Out to Lunch, Back in 5

Hey everybody--Heather and I are going to Florida for a week and a day, starting Sunday. We'll be working on houses damaged by Hurricane Charley and we'll be north of Ft. Myers. I am way looking forward to it. But it means no blog posts for a week or so. Crazy, huh?

So, if you want, leave me comments about what you want written about next. And then discuss. Or just come back after the 27th. It's really up to you. I try to offer a flexible and enjoyable experience here.

Best,

Amy

Resisting Temptation

"Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil"

Every week, Christians pray not to be tempted, but sometimes life intervenes.

I have a friend (who for obvious reasons has to stay anonymous) who's in a good relationship, but feels strongly attracted to someone else, too.

So I was trying to offer some helpful advice for how to deal with this, because I think it's a common occurence in even the best of relationships. But a cursory search of the internet yields very little practical help. It's mostly along the lines of: "Control yourself" and "Just say no." (Which we all know was very successful in the war on drugs) Or else a list of consequences for cheaters.

But if anybody has anything to say about resisting temptation, it should be the Christian tradition, right?

When Jesus is tempted in the desert, his temptations are to power. He's tempted to turn stones into bread so he can eat, to jump off a tall tower to test God's protection, and to bow down to Satan in order to have control over the whole world. In each case, his strong faith in God, and God's primary place in his life allow him to turn Satan down. Jesus will not abuse his divine power, he will not put God to the test, and he will not bow down to anyone but God.

I think for us, too, whatever our temptations are to do wrong, there are three steps to resistance:

First, don't justify or minimize the wrong. Little thoughts like "it's not so bad," or "my case is special," should be big warning signs. Even worse--"I won't get caught." Ask yourself--would you want this action made public?

Second, keep focused on the larger picture. Think of everyone involved who would be hurt if you did give in to temptation. Think of what you value most and your sense of self-respect. There are reasons against any action, of course, but stay focused on the good you're aspiring to and protecting by resisting temptation. If you need to, write it down.

Finally, in the case of attraction to someone else, it's important to be reasonable about your feelings. It's common to have feelings for someone else. Don't beat yourself up about that. What's important is to control how you respond to those feelings--whether you tell the other person, or take other steps to start something.

But keep in mind, too, that thoughts build themselves up, too, into a kind of action. If you're obsessing over someone, and can't get them out of your mind, it's probably having an effect on how you treat that person, and how you treat your SO. In that case, I recommend not trying to punish or repress the thoughts, but to redirect them. When you notice you're obsessing, take note, take a couple deep breaths, and remind yourself why you want to resist this temptation. Then think about something else. This may take some stamina, but in the end will make things easier.

Jesus says that if your eye causes you to sin, you should gouge it out, or if your hand causes you to sin, you should cut it off. I think there's a little hyperbole there, but in some ways it's good advice--the more you can do to draw back from temptations, the better able you will be able to resist them.

A Prayer for Guidance from the Q'uran

All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.
The Beneficent, the Merciful.
Master of the Day of Judgment.
Thee do we serve and Thee do we beseech for help.
Keep us on the right path.
The path of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed favors. Not (the path) of those upon whom Thy wrath is brought down, nor of those who go astray.

And A Prayer for Peace

Oh God,
You are Peace.
From You comes Peace,
To You returns Peace.
Revive us with a salutation of peace,
And lead us to your abode of Peace.

From Beliefnet

Cartoon Riots

Hi folks--saw Eric's post and thought I'd look into these riots a little more closely.

Here's an online conversation from the Washington Post that I found helpful.

A quote from it:

Arlington, Va.: Although I agree Chantilly did not word the question in the best way, I would like to rephrase if I may - what are Muslim religious leaders saying about the reaction to the cartoons? Do they point out the fact that while it is considered blasphemous to depict the prophet Muhammad it is also wrong to kill? Especially when the violent protests have killed people who have had nothing to do with the publication of the cartoons?

Philip Kennicott: I've read several stories in the Post recently in which Muslim leaders say essentially all the things so many people want them to say. If memory serves, one from Lebanon, and another from Afghanistan. One of the uglier dynamics about modern debate via the Internet and television is that everyone is always demanding that the other side say such and such. And often, they are saying exactly those things... but no one listens because they've already decided what the other man thinks.

Update: an article from Slate: "Cartoon Characters," by a British man on the topic of Islam and secular democracy.

