Show the Way

 

We are undergoing a type of revolution here in the United States. The "Supreme" Court's decision in the Callais case out of Louisiana, stripping away the final portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, has led to a cavalcade of Southern state legislatures hastily redrawing their Congressional districts in an effort to disenfranchise black voters. 

Blacks tend to vote for Democrats, and the Republican Party is desperate to use any means possible to stop the inevitable thrashing they're about to get in the wake of this horrid regime and its greed and grift at the expense of working people.

On Saturday, May 16th, thousands assembled in Montgomery, Alabama for All Roads Lead to the South. This was a rally to motivate all people of goodwill to stand up and fight for the rights of black and brown people to have their voices count at the ballot box this election year. I had really wanted to go, but having done so much driving lately...and the prospect of having to do seven hours round trip to Montgomery and then have the energy to drive back and forth to Valdosta the next day....nope. The spirit was willing but the flesh said, "Are you nuts?!"

But the evil being done in state legislatures, and my own grief still present at the loss of friends, was very much on my mind as I read through the scriptures assigned for this Sunday after the Ascension. Rather than isolated one pericope, I found that the Spirit was drawing on pieces and parts from three of the four.

See what you think.

Texts: Acts 1:6-14; 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11; John 17:1-11

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I recently reconnected with an old colleague and friend from my days working in radio.

In our back-and-forth exchange…she shared with me an interview she had done with her husband for the StoryCorps program.

StoryCorps is an independent audio production company that travels the country by silver bus.

They set up shop… usually for a couple of weeks in a location… and offer to record people who want to share their stories about anything…and then StoryCorps distributes a copy of the recording to the participants.

The originals are housed at the National Archives in DC.

Some of those recordings are also played on National Public Radio on Friday mornings.

My friend had signed up with her husband to meet with StoryCorps when they came to her city.

And they reminisced about how they met.

As part of their discussion… they talked about death.

He was much older than she was…so the presumption was that he was going to die first.

He told her that when he died…he wanted her to be happy…and to do whatever things would make her happy.

“But what if I’m not going to be happy when you’re gone?” she asked.

“Well, you’re going to have to figure that out, kiddo.”

He did die…about six years ago.

And my friend is still striving to figure it out…and to find happiness in a life without her beloved.

Grief…and the sense of a profound loss…of a spouse…a lover…a job…or even fundamental rights…can plunge us into a liminal space.

The world keeps spinning on its axis…but we don’t feel as though we’re traveling at the same speed as everyone else.

It’s that odd time of knowing that something has ended…and yet we are stumbling our way toward the beginning of something new.

That’s the place where we find the disciples right now…as we move from the season of Easter…and the joyfulness of the resurrection… and head toward Pentecost…and the next act in God’s dream for the world.

This past Thursday…the fortieth day after Easter…we marked the Feast of the Ascension…which we heard about this morning in the Book of Acts.

Jesus’s time on earth has come to an end…and like the prophet Elijah…he is lifted up and away… to take his seat at the right hand of God.

Our Gospel lesson from John this morning recalls Jesus’s concluding prayer for his friends…a final appeal to God to watch over them…be with them…protect them from the storms of life that will come their way.

Jesus has done all he could do in his time on earth.

Now it’s their turn to figure it out.

It’s also our turn.

As we have listened to these words of Scripture today…and over the past many weeks…months and years of our lives…we’ve been given countless lessons in how to live into Love.

All the prayers…the hymns that we sing…and this meal that we share at this table…they’re all meant to reinforce and remind us that we already have the tools in our proverbial toolbelts to do the sometimes frustrating…and yet important and joyful work of repairing the breeches in the world around us…loving our neighbors…no matter who they are…in the way that we want to be loved…cared for…and treated.

We heard Jesus’s prayer in John’s Gospel…but Luke’s account of the ascension gives us some more color around that moment with disciples as he left them for the last time.

Luke tells us that Jesus spent his last hour opening their minds to understanding the Scriptures…connecting the dots between the prophets of the Old Testament…and everything he had shown and taught them.

And just before he ascended into heaven…he was offered them a blessing.

But rather than being in despair…Luke says Jesus’s friends “returned to Jerusalem overwhelmed with joy.”

Not moping.

Not handwringing.

