Occupy Me!

Most folks have stopped paying attention to the Occupiers I suppose. But, in their inarticulate rage, they are right about something. Max Weber said it long ago, “…bureaucracy is frightening for its efficiency in dehumanizing people.” I guess that’s the disconnect for all the well-intentioned corporate people as they watch the protesters. They get defensive because they have gone to work and excelled and tried to live ethical professional lives. They have participated in the system and the system has rewarded them with station, access and wealth. Imagine when Jesus told his disciples that their service was lacking towards him. Imagine their defensiveness. They had been clear that they had done everything that Jesus had required. But Jesus went on, “as you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.” Jesus’ call to us is to remain human; so human so as to refuse to dehumanize anyone: so human as to object to any bottom line except the bottom line of human dignity for all. So human so as to remain available to those imprisoned by human frailty, sickness, nakedness, hunger or crime. Some will say to back to Jesus that being this human requires super human strength, even sainthood. But I am not so sure. Jesus knows that each of us have a yet untapped well of compassion in our hearts. He knows that because He put it there. And, until we pour out this compassion to the most needy, our institutions and we are hollowed out versions of ourselves.

Thought for today: The bottom line is human dignity.

Prayer for today: Occupy me Lord, Occupy me.

Complexity: “Be not conformed to this world….” Rom. 12:2

I have spent the last couple of days talking with clergy, the Mayor and the Occupy Atlanta folks. It has been complex, in a word. On the one hand, certainly the Occupy Atlanta folks are right. Something is wrong in our country. Very wrong. The middle class are the new poor. The poor sink further in to the muck, while banks have more cash then they know what to do with, according to one bank executive. On the other hand, the Mayor has honored Atlanta’s civil rights heritage by issuing an executive order to allow the protesters time and space to cry out, for the best part of a month. But, crowds being crowds, and always a mixed bag, he must anticipate the misguided few jeopardizing the safety of many. They already have. He had to act. But, nobody has any real answers. Police action to clear the park will only clear the park, nothing more. Occupying parks indefinitely around the country will not bring corporations and banks to the negotiating table. No way. Clear demands and goals are needed first.  What is there to do? What did Jesus do in the face of political unrest and a greedy empire? First, He resisted the temptation to give and accept easy answers. Second, He didn’t let those forces seduce Him into apathy or simple self -preservation. What He did was pledge himself to compassion and the radical affirmation of all human dignity. What He did was give in a taking world.

Thought for today: The world has always been complex.

Prayer for today: Make me a sign of your compassion Lord, to this broken and sinful world.

Shame on Georgia

Today the state of Georgia, an overwhelmingly Christian state, will murder Troy Davis.  Where does Jesus authorize this practice?  Where is the outcry from the Christian politicians who visit our Churches,Mosques and Temples each election season to remind us of their commitment to keeping God’s word?  Where is the prophetic voice of those religious leaders who have the ear of thousands each week? Capital Punishment is state sanctioned lynching. Capitol punishment is the exact opposite of civilization.  Capital Punishment is the admission of our immature and barbarous tendencies as a society. While Capitol Punishment may be the law in Georgia, it is not justice in Jesus’ eyes.  We can sincerely grieve with the family of the slain police officer, abhor violence against those who serve and protect us, and at the same time agree that an ‘eye for an eye’ leaves no one better off.  Vengeance is a false remedy for pain and loss and we know it is no real deterrent for violent crime. With the murder of Troy Davis, Georgia has admitted that Jesus’ will and ways are of secondary concern. Shame on Georgia. May God have mercy on us.

The Tenth Anniversary of 9/11

I was in New York City ten years ago.  It was September 11^th and it was a beautiful Tuesday morning, at least the first part of the morning.  Horror and shock filled the rest of the day, the week and the month.  Members of my congregation and I went to ground zero while some of the smaller buildings were still on fire.  I saw steel beams wrapped around trees like ribbon.  We gave water and clean socks to the first responders.  We offered to pray with them, anything to keep their spirits up.  I don’t remember exactly when we did the first memorials for the deceased.  St. Patrick’s Cathedral, downtown would only memorialize Catholics.  It was good to be an Episcopalian then.  We believe so broadly that we held services for Muslims, for Jews, for Christians of every kind, for the Baha’i and even for those who expressed no faith at all.  We remembered the men and women who were in the country illegally who worked at the restaurant at the top of the Trade Center.  All were remembered with dignity.  Sometimes people criticize Episcopalians.  They say we are “Catholic light” or they suggest we’re not as serious about our faith as other denominations or faiths.  But I was proud of our church ten years ago this weekend.  We showed New York City and the world that God is big.  And while, we worship God in a particular way, God has no denominational preference.  We showed the city and the world that suffering binds all people together, but compassion is a universal language.  Ten years ago this weekend, some of God’s angry children killed some of God’s innocent children.  Let us renew our pledge to work for justice, in small and large ways in the world, that peace may flourish as a consequence.

Good Friday

You ought to thank God for the Church. Only the church teaches us how to die fearlessly.  The world denies it.  The world avoids it when somebody dies they say, “they passed, or their gone, they went home, or their no longer with us.”  All of those phrases, to some degree, express a certain discomfort, a certain fear of death.  Jesus died!  And we will die.  But because of His example… even at our grave, we make our song, “Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.”  Our most true citizenship is not of this world.  If the church can teach the world anything it is how to live selflessly and how to die fearlessly.  How to hope audaciously and how to suffer joyously!  Only the Church can teach that.

