The First Christmas

I read Marcus Borg and Dominic Crossan's latest book "The First Christmas" a couple of months ago. If you want to get a good feel for its important message, you can read this interview with Crossan about the book. Thanks to Mystical Seeker for posting the link on his blog.

I'm not a huge Christmas fan. The season largely misses the point. However, this Christmas was less commercial and less busy than usual. I didn't buy one single gift at a store. My wife and I gave Kiva.org gift certificates as presents to all our friends. I'm excited to see them put into action. I can only imagine the difference those micro-loans will make.

After a trip out of town to visit family, we were home for a quite Christmas. It was a good day for reflection, meditation, and a change of perspective.

Change Is Not Easy

In his book “Everything Must Change”, Brian McLaren gives a great example of how Jesus’ political statements have too often been shaped to fit modern middle-class suburban life. He makes the point by looking at Matthew’s account of the Canaanite woman and Jesus (Matthew 15:21-28). Many people look at this message as an example for how modern individuals should treat other people. We should resist the urge to make it easy. This message is bigger than a third grade Sunday school lesson about being nice and letting your neighbors borrow a cup of sugar or an occasional power tool. This message is political and it foreshadows Jesus' critical message about the balance of power in Israel and its political relationships with its neighbors.

Brain highlights the unusual use of the word “Canaanite”. This word was a word of hostility towards a people that had been a long time enemy of Israel. These people had been defeated in order to settle the Promised Land and many border wars continued long after. Israel looked down on them and the way he addresses her at first was a type of racial slur used by the story teller to present the history backdrop for the punch line. In this story, Jesus rejects the woman then he later embraces her to suggest that the way these people were being treated was wrong and that those old divisions and wars are now over. Instead of conquering Canaanites, this Jew will feed her. The parable may or may not have been a literal conversation of the historical Jesus, but the symbolism does reference a real historical system of injustice. The scene foreshadows what Jesus told the authorities in Jerusalem about their treatment of people and how the violence of their past could only beget more violence in their future. I guess Jesus was hip to the concept of Karma.

The point Brian makes is that Jesus is suggesting an entirely different way of dealing with political divisions and settling tension on a global level. This “other way” is justice and forgiveness rather than violence, prejudice, and holding grudges. Jesus' storytellers craft this event in a way that challenges the politics of their leaders who must have cringed at the thought of Jesus' actions toward this long time enemy. It is unfortunate that stories like this have been domesticated and stripped of their power to change the world. The domestication of these stories is what allows our leaders to claim Christ in name, but ignore his message. One solution is to free our stories from their domesticated prison. That won't be easy.

Pander Bear

Chris Matthews had an interesting point of commentary the other night. He noted that Democrats always have a clear idealist and a clear "pander-bear" (a candidate who panders to interest groups). They(we) love the idealist, but in the end the pander-bear always wins the nomination because we bow to our fear of having our idealist blasted in the general election. It is easy to see who is the pander-bear this year and why that candidate is the front runner. Is it possible we could really buck the trend or will we pander to our fears and show a lack of faith in our ideals?

I have to stop and wonder why I don't like Hillary. The fact is that I have not met one person who supports her. These people must exist because they are dominating the polls, but she has no traction in my demographic. It is really making me question how much my view of Hillary is a mythical product of conservative propaganda. Am I allowing the conservative spin machine to create a false image of Hillary?

If I'm honest, I have to admit my reasons are deeper than her corporate connections. It is my disgust with the idea of having her and her husband back in the white house. Bill Clinton made the white house a joke with his sexual indiscretion. I have too much respect for the presidency to watch that happen again. I'm not excited about 4 years of more jokes, division, and media obsession with the presidents private life. I don't want to hear reporters talk about pantsuits, hair styles, affairs, and the authenticity of the president's marriage. This couple seems like ammunition for a media frenzy. I even wonder if the polls we see now are a complete fabrication by media sources who would make more money if she is elected. I can't find one real live person who likes her so maybe the conspiracy theory is true.

If she wins the nomination, I'll have some soul searching to do.

A Just God

David Hilfiker is a physician and co-founder of Joseph's House. He's the author of "Not All of Us Are Saints: A Doctor's Journey with the Poor and Urban Injustice: How Ghettos Happen". I just listened to Krista Tippett's interview with him on Speaking of Faith. I appreciate his insight into the issues of poverty in America. He gave an interesting answer to Krista’s question about his faith, his uncertainty, and his difficulty in defining the nature of God?

"I can’t even answer the question. I don’t experience God in ways that I recognize from what others say about their experiences of God. So, while I’m a member of our faith community, I struggle with the definition of being a Christian. What I know is that struggling with the realities of injustice and living in a community of people who are also struggling with those issues and are unwilling to settle for pat answers - those two things make a far deeper and richer life than any I could imagine any place else. It is that depth of life that I sense is as close as I can get to defining God."

What a brave and honest answer. Having a pat answer for spiritual experiences is not a sign of faith. Instead, faith is the ability to follow in the absence of pat answers. Hilfiker goes on to quote the prophet Jeremiah and reference Walter Brueggemann’s commentary on the passage.

“He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me? declares the LORD.“ - Jeremiah 22:16

"It’s not just that caring for the needy acquaints you with God, but caring for the needy is God." - Walter Brueggemann

Hilfiker didn't seem very confident in his ability to understand. But for me, his life and work explains it perfectly. He went on to describe why charity is not enough. We have to work to change the systems which institute injustice so that charity will no longer be needed.

Be a Part of the Solution

The Carter Center is a wonderful organization that has made great strides toward peace and justice around the world. This video is about the irradication of guinea worm disease. I always feel good about donating to the Carter Center and I hope more people will contribute. Sometimes it feels like we are so small and our problems are too big. This is a big problem with a tangible solution that can be accomplished in our life time.

Savage Outrage

Michael Savage recently went on a tirade, spewing hatred and ignorance. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group, has called on radio listeners of all faiths to contact companies that advertise on Michael Savage's nationally-syndicated radio program to express their concerns about the host's recent anti-Muslim tirade. Savage has retaliated with a copyright lawsuit against this group for publishing short clips of his hate speech on the Internet.

Advertisers that have already stopped advertising or refuse to place their ads on Michael Savage's program include AutoZone, TrustedID, Citrix, OfficeMax, and JCPenney.

Let's Be Honest

R. Kirby Godsey was president of Mercer University in Atlanta, GA for 27 years and his progressive views have made both friends and enemies. I just finished his book "When we talk about God... Let's be honest". It has many refreshing moments. The highlights are Godsey's perspective on belief and doubt, a well rounded critique of atonement theory, a healthy respect for non-literal biblical interpretation, and tolerance for pluralism and universal salvation. I particularly enjoyed his chapter on " Plain Talk about Last Things", which described a very enlightened view of human spirituality and after-life. He manages to do all these things without loosing the average reader or renouncing his love of the Baptist faith tradition.

This book is not a detailed treatment of any theological topics, but it reflects a lifetime of deep thought and study. Godsey is obviously well versed in theology but he cares enough about his audience to gently introduce an honest approach to a deeper process of thought. I wish I had found this book when I was a Baptist. Here is my favorite passage...

Unlike naive optimism, hope faces the tragedy of all that is not right and fosters within us the courage and energy to work toward making things right. Hope rights the wrongs. Hope does not say, "Don't worry about it; God will take care of everything." Hope becomes the agent of God in making the world right. Hope searches for ways to overcome terrorism. Hope becomes a part of undoing the violence of abuse and abandonment that threatens us. Hope embraces the lonely. Hope carries coats to the elderly in winter. Hope takes the homeless home. Hope feeds the hungry and clothes the naked. Hope forgives the hurt. In very concrete, specific ways, hope is the eternity breaking into the time of our lives. God's presence changes the character of our time on earth. The Christian understanding of last things is not, then, chiefly about judgement day or heaven and hell. The Christian's last word is about hope. To be Christian means being present in time with the power of hope.