earth as it is in heaven

Good Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 23:25:00 +0000

Jesus of Nazareth challenged the ruling authorities, drew dangerously large crowds, made inroads among leadership, remained blameless before the law yet a threat to the standing order because he would not stop challenging the sinful domination system: after months of plotting they executed him. It was government sanctioned political assassination. No remote God was happy or felt avenged. The God who had drawn near in this humble, poor Jewish man knew sorrow and was acquainted with grief at the betrayal and rejection of relentless love.

Simeon's Story

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 17:00:00 +0000

This is a narrative sermon delivered in the Shaw University Divinity School Chapel service on March 23, 2013. It is both an preaching text and a teaching exemplar. In this particular instance, I had to create imagined characters who could give first person accounts as observers of the events in the biblical account.

While narrative preaching may not be the bread and butter of the pulpit, it can be a valuable contribution in a number of ways. In this case, a narrative sermon provides an imaginative alternative for high holy days such as Palm Sunday when the preaching text may be similar from year to year. The different approach allows a preacher to enliven a text in new ways across many years of ministry.

Secondly, a narrative sermon series can offer a unique way to develop sermons on a set of characters from scripture or a series of stories in a book of the Bible.

Additionally, preachers will find that occasional narrative preaching can also assist them as readers to see more deeply into texts, as for instance the very brief comments made by the gospel writer about the disciples coming to pick up the colt with the simple statement, "The Lord has need of it." What sort of background made that easy to do? Alternatively, was it more complicated than the gospel account explains? Asking these probing questions assists preachers to seek richer and fuller understanding of the text.

Finally, I would also say that retelling a scripture narrative as a sermon also opens the door for teaching scripture in context. The retelling can weave surrounding chapters and pericopes into the text being examined, using cultural, geographical, and social background as well as including details from other adjacent stories to elaborate the more focused narrative.

Luke 19:28-40 (Liturgy of the Palms)

I started the day looking for that son of mine. He went outside early, as expected, to do his chores. It is the day after Sabbath, so there is a little extra work to do with the animals—a little extra cleaning the messes they make, a little extra stocking the mangers with feed, a little extra spreading of straw on the ground.

I was saying morning prayers, planning my day, waiting for Elazar, that’s my son’s name, to share breakfast with me. When he did not come inside, I finally stepped out to see whether he was having a problem with his chores. To my surprise, he was nowhere to be found. And the donkey’s colt he loves so much was gone as well. I wondered if the colt had run away. Maybe Elazar had to go searching. The mother donkey was happily chewing her food and did not seem to be bothered at all. I decided I had better start looking for them myself.

I stopped by my neighbor Asher’s house first. Asher is a tailor who makes and repairs fine cloaks and other garments. Of course, most of us do our own basic sewing and make our everyday work clothes as best we can. Still, Asher makes a good living selling fabric and garments for all the special occasions when people may not have time or skill to make their own.

Asher said, “Peace be unto you, Simeon. Come into my home. It’s very busy now as so many travelers are coming to Jerusalem for the Passover. In these festive seasons I make much of the income I need to feed my family for the year. But I always have time for my good friend Simeon.”

I got right to the point to ask if Asher had seen Elazar this morning or might have any idea where I might find him. Asher said, “I did hear some conversation outside in the early morning. I thought Elazar might have been talking with you, Simeon. But if it were not you, then I suppose some other man must have stopped to talk. Simeon, I’m sorry, but it seemed normal, so I did not bother to check. Wait, my boy Zachary is helping me this morning. Maybe he saw something. Hey Zach, come speak with Simeon and me for a moment.”

A small boy appeared carrying a large stack of folded fabric. Peeking over the top of the cloth, he listened to his father ask, “Did you see Elazar going anywhere this morning? Simeon can’t find him or the young colt.”

Zachary replied that his mom had sent him outside early to sweep off the threshold and the front yard. He added, “I saw Elazar and my big brother, David, talking with two men. The men had come to borrow the colt. When Elazar asked why they wanted the colt, they said, ‘The Lord has need of it.’ Right then, Elazar and David got so excited. They did not even think to come in and tell anyone what was happening. They just asked those men, ‘Can we come along?’ That’s when they all left, heading back into the direction of Bethany with the colt.”

I looked at Asher, and he looked back at me. We paused a moment to collect our thoughts. Then Asher said, “Simeon, we knew this day was coming, but we did not know when.”

You see, Asher and I had been following the news of Jesus of Nazareth. Not so long ago, we had gone out into the wilderness by the Jordan to hear the preaching of John. We were convicted by his words, so we were baptized for repentance from sin. Later word came around that John had announced Jesus as the promised one that we should follow. Ever since, we began to take whatever opportunities we could to see him, to hear him, and to learn about him.

For a few months now, a small group of people here on the edge of Bethpage and Bethany met together occasionally to tell each other what we have heard and seen. We talk about the things Jesus is teaching and the mighty works he has done. Recently, some of his close followers dropped by our meeting to let us know that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. They said that when he came, he would need our help to carry out his plans. They asked us to be ready to do what Jesus would ask us to do. So our families had agreed to be ready. Elazar is still a by, but at his age he is also a son of the law. Like his elders, he has been drawn to Jesus. That’s why this morning, he knew to be ready.

I felt a rush of joy to know that our humble family could now be of service to Jesus. We are simple people. We keep animals. I hire out my service to haul goods with my donkeys. This young colt had never been ridden and never carried a heavy load. He was almost ready for joining the working stock. Yes, he was ripe for work. But why would Jesus need this colt?

Remember Asher pointed out that next week is Passover. Of course, that is the time when our children ask a question at the Passover table, “Why is this night different from every other night?” I have to say the question came a few days early for me. Why was this first day of the week different from any other day?

For a long time it seems, Asher and I stood together pondering this news. But soon we began to hear the sounds of a crowd coming out of the direction of Bethany. We went outside to get a view of what was happening. In the distance, there were people walking in the road, and more people walking along beside the road. They were shouting and laughing. Some seemed to be singing. As they got closer I could make out what they were saying.

“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hail the Son of David!” People were cutting branches from the palm trees and waving them. It was as if a sea of green banners were waving and washing down the road--green waves of hope, waving above our heads, signaling that change is coming.

In a way I was confused about the words people were saying, even though I knew about Jesus and had high hopes for what he might do. What marvelous words these were! Who would say such things as these? Of course we all hoped for the Messiah. Asher and I grew up studying the Torah and the Prophets, and we had sometimes disputed what signs of the Messiah’s coming we should be watching for. Now, all of a sudden, right by my humble home, people were shouting as if the Messiah was about to pass by.

Then, as I peered at the approaching tumult, lo and behold, I saw Elazar, walking along leading our colt. On the back of the colt sat the great teacher Jesus. Just as the Prophet Zechariah had said, he was riding into Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt. I was so proud to see Elazar there with him. And David, Asher’s older boy, was running back and forth with many others, placing their outer garments on the road as a carpet in front of the colt. It was a kind of moving carpet, as they waited for the donkey to pass, then gathered the garments and ran carrying them again to put them on the road ahead of Jesus.

I burst inside to get Rachel, my wife. I told her to grab her tambourine, come to the street, and join the people celebrating as Jesus rides into Jerusalem. When we got back outside, we found Asher and Zachary, and Asher’s wife Sarah, carrying beautiful garments to spread on the road in front of our simple little colt.

In the crowd I saw familiar faces of the fishermen, scholars, workers, and of course the women of every status, disciples who had traveled with Jesus, had followed along to learn and assist him in his work. Right beside the colt was a beggar, shouting loudest it seems, calling Jesus the Son of David and telling everyone that on this very morning he had been blind, but Jesus gave him sight. Running along behind was a very short man in the finest of clothes, trying to keep up. I heard someone say he was a tax collector who was giving back the money he stole from people. Women were playing their finger cymbals, jingling their bells, and beating their tambourines. Children ran and played in all the excitement. It seemed that everyone was joining the great parade of people praising God and following Jesus.

We made our way into Jerusalem, and the crowd continued to swell into a great multitude. Those who realized what was happening would join in the celebration. Others followed along to gaze at the spectacle, mostly out of curiosity. Such a scene attracted the attention of everyone, including the authorities. Roman soldiers watched suspiciously, and I saw them send a messenger toward the Prefect’s court. I’m sure Pilate was not pleased to hear what was happening. Soon from the direction of the temple I could see officials of the Sanhedrin and their temple guards hurrying in our direction. That made some people afraid, and the crowd thinned out a little.

Those Pharisees and Sadducees went straight up to Jesus and told him he should make all of us stop saying what we were saying. They had hated him for a long time, and this big show of popularity and symbolism made them livid. As usual, Jesus had a strong response ready. He said if the people stopped shouting these things, then the very stones of the road and the stone blocks of the structures would take our places crying out in praise to God. What a thing to say! He never seemed afraid to get right in the faces of those pompous windbags.

I kept thinking about the other times I had seen and heard Jesus. There were many times before that it seemed Jesus did not want to be called the Messiah. But for some reason today was different. He did not hush it up. He did not deny it or give some kind of vague and confusing explanation. He was willing to accept the title. He was even acting it out from the teaching of the prophets.

Some were shouting, “Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” It was like the story they tell about when Jesus was born. They say shepherds heard angels saying those very same words. So much of what had gone before seemed to be coming to fruition on this day, in my town, in front of my house, and including my little donkey.

However, I noticed as we got right up to the city where Jesus could look out across the temple, the buildings, the streets, and the people, that Jesus’ face clouded up. He seemed to be weeping. Elazar later told me that Jesus had said something about the people not knowing the way to peace. They were crying out peace, but they did not know peace.

After taking a few moments of reflection and resolve, Jesus gathered himself and went into the temple itself. He began to confront the merchants and the temple staff. He quickly took charge of the place. Many of the crowd continued to cheer his actions. Others watched in amazement or fear for what the guards might do. Jesus activity on that day was relentless, it seems. But the moment was passing, the excitement waning.

People got tired or hungry. Slowly, the crowds of people began to go back to what they had been doing. Rachel and I gathered the family and the colt, and we headed back home. We found Asher and Sarah preparing to wash the garments from the road and getting back to their work. But none of us could keep from stopping in the midst of our work to talk about what had happened. We kept puzzling over what it might mean.

Jesus did not gather weapons and utilize the crowd to rush the centers of power and take over Jerusalem. Some thought he would do that. I don’t know why he didn’t. But he also did not send us away and say we had gotten him all wrong. I think he was accepting the title Messiah, but just what kind of Messiah is he?

I keep thinking about that moment when he stopped to survey the city. What hurt him so bad that tears filled his eyes in the middle of his great day of triumph and celebration? I would have expected him to beam with joy and to bask in all that glory. But Elazar said Jesus was feeling sad for the way that God’s blessing for Jerusalem and for the people would soon be thwarted. He was seeing that these enthusiastic crowds would be disappointed. He said that the people did not understand or recognize the visitation of God. He incited a multitude, yet he was disappointed by the response he got. What a strange reaction to the day’s marvelous events! I just don’t understand.

Jesus had asked for the colt so he could ride into town. That must mean that he wanted to stir the crowds to action. Yet he is showing no sign of organizing his forces for battle. If not battle, what kind of action does he want to see? I wish I could understand what this man has planned for us. I am sure that he comes from God.

The words I’ve heard him speak stir my heart. They make me yearn to know God better. They raise hope for a better life and a better world. What will the next days bring? Will he now show us the way? What does he want from us? If not taking up arms, then what means does he plan to use for transforming the world?
As this day is closing, God, I am calling out to you. Show us the things that make for peace. Visit us and make yourself known. Make us ready to follow Jesus wherever he may lead. Make us ready to become who you want us to be. Amen.

The Worth of a Person, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 18:39:00 +0000

Continued from Part 1, the previous post.

Ephesians 1:3-14

During Black History Month, it is important to realize there is another way that the question of what a person is worth lurks just beyond our attention everyday. That is in the modern-day revival of slavery. Often nowadays it is called human trafficking. Observers tell us that large international criminal organizations now operate with their eye on the market and on their bottom line. They follow the same logic of legal multinational corporations. They don’t really care what they buy, sell, and trade, so long as they are making the highest profit available. The move is away from specializing in a certain illegal product, such as drugs. Drug cartels now also trade weapons or human beings, whatever the market is asking for.

What is a trafficked human being worth? In South Asia, a desperately poor family may sell a child for slave labor for as little as $150. Across the globe, some sources say the average price of a slave is around $400, but others say even less. The average income to be made by the use of slave labor is above $10,000 per year, so the profit motive is powerful. In the selling of sex, a teenage girl or young woman may cost a buyer $1900, but the same girl or woman may make that slave owner profits of $2400 a month. Bought for a pittance, the modern slave fills the pockets of manufacturers, agriculturalists, and pimps. In Africa, child slaves work the cocoa plantations of Ghana, the poor work in sweatshops making clothes in Lesotho, and throughout Central Africa children are kidnapped and forced to become soldiers. In Asia, manufacturers contract with U.S. corporations to make clothes, electronics, and household goods in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and many other lands, staffing their sweatshop factories with wage-slaves working under hazardous conditions. In Latin America, companies enslave workers for mines and large agricultural plantations. Haitian children are sold and exported to the U.S., Europe, and elsewhere to be household slaves. And all sorts of slavery exist just beyond our notice in the very land where we live. But if the productivity declines from injury, illness, or exhaustion, their lives may be worth little or nothing to those who have used and abused them. Murdering a troublesome slave may at times be a cost of business, since a replacement is so cheap. Trading in human flesh, making commerce and commodity of someone’s daughter or son, someone’s mother or father, someone’s brother or sister, trading God’s beloved child for a handful of silver—this evil flies in the face of a loving God. Whether it brings us cheap chocolate bars, cheap tomatoes, cheap shirts and pants, or in the back allies or penthouses, cheap sex with disposable people, such commerce makes God sick, angry, and sad.

What is the worth of a person? We are living in a time when the worth of most people is diminishing steadily in the eyes of the powerful, the violent, and the unscrupulous. These are harsh words. They are hard to say, and hard to hear. They are the words of despair, the words of death. But they are not the only words I came by to say to you today.

