There are many in society together who name themselves as "Spiritual But Not Religious". Most of those who wear this moniker claim that they do seek the Other, the Holy, the Spiritual in many ways but that they do not need or desire organized religion for themselves. Some persons who fit into this category have been wounded by organized religious groups. Churches have inflicted wounds on some by some of its members or leaders being judgmental or unaccepting or intolerant. Some churches have used their official rules or views toward social issues to cause pain for individuals to the point that they would rather stay away from anything that smacks of religion rather than encounter emotional pain once again.
I come from a family of origin that had a wide variety of attitudes toward organized religion. My father never attended church. He saw no need of it and spent his Sundays working in the yard, grilling meat for lunch, or watching sports on television. My sister attended church until she was a young adult and then stopped because more than one pastor stepped on her toes when it came to their views on social issues. She was very liberal in her views and lived in a very conservative area and never could find a church that she could align her ideas with so she stopped attending church until she passed away at the age of 45. My mother took all of us kids to a non-denominational fundamentalist church of a Pentecostal style through all our growing up experience and she is still very much part of that church even at the age of 87. My brother followed in her footsteps and became a pastor of church much like the one that we grew up in and he spread the gospel fervor until he died at the age of 64. Then there was me.....
I was the lost child, the lost sheep, the one who could never find satisfaction with religion through all my years, both as a child, as a teenager, and as a young adult. I often thought about throwing in the towel and staying home on Sundays as many of my friends and co-workers did but something kept me going and searching until I found my place in the world of religion. I did not start out being a pastor but worked as a teacher and school counselor for many years before deciding that a call kept working on me to become a pastor. At the age of 37 I went to seminary and retrained and have been working in churches and with persons in ministry for the past 22 years.
I did not return to the church of my youth to find my place, however. I went in a completely opposite direction, first finding a home in a moderate mainline denomination and then finally going all the way to a church that is 180 degrees away from the church of my youth, and now I feel completely at home. I belong to a denomination that proudly welcomes everyone of all kinds and has views on social issues that are as far to the left as is acceptable in Christian circles. We truly do welcome all who are on their journey and try to act in love despite what others may have experienced in other churches.
Some who say they have no need for organized religion still have a yearning for a connection to the supernatural. Some belong to groups that are quasi-spiritual, practicing yoga or meditation, reading spiritual or meditative materials, visiting monasteries or retreat centers. Some breathe in the fresh air of nature and proclaim that as their sanctuary. I can understand all this because I have done many of these things also. I have been on the journey all my life and have searched the vast domain of religion. I was never totally satisfied until I found the place where I belong. That place speaks to me and assures me that I am where I need to be.
So, if you feel that yearning to connect with your Higher Power, with the Other, with the Holy, even if you cannot name it or put your finger on what it should be for your life, don't stop your quest or put limits on where you may find satisfaction. It just may be that you have never connected with the right source and that when you find it, you will know that you have.
"When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13)
Monday, June 3, 2013
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Holy Land Excursion
I just returned from a trip to the Holy Land where I spent about 8 days with a group of clergy persons like myself, all from our same denomination, the United Church of Christ. We were treated to this experience by a group called "Fair Witness for the Middle East" so we could become more acquainted with the places and people who make the Holy Land their home. We went to places where tourist groups rarely visit--Ramallah, Nablus, for example---and to some that they visit with caution--Bethlehem, firmly entrenched in the West Bank--and to some where hordes of pilgrims and tourists clog the streets---Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Tiberias. In each place we had a mission....to learn and find out why it is that peace is so elusive for the residents of that land.
I told many people that I was going to Israel, and I did go there, but I also went to Palestine, the West Bank, a place that is next door to Israel but also separated from Israel by many rules and restrictions. To be honest, I really did not know what a Palestinian was, before going on this journey. I thought the word referred to terrorist groups operating in the Middle East, at least that is what the news media had tried to teach me through the years. A Palestinian, I learned, is simply someone who lives in the country of Palestine, which at the present time is made up of residents of the West Bank, since those who live in the Gaza Strip are basically isolated from both Israelis and residents of the West Bank due to a heightened alert in the Gaza Strip.
Our group met many Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian, who share the land and have concerns about it. Some are very influential Palestinians. Some are everyday people who try to make a living and make a difference in Palestine. All had in common that they desire to get along with their Israeli neighbors and did not want to have fighting in their land. Some are working in banking and investments trying to build up a strong economic future for their land. Some are working for justice as they work for peace, trying to right the wrongs of the past and to be creative in their approach. Some have visions for a new future for their land and are making it a reality by creating cities out of nowhere for future generations to live in. All welcomed our band of American pastors with open arms and extended hospitality with food and drink and warm smiles.
Our group also met many Israelis, some also who are very influential in the military and defense department, protecting the citizens and visitors with strategic planning and implementation of goals that will allow all in the region to live in peace. We met people who had witnessed atrocities and lived to tell the story, even though they had lived through things that we could only vaguely imagine. We toured a hospital and saw the work of a team of health care workers who help little children of all ages and from all countries in the region, including Palestine, to receive heart surgeries at little cost to their families so that they may live normal lives. We toured the holy sites that Jews, Muslims, and Christians share, stopping to pray at the Western Wall and seeing pilgrims from around the world giving adoration and homage to the One God we all worship.
