New Year, New Me?

New Year, New Me?

Nah. I’m not one to have the resolutions. Why set myself up for disappointment at the beginning of a new year?

The past few years I have had a word of the year, thanks to the encouragement of a good friend. Last year my word was JOY. A pretty easy one in many respects since our first grandchild was born at the end of the previous year. He is joyful and it is contagious. This year I’ve graduated to 3 words: Faith, Fearless, and Fun. I feel like I could not have one without the other.

Faith has always been a part of who I am, but the past several years, seeing how off the rails ‘Christianity’ has gone, it has become a priority of mine to hone what my faith really means. There is no room for white supremacy, Christian nationalism, or a state religion.

We just watched a documentary on the insurrection of January 6th that happened 2 years ago. It. Was. Horrific. I mean, we knew it was horrific, but not really. The story was told in the first person voice of those who were there immersed in the experience. They were democrats, republicans, journalists, police officers, staffers from both parties, and Capitol employees. The emotion in their voices was palpable. It was gut wrenching to hear their first hand experience of those hours on January 6. People were fearing for their lives, calling loved ones just in case they didn’t survive. Police officers were on the verge of giving up because no back up was in sight. They were tired, beaten up, and emotionally drained. The experience was such that 4 officers died by suicide in the days and weeks after. Serious PTSD. The photos of our trashed Capitol building sickened me. Many of those insurrectionists called themselves Christian. And many Christians and politicians have downplayed what happened that day. Such lack of respect for those who risked their lives is unfathomable. All of it was the culmination of 4 miserable years of the trump presidency. A man who was supported by 81% of evangelicals. A man of no integrity who lied compulsively. If he spoke, he was lying. He is still lying.

A t-shirt I recently saw has stated my objective rather succinctly: I’m a love your neighbor Christian, not a storm the Capitol kind.

Fearless doesn’t mean without fear. Fear is necessary emotion. It protects us from harm. Fear of something that may or not happen can lead to anxiety and worry, and really, that is not healthy for body or mind. My kids have often been my best teachers in life. The past year my daughter has been going through a lot, and has shared many actions that have helped her immensely, such as intentional breath work, daily meditation, physical activity, reading and learning from others. I’m learning from her. I am a work in progress.

And of course, fun! I think over all we are a pretty fun family, Sam and I a pretty fun couple, but sometimes it doesn’t get the priority it deserves. Intentionality for fun will be prominent in this new year. If not now, when?!

Our idea of storming the Capitol: a leisurely stroll around it on a brisk winter day.

Unraptured

This is one reason why i have such hope for the younger generation. When a young minister like #ZackHunt can humble himself as he realises his life has become like a clanging cymbal. When faced with the reality that he and the fundamental Christianity he has espoused is part and parcel to young people leaving the ‘church’ – he does the research and writes a book to help lead the ‘church’ back to where it should have never left. Back to the life of Christ and how he taught us to love. This book is breathtaking. #Unraptured has enraptured my soul.

“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1-2). This would be a poignant passage in any context, but it becomes even more poignant in the context of end-times theology, with its army of experts dissecting and bloviating about every Bible verse and news headline as if they’ve got everything figured out and anyone who doesn’t accept their teaching is either a fool or an enemy. I’m not just talking about Jack Van Impe or Tim LaHaye here. I’m talking about me. For all the damage that dispensationalist television and book experts do to the theology of the church, it’s their disciples—arrogant, condescending, combative, sanctified, hateful people like me—who do far more damage to the witness of the church. Jack Van Impe and Tim LaHaye spread their theology across the airwaves and the pages of books to the masses. Then people like me put it into action, attacking people face-to-face, shaming them for their ignorance, and condemning them for whatever sin we think they are guilty of. I had no love in my life, only wrath. For all my faux expertise and righteous conviction that I was on a mission from God, I was nothing more than a resounding gong, a clanging cymbal, an obnoxious guarantee that anyone who saw how I treated others would not want anything to do with Jesus.”

