What are You Willing to Die For?

Over the past few months this question has been hanging in my head. Sometimes at the front other times deep in the recesses, but it is a question that I've been pondering of late, "what are you willing to die for?"

The question first presented itself when I was preparing to show the film Bonhoeffer at my internship site. As part of the screening we invited community members to have conversation after the film. This was the question that I used to entice viewers - and it worked. We drew a large crowd of people intrigued by the film and the conversation. Ultimately no one answered the question for themselves, but for Bonhoeffer it was clear that he felt it was worth going to the gallows for his belief that Hitler was wrong!

This reminds me that a friend of mine, upon learning I was planning to attend seminary, said, "I would ask a pastor of any church I would attend one question. If you were alive during the holocaust would you have stood up for the Jews?" It's a tough question. My answer was, "I would like to think that I would have." But would I have really done so?

It got me thinking about our modern day - are there any issues that I would be willing to bet my life on? Issues that I feel so passionately about that I would face certain death over. I'm pretty sure right now, the answer is "very few." I would stake my life on my faith in Christ, but it's not like that will get me killed in the U.S. I would put my life on the line to save my family. But somehow that is not the same as what Bonhoeffer stood for.

In the last few weeks I watched the Epic films Gods and Generals and Gettysburg. As I watched these films, I was captured by a few themes that seemed to be central to the story that was being told. One was that the faith of these people was real and lived - they read their Bibles and quoted scripture in ways that I've not heard anyone do in my lifetime. Two (which is really the more important point to this post) was that they were willing to stand for their cause even though it meant facing certain death.

I recall a scene early in Gods and Generals where a family was gathered to send their young boys (probably teenagers) to serve in the army. There was no doubt in that scene that the mother was not expecting to ever see those boys again. Contrast that to how we send our military out today - we send them out with this assurance that they WILL return ... and most do ... but they certainly don't return unchanged (that's another topic for another day - and probably another writer).

I was also taken by the battle scenes of Gettysburg. Mostly it was the final battle scene where General Armistad essentially told General Robert E. Lee in no uncertain terms that Lee's decision to attack the Union soldiers was foolish and would mean the annihilation of the Confederate forces. Lee of course ordered Armistad to lead his troops into battle anyway. And Armistad did. And sure enough, it happened just as he predicted, the Confederate troops were annihilated. (this scene reminded me why I would not make a good soldier ... I would have continued to question Lee's logic on leading soldiers into certain death).

These were but a few of the scenes that kept me asking the question, "what am I willing to die for" and beyond that "what is this generation willing to die for"?

I think there is a grand sense of entitlement among those of us who are under 40 ... maybe even under 50 ... that somehow by our birthright we should have all that we want and more! We snub our noses at the political process and talk about how broken it is without attempt to do anything to fix it. We are against everything but don't offer a legitimate alternative to anything. We assume "it will all work out."

I write "we" because I sense in myself that this might very well be how I've lived my life for all of these years. I'm not sure what it will take to change it. What catalyst will get those of us who have had a "good life" to get our dander up and fight for what we believe in or what we want in our lives? What will truly be the issue that I will risk all that I am for?

For Jesus Christ, it was humanity. He staked his entire life on saving humanity. And because he paid the price, we certainly reap the rewards!

Thoughts, reflections, stories, and a commitment to blog

Well, if you've been reading this blog since it's inception you know that I've gone through times of writing a lot to a real dry spell these last few months. It's not that I haven't had anything to say, it's just that, well, I guess I haven't thought "gee, I should write that down on my blog."

Recently I've been doing a lot of reflecting as I draw to the end of a year of internship in what I count to be one of the greatest experiences of my life. As I think about the past year I thought "gee, I should write some of these thoughts down" and then thought "but what would I do with them, who would read them, what purpose would it serve?"

Yes, self-doubt can get the best of us sometimes and paralyze us from action, but I'm committing to overcome this paralysis and just write and worry about the rest later. Sometimes I will develop full thoughts other times I might just throw some ideas on the page and see if they stick. As for my "paralysis questions" well, if you're reading, that answers the "who" and if you get something out of my writing that answers the "why" and if nothing else getting these thoughts off of my brain on onto a computer will serve to open space in my brain for more important thoughts like the average wing speed of a swallow (I'll debate African or European when I have the brain space). And in the end if no one reads a word that I've written, well, it's been a good exercise for me and at least I'll have these thoughts in one location that I can go back to later.

