Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge...

T. S. Eliot once wrote:  "Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?" For a few days this past week, I lost touch with the life and wisdom of this season because of grief.  Like most, I was stunned by sadness and imobilized by an aching encounter with darkness.  It was in the darkness, however, that I caught a glimpse of the light - and for that I am grateful.

Intellectually, you see, I know that sorrow fades. Theologically I understand that in God's own time creation moves from Advent to Christmas and Epiphany - or from Good Friday to Easter - or even from solstice to equinox.  And experientially I know what it means to journey through the dark night of the soul into a deeper grace.  But I had forgotten how small rituals can act as friends of the holy along the way towards healing. 

During the week between Thanksgiving and Advent I, my daughter and I had put up our outdoor lights.  Usually I would follow this by pulling out the Christmas decorations and eventually cutting a tree.  She had already opened our suitcase of Christmas CDs and had started filling the house with the sounds of the season. But for a variety of reasons this is where things stopped:  lights and music. When the massacre in Sandy Hook took place last weekend, it felt sacriligious to go hunting for a tree.  It just was not the right season for decorations.

In time, almost in obligation, I found one in a mostly discarded tree lot on the way home from a meeting and grudgingly brought it home.  But when we set the tree in its stand, and the deep pine aroma drifted through the house, I felt something within me shift.  The next day, while putting lights on the tree, I found myself wanting to hear some of the lonely tunes of Advent and put on Lorenna McKennitt's CD, "To Drive the Cold Winter Away" followed by George Winston's classic "December."  As Dianne and I began to decorate this tree - telling stories or simply remembering the history behind each ornament - I sensed more shifting taking place within my soul.  Memories of joy and sorrow visited for a while, thoughts of the children growing through the years passed by as well as recollections of those who have come and gone in our lives as each unwrapping revealed yet another connection with a shared past.

And when the tree trimming was over - and our Southwestern ornaments hung by their new friends from Quebec, Scotland and London - it hit me:  like praying the Rosary, this physical act of reverence helped me reconnect with a wisdom greater than the limits of my current sadness.  Opening the boxes, unwrapping the ornaments, hanging the glass iciscles helped me remember the stories.  LIke making the sign of the Cross before prayer and after Eucharist, these small embodied rituals opened my heart and alerted me to the Life that exists even beyond my current living. 

Today I'm ready to go shopping for our family feast.  The grief and sorrow are still with me, but so is something of the grace and joy. 
       

Some additional thoughts about Sandy Hook one week out...

This article, by LaVonne Neff, is worth pondering in depth as she makes two clear observations:  First, we are in a season of grief - not polemics - and should keep our collective and individual mouths shut for a while; sit Shiva and let the silence do the talking.  And second, the culture of violence in the United States is at least equal in blame to the reality of easy access to semi-automatic military weapons.  Ms. Neff writes:

This is not a blog post about gun control. Everything that can possibly be said about that subject, pro or con, has already been said millions of times since Friday. We are talking too much, too soon. In the words of my rabbi, “Judaism teaches that when there is nothing to say we should say nothing….Sometimes only silence gives voice to what has happened."

 

We Americans should all be sitting shiva.

 

But when, next week, we rise from our knees and begin working – together, I hope – to reduce the terrible problem of violence in our country, we must realize that our disorder goes much deeper than simply owning too many guns, and that any effective solution will have to go much deeper too.

 

When they are distressed, some people clean house or do push-ups I collect data. All week I have been amassing numbers and arranging them in rows and columns, trying to shed light on the question: Why are some nations violent while others are not?

To answer that question would take a lifetime of research and more wisdom than Solomon’s. The best I could do was to look at the homicide rates of the 34 OECD nations, which are the countries that most resemble the United States in culture and economics, and to compare them with rates in other categories. The best I can offer are correlations, not causes.* Here is what I have learned in the last four days.

