Here's the latest episode of my podcast:

 Episode 9 of the Save Me Podcast is now available.

Sonya Vann

shares about intersectionality and negotiating various spaces as a black bisexual woman. Sonya is the Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO. She also shares about growing up next door to Ferguson, MO and life since the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmad Aubery.

This episode contains a Haiku from Sasquatch (a.k.a. Father Aaron D. Raulerson) and a "Married to the Minister" segment from Colleen Brown Only.

This episode is sponsored by Zipporah Recruiter, the job site for churches, SimpliSaved, church security and Croaksbury Books, the online bookstore for dying mainline churches who don't want to change or sacrifice anything.

Listen on ITunes, Spotify or most other podcast platforms or just click on this link: anchor.fm/save-me-podcast

Yes, Dogs Go to Heaven (I guess cats do too)

Good people are good to their animals;     the “good-hearted” bad people kick and abuse them. --Proverbs 12:10 The Message

Before my wife Jennifer and I adopted our children, we had dogs.  We are both dog people who grew up with dogs under foot carrying slobbery tennis balls, so in creating our first home a dog was necessary.  Our first dog we named Buddy, because he was the friendliest short-haired Jack Russell Terrier.  His cropped tail never stopped wagging.  He was completely white except for a black spot around his left eye.  He ripped up the linoleum in the kitchen of the house we rented--TWICE, but otherwise he was gentle and loving.  He played with us, napped with us and laid on us when we laid on the sofa watching TV.  He was an energetic but loyal family member.

When Buddy had to be put down because his aged body began to painfully give out on him, I declared that I never wanted another dog.  Losing Buddy was just too painful.  But as I said, we are dog people and we raised our sons to be dog people, so other dogs eventually joined our family.  I decided that even though dogs’ lives are so much shorter than ours, it is a gift that their journeys intertwine with our own as long as possible.  The pain of loss is the price we pay for the joy they bring us.  I wept as the vet gave Buddy the shot that caused his breathing to stop, but as bad as that pain was, the joy we shared together far outweighed it.

There is a good reason why the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a run on dog adoptions.  Not only are people hungry for companionship, but the stress of these times results in us needing trustworthy and non-judgmental relationships.  Eckhart Tolle said this about the gift dogs offer to us in an interview with a magazine for dog owners:

It's the alienation of modern society and the human need to relate deeply to another being, which they are unable to do with humans. I hope this is changing, but in the meantime, dogs offer the opportunity to relate to and to have an open heart towards another being. To be able to show love to another being which is always [reciprocated]. That's why I think dogs have a function that is absolutely vital, to keep humanity sane in this transitional period between two states of consciousness. For some people, it's the only relationship where there's no fear and where they realize they are being accepted and not judged.

Think about that for a moment.  Dogs always reciprocate the love of humans.  Dogs offer some people their only relationship where there is no fear, no judgment, only acceptance.  What an astounding thought.  Dogs reveal to us how to be better humans.

I’ve argued with Christians who have precise theologies of the human soul and who declare only humans go to heaven.  They say pets are excluded from heaven, because they don’t have souls.  I’ve always felt like such declarations were deeply arrogant.  We know so little about what existence after this life looks like, how can anyone know the limits of who gets to experience it and who and what  does not?  When I look into my dogs’ eyes I see beings who live only in the present, who know only faithfulness, and who are more loyal than most human beings.  If anything, they seem to embody more of whatever the “soul” is supposed to be than most of what I do every day.

So, I believe dogs do indeed go to heaven, whatever heaven is.  If pressed, I guess I believe cats do too, and whatever other animals become parts of our families along with them.  If we can experience love with them, then how much more does God, who is love, also value them?  What would heaven be without them?

I’ll leave the theological debates to those who have energy for them.  I’d rather go play with my dogs who teach me to treasure the wonder and beauty present in every fleeting moment.

Grace and Peace,
Rev. Chase Peeples

Anybody Else Feeling Disoriented These Days?

For who is God except the Lord?
    And who is a rock besides our God?
--Psalm 18:31 NRSV

On KC sports radio this morning, the program hosts talked about how thanks to Covid their internal measures of time have been disrupted.  Normally, preseason pro football happens in August but not this year.  This year NBA finals are happening now instead of months from now.  Major league baseball has only been playing a month instead of since May.  Each of the radio guys said it didn’t feel like it usually does a week before Labor Day weekend.

I share their feelings.  Usually my sons have already started back to school in mid-August.  At this time in normal times, I’m watching the Chiefs preseason games and picking who I think will make the roster.  Most summers I’m debating which summer blockbuster movies are the best.   In every other summer, my family and I are trying to get in as many trips as we can to local pools before they close for the season.  The routine of my life has been disrupted.