Another quote to end on a love note:

“If God is love and we are made in the image of God, then we are made to love. It’s why Jesus said the greatest commandment is love. It’s the defining mark of our identity not just as Christians but as human beings.”

A new year – 2019

A new year always presents so many new possibilities. It almost always starts out so hopeful…., but doesn’t always remain there. Anyway, here we go!

I like to start out looking back momentarily. It’s helpful to be reminded of the good…, and the bad. For me, it helps to reinforce gratitude. It just does. As I said in our #Christmascard addendum: Full disclosure, we’ve had a most wonderful year, but it has not been a year without challenges. We lost 2 dear friends to brutal cancer this year, they were much too young. There were many things that have tested our resolve, our peace, our sense of humour, but perspective always seemed to raise up wisdom in knowing so many have lived through and persevered forward through even greater challenges. Our prayer is to keep kindness and love front and center, to help usher in a viral movement, for the world to see there is a better way. God is love and love does win. We can be a team player toward that end.

We don’t know what the future holds. My dear friend celebrated Christmas a year ago with her entire family. This year they celebrated without her husband and the father of her children. So often you cannot anticipate life events like that. My parents have also had too many ‘extra’ health issues this year. It has not always been easy for them, to say the least. But they keep on ticking, and for that, we are so grateful. So I’m committing this year to find joy in the nooks and crannies of life, and living more in-the-moment. I’m also adopting my mother in law’s catchphrase in the last months of her life, ‘it’s all good.’ And while we’re at it let me throw in ‘don’t sweat the small stuff.’ I’m sure Richard Carlson was super happy he adopted that catchphrase in life especially since he was gone too soon.

So the Christmas holiday was a dream, and it ran into the New Year. The best way to begin. We were blessed to have the entire family together! It was not lost on us that for us to have everyone meant two families were sacrificing for that to happen. For that our hearts are filled with gratitude.

Christmas 2018 was the first time we were able to share a traditional family Christmas with our new family members, as two years ago we celebrated with them on Sam’s super 60 birthday cruise. We love our traditions and it was a thrill to share them. Some of our plans were in limbo due to illness, and others were very fluid, due to illness, but we had an amazing time together. What a blessing to serve and be served. And I’ll add, all those who were sick at any point were absolute troupers!

Two days before Christmas we celebrated with a few family and friends. We had a nontraditional Christmas eve dinner because we have an in-house pastry chef. Christmas morning was fun and cozy, and of course, we had homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast! Our Christmas movie this year was On the Basis of Sex! One of the best choices of the past years IMHO. Go see it! We saw several other movies. BTW, Bird Box is not that scary. We played games. We drank coffee at home and in two of our favourite coffee shops where we played a game at one. We had lunch with the Coleman kids. We shot billiards. We went to #Zoolights. We bowled. We toured Monticello and Charlottesville. We visited National Harbor and saw an acrobatic show followed by a walk along the river in a deep fog. I may be in a deep fog about some details of our week, but we were together! To me, that’s the best gift of all. I know I probably say this too often, but I am so proud of all 5 of our kids. They are each amazing humans full of so much love and beauty. My partner and love of 38 years and counting make all of our lives more exciting and adventurous, we are blessed. For all of that and more, I am filled with gratitude as we begin this new year.

A Note for Conservative American Christians Before an Election

Great pre-midterm article.

Ed Cyzewski: Author // Contemplative

I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior at the age of 11 while attending a Baptist church in rural New Jersey. A few years later, I began attending Fellowship Baptist Church (now Fellowship Community Church) outside of Philadelphia.

This is where I read through Voter Guides that detailed the pro-life positions of candidates, preached my first sermon, lead worship on Sunday morning, and decided to pursue ministry. I worked with one of the up and coming young pastors at our church each summer, and we spent most of our days tuned in to a Christian radio station that mashed together a politically conservative Christian perspective on news with straight up conservative radio shows.