A quote:

...the most depressing thing I have seen or heard this past week (which is saying something) was from someone who suggested that there was a fundamental incompatibility between Islam "and our democratic secular values." If that's a view that, as I have more than hinted here, I am close to sharing, why was it so depressing? Because the speaker was a leader of the brutal white-supremacist British National Party.

New Sermon Up

Hi folks--my latest sermon's up on my sermon blog.

Love and Relationships: What's God got to do with it?

There's actually a lot in the sermon that I didn't write about last week, and vice versa, so go ahead and take a look if you're so inclined.

Best,

Amy

Book on Children of Divorce

I was reading a review of this book in my Christian Century:

Between Two Worlds

It's a study of how divorce affects children, done by a woman whose parents divorced when she was two. She did interviews nationwide of people ages 18-35 whose parents divorced before they were 14, and gleaned a lot of stories from them about the difficulties of the experience--having to be on guard, learning to negotiate between one parent's rules and expectations and the others'.

I bring this up because it seems to me that this could be a healing book for readers who are still dealing with their parents' divorce. You're not alone, in other words. And it seems like good reading, too, for divorced parents who want to know better how to support their kids.

Obviously the question of divorce is a very difficult one--a case by case issue--but I don't think this book is necessarily an argument against all divorce. Abusive relationships, for starters, are more damaging than divorces to kids. But the book is more an exploration of the consequences for children of divorce, who bear a particular burden. The question it raises for me is: how important are the children's needs when a decision about divorce is being made?

Bono's Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast

[Hey guys, I know this is long, but it's really good. Enjoy. --Amy]

"If you're wondering what I'm doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I'm certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather. It's certainly not because I'm a rock star. Which leaves one possible explanation: I'm here because I've got a messianic complex.

Yes, it's true. And for anyone who knows me, it's hardly a revelation.

Well, I'm the first to admit that there's something unnatural...something unseemly...about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents, and then disappearing to their villas in the south of France. Talk about a fish out of water. It was weird enough when Jesse Helms showed up at a U2 concert...but this is really weird, isn't it?

You know, one of the things I love about this country is its separation of church and state. Although I have to say: in inviting me here, both church and state have been separated from something else completely: their mind.

Mr. President, are you sure about this?

It's very humbling and I will try to keep my homily brief. But be warned - I'm Irish.

I'd like to talk about the laws of man, here in this city where those laws are written. And I'd like to talk about higher laws. It would be great to assume that the one serves the other; that the laws of man serve these higher laws...but of course, they don't always. And I presume that, in a sense, is why you're here.

I presume the reason for this gathering is that all of us here - Muslims, Jews, Christians - all are searching our souls for how to better serve our family, our community, our nation, our God.

I know I am. Searching, I mean. And that, I suppose, is what led me here, too.

Yes, it's odd, having a rock star here - but maybe it's odder for me than for you. You see, I avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant and a mother who was Catholic in a country where the line between the two was, quite literally, a battle line. Where the line between church and state was...well, a little blurry, and hard to see.

I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays... and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God.

For me, at least, it got in the way. Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land...and in this country, seeing God's second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash...in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment...

I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV.

Even though I was a believer.

Perhaps because I was a believer.

I was cynical...not about God, but about God's politics. (There you are, Jim.)

Then, in 1997, a couple of eccentric, septuagenarian British Christians went and ruined my shtick - my reproachfulness. They did it by describing the millennium, the year 2000, as a Jubilee year, as an opportunity to cancel the chronic debts of the world's poorest people. They had the audacity to renew the Lord's call - and were joined by Pope John Paul II, who, from an Irish half-Catholic's point of view, may have had a more direct line to the Almighty.

'Jubilee' - why 'Jubilee'?

What was this year of Jubilee, this year of our Lord's favor?

I'd always read the scriptures, even the obscure stuff. There it was in Leviticus (25:35)...

'If your brother becomes poor,' the scriptures say, 'and cannot maintain himself...you shall maintain him.... You shall not lend him your money at interest, not give him your food for profit.'

It is such an important idea, Jubilee, that Jesus begins his ministry with this. Jesus is a young man, he's met with the rabbis, impressed everyone, people are talking. The elders say, he's a clever guy, this Jesus, but he hasn't done much...yet. He hasn't spoken in public before...