Maybe you feel the same way.  It can be jarring when our expectations of what life will bring go unmet.  We know that life potentially can be upended at any moment, but we are creatures who long for routine and the security of knowing what comes next.  To live during such a time of uncertainty means living with a level of vigilance that can become exhausting after a while.

There are spiritual lessons in this time of upheaval if we are willing to take them in.  These days of living with a pandemic remind us that there are no true guarantees in life.  Only God remains present and secure in the many twists and turns of our lives.

The Psalmist asks, “For who is God except the Lord?  And who is a rock besides our God?”  In this poetic language lurks the question, “What is truly secure besides God?”  We invest people, relationships, objects, governments, bank accounts, etc. with a belief they are permanent, but none truly are.  Relationships change.  People can be fickle.  Governments come and go.  Houses and money can be lost as the economy changes.  Only God remains as firm as an unmovable rock but as close as a loving friend.

20^th century theologian Paul Tillich wrote in his classic book The Shaking of the Foundations:

Providence is the faith that nothing can prevent us from fulfilling the ultimate meaning of our existence. Providence does not mean a divine planning by which everything is predetermined, as is an efficient machine. Rather, Providence means that there is a creative and saving possibility implied in every situation, which cannot be destroyed by any event.

No matter our circumstances, the one thing that remains constant is God’s creating and saving work in every moment of our lives.  Put a different way, Jesuit priest Pedro Arrupe wrote:

"I am quite happy to be called an optimist, but my optimism is not of the utopian variety. It is based on hope. What is an optimist? I can answer for myself in a very simple fashion: He or she is a person who has the conviction that God knows, can do, and will do what is best..."

Life happens.  Calamity can strike in a sudden and random manner.  Our sense of security and well-being can be lost in an instant, because who or what we have invested ultimate assurance in turns out not to be God.  Yet, despite life’s travails and our reactions to them, God remains with us and will do what is best for us under the circumstances.

You are not alone if you feel the disorientation of these days.  Plenty of folks are right there with you.  Most of all, God is right there with you, and no matter what comes in this life, God will remain constant.

Grace and Peace,
Rev. Chase Peeples

 

 

Don’t Be Like “Florida Man”

Make no friends with those given to anger, and do not associate with hotheads,
--Proverbs 22:24 NRSV

Are you familiar with “Florida Man?”  This internet meme is a guilty pleasure of mine.  It’s been around since 2013 when somebody on the internet noticed the outrageous news stories coming out of Florida with headlines that always began with the words “Florida Man.”  If you want an idea of the phenomenon, just google the words “Florida Man” and see what comes up.  Recent “Florida Man” headlines include:

“Florida man accused of climbing onto semi in traffic during road rage incident”

“Florida Man Arrested for Cashing in Lottery Ticket at Gas Station He Stole It From, Cops Say”

“Florida man arrested after living in luxury suites in pro soccer stadium.”

You get the idea. 

Dave Barry likes to joke that the wackiest people in America all roll down into Florida. The Florida Man phenomenon got so bad that the humorist wrote a book called “Best State Ever: AFlorida Man Defends His Homeland.”  Barry isn’t the only one whose made a living poking fun at their home state, satirist Carl Hiaasen has another novel out right now about the over the top events in Florida. 

To be fair, I’m told there are plenty of law-abiding and normal people who live in Florida.  Also, the reason the whole Florida Man thing is a guilty pleasure for me is because most of the wildest headlines are people with real problems.  If you look beyond the headlines, the stories are often sad ones.  An article in Columbia Journalism Review pointed out the Florida Man phenomenon is "one of journalism’s darkest and most lucrative cottage industries" where "stories tend to stand as exemplars of the mythical hyper-weirdness of the Sunshine State, but more often simply document the travails of the drug-addicted, mentally ill, and homeless."  This raises the question if there could just as easily be a “Missouri Man” or “Kansas Man” phenomenon as well.  If journalists were to frame the stories of drug-addicted, mentally ill, and homeless people in our two states in similar ways, we could have our own internet memes too.

Recently, I’ve noticed a change in Florida Man stories that are probably true of Missouri Man and Kansas Man too—not to mention Missouri Woman and Kansas Woman.  The stress of COVID-19 combined with an election season has provided plenty of opportunities for wild and wacky headlines.  Here are a few:

“Florida man accuses of threatening grocery store employee with ax after being told to wear a mask”

“Florida man accused of firing shots inside Miami Beach hotel lobby over social distancing”

“Florida man accused of punching neighbor over Biden campaign sign: police”

I’m pretty sure you could find similar stories in Missouri, Kansas and all over the country.

