; his own hands must give back his wealth...
What he toiled for he must give back uneaten; he will not enjoy the profit from his trading.
For he has oppressed the poor and left them destitute; he has seized houses he did not build.
Surely he will have no respite from his craving; he cannot save himself by his treasure...
~Job 20
[Job speaking...] Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment?
...There are those who move boundary stones; they pasture flocks they have stolen.
They drive away the orphan’s donkey and take the widow’s ox in pledge. They thrust the needy from the path and force all the poor of the land into hiding.
Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labor of foraging food; the wasteland provides food for their children...
The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized for a debt.
Lacking clothes, they go about naked; they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry...
When daylight is gone, the murderer rises up, kills the poor and needy, and in the night steals forth like a thief...
~Job 24
[Job speaking of his own righteousness...] Whoever heard me spoke well of me, and those who saw me commended me, because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist them.
The one who was dying blessed me; I made the widow’s heart sing.
I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban.
I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger...
~Job 29
More to come...
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
gw20
Our church coffee house, the Urban Goatwalker, celebrated 20 years of ministry last Saturday. This video are some very few of the many amazing highlights of last Saturday's celebration.
The Goatwalker is an open mic coffee house in downtown Louisville that has been open the second Saturday of each month without fail for 20 years now. The Goatwalker is open to all, but was intended as a place of refuge, dignity and celebration especially for our more marginalized brothers and sisters. The idea was that it would be a place where the homeless, the mentally ill and others who are often actively NOT wanted, ARE wanted. They are invited in, cherished, treated as honored guests, and, along with anyone else, can freely order coffee, lemonade, home made brownies, cookies or other treats.
All our visitors are also invited, if they so choose, to take the stage and perform a song, a poem, tell a story and otherwise share something meaningful to them. And share, we do. The most powerful songs, poems, dancing and other performances come from our visitors and every performer is cheered and hurrah-ed for the treasures they share.
The Goatwalker team didn't want this to be a pity-charity place, where "WE do-gooders" do something for THOSE "poor, pitifuls," but where we are all on equal footing, able to order food and drinks, able to share, able to help, able to perform. And mostly, that is what happens.
God's kingdom come, God's will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
While this might sometimes lead to some strange and edgy moments, it is mostly divine, just divine. I hope the video could give you a taste of that.
* As an aside, while this was designed to be a safe place to share together primarily for our marginalized brothers and sisters, it has become a safe place for many others. Our church's children, for instance, from pretty early ages, begin to want to get up and sing, or tell a joke, or even to take a chance on learning a new instrument - a guitar, a ukulele, a banjo, dulcimer, mandolin, fiddle, cello, drums... - and share at the Urban Goatwalker. As a result, we have an amazingly talented and compassionate set of children, youth and, now, young adults in our midst. They also are frequently our waiters and waitresses.
My son and his elder band-mate buddy both were born roughly the same time as the Goatwalker and have grown up in that context. I very much attribute their compassionate and passionate song-writing and music-playing largely to exposure to the Urban Goatwalker and the witness of our more marginalized friends, along with the adults in church who have freely shared music and ideas with them over the years.
The whole idea of sharing freely has some amazing and sometimes unexpected side effects.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Happy Twentieth Birthday, GW!
Our church just celebrated the 20th anniversary of an open mic coffee house we hold for everyone, but especially our homeless, mentally ill and otherwise marginalized friends. Yesterday’s sermon celebrated that ministry, and for that reason and simply because it was such a very good and topical sermon, I’m posting it here in its entirety…
Because we are so far removed from Jesus’ culture, we often miss the real impact of the stories that we read. We read scriptures in a personalistic way, and don’t see the political or the social implications. And thus we see Jesus as such a nice guy that we wonder how anyone could kill him?!
The temptation is to read this morning’s story in the same way. It’s a lovely story, really. Jesus is moved with compassion for this poor leper, and he reaches out, touches him, and heals him. Then sends him on his merry way to visit the priests, in keeping with the Jewish laws.
Except that what we don’t realize is that this story is NOT about gentle Jesus meek and mild healing a leper, this story is about angry Jesus – while some of the ancient texts say moved by pity, or compassion, others say, moved by anger (orgistheis), and that is certainly in keeping with the anger that he shows a little later on in the passage. This story is about angry Jesus taking on the oppressive systems of his day, deliberately breaking the laws of his day.