They were overwhelmed with joy.

That’s such an interesting observation.

And yet it makes sense.

Because something had shifted in them.

Deep in their hearts they understood that this ending of Jesus’s earthly ministry wasn’t an end….like “Well, that’s over!”

No, his spirit…his words…his mission was with them…and in them…in the same way that it’s within us.

We are the new hands and feet and mouths of Jesus.

That’s really good news…especially as we face the challenges that are before us.

The author Anne Lamott used a phrase in a recent Substack article that resonated with me, “Life is getting so much lifeier than I was prepared for.” (“Gold” from Hallelujah Anyways, May 2, 2026 on Substack).

She was writing about all the things happening at the global level of life as we know it: wars…billionaires using and abusing people and systems…and…while she didn’t name this one… I would add to her list the breakneck speed at which Southern state legislatures are undoing all the heavy lifting of the civil rights movement.

Add to those troubles…the more personal things that affect us: the surgeries…the troubling diagnosis…the death of loved ones. And Lamott says, “that’s more lifeier than I was prepared for.”

But even with those realities that sometimes can come at us in rapid fire succession…we aren’t hopeless when we remember and return to the root of our being: the Love of God that is in us…with us…and around us always.

That’s what our Epistle reading from the First Letter of Peter is driving at.

Peter acknowledges that ordeals will test and challenge us.

We are going to face health crises…and bad days at work…and gerrymandered political maps that deepen the rifts between us…and make us turn on one another.

As Peter so aptly put it: “Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8b)

But when such trouble arises…we must resist it…and stay steadfast in our faith.

One of my favorite theologians…Howard Thurman…wrote that “the evilness of evil isn’t about destroying the body or reducing cities to rubble;

Its real target is to corrupt the spirit and give the soul the contagion of inner disintegration.” (Thurman, Essential Writings, quoting The Meditations of the Heart, 110-111).

Now.... I admit…when something big has happened that makes it seem as if the ground beneath my feet is shifting every which way…I find it hard to remember to slow down…and as Peter says “Humble myself,” meaning…enter that prayerful place… and lean on God to seek help.

Or…more accurately…I get so caught up in my own mental wrestling that I forget that God is waiting and ready to remind me of those things that I already have learned.

So when I have finally have worn myself out with my thrashing…I ask for God’s guidance…and taking some deep breaths…I make my plea to the Holy One:

To tell me again those truths…that the real nature of God is love.

And Love is stronger than hate.

Help me to hear those words… so that it fills my heart and mind with balm of God’s peace.

Ground me in the goodness that is always there…

Open my eyes to take in the wonder of God’s artistry in the rising and setting of the sun and the song of the birds in the trees.

And with my soul now calm and the noise in my head quieted down…again show me the way so that I may help lead others with strength…courage…and kindness…so that I may

not be a stumbling block to those seeking the freedom that comes from God’s love.

As Pentecost draws near may our hearts and minds be primed as we seek God’s peace…and hope…so that we’re ready to do the work of Love that’s before us.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

This is a Test

 

Another week in the Disunited States of America. 

Or are we more united than we might be led to believe? I just can't tell anymore. 

What I do know is that as we enter this season of Lent, and we read the story of the temptation of Jesus after his baptism, I am looking longer and harder at how Jesus could withstand the mind games that he had to endure in that moment. How this Satan was attempting to pull him away from God and succumb to the baser instincts of his humanity. 

We are seeing on a large scale what happens to a person who gives in to the lure of money and power. And now, I am reading how some of the people who followed this pied piper are beginning to feel betrayed. Not all of them. Maybe it's less than five percent of them. But still...this early into a presidency, that says something. 

I mean, they wanted lower egg prices. Instead, they're getting thousands of fired park rangers, scientists, and hurricane hunter pilots. And their grocery bills haven't budged. In fact, there is now a surcharge added for eggs at places such as Waffle House. 

This is why Jesus shows us something important about the moment we're in: resistance is the righteous path to take. 

See what you think. 

Text: Luke 4:1-13

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We all know about taking tests.

In school…there were quizzes…multiple choice…essay exams.

Lots of professions…nurses…electricians…teachers… all require passing a test before getting a job.

We might not like them…but really the testing is all part of making sure that a person has the knowledge and the skills to do the work they’re setting out to do.

