When Technology Dies

 Your strength will come from settling down in complete dependence on me— The very thing you've been unwilling to do. – Isaiah 30:15 (The Message)

I have had a taste of the what the end of civilization will be like – the modem at the church died and I found myself disconnected from life and the world. No email, no internet, I couldn’t even print as the copier is linked through our modem. I couldn’t get newsfeeds and I wasn’t able to post this on my blog. Did everything I know and hold dear disappear? No! My phone still can access the world. Thank God for LTE reception!

Richard Rohr has a small book out What the Mystics Know that I am using with my Sunday School class. As with any book and especially one on spirituality and mysticism I don’t agree with everything he says. I like what he says about our being over stimulated by the omnipresence of media and how it induces emotions in us and how this makes us overstimulated emotionally which in turn makes us less aware of and able to get connected to the deeper level that emotions can take us to. I call this desensitization.  It’s like hearing another story about Donald Trump putting down women or making a racist remark, they are happening so often that we have become desensitized to them and the awful reality they reveal.

I think there is a point in disconnecting once in a while. First off when you reconnect you remember how awesome it is to have such wonders at your fingertips. You are overcome with the reality of the unbelievable gift that is technology is. Next you are moved when you see and hear things again. If you haven’t had a newsfeed for a day or two that story of a police shooting or a refugee boat capsizing hits you hard. You find yourself enlightened and enlivened by that cat video or those cute puppies or that great dance by that toddler and you are thankful for the wonders of God’s creations. If your emails have stacked up, you realize how unimportant many of them are and search for the few that have a real need to be read and replied to and the rest you delete. You do a search for something that is the most important issue you are thinking about and let the shopping for shoes fad to the back. You log in to Facebook and scroll past the insignificant things looking for that update on a friend’s health or a reply to a question you sent.

But after maybe 15 minutes or so you slip back into the patterns and habits that you have developed for your engagement with technology in your life. You once again get desensitized because your Facebook page and newsfeeds get bombarded with so much stuff that plays on your heartstrings, fuels your anger or frustration, or pulls you into emotionally charged areas that you have to let your emotions slip behind a screen just to move on.

And this is tragic. Every story about a refugee dying trying to get someplace safe should move you to tears. Every misogynistic statement, racist remark or hate-filled comment should get your ire up. Every falsehood and stupid, blatant, and obviously inaccurate comment should bring you up out of your seat with a cry for truth and accuracy. We cannot allow ourselves to become desensitized to these things. If we do then we allow for them to happen and we allow for them to become normal and acceptable, just part of what we see and hear. THIS CANNOT HAPPEN. We have to be appalled, disgusted, sickened, stunned, repelled, and horrified at injustice, oppression, misogyny, racism, loss of life, and every other evil and wrong we see, hear, and read. To do less is to allow for the darkness to grow.

As many have said, if not now than when and if not me then who? We cannot expect anyone else to do it. We have to do it ourselves – we have to object and protest and call for change. We have to say no to this rhetoric and stop to this hate-mongering. We cannot allow ourselves to be desensitized to this because if we do darkness gains and we all are a step closer to ruin. Be offended and don’t just take it. Be appalled and call for change. Be disgusted and push for better. You, I, we cannot wait for someone else to do it and we cannot wait for a better time. We have to do it and we have to do it now.

Dear God help me to speak the truth in love. Help me to challenge injustice, oppression and hatefulness wherever I encounter it. Help me to remain sensitive to the pain and suffering of others and help me to keep from thinking that it is just the way things are. Amen.

Unmotivated…Apathetic…Uninterested…Indifferent…Lazy

“Stay alert; be in prayer so you don't wander into temptation without even knowing you're in danger. There is a part of you that is eager, ready for anything in God. But there's another part that's as lazy as an old dog sleeping by the fire." - Matthew 26:41 (The Message)

I am having one of those weeks, I seem to be lacking. I’m not sure how best to describe it. Unmotivated is my first attempt but that doesn’t seem quite right. So as I often do I turned to my Thesaurus. I entered unmotivated and got a short list of possibilities: apathetic, unenthusiastic, inert, shiftless, uninterested, lazy, indifferent, lacking in enthusiasm, and not keen. None of these is quite right for the way I am feeling. So I tried melancholy. And I got things like sad, depressed, glum, despondent, dejected, downhearted, and the blues. Again, not really what I am feeling. So I tried malaise. Here I got two categories, one was sickness and I knew that wasn’t it. The other was dissatisfaction. Here were listed other words that have already come up (depression, melancholy, etc.) But there were other words like discontent, disquiet, unease. These are closer but still not quite what I am experiencing. Searching for disquiet I got unrest, uneasiness, foreboding and alarm. When I turned to dissatisfaction words like displeasure and frustration appeared.

