The month of August, 2009, will be remembered by me for two things. First, during this month some members of Congress have returned to their home districts to conduct so-called “Town Hall Meetings”. The electorate has been attending these meetings in record numbers. “Town Hall Meetings” used to be reserved for “policy wonks”. However, because of the national debate on health care reform the meetings have been packed to overflowing.
Not only have the meetings been filled with lots and lots of people, but they have been marked with a lot yelling and shouting. By now all of you have seen on TV pictures of some people quite literally screaming at members of the House of Representatives and members of the Senate. Passions have, indeed, been running high.
The national debate on health care reform is an important one. I will not debate or offer my views on the merits or the demerits of the plan(s) that are being considered by members of the Congress. One thing I will say is that I am very thankful that I’m not a Representative or a Senator. Is someone got into my face, screaming at me, at just might be tempted to poke the offending party in the nose. (Just kidding!)
What is sad to me is the absolute lack of civility in the public discourse. I will defend to my dying breath the right of people to protest and state their deeply held views, beliefs and convictions. The great thing about the democracy in which we live, and for which people have given their lives, is that WE THE PEOPLE (quoting from the cannon of the Constitution) have every right in the world to tell our elected officials our views. Dissent is no sin, as long as it is presented in a civil manner, it seems to me.
The fact that some people, not all people, at the Town Hall meetings are yelling and screaming really should come as no surprise to any of us. Turn on the cable news programs on CNN, FOX and MSNBC and you will see, quite often, people yelling at each other. When my wife and I were newly married I used to watch CNN’s “Crossfire”. My wife referred to it as “the yelling man show”.
I was a very odd teenager. One of my favorite TV shows was William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line”. Mr. Buckley used to debate guests on a variety of issues. He never raised his voice. He never belittled their character. He carried on reasoned discussion. No wonder the show was lost in ether of noise with the advent of the cable news networks.
Our elected officials have not helped the tone of debate in this country. Both Democrats and Republicans harangue one another. It’s not quite as bad with members of the Senate where there is more of a tradition of civility, than in the rowdy House of Representatives. Yet, some senators should have their bottoms spank for the mean and spiteful things they say about the character of other people.
You might be interested to know that in Robert’s Rules of Order, that both houses use to guide and conduct their business, there is a provision that a member may not ever question the character of a fellow member. Following that provision would lead to civil discourse. Some of our elected officials might want to bone up on Robert’s Rules.
The second thing that August of 2009 will be remembered by me for is the ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly in Minneapolis. Regardless of what you may have thought about the outcome of various votes, particularly those on human sexuality, if you watched any of the assembly at all on the Web you must have been impressed with the civility of debate. (I will not give my views on those votes in this particular venue, at this time.)
I did watch some of the debates concerning various resolutions. The resolutions concerning human sexuality, by their very nature, raised some intense feelings in people both in and out of the assembly hall. When speakers went to the microphones to express their views, they may have been passionate about their views, but the vast majority of people speaking, that I saw, at least, seemed to be working to remain civil to even those people with who they disagreed passionately.
I do believe that the delegates at the assembly modeled good, Christian discourse. They are to be commended for that, regardless of one’s views concerning the outcome of votes.
It is hard to state one’s views without anger and rancor at times. Blessed St. Peter in the third chapter of his first letter reminds us:
8Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing. 10For “Those who desire life and desire to see good days, let them keep their tongues from evil and their lips from speaking deceit; 11let them turn away from evil and do good; let them seek peace and pursue it. 12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” 13Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? 14But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, 15but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; 16yet do it with gentleness and reverence. (I Peter 3:8-16)
A Christian person can, indeed, have a strong view, even a passionate view. But, the Christian person must always in the heat of debate realize that Christ died and rose again for the sake of the person they are debating. To scream at another person isn’t just bad form, it is to deny Jesus’ profound love for those we debate and disagree with.
I have friends who don’t see eye to eye with me on all manner of issues. Yet, we never become nasty, we never become testy. We work hard at maintaining a bond of peace.
If only people could remember such things as they debate and disagree with each other.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Too Far From Home
I have always been interested in space flight. As a little boy, growing up during the glory days of the US space program I would watch every Gemini launch, sometimes even faking an illness to stay home and watch Walter Cronkite describe a launch. I send letters to NASA asking for pictures of the astronauts and other information. I built plastic models of space ships (rather badly). I turned several large boxes into Gemini space capsules, cutting open portholes and decorating the outside of “the capsule” with the letters USA drawn in crayon.
As an adult I have continued to be enthralled with space flight. I watched Ton Hank’s wonderful HBO series, “From the Earth to the Moon”. I own the movie “Apollo 13”, which stars Hanks. I have built, or better to say rebuilt, plastic models of spacecraft and done a fairly good job, I might add. I have been to the Kennedy Space Center several times to see launches of the Shuttle.
As an avid space fan I’ve read dozens of wonderful books, some by the astronauts themselves, on space flight. I just finished reading a marvelous book by Chris Jones, Too Far From Home. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in modern day space flight.