When he does, is first words are from Isaiah: 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,' he says, 'because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.' And Jesus proclaims the year of the Lord's favour, the year of Jubilee (Luke 4:18).

What he was really talking about was an era of grace - and we're still in it.

So fast-forward 2,000 years. That same thought, grace, was made incarnate - in a movement of all kinds of people. It wasn't a bless-me club... it wasn't a holy huddle. These religious guys were willing to get out in the streets, get their boots dirty, wave the placards, follow their convictions with actions...making it really hard for people like me to keep their distance. It was amazing. I almost started to like these church people.

But then my cynicism got another helping hand.

It was what Colin Powell, a five-star general, called the greatest W.M.D. of them all: a tiny little virus called AIDS. And the religious community, in large part, missed it. The ones that didn't miss it could only see it as divine retribution for bad behaviour. Even on children...even [though the] fastest growing group of HIV infections were married, faithful women.

Aha, there they go again! I thought to myself judgmentalism is back!

But in truth, I was wrong again. The church was slow but the church got busy on this the leprosy of our age.

Love was on the move.

Mercy was on the move.

God was on the move.

Moving people of all kinds to work with others they had never met, never would have cared to meet...conservative church groups hanging out with spokesmen for the gay community, all singing off the same hymn sheet on AIDS...soccer moms and quarterbacks...hip-hop stars and country stars. This is what happens when God gets on the move: crazy stuff happens!

Popes were seen wearing sunglasses!

Jesse Helms was seen with a ghetto blaster!

Crazy stuff. Evidence of the spirit.

It was breathtaking. Literally. It stopped the world in its tracks.

When churches started demonstrating on debt, governments listened - and acted. When churches starting organising, petitioning, and even - that most unholy of acts today, God forbid, lobbying...on AIDS and global health, governments listened - and acted.

I'm here today in all humility to say: you changed minds; you changed policy; you changed the world.

Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives.

Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone.

I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill. I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff. Maybe, maybe not. But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.

God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them. "If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom with become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places."

It's not a coincidence that in the scriptures, poverty is mentioned more than 2,100 times. It's not an accident. That's a lot of air time, 2,100 mentions. (You know, the only time Christ is judgmental is on the subject of the poor.) 'As you have done it unto the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto me' (Matthew 25:40). As I say, good news to the poor.

Here's some good news for the president. After 9/11 we were told America would have no time for the world's poor. America would be taken up with its own problems of safety. And it's true these are dangerous times, but America has not drawn the blinds and double-locked the doors.

In fact, you have doubled aid to Africa. You have tripled funding for global health. Mr. President, your emergency plan for AIDS relief and support for the Global Fund - you and Congress - have put 700,000 people onto life-saving anti-retroviral drugs and provided 8 million bed nets to protect children from malaria.

Outstanding human achievements. Counterintuitive. Historic. Be very, very proud.

But here's the bad news. From charity to justice, the good news is yet to come. There is much more to do. There's a gigantic chasm between the scale of the emergency and the scale of the response.

And finally, it's not about charity after all, is it? It's about justice.

Let me repeat that: It's not about charity, it's about justice.

And that's too bad.

Because you're good at charity. Americans, like the Irish, are good at it. We like to give, and we give a lot, even those who can't afford it.

But justice is a higher standard. Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice; it makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties, it doubts our concern, it questions our commitment.

Sixty-five hundred Africans are still dying every day of a preventable, treatable disease, for lack of drugs we can buy at any drug store. This is not about charity, this is about justice and equality.

Because there's no way we can look at what's happening in Africa and, if we're honest, conclude that deep down, we really accept that Africans are equal to us. Anywhere else in the world, we wouldn't accept it. Look at what happened in South East Asia with the tsunami. 150,000 lives lost to that misnomer of all misnomers, "mother nature." In Africa, 150,000 lives are lost every month. A tsunami every month. And it's a completely avoidable catastrophe.

It's annoying but justice and equality are mates. Aren't they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.

You know, think of those Jewish sheep-herders going to meet the Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh says, "Equal?" A preposterous idea: rich and poor are equal? And they say, "Yeah, 'equal,' that's what it says here in this book. We're all made in the image of God."

And eventually the Pharaoh says, "OK, I can accept that. I can accept the Jews - but not the blacks."

"Not the women. Not the gays. Not the Irish. No way, man."

So on we go with our journey of equality.

On we go in the pursuit of justice.

