Cadences of God

NOTE: This message was delivered to staff members of the Virginia Annual Conference on April 17 during a worship service one day after a gunman killed 32 people on the campus of Virginia Tech University. It was delivered by Angie Williams, director of youth, young adult, and single adult ministries for the Virginia Annual Conference. Her message to the conference staff was based on Isaiah 40:27-31 and Esther 4:6-14.
“For such a time as this”
By Angie Williams
“For such a time as this” - So, what is this time?

This is a time when we, the leaders of the church, need to discuss the deeper issues that lay the foundation for such atrocities as the massacre on the campus of Virginia Tech — and the implications for our response as the body of Christ.

This is a time when…

A record number of students were killed in a college campus shooting;
The number of teens in foster care has increased by more than 200,000 in the last 20 years;
About 6 million children under age 12 have been diagnosed with depression and are on medication for it;
Urban youth swarm the streets because Daddy has abandoned them and Mama’s strung out on crack;
Minority youth are trapped by oppressive political and economic systems that have rendered them victims of degradation;
1 in 12 young people are the victims of violent crime;
Substance abuse among young adults has increased as much as 10 percent in the last decade;
Technology and acquaintances on My Space masquerade for true intimacy and significant relationships;
There is a considerable rise in young people who suffer from emotional disturbances manifested through eating disorders, self-mutilation and violence.
And, this is also a time when, for the most part, the institutional church with its traditional families wants nothing to do with “that” kid who abuses substances; or who dresses inappropriately; or who uses obscene street language and grooves to rap and hip-hop; or who has two mommies or daddies; or who is promiscuous or pregnant; or who is emotionally disturbed and anti-social; or who has darker skin or an accent; or who wears all black or metal or chains or piercings, tattoos or “bling bling”; or who isn’t familiar with the most basic of Bible stories.

The church stays away from “those” kids, lest they negatively influence the churched kids.

Neglecting ‘those’ kids

This is a time, for the most part, when we Christians spend the majority of our time building the church and very little time building God’s kingdom on earth. A time when the church has sold out and is more concerned with its own self-preservation than with the needs of the least, the last and the lost. A time when urban centers are surrounded by churches that refuse to reach out to the impoverished, drug-infested, subsidized residents.

This is a time when research has proven the primary impact of a significant adult relationship other than a parent in determining the success and positive adjustment of at-risk young people, and yet very few churches engage the youth of their communities in mentoring programs.

This is a time, for the most part, when the institutional church is completely out of touch with the cultures of today’s young people and has absolutely no clue how to reach the marginalized, disenfranchised, at-risk populations of young people.

And I only wish I was exaggerating.

Just in the 12 years of career experience that I have had in my young life, I’ve been there. I have served “that” church - the church that kicked out the kid who was caught selling drugs in youth group; the church that told the emotionally disturbed kid that he couldn’t come back to youth group unless a parent accompanied him; the church that outcast an unmarried young adult when she became pregnant; the church that literally closed its doors on a group of youth who wanted to share an alternative style of worship; the church that stared down the youth who was dressed creatively; and the church that  refused to let the young visitor sit in a family-designated pew.

‘Be the hope’

I realize that many of you were probably expecting more of a message of hope this morning, not words of seemingly negative chastisement. However, in this room sit THE leaders of the United Methodist Church of Virginia. And as leaders, what we need most is not a message of hope but a wakeup call that reminds us of our mission to BE the hope.

Of course, we can’t and shouldn’t blame the church or anyone or anything else for the actions of the Virginia Tech shooter. I remember hearing a professor speak shortly after the Columbine shootings. Likewise, he did not place the blame on the failures of an institution, the parents, the media, violent video games or any other entity.

However, he did speak of the deep responsibility that should be owned by educators in acknowledging their role as mentors who have at least the possible capability to stop such atrocities through successful intervention and outreach to high-risk students.

He suggested that more often than not, educators simply pretend not to see these students and ignore their cries for help.

This professor’s words to educators ring true for the church. We can no longer sit complacent in our pews, but must answer the call for such a time as this.

The greatest tragedy is that we respond in such a time as this in the midst of an isolated incident of crisis while we pretend not to see the crises that constantly surround us on a daily basis. When the upcoming months have gone by and the church feels like it has done its part to comfort families who have lost loved ones and lead them toward a path of the peace and forgiveness of Christ, will we forget that this crisis didn’t begin at Virginia Tech and it still hasn’t ended?

