From Paul Turley

On May 6, 2012, people all over the globe witnessed the same event and yet each of them saw something different and expressed it in a different way. 

The night of Sunday, May 6, gave us a “supermoon,” or to use its proper astronomical name, the perigee-syzygy (perigee: closest point of an elliptical orbit; syzygy: straight line made of three bodies in a gravitational system) of the Earth-Moon-Sun system. About once a year the distance between the Earth and the moon is at its shortest at the time the moon is full, and on that night the moon looks bigger to us here on Earth.

The phenomena occurs across the globe, for those who are awake and waiting for it and for those who are asleep and unaware or uncaring about its occurrence, for those who have a clear sky and for those who sky is dense with cloud.

The supermoon is a wonderful metaphor for the Gospel. Christians believe that the action of God in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is a universal event that impacts all people everywhere. Some are aware and respond; some are unaware or don’t respond.

Those who do respond to God in Jesus the Christ, while they are all witnesses to the same good news, experience that good news in different ways and express that experience differently. If we decide that there is only one way or one set of words that must be used to describe the experience of being called and welcomed by God we diminish our experience of the experience and we do not gain from the experience of others. It would be as if we decided that only one picture of the supermoon was the real or authentic picture, that the rest had no or lesser meaning and value. What a sad state of affairs that would be!

Explore... Acts 1:15–17, 21–26

• What are some of the things that would influence people’s experiences of and witness to the phenomena of a supermoon?
• In choosing a replacement for Judas it was deemed important that this person be one who would be able to “become a witness” to Jesus’ resurrection. What do you think were Matthias’ credentials as a witness?
• In ancient Judaism the casting of lots was seen as a legitimate way of understanding God’s will. What legitimate ways do we have for determining God’s will in situations today?
• Christians represent a diversity of experience and responses to the actions of God in Jesus the Christ. If you were to write a gospel giving witness to your experience of the good news, how might it begin?

Pray...
God, you reveal yourself to us in so many ways in the world and in the Scriptures. Help us to gather and create more and more ways of describing and giving witness to your love and grace. Amen

Read more...

• Images from ABC News, May 7, 2012
• Images from The Guardian, May 6, 2012

From Ray McGinnis

There is a children’s Dr. Seuss story called “Twenty-Three Daves,” about a woman who had twenty-three sons and how she named them all Dave. While Pushpa Basnet, who is 28 years old, doesn’t have any children named Dave, she shares a two-story home with forty children and none of them are her biological offspring. They are children of parents who are serving time in prison in Pushpa’s country of Nepal.

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. As a poor country it doesn’t have the social safety nets available in many Western nations. Consequently, when an adult who is a parent is charged with a crime and sent to jail, their children must go to jail with them if there are no other relatives to care for them. The children can’t be left alone and the Nepalese Government does not provide housing for parentless children.

This is where Pushpa Basnet fits in. At the age of twenty-one Pushpa was studying social work. During her studies she went to a number of local prisons and encountered children among the prison population. When she tried to tell others about what she had encountered, people just laughed and thought she was crazy. But Pushpa didn’t give up.

Pushpa decided to do something and started a non-governmental organization to care for children of prison inmates. Some of the first children to participate in the program had never been outside a prison. “I would’ve probably always had a sad life,” said Laxmi, 14 years old. “But now I won’t, because of Pushpa.”

Since 2005 Pushpa and “The Early Childhood Development Center” have made it possible for over one hundred children of incarcerated parents to live in residential homes where they get the benefits of schooling, meals, and health care.

Explore…John 15:9–17

• Jesus calls his followers friends rather than servants. In what ways does this help to define the kind of love that is asked of this community?
• In what ways is Pushpa Basnnet living out this kind of love in her work with children of prison inmates in Nepal?
• Where have you seen people honouring Jesus’ teaching about love? What opportunities or challenges do you perceive in such a way of love?

Prayer links…
Loving God, because you place us in community with others, the opportunity to love is always there before us. Help us to live out Jesus’ command to love and to create communities of hope. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Read more…

• Kathleen Toner, CNN article and video, March 16, 2012
• Early Childhood Development Center 

From Ray McGinnis

Linda Thibodeaux and Jordan Merecka are two young people who met under unusual circumstances. When they were first introduced (by their physical therapists and nurses) Jordan was attached to a four hundred pound artificial heart (which he called “Big Blue”) and Linda was recovering from heart transplant surgery and needed to wear a face mask. But because they were both going through the same procedures they found it easy to break the ice and talk about their own journey of sickness and their hopes for recovery through the transplant operations.

Initially what brought them together were their medical conditions. But as they spent time together and got to know each other they discovered other things they had in common, such as a love of cooking and watching alligator shows. Their blossoming friendship helped Jordan and Linda support each other as Jordan waited for a new heart at the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston. Jordan got quite sick in October 2011 before a heart donor was found. It was around that time the young couple recognized that what they shared was a friendship that had blossomed into a romance.

“I felt like [I was] getting a whole new heart again, but it was him and it was a beautiful moment,” Linda recalls. As they look forward to a new life together, they joke that they always remember to remind each other to “take their meds.” Together they are also committed to signing up organ donors. “I wouldn’t be here without someone donating their heart,” said Linda. “It’s such a selfless act.”