In Jesus’ day, the primary paradigm that shaped his Jewish social world was: Be holy as God is holy. That was the rule of the day, the lens through which the Jews interpreted their world.
Hundreds of years before, when the Jewish people had been hauled off to Babylon, they were faced with the crisis of being assimilated, sucked up, into a foreign culture. You remember the story of Daniel, who refused to eat the diet of the empire, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who refused to bow down to the statue of King Nebuchadnezzar, the Psalmist who sat down by the waters of Babylon weeping, refusing to sing for captors. “How can I sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land,” he cried.
It was a full blown crisis for the people of Israel. Not only had they been forcibly removed from their homes, they were now, bit by bit and day by day, being asked to give up who they were. And it was out of that experience that the Jewish people began to interpret the Torah, in a way that stressed, above all, God’s holiness, God’s set-apartness, thus their holiness, their set-apartness as God’s people. It was during that time that the sections of the law which emphasized separation and purity became dominant. This emphasis was so severe, in fact, that you may recall that it was during that time that Ezra instructed the Jews to put away (divorce, abandon) their foreign wives and children.
Hundreds of years later, Jesus’ society, which was now facing the threat of being assimilated into Roman culture, was structured according to that interpretation. The purity system or the politics of holiness, as it is now called, was one of the ways that the Jewish people coped. It kept them separate from everyone else. But it also kept them separate from one another by establishing a spectrum of people ranging from the pure to varying degrees of purity to people on the margin to the radically impure (Borg).
People were determined to be pure or impure according to some extent on birth. The priests and Levites, who were hereditary classes, came first, followed by Israelites, followed by converts, and on down the line.
But one’s degree of purity or impurity also depended on behavior. Those who lived according to the purity codes were seen as pure. And there were, in fact, at least two renewal movements in Jesus’ day in which people sought to become even purer. The Essenes, who believed that the only way to be pure was to remove themselves from the culture, and who lived in the desert, and the Pharisees, who tried to maintain strict codes of purity within the culture. Those who didn’t or couldn’t maintain these purity codes were seen as outcasts. And of course, the outcasts included occupational groups such as tax collectors and shepherds.
One’s degree of purity or impurity also depended on physical wholeness. The people who were not whole, the maimed, the chronically ill, lepers, eunuchs, etc., were impure.
Also, one’s degree of purity or impurity was associated with economic class. While it was certainly possible for a rich person to be impure and a poor person to be pure, it was generally believed that rich people were rich because they had been blessed by God and that poor people were poor, or that sick people were sick, etc., because they had not lived rightly, and were thus not blessed by God. (Which is why Jesus’ statement that God makes the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust is so remarkable.)
And, it was almost impossible for a poor person to observe the rigid purity laws.
Purity and impurity were also associated with the contrast between male and female. Generally speaking, men in their natural state were thought to be more pure than women. And, of course, purity and impurity was also attached to whether one was a Jew or a Gentile.
The purity system had become the political system, and it worked for those who were in power. It kept them rich. For example, farmers were required to tithe part of their yearly crop to the priests and the Levites. If they did not, then their food would be considered unclean, and no one would buy it. Another example, before a leper could be proclaimed clean, he or she would have to bring in a rather hefty amount of offerings to the priest, who could then do the necessary healing rituals. So the concept of holiness had become the politics of holiness, and in fact, the economics of holiness. The powers were highly invested in keeping the status quo, and the best way to do that was to keep everybody in their place.
Okay, that was Jesus’ culture. And we need to know and understand that in order to truly understand the gospels. For example, Jesus’ story about the good Samaritan, with which we’re all so familiar, was an attack on the holiness code. The Levite and the priest passed the man by not because they were particularly apathetic or hateful, but because they were not, according to the holiness code, allowed to touch a dead person, and they couldn’t tell if the man, who is described as ‘half-dead,’ was dead or not. The Samaritan, who is radically impure, comes by, acts out of compassion, not purity, but compassion, and is praised for his actions.
And Jesus was not just attacking the holiness code in this story, he was teaching a whole new one, to be compassionate as God is compassionate (Luke 6:36). He even uses the same formula. Remember, the paradigm of the day was, Be holy as God is holy. But Jesus comes teaching, Be compassionate as God is compassionate. And he doesn’t just teach it, he does it.
Cont’d…
Happy Twentieth Birthday, GW!
“If you choose, you can make me clean,” says the leper, and you can imagine that his heart is in his mouth.