After 8 days of exploration and travel, we were exhausted and weary, but also hopeful for this land and its people. Even in the midst of the division that has gripped this land for so many years, there are signs of God speaking words of peace and reconciliation to and through God's people. Pilgrims from around the world greet one another with cheerful hearts and blessed shalom. People from Israel and Palestine respond to strangers who say hello with greetings and smiles in return. Influential persons in society seem eager to make this work once and for all, trying to put aside the wounds of the past and find solutions to the barriers that have divided them for so long.
We are thankful for people such as Sister Ruth Lautt, who care enough for God's children, regardless of the name they wear or the ideology they espouse that she will traverse the land many times, bringing strangers to meet people they most likely would never meet in their lives if it were not for her so that they can seek understanding of what may be even in the face of what has not worked in the past. When I think about her vision for the land we call Holy, I think of the words of the writer of First John--"Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. We we do know is this; when he is revealed, we will see him as he is." (I John 3:2)
God has children of all kinds in the world and sometime they live right beside each other. They may not speak the same language or worship at the same houses of worship but they all are children of God. They may not always see eye to eye on everything but they share a common heritage that unites them, a common ancestor that is part of their DNA. They are on a journey through life and what they will be has not yet been revealed to them or us. We do know this, that their God, whether they call God by the same name or a different one, will work with them and through them to make the vision of peace a reality. It may not happen in my lifetime or many of theirs, but someday peace in the Holy Land will happen. Until that time, we are not giving up but we are working for peace every day, both in their land and in ours.
Stay tuned for more stories from the Holy Land in days to come. Shalom to all.
I told many people that I was going to Israel, and I did go there, but I also went to Palestine, the West Bank, a place that is next door to Israel but also separated from Israel by many rules and restrictions. To be honest, I really did not know what a Palestinian was, before going on this journey. I thought the word referred to terrorist groups operating in the Middle East, at least that is what the news media had tried to teach me through the years. A Palestinian, I learned, is simply someone who lives in the country of Palestine, which at the present time is made up of residents of the West Bank, since those who live in the Gaza Strip are basically isolated from both Israelis and residents of the West Bank due to a heightened alert in the Gaza Strip.
Our group met many Palestinians, both Muslim and Christian, who share the land and have concerns about it. Some are very influential Palestinians. Some are everyday people who try to make a living and make a difference in Palestine. All had in common that they desire to get along with their Israeli neighbors and did not want to have fighting in their land. Some are working in banking and investments trying to build up a strong economic future for their land. Some are working for justice as they work for peace, trying to right the wrongs of the past and to be creative in their approach. Some have visions for a new future for their land and are making it a reality by creating cities out of nowhere for future generations to live in. All welcomed our band of American pastors with open arms and extended hospitality with food and drink and warm smiles.
Our group also met many Israelis, some also who are very influential in the military and defense department, protecting the citizens and visitors with strategic planning and implementation of goals that will allow all in the region to live in peace. We met people who had witnessed atrocities and lived to tell the story, even though they had lived through things that we could only vaguely imagine. We toured a hospital and saw the work of a team of health care workers who help little children of all ages and from all countries in the region, including Palestine, to receive heart surgeries at little cost to their families so that they may live normal lives. We toured the holy sites that Jews, Muslims, and Christians share, stopping to pray at the Western Wall and seeing pilgrims from around the world giving adoration and homage to the One God we all worship.
After 8 days of exploration and travel, we were exhausted and weary, but also hopeful for this land and its people. Even in the midst of the division that has gripped this land for so many years, there are signs of God speaking words of peace and reconciliation to and through God's people. Pilgrims from around the world greet one another with cheerful hearts and blessed shalom. People from Israel and Palestine respond to strangers who say hello with greetings and smiles in return. Influential persons in society seem eager to make this work once and for all, trying to put aside the wounds of the past and find solutions to the barriers that have divided them for so long.
We are thankful for people such as Sister Ruth Lautt, who care enough for God's children, regardless of the name they wear or the ideology they espouse that she will traverse the land many times, bringing strangers to meet people they most likely would never meet in their lives if it were not for her so that they can seek understanding of what may be even in the face of what has not worked in the past. When I think about her vision for the land we call Holy, I think of the words of the writer of First John--"Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. We we do know is this; when he is revealed, we will see him as he is." (I John 3:2)
God has children of all kinds in the world and sometime they live right beside each other. They may not speak the same language or worship at the same houses of worship but they all are children of God. They may not always see eye to eye on everything but they share a common heritage that unites them, a common ancestor that is part of their DNA. They are on a journey through life and what they will be has not yet been revealed to them or us. We do know this, that their God, whether they call God by the same name or a different one, will work with them and through them to make the vision of peace a reality. It may not happen in my lifetime or many of theirs, but someday peace in the Holy Land will happen. Until that time, we are not giving up but we are working for peace every day, both in their land and in ours.
