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Skubala: A truly impermeable boundary

Sam Massey — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT

Do you remember how Superman couldn't see through lead? This discovery may be why whenever I have an X-ray they cover parts of me with a lead dress. How would medical teams know to do this if it wasn't for Superman's boundaries?

Boundaries are great things. They provide the means for living cells to accept nutrition and fend off poisons. They also, in theory, keep neighbors at bay. I remember one morning in our Pennsylvania home being awakened by the cock crow. I discovered the next door suburban neighbors had decided to raise chickens. Determined to protect our castle, I planted pine trees on the perimeter that afternoon. What made it memorable was that the chickens lined up to watch me work, a short-lived entertainment for them as it turned out. Two houses down the man living there had planted grass seed, a boon to the chickens but the key to their demise. A day after my tree-planting I saw the chickens in the newly seeded yard. A day after that I saw the yard's owner cleaning his hatchet. We returned to a chicken-free existence thereafter.

Neighborhood associations are supposed to deal with chickens and axe-wielding angels of death, in my opinion. That is, they are called to face and solve real problems. Yet I live in a neighborhood in which the walls are too high and the boundaries too thick.

It is a county neighborhood surrounded on 3 sides by city property and on the 4th side with a city road. Last night, at our association meeting, the neighbors dealt with serious questions, such as what happens if our well-water continues to show evidence of E Coli and how close we are to the imminent collapse of all our septic systems. This was followed by dire concerns that surrounding city neighborhoods were drawing down our water supply. But these issues were set aside for a far more pressing problem: determining the best places to dump undetected mounting yard garbage in the neighboring city property.

To the problems, no solutions were offered. To the illegal dumping that passed expenses on to the city, no shame was expressed.

The meeting ended with the annual celebration of how we of the far horizon have successfully resisted being added to the city's rolls of taxable properties, thereby keeping ourselves independent of the city.

What's that? The neighborhood's well and septic systems are falling apart, and we need city property to handle our yard waste. The city is draining us dry. Put simply, we association members are not independent of the surrounding city: We have a dysfunctional relationship to it. My efforts to suggest that this might be the case caused my neighbors last night to suggest that my septic tank might be the one polluting the well water (we are at the opposite end of the neighborhood, with a system recently inspected and certified as workable; nevertheless, we Masseys are having our system cleaned and rechecked to make sure that we are keeping all of our skubala to ourselves). So shares the fate of all whistleblowers, I am afraid. To name a problem is to be designated as a problem.

So something and somebody is leaking, but there is truly one impermeable boundary, one impossibly thick dress that is impervious to X-ray vision and razor-sharp wit: our neighborhood association's discourse about the city or any other number of possible solutions. Like photons bouncing off a perfect mirror, no light can enter the black box of our self-congratulatory ruminations. The Titanic has struck the iceberg and we party on. The Red Death rages outside of our city gate and the masquerade ball goes uninterrupted. The grass withers, the flower fades, but no word of the Lord is sought.

Think of those institutions and organizations that operate within ideological traps of their own making. I think of congregations I have served in years past. NPR mentioned a book entitled "It Is Worse Than It Looks" about the Republican Party. Can any boundary be so impermeable as closed human minds?

Skubala: Obama as the Anti-Christ

Sam Massey — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:00:00 GMT

It has been awhile since I blogged. I suppose the lack of protesters outside the church insisting that I have a greater web presence allowed me to snooze through the Lenten season :-). More likely, thoughts about what to blog came and went with such speed that I never found a focus. Then along came the bishop of Peoria, Illinois, and I am re-entering the game.

Daniel Jenky joined a conversation the church has had over a long period of time, which is "Who is the anti-Christ?" Popular movies show the anti-Christ with a 666 tattooed on him, a comic attempt to understand the Book of the Revelation's mark of the beast (we once decided against buying a house on the basis of the address being 666: We noticed the eventual new owners had the address changed). We will return to this numerical sign shortly, but let's consider first Bishop Jenky.

It is doubtful Jenky meant that the president is "the" anti-Christ. In the Bible (1 John 4:3) it is the spirit of the anti-Christ that is to be feared and challenged, and Jenky presumes that it is this spirit's presence - a presumption that in times past led to accusations of the Caesars, Pope Julian II, Hitler, and Stalin being the anti-Christ - that is now animating Obama. Yet all these aforementioned gentlemen could claim unanimously not to be "the" anti-Christ.

How so? The anti-Christ is rumored to be like an angel of light, who will bring peace on earth as a wildly popular and benevolent despot. He will have miraculously appearing powers. Mostly, he will be recognized by our inability to recognize him (or her), at least easily. Hitler may have come the closest to meeting this description, that is prior to plunging the world into war and creating the holocaust.

It is the ignorance of who the anti-Christ might be that leads to a certain competition among Christians to be the first to spot the beast. Some thought it was Ronald Wilson Reagan (count the letters in each name, and what do you get?), and others have thought that any president supportive of peace in Palestine or of the United Nations earns the title. It is the unpopularity of all these previous nominees and their obvious flaws that assure us that they were not the anti-Christ.

Yet the search continues. Adding fuel to the competitive zeal is that many so-called liberal churches in Germany embraced Hitler, and it took awhile for other Christians to realize how evil he was. The Roman Catholic and Lutheran Churches were particularly nefarious in this regard, a failing that can make them anxious to pull the anti-Christ trigger at the first glimmer of a problem: "Fool me once . . . "

The key to understanding the significance of 666 is understanding 777. The latter is the number of completeness, the transformative wholeness characteristic of the loving, saving God. 666 is a wholeness reached without God, a boastful human incompleteness that insists on the respect that we accord God. 666 pridefully says that humans don't need God: We can do it all ourselves.

Obama tests lots of trial balloons that explode in his face, and the fiasco over insuring birth control and abortions was an obvious one that could have been predicted by anyone who hangs around church for any length of time. I suspect too that world peace, including peace in the Middle East, is not within his grasp. Still, alleged psychic Jeanne Dixon once observed that the anti-Christ would be born in the Middle East (presumably with a Middle Eastern name), and a man of African heritage named Barack Obama surely fits the bill. This may explain why the birthers are so determined to prove that he couldn't have been born in Hawaii.

Frankly, until this president wins over a recalcitrant congress and stops speaking like a Black Baptist preacher, I don't think he has a prayer of being the anti-Christ. Too many people hate him for no good reason.

Skubala: Trawon and George Somewhere North of Apopka

Sam Massey — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT

We lived in Florida for five years, before our older boy Will was born. It was a very decent neighborhood, although not in the nicest zip code. Lake Apopka was nearby, a significant body of water reminiscent of Homer Simpson's Lake Springfield and just as polluted: Even the gators didn't care much for it, and whatever was swimming in it on moonlight nights, creating ripples and splashes: Well, it wasn't fish. Still, we really loved the people there, and it was home.

If you passed far enough north, near very nice Lake Mary - think of the homes of professional golfers, basketball players, baseball players, and the like - eventually you arrived in Sanford. It was not a happy place, a railroad town renowned at the time for its racial divisions. There were older nice sections in Sanford; I recall driving through some. There was a zoo there, with a pony ride for Will that ended each of our visits. But it wasn't much of a zoo, and the crowd visiting there looked pretty rough. Heck, we looked kind of rough: Those were the years we searched under sofa cushions for loose coins to bank before our bill payments were cashed.

