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Putting Christ Back in Christianity: Thank You, Reverend Curry

Early on Saturday morning by East Coast U.S.A. time, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle delighted the world with a royal fairy tale, which from what I could see was perfect in every detail. One of the highlights of the morning was the sermon delivered by the Most Reverend Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church,  who fired up the pulpit of Saint George’s Chapel with a passion that stunned the royal audience, accustomed to much more stately orations. Media commentators scanned the congregation and remarked over the surprised and confused facial expressions.

I’m going to venture that the sermon was met with equal befuddlement among the most vocal branch of American “commoners” who claim Christianity as their religion yet seem to know nothing about the life of its namesake. Not only was this message a sharp departure from the sermons familiar at most royal events but it was also a sharp departure from the sermons and daily rants of the God, Guns, and Glory branch of what is currently being passed off as Christianity in the United States. If this religion bears a remote  resemblance to anything in the Bible, it would be the philosophy and practice of the Pharisees,  to whom Jesus said:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!

 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside also may become clean.

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

This is Matthew 23: 23-28. The whole chapter is worth a read.

In sharp contrast to those modern “Christians” who merit this same admonition are the refreshing words of the Reverend Curry. For those who like your Saturday sleep more than strangers’ weddings, as well as those who watched and listened but would welcome the opportunity to peruse these words at your own pace and reflect on the beauty of their truth, here is Reverend Curry’s sermon. This, my friends, is Christianity in its undefiled state.

“The late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, and I quote: ‘We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we discover that, we will be able to make of this old world a new world. Love is the only way.’

“There’s power in love. Do not underestimate it. Don’t even over-sentimentalize it. There’s power, power in love. If you don’t believe me, think about a time when you first fell in love. The whole world seemed to center around you and your beloved. There’s power, power in love, not just in its romantic forms, but any form, any shape of love. There’s a certain sense in which when you are loved and you know it, when someone cares for you and you know it, when you love and you show it. It actually feels right. There’s something right about it. There’s a reason for it. It has to do with the source.

“We were made by a power of love. Our lives were meant and are meant to be lived in that love. That’s why we are here. Ultimately the source of love is God himself. The source of all of our lives.

“There’s an old medieval poem that says: ‘Where true love is found, God himself is there.’ The New Testament says it this way. ‘Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; And those who love are born of God and know God. Those who not love does not know God. Why? For God is love.’

“There’s power in love. There’s power in love to help and heal when nothing else can. There’s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will. There’s power in love to show us the way to live. … But love is not only about a young couple. The power of love is demonstrated by the fact that we’re all here. Two young people fell in love, and we all showed up. It’s not just for and about a young couple whom we rejoice with. It’s more than that.

“Jesus of Nazareth on one occasion was asked by a lawyer to sum up the essence of the teachings of Moses. He went back and reached back to the Hebrew Scriptures to Deuteronomy and Leviticus, and Jesus said, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. This is the first and great commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Then in Matthew’s version, he added, he said, on these two, love of God and love of neighbor, hang all the law, all the prophets, everything that Moses wrote, everything from the holy prophets, everything in the scriptures, everything that God has been trying to tell the world. Love God, love your neighbors, and while you’re at it, love yourself.

“Someone once said that Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in human history: a movement ground on the unconditional love of God for the world and a movement mandating people to live and love.

“And in so doing, to change not only their lives but the very life of the world itself! I’m talking about the power, real power, power to change the world.

“If you don’t believe me, well, there were some old slaves in America’s antebellum South who explained the dynamic power of love and why it has the power to transform. They explained it this way. They sang a spiritual even in the midst of their captivity. It’s one that says there is a balm in Gilead, a healing balm, something that can make things right. There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole. There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. One of the stanzas explains why: It says, if you cannot preach like Peter, you cannot pray like Paul, you just tell the love of Jesus, how he died to save us all. That’s the balm in Gilead. This way of love is the way of life. They got it.

“He died to save us all. He didn’t die for anything he could get out of it. Jesus did not get an honorary doctorate for dying. He wasn’t getting anything out of it. He gave up his life, he sacrificed his life for the good of others, for the well-being of the world, for us. That’s what love is. Love is not selfish or self-centered. Love can be sacrificial, and in so doing, become redemptive. That way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love changes lives. And it can change this world.

“Stop and imagine for a minute. Think and imagine. Think and imagine a world where love is the way.

“Imagine our homes and families when love is the way. Imagine our neighborhoods and communities where love is the way. Imagine governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce when love is the way. Imagine this tired old world when love is the way. When love is the way — unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive — when love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again. When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream, and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook.