I think this is the realm of my discontent, this displeasure and frustration, this foreboding and uneasiness. Having played multiple sports, I can equate my current state to those moments in the locker room before taking the field or court. It was a time of worry and frustration. A time of uneasiness. It was that uncomfortable calm-before-the-storm. I can only imagine that people awaiting battle felt similarly having never been in battle myself. It isn’t a doubt of self. It’s not an anxiety about my abilities. It is having time to think about what is coming and to realize that no matter how well I have prepared I cannot know the outcome. I always felt this way before exams, before job interviews and before other major decisions in life.

Now I don’t think there is any great upheaval coming in my life. At least nothing that I am aware of. No big events for family or close friends. No life-altering decisions that are needed. Nothing to make me think my state is due to the anticipation of something I have in the works. So what is it that is making me feel this way? It could be the political campaigns. Maybe it’s my SF Giants being the cusp of missing the playoffs. Maybe it’s the questions surrounding the Duck’s football chances this year. It could be my thoughts about retirement in a few years. Or maybe it’s climate change, the future of my church and the church as an institution that is weighing on me. Maybe it’s the sum of all this. But I think I know what it is. I have to decide about what comes next.

A whole lot of stuff in my life, personal and professional, has reached a point where it is now time to decide what comes next. It has been a long time since most of the facets of my life were all aligned at the place where a decision about what comes next was needed. I think it was back when Amy and I were getting married and deciding where we wanted to live and serve, like 32 years ago. Then as now I am uneasy. Then as now I am discontent. And something else is similar, then as now I know I want to let go and let God but I am finding that difficult. There it is, the really source of my frustration, foreboding, and every other thing that is swirling around me. I cannot know where I go next because I am not in control of that.

This is what makes me uncomfortable, no being in control. I have to just turn my hands palms up, raise my face to heaven and say, “Lead me, Lord.” And that is what bothers me. I don’t believe in the puppet-master God that manipulates lives and history so that everything fits some divine master plan. But I do believe that God has a desire, a dream for the universe in general and for my life in particular and that God wants me to discover this. Over my life time I have narrowed this down and feel that I am honing in on it but when moments like the one I am in right now come I know that further refining is needed.

So I will live in this space of discontent, displeasure and frustration, foreboding and uneasiness. I will listen for God’s voice. I will wait for some guidance and the dawning of an awareness. And I will work very hard to keep from trying to take control and make this time conform to what I think it should be.

Dear God, help me to await your voice. Help me to be patient as I seek guidance. Help me to live faithfully in this wilderness for a while. Amen.

Words and Symbols

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Psalms 19:14 (NRSV)

As we go even deeper into the election cycle it seems that more and more we are being exposed to words and symbols that carry weight and meaning but that a lot of folks just brush off because they are “just words” or “just an image.” I think this is directly related to that old saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.”

A bit of information on that phrase seems in order. This is from the website http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/sticks-and-stones-may-break-my-bones.html :

'Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me' is a stock response to verbal bullying in school playgrounds throughout the English-speaking world. It sounds a little antiquated these days and has no doubt been superseded by more streetwise comebacks.

The earliest citation of it that I can find is from an American periodical with a largely black audience, The Christian Recorder, March 1862: Remember the old adage, 'Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me'. True courage consists in doing what is right, despite the jeers and sneers of our companions.

That reference to the expression as an 'old adage' in 1862 suggests and earlier coinage.

It seems to me that are allowing hurtful words and damaging symbols to become part of acceptable speech and decoration. I don’t care how someone interprets a symbol for themselves they must also acknowledge what it communicates to others. A Confederate Battle Flag isn’t just a sign of Southern Pride. It is also a symbol of an ideology that supported chattel slavery and a belief that human beings are of less value and worth because of the darkness of their skin. A plaque with the Ten Commandments in a courtroom isn’t just a listing of guiding moral principles. It is also a prime piece of the theology and belief systems of Jews and Christians.  