So while this Gospel story today is often talked about as Jesus getting “tempted by the devil”…we can also consider it Jesus getting tested.

This time in the wilderness is preparing him for the major work that still lies ahead.

A mission to get people back to living their lives deeply grounded and centered on Love.

I know Luke speaks of “the devil.”

And that tends to get us thinking of that character…the red being with horns and a tail and pitchfork.

Maybe it’s easier for us to imagine a physical being like that which we can call “the devil.”

But really “the devil” isn’t some physical being…or demi-God…or deity of any kind.

I tend to follow the line of thinking of a Swiss theologian named Karl Barth.

Barth was one of the contemporaries of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and part of what was called “The Confessing Church.”

They were the religious leaders in Germany who opposed the Nazi takeover of religion.

Barth was a firm believer in the goodness of God and God’s creation.

He believed that only God can create anything…and the very thing that opposed God was actually this shapeless…tasteless…“evil”  that was “nothingness.”

Evil exists…but it’s almost like carbon monoxide.

It tries to sneak in unnoticed and disrupt and destroy the creatures of God…such as you and me…and in this case Jesus.

In my own interpretation…this “nothingness” is always looking for a way to become something.

And I see this nothingness trying to test Jesus in the wilderness.

Will Jesus succumb to nothingness…to the evil and greedy ways of having power over things…or will he stick to the path of God…and remain faithful to building a world of power with the people?

Can Jesus…in this wilderness moment…hold on to the memory of his baptism when the Holy Spirit came to him and he heard the voice saying: “You are my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”  

Jesus has been fasting for forty days.

He’s in this land of uncertainty…the lonely and isolated place of wilderness.

He’s famished.

What better time for him to have the devil of nothingness put into his head…

“You’re God’s Son, remember? Turn this stone into bread.”

We know what it’s like to be hungry.

Our stomach is gurgling.

We feel our blood sugar plummeting and we’re getting shaky.

Think of those moments and realize that Jesus is feeling all of that.

And while we’re at it…think of another story where food becomes so tempting.

In the Book of Genesis…that nothingness comes in the form of the crafty serpent who spoke to Eve in the Garden of Eden:

“Did God say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden?”

And Eve tells the serpent they may eat the fruit of the trees in the garden… except that one in the middle…the Tree of Knowledge. If they eat that fruit…they will die.

“Ahhhh”….says the serpent…”you aren’t gonna die. You’ll just know good and evil. You’d like to know good and evil…right?”

And that fruit was so beautiful….so tempting.

And Eve ate the apple…and shared it with an unquestioning Adam.

Jesus knows this story all too well.

As a good Jew…he knows that this is the story his people tell to explain how humans came to be separated from God.

And so despite whatever hunger pangs he may be feeling his answer to this first test question is:

“No, I will not make this stone into bread.

I know what you’re trying to do here, devil.

And I remember that when my people ate the manna in the wilderness…they were warned not to rely on bread alone.”

So… Jesus has passed this test.

But the examination isn’t over.

The weakened-by-hunger Jesus gets to see all the kingdoms of the world. These could all be his…everything of the world…if he will follow this voice beckoning to him to surrender to the human-driven desire to have power over others.

Many of us wrestle with this one in our lives regularly.

Whenever we’re in a position of authority…either at our jobs…or in our families… we must consider how far do we exercise our authority.

And there’s always the temptation to use the power we’re given in ways that puff up ourselves by tearing someone else down.

Think of the memes on social media that get moved around at lightening speed…collecting “likes” and “hearts” and “ha-ha” emojis….without asking:

 Is this information true?

Is it necessary to share?

Is it kind?

When I was a reporter covering Florida politics…one of the most depressing things that I witnessed was seeing the way power corrupted newly elected legislators.

These were people who would arrive into these elected positions with such high hopes that they would be able to do good work and serve the people.

And within about three weeks…I could see the shine wearing off.

The lure of power over others made them turn on some of the constituent groups that had helped get them into office in the first place.

Like Adam and Eve…they had taken a bite of the apple of power…and it had turned their hearts to stone.

Jesus answers the second question of this test with a “No thanks. I know what it says in Deuteronomy. I’m worshipping the real God…and I’m not in this for the false God of Dominance and Empire.”

