Pastor’s Thoughts

Filed by Joey at 3:29 pm under Announcements,Church Leadership,Economics,General Rant,Pop Culture,Sermons,Society at Large
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I first heard this concept recently at a PTA meeting. In light of the current financial crisis, I thought it appropriate. One can also see the correlation to discipleship. It is good to realize that disciplined lives are the standard suggested and even demanded by scripture. But it is also good to note that there is an ambulance at the bottom of the hill–or, to be more specific, a cross at the top of a hill.

the bailout -- the rescue

“The Ambulance Down in the Valley.”

‘ Twas a dangerous cliff, as they freely confessed,
Though to walk near its crest was so pleasant,
But over its terrible edge there had slipped,
A duke and full many a peasant.

So the people said something would have to be done,
But their projects did not at all tally.
Some said, “Put a fence around the edge of the cliff,”
Some, “An ambulance down in the valley.”

But the cry for the ambulance carried the day,
For it spread through the neighboring city,
A fence may be useful or not, it is true,
But each heart became moved with pity,

For those who slipped over that dangerous cliff;
And the dwellers on highway and alley
Gave pounds and gave pence not to put up a fence,
But an ambulance down in the valley.

Then an old sage remarked, “it’s a marvel to me
That people give far more attention
To repairing the results than to stopping the cause,
When they’d much better aim at prevention.

“Let us stop at its source all this hurt,” cried he.
“Come, neighbors and friends, let us rally.
If the cliff we will fence, we might almost dispense
With the ambulance down in the valley.”

While current economics is all about the ambulance, there’s never a way to regulate to the point that no risk is ever involved. To keep with the analogy, we need a decent fence and a first aid kit at the bottom of the hill. In other words, the pros are calling for more regulations, but no one thinks that there will never be another government intervention in Wall Street.

Discipleship is very similar. We can’t “dispense with the ambulance.” We need Jesus. But we also have a responsibility to regulate our lives with the spiritual disciplines of Jesus’ teachings.

As Paul said, we should never choose to sin more just to receive more grace. Regulations and disciplines must be a part of a healthy lifestyle. It isn’t often that we see the proof of this statement than in the most recent activities on Wall Street and in the halls of Congress.

What are your fences? How do you regulate your life? What is your committment to spiritual discipline?

Filed by Joey at 1:32 pm under Economics,General Rant,Political Landscape,Society at Large
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I recently re-read an article written by one of the greatest theologians of modernity. The article is entitled Our Secularized Civilization and the author is Reinhold Niebuhr.

Its a little thick. And it is dated 1926. And since he never had a reality television show, Neibuhr is probably unknown to most of the people about which he writes.

Nonetheless, the article remains one of the greatest assessments of the Church’s secular nature, and well before the time of secular, post-modern thinking.

Secular humanism is a way thinking that returns human beings to the central position of existence and pushes God off to one side. Because of the inherent need to test beliefs, God must prove Himself over and over to each seeking individual. Secular humanism also points out that fulfillment, growth, creativity are among the most important priorities in the life of any individual. Moreover, the definition of fulfillment and growth are created by the individual, and not by God or any religious institution or group.

Neibuhr saw this coming. In fact, he saw it aborning.

Our obsession with the physical sciences and with the physical world has enthroned the brute and blind forces of nature, and we follow the God of the earthquake and the fire rather than the God of the still small voice. The morals of the man in the street, who may not be able to catch the full implications of pure science, are corrupted by the ethical consequences of the civilization which applied science has built.

In other words, human beings tend to give God credit for the wonders of creation such as the sunset and the blooming rose. But the experieces of God revealed in the writings of unenlightened human beings become outdated and fail the measure of scientific measure.

Adam Hamilton, pastor of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, has written a book entitled Confronting the Controversies. In the book, Hamilton points out that this is a false seperation of the world into things of God’s domain and the domain of science, especially in the area of Creationism vs. Evolution.

But Hamilton calls for a middle ground, and he does so by calling for a return to thinking about God as an superhuman answer to a merely-human question. Instead, we put God in a cart pulled by the horses of modern science, and that simply doesn’t work. 

