Last night on All Hallows’ Eve and today on All Saints’ Day, Denise and I have been thinking a lot about our parents. My Mom was the first to cross over the threshold from this world to the next (Nov 2017), followed by Denise’s Mom four months later (Mar 2018). Four years later Denise’s former mother-in-law Betty (loving Grandmother to Denise’s two boys and a dear friend to both of us) crossed over to be followed by her Dad two weeks later (Sep 2021). My Dad was our last parent to cross over the threshold just over a year ago (Jul 2023). There are days when it seems surreal that we would be orphans before either of us hit the age of 63. We miss them so deeply and yet, for them, they have experienced perfect healing and peace.
Perfect healing… I believe that they have, in a sense, experienced what Thomas Merton wrote about as he described his Epiphany on the corner of Fourth and Walnut in the shopping district of Louisville, Kentucky in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (p. 191, Kindle edition). Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed….
May the Saints and our Ancestors continue to shine like the sun and live on in our memories.
“Catering to fear and pessimism is a function of the most dangerous belief: that violence can bring order out of chaos. Healing the world requires recognizing the damage this story has done.”—Gareth Higgins, How Not To Be Afraid
The person who’s in love with their vision of community will destroy community. But the person who loves the people around them will create community everywhere they go. — Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community)
In the light of the cesspool that was a “rally” in Madison Square Gardens in New York City I offer this excerpt from a speech which Dr. King delivered in New York City. Dr. King’s call for leaders to rise above and actually be leaders is much needed. I am so sick of the incessant lies and am deeply angered by the slanderous comments about the beautiful island of Puerto Rico which is a part of the United States. I have served along side of Puerto Rico’s finest in the United States military and have nothing but respect for my siblings in arms. I have also been honored to work with friends and co-laborers in ministry from Puerto Rico. The hospitality and welcome shown to us when we were in Puerto Rico for a wedding was absolutely stellar. It is not a floating island of refuse!
Dr. King’s message and the sort of leadership he is talking about is sorely needed in this nation and in the world.
May I stress the need for courageous, intelligent, and dedicated leadership… [We need] Leaders who somehow understand the issues. Leaders of sound integrity. Leaders not in love with publicity, but in love with justice. Leaders not in love with money, but in love with humanity. Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the greatness of the cause. God give us leaders. [applause] A time like this demands great souls with pure hearts and ready hands. Leaders whom the lust of office does not kill. Leaders whom the spoils of life cannot buy. Leaders who possess opinions and a will. Leaders who will not lie. Leaders who can stand before the demagogue and damn his treacherous flatteries without winking. — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Desegregation and the Future,” Address Delivered at the Annual Luncheon of the National Committee for Rural Schools)
Thus when Christianity becomes subordinated to a practical cult of one’s nation, one’s society or one’s secular way of life, and when religion becomes indissolubly wedded in fact to a totalist social structure (even one that still aspires to be called democratic) it happens that the secular society itself assumes the functions of a Church mediating between God and [people], to such a point they the pastors themselves rebel to look to the state as a font of divine decisions in the practical order. All dissent in the civil sphere thereby automatically becomes a religious betrayal and a spiritual apostasy. — Thomas Merton (Faith and Violence: Christian Teaching and Christian Practice, p. 203)
Continuing with my study and sharing about christian nationalism, the political atmosphere we find ourselves in, along with the horrifying display at Madison Square Gardens yesterday. We are living in dangerous times. And these times cry out for this nation to open its eyes and truly see the horror of nationalism for what it is. A threat to democracy!
If you think that peace and happiness are somewhere else and you run after them, you will never arrive. — Thich Nhat Hanh, Nguyen Anh-Huong (2006). “Walking Meditation”, p.11, Sounds True
Barmen is one of the Confessions of Faith that is affirmed by my Denomination (Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). In these times where some churches are aligning themselves with Christian Nationalism and Hate, I believe that the Church needs to reaffirm this Confession.
A portion of the Confession:
We reject the false doctrine, as though the church, over and beyond its special commission, should and could appropriate the characteristics, the tasks, and the dignity of the State, thus itself becoming an organ of the State… The church’s commission, upon which its freedom is founded, consists in delivering the message of the free grace of God to all people in Christ’s stead, and therefore in the ministry of his own Word and work through sermon and sacrament.
As a Presbyterian Minister, I affirm this and say NO to what is arising from other christian churches (lower case is intentional).
Follow this link to an article about the Declaration that includes the actual text. Link
I remember visiting Cambridge American Cemetery just outside of Cambridge, England the first time when I was stationed in England at RAF Croughton (1994-1997) and again a decade later when I participated in Memorial Day observances at the cemetery which wasn’t terribly far from where I was stationed at RAF Mildenhall (2005-2008) where I was the Wing (Senior) Chaplain of the 100th Air Refueling Wing (United States Air Forces in Europe). Seeing all of those grave markers (3,811 buried and 5,127 names engraved on the Walls of the Missing) was overwhelming. I paused and thought about all of those young lives that had been cut short fighting against the Axis powers during World War Two.
So many lives had been cut short as they responded to the call to rid the world of fascism and the evil designs of Adolph Hitler and his leadership who were intent on eradicating anyone who didn’t measure up to his “Aryan superiority standards.” The Nazi cause was defeated by the combined efforts of allied military forces and the civilian resistance on the ground behind enemy lines. As Europe was being rebuilt, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed with the intent purpose of defending each of the member nations if such a world war were ever to begin again.
One of the often overlooked parts of what happened in Germany with the rise of fascism and the Nazi ideology/party/government was the role that the “German Christian (Nationalist) Movement” played in supporting the Thousand Year Reich. On April 3-5, 1933, in Berlin the “German Christians” had their first national convention. Its slogan was “The State of Adolph Hitler appeals to the Church and the Church has to hear his call.” Among the members of the honorary committee were high-ranking government officials and Nazi party members, including Hermann Göring. The convention was closed by passing a resolution which stated: God has created me a German. Germanism is a gift of God. God wants me to fight for my Germany. Military service is in no sense a violation of Christian conscience, but is obedience to God. The believer possess the right of revolution against a State that furthers the powers of darkness. He also has this right in the face of a Church board that does not unreservedly acknowledge the exaltation of the nation. For a German the church is the fellowship of believers who are obligated to fight for a Christian Germany. The goal of the “Faith Movement of ‘German Christians'” is an evangelical German Reich Church. (Presbyterian Creeds: A Guide to the Book of Confessions by Jack Rogers, p. 182)
A minority group of theologians, church leaders, and pastors chose to step forward and denounce this Reich Church and they gathered to respond to this corruption in the church. Out of this movement came the Theological Declaration of Barmen. On May 29-31, 1934, representatives from eighteen German provincial churches–Lutheran, Reformed, and United (Lutheran and Reformed)–met in the industrial city of Barmen as the First Confessing Synod of the German Evangelical Church. They were protesting interference in the life of the churches by the Nazi government and the errors of the Nazi-inspired “German Christian” movement. They clarified their faith on the basis of the ancient and Reformed confessions and reconfessed it in a new declaration of faith in the face of the concrete errors of the times. (Rogers, p. 175)
So, here we are ninety years after the Theological Declaration of Barmen was written. I see a movement within the church that marries American exceptionalism with a foul corruption of what the church of Jesus is supposed to be. When pastors spout “American Christian Nationalist” ideology and hate from the pulpit and churches align themselves unapologetically with racists, hate/fear mongers, Neo-Nazis and groups like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, a response is needed.
A response that seeks to live out the call of Jesus in Matthew 25:35-40: I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
In Zechariah 7:9-10, the prophet called the people to right treatment of others: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. And in Micah 6:8 the prophet called the people to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself. Finally, in the words of Jesus from Luke 10:27: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.
And so I come back full-circle to the Cambridge American Cemetery and the graves of those who fought and died to prevent Hitler and his ideologies from prevailing. I shudder to think of what they might say in response to christian nationalist church members and leaders along with politicians and a presidential and vice-presidential candidate are espousing and supporting. Now is the time to speak. It is not a time to keep quiet.
I am going to leave you with a song that was written and sung by Alana Levandoski and was inspired by a call to action that was written by a small group of students from the Living School, founded by Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM. Divine Obedience is her response to the rising tide of hate that is spewed from podiums and pulpits around this land.
Verse of the day
He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?
– Micah 6:8
Voice of the day
Justice doesn’t have a finish line, and neither does education. We never reach a point where we cannot learn, where ceasing to learn would make us, or the world, better.
– Ken Wytsma, “Pursuing Justice: The Call to Live and Die for Bigger Things” (2013)
Prayer of the day
“Almighty God, who hast created man in thine own image; Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil, and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice among men and nations, to the glory of thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
– “The Book of Common Prayer” (1928)
History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals. We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (I Have a Dream: Writings & Speeches That Changed the World, p. 87)
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