Problems With the Video

If you've tried to click on the video link in yesterday's post and come to screen at YouTube that says that it is blocked, I apologize. There is a problem with the link and I can't sort it out. So, if you really want to see the video, go to www.youtube.com and then do a search for "Say No to Torture." Again, I remind you this video is graphic and such be viewed with caution.

How Do We Respond?

Questions about U.S. policies and practices regarding prisoners of the war on terror have dominated news reports in recent weeks. Both sides of the legislative isle are using this issue to make political hay. As they do, it seems to me, our political leaders play on our worst fears hoping to generate support for the continued interrogation practices that they report have saved us from additional "9/11s." Maybe such practices have and maybe they haven't prevented such terrible acts. I believe, though, that there is a more fundamental question looming for us as Christians.

Regardless of the consequences, is it faithful and/or ethical for us to permit, either explicit or implicit , the use of torture such as waterboarding or stress positions to acquire information from the prisoners held at Guantonomo Bay, in Afghanistan, or at secret prisons around the globe?

My answer to the question is that it is certainly not faithful, at least according to any reading of the Gospel that I can come up with, nor is it ethical. Maybe there isn't a distinction between faithful and ethical. Either way, my faith leads me to say that it is wrong!

As I was wrestling with my thoughts about this topic, I came across a video clip (click on the hightlighted text to watch) from YouTube that goes to this point. The on-screen title places blame on President Bush and the Republican congress. I disagree with limiting responsibility to one party or another. Blame goes to both sides of the aisle just as credit goes to some on both sides of the aisle trying to address this issue. However, I include the link to the clip above because I think it poses a difficult question in a way that thousands of words cannot. (I warn you that the video includes graphic images. I urge caution!)

What would Jesus do? How would Jesus respond? Who would Jesus identify with in the midst of torture?

As I watched the images flash across the screen, it hit me that these scenes are inhuman. The people tortured are robbed of their humanity. Those off camera who do the torturing give up their humanity. I am reminded of Jesus' instruction to love our neighbors with all of our hearts, mind, and strength as well as to "love your enemies." Jesus teaches such a path because he desires to see realized God's vision of reconciliation among all creatures and nature with God, themselves, and one another. When we love our neighbors and our enemies, then we are pursuing that path of reconciliation. When we act to destroy others through these acts of torture, we deny that they are human, we deny they are created in the image of God, we deny that God desires to be reconciled to them. As we do these things, we also deny that we are human, created in the image of God, and that God desires and acts to reconcile us to Godself. We reach for power that is not ours to have. When we permit such torture, either implicitly or explicitly, then we sin. Our relationship with God and our fellow creatures and nature is breached and yearns to be redeemed.

So what do we do in the face of such circumstances? We repent. We turn around and go in another direction - a direction back towards God's desire for reconciliation. We repent, not just feeling sorrow or guilt in such moments, but by taking action and saying no we will not stand by and let such things happen to our neighbor or even our enemies. Then we have begun to follow Christ's instructions.

Tasting Salt

Every six weeks or so, I put together a list of scripture passages to use for the prayer discipline of Lectio Divina. I pass it out to the elders here at Central and some other folks here who use this practice as well. If you are interested just let me know; I'd be glad to make the list of readings available to you. This most recent series uses the "Sermon on the Mount" from Matthew 5-7. Last week included mostly the Beatitudes and this week continues in chapter 5.

Yesterday's reading was Matthew 5:13, "You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot." The way I practice Lectio is to read the passage and then silently listen for a little while and see what latches onto me. "Taste" latched onto me and at first I wasn't sure why. Then I read it again and let the word "taste" and the rest of the passage echo around inside me for a few minutes. That stirred in me the idea that salt cannot lose its saltiness. It can get dirty because you spill it on the ground and have to sweep it up or you can drop something else into it; salt particles can bond with other salt particles and kind of become a paste. But if it is dirty or is nothing but a big clump, it still tastes salty. Salt cannot lose its saltiness. Even if you put some in a big pot of chili or stew, it remains salty. You may not directly taste the salt but it remains adding season and taste to the soup. Salt is salt and remains so regardless.

Then I read the passage again and listen in a period silence for anything that might get stirred up. This last time I was reminded that the Beatitudes are not "Be - Attitudes;" they are not instructions about how to "be." Rather they are pronouncement of blessing. As Jesus utters them, they are so. Perhaps this is what he says with regard to salt. You are salt and always will be salt. You cannot deny your identity. You may get a little dirty. You may get a little stuck together. But you are still salt.