Neibuhr appears to have agreed with Hamilton, or vice versa. He points out that

[Protestantism] It helps men to master those sins which are easily discovered because they represent divergence from accepted moral customs: the sins of dishonesty, sexual incontinence and intemperance.

Most Christians would claim that the elimination of these crimes/sins from ones life are the major purpose of Christian living and participation in the life of the church. The result, according to Neibuhr, is that humanity is left to determine its own morality based on human capability, including the capability of capitalistic success.

No religion is more effective than Protestantism against the major social sins of our day, economic greed and race hatred. [...] No real progress can be made against the secularization of modern life until Protestantism overcomes its pride and complacency and realizes that it has itself connived with the secularists. By giving men a sense of moral victory because they have mastered one or two lusts, while their lust for power and their lust for gain remain undisciplined, it is simply aggravating those lusts which are the primary perils of modern civilization.

In other words, human beings are left to make thieir own subjective opinions regarding how we treat each other socially, politically, and economically. The religious people can confine their focus on the “spiritual” laws to within the walls of the church.

The frightening thought that Neibuhr provokes is that we are living in the midst of a time that is more like the post World War I 1920′s and pre-World War II 1930′s than we would care to admit. It was a time of growing Nationalism and declining morality.

Vaguely conscious of the moral inadequacy of such an existence, men try to sublimate it by restraining their individual lusts in favor of the community in which they live. Thus nationalism becomes the dominant religion of the day and individual lusts are restrained only to issue in group lusts more grievous and more destructive than those of individuals. Nationalism is simply one of the effective ways in which the modern man escapes life’s ethical problems. Delegating his vices to larger and larger groups, he imagines himself virtuous; the larger the group the more difficult it is to fix moral responsibility for unethical action.

America was a powerful economic force, wealthy in comparison to every other nation in the world. It was also considered itself to be the successor to European Christianity as the moral leader in an immoral world. Neibuhr wrote this almost 90 years ago:

Recent events in Europe reveal what unrepentant tribalists Western people are and how little they have learned from the great tragedy. They seem to lack both the imagination to realize the folly of their ways and the humility to conceive of their folly as sin. While we in America affect to pity Europe, the sense of moral superiority, which is always the root of pity, is based on illusion. We are no more moral than Europe, but our tremendous wealth and our comparative geographic isolation save us from suffering any immediate consequences of our moral follies. However active the institutions of religion may be in our national life, there is no trace of ethical motive in our national conduct. To the world we appear, what we really are, a fabulously wealthy nation, intent upon producing more wealth and seemingly oblivious to the consequences which unrestrained lust of power and lust of gain must inevitably have on both personal morality and international harmony.

Neibuhr could have been writing this for a blog last week, last month, or last year.

So what does this have to do with Church?

I’m glad you asked.

Rather than dividing the world in which we live into secular and spiritual categories, we should return to the notion that the world in which we live was created by God, and God is the authority in each and every category. Rather than leaving ourselves open to the whims of dogma or the fascism of a cult-prophet, the church must return to the shared responsibility of discerning God’s will. One of the first things we must recapture is Christ’s focus on a social gospel in addition to our slightly obsessive/compulsive focus on puritanical ethics in the area of sex and temperance. Again, Neibuhr: “How a fretful anxiety about a number of lustful temptations can develop a perfect complacency in regard to other temptations may be seen by the fact that the church is not now so conscious of some of the sins of modern civilization as some of our most thoroughgoing realists.”

Perhaps we can couple our newfound need to be more active in changing the rotten systems of the world in which we’re living with a new way of perceiving worship. Worship is a clear reflection of our self-congratulatory opinions of what we are doing as a nation, as an economic system, and as individuals living for the moment.

Perhaps it might not be irrelevant to add that its failure to understand the relation between the physical and the spiritual not only tempts Protestantism to create righteousness in a vacuum but to develop piety without adequate symbol. That is why the church services of extreme Protestant sects tend to become secularized once the first naive spontaneity departs from their religious life. In Europe nonconformist Protestants tend more and more to embrace the once despised beauty of symbol and dignity of form in order to save worship from dullness and futility. In America nonconformist Protestantism, with less cultural background, tries to avert dullness by vulgar theatricality. [...] If worship is to serve man’s ethical as well as religious needs, it must give him a sense of humble submission to the absolute.