Explore… Acts 8:26–40

• What prompts Philip to reach out to the Ethiopian official? What were some of the things they had in common? How was their encounter a catalyst for an encounter with the Spirit?
• What prompted Jordan and Linda to reach out to each other? How might their experiences make it possible for them to reach out to others?
• In what ways have you discovered things in common after reaching out to another?

Prayer links…
Creator God, help us to be open to the guidance of your spirit so that we may follow where you lead and be open to encounters that can transform. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Read more…

• Christi Myers, ABC, April 20, 2012
• A J Willingham, HNLTV, Atlanta, Georgia, April 23, 2012

From Ray McGinnis

In the film Iron Lady Meryl Streep plays Margaret Thatcher, England’s Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990. The movie introduces the viewer to an aging former Prime Minister with dementia unrecognized when she shops for groceries at the age of 82 in 2008. The movie jumps back and forth between episodes of her biography, starting with her youth, working in the family grocery store in Grantham, and inspired by her dad’s political speeches. World War Two brings out in her a tenacity to survive and succeed. She gets admitted to Oxford and gets her degree. She remembers her struggle, as a young lower-middle class woman, to break into the clique of aristocratic upper-class male-dominated Tory party and win a seat in the British Parliament in 1958. In the midst of her ambitions for political office, she accepts a marriage proposal by businessman Denis Thatcher. And while she does give birth to a daughter and a son, her priority is to launch her career as a politician. She states: “One’s life must matter, beyond all the cooking and the cleaning and the children.”

Type: Drama
Director: Phyllida Lloyd
Film company: Weinstein Company
Release date: December 30, 2011
Starring: Meryl Street, Jim Broadbent, Alexandra Roach, Harry Lloyd
Rating: PG

Focus: Thatcher struggles to find a place within the Tory party as the only female elected as a “Lady Member” of the House. Other members of the British Parliament laugh at her high voice. She doesn’t flinch and over time becomes Education Secretary in Prime Minister Health’s cabinet when the Conservatives defeat the Labour party in 1970. Dismayed by the leadership in her party, her choice to run for Leader of the Conservative Party involves taking voice coaching and careful attention to how she should dress in order to change her image and attain the mantle of Prime Minister. For the next eleven years she steers her nation in a direction that she believes is best for her people.

Explore…John 10:11–16

• How would you describe the Good Shepherd in Jesus’ teaching? How committed is the Good Shepherd to his flock?
• How committed is Margaret Thatcher to leading her nation? What does she sacrifice in order to become Prime Minister of Britain?
• Why do you think commitment so often requires sacrifice?
• Is there anything to which you have, or imagine you could, give a total commitment? What would be the reason for this kind of dedication?

Prayer links…
Persistent Shepherd, you seek after us and watch over your flock. You who wants us to know your voice, help us to hear your call. Guide us and inspire us to be committed to living lives of loving presence. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Read more…

• Jim Belfuss, in “The Bloodshot Eye,” January 12, 2012
• Matthew DeKinder in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 13, 2012

From Paul Turley

Life in Syria at this present moment is at best uncertain, and at worst, a brutal bloodbath. In this environment, with so much at stake, making good choices must be the hardest thing.

Der Spiegel, the German news magazine, gives us an insight into the pain and confusion inside Syria with their interview of Hussein. Hussein is a young Syrian rebel fighter recovering in Lebanon from a shrapnel wound he received in early March 2012 in the battle in Homs for Baba Amr.

Originally a salesman, Hussein at age 24, is now a member of the ‘burial brigade’ whose task is to execute captured government soldiers, with a knife to the throat.

From salesman to executioner in less than twelve months.

Hussein, who has been arrested twice and tortured, has also lost uncles and cousins at the hands of government forces and wants revenge.

Hussein not only considers his choice to act as executioner of government soldiers to be the right one, he considers it somehow inevitable. “Children in France,” he says, “grow up with French, and learn to speak it perfectly. We Syrians were brought up with the language of violence. We don’t speak anything else.”

While most of us cannot imagine what it must be like to make the choices that Hussein has to make, we too have to make choices between many conflicting truths.

Following the resurrection appearance of Jesus to his disciples, those men and women had a choice to make. Was the truth that Jesus was dead going to be the truth that defined their lives from now on? Or was the truth that they had experienced the presence of the risen Christ in a real and tangible way going to be the truth by which they lived?

For them and for us, this is a life and death choice. If the truth that everything ended at the cross prevails then there is no hope and the kinds of choices that Hussein and so many others make really do seem to be the only truth.

If, however, in mysterious and powerful ways, life goes on and death is not the final word, then this truth offers us all new and life-giving, life-affirming choices.

Explore... Luke 24: 36b–48

• Life for Hussein is lived on the extreme edge. In what ways can that be compared with the lives of the disciples following Jesus’ death?
• What other truths could Hussein be living out of in his current situation?
• How would you articulate the truth(s) of the Resurrection as it is described in Luke 24: 36b–48?
• What does the truth of the Resurrection mean for you in the way you live now?

Pray...
God, give us insight to see all the truths in any situation. Give us wisdom to know the truths on which we should build our lives and give us courage to live those truths. Amen.

Read more...

• Article in Der Spiegel, 29 March 2012

From Paul Turley

The long retreat from Afghanistan by the forces of the USA, Australia and the other members of the coalition is beginning. But what happens to the country now?

In an opinion piece in the Melbourne Age, columnist Hugh White tells us that one of the objectives of the coalition was to train Afghans to build and sustain a credible army and police force in order that they might maintain law and order and defend democracy once the coalition was gone.

