The cause of Love is Justice,
The cause of Justice is Equity,
The cause of Equity is Unity,
The cause of Unity is Wholeness,
The cause of Wholeness is Divinity,
And the cause of Divinity is Love.

If it is Peace you seek, then Love,
If it is Grace you seek, then Love,
If it is Mercy you seek, then Love,
For it is in Loving that we find Our Source
and, in so finding, discover our Beginning and Ending.
The only answer to the prayer,
". . . on earth as it is in heaven . . ."
is Love.

This Christmas devote yourself to the journey
of the One who comes and,
in so holy and sacred a passage,
Meet God
In Love.

Longing for the 'Good Old Days'? Really?

After the recent Supreme Court decision regarding Marriage Equality was announced, I read one person's lament regarding the ensuing furor over right and wrong which included the words (paraphrased here), "I'm longing for the good old days when everybody just got along." I have been pondering on that statement for nearly a week now and this is what I am wondering:
Which good old days when 'everybody just got along'?
The days when the Europeans forcibly took control of Native American lands?
The days when the American government in the name of progress slaughtered the Native American peoples and drove the rest onto reservations?
The days when the slavery of people of color was condoned by both the Bible and the Church which thumped the Bible?
The days when separate meant equal?
The days when women couldn't vote, much less hold office?
The days when a woman wouldn't be found in a pulpit, much less leading the Board or Consistory of a congregation?
The days when women taught Sunday School, put on the dinners, took care of the children, and made sure they made it to school, but were not allowed to sit at the table with the males of the family?
The days when people of color had no or limited voting rights?
The days when more than 50% of marriages made it more than 10 years?
The days when . . . . .
Well, I think you get the idea. 
I believe we have come to juncture in the church and in the land when the manner in which we have lived, interpreted scriptures and established traditions will no longer 'just be accepted'.
Today the Church must interpret scripture from the context in which that scripture was written, not trying to make the parts fit which we want to hide behind or support our prejudices and bias. 
Today we have to understand that when we rely on the government to do everything for us and to judge every matter between us the government will do what is ultimately in the best interest of those in government.
Today people in our world community will no longer stand idly by allowing one ethnicity, color, race, nationality or creed to have a corner on ownership of the world or its' resources.
Today we are rapidly becoming aware 'that which once was' no longer is faithful, just, equitable, fair or bears the full weight of God's love shown to us in Jesus.
Today we have to do the hard work of discernment regarding such things as ISIS, Ferguson, racial equality, sexual understandings, the oil pipeline of railroad cars and pipes which traverse our communities and pollute our air and water, our stewardship of the earth, global warming, our care for space and the debris we leave in it, and so much more.
Today, each moment requires more of us than our ancestors could ever have imagined possible . . . and the cost of what is required far exceeds anything they or we could have anticipated back 'in the good old days'. 
You want everyone to just get along? Trying being faithful to God and loving as you are loved in the modern era . . . without exception, as did Christ.
Not everything in the world is determined by what makes you or me comfortable or by what allows us to go on our merry way without doing the hard work of discerning justice in this generation. What once was no longer is, which is precisely why God sent the Son to show us Grace and sends the Spirit to guide us in Mercy. 
I remember when . . . Dad and Mom used to make homemade ice cream very regularly throughout the Summer months . . . and there were 'Sunset Laws' on the books in several of the towns near where I grew up. Some things I remember more fondly than others and those are the things I continue to live and cherish today, like making homemade ice cream very regularly throughout the Summer months. Other things have, thankfully, disappeared, but not without great conflict, angst and fear . . . like sunset laws. 
I pray that when we long for the past we name the past for what it really was, choosing to claim for today only that which builds us up together in community, not treasuring and clinging to that which discriminates, separates and condemns.
For such as this, we each must make our choices. Choose well. Choose in faith. Choose to live in God's new age for you.

The Call For Repentance in Ferguson Should Echo Back Powerfully

Okay, let’s think about this. As of yesterday, statistics show that 109 people have been killed in the St. Louis region this year. Actually, there was another homicide yesterday, so make the total 110. Religious leaders gathered recently in Ferguson fervently requesting ‘repentance’ of the officers of the Ferguson Police Department, even as the protesters continued to march for justice, which jump-started my pondering on such things.