I knew all about the latest court cases involving Jay Sekulow’s Christian group, The Center for Law and Justice, which often engaged in lawsuits over what kinds of religious t-shirts kids could wear to school. We…

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Advocating for the vulnerable

I about wore myself out last Friday walking 🚶🏼‍♀️ over 15,000 steps through the halls of Congress advocating for the immigrant and the refugee with The Justice Institute and World Relief. We had some very hopeful meetings. We won’t talk about the ones that weren’t. I am very grateful for all the hardworking public servants who work for us with heart. It is obvious when they do. Special thanks go to Senator Warner for providing sustenance from #Sabra. Apparently, they produce their hummus in Virginia and I’m a #hummusaddict.

As Christians, we approached our dialogue from the literal thought of #WWJD, or what would any compassionate country do? We advocated for family reunification, for opposition to amending the Flores agreement that would allow children to be detained indefinitely. We advocated to bring back Family Case Management which only costs on average $36/day versus private detention at $700/day. We stated the obvious, that kids 🧒 do not belong in jail and neither do adults seeking asylum. We also pushed for a standalone #DACA bill. These kids are more American than not, as they have been living here almost all their lives. For many, English is their first language. We emphatically stated and reminded them that refugees are the most strenuously vetted immigrants and asked them to support raising the ceiling to 75,000 refugees next year. To whom much is given much is expected. We cannot morally afford to be selfish.  We can be both pro-security AND pro-compassion, they are not mutually exclusive… and refugees benefit our economy. The decline in refugees is leaving those persecuted for their faith vulnerable. Advocacy is based on the justice of God to change an unjust situation. So let’s #justdoit.

God didn’t choose Trump, but 81% of evangelicals did.

Love #RichardRohr 2

Every day I receive his meditations.  Each one is thought-provoking. This series on the history of Christianity is worth preserving here on my blog as his thinking has highly influenced mine, and it’s fascinating to hear it from another vantage point.

Early Christianity

A Changing Religion
Monday, September 3, 2018

Much of what Jesus taught seems to have been followed closely during the first several hundred years after his death and resurrection. As long as Jesus’ followers were on the bottom and the edge of empire, as long as they shared the rejected and betrayed status of Jesus, they could grasp his teaching more readily. Values like nonparticipation in war, simple living, inclusivity, and love of enemies could be more easily understood when Christians were gathering secretly in the catacombs, when their faith was untouched by empire, rationalization, and compromise.

Several writings illustrate this early commitment to Jesus’ teachings on simplicity and generosity. For example, the Didache, compiled around 90 CE, says: “Share all things with your brother, and do not say that they are your own. For if you are sharers in what is imperishable, how much more in things which perish!” [1]

The last great formal persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ended in 311 CE. In 313, Constantine (c. 272-337) legalized Christianity. It became the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380. After this structural change, Christianity increasingly accepted, and even defended, the dominant social order, especially concerning money and war. Morality became individualized and largely focused on sexuality. The church slowly lost its free and alternative vantage point. Texts written in the hundred years preceding 313 show it was unthinkable that a Christian would fight in the army, as the army was killing Christians. By the year 400, the entire army had become Christian, and they were now killing the “pagans.”

Before 313, the church was on the bottom of society, which is the privileged vantage point for understanding the liberating power of Gospel for both the individual and for society. Within the space of a few decades, the church moved from the bottom to the top, literally from the catacombs to the basilicas. The Roman basilicas were large buildings for court and other public assembly, and they became Christian worship spaces.

When the Christian church became the established religion of the empire, it started reading the Gospel from the position of maintaining power and social order instead of experiencing the profound power of powerlessness that Jesus revealed. In a sense, Christianity almost became a different religion!

The failing Roman Empire needed an emperor, and Jesus was used to fill the power gap. In effect, we Christians took Jesus out of the Trinity and made him into God on a throne. An imperial system needs law and order and clear belonging systems more than it wants mercy, meekness, or transformation. Much of Jesus’ teaching about simple living, nonviolence, inclusivity, and love of enemies became incomprehensible. Relationship—the shape of God as Trinity—was no longer as important. Christianity’s view of God changed: the Father became angry and distant, Jesus was reduced to an organizing principle, and for all practical and dynamic purposes, the Holy Spirit was forgotten.