As I came to the next verses, Matthew 5:14-16, I heard, "You are the light of the world..." I heard again, "you cannot deny your identity."

How We See the World

Here's a picture of a cross that I designed and crafted for use during worship through Lent and Easter 2006 at Central Christian Church. The cross is made of copper and the design intends to evoke the idea that we see the world through the cross.

Wrestling with Salvation - Wrestling with Sin

Sin is anything that leads to our separation or alienation from God. It can be our decisions and actions or it can be outside forces that act upon us that breach our relationship with God. It would be easier for us if we could just come up with a list of does and don'ts for the Christian life. Perhaps that would enable us to know definitively what is a sin and what is not a sin and provide a firm foundation from which to launch out into life. Because then we could easily distinguish between what is good and desirable for the Christian life and what is not.

The problem with such a list, however, is that it could never be long enough. Additionally, in some circumstances, what may be a sin for me may not be a sin for you. For some the occasional use of alcohol presents no problems regarding relationships with others, themselves, or God. But for others, alcohol represents a self-destructive force that impacts relationships with others and God.

We also sometimes struggle with what our faith calls a good and what our culture or society calls a good. For example, our culture says that it is good to acquire more and more wealth. But our faith calls that acquisitiveness into question. Jesus points to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, challenges the rich young man, and teaches that where our treasure is there our hearts are also. If our hearts focus on acquiring things, then it is awfully difficult for our hearts to be about moving into deeper relationship with God.

Another problem with such a list of dos and don'ts is that it would present a particular problem when dealing with systemic sin, those forces that act upon us and drive a wedge in our relationship with God. We see this kind of sin all about us but often don't look at it in terms of sin. It is represented in systems that encourage people to escape from poverty but then does everything it can to keep people where they are. It is represented on a global scale as we take for ourselves at rates greater than our fair share or at rates that prevent others from enough food, natural resources, or life itself. The indicators of such systemic sin struck me as we saw the hovels along side tremendous shopping centers in San Salvador.

We may long for that list of dos and don'ts, a list of sins to avoid. But such a list is not enough. In order to know what it is that leads us from the path of following Christ, what leads to a breach in our relationship with God, what cuts us off form the source of life, we have to work much harder by carefully looking over and assessing our lives.

When we consider sin in our lives, the image for each of us will be different. You may see a wide array of images such as the image of a thief, or someone sharing a bed with another's beloved, or a bottle of alcohol or pills, or people living upon the death and waste of a lava field with no hope of anything more. As we participate in the self-reflective work necessary to consider sin and our own lives, Barbara Brown Taylor offers the suggestion that the experience to search for, to dig for in order to know the sin of our lives is that "one that makes part of you die" (Speaking 62). When we find such an image, we can identify the sin present in our own lives.

She further suggests that there are those moments in life, deep down in our experiences where we have seen the light of God and we've turned away from it because it is "too beautiful to behold or because it spoils the dank but familiar darkness;" there are those moments when you've broken something just to prove that you can; there are those moments of doing whatever you have to in order to feed or comfort yourself (Speaking 62-3). Sin is whatever makes part of you die, whatever alienates you from God.

That sin is our only hope may sound contradictory to you but it isn't. When we look at our lives and we examine those parts of us that are dead, those decisions, choices, and forces that alienate us from God, that cause a breach in our relationship with God and one another, then we have taken the first important step towards reconciliation - God's own goal. Such realization awakens us to the need to do things differently, not just to feel sorrow or guilt, but to change ourselves and the societal conditions that lead to death. This act of turning back to the path of following God is repentance and it is a choice of life over death.

Jesus says, "Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live."

Wrestling with Salvation

“Sin is our only hope" – hope for what? To what? To salvation? But what does that mean? This worldly? Other worldly? Something else entirely? Just exactly what does it mean to be saved?

Traditional understandings of salvation are that we are saved from sin, death and evil. There has always been, though, a tension in the theology of the church around the understanding of salvation. You can hear the tension in the dialogue between Martha and Jesus as he comes to mourn for his friend, Lazarus. She says to him, “Lord, if you had been here…” Jesus responds, “Your brother will rise again.” Maybe a bit confused by this exchange, Martha assures Jesus that she knows he will rise again on the last day, on that history is consummated and the reign of God is fully present throughout creation. But Jesus continues, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:21-26)

Is salvation resurrection on the last day, that day when history is consummated? Or, is it at the point of our own deaths that we experience resurrection and enjoyment of an eternal abode in God? Does salvation have to do with this world? Is it otherworldly? Is it about heaven?

