July Fourth 2018

I began to reflect on the Fourth of July yesterday, but family celebrations came first, and now it is July Fifth…now Tenth!  I was, and still am remembering, that in 1776 the Declaration of Independence was signed. In 1876, A Declaration of Sentiments by feminists was drafted and signed, the original document being for propertied white men (we forget!). And then in 1976, The women’s Coalition for the Third Century presented the nation with the Declaration of Interdependence accompanied by the Declaration of Imperatives a outlining the rights women must finally have.

In 1976, women decided to speak on behalf of humanity and declare our need for Interdependence is we are to survive and thrive as individuals and a nation.

I was privileged to be the President of the Women’s Coalition in 1976. Our organization was made up of leaders from many Women’s Organizations across our nation, religious and secular, along with individuals who joined. It was signed by women in the House of Representatives. And, in spite of that fact, try as we did, we got no press. Maybe we should have staged a riot to get attention. And you won’t find anything about our document on the Web. It is included in my book, “Button Reflections”.

As we celebrate in 2018, we have a President in office who represents the most exaggerated definition of Patriarchy possible. He and his administration prove the point that women can be adherents of patriarchy as well as men.  And, if we are ever going to “make America great again,” as Mr. Trump calls us to do, we must return to our movements toward justice and peace, and care enough about our nation to implement the dream of a truly democratic nation where all are respected, welcomed, and treated fairly.  A nation where the power of compassion prevails, violence is not worshipped, peace is sought, the environment is protected, and a nation where economic institutions serve the people and not the interests of the wealthy elite.

Being a firm believer myself in the first commandment of the Hebrew Bible, “You shall have no other God’s before me,” I cannot give my ultimate loyalty to any nation. And I see the terrible danger in merging faith and patriotism, here or anywhere. That having been said, I am a proud citizen of the United States and I am committed to our taking our place as world leaders, with democracy to share and along with our pride that our citizenship is more diverse than any other world-wide. I am patriotic especially when I take a figurative knee.

It is time to dust off our “Declaration of Interdependence” where it is stored in the Smithsonian with historic documents at the Schlesinger Library at Radcliff in Cambridge, MA.

One of the sentences in our “Declaration of Interdependence” stands out as I write this:

“We will no longer endure the corruption of power which risks the world’s future by ignoring the rights and well being of persons and communities.”

So be it.

Mama Bird

Mama bird and I have a thing going. She has a nest of baby birds in the rafters of our garage. She hangs out in a near-by tree and watches over them. I come out to see how they are doing every morning, often with my camera. Mama bird chirps at me and tells me to leave them alone!  Some days she comes down on the ground and skirts around quite near me, chattering away. I talk to her and she answers. we are having a conversation! If I move too quickly, she flies away.

Mama bird and I have a lot in common. I am a Mama too. And even though my sons are grown now, I feel myself watching over them and wanting to keep all danger at bay. Mama bird and I are both “worriers.” It is a natural kind of worrying that comes with having offspring and caring about them. I love that Robin who is such a vigilant Mama. Now, I assume the bird that chirps at me is the Mama. For all I know, it could be the Papa. Papa robins care for and feed their young too.

I worry with Mama/Papa bird about the fledglings. There are cats around that could pick them off. They could fall from the nest. I want to protect them along with her. I notice today that one of them is standing up tall. Before they were heads peeking out of the nest with open mouths. Obviously, they have been fed and cared for well. I hope that they will be strong enough to fly away and come back to visit next year with babes of their own.

I have decided that Robins are my birds. My mother’s birds were Cardinals. My friend Wilma’s bird was bright yellow and sang a melodious and bright song from my sister’s tree when Wilma died. It was an “all is well” song.

Even before the baby birds in our rafters, I paid attention to robins. They would come at the end of winter, signaling spring. I could identify them with their red breasts. And I would remember a childhood song I used to sing and play on the piano. “Sing robin from your woodland tree, Sing robin sing a song for me. I love your merry melody. Sing, robin, sing your song.”

Yesterday I made a last check to be sure the nest was empty. It was. And then Mama/Papa bird came and stood right in front of me. This time, not as a warning to be careful but to say, “They are fine. All is well.”

The moon deserves a poem

Yet, I can’t find words

For its hold on me.

I see it rise in the darkening night

Appearing as a crescent sliver

Changing to a full shining sphere

Whose brightness lights up the sky

And my dreams.

Whose waxing and waning

Marks time and controls the tides

And fuels my imagination.

I saw a man walk on the moon once

But my spacewalk is of another kind.