The Letter to the Ephesians also has some things to say to us about what a person is worth. We already realize that what someone thinks about the worth of a person may depend on how closely connected the people are. Remote, invisible sick people may not seem worth a few extra dollars in taxes, but one’s mom or dad, brother or sister, wife, daughter or son may be of immeasurable worth. A person’s bias and prejudice may lead one to assign low value to the lives of some people. A slave trader may reduce a human being down to hard cash and potential profits. But Paul tells the Ephesians a few things about what they are worth in this opening chapter.

First, in verse four he tells them that God considers them worth choosing. God has chosen us. God did not need to create the world. God did not need to populate the Earth with human beings. God could have looked upon humanity and rejected us for all our failings. But verse 4 says God chose us. Choosing us means God has drawn us near. God wants to be with us. God wants to share fellowship with us. God has loved us with an everlasting love. Being chosen by God entails God’s blessing us with all that heaven has to offer. The goodness of God is poured out for us. What is a person worth? We are worth enough to God that God chose us.

God chose us for a purpose. God did not choose us to wallow in the mud of our sinfulness. God did not choose us to remain stagnant and settle for mediocrity, to let our shortcomings take root and grow up like weeds. No, it says that God chose us to be holy and blameless. God chose us in Christ. He saw in Christ what all of us are destined to become. Our true natures, united to the New Adam, Jesus Christ, are to be set aside for God’s purpose. We are to turn away from sinning and live as Jesus lived, blameless before God. And above all, our lives are to be awash with love. Our way of being in the world is to be a loving way. Love one another, as I have loved you, said Jesus. Love God and love your neighbor. That is our purpose. That is why God chose us. God saw in us the value, the worth, that could make that loving way happen. In God’s scales, we are worth our weight in love.

Going on to verse 5 it says that God judged us to be worth adoption. Having gone astray, having turned to our own way, living like orphans in the world, God came to give us a family, a home, and a heritage. God did not merely want us as a trophy or a curiosity on a knick-knack shelf. God adopted us to sit at the dinner table together. We are in the family. God took on responsibility for us. No longer strays, left to scrounge out a life, now we have a home in God.

At home with God, we have some responsibilities assigned. We need to carry our load, but it says God has given us abundant grace to do so. We need to maintain the family reputation, and we look to Jesus to know how to live up to God’s expectations for us. We ought to live with gratitude, praising God for the unmerited gifts bestowed on us. We don’t have to keep on wandering. We don’t have to wonder where our provision will come from. God is our provider. He looked at us and saw people worth adopting. Now forevermore we are in God’s family.

Finally, according to verse 7, God looked upon us in all of our sins, and evaluated our worth. God judged us to be worth redeeming, even at a cost. The cost was God’s willing entry into our condition, taking on human form and flesh. God came into the world as a baby. This Jesus grew to be a leader among the Israelites, offering hope to all who were marginalized and oppressed. The longer Jesus persisted in standing up for justice, the more he put himself in danger. But he continued to the end because he saw worth in us.

When the world could no longer put up with Jesus’ challenges, the political powers banded together to arrest and execute him. People who knew him conspired to sell him to the powerful for forty pieces of silver. This good and loving man, sent from God, very God of very God, was beaten, humiliated, marched to a place of death, pierced and hung from a cross. There, his life ebbed away. The blood that had coursed through his body giving life to his cells and strength for his work, poured out because of his faithfulness to his mission. God found us worth redeeming through the blood of Jesus Christ. Ephesians explains that Jesus’ sacrificial death came to signify the forgiveness of our sins, for even as he hung there on the cross he had prayed forgiveness for his murderers. What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss to bear the dreadful curse for my soul? Oh, sometimes is causes me to tremble. The letter says God has emptied out his riches of grace and lavished them upon us.

You might give a check to your grandson on his birthday. You might buy a fancy dress for your granddaughter at Easter. But what about all those scraggly kids out in the street who don’t seem to know their heads from a hole in the ground? That’s who we were, and God opened up the treasures of heaven and gave us all more than we can handle. The redeeming work of Christ has revised our assessment. Whatever it seemed we were worth in the eyes of the world, God had declared us worthy of grace upon grace. We share an inheritance with Christ. We are blessed beyond measure.

Knowing how God assesses our worth, we cannot merely stand by and let the world treat people like they are a dime a dozen. Having been chosen, adopted, and redeemed by God, we have a responsibility to stand up for the worth of our brothers and sisters, be they the sick, factory workers, or modern slaves. We need to look around our neighborhood, our schools, and our workplaces to see people according to the worth that God has endowed them with. Love as God loves, and draw all God’s children into the family.

I’m not going to go into detail about what to do about health care for all, about supporting oppressed workers, and about taking on the scourge of human trafficking. Maybe that’s not fair, you say, now that I’ve stirred you up about it. The Lott Carey Convention is working against human trafficking. Rev. Barber and Durham CAN are leading efforts to improve jobs and health care. Getting into the details will have to wait for another opportunity.

But the gospel message I want to bring to you today is that God has judged you worthy, and doing so has embraced you with a love that is boundless and steadfast. Live in that love. Sit down at God’s table. Run around the house like you belong there, because you are one of the family. Rest assured that God has judged you worthy of the ultimate sacrifice, the redeeming work of Jesus who went all the way to the cross.

If you have not yet realized that God has measured your worth and chosen you, adopted you, and redeemed you, we invite you today to hear and accept God’s calling to you to become part of the family. Accept the saving work of Christ and follow Jesus today into a new way of life.

Others of you may have let yourself forget that God loves you with an everlasting love. There is no need to wander in the wilderness any longer. Let today be a day of returning to the embrace of the one who has adopted you into the family. Renew your commitment to live as God has called you, holy and blameless before him in love.

Perhaps you live in Durham but have not united with a church. Mount Level is striving to be a faithful community of God’s people, a branch of God’s family, here in this city. If the Spirit is urging you to unite with us in our mission to serve God, then don’t wait any longer. Follow the Spirit’s leading and become part of this fellowship today.

The Worth of a Person, Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:55:00 +0000

Originally preached at Mt. Level Missionary Baptist Church, Durham, NC, February 24, 2013

Ephesians 1:3-14

Just this week the news reported that North Carolina now has the harshest policy for helping the unemployed. A couple hundred dollars a week for twelve weeks is all that the state is willing to do to help hardworking people hold on while they try to find a job. Cutting back on money that would all flow directly back into the economy makes little sense. And as you have heard me say before, penalizing people who lost their jobs because of the immoral, criminal acts of others who destroyed the economy goes against any notions of justice. It raises a question in our minds about how people value the lives of other people.

What if a stranger were to approach you in this room of people and point out someone, then ask you, “How much does he cost?” or “What is his price?” Certainly it is not a question you are used to hearing. After the initial shock, it would probably be an offensive question. Buying and selling Africans and their descendents remains close at hand in cultural memory in this land.

Moreover, it seems to our sensibilities a misguided question, a question that transgresses our categories of reasoning. We are well-schooled in markets and commerce, but not everything is appropriate to a market. For us, talking about costs or prices is a category mistake when assigned to people.

On the other hand, if we take the question out of this hypothetical situation and ask it differently, if we change the context around, if we do some critical analysis of events in our world, we might uncover ways in which this kind of question is being asked every day.

For instance, the debate about making sure everyone has access to good health care is one way of asking what is the worth of a person. Both of the major political parties are unwilling to support the most efficient way to provide health care, a single-payer plan for universal health care, because they know that funding it would entail changing how we put money into the health care system. Instead of paying premiums to private companies, the money would flow through a single system by means of taxes.

Ooooh, that dirty word taxes gets people all stirred up. When someone starts talking about taxes these days, people start feeling like they are getting their pockets picked. Don’t bother to explain that most be able to save money by using a single-payer system rather than making their own private payments to for-profit insurance companies or so-called non-profit companies knee-deep in cash that looks to anyone else like big profits. Somehow the idea of taxes to make sure that no one goes without health care gets people upset. Apparently, many people think that a whole lot of sick people out here just aren’t worth the money it would take for them to see a doctor or get medication.

I recognize that many people in Durham, and here in Mt. Level, work in the medical profession. I am not trying to make you out to be the devils in this story. What I am talking about are vast structures, powerful systems that enfold patients and medical professionals both. Strong and powerful interests and lobbies are more concerned about controlling the clinics and machinery of health care than making sure there is justice in how these resources get used. Controlling the scanners and beds is worth more to them than the people whom those assets can help. So the perspective of both political parties and the rich donors to whom they listen seems to be that a person is not worth the taxes it would take to provide universal health care.

Any of you who have been through a difficult illness and watched the bills come in would know that health care currently calls for no small amount of money. After my beloved Everly spent over a month in the hospital last year, we started seeing stacks of bills from hospitals, clinics, doctors, and labs, and quite a few of them ran as high as five figures before the decimal point. In the face of winning or losing the battle for Everly’s life, I think you understand that all of those bills together don’t even approach the value of her life. On the other hand, if we did not have the insurance we have, one or more of those bills might have brought our finances to ruin. Thanks to God’s provision, I don’t have to stand here and beg for help. We’ve managed to keep up with our bills because we are blessed with jobs that have insurance coverage. For the millions of other people without health insurance now, an operation or a hospital stay may be all it takes for them to go broke, to lose their homes, or to fall into endless debt. They may rightly conclude that their lives, their futures, have been sold out from under them.

A news story stirred in my guts late last summer and pushed me toward asking today’s question, “What is a person worth?”. It is a story out of South Africa. It’s a complicated story about the economic unrest in a land where masses are unemployed and the gap between rich and poor is vast. But it is also a story that echoes back to the harsh days of apartheid when mineworkers were fuel and fodder for a violent, industrial machine. At the largest platinum mine in the world, workers began to strike for better pay. They make between $450 and $650 a month, which is a wage many other unemployed workers would love to have. You and I know it would be a struggle to live on that amount. A new, independent union is asking for $1200 a month. It’s a big raise they want. None of us would be surprised that the management does not want to give the raise. As the stakes began to rise, people on all sides of the disagreement began to escalate. Management threatened mass firings. Workers threatened larger and longer strikes. No doubt some people on either side showed some poor judgment and provocative behavior. But what happened last summer harkened back to the struggles of organized laborers in South Africa under apartheid, of auto workers demanding better conditions and wages Detroit, of millworkers trying to gain recognition and justice in Gastonia, and people standing up for their worth in so many places. Armed police were ready for action. The conflict heated up. And in a few moments, 34 more mineworkers lay dead. During a week of unrest and violence some police had also lost their lives.

Why were people dying? The mining company was falling behind the goals their management had set for production. Every day they did not run their mines at full capacity, they lost profits for their shareholders. Police, also paid a worker’s wage, were brought in to risk their lives for the company’s production goals, and in the process the mineworkers’ lives were also put at risk. Police and miners died for the sake of trying to get the mines back up to production. Mining production was traded for the lives of forty-plus miners and police officers. Killing workers seems thrifty when for every job there are hundreds more applicants who would work for less. The struggle for jobs in South Africa is so great that competing unions get pitted against one another in these mining struggles, leading to misdirected violence between groups of the disenfranchised. Death on the front lines of union organizing is not so remote in US history, either. Is South Africa’s tragedy reminding us of the path that the current world economy is taking us down? Will US employers soon be willing to trade the lives of their workers for profits in the same way?

In Mississippi, at the same time that these events were unfolding in South Africa, autoworkers at the Nissan plant were laying the groundwork to start a union. Management threatened to close the plant if they unionize. Although the same Nissan company operates with union contracts in many of its plants in other countries, they tell their employees in Mississippi that their lives are worth just so much. If it means the hard work of their Mississippi workers would cost them a few cents more, then they would rather shut down their plant and stop making all those cars and all that money. They would rather go find other desperate and beaten down people who won’t cost them so much, who aren’t worth much. With automobile companies raking in the profits, an experienced, loyal worker is still not worth enough to have the company sit down at the table and arrive at an agreement fair to all parties.

The Mississippi and South Africa stories remind me of a pair of texts in Isaiah. Chapter 58 echoes chapter 1. The prophet proclaims that God is not happy with the show he is seeing, a showiness of piety and outward worship. The wealthy, who are putting on the show, are complaining that they have fasted but God did not give them what they wanted. Isaiah speaks in the words of these unfaithful oppressors when he says, “Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?” Then he gives them God's reply,

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,
and oppress all your workers.
Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight
and to strike with a wicked fist.
Such fasting as you do today
will not make your voice heard on high.

Oppressing workers, treating them violently—this was how the wealthy employers of Isaiah’s day were behaving. But we remember also from the first chapter of Isaiah that God offered a path to resolution of their sins for these people abusing their brothers and sisters. The KJV says, “Come, let us reason together.” The NRSV puts it more bluntly, “Come, let’s argue it out.” Sitting at the table, working out a path of mutual interest is what God would have us do. A solution to oppression is one that will be mutually agreeable to all parties and in accordance with the justice of God. Without it, all the dancing and shouting and fasting and praising turns out to be bad acting that makes God sick and angry with looking at us. God made us all, every one of us, because of love. God loves every person. God counts each one of us as good, as valuable, as worth being heard, being cared for, and being able to share in the bounty of this world. Reasoning that through in a way to be fair to everyone is what God expects. A person is worth that kind of effort.

"The Worth of a Person" is continued in Part 2, the next post.

Everly's Blessing

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 07:10:00 +0000

Originally posted on CaringBridge.org

Today our pastor, Dr. William C. Turner, Jr., took his text from Isaiah 44:2-3. It is a promise of water in the desert, of the Spirit of God upon the people. He pointed out a significant distinction that many of us may miss. When God blesses us, the blessing is not for us. God blesses us that we will bless others. This particular text says that the blessing will be for the offspring and descendants of those who first receive it.

The sermon sent me to thinking about the blessing of Everly. A little more than thirty-six years ago, in the fall of 1976, Everly arrived in Waco, Texas, to start her higher education at Baylor University. Within a few days we met one another as part of a leadership group recruited and sponsored by the Baptist Student Union. Everly had been recognized by her peers and teachers at the very large J. Frank Dobie High School as perhaps the strongest leader in her graduating class. She was expected by them to go far and accomplish great things. I was a small-town boy with an over-estimation of my importance in the world.