It’s a tough time with more reasons than normal to be upset and to react badly.  As I scan this weeks headlines as college students are back in school and elementary through high school students soon to start back one way or another, I see lots of upset people on all sides of what to do about COVID-19.  I also see plenty of conflict over politics on social media.  I certainly admit that there are legitimate injustices in our society that are worth getting upset about, but I’m also pretty sure that most of us need to just calm down and take some deep breaths.

The book of Proverbs in the Bible has a lot to say about anger.  I know sometimes these Bible verses can oversimplify complex things.  Sometimes anger can be a healthy thing when we are mistreated, oppressed or abused.  Anger can be a means of claiming one’s own power.  The kind of anger I think Proverbs is generally talking about is one that is destructive in all the wrong ways.  This is the kind of anger that sensible people have to apologize for after they calm down—you know the kind of anger that happens when a teenager working in a drive through messes up your order and you then take it out on your kids.   Not that I know anything about that from personal experience.

Proverbs 22:24 says, “Make no friends with those given to anger, and do not associate with hotheads.”  What?  If I followed that advice, I’d have to stop watching the outrage machine on cable news.  If I didn’t associate with hotheads, I’d have to un-friend all my “friends” on social media—and they’d have to un-friend me as well.  If I backed away from people who are “given to anger,” I’d have to socially distance myself from most everyone in our culture.  Oh wait. . .

Don’t be the Florida Man or Missouri/Kansas Man or Missouri/Kansas Woman.  Step back from your computer keyboard or smart phone before you fire off that reply to somebody with whom you disagree.  Turn off the news when you find your blood boiling.  Take a deep breath and count to ten when you are about to lose control over a person not wearing a mask at the super market or depending on your point of view, when you are about to lose control because a minimum wage employee asks you to wear a mask when you enter a store.

Do whatever you need to do to calm down and chill out. 

Ask yourself if this is really worth getting angry about? 

Ask yourself if your anger really accomplishes something or if it is just self-indulgent bad manners?

Don’t be a headline—although if you do, make sure it’s funny, because I need a good laugh.

Grace and Peace,
Chase

Finding God While Washing My Hands

On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, “Let
anyone who is thirsty come to me,  and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’
--John 7:37-38 NRSV

How many times have you washed your hands today?

In these days of pandemic, maybe you have lost count of how many times you have moved to a sink, gotten soap from a dispenser or a bar of soap and washed your hands.  Did you wash your hands for 20 seconds as health experts recommend? Maybe you sang “Happy Birthday” to ensure you washed long enough?

I confess to still viewing hand washing as a chore.  I’m doing it, but I don’t like it.  My habit of washing my hands obediently yet begrudgingly goes way back long before the days of COVID-19.  I was a boy after all.  I dislike making generalizations about gender, but many boys seem genetically predisposed to resist washing themselves.  I was especially terrible as a teenager, and now raising two teenage sons I’m experiencing payback for what I put my parents through.  My house smells more like a high school boy’s locker room than I care to admit.  As I try to enforce basic hygiene, I try to remember I was once that way too.

I certainly never thought there was anything spiritual about washing my hands.  I grew up among “free church” Christians, the type of Protestants that includes Baptists, Christian churches (of which Disciples of Christ belong), Congregationalists and others, who originated as dissenters from official state churches that were most commonly Anglican or Roman Catholic.  In these traditions, rituals and traditions are viewed with suspicion.  After all, Jesus criticized the Pharisees for their empty rituals (such as washing hands!), so we were to avoid them too.  Never mind that we had our own unconscious rituals and traditions in how we did church.

Faith was a thing one believed rather than experienced.  Finding God in nature and every day activities seemed to err into the territory of the New Age movement.  Strict boundaries between what is spiritual and what is “worldly” were necessary.  In hindsight, I wonder why we talked so much about God being omnipresent, while at the same time we acted as if God was only present in the church building or at sacred spaces like church camp.  We missed out on a lot of opportunities to experience God in the ordinary moments of life.

Maybe God is present in the ordinary “rituals” of life, even in the ones we’d rather not do.  Maybe God is to be found especially in the moments when we do the necessary chores of life.  In seminary, I was assigned The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence, a medieval monk who was famous for saying, “God is among the pots and pans.”  I’ve been wondering lately if I’m missing out on experiencing God’s presence among the many inconveniences of life during the Coronavirus, such as the times when I wash my hands.

I came across the following prayer from the spiritual writer Gunilla Norris and it caused me to think differently about this oh so common activity of washing hands.

Inside, my body consists mostly of water, the way the globe, too, consists mostly of water. I came to be within the waters of my mother’s womb. So when I wash I like to remember that I am in my element…Your water…Your living water. Help me scrub my face free of its masks so I can return to the true self You gave me.