White asks, “Does this sound credible?” Among other facts White presents is the following: “Last year, the former US ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, put the problem starkly. The Afghan army and police will cost about $4.5 billion in 2014, and the Kabul government’s total revenue will be $1.6 billion. Clearly the army will only survive if outsiders are willing to fund it indefinitely.”

White makes the obvious point that with the economies of the USA and Europe in a fragile state and the outlook unclear, funding for such a venture is uncertain at best.

Does this sound credible? It is a question we must ask of White’s work, of Eilenberry’s statements, of all of the information we receive about Afghanistan. It is a question we must ask ourselves regularly as we try to make sense of all of the information we are presented with throughout our lives. It is the question that Thomas and the other disciples had to answer for themselves in the days following Jesus’ death. It is a question we must ask ourselves this Easter and every Easter.

Explore...John 20:19–31

• What experiences was Thomas able to draw on to help him assess the credibility of Jesus’ resurrection?
• Why do you think this story of Thomas was included in the story of Jesus presented in the gospel of John?
• How do you decide for yourself what to believe and not believe regarding the situation in Afghanistan?
• What kinds of doubt do you consider helpful and life-giving?

Pray...
God, give us wisdom to know what is credible and what is not. Give us strength to not give up in the blizzard of information in which we live. Give us courage to act on the truths that we know. Be with us we pray. Amen.

Read more...

• Article in the Melbourne Age, April 3, 2012

From Sandra Rooney

It’s been a year since the earthquake and tsunami that devastated whole communities and claimed so many lives on northeastern coast of Japan. Among the stories that tell of the slow pace of recovery efforts and continued concern about the nuclear facility, there are other stories being told, stories of hope and life. One such story is about Atsushi Chiba, a retired undertaker in the small town of Kamaishi.

When rescuers were finally able to enter the devastated city and started pulling the dead from the rubble, they took them to a school, where the gymnasium quickly became a large morgue. Mr. Chiba recognized the trauma people would experience finding the bodies of loved ones, covered in mud, limbs rigid, their faces contorted in agony. In an interview, he said, “I thought that if the bodies were left this way, the families who came to claim them wouldn’t be able to bear it.” Understanding that respect for the dead is a way of comforting the living, he began going regularly to the morgue to prepare the bodies for viewing, soothing limbs tense with rigor mortis and applying a little makeup to make them appear less gaunt. 

The significance of what Mr. Chiba did is conveyed in the experience of Fumie Arai when she went in search of her mother. “I dreaded finding my mother’s body, lying alone on the cold ground among strangers,” she said. “When I saw her peaceful, clean face, I knew someone had taken care of her until I arrived. That saved me.”

And, at Mr. Chiba’s urging, Kamaishi became one of the only hard-hit communities to cremate all of its dead, in accordance with Japanese custom, even though it required using the services of crematoriums as much as 100 miles away. 

Kota Ishii, who spent three months in Kamaishi chronicling Mr. Chiba’s work, said the story shows how “small acts of kindness can bring a little humanity, even in a tragedy that defies all imagination.” 

As the community was preparing to mark the first anniversary of the disaster, a Buddhist priest paid tribute to Mr. Chiba for the part he played in the city’s emotional recovery. “Whether you are religious or not, mourning for the dead is a fundamental need,” he said.  “Mourning starts by taking care of the body.  It’s the last you see of your loved one, and you want to remember them as beautiful as they were in life.”   

Explore…John 20:1-18 and Mark 16:1-8

• Why did the women go to the tomb? What were they expecting?
• How do their experiences compare to that of Fumie Arai when she went to the morgue in Kamaishi, Japan?
• When have you witnessed God’s healing presence or new life during a time of tragedy?

Prayer links…
Oh Eternal Spirit of Life and Love, may we never forget the power of even small deeds of kindness to heal and transform. Continue to surprise us and empower us to be your witnesses to life and love for those facing darkness and despair. Amen.

Read more…

• Read more about the story of Atsushi Chiba

From Fraser Macnaughton

The drama of Holy Week surely has its contemporary counterpart in recent stories emanating from China where young Tibetans take drastic steps to publicise and protest on the 53rd anniversary of the failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. The latest protest according to the London-based Free Tibet group was 18-year-old Gepey, who self-immolated in Aba, a town that is under heavy security lockdown in the western Sichuan province. The group says Gepey was a monk from the town’s Kirti Monastery, the scene of numerous protests against the Chinese government over the past several years.More than two dozen Tibetans, including several teenagers, have set themselves on fire in China over the last year, protesting against China’s suppression of their religion and culture, and calling for the return of the Dalai Lama.

Chinese officials have sought to discredit Tibetans who set themselves on fire in protest at China’s rule over their region, calling them outcasts, criminals, and mentally ill people being manipulated by the exiled Dalai Lama. China blames supporters of the Dalai Lama for encouraging the self-immolations and anti-government protests that have led to the deaths of an unknown number of Tibetans at the hands of police. The Dalai Lama has praised the courage of those who engage in self-immolation and has attributed the protests to what he calls China’s “cultural genocide” in Tibet. But the Dalai Lama also says he does not encourage the protests, noting that they could invite an even harsher crackdown.

