A Deacon's Musings

Lenten Meditation for Tuesday in the Fifth Week in Lent, 2012

2012-02-04T12:47:00.000-06:00

“Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire whatyou promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our heartsmay surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found…”

from theCollect of the Day

It’s not an easy gospel reading when called to meditate, pray, andreflect on conflict in community, “Whoever causes one of these little ones whobelieve in me to sin…” (9:42 RSV). The Greek word skandalisē (σκανδαλίσῃ) is usually translated as “cause to stumble” or “cause tosin” and is a term that Mark uses here, and three other times in this reading, toindicate a rejection of God’s message.

So, apparently we have a lot of responsibility when we involveourselves in the lives of others. If we lead others away from God, then what wehear in this reading is the finality of judgment. That millstone used forgrinding grain would have been familiar to the hearers of this parable and wouldhave brought a vivid image to mind. Having a millstone tied around your neckbefore being thrown into the sea would mean that you’d quickly sink to thebottom, into the muck, where you’d be swallowed up. Doesn’t get much more finalthan that.

As followers of the Way of Jesus Christ we’re being told that thereis no room for half-hearted attempts in our words, our actions, our lives. Afterbeginning this gospel reading with a death/life paradox, we are presented withthree parallel statements about what it means to save/lose your hand, eye, andfoot. The formulation of each of the sayings is the same:

If your(hand/eye/foot) skandalisē you,(remove) it…

… for it isbetter to enter life (without) it…

… than bethrown (with it) into Gehenna.

Not a lot of room for negotiation! Perhaps the way to put a‘positive spin’ on this is to say that we are called to sanctity and to leadothers to that same holiness.

Thomas Merton said “We are supposed to be the light of the world.We are supposed to be a light to ourselves and to others. That may well be whataccounts for the fact that the world is in darkness!” We possess the capacity to decide to chooseto work on behalf of good or evil. Both Jesus and Merton invite us to believethat who we are and what we do matter.

Jesus’ words to us today are uncompromising but full of hope. “Forevery one will be salted with fire” (9:49 RSV). Let us encourage one another totouch that fire and live in peace as we pursue God’s rule on this earth.

2011-11-10T17:01:00.000-06:00

El Dia de Los Muertos, Birmingham, Alabama Style
This is a video journal of the 2011 Celebration of Remembrance a block from where I live.

2010-10-17T07:05:00.001-06:00

Sermon for the Twenty First Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 24, Year C)
Sunday, October 17, 2010 at St. Andrew’s in Montevallo, Alabama
Jeremiah31:27-34 Psalm 119:97-104 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 Luke 18:1-8
The Rev. Steve Shanks, Deacon

Let us pray:
Beloved sisters and brothers, let us look to the Lord.
May only God’s word be spoken,
May God’s word be heard.
In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Quite a weekend here at St. Andrew’s. Our diocesan bishop, our very own Henry Parsley and friends old and new, with us for the blessing of our new campus ministry center next door, a festival Eucharist in this space last night celebrating over 150 years of ministry in this community… and here we are catching our collective breaths… with Jeremiah who shows up telling us of a new covenant where God will have a direct connection with his people, and Timothy urging us to persevere, to be persistent and focused, in living out our call to be bearers of God’s word and faithful in our action.

Then we have today’s Gospel, where Jesus tells a parable about an unjust judge and a poor widow. Like all parables, this story has more than one layer of meaning. One meaning is the one that Luke guides us to when he says that Jesus told it to remind the disciples about the need “to pray always and not to lose heart.”

Probably the most popular reading of the parable, and it asks us to identify with the widow, pleading unceasingly to an outlaw judge, “who neither feared God nor had respect for people, for her petition to be heard.” God is less easily or obviously identified by contrast in this reading with the unjust judge, who after much delay answers the widow’s incessant pestering simply in order to get rid of her.

The analogy is from the lesser to the greater, a typical rhetorical device of that time, so that Jesus comments after telling the story, that if such a wicked man as the judge when he tires of the widow’s pleas, will grant her request, so much more will our just, merciful, and loving God be that much quicker to answer our prayers.

I’ve got to tell you, I’ve always had trouble with that particular interpretation, even if it seems at first blush that Luke sets the parable up to be read that way. The lesser to greater technique is a good one, but can only be taken so far. And this is really stretching it. Usually there is some form of commonality between the lesser and the greater.

For example, Jesus asks in another place if a parent would give his child a snake, and assuming the answer is a resounding “no” goes on to say, so much more so will our heavenly Father give us good things. But, this judge is in no way like God; he is despicable, utterly selfish, with no redeeming values, no respect for anything divine or human; he is a law unto himself, he has nothing in common with our greater, eternal Judge, other than the mere title – judge.

He is the exact opposite of Old Testament judges, who are admonished in 2 Chronicles by King Jehoshaphat to take care what they do, for they are not judging on behalf of human beings but on behalf of God, who judges them. The King explicitly advises and directs them to let the fear of God be upon them, and reminds them to act carefully because with God there is no injustice, no partiality, no bribe-taking.

The widow in this interpretation is also portrayed against type. Biblical widows typically are referred to in the Bible as, weak, poor and defenseless. They are lumped together often with orphans and foreigners, persons who are the most vulnerable and without resources. And Scripture repeatedly tells us that special concern needs to be shown for these persons who are unable to help themselves.

This widow, however, is anything but helpless. She is bold, brash, outspoken, demanding justice ceaselessly until she gets what she wants. She confronts the judge in his own typically male-only arena, and finally wears him down with her persistence. In fact, he gives in because there’s no other way to get rid of her and in his final comment in Greek, indicates that he’s afraid she’ll give him a black eye. You don’t get that sense of combativeness in most English translations, and we have to settle for the idea that he only fears being worn down, or slandered and his good name destroyed.

This is one courageous, tough, determined woman, totally focused on having her way, on extracting justice, even from the most dishonest, unjust, uncaring, unaware judge in existence.
So what if we look at this parable from a different point of view. What if we are called to imitate her perseverance as disciples, not because she is a victim who with little influence and power could easily lose heart, but instead with her insistent, unwearying, continual, outspoken demand for justice… represents God.

And the judge – well, he’s me… us…. in all our various manifestations individually and corporately. He’s us personally in our own selfishness, complacency, prejudice and resistance to change; he’s us communally in all of our political, economic, and social systems that are unjust, corrupt, and invested in the existing structures of power and the protection of the privileged.
Doesn’t that make this parable easier to understand? Not only does the widow seem more “god-like” in her dogged resistance to injustice, naming it, facing it and denouncing it until justice is achieved, so also is another pesky problem with the more traditional interpretation done away with. When the judge is seen as the figure representing God, the story implies that if one badgers God persistently enough, one can eventually wear God down and get anything they want.
Now, I understand that this can be is a common attitude towards prayer – after all, Jesus does say, “ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened.” But instead of hearing this as another admonition to persevere and not to lose heart, we hear it instead as technical advice on how to get our way with God.

I read not long ago about a church announcing that it would be hosting an all-day seminar on “how to Minister and Receive Healing,” and the description for the seminar said, “The seminar is designed to train people how to minister healing, see results when they pray, and understand how to receive healing.” Did you hear that – “see results”? Is that what prayer is about? Is that why we pray? In order to “see results”?

With the widow playing the part of God in this parable, the story also becomes one of godly power revealed in seeming weakness. And it offers points of view about the methods that might be used to achieve a just end. It is, after all, the judge that worries about getting a black eye; there isn’t an indication that the widow was ready to give him one. Violence isn’t part of her strategy. She just keeps on keeping on and never loses heart.

I was reminded of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the power of persistence. In developing his strategy for continual mass non-violent demonstrations, he wrote that he was inspired by Gandhi who’d said about the British, that the Indian people must “never let them rest.” and Gandhi had urged them to keep protesting daily and weekly in lots of different ways. King comments, “All history teaches us that like a turbulent ocean beating great cliffs into fragments of rock, the determined movement of people incessantly demanding their rights always disintegrates the old order.” And then he says, “Our powerful weapons are the voices, the feet, and the bodies of dedicated, united people, moving without rest toward a just goal.” In another place he wrote, “Somewhere we must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God.”

So, are you ready to be a “co-worker” with God following the pattern of this gutsy and spirited widow? There are many ways our discipleship can take shape and make a difference, as many ways as there are people here today.

One example comes from a friend over in Georgia, who recalled a state legislator for the area of New York where she had previously served a church, who was totally disinterested in the efforts of a local group that was promoting affordable housing for the poor. Beth was a part of the advocacy group, and they continued, day in and day out, to call him, send him letters, visit his office, take him to see the sites that concerned them. And finally, one day, he gave in; he saw the light – they’d beaten him down! And he went on to testify before Congress about the need for affordable housing. Through their efforts, they’d made him an instrument of God’s justice in spite of himself!

I was also of another story about a woman who at the age of 80 approached a local fabric store to request the old dress patterns that they would be soon throwing away to make room for newer ones. She knew that these patterns could be sent to other countries to help women make much needed clothing. But she was denied despite repeated requests. So, she drove her Cadillac to the alley behind the store day after day and waited, and one day, the patterns were thrown into the dumpster, and she jumped out with her stepladder and climbed into the dumpster, tossing patterns out on to the pavement one after the other, only to realize then that she couldn’t get out of the dumpster. So she picked up her cell phone and called a friend to come and rescue her. She also has arranged with Hartsfield Airport to receive the scissors that are confiscated from travelers, to send to sewing centers. She now has a warehouse full of items that nobody else wants, but that she can send to places in need.

And among many of our own examples of outreach at St. Andrew’s is the gathering and sorting of gently used clothes to give away to those in need in our community of Montevallo.

Jesus asks at the end of this parable, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” In the last two weeks of readings, we’ve heard faith described as obedience and as gratitude. Today, faith is found in persistence – God’s and ours. Throughout our lives God continues to call us; and so long as we live it will continue. We will never arrive at the place where we can say, “I’ve done it all; God can’t ask any more of me.” God’s call may be different at different times in our lives, but there is always more to do. At times I… we… will listen well, and at other times not so well, but “God’s voice is never stilled. Each time we hear and respond, [each time we persevere], we become more the [faithful] person God calls us to be.”

May Christ find us faithful to the end.

Thanks be to God!

In Christ’s Name,

Amen. Alleluia.

2010-05-08T09:30:00.002-06:00

An introduction to Taizé

Life at Taizé from Taizé on Vimeo.

hey, y'all, to commemorate 70 years of Taize and the 5 years since Br. Roger's death, the community is putting together videos which start with this 15 minute or about life in the community and continues with other short ones, still more being posted each week throughout the month.

2010-02-07T15:32:00.000-06:00

Sermon for the 5th Sunday after the Epiphany (Year C)
Saturday, February 07, 2010 at St. Andrew’s in Montevallo, Alabama
Isaiah 6:1-8, [9-13] Psalm 138 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Luke 5:1-11
The Rev. Steve Shanks, Deacon

Let us pray:
Beloved sisters and brothers, let us look to the Lord.
May only God’s word be spoken,
May God’s word be heard.
In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

So, today we’re putting out into deep waters with this great story about how Jesus calls the fishermen to follow him on the path to discipleship. This Gospel story from Luke the Evangelist, a physician from Antioch and a sometime companion of Paul, has three particular parts that I’d like to reflect on.

First, we hear how they’ve been out fishing all night on the Sea of Galilee and they’ve caught nothing, how Jesus borrows Simon’s boat and teaches the crowd on the shore and when he is finished, he turns to Simon and says, “Put out into deep waters and lower your nets.” That seems a pretty incredible statement, and one worthy to spend some time with. Of course, Simon Peter is at first resistant and tells how he knows all about fishing, and Jesus couldn’t know anything, and there are no fish to be caught… but then he gives in and does what Jesus says. In a poetic way, we probably all feel like we’ve spent our whole lives out on the water all night and haven’t caught anything, and along comes Jesus telling us to put out into deep waters. That’s God, always pushing us out to go farther than we think we can go, into the unknown, into uncharted waters. So the question becomes: how is Jesus pushing you these days out into deep waters? How are you going to respond to his call?

Then, they make a big catch and both boats nearly sink because of the great number of fish, and how does Simon Peter respond? He falls at the knees of Jesus and says, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” There is a great mystery here. I think the Gospel is telling us that whenever we enter into the presence of God, whenever we realize that we are in the presence of Christ, we suddenly recognize not only his light and holiness, but our darkness and sinfulness. So the Gospel calls us to recognize our sinfulness before Christ, to realize that we are sinners. But Jesus does not condemn Simon Peter or us. He loves us, forgives us and calls us. We are sinners but we are also greatly loved by God, and we need Christ to help us and save us. For me, I want to change Simon Peter’s plea to say, “Never depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man and I need you.”

Finally, Jesus says this great line to Peter, “Do not be afraid. From now on, you will be catching men and women.” With that, they leave their nets, their boats, the fish, their parents… and follow him. Jesus says the same thing to us today. He does not want us to live in fear. Instead he invites us to live in relationship with him, to follow him and to join his campaign to change the world by leading one another and all people to God and God’s reign of love and peace. So we can ask ourselves: How are we dropping our nets and following Jesus? How do we practice discipleship to Christ today? How are we trying to catch people for Christ and the reign of God?
A stumbling block in considering how to respond to Jesus’ call to us is that it is can be all too easy to become so preoccupied with our inabilities and shortcomings, that it leaves us nearly in a state of inaction. It can be difficult to believe that God, who is holy and pure, can use the most imperfect men, women, boys and girls … people like you, like me. But God does.

Facing whatever feelings of inadequacy, unworthiness, or sinfulness … whatever that loud voice in our ear is saying, in opposition to the small still quiet voice of God, and in the light of God’s holiness and righteousness… facing that is a necessary step if God is to use us as instruments of God’s love. Simon Peter, the prophet Isaiah, the Apostle Paul, and innumerable other women and men of God inside and outside of Scripture share in this experience. In contrast to God’s virtue, the women and men who God commissions will always identify their own faults and failures. But in spite of that, they will also recognize God’s readiness to forgive and empower, which frees them to work with peace and confidence on behalf of poor and hungry people in our nation and around the world.

And as we begin to respond to God’s call to us… with our minds to think, hearts to love, hands to serve… it is important to know, as best we can, what has worked, what has not, and why. To do that is what, in my vernacular, is referred to as participatory community based research so that the needs we’re meeting are indeed of those that we’re appointed to serve. That how we determine the needs, and how they’re met, is formed in equal partnership between traditionally trained “experts” and members of the community to which a ministry is intended.

In the wake of the earthquake and devastation in Haiti, thought it might be helpful to review an experience of “helping” that has become an example of what the result can be when other interests or concerns end up being placed ahead of the real and actual needs of the poor, working poor, and hungry.

I think that it is always important that we educate ourselves about whoever it is that we’re partnered in ministry with, in this case about the history of Haiti and its people's incredible struggle of resistance and self-determination against continued cycles of colonial and neocolonial suppression. The mainstream media continues to stress that Haiti is the most impoverished country in the western hemisphere without offering a serious analysis of why that is the case.
One way to begin to understand Haiti's experience with poverty and economic oppression is in the history of the eradication of the Haitian Creole pig population in the 1980's, a modern parable and as recounted by former Haitian president Jean Bertrand-Aristide.

“In 1982 international agencies assured Haiti's peasants their pigs were sick and had to be killed (so that the illness would not spread to countries to the North). Promises were made that better pigs would replace the sick pigs. With an efficiency not since seen among development projects, all of the Creole pigs were killed over a period of thirteen months.

“Two years later the new, better pigs came from Iowa. They were so much better that they required clean drinking water (unavailable to 80% of the Haitian population), imported feed (costing $90 a year when the per capita income was about $130), and special roofed pigpens. Haitian peasants quickly dubbed them “prince a quatre pieds [prahn-suh-a-ka-truh-pyay],” or “four-footed princes”. Adding insult to injury, the meat did not taste as good. Needless to say, the repopulation program was a complete failure. One observer of the process estimated that in monetary terms Haitian peasants lost $600 million dollars. There was a 30% drop in enrollment in rural schools; there was a dramatic decline in the protein consumption in rural Haiti; a devastating decapitalization of the peasant economy and an incalculable negative impact on Haiti's soil and agricultural productivity. The Haitian peasantry has not recovered to this day.”
With stories like this to inform but not discourage us, it reminds me of what I think is one of the most amazing dimensions of our faith… that God is willing to forgive each of us, all of us, and to empower us in our work on behalf of the least among us. What a wonderful God we worship, who knows our failures and yet says, “Your sin is blotted out. Don’t be afraid. I am sending you to do my work in the world.”

I think that Jesus is the greatest person who ever lived, and he really is worth following. That it’s worth it to drop our nets, change our lives, and try to follow in his footsteps. It’s also so very important that each one of us join his project of calling people to discipleship, of catching people for Christ, of being fishers of women and men. There are a lot of politics and campaigns these days, which has become the cultural norm it seems, but for me the Gospel campaign of Jesus is the only one worth joining, the one worth giving our lives for, the one that I choose to give my life to.

So, what does it means to join the Gospel campaign of Jesus?

I think that in this world of hate, indifference and fear, our job is to catch people for Christ’s love.
In this world of gossip, pettiness, hypocrisy and lies, our job is to catch people for Christ’s truth.

In this world of enmity, resentment, grudges, revenge and the death penalty, our job is to catch people for Christ’s compassion, forgiveness and reconciliation.

In this world of injustice and oppression, our job is to catch people for Christ’s justice.

In this world of selfishness and greed, our job is to catch people for Christ’s way of selfless service.

In this world of violence and bombing raids and colonial occupation, our job is to catch people for Christ’s nonviolence.

In this world of war, nuclear weapons, imperialism, and global militarism, our job is to catch people for Christ’s peace.

In this world of despair and death, our job is to catch people for Christ’s hope, for the new life of God’s reign of resurrection. From now on, we are catching women and men for the nonviolent Christ.

And in the words of Sir Frances Drake, who knew a lot about being called to deep water, let us pray…

Disturb us Lord when
We are too well pleased with ourselves
When our dreams have come true,
Because we dreamed too little
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to shore.

Thanks be to God.
In Christ’s Name,
Amen. Alleluia.

