A Great Poem

I can title this post as I did because the poem in question is not mine. This is a poem I first encountered in the 1990's while serving a church in New York. It was the poem that, for me, opened up the way in which poetic language can convey powerful truth. It was the first poem I have read that I wish I had written. It is by the late R.S. Thomas, who was an Anglican clergyman in Wales. The poem is entitled "I was Vicar of Large Things"

I was vicar of large things

in a small parish. Small-minded

I will not say, there were depths

in some of them I shrank back

from, wells that the word "God"

fell into and died away,

and for all I know is still

falling. Who goes for water

to such must prepare for a long

wait. Their eyes looked at me

and were the remains of flowers

on an old grave. I was there,

I felt, to blow on ashes

that were too long cold. Often,

when I thought they were about

to unbar to me, the draught

out of their empty places

came whistling so that I wrapped

myself in the heavier clothing

of my calling, speaking of light and love

in the thickening shadows of their kitchens.

Reality Television

Some years ago NBC had a television program about an Episcopal Priest. It was called The Book of Daniel. NBC canceled the program after three weeks amidst considerable protest, although the network denied the controversy played a role in their decision.

I watched the two hour premiere, in which we were introduced to Daniel Webster, Episcopal priest. There was an awful lot packed into that premiere. One of Daniel's sons was gay, another adopted with an Asian background. The adopted son had romantic designs on the daughter of a powerful church member. Daniel's daughter was arrested for selling marijuana, the profits of which she used to support her computer animation ambitions. Daniel was trying to build a school for the church but his brother-in-law ran off with the money and ended up dead. Turns out the mob was involved and there seemed to be a relationship between the mob and the Catholic priest in town. The dead man's wife takes up with another woman, and Daniel needs painkillers to get through the day. We also learned that Daniel's father is the Bishop and his mother has Alzheimer's. That explained why Daniel's father is seeing another Church bureaucrat (female if I remember) on the side. Oh, and Daniel talked to Jesus. Jesus sat right next to him in period dress.

Personally I found it all a bit too much to keep straight. But I am not surprised that the American Family Association, among other groups, protested the program. They labeled the program an example of "anti-Christian bigotry" and said it made a mockery of the Christian faith. The point was driven home by an email campaign directed at NBC affiliates. At the time I checked with the station manager of our local NBC affiliate and he reported receiving a few emails, one of which stated that the program "trampled all over the basic sensibilities of anyone who holds the Christian faith as something sacred and dear to them."

I watched the program (and am consulting notes made at that time) and I don't remember seeing the Christian faith, as such, playing a big role. I saw dysfunctional human beings playing out life's drama. What may have fueled the Christian indignation more than anything was the fact that the show's creator and writer is gay, and one of the minister's children was gay.

My point is this: the church is full of dysfunctional people. The ministry is full of dysfunctional people. Whether developing this truth on television is "anti-Christian bigotry" depends upon one's tolerance for human frailty and the depth of one's own self-awareness. I have known ministers whose children have been addicted, gay, and adopted, although I must confess having never known one with all three. I know ministers who struggle with their own weaknesses and vulnerabilities. There are addicted ministers and ministers on pain meds and ministers on anti-depressants. I have no doubt there are ministers who lose their temper, wonder if it is all worth it, and wish they could sit with Jesus as Daniel Webster does.

It is equally true that our churches are full of members who struggle with these same issues. The fact that we are all imperfect does not excuse inappropriate behavior. But to suggest that a program is "anti-Christian" simply because its characters mirror back to us our broken selves belies a fundamental lack of understanding concerning grace and the human condition. People are complex and their motives are complex and, in spite of obvious flaws, The Book of Daniel was trying to explore that point. To those who condemned the program on the basis of its characterizations might want to reacquaint themselves with the story Luke tells about Jesus, the Pharisee, and the sinful woman (Luke 7:36-50). With reference to that text theologian Paul Tillich observed that each of us would be more Christian if more were forgiven us, if we loved more and were better able to resist the temptation to present ourselves as acceptable to God by our own righteousness.

Ministers are not perfect. Church people are not perfect. It may not be on television anymore, but it is reality.

Campus Ministry

I was just another guy in class, older than most, grayer than most. I wrote poems about poems, or poems about death, or poems for my children. There was nothing about me that said "minister". I wanted it that way. I wanted to be just another student. Just a grad in the writing program. I wanted to be something other than "that minister on TV".

