history matters

The news about Palmyra is distressing. (though the latest news today, that ISIS have placed guards at the ancient site, is the tiniest of glimmers of hope for antiquity, it's still not good.) I have been there, and can picture the place and the people in my mind (and in my photo album). I remember standing on the stage of the theater in the Roman ruins and playing the recorder as a way of demonstrating the acoustics of the place. I remember my roommate and I being left behind (and retrieved later, thankfully)...a demonstration of the potential for failure in the buddy system. I remember walking around this place in the desert, climbing the tower and marveling at how these things still stand out in the middle of the desert. I remember meeting people whose connection to this desert oasis wends its way through millennia.

ISIS has been known to destroy historical sites and artifacts before, because anything non-muslim (including things that predate Islam by hundreds and thousands of years) is idolatrous. Unfortunately that also destroys both any potential future economy based on tourism as well as, more importantly, a whole people's connection to a long and glorious past. And even as those ancient walls come down, new ones are built, between neighbors, between families, between friends...because where once it was common for Christians and Muslims (both of various flavors) to coexist, work together, be friends, etc, now that is nearly impossible. Along with holy and archaeologically significant sites goes the kinship of the Syrian people, which goes back hundreds of generations.
(and I can't even get into the human toll of this "conflict" (so much more than a conflict) in the present--it is beyond imagining, the suffering and grief and fear.)


As ISIS continues to advance, taking control of more cities, oppressing more people, and destroying more history, I thought I'd share this piece I wrote for another publication that ended up not being published.

First, some more photos from the ancient city of Palmyra...

can you see me in the window up there?

I call this the "column graveyard"--the place where pieces are laid out together but there is not sufficient knowledge to put them back together and place them within the complex of buildings.

According to tradition, the Prophet Mohammed visited the monastery of St. Catherine’s at the foot of Mt. Sinai in the 7th century. He sought the wisdom of the monks there, and later wrote a letter of protection for the monastery, which was reaffirmed in the 16th century, declaring that these People of the Book were to be safe from harm and from attempts at conversion. A mosque and minaret were built inside the walls of the monastery, as a visual symbol of the protective relationship between these brother faiths.

Over the centuries, that friendship has deteriorated into a minimum of tolerance, and now the corruption of the faith traditions has brought outright hostility. Life was not easy for Christians in pre-Arab-Spring nations—building permits were routinely denied simply because they were filed by Christians, evangelism and conversion were illegal, and the entire governmental, legal, and judicial system gave preference to Islam. But now those things seem almost reasonable in comparison to the impossibility of life as a Christian or a Christian community in these days. The ranks of the martyrs grow daily, as do the ranks of the émigré. Of the many friends I made while living in Cairo, only a few remain; the rest have scattered to Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and two to the USA. The cradle of civilization and of many of the world’s great faiths is being emptied of all of them—including Islam, in its truest sense.

In place of a beautiful tradition of peace and submission to God, there is now a premium priority on a cultural reality that is as foreign to many of us in the west as the ancient languages still spoken there.

The culture of much of the area we call “the Middle East” is based on a tribal honor-and-shame system, and this system requires a very strong leader who will maintain order and image. This leader ensures that there is nothing that would disturb the outside world’s perceptions of the quality, success, and peace of the tribe—and will often use any means to do so. While Americans look at leaders like Saddam or Mubarak and see dictators, people within those tribes see a strong leader who keeps them together and who keeps their family business within the family. While life was not easy for Christians under those dictators, it was still relatively calm and peaceful. Churches could gather for worship and study (though building a church was extremely difficult), Christians could (and did) engage in many charitable and developmental ministries, improving the lives of many who would otherwise be neglected. As long as they didn’t proselytize, the gospel could be lived out without words. And the family order was maintained, if only at the barest level of the Prophet’s command.

Other forms of leadership, based on other kinds of power, are weak in this kind of cultural reality, and make it difficult to shift toward a more open or democratic system. So we see it today: where strong leaders have been felled, thus bringing shame on the tribe, now others rise up to return the tribe to its former status and restore the peace. Many of them think the way to that restoration is by the same kind of violent power that worked in the past, and so we see the horrors perpetrated by both governments and groups like ISIS. All dissent must be crushed in order to bring back the calm and honor of the family—in this case, the family of a particular brand of militant “Islam”.

While the Prophet was friends with Christians and ordered their protection, groups like ISIS take another path, one that violates every sense of humanity and brings more dishonor on them than they can see. Their faith is corrupted, just as they believe their tribe has been corrupted. In many ways, it is a farce to call them ISIS, because there is nothing Islamic about them—they are so far from the tenets and roots of their faith as to be unrecognizable.