2010-01-10T15:36:00.000-06:00

Sermon for the 1st Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of our Lord (Year C)
Sunday, January 10, 2010 at Trinity Church in Clanton, Alabama
Isaiah 43:1-7 Isaiah 43:1-7 Acts 8:14-17 Luke 3:15-17,21-22
The Rev. Steve Shanks, Deacon

Let us pray:
Beloved sisters and brothers, let us look to the Lord.
May only God’s word be spoken,
May God’s word be heard.
In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

You know, if you were a member of the Orthodox Church and following the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian civil calendar that we follow, the twelve days of Christmas would have only just begun, and the feast of the Epiphany wouldn’t be here until January nineteenth. I mention this because in the Orthodox churches, the gospel lesson you would hear read on Epiphany is not the story of the visit of the Magi that we heard proclaimed last Sunday, but the reading we just heard about the baptism of Jesus. For the Orthodox, this is the primary story of God’s manifestation, which they call by an even stronger word than “epiphany.” They call it “theophany,” the blazing forth of God.

Why this story in particular? Well it’s not because they have such a high theology of baptism (although they do), but because this is the only story in all of the gospel accounts where all three persons of the Trinity are named as present – are acting in the world. There’s Jesus, of course, obediently but surprisingly being baptized in the river Jordan. There’s the Holy Spirit, descending like a dove from the heavens to Jesus, and There’s the voice of God, heard blessing Jesus, and claiming him as beloved Son.

God the creator, the first person of the Holy Trinity, doesn’t show up in person much in the gospels. Jesus mentions God a lot, of course: talks to God, talks about God, teaches others to do the same. But there’s only one other personal appearance, at the Transfiguration, where God does and says the exact same thing as in today’s story. The rest of the time it’s angels and prophets and especially Jesus speaking on God’s behalf.

So what can we learn from this unique “blazing forth” of God in all three persons at Jesus’ baptism? Well… other than that Jesus’ baptism was taken seriously enough that the whole family showed up?

First of all, notice what the three of them are doing. Jesus is doing what he always does: being fully human, fulfilling and yet somehow subverting rules and expectations in a single action, over turning social understandings of power and priority just by showing up – being a different kind of Messiah than everyone was expecting.

Secondly, and to use a word from John’s Gospel, the Holy Spirit is paracleting away: in other words, mediating between the divine and the earthly, and in so doing showing that the two are intimately connected, that God has both the will and the means to act in human lives.

And then there’s God the creator. That voice, doing again the most important act from the creation story, which is not the making itself but the divine assessment: “It is good.” “Behold my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” This final quality report, both in the creation story and in the gospels, is the part of the creative act that often seems to be ignored, both in our lack of respect for the things and people God made and declared to be good, and in the contrary assessment of Jesus made in his lifetime and after by so many. Humankind has not always been as well-pleased with Jesus as God was.

So God is revealed to us, in all of God’s three-personed godliness, in the moment of Jesus’ baptism. It is a moment we uniquely recall when we baptize; when you were baptized. In communion we call on the risen Jesus to be known to us in the breaking of the bread, but in baptism we expect all three persons of the Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to be present and involved.

We pledge ourselves to them, all three, in the Apostle’s Creed. And in the rest of the Baptismal Covenant, [which we will have a chance to renew in a few minutes,] we also pledge ourselves to do the same things that God is doing in the Theophany, God’s blazing forth, at Jesus’ baptism.

We pledge to continue in the Apostles’ teaching, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers, and to persevere in resisting evil, and whenever we fall into sin repent and return to the Lord. In other words, we pledge to embrace being fully human – to live into (and occasionally to subvert or transform) the stories and traditions that we have been handed, and to hand them on to our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. And we pledge to recognize that our failings, our shortcoming, our sins, do not set us beyond the reach of God’s love; that God is always ready to love us and to receive us when we repent.

We pledge to proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ. This is Holy Spirit work – to be the messenger and message to those who ache to hear of and to experience the love of God. We, like that dove, are bearers of God’s Word, and our Baptismal Covenant reminds us of the seriousness and solemnity of the charge… to carry the good news to the ends of the earth.

And, finally, we pledge to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves, and to strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being. Do you see how those pledges give life and force to the recognition of God’s proclamation of the goodness of creation and of Jesus? The indignities, the uncharitableness, the cruelty that we visit on one another and on the world reflect a failure to embrace the goodness, the God-pleasing rightness of all that God has made, of all that has been given into our care.

And one of the great things about these pledges is that they make wonderful touchstones. They are an ‘easy to carry with you’ guide to Godly action.

When I am cross ways with someone, or am making judgments about him or her, am I truly seeking Christ in that person?

And whether or not I find the Christ that I know is there in that person, are my choices and actions serving Christ?

Am I, by my words and actions at this moment, showing the world the good news about God in Christ – that the embrace of love reaches beyond all boundaries to draw the children of God together – that God can and does love you, can and does love me… extravagantly, passionately, without limit?

And perhaps most importantly, for ourselves and for our institutions, am I respecting the dignity of every human being?

Do the choices that I am making right now, that my family, or committee, or Vestry are making today; honor and uphold the dignity of every person those decisions will affect?

Because if not, if the answer to any of those questions is “no,” our Baptismal Covenant, and indeed the love and example of God, calls on us to make different choices, to keep struggling with our choices, to keep learning from and repenting our mistakes, until we can honor those pledges with our lives as well as with our words.

And when we do that – when the gospel is proclaimed in all we do, and Christ is sought and served, justice and peace are striven for, and the dignity of every human being is respected and cherished, then God will blaze forth again and again, and we shall all be well pleased.

Thanks be to God.
In Christ’s Name,
Amen. Alleluia.

2009-09-09T08:06:00.002-06:00

Sermon for the 14th Sunday after Pentecost 2009 (Proper 18B)
Sunday, September 06, 2009 at St. Andrew’s in Montevallo, Alabama
Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9, 22-23 Psalm 125 James 2:1-17 Mark 7:24-37

Let us pray:
Beloved sisters and brothers, let us look to the Lord.
May only God’s word be spoken,
May God’s word be heard.
In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

In the first half of the 7th Chapter of the Gospel According to Mark, that we heard last week, Jesus says that you can't judge a book by its cover; you must look beyond external factors like nationality or religious heritage or social position to get the real story on someone's faith. He then puts this theory into practice by traveling a good 100 miles out of his way into the region of Tyre and Sidon – into the heart of paganland – to make the arduous journey from the theoretical to the practical.

So, here we find ourselves with this week’s gospel that poses difficulties from a variety of angles. Jesus encounters a Gentile woman who wants him to heal her daughter. He says no, essentially calls her and all Gentiles dogs, and states firmly that his mission is only to Israel. She argues with him. He then agrees to heal her daughter. So, what happened?

One thing that has happened in this encounter is that when Jesus answers the woman, regardless of what specifically he says, he is recognizing the woman’s right to speak with him. Just by making the request, she is implying – even if perhaps solely out of desperation – that she has a right to claim his time and power. By arguing, she implies that she is worthy of challenging him. And by answering, Jesus affirms that she has that status in his eyes. This is a profoundly counter-cultural recognition of her dignity. But then Jesus insults her by calling her and her people dogs (and no, there's no trick of Greek translation that can make it about cute little puppies – Jesus is calling her people scavengers of the lowest sort).

But then, to all appearances, Jesus changed his mind – not only about healing one girl, but about his mission. This bothers a lot of people; most sermons I've heard that have spent time with this aspect of the story, have suggested that Jesus really knew all along that his mission was to Gentiles as well as Jews, and that he was only pretending to think otherwise to help the woman increase her faith, or to further demonstrate his power, or some other reason.

Personally, I find that kind of reading offensive as well as unconvincing. If Jesus changed his mind, then Jesus can’t be the kind of eternally changeless “unmoved mover,” to use Plato's phrase, that a lot of people present God as being. But if Jesus didn't change his mind and was just saying things he didn’t believe so that he could accomplish some other end, then Jesus is a liar – and a pretty cruel one at that, since the poor woman is clearly worried about her child.

And besides, who – other than Plato – says that Jesus isn’t allowed to change his mind, to learn something he didn’t know before? Certainly, learning is part of what it means to be human. Try to turn Jesus into someone who knew everything and could do anything from day one and you'll quickly get drawn into fairly silly speculation about how Jesus could have spouted the full Sermon on the Mount (and in any language to boot!) on the day he was born, but faked being able to talk only like the baby he was – perhaps so he wouldn't give away his secret identity, like Clark Kent having to hold back from running at full speed on Smallville. That kind of speculation is evident in some of the later gospels that are outside the Christian canon, but it’s not in any of our canonical gospels, which consistently portray Jesus as a real, honest-to-goodness human being who as a baby needed his diapers changed and who, like the rest of us, learned to walk and talk and function by playing and otherwise interacting with his mother and other people.

In other words, Jesus had to learn words and speech when he was a child. As Luke puts it, “the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom” (Luke 2:40). Jesus changed, not only getting taller and physically stronger, but learning things he didn't know before. If that idea is offensive, it's the offensiveness of the Incarnation, of the idea that God could dwell among us in the flesh. Human beings aren't born knowing and doing everything they will ever be able to know and do. They learn and grow, and in particular, they learn and grow in relationship. Jesus did too – all his life, as human beings do. I might even go so far as to say that part of being made in God's image means that we become more fully ourselves in relationship. Knowing others and loving others changes us, teaching things we didn't know before and helping us to grow into the fullness of our identity and vocation, and our capacity to grow in relationship comes from a God who experiences that too.

I know that doesn’t fit in very well with that picture of God as an “unmoved mover,” never experiencing a change of mind. But that picture is Plato's far more than it is our bible’s. Our scriptures are full of stories of human beings trying to change God’s mind. We call it intercessory prayer, and scripture shows it as working at least sometimes – God is moved to show mercy, to act in deliverance because someone asked. Observing that raises a great many problems of theodicy and the nature of evil in the world, among other things, but there it is, scattered throughout our canonical writings. And though it doesn’t make things any easier for me, I’m glad it’s there.

I'm glad because it is a wonderful corrective to our human tendencies toward arrogance and hardness of heart. Why should we listen to someone else's view on a matter of importance when we already know what the scriptures say, what those words mean, and therefore what the truth of the matter is? If any had the right to that kind of posture, it would be God. But if we take our scriptures seriously, we have to allow the possibility that God too is changed in relationship.

That may sound radical, but I find that radical message in our scriptures; as God is moved after observing the destruction wreaked by the great flood to say “never again,” and hangs God’s bow – God’s weapon – in the sky as a sign of God’s permanent swearing off of such moves. God – the one Plato presents as “unmoved mover” – is MOVED to mercy, and makes a covenant of mercy with all of humanity.

Is it so radical, then, to think that Jesus, God’s agent, might also be moved by his encounter with a Gentile woman seeking healing for her daughter? I not only don't think so but I thank God for people who aren’t willing to take “no” for an answer – even or especially “no” plus “Godtalk” coming from a perceived religious authority which is a particularly potent combination when coming from powerful men – but rather I thank God for people who will push for compassion and mercy. They prove to us that even God isn't the sort to say, “God said it; I believe it; that settles it.”

They teach us something that we would have gathered anyway had we been paying attention when Jesus says, “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” and then makes clear that the “perfect” he means isn't about being static in a “right” position, but rather compassion toward righteous and unrighteous alike (Matthew 5:43-48).

They teach us that no one should be so certain that they are right that she or he cannot make room to listen; and to listen in a way that allows us to be changed by what we hear.

They teach us that God is love, and of course it’s a very poor lover who is eternally unmoved by her or his beloved.

So when Jesus encounters a man who is deaf and therefore mute – someone who is unable to listen and therefore was unable to learn to speak – Jesus is very well prepared.

“Be opened,” he says. He says it not only with compassion for someone who has suffered, but also with the authority of one who has experienced what it is that he’s talking about. That is, after all, what the persistence of the Gentile woman said to him when he was deaf to her cries and therefore unprepared to speak of God's love for all peoples. “Be opened” – and Jesus was.

And so must we. And so shall we.

We must forgive, deepen our love.

In so fulfilling our vocation, we ourselves are healed.

Thanks be to God.
In Christ’s Name,
Amen. Alleluia.

2009-08-06T16:39:00.002-06:00

Mission to New Orleans - Advisory Group on Forced Evictions

Since 2005, New Orleans residents – particularly in low-income communities – have been fighting against forced evictions resulting from the city’s rebuilding plans. As part of the city’s overall development approach, which favors private sector interests over the interests of low-income residents, the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) has demolished thousands of public housing units without regard for residents' human right to housing and denying them the chance to participate in the development process.

In response to this, and at the request of local activists, between July 26th and July 31st 2009, the Advisory Group on Forced Evictions (AGFE), an independent international group that advises the Executive Director of UN-HABITAT, is conducting a fact-finding mission to New Orleans, to investigate the city’s continuing forced eviction issues. The issues that will be addressed range from the destruction of public housing to the lack of adequate rebuilding or rental assistance at either the federal or local level which has effectively left thousands of people homeless since the storm, to new plans to evict residents who have rebuilt in favor of large development schemes.

This page will be documenting the AGFE mission with a series of videos featuring testimonies from affected local residents and the groups involved in coordinating the mission.

Download this factsheet to learn more about AGFE's Mission, and this schedule to see who they're meeting.

THURSDAY: AGFE to New Orleans Day 5 - DC meetings
Eric Tars, Human Rights Program Director at the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, reports from DC on visits with federal officials, including Rep. Maxine Waters, chair of the Housing & Community Opportunity Subcommittee, with the Advisory Group on Forced Evictions mission, July 30, 2009.

Watch the previous vlogs by following these links:

TUESDAY: Day 2 AGFE to New Orleans - Charity Hospital and Mid-City Visits - Eric Tars reports on the second half of the July 28, 2009 site visits of the international Advisory Group on Forced Evictions, to the Mid-City area of New Orleans, where hundreds of residents are threatened with imminent eviction due to plans to construct a massive hospital complex that government studies have shown is unnecessary and disregards the needs of the community.

MONDAY: Day 2 AGFE to New Orleans - Homeless Site Visits - Eric Tars reports from two squatters settlements in New Orleans about homelessness since Hurricane Katrina as part of the international Advisory Group on Forced Evictions visit.

SUNDAY, Part 2: New Orleans Town Hall Meeting Wrap Up - Eric Tars reports from the town hall meeting with New Orleans advocates and residents for the Advisory Group on Forced Evictions [July 26, 2009].

SUNDAY, Part 1: Setting the Stage for the Advisory Group Visit - Eric Tars, on his way to New Orleans for the AGFE visit, provides additional background information on the origins of the mission and some of the housing rights violations that have occurred.

SATURDAY: Forced Evictions - Public Housing Residents Speak Out: In this video by the National Economic & Social Rights Initiative (NESRI), two residents of public housing in New Orleans talk about their recent efforts to save public housing.

FRIDAY: Preparing for New Orleans - Eric Tars explains the background to the AGFE mission, and gives a preview of what he'll be vlogging about throughout the week of 27th July.

HUMAN RIGHTS & HOUSING
So what is the Human Right to Housing, and what are the actual provisions in human rights law that guarantee this right? Here's an overview from NESRI:

The right to housing guarantees the right to live in security, peace and dignity. This right must be provided to all persons irrespective of income or access to economic resources, and the housing provided must be adequate, meaning 'adequate privacy, adequate space, adequate security, ... adequate basic infrastructure and adequate location.'

The right to housing is guaranteed in human rights declarations and treaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of Man.

"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care." - Article 25, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Excerpted from NESRI's Human Right to Housing Info Sheet no. 1. See also NESRI's factsheet on the Human Right to Development.

RELATED VIDEOS AND RESOURCES
"Coming Home": A clip of this forthcoming documentary about the demolition of public housing in New Orleans, featuring Mayday NOLA.

HUD Secretary Donovan Denies Community Participation: A brief video from Mayday New Orleans about trying to reach HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan when he visited New Orleans. Not only does this second video underscore how public housing residents have been denied their right to participation, but it also inspired a similar video from a housing advocacy organization in North Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Further links:
NESRI
NLCHP
Mayday New Orleans
Terms of Reference for AGFE
NLCHP Wiki on housing issues on the Gulf Coast

NOTE: This post is a product of NLCHP and NESRI, with the assistance of WITNESS, and not affiliated with AGFE or UN-HABITAT

Salsa at The Granada

2009-07-13T21:59:00.001-06:00

the lovely erin is my one and only daughter *smiles*

2009-06-22T16:48:00.011-06:00

Jubilee Ministry Centers —

Providing Refuge and Hope
By the Rev. Deacon Steve Shanks,
Our Diocesan Jubilee Ministry Officer

When Jesus stood in the synagogue in Nazareth, unrolled the Isaiah scroll, and read God’s promise of good news to the poor, of Jubilee—the Year of the Lord’s Favor, he opened for us a window into the Kingdom of God. As we see the work of congregations, congregational clusters, and ecumenical clusters doing the work of compassion—feeding, clothing, sheltering, and visiting, and the work of justice—speaking, teaching, and prophesying, we honor the commitment they are making to reflect to the world the generosity of God and the invitation to live in his Kingdom.

The concept of Jubilee was established by the words of Leviticus 25:10:“You shall hallow the fiftieth year, and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants.”The stated goal of Jubilee Ministry in the Episcopal Church is to teach others to connect the talk of faith with the walk of peace and justice for all people.

Jubilee Ministry is faith in action—faith that can be expressed as that which grows out of loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and action that can be expressed as that which compels us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jubilee Ministry seeks to hold these two important dynamics of our spiritual journey in tension so that God’s reconciling work is known by our witness.

Jubilee Ministry Centers throughout our diocese serve as places of refuge and hope, living expressions of our Baptismal promise to seek and serve Christ in all persons.

St.Timothy’s in Athens provides a multicultural preschool, tutoring, basic language skills programs, English as a Second Language classes,AA Groups (including a prison AA group) and a Hispanic Al-Anon, and a drop-in pantry.

Christ Church in Fairfield (Birmingham) provides CityWorks:The Fairfield Initiative, an interfaith Community Development Corporation that offers affordable housing with “strategic neighbors”; a literacy program; a thrift store; a prison ministry; and emergency services.

Grace Church in Woodlawn (Birmingham) provides 55th Place Thrift Store, Grace-by-Day, the Interfaith Hospitality House, emergency food packs three days a week at the Woodlawn Christian Center, Community Kitchens, and a Hispanic ministry.

Good Samaritan Health Clinic in Cullman provides free primary healthcare for low-income, uninsured, and under-insured county residents; hearing testing; eye disease exams; dental exams; free medications; and diabetic/nutrition education.

