The UmBlog

I do enjoy shrimp cocktail. It turns out I was likely enjoying the product of slaves. That story broke big at the end of 2015. At the end of last month President Obama signed a bill into law banning the import of slave produced seafood . There are so many products I consume that have slave labor as part of the supply chain. I'm reminded of the English abolitionists who denied themselves sugar in their tea as a highly symbolic stance against the Caribbean sugar plantations known for atrocious treatment of enslaved human beings who were literally worked to death. It's a complex world we live in. Even if I am not aware of the sins of my consumption, I still benefit from those injustices. No matter how delicately I walk through life, I will get mud on my feet. I live on land stolen from it's original inhabitants. I wear clothes that were probably made in sweatshops . Knowing this, I have to acknowledge my debt to these dehumanized workers. I am a straight white male sci...

"Can I get the loyalty card discount?" he asked the kid at the register, "I had one like ten years ago, but I don't know where it is anymore." He went in on in gravelly voice from decades of smoking. The helpful kid responded, "Just type in your phone number." "Ahh. I don't know which number it went with. Can you just give me the discount for all these groceries?" The guy in the cart before me was husky, not fat, not stout either. He was in his 50's. His thick black hair was slicked back. He had two rings on his left hand, both skulls. He was buying a bunch of bottled water, packaged sausages, rolls, condiments. He also had a duffel bag with him, and bought another bag for the ride home, probably on his motorcycle. I was judging him. No card, no discount buddy. When he got the discount, I resented all those times when I was at other stores and did not get a discount. My excuses of being from out of town or whatever legitimate re...

In Psalm 51, a prayer of repentance is written in light of King David's affair with Bathsheba and the battlefield murder of her husband. It's a tragic and vulnerable prayer, but in the middle of it comes this non-Christian part in verse 4. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. 4 Against You, You only, have I sinned , And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. Hold on! He forced himself on a woman, some even say it was rape. He got her pregnant. He tried to get her husband to come off the battlefield and sleep with his wife to cover up his offense. The soldier was so honorable, he refused to sleep with his wife as his men on the field did not have the same luxury. David let's the guy go back to the battlefield with a message for his commander to leave the guy exposed so that he would get killed. Done and done. After the wife finishes her time of mourning, David has her move ...

Yesterday, I found out one of my kids got ripped off. I was mad at those scam artists. I was frustrated I wasn't there to protect my kid. I felt a lot of feelings. But I only expressed them in one word. "Fuckers." I surprised myself a little bit. Not 10 seconds later Jesus' exhortation to love and bless our enemies comes to mind. I'm now feeling a little guilty, but I'm still mad. So I prayed. "Bless those fuckers." It does not have elegance of the Psalmists who entreat God in the most tender terms to destroy their enemies, but I think it covers the same ground. It was an honest, aspiration prayer. I aspire to be someone who can bless his enemies without feigning a spirituality that denies my emotional state. I'm sure the grace of Jesus is big enough to cover prayers like that.

As I meditated yesterday on the presence of God, I returned to the image of Christ's descent from the cross , after he died, as he was prepared for a quick burial. I placed myself in the scene. I wanted to clean his wounds. I kept splashing the vinegar on my hands and rubbing my fingers over his chest and over his cuts. His gashes from the whipping were deep. I know it's gross, but my fingers kept bouncing in and out of his flayed flesh. While I washed his body, I wondered who else was with me, preparing him in adoration. I knew Mary was around, but I didn't see her. As I looked down his body, toward his legs I saw Mike Huckabee. I was as surprised as you are. He and I are only united in our relationship with Jesus. Mike and I are very different in our political ideology, and we do not agree on many areas as to how Christ's ethics should be applied civically. In my meditation, we also disagreed on how to get the body ready for burial. Mike was in a rush. He want...

Last night I was meditating on the presence of God, practicing something new to me, the Daily Examen , started 500 years ago by the Catholic saint, Ignatius Loyola. It is prayer and meditation combined. The first step in this prayer is to become aware of the presence of God. Rembrandt I am really not aware of God's presence.This is a challenge for me. I started thinking about Christ on the cross. I then thought about taking his body down off the cross. My hands carried his dead and bloody body down off the instrument of death. I hugged his lifeless body to mine. I laid him down across my bed. And there he laid, in front me, as I sat on my bed. Jouvenet It is a powerful image for me. I have never thought about this before. I did not know until later that night what a rich vein artists have found with this part of Good Friday. Here is a collection of many works . In my meditation, Jesus laid before me, much bloodier than anything by these art masters. His flesh was ...