The prayer from Gunilla’s book Being Home inspired me to look her up.  On her web site, she shares about writing the book.  I love what she says.

When I published Being Home in 1991 I did not know that I had begun a series of books on what I now call household spirituality, or the practice of spiritual awareness in the most mundane and simple of circumstances. Together these books seem to me to be like a crystal with many facets. They are part of one thing and yet shed light from different perspectives on the humblest of our day-to-day tasks. It has always been my understanding that when we are really present in our daily activities, our lives become more luminous, filled with love and grace.

Whether we are living in the present days of confusion brought on by COVID-19 or some blessed future post-vaccine time, our ordinary day-to-day tasks, even the ones we may grudgingly do for our health and the health of others like washing hands, contain the possibility of “our lives becoming more luminous, filled with love and grace.”

May your daily “rituals” be filled with the blessed presence of God.

Grace and Peace,
Rev. Chase Peeples

The Latest Heresy on the Block

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
--1 John 4:1 NRSV

I was a relatively new minister serving in a church in New York still reeling from the 9-11 attacks which had happened only months earlier when it happened.  I met with a church member who was eager to talk with me about something important.  I had expected to talk about some personal struggle or perhaps the collective trauma of the attacks on the World Trade Center.  Instead, the church member launched into a long explanation of the research they had been doing online which revealed a conspiracy secretly running the world. 

The church member handed me a binder full of information printed off the internet with charts connecting the Illuminati to the United Nations to the New World Order.  I was stunned, to say the least, that this well-educated successful suburbanite was invested so deeply in the conspiracy theories they presented me.  I tried to steer the conversation towards the person’s own internal struggles, but it was apparent they were disappointed I didn’t buy into the secret knowledge they possessed.

This encounter happened when the Worldwide Web was still relatively new, before social media and smartphones, but it is a phenomenon that is far older than the internet and it has been common in American Christianity for centuries (witch hunts, vampire scares, Jewish cabals, Catholic plots, Freemasons, etc.).  For that matter, conspiracy theories and claims of “secret knowledge” have been a part of Christianity from its beginning.  Maybe they have been a part of religion since humanity first began walking upright?  The allure of being among the chosen few who know what lurks behind the veil of reality as perceived by the masses is addictive.

My attention was drawn today to an editorial at Religion News Service titled “QAnon: The Alternative Religion That’s Coming to Your Church.”  The author is a former editor at Christianity Today, not exactly a liberal alarmist publication, yet she clearly laid out the dangers of this online conspiracy movement for local congregations—especially conservative evangelical ones. 

If you’re not familiar with QAnon, be careful when you google it.  You’ll quickly go down a rabbit hole of conspiracies that has no end. (This article in The Atlantic provides a good explainer.)    In general, this conspiracy theory began on a site known for racist and far right content called 4chan.  An anonymous user named “Q” began posting claims of inside knowledge about high level Democrats running a child sex ring and elements in the Trump administration working to stop it.  In cryptic language that is often religious in nature, the posts implicate the media, Hollywood movers and shakers, and Democrats.  Sharing QAnon-related conspiracies has grown exponentially in the age of COVID-19; one study showed posts sharing QAnon conspiracies increased by 71% on Twitter and 651% on Facebook since March of this year.

Once upon a time, conspiracy theories were only things your “crazy uncle” spouted at family gatherings or college students shared in late night dorm room discussions.  Yet, now they are common and rampant among White Evangelical Protestant Christians who generally distrust the media and question scientific consensus on things like evolution and climate change.  Of course, left-wing conspiracies exist too, just look at the so called "anti-vaxxers," people opposed to vaccinations.  What they all have in common is the promise of granting a select few the satisfaction of knowing the “truth.”

Scholars generally credit the appeal of conspiracy theories to the need for people to cope with a disorienting world where ordinary people are buffeted by complex forces lacking easy explanations.  It’s easier to believe COVID-19 is a plot by evil left-wing industrialists than it is to accept that there is a fatal disease that doesn’t seem to affect some people but kills others.  It’s easier to believe a pedophile ring is killing the job market than it is to make sense of an impersonal global economy that ships jobs overseas.  In the same way, it was easier for the Puritans to kill witches when illness struck villagers in the 18^th century than to believe in things like germs, hereditary and sanitation. 

Katelyn Beaty, the author of today’s Religious News Service editorial, along with the great religion journalist Jeff Sharlett and others have equated the recent QAnon conspiracies with the early Christian heresy Gnosticism.  Like QAnon, it had cryptic texts that promised enlightenment to its adherents.  Christians combated the heresy by turning back to scripture and pointing to the incarnation of Christ, who was not an esoteric spiritual being but an actual human being who demonstrated love of neighbor, caring for the least in society and a message based on concrete examples of lost sheep, parents and children, day laborers and landlords.   Jesus taught a Gospel of love that was difficult for the masses to accept, because of its demands of self-sacrifice.  The promises of Gnosticism offered the exultation of humans through secret knowledge, while the Gospel of Jesus offered the exultation of God through easy to understand acts of every day love.

