Thursday, January 28, 2021

THE BIBLE'S VIRUS OF VIOLENCE
by The Rev. Wayne Ibara

For nearly a year now, the world has been afflicted with the Covid-19 pandemic. But another virus has also been all too active, including in our own country. It is the virus of violence. We have always struggled with this virus, but its threat took new form on January 6, when the U.S. Capitol was invaded, looted and desecrated, and five people died, one a police officer. Many other officers were injured; some very seriously. And this weekend, as the inauguration of a new president approaches, there are more soldiers deployed in our nation’s capital city than in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria combined. Twenty-thousand fully armed and equipped national guardsmen. As a nation we are on edge. As former ambassador Fiona Hill said last week, we are on the brink of civil war. What is going on with us as a country? Why is the virus of violence so potent in our society?

One answer is that the Judeo-Christian faith and the Bible are huge in our history, culture and society. And the Bible contains a virus of violence that we have not fully acknowledged, addressed and dealt with. And I think we need to. What do I mean by “the Bible’s virus of violence”? I mean the many texts in the Bible, as in Deuteronomy 7, where God explicitly commands genocide. The Conquest of the Promised Land, filled with “seven nations larger and stronger than you.” God says, “…you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.”

Most of us are aware of this “Dark Side” to the Bible—those disturbing passages, especially in the Old Testament, where God calls for horrendous acts of bloodshed--the bloody pages of the Bible. Our response is often like the lectionary: we ignore them. We leave them out. But like a new coronavirus, ignoring the virus of violence in the Bible does not make it go away. And I’ve come to believe that continuing to ignore the Bible’s violent passages means the virus remains—and spreads.

Take the Conquest story—told largely in Joshua and in the Book of Judges. It’s cast a dark shadow throughout history. Most relevant to us is the way that the American Colonists used this story to justify warfare against Native American peoples, driving them out and often exterminating them from the East Coast to the West. The same thing happened in Central and South America with Spanish conquistadors. In the name of God, native peoples were killed, driven out and enslaved. In what has been called the Doctrine of Discovery, Christianity supplied the spiritual justification for the European conquest of the Americas based on Israel’s Conquest of the Promised Land. The U.S. Supreme Court in the 1800’s even provided the official legal basis for this racist policy.

Both the Catholic Church and some Protestant churches—including our own United Church of Christ—have for years now repudiated the Doctrine of Discovery. But the Bible’s virus of violence is a deeply-rooted and slippery thing. The ultimate anti-virus, of course, is Jesus. Instead of conquering, Jesus sacrificed himself, allowing human depravity, death and the devil to conquer him. The short version of my lesson today could be to simply look to Jesus as our example. But that leaves the virus of violence out there.

We will serve the LORD, Joshua proclaims. But what does this look like when in the context of Joshua’s declaration, serving the LORD has apparently meant all out genocide—the slaughter of men, women and children—even their animals? We will serve the LORD. This rallying cry resounds through the millennia to our present day and our own country, fueling self-identifying Christian right-wing militias wielding assault rifles. The Bible’s virus of violence is potent precisely because it is the Bible’s virus. And there are basically four ways to respond to it.

The first way is to ignore it, which we have largely been doing. But this doesn’t make it go away.

The second way is to defend it, usually by emphasizing God’s holiness over the Canaanites’ evil. This was my take for a long time. But I’m not satisfied with this argument any longer. Because in our own day, it’s become clear that demonizing groups of people is a tactic of thugs with their racist agendas. And in the end, it always seems to turn out that we have more in common with others than not. We are all flawed, broken, sinful humans.

The third way to deal with the Bible’s violence is to say that God changes from the Old Testament to the New, that God evolves. I’ve never been especially drawn to this approach because it solves one problem by creating another.

But the fourth way is the way I think most Christians ought to consider first, and that is to learn to read the Bible differently. To many of us who come from a conservative Christian background, the Bible was always the Holy Bible, inspired by God, inerrant or infallible, the Word of God. It was like God wrote it out himself and handed it to his people as a complete and perfect rulebook, written for our benefit and for all time. The problem is that reading the Bible this way creates a lot of opportunity for the virus of violence to grow.

Pete Enns, who teaches Bible at Eastern University, challenges this perspective in a good way. He urges his students to recognize that God didn’t write the Bible and hand it down. God let his children tell the story. God inspired the Bible, but God used people to write it. This introduces an important layer of human perception and experience into what we now have as our Bible. The Bible is revelation, but it is revelation from our limited, human point of view, expressed in the terms and ideas current in each of its historical human settings.

At the beginning, for example, in the earliest and most ancient stories, everything is tribal. It’s win or lose, us or them, and everybody’s god is a Tribal Warrior God. That’s the way the world was 3,000-plus years ago. But after Israel itself is conquered by the Assyrians and then the Babylonians, and sent into Exile, the Warrior God of Israel obviously does not reign supreme. And the Old Testament ends without a resolution. Yet out of this disaster, Israel is inspired—we would say by God—to reinterpret and transform her understanding of God. The Bible itself benefits from this dynamic process.

That is why we can take the bloody pages of the Bible with a grain of historical salt. We can notice that the Bible itself gives us a nuanced story. Deuteronomy 7 describes total genocide. Joshua offers specific stories of cities being razed, beginning with Jericho. But the first chapter of Judges reports plainly that the Conquest was not complete; that in most cases, the tribes of Israel did not drive out all the inhabitants. This is why Israel has a persistent problem worshiping the gods of these pagan people.

So the Bible is not a perfect, polished, supernatural account of the history of the world and of what the future holds. It is instead an authentic, inspired and ancient account of an on-going relationship between a people and a God who hears their cries, chooses them and offers them guidance and grace. The Bible is not a story of people who got things right and were therefore rewarded by God. It is a bunch of stories of all kinds of people, many of whom got things terribly wrong. It doesn’t give us all the answers. In fact, it triggers a lot more questions.

What the Bible offers us is not a black and white record of “everything you ever wanted to know about God” but a record of God’s people wrestling with life and coming to perceive God’s purpose for them. Rather than view the Bible as a rule book, or a how-to manual for life, Enns proposes that we look to the Bible for wisdom. And we do this by joining in the conversation of faith that the Bible represents. (argue like the Jews)

And the virus of violence? Jesus is our anti-virus—but we ourselves are the ones who need to carry the vaccine. And we do this by reading the Bible better.

Pete Enns often tells his Bible students, “The Bible is a terrible evangelistic tool!” He does this to jar them into looking at the Bible from a different point of view. His point is that the Bible is not really as simple as we’ve all been told it is. Using the Bible with someone who has never read it before can easily become confusing, complex and frustrating. What Enns tells his students is that they are—we are—the best evangelistic tool. It’s Christ the Word in us that communicates most effectively, most powerfully, most persuasively. And that’s really what the church mostly had for most of its history. Not a printed book to hold over people’s heads, but a living testimony—most convincingly demonstrated by a flesh and blood community—the church. If we can see the Bible less as a supernatural idol and more as an inspired and unique human treasure that offers us wisdom for life as well as revelation of God—crowned by the coming of Jesus—the virus of violence is largely contained and defeated. May it be so with us. And with our nation as well. Amen.
The Rev. Wayne Ibara was born and raised on the island of Kaua`i, and received his Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary. After serving as pastor for the Los Angeles Holiness Church, he returned to Hawai`i, where he has led the Makiki Christian Church as its senior pastor since 1995. Rev. Ibara and his wife, Phyllis, have a teenaged son, Isaac. 

We pause to remember...

Monday, January 25, 2021

WITH PRAYERS FOR HEALTH WORKERS
by Gerard Livaudais, M.D. and Felicitas Livaudais, M.D.

On and after September 11, 2001, it was the firemen and policemen who were rightly hailed as heroes for doing their jobs. Now and over the past year, our healthcare workers are the ones facing down their fears to do their jobs. Both the courage and the toll paid are real. 

