Waste

This is the trash created from Emerson and me eating at McDonald's tonight. I don't really consifer myself a green freak, but as I was gathering our trash from the table and the mountain kept getting bigger on the tray, I was thinking there was no way this could be good. I want to start being a bit more conscious.



I was at : 132 Riley Ave, Palm Springs, FL 33461,

OUR Father, who art in heaven...

I have started utilizing Phyllis Tickle's Divine Hours as a resource for my spiritual journey. Of course, a consistent element of most daily prayers is the prayer Jesus taught.

As I was praying it this morning, I was reminded yet again that the prayer is prayed in first person plural. I know that. (You know that. We all know that and have heard at least a half-dozen sermons on the topic.) This morning, however, it dropped a bit from my head to my heart. When I pray that prayer, I am asking that God gives  all of us our daily bread, that God leads each one of us away from temptation, that God forgives my debts and your debts. If the prayer doesn't change the way I live than it is just a collection of meaningless, superstitious words.

I want to live the prayer.

Carl F. Henry on Cultural Engagement

Richard J. Mouw has written an insightful article on an interaction he had with Carl F. Henry, the first editor of Christianity Today, in that magazines January, 2010 issue (unfortunately, it does not appear to be online).

As I work with our local church to find a voice on social justice issues, I find Henry's "five principles of engagement" which Mauw quotes from Henry's biography Confessions of a Theologian helpful:

1. The Bible is critically relevant to the whole of modern life and culture-the social-political arena included.
2. The institutional church has no mandate, jurisdiction, or competence to endorse political legislation or military tactics or economic specifics in the name of Christ.
3. The institutional church is divinely obliged to proclaim God's entire revelation, including the standards or commandments by which men and nations are to be finally judged, and by which they ought now to live and maintain social stability.
4. The political achievement of a better society is the task of all citizens, and individual Christians ought to be politically engaged to the limit of their competence and opportunity.
5. The Bible limits the proper activity of both government and church for divinely stipulated objectives--the former, for the preservation of justice and order, and the latter, for the moral-spiritual task of evangelizing the earth. 

The article goes into much greater detail. I would highly recommend it as a starting place for dialogue.

Two Views of God

I was brought to tears twice this week, unusual for me. The tears, in both instances, were precipitated by a view of God.

Wednesday, as I was driving back from my weekly team meeting with the hospice team with which I am currently interning. At the meeting, we spent time being with and feeling helpless with the five Haitian members of the staff who hadn't yet heard from their families in Haiti. As I was driving, I heard Pat Robertson's comments about Haiti on the radio:

The Haitians "were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and whatever, and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, 'We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.' True story. And so, the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other."

I had to pull over. The experience of just being with those who were suffering and then listening to Robertson smugly "explaining" the tragedy for us lay folks was too much. His is a view of God that we have all encountered at some point or another. God blesses those who are good and curses those who are bad. It is beneficial, at least in the short run. It keeps God in a box. It keeps us in control, keeps us confident that we are right. If we are the ones in the earthquake, however, it is useless.

Another experience of God I had was Friday morning. I went to an interfaith vigil service for the people of Haiti. We prayed and sang in Spanish, Creole, Hebrew, and English. We cried, some wailed. We praised God, we yelled at God. We didn't feel the need to explain. We didn't feel the need to be right. We just sat, with one another and with God. It was a glimpse of authentic community.