Mr. Jones book recounts a little known and hardly remembered story in the history of the US space program. Too Far From Home tells the story of three men, two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut, who became stranded in space aboard the International Space Station after the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in early 2003. Immediately following the loss of Columbia the entire US shuttle fleet was grounded for two and a half years. The three men on the ISS were left orbiting 290 miles above the surface of the earth.
The three man crew was eventually returned to earth by a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The men stayed aboard the ISS several months longer than had been planned. At first, all three men were content to be in space, even with no way of getting back to earth. They had enough food, water and other supplies to last them in orbit. They enjoyed living in the weightless environment of space.
They were especially enthralled with looking at the beauty of the Earth passing beneath them. Everyday they witnessed fourteen sunrises and sunsets. They could see the glorious colors of the Northern Lights. They witnessed lightening storms far below them. They even saw meteors burning up in our planets atmosphere from above.
Their view of earth was Godlike. Yet, they were totally and completely removed from Earth. They could gaze on the surreal beauty of Earth from space with no way to get to the planet and more importantly the people they loved.
It would not be too much of a stretch to say that a deep gulf or chasm had been fixed between those space travelers and the earth when the Columbia was lost.
Luke, the gospel writer, tells us a story of a gulf or chasm in his reporting of Jesus’ parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). In the parable the rich man finds himself in hell because of his lack of care for the poor man, Lazarus, who used to lay at his gate. In the story the rich man can see Lazarus in paradise with Father Abraham. He can see a place of life and refreshment that he cannot get to because, as Abraham tells him, “between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and one can cross from there to us.”
That was pretty much the situation of the men of Expedition Six, the official designation for those three standard space travelers. They could see Earth. They could speak to Earth. They could e-mail their friends and families. They gaze at the beauty and the goodness of Earth, but they couldn’t get to Earth anymore than the Rich Man could get into paradise.
It’s that sense of being so close, yet so far away that makes Too Far From Home a compelling read. It’s that sense of being so close, yet so far away that makes the reading of the parable frightening. We, some of us, are raised to think of hell as a separate reality cut off from the vision of heaven. But, that’s not what this parable suggests. The Rich Man can see the party that Lazarus is at. He can’t get there. As some wags might say, “and that’s the hell of it”.
The men of Expedition Six did get back to the good Earth. The chasm and gulf was bridged by their capsule when it streaked back to earth.
Jesus tells his parable to us, I think, as something of a warning. The chasm between Abraham, Lazarus and the Rich Man was a result of the chasm that the Rich Man had set between himself and Lazarus during their lifetimes.
What, I wonder, are the gulfs and chasms that even now I am setting between myself and other people?
As an adult I have continued to be enthralled with space flight. I watched Ton Hank’s wonderful HBO series, “From the Earth to the Moon”. I own the movie “Apollo 13”, which stars Hanks. I have built, or better to say rebuilt, plastic models of spacecraft and done a fairly good job, I might add. I have been to the Kennedy Space Center several times to see launches of the Shuttle.
As an avid space fan I’ve read dozens of wonderful books, some by the astronauts themselves, on space flight. I just finished reading a marvelous book by Chris Jones, Too Far From Home. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in modern day space flight.
Mr. Jones book recounts a little known and hardly remembered story in the history of the US space program. Too Far From Home tells the story of three men, two American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut, who became stranded in space aboard the International Space Station after the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia in early 2003. Immediately following the loss of Columbia the entire US shuttle fleet was grounded for two and a half years. The three men on the ISS were left orbiting 290 miles above the surface of the earth.
The three man crew was eventually returned to earth by a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The men stayed aboard the ISS several months longer than had been planned. At first, all three men were content to be in space, even with no way of getting back to earth. They had enough food, water and other supplies to last them in orbit. They enjoyed living in the weightless environment of space.
They were especially enthralled with looking at the beauty of the Earth passing beneath them. Everyday they witnessed fourteen sunrises and sunsets. They could see the glorious colors of the Northern Lights. They witnessed lightening storms far below them. They even saw meteors burning up in our planets atmosphere from above.
Their view of earth was Godlike. Yet, they were totally and completely removed from Earth. They could gaze on the surreal beauty of Earth from space with no way to get to the planet and more importantly the people they loved.
It would not be too much of a stretch to say that a deep gulf or chasm had been fixed between those space travelers and the earth when the Columbia was lost.
Luke, the gospel writer, tells us a story of a gulf or chasm in his reporting of Jesus’ parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). In the parable the rich man finds himself in hell because of his lack of care for the poor man, Lazarus, who used to lay at his gate. In the story the rich man can see Lazarus in paradise with Father Abraham. He can see a place of life and refreshment that he cannot get to because, as Abraham tells him, “between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and one can cross from there to us.”
That was pretty much the situation of the men of Expedition Six, the official designation for those three standard space travelers. They could see Earth. They could speak to Earth. They could e-mail their friends and families. They gaze at the beauty and the goodness of Earth, but they couldn’t get to Earth anymore than the Rich Man could get into paradise.
