Conversations on the Church's Vocation in the Public World

Between Caucus Night and Epiphany

2012-01-04T07:05:00.003-06:00

Between the Iowa Caucuses, January 3, and Epiphany, January 6

We gathered at the E. B. Lyons Interpretive Center. It was dark driving down the lane to the Nature Center. One could hardly find the way. But once there, arriving even before the announced 6:30 door-opening time, the parking lot was already full. And inside were our neighbors. I saw colleagues from Wartburg who waved us over to sit by them. There was Pat Murphy simply helping out, our State representative and former Speaker of the Iowa House. I spotted Carolyn Farrell coming in, a Roman Catholic nun from the next neighborhood over, who once served as Mayor of Dubuque.
But mostly they were the ordinary folk…no, I take that back, including Pat and Carolyn, we were all ordinary folk. Who meets at the Nature Center in the middle of winter? Well, the press wasn’t there. It was, after all, the “other” caucus night in Iowa. But people kept streaming in. At last count there were 150 and standing room only. Yes, many had come to hear the president (streaming video with some precincts in Iowa, not ours), but more significant, I believe, was these people had come to be part of a conversation in participatory democracy.

The Democrats, unlike the Republicans, each four years, do not take a secret ballot. We meet, listen, talk and then go to different parts of the room in preference groups and simply count the number of people there. Then, if some groups are too small to select one person to go on to the county caucus, people talk with each other some more, reconfigure and count again until there are viable groups.
So what was the big deal last night? I know, I know, the media was on the other side of town. I’m not sure they could have found us out in the dark woods anyway. (There were other precinct meetings in Dubuque; ours just happened to be south of town where there’s a growing population.) But I wish the media had been there, or at least some witnesses to this event at the Nature Center.

After hearing from Pat and the president and about the organizational structure of this form of participatory democracy, the question was asked if anyone there wanted to caucus for any other candidate than the president. That option was there, but no one did, so we did not divide into preference groups. Four years earlier, when the Precinct 2 Caucus was held at Wartburg Seminary, it was quite a different scene…and exciting night which ended in Barack Obama garnering about 50% of the precinct goers…but you know all about that.

Because a few precincts were gathering together last night, we then divided with half of us going downstairs to the science lab where we took small stools off tables and talked with our closer neighbors, those from down the street and the next streets over. We talked about issues and decided who would go on to represent us at the County Caucus coming up in March. We could send 7 delegates. We decided. And then one woman proposed that everyone else of us be listed as alternates. We could do that because anyone can go. Who would serve on the Platform Committee and who on the Credentials Committee? (The last is not a pro forma issue if you read my last blog.) We signed the petitions for our state and national candidates to represent us. It was easy to be involved. Oh, and yes, we passed the hat (an envelope actually) for funds to support our party’s work. Then we ratified our decisions. There was conversation, laughter, seriousness of purpose, and inclusive participation.

During Christmas…Epiphany won’t come until Friday…many of us have gathered in large churches and small, and yes in living rooms and kitchens. Two Christmas programs are memorable because of the people who participated and the message they sent. To be sure, I’m not comparing Caucus Night and Epiphany, only (because I write this day) in so far as the importance of gathering for inclusive participation. One program was on a Sunday morning in a tall sanctuary in Waterloo where my husband is interim pastor. No doubt in years past there were hundreds of children in the sanctuary, but this year, because the downtown congregation is smaller now, we heard the Christmas story from a rather small group of children, and, adults. Every child and youth, including the youngest who would hold the star, and the three young men who had been confirmed and, typically, no longer in attendance regularly, was included meaningfully. They knew why they were there and the importance of their participation.

The woman who wrote it told me afterwards that she had been a child she remembered not having a part and she now wanted everyone to be involved. Those robed to be the cast of Nativity figures, however, were adults, of all ages, from one holding a real baby, to a shepherd who needed help getting off his knees at the end. The children had prepared questions and the adults, in character answered them. All of us were moved by the thoughtful, real, answers, from the struggles of Joseph, to the dilemma of the in-keeper, to Herod, who confessed that sometimes people with power make bad decisions. We were there, all of us, and no one was insignificant as we pondered what we knew and what we had yet to learn from one another in this baby Jesus.

The second Christmas program I attended was here in Dubuque on a Sunday evening. The church was full; it was hard to find a seat. The script was well written and all knew their parts, challenging us to consider the story of the nativity amid our contemporary pressures. The evening ended with what might have been considered an “add-on,” but which I found to be a moving way that brought us all worshipfully together. Tina St. Aubin, a Wartburg Seminary student, doing her Educational Ministry field work at this congregation, had been teaching the children some liturgical movement in addition to their practice for the program. She had told me the adults had been standing at the edges of the practice session, joining in. And so, this Sunday evening, with the children in the nativity scene, the pre-school young ones filling the sanctuary, all the others gathered around, on the steps, up the aisle, surrounding us all. We all become participants as two women sang “Mary’s Song” (by Mark Lowry and Buddy Green):

Mary, did you know? Did you know that your baby boy would come to make you new? Did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters? Did you know that the child you delivered will soon deliver you? Did you know this sleeping child you’re holding is the great I Am?

Did you know?

Now, on a morning-after-Caucus Day of ever-ending interpretations of what an 8-vote margin means, that’s a question to ponder. Blessed Epiphany

The Most Important Issue Not Being Talked About

2011-10-28T07:31:00.003-05:00

So many issues unfolding in front of us each day that they may overwhelm our ability to deeply consider them, much less to take action. And all are important, particularly as they intersect in the public world. But one I see so little about amongst all the "Your Voice, Your Vote" commentaries on political candidates, is all of those people who are daily losing their vote.

The Voting Rights bill of the 1960's finally permitted people of color who had been denied the vote since the inception of this nation, to vote. People worked so hard, organized, were beaten, went to jail and died so that all could vote. It never occurred to many of us that those rights might be legally taken back just a few decades later. This very year in dozens of states laws are being passed to insist on voter I.D. That all sounds innocent enough, perhaps even noble. I mean, who wouldn't want to prevent voter fraud? But the truth is that "voter fraud" is a bogeyman. One is more likely to be hit by lightning than to commit voter fraud. The Bush administration spent 5 years investigating voter fraud and convicted only 86 people among 196 million votes cast.

So why are all these states passing laws that will disenfranchise millions? Some estimate 5 million people who voted in 2008 will not be able to vote in 2012 and the number is climbing of those being disenfranchised. They are people who don't have a driver's license. That already targets the young, the old, the poor (who don't have a car), and those people living with disabilities.

Hear the story of the 90-some-year-old woman who has voted in every election except one when she was ill, since women were able to vote. More elections than almost any of the rest of us. She has been a faithful citizen, exercising her voice and vote in the public world. But in 2012 she will not be able to vote. She took all of her documentation including birth certificate, records of utility bills paid at her current address, etc. to the center where she was to go to obtain a new special I.D. card. But she didn't have her marriage license from decades ago which showed her change of name. No matter she has been a widow for years. She had a stellar voting record but now she was denied the right to vote next year.

Why would anyone want to deny this woman the vote? Why are people of color being denied I.D. cards for such technicalities at such great rate?(I'm not even commenting on the issue of the political party in power in various state legislatures.) It's my guess that it might be connected to what has been on the news since the 2010 census, that the "majority" whites population may someday become the minority. People fear the "other" and demographics are changing. The country feared what would happen if half the population, namely women, were "allowed" to vote. People feared "Negroes" being "given" the vote a hundred years after emancipation. In 2008 eligible Latino voters were 9.5% of the population (up from 8.2%); eligible African-American voters were ll.8% (up from ll.6%); eligible Asian-American voters were 3.4% (up from 3.3%); eligible White (non-Latino)voters were 73.4% (down from 75.2%) Looking at those figures, one should still ask, "What do white folks have to fear?" But fear has its own power.

There is nothing so fundamental to democracy than the right to vote. For citizens of voting age, voting is a right,not a privilege, not something a voter should need to prove again and again. If someone votes unlawfully, that is a crime which can be prosecuted. As a nation the price of freedom is leaving open the possibility some will break the law (but we have seen how small that number is) in order that we not deny millions their right to vote.

So, what can we, who have a driver's license and find voting easy, do? One, honor that right and use it. And, I might say, reflect on just how hard it might be for us to find all those "correct" documents, marriage license, etc, particularly when the list for some targeting people keeps changing and growing of what is needed.

Second, it means that as part of our vocation in the public world we need to aggressively scrutinize new laws or laws being proposed in our state legislatures that have the potential to disenfranchise people. If the laws are there, we can reach out to people within our faith communities and beyond..often the invisible ones...who may be disenfranchised without their even knowing it, or who have never had the means or transportation to register to vote. We can help them find documents, take them to register, advocate on their behalf.

Third, we can contact U.S. Attorney General Holder and say we want the Justice Department to be active on this issue. And we can...this may be most important...work in our own states to overturn such laws or stop them from being enacted.

Fourth, we can put pressure on the media to make this a story, NOW. It will be too late when come next November, the day after the election, the news media finally, "surpringly" say, "There were millions who tried to vote and couldn't"

And, yes there are other very important issues in the news, and in our lives. Perhaps some who are reading this are participating in the "Occupy Wall Street" and "The 99%" protests. How do we grow protests into a movement?

And, there is the PBS series "Women, War and Peace" with two more episodes. Extraordinary and terribly important. Why do we need women's voices? Here's why.

And, and, and.....

Connecting Communities for the Common Good

2011-08-17T12:53:00.012-05:00

I was privileged yesterday to attend here in Dubuque at the Northeast Iowa Community College Town Clock Center "Connecting Communities for the Common Good" with representatives from President Obama's Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships Office. This was held in conjunction with Obama's Rural Economic Forum at NICC's Peosta campus just outside of Dubuque earlier in the day. What a privilege to be with these nine fine people in panel presentations and later for informal conversation at a reception at Loras College.

And what a change from the "Faith Based Initiatives" emphases of the Bush administration. J. David Kuo in the book, "Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction," some years ago went to Washington wanting to use his Christian faith to end abortion, strengthen marriage and help the poor. Kuo said he reached the heights of political power. But after three years of being second in command in the President’s Office of Faith Based And Community Initiatives he found himself helping to manipulate religious faith for political gain. (J. David Kuo, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, New York: Simon and Shuster, 2006.)

Yesterday was entirely different. In this administration we have an invitation to real partnerships in a religiously plural nation. Perhaps 150 to 200 people representing many faith communities and non-profit organizations were present. Dallas Tonsager, Under Secretary, USDA's Office of Rural Development said, "Thank you for your expressions of your faith." The mayor of Dubuque, Roy Buol and the interim president of NICC, Dr. Liang Wee, told of how the city and the college have grown to be places where diversity and collaboration for the common good are welcomed and appreciated.

Alexia Kelley, Deputy Director, and John Kelly, Senior Policy Advisor, for the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships set the tone. I added my voice and was thanked by many in saying that there are millions of Christians that do not have the cross and the flag all tangled up. We need to work together to create a trustworthy place for us to be different together.

So, why is it that the narrative that receives all the press is the one where presidential candidates blatantly profess this is and should be a "Christian" nation where capitalism rules and the poor are left behind? Ray Suarez in his book "The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America" makes clear that Christianity is not an American religion and that the American state is not necessarily Christian. The appropriation of American symbols by the conservative Christian right is a dangerous trend internally and certainly externally. When people in the Middle East hear this kind of talk it's no wonder they assume democratization means Christianization(Ray Suarez, The Holy Vote:The Politics of Faith in America. New York: Harper, 2007)

At the reception we talked about the need for a new narrative. Due to its beginnings under the Bush administration, "Faith-Based" to many means efforts of convert to Christianity under the auspices of the government. Lutherans and many Christian denominations have a much more healthy view of the relationship of church and state. In a pluralistic society we need to have institutional separation and functional interaction. See John R. Stumme and Robert W. Tuttle, Church and State: Lutheran Perspectives. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003. It’s religious pluralism that makes us strong.

So, how do we do that? How do we connect people in our communities for conversation and work together for the common good? I strongly encourage leaders of faith communities to explore the website www.whitehouse.gov/partnerships or phone 202-456-3394. There they will find connections to 13 centers. Faith-Based and Neighborhood representatives of some of these centers were with us yesterday: Max Finberg, Director, US Department of Agriculture Center; Mara Vanderslice Kelly, Acting Director, Department of Health and Human Services Center; Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell, Director, Department of Education Center; Jerry Flavin, Director, Small Business Administration Center, Terry Monrad, Executive Office, Department of Homeland Security Center. Also prsent were Doug O'Brien, Deputy UnderSecretary, USDA's Office of Rural Development, and Terry Sullivan, Small Business Development Center for Dubuque.

How do we make sure children in our communities are well nourished? How can churches and the government work together so that when school is out in the summer children do not go hungry? How can churches and the Small Business Administration work together in a small town to help people without jobs start a new business? How can leaders of faith communities, government and non-profits coordinate efforts in times of natural disaster? All of these partnerships are welcome and needed. As people of many faiths we can and need to work together. And we need to tell these stories. We need a new public narrative of what people of faiths (plural!) in America are doing together. Who will tell this story?

The River Just Kept Running

2011-07-31T06:36:00.003-05:00

The river just kept running all night through our back yard last Wednesday. It had begun simply enough. As I left the seminary about 5 o'clock, the seminary president and I exchanged common thoughts, "Do you think it will rain?" "I don't know. Perhaps."

And then it started about 7:00 p.m. There were the on-and-off-again tornado warnings...which we do heed! Down to our lower level inside hallway Burton and I would go. The warnings finally stopped but the thunder and lightning continued until past dawn. And the rain. Too soon the river of water started across Fremont Avenue to the East when the catch basin there overflowed, forcing all that neighborhood of water into ours. The stream became a river perhaps 40 feet wide. The force was too great for the city storm drain out back and soon the rush of water could have drowned small children. It rushed on over the drain, through the neighborhood and finally to the ravine and railroad tracks beyond. When it was over the 6 inch record for Dubuque had been shattered by l0 to 14 inches throughout the Dubuque area, with East Dubuque particularly hard hit.

Well, when a river runs through your yard all night one can expect that the waters will also come inside. Burton had been awakened and he stayed awake all night. Now, on this fourth day since, the carpets are finally drying out. I need not go into the details of books and papers drying out and all the rest of the clean-up work. All of this is nothing compared to Joplin...or to the droughts for that matter in Texas and Oklahoma we saw just two weeks ago. Yes, this spring meant our needing a new roof because of hail and now a flood. But still, even when the river just kept running, we were ok.

Not so with the more vulnerable. The national news focuses on the debt ceiling crisis. The "clock" just keeps running. How we view the coming deluge is important. How we hear the warning alarms. It is not simply the thunderous noise of politician voices. There is real danger here, for the most vulnerable. A debate is not just neutral when those with the power (money) can keep the vulnerable oppressed. The river that ran through our property simply followed a course to the sea. There are those with any power they can hold on to whose agenda it is to make sure wealth stays with the few, to have government that protects the weak fail and to see that a president that stands for justice is soon out of office.

Now if that sound harsh, consider the figures that came out this week: Whereas Blacks and Hispanics had been gaining in income and "wealth" in relation to Whites, the river of injustice just keeps running, seeking a new course that is devastating, right through people's homes and lives. Now "whites" have 20 times more wealth than Blacks. An article in the Jamaica Observer this Sunday, July 31 written by a woman in the Caribbean diaspora shows how the world sees the disparity. And the world is watching, not just the debate over the debt ceiling, but how the rivers of injustice just keep rolling through our land. Yes, it was a good thing that finally Blacks could share in the American Dream of home ownership, but when the housing crisis came it is now clear, at least to the minorities who suffer, that they were the ones most oversold with sub prime mortgages; they were the ones most likely forced to abandon their homes; and those who were renters lost the roofs over their head not because of hail but because their landlords could not pay the mortgages. Add to that the higher rate of job loss and long-term unemployment and we see the river of injustice just keep running.

Our waters have gone down. We will be fine. How can we carry on the conversation and work so that all will be?

Chairs at the Feet of God

2011-07-12T15:12:00.012-05:00

We walked the lawn of the "Field of Empty Chairs" at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Museum this morning where on April 19, 1995, 168 people, including 19 children, were killed in the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building. The empty chairs, the reflecting pool, the "Survivor Tree" are beautiful. (I had been here once before, when there was just the wire fence with memorials surrounding the vacant space.) The scene that day was grusome. And terror, violence, rages on.

Therefore the statement of the memorial is profoundly important:
"We come here to remember those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity."

Yesterday we heard stories of survivors and of the education and outreach offered so that people might find alternatives to violence, from bullying to bombing. More needs to be done, of course. I remember so well, the first reaction of this nation: the assumption that the terrorists were from outside the United States, not from within. How far have we yet to go in learning to understand one another? In respect? And yet, I could not but respect this community of Oklahoma City for coming together to have conversation in the public world through empty chairs. May we the living sit down together on chairs for conversations of compassion and compromise in our mutual search for peace and justice.

I use the plural "we" because I am attending DOTAC, Diakonia of the Americas and the Caribbean, which meets every four years, this year, here in Oklahoma City with the theme, "Chairs at the Feet of God." Each of the days we focus on: worshipping chairs, listening chairs, working chairs, resting chairs, and sending chairs.

There are fifteen members groups of deacons, deaconesses and diaconal ministers, including Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist, and United Churches from Canada, the United States, Brazil and the Caribbean. This is the fifth such conference I have attended, seeing old friends and new. (Also every four years...therefore two years in between...Global Diakonia meets.) My husband Burton is as eager to attend as am I. Each time I am deepened in my commitment to servanthood ministry, strengthened by the stories of the services of my brother and sister diaconal ministers, and inspired for service to Christ. Diaconal ministry bridges church and world. Once again the conversations across the hemisphere draw us to the feet of God and sends us forth into the public world.

Conversations with my dentist and Jennaya

2011-06-13T11:07:00.003-05:00

I’m a gagger! And my dentist of a number of decades knows that. Nevertheless he persists in caringly giving me the dental service I need. This morning, needing work done because of a broken tooth, while waiting for the gums to numb up after his injections, I told him I appreciated his care and that I trusted him, particularly because I gag. “I imagine there are some people who are afraid to come to you.” “Yes,” he said. We talked a bit about trust. And I commented that it’s that way in ministry, too. People need to trust you so that they can open up and tell you what’s really on their hearts so that you can serve them. “Yes, open up,” he said. We both caught the phrase that crossed over our diverse ministries in daily life. We need people to “open up” for us to do our work.

It was time for me to close (my mouth)again so he could proceed. But not before I had noted that pastors need to be careful not to make assumptions about what they will find “inside." People who may seem to “have it all together” may have deep wounds and those who come looking quite disturbed may not be so deeply distressed after all. He continued, both with his work with hands in my mouth, and with a continuing comment of his own: “I find, that, too. I may make pre-judgements about which people really care about taking care of their own health and which ones are too busy. And often I'm surprised.”

We carried on our conversations, across disciplines, his denstistry, mine theology, and found not only new meaning, new ways of conversing, but also new insights about each of our ministries.

My conversation with Jennaya took place across generations. For her 7th birthday, I for the first time put actual dollar bills in her birthday card...seven of them. The morning after the party we had a conversation about money. I don't think she's had much experience with "carrying-around" bills. She has been learning in first grade how to count, particularly dimes and quarters.

I asked her what she might do with her seven dollar? "I'm going to save it," she replied. "Good," I said. Then I went on to ask her what she knew about the things we use money for. To get started I said, "Such as for buying food...." She and I came up with quite a list, including "Paying for the house, their car," and yes, "giving to church." She knew that her offerings went to help people who needed help. And she had experienced her family giving her baby bed to a family that needed it.

But I was a bit surprised when she added to our list, "For work." I said, "For work? But, people pay us for the work we do." She quickly corrected me, "My teacher uses some of her money to buy things her students." She was right, of course. And then I began to think of how often people, including myself actually, do use money to spend on our work." Her own parents, also teachers do, and she has witnessed that. And, given the economy, we pay our own expenses that our institutions used to be able to pay for us.

What is money afterall? And what a privilege to be able to work, to serve, to minister in God's public world, as a seven-year-old and all of us, no matter what our generation. We learned together that morning, Jennaya and I, as we often do.

What Have You Been Talking About?

2011-05-10T04:42:00.006-05:00

I was at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Summit, New Jersey, May 8, the week of the death of Osama Bin Laden. Summit lost many people on that September 11th day 2001. The text for the day was Luke 24:13-35. Here are my thoughts that I wove together with that text:

On that same day, that same first-day-of-the-week-day,
That same they-found-the-tomb-was-open day,
Two of them were walking along, going to their village, Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem.

And they were talking,
As no doubt you were talking on this first-day-of-the week day,
As you were walking—well, probably most of you driving-- here.
As the two of us, my husband, Burton and I were talking as we drove here yesterday from Philadelphia, where, by your gracious gifts, I have been serving as the St. John’s Summit visiting professor at the Lutheran Seminary this spring semester.

So, what were you talking about?
It’s Mother’s day. Where are you having dinner? What’s been going on in your daily life this week? And, of course, what has been going on in the world? Osama Bin Laden was killed. And there are the terrible floods in the Midwest. And a child or grandchild was sick. What were you talking about?

That’s what Jesus asked, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?”

Important question. “There’s a bench on the campus on the campus of St Michael’s College in Burlington, Vt. With the inscription of that question from this “Walk to Emmaus” passage. “What are you talking about as you walk along together?” during those college years.

The seven-mile walk was not too long for all the things those Emmaus disciples had witnessed. Two men. One a man. One a woman? We don’t know. We do hear that one, whose name was Cleopas, answered this stranger who came near. Our text says, “Their eyes were kept from recognizing.” “Why didn’t they see the Jesus who was right there, right there, beside them?” I think the key is in the first part of the sentence, “while they were talking and discussing.” They were so busy, so distracted, so overwhelmed, they didn’t see Jesus right there.

Even though they don’t see Jesus, Jesus enters their distractions, and asks. And so they tell him. I hear in Cleopas’ voice in my own, (Maybe you hear yours, too.) Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who doesn’t know that’s happened there these days? About Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.
WE HAD HOPED….. that he was the one to redeem Israel.
And, and, besides all this, it’s the third day since all this happened. And moreover, some women of our group simply astounded us. They went to the tomb early this morning and when they didn’t find his body there, they came back and told us they had seen a vision of angels who said he was alive. And some of the rest of us went to the tomb and found it just as the women said, but they didn’t see him.

Can you imagine. Walk along side those disciples. Listen. Hear yourself in their hurried speech.
Think of some series of events in your own life. When my father died suddenly when I was 11. Or, when a collision turned your car or your life upside down. Or when those whom you thought to be your leaders did the unthinkable. Think about the global events of tornados, Tsunami. Yes September 11, 2001. We had hoped. It began as a sunny day. And then, and then… And now, and now that Osama Bin Laden is dead.....

What are you thinking about? What are you discussing? And then there are the less sudden events, the every-day-thousands die because in inequitable distribution of food, the displacement of people because of war, the reality that we in the U.S. have 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the those in prison. The injustices that continue, the complexities of global economies. The problems that just don’t seem to ever get fixed.

Do you, too, look around to see an empty tomb, but no Jesus?
A death, but where is the life? We had hoped…..

But then, right there beside them, right there beside us, not just here at the altar, not just sitting beside us here in the pew, right there beside you as you are walking along on Tuesday afternoon when you have a difficult decision to make, right there beside you on Thursday morning when your family or friend situation is so complicated, you are too worried to reach out. We had hoped it would have been different. Right there in the middle of the night, when you can’t sleep, mulling all these things over in your mind for the hundredth time, Jesus is there. Jesus the patient teacher: “He interpreted to them the things about himself in all the Scriptures.” Jesus the constant companion, who walked every step of the way with them.

We need that of course, Because, in the midst of things we forget, Jesus called them foolish. Not fools, but, well, they had heard Jesus talk about possible death, but they didn’t realize it could actually happen. And we, too, we’ve heard it before, but we together, need to keep walking along together, discussing, seeing Jesus right beside us. We have the great gift that this teacher who sends us out to teach, is walking right beside us as we grieve all over again and try to make sense of our daily lives, both personal and communal life together in this community, in this nation, in this world. We, yes the priesthood of all believers, the laos in ministry, have the privilege of Jesus entering our discussion. See him. Recognize him. He wants to listen to you, speak to you in the languages of your daily lives about the real things that matter so that the “We had hoped” longings might be fulfilled in him.

You know the Gospel story: He kept walking with them, all the way to the village. And then, just as it seemed he might be going on beyond them, beyond their town their village, their lives, they urged him strongly, “Stay, stay.” What did he say? “No, just forget it…you had your chance.” He went in to stay with them. All they needed to do was ask. (You hear that, don’t you.)

And yes, we, you, who gather regularly for the Lord’s supper, remember “When he was at the table with them he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.” Then, then they saw clearly. They recognized the one who walked beside them during their day’s journey.

And then the table time was over. But don’t focus on, “He vanished from their sight.” Then, then, they talked more to each other. Wasn’t that amazing? He was talking to us on the road and opening the Scriptures to us.

The discussion went on because they recognized the Christ in their midst. There’s so much we need to help each other comprehend so that we know what we are called to do in this world. Not just this past week, but the week before. Remember the tornadoes in the south? You saw the images on TV and the Internet, more stories than we can imagine, of people clinging to each other in Tuscaloosa Alabama. And the challenge in Cullman Alabama where every church in town was damaged or destroyed, to pick up, and clean up and rebuild where it seemed death had won and nothing but emptiness remained. But the students at the University of Alabama, classes cancelled, stayed on, to prepare and deliver thousands of meals.

In Christ, we are called to care for and can, care for one another.

President Obama visited Ft. Campbell, Kentucky Friday to say thank-you to the troops. Even closer here, he visited New York City Thursday. Low key visit, a prayer and a wreath at Ground Zero, and yes, a meal together with those first responders, in that fire house who had lost so many, eating the food prepared by the firemen themselves. They broke bread together.

And this very morning, the lower Mississippi continues to rise.

And, in your own village, household, a new baby, a mother honored, a mother remembering, a friend near death, an agonizing decision, a grievous loss. Possibilities realized, and hopes devastated. We had hoped.

What are you talking about with each other? Are you continuing to open the Scriptures with each other? Are you opening the book of faith? St. John’s, Summit, New Jersey, has a long history of connecting faith and life around the catechism in lifelong learning. Jesus is here, in you and you and you, as close as your brother and sister in Christ, ready to listen to those fears, and doubts and disappointments. And as you gather at the table, feeding together on Christ’s very own self, together the body of Christ is strengthened, together with the whole Christian church on earth.

That same hour those disciples, surprised that Christ opened their eyes at the table, got up and walked those seven miles back to Jerusalem and found their companions. Jesus opened their eyes. Jesus opens our eyes so that we can open our doors to the world, unafraid, bold, caring, courageous. What are you talking about as you have conversations about the Church's vocation in the public world? Where are you going? Christ is already out there. Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed.” “Christ is Risen. He is Risen Indeed”

Greater Works Than These

2011-04-28T05:18:00.004-05:00

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!

We say those words, and we believe them. In reflecting on John's Gospel, and specifically on 2 Corinthians 4:1-6 and John 14: 8-14, I've been pondering our calls to ministry in the public world, particularly when we move from place to place. I have been in Philadelphia this spring, teaching at the ELCA seminary here, which has given Burton and myself opportunities to get out and visit places on the Eastcoast. We've spent time with old friends, and walked around where we used to live.
So, here are some reflections on scriptural words and ministry.

“If in my name you ask me anything, I will do it.”
“Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.”
(What we will not do: refuse to minister manipulatively or falsify God’s word. We will not proclaim ourselves. We proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.)
“For it is the God who said: Let light shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in face of Jesus Christ.”
“Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith.” (James 2:18)
“We have heard with our ears, O God, our ancestors have told us what deeds you performed in their days”; “God knows the secrets of the heart.”; "Rise up, come to our help. Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love.” (Psalm 44: l, 26)
So, what have you seen?

What have you heard with your ears? What have those who have labored before you told you of God’s steadfast love?
Where have you seen the light shine when there seemed utter darkness? When have you felt the light shine in your heart giving the light of the knowledge of the glory of God? And given what you have seen and, and what God in Christ has done that you have not seen, what do you believe about the now risen Jesus Christ?