It was a couple of months before Everly and I began to get to know one another. She endured what women in our culture often endure--listening to men talk excessively about themselves (in this case, I was the blabbermouth). Even with that, she detected something in me worth sticking around to discover. I was especially drawn to the joyfulness she brought when we were together.

As we grew to be a couple, we had lots of long talks. One of the early memorable conversations had to do with Everly's calling to teach. She did not begin her university studies with plans to be a teacher, and some important people had steered her away from it because they thought she could aim for something "better" or "higher." However, her first year of studies was leaving her with a feeling of something missing. She was becoming sure that she should be an educator. Everly did not see a need to separate high achievement from a vocation that would allow her to serve the community and use the gifts to teach that had already appeared.

Most of us who have lived long enough know that the actual path our lives take is far more complicated than we might have imagined at the outset of adulthood. Everly finished Baylor with little inclination to ever go back to school again. She immediately became a teacher, and in the course of a few years taught math at most levels from middle school to high school seniors. It only took about a year of teaching--a year of wondering how it is that some children learn a concept and others don't, puzzling why some strategies work with one child and not another, reflecting on the processes children develop on their own to figure things out--before Everly started recognizing her drive toward further study. A masters degree in math education from the University of Texas followed.

Then more years of teaching took Everly through Irving, Texas, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and Durham, North Carolina. As a lead teacher, a department chair, a Presidential Award Winner, and a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina, Everly's vision of better classroom teaching expanded and began to make its mark. Eventually she moved to district-level curriculum leadership in Durham Public Schools, gaining national recognition for her work, including the Outstanding Young Alumni Award from Baylor University. And during those years she began work on her doctoral degree from the University of North Carolina.

From Durham she advanced to state leadership as the Director of Mathematics for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. Having made a lasting mark on that state, she most recently moved to lead mathematics curriculum for the Texas Education Agency.

This is a story that many of you already know. But for me it is a way of showing how Everly has understood deeply from a very young age that the blessings she has received are for others. She had dedicated herself to understanding young minds, developing strategies for instruction, and uplifting all students to realize success in mathematics. Her bountiful intelligence, enthusiasm, organizational insight, and compassion are blessings she received to share with others.

Another way of saying this is that Everly is our blessing. We have received her into our lives as she has poured herself out, doing good. She has done good to teachers by recognizing their centrality and power in education. She has done good to students by never giving up on their capacity for higher math. She has done good to bureaucrats and politicians by helping them direct their ambition and power toward better curriculum and schools. She has done good to her colleagues by finding their best qualities and helping them to grow in those ways.

I guess I got the best of the blessing. I got to live with Everly and share my life with her all of these years. She is my supreme blessing. From the time of her first years of teaching, the two of us have had an unending conversation about math teaching. She has hammered out her ideas, her experiments, her theories, and her resolve in long talks as we drove to work, did the laundry, picked up the kids' toys, sat down in the evening, and just about any time or any place.

As I said earlier, I probably started out with an over-inflated sense of my own importance. We intellectual and academic types are prone to such delusions. I have had a very satisfying and enriching career as a professor, so I'm not belittling that.

But I also have come to understand that God blessed me with Everly not to have her only for myself, but so that I could play a part in giving her the strength to bless the world. Reading so many of the comments on CaringBridge has further confirmed this is true. Everly's influence is deep and wide, and the people she is touching, working with, and serving are blessed beyond measure. Wherever she has gone, people and institutions have changed for the better. I'm thankful that I am sharing in such a powerful life of blessing in this world.

For I will pour water on the thirsty land,
and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour my spirit upon your descendants,
and my blessing on your offspring.

I am a witness. This is what God has done and continues doing through Everly. All praise and glory be to the Holy One of Israel! Amen.

Faith and Faithfulness, Having Faith and Being Faithful

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 17:00:00 +0000

Listening to conversation about Hebrews 11 drove home the need for better training in Bible reading. The verse under discussion was 11:7:

By faith Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faith (NRSV).

It could have been most any verse in this chapter my Dad often referred to as "the roll call of faith." Here, looking back at the story of Noah, forms of the Greek pistis occur twice, and some translators add a third implied "faith." The noun is here translated "faith." The verb form, pisteuo, is usually translated "believe."

In the contemporary church, perhaps especially in the traditions born of the Enlightenment and the United States "nation with the soul of a church," these terms faith and believe take on a highly intellectual aspect. That is, we tend to think of faith as believing in something, or in other words, accepting certain statements to be true. Sometimes this aspect of faith is called "assent" to propositions or confessional statements. Faith or belief, in this way, is a mental act, a matching of mind to concepts embedded in sentences. "Jesus is the Son of God" is such a statement. Popular notions of faith might tend toward, "Yes, I buy that. I accept that. That is what I think. Thus, I have faith in that."

Greek (and Hebrew for that matter, if I were to go into another ancient language of scripture) do not make such an easy distinction. I'm not going to cite numbers of New Testament and extrabiblical texts to provide statistical support, but let it suffice to say that very few, if any, uses of these words in Greek literature indicate this kind of mental act of assent. Faith as assent is an emptying out of scriptural reasoning and replacing it with something alien. For scriptural reasoning, faith or belief takes on richer meaning that may require more than one English word to adequately express.

For those who think I am being excessively picky or misrepresenting the churches' conversations about faith, let me first acknowledge that I would be lying to say that many preachers, teachers, and other church folks have regularly pointed out to me that faith means "trust," and believing means "trusting in." The Hebrews text above makes this very clear through contextual analysis, without even having to look beyond the single verse. Warned by God, Noah respected the warning. That respect was trust in what God had revealed to Noah. Faith in God means trust in God. Trust in God means putting one's life in God's hands. Trust in God means accepting as reliable what God has said.

This is more than simple assent. It is relying on God. It is resting and moving within the embrace of God, walking on the ground laid out for us by God.

And this relying, resting, walking, and moving presses our understanding toward the additional aspect of scriptural reasoning with the words faith and believe. Trust is nothing without acting on it. Faith is nothing without faithfulness. Noah's trust included a confidence to act on God's guidance, even against the conventional wisdom of his day. As the Hebrews text says, Noah respected what God had said and built an ark on dry land when there had been no rain since who knows when. The righteousness (or justice, an other word for another post) that comes by faith is not based on a person's knowledge, or intellectual assent. It is not a mental righteousness. The righteousness that comes by faith is demonstrated in faithfulness. It is the confident action that comes from trusting God. It is the life lived as God has called.

This complexity is why I encourage my seminary students, and my Sunday school classes, to exercise discipline as Bible readers. When they come to the words "faith" or "have faith" or "believe," they should practice substituting that additional aspect of pistis and pisteuo which does not come through in contemporary English: faithfulness or be faithful. Thus, after reading Hebrews 11:7 in the NRSV, I want to go back and reread

By faithfulness Noah, warned by God about events as yet unseen, respected the warning and built an ark to save his household; by this he condemned the world and became an heir to the righteousness that is in accordance with faithfulness (NRSV, adapted).

It emphasizes the acting in confidence based on trust that is crucial for a biblical understanding of faith. Moreover, the discipline reminds me that Bible reading is more than first impressions. It is more than making a scriptural text conform to my cultural biases and mean whatever pops into my head. It is disciplined work, and there are great mysteries to be unfolded as I continue to search this deep sea of divine wisdom passing through and into earthen vessels.

Just for the sake of expanding this point, let me give a few other examples.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who is faithful to him may not perish but may have eternal life (John 3:16, NRSV, adapted).

For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who is faithful, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faithfulness for faithfulness; as it is written, The one who is righteous will live by faithfulness (Romans 1:16-17, NRSV, adapted).

Just as Abraham was faithful to God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, so, you see, those who are faithful are the descendants of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faithfulness, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you. For this reason, those who are faithful are blessed with Abraham who was faithful (Galatians 3:6-9, NRSV, adapted).

How else would Abraham's belief appear than in his faithful obedience to God's call to go to another land? Those who by faithfulness are righteous shall live. To do what God commands demonstrates the trust that encompasses the life of faith/faithfulness.

Hosea Sees Only Self-serving Misleaders

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 05:58:00 +0000

In the previous post, I pointed out that the prophet had identified the priests and king as the cause and core of Israel’s sins, the target of divine judgment. This argument emerged in the opening four chapters, and was summarized by the opening words of chapter 5.

Hear this, O priests!

Give heed, O house of Israel!

Listen, O house of the king!

For the judgment pertains to you;

for you have been a snare at Mizpah,

and a net spread upon Tabor,

and a pit dug deep in Shittim;

but I will punish all of them.

The misleaders are laying traps for the people. They are the tempters. They strategize as hunters who set up snares, who spread nets and lie in wait, who dig pits and cover them with brush. God is fed up with their scheming.

Now Hosea extends the condemnation to Judah as well. Israel and Judah are two of a kind. Although Judah may not have done all the same things, the sins of both kingdoms are alike. Both are led by people who live in contradiction to God’s laws. They both act like adulterous lovers. The deeper they go into their sinfulness, the more they found themselves facing external oppressors, harmed and injured by their own plans, and growing more rotten as each day passes. Assyria, the hoped-for protector, has its own designs on the future of Israel and of Judah.

Chapter 6 opens with the voice of Israel saying, “Let us return to the Lord.” Admitting that their hardships and judgment may originate in God, they are hoping that showing more faithfulness may lead to healing. They admit they do not know God as they should. Have they been listening to what Hosea has said? Do they admit they have failed in helping the people know God? Don’t get your hopes up.

Hosea responds in the voice of God, saying, “Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.” Even their proposed repentance is self-serving. They just want to get relief from their mess. They are still strategizing. They are trying to hedge their bets. Maybe if they play nice with God, they can get back on their feet, get their edge back, get their mojo working again. God will have none of it. Much like Isaiah or Amos, Hosea says that the empty practice of temple rituals, pretended worship, is of no value to God. One of the most famous lines of the entire Hosea oracle appears in chapter 6: “For I desire love and not sacrifice, knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Hosea then begins to list the sins of Israel and Judah. These sins, he says, go all the way back to Adam, but they are multiplying in this time. The priests and king have broken the covenant and turned to other protectors, other gods, other laws. They have been faithless in their dealings. Negotiating in bad faith is just another way to call someone a liar. Such people never meant to do what they promised. It is the way of a colonizing power with the indigenous people: say whatever it takes to gain an advantage, then stab them in the back at the end. They were faithless toward God, trying to manipulate God to do them favors. They were faithless in their leadership duties, twisting their official power for personal gain. All around there was evildoing. Faithlessness implies the promise of good with covert scheming to undermine it. Evildoing implies overt and direct harm toward others.

Things were so bad that the cities were “tracked with blood.” Tracking blood means that pools are on the ground to be stepped in and spread as the violent evildoers run away. Priests and royal courtiers are in the midst of this evil. Priests lie in wait like robbers, using their power to demand payment, sucking up the livelihoods of people who long to draw near to God. They are like murderers. Their crimes are monstrous. Using the façade of the Temple cultus, they have created systems and structures of organized crime. The royal family and courtiers have done the same. Rather than being servants to the people, they are serving other interests. They sneak around on their responsibilities to line their pockets and solidify their political power.

Chapter 7 continues to provide a laundry list of sinfulness. Again, Israel’s king and court deal falsely. They do not protect the people. Inside the city, thieves break into homes with impunity. Outside the city, bandits raid the people in the countryside. The King, it is implied, may even get a cut of this widespread criminal activity. Gild the palm of the security apparatus, and the gold finds its way to the top, thus making the king glad. Royal officials enjoy all their treachery. It is the game of power, fun for all who play. They are so corrupted and debauched that their duties are dissipated in drunkenness. They drink until they are sick. They get drunk and behave badly. It is no wonder that the dynasties of the Northern Kingdom continue to end with bloody coups d’etat. Their evil is so intense it is like a hot oven that burns all day.

Blinded by their self-serving actions, they turn to foreign alliances for protection and hope. They can’t see that by trusting in God they would find a path to peace. Instead, these who have behaved as hunters scheming to trap their own people will soon become trapped in the snares and nets of Assyria. Their actions are senselessly setting themselves up for destruction. They look silly going from one alliance to another like a weakling, a bird that will easily be ensnared or entrapped. They reject the ways of God, but they can’t even tell the truth about who God is or what God expects. Desperate, they whine, cry, cut themselves, shout with rage, but still rebel against God. As the likelihood of an advancing imperial army draws ever nearer, they still cannot shut up their corrupt, raging, rebellious gibberish.

There is a right way for people to live together. It involves serving one another and seeking common good. When leaders and powerful people of Israel or any society turn away from their calling to become self-serving, it gets bad for everyone. When a wealthy elite gains ever more wealth and power, a reckoning cannot be far away. Hosea was doing his dead-level best to get the leaders of Israel to turn things around. The response was not promising.

Hosea Names the Misleaders

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 18:03:00 +0000

Having sketched the overview of Israel's failure in the opening chapters, using an embodied comparison to adultery through Hosea and Gomer, the prophecy turns in chapters 4 and 5 toward additional explanation of what has gone wrong and how it has gone wrong. The opening chapters highlighted the bloodthirstiness of the regime and its desire for power to be maintained through military might. The wealthy families and courtiers lusted after luxuries, demonstrating their sense of upward mobility and class-consciousness.

What has been the centrifugal effect of the ways of this ruling elite? How did their immorality trickle down to the people?

There is no faithfulness or loyalty,
and no knowledge of God in the land.
Swearing, lying, and murder,
and stealing and adultery break out;
bloodshed follows bloodshed.

The broader society displayed the ways of the rulers. The commandments are broken: swearing and lying, murder, stealing, and adultery. The cycle of violence spirals out of control, as an unbroken chain of bloodshed following bloodshed. Such behavior results from the people having no knowledge of God. But why do they lack any knowledge?

My contention is with you, O Priest.

The priests have failed to fulfill their calling. They have gone after wealth, power, and comfort. They have allowed or even promoted the practices of worshiping other gods. They have no faithfulness and loyalty to God, and it is no surprise that faithfulness and loyalty are lacking from the land. Priests and prophets have rejected the teachings of the Torah. They have rejected God's ways, which provide a clear path by which to walk, a light to the feet. Now both priests and prophets will stumble. God has rejected them.