No time for fearful leadership: An an address delivered to the Georgia House of Representatives on March 22, 2011

Our times are in God’s hands. And thanks be to God, we are fastened to this God by His love and mercy. Even these challenging times are a gift from God. Even these difficult times are a tool in the hands of God’s people. Every age that is dying is a new age lurching forward to be born!
What we are sure of is, now is not a time for fearful leadership. Whether we are Democrat or Republican; whether we are Liberal or Conservative, now is not the time for fearful leadership. Fear lowers the ceilings of our hopes and blinds us to opportunities. Fear makes otherwise reasonable people into tyrants, and makes would be colleagues into unnecessary enemies. Most tragically, fear robs leaders of the boldness needed to confront and defeat the giants in front of them. The insidious part of fear is that those of us who suffer from it chronically can make it sound so plausible and so prudent. But, fear is fear. And, “we have not been given a spirit of fear,” the bible says, “but of power and of love.”
If Moses would have succumb to his fears he couldn’t have lead Egypt’s ancient revolution. If beautiful Esther would have become a prisoner of her fears, she wouldn’t have saved her generation and generations yet unborn. If the Apostle Paul would have been paralyzed by his fears, his missionary ship would have never left its safe harbor. Scripture tells us that, only “…perfect love casts out fear.” Only love is dense enough to displace fear. Only love is durable enough to defeat fear. That is my prayer for each of us today, that God would give us enough love to sustain our struggle against fear as we walk towards righteousness.
Brothers and Sisters, as you walk the political landscape of this age and of our state, I beg you, inspire us with your boldness, as you make provision for the ignorant, the indigent and the immigrant. Step over the dead bodies of your fears as you do what is right on behalf of the elderly, the poor, the orphan, the veteran and the prisoner. Bring glory to God’s name by “not growing weary in well doing.”

A Pruning Season.

The church is not dying.  It won’t die.   Sure I know the numbers are down and fear is up in a lot of churches, but like the hymn writer said, “Nobody told us the road would be easy; I don’t believe He’s brought us this far to leave us.”  God’s plan is to reveal His salvation to the whole world and that “…all flesh will see it together. ”  We have no updated memo to the contrary of that.  “So, we press on toward the high mark of the calling.” So, just tough it out right?  No! We are in a pruning season.  Ask any gardener or experienced green thumb and they’ll tell you, pruning is a necessary part of growth.   Pruning is part of God’s promise to us.  Pruning is death to the underproductive, the unproductive and obsolete parts of the plant.  There is no way to soften that.  Everything that the church has developed over the last two thousand years, some of its practices, some of its attitudes, some of the ways in which we are church are being pruned.  There is no way to soften that.  But pruning is how God ensures more fruit, more blossoms and more health overall.  Pruning is part of God’s promise!  “I will chasten those whom I love.”   When God prunes us as individuals and the church as an institution, it is liberation from the dead and an assurance that more nutrients and more strength is possible and on the way.  It is evidence of God.  It is revival of passion and purpose for those who remain.  When God prunes the dead, God is saying to those who remain, I affirm you.  I confirm your direction.  You are connected to the root.

 

 

 

God is Calling!

Calling is how God reveals God’s self to people.  Calling is a Divine invitation to go on a journey to know God; to learn God’s will and to joy in God’s trustworthiness.  Calling is that urge you feel to respond to God in belief, worship and action.  When you move in the direction of your calling there is an overwhelming and mostly inexplicable sense of rightness. When we answer God’s call we become our most genuine self.  Following God’s calling on our life moves us toward truth and fulfillment like nothing else.  Before we get to our individual Callings, our first Calling is to bring glory to God’s name and  seek after God in study and service to others.  Calling is a form of God’s grace.  Calling is how God rescues us from meaningless.  In God’s Calling we get direction, healing, redemption and a Godly destiny. God is a calling God and God is calling you!

Happy Birthday Rev. King

Happy birthday Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Thank you for caring about Sanitation Workers even though you met with Presidents and received a Nobel Prize.  Thank you Dr. King for sharing God’s Dream with us when you knew all too well the nightmare of “Racism, Militarism and Poverty.”  Thank you Dr. King for preaching a Jesus big enough to include all people: Protestant and Catholic, Jew and Gentiles, young and old.  Thank you Dr. King for reminding the Church it is supposed to be a “thermostat in the world, not merely a thermometer.”   Above all Thank You Dr. King for your faith in us…that we can be better.  Happy Birthday Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  Rest in Peace.

Shhhh…Be Quiet!

One of the ways we manifest our anxiety as leaders is through incessant talking.  Truth is, sometimes, we keep talking even when we’ve run out of something to say.  Maturing leadership, understands that just like in music, rests and notes are both equally important.  Notes break the silence at precisely the right time and rests divide sound into parts that are useful and beautiful.  We have to communicate.  We need to clearly articulate our expectations.  Yet, we must grow in appreciation for the growth that results from a creative, confident use of quiet.