King, Obama

Today we are seeing history. Almost 146 years ago Abraham Lincoln, Illinois lawyer who became President, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This began a revolution in American life that continues tonight...
It was 45 years ago today that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave one of the most fambous speeches in the 20th century; "I have a Dream..."
Tonight Barack Obama, Illinois lawyer and US Senator, will address the world as the first African American nominee for President of the United States!
This is a pivotal event in black Amrican history. We should pause, thank GOD, and vote for Obama.
I'm not even sure it matters whether or not we agree with him politically. He has emerged at a time when the US needs a change in the way our leaders understand and use power. he has emerged at a time when a season of hope is necessary. People have called his message of hope nothing but words. But I say, without a more hopeful vision we will never attain a better state of the union. Dr. King would attest to that. 45 years later his words of hope, his dream speech still empowers and challenges us. It is a vision to which we must all aspire. Without a visionary leader whose aspirations actually consider the needs of all people, especially the suffering isolated poor, the infirm, the prisoner, the elderly and the very young.
You know, I think most of us just want to be inspired. We want to experience something greater than ourselves that calls us to a higher way of life. I don't believe that Obama or any President for that matter is going to accomplish world peace, economic equality, health for all people, meaningful employment for every able bodied person, a new car, green renewable energy, and a weekend getaway for two to the Bahamas! I believe that communities can envision, plan, and work toward these goals. I believe there are millions of factors affecting the potential fulfillment of any of these dreams. As many factors as people...How will my sons benefit from our labor and what will they dream, attain, and offer for their kids?
I will say this: Just seeing the possibility that a black kid raised by a single mom who chooses to work in south chicago doing urban community development about low income people, can emerge as a hopeful Presidential candidate is inspiring enough for me today!
Apart from the messianic-like anointing in speech after speech that is offered to American Presidential candidates, I assure you, dear reader, that the only political leader I know who is able to fulfill promises of such high magnitude was crucified for having said so. That being said, dreams worth pursuing and hopes worth announcing tend to require sacrifice to attain. For the Christian disciple that means living in such a way that nothing else matters but the fulfillment of the dream. Kingdom of God living means taking up the cross. I am suggesting that a new kind of President must be willing to suffer with us. I am doubtful of that. And so all of my hope is on Jesus the king and the Kingdom I am coming to see more clearly and love more deeply.
So watch the DNC tonight and see history. But see it in its bigger context...because through history God is moving us toward the dream ,the vision, the new creation---a much bigger deal than the American dream.

Get behind me, Satan!

What prevents us from living the way God intends? Or who? Why? Today is Wednesday so we gathered here for prayer and bible reading/discussion. What we learned is that God does amazing things in people's lives. Certain of us are able to interpret most things in the context of the divine creation drama---everything is spiritual. When we do, especially when the church shares the message of the cross and resurrection of Jesus, people resonate with it---it brings hope. But there are people that will always oppose the things that God does. What kind of a God creates resistance? Or allows it? God seems to revel at the possibility that people can change, see the light, have their minds reoriented.
I was asked yesterday, how is God shaking my world? I'm not exactly sure. So I wonder if its fair for me to call others to reorientation/transformation when I can't right now identify where God is working on me. How am I struggling? I guess with setting mission priorities, with attending to prayer, silence, reading. And I do sometimes fail to move. But I don't have the motivation to produce. Maybe I should. Maybe I should be more productive somehow. I am concerned about connecting with younger adults and calling them to faithfulness. I have thought about the lack of connection that I have with peers andothers in my generation localy who might benefit from a spiritual friendship.
maybe if I join the Lititz rec. I will have a point of contact. And maybe if I connect at javateas more regularly...I am not in a situation that offers me contact, I have to create it myself. And that is hard. under what pretense do I meet people? Work, school, church, or other affinity groups are venues for relationship-building among peers. None of the above opportunites are afforded to me for peer-to-peer relationships. Maybe if I get connected at Akron Elemntary a little deeper I'll meet some peers who are teaching there. Although that is hard too. How much time would I have to spend there as a volunteer in order to buld relationships with other faculty?
So many obstacles prevent me from seeking out others. I long for a community of faithful peers seeking to be together for worship, friendship, and simple mission. But I have no clue how to get such a thing started here. Any suggestions anyone?