Stay tuned for more stories from the Holy Land in days to come. Shalom to all.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Covet--what an odd word?
"You shall not covet...." (Exodus 20:17) The tenth and final posting in a series on the Ten Commandments.
The last of the ten commandments is very exacting and clear as to what you cannot covet. You shall not covet your neighbor's house or wife or male or female slave or ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor. To covet means to desire greatly and wish it were yours. Covet is a much stronger word than just wish as in "I wish I had a Jaguar." To covet is to say something more like, "I wish I had YOUR Jaguar." Coveting is about obsessing over something that you do not have but you would like to own that someone else owns.
I use the example of a Jaguar because it is my favorite automobile and most likely one that I will never own. I love the sleek lines of the frame of a Jaguar. I love the hood ornament with that little jaguar running into the wind. I love the interior with its rich luxurious leather. I have never driven a Jaguar or even allowed myself to go to a dealership that sells Jaguars lest I be very tempted to go into deep debt to own one. So, it is okay for me to wish I had one. I would cross the line, though, if I saw a person I knew who had a Jaguar just like the kind I wanted and began to obsess over how I would get IT--not just any old Jaguar but that specific one that belonged to that person.
There is a story in the Old Testament that illustrates how coveting something that someone else owns can lead one into a lot of trouble. In the book of the Kings, it tells the story about King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. They lived in the palace and had just about everything that anyone could want. Everyday, however, Ahab would go out into the palace balcony and look down upon his neighbor's garden. The neighbor was named Naboth. Naboth must have had a green thumb because he had a vineyard that was his pride and joy and it had grapes that were so delicious looking that Ahab began to covet Naboth's vineyard. Ahab got into a funk about his lack of his neighbor's vineyard and was sitting around all sullen and moody when Jezebel asked him what was going on with him. Ahab told her sadly that he wanted Naboth's vineyard but he would not sell it to him or give it to him. Jezebel devised a plan to kill Naboth and take his vineyard away from him and when the plan was fulfilled Naboth was dead and the vineyard belonged to Ahab.
I remember hearing this story when I was just a boy. Preachers love to preach on this text because it so perfectly illustrates what happens when people allow their passions to overrun their brain. Ahab wanted what belonged to his neighbor so badly that he and his wife agreed to murder the owner of it so that he could own it. Coveting led to greed and that led to desire that led to crime. Ahab did not get off scot free though. The prophet Elijah soon appeared on the scene to pronounce judgement on the two culprits in crime.
We often watch the programs on television that tell true crime stories such as 20/20 or 48 Hours. Inveribly, when the true killer is revealed, the reason for murder has something to do with money or possessions. There was one recently where a woman murdered her husband and mother-in-law so she could inherit their fortune. The woman had allowed her greed to drive her to the place where she could commit a horrible crime in order to get their possessions.
Sometimes elderly persons are swindled out of their money or possessions by persons who are able to convince them to trust them and put their possessions in their care and suddenly those thing belong to another person, often by techniques that are very legal. Coveting what others have begins a cycle wherein people will break other commandments in order to get what they covet leading to a far worse situation than originally existed.
I guess that is why coveting made the top ten list of commandments. The word itself may be a bit weird, perhaps sounds archaic, but what lies behind the word is deadly.
The last of the ten commandments is very exacting and clear as to what you cannot covet. You shall not covet your neighbor's house or wife or male or female slave or ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor. To covet means to desire greatly and wish it were yours. Covet is a much stronger word than just wish as in "I wish I had a Jaguar." To covet is to say something more like, "I wish I had YOUR Jaguar." Coveting is about obsessing over something that you do not have but you would like to own that someone else owns.
I use the example of a Jaguar because it is my favorite automobile and most likely one that I will never own. I love the sleek lines of the frame of a Jaguar. I love the hood ornament with that little jaguar running into the wind. I love the interior with its rich luxurious leather. I have never driven a Jaguar or even allowed myself to go to a dealership that sells Jaguars lest I be very tempted to go into deep debt to own one. So, it is okay for me to wish I had one. I would cross the line, though, if I saw a person I knew who had a Jaguar just like the kind I wanted and began to obsess over how I would get IT--not just any old Jaguar but that specific one that belonged to that person.
There is a story in the Old Testament that illustrates how coveting something that someone else owns can lead one into a lot of trouble. In the book of the Kings, it tells the story about King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. They lived in the palace and had just about everything that anyone could want. Everyday, however, Ahab would go out into the palace balcony and look down upon his neighbor's garden. The neighbor was named Naboth. Naboth must have had a green thumb because he had a vineyard that was his pride and joy and it had grapes that were so delicious looking that Ahab began to covet Naboth's vineyard. Ahab got into a funk about his lack of his neighbor's vineyard and was sitting around all sullen and moody when Jezebel asked him what was going on with him. Ahab told her sadly that he wanted Naboth's vineyard but he would not sell it to him or give it to him. Jezebel devised a plan to kill Naboth and take his vineyard away from him and when the plan was fulfilled Naboth was dead and the vineyard belonged to Ahab.