Philip(we, too? )wanted more, or thought maybe he was missing something. Maybe there was more that he hadn’t even thought to ask about. Jesus: look, look right here. Right here, where you’ve been.

Believe in me Thomas and Philip and……. We can go even further with Jesus. The one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and in fact, will do greater works than these. Not that we presume to be greater than nor do greater works than Jesus, but than the works in the short time Jesus would have been ministering here on earth. But when I think about it, I cannot begin to comprehend the magnitude of the works Christ has and is and will do among and through the body of Christ throughout the globe all these centuries.

Jesus in the midst of the disciples, in the midst of us here at noonday says, “In my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” We do ask, or course. We pray for those dear who are sick, who grieve, for war-torn countries. We pray diligently.
But listen: “In my name you ask for anything, I will do it.

Psalm: Our ancestors have told us what deeds you performed in their days. What will be said when we are the ancestors? What deeds did God performe in those days? What deeds live on? What deeds will live on in the ministries we have not yet done but Christ says we will?

This is way beyond our comprehension, but not beyond Jesus’ vision. This was not merely a prediction of possibility, but a statement of belief, a commitment to how ministry was to continue through the disciples, through the church, in and through us. (Risk and promise and responsibility)

What have you seen? Heard? Touched? Been touched by?

I am touched by the scene from our apartment window looking out on Germantown Ave. I don’t know where all those people going, doing. How is God among them?

And an early weekend in April my husband Burton and I went back to New Haven, Ct. where we had lived, learned and ministered for nine years, in the l970’s. Decades ago. Visitors now. Return. What would we see? What God had done there? What still exists? Change? What about ministry there—here-- will it last? Grow? Jesus says to us, “I have been with you all this time.” And we still ask. “How did you, are you, will you do in and through us these works of ministry?”

What greater works have you seen? What works of ministry seem to have faded away? How might Christ still be at work?

In New Haven we walked up Ward Street. The church building where Burton served as pastor is still there, but the parsonage, the home where we lived with our family is gone.

We were not totally surprised because a year or so ago, when there had been a murder at one of the Yale NH hospital labs near our inner city Zion congregation, we, wondering which building, had taken a Google map walk up the street and wandered onto Ward street. We had known every the family on that block. Now they and their homes were gone. Where were they? Had they been replaced, in the name of progress, gentrification? But there was a new building here now. What was it? We had zoomed in through the Google lens. It looked like a school. Our and our neighbor’s children had attended an officially condemned school across the street. We researched further and found on this land now a new charter school. So, on this spring car trip, we literally walked in. An eighth grade student gave us a tour. Questions remain, would neighborhood children really be given preference now that a “good” school replaced their old one. The work for justice continues.

And then we walked to the end of the block. Christians Community Action is still here, a store front ministry begun in the 1960’s out of ecumenical living room dialogs. Our children from Zion used to take the weekly food contributions next door to CCA after each Sunday’s offerings. These movements often die young, but CCA, still a storefront, continues to feed and house, well now thousands after almost 50 years.

And on. Sunday we worshipped where we, now the ancestors, had worshipped, at the church, now named Resurrection. Again no surprise as we have continued as mission partners through the years. But doubts and wonders and questions, and fears, of disciples of all times and all places continue. “We don’t know where you are going, Jesus, how can we know the way?” “We don’t know where this ministry will go after we’re gone; how can we ever leave?” “Lord, show us, give a guarantee that this work is of God.”

And in a few weeks we will pack up our car and travel back to Iowa and to Wartburg Seminary (without blizzard we trust). And you? Some of you will remain where you are. Some don’t have any idea about which direction to turn your steering wheel. Questions, fears, doubts. I don’t need to name them, do I? But just a little guarantee, Jesus. Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?

And, of course there are no guarantees like that. We come to places of ministry unknown; we will be unknown again. We will never be alone, even when the works of ministry seem to have disappeared. We will never be alone when overwhelmed with the newness of it all, when doors are shut, locked up and no one has thought to leave us a key. And in the midst of things when buildings and ministries are demolished in fear or in danger, Jesus comes and stands among us, “Peace be with you.” Have you believed because you have seen me? Jesus says. I am the way, the truth and the life.”

We experienced that life, that real presence at Resurrection among the people. A small number but beautifully diverse. Absolutely not one of them was unnecessary, merely audience that day, as lessons came alive in participatory worship, intermingled with people’s real life. Real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and beyond.

We worshipped that Sunday night at Yale Lutheran campus ministry, which through the years has grown and waned and grown again, now lead by a campus pastor who was student with us over 35 years ago. We are graced to journey along together as disciples, to be parts of each other’s lives. We worshipped Monday morning at Yale Divinity School chapel sacred worship space during my years there as student and teacher. No one there would remember us today. It was April 4, now 2011, 43 years since death of Martin Luther King Jr. Who remembers the dream today? Surely racism…that’s long gone. But new Gospel music rang through that light-filled chapel. Let light shine out of darkness in this world which continues to invent new ways to manipulate and falsify and keep people oppressed. Guest preacher Rev. James Forbes asked,”What does the Lord Require?” Let Justice Roll. Keep on marching.
And the ministries in which you have been, are and will be engaged. Christ said, “I will do whatever you ask in my name.” (Risk and promise and responsibility.)

Sometimes we can’t remember where the streets were, or can’t find the place anymore or won’t recognize the ministries or be recognized. Some will fade. And in the ones that have grown, flourished, do we see the Christ in the midst? Greater works than these, Christ is yet ready to do in that out of the way place, that I don’t-know-how-to-pronounce-the-name place to which we have not even been called yet. What doubts do you have in the present about what is real? The risen Christ is real.

“Therefore, since it is by God’s mercy that we are engaged in this ministry, we do not lose heart.”

Neighborhood Partners to End Gun Violence

2011-02-15T05:34:00.002-06:00

I stood and said the name, “Tanya Frisby.” I did not know Tanya, but she can no longer stand and say her own name out loud because she is one of 64 people who were killed through gun violence in 2010 in NW Phildelphia.

Burton and I are living in Philadelphia for four months as I serve as the St. Johns Visiting Professor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia where I am teaching three courses. We attended Christ Ascension Lutheran Church on Sunday and saw in the announcements in their worship folder an invitation to attend a Sunday evening “In Their Names: A Remembrance and Call to Action,” sponsored by “Neighborhood Partners to End Gun Violence,” an interfaith effort to prevent gun violence in the northwest neighborhoods and city.

This effort is part of a wider, “Heeding God’s Call” faith-based movement to prevent gun violence, (check out their website). One action is to meet with gun shop owners to convince them to curtail the sale of guns to straw purchases who illegally sell handguns to others, who in turn use them in crimes and disputes with deadly results. They urge gun shops to adopt a l0-point voluntary code of conduct created by Mayors from across the country.

As we gathered in the large, old First Presbyterian Church, warmed by the sites and sounds of current-day outreach ministries, this interfaith group prayed, heard poetry, were led by the young, and heard wisdom of the elders. We were challenged, inspired and called to action. And we stood, 64 of us, calling out the name of one person who had died from gun violence last year in this neighborhood.

Across this nation 85 people die each day from gun violence. There are more gun homicides in Philadelphia alone each year than in any other nation. We heard Rabbi Linda Holtzman draw us all back to the story of Cain and Abel. “Am I my brother, my sister’s keeper? When? How? What is a Keeper?” Bishop Dwayne Royster said “There’s a health care crisis in this city.” Due to tort reform, qualified physicians who can’t afford insurance have flocked out of the city. And then he told the story of a young man from the hood headed for Harvard on a full scholarship, committed to coming back to Philadelphia to be a doctor here who was gunned down and now lives in a vegetative state dependent upon medical services 24-hours a day rather than being able to serve.

We heard from Victoria Green, Chantay Love and children who had come to tell us movingly about groups they had formed out of their own need to help families of victims of gun violence, “Every Murder is Real” and the “We Live Project.” It’s all about support and education for the long term because every day new parents become “eligible” for their support group. “The bullet does not stop unless you stop it,” because families, suffer from the effects of gun violence long into the future. “Untreated trauma perpetuates violence.” The children and youth shared their commitment to simply live!... to grow up and grow old! They, and we, are committed to invest in the human spirit and teach resiliency as well as to stop gun violence.

Katie Day, professor at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia, one of the leaders in “Neighborhood Partners to End Gun Violence” gave the call to action. She reminded us that 30,000 people in the United States are killed in gun related violence each year and that l20,000 to 130,000 more are injured…way, way beyond any other nation in the world. “We have accepted the unacceptable and felt powerless. We need to confess that powerlessness. Now is the time to move from lamentation and sadness and powerlessness to action.” Led by the youth we went into the fellowship hall to make signs and strengthen our partnership.

A Safe Way to be Different Together

2011-01-13T12:35:00.004-06:00

President Obama's speech at the Memorial Service in Tucson January 12th is worth watching again and again.

We were in Arizona last Saturday morning when the man with an enormous amount of ammunition took aim at his congresswoman and those who had come to meet her at a Safeway in Tucson. I felt the impact upon that state firsthand. The nation has been immersed in images and questions ever since.

What is a "safe way" for us to gather in the public world?
The congresswoman had read aloud the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution just days before on the floor of the House of Representatives: "..or the right of the people peaceably to assembly..."

Why can't we see that 2nd Amendment rights do not need to provide us more and more incentive and opportunity to kill one another?
Even before we left for Arizona I had prepared pieces for this blog posting noting that as of January 1 all Iowans now have "equal" rights to obtain gain permits, which translates into a loosening of restrictions. In the days before the end of the year 300 more people in Dubuque had filed for a permit. One man said, "I had been wanting a gun for a long time, and given the way things are in the world, now I can have one to protect my family and property." He may feel more secure, but I don't with at least 300 more people in Dubuque walking around with guns. Likewise the number of gun permits being issued and the sale of guns and ammunition is way up across the country since last Saturday. This provides a more safe way?

And the first bill to have come before the Arizona assembly when it reconvened after the shooting was for people to be able to have guns on college campuses. That would make us, teachers and students, more safe?

Why do we continue to back away from seriously dealing with the issue of mental illness, favoring instead a labeling of people who commit crimes when they do not have the treatment they need as "crazies" "deranged"?
All of us....all...need to give lifelong attention to our own and others' mental health. It is not a matter of "us" ("good" people) and "them" ("bad" people.) There has been much conversation (accusation) about why the shooter had not been "turned in." But to whom? Arizona's governor just last year slashed money for mental health. How can we as communities, neighborhoods, schools, cities, states and the nation, create mentally healthy communities for us to live together responsibly and well?

How can we have conversations together in the public public world that, in President Obama's words, heal and do not wound?
The president made clear that he will not ascribe vitriolic speech as the direct motive for the shootings, but the fact that the subject of our uncivil talk, our violence-inducing speech so quickly came up, shows that it is a huge problem and that we all know it. Deborah Tannen's "The Argument Culture" is an insightful book to read on the subject. A Saturday morning Phoenix newspaper (before the shooting) had as a front page headline, "Republicans Try to Shoot Down...." The end of that sentence was "Health Care Bill" but the metaphorical language was ironic given what would occur just hours later.

How do we as a nation learn from one another to act courageously for justice?
We have tragically learned how to mourn together--9/ll, Oklahoma City, Columbine, and so many more. President Obama, ever so gently and therefore powerfully, called us to prayer and beyond prayer to be and to do...to become the nation that Christina Taylor Green imagined we were.

We were in Arizona last Saturday. And this Wednesday, Jan. 12th I was here in Dubuque, worshipping at Wartburg Seminary where we commemorated one year since the earth quake in Haiti that killed not 6 but 316,000 people, including Wartburg's own Ben Larson. And these are the days we pray for and need to be committed to the people of the Sudan while Southern Sudanese vote for independence. And there are floods in Brazil and Queensland. And.... And...

Monday will be the 25th anniversary of Martin Lutheran King Jr. Day being a national holiday, a day here in Dubuque, and for all of us everywhere to recommit ourselves to being and doing...to acts of conversation and courage and inclusivity and non-violent change. And January 20th will be the 50th anniversary of the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. We need to listen again to his "Ask not what your country can do for you but for what you can do for your country." The bookends of the week of Obama's speech and Kennedy's with King's day in between are powerful calls to us for the church to be extraordinarily contextual, and for us all as a global people to seek and to create safe ways for us to be different together in the public world.

Grace to You and Peace

2010-12-22T08:58:00.003-06:00

Grace to you and Peace for Christmas and the New Year. As a gift and resource for you to use, I, together with editorial partners Christ deForest and Gloria Stubitsch, have prepared a yearlong journey through the Epistles. To access it,
click here.
This is a resource to be used individually, with a companion, or in a small group. The Epistles are divided over 365 days. Each unfolds just as one would open a new letter, beginning in January with Romans and concluding in December with Jude. This is not a bible history, commentary or collection of stories. The purpose is to reflectively engage the text and let the text engage you day by day. (If you miss a day, it is easy to go back and catch up.) The intent of the author is to not veer far from the text, but to prayerfully explore its core message. The Letters speak for themselves. NRSV is the primary version used, occasionally supplemented by other English versions with aid of the original Greek.

The content and form of the passage dictate how it appears on the page. Each devotion presents words from the text, questions for reflection on our life of faith today, and a prayer. Usually the questions follow the text; sometimes they are interspersed. The prayer often picks up words from the text. In the simplicity of form on the page, you are challenged to explore the complexity of life in the church and world. Our daily lives are not the same as those of the early Christians, but at the very core we live in sin and yearn for grace. We hope you will meet yourself in these scripture texts. Although the prayer is brief, your prayer time might be much longer. Likewise, meditation on the questions could lead to deep reflection, conversation with a spiritual partner or perhaps journaling. The devotions are written to be inclusive.

The challenges of the new year are great. May the power of Christ through his body, the church strengthen each of us to not only have conversations about the church's vocation in the public world, but to be proclaimers of grace agents of peace.

Make Ready for the Lord a People Prepared

2010-12-04T09:03:00.004-06:00

I have not before on this blog published any of my sermons; however, the sermon I preached at Wartburg Seminary Chapel this past Thursday says what I would like to say to you at this particular time in Advent about the church's vocation in the public world. So, here it is:

Text:John 1:19-28

John confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, I am not the Messiah.

“I am not.”
I counsel people not to begin their introductions with “I am not” (“I am not an expert.” “I am not a pastor.” “I am not widely known.”), or even with “I am only...” (“I am only a housewife.” “I am only a layperson.” “I am only a student.”) Role clarity is important. In classes students often hear me say that. Who I am and who I am not. However, I encourage people to begin with “I am...” for the sake of clarity and ministry, “This is who I am and can be and will be for you in the name and service of Jesus the Christ.” “I am a student of God's Word.” “I am a caretaker of the family.” “I am a steward of the earth.”

Apology is not necessary; role clarity is imperative. John was clear, “I am not the Messiah.”
Earlier in verse 6, this fourth Gospel begins straightforwardly as well, “There was a man sent from God whose name was John.” Yes! And vs. 7: “He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.”

Even in those early verses of introduction we read, “He was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”

And come it did, the Light, the Word which became flesh, the Messiah. And John had testified to him and cried out: This is the one. I told you. No one has ever seen God. The only Son has made God known.

Then, who are you?
I mean, we're not even John.
and John said, “I'm not Jesus”

Who are you, John?
I'm not the Messiah
What then? Are you Elijah?
I am not.
Are you the prophet? No.
They persisted. Who do you think you are? What do you say about yourself?
The priests and Levites needed an answer for the Pharisees who had sent them to ask.

Stop there just a minute.
We may be clear enough who we are. But others may not be, and other people, and people behind those other people, may doubt what we are up to, why we are saying we are serving in the name of Jesus the Christ.

When I came to Wartburg Seminary to teach many years ago, I had had years of experience in public ministry and thought I knew who I was as a professor of theology and ministry. But there had not been a woman professor here at Wartburg before. I had this inner image that I would walk into classroom 113 and people would see me as an imposter, a fraud. Not only not belonging, but with dismissible credentials. I was concerned that they wouldn't be able to even imagine I as a woman could preach and teach in the name of Jesus.

Even when we are clear, the questions of what we are doing and what we are doing in this place continue. We need not only be clear; we need to dare to be! “I am here as your professor.” “I am here as your diaconal minister.” What's that? “I am not a pastor” (“You don't even need to say that,” I tell diaconal ministry students.) It's not what you are not; Its' what you are! “I am a diaconal minister of the ELCA.” “I am an associate in ministry.” “I am a deaconess.” “I am the new pastor in town, here to serve in the name of Jesus Christ”. “I am a husband of your pastor.” “I am the wife of your pastor, not your assistant pastor.”

We worry about our credentials, how people will see us and our role. It is important to remember that our identity is not in our role; our identity is in Christ. But, and therefore, the deeper doubt is who we are making these claims about the Messiah. Who are you, claiming Jesus to be the light of the world, the one in whom people can believe?

In all four Gospel accounts we see John the Baptizer, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord.”
Luke's words: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”
Or,the translation I find full of ministry challenge: “Make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

Make ready for the Lord. We prepared and preparing ones are commissioned to many ministries to and with and among people. Our teaching the faith, our proclaiming the Word, our serving, our leading in worship in the world, our talking about Jesus in words a stranger can understand, all make ready for Christ a people prepared to receive him, to worship him, to tell about him, to heal and hope and do outrageous things in the name of the Messiah.

But the questions continue for John (You're not Elijah; you're not a prophet.) and they will for us.
In my first call to serve in a congregation early on I went into a meeting and was asked, “What are you doing here?” (It was a large church.)

Challenges will come when you are on the streets, poking your head into prophetic witness. At just such a community meeting, Burton, my husband was told by the official city redevelopers, “Keep you preaching for Sunday.” But the people from the neighborhood said, “Don't you talk to Pastor Everist like that! He's speaking up for us.”

How and when have you, will you, be questioned? You will get into trouble! (John did, you recall) When you do get into trouble, make sure it's for the sake of the Gospel.

And why do we baptize?
Why do we continue to invite people into the church? Why do we pour passion into creating community in Christ's name, and working for a just society? “It's not going to help.” “It's not going to matter.” “ We're going to have to close the doors anyway.” “People will always be fighting.” Because the true light which enlightens everyone is coming into the world. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. We are commissioned for baptizing ministries so that the world may trust God's promises.

And then at core there is the issue of authority: The Pharisees had sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask these questions not because they were curious, nor interested in becoming followers, but because they questioned, doubted, his authority to be baptizing. In fact they were publicly challenging not only his credentials, but the very heart and core of this ministry of preparing for the Lord a people prepared to meet him. And so John said boldly, not “Well, I guess I really shouldn't,” or, “I'll be going now,” or to himself, “I'll just slip away quietly....” John said, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me: I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” John did not defend his own place or position or calling; he stood firm, said clearly, acted decisively in the name of the one whom he was not worthy to serve, but did serve.

I am not the Messiah: In the midst of your ministry, your ministries right now, in the kitchen, places where you work in the evenings, to your sick friend hundreds of miles away, when feeling helpless,the bad news is “I am not the saving Messiah.” And the good news is, “I am not the Messiah.” “The Messiah comes after me,” John said and we can add, the Messiah goes before me, is already with the one whose hand I cannot hold right now, healing, saving. I am not the Messiah; I am called to make people ready to receive the Messiah.

People will ask questions, wanting us to be less than we are, and more than we are. John and Peter, (remember?) already in chapter 3 of Acts: the man lame from birth lying at the gate of the temple gate asking for alms. “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.” There are many stories like that, including Jesus. Remember (Mark 10) when James and John came forward and said, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And Jesus said, “What is it you want me to do for you?” James and John: “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” But Jesus said, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” and to all the disciples: “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”

People will want you to be for them what you dare not be. At such a time it is imperative you be clear about who you are and who you are not. “I want you to put in a good word for me.” “You go straighten them out.” “You take care of that for me.” Or, I need you to be my best friend, my lover, my excuse, my redeemer, my cover, my savior.

“I am not.” “I cannot be that for you” “I cannot play that role for you.” “I cannot give that to you.” “But, in the name of the God of unconditional love, you are loved beyond measure.” “In the name of Jesus the Christ, you are forgiven and freed from needing excuses.” “In community with all of your brothers and sisters in Christ, you will always be...” Pray for the words to say and service to give.

John was baptizing and we as a church are baptizing in the name of the one who himself was baptized, not because of his sin, but because of ours, baptized into his life of ministry, baptized into his death and resurrection, for us. We are being prepared once again. Make way. Make ready for the Lord a people prepared.

None of us is worthy, but we need not be insecure, nor lack boldness, nor persistence, nor courage to prepare for the Lord a people prepared
And all this took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.
Who are you then?
In whose name and in what places of encounter do you minister?

I'm Not Afraid of Nancy Pelosi

2010-11-06T06:45:00.003-05:00

With all of the attack ads of the recent election, no woman may have been more demonized than Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Now, I like Nancy Pelosi. And she doesn't scare me. In fact I find it interesting the things about Speaker Pelosi that do scare people.

It goes way back to when she was elected Speaker, four years ago. Burton and I were in Greece and watched on the computer in our motel in the evening when at midday in Washington Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to be elected to this office, surrounded herself with children, took the Speaker's gavel and said, "For the all of America's children the House will be in order." What a scary thing! All those children around. Then, and now once again, I hear a few men, whom I thought understood the goal of shared power between men and women, say that they saw this image as her exerting power over men, believing it appeared she was going to treat men like children. I didn't see that at all. I didn't even see a Mama Grizzly Bear in Nancy Pelosi.

In fact, members of the house have not either. Political analyists yesterday when she announced she would be seeking re-election as House Minority Leader, said the Democratic members of the House like her. In fact, they added, the Republicans do too. She works well with people, is courteous, gets things done, builds consensus,and does not bully. So why is she so scarey? They then went on to say all that she had accomplished. The House has functioned well, often accomplishing what the Senate could not. She has been one of the most effective speakers of the house in years. So why are people afriad?

Even before she was Speaker, she knew how to use power to build consensus tenaciously, graciously. And she knew how to do it from a minority leadership postion. And when she became Speaker, serving with a Republican president, Congress was able to pass legislation to raise the minium wage, make college more affordable, promote stem cell research, repeal subsidies for big oil, and initiate strong ethics reform, legislation that would take months for the Senate to pass, but which finally did with strong bipartisan support and was signed into law by President Bush. She was also a clear leader against the Iraq war. It is also simply a fact that under her wise political leadership she and a coalition going around the country were able to stop President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security, an act which would have been a disaster given the great recession which was to come.

So why has Nancy Pelosi been demonized? Why is she portrayed as so scary? Because she as a woman has been a powerful, effective leader. All the while, being respectful. No scandels in her personal life. She is a well-educated, dedicated woman of faith, deeply committed to her other roles as wife, mother and grandmother. But she has not been a woman about whom others have been able to use only the adjective of "grandmother." A supporter of others, she has not sought the spotlight, but when Sala Burton, a Congresswoman from California, gathered a circle of friends around her bedside to say she was very ill, she asked Nancy to run for her seat. And so Nancy did, at 47 years of age.

Quotes from her book on working together cooperative and building and re-building partnerships: "Burning bridges us unproductive." "There is no such thing as an eternal opponent." "Once you work with someone in a postive way you have sown the seeds for cooperation in the future." "You never draw a line in the sand, regardless of how irratated you are with yout opponent." "You have to leave an opening or a means for people to find their way back." "Never fight a fight as though its your last one." "Organize, don't antagonize."

Women with power are still feared. Some should be. Those who use it to dominate, kill, ridicule or for self-aggrandizement. But women who use power to build up and to create productive partnerships for the sake of justice and peace do not need to be feared. Many women of integrity also know that they do not have to leave the room when they no longer rule the room. Partnership is about more than that.

Nancy wrote about her life in her book, "Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters" (Doubelday, 2008): "I didn't set out to be Speaker of the House. But throughout my life, there were openeings, opportunitites, and choices that brought me to this time and place." Nancy, so it has been for women of your and my generation. Today is my birthday. One of my best birthday presents is your saying you will not leave, but continue to be willing to serve. We need your persistent voice. The House is still your place and this is still your time!

Vocation in the Languages People Speak in Daily Life

2010-10-06T06:46:00.002-05:00

The following is the conclusion of the pre-publication article for "Dialog" journal, the first half of which was the post immediately preceding this one.

Vocation in the Languages People Speak in Daily Life“We cannot keep from speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
So said Peter and John (Acts 4:20). God had used them to heal a lame man and they taught the amazed crowds about this God who gives life. For this they got into trouble, were taken into custody and questioned, and ordered not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But they would not be silent!

In the midst of our ministry in daily life, we are and will be called into question for the ministry we do, and called to give witness to the hope that lies within us. Sharing the faith needs to be done in the languages people speak all week long. Once in a while someone will simply be passing by the church on a Sunday morning and walk in. Once in a while the quoting of a random Bible passage will bring a person to faith. But only once in a while. Most of the time we will need to meet people where they are. In order to do this, we need to speak their languages, listen carefully to their needs and be able to speak of God’s great love in direct relation to their human need.

Peter and John were able to put into words the ministry they were doing and boldly say in whose name they were acting. They knew the Christ in whose name they ministered. We, too, need to know Christ well. If Christians do not understand the biblical and theological grounding of their faith, they may resort to using mere moralistic tidbits and biblical clichés. We need more than a cliché. Jesus walked where people walked. Not only did he often ask, “What do you want me to do for you?” He called self-righteousness and legalistic judgment for what it was: playing God, not ministry. Sharing Christ at the workplace is not effective evangelism when it is merely an assumption that everyone at the worksite or in the world should be “a Christian, just like me.” Likewise, simplistic religious slogans pass right by a person’s real need. We need to learn to share the faith in the languages of people’s daily lives that communicate to them clearly and effectively.

Ministry of the laity is not primarily about “letting a lay person preach,” but rather about lifting up the varieties of vocations the baptized people of God engage in all week long. This means giving attention all year long to equipping all Christians educationally for sharing the Gospel in words that connect to people where they are. To take it one step further, it is not a question of convincing people to teach and proclaim, but first of all seeing what it is people are already teaching and proclaiming in the daily conversations they are having all week long. What are they saying to their neighbors? Do people understand the faith under girding the decisions they are making? And are they making decisions that promote justice?

So often what we learn on Sunday is disconnected from what we talk about all week. Not that we want to disconnect, but we do not know how to put it together. But if we begin in the languages of daily life we know, we may be able to translate God’s word into the vernacular, into ordinary terms, images and vocabulary, so that we can be the evangelizing disciples of God. Many Christians feel more confident and willing to translate God’s love into action than into words. When people are equipped to speak in their natural languages, they become more skilled with words...and, like Peter and John, willing to speak of what they “have seen and heard.”

Education and Evangelism as a Translating Experiences
Educators know the importance of honoring diverse learning styles. People begin their learning most effectively when they can use their native tongue. When a person’s first language, and the culture surrounding it, is honored, people have a sense of self-worth that enhances their ability to learn more languages. Children especially have a marvelous ability to learn a second, or even a third language. English-only speakers in the United States are at a distinct disadvantage globally, and also in their own communities, in being able to communicate with and learn from people different from themselves. We honor the people we meet by respecting their language.

Even when people in a country or region speak one common language, they may disconnect the terms they use in their ministry in daily life from “Christian” terms. So, we need to willingly listen to and learn from someone speaking their “Monday language” not just their Sunday faith language. Are some farmers? What is the language of agriculture? Are some shop-keepers? What terms of business do they speak? Are some caregivers to families? What are the words they use? Do some people in our communities speak “computer”? Do some talk in terms of relationships? Do some use medical terms? By really wanting to know about the person’s life and their world views, and the “languages” in which they think and speak, we connect with them. Tim works in constructing houses. For him, the term “sheltering God” connected. Jon felt abandoned after his wife died suddenly. Knowing that Christ had said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” on the cross, spoke to his reality. Maria was seeking a new community after she moved to a large city from her small town. Even the way people spoke about relationships was new. She felt both comforted and empowered by the Holy Spirit’s work on Pentecost.

Surely people need to learn about the stories, concepts and truths about God from the Scriptures, the language of the liturgy and the confessions of the church. Biblical illiteracy and ignorance about church history and theology undermines the life and mission of a congregation. Martin Luther was convinced that people should be able to read the Scriptures for themselves, and to worship and pray in the vernacular, the common language of the people. The importance of his translating the New Testament into the vernacular cannot be underestimated. How do we help people read the Scriptures and help them let the Scriptures “read them” in regard to the issues they face all week long? How can we help people translate the Bible and the theology of the church into phrases and concepts that prepare them to think, feel, relate, and make decisions in the languages they speak all week?