Our sisters and brothers in Christ bear the brunt of this form of “Islam,” unmoored from its story and its roots. We who live far removed from the daily reality of persecution and the very real threat of death for our faith have a hard time even contemplating these horrors, let alone understanding. As we pray for peace, as we lobby our government to find some way to protect people without causing more of a mess than we already have, and as we look for ways to ensure our dollars don’t inadvertently go to support the *ISIS cause, it is important also for us to realize how easy it is to become disconnected from our story, and then we become capable of great terror. History matters. Scripture matters. Our connection to the story God has been telling since the beginning matters. It is what makes us human, and capable of honoring the humanity of others. May those who twist their tradition to support their violent ideology be re-connected with the ground of their humanity and the source of their faith.

not repeating myself

Often when I am pondering what to say in this week's sermon, I go to check my files to see if I've preached a text before. Now that we're using the Narrative Lectionary, the chances are good that I have not. But sometimes a text comes up that is also in the Revised Common Lectionary, and sometimes it's one I've preached on before. I like to know what I said last time, to make sure I'm not just preaching the same thing over again. Unless it was brilliant, in which case I want to make sure I preach it exactly the same over again. ;-)

This week I had Micah 5-6, including that famous part "what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God." I couldn't remember preaching it before, but I checked the files just in case.

There is one sermon labeled "Micah 6" in my file. It is from the first Sunday in February, 2011.

It was the first Sunday I was preaching after the revolution began in Egypt.

The first line of the sermon says "I wasn't all that interested in writing a sermon this week, so I didn't."

Instead, it was a collection of stories and pictures of people I knew and loved in Egypt, people I was worried about, people I was praying for as I obsessively watched the al-Jazeera live coverage online.

I made a half-hearted attempt to tie things together with the scripture, but the reality is that most of my heart was elsewhere that week.

Needless to say, I didn't borrow from that sermon for today's.

But it did call up fresh mental images of those people. So many have emigrated or fled. My former students are in university in Europe, or pastoring in Australia and Canada. My fellow teachers who could afford it are here in the USA. Few who have choices have chosen to stay, and those without choice (aka without financial means) are just trying to get by without being too noticeable. The hope of the Arab Spring has turned to disappointment for many.

And there I think there is actually a connection to Micah. What does it mean for a people called to DO justice that we have ignored/enabled/profited from the suffering of others? What does it mean to love kindness even as Christians are leaving their ancient homes in droves, while we barely know they were there in the first place? What does it mean to walk humbly with God if we are not walking beside those who live in fear, or serious economic deprivation, or without access to clean water, enough food, or an education?

This photo went around a lot during the revolution. It still speaks to who we are called to be...but neither Egypt nor we have lived up to the promise of this picture. Maybe we can do better soon.

Christians protect Muslims at prayer in downtown Cairo, January 2011

boundary training

it's not about right, not about wrong...it's about power.

All the boundary training pastors have to go through could probably be summed up with this great Buffy quote. It doesn't matter much whether "it was consensual" or "I was right" or whatever...anytime there is a power differential (and when there is an authority figure involved--whether pastor, professor, boss, doctor, etc--there is always a power differential) then it doesn't matter what we perceive to be "right" or "wrong" because the situation is really about power.

Many pastors like to pretend that we don't really have the power, that this idea is a holdover from the days when pastors were respected authority figures in the culture--days that are long gone.

And of course, boundary training rarely takes into account the reality that female pastors (professors/doctors/bosses) often do not have the power in situations with male parishioners. Or the reality that young pastors rarely have the power that older clergy do.

But even so: it's still about power. And with power comes responsibility.

It is always--ALWAYS--the responsibility of the person with the power to set the boundary.

Extrapolating to other situations--for instance those of racial or gender or sexual privilege--it is always the responsibility of the person with the power to show restraint and to seek wholeness and peace for all people.

And extrapolating to international relations, it is always the responsibility of the nation with the power to show restraint and to seek peace. "But they started it" isn't a valid excuse for fighting between children, or for abuse in a relationship, or for clergy misconduct. It shouldn't be an excuse for war either.

Maybe we should send Israel, and the US, to boundary training.

Wednesday Interesting--extra day off edition!

The week started out slow...I was worried that this would be a two-link week. But then things picked up (or perhaps the stress of the week lowered my standards for what constitutes "interesting") and there's actually a ton to browse through while listening to Capital Steps (at 9am on the 4th on Chicago Public Radio--check your own radio listings to be sure you don't miss the hilarity!).

