Whom Do You Serve?

Now if you are unwilling to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." - Joshua 24:15 (NRSV) {emphases added}

Spent most of last week at the annual meeting of the United Methodists in Oregon and Idaho; around 400 of us gather to hear reports, enact positions and make recommendations about issues and concerns. This year we also where electing delegates to the General Conference of the United Methodist Church which meets every four years to establish policy and procedures for the entire denomination world-wide. Along with electing this delegates we also send items to General Conference we want them the address; social issues, issues of justice, etc. As we met one area seemed to dominate the conversation, divestment of denominational funds from certain corporations who make a profit from working with the Israeli government’s occupation of Palestinian lands. The arguments were basically two; those in favor talked about justice and the rights of the Palestinians while those opposed talked about lost of income, higher costs for fund management, and working from inside a corporation to change it. For me the argument was really about people verses the institution.

I wasn’t really shocked by the positions of the two sides. They were very predictable. You can always count on one group speaking from the place of costs and fear and the other speaking from the place of morality and justice. I always side with morality and justice. But no one seemed to be speaking the word that needed to be said. As a Christian organization we have one priority. As the church we have one interest. As people of faith there is only one question that we need to answer, “Whom does this serve?” If those benefiting from some position or action are the institution and its members we are missing the mark.

You see the church, the United Methodist Church and for that matter all Abrahamic faith traditions have only one basic, overriding, and fundamental focus. It is on those outside our institutions. All our actions, our programs, our effort are supposed to be targeted outside ourselves, for the good of others. So whenever I am part of a debate about something like investments I hold up a filter and say, “Who is being served here the institution or me or my group, or is it others?” When Joshua asked the people of Israel to renew their covenant with God he asked them to decide whom it is they serve as God either the gods of the past or the gods of the land which they are entering or the God that lead them to freedom. I think the choice was really between self-serving and serving others. Worship other gods almost always meant giving something to get something for yourself. Serving God meant living life in a certain way for the betterment of all people. So in reality the question isn’t, “How much it will cost us?” The question really is, “How will this better the lives of others?”

I am shocked that the amount of interest earned, the amount management of funds will cost and the “it is better to remain a part of the corporation that is doing questionable things” argument is used by people and agencies of the church. If my pension funds earn slightly less, if they are reduced a little because of increased management costs that’s not important. What is important is how these funds are being generated and how the generation of those funds impacts others who are not a part of my institution.

I think it is time people of faith asked themselves, “Whom will I serve?” And we need to see that the real choice is between the self-serving gods of the land from which we have been set free and the God who has set us free and calls us to love and serve others. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

Dear God, help me to remain faithful the covenant I have made with you. Help me to serve you in all my decisions. If I am worried about myself more than others call me back to your will and way. Amen.

Please note that I will be on vacation the next couple of weeks and there will be no Musings.

How to Save the World Disney Style

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. Revelation 21:1 (NRSV)

Petter and I went to the movie Tomorrowland this week. We went expecting a typical summer action-adventure movie; something we would like to watch but that won’t challenge us too intellectually, theologically or philosophically. And while this movie did provide the requisite amount of action, adventure, good guys verses bad guys and saving the world plot we both found ourselves reflecting on the overall message of the movie.

It is hard to summarize the film’s plot but Noah Berlatsky in his review on the QUARTZ website http://qz.com/418227/tomorrowland-tries-to-tackle-hollywoods-biggest-cliche-how-do-you-actually-save-the-future/

 writes: The plot is farcically convoluted, but in broad outline, a group of elite geniuses have created an extra-dimensional city from which they can view the future. They realize that the earth is going to destroy itself through a heterogeneous mixture of war and environmental destruction, and it’s up to genius inventor Frank (George Clooney), young genius inventor in embryo Casey (Britt Robertson), and the robot girl Athena (Raffey Cassidy) to prevent catastrophe.