Sanford was real Florida, away from Busch Gardens and Disney. In a sense, Florida has been one of the United States' third world countries. It was, for a long time, the land of escape, of easy divorce and bankruptcy. It still taxes its citizens little and invests even less in its schools. It took awhile for us to decide to move. But when the neighbor killed his wife, cut her up into little pieces, and stuck her in the freezer, I was shocked. When what appeared to be the same freezer that showed up in front of the house during the pre-house sale yard auction, we moved to Des Moines.

In Sanford clustered the intergenerational poor, the sometimes working poor, the ones Florida and the nation have said will always be with us. Every state has them, but Sanford had lots of them. With insufficient employment and economic opportunity, competition could take the form of racial tension. Combine that with readily available handguns, and gun laws that strive to even the odds between the threatened and those perceived as threats - perception being reality, don't you know? - and the combination is deadly.

Public consensus blames the shooter, George Zimmerman, and I do to this extent: I don't keep a handgun in my home because I fear what I would do if feeling threatened or angry. I don't walk the streets looking for suspicious people in hoodies. I don't live in a town where racial differences alone constitute a justification for aggression. I don't live in a state where politicians advocate for loose gun laws for the sake of political advantage (hey - come to think of it . . . ). Quiet voices on the margins admit that they wonder how they would have acted if they had been in the place of the shooter. And why would they be in the place of the shooter?

But the issue is larger than Trawon Martin and George Zimmerman or us. Reality never comes as discrete, isolated persons in a vacuum or even as two separate individuals in a chance encounter. Yes, someone pulled the trigger: This is inescapable. But confining blame to these two lost souls can be distracting. Relationships are amazingly tangled, and these awful circumstances were fraught with complexity: between the two tragic characters, one black and one Latino; their neighbors; their police force; their community; the state of Florida; national racial and economic politics; and the history and current circumstances of all of us. Neither Trawon Martin nor George Zimmerman will ever receive justice. The rest of us still have a chance for it: We have another day to figure out how to get it.

Skubala: I'm Predestined, You're Predestined - Or Not

Sam Massey — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 11:00:00 GMT

This morning the text from Ephesians 2:1-10 came from the lectionary, as did John 3:14-21. These texts - combined - might lead to a conclusion that from the beginning of creation, a loving God predestined some for salvation. This is known as single predestination, John Calvin's view. Other folks like to fine tune the matter a bit, and elect to believe in double predestination: Some people are saved. Some people are chosen to cook in hell for the rest of eternity, for the glory of God. Left, right, up, down, 1, 0, heaven, hell: It all looks pretty tidy, like good accounting. Everybody gets categorized, catalogued, inventoried, and coming to a stove near you. This is what happens when the Bible is bent to obey Aristotelian logic. Not pretty.

It does beg a question: Why would anyone in their right mind - including God - come up with such a hare-brained way to run a world? Create people with the idea that you get to keep some and roast the rest. Love means loving barbecue. The whole idea staggers the imagine. So when it comes to this God, the God of eternal torment, I am an atheist: and proud of it.

Of course, there is another God.

Keep in mind that both of today's Scripture texts came out of the post-first generation church. They were having, pardon the expression, one hell of a time. They were oppressed and, putting it mildly, really angry.

Yet in the first generation church (years AD 30 to 60 approximately), people like Paul insisted that love and grace would win out. Paul himself said that someday every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God. Put plainly, in the first generation church, the good news was good and global. Paul stated in Romans 8 that all of creation was to be redeemed. Predestination was another name for God's providential care and the ultimate triumph of love. Remember that forgiveness thing that Jesus talked about?

By the time the second generation church came around - the one facing persecution, - Christians were good and mad. Suddenly it seemed that lots of folks were going to be tossed into hell: Jews, gays, gluttons, Romans who persecuted Christians, you name it. Of course, anger became compulsion: For the last 2000 years, whenever the church has come to political power, it has used force to come down on these same people. The good news becomes a formula for holocaust, pogroms, and concentration camps. We nuke 'em now, God gets to nuke 'em later, in eternity. What fun - for the glory of God.

I guess I am not mad enough: I don't think God has left it to us to manage heaven and hell, or to make these sort of judgments: Thank God. I do think God has left it to us to share the good news and to keep it good. Christ died to save sinners, which means all of us and all of "them." Yes, I don't like some of them. Some of them are evil. Nevertheless . . .

We make the invitation: Trust in the love of God. If you do, great. If you don't . . . well, I think God's love will triumph finally over all resistance, although it may take a very long time. One thing God may have to overcome is our resistance to the idea that people who disagree with us, or who believe something different, or who believe nothing at all, will also be allowed to go to heaven. Perhaps not immediately: But sometime, somehow, in God's providence. What if you and I don't like that idea? What if it makes us grumpy? I suppose we should spare everyone else a hassle, spare ourselves the trip, and not go . . . Of course, that wouldn't be predestination, would it? It is quite a dilemma.

Skubala: Invisible

Sam Massey — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 12:00:00 GMT

    Mercedes-Benz has come out with an invisible car - at least almost so. A camera on one side broadcasts pictures to LED panels on the other side. So as the car passes, the scene that normally would be blocked by the car appears on the car's side to be observed by passerbys. The news commentator describing the action noted the obvious: Mercedes typically doesn't build cars for the purpose of making them disappear. They get noticed.

   People are quite different. It is amazing how completely invisible they can be. It is only when they disappear that they come to our attention. One of the great tragedies of the recent storms was a baby picked up a by a tornado and deposited in a field. Angel's parents and siblings had been killed when the tornado struck their mobile home. For a time she became a symbol of hope for victims and helpers alike. Now she has died, and she has a become a different symbol: of hopes dashed in the face of relentless nature. Of course, this is temporary: We will soon forget her completely.

    Had there been no tornado, it is doubtful we would have heard of baby Angel at all. She might have grown up and grown old, and remained anonymous to most of us: anonymous like most people are to us, who are invisible to us. We see around and through them, and they do the same to us. Even in the church, where we are designed to be person to person, face to face, epiphanies to one another, it is hard to get people to take the time to really see each other. If they do see, they see people they know. They do not see Angel on the margins, the stranger near the back or beside the windows' glare, or in the corner. Funny how tornados and death can find and reveal people to us that we typically would overlook. Not so funny, actually.

Skubala: The Pro-Life Position

Sam Massey — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 12:00:00 GMT

    Recently the Obama administration "stumbled" publicly. Or perhaps better put, it released a trial balloon to see what public reaction would be to its decision; or, it postured in order to convince its partisans that it was pursuing their interests. Whatever the interpretation put on the administration's actions, the core issue was whether or not religiously-based institutions would be required to provide insurance for birth control services. The administration backed away, and yet the furor added fuel to the current political conflagration.

    I can say that the consistent Christian position for 2000 years has been one of vigorous advocacy for life. In the historic Roman Catholic tradition, the fetus gains a soul at the moment of quickening, when the fetus moves in the womb. Yet from conception onward, faith insists on the fulfillment of life's potential. Only in extreme situations, perhaps when the mother's life is at risk or the birth would mean cruel suffering for the child, does the decision for an abortion become an ethical possibility. The God who declares all creation good views our own creative power, our ability to give life, as good too.

    I have sat with parents who wept because their child's organs had grown out of his body, and his birth would mean horrendous suffering. They agonized over their doctor's advice to prevent suffering by having an abortion. I prayed with them as they wept, and at the conclusion I assured them of God's forgiveness for whatever decision they made. This was because their decision was made for the sake of the child and it was rooted in love and faith. This is the deepest commandment.