 

1. Despite what liberals like myself would like to believe, the homicide rate does not correlate, either negatively or positively, with the gun-ownership rate per se.** South Korea, for example, has a very low gun-ownership rate but a high homicide rate. Austria, Norway, and Switzerland, on the other hand, have relatively high gun-ownership rates but low homicide rates. Japan has low rates all around – very few guns, very few homicides – while the United States has high rates of both gun ownership and homicide.

 

2. Despite what some preachers (and atheists) have claimed, the homicide rate does not correlate, either negatively or positively, with religiosity. The United States is highly religious and highly homicidal. Japan is barely religious and has almost no homicides. Most nations, though, are an unpredictable mixture of spirituality and savagery.

 

3. There appears to be some correlation between high homicide rates and a high degree of economic inequality. This seems particularly evident in Mexico, Estonia, the United States, and Chile, who all have lots of homicides and a great gap between rich and poor.

 

4. The homicide rate correlates most strikingly with three other rates:

• The higher a nation’s homicide rate, the more likely it is to have a high rate of military expenditures.

• The higher a nation’s homicide rate, the less likely it is to have an effective healthcare system.

• The higher a nation’s homicide rate, the less likely its students are to earn high scores in mathematics.

 

In other words, if you want to identify homicidal OECD nations, look for the ones with the strongest militaries and the weakest social services.

 

In case you’re wondering, of the 34 OECD nations, the United States has the third-highest homicide rate. We also have the highest number of guns per 100 residents and the fourth-highest rate of military expenditures (for what is by far the most expensive military in the world). At the same time we have the third highest income-inequality rate. In healthcare outcomes we are in 24th place, and in mathematical achievement we are tied with Portugal and Ireland for 25th place.

 

Sixty years ago President Eisenhower warned us about the path we were taking:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. ... Is there no other way the world may live?

 

This week President Obama announced that Vice-President Biden will "lead an exploration of options" regarding "the renewal of an assault weapons ban, limits on high-capacity ammunition magazines and an end to loopholes allowing gun purchases with no background checks."

 

Such options, if legislated and enforced, might well decrease our appalling homicide rate. They will not, however, reduce our huge military outlay. They will not make our healthcare and educational systems competitive with those of other nations. And until we prioritize people over power, we are likely to continue down our violent path.

 

It is clear that gun control - especially re: semi-automatic weapons, background checks and limiting the amount of ammunition is a healthy and logic next step - no matter what the NRA might say to the contrary.  People DO kill people and they kill MORE people when weapons designed for military use are available to civilians.  But as important as new controls will be, they are the low-hanging fruit in American culture that celebrates violence. 

 

+ Nicholas Kristof of the NY Times got it right re: gun control read his insights here @ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/opinion/sunday/kristof-do-we-have-the-courage-to-stop-this.html?_r=0

 

+ A tougher nut to crack has to do with the models and rites of passage that link white males in the US to their guns.  Read the thoughts of Jackson Katz here at @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jackson-katz/men-gender-gun-violence_b_2308522. html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

 

+ And don't forget to read Kimberly Burkett's open letter to Mike Huckabee:  a PTA Mom takes on the cruel stupidity of some preachers @ http://educatefortexas. wordpress.com/2012/12/17/an-open-letter-from-a-pta-mom-to-mike-huckabee-a-message-for-those-who-long-for-gods-presence-in-schools/
 

 