Hosea says that the priests and prophets "feed on the sins of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity." How can they feed on the sins of the people? Why would they want more sinning? If the sins are idolatrous worship, the priests and prophets may have a financial interest in the idolatrous worship. Later in the chapter it discusses temple prostitution, to ritual sexual acts with prostitutes according to the religions of the land. Priests may be connected to this religious pimping. They may also get funds from the sale of idols. As Isaiah said, the idolatry is part and parcel of robbing the poor. Do they charge fees to do priestly duties or deliver private prophetic oracles? Down to the days of Jesus, such practices made the temple into "a den of thieves." Hosea speaks of getting a prophecy from a piece of wood or a divining rod. It would be no surprise that people who ask for such guidance would have to "grease the palms" of the diviners. And why should we limit our questions to the realm of religion? Could the priests be organizing other criminal activity? Is there an underground economy in which they have found a way to profit "on the side?"

Perhaps another form of their "gain" has to do with encouraging the perception of a gulf between them and the common people (thanks to Dr. Annie Tinsley for helping me think through this one). As noted above, the elites promoted their status by conspicuous consumption of imported goods, feeding class-consciousness of their own superiority. Priests also elevate themselves by allowing the debasement of the common people. In our day, I sometimes describe a certain ecclesial persona: the "Imperial Pastor," who encourages the image of being above the sins of the commoners, closer to God than most people, more "spiritual" in speech and behavior. Such a pastor may directly or indirectly claim to be a "covering" over the congregation, elevated in a hierarchy such that the lowly parishioners depend on the pastor for protection from evil. That does not sound much like a "kingdom of priests" to me.

I am not attempting to diminish the importance of a good leader to bless and benefit the people whom the leader is called to serve. But it is not by some mystical power or spiritual aura. It is, as Hosea said, by doing the leader's job of teaching and guiding people in the ways of God. Hosea says the priests left the people without knowledge of God. This is not unlike the Imperial Pastor, who cares little whether the people can know God for themselves, but relishes being the expert and the dispenser of spiritual nuggets of wisdom.

My people are destroyed by a lack of knowledge.

The priests are failing to teach and guide. Many of them also ignore this learning for themselves. The priesthood and the role of prophet have become one more path to wealth and prosperity among the elite rather than a service to the people. So the whole nation is going astray, worshiping anything and everything, anywhere and everywhere, doing whatever seems pleasing, whether drunken orgies or empty sacrifices, ritual sexual acts or building altars to false gods. And the priests and prophets are the ones on whom this sin rests. They have been a snare, a net, a pit, to catch up the people and cause them to stumble. The judgment will come to them.

Rachel Weeping

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Sun, 16 Dec 2012 21:39:00 +0000

Another day, another massacre. This is where we have arrived. Psychologists have studied the pattern by which people become desensitized to violence. Although there are plenty of arguments about what such desensitization might mean for future human actions, there seems to be an agreement that exposure to acts of violence over time has the effect of reducing emotional responses, sensitivity, to subsequent exposure to violent acts.

Once, television viewers had little experience of the grotesque images of death in war. Then reporters from Vietnam began to dispatch film of the horrors of that war. Eventually, the dinnertime news viewing included a daily dose of explosions and war. Now, the instantaneous images of weapons, explosions, dismemberment, and death, are round-the-clock backdrops for ads to shop at Target or take Cialis, but avoid four-hour erections.

The regularity of mass shootings in the US is making them blend into the background. I sadly admit that I read the headline about Newtown, CT, on my screen, clicked to get a few details, and went back to whatever I was doing. It was barely a blip on my daily rounds. The facts of a young man killing his own mother and also killing kindergartners, continued to work on me, so I can say with some relief that I am not utterly desensitized.

What became obvious to me, as I seek to be formed by the Christian calendar and live these days in the Season of Advent, was that church people would need to turn to Matthew's text on the slaughter of the innocents.

A voice was heard in Ramah,
wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for her children;
she refused to be consoled, because they are no more (NRSV).

I was not alone in this judgment, and various fellow-travelers began to write about these words. I was even blessed to hear a sermon on this text on Sunday morning. I posted on facebook that I was glad not to have to preach today because of the danger of sounding smug: Christians sometimes sound like they can pretend bad stuff is not so bad since they know how everything is going to turn out in the end. But that is a little bit of a cop-out. Lots of other preachers had to step into the pulpit whether they felt ready, capable, or not.

I think what speaks most loudly to the church in this moment is that the so-called best country in the world is no less marked by the radicality of evil than was the land of God's chosen people twenty centuries ago. In Bethlehem's case, it was a powerful ruler exercising ruthless power to try to cut off any challenges to his dynasty, even if it meant killing babies. In Newtown, we only can begin to imagine the tortured mind of a killer who plans and executes the murder of little children.

In both cases, we find ourselves living in a world armed and capable of massive, unexpected, unspeakable violence. Someone within reach of all of us could carry it out, whether it be under orders in an electronically furnished bunker controlling unmanned Predator drones, or it be an unknown, largely unnoticed average guy picking up a gun here, some bullets there, planning, plotting, stirring up the impulse borne of rage, recklessness, anomie, or whatever drives such methodical, industrial, technical, prolific, cold, steely murder.

In everyday places--theaters, malls, classrooms, sidewalks, office towers--unspeakable violence can and does erupt. In Nigeria and Pakistan it can happen in church, or on a train. In Iraq it may be in a mosque or in a crowd on pilgrimage. In Gaza and Israel it's on a bus or in the workplace. In Wazyristan it's at a wedding. In Afghanistan its among a group of girls learning to read. In Congo it's in a village that got in the way of a war. In all these places, even in our own hometowns, evil organizes, buys and sells its wares, seduces and steals hearts, corrupts intellect, breeds violence.

Rachel weeps and continues weeping for her children. On that day long ago, Mary escaped with the little one, Jesus, and fled to another country where he continued his childhood as an undocumented immigrant, a refugee, a boy on the run. So many other mothers were not so fortunate. They were not consoled, because their babies were no more. They would not see them play again. They would not get to feed them again. They would not see them grow, make them new clothes when they outgrew the old ones. They had left only a long emptiness.

The kind of love that endures, relives, cherishes the moments, longs for one more shared embrace, is itself a sign of the depth of love we might find in God. The mothers who weep in Gaza and Israel, in Columbine and Newtown, are themselves the image of a God who weeps.

It's not a day to say something sweet and neat about God's ultimate victory. The boy in Bethlehem whose parents helped him flee infanticide, as a grown man eventually had to run away to Galilee after the next king in the dynasty beheaded his cousin and was looking for him. The mother who was blessed to see her son live to adulthood had to witness his murder at the hands of another ruler from another land. Rachel is weeping and is not consoled. It is not the will of God that any should perish. Today we try not to sink into the abyss by gingerly letting our feet and our tears fall on the breadth of God's sorrow at the way humanity dispatches our brothers and sisters without regret. Today we hope against hope that such a God may one day deliver us.

Hosea's Story Hammers Home the Main Idea

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 23:35:00 +0000

The prophet Hosea's story is filled with tragedy, betrayal, steadfast love, and hope. It is a story readers find themselves caught up in. Foreshadowing Jesus' parable of the lost sheep, Hosea goes to unexpected lengths to find and recover his wife. He demonstrates a love deep and wide enough to keep seeking and drawing her back even with repeated unfaithfulness. It is a story we could retell about a husband or a wife in our day, but the social stigma assigned to sex workers in Gomer's time and in our time entrenches this particular set of circumstances with moral and emotional power. Readers seeking to know God find ourselves opened to a kind of wonderment about whether our God's love might pursue us as far into degradation as we might go. Whether we paint it as personal immorality or becoming caught in the deadly structures of evil in the world, Gomer's path into the abyss strikes the reader as an extreme devolution of a life.

It is also a story that gets too uncomfortable for the straightlaced and proper church people. What kind of fool takes a prostitute for his wife? Who would expect a prostitute to become a life partner and a mother? We don't know what demons pursue Gomer into self-destructive behavior. We don't know if there is a hidden history of abuse in her family of origin. We don't know if her "friends" conspired to get her alone and vulnerable, then rape her, destroying her trust in human relationships. We don't know if her desire for excitement and risk kept her from settling into habits of a good life and created a downward spiral and cycle she could not seem to escape. And "respectable" people may not want to know those things. They are satisfied to know what she is: a "whore," which they believe is what she will always be. They don't really like to think about this story because it implies that people who made such terrible choices, choices they never made, might be as valuable to God as respectable people are. It implies God might be a fool like Hosea. It implies that some fool God or preacher might expect them to be in the same church with someone like Gomer.

This powerful story, punctuated by the allegorical naming of the children, dominates the opening chapters of Hosea's prophecy. This narration of a family's struggles, this brief narrative, stands in as an embodied sign of the grand narrative of God's calling to Israel, and through Israel to all creation. It speaks of a certain circumstance within that grand narrative. It tells of a certain plot turning within the life of God. That particular moment in the grand narrative addresses a particular situation in the history of Israel.

Thus intermixed with the narrative of Hosea, Gomer, and their children are clues to the particular crisis of God's people. The first such clue appears in the opening statement. It addresses when Hosea prophesied. It was during the reign of Jereboam II. The verses which follow, naming the firstborn son Jezreel, expand on this problem. Jereboam II, of the dynasty of Jehu, is from a bloody, violent dynasty, and what went around with Jehu will now come around with Jehu's descendents. Just as Jehu gained power through double regicide in Jezreel, Jezreel will be the sign of his dynasty's downfall.

Jehu committed regicide against the son of Ahab and Jezebel, then led a revolt that included assassination of all the living relatives of Ahab's Omride clan. Jezebel was killed by her courtiers. Jehu showed signs of trying to bring Israel back to God's purposes, but neither he nor his descendents eliminated the syncretistic worship of the Northern Kingdom. Moreover, having also killed the king of Judah and severed the cooperative relationship with the Southern Kingdom, Jehu forged an alliance with Assyria, offering tribute, as a way to play the balance of power game against Syria and Judah. The reigning dynasty was built on violence, ambition for royal power, and strategic military alliances. It was far from the kind of social existence God intended for humanity. Israel was no emblem of Yahweh.

In the continuation of Jehu's dynasty, Jereboam II's reign was long and prosperous, under the protection of Assyria. His father, Jehoash, invaded Jerusalem and stole the Temple vessels and palace treasures, carrying them to Samaria, not exactly a sign of respect for the heritage of God's people. Jereboam II's Assyrian protection from his neighbors to the north (Syria) and south (Judah) allowed the economy to prosper through trade. This obsession with luxurious goods of trade shows up in 2:5, where the association with the Assyrian empire becomes tied to ready supplies of wool and flax, oil and wine. Since Israel also exported olive oil and wine, the demand for imported oils and wines must have been focused among the wealthy looking for exotic and premium goods. Further down in the same chapter, God reminds Israel that it is divine provision that gives them grain, oil, and wine. The coming judgment will take away the imported flax and wool, signs of how they have become so enamored with the ways, the power, and the gods of the Assyrians. Bedecked with gold and silver, they pursued the Assyrian imperial blessing, and turned away from God and their own people.

In this context of self-satisfied prosperity, of believing it is Assyria who blesses them, Hosea names his other two children. A daughter receives the name "No Pity," and a son receives the name "Not My People." These words deny any love remains. These names break the covenant. As Hosea's story continues, Gomer who has gone away becomes a sign of the eventual dispersement of the people into the nations, the extended and diasporic exile of the Northern Kingdom. From this disappearance, this utter dissolution, God will come after Israel, as Hosea went to find Gomer who was lost to him and their children. And Hosea promises that the children's names will change: the daughter will be called "Pitied" and the son, "My People," even "Children of the Living God."

This prophetic family's story breaks open a view of what is happening in Israel in a certain moment in time. This dynasty, reaching its greatest wealth under Jereboam II, is also reaching its greatest unfaithfulness to God. They may be blind to how they have sought after other gods, but Hosea is driving home the main idea through this story. A few of the specifics get hinted at in the opening chapters. As the prophetic oracle continues, Hosea will make it plain where and why Israel has gone wrong and become unfaithful.

Hosea's Troubling Oracle

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 04:42:00 +0000

Last Sunday my mom said she had heard a good introductory Sunday school lesson at the beginning of a unit on the Prophet Hosea. Then she asked, "What do you have to say about Hosea?" This is, of course, an occupational hazard for theology professors. Most people avoid conversation with me once they find out I teach theology and ethics to ministers, based perhaps on their presuppositions of what I must think about God and the world. But others want me to weigh in on whatever recent idea or question they have had about any type of religious or moral question.

Sometimes this can be uncomfortable or tedious, but with Mom it's just a good chance to spin out things I have been thinking through. In this case, I could only answer, "It's been a long time since I read Hosea." But of course, a Mom's question deserves a better answer than that. So a few hours later I opened up my Olive Tree Bible Reader and started working on Hosea.

Not so long ago, I started reading the Prophet Isaiah with the point of view that I would "see what I can see." What quickly struck me was the way that my deeper journey into discipleship had given me a different sort of eyes than I once had as a Bible reader. In this blog, I wrote a series of pieces about the singleminded emphasis of Isaiah on the economic injustices of Judah, perpetrated by the rulers and the wealthy elites.

Since that time I have come to realize that teaching certain strategies for reading can help people move from the individualistic and inward focus so often taught in US churches. So I knew from the beginning that I would be looking for signs of social injustices, economic corruption, and ruling class oppression. Unlike Isaiah, however, Hosea did not quickly turn to these specific characteristics of what had gone wrong in Israel.

The well-known story of Hosea has many parallels in Isaiah's prophecy, including the use of symbolic names for the prophet's children. But Hosea brings the analogy of marital unfaithfulness to the front and center. Israel is portrayed as the unfaithful wife, the wife who becomes a prostitute. The analogy then compares judgment to a husband's disappointment, anger, lashing out, and abandonment of his wife.