The author of the First Letter of John told their readers to “test the spirits,” and urged them to believe that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh.  Why this emphasis upon the incarnation?  Because Jesus was not just a ghost passing through this material plane, but a human being who knew what it is to suffer and gave his life for the sake of others.  The author of the letter goes on to offer some of the most beautiful language about God ever written: “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”  In other words, the way to test a belief system is to ask, “where is the love?”

Whether the conspiracy theory is QAnon, the Illuminati, the Freemasons or ancient Gnosticism, a simple way to “test the spirits” is to ask where is love in this system of belief?  Does this worldview result in people forsaking their own ego to show love to others around them or does it exalt the ego by declaring its adherents are superior to others because they alone know what is really going on?  QAnon may be the latest false religion to invade Christianity, but it’s the same song different verse.  It’s just another selfish attempt to declare some are better and more spiritual than others.  Jesus didn’t have much patience for religious know-it-alls.  We shouldn’t either.

Grace and Peace,
Chase

The Ladder Nobody Can Move

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  
--Matthew 6:19-21 NRSV

In 2014, I took a Holy Land tour of Israel and Palestine.  It was a dream come true for me to see sites I had read about in the Bible all my life.  One of the sites that left a lasting impression on me is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, built, according to tradition, on the site of Jesus' crucifixion and the tomb in which he was buried.  It is considered one of the holiest sites in Christianity, and pilgrims visit it from all over the world.  What stood out to me, however, was not its holiness but rather the chaos of all the different sects of Christianity mashed up together.

Bloody battles have been fought down through the centuries over what denomination has control of the site.  The violence even continues into recent years as one group fights another over small parts of the complex.  Various parts of the site are controlled by the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Armenian Apostolic Church, Coptic Orthodox Church, Syriac Orthodox Church and Ethiopian Orthodox Church.  Over the last 15 years or so violent fistfights have broken out between groups when one "trespassed" on another's section of the church.  Two of the denominations even fought over a section of the roof.  

Disputes dating back decades, even centuries, govern which Christian group is responsible for maintaining which part of the site.  Even the most mundane tasks prove contentious.  While there, our guide pointed out to us that there were no trash cans in the entire complex, because the various denominations couldn't agree upon who was responsible for emptying them.  The intransigence of the battling Christians has gone on for centuries.  In the 12th century, the Muslim general Saladin conquered Jerusalem but was unable to solve the conflict over the site.  He gave the key to the church to a Muslim family who served as an impartial party (one group or another kept locking others out).  To this day, members of the same Muslim family open the church each morning for all the Christians who can't get along.

Perhaps the greatest example of the stalemate among Christian groups at this holiest site in Christianity is a ladder leaning up against the side of the church on an upper level.  (I thought I had a picture of it but couldn't find it.  Google "ladder church of the holy sepulchre" and you'll find pictures of it.)  Nobody knows who left the ladder there, but the earliest evidence of it dates back to the early 1700's!  To this day, nobody has moved it for fear of upsetting one or more of the other groups laying claim to the site.  Alone it sits down through the decades and centuries as a symbol of the hard-heartedness of Christians.

The story of the ladder nobody can move sounds ridiculous when the fighting over it takes place between orthodox priests of Christian denominations of which we American Protestants are not familiar.  Yet, when I replace the exotic location and characters with typically dressed Americans in an average Protestant church the dynamics seem familiar.  A seemingly immutable fact of church life exists in the form of disputes among church members over their church buildings and who lays claim to what part of it.  Unofficial and unelected individuals or groups become de facto arbiters of taste when it comes to decorating.  "Landmines" lay waiting for anyone who dares disturb a certain classroom, chapel or section of the building declared sacred by a matriarch or patriarch of the congregation.  Often the nastiest disputes arise about the things least related to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I grew up loving going to church.  At church, this skinny, undersized rather nerdy kid was loved and declared special.  At church my talents were appreciated and my gifts recognized.  I was taught about a loving God and shown love by church people.  Yet, at the same time I bore witness to people bearing the name Christ being god-awful to one another, often filled with rage over things that seemed trivial to me.  In the many years since, not much has changed.  I still have plenty of stories of love and plenty of stories of nasty fights.  I have learned that most of these disputes over church buildings and the things in them aren't really about the building and the stuff but rather about people feeling a need for control, people afraid of death and their own impermanence and people finding their self worth and identity in mere objects.  