Then one night I was "outed" by a woman student, a faculty member in journalism. She had suffered from a concussion recently and was trying to learn poetry again. She was loud and awkward. She believed everyone in the room wanted to hear her story every week. I was chatting with another student when she stated quite loudly, "You're the minister, aren't you?" Heads turned. Eyebrows raised.

"Yes," I replied. What else could I say? It was true. She preceded to tell me something about her "crackpot brother-in-law who was some kind of Pentacostalist" somewhere. Doreen, with whom I was conversing, turned to me. "Is that true?" Yes it was. I downplayed it. I thought if people knew I was a minister they would put me in a box, talk in strange whispers around me. I would be dismissed along with all the other religious figures they had already rejected for being irrelevant to meaningful discourse. Far better, I reasoned, that they see me as one of the crowd, one like them, one not burdened by the requirements of right belief and doctrine. Like Doreen, for example, who was no longer part of any church. She believed it too divorced from the environment, the natural world, too interested in power and domination.

I don't recall whether Kevin was in the room that night or not. I do recall that on the last night of class, at a local coffee shop, we read poetry to each other and to the one or two patrons who sat around small round tables. Kevin approached me. He was wearing his kilt, his hair in a ponytail. "Is it true that you went to the G.T.U.?" The Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. I earned my graduate degree in Theology there. "Yes," I responded. He sat down.

"I am thinking about applying to P.L.T.S. in the fall. What do you think?" P.L.T.S. is the Lutheran seminary at the G.T.U.

"Its great," I said. We talked about Berkeley. We talked about call. I wished him well.

A couple of weeks later at the end of Multicultural Studies a classmate approached me. "I understand you know everything about the Bible." She was having trouble with the story of Laban, Jacob, Leah, and Rachel. She wanted a resource. A week after that I rode with Doreen north to Litchfeild, Nebraska to judge a high school poetry contest. On the way we talked about school. On the way back we talked about whether religion could be relevant to her life.

You're the minister, aren't you? I guess so.

Here's to the Weekend

More snow. Sick of snow.

Here is a poem for Friday and then the weekend off. Have a good weekend and thanks for reading my blog. It must be working, I have not yet gone crazy. (I think)

Becoming

If you will stay close to nature,

to its simplicity, to the small things hardly

noticeable, those things can unexpectedly

become great and immeasurable. Rainer Rilke

See

the suckling bee

caressing, seducing

trumpet blossoms.

Feel

wounds

raw, moist,

scraped upon

a child's twisted cheek

pressed against the breast.

Capturing

The Truth

requires more net

than we can carry.

Become

the crippled cricket

strumming his truth

within quivers of grass.

Lenten Quiz- Wilderness Edition

As we begin the journey of Lent we feature a quiz designed to test your knowledge of the Biblical wilderness.

Which of the following is a biblical account of a wilderness experience?

A Abraham goes to Wal-Mart for milk and when he is at the milk case he remembers the cat food.

B After Moses receives the ten commandments he and the Israelites spend years in the wilderness.

C Noah’s basement floods and he has to spend six weeks with his in-laws

D Bugs Bunny wanders for years after making a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

Following his baptism, Jesus goes to the wilderness where he is tempted by

A advertisements for the snuggie airing at 2 a.m.

B a double cheeseburger on the dollar menu

C Satan

D All of the above

While in the wilderness, the people sin by crafting a

A Golden Calf

B Golden Thigh

C one act play about Moses which makes him look like a dictator

D eleventh commandment entitling corporations to make unlimited donations in prophet elections.

Which of the following is not a temptation Jesus endured in the wilderness

A To turn stone into bread

B To cast himself down from the temple

C To rule an earthly kingdom

D To sleep in on Sundays

Which of the following is a complaint lodged by the people while in the wilderness

A it was too hot/cold in the wilderness

B The color of the sand did not match the color of the rocks

C There was someone sitting on their rock

D They were hungry and thirsty.

Answers: B, C, A, D, D

Are You Saved?

Our local paper ran a story last Saturday about a Presbyterian Survey indicating that a goodly number of Presbyterians do not believe Jesus is the only path to salvation. It was a wire story and, although I have been in this town at a Presbyterian Church for more than a decade, no one at the newspaper thought to call up and get a local angle. No matter. That’s what blogs are for.

When I taught freshman English I tried to impress upon the young students that our world was full of concepts. That meant their world was full of concepts. A concept is an idea, a word that is largely empty until we pour meaning into it. Words like “patriotism”, “freedom”, and “beauty”. Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. But so is patriotism, freedom, and, for our purposes here, salvation.

What does it mean to be “saved”? Does salvation mean going to heaven when we die? Does salvation mean having a certain quality of life here and now? Both? Neither?

Salvation is a concept. Its definition varies according to the interpretation given it by any interested party. Certain churches have an interest in telling others that only a belief in Jesus will lead to salvation. In this case it is heaven or hell. Other churches have an interest in telling others that there are many ways to God. There is pretty much everything in between.

A Christian understanding of salvation, if it is to avoid the arena of pure speculation, must be grounded in some Biblical understanding. Churches intent on building a high fence around Jesus turn to texts like John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one come to the Father, but by me.” Or Peter’s confession from the Acts of the Apostles wherein he states that there is “no other name by which people can be saved.”

But there are other witnesses. Consider Luke’s story of Jesus and Zacchaeus. After Jesus goes to Zacchaeus’ house Zacky announces that he will give half of his wealth to the poor and pay back four fold anyone he has defrauded. Jesus announces “salvation has come to this house.”

Now, because scripture can mean pretty much whatever we want, one can argue that Jesus was announcing that Zacchaeus had accepted Jesus as his savior and would go to heaven when he died. But it seems more in keeping with the events of the text to suggest that Zacchaeus’ salvation happened in the moment for the moment and beyond. In other words, Zacchaeus adopted a different lifestyle, one keeping with the principles of the Kingdom of God. As such, he has begun living a different, “saved”, life now. His salvation is a quality of life rooted in justice, not the promise of an eternal heaven.

And there are the many who are healed of disease and affliction to whom Jesus says, “your faith has made you well (whole).” Or, “your faith has saved you.” Does this mean that when they die they go to heaven? Sure, why not. But doesn’t it also mean they are saved now, in that they are whole, well, complete?

But, again, these two things do not have to be mutually exclusive. The Bible is very clear that the saints live eternally with God. But the Bible also makes it clear that God is very interested in the quality of life we have now, and that this quality of life not only encompasses our salvation, but contributes to the furtherance of the Kingdom of God Jesus came to proclaim.

So back to our original point—are there other paths to salvation? If salvation is understood as a trip to heaven by faith in Christ, then no, by definition there can be only one answer. But if salvation is understood as a quality of life in the present which represents the principles of the Kingdom of God, well that is a little more complicated.

I once rode from Albany, New York to Rochester, New York with a Muslim Iman. We were both on the board of directors for a community development credit union we were trying to start in a depressed area of Albany. During the four hour drive we talked about our faiths, what we had in common and what we had as differences. We shared a common concern for the poor and we held each other in equal respect. At the end of the journey we agreed that we did not know about the other’s final disposition, but that when we got to where we were going we would put in a good word for each other.

Which brings me to my final point. What, in the end, is our motivation for talking about salvation? What is it that is finally important? It seems to me that what is finally important is the quality of human relationships. People are more important than concepts. If exclusive Christian ideas of salvation are used as a wedge to drive people apart, I cannot see them as consistent with Jesus ministry in the Kingdom of God. If exclusive claims of Christian salvation are only motivated by one’s own fear and insecurity, then such claims need to be freed by the grace and love of God.

Do I believe there are other paths to salvation? I honestly do not know. I do know that my salvation is secured in the love of God in Jesus Christ, and that salvation means my life now is a joyous celebration and my purpose is witnessing to the Kingdom of God. Does that mean only Christians can live and work in ways consistent with Jesus’ ministry? By mere observation, obviously not. Are these non-Christians living such lives saved? God alone knows. By the standard of Zacchaeus they certainly seem that way. Am I obligated to share my faith with them? Yes, if it is relevant. Am I to love them regardless? Of course. Am I one of these spurious Presbyterians who think “there are other paths to salvation?” I wonder......

PC(USA) - Presbyterian News Service - Food for thought

PC(USA) - Presbyterian News Service - Food for thought