St. John’s in Decatur provides a Community Free Clinic offering free healthcare and prescription drugs, health-related education programs, eye exams, and dental care; Parents and Children Together (PACT) offering services for at-risk families to prevent child abuse and neglect as well as child-wellness programs; and Camp Joy offering camping experience and adult and youth volunteers to serve at-risk children.

Nativity in Huntsville provides individual tutoring for reading, math, and computer skills in the Adult Learning Center of Huntsville; English as a Second Language classes; and the HEALS free medical clinics at target elementary schools.

The Jubilee Community Center in Montgomery provides an after-school program with tutoring and mentoring by volunteers from local colleges, entrepreneurial class for ages 15 and up, clothing, direct health services, the Jubilee Choir, youth-enrichment programs, lobbying on issues affecting the community, job training, Vacation Bible School, and a free tax-filing service for working families.

Chattahoochee Valley Episcopal Ministry Inc. (CVEM) supported by St. Matthew’s in Seale and St. Stephen’s in Smith Station provides direct economic assistance; continued community revitalization efforts; programs for children and youth; women’s mentoring; housing advocacy; services related to homelessness, race relations, and prison inmates; and a Peace and Justice Group that meets regularly to study social issues and offer forums and other means of education and action.

Bishop Parsley and Bishop Sloan invite every congregation in our diocese to examine the work they are doing with and among the poor, both here in Alabama and around the world, and prayerfully consider applying for designation and affirmation as a Jubilee Ministry Center. Holy Trinity in Auburn and Trinity in Clanton are currently in the process of applying to become Jubilee Ministry Centers.

Sometimes a Center starts with a single congregation that wants to begin walking in faith. Sometimes it begins with a cluster of churches within a community that perceive a need to serve the poor in a particular way. Any of these congregations or clusters of congregations can become designated by the Episcopal Church as a Jubilee Ministry Center if they agree to do one or more of the following: advocacy on behalf of the people they serve, empowering staff and volunteers to connect their work with their Baptismal vows, evangelizing through prayer or pastoral presence, and inviting others to share in worship. In this way all Jubilee Ministry Centers give back to God through what God has given them.

For more information about applying to have your outreach initiative designated a Jubilee Ministry Center, please contact the Rev. Steve Shanks, Diocesan Jubilee Ministry Officer, at srshanks@gmail.com or 205/960-1826.

Excerpted from the Alabama Episcopalian, The Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, Pentecost, May-June 2009 / Vol. 94, No. 4

2009-05-24T15:35:00.003-06:00

Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Easter, Year B
at Trinity in Clanton, Alabama
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 Psalm 1 1 John 5:9-13 John 17:6-19

Beloved sisters and brothers, let us look to the Lord.
May only God’s word be spoken,
May God’s word be heard.
In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

"If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son." That's what we hear in the reading from the First Epistle of John. And a friend has reminded me that thanks be to God that the testimony of God is greater – because we certainly have some pretty odd ways of discerning and trying to testify to God's will.

I think that the passage from the book of Acts makes for a pretty good case in point. The role of the Twelve is on one hand so very, very important that it just can't be left to eleven or thirteen; and on the other hand, the person to fill the seat left vacant by Judas Iscariot is chosen by lot. The judgment of Israel left to a couple of thrown rocks or bones. Sometimes, reading things like this, one has to say to oneself what might be the ultimate question in life… "Just what is God thinking??!"

It's a question that I've asked myself more than once, and I'm glad to say that it's a question that God fears no more than I might have the capacity to answer it for myself.

What I believe is that God is calling us to abundant life in a world that welcomes, facilitates, and spreads abundant life; and yet I pick up a newspaper that tells me about deaths in battle, in traffic accidents, in inexplicable illnesses. It's all well and good for John Lennon to encourage us to imagine a world of peace, compassion, and responsibility to further these qualities, but imagining it will only get us so far… "so", in this case, being a synonym for "not." Imagine all the dreamers, yes – but imagine what would have happened to their work if they had only stuck with what seemed realistic. And if we're really going to take Jesus seriously, we might want to ask what's realistic anyway.

… and speaking of where our dreams bump up against reality… church unity is a highly desirable goal and will undoubtedly be a topic of continuing conversation and likely some debate at our church’s General Convention in Anaheim this summer. Actually, it's more than a goal; it's a description, a word we say when we see people living as God intends, as sisters and brothers with any who will break bread and share resources with them. It's an appealing goal, and so a lot of people get on board with it without pausing to think about how they want to actually build a world, a network of people and resources, to help the Church move toward being what God truly intends for it to be.

Now, I know that this might be starting to sound like some kind of a "get back to work" speech, but it isn't. The reason rests in Jesus' prayer that we hear in the Gospel: “that we all might be one, as he is one with God.” The unity of the church isn't just a goal toward which we strive; it is a reality that we live into more deeply as we explore, with others in community, just what it might mean that we are children of God.

That's not just a fancy theological way of saying "Get back to work" either. What might it mean to us – to you and me – if we really took Jesus' prayer in, really believed that God's children are one because God is one, that the unity of Christ's Body is a consequence of Christ, rather than the end goal toward which we strive, but most often fail?

One of the main consequences of taking that leap of faith, I think, would be the dismantling of a lot of our excuses. Without it, we might convince ourselves that we can treat those around us anyway we want to until such a time as they ‘toe the line’ and thereby effect the unity for which Jesus prays in this Sunday's gospel. In other words, I'll wait and treat that person as a brother or sister the moment that he or she behaves!

And, of course, that path is one of madness. As long as we're waiting for everyone, but us, to meet some standard before we'll declare ourselves to be of the same Body as them, we're choosing the thankless and joyless task of monitoring those around us, and perhaps the world itself, for signs of dysfunction and misery.

It's a destructive way to live, in the way that our mind's “background processes” work. We are constantly on the lookout, making judgments and reevaluating them. The “search requests” we make on our brain most frequently become “wired” into the brain and the life of our psyche. If we call upon our brains several times a week, or a day, to figure out what's wrong with those around us and the world in which they work and live, it's natural for our minds to start performing these tasks in the “background,” constantly creating categories and placing people in them. A theology based on that is going to dwell on what's wrong with the world in ways that is going to use up energy that we could devote to participating in God's work of making things – all things – right.

In other words, we don't have to struggle to become a member of the Body of Christ; Meister Eckhart reminds us that we can't find God shouting and chasing after him in the wilderness, we have only to open the door and let him in, it is a free gift Christ offers, and what we do in response to that gift is up to us. The hard part of that oftentimes is that it places us in the company of people who aren't much like us, and the more differences arise, the more we stress about whether the relationship will fracture. And the more we stress about whether the relationship will fracture, the more likely we are to avoid a sense of loss both of relationship and of control by coming up with reasons why fracture and decay are inevitable. It gets in the way of our becoming close with one another and with God.

A friend is fond of saying that we waste too much time in church “building community.” Community, oneness already exists. We may not see it, may not act like it, but it pre-exists our recognition of it. This is the hope I take away from today’s Gospel, the hope I preach.

Me and my worst enemy are one. Jesus asked it of the Father. It’s done. Now, what shall I, what shall we, do about it?

So, what if we took as our starting point that we are members of the Body of Christ, not because we achieved a goal but because of who Christ is and what Christ has done?

It just might give us courage to be honest about our differences, since our connectedness with others is based not on what we think or what we do, but on who and whose we are.

It just might challenge us to search for avenues of compassion toward others; if we are by action of the Creator of the universe one with our sisters and brothers around us, we ought to get used to it, since our fellow members of the Body of Christ will depart from us only when Christ departs (that is to say, sometime between "never" and "later than never"), and our central task shifts from trying to find ways to figure out who should matter to us, to one of learning to live as joyfully and lovingly with those with whom we are, one way or another, journeying.

And it just might give us what we need to change the world, bring healing to the sick, sufficiency to the destitute, freedom to the captives, because as members of one Body we are called to witness to Christ's presence everywhere it is, and that's throughout a world being made new by grace, and called to respond in extending grace.

Thanks be to God!
Amen. Alleluia.

Neko Case Interview and Music

2009-04-17T21:11:00.001-06:00

saw Neko at Workplay a few weeks ago and have been a long time fan of her writing, wit, and esthetic, and really enjoy the interview and music

2009-03-31T17:14:00.011-06:00

Jubilee officers roll up sleeves to clear ruined houses during gathering in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

By Rebecca Jones, March 27, 2009

[Episcopal News Service, Cedar Rapids, Iowa] The Rev. Canon Debbie Shew gripped her crowbar and tugged a sheet of rotted paneling from the wall of a flood-ravaged home and thought about the carpenter who nailed it up. She thought about the children who grew up there, the family that called the house home.

"I thought about leaving them a note," said Shew, jubilee officer for the Diocese of Atlanta. "It might be cool for them to find it and know that people from all over – from Georgia and Puerto Rico and Kansas and New York – all helped to clean it up."

Shew was one of nearly three dozen diocesan jubilee officers from all over the country and the Caribbean, and others associated with the Episcopal Church's Jubilee Ministry network, who met here this week to discuss the 27-year-old network of about 600 programs aimed at alleviating poverty.

Participants spent March 25, their first full day together, rolling up their sleeves and doing the dirty work of helping rebuild a city laid low. In June 2008, the Cedar River overflowed its banks. In that summer, the devastation exceeded 500-year flood plains. Some 20,000 people were forced to evacuate and an estimated 5,400 homes were left ruined. It was, said chroniclers of the city's reclamation project, Iowa's "storm of the millennium."

Nine months later, the city is still drying out and cleaning up. Whole neighborhoods still contain empty shells of ruined houses, the water lines clearly visible high on their walls. Cedar Rapids' catastrophe didn't get the national attention that New Orleans or Galveston, Texas received after hurricanes Katrina and Ike, but the devastation was no less real.

That's why the Rev. Chris Johnson, the Episcopal Church's program officer for Domestic Justice and Jubilee Ministries, decided to schedule the meeting in Cedar Rapids. He wanted to make sure the city's pain did not go unnoticed by the church. "I didn't know what to expect, but I just knew it was important that we find a way to embrace the community," said Johnson. "We had to meet somewhere, and I'm glad we can meet here. Now people from all these points will take these stories about what happened in Cedar Rapids away with them."

Johnson and Shew were among a dozen volunteers who spent the day mucking out two houses, one of them untouched by any cleanup effort. Across town, another crew of Episcopalians worked hanging dry wall in the basement of St. Wenceslaus Church, a Catholic church in the heavily damaged Czech Village neighborhood.

Still others spent the day in the kitchen at Christ Episcopal Church in Cedar Rapids, baking thousands of cookies, brownies and cakes that will continue to fuel the reclamation work long after the visitors have gone home. The sweets will help feed the hundreds of volunteers that continue to come to Cedar Rapids every week.

"We must have more work projects like this," said Phillip Mantle, jubilee officer for the Diocese of Chicago, who spent the day at St. Wenceslaus. "It's not good enough just to go to a hotel and have a meeting. We need to be of service in the community. And besides, I learned a lot of things about building today. I learned how to do framing. And I learned that if you're just a quarter of an inch off when you cut, you're in big trouble."

The Rev. Colleen Lewis, jubilee officer for Diocese of Nebraska, took up a broom and began sweeping at St. Wenceslaus. She's taken numerous mission trips to the Dominican Republic, where she's helped on construction projects. But this was her first such project so close to home.
"It's been a long time since I've done drywalling, so they'd have to coach me on that," she said. "But sweeping, I can do. Sweeping, that's a deacon thing."

Lisa Butler, director of congregational life at Christ Church, has been coordinating that church's response to the flood. The church, which is hosting the jubilee officers' event and providing meals for the visitors, is able to house teams of up to 20 volunteers per night. Christ Church, which is also home to a jubilee ministry, has been booked to capacity through much of March as school-age volunteers from around the country have come to Cedar Rapids during their spring breaks to assist with clean-up efforts. After a brief lull in April and May, Butler says she'll be booked again come June and through much of the summer.

Many of the churches in Cedar Rapids have come together to form Faithful Response, a group that coordinates the work of most faith-based volunteers. The group works with the United Way, which assigns Americorps workers to accompany volunteer groups to projects that are identified as being that day's priority.

The volunteers' efforts produce results in two ways: they provide clean-up labor and the Federal Emergency Management Agency grants $19 in matching assistance money for every volunteer hour logged. So far, volunteers have generated more than $900,000 in federal assistance grants.
Butler said she expects the clean-up efforts to take at least another five years. But she said the benefits that have come to the community through its response to the catastrophe will last far longer than that. "When this (clean-up) is all finished, we'll still have issues we have to address in this community," she said. "The coalition that all the faith-based groups have formed needs to stay strong."

By early afternoon on March 25, the crew had moved on to its second house. Inside, amid the ruined furniture and fetid carpeting, they found a birth certificate, a diploma, ruined photo albums, military medals, old letters.

"It became a sacred space," said Deacon Stephen Shanks, jubilee officer for the Diocese of Alabama, who witnessed a similar phenomenon when helping clean out houses ruined by Hurricane Katrina. "People became very quiet when we were handling teddy bears and birth certificates. It was very personal. This was what was left of someone's former life."

Shew got out her camera and began photographing some of the items, so that at least they would be preserved in some form before going out in the trash. She also took the military medals, in hopes of cleaning them off and somehow returning them to their rightful owner.

"I sat there thinking that if some stranger was going through my stuff, I'd want them to take a picture of my Hannah's baby book," she said. "By the end, I felt like I knew a lot about that family."

-- The Rev. Rebecca Jones is a jubilee officer in the Diocese of Colorado.

2009-03-01T15:23:00.001-06:00

Lenten Reflection
by Elizabeth-Anne Vanek

You thumbed grit
into my furrowed brow,
marking me
with the sign of mortality,
the dust of last year's palms.

The cross you traced
seared, smudged skin,
and I recalled
other ashes
etched into my heart
by those who loved too little
or not at all.

**************************************************

Mememto,homo,quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.

Remember, human, that you are dust, and to dust you will return.

Genesis 3:19

2009-02-21T23:03:00.002-06:00

Nonviolence and Direct Action Training
School of the Americas Watch
Columbus, Ft. Benning, Georgia
November 21, 2008

... thanks to Wilton Vought of http://www.essentialdissent.blogspot.com/ for sharing his vlog

2008-12-14T14:33:00.003-06:00

Sermon for the 3rd Sunday of Advent 2008 (Year B)
at Trinity in Clanton, Alabama
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11 Psalm 126 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 John 1:6-8,19-28
The Rev. Steve Shanks, Deacon

Beloved sisters and brothers, let us look to the Lord.
May only God’s word be spoken,
May God’s word be heard.
In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Joy is the cry of the Third Sunday of Advent. This Third Sunday of Advent, the Sunday of Joy, has historically been called Gaudete (Gaw-day-tay) Sunday. This Latin word "Gaw-day-tay" means "Rejoice!" and was taken from the first words of the Latin introit for the day "Rejoice in the Lord" "Gaw-day-tay en dominum." This is part of an ancient liturgy that we continue to use in our worship today.

During the past week, as I was spending time with our Scripture readings for this morning, I was reminded that scholars are not certain who wrote Isaiah 61, though it seems to be someone who has returned to Jerusalem and is part of the nation’s rebuilding. The powerful words are perhaps the Spirit of God calling this person, in a way reminiscent of the call of the eighth-century prophet in Isaiah 6. The substance of the call is to reclaim the Jubilee tradition of Leviticus 25. This tradition is based on the sovereignty and holiness of God and challenges God’s people to live socially and economically in a way consistent with God’s nature. The tradition’s specific platforms are radical, calling for structural change in the society and not simply charity. That means protecting the environment by letting land lie fallow, canceling debt, freeing slaves, redistributing resources, and sharing economic power in ways that avoid a permanent underclass.

Isaiah’s words are familiar because Luke 4 records Jesus’ use of them for his inaugural sermon in his hometown synagogue. Jesus reads the Isaiah text and proclaims: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (4:21). Whether he chooses the text because the passage reflects his understanding of his mission or because it is assigned him as part of the synagogue lectionary, the congregation reacts negatively. Turning from being glad to have a child of the church home, the crowd becomes a lynch mob wanting to throw the hometown kid off the cliff. Even though they aren’t rich, they have too much invested in the system to want such a radical agenda imposed on them.

The Jubilee tradition that Isaiah and Jesus reclaim is a clear call to mission for the Church today. It contains the vision for being and doing: for political liberation, economic reversal, and social revolution – a way of life that lets no one live without life’s necessities. Just as Jesus incarnates the Jubilee tradition, the same words challenge today’s Church, as Christ’s Body, to reappropriate this radical understanding of life in community. And as with Jesus, such structural change can create lynch mobs of those who, even if not wealthy, have investment in the status quo.

If Isaiah’s call to mission isn’t hard enough, God speaks later in the lesson: “For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing” (61:8). Covenant relationship evokes works of justice, emulating God’s central concern for the underdog and for justice. As Sharon Ringe writes: “The Jubilee traditions point to what happens whenever humankind encounters the factor of God’s sovereignty.”

These Jubilee traditions motivated the Episcopal Church at our 67th General Convention in New Orleans in 1982 to create what was described as a priority ministry commitment by this Church that is called “The Jubilee Ministry”. As stated in that year’s Resolution 80A, the Ministry of Jubilee in the Episcopal Church is an attempt at being “a Christian community in which the drama of the streets, and the inner silence of which God speaks, are bound together.” (The Standing Commission on The Church in Metropolitan Areas—1982)

In Jubilee Ministry we recognize that while we are called to feed the hungry, we are also equally called to address the cause of that hunger. Therefore, our goal is to know the difference and to be prepared to work for both charity and justice for the glory and honor of God.

It can be a pretty daunting call to ministry. For me, it is helpful to remember, for example, that some are called to be prophets, others teachers. We have to identify the needs, and then seek to discern those gifted or equipped to address those needs. We do not all have the temperament to contribute the same gifts, but we can all understand our work as fulfilling a common purpose to embrace the “least of these.”

So, what is the Mission of Jubilee Ministry? It is to make a direct and dynamic link between our theology and our ethics - said another way - the talk of our faith and the walk of our faith.

