ARE YOU LISTENING?

"(Elijah) said, 'Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.' And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a calm voice" -- 1 Kings 19:11-12

     Perhaps you've noticed that today there is a lot of talking going on. Talk radio, the 24-hour News cycle, blogs, tweets, and social networking media ramble on to dominate the lives of many. I, personally, know people who live on Facebook. How they manage to get things done as they are constantly checking their Facebook page is beyond me.

     All too often what's being said amounts to nothing -- at least nothing that is of any profit to a child of God. And, all too often, the voices spouting these "nothings" howl like the wind, disrupt like an earthquake, and spread like wildfire. Mostly, these voices criticize, divide, and destroy in their slander, gossip, and misinformation.

     In the scriptural passage that headlines this post, we are reminded that when God revealed Himself to Elijah, He was NOT in the wind, nor the earthquake, nor the fire. We should not be looking for Him to be there, today, either. Noisy, nagging, negative voices are anthema to God because it prevents us from hearing His voice as he speaks to us and, today, we dearly need to hear Him.

    One of my favorite poems -- The Desiderata -- begins with the words, "Go placidly among the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence..." and reminds us to, "avoid loud and aggressive people for they are vexations to the soul."  I believe it is time to be silent and avoid the noise and listen to that calm voice that speaks to us through the rage.

     James wrote in his epistle that children of God should be slow to speak and swift to listen (James 1:19). Pretty good advice for this twenty-first century by reminding us to resist the urge to be talking (arguing?) all the time. Too often our words run so freely they only to point to how spiritually empty we are and how little we really care for the other. God calls us into serve to these 'others,' but we cannot serve when spirituallyempty.

     My prayer is, that as we go about our daily lives amidst all the clutter may we take time to pause and listen for the calming voice of God, the voice that never shouts, but speaks words of gentleness and kindness to touch our hearts.  Are you listening?

WHEN GOD CALLS WE ARE CALLED TO....WHAT?

"He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God!" -- Micah 6:8

     I believe that I have been called by God to minister in the Christian faith as a servant to our Lord Jesus Christ. I am, of course, not alone. We are all called to be servants of God to one degree or another. Those called into a pastoral ministry often struggle with the nature of this calling because we are frustrated in fulfilling our expectations of our by the corporate nature of the Church and its orthodoxy that requires a conformity that represses our true feelings, distorts our theology and brings on a depression that we have fallen short in our calling. It shouldn't be that way.

     Through two-thousand years of growth the Church Universal has become an institution and, like all institutions, members are required to submit to the dogmas and rituals of that institution. Clergy are judged by how well they conform to teaching the Church's dogma and admission is based on perceived orthodoxy to that dogma. I, myself, was denied admission to the Presbyterian ministry because the Head of my Presbytery concluded that I "wasn't ready" for the ministry and, thus, my admission to a seminary was canceled. My offense? I confessed that I had a "problem" with the Trinity. But, isn't seminary where such "problems" are worked out? The result was, that although I continued to pray vociferously, to read theologically, and mainitained what I would called a "private" religious faith, I left the Church and did not return for nearly thirty-five years.

     In 2010 I once more felt the pull of God calling me to join the ranks of those who advocate for Him. However, due to age and circumstance, pursuing a path to a traditional ordination wasn't feasable, so I took a very untraditional route. I found a progressive, non-denominational community online, one professing a distinctly liberal interpretation of scripture, and whose only criteria for membership was to "Do that which is right." I enrolled in online seminary work leading, eventually, to Masters degrees in Divinity and Sacred Theology. It took time, but the end result is that Iwas ordained a minister of the church. 

     As for the direction for my ministry, this blog has been the starting point. In calling this a REDEMPTIVE CHURCH, it expresses my belief that no human being is beyond salvation. "All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God," wrote the Apostle Paul (Romans 3:23), and is something we all should remember, especially when pointing fingers. As someone once told me, we should remember that when one finger is pointing away, three are pointing back. Redemption informs my reading of scriptures that God loves all of us and is always prepared to forgive our transgressions.  

     Within the next year, the Redemptive Church ministry will go beyond this blog to become a ministry geared towards those whom society has marginalized: the homeless whom we see everywhere on street corners begging for change or rummaging through trash bins seeking discards of clothing (and food?), and whose 'home' may be a cardboard box beneath a freeway. And, then, there are those whose background includes drug use or prison and who are, in some cases, "registered persons," often for years after they had paid their debt to society. Such marginalized individual are, all too often, viewed through unsympathetic eyes, and seen as pariahs who not only are objects of derision but have lost the right to participate in society all together. I know of churches in the Oklahoma City area that will not allow a convicted felon or a registered person to worship with them and who turn up their noses should a homeless vagrant wander in during Sunday service..
     However, in my view, taking care of the marginalized -- those forced to live in a prison of perpetual shame by a society that is either blind to their plight or they just don't care -- is in keeping with the ministry of Jesus (Matt. 25) and is, therefore, the impetus for the Redemptive Church.