Each of these reflections helped me sit in the silent horror of this hour.  They also helped me sense a foretaste of what God requires after our season of grieving.  As predicted, the NRA has just come forward to suggest adding armed guards to our schools as a way to keep our children safe.  As one wise soul said in response:  I'm assuming NRA members will pay for all these school guards? What about shopping malls, sports arenas, school bus stops, sidewalks and street corners? And who will guard the guards?  Not only have they now rendered themselves useless, but people of faith must challenge the way they buy and sell our political leaders. NYC Mayor Bloomberg put it like this:
The N.R.A.’s Washington leadership has long been out of step with its members, and never has that been so apparent as this morning. Their press conference was a shameful evasion of the crisis facing our country. Instead of offering solutions to a problem they have helped create, they offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe. Leadership is about taking responsibility, especially in times of crisis. Today the N.R.A.’s lobbyists blamed everyone but themselves for the crisis of gun violence. While they promote armed guards, they continue to oppose the most basic and common sense steps we can take to save lives – not only in schools, but in our movie theaters, malls, and streets. Enough. As a country, we must rise above special interest politics. Every day, 34 Americans are murdered with guns. That’s why 74 percent of N.R.A. members support common sense restrictions like criminal background checks for anyone buying a gun. It is time for Americans who care about the Second Amendment and reasonable gun restrictions to join together to work with the president and Congress to stop the gun violence in this country. Demand a plan.

 

John Boehner, for example, has voted for the NRA agenda consistently - receiving an A+ rating - all for a paltry $12K a year!  As my doctor said to me yesterday, "I could spend an hour today and raise 12 grand for him - would he then quit selling his soul to the NRA - and do something to keep our kids safe?"  How does the scripture put it:  what does it profit a man (or woman) to gain the whole world but lose his soul? (Mark 6: 36)

Reminders of hope...

I was at a meeting late yesterday afternoon - the founding of a new regional congregation-based social justice organization in the Berkshires - where our conversation drifted naturally towards our grief.  In addition to the organizers, the other folk were clergy and women religious - two clergy women and a nun - making me (the straight, white guy) the minority.  Regardless of our official offices, however, we all felt wounded, confused and angry about the Sandy Hook shootings that resulted in 28 dead (including the shooter and his mother.)

As we moved towards opening the meeting with prayer - and lighting a candle - we discovered that no one in the room had either a match or a lighter.  It was an "aha" moment that broke into our business like a ray of hope:  not only were there no smokers among us, but we didn't know anyone in the whole office who might be able to help.  Think about that:  it wasn't all that long ago that no smoking zones were the exception to the rule, while today this once outrageous practice is our norm.  The smoking lobby was strong and influential, but public sentiment - and public health education - shifted the balance of power away from smoking and towards real health.

"OMG," I said out loud.  "If that could happen then - and ripen into something so ordinary, that could happen with guns, too."  An Epiphany of hope, yes?  As energy builds in the USA towards gun control, we're also going to have to confront our culture of violence in new ways..  It will be rough going but also possible.  I know I need a reminder of hope from time to time to keep searching for the light in the darkness.  Think about it...

Tears and blessings...

I am so grateful that I learned how to cry - not in that John Boehner-crocodile tears way - but from deep in my soul.  Over the past 5 days I've spontaneously broken into tears reading some of the all too short biographies of the children massacred in Sandy Hook, CT.  When I see pictures of my own daughters - or read a passage of Scripture - the tears start to flow, too. And being with my confirmation kids last night as we worked on the gospel song, "Soon and Very Soon" found me with tears rolling down my face. (I didn't want to embarrass them so they were quickly wiped away.)

These tears are a blessing - a sign that I am still alive and connected to the holy - even though all around me things seem to be falling a part.  My tears hurt right now - I had a ragged and rough crying jag on Sunday night after the President spoke - but they are supposed to be painful.  Like a vet said to me about his PTSD nightmares, I don't try to get rid of them because they help me remember...

On my way home from a meeting I found I was finally inspired to get a Christmas tree. Life has been too full - and sometimes heart-breaking - to consider doing this before today.  Today I realized that my tears are a gift during which my body is at prayer.  There are more tears to come, I know. Today I return thanks knowing that even the sorrow is a blessing...

Here's a crucial piece of the recent puzzle that deserves deeper reflection:  the connection between white male models of masculinity, fear and guns.  Check it out @ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jackson-katz/men-gender-gun-violence_b_2308522.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

Mary points a way through our darkness...