It’s that sense of being so close, yet so far away that makes Too Far From Home a compelling read. It’s that sense of being so close, yet so far away that makes the reading of the parable frightening. We, some of us, are raised to think of hell as a separate reality cut off from the vision of heaven. But, that’s not what this parable suggests. The Rich Man can see the party that Lazarus is at. He can’t get there. As some wags might say, “and that’s the hell of it”.
The men of Expedition Six did get back to the good Earth. The chasm and gulf was bridged by their capsule when it streaked back to earth.
Jesus tells his parable to us, I think, as something of a warning. The chasm between Abraham, Lazarus and the Rich Man was a result of the chasm that the Rich Man had set between himself and Lazarus during their lifetimes.
What, I wonder, are the gulfs and chasms that even now I am setting between myself and other people?
Thursday, August 20, 2009
So Why Does the Bible Begin With the Creation Account?
This morning I was happily reading "The Meaning in the Miracles" by Jeffrey John. Mr. John was commenting on Jesus' healing of the crippled woman in Luke 13:10-17. In this particular healing account Jesus is rebuked by the leader of the synagogue for curing the poor woman on the Sabbath. This is just one such account of Jesus misbehaving himself on Sabbath Day.
Mr. John in his commentary on this healing made an observation that transfixed me for a moment. He writes: "They (meaning the Jewish leaders) have forgotten the original meaning and purpose of the Sabbath- to bring people release and freedom, not further burdens of oppression- and in doing so they have become instruments of oppression themselves."
The Bible begins, in Genesis, with the account of God creating all that is in six days. On the seventh day, God rests from his labors. One interpretation for why the six day creation account with the seventh day rest time even appears in Genesis is that the entire account, Genesis 1:1-2:3, helps to explain not just God's creation of all things, but also, why, precisely Jewish people rest on the Sabbath.
One can imagine a child asking his father or mother in long ago Israel, "Papa, Mama, why do we, unlike our neighbors, rest on the Sabbath?" The good parent might very well have launched into the story told in Genesis. After reporting that the Almighty Lord himself rested the parent may have said, "As God rested, so we too take our Sabbath rest."
All well and good. The account does indeed seem to offer a justification or a rationale for Sabbath rest.
However, when I read Mr. John's fine book I was struck with something else and even had something of a "Eureka moment". Mr. John's contends that the meaning of Sabbath is "release and freedom, not further burdens of oppression." Is it not the case that the story, the whole story that both the Old and New Testaments will tell is God bringing freedom and release to his people? The Bible begins with a story then, in its first pages, of God bringing freedom and release to his people through the gift of the Sabbath. As the story then continues from Genesis through Revelation we will see God continually bringing freedom and release to his people.
The first creation account in the Bible might very well be providing us with a lens to read the rest of scripture through. God as the lover of all people brings freedom and release from all the foul powers that would enslave us. I think this account is setting us up for that.
So, the purpose of the first creation isn't merely an explanation for how all things came to be (any faithful person will know that all things came to be through God) nor is a mere explanation for taking the seventh day off. No, I think as we remember what the purpose of Sabbath originally was, to bring freedom and release, we will see as we keep reading through the Bible's pages precisely how God brings freedom and release to all people.
Mr. John in his commentary on this healing made an observation that transfixed me for a moment. He writes: "They (meaning the Jewish leaders) have forgotten the original meaning and purpose of the Sabbath- to bring people release and freedom, not further burdens of oppression- and in doing so they have become instruments of oppression themselves."
The Bible begins, in Genesis, with the account of God creating all that is in six days. On the seventh day, God rests from his labors. One interpretation for why the six day creation account with the seventh day rest time even appears in Genesis is that the entire account, Genesis 1:1-2:3, helps to explain not just God's creation of all things, but also, why, precisely Jewish people rest on the Sabbath.
One can imagine a child asking his father or mother in long ago Israel, "Papa, Mama, why do we, unlike our neighbors, rest on the Sabbath?" The good parent might very well have launched into the story told in Genesis. After reporting that the Almighty Lord himself rested the parent may have said, "As God rested, so we too take our Sabbath rest."
All well and good. The account does indeed seem to offer a justification or a rationale for Sabbath rest.
However, when I read Mr. John's fine book I was struck with something else and even had something of a "Eureka moment". Mr. John's contends that the meaning of Sabbath is "release and freedom, not further burdens of oppression." Is it not the case that the story, the whole story that both the Old and New Testaments will tell is God bringing freedom and release to his people? The Bible begins with a story then, in its first pages, of God bringing freedom and release to his people through the gift of the Sabbath. As the story then continues from Genesis through Revelation we will see God continually bringing freedom and release to his people.
The first creation account in the Bible might very well be providing us with a lens to read the rest of scripture through. God as the lover of all people brings freedom and release from all the foul powers that would enslave us. I think this account is setting us up for that.
So, the purpose of the first creation isn't merely an explanation for how all things came to be (any faithful person will know that all things came to be through God) nor is a mere explanation for taking the seventh day off. No, I think as we remember what the purpose of Sabbath originally was, to bring freedom and release, we will see as we keep reading through the Bible's pages precisely how God brings freedom and release to all people.
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