Lenten Reflection 2/28

 Today is the final day for Pope Benedict XVI.  He'll spend the day saying good bye to his Cardinals, and then this evening, he will retire to the pope's retreat house.  The Swiss guard will pack up and leave the Vatican and the See will become vacant until a new pope is elected.  The pope has said that he will pledge unconditional reverence and obedience to his successor.  This is the first time a pope has resigned/retired in over 600 years.  Usually, popes stay in their position until they die.  But Pope Benedict seems too tired and worn down to keep going.  The New York Times quotes the pope yesterday as saying that his time as pope "was filled with 'light and joy' but also had its darker moments when 'the Lord seemed to be sleeping.'"

One of the most stressful things this pope has had to deal with has been scandal in the institution.  Church scandals are certainly nothing new, but these days, everyone knows every detail about them, and some of the details are really, really horrible.  People have become less likely to overlook the human fallibility of church leaders and are far less likely to give the institution the benefit of the doubt.  We may think that this is a new and modern backlash against religion, but it is really nothing new.  Here is what Paul wrote to the Romans about the temple and its leaders in his day.  As you read it, you can just substitute the word "Christian" for "Jewish," and "Christians" for "Jews" to see how it applies to the church today.

If you’re brought up Jewish, don’t assume that you can lean back in the arms of your religion and take it easy, feeling smug because you’re an insider to God’s revelation, a connoisseur of the best things of God, informed on the latest doctrines! I have a special word of caution for you who are sure that you have it all together yourselves and, because you know God’s revealed Word inside and out, feel qualified to guide others through their blind alleys and dark nights and confused emotions to God. While you are guiding others, who is going to guide you? I’m quite serious. While preaching “Don’t steal!” are you going to rob people blind? Who would suspect you? The same with adultery. The same with idolatry. You can get by with almost anything if you front it with eloquent talk about God and his law. The line from Scripture, “It’s because of you Jews that the outsiders are down on God,” shows it’s an old problem that isn’t going to go away.

There are plenty of people down on God because of what happens in the church.  There are plenty of people down on God because of what Christians say and do.  That's hard for Christians to hear, but it is the sad truth and will always be the truth.  We're broken people who need a whole lot of help, just like everyone else.  And the pope, like any other church leader these days, is living under the stress of a changing world and a changing church.  The church as a corporate institution has become unsustainable on a whole lot of levels and resisting change only makes things worse.

I can't imagine the stress of being a pope - being trapped between the call of God, the outcry of the people and the demands of an extremely powerful institution.   But this outgoing pope knows as well as I do that the Lord is not sleeping, even if on his tougher days it seemed like it.  If things aren't working out for us in the church it's not because God is sleeping.  It's because we are.


Today's Readings:  Jer. 4:9-10,19-28; Rom. 2:12-24; John 5:19-29
Elsa is reading The Message translation this year. 

Lenten Reflection 2/27

Paul writes to the Romans: 

"Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors."  

I like the saying that every time you point your finger at someone else, there are three fingers pointing right back at you.  Whenever you notice you're being critical, it's a really good bet that there's something coming up in you that you should probably take a look at first.

I've got to say that praying the news is getting very repetitive this week - all I'm hearing about is the sequester.  And it is getting upsetting to listen to each side continue to point fingers at one another despite the looming deadline.  Each critical statement about the other side might as well be, "I have no ability to see life from anywhere other than in my own little shoes!"  

My prayer today has been that some of these pointing hands be somehow transformed into hands that reach out across the aisle and create bridges instead of divides.   

Today's Readings:  Jer. 3:6-18; Rom. 1:28-2:11; John 5:1-18
Elsa is reading The Message translation this year. 

Lenten Reflection 2/26

There's an article in the top news section of the NY Times this morning about a woman who discovered that her husband, a NYC police officer, had been visiting many fetish websites and was involved in online chats in which he and others fantasized repeatedly about brutally torturing and killing women.  In their conversations they would fantasize about real women they actually knew, including the wife.  The wife obviously felt threatened by these chats and reported her husband to the authorities, and now the officer is on trial for plotting to kill a number of women.  There is no evidence that any of the women that this man was accused of plotting to kill were actually kidnapped or harmed.  So at his trial the question being explored is, "When does a fantasized crime become an actual crime?"