I would extend Neibuhr’s thinking by reminding myself, and every reader, that worship is not limited to one hour a week. Worship is similar to prayer in that we should pray without ceasing. We should also worship without ceasing. In these terms, every moment is an opportunity to seek humility. As disciples, we must put ourselves in our place: subservient to God’s will and willing to lay aside our own desires in order to further the notion of Christ’s Kingdom.

And here I thought that I’d never get a chance to use any of that Seminary Book Learnin’.

Filed by Joey at 7:14 pm under Economics,General Rant,Political Landscape,Pop Culture,Society at Large
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The single greatest preventable tragedy of our time…

Filed by Joey at 4:40 pm under Economics,General Rant,Society at Large
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Work and rest.

Serious and silly.

Past and future.

Creativity and logic.

People try to balance things all the time. I’m one of them. My work and home lives are intricately bound together, yet I try to seperate them in order to balance them. My kids expect me to be involved in their lives, and well they should. My church expects me to be involved in their lives, and well they should. My God expects me to do both and to do both well.

Balance is hard. Its especially hard when we make the mistake of simplifying our choices down to “either/or” decisions. For example, “work and rest” are major concerns for balance. But most healthcare professionals will tell you that “rest” often involves hard work. And smart managers would prefer employees to work smarter than harder when it increases productivity.

But how do I balance my desires and hopes and dreams with God’s desires and hopes for my life? (more…)

Filed by Joey at 12:04 pm under Church Leadership,Economics,General Rant,Memphis Conference,Methodism,Political Landscape,Pop Culture,Society at Large
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From USA Today

Attorneys general in at least nine states, responding to outrage by their residents, are investigating whether current high gasoline prices are a result of wrongdoing by the petroleum industry, according to the National Association of Attorneys General.

…

Some states have made price-gouging cases. Florida sued individual gas stations for overcharging after Katrina.

But Florida, unlike Arizona, has an anti-gouging law. It is in effect only when a state of emergency is declared. Florida was a hurricane target, making an emergency declaration logical.
Arizona’s report, unveiled last week, says, “Profit margins realized by every segment of the oil industry were two or three times their normal margins.”

But the state has no law making that illegal, underscoring, the report says, the need for a federal price-gouging law.

The need for a federal price gouging law? Maybe. What about federal regulation of an industry that has taken advantage of every natural disaster to strike the country in the past four years…

When people rise to meet the need as a nation, and the captains of industry that control the nations gasoline supply decide to press for profit, there is a problem.

[D]ata for 2006 show that crude oil prices have risen 14%, but the difference between what oil companies pay for crude oil and prices at the pump has soared 130%.

Why am I so upset about this practice? Because it has become a justice issue.

Church ministries that utilize a bus rely on gas prices for determining budget. I have a problem with oil company moguls lining their pockets with money better spent on ministry.

Contact your senators today. Ask them to pass laws that will regulate oil industry profits.

www.senate.gov

Filed by Joey at 12:27 pm under Economics,Political Landscape,Society at Large
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I get e-mail all the time. Some of it purports to be from great thinkers.

One of those literary beauties involved a tidbit of wisdom about how immigrants should show up on the doorstep of America ready to don a baseball cap, chow down on some apple pie, and immediately begin to speak English. “Try forcing your language on Mexico. Demand your ‘rights’ in Afghanistan,” they said. “They won’t allow it there, and we shouldn’t allow it here.”

But don’t we do it anyway? Don’t we demand that people speak English to us regardless of where we are in the world? Watch The Amazing Race on CBS, or the Gameshow Network once or twice (not more than that, you’ll get a headache). You’ll see Americans in all parts of the globe defying local laws, sneering at local customs, and generally behaving boorishly. And we wonder why we are having a hard time in the world of public opinion.

Given the fact that we have boorish tendencies, its ludicrous to expect these cultures to be folded into our national fabric without a hubbub.