That Michael Brown was shot and died is a horribly violent tragedy and, yes, there is ample data indicating racial profiling in the Ferguson and St. Louis region Police Departments yet, what intrigues me is the irony of this: Ferguson Police Officer, Darren Wilson, is being prosecuted, even persecuted, for using undue force, for making decisions based on race, and for taking justice in his own hands. Is this not exactly what the ‘repentance requiring’ clergy are doing to the Ferguson Police Department? By confronting the members of the Ferguson Police Department, by marching in the hundreds in front of the Police Department and City Hall, and by demanding that the justice that they (the protesters) seek is the only justice which is acceptable, even if only that of a repentant spirit, the protesters create a situation where Peace Officers are forced, again, to decide and act in a potentially volatile situation . . . as the crowds threaten to take justice in their own hands and make assumptive decisions based on race and geography. Hmmmm. Sounds a lot like downtown Jerusalem, not so very long ago.

Almost as a sidebar, yet being thrust on center-stage: Who among us doesn't need a fair amount of repentance for the wrongs we have done? Perhaps even/especially the clergy who are involved?

The events leading up to the tragedy and accompanying unrest in Ferguson didn't happen overnight. Ferguson has slowly, systematically been declining in economic vigor for years. Those families who could get out of the region, or wanted to, left long ago. Those who didn't have a choice but stay and those who found the, now, cheaper housing in that region attractive, are the basis of much of the Ferguson community today . . . and the schools reflect the transition. The public schools languish in the resulting financial transitions. Those who can either move or pay to have their children attend private schools to avoid the ‘roughneck’ nature of the resulting educational atmosphere. Those who cannot change their circumstance or pay to have it changed are left with diminishing resources and an often uncertain future, i.e. the Normandy School District.

It would seem that the Ferguson Police Department and Ferguson City Hall have become the symbolic lightning rods for an entire community, state and nation dealing with growing anguish, anger, frustration, and enmity rooted in neighborhood racial and economic classism. The invisible, insidious segregation of races, economic classes, and educational/employment opportunities has forcefully, vehemently become visible in the death and resulting conversations/demonstrations of Michael Brown – and what is being seen shocks us because, for too many, far too many, the enemy to be confronted is not ‘them’, but us.

Yes! Justice must be demanded, but I suspect the kind of justice really needed is to be found, not in front of the Ferguson Police Department or City Hall, but in the mirror image of those who demand the most while living/staying the farthest away from the epicenter of the conflict. Yes, I’m talking about those who live in their nice subdivisions, cul-de-sacs, and protected neighborhoods, which are not in neighborhoods such as Ferguson . . . precisely because they do not want their children growing up in the hard-scrabble existence faced by those who walked those streets long before the protesters arrived. I have seen their pictures scattered on Facebook, newspaper and television news outlets . . . and so have you. They send their own children to the elite public, parochial or private schools, shop in safe neighborhoods, and demand their local law enforcement folk patrol diligently to keep the disenfranchised from wandering their streets, all the while patting each other on the back for demonstrating and ‘taking a risk’ to stand in the front of a crowd, grab a mike and voice a prayer. They publicly repent of their white and/or economic privilege and tell the establishment how to better address the marginal existence of others, while holding on to the purse-strings of well-paying jobs with generous benefits and cultural security. They find the unblinking public eye of a camera to lift up their holiness and distress over the tragic killing of one of God’s children, they lift their cries of outrage in the modern wilderness of the very classism they cause and in which they continue to take part, and they call for others to behave differently with little remorse of their own - then wonder why folks are cynical in listening to them and lauding their efforts.

Yet, when the cameras are turned off and the demonstrators have dispersed, what of ‘justice’ for the other 109 killed? Who is lifting up those families as they bury their dead? Who is it that is willing to stand up and take on the injustice of a broken educational system, a battered economic reality, or a shattered culture of poverty and inherent classism? Who is it that deals with the families whose children were killed for the cause of drugs, turf, or gangs? Who is it that is willing to step into the breach of homelessness, moral insufficiency or the ongoing lack of family or communal support among the young of our community? Who is it that will call for repentance in downtown St. Louis, Chicago, New York, San Francisco . . . or any other city you want to name, that all of Nineveh would be saved, not just the portion making the news?

Granted, what has transpired in the demonstrations has been undertaken with the best of intentions yet, there was a reason the prophets of another age were so disdained: They moved in and dwelt among the people, becoming an ongoing discomforting presence calling for faithfulness in heart, courage in action and unswerving commitment to God’s holy vision of community. They didn't go somewhere else to be home, to places of safety, security and advantages galore, planning to return the next day with another message they thought needed to be heard. They took on the challenges of their neighbor by becoming a neighbor. They sent their children to the same schools, they depended on the same police departments and took part in local government functions . . . from a faith-based existence.