Once people are able to conceptualize the faith in the common parlance of family, work and other activities, they will be able to more naturally talk about God in those places. We need to develop a healthy rhythm of being the gathered people of God for worship and for education, and the scattered people of God for mission and ministry in daily life. In order to do that, both places need to be translating experiences. Our Christian education can help people learn the biblical and theological heritage of the faith and help them connect this faith to daily life. Likewise, education for evangelism includes helping Christians listen carefully to the languages the people they meet speak in their daily lives and understand the real needs of people. Once people know they have permission to use those languages and to make those connections, they will never again not make such connections; they will become more effective evangelizers in the broadest sense of that term. This does not mean trying to shape the global society into an image of one’s own country; that’s simply a new form of colonialism. This mean being able to share the love of Christ in a language of love people can understand. In giving people permission to speak and learn in the vernacular, we further equip them for their vocations in society.

Articles of Faith
Beyond their languages of every day life, Christians who hold the same faith speak a common creed using the same words. The historic creeds, The Apostles’ and Nicene, are confessed together in Sunday worship.
The Apostles’ Creed Article 1: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth
The God whom we confess creates not only “me,” but all that exists. Cultural beliefs focus on a God whose job, we presume, is to protect me, my family, my job, my church, my country. Rather, in this article a faith community, together with Christians around the globe and through the ages, confesses that they fear, love and trust in the Triune God above all things. Saying “I” we also say that this God is the Creator, the Protector, and the Provider of all. This is grounding for vocation in society.

The words people confess on Sunday need to ground their lives comprehensively all week long. How people translate the meaning, as well as their interpretations of these words, has significant consequences in the decisions they make in the arenas of their ministries in daily life. In every dimension of life, one needs to ask, “What is God creating here? How is God providing? Just whom is God protecting?”

The educating faith community will help people raise questions about this God who is almighty and the creator of all. Where do people stand on the issue of war and peace? Immigration? How do one’s Christian beliefs relate to capitalism? Consumerism? Globalization? Economic justice? The people among whom we minister, whom we lead to be disciples in the world, live inside all of those systems and both benefit from them and oppress others by them. The issues are large, the choices complex. How do you care about people suffering malaria, from hurricanes, from earthquakes near and half a world away? What does it really mean to believe in a creating, providing, protecting God?

Article 2: I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Jesus Christ draws the faith community into the streets, where ordinary people live and work. So, too, our teaching and preaching is not confined to the classroom or the sanctuary. It needs to equip people for their roles and relationships in ministry opportunities on the streets, at their workplaces, at the medical center, wherever they go all week long. Who is this Jesus Christ in whose name we teach? Where did Christ walk? Or, maybe the question is, “Is there anywhere Christ did not walk?”

Incarnational ministry is a ministry of presence, “real” presence, an active presence that reaches out to engage people in their real-life ministry settings, whether dramatic or mundane. This calls for biblical and theological teaching that can help people translate the death and resurrection of Christ into liberating, life-giving ministry. It may begin with encounter on the streets which can lead to deeper engagement. In saying we believe that Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Mary, we confess the power of the Spirit at work through human beings; we believe Christ was incarnate, put on flesh and lived among all kinds of people, proclaiming God’s reign and caring, healing, and calling for justice.

His death defeated oppressive forces of sin, Satan and death itself. We confess that the One who rose from the dead and ascended, is still incarnate. We might ask with Mary what in the world God is calling us to give birth to? What are the oppressive, death-delivering powers that need new life? And how is Christ present in the world today so that all might be united in God’s love forever? To believe in Jesus Christ is to fully encounter and engage the world and its people and to minister with the good news of Christ’s life-giving power in society.

Article 3: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
What makes people holy? What does it mean to confess together that one believes in the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit brings individuals and whole communities to faith, and, after disillusionment, back to faith again and again. Ministry is rooted in the forgiveness of sins. Life everlasting is not just a ticket to heaven, but new life in Christ lived in community as the body of Christ now.

The Spirit transforms entire communities for ministries in daily life. And those ministries are diverse. The various callings of different people in a faith community may take them in opposite directions culturally, economically or politically. No matter. As the community gathers each time at the communion table, they are restored, strengthened and empowered to go forth to serve in the world as one body of Christ with many members. As they gather for rich, relative and relational Christian education, they are equipped to be the holy people who are not afraid to become involved in the dirt and grime of what may seem like “unholy” work.
On Pentecost, people from many nations came together. The disciples “were all together in one place” and were “filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” The amazing message of Pentecost is that the people who had come to Jerusalem all heard in their own language what the disciples were saying. They were bewildered, amazed and wondering, but they heard! The Good News of the Spirit is that the Spirit enables us, too, to speak the Good News in languages in which people can hear about Jesus Christ. “We hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:l1). By the Spirit, the Church, through its many and diverse people, can be empowered for vocations of peace and justice in society, locally and globally.

Kindle Books and Doing Theology in the Language of the Laity

2010-09-22T09:25:00.008-05:00

Some readers of this blog will find it helpful to know that five of my recent books are now Kindle books. This is particularly helpful for international readers. You can find the list through Amazon Kindle:
"The Church as Learning Community"
"Transforming Leadership" (with Craig Nessan)
"Open the Doors and See All the People"
"Christian Education as Evangelism"
"The Difficult But Indispensable Church"

In addition, some of these are also available as electronic books through Barnes & Noble.

In this post I am going to share the first part of a forthcoming article for "Dialog" journal. I will post the remainder of the article in subsequent blogs.

The Church’s Vocation in Society through the Ministry of the Laity in the Languages of Their Daily Lives

The people of God are set apart in order to be sent back into the world. What does the gathered people of God need in order to carry out their vocations in society? How will they be the transformed, equipped, empowered people of God serving in the world through their ministries in daily life? How are their skills for ministry and leadership in the congregation being strengthened? And as we move beyond the church doors, do we know the ministries in daily life to which each other is being called? How will we walk with one another in those varied arenas, any and all of which are places for potential ministry and for working toward a more just and peaceable world? And what about the people whose lives the congregation members touch? What does daily transformation of the body of Christ mean in the lives of those people? How can we really make a difference in the world?

These questions are at the core of what it means to be church in the world. Actually, they reach to the core of the Gospel itself because when we begin in the midst of the human predicament, we realize that in order for the Good News of Jesus Christ to be real in people’s lives, it must speak to that specific human condition. The content of this article is based on material originally published in "Christian Education as Evangelism" (Fortress Press, 2007)and "Transforming Leadership"(Fortress Press, 2008) where I explore further these issues as they relate to Christian community and outreach.

To believe in the communion of saints is to believe that God is the Creator of the whole world, that Christ is and continues to be incarnate in that world, and to claim the Spirit’s power. As leaders walk with the laity, listen to and engage the theological questions people raise from being involved in the world, ministerial leadership becomes more interesting, more vital, more theologically challenging and alive. And ministry is multiplied.

Those who have been called to faith in Jesus Christ have been faithfully ministering in the world in each generation. Full recognition of this ministry and these ministers by the church is the issue. In that regard we have a transformation waiting to happen, an unfinished reformation and a community poised for mission.

Terms: A Variety of Images
A number of terms describe this radical reformation concept, the church’s vocation in society. Each term contains its own wisdom:

The Priesthood of all believers. By God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, the Spirit creates the priesthood we all share. Christ became the faithful high priest, not only to make a sacrifice for the people, but to become the sacrifice (Hebrews 2:17-18; 7:26-27; 9:14). Patriarchal hierarchies historically have reserved the bestowing and assurance of salvation to priests. Rather, all Christians are called to be a royal priesthood to “proclaim the mighty acts” of the one who called us out of darkness into light (1 Pet. 2: 5-9). The word is plural: “priesthood.” Within the priesthood of all believers some are called and ordained to Word and sacrament ministry and to Word and Service ministry.

Through faith Christians are transformed by the Spirit and called to pursue peace, to show hospitality to strangers, to remember those in prison (Hebrews 12 and 13). Because Jesus, our high priest died not on an altar, but “outside the city” (Heb. 13:12), the priesthood of all believers is called to go with him “outside the camp” (Heb. 13:13) and be willing to praise God, to do good and to share what we have (Heb. 13: 15-16). We need distinct offices and roles within the church but together as the priesthood of all believers we are transformed to be the church in the world, proclaiming the grace of God and living out ministry “outside the camp.”

Ministry of the baptized We do not baptize ourselves. By the power of the Spirit in water and word, we are liberated from sin and death through being joined together in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “By water and the Word God delivers us from sin and death and raises us to new life in Jesus Christ” Christians often feel unclean. We need the washing clean of forgiveness and the refreshment of the daily remembrance of baptism, otherwise the sins and struggles of the day would overwhelm us.

How is our baptism linked to Christ’s baptism and what does that have to do with ministry? And, for that matter, why was Christ, who was not sinful, baptized? Mark’s Gospel dramatically begins with Jesus being baptized by John in the River Jordan. In Mark 10:38, Jesus asked his disciples, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” Jesus was baptized into his ministry of servanthood, death and resurrection; Christian disciples are baptized into Christ. Jesus said, “…whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mark l0:43b-45). The congregation says to the newly baptized, “We welcome you into the body of Christ and into the mission we share: join us in giving thanks and praise to God and bearing God’s creative and redeeming word to wall the world.”

Laos in ministry All of us are part of the laos, the “people” of God. By virtue of Creation all peoples are God’s people; we need to take care that “people of God” language not sound exclusionary in a pluralistic world. Although we need to be clear on roles to which we have been called, it is not helpful to separate people in artificial or ultimate ways. We use the original Greek word “laos” because “lay” in the English carries the connotations of “not clergy” or in general, of someone who is not very knowledgable in a certain field. Such hierarchical distinctions can lead some pastors to simply delegating to laity work they themselves do not like to do. Just as worship is the “work of the people” so, too, ministry is the work of the laos.

In Hosea, a child is named, “Not my people” to signal the unfaithfulness of the people of God: “you are not my people and I am not your God” (Hos. 1:9). And, yet, in the very next verses we hear God’s covenant faithfulness, “…in the place where it was said to them. ‘You are not my people,’ it shall be said to them, ‘Children of the living God’” (Hos. 1:10). That Hosea passage is recalled in First Peter,
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people,
But now you are God’s people:
Once you had not received mercy,
But now you have received mercy.
Through God’s mercy a redeemed people is called to live ministries of mercy.

Ministry of the Whole People of God The ministry of the Church in the world belongs to the whole people. Wholeness, however, is not a matter of health or perfection. Individual Christians are not totally capable or experienced, or well. Congregations may be broken in conflict. In the midst of this reality Christ imputes wholeness and salvation. It is a matter of believing that the church is whole even while it is broken.

The Body of Christ is not whole unless all are a part of using their gifts to serve in the world. In Ephesians 4 Paul urges the Ephesians saying, “I… beg you [plural] to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (v.1). This calls for humility, gentleness, patience and bearing with each other. That’s hard. Paul writes there is one body, one spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and one “hope of your calling” (vs. 4-6). Then Paul describes the variety of gifts (vs. 11-13), just as he does in Roman 12 and 1 Corinthians 12. But note that the lists of gifts are not closed and the roles are not ranked. The purpose of the gifts of people is “to equip the saints for the work of ministry” (v. 12).

When the “whole” people of God are in pain, when the body is actually torn apart, Christ heals and grows the body: “Speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.”(vs. 15-16).

Ministry in Daily Life Each of us is called. Each of us has a daily life. Although our lives may be long or short, each person has a 24-hour day. Not everything we do is automatically ministry, but everything we do carries the potential for ministry. Einar Billing wrote in "Our Calling" (Augustana Press, 1958)that “Call” is an “everyday word, with a splendor of holy day about it, but its holy day splendor would disappear the moment it ceased to be a rather prosaic everyday word.” “Calling” also means Christians being called by grace to faith. “When it began to dawn on Luther that just as certainly as the call to God’s kingdom seeks to lift us infinitely above everything that our everyday duties by themselves could give us, just that certainly the call does not take us away from these duties, but more deeply into them, then work became calling...”

To Luther “call is primarily gift, and only in second or third place a duty.” Our roles and relationships in daily life are transformed in Christ; even though they seem mundane or problematic, in Christ’s cross we can now receive our work and each other not as burden but as gift. Calling for Luther was rooted in forgiveness of sins, the ultimate transformation. “In the degree that our life becomes a life of forgiveness of sins, to that degree we receive a calling.” “Life organized around the forgiveness of sins, that is Luther’s idea of the call.”

These reformation breakthroughs provided radical new possibilities for all people to serve in the church and to make significant vocational contributions to society. There was a break from reliance on authority in a person’s determining what to think and what to do in the world. People were able to read the Scriptures for themselves. But what more needs to happen? Freedom from is freedom for. It’s the “freedom for” that is left not fully realized. The power of the priesthood of all believers has, even these many years later, not fully been unleashed. Why?

Vocatio Rooted in the Forgiveness of Sins
If our calling (our vocatio) is rooted in the forgiveness of sins, what does that mean for the real ways people live? What does forgiveness mean? How are we freed for ministry? These are core questions for living out our new life together in the Spirit. Each of the baptized who are members together of the priesthood of all believers needs to hear the Gospel, God’s grace, in terms of their own specific situation. Theologian Letty Russell wrote in "Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective: A Theology (Westminster, 1974)that Jesus did not say to the blind person, “You can walk,” nor to the person who could not walk, “You can see.” Christ met people on the road in the midst of their lives and asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus cared about people and also about the societal problems related to human need in the world in which they lived.

We who have been transformed by the power of the Spirit each meet Jesus in our own need, and in the midst of society’s need. If the human problem is brokenness, the good news is that Jesus makes us whole. If the human problem is alienation, the good news is God reconciles and restores relationships. If the human problem is guilt, the good news is that God through Jesus Christ forgives. If the human problem is being lost, the good news is that the Good Shepherd looks for and finds the lost. If the human problem is death, Jesus Christ has brought new life. If the human problem is judgment, the good news in Jesus Christ is unconditional acceptance. If the human problem is being overwhelmed by the stress and demands of daily life, Jesus invites the weary to come to him and to rest in the caring arms of God. If the human problem is bondage, the good news is that Jesus brings freedom.

The second part of what Russell said is not to be forgotten. If the human problem is hunger, the good news is that God feeds the hungry. God needs people working in society to carry out that gospel action of feeding the hungry. Likewise, if the human problem is injustice, God will need whole societies working together for justice for all.

Luther’s concept of ministry is linked with his definition of the church as the communion of saints. The naked and the hungry are our neighbors. Every Christian is a priest in the sense of servant; all of the baptized, including children, are called to minister to the neighbor. Martin Luther did not begin his reform of the church on the basis of pious leaders, but through a transformed concept of the church itself. Therefore not just priests, but the one who bakes bread or serves in civic government, or cleans a house is part of the priesthood and called to ministry in that very place of service.

Our neighbors are everywhere. Luther wrote about our “stations” and “vocations.” We today might think about “stations” as the whole range of roles and relationships of our daily lives and our “vocations” as our callings to ministry to the neighbor. We sit beside a “neighbor” at our work “station” or school desk. This neighbor is the person right here next to us and also people on the other side of the world. We may just sit there and do nothing to serve the neighbor, thereby missing our calling. But if we regard the other as one also made in the image of God, as one for whom Christ died, then, by the power of the Spirit, whatever the service we do, it is our ministry.

When we deeply believe that all of our ministries are rooted in the forgiveness of sins, then we will submit our roles and relationships to Christ in confession, knowing that through the cross and resurrection we are freed for powerful servanthood. Such ministries make a difference in people’s real lives. In order to do this daily we will need spiritual guidance and faithful conversation with a trusted brother or sister in the faith.

It is helpful to take some time to quietly make a list of our roles and relationships (stations), asking who is my neighbor there? Some may be ongoing, such as relationship of parent and child, but even those constantly change throughout the life cycle. There may be new roles: a different job, a new colleague, an invitation to a volunteer position in the community, a global challenge. What is the potential for ministry there? We will need the caring guidance of a friend in Christ to help us discern our calling. What are the challenges and barriers? What are our own dilemmas in that relationship?

Is there alienation in the family? Alienation need not be permanent. When our vocation is rooted in the forgiveness of sins, we know we live already reconciled in Christ with the potential for restored relationships. We are then freed to engage in the work of reconciliation, within ourselves and within our family. Is there guilt about the thousands who die of hunger each day? Poor people do not need our guilt. They need food and shelter. When our vocation is rooted in the forgiveness of sins, we are freed to minister to not only help poor people but to work for change in systems which keep people in bondage to poverty. We are freed in Christ for powerful serving ministry. How might we reflect on our other roles and relationships? Who might help us hear God’s Word of Law and Gospel? What are some of the challenges for a faith community as they seek to become empowered and equipped for their vocations in daily life?

Doing Nothing Could Have Dangerous Consequences

2010-08-26T07:20:00.002-05:00

“When good people sit by and do nothing.” We have heard it said. “Surely this ridiculous story about President Obama being a Muslim will blow over,” we say. But I'm not so convinced it will go away at the end of the news cycle.

We have seen the figures from the recent Time Magazine article and other news sources as well. A growing number of people in this country believe our president is not a Christian, but that he is a Muslim, or that they don't know. The growth in the latter number is as troubling as any, for it shows that people are neglecting to know, or that they are allowing themselves to be beguiled by those news sources which continue to plant the seed of doubt, innuendo, and blatant lies. And we do nothing. We say nothing. We let that belief that the president is the “other,” the “enemy of America” grow unchallenged.

Why should the religious beliefs of the president of the United States matter? On the one hand, we strongly hold that religious affiliation should not be a test for the presidency. We worked that through long and hard with the candidacy and election of John F. Kennedy. When Roman Catholics have been candidates for high office in subsequent elections it's barely mentioned. The country can learn. But when racial hatred and fear are at the bottom of the whispers, a people may refuse to learn.

And that, of course, is where the issue of the fabrication of Obama being a Muslim, or having the “seed” of Islam in him, connects with the issue of the building of the Mosque and community center in lower Manhattan. Much of the TV talk has been whether President Obama's twin statements two weeks ago, one restating the first amendment, that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” and, two, that he, as president was not going to express a view of a local municipality issue, would hurt him politically. I'm much more concerned whether the furor will hurt him physically or even mortally.

The resurgence of distrust of Islam, and fear, and outright rage, including the manufactured stories of “terror babies” being born in the U.S., that they could return later to bomb us (a convenient tie in with the unsettled immigration issues), is more like the “Red Scare” of the 1950's when fear of communism stood in the way of global cooperation and peace and tore this country apart. Immediately after 9/11there was a moment of good will toward America, and compassion for suffering here. We squandered that. And we forgot to remember that Muslims died on 9/11. And for a while, a few months, even a couple of years, there was a time of learning. People in churches and synagogues reached out, inviting Muslim neighbors to talk at adult forums. We were beginning, finally, to be a learning community.

Where has that gone? It is more than forgetting to continue to learn. We are now in a full fledged time of the fostering of fear. And we do nothing.

This week, “Live from Lincoln Center” presented a rare new production of “South Pacific” with all of that wonderful music. The young stage director said he had never seen the show before. The script, written shortly after World War II, is about more than “Some Enchanted Evening” and “I'm Going to Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair”...but about fear of the other in human relationships. The words to “You've Got to Be Carefully Taught”.....racial hatred....were controversial when the show opened 60 years ago. And here they were being sung in Manhattan this week.

Across the country people gather to say, “We'd rather not have 'them' in 'our' neighborhood.” And we do nothing to attend such community meetings? To write letters to the editor? To talk about these issues in our own adult forums? To, yes, once again, set a safe learning environment for people of many faiths to gather and teach and learn from one another?

Troops return from Iraq and need to be warmly welcomed and supported, yes, supported, really supported as they re-enter their home environment. And we also need to talk, not only with them, but to talk to one another about what some people—not the ones who fought—mean when they say, “We won and we saved our freedom”? What, literally, “in the world” does that phrase mean? What, literally, in the world, are we doing?

“Congress shall make no law..” The establishment clause and the free exercise clause are two sides of our freedom of religion. For me to have this religious liberty means that my neighbor does too. “No one is free when others are oppressed,” reads the sign on my office door at the seminary. Is not this the goal? The Mayor and NY and the governor of Virginia recently made very clear that we cannot start drawing exceptions block by block to this wonderful heritage of the right to practice religion in a pluralistic nation. We are called to share this by consistently showing what religious liberty for all means. This is a way to become peacemakers in the world. That's how we deal with terror, and fear, externally and internally. Are we to do nothing, or are we called to be actively engaged as individuals and communities of faith in setting trustworthy environments for us to be different together?

Which brings us back to the president's religion. Yes, he is a Christian. And, yes, he is an African-American. We, you and I, “do nothing” when we become merely spectators and political pundits ourselves to who Barack Obama is. WE need to call for and create and engage in conversations about racism in this country. (Yes, this is the fifth anniversary of Katrina when this nation left tens of thousands of poor people and people of color without aid. What, if anything has changed since then?)

We can challenge individuals who make illogical and mistaken statements. When we recently did that, respectfully, the woman with whom my husband and I spoke was actually more ready than we might have thought to have the untruths about the president's place of birth that she had heard on talk radio corrected. WE need to create teaching and learning interfaith opportunities, where each of us can respectfully listen to what the “other” believes and put into words what we believe. We need to ask each other questions and grow. Such sharing of faith can be hard, but perhaps very interesting and not nearly as hard or as dangerous as what people are doing in public right now. (As I write this on August 26, the morning news reports a Muslim cab driver being stabbed in NYC.)

We are not “good people.” And, left to our own propensities to fear and hate, we never will be. But, by God's grace, mercy and unconditional love, we have been and are being and can be transformed into people of understanding and love in order to learn and to create new ways for us to be communities of caring action.

Communal Life in the Public World

2010-07-19T09:46:00.002-05:00

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act. Our country owes much to Sen Tom Harken of Iowa and the late Sen. Ted Kennedy for their diligence in bringing to fruition a bill that has positively changed the fabric of American life in community. Accessibility! Opportunity. So much remains to be done, of course. But so much has changed that it's hard to realize it has been only twenty years since this bill was passed and signed. All people need to be part of our communal life in the public world.

This month marks the 50th anniversary of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee's semi-autobiographical novel, set in the 1920's South, has sold over 30 million copies and at one time became required reading for ¾ of high school students in this land. Published in the early days of the Civil Rights movement, it awakened the consciousnesses of whites. The challenge, of course, goes on. Racism is not past, an historic “story” in one part of this nation. The challenge continues. All people need to be part of our communal life in the public world.

The summer of 2010 the recession continues. The numbers tell the story: joblessness, home foreclosures, stock market uncertainties. But there are other figures, too, such as a rise in emotional problems such as depression, and, sociologists note, the lessening of civic engagement. People have become less likely to be involved in community activity. While some may think people who are unemployed or underemployed have more time to be more involved, many actually become more isolated, being less involved in civic activities, community affairs, volunteer services, even attendance at church. They have less emotional energy to do so. It is not because they do not care, but because accompanying lack of productive work are questions of self worth and self-esteem. Here is a call for ministry, a call for affirmation of gifts, a call for all to be valued members of our communal life in the public world.

Earlier this month President Barack Obama's gave a stunning speech on Immigration. It was clear. It was comprehensive. The issues are complex; all need to be engaged in working toward just solutions. “We cannot forget that this process of immigration and eventual inclusion has often been painful. Each new wave of immigrants has generated fear and resentments towards newcomers, particularly in times of economic upheaval,” he said. Read his speech (to be found at various sites on-line). And talk about it, as well as ELCA Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson's recent communication on immigration. The challenge is for all of us as we find a way for people to be a part of our communal life in the public world.

All sorts of other things have been happening this July, some anniversaries, some today's news, and some the ongoing realities of daily life. For example, Detroit has no remaining chain grocery stores; people look to gas stations, “convenience” stores and fast food places for nutrition. Even availability of food is according to economic class. And yet, with nearly a third of Detroit consisting of vacant land, last year there were 557 registered family gardens, 263 community gardens and 55 school gardens. People are feeding one another. (See Sojourners July 2010.) All people need to be fed and nurtured in order to be healthy, respected, valued members of our communal life in the public world.

What has been happening in your world, or world, this July? What hinders and helps our call to communal vocation in the public world?

What Do We Believe This July 4?

2010-06-23T14:31:00.009-05:00

As we approach July 4, one of the “holy” days of American civil religion, some random comments on where we are in this ever unfolding contemporary religious dimension to the American society:

As noted before in this blog, I deeply care about and am thankful for the United States of America and believe we should dedicate ourselves once again to vigorous participatory democracy. In order to do so as members of various faith communities in this pluralistic society, it is important to understand that as Robert Bellah wrote in his groundbreaking article in Daedalus in 1967, “while some have argued that Christianity is the national faith…few have realized that there actually exists alongside of and rather clearly differentiated from the churches an elaborate and well-instituted civil religion in America…[that]requires the same care in understanding that any other religion does”

I have been studying American civil religion (ACR) for well over 30 years now and have written extensively on the subject. But it keeps changing! It is not a dead religion. Lately I have wondered if we in the United States do not rather have an American corporate religion, as the power struggles between the U.S. government and BP would attest.

Each time I work with groups of people, whether students or congregational adult forums, I use a discovery method so that people are engaged in their own learning. We list the various elements of a religion listed around the room on chalk board or paper: Holy Days, Shrines, Holy Writ, Hymns, Symbols, Saints, Martyrs, Priests, Prophets, Rituals, Creeds, Gods. Participants fill in what they have seen in the world around them. ACR is indeed our “other faith” which shapes and forms what we believe every day. Over the years participants have suggested I add the categories of “Missions” and “Ecclesiology/Church”

Two weeks ago in Wartburg Seminary’s one-week intensive course, “The Church as Learning Community,” students, added some of their own ideas from summer of 2010 (By the way, the views in this post are my own. The class was a wonderful group of people with diverse views...I simply wanted to share some of their ideas and show you their picture!):
Mission: To spread our form of democracy
God: “happiness” (there are a lot of books, videos, etc out of happiness right now, perhaps because this is time of fear and uncertainty)
Creed: The Creed, “In Debt We Trust” has been shaken to the core
Ecclesiology/Church: Cell phones and Face Book
Shrines: Malls, banks, Arlington National Cemetery
Prophets: Sarah Palin (the list is usually all male) and Sarah Palin wannabes

Actually Sarah Palin was shown on the cover of Newsweek as “Saint Sarah” last week theorizing that the Christian right, long a group that confuses its brand of civil religion with its brand of Christianity, melding them together in a religious patriotism, is poised to become a women’s movement. By “feminist,” however, these women do not mean a movement of liberation and shared partnership of women and men working for global peace and justice, but a “kind of submissive, pretty, aw-shucks demeanor with a fiery power, a spiritual warfare.” (Newsweek, p.37)

Is there room for “Repentance” in American civil religion? Shame? Jonathan Kozol‘s recent book The Same of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America, chronicles the educational gap in educational opportunities among rich and poor, black and white. But repentance?

Shame? The misnaming and missing of bodies at the holy “shrine” of Arlington National has been called a shame.

Where are we this July 4th? Where are you? These are random thoughts, hardly comprehensive of all the news, all the beliefs, all the "holy" shrines and hymns. Do we believe in "Freedom" as an icon? Is it "my" own independence that I worship? But don't we really need to be interdependent? And surely our belief in the corporate world to take complete care of our needs, particularly the needs of the poor has been shaken. In fact globally, decisions are usually not made on the basis of what is good for the needs of most of the poor of the world, but what is good for the corporation.
So, where are our gods? What do we hold dear? What beliefs and creeds hold us? What holds us together as a nation? What holds our attention?

And, in the midst of it all, what do the radical creeds of a radical Gospel of cross and resurrection empower us to do as we seek to serve all people in God’s created and hurting world?

It's Not That I Don't Like Children's Sermons...

2010-06-08T14:49:00.007-05:00

A friend recently asked what I might recommend on children's sermons from a theological perspective and how to engage children in worship more as opposed to the three minute stint up front.