Still…this nothingness is determined…and tries a third time…another test question.

The devil basically says, “If you’re the Son of God: prove it.  Let’s see if God will catch you when you fall?”

This is truly an evil thought to put in the head of someone who is famished.

It’s also an attempt to get Jesus to invoke his divinity…and by doing that…separate himself from us…by using his divine power and cancelling his humanity.

Jesus…once more…is able to summon up his strength to quote from Deuteronomy:

“Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

The exam is finished.

Jesus scores a perfect A… three out of three.

He passes with flying colors.

But there is this last phrase…that devil departs from him “until an opportune time.”

Jesus will be tested again and again.

Because nothingness will keep looking for ways to get him to stumble and fall and turn away from his mission of spreading love.

We are also tested again and again.

There are so many forces…those unseen and hidden ways…that evil keeps looking for that crack…that opening…in which to infiltrate our hearts and minds…and elevate that part of us that harbors hurt…and jealousy…and rage.

It wants to draw us into that place where we stop seeing each other as the beloved and beautifully made children of God…and turn us against one another.

There are those with the megaphones of media who want to spread fear of anyone seen as different…and convince us that empathy is of the devil.

The natural temptation when hit with so much negativity is to withdraw and pull away…hide under the covers.

But Jesus has shown us that even when we are feeling at our weakest…the right answer to the test questions is not to despair or give in but to resist the evil that wants to infect us.

It’s not easy to do…and we will not always do it well.

That’s the most beautiful part of our Baptismal Covenant.

When we promise to “persevere in resisting evil” it quickly follows that we whenever we don’t do it…”we will repent and return to the Lord” (BCP 304).

It’s not an “if.”

It’s a “when.”

And it’s OK to admit that…to acknowledge that we will not always get it right.

There is a lot of resisting that has to happen in the world today…and a lot of repenting and returning to God in that process.

Together…we can help each other through this wilderness during Lent.

And with God’s help…we will arrive at Easter…having passed the tests presented to us in this time.

In the Name of Our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Magnificat: A Song of Strength for These Times

 

There is something seriously unfair about having Advent 4 and Christmas Eve on the same day. Beginning with the crunch it places on those of us preaching and leading services, not to mention the laity who help us to create a worshipful  and prayerful atmosphere. And, again, I spent this week dealing with a head cold. The only upside of it is that I didn't drive to Valdosta on Wednesday, but instead stayed home and locked myself in our home office for two days to get my sermons finished for Sunday. Hallelujah! 

Hopefully, these words reflecting on Mary's Song the Magnificat will linger in people's heads for the few hours before we celebrate Christmas Eve. Of course, they can always come here to read them if they need a refresher. :-)

See what you think.

Text: Canticle 15 in the Book of Common Prayer

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“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”

It was March 1965.

The campus of Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was gathered for their Evening Prayer service.

There was a young man at the service…one of the second-year students…singing these words that we know as the Magnificat.

He was getting swept up in their meaning.

“He has shown the strength of his arm. He has scattered the proud in their conceit.”

As those words and the music of Mary’s song filled his head and his heart…this young man’s thoughts turned to the announcement he had heard on campus that week.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be leading a march in Selma, Alabama, and would appreciate having seminarians join with him in standing up for the black population.

As this young man sang words about “lifting up the lowly” he knew what was happening:

God was speaking to him….through Mary’s song…and was calling him to respond to Dr. King’s request to go to Alabama.

That young man’s name was Jonathan Myrick Daniels.

Not only did Jon Daniels go to participate in the March; he stayed in Alabama to help with voter registration, tutoring black children, and challenging the segregation of Alabama’s Episcopal Churches.

The march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge challenged him to think about his privilege.

It would have been so easy for him to go to Alabama…take part in the action…and then retreat back a comfortable distance to Massachusetts.

But Daniels felt he needed to stay.

This ended up being a fatal decision.

Later that year…he was shot to death in Hayneville, Alabama, while protecting a black teenage girl from a white man at a package store.

Daniels is one of the many remembered as a martyr of the civil rights movement in Alabama.

Jonathan Daniels is one of my personal Episcopal heroes.

I love him both as a fellow native of New Hampshire… and even more so for how he lived out his faith…even when it cost him his life.

