Killing bees

We killed a colony of bees today and it really has me down.  I mean, they were just doing what bees do: establish a colony, collect pollen, make honey...nobody had been stung, but in the name of safety, we had to do something...and according to the bee guy, there was no way of removing them without destroying them.  I could tell that he felt bad about it too.

I feel bad because we have a bee shortage in California...we are losing our honey bee population at an alarming rate, which is bad news for plants and farmers and our over-all eco-system.  We need bees, but they were in a inconvenient place and posed a possible threat to the humans who come in and out of our church...at least those who are allergic to them...but they were just doing what God had created them to do and be.

How often do we destroy or cast-off or kill those things we deem as inconvenient?  How often do we deem something dangerous and overlook its God-created uniqueness and place in the world?  Years ago, something clicked in me about how we humans are not the center of the universe: creation doesn't serve us.  We are a part of the whole, complex system that has ways of balancing and correcting itself when it falls into imbalance...I am tired of the way we move into areas, then eliminate the native, indigenous wildlife as nuisances and threats to safety when all they are trying to do is live where they were born.  I am also afraid, that one day the earth will put itself back into balance and humanity will be reminded who really wears the pants in this world...

visualtheology: Imagining the Lectionary: Going Underground (Easter 2B)

visualtheology: Imagining the Lectionary: Going Underground (Easter 2B)

I love The Jam.  I love Jesus.  I don't like politics...but two out of three ain't bad.  Great article on one of the ways Easter speaks to the world we live in...

the hunger games - reflections

I finished the latest Star Wars novel, Apocolypse, and decided it was time to read something else...I probably shouldn't tell people that I read such pulpy science fiction, but I love the Star Wars universe! Anyway, I decided to see what "The Hunger Games" was all about. The movie is out, its a blockbuster, and I knew nothing about them other than than the main character's name "Catniss."

So I downloaded the trilogy, started reading, and in four days, I was finished...I devoured all three books and let me tell you: "The Hunger Games" is tasty!

It won't be for everyone: the books are violent. The hero isn't perfect. The ending is bittersweet. But herein lies the genius: life can be violent. Heroes are never truly perfect. Most endings are filled with a strange mix of emotions.

I will not review the books in a traditional way so as not to spoil them for anyone else. But I will offer some reflections as to why the books are so poular and why they strike a chord with such a wide audience:
1. The books have a depth that transcends the eighth grade reading level they were written in. As you read them, you will hear echoes of great literature (in particular "The Lottery", "The Most Dangerous Game," and Ralph Ellison's masterpiece "The Invisible Man.") as well as historical parallels (think Roman Empire sending Christians to fight as Gladiators, or the American Colonies fighting for Independence, or even the Cold War Stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union.) They ask spiritual questions like: Is killing a person different from killing and animal? What effects do long term oppression have upon human beings? Can a system of retributive justice truly bring about peace? Are we aware when we are being fed propoganda?

2. Food plays a huge part of the narrative: both in its absence and in its abundance and richness. I can't help but wonder about how our society is enamoured with cooking shows; calls people "foodies"; and wastes food while people throughout the world are hungry. I love my food as much as the next person, but we do have a strange relatiosnhip with food in our culture.

3. How do we use people? Even in the pursuit of justice and liberty, how often do we lose sight of a person's humanity and use them to further our own hopes and agendas? When people become a product to further a cause or to provide us with entertainment, have we somehow pried their humanity away from them?

I told you they were deep. I told you they aren't for everyone. But if you are looking for a truly provacative read that will challenge you, this is your book. A Great Read!

110 Percent?

I recently overheard a conversation between two men at a sandwich shop: they were arguing over whether or not a person could actually give 110% effort. I found myself smiling at my ham sandwich as they verbally sparred. One man insisted it was possible. The other man said that anyone who gave that much effort would expire because the body would shut down from exhaustion. He said that 90% was about all the effort we could ever expect a human being to give.

So which is it? What do you do you think?

Here are my thoughts:
110% is a euphemism. It was coined to express maximum effort. I grew up with coaches saying over and over that we needed to give 110%. We never questioned if it was possible, we simply knew that we had to give our all...

The best illustration of 110% that I have found comes from the move "Gattica." Two brothers compete against one another: one is a "natural-born" human while the other is genetically modfied to have greater strength and stamina. In their competition, they swim out into the ocean and race around a buoy. Time and time again, the genetically altered brother wins...but one day, the natural born brother wins.

Years later, the loser asks, "how did you beat me all those years ago?"

The natural-born brother looks at him and says, "I didn't save anything for the swim back to shore."

Even when we give our all, I believe we have the capacity for more. We usually hold back, even just a little, for the "just-in-case" and the way home. Its part survival instinct and part wisdom...but the truthfully we never know just how much we have to give until we reach that point that the tank is empty and circumstances do not let us stop.

110% simply becomes that point where you run yourself to where you think you have nothing left to give, only to discover that you do. 110% is that moment where we think we have reached our breaking point, yet we don't break. 110% is that moment when we transcend our own pre-conceived notion of our limits and then push beyond them.

Never forget: you are stronger, more powerful, and more capable than you think.

baptized with fire...

I baptize you with water...

but he will baptize you with fire!

That's what John the Baptist says, knee deep in the Jordan River, crazy-eyed prophet guy.
Quite frankly he scares me.
That baptizer is wacky. He dresses weird. He tells me I have to change.
He calls people terrible names.

I don't know what to do with him. I stand on the banks of the river and stare, frozen in fear that maybe this guy is going to grab me and force me under the water against my will...shake me until I give in and part of me dies there...I'm afraid I will look like him...crazy.

Never mind the fact that for more than fourteen years I have worn that title "pastor" and suited up Sunday after Sunday in my robes, ambled into my pulpit and delivered sermon after sermon about Jesus, God, and our duty as Christians...I'm still afraid of John the Baptist.

I can only speak for myself and my ministry; but I wonder if maybe this fear of John and his proclamations holds us back. John's baptism was never meant to be an end all. It was never meant to impose a status of never ceasing righteousness and eternal life. It was intended to be the way through which we were prepared for that coming fire of the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ...my fear of the Baptizer holds me back from truly being gripped by that fire and dissipates the way and message of Jesus into a tepid intellectual exercise that makes me look good.

Is that our problem?

I can only think of John Wesley's advice to his preachers so long ago: "Catch fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn."

Its time to be all in, to let ourselves be prepared to recieve the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Its time to be all in...
its time to burn.

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...