I remember hearing this story when I was just a boy. Preachers love to preach on this text because it so perfectly illustrates what happens when people allow their passions to overrun their brain. Ahab wanted what belonged to his neighbor so badly that he and his wife agreed to murder the owner of it so that he could own it. Coveting led to greed and that led to desire that led to crime. Ahab did not get off scot free though. The prophet Elijah soon appeared on the scene to pronounce judgement on the two culprits in crime.
We often watch the programs on television that tell true crime stories such as 20/20 or 48 Hours. Inveribly, when the true killer is revealed, the reason for murder has something to do with money or possessions. There was one recently where a woman murdered her husband and mother-in-law so she could inherit their fortune. The woman had allowed her greed to drive her to the place where she could commit a horrible crime in order to get their possessions.
Sometimes elderly persons are swindled out of their money or possessions by persons who are able to convince them to trust them and put their possessions in their care and suddenly those thing belong to another person, often by techniques that are very legal. Coveting what others have begins a cycle wherein people will break other commandments in order to get what they covet leading to a far worse situation than originally existed.
I guess that is why coveting made the top ten list of commandments. The word itself may be a bit weird, perhaps sounds archaic, but what lies behind the word is deadly.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
9. False Witness
9. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor." (Exodus 20:16) The ninth in a series on the Ten Commandments.
This commandment in its literal form has to do with a legal sense of what it means to be a "false witness" or to lie while on the witness stand. Today we would say someone is guilty of perjury when they lie while under oath in a court proceeding. The commandment has the same sense, prohibiting people from lying when someone had been accused of a crime. In the ancient world, the penalty for many crimes was death, usually by stoning. So, to lie about someone's guilt or innocence was a serious matter. Bearing false witness could be used as a way of getting even with someone or bringing about revenge for a misdeed that was done. This commandment prohibits lying on the witness stand or by someone who has been a witness to the doing of a deed.
There is not a commandment against telling a lie itself in the list of commandments. This commandment is the only one that addresses telling the truth but the truth that is told is done to be responsible so that another will not suffer because of one's telling a lie. Telling a lie in other situations may not have been prohibited. Abraham told a lie in the book of Genesis when he lied and said that Sarah was his sister and not his wife in order to escape from the Egyptians (Genesis 12). He was afraid that the Egyptians would kill him and take his wife if they knew that he was her husband so they told them that she was his sister. The Pharaoh took Sarah as part of his harem and soon plagues began to fall upon him and he sensed something was wrong and confronted Abraham with the truth. Abraham still profited through his lie, though, because he amassed a large amount of wealth from the Egyptians because they thought his wife as actually his sister.
When I took a Christian ethics class years ago, we discussed when it is acceptable to tell a lie. The classic example is---if someone came to your door and asked to be hidden from someone who wanted to kill them, and you hid them, and then the pursuer came to your door and asked if the person was there, telling a lie would preserve their life. So, in this instance, telling a lie saves a life, and telling the truth causes their murder.
We all find reasons to not tell the truth now and then. Sometimes people put us in positions where if we tell the truth, trouble will come of it or we will hurt someone's feelings. A friend or spouse may ask, "Does this dress make me look fat?" Now, who among us would say, "Well, yes, it does make you look fat. It looks like you could stand to lose a few pounds." No, most of us reply, "No, that dress looks fine on you" regardless of what we may really think. Or the co-worker who asks us how old we think she is (this really happened to me) and we think she is in her 60s but say we think she is in her 50s only to find out that she is in her 40s. We wanted to spare the person's feelings but still caught flack because of our answer.
This does not mean that we have carte blanche to lie all the time about everything. No, God wants us to live lives of honesty and truthfulness but there are situations where our answers may cause pain or embarrassment or to tell the literal truth would cause a serious problem for another person. In such cases, God understands our intentions and knows why we do what we do.
Sometimes it is difficult to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (except when we are on the witness stand, of course). When someone confronts us and wants us to answer a question whose literal answer would cause them pain, then creative problem solving saves the day. Loving the person is far more important in many situations than being literal about everything.
I knew a pastor who thought he could sing well and, in fact, his voice was most irritating to listen to when he sang. He would sing solos now and then and congregations would look down at the floor in embarrassment and hope that he would finish quickly. To make things worse, he would fish for compliments afterwards. To tell him out right that his voice sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard would hurt his feelings and made him angry, but to say, "You have an interesting style of singing" preserved his feelings and made him feel good. Now, if we could just have figured out a creative way of preventing a repeat performance of his impromptu concerts.....
This commandment in its literal form has to do with a legal sense of what it means to be a "false witness" or to lie while on the witness stand. Today we would say someone is guilty of perjury when they lie while under oath in a court proceeding. The commandment has the same sense, prohibiting people from lying when someone had been accused of a crime. In the ancient world, the penalty for many crimes was death, usually by stoning. So, to lie about someone's guilt or innocence was a serious matter. Bearing false witness could be used as a way of getting even with someone or bringing about revenge for a misdeed that was done. This commandment prohibits lying on the witness stand or by someone who has been a witness to the doing of a deed.