Or, will we finally realize that, “for such a time as this,” the church must finally begin the active pursuit of intimate and significant mentoring relationships with ALL young people within AND BEYOND our church walls, just as God ceaselessly pursues us.

For such a time as this is our call to finally wake up to the cries of marginalized, disenfranchised, at-risk young people who desperately need the church to show them a God and a love that is big enough for even them. For such a time as this…

REMEMBER

Tags: Death, Heaven, Hell, News, Evil by Administrator
No Comments »

You probably have never heard of Elvira Arellano. She is lives in a small 25-by-100 foot lot which houses a storefront church, its offices and parsonage. She cannot leave, not even to go out and feel the sun on her face.

For the last 8 months, Elvira has been defying a deportation order and she has claimed sanctuary in the Saint Adalberto United Methodist Church.

Since Easter, along with her pastor Rev. Walter Coleman, she has been conducting a 25-day hunger strike to protest the injustices which have been laid upon her and fellow immigrants who are seeking a new life in the United States.

Like most illegal immigrants, Arellano lived a quiet life and avoided trouble while working with false papers as a cleaning woman at Chicago’s O’Hare airport.

She became politicized after she was arrested in a post-September 11, 2001 “terrorist” sweep and ordered deported. Elvira Arellano has a US-born son who, accordingly, is an American citizen. So, the federal government is seeking her deportation and forced separation from her son.

To fight this insanity and anti-family government legalism, she organized La Familia Latina Unida to lobby for immigration reform for parents who are in exactly the same situation she is. She held helped to organize massive street demonstrations last year, one of them from the front of the church where she is now living.

8 months into her sanctuary, her life is more or less normal. She gets her son ready for school, sits down at a computer, she checks her MySpace account, answers the phone for a law firm serving immigrants. She talks to the activists, students, reporters and well-wishers who stop by the church, though only those who are expected get through the padlocked doors and the security cameras. She helps Saulito with his homework and settles down to sleep with him on a single bed in a cramped room she shares with another woman who is taking sanctuary in the church offices. She has no idea how long she will stay there.

Homeland Security decided to refuse a stay of deportation last summer, even though there are bills supporting her pending in the United States Congress from House members who support her plight and those who are in her same situation.

Now, I do not like to be an alarmist or suggest conspiracy theories, but nothing is ever irrational. For all government actions, it is worth asking who benefits. Who benefits from seeking to remove a woman who have been engaged in regular civil action against our present immigration policy? Why to the minutemen show up to protest her?

Let me guess that she is really only ticking off a certain group of people here. The one at the top, President Bush and many other leaders who are predominantly Republican (though not exclusively) have been regularly pressuring to close US borders to illegal immigrants and expell anyone from the country under any pretense, especially if they are “undesirable”.

I can appreciate the legal argument here. Someone breaks the law, they deserve to incur the punishment which the law dictates. That is the way of the world. That is the way of the government. I do not for a moment suggest that Ms. Arellano is not guilty of exactly what the U.S. Government says she is guilty of.

My stand is religious. We are commanded by God, who last time I checked is of even greater power and authority than the United States government, to remember that we too - as people of faith - are descended from peoples who were once immigrants and strangers in a stange land (Deuteronomy 10:19), and so too we are commanded to forever be hospitable to the alien in our midst (Leviticus 19:34). This is repeated yet again by Paul who orders us to “extend hospitality to strangers” (Romans 12:13). In fact, Hebrews 13 reminds us that when we “remember the stranger” we may at times entertain angels unawares. This was something that Abraham discovered when he inadvertantly entertained the Trinune God to dinner in Genesis 18! (see picture above.)

The US or even the people of our nation may be inhospitable to immigrants, but Christians may not without breaking the will and command of the Almighty God.

Tags: Peace, Discipleship, News by Administrator
No Comments »

According to the AFP, there is a gathering this week in Abu Dhabi of Arab Muslim physicians and other health care workers. One of the things which they have agreed to condemn is the recent spree of Muslim faith healers which have sprung up, particularly in Muslim communities in Europe.

Well, boys, welcome to the club. Crazies recognize no boundaries. I wish I had better news for my brothers and sisters in Abrahamic faith. But the truth is, this revolution WILL BE TELEVISED.

It will only be a matter of time before they are on TV, in time slots next to Benny Hinn. Take solace in only this: they will never be able to heal themselves. When God calls them, they are done all the same as the rest of us.

Asalaam alaikum!