I responded: First of all, I'm glad you are asking and not just making assumptions that: l) Of course we should have children’s sermons; 2) The goal is to have "our" cute kids in front of the church; or even 3) It's the only way to keep kids interested in going to church.

I would begin by asking about the nature of the worshipping community. And I would also ask, as I do in the book, The Ministry of Children's Education, "Who is the child?" and "Whose is the child?" The first question would move you to a conversation about God and the body of Christ and how all members, small and large, are active participants and not mere spectator or audience. (As you know, many adults "enjoy" the children's sermon because they like the amusement factor when a child answers an abstract question in a concrete way.)

Thinking positively, beginning with the nature of the worshipping community opens the doors wide to creatively thinking about the ways people of all ages and abilities can be involved in praying, praising, hearing and speaking the Word of God, and serving and being empowered for ministry in daily life. I have seen congregations--maybe your own--do that. Like the young girls who play chimes beautifully at Bethel Lutheran Church in Aurora, CO, here having fun on the sanctuary steps before the service. I have seen children and adults serving as ushers together. I heard the most clear and moving proclamation of the Word when a 12-year-old, with good preparation, read the lessons. I have worshipped from folders with colorful covers individually designed by the young children. I have seen a child in a wheel chair bring forth the bread for communion. I have been fed by my own sons at the altar on their confirmation day years ago.

And, coming from the other direction, I would love to talk with an education committee about how the pastor(s) can be engaged with children around the Bible at other times than on the altar steps on Sunday morning. I know, I know, they are busy. But, too busy to teach the children the Bible? "Let the little children come to me" and I'm too busy? Recently, on my way home from Colorado, I was with Pastor Randy Fett in Grand Island, Nebraska. He serves a 2000 member ELCA congregation. It was midweek and he spent the morning engaged with the texts for the upcoming Sunday, first with children from the day care center and pre-school.
He used not just the story from the Gospel, but also the Psalm. No story line there. But he and the children with their whole bodies lived out the praise of the Psalm. Later he and I met with some of the oldest members of the congregation and engaged the same texts. Or, more clearly, the texts engaged us. We carry the Word and the Word carries us. Here was the wisdom of the ages, the pain and joy, and the still unanswered questions, from the same text in the same church on the same morning. We are called to engage and be engaged by the scriptures by all the people all week along. That is the joyful challenge to which we as a congregation and its councils and committees are called.

Having broadened the question from both directions, I then come back to the more narrow subject. It's not that I was avoiding your question. I answer by not taking the beloved practice of children's sermons away from people, but by helping them experience that as only a small part of the potential of children's ministry, all ministry, in the church. Yes, I have seen children gathered around the pastor sharing the text for the day while the congregation listened on. It's not that I don't like children's sermons. I just don't like children's sermons done badly.

Here's where I come back to the "Who is the Child?" and "Whose is the Child?" questions and some rubrics I have for children's sermons.
1. They need to be grounded in the Word of God, not just lightly connected through some cute story. Here's where I find books on children's sermons can be counter-productive. I think it is difficult to prepare a children's sermon. One should spend a great deal of work on it. Too often it's just an afterthought. There are, of course, pastors who deeply care and carefully prepare.

2. Those who give children's sermons need to be and become theologically educated. That means pastors need ongoing growth theologically. And it certainly means that theologically trained leaders, pastors, diaconal ministers, deaconesses, associates in ministry, need to be working with any lay people who are preparing children's sermons. I believe this about ongoing theological education for and with those with teaching ministries in the congregation as well, of course.

3. The name: “Children's sermon” implies children don't listen to the "real" sermon. And there are those adults who proudly say "I got the most out of the children's sermon." "Children's time" assumes that's the only time the pastor or caring adults spend with children, or that being in front is the only place of worship. So, name? Maybe the problem with the name reveals the problem with the concept.

4. All of the above has been speaking to "Whose is the child?" Certainly the child is a person created by God, beloved by Christ and filled with the Spirit. The child does not belong to the parent. The child, all children, are children of the whole congregation. And seeing children as special enough to be seen and heard in church is very important. I do not mean to diminish that. Likewise the caring congregation needs always to be reaching out to children from the neighborhood and beyond. How does our comprehensive ministry of the Word do that? And how does the place of the child in Sunday worship do that?

5. "Who is the child" asks the very, very important developmental question. The fact that I have come to that last means it is not of least but of utmost importance. I think it would be great for those who work with education and worship to take time to learn more about child development, particularly about concrete reasoning and abstract concept. And, while you are at it, talk about the problems with asking, "Guess what I'm thinking" questions. This kind of adult education would be helpful for the whole range of ministry among children.

The Risk of Love

2010-05-26T12:41:00.007-05:00

Jon Larson, co-president of the senior class of Wartburg Seminary, 2010, gave a commencement response which included these words, ever more poignant, because he was in Haiti in January, surviving the earthquake in which his cousin, dear friend, and classmate, Ben, died.

Jon spoke of beginning a new journey, "a journey where we are equipped, guided and guarded by the Holy Spirit, but more than that, where we are now a part of each other. As we leave this place with our hearts full of all kinds of emotions, we also leave here with love for one another in our hearts. We are forever yoked together for strength in sharing the burdens and the accomplishments to come in the future. Even though we are not side by side, we can feel the love as we hold each other up in prayer, as we are a listening ear, and--if we are lucky--as we still feel the impression of a hug.

"We are bonded together and guided today by love. Love is oh so risky! We know this all too well. We are surrounded by individuals and communities who have risked much: those present in this room, those in our lives, and those absent. Love is indeed risky because in fully giving of ourselves in love we risk changing through the love of the other. Risking in love can be pain-full and can also be joy-filled, and it is everything in between. That is exactly what we are called to do: risk everything in love. We risk because we believe and proclaim that God has first loved us, giving us all we need, and Christ is our ultimate example of love.

"So we ask: "Will we risk? Will we love the people we are called to serve with all our being?" YES..we will, with the help of God." Brothers, and sisters, that is how we walk into the world."

Malcolm Ridgeway has been a friend of mine since the days when our families were neighbors in Detroit years ago. For the past eleven years he has been in prison and we have written many, many letters to one another: Living Epistles one might call them. Malcolm reminds me of the Apostle Paul because he carries on a ministry among the men as pastor, preacher, teacher, social worker, counselor and friend. A recent letter began:

"I pray that God's grace continues to abound in and through you. You hear God's call, 'Here I am Lord, send me.' We are fellow laborers in God's vineyard. I pray that God sends more laborers because the harvest is ripe."

In these years he has been moved around from Detroit, to a prison in rural Michigan, then to Muskegan, and now back to Detroit. He says, "I am once again in Detroit. I am overjoyed. If I have to be incarcerated, I'd much rather be here, close to family. I hate that they had to make that long drive to see me. I dearly miss the men I left in Muskegan. I developed some friendships that will last me a lifetime. It's like that every time I leave a prison. I'm like Joselph. Everywhere I go God's favor rests upn me and I meet people with whom I connect and in no time at all it's like we've known each other all our lives. But it was time to move on. Guys here leave and go home everyday, so there will be a lot of opportunities to put something on their minds as they head for the streets again. I give thanks to God for the people God has placed in my life. God is an awesome God."

Recently, after I had shared with Malcolm some of my own journeys away from Wartburg, he said, "I pray that God continues to open doors for you." To hear those words from a man in prison was amazing!

We are called, called together, to love, to risk, and to move on. Sometimes we have a say in where we are called. Sometimes we do not. Sometimes doors are open. Sometimes they are not. Sometimes they are locked. Sometimes we face life. Sometimes we face death. But God leads on the journey, on the risk of love.

To assist you in your journey of faith, I invite you to click on to "Grace and Peace to You: A Yearlong Devotional Journey Through the Epistles"

Home

2010-05-01T06:59:00.014-05:00

How did my little 4-year-old legs climb all those stairs through the courtyards of Windsor Terrace apartments from Ingersoll to Grand Avenue? I remember my mother, my sister and I climbed up that steep hill home from the bus when we lived on Lincoln Court during the first few years of my life in Des Moines, Iowa. I climbed those many stairs again the last day of my journey home from Colorado and Nebraska. Why did I want to climb those stairs? The little bungalow is no longer there. The land is now part of Des Moines University. I guessed students now lived in Windsor Terrace.

Why does one look for, long for, "home" when even the house no longer exists? I have been on the road for eight weeks now, spending March teaching in Sweden and during April lecturing, preaching and leading workshops in many congregations in Colorado and Nebraska. Long drives allow one to count and take stock. I figured I have lived 17 places during my lifetime. And then I counted that the various places I have stayed these past two months added up also to the number 17. I can see each one of them in my mind's eye. Each in their own way was "home" if for 15 years or for only a night or two.

I lived in only two different places until I was 11, when my father died. And then we moved around a bit. By the time I left "home" (meaning my mother's house) in Mason City, Iowa, after graduating from community college, there had been six. We had owned none of them, always renting a bungalow, duplex or apartment. And then there were the young adult years of Valparaiso University, my first call in St. Louis, graduate school and Burton's first call, back teaching in Valparaiso: five more. During Burton's many years of pastoral ministry we have lived in six homes, three of which were church parsonages, and three of which we owned ourselves. Does that add up to 17? I think so. Oh, I could very well add the apartment at Iliff School of Theology in Denver where I lived for six months during my Ph.D. residency. That was actually the only place I lived by myself. I think it's important to do so at sometime in one's life, to discover who one really is.

Are the houses and apartments where you have lived still there? Can you see them? Do you recall feelings of joy and loss, struggles and accomplishment while you lived there? Whom did you love? Who loved you? Who is no longer alive? Who shared your life for a brief time? A long time? Who sat at your table in those places you called home? What strangers did you welcome there? During these past two months we stayed in Swedish hotels with Scandinavian decor a school/retreat center, and in a l000 year old parsonage. (Burton traveled with me.)

In Colorado and Nebraska I stayed 8500 feet high in Vail where homes are measured in the millions and out in the country in a parsonage of a four-point parish in rural Western Nebraska. I, traveling alone, was privileged to visit Wartburg Seminary graduates I have taught 5, 15, 20 and 25 years ago. And I learned at their tables, the tables in their kitchens and the tables of the altars in their churches. In each place people are "at home" whether the congregation has 2000 members or 25. I can see each one in my mind's eye. I heard about joys and losses, struggles and accomplishments. I, the stranger, was welcomed and loved. I give thanks for Christ who welcomes us all to each of those tables and in whom we find our home. And, as I go home to my office at Wartburg Seminary, where so many people through the years continue to "find Norma" I give thanks for that home, and for Christ's call that leads me, and all of us on all kinds of journeys. I have learned much in these past eight weeks. And I also hear the voice of Pastor Randy Fett, as I completed my last speaking engagement, "Norma, continue to teach."

The Leadership of Collaboration

2010-04-14T10:22:00.004-05:00

Yesterday it was a second page story and today it's on page 5 of the morning paper. And it didn't lead the evening news last night either. Why? Why is the fact that leaders of 47 nations gathering for two days in Washington, D.C. at the invitation of President Obama not headline news? And, for that matter why was the top headline, "Armstrong attacks Obama Space plans?" (I'm looking at "USA Today" the paper available in my motel in Denver)

A nuclear weapon killing hundreds of thousands would have caught our fickel attention. The question is more than the phenomenon of "If it bleeds it leads." The long, hard work of collaboration is not seen as strong leadership.

During the second afternoon of the two-day Nuclear Security Summit, I was sitting around a table with a church staff quietly planning collaboratively, and giving attention to the careful, courageous leadership necessary to work collaboratively.
A conflict ripping the congregation apart would have caught our attention.

Why is it that leading in a collaboratively style is seen as weak? Collaboration is desperately needed, both in congregations and in the global community. And it is possible and can be learned.

Page 9 of the morning paper reported a story describing how lawmakeres rarely work together today. "They merely find convenient allies, i.e. lobbyists--in order to get anything done."

In a competitive society, "attack" is strong. Listening is weak. In a dangerous world, or when things become dangerous within the church, secret meetings, taking sides, tear down reigns. What is needed is careful, open collaboration.

What is the leadership of collaboration? Do we recognize and respect it when we see it? No, it is not "anything goes." That's abdication. Nor is it taking control and keeping control at any cost. That's authoritarianism.

It's setting and maintaining a trustworthy environment. It's having each one speak themselves present. It's encouraging and uplifting the contributions of all at each stage of planning, gently modeling how to bring out a hesitant person's or a small nation's ideas while helping a more dominant one to relinquish the floor. Collaboration is hard work. It will take months or years. In this instant gratification world we want fast decisions and quick results. Co-labor is hard and needs to be sustained by ongoing mutual accountability.

That's what I saw going on around the table yesterday at Abiding Hope Lutheran Church in Littleton,Colorado. That's what I saw going on at the Nuclear Security Summit.

King's Death an Easter Challenge

2010-04-03T06:58:00.004-05:00

Martin Luther King Jr. died on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39. His was a Lenten death. This year April 4 begins the Easter season. We are challenged once again, 42 years later, to pick up the call to work for justice, particularly the unfinished business of calling out on behalf of people who are poor, to ask why does the United States incarcerate more citizens than any nation in the world, particularly people of color, and to carry out our vocation of seeking a just and peaceful world. These are resurrection challenges!

I write this the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, the Saturday when Christ lay in the tomb and disciples were confused and afraid. Walmart promises "Easter costs less at Walmart." What kind of an Easter dare they think they are selling?

This Saturday is a heavy day, and yet a day to prepare for the Easter season journey. "Why do you seek the living among the dead?" "Go, tell the disciples that he is going ahead of you to Galilee."

I, like most of us, am perplexed, unsure, confused. Where is Christ leading us? I, like most of us, live between Lent and Easter, and yet Christ calls us forth.

I am packing my bags this day to head out again, this time not overseas but to various speaking engagements in Colorado and Nebraska. So that you will know where I am:

April 4 (with Burton) Bergen, Rowland, Iowa
April 10 and 11 Bethel, Aurora, Colorado
April 13 and 14 Abiding Hope, Littleton, Colorado
April 17 and 18 Mount of the Holy Cross, Vail, Colorado
April 20 Our Savior's, Greeley, Colorado
April 23 Lodgepole, Chappell and Oshkosh, Nebraska
April 24 and 25 St. John, Alliance, Nebraska
April 28 St. Paul's Grand Island, Nebraska

I go because circumstances warrant such travel. I go because I have been invited. I need to remember that it is Christ who calls us forth to vocations in the public world because the work of justice is not done. This year we remember Martin Luther King's work on Easter Sunday....and every day thereafter. Blessings on the journey.

Punctuality and Pedagogs

2010-03-21T01:53:00.004-05:00

We have been hosted so very graciously and well while teaching in Sweden. Particularly notable to me (since I love people being on time)is the impecable punctuality. Since we do not know Swedish and we are being met and handed off to the host at the next diocese or theological institution, we are totally in the hands of the Swedish people. We have a list, and then precisely at the appointed time the next host appears. Likewise I am using a variety of teaching styles throughout the day, interspersed with Fika (coffee breaks...a word they insisted I learn) I am continually surprised and appreciative when the group automatically returns to the room at the appointed time. Now this may seem insignicant, but it coincides with my commitment to mutual accountability. People in Iowa are punctual, too. I'm not comparing. I'm simply appreciative and saying punctuality assists learning community.

Our host in Stockholm is Rune Larsson, from whom I received the invitation to come to Sweden. One would have thought that I as a Lutheran would have been invited by the Lutherans. Rather, the connection is ecumenical. Rune, who is with the Covenant Church had read my book "The Church as Learning Community" which was published by a Methodist publisher (Abingdon). We became acquainted through the Religious Education Association, an international, interfaith professional organization. While in Sweden, of course, most of the participants are Lutheran, part of the Swedish Lutheran Church. So our assocations ecumenically often lead us full circle back to our own communion. On our first Sunday we worshipped with the central Covenant church in Stockholm, which was a wonderful experience, a vital church with mission outreach. In many ways it was very similar to Lutheran worship in the States. The Covenant Church in Sweden may have more in common with the ELCA than with the Swedish Covenant church in the United States.

Thinking about being the church, whether the "established" church in a country, or county, or being the one who is different leads to important questions about being a Christian in the world and in one's own daily life. Nineteen years ago we visited the Lutheran Church in Namibia, shortly after independence, the 20th anniversary of which Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque is celebrating at this time. The question the Namibians posed while we were there was, "How do we be the church when those in ruling power are no longer the enemy, but we can now be in official leadership?"

The Lutheran Church is no longer the officially established church of Sweden. So what is its role now? And what can we learn from the small churches in Sweden, the Covenant,the Baptist, and the even smaller Methodist church? While we are here they are meeting to take the next steps in joining together, along with choosing a name which may be something like "Community Church." What is our calling, our vocation, in the public world as various churches at various points in history?

Meanwhile, we hear news from the States that the Texas school board has passed a series of resolutions to change the curicuulum in Texas schools. This has implications for the entire country since many textbooks for public scools across the nation are published in Texas. The nation is now to be portrayed not as pluralistic but as Judeo
Christian. The nation will be described not so much as a democracy but as a republic with an emphases on capitalistic corporations shaping young people. The USA is to be seen as a exceptional nation in the world with an exceptionalist role to play. There are more resolutions. The role of the Civil Rights movement is to be downplayed.

Although in the USA there is no state church, what do these measures mean for teaching about the nation and about a certaian kind of Christianity's place in the nation?

All of us at each point in time need to continue to discern the church's vocation in the public world.

One more story about teaching and learning. We took a train to Gothenburg. Some (including ours) are still being cancelled because of snow on the tracks. We took a train an hour later (ah, the convenience of public transportation). We were greeted warmly by yet another host, Annika Broman. I sat in the front of a taxi while she and Burton got in the back. They were surprised when a taxi driver popped in the back seat with them. It seems he was the teacher for the new driver in the front. We were glad the teacher was there in the evening traffic. Interestingly, the next day when once again Annika took us by taxi, another man popped into the back seat with her and Burton. This time we discovered the learner was watching while the teacher was driving the cab. He new man told us clearly that before he could be at the stage of driving himself he has to observe his teacher. Annika and I were delighted at this one more example of informal teaching/learning communities all around us in which we daily partipate.

Candles and Cucumber Sandwiches

2010-03-17T05:04:00.004-05:00

Just a few brief words about one person's impressions of our experience in Sweden (experience is always personal...and cannot be generalized.)

Not all Swedes are blonds
but I have never seen so many houses painted golden yellow. Against the bright blue sky, they remind one of their flag, and they brighten the long grey days.
Yes, most of the sports we see in our TV in our room are cross country on the snow
Children are well bundled and wear helmets outside our room to play on the hills because the snow is very icy. We watch our step.
Where to put the mounds of snow, one or two stories hight? Not in the sea, they say, so they are trucking it to the woods. One cannot count on it melting soon,

No sweets. Coffee breaks are cucumber sandwiches on dark bread with a little cheese. Hearty food and healthy.

Warm people who care for us well, tending us and handing us off to yet a new person as we go forth to speak and teach...and learn...in a new location. This afternoon it will be a train ride to Gothenberg.

There are candles on the table at every meal, including breakfast.
Lit candles to bring the light in a land yet filled with snow.
But, we here, like those at home in the United States, will celebrate the spring equinox together.

Norma

Bicyles in the Snow

2010-03-13T02:40:00.003-06:00

I write from Sweden. We--husband Burton and I--arrived at the Arlanda airport, half way between Stockholm and Uppsala last Monday evening. After our long winter of Iowa ice and snow, we had worried a blizzard might hinder our leaving Dubuque, but it was Sunday fog that caused the plane from Chicago to simply circle overhead and head back for Chicago without landing. Burton quickly rented a car and we, plus two other stranded passengers, took off, making our l0 p.m. flight from Ohare to London.

We were greeted by a taxi which took us to Uppsala. Sweden, too, had had one of the longest, coldest winters in decades. The piles of snow still a meter high everywhere do not stop people, particularly students at the university, from traveling on their bicycles. On Tuesday, guided by our host, Berne Persliden, we walked to the cathedral which he told us is the largest Lutheran cathedral in Scandinavia. Begun in the 12th century, it retains its original beauty. Our eyes rose to the magnificent height; I also noticed out of the corner of my eye as we went by the chapel behind the altar, a woman, dressed plainly, standing there. When the Reformation came to Sweden, the statue for the veneration of Mary had been removed from the chapel. The woman, so lifelike one had to look twice to see she was a statue, is “Mary returned.” In her eyes one can see all women.

I was invited to Sweden to lecture at four locations, primarily on my book, “The Church as Learning Community,” and also on lifelong faith formation, leadership and ministry in daily life. The first was Johannelunds teologiska hogskola in Uppsala. What a amazing joy Wednesday morning at 8:30 to see 170 students (half the seminary) come for the lectures, most studying to be Lutheran priests, and also those who will become diaconal ministers and educators. Their attentiveness all day (we ended at 3:30) for my four lectures, small group discussion in Swedish, and a panel of eight students interacting with me, they in Swedish and I in English, was most gratifying. We dealt with ecclesiology and various images of soteriology. Many said they had not thought before about everyone being a teacher and a learner. They were concerned about ordinary people being intimidated by teaching authority. They wanted to know more about “starting from the other direction,” where people are in their daily lives. I give thanks for them and for that full and wonderful day.

The next day was equally long and challenging when I gave four lectures to priests and educators of the diocese of Uppsala, just six blocks from our hotel. No, we didn’t ride bicycles; we walked. The church in Sweden, of course, had been a state church. My interest in issues of church and state led me to many questions about the Lutheran church now since disestablishment in 2000. Still most Swedes belong to the church, but membership does not translate into regular worship or regular lifelong learning. This day the lectures and conversation were different, but the gracious hospitality of Nina Carlsson Garloev and Bertil Murray and the receptiveness of the group to the topics was no less. They of course know English well, but still it is a challenge to listen all day in English and to stay engaged. I tried of course to speak clearly; I could see connection in their eyes when we dealt with issues of power and partnership and authority, working from the book by Craig Nessan and myself, “Transforming Leadership.” The topics from both books merge when we talk about “setting trustworthy environments for us to be different together.”

Karl-Eric Tysk, a priest and scholar whom I knew when he was a student of ours in a D.Min. program at the University of Dubuque, brought us north to Storvic and Kungsgarden where we have been staying for two nights in his rectory, a very large home built in medieval times and brought up to date in the l9th century. He has a pastorate of two parishes which combined have five churches and l0,000 members. Services are held in each church every other Sunday. Sweden, like Finland and Estonia, is today a very secular country; the church is important as part of the heritage.

We worshipped with some of the 35 staff at the beginning of their Friday work and I told them how the Wartburg community would be gathering for worship also on Friday morning. We attended a small village funeral where Karl-Eric spoke the Word with warmth and dignity to the family in attendance. He then drove us further on to visit a most beautiful part of Sweden with lakes and mountains. The snow itself is piled high like small mountains. But the bright sun promises that spring will come.

Today we go to Stockholm for more lectures at the central event for which we were invited. Burton, also, will give a lecture on the use of media. Later in the week we go to Gothenberg.

Chapel with Marilyn

2010-03-01T15:23:00.004-06:00

“Lead me, guide me, along the way,” begins the well known hymn. Last Wednesday Marilyn Robinson, a second year Master of Divinity student here at Wartburg Seminary, and I were privileged to lead the Wartburg community in the Wednesday morning communion service. Faculty take turns preaching and presiding at worship and students assist in planning and leading daily chapel. Nothing was unusual in that regard.

I frequently quote theologian Letty Russell, a mentor of mine and many others from Yale Divinity School, when she wrote, that Jesus did not say to the blind person, “You can walk,” nor to the person who could not walk, “You can see.” Jesus met people in their need and also cared about societal problems related to those human needs.

Letty's words remind me that each of us is unique in our need and that our ministry to people should to be specific to their individual needs.

Chapel with Marilyn last week bore that out and took me one step further. Marilyn has problems with sight and I, because I live with the chronic illness CFS, have difficulty standing. So together, and with the guidance of sacristan Gloria Stubitsch, we had to figure out how to lead that day in a way that would honor Wartburg's liturgical tradition, and be possible for each of us. We talked. Because we would be seated in the chancel and the lectern and communion table are down on the floor in the midst of the people, we wondered how Marilyn would move down the steps. I could guide her, walking with my cane, but she suggested putting blue tape on the edge of each of the three stairs so she could see them better. And she would need large print for the first biblical text and the parts of the liturgy she would lead.

I need to sit as much as I can. I could stand with assistance of my cane while she held the large worship book. She would guide the people as to the appropriate times to sit and stand; I said “Just don't watch me. I quietly sit at those times and no one seems to notice if you are guiding them clearly.” Likewise I need a stool upon which to sit to preach and hand out the communion bread. I have done that for years and while I at first thought it would be a distraction to the community, I have discovered, here at Wartburg and other places I preach, that it actually communicates hospitality to those with a variety of disabilities.

So, we were moving along well in our planning, becoming partners. So much so, that soon I almost forgot whose need was which. “Oh yes, I don't need the large print for the Gospel lesson...that's your need.” And Marilyn found that she could easily see the stool I needed at the lectern. “I don't need to sit on the stool but it won't be in my way.” As our needs intermingled, our help for each other intertwined. Soon we were all laughing together!

The day of worship came. With prayer, careful planning and in partnership we were able to lead together. While some may have thought (and think!) that we would have needed others to lead in our stead, the service moved along with grace and dignity. The assisting minister usually prepares the table and pours the wine into the chalice, but I did that since Marilyn was not sure she could see well enough to pour well. I stood while at the altar, but raised one hand in blessing while simply holding on to the table with my other hand. Another team member, a communion assistant, moved my stool from the lectern to the place for distribution while people shared the peace. Marilyn and I took one another's arm, as needed, she to steady my body and I to guide where she could not see. I sang the Eucharistic liturgy and Marilyn, with her rich voice, led from memory the hymns (including also, “I Want Jesus to Walk with Me) from her African-American heritage.

One could say, “No one noticed,” these small measures and be accurate. No one seemed to think the service any different than usual. On the other hand, perhaps it is good if some did notice so that they might conclude, “All the people of God can participate in and take their role in leading worship.” Gloria said afterward, I had tears in my eyes as we sang together, “Lead me, guide me along the way.” I felt Letty's presence too. Christ meets each of us where we are and asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” and then calls us to follow him as servant leaders.

Is Haiti A Lost Cause?

2010-02-14T13:41:00.002-06:00

My co-contributor, Christopher deForest, has visited Haiti six times over the past three years, leading groups on cultural immersion trips as part of his internship and seminary education. Here he shares a valuable perspective he gained from a 2008 visit:

Every week brings new, compounded fears for Haiti. Indeed, there are many reasons for great concern, and many experts are saying things will get much worse before they get any better. Some worry about the children – the many orphans created by the quake. Some worry about the coming rainy season, and what will happen to the millions now homeless. Some worry about the spread of disease. Some see all the rubble and worry there’s no place for it all to go.

And then there are those who worry about the essential stamina and spirit of the Haitians themselves. “Haiti was a disaster before the earth moved,” the argument goes. “They have never had a stable, working government. Their entire society has been in shambles for two centuries. How can they possibly find the strength and capacity to recover from this?”

I learned the truth about Haiti, as I led a small group of Americans there in May 2008. It was a month after the nation-wide food riots – in fact, we had had to postpone our trip because of the crisis. It was a Sunday, and we took a long drive in the back of a flatbed truck (a “tap-tap”) up a winding road to a small village at the top of a mountain.

We stop at a simple building, with a cross over the front door. A church. We are met by three village elders – two men and a woman. After a warm greeting, we’re led around the back into a clearing, up to the porch of a small house. Spilling out the front door of the house, all along its front, is a big group, obviously having a meeting of some kind.

Now, I have no idea why we’ve come here. Our Haitian guide has promised us “a surprise.” So I begin to worry: “Are we interrupting something?” But no one seems disturbed. In fact, everywhere I see welcoming, calm, and confident faces. The scene looks like a Norman Rockwell painting.

One of the elders speaks in Creole, and our guide translates. This is a “community union group.” They meet every Sunday afternoon, after church. They get together and take care of the needs of the community. Needs not being met in any other way. Sometimes, there is a sick member who needs to go to a hospital. Maybe there’s a hurricane coming and they need to prepare. Maybe a family is struggling and needs some help. Each week, they decide how to take care of these concerns.