    I have also sat with a young 18 year old woman who wished to keep the child in her womb, but whose parents demanded that she abort the pregnancy for the sake of the future they envisioned for her. She did as they demanded, and the decision devastated her. I could not lend her the strength to resist her parents' coercion. No mother should face such pressure, even from those who allegedly have her best interests at heart.

    So the faith is pro-life. Yet what is ethical does not always equate with what should be legislated. I do not believe the law has a compelling interest in coming between a mother and the child in her womb. I do not have a solution: I have only the witness of broken hearts, and my own inability to fathom how government could make the agony of a horrid choice any better.

Skubala: Missing Whitney Houston

Sam Massey — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:00:00 GMT

"I Will Always Love You," the hit song Dolly Parton wrote, is one that Whitney Houston sang to us in the movie The Bodyguard. She wished us so much good in exchange for losing her:

If I
Should stay
I would only be in your way
So I'll go
But I know
I'll think of you every step of
the way

And I...
Will always
Love you, oohh
Will always
Love you
You
My darling you
Mmm-mm

Bittersweet
Memories
That is all I'm taking with me
So good-bye
Please don't cry
We both know I'm not what you
You need

And I...
Will always love you
I...
Will always love you
You, ooh

I hope
life treats you kind
And I hope
you have all you've dreamed of
And I wish you joy
and happiness
But above all this
I wish you love

And I...
Will always love you
I...
Will always love you

I wonder if you have ever loved something or someone so much that you have found it necessary to walk away, to let it or them go. I have: a congregation, on two occasions. Through my leadership, God had given them wonderful futures. Yet in the end, they broke my heart and undermined my health; and I had nothing left to give. I was only in the way. "Don't think twice," Bob Dylan said: "It's all right."

So I wonder if that is why Whitney Houston died. Oh yes, it will take weeks for the autopsy results to come back, and perhaps some toxicological cause will be identified. But it seems to me that we know the answer: She died of a broken heart. So she went; she said goodbye; and she wished for us something far better.

While watching CNN bid farewell to Whitney Houston, a stream of words passed on the bottom of the screen. They shared the death toll in Syria. These martyrs too died with a wish in their hearts, this one for their country: for joy, for happiness, and above all, for love. Greater love has no one than this, Jesus said, that he gives up his life for the ones he loves. If you haven't tried it, you should. It will give you better insight into Whitney Houston.

Skubala: The Super Bowl Big Game Gamble

Sam Massey — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Puzzlement is a good thing. It brings us up short, and forces reflection.

The Giants had the ball, close to the goal line, 2 points down, 56 seconds left on the clock. The fullback gets the ball, charges toward the end zone: Then things get kind of weird. The Patriots separate, like the Red Sea. Then the fullback stops short of the end zone, and seems to wait to be tackled, only to fall into the end zone accidentally. What was that all about?

Strategy, of course. If the Giants had stopped short of the goal and taken a fair share of downs prior to scoring either a touchdown or a field goal, they would have taken the lead with little time on the clock left for Tom Brady to lead the Patriots to a score. The Patriots felt their best option would be to let the Giants score quickly, then seize the maximum number of remaining seconds to give the Patriots the best scoring opportunity possible: and the win.

It was a strange moment, when strength became weakness, and weakness became strength. The Giants' fullback powerfully charged the end zone and scored, but only accidentally, falling into like a playful child. The Patriots played defense, and then collapsed in a final bid to win, looking more like a middle-school team then consummate professionals. Both teams tried to be as weak as possible, and to make their weakness their strength.

Have we ever considered that our strengths might be our weaknesses, and our weaknesses strengths? The Sufi mystics' Enneagram is built on this premise. Each one of us has a major strength, and the Enneagram helps us identify it. Yet then the Enneagram warns us that this very strength, when we overplay or have too much confidence in it, becomes our fatal weakness. We overplay our strength because we are mistakenly hiding something else, something deeper that might also serve us well. To give you an example, I enjoy a good laugh, and can see the humor in situations. Yet this trait can hide a fear of pain. If I can access the pain, transcend the fear and truly feel the hurt, the pain too can be a source of wisdom for me. It can teach me compassion, for example. This is what the Enneagram teaches: to not only rely on our strengths, but to find a good in the weaknesses that we hide, even from ourselves.

What are your strengths? And what good are you denying that your strengths are hiding? God can use a Sufi tool to help you know the truth.

Skubala: Mitt Romney and the Hope of the Earth

Sam Massey — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT

Twice I have heard this Republican candidate describe the United States as "the hope of the earth." Typically, this language accompanies his contention that the United States military is weak and growing weaker. I am either going to blog my objection or scream and jump out of a window . . . or both.

Now I could begin with the obvious statistical evidence. The current military budget represents about 20% of the federal budget, and has increased, on average, 9% per year over the past 10 years or so. Some might argue we need more spent, some may argue less, but I can say with confidence that I could have used a 9% increase in my salary over the past 10 years - and I would have felt good about it. Indeed, I am fortunate to be serving a congregation that feels a moral obligation to pay me an annual cost of living raise: Not all have been so generous (or even had a conscience).

Yet where I want to nitpick is with this "hope of the earth" business. True, I understand some things about the Mormon faith that may cause our candidate to lean toward such laudatory language: As excommunicated Latter Day Saint historian Fawn Brodie framed it, the Mormon faith is the first truly original American religion. Because its messianism is less sharply bound than that of Christian faith - the Jesus event is not altogether unique in Mormon faith - there is room for a view of the United States as the western parallel to Israel: That is, as another cradle of divine revelation. It can be anticipated that an American, pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps into-wealth-and-heaven ethos will be embodied by a Mormon president. But this is not so different than other American candidates, in my opinion. If you can't say that your country is the greatest on the earth, you shouldn't be president of the United States . . . or of Albania, for that matter.

But I thought Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, was the hope of the earth. Remember that old hymn?

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus Christ, my righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/298#ixzz1ktuS3f8u

Apparently that was all wrong . . . Which means I was all wrong . . . which means that all those who claim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are all wrong . . . Praise (hmmm. somebody) that he has straightened us out on this particular point . . .

Meanderings

Sam Massey — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT

    I have been trying to come up with a title for this blog. Massey's Modest Musings? The latest offering, Meanderings? I thought even of Skubala, from the New Testament Greek, and not a very delicate term at all. I hope that I am offering more than waste material here, but only the reader can judge. If you have a name to offer for this blog, let me have it. If you have any suggestions for topics to be taken up, let me have it. If you have a distaste for me and what I write, let somebody else have it.

    I have been thinking about Gabrielle Giffords today, the young Democratic congress woman from Arizona shot in the head by a rogue gunman. Today marks a sad anniversary: This all happened exactly one year ago.

    Violence can appear so random. One minute a person is safe in a gathering with friends, or walking down a street. The next minute someone's blood is shed and a victim is created. Beloved friends of mine continue to relive the violence that marked their families so long ago, and I cannot imagine the hell they are still experiencing.

    The good news, we are told, is that the level of violent crime in this country has dropped over the last two decades. We may not perceive that being the case in light of our 24 hour news cycle, yet that is what the statistics tell us. And that sounds good, unless it is you or your loved one who is killed or wounded. For you, the statistic is different: You are 100% suffering.

    Who is responsible? The criminal committing violence certainly bears a huge portion of the blame. Yet questions cry out for answers: If hand guns are so readily available in our country, and gun violence is far more likely in this country than in others where hand guns are banned, should lax gun laws be blamed? Or is it better that we go the route of Iowa and arrange for a maximum number of persons to carry hand guns so we can all protect ourselves?