First--this week marks the 50th anniversary of the Zip Code! I knew there was a time before zip codes, obviously, but the careful roll-out, the commercials complete with catchy jingles, the animation...and the resistance from the public...that was all new and fun info. Also, while it's patently obvious that the zip code has some kind of meaning, did you know that there are actually 4 zones of information embedded in that set of five numbers? Happy birthday, zip codes!

Meanwhile, as we're celebrating our independence by eating questionable foods and watching fireworks, over in Egypt there are fireworks of a different kind. It's been 18 months since the revolution, 12 months since the new president took office, and things aren't going terribly well. To put it mildly. So people are taking to the streets again, and everything is very volatile and changing rapidly. But for those of you who missed the signs that this was coming again, here's a good recap of just how we got here. I'm again glued to al-jazeera's live coverage and hoping my friends are okay. And hoping for a future that's good for all Egyptians, not just a few, or not just one religious sect, or not just one social class.

Loved this column about how social media is changing the landscape of relationships. I promise, it's more than a platform for pictures of your pets or notes about breakfast.

"Their community is much wider than mine and my wife’s. Kate, Philip and their friends don’t move on when they move to new cities. They simply add on. They keep in touch through hundreds of tiny digital connections, and these moments add up. The constancy of contact helps to sustain the freshness and the intensity of their relationships."

~~~~~
Speaking of the whole generational thing, and the breach of contract between generations that I wrote about recently (and will probably continue to write about, as it's interesting and important, I think)...

This article about student loans is thought-provoking. Why exactly have we just assumed that we have to go into debt in order to get an education?

And then this sermon about passing the mantle--and not just passing, but also picking it up. While I'm no fan of creating or continuing institutions for the sake of institutions, I think it's interesting to ponder whether institutions are necessary to the continuation of energy in a movement. Particularly since institutions change so slowly, they may not be able to adapt to a change in energy or in need.

"Elisha, a second generation action prophet, has become Elisha, custodian of an institution; the Company of the Prophets. Because there is no way that the prophetic action ministry begun by Elijah and continued by Elisha can be sustained if Elisha doesn’t pay attention to the needs of the school and its prophetic members. Institutional care is necessary for ongoing, powerful prophetic action. ...
As generation passes to generation, we cannot simply repeat, but must reinvent, the prophetic tradition to meet the challenges of our day."

While I'm linking to sermons, this is a beautiful one about a central practice of Christianity. Without hospitality, we can't ever claim to be even remotely "biblical." And welcoming isn't really about what we do when people walk in the door (though that is important), but about who we are when we're outside the doors. Love it.

Which makes me think of this:

 And that, of course, leads me to this. I say "of course" because this is my brain we're talking about, so things aren't always linear. But seriously: blessing one another is one of the most powerful things we can do, and isn't that what we're doing if we're taking hospitality seriously?

Most people “keep” themselves. In other words, they make their own way in their own world. Such aloneness can only be described as horribly sad. In the biblical blessing, the one who blesses asks for a new reality to unfold around the one being blessed: may you know, in your life, that God is the one keeping you, he is the one making a way for you. This blessing opens up the possibility that God might take care of your needs and even your dreams. To biblically bless someone is to invite them into the tender care of God.

Which brings me to this...which I hope you can see even if you don't have facebook (make sure to click "see more" to see the whole story under the photo). Seriously, click the link. This is one of the most beautiful stories I've seen--a young woman who takes her faith seriously and decides to do something about it. I love that she did this in preparation for her bat mitzvah, and I can imagine having something like this be a part of confirmation. Not unlike, say, an Eagle Scout project--perhaps each youth being confirmed needs to find a way to put their faith into action, and implement it, as part of the confirmation process. Could be beautiful! (though then there's always the problem of institutionalizing something like this taking away the meaningfulness...sigh.)

Makes me ask the question: what have I done with my days? What do you do with yours?


Speaking of projects, Textweek is a huge project that is a blessing to the whole church. It's not an exaggeration to say that the vast majority of churches are probably affected by her work. Jenee, who single-handedly keeps that enormous project going, was the presenter on the Big Event in 2012. It was great to meet her, to get to know her story a bit, and to spend time hanging out. Now you can feel a bit like you were there too, thanks to this great article!


On a completely different note, funding of nonprofits. We have this idea that nonprofits should also be essentially free to run. That's a bunch of baloney, of course. I've seen a couple of TED talks that address this issue, but this is the first time I've seen something in print. It's important for us to think about what we mean when we say "overhead" and why it's so important that people who work for nonprofits get paid less for the same skills, education, training, and work than they would if they worked in a for-profit company. That expectation is crippling our nonprofits and their ability to respond to the needs of the world. This is one of the reasons that many churches are moving to narrative budgets and asking pastors to figure out how much of our time is spent on different things, so we can include percentages of our salary in different tasks--so some percentage of my salary is included in the cost of worship, the cost of mission, the cost of education, the cost of outreach, etc. That's a good approach, but it also perpetuates this idea that we should have as low overhead as possible. What if nonprofits said "we want the best people to do this important work" and the donors said "we want you to have the best people" and we all just worked on the assumption that paying the best people IS part of the ministry/mission/task of the organization?
(You can tell I have a lot to say about that. But instead of reading my rant on it, go read the article. It's much better.)


~~
To end on a lighter yet equally serious note: THIS IS AWESOME. Yay vegans!

rejoice

It's a little weird to see the word "rejoice" come up before Easter, but there you go. Here at the beginning of Holy Week, what causes you to rejoice?
My church and I have been making lists of things we're grateful for--every day last week, and some of us have continued the practice this week. That's a reason to rejoice, but one that's hard to capture in a photo!