According to Wu Zegang, an ethnic Tibetan who is Beijing’s top administrator in Aba, “Some of the suicides are committed by clerics returning to lay life, and they all have criminal records or suspicious activities. They have a very bad reputation in society.” Wu Zegang said the self-immolations were “orchestrated and supported” by the Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence forces. He said that before setting themselves on fire, the immolators shouted, “Independence for Tibet” and “other slogans that aim to divide the nation.”

This is a sensitive time for Tibet, and for all of China. China’s annual legislative session has convened and it is a time when security is tightened across the country. March is also when Tibetans mark significant anniversaries, including that of the unsuccessful 1959 revolt that caused the Dalai Lama to flee, and the deadly anti-government riots that rocked the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in 2008.

Explore…Mark 14:1—15:47

• What do you think may be the common denominators that contribute to the stories of Holy Week and the Tibetan anniversary protests?
• What parallels can you draw between these two stories on a political level?
• About the same amount of time has passed between the Tibet revolt of 1959 and the revolts in 2012 as had passed between when the events of Holy Week happened and the time they were written in gospel form. In what ways do people become story keepers that enable a movement to flourish?

Pray…
As we immerse ourselves in the well known narrative of Jesus’ last days may we also be aware of the similar struggles for justice and peace and freedom that go on today, knowing that God’s way and God’s presence transcend all cultural and historical chains. Amen.

Read more…

• Article in the Guardian, March 13, 2012

From Fraser Macnaughton

When we think of broken relationships we tend to think of those familial inter-personal ones. But there are also those structural relationships based on trust between governments or institutions or between industries and the public. The story of Allen Stanford illustrates how hard it will be to reconcile broken relationships between banks or financial institutions and the general public, as well as with current and future potential customers.

Allen Stanford, a Texan financier, knight of Antigua, Washington power player, and the billionaire benefactor of English cricket, has been found guilty of orchestrating a $7 billion Ponzi scheme. After a six-week trial in Houston, Texas, a jury found him guilty of conspiracy and 12 other criminal charges, including obstruction. During the trial prosecutors argued that Stanford used his clients’ money to fuel his “lavish lifestyle and his loser companies” in a massive Ponzi scheme that spanned two decades. Stanford, they argued, conned investors into buying certificates of deposit (CDs) from his bank on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua, telling them they were a safe investment. By 2008 Stanford’s bank owed depositors more than $7 billion, money that it did not have, and Stanford had blown huge chunks of that cash on luxury yachts, private jets, and cricket sponsorship. The bank was “his own personal ATM,” said the prosecutor, William Stellmach.

In damning testimony James Davis, Stanford Financial Group’s former chief financial officer, told jurors that his boss was “the chief faker” – a man who threatened to fire anyone who questioned the $2 billion that prosecutors say Stanford pocketed from his Antiguan bank. As worried investors pulled out their cash, Davis told the court that Stanford had tried to use his beloved Antigua to bail him out. He cooked the books and the 1,500 undeveloped acres Stanford had bought on the island for $64 million were set to be valued at $3.2 billion.

Stanford was once considered to be one of the wealthiest people in the United States, with an estimated net worth of more than $2 billion. He’s been jailed without bond since being indicted in 2009.

Explore…Jeremiah 31:31–34

• The hope offered by the prophet is founded on the deep sorrow of a covenant ruined beyond redemption. In what ways have relationships and trust been broken in the situation reported on in the news story?
• Why do you think that regulations first needed to be introduced in the financial systems of the world?
• In the United Kingdom there is move to separate casino profits and investment banking from the accounts of ordinary citizens. People speak of this as a way of “restoring confidence” or “restoring trust.” What might our Christian faith have to say about the restoration of trust and relationships?

Pray…
In our technological world we are no longer encouraged to trust our instinct or go with our hearts. Experts always know better. May we learn from our mistakes, discern whom we can trust, and be reconciled to those who would trust us. Amen

Read more…

• Article in the New York Times, March 7, 2012

From Fraser Macnaughton

The long running Occupy London camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral has finally been ended by police and bailiffs. However there is continuing disquiet as to the extent of collusion between authorities and the Cathedral clergy. Indeed St Paul’s Cathedral has been accused of “betraying” the Occupy London activists after giving the City of London police permission to remove protesters from its steps and end the four-and-a-half month camp.

The cathedral’s decision, coupled with a previous high court decision obtained by the City of London, meant police successfully removed the entire Occupy London Stock Exchange camp from the square outside St Paul’s. Activists protesting against the financial and banking elite were told by bailiffs that they had five minutes to pack their tents and leave or they would be obstructing a court order. Hundreds of police officers with riot helmets stood ready beside dozens of bailiffs. Four people, believed by protesters to be police officers, were standing on the balcony of the cathedral. Soon after, police revealed to press that they had the cathedral’s permission to remove protesters from its steps.

“I was shocked to see policemen on the balcony,” said Naomi Colvin, a spokeswoman for Occupy. “It seemed to be collusion. Tammy [another activist] just gave an interview saying how betrayed she felt when she learned the cathedral gave permission for us to be removed from its steps…That wasn’t covered in the high court orders – it’s like St Paul’s has learned nothing from the last four months.”

Among those protesters was Jonathan Bartley, director of the Christian think-tank Ekklesia, who claimed he was kicked repeatedly by police and dragged away from the cathedral. “The tragedy is that while Christians were praying on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral, the cathedral gave permission for them to be forcibly and violently removed. The cathedral has backed and colluded in this eviction.”