There is not a commandment against telling a lie itself in the list of commandments. This commandment is the only one that addresses telling the truth but the truth that is told is done to be responsible so that another will not suffer because of one's telling a lie. Telling a lie in other situations may not have been prohibited. Abraham told a lie in the book of Genesis when he lied and said that Sarah was his sister and not his wife in order to escape from the Egyptians (Genesis 12). He was afraid that the Egyptians would kill him and take his wife if they knew that he was her husband so they told them that she was his sister. The Pharaoh took Sarah as part of his harem and soon plagues began to fall upon him and he sensed something was wrong and confronted Abraham with the truth. Abraham still profited through his lie, though, because he amassed a large amount of wealth from the Egyptians because they thought his wife as actually his sister.
When I took a Christian ethics class years ago, we discussed when it is acceptable to tell a lie. The classic example is---if someone came to your door and asked to be hidden from someone who wanted to kill them, and you hid them, and then the pursuer came to your door and asked if the person was there, telling a lie would preserve their life. So, in this instance, telling a lie saves a life, and telling the truth causes their murder.
We all find reasons to not tell the truth now and then. Sometimes people put us in positions where if we tell the truth, trouble will come of it or we will hurt someone's feelings. A friend or spouse may ask, "Does this dress make me look fat?" Now, who among us would say, "Well, yes, it does make you look fat. It looks like you could stand to lose a few pounds." No, most of us reply, "No, that dress looks fine on you" regardless of what we may really think. Or the co-worker who asks us how old we think she is (this really happened to me) and we think she is in her 60s but say we think she is in her 50s only to find out that she is in her 40s. We wanted to spare the person's feelings but still caught flack because of our answer.
This does not mean that we have carte blanche to lie all the time about everything. No, God wants us to live lives of honesty and truthfulness but there are situations where our answers may cause pain or embarrassment or to tell the literal truth would cause a serious problem for another person. In such cases, God understands our intentions and knows why we do what we do.
Sometimes it is difficult to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (except when we are on the witness stand, of course). When someone confronts us and wants us to answer a question whose literal answer would cause them pain, then creative problem solving saves the day. Loving the person is far more important in many situations than being literal about everything.
I knew a pastor who thought he could sing well and, in fact, his voice was most irritating to listen to when he sang. He would sing solos now and then and congregations would look down at the floor in embarrassment and hope that he would finish quickly. To make things worse, he would fish for compliments afterwards. To tell him out right that his voice sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard would hurt his feelings and made him angry, but to say, "You have an interesting style of singing" preserved his feelings and made him feel good. Now, if we could just have figured out a creative way of preventing a repeat performance of his impromptu concerts.....
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
8. You Shall Not Steal.
8. You Shall Not Steal. (8th in a series on the 10 Commandments).
This one is pretty straightforward. It does not need much discussion, it seems. Do not steal. Plain and simple. Do not take anything that does not belong to you. Do not take anything by any means. Does that apply to the copying of music or books that others have written? Is it stealing to photocopy them if you did not buy them? How about making copies of CDs or records? Is that stealing? Is it stealing to copy a movie that someone loans you and you did not buy? Wow, the world of technology has opened up all kinds of avenues that we never considered before.
When I was a new pastor at Edom United Methodist Church in Edom, Texas, we concluded each worship service by singing a nice little song. It was set to the tune of "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music. Each Sunday, we would sing, "May the Lord, mighty God, bless and keep you forever, grant you peace, perfect peace, courage in every endeavor, Lift you eyes and see his face, and his grace forever, May the Lord, mighty God, bless and keep you forever." I would walk down the aisle toward the back door and stand on the porch and shake hands with people as they passed out to go to their cars. I would have Edelweiss playing in my head as they left and it was very peaceful.
When I left that little church and went to the big, tall steeple church 18 miles to the east of there, I mentioned the song to the music director one day and said we should sing it sometimes and he quickly told me that the song is not to be used. He said that the family of Rogers and Hammerstein, who wrote The Sound of Music, had filed a lawsuit forbidding the use of the song unless someone paid a royalty for singing it. I laughed aloud when he told me that and said it was ridiculous. I guess Rogers and Hammerstein, or at least their families, are not laughing. They took it seriously that others, even churches, would use their creation and not pay them for its use so they tried to block it legally.
Now I can sing Edelweiss all I want--in the shower, in my car, while cooking dinner--and the music police will not come to my house and try to stop me, but if I give a concert and charge people money to hear me sing, and include Edelweiss in the repertoire, then I may be crossing a line if I don't pay a royalty to the writers or producers or printers of the music.
Life has become so complicated. While we used to know what it meant not to steal because we knew that anything that was not ours belonged to someone else and we were not to take it for ourselves, today things that can be stolen are not always things you can put your hands on literally. Sometimes they are things we may read on the internet or hear on the radio or see on our television. Enjoying them as we experience them is what they were created for but to profit from them opens a different can of worms that may be seen as breaking this commandment.