Again, a worry enters my mind: I wonder if this group formed because of the food crisis, and how hard life has become in Haiti in the past year. So I ask, “How long have you been meeting?” This group has gotten together every Sunday afternoon since 1985. They are, in fact, one of five such groups in this region. And together, they have done many amazing things. They built the entire road we drove up the mountain. They organize holidays and events for the whole community. They’ve built houses, built their church building, farmed together, helped communities outside their own village, and helped children go away to school. Right now, in fact, they are building their own school – they would be glad to show it to us.

Then, another man steps forward. He holds in one hand a fist-full of Haitian money. In the other, a worn spiral notebook. He opens it and shows me a column of names – all 75 people in attendance, with check marks beside. This man is obviously the treasurer, and with pride he explains that every person comes to the meeting with one dollar. They give that dollar for the support of the community. And with those dollars, this community does everything.

I ask: “Does the government provide any support?” They laugh, shake their heads, and say that they only come up here during elections. They just had one, and candidates came, promising help, even leaving their cell phone numbers. After the election, none of those phone numbers worked, and the politicians have not been seen again.

Our conversation wanes, bringing new worries. I recall my place: I represent a U.S. charitable organization, so I ought to say something “official.” But what exactly do these people need from us? Do they want our money? Want us to lobby their government? Want us to bring in our first-world expertise? I didn’t know what to say, or even where to start. I babble something about being honored to meet them, offer to take their cause back to our country, blah-blah-blah.

I fall silent. Suddenly, I feel like a little child, in the presence of my wise and gentle elders, unequal to the task, to the moment, to whatever was being asked of me. So, I turn to our guide and ask, “Can we pray with them?”

Apparently, there is no need to translate. All around, broad smiles, like rising suns, dawn on 75 faces. They sigh and nod and laugh. They rise and step forward. It was like they were chiding, with all love and comfort, “At last, little one, you ask a good question.” And then, before I could worry about what to do or who should speak, a Haitian woman just starts to sing. A circle forms. Someone takes my hand on each side. We swing our arms in rhythm.

As the song ends, I look over to their pastor, assuming he’ll lead us in prayer, but someone else in the crowd starts to pray, then another, and another. Then there’s more song.

Then, someone is coming to me, a stranger, and he embraces me, and gently speaks into my stiff shoulders, “La Paix.” “The Peace.” “Peace be with you.” So around the whole circle we go, sharing this peace, hug after hug. La Paix. La Paix. La Paix.

Then, they walk us up the hillside, to see the school they are building. It is breathtaking. Six large rooms, almost finished, such a visible sign of their faith, built by them brick-by-brick, dollar-by-dollar, on merely one dollar a week, which for many of them is as much as a fourth of their weekly income.

Finally, they take us back down, and feed us delicious coconuts cut from their trees, and pineapples from their gardens. They load up our arms with food, load us on our truck, and wave to us as we drive away, down the road they built.

We came up that mountain, in all our worries, expecting to be needed, expecting to feel guilty, expecting… really, not knowing what to expect. We came down, realizing that we were hungry, we were thirsty, we were empty – and that they had filled us up. In fact, all they wanted from us that day was to fill us up. To share their joy. To show us their way.

Make no mistake. Right now, Haiti needs help. It’s a place full of destruction and death. But it continues to be a place with a long history of hope and an extraordinary capacity to heal. Haitians find faith and strength in community, in ways and times we can scarcely imagine. January 12^th was not the first time they’ve been shaken and crushed. Yet they have never been ones to set aside their belief in a God with the power to raise the dead. So don’t give up on Haitians. They are no lost cause.

That We May All Be One

2010-01-21T09:05:00.002-06:00

Text: John 17:15-23 Sermon I preached at Wartburg Theological Seminary, January 20, 2010, one week after Ben Larson was killed among the tens of thousands of people in the earthquake in Haiti:

So many words to say. We need to speak them. For now, we ponder words from John’s Gospel.
Jesus prayed: “So that the world may know that you [God] have sent me and loved them
even as you have loved me.”

This text comes right before the betrayal, arrest and finally the death of Jesus.
We are a community being sustained by prayer these days. In our text Jesus is earnestly praying for the disciples. When in our grief we hardly can find words to pray, know that Jesus prayed for us. Jesus prays for us who are sent out into the world, and Jesus prays that we might all be one.

Jonathan Larson’s words: “The morning before the earthquake we spent walking the slums of Port au Prince with a nurse friend, administering help and praying with the people in pain.”

Jesus did not ask that the ones he loved be taken away from their work in the world, but that they be protected, not from danger, or persecution, but from the evil one, from thinking that evil has won out.
“Make them holy in the truth; your word is truth!” When we can no longer bear to look at the suffering, make us holy in your truth, oh God.
As God sent Jesus into the world, so send us into the world……
It would be so tempting to say, when a person dies on J-Term, “Don’t go out there.” But we will go back to Haiti, and to other places of impossible challenge and danger.
For that matter, where would it be safe to stay? Surely not inside our own churches, nor inside our own homes. Just as Jesus was sent to walk among those who are the poorest and outcast, with crowds pressing in on him in need of healing, Jesus sends us into the world.

Ben deeply believed that. I hear his gentle voice holding strong commitment to the global ministry of accompaniment. He walked and taught and prayed among and enjoyed the people of Haiti and in ultimate accompaniment, died together with tens of thousands in the earthquake.

April and Judd’s words: “In his young death, his life joins the bodies of the poor. In the Haitian rubble, Ben’s life joins these dear, beloved people.”

It is the truth that people die of hunger around the world every day behind the headlines. Jesus prayed that we not be swallowed up in denial, or in being afraid of those who hands reach out for help, but that we might be the incarnate body of Christ in the world.

This is the Week of Christian unity.

Jesus prays on behalf of those who do not believe in him. Jesus prays for all that “they may all be one.” “As you, Abba, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me and have loved them, even as you have loved me.”

I loved Ben. We loved Ben. We care about the people of Haiti. But what do we do in the face of such a catastrophe? It’s maddening to watch. Why can’t they just get that food and water to those who hunger and thirst? What do we do now?

Jesus tried to prepare his disciples, but we cannot be completely prepared. Can we imagine even a little bit more what his disciples went through as the events of the crucifixion unfolded? The fear, anxiety, confusion, upset, unspeakable grief? “What do we do now?”

Gloria [assisting minister] and I talked a few weeks ago about this worship service and text in the Week of Christian Unity, and while remembering the life, and commitment and death of Martin Luther King Jr. We said to each other that Christian unity is not just about the scandal of divisions among Christian church bodies, but also about the breakdown between and within churches by race, and class and economics. We live and people die in a world of vast inequality.
And Jesus said, “They are one.” And Jesus walked among the poor.

Oh, I know the complexity. And our complicity in the complexity. We know we are brothers and sisters by virtue of Creation and we believe globally we are brothers and sisters in Christ and yet the great economic gap between nations is laid bare in front of us daily on the TV and computer screen. “Security” barriers are needed, and keep hungry people from being fed.

And Jesus prays that we may all be one.

Jesus’ word of truth is that by going out into the world….there we become one.

We experience that in working together as Lutheran Disaster Response.
We see that in the work of ecumenical and interfaith relief and rebuilding agencies.
We observe that in airplanes and helicopters and ships from nations around the world coming together.

But it is not easy to work together. Lack of communication. Whose is charge? And in the midst I want to shout, “Just feed the people.” But who said that working together as One was ever going to be easy? There was another after-shock this morning.
Who said that working together to change systems that perpetuate disaster in the midst of catastrophe is easy?

In the midst of such fear and frustrations and fatigue, we believe that in diakonia, God builds the body of Christ and binds us together as one, forever.

We see that in the faces of suffering, courageous, Haitian people, sleeping side by side in the streets, who praise God in song.

Rene’s words: I heard Ben’s voice. He was singing. I told him I loved him and that Jon and I were okay and to keep singing. But the singing stopped after he sang the words, “God’s peace to us we pray.”

So, what do we do?
When Rene and Jonathan come back among us, and as we together try to help the people of Haiti, we dare not presume to know what they need. We learn from Jesus. (Jesus did not need people to need him.) Rather he asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”
How do we learn how to love? By loving.
How do we learn partnership? By being accompanying partners.
How do we as a church engage in mission? By being part of Christ’s mission, God builds the church.
How do we gain strength after such a horrendous global and personal disaster? By drawing on the Spirit’s power to serve, God multiplies such service and rebuilds our strength.

We cannot bear it and so God bears us up our wounds and binds us together as one.
Amen.

Accompaniment! Ben Larson dies with the people of Haiti

2010-01-14T16:32:00.006-06:00

Ben Larson believed so deeply in walking with one another in the global church. He accompanied the Haitian people during his J-Term as a senior student at Wartburg Seminary. And he died together with tens of thousands of Haitians in the earthquake this week.

I am grieving deeply over the loss of this gentle, caring, pastoral man who loved to collect music of people in the global community. His wife, Renee, and cousin, Jon, also senior Wartburg students, were in Haiti and survived. They will miss Ben. His parents, April and Judd Ulring Larson and Ben’s two older sisters will miss Ben. Ben’s classmates, yet scattered all over the world during their J-Terms studies will miss him. I miss Ben already! The parishioners who will not now have the opportunity to have Ben as their pastor will suffer that loss, too, even though they never will have known him.

Ben’s joy and grace and love live on. I remember so much about him. I see him even now while I sit at my keyboard just a couple of hours after hearing of his death. I remember his passion for justice. I remember the way he had such great appreciation and respect for his parents, a clergy couple. Yes, April was the first woman bishop in the ELCA. And Judd is a caring, loving, gentle pastor. Ben would so clearly say—often—the things he specifically learned from each of his parents. Burton and I relate as clergy couple parents of three sons.

I miss Ben as his professor. He listened so well and then gently offered a profound and kind comment. I see him in front of me now.

re joined in the cross of Christ. We cannot comprehend the catastrophe in Haiti, a country of courageous, suffering people. We cannot make sense of it. Making sense of it is not our calling. We walk with Jesus wherever he leads, and in this accompaniment Jesus’ cross and resurrection is our comfort and our strength.

At 7:15 EST on Christmas Eve Morning

2009-12-24T06:18:00.004-06:00

At 7:15 on Christmas Eve the Health Bill was passed by the U.S. Senate 60-39. It's name includes patient protection and affordable health care. Much has been written and will be written about the contents and concessions. Much is yet to be done as the House and Senate bills are reconciled and integrated. Which provisions will prevail?

But as I watched the vote this morning, just concluded at 6:15 a.m. my time, I note some seemingly small things. Certainly it's understandable that quite a few senators left the floor immediately following their particular vote...airplane travel will be difficult given the weather right outside my own window here in Dubuque. (Yes, we are starting out on the road this morning, too, to head towards the congregation my husband is serving as interim half way across the state.) But notable was the fact that it was the losing side who mostly left the floor.

And I also noted with some consternation that it seemed hard to find a channel that kept focused on the vote all the way through. (The vote took only 15 minutes, hardly a lot of time.) Even C-Span announced a few votes in that we would need to turn to C-Span 2 to see the rest of the vote while they cut away to take calls from viewers. MSNBC was doing a pretty good job letting us actually see our Senate at work, but when the reporter covering the vote was asked to clarify what was happening (two senators were yet out of the room and the vote was being held for a moment to make sure everyone could vote), she acknowledged that she wasn't paying attention because she was doing an interview with the Today show which would air shortly.

[In the time it takes to write this, I note Sen. Al Franken from snowy Minnesota, is lingering 20 more minutes, taking time to cross the aisle and talk personally to many Republican senators. And 92-year-old Senator Bird is still there, in his wheel-chair.)

Can we not stay in the room? Can we not pay attention? Is our attention span so short? Are we so distracted, even when something, such as informing the public, is our direct responsibility? Just things to ponder as all of us are called to careful, thoughtful, collaborative deliberation in the communal decision making in our daily lives.

It's Christmas Eve. We pray for safe travel as we watch and wait. Where will we see the Christ Child coming this very day?

Chronic Illness: Globally and Personally

2009-12-16T06:49:00.003-06:00

Chronos is actual, specific time. Kairos refers to the timely moment, the “right” time. Chronologically I have been ill for 27 years this month. Chronologically the world has always been at war, somewhere. Chronologically the globe is warming. How much time, specifically, we “have left” is open to debate; however there is no doubt about the fact that the glaciers are melting at a faster and faster rate.

Was the speech President Obama gave in Oslo when he received the Nobel Peace Prize the right speech at the right time? It was a great speech. Great in spite of, perhaps because of, the challenge of the timing, right after he sent more forces to war. War is very much with us. He said, “The capacity of human beings to think up new ways to kill one another proved inexhaustible, as did our capacity to exempt from mercy those who look different or pray to a different God.” And so, in the midst of the chronic nature of war, he dared to live as a man seeking peace.

There are only a couple of days left of the 2009 United Nations Summit on climate change. “Will anything get done?” “What will have been accomplished?” “Will expediency cause such compromises that any action will be meaningless? “Will the nations that live in poverty be overlooked once again?” Long lines, protestors, entrenched super powers. And yet they gather. And we dare not be merely skeptical viewers; we must gather too. The earth is chronically ill. So what do we do? How do we live?

Twenty-seven years ago I was struck by a disease with a terribly misleading name, and with no known cause and no cure, Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFS). I must deal with unrelenting exhaustion, weakness, depression, seizure-like episodes, triggered by sudden loud noises, with times of being unable to walk or speak. While many become bedridden, unable to work, with the aid of two wonderful doctors and supportive family and friends, colleagues and students, I have been able to life a fully productive life. Similar in a way to global warming, progress has been impeded by those who through the year have had doubts about how real the disease is since it could not be identified under a microscope, even though more than l million people in this country and millions more globally suffer from CFS.

This fall researchers have identified a strong connection between people with CFS and an infectious human retrovirus, xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV). After so many years I have simply accepted that fact that I will need to live with this chronic illness the rest of my life. How do I receive the news that there could be a breakthrough, that things could change? Will research be too slow to make any difference?

On a much larger scale, we human beings have come to believe that war is inevitable. What would a world without war be like? And, in regard to climate change (also an unfortunate name that does not describe its devastating effects), people may assume there is nothing we can really do. Research will be too slow to make any difference.

The president’s poll numbers are down. Four years for a presidential term presents relentless chronological pressure to get something done quickly, lest “time run out.” President Obama knows this. And still he called the peoples of the world to vision, hard work and persistence in thinking about just war and the imperatives of a just peace. “Peace requires responsibility. Peace entails sacrifice.” He called for three ways to build such just and lasting peace: 1) We need to develop alternatives to violence that are tough enough to change behavior; 2) Peace is not just the absence of visible conflict; just peace is based upon inherent rights and dignity of every individual; and 3) Just peace includes not only civil and political right but economic security and opportunity.

Chronological time presses on. Sin is real. War is relentless. The earth is ill. Those of us who live with chronic illnesses grow weary. And one could say that all human beings are chronically ill, at best only temporarily able bodied.

So, in the midst of these realities, how do we hope? At the kairos moment Christ came and comes again. Christmas presents us again with realities and possibilities.

I cannot depend upon the identification of the human retrovirus XMRV to change my life, but perhaps, after all these years of no progress on CFS, maybe it will. Whether or not that will happen in my lifetime, CFS cannot hinder my commitment to live and serve. .
We cannot depend upon a U.S. president alone to solve the problems of war and make peace (our work being only to give him “grades.”) Working for a just peace is the responsibility of all of us. Obama’s speech in Oslo recognized the chronic human predicament, saying that human nature is not perfect and we do not live in an idealized world. And yet he said that if we lose faith, dismiss it as naïve, we lose our sense of possibility.

We cannot wait for countries to agree on one strategy to keep our earth from becoming fatally ill. The Copenhagen summit will end, but those attending and those of us watching are called to continue our commitment to live and to serve and to work towards global health. The kairos moment is here.

Chronically ill? Yes! A kairos time? In Christ, always.

Tithing is Big News

2009-12-05T09:54:00.004-06:00

Christopher deForest posts this latest entry from his new location in the U.K:

Recently, a story broke here in Scotland about a 30-year-old Oxford academic, Toby Ord, who plans to donate $1.7 million to charity (to read the story, click here). He is not independently wealthy. As a scholar in the fields of ethics and philosophy his salary is not high, and he doesn’t anticipate big raises or bonuses. Nor does his pledge include contributions from his wife, his family, or any other source – merely from his own earnings.

So how does he plan to reach this extraordinary goal? Simply by giving 10% of his income every year until he retires.

Is that even possible? You’d think the numbers just couldn’t add up, but they do. And if one guy of modest means can give that much – what about two people? Five people? Ten? A hundred? A million?

That’s the whole idea behind a new grassroots movement called “Giving What You Can.” Maybe it’s premature to call it a “movement.” It only started three weeks ago, with the launch of their new website (click here). So far, they only have 23 “members” – that is, 23 people who have signed up to make the same pledge: to donate at least 10% of their lifetime earnings to organizations that are fighting extreme poverty in the developing world.

The group does not solicit or take donations directly; they merely invite you to take the pledge. And though they do endorse a few NGOs that they think are doing a great job, they leave it up to members to decide, on their own, where they give. All they ask is that the 10% goes towards aiding the poor or eradicating extreme poverty.

And how’s it all going, after three whole weeks? So far, a mere 23 individuals have pledged over $9.5 million dollars.

Unbelievable, isn’t it? The members also do something else that seems highly counter-cultural these days: they publicly post their names, right on the website. Not to boast, or to show off their moral superiority, but to make themselves accountable to each other and to the whole world. And to say, they believe they have a personal stake in the welfare of the whole human family, especially those who suffer most.

Again, let’s be clear: these aren’t wealthy philanthropists. These are at best middle-income academics. And half the listed members are students!

I am deeply humbled and inspired by what they’re doing. But one thing does give me pause. Scanning the list of members, not one claims to be clergy or faith-affiliated, nor are there any scholars or students of religion or theology.

I doubt there’s any deliberate exclusion. Rather, this may say something about the place of religion in society today – certainly in Europe, but increasingly in the U.S. as well. It seems, once again, that another creative and courageous secular group has taken what should be our message and mission, and they’ve run with it: a gracious invitation to reorient one’s life towards grateful generosity; towards simpler, more joyous living and giving. Once again, we religious folks are left in the dust, either because we’re seen as irrelevant, or out of touch, or ineffective – or because we’ve had our chance, and we’ve blown it.

Here’s another observation. Go to this link and read the stories in the press about this new group. The articles I’ve read all express a range of opinions, from doubt to shock to ridicule, not only that regular people could ever give this much – but also the very idea that anyone would consistently give 10%. What I find interesting is, never once does any journalist mention the historic religious practice of tithing – offering ten percent of your produce or income, either directly to those in need, or indirectly by way of church, synagogue or mosque.

Here’s my question: Has the whole world really forgotten what “tithing” is, and where this old concept comes from? Or have we religious folks so abused, misdirected, or marginalized the whole point of giving, that tithing has become a dirty word, or an onerous relic?

I do strongly encourage you to check out the website for this new group. They offer a wealth of data that de-bunks many myths about giving, and really makes a case for the power of personal commitment and, yes, for tithing. They may not start with God, but they end up in the place God invites us all to be: daring to believe that we are called to love extravagantly, and to declare that belief through a very public and personal witness.

Let’s celebrate and endorse this new way, that’s really very old. A way that finds its source and its hope, for us and ultimately for the whole world, in the crucified and risen Christ. Whether that’s old or new, it’s still very Good News indeed.

Black Friday

2009-11-27T16:54:00.002-06:00

Black Friday

The evolution of Thanksgiving Day and the day after:

The Pilgrims, befriended by native peoples feast together and give thanks.

Thanksgiving becomes a national holiday, a "high feast day" of our common American civil religion.

People of many religious traditions give thanks to God in diverse ways in a pluralistic culture.

Thanksgiving evolves into T-Day, Turkey-Day for feasting with family.

The feasting moves toward football and nap, except for those who do the dishes.

Thanksgiving Day merely the prelude to a higher holy day of Black Friday, initiating the season when retailers depend upon shoppers to move them into the black on the balance sheet.

Black Friday begins earlier and earlier, some stores open at 4:00 a.m.

The mission is to shop, buy, and participate in conspicuous consumption.

Although Black Friday is for the purpose of people buying gifts for others for the religious holidays to come, over 50%, perhaps as high as 73% of sales are for "self-gifting."

Two days are devoted to over-indulgance.

The economic crisis of 2008 causes people to re-assess the common American creed of "In debt we trust."

Stores needing to have a good Black Friday in 2009, provide a "convenience" for shoppers, many opening Thanksgiving Day afternoon.

Stores put out a list of safety guidelines to keep people from being hurt, or killed in the dangers of the day, including how to move toward a safe aisle, and to remain standing upright if a stampede begins,

Where do we go next?

For what and to whom do we give thanks?

A New York based StoryCorps, associated with National Public Radio suggests an alternative: a National Day of Listening, a time to listen to the stories of relatives and friends and to record them to share. To whom did you listen on November 27?

What Type of Conflict Is It?

2009-11-19T17:47:00.002-06:00

In the current conflict in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) concerning the ordination and call to pastoral ministry of gay and lesbian persons living in committed relationships---or in any conflict--discerning the nature of the conflict within a certain faith community is very important. Using the types of conflict described in my book "Church Conflict: From Contention to Collaboration" (Abingdon, 2004), here are some examples of what I mean:

Conflict may be Intrapersonal or Interpersonal. It may be over Issues/Beliefs or Facts/Truth or Values/Worth or Goals/Mission or Means/Ministry.

Intrapersonal: Each of us is a sexual being. Our own inner struggles, particularly in regard to the heterosexual/homosexual spectrum may well spill over in how we enter the conversation about the ELCA's churchwide decision in August.

Interpersonal: All conflict is interpersonal to some extent. How people on a church council interact with one another or with the pastor shapes the conflict. In fact,interpersonal conflict over past issues may well color the current conflict

Issues/Beliefs: Within a faith community, and certainly within the church body, the varieties of beliefs about biblical interpretation contribute signifanctly to the conflict. How do we interpret certain scriptural passages? How does Scripture interpret Scripture?

Facts/Truth What is "true" about the nature of homosexuality? Is it a "lifestyle" A trait with which we are born? What does science say? Sociology? Psychology? What facts and whose "truth" do we hold?

Values/Worth: How does one person or another value membership in a congregation, support of the synod and the churchwide body? Are certain people of greater worth than others? What is it worth to hold this congregation together? And what role does our money play? Why do we count on it to speak for us?

Goals/Mission: Within a given congregation, even with one mission statement, there are many missions. Is this conflict about goals? What are they? To include all? to preserve what has been? Even though not spoken, the implicit goals shape the nature of the approach to this conflict. Among the members and leaders may be a goal already reached before hand about leaving.

Means/Ministry: Even if a faith community holds a common mission, how they reach that goal has many paths. Do we include everyone in membership but limit leadership to heterosexual people? Do we "hold our congregation together" Some will try "money" means to attain their goals. What is the means for exercising "bound conscience"?

One could list many more variables. The point is that if one person is entering the conflict with intrapersonal conflict about his or her own sexuality, one will not get far by arguing bible history. Or, one group of people may be arguing facts while others are dealing with beliefs. Explaining the facts of the process by which decisions were made may not reach a person who is clinging to certain values about the congregation. And so on...

What is one to do? Certainly conflicts such as this cannot be neatly sorted out so that everyone is coming from the same place at the same time. But we can seek to listen and figuare out the types of conflict present. And, together, we can collaborate on how to proceed in a way which honors people thinking about the nature of the conflict quite differently. We can strive to create a safe environment in which respect is fostered and we address the conflict from these many different perspectives. And we can trust God's presence, work hard, and continue to lead and listen and listen and lead.

It's just a little thing

2009-10-18T15:29:00.006-05:00

As I was flying back from Tulsa a couple of weeks ago, I settled into my window seat when two men took their places in seats D and E. The man in the center seat said to me, "You'll behave, won't you?"

Well, how do you respond to that greeting? I could have said, "Yes, I usually do," or flipped back a quip. Or, I could have ignored him. After all, the flight would be only two hours long. But I chose to cut through the trivializing, if not ridiculing, remark which be inappropriate to give to a l0-year-old girl, much less a grown woman. So, I engaged him directly, as a grown man, obviously taking a flight with a friend and two young boys who had taken seats B and C across the aisle. They had been talking about football as they entered the plane, mentioning the Packers and the Vikings. I knew enough about the Brett Favre situation to understand why it would be an exciting, game, so I inquired about them taking the boys to the game. The man responded and we engaged in conversation back and forth for a minute or two. We had changed the power cycle and established an equal partnership, if just for that brief time.

A little thing. And yet this incident, as bizarre as it sounds, epitomizes the power cycle of how oppressor groups keep oppressed groups powerless through these stages: ignore; trivialize; ridicule; eliminate. In our book, "Transforming Leadership," Craig Nessan and I build on the work of Elizabeth Howell Verdesi in her book, "In but Still Out: Women in the Church." The power cycle is real, insidious, and so commonplace we may not notice it. In fact, I have experienced people, uncomfortable with my power of person or position, using the power cycle so often, that I sometimes don't notice it. (Or I simply internalize the oppression and acquiesce.) But understanding the power cycle helps us notice, not be put off guard, and frees us to choose how to respond.

The powerful keep people, by gender, race, age, ability, class, etc. outside their realm of power by first ignoring them. If that doesn't work, e.g. "I am somebody" the phrase of self and public recognition of African Americans in the 60's and 70's, the oppressor uses trivialization. This phenomenon is experienced all too frequently by women yet today. It this doesn't work; if the woman or other oppressed group does not go "one down," the next stage is ridicule. This might be experienced as outright bullying or through a "ridiculous" remark, e.g. the comment to me on the airplane. If a person or group submits, the powerful retain their power and all is well...for them. But if the ones ridiculed or harassed--I call it gender harassment or racial harassment, not necessarily sexual harassment--stand up for themselves and their rights and their position, the oppressors, with whatever power they have, may try to get rid of them. Guess which ones loses a job. Guess which one is put out play. Then the power cycle begins again with "ignore."

But at each stage there is also the potential for partnership. I prefer this to competition, partly because those with less power can rarely win competition within the power cycle. And also because I believe we are created for partnership in this world.

My simply refusing to be ridiculed and engaging the man cut through the ... well, one could say, "crap"...or one could simply say, stopped the progression of the power of cycle.

And so there we were. The two hours passed. When it was time to get ready to unfasten our seat belts and retrieve our luggage from under the seats and the overhead compartment, I engaged the man again, asking if he would help me lift my carry-on bag down. (As most of you know I live with a chronic illness, travel with the aid of a cane, and need help lifting things from overhead.) He seemed only to happy to do so (most people, men or women are), but did so by saying, "You're not going to hit me with your cane, are you?"

Poverty Issues at G-20 Summit

2009-09-30T07:36:00.007-05:00

The Rt. Rev. Benson K. Bagonza is an STM graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary . Bishop Bagonza had had some training in law during his undergraduate studies in Tanzania.

WASHINGTON (ELCA) - The Rt. Rev. Benson K. Bagonza, bishop of the
Karagwe Diocese, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT), shared
stories of impoverished people in Africa with more than 25 Christian,
Jewish and Muslim leaders in a meeting prior to the G-20 Summit in
Pittsburgh.
"Tanzanians were among the poorest even before the present economic
crisis," Bagonza said. "Therefore this economic crisis was yet another
blow that has sent millions into a critical and vulnerable situation."
Organized by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA),
Bread for the World, the Alliance to End Hunger and other organizations,
the religious leaders urged world leaders to fulfill their promises to
help people who have suffered from the global economic recession. The
Group of 20 (G-20) met Sept. 24-25 to discuss global economic issues.
"The recovery programs that they are undertaking need to mean
something to the people who live on the fringes, who live on the bottom
level of the economic ladder," Bagonza said. He explained that for
recovery programs to have meaning "the hungry people in Africa must get
food to eat and that the poor people get their basic needs met."
"The welfare of our people in our different [religious] traditions
is affected by what decisions are made (at the G-20)," he said. "At the
global level, I was very impressed to see our religious differences were
diminishing and we were forced to focus on the issues that threaten the
existence of humanity. (Those are) poverty, climate change, hopelessness
and powerlessness of human beings before a magnitude of forces that human
beings have created."
During his trip to the United States, Bagonza met with the staff of
U.S. Senators Robert Menendez, D-N.J., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., as well
as U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J. Bagonza asked that the United
States "be more inclusive in its participatory process of reforming the
foreign aid policy of this country." U.S. foreign aid policies
should "reflect the wishes and aspirations of the people affected by the
bill," according to Bagonza.
The ELCA Washington Office and ELCA Global Mission brought Bagonza
to the United States to visit his diocese's companion synod, the ELCA
Northwestern Pennsylvania Synod, as well as speak to religious leaders
and members of Congress.
"We believe foreign policy issues can be advocated very effectively
through Bishop Bagonza's personal stories," said the Rev. Andrew
Genszler, director for advocacy in the ELCA Washington Office.
In the ELCT, Bagonza chairs a special office commissioned to do
advocacy. "The churches in Tanzania offer more than 40 percent of the
social services in the country. Therefore we feel that we should be
involved in advocacy," he said.
He cited three challenges facing the ELCT -- dependence on
international support, concern for the ministry among people in poverty
and the secularization of society. "We Africans, by our very nature, are
notoriously religious, but globalization is bringing things that we've
never seen that are shattering and frustrating our structure of families,
our harmony and our communities," he said.
Despite the challenges "my commitment to lead the church is
increasing every day, being ready to face whatever comes," Bagonza said.

