“When thou prayest, enter into thy closet.”

In the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:

5. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites [are]: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen [do]: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

But, typically our friends on the right are all upset that Obama is practicing this, rather than being like the hypocrites or Bush.

“Moni bambo!” Grace in action.

In late 2007, my friend and Chicago Sun-Times religion columnist, Cathleen Falsani, and her husband met an African AIDS orphan, Vasco, who needed medical care for a hole in his heart.  Through her efforts and the donations of many he has arrived in Chicago for treatment.  Read all about it here (and on the blog, Vasco’s Heart).

And watch this great video of his arrival in Chicago earlier this week.

Question of the day: Do I trust God’s work in me?

I’ve been busy with my German friends’ visit (they left yesteday), my Monday BH homeless meal volunteering and a new project for Get on the Bus which took me away most of the day, so I’ve had little time to think about anything serious. But, I did get this daily meditation from Fr. Richard Rohr (subscribe here) which I just loved and share with you.

If you accept that there was a Resurrection that will not necessarily lead to any active or transformative faith. (Of course God could raise up Jesus if he wanted to. Mere belief in miracles does not transform us.) But if you can trust that God would do the same for you, then you also will be changed, and you can begin to change the world. The Resurrection was not a miracle to prove that Jesus was in union with God, although it does have that effect. It is the revelation of how God does things in all of time!

Just saying “Wow!” about Jesus being raised from the dead, does nothing for God, for the world, or for you. It is the same excitement as a magic show. But if you can say “Wow!” about what can and is happening now, then the Mystery of Resurrection has moved into our space and our time—and all time. Resurrection is God’s job description, not a one time magic show.

A counterpoint to yesterday’s teabagging.

From Valerie Elverton Dixon in the Washington Post.  I’ve excerpted most of it but you can read it all, here.

However, tax time is also a time to think about what we as a nation value. Religious wisdom teaches that where your treasure lies is where your heart is. I do not understand people who claim to love the country but do not want to pay taxes, or people of faith who resist the tax collector.

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Millions of people without health care is also a national disgrace. Many professional pundits criticize President Obama for his commitment to health care in the midst of an economic crisis, but my bet is they all have health insurance. They say that we are all at fault for the economic crisis without taking stock of the fact of stagnant wages for the past few years and the necessity for many people to pay for groceries, gas and auto repairs with credit. If the country is going to go deeper into debt, let us provide health care and free up credit to people.

I do not mind paying taxes for a state of the art infrastructure, to pay teachers a wage that reflects their worth to society, for excellent schools, safe streets, and a government that helps people solve their problems and that provides a safety net for the least among us. I do mind paying taxes to make sure people who make bad business decisions do not have to pay the consequences for their decisions. I do mind my money going to Blackwater and its soldiers for hire.

Our faith traditions inform and shape our values. Those values tell us where to put our treasure and our love. The teachings of Jesus give the criteria for judgment of the nations. Did we feed the hungry? Did we give drink to the thirsty? Did we welcome the stranger? Did we clothe the naked? Did we care for the sick? Did we visit prisoners?
For me this translates into a national imperative to care for the poor; to provide food and clean water, not only to citizens of the United States, but for citizens of the world. This means a humane and inviting immigration policy. This means providing basic clothes and shelter. This means health care. This means prison reform. This means ending a retributive justice system where law enforcement is entangled with economics in a prison-industrial complex not unlike the military-industrial complex against which President Eisenhower warned. This means establishing restorative justice.

My personal commitment to these values grows from my personal commitment to try to live according to the teachings of Jesus. The man Jesus, Son of Humanity, Jewish rabbi and Muslim prophet, identified with the least and so should I. As a nation, the judgment we ought to think about is the judgment of history. A thousand years from now when generations not yet born look back upon our record for values to emulate and mistakes to avoid, what will they see?

Fr. Richard Rohr on emergence Christianity.

As we enter Holy Week, here are some thoughts from Fr. Richard Rohr on what Christianity can/should be.

Rohr’s four categories/aspects/characteristics of the new Christian reformation are:

• “an honest, broad, ecumenical Jesus scholarship”

• “a contemplative mind”

• “a conclusion that many of the major concerns of Jesus are at major variance with what most of our churches have emphasized”

• “new structures … new community mechanisms that can make this [new reformation] possible, because we don’t want to form a new denomination”

A Lenten Prayer.