We do this by calling the church to live out its prophetic role of empowering local people to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with their God” (Micah 6:8) and by responding to the Gospel’s call to “feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked care for the sick, and visit the imprisoned” (Matthew 25:35)

The work of a Jubilee Ministry Center, or Jubilee Parish, is connected to four primary ways in which we serve the least of those among us, which starts by meeting direct human need, and then continues by providing advocacy with poor and oppressed people to address the root causes of poverty and all its ramifications, empowerment of the population being served to support them in beginning to recover their sense of self-esteem and dignity, and evangelism by providing the opportunity for the Church to exercise the faith it proclaims in word and deed.

So, what does the work of a Jubilee Ministry look like in the Episcopal Church in 2008? It is “Feeding the Hungry” through daily meals that are prepared and delivered to people with HIV/AIDS in a lunch program provided at St. Andrea’s Church in Tucson, Arizona; it is “Clothing the Naked” at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Ada, Oklahoma where The Matthew 25 Mission provides Men’s Wear and Household Items; it is “Welcoming the Stranger” at the Refugee and Immigration Jubilee Center in Valladolid, Spain that provides services for immigrants from South America, as well as it is those caring for Children and Seniors at Episcopal Social Services in Kansas City, Missouri; it is “Caring for the Sick” at Naco Wellness Center Located on the Arizona/Mexico Border that is serving people on both sides of the international Border… and it is opening the doors of this church every 1st Saturday in Clanton, Alabama to welcome and provide food and hospitality to the poor, working poor, and hungry of Chilton County.

In contrast to Mark’s understanding that we encountered in last week’s lessons, the writer of the Gospel of John presents John the Baptist, not as the one calling for repentance, but as a witness. The one who comes baptizing denies being Elijah or the Christ or a prophet; rather he comes to prepare and give testimony – to witness.

For many Christians committed to living faithfully, giving verbal testimony or witness is difficult and often feels presumptuous. Yet John becomes the voice of promise, in a sense the voice of Scripture. He calls people to see and understand differently and to acknowledge the Word’s importance.

But John also knows how important it is to live that witness, to embody one’s words, to link the talk of our faith and the walk of our faith. When John, from prison, asks Jesus if he is “the one who is to come,” Jesus suggests that John look at what he does: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the poor have Good News preached (Matt 11:2-6 – again echoes of Isaiah 61). Deeds, as well as words, are testimony and witness.

Individuals and communities today seek to live into the biblical Jubilee tradition and give testimony in word and deed…

through Communities that embody a life together that is nonhierarchical and inclusive of all God’s children, where the words of the faith come alive through experience;
through Partnerships in which poor and wealthy people acknowledge their need for one another and to share one another’s gifts, insights, and material goods;
through a Life lived for “the least of our brothers and sisters,” where none go without food or housing;
through Acknowledgement of the Christ encountered in those who are poor and hurting.

In such transformational living there is “a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning” (Isa 61:3). The cry of the Third Sunday of Advent arises: Rejoice!

Thanks be to God! Amen.

2008-12-04T20:30:00.002-06:00

School of the Americas Watch & the Pope

The weekend before Thanksgiving, I was with 20,000 other folks gathered again outside the gates of Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA for the vigil to shut down the School of the Americas. Or, as activists call it, "The School of the Assassins."

The SOA is a torture-training school-right here on US soil and funded by our tax dollars-where Latin America soldiers are taught counterinsurgency tactics, psychological warfare and Abu-Ghraib-style torture techniques. The School of the Americas Watch, a grassroots organization dedicated to closing the SOA and changing oppressive US foreign policy, has been holding these vigils for the past 18 years, the first one, with only 10 people. The Saturday rally and Sunday vigil features spoken testimony from torture survivors, family members whose loved ones were killed by SOA graduates, the sole survivor of a massacre, elected officials, actors, and activists from around the world, all interspersed with the most music, spoken word and visual arts you've ever seen at a demonstration.

Sign the Petition to President- Elect Obama to End Torture and Close the SOA, and come join us next November!

Now, for the Pope part...

The Friday of this year's vigil was also the day that SOAW founder, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, was to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Not for standing up to the military or to the US government, for that matter, but for participating in a Mass to ordain a woman priest.

Fr. Roy delivered the homily at that ceremony in August, saying:
"Sexism is a sin. . . The hierarchy will say, 'It is the tradition of the church not to ordain women.' I grew up in a small town in Louisiana and often heard, 'It is the tradition of the South to have segregated schools.' It was also 'the tradition' in our Catholic church to have the Black members seated in the last five pews of the church. No matter how hard we may try to justify discrimination, in the end, it is always wrong and immoral."

In October, the church hierarchy sent Fr. Roy a letter demanding he recant his position or be excommunicated. But, Fr. Roy didn't back down. He wrote a letter in response and he and others have pointed out the disturbing fact that, while it took the Vatican twelve years to begin to respond to the sexual abuse of nearly 5,000 children by US priests (with none of the priests, nor the bishops who remained silent about the abuse, being excommunicated) it took only three months for the Vatican to respond to Fr. Roy's support of women's ordination with the threat of excommunication.

We haven't heard conclusively whether the excommunication has gone through. Perhaps the media attention, the letter writing, the emailing (Did you know you can email the Pope? ) and the petitions are having an effect. We think the slogan of the Women's Ordination Conference's petition in support of Fr. Roy says it best:

"Break the Silence. Shatter the Stained Glass Ceiling."

SOA Pilgrimage of Resistance (2008)

2008-11-24T09:54:00.001-06:00

a weekend of nonviolence training with Janet Chisholm, sitting and learning at the feet of Jon Sobrino, sharing meal and conversation with the peace and justice community of the Episcopal Church in Columbus, and sharing in the funeral procession and vigil with 20,000 faithful people... love and prayers, steve

2008-10-09T22:26:00.004-06:00

Baltimore Airport

Well, it was proved true to me again that you never know who you might encounter while waiting to make a connecting flight on Southwest Airlines.

I was early for a flight that I had about a two and a half hour layover for, and the boarding area was packed because the previous flight had just been cancelled because Southwest had a part to fix a broken seat but didn't have a technician certified to do the install. While those folks were settling in for the next hour or so that it would take for the next plane to show up, I found the one vacant seat over by the glass and as I was reaching for my iPod and the new Jon Sobrino book I glanced over to the cadre that seemed to be spreading out in the area of seats to the right of me. As I watched with the kind of disinterested curiosity of one with hours of travel done and hours more to come, I noticed someone that I'd met in 1974 striding through the crowd and towards me... or more particularly to the group of young adults that had spread out and were now deep into their technology and undertaking what seemed to be one text or call or email after another without seeming let up.

Then I stood and smiled and greeted Ralph Nader letting him know that a conversation that we'd had, along with Dr. Sidney Wolfe, back in 1974 had helped me understand what it means to work unselfishly on behalf those who are marginalized and disenfranchised. A young man stood next to me as I made my introduction and expression of appreciation to Mr. Nader, at first I think to make sure that I wasn't a complete nutjob and to also remind me that if it wasn't for Mr. Nader's tireless efforts on our behalf over the years that we wouldn't be reimbursed by the airlines for getting bumped from a flight. I smiled and simply said that I'd been a fan of Mr. Nader's work for a very long time. He seemed satisfied enough to sit down, but close by in case of ... whatever.

So, for the next half hour, with one interruption for a telephone interview with a news radio station in St. Louis, we talked about peace, justice and nonviolence in the context of the current state of the world and the presidential election. I told him that I'd appreciated his willingness to appear in a theater of the absurd like Bill Maher's show the Friday before, and that for me it seems an increasingly difficult task to 'mine' the nuggets from what the media is willing to share with us. He reflected on what it was like having to go on Conan and have to be part of a skit with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. We talked about his being on the ballot in 46 states, or maybe 45, guess I should check, but I wasn't interested in engaging him on the relevancy of it this time since it really is about raising the issues that are important to so many of us. I did tell him that I helped put up signs for his campaign in Alabama in 2000 and seemed to enjoy that.

Then, he asked why I was there and told him about going to facilitate nonviolence training at Yale Divinity School starting the next day. He then reminisced on two things in that context. First, he was the person who did the last interview with William Sloane Coffin before he died. The second item that he talked about was a book that had made an impression on him many years before entitled "The Small Community: Foundation of democratic life" that was written in 1942 by Arthur E. Morgan and the link is to his organization that is still doing the work of finding community solutions today.

Finally, I asked him what he would like me to particularly share with people from our brief time together that morning. He said "Two things, connect with the veterans and keep up a public witness."

Thank you Mr. Nader, I will, and God speed as you continue your faithful and persistent witness.

2008-10-05T16:40:00.002-06:00

I found myself this morning quoting this poem and made the comment that it is a poem that has continued to inspire me for I am indeed 'a fool who hath loved his folly' ... peace, steve

The Fool
by Padraic Pearse

Since the wise men have not spoken, I speak that am only a fool;
A fool that hath loved his folly,
Yea, more than the wise men their books or their counting houses or their quiet homes,
Or their fame in men's mouths;
A fool that in all his days hath done never a prudent thing,
Never hath counted the cost, nor recked if another reaped
The fruit of his mighty sowing, content to scatter the seed;
A fool that is unrepentant, and that soon at the end of all
Shall laugh in his lonely heart as the ripe ears fall to the reaping-hooks
And the poor are filled that were empty,
Tho' he go hungry.
I have squandered the splendid years that the Lord God gave to my youth
In attempting impossible things, deeming them alone worth the toil.

Was it folly or grace? Not men shall judge me, but God.
I have squandered the splendid years:
Lord, if I had the years I would squander them over again,
Aye, fling them from me !
For this I have heard in my heart, that a man shall scatter, not hoard,
Shall do the deed of to-day, nor take thought of to-morrow's teen,
Shall not bargain or huxter with God ; or was it a jest of Christ's
And is this my sin before men, to have taken Him at His word?
The lawyers have sat in council, the men with the keen, long faces,
And said, `This man is a fool,' and others have said, `He blasphemeth;'
And the wise have pitied the fool that hath striven to give a life
In the world of time and space among the bulks of actual things,
To a dream that was dreamed in the heart, and that only the heart could hold.

O wise men, riddle me this: what if the dream come true?
What if the dream come true? and if millions unborn shall dwell
In the house that I shaped in my heart, the noble house of my thought?
Lord, I have staked my soul, I have staked the lives of my kin
On the truth of Thy dreadful word. Do not remember my failures,
But remember this my faith
And so I speak.

Yea, ere my hot youth pass, I speak to my people and say:
Ye shall be foolish as I; ye shall scatter, not save;
Ye shall venture your all, lest ye lose what is more than all;
Ye shall call for a miracle, taking Christ at His word.
And for this I will answer, O people, answer here and hereafter,
O people that I have loved, shall we not answer together?

2008-09-29T13:27:00.002-06:00

Preaching Peace and Nonviolence at the Auburn UUF

On Sunday, September 28th, I was invited by the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and Auburn Peace and Justice groups to offer my point of view on living a life of peace and nonviolence during the Fellowship's principal Sunday service. The picture to the right was taken after the service with the Fellowship's minister, the Rev. Diana Jordan Allende.

The AUUF has posted this sermon as a podcast and it is available for listening at http://www.auuf.net/mp3/sept282008.mp3. It was a particular blessing to have Ruby Sales, of Spirit House in Columbus, Georgia, come to be present and then to have her share a response (part of the UUF tradition) after, and offered as part of, the sermon.

So, for those who might be curious as to what I might have to say to an entirely 'friendly' audience, I thought that this might be of some interest.

Love and prayers, Steve

2008-04-12T08:49:00.008-06:00

Kirtan at Heartwood Yoga

Had a great evening of kirtan chant at Heartwood Yoga in Birmingham last night with Shantala (Benjy and Heather Wertheimer) and Jacqueline Westhead who's with them for this leg of their tour.

So, what's kirtan chant? One definition that seems to describe my experience best, says "Kirtan is the chanting of sound syllables, and is an active meditation that may precede a period of silence. It is often in Sanskrit, but may be in any language. Kirtan can be practiced alone, or in a group... Chanting the mantra sounds of kirtan elicits a feeling of well-being, calmness and harmony. Instruments for kirtan include the harmonium, rhythm instruments, and others, or just voices." Since for some it is also, or particularly, about a part of their spiritual practice, I thought it appropriate to include another definition that seems to fairly describe my beginning of that understanding "The yogic practice of kirtan chanting brings together devotional bhakti yoga, powerful mantra yoga, and profound jnana yoga, along with pranayama breath yoga, yogic posture asana, as well as the crown jewel of raja yoga..."

I went because I enjoy both plainsong and anglican chant, and because Heartwood is where I receive instruction in my yoga practice and I want to support them. The two plus hours of mostly call and response chant was way for me to begin to connect with that part of the yogic tradition. The challenge for me in the kirtan are the textual references to the divine spark within or of god dwelling within us. This is a bit gnostic for me, which is a heresy that can be seductive because it is based in part on a knowledge of transcendence that is arrived at by way of interior, intuitive means.

Of course, I know that the translations of the Sanskrit are being offered are from the translator's point of view. Though I don't anticipate learning Sanskrit to delve into the subtler and deeper understandings of the source material, I find that I do mentally edit in my own understandings of other possible translations. That instead of a divine spark or god within, it may be that, as in the gesture of Namaste, we are acknowledging the soul in one by the soul in another in a place of connection and timelessness that is free from the bonds of ego. I think that there's some truth in the understanding that we are all one when we live from the heart.

For me, the kirtan was great but the highlight was Jacqueline Westhead leading us in K’riyah, a chant in Call and Response form where one uses the breath and silence between chants to guide us. Every exhale is a practice in humility and every inhale is an act of receiving. From the silence we can know what it is to hear and respond from an authentic space in the heart. As Jacqueline writes,

"Listening and Love are at the center of Jewish prayer. The Shema with the call to listen, and the embracing of divine oneness, followed by the V’ahavta with a declaration to love.

"Devotional chant is a path of love and listening. Through chanting, the Love that is present in everyone’s heart is awakened and one can realize their innate connection to the Divine.

"Devotion is the act of deep, steady affection or faithfulness and the path of devotion is one of the most direct routes to an inner experience of G-d."

So, you can probably tell, I liked the kirtan but loved the K’riyah.

Tonight I was reminded again that chant opens our hearts to a natural flow of devotion that can be an aid for us on our journey to seek understandings. Devotional chant such as kirtan, K’riyah or Taize seem to exist in the simple acts of devotion, surrender, and intention. The combination of these allows us to clear our hearts and minds to receive and transform. This practice asks you to show up with a desire to open, listen, and love.

Namaste

2008-03-30T15:50:00.004-06:00

Our Journey for Peace on Capitol Hill

It has already been three weeks since we were led by faith and conscience to the nation’s capital to pray for peace.

It was a profound experience to be numbered among the hundreds of us who prayed in houses of worship across Washington; who huddled amid the Upper Senate Park torrent; and who processed to the Hart Senate Office Building.

We later learned that when the Olive Branch delegation met with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s aide, he said that one of the most important things the peace movement could do was civil disobedience. “Keep it up!” he said.

His eyes widened when the delegation let him know that, at that very moment, we were doing just that.

But, in fact, “civil disobedience” does not capture what we were about. We were, instead, bringing the prayer for compassion and justice to one of our country’s centers of power. Prayer delivered in person. With longing. With anguish. With composure. With lilting song. A circle of prayer. A quiet gesture of true obedience, not disobedience.

In the next months, we will be exploring what our next steps will be for our faith-based movement for peace in Iraq. I am thankful for those who witness – and look forward to our future journey of prayer and action.

2008-03-07T23:55:00.007-06:00

PEACE ACTIVISTS WORSHIP, PRAY, GET ARRESTED

Forty-Two Arrested for Civil Disobedience in Hart Senate Office Building

Washington, DC, March 7, 2008 -- More than forty religious leaders and faith-based peace activists were arrested in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill late Friday afternoon for their non-violent witness to end the war in Iraq. Hundreds of people assembled earlier in the afternoon for a public demonstration against the U.S. war and occupation of Iraq, and thousands of worshippers gathered at noon Friday for services calling for peace and an end to the war in Iraq.

The arrests came at the end of a day of worship and prayer. Following noon-time services in ten different houses of worship in Washington, worshippers processed in the rain to Upper Senate Park for an interfaith witness near the U.S. Capitol. In the midst of a driving rain, leaders from Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Unitarian traditions insisted that people of faith will be relentless in encouraging their political leaders to take bold, unequivocal action for peace.

Multi-faith delegations from the Olive Branch Interfaith Peace Partnership, the organizing coalition of the afternoon’s events, met with high level staffers from both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s offices. The religious leaders expressed grave concern that there must be both a clear exit strategy from Iraq and a regional, multi-lateral effort at development and diplomacy to bring about genuine security.Participants from across faith boundaries are clearly united in expressing five core convictions:

The war in Iraq must end and diplomacy must replace the threat of war with Iran.
We must provide far better support to our returning soldiers.
We must commit to the long-term work of development in Iraq.
There can be no equivocation in our renunciation of all use of torture.
We must commit real resources to justice in our own communities in the U.S.

Among the forty-two people who were arrested were:

Lois Baker, who is 86 years old, a World War II Veteran, great-grandmother, and committed Presbyterian Peacemaker.
Joan Nicholson, 73 years old and infamous for her role in the legal decision Nicholson v. United States, which established the right to peaceful demonstrations on Capitol Hill.
Will Covert, a Vietnam Veteran and member of Veterans for Peace.
Khristine Hopkins, a strong advocate for housing and the environment, and traveled from Cape Cod for her second year in a row to join Christian Peace Witness for Iraq.
Eighteen members of St. Luke Presbyterian Church traveled together from Minnesota to participate in the faith-based witness. Seven were arrested as they knelt in the atrium of the Hart Building to pray.
Six students came from Hastings College in Nebraska, and three chose to risk arrest. Nathan Tramp said that he “came to learn a prayerful attitude toward the work of the peace movement, and to better discern how to make peace building a greater part of my life.”
The Rev. Steve Shanks, deacon from Birmingham, Alabama and member of the National Executive Committe of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship.

2008-02-18T12:42:00.003-06:00

Steve runs, and survives, the BE5K!

This February I ran my first 5K. It was a lot of fun and hope that I improve my finish time at the next one. As you can tell, it was a bit chilly this morning with temperatures at race time just above freezing but after the first mile or so I realized that next time I need to spend more time talking to more experienced runners so that I can plan my layers more effectively.

All in all, it was an absolutely beautiful day, crisp and clear, and the post-race included heaping mounds of chicken biscuits, apples, and bananas along with free smoothies, vitamin water, and luna bars... it was a good day.

