that's the way we've always done it

jesus, keep us from the tragedy of blaspheming your name because we have succumbed to a waterd-down faith. make our spirits restless whenever we think that the way things are is the way things have to be.

i have been reading common prayer: a liturgy for ordinary radicals for my time of prayer. it speaks to me in a way i haven't known for a long time, maybe ever. it speaks to me of the passion for jesus that i embraced in my youth.

all of my family and friends accepted segregation as the way things always were and was meant to be. there was no need to change, and they resisted change when it came. only they had taught me of jesus and how he loved the black and white, they are precious in his sight.

even as a child, i questioned why black people had so little, why our colored maid worked for such little pay, why i couldn't drink out of the water fountain or use the bathroom that was in the basement of  j. c. pennys which was where the bargain bin was and where we bought our clothes.

my mama needed to be thrifty, and she was. so that's where we shopped.

as i think back on it, the colored restroom and water fountain was probably located there because few could afford the items on the first floor.

there is neither jew nor gentile, slave nor free, male nor female. you are all one in christ.
galations 3:28

i can hear my conservative friends say that's only for people who are saved. what about those black churches? were those people not saved?

it was acceptable to worship with africans as missionaries, but not with black americans. that was what our christian culture accepted.

i write about segregation a lot. it had a deep effect on me. it challenged my faith as much as anything in my life. how was it moral? how could christians fight to keep it?

today so many conservative churches accept black members.

what is the difference? it wasn't the bible that changed; it was the culture.

it is important to realize how much culture we accept as integral to our faith. culture is the way of the world that is talked about in the bible. the way of the world is not the practices of immorality that we are to refrain from. the way of the world is how our society functions.

jesus was a radical, not a conservative. he never accepted the way of the world and keeping things as they always were.

in a time when women held the lowest status of the times, lower even than a slave,  jesus accepted women as his disciples.

jews prayed loudly in the synagogue, mostly to demonstrate their morality to others. jesus said to pray in private.

culture is not christianity.

accepting culture when it is opposed to the teachings of jesus, defining immorality as theft and sex and murder, but not as selfishness and greed and a lack of compassion is a watered-down faith. they are the same.

today's culture is bringing out the inequalities of the past, in economics, in opportunities, in civil rights. it has become acceptable again to discriminate against race.

the bible is very clear about accepting the stranger in our midst.

hospitality is still a huge part of the culture of the middle east. cultural practices are not always bad. many promote the love of jesus. monks were the first to provide shelter and food for the needy. giving to charity is valued.

but today we talk of walls to keep immigrants out, we talk of banning them from the home they have made in our midst. we talk of them as aliens, as if they are not like us, do not have the same hopes and dreams, do not have stories of heartache and joy. we are unwilling to share of our material wealth.

we cannot accept a culture that is in opposition to our faith.

we are called to be ordinary radicals, to resist the way of the world when it is in opposition to god's word.

we must reject a culture that rewards hatred and deceit and division of people into worthy and unworthy. we must do this individually and in our christian community.

the teachings of jesus always trumps culture.

the unspeakable

it is every parent's nightmare.

all the things you worry about.

drunk drivers. illness. depression. bullying. war.

until the last decade, it has not been school shootings.

even then, not in your child's school.

and then it happens. any death is horrible, but we have seen the deaths of six year olds and made no effort to stop it.

we will be judged.

and it won't be just the nra, who has put profits first.

it will be those who have seen the second amendment as more important than protecting our children. it will be those who have justified their arguments in the clear face of studies that prove otherwise, in the clear face of grieving parents.

and so will we who have stood by and done nothing, who have convinced ourselves that we cannot do anything.

we are wrong. we are guilty.

perhaps we have put our personal right to own a gun before a collective desire to protect others.  perhaps we have been so caught up in our own lives that we think we don't have the time or ability to affect these tragedies.

some may even justify a lack of concern for gay people or concert goers in las vegas. sad to say, there are people who say this in the name of christianity.

but how can you justify the murder of children, of first graders?

you must tell yourself that it can't be stopped. you must tell yourself that there is nothing to be done.

this is not true.

i wrote recently of my witnessing a horrific wreck. i still find myself reliving it and tensing up at street crossings.

now imagine the effect on those children.

as christians, we are called to do something. we are called to give up our individual rights if it protects the right to life of others. if we can save just one school from this loss of life, it should count more than our right to a gun.