I was tidying up my house a little because tomorrow morning my Domestic Goddess (who is a SERIOUS reason to rejoice!) will arrive very early to clean up after my craziness. I turned around and spied these alabaster beauties on the shelf, and remembered a beautiful day spent with wonderful people. We rejoiced greatly that day, and I rejoice remembering them. (if this was facebook, I would tag them...instead, you'll just have to know who you are, Karla/David/kids/Jennifer/Sarah!)
These also remind me to hold my Egyptian friends in prayer--they could use some rejoicing, some of the new life Easter promises, some of the beauty held in this bowl.

day 35 of Lent photo a day

two days to sign

obliterate?

I'm sorry to be so starkly political on my blog, but I just don't think that I can, in good conscience, vote for someone who so calmly talks about "obliterating" a people. Under any circumstances, for any reason. There is NO NEED for that kind of language and it only gets us into trouble, both political and spiritual. Sorry, friend, but if you think you can obliterate people, real people, you have problems. And you should not be the leader of the "free" (yet enslaved to violence and money and power) world.

lots

There's tons I want to blog about, but not tons of time to blog.
Maybe this Saturday?
by then the things I want to say about the whole Petraus/Crocker hearings will be irrelevant, but maybe my temper will have cooled down by then too. I mean, who says "Sunni Arab"???? Sunni is a religious term, Arab is an ethnic term...they are not used together except by uninformed people. It disturbs me that a man who is "leading" our armed forces on the ground in Iraq uses a phrase like that.

Also, I'm tired of hearing about how factions within Islam are the only religious groups in Iraq or anywhere else in the middle east. It's just not true. There are Christians, there are Zoroastrians, there are some other small minority religious groups, and guess what? They're all persecuted like crazy. No to mention Kurds, who get no mention at all; even when there's talk of "partition" they only talked about Sunnis and Shiites. News flash: Iraq is more diverse than we give it credit for. Where's the US military for those other people? Somewhere else, apparently. Talking about "Sunni Arabs" as though that's even a thing. And saying things that come out sounding an awful lot like "we can't leave because it would force the Iraqis to work together and that wouldn't be good." I mean, really. You went into a country where you didn't understand the culture or language or really anything else, and now that it's all falling apart (or fallen apart, as the case may be) you're talking about how they don't work together the way we do...well duh...and that it's better not to have an authoritarian government (which is sort of true but culturally not true because strong authority is a key value in Arab culture) but eventually they'll do things "our way" (one of them actually said that). Honestly.

One more thing. I'll be the first to admit I don't understand all the complexities of this, but I have a basic logic question. IF "Al Qaeda in Iraq" is in fact linked to Al Qaeda the original, THEN doesn't it make sense that spending resources dismantling (the polite way to say killing, unfortunately, since we can't seem to see any nonviolent way to dismantle anything) Al Qaeda the original would ultimately put a stop to AQI? If there's no command central, then organizations like that (particularly in the middle east where authoritarianism is valued) tend to crumble, right? So we could actually solve the AQI problem by focusing on Afghanistan? I have yet to hear a convincing argument against this, though it must be out there in the ether I don't understand...otherwise, wouldn't we be doing that? I can't be the only one who's thought of this.

Okay, so apparently I let all of that out today instead of Saturday. But there's more, about other stuff, so that will have to wait because now I have to do some work. ta.

mental clutter

There's been a lot in my brain this week...too much to get it into any coherent post. So, naturally, I've abandoned coherence as a goal and decided to write anyway. In no particular order:

I currently have a strange desire to eat French Toast and/or waffles. I cannot explain this.

re-reading Harry Potter and re-watching the movies. I'd forgotten some things about the first book, and while watching the first movie I was reminded how flat-out COOL it is to watch quidditch!

re-reading Walking the Bible and am reminded of how frustrated I was by Zionist overtones last time. As I read, I'm constantly talking to the book saying things like "when are you going to talk to a Palestinian who's just as connected to the land? Or an Israeli who is sympathetic to Palestinian concerns?"

Listening to the news early this week (like Monday) about Abbas dissolving the Palestinian government and appointing a new Prime Minister, and then hearing the Israeli government make comments like "now there's a new opening for peace talks" makes me angry. Wasn't there this same opening 18 months ago, before Hamas was democratically elected? Maybe if there'd been any significant progress in the past, maybe if people in the region actually saw a good-faith effort on the part of the Israeli government, maybe if there was real desire for the justice and compromise that need to be the foundation of peace...maybe then Hamas wouldn't have been elected to begin with, because Palestinians would see other options, another way out of the hell in which they live, surrounded by a 20 foot concrete wall and a hostile population. Just saying.

I am preaching on Elijah and the still small voice this week. It seems rather counter productive to talk about silence. So at 8.30 we are doing a kind of guided-imagery-meditation thing that allows us to place ourselves in the story and practice listening for the quiet whisper in the sound of sheer silence. At 9.30 we are doing Taize instead of a traditional service, so there will be an opportunity to practice silence there as well. At 11 it's traditional, with sermon and all. No, I have not yet written the sermon. I'm still trying to answer the preaching-prof question: "what do you want to say?" When I figure out what I want to say, then I'll be able to write it. I hope I figure that out sometime today.

The Lakeside Festival is this weekend. Taste of Crystal Lake (which I think is a funny thing since I used to live in Chicago and Taste of Chicago is awesome and huge), the cardboard cup regatta (where people build boats out of cardboard and then actually have to ride in them on a course on the lake--prizes for all kinds of things including Most Spectacular Sinking), etc...all this weekend. Fun. Must have sermon done in order to go....

Game night last night was fun. Grownups don't really get human battleship, but they figured it out and we had a good time.

It's cold in my office.

I don't think my thermostat at home actually works properly--I turned it up to 85 and my air has still been coming on sporadically. So I turned it up more and am using my beautiful new fan from Target.

I think that's all for now....I'm going to go satisfy my french toast needs.

Easter in Palestine...

This is a statement by Palestinian Christian NGOs "Ahead of Easter." This issue, these people, and this area is dear to me. Please pray for the Christians in this area, as this is a particularly frustrating and dangerous time.