You want to address white privilege? Then really give it up and stop wrapping your living in its security.

You want to address the injustices of the system? Stop being unjust in your living.

You want to address the racism of our existence? Stop being racist in choosing where you live, shop and send your children to school.

You want to address the authorities in the institutions? Move into their neighborhood and stand shoulder to shoulder with them in the face of the hostilities and inequities they face each day. Don’t just expect them to carry cameras to record each moment, be the personal presence which sees with them.

You want to appear prophetic? Pack a suitcase and speak your faith. Don’t expect to ever go home again.

You want a prophet’s task? Repent of your comforts, advantages, and securities . . . sell all that you have and pick up your cross and follow Jesus. Too many among our prophetic ‘want-to-bes’ are like the rich young man with whom Jesus spoke: He knew what needed to be done, but could not integrate his desire for life with the manner in which he lived.

The family of Michael Brown and the community of Ferguson, Missouri, need a corps of committed activists to walk with them in these days, absolutely no doubt and with very good reason. But, what they do not need are uncommitted, unrepentant Jonah’s who really don’t want Nineveh to turn around and live because such a repentance would require as much or more of them, as well. So, too, does Officer Darren Wilson and his family. All of their lives depend on each of us living the fullness of the justice for which we patently call in these days. Such a transformation will occur when, finally, we look in the mirror and see our own highly visible complicity in the events of these days, get up from under the broom trees of our existence, and move on in the faith God gives for all.

In that day, our current irony will become the Kingdom and the Good News will truly be heard. In that day all the victims will have a place in the Son, not just the ones with the greatest amount of press.

Something on which to ponder: Justice for Ferguson from another perspective, one demanding our all-in repentance, not just the rhetoric. The hollow rhetoric, often faith-based, has led us to such days, but it will be the complete repentant committed action in faith which will lead us Home.

"What's Love Got to Do With It?"

"What's love got to do with it?", sang Tina Turner as she reflected on her own life and journey and, for whatever the reason, that tune just keeps going through my mind this morning.

"What's love got to do with it?" as the American people reach a critical decision point regarding politicians who are worried more about their benefits than being a benefit to others; as the American people ponder the choice between the competing ideologies of political parties and Presidential candidates; as the American people in Illinois try not to get too mired in the finger pointing tactics of Springfield politics (otherwise known as Chicago politics to downstate constituents) and work to fund the essential human services and commitments for the people most in need; as the American people peer through the smoke and mirrors of political spin doctors, attempting to discern truth and act decisively for the sake of the nation; or, as the American people strive to create jobs in a toxic taxing environment, hoping all the while to provide sisters and brothers with essential opportunities to grow in self-respect and integrity.

"What's love got to do with it?" as the hierarchy of the Catholic church takes aim at controlling the women of the church, not just the nuns, but all women, in a time when the behaviors of old are just that, 'old'; as the Church universal struggles to find its voice of authentic Christian witness in the midst of a world torn by hatred, prejudice, fear and mistrust; as local congregations walk the walk of faith where they are, as they are gifted, only to be told that, because of dwindling numbers, their ministries are not financially prudent; as people in the pew turn their heart and soul to God for the Word of Relevancy and Challenge, instead of the tempting nectar of modernity so often offered as a placebo; or, as the identity of the Christian community is hijacked by so-called 'evangelicals' who presume to know exactly what God wants and where, shrouding their personal attack agendas with the language of 'who is in and who is out'.

"What's love got to do with it?" when one person sees a white man and thinks, 'racist', or another person sees a Latino and thinks, 'alien', or another person sees a black man and thinks, 'entitlement'; when one person sees a Middle Eastern woman and thinks, 'terrorist', or another person sees an English woman and thinks, 'snob', or another person sees an Asian woman and thinks, 'war'; or, when one person sees a farmer and thinks, 'ignorant', or another person sees a corporate executive and thinks, 'rich', or another person sees a blue collar worker and thinks, 'too bad'.

"What's love got to do with it?", Tina Turner sang, yet the tune and lyrics beg the answer yet today. Jesus gave one new commandment to the disciples, "Love one another." Love has everything to do with it: with our attitudes, our responses, our daily attention, even our moment by moment decisions, all in relationship with each other. When we fail to love as we are Loved, we have despised our humanity and subverted God's intention for our own will.