Coverage of Kennedy Endorsements for Obama

2008-01-30T07:50:00.001-06:00

"I feel change in the air"

The Amazing Place, St. James' in the City

2007-12-28T11:35:00.001-06:00

ah, YouTube evangelism ... coolness! I now have an entirely new image in my head whenever I hear "We Three Kings"

2007-12-06T07:36:00.000-06:00

Fourth wise man bearing a case of Red Bull

We’ve gotten the first advertising casualty of the Christmas season—this animated Red Bull spot from Italy, which shows a fourth wise man joining the better-known other three in offering gifts to the baby Jesus. While the others bring gold, frankincense and myrrh, the fourth guy lights up the room by hauling in a case of Red Bull. Following complaints from Italian priests, the ad has been pulled off the air.

2007-11-28T10:36:00.001-06:00

Our dear kitty, Francis

So, in the week before thanksgiving it turned out to be the time to begin to gain some knowledge and expertise about feline kidney disease and chronic renal failure.

Erin's 9 year old cat had been lethargic (she's a danger kitty so anything short of being alpha female is lethargic) so we took her to the vet. Turned out she had horrible blood chemistry values and the vet asked if I wanted to put her down or see if they could get her to improve. After I remembered how to breathe again, decided that Francis (the kitty that looks so cute in the picture) deserved the best chance we could give her. She lost another half a pound that next week at the vet's but her blood chemistries improved to the point that could take her home the day before Thanksgiving.

So, in the week since then she's progressed to eating some wet cat food and we've learned about giving IV fluids and ProCrit to a cat subcutaneously three times a week, along with an oral liquid vitamin every day. Stairs are still tricky for her but she takes them at an angle; she also is strategic about jumping onto furniture by finding something nearby that's shorter (sometimes moved closer for her convenience but not telling her that) so it's two shorter jumps instead of one big one.

She's starting to get her attitude back so it's still up to her for how long we continue the kitty dialysis with the IV fluids. She doesn't like to be held so we'll see. But she got her chance and she's thriving for now, thanks be to God...

Postscript: Francis did fairly well, though continuing to slowly decline, until mid-January when she decided that she no longer desired our medical procedures. She passed into a peaceful sleep on January 25, 2008. Thank you "baby kitty" for your companionship and introducing me to the joy of playing with puff balls.

Francis Shanks: February 14, 1998 - January 25, 2008.

2007-10-31T19:33:00.001-06:00

Pilgrimage of Resistance

From November 16-18, 2007, thousands will converge at Fort Benning, Georgia. We will take a stand for justice. We will close the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC) and change the racist system of violence and domination that institutions like the SOA/WHINSEC represent.

Ain’t no Power like the Power of the People
If one thing in history is true, it’s that change is inevitable. People around the world who want a change know that the only way to shape that change is by organizing and joining with others in the struggle for a better world.

Mass mobilizations have always been an important tool for social justice movements. When we gather at the gates of Fort Benning this November, we’ll do so in the strong and rich tradition of worldwide struggles for justice and dignity. We will commemorate the victims and survivors that stood up for justice and freedom before us, we will celebrate the resistance to violence and oppression and we will hold those who are responsible for terror and repression accountable.

Join the movement, be a part of history!
Amazing musicians, grassroots activists and social movement leaders from throughout the Americas will come together and take a stand for justice at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia.

Mobilize your Community
Order the November Organizing Packet. For more information, visit SOA Watch on the internet at www.SOAW.org or call 202.234.3440

Engage in Nonviolent Direct Action
Engage in nonviolent direct action to help close the SOA and to liberate us all from oppressive U.S. policy.

Nonviolent direct action has been the backbone of the movement to close the SOA. Talk to your friends now and form affinity groups. Some people will decide to carry the protest onto the military base, risking six months in federal prison for their stands. Others will engage in different creative nonviolent protest.

Actions have occurred at the main gate of Fort Benning, at other entrances and at various locations inside the base, including the barracks where SOA soldiers are housed and the SOA building itself..

If you are considering engaging in nonviolent direct action during the vigil weekend, please contact Eric at elecompte@soaw.org This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it and plan to attend the direct action preparation sessions in the convention center on Friday and Saturday nights. If you will cross the line onto Fort Benning, plan to bring $1,000 for bail money.

During the funeral procession, there will be a space for non-arrestable actions in the center of the street for groups to reenact massacres and to create commemorative vignettes. If your group would like to be a part of one of these vignettes, please plan to attend the direct action session.

We’ll see you at the gates!

Athens Alabama KKK ku klux klan

2007-09-16T13:30:00.001-06:00

this is quite a video that someone has put together in response to the silent witness and nonviolent direct action in reponse to the klan rally in Athens, Alabama on Saturday, September 15th. Thanks be to God.
love and prayers, steve

Dropkick Murphys - The Making of "Tessie"

2007-09-15T23:35:00.001-06:00

it's september, the bosox beat the yankees today and i'm starting to let myself get excited about post-season - hence "Tessie"!

Go Red Sox!

2007-05-17T11:57:00.000-06:00

Indigenous Women Last in Line for MDGs
Inés Benítez

GUATEMALA CITY, May 7 (IPS) - Guatemala is making slow, uneven progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), with maternal mortality and illiteracy remaining the most persistent problems, mid-way to the 2015 deadline.

"One of the hardest goals for us to fulfil is to reduce maternal mortality (by two-thirds)," the under-secretary of the planning and programming secretariat of the Guatemalan president's office (SEGEPLAN), María Castro, said at a forum organised by Fundación Solar and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Guatemala City.

In Guatemala, the maternal mortality rate fell from 248 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1989 to 121 per 100,000 in 2005. However, the target of 62 maternal deaths per 100,000 in 2015 is "still a long way off," Castro said.

That is because most maternal deaths occur among indigenous women in rural areas --the segment of the population with the least access to benefits like health care.

Castro said that maternal deaths, which in most cases are caused by haemorrhaging during childbirth, "are the principal indicator of exclusion" in Guatemala, where 21.5 percent of the population of 12.7 million are living in extreme poverty.

The forum on Guatemalan Society's Role and Challenges Towards the Millennium Development Goals, held on Apr. 27 at Landívar University, brought to a close a week in which different social sectors participated in a range of workshops reviewing advances and challenges related to fulfilling the MDGs.

In 2000, the U.N. member countries jointly committed themselves to halving world hunger and extreme poverty, improving maternal and child health, eradicating illiteracy, and combating HIV/AIDS and other serious diseases, taking 1990 levels as the reference point.

They also promised to ensure gender equality in education, at work and in politics, promote sustainable development while protecting the environment, and establish a world partnership for development.

Another difficult goal for Guatemala, the second of the eight MDGs, is achieving universal primary education and improving literacy among 15 to 24-year-olds. Literacy was estimated to be 82 percent among this age group in 2002, according to the second progress report on fulfilment of the MDGs in Guatemala, published by SEGEPLAN in 2006.

Again, rural indigenous women and girls are the furthest behind: six out of 10 indigenous women over 15 cannot read or write. Although indices of primary school enrolment are encouraging, the drop-out rate is high, and "a great deal of effort is needed to ensure that all children complete their primary education," the report says.

The first MDG is to halve extreme poverty and hunger in the world. It is consistent with the working agenda outlined by the peace agreement signed by the government and leftwing rebels in 1996, which put an end to 36 years of armed conflict.

Poverty will be hard to overcome unless a frontal attack is waged on it by the forces of the government, civil society, and each and every individual, said resident representative of the UNDP in Guatemala, Beat Rohr, speaking at the forum.

Guatemala has an erratic track record on poverty. In 1989, 20 percent of the population was living in extreme poverty (on incomes of less than a dollar a day). In 2000, the proportion fell to 16 percent, but in 2004 it rose again to 21.5 percent, according to official statistics.

The goal is for the proportion of people living in extreme poverty to fall below 10 percent by 2015.

Over the past decade, economic growth has been slow, with gross domestic product (GDP) expanding at an average of 2.4 percent a year, official records show. This has been attributed to a precipitous decline in direct investment, continued high levels of social inequality, the country's overwhelming dependence on agriculture, and low social security coverage, among other factors.

Rohr deplored tragic situations such as the fact that 48 percent of Guatemalan children suffer from chronic malnutrition. He pointed out that undernutrition affects not only the body but also the development of the brain. An enormous effort was required, he urged.

"Unless we courageously confront this problem (of chronic malnutrition), which hits indigenous people hardest, our future will be bleak," Castro said.

She aknowledged the need for the government to implement more effective social policies and improve income distribution.

The UNDP's Human Development Index (2006) ranks Guatemala 118th out of 177 countries. Officially, 40 percent of the population is indigenous, although non-governmental organisations like Refugees International put the proportion closer to 65 percent.

Castro admitted that in the field of environmental sustainability, the seventh MDG, although the government has done some reforestation and has expanded protected natural areas, it has not been able to discourage the widespread use of firewood as an energy source.

As for the sixth MDG, combating HIV/AIDS and other diseases, Castro pointed out that Guatemala has successfully increased the use of condoms, which is the main method for preventing sexual transmission of HIV, but 73,000 adults aged 15 to 49 are known to be HIV-positive.

According to the second progress report, the proportion of women infected with HIV/AIDS is rising, so that there is now almost parity between the number of men and women living with HIV.

The head of the Canadian Centre for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI), Flor de María Bolaños, called on civil society to get involved in striving for the goals by demanding more from government leaders and politicians, and emphasised that the peace accord was "a perfect fit" with the MDGs.

"This country is multicultural and multiethnic," said Simeón Taquirá, a priest of the Mayan Council of Elders.

Mayan, Xinca and Garífuna medicine should be preserved, recovered and legalised, he urged, and their ancestral cultivation techniques and worldview should be taught at universities. He also advocated sustainable agricultural projects.

"Our peoples have been marginalised," Taquirá stated, while criticising such paternalistic approaches as "giving people chickens, but not teaching them how to turn a profit and create sustainable projects." (FIN/2007)

Copyright © 2007 IPS-Inter Press Service. All rights reserved.

LAPD May Day brutality details emerge

2007-05-14T14:27:00.001-06:00

LAPD bruality at May Day immigration protests

This is some youtube footage from Democarcy Now's coverage of LA cops shooting immigrants' rights protesters with rubber bullets and beating the shit out of people with batons.

2007-04-23T07:10:00.000-06:00

"This is a college Columbine."
-Virginia Tech Student, Fox Television News, April 16, 2007

It is urgent that you email or call your elected officials today.
They must hear that you want action to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

Please make as many of these phone calls as you can:

President George W. Bush
202-456-1414

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
202-225-0100

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
202-224-5556

The message for all three calls is simple:

It is much too easy for the wrong people to get deadly weapons in this country. It is time for you to take steps to end gun violence to prevent tragedies like the one at Virginia Tech.

If you can't make the calls, you can click here to send an email, which will go to the President, the Speaker, the Majority Leader, as well as your U.S. Senators and Representative. One click will email all six of them.

2007-03-26T09:08:00.000-06:00

If Jesus knew that Judas was going to betray him, why did he keep him in the circle of his close companions until the end?
from the community of Taize 21-Mar-2007

Among the many disciples who followed him, Jesus designated twelve to be closest to him, to share and continue his mission. He took very seriously the formation of this group of twelve apostles, praying an entire night beforehand.

But at a certain moment, Jesus realized that one of the twelve, Judas, had changed his attitude. Jesus understood that Judas was becoming distant from him, and even saw that he was going to “hand him over,” as the gospels put it. According to John’s gospel, Jesus understood what was happening already in Galilee, long before the events in Jerusalem that would bring him to the cross (John 6:70-71). Why then did he not send Judas away? Why did he keep him close to him until the end?

One of the words used by Jesus to speak of the creation of the group of the twelve apostles gives us a clue. “Did not I choose you, the Twelve?” (John 6:70; see also 13:18.) The verb to choose is a key word in Bible history. God chose Abraham, and then chose Israel to become the chosen people. It is God’s choice or election that forms God’s people, the people of the covenant. What makes the covenant unbreakable is that God chooses to love Abraham and his descendants for ever. The apostle Paul would comment on this: “God’s gifts and call are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29).

Because Jesus chose the twelve just as God chose his people, he could not send Judas away even when he realized that he was going to betray him. He knew that he had to love him to the end, to show that God’s choice was irrevocable. The prophets, Hosea and Jeremiah in particular, spoke in the name of a God wounded and humiliated by the betrayals of his people, but who nevertheless never stopped loving them with eternity’s love. Jesus did not wish to do less, nor could he do so: humiliated by the treason of one of his closest companions, he kept on showing him his love. By lowering himself before his disciples to wash their feet, he made himself the servant of all, Judas included. And it was particularly with Judas that he shared a peace of bread, a fragment of burning love that the disciple took away with him into his night (John 13:21-30).

If he wanted to be faithful to his Father – to the God who chose Abraham and Israel, to the God of the prophets – Jesus could do nothing else but keep Judas close to him until the end. He loved Judas even when Judas was enshrouded by darkness. “The light shines in the darkness” (John 1:5). The gospel says that Jesus “was glorified” at the moment he gave his love to Judas, when he loved him without gaining anything by it and beyond all measure (John 13:31). In the darkest night of resentment and hatred, Jesus manifested the unbelievable radiance of God’s love.

Why are the gospels so discreet concerning Judas’ motives?

It is astonishing that the first Christians did not keep silent about the fact that one of the twelve apostles handed Jesus over to the hostile authorities. This fact casts doubt on the character of Jesus himself: did he make a mistake in choosing one of his companions? But it is equally astonishing that the gospels say almost nothing about the motives of Judas. Was he disappointed when he realized that Jesus was not a Messiah with a program of political liberation? Did he think he was acting in the best interests of his people by bringing Jesus’ career to an end? Some have supposed that he was motivated by the lure of a reward; others that he acted out of love, to help Jesus to give his life….

In the gospels there are only two indications concerning the reasons for what Judas did. One is the mention of the devil. “The devil placed in Judas’ heart the intention to hand him over” (John 13:2). But this only deepens the mystery. The devil, or Satan, is the one who opposes, criticizes or slanders. Jesus sensed the resentment that had come to birth in Judas’ heart and that was rooted there to the point of no return. But about why it existed, not a word, not even an allusion.

The other indication is the reference to the Holy Scriptures. Regarding Judas’ betrayal of him, Jesus said, “so that the words of Scripture will be fulfilled: The one who eats my bread turned his heel against me” (Psalm 41:9, quoted in John 13:18). It is important to understand correctly the meaning of this reference to the Scriptures in the gospels. They are not a kind of script where the role of each actor is written down in advance. Everyone who reads the Bible carefully knows well to what extent it offers choices and sets everyone before their responsibilities.

Quoting the verse of the psalm “The one who eats my bread turned his heel against me” (Psalm 41:10), Jesus does not mean to state that Judas could not have acted differently, but rather that God remains the principal actor in what is being played out. There is the drama of the betrayal, and at the same time God is the one at work. For if through Judas the Scriptures are being fulfilled, that means that, in a mysterious way, God’s intentions are being carried out. God is causing his words to come about (Isaiah 55:10-11). The reference to Scripture enables us to believe in God even during the night, even when what happens is incomprehensible.

If Judas’ resentment and hatred remain incomprehensible, Jesus’ love “to the very end” is still more beyond all understanding. The gospels are so discreet concerning Judas’ motives because they do not want to satisfy our curiosity, but rather to lead us to faith. They do not clarify the abyss of darkness of the drama of Judas; they reveal the unfathomable and incomprehensible depth of God’s love.

2007-03-22T00:43:00.000-06:00

The Ivy Bush: Christian Peace Witness includes reflections on the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq as well as a link to the video that is available online through the National Cathedral.

Nonviolence music video

2007-03-21T00:53:00.001-06:00

... nonviolent actions in places including India, Nashville, Birmingham, Serbia, and others... we must meet physcial force with soul force... love and prayers, steve

Christian Peace Witness for Iraq

2007-03-21T00:48:00.001-06:00

Video from Ken Butigan of Pace E Bene during civil disobedience in front of the White House.

2007-03-19T11:54:00.000-06:00

Christian Peace Witness for Iraq
Friday, March 16, 2007

It was a long but joyous day on Friday with facilitating Nonviolence Direct Action trainings with Janet Chisholm and Kolya Braun-Greiner for those participating in the worship, as well as, for those discerning a call to civil disobedience. In the morning at St. Mark's Capitol Hill (rain); in the afternoon at Epiphany downtown (sleet); the National Cathedral (snow) where I was honored to have participated in the procession as the Episcopal Peace Fellowship representative and by the seating in the north transept immediately adjacent to the speaker's platform. To have an opportunity to be in the company of the speakers especially Celeste Zappala of Philadelphia (whose son, Sgt. Sherwood Baker, was killed in Iraq), Pastor Raphael G. Warnock (Senior Pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church, spiritual home of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), and Jim Wallis (Call to Renewal and Sojourners) was moving and inspiring.

Janet and I, and others, were part of an Affinity Group that provided support for a friend from Nova Scotia who was arrested. Heather was one of 325 that offered themselves for civil disobedience by praying at the fence in front of the White House that evening.

All topped off with a gathering of the Episcopal Peace Fellowship at St. Alban's on Saturday.

For more coverage check out articles by the Washington Post,
United Press International, and the DC local Fox 5 news coverage (brief glimpse of me at 2:05)

2007-03-13T10:05:00.000-06:00

Priests to Purify Site After Bush Visit
Washington Post, AP
March 9, 2007

Mayan priests will purify a sacred archaeological site to eliminate "bad spirits" after President Bush visits next week, an official with close ties to the group said Thursday. "That a person like (Bush), with the persecution of our migrant brothers in the United States, with the wars he has provoked, is going to walk in our sacred lands, is an offense for the Mayan people and their culture," Juan Tiney, the director of a Mayan nongovernmental organization with close ties to Mayan religious and political leaders, said Thursday.

Read more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/09/AR2007030900076.html

2007-03-13T07:34:00.000-06:00

Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

From Louie Crew's Do Justice site

Posted by permission

St. Thomas’ Parish, Washington, DCMarch 11, 2007Readings: Exodus 3:1-15. Psalm 63:1-8. Luke 13:1-9. 1 Cor 10:1-13

Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.

I AM THAT I AM has sent me.

We stand on holy ground. This parish is a holy place.