Kai Wargalla, a 27-year-old student from Germany who has been camping at St Paul’s since the occupation began on October 15, 2011, said: “We hadn’t expected to be evicted from the cathedral steps because previously the church has said it would give us sanctuary when there’s a violent eviction.”

Explore…Psalm 107:1–3, 17–22

• What are your feelings as a Christian when you read this news story?
• How do think the radical ways of the gospel sit within contemporary economic models?
• When two points of view are so different what ways are there to achieve reconciliation?
• How do we reconcile two opposing group who would both claim that God's steadfast love is supporting them?

Pray…
When it is so hard to discern the truth and who is in the right, what can we do? When we see some of our community suffer at the hands of others of our community, what do we do? May we be bold enough to offer ourselves as reconcilers and as those who love others despite differences. Amen.

Read more…

• Article in the Guardian, February 28, 2012

From Sandra Rooney

It is getting closer to spring in the northern hemisphere and in spring we often find ourselves more focused on God’s creation. The earth seems to be reborn, hibernating animals awaken, and those whom winter has held captive are liberated. The activities of Earth Day, to be celebrated April 22, challenge us to acknowledge and accept our role in the continued blessings of creation. If only briefly, we recognize the wisdom of the Native Americans, and think of the implications of our decisions for seven generations and we see, if only dimly, the truth of Chief Seattle’s words, “Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons and daughters of the earth.”

Sparked by a twelve-year-old boy, wise beyond his years, a movement now called the iMatter Movement is mobilizing young people to take action on behalf of this and future generations. They are also working on training programs for young people and future events include a global day of marches and a large Earth Day event in Washington, D.C.

In 2006, when Alec Loorz was twelve years old, he saw the film An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore and says that he has been a climate change advocate ever since. Because of his age Loorz was rejected for Al Gore’s training program, so he says he basically trained himself. He started an organization (then called Kids vs Global Warming) and created a website, developed a presentation, and “somehow,” he says, “started getting invited to events all over the country.” Now 17, Alec has spoken to some 300,000 people from all over the United States and the world. 

Last year seven teenagers, led by Loorz, took a bold step. They filed ten suits against the U.S. federal government and individual states under a legal principle which holds that the government is responsible for protecting natural resources in trust for the public and future generations. The idea came from a group of attorneys whom Loorz got to know. They are developing a legal theory called Atmospheric Trust Litigation. Simply put, it says that the government has a legal responsibility to protect the planet and atmosphere for future generations. This responsibility is part of public trust doctrine and common law which have been around for many years. The preliminary hearing was to have been held in December, but at the request of the federal government it was moved from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. and a new date has not yet been announced.

The main thing that the teenagers are demanding is that the government develops a comprehensive plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and recognize the atmosphere as a public trust that must be protected for their generation and future generations. “Above all,” Alec says, “we are demanding that the people in charge of our future begin to govern as if our future matters.”

Explore…Psalm 19

• What does this psalm say about our responsibility for the creation?
• In what ways are Alec Loorz and the young people in the iMatter Movement taking responsibility for creation?
• What actions are you taking with regard to the earth, its soil and water and air?

Prayer links...
Creator of the heavens and the earth, as we praise you we also pray we may accept responsibility for our role in the degradation of our water, earth and air. Embolden us and give us the courage of our convictions to make a difference for this generation and the generations to come. Amen.          

Read more…

• Read more about Alec Loorz and the iMatter Movement
• Read more about the iMatter youth council and their suits against national and state governments
  • Yes! Magazine: Does the U.S. Have a Legal Responsibility to Stop Climate Change?
  • GOOD: Why 16-year-old Alec Loorz is Suing the Government

From Sandra Rooney

Tensions between peoples, tribes, and clans are as old as recorded history. In today’s world, religious conflicts and hostility appear to be on the increase. People talk about the need for interfaith dialogue, but what does that mean? Folks in the state of Utah in the United States are finding out.

Utah might seem a most unlikely place for serious interfaith dialogue to happen. Isn’t the population just Mormons? The answer is no, it isn’t just Mormons. March 8 marked the end of Interfaith Month in Utah, with dozens of religious groups participating in everything from tours of various religious facilities, to seminars, meditation gatherings, and service projects for adults and youth.

This remarkable month of interfaith activities got its start with the 2002 Winter Olympics. The Olympic charter requires host cities to provide religious services and counseling for all of the visiting athletes. It turned out that that not just the Olympic athletes benefited from having 45 faith leaders, representing more than 25 different religious groups, in the same place at the same time. According to Colleen Scott, publicist for the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable (SLIR), “There was so much fellowship that was created there that we said, ‘Let’s continue this.’” And continue it they have.

SLIR members meet monthly for a special luncheon and there are a variety of opportunities for members of difference religious groups to interact and work together, and come to appreciate each other. Robert Millet, a prominent Latter Day Saints (LDS) scholar, speaking about the importance of interfaith dialogue, said, “I am immeasurably grateful for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but at the same time, I have found myself, more and more often, looking into the eyes of those of other faiths, sensing their goodness, perceiving their commitment, and realizing more surely that God knows them, loves them and desires for me to love, respect and better understand them.”

This is the kind of attitude that is behind the events of Interfaith Month. One of the kickoff events was a service project at an interfaith homeless shelter in Salt Lake City. Tony Milner, the shelter’s executive director and a member of the United Church of Christ in Holladay, said, “I’m a big proponent of different groups interacting through service. Not discussing their differences at a forum, but just working together. Putting it into practice.” One of the highlight events is always the Interfaith Music Tribute, which was held Feb. 26. According to Alan Bachman, chairman of SLIR, “People are really missing out if they don’t come to the tribute. They will not walk out the same person.” 