NOTE:  Here are my worship notes for Sunday, December 23, 2012.  They have been shaped by both the Common Lectionary texts for Advent IV and the massacre of our children in Sandy Hook, CT.  I am grateful to both Sojourners and Working Preacher for additional resources. 

 

Introduction

Like many of you I have found this Advent to be troubling and complex:  I had hoped for a time of deep and quiet contemplation – a tender waiting for the birth of our Lord that would be bathed in silence and poetry – but that was not what happened.  Instead, I found myself busier than ever – not with obsessive incidentals or trinkets – but rather with prayer and tears and time in your homes as we embraced before surgeries or personal hardships.  And then came the massacre of our babies in Sandy Hook…

Our partners in mission and ministry at the national church office in Cleveland issued a prayer that cuts to the heart of the matter for me as this Advent season comes to a close.  Let me share it with you now:

Loving God, our hearts are broken as we take in the tragedy at Sandy Hook School in Newtown. Tears flow as we see the pictures of young children, teachers and parents fleeing a scene of terror and fear, and as we hear the shaken voices of those who escaped. But mostly, Holy One, we are simply stunned that this kind of violence has once again erupted in our nation. We lift our prayers to you now, prayers that your comfort will surround the families of those children and teachers who lost their lives, and prayers for the community of Newtown. We pray for the hope brought afresh to us by the birth of the Prince of Peace this time of year. May it be born in us and infuse all of our relationships. May your hope and peace touch this world as never before.  May your love crowd out our despair and feelings of helplessness. And may the star which rested over that manger light the way we take as peacemakers. In the name of the One who is to be born we pray. Amen.

This morning I want to use this prayer – and the appointed readings for the season – to put our grief and inner chaos into perspective.  Dare I suggest the perspective of the Christ Child about to be born within and among us?  As you know, I’ve asked that our children NOT be present with us for this portion of worship because I want to speak candidly with you and I don’t want to frighten them any more than they already are, ok? What’s more, I want to encourage you – especially our parents, families and educators – to join with me in a response to our fear and grief that challenges the cruel insanity of the status quo.

A number of you sent me emails after last week’s message wondering what we might do as a faith community to add our light to the current darkness.  One man wrote saying, “The President was right in embracing his children close and giving thanks to God for them… but if that is all he does – and all we do – then nothing changes.”  And that would be crazy because as I so often say out loud, the classic definition of insanity is… doing the same things over and over while expecting different results.

One of the passages of Scripture that guides my head and my heart is found in Ecclesiastes – it urges us as people of faith to be still and discern God’s invitation to action before jumping on any bandwagon – you may know it from the song “Turn, Turn, Turn.”  It warrants another hearing today:   

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

We are currently in a time of grieving – a time of seeking – a time of tearing and rending and weeping.  But this season will not last forever – indeed there are some things that need to be said and done right now in order that we move from silence to song and violence to peace.

Insights

Our parents and educators, for example, need to be speaking with their children about this current tragedy in ways that are faithful, honest and clear.  We need to be telling them not only what happened but where the Lord may be found – and what the Lord requires – in this ugly reality.  You see, we live in a time – and a culture -- where most of the adults in our children’s lives have no spiritual grounding.  That doesn’t make them bad people – please don’t mishear what I’m saying – but it does mean they do not have the resources and tools, the wisdom of ethical and moral tradition, to help them put this horror into context.

Christian Piatt, a pastor from Portland, OR, suggests five things our children need to know and hear from us at this moment in time that are grounded in our Christian faith

First what happened?   His response is:  Something terribly sad. A man hurt some children and adults in a school in Connecticut.  Some of them died. The teachers and students were very brave, and the community is working together to take care of those who survived and those who lost someone they loved. Even the President went there to be with them.