“When love is the way, poverty would become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary. When love is the way, we will lay our swords and shields down by the riverside to study war no more. When love is the way, there’s plenty of room for all of God’s children. When love is the way, we actually treat each other, well, like we are actually family. When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all, and we are brothers and sisters and children of God. Brothers and sisters — that’s a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family. Let me tell you something. Ol’ Solomon was right in the Old Testament. That’s fire.

“French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was arguably one of the great minds, great spirits of the 20th century. Jesuit, Roman Catholic priest, scientist, a scholar, a true mystic. Some of his writings from his scientific background as well as his theological one, some of his writings said, as others have said, that the discovery and harnessing of fire was one of the great technological discoveries of human history. Fire, to a great extent, made human civilization possible. Fire made it possible to cook food and to provide sanitary ways of eating, which reduced the spread of disease in its time. Fire made it possible to heat warm environments and thereby marking human migration a possibility even into colder climates. Fire made it possible — there was no Bronze Age without fire, no Iron Age without fire, no Industrial Revolution without fire. … Anybody get here in a car today? An automobile? Nod your heads if you did; I know there were some carriages. Those of us who came in cars, the controlled, harnessed fire made that possible.

“I know that the Bible says, and I believe it that Jesus walked on water, but I have to tell you I didn’t walk across the Atlantic Ocean to get here. Controlled fire in that plane got me here. Fire makes it possible for us to text, and tweet, and email, and Instagram, and Facebook, and socially be dysfunctional with each other. Fire makes that possible, and de Chardin said fire was one of the great discoveries in all of human history. He went on to say if humanity ever harnesses the energy of fire again, if humanity ever captured the energies of love, it will be the second time in the history that will have discovered fire.

“Dr. King was right. We must discover love, the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will be able to make of this old world a new world.

“My brother, my sister, God love you, God bless you. And may God hold us all in those almighty hands of love.”

Thank you, Reverend Michael Curry, for telling millions of early-morning TV watchers that the Christianity of Jesus is still alive!

 

Categories
Religion

It’s All about the Heart

“For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course, that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.
“Blessed are the merciful” in a courtroom? “Blessed are the peacemakers” in the Pentagon? Give me a break!”

― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

Many, if not most, of the Christian teachings I’ve heard during my lifetime have focused on what we should do and what we should not do and not much on what we should be. In fact, in my youth, all the emphasis seemed to be on the “don’ts.” I’ve given a lot of thought lately to Jesus’ example and what it teaches us about the things that really count. And where better to look for Jesus’ attitudes than the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7?

Eight simple statements, which have come to be known as the Beatitudes, tell us the character traits which are truly valued but which often seem to be absent in those who are “most vocal” about their Christian faith.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

“Blessed are those who mourn.”

“Blessed are the meek.”

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”

“Blessed are the merciful.”

“Blessed are the pure in heart.”

“Blessed are the peacemakers.”

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”

These eight simple statements say far more about what we should be than about what we should do or not do.

What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”? I think it’s the opposite of pride and arrogance. It’s humility that values all lives as equal with one’s own. One who is “poor in spirit,” i.e., humble, is not racist, does not see oneself as superior to people who are different. It means truly believing down deep that “all lives matter” and not saying those words just to change the subject or avoid looking at one’s own racist, supremacist attitudes. And not just racism. Valuing any majority group—heterosexuals, cisgender people, mentally typical people, physically typical people—above their minority opposites is arrogance of spirit and not evidence of a Christian attitude. Yet who seems to yell the loudest about God’s will when any of these subjects come up for discussion? I don’t have to tell you the answer to that.

What is it about “those who mourn” that earns them special commendation? Perhaps this speaks of having compassionate hearts, grieving over injustice and tragedy and weeping for those who suffer instead of blaming and shaming them. Instead of posting vile, judgmental memes on social media, expressing sympathy and understanding. Instead of characterizing all poor and homeless people as lazy, worthless ne’er-do-wells, listening to their stories and giving “a cup of cold water” in the name of the one you claim to worship. Instead of adding to the stress and grief of parents whose children have been dangerously close to a gorilla or been killed by an alligator, showing a little human compassion for people doing the hardest job in the world and sometimes being overstressed and sometimes making bad judgments. We’ve all been there! And maybe it means defending the rape victim and mourning her distress instead of declaring that “she asked for it.” It means grieving equally for murdered police officers and for the victims of police brutality and racism. It means understanding the plight of the persecuted Palestinians and seeing both sides of a tragically long, unresolved conflict. We’re all human. Why can’t we feel each other’s pain and give other human beings the same love, understanding, and support that we want for ourselves when we’re hurting?