Given the emotional toll small changes may take on churchgoers, is it any wonder why it is so difficult to achieve truly significant changes in congregations?  Change involves, well, change, and most of us come to church for a break from the neverending changes in our culture.  Yet, the price of bitterly refusing to cede control of the parts of the church we lay claim to is we have a lot of immovable ladders laying around.  Junk piles up in store rooms in our buildings, but also spiritual junk piles up in our lives.  Churches are often the last places to change when it comes to racism, sexism, income inequality, equality of LGBTQ people and more, because change is difficult and costly.  Is it any wonder that younger generations have left their parents' and grandparents' churches behind in search of spiritual places without so many "ladders" in the way?

One wonders where we got the idea that following Jesus would be easy?  Why did we start holding onto things that matter so little in light of eternity?  Jesus told us clearly to "lay up your treasures in heaven" and "take up your cross and follow me," but we act as if Jesus commanded us to settle down and defend our favorite parts of our churches to our dying breath.  This isn't a new problem.  The place Christianity claims Jesus suffered, died, was buried and rose again is a sprawling building complex filled with various Christian groups ready to literally fight one another at any moment.  I feel pretty confident that none of this is what Jesus had in mind. 

Grace and Peace,
Chase

The End of the World as We Know It

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”
--Revelation 21:3-4 NRSV

Once upon a time, I was a doctoral student in New Testament at Emory University.  I ended up leaving the program to pursue a career as a local church pastor, but my time in a Ph.D. program has enabled me the privilege of teaching undergraduate courses on the Bible.  One semester is only enough time to skim the surface of the Bible as a whole, and inevitably there was never enough time to adequately cover the book of Revelation at the end of the semester.  So, I tried to stress a few key ideas.

1.      Calling the writing Revelation is shorthand for The Revelation (apocalypse) of John.  There is no “S” at the end of Revelation.  Any time you hear someone calling the writing ”Revelations,” (with an “S”!) you should disregard what they say next, because they clearly don’t even know the name of the last book in the Christian Bible.  I threatened to give an “F” to any student who wrote “Revelations” on a class paper.

2.      The Greek word apocalypsis means “revelation.”  The English word “apocalypse” meaning the cataclysmic destruction of the world (e.g. zombie apocalypse) is a relatively recent phenomenon.

3.      When talking about the Bible, it’s helpful to differentiate between the words “apocalypse” and “apocalyptic.”  An “apocalypse” is actually a type of Jewish or Christian writing from 300 BCE to 200 CE that reveals the supernatural realm is closely related to the natural realm and describes and end of time judgment.  The adjective “apocalyptic” refers to imagery or theology similar to that found in “apocalypses.” 

4.      Both scriptures that are apocalypses and ones that have apocalyptic language were written about crises in the writers’ times NOT about the end of the world 2000 years later.

There is so much more to say about Revelation, but I felt like if students at least knew these four things, then that was better than nothing.  (Not much better, but still better.)

Number 4 on the list has caused many problems for Christians down through the centuries.  There is a never-ending list of failed predictions about the timing of Jesus’ second coming.  Pretty much any time Christians had a spat (or a war) with anyone, they were convinced their enemy was the “antichrist” (a word actually not present in the book of Revelation).  Yet, Revelation, Daniel and all the other apocalyptic stuff in the Bible was never meant to be read like a horoscope or the “prophecies” of Nostradamus.  They were written for crises (real or perceived) in their writers’ times to offer hope to believers and to “reveal” the spiritual dimensions of the troubles they and their communities were experiencing.

My worst nightmare is probably getting stuck on a plane sitting next to somebody who wants to talk about Revelation.  Most of what American Christians do with the writing is just plain nuts.  The average TV preacher babbling about Revelation has more in common with fruitcake conspiracy theories about the Illuminati killing JFK than they do the Bible.  The apocalyptic stuff in the Bible at times feels to me like more trouble than it's worth, but I would never want to throw it out, because of one thing: hope.

2020 has been an insane year—a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, violence by police setting off nationwide demonstrations, an economic downturn with tens of thousands of people out of work and weren’t “murder hornets” supposed to be a thing?  Or was that last year?  Who can keep track anymore?  It’s easy to see why many people have said 2020 is “apocalyptic” in the more recent sense of the word, as in a cataclysmic end of the world.

Yet, I have appreciated writers who have used “apocalyptic” in the sense of its Biblical meaning to describe 2020, as in the trials of this year have revealed a lot to us which was previously hidden.

Baptist writer Joshua Sharp writes, “COVID-19 has laid bare the weakness, fear and sinfulness of humanity in a powerful way. Some could argue these realities were not previously ‘hidden.’ Fair enough. But the COVID-19 crisis is shining a bright light upon them and forcing us to face the facts.”  As people fight in store aisles about whether or not to wear masks, we can take a look at ourselves and choose a better way, one of Christian concern for the health of our neighbors. 

