Change is not welcome. To my personal knowledge, no one likes it. Most of us do nearly anything within our power to resist it. We prefer stasis, reliability, solid foundations upon which we are to store and secure our stuff. When things change, reliability and assumptions fly out the proverbial window. Chaos ensues.There is no control. There is no stability, nothing upon which to safely rely.
There are times, however, when change is good for us and for everyone. This past week's Revised Common Lectionary Gospel text was the Zacchaeus narrative. Zacchaeus knew no grace. He lived a life of demand and supply, collecting taxes for the Roman government in Jericho. He had become rich by collecting more than was owed by the Judaic citizenry. The man cheated others in order to become wealthy. But he was despised. Zacchaeus was a pariah. The mention of his name was accompanied with a sneer, much like the geographically racist term "Samaritan."
When Jesus came through Jericho, on his way to Jerusalem, Zacchaeus was determined to see the embodiment of God's grace. He climbed the now-famous tree. Jesus saw him and called to him. When Zacchaeus ran to Jesus, Jesus embraced him, welcomed him, accepted him. Zacchaeus was not accustomed to such treatment. He encountered grace. As a result, his world changed. Zacchaeus promised, from that moment onward, to give half of everything he owned to the poor and to repay anyone that he had defrauded fourfold. In meeting grace, Zacchaeus becomes grace to, with and in his community.
Apocalyptic works in a similar fashion. Just as Zacchaeus had encountered grace, we begin to corporately and communally imagine a better world, a healthier existence, lives of universal abundance. When we encounter that world as a genuine possibility, we being to shape our behavior according to that world. We change in the process of changing the world in which we live, all in an effort to change the way we live in culture and society.
Zacchaeus changes for the better. He becomes grace in his community. Apocalyptic changes us for the better, compelling us toward a more faithful walk with our Lord. Change can be good. It can be very good!
Which brings me to the point of this week's post. Our culture is in the process of axiomatic change. The old rules no longer apply. The old assumptions no longer hold. The ground upon which we have so reliably stood is shaken and crumbling. According to Phyllis Tickle in her fabulous book, The Great Emergence, such axiomatic cultural shift takes place in human culture every 500 or so years. If the last shift took place in the Great Reformation of the 16th century, then it should come as no surprise to us that one should take place in the 21st.
Since the late 1960's, culture has been shifting. It has been shifting away from authority and power relationships toward egalitarian justice, inclusion, unity and acceptance of diversity. Sectarian kinds, clans, groups, orthodoxies and ilks are being supplanted by the universality of the human condition and the need for mutual support and care. I take this to be a step forward in the cultural evolutionary process, one with which we are uncomfortable still. It pushes us toward sacrifice of privilege and position for the sake of assisting those who lack the power to compete.
In my humble opinion, culture is catching up with Christ. We have evolved to the point of apocalyptic, where we can now exchange one world for the other, where Christ can and may become culture's new reliability and standard for assumption. We can see that such a world is possible. Even though we despise change, we are invited in the process of cultural evolution to embrace it. Maybe it is time that we stop resisting the change and see it as a step forward in our evolution toward Christ.
Monday, October 31, 2016
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Reformation Sunday
This coming Sunday, October 30, is Reformation Sunday. I know. It is just another Sunday in the liturgical calendar that is met with a resounding yawn in our congregations. Who in the world cares about a Reformation that took place in 16th century Europe? What does it matter to us? How does it ease our suffering, calm our pain, or meet our needs?
Perhaps Reformation Sunday is about more than a memory of something that happened long ago, however. Maybe it is an ongoing process, an unfolding evolution, a forest instead of trees. Maybe we can expand our vision and understanding in order to breath new meaning into Reformation Sunday.
The Great Reformation began around 1450, with the invention of the movable type printing press. By the time Martin Luther nailed 95 statements of disagreement with Roman Catholic theology to the doors of a cathedral, in 1517, the die had been cast. People were, for the first time, reading the Bible in the vernacular and would no longer fall for being told that the Bible said things that it simply did not. They were learning to read and interpret it for themselves. Information brought about change. It was change that those who were invested in the Roman Catholic Church despised. Those who protested saw the Reformation as a way out of oppression and into religious liberty.
The time was chaotic. It was upsetting. It shook the foundations of everything about which many were solidly convinced and permanently persuaded. After about a century, the Great Reformation settled into the uncomfortable distinction between Catholic and Protestant. In the Protestant world, denominationalism divided Christian practitioners into schools of arcane orthodoxy and sectarian practice. Some believed some things, while others believed otherwise.
Phyllis Tickle, in her fabulous book, The Great Emergence, saw in the Great Reformation an ongoing cycle of 500 year cataclysmic change. That is, every 500 years, culture had evolved into something other than it had been in the previous 500 years. Her point is, of course, that we are living in the transition of another of those 500 year transitions. We are again evolving, reforming, changing and moving.
