Recommended Reading 8.16.14 edition

Each week (more or less) I send out an e-mail to my congregation with my thoughts including stuff I've read over the past week that I want to pass along.  Here it is for last week:

Recommended Reading

I spent a lot of time this week glued to coverage of events in Ferguson, MO.  Here are some of the things I read that were meaningful to me:

• UCC minister Traci Blackmon, pastor of Christ the King United Church of Christ in Ferguson has been at the heart of efforts to bring reconciliation in Ferguson this week.  Her church is where Governor Nixon, Senator McCaskell and other leaders met for community meetings.  She and her church are a part of the Missouri Mid-South Conference of the United Church of Christ of which we are also apart. 
• Emily Bazelon (who is Caucasian) has a powerful essay on why she is reluctant to get law enforcement involved when it comes to African Americans--she knows from experience how the system is stacked against them. 
• If you are Caucasian and wondering why African Americans are so upset about the death of Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin and others, here's an explanation for you. 
• Here's some context as to why African Americans in Ferguson don't trust the police.
• Some of the most striking images this week were the St. Louis County police in military gear, armored personnel carriers and high caliber rifles.  Where did that come from?  It turns out the Pentagon gave away $500 million worth of military gear last year alone to local law enforcement. 
• UCC theologian Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite on the demonic nature of police militarization.   
• I'm pretty sure that it's a sign of the end times, but I read a piece written by Rand Paul about Ferguson and I agreed with every thing he wrote.
• The Ferguson police fired rubber bullets into a crowd of mostly peaceful protesters.  One of the people they hit was a minister in her clergy collar trying to keep the crowd peaceful.  The pictures tell the story.
• There was so much bad news from Ferguson this week revealing the worst of humanity, but NPR had an incredible story this week demonstrating the best of humanity about how a minister in Ferguson talked a young African American man out of striking out at the police in his anger. 
• "What White People Can Do About the Killing of Black Men in America"
• "It Doesn't Matter if Michael Brown Stole a Box of Cigars"
• "Gated Communities and the Imaginary Black Bogey Man"
• Including Ferguson, 4 unarmed African American men have been killed in the last month in the US by police. 
• Schools in Ferguson were cancelled which means that for many kids in the town they will go hungry, because they will not receive the federally provided meals they normally receive at school.  A NC school teacher started a crowd sourcing campaign to raise money for the St. Louis food bank which will use the money to help provide meals throughout the school year for kids in Ferguson.  To find out more and contribute read this article. 
• Did you see this video of what a KCPD officer did when he encountered African American kids in the street?  Instead of getting in a confrontation with them, he had a dance off!
• Finally, satirical newspaper The Onion weighed in this week on Ferguson providing Tips for Being an Unarmed Black Teen.  I felt it was a great example of satire exposing oppression.  Others felt it was making light of a tragedy.  I'd love to hear what you think about it. 

I was deeply saddened by the news of Robin Williams' suicide this week.  Here are some things I read related to this awful event that I want to pass on:

• One of my favorite authors, Anne Lamott, has a moving and powerful response to the death of Robin Williams and the search for answers when there are no answers in the face of tragedy. 
• UCC theologian Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite asks how Jesus would respond to people suffering like Robin Williams suffered. 
• Lewis Diuguid wrote in the KC Star this week about the failure of the mental health system in Missouri and Kansas 
• By the way, if you didn't hear the sermon I gave Memorial Day weekend where I share my own experience with depression, it is on the church web site here.  I shared it again on social media and had a good response from a number of people who have similar struggles.  You may need to hear it or know someone who does.  . 

Here are a few more things I read this week that I recommend:

• In the Supreme Court case concerning Hobby Lobby and birth control, the majority opinion which was in the corporation's favor cited the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  Those who worked to pass the act never had corporations in mind.  Here's an explanation of what that act was intended for and how it was misused by the Supreme Court. 
• Conservative culture warriors are realizing they have lost the fight over same gender marriage, so now they are turning their demonization skills to parents of transgender children.  
• The categories of heterosexual and homosexual are a relatively recent phenomenon.  Here's a helpful and readable overview of the details. 
• If you came from an Evangelical background like I did and heard horror stories about the rapture, the tribulation and the second coming, I encourage you to read Rachel Marie Stone's essay about what she "left behind" out of that belief system and what she remains grateful for from it.  
• Rabbi Joshua Stanton offers words from the Torah about how the words we use when we are on the internet can cause real world harm.  
• Did you know that the United Church of Christ is a major sponsor of the Gay Games?
• I remain deeply troubled about the thousands of children from Central America who have crossed our southern border only to be treated with cruelty. One of the best arguments I have read for allowing the children to stay in America comes from the New Republic. 