Explore…Genesis 17:1–7, 15–20

• What legacy of kinship is found in this Genesis passage?
• How is this legacy being lived out through the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable?
• Where have you seen individuals or groups participating in this legacy of kinship?

Prayer links…
God of the multitude of nations and peoples, help us to see beyond the circles of our own kind, be they of race, or clan, or religion. Give us the grace to listen to others with open hearts and minds and extend the hand of friendship and cooperation to all with whom we share the joys and sorrows of this life. Amen.

Read more…

• The Interfaith Roundtable and Interfaith Month
• Feature story in the Daily Herald, February 4, 2012

From Sandra Rooney

It was just a year ago that the world was stunned by the devastating power of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan. Recovery efforts continue, but more than recovery, the earthquake and tsunami have spurred innovations to help deal with future disasters.

Shoji Tanaka, who was one of the many volunteers who went to the disaster zone to help with the clean-up, said he was “appalled by the horrifying damage.” However, the experience provided a creative incentive for Mr. Tanaka, who is both an inventor and the president of a Japanese engineering company.

A picture in the New York Times last month shows Mr. Tanaka standing amid several large yellow spheres. He calls his creation “Noah.” It’s his version of a modern ark and his answer to the possibility of another deadly tsunami. Made of fiber-reinforced plastic, the bright yellow globe, four feet in diameter, can withstand blows from a sledgehammer. Designed to hold up to four people, the pod automatically rights itself in water and can survive a 33 ft. drop.

The Noah, which has small air vents and a small window, is intended to be a temporary refuge in the event of a tsunami. People can get inside and be carried along by the water for one or two hours, until help arrives.

The Noah is already on the market, selling for $3,800. Mr. Tanaka has more than 1000 orders for the pods in Japan. He hopes the Noah will become a standard safety item in Japanese households.

Other innovations have resulted from Japan’s twin disasters. Yoshiyuki Sankai, an engineering professor, has been inspired to transform a device called a Hybrid Assistive Limb (HAL) which was initially designed to help patients who can’t walk by monitoring signals sent from their brains to their muscles. Sensors in HAL respond to the signals and then, basically, walk for the person. The robot suit is being used in hospitals in Japan.

Mr. Sankai was approached by a company involved with the cleanup of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. They needed a way to help workers who had to wear extremely heavy, anti-radiation tungsten vests at the site. The weight inhibited their ability to move about. Mr. Sankai is currently working on the prototype of a modified HAL. It is an upper-body frame, which supports the tungsten plates, which can weigh up to 132 pounds, shifting the way the weight is carried so the workers don’t feel it. 

Explore…Genesis 9:8–17

• How do you understand God’s presence and influence in natural disasters?

The Season of Lent can prompt sober reflection on the brokenness around us.

• What is the brokenness we see in Japan a year ago and today?
• What is this story of Japan’s recovery telling us about the role that creative imagination plays in rejoining that which is broken?
• What does the story help us to see about the grace of new beginnings?

Prayer links…
Life-giving God, we know much that happens in our world is beyond our control. We know, too, that you equip us not only to deal with the misfortunes that may befall us, but also to make choices that will affect the future. May we turn our energies to the future and use our gifts to continuing to make the world a better place. Amen

Read more…

• Article in the New York Times, January 22, 2012

From Ray McGinnis

The movie “The Way” takes place along a trail called El Camino de Santiago. It is a pilgrimage that begins in France and ends five hundred miles later in Spain, where the remains of the apostle St. James are said to be buried. Tom learns that his son Daniel began making the journey but died before he could reach the first check point. Faced with Daniel’s hiking gear and blank passport (there are many towns on the route and pilgrims receive colourful stamps on their passport at each one), Tom decides to honour his son’s memory by finishing the pilgrimage himself. Though he wants to have solitude at this time of sorrow, he soon meets up with fellow travellers from around the world, each with their own reasons for making the pilgrimage. Joost, from the Netherlands, is making the journey to lose weight. A Canadian, Sarah, wants to quit smoking. An American priest is hoping to beat cancer. Tom also meets a writer from Ireland whose novel is due soon, though he can’t come up with the first page. Each pilgrim is hoping to find an experience of transformation when the journey ends. As Tom makes his way, he scatters bits of Daniel’s ashes as he goes. On the road Tom begins to understand why Daniel was making the trip, and in so doing Tom finds parts of himself he had thought were lost.

Type: Adventure
Director: Emilio Estevez
Film company: Producers Distribution Agency
Release date: October 7, 2011
Starring: Emilio Estevez, Martin Sheen, Deborah Kara Unger, James Nesbitt
Rating: PG

Focus: Dr. Tom Avery is a small town optometrist who seems content with his life. He has his practice. He has his golf game. And, occasionally, he has contact with his son, Daniel (played by director Emilio Estevez, in flashbacks). It’s been some time since the two were in the same room. Daniel took off for France, over the objections of his father, who chided him about his life choices. “You don’t choose a life,” Daniel informs him. “You live one.” One day Tom receives the phone call and learns that Daniel has died. Tom makes the trip to France to retrieve his body. Little does he know that he is about to embark on the most important trip of his life.