Love has everything to do with it. Thank you, Tina Turner, for reminding me of that today. I only pray that we, as members of the world community, find in ourselves the strength and will to reclaim the very purpose for which we are born in caring one for the other.

Love has everything to do with it.

Rabbits in the Garden

Two rabbits come into my garden to eat every evening - which is making me feel a little like Mr. McGregor chasing Peter Rabbit.

The other evening I looked out our bedroom window and there they were: one in the midst of the cabbage plants, the other nibbling on the tender young pepper plants. Putting on my flip-flops, I rushed out the front door, ran along the newly seed lawn, sped along the side of the house, and then sprinted full-out to the garden, clapping my hands and yelling, 'Hey! Hey!' The rabbit in the cabbage plants calmly watched my approach, not bothering to stop chewing until I was about five feet away. Then, quickly turned around, only to slowly hop out the garden as though saying, 'Man, what a drag, Mr. McGregor! We're not eating that much!' The other one, which was working on my pepper plants, pealed out with a far greater sense of urgency - nearly matching my sense of frustration.

Maybe it was the fact that, at 10:30 at night a balding, somewhat overweight man in running shorts and an old tattered *M*A*S*H* tee shirt was running at them acting like a lunatic, maybe it was a sense of impending doom, maybe there was the realization of not wanting to be there when the ambulance with the nice little men with the oversized coat with long wrap-around arms showed up to pick me up, I'm not sure . . . but, whatever the reason, they both sprinted across the road and I was just left there steaming. I was Elmer Fudd - and Bugs Bunny had just left me in the dust hollering, "You wrascally wrabbits!!"

Returning to our bedroom, Nancy urged me not to use my pellet gun to dispatch them next time (probably envisioning me shooting at the rabbits from our bedroom window) and encouraged me to seek a more peaceable solution. "Darn it!, I thought, "This Christianity thing really gets in the way when really all that I want to do let out some of the frustration . . . . through the barrel of a gun!" Thank God for Nancy - and God help Nancy, for she's the one who speaks reason to me when all I hear in my minds are ways to 'get even'. "You wrascally wrabbits!!"

But then, isn't that basically how wars start? Isn't that how feelings get hurt? Isn't that how dissension is sown? Someone perceives a wrong being done them, acts upon it without hint of thought or grace and, what once was an innocent enough transgression, has now become a nuclear event. 'I'll show you' is lived out on the road, across the oceans, in the midst of national governments, even, potentially, from the window of a bedroom. And, who is really served by such behaviors?

I cannot imagine what my neighbors must think of me, though really I'm not too sure I really care . . . after all, it was my garden that the rabbits were in, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't a Christian evangelical message they got that night. On the other hand, it is people like me who are the very reason Jesus came to earth: that the rest of the world know that not all God's people act like me. Thank God!

Sometimes a little righteous indignation can go a long way and not every rabbit must die for my garden to live, yet . . . would God miss just these one or two rabbits? Would God miss me if others thought the same of me? It's something to ponder while I stand guard on the borders . . . of my garden, that is. Have a great day!