    Can we blame the courts, who do not allow religions of peace to be taught in public schools? Or which stand in the way of cruel and unusal punishment? Or can we fault the prevalence of violence on television or in video-games? Maybe it is poor parenting to blame? Or the rich being too rich and the poor too poor, and in such a case violence becomes a form of power equalization? Or perhaps to be human is to be violent, as we see in Cain's murder of Able?

So who do we blame? And how do we respond to violence? Shall we take the guns out of homes and turn off the TV's and videogames?  Is there an appropriate response, such as arming our church officers so that they can serve neighborhoods as Vigilantes for Jesus? Where does hope lie, and faithful action begin?

Massey's Modest Musings: The Caucuses

Sam Massey — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:00:00 GMT

No, and I don't mean caucuses in Iowa. I mean the family gatherings in South Carolina to see my mother. Whew! The weather was pleasantly warm, but twice my siblings and I tossed around our national political situation and this really got us all heated up. I confess that I started: "What do you think of the stable of Republican candidates, eh?" One sister came out for Bachmann, another sister for anyone but Obama, and a brother-in-law kept his counsel: I suspect he likes Gingrich or Ron Paul pretty well. I confined my role to asking probing questions, and assuring my siblings that I was not asking these questions in order to wreak family havoc. My wife said nothing, although she has little fondness for Bachmann. My older son kept making noises expressing unspeakable pain, and the young guy practiced inscrutability. Smart fellows! As time passed, and the context felt safe, various family members took the opportunity to speak their minds.

While we backed different candidates, we discovered that we had similar concerns: the economy, healthcare, international peace, and the education of our children to name a few points of common angst.

So we are all family here, right? And this is a safe place? Let me throw out the question that I asked, and this time apply it to all of the candidates, Republican or Democrat: What do you think of these candidates? Especially from your faith perspective? What are the issues on which we as Christians should focus? What are Christian values?

Talking to Pop

Sam Massey — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Hi, Daddy. Time to make our march again, from Christmas to Good Friday, from our last festival to your death. Wow, has it been 21 years? For a fellow who didn't care much for Catholics you sure fleshed out a liturgical year. I recalled today how we always celebrated Christmas just after Christmas, Epiphany really, because of the sales on all Christmas items. It made sense to get our tree on Christmas Eve; so many were given away by then. Of course, I remembered today the one Christmas Eve you brought home the free tree that every dog in Tolono, IL had peed on. Mom hated it, but our dog then. . . her best Christmas ever.

Not sure what to report, Poppy. You should catch sight of the Republican candidates for president. I remember how much you were a diehard Rockefeller supporter. Nobody should run for president unless he is filthy rich and can't be bought, you said. We suspect wealth now: So I guess we make sure that everbody can be bought and sold. But if you are surprised by the Republicans you should get a load of who we have for president . . . I know you were raised in Prince Edward County, VA, once labeled the most racist in America. I heard my siblings' story about you in your younger days; you came a long way. But I bet you still wouldn't vote for a woman or a person of color . . .

I still love and study the Scriptures, but my take on them is different from yours. I have been studying science, but my understanding is different from yours. I became a pastor, like your father and mom's father, but I think I walk in the way differently than they did . . . do you know all this? You gave so much to give us a better life, and we tried to give the same to our children, but some days I think we are slipping backwards, and I don't know if my children will have a life better than mine; or if they should, if it means the continued destruction of the planet.

Somehow, daddy, we always started from different places and yet ended in the same one. Perhaps, at Christmas, we still are . . .

And ye beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow
Look now! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing
O rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing.

For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet bards foretold,
When, with the ever-circling years,
Shall come the Age of Gold;
When peace shall over all the earth,
Its ancient splendors fling,
And all the world give back the song,
Which now the angels sing.

Bye, Pop; be back on Good Friday.

A National Moment

sam.massey — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 12:00:00 GMT

    Sometimes I fear for our country. The news today announced that never has the distance between rich and poor been greater. It is our country in particular that justifies these extremes: the deserving getting the desserts. Some among us justify such greed in the name of Jesus, which is not only a lie but a damnable lie.

    Clearly it is not only greed that separates us, but our political affiliations and so called cultural values related to sex and science. Even Christians in America find themselves divided by a common faith: Definitions of biblical interpretation, morality, and even convictions about Jesus Christ the Lord have made it increasingly difficulty for Americans to find meaningful ways to work together.

    Last Saturday I attended an Iowa basketball game, a draw for a cross-section of Iowans. Even in a losing year, a substantial number of people milled about chattering loudly. Suddenly, bodies ceased motion; voices fell silent on cue. The scoreboards displayed flags, and the National Anthem gripped us all. No matter how our national fabric gets frayed, we can find common ground: over basketball and a patriotic attachment to our mother country.

    I don't know how to feel at this moment. When I counsel with couples thinking of divorce, I tell them this one thing that I know: If they can find some reason, any reason, to stay together, a loving marriage can be built on this slim foundation. Perhaps this is true of our national marriage also. Perhaps we can find a similar reason for reconciliation. Yet I doubt that basketball is enough, or shared history, or patriotic sentimentality, or a common enemy. Considering how thoroughly we have distorted religion, even faith may not make muster.

    Here is my suspicion, whether it be marriage or national covenant. I think that the possibility of peace on earth and good will to all only belongs to those who have some sense of a future together. Perhaps they don't even need hope. Perhaps all they need is some sort of naiive curiosity, one that makes them wonder as to what the future might possibly look like, in their wildest dreams, if they pulled together, if only . . . you fill in the blank. What is the minimal quality we need to be "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all?"

Whassup

Sam Massey — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 12:00:00 GMT

I thought Pastor Mark Martin did a fine job preaching today. I have had the opportunity to reflect more on the Bible passages he used, both Mark 13 and Isaiah 61.

We may recall the Anhueser-Busch commercial that asked the short-film question, "Whassup?" We may translate the expression as, "What's happening? What's occuring?" A literal answer might be "Advent." At its root advent means a happening, an occurrence, as in, we are celebrating what is occurring, what is happening, right now, right in front of us.

To ask the question - what's happening? - presumes that the one being asked has sufficient awareness to answer cogently. This is the challenge of the annual pre-Christmas Advent season. It demands of us our attention; it insists that we practice mindfulness. We quote Jesus during this season as he describes to his disciples the coming of the end of the world (Mark 13). It is easy to interpret this Scripture as a formula for calculating the day and time of Jesus' return, yet the invitation is far more profound. It is not the end of the world that is meant to draw our awareness, but rather the end - that is, the purpose - of our own time in God's time.

The TV flickers, the lights flash, the music blares, lists get added to agendas, year-end deadlines get multiplied by year-end sales, and we hurtle toward the future with enough momentum to carry us months into the new year. With so much designed to hold our attention in thrall, do we really know what is happening? Can we read the signs of the present time, and can we see beneath the surface of things the really real? Isaiah cries out for God to tear open creation so that we can finally see. See what? See the invisible presence of God in which we are profoundly embedded, the Lordship of Christ in which we are deeply entwined.

In this God and his Christ you and I live, move, and have our being. Their presence is veiled from us, but not entirely hidden. Those with eyes to see glimpse them in justice. Those with ears to hear listen to them in murmurs of mercy. Those with nerve-endings can feel them in faith. When we become aware of them we have entered Advent. We know whassup.

Penn State, more thoughts

Sam Massey — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Some of the reactions to the Penn State football fiasco tended to see Joe Paterno as having faced a moral dilemma. One dilemma was between his friendship for Sanduskey and the law. The other was between his legal responsibility to the university and his legal responsibility to report to the police.