Love #RichardRohr

Richard Rohr is someone I have followed for some time. He is one of those who has helped me hang on to my faith. Or more accurately, has helped me understand what is true and lovely. I am grateful.

Early Christianity

The Beginnings of the Way

Sunday, September 2, 2018

If we look closely at the evolution of religion over time, we see that there has been gradual growth toward the goal of union with God. Religions continue to change, “transcending and including,” as Ken Wilber says, learning from old ways and opening to new. Christianity is no different from other religions in this regard. Over the next few weeks, I will focus on people and communities within Christianity who were somehow transformed and “got it” at a mature level for their time in history.

Christianity first emerged not as a new religion, but as a reform and sect of Judaism within Judea and the Mediterranean. Wherever Paul, Peter, and other early missionaries traveled, they formed small communities of believers in “The Way,” a movement that emphasized Jesus’ teachings, death, and resurrection as the path to transformation. Gradually the movement grew and took on a life of its own, welcoming non-Jews as well as Jews, becoming more inclusive and grace-oriented, until it eventually called itself “catholic” or universal. By 80 CE, there were Christians as far away as India and France.

The “Early Church” period (the five hundred or so years following Jesus’ resurrection) was a time of dramatic change in culture, politics, and economy. All these changes affected the development of the fledgling religion, shaping liturgy, rituals, and theology. Historian Diana Butler Bass writes, “for all the complexity of primitive Christianity, a startling idea runs through early records of faith: Christianity seems to have succeeded because it transformed the lives of people in a chaotic world.” [1] During this time, Christianity was not so much about doctrines or eternal salvation, but about how to live a better life here and now, within the “Reign of God.”

From the perspective of occupying Roman powers, the Christian sect was radical because it encouraged alternative behaviors that were both attractive to those at the bottom and threatening to the worldview of empire. Rather than acquiring wealth, this new sect shared possessions equally. Followers of The Way lived together with people of different ethnicities and social classes rather than following classist and cultural norms.

Early Christianity is largely unknown and of little interest to most Western Christians. The very things the early Christians emphasized—such as the prayer of quiet, the Trinity, divinization, universal restoration, and the importance of practice—have been neglected, to our own detriment. With the schism between what are now the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches in 1054 CE, Christians, in effect, excommunicated one another. Every time the church divided, it also divided up Christ, and both sides of the divide were weaker as a result.

Through these meditations, I will try to reclaim some of the forgotten pieces of the Christian tradition for our wholeness and blessing, hopefully bringing us closer to what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God. Not knowing this early heritage will allow us to cling to superficial Christian distinctions that emerged much later, and largely as historical accidents. ~Richard Rohr

How did we get here #ColinKaepernick

 @MotherhoodnMore

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People are cutting the #Nike swoosh off their clothing, burning their Nike gear, pledging to boycott the company, and otherwise throwing a hissy fit because this company gave a man they despise a job. Let’s go over how we got here:

1:06 PM – 4 Sep 2018

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   Kaepernick sat on the bench during the national anthem on August 26, 2016, because he saw the racial disparities in our legal and justice systems and felt that our country—the one our flag and anthem represent—was not living up to its ideals of “liberty and justice for all.”

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   That simple action created an uproar among people who took it as disrespect for the flag and for the veterans who sacrificed for our freedoms. Controversy ensued.

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   Another football player and veteran—former Seahawk and Green Beret, Nate Boyer—saw this go down. He wrote to Kaepernick, sharing support for the basis of his protest but explaining why sitting during the anthem created such a visceral response in some people, including himself.

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   Kaepernick invited Boyer to meet with him. They spoke for 90 minutes, sharing their different perspectives. Kap said he wanted to make his statement without being disrespectful to the military.