I remember that when I was in high school and learned to write research papers, we were taught to give credit to sources we used in our papers by making notations at the bottom of the pages and by using quotation marks to set aside words that belonged to someone else. In so doing, we were acknowledging that those words belonged to someone else and not to us. Today, there is a constant challenge for students who are in high school and college as they write papers for credit because there are many sources that will provide entire papers that someone else has written that are sold for a price. There are people who can be hired to write papers for others so that they do not have to do the work and will get credit for doing it. Plagiarism is another area in which stealing is a sneaky thing that happens even when one may not be doing it intentionally.
So, we thought we knew what this commandment meant when it was written and perhaps we do....do not steal, anything! Today, deciding what stealing is when it is not something that can be easily seen is a matter of interpretation at times. Maybe we need God's Spirit to give us wisdom and we need to prayer, "And lead us not into temptation" even more than usual.
This one is pretty straightforward. It does not need much discussion, it seems. Do not steal. Plain and simple. Do not take anything that does not belong to you. Do not take anything by any means. Does that apply to the copying of music or books that others have written? Is it stealing to photocopy them if you did not buy them? How about making copies of CDs or records? Is that stealing? Is it stealing to copy a movie that someone loans you and you did not buy? Wow, the world of technology has opened up all kinds of avenues that we never considered before.
When I was a new pastor at Edom United Methodist Church in Edom, Texas, we concluded each worship service by singing a nice little song. It was set to the tune of "Edelweiss" from The Sound of Music. Each Sunday, we would sing, "May the Lord, mighty God, bless and keep you forever, grant you peace, perfect peace, courage in every endeavor, Lift you eyes and see his face, and his grace forever, May the Lord, mighty God, bless and keep you forever." I would walk down the aisle toward the back door and stand on the porch and shake hands with people as they passed out to go to their cars. I would have Edelweiss playing in my head as they left and it was very peaceful.
When I left that little church and went to the big, tall steeple church 18 miles to the east of there, I mentioned the song to the music director one day and said we should sing it sometimes and he quickly told me that the song is not to be used. He said that the family of Rogers and Hammerstein, who wrote The Sound of Music, had filed a lawsuit forbidding the use of the song unless someone paid a royalty for singing it. I laughed aloud when he told me that and said it was ridiculous. I guess Rogers and Hammerstein, or at least their families, are not laughing. They took it seriously that others, even churches, would use their creation and not pay them for its use so they tried to block it legally.
Now I can sing Edelweiss all I want--in the shower, in my car, while cooking dinner--and the music police will not come to my house and try to stop me, but if I give a concert and charge people money to hear me sing, and include Edelweiss in the repertoire, then I may be crossing a line if I don't pay a royalty to the writers or producers or printers of the music.
Life has become so complicated. While we used to know what it meant not to steal because we knew that anything that was not ours belonged to someone else and we were not to take it for ourselves, today things that can be stolen are not always things you can put your hands on literally. Sometimes they are things we may read on the internet or hear on the radio or see on our television. Enjoying them as we experience them is what they were created for but to profit from them opens a different can of worms that may be seen as breaking this commandment.
I remember that when I was in high school and learned to write research papers, we were taught to give credit to sources we used in our papers by making notations at the bottom of the pages and by using quotation marks to set aside words that belonged to someone else. In so doing, we were acknowledging that those words belonged to someone else and not to us. Today, there is a constant challenge for students who are in high school and college as they write papers for credit because there are many sources that will provide entire papers that someone else has written that are sold for a price. There are people who can be hired to write papers for others so that they do not have to do the work and will get credit for doing it. Plagiarism is another area in which stealing is a sneaky thing that happens even when one may not be doing it intentionally.
So, we thought we knew what this commandment meant when it was written and perhaps we do....do not steal, anything! Today, deciding what stealing is when it is not something that can be easily seen is a matter of interpretation at times. Maybe we need God's Spirit to give us wisdom and we need to prayer, "And lead us not into temptation" even more than usual.
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
7. Wearing the Scarlet Letter
7. You shall not commit adultery. (The seventh is a series on the Ten Commandments.)
I remember reading the story "The Scarlet Letter" when I was in college. It is a book written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. I believe it was made into a movie also. It is set in puritanical times in New England and involves a woman named Hester Prynne who was accused of adultery by the church leaders and required to wear a scarlet Letter A on her clothing as punishment so that everyone could see her and know that she had sinned. The church leaders try to get her to disclose who the father of her child is but she refused. The story progresses with many turns and twists until finally she reveals that the child's father is the minister of the church, Arthur Dimmesdale. The story has a tragic ending in which both Dimmesdale and Hester's husband, who had been believed to be lost at sea but who had returned and taken a false identity so he could plot revenge upon the person who was the father of Hester's child, died and left her enough money that she could start over in life in Europe. Whew! What a story!
In Puritanical times, sexual misconduct was considered to be the worst sin of all. Wearing a scarlet letter for the sin of adultery was thought to be a fitting and appropriate punishment. After all, it is one of the ten commandments specifically spelled out in Exodus. Adultery was the sin that was whispered about all through the ages up to modern times. What most people do not know about this commandment, however, is that adultery was not an equal opportunity sin when it was banished by this commandment. Only women were considered to commit adultery in the ancient world. Men did not commit adultery unless they sinned with a married woman. Men could have many kinds of relations with unmarried women and it was not considered to be wrong. Women, on the other hand, were considered to be sinners if they had any relation with any man outside of their marriage. So, the scale of justice did not tip evenly on this issue.