Or is it?

Rap music was anathema a few years ago. Played in the middle of the night on MTV, it was a rebel, renegade element in music. Now, you can’t watch MTV or VH-1 for that matter, without someone dropping a hip-hop or gangsta rap beat in the background.

And now, no one really notices.

Even though we integrate pretty well, America has always integrated immigrants WAY more slowly than the national minorities desired. And rarely fast enough to keep the mainstream population completely happy.

But retaining a strong genetic bond of blood and national identity is exactly what one should expect. As I already said, Americans do it everywhere we go.

Overheard in downtown Toledo: I’d like a Big Mac.
Overheard in downtown Taipei: I’d like a Big Mac. Don’t you have real food here?

And you don’t have to leave the country to find that, by the way. If you get a big enough group together at a Chinese restaurant, and you’ll probably get at least one person who wants that hamburger instead of shrimp lo mein.

But let’s be really clear about this issue: The problem isn’t immigration, but illegal immigration. Just as we shouldn’t expect laws to be ignored in our favor when we are traveling the world, neither should immigrants expect laws to be forgotten in their favor either. The trouble is that we are the ones who have failed to enforce our own laws.

And that’s a problem.

Immigrants have to expect more integration–mostly with following our laws.

And we American nationals have to expect more retention of national identity from these people who are making their way in a new, frightening country. Its comforting to see those things that remind us of home.

Moderating the two is the only way that this crisis will avert. Where we stand now, acts of violence on a broad scale are only a few fistfights away.

If you have any questions about the possibilities of violence, here are some of the acts that have been carried out recently that you may not be aware of. Note the lack of moderation.

The images can be seen courtesy of Michelle Malkin’s Blog.

Give a little bit. That’s the key. But who is going to give first?

Filed by Joey at 7:02 pm under Church Leadership,Economics,Political Landscape,Society at Large
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I’m sure you’ve heard about Exxon’s record breaking profits. If you haven’t, the story can be found here:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12513303/

Exxon said its output rose by 5 per cent, the first increase since the third quarter of 2004, while earnings rose to $8.4bn, a 7 per cent rise or 14 per cent after items last year. Although a first-quarter record, profits missed analyst estimates and were more than 20 per cent lower than fourth-quarter profits. Revenues rose 8.4 per cent to $88.98 billion.

Folks, that’s around $93 million a day.

A day.

A few years back, I pointed out an article regarding the incredible rise in CEO salaries compared to the national average employee wage. Clearly, the article didn’t exactly raise much in the way of awareness.
But with the rising cost of gas, people are starting to take a second look.

A new article is available here: http://www.faireconomy.org/press/2005/EE2005_pr.html

Here’s a short sample that brings the point into clear focus.

The ratio of average CEO pay (now $11.8 million) to worker pay (now $27,460) spiked up from 301-to-1 in 2003 to 431-to-1 in 2004.

If the minimum wage had risen as fast as CEO pay since 1990, the lowest paid workers in the US would be earning $23.03 an hour today, not $5.15 an hour.

This phenomenon is being studied by more and more economic experts. Why? Because the ramifications are completely unknown. What does this do to our economy? How does this impact the middle class? Or the lower class?

This kind of CEO rewarding widely results in underfunded pensions, tax delinquency, and poor earnings for the companies they represented. Its all in the article.

Maybe the overpaid CEOs should take a day off like some of the immigrants did…

So what does this have to do with your faith?

It has much to do with your faith, starting with the Christian responsibility as outlined in Micah 6:8

He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?

If you would seek justice, I heartily recommend making your voice heard in this conversation. Speak out to the corporations. As consumers and investors, we wield more authority and command more respect than we know. But we are largely ignored because we tend to prefer ignorance and apathy to justice and mercy.
Keep your mind on this topic for a bit. Pray about what your Christian response should be.

If nothing else, think about it the next time you hit the gas pump. As bad as it is for those of us in the middle class and above, imagine how difficult it is for those struggling to get by when the prices skyrocket.

$93 million a day. That is hardly just.

Filed by Joey at 9:54 am under Church Leadership,Economics,Society at Large
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