Second why did this man hurt those children?  The truth is that we don’t really know… Sometimes people do incredibly terrible things to one another, even if the person they’re hurting didn’t do anything wrong. Maybe he was very sad, or angry. Maybe he was sick. But whatever the reason, I think we should focus on helping those hurt by all of this work through their sadness and hopefully find some kind of healing. We need to remember to tell each other we love one another, to give an extra hug to someone who needs it, and to respond to people who are mean with kindness. I think it’s what God wants from us.

Third is could this happen to me?  You might reply by saying: We never know for sure when we’ll get hurt or when someone might try to hurt us. Like when you ride your bike, you know you might fall and get hurt, but that doesn’t mean we let the fear that something might happen keep us from ever riding again. Life is pretty much the same way. There are risks every day, but we get to choose to live our lives as fully as possible every day, even if there are sometimes that we might be hurt. But also know that we love you and will do everything we can to care for you and protect you. And there are lots and lots of people in your life who feel the exact same way.

Fourth why did God let this happen?  Here we need to be honest and tell our children that we aren’t completely clear about this.  But also tell them that we “choose to believe that God is at the beginning of all life:  mine, yours and everyone’s. God is also in the love that holds us together. It’s what helps make our lives special and beautiful. But there is always a risk with love. There’s a chance our hearts will be broken, but that’s not a good enough reason to stop loving. It’s hard to find God in something so terrible, so dark, so ugly as all of this. But I do see God in the way we all come together in response to this kind of hurt. We may be mean to each other sometimes, but we can’t ever get rid of love. That’s where I see God in all of this.”

And fifth what do we do now?  The best thing we can do to honor the life God has given us is to live it every day as fully as possible. If you have feelings about all of this, that’s okay. It’s normal to feel sad, scared, or angry. It’s fine to have questions. You can always come to me to talk about your questions or how you feel. Keep the people from Sandy Hook in your heart, offer a prayer for them and when you feel a little bit afraid or sad, find someone you trust to hug. We all need each other, and if we always try to put love first, we’ll be sure to honor the gifts God has given us.

If our spiritual tradition teaches us anything, it is that God’s people often find themselves in the midst of unimaginable suffering.  And when that happens, the Lord invites us to act as light in the darkness.  Clear and loving words of faith are essential for our children right now – and that is one thing we must do at this moment in time even as we grieve.  For like St. Paul told us:  we do not grieve as others do.  We are people born of hope – so even our grief must express that hope – especially to our children.

Another thing we must do at this moment in time is challenge the scapegoating that has already started to take place among the various political and religious partisans.  Another mission partner in ministry, our friends down at Gould Farm in Monterey, recently posted this insight and I urge you to listen carefully:  All the focus on the small number of people with mental illness who are violent serves to make us feel safer by displacing and limiting the threat of violence to a small, well-defined group.  But the sad and frightening truth is that the vast majority of homicides are carried out by outwardly normal people in the grip of all too ordinary human aggressions to whom we provide nearly unfettered access to deadly force."Speak up for the truth: People living with a mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetuators.”

What I hear in this is a prophetic critique of the status quo; it points to our obsession with violence and stubborn refusal to acknowledge sin and resonates profoundly with the passion of the Old Testament prophet Micah.  His words from the eighth century before Christ sound all too much like 21^st century America.  Biblical scholar, Melinda Quivik, notes that when you look at Micah’s writings as a whole:  He rails against the social and moral abuse rampant in the land. Those with power have taken away from the poor their land and inheritances (2:1-5), evicted widows from their homes (2:9), fixed the scales and weights to cheat customers (6:10-11), taken bribes (7:3), and more. The language is as graphic (3:1-3) as the butchery of Sweeney Todd, so horribly do the "haves" treat those who have less… And YHWH's wrath is not just against the political rulers and the wealthy, it is also against the prophets and religious authorities whose words serve only themselves: "those who cry 'Peace' when they have something to eat, but declare war against those who put nothing into their mouths" (3:5). There is no hope for them, for "the sun shall go down upon the prophets, and the day shall be black over them..." (3:6). Micah declares the ruin of the holy city Jerusalem.