When the moon is round

And mysterious patches of land

Map its glowing surface

I am transported on a magic carpet

To craters in my soul

Or spirited away to friendly shores

Where demons are drenched in diamond dust

And I find rest

In the grace of its gentle light.

At night, after each new day,

The moon is my quiet place.

When the evening descends

It shines brighter than all the stars

Its lush beams bringing peace

Casting a mood for loving

Over all the earth

Signaling a time

For that other world

That opens up with sleep

To have its sway.

When I seek light to fill my being,

It is not the sun’s rays I invite in

But the moon’s beams

Purifying, healing, holy,

So far away and yet, so close.

Divine grace.

I don’t usually share posts in poetic form, but that may change. Here is one of my latest reflections.

God is Many.

Sitting in the silence of the sanctuary,

I try to feel God’s presence

I focus on the cross

That is trying to center my attention.

All I feel is emptiness

And then it happens,

The room is filled with energy

Light of an invisible kind

A holy presence

And there are many Spirits

Filling the room and my heart.

God is Many.

Of course.

God is nothing we know

And everything we know

All colors and no colors

All nationalities and none

Gendered and ungendered

Human and Divine

Christ is,

God is,

And Spirits are

The Trinity and more.

God is everywhere and here

God is trillions of stars

And one lit Christ candle

God is in the air

And in every breath we take

God is Love

And every love that fills the room.

God is Many

God is More

Always More

And yet

Always near, by our side.

God is filling the room

The One dancing in my heart!

The Day after Easter April 2, 2018

April fool a day late,

It is snowing!

The weather is out of control.

Yesterday, Easter day, was beautiful

A very precious time with Jim and family

Our special time in church together

Randy with us all sitting in a row.

Our dear connections with other family,

Love in the air.

The dinner dishes are finally done

Sunday already a memory as flakes fall

And begin to cover the ground.

We roll with the weather,

Cold again outside,

Hearts still warm inside.

The dog has returned to hibernation

But new life is out of the bag

Even if nature is playing tricks.

It is not a setback

Just a laugh out loud.

Winter will not prevail.

Spring is coming one way or another

Might as well put on my boots

And enjoy this last hurrah

Of a short freeze that will not last.

I have experienced Easter

And it is real!

The birds know it too

They are singing in the snow

And so am I.

It is good Friday again and this year I am having trouble with commemorating Jesus’ death on a cross over two thousand years ago. My mind jumps from thought to thought. Of course a God of love did not sacrifice his son for the world. And the cross, what a strange symbol in our modern world. We have other ways of carrying out the death penalty today, non of them in public view anymore (unless they get into some sick posts on the internet.) And I am not interested in the gory details of torture.

And what about sacrifice? In Jesus day, sacrifice was still a part of religious life and ritual. Sacrifice to appease God, to offer thanks, to show devotion, to atone for sins. For Christians, that ritual is gone. We no longer practice religious sacrifice of animals or ourselves anymore.

I am old now, having been blessed to live out my days. Jesus died in the prime of his ministry. His was not a natural death but a political death. He was caught up in the greed for power of both the high priests and the roman officials. Jesus got caught up in their web. Actually, he walked into it by defying their authority with his teachings and integrity. He became the “sacrificial lamb.”  It wasn’t just the leaders though who did him in. There were those among his own people who wanted a leader more militant and defiant of Rome. Less, well, pious. Still, he may have saved hundreds from death by not leading a full scale rebellion against the Romans. My thoughts ramble on.

He who was called “King of the Jews,” did not live up to the going image of a king, an image that lives on into our time. Nor was he what people wanted in God either. He knew, however, the way to peace and human freedom. He knew love and courage.

When I was younger, I would attend Good Friday services and weep at the suffering of the Jesus who died for me. I miss that young innocent woman I was. My simple faith, my genuine emotional response. I didn’t know then how many other innocent people had died and would die, many living lives of suffering.

I can see more clearly the ways in which Jesus’ suffering and death sends a signal to all those innocents who suffer. Jesus is one of them. He is even there for those who suffer for their sins. Jesus was one of us and calls us to be present to one another. To end suffering. He certainly does not bless it!

Still, Jesus death is central to our Christian faith. But it is a gateway. While I was writing this post, a dear friend from Kenya called to wish us a happy Easter. “May the joy and peace of the risen Christ be with you.”

We can’t forget Jesus’ death or any human suffering. But we remember, to move on, to do everything we can to end what suffering we can. And that leads us to move beyond thoughts about death to the celebration of life and the joy and peace of the risen Christ.

