Belief vs. Behavior

I believe in the reality of gravity.  And I behave accordingly.  I do not jump off tall buildings.  Or even short ones.

I also believe that when dinner is cooking on the stove that touching the cooking surface would be incredibly stupid, and painful.  And so, I behave accordingly.  I do not touch the stove top when it is in use.

What I believe, however, others may not.  Probably not in the case of gravity, or in the case of hot stove-top surfaces.  But probably in the area of religious faith...even just specifically in the case of the Christian faith...what I believe, others may not.  Probably there are many who do not.  I can, for example, produce Biblical material to support my particular set of beliefs.  Others have Biblical material to support their particular set of beliefs.  And our beliefs will be at odds with each other! 

Like FB friend, Mark Sandlin says, "The Bible is wrong.  Lots of times.  The Bible is right.  Lots of times."  Bingo, Mark.  Bingo.

Truth is that there are bunches of folks who have never heard of my beliefs, my God, or my Jesus.

And yet, most religious folks...heck, most folks in general...want to do the right thing quite often.  They want to treat people well.  They try to do no harm, and do all the good they can.  Really.

Good behavior is not complicated.  It may not always be easy, but its not complicated.  And you know it when you see it.  And you know it when you do it.  And me, too.

"What you do makes a difference, you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make," writes Jane Goodall.  What I DO.  Doesn't matter much what I do or do not believe...but what I DO (and that could be based on a set of beliefs I hold) matters much.

John Steinbeck wrote, "The object of love is the best and most beautiful.  Try to live up to it."  It suggests to me that how I love, how I act, how I behave will make me the better person I wish to become...belief may be important, but in this case it is beside the point. 

No Way Out...Not Anytime Soon

A Face Book friend (and a member of the very first church I served) reminded me recently that I had once described Hell as a big bowl of cold oatmeal.  Yeah, I really did that.  When she reminded me of it, I could actually recall having written that into a sermon. 

I do not remember any other details of that sermon...and like many I have written and preached over nearly 40 years, there is no reason why it should have been memorable over a great period of time.  I think what I was trying to express in that very old sermon was the thought that if someone were to imagine themselves in an eternally nasty place (like Hell) it would be like imagining someone being suspended in a really big bowl of cold oatmeal.  Yuck.  No up or down; no forward or back; no gravity; no light; no way to get a grip on something substantial and lift yourself out of the mess.  No way out...not anytime soon.  Not ever.

I have not been a believer in a traditional notion of Hell...as a place God would send folks to be punished in a fiery pit...for a very long time.  But that disagreement I have with what many consider to be a staple of faith is not the point, here.  What is the point here is the feeling that folks have from time-to-time, or maybe even too-much-of-the-time, that they are trapped in something...some job, some relationship, some circumstance, some illness, some state of mind...from which they believe there is no way out...not anytime soon.

That is a terrible feeling.  Its Hell.  And I am not qualified to offer counseling or direction to someone caught long-term in that no way out...not anytime soon bowl of cold oatmeal situation.  I do hope that persons who find themselves in that place have friends who will rally round them, and some form of hopeful faith to encourage them, and can avail themselves of professionals who can help with counseling and perhaps medications.

I hope I said in that old sermon that because being in a place like a bowl of cold oatmeal would be Hell, it would not be a good and loving God who would have put us there...and that the faith we share should be, for goodness sake, one of hope, and light, and beauty, and grace, and compassion for ourselves and others who find themselves in bowl-of-cold-oatmeal Hells.

Maybe the following picture offers a bit of hope in that regard...a little light off in the distance as we make our way through an otherwise stormy-and-not-so-bright situation.

 “The real question is not whether life exists after death. The real question is whether you are alive before death."   -Osho

 

“The aim is to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive.”
   -Carlos Castaneda

 

“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.”
  -Frederick Buechner

 

A hellish bowl of cold oatmeal is no place to spend much time, if any.  I wish you better in this life.

 

 

Fearless

Today would have been Rosa Parks' 100th birthday.  Happy Birthday, Rosa, you done us proud.

On December 1, 1955, Rosa wouldn't move to the back of the bus.  Literally.  This act of defiance in the face of injustice and racism had been done before...three others that history records, all women, had done before what Rosa did in Montgomery, Alabama. And Rosa was the one that the NAACP thought could best endure a legal battle that would be the result of this act of civil disobedience.

You can Google her name and read all about Rosa Parks and the difference she made in this country.

When I think back on her, I think of a woman who was fearless.

And so, in honor and remembrance of this woman, here are some thoughts about "fearless."

"You never make the 'great' at anything by playing it safe." A line spoken by Jonathon Winters, playing the character Fats Brown, in "A Game of Pool" on The Twilight Zone TV show.

"If we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls."  From Maya Angelou.

"Courage is the best defense you have now."  Gandolf, in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

"We wouldn't do much if we didn't do things that nobody ever heard of before." Laura Ingalls Wilder in The Long Winter.

"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we might win, by fearing to attempt."  The Bard, Shakespeare.

Happy Birthday, Rosa Parks!

Just Six Words...

When Bishop Woodie W. White came to the Indiana Area to serve the (then) two Annual Conferences, North Indiana, and South Indiana, he brought to the over eleven hundred UM churches in the Hoosier State a call-and-response mantra that is still used by many in worship services every Sunday. 

