Congratulations, It's a Girl!

Imagine this: one hundred million women missing from the earth because parents were taught that boys were more valuable than girls.  Actually, you don’t have to imagine it because it is fact.  In Asia, cultural and religious practices were so misguided that parents used gender selection, everything from abortion to infanticide, that males now out-number females by such a wide margin that the governments of these countries are implementing new strategies to put females on a more equal footing with males. One article refers to the current status of birth rates in Asia as “Not just a human-rights catastrophe, it is also a looming demographic disaster.” (G. Anand & J. Woo, WSJ, Nov. 27, 2015)

Fortunately, the tide is turning in South Korea, China and India.  South Korea, for example, in one generation “wiped out centuries-old practices in which a son was essential to inherit property, worship ancestors, care for parents and continue the family lineage.”  The challenge now moves to China and India, “one third of humanity that continues to give birth to significantly more males.” China started a “Care for Girls” campaign in 2000 to try to deal with the problems of too many men and not enough women, and it just recently abandoned the “one child policy” that likely contributed to the skewed census.

Why should we in the western world care?  For me, this problem of seeing females as inferior to males continues most in, of all places, religious institutions. Religious organizations are still “a man’s world.”  I can speak only to the Christian Church to which I profess allegiance. I know this: in Christ there is neither male or female. (Galatians 3:28)  So, if we are all equal in Christ why are we not all equal in Christ’s church?  When Christian parents today deliver a baby girl through the church’s door can they share a vision that one day their daughter would be preaching and baptizing in the church? In many expressions of the Christian Church the answer is “no.”

It is so easy for us in the west to shake our heads at the way Asian cultures and religions cause parents to cry when they bring a girl into the world.  But, we are so blinded by our own cultural interpretations of God’s Word that we cannot see the log in our own eye.  Let’s begin a new church year with a renewed commitment to being a Church that is a true expression of equality in Christ.  Let’s commit ourselves to being able to be able to say, “Congratulations, it’s a girl. She will be a fine minister one day!”

"A Time of Distress Such as Has Not Happened"

“There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then.” Daniel 12:1

The dead and the wounded cannot fade into the trash of yesterday’s news again. Not this time. Today it is Paris. Tomorrow? Your guess is as good as anyone’s.  If there is a cause to unite the sane people of the world it must be this: “eradicate jihadism in our lifetime.”  This is the least we can do for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

If you had asked me even two years ago, I would have denied that I would ever write a paragraph like the one you just read.  I hate the fact that we need to have wars. I was not a pacifist, but I had trouble believing that violence was the solution to violence. But this is different. Now it cannot be denied.  Evil has a name, and it is ISIS.  I cannot in good conscience sit here in my living room looking at a beautiful, sun-bathed frosted earth and ignore the truth that body parts are being cleaned up in Paris.  The French are not the enemy. I am the enemy of ISIS; everything I believe in; everything I preach; the God I worship; I am the enemy. ISIS wants to destroy me, my family; my grandsons, for God’s sake. They want to destroy my way of life and, most importantly, the foundations of my faith.  This is why I have today changed my mind.

John Robert Gallagher,  a Canadian volunteer fighting the Islamic State, wrote this:  “The terrorists’ own playbook sees the taking and holding of territory as a necessary step to discredit Western democracy and prove that the Caliphate is a real political possibility in the 21^st century. We have to prove that it is not. And like we did with Nazi Germany, we must crush it with overwhelming, unrelenting force….while the graves are still fresh…while there are still survivors to give testimony to the atrocities… .”

Mr. Gallagher is dead now, a result he knowingly risked in the battle to destroy evil. It is a battle Christian martyrs like Dietrich Bonhoeffer fought as well.  The “great prince Michael” is looking for people willing to join him in the battle against evil.  The Word of God will overcome. But not without a battle that demands my unwavering support.

"...and there was light."

It took a genius to put us onto the fact that we could actually see the light.  I am not writing about the light on your computer screen or the reading lamp lighting your desk or favorite chair. I am writing about the light. You know, that light that lit up the universe for the first time; the “let there be light” light.  It is still visible, that very first light.

Don’t believe me? Turn on your television and leave the screen blank. Some of the static you seen on that screen is caused by the light particles dating back to the beginning of time. (source: R. Dijkgraaf, WSJ, Nov. 6, 2015)  The scientific minds that come to that conclusion, I am guessing, will not concede that the light which was created at the beginning of time came from the mind of God.  There is sometimes this disconnect between science and theology, a disconnect which goes both ways. That is, the scientists don’t agree with the theologians understanding of God and the theologians don’t agree with the scientists understanding of the world we all can see.  I wonder if just maybe they all think a little too hard about it for their own good. Still, I do not need to let their professional disagreements stop me from my simple conclusion: we can see God’s first light.