Because temptation is woven into the fabric of our lives,

and we know the weariness of forty days in the desert,

and the beckoning power of sweet fruit,

and the vain promise of the world,

We need you, God.

Because we see the broken before the whole,

and the half empty cup, and the unfinished task,

and the thirst in freedom’s quest,

We need you, God.

Because we trust in what we can see,

and we are blinded by our prejudices,

and we do not know what we do not know,

We need you, God.

Because our need for correctness exceeds our need for truth,

and our excuses preempt the cry of the wounded,

and our celebration of blessing is mindless of those displaced,

We need you, God.

Because you came among us,

and breathed into our sinewy soul,

and healed our pain and let us wound you,

and loved us to the end,

and triumphed over all our hatred,

We need you, God.

Remembering Dominique Green–”A Saint on Death Row.”

Even though I’ve been staying away from blogging during Lent, I haven’t stayed away from reading and have read a wonderful book that I highly recommend.  Thomas Cahill’s, “A Saint on Death Row:The Story of Dominique Green” is a moving and sensitive story of a young man who is hard to forget. As Desmond Tuto says on the jacket: “Read it and discover how even the obscenity of capital punishment can be transformed into an occasion of light and peace.”

If you have  read any of Thomas Cahill’s books like “How the Irish Save Civilization,” “The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels,” or “Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter,” you may be surprised by the personal nature of Cahill’s plea against injustice, racism, poverty and the death penalty.

If you believe in forgiveness, you will be amazed at Dominque Green, who, while sentenced to death, becomes instrumental in leading most of his fellow inmates, on Death Row in the State of Texas, to forgive everyone who has ever harmed them and to ask forgiveness from those they have harmed.  This image of Dominique is from a fellow Death Row inmate:

“Even when his world was crashing, he always remained cool. And really, I don’t think he was trying to be cool.  He was just at peace.”

Then there is the moving encounter between Desmond Tutu and Dominique Green. I read it as tears poured down my cheeks.  Archbishop Tutu’s words summarize it,

“I was humbled to be in his (Dominque Green’s) presence because I felt I was in the presence of God.  This is not the monster that many would expect or think, but a human being, a human being who has grown.  He’s like a flower opening and you see the petals come up, particularly when you see him speaking about his concern for others.”

The story would, obviously, not be complete without it’s moments of despair; Dominque Green was awaiting his death.  As the date of his execution was sealed (October 26, 2004), Dominque watches as fellow inmates and close friends are executed, he struggles to maintain his cool and the weight of the reality presses in. But even on his last day, as he makes his way to the Hunstville Death House, as the name of Archbishop Desmond Tutu is called as a witness to his execution (even though Dominique knew he would not be there), the joy and love shows through in this young man, “A Saint on Death Row.”

Do yourself a favor, regardless of your viewpoint on the issue of the death penalty, read this book, read it twice (as I did within the past week) and you will never forget this man’s last days. But also watch this video to get a sense of both men, Dominque Green and the author Thomas Cahill.

The words on Dominique Green’s memorial stone, in the Bascilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, Italy, read:

DOMINIQUE J. GREEN

HOUSTON 13 V 1974 – HUNTSVILLE X 2004

BROTHER AND FRIEND

It is the Lord who set out the steps of a man

and takes pleasure in his journey.

Though he fall, he will not be sent sprawling–

For the Lord is holding him by the hand.

Psalm 37

Giving up blogging for Lent.

While I could give up something like bread, sweets or coffee, I’ve chosen to give up something which is for me a bit harder to do.

In an effort to both give up something. as well as to replace the time spent on bwith things a bit more focused on personal spiritual growth, I am giving up blogging for Lent.

Will I make it until Easter? I guess it depends to some degree on what happens in the world at large and my world.  So, see you around April 12th.

A part of my Lenten discipline will be to follow the daily Lenten Devotionals written by fellow All Saints’ parishioners.  You can follow here too.

Quote of the Day. (With picture.)

“I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.

-Gandhi

“Poor Rowan. He is in an impossible position.”

A must read article in the March issue of The Atlantic is Paul Elie’s “The Velvet Revolution.”  It’s about the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams who…

At a time when Christianity is twisted into a pretzel over the issue of homosexuality, Rowan Williams—alone among the top Christian leaders—is trying to carry on a conversation about it. His approach has been quixotic, at times baffling. But the long-term goal seems clear: to enable the church he leads to become fully open to gays and lesbians without breaking apart.