Fire In the Family

Pastor Don's Corner . . .
* Pastor's note: Before anything more is written, I must confess that my mind and heart are heavily weighed down by the fire in the home of Rhetta Newsome and her son, Kevin. Standing with Kyle and Paula and Kevin as the Lebanon, O'Fallon and Sugar Loaf Township Firemen did their work quickly and well, there just are not adequate words for the feelings that were carried into the sky on the wisps of smoke that once were the wood and fiber of the Newsome home. Watching Rhetta's gentle tears and listening to her low moans of grief, then tending to the scene with Kevin, Kyle and Paula as it became clear that the fire was arson . . . and knowing that heaven's angels had been watching over Rhetta and Kevin, keeping them from harm, brings me to this moment in a both a grateful and a pensive prayer mood. As Kevin said it, "This was personal." Every tire on every car Kevin had on their lot had been flattened. An accelerant had been used on multiple sites on the property. Someone(s) had been intentional about sending a message.
Now it is imperative that the community send a message on behalf of the Newsome's and everyone like them: No more! This behavior will not be tolerated. This lack of respect for the property and livelihood of others will not be overlooked. This lack of basic human concern for the welfare of others will not be ignored. Not here, not there, not ever. No more!
Just as it takes a village to raise a child, so it takes a community living justly to ensure justice. If the burning of the Newsome home does not motivate the Lebanon community, and communities just like us around the world, to live towards a higher plane of faith, behavior and responsibility, expecting of each other that higher plane of faith, behavior and responsibility, then every home, every life is in jeopardy, for what 'that someone(s)' said today is that neither life, nor property matter: "Only what I want, what I believe, and what I think I need matters. And, I will do anything I want, to anybody I want, to get that point across." That, my friends, is base terrorist behavior - and this terrorist is not across the sea.
I am not advocating vigilante justice. I am advocating a faithful Christian expression of life lived well, as a disciple of Jesus Christ who, by the way, did not turn away from injustices, but squarely faced them in the eye and addressed them from the Mount, the Praetorium, and the cross. This is not a yearning for justice which is for the weak of heart. It is a way of life which demands our all.
That said . . .
As I sat before my computer this evening after spending the day with the Newsome's and prayed God's guidance before opening my Bible, I could never have anticipated what text my Bible would open to:
"Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" Jesus said to him, "Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times."" (Matthew 18.21-22 NRSV)
"Forgiveness?!", I thought. "Great. Nice text, Lord. Next you'll want me to talk about loving my enemies and really putting my faith on the line. All that nice writing about justice in the community just before this, then Your Spirit leads me to this text in Matthew about forgiveness. What's up with that?"
Then I looked up the word translated as 'forgive' in the Greek, did a word study and began to understand a bit more of what the Lord was pointing me towards. The word in the Matthew text translated as 'forgive' is "ă-phā'-sō", meaning "to send away, dismiss, suffer to depart". So, essentially, Peter is asking, "Lord, another member of the church sins against me, how often should I send them away, dismiss them, or suffer them to depart?" Forgiveness, in this context, is not about saying, 'Everything's okay' and forgetting about it. The kind of forgiveness Jesus talks about in this text (and the following story about the unjust servant) is about not carrying the issue with you, thereby giving the offender continued power and influence over you. The king who set the unjust servant free sent him away out of pity, then, later re-jailed the unjust servant for not showing understanding towards another who owed him money. Forgiveness, in this context, does not forget the trespass, but chooses to dismiss the offender, rather than continue to be consumed by the offense.
So, what is it we pray for when we ask God, " . . . and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors . . ."? Do we pray for God to forget our sins? Do we pray that God doesn't notice our sins? Do we pray that God will just forgive our sins? Are we praying to 'make a deal' with God about our sins, according to how we forgive the sins of others? Are we praying that God's sense of justice just overlooks whatever it is that we do? Are we praying for the courage, the will, the faith to forgive others as we pray God forgives us? And, if all is forgiven, where is the justice in this, either for ourselves who offend or for those who offend us? What of justice for God? What is justice before God?
In the Matthew 18 exchange between Peter and Jesus, then again in the following parable about the unjust servant, we need to note: to forgive does not mean the indiscretion, nor the debt, disappears. Rather, the one offended, the one to whom the debt is owed, extends pity over punishment, dismissal over imprisonment, choosing to send away - over dealing with them day after day. Forgiveness, then, is more about the one doing the forgiving than it is about the one being forgiven. The debt owed, the sin committed, speaks loudly enough to the community on its own.
To forgive is to intentionally choose not to give power, nor time, to the one who is unquestionably guilty. Sin's verdict has its own justice and guilt its own punishment. Yet, to forgive is to step away from being the one forced to carry the bad behaviors of others and claim freedom in the simple act of moving on. Forgiveness is to cast off the burden another has placed upon you in favor of the freedom God offers in living justly and equitably with others. Forgiveness is about the one sinned against - and the choices they make. Accepting forgiveness means to live out of the newly found freedom one has been given, extending that 'relief' to another and choosing, too, to live differently.
All that said, forgiveness is hard work, hard work indeed. We are a people skilled in seeing the speck in another's eye, yet boorishly slow in recognizing the log in our own. It is easy to tell others what they need to be forgiving and how they need to live as a people forgiven, yet is it an agonizing trek towards becoming personally forgiving and living as one forgiven of far more than we could ever imagine.
This particular night, I am finding it very hard to even consider forgiveness of those who have done such damage to the Newsome's home, livelihood, and lives, still, I am not sure how far or how long I want to carry those who did this to them. I'm not certain I want them to have that much power, nor am I certain that forgiveness is mine to offer. What I am certain of is that friends of mine are hurting through no fault of their own . . . and I am angry and hungry for justice on their behalf. How forgiveness fits into all of this is something I will have to pray about for a time, even while praying God will find forgiveness in God's heart for me.
Your servant in Christ,
Pastor Don