     But, this ministry is not only directed at the marginalized. We shall endeavor to reach out to those whom retired Episcopal Bishop, John Shelby Spong calls, the "Church Alumni Association." Believers, like me, who left the church for one reason or another and long for a pathway back but who who have lost all comfort in that "Old Time Religion" as salvific. What they are waiting for is the New "Good News" as embodied in the story of the woman taken in adultery and about to stoned when Jesus said, "Let those of you without sin cast the first stone" (John 8:1-11). In Christ her past was forgiven when he said, "Go, and sin no more." A progressive look at scripture reveals a compassion that doesn't look back but looks to the future to help us address and understand the personal crises we, and our neighbors, face today and the impact those crises, if left undressed, have upon tomorrow. The Redemptive Church will be a place that practices a radical hospitality and welcomes all.

     That is my vision and the nature of my calling.  It also is my invitation to you as, together, we explore what it means to be called into a New Being as a "Child of God." It is a participatory calling, for God calls us into partnership with him. And, what does this call entail? He has told you, O Man, what is required of you. To do JUSTICE, to LOVE KINDNESS, and to WALK HUMBLY with your God. 

THE NEW "GOOD NEWS"

"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the meek; to heal the brokenhearted; to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prisons to them that are bound (and) to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD" -- Isaiah 61.1

     As I meditated on these words from the Prophet Isaiah I couldn't help but wonder what actually is happening here? These are not vacuous words. They proclaim "good news!" Something was breaking into human history in this little sliver of the Lavant called, Israel, that was not the "old" news. The "old" news was that following the Law of Moses in behavior and diet produced salvation. But, tell that to a starving man! Tell that to the weak who are oppressed by the strong. Tell that to a wife thrown into poverty and prostitution in order to care for her children following the death of a husband. Tell that to those languishing in a prison cell while their families starve. No, this news was new "Good News." Jesus would make a similar proclamation at the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4:19), and though they were echoed centuries apart, both have an existential message whose power transcends time and which is still valuable to us, today. 

     Looking at this passage in Isaiah let us start with the Good News for the meek. The Prophet preaches that meekness is a virtue. It is most visible in a humble attitude that expresses itself in a patient endurance, especially in the face of offense. It is the type of meekness that doesn't get riled at an insult or angry at a motorist who suddenly cuts in front of us. It is the spirit of "gentleness" toward, not only others, but most importantly, to ourselves such that the response to insult is to "turn the other cheek." Thus, a meek, humble, gentle person is one who embodies mercy and self-restraint; one who "suffers the little children," and finds ways to bring comfort to the downtrodden. Such an attitude is not weakness, although it is often seen in that vein. Meekness, gentleness, humility, mercy and self-restraint constitute a state of mind that is a choice we can make and is the sign of a truly meek human being. The new "Good News" is that God loves the meek; seeks their companionship and partnership. God loves the meek over the oppressively strong and arrogant which is why they -- the meek -- will inherit the earth. If there is one character trait we can ascribe to Jesus, it is that he was meek. 

     A broken heart can bring one to one's knees in feeling empty inside. It's companions are loneliness, helplessness, and depression. Those who suffer from a broken heart often feel as though there is nothing that can be done to fix it; especially, if the heartbreak is due to the death of a loved one. When my parents died, I went out to their grave sites the night after they were buried and there, in the darkness, I drove my arm down into the freshly piled dirt as far as I could hoping that, one last time, I might touch and hold on to them. I still grieve over the loss of a son. The hurt can be so great that tears turn into wails of anguish. Jesus wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). But, the new "Good News" is, there is comfort, there is healing and there is a refuge from the pain. 

     As we weather though this world-wide pandemic of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus there are many who have lost loved ones. There are millions of others who felt the loneliness of having to watch from afar as their loved one suffered through the illness. We have been locked down and felt the anxiety that there is no way to fix this thing and having jumped to an early "reopening" we are seeing this virus spread rapidly with the result being additional loss of life. It should give all of us pause to think that the United States of America, my home, leads the world in coronavirus infections and deaths. How could that be? Aren't we supposed to be better than that? And, that, in itself, is a source of disappointment, sorrow and heartbreak. That there are those among us who disregard the threat of this pandemic and arrogantly say that these deaths are the result of "underlying conditions" are callous human beings and another reason why Jesus wept and decried the "hypocrites." But the new "Good News" is, there is comfort, there is healing and refuge from the pain.