Here in Hosea, the first of the Book of Twelve and one of the earliest literary or classical prophets, introduces a form of argument that becomes increasingly troubling as later prophets innovate and expand the analogy. These are the "texts of terror," in which harsh and brutal treatment of women becomes a primary way of describing God's judgment. There is no easy way around this problem. It offers apparent divine tolerance for acts of battery, exposure, and rape. It reiterates a violent patriarchal order as an accurate portrayal of the pattern of divine justice.

I will not try to apologize for the text. There are many things that can be said about the historical context of writer and reader, and they may offer some explanation without providing an excuse. Violence against women was and is wrong. The overwhelming arc of scripture, reaching its apex in Jesus, cannot and does not condone it. Yet when we read these prophets, the seemingly justified violence toward a weaker woman by a powerful man continues to operate as the quintessential and appropriate description of punishment for unfaithfulness.

Having said this, you will perhaps rejoice with me that finally in 4:14 Hosea at least lets the tables be turned briefly. He says that punishing the women who have become prostitutes is not right, since it is the men who have sought prostitutes that are the cause of the unfaithfulness. They have put in place the system which creates and encourages adultery, prostitution, and unfaithfulness. It is they who are to blame and deserve to be punished. It is not a complete turnaround, nor is it a "balance" for the other texts. But at least it functions as a kind of subversive voice amid the terror.

Here also, is an important textual clue toward the larger issue of what has gone wrong in Israel. There have been many clues up to this point, but it is really here and in chapter 5 that the reader can begin to put the puzzle together. Hosea has focused on Israel's sin in general terms as "unfaithfulness" and "playing the whore." Some clues in the early chapters help show that this entails idolatry and imperial alliances. But finally Hosea is getting down to specifics of how the prophets, priests, rulers, and powerful have created a system that defies the God who took a wandering band of nomads and made them a nation. These things don't happen out of thin air. Powerful people make them happen. That is where the fault lies as Hosea continues making his case.

I'll return to the opening chapters to highlight the emerging argument in future posts.

Advent Aspect

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 02:49:00 +0000

When I was growing up, I did not know about Advent. It had been swept away centuries before in the iconoclastic fury of the late reformation, bundled together with an inchoate bundle of artifacts and traditions under the category "Popery." Any so-called Protestant still willing to hold on to such things fell into the class of "false churches," most notably because they continued the practice of infant baptism.

As a seminarian in my younger twenties, Advent came as a breath of fresh air. It was a way of getting ready for Christmas that departed from the cultural liturgy of Santa praise, affluenzic consumption, and trumped up cheeriness. It gave us more ways to be drawn back to the scriptures and the stories. We learned that it was a time of waiting, a pre-celebratory season, a time to remember the difference between certitude and hope. There were centuries in which tropes of Messianic promise took form in polyphonic harmony and dissonance (thanks Barry Harvey for this language). The bluesmen and blueswomen that were prophets played and replayed these riffs as improvisational jazz (Jon Michael Spencer, Cornel West, and many others here). It was music and language for meditation and imagination of God's presence and plan.

During the thirty or so years since that time, many Advents have come and gone. In the intensity of graduate school, new jobs, and grading papers, the shine wore off for me and I just wanted to get the season over with. Moments of interruption, when the Spirit would break into the monotony and stress would sometimes remind me what a gift the season of Advent could be. Of course, other parents will remember with me, that in those years when Everly was pregnant with our three children, Advent took on a certain aspect, a recognition of the struggle of Mary who had fled her hometown embarrassed yet hoping for the word of Gabriel to be fulfilled. And in the subsequent years when our three little infant children had their first Christmas, the wonderment of an infant child full of promise and blessing brought another aspect to Advent.

In this fifty-fourth Advent of my time in this world, there is a new aspect. We have been doing lots of waiting this year. We wait for the report on medical imaging scans. We wait for the drugs to trickle into Everly's bloodstream. We wait for the symptoms to start after each treatment. We wait for the symptoms to subside again. We wait to hear what the next step will be. And we wait for a possible respite from this harsh mercy known as chemotherapy. Shadows lurk in our going out and coming in.

Everly's work as an educator, a leader, and a world-changer has been intense, with long hours. Now she waits to feel good enough to put in a couple of hours of activity during the day. She waits for doctors and pharmacies to return her calls. She waits for me to have the focus and drive to be her partner in all she is facing. Whatever the future holds, she waits with confidence that she can share it with her loved ones. Her siblings, her parents, our children, my parents, my sister and brother-in-law--we all stay close, treasuring the gift she is for each one of us.

Some of the triumphal theology of Americanism has eroded: good riddance. The idea that everything will always be the same as it has been sank into the sea. It makes a little more existential sense why someone would ask, "How can we sing the songs of Zion now that all this has happened?"

So it is a good time to start anew in the Broadway household. It is a good time to remember the stories of others who longed for redemption's song. And it is a good time to remember that after waiting, the Word became flesh and moved in next door.

United States of Mammon

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 04:35:00 +0000

In an election cycle when Ayn Rand's philosophy became fashionably chic, it's time to take a long, hard look at the structures and systems of politics. In a season when billionaires organize foundations, institutes, think-tanks, and SuperPacs around remaking society to be more profitable to their mercantile interests, it's time to catch our breath and think about how we believe we should conduct political campaigns and elections.

And in either case, it will not take long to find the elephant in the room, the swollen sore thumb on the hand, the gaping sinkhole in the city square. It's called Citizens United. It's a decision handed down by the Supreme Court of the United States, striking down provisions of the McCain-Feingold legislation that aimed to regulate campaign finance.

Anyone concerned about the plutocratic momentum of US politics realized right away how awful this decision would be for politics. On the other hand, it could also be called the "subsidies for professional political campaign workers" decision, in that it opened the floodgates of money for anyone who could successfully claim to be a political hack.

As is often the case, some of the most insightful reporting and commentary on current social topics finds its way into the radio program This American Life. One outstanding episode looks at the role money plays in elections and politics, specifically addressing Citizens United: "Take the Money and Run for Office." Momentum has been building over the past year to draft a constitutional amendment that would reverse the devastating legal doctrine passed down in Citizens United.

I first started hearing about organized efforts to amend the constitution on a podcast from Planet Money, a blog on the economy over at NPR, which does lots of reporting in cooperation with Morning Addition, All Things Considered, and This American Life. The episode was titled "A Former Lobbyist Tells All," and it is an interview with Jimmy Williams, former lobbyist for the National Association of Realtors, describing aspects of the money rush for elective office. Williams is now dedicated to reversing Citizens United through passage of a constitutional amendment. You can listen to many other Planet Money episodes on money in politics at their site.

Williams's campaign has coalesced with others to form United Republic, with its campaign called Get Money Out! He tells of many others working on this effort. Numerous Senators and Representatives have put forth bills to amend the constitution. There are other coalitions of groups working on this project, such as Amend 2012 (affiliated with Common Cause), Free Speech for People (led by several new media type organizers), and Move to Amend (a broad coalition of the progressive left).

For those of you who can remember your civics classes, you will recall that one way to amend the US Constitution is for three-quarters of the states to demand it. So far eleven states have taken official action. California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Hawaii, Vermont, Rhode Island, Maryland, New Mexico, and Massachusetts have adopted legislation or written letters of petition to Congress calling for a constitutional amendment. On Tuesday, Colorado and Montana voters overwhelmingly approved ballot initiatives calling for constitutional amendments.

I've talked generally about what is at stake here, focusing more on the problem and the current organizing work that is going on. I don't want to give a technical treatise in legalese, but let me hit what I see as the key issues. First, the doctrine that a corporation is a person has been stretched to idiotic proportions as the courts are applying the constitutionally defined rights of citizens to corporations. The distinction between a corporation and a human being in relation to the constitution must be clarified. Second, the doctrine that money is speech has also been allowed to expand beyond logic and steamroll the egalitarian notion that each person should have a voice in public discourse. Campaign finance limits are a way of letting all citizens, regardless of their wealth, have a proportional measure of freedom to speak out. Unlimited spending means some have the capacity to drown out the rest. It takes us back to an old line from Charles Reade (usually misattributed to Dickens): "Well, every one for himself, and Providence for us all--as the elephant said when he danced among the chickens."

To close out the post, let me offer a letter to the editor I wrote in response to a call for action from Free Speech for People.

To the Editors:

Election day has passed, and for many of us it is a relief. The money spent on electioneering and advertising set new records at all levels of office. Amounts that would have been inconceivable a few years ago have poured into the election committees, PACs, and SuperPACs. The massive infusion of dollars from a few wealthy people was made possible by the Supreme Court decision known as Citizens United. That decision jumbled a few principles of US Constitutional Law and came up with a ludicrous and dangerous conclusion: if corporations are persons, and if money is speech, and if persons have freedom of speech, and if corporations have lots of money, then corporations and anyone else with money should be free to spend and say as much as they want, true or not, to influence an election.

The decision swept away decades of legal tradition which distinguished between the personhood of human beings and the personhood of corporations in important ways. It swept away decades of legal tradition which aimed to protect the one person-one vote principle of equality, not only in the voting booth, but also in the use of money to influence an election. The result of Citizens United on subsequent elections has been to favor plutocracy (rule by the wealthy) rather than democracy (rule by the people). The battle for truly democratic rather than plutocratic elections is one that bipartisan efforts of John McCain (Rep) and Russ Feingold (Dem) had fought for many years, only to see their hard word overthrown. 94% of elections are won by the candidate who spends the most money. That's not an election, that's an auction.

For those of us who prize democracy and long to see it flourish, the best sign of hope on election day came from propositions passed in two Western states. In Colorado and Montana, voters overwhelmingly approved, with more than 70% of their votes, to call for an amendment to the US Constitution that overturns Citizens United, that knows the difference between a human being with rights and a corporation, and that authorizes governing bodies from federal and state levels to protect equality in election contributions. These two initiatives join the nine previous states which have passed laws calling for this kind of constitutional amendment.

Now that so much money has been spent to influence the election, we can be sure that the people who wrote the checks will be looking for ways they can cash in on their investments, whether their candidates won or lost this time. The rest of us need to be busy working for the end of this debacle known as Citizens United. Thirteen bills for constitutional amendments are already introduced in Congress. We need to act to save our voices in democracy now.

Dr. Mikael Broadway

Ready to Start Posting Again

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 01:55:00 +0000

Back in April I let you know that this blog would be on hiatus for a while. Everly, my wife, has been dealing with cancer since the end of March, and the ensuing months have been busy with chemotherapy and readjusting our lives to a different future than we had expected.

As of now, we have hope that the chemotherapy is effective in slowing and even reversing the growth of tumors. We are not anywhere near seeing the cancer disappear, but she has improved dramatically since that time. I actually have been doing some blogging of a sort, but at a different site. There is a great non-profit site called Caring Bridge, designed and offered to people dealing with cancer and other long-term, debilitating diseases. It gives a central spot for information and communication with family and friends. Some of you may have been reading my posts there. If you are interested, here is a link. I've done most of the journal updates, with a few by Everly herself. The opportunity to write about our experiences as well as to receive responses from others has been a blessing. I will continue to post there.

I have also had an occasional urge to get back to this blog. One of the most powerful moments came when the South African platinum miners went on strike. The utter disregard of the mining management toward the needs and interests of the miners struck me deeply. So maybe one of these days I'll pick up that topic again.

As the election season intensified in the fall, I also thought about writing on topics of relevance. But again, the cares and concerns of every day kept me from taking the time. I am so blessed to be able to spend my days with Everly in a way we never could before. On leave from her executive responsibilities, we are able to share meals, run errands, and do day-to-day things that are nice to do together. I have not been willing to trade those in for blogging.

And I'm not trading them in now, either. I just have finally seized the opportunity to sit and write on a subject more relevant to this blog than to the Caring Bridge Journal. So I look forward to picking up this vocation again, although I cannot be sure how often it may be. Thanks for your support, your patience, and for your interest in my writing.

Sorry about the hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:23:00 +0000

I'm a bit behind in posting on this blog. Partly, it is the distractions of work, partly lack of discipline.

For the last month, however, I have been completely inundated by a crisis. My wonderful wife of almost 32 years, Everly, has been diagnosed with extensive malignant tumors in her liver and backbone. After developing severe pain in her abdomen while traveling for work, the emergency room doctors found lesions in her liver. Over a period of a week and a half it unfolded that she had cancer that would be very hard to treat.

Any of you would understand how this has overwhelmed us. Moreover, she has spent most of the last two weeks in the hospital, fighting a range of symptoms partly related to chemotherapy and partly not.

Certainly such a time as this has driven me deeply into my theological imagination and into my calling as a disciple, whose calling includes this covenant with Everly. Writing has been helpful to me, and most of what I am writing has to do with updates for the myriad friends of Everly and our families. If you are interested, you can read these at CaringBridge.

I hope to get back to this important work at "earth as it is in heaven" soon. In the meantime, I appreciate your interest in my thoughts shown over the years. If you are willing, I also appreciate your prayers.

Reviewing the Foreclosure Fraud Settlement

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 03:44:00 +0000

When the news broke about the settlement with the large mortgage servicing banks, led by the National Association of Attorneys General in cooperation with about a dozen federal agencies, I was happy and hopeful that the long months of work to get this done had come to a fruition about which I could be proud. I knew it was possible, however, that the banks, partly through dragging their feet and partly through lobbying efforts, had gotten their way and avoided penalties for their despicable role in creating the housing bubble and unconscionably pushing foreclosures through without documentation or serious efforts to modify mortgages.

Probably both situations are partly true. The reviews of the settlement by colleagues I have worked with in this effort have not been very favorable. Today I will look at the criticisms from Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in light of the goals I previously highlighted in a July 2011 posting. There I wrote the following.

Among the key items of our agenda are:

broad availability of principal reductions to reset the housing market and remove the risk of more foreclosures;

remedies for all who have been harmed by fraud or other criminal acts, whether they have already suffered foreclosure, are in process, or are facing impending foreclosure;

the end of dual tracking, with simultaneous loan modification discussions and foreclosure procedures;

all possible efforts for loan modifications and other non-foreclosure procedures should precede the initiation of foreclosure procedures;

criminal prosecutions for criminal acts; and

regulatory regimes to keep this kind of mortgage fraud from being repeated.

Baker's criticisms, which he calls the "big three" among many others that can be made, address a number of the points above.