When Jesus addressed morality in the Gospels, he was more concerned about divorce than he was about adultery, although he merged the two issues in the text from Mark that talks about it. The Pharisees had asked him if it was okay for a man to divorce his wife (which again was one-sided since women could not divorce men). "But Jesus said to them, 'Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you...Whoever divorces his wife and married another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband (which could not happen) and marries another, she commits adultery." (Mark 10:5, 11-12) Divorce was considered to be wrong because it broke the unity that had been established by a couple when they married.
The 7th commandment is very blunt. Do not do it. It is in a list of other "Do Not Do's" Modern society today overlooks authority figures telling them what to do and this commandment seems to go by the wayside along with our tolerance of divorce, which rarely does anyone complain about or object to. Adultery was defined specifically as a married woman who acted outside her marriage OR a man who acted outside of his marriage with a married woman. The Mosaic law was written to try to bring harmony and unity in a world of chaos and having unity in the family unit as the basic unit of society was important.
So, should the Scarlet Letter be applied to all who stray outside of their marriages? Should judgment and condemnation be the rule for persons who may venture off where they should not? I really think that the law of love that Jesus taught urges compassion for all involved and healing and wholeness, restoration and forgiveness to happen rather than harshness. There are many reasons why people stray off the path of life that they should travel but getting them back on track seems to be the more important role of church and society rather than imposing punishment upon wrongdoers.
" I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13: 34-35)
I remember reading the story "The Scarlet Letter" when I was in college. It is a book written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1850. I believe it was made into a movie also. It is set in puritanical times in New England and involves a woman named Hester Prynne who was accused of adultery by the church leaders and required to wear a scarlet Letter A on her clothing as punishment so that everyone could see her and know that she had sinned. The church leaders try to get her to disclose who the father of her child is but she refused. The story progresses with many turns and twists until finally she reveals that the child's father is the minister of the church, Arthur Dimmesdale. The story has a tragic ending in which both Dimmesdale and Hester's husband, who had been believed to be lost at sea but who had returned and taken a false identity so he could plot revenge upon the person who was the father of Hester's child, died and left her enough money that she could start over in life in Europe. Whew! What a story!
In Puritanical times, sexual misconduct was considered to be the worst sin of all. Wearing a scarlet letter for the sin of adultery was thought to be a fitting and appropriate punishment. After all, it is one of the ten commandments specifically spelled out in Exodus. Adultery was the sin that was whispered about all through the ages up to modern times. What most people do not know about this commandment, however, is that adultery was not an equal opportunity sin when it was banished by this commandment. Only women were considered to commit adultery in the ancient world. Men did not commit adultery unless they sinned with a married woman. Men could have many kinds of relations with unmarried women and it was not considered to be wrong. Women, on the other hand, were considered to be sinners if they had any relation with any man outside of their marriage. So, the scale of justice did not tip evenly on this issue.
When Jesus addressed morality in the Gospels, he was more concerned about divorce than he was about adultery, although he merged the two issues in the text from Mark that talks about it. The Pharisees had asked him if it was okay for a man to divorce his wife (which again was one-sided since women could not divorce men). "But Jesus said to them, 'Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you...Whoever divorces his wife and married another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband (which could not happen) and marries another, she commits adultery." (Mark 10:5, 11-12) Divorce was considered to be wrong because it broke the unity that had been established by a couple when they married.
The 7th commandment is very blunt. Do not do it. It is in a list of other "Do Not Do's" Modern society today overlooks authority figures telling them what to do and this commandment seems to go by the wayside along with our tolerance of divorce, which rarely does anyone complain about or object to. Adultery was defined specifically as a married woman who acted outside her marriage OR a man who acted outside of his marriage with a married woman. The Mosaic law was written to try to bring harmony and unity in a world of chaos and having unity in the family unit as the basic unit of society was important.
So, should the Scarlet Letter be applied to all who stray outside of their marriages? Should judgment and condemnation be the rule for persons who may venture off where they should not? I really think that the law of love that Jesus taught urges compassion for all involved and healing and wholeness, restoration and forgiveness to happen rather than harshness. There are many reasons why people stray off the path of life that they should travel but getting them back on track seems to be the more important role of church and society rather than imposing punishment upon wrongdoers.
" I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13: 34-35)
Monday, April 1, 2013
6. You Shall Not Murder
The sixth in a series on the Ten Commandments:
"You Shall Not Murder" (Exodus 20:13) It sounds so plain, doesn't it? What is not to understand in this commandment? It says not to murder anyone. This is from the NRSV which uses the word "murder" in place of the word "kill" that had been in the KJV. The reason for the change is that the text in the original language did not prohibit killing such as if required in military action. Some who were conscientious objectors used the King James Bible as part of their reasoning for not serving in the military. This new language of the NRSV contains the commandment that prohibits non-military killing of other persons for any reason.
