ham sab

Tonight’s journal entry is on the topic, what does liberation look like in your relationship with God and your relationship with others? 

This is interesting given the topic of our discussion was on lament and the Advent Devotional done by Pastor Tahina Verna Rasche and Pastor Jason Chesnut in 2016 called Fuck this Shit. It was a discussion of what lament is and how lament is different from complaint and how the decisions we make to follow where the gospel is leading us will sometimes lead us to trouble and to issues by speaking the truth in love and using the vernacular and meeting the people where they are.

Pastor Tahina spoke to our class this evening about her involvement and personal journey around the devotional and it reminded me of some things in my story, which I will get to in a moment, but first the name of the entry tonight. I had to google it, but this is what I found for Hindi for we. Pastor Tahina said she learned to pray in the car as a young lady with her mother doing left turns and the prayer was always for we, for her and her mother, and for all of the people around them in other vehicles and walking. The prayer was always we, not I and it was communal. As lament is communal. I wrote a note in the word doc on my computer – “Lament is communal – those who are looking to leave this world because they don’t find love, are not accepted or feeling the love of community”. And we need to understand that lament is a cry to God to know that we are in this and need to work together to make God’s kindom come.

We are the community.

We are the lamentors.

We are the liberated.

There is a lot in the community of the world today that wants to look at the Gospel in a way that has salvation be liberation. We are not saved to something but liberated to be something. We are liberated from the bondage of the world. We are liberated from the bondage of the boxes we are put in, by others and ourselves.

But what does liberation look like? I said earlier the conversation tonight reminded me of a story. It was 2009, months before the ELCA would vote to allow congregations that wanted to have pastors in life-long monogamous same-sex relationships to be their pastors they could, when I was in conversations with a congregation in the Southwestern Texas Synod of the ELCA. I thought things were going well and as I was preparing to visit with the call committee for the first time in person I spoke with the assistant to the bishop there about my earrings. And he told me, “if you really want this call, you should remove your earrings.” So I did. I put myself in the box of what the congregation would want. And the call was extended and I accepted. In September of 2010 the congregation made it clear that they wanted out of the ELCA, and I did not, so I put back in my earrings. Not because I believed differently than the congregation, but because I knew that God had called me there to help them in this moment, and that by hiding who I was I was only hurting myself and the congregation. There were many conversations around my earrings. And I remember one older gentleman came into my office and asked me what I would tell a young man in high school if he came in and said his parents wouldn’t let him get his ear pierced. I told him I would tell the young man to honor the 4th commandment. (For those of you, not Lutheran, that is Honor your parents.) As long as he is living with his parents he needs to do as they say.

So many times we hide our true selves and fit into a box to make others happy, but that is not liberation. Liberation is when we are who God created us to be. Liberation is all of us living our lives as God intended. Liberation to me is being who God created and not hiding that from anyone. Living your life out loud unapologetically. (Unless you by chance happen to offend a given understanding or community in a way that belittles them or denied their existence, then make amends and learn and do better.)

Liberation is salvation.

The cross frees us to live love out loud and be the child of God we were created to be.

Until we are all living the way God created us, we are not ham sab and are not liberated.

It takes all of us being as God created us to be ham sab and liberated.

surprise

Dear friends, don’t be surprised about the fiery trials that have come among you to test you. These are not strange happenings. Instead, rejoice as you share Christ’s suffering. You share his suffering now so that you may also have overwhelming joy when his glory is revealed. If you are mocked because of Christ’s name, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory—indeed, the Spirit of God—rests on you. Now none of you should suffer as a murderer or thief or evildoer or rebel. But don’t be ashamed if you suffer as one who belongs to Christ. Rather, honor God as you bear Christ’s name. Give honor to God, because it’s time for judgment to begin with God’s own household. But if judgment starts with us, what will happen to those who refuse to believe God’s good news? If the righteous are barely rescued, what will happen to the godless and sinful? So then, those who suffer because they follow God’s will should commit their lives to a trustworthy creator by doing what is right. (1 Peter 4:12-19, CEB)

As I read this I heard Private Gomer Pyle say, “Surprise, surprise, surprise.” As he was adept to say when something happened that wasn’t a surprise. We should not be surprised when we go through hard times as that is life and following Christ did not make it so hard times go away. In fact, we could go through some hard times because we actually follow Christ when the world around us doesn’t want to be what God has called us to be because it means giving up privilege or securities.

