Monday, January 28, 2008

Lakeview


Lakeview
Originally uploaded by paynehollow
We have, at the top of our church bulletin each week, a quote. Sometimes from the Bible, sometimes from a saint, sometimes from a poet and sometimes from Abba or Supertramp. Yesterday's was from Milne...

"Do you mean that everyone is who he wants to be, and does what he wants to do?"

"Exactly," said Owl.

"But that would mean," Christopher Robin went on, "that you could make a choice, and decide who you want to be."

"Precisely," Owl said.

"Everyone, Owl?" asked Pooh. "Nobody ever asked me if I would like to be somebody else," he went on. "Or asked me if I would like to be myself," he added...


This was soon followed by an old spiritual...

I want Jesus to walk with me
I want Jesus to walk with me
All along my pilgrim journey
I want Jesus to walk with me...


Which was followed, in turn, by a prayer from Walter Brueggemann...

We are counted your people.
We are grateful to be called by you, and glad for our special way of faith in the world.
You have marked us and named us and signed us, and we are different,
different memories,
different hopes,
different fears,
different commands,
different ways of being.

That difference we find glorious,
but at times a burden too severe.
We yearn to be like the others,
like the others in power,
in money
in freedom,
in certitude,
in security.

We come to you in that deep trial of difference and likeness.
Engage us in our difference,
give us courage for our different vocations,
and energy for our different hope,
In the name of your crucified, Easter One,

Amen

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Good 'Mericans


Roger
Originally uploaded by paynehollow
One of our number received one of those ridiculous email messages along the lines of… Can a Muslim REALLY be a good American? And then they proceeded to list the multitude of reasons (Muslims first allegiance is to Allah, etc) why the answer was, No, they can’t.

This goofy letter also included the preposterous charge that Barack Obama is a Muslim (and hence, couldn’t be a good ‘merican, let alone a good president…)

Our church member was saying that she had received this email from a friend who she would have thought more aware than this letter indicated. She was asking for advice on how to respond. Several folk pointed out that by that reasoning, Christians couldn’t be good Americans either. But my favorite answer was from our dear Karen, who is a preacher in Muslim Morocco.


Hi, friends,

Kevin's Dad received this email last summer (while Karen was home visiting). When I read it I was so, so angry and upset that I had to go outside and take a long walk.

What I was wondering at the time was, as Mike has said, whether or not I could ever be a "good American" or if I even wanted to be a good American, and not simply as these right-wing people define it, but even as it might be defined more "liberally".

It took smelling the sweet hay and admiring the cornflowers and the Queen Anne's Lace on the roadside in the farm country of Hardin County for me to remember that I love the land and am attached to it and wanted to find a way to be an American without being angry about my country all the time.

These accusations are ridiculous and easily refuted, or at least turned on their heads with respect to Christians, as others have done. (And by the way, the Qur'an explicitly calls for tolerance of other "religions of the book", Judaism and Christianity, and tells Muslims to befriend Christians who are "the closest in affection" to them; thought I might mention this for those who might not know that.)

But I believe that it is truly hard to be Christian and American at the same time in this era. Our allegiance is to a God of radical, sacrificial love who belongs to no nation and "is no respecter of persons" or national boundaries. My faith teaches me that my allegiance has to be to God and not to any nation when that nation would have me act in ways that oppose the God revealed in Jesus Christ.

I believe that now God asks us to stand in opposition to the actions of our nation which has abandoned its commitment to liberty and justice for all in the name of national "security" -- our national sinfulness is so blatantly seen in Guantanamo and it satellite torture-centers, in this "preemptive war" undertaken to ensure American hegemony in the oil-rich middle east no matter what the consequences for other peoples and nations. But America has also turned so thoroughgoingly to idolatry -- obsessing over wealth and possessions, worshiping the god of materialism and consumerism which has seduced virtually our entire population, rich and poor alike, while the two-thirds world is seen as target for exploitation as well as conversion.

I identify strongly with Jeremiah, accused of disloyalty, and I suspect others of you have felt this way. But most of the time, I feel like my love for this land and its peoples can only be expressed in tears and in protest.

Last summer, oddly enough, what brought me around, feeling more hopeful about America, was the Harry Potter party at Carmichael's bookstore. I was still brooding when we came up from Rineyville to take Claire to the big event with Ellie, Michaela, Laura, and Katherine. That night as we hung out in funky costumes and watched our kids running up and down Frankfort Avenue for the treasure hunt, I found myself loving a country that would throw such a grand party over a book.

So while my allegiance remains to a God who will never play favorites among nations, not distinguishing between Iraq, Venezuela, or the USA, I am still trying to be a hopeful American (with a little help from Harry Potter).

Friday, January 11, 2008

A Republican, Two Clowns and a Vampire

Or is that redundant?

Posting an old photo of no-telling-who just for the fun of it and because I've not posted anything new here lately. Busy working on a bigger project to be announced soon, hopefully.