Taking back the faith

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I woke up thinking about the cross

I wear one

Small and worn

Purchased in an ancient cathedral on a rainy English day

 

We preach “Christ crucified”

“Pick up your cross and follow me”

 

How did they feel, those early followers

Who had seen the beloved die

Leaving behind bile and bloodstains

How did they feel about the cross

 

It was an instrument of terror.

A tool of tyrants

Used to intimidate, punish, and control

 

No wonder they used a fish

As a symbol of faith

“Be ye fisherpeople,” drawing people to God’s love

 

But then came the unlovely cross

Which shouted love and sacrifice

A giving up

A dying

 

And then the cross was transformed.

As the church was transform

From motley clusters of people preaching love

Relegated to the fringe

Out

To an instrument of the state

 

And slowly the cross too

Became a symbol once again of empire

A tool of the powerful

To intimidate, control, and punish

An instrument of terror

 

It was emblazoned on shields.

Carried by intense zealots in front of armies

Burned on lawns

Crusaders, conquistadors, and clansmen

Appropriating it

Jesus wanted to transform the world

More than conquer it

To fill it with love and peace

Lion and lamb, child and adder

 

But here we are

Crosses draped in flags

Adorning massive pickups

Showing up where hate is preached

And empire

 

Poor cross

 

My faith is not weak, or soft

I believe in the power of Sacred

And the power of love

And in the power of letting go, and giving

 

I believe that when Jesus said “Take up your cross and follow”

He was talking about expending one’s self for others

Giving one’s all for love

 

Even if that means selling all one has and giving it

To Haitian refugees in Ohio

Or that woman hugging her child on the border to Mexico

 

Even if that means turning the other cheek

 

I want the cross to remind me that “blessed are the meek”

And that justice and equity are more important than coercive power

And that people are more important than money

And that my faith is never, ever, ever to become a tool

Of empire

 

I want the cross back.

Drinking Poison

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Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs.

          Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre

 

Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.

          Anne Lamott

 

Nursing a grudge only perpetuates the offender’s power over you. He continues to live in your head, reinforcing your frustration, polluting your imagination with thoughts of getting even. Don’t let him get away with that. He may or may not deserve forgiveness, but you deserve better than to waste your energy being angry at him. Letting go is the best revenge. Forgiveness is the identifying marker of the stronger party to the dispute. It is truly a favor you do yourself, not an undeserved gesture to the person who hurt you. Be kind to yourself and forgive.”

          Harold S. Kushner, Nine Essential Things I've Learned About Life

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It is that day

that day when we remember

the planes plowing into the towers

the destruction, chaos, and death

 

Especially death

We remember those who died

Too painfully

Too early

 

We cherish their lives and lament their lost

As we should

 

Moments like this are for learning

as they rip open our souls and our hearts

and challenge our minds

 

What can we learn about those who perpetrated such violence?

What can we learn about ourselves, and our contribution to this event?

What too can we learn from our response to this event?

 

What do we do when we return to this day?

 

It hit me hard, this day

As I watched the event on TV monitors in an airport

Preparing to board a plane to Washington DC (and then on to Azerbaijan)

A plane that never left

 

It made me angry

Pain tore through my heart as I thought of the people on those planes

And in those buildings

And thought of all the people who lost someone they loved.

 

And yes, there was hate, and fear too

 

I was forced to walk through the dark valley of death

My heart broken open, my mind in chaos, my soul aching

And Love led me

To a place where I could sit and look into still waters

And think, and feel

And see myself reflected back

 

I was changed

And emerged my heart bigger

Filled with compassion for those who were lost

But filled with lament too

For what we had done to help cause this

And even more lament for how we responded

For the damage we inflicted

 

I kept thinking about the cross, and the disciples

That was their moment of terror

When awful people brutally killed someone they loved

 

I am sure they were not just sad

But that they held in their hearts

A deep hate for those perpetrators

Those men who had driven those nails

And lift that cross into place

Who had mocked and pierced

 

I kept thinking about the cross

And the fact that the disciples did not keep returning there

They did not hang on to the cross in a negative way

They moved on

 

To the garden

They connected with a risen Lord

Who had already forgiven

And they (I think) forgave

 

The disciples were made better by the cross

Not worse

They were made more loving

More giving

More forgiving

More inclusive

 

They welcomed those very people

Them

Those Romans

Into the circle of love

 

I would like to think 9/11 made us better

But I wonder

 

As I see us nurture enmity

And see others as threatens

And listen to some demonize immigrants

As I watch us populate the world with military bases

And spend obscene amounts on the implements of war

 

And as is see us, every year, rip the scab off the deep wound

That was so terrible 

Feeling the pain, but not learning or remembering the lessons

 

The early church transformed the cross

Into something that brought healing and hope

There is something to be learned there

On this day

 

 

 

Damn Lies

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“Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”                  Fyodor Dostoevsky

 

If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.