We hear that call in the ONE Campaign, a growing movement of more than 2 million Americans...Left and Right together... united in the belief that where you live should no longer determine whether you live.

We hear that call even more powerfully today, as we mourn the loss of Coretta Scott King - mother of a movement for equality, one that changed the world but is only just getting started. These issues are as alive as they ever were; they just change shape and cross the seas.

Preventing the poorest of the poor from selling their products while we sing the virtues of the free market...that's a justice issue. Holding children to ransom for the debts of their grandparents...that's a justice issue. Withholding life-saving medicines out of deference to the Office of Patents...that's a justice issue.

And while the law is what we say it is, God is not silent on the subject.

That's why I say there's the law of the land?. And then there is a higher standard. There's the law of the land, and we can hire experts to write them so they benefit us, so the laws say it's OK to protect our agriculture but it's not OK for African farmers to do the same, to earn a living?

As the laws of man are written, that's what they say.

God will not accept that.

Mine won't, at least. Will yours?

[ pause]

I close this morning on...very...thin...ice.

This is a dangerous idea I've put on the table: my God vs. your God, their God vs. our God...vs. no God. It is very easy, in these times, to see religion as a force for division rather than unity.

And this is a town - Washington - that knows something of division.

But the reason I am here, and the reason I keep coming back to Washington, is because this is a town that is proving it can come together on behalf of what the scriptures call the least of these.

This is not a Republican idea. It is not a Democratic idea. It is not even, with all due respect, an American idea. Nor it is unique to any one faith.

'Do to others as you would have them do to you' (Luke 6:30). Jesus says that.

'Righteousness is this: that one should...give away wealth out of love for him to the near of kin and the orphans and the needy and the wayfarer and the beggars and for the emancipation of the captives.' The Koran says that (2.177).

Thus sayeth the Lord: 'Bring the homeless poor into the house, when you see the naked, cover him, then your light will break out like the dawn and your recovery will speedily spring fourth, then your Lord will be your rear guard.' The Jewish scripture says that. Isaiah 58 again.

That is a powerful incentive: 'The Lord will watch your back.' Sounds like a good deal to me, right now.

A number of years ago, I met a wise man who changed my life. In countless ways, large and small, I was always seeking the Lord's blessing. I was saying, you know, I have a new song, look after it?. I have a family, please look after them?. I have this crazy idea...

And this wise man said: stop.

He said, stop asking God to bless what you're doing.

Get involved in what God is doing - because it's already blessed.

Well, God, as I said, is with the poor. That, I believe, is what God is doing.

And that is what he's calling us to do.

I was amazed when I first got to this country and I learned how much some churchgoers tithe. Up to 10% of the family budget. Well, how does that compare with the federal budget, the budget for the entire American family? How much of that goes to the poorest people in the world? Less than 1%.

Mr. President, Congress, people of faith, people of America:

I want to suggest to you today that you see the flow of effective foreign assistance as tithing.... Which, to be truly meaningful, will mean an additional 1% of the federal budget tithed to the poor.

What is 1%?

1% is not merely a number on a balance sheet.

1% is the girl in Africa who gets to go to school, thanks to you. 1% is the AIDS patient who gets her medicine, thanks to you. 1% is the African entrepreneur who can start a small family business thanks to you. 1% is not redecorating presidential palaces or money flowing down a rat hole. This 1% is digging waterholes to provide clean water.

1% is a new partnership with Africa, not paternalism toward Africa, where increased assistance flows toward improved governance and initiatives with proven track records and away from boondoggles and white elephants of every description.

America gives less than 1% now. We're asking for an extra 1% to change the world. to transform millions of lives - but not just that and I say this to the military men now - to transform the way that they see us.

1% is national security, enlightened economic self-interest, and a better, safer world rolled into one. Sounds to me that in this town of deals and compromises, 1% is the best bargain around.

These goals - clean water for all; school for every child; medicine for the afflicted, an end to extreme and senseless poverty - these are not just any goals; they are the Millennium Development goals, which this country supports. And they are more than that. They are the Beatitudes for a globalised world.

Now, I'm very lucky. I don't have to sit on any budget committees. And I certainly don't have to sit where you do, Mr. President. I don't have to make the tough choices.

But I can tell you this:

To give 1% more is right. It's smart. And it's blessed.

There is a continent - Africa - being consumed by flames.

I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did - or did not to - to put the fire out in Africa.