It's not surprising to me that the words of Mary’s song moved him so deeply.

It is a stirring poetic tribute to the power of God and the way God empowers us to accomplish things beyond our imagination.  

The Magnificat is a remix of another power packed song of praise…one which young Mary no doubt knew from her Jewish ancestry.

If we remember our Old Testament stories… Hannah sang God’s praises when she birthed her son Samuel…the last of Israel’s judges.

Hannah also sang of a God who “raises up the poor from the dust….to make them sit with princes.”  

This song is one for any of us who have felt ourselves looked upon with the harshness of judgment…or have felt our knees knocking as we stand before those with more power.

It’s a song to have in our hearts whenever we face any kind of struggle or potentially difficult situation.

Think about Mary’s situation.

A young… teenager…betrothed to a carpenter named Joseph… has just been told that she’s going to become pregnant…and her child will be holy and called ‘Son of God.’

Luke tells us that she was “much perplexed” by this angel and his message.

(Gee: I can’t imagine why?)

I think perplexed might be a bit of an understatement given the circumstances.  

Amazingly…she doesn’t tell Gabriel to get outta dodge with this crazy idea.

Instead…after hearing him out…Mary steps up. She accepts this role.

And then she immediately heads off to see her cousin Elizabeth…maybe to seek the wisdom and comfort of a much older woman.

Perhaps she wanted to find a person who might hear this story and give her some kind of rational explanation for what was happening.

And why wouldn’t a young woman seek the counsel of an older woman?

When Elizabeth sees her…not only does she get excited but her own child in her womb…that rascally John the Baptizer…starts leaping for joy.

Before Mary can even say anything…Elizabeth is like…” Woot! Here comes the mother about to bear the brother to deliver the light of love that comes from above! Woot!”  

It’s this affirmation…this praise and recognition from a trusted member of the older generation that launches Mary into her song.

“My soul magnifies the Lord”

Her soul…her innermost being…is expanding with this hope…this peace…this joy…this love!

This task…becoming the God-bearer…is no small work.

She’s accepted a role of helping to birth a new future for her people.

Her act will help to lead them out of from the tyranny of despair.

She has a purpose…and is praising God for choosing her to rise to this occasion.

Love is on the move…and she is a key part of the movement.

And by the way… so are we!

While we may not be God-bearers in the same way that Mary was…we are still the ones today who bring forth that life…that light… that love of Christ into every place we go and interact with others.

How well we listen to others…and how we respond….makes all the difference in how a person who doesn’t know Christ discovers the God they might’ve heard about but have never experienced.

They might find in us the spirit of Christ meeting them without prejudice or malice or indifference…but instead seeing them as a fellow traveler…seeking a connection to something that gives them a sense of purpose and meaning.

Through us…they might see a soul that is magnifying the light of Love represented in that last candle on the Advent wreath. The candle of Love.

May each of us shine so brightly as we enter into this Christmas season that those whom we meet will feel that presence of God’s love for them…and be glad in it.

In the name of God…F/S/HS.

 

 

God of Compassion: A Sermon at St. Thomas, Thomasville, GA

Proper 11,

Texts Jeremiah 23:1-6; Mark 6:30-34; 53-56

 

(Note: the AC had gone out in the sanctuary this morning, necessitating a slightly different start to the sermon in the video!)

Good morning!

And isn’t it a fine morning to talk about “woe”?! The prophet Jeremiah is all about the “woe” isn’t he? He has good reason to be woeful.

Imagine the images of a war-torn region with homes destroyed, buildings burning, ash covering the streets and smoke rising up into the sky. That’s the dust heap of Jerusalem where we find the prophet.

This text is drawn from a very long series of woes and laments the prophet speaks on behalf of God to the kings who have utterly failed the people. Some have noted this is pretty much a funeral for Judah.

Remember the American Express ads with the tag line, “Membership has its privileges?” In this case, the word from God is that “leadership…being the shepherd…has its privileges.”

And these shepherds have not only squandered that privilege and failed to lead their people, but there’s also almost a sluggishness to their leadership, a failure to act rightly or even care to do the right or just thing.

This leadership “meltdown” allows for the destruction of the temple and ransacking of Jerusalem. The shepherds are killed or exiled, and the sheep get scattered as Babylon raids their city.