I am a native of Alabama and was brought up in a devout Baptist family. As young teacher on my first job, I fled the Baptist church and was confirmed at St. Peters in Rome, [Georgia ] on October 29, 1961, and two years later I fled life behind the “Cotton Curtain” and moved to St. Andrew’s School in Middletown, Delaware. For me St. Andrew’s was a splendid closet in which I could hide from myself except in the far reaches of the night. I buried myself in the task that I loved best, teaching. For cabin fever, I would visit Octavio, a close classmate from Baylor, who worked at Walter Reed and lived on 17th Street, a minute’s walk from this parish. On many a visit I came here to St. Thomas’ to pray.

St. Thomas’ is holy ground for me. I rejoice that it is holy ground for you too, in all of your rich diversity.

Later I attended Eucharists many times while Integrity met here. Again and again I have reconnected here with many people important to my own spiritual journey. Yall have a splendid history of welcoming gay and lesbian people and everyone else as well.

This neighborhood is holy ground.

I discovered that long before I founded Integrity, or even imagined that the liberation to which God called Moses could prefigure the liberation to which God would call me, you, and so many others before us in this place.

The cry of the lesbians, gays, and transgendered has now come to me; I have also seen how the Church oppresses them. So come, I will send you to the Episcopal Church to bring my people, the Lesbians, gays and transgendered, out of their captivity." But then we said to God, "Who are we that we should go for you?" He said, "I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when the people have come out of oppression, you shall worship God in this holy place."

When I first visited St. Thomas’, I was deeply closeted and told no one what I knew about my body chemistry or my heart. I vividly remember on one visit riding out to the National Cathedral on a bus on a very hot day in late spring. Many on the sidewalks had removed their shirts. The traffic was slow, and at one light the bus waited for several minutes. I stared uncontrollably at a man just standing by the bus no more than a foot from my window. I was glad that my friend Octavio was at my back and could not see my eyes. Then Octavio whispered to me, “Isn’t he gorgeous!?”

I turned in complete surprise. “You too?!” I asked. He smiled from ear to ear, his eyes sparkled, and he shook his head up and down.

Do you see the enormity of it! Octavio and I had been close friends for almost 10 years, yet so oppressive was the hetero dictatorship in our minds, that we dared not even share with each other the beautiful innocence of who we were.

That was 45 years ago, but almost any day now the legislature in Nigeria is expected to pass a law that not only will prohibit lesbian and gay marriage, but will also give harsh prison sentences to any gays who associate with each other in public (Look out a bus and whisper ’Isn’t he gorgeous!’ Hold hands? ) and will also punish any heterosexuals who advocate for such gay rights. Last week Time Magazine and The New York Times have joined many newspapers worldwide in condemning this proposal and in pointing a finger at Peter K. Akinola, Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria, who is one of the loudest in promoting the new law and in condemning the Episcopal Church.

The old English word hāl gives us three words in modern English: whole, hale [healthy] and holy. They still are one entity. You cannot be whole if you are not healthy. You cannot be holy if you cannot integrate body and soul, mind and spirit.

We stand on holy ground. We stand in a place safe enough to be whole, to be hale, to be holy.

I hope that you are having a good Lent. It is a penitential season. Throughout Lent we look closely at our sins and strive to repent. Rethink! Rethink! The Kingdom of God is very near you. Rethink! gets closer to the opportunity Lent provides than does Repent! Repent! too easily is received as “Feel guilty!“ God does not want us to grovel: God wants us to use our minds and when necessary, to change them.

I learned an important lesson from the Baptists about the dangers of reviewing my sins: namely, don‘t take someone else‘s word for what your sins are. When I arrived as a freshman at Baylor in 1954, I already knew that it was sinful to cuss, smoke, drink, chew, and beat your wife, but imagine my surprise when Texas Baptists talked about “the sin of mixed bathing”! Do men and women here in Texas actually take a bath together? I wondered in Alabama horror!

Baylor did not allow dances: instead, they renamed them as “functions.” Baylor did not allow fraternities and sororities, but instead, named them “social clubs.”The huge amount of time we consumed in sustaining these hypocrisies distracted us from looking at the sins of segregation and racism, of which we were all the silent, uncritical beneficiaries. Our missionaries to Africa could not even get their own graduates admitted to Baylor. It was not until after I graduated that a strong black tackle from the University of Texas scared the beJesus out of Baylor and prompted it to integrate.

Our beloved Presiding Bishop has invited us all to spend this Lent in a time of deep reflection about the place of the Episcopal Church in the Anglican Communion. I join her in that appeal, with a strong caveat that we not accept uncritically what the Lambeth Conference, the Windsor Report, and the Primates Meetings have told us to be our sins. Octavio and I were not sinning to look out the window of that bus and, like God, to call creation “good.” On the rooftop in Joppa, Peter heard correctly what he had not expected to hear, “Call nothing, [call no one] unclean that I have made!”

As many of you know, the primates of the 38 provinces of the Anglican Communion have issued an ultimatum that come September the bishops of the Episcopal Church must assure them that they will no longer consent to the consecration of lesbian or gay bishops and will also not allow the blessing of any more lesbian and gay unions.

Yet, the primates have no juridical authority to make such demands. The provinces of the Communion are autonomous -- interdependent we believe, but autonomous. The word autonomy loses all its meaning in the primates’ demands.

Suppose a president of the US (any one of them, this is not a partisan illustration) were to say to the Senate, “The House of Representatives is too cantankerous for me to bother with. Since both Houses must agree on any legislation before it becomes law, I will deal with them no longer, but only with you; and I expect you to vote down anything of which I disapprove.”

That’s the power play the primates are trying, to have only our bishops decide for the church, and unless enough leaders are vigilant, they just may get away with it. It doesn’t occur to most people in the pews that a bishop might be a sinner, that a bishop might grab power.

I believe that our sin is indeed driving this conflict -- not the sin being talked about, but the one we keep hidden: the sin of colonialism with its attendant racism is visiting itself upon us unto the third and fourth generation. Lesbians and gays are but scapegoats, a convenient issue that presents itself to those whom we have systemically devalued and abused for centuries flex their muscles as for the first time, their bishops have become a majority of the Anglican Communion.

The Anglican Communion is the accidental byproduct of British colonial rule, and in time, a byproduct of American colonialism as well. The New York Historical Society has for several years now mounted a series of exhibits about slavery in New York City. The “stock” at the original New York stock market was human stock: it was the slave market. Much of the wealth and power of this country, of this city, and of the Episcopal Church, derives from the fortunes made, directly and indirectly, by slavery and by the continued economic subjugation of descendents of slaves.

During this Lent, take a tour of neighborhoods you don’t normally visit in this marvelous capitol and ask yourself, “Of what I see here, how much is part of the continuing legacy of slavery?”

The cure for sin is not guilt -- the gift that keeps on giving -- but rethinking and right action.

Ask yourself what you can do to reverse the legacy of slavery? For example, you might organize a diocesan task on Reparations. You might ask John Johnson how you can become more involved in supporting the Millennium Development Goals (the MDGs). If you have not already done so, calculate .7% of your own annual income and send it to Episcopal Relief and Development earmarked for microeconomic projects in the world’s poorest nations, or earmarked for work with bringing black people back to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

My friend Alex Baumgarten, John’s colleague in our Washington Officeis has warned me that even in individual responses to MDGs we may make ourselves feel better and yet still miss out on an opportunity to have a bigger impact in eradicating economic injustice. .7% from every Episcopalian, if given, would be fine, but only a drop in the bucket to the amounts that Episcopalians can hope to raise for MDGs if we pressure our government to make a similar contributions to the economies of the poorest nations, whose resources corporate and individual American interests have too often exploited.

And hear the words of today’s Gospel writ in our own context:

"Do you think that because these poorest nations suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all us Americans? No, I tell you; but unless we rethink, we will all become as endangered as they are. Or those 2,600 who were killed when the World Trade Center fell on them or the 174 who were killed here in Washington--do you think that they were singled out as offenders? No, I tell you; but unless we rethink our foreign policy, unless we can see God’s image in every Muslim, in every dispossessed person, in every “enemy,” and love our enemies as we love ourselves, many more of us will perish just as they did."

Asked whether he believed in infant Baptism, Mark Twain replied: I not only believe in it: I have seen it happen.

When Ernest Clay and I married thirty-three years ago, I wrote my parents and told them about him. They wrote back saying they were happy for us but asked me not to bring him home to visit. “We are old,” they said, “and while most of our friends would remain our friends, we don’t want to put them to the test. We have to live here, and you don’t. But we hope you will continue to come to visit us on your own.”

I showed the letter to Ernest. He smiled when he had finished, but said nothing.

“Well, get your things. We’re driving to see them. It’s only 250 miles and we’ll be there before bed time.”

“Didn’t you read the letter?” he asked.

“They wrote that only because they don’t know you yet. When Dad sees how gentle you are, just like Mother, he will fall in love with you; and when Mother sees….”

“Louie, you’re going to see them, but I am not. I respect their wishes. They have a right to their quiet retirement.”

And you’re going to see them, because if you don’t, something very important in you will die. You are able to love me because they loved you. In that way, I get the best of both worlds: I have a good husband and I don’t have to spend time with my in-laws.”

“But….,”

“No but’s about it,” he said. I sulked, but I went.

After several visits, my father said, “Son, I don’t want to hurt you but I probably will because I don’t know how to talk about it except as a man of my generation, a son of one of the poorest counties in Alabama.

“I don’t understand how flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood could live with a black man as with an equal. At first I thought you might have chosen a black man so that you could feel superior, and I knew that could not be healthy for either of you. Then I feared you might think yourself as inferior because of being gay, and therefore chose a black man. Yet I have listened and listened and I have found no evidence that either has happened.

“And Son, something about you has changed. I loved you before you were ever born. I remember seeing you in the maternity ward with one foot out from under the cover the way I sleep, the way your grandfather slept, the way your great grandfather slept. I remember my joy the first time that I heard in your laugh your mother’s laugh. But son, up until now, something about you has always been incomplete. That’s not so anymore. I am not ready yet to meet Ernest, but you must go home and tell him that I love him, because he has given my son back to me whole.”

We often were amused that neither set of parents could recognize us when we answered the phone. Apparently we have the same answering style. Six years into our marriage, I answered and Dad said, “I’d like to speak to my son, please.”

“Dad,” I am your son, I laughed.

“No, Louie, I want to speak to my other son.”

This one’s for you, I whispered.

He told Ernest, “We are Christians, but we have not behaved like Christians. Will you forgive us, and will you and Louie come spend this weekend with us. We have invited all our friends to come and meet you.”

I believe in the Holy Spirit. I have seen the Holy Spirit happen.

As late as 1979 the General Convention held the view of gay people stated in Lambeth 1.10, in the Windsor Report and in the primates’ recent communique. If the Holy Spirit has needed almost 30 years to change our hearts, cannot we love those in the rest of the Communion enough for the Holy Spirit to work on their hearts?

I believe in the Holy Spirit. Amen.

--Posted by Ann to Walking With Integrity at 3/12/2007 04:49:00 PM

2007-03-05T23:08:00.000-06:00

Quiz: Which theologian are you?

I scored as Jürgen Moltmann. The problem of evil is central to your thought, and only a crucified God can show that God is not indifferent to human suffering. Christian discipleship means identifying with suffering but also anticipating the new creation of all things that God will bring about.

Jürgen Moltmann

73%

Charles Finney

73%

Anselm

67%

Martin Luther

67%

Augustine

67%

Friedrich Schleiermacher

67%

John Calvin

60%

Karl Barth

47%

Paul Tillich

47%

Jonathan Edwards

27%

Which theologian are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

2007-02-21T22:47:00.000-06:00

Ash Wednesday 2007
at Trinity Episcopal Church, Clanton, Alabama
by the Rev. Steve Shanks, Deacon
Isaiah 58:1-12 | Psalm 103 | 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 | Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Beloved sisters and brothers, let us look to the Lord.
May only God’s word be spoken,
May God’s word be heard.
In the name of Jesus, I pray.
Amen.

Sometimes it seems best to simply read the texts slowly, clearly, and well, and then sit down. It is almost as if the read word speaks and comments clearly on itself, and a person like me who is called to offer a reflection on the readings must be careful not to detract from the written word. It seems that way to me for these passages appointed for Ash Wednesday.

A friend, Jim Sundholm, describes a time some years ago when a friend of his, a pastor in the American Baptist tradition, was reading the Isaiah 58 text in worship, that we heard just a few minutes ago, getting ready to preach from it. As Jim tells it, his friend got up to begin preaching, and said, “I can’t.” He paused. Again he said, “I can’t.” He then started to gently cry and said, “These words are beyond me, I can’t preach them.” The result that day, from the silence that followed, was that people spontaneously spoke out in similar confessions for about twenty-five minutes.

It is on this day that we face our frailty, our coming from and returning to dust, our sin. The Holy Scripture that we encounter calls us to be conformed to the values and character of God. For Isaiah, the call is to “do” the fast that the Lord chooses. For the psalmist, it is David’s desperate words about enduring the deep sadness of sins past that literally bring him, and us, to a position of humility and brokenness before God. For Paul in Corinth, it is engaging and demonstrating “the righteousness of God.” For Matthew it is recognizing that the “fast” is for you, it is about your internal life being conformed to the “mind” of God and “storing treasures in heaven.”

Isaiah in chapter 58 longs for a new day, one that is not formed or defined by the circumstances of injustice and oppression but rather a day that God chooses. A day of bonds being loosened and suffering being undone, a day of sharing our food with hungry people, offering shelter to those who are poor, and clothing those who are naked.

Kimberly Smith is a friend of mine whose heart burns for work in the international missions’ field. It is where her heart is broken. She and her organization, Make Way Partners, are engaged in work to prevent and combat human trafficking and modern day slavery which affects 30 million persons, mostly women and children. The work has taken this group to Portugal and Romania, and they are also on the ground in the south Sudan.

Today, at this moment, the challenge in the south Sudan is disease. Kimberly is there and in the midst of the ongoing meningitis outbreak. The disease is considered a fatal infection and is caused by bacteria that affect the thin lining of the brain and spinal cord, though if diagnosed and treated early it can be survivable. Those who do recover are very weak and face a variety of complications resulting from the disease, including brain damage and deafness. When a person survives meningitis, they are in great need of vitamins and minerals. The best way to get those into them is by using supplements since there is not a reliable, continual source of adequate food. Of course, it takes money to buy the supplements and arrange transportation to get it to where it’s needed.

The outbreak continues to spread throughout this area. It has been said that there is now written confirmation that 300,000 doses of meningitis vaccine are to arrive in the area on February 26th, more than a month after this current outbreak began. Hopefully, the aid promised by the government will come. Kimberly is today in the midst of working to organize an international medical team to bring skilled care givers and medicines to the region, but the costs and logistics are great.

There is a pressing need for simple medicines. A six-week old baby died just this past Monday due to not having anti-diarrhea meds. Kimberly reports that it is “frustrating” not to be able to get simple medicines. There are no local pharmacies where one can just go and pick up what you want. Meningitis can also cause pneumonia or other respiratory problems, and there is not an adequate supply of decongestants. I invite you to join me in remembering Kimberly and Make Way Partners in our prayers, as her team continues the work of raising up and delivering resources to people living in the dust in the south Sudan.

Isaiah knows the story of exile, as does Kimberly – the story of the scattered, starving refugee, those who are wandering, bearing great suffering. Isaiah cries out to God’s followers in their personal comfort, “Heed the unmet need about you, that’s what pleases God.” Yet, the cry goes on in every generation. The “fast” that Isaiah describes is what a broken, recovering community needed long ago; but the words are tragically fresh in our own day.

Matthew, in our gospel reading, reveals Jesus offering from the beatitudes – given from the mount in Matthew’s previous chapter and from level ground in Luke a couple of Sunday’s ago – a new, yet very old, word. Jesus’ call also seems similar to Joshua’s to “choose this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15). I can choose the gods of this culture who entice me to pursue exterior comfort and appearance, or I can choose the Lord of inner confidence and certainty who treasures the connections that I make to the others around me.

When Matthew speaks (v. 21) about our heart and our treasure being located in the same place, it was helpful for me to reflect on the Hebrew concept of a single “heart-mind” where the heart is the center of our physical, mental, and spiritual life as human beings. This Hebrew sense of heart is not just about feelings, but is also linked with the activities of the mind and the will. The Hebrew sense of heart is about what is at the center of our moral and spiritual life. So, my treasure reflects not just how I feel about something, but it also how I “do” the fast that Isaiah describes, how I decide to choose to live out Christ’s call to me in every moment of my life.

For me, that includes a reordering in this new day that reflects the values of a new kingdom worth dying and rising for. This is a kingdom that not only recognizes that we both come from and return to dust, but a kingdom that invites us to reflect the new day of an old order, in both the fabric of our lives and the choices we make.

In Christ’s name, Amen.

2007-02-18T14:36:00.000-06:00

I was pleased to have an opportunity to provide a gospel reflection and deacon's witness talk at the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in Leeds, Alabama this Sunday. I have many connections and friends to and through the parish. Below is the final draft of the my offering for this Sunday.

The Last Sunday after Epiphany 2007
at Epiphany in Leeds, Alabama
Exodus 34:29-35 | Psalm 99 | 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 | Luke 9:28-36, [37-43a]

Beloved sisters and brothers, let us look to the Lord.
May only God’s word be spoken,
May God’s word be heard.
In the name of Jesus, I pray.
Amen.

My sisters and brothers in Christ, allow me to say right now: It is good for us to be here in this holy place! My wife Vickie and I have been blessed to be with you at various times over the years, for some very happy occasions and for some tinged with the sadness of loss, but always in celebration, thanksgiving, and joy for the gift of God’s boundless grace. This parish of Epiphany has always seemed to me to be a place of tenacious hope, and for that I give thanks.

So, as we come to the end of the Epiphany season and start to look toward the beginning of Lent three days from now on Ash Wednesday, we find ourselves this morning in the midst of the scene of the Transfiguration.

I’ve read, that the Apache people of Arizona when they see the powerful lightning displays and hear the thunder echo from the canyons of the Superstition Mountains say, “That is the home of the thunder Gods.” The Kikuyu people of Kenya when they look at the majesty of Mount Kenya, alternately hidden and revealed by the clouds, say, “Ngai (god) lives there.” When the Hebrew people see Moses come down from Mount Sinai, his face shining with such a brilliance that he has to cover it to protect their eyes, say, “The Lord reveals himself there.” And when Peter and James and John come down from the mountain, after witnessing Jesus’ transfiguration and the appearance of Moses and Elijah, say, “God does spectacular things there!”