Catholic writer Mary Pezzulo writes about how the video of George Floyd being asphyxiated by a cop’s knee on his throat was an “apocalypse/revelation” for white Americans.  For many white people, George Floyd’s killing made real to them what black Americans had been saying for a very long time.  Pezzulo says, “[Our] country is having a revelation. Things are being revealed that some of us knew very well, but that the rest of us couldn’t see.  Veils and masks are being pulled off.”  The world as many white Americans had been raised to understand it was revealed as a false view of reality.  Racism is not just a thing of the past but remains an ever present force at work in our culture.

You may be asking at this point, “Didn’t you mention hope a minute ago?”  

Yes, I did.  Just as the crises of their times provoked revelations about reality for biblical writers, so do the crises of our time and every time.  Yet, just as the bizarre apocalyptic language and symbols of scripture depict violence and destruction, they also assure their audience that appearances to the contrary God is still in control of the world.  Behind the scenes, God is at work bringing about the goodness God desires for us and all creation. God is not thwarted by the forces of destruction which seem unstoppable to us.

The “apocalypses” of 2020 have revealed the failures of politicians around the world to respond to disease, the racism that exists in the structures of our society, and the illusion of control most of us had about our careers and finances.  Yet, God is at work and therefore we can still have hope. 

God is at work in the scientists striving to discover a vaccine and the healthcare workers caring for the diseased.  God is at work in the activists and reformers envisioning a less racist America.  God is at work in the generosity of ordinary people who share what they have with their unemployed and underpaid neighbors.  God is at work in all these ways and so many more places that may not be evident to us.

2020 may be the end of the world as we know it, but with God’s help a new and better world is being born.

Grace and Peace,
Chase

What are You Buying During the Pandemic?

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.  They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,  thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
--1 Timothy 6:17-19 ESV

Each morning my email inbox is filled with emails from news sources offering lists of articles.  I browse through them over breakfast checking the headlines and occasionally clicking on them for more information.  I usually avoid “listicles” in favor of actual journalism.  “Listicles,” in case you’ve been ignoring the internet for the last decade, pretend to be a news article (hence the -icle in the word) but really are only a list someone has arbitrarily compiled, for example “The 10 Greatest Celebrity Breakups of All-Time!”).  Sites love them, because listicles get people to click on their site (they charge advertisers per click) and they don’t have to pay for an actual journalist.  Like I said, I try to avoid them, but sometimes I can’t resist.

This morning I gave in to temptation and clicked on a listicle titled “7 of the Weirdest Things People are Buying During the Pandemic.”  Don’t ask me why.  I just did.  It turns out the 7 Weirdest Things weren’t very surprising—well, one of them was—roller skates.  That one surprised me, but the other six weren’t very “weird” at all: RV’s, yeast (for bread making), bidets (remember the toilet paper shortage?), sweat pants, scented candles and guns.

Look, I’m doing my best to make it through this monotonous pandemic just like everybody else.  Who am I to judge anybody for doing whatever it takes to deal with this crazy time?  Things like sweat pants, bidets, yeast and scented candles sound like coping mechanisms for people stuck at home.  RV sales have been in the news because fewer people want to risk getting COVID-19 traveling by plane or staying in a hotel.  Even guns don’t surprise me; this is America after all.  I have lots of questions, such as, “don’t most people who are into guns already have plenty of guns and ammo already?”  “Exactly how many more guns and how much more ammo do you need?”  “COVID-19 is bad, but are we really talking about total societal collapse?”  Wait, don’t answer that.

I shouldn’t make too much of a listicle like this.  Somebody being paid by the word probably generated it in a random manner.  This isn’t hard journalism.  Yet, it did make me think about what am I spending my money on right now?  If folks are fortunate enough to still have jobs during this economic crisis, what are they spending their money on?  As I said, far be it from me to judge folks for seeking some material comforts/coping mechanisms during this stressful time, but the Amazon vans and FedEx trucks racing up and down my street seem to imply there is a lot of purchasing going on these days.  I think it’s fair to assume much of what’s being bought aren’t necessities. 

I’m wondering if in my own life I’ve relied too much on the endorphin rush that comes with hitting “Buy Now” and neglected the joy which comes from giving to others in need?  There’s a lot of need right now.  Maybe they exist out there on the interwebs, but I haven’t seen many listicles of the top things people are giving away or the top charities people are giving to during the pandemic. 