Having made poor choices, I feel for anyone who likewise does so. Yet I don't see Paterno having any moral dilemma whatsoever. A friend who allows another friend to abuse children is no friend at all.

And although Paterno may have been following university policy, this is no better an excuse than that used by the Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg: They were just following orders, and thus were not culpable.

The plea didn't work then, and it doesn't work now. Sometimes life gives us moral dilemmas: The boat is sinking and we must choose between rescuing our spouse, our parent, and our child. But in this case, I think the right, moral option was as clear as the distinction between black and white. The priority is to defend the abused child from further abuse. What could be simpler?

Going Parking?

Sam Massey — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 12:00:00 GMT

This morning I learned something new. This should happen every day in a perfect world, and it may for most people, but today in particular I noticed my learning. Parishioners are participating in the Occupy Iowa City (Wall St.) campaign! I confess that I have puzzled over how to react to this movement: I have not seen a clear articulation of an agenda. Here is where my parishioners came to my rescue. They suggested that this group is not willing to homogenize into a focused agenda. Rather, the Occupiers are folks who feel that the country is going wrong, that 1% growing so much richer and leaving 99% behind is clearly wrong, and they - the Occupiers - must stand up and be counted. I can't disagree, although I also can't claim that my hands are totally clean: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and I am sure that in some way I am culpable for what is happening on Wall Street simply by having retirement investments. Yet, I feel compelled and attracted to what I am hearing.

One person asked this question today: As Christians, how should you and I react to this movement? Are we ready to march? What do we know abou the Occupy movement?

Sometime around the darkest Sunday morning of the year

Sam Massey — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT

The Sunday prior to the big fall back hour: The return to Central Standard Time. I woke up to a cloud, rainy, pre-dawn morning. Aargh! Two cups of black coffee had no impact whatsoever.

The ancients believed this was the annual price we paid for the dying and rising of the sun god.
When worship focused on the Son of God, the whole holiday was recast as Christmas. So around the time the longest night of the year arrives and the sun begins to linger a few minutes longer every subequent day, we Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus. Of course, he was probably born in the spring, about the same time as he died 30-50 years later (traditions vary). We may think this is the case because the shepherds were out in the fields by night: huge clue here, gang. But such niceties means nothing when you are trying to get the pagans to stop paganing, with their greens and candles and Yule logs. So the nights get longer, we eat more, and generally make ourselves miserable until Christmas Day, the day we surround ourselves with feasts and family, when we really make ourselves miserable. We started doing all this 2000 years ago to convince the pagans they should be Christians because they really would have more fun if they gave it a try. We were right, and the pagans have held Christmas captive ever since.

Then the government got involved - something about cattle and chickens - and I don't mean with Christmas but with changing the time next Sunday. The last time this happened my basset hound's schedule was completely thrown off and she gets up at 3:00 a.m. every morning to greet the dawn, whining, The dawn is still hours away and I hate whining from everything and everyone. If Mary and Joseph had a dog like this to contend with, there would have been no "gentle Mary laid her child." She would have handed the lad to Joseph, especially if he was whining. Then she would have gotten on her hands and knees, started snarling and put the dog on her back. Once she got the dog's attention, Mary would have put her bare teeth on the dog's neck, snarling savagely, just to show the basset who was boss. I did this and it worked, and it would have worked for Mary too. Of course, they still wouldn't put it out in a nativity scene on a courthouse lawn because no one, Christians or pagans or anyone, wants to see Mary activing like the alpha male even if she did have Joseph wooped into shape.

And how do you feel about the gradual loss of sunlight?

Winconsin, Squirrels, and Debtors

Sam Massey — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT

What is your defnition of sin? A common biblical metaphor is that of an arrow shot that falls short of a target. When Jesus taught the Lord's Prayer, the language of debt and debtors made sense: He may have been addressing a crisis of debt that froze economic activity and disadvantaged the poor. Indeed, it was likely that he was calling for the reinstitution of the Jubilee Year, the Israelite vision of regular forgiveness of all debt that allowed for the equalization of human wealth. The language of trespasses goes back to the practice of large land owners protecting their real estate with draconian measures. Translating such full-bodied and radical images found in the Bible into mere sin, the word often used in modern parlance, seems pretty anemic.

So I have been thinking about Wisconsin's last-second loss to Michigan State. When the Wisconsin team returned to the locker room, it did so with the knowledge that it had fallen short. No matter how tremendous the effort exerted throughout the game, every mistake made in every play accumulated to make the final loss possible. The linebacker who tried to wrestle the lucky Michigan State player to the ground may have received the blame, but in the end he deserved no more blame than the coaches or the Badgers involved in Wisconsin's very first play from scrimmage. That seems typical of sin; it accumulates, decision by decision, choice by choice, deed by deed, sometimes unnoticeably, until a terrible loss is experienced.

I have also been thinking about a squirrel. Son DJ and I dutifully planted wife Susan's tulip bulbs in a place where the deer were unlikely to approach: right next to the front plate glass window where I sat today working. A squirrel appeared momentarily, then left. Then he returned and left again. By the third journey, I knew his mission. He was stealing our bulbs, one by one. This too is sin; not all at once, but bit by bit, sin steals all that we value, all that we have worked so hard to obtain, away from us.

Even the best of us serves as host to the thievery of sin. So we rejoice in the saving power of God, who forgives and reconciles us. And guard our hearts and actions carefully . . .

Go Survey Yourself!

Sam Massey — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Today we took a survey in church. The U.S. Congregational Survey tapped denominations to identify growing congregations among their adherents, and the Presbyterian Church (USA) picked us. It is quite an honor, and one well-deserved by our congregation. When Jesus returned home to Nazareth, it was remarked that "he could not do many miracles there due to their lack of faith" (Matthew 13:58). My finding over 30 years of ministry is that great congregations make for great pastors. Their faith allows for miracles. First Presbyterian Church of Iowa City is a great congregation by this measure. Still, taking the survey was disruptive to our worship and I am sure exercised the members' patience. But that too is a mark of a great congregation: They were called on to render a service for the greater good, one that inconvenienced them, and they came through in a big way. Truly, they have a heart for servant leadership.

The whole event did bring back some unpleasant memories, however. Some years ago I served in a community in which the church down the road was similarly honored. It had grown rapidly because a few years before my arrival, the church I served had experienced a series of scandals. People fled that congregation and ended up down the road. I served the victim; there were no winners. The gain of one became the loss of another. This is not so unusual as most church growth comes from people moving from congregation to congregation. In fact, the fastest growing religious group in the United States is the roll of the non-affiliated. Christianity is not so much growing in the United States as church-growing Christians are proving fickle. More troubling, many people are joining the ranks of the disaffected and non-aligned.

I think the more profound question is why we reward church growth. The crowds followed Jesus until he made clear his intentions to die as the messiah. Then the crowds abandoned him, leaving only the disciples. When Jesus wondered out loud if they would leave him too, they asked "To whom are we to go? For you have have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68). When were Jesus and his disciples the most faithful? When they entertained the crowds, building momentum for the big show in Jerusalem? Or when "he humbled himself and became obedient to the cross" (Philippians 2:8)?

So I am proud of the congregation I serve because they can take pastors with modest gifts and make them believe in themselves. I am proud of the congregation I serve because they take seriously the prophetic command, voiced by Jesus, to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with their God. I am proud of the congregation because it has a servant's heart. I am proud of the congregation because it "lifts high the cross." Growth is good when it results from a congregation serving Jesus Christ faithfully, because faith is best of all.