Mountains hold the mystery of the ages, the rock solid strength of the divine, the beauty of fellowship with God. They seem to have long held that kind of power for human beings, and I am no exception. I know that I’ve had the experience of going somewhere or doing something that lifts my soul to such a new height, that I’ve said, “I’ve had a mountaintop experience!” The psalmist even tells us to worship at God’s holy mountain. Mountains call us to worship God; who is Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of all that is.

Of course, my problem has always been that I want to stay on the mountaintop. There have been times when I’ve felt God’s presence so strongly that, like the disciples, all I want to do is to build a little house and stay there, soaking up all that divinity for myself. But, unfortunately, that’s not the way it works. As God told Abraham, “I am blessing you so that you will be a blessing,” and God has the same message for each one of us. Just think about what Moses had on his hands when he comes down from Sinai – a grumbling, mumbling people to be lead in desert wanderings. When Jesus and the disciples come down from the mountain; a great crowd of people meets them, wanting all kinds of blessings, including the healing of a child with a demon.

When the people of Kenya come down from their mountain there are more than one million children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS, seven hundred deaths per day from the disease, and massive poverty caused by fifty percent unemployment. It has been said that the people of Africa don’t struggle for quality of life. They struggle for survival, to keep themselves and their families alive for another day.

When we come down from our mountaintops, we also encounter the reality of the urgent needs of the people around us that are to be met. I found encouragement for myself, when the psalmist describes this experience as looking at God and responding with praise; because God loves justice, and establishes fairness and righteousness. Paul (in his second letter to the Corinthians) says that when we have seen the Lord’s glory on the mountaintop, we who are created in God’s image are truly transformed into that image. That is when we become people who not only seek righteousness for ourselves, but also strive for fairness and justice for all of God’s people.

One of the ways that we seek to strive for justice and meet the needs of those around us, here in the Diocese of Alabama, is through the network of Jubilee Ministries. Jubilee Ministry as it exists today was created by action of General Convention in 1982 and now encompasses over 700 different ministries throughout the Episcopal Church as well as 13 foreign countries.

My role in this ministry is as Diocesan Jubilee Officer, to provide support and encouragement for folks doing, or interested in doing, Jubilee Ministry in this diocese. But what does it mean to “do” Jubilee Ministry? Well, the mission of Jubilee Ministry is to make a direct and dynamic link between our theology and our ethics – in other words– it is where we connect the Talk of Our Faith and the Walk of Our Faith. As Christians we do this by:

First, calling the church to live out its prophetic role of empowering local people to “Do Justice, Love Mercy, and Walk Humbly With Their God.” (Micah 6:8)
and Secondly, by responding to the Gospel Imperative to “Feed the Hungry, Give Drink to the Thirsty, Welcome the Stranger, Clothe the Naked, Care for the Sick, and Visit the Imprisoned” (Matthew 25:35)

Perhaps, at its core, Jubilee Ministry is intended to help the church, and each one of us, focus attention on a specific question: How are we responding to the call of Jesus Christ who was born, who died, and who rose again two millennia ago?

Of course, the idea of Jubilee is established in the book of Leviticus: “You shall hallow the fiftieth year and you shall proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants” – although there is no evidence that it actually took place then. But it can and is taking place now, in the church and in this diocese, this time is a “season of unfoldment in which God’s blessing, compassion, and justice are unleashed, not from some remote heaven but from within the human heart.”

What better description of the Christian journey can there be? Being stretched and cracked open by God’s own joy and desire for our full flourishing leads us to acknowledge that it is not only ourselves who need to flourish: we, as the body of Christ in the world, are called to be agents of healing for the entire earth.

The concept of Jubilee has its roots in the idea of Sabbath – a time of “re-creation, reordering, and release.” Former presiding bishop Frank Griswold once said that, “ in Jubilee, all creation is to be liberated for the sake of finding proper balance and relationship in union with God and one another. God's liberation unfolds as we cease to hold one another hostage through unyielding bias, prejudice, judgment, suspicion, fears, and forgiveness. ... Jubilee is fundamental to our life as a resurrection community.” Indeed, indeed…

So, how does Jubilee Ministry work? Why does it continue to flourish 25 years after the resolution establishing it at General Convention, and why has it now grown to be a vital part of the ministry of more than 1 in 10 parishes in the Episcopal Church?

Jubilee Ministry begins with an Episcopal congregation, an ecumenical cluster with Episcopal presence, or an agency with connections to the Episcopal Church being involved in ministry programs among, and with, poor and oppressed people wherever they are located. That’s the point of beginning.

A Jubilee Center then includes at least one or more of the following:

Advocacy – on behalf of others – by being the voice of those who have not yet dared to believe that their voice can literally change society and social structures.
Empowering volunteers and staff, as well as the population being served – for the good of others and our own life in community. By working together with others – by breathing in sync with the Spirit of God and of each other to bring about a new way of being in which we truly do live out our baptismal vows of respecting the dignity of every human being.
Evangelism – in our action, in our prayers, in a pastoral presence, in inviting others to share in our worship.

Jubilee Centers also covenant to actively participate in:

Reflecting theologically upon learnings in ministry,
Demonstrating the operation of programs as models to others, and to
Act as a resource center for other Jubilee Ministry Centers.

The kinds of ministries offered at Jubilee Centers include: camps, clothes, food, community services, children’s programs, youth programs, emergency services, health, HIV/AIDS, housing, shelters, immigration, jail or prison, homeless, substance abuse, credit unions – any ministry program among and with poor and oppressed people.

In the Diocese of Alabama, Jubilee Ministry Centers take the form of, and I’ll briefly describe just some of the ministries at each: Grace Episcopal Church in Woodlawn with 55th Place Thrift Store, Grace-by-Day, Community Kitchens; St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Athens providing a multi-cultural preschool with bilingual teachers and a drop-in pantry; The Jubilee Community Center in Montgomery providing after school programs, an entrepreneurial class, direct health services, job training, and vacation bible school; Christ Episcopal Church in Fairfield with CityWorks which is an interfaith Community Development Corporation providing affordable housing, in addition to, a literacy program, thrift store, prison ministry, and emergency services; and the newest member of Jubilee Ministry in the Diocese of Alabama, Good Samaritan Health Clinic in Cullman providing free primary health care serving low-income, uninsured, and under-insured residents of Cullman County. In the 4 years since opening its doors, the clinic has delivered $4.6 million in services to more than 7800 persons in the community. Also of note, services are being provided on budget's that last year totaled $200,000 and a total of in-kind contributions of $325,000. This year the clinic anticipates around 4,000 patient visits and will potentially provide approximately $4 million in services to our patients. They currently have three medical clinics per week and could use one more, two dental clinics per month, one eye disease and one hearing clinic per month. We also have twice monthly diabetes and nutrition classes and provide diabetic monitors, test strips, lancets and insulin syringes to our patients.

Perhaps you’re wanting to discern your place in this vineyard. I found a great resource in this important little book "What Can One Person Do?" In it, two accomplished economists, Sabina Alkire and Edmund Newell, who also happen to be Anglican clergy, have outlined seven simple steps that we people of faith can take to heal a broken world. They are (1) pray for the healing of the world, (2) be informed by study of the realities of global poverty, (3) give 7/10ths of 1% of our own incomes for international development, (4) connect on a personal level with those who are poor and marginalized, (5) get active in events addressing global poverty, (6) become vocal about these concerns, and (7) get political and advocate for the poor in our governmental processes. If you want to know more about how you can become engaged with this work, then getting a copy of this book can be a good place to start, and, of course, you can also talk to me or Mother Lynette or Deacon Clyde.

My Sisters and Brothers in Christ, like Moses and Jesus and the Kenyans, we go to the mountaintop to strengthen and renew ourselves, and to affirm our place in God’s heart. Then we, too, come back to the valley, to level ground, where there are people who are struggling for life, and where we are called to carry on God’s purpose. In this process, we will not only discover shalom, God’s Sabbath Peace¸ within our spirits, but we will also become bearers of that shalom to the earth and all her inhabitants in response to Jesus’ call to us: “You are gifted with my grace; you are the light of the world. Now go forth in my name, proclaim jubilee, and above all, surprise me.”

2007-02-17T14:28:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm happy to announce that, accompanied with lively debate both in the resolution committee and on the floor of convention, the living wage has been adopted as a standard for The Episocopal Church in the Diocese of Alabama. Please, keep our diocesan council in your prayers as they determine how to implement the living wage in our diocese. The final version of the resolution is as shown below.

A Resolution in Support of a Living Wage
Resolution # 4

Resolved, that the 176th Convention of the Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Alabama actively support the establishment of a living wage for all workers; and be it further

Resolved, that a living wage standard be defined as the Alabama poverty guideline for a family of four, to wit: 125% of the most recent federal poverty guideline for a family of four, as adjusted and published annually by the United States Department of Health and Human Services; and be it further

Resolved, that this Convention strongly urge those responsible for planning events hosted by the Diocese of Alabama to comply with this resolution and to commit the Diocese of Alabama at all levels, whenever possible, to obtain confirmation that local prevailing living wages are paid by hotels the Church uses; and be it further

Resolved, that the standard defined above shall be the goal of all parishes, worshipping communities and institutions of the Diocese as the minimum compensation of lay employees.

Adopted by the Diocesan Convention, February 16, 2007

Explanation

One of the central biblical imperatives is the call for us to uplift those living in poverty. Persistent and widespread poverty is for us a primary issue. In the Hebrew scriptures, the biblical prophet Isaiah offered us God’s vision of a good society. His words are as relevant today as they were 3,000 years ago, and show us the way forward. Isaiah envisions a society where:

"No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live a lifetime…They shall build houses and inhabit them: they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit: they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen will long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain, or bear their children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord….” (Isaiah 65:20-25)

In the New Testament, Jesus defines his mission to be:

“to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, new sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free” (Luke 4:18-19)

Jesus identifies so completely with poor and oppressed people that he told his followers that to meet or fail to meet the needs of the hungry, the stranger, the one without clothing, the sick, or the prisoner is to serve or not serve Jesus himself (Matthew 25).

This vision includes fair and good wages, housing and health, safety and security. In America, people who work should not be poor, but today many are. We must ensure that all people who are able to work have jobs where they do not labor in vain, but have access to good health care, decent housing, and are able to support their families. The future of our country depends upon strong and stable families that can successfully raise their children.

As encouraged by General Convention Resolutions GC2003-A130 and GC2006-D047, and in the midst of our prayerful conduct of the business of this Diocesan Convention, we call your attention to those who work in the hotels we occupy here; those workers who make the beds, vacuum the rooms, clean the toilets, carry our bags, and prepare and serve our food. We trust all will agree that in their work they deserve justice, respect, and a living wage that will support their families in our current economy. We therefore call your attention to the following facts, and invite your support of this resolution.

It is our understanding is that none of the hotels here in Tuscaloosa are either union hotels or providing a living wage. We deeply lament this. Some facts to consider:

In Alabama, 4.6 percent of hourly workers, or 53,000 people, earn the minimum wage of $5.15 or less, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The average hourly wage in Alabama for a Food Preparation & Service-Related worker is $7.04. (Source: The Living Wage Calculator at http://www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu/)

Working full time (2080 hours per year), a Food Preparation & Service-Related worker above would earn $14,643/year. That falls well short of what it would take to provide even a minimum acceptable income - given today's soaring housing, health, and transportation costs. It is also reported that in 1999 (the last year for which figures are available) about 24% of persons at work in non-agriculture industries were employed less than 35 hours per week.
(Source: http://www.allcountries.org/uscensus/658_persons_at_work_by_hours_worked.html)

This proposed resolution provides a definition and formula (125% of the federal poverty guideline for a family of four as published by the United States Department of Health and Human Services http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/) for determining the current poverty guideline, and is also intended as a minimum guideline, on an annual basis, for compensation of lay employees of parishes, worshipping communities, and other institutions. The living wage is the minimum compensation to be paid to those employees.

For the year 2006, the federal poverty guideline is $20,000 annually for a family of four. The living wage guideline in this proposed resolution is 125% of that number, or $25,000. This equals $12.00/hour for a full-time worker.

Adopted by the Diocesan Convention, February 16, 2007

2007-02-14T16:34:00.000-06:00

Sample Bible Study for Living Wage Discussion

Read Matthew 20:1-16 (The Laborers in the Vineyard) aloud.

‘For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the market place; and he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.” He said to them, “You also go into the vineyard.” When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, “Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.” When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” But he replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” So the last will be first, and the first will be last.’

Discuss it as a group:

What is your first response? What is this parable about?

Two scenarios are described below. The instructor/leader may form the class into two groups that report back to the main group, or address both scenarios in the main group:

The field: “The workers gathered in a parking lot hours before dawn. As with every day, they hoped the buses would come soon, and that the drivers would choose them to go into the field that day and work. The buses arrived, and one by one, workers were picked to go to the tomato fields. They picked tomatoes, gently tossing them into 32-lb. buckets and taking the buckets to large trucks. They received a token for each bucket. At the end of the day, their backs were sore and their hands were discolored with pesticides. Some of the people never got picked to ride a bus to work. Sometimes, a bus came back if there was more work to do, but it was unlikely. At the end of the day, those who had worked all day might take home $30. Those who had not worked went home with nothing.”

This is a present day description of the plight of many farm workers. It is uncannily similar to the story described in the parable.

The store: “The workers got to work fifteen minutes early, as always. They lifted boxes and stocked shelves for seven and a half hours, with two fifteen-minute breaks. One coworker had to miss work that day because she took her child to see a doctor. She did not have health insurance, because her employer limited her hours to 35 per week, less than “full-time,” and therefore exempt from the health insurance requirement. She had to pay for the doctor visit and her prescription out-of-pocket on top of missing a day’s wages – sick days are not in the hourly workers’ plans, either. After earning $7 per hour, the workers clocked out and took the bus to their various homes.”

In each small group, discuss the short scenario. Imagine being in the position of the worker in the field or the store. What would it feel like to take home such low wages each day? Do some math together and calculate the monthly salary. Would you be able to pay your rent/mortgage? Would you be able to buy groceries? Pay for your electricity and other utilities? Pay for car, insurance, and gas? Do you have children or other dependents to feed?

Most Americans agree that someone who works a full day should not be in poverty. What kind of wages do you think a person should get paid and why?

In the large discussion group, ask each group to briefly describe their discussion. What happened in the scenario they read, and what were the sentiments/thoughts of the group?

Ask someone else to read the parable again out loud.

Discuss:

What do you notice this time?
How do the present-day scenarios lend a new perspective to this parable?
The vineyard owner in the parable says he will pay, “Whatever is right.” What is “right,” in today’s society? Minimum wage is currently $5.15 per hour. Is that “right?” Why or why not?
Often, the authors of parables want the reader to imagine themselves in the role of the main character. Here, the writer is describing the day of the vineyard owner, the person with the power to affect wages. In what ways do we have the power to affect wages (lobbying congress, purchasing goods or services only from those who pay fairly, paying our own employees – including church employees—fairly, etc.)?

Offer the good news, that Christ came “to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (See Luke 4:16-19) One way Christ does this is through us, the church.

Closing prayer:

Holy God,
You bring good news to the poor.
Help us to be the bearers of that good news.
Help us to be the subject of that good news.
Help us learn how to make that good news happen.

You proclaim release to those who are captive.
Help us proclaim your will to the ones who may affect change.
Help us release those who are held captive by poverty.
Help us learn how to break those chains.

You bring recover of sight to the blind.
Help us learn what to look for, and
Help us to see it.
Help us teach others to see.

That we may speak your truth
That we may follow your way
That we may bring your light
And create your justice, your peace.

In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray, AMEN.

adapted from Jeannie M. Hunter, Emory University, 2005.

2006-10-15T07:56:00.000-06:00

Sermon for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost 2006, Proper 23B

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Montevallo, Alabama

Psalm 90:12-17 Amos 5:6-7,10-15 Hebrews 4:12-16 Mark 10:17-31

Beloved sisters and brothers, let us look to the Lord. May only God’s word be spoken, May God’s word be heard. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

This morning, I’d like to explore this image of “the journey” in Mark’s gospel. This theme of following Jesus.

For me, this is the meaning of the question “Why do you call me good?” that is addressed to the person whom Matthew calls only “the young man”, but whom for both Mark and Luke, seems to be a somewhat older person. Jesus begins his response by referring to God, whose goodness is at the root of everything. Then Jesus summarizes the first part of the commandments and includes an important addition that is found only in Mark, “you shall not defraud.” The word translated as “defraud” in this verse is from the Greek àpostéresiz which literally means, “withholding what is due.” So, Jesus is telling the rich man, “you shall not withhold from persons that which they are due.” The phrase seems to summarize the list just mentioned “You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness.” Oh, and let’s not forget to “Honor your father and mother.” The rich man responds by saying simply, without any arrogance, that he has kept all these precepts. This was the conviction of the well-educated; that it is possible to observe the law in its entirety.

However, following Jesus is much more demanding. Lovingly, Jesus invites the man to become one of his followers. In addition to giving up his wealth, the man must give it to the poor and the needy. Jesus is letting the man know, not to withhold what is due. If the man will do this it will enable him to follow Jesus. It is not enough to respect justice in our personal attitudes; we have to go to the root of evil, to the basis of injustice: the desire to accumulate wealth. But we know how this story goes; giving up his possessions proves to be too difficult for this person. Like many of us, he prefers to live his faith resigned to comfortable mediocrity. He does believe, but not that much. We human beings can profess our faith in God, although we refuse to put God’s will into practice. Jesus takes advantage of this opportunity to make some things very clear to his disciples; attachment to money, and to the power it provides, is a major obstacle to entering the kingdom. The “eye of the needle” comparison that follows is pretty rigorous. I’ve read and heard some who have tried to lessen the impact of this parable by focusing on the likelihood that in the city there was a small door called “the eye of the needle” and for that reason, all a camel had to do was to bend over to be able to go through.

The disciples, on the other hand, understand the message perfectly well. This whole thing seems next to impossible for them. There would have been no mistaking that “to go through the eye of a needle” means placing all our trust in God and not in the material wealth of the culture. It is not easy either personally or as church to accept this challenge and, like the disciples, with would-be realism, we wonder, “Then, who can be saved?” We claim that money gives us security and that it enables us to be “effective.” Jesus reminds us that our ability to believe in God alone is a grace.