The change is uncomfortable for those who have a stake in the configurations of the past 500 years. The term "uncomfortable" is an understatement. The change is uncomfortable like puberty was uncomfortable. The change is akin to having one's chair pulled out from under her or him. It is like building atop a foundation that has shifted, or perhaps one that has disappeared altogether. This next 500 year configuration will undo much of what we had been so completely certain. It will shake our very understandings of the world in which we live.
There is a road map for the transition, however. If we allow ourselves to identify those things of the past 500 year configuration out of which we are transitioning, then we can consciously contemplate their loss. If we can anticipate the new configurations that will shape the coming 500 years, then we can move in those directions. This is Reformation. It is being open to changing the foundations upon which we have relied to ones about which we are uncertain, but hopeful. Reformation is always a move onward from what has been to what is coming.
One additional point. I firmly believe that the cultural evolution in which we have found ourselves since the late 1960's is a positive move toward fulfillment of human spiritual life. The evolutionary process is bringing us nearer blessed, abundant, whole, and healthy human life. It is a step onward in the process of becoming one people under God.
This is Reformation Sunday. Bring it on!
Perhaps Reformation Sunday is about more than a memory of something that happened long ago, however. Maybe it is an ongoing process, an unfolding evolution, a forest instead of trees. Maybe we can expand our vision and understanding in order to breath new meaning into Reformation Sunday.
The Great Reformation began around 1450, with the invention of the movable type printing press. By the time Martin Luther nailed 95 statements of disagreement with Roman Catholic theology to the doors of a cathedral, in 1517, the die had been cast. People were, for the first time, reading the Bible in the vernacular and would no longer fall for being told that the Bible said things that it simply did not. They were learning to read and interpret it for themselves. Information brought about change. It was change that those who were invested in the Roman Catholic Church despised. Those who protested saw the Reformation as a way out of oppression and into religious liberty.
The time was chaotic. It was upsetting. It shook the foundations of everything about which many were solidly convinced and permanently persuaded. After about a century, the Great Reformation settled into the uncomfortable distinction between Catholic and Protestant. In the Protestant world, denominationalism divided Christian practitioners into schools of arcane orthodoxy and sectarian practice. Some believed some things, while others believed otherwise.
Phyllis Tickle, in her fabulous book, The Great Emergence, saw in the Great Reformation an ongoing cycle of 500 year cataclysmic change. That is, every 500 years, culture had evolved into something other than it had been in the previous 500 years. Her point is, of course, that we are living in the transition of another of those 500 year transitions. We are again evolving, reforming, changing and moving.
The change is uncomfortable for those who have a stake in the configurations of the past 500 years. The term "uncomfortable" is an understatement. The change is uncomfortable like puberty was uncomfortable. The change is akin to having one's chair pulled out from under her or him. It is like building atop a foundation that has shifted, or perhaps one that has disappeared altogether. This next 500 year configuration will undo much of what we had been so completely certain. It will shake our very understandings of the world in which we live.
There is a road map for the transition, however. If we allow ourselves to identify those things of the past 500 year configuration out of which we are transitioning, then we can consciously contemplate their loss. If we can anticipate the new configurations that will shape the coming 500 years, then we can move in those directions. This is Reformation. It is being open to changing the foundations upon which we have relied to ones about which we are uncertain, but hopeful. Reformation is always a move onward from what has been to what is coming.
One additional point. I firmly believe that the cultural evolution in which we have found ourselves since the late 1960's is a positive move toward fulfillment of human spiritual life. The evolutionary process is bringing us nearer blessed, abundant, whole, and healthy human life. It is a step onward in the process of becoming one people under God.
This is Reformation Sunday. Bring it on!
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
God Bless America
The most contentious Presidential election of our lifetimes is just days away. After the second Tuesday in November, the electorate will have spoken with its votes. The electoral college will have acted and a new President will have been elected. One might think that the election would signal an end to all the divisiveness and contention. But it may well not do so. The election may only be the beginning of the mess.
If the Obama presidency taught us anything, it might be that the kind of division that we have seen lately between parties, races, genders and economic castes in America can negatively affect the potential of any administration. It does not matter who the President is. If there are powerful segments of Congress and society who are against that President, for whatever reason, the presidency is hampered.
I mean to imply here that the United States is damaged in the divisiveness. It is not just the President who is negatively affected. It is the presidency. It is the Country. Those who are led to so narrow a definition of what it means to be a patriot that they can consider no options outside of their own purview entertain no right outside of their own. Disagreement is not tolerated. Differences are not appreciated, but seen as an attack on one's position. Diversity is not embraced. Those who think, believe, act or look differently are not "us." They are not right. They are wrong. They are bad.