Downsizing, Cleaning House, Simplifying . . . It Ain't Happening

Sam Massey — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Each time we moved, we got rid of stuff. Lots of it. That's why we don't have a '61 Chrysler, a kerosene space heater recalled by the factory and never returned, and a musical toy that our older boy Will utilized to drive us to the point of madness.  Most of the time we bought new to replace old, and as the houses grew so did the possessions.

Our priorities changed the last few years or, more specifically, our square footage did. Unfortunately, during the last move the family and I never found the time to throw what we had stowed. The combination led to our current dilemma: We have way too much stuff. I wish I could call it junk: This would give us permission to toss it. I wish I could call it treasure: This would give us hope of selling it.

But it is not junk. It is family heirlooms, antiques passed down to me lovingly wrapped in newspaper by my old Dad. It is old furniture, chairs in particular, that I doubt ever provided the Masseys comfort. There is art created by friends who wished to share their soul with me. There are legal papers that honor no statue of limitations. Books for all ages and levels of education overflow our bookshelves.

By the same token, it is not treasure. To a buyer its value would not exceed a few dollars. To the reciptient of charity it would not lead to considerable betterment.

So this is my life, cluttered. Yet I feel incapable of changing my plight.

What makes this hard is the truth that possessions have spiritual value. They can represent the insecurities that I cannot find in my heart to release to God. They whisper of the past that has not healed within me. From these heirlooms I draw some comfort for a lack that only God's spirit can fill in me.

So I need to get rid of all this stuff. But how? And how can I rid myself of the feeling that keeping this stuff diminishes my soul while giving it away means losing my life ?

When you open your closet, walk through your basement or dust your knick-knacks, what are you called to recognize and do? How free are you if you cannot?

The New Apostolic Reformation: What do you think?

Sam Massey — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 11:00:00 GMT

When presidential contender Rick Perry appeared on the national scene, he did so in the company of the New Apostolic Reformation. This groups emphasizes dominion: They want true Christians in every part of society (the so-called 7 mountains) to provide a witness. The NAR doesnt want to take over the world, according to one of their God-picked apostles. They do want to exercise positive influence among other influences.

I confess that their public argument - that many different voices should be heard at the table of democracy - has appeal for me. But I am uneasy when they claim that Christ calls persons especially gifted as apostles to rule over the church. No democratic largesse here: Persons not called to rule in the church apostolically are called to submit.

What makes me uneasy is my own Presbyterian ownership of this one idea: that participation in church government under the Lordship of Christ prepares persons for governance responsibility in the larger culture. Presbyterian church government presumes that broken sinners must work in humility and prayerfully to find God's call. This call always exceeds the understanding of one person or even a group of persons. Only dialogue among differences leads to insights. We have no popes speaking ex cathedra. In other words, Presbyterian government goes back to the early church and Acts 15. During that first ecumenical council several persons - including Jesus' original disciples, although not they only - met to make decisions, often compromises, in light of what the Spirit of God was doing.

With all due respect to his supporters, I grow anxious with Perry's battle language and with the NAR's praise of centralized rule in the church. It feels to me that the two might collapse into each other and become really ugly. Arrogance can wear a variety of spiritual cloaks, from conservative to liberal. Your thoughts?

__ Birthday To Me, _ Birthday to Me . . .

Sam Massey — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT

September 27, 1957 dawned clear and warm in Washington, D.C.: A beautiful day, my mother still insists, in spite of the theft of her memory by dementia. She has forgotten the contrast with my brother, whose birth coincided with a horrible lightning storm that scared him out of her. Reflective of personalities, I insisted. Washington weather, she once retorted. 54 years, good years filled with golden sunshine much of the time. Behind me lies a trail of blessing and evil, great accomplishments and abysmal failures. Whatever I might have sought or changed in those years, it makes little difference now. I am reconciled. Here I sit; I cannot do otherwise.

I have received more than I deserve. I love my family and my pastorate. The boundary lines of my life have fallen in good places. Yet I know that over the long years I underperformed in many parts of my life, due mostly to my own temperament and inability to keep a still tongue in my head. Is it wrong to be content with how life turned out? To fall short and to compensate by giving up ambition? To feel gratification from accomplishments that are other than the definitions of success envisioned by my parents and professors?

So how your life? Are you all that you could have been? Does it matter? And what role has God played in what you have - or have not - become?

The just shall live by faith . . .

Sam Massey — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT

I can't say with certainty when it happened. Some time along the way I realized that in many situations I don't know the rules. Or, knowing them, I find them limiting. Oh yes, I still pay my taxes and stop at stop signs. But when you get slow moving and deaf, and your memory slips away, and your energy gets sapped just sitting up and watching TV, well . . . What everyone else deems important just doesn't seem as important anymore. I understand finally that when my old Dad grew increasingly embarrassing, he wasn't trying to embarrass me. He had come to the conclusion that life was justice, mercy and faith, and everything else didn't matter. He didn't give a hairy rat's fanny about social convention, and I have come to admire him for it.

The Apostle Paul in Romans tells us that much of what we counted as important just plain isn't. Those who go through life in the right sort of way do so by faith: They try to hear what a loving God has to say and the direction that God wants them to take, and then they trust . . . they trust God and go in the designated direction. They know that what is finally important is what God said and says to them in the person of Jesus. That's what makes them weird.

So what does it mean for you and me to live by faith? No, really . . . before its too late and they put us in a box six feet under or spread us like fertilizer. What does it mean? I will tell you what I think, but let's start with you.

Same-gender marriage and culture wars

Sam Massey — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT

I was thrilled to hear from two of my beautiful and wise parishioners from Charlottesville. One took what I would call a pastoral view to the question of suffering, and the other confined himself to strictly Biblical elaboration. Both exhibited insight that I would view as synoptic: They must be seen together because they balance each other.

Today the session of First Presbyterian Church, Iowa City, approved two amendments for submission to our denomination. Both amendments take positions in favor of denominational permission for clergy to perform, and congregations to host, same-gender marriages in those states wherein such marriages are legally permittted. Folks on session and in the congregation disagree on this issue, yet they have proven time and again their mature ability to disagree and yet remain one faithful community obedient to the Risen Christ. I am fortunate to be serving them.

The ironic part of this conversation is that both sides strongly believe in marriage. On the one hand, the concerns of many church persons is well-known: They do not find warrant in their Bible reading for same-gender marriage and they affirm the blessing of heterosexual marriage as God's gift to them. On the other hand, gay and lesbian persons do not get much support for marriage from the gay and lesbian community, which considers marriage to be a sign of heterosexual oppressive hegemony. So it is remarkable that these couples feel so strongly in favor of marriage that they step out in faith and make a public commitment and covenant before God. Agree or disagree, let us admit it takes courage for gay and lesbian persons to defend faithful Christian marriage as God's gift to them too.

So what do you and I believe as we read the Scriptures prayerfully?

Hide and Seek . . . And Keep Seeking

Sam Massey — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:00:00 GMT

I recall that after 9/11 people tried to read God's mind into that tragedy. Fundamentalists stated that the attacks represented God's rejection of homosexuality. Some preachers of a more moderate to liberal bent declared that the falling towers and crumbling Pentagon embodied judgment on American imperialistic foreign policy. Short of God taking out a full-page ad in the New York Times, however, the guesses as to the meaning of the horror were just that: guesses. So now that we have fires in Texas, earthquakes in Virginia and hurricanes plowing up the east coast, it would be rather presumptuous of me to hazard a guess as to God's thinking. Of course, note that Iowa has had no fires, earthquakes, or hurricanes as of this writing, and we all know the really great folks who live in Iowa. Hmmm. Of course, you could point to flooding in Cedar Rapids, but we all know how God feels about Cedar Rapids . . . heck, it is practically in Minnesota . . .