“The meek” I have seen defined as those who overcome evil with good. Recently, I read an article from The Charlotte Observer about a couple who entered a Pennsylvania restaurant and declined to be seated beside a table of four police officers. They didn’t bother being subtle about it, so the officers knew exactly why the couple was escorted to a table on the opposite side of the restaurant. But instead of anger and sarcasm, the officers decided to respond with kindness. They paid the couple’s bill of $28.50, plus a $10 tip (well above the standard 20%) and added this note: “Sir, your check was paid for by the police officers that you didn’t want to sit next to. Thank you for your support.”

The spokesperson for the group, Officer Thomas, made this statement: “Essentially the whole goal of it was to let him know that we’re not here to hurt you, we’re not here for that. We’re here for you. We work for the public. And we just want to better the relationship between the community and the police.” Individuals make a difference! As Martin Luther King said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only love can do that.”

How does one “hunger and thirst for righteousness”? I think this refers to people who seek truth and never allow themselves to become complacent in the feeling that they know all there is to know. When you’re hungry, you don’t meditate on the last meal you ate and expect that to fill you up. You want real food right now. No matter how much you’ve studied and searched and thought you had things all figured out, no matter how different the world is today than it was when you were young, when new questions arise, you need new answers. The answers may be based on old principles, but they have to fit the current question. This is my new mantra for lots of social issues: “It is what it is.” I know that’s not original, and it’s not even very clever; but it means certain things exist, and they don’t need my approval. There’s what we think and there’s how we act. My job is not to judge the rightness or wrongness of other people’s way of life but to love my neighbor as myself. Are transgender people my neighbors? Yes. End of discussion. Footnote: These people still have to pee, so for God’s sake, don’t make it so difficult!

Also blessed are “the merciful.” Everyone wants mercy. No one wants judgment and condemnation. Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying, “I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.” Human nature seems to seek justice for other people’s wrongs but to desire mercy for our own wrongs. When we insist on strict justice, we often overlook opportunities to reclaim a life. We say “all lives matter,” but we don’t act like we believe that when we apply rigid rules untempered by mercy. According to Gordon B. Hinckley (author of Standing for Something: 10 Neglected Virtues That Will Heal Our Hearts and Homes), “The willingness to forgive is a sign of spiritual and emotional maturity. It is one of the great virtues to which we all should aspire. Imagine a world filled with individuals willing both to apologize and to accept an apology. Is there any problem that could not be solved among people who possessed the humility and largeness of spirit and soul to do either — or both — when needed?” Indeed, let’s try to imagine a world in which politicians, leaders, and common people would sincerely apologize for their wrongdoing instead of denying and trying to cover it up or rationalize it. And then imagine a world in which all who hear that sincere apology would forgive and seek reconciliation and cooperation. I’d like to live in that world.

Blessed are “the pure in heart.” We can’t all be Mother Teresas or Mahatma Gandhis, but we can at least try to emulate their attitudes toward our fellow human beings. We can stop glorifying prosperity theology and “what’s in it for me?” theology. We can stop hating and judging. We can care more about loving and forgiving than about being “right.” We can take time to look beyond our preconceived beliefs and open our minds to new information and how old information applies to a new world. We can stop thinking of ourselves as superior to everyone who sees the world differently than we do. We can listen more and talk less. We can stop being arrogant jerks.

Blessed are “the peacemakers.” In my article “Guns vs Guts: Eight Images,” I mentioned several of my peacemaking heroes: those who have chosen to fight injustice without resorting to violence. Ieshia L. Evans (the woman in this summer’s iconic photo from Baton Rouge, Louisiana), Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi all faced the forces of evil and injustice without firing a shot. Most of the gun advocates I know today identify themselves as Christians; they seem to think God himself wrote the second amendment, and they’re not even willing to have a reasonable conversation about it. The people from the Westboro Baptist organization (I refuse to call it a church) show up to spread their hate and vitriol at funerals where people’s hearts need healing, not further persecution. How much more could be accomplished by making peace instead of war?

And finally, “those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” are recognized. Those willing to bear injustice without seeking revenge have a special spot on this list; there’s even a follow-up verse that further elaborates on what constitutes persecution: “when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” I’m just guessing here, but I think this might include whining on social media about how you’re being picked on. Of course it hurts to be slandered and ridiculed, but really, if that’s the worst that ever happens to any of us, we have nothing to whine about. Christians are having their heads chopped off by ISIS, and we’re whining because someone who doesn’t share our beliefs has said something mean.

