Shades of Gray

 The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is the Lord's alone. Proverbs 16:33 (NRSV)

Iranian nuclear deal, Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, Educations funding... it seems that a lot of things are getting done and that nobody is really happy about any of them. You hear a lot of language like, “It’s the best we could do.” Or, “Something is better than nothing.” Or, “It’s a small step.” Whatever the verbiage, it is clear that a lot of the decisions being made aren’t triumphs of right over wrong or best over worst or good over bad. I would say that a awful lot of what is happening is far from either black or white and is caught somewhere in a shade of gray.

I don’t like gray. I like back and white, this or that, clearly right or clearly wrong. I want to see something, read something, learn about something and then know for sure if it is the correct thing or not. I have been indoctrinated into a worldview that says there is a clearly discernible right answer and wrong answer. I have been nurtured on the concept that one is evil and the other good. I have been programmed to accept only a clear yes or no. I have been told that things are either black or white. And my experience has shown me that all there really are are shades of gray. I want one or the other – the best or the worst and I want to pick between those two options. The problem is that there are infinite choices on the spectrum from best to worst and often times the choice I have is between something that is bad and something that isn’t quite as bad. It is a choice between shades of gray.

In addition to the spectrum of choices placed before me there are also so many points of view, so much evidence, and a pantheon of experts to speak authoritatively on the subject all being pressed upon me to try and help me make my choice. With so many shades of gray and the possibility that finding the distinction between them is nigh on to impossible for an uninitiated novice I am always feeling unease about supporting something or opposing it for that matter. Life is complicated enough without my feeling inadequate in taking positions on relevant and important subjects.

So what do I do? How do I live with all these shades of gray? How is it that I find a way to voice support for or opposition against something? First I try to educate myself a little bit on what the subject is. I know I will never have the time, expertise or energy to do much in the way of in-depth research but I still can spend a little of myself trying to get a handle on the subject. Then I check out who is for and against it. I know who it is I trust to have the interests of the wider spectrum of people in mind and who doesn’t. I also know that some folks are more interested in getting something, however small and inadequate, done that they will support something that is grayer.  I talk to friends and family that I respect and whose opinions I value. I pray about it, seeking God’s wisdom and the still small voice that is there trying to help me live faithfully.

And this works except when the subject is finely nuanced or my guides are divided or the opinions I trust aren’t speaking with one voice. When this is the case I usually make my stand based on one simple question, who does this seem to help the most and who does it seem to hurt the most? My support always goes to whatever is hurting the poor, minority, disenfranchised, or common person the least or helping them the most. One way I test this is to see how it impacts me and my life. As part of the world’s ultra-wealthy minority if it costs me more, if it limits my choices, if it cuts into my profits, if it makes my life just a bit harder while at the same time it gives the vast majority of people a little more, eases the damage to our planet, and brings a small amount of relief to the poor and powerless then I support it. I guess I mean it when I pray, “Thy will be done.”

But the truth is I had the shades of gray!

Dear God, help me live with the shades of gray in life. Help me to listen for your wisdom and to make choices that help others over helping me. I pray for the poor and powerless and ask that improving their lives might become the standard by which all choices are made. Amen.

Legacy

Those who betray their own friends leave a legacy of abuse to their children. - Job 17:5 (The Message)

Something happened, something changed the way life is viewed and the way time is figured and the way we feel about what is important and how success is defined. I’m not sure when this change took place.  But somewhere in the not too distant past there was a shift and that shift has caused tremendous upheaval in our society. What I am writing about here is our sense of the value of the long term, our understanding of success, the idea of legacy as a motivator for how one lives in the present.

 I know there are negatives to a focus upon legacy but there are some really helpful things about it as well especially if the legacy in question isn’t about one person’s egocentric stamp on the world. I can be nostalgic I know that. I also know that the past can teach us things to help us in the present and future. The most helpful way to be nostalgic is to take something that is good from the past, clean it off, modify it a bit and set it loose in new situations and circumstances. I think this is what we need to do with the concept of legacy.

Today when we talk about leaving a legacy it has connotations of wealth and property. We see a legacy as that thing that someone else leaves you in a will. Or we mean it as the child following the parent in attending a particular college or university, membership in a group, or other situation where your familial relationship with a past member allows you entrance and access. The other way to talk about legacy is in reference to the way someone will be remembered, the thing that will carry forward into history that was their major accomplishment or failure.

But legacy used to mean something more than it does now. A parent worked the land, developed a farm or ranch with the intend of not only leaving the property to their children but a better life for them and for the community. There was the sense that the legacy you left was a better world. People who started businesses not only wanted to succeed in the present but they also wanted to leave something vital for their families and for the families that depended upon them for their livelihood. To leave a legacy meant to have done something meaningful that changed the world for the better. A classic example would be Andrew Carnegie – I know that he was no saint but by the time of his death he had given away 90% of his wealth ($350 million then or about $4.76 billion today) and part of what those donations bought were public libraries across the country. He left a legacy that made the world better. I think Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and even Phil Knight are trying to do the same with their fortunes. But too often today people seem only interested in making money for themselves and their immediate family and friends with no real desire to improve the common good.