There is no glory in the Cross or crosses of life. There is resilience in overcoming them. And there is resurrection and hope.

Did Jesus have to die for our sins for us to be forgiven? Surely God was a God of forgiveness before Jesus was born. In the cross we somehow see God’s love for us, ultimately giving life and tearing asunder the veil that separates us from the Holy of Holies.

The message is not that love requires or thrives on sacrifice. The message is that love desires an end to sacrifice. It is an oxymoron that in Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, sacrifice is meant to end. I am not saved by Jesus’ death, I am saved by God’s love, calling to me as a Christian to see in Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. And to participate in the freedom of resurrection and triumph over death. God rolls away stones from graves, God lifts us up from the despair of death, God heals, God affirms life.

And we are called to live our lives as fully as we can. We are called to grieve the cross. To carry it when we must, to stand with those who bear crosses, and trust in the call to abundant life. Most of all, we are called upon to see how precious life is, our own and others. And, as much as we love life, not to fear death. Jesus has shown that death can be, is overcome by the One whose power is in Love.

Can we believe, not in the cross, but in the power of life and God’s grace?

Young me was right to feel the pain of the cross, but it was so far away, so much in another time. Old me knows that everyone has some suffering in life and some suffering is caused by evil. Young me did not know that when Jesus said on the cross as he died, “It is finished,” it was just a new beginning, for Jesus and his followers. Old me does.

Just as I was writing this I came across a Passover prayer which I share.

“O God, blessed source of freedom,

let the time come speedily,

when all the oppressed shall find deliverance.

Let the yoke of bondage be dissolved,

and all people serve you in freedom,

May the Passover feast bring us new understanding of the holiness of freedom,

Then we will rejoice before You, with festive gladness, O God.”

Maybe freedom is just another word for resurrection, in this world and the next. We move on from Good Friday to Easter.

Watching young people march to end gun violence in our schools and on our streets brings tears to my eyes. In addition to celebrating their cause, their determination and actions, “not just a moment but a movement,” I am overwhelmed by what I see. All of the movements for civil and human rights wrapped up into one. A culmination. The message that everyone has a right to live, to live in safety! Black and white, male and female linking arms. And though sexual preference and identity is not as visible, I am sure all are linked in solidarity around these rights too.

A new generation. New voices. Passionate, clear, and courageous! Coming at a time when the adult world is divided to the point of governmental paralysis. At a time when militarism and the violence that accompanies it is promoted. While our young people march for life our government prepares for a military parade to strut our weapons of destruction. Young people take to the streets at a time when a president tweets like an unreel stereotypical teenager, and teenagers speak with maturity and the wisdom of ages, calling us back to sanity and caring for one another.

I think of Jesus saying, “A little child shall lead them.” Well these are not little children marching, but they are young and they are leading! Thanks be to them and the power of love.

Words cannot do justice to what is happening. May the Spirit who gives life continue to be at work in these our beloved children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, our nieces and nephews, our students, all God’s own.
As they speak and act, may the world hear! And as their education continues, may it prepare them, not to fight in wars, but to make peace and embrace justice with mercy and integrity, healing but not forgetting all that they have witnessed in their young lives.

May those who have been silenced by death shine brightly and speak eloquently through all who live on. And my faith tells me that even those who have moved on forever, live on.

Have we as a nation lost our civility? Has lying in high places become the norm? Or name calling? Or a penchant for violence? For those of us who are Christians, we ought to have something to say about these behaviors.

Christianity is a many faceted religion with many different organizational expressions. And in 2018, Christianity is a very polarized religion in step with a polarized America: right wing and progressive Christians are deeply divided. Admittedly there are many gradations between the right and the left. Do we share any basic moral values?

With the Trump Presidency, it is hard to tell if truth or facts matters, if nationalism has any moral boundaries, or if violence, American violence naturally, is ever wrong, if being first is always right, if self aggrandizement is a positive value. Trump claims to be Christian. It behooves those of us who also call ourselves Christian to get back to some fundamental moral principles.

I think the challenge of Christianity in our time is to, at least try to set out the basic ethical perspectives of our faith. Not a simple task. But, at the risk of being thought naive, here comes my search for common ground.

A caveat first. I know that the practice of ethics is not always black and white. I grew up on situational ethics. Nonetheless, I think there are some basic principles on which we ought to be able to agree and then take it from there on the hard stuff. Some rights and wrongs seem self evident.

First, I would begin with the Ten Commandments, originally meant to apply to free men, expanded by Jesus to apply to all people, to women, slaves, and even enemies. The Commandments need interpretation, but in their initial form, they seem basic and make sense if we are to live together as social beings. Common sense.