Here is what I know.  A Hebrew writer, a long time ago, was chosen by God to tell anyone who would listen that in the beginning God said there should be light to fill the darkness, and there was light.  One hundred years ago, Albert Einstein submitted the first in a series of physics papers which changed how we all look at the world.  Einstein’s general theory of relativity was, in my view, a gift from God. God wouldn’t let a mind Albert’s go to waste. God used the mind of a pure genius to reveal in a way that no one had before the way the universe is designed. From Einstein’s original work came the understanding of the big bang theory, the point in time when from darkness came light.

I am far from a genius in anything.  I am not a scientist in the least. But, I love the fact that scientists take work like Einstein’s and develop the GPS that guides me to my destinations.  I am not a theologian in the least. But, I love the fact that theologians take the work of the writer of Genesis to develop an understanding of God’s creative personality and power.  And perhaps because I am too ignorant to understand the details, I happily reach the conclusion that both the scientists and the theologians are right: God made light and it took an Einstein to figure out that we can still see God’s first light. Now, if only I could figure out how to get static to show up on my television.

When Turkeys Fly

“may my heart be always open to little

birds who are the secret of living…” e. e. cummings (source: “may my heart always be open”, inwardoutward.org)

In the early fall days, before the government changes the sunrise, my morning walk happens just as the sun is rising. Then the earth is pregnant with promise. It is the time that even turkeys fly.

Turkeys, another of God’s curious creations, which must bring a smile to the heavenly host, are not fleet of foot, or claw, or whatever you call that appendage. They are not aerodynamically fit for fast. And, while turkeys wouldn’t seem to have much of a brain, they have figured out that they will live longer sleeping in trees than on the ground. Foxes may be faster, but they cannot climb trees.  So, each night, after a day of walking around their territory, pecking away at the ground in search of food, they have to summon up the strength to fly up a tree. I have not seen this in person, but I imagine it to be a hard task, getting the wings going sufficiently fast to lift their rotund bodies up into a gravity-defying flight.  It must be like me trying to get out of my reading chair before bed, a time full of creaks and groans.

But then, just after sunrise, they see the day has begun. (I wonder if they are surprised?)  What awaits them today is the same as awaited them all their yesterdays and all their tomorrows: the opportunity to work at finding food and shelter, raising their family of tiny turkeys, and, if the season is right, making new turkeys.  But before they can begin their day on the ground they have the once-a-day opportunity to soar like an eagle. I saw them, one after the other, eight all together, soaring from above the tree line, gliding on the air, floating with the greatest of ease down to their stomping ground.

When turkeys fly like that it must be exhilarating for them. Once a day they soar, they seize the day. And they know, tomorrow they get do it again.  God is good.

Where's Trevor?

“Henri Nouwen was a priest and a brilliant teacher at places like Harvard and Yale. Feeling led by God, he spent the last decade of his life living in a community of people with severe emotional, mental, and physical disabilities. Henri tells a story about Trevor, a man with severe mental and emotional challenges who was sent by Henri's community to a psychiatric facility for evaluation. Henri wanted to see him, so he called the hospital to arrange a visit. When those in authority found out that Henri Nouwen was coming, they asked if they could have a lunch with him, When Henri arrived for lunch Trevor was nowhere to be seen. Troubled, Henri asked about Trevor's whereabouts. "Trevor cannot come to lunch," he was told. "Patients and staff are not allowed to have lunch together."

By nature, Henri was not a confrontational person. He was a meek man. But being guided by the Spirit, here is the thought that came to Henri's mind: Include Trevor. Knowing that community is about inclusion, Henri thought, Trevor ought to be here. So Henri turned to the person in authority and said, "But the whole purpose of my coming was to have lunch with Trevor. If Trevor is not allowed to attend the lunch, I will not attend either." The thought of missing an opportunity for lunch with Henri Nouwen was too much. They soon found a way for Trevor to attend.” (adapted from John Ortberg, in the sermon "Guide," PreachingToday.com)

Can the work of the God’s people be any simpler than this? We examine our faith community and ask, “Who is missing? Who should be here but is not?”  Then we come to a crisis of faith: the outcome of our actions can create a positive or negative result. Do we can give in to the “rules” of the folks in charge, the gatekeepers, the majority? Or, do we have sufficient faith to, like Henri, refuse to sit down at the table until Trevor is allowed to join us? Is our faith sufficient to summon up the courage which witnesses to the gospel truth that God values inclusion over custom, over comfort, over convenience.