Explore…Mark 9:2–9

“Thin places” have been described in Celtic spirituality as the place where the line between real and mystical becomes blurred, and earth and heaven seem to meet.

• In what ways was the Transfiguration a “thin place” experience for Jesus? For the disciples? 
• In what ways did his pilgrimage become a “thin place” experience for Tom?
• What difference do the companions that Tom meets on his journey make to his sense of what is important in this life?
• In what ways might those who companion us on the journey help open us to transformation?

Prayer links… 

Transforming God, your voice breaks through the clouds and we hear you reveal your presence among us. Help us to dwell with you without attachment and to trust in the unfolding journey before us. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Read more…

• Review in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, October 13, 2011
• Review in the Washington Post, October 7, 2011

From Ray McGinnis

The film War Horse is an adaptation of a novel by Michael Morpurgo. Although about war the centerpiece of the book and the film is the relationship between an English teenager, Albert, and his horse Joey. Compared with his earlier war movie, Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg has created in War Horse a movie that children and youth can engage as well as adults.

The tender and passionate relationship between the boy and the horse demonstrates what happens when life-giving relationships are torn apart by war and what is possible through unconditional love and a devotion that will stop at nothing to reconnect with “the other.”

Type: War/Drama
Director: Steven Speilberg
Film company: Buena Vista
Release date: December 25, 2011
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Jeremy Irvine, David Thewlis, Emily Watson
Rating: PG

Focus: The story begins on a small English farm, where Ted Narracott ends up paying way too much for a horse at auction, much to the dismay of his wife Rose. Their son, Albert, strikes up a strong bond with the horse, whom he dubs Joey. Together, they attempt to harvest a bountiful crop so that the family will not lose their home. When that plan doesn’t quite work out, Ted sells Joey to the army after World War I begins. An officer, Major Jamie Stewart, promises to look after Joey and return him to Albert as soon as the war ends. Meanwhile, Albert waits until he’s old enough to enlist so that he can try to find his beloved horse, wherever in Europe the horse may be.

Explore…Mark 1:40–45

The man with leprosy is not the same after he meets Jesus, and Albert is not the same after he meets Joey.

• How is Jesus a healing presence for the man with leprosy?
• How is the horse Joey a healing presence in Albert’s life? And how is Albert a healing presence in Joey’s life?
• Who or what has had a healing presence in your life or in the life of others you know?
• How do you know when you’ve encountered a healing presence in your life?

Prayer links… 

Healing God, when we are in need, you make us well. When we seek your presence, there you are. Help to believe that your healing presence seeks us out even today. Encourage us to ask for what we need. In Christ we pray. Amen.

Read more…

• Article in the Telegraph, January 12, 2012
• Article in the Quad-City Times, December 24, 2011

From Ray McGinnis

Welshman Simon Dale was concerned about living in homes dependent on fossil fuels. Dale wanted to live more sustainably and in harmony with the planet, so he found a very inexpensive way to build his own home. And he did it for a cost of about $US 4,700, building the house in just four months. On Dale’s website there are photos of his “low-impact woodland home,” revealing a fairy tale ambience sure to enchant young and old alike.

Simon Dale gives two reasons for building the home. The first is that he believes it is good for the soul. “Living your own life, in your own way is rewarding. Following our dreams keeps our souls alive,” Simon says.

Simon’s second reason is a bold plea for a new model of sustainability and right relation with the earth. Simon believes that the way humans are living on the planet is causing the earth to get sick. “Our society is almost entirely dependent on the availability of increasing amounts of fossil fuel energy.” Dale recommends small-scale permaculture land management systems centered around individual or small groups of dwellings.

With no architectural, carpentry or engineering background, Dale had to learn how to build his home from scratch. He used a shovel, chisel, and hammer, tools that have been around for many centuries. The one exception was a chainsaw which he used to cut down about thirty small trees. Dale’s home is constructed from wood, stone, straw, and has a sod roof. It’s heated with a wood fireplace and has a solar panel for power.

Explore…Mark 1:29–39
Simon Dale says that following his dreams and building his own home was sustaining, good for his soul.In this passage Mark portrays Jesus as one both engaged in healing ministry and the recipient of sustaining ministry.

• What are people seeking from Jesus? How does Jesus respond to their needs?
• What does Jesus do to sustain his ministry?

We too are invited to become healers in our time and circumstances.

• In what ways does Simon Dale’s home set an example of respect for creation and sustainability?
• In what other ways are people today seeking to provide life-giving, sustainable models and actions for the well-being of others?

Prayer links…
Creator God, you give us gifts to use in serving all of creation. May we live out our calling as we seek to minister to one another and to your world. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.

Read more…

• Article in Gaia Health, December 21, 2011
• Simon Dale’s Woodland home website

From Sandra Rooney

Media sources of many kinds inundate us with information. Politicians and pundits, as well as many religious folks, claim authority. Budgets for education are being cut across the United States and Canada. In this environment, how do teachers approach young people with the authority that makes their learning engaging and relevant? An innovative program called impossible2Possible (i2P), which offers learning tools free to any school that signs up, is seeking to do just that.

This program literally brings the world to the classroom. Rebecca Byerly, a contributor to The Christian Science Monitor, describes joining four young people from India and the United States, who ran more than 100 miles through the Thar Desert in northwest India. Canadian Emma Cook-Clarke, a recent high school graduate, was one of four youth ambassadors selected for the i2P expedition. It has turned out to be much more than just a run in the desert. The program intends to push young adults to reach beyond their perceived limits and use adventure as a medium to educate, inspire, and empower.