I acknowledge that the first three Commandments refer to our relationship to God and would not be as universal as those that follow, but we are, after all talking about common ground for religious communities. The first commandment seems especially relevant for our times, “You shall have no other God’s before me.” This obviously includes all kinds of idolatry since our “graven” images are not what they were thousands of years ago. This Commandment is a great protection from giving anything other than God, however, we name God, our ultimate loyalty. For example, ultra-nationalism is dangerous and idolatrous.

Next,I would take seriously Jesus’ summation of the law: Love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor as yourself. A summation of the law which puts love into action. This requires of us that we pay attention to how we define love and how we practice it.

Finally, I would turn to Paul: In Christ there is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is no longer slave nor free, there is no longer male and female for all are one in Christ Jesus. While in Paul’s day, this impartiality applied to Christ communities, by our day it can be seen as applying to society as a whole. God cares for all of creation impartially.

There are, of course, many ethical subjects addressed in Scripture which were time and culture sensitive even from the author’s perspectives, from which we can often derive insights for our time and place. And there are issues which are not addressed in Scripture. For insights on these matters, we need to return for guidance to the basic ethics meant to be written in our hearts and applied universally over time. In these matters we engage in the discernment seeking to be led by the Spirit.

Because we are human, we often have trouble sorting out cultural moral positions from religious ethics. Often our cultural views are so embedded in our minds and feelings that we see them as either divinely inspired or natural. Even Scripture was set in a given historical time and place. Basic ethical laws are meant to be universal and timeless, even though they need to be fulfilled in new ways in each age. Jesus said that he didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.

Basic ethics assume that human beings have power to create livable societies and a responsibility to do so.The point of basic ethical behavior is not salvation but a survivable society. We are being called to a civil society to choosing life over death for ourselves and future generations. Moral law is given as a gift. Moral behavior cannot be trumped by a need to win at all costs. Means matter. All of us on this small planet are interdependent and connected and need to be respected.

Of course, there is a huge gap between moral theory and practice. There are inequities at birth and all are subject to sinning and being sinned against with all the consequences thereof. Human beings are fallible and beng moral takes effort. Which leads us to the subject of mercy and forgiveness which is for another time.

I am reflecting briefly on a complicated subject. I claim that there are basic moral tenets in Christianity that define us and need to be discerned and applied. They help provide a framework for the new creation to which we are called. They are a moral foundation on which to build even in the complex setting of our modern world. We ignore them at our peril.

The challenge of today’s church is to reclaim the basic ethics that sustain life.

So I was listening to a wonderful sermon for children about how Jesus is their friend, and how they can pray to Jesus, saying whatever is on their minds about how they feel or what they care about, when it dawned on me, they are being asked to  befriend someone who died 2,000 years ago, and be befriended by him.  They are being asked to imagine him as real in their lives now, this invisible person who lived so long ago. Why didn’t I see this before, what a stretch that is for my rational adult mind.

Or, maybe I did see it at some level. Maybe that’s why I have always prayed to God. God at least was never human, always was and always will be invisible. The great “I am.”  I can even change my image of God knowing full well that that affects me more than God…for God is God after all. Its not that I did not recognize that Jesus was of God and from God and returned to God, or understand the essential importance of who he was and what he taught.

I accepted the significance of Jesus’ death and the empty tomb, and am aware of many variations and interpretations of what that means for individuals and religious communities. But here I was listening to someone tell children to pray to Jesus as if he was, well, alive. Dead and now alive. Alive for them. And for me?

This requires me to come to terms with how I see Jesus, the human being. And to accept the reality of resurrection without even a shade of doubt. Or, at least, to reinterpret my doubt.  Jesus as present to us  as God in real time, in our lives, is quite a claim. It does boggle the mind, or could boggle the mind. We are so used to the thought that we often don’t even stop to think about how amazing a claim it is, that he who was dead is alive.

Resurrection is embedded in the Christian faith. Roman Catholics, in addition to believing that they can pray to Jesus, also pray to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and to the Saints. Death is not the end.

We have a person, well a being, or is it a Spirit, at the heart of our Christian faith who was alive, walked the earth, and is now living and even active in life. The Christ. Of course. That is what Christianity is about, how it all began. And in the simple affirmation that Jesus is alive today, though he died as a human, is the uniqueness of our faith.  Jesus, alive and accessible.

In Judaism, some people believe in life after death and some don’t. (Probably, if truth  be told, the same could be said for Christians.)  But there is no human figure to whom one prays. In Islam, Mohamed is venerated for who he was, but in devotion, Allah is blessed and present. And Buddha, not one to whom people pray either. Though very present, it seems to me, in his teachings and in the practice and worship of his followers.

