There are signs hanging around my (religious) workplace encouraging me to participate in the upcoming National Day of Prayer. I think it's great that someone was able to start an organization and an event encouraging people all across America to pray. However, tied strongly to the post before last, I think there is some quite wrong-headed positioning or basis for the event.
The sign I saw said "Prayer: America's Strength and Shield". No matter how much the Pharisees prayed, it didn't help them one bit when God had the Romans demonstrate to them that the people of God were now those who followed Jesus, not those who sacrificed at the temple. (See previous post.) Similarly, if we pray looking for America's protection first, our god will disappoint us eventually. History ably proves that.
On the other hand, I love the idea of a Day of Prayer with a theme, such as, "Prayer: Teaching us to love our enemies rather than kill them" or "Prayer: Fostering God's heart for the poor" or "Prayer: Hasting the restoration of God's good creation".
For better or worse, I'm reading through the Old Testament and studying medieval church history simultaneously. It's teaching me that there is absolutely nothing new. Our politicians (christian or no) are behaving exactly the way the popes and kings/emperors (also christian) did back in the day (and the kings before them in biblical times). They try to seize power and control everyone around them. (That succinct statement of American foreign policy was completely accidental.) On the commoner's side, we do the same superstitious stuff that they did in the Middle Ages (and further back). It's just dressed up in modern clothes. We do devotions and pray to manipulate our deity. I know some people genuinely do those activities with the right spirit, but most of us do them out of fear or guilt. And then we ask our god to protect our country, notorious for ignoring the plight of scores of people unless it's in our own interest. I don't think he's listening.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Electricity
I heard on our local NPR affiliate that our city may need another coal-fired power plant by 2014. They encouraged us to conserve energy through a number of means to avoid this eventuality. I fully support this.
As I was relating this to some co-workers, I got my tang tungled and called said facility a "coal-fouled pyre plant." It works on so many levels.
As I was relating this to some co-workers, I got my tang tungled and called said facility a "coal-fouled pyre plant." It works on so many levels.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Misunderstanding alert
When people are about to give away a major plot point, they warn unsuspecting, disinclined people away by saying "spoiler alert." While there may be a spoiler in here somewhere, it's not about a movie or a book. What is much more likely is that you may not read carefully and will misunderstand me. I don't want to be the next Jeremiah Wright (and some of this will sound similar to his rhetoric), so pay close attention.
In a meeting today, I heard read (in a Step 1-Step 2-Step 3-to-land-healing sort of way), "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (TNIV). That was the full quote, though that's not the full paragraph in the Bible text. There's some irrelevant bit in there about a temple.
To prevent misunderstanding, let me note that my argument here will be that we must be fully consistent with all our arguments if we are to use Scripture. But I think you'll see in a *SPOILER ALERT* surprise twist at the end that if we are consistent, then Jeremiah Right is wright.
God's purpose for his chosen nation Israel was always that they would reach out to the world and bring them to him. Instead, they turned inward, alternately congratulating themselves for how holy they were and saying, "Screwitit'stoohardlet'sgolivelikethepagans." Sometimes on the same day. But rarely did they bother to reach out to foreigners, and when they did, they had the stench of Large Fish Gastric Acid all over themselves (see Jonah). In time, God used those hated pagans to teach his obstinate, self-absorbed people a lesson. After being returned to their land, continuing oppression by their enemies, and much feeling sorry for themselves, the Jewish people had split into a number of groups, each claiming to have the means to purge the land of the hated pagans. If you were paying attention at your church's latest "we're not like that silly Jewish group" party, you may recognize the name "Pharisee." Those guys were indeed some of the strictest, most moralizing folks around. (And of course, your church isn't like that.) The Pharisees had all kinds of ideas of how to purge Judea of not only the Romans, but prostitutes, tax collectors, Samaritans, and other ne'er-do-wells. (Not to ruin the ending, but you can generally read those groups as terrorists, gays, market-capitalism-hating-Democrats and black people, from the perspective of the American Pharisee.) But guess what. God called the pagans in again to destroy his obstinate people (the Pharisees, et al), who were in fact, not really his people. The "holiest" Jews had nothing to do with the faith of their father Abraham. They shared a bloodline and made fantastic claims about how they were God's people. They probably even quoted from the Chronicler the passage above (only they quoted the whole paragraph). But God wouldn't have any of it.
Have I given everything away already? I best not be a screenwriter. Generally, the American Pharisee claims that America is God's chosen nation. If they're a little smarter than the average American Pharisee, they won't say that we are, but everything they say and do gives that impression. For the sake of argument, let's grant that America is God's chosen nation/people. Sure we've oppressed a bit, killed a bit and hated a bit, but that's nothing the Native Americans, African-Americans, etc. won't get over, is it? But we say we love Jesus, and we quote tidbits from the Bible, and that's good enough, right? Okay, if we say we're God's nation, and we say we're mostly good, and we create all kinds of ways of being holy, but we still don't love people, doesn't that leave us in the same shoes as the Jews? (I would have softened the usage of the ethnic group, but I liked the rhyme too much.) As God's chosen nation, if we hate terrorists enough to kill them (or communists or Germans or Indians or Brits or whatever), doesn't it follow that we should be susceptible to their attacks as a form of God's judgment? This is where Jeremiah Wright was prophetically calling white folk to account. He said the chickens were coming home to roost, and that was branded as anti-American sentiment. But he's exactly right if we are indeed God's chosen nation. There's nothing more damnable than naming Jesus as our savior, lord, favorite philosopher and then going out to do exactly the opposite of what he preached. If, by our actions and words, we in varying degrees claim to be chosen, we need to be open to chastisement in the ways God has historically chastised.