He says first that it is not clear which loan modifications, principal reductions, and short sales will count toward the $17 billion amount the banks agreed to. Will cases already completed or in progress count? If so, then what does the dollar number mean about what banks will be expected to do now that the settlement has been agreed. This raises the question whether there is "broad availability" of solutions, especially principal reductions, for homeowners. If they can count what they have already done, and this pitifully small number has been set aside for the banks' total requirement, then most families facing foreclosure will not find any help in this settlement.

Second, Baker says, the banks may count loans they "service," not only loans they own. So any principal write-downs or short sales in cases of serviced mortgages will not come out of the banks' own money. They will be taking the money from owners of mortgage-backed securities or other purchasers of mortgages. Obviously, it will be in their interest to use this legal caveat to avoid charging themselves any financial cost for their role in this crisis affecting so many homeowners. In that sense, the agreement does not penalize the banks. It allows them to use court authority to penalize investors.

Baker's third criticism addresses the last four of my points in the list above. He says that thus far there is little evidence that the abuses that have led to and perpetuated this crisis have stopped. He cites a case in San Francisco County, CA, in which an audit in the past month revealed a steady pattern of continued incomplete, falsified, and otherwise illegal documentation in foreclosure filings. Fully 84% of the hundreds of filings had at least one violation of the law. This matter of changing the way things are done is why North Carolina United Power continues its organizing strategy to audit county records to look for cases of foreclosure fraud. Citizens, and public officials who will rise to their calling as public servants, must continue to gather data and press the case for changing the way of doing business when it comes to banking, mortgage, and foreclosure.

Defending Our Homes and Communities from NC UnitedPower on Vimeo.

Some Thoughts on Hermeneutics

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:31:00 +0000

I've been in conversation with colleagues at Shaw, with students, and with old and new friends from other schools in recent days about hermeneutics and what matters to our faculty at Shaw University Divinity School. Now let me say right away that we don't all agree at Shaw. In fact, we could have some serious disagreements if we tried to nail down a united approach to biblical interpretation. I reckon that would be true of most theological faculties. Yet during recent conversations we have been to a great extent on the same page.

Having conversations about the approach to teaching New Testament that we believe is important for our Divinity School, one of the central things we agree upon is that our approach to theological education is rooted and grounded in the acknowledgement of our intentional social location: we are teaching ministers in the context of the black church. Perhaps some of you now are thinking, "Tell me something I didn't know." You are right that it is obvious to anyone who takes a moment to learn about SUDS that our context is the black church. Ninety-nine per cent of our students are African American, and they are almost all part of historical African American congregations and denominations. Moreover, nearly all of our faculty are part of African American congregations, where some are pastors and most are ministers. You may think I am just stating the obvious.

I'm not.

There is more to what I am saying than an observation about whom we associate with. To say that we teach ministers in the context of the black church is not merely a statement about membership and skin color. It is not merely a statement about "style," either. It speaks up about vision, what we see and how we conceptualize. I am on the verge of opening the floodgates here, but I will try to keep this concise.

I have previously mentioned the term "normative gaze." This term presents the claim that dominant groups or elites function as the eyes of society. The facts as they see them, the theories of social existence they hold, the interpretations of texts they favor--all of these become the normative way of seeing things. Thus, as they gaze out upon the world, their eyes see normatively. Seeing normatively, they thereby see things as they are. These groups, having enculturated their majorities or their dominant communities, their ruling classes, and in the modern world, especially, their racial and ethnic majorities, can make claim to recognizing "the plain sense" of Scripture, the "literal" reading.

The normative gaze functions as a kind of blindness, or at least as blinders, to another set of data. That is the data of minority cultures' counter-readings, counter-histories, and counter-narratives. The normative gaze may look upon "diversity" and "multiculturalism" as ornamentation upon the normative vision. It may see minority variations as fascinating boutiques, cultural sightseeing, but not as systemic challenges to the norm. Of course, modern white supremacy has often categorized minority variations as steps along the way toward whiteness, as immature forms of knowledge, or even digressions from the normative path. All such characterizations make sure not to question the supremacy of the normative gaze. Thus, we can call this a kind of blindness.

Our faculty have converged on the conviction that the way of teaching ministers at majority institutions is not universal, general, or normative, but it is oriented toward the white church. To even say "white church" creates some discomfort, some uneasiness. It raises defensiveness among some faculty who have understood their approach to theological education to be without the need of an adjective, a modifier, a qualification. They do not see what they are doing as white biblical interpretation. I don't know if all my Shaw colleagues would agree with me in this precise statement, but I believe that is what is happening at most seminaries and divinity schools.

Saying that schools are teaching white biblical interpretation is not the same thing as saying those schools work for the Devil or that those professors are on the road to Hell. I'm not saying that. I am saying that the tradition of biblical interpretation which grows out of modern European and American scholarship and which operates within a self-referential community of academics and clergy is a narrow and parochial view of the text. Of course, academics have been eager to call parochial such scholarly productions as black theology, African American biblical interpretation, womanist biblical scholarship, Latin American liberation hermeneutics. Such work even claims for itself adjective-laden, modified, qualified labels. I am merely saying that the unlabeled approaches are equally parochial and require modifiers and qualifications.

A second step in this conversation is that we believe that every approach to scholarship must seek out its own critics for the sake of conversation and removal of blinders. North American Bible readers need to read what African and Latin American Bible readers are saying about the text. Twentieth-century Bible readers need to read what fourth-century and thirteenth-century and sixteenth-century Bible readers were saying about the texts. If we admit that much of our reading is captive to our cultural backgrounds, then a critical part of reading critically is to seek out ways that those who love God, serve Christ, and live in the Spirit have understood the Bible in different times and places. Using various skills, methods, and techniques of interpretation are also valuable, as can be reading contemporary exegetical and expository interpretations of the Bible. But alone, no technique, skill, or method can do as much as conversing across geographical and cultural boundaries, across centuries and continents.

So if you are wondering how we think about hermeneutics at Shaw, I am pretty confident these are some points on which we agree. If my colleagues tell me otherwise, I'll let you know. You know how these academic conversations go.

The Long, Drawn Out Fight Against Foreclosure Fraud

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:11:00 +0000

In December 2010, I was part of a national gathering of citizens' groups who met with Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller in Des Moines. We announced and discussed with him our agenda to push for a just and broad-ranging settlement between the fifty states' Attorneys General, various key federal agencies, and the large banks who had committed fraud in their dealings with homeowners on mortgages and foreclosures. Miller was the lead AG in the negotiations, and he was talking tough at our gathering. At that time, we were hopeful for a settlement in the next six months.

During the ensuing months, NC leaders met twice with NC Attorney General and his staff to discuss progress and emphasize the need for justice for homeowners. We continued to hope there would be a resolution in the near future.

That six months passed. Then in July 2011, I joined another group of leaders in Chicago at the meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General, where outgoing president of the group, NC AG Roy Cooper, presided. We had conversations with various AGs and their staff, capping off our visit with a face-to-face meeting with four of the state AGs: Cooper of NC, Miller of Iowa, Lisa Madigan of Illinois, and George Jepsen of Connecticut. We came away from the meeting encouraged that our allies were continuing to fight, but discouraged that the final agreement remained elusive. Hopes for a large fine to create a fund to assist homeowners were diminishing, with the figure $20 billion circulating widely (compared to the $700 billion bailout received by the banks).

Some state AGs threatened to pull out of the negotiations, frustrated over the compromises being forced by other state AGs, who were taking sides with the banks. These compromises would gut their efforts for justice and leave citizens, municipalities, pension funds, and homeowners high and dry with no recourse. Soon the California and New York AGs did withdraw from the negotiations. Miller's reports to the public seemed to predict limited settlements that would let the banks off the hook. The delays favored the banks, who continued to make large profits, pay out large bonuses, and foreclose on the little people, homeowners and the unemployed, who have no cash reserves to endure a prolonged battle. News in the fall and winter showed little progress.

The Occupy Wall Street movement and its many sibling Occupy movements raised hopes. Their agenda, as a mass movement, was less focused than our organizing had been. However, they had similar concerns about big banks, the failed bailouts, people losing their homes, and an economy that serves only the elite 1%. "We are the 99%" is a powerful cry of defiance. I suspect that this movement played a part in building pressure on the state AGs to stand more firmly with the people suffering rather than with the banks stonewalling.

In part because of some organizing around foreclosure fraud in January, President Obama responded in the State of the Union Address that he had directed AG Holder to intensify his efforts on the foreclosure fraud issue, creating an office focused on bringing these negotiations to completion. He then announced revisions in the HAMP program which would make unspent funds available to a larger range of homeowners. He further changed the existing programs to bring Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac mortgages into eligibility for assistance. So the end of January offered portents that change might be coming.

So I rejoiced to read the news this week that there are signs of progress toward a better settlement than had previously been intimated. The fine paid by the banks will likely be larger than expected, even if still only around $25 billion. The question of whether banks will be immune to further lawsuits seems to be shifting toward allowing homeowners, mortgage-based security buyers, and other interested parties the right to sue for damages. This means that city, state, and private pension funds who were enticed into purchasing investments that were hiding toxic assets will have recourse to recover losses. This could mean good news for so many people whose retirement savings were set back dramatically by the recent crash.

Keep watching for news that this drawn-out battle will end soon. It's about time for justice.

Nathanael: A Person for Such a Time as This, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:34:00 +0000

Continued from previous post

     Of course, Judas finally lost his way. He may have become disillusioned with Jesus, impatient with Jesus’ unwillingness to take up violence against the oppressors. He may have simply lost his vision and started wanting some riches. Whatever it was, he turned against the best friend he ever had. He made a terrible choice, and he regretted it as a terrible mistake. He could not take back what he had done, and his co-conspirators laughed in his face and mocked him. It was too much for him, and he took his own life. Jesus saw the good in Judas, but Judas lost sight of the good in himself.
   I need to stop and make an important point about this story. Some Christians believe that when a person takes his or her own life, it is an unforgivable sin. The first important thing I must say is that we have no justification to try to put limits on the forgiveness and grace of God. God is able to forgive without our permission, without our understanding, without our agreement, without our acknowledgement. God’s grace is immeasurable, and it is greater than all our sin. Destroying a human life is a grave act, and it is not one to be taken lightly. God has never take our sin lightly. God came in Jesus Christ to face sin down, head on, with all seriousness and gravity. Consequently, Jesus died on a cross because of the murderous ways of humanity. Yet from that cross, he cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
     One reason that some Christians believe that there is no forgiveness for an act like Judas’s is that they have accepted a mechanical understanding of our relationship with God. We know that we ought to confess our sins to God and ask for forgiveness. Many Bible teachers who have helped me learn to serve God have spoken of the promise in 1 John 1:9 as the “Christian’s bar of soap.” “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Yes, it is true that we ought to confess our sins. But it is not true that God is keeping a checklist and making sure that we stop to name everything we did and ask forgiveness individually for each item. God is not operating a sin accounting firm, trying to catch us and nab us for forgetting to confess. If that kind of mechanical operation were required, we would be caught up in another form of works-righteousness: it’s like believing God will only save you if you will always name every sin and ask for forgiveness for each one. It is a way of saying that salvation is just an input-output machine. Put in the confession. Take out the forgiveness.
     So even if a person dies before she or he has a chance to ask for forgiveness, God is not sitting at a desk making sure that every box has been checked off. God has known us and loved us even before we were born into this world, and God has not stopped loving us even until now. What can separate us from the love of God? When we have faithfully sought after God in this life, God stands faithfully with us through our best and worst times, welcoming us into our eternal rest. God is free to forgive us, even when we have not lived up to our side of the bargain. Though we are faithless, God will remain faithful, for he cannot deny himself.
     Another disciple, Thomas, remains mostly unknown until after the resurrection. We know him as doubting Thomas, because he found it hard to accept the testimony of others that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Frankly, I can see his point. But what we have called doubting could also be called square dealing. Thomas was not one to be impressed with fantastic theories, wild imagination, or fancy words. If he were from the United States, he would have lived in Missouri. Thomas would say, “Show me,” when the story sounded too fishy. When someone’s explanation did not seem to add up, he would ask him or her to go over the story again. Thomas asked people to “put up, or shut up.” He wanted a practical, workable, realistic plan. He did not want to be counting on something to appear out of thin air.
     Jesus needs people who are not satisfied with endless talking and imagining what can be. Some people need to bring folks like those back down to earth to start laying the paving stones toward progress. Jesus needs people to keep it real, to be a down brother or sister who knows what’s jive and what’s real. Jesus called Thomas to help keep his ministry team on the ground and dealing with reality.
     Simon the Canaanean was probably a Zealot. That means he was committed to the overthrow of the Roman Empire and the reestablishment of a Jewish state in their homeland. Jesus knew that Simon loved his people and hated to see them treated so badly. He saw in Simon someone who could analyze the political and social world and recognize how power functioned and who was pulling the strings. Jesus called him to follow because that kind of insight is needed if God’s people are going to live up to their mission to change the world. Certainly Simon’s revolutionary ways needed to be tempered by the meek and nonviolent ways of Jesus. But taking up the ways of nonviolence is not the same as just letting the oppressors do whatever they want.
     Jesus wants leaders who can see the political and economic injustices of the world and guide the church to take strategic action. Some Christians who have this kind of insight may misuse it to manipulate power in the church. Others may think the church has no use for their abilities. But God wants all of our talents to be ordered toward the work of doing the will of God here on earth as it is in heaven. When churches simply ignore the use and abuse of power in the community, they have truncated, or cut short, the gospel. God is concerned about every part of our lives and every person in the community. Using the wisdom God has given us about social strategies for change is what God has called us to do in the gospel. That is good news for the poor and freedom for the oppressed.
     Thaddaeus may be the one we know least about. His name probably meant strong-hearted. He may have been, like Simon, a Zealot. But whether or not he was part of that movement, Jesus needs people who have strong hearts, courage to act, and love that does not fade under pressure.
     There was another James in the list, and it tells us his dad’s name was Alphaeus. We also know very little about him. Some think he might have been a cousin of Jesus. Maybe because his dad’s name is given, it means he was from a famous family. In either of these cases, it seems that a key aspect of his calling was his connections to people. When Jesus calls us, he calls us in the midst of our relationships. He expects us to be a lifeline to those around us. As friends of Jesus, we become part of a chain, the so-called six degrees of separation, by which we link one another to Jesus through our witness, our service, and our caring relationships.
     That brings us finally back to Nathanael. What I find particularly compelling in this story today is what Jesus said about the man. “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” Jesus calls Nathanael an honest man. Nathanael tells the truth. He says what he thinks and not what he thinks Jesus wants to hear. Jesus admires this characteristic in a world where flattery and fluffy talk are the rule of the day. When everyone is thinking it and no one wants to say it, we need a Nathanael to break the ice. When the doublespeak has fogged our vision, someone needs to speak up and tell what is wrong.
     Jesus calls people like Nathanael who will be willing to take the heat and tell the truth anyway. It’s not the same thing as saying everything that is on our minds. That might turn out to be cruelty, rudeness, and half-truths. But when people are beating around the bush, the church needs someone who will make things plain. When the competing stories leave everything fuzzy, someone needs to lead the way toward a clear picture of things. When everyone is afraid, someone has to name the problem.
     Jesus saw Nathanael as the person for such a time as this. Jesus’ elder cousin and mentor, John, was being discredited by powerful people. The fledgling movement was under attack. Political intrigue between powerful Roman, Herodian, and Jewish leaders seemed to shift the landscape everyday. Nathanael was ready to say what needs to be said. Jesus could help him find the truth that everyone needs to hear.
     On this weekend we remember a man who might have been any ordinary man. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a preacher’s son who was blessed to get an excellent education. He was ready to fit into his role as an urban pastor, doing the expected duties and nothing spectacular, but Jesus had a task for him. While he did not fully know what gifts and talents he had, Jesus needed a Nathanael to tell the truth. Jesus needed a Simon to see the political landscape and think strategically. Jesus needed a Peter to step out boldly when everyone else was timid. Jesus needed a Son of Thunder to blast forth the trumpet of justice. Jesus needed an Andrew sold out to God, longing to know and love God better in all dimensions of life. Jesus needed a James who would use his connections to build a movement and bring more and more people into the vision of freedom only Jesus could offer.
     And in our day Jesus needs a Nathanael who will stand up to the bankers and to say God expects them to be stewards of the people’s money, not gamble it away and steal it bit by bit. God needs a Nathanael in whom there is no deceit to remind the public officials whom they serve and whom they need to protect. God needs a Nathanael to tell our neighbors and friends that Jesus came to give us a life in which loving God and loving one another shape the parameters of our existence.
     Jesus is calling us today to be a person for such a time as this. Whatever our gifts, whatever our abilities, whatever our talents, whatever our skills—Jesus has sized them up. Jesus has a place for them. Jesus has a place for you. Jesus has a place for me. Jesus is calling us to walk in his way. Jesus is calling us for such a time as this.
     If you have never answered the call to follow Jesus, you need to know that he has looked you over, sized you up, and said, “Follow me.” Jesus can take whatever mess you have made of your life and put you on the right way, the way to life, the way to a future and a hope. God is ready and able to forgive whatever you may have done.
     You may have been sitting at home, or sitting in church, for some time, thinking you have nothing Jesus could want. You may have become discouraged about your life and your usefulness to God. I’m here today to say that God has not made any junk. God has not populated this world with useless people. God has a plan for your life. God has a job for you to do. If you are ready to take up the gospel call and stop sitting on your hands, then Jesus will make it plain what you need to do. Don’t let yourself become deadwood in the building God is building.
     Jesus is telling us to “Come join in.” Follow Jesus on the way to life. There is a job for you to do, a place for you to stand, a reason for you to live.