If the American political system is to work, then Americans have to embrace diversity. We have to acknowledge together that no race, gender, economic or political stance, appearance, situation or love life is innately better than any other. Some will have to sacrifice their learned arrogance and positions of power and privilege. Some will have to learn to state their case for the needs of those who have been historically victimized by the systems under which we have lived. The system will not work in any other way.
Therefore, I pray that this election is the beginning of the end of all the vitriol, division, ridiculous and meaningless accusation, media hype, party bias, racial and gender inequality, economic injustice, prejudice and hate. I hope Congress will work effectively with whomever is elected. I hope that we will refer to the person who is elected as either Mr. or Mrs. President. I hope that we will show the incoming President greater respect than we showed Barak Obama. I hope that we will demonstrate a greater sense of our unity than we have over the past eight years.
The analysis of why the past eight years have become so contentious I will leave up to each of you. That is not my issue here. My firm belief is that it simply cannot continue if we are to be a thriving America. So, please, let this election mark an end of our hatred of anything other than our own opinion. Let history show that the period of divisiveness ended with one administration. Let it declare that America learned its lesson and turned itself around to a positive direction.
That miracle begins with each of us. Be conciliatory. Be gracious. Be accepting. Walk a mile in the moccasins of those with whom you might otherwise disagree. Say good and generous things, even when there might be options. Act in ways that build others up, even when we have to go out of our way in doing so. It is this attitude that built America, my friends. And it is this one that will allow us to become the country of our potential.
God Bless America!
If the Obama presidency taught us anything, it might be that the kind of division that we have seen lately between parties, races, genders and economic castes in America can negatively affect the potential of any administration. It does not matter who the President is. If there are powerful segments of Congress and society who are against that President, for whatever reason, the presidency is hampered.
I mean to imply here that the United States is damaged in the divisiveness. It is not just the President who is negatively affected. It is the presidency. It is the Country. Those who are led to so narrow a definition of what it means to be a patriot that they can consider no options outside of their own purview entertain no right outside of their own. Disagreement is not tolerated. Differences are not appreciated, but seen as an attack on one's position. Diversity is not embraced. Those who think, believe, act or look differently are not "us." They are not right. They are wrong. They are bad.
If the American political system is to work, then Americans have to embrace diversity. We have to acknowledge together that no race, gender, economic or political stance, appearance, situation or love life is innately better than any other. Some will have to sacrifice their learned arrogance and positions of power and privilege. Some will have to learn to state their case for the needs of those who have been historically victimized by the systems under which we have lived. The system will not work in any other way.
Therefore, I pray that this election is the beginning of the end of all the vitriol, division, ridiculous and meaningless accusation, media hype, party bias, racial and gender inequality, economic injustice, prejudice and hate. I hope Congress will work effectively with whomever is elected. I hope that we will refer to the person who is elected as either Mr. or Mrs. President. I hope that we will show the incoming President greater respect than we showed Barak Obama. I hope that we will demonstrate a greater sense of our unity than we have over the past eight years.
The analysis of why the past eight years have become so contentious I will leave up to each of you. That is not my issue here. My firm belief is that it simply cannot continue if we are to be a thriving America. So, please, let this election mark an end of our hatred of anything other than our own opinion. Let history show that the period of divisiveness ended with one administration. Let it declare that America learned its lesson and turned itself around to a positive direction.
That miracle begins with each of us. Be conciliatory. Be gracious. Be accepting. Walk a mile in the moccasins of those with whom you might otherwise disagree. Say good and generous things, even when there might be options. Act in ways that build others up, even when we have to go out of our way in doing so. It is this attitude that built America, my friends. And it is this one that will allow us to become the country of our potential.
God Bless America!
Tuesday, October 04, 2016
"antiChrist"
This is less a political statement as it is a spiritual one. However, I imagine the applications may be made in the realm of politics. You will decide and apply for yourselves, as you see fit.
President Obama claimed over the weekend that there are those in the opposing party who think of him as the "antiChrist." I found the term intriguing, especially given the current amount of divisiveness that we are experiencing this season. I thought the term might be an interesting one to examine. What is this "antiChrist?" From whence does the concept come, and how is it to be applied?
The concept of antiChrist comes from the world of apocalyptic literature. Not exclusively biblical in nature, apocalyptic literature promises that the world as we know it will, at some point, be destroyed and a new world, as an improvement to the one that was destroyed, would arise in its place. In biblical apocalyptic, which comprises much of the intertestamental period, between 300 bce and 70 ce, apocalyptic is the realm of an agent, called "Messiah." This Messiah was to usher in an age of ideal human existence, through the process of refinement and purification, where the dross is removed and the valuable fruitfulness of humanity is freed from its base confines.