Saturday, 1/16/2021

An Introduction to Today's Meditation, from The Rev. Scott Landis, Shine Your Light Team member:
Born and raised on Maui, Kekoa Harman is an associate professor of Hawaiian studies and Hawaiian language at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo. He is an educator not just for the benefit of his students, but to ensure the preservation of the sacred dialect that is ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. (language of Hawai`i). Realizing its importance, Harman has borne the responsibility of carrying on the Hawaiian language through teaching since being hired as a lecturer in 2003. He started his current position in 2010 and graduated this past spring with his doctorate in indigenous language and cultural revitalization. Kekoa and his wife, Pelehonuamea, are Kumu hula (teachers of hula) of Halau I Ka Leo Ola O Na Mamo. Their mission is to perpetuate the Hawaiian language and culture through mele (song) and hula. In this personal testimony Kekoa offers a word of hope for our day based on his experience of scripture, `ohana (family), and church. We offer his thoughts by inviting you to look beyond the despair of our present moment to the hope which is ours when we remain grounded in tradition and family. Kekoa Harman is a symbol of giving and connecting—to his students, to his people, to the language, and to the culture.

A Christian layman and nuclear physicist writes...

Seeking an Understanding
of a Divided Religion & Nation

by Dr. Calvin Wood, 1/15/2021

After the November election and recent developments, I have felt the need to understand my fellow Christians who are characterized in the media as Christian Nationalists, who are working to write many of their beliefs into laws in the USA as we work to heal and unite the divided nation. 

Some who identify as Christians claim that we are a Christian nation and that our laws must reflect this. Their aim, as best I can surmise, is that we should make this political entity, the USA, into the kingdom of God (KOG). I ask myself, what did Jesus say about his kingdom? “The KOG is within you” (Luke 17:21, KJV) and, to Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). So the problem of turning a political realm into the KOG may be ignoring what He said. A real problem that I see is that many of the laws proposed are not shared in principle by all Christians.

For example, there is wide difference between Christians who see LGBTQ folks as fully God’s children and those who find them aberrant; those who are pro choice vs. pro life; those who feel differently about birth control access; those who feel that deviation from some outward of expression of patriotism is ‘un-American,’ even though kneeling during the national anthem may be a way for some to publicly express a feeling that perceived injustices should be addressed, etc. So perhaps the thrust to Christianize the USA may miss an important point about the freedom of will that Christ thought was necessary for us to be able to choose freely to come to Him. If these ideas are some of the deep divisions among different Christian churches about these things, how do we accommodate those who practice other religions, or none? 

The notion that the KOG is within me has come to mean to me that personal spiritual transformation is the goal of the KOG, not the wielding of political influence in the world. And I find some backing for this idea when Jesus asks what profit there would be to a man to gain the whole world [political power] and lose his own soul? (Matthew 16:26). Perhaps the principle of the separation of Church and State was indeed the hand of God inspiring the founding fathers in the beginning. 

As a child, I privately addressed my feelings, when bullied, by imagining having the power to punish the bully, often violently. My imaginative life found a way for me to live out fantasies by being the hero in my interior narrative. But eventually I read a book that expressed the idea of living ‘inside out.’ I soon came to realize that I truly wanted to be a man of peace inside, as well as in my public persona. But I then discovered that the neuronal pathways of my brain had been so strongly conditioned by my past that my thoughts went there automatically, even when I tried to reprogram them. The only pathway that worked for me was to appeal to God to take over my entire inner life and change me into a truly peaceful person. A downside for my slowly changing interior peace was that I recently found that I was so genuinely distressed that men in our government, that appeared to me to be hypocrites [Jesus’ most damning epithet], could be expelled from the presence of God that it genuinely caused me a new and unusual deep sadness for their souls, as if my evaluation of the situation were indeed the truth of the matter. I think change is possible. But I now feel that the salvation of souls is an individual enterprise and is not accomplished en masse. 

My personal quest is to find a closer walk with Jesus through meditation and prayer, praying only for knowledge of His will for me and the power to carry that out. May God grant us guidance in seeking healing for this Nation.
Dr. Calvin Wood lives in Livermore, CA. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a BA in Physics (1957) and a PhD in High Energy Particle Physics in 1961 and was an assistant professor at the University of Utah (1962-1964). He served as a U.N. Inspector after the first Gulf War in Iraq (1991) where he helped discover and dismantle an extensive nuclear weapon development program there. After retirement from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in 1993, he has continued to work with LLNL as a consultant. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (LDS), he served as an LDS missionary (1952-1955), later joining the United Methodist Church in the mid1-990’s. Married in 1955, he has 5 children, 16 grandchildren, 20 great grandchildren. He is involved in several community projects in Livermore (providing low-cost housing for seniors, distributing food to low income families, taking a program into the local penitentiary, etc.). and spends a significant amount of time on Maui each year where he is part of the Keawala`i Congregational Church `ohana.