Tags: Uncategorized, Crazy But True by Administrator
No Comments »

On March 30^th, a compromise was reached in the 14 year long dispute between the Roman Catholic Church and the Czech Republic. The fight was simple. The Roman Catholic Church claimed they owned the cathedral while the national government also claimed property rights to the 1344 house of worship.

In 1954, when Czechoslovakia was under Communist rule, the cathedral was administered by the state. However, according to a 2005 court decision, the communist government never actually secured the deed to the cathedral. This claim remained contested until March 30^th when the two parties agreed to share the national treasure.

Only one thing bothers me in all this. I suppose I can forgive President Václav Klaus for missing this important point (even though he holds close to 50 honorary doctorates and at least one in his own right). But, I will not let the Archbishop of Prague off the hook on this one. Cardinal Vlk, the only person who holds the deed on that cathedral in Jesus. Don’t they cover that in archbishop’s catechism?!

Tags: News by Administrator
No Comments »

Yesterday, President Bush spoke at the national Catholic prayer breakfast in Washington, D.C. He spoke about something that has always been close to us United Methodists, the culture of life.

He said. “In our day there is a temptation to manipulate life in ways that do not respect the humanity of the person,” Bush said Friday. “When that happens, the most vulnerable among us can be valued for their utility to others instead of their own inherent worth.”

Respect the humanity of the person? Valued for the utility of others instead of their own inherent worth?
 Mr. President! That’s great! I’ve been waiting years for this day. I praise the Almighty for this amazing altar call! Let me offer you a few pieces of information you should be aware of so you can get working on that whole culture of life thing:
 
 

67,364 civilians dead in Iraq as of today.
3,561 soldiers (US and coalition) who have been killed in Iraq as of today.
26,188 soldier (US only) wounded in your war in Iraq as of today.
152 prisoners executed while you were governor of Texas.
314 prisoners executed while you were President, between your inauguration and January 1, 2006.

As fellow Methodists, I am sure we can both praise God for your conversion! Praise Jesus and pass the pot luck.

Tags: Peace, Politics, Death Penalty, Death, News by Administrator
No Comments »

Tags: The Resurrection, The Crucifixion by Administrator
No Comments »

The following sermon was  given by Princeton theologian George Hunsinger on July 10th, 2006. It is given in refernce to martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but it is an exposition of Matthew 25:31-40. Great stuff!George Hunsinger’s Sermon: Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me (Matt. 25:40). The question that Dietrich Bonhoeffer asked himself, his students, and his readers remains as urgent now as when he first raised it: Who is Jesus Christ for us today? Bonhoeffer by no means intended to challenge the authoritative biblical answer. What he confessed with the prophets and the apostles, he attested at the cost of his life. He affirmed that Jesus Christ is the Risen Lord who had become incarnate for our sakes in order to die for our sins and liberate us from the power of death. That was the answer presupposed in every other possible answer to his question. It was the one answer that contained all others within itself.But Bonhoeffer knew that other answers were indeed included within that one answer. He knew that in dying for our sins, Jesus Christ had made the sufferings of the world his own. He knew that discipleship to Christ meant participating in Christ’s sufferings in the present time. “The hungry need bread,” he once wrote, “and the homeless need a roof; the oppressed need justice and the lonely need fellowship; the undisciplined need order and the slave needs freedom.” Because Jesus had entered into our world of sorrows, and because he had taken up the cause of those in need, making their cause to be his own, Bonhoeffer could continue: “To allow the hungry to remain hungry would be blasphemy against God and one’s neighbor, for what is nearest to God is precisely the need of one’s neighbor” (Ethics, p. 137).