          Anon (not Hitler as often claimed)

 

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth

The truth will set you free

          Jesus

 

The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off!

          Gloria Steinem

_______________________________________________________________

 

It’s the lies, people

It is the lies

 

They come at us like driven rain

pelting us until heads down

we scurry for cover

 

and huddle in apathy

or stand helpless and cynical in resignation

or, perhaps

 

seek to resist

 

there are so many

the election was stolen

immigrants are overrunning our country

the liberals are communists

the conservatives are fascists

food costs have risen 60%, 70%

they are coming for your guns

 

they fill our minds like confetti

until soon we are confused

and overwhelmed

and can no longer distinguish the truth

around us

an no longer find the truth within us

 

and then we are lost

we trust no one, not even ourselves

we stop believing in anything

or we start believing everything

 

and we lose respect

for scientists, and scholars

teachers and leaders

everyone

even ourselves

 

but the great loss is love

we cannot open our hearts to the world

to those around us

we cannot love our enemies

or do acts of kindness to “the other”

 

when we can trust nothing

when we can trust no one

 

All we are left with is fear

and with fear comes anger

and with anger violence

 

personified

in a shooter blasting his (or her) way through a mall

or a school

in a politician obscuring, twisting, manipulating

 

we need truth

so let us start with one truth

God is love

And with another truth

All creation is an expression of that love

And with yet another

All human creatures are sacred children

Endowed with inalienable worth

 

there are such things as facts

the end does not justify the means

hate never, ultimately, wins

climate change is real

guns kill

 

and then there is this truth

 

If we love all that is Sacred

We learn to love ourselves

And can even love others

 

The truth is out there

we can see it, from time to time

in the eyes of a child

in the flight of a bird

in the sweet caress of the wind

 

when we seek it

insist upon it

embrace it

 

our souls are open

and we can worship

and we can love

the truth will indeed, set us free

Make things better

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"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."

          John Quincy Adams  

 

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly….All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

 

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

          The Gospel of Luke

__________________________________

 

Jesus changed people.

I am not talking about how he healed people

Or fed them

Doing for them what they could not do for themselves

 

I am talking about how he made them

Better

Peter, James, John, and all the disciples

Zaccheus

Nicodemus

The woman at the well

 

The stories are incomplete

Fragmentary

But we see the seeds of change planted

And sometimes bloom

 

I love Zaccheus

That man so little in so many ways

Suddenly becoming big

Moving from greed to repentance to restoration

Even generosity

 

I am reminded of the controversy

Around Angel Reese and Caitlan Clark

They are both outstanding in their own way

 

But what Caitlan seems to do that makes her amazing

Is make everyone around her better

 

In a small way reminding us

Of how Jesus works

 

I am not suggesting a shallow analogy here

Helping another person make more baskets

Or a team garners more wins

Is not the same as helping another

Overcome their personal demons

Or ushering in the kingdom of God

 

It is not that simple or simplistic

 

But I can’t help but think of Jesus and his disciples

Gathered in the Upper Room

Defeat looming

And of Jesus saying, “All right my righteous dudes (and dudettes?

Hers the plan”

 

I gift you, and you gift others

I forgive you and you forgive others

I empower you, you empower others

I protect you, and you protect others

I love you and you love others

 

Capisce?

 

In the Bible the One does a lot of stuff for the people of Israel

God frees them from slavery

Gives them manna

Even, we are told, gives them a land

 

A land dripping, nay flowing

 with milk and honey

 

but even in that story of conquest

from a time when tribes battled and lands changed hands

constantly

 

there was something more

 

“When you come to the land

when you no longer are warriors, but are farmers

you are to treat aliens and strangers

as neighbors”

 

The One blessed the people

So they could be a blessing

 

No, it is not all clean

No, it doesn’t always work

Yes, we often fail to learn the lessons

And fall into attitudes and behaviors that

Are not very Jesus

 

But when we connect with God

We get better

And we become people who make others

Better

And make their lives

Better

And make the world

Better

 

Which is another way of saying

When we love God

We learn to love others

And ourselves too