From the Declaration of Independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all people are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness- that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among people, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

From Ellen Caringer, Ph.D. -

Come Together in Prayer & Meditation

Let us, from all faiths, come together in prayer and meditation over these next four days, just as we did in the days leading up to the November election.

At a time when the community is suffering, no one should say, “I will go home, eat, drink, and be at peace with myself."  – Babylonian Talmud Taanit, 11a.

Do not defraud people of their property, nor go about spreading corruption in then land . . And O my people, give full measure and weight in justice and do not deprive the people of their due and do not commit abuse on the earth, spreading corruption.  - The Q’uran, Surah Hud 11:85

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds n Christ Jesus.  - Philippians 4:6-7 (ESV)

On Tuesday we face a crucial election in Georgia. This election may very well determine our ability to make any progress toward healing and restoring a nation. We have suffered at the hands of public servants who put themselves and their party ahead of the wellbeing of the nation and the preservation of this democracy.

On Wednesday, we face an electoral college count like none we’ve ever experienced. There will be senators and congressmen willing to overthrow the will of the people, by claiming without evidence that there has been a massive fraud in our election system. While this is not expected to succeed in overturning the will of the people and the Biden/Harris election, it can succeed in further dividing our nation, and deliberately making it more difficult for those public servants who are seeking to bring us together as a nation.

And so, in the spirit of the passages above, let us, from all faiths, come together in prayer and meditation over these next four days, just as we did in the days leading up to the November election. Let us envision and prayerfully ask that ethics, justice and righteousness be restored in our nation. Let us pray for the election of leaders who are willing to address the hard questions of systemic racism and intolerance. In Hawaii we talk about the need to be “pono” in our actions and our deeds so that our community can be one that is righteous and just for all people, not just the preferred few. So please consider this a call to prayer and meditation for the health and wellbeing of our democracy, and that the events in our nation will be events that lead to peace and justice, rather than violence and hatred. Mahalo for joining us!
Dr. Ellen Caringer is a member of the Shine Your Light Team, and is a psychologist and neuropsychologist on the island of Maui. She has been church pianist for Keawala`i Congregational Church for over twenty years, and is one of the founders of Hui Aloha `o Maui Indivisible.

I used to walk the labyrinth right outside my office at St. Mary's Church, Anchorage. The labyrinth is this single pathway you walk around slowly. It allows you come to yourself and to contemplate whatever, or to meditate or pray. It takes you on a complex path around a circle midway between other circles, some of which are more central and some that are farther outward, but inevitably leading you to the center of it all.

I made it a regular practice to walk that pathway, especially whenever I would be trying to solve a problem, ensnarled in some conflict or facing a difficult decision. As I slowly walked around the path that took me in one direction, I would come to an about face and the path would lead me back in the opposite direction. And that would happen over and over again, sometimes on a smaller circle further in and sometimes on a larger one further out completely surrounding the smaller ones, but the path was inevitably leading me to the very center of all those concentric circles. For me, it was like a debate mentally and spiritually. I would present one side of a problem or conflict, usually my own. And then when the path took me back in the opposite direction, I would attempt to look at it from a different perspective or, perhaps, another person's side, and on and on. Eventually, the path ends up at the very center of all those circles, where I would try to sit or stand for a time considering whether there might be anything more to consider, especially some new way to bring peace or resolution.

In these times of division and conflict, I have come to find that there's healing in turning again and again and seeking a possible new reality, because I've come to believe that truth wants to walk along with us. This has certainly been my personal experiences with the biases I've held--the stereotyping and prejudging, the distorted perceptions and stories I'd been told or that I'd made far too often in my life. At four years old in 1944, and even though we had friends who were Japanese-American who had been "removed" to internment camps by the government, I marched with other little children around the neighborhood, yelling, "Kill the Japs!" It's been shameful to me ever since, but I had to turn such hateful behavior around a short time later when I learned that all the beautiful things my folks were storing in our basement were the only possessions remaining of their Japanese-American fisher friends. They were keeping them for their hoped-for return.