Berlatsky goes on to summarize how the movie would have humankind prevent catastrophe: So how does preventing catastrophe work, exactly? The film offers three somewhat contradictory, if familiar, answers. The first is the aforementioned standby: blowing up the bad guys…Tomorrowland is, to its credit, unusually forthright in acknowledging that shooting a robot is not really a solution to global warming. “It isn’t hard to knock down a big evil building,” Frank declares. “What is hard is figuring out what to build in its place.”…And here’s where another Hollywood (and Disney) trope comes in: namely optimism. Casey is, naturally, a “Special One” destined to save the earth—and her special superability is hope. The real source of change, the film argues, is not action, but the faith in action…the third way to change the future according to Tomorrowland is through gizmos, or technology. Inventions and new tech are presented as part of a pragmatic solution—Casey is going to “fix the world” because she “understands how things work.” Averting the apocalypse is an engineering problem, different in scale, but not in kind, from fixing kinks in the jetpack.

Now Berlatsky’s review is that this movie a flop, that it does nothing new and that the solutions to the catastrophe are not really what the movie presents. This is where I think the movie actually does its best work. The three solutions mentioned above might actually be the real solutions to our problems. Ok I don’t like violence as a solution but like it or not, some of the bad guys will need to be removed from power in order for change to happen and as history has taught us people in power do not usually willingly hand it over. And the movie gets it right that destruction isn’t the end, it’s what you put in its place that will save us; anarchy never works long term. But it is the other two solutions that I think offer us a way forward into survival.

Optimism, hope, faith in action these are necessary elements in any recipe for change. You cannot expect meaningful, lasting change to come if there isn’t a healthy degree of optimism that change will save us. I believe that without a firm belief in what might be you cannot envision a better world and without that vision you cannot change things. One of Walt Disney’s most famous quotes says is best: “If you can dream it, you can do it!” In order to overcome catastrophe you have to have a pretty good idea of what you want to see so that you can make it happen. Faith in action is the only thing that will bring the change that is needed, as Gandhi said: “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

And finally technology as a part of the solution is a must. Averting the apocalypse is at least in part an engineering problem because a lot of what ails our world has to do with what we have created, how we have engaged creation, and with how we can find workable solutions to our very real problems. For example, growing food to get maximum yield will mean engineering irrigation systems that get the water to where it is needed with the least amount of loss. It will mean engineering harvest equipment that has the lowest impact on the earth. It will mean engineering delivery systems that are sustainable. And what goes for agriculture goes for all other areas. Technology has been responsible for how we’ve gotten into this mess and it can and will help provide a way out.

The world is a mess but through having the right people in leadership, having hope and putting your faith that tomorrow can be better than today into action, and making sure that research and experimentation are funded and happening to discover ways to improve our situation then there is hope for the future.

Dear God, help me to have faith, to be optimistic, to put my faith into action. Help me to lead in ways that bring about healthy change. Help me to advocate for research and experimentation so that our best minds can be engaged in finding solutions to our problems. Help us use the gifts you have given us to create a new earth.  Amen.

Reflecting On Time

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven - Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NRSV)

With all that’s been happening in my life recently there is one constant that echoes through it all – the meaning and significance of time. My Dad’s death reminded me that we only have a few years of life (average life expectancy in the USA is just under 80 years). Having my youngest turn 21 reminded me that we have only a short time to enjoy each phase of life. Amy and I beginning to talk about retirement in the not too distant future (10-15 years from now) put a marker in the time of my life. And each day that is full of activities, work, chores, etc brings home the reality that what I want to do with my time almost always exceeds the time I have.

Time is such a fickle thing. It is measured and its practical limits known:

• There are 60 seconds in a minute
• 60 minutes in an hour
• 24 hours in a day
• 365 days a year (except in a Leap Year – once every four years – then there are 366 days)

But when you begin to talk about the beginning of time and how much time there is things get much less specific:

• The universe is about 13.5 billion years old – every so often this figure gets pushed back as we find new ways to look to the edges of our universe
• Our Sun will last another 5 billion years
• Humanity will become extinct in either 100 years or 1 billion years
• Average life expectancy is only an average, each person could die at any moment

So what is time and how do I make it make sense in my life?