History, like God, is watching what we do.

Thank you. Thank you, America, and God bless you all. "

February 2, 2006

Could Jesus Read?

An interesting question that came up on Wednesday is whether or not Jesus was able to read. Maybe it's only interesting to me, but whatever. Here are some arguments for and against:

For:

--A passage in Luke describes Jesus reading out of Isaiah to inaugurate his public ministry
--Jesus was a wise person and knew the scripture of his time very well. In fact, he is sometimes referred to as a rabbi
--As a Jewish male, being able to read the Torah might have been part of his training for a bar mitzvah.

Against:

--Luke's main point in the passage is not that Jesus was reading, but what he had to say--literacy was not the question being addressed, and may be a plot device, not an accurate historical description
--Between 93 and 95% of people during that time were illiterate
--It's hard to know how much education was required to become a rabbi in those times
--An oral and visual culture makes it possible for even very wise people to not need to be able to read. An analogy today might be that only a small percentage of Americans have doctoral degrees. The rest of us manage to get by and still say worthwhile things.
--If Jesus was a carpenter, his social status would not have allowed him a lot of free time or money for education.

So, it's impossible to know one way or another for sure. Jesus was exceptional in many ways, so why not in terms of literacy? But on the other hand, his ministry did not require that he be literate either. In fact, part of what's so arresting about his sayings and stories is how pithy they are, and how easy to remember without having to be written down.

Food for thought.

Love, Love, Love

My sermon for Saturday is topical. I'm calling it: "Love and Relationships: What's God got to do with it?" Which I know could be considered kind of a lame throwback to Tina Turner, but hopefully that won't stop the interested from coming.

Here are the problems/issues/dilemmas I'd like to be able to describe and explore, whether or not I'll be able to offer comprehensive solutions:

Being single--obsessions and crushes, self-doubt and waiting, breakups.

Dating--getting to know each other, going through stages of commitment, disagreements, maintaining outside friendships.

Marriage--constancy in love, more disagreements, growing with each other, lines of communication, faithfulness.

I guess, after writing these things out, I can see why this sermon has been a little harder to pull together than I might have initially thought. But I'll give it a shot anyway. What does God have to do with all of this?

First, God created us to love. When Jesus sums up all the commandments, he boils them down to these two: Love God with everything you've got, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Second, it's hard to be consistently loving because love is a choice, not a default option. Our default option is probably to love ourselves first, and then maybe love the people we really like. Or else it could be to be very good to other people so that they'll love us, to make up for the fact that we don't actually love ourselves. And the thing is, if we want to love God, we've mostly got to do it by loving other people.

Third, there's an action component and a feeling component to love. The two are intertwined and related to each other, but I think it's possible, although not necessarily a good thing, to separate the two. I haven't completely decided on this. For example, if I don't like somebody very much, but I feel compelled to act in a loving way toward them, isn't it kind of an empty gesture? I don't know if I want to be on the receiving end of that kind of love.

But on the other hand, I've found on several occasions that when I was patient and spent time listening to people I didn't like, I often came to like them better, or at least understand them more, over time. And is it possible that feelings arise from action just as often as action arises from feelings? So I say, if the feeling of love is not there, that's not always a sign that no love is possible. Act lovingly in small ways, pray the hardest for the people who drive you craziest, and wait for feelings to follow.

Fourth, loving other people is how we love God. Prayer, meditation, study, pilgrimage, journaling, worship, and other spiritual practices are ways of loving God in one way, but in another way, these are practice for loving God by loving others. As 1 John asks--how is it possible to love God, whom you haven't seen, if you don't love your brothers and sisters, whom you have seen? The love we share with each other, in friendships, in loving relationships, in communities, and love toward those different from us--those we call or think of as enemies--matters to God. This is what we're created for and called to do--to love each other as God loves us.

Finally, I find support for my efforts to love like this in remembering God's love for me. I can't explain exactly how this works, but I think it relates to my point about feelings and actions. When I feel most aware of God's abundant love, that's when I'm readiest to act lovingly, both toward people I know and love, and toward the people I don't necessarily like so much.

To sum up, love is a spiritual practice that I think gets easier, or at least more habitual over time. But it's always a choice whether we'll act in a loving way or in a hateful or selfish way. God has created us so that we can have a real choice about whether or not to choose God. We are already beloved. Now the question is whether we will respond in love ourselves.