In the ancient world before the commandments were given, tribes of persons would take revenge upon others if a murder had been committed. A horde of warring tribesmen would descend upon a village and kill everyone there in retribution for the death of one of their own. Then, early Judaic law ordered that such a practice be contained to "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." In other words, tribes were forbidden from killing an entire village of people in exchange for the death of one of their own. Instead, one person's death would pay for the death of another. This also made it okay for someone to kill your ox if you accidentally killed their ox. This applied to other property as well that could be seized if you by some chance destroyed the property of another person. Equal vengeance under the law.
So, this commandment takes the law a bit more into the future by forbidding murder at all, even if someone has murdered your relative. No retribution is the rule now. Do not murder anyone. If everyone would follow the law, then there would be no need for justice to be done on behalf of one whose life has ended tragically. Society has never reached the place, however, when murder does not happen. Today, in America, murder is a commonplace event in every state in the union. A day hardly goes by when it is not reported in the news media that persons across the land have been murdered by others. Even law enforcement officers are at risk. It used to be that dangerous persons feared law enforcement officers but suddenly there has been a rash of killings of persons involved in law enforcement.
There was for a while a series of ads posted on billboards that had phrases that were attributed to God with the phrase, "What part of ______ do you not understand?" and signed by God Almighty. This commandment could easily fill in that blank. If the commandment says, "You Shall Not Murder" then why do people continue to murder unless they no longer care what the commandments say. I generally think that is the reason why it continues. Not only do some people no longer respect law enforcement officers but some people do not respect authority of any kind, even biblical authority. Perhaps the great experiment in personal liberty in America has yielded a harvest of violence that we do not know how to stop.
I have never broken this commandment. At last, one that I can easily and confidently say I have kept for my entire life. And I believe that just about everyone reading this can say the same thing. We would never think of murdering another person. It is far from anything we could ever contemplate. Yes, there are times when we become so angry that such an act could happen if we did not have enough self-control but thank God we restrain ourselves and do not go that far. Murder seems to most persons to be at the top of the list of sins that would be the most serious. To deny life to another person ranks up there as bad as you can get. Perhaps that is what makes us more human---when we realize that our humanity depends upon allowing others in the human race to be human in the way they desire and to bear with them and forgive them when they commit acts that make us wish they were somewhere else or nowhere else.
"You Shall Not Murder" (Exodus 20:13) It sounds so plain, doesn't it? What is not to understand in this commandment? It says not to murder anyone. This is from the NRSV which uses the word "murder" in place of the word "kill" that had been in the KJV. The reason for the change is that the text in the original language did not prohibit killing such as if required in military action. Some who were conscientious objectors used the King James Bible as part of their reasoning for not serving in the military. This new language of the NRSV contains the commandment that prohibits non-military killing of other persons for any reason.
In the ancient world before the commandments were given, tribes of persons would take revenge upon others if a murder had been committed. A horde of warring tribesmen would descend upon a village and kill everyone there in retribution for the death of one of their own. Then, early Judaic law ordered that such a practice be contained to "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." In other words, tribes were forbidden from killing an entire village of people in exchange for the death of one of their own. Instead, one person's death would pay for the death of another. This also made it okay for someone to kill your ox if you accidentally killed their ox. This applied to other property as well that could be seized if you by some chance destroyed the property of another person. Equal vengeance under the law.
So, this commandment takes the law a bit more into the future by forbidding murder at all, even if someone has murdered your relative. No retribution is the rule now. Do not murder anyone. If everyone would follow the law, then there would be no need for justice to be done on behalf of one whose life has ended tragically. Society has never reached the place, however, when murder does not happen. Today, in America, murder is a commonplace event in every state in the union. A day hardly goes by when it is not reported in the news media that persons across the land have been murdered by others. Even law enforcement officers are at risk. It used to be that dangerous persons feared law enforcement officers but suddenly there has been a rash of killings of persons involved in law enforcement.
There was for a while a series of ads posted on billboards that had phrases that were attributed to God with the phrase, "What part of ______ do you not understand?" and signed by God Almighty. This commandment could easily fill in that blank. If the commandment says, "You Shall Not Murder" then why do people continue to murder unless they no longer care what the commandments say. I generally think that is the reason why it continues. Not only do some people no longer respect law enforcement officers but some people do not respect authority of any kind, even biblical authority. Perhaps the great experiment in personal liberty in America has yielded a harvest of violence that we do not know how to stop.
I have never broken this commandment. At last, one that I can easily and confidently say I have kept for my entire life. And I believe that just about everyone reading this can say the same thing. We would never think of murdering another person. It is far from anything we could ever contemplate. Yes, there are times when we become so angry that such an act could happen if we did not have enough self-control but thank God we restrain ourselves and do not go that far. Murder seems to most persons to be at the top of the list of sins that would be the most serious. To deny life to another person ranks up there as bad as you can get. Perhaps that is what makes us more human---when we realize that our humanity depends upon allowing others in the human race to be human in the way they desire and to bear with them and forgive them when they commit acts that make us wish they were somewhere else or nowhere else.
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