     Isaiah speaks of liberty for "the captives" and the opening of prisons. Many will find that a scary proclamation, but consider this: The United States  of America, this land of freedom is a world leader in criminal prosecutions and imprisonment, and ranks only behind Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia in the number of its citizens executed. "An eye for an eye," many say, but at what cost to our collective soul? Contrary to how its portrayed in any number of "cop shows" on television, our criminal justice system seems (emphases on seems) bent on criminalizing even the most minor of misbehavior. According to a recent study by the University of California/Irvine, 80% of all arrests and 80% of all criminal court dockets in America are for minor misdemeanors and more than half of all prisoners in state and federal penitentiaries have been convicted for low-level, non-violent crimes having received sentences that would have better served society had they been given supervised probation rather than incarceration.  

     Recently we have witnessed the deaths of a number of citizens of color that were suspected, at best, of committing a misdemeanor. Breonna Taylor was killed in her own home by police acting with a "No Knock" search warrant on a suspected "drug house," where nothing -- I repeat -- nothing was found. She was shot eight times by the police when her boyfriend, thinking their house was being broken into, fired at the officers. Yes, the police need the power to apprehend criminals and make arrests and in such a volatile environment, we give them guns to defend themselves and protect others. No one disputes that. However, to brutaly do so, to kill innocent people for minor -- or imagined -- offenses, especially against our neighbors of color, MUST come to an end. 

     Additionally, we must address the dumbest aspect of America's criminal justice system and that is when an offender, having served their time in jail or prison -- having paid one's debt to society -- is released to find that a criminal record is a stumbling block to a good job and making a decent living. Some states make a convicted felon ineligible for certain licenses and professions, not to mention the heinous (and, as far as I'm concerned, unconstitutional) notion of "disenfranchisement" whereby an offender losses all of their civil rights including the right to vote. 

     Every state in these United States requires anyone convicted of a sex offense, from a misdemeanor urinating in public to more severe felonies, to register with the state. Some states for a period of years, others for life. Is this justice or is it just another way of placing a "Scarlet Letter" on those we disapprove of? One has to ask, where does the injustice end? As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere." I could understand if this were some third world, back-water country led by despots embroiled in tribal warfare; where one is executed for adultery or homosexuality, or having their hands chopped of for theft, but this is the United States of America. Aren't we supposed to be the "light shining on a hill?" How could this happen here? But the new "Good News" is, there is a pathway out of this quagmire. There is comfort, there is healing and there is refuge from pain.

     Isaiah proclaimed this relief as the "acceptable year of the LORD." What is it and what makes it so acceptable? To understand this we must look back in time to when Moses was at Sinai conversing with God. This is during the Exodus and God is setting down his laws for the future of the Hebrew people. 

   Chapters 25 and 26 of the Book of Leviticus are, perhaps, the most often overlooked chapters in the Bible. Here God tells Moses that the Hebrews are to set aside one year every fifty years as a Sabbatical to God. During this year the fields remain dormant; crops neither reaped nor harvested (food must be stored during the previous three years); cattle and sheep are allowed to roam freely in the fields; friendships among the people are to be restored; no one shall be wronged; the stranger is to be welcomed; the widows and orphans cared for; prisoners are to be pardoned and freed; usury is forbidden and all debt is forgiven and lands lost to debt restored to their rightful owners; the sin of the nation shall be healed and individual sins forgiven. God called this His "Jubilee" year as a reminder, not only of His Covenant with the Hebrews as His Chosen People, but as a reminder that the land He has given them is His and they are nothing more than sojourners in that land; visitors to God (Lev. 25:23).

     Think on that for a moment. We exist through God's eternal Mercy. Would you not agree that here, then, is "Good News?" Most certainly. Isaiah, like the rams horn that announced its beginning, was announcing its arrival. Still, this only happens once every fifty years.

     Now, fast forward four-hundred years and Jesus standing in the synagogue and reading Isaiah 61 to the congregation. It wasn't time for a Jubilee. It had not been fifty years since the last one so for his hearers it was a nice reading from the Torah by this young rabbi, one of their own, reminding them of the prosperity and hope to come. But, what followed was something that would set the tone for his ministry and become the timeless lesson that remains with us today. Jesus says, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21). 

     What was Jesus alluding to? Was he saying that he was the expected Messiah? No wonder many in Nazareth thought his words scandalous. How could this young, "whipper-snapper" be so bold as to proclaim the "acceptable year of the Lord?" Only the Temple priests could exercise such right. In a rage the people of Nazerath threw him out of the city (Lk. 4:29), literally ran him out of town, and he went and took refuge in Capernaum. But, the nagging question remains, what was Jesus really saying? What did he mean that this particular scriptural passage was being fulfilled? The message meant to impact those 1st-Century Jews would have, and has had, a profound impact on the faith we Christians claim as our mantel and is, what I describe as, the new Good News.