That was Bonhoeffer’s great insight. “What is nearest to God is precisely the need of one’s neighbor.” On this profound basis he saw that it made no sense to choose between evangelism and social action. He saw that evangelism without social action was empty, and that social action without evangelism was blind. Both were key to the church’s mission, since both were ways of bearing witness in the world to God’s love for the world in Jesus Christ. Social action against crying injustice was an indirect form of evangelism, while evangelism that led unbelievers to know and love Jesus remained an indirect goal of social action. In different ways they both proclaimed that God’s love extends to the whole person at every level of human need. Feeding the hungry, as Bonhoeffer once said, prepared the way for the coming of grace. “What is nearest to God is precisely the need of one’s neighbor.” This statement provides a real clue to how Bonhoeffer answered his own question. The Risen Lord, he believed, confronts us here and now precisely as the neighbor in need. That is who Jesus Christ is for us today: he comes to us in the form of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the prisoner locked away. The neighbor in need is revealed as an incognito form of Christ’s presence. This epiphany does not mean that Christ and the needy are simply identical, but it does mean that by divine grace they are inseparably one. It is impossible to serve Christ here and now without serving one’s neighbor in need. As you did it to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me (Matt. 25:40). Since what is nearest to God is the need of one’s neighbor, and since Christ has made himself to be one with those in dire need, Bonhoeffer drew the right conclusion. He recognized that Christians have a special obligation to those in any society who are being persecuted, humiliated and abused. “Only those who cry out for the Jews,” he wrote, “have the right to sing Gregorian chants.” For the church in the Third Reich, Bonhoeffer perceived, the presence of Jesus Christ could not be separated from the plight of persecuted Jews. Whoever would serve Christ had to enter into solidarity with that despised and mistreated group, crying out by word and deed. But that was then, and this is now. Who is Jesus Christ for us today? Who are those who are being persecuted, humiliated and abused in our particular society? Sadly there are many contenders, and too many to be mentioned here, yet chief among them, I would suggest, are the victims around the world today of U.S. sponsored torture.

April 2006 marks the second anniversary since shocking photos were released from Abu Ghraib. These photos are difficult to look at yet impossible to forget. How can we view them without thinking of Christ? How can we view the wrenching scenes of nude male bodies stacked in postures of sexual humiliation without remembering the saying: I was naked and you clothed me? How can we gaze on the shackled man kneeling in an orange jumpsuit with terror in his eyes as a ferocious German shepherd strains at the leash only inches from his face without recalling: I was in prison and you visited me. Where is the outcry? Why the silence of the churches? Can we learn what Dietrich Bonhoeffer has to teach us? Or will we be “good Germans” all over again? Who is Jesus Christ for us today? “The thought of Jesus being stripped, beaten and derided until his final agony on the cross,” wrote Pope John Paul II, “should always prompt a Christian to protest against similar treatment of their fellow beings. Of their own accord, disciples of Christ will reject torture, which nothing can justify, which causes humiliation and suffering to the victim and degrades the tormentor.” The torture-abuse scandal, as first revealed by the photos from Abu Ghraib, has by no means gone away. According to recent human rights reports: · Detainee deaths at the hands of U.S. soldiers continue around the world. · Aggressive, painful force-feeding has been instituted at Guantanamo where prisoners are so desperate that many would prefer to commit suicide. · Secret CIA prisons, rife with torture situations, remain scattered across the globe. · Thousands of persons have been subjected to what is called “extraordinary rendition,” whereby suspects are essentially kidnapped and sent to countries that use torture as a means of interrogation. Yet who can deny that outsourcing torture to other regimes is the moral equivalent of practicing it ourselves? · Finally, the department of defense has admitted to the Red Cross that “70-90 percent” of the Abu Ghraib prisoners were entirely innocent. Similar if somewhat lower figures have been estimated for other U.S. detention centers, including Guantanamo. Not a single major human rights organization in the world believes that these abuses can be explained merely as the actions of a few bad apples at the bottom of the barrel. Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, has stated that top officials — up to and including the president — have given a green light to soldiers to abuse detainees. “You don’t have this kind of pervasive attitude out there,” he observed, “unless you’ve condoned it.” Yet no officials at the higher levels have seriously been been brought to account. The photos from Abu Ghraib make one thing clear. Working against torture as sponsored by our government must begin at the local and congregational level. As dismaying as it may seem, polls show that at least 73 percent of the American people believe that torture may be used at least rarely, and 15 percent say it is “often” permissible. The figures for Christians in particular are, sadly, no exception.

The terrible stain of torture — which is not only morally wrong but has many harmful consequences even from the standpoint of self-interest — will not be removed from our nation until we learn to act from higher motivations than blinding fear, narrow self-regard, and ugly resentment — to say nothing of cultural racism. If torture is not evil, then nothing is evil, for torture is the very essence of evil. Only those who cry out today for the detained Muslims and Arabs have a right to sing Gregorian chants. Let me close with these words from Holy Scripture. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured (Heb. 13:3). Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen (I John 4:20).

This verse might be glossed to read: Those who say, “I love God,” and torture their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who torture a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen — and the same holds true for those who turn a blind eye to torture or otherwise condone it. Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me (Matt. 25:40). Bonhoeffer’s searching question thereby remains: Who is Jesus Christ for us today?

Tags: Peace, Politics, News, Evil by Administrator
No Comments »

Tags: Prayer, Historical Jesus, God, The Crucifixion, Evil by Administrator
No Comments »