The Bishop would call out: "God is good!"
The people would respond: "All the time."
The Bishop would call out: "All the time."
The people would respond: "God is good!"

Of all the good leadership and graceful presence the Bishop offered in his years in Indiana, he may just be best remembered for those six words.

I am sure others have changed the wording a bit in the years since the Bishop came to be with us,  I certainly have.  I changed it up a bit recently for use in a Call to Worship.

The Leader calls out: "God is with us!"
The people respond: "All the time."
The Leader calls out: "All the time."
The people respond: "God is with us!"

You can see the many possibilities, can't you?  To list just a few of the obvious ones:

"God is peace! All the time."

"God is love! All the time."

"God redeems! All the time."

"God loves all, with no one left out! All the time."

"God is here! All the time."

"God is knowable! All the time."

"God is approachable! All the time."

"God is creative! All the time."

"God forgives! All the time."

"God is truth! All the time."

So, there ya go.  Just a six word mantra offered by a Bishop, who offered hundreds of thousands of other words during his time in Indiana.  But those six words stuck.  Stuck because they struck a truth that is deep down inside many, if not most, of us, I think.  Six words that are, in reality, a confession of faith.  Much simpler than any of the long creeds or other confessions of faith in print...but it could just be more profound than all of them.  Just six words.

Truth...

The truth is that no matter how hard we may try to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, we probably...most of the time...cannot.  We cannot because hardly ever are we in possession of the full truth, the whole truth.

Even the truth I tell about the story that is my life is nothing more than my version of the truth of my life.  There are other versions of the story that add more facts.  More detail.  More insight.  More truth.

Mr. or Mrs. or Miss Anonymous gets credit for the following quote, and its a good one: "Beware of the half truth. You may have gotten hold of the wrong half."

The whole truth may be elusive, but we probably know it when we hear it, or see it, or read it.  Maybe the best truth-sensor is, in fact, how we feel when we run into it...or when it runs into us.

Don't be afraid of the truth.  Don't try to avoid it.  And for sure, do not pretend it isn't there, when you know for a fact that it is.  Dealing with truth in those ways could just bite in you in the back-side.

If the truth is in the room with you, its probably a good thing to acknowledge it, to give it sway, to make future plans accordingly.

One more thing, its very true that the truth will set you free...but more often than not, it will...it really will...piss you off first.

True, that.

Monologue (not dialogue)

I can hardly remember any detail from Johnny Carson's five-nights-a-week monolgue, but I can remember that monologue-time as a great way to end my day, just before going to sleep.

I clearly remember some of the very funny characters Johnny created on a regular basis: Floyd R. Turbo (the R stood for Arthur), Aunt Blabby, Art Fern, Carnac the Magnificent...and there were probably others.

But back to that monologue Johnny engaged in every nite.  Just him.  Just his words.  Just the jokes he wanted to tell.  Just the comments he wanted to make. 

Jay Lenno and Dave Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel (and most likely others I am not familiar with) have continued the monologue as the opening of their late-night programs.

Just one person, or just one group representing one point of view, running off at the mouth is a monologue.  I do a monologue on the Sunday mornings when I preach a sermon.  Just me.  Just my understanding of the Good Book and the faith.  Just my challenge or suggestion about what it all means for us here and now.  15 to 20 minutes of just me.  (And since I craft the outline of the worship service and develop the congregational prayers and responses, it more than 20 minutes of just me.)

{Blogger picture-upload is not working today.  But if it were I would upload a picture of this really serious looking guy staring out of a black background and saying, "I find it suspicious, that everyone's personal God has the same beliefs as they do."  Its a great picture...but you will have to close your eyes and imagine seeing it, instead of actually seeing it.}

In a monologue the presenter has the opportunity to create, out of thin air, a personal world in which their views are the views of everyone.  Where opposing views are without merit.  Where its their way or the highway.

There is a whole lotta monolgue going on these days around some very, very critical and big problems.

But these big problems do not take place in anyone's personal world, they take place in the world we all share.  And I suspect that dialogue would be so much more productive than monologue.

A Delicate Balancing Act

Out with 2012.  In with 2013.  Not much will change when the clock moves to straight-up midnight and the first day of the New Year begins.  Well, except that I will have to try to remember to write 2013 instead of 2012.  Most likely, I will mess up a few checks before I get that settled.

The evils of war, and homelessness, and violence, and bigotry, and slavery, and greed, and poverty, and other stuff will continue.
The joys of peace, and family, and brother/sister-hood, and freedom, and generosity, and other stuff will continue.

Maybe the best we can hope for is, as Carlos Castaneda said, "to balance the terror of being alive with the wonder of being alive."

So, in 2013 the balancing act will continue.  It could be made easier, I suppose, if we were to do some simple things like relax a bit more;
be a little nicer and kinder;
be a tad more gracious and thankful;
get out of our comfort zone a bit more often;
and be in conversation with the Creator more than in 2012.

Maybe we could just show up for the New Year and do our best.  Our very best.

Maybe we could take our cue from Gandolf (in the movie, The Hobbit - An Unexpected Journey), who said, "Its the little things, the caring things, the loving things that count in life."

Well, 2013 is here...so just show up, give your very best, and struggle with the balancing act once more.

At the very least just don't, you know, go over to the dark side.