When I'm left speechless, I have this gift from Jesus that keeps on giving. Our Father who are in heaven ......I need someone bigger than the most powerful country in the world, who is above all, knows all, and can bring justice to all. Hallowed be your name ........all other names are corrupt, the United States of America, the justice system. Let your kingdom come, let your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven ......bring to earth the ethos of love of neighbor, of justice, of mercy. Give us this day our daily bread ....because in weeks like this, our food is tears, where justice is denied to minorities, where men of color are presumed guilty until proven innocent, if they survive to be proven innocent. Without hope in you our souls will starve. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us .....Forgive us of cynicism, despair, nihilism, self-righteous anger, selfishness, and forgive those who murder out of fear and selfishness, cynicism a...

The crazy amount of Bible reading continues, half of Judges and half of 1st Samuel. Like yesterday, I read the first half and listened to the 2nd half on my mp3 player. I'll write about Samuel tomorrow and focus on Judges and Ruth today. My feelings on Judges shifts to a better place than it has been in the Pentateuch. Previously, God was portrayed differently than I see Jesus portrayed in the gospels. Rightly or wrongly, I've pushed back pretty hard on the Pentateuch. I've wrestled with God, and like Jacob, the best I can hope for is a limp. The stories in Judges are very human, and God shows up as a savior, over and over again. The book seems to be organized by a pro-monarchy editor, because of a repeated phrase, which also concludes the book. Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.  The funny thing is the woe and dread Samuel chastises the people with when he anoints them a king. When I say the book is very ...

Personally, it's been a rough month. The day my last post went online, the one about forgiveness, I wrote it earlier in the week and scheduled it to post later, my son was hit by a reckless driver with a suspended license. Although the truck ran over and killed our dog, it sent my son air borne so that he landed in the grass. His injuries are minimal, not what his doctors expected from such an accident. He is still recovering and healing physically. As a family, we are all still recovering emotionally. We miss our dog. We are looking for a replacement still. After Blizzard Nemo left it's two feet of snow at my house, I spent many hours shoveling. The long repetitive exertion leads me an enjoyable mental zone: contemplative, meditative, in the moment, peace. There's something that occurs in the haze of exhaustion, something not accessible behind a snowblower. I started praying as I dug, lifted, and tossed the snow. I was thankful for the miracle of my son's accident...

"I wouldn't forgive someone who killed my kid." That statement changed the direction of our conversation at church. My response is to consider what Jesus taught on his sermon on the mount. Jesus teachers his followers how to pray. The second half of the prayer is focused on evil and our culpability and responsibility in Matthew 6 and Luke 11 "...and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." We are indebted because of our wicked deeds. Others are indebted to us because of their wicked deeds towards us. We need to be forgiven by God. God's forgiveness of us is conditional on our forgiveness of others. We need to forgive those close to us who hurt us. We need to forgive those whose n...

I really wanted to focus my prayers yesterday, Wednesday fast day , on someone I know who was recently diagnosed with cancer, but, whenever my brain wanted to go there, it was obscured by some resentment I held against a brother in the Lord. I was irritated, not just over the things he did, but that those things which were waters under the bridge, old water, were robbing me of brain cycles on the person I wanted to intercede for. I got pretty bummed out by the end of the day. I already know I'm not a prayer giant but more of a prayer pixie. I also was disappointed that this old stuff still chafes my heart. I thought I had worked through it all by the end of the day, but Jesus spoke to me this morning in my reading in the Gospel of Mark. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your...

When I was reading Matthew 15 the other day I was struck by Jesus' presence on the mountaintop. 29 Jesus went on from there and walked beside the Sea of Galilee. And he went up on the mountain and sat down there. 30 And great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, 31 so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel.  On this occasion, he did not make it easy for people to reach him. I imagined it must have been quite the effort for the healthy friends to carry up a mountain the lame or crippled person who can't walk, or guide the blind guy up the steep paths. I'm sure they were overjoyed to have their friends and family healed but maybe a little jealous of the region in the previous chapter, Gennesaret who had Jesus on their coastline. Matthew 14:...

The major theme of this movie might seem to be the power of an idea, which is compared to a virulent virus which overtakes minds and can overtake societies. We can receive ideas, or conceive them ourselves, but to deceive someone to think they conceived the idea is the act of inception. In this sci-fi world, people have learned how to invade other's dreams to steal secrets, which leads to the real theme of the movie, haunted minds. Regret, unforgiveness, guilt are all emotions that can cripple and destroy us and those around us. Inception is about a dream burglar, the best in the world, whose ghosts put his team and his mission in danger. If you don't like spoilers, don't read any further, but go enjoy the movie then come back here. Image via Wikipedia Dom Cobb is the best dream burglar in the world because he has gone where no others have. Time slows in dream world, and minutes in our world can be hours in a dream and weeks in a dream within a dream. Only Cobb and his dec...