So don’t be surprised, but stand tall and keep moving forward.

Loving People. Loving God.

up or down…

Jesus told this parable to certain people who had convinced themselves that they were righteous and who looked on everyone else with disgust: “Two people went up to the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself with these words, ‘God, I thank you that I’m not like everyone else—crooks, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give a tenth of everything I receive.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He wouldn’t even lift his eyes to look toward heaven. Rather, he struck his chest and said, ‘God, show mercy to me, a sinner.’ I tell you, this person went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee. All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.” (Luke 18:9-14, CEB)

God have mercy on me a sinner…

Do we lift ourselves up or put others down, or neither?

One person prayed that he does everything right, which if he is human we know is a lie, and said he is glad he is not like the tax collector. Actually in reality none of us is any better than the next person. We are all sinners and we all put our pants on 1 leg at a time. And we all have no place to boast because we all fall short.

Pray for God to forgive you a sinner and to forgive all sinners rather than heap on big words and platitudes that do you, your neighbor, or God any good.

Loving People. Loving God

Magnificat

Mary said,

“With all my heart I glorify the Lord!
    In the depths of who I am I rejoice in God my savior.
He has looked with favor on the low status of his servant.
    Look! From now on, everyone will consider me highly favored
        because the mighty one has done great things for me.
Holy is his name.
    He shows mercy to everyone,
        from one generation to the next,
        who honors him as God.
He has shown strength with his arm.
    He has scattered those with arrogant thoughts and proud inclinations.
    He has pulled the powerful down from their thrones
        and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things
    and sent the rich away empty-handed.
He has come to the aid of his servant Israel,
        remembering his mercy,
    just as he promised to our ancestors,
        to Abraham and to Abraham’s descendants forever.” (Luke 1:46-55, CEB)

The great song of Mary praising God for her being chosen along with her cousin to be the mothers of the cousins that would help the world see how we should live.

Mary tells of the great wonders of God and how God has always been with her and will always be with us.

Know you are never alone and that God is always with you.

Loving People. Loving God.

harassed

But you have paid attention to my teaching, conduct, purpose, faithfulness, patience, love, and endurance. You have seen me experience physical abuse and ordeals in places such as Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I put up with all sorts of abuse, and the Lord rescued me from it all! In fact, anyone who wants to live a holy life in Christ Jesus will be harassed. But evil people and swindlers will grow even worse, as they deceive others while being deceived themselves. But you must continue with the things you have learned and found convincing. You know who taught you. Since childhood you have known the holy scriptures that help you to be wise in a way that leads to salvation through faith that is in Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 3:10-15, CEB)

If you follow after Christ and live the life he has called us to you will be harassed.

If you love as Christ loved, you will be called out and made fun of and told you are wrong.

But stand firm and do not be deceived. Help others see God’s love.

Loving People. Loving God.

Does this sound familiar?

Understand that the last days will be dangerous times. People will be selfish and love money. They will be the kind of people who brag and who are proud. They will slander others, and they will be disobedient to their parents. They will be ungrateful, unholy, unloving, contrary, and critical. They will be without self-control and brutal, and they won’t love what is good. They will be people who are disloyal, reckless, and conceited. They will love pleasure instead of loving God. They will look like they are religious but deny God’s power. Avoid people like this. Some will slither into households and control immature women who are burdened with sins and driven by all kinds of desires. These women are always learning, but they can never arrive at an understanding of the truth. These people oppose the truth in the same way that Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses. Their minds are corrupt and their faith is counterfeit. But they won’t get very far. Their foolishness will become obvious to everyone like those others. (2 Timothy 3:1-9, CEB)

I read this and just thought wow. Is this describing now? And you could say yes.

People are selfish and love money and things more than people.