So what are the alternatives? God micro-manages and punishes us for our sins by sending us disasters, like the holocaust. That would make it easy for us to judge between the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys are the Nazis . . . no, clearly that's not right. Alternatively, life happens and God stays out of it, which is the deistic solution. The world is a timepiece, God winds it up and takes a break. Nerd. Or, as a third option, God suffers with us as a fellow victim, and takes no responsibility for the ugliness. That is called patripassianism, a heresy tossed out by the church a long time ago because it collapses God entirely into human suffering: If God is wallowing in the pit with us, who is left outside in the position to save us? God as wimp. Oops. I may have just given plenty of ammunition to atheists, but they have their own selection of logical contradictions and I try not to borrow trouble . . . I have some thoughts, but I am still trying to get my head around them and find the words to express them.

You? So what do you think? No, really, I want to know . . .

"Here comes the rest of us . . ."

Sam Massey — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 11:00:00 GMT

One of my Gonzaga professors wrote a journal article with the title above. He observed that SARS arrived in China and news of it became texted everywhere despite Chinese government efforts to suppress the truth. From that moment on decision-making became radically democratized. Everybody got into the act of passing on and judging both actions and information. Texts and words go viral in a blink of an eye.

Social media has made possible the participation of millions in the great movements of our day. In response, those in power seek ways to block social media and suppress knowledgable activists and whistle-blowers. As the Arab Spring has demonstrated, however, those in power are on the losing side of history. Our current American efforts to suppress whisteblowers may prove no more successful.

I confess that having too many people involved in what I believe is my personal province leaves me uneasy. When I awoke from a groggy post-surgery sleep, looking like heck, and found one doctor and a dozen students surrounding me and discussing my case, I felt pretty uncomfortable. I understood the need and virtue of this development; I just didn't like it one bit. It left me feeling powerless. Yet it is a feeling to which more than one of us will need to become accustomed. We live in too small of a world for us to hold our health or our opinions as our private domain. The more controlling we are, the more we acknowledge this development with chagrin.

Years ago I served a church as an associate pastor. It boasted a newsletter entitled "Steeple To People." After one particularly rancorous session meeting, an elder suggested that we needed a mechanism for congregational feedback: He recommended that we call it "Pew To You." These things come full circle. When the Protestant Reformation began, sermons were interactive events. The preacher would preach and people would respond with comments, affirmation and arguments (to their credit, many African-American churches still hold this level of congregational worship involvement to be a core value) . It is said that one person asked John Calvin during one of his sermons what God was doing before creating heaven and earth. "Creating hell for over-curious people," Calvin responded, perhaps reflecting his own discomfort with too much audience participation. No wonder Presbyterian worship services became so subdued.

After a long period of silence, the crowd is back. Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs like this one keep us knowledgeable of everything from the sublime to the ridiculous, from earthquakes to emerging pimples. I am told that conference lecturers find themselves surrounded by walls of Smartboards that deliver listener reactions in real time. Calvin may have been equipped for such an eventuality, but the thought of Smartboards being the next new worship craze leaves my colleagues and me quivering. Nevertheless, Calvin's vision of the Reformation has become reality: Preaching, teaching, serving, sacraments and much else invite the rest of us (you) into participation in ways Calvin never could have foreseen.

In the spirit of this brave new world I inaugurate this Blog. I thank Lara Marsh for her effort to get it up and running, and training an old war horse like me how to handle it. Although Lara and I are its editors, this is our Blog: hers, mine and especially yours. So, how about those Cubs? As if I needed to ask . . .

Letter from Pastor Sam Re: Change in Ordination Standards

Sam Massey — Fri, 13 May 2011 11:00:00 GMT

Dear sisters and brothers in Jesus Christ our Lord:

The peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

We have received word from the Office of the General Assembly that Amendment 10-A to the Book of Order has been approved nationally by a majority of presbyteries. This means that those congregations and presbyteries that wish to utilize the gifts of gay and lesbian persons who are either single or in committed relationships as ordained deacons, elders, or ministers of word and sacrament may do so. All other ordination standards remain intact. We might recall that our own session endorsed a form of this overture over a year ago for approval by our presbytery. Elders Lara Marsh and Steve Schomberg were advocates to the 2010 General Assembly for both this overture and one favoring permission for same-gender marriage.

For those who anticipated excitedly the day when gay and lesbian persons might be permitted to serve as ordained officers (elders, deacons, and ministers of word and sacrament), that brave new day has come. For others, this day is unsettling. Let us pray for continued dialogue and compassion as we, the PCUSA, continue to seek the realm of God in our midst.

If you have any questions that I can try to answer, please feel free to reach me between now and June.
Love and blessings, your pastor,
Sam

P.S. For more information go to http://oga.pcusa.org/ and click on Read More to get the full text of the document.

How far can $10 go?

Lara Marsh — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:00:00 GMT

On Sunday, May 1, a basket will be passed behind the stewardship plate. In the basket will be packets of vegetable seeds and flower seeds. Attached to each packet will be a coupon for a $10 bill. Larry Bruner and Ken Miller will redeem the coupons after church for the $10.00. Participants in this challenging and rewarding activity will then have the summer to develop a project to illustrate that God provides “more than enough.” This fall you will be asked to make a poster for the fellowship hall telling about your project, and 2 or 3 participants will be asked to give a brief project description at a Sunday morning Worship Service. Suggested projects would include:

1. Growing vegetables, buying a container and taking it to the crisis center.
2. Along with the vegetables, give the money or buy more food for the crisis center.
3. Grow some flowers, buy a nice container or containers and take them to a shut-in or nursing home.

In any case, part of the project would include giving something of yourself by spending some time with the
recipients, learning what they do and maybe helping or visiting for awhile.

We are really only restricted by our imagination.

Good News in Pasrur!

Lara Marsh — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 11:00:00 GMT

The Friends of Pasrur are excited to announce that the goal of raising $45,000 for scholarships for the 100 Christian girls living in the dormitory of the Presbyterian Education Board school in Pasrur has been met! Many thanks to all who have contributed! Getting an education will be a lifechanging experience for these young women. Only through education can they hope to break out from the cycle of poverty that was facing them and their families.

Another exciting announcement is that Friends of Pasrur is able to provide additional scholarships for five young women who have recently graduated from the Pasrur boarding school and have elected to enroll in the new extended two-year program (like a junior college) that has been established on the Pasrur PEB campus. These scholarships for $750 each cover room and board, tuition, etc. The graduates will have even better opportunities for successful careers. Again, many thanks to all those who have made this possible.

Live Healthy Iowa

Lara Marsh — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 12:00:00 GMT

Live Healthy Challenge at First Presbyterian

What is the Live Healthy Challenge?
Live Healthy Iowa has a track record of helping more than 169,000 people to get fit and shed 698,410 pounds over the past 10 years.* The program encourages Iowans to form teams of up to 10 people who will work to lose weight and get fit by exercising for 100 days a year. This year, the Health Ministry Team is organizing teams from First Presbyterian, starting on January 20 (you can still sign up after the program starts). Registration is $20 a person, and HyVee is offering a $5 coupon that would reduce the fee to $15. Participants get a training T-shirt, weekly motivational tips, an online personal tracking page with a daily journal and unlimited access to recipes, workouts, and health information. You can find more information at www.livehealthyiowa.org.