As I've been re-learning about the grace of God, yesterday and Friday , I'm more alert to those occasions when God's grace jumps out at me, like this morning while I walked the dog. Like every morning, I pray through Jesus's prayer from Matthew 6. I blogged through this prayer, link summary here , three years ago. But this morning, I was stopped in my tracks by the end of the prayer, after we ask for God to forgive us as we forgive others . After we repent, Jesus tells us to ask our heavenly Father to lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one , Matt. 6:13. This prayer I have prayed for years says simply and profoundly what I'm relearning. Repent and ask for deliverance. The prayer is not, repent and try harder, but repent and ask Dad to protect us from the things that entangle us and the enemies who try to destroy us. I agree with the band Skillet , that sometimes the evil one is myself. They have a great song on their latest CD called Monste...

I just got word that American Airlines has canceled flights to Haiti for the next couple weeks, which means our team's tickets with AA aren't any good. Our team leader is looking for other options. Please pray for us. Thanks.

Calvary Chapel of Old Bridge, NJ sent a team in overland from the Dominican Republic last week. They are in the southwestern coastal town of Jacmel . But their docs need lots of equipment . Please pray. They hooked up with an American missionary in Jacmel . They are feeding people and hoping for more tents to hand out. Back in Port-au-Prince, the Livesay family's rented house held up in the earthquake and has become a field hospital, where people are saved and lost. They tell of an amazing story that made me cry of walking by faith and God providing. They were able to get some people on the US hospital ship even before the medics got set up, even before anyone knew where they would set up. but they are realizing that big NGO 's take care of each other and are not sharing with the little NGO's like them. The politics are discouraging. Please pray for them and for the Lord to provide for them. Like many, they are getting supplies from the Dominican Republic. Pray. Pray. P...

In the immediate aftermath of Haiti's earthquake, Pat Robertson the American televangelist reveals that he doesn't read his Bible. The video is on the bottom, but here is the key transcript by CNN . The Haitians "were under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon III and Image by Getty Images via Daylife whatever," Robertson said on his broadcast Wednesday. "And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, 'We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.' True story. And so, the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' " Native Haitians defeated French colonists in 1804 and declared independence. "You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other." But the Bible, does not support this. In the midst of the fall of the nation of Israel two of God's prophets made similar statements from God. Jeremiah 31 v.29 In those days they shall ...

The remake of Battle for Terra was pretty good. Here is the opening of my review of Battle for Terra this past May, I have a weakness for science fiction. Cool cartoons with alternative engineering and physics defying planets from directors enable me to ignore lame plots, shallow characters, and black and white themes. Hence, I took my kids to see the Battle for Terra and I liked it. I only have to rewrite that review slightly. Instead of cartoons, Avatar is CGI , but alternative engineering and physics defying planets are constant. Lame plots, shallow characters, and black and white themes remain, but the three hours of eye candy make the faults easier to swallow. I Image via Wikipedia will not bring my kids to see this PG-13 movie however. The planet's natives, the Na'vi, are portrayed like many native stereotypes here on earth, barely clothed, hence the females are mostly topless. Another strike against bringing my children to see the movie is the blatant sex scene. Per...

"Love like you mean it" is the slogan for Family Life's weekend marriage seminar called A Weekend to Remember , WtR. Every year, couples from my church go to this conference. As a family with 3 children, finances and housesitters don't come easy. But this year we started supporting a friend of mine going on staff with Family Life, Brian Winkler, go to his website and support him here , and we received hugely discounted passes to a WtR conference. So we committed. We are glad we did. If nothing else, we were glad to get away, eat at a nice restaurant, and enjoy a beautiful and unusually warm Connecticut autumn weekend. We don't consider our marriage in trouble or on the rocks, but, we reasoned, we aren't perfect and could always use encouragement and reminders on things we may have neglected. We did get good refreshers on communication, expectations, and spiritual communion with each other and our kids. One of the spiritual disciplines I am weakest at is praye...

Let's read the end of 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 12 Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13 Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. 16 Be joyful always; 17 pray continually; 18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. 19 Do not put out the Spirit's fire; 20 do not treat prophecies with contempt. 21 Test everything. Hold on to the good. 22 Avoid every kind of evil. 23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will ...