Time is defined as: a measure in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and also the measure of durations of events and the intervals between them. But you and I both know that time is more than this. It is a commodity – “How you spend your time matters.” It is a resource – “How much time do you have to spend on this?” It is never-ending: “To infinity and beyond!” It is fleeting – “Time flies when you’re having fun.” It slows down – “Time seems to crawl by.” It is able to be stockpiled – “This can save you time.”

There are countless songs about time. There are untold stories that involve time. There are movies that center upon time. All of these are trying to make sense of it, help us understand it, or make the reality of it perceivable. They want to help us find a way to live with its relentless march or to fantasize about ways to circumvent it, overcome it, extent it or they hope to give us hope about ways to use it. But there is one simple truth about time – it marches on and nothing we can say or do can stop it – at least not in the universe we have and what we know of how it works.

So it seems critical to me that we use our time wisely; that we make sure and divide it up in ways that bring the most benefit to our lives, the lives of others and to the world. Time needs to be spent thoughtfully and it needs to be seen as an important part of the decisions we make. One thing I know for sure is that deciding how to use my time is a constant balancing act between what I need to do, what I want to do, what I would like to do, what I should do and what I can actually do. And I know that sometimes I do nothing which is an ok use of time too.

I know this is an incomplete Musing but time moves on and at another time I will return to this subject. Until next time I encourage you to use your time wisely.

Dear God thank you for the gift of time. Help me find the balance in my life where I use my time wisely. Amen.

Musing for Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day

It was told Joab, "The king is weeping and mourning for Absalom." So the victory that day was turned into mourning for all the troops; for the troops heard that day, "The king is grieving for his son." 2 Samuel 19:1-2 (NRSV)

As we prepare to enter into Memorial Day weekend with its designation as the “unofficial” start to summer and picnics, parades, flags and remembrances I want to share with you something that I often share in worship on Memorial Day weekend at the beginning of our prayer time concerning Memorial Day; something that reminds us of the meaning and significance of this day.

Memorial Day, or Decoration Day, began in 1868 when members of the Grand Army of the Republic heeded the request of their commander, General John A. Logan, to decorate the graves of their fallen compatriots. It has since become the day on which the United States honors the dead of all its wars and is observed as a legal holiday in most states on the last Monday of May. National services are held at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Virginia. In 2000 then President Bill Clinton asked the nation to endorse a humanitarian organization's addition of a moment of silence to the holiday, designating 3 P.M. local time for a minute of quiet reflection on the meaning of America's war dead.  [Bibliography: Litwicki, Ellen M. America's Public Holidays, 1865–1920. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000.]

Tomorrow we remember the 25,324 who died in the Revolutionary War, the 562,130 who paid the price in the Civil War, the 116,708 who were killed in action during World War 1, the 408,306 who died in the Second World War, the 52,246 who died in action in the Korean Conflict, the 58,219 who were killed in Vietnam, the 241 who died in Beirut, the thousands of others who have died in various attacks, wars, police actions, UN operations, NATO campaigns and the over 4,000 and counting who have died in action in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Tomorrow we remember all these mostly young men and women who have been killed in Defense of our National Interest.  We also remember the untold thousands who died in these conflicts who were designated as our enemies and the millions of civilians killed by our wars.

Tomorrow, let’s pray from deep within ourselves that not one more life be lost in a military action.  Let us pray that our nation will become a nation of peace.  Tomorrow, remember those who have been left alone by the deaths we memorialize and pray for them too.  As we honor the fallen and remember the departed let us commit ourselves as followers of the Prince of Peace to the cause of peace and justice.