Nathanael: A Person for Such a Time as This, Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:22:00 +0000

First preached at Mt. Level Missionary Baptist Church, Durham, NC, January 15, 2012

John 1: 43-51

     What sort of time is this? It is a time of economic crisis affecting families. Families struggle to maintain their homes, to keep or find jobs, and may have to delay or set aside their educational goals. It is a time of economic crisis for institutions. Institutions such as churches and universities, public schools and medical facilities, struggle to keep their programs running at minimal funding and staffing, hoping for a change that will bring donations, remuneration, government funding, faculty, employees, student enrollment, and service workers back to a more reasonable level. It is a time of economic crisis in the housing industry. Housing values continue to drop, putting homeowners under water. People wanting to sell a home receive offers far below their expectations, and people wanting to buy search far and wide trying to get a loan. Many neighborhoods have as many empty, foreclosed homes as there are occupied homes. It is a time of economic crisis for jobs. With so many jobs shut down and taken overseas, the employment base has crumbled. Jobs dependent on high levels of consumption have disappeared along with the easy credit of the housing boom and bubble. All the paper wealth five years ago has turned into unemployment and foreclosure for workers.
     What sort of time is this? It is a time of war. War drags on almost endlessly in the strategic battle to control oil and gas reserves. Wars are threatened or break out over trade as countries try to maneuver for advantage over one another. Wars continue in Africa over cattle or control of precious gem mining. Wars erupt when popular movements demand change in dictatorial regimes across the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Leaders foment wars in the name of revenge. Bigots go to war because they nurse hatred toward their neighbors.
     What sort of time is this? It is a time of political disarray. Four who hope to run for president accuse one another of the basest of motives and most despicable acts. Congressional leaders stand in the way of just and humane policies for the sake of defeating their opponents. Political speeches target scapegoats as the cause of all social problems, all the while ignoring the obvious roads to progress. Corporate money plays an ever-bigger role in political decisions, and the politicians seem happy to keep it that way. And as the political wheels keep turning round and round, the public sentiment increasingly disapproves of everyone in government and politics.
   What sort of time is this? It is a time of change and unexpected arrangements. I can be a full-time professor at Shaw in North Carolina and a resident of Texas, spending one-third of my time in North Carolina, teaching both face-to-face and through the technological advances of the internet. It is a strange time, a time of change, a time of challenge, a time of struggle, and a time for people to rise up and hear the call of God.
     Today’s Gospel reading tells a familiar story about the beginnings of Jesus’ public ministry. Two of the four gospels introduce Jesus to us through stories of his birth, infancy, and early childhood. All of the Gospels tell us about his cousin John, the forerunner, who begins the work by stirring the hearts of people throughout Israel. Then just as we are getting acquainted with the grown man, Jesus, he begins to call together a team of followers. The stories are brief. These thousands of years later, we only know the sketchiest of details about most of the early followers of Jesus. Even among some of the best known, the twelve we often call “the disciples,” our knowledge is limited.
     Perhaps in the first century, when these literary works were being composed, many more stories and details about these followers of Jesus were circulating. At least in Galilee, families and church elders had told stories about Jesus and the people around him, stories that did not all get transcribed into the record of Jesus’ life and times that the Gospel writers finally recorded. Thus, what we are left with are a few fragments of a greater story, a story whose fullness would be too great for all the paper and ink that we could gather.
     Yet we need not be despairing about the fragments that come down to us in the Gospels. They are not mere random scraps patched together. They are stories chosen with a purpose. They convey central truths about the presence of God in this world as revealed in the divine and human one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, with this premise that what we can read in the Gospels is rich with significance, there should be much for us to glean by examining stories about the ones whom Jesus invited to join in his work. We can still learn from the ones who left behind their work and homes and families to take up the great adventure of announcing the coming of the Kingdom of God, when God will reign in love and justice in this world.
   At this point in the Christian year, after Advent and Christmas, after celebrating Epiphany, we enter the season in which the Lectionary offers us stories from Jesus’ months and years of preaching, teaching, healing, confronting, and ministering, the fruition of the life to which he was called and for which he was born. Here on this second Sunday of the season, we read about an episode during which he was gathering others to work alongside him. Nathanael, who is likely also known as Bartholomew in the other Gospels, is one of the twelve. Some others are better known to us: Simon Peter, James and John the sons of Zebedee, Judas Iscariot, Thomas, Matthew, Andrew, and Philip. Others may be less well known—another James, Thaddaeus (who may also have been called Jude), and another Simon.
     Reading this story of Nathanael elicited questions in my mind. What was significant about this story that made it important enough to write down in John’s Gospel? Who are these people, and why did the Gospel writers remember them? Why does knowing about these people help us to know and love God better? I propose that there are good reasons to look at the stories of Jesus’ calling of the disciples. Above all, we can learn about the way Jesus is still calling people today. Jesus did not come into the world to be a recluse or a solitary old codger. He came into the world as an outpouring of the love of God for humanity. He came to draw people to God, to attract people to a way of life, to bring people together who had divided themselves from one another. He came to enjoy God and enjoy his fellow human beings. Jesus is still calling you and me to let God’s love flood our lives. He is still offering a better way for us to live. He is calling us to stop building walls that divide us. He is inviting us to a feast, to relish the wonder of this marvelous world where God has placed us. Yes, the stories of the disciples help us understand that Jesus steps out into our world and says, “Come with me.”
     We can see evidence of those very things in the story of Nathanael. Off by himself, perhaps a bit too sure of himself, or should I say a bit to full of himself, even a bit too self-satisfied, Jesus calls Nathanael to join in his mission. So Nathanael leaves his comfy little shade tree to take on the challenges of Jesus’ way. He lets Jesus break the yoke of self-satisfaction and enters the yoke Jesus offers, a yoke in which Jesus is bearing the greater burden. Nathanael becomes overwhelmed by the power and wisdom of this man he previously underestimated. In the brief story of Nathanael, there are many things we can learn. Among those things, one may be that we can learn why Jesus called this particular person to become his partner in ministry. I will come back to this story of Nathanael. But first, let’s take a look at the other eleven whom Jesus called.
     Maybe, in fact, we can discern something similar about the other disciples as well, if we give some freedom to the sacred imagination. Why did Jesus choose these people?
     John’s Gospel suggests that the very first of the twelve to begin following Jesus may have been Andrew and Philip. It tells us that these two had been following John the Baptist, listening to him preach, even assisting in his work. When John introduced Jesus to the crowds, they determined to follow him to see what sort of person he was. Andrew and Philip were devoted to God. They had already, even before meeting Jesus, focused their lives around becoming close to God and serving people who were seeking after God. They were not merely satisfied to meet the legal requirements of religion. They were out in the countryside, helping set up the camp meetings, listening, praying, and doing what John asked them to do. So when they inquired after Jesus, he told them to come along. They spent the whole day together, and Jesus saw what kind of people they were. Jesus called Andrew and Philip because he could see in them an unquenchable thirst for God.
     Do you thirst for God? Do you long to be in a right relationship with the one who made heaven and earth and placed you in the midst of it? Longing for God’s presence and love is in the very nature of who we are, and nurturing that longing helps us to get on the path toward its fulfillment. Jesus looks upon our longings and seeks to redirect them in the right path, a path that will lead us to know and love God better. Count it a gift if you already find in yourself a deep thirst for God. Like Andrew and Philip, Jesus will honor your longings and draw you near.
     Andrew’s brother was Simon, whom Jesus renamed Peter. Peter was not exactly like his brother. He was busy with the family business. Maybe he thought Andrew was not being practical enough. Yet he must have been raised by his parents to understand that nothing else can replace having a right relationship with God. After spending the day with Jesus, Andrew went home to find his brother, and he brought him to Jesus. Based on the many stories of Simon Peter in the Gospels and Acts, we have a better picture of him than of any other member of the twelve. Peter was strong and solid, and not merely in bodily strength. Jesus called him a rock. For the most part, the stories of Peter show his courage and exuberance. These qualities are what Jesus saw in Simon Peter, and they show us why Jesus called him to join up.
     The reasons for calling James and John, the sons of Zebedee, were probably similar to the reason for calling Peter. They picked up the nickname “Sons of Thunder.” They were bold, outspoken, perhaps excitable and boisterous. Thunder is loud, and it can shake the buildings we are in. The stories tell us that on the day Jesus called them, James and John were at the seashore working hard. He must have observed their work ethic and perhaps their lively and boisterous conversations. Maybe on another occasion he had seen their tempers explode into shouting. Such passion misdirected can lead to harmful actions and violence, but if powerful passions are turned toward love and justice they can bear fruit for good. Jesus saw in these powerful fishermen a potential for bold preaching and hard work to change the world around them.
     What makes you become passionate? Do you sometimes feel a welling of emotion, of anger or resentment, and wonder if you can keep control? God made us to be emotional beings, and covering up our emotional side, trying to hide our passions, is not what God wants for us. Rather, God wants us to learn to aim our emotions toward the right objects. Love our neighbors, not our money. Hate injustice, not people. Be angry and sin not. Do not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoice in the truth. God has made us passionate beings that we may pursue what is good for us and our neighbors. Thus, our loves have a direction. They should all move in the direction of loving God with our entire heart, mind, and strength. Jesus saw the potential for such powerful love in the brothers, James and John. He still calls people who can turn their passion toward doing good for others.
     When Jesus was getting to know people around the towns of Galilee, he sometimes fell in with a disreputable crown. That is how he found himself having a party with a group of tax collectors and other shady fellows. He came to know one of them named Matthew, probably also called Levi. Matthew enjoyed having the gang over for a good time. He also was a shrewd businessman. Jesus saw him in the city gates taking care of business when it was time for work. He saw how Matthew had turned his talents toward getting rich and having a good time with his riches. What if his active mind could be busy with the Lord’s work? What if his insight into what makes people tick could be channeled into ministry?
     It’s so common in our lives that we find what we are good at doing, but then we keep it to ourselves. By that I mean that we figure out how to do our thing for me, myself, and I. We use our talents to boost ourselves, and the friends we make become just so many stepping stones to getting our own little kingdom. But Jesus sees our skills and talents as ways to bless the people that come our way. He sees the energy and effort of Matthew repurposed for the good. He sees a way that every one of us can do what we are best at in service of God.
     Judas Iscariot must have been a man with a purpose. He had a strong focus on what he wanted to accomplish. Some think he may have been part of a revolutionary cell who attached himself to Jesus as the most promising leader of the day. Others see him as more self-serving. We read about him in hindsight. The Gospel writers introduce him as the one who betrayed Jesus. But when Jesus called the disciples, that betrayal was far in the future. I have no doubt Jesus could anticipate that someone close to him might not remain loyal, but I don’t believe Jesus went out looking for a traitor to join his team. Jesus attracted and invited followers who would devote themselves to building up God’s reign on earth. Judas Iscariot showed promise in his hard-nosed dedication to keep things moving toward the goal. He may have struggled with patience, wanting Jesus to get on with the revolution and not dilly-dally with things that Judas saw as frivolous. But that is not necessarily a bad quality; it just needs refinement.
     Jesus needs some people who are impatient about the injustices of this world. Jesus needs some people who don’t want to keep doing the same thing over and over when it has not worked the first ten times we tried it. Jesus needs some people who don’t want to burn daylight when they could be making a difference. Jesus may call you to use that inner drive, that longing for change, that love of getting things accomplished, and to direct it toward the work of the Kingdom of God.