But imbedded in this passage of woe, there is hope. Even in the midst of this great lament over the disastrous leadership that has botched things up so badly for the people, the God of Israel pledges that God’s self will take care of this mess.

God will seek out and find the lost and scattered sheep.

God will raise up new leadership for Israel, a righteous branch of David.

God ultimately will be the grounding for the people, the center of their righteousness.

God, not a king or prophet, will do this.

This is not a God who is remaining aloof.

This is a vision of God who is in deep with the people in their grief for what has happened to Israel and will not leave the people comfortless in their time of woe and despair. God’s answer to this calamity is not with warfare.

Instead, God creates a new reality out of this catastrophe, scraps what has been, and announces there’s going to be a new foundation.  

Theologian Walter Brueggemann says that the consciousness of the shepherds, the kings, of Judah and Israel had become so dull that they refused to see the coming danger of the exile.

Their only vision was for things which would benefit the few at the ultimate cost of the many.

They weren’t able to extend hope because they couldn’t even imagine a future. And what type of leadership is it that cannot and will not have hope for a future?

We have in Jeremiah a God who is imagining something different that moves away from the patterns of the failed rulers. Because those patterns clearly don’t work and have led not only to defeat but defeatism.

For God a new thing is going to happen.

As Christians, we hear in the Jeremiah passage that the hope for a future…the new thing…is the coming of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Son of David, the righteous Branch. One of my favorite Christmas hymns even speaks to this:

“I know a rose tree springing forth from an ancient root as men of old were singing from Jesse came the shoot that bore a blossom bright…amid the cold of winter when half-spent was the night.”

At Christmas, we celebrate God’s inbreaking into our reality, the incarnation of God living among us and coming to be that long sought-after shepherd.

In Jesus, we can see how God envisions the type of leadership for God’s people when we look at the verse in our Gospel reading: “He saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.” (Mark 6:34).

Jesus has compassion for them…because they were like sheep without a shepherd. We’re back to the lamentation of Jeremiah, that sense of people who have been failed by every system imaginable…and they are rushing to the shore to seek out this one rabbi they’ve heard about who cures the sick and casts out demons. Mark names the response to the needy crowd.

Jesus has compassion. God has compassion.

We might hear this word “compassion” and think, “Oh those poor people. I’m so sorry for them.”

But that’s not what compassion means.

What the word compassion means is “suffering with.” Just as God in Jeremiah is as despairing of the fate of Judah as the prophet himself…Jesus is not separating himself from this crowd. Remember, he and his disciples were attempting to find a quiet place and get away and get something to eat, but the crowds caught wind of their travels and insisted on getting attention, NOW. And Jesus’ response to this crowd of hassled and hungry people…to put it in our current lingo:

“You’re weary and hungry? Yeah. I know, right!”  He’s at one with them in that suffering place.

He begins to teach them. And we can imagine some of what it is that he teaches. How to live into a new reality, not wait around for the human shepherds to do what is right, but for them to be and do the righteousness of God. He wants them to know about God’s steadfast love for those who have been failed…a God who will not them languish forever.

We didn’t read it today in our Gospel lesson, but the next verses contain probably the chief lesson Jesus shares with the crowd…the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand (spoiler alert: this is next week’s Gospel only you’ll be hearing it from the perspective of John). We know this tale well enough and how it illustrates the power and abundance of God’s love through sharing gifts of loaves and fishes. This was Jesus’ compassionate response.  

I think one of the big questions for us is do we trust and believe in a God that is compassionate?

Do we believe that Love will win?

And if the answer is Yes, then do we understand the lesson that is getting passed down to us through these scriptures of our prophetic ancestor Jeremiah and the response of Jesus to the crowds? It’s more than just waiting on God to act. Certainly, God will. But we must observe how God acts and then participate in doing those same actions.

Those who have responsibility to lead…the charge to be shepherds…must not separate themselves from the people but lead from that place of compassion. And from compassion flows justice, mercy, and righteousness.

When systems fail to serve the people, when leaders don’t lead and insist on perpetuating a nihilistic vision of hopelessness and despair, when we realize that things that we were told were “normal” are not really “normal,” that is the time for us to visualize a new reality with God’s compassion and help.

