the occupy movement

I don't get the occupy movement. There. I've said it. I have friends and colleagues who are passionate about the movement, but I don't get it. Nobody has been able to explain what the occupiers hope to accomplish in this movement. From the sounds of several, the bottom line is they are protesting corporate greed and feel victimized by the failure of the banks to protect them from the market implosion...

So they are angry and want to be heard...great. But will their movement make a difference? What are the goals they hope to acheive and will camping out and waving signs and chanting actually accomplish those goals? I just don't see how it will.

Greed is a huge problem in our society...but it isn't all corporate. It lives in the lives and hearts of the everyday American who, even if their career or occupation arc isn't going to lead them to wealth, still strive to at least appear wealthy. I remember driving past the beat-up apartments of Huntington Beach, watching people drive their late-model Mercedes, BMW's, and Cadillacs, all customized and chromed out, home from work. Bad investments. Poor priorities. Exchanging financial security for the appearance of being wealthy.

Greed lives in the heart of everyone who lived beyond their means and assumed that their homes would increase in value at an annual clip of eight to twelve percent every year, that very three to four years they would be bailed out by a home refinance...

Eventually it catches up...and it did...

We just have to be honest...the same greed that drives a CEO to take a thirty percent increase on an already massive financial package when the company is laying off employees is the same greed that causes a homeowner to sign a loan the pulls the twenty-thousand dollars of appreciated value from their home to pay of credit card bills and debt spent on throw-away items that provide only the appearance of wealth and status...

That greed lives in all our hearts, and until we as individuals get a grip on it, it will always be a problem. Here-in lies my problem with the occupy movement: to me, it places blame on the easiest target, and provides few or little answers to the wider problem.

I serve as a pastor in the United Methodist Church, and I honestly feel that the message and way that Jesus brought has a far greater chance of impacting that deeper cause than the occupy movement. So I will work hard in my setting to make a difference...and for me, well, no occupy for me.

Bad News...

You never get used to it, no matter how many times you walk people through it... I just came from the hospital where one of my congregants recieved the news that the cancer they thought was in the rearview mirror has resurfaced. I can't begin to explain how exhausting it gets: that cycle of shock, reassurance, good news and hope, and then re-entering the whole process of asking "why? where is God?" with an entire family.

I get tired of being the one who has to speak up and say that God is present and at work. I get tired of feeling like my words fall on closed ears a disappear into a bucket of dispair and fear. I get tired of feeling unqualified to speak to people's greif because it isn't my loved one wearing the "cancer" diagnosis...

Yet in my work as pastor, one of my primary roles that the church set me aside to do is this very task. Even as I curl up and moan, "not again!" God's gentle whisper reminds me that I have been called to be faithful for people in these moments, that in the price we ministers pay in these moments we also sense great privilege and a grace that will carries us and the family through.

So in this moment, I simply ask for grace to be with the family, grace to be with me, and the assurance that God is present to be an anchor for my parishoner. I am confident that God's hand will be revealed in time...

a tale of two deaths...

I found it strange that Saturday, December 17th, 2011, marked the passing of two markedly different world leaders whose legacies and places in history couldn't be further apart. The first leader, North Korean ruler Kim Jong Il, passed away at age 69 of a heart attack. He will be remembered as a man who managed to maintain one of the world's most oppressive dictatorships, starving many of people in his quest for military power and prominance. He refused to liberalize the communist economy of his nation even as many of his people struggled in abject poverty. He indulged himself in luxuries and strange fashion at the expense of his people and kept families separated by the militarized border between his country and South Korea.

The second leader, Vaclav Havel, led the 1989 "Velvet Revolution" which overthrew the Czech Communist Government and was elected President in their first democratic elections. Beloved and revered, he was 75 when he passed away. His slogan, "May truth and love triumph over lies and hatred." stands in contrast to the saber-rattling legacy of Kim Jong Il.

When I stop and think about these two deaths, Havel's words from his 1997 book, "The Art of the Impossible: Politics as Morality in Practice," ring out: "None of us—as an individual—can save the world as a whole, but . . . each of us must behave as though it were in his power to do so..."

These words give me hope the Christmas season of a day when oppressive dictators and leaders who prey upon people will be removed and displaced by peace and freedom and a genuine concern for the general welfare of all people. A world where we will see more Havels and the Kim Jong Ils will be extinct. Maybe we can't do it alone, but let us act as though we possess that kind of power. May we be instruments of peace in the true spirit of Christmas.