So, on our broader journey together through the Holy Scriptures this morning we hear the prophet Amos thunder against the unjust practices of his society: “you turn justice to bitterness…because you trample on the poor and take from the levies of grain.” He tells us in no uncertain terms to hate evil, love good, and establish justice. The prophet warns that those who oppress the poor will ultimately reap disastrous consequences; that life lies in pursuing good.
The author of the letter to the Hebrews offers us encouragement; aware that we are weak, aware that there are hard times when we will be tested and that we are indeed in need of God's grace.

And then, in the gospel of Mark we find ourselves face-to-face with “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven!” and then Jesus reverses the social order; in his Kingdom the first are last, the last first, and wealth is an impediment. The rich man goes away empty, while the disciples, who have left everything, gain everything.

These are challenging passages, and they are as relevant today as when they were written. How do – how can – those of us who live in this culture, and comparatively with such wealth, respond to these passages?

We know that poverty, injustice, and oppression abound in our world. Some of the current facts regarding World Hunger and Poverty include:

852 million people across the world are hungry, up 10 million more people than a year ago. Hungry not for just an hour, not for just a day, but always and in every moment
And today, more than 16,000 children will die from hunger-related causes – one child every five seconds
And this year, another 5 million people will become infected with HIV and more than 3 million people will die of AIDS
And this from last week, on the ground, in Haiti, a country of 8 million people of whom 2 million live in Port-au-Prince where the average income is $1.00 a day and gasoline is $6.00 a gallon because it is 100% imported to one location. At the six churches and five schools visited, only one has water and lights from a generator that also pumps the water. The other five churches and four schools have no electricity and no water, and the only nutrition sites are at the churches. The Diocese of Alabama is planning to fund a well at one of the churches from our MDG funds, beginning in about two weeks. It is what the gospel for this Sunday tells us to do – to share justly what we have. The people of Haiti shared with us what they have – coconut water so that we could have pure water to drink one day up the mountains. A bag of coconuts is worth a week’s wages at market. And theirs is the kingdom of God.

When poverty kills millions of people, when the rules and practices of international trade are so unfair, it is time to stand up against the crushing realities of poverty. It is time to make life-changing choices and put our faith into action.

Yes, it is a lot to ask, to not withhold what is due. In this journey, we share in the disciples' confusion and dismay. But the truth is that this dilemma is the center of the Christian life. Will we trust the security of the culture, or choose to risk accepting God's covenant? With the disciples we find ourselves asking, "How is this possible?"

In this important little book "What Can One Person Do?" two accomplished economists, Sabina Alkire and Edmund Newell, who also happen to be Anglican clergy, have outlined seven simple steps that we people of faith can take to heal a broken world. They are (1) pray for the healing of the world, (2) be informed by study of the realities of global poverty, (3) give 7/10ths of 1% of our own incomes for international development, (4) connect on a personal level with those who are poor and marginalized, (5) get active in events addressing global poverty, (6) become vocal about these concerns, and (7) get political and advocate for the poor in our governmental processes. If you want to know more about how you can become engaged with this work, then getting a copy of this book can be a good place to start, and you can also either talk to me or Father Tuohy, or to Judy Quick who is our parish coordinator for Episcopal Relief & Development.

So, as Rowan Williams tells us, we can give thanks today for truths we did not want to know; for the Savior who saves by telling us how the world is, not by pretending all is well – because if we cut ourselves off from the reality of the suffering and excluded child, we are refusing to learn some aspect of the life we need to receive and understand and love, for our own souls’ sake. We are given a chance to see, to learn the habits of attention.

In the simplest terms, by the gift of Christ’s truth, we are given some of the strength we need for love. The child we leave “on the edge”, unheard or unnoticed, is, if only we knew, God’s gift for our growth, as we can be God’s gift for theirs.

2006-04-23T08:48:00.000-06:00

Sermon for the Second Sunday of Easter (B)

at Trinity Episcopal Church, Clanton, Alabama

Acts 4:32-35 Psalm 133 1 John 1:1-2:2 John 20:19-31

I am a real fan of our reading from Acts for this Sunday; it's one of my favorite passages in the New Testament. And perhaps it betrays that my mama was an English teacher, that my appreciation for this particular passage in Acts is in large part a declaration of my affection for a well-chosen conjunction, and my abiding resentment of those who left that crucial conjunction out of the translation of Acts 4 that we heard earlier this morning.

It's true, and I’m sure that you'll share my indignation when I tell you that Acts chapter 4, verse 34 is probably missing that conjunction in your bibles.

Or maybe you won't initially, I understand.

But what if I told you that the missing conjunction was "FOR"? OK, maybe no recipe for instant empathy with me there. But let me put it another way.

Acts, like Luke (which makes sense given that it's a two-volume work by a single author), makes a very important point about something core to the order of the world as it is – namely money; and about that part of ourselves that is both the most sane and most imaginative (these things go together, I believe) and that anticipates the coming of God's kingdom. And Acts 4 puts it together for us very neatly – which seems clear to me once we've put back the missing conjunction that was part of the original Greek. Let me read it again, and if you would look at your copy of the Acts 4 reading you’ll be able to see where the change occurs.

Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common. With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all, FOR (onde gar = for-not) there was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold. They laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need.

In the translation that we have in our lectionary reading today, Acts 4 sounds too much like an idealized story of how things were in the "good old days"; not a recipe, but rather a status claim. "Things were great in the early days of the church … we had unity, and testified with power … oh, and there weren't any poor people then."

Of course, that wasn’t the case. Luke-Acts repeatedly makes a direct causal connection between community of goods and unity of spirit. In other words, all of this "we are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord" stuff of youth group songbooks of the 1970's, and all too much rhetoric elsewhere, is just so much theological muzak if we don't live out what that crucial missing (in most translations) conjunction tells us, which is that the power of the apostles' testimony, the experience of grace in community, even the unity of the Body of Christ has a direct relationship with the extent to which all of those of us who call ourselves Christians share what we have with those who don't have it.

The whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of anything, but they had all things in common. And in great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all, FOR there was not a needy person among them, for as many as owned lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold, laying it at the feet of the apostles, and it was distributed to any as had need.

Oh, for the recovery of that lost and much-needed "FOR" and the resulting understanding in both the church's imagination and the popular imagination! And what an experience of God's power and of the reconciliation for which the world was made and for which it and its Creator longs, that we could have IF (to use another important conjunction) we had not a needy person among us.

People say that could be, you know – not crazy dreamers like me, but people with degrees in important and useful fields like economics at big and well-respected institutions like Harvard and Oxford. We really could have not a needy person among us – not through some imposition of gated so-called "community" shutting out the poor – but by seeing that every person on earth has a chance, has clean water and some education; a chance of surviving to build communities and families of love.

Our own Bishop Andrus serves on the board of Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation. He lives out, and has asked us to join him in, a vision for ending extreme poverty in our lifetimes. It wouldn't take us all selling all we had, but sharing a mere 7/10ths of one percent of what we have. Less than one percent of our treasure shared, and we'd know to the core of our being that about which the psalmist sang and many dreamers dream:

How good it is when sisters and brothers in the human family live together in unity! For there the LORD has ordained the blessing: life forevermore.

We miss that aspect of Jesus' message, of the prophets' message, of God's own heart all too often. There seem to be many Christians who proclaim a Jesus who is all about taking people from earth up into disembodied heavens, like some kind of transporter from Star Trek. The theology of the Gospel According to John is sometimes caricatured along those lines too: Jesus as some kind of E.T., come down from the heavens, recognized as the force of love by only a few and even then misunderstood by those closest to him, dying solely as a means to more efficiently "phone home" and ascend into the heavens, leaving humans amazed or ashamed, but in one way or another, behind in all cases. Left gaping at stars they can't reach or seeing the world that gave them birth as just a pit of cruelty and death.

That's not Jesus' message, in John's or any canonical gospel. And as much as John emphasizes Jesus' crucifixion as being "lifted up", John drums into our head perhaps more than any other gospel where Jesus' heart is, FOR even as Jesus is "lifted up," even after Jesus, having been faithful to God's call, is raised and qualified to ascend to the heavens to the fellowship of the Trinity whose love is so great that a universe was made and is being redeemed and sustained, Jesus keeps coming back to those he loves.

And Jesus is engaged with the world. He is the Word who was with God in the very beginning, and whose love was present in the birth of creation. He is the peasant child who knew and loved the earth he walked and all those who walk with him. He is the naked, vulnerable and tortured man nailed to immovable wood and still moved with compassion for his torturers. He has died, and he is risen, and yet he comes again, to touch doubters and healers, soldiers and peasants, persecutors and apostles – who are sometimes the same people, after all… especially after Jesus' touch.

Jesus comes to the women at his tomb and his followers huddled in fear. He comes to those who confess him and those who grieve him, miss him, or doubt him. He comes to those who love him and those who hate him. Jesus comes and he comes and he comes to this world because he is not done with this world, no matter how many times people of this world say they are done with him, or with the way of peace and compassion he walked and walks. Jesus is not done with any of us, and never will be, until we know in our heart of hearts, experience in the deepest part of ourselves, and are bursting alongside the whole of creation to share the wealth of love and generosity for which we and the world are made.

We may grow weary, but Jesus will not grow weary of us. We may close our eyes and forget to dream, but Jesus is alive, and still dreams with and for as well as through and among us. God is redeeming the world God made and loves, and we may as well let ourselves get accustomed to this love that is the most basic force of the universe. The Christ has died, the Christ has risen, and the Christ WILL come again. Let us rejoice now with all whom Christ loves in celebration and anticipation!

The Lord is risen! Alleluia – and thanks be to God!

2005-11-27T09:18:00.000-06:00

Reflections on SOA/WHINSEC Rally and Vigil
1st Sunday of Advent, 2005

Dear Friends,

I've collected some thoughts, reflections, and impressions regarding this year's rally and vigil, and have included them in the following. Since I'm writing this at the beginning of our season of Advent, I thought it might be helpful to begin with a quote from William Stringfellow for some context.

In the First Advent, Christ the Lord comes into the World; in the next Advent, Christ the Lord comes as Judge of the world and of all the world's thrones and pretenders, sovereignties and dominions, principalities and authorities, presidencies and regimes, in vindication of his lordship and the reign of the Word of God in history. This is the truth, which the world hates, which biblical people (repentant people) bear and by which they live as the church in the world in the time between the two Advents. -- from "Advent as a Penitential Season", William Stringfellow (1929-1985)

I was blessed this year to again co-facilitate nonviolence direct action trainings for persons that represented a broadening demographic. I was also asked to be present to several of the persons discerning a call to active nonviolence and civil disobedience.

Media coverage and photos are available at: http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=1223.

While the weekend's events to close the SOA/WHINSEC were getting started and with thousands converging in Columbus, Georgia, we had also received sad news from our friends in the Colombian Peace Community San José de Apartadó. On Thursday, November 17th, 2005, troops commanded by General Luis Alfonso Zapata Uribe attacked and killed Arlen Salas David, a leader of the peace community. It was only last February when eight members of the San José de Apartadó Peace Community in Urab´, Colombia -- including three young children -- were brutally massacred. Witnesses identified the killers as members of the Colombian military, and peace community members saw the army's 17th and 11th Brigades in the area around the time of the murders. In the face of this, families, children, and friends continue in faithful, peaceful, and nonviolent witness in this community of peace.

The SAN JOSE DE APARTADO PEACE COMMUNITY wrote on November 18 2005:

We make an appeal for national and international support, so that our extermination can be stopped; so that the inhabitants of the whole region of Arenas Altas are not forced to become internally displaced, which the Army has told us is their objective. The serious and committed work that ARLEN was carrying out will guide us. Pain barely lets us talk but we will continue to cry 'Dignity' out loud, like he taught us to do during his daily chores and his commitment to the community. His two small children will continue to walk besides us, building a different tomorrow in which there will be respect for life. ARLEN, OUR TEARS ACCOMPANY THIS HORROR BUT YOU ARE WITH US, GIVING US LIFE, THANK YOU FOR YOUR LEADERSHIP, FOR YOUR COMMITMENT. SOMEDAY HISTORY WILL JUDGE THOSE WHO MURDERED YOU.

To read the entire message from the San José de Apartadó community in Spanish you can go to: http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=1226.

Information about the February massacre in San José de Apartadó is available at: http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=1024

On Saturday, survivors of torture shared some of the their stories with us. Carlos Mauricio, a former El Salvador professor who was abducted and tortured by Salvadoran death squads 22 years ago, remembers not only his own broken bones but also the suffering of others. "What has been very difficult to deal with is the memories of other people being tortured." In 1999, Mauricio and two other torture victims, Neris Gonzalez, a church worker, and Juan Ramagoza Arce, a doctor, brought a civil suit against two Salvadoran generals, former Defense Minister Jose Guillermo Garcia and former National Guard Director-General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova. Both graduated from the School of the Americas. In July 2002, the Salvadoran generals were found guilty by a West Palm Beach court under the 1991 Torture Victim Protection Act, which states that "victims did not need to prove the military leaders knew they were being tortured, only that Garcia and Vides allowed a culture in which soldiers could commit human rights abuses against civilians with impunity." The two were ordered to pay their victims $54.6 million in reparations. Last March, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturned the Florida jury's verdict, ruling that the case failed to meet the 10-year statute of limitations rule. The case is still under consideration. Reflecting upon his abduction, Mauricio says, "The recurring nightmare for me isn't the moment of being tortured. The recurring nightmare has been the moment of being abducted. It was very, very violent, and they came to my classroom." His sacred place. As you might imagine, it can be difficult for survivors of torture because of the flashbacks that result from being in such close proximity to the place where their torturers, and for many also the murderers of their friends and other family members, learned the means and methods of torture and oppression that they have used. For more on their work log on to http://www.tassc.org/ , and click on "Search Bills and Resolutions." Select the option to search by bill number, and in the "Enter Search" box, enter the bill number for HR 1217. By clicking on the "Bill Summary and Status" link, you can access other useful information about the bill.

On Sunday, more than 19,000 persons were reported to be present for the vigil which began as we honored with our witness and called to memory the hundreds of thousands who have suffered and died in a Litany in Honor of the Victims to which we responsively sang, "No Mas! No More!". The silent funeral procession followed the litany. As the name of persons who have died as an alleged result of SOA/WHINSEC activities was sung, those persons moving in procession raised their crosses, icons, or hands and sang responsively, "Presente!"

Elizabeth "Betita" Martinez of Z Magazine has described her experience of the vigil and funeral procession as being one of the many thousands of people who, "listened as the names of 767 Salvadorans massacred at a single village rang out, one after the other, on a sunny afternoon last November in Columbus, Georgia. After each name we shouted PRESENTE! -- a salute to the dead.

"Cristina Guevara, 25 years old - Presente!José Francisco Reyes Luna, age 5 - Presente!Vicenta Marquez, 80, widow - Presente!Elena Rodríguez, 16 - Presente!José Romero, 6 months, son of Lucas Guevara and Rufina Romero - Presente!Orbelina Marquez, age 45, seamstress - Presente!Mirna Chicas, 10 - Presente!Fabi´n Luna, 20, day laborer - Presente!Domingo Claros, woodcutter, and 15 family members down to an 8-month old daughter - PRESENTE!
On and on went the list of Salvadorans murdered in and around El Mozote by a U.S.- trained battalion during Ronald Reagan's "war on communism." Of the victims, 45 percent were children under 12. And when those names finally ended, a group of Colombians arrived at the stage with a 3-page list of recent victims in their country. The atrocities born at Fort Benning's School of the Americas have never stopped.

"It was impossible not to weep during the two-hour naming. It was also impossible to watch the memorial procession marching by the stage at the same time, a human river stretching too far to be seen.

"Too many of us do not know the long range reach and effects of the School of the Americas (aka School of Assassins) whose purpose is so simple: to guarantee Latin America's political, economic, and social conditions never threaten U.S. hegemony. No price for that is too high, it seems.

"The names read did not include the 2 million Colombians killed or displaced by civilian-targeted warfare under the direction of SOA graduates. Or the hundreds of thousands of indigenous people murdered, tortured and disappeared in Guatemala when SOA graduate Ríos Montt ruled the country. Or the 30,000 killed or disappeared in Argentina when SOA graduate Leopoldo Galtieri headed the military. Or the ten SOA alumni indicted with Pinochet in Chile. Or the murders in Bolivia, Honduras, Mexico and Haiti...

"We may have heard of the 6 Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter murdered in 1989, but without knowing that 19 of the 26 Salvadoran soldiers cited for it were SOA alumni. Or that two of the three cited for assassinating Archbishop Oscar Romero as he conducted mass and that three of the five soldiers cited for the killing of four U.S. churchwomen were also SOA graduates from El Salvador. Or that the slaughter continues today, no matter claims by SOA brass that the worst abuse has ended. No matter that this terrorist training camp was so gently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) three years ago."

A part of my lectio divina while I as at the SOA/WHINSEC rally and vigil this year was "Jesus Christ: Model of the Nonviolent Human Being" by Fr. John Dear and published by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. In it, he suggests that the God of nonviolence tells us that cultural violence is not our only alternative. "The only vocation to which a Christian is called," observed William Stringfellow, "is to be a mature human being." Fr. Dear suggests that an anthropology of nonviolence asks, in light of today's global violence, "What does it mean to be a human being?" It seems that a human being is called to be a person of nonviolence, a peace maker in a world of war, a seeker of justice in a world of injustice, a channel of compassion in a world of apathy. It also seems that a mature human being is one who worships the God of nonviolence by living at peace with every other human being. So, what does it mean to be alive in this age that we live in? In light of the peacemaking Jesus, Fr. Dear suggests that an anthropology of nonviolence would seem to answer that a full human life worships the God of life and gives over its own life so that all humanity may live in peace with justice, without the threat of violence. To be human is to be nonviolent.

The commitment to change among those who nonviolently and actively work on behalf of persons who have suffered torture, murder, and oppression as a result of the work of the SOA/WHINSEC is political, spiritual, and very real. This work may also have a positive influence on the future of the Americas and its people. As followers of the Way of Jesus Christ, I believe that we must denounce these social injustices and try to faithfully live our Christian commitment and prayer by working to forge Shalom and establish peace and justice. The church must be a sign of the kingdom within human history. I agree with others who have suggested that our preaching, liturgy, and teaching should take into account the social and community dimension of Christianity, and form men and women committed to peace: los pueblos unidos, jam´s vencidos. ¡Adelante siempre!

"Love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you,
blessed are the peacemakers,
put down the sword."