Later when I was in high school, I was deeply biased against the wealthy students who were all so popular and held all the student offices, the ones who my friends and I thought looked down upon those of us who weren't. And it colored my views for years afterwards. But my path was turned around many years later when a very wealthy couple in my parish who lived a very simple life and were the most generous people I could ever imagine befriended me. I walked that labyrinth round and round to replace that ancient bias with trust. I had judged or simply avoided others before them and I couldn't do that anymore. I thank God for my friends and for that gift!

Of course, if and when some resolution would come to me, the easiest thing to do was to feel relief and want to run from the center of that labyrinth, cutting across all of those circles in order to go celebrate. But I learned early on in walking that labyrinth that very often I still had more work to do. And so, I would walk that path out of the center all the way to the end, the entrance from where I'd started. Now that I saw a way that might bring peace and resolution to the conflict, I would make use of that outward journey as well to make a plan as to how to do it.

Through all the killings of young Black men and women, I walked in heart and body for those lost and for Black Lives Matter. I was in seminary when, as a young student who had rarely seen much less known a Black person, I was assigned to serve as a pastor in a Black congregation on the edge of Watts. My path suddenly turned as, one by one, each member taught me how to live, how to love and how to walk with Jesus, as well as eat chitlins and love Gospel singing. We walked and walked for civil rights, for economic and political equity, police fairness and public services in those years, much of which is yet to be achieved.

But I was called to turn in a new direction, to walk a new path on a circuit of village churches in Alaska. That was shortly before the heartbreaking Watts Uprising of '65, but now from the Far North, I carried in my heart the pain and the pride of those who are Black. I began nearly forty years of work with Native Alaskans, Russian-American fisher folk, oil and construction workers, university students and faculty and all the wonderful varieties of Alaskan cultures. Now I was walking with those who lived and worked the land and being taught by Athabaskan, Tlingit, Aleut and Yupik villagers and leaders. And, especially on this past Native American Heritage Day (November 27th), my heart was filled with the pain and loss, the endurance and strength, and the feasts and the dances of those First Peoples.

My life has been a labyrinth of turnings and I cherish each of them. And how about you? Have you been led to walk in labyrinthine paths as I have? Has that led you to make about-faces as it has me? Are you aware of your biases, stereotyping and prejudices? In these divisive times, are you hanging on to them and listening only to those within your own circles? Are you willing to turn around and consider what those in other circles have to say? Will you continue walking simply walking one direction, or are you interested in following the labyrinthine path that also takes you in the other direction, looking at another point of view, another's experience?

I retired to Hawai`i and came to cherish the Native Hawaiian peoples, their history and culture. I embraced it as much I suppose as this haole can, celebrating with them the great renaissance of their language, dance and culture which had been decimated by the time Hawai`i had become a U.S. Territory. I came to appreciate the Hawaiian phrase e huli iā ka ala hele hou that refers to a turning, letting go and repenting in order to go in a new direction. One of the wonderful things about e huli iā ka ala hele hou is the relief that comes in the process of doing it and, having turned in a new direction, it allows you to see things quite differently. It opens up your heart. It changes you. Are you willing to try a new direction? Are you willing to take the risk of discovery on the labyrinthine path of your life? My turning continues on as I trust yours does as well.

The Rev. Dr. Robert W. Nelson Retired Priest, Episcopal Diocese of Alaska

Thursday, November 19, 2020

MAKE LIGHT A WAY OF LIFE
by Ellen Caringer, PhD
In the last week, our Shine Your Light Team had the opportunity to have a conversation with the Rev. Dr. Allan Boesak, renowned South African theologian and social justice activist. Dr. Boesak said something that really stuck with me. He said “evil abhors a vacuum.” Whether it be quantum physics, psychology, or Buddhist spiritual writings, I am increasingly intrigued by both the scientific research and the theoretical/spiritual writings suggesting that we tend to absorb or resonate with the level of energy to which we are constantly exposed.  Even if only watching others who act with the intent to gain power at the expense of others, or when we watch deliberate harm and destruction (be it physical, political or psychological), it destabilizes us. It lowers our energy by creating fearful and stressed thoughts and emotions.