What Jesus teaches us is that even when we are feeling the weight of the world’s woes, our job is to trust that there is a power that comes from a perfect love that casts out fear of doing a new thing, and not stay stuck in old patterns. That power and courage to change has been placed in and through us in our baptism. We are to look out for the needs in our community and respond with that “I’m with you in this moment” way to the person who is hurting. Sometimes, it can be marching alongside those who are speaking up for justice. Or it can be sitting still and listening without attempting to “fix” or solve someone else’s problems. Often, the children of God who represent today’s crowds are looking for someone who will hear their lament without judgment or a counter argument. To do this type of present and compassionate listening…this is what it means when we say go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and prosper the work of our hands (Ps.90:17).

 

 

More Than Expected

Portrait of President Barack Obama.

On Friday afternoon, I needed out of here.

Introverts need time alone to recharge and be ready to do the next extroverted thing on the agenda. And my off-the-scale introversion has been tested mightily in this new seminary environment. So I looked up the bus and Metro schedule, grabbed my SmarTrip card, and headed into Washington, DC, to the National Portrait Gallery...one of the items on my "to do" list for this time in Alexandria.

And I was blown away. 

It wasn't just observing the work of artists who, in some cases, did some very interesting brush strokes to create a person's likeness (the Bill Clinton portrait was a psychedelic experience!). But as I moved along the wall and took in the story of the presidents we have had in this country, I was catching glimpses of just how complicated, messy, unjust, and painful the struggle has been to keep together a country like ours. Truthfully, we invaded a land that was already occupied...not unlike some of stories from the Hebrew Scriptures...and set up camp and pushed others off into a wilderness that we would then claim another century later. And we did this on the backs of others brought here against their will. Some were not so keen on that idea of slavery, and then they met with fierce opposition that disrupted their presidencies. And then there were wars. And economic depressions. And corruption and largess. 

But then there was a video playing in an alcove. It was clips of speeches saved by the History channel. And there were the accomplishments: the ADA. The reunification of East and West Germany. And....marriage equality.

To stop and listen to Barack Obama's speech before a crowd of weeping LGBTQ+ activists and couples holding rainbow flags brought me back instantly to the rush of feelings I experienced both when the noxious Amendment Two passed in Florida...on the same night that Florida helped to elect Barack Obama as our president in 2008...to the incredible sense of a weight lifted from my shoulders when we were able to get our marriage license on January 6, 2015. I wept as I contemplated how even the presidents I did not admire still managed to perform the role of leader...and for more than just their own kind.

As Reagan bellowed, "Mr. Gorbachev: tear down this wall!" another museum visitor looked at me and shook his head.

"And now Trump wants to build walls."

Once upon a time, we did have presidents of the United States.

There was a line to see the portrait of Barack Obama by Kehinde Wiley. The artwork felt so vibrant and full of life with all the green foliage surrounding the seated Obama looking out at the viewer. But even more than the portrait itself was the excitement of those lining up to have a posed picture with the portrait. All ages and mostly African-Americans wanting to be standing just at his feet...make sure to get my good side poses...young children with their parents looking wide-eyed and in awe of a man who looked more like them than I do.

"He served TWO terms?" I heard them ask. "Did anyone else get to serve two terms?"

It was sweet to watch and to listen, and even the Smithsonian worker was grinning as she kept an eye on the line.

First Lady Michelle Obama's portrait resides on the next floor up and she is in a room with artists' portraits, Broadway and pop music stars, and another Wiley portrait of Notorious B.I.G. There was no line for Mrs. Obama's portrait, and so my moment with this painting felt more private. I examined the ease of her pose, the grace of her dress, and I gave thanks for her strength and composure and her endurance of eight years of public life in the face of some extremely hateful and racist commentary on her and her husband. And I cried once again.

Once upon a time, we did have First Ladies who cared.

The rest of my tour took me past legends of classical and jazz music, sports, and movies. The bust of Chuck Jones, Warner Brothers animator, delighted me. All his characters surrounded him helping to chisel away at his features.

As I left I gave thanks not only for the opportunity to have access to such a treasure of art work, but for the experience of moving through history and realizing that we have faced and been through so much as a people...and we still press on...even when it seemed like an impossible task. And I was reminded of what I remember reading in a Henri Nouwen book that, to put it into my own words, we minister out of our own brokenness and wounded souls. Those wounds, like the wounds inflicted on Jesus' body on the cross, are our place of healing that we bring to the world we encounter.