“If you choose, you can make me clean,” says the leper, and what he’s asking Jesus to do is something that the priests have refused to do, what he’s asking Jesus to do is to declare him clean in the Levitical sense. What he’s asking Jesus to do is to restore him to his family, to restore him to his livelihood, to restore him to his community, to restore to him his dignity and his life.
“If you choose, you can declare me clean,” and his heart is pounding so hard that he knows that Jesus can hear it, and the blood is rushing to his head, and Jesus is looking at him, knowing how hard his heart is pounding, knowing how desperate he is to be restored, knowing how vile and how corrupt this system of purity has become, knowing, according to Ched Myers, who says that that’s the only way that Jesus’ anger makes sense here, that he’s been to the priests already, and that they’ve denied him his bill of health, his access to his family, to home, to livelihood, to everyone and everything that a person would want to live for, and as Jesus stands there looking at him, he is moved with anger at the systems that have cast this man out like so much garbage, Jesus is moved with anger, and he reaches out, and he knows as he reaches out that he is, by Jewish law, not allowed to touch the man, that in touching the man, he will be viewed as unclean, too, and he knows as he reaches out, that if he proclaims this man clean, that he will be overstepping his bounds, usurping the carefully guarded authority of the priests, who according to the Torah are the only ones who can declare a leper clean, even if the priest is an imbecile, the teachings say, it must be the priest that declares the leper clean, and Jesus, moved with anger, reaches out his hand and touches the man, and says to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!”
And immediately the man is made clean. At Jesus’ touch, at Jesus’ word, the man is proclaimed and made clean. But Jesus is still angry. In fact, Mark says that he snorts with indignation. Jesus is still angry at the systems that have oppressed this man for so long, and he says to man, “See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, show them what I’ve done, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a witness against them. They would not touch you, they would not proclaim you whole, they would not give you back your life. You go and tell them, you go and show them what I’ve done.”
Saul Alinsky, who is one of the most famous community organizers of all times, says in his book, Rules for Radicals, that the job of the organizer is to maneuver and bait the establishment so that it will publicly attack him as a ‘dangerous enemy.’ The word ‘enemy’ is sufficient to put the organizer on the side of the people, to identify him with the ‘Have-Nots…’
And then Jesus, because he himself was considered to be unclean after touching the man, and more importantly, because in taking a stab at the authorities of his day he had put himself in danger, could not go into a town openly, but had to stay out in the country, where people came to him, where the Have-Nots came to him from every quarter.
Jesus knew what he was getting into. “If you choose,” said the leper with his heart in his mouth, “if you choose…” and Jesus did choose. He chose, not just to heal the leper, which he could have done at a safe distance, as he did in the story in Luke, but to confront head on the purity laws, and thus, the keepers of the purity laws, the priests. He’s already confronted the scribes, and now he’s confronting the priests.
Twenty years ago a group of folks who had grown up under a different, but in some ways, similar, holiness code, and that’s the Southern Baptist holiness code, that can be summed up, perhaps, with this little rhyme:
Don’t smoke or drink or chew, or
hang with those who do…
…they had a vision of a place where people from all walks of life could come together on equal ground. They didn’t want another place where the haves would serve the have nots, no, they wanted a place where everyone would be served equally, and so they decided that everything would be free for everybody. They didn’t want a place where those with talent would perform for those without talent. No, they wanted a place where everyone could have a chance to shine, and so they decided to do an open mic.
They also decided to clap like crazy whenever anybody did anything, or maybe they didn’t decide it, but they sure did it, and people who never in a million years would have thought that they’d ever read a poem or sing a song found themselves up there on stage being treasured, being listened to, being loved.
They had this vision, and they made it work, and now it’s worked for 20 years. 20 years of faithfulness, 20 years of radical inclusivity, 20 years of making coffee and washing dishes, 20 years of waiting tables, 20 years of listening and performing, 20 years of pulling down the walls.
I remember our very first Urban Goatwalker Coffeehouse. Robert and I sat with a couple who was homeless, and the woman rubbed the tablecloth between her fingers and looked at the candle on the table and looked around the room and said, with reverence in her voice, this is really nice.
After all these years, I still feel the reverence of this place where people come together on equal ground, and find healing.
“If you choose, you can heal me,” says the man.
“If you choose,” says this broken, needy, desperate, heart in its mouth world, “you can heal me.” And you warm up the coffeepot and you pull out the tablecloths and you put on our aprons, and you do choose.