Communal Blessing

2009-09-16T07:50:00.002-05:00

Martha Lang, Episcopal deacon and M.Div. candidate, shared this with me after attending the churchwide assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)in Minneapolis last month. With her permission I share it with you:

I will admit that I did not wish to go to worship. I had listened to the debates all morning. Those of us hoping for change in the rostering policies of the ELCA were heartened by the outcome of the voting of the first two questions before the delegates. However, when the first request for the ending of debate on the third item, that most relevant in the life of our family was voted down, my heart descended toward my stomach. The assembly debated right up to the time of worship. As we wandered down the hallway of the assembly suddenly my soul was awash in the sadness, frustration, pain that had gathered there over the last six years. The voices of those who had participated in my partner’s research, “The Missing Project,” echoed in my heart and soul. “Thank you for asking to hear my story”; “Thank you for what you are doing – I had felt like I had disappeared to the ELCA”; “Thank you for finding me and caring” – on and on the voices floated in and through me. All of a sudden anger welled up in me as I thought – but this vote will do nothing for those already led to the door, or silently slipped off of the rosters – or dismissed through curt letter. “This won’t take away all of the years of severing, rejection, self-isolation, self-silencing and self-spiritual mutilation and make everything suddenly be ok” I thought. “I don’t want to go and worship – I just feel like I want to grieve in some corner somewhere – and hold those before God who have been so hurt.” But, I also realized that my partner/spouse Vicki really wanted to go to the worship, and, as I was here to accompany her in this journey, that I needed to be with her in the worship service.
Vicki proceeded toward some people who were already, somehow not noticing their good-sized white buttons announcing their affiliation with CORE (Coalition for Reform), those against ELCA changes in policy to include gay and lesbian people in committed relationships on the ministerial rosters. I groaned inwardly and followed her into the pew and went further into myself. She began a conversation with the gentleman seated next to her by saying that being present in the worship services had been a blessing because she served as a chaplain in a care center. There are time constraints due to needing to physically move much of the population into the chapel, and then back to their rooms (with needed assistance) before it is time to help them move to into the dining hall. So, Vicki shared that she was relishing the richness and depth of the worship experience.
Her neighbor asked her how her residents would receive any possible changes within the ELCA. Vicki shared with him that the care center was hoping for change, for it meant that the Board of Directors could offer her a call. She explained to him that they had voted unanimously early last fall to call her as chaplain, but due to the current policy could call her only as an interim, as her rostering status was “on-leave-from-call; not-available-for-call” due to our relationship. She told him that she had gone to her bishop three years ago when we made the decision to join our lives together through a covenant ceremony in the Episcopal Church which I served as deacon, and was placed in that status. She shared that she had been serving the same nursing home at the time, and had stepped down from the position so as not to cause any waves there, and to pursue a research interest for a year. So, when the same position had come available last winter, she applied for it and was hired on a temporary basis.
Vicki’s CORE neighbor received this quietly, nodding as she spoke. Worship started and no more was said until it came time for communion. As we were preparing to go forward to receive communion, her neighbor held his worship folder before her and pointed to something in it – it was the notice that healing stations were available throughout the worship space, and that pastors were there who would pray and anoint for healing if any had desire for such. He quietly asked Vicki if she would go with him for that. She quickly said, “Yes.” He leaned over and said “would your partner go too?” Vicki turned to me and repeated his question. I was stunned, and at many levels wanted to say “NO WAY” – but found myself saying “Yes, of course.”
We each went forward to receive communion and I led the way back toward one of the healing stations. Vicki and her neighbor followed. I started to go forward when he quietly said “Can we all three go together to receive?” Tears came to my mind. All of the years of hearing of myself and my reality spoken about in terms of “sin” and “sinner”, “abomination”, and my faith, understanding of self, and very salvation called into question repeatedly by those who were of the same understanding of those who were a part of CORE and every other group similar to them in my own denomination and others, arose from my heart to be presented for healing. Tears flooded my eyes as the three of us – Vicki and I on the outside and her/our neighbor in the middle, locked with arms around one-another went forward to receive the prayer and anointing.
The pastor looked at the three of us standing there as one – and yet three – all bending our heads for the prayer; Vicki with her prayer shawl which denoted one praying for change, our new-found brother-in-Christ with his CORE button on, and me – tears running down my face. The pastor sucked in his breath, centered himself and began to say the prayer printed on the sheet before him. He anointed each of us individually, but I know there was but one anointing that day – each of our hearts bound into one brought together through the love of God and collectively kneeling at the foot of the cross of Christ through the guiding of the Holy Spirit.
I was the last to be anointed – and as I looked up at the pastor I thought I saw tears in his eyes. Maybe it was just those of my own that I saw – but I believe his were there, too.. The three of us walked back toward our seats with our arms around one another. What had happened was mysterious, painful, healing, freeing… a myriad of things were experienced in that one holy moment. None of the three of us was left untouched, nor the same as we were before that service. Truly the Holy Spirit helped to strip each of us in different ways from hurt, and fear, and understandings that had previously been held within each.
Vicki and our new-found brother have talked twice since that service. We hold him in prayer – and he us. What happened that day was powerful and a testament to the power of the love of God who heals, reconciles, and binds us together in spite of our differences. We truly were at the foot of the cross, kneeling, and being knit together in a new way that only our God, through Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit can do. Thanks be to God.

Welcoming Home for Service Gay and Lesbian People Living in Committeed Same-gender Relationships

2009-09-07T15:30:00.006-05:00

Much has been written already on the decision by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, meeting in churchwide assembly in Minneapolis in August to open the rostered ministries of the church to gay and lesbian people living in committed same-gender relationships. I rejoice with the acceptance of and decisions relating to the new ELCA Social Statement on Human Sexuality.

My comments here are on the challenge to the church to welcome home those many, many gay and lesbian people--pastors and those on other rosters--who have had to leave their service in the church because they were forced to chose between such service and living in faithful, loving relationships. Others left before ordination or consecration. Some never entered seminary. This "welcome home" may not be as simple as some might think. There was pain and attempts to heal, to find a place, in other church bodies that did welcome their service. There were/are many who served, fearing for years that their relationships might be discovered. There are those who serve in places in the ELCA that had courage to accept their service even though they were open about their same-gender relationships. And, surely I am not mentioning all of the situations. All of the stories. We must listen to the stories.

I cannot say, "I know how you feel," because I don't, for I am heterosexual. I don't know the pain of that rejection and I don't know the mixture of feelings now that the vote has been passed. I do know that I cannot presume to know or presume that all will return quickly or easily.

I can relate here some of my own history which at least makes the point that words of welcome in resolutions are not all that is needed.

Years ago with my own deaconess community, women who married and had children were told they were no longer a deaconess. "You have now gone on to motherhood..."

Then, through much work, through the opening of eyes, through women gaining some control over their own destiny, the board changed the rules. Now such women were once again a deaconess. A simple resolution. Simple words.

At that time I was attending a class with Dr. Letty Russell at Yale Divinity School. I chose to do research on the women who received these words. What would they say? What would they think? How would they feel. And WHERE were they?

Finding the women was a challenging and incomplete task. But those to whom I wrote responded. Many were thankful. Many had been serving anyway. But I also received some haunting responses: "I don't know what the words mean." Now, of course, they knew what the words meant. They were simply words, "You are a deaconess." But many, including myself, had gotten on with their lives. They had built new identities, new relationships, and were serving in a variety of places, some beyond the Lutheran church.

We were invited back. And we invited more back. And more, and more. Each year at annual conference, a woman or two would come who had not been there for a few...or many...years. That is over thirty-five years ago now. Still, to this day, there will be a woman at annual conference who says, "I haven't been here for a long time, but now I'm back." We have women who are still being rediscovered, sought out, and loved back into community. Others we have not seen, and no doubt never will.
"Welcome home!" Those are good words. Important words. Challenging words...for us all. Resolutions passed. The work of loving acceptance begins.

Ministry in the Encounter

2009-08-21T08:43:00.004-05:00

So, just what is the "public world" in which/about which we are to have conversations? We enter the public world whenever we go out our front door...or back door. Well, actually, even when we are still inside we are in the public world. Our actions need deliberation, conversation, as they impact society, such as the ELCA's Social Statement on education, particularly advocacy for public schools. Or, careful study on and public voice on health insurance reform. Or, our just-passed ELCA statement on human sexuality. We are always using our public voices.

Sometimes ministry is intentional; sometimes unintentional. I entered the public world, the world where I might encounter people who are strange to me and I to them, when I went for an early morning walk two days ago. I'm visiting my son, Mark, and his family in Phoenix. Yes, I know it's August, but a new baby, Aimee, had arrived, so, of course, I had to come.

Mark lives beside a golf course. Almost everyone in Phoenix lives near a golf course. That doesn't mean they have the finances to play there, but early morning, before the golfers come out, people can walk the golf cart path. I walk when the daylight is breaking, before the sun comes out.

On my walk I simply said hello to a worker passing by, one of many who daily groom the greens. No matter that I saw only one set of golfers out the day before (It's 110 degrees here.) Their work of service calls them to serve everyday.

I walked the path the next morning, having forgotten the brief encounter of the day before. But the same service worker approached. He stopped his service vehicle, and smiled and initiated a "hello." We connected, there in the public world. He would not have needed to do that. In fact, usually in our society we have clear, if unstated, boundaries of non-conversation between service people and those they serve, whether that be in hotels, or convention centers, or, perhaps in one's place of employment. So this second-day intentional encounter, reciprocal, is rare, especially when initiated by the service person. Now, granted, I was not a fee-paying golfer. There are layers of class lines in this "classless" society. But, still, it was remarkable and appreciated. There was genuine mutual appreciation; although only one or two words were exchanged, I experienced conversation in the public world, mutual ministry in that early dawn hour.

I had walked this direction, because the other would have brought me to the gates, the "no trespassing" signs. A few years ago one could walk by those houses, but not now; that neighborhood is now a gated community. No trespassing allowed, no public encounters with those unknown, or with those one refuses to notice, no conversation. Of whom or what are they afraid? And why? Really, why? Our call to ministry is a call to encounter, to conversation, and for us to create and help sustain trustworthy places for us all to meet, across the invisible but all-to-real barriers of class.

This morning, again at dawn--the sky was red--I walked. This time I climbed 1/4 the way up a mountain...a Phoenix mountain, not the Rockies. I had a wonderful view of the city. I watched Jack Rabbits and saw a family of Quail pass by, and caught a glimpse of some hummingbirds. Special! All special. But the most surprising was a third meeting. On my way back, once again the service man came by. Recognition. Encounter. He stopped; perhaps it was because there was trash nearby to pick up. Perhaps because we were, if not friends, then certainly welcome acquaintances. I said a full sentence this time; but further communication across language barriers would have been hard, and perhaps "uncalled for." But this encounter I won't forget. The sun came up. I could feel the intense heat of the day begin. No matter. The warmth of the ministry in encounter would set the course for my day.

A Life of Love and Advocacy: Eunice Kennedy Shriver

2009-08-11T07:36:00.008-05:00

"Eunice Kennedy Shriver," said the family this morning as they released the news of her death a few hours ago,"was the light of our lives, a mother, wife, grandmother, sister and aunt who taught us by example and with passion what it means to live a faith-driven life of love and service to other. For each of us, she often seemed to stop time itself -- to run another Special Olympics games, to visit us in our homes, to attend to her own mother, her sisters and brothers, and to sail, tell stories, and laugh and serve her friends. Her work transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of people across the globe, and they in turn are her living legacy."

Shriver is best known for her work with the Special Olympics and for helping establish the games 40 years ago. Unspired by her sister Rosemary who lived with with intellectual disability, Eunice began the Special Olympics which have brought tens of thousands of people with special needs into the public world. She consistently saw the value of every human being and believed they had talents to develop and gifts to cherish. She was an advocate. She ministered faithfully and boldly in the public world.

In two congregations I served years ago our educational ministry included those with intellectual disability. In one case we had special outreach to children. In another a lay woman urged us to start evening adult educational ministry with intellectually disabled adults. We did1 Every congregation has a calling to serve through educational ministry opportunities people with the whole range of intellectual abilities. In many cases this will be in regular classroom settings. However, it is very important that congregations discuss how they will minister, including what methods, materials and settings will be used. Letting this ministry be known, even just by word of mouth, says, "You are welcome. You are God's created, gifted people. You belong."

Two Reminders of Responsible Service

2009-08-10T16:01:00.002-05:00

At 11:00 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) Saturday, August 8, 2009 Judge Sonya Sotomayor became the 111th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. She pledged “to support and defend the Constitution of the United States…..to administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich….”

At 11: a.m. (Central Daylight Time) Saturday, August 8, 2009 the life of Rev. Dr. Raymond A. Martin was celebrated as Christians gathered at his funeral in Dubuque, Iowa. Ray had taught at Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa, Gurukul Theological Seminary in Madras, India, and for many years at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. He was my colleague and friend. He was a faithful teacher of Scripture to many. He loved the Bible. He loved to teach.

So what do these two events have in common, besides the hour and day? They hold up for me the joy of leading a responsible, faithful life of service. Both people, who, of course, never met, and one might say, had little in common in terms of background, family or profession, simply worked hard. They prepared thoroughly. They cared about people, all kinds of people. Their dedication reminds us all of the value of lifetimes of diligent, hard work. Ray’s work is complete although his memory, his body of work, his students continue. Justice Sotomayor’s work, some would say, is just beginning. But, in reality her new position is a continuation of the all that she has been every day of her life. In that reality they have much in common. For that reality I give thanks.

To Be a Trusted Leader

2009-07-19T14:38:00.006-05:00

Walter Cronkite died at the age of 92. He left the air as host of the CBS evening news in 1981, but 28 years later he is still remembered for his sign off, "And that's the way it is..." He said that not in a way that assumed he was omniscient; far from it. He worked hard to seek the truth, to inform people and to present the truth without bias. He was hesitant to editorialize and did not see his podium as a center ring for entertainment or celebrity.

I noticed that the network and cable news accounts of his death had a singular theme. He saw this nation through complex times of the 1960's and 70's. He was the "most trusted person in America" because he was a man of integrity. People felt comforted,not because he offered solace--that is not a journalist's job. He offered people stability in unstable times, clarity in a time of uncertainty.

In an earlier post I discussed "credit" as having the root of "credo." "In debt we trust" has been exposed as a false belief system. This nation trusted Walter Cronkite. In terms of American civil religion, he has been noted as a combination of preacher and prophet. Actually I think he is also a role model for leadership. When a leader loses credibility, that leader has lost much. Soon the people think, "I can't trust anything they say anymore." It is not a matter of believing IN the leader (no omnipotence or omniscience), but believing what the leaders says and does. There is a congruence and consistency. With such a leader a people will have courage to face great difficulty.

Walter Cronkite's vocation was like that. There was a congruence between his work and his life. He did not have an "on-air" voice and a real voice (no pulpit tone). Leaders through their various vocations in the public world seek truth, seek to inform (and therefore empower) people, and provide a consistency that enables them to walk into the future, one day at a time.

P.S. I hope you heard, or will down-load, President Obama's speech before the NAACP last week. It was superb!

Robins in the Lilac Bush

2009-06-29T17:27:00.003-05:00

The lilac bush in the front yard is overgrown, too tall, and too broad to blossom well. It needs pruning. But not today, not yet, because a family of robins has made their nest there.

We worried when the storm of two weeks ago shook everything with gusts of 60 mph. But, the nest was still intact. Inside, were three—could it be four?—young robins. Mom and Dad would scold if we came to close, but soon became accustomed to our simply being in the yard. Daily feedings! Hourly! We soon could see the feathering young heads just barely above the nest.

Now, so soon, they are leaving the nest. Baby robins are ready so much more quickly than their slow-growing human counterparts. Over the last two days, one by one, a youth, now ready to fly, with parents no longer feverously feeding, left the nest.

This morning only one remains, perched on the edge of the nest. But this one is hesitant. He stretches out his wings. He looks all directions. He stretches tall; but there he remains. His siblings fly close, role models for this big adventure of flight. Mom and Dad come back around, encouraging. But still, he hesitates. They all leave for awhile. Maybe he needs some time? Maybe he needs to do it by himself? But still he waits. The family returns, encouraging, urging. I find myself urging, too. And yet, I’m reluctant to see him go. The world is big beyond the lilac bush.

I’m reminded of Wartburg seminary graduates this time of year. They all leave…they need to leave. Many times I have sat by their sides as some had to wait long--too long--for call.

I’m reminded of our granddaughter Jennaya who this fall will head off for kindergarten in Mason City, Iowa. I’m reminded of her father Joel, a generation ago, as he set out on foot for the one-block walk to kindergarten at Welsh school in inner city New Haven, Ct. He boldly sang to himself (I don’t think he saw us watching), “Got my coat and got my hat, leave my worries on the doorstep…” He motioned with his hands, as if to toss all those little childhood cares on the doorstep, and off he went.

I’m reminded of his younger brother, Kirk, when he years later needed to make a decision about which of two colleges to choose. It was the final day to make a choice and return his papers. He was hesitant. I said, “Take all the time you want… just make your decision within the next hour.” He went downstairs and came back within the hour…he had chosen. And he would be off. He now teaches at Austin College in Texas, encouraging others to “Come! You can do it…” and be in his dramatic arts department.

I’m reminded of our oldest son, Mark, when he had finished graduate school in Phoenix. He was home for Christmas wondering whether to go out to Washington D.C. where a friend had told him of prospects for a job, or whether to head back to Arizona. When I awoke the next morning, and he had the car packed. He would head east. After quite a few years there, he did head back to Phoenix and has worked there with American Express ever since.

Three sons in our nest, long flown. And yet at each stage of life, there are “leaving the nest challenges.” Ourselves included.

Other Lilac Bushes:
I trimmed a different large lilac bush last week. It took me about an hour to prune it, crawling underneath and through the branches, carefully making room for light and air to get through. I took out a lot of limbs. I admired its new beauty. Then the storm came through Thursday and took the large center limb right out. The center could not hold...was it the trimming that made it vulnerable? Or just the storm.

I had just transplanted yet another lilac bush. It had been close to the house, sheltered, but with not enough sunlight to blossom. The storm came through and pulled the whole thing right out of the ground. We had been thoroughly watering the new place for it to put down its roots easily, but with the wet earth there was no grounding for that strong wind.

Just storm stories I guess….

I did go out into the rain and put the latter lilac right back in the ground, weighting it down quickly with whatever I could find, a bag of potting soil...not enough...then a large rock on top of that. Will it hold? Will it wilt and die, or flower?

Comments on Our Various Vocations in the Public World

2009-06-17T13:34:00.002-05:00

Three seemingly unrelated comments:
President Obama is trying to take what may seem like a cautious public stance concerning the contested elections in Iran. Actually it's a strong, positive stance about America's role in the world. We are interdependent partners, not dictators of "democracy." (Of course, it's pragmatic, too, lest we be seen to be instigating the protests which would harm, not help the protestors)

Newt Gringrich at a recent Republican Party fundraiser (quoting Obama)warned against what he thought abhorant, that we might think of ourselves as citizens of the world. We are! We need to be. And, as Christians, because we have a Creating, Liberating and Empowering God, we need to see each of God's created ones in that light. Ours is not a "gospel" of "freeing the world" for our kind of democracy.

The President of France and our president had an interesting exchange with Obama when he was in France a couple of weeks ago. (There are so many other things to comment on in regard to his Obama's speech to the Muslim world, the 60th anniversary of D-Day, etc, but for now I comment on this small one.) France is a secular democracy; therefore government workers cannot wear apparel that marks their religion. (The controversy is what Muslim girls can wear in school) The U.S. is not a secular democracy. People of all faith traditions are encouraged to be influenced by their faith and to carry those ideas into the public world. We are called to help create a safe environment for us to be different together.

Well, perhaps the connection among those three comments above is quite apparent.
So let me add a couple more:
The shooting of a man in Wichita while he ushered at his Lutheran Church was tragic. He was carrying out his ministry in daily life...trusting women to know their--sometimes life-threatening--needs. How do we support people in our congregations as they carry out their ministries in daily life, carry their faith into the public world? In this one country, within a given congregation,in the world, we may have quite different viewpoints and vocations that carry us in very different directions. But we have a calling in the public world.

And we all have the responsibility to protect one another, and in the case of the killing in Wichita, to address the terrorist threat within our country in regard to anti-abortion advocates who turn violent.

I just returned from my ELCA Southeastern Iowa synod assembly. We dealt with many issues, including the issues of sexuality which will come before the churchwide assembly in August. People in my synod think, and think carefully. They had studied the issues and they voted--favorably toward the Social Statement. It was not a unanimous vote, but there was such a sense of wise calm. It was a trustworthy environment for us to be different together. (We also needed to talk about our churchwide vote and the recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling allowing gay marriages.)

All of us are called to have conversation together about our vocation in the public world, whether within the church, locally and globally, and as citizens locally and nationally and globally.

A Sister of Sotomayor Speaks

2009-05-28T15:22:00.004-05:00

Much is being written about Sonia Sotomayor's nomination for Supreme Court justice. I won't repeat all of that here. But some key phrases in the opposition's objections are all too familiar with what many of us women, particularly pioneers, and all of those who have suffered professionally because of racism and sexism have heard:
* "She doesn't understand" or "She would have to understand." I can't tell you how many times I heard that, the implication being that we could not understand the real (white male) world or the real issues. We would be too naive, uninformed, unintelligent, etc.
* There's the question of "temperament," which could refer to women's time of the month, their being too emotional, or too collaborative or not collabrotive enough. There was no right temperament for a woman to have. Too fat, too thin, too happy, too sad. A woman was never right for the position.
* "Angry woman" She an "angry racist." Do I need to comment on that one? All of us pioneer professional women were "angry" women or, "not showing our anger,"or...
* Closely connected is the issue of "empathy." Women are expected to be empathetic but it was and is often held against them if they are. They would no doubt make unfair decisions and show lack of objectivity.
* "Experience." Although Sotomayor's record is substantial, even amazing, "experience" for a woman was and is often suspect and not the "right kind."
* When you make a choice for diversity you are making a choice against competence. One again, that false dichotomy was said about me and about women whom I have over the years counseled. It is used way too often in matters of race. There was and still is an assumption that to choose a woman or a person of color is to downgrade the institution.
* She's brilliant. It's hard to debate that description of Sotomayor. But one commentator managed to find a problem with how smart she is. No doubt she lacks the vision of leadership because of her brilliant intellect.
* One former Republican candidate for president referred to her as "Maria." And blacks all "look alike." In this person's eyes so must Puerto Rican women. Never before, but after I was ordained and a "Rev." put before my name, I received way too much of my mail where the "Norma' has been changed to "Norman." It was not funny, nor accidental. It was thoughtless assumption that I must be male if there was a "Rev." by my name. Some people even made a point of "correcting" the address to make it right.

Now are these small things? Are they not the important issues? They are signals of the basic systemic racism and sexism that still exist. I'm deeply, deeply sad.

And I'm deeply pleased to call Sonia Sotomayor my sister.

The Zuma Era

2009-05-18T16:39:00.004-05:00

Rev. Dt. Peter kjeseth, former professor at Wartburg Seminary, who has lived in Cape Town, South Africa for a number of years writes: [peterlarskj@yahoo.com]

Unless the world comes to an end first, or he is struck down by something like swine flu, Jacob Zuma will in early June become the 4th president of post-apartheid South
Africa. Who would have thought?

This prospect raises hopes for the almost 66% of voting South Africans who elected him and fears for the strong minority of South Africans who did NOT vote for him.
Experts and non experts alike are, of course, analyzing what happened in the election and warning us about what to expect ahead. I have tried to listen carefully. It is no exaggeration that what happens in South Africa is crucial for all of Africa. Let me give you my take on the matter.

There are a number of unassailable positives. The election was free and fair. TheIndependent Electoral Commission exercised its authority and had the whole thing under control from start to finish. This is not to be taken for granted.

The ANC did not lose its substantial majority. In the election, at least, the poor and the left, the Congress of South African Trade Unions(COSATU) and The South African Communist Party feel they have been heard.

The many smaller parties took a hit in this election, particularly the Inkata Freedom Party, once sovereign in KwaZulu-Natal. But here, too, a win seems possible. There is talk that for the 2011 elections we might see a more united, powerful configuration of opposition parties. This election provides a solid foundation that could reinvigorate Parliament. That is good news.

Even though many in South Africa won something in this election, the prospect of the Zuma era raises frightening questions and possibilities relating both to Zuma’s persona as a leader and to what it will take for him to carry through on his promises. And the cloud of corruption still hangs over his head. In the eight years that he has struggled with the possibility of trial and imprisonment, there is a complex trail of legal maneuvering, talk of political plots and intrigue and, just in time for the elections, the controversial decision of the National Prosecuting Authority to drop all corruption charges against him – on procedural grounds.

We face the frightening potential of populist rage and violence if Zuma does not meet the high hopes and long delayed expectations of the myriad poor who have danced at his election victory parties. Though the ANC which has ruled now for fifteen years cites statistics to prove that crime is being dealt with, the people of all classes who live here know better. In Masiphumelele, the township which is our non-identical twin, crime is endemic. Here in our middle class neighborhood crime has increased even in the last couple months. People are hungry and desperate. Crime bubbles up out of the rage of the population that has been denied and betrayed.

To succeed Zuma must reverse the ANC’s governing record of awarding loyalty before competence. Cronyism and a kind of cultural nepotism are deeply engrained – and denied –at every level of the ANC as a governing entity. If that is
not changed, nothing will change. Throw in the fact that the effects of the world economic meltdown are just beginning to hit South Africa with realforce and you know that the Zuma era will be a tough one.

The election (and its possible aftermath) sends strongly mixed signals. The Zuma era COULD be a new day if the real needs of the poor majority are given real priority in termsof economic justice and service delivery. I even have the sense that most people believe this and wish Zuma – and all of us – well, in spite of all the worries.So we keep vigil with hope and prayer as the Zuma era and the Obama era play out on opposite sides of the equator but in ways that touch each other profoundly.

Bread for the World

2009-05-02T07:34:00.006-05:00

Rev. David Beckmann, Lutheran pastor and president of Bread for the world, appeared on C-Span Saturday morning. Americans are a generous people. It's central to the belief systems of many faiths and an American civil relegion creed. This morning, however, many, many calls, Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike, challenged Beckmann with words such as, "In this economic recession we have so many suffering people, how can you dare to ask us to give to people in other countried?" One said, "We are supposed to help our neighbor, not people around the world."
In the midst of loss of jobs and homes and a general atmosphere of fear, even those of good faith, want to draw in, take care of "our own."
Beckmann, of course, pointed out that the U.S. gives only about1% in foreign aid, and a much small percentage of that to poor people around the world and that the U.S. gives a much smaller percentage than the U.K. or Germany or France. And, Beckmann reminded callers that helping poor people around the world and their nations be more stable and productive, actually will help the U.S. get out of this recession. And, of course, it has long been a scandel in the U.S. that we have so many hungry, homeless people. He stressed that we are called to do both, help here and abroad.
Worth noting is the phenomenon of fear redefining in the minds of people of faith who is our neighbor. What is our basic belief about the Creating, Providing God?
For more information about Bread for the World go to www.bread.org. Also check into the legislation calling for reform in foreign aid so that our aid agencies, national and private, are more coordinated so that aid is more effective. The call to help one's neighbor is a call to care for those down the street and around the globe.