While many American Episcopalians think Williams a bit too conservative, you may think differently about him after reading the article. I love these words of Williams as a start in thinking about what Christianity should be.

Christian faith has its beginnings in an experience of profound contradictoriness. [So the church should proclaim] a hidden God, who does not uncover his will in a straight line of development, but fully enters into a world of confusion and ambiguity and works in contradictions.

The Old Fart’s Sunday Recommendations.

• Cathleen Falsani has interviewed faith leaders and learned what they tell people who are suffering through this current economic hard time.
• A few summers ago (wow, it was 2001 immediately before 9-11) the media circus focused on the murder of Chandra Levy and the possible involvement of then Congressman Gary Condit.  Here’s an update from which the most interesting point to me is that her family is opposed to the death penalty for her killer if he is convicted. Robert Levy said he and his wife, Susan, were not told the identity of the person to be arrested “but we all know who it is.” He would not elaborate but said they would favor a life sentence for the killer.
• David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch, coming from two different points of view, propose an interesting compromise on the issue of gay marriage.  I’m not sure how I feel about this after only a first reading, but it’s a proposal worth exploring.
• And, if you’ve been living under a rock, just a reminder that tonight is the 81st annual Academy Awards from down the street in Hollywood.  I usually miss most of the show but tonight am heading out to a party at friends which should be fun. Enjoy but better yet, see some of the movies worth seeing–Doubt, Frost/Nixon, Frozen River and Milk were my favorites.

In Memory of Happy.

I didn’t know Happy all that well but she was always a joy to see and to be with, as her nickname would imply. I first met Happy about 7 years ago when, on Mondays, she’d bring her grandson to the kitchen at church to help with our homeless meal. She always put others first.  In her memory, I reprint an anonymous quote that was found in her purse among her family photographs.

“Happiness is different from fun and pleasure. It’s a less intense, but more durable feeling of well-being.  It’s not a continuous state.  A good life is usually seasoned with moments of joy and despair, play and work, success and failure.  Happiness is a kind of emotional resting place of quiet satisfaction with one’s life.  The art of living a happy life lies not in having more of what you want, but in getting better at enjoying what you have.”

In her honor may we all find this kind of happiness.

Wednesday Musical Interlude.

Barry Taylor points his readers to a song, by Nick Cave, that I thought I’d share with you as it touched me this morning. (And, don’t think I don’t know that posting this right after the video below makes me seem a bit schizophrenic.)

Thought for the Day.

There is one God and, what seems to be, an infinite number of ways of misunderstanding that God.

Evangelism is trying to convince another of God’s children that your misunderstanding is better than their misunderstanding.

-From MadPriest

Economic Recovery–Everything Must Change.

I was unable to watch President Obama today in his town hall meeting in Indiana, but I think Brian Mclaren has a very interesting take on the kind of recovery needed. You can read it all here. Here are some of the highlights.

For many people, economic recovery means “getting back to where we were a few months or years ago.” That means recovering our consumptive, greedy, unrestrained, undisciplined, irresponsible, and ecologically and socially unsustainable way of life.
I’d like to suggest another kind of recovery … drawing from the world of addiction. When an addict gets into recovery, he doesn’t want to go back and recover the “high” he had before, or even to recover the conditions he had before he began using drugs and alcohol. Instead, he wants to move forward to a new way of life – a wiser way of life that takes into account his experience of addiction.

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Similarly, I’d like to suggest whenever we hear the word “recovery,” we as a nation see it not as a call to get back our old addictive high, but rather as a call to face our corporate and personal addictions, including the following:

1. Our addiction to carbon…
2. Our addiction to weapons…
3. Our addiction to fear. Religious leaders, media leaders, and political leaders have all discovered that you can raise quick votes, dollars, and members through the hallucinogenic stimulant of fear. By making straights afraid of gays, conservatives afraid of progressives, Christians and Jews afraid of Muslims, citizens afraid of immigrants, and vice versa, these leaders get a quick organizational high – crack for their unity and morale. But the more fear you pump into your system, the more fear you have, and pretty soon, you go from being stimulated to paranoid, seeing things that aren’t there and missing things that are. And soon after that, you move from paranoia to paralysis, leaving you in greater danger than ever.
4. Our addiction to stuff…
5. Our addiction to a single bottom line…
6. Our addiction to easy answers…

Brian provides additional info on each of the points that I didn’t quote here so, do yourself a favor and read his entire take on the issue. His bottom line, EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE.