One outside expert was quoted as saying that this case "highlights the fact that there are 'dark corners' of the Internet 'where a whole range of illegal and immoral conduct takes place, and the general public has only a vague and fleeting knowledge that these places exist.'  He noted that the Internet, as a medium of expression and communication, also makes it possible for people with interests as benign as stamp collecting or as grisly as cannibalism to find and validate one another in community forums."

In his letter to the Romans this morning, Paul says people often "trade the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand."  The image of worshiping a carved idol, a man-made statue of a personal God instead of bowing down to the one beyond-all-time-and-space-and-knowledge God is a familiar Old Testament image.  Paul reframes it a bit by calling this choice "trading the true God for a fake God," and "worshiping the God you make yourself instead of the God who made you."  Paul says that when you go rogue like that, it is not long before you'll find yourself living in a pigpen, smeared with filth, filthy inside and out.

I can't wrap my mind around whether that officer's real conversations with other real men about hurting real women they knew are a real crime or not.  But I think I can quite confidently say that he had certainly gone off to 'worship' a God he'd created himself, rather than honoring the one, unifying God that created and loves us all. 

Today's readings:  Jer. 2:1-13; Rom. 1:16-25; John 4:43-54
Elsa 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.

Lenten Reflection 2/22

Indian people listen to a speaker, unseen, while they participate in a protest against a new sexual violence law as the parliament convenes in New Delhi, India, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. Activists say the law is inadequate and it only partially followed the recommendations of a government panel set up after the fatal gang rape of a woman in New Delhi led to nation-wide protests. (ALTAF QADRI/AP Photo)

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2013/02/22/2484902/rape-and-killing-of-3-young-sisters.html#storylink=cpy

The Associated Press reports that a recent abuduction, rape and killing of three young sisters, ages 7, 9 and 11 has again inflamed the people of India to do something about violence against girls and women.  The girls' bodies were found in a community well on February 16, two days after they disappeared from school.  The victims' mother said police did not take the case seriously and did nothing for several days until villagers held protests.  Teams are now mobilizing to find the rapist.

As the World Health Organization says, violence against women is a global phenomenon.  It includes sexual violence, intimate partner violence, female genital mutilation, femicide and human trafficking.  The health consequences of such violence is long term and far reaching.  It is not only a problem in other countries.  The department of justice has an entire department - the office of violence against women - dedicated to these issues.  This office focuses on the issues of domestic violence, sexual violence, dating violence and stalking.  The Center for Women and Families right here in Bridgeport reported recently that an act of domestic violence occurs every 18 seconds in our country.  They also reported that police were called into over 400 domestic violence incidents in Trumbull alone last year.  Last week, on Feb 14, tens of thousands of actions were organized in 207 countries to name this problem in the One Billion Rising campaign.  Women and men all over the world gathered "to come together and express their outrage, and to strike, dance and RISE against violence."  Violence against women seems deeply entrenched in this world - a problem so vast, shocking and painful it numbs us - and causes us to just ignore it or pretend it isn't there.  I hope that I am seeing signs that we are collectively becoming ready to finally face it.

Jesus was sitting at Jacob's well, hot and tired after a long day of travelling.  He had no bucket, so when a Samaritan woman comes to get water, he asks if she can give him a drink.  The woman is shocked.  Why would a fine, upstanding Jew talk to her - a Samaritan woman.  Jews didn't deign to speak to lowly Samaritans, and men certainly didn't talk to lowly women.  On top of it, this particular woman was of ill repute.  She had been with a number of men.  She would have been shunned even by her own people. But Jesus treats her as an equal, and a lively theological discussion ensues. In fact, this woman is the first person Jesus discloses his identity to.

I've always loved the story of the woman at the well.  Jesus sees this woman fully - even her failures and broken parts - and still treats her with dignity and respect.  Jesus offers living water to her- and because of the hardships she has endured in life, she's thirsty and willing to receive it from him.  Jesus does not treat her - or anyone - as an inferior or like a piece of property.  He assures her that she is God's beloved child.  In a land parched and dry with violence, we need this living water more than ever.

(By the way, the morning psalm appointed for Saturday is Psalm 55.  I've always considered that one an important one for anyone who's been abused to pray.)

Readings for today:  Deut. 10:12-22; Heb. 4:11-16; John 3:22-36
Readings for Saturday:  Deut. 11:18-28; Heb. 5:1-10; John 4:1-26
Readings for Sunday:  Jer. 1:1-10; 1 Cor. 3:11-23; Mark 3:31-4:9
Elsa is reading The Message translation this year.