There are a few themes that have been running through my brain that deserve full articles to themselves. Love, Thankfulness, Privilege (which I'm sure I've written about before), Story, transition, oh, the list could go on (and hopefully it will or I will run out of things to write). I hope to write at length about these things in the coming weeks.

There are songs that have been running through my brain lately too, probably because they have lyrics that touch on these various topics. One song that has been hanging with me a while now is one written by a friend of mine who happens to be the worship leader here at Saint Matthew ... in the song he writes, "We have been blessed, now we want to be a blessing"

That single line resonates with me so loudly because I think about the places where I have been a blessing to others and I realize that it generally flows out of some experience of being blessed myself. And what a vicious cycle that creates because when I bless someone, they tend to bless me in return and I bless them they bless me and so on! But how humbling to think about being a link in that chain!

Last night Stephanie and I watched the finale of "Top Chef Masters" and something that Stephanie mentioned was the humility of Rick Bayless who went on to win the competition. The whole "Masters" show stood in stark contrast to the "Top Chef" show where the "up and coming" chefs try to show their prowess because of this concept of humility. Those that are "up and coming" seem to have to assert themselves and they tend to do so by stepping on and stepping over others (and often the drama that ensues in the show is due to the attitude of a young chef trying to show-up one of the more experienced judges), but in the "Masters" competition it was simply about doing one's best and letting their work shine and in some cases, lending a hand to their fellow competitor. We can all learn a lot from this insight.

It's NOT Tragic

I don't want to seem cold-hearted or calloused, but Michael Jackson has been dead less than 24-hours and I've had enough already. When I first heard the news yesterday it was on the radio as I was driving home from a meeting. It was nice to hear about it, but the DJ went on for about 3 minutes (which is a long time on radio) babbling endlessly about how just didn't know what to say. Then don't say anything!

It might surprise us to learn that according to the "CIA Factbook" over 6,700 people die each day. Why do we not stop and think about the fact when we invest hours of our days, weeks, and lives into "mourning" the death of a famous person that we don't really know.

I admit, it is sad. But it is sad when anyone dies. But why do we think that the death of Michael Jackson (or Farah Fawcett or Ed McMahon for that matter) is any more newsworthy than any other death? Did I know any of these people? NO. I may have known of them, but I didn't know them. Never met them. Never even saw them in person. Why should their death cause me to want to immortalize them forever?

I should probably point out that my rant here is not in particular against Michael Jackson or the media, but against our society that seems to have valued celebrity over real relationship. Every time a celebrity dies we get this media frenzy and people who flock to create memorial shrines to these people we never even knew.

Misuse of the word tragic. I could probably rant for days and weeks (and likely someone has a blog somewhere to this point) about the misuse of the English language. But if one more media person uses the word "tragic" to describe Michael Jackson's death, I'm going to scream! Sad, yes. Surprising, yes. Unexpected, yes. Heartbreaking, I'll give you that one. Unfortunate, yes. BUT NOT TRAGIC. I believe that "tragic" is a word that should be reserved for events of great magnitude. Major accidents, natural disasters, calamitous situations (as one dictionary defines it), events that massively alter events going forward. Michael Jackson's death, though sad, heartbreaking, and surprising was NOT tragic! As a matter of fact, death has your number and my number and will get us all in the end whether we like it or not. Death is inevitable!

What is tragic gets back to the others of the 6,700 people who died yesterday. Some of those people were surrounded by loved ones, others died suddenly and unexpectedly, others died after a long battle with disease, still others died alone with no one around. Tragically the loss of those people to the world goes largely unnoticed. Yes, their friends and their families generally notice (I say generally because for a few of these people they do not have these ties, which is the greatest tragedy of all) but they don't get their picture on the front page of the newspaper, they don't even get an article in the front section. If they are lucky a newspaper will provide space for them in the obituary section, but only if a family member writes something to be included.

Maybe I'm just bitter because I'm not a celebrity, but somehow I don't think that is it. I think it comes down to this worship of celebrity that seems to envelope our society. Were it not for photographs we wouldn't have a clue who these people are (See Shane Hipps "Flickering Pixels" for an elaborate explanation of that statement) and yet we pretend that these people had a personal relationship with us and that their death somehow impacts how we live our everyday life. I've gotta be honest, when I woke up this morning, the fact that Michael Jackson is dead didn't make me do anything differently though the death of Millie still hung in my mind.