Thanks be to God.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Irony Marches On
One of my crazy senators (I'm from Kentucky - home of Mitch McConnell AND Rand Paul, so we stay entertained) offered some opinions at yesterday's CPAC (Conservative Political Action Committee) meeting.
I wanna tell you this: I always love coming to CPAC. And you probably know why: Conservatives are more simply more fun than liberals, and there is a reason for that, We’re always right.
Now the reason the liberals are always wringing their hands all the time - you notice that? They're always wringing their hands all the time - is they know we've got better arguments than they do. So they spend half their time thinking how to convince people that what's wrong is right, and the other half looking for conservatives to tear down or CPAC conferences to disrupt.
You all know the liberal playbook - here's how it works: Pick a target, freeze it, personalize it, then polarize it. But rarely have we seen these kind of tactics employed with the kind of zeal we see today..."
Can't wait to see what Jon Stewart does with that. How about you all? Wanna take a shot?
How about:
It IS funny how he does not see the irony of his humorless, utterly-lacking-in-fun, flaccid, polarizing words, I'll give him that.
I've about decided that one thing that helps push people into conservatism must be a total lack of self-awareness in making ironic statements. Maybe there should be a fund to help fight irony illiteracy? Mitch could be their poster child...
I guess I better wait to see what Stewart has to say...
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Charles Dickens
Happy Birthday, Mr Dickens!
Here are some of his keen insights into a nation with no systematic approach to dealing with poverty, of which, he was a sharp social critic...
"I never knew how bad she was, till the fever came upon her, and then her bones were starting through the skin. There was neither fire nor candle; she died in the dark – in the dark. She couldn’t even see her children’s faces, though we heard her gasping out their names.
I begged for her in the streets, and they sent me to prison. When I came back, she was dying; and all the blood in my heart has dried up, for they starved her to death. I swear it before the God that saw it,– they starved her!"
~from "Oliver Twist"
From these cities they would go on again, by the roads of vines and olives, through squalid villages, where there was not a hovel without a gap in its filthy walls, not a window with a whole inch of glass or paper; where there seemed to be nothing to support life, nothing to eat, nothing to make, nothing to grow, nothing to hope, nothing to do but die.
~from "Little Dorrit"
They carried him very gently along the fields, and down the lanes, and over the wide landscape; Rachael always holding the hand in hers. Very few whispers broke the mournful silence. It was soon a funeral procession. The star had shown him where to find the God of the poor; and through humility, and sorrow, and forgiveness, he had gone to his Redeemer’s rest.
~from "Hard Times"
They were a boy and a girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread.
Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude.
`Spirit. are they yours.' Scrooge could say no more.
`They are Man's,' said the Spirit, looking down upon them. `And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it.' cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. `Slander those who tell it ye. Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end.'
`Have they no refuge or resource.' cried Scrooge.
`Are there no prisons.' said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. `Are there no workhouses.' The bell struck twelve.
~from "A Christmas Carol"
Monday, January 30, 2012
Fair Play is for Sissies
Okay, moving away from that fruity-loopy "poetry" garbage, let me post this:
How in the world did I miss this last week...?
During last night's Republican debate in South Carolina, Congressman Ron Paul was booed for advocating the "Golden Rule" in foreign policy.
"If another country does to us what we do others, we're not going to like it very much. So I would say that maybe we ought to consider a 'Golden Rule' in foreign policy. Don't do to other nations what we don't want to have them do to us," said Paul, who was greeted with boos.
International Business Times
In an audience composed of conservative (presumably largely Christian) GOP members, Ron Paul advocates the Golden Rule ("Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you") and gets booed??
Here it is on the Youtubes
Wow.
What is the world supposed to make of that? Have any conservative Christians addressed this point? Have they taken the Fox Audience to task or defended the booing?
I will say this: I like Ron Paul. I'd much rather have a legitimate and honest Libertarian in office than a standard GOP flack. Ron Paul is consistent and I appreciate that.
Don't get me wrong: I wouldn't want to see Paul as president, I'm just saying he's easily my favorite of the GOP candidates for president. He's still got some loopy opinions, but at least they're consistent and rational from a Libertarian worldview...
Shame on you, South Carolina. It's a good thing Jesus H. Christ isn't running for President, Lord knows what they'd do to Him.
Sunset over the Ridge
January 29, 2012
There lies a stillness
on the backside of the ridge
broken by nothing
but the cool lonesome wind
And to sit on the hillside
overlooking the valley
tangled only by briars
and disrupted only by birdsong
there is a peace, wanting to be claimed
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