People brag about who they are and what they have and are proud.

People slander others to make themselves look better.

People are ungrateful, unholy, unloving, contrary, and critical.

This could probably be said for every time in history. So this doesn’t mean we are living in the end times, but we really shouldn’t be worried about what time we are living in because the same holds true regardless of the time. We need to love and share God’s love as we go. Love neighbor and love God.

Loving People. Loving God.

your will

Jesus left and made his way to the Mount of Olives, as was his custom, and the disciples followed him. When he arrived, he said to them, “Pray that you won’t give in to temptation.” He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed. He said, “Father, if it’s your will, take this cup of suffering away from me. However, not my will but your will must be done.” Then a heavenly angel appeared to him and strengthened him. He was in anguish and prayed even more earnestly. His sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground. When he got up from praying, he went to the disciples. He found them asleep, overcome by grief. He said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray so that you won’t give in to temptation.” (Luke 22:39-46, CEB)

“if it’s your will, take this cup of suffering away from me.”

Have you ever asked God this? Now remember that in the reading above this is Jesus asking God to not send him to the cross. And Jesus doesn’t ask just once, he asks three times for this one thing. It is not wrong to ask God to change God’s mind. Moses did it, Jesus does it.

But here is where the rubber meets the road. Jesus says after this, “However, not my will but your will must be done.” Do we follow up our requests with this?

You see it isn’t wrong to ask God if something else can happen, as long as we are prepared to follow through with whatever happens. Jesus didn’t want to suffer the physical pain but knew if that was the only way, it was the only way. And we need to be ready to follow through with whatever the will of God is.

So ask for something different, but always be ready to go through whatever comes.

Loving People. Loving God.

wait

Therefore, brothers and sisters, you must be patient as you wait for the coming of the Lord. Consider the farmer who waits patiently for the coming of rain in the fall and spring, looking forward to the precious fruit of the earth. You also must wait patiently, strengthening your resolve, because the coming of the Lord is near. Don’t complain about each other, brothers and sisters, so that you won’t be judged. Look! The judge is standing at the door! Brothers and sisters, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord as an example of patient resolve and steadfastness. Look at how we honor those who have practiced endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job. And you have seen what the Lord has accomplished, for the Lord is full of compassion and mercy. Most important, my brothers and sisters, never make a solemn pledge—neither by heaven nor earth, nor by anything else. Instead, speak with a simple “Yes” or “No,” or else you may fall under judgment. (James 5:7-12, CEB)

It is always interesting to me when we get passages from the New Testament that are talking about the coming of Jesus and how we need to be patient.

Can you imagine Peter, Paul, James, and the apostles knowing that we would make it to the year 2022? We are almost 2000 years after the death of Christ. And they were telling people to be patient and not to make pledges because it is imminent that Christ will be here again.

it is important to be patient, take that from one who usually isn’t patient, and especially now when we have instant everything and we can’t wait for that.

Learn to slow down and take deep breaths.

God’s timing is perfect and Jesus will return when the kindom is ready to be fulfilled. Until then we wait.

Loving People. Loving God.

Contemporary Christian Spirituality Person

Tonight in class we had group presentations over zoom. This was an interesting twist on group projects but was very well handled by the whole class and was a wonderful time of learning in my humble opinion.

We were asked to write about which person and their spiritual emphasis did we most relate to and why.

Well the five people who were presented were:

Nadia Bolz-Weber
Henri Nouwen
Otis Moss III
Renita J. Weems
Oscar Romero

Henri Nouwen was the person my group presented and he is not the person I most related to. Henri has struggles with his sexual identity which led some recent groups to say we should not listen to him, but his writings have had a huge impact on the psychological impact of faith. Helping us all to understand that if we are to be healers of the world we need to come from a place of needing healing to know how to help others heal. And the struggle in my opinion makes this even more profound of a statement.

Nadia Bolz-Weber is a person I have followed over her career and have watched give a new face to pastoral leadership. She has in some ways made it ok for pastors to be who they really are, even though we all know that God calls us as we are and doesn’t want us to act. Nadia shows the world her down-to-earth saltiness while being 100% orthodox. Nadia you might think is who I most resonate with but she is not.