When preachers and pundits tell us that the massacre at Sandy Hook has something to do with God’s wrath over taking prayer out of the schools – or that this is the Lord’s angry response to President Obama’s cautious commitment to gun control – we need to be able to challenge them with love and truth.  We cannot return hatred for stupidity, nor encourage character assassination against those with whom we disagree.

We are people of faith, hope and… what?  Love – love that is willing to embrace our enemies.  Love that lays down a life for a friend.  Love that goes the extra mile and seeks out grace rather than judgment every time – even unto the Cross.  Do you remember St. Paul’s description of Christian love in I Corinthians 13?  Eugene Peterson’s reworking of the ancient text is crucial for us right now:

Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always “me first,” doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grove, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end. Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete… Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, and love extravagantly knowing that the best of the three is love.

In love we can confess that it is own our addiction to violence, the stagnation of our own collective moral imaginations and the sad fact that we have allowed our own politicians to sell their souls to the NRA that is at the core of this tragedy – not God’s wrath – and not some political scapegoat.  In love let us speak truth to power – and here is part of the truth we must own as our own.  

Gradually and without much fanfare, we have become a nation that refuses to distinguish between guns that are needed for hunting – and perhaps self-defense – and the kind of weapons that only the armed forces and police used to own:

·    Fact: in the four counties surrounding Sandy Hook, CT there are more than 400 gun dealers.  As Jim Wallis of the Sojourners Community notes, in America today there are more gun dealers than McDonald’s restaurants.

·    Fact: on Black Friday alone – the day after Thanksgiving – the FBI received more than 150,000 requests for background checks for firearm purchases; they received more than 2 million in the month of November. And most astoundingly, there are 311 million people in America and now an estimated 280 million guns.

·    Fact:  there are more and more guns in our society, they are being allowed in more and more public places, and they are more and more legal to be concealed. That is the direction that the gun business and gun lobby has taken us — because today the gun business and the gun lobby are now the same thing.

In love we have been called to confess our own complicity in this mess; for only then we can stand firm against any exaggeration in this time of grief.  Then we can challenge fear with hope and ask patience when quick – and all too often stupid – solutions are offered up.  Then we can even be some of the light in this time of darkness.

And our model for this, beloved is Mary, the mother of our Lord.  That’s one of the deep blessings of this season – and a time-tested tradition of spiritual wisdom – we can see how others have not only endured their suffering and confusion by faith and love, but how they have been led into new birth and deeper integrity, too so that they bring blessings to a frightened world.  You see more often than not what our tradition offers the world in the face of tragedy and suffering cuts deeper theology and clear, rational words of explanation.  No, what people of faith share best when hard times come is love – acts of love – deeds of real flesh and blood compassion without judgment.

In our story, when a young, Palestinian peasant girl’s life is turned upside down, by prayer and trust she chooses to embrace God’s mystery rather than question or oppose it.  But she knows she needs help so the story tells us that immediately Mary heads for Elizabeth’s house to get some comfort, wisdom and company.  Mary knows – and the older Elizabeth comprehends, too – that when the going gets rough we need one another.  We can’t make sense nor bring healing to tragedy all by ourselves.  And there are two fascinating details in this story deserve remembrance:

First, as soon as young Mary calls out her greeting to the older and wiser relative, Elizabeth, who is also pregnant with the yet unborn John the Baptist, what happens?  The little baby Baptizer starts leaping around for joy in his momma’s womb.  He dances in anticipation inside her body and Elizabeth breaks into a song of praise:  Holy Mary, Mother of God, blessed are you and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.  In solidarity and faith, blessings beyond our wildest expectations are received and shared.