Continued in next post

Waiting for Life to Happen

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:10:00 +0000

Back in November, this essay appeared as a guest post on Stan Dotson's blog, Daily Passages.

Daily Passages: Prophetic Passage for Nov. 10
Guest writer Mike Broadway

Fellow Passengers: This week’s Prophetic Passage (Isaiah 55:6-13) transports us to that inward place where we find ourselves twiddling our thumbs, spinning our wheels, waiting for life to happen. The inward place may correspond with any number of outward places: a doctor’s office waiting room, a line at the department of motor vehicles driver’s license office, a room full of people trying out for a part in a show, a bed in the dark after drinking too much caffeine. Sometimes the place where we are waiting for life to happen is more like being trapped: a job from hell, a jail cell, a mountain of debt, a deafening silence between spouses.

Isaiah was writing to the people of Judah in exile, far from home in Babylon. As a displaced minority, most of them probably lived in substandard housing on marginal land. The first generation remembered better times back home, and the new generation had heard the stories and built up the resentment that goes with being an outsider in the only home you have ever known. It would not have been hard for these people to find themselves in that inward place of waiting for life to happen. When will we go back home? When will we get our piece of the pie? Maybe after a little longer, things will start to go right.

At the very beginning of their sojourn in Babylon, Jeremiah had warned them about this kind of thinking. He told his people in Babylon to settle down, build houses, have families, and make the most of life wherever they were. As the bestselling title from Jon Kabat-Zinn cribs from ancient wisdom, WhereverYou Go, There You Are. Now decades later, Isaiah speaks again into this pain in which people wait for life to happen while life is passing them by.

Anyone whose livelihood depends on the land might know this place of waiting during severe drought conditions. The prophet describes the water cycle and the productivity of the farm to remind the people that much is happening when they may not be able to see it with their eyes. Water disappears into the soil to do its work. It evaporates invisibly and makes its way toward cooler altitudes to form clouds. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” More is going on than the drudgery of the daily routine. When our eyes are fixed on the television or computer screen, a whole world of life is going on outside that tunnel of vision. While I wait to get a new driver’s license, so many other people are getting theirs. My moment of seeming stagnation means I am ignoring a universe of frenetic activity. In my moment of isolation, God is present and loving in infinite worlds and ways. Am I really destined to miss out on all that while I’m in a stuck place?

What the prophet wants his friends to remember is that their time is limited. They do not have an endless number of mornings. If they can’t change everything about their situation, they can at least try to find what God is doing in the middle of their little patch of the world. Isaiah is convinced that when they start looking they will find with William Blake, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God . . . . There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.” They will find that at root, it’s all grace. It is grace on grace on grace. Grace all the way down. When we’re waiting for life to happen, grace happens. Settle into it. Wallow around in it. Breathe it in deep. Go ahead on.

How about you? Where does this prophetic passage take you on your journey?

Getting Back to the Task, and a Word About Elijah

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:02:00 +0000

I guess it looks like I'm not really trying to be a blogger. It's about time I got back on the task.

As for my most recent post about Elijah, I accept the comments saying I'm overstating my case. If I have implied some limits on the grace available to Elijah or the rest of us, I should not have done that. God's grace, freely given, is a boundless wellspring. My point is that in my previous readings of this story, I have assumed a narration sympathetic to Elijah. However, as I reconsidered the text, I was inclined to reject that previous reading. The story lacks praise for Elijah's actions. If that is wrong, show me where I should read the narration as claiming his acts are praiseworthy.

Another Look at Elijah

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 14:11:00 +0000

I was listening to a Rich Mullins song this morning.

The Jordan is waiting for me to cross through.
My heart is aging I can tell.
So Lord, I'm begging for one last favor from You:
Here's my heart--take it where You will.

This life has shown me how we're mended and how we're torn;
How it's okay to be lonely as long as you're free.
Sometimes my ground was stoney,
And sometimes covered up with thorns.
And only You could make it what it had to be.
And now that it's done,
Well, if they dressed me like a pauper,
Or if they dined me like a prince,
If they lay me with my fathers,
Or if my ashes scatter on the wind,
I don't care.

But when I leave I want to go out like Elijah
With a whirlwind to fuel my chariot of fire.
And when I look back on the stars
It'll be like a candlelight in Central Park.
And it won't break my heart to say goodbye.

There's people been friendly, but they'd never be your friends.
Sometimes this has bent me to the ground.
Now that this is all ending,
I want to hear some music once again
'Cause it's the finest thing that I have ever found.

But the Jordan is waiting,
Though I ain't never seen the other side.
Still they say you can't take in the things you have here.
So on the road to salvation,
I stick out my thumb, and He gives me a ride.
And His music is already falling on my ears...

It is an insightful reflection on the uncommon life of the prophet. It suggests the roller coaster of emotional and mental states the itinerant messenger of judgment must have faced. Of course, Mullins intermingles his own life with Elijah's, bringing them together in the refrain by saying he wouldn't mind going out like Elijah.

At the heart of the lyrics (the quote above is only partial--for more click here) is the weariness Elijah must have felt after so many difficult years spent in isolation, under threat, and bearing the heavy weight of a message it seemed no one wanted to hear. He felt like a pariah, and he wondered whether he had a friend anywhere.

But Mullins also captures what must have been a deep assurance in Elijah's being. "Only You could make it what it had to be." That abiding hope in God would allow Elijah or Mullins to ask one last favor: take my heart, and take me where you will take me. It is the basis on which he can say that his hope for salvation means risking it all on God: "I stick out my thumb, and He gives me a ride."

Having turned the screws on Elijah recently by employing the hermeneutics of suspicion, let me come back to him with a sympathetic reading by means of Mullins's theological imagination. Elijah bore the burden of unwanted leadership in one of the most difficult episodes of the history of Israel. It is understandable that he resented how he was treated and that he wondered why he got stuck with this gig.

Whatever else one might say about him, he stuck with it and pushed back the darkness to let in the light. He set a standard of boldness (even though he sometimes ran away) that nourished the subsequent prophetic tradition to stand against the crowd. So with Little Brother Rich, I think I can feel the old prophet. Going out on a chariot of fire, looking back on a world that treated him bad--that's a pretty fine poetic ending.

Attacking Health Care, Medicare, Social Security: Class Warfare Waged by the Wealthy

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 17:23:00 +0000

Dean Baker reiterates two of his key ideas in this critique of a recent article full of poor analysis of the economy, published in a major newspaper. First, the high cost of health care is the major cause of the deficit and a major contributor to economic problems for most Americans. Second, the political struggle over who gets the most financial benefits from government economic policies is not a philosophical debate--it is a political war waged by lobbyists trying to allow a very small group of citizens to keep more of their wealth at the cost of the rest of us. It is not philosophical. It is class warfare waged by the wealthy.

It is also worth noting that, at least in the U.S. case, the projected long-term budget problem is due to our broken health care system. If our per person health care costs were comparable to those in any other country then we would be looking at long-term budget surpluses, not deficits.

While the health care industry is incredibly powerful in the United States, making cost reductions difficult, it is in principle possible to open the sector to trade, which would allow people in the United States to take advantage of the more efficient health care systems in other countries. Unfortunately the NYT and most other major media are such hardcore protectionists when it comes to the health care industry, they do not allow the topic of freer trade in health care to even be discussed.

Finally, this piece tell us that at its core this debate is about philosophy:

“Everywhere, though, the debate is about much more than just partisan advantage or the next election. It is a philosophical debate.”

The only evidence for this assertion is a quote from Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell. There is nothing obvious philosophical about this debate. The issue is whether we are going to cut benefits like Social Security and Medicare that the overwhelming majority of the working population depends upon now or expects to in the future. The protection of these programs is supported by large majorities of every demographic and ideological group. Even large majorities of self-identified conservatives and Tea Party supporters are opposed to cuts in these programs in poll after poll.

Of course paying for the programs will require some amount of additional tax revenue (presumably mostly from upper income taxpayers) and also restructuring of the health care system in ways that will hurt the incomes of insurers, drug companies, medical instrument manufacturers, and doctors. These powerful interest groups will fight the effort to reduce their incomes in any way they can.

Since they are a small minority of the population it is understandable that they would want to confuse matters by turning this into a debate over philosophy. However there is nothing obviously philosophical about whether we should pay more than necessary for prescription drugs and medical equipment so that some people can get very rich.

An Honest Preacher

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Broadway) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:31:00 +0000

In mid-October, I participated as one of several teachers in a course for seminarians and college students as part of the Christian Community Development Association annual conference. Jimmy Dorrell of Mission Waco coordinated the course. He is one of the bright stars of Christian ministry in recent decades. You can read about his work in his two books: Trolls and Truth and Dead Church Walking.

I gave a presentation on the church and the economy, and if you follow this blog you would be familiar with much of what I had to say. I was on a panel with several leaders discussing Community Transformation. There were students from a dozen colleges and seminaries participating, including a pastor from North Carolina who will soon complete his M Div degree at Shaw University Divinity School, Elder Henry Rodgers, of Bethlehem Disciple Church. Among the other students present were Jeff and Kathy Burns of Truett Seminary of Baylor University. As we became acquainted, I found out that they attend a church not far from where I am living in Salado.

Miller Heights Baptist Church is on the southeast side of Belton, Texas, in a neighborhood that reminds me of parts of Durham. There are small houses and some multifamily dwellings, some built for working class families and others likely built as subsidized housing for the working poor or disabled. A little research revealed that the neighborhood is multiethnic and transitional, as a generation who first settled there gives way to new arrivals. Having been part of urban churches for my adult life, I recognized these characteristics of the neighborhood, common from small towns to big cities.

I went to worship with the folks at Miller Heights Baptist Church this week, and there were many ways in which it felt like home. Their web site told me I could come dressed as I felt comfortable, so I wore my standard uniform of a guayabera, slacks, and sandals. I was a bit early. A few dozen people were conversing the sanctuary, but the Sunday School classes had not arrived. I found a pew near the front and hoped I was not taking someone's "assigned seat." I apparently chose well, because people came in to sit all around me, saying their polite, smiling hellos.

Soon Jeff came in, making his way through the crowds, greeting, chatting, and doing those important pastoral things he has to do on the run before service. Along another aisle came the pastor, Bro. Mike Meadows. I took it as a good sign when I found the website listing him with the title "Bro." I've always held a deep respect for my dad's commitment to be one among many, a minister set aside but not set above the people. He always chose the title Brother, refusing to be Reverend as long as he was a pastor. As he got older and no longer served a single church except in interim roles, it was harder to enforce, but he never changed in his convictions.

Jeff introduced me to his pastor. Bro. Meadows made the obligatory self-effacing remarks upon finding out I was a seminary professor--he would have to go back and work on his sermon some more. I continued to watch him work the crowd, and he has the face of someone who cares for the people God is sending his way. Near the front of the sanctuary, he passed through several rows of children who sat together with a few adults mixed in. They seemed neither awed nor afraid of him, but greeted him playfully, or blissfully ignored his passing by.

Having mentioned that the children were sitting in the front, I should remark on the arrangement of people in the sanctuary. The building has a traditional central-aisle arrangement, with pews facing the front; there is a small, low platform area with a pulpit and a choir stand behind it. The piano was moved forward toward the congregational seating, and a group of four miked singers stood just behind the piano. One of the singers also played a guitar. Opposite the younger children on the front left side, many of the teens sat in the front pews on the right side. Jeff, whose duties include youth ministry, sat in that general area, as did Kathy and a few other young adults. The rest of the pews were not stuffed full, but a respectable sized crowd mostly filled them. Overall, the congregation looked like many urban protestant churches of this era, with many senior adults.

One of the clearest signs that the church is making transitions from what it once was to what it will become was the music leadership. In the more traditional location and arrangement for a choir sat a group of mostly older women. As already mentioned, there was also a group of what many churches call "worship leaders" off to one side, and these four plus the pianist had individual mics for leading the songs. The singers blended together well, and we sang a collection of songs of the sort that I like to see: some hymns from the hymnal along with some contemporary chorus or worship songs that were strongly tied to biblical texts. The congregational singing was robust, but what was more notable to me was that I did not see anyone opting out of the songs to listen or let the mind wander.

Finally, to get to the point of my title, I want to comment on the pastor's worship leadership and preaching. My judgment on this day was that far more significant than his sermon content (which was fine) was the way the pastor offered himself to the people through his leadership. I use the phrase "an honest preacher," knowing that it could be interpreted differently. Some preachers think that being "honest" means saying whatever thought they have on their minds. They think it means telling people off by "being honest about what I believe." There is a difference between honesty and arrogance, and there is a difference between honesty and untested emotive outbursts.

What I am talking about with Bro. Mike is an honest presentation of himself. He chose what he knew would be a controversial topic, and he chose to deal with it in a nondogmatic way. That in itself is admirable. But even more important was his willingness to open up his own reflective process and growth to the congregation. He gave them a picture of himself as a real person, and in the process created the reflexive space for them to be real people before one another and before God. He assured them that even if they did not agree on everything, they would be able to continue to grow together and serve together. He was respectful toward the people in the pews.

Let me emphasize again what I saw as the key opportunity for communion with God in this worship service. Along with everything else, the pastor lifted up God as he offered himself to the people. He gave them a person on pilgrimage with God, and through that narration offered them a glimpse of what walking with God can be for all of us. If this Sunday is in any way a snapshot of the ongoing work of God at Miller Heights Baptist Church, they should have many opportunities to be blessed and be a blessing in the place where God has planted them.