Tebow Take Two...

I promise this is the last time I will blog about Tim Tebow...in fact, I really didn't want to this time, but truthfully, the Tim Tebow phenomena has turned Sports Talk radio into some of the best radio regarding the issue of faith in God...seriously, it has! Last week Mr. Tebow and the Denver Broncos lost after six straight wins, and Max Kellerman, self-professed atheistic secular Jew, asked the question, "where was God?" Of course everyone giggled a bit, but as Mr. Kellerman went on, he added, "where was was God when over six million people were killed in the Holocaust?"

In a moment of touching, interpersonal candor, his co-caster asked, "is that question the basis of your atheism?" to which Kellerman replied, "absolutely."

I am not surprised. Honestly, Christianity has not recovered from the shock of the holocaust...specifically the question which asks how such a horrific thing could occur in nation which supposedly contained a population that was approx. 85% Christian and approx. 73% attended church regularly.

I hope people were listening. I hope people cared. I hope Christians understand, because the Christianity that will survive and fulfill God's purposes will be one that has a good response to that question. It won't rely on slogons or cliches; it will be heart-felt, confessional, and deeply reasoned responses to the age-old question of the theodicy, which states, "If God is all powerful and all good, then why do bad things happen to good people?"

How would you answer that question?

The Tebow Effect

Tim Tebow, who I respect as a person, competitor, and football player, sometimes makes me cringe. I appreciate his openness regarding his faith, but some of the cliches that stream from his mouth make me wince... But I may need to stop.

As Tim has become the most talked about person in the last two months, the issue of his faith has been a part of those discussions. As I listened to the Max and Marcellus Show on ESPN 710 Sports Radio the other day, I heard four sportscasters: Marcellus Wiley, A. Martinez, John Ireland, and Mychael Thompson proclaim their support for Tebow and give a testament to their Christian faith... I also heard Max Kellerman, a self-proclaim atheistic secular Jew, say that he is okay with it because Tebow has said that his faith has made him a better person and given him perspective...and Max respects that.

So hand it to Tebow. He has taken his standing in society and entertainment to "give an account for the hope that is within you." (1 Peter 3:15) He has been able to do it without proclaiming in the media that God is helping his team win or interveening in the outcome of games...

Unfortunately, others have, which I really struggle with. I don't think that God cares one way or the other who wins a football game. I don't believe that God weighs the collective righteouss and faithfulness of each team and then chooses a side to be on. I think God has bigger things to be worried about, like poverty, violence, deep-seated ethnocentrism and the self-centeredness of the people God created...things the Hebrew prophets were concerned about and things Jesus had much to say about.

So blessings to you Tim Tebow! Thank you for challenging my witness in the world...but could you please speak from your heart rather than the clumsy cliches? Can you do that for me?

The "War" on Christmas...

I am tired of deleting all the "I'm Going to say 'Merry Christmas' and 'It's a Christmas Tree'" emails that people forward to me...I guess they think I want them because I am a pastor and of course, I will appreciate their defense of God and Christmas and the Baby Jesus...Call me Scrooge, but quite frankly, it disturbs me.

First off, most of the furor is a response to the many corporations and retail stores and civic centers trying to decide how to respond to an increasingly pluralistic society. Since we have allowed a "holy day" become so commercialized that retail budgets succeed or fail based upon the month of December; do we have a right to demand those companies to become less profitable and limit their market during December? They are not the church. Furthermore, for those who complain, I want to ask, "would you shop at a store who hoisted signs of "Happy Ramadan!" when the great feast is observed by the Islamic community? (I would, just for the record.)

Second, "Merry Christmas" is a religious greeting. I use it happily, and nobody is telling me I can't use it. However, if someone who doesn't share my faith responds with "Happy Holidays" or even "Happy Hannukah" based upon their faith, I can't be offended...and neither should you.

I guess I am tired of people looking to the government to legitimize their faith. We should never forget that the Jesus who we commenmorate with Christmas was very critical of the Temple in Jerusalem precisely because of its connection to the Herodian and Roman governments who ruled over Israel. I don't care if our city has a nativity set in front of it. I don't care if the local mall has a "holiday tree" in its courtyard. What I care about is following the God who chose to enter creation in the form of a vulnerable child...follow him regardless of what the city or the government does. I care about celebrating Christ as a Christian; I don't care about forcing anybody else to do it with.