Memorial Day has also become a day we remember all our loved ones who have died. People often visit graves and place flowers. In some places it is the time families clean and spruce up the graves of their departed. I find it interesting that this weekend has such a duality about it. On one hand it is a full blown holiday weekend that is the first “summer” weekend of the year. People go camping. There are picnics. Often there are fireworks at ball games and musical events in public parks. And of course there are parades, lots of parades and speeches and celebrating. And on the other hand it is a reflective weekend where people bear in mind those they have lost, relive their grief, remember their loved ones and contemplate the effects of war on their lives, the lives of others and the world. Of all our holidays this one seems to be the one that calls forth from us the widest range of emotions.

So I hope you will allow for this range of emotions to be felt. Don’t deny your grief. Don’t downplay your mourning. Don’t apologize for your indignation about the cost of war. Don’t feel badly that you are enjoying the time off, the picnic and the fun. Don’t worry about pointing a finger at God and asking, “Why?” Let yourself feel what you feel and me gentle with yourself and others.  I hope you have a restful and rejuvenating holiday weekend.

Dear God, I pray for those who have been killed in wars and for those who grieve for them. I pray that we can find a way to solve our differences as nations and peoples that does not involve war. And I thank you for all those who have been willing to defend their nation and its freedoms and ideals. I also pray for all who have died and for those who feel their absence. Bring all these people your grace, comfort, and peace. Amen.

Small Words

Kind words heal and help; cutting words wound and maim. – Proverbs 15:4 (The Message)

Many of you know already that my dad died on April 25th. Since that day my family and I have been awash in the love, care, concern and prayers of so many people that it truly is humbling to realize how blest we are to have such good friends, faithful communities and special people in our lives. I have no way to repay all your kindness and love. I have no way to make you understand how vitally important your cards, comments, and prayers have been and are to successfully navigating this time of loss, grief and finding a way forward. So I have to fall back on the only words I know to use in a situation like this, thank you.

Time and again people come to me and ask, “What can I say to someone who is experiencing grief and loss that will make a difference?” They say, “I don’t know what to say or how to say it.” They lament, “I feel so inadequate in face of such pain and loss.” My response has always been the same, “Just say you are there, that you care, and that you will hold them in prayer.” The small, simple words are the most effective and meaningful in times of grief and loss. Having been on the receiving end of such words and heartfelt expressions several times in my life I know how powerfully important they are to those who are in pain.

There is an old hymn with the line “If you can’t preach like Peter, if you can’t pray like Paul, just tell the love of Jesus…” (verse 3 of “There Is a Balm in Gilead”). I think that is what most people need when they are in pain, worried, grieving and feeling lost, simple, small words that let them know they are cared for, that they have someone who loves them, that someone is there for them. At these times in life people don’t need theological discourses on the meaning of life. They aren’t wanting to hear theories about heaven and the afterlife. They could care less about philosophical reflections on the great circle of life. They simply need to know that you are there and that you care; small, simple words.

Think about your own life and the times when you felt lost, alone, unsure, in pain, grieving and remember the words that meant the most, that helped you trudge along until the load lighten a bit. I bet they are words and phrases like, “I love you.” “I’m here if you need me.” “If I can help in any way let me know.” “You are in my thoughts and prayers.” “I’m holding you in the light of grace and love.” “I’m here and I care.” These are not grand dissertations on the deep spiritual, philosophical, mystical, or theological dimensions of life, the universe and everything. They are small simple words that carry all that someone in pain wants and needs to hear. And they are words anyone and everyone can say to those they care about when they are in the throes of pain, loneliness and lost.

 So don’t worry about what to say, just say what is on your heart. Don’t worry about having the correct thing to say; whatever you say that comes from a place of care and concern will be fine. Don’t keep from saying anything for fear of saying the wrong thing because saying something as simple and honest as “I don’t know what to say expect that I care” is enough. Thank you for your small words. Thank you for your care.

Dear God, thank you for the people in my life that speak the simple, small words that have all the meaning they need. Thank you for the love and care of so many. And thank you for being there and for caring. May all who are hurting, alone and grieving know that someone cares and that you are there. Amen.