And second, as she rests more deeply into the comfort and compassion of Elizabeth, Mary finds a new peace that allows her to go forward.  She begins to see something of God’s upside-down grace at work in her life – in her own womb – and her world.  She doesn’t understand it all – and she won’t until Jesus speaks to her at the foot of his Cross – but she senses that somehow God has entered this moment in love and will lead her through whatever she must face.  And let’s not forget that Mary also gives herself enough time to talk things through, too because the story end by telling us that she stayed on with Elizabeth for three months before returning to her home.  No rushing to judgment or jumping on band wagons allowed just to feel better or some-how productive.

 

Conclusion

Now if Mary is a sacred model of embodiment for us – an Advent apostle of trusting God’s grace and love even in the midst of tragedy, suffering and confusion (and I think she is) – then maybe as the new year unfolds we might follow her example. 

·    What would it look like if we brought together parents and educators in this congregation and others to begin a dialogue about how to keep our children safe?  We could eat together – that’s Biblical – we could tell one another our hopes and fears – like Mary and Elizabeth – and we could trust that in solidarity and faith God’s love would become flesh within and among us. 

·    What would it be like if by faith rather than fear God’s people let the Holy Spirit invite us into actions to shed light into the darkness as an alternative to our fear?  Do you think the body of Christ – and others, too – might discover new ways of spreading peace and grace and hope beyond this season of grieving?

“My soul magnifies the Lord,” Mary said – that is my entire being celebrates and honors the grace of God – and in this “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for God has looked with favor upon the lowliness of his servant.”  There is a time for grieving – and for silence – a time for singing and a time for healing in peace.  Let those who have ears to hear, hear.

 

The arc of this advent...

The arc of this Advent - like most of this past year - has been totally unexpected.  I had hoped for a time of quiet introspection bathed in poetry and music.  Instead, my time has been filled with grief and anguish and more busyness than I can comprehend.  Obviously this is what I've needed a la Meister Eckhart's adage that reality is the will of God (it can always be better but you must start with what is real.)

That is what the contemplatives teach at their best:  contemplation involves taking a long, loving look at what is real.  And when I do that I see more and more suffering.  In this, the massacre in Sandy Hook is a terrifying and tragic mirror reflecting back to us the sickness of our self-absorbed and violence-addicted culture.  I am not one who hates America - I am a patriot - but I hate what America has become and is becoming.  Is the best solution to violence giving school administrators more weapons?  Are we to live like Mad Max in a constant fortress that barely holds back the tide of destruction beyond our barriers?  Are we to go back to an eye for an eye rather than forward into a love that includes even our enemies?

Nothing is automatic - we can become the change we ache for - if we are ready to repent and let an open heart be our guide.

Deeper thoughts on sandy hook...

Earlier this week, my daughters posted this picture of themselves on Facebook from back in our Seminary days.  They were young and tender, loving and safe, beautiful and so alive. I LOVE this picture.  I LOVE my girls and would move heaven and earth to keep them safe.  Look at them - so precious and filled with love - so alive and filled with potential. 

I visited with one of my daughters tonight at her farm not far from our home.  I wanted to exchange Christmas gifts before she and her beloved head out to San Francisco for the holidays. It was a short visit because the roads were becoming icy tonight, but I did not want to miss the chance to see her and embrace her before she travels.  She has been sick recently and I felt like I would break if we did not have the chance to connect before her departure. In a week her sister and husband will travel here for Christmas Eve worship - and my heart won't be still until I can hold her, too.

You see, my life has been so full and real because of these girls - now women - and all we have shared.  I helped deliver them both into this world back in our hippie days. We've been through a lot - blessings and curses - and I am grateful that through it all we continue to finds ways of sharing love. They are both involved in public education in Brooklyn and Massachusetts - on behalf of the least of these our sisters and brothers (Matthew 25) - and they serve those in their care with wisdom and grace. They are creative, compassionate and committed young women and I cannot imagine life without their presence.  Perhaps that is why I continue to weep over the shootings in Sandy Hook...