In this country we have freedom of speech which has been defined to include signs and symbols. I have every right to say what I want to say and adorn myself and my property in whatever way I see fit. But that doesn’t mean I am to be insensitive to what I am saying, wearing and posting. Freedom of speech isn’t freedom to abuse. It isn’t freedom to torture or bully. Sometimes our words and our symbols do this and when they do we have crossed a line. Tell racist jokes, have a swastika tattooed on your neck, wear your KKK robes and hoods but when you burn a cross, call for the elimination of people, treat another human being as of less worth then yourself you have moved beyond free speech.

We all need to take care and realize that our words matter. Our actions matter. Our signs and symbols matter. I want the world to know I am a Christian but that doesn’t mean I can go around hitting people with a cross. Difference and diversity are what make a nation, a people, us great. It isn’t that we all think alike, believe the same things or agree on all matters but that we allow for differences. Fr. Rohr writes in What the Mystics Know: “Law is the false promise for those who control life from their heads…those who substitute principles for prayer and people.” We cannot allow our words to become substitutes for prayer and people. We cannot legislate morality nor can we legislate one acceptable understanding of life and society. But this does not mean we have accept that anything goes.

I am struggling to get this Musing to make sense. That is one reason this is coming out on Monday instead of last Thursday. I know what is in my head, heart and soul but it isn’t coming out so clearly. What I want to end with then is this, words and symbols matter and I think we owe it to ourselves to limit both when they do harm.

Dear God, help me to say and do what builds others up, what brings life and light. Help others to do the same. Let us have our differences but let us all agree that we can disagree without maliciousness toward the other. Amen.

Christianity

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." Mark 12:28-31 (NRSV)

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

As the UMC wrestles with an openly lesbian Bishop and whether or not that is “acceptable” and as we sink deeper into a presidential campaign that has people talking about “Christian Values” I think it’s time I Mused about this faith called Christianity.

To begin with Jesus was a Jew. He wasn’t the first Christian, he was a reformer and a re-interpreter of Judaism. He spent his time trying to get people to see how the Judaism of his day had replaced faithful living with rule following. How they had allowed security and the status quo to be their guides instead of God’s call to radical justice and peace. Jesus did not intend for a new religion to come from his work and he sure didn’t set down any rules, doctrines or requirements for said religion. The only thing he told people was to love.

The basic characteristics of a Christian are love for self, others and God. They are a commitment to justice. They include a willingness to sacrifice your wants and needs for those of another. And they see the helpless, poor, disenfranchised, outcast, foreigner, stranger, widow, orphan and enemy as deserving of acceptance and love and as the ones to be cared for, nurtured and fought for. And they have at their core a willingness to work to see that all people everywhere have enough so that they can live up to their God given potential.

So Christianity isn’t about correct beliefs. It has nothing to do with a set of prescriptions for faithfulness. It doesn’t have any kind of focus upon sexuality. It isn’t interested in making sure that you are saved so that you can get into heaven when you die. There isn’t even a strong sense that it has anything to do with Christ sacrificing himself to make us acceptable to God. Jesus wasn’t interested in heaven, he was focused on life in the here and now and sought to help others find a similar focus.

When did we get to care more about a belief system then about people? When did we start dividing the world into us and them? When did this movement of love and care switch to a movement of rules, doctrines, and narrow understanding of the magnitude of God’s acceptance and love? When did who you love become more important than loving? When did the foreigner among us become suspect and undeserving of our care? When did our faith without borders become a faith reserved for only those within our realm? I agree with Gandhi, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

We who truly want to be travelers on the way with Jesus must begin to speak up when others try to tell the world what it means to be a Christian. We must claim our faith and then live in such a way as to show what it truly is. And we must let the Christian value of love; unconditional, sacrificial, all-encompassing, all-inclusive be what the world sees in us, through us and from us. If anyone tries to limit access to God, if anyone says Christian values include exclusion, if anyone pushes for a division between who is acceptable and who isn’t that person is not practicing the Christian faith. If anyone preaches that we aren’t to care for the other – friend, family member, enemy, foreigner or person of another faith – they are not practicing the Christian faith. If anyone tries to convince you or another that there is only one, predefined path to God they are not practicing the Christian faith.

That’s what I think about Christianity. My final words are to quote Martin Luther: “I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.”

Dear God, help me to be the best Christian I can be. Help others who profess to be Christian to be the best Christian they can be. Forgive me and Christianity for any person that we have harmed by our disingenuous practice of our faith. Help me to be a bridge and not a wall, a helping hand and not a closed fist, a bringer of light and not a purveyor of darkness. Amen.