why silence

I'm going to try an experiment with someone who, I think, is ready to hear from GOD. She is a yuong adult, single, working woman, living uot of state. She is struggling with her dad's terminal illness and her need for forgiveness to heal their relationship. Not that their relationship is tragically broken, because they are a family and they do love each other. But, there is pain in the unfinished business of wounded history. Forgiveness is the key to unlock the Kingdom of GOD, according to Jesus. Forgiveness opens the door preventing us from entering in full relationship with GOD and the other. To be released from guilt, shame, punishment, and the need to be judge and punisher is a huge gift that people struggle to accept and receive. How overburdened people are with these painful demons. But forgiveness must be practiced, tested, experienced, lived, and worked on. Forgivenenss is like learning to make and fly a kite. Yuo gotta have the right materials, wind conditions, and a willingness to let something go by a very thin string into the sky.
So, I suggested that she undertake a spiritual discipline as part of the healing process. She is going to counseling, but I think a holistic approach to health is important and often neglected by the medical community. I don't blame them. There is little science or empirical evidence to support the concept of the spirit or the soul. But if you breathe, you are spiritual. And not just a cardio-pulminary, vascular system. We are more than flesh and blood.
So, I have asked her to join me (I won't ask someone to do something I won't do myself, unless it is impossible for me to do it), in six days of ten-minute fasting moments. ten minutes of silence for six days, in a quiet place, outdoors, with a single white paper that has a question written on it: "Why?"
On the 7th day, we are supposed to write the answer to the question. ONe hour of silence in a week. That's it. And then we respond. We will share on the 7th day.
I don't know what will happen. Will GOD surprise us both? Will we be disappointed? Will the reward simply be the silence? or the question? or the answer? Will any healing come from such an exercise?
She and I both realize a need for silence and the lack of it. She is willing to try this, can't hurt we guess. And, at the very least, it keeps us talking about healing as a spiritual process as well as a mental/physical one.
I've never tried such an experiment with anyone who has sought spiritual counsel from me before.
Listening for GOD in the silence and in the question, what will I hear or see? Who will I become? I feel some risk in the undertaking, but I know that I am doing this with and for someone else, too. I suggested that we do this because I am walking with her, accompanying her on her spiritual journey. And she is accompanying me, too.
What do you experience in silence? In a question? Can GOD speak a Word to us through a spiritual practice such as this? May Jesus join us as we seek to listen.

Spiritual direction and Democratic politics

I have a cool job. It's hardly a job. It's more like a lifestyle lived out than a job. Today I will spend my day in conversations with people--often about what it is to be fully human, to have an abundant life (not wealthy material abundance, but spirit-filled, joyous living abundance). I will talk about GOD and Jesus and the Holy Spirit actively living and breathing and creating and saving us. And I will get to pray for a while.
I will visit some elderly folks this afternoon. Some need visited because no one visits them. How we neglect widows and the aged. We service them, nurse them, medicate them, and assist them with physical needs. But sometimes even families avoid going to see them. 94 years old. Sitting alone in front of the TV set for hours every day. Very few of the 168 hours in a week include a visitor who is there because of love. I get to go and say, I am here because of love and love alone. It is not a job that brings me here. No obligation. Just love.
Some would say, thats not true. That every visit I make is made on account of my position as Pastor. I say that the position is merely a way in which I can function in this way of life/love and not be accused of "shirking my duties" or avoiding "real work." The ordained ministry is a vehicle through which I am able to be the person God calls me to be. Its like wearing credentials. I'm always a follwer of Jesus, but being a pastor affords me the space and time in our culture to practice this way of life. IN so doing, I am able to help others practice it too in the ways they are able, in the midst of life's busy challenges.
Oh, I love Michelle Obama. She spoke at the Democratic convention last night. She wears sincerity and integrity like a wedding gown. I've never been so excited about presidential politics and the possibility that a family might lead the United States into a vision that is bigger and better than many Americans dream. I think Obama is hopeful because he has seen what ought to be and he knows how to get there. I connect with them on this level. Hope is when the big vision of the best life is revealed to someone who can lead a people toward its fruition.
Today it will take a person who is willing to cut through the crap and cling to the vision and move forward despite adversity and opposition. Someone who listens to the needs of the opressed and the least. Someone who is willing to love others and live that love with integrity, purpose, and strength. I think it will take leadership that sees a new direction, a departure from imperial consumeristic culture. I also think Obama is young enough to understand postmodernity as a deep cultural shift that requires leadership that understands the turmoil of such a shift in the minds of three or four generations who see the world and speak about it in markedly different ways. I wonder what kind of spiritual counsel a President Obama would seek out?
Speaking of which, time for me to go to York and pray with my spiritual director.

meaningful conversation as ministry

Does anyone else have the "post-olympics, broadcast tv totally sucks, too tired to read a serious book, need to be entertained before bed" end-of-summer blues? maybe it's just me. I thought I would be watching the Democratic National Convention in prime time, hoping to hear Michelle Obama tonight. Instead there are a couple of sex-focused comedies (thoughtless and adolescent), or a couple of (un)reality tv shows. I have rarely been so disinterested in television.
Today was a full day. Ministry consisted in a few conversations: Three were scheduled, two were unscheduled. One was less a conversation and more about someone telling me a story about how they met a deceased friend many years ago. Two other connections were really made to schedule conversations another time given the depth and breadth of the topics we need to talk about. Another connection was an ongoing relationship with a coworker and friend who needs spiritual friendship for vocational discernment. Which reminds me that Brian McLaren's book, "More Ready than you realize" is angood text on having spiritual conversations with people---listening to people for discernment and to help them discover communion with God.
I also accompanied Rodney on a little mission, as he continues to be triangulated in a very unhealthy marriage. We transported a woman from filing a PFA in Lancaster to her home, where her husband awaited her. he also confronted Rodney. I think he may be dangerous. he may have deluded hmself into believing that he would be justified in hurting his wife and calling it self-defense. he may have actually convinced himself that she is evil or abusive and that he is right to hurt her to "protect" his kids. he clearly demonstrated anger
So today I was able to walk and talk with people, mostly other Christians struggling to discern what is right to do or so in given situations. I guess it was a good day. Tomorrow is spiritual direction with Rich---looking forward to prayer and conversation.