     Many biblical scholars and theologians have made the claim that in Luke 4 Jesus, in comparing himself with the prophet Isiah, is making the claim that he is the expected Messiah. I disagree, because I just cannot bring myself to see Jesus making any such claim about himself. To me it smacks of arrogance and narcissism. Such a claim seems wholly counter to an attitude of meekness and in Jesus we certainly see a meek, humble and gentle man. It is a meekness that does not make claims about oneself, but rather asks of another, "Who do you say that I am?" What, in affect, Jesus was claiming is that the Kingdom of God is not some future event, but that it has arrived; it is here, in our midst; prophecy has been fulfilled. And that is what life in this kingdom will be like? It is a kingdom where meekness is the primary sign of its existence. 

     Jesus said in Matthew 5... 

     "The meek shall inherit the earth," in sharp contrast to to those who believe that "might makes right," "only the strong survive," or that "the future belongs to those with the will to take it." 

    "Blessed are the poor in spirit," as opposed to those who claim a cloak of righteousness, make public their prayers and supplications, and are smug and self-assured that their form of righteousness "saves" them from damnation.

  "Blessed are the merciful," against those who take pleasure in another's misfortune; charge exorbitant fees and interest on debt; force widows and orphans into poverty or some form of indentured slavery all for their own advantage and profit.

  "Blessed are they that mourn, " and not a word to those who are callous to suffering.

     I don't have to recount the whole of the Be-attitudes for you to get the picture of what Jesus was saying to the synagogue congregants that "this scripture has been fulfilled." What he was saying, and what made Jesus' claim so scandalous was that he was rewriting and reinterpreting the Torah. How hypocritical, he was saying, to live sinfully  for forty-nine years and then, in the fiftieth year to live a life of harmony with God and neighbor where everything is forgiven and peace and love reigns. Scandalous? Indeed! 

    By invoking Isaiah 61 Jesus was, in affect, announcing that the Kingdom of God had arrived and at the center of this kingdom is God's "Jubilee;" not once every fifty years, but every day! Jesus was saying that every day should be sanctified to Him whom we address as "Father." Every day we are justified by our attitude of meekness. Everty day we confess that our inner-spirit is not what it should be and asking for strength to shore up this weakness. Every day is lived so that our empathy is focused to the needs of others such that we look after the poor, the widowed, the orphaned, the hungry, the thirsty, and the naked. Every day we seek justice for the persecuted and the imprisoned, especially for those imprisoned for minor offenses or debt. And, since in this kingdom God's Jubilee is a daily occurrence, our sinful lives are forgiven every day. 

     For the Jew, life was all about following the Law; the same Law handed down to Moses on Mt. Sinai centuries earlier. It was tradition and for the Jew, tradition is everything. Years later, the Apostle Paul would say that it isn't the Law that justifies, but faith in the risen Christ that assures of a life everlasting and that, too, is thetradition within the Christian church. But nowhere in Leviticus or Matthew or any of the Gospels do I find Jesus telling people to believe this way or that. I see him teaching us how to pray; healing the sick; comforting the grief-stricken; restoring the fallen sinner; resurrecting those whose souls are dead. But, in none of this does he say anything about how or what to believe. Have you ever noticed that the Be-attitudes is all about how to live and not what to believe, whereas the Christian Church for the last seventeen hundred years recites the Nicene Creed which tells us what to believe and not one word on how to live.

    The Kingdom of God is like a precious stone found in a field whereby a man goes and sells all his possessions to buy that field. It is a place of great joy, and what better joy than in God's Jubilee. That was the new "Good News" for Roman Palestine where one had to wait for fifty years for relief. Many would never make it. Although there were those who lived into old age, the average life expectancy in the 1st Century CE was 35. Few would make it to the fiftieth year. Jesus brought a new message: sanctify every day as God's Jubilee? Look at the advantages! To make it happen all you had to do was start living a life in which you loved God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your might, and love your neighbor -- everyone, including the stranger -- as much as you love yourself. If you can do that, in a spirit of gentleness, kindness and humility, then the meek shall truly inherit the earth. Poverty will be overcome; the poor in spirit, knocked down by the burdens of the world, will be restored; the needy, the widow, the orphan, the sick and the dying will be cared for with tender mercy; the imprisoned will find justice, and the mournful will be comforted. 

     So, now, imagine, if you will, what the world would be like if we were, indeed, the "salt of the earth;" the "light of the world" which, like a city built on a hill, "cannot be hidden." What Jesus proclaimed, and what all Christians should confess and embrace is that the acceptable year of the Lord -- His Jubilee -- is here, right now, EVERY DAY! That is the meaning of the Kingdom of God. Celebrate it. Wow! Now that would, indeed, be new Good News.