Sunday Song.

MYSTERY

You can’t tell me there is no mystery

Mystery, mystery

You can’t tell me there is no mystery.

It’s everywhere I turn.

The love of God it gives me vertigo

Vertigo, vertigo

The love of God it gives me vertigo

And fills me up with grace.

This feast of beauty can intoxicate

Intoxicate, intoxicate

This feast of beauty can intoxicate

Just like the finest wine.

So all  you stumblers who believe love rules

Believe love rules, believe love rules,

Come all you stumblers who believe love rules

Stand up and let it shine

Stand up and let it shine.

And don’t tell me there is no mystery

Mystery, mystery

And don’t tell me there is no mystery

It overflows my cup.

(Words and music, Bruce Cockburn, additional lyrics, Barry Taylor)

Mormon film maker and lesbian Epsicopal Priest form bond via their faith.

There’s a great article in today’s LA Times about the bond that developed between a friend, Susan Russell, a lesbian Episcopal Priest, and a Mormon documentary film maker over issues related to their faiths.  Read it all here.

As Russell told her story to Hunter, he realized that he wasn’t just filming, he was learning from her. He was especially moved by the priest’s concept of romantic love, with its emphasis on spiritual and emotional intimacy as a precursor to physical expression.

“That resonated with me and gave me a renewed appreciation of my relationship with my wife,” he said.

Hunter also felt his empathy growing for gays and lesbians, especially friends who felt compelled to hide their sexual orientation. Perhaps that was because he, too, held a secret: Hunter had been sexually abused as a child by two neighbors in his native Philadelphia.

He knew what it was like to hide a part of himself and pretend his life was in order. “I kept that locked away,” he said.

Something else was occurring: Hunter and Russell were becoming friends. As election day neared last November, Hunter began showing up at “No on 8″ rallies alongside his documentary subject.

Russell’s initial curiosity about Hunter gave way to admiration, particularly over his decision to vote against the same-sex marriage ban and to speak out against it. She realized that she was sharing in his transformation. And that filled her with a sense of wonder.

“It isn’t a risk for a priest from All Saints to go to a Prop. 8 demonstration, but it is for a devout, straight Mormon father of three,” Russell said. “It just speaks volumes about how deeply Douglas walks the talk in terms of really putting his faith into action.”

Hunter had to balance his new friendship against his obligation to his church, whose members, at the urging of church leaders, were contributing millions of dollars to help pass the ban.

Knowing he was walking the finest of lines, he told only a few close Mormon friends about his opposition to Proposition 8 and about his documentary, even as it debuted last fall at a gay and lesbian film festival in Chicago. The project also will be shown at a film festival in Pomona in April.

“As a Mormon, I have a responsibility and commitment to listen to my church leaders,” he said. “At the same time, listening to my church leaders does not absolve me of the ethical responsibility to listen to the voice of the other.”

The Old Fart’s Friday Recommendations.

• Check out the Rock and Theology project.
• With all the Republican talk of spending in the much needed stimulus bill, they forgot to look at the Bush administrations wasteful overspending on the first half of the TARP. $78 billion worth.
• Paul Krugman continues to warn us of the dire consequence of failure to stimulate/spend enough.

The Old Fart’s Monday Recommendations.

• Cathleen Falsani’s interview with Former President Jimmy Carter.
• “If Obama were Pope.” Ruth Gledhill had the full English translation of Hans Kung’s article but had to take it down as the English rights were sold to a different source than the Times of London but you can read a bit and go back for the full link later.
• Financial issues have effected art museums throughout the US, most recently MOCA here in LA and now the Rose Museum at Brandeis University.  The question of who owns the art in museums is raised in this NY Times article.
• Senator Stormy? Prostitute frequenting Senator Vitter’s soon to be competion?

The Old Fart’s Friday Recommendation.

• Paul Waldman, at The American Prospect, on the Obama Administration and separation of church and state.
• A video interview by Sojourners with musician Moby.
• Paul Krugman on  the economic crisis and the coming health care catastrophe.
• The congressional Republican unanimity on the economic stimulus and its impact is explored by Eugene Robinson.