Oscar Romero is a saint of the catholic church who was martyred for his faith. He is one who is said to be one of the fathers of liberation theology even though some history shows that he really didn’t believe in some of the things liberation theology espoused. He was known to “soak his life in prayer” praying for many hours of the night after consulting with others about current events. This is something I feel we all should do. Oscar Romero while a spiritual father is not who I most resonate with.

That leaves us with two people: Otis Moss III and Renita J. Weems.

Renita J. Weems is a beacon of hope and fire in the womanist biblical interpretation movement. She has written many books and is known for her speaking engagements. I had not heard of her until this evening and I will definitely be doing more reading and learning about who she is and how she is impacting the faith. One thing we heard tonight was about her asking which Renita did the people she was speaking to want. Did they want the preacher Renita, or the biblical scholar Renita, or the author Renita because sometimes she would think it was one and that one would be there, but they wanted a different one. And yes all of her personas are one person, but much like the Trinity, we experience people in different ways depending on the circumstances. And that is something Renita brings to us in the understanding that we are many different people all in one and through that, we can help others experience God and their faith in various different ways.

Otis Moss III was another person I had not heard of before tonight. He is the son of a preacher and was given the opportunity to take over for his father or move to Chicago and become the pastor to follow Jeremiah Wright and be the pastor at the church where the Obamas were members. He was a film major and used modern film and music to preach from and with. He wrote a book about the Blue Notes of Jazz and how we live life sometimes in the blue notes. This really resonated with me, being a jazz musician myself, and I can see and clearly understand how improvisation is something we do on a daily basis, and understanding the notes to use is kind of like understanding how our faith works in our lives and the things from our faith that give us the strength and the will to move forward. Otis Moss III also spoke about going on pilgrimages to see how others in faith lived and to understand our history. He led groups every year to South Carolina to learn about slavery and the history of our country and the way slavery impacted faith. He talked about how a pilgrimage was a journey of the heart and that any trip could be a pilgrimage if your heart was focused on how God could help impact your life here and now.

Otis Moss III is the person that most impacted me this evening, because he incorporates current media and trends, with film and music, bringing God into focus in our daily lives, God is already there, we aren’t putting God anywhere. We are using the tools around us to help others see God more clearly. That is what I want to do and strive to do. Using music, films, and daily life to show where God already is and how we can join God in the ministry that is already happening around us.

Can this happen? I hope so. Otis Moss III does it, so maybe we all can too.

settle your arguements

When someone in your assembly has a legal case against another member, do they dare to take it to court to be judged by people who aren’t just, instead of by God’s people? Or don’t you know that God’s people will judge the world? If the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to judge trivial cases? Don’t you know that we will judge angels? Why not ordinary things? So then if you have ordinary lawsuits, do you appoint people as judges who aren’t respected by the church? I’m saying this because you should be ashamed of yourselves! Isn’t there one person among you who is wise enough to pass judgment between believers? But instead, does a brother or sister have a lawsuit against another brother or sister, and do they do this in front of unbelievers? The fact that you have lawsuits against each other means that you’ve already lost your case. Why not be wronged instead? Why not be cheated? But instead you are doing wrong and cheating—and you’re doing it to your own brothers and sisters. Don’t you know that people who are unjust won’t inherit God’s kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Those who are sexually immoral, those who worship false gods, adulterers, both participants in same-sex intercourse, thieves, the greedy, drunks, abusive people, and swindlers won’t inherit God’s kingdom. That is what some of you used to be! But you were washed clean, you were made holy to God, and you were made right with God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:1-11, CEB)

As believers, we need to learn how to settle our arguments in house. Meaning we do not air our dirty laundry before those who are not a part of the body of Christ but work out the issues among ourselves.

When we take believers to court we have already done wrong and will not help others see God’s love, but when we work for a mutual understanding and grounding without lawsuits in public courts we might show the love of God to the world.

So work it out.

Loving People. Loving God.