Community College Address

2009-04-21T06:37:00.003-05:00

Last Thursday I was privileged to be honored by North Iowa Area Community Colleg in Mason City, Iowa, from which I graduated years ago, and to give the keynote address to this year’s “Pathways to Success” leaders. Here is what I said (adapted for this blog).

1. BE KNOWN AS SOMEONE OTHERS CAN COUNT ON
AND WORK TOWARDS MUTUAL ACCOUNTABILITY
Success in the American culture is often defined as getting ahead. Ahead of the line, ahead of the pack. But life is a journey of shared responsibility and mutual accountability. “Success” is often due simply to being someone others could count on. “Plan the work and work the plan,” a supervisor once told me. And I say to students, “Ministry merely promised is not ministry.”

Preparing for the Lutheran World Federation Consultation in Germany, participants were to have posted their papers on the internet a month earlier for all to read. A couple of people in our seminar group sent their papers by e-mail only a day before the conference began, saying, “Sorry, but I was busy.” Rev. Dr. Fidon Mwombeki from Tanzania, our leader, said very caringly, “I’m sorry about your problems, but it is not fair to people to expect them to read your paper at the last minute. We cannot bear that burden for you.”

So, whatever one’s gifts, no matter how much talent, fulfilling our responsibilities of completing things on time and keeping our commitments is essential. We honor people by not keeping them waiting, whether the CEO, the secretary, the custodian or the dean.

But being people others can count on does not mean picking up their responsibilities, as the Tanzanian professor said. People may say to you, “Oh, you’re so good at that…I know you’ll take care of this (for me).” That does not help others develop their gifts. And we wear ourselves out. That’s unhealthy for them and for us. To be mutually accountable is to respect people with whom we live and work. It honors the relationship.

In relationships of mutual accountability we sustain, support and give birth to new ideas together. It’s mutual promise keeping.

2. HELP CREATE AND MAINTAIN HEALTHY ENVIRONMENTS
FOR PEOPLE TO BE DIFFERENT TOGETHER
Leaders need vision, but vision without care for the community is to limit oneself to one’s own ideas. I challenge you to be a leader who creates and helps maintain healthy communities of diverse people, divergent ideas, and common welfare. North Iowa Area Community College a welcoming place. It’s open to all. That’s one reason I cherish it.

Sometimes we are afraid to listen long enough to one another to discover how different we are. Or, we assume that if we are in communities where are people are just alike, we will have less conflict. I’ve taught courses, led workshops, written a book on “Church Conflict: From Contention to Collaboration.” And you know what? Churches that have all the same kind of people in them have just as much conflict as those with people of many cultural, racial, linguistic, or social-economic backgrounds. Why? Well, because human beings have this perpetual capacity to misunderstand one another, to bicker and back-bite, and to hurt, and to kill, each. In fact, it’s in the family, the caring congregation, the close friendship group that we can experience the most pain. For example “mere” domestic violence is real violence. People are hurt, deeply hurt. How do we create safe environments, in schools, at home, in the community, in the world, for us to be different together?

In this country, people now say “We’re beyond racism aren’t we?” Well no! Because of the human condition, we are racist, classist, sexist, homophobic. But we continue to work at these issues. The answer is not to barricade our neighborhoods, put restrictions on our schools, pass restrictive constitutional amendments, buy more guns. The shootings two weeks ago in New York, Pennsylvania, California--and, yes, we’ve had our share here in Iowa, too--testify to that.

I challenge you to be a leader who helps create healthy environments that build relationships, that welcome the stranger, that foster trust. Be an empowering leader.

3. WALK THROUGH DOORS THAT ARE OPEN ONLY A CRACK
AND THEM OPEN THEM WIDER FOR ALL TO ENTER
I am proud of my degree from North Iowa Community College and proud of community colleges. My husband, Burton, teaches ethics, philosophy and religion at Northeast Iowa Community College.

Pathways to success. Where do we go now? Well, walk through doors that are open—maybe only a crack--and then open them wider for all to enter.

Because of the era of change in my adult lifetime, I did become some “firsts”: One of first women to study at a seminary. The first deaconess to be ordained a pastor. The first woman professor at a seminary of the American Lutheran Church. I was a pioneer. But I didn’t set out to be. It’s not that I had courage to push doors open (others had more vision than I), but if a door was open a crack, I walked through and then opened it wider. You see, if you’ve been an outsider and then become an insider, the temptation is to shut the door on others.

In changing to a more inclusive society, people become afraid. Afraid of the unknown. If we have women pastors, men will leave the church. (I heard that a lot.) It didn’t happen. Or, your children will suffer. Now grown, they tell me they didn’t.

By opening doors of opportunity to all, people become afraid, “Everything will change.” “The family will change” No! I don’t know how many times I heard, “How many more of you are there outside?” “If we let all those women in…” Or, all those Hispanics, or all those…..you fill in the blank. The token stage is the most frightening. Now that there are more equal numbers of women and men, a more truly multi-cultural society, people are not more, but less afraid.

Whatever doorways you walk through and then open wider for others to follow, you will become a role model. People are looking at you. That’s ok. Perhaps you will become a mentor. Do not bid others be just like you. But listen and help them discern their own gifts. In this present economic situation of fear of finding--or losing—a job, remember “Life is not meant to be a competitive sport.” Open some doors…for opportunities for others. You have power to do that.

4. START OUT ON A PATHWAY
AND JUST KEEP ON WALKING
Start something and keep at it. At a Mason City High school PTA meeting in 1916 some people asked the school board to start a junior college. It opened in September 1918 with 28 students and six instructors. Ninety years later: 3500 students. Amazing. Way more than that handful of people in 1916 could have imagined.

There are a lot more pathways now. For girls in my and my sister’s time it was mostly teacher, nurse, secretary. No girls’ athletics. Whatever your pathway, just start out and just keep walking.

Maybe you’ll even get into a little trouble along the way. You will get into trouble! When you do, make it for the right reason. In the mid 1960’s, in my call as a deaconess in St. Louis, a border state, Burton and I were deeply involved in the Civil Rights movement. After the Birmingham bombing in which four Sunday School children were killed, we marched. Some members of my congregation happened to see me on TV. Now that was a problem for them. “We like Norma,” they said, “It’s just that she likes Negroes.” Trouble! Well, I couldn’t even to the church council meting to defend myself because women weren’t allowed to attend. But, I kept my job, and Burton and I just kept on marching for justice.

Twelve years later, we were lived in New Haven, CT. where Burton was a pastor. I, a mother of three sons, stayed home with our children. Not uncommon. Burton took care of our children once a week so I could to the grocery store and do other shopping. One week, instead of shopping, I went up to Yale Divinity School and enrolled…. Three years later, after graduation I was invited to teach there. Well, there’s more to the story than that, but you get the idea. Just keep on walking.

I have lived with a chronic illness for over 25 years. Athletics may not have been a pathway open for me as a young woman, but I asked Burton for my 70th birthday present last fall to be that we walk the 26 miles around Lake Geneva in Wisconsin. And, on a beautiful fall weekend we did. So, whatever pathway you set out on…and maybe some you never figured on…just keep on walking!

5. REMEMBER THAT COMMUNICATION IS A CIRCLE;
AN IDEA IS NOT REALLY OURS UNTIL WE HAVE SHARED IT
I remember Journalism here at the community college and especially Marie Schalekamp, a mentor of mine who said that. She also helped me when I couldn’t have afforded a second year of college. She not only taught but wrote our text book on communication studies. When I published my first textbook, “The Church as Learning Community,” the dedication includes Marie Schalekamp.

My writing was facilitated by working on “The Troy Tribune,” now called Logos
One time, we were invited to an all state conference for college newspaper staff. As editor of the Troy Tribune, I sat on a panel between the editors of the newspapers of the University of Iowa and Iowa State. No matter the difference in size, and prestige I knew a community college student had something to say. So do you!

Writing is going public with your ideas. Editing books with multiple writer helps others have voice, maybe people who didn’t know they had something to say: women clergy, my own faculty, international teachers.

Just as important as books, was starting a neighborhood newsletter. Living in inner city Detroit, after the riots in 1967, there was much fear. Our son, Joel, was born a few weeks later. When he was but 2 weeks old, we went around the neighborhood getting to know one another in order to create community. We published a block newsletter. When the turbulence came again the next spring when Martin Lutheran King Jr. was assassinated, we knew each other and didn’t have to kill each other.

To this day, I write books, yes, but also a networking newsletter, now on the web, “The Persistent Voice,” addressing issues of gender and justice across the globe and working toward full partnership of women and men. (Google “The Persistent Voice) as well this blog.

6. BE ENGAGED GLOBALLY IN SEEKING JUSTICE FOR ALL,
SERVICE TO OTHERS AND LOVE THAT LIBERATES
Our pathways are long and interconnected. While a student here I remember going to Oklahoma for an international youth gathering. Before that I had not been out of the state of Iowa except to the Twin Cities and Chicago. Today we have many opportunities for global interchange. I’ve been privileged to lecture and learn in Namibia, shortly after their independence from apartheid; in Australia, as the country struggled saying “We’re sorry” to Aboriginal peoples and a church body continues to struggling with gender justice; in China, shortly after Tieneman Square, and across this country.

In order to have a participatory democracy we must have an educated citizenry. I’m proud of the Iowa Caucuses. I tell people Iowans know that have a special role in the path to selecting a president and take that responsibility seriously.

Community colleges play a central role in preparing an educated citizenry. Therefore, our pathway must be one that seeks justice for all, that serves others and loves people with a love that liberates rather than dominates,

President Obama in addressing an audience of mostly college students in Strausberg recently was criticized by some for seemingly apologizing for his nation. Actually he said to Europeans, “In recent years we have had honest disagreements over policy. But there’s something more that has crept into our relationship…instead of seeking partnership to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive. But, in Europe there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual but can also be insidious.”

I am pleased that the G-20 summit, with much work yet to do, made a common commitment to helping poor of countries suffering the most in this economic crisis. To quote U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown addressing the U.S. Congress, “Let us not forget the poorest; perhaps the greatest gift our generation could give the future is for every child in every country to have the chance to go to school.”

We are called to pathways of partnership, working towards healthy interdependence of liberating and life-giving care for the earth and justice for us all. President Obama said, “I hope you will consider ways you can serve, because the world has so many challenges right now. Get involved. Sometimes you will be criticized and fail and be disappointed, but you will have a great adventure and be able to look back and say I made a difference.”

7. REST, ENJOY AND GIVE THANKS
In the United States we often begin a sentence, with “I’m been busy….” Not “I am…” or, “I Do…” But “I’ve been busy.” People in other global cultures find this curious. Now we are an industrious, creative, people. However…and I’m speaking to myself now as much as to anyone here…we also have the gift of rest. Whatever your faith tradition, there are holy days: Islam has Prayers and Fasting; for Christian and Jews the Hebrew Bible begins with the work of the Creator God and with Sabbath. God rested.

So, rest. You know how to do that!
Enjoy. You know how to do that!
And give thanks to God and for so many other partnerships in life.

Know the People

2009-04-13T13:22:00.003-05:00

We can learn so much about people we meet in the public world if we go beyond our first observations of them--if we notice their presence at all--and simply seek to learn more about them in their context.

Last week I was at the grocery. It was Friday morning and I soon realized it was the time when people are in the aisles giving out samples of products. A woman was serving samples of potato salad near the front door. I then moved to the meat counter to buy some fish. Tilapia was on sale. I commented that this seemed to be the new popular fish. “Yes,” the meat man said, and then went on to say that Tilapia multiplies very quickly and the supply can be replenished in a very short time.(He was more specific…I wasn’t listening that carefully yet.) Then, sensing I was engaged, he went on to say he had gotten an e-mail that morning. (Did I know that meat counter men got email?) Their grocery chain wasn’t going to sell Orange Roughy after a certain upcoming date because over-fishing has decimated the world supply and, even with good management, it would take years to replenish this slow-growing fish.

We talked a couple of minutes more--not long. We both had other commitments, he at his counter and I at my own computer in my office. But he added that some say that Tilapia is an old species and perhaps could have been the fish that was given to Jesus that he used to feed the multitudes. Now, was the man being a biblical scholar, a theologian, or a meat man? I don’t know, but here in this man whose name I don’t know, was a person doing theology in his daily language. He was, without saying so, making a connection between Christ’s miracle of feeding the thousands, and his own obvious concern that there be enough fish on a sustainable basis to feed millions today. He was, in what I would call his ministry in daily life, actively involved in keeping informed and making decisions to be part of that sustainable feeding.

A little while later, while checking out, this “meat counter” man was bagging groceries. “Oh, I see you are here now,” I said. It was clear that he was an active, willing team player, helping out where needed, beyond status. And the woman was still by the door with her potato salad samples. I spoke to her, (almost asked for a second sample, as it was good) “Are you here every day?” “Oh, no,” she said, “just Fridays. The rest of the week I’m pretty busy this time of the year doing people’s taxes."
Ah… How we are called to see, really see the people……

The Value of Theology is in the Questions it Raises

2009-04-07T06:44:00.004-05:00

Theologians, 120 of strong from 30 countries gathering for the "Global Consultion: Theology in the Life of Luthean Churches" in Augsburg, Germany, for six days heard papers, discussed, shared ideas and engaged in invigorating conversation.

The Rev. Dr. Karen Bloomquist, Director of Theology and Studies for Lutheran World Federation, who lead the event, said that theology is necessarily contextual. We cannot presume to speak as though we have universal theological categories that have the same meaning for all people. The value of theology is in the questions it raises. The challenge is to do theology in the midst of the global Lutheran communion.

Theology asks such questions as: "How might resurrected hope be embodied and enacted amid the emptiness, pathos and suffering in our world--for the sake of the healing of the world? How does God's libeating, reconciling work become incarnate in the many contexts in which Lutheran churches today seek to live out the Christian faith? How is what we confess reflected in how we worship, preach teach, pray, living together as communities of faith, and respond to the challenges we face in our world today?"

The Rev. Dr. Benson Bagonza, a bishop in the Lutheran Church in Tanzania outlined an African theology of sustainable development. He said that the church represents the biggest social movement in Tanzania and that it is rural oriented and politically positioned to affect change. He noted the issues of depending heaily on outside funding which can readually erode selfhood. He questioned the church's leaning heavily on alliance with the state, which in turn galvanizes colonial memories. He said that an African theology of sustainable development heeds the voices of ordinary people within Africa and outside African in the triple theological quest to indigenize, liberate and reconstructin a desire to preserve, promote, and enhance a just society where poverty and discrimination are being overcome.

I had known Benson when he was a student at Wartburg Seminary in the Theology, Development and Evangelism program. Karen and I have been friends for many years. To be together with them, and many others, old friends and new, was a banquet in itself. I shall share more in weeks to come.

Questions RE: "Populist Rage"

2009-03-31T20:51:00.003-05:00

Peter L. Kjeseth is Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Wartburg Seminary, now living and teaching in South Africa. For three decades, he and his wife Solveig have fought for independence and justice alongside the Namibian people. Peter contributes this post on the upcoming South African elections, scheduled for April 22:

All elections are decisive, but some elections are more decisive than others. Few from either side of the political spectrum would question that the election of Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States was a landmark event and may perhaps usher in a radically new chapter in US – and world – history. We will see.

Many of the most thoughtful observers here in South Africa argue that the national election called for April 22 will be decisive for the ‘new South Africa’ and will play powerfully one way or another into Africa’s destiny and its place in the world’s scene.

This will be the fourth election in post-apartheid South Africa. Nelson Mandela, icon of the liberation struggle, won the presidency in the first free election. The next two elections gave the presidency to Thabo Mbeki, a lesser figure, but with impeccable family and struggle credentials in the African National Congress, a hard working, urbane man who looked – and spoke – like a national president and who guided the ship of state with an authoritarian hand. His AIDS denialism and his stubborn support of his Secretary of Health who shared his bizarre views cost him in the eyes of the world community as did his ‘quiet diplomacy’ in Zimbabwe which looked like spineless appeasement of the discredited struggle leader, Robert Mugabe. But it was generally agreed that South Africa’s economy under Mbeki had achieved remarkable health and stability and that the nation, far from becoming the radical socialist state envisioned in the Freedom Charter, had joined the convoy of the G8, if not in the forefront, at least as a respected tag-along into the sea of global capitalism where all boats were to be lifted but where a tsunami of collapse has now put even the big flagships in peril. It was his ‘success’ in playing the world economic game that proved Mbeki’s undoing here at home.

At the 52nd National Conference of the ANC held in Polokwane, 16 -20 December, 2007 Mbeki was effectively sidelined. A coalition of the left and populist anger at his attitude and fiscal policy undid him. Ultimately he was ‘recalled’ from the presidency by the ANC and replaced, again by the ANC without a new election, by Kgalema Motlanthe, a generally effective executive who serves as a kind of interim president. As a US citizen, used to endless presidential campaigns, I found it passing strange that a party could change the top position in government without consulting the general public. Even more puzzling, yes astounding, for me was the line up of forces and personalities that combined in Polokwane to bring about Mbeki’s political demise.

The victor in Polokwane was Jacob Zuma, a man of massive contradictions. Mbeki had sacked him as deputy president in 2005 when Zuma was found to have had an ‘essentially corrupt’ relationship with Shabir Shaik, his long-time business partner who has served a prison sentence. At the time of Shaik’s sentencing Zuma was not charged but since then the National Prosecuting Authority has been trying to bring him to trial. The media since then has reveled in the drama of Zuma claiming that he wants a chance to clear his name at the same time that he and his forces have moved legal mountains to prevent any trial from taking place.

Then we have the highly publicized trial that did take place. An HIV positive young woman half his age charged Zuma with rape. He admitted having unprotected sex with the woman but claimed it was consensual. Besides, he took a precautionary shower after the encounter. He was acquitted. Outside the court during the trial, large and noisy crowds gathered to ‘show support’ for Zuma and to vilify the accuser. She received so many threats that she is said now to be in hiding overseas.

How could this man become the public face of Mandela’s ANC and the all but certain presidential candidate in the April 22 election?

Throughout the Mbeki years the forces of the left, COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) and SACP (South African Communist Party) had felt increasingly sidelined though they were officially part of the governing coalition. Repeated public put downs by Mbeki were insulting, but the steadily increasing disparity between the rich and the poor, the threat of increased unemployment, plus general disenchantment with government’s delivery in health care, safety, and education brought anger and bold action. Populist rage fueled the Polokwane rebellion.

How wisely did this rage choose? It seems that Zuma has been able to sell himself as champion of the people, the one who could work to realize the socialist vision of the Freedom Charter. Yet in his campaigning he appears to want to be all things to all people, reassuring the nervous business community that there would be no radical economic change under his leadership. Or is the post-Polokwane ANC merely the fragile assembly of those who rejected Mbeki? It is likely that only the election will tell.

I am fascinated – and puzzled – by the phenomenon of ‘populist rage’ and the attempts of our analysts to deal with it. Twice in the last several weeks Frank Rich, the mercilessly analytic leader of the NYTimes Sunday columnists, has touched on populist rage. On Sunday Feb. 8, he named a “tsunami of populist rage coursing through America” as the cause of Tom Daschle’s flameout as candidate for Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Obama cabinet. The Obama team was caught off guard and had no recourse but to let the highly qualified Daschle go. He was seen, said Rich, as belonging to the “greedy bipartisan culture of entitlement and crony capitalism”. Then on March 1 Rich warned that Obama might be blindsided again if he does not find an explainable way of saving banks and other “corporate recipients of tax payers’ money”. Populist rage against corporate criminals is so great that it might undercut Obama’s total recovery package.

True or not, Rich’s warning about ‘populist rage’ rampant in the US also fits South Africa. It is as dangerous and unpredictable as it is powerful. Part of Zuma’s disturbing popularity roots in populist rage against the rich-get-richer-poor-get-poorer record of the Mbeki years, though there is an aces-wild cultural contributing factor that I do not understand. Populist rage, of different types and lineages, figures in the left swing in Latin America characterized by the careers of Chavez in Venezuela and Morales in Bolivia. It also could be named as the ground from which terrorisms of various stripes arise around the world. Yet it seems that it could be –and often is – the engine of healthy change.

Some people argue that populist rage, or at least strong discontent, stands behind the healthy growth of opposition in South Africa. Others feel that it will lead us into dangerous times.

How much will the results of the April 22 election teach us? How much will it help us answer our uneasy questions about ‘populist rage’?

Peter L. Kjeseth
March 2009
Fishhoek, South Africa

Global Consultation in Augsburg

2009-03-29T23:15:00.011-05:00

Two thousand years ago Augsburg was founded by the Romans. Ten years ago Augsburg was the site of the "Joint Declaration on Justification" between Lutherans and Roman Catholics. The events of the 16th century, however, make it most well-known among Lutherans and all Protestants worldwide.

Mr. Hermann Weber, mayor of Augsburg, greeted over 100 theologians from over 30 countries at the Rathaus (Town Hall) on the first evening of the March 25-31 Lutheran World Federation Global Consultation on "Theology in the Life of Lutheran Churches: Transformative Perspectives and Practices Today."

At the Rathau, which has been restored since the World War II bombings, we heard the mayor highlight the important dates:

1518 The momentous meeting between Luther and the papal legate at which Luther was told to renounce his teachings.

1530 The Imperial Diet meeting at which the Lutheran estates issued their fundamental statement of faith, the Augsburg Confession.

1537 The adoption of the first Protestant church order where separation of church and state was instituted.

1555 The Diet proclamation of the Peace of Augsburg, giving Lutherans and Roman Catholics a side-by-side relationship. For many years each public office in Augsburg was held by two people, one a Roman Catholic and one a Lutheran.

We could see evidence of this side-by-side relationship in the physical proximity of churches. We are staying at Haus St. Ulrich's. The Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches on this site are physically connected.

On Sunday we walked through the old town and saw the courtyard from which the people could hear the Augsburg Confession read for the first time, in the language of the people, so that all could understand.

Public Demonstration in Spain

2009-03-22T13:34:00.007-05:00

On our way to the LWF conference in Germany, we had a stop-over in Madrid. We had been here only an hour or so, when, going out, we saw a church with doors open, and stopped in for the end of the service. There was standing room only. We stood with them.

Minutes later, approaching the Peurta de Sol, the center of Madrid, and said to be the center of Spain, we encountered a "Gran Manifestacion Contra el Fraude Hipotecario," hundreds of people very slowly walking and chanting, carrying signs against usury and the banks. The economic crisis is global and workers are speaking out. As they reached the center, they simply sat down on the pavement for a few minutes, and then proceeded on.

We felt a strong solidarity with the people, joining as we could on what we consider to be part of the church's vocation in the public world. Standing--and sitting--we can be part part of the conversation.

Global Consultation

2009-03-20T08:33:00.008-05:00

I will be attending a Global Consultation of Lutheran World Federation: "Theology in the Life of Lutheran Churches," March 25-31 in Augsburg, Germany. I invite you to follow along by going the Lutheran World Federation web page on this event - click here to explore the Speakers, Presenters, and the Seminars, particularly Seminar IV "The Public Vocation of Church in Society" where you will find my paper among many others.

I also will be leading a plenary session utilizing a process to help the l00 participants from 30 countries engage in "Integrative Theological Formation." I will bring back things I have learned from what promises to be an exciting event and share them on this blog in weeks to come.

Where are the prophets?

2009-03-14T06:29:00.007-05:00

So who are the prophets to American civil religion? American corporate religion? Unbridled captitalism? "In Cramer We trust," ad hype for CNBC's Mad Money, is a correlary to the belief, "In debt we trust." Jon Stewart on the Daily Show Thursday night (Mar.12)was not joking when he took Jim Cramer to task for failing to warn the American people of the coming global economic crisis.

So who are the public media prophets? Jon Stewart? Bill Moyers? Who? And what about the church's prophetic vocation in the public world? Whose are the prophetic voice? The persistent voices?

Another View on American Civil Religion

2009-03-12T13:54:00.004-05:00

Boardman (Barney) Kathan, Prospect, CT, is former General Secretary of the Religious Education Association, current REA archivist, and recent author of "A Church Set Upon a Hill: The Story of Prospect Congregational Church, United Church of Christ." Barney is a longtime friend with whom I have had many conversations over the years; he responds to recent postings on American civil religion.

Dear Norma,
You and I have had good conversations about American civil religion, going back many years, and I remember especially a fairly recent Religious Education Association annual meeting, when we talked after a group where you had presented a paper on the subject. At the time I had a problem with calling the Super Bowl a high holy day of American civil religion. You make a good point, however, in referring to it as part of "American corporate religion."

American civil religion, as I understand it, relates to the religious and biblical images and references in American history, as these people in a new world, beginning with the Puritans, saw themselves as a "light on a hill," an "errand in the wilderness," a new "promised land" and "chosen people;" in effect, as part of salvation history. This was not a "false god," unlike American corporate religion, consumerism, etc., but rather an attempt to interpret their experience in sacred terms. Properly understood, American civil religion was not a "presumption of entitlement to global dominance," but a creation of a model or ideal of liberty, equality and democracy. However flawed or imperfect, this model or ideal has been the guiding principle in American history, and we were fortunate to have Lincoln in the 19th century and Dr. King in the 20th century to recall us to that principle.

In our conversation a couple of years ago, I told the story of three persons I knew well and worked with: the mayor of our town whose only religion seems to be the American civil kind, who never attends church except for a patriotic occasion; a pastor who was so opposed to any display of American patriotism that he refused to allow the country's flag in the sanctuary and gave hardly a nod to the Fourth of July and Memorial Day; and my mother, who was a deeply religious evangelical Christian and at the same time was fervently dedicated to American civil religion. The point I am making is that ACR is not necessarily opposed to the "cross and resurrection." It is only when it becomes nationalism that it is a false god.

Sometime I need to share with you a lecture given on the Lincoln birthday bicentennial at the New Haven Historical Society by David Gelernter, a Yale professor of computer science and the author of a new book, Americanism: The Fourth Great Western Religion. He calls Americanism a "biblical religion" that is global in scope and fuels what he calls the "chivalry" of fighting against dictators in other parts of the world in order to spread democracy. I asked him how he would compare his concept with American civil religion, and he gave a long answer, essentially rejecting and dismissing the concept of ACR. I disagree with him in many ways.

As far as a "new revised standard version" of ACR, I agree with you that it is an evolving and complex concept. The inauguration of Obama as the 44th U.S. President as the culmination of a remarkable, successful two-year campaign holds out the promise that he might do for the American democratic faith in the 21st century what Lincoln and King did for the preceding centuries. Again, you were right to focus on the remarkable closing prayer by Joseph Lowery.

Best wishes, Barney
A story of my visiting Barney at First Congregational Church of Cheshire, CT, where he and I climbed into the church steeple, is included in my book, "Open the Doors and See All the People: Stories of Church Identity and Vocation" (Augsburg Fortress, 2005)

If You Have More, Will I Have Less?

2009-03-05T14:19:00.004-06:00

“We sometimes fear ‘If you have more power, I will have less.’ That may be true in the world’s economy of power, but God’s unconditional love, new liberating life in Christ, and the power-filled Spirit transform our very concepts of power and partnership.” (From Norma Cook Everist and Craig Nessan, Transforming Leadership, Fortress Press, 2008)

I believe that when you learn more, I will not become ignorant, but together we can increase our knowledge, and our curiosity for more learning. I believe that when you grow in ability, I will not be less skilled, but, rather the potential for ministry is multiplied. I believe that when you are empowered, I will not have less power, but, together, we will have the power to work together to care for the earth and its people.

That concept is being tested today in the midst of economic recession. But perhaps it is true in new ways. We are learning, painfully, that when my neighbor has less power economically, I also have less, even if I have paid my mortgage on time and have some money in the bank.

In all of the recent conversations, people who are poor have been mentioned very little. Yes, we understand: talking about the middle class is necessary for Congressional votes. However, we need to never forget that in a global economic recession it is the poorest of the poor who suffer the most and the longest.

In not forgetting those in most need, we increase our capacity to see the whole picture. We need each other all the time. Will we learn that now? Will we remember that?