You might say that the Christian affirmation of life after death, based in the belief that Jesus, the once historical figure, is not only alive, but present and with agency, and part of the Trinity is unique to Christianity and blasphemous in some traditions.

In the beginning the Word was with God, came to earth, and returned to God, and speaks to us,  one with the One. There it is, something we take for granted that is really a quite amazing claim.

Christians tend to have one person of the Trinity, God Creator, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit at the center of their worship life. But each of these expressions of God with us, is admittedly also real along with the one most real to them. A rich palette of possibility for not only what it means to be Divine, but also human.

Believing that Jesus is with us, Jesus who was once one of us, leads to the belief that we too share in resurrection. No, I am not praying to my forebears who have gone before. But their spirits are with me. Not just because I remember them (some of them I never knew), but, because I suppose, even while my rational mind sometimes objects, I believe that death is a transition to new life, a new life that I can’t even begin to imagine, but life that is beautiful and full. I don’t see the gold streets that some have imagined. But I do see the tree with its many different leaves for the healing of the nations and of the soul.

So, I am still not one who usually prays to Jesus, though every time we return safely from a road trip, I utter the words, from the depth of my heart, “thank you Jesus.”  I am, however, one with those who do pray to or talk about Jesus as present as naturally as I talk with God, leaning toward the Spirit. I am now aware of how deep and clear a statement of faith it is for those who claim, “What a friend we have in Jesus.” And by implication, belief in resurrection itself.

Maybe I am just articulating what those children can take for granted as the Minister speaks. Jesus did say that little children would lead us. I just want to be clear about where they are being led. And obviously, I find myself still surprised!

Maybe the real issue is not the presence of Jesus in modern life, but where we think he is leading us. The old hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers, marching as to war…” pops into my mind. Wrong I say. Of course. Where then are Christians going?

In 1955 there were 4 women in our entering Bachelor of Divinity (now a Master of Divinity) class at Princeton Theological Seminary, preparing for Ministry. When we entered, women were not yet being ordained. That changed in 1956 in the Presbyterian Church, USA after years of advocacy. Imagine my delight when I attended a Women in Ministry Conference at Princeton in 2017 and was in the midst of over 200 women clergy who had been ordained through the years. And there are many more.

Two Seminary professors, Abigail Rian Evans and Katherine Doob Sackenfeld had made it happen and on this occasion released their new book, “Faith of our Mothers Living Still.” An apt title for them as well as for the women in the book’s pages “redefining ministry” as they say.

One of my old friends and onetime challenger, the Rev. Dr. Katie Cannon, Womanist Theoligan and Ethicist,  was the keynote speaker and brilliant as she dynamically shared the history of African American Women through the eyes of her great grandmother onward. I need to give a shout out to her mother, Corinne, now about to celebrate her 98th Birthday, who was on the first Task Force for Women of the Presbyterian Church, USA. which I served as staff liaison from the Board of Christian Education. She is a gem!

The Conference ended with a deeply moving worship service led by Sister Miriam Terese Winter, who had earned her PhD from Princeton Seminary. Through that service we got a glimpse of a new Spirit filled creation and  of a constructive theology, born out of the chaos of years of deconstructing patriarchal theology. (On which we build into the future even as we critique it as Martin Luther did 500 years ago. Reformed, reforming, and ecumenical.

Between these book-ends, were many inspiring and encouraging conversations, presentations and re-connections. So many gifted and creative women!

Coming home, I am inspired and grateful. As I listen to a CD by Sister Miriam Terese Winter, “A New Day Dawns”, I am again taken by the freshness, clarity, and depth and breadth of her faith and vision in the words, and I am enjoying all the varied voices singing. And then I am surprised by the male voices that join in half way through, surprised and delighted. Of course, so it is in life. I am satisfied.

The profession of Ministry is a complex profession, for which I have new found respect and admiration. I wish the press could see beyond the conservative mega church sensationalists to the heart of professional Ministry and all we have to offer society and give us a shout out!

Women in Ministry are doing amazing work! We are building on the work of all who have gone before us, who built and sustained our churches and missions, and engaged in many forms of community service and justice advocacy through the years.  Like reformers before us, we are change agents for a better world. We are empowered by Christ’s Spirit and relationships with one another and with our sisters and brothers of good will throughout the world. Religion is not dead, it is just catching its Breath for a new day!

Praise be to God! God’s new order come! God’s will be done!