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    Boyer suggested that instead of sitting, Kap could kneel during the anthem. Soldiers take a knee when one is wounded. They take a knee at a fellow soldier’s gravesite. They take a knee to pray. Taking a knee is a sign of respect and reverence.

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    Again, Kaepernick wanted to stage his peaceful demonstration while still showing respect for the military, so he talked to a veteran about how to do that. And that veteran suggested he take a knee instead of sitting **because taking a knee is a sign of respect and reverence.**

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    I don’t know how people keep missing this and complaining that Kap and others who have knelt during the anthem are disrespecting the military.

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    We kneel to pray. We kneel to propose marriage. We kneel before royalty. Taking a knee in those instances is a sign of respect and reverence. Soldiers kneel in solidarity with the wounded. Football players themselves kneel when a player is injured and carried off the field.

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    Taking a knee says, “I see you and acknowledge your suffering.” It is always a sign of respect and reverence. Always. Can you think of a situation in which consciously getting down on one knee is not a sign of respect? I can’t.

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    It’s not like Kap flipped a middle finger to the flag or dropped his pants and mooned it. It’s not like he even turned his back on it. He simply didn’t stand, and when he realized that was being misinterpreted, he knelt — at the suggestion of a veteran.

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    Taking a knee during the anthem is NOT a statement AGAINST what the flag stands for. It says America is wounded by racism and injured by injustice. It says to those in our nation who are still not experiencing true liberty and justice, “I see you and acknowledge your suffering.”

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    And it says all of that while ALSO saying, “I respect the sacrifices made by those who fight to protect our freedoms”— because, once again, taking a knee is a sign of respect.

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    The flag and anthem belong to all of us. They are symbols of our ideals of “liberty and justice for all.” If some of our citizens are still not experiencing true liberty and real justice, then our flag and our anthem are not representing the nation as we think they are.

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    And that is why these protests are happening. We need to acknowledge that there’s more than one way to fight for your country, and stop questioning the patriotism of a man who has sacrificed his career and reputation trying to make America a more just place for all. #JustDoIt

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    P.S. @NateBoyer37 and @Kaepernick7 can teach us just about everything we need to know about civil discourse and respecting one another’s unique perspectives. It’s seriously one of my favorite stories of all time. Thank you, gentlemen.

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If God chose Trump

Hey, if one now believes God chose Trump in 2016, then they need to accept that God chose Obama in 2008, and provided Obama with a Congress that voted in the Affordable Care Act and other legislation that helped the marginalized, the poor, and the immigrant. Those same people who say God chose Trump, want us to believe that God has reversed course and would have laws dismantled that were designed to help the people Jesus Christ called on us to feed, heal, care for, and love. I don’t know about you, but I can’t believe that God would flip-flop on this. It’s time to accept that our free will plays the deciding hand in the fate of this Nation. For better or worse, it’s on our shoulders.

God didn’t choose Trump, but 81% of evangelicals did.

When the baby of the family turns 25

You would think that when your baby turns 25, you would finally be able to admit that you have gotten a wee bit older! I do admit it, I do! I mean, after all, Samuel Nehemiah Smith, III is one-quarter of one century old as of 9:09 am EST this August 19, 2018, and he’s the baby.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU BUBBA! We love you so very much! ‘They’ say at 25 a brain is fully developed, so there’s that. You may now rent a car all by yourself! Other things you may do at 25, graduate from Law School & begin your first ‘real’ job! Things you have been doing for 25 years…. you have been a wonderful friend to many, a caring brother, a loving son, a compassionate human being. You have had some spectacular accomplishments in life. You are a wonderful husband to your beautiful wife, Sarah. You have a sweet sensitive soul. You are also a lover of history, Doctor Who, soccer, board games, hikes in the mountains, and those Jesus referred to as ‘the least of these.’ You live out your love for the world. We live out our love for you. So…..

We wish for you the happiest of birthdays! Celebrate 25 well! Love, Mom & Dad

 

Celebrating 24 with you just last year!