United Kingdom Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking March 4 to a joint session of Congress in Washington, D.C. said “Let us not forget the poorest. As we strive to spread the values of peace, political liberty, and the hope for better lives across the world, perhaps the greatest gift our generation could give to the future…would be for every child in every country of the world [to have] the chance millions do not have today; the chance to go to school...

“At their best, our values tell us that we cannot be wholly content while others go without, cannot be fully comfortable while millions go without comfort, cannot be truly happy, while others grieve alone.

“And this too is true. All of us know that in a recession the wealthiest, the most powerful and the most privileged can find a way through for themselves.

“We do not value the wealthy less when we say that our first duty is to help the not so wealthy. We do not value the powerful less when we say that our first responsibility is to help the powerless. And we do not value those who are secure less when we say that our first priority must be to the insecure.

“….I keep returning to something I first learned in my father’s church as a child. In the most modern of crises I am drawn to the most ancient of truths; wherever there is hardship, wherever there is suffering, we cannot, we will not, pass by on the other side.”

Out of Sight, Out of Mind?

2009-02-27T13:41:00.005-06:00

This blog entry introduces a new contributor to our conversation: Sandra Chapin, an accomplished writer, poet, lyricist and theologian, who is in the ordination process for becoming an ELCA pastor, and who is also disabled – in fact, she’s a passionate voice for disability rights. Reflecting on the prayer posted previously on this blog, the one from this year’s MLK Jr. Breakfast, Sandra writes:

In January 2006 the Martin Luther King breakfast in Dubuque had as their keynote speaker a woman working with the governor of Iowa for disability rights. A disabled woman. We watched as she maneuvered her wheelchair on to the lift that allowed her access to the stage. It was a visual narrative that underscored the message she gave, that equal rights for the disabled still battles the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality. Others who were at the breakfast that morning may not remember it as I do, three years later. I, also in a wheelchair, gave the opening prayer. And I noted details that others may not have, like the wheelchair lift, an out-of-place add-on to an otherwise elegant affair. Perhaps the noisy, mechanical sound it made, or its unattractive appearance caused some in the audience to look away or pick up their orange juice glasses to be distracted as they waited for her speech to begin. But her speech had begun.  

Giving handicapped people equal access to places can result in unattractive mechanical add-ons. Sometimes access is granted using out of the way elevators. Grateful that I am for elevators, I know from experience many of these 'not for general public use' are uncomfortably small and outdated, and I've been stuck in one more than once. I prefer access not so out of the way, not so out of the public eye. Able-bodied people may think it's disrespectful to view the alternate route and adjustments a disabled person may need to take in order to end up at the same place they do. I watched with anticipation when former Vice President Cheney arrived for the inauguration in a wheelchair, but I was disappointed as he was whisked away to some undisclosed elevator only to magically appear later, circumventing stairs all other distinguished guests descended. I wanted a camera crew to accompany him, to note the path that other wheelchair bound people need travel when they visit the Capitol. Perhaps such camera footage was thought of as disrespectful. I should like to think it was at least thought of! 
 
As in the days when people of color were relegated to the back of the bus, the only accessible entrances for wheelchair users to many buildings are still in the back, or off to the side. A trend I've noticed in recent years is locating the wheelchair accessible hotel rooms far from the front desk. Out of sight, out of mind? That's what it feels like. I invite anyone to come with me along the back corridors, through the restaurant kitchens, up the freight elevators to rejoin the group of people gathering for the same event I want to attend. Or watch me as I huff and puff my way up ramps. I won't feel disrespected by anyone taking an interest in the parts of my life that are often overlooked.

The Melting Pot

2009-02-26T19:26:00.002-06:00

There is a very early use of the “melting pot” image of dealing with diversity in J. Hector St. John Crevecoeur’s Letters from An American Farmer 1782 (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1968). A farmer, writing back to England:

“Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race … whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world .. As I have endeavoured to show you how Europeans become Americans it may not be disagreeable to show you likewise how the various Christian sects are introduced, wear out, and how religious indifference becomes prevalent … Then the Americans become as to religion what they are as to country, allied to all. In them the name of Englishman, Frenchman, and European is lost, and in like manner, the strict modes of Christianity as practiced in Europe are lost also … his children will therefore grow up less zealous and more indifferent in matters of religion than their parents … in a few years this mixed neighborhood will exhibit a strange religious medley, that will be neither pure Catholicism no pure Calvinism. A very perceptible indifference even in the first generation will become apparent.” (pp. 49, 54-56)

In recent years I’ve heard people say, “It’s more like a stew than a melting pot; we retain our distinct flavors” or use the tossed salad image. But now Attorney General Holden calls us to go further, and so do I.

And how much did we ever meld? Perhaps Americans of English and French origins (but raise that issue with Canadians). But what about people from Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America? And those brought here in slave ships? And those natives peoples who had lived on this continent for a thousand years or more? Do we even yet really see one another clearly?

And, at the same time, a very perceptible “indifference” to race (and religion?) in this first generation after the 20th century Civil Rights movement has “become apparent.” Our neighborhoods are more diverse than this 18th century farmer could ever have imagined. But note, he, writing to friends and family back home burdened by religious wars, applauds various “Christian sects” wearing out and religious indifference becoming prevalent. What is our goal? What is the paradox of pluralism? What is our calling in dealing with diversity?

Going Too Far...Or Not Deep Enough?

2009-02-25T15:48:00.007-06:00

Alan Lai, Ed.D, from North Vancouver, BC, wrote to remind us that on February 19, 1942, Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Execute Order 9066 to send ethnic groups to internment camps. About 120,000 Americans of Japanese heritage, 3,000 of Italian, and 11,000 of German heritage were interned.

The Canadian government followed the lead of Americans and passed the War Measures Act on Feb. 24, 1942, specifically targeting Japanese Canadians. Ian Mackenzie, the Canadian MP representing British Columbia said then, “It is the government’s plan to get these people out of B.C. as fast as possible. It is my personal intention, as long as I remain in public life, to see they never come back here. Let our slogan be for British Columbia: “No Japs from the Rockies to the seas.”

Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder was severely criticized by many as going too far when he called the U.S. a “nation of cowards” saying it would drive race relations in the wrong direction.

In his speech, Holder urged people of all races to use Black History Month as a chance for honest discussion of racial maters, including issues of health care, education and economic disparities. “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.”

How far is too far? Racism is not, as many seem to think, a matter of “how far” you go.

After all, “too far” is defined by each person differently. “Too far” may not seem far at all when an American or Canadian of Japanese heritage simply leaves one’s neighborhood suddenly, but it is certainly “too far” if you are the person “moved out,” losing home, business, position and respect.

How far is “too far?” when one makes a joke? When one is objectified and ridiculed by a joke?

Rather than measuring by some ever-changing, imaginary line (the debate about whether one “crosses” a line or not), why not go deeper, to the core of human individual and communal sin. I am (we are) racist, sexist, classist…and more. Recognizing the root of fear of the other, self-protection and self-aggrandizement may help us repent rather than excuse ourselves. Then we can turn to the cross rather than being concerned only if one sees us cross a line.

Yes, times have changed since 1942, and 1968, but systemic sin manages to emerge again and again in subtle as well as blatant, marginalizing as well as malignant ways. And, yes, Sunday morning church is still one of the most segregated times of the week. Remembrance and historic repentance opens us to new possibilities of conversation, conversion, and community, no matter how far we’ve come. It is not too late to view again the significant speech on race by Barack Obama March 18, 2008 on the internet; click here.

We don’t have to stop thinking about these things at the end of Black History month. Let the conversation continue…or in some cases, begin.

The Church’s Vocation through the Ministry of the Laity

2009-02-16T14:33:00.008-06:00

The people of God are set apart in order to be sent back into the world. What does the gathered people of God need in order to carry out their vocations in society? How will they be the transformed, equipped, empowered people of God serving in the world through their ministries in daily life? How are their skills for ministry and leadership in the congregation being strengthened?

And as we move beyond the church doors, do we know the ministries in daily life to which each other is being called? How will we walk with one another in those varied arenas, any and all of which are places for potential ministry and for working toward a more just and peaceable world? And what about the people whose lives the congregation members touch? What does daily transformation of the body of Christ mean in the lives of those people? How can we really make a difference in the world?

To believe in the communion of saints is to believe that God is the Creator of the whole world, that Christ is and continues to be incarnate in that world, and to claim the Spirit’s power. As leaders walk with the laity, listen to and engage the theological questions people raise from being involved in the world, ministerial leadership becomes more interesting, more vital, more theologically challenging and alive. And ministry is multiplied.

Those who have been called to faith in Jesus Christ have been faithfully ministering in the world in each generation. Full recognition of this ministry and these ministers by the church is the issue. In that regard we have a transformation waiting to happen, an unfinished reformation.

For an article that discusses these issues in full, click on the title of this post. I prepared this article for a Lutheran World Federation conference, “Theology in the Life of Lutheran Churches,” March 25-31 in Augsburg, Germany.

In Debt We Trust

2009-02-09T16:44:00.002-06:00

Credit! Credit relates to the word “credo,” to believe. In recent years I have many times said that a central creed of American civil religion has come to be “In debt we trust.” That is not to cast aspersions on those who borrow to go to college, to make it through a health crisis, to buy a home. But the poor suffer most in a society that relies on credit, that believes in debt. And now we know that!

The intricate web of our false god has let everyone down. The poor suffer the most, and would take the least amount of money to help. The wealthy require the most money to bale out, and suffer the least.

Increasingly over the past few years I had begun to wonder if we ought to talk about “American Corporate Religion” instead of American civil religion, for there were those whose aim it seemed was decrease government’s power and replace it with dependence on the free market. And our civil life together was tearing apart. Now, I do think capitalism can serve people well, but when it no longer serves, when it has lost moral grounding, it has tremendous power to increase the gap between rich and poor.

So in what do people believe? I think the central creeds of American civil religion are in doubt, up for grabs. What are they? What were they? What were they not? And what might they be? And what actions must we take to lead us into a new way of believing? (Sometimes faith leads to action and sometimes actions lead us to ways of believing.)

We must start with reshaping some of the systems: inclusive health care; fair, honest and trustworthy lending for home ownership; ways of living--and teaching our youth--that are not credit-card dependent. “In debt we trust” was such a central tenet of the creed of ACR that “Pay Day Loan” establishments dot the corners of neighborhoods where people marginally employed live. And many can never climb out of debt. “In debt we trust” was taught in college corridors by credit card companies taking advantage of youth just learning to manage money on their own. “In debt we trust” corrupted executives who convinced themselves that “good debt” helps people, institutions, and global corporations.

Now, borrowing and lending will not go away and are as necessary are any historic forms of currency and monetary exchange. But what do we believe? In what do we trust? How will the current realities change our creeds? How might they?

The Pervasiveness and Persuasiveness of an Ever-changing American Civil Religion (Part 1)

2009-02-09T16:34:00.007-06:00

My interest in American civil religion (ACR) relates to religious formation and leadership and ecclesiology (theology of the church). My thesis is that American civil religion continues to evolve as a complex systematic theology (in my view counter to a theology of the cross and resurrection), with its own creeds and mission statements, and with an exclusive ecclesiology for a nation professing to be an inclusive, democratic, just, peace-seeking nation. What is American civil religion? How did it come to be? How is it changing? Is there competition over the creeds of civil religion?

Civil religions, alongside beliefs of specific faith communities, shape attitudes and actions of individuals and of entire peoples. American civil religion, with its presumption of entitlement to global dominance, presents a particular problem. Civil religion is a social phenomenon, a sacred citizenship. The term appears in Jean Jacques Rousseau's The Social Contract. Alexis de Tocqueville empirically observed a form of civil religion that emerged precisely in the situation of church-state separation.

Robert Bellah's article in 1967, "Civil Religion in America," Daedalus 96 (Winter, 1967), gave words to what others had long felt:

While some have argued that Christianity is the national faith, and others that church and synagogue celebrate only the generalized religion of "the American Way of Life," few have realized that there actually exists alongside of and rather clearly differentiated from the churches an elaborate and well-instituted civil religion in America...this religion—or perhaps better, this religious dimension—has its own seriousness and integrity and requires the same care in understanding that any other religion does.

In his 1975 The Broken Covenant, Bellah outlined more fully the historical evidence of American civil religion, clearly describing both the “chosen” character of America’s story of origin and two great flaws: the fact that the American dream from the beginning did not include the dreams of all, particularly African slaves and indigenous peoples.

For my extensive article on American Civil Religion, written one year ago, click on title of this post.

Super Bowl XLIII

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If January 20 was a day of community and celebration, Sunday, February 1, followed close on. Once again millions gathered around television and computer screens (BIG screen was definitely preferred), this time for the XLIII Super Bowl game. (Roman numerals are always used for Super Bowls, symbolic, perhaps, of the ancient Roman coliseum). Years ago, when first doing work on ACR, I noticed a pre-game Super Bowl commentary playing the “Hallelujah Chorus” in the background.

Super Bowl Sunday continues to be a High Holy Day of ACR. The advertisements not only amuse, but reflect our belief systems. This year the advertising spots sold slowly, but they sold, many for beverages which people continue to consume during hard times. Side celebrations were fewer. Corporations didn’t want to be seen spending millions to party with the country in a recession. Eyes were focused on the game! And an exciting game it was! The Cardinals mounted a comeback to pull ahead just to lose the game in the final seconds to the Steelers. Probably the play that will be most long remembered was the Steelers defensive linebacker intercepting a pass with 18 seconds left in the first half and running 100 yards for a touchdown, those who would stop him being knocked down all the way.

One could also take the broader picture on television. Even though it was no competition, there were options for the wide variety of tastes in the society with Anne of Green Gables on PBS and an interview with Alice Walker on C-Span. The game, of course, was the center attraction. I noted, perhaps not surprisingly, a pre-game sports commentator said, “Even though fewer people may be able to afford to come to Tampa,” it’s still a communal gathering, “kind of like the whole country going to church together.”

An NRSV of ACR?

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Is there a “New revised standard version” of American civil religion emerging? What signs and symbols did you see in the Inauguration?

Presidential inaugural addresses have long been studied to discover the core elements of American civil religion. What did you hear in Barack Obama’s address? Where were you on Inauguration Day?

People gathered in their own way. It certainly depended upon whether or not one had voted for Obama. However, there were differences even among these people. Some held strong beliefs that Barack Obama should not have been elected. Some ignored the inauguration. Some fear his presidency, for a variety of reasons. Some stand ready to critique. I have not heard of people intending to leave the country, but there has been a marked rise in interest in white supremacist groups. There are also large numbers of people who, though not voting for him, think favorable of Obama’s leadership thus far.

Which direction will these opinions and actions go? What opinions are held by people in your faith community? What is the spectrum? How do we talk together about these hopes and fears?

For young, newly engaged people, the energy, the real involvement, the opportunity to participate not only in an election, but in a democracy is exciting. It draws forth commitment. How do leaders of faith communities encourage such participatory democracy, especially among the young? (People of any age?) How does the realization that this is a pluralistic, diverse, multi-cultural, many-storied nation finally bring opportunity for actions of inclusion and cooperation? How can leaders of diverse faith communities encourage such involvement, such ministries in vocations of citizenship in daily life? What are the challenges? The opportunities?

African Americans when asked, almost to a person replied, “I think of my parents, my grandparents." Bill Cosby on Face the Nation said, “I took small pictures of my mother and father and brother, who had died as a child, into the voting booth with me and said, ‘Now we are going to vote.’” He added with his indomitable humor, “I voted only once.” But, the meanings on that voting day and inauguration day were many. The presence of saints from the past was unmistakable. There was quiet calm, thanksgiving, resolution that although surely issues of race, as systemic sin, are not resolved, hatred not ended, and problems not solved, there were new possibilities that few thought would come... at least not this soon.

For me and my husband, who had been active in the Civil Rights movement, Inauguration Day 2009 was a day that moved us almost beyond words. The contrasting images: We lived in the inner city of Detroit during the revolutionary movement (riots) in July of 1967. The hot summer Sunday evening when they started, our 4-year-old son, Mark, and I had just returned from a ride with my husband Burton to a hospital where he was making a pastoral call. Not long after, we heard there were fires in that same area. Soon there was shooting, all over. And more fires. I remember vividly during a TV variety show that evening hearing the singing of, “This Land Is Your Land,” accompanied by colorful pictures of the nation… and with words of warning scrolling across the bottom of the screen: “Curfew is now in place throughout Detroit.” We could now hear the gun fire and smell the smoke close to our house.

And I remember the miles and miles, entire neighborhoods, particularly commercial streets, in flames. I was 8½ months pregnant at the time, and there could be no safe passage to the hospital. Concordia College in Ann Arbor, Michigan, opened its doors for refugees. We gathered neighbors who were willing to go (I understood then the unwillingness to leave one’s home, even in the midst of danger and disaster), and drove out of the city during daylight hours. There were reports of shooting from the overpasses, so we took side streets. Mark and I remained in Ann Arbor for a few days, while Burton and others tried to watch over the neighborhood around the church at night.

But in a few days we returned. The new turquoise checked curtains I had recently sewn for our kitchen were bright as ever. The laundry I had been gathering on that Monday morning we left was still piled near the washing machine. And the riots went on, and on and on. I recall how national news announced things were calm and it was all over, but guns outside told me differently. And the guns were aimed at us. At the people. The National Guard and Army troops were called in to protect the large financial institutions and departments stores.

And I heard again in my mind, “This land is your land, this land is my land, from California, to..”

Joel, still in the womb, was due in August, but didn’t arrive until September 8. His birth story goes that he wasn’t so sure he wanted to come into this world. But he did, and is now a leader himself, building community through music.

And that September, just a week after giving birth, my days as a community organizer began…

Today, how beyond words, to hear Pete Seeger leading the huge gathering at the Lincoln Memorial the Sunday evening before Inauguration Day 2009, in “This Land Is Your Land…” The Memorial to Lincoln, where in 1939 Marian Anderson sang, and where in 1963 Martin Luther King preached, and where Barack and Michelle Obama took their daughters to trace the words of the Gettysburg Address and Lincoln’s Second Inaugural on the marble. One girl asked, “How are we doing?” with living out those words.

There are ironies, of course, and new exclusions. Bishop Gene Robinsons’ prayer, at the beginning of that same concert where Pete Seeger sang, was not heard by television audiences, even as Pete, slipped back in the original words from that Woodie Guthrie song that had been censored, banned years before. The challenges to be the beloved community (Dr. King’s phrase) continue.

In my view some of the most significant words of the day were delivered in the benediction given by Rev. Dr. Joseph Lowery, himself a Civil Rights leader. Many people on the Mall had begun to leave after Obama’s inauguration. (And who could blame them? They had been standing in bitter cold weather for hours.) Therefore they missed what we through television could see and hear. The prayer was noted on the news for its light-hearted conclusion (even Obama smiled). It’s telling that we can now hear these words as somewhat humorous; during the Civil Rights Movement they were a pledge, a commitment, a dream.

Dr. Lowery began the prayer with the final verse of what is known as the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
“God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
thou who hast by thy might led us into the light,
keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee;
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee;
Shadowed beneath thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.”

Dr. Lowery prayed for God’s blessing upon God’s servant, Barack Obama, his family and the administration who come to this high office at this low moment.
Excerpts:
Because we know you have whole world in your hands, We pray for our land and the community of nations. You are able and willing to work through faithful leadership to restore stability,
mend our brokenness, heal our wounds, deliver us from exploitation of the poor or the least of these, and from favoritism toward the rich, the elite of these. We thank you for the inspiring of our 44th president to inspire our nation that yes we can work together to achieve a more perfect union. We have sown seeds of greed and corruption. We seek forgiveness, and come in a spirit of unity and solidarity with a willingness to make sacrifices, respect creation, and turn to each other and not on each other. Help us to make choices on the side of love not hate, inclusion, not exclusion, tolerance, not intolerance. As we leave this mountain top, let us hold on to spirit of fellowship. and take that spirit back to our homes, our workplaces, our churches, temples, and mosques… We go now to walk together pledging we won’t get weary in the difficult days ahead. We know you will not leave us alone with your hands of power and your heart of love. Help us work for that day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation, when tanks will be beaten into tractors, when none shall be afraid, when justice will roll down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. In the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get back, when brown can stick around,when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man, and when white will embrace what is right. Let all who do justice and love mercy say Amen. Amen. Amen.

Global Responses to Obama Presidency

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Here are a few quotes from friends of this blog, reporting from around the world:

Peter Kjeseth in Cape Town, South Africa:

On election day some people stayed up all night to be sure of the results—and not just U.S. nationals. Both before and after the “historic day” all English language newspapers featured Obama’s smiling face on the front page.

At Holy Trinity, the Anglican parish we attend in Kalk Bay, on the Sunday after the election, one of the retired priest/members preached. He is a gentle, non-flamboyant guy, but three minutes into his sermon, he dramatically rolled down from the pulpit a full front-page newspaper featuring Obama’s victory scene in Grant Park, with the gigantic headline LANDSLIDE across the full page. The good priest proceeded to inform us with quiet pride, about his wonderful trip to the U.S. a few years back and how he had always had great faith in the American people. Now the U.S. had returned to its better self, and that gave hope to the whole world.

He was not the only one to feel this way. Ray Ackerman, one of South Africa’s leading businessmen, gave an inspiring speech at a business breakfast in which he celebrated Obama’s victory.

There were a few precautionary voices. We must not expect too much of Obama. After all, he must undo the tragic mischief and neglect of the Bush years. We should not all load our hopes on him and the Americans.

But the loudest sound was euphoria.

As Obama mounts the world bully pulpit almost daily to remind us that the struggle will be long and hard, the mood here is more than sober. Throw in the disintegration of our neighbor, Zimbabwe, where starvation and cholera continue to wipe out the most vulnerable, and you have signs of panic.

South Africans expect to be inspired by his charisma [in his inauguration speech]. But a mood of watch and see, words are words, but deeds are what count most, has set in. Our media sees Obama as preoccupied with U.S. economic recovery. What will the implications be for Africa, for the whole global system? How NEW with the new beginning be?

Tanya Wittwer in Australia:

Together with all of my friends, I was absolutely delighted at the outcome of the election (and terrified for Obama’s personal safety). It followed on from our own significant change of government a year before. We have already experienced that year, with jubilation at important (mostly symbolic) things that were quickly done – Sorry Day (longed for by so many, for so long), holding a summit of citizens and a summit of young people, which felt like a great counterbalance to the years of suppressed dissent under Howard. But the reality of the economic downturn, for which the greed of individuals and the unregulated nature of banks in the U.S. seem to be fairly and squarely to blame, has tempered our expectation of what might be achieved. Australian hopefulness of building a better and fairer country at this time is somewhat diminished.

So I think that is the background that I have in thinking and feeling about President Obama. Absolute joy over a new person in the White House. That feels very important for the US, and ultimately for the world (and for women). Much hope that the US may relate differently to the rest of the world, particularly parts of the world that have been much burdened by its policies and war machine. A quiet confidence that decisions get made differently by people that have significant experience outside of the U.S. But all those positive feelings are strongly tempered by the reality of the global situation into which this President walks: climate change, economic crisis, Iraq, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe. Decisions and actions of the U.S. have a wide-reaching impact on the rest of the world, but one person cannot achieve miracles.

And yet, he already has. Already there is a noticeable cultural shift. He has invited collaboration between people that think differently about things. That’s huge. He has been very clear that the U.S. will not be known for its torture, invasions, incarcerations (which have coloured all western nations in the eyes of particularly the Muslim world). So the hope remains.

Leigh Newton in Baku, Azerbaijan:

In Baku, in the party I was at, there was a communal sigh and anticipation. Only a few were from the U.S. The hope was almost tangible. They held an inauguration party. Interesting that they could do that without worrying about political differences – this is one election in which the non-U.S. part of the world is relatively unanimous in their support for the outcome.

Chris deForest, traveling in Haiti:

On Inauguration Day, I was leading a group on a cultural encounter trip, in Haiti’s capital city, Port-au-Prince. Haitians we talk with that day are optimistic, but cautious – so many past days of American dreams have come and gone, only to leave behind empty promises and false hopes. As we drive past a newsstand, one of our U.S. visitors yells out – “Hey! Can we get that newspaper?” He points to a young man holding a tabloid-sized print, so we stop and buy a copy. None of us know much Haitian Kreyole, but even we can interpret the paper’s headline: “A NEW PRESIDENT FOR THE PRESIDENT!” Under these words: a full-page photo of two men – one Obama, the other a smiling, confident Haitian gentleman – we assume, the president of Haiti. Our Haitian friends traveling with us laugh quietly, and shake their heads. “What’s so funny?” we ask. Our interpreter explains: “This is not the president of Haiti. This is a popular singer, who calls himself ‘The President of Music.’” Now we get it: We’ve just bought a copy of an advertisement! My American friend jokingly remarks: “Well, I could still give it to my family. They don’t know the president of Haiti either!” We all laugh, Haitians and Americans, but don’t fail to miss the bigger point: Haitians know much more about us, than we know about them. We always expect the world to follow our lead.

Karen Bloomquist at Lutheran World Federation in Geneva, Switzerland:

Excerpts from Epiphany, January 2009 “Thinking it over” series:
Seldom has so much of the world’s attention been focused on and infused with such hope in the midst of such foreboding darkness as it has been by one political figure. The hopes and dreams of not only US citizens but also of much of the rest of the world have been placed on him—in ways that seem to transcend race, nationality, religion, culture and political divisions.

Many have attached deeply religious meanings to this event, especially those who long have interpreted their struggles for justice and equality in light of the biblical witness. As sung in the well-known African American hymn:
“We have come over a way that with tears has been watered…
treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
out of the gloomy past, ‘til now we stand at last
where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.”

Many of us have grown skeptical of political leaders and movements who all too readily align themselves with biblical figures and stories—especially when such leaders claim to be acting on God’s behalf or as God’s chosen people or nation.

But something else may be going on here. Might God be active in these stirrings of something new, initiating the beginning of a shift away from the ways of empire? Might we be moving toward a new sense of human community…seeking greater justice for the most vulnerable?

Obama embodies the diversity not only of the USA but of the world. The world’s hopes have coalesced around a highly gifted yet fallible human being. He is a different kind of world leader…in both his [diverse] lineage and the nuanced complexity of his thinking.
Yet, because of how desperately our world is yearning for hope, there is the danger of placing too many hopes and expectations on him. Thus, it is crucial to insist that he is not a messiah or savior. Obama has been consistently clear and sober in reminding us to except disappointment, mistakes and failures—not miracles—and insisting that the focus be not only him but on what people can do together.

Obama was shaped by grass-roots community organizing of which he was a part, and through which he was elected. This style of widespread democratic participation which has been quietly growing in the US for decades now—in and through churches, synagogues, mosques and other organizations—resists divisiveness of partisan politics. It is similar to many of the civil society movements around the world that in recent years have grown exponentially. In such movements the focus is less on the leader than on what he or she inspires in others….Leaders who know their own fallibility and still have the audacity that hope can inspire and encourage us.

For Dr. Karen Bloomquist's full article, go to "Thinking it over..." Issue #21 January 2009 at www.lutheranworld.org

Opening Prayer at the Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast In Dubuque, Iowa, January 19, 2009

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God of Community, thank you for gathering us this day, this very significant day at the beginning of an important week for our country. We remember Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his dream that we might all be one, living together with justice, liberty and opportunity for all. We repent of the mistrust and prejudice which divide and oppress. We celebrate. We dedicate ourselves to the work of reconciliation. The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. The time of fierce urgency is now.

On this 80th anniversary of birth of Dr. King, 46 years since he gave the “I have a dream speech,” we pray for the man, Barack Obama, who will take the oath of office of president of the United State tomorrow on the steps of the Capitol built by slaves.

As people of all faiths, give us courage, clear and convincing voices, and energy for acts of powerful servanthood to build Dr. Kings’ neighborhood all over this city, all over this nation, all over the world. Bless this food and those who have grown and prepared it that we might be strengthened to serve this day and every day. Amen.

May all of us here, some for the first time, and we who sang this song again and again during the civil rights movement led by Dr. King, now sing the first verse of “We Shall Overcome.” It is fitting we begin this day singing that song today, but singing it now with a difference.

We shall overcome.
We shall overcome.
We shall overcome someday.
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome someday.

This annual breakfast was first held many years ago in Dubuque, with a handful of people. Today it is held at the convention center downtown with hundreds in attendance, including elected officials and high school students. Community service events are held all over town for the participation of school children and adults. As we sang, some youth did not yet know the words, and other people sang with emotion too great for words.