These same ideas would explain the increased hatred, fear and anger we’ve seen in our own country over the last four years in a way we’ve not previously witnessed in our lifetime. They would also explain how people who were in need, who were vulnerable, and who unfortunately may have been experiencing a vacuum in their lives, were willing to vote away their power and their democracy in an exchange for security. It would explain why some were open and vulnerable to absorbing the evil perpetuated by the new theology of "America first" and "me first" -- a new theology that espouses that the welfare of our fellow citizens no longer matters, even in the midst of a raging epidemic.

As I thought about the “antidote” to this dilemma, I once again turned to our theme of Shining Your Light. Light and love can ALSO fill that vacuum of neediness. But why hasn't that happened? Is it possible that we were so distraught by the evil we were seeing, that we fell into those lower energy levels, too?  Have we inadvertently, perhaps, contributed to creating deeper and deeper levels of distrust between opposing ideologies and even between family members, because we were operating from the lower energies of anger and defensiveness rather than the powerful energies of love and light?

If this might indeed be the case, perhaps it’s time to ask a more concrete and practical question: How do we create more light around us? Saying the world needs more light and love sounds a bit like an overly-simplistic platitude. Perhaps it’s time to ask a better, smarter question. What are the qualities of light and love that begin to fill a vacuum created by neediness? What do we, at an individual level, need to do to illuminate and shine more in our own lives? In creating light-filled actions, might we have a chance to literally change the resonance, the energy, that surrounds us and our neighbor? For those in the Christian faith, the Bible maintains that there is great power in love, compassion and light. And I think science is confirming this as well.

So today, think simply . . . . a simple gesture of kindness, a thoughtful surprise gift for a needy neighbor, a phone call of encouragement. What would it look like -- what would it feel like, to imbue our every action with love, with a deliberate intention to spread light? That means we might really need to invest time in meditating on filling our own lives with love and with peace so that we can then spread that joy to others. Let us take time to visualize a world that is filled with more light, more love, and more peace, and then consider an action we can take, even the simplest action, that brings light, love and peace into reality in a concrete way.

We can do this! Let’s fill the vacuum, and not leave it open for evil to fill. Deep in my being, I know that when we all commit to this way of action, the effects are not additive, they are multiplicative. Let us make light a way life, moment by moment, day by day. Ironically, we’ll be the ones that reap the greatest blessing. Let us make light a way life, moment by moment, day by day. Ironically, we’ll be the ones that reap the greatest blessing.
Dr. Ellen Caringer is a member of the Shine Your Light Team, and is a psychologist and neuropsychologist on the island of Maui. She has been church pianist for Keawala`i Congregational Church for over twenty years, and is one of the founders of Hui Aloha `o Maui Indivisible.

Happy Diwali!

Diwali is India's Festival of Lights, celebrating the triumph of Good over Evil.  To learn more about this Festival, please check on this link to the Farmer's Almanac.
May you celebrate Light in your life today! Let our collective Shining Lights make a continued difference in our relationships, our country, and the world around us!

Day #38

10/31/2020:  FOR COURAGE
by John O'Donohue, and read by The Rev. David Baumgart Turner (see video below)
We have been honored with permission by the John O’Donohue Literary Estate to present an especially meaningful and timely poem for this Saturday before Election Day in the USA, 2020.

FOR COURAGE
When the light around you lessens
And your thoughts darken until
Your body feels fear turn
Cold as a stone inside,

When you find yourself bereft
Of any belief in yourself
And all you unknowingly
Leaned on has fallen,

When one voice commands
Your whole heart,
And it is raven dark,

Steady yourself and see
That it is your own thinking
That darkens your world.

Search and you will find
A diamond-thought of light,

Know that you are not alone,
And that this darkness has purpose;
Gradually it will school your eyes,
To find the one gift your life requires
Hidden within this night-corner.

Invoke the learning
Of every suffering
You have suffered.

Close your eyes.
Gather all the kindling
About your heart
To create one spark

That is all you need
To nourish the flame
That will cleanse the dark
Of its weight of festered fear.