 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

as christians, i believe it is our job to do all that we can to work toward that good.

it doesn't matter if those children were christian. it matters that we are.

we can drop our support for any entity that has possibly encouraged this. we can write our representatives in support of restricting the use of silencers and fast repeating guns whose primary, and i would say only, purpose is to commit murder.

we can ask our leaders to work towards limiting the availability of these weapons, even knowing that some will find a way to obtain them.

getting these weapons should not be easy.

these weapons not only make mass damage easier, the damage of the wounds are vastly worse.

we can ask those who agree with us but have done nothing to begin to work actively against this carnage.

we can do what we can do.

as christians, it is what we are called to do.

life can change in a moment

i am full of words.

i just witnessed what i hope is the worst wreck i will ever see.

we were waiting at the end of the ramp on exit 28 on 185 looking to turn right when this car flew by us and went between the tires of an 18 wheeler.

that person is dead, i said, stating the obvious.

the car went all the way under the truck to what used to be the front windshield on the other side.

quickly following was an unmarked car with its blue lights on. the officer was out in a flash, but we all knew it was too late.

i told kerry to go ahead and make the turn. there was nothing for us to do and we would just be in the way.

i guess i was like everyone else who witnesses such a catastrophic event. i wanted to tell what i saw. i just couldn’t believe it.

i was betting that it was a kid. a teenager or a young man who thought getting away was cool or that a speeding ticket was to be avoided at all costs. or maybe it was a stolen car. it really doesn’t matter. whatever it was is not important anymore.

how many lives will be affected from this sad event? certainly the family of the victim. not only to deal with sudden death, but also with a mutilated body. it seems impossible that anything but  the bottom half of that human being could be left.

i don’t know if the decision to chase at such a high speed was right or wrong, but i feel certain the officer will second guess himself the rest of his life.

and what of the truck driver? at no fault at all, but constrained to the witnessing of all the consequences of this tragic event.

even the spectators, not only us who saw it happen, but all those others. i told a woman with two young girls in the restroom to take them another way if she could.

there are so many other endings this could have had.

if the car had hit anywhere but between the tires, it would certainly have shot back at us. we weren’t 15 feet away. we are probably alive by a matter of a few feet.

the truck was barely moving so that the truck stopped immediately. i feel sure that the driver with a seatbelt on was unhurt. had it hit the cab head on, the driver would very possibly have lost his (or her) life as well.

what if it had hit another car instead of a heavy 18 wheeler? both cars would have fatalities and kerry and i could still also be dead.

life can change in a moment..

i can’t help but think, too, of all the choices, significant or tiny, that make up what happens to us in life.

we left easley a day before we planned.

we decided to go to the next stop that we planned to because a sign said there was a loves there. a few miles speed either way could have put us in the path of that speeding car.

most of all, someone chose to run away at dangerous speed, and then to try to escape taking an off ramp.

all of our plans for the future are just that… plans. 

we only have this day, this moment to live a life of gratitude, to give thanks for those we love and all that we have been gifted with.

life can end in a matter of seconds..

technology

i can well remember when we bought an atlas and highlighted the route we wanted to take... so i absolutely love waze and gps. not only does it do the job of cb radios in identifying speed traps, it can tell you traffic patterns, detour you around construction or a wreck, show you distance and time and gas stations and coffee shops and restaurants along the way.

do i like this technology? uh... yeah

i can remember when long distance phone calls cost by the minute; and if your loved ones lived out of city, not just out of state, you had to pay for even a short conversation. there were definite limitations to contact. letters and postcards were enjoyable, but never timely.

now, not only can i communicate through a text or email immediately, i can get on my computer or phone and actually see my beloveds. i can see a face which tells more than a voice. i can be shown dogs and cats and new shoes and new furniture and new apartments. who knew that johnny quest science fiction would come true?

instead of cell phones we had cb radio and the business speaker phones like my daddy had. you could talk to other people who had what you had, but no one else. perhaps you would be lucky enough to have a trucker pass you if you broke down on the highway, and they would contact someone to help you. but if not, you had a very long walk.

cell phones mean that your teenagers are always a phone call away. (it can't make them answer.) when my daughter was at a residential school, there was one phone on the dorm hall. how i wish we could have talked to her on the phone. there were times i'm sure when she needed me when i could not be reached. any parent of a college student before cell phones can identify.

internet has changed my life. it is like having a library at the tip of my fingers. i can ask a question and almost immediately satisfy my curiosity. i can look up an unknown word and find not only its meaning and synonyms, but also how to pronounce it.

i love dr. google.

i love my kindle. it's like a library in the size of one book. i used to travel with a bag full of books and i always ran out. if i had to take them in a suitcase, i was really out of luck. now i can take a hundred books in a pocketbook.

camera phones was an idea that seemed totally bizarre to me. but these photos will be the primary sources of future historians. as events unfold, there will be photos taken and shared immediately. like all primary sources, they will have personal perspectives, but taken together they will provide much more accurate information than one or more bystander's memory or one news reporter who arrives well after the fact.

social media has provided an outlet for sharing pictures, music, ideas, news and so much more. you can keep contact with friends from an earlier time and even make acquaintances with new people who share your interests. many marriages and long time commitments have come from internet dating sites.

so technology has given and still gives us much good in our lives.

but technology, by definition, is a tool.

kindles and internet may reduce the number of people who go to and support public libraries, perhaps the greatest public institution ever conceived.

libraries have adapted to provide more media services which is wonderful, but there is much to be said for sitting in a comfy chair and reading a book or magazine. children seated in a circle listening to a story is beneficial in so many ways. a warm (or cool) quiet place to write and think is one of the greatest gifts of a library.

i do not want this lost to technology.

cell phones that can be used in emergencies can cause emergencies when their use while driving causes a wreck.

cell phones can be used to take pictures that invade someone's privacy.

social media can be a rich feeding ground for predators and for bullying.

information on the internet is often false and can spread lies quickly.

technology is a tool, like a power drill or a gun or a stove or a cash register. none of these things are good or bad in and of themselves. they are instruments to be used for a purpose. a knife that is used to prepare a meal can take someone's life.

technology requires learning new skills, but it also requires setting moral parameters.

any tool can be used for good or evil. a tool is not a good or bad. technology is not good or bad.

it is the way it is used.

it's just a tool.

what do we owe?

"Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel: I am God, your God. 

I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me.

I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, 

for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. 

I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. 

If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. 

Psalms 50: 7-12

what if we believed this? what if we accepted that all of creation belongs to god?

what if no matter how hard we work, we understand that all we have is not ours, but god's?

the way of the world is to believe that what we've earned with our own hands belongs to us. the idea of private property is pretty sacrosanct in all parts of the world. i think most of us think that we are entitled to more because of ________ fill in the blank.

christians give their tithe as if they are giving god something. this psalms says that why should god need our bulls and goats. it all belongs to god. what we give to god belongs to god already.

like the workers in the parable of jesus, we believe that because we've done more than someone else that we should get more. but the farmer paid those who worked in the field an hour the same as those who had worked all day. how was that fair? 

jesus said it was. it was the farmer's money. it was the agreed upon price.

how does this psalm and new testament parable speak to me?

if we truly believe that every dime we have, like the cattle on a thousand hills (the sign of wealth in that time) belongs not to us, but to god, do we spend that money differently? do we spend god's money on a hundred dollar meal? do we spend it on a vacation home? do we spend it on a swimming pool?

perhaps... all of these things can be shared

if all our resources belong to god, how much do we spend past our basic needs? how much do we spend on the needs of others?

like the rich young man, we find that turning our riches over to god is a heavy price. jesus recognized that this young man believed his wealth was his own. jesus was reminding him that it belongs to god.

we congratulate ourselves for giving to the church or to charity. 

whatever we give already belongs to god. a tithe is not a gift to god, neither is zakat. god has no need, but we do. giving brings us closer to the kingdom of heaven. 

what does this mean for the earth? how do we treat god's creation if we truly believe it is not ours? do we rape mountains for coal? do we turn a desert into a well-watered casino?

what about the parable?

why is the pay equal for all, those who work an hour and those who work the whole day?

i would argue that it is because our gift from god is the same for all. our wage for the work that we do is creation and all the things that can be created by man from its riches. we have creation as our reward, not to exploit for our own needs; but to cherish as the gift given to all, a gift given to all.

these are hard words. most of us react as the rich young man.

is it possible to reflect on every dollar we spend? is it possible to never do anything that is harmful to the earth?

i don't really think so.

but maybe we can remind ourselves, "it is not mine."

the importance of rules

my last blog probably made it seem that i did not appreciate the purpose paul played in the christian faith.

i didn't say paul was unimportant, just not as important as jesus.

i was a teacher for 33 years. i understand the importance of rules. rules give structure and parameters that make learning possible.

the problem is when the rules become a means unto itself. i have seen this happen many times with educators. they forget that the rules are a means to an end. they forget why they have rules. they forget that an environment conducive to learning is the ultimate goal, not inherence to all the rules. when the rules interfere with learning... and there are times and children where that will be true.... the rules have to give way to the purpose.

i actually think paul gets a bum rap from a lot of people. paul was obsessed with explaining everything to the last detail. he wanted to justify every action he made. if he seems rigid, it's because he was trying to give guidance on how to bring faith to everyday life.

just like jesus.

the overwhelming theme of paul is always grace. his preaching always taught that we don't live this life of faith in isolation, but in a community of believers. He preached god loves all and is not a respecter of rank or position. he preached that living in harmony and love with your neighbor is how we acknowledge jesus as saviour.

grace is what jesus taught.

like jesus, paul said that this faith must be worked out with actions.

jesus never talked about individual salvation. jesus talked of the kingdom of heaven where there is abundant life for all. he talked about a kingdom where the poor and oppressed were esteemed, where the rich and the religious were called to account. god's grace comes within a community. our relationship with god is demonstrated in our relationships with others.

paul was fervent in his desire to spread this message of grace. paul gave sacrificially of his life to spread the good news of jesus. he died in a prison cell. he experienced physical torment and imprisonment. he never asked to be supported but worked for his sustenance wherever he went.

the rules paul made were to guide followers into the everyday practices of following jesus. he wanted to make it possible for the message of grace to survive the eye witnesses of jesus. he knew how stories evolve and change and dilute. he wanted to make rules to keep the focus on jesus, on giving and love.

paul loved jesus. his words are not in opposition.

rules are important... but only to preserve the life of ideas that jesus brought.

rules are not the message.

grace is the message.