Success was defined both personally and communally. If you succeeded as an individual you also helped your community and the world succeed. You saw the need to improve things now for the long term. Simon Benson, the lumber baron of Portland, gave money to build a High School that would educate young men and give them training so that he could have a trained and educated workforce for his businesses. Sure his motivation was personal and centered on the bottom line but he saw the way forward as improving the lives of others in order to get what he needed.

The debate today about the minimum wage is a debate about how we define success, how we view the long term vitality of our communities, and how we understand the concept of legacy. If the prime motivation is the bottom line this quarter then a low minimum wage makes sense – lower employee costs mean more income in the quarter. But if you look out even 2 years you will see low productivity, high employee turnover and lack of employee desire to innovate and improve the company and the bottom line and the costs associated. It is being shown over and over and over again that investing in living wages, providing benefits, making sure that employees are adequately trained, and doing other things to enhance the work environment and experience increases profits and company vitality over time. One quarter may not look good but the longer term picture shows that the investments are worth it. The legacy a company leaves with living wages and an improved work environment is a successful business providing jobs, a community that has a healthy middle class, and a world that improves as others see the value of improving the common good.

I think it is time investors started working long term. It shouldn’t be about this quarter or this year. It should be about the way a company makes its mark on the world and the legacy it is leaving and the profit is generates. A company with a long term view and a sense of legacy will perform and often perform well. But, you have to be in it for the long term and you have to see the success of your investing as not only what you make but also what the legacy of the companies you invest in are. Success is improving the common good and making the world a better place. If you have a pension plan, a 401K, invest in stocks, bonds, or leave you money in savings you are investing. What legacy are you leaving from the places where you put your money?

Something to think about…

Dear God, thank you for those who have the gift of being entrepreneurs, thank you for those who are willing to give away what they earn in ways that better lives and improve the common good. Help me to invest myself and my resources in such a way that I leave a legacy of a better world. Amen.

What a Week!

 The blind and the lame came to Jesus in the temple, and he cured them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the amazing things that he did, and heard the children crying out in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became angry…  Matthew 21:14-15 (NRSV)

I have been on vacation for a couple of weeks but what happened last week cannot be left un-Mused about. It was a week of historic proportions. The Affordable Care Act was upheld and the freedom to marry for all adults was confirmed both by the United States Supreme Court. Add to this the lighting fast and totally awesome almost universal call to take down Confederate Battle flags from public places and off flags, license plates, etc in response to an overt racist’s violence and it was an amazing week indeed.

I have a monthly gathering with any who want to join me called The Preacher’s Public House Chat. We eat and drink together at a local brew pub and talk about many things but usually focus upon an article, TedTalk, news item, etc that I have suggested. In August we will be talking about a blog by a woman who happens to be a Christian and her opinion about whether or not the church is dying. I am sure we will have a good conversation, we always do. But I want to offer here my opinion that the church isn’t dying, it is waiting. It is waiting for those of us who claim it as our own to once again stand fast in our commitment to what is the loving, just and right thing. If we do not hold fast to this commitment the church as we know it – the institution that is with us now will die but the purpose of the church will live. The purpose of the church is to live out God’s values of justice, righteousness, acceptance and love and this must be the driving force behind our institution. If it is not a new institution will come to be that will be different from what was but that will still be the church because it will be what God needs.

I am a dyed-in-the-wool United Methodist. I claim as my own our heritage – the good and bad. I recognize within it the values and character of God. But as we move ahead as a society and a community of faith I am troubled. What troubles me is that United Methodists will forgo our heritage of social justice and compassion for those outside and underprivileged in the name of orthodoxy- of correct belief. United Methodists are not about nor have we ever been about believing the “correct” things. We are about making the world a better place for all and loving absolutely everyone no if, ands or buts. In the past the United Methodist Church often led our society into the transformed world God wants for us – advocating for the least, lost and unloved. Public education, child labor, temperance, abolition, etc… our history is one of witnessing to what could and should be based upon the values and character of our God. In the recent past we have not been doing this and instead have had to draw battle lines in culture wars and force the church to stay out of the vanguard of making love, justice and peace real for more and more of God’s children.

As I have mentioned before, in May of 2016 the General Conference of the United Methodist Church comes to Portland. But what really matters is that the UMC will need to look at itself in the mirror and decide who we will resemble, God or a misinformed caricature of God. Can we once again see in ourselves the image and likeness of God, of the one who has a special place in the heart for those on the fringes of society, for those excluded from community, for those deemed unacceptable by some but who are still and always have been God’s beloved? My hope and prayer is that we will look and see God and that this image and likeness, this being created in the image of God will rule the hearts, minds, and spirits of those selected to make decisions for the UMC and that we can join hands to journey into the transformed world God dreams for all God’s beloved; a world of acceptance, justice, love and peace.

Dear God, thank you for rays of hope that reflect your heart and will. Be with our society as we move forward into new ways of being. Be with the United Methodist Church as we wrestle with what it is you want and need from us. Be with me as I contemplate what my future might be. Help me remain faithful to you. Amen.

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.