We often times assume that everyone knows what we mean when we say salvation. But I’ve heard enough conversation around the subject among God’s faithful to know that it is a mistake to assume everyone has the same meaning in mind when they use the word - salvation.

Perhaps that surprises you. But it has really been that way since the first writers of the books we call scripture put a stylus to skin or parchment. Salvation comes in the Hebrew Bible as God promises a child to the barren Abraham and Sarah and then as God remembers God’s covenant and liberates the people from slavery in Egypt and from the perspective of Isaiah when God “gives power to the faint and strengthens the powerless” (40:29) and for Ezekiel it is described as resurrection when God addresses the problem of the Babylonian exile.

The gospels describe Jesus’ ministry as preaching the Good News of the reign of God; or described a little differently, Jesus preached about God’s consummation of history. But even in the gospels and all of the New Testament, there is no uniform understanding of salvation. Sometimes, Jesus says the reign of God is almost here. He even encourages the disciples to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom. But other times, Jesus says the reign of God is already present and among us, “Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” (Matt 13:16). The tension inherit in the teaching of Jesus is a problem for the church. Even the author of 2 Peter recognizes it, he sees that the kingdom has not fully arrived and he wants to know what’s up (cf. 3:4). This tension has not disappeared for the church.

I suspect your definitions and understandings would testify to still a variety of beliefs around this topic. You are not alone. Throughout the centuries, the church has argued, sometimes passionately, over these issues. Is salvation about this world or is it about getting to heaven? Is the reign of God present or yet to be?

We want and need an answer to these questions. But how do we find it? In searching for the answer, I am struck by the concept of salvation in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. In the Hebrew Bible, salvation can describe God’s activity to deliver, bring to safety, buy back, restore, vindicate, or rescue the people and individuals. In the New Testament, salvation can describe God or Jesus’ activity to protect from harm, rescue, heal, liberate, or give life. These, I believe, in both testaments, point to salvation as being about a new relationship with God that is neither exclusively in this world or the next. The issue is not either/or. It is not that salvation is either this worldly or other worldly. Rather, salvation is about this new relationship with God in the here and now and at the end of life and history. Salvation is both/and – it is about both this world and the next. Because to live in one way and not the other robs both of their significance.

If our concern is only for ultimate salvation, at our own deaths or the end of history, it cannot ignore the liberation of all people and all of nature from oppression. For if we fail to love our neighbor, feed the hungry, and give drink to the thirsty, then we give up the gospel. If we ignore our neighbors, the hungry, the thirsty, or all of creation itself, then we deny the very ones to whom Jesus went. God seeks to reconcile all of creation to Godself and will never cease seeking this reconciliation. We must not stop seeking it either.

While we cannot ignore the liberation from oppression for this world, it is equally a mistake to limit salvation to only such liberation. Disciple theologian, Clark Williamson, suggests there are 3 reasons that such an understanding of salvation is inadequate. First he suggests, if salvation only is about the liberation of this world from oppression, then those who die before such liberation are not saved but damned (Way of Blessing 311). Ten years ago as I walked into the Children’s memorial at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Israel, and I saw the countless symbols of children killed by the Nazis, the idea that salvation is only this worldly turned to ash in my mouth. Second, all we have to do is look at human history and see that “we will never arrive at a utopian state of total liberation” (Way 311). So often as one group is liberated from oppression the oppressed become the oppressors. Finally, for those who work so diligently for the liberation of this world, without any sense of God’s activity to ultimately redeem, will run out of gas with no means to refill the tank. Eventually, the size of the task and repeated failures will lead to resignation and perhaps disillusionment (Way 312).

Salvation describes God’s desire and activity to reconcile all creatures and nature with God, themselves, and one another (Way 306). The means of salvation is God’s presence with us. To know salvation is to participate in this relationship with God in the here and now as well as eternally. When we speak of the cross putting an end to the old world and beginning a new world, we are speaking of this new relationship. It is symbolized in our baptism. We go down into the water and die with Christ and rise to new life.

Following Christ is living this life. My sense of that and the experiences of my own faith journey, however, indicate that this is more easily described than it is lived. We make decisions that take us off this path and there are forces that act upon us that lead us from the path of following Christ. These choices and these forces are what we call sin in the Christian tradition.

Some Interesting Thoughts on Cling Wrapping