It was impossible not to weep as we gathered with the children of my congregation this morning around the Christmas creche.  Most are too young to know what has happened although they know something is in the air.  Most are as young and innocent as my daughters in this picture.  A few of the older children cried with me as we retold the story of the shepherds' coming from the hills to honor and protect the Christ child. And when we prayed together for the safety of all our children, I could hear their parents - and those in the congregation - letting their own tears flow freely within the safety of our community and God's embrace. 

It was a tough but beautiful morning because it seems that today was a time for grieving. I just watched the President speak in Newtown, CT and he got it right: this moment one for tears and silence, the assurance of God's presence and the solidarity of those who embrace in agony.  But we cannot grieve as those who have no faith nor can we can we grieve only; for on his short watch President Obama has already been called upon to address women, men and children in four different US communities who have been attacked by those with easy access to automatic weapons. How did we come to accept the intolerable? When did insanity become the norm?]

Today's second Biblical reading - the Second Canticle of Isaiah - ripped me up with the clear promise of consolation amidst the suffering:

Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake their way,
and the unrighteous their thoughts;
let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

As I was watching various news broadcasts this weekend I was stunned to hear one analyst suggest that maybe the time has come to start arming our school administrators. As one young father said to me after worship, "I kept watching our children with you today and I wondered how I could protect some of them should a shooter rush in from the street." Lord, have mercy.

It would seem that every generation must wait like Israel in captivity and fear for God's release. This Advent our waiting has become agonizing.  I pray that our tears and fears rise up beyond this moment, however, to become a force for healing a sick and broken land. 
 

All over the map...

I had hoped that my words this morning might be helpful...  and maybe they were but mostly they seemed all over the map to me as I owned grief, anger, lament, trust within an abiding sense that God's own heart breaks over and over again when the beloved sin. 

Like St. Paul said in Romans 1, like a loving parent who has taught and trained their children, sometimes the Lord let's us experience the consequences of our sin - and that's what this bitter moment feels like.  It is as if God is saying:  "You want to ignore my call to love? You want to train your children in violence instead of compassion? You want to turn weapons into toys?  And demonize your enemies rather than search for common ground? You want to nurture a self-centered consumerist culture and then wonder why nobody has spiritually mature values?  Ok... do it and see how you like the consequences.  Then maybe, just maybe, your grief will awaken you to my holy alternative."

This morning the old apostle also asked us to learn how to rejoice - always - and in all ways.  But this was not a Sunday where being shaped by joy could take root.  We are all too raw...  and so the waiting continues.

The sound of Rachel weeping...

Dianne and I were on a short respite in Boston when the horrible news from Newtown, CT assaulted us all:  20 children and 6 adults slaughtered.  My brother and sister went with me to Sandy Hook Elementary School for a few years back in the early 60s. I got my first Bible from the Newtown Congregational Church.  And 6 years ago interviewed for the office of pastor in that small town. 

Like every other person with a heart, mine aches tonight.  Sadly, however,I am not surprised that this has happened yet again: we live in a culture of violence, fear and shame - we eat our own and then act shocked when they sometimes take the guns we've given them as toys and kill our babies and loved ones.  We live in a sick and selfish culture...
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One of my colleagues put it into prayer form so tonight I'm sitting with her words and this tune from the Boss.

God now all my carols are quiet
And there is only the sound of Rachel’s tears.

I pray for these children
for whom there are already
gifts hidden they will not unwrap
who will never grow so old
that they can’t hear the Polar Express bell.

For their parents and friends
sisters and brothers
whose lives changed forever
for the adults who died
and those who loved them

For teachers everywhere
who are ashamed to say how afraid they are now
for the boy in his illness
we gave guns like they were toys

 

For all who are unChristmased

We refuse to be consoled, O Lord
because they are no more

Warn us in our dreams and wakings
to gather all holy children
and find for them a place of safety.Warn us in our dreams and wakings
to gather all holy children
and find for them a place of safety.