I posted my August 3 sermon "Wrestling With God" on the church web site.  It's a sermon about the story in Genesis where Jacob wrestles with God.  This sermon deals with struggling with God as we struggle with ourselves.  Often the greatest blessings God provides to us only come after an emotional and spiritual struggle.  Just as God gives Jacob a new name (Israel), so also God can replace the negative names we have been given (loser, worthless, failure, etc.) and replaces them with a new name: beloved. 

Okay, add this to your list of Christmas gifts for your pastor.  I must have this for my shelf of tacky Bible things! 

Grace and Peace,

Chase

A Boat Seems Small in the Middle of a Storm

 When I was in Israel this past June, I saw the so-called "Jesus Boat," a boat that had been used during the time of Jesus on the Sea of Galilee.  It's not likely that Jesus actually used this boat, but it is the kind of boat Jesus' disciples used for fishing and the kind of boat mentioned in the Gospels.  It is located in Kibbutz Ginnosar on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and it was discovered in 1986 by two boys who lived at the kibbutz (communal farm).  The water was low and the boat which had been preserved in mud on the bottom for over 1900 years was exposed  Through a complex excavation and over a decade of preservation, the boat was saved.  Now for a nominal fee and a walk through the gift shop you can see the boat that sailed 2000 years ago.
 

I've written before about my impressions of the Sea of Galilee.  It's not a sea but a lake and it doesn't match our Great Lakes.  Yet, because of the lake's geography it can be a treacherous place.  It is surrounded by mountains--not like the Rocky Mountains or the Alps but ones that would take a morning to hike up.  There are canyons that split these mountains and when storms come winds whip through those canyons and down on the lake.  The water can get very choppy and storms can get violent. 

When I saw this ancient boat, the same kind Jesus and his disciples would have used, I had a new appreciation for the stories in the Gospels that mention storms on the Sea of Galilee.  The boat is 27 feet long and 7 feet wide, but standing next to it, the boat didn't seem that big.  It seemed to me that once you put a mast on it along with oars (see the model pictured below) any more than 4 men would make it pretty crowded.  It certainly wouldn't offer any shelter during a storm.

Sunday I'm preaching on Matthew 14:22-33 which is Matthew's account of Jesus walking on the water out to the disciples who were on such a boat on the Sea of Galilee in the middle of a storm.  I wish I had a way to project these pictures of the "Jesus Boat" during my sermon for people to see it and think about the story.  Like me, I think folks would get a feeling for just how vulnerable the disciples were.

Since the disciples in the story think Jesus is a ghost when they first see him on the water coming toward them, some scholars have theorized that this story is actually a post-resurrection vision that was put back into the story of when Jesus was alive. Whether that is true or not, from the perspective of the reader--on this side of the resurrection--we still must decide what we believe about it.  No matter when it happened (for some it may be a matter of if it happened), we must struggle with its meaning for us today (if at all). More importantly than deciding whether or not we believe in miracles like Jesus walking on the water, we have to decide if God is still present for us today in our moments of vulnerability in crisis. 

The reason this story made it into the Gospels is because it was meaningful to the first Christians.  Most of them would not have been witnesses of the resurrection but would have heard about it second or even third hand.  They had to decide if the story of Christ being risen from the dead and making the presence of God real among them made any difference for their circumstances.  We have to make that same decision of faith--is God real? can God be present in my moments of crisis? will God help me when I am vulnerable and afraid?

The declaration of the Gospels is that Jesus has the power to bring peace to us in the midst of storms and chaos.  Each of us must wrestle with whether or not we trust such a promise.  

 

Grace and Peace,

Chase