Personally, I believe that true Jesus followers are God's chosen people to bring blessing to the world. America might be under threat of "terrorist attack" much the same way God'sholychosencitymotherRome was threatened by the Lombards, those evilbastardpagans. That went on for centuries, and the people who most believed that God was on their side nearly lost Rome on numerous occasions. There was a time when Rome sat empty (evacuated) for a few days. There were 70 years when the popes resided in what is now France. But Rome sure thought she was special.
There is nothing new under the sun. It's time we stopped focusing on how great our nation is and killing people for it, and started focusing on how great our Savior, Redeemer and Restorer of creation is and giving our lives for him.
In a meeting today, I heard read (in a Step 1-Step 2-Step 3-to-land-healing sort of way), "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (TNIV). That was the full quote, though that's not the full paragraph in the Bible text. There's some irrelevant bit in there about a temple.
To prevent misunderstanding, let me note that my argument here will be that we must be fully consistent with all our arguments if we are to use Scripture. But I think you'll see in a *SPOILER ALERT* surprise twist at the end that if we are consistent, then Jeremiah Right is wright.
God's purpose for his chosen nation Israel was always that they would reach out to the world and bring them to him. Instead, they turned inward, alternately congratulating themselves for how holy they were and saying, "Screwitit'stoohardlet'sgolivelikethepagans." Sometimes on the same day. But rarely did they bother to reach out to foreigners, and when they did, they had the stench of Large Fish Gastric Acid all over themselves (see Jonah). In time, God used those hated pagans to teach his obstinate, self-absorbed people a lesson. After being returned to their land, continuing oppression by their enemies, and much feeling sorry for themselves, the Jewish people had split into a number of groups, each claiming to have the means to purge the land of the hated pagans. If you were paying attention at your church's latest "we're not like that silly Jewish group" party, you may recognize the name "Pharisee." Those guys were indeed some of the strictest, most moralizing folks around. (And of course, your church isn't like that.) The Pharisees had all kinds of ideas of how to purge Judea of not only the Romans, but prostitutes, tax collectors, Samaritans, and other ne'er-do-wells. (Not to ruin the ending, but you can generally read those groups as terrorists, gays, market-capitalism-hating-Democrats and black people, from the perspective of the American Pharisee.) But guess what. God called the pagans in again to destroy his obstinate people (the Pharisees, et al), who were in fact, not really his people. The "holiest" Jews had nothing to do with the faith of their father Abraham. They shared a bloodline and made fantastic claims about how they were God's people. They probably even quoted from the Chronicler the passage above (only they quoted the whole paragraph). But God wouldn't have any of it.
Have I given everything away already? I best not be a screenwriter. Generally, the American Pharisee claims that America is God's chosen nation. If they're a little smarter than the average American Pharisee, they won't say that we are, but everything they say and do gives that impression. For the sake of argument, let's grant that America is God's chosen nation/people. Sure we've oppressed a bit, killed a bit and hated a bit, but that's nothing the Native Americans, African-Americans, etc. won't get over, is it? But we say we love Jesus, and we quote tidbits from the Bible, and that's good enough, right? Okay, if we say we're God's nation, and we say we're mostly good, and we create all kinds of ways of being holy, but we still don't love people, doesn't that leave us in the same shoes as the Jews? (I would have softened the usage of the ethnic group, but I liked the rhyme too much.) As God's chosen nation, if we hate terrorists enough to kill them (or communists or Germans or Indians or Brits or whatever), doesn't it follow that we should be susceptible to their attacks as a form of God's judgment? This is where Jeremiah Wright was prophetically calling white folk to account. He said the chickens were coming home to roost, and that was branded as anti-American sentiment. But he's exactly right if we are indeed God's chosen nation. There's nothing more damnable than naming Jesus as our savior, lord, favorite philosopher and then going out to do exactly the opposite of what he preached. If, by our actions and words, we in varying degrees claim to be chosen, we need to be open to chastisement in the ways God has historically chastised.
Personally, I believe that true Jesus followers are God's chosen people to bring blessing to the world. America might be under threat of "terrorist attack" much the same way God'sholychosencitymotherRome was threatened by the Lombards, those evilbastardpagans. That went on for centuries, and the people who most believed that God was on their side nearly lost Rome on numerous occasions. There was a time when Rome sat empty (evacuated) for a few days. There were 70 years when the popes resided in what is now France. But Rome sure thought she was special.
There is nothing new under the sun. It's time we stopped focusing on how great our nation is and killing people for it, and started focusing on how great our Savior, Redeemer and Restorer of creation is and giving our lives for him.
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