Who's Millie you ask? Millie was one of the members of my congregation who passed away on Sunday at the age of 93. Millie is one of the 6,700 who didn't get her picture on the front page of the paper, but is missed by many friends and family.

Good Friday

Here is the homily I'll be preaching on the first of Jesus' "Seven Last Words" ... I get to lead off the community Good Friday service with "Father Forgive them..." Enjoy! (or don't, you have free will).

Luke 23:32-38 (NKJV)
There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots. And the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ, the chosen of God.” The soldiers also mocked Him, coming and offering Him sour wine, and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself.” And an inscription also was written over Him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Father Forgive them, for they do not know what they do…

Why would Jesus pray this prayer? Why would he ask for forgiveness on behalf of the very people who are MOCKING him … TORTURING him … PREPARING HIM TO DIE …

Because of LOVE

It is clear that those who were crucifying Jesus didn’t realize that HE is the Messiah … they didn’t recognize the teaching of the prophets leads to him … they didn’t realize the miracles he performed were done as an extension of the hand of God.
So why would Christ ask forgiveness on their ignorance?

Because of LOVE

Why would we who can’t forgive one another … who carry the baggage of GRUDGES, who harbor BITTERNESS, who present ourselves as HAUGHTY, and reek of ENTITLEMENT receive forgiveness?

Because of LOVE

Why would we be forgiven for the things we’ve done and left undone? Why would God care about human-beings? Why would Jesus take our place on the cross …

Because of LOVE

BECAUSE … AT OUR WORST … AT OUR BEST … WHEN WE’RE CRUEL … WHEN WE’RE KIND … WHEN WE TURN OUR BACKS ON CHRIST … WHEN WE FALL AT JESUS’ FEET …

GOD LOVES US

GOD LOVES YOU … GOD LOVES ME … SO MUCH THAT GOD SENT JESUS TO DIE ON A CROSS AND THAT IS WHEN CHRIST’S WORDS ARE SPOKEN TO US

… FATHER, FORGIVE THEM, THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING

What Did God Say?

In a hope to update my blog a bit more often, I've decided to kill two birds with one stone. Below is the text of a mailing that I send out weekly to our homebound members. Generally it summarizes the sermon from the previous Sunday ... or in some cases, I think it says better (and in less words) what I really wanted to say on Sunday during worship. Anyway, enjoy ...

Romans 8:26-32

This week in our sermon series, “Can You Hear God Now” the focus was less on “hearing God” and specifically on “What Did God Say” Ever since I started preparing for this sermon, I couldn’t help but get the scene from one of the Star Wars movies (pitty me that I don’t remember exactly which one) where there is some sort of exchange in a foreign language … Han Solo, the “renegade” character played by Harrison Ford speaks to C3-PO saying “do you understand what he said?” C3-PO, who is an android known for his ability to speak a number of languages responds, “Oh, Yes, I am fluent in over 6-million forms of communication” … then Han Solo delivers the clincher line rather emphatically, “What Did He Say”?

I wonder if sometimes we focus too much on the fact that we are communicating with God and not enough on what God is actually saying. Are we too often like C3-PO who wants to brag about the many forms of communication he is fluent in? Do we want to brag too much about the mere fact that we have a connection with God and totally miss that the important fact is what God is saying to us?

In our Epistle this week, Paul is writing to the Roman church and encouraging and instructing the members of that church. In Chapter 8, we are given an image of God that is quite counter to the image that the world gives us. Paul writes, “God loves you so much that there is nothing that can separate you from God. Period. End of Story.” (this is my translation of what he’s saying anyway). I think too often we conjure these images of a god who is wrathful and judgmental. A god who would rather make a list of rules that we can’t possibly follow, so we are destined for failure and therefore destined for God to not love us anymore. But Paul reminds us, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God” and then he goes on to list the things that we think will cause separation.

This is Good News! In the face of all that is going on in the world today. In the face of increasing crime in nearby towns, riots, financial downturn, and even a Super Bowl devoid of interesting commercials, none of these things change the fact that God loves us. And it certainly doesn’t change the fact that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:17)