~~~~

"We are about to welcome the Easter season after forty days of fasting. To us, Easter is a reminder of the suffering, crucifixion, and most importantly, the resurrection of Jesus. In our Land, traditional celebrations have been taking place for centuries, such as the processions of local communities, scouts, participating in Palm Sunday, and Saturday of the Holy Fire celebrations from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

"Processions and traditional celebrations are governed by the Status Quo over the course of many years. Such celebrations have been taking placed uninterrupted. However, in the last few years the Occupation authorities are impeding the celebrations, especially the Saturday of the Holy Fire celebrations of the Orthodox Church. The Occupation authorities are preventing worshipers from reaching the Church of the Holy Sepulcher or celebrating in the yard on the roof top of the Church, and are preventing the traditional joyful celebration march and the procession of the banners.

"Easter celebrations are hostage to the whims of the Occupation authorities, as part of policies that are racist and that aim to push Christians to immigrate. The Occupation authorities are imposing strict restrictions on the movement of Christians during Easter week, and are preventing Christians from reaching the churches, and are adopting a policy that prevents Palestinian Christians from other parts of the West Bank from reaching Jerusalem to celebrate Easter. Also, barriers are put near the gates of the old city of Jerusalem, especially in the area leading to the Christian quarter, Herod’s Gate, and the roads leading to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in order to deny worshipers their right to pray freely. A new phenomena now, is the huge presence of Israeli police inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher with their weapons, which violates the sanctity of the Church and religious traditions.

"Therefore, we, members of the Christian community in Jerusalem, are calling upon our fellow Christians around the world, and the Heads of Churches as well, to put an end to Israeli violations of our right to worship freely in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, so that Christians will be able to enter the Church to pray."

Source: Palestinian Christian NGOs, 20 March. 2007