Thanks be to God for the artists who helped me to have that learning experience.

I Am Jim Acosta

 

Behold the man who dared to ask a question of our incoming President while working for a network that mentioned there was an embarrassing dossier of information out there about the President-elect. His name is Jim Acosta. He is a Cuban-American and the Senior White House Correspondent for CNN. I don't know him. I don't particularly like CNN very much. But when I heard the news availability (I hardly call what I listened to a 'press conference'), I was shocked and shaken by the way Acosta was shouted down and shut out by the next supposed leader of the free world.

The President-elect, or PEEOTUS as I have been calling him, wasn't going to let Acosta say anything because the PEEOTUS didn't appreciate the coverage of a leaked document detailing the depth of his ties to Russia, and his strange sexual proclivities involving Russian prostitutes and urine. PEEOTUS singled out CNN from all the other networks that had mentioned the existence of these documents because, it seems, he didn't think they did enough to discredit the information by saying "unverified" hundred times. Acosta attempted to ask a question, but PEEOTUS wagged his finger at him.

"Not you. Your organization is terrible.  You are fake news!"  

"You are attacking us, can we have a question?" Acosta kept shouting back.

No. No, they could not. And as the two men kept yelling, the PEEOTUS peanut gallery applauded, egging on their bully to show this reporter who was gonna be boss here from now on.

I listened to all of this while I was driving and I felt the hairs going up on the back of my neck. As a former journalist, it was maddening. As an American citizen, it was frightening.

Verbal beat downs of reporters by politicians and other people with inflated ideas of their power is nothing new. And it isn't limited to those on the extreme right-wing of the political spectrum. This past year, Move On or some other group was cheering how Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders schooled "the lamestream media" at a news availability in Iowa. A female reporter had asked about Sanders "outsider" label when he'd, in fact, been involved in politics and a member of Congress for years. In a classic moment of misogyny, Sanders smiled and ignored her...but accepted the same question from a male reporter so he could blast away; thus making Bern-feelers very happy that their hero had told off the media. Back in 2000, when Sen. Kendrick Meek and Rep. Tony Hill held a sit-in at the Capitol over Gov. Jeb! Bush's proposals to end affirmative action in state government, the Governor was caught on tape angrily declaring to his staff member: "Throw their asses out!" Later, after that tape went international, Bush explained he wasn't talking about the two state legislators; he was referring to the members of the media who were ensconced with Meek and Hill in the Lieutenant Governor's office. That was supposed to make it all better, I suppose.

Everyone loves to hate the media because they are the messengers who tell us what our leaders are doing. And that is precisely why we need journalists to keep on the job and remaining vigilant in their pursuit of answers to tough questions. A free press is the threat to a tyrant and a dictator because they want to control every aspect of life...especially what the public is allowed to know. The best journalists are the ones who bring to our attention the uncomfortable and unsettling truths about what's happening in our communities, our country and the world; otherwise, we run the risk of being naïve and blind to problems that need addressing. The fact that an Mi6 report exists, unverified or whatever, that suggests the incoming President of the United States is a little too cozy with a long-time enemy of American democracy is news worthy. It is not fake. "Fake news" is the supermarket tabloids that spent the past eight years publishing unflattering photos of the First Family who was our first-ever African-American First Family. "Fake news" is ultra-white supremacist Breitbart, whose leader, Steve Bannon, is now going to be only footsteps away from the Oval Office.   

Last week, the goat was Jim Acosta. But it won't stop there. What I heard in that exchange was a warning shot across the bow of every news organization that if you dare question the PEEOTUS, or bring to light that he is a liar, an incompetent, and a mentally sick individual, you will be shouted down and shut out. You may not even get credentials to cover the PEEOTUS. This isn't the time for the media to reign it in. We need our free press to step on the gas and wear it as a badge of honor if they get yelled at or kicked out of the room. We need our media to close ranks against this bullying and defend their colleagues when this abusive behavior happens again because it will. We need this because these are the people's people who are the eyes and ears bearing witness, up-close and personal, so that we can know what's happening. They are our surrogates. God help us if we lose that freedom of the press.