A new confidence will come alive
To urge you towards higher ground
Where your imagination
will learn to engage difficulty
As its most rewarding threshold! 

John O'Donohue was born and reared by a Gaelic-speaking farm family in Ireland. His passion for thinking and writing led him to studies for the priesthood, while he maintained his close relationship to nature and Celtic Christianity. He died unexpectedly in 2008 at the age of 52. For more about his remarkable life, please visit: https://www.johnodonohue.com/about

The Rev. David Baumgart Turner is pastor at Church of the Crossroads in Honolulu. You can often find him pinching himself as he contemplates the fact that the church he grew up admiring from afar as a teenager in Honolulu decided decades later to call him to be their pastor. It is with joy that he serves alongside the many members of this Open and Affirming, Just Peace, Green-focused congregation. He and his wife, Kirsten, have been advocates for just and sustainable living and polices their entire married life together. They love any opportunity to be in the water, on the trails, and glorying in the wonders of Godʻs Creation.    

Day #35

10/28/2020:  CAN IT GET ANY DARKER?
by The Rev. Dr. Richard F. Ward (see video below)
Text based on Matthew 14:22-33

I tell this story because the climax of its plot happens
In the darkest part of the night, between 3-6 in the morning.
It tells us that the disciples have endured a long long night Of being beaten and battered by a force of nature.
They feel helpless in its grip, and they are afraid of it.

I have been holding these images in prayer these days.
I too have felt beaten and battered not only by fear of a virus But by every daily outrage, every spike in the number of cases,
By every report of a rising death toll and the fear of having to endure
Four more years—and maybe more—I wonder:
“Can the night get any darker?
Can the temperature of our outrage
And fear rise any higher?”

I recently read an article that made the claim:
Americans are suffering from political exhaustion.
That seems about right.
This story reminds us that God has a good sense of timing. Precisely at the moment when the disciples are overwhelmed
Jesus comes towards them, unhindered by a force of nature Or even by human disbelief.
He comes to them in a way they don’t
Recognize at first. But he comes towards them anyway— Like I believe he is coming towards us as he does in the story.
First with the assurance—yes, it really is Jesus the Christ—coming
In a manner that we don’t recognize at first even in a way that defies
Belief—then with an invitation—don’t be afraid to take that first step—
Go ahead—make that call to the senator—go on that march— Give the neighbor a call to remind them to vote—even go stand in line
To vote yourself—proudly display the yard sign—make another
Contribution—rest assured that a move towards justice
Is a move towards the Christ

What if you start to move in Jesus’ direction but then you start to sink in fear and despair when the polls come out and the returns start coming in?
Don’t worry, says the story, Christ will be there to lift you up.

The Rev. Dr. Richard Finley Ward is an American storyteller and the Fred B. Craddock Professor of Preaching at Phillips Theological Seminary. He has held prior positions at Candler School of Theology, Yale Divinity School, and Iliff School of Theology. He is an ordained minister with the United Church of Christ.

Day #22

EDITOR'S NOTE:   Dr. Elna Boesak of South Africa has witnessed, first-hand, the destructive force of those who would override democracy, who persecute those fighting for social justice and the rights of others, and who imprison those who speak Truth to power. She was a driving, tenacious support to her husband, The Rev. Dr. Allan Boesak, whose meditation appears in Day #1 of our 40-Day Series of Prayer and Meditation. They both have stood alongside such leaders as Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu against apartheid, and today Elna prays for America from the deep concerns of her heart and experience.

10/15/2020:  SHINE YOUR LIGHT ON US, O GOD!
by Dr. Elna Boesak (see video below)
“To You, O Lord, I call; my rock, do not refuse to hear me … Blessed be the Lord, for God has heard the sound of my pleadings."- Psalm 28:1,6 NRSV*

