Lenten Reflection 3/8

 

This morning, as I do on Friday mornings, I read the local paper.  This is the only paper I subscribe to - I get most of my news from NPR and online sources.  But I like to keep up with what's going on in my town.  (and I like to have a weekly crossword puzzle to do on my day off...)  Our paper has lots of calendar events, human interest stories, obituaries, classifieds and other local ads and a few local news items that help keep me in the know.  But what the paper is most full of is arguments between town leaders on various issues that are waged as battles through letters to the editor.  The bulk of political news about our town is conveyed in this way.  One week a politician declares he's right about something.  The next week an opponent blows holes in his argument and insults him.  The next week, the politician fires back, questioning the opponent's integrity.  There is no shortage of strong opinions in Trumbull, it seems, on topics ranging from from campaign signs to political endorsements to the budget.  Lately, the hot topic is the management, or in some people's opinion, the mismanagement of a senior housing development here in town.

I don't know.  After living here over three and a half years now, I still really have very little understanding of what's really going on politically here in Trumbull.  I've gotten to know a number of town leaders personally, and find them all likable.  However, the way they work (or don't work) together and how decisions are made here is still a great mystery to me.  I think that like in many small towns, you really need to be around for a long time before you understand how things actually get done.  

While as a relative newcomer, I find myself wondering how to figure out what's really going on, I'm beginning to realize that people's opinions and arguments are the big news around here.  There are lots of people who've lived here all their lives, and they care who says what.  People care who and what their trusted friends endorse.  People take sides because of personal friendships.  Small towns like Trumbull tend to put personalities before the issues.  I see this played out in the paper every single week.

What really happened  at that senior housing development that has caused months of public argument?  I'm still not really sure and I read this paper cover to cover each week.  What I do know is that some people felt insulted, hurt and offended by how something was handled during the hurricane last fall.  People are still mad at each other about this and want everyone to know who made the most outrageous insinuations and who insulted whose mother.  Really.  It goes on and on.  I've often commented while reading this paper that if I were considering Trumbull as a place to live and I got the paper to check the place out, I'd be pretty turned off by the many mean spirited letters sent to the paper by our various leaders and prominent citizens week after week.

Paul tells the Romans in chapter 6 that being a slave to self is sin.  Freedom only comes when you come out of yourself and listen to God, to the world, to others.  And Jesus says "If I turned the spotlight on myself, it wouldn't amount to anything."  There's something bigger in this world than our own opinions, our own view of things, our own arguments, our own reputations.  Many of the combative letters to the editor in our local paper are like self-focused spotlights and they really don't amount to anything.  They don't give readers any clarity at all about the real issues facing our town.  They haven't informed residents of the direction we need to move together to grow and thrive and care for our citizens.  And they certainly don't inspire anyone to want to get involved in leadership on a town level.

I would urge everyone in a leadership position in our town, whether they have been elected, appointed - or just known by name or reputation - to begin thinking more about how they can publicly come together around the common good of our community rather than just trying to top each other in appearing to be either the most righteous or most martyred in their very public letters to the editor.


Today's readings:  Jer. 11:1-8,14-20; Rom. 6:1-11; John 8:33-47
Saturday's readings: Jer. 13:1-11; Rom. 6:12-23; John 8:47-59
Sunday's readings: Jer. 14:1-9,17-22; Gal. 4:21-5:1; Mark 8:11-21
Elsa is praying the daily readings and praying the news and blogging about it on the weekdays of Lent.
She is reading The Message translation this year.

Lenten Reflection 2/25

 

Today we begin reading Romans.  It's one of my favorite of Paul's letters - there are some of the most comforting words I've ever read in this letter, and also some of the most challenging.  Got to say one thing for Paul: he's not lukewarm.  As he opens the letter, he defines very clearly what it means to be a Christian.  1. We've been given the gift of new life, and 2. we've been called to an urgent task of sharing this new life with others.  He says to his readers, "You are who you are through this (1. gift) and (2. call) of Jesus Christ!"  What defines us as Christians is what we've been given by God and by what we are called to do through that gift.

In another letter (to the Galatians), Paul famously says that "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."  When Paul says that we are granted new life through Christ, he doesn't mean that Jesus' life just enhances our own - he means that it completely replaces it.  We ourselves, our egos and desires and wills, must die - be crucified - so that Christ's new life can enter into us and take us over.  Paul says we need to let go of ourselves completely and allow Christ to live in and through us.  This is both a fearful and wonderful thing - to fully let go and let God.  But if you've ever experienced a taste of it, you know how liberating it is.

Many have felt this awesome love and liberation from God and then tried to vigorously promote it to others.  But I don't think Paul means that we need to shove our experience of God down other peoples' throats.  If we have found ourselves awakened to the liberation of God, others will be attracted to us, and we are then called to find ways to share the strangely good news of God's liberation with others who are struggling.  Paul says this is an urgent task - to reach out to others in this broken world and assure them that they don't have to struggle under the burden of self, but can lay their burdens down and have a whole new life in this way of Jesus.  Paul described this in another way in a different letter: As Christians, we become Christ's ambassadors.

I was really struck by the words "Urgent Task" in the reading today, because as I've been praying the news in these days of Lent, I've come up against a lot of urgency.  Take, for example, the meteorologists that have decided to give winter storms provocative names and seem to relish predicting horrendous disasters.  "Go out and get your milk and eggs and rev up those generators right now - you're going to be trapped under a snowdrift for weeks!"

And this morning, once the news about the Oscars had been reported, the main story was that the sequester is looming.  This is the last week to avoid it and it's looking likely that we won't.  If this is the case, by the end of March there will be spending cuts across the board that may cause disruptions in many services and the loss of a number of jobs.  Government agencies are already making their layoff plans.

The whole sequester proposal was meant to create a huge sense of urgency - it was thought that no one in congress would be able to abide such random cuts and would therefore be forced to work together across the aisle to create a better solution together.  But it seems that political rancor and drawing lines in sand are more important to politicians than true cooperation on this issue.  It is speculated that politicians, while unwilling to make concessions yet, might actually be hoping that the effects of the sequester will be so awful that no one will be able to blame them for finally "having to" cooperate.  But this morning one commentator said that the worst thing that could happen is that nothing happens - that the cuts take place and there's no real outcry.  Sure, a lot of services and jobs will be lost, but if people don't get up in arms about it, then politicians won't need to do anything differently in the future.  And of course, the people who will suffer most will be those who already rely on public funding.  The poor just get poorer.

The potent combination of partisan politics and public apathy are not good news for our nation.  And I think our leaders are missing what the real urgent task here is.  I know we're not all Christians in this country, but I think the idea of allowing something greater than yourself to take the place of your own ego is a common ideal.  In the realm of politics, this has traditionally been called "working for the common good."  I believe that our leaders need to be ambassadors - not for their own interests - but for the common good.  If the common good were really our most urgent task, our leaders would have to get beyond their own personal or partisan needs for power, influence and getting re-elected to offer true selfless service as the "public servants" they are elected to be.

Today's readings: Jer. 1:11-19; Rom. 1:1-15; John 4:27-42
Elsa is reading The Message translation this year.