A crisis like the one we are going through can reveal a lot about our own character, values and beliefs.  It is perhaps when we most feel like circling the wagons that we most need to reach out with generosity.  Maybe this time offers us the opportunity to reassess our whole approach to buying more and more stuff, what the writer of 2 Timothy calls setting our “hopes on the uncertainty of riches.”  Maybe the uncertainty of these times can inspire us to turn our focus to God “who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.”  After all, often when we give in to the constant itch to buy more stuff we don’t need, we are merely using a materialistic solution to address a spiritual need.  Deep down what we want is to “take hold of that which is truly life.”

The paradox of following Jesus is that the more we give away the more we end up with that truly matters.  The more we give up the stuff that masquerades as “life” the more we discover what true life really feels like.

Grace and Peace,
Chase

Sometimes It Takes a Buddhist to Help Me Be Christian.

 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
--Psalm 150:6 NIV

 If you’ve gone to church for any length of time, some of the language can become a little too familiar.  The words can lose their meaning.  Phrases and ideas heard repeatedly in scripture readings, praise songs and hymns sort of become like a favorite pop song, commercial jingle or Christmas song.  One is so familiar with the words, their significance no longer sinks in.

 

It helps me to hear my tradition with fresh ears when I hear truth in another religious tradition.  Whether I’m reading something by a person of another faith or I’m getting to talk to someone of a different faith in person, I usually find not only am I learning to appreciate the faith of another tradition but I understand my own better.  This has especially been the case in reading the writings of the Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh.  For example, he writes:

 

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child — our own two eyes. All is a miracle.  

 

The Western world’s values of viewing the Creation of God merely as something to be used up for our own gratification has developed with the blessing of a Christianity that views the “material world” as inferior to the world of the spirit.  It is embedded in the heart of free market capitalism and exported around the globe.  

 

Yet, this Buddhist monk’s recognition of the miracle that exists in all creation reminds me to consider the parts of Christianity and the Hebrew Bible that recognize the earth not as ours to use like a tissue we wad up and throw away, but as God’s creation that we participate in but do not own.  “The earth is the Lord’s” declares scripture, but the present ecological crisis shows how we humans act in godless ways refusing to recognize the earth belongs to God not us.

 

Thich Nhat Hanh also writes about the miracle that is an ordinary loaf of bread:

 

When I hold a piece of bread, I look at it, and sometimes I smile at it. The piece of bread is an ambassador of the cosmos offering nourishment and support. Looking deeply into the piece of bread, I see the sunshine, the clouds, the great earth. Without the sunshine, no wheat can grow. Without the clouds, there is no rain for the wheat to grow. Without the great earth, nothing can grow. That is why the piece of bread that I hold in my hand is a wonder of life. It is there for all of us.

 

I buy my food at a supermarket, and it’s easy to forget everything involved in a “simple” loaf of bread.  There is the miracle of life itself and all the things in an ecosystem required for grain to grow.  There are the farmers who harvest grain, the people in bakeries who produce it, the people who transport it, the “essential workers” who stock it.  

 

Especially in these times of pandemic, where people literally risk their lives to put bread on store shelves, I ignore everything and everyone who has been involved in the bread coming to my table at the peril of my own soul.  As politicians debate the level of unemployment benefits, most of whom have never been hungry a day in their lives, I consider the low hourly wages of most of the people who produce the food I eat.  Many of the people who produce food for my family are paid wages that leave them below the poverty line and without medical benefits.  Each bite of a sandwich I take connects me to countless people and to creation itself.  It also reminds me of my ethical responsibility to the earth and to other people.

 

Most of all, Thich Nhat Hanh speaks of mindfulness that starts with paying attention to our breathing:

 

Enlightenment is always there. Small enlightenment will bring great enlightenment. If you breathe in and are aware that you are alive—that you can touch the miracle of being alive—then that is a kind of enlightenment.

 

Even though I believe in God’s grace, I don’t often live like it.  I hurry around trying to prove myself and act as if accomplishing more is that same thing as living in a significant way.  My prayers are hurried and harried instead of moments to connect with God who is present everywhere and in every moment.  

 

Christian theologian Theilhard de Chardin wrote this about the “breath of all creation:”

 

All living creatures are sustained by this life-giving rhythm, and we are dependent on plants, trees, and other vegetation to transform the carbon dioxide we exhale into the oxygen we need to thrive.

 

Our breath connects us with the “breath” of every living thing.  We are a part of the network of God’s creation.  We are not beings operating in a vacuum, separate from everyone and everything else.  We are a part of God’s living community.  Millenia ago, the Hebrew writers of the Psalms expressed the same truth when they sang, "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord."

 

Sometimes the truth of God sneaks up on us via someone of another religion so that we might rediscover the truth of our own.

Grace and Peace,
Rev. Chase Peeples