Also, evangelicals like to complain that no one listens to them, but I’d say everybody is listening to them. Politicians jump through hoops to win their votes. James Dobson even publicly claimed recently that Donald Trump had been “saved” just because he knows that’s appealing to a large bloc of voters. I’d say that’s a lot of power. You’re being heard, so now start saying something worth listening to.

You may have noticed by now that I’m just a little annoyed by much of what’s going on these days under the guise of Christianity. I’d love to see more being and less doing. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). More of this and less shouting about what God hates or how our country is on a roller coaster ride to hell. Please. For the love of God.

 

 

 

Categories
Religion

Time to Come Out of the Bubble

Since my undergrad days in college, this has been one of my favorite quotations from John Milton:

“I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.”

“Fugitive” means on the lam, living in seclusion, hiding. “Cloistered” means isolated, closed off from the outside world and ignoring its existence and its influence; monasteries and convents are cloisters. “Virtue,” of course, is the best human qualities—those deserving of our respect and praise. But Milton says he cannot praise or respect a fugitive, cloistered virtue: that which is exemplified by people who live in isolation, who listen only to those who agree with them, whose every moment of life is spent in a controlled environment. And why does he not praise that kind of goodness? Because it’s never met its adversary, never “sallies out” or leaves the bubble long enough to see firsthand who its opponents are. It’s “unexercised”; it’s never flexed its muscles against a real opponent—just shouted from its safe little hiding place, reinforced by those likeminded people who share the cloister.

Milton says such people “[slink] out of the race,” the arena where the prize has to be won. And he says “that immortal garland” is available, but it comes at a price. You can’t win it from the safety of the sidelines; it can be won only by enduring the “dust and heat.” You’re going to have to get dirty.

Remind you of anyone you know? In the last few decades, this quotation has come to mind often as I have witnessed a group of people who in my opinion exemplify this description perfectly and who as a result have lost much of their effectiveness: evangelical Christians. Let me hasten to say I am a Christian, so I look at this subject not as an outsider but as one who loves the Christian faith and feels the wounds it is inflicting upon itself. In the eyes of those outside our faith, we’re all the same, even though of course in reality there are wide and deep differences among self-identified followers of Jesus.

I recall a good Christian friend telling me her husband—an ordained minister—was hesitant to attend certain Bible studies because “there are too many Christians there.” Obviously, he was also a Christian, but he recognized the pitfall of spending all his time exchanging affirmations with likeminded people. One does not learn to argue a case by speaking only to people who are already on one’s side. When you’re ready to exercise your faith, flex your muscles a bit, you have to talk to those who don’t share your view, AND you have to listen to them. Really listen.

Yet I know many people today who never “sally forth” from their cloister and enter the arena where the real race is taking place and where the prize is available to those brave enough to enter the fray. Their only news sources are Fox News and a few others approved by the grand poohbahs of evangelicalism. They have their own books. They have their Rush Limbaughs and their Glenn Becks who whip them into a frenzy and make them believe they’re staying informed. They have their own schools and colleges from kindergarten through baccalaureate—and beyond when possible—to protect them from hearing anything which contradicts their world view. And for the last few decades, they’ve had their own political party. Democrats are a tiny minority in most churches, and they’re usually viewed with great suspicion.

These Christians think they’re “fighting the good fight,” but in reality, they possess few effective weapons because all they ever listen to is what they already believe to be true, and the only people with whom they regularly interact are people who already think and believe exactly as they do. The evidence cited for their arguments is almost exclusively passages from the Bible, which are utterly wasted on their opponents. I taught my writing students the principle that evidence has to be accepted by the audience or it’s worthless. Think about it. If someone does not accept the Bible as an authority, you could quote the whole thing, Genesis to Revelation, and your audience would still be unconvinced because in their minds it’s not a valid source. So you can assume a huffy superiority and condemn the audience as ungodly people unworthy of your time, you can retreat into your cloister to pray they will eventually see the light and accept the Bible as proof (Good luck on that!), OR you can educate yourself (“sally forth”) on material whose validity is accepted by your audience. You don’t have to change your position, just know how to make someone see your point and maybe change their mind. I know that takes a lot more work, but it also has a better chance of winning you that “immortal garland” of success.

Time to come out of the bubble and into the arena. Live in the real world. Accept that the world has changed and that no one has all the answers to every situation. Accept that no one has a monopoly on knowing the mind of God. Read. Think. Talk to some people you don’t agree with and maybe don’t even like. Learn from them. And then just maybe you’ll win a prize or two.