How do I sign up?
Each team will have a captain, who will collect the registration fees and register the team. If you would like to be a team captain or member, you can sign up on Sundays or contact Mary Jo Keith, Parish Nurse  or Rhonda Barr, Health Ministry chair. Scholarships are available through the Health Ministry Team.

Let’s get out and support each other in meeting our health and fitness goals. Be well!

*Des Moines Register, Jan 12, 2011

Former PC(USA) Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow on Recent Teen Suicides

Lara Marsh — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 11:00:00 GMT

The recent publicized epidemic of suicides committed by teenagers who were victims of anti-gay bullying is shocking. Former PC(USA) Moderator, Bruce Reyes-Chow, has a short video on his website about his reactions.

Former Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow, "One dad's response to teen suicide"

News from Pakistan

Lara Marsh — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:00:00 GMT

Dear Friends of PEB,
Greetings from a wounded land --
Since I have landed back in Pakistan on July 30, 2010. I realize earth quakes, floods (hit by the worst flood since last 100 years), sectarian violence, targeted killings; suicide bombing and drone attacks today define Pakistan, a country which came into existence in 1947 through bloody partition of India and Pakistan. The literal meaning of Pakistan is a Land of Pure People and this land is continuously bleeding. Our country has no way to cope with the multiple crises, death has become the most abundant crop of this wounded land, and no one is even counting deaths.

Our country needs a lot of personal sacrifices to tackle fundamentalism. It is marching forward to singularly tackle this menace, bravely, sacrificing its most precious of assets, the children of Pakistan.

Political leaders, soldiers and ordinary people are sacrificing their lives and livelihoods against the fundamentalists. There is no limit on terrorism. Even the devastation wrought by the floods has not been enough to persuade the militants not to strike. They are targeting political leaders, innocent people. They are trying to paralyze normal life and cripple authorities.

As the United Nations said, massive floods in Pakistan has affected 13.8 million people and need survival aid which is more of the devastating 2004 tsunami, the 2005 Pakistan earth quake and the January 2010 Haiti earthquake, the death toll so far has reached over 1600 across country.

In all of this, good things are also happening. None of the PEB School is directly affected by the floods. Few boarding house students of Christian Girls` High School, Sargodha living near Mianwali villages are being affected. We are gathering their data.

PEB Schools have performed really well in the Secondary School Examinations conducted by the state. Our overall pass percentage have increased to 98%. More and more students of PEB are now being accepted in Forman Christian College and Kinnaird College. The biggest challenge we are facing is to support them in higher education. Please pray for this challenge.

Our Annual Teacher Training Program was as usual a success. Three Teacher Trainers from U.S.A under leadership of Caroline Ryan from Peachtree Atlanta Georgia came to Pakistan on July 9, 2010 and left on July 23, 2010. 57 teachers of PEB benefited through it.

Another good thing is we are having some breakthrough in our struggle regarding C.T.I. property, Rang Mahal School and some other properties.

Please remember us in your prayers. Together we'll make a better Pakistan and a better world.

Peace and Prayers -- Veeda

Catch up with General Assembly, July 2 - 10

Lara Marsh — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT

Elders Steve Schomberg and Lara Marsh are representing the Presbytery of East Iowa at this year's national General Assembly conference in Minneapolis. The General Assembly website has live coverage you can watch anytime. Check out this link:

http://ga219.pcusa.org/

General Assembly Commissioner from East Iowa Writes Blog

Lara Marsh — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT

John Klotzbach, Elder from Independence who is a commisioner to this year's General Assembly in Minneapolis, is writing a blog about his adventures. Read about him at the link below and add your own comments or questions!

http://www.pbyeastia.org/tp40/page.asp?ID=239001

Outlook Covers News From General Assembly

Lara Marsh — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 11:00:00 GMT

This year's General Assembly starts on July 3 and goes through July 10. You can read news coverage of each day's events along with blog postings and opinions of what's happening at the Presbyterian Outlook's website. Follow it here:

http://www.pres-outlook.com/

Thanks to Volunteers for Kids Against Hunger!

Lara Marsh — Sat, 08 May 2010 12:05:00 GMT

Thirty-two people gathered to pack food for Kids Against Hunger for two hours and packed 4000 meals designated for Haiti! Thanks to those of you who donated time and/or money to this worthwhile cause! Thanks also to Mission Council and the Presbyterian Women for their contributions. What a success!

Summer Reading Ideas

Lara Marsh — Sat, 08 May 2010 11:00:00 GMT

For anyone who may be interested in learning more about the area where our Pasrur Christian Girls School is located, here are some reading ideas from Jane Cranston. Some are about both Pakistan and Afghanistan. Enjoy!

Pakistan by Owen Bennet Jones (2003)
Three Cups of tea: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Greg Mortensen (2003)
Stones into Schools by Greg Mortensen (2009)
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WeDunn (2009)
Kabul Beauty School by Deborah Rodrigus (2007)
Land of the High Flags: Afghanistan When the Going Was Good by Rosanne Klass (2007)
Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia by Ahmen Rachid (2009)
The Idea of Pakistan by Stephen Philip Cohen (2004)

The Rock Travels to Chicago for Annual Mission Trip

Lara Marsh — Sat, 08 May 2010 11:00:00 GMT

Members of The Rock spent Palm Sunday weekend in Chicago as participants in the DOOR program, an ecumenical organization that helps its participants to "see the face of God in the city."

Estyl Breazeale, 2010 Presbyterian Woman of the Year

Lara Marsh — Sat, 08 May 2010 11:00:00 GMT

Congratulations to Estyl Breazeale who has been serving our church family for many years as theh coordinator of all funeral receptions here at the church. She quietly buys all the groceries, solicits helpers, and provides a beautiful reception for grieving family members. This is her gift of love. She also helps fold bulletins, the monthly newsletter, and assists in the office. Please congratulate Estyl!

News

Skubala: A truly impermeable boundary

Skubala: Obama as the Anti-Christ

Skubala: Trawon and George Somewhere North of Apopka

Skubala: I'm Predestined, You're Predestined - Or Not

Skubala: Invisible

Skubala: The Pro-Life Position

Skubala: Missing Whitney Houston

Skubala: The Super Bowl Big Game Gamble

Skubala: Mitt Romney and the Hope of the Earth

Meanderings

Massey's Modest Musings: The Caucuses

Talking to Pop

A National Moment

Whassup

Penn State, more thoughts

Going Parking?

Sometime around the darkest Sunday morning of the year

Winconsin, Squirrels, and Debtors

Go Survey Yourself!

Downsizing, Cleaning House, Simplifying . . . It Ain't Happening

The New Apostolic Reformation: What do you think?

________ Birthday To Me, _______ Birthday to Me . . .

The just shall live by faith . . .

Same-gender marriage and culture wars

Hide and Seek . . . And Keep Seeking

"Here comes the rest of us . . ."

Letter from Pastor Sam Re: Change in Ordination Standards

How far can $10 go?

Good News in Pasrur!

Live Healthy Iowa

Former PC(USA) Moderator Bruce Reyes-Chow on Recent Teen Suicides

News from Pakistan

Catch up with General Assembly, July 2 - 10

General Assembly Commissioner from East Iowa Writes Blog

Outlook Covers News From General Assembly

Thanks to Volunteers for Kids Against Hunger!

Summer Reading Ideas

The Rock Travels to Chicago for Annual Mission Trip

Estyl Breazeale, 2010 Presbyterian Woman of the Year

__ Birthday To Me, _ Birthday to Me . . .