The agent of apocalyptic destroys what is evil in order to allow the good of humanity to express itself, freely and without opposition. But there is opposition to the world of Messiah. There are those who benefit so greatly from the unjust and inequitable arrangement of the world that they oppose the purification process. They do not want change because they have benefited greatly from present configurations of power and privilege.
In the Christian world, we refer to the agent of apocalyptic with the title, "Christ." The apocalyptic transpires through him and by the actions of those who follow his lead in destroying the injustice, prejudice, greed and hatred of the present age. Those who cling to the systems of advantage, and who work to support those systems, we may then term "antiChrist." These persons wish to retain the evil of the present configuration in order to protect themselves and their interests.
The work of our apocalyptic agent, "Christ," can be defined as the ethical archetype of Crucifixion and Resurrection, where followers seek to embody sacrifice of self in order that others may be exalted. They humble themselves in order to serve others. They work for justice. They strive for equality. They work, tirelessly, for the benefit of all humankind, sacrificing their own benefit in the process.
The antiChrist seeks to protect hegemony, privilege, power advantage, unequal and unfair distributions of goods, position and social bias. The antiChrist cares for himself. (Here I use the male pronoun intentionally, not because all antiChrist characters are male, but because they have enjoyed positions of privilege and power in the current configuration.) The antiChrist sacrifices nothing.
How do apply this short lesson on antiChrist? I leave that up to you. You are very bright. Let me just say that the definition does not apply exclusively to the world of politics or economics. It applies also to relationships, personal and interpersonal. It applies to the ethos that we create in communities, congregations, domestic policies and foreign ones. It is a universal of the human condition.
The bottom line here is obvious, I hope. Human beings can live together in a qualitative condition that reflects the apocalyptic of Christ. We can also live in the social, cultural, interpersonal condition of the antiChrist. It is entirely up to us.So, whether or not we think of President Obama as the antiChrist is irrelevant. It matters whether or not we see ourselves as working for Christ's apocalyptic. It is a matter of choice. What role will we embrace? What title do we embody?
President Obama claimed over the weekend that there are those in the opposing party who think of him as the "antiChrist." I found the term intriguing, especially given the current amount of divisiveness that we are experiencing this season. I thought the term might be an interesting one to examine. What is this "antiChrist?" From whence does the concept come, and how is it to be applied?
The concept of antiChrist comes from the world of apocalyptic literature. Not exclusively biblical in nature, apocalyptic literature promises that the world as we know it will, at some point, be destroyed and a new world, as an improvement to the one that was destroyed, would arise in its place. In biblical apocalyptic, which comprises much of the intertestamental period, between 300 bce and 70 ce, apocalyptic is the realm of an agent, called "Messiah." This Messiah was to usher in an age of ideal human existence, through the process of refinement and purification, where the dross is removed and the valuable fruitfulness of humanity is freed from its base confines.
The agent of apocalyptic destroys what is evil in order to allow the good of humanity to express itself, freely and without opposition. But there is opposition to the world of Messiah. There are those who benefit so greatly from the unjust and inequitable arrangement of the world that they oppose the purification process. They do not want change because they have benefited greatly from present configurations of power and privilege.
In the Christian world, we refer to the agent of apocalyptic with the title, "Christ." The apocalyptic transpires through him and by the actions of those who follow his lead in destroying the injustice, prejudice, greed and hatred of the present age. Those who cling to the systems of advantage, and who work to support those systems, we may then term "antiChrist." These persons wish to retain the evil of the present configuration in order to protect themselves and their interests.
The work of our apocalyptic agent, "Christ," can be defined as the ethical archetype of Crucifixion and Resurrection, where followers seek to embody sacrifice of self in order that others may be exalted. They humble themselves in order to serve others. They work for justice. They strive for equality. They work, tirelessly, for the benefit of all humankind, sacrificing their own benefit in the process.
The antiChrist seeks to protect hegemony, privilege, power advantage, unequal and unfair distributions of goods, position and social bias. The antiChrist cares for himself. (Here I use the male pronoun intentionally, not because all antiChrist characters are male, but because they have enjoyed positions of privilege and power in the current configuration.) The antiChrist sacrifices nothing.
How do apply this short lesson on antiChrist? I leave that up to you. You are very bright. Let me just say that the definition does not apply exclusively to the world of politics or economics. It applies also to relationships, personal and interpersonal. It applies to the ethos that we create in communities, congregations, domestic policies and foreign ones. It is a universal of the human condition.
The bottom line here is obvious, I hope. Human beings can live together in a qualitative condition that reflects the apocalyptic of Christ. We can also live in the social, cultural, interpersonal condition of the antiChrist. It is entirely up to us.So, whether or not we think of President Obama as the antiChrist is irrelevant. It matters whether or not we see ourselves as working for Christ's apocalyptic. It is a matter of choice. What role will we embrace? What title do we embody?
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