Examine your faith community this weekend. Who is missing that really should be there? Are people of other cultures or races; are people with disabilities excluded by choice, by design, by a lack of commitment to inclusion and accessibility in your community?  Are you willing to be the one who will insistently ask, “Where’s Trevor?” 

"Nine Missing From the Table"

Millions and millions will be there, but nine brothers and sisters will be missing from the Table.

Tomorrow millions upon millions of people who share little in common but their belief that they are made in God’s image will gather round the Lord’s Table to eat some form of bread and to drink from some form of cup.  On a day set aside for the world of Christian churches to celebrate their commonly held belief that Jesus cares enough about this re-enactment of the Last Supper to be there too, millions and millions will be there, but nine brothers and sisters will be missing from the Table.

Tomorrow Lucero, Treven, Rebecka, Quinn, Kim, Lucas, Jason, Lawrence and Sarena will not be at the Lord’s Table. Not by their own choice.  But because of yet another campus terrorist act, this time in a community college in Roseburg, Oregon.  I wonder how the pastors of these victims’ families will find the words to celebrate the presence of Jesus at the Table when these nine are missing from it.  “God is good.” Of course. “God is sovereign.” No doubt. “Evil exists.” We have seen it. Are these words enough?

What can the churches say in response to this latest in a string of unexplainable crimes against the innocents who are now missing from the Table? “They now are able to share in the Bread and the Cup in the very real presence of Jesus Christ in Paradise.”  True enough.  That is our Hope. We share the belief that the company of angels, the hosts of heaven join their voices with our voices in praise and thanksgiving for the Life-giving Bread and Blood.  We share the belief that these nine victims,  while missing from the Table at the churches in Roseburg, are not missing from the Table in Heaven.  But is it enough for the churches to just say all of this on yet another tragedy-remembered day? How is the Church to be the presence of Christ?

Would Jesus just shrug his shoulders, shake his head and say “we should do something?”  Or would Jesus throw over tables in the public square until someone realizes that these are his brothers and sisters now missing from the Table? Would Jesus not shout, “Do something, for God’s sake!”?

"I Normally Don't Pray in English"

It had been a pleasant visit which I felt certain should conclude with a prayer. My guest that Friday afternoon was an ordained pastor, “Pastor P”. Pastor P. had been conversing with me in English for all of our visit. We discussed the call God had placed on his life, which led him to become ordained. He had started a church in Delaware, but heard the call of God to help another pastor in Wisconsin who needed someone to serve while he was on an extended medical leave.  So, Pastor P. came. When that assignment ended he heard the call to start another church in the same city in which I serve. And now he looks for a church building in which to build a new congregation.

Sometimes God has a way of humbling me in a mighty way.  I sat in my comfortable chair in a study lined with shelf upon shelf of books, where I had spent the afternoon on my computer preparing for Sunday.  I am blessed to serve in a beautiful church with many dedicated families.  And here, across the desk from me, was this much younger man who works four days, twelve hours a day, so that he can devote his weekends to trying to start a church. No salary. No study. No computer.  Just an unshakeable faith that God is preparing to open doors so that the Spanish-speaking people in our city can have another place to worship.  I think of the time that Jesus sent out his disciples with only the bare necessities and told them they would be taken care of.  I always marveled that they would obey such a command.  Now, sitting across from me was a modern day disciple sent out with the bare necessities.  Sometimes people really do take the words of Jesus literally. Go figure.

The ironic thing about the timing of this visit is that I am in the middle of preaching about how Jesus taught his disciples that the barriers society puts up, barriers like language and race and even religion, need to be torn down if we want his Kingdom to fully come.  It is one thing to preach this in the abstract, as if it applies to someone else. But now it applies to me.  Today.  Do I dare shake my comfortable world by beginning a conversation with our leaders about opening the doors of our church to people who worship in a different language, who look different from “us” and who will worship in a style foreign to what we know to be the way to worship God?

I asked Pastor P. to pray for us.  “I normally don’t pray in English,” he said. So, I suggested he pray in Spanish.  In that prayer I got a little peak behind the curtain of what is to come, people from every tongue and tribe praising God together. “What do you think, Pastor Bill?  Will your church be able to help us?”  Whose question is that, really?