GOD, JESUS CHRIST and HOLY SPIRIT, we embrace Faith, Love and Hope. We pray for equality and justice (equity) in the United States of America. GOD, you are purposefully unfolding significant and radical changes towards equal political, social and economic human rights and opportunities. Inequalities and injustices are still causing murder, oppression, exclusions and marginalization. GOD, Empower us to stand firmly against four hundred years of deep-rooted racism. Strengthen us to stand firmly against political leaders who facilitate atrocities. Lead us to halt the Evils of violence, murder, abuse, oppressions, marginalization, poverty, hetero-patriarchy, misogyny and capitalism. GOD, we praise you for your:  
 + Presence in this year’s election and beyond.       
 + Intervention against social injustices and inequalities.                                       + Mobilization of global support and solidarity for an inclusive, anti-imperialist, democracy in the USA. Shine your Light on us Our GOD! Amen! 
As a philosophy, gender and religion scholar, an audio-visual producer, social commentator and academic researcher, Elna Boesak has taught as a Distinguished Professor in Communication at Berea College, Kentucky and was a Center for Advanced Study (CAS) George A. Miller Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the USA. She collaborates with the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference headquartered in Chicago. She lives in South Africa.
*New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Day #20

10-13-2020:  A SOUL PREPARED
by The Rev. Roland McGregor (see video below)

I was unprepared for 9/11/2001, and I was spiritually unprepared for 11/9/2016. As I watched the election map turn red into the midnight hours, I thought, “This is not my country.” I was dumbfounded. Thanks to “Shine Your Light” I will have better spiritual preparation for 11/3/2020. This time around I will not sell my soul to a particular outcome. Jesus warned about selling the inmost self. He said, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” On the cross when all seemed lost, he gave his soul to God. He had not given it to any other definition of victory. The spiritual struggle of our country and of each one of us is not subject to victory or to defeat but to persisting in love. Whatever happens at the end of these forty days, we will persist in raising up the downtrodden, encouraging the oppressed and calling our leaders to do the same. I may be jubilant at the outcome of the election or I may be sickened by it, but I will not be put off from loving my neighbor regardless of their yard sign. This is my country. These are my neighbors.

Rev. Roland R. McGregor is a retired pastor in The United Methodist Church, New Mexico Conference. He previously served Asbury United Methodist Church of Albuquerque and First United Methodist Church of Clovis, New Mexico, as well as churches in Texas and Puerto Rico. He is the founder of the McGregor-Kajoba Chair of Practical Christianity, an endowed professorship at the United Methodist seminary at Mulungwishi in the southern Congo (DRC).

Day #15

10-8-2020: WAKE UP IN AMERICA
A music video from singer/songwriter Lea Morris

Blessings abound with the generosity of musicians who are creating music to inspire and encourage us through these times of uncertainty and challenge. Today we feel privileged to have been given permission by singer-songwriter Lea Morris to share the attached music video (below) with you. The song was written by Dave Kinnoin and Jimmy Hammer. Follow along with the text below, which encourages the American spirit of diversity, dreams to fulfill, and Love for our neighbors. "The light in the harbor Shines for us all."
MAY YOUR LIGHT SHINE, SIGNALING THAT YOU ARE A HARBOR FOR SOMEONE TODAY.

When I wake up in America
I see my neighbors there
With every type of clothes and shoes
Hats and skin and hair
Every fine belief and custom
Scores of songs from who knows where?
When I wake up in America,
Our stories fill the air

Wake up in America
The light in the harbor
Shines for us all
When I wake up…

I see the kids playing
Happily swaying
Good to be staying
In a place like this
With a face like this

When I wake up in America
I put away my fear
And love my neighbor as myself
And say, I’m glad you’re here
We have found ourselves together
In this land we dream could be
When we wake up in America,
Everybody will be free

Wake up in America
The light in the harbor
Shines for us all
When I wake up…

- Dave Kinnoin has written songs for some of the most beloved characters in movies and on television. In addition to writing for his friends, he has released eight albums, has been honored with dozens of awards and tours nationally to enthusiastic audiences.
-Jimmy Hammer is an award-winning composer and producer of children’s songs and music for many television series, commercials, sound recordings, theme parks, computer games, and toys. His credits include Disney, The Muppets, Universal Studios, EPCOT, ABC, NBC.
- Lea Morris is a singer-songwriter, preschool music teacher, and recording artist with seven albums to her credit. She also SHINES with her many gifts as a music leader for spiritual gatherings.
SEE THEIR VIDEO, BELOW: