Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Relgion and Politics

Tuesday, November 30, 2010  -- Week of 1 Advent, Year One
Saint Andrew the Apostle
To read about our daily commemorations, go to our Holy Women, Holy Men blog:
http://liturgyandmusic.wordpress.com/category/holy-women-holy-men/

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer)
EITHER the readings for Tuesday of 1 Advent, p. 936
Psalms 5, 6 (morning)       10, 11 (evening)
Isaiah 1:21-31
1 Thessalonians 2:1-12
Luke 20:9-18

OR
the readings for St. Andrew, p. 996
Morning Prayer:  Psalm 34; Isaiah 49:1-6; 1 Corinthians 4:1-16
Evening Prayer:  Psalms 96, 100; Isaiah 55:1-5; John 1:35-42

I chose the readings for Tuesday of 1 Advent



One of the striking things about reading regularly through the scriptures, is how often the readings address issues of justice.  A remarkable portion of holy writ concerns itself with things many people would label as political or economic issues.  Because the columns I write in the newspaper are often a commentary on the intersection of religion & spiritual values with political & economic issues, I hear many objections from people who believe that religion is supposed to address individuals and their moral and spiritual life.  They tell me that proper religion addresses the individual with the call to be upright and generous.  Economic injustices are best addressed neighbor to neighbor or through charitable kindness from faithful congregations, not through governmental policies.

But that's not the approach of scripture.  Over and over the prophets speak to the system -- especially to the rulers, the powerful and to the economic elite.  Isaiah decries corruption and greed in today's reading.  "Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves.  Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts.  They do not defend the orphan, and the widow's cause does not come before them."

Isaiah could be talking about today's politics, so dominated by lobbyists and by the need for candidates to raise enormous sums to run for public office.  "Money equals access" is the prevailing wisdom in Washington. 

How different might public policy, the tax code, and financial oversight be if their primary focus were to "defend the orphan, and the widow"?  I belong to an organization that tries to act as a lobbying agent for the needs of children and families -- the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families.  The group has made a name for itself by working both sides of the political aisle in a non-partisan way and by producing solid, research based information about policies that help, or hurt, families, especially the poor.  The group has had many successes.  During the Huckabee administration Arkansas passed an improved Medicaid program for children, ARKids First.  Our state is among the leaders in offering pre-kindergarten education for at-risk children.  Access to quality pre-K education is one of the key elements to bridging the performance gap between privileged and under-privileged children.

Every year Arkansas Advocates has a constructive agenda for our legislature and our national congress.  One victory per year is considered a good year though.  Progress is slow. 

The limitations are usually about money.  And money means taxes.  Arkansas has one of the most regressive tax codes in the nation.  The only tax we can pass with a majority vote is a sales tax.  Sales taxes hit the poor disproportionately.  Middle-income families (those with less than $40,000) pay 12 cents of every dollar they earn in state and local taxes (mostly sales taxes) compared with just 6 cents on every dollar paid by the richest 1 percent (income above $326,000).  One of our policy goals is a state earned income tax credit (EITC) for low-income working families.  That's unlikely to pass in a tight economy.

We don't even talk about raising income tax rates for people like me who can afford to pay them.  It takes a 75% "yes" vote to pass any tax except sales in Arkansas.  Recently we had a rare success when we passed a tobacco tax in order to fund health care needs.  The bill had the double benefit of raising the price of an unhealthy and addictive drug while funding needed health care.  Even at that, it took some incredible courage by one of our neighboring legislators to get the measure passed by the minimum vote.

Isaiah and the other prophets had a lot to say about government and about economic policy.  They decried greed and the abuse of wealth and power.  They told the leaders that they were responsible for the welfare of the poor and vulnerable -- the widow, orphan and alien.  They spoke in the Name of the Lord.  Justice, especially economic justice, is a God issue. 

I remember as a child picking up the religious norms of my environment -- the buckle of the Bible Belt.  Religion was supposed to stay out of politics, they said.  Religion was about individuals' souls and their morality. 

But then I started reading the Bible.  The Bible is a very political document.  The Bible has some strong economic opinions.  Today Isaiah speaks God's word to power again:  "Zion shall be redeemed by justice, and those in her who repent, by righteousness."  "Defend the orphan, and the widow's cause."

Lowell

__________________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Click the following link:
--
Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html --  Click for Divine Hours

Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas


Monday, November 29, 2010

Not Answering

Monday, November 29, 2010 -- Week of 1 Advent, Year One

To read about our daily commemorations, go to our Holy Women, Holy Men blog:
http://liturgyandmusic.wordpress.com/category/holy-women-holy-men/

Today's Readings for the Daily Office
(Book of Common Prayer, p 936)
Psalms 1, 2, 3 (morning)       4, 7 (evening)
Isaiah 1:10-20
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Luke 20:1-8

NOTE:  We are now in Year One of the Daily Office Lectionary.
We are reading the lessons on the left side of the page in the Prayer Book.

Some questions aren't worth answering. 

I tend to answer questions.  I'm inclined to think that I can explain to people my thoughts and opinions, and that they will understand where I'm coming from.  I imagine that once they've heard my reasoning, they are likely to agree with me.  Those who won't agree with me, I imagine, are those who will decide that they've got too much at stake in a different way of being in the world.  It would be too costly to them -- their world view or relationships or vocation -- for them to embrace what is so obviously true.  They will have to leave saddened, a bit like the rich man whom Jesus invited to give up his wealth and follow him.  We'll agree to disagree, but not because I've failed to make a compelling argument.  Just because they've to too much invested in another idea or paradigm. 

That's a fairly ridiculous way of being.  First of all, I don't know very much.  I'm always learning and adapting.  What I may tell you I think today may be very different from what my opinion will be six months from now if I've learned something.  Secondly, it is very complicated to talk with people about important things.  We all bring to conversation our different histories and our varied emotional and intellectual chemistries. 

It is necessary to have some good will as a foundation for conversation, or otherwise the bar to communion can be too profound.

What jumps out at me as I read today's gospel is that there are some people that we can't talk with because they are not willing to be in communion, they are unwilling to offer the good will necessary for conversation.  Conversation may be either a waste or a trap or an unnecessary expansion of alienation. 

"One day, as he was teaching the people in the temple and telling the good news, the chief priests and the scribes came with the elders and said to Jesus, "Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things?  Who is it who gave you this authority?" 

If that had happened to me, I might have been excited.  Oh goody.  I've finally got the attention of the big boys.  Now I can explain to them what I find so important and why.  But it wouldn't have worked.  They've got a world view about authority, and I would not have fit into it.  Their purpose was to discredit, not to understand.  They've probably got a tight, logical way of entrapping the unwary in their system.  I would have been trapped.  Or just wasted my energy.  Or created a conflict that might have escalated to no good purpose.

Jesus refuses to answer their question.  Instead Jesus returns the favor.  He answers the trick question with another trick question.  They withdraw.

It takes some discernment to recognize when someone does not have enough good will to be in conversation.  Just because someone believes differently or has a profoundly different world view doesn't mean you cannot fruitfully discuss what is important to you.  As long as there is some humanity between you, some good will, conversation is possible.  The improbable conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well comes to mind. 

But sometimes, it's just better to hold your breath.  Or, if you are attacked, it can be nice to have a tricky way to escape.  I'm usually not clever enough to come up with an escape clause like the one Jesus used in this story, the trick question about what they thought of John the Baptist's authority.  But the powerful thing about that answer is that it went back to something fundamental about the greatness of God.  Basically, Jesus, like John, was speaking out of a personal authority given by God.  Since John was established enough that the religious authorities couldn't challenge him publicly, Jesus spoke from a place of strength that also raised his own claim of authority.

I find that if I hold to my fundamental belief in the mysterious, infinite love of God, I rarely feel tricked by religious debate.  It seems as though the one whose God loves the biggest tends to win.

Lowell

__________________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Click the following link:
--
Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html --  Click for Divine Hours

Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas


Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 25, 2010 -- Week of Proper 29, Year Two
Thanksgiving Day
To read about our daily commemorations, go to our Holy Women, Holy Men blog:
http://liturgyandmusic.wordpress.com/category/holy-women-holy-men/

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer)

EITHER
the readings for Thursday of Proper 29, p. 995
Psalms 131, 132, [133] (morning)       134, 135 (evening)
Zechariah 12:1-10
Ephesians 1:3-14
Luke 19:1-10

OR
the readings for Thanksgiving Day, p. 1000
Morning Prayer:  Psalm 147; Deuteronomy 26:1-11; John 6:36-35
Evening Prayer:  Psalm 145; Joel 2:21-27; 1 Thessalonians 5:12-24

I chose the readings for Thanksgiving Day

Our reading from Deuteronomy offers Moses' instructions to the people for a feast of the first fruits.  We are to remember the story of our sojourn from slavery into freedom.  We are to bring the first fruit of the ground and celebrate with God in thanksgiving.  Included in the celebration is the whole community as well as "the aliens who reside among you."  Everyone is included.

And in John we read about the bread from heaven which Jesus gives for the life of the world.  It is the spiritual bread which truly satisfies, which fulfills our deepest hungers and thirsts.  Elsewhere in Jesus' stories he offers food to all and gives water to that great symbol of outcasts, the Samaritan woman at the well.  The spirit of love, forgiveness and compassion which is the food of Jesus is for all.  Everyone is included.

Out of these great traditions we inherit a religious practice that is grounded in feasting and thanksgiving.  The word "eucharist" means "thanksgiving."  The Eucharist is the most characteristic act of Christian life.  We feast with the body and blood of Christ, heavenly food and drink -- received and given with thanksgiving.  To give thanks is to bless.  To receive and give life with thanksgiving is to bless life.

I am reminded of a passage from David Steindl-Rast's book "Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer: An Approach to Life in Fullness."  He writes:

"Our heart's most comprehensive vision shows us that all is gift -- blessing.  And, in response our heart's most spontaneous action is thanksgiving -- blessing.

"But here my ...question arises.  What if I cannot recognize the given as a blessing?  What if it is not sunshine that pours down on us, but hailstones like hammer-blows?  What if it is acid rain?  Here again, the gift within the gift is opportunity.  I have the opportunity, for example, to do something about that acid rain, face the facts, inform myself about the causes, go to their roots, alert others, band together with them for self-help, for protest.  By taking each opportunity as it is offered, I show myself grateful.  But my response will not be full unless I respond also to the ever-present opportunity to praise.

"W.H. Auden has helped me see this by his poem "Precious Five," especially by its last stanza.  " I could," says Auden there,

Find reasons fast enough
To face the sky and roar
In anger and despair
At what is going on,
Demanding that it name
Whoever is to blame:
The sky would only wait
Till all my breath was gone
And then reiterate
As if I wasn't there
That singular command
I do not understand
Bless what there is for being,
Which has to be obeyed, for
What else am I made for,
Agreeing or disagreeing?

"To bless whatever there is, and for no other reason but simply because it is -- that is our raison d'etre; that is what we are made for as human beings.  This singular command is engraved in our heart.  Whether we understand this or not matters little.  Whether we agree or disagree makes no difference.  And in our heart of hearts we know it.

"No matter how hard you strike a bell, it will ring.  What else is it made for?  Even under the hammer blows of fate the heart rings true.  The human heart is made for universal praise.  As long as we pick and choose, making praise depend on our approval, we are not yet responding from the heart.  When we find our heart, we find that core of our being that is attuned to reality.  And reality is praiseworthy.  With clear vision the heart sees the ultimate meaning of all:  blessing.  And with clear intent the heart responds with the ultimate purpose of life:  blessing."  (p. 80-82)

To bless is to give thanks.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Lowell
__________________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Click the following link:
--
Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html --  Click for Divine Hours

Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas



Wednesday, November 24, 2010

To Set Our Hope on Christ

Wednesday, November 24, 2010 -- Week of Proper 29, Year Two
Juan de la Cruz (John of the Cross), Mystic, 1591
To read about our daily commemorations, go to our Holy Women, Holy Men blog:
http://liturgyandmusic.wordpress.com/category/holy-women-holy-men/

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p 995)
Psalms 119:145-176 (morning)       128, 129, 130 (evening)
Zechariah 12:1-10
Ephesians 1:3-14
Luke 19:1-10

Two phrases jumped out at me from the epistle reading today -- "to set our hope on Christ," and "might live for the praise of his glory."

I have set my hope on Christ.  I want to set my hope on Christ.  It is something accomplished, but it is also a continuing and renewing process.

As I look at Christ, I see a reflection of the heart of God and of the potential within humanity. 

God is Christ-like love, poured out into our humble, modest lives. 

Jesus' life is characterized by compassion.  Jesus brought healing and coherence to all whom he met.  He gave special attention to the poor and marginalized, but, as we see today in the story of Zacchaeus, he was also generous toward the wealthy, inspiring their own generosity.  The only ones he got testy with were those who were so sure of their rightness that they cast others in the shadow of the light they thought they monopolized. 

Jesus did not add violence to violence, but soaked up evil, suffering and death, returning nothing but love.  He showed us that persevering love conquers all, and does so non-violently.  God overcame Jesus' death through the resurrection, showing us that what God does is to bring new life out of death.    He showed us the way to live authentic lives -- love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.

This is where I set my hope.  This is where I want to set my hope.  I want to follow the God that Jesus points us to.  I want to be like (and become like) the person Jesus shows us in his full humanity. 

To live as Jesus showed us is to follow the Way he has showed us.  (The Way was the first name for the followers of Jesus.)  To live that way is to live for the praise of his glory.  When we make his priorities ours, we praise him; we give him glory.  "To set our hope on Christ" then means that we do "live for the prasie of his glory."  I like that Way.  That's the Way I want to be.  That's the Way I want to become.
________

P.S.  I recently preached on today's gospel reading, Luke 19:1-10.  Click the link for my sermon "The Lion in the Marble"

Lowell

__________________

Audio podcast:  Listen to an audio podcast of the most recent Morning Reflections from today and the past week.  Click the following link:
--
Morning Reflection Podcasts

About Morning Reflections
"Morning Reflections" is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117
An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at missionstclare.com -- Click for online Daily Office
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html --  Click for Divine Hours

Discussion Blog:  To comment on today's reflection or readings, go to http://lowellsblog.blogspot.com, or click here for Lowell's blog find today's reading, click "comment" at the bottom of the reading, and post your thoughts.

The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

See our Web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life: 
We aspire to...
    worship weekly
    pray daily
    learn constantly
    serve joyfully 
    live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas