A word for all of us from my good friend Rebecca Worl:
An Abolitionist.
Harriet Tubman, and…me?
Fredrick Douglas, and…me?
Abraham Lincoln, and… me?
William Wilberforce…Soujourner Truth… and…
Abolitionsist. I've heard the term. I've marveled at the people. Their bravery, their minority stand against a majority who embrace evil. Bravery, courage, marks of an abolitionist. I applaud them. I clap my hands and say "Bravo!" I nod my head in recognition and slide easily back into my bedded world of ignorance, and I ignore…
Until now.
The whir and hum of the voices are growing. A murmur has turned into a rumbling. A whispering plea for help, has erupted into a volcanic roar. No earplugs can dim the volume. No heavy eye-masks can block the faces. No dose of sleeping pills can keep me comatose any longer. "Awake Oh Sleeper, rise from the dead" (Eph. 5:14). It's time to get up. It's time to wake. Get out of bed. Remove your earplugs and listen. Take off your mask and see. Do some stretches, and get ready to act.
Everyday, hundreds of people - children, women, men - are abuducted. Opressed. Shackled. Sold. Beat. Owned. Like cattle. Worked to death without pay, without break.
An abolitionist is anyone who acts on behalf of slaves, who does something to set the captives free. Tubman, Lincoln, Douglas, Wilberforce, and many more, are indeed great, brave, magnificent figures in Abolitionist history. But we should not place them as decorative golden figurines on our mantel and say, "wow, I could never do that, good for them." We can do that. You can. Even I can! We can and should come alongside them because their fight, their cause, is still alive, their battle is not over, and we need fighters.
Our greatest Abolitionist is Jesus himself. His heart's cry is to set people free. Not just from the oppression of sin, but also in this physical life.
Isaiah 61, a prophecy that Jesus fulfills and quotes as his ministry reads:
"The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners."
Isaiah 58:6, God proclaims:
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injusticeand untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?...
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday."
Will you join God in his work? Will your heart break, for what breaks His?
As my feet hit the pavement each day on my runs, in rhythmic motion with my breathing. In, out…forward, back… Every step I run, is a step toward the end of slavery. I am running as an athlete for Break the Chains. I picked a race, I signed up. It wasn't that complicated….it was something I could do. There is always something we can do. Don't be overwhelmed, don't think you are helpless. What can you do? New abolitionists are being made every day. As people give to Break the Chains, and as people give to International Justice Missions. As people run, raise money, form bake sales, wash cars. As hands are folded and knees are bent. As speakers raise awareness, as stories are told, as videos are made and watched. New Abolitionists are rising up and people are being freed.
It wasn't until last night, as I left a small speaking engagement where I raised awareness for Break the chains, that I realized my part in this. Last night on a video I listened to a young passionate 16 year old, Zach Hunter, talk about being an abolitionist and it was at that moment that I realized, I am an Abolitionist. I'm not "up there" with the great ones like Lincoln, but none the less, I am happy to join the ranks. Are you ready to be an Abolitionist too?
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Baseball, Rainbows and My Mother's Maiden Name
Hey all! Here's some more pictures from my summer in Washington. Back in June I went to a Mariners/Bluejays game with the Foss family. Turns out it was Canada day and since the Bluejays are the only Canadian team, there were tons of Canadian fans at the game. In fact, I am pretty sure there were more Canadian fans than Mariner fans, but the Mariners pulled out the win despite the obnoxious Canadian catcalling (which was totally weird because all the Canadians I know are like the most polite nice people I've ever met).
One of the things I got to participate in recently was a social justice conference for high schoolers from the North Pacific Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. It was happening at Seattle University, a Catholic university in downtown Seattle. Last Saturday I took a few people to a concert as part of the conference. Michelle Lang and Stillwater were fantastic, a mix of gospel and hip-hop, they really knew how to get a crowd going. We got there an hour and a half early (I'm still trying to figure out drive times in Seattle!) and were treated to a spectacular rainbow, and 3rd row seats!
The building also has a Chihuly glass scultpture, the first one in a public place in Seattle. It was spectacular and gorgeous!
One of the things I got to participate in recently was a social justice conference for high schoolers from the North Pacific Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church. It was happening at Seattle University, a Catholic university in downtown Seattle. Last Saturday I took a few people to a concert as part of the conference. Michelle Lang and Stillwater were fantastic, a mix of gospel and hip-hop, they really knew how to get a crowd going. We got there an hour and a half early (I'm still trying to figure out drive times in Seattle!) and were treated to a spectacular rainbow, and 3rd row seats!
Also...guess what the auditorium was called? Pigott Auditorium. Crazy huh? Pigott is my mom's maiden name and I have never seen it anywhere else besides our family on that side. I guess some of the ol' Irish Pigotts were Catholic and some were Protestant-oohh!...religious controversy in my ancestry, how thrilling!
...boy am I a nerd or what?
The building also has a Chihuly glass scultpture, the first one in a public place in Seattle. It was spectacular and gorgeous! This is what the plaque said about it:
"Reknowned artist Dale Chihuly revolutionized the Studio Glass movement by expanding beyond the solitary artist to encompass the notion of collaborative teams. Chiluly's leadership has moved blown glass out of the confines of the small precious object into the relm of large-scale contemporary sculpture. "Accendo" (Latin for "ignite" "illuminate" or "inflame") is the first permanant public Chihuly glass tower in Seattle."
Although you might not be able to tell it from this picture, the sculpture is over 20 ft. tall!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
my first 'real' sermon
This is a sermon I preached back in November of 2007 at my home church in Fort Wayne. In lieu of new, orginal content, I will post this. It is long, so don't feel obligated to see it through, although the end is my favorite part...
(Based on the texts Malachi 4:1-2a, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, Luke 21:5-19)
When I first read the texts that I would be preaching on this week I was more than a little distressed. At first, and maybe second and third glance, they are very intimidating texts for my first sermon as a “seminary student.”
One of my fellow students had the helpful suggestion that I should just get up here and after reading the gospel lesson, close the Bible and say, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in you presence,” and sit back down. I however, decided to take a slightly different approach.
So what are we to make of scriptures that say things like “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat” (2 Thess. 3:10) and “You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.” (Luke 21:16)
Not exactly the words to say or preach on the Sunday before all of us gather around tables of bounty with family for Thanksgiving! And yet here we are and here I stand. So what is going on in these readings? And what are we to take away?
One of the things I have come to learn over this past year is that when I am reading the Bible, if there is nothing that challenges me in the conduct of my life and faith, I’ve surely missed something, and I need to try to go back with new eyes. There are many parts of the Bible that we don’t like to read for this very reason. They challenge our comfortable lives and, like our Thessalonians text today, call us out of idleness.
In Paul’s 2nd letter to the Thessalonians the issue Paul was addressing was the “idle people” within the church body. There were some in the Thessalonian Church who were thinking Christ was coming back any day, so they weren’t going to bother with the work of the church, instead becoming idle and complacent. They were simply waiting for the end, or the “day of the Lord.”
Our Old Testament reading today is also about “the Day of the Lord.” Malachi, prophesying about the “Day of the Lord” says in chapter 3 verse 5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment: I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice.”
Again after today's verses in Malachi the prophet relays God’s promise to send Elijah the prophet to “turn the hearts of the people” before the “Day of the Lord.” We as Christians believe this promise to be fulfilled in John the Baptist, who was considered by Jesus himself to be the new Elijah, saying in Mark 9 that John had “come first to restore all things.” So what is with this “Day of the Lord?”
All three of our texts this morning have something to do with this idea of “the Day of the Lord.” This is actually an Old Testament concept that is carried throughout the whole Bible. To the Israelites the Day of the Lord meant the day when God was going to carry out justice for God’s people (specifically them!) and destroy all of their enemies, all those other countries that beat up on them all the time like Egypt and the Assyrians and the Babylonians just to name a few. The prophets in the Old Testament had to repeatedly remind the people of Israel that the Day of the Lord was not about revenge, but justice, specifically justice for the poor, the oppressed, the alien and the broken. Israel, with all its unfaithfulness, spiritual complacency and injustice was going to be judged right along with all the rest of the world, and it wasn’t going to feel too good. This is why the prophets were constantly calling the people to repent and be faithful followers of God.
One concept I have come to really appreciate and hold onto in Seminary is the idea of the “now and not yet.” This is the idea that when Christ came it was the coming of the Day of the Lord.” or “the Kingdom of Heaven” as it is often referred to by Jesus in the Gospels. Christ came to bring justice and the ultimate solution to our problem with sin by becoming one of us and showing us the right way to live, even unto death. That is the “now” part of “now and not yet.” “The Day of the Lord” is now...it has come!
However we also live in the time of the “not-yet.” This is one of the many tensions that exist in the Christian faith walk. We wait for Christ’s second coming when God will finally put all things right. And, as it says in Romans 8, all of creation waits with us, groaning in labor pains for redemption. This is the hope for which the whole world waits for, what we actually focus on and celebrate in the season coming up next for the church, Advent.
In fact, this is what ties all of our readings today together. All three readings deal with what we are supposed to do in the “not-yet” while we wait for Jesus to come again, for the Day of the Lord to arrive. Are we supposed to just sit around and wait? No, not if we take our faith life seriously. The church is not meant to be a place of escape from the rest of the world, where we sit twiddling our thumbs for Jesus to come and take us to heaven. The apostle Paul says instead that the church is meant to be the body of Christ. If we are the body of Christ, that means we are Christ’s presence in the world, the vessel through which God has chosen to work. As Christians we are called to care about what God cares about. But how do we know what God cares about?
Lucky for us, the “now” part of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Day of the Lord, has come. In Jesus we have the perfect picture of what we are called to be, how we can be his body in the world. Jesus was a very radical and subversive guy. He refused to be hemmed in by what society’s rules told him it was ok to do. Jesus hung out with the poor, the sinners, the social outcasts. Jesus cared for the downtrodden in a way few have dared to follow since. Funny thing, the same things Jesus cared about seems to be the things that God cares about too. Justice for the poor, the oppressed, the alien, the broken.
If we identify ourselves as citizens of the Kingdom of heaven that is here now, but not yet...if we call ourselves Christ’s body, then our work is clear. We are to, in the words of Isaiah 61 “bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.” All this and more is the work of the church. All this and more is the work God calls me to do. All this and more is what God calls each one of you to do, in loving response to what Jesus first did for us.
Does this mean that we are all supposed to go off and do grand dramatic works of Justice like Martin Luther King Jr. or Mother Theresa? NO! Not necessarily... But it does mean that we are called to be faithful with what God has given us- our time, our talents, our possessions. God delighted in making each of you a unique child of God, putting you in a particular place, time and life situation.
God is calling each of us to examine our lives and who God has made us to be, and ask, “what is it that God is calling me to do?” How is God calling me out of the comfort zone of my faith into activities of God’s radical world-subversive love? These don’t have to be large leaps of faith, God honors the baby steps too, God just cares that we are moving.
In my own life many of these steps have most certainly been baby steps. For me it has been as mundane as learning not to be as picky an eater, so that I can be a more gracious guest in people’s homes. Or approaching a homeless person with a fast food gift card on the streets of Chicago, instead of walking by, like I normally do. Or even going to seminary, which depending on how you look at it may be a little more of a leap of faith!
For you it might mean very different things. It might mean helping out with Interfaith Hospitality Network, or picking up trash off the sidewalk. It could be that God is calling you to stand up for someone who is being bullied, or simply install energy-saving light bulbs in your house. Or it could be that God is calling you to humanitarian aid work in Africa or to eat more local foods or be an informed voter. Who knows. For God is calling each of us out of lives of complacency into the very heart and work of God. For what does the Lord require of us, but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. Amen.
(Based on the texts Malachi 4:1-2a, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, Luke 21:5-19)
When I first read the texts that I would be preaching on this week I was more than a little distressed. At first, and maybe second and third glance, they are very intimidating texts for my first sermon as a “seminary student.”
One of my fellow students had the helpful suggestion that I should just get up here and after reading the gospel lesson, close the Bible and say, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in you presence,” and sit back down. I however, decided to take a slightly different approach.
So what are we to make of scriptures that say things like “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat” (2 Thess. 3:10) and “You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.” (Luke 21:16)
Not exactly the words to say or preach on the Sunday before all of us gather around tables of bounty with family for Thanksgiving! And yet here we are and here I stand. So what is going on in these readings? And what are we to take away?
One of the things I have come to learn over this past year is that when I am reading the Bible, if there is nothing that challenges me in the conduct of my life and faith, I’ve surely missed something, and I need to try to go back with new eyes. There are many parts of the Bible that we don’t like to read for this very reason. They challenge our comfortable lives and, like our Thessalonians text today, call us out of idleness.
In Paul’s 2nd letter to the Thessalonians the issue Paul was addressing was the “idle people” within the church body. There were some in the Thessalonian Church who were thinking Christ was coming back any day, so they weren’t going to bother with the work of the church, instead becoming idle and complacent. They were simply waiting for the end, or the “day of the Lord.”
Our Old Testament reading today is also about “the Day of the Lord.” Malachi, prophesying about the “Day of the Lord” says in chapter 3 verse 5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment: I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice.”
Again after today's verses in Malachi the prophet relays God’s promise to send Elijah the prophet to “turn the hearts of the people” before the “Day of the Lord.” We as Christians believe this promise to be fulfilled in John the Baptist, who was considered by Jesus himself to be the new Elijah, saying in Mark 9 that John had “come first to restore all things.” So what is with this “Day of the Lord?”
All three of our texts this morning have something to do with this idea of “the Day of the Lord.” This is actually an Old Testament concept that is carried throughout the whole Bible. To the Israelites the Day of the Lord meant the day when God was going to carry out justice for God’s people (specifically them!) and destroy all of their enemies, all those other countries that beat up on them all the time like Egypt and the Assyrians and the Babylonians just to name a few. The prophets in the Old Testament had to repeatedly remind the people of Israel that the Day of the Lord was not about revenge, but justice, specifically justice for the poor, the oppressed, the alien and the broken. Israel, with all its unfaithfulness, spiritual complacency and injustice was going to be judged right along with all the rest of the world, and it wasn’t going to feel too good. This is why the prophets were constantly calling the people to repent and be faithful followers of God.
One concept I have come to really appreciate and hold onto in Seminary is the idea of the “now and not yet.” This is the idea that when Christ came it was the coming of the Day of the Lord.” or “the Kingdom of Heaven” as it is often referred to by Jesus in the Gospels. Christ came to bring justice and the ultimate solution to our problem with sin by becoming one of us and showing us the right way to live, even unto death. That is the “now” part of “now and not yet.” “The Day of the Lord” is now...it has come!
However we also live in the time of the “not-yet.” This is one of the many tensions that exist in the Christian faith walk. We wait for Christ’s second coming when God will finally put all things right. And, as it says in Romans 8, all of creation waits with us, groaning in labor pains for redemption. This is the hope for which the whole world waits for, what we actually focus on and celebrate in the season coming up next for the church, Advent.
In fact, this is what ties all of our readings today together. All three readings deal with what we are supposed to do in the “not-yet” while we wait for Jesus to come again, for the Day of the Lord to arrive. Are we supposed to just sit around and wait? No, not if we take our faith life seriously. The church is not meant to be a place of escape from the rest of the world, where we sit twiddling our thumbs for Jesus to come and take us to heaven. The apostle Paul says instead that the church is meant to be the body of Christ. If we are the body of Christ, that means we are Christ’s presence in the world, the vessel through which God has chosen to work. As Christians we are called to care about what God cares about. But how do we know what God cares about?
Lucky for us, the “now” part of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Day of the Lord, has come. In Jesus we have the perfect picture of what we are called to be, how we can be his body in the world. Jesus was a very radical and subversive guy. He refused to be hemmed in by what society’s rules told him it was ok to do. Jesus hung out with the poor, the sinners, the social outcasts. Jesus cared for the downtrodden in a way few have dared to follow since. Funny thing, the same things Jesus cared about seems to be the things that God cares about too. Justice for the poor, the oppressed, the alien, the broken.
If we identify ourselves as citizens of the Kingdom of heaven that is here now, but not yet...if we call ourselves Christ’s body, then our work is clear. We are to, in the words of Isaiah 61 “bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.” All this and more is the work of the church. All this and more is the work God calls me to do. All this and more is what God calls each one of you to do, in loving response to what Jesus first did for us.
Does this mean that we are all supposed to go off and do grand dramatic works of Justice like Martin Luther King Jr. or Mother Theresa? NO! Not necessarily... But it does mean that we are called to be faithful with what God has given us- our time, our talents, our possessions. God delighted in making each of you a unique child of God, putting you in a particular place, time and life situation.
God is calling each of us to examine our lives and who God has made us to be, and ask, “what is it that God is calling me to do?” How is God calling me out of the comfort zone of my faith into activities of God’s radical world-subversive love? These don’t have to be large leaps of faith, God honors the baby steps too, God just cares that we are moving.
In my own life many of these steps have most certainly been baby steps. For me it has been as mundane as learning not to be as picky an eater, so that I can be a more gracious guest in people’s homes. Or approaching a homeless person with a fast food gift card on the streets of Chicago, instead of walking by, like I normally do. Or even going to seminary, which depending on how you look at it may be a little more of a leap of faith!
For you it might mean very different things. It might mean helping out with Interfaith Hospitality Network, or picking up trash off the sidewalk. It could be that God is calling you to stand up for someone who is being bullied, or simply install energy-saving light bulbs in your house. Or it could be that God is calling you to humanitarian aid work in Africa or to eat more local foods or be an informed voter. Who knows. For God is calling each of us out of lives of complacency into the very heart and work of God. For what does the Lord require of us, but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. Amen.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
How true
"Perhaps we all take each other too much for granted. The routines of life distract us; our own pursuits make us oblivious; our anxieties and sorrows, unmindful. The beauties of the familiar go unremarked. We do not treasure each other enough."
-Nicholas Wolterstorff
All of you that I have not treasured enough, I am sorry. Daily life gets in the way far too easily and my brain gets muddled with "other things." For shame on me.
For shame on you too. Go hug your mother, call your brother, Facebook a long lost friend...look into the eyes of someone you see every day and really appreciate them, even if just for a moment.
-Nicholas Wolterstorff
All of you that I have not treasured enough, I am sorry. Daily life gets in the way far too easily and my brain gets muddled with "other things." For shame on me.
For shame on you too. Go hug your mother, call your brother, Facebook a long lost friend...look into the eyes of someone you see every day and really appreciate them, even if just for a moment.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
New Blog for me!
Ahhh...my new blog. New blog for a new place. Feels good. Now I just have to figure out what to write here!
These pictures are from my trip out to Washington, a trip that took 4 days. I made stops in the Twin cities, Dickenson North Dakota, Missoula Montana, and then got to Maple Valley Washington on Wed. June 11. Fun times! Next blog I'll tell you about the people I stayed with along the way, and a picture of my new purse! Yay for new purses!
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