As they struggle with the physical difficulties of the run and the other challenges they encounter, they are interviewed by one another. Within hours the video is broadcast to hundreds of schools across the United States and Canada and several in India and Europe. Students in the schools are able to communicate directly with the runners through live streaming video. The world becomes their classroom as the students follow visually the youth ambassadors as they visit local hospitals in India and interact with children in the villages they run through.

Ray Zahab, himself a world-renowned adventurer, founded i2P in 2008. Zahab says the vision of the organization is to “use adventure to encourage a generation of leaders whose direct experiences and education will prepare them to lead social and environmental action all across the world.” Impossible2Possible is still in a development phase. The intent is to create a sustainable model with a curriculum that will engage teachers and students. The hope is also that young people who watch the struggles of the youth ambassadors will be inspired to push their own limits to achieve more than they might expect.

Explore…Mark 1:21–28

In the gospel story we hear that people were amazed at the “new kind of teaching” they witnessed in Jesus.

• In what way do you think Jesus’ teaching differed from the teaching style of the Scribes?

The innovative Impossible2Possible program is also about a new kind of teaching – one with a different kind of authority that is egalitarian and collaborative.

• What inspires or encourages you about the “new kind of teaching” of the i2Pprogram?
• In what ways do you see “authority” exercised in this form of teaching? How does it differ from more “traditional” styles of teaching and learning? Where do you see similarities?
• Where in your community or beyond do you see authentic authority that engages both teachers and students, where teachers can become students and students are teachers?

Prayer links…
Holy One, we know your call may come as a mighty wind or a still small voice. Help us discern true wisdom in the cacophony of voices that call to us, that we may be drawn to live our lives in ways that truly further the building of your reign. Amen.

Read more…

• Article in the Christian Science Monitor about the expedition in the Thar Desert
• About the program impossible2Possible

From Sandra Rooney

Ordinary people, doing what they can where they are, become extraordinary people. Frances Moore Lappé has written about such a person, Lucas Benitez, for the Winter 2012 issue of YES! Magazine.

Benitez came to the US at age 16 from Guerrero, Mexico, to work in the Florida tomato fields. He joined a small group meeting to talk about how conditions for workers could be improved. Benitez went on to play a leading role in the growth and successes of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) from its beginning. Lappé describes a 1996 incident when Benitez found himself compelled to act. Another teenage field worker had asked his foreman for a water break. The foreman denied the request, but the worker stopped for a drink anyway. When the foreman beat the worker brutally, Benitez helped spread the word about the attack and more than 500 workers gathered in protest. Over the intervening years, CIW has made slow progress and won some significant victories.

In 2001, Benitez was a driving force for a daring rescue of four Florida farm workers who were being brutalized by the growers. At great personal risk, he played an important part in the conviction of the two brothers who were responsible for the brutality and who had made millions holding workers against their will. According to the FBI, the brothers threatened the workers at gunpoint, promising torture and death if they tried to escape.

Benitez, now 35, doesn’t call himself an organizer but an “animator.” Lappé writes, “This distinction says it all to me: My greatest heroes aren’t those who perform acts of bravery that most of us would run from. They’re those whose genius is enabling others to find courage within themselves — to act, not as lone heroes, but in common cause with others.” As Benitez puts it, animators are “people who animate the community to join and struggle together.” His goal is to make “the Florida tomato industry a model of social accountability,” and today they are focusing on the supermarket industry in the United States. Whole Foods Market has signed the Fair Food agreement and CIW is putting pressure on Trader Joe’s and Publix. Benitez says creating alliances with church and student organizations has been one of the keys to CIW’s victories over the last two decades. These alliances, along with the efforts of people like Benitez, enable farm workers to experience dignity and a clear sense of purpose.

Explore…Mark 1:14–20

Benitez speaks of himself as an animator, one who enables and encourages people to join together and work in a common cause with others.

• In what ways is Jesus an “animator” in the story of the call of the fishers? How does he inspire the fishers to find courage within themselves to “move forward” together?
• Where in your community do you see people devoted to a cause, inspiring others to follow?
• When have you experienced someone calling forth in you an unexpected, and perhaps life-changing, response?

Prayer links…
Holy one, you call each of us to participate in making this world a better place. But we are often fearful and timid in the face of change. Give us the courage to act boldly when circumstances require it and the wisdom to know when that is. Amen

Read more. . .

• Read about Lucas Benitez and 14 other people: The YES! Breakthrough 15
• Read more about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers

From Sandra Rooney

For weeks now, we have watched the news from North Korea following the death, on December 17, of Kim Jong-il who ruled the country with an iron hand following his father’s death in 1994. Soon after the announcement of Kim’s death, the ruling Workers’ Party and other state institutions issued a joint statement naming Kim’s son, Kim Jong-un, “the great successor to the revolution” and “the eminent leader of the military and the people.” Speculation continues regarding the potential implications for South Korea and the rest of the world as the 28-year-old Kim Jong-un assumes leadership of the country and its expanding military and controversial nuclear and missile program.

On December 28 thousands of people lined the streets of Pyongyang, wailing and pounding their chests as Kim’s coffin passed by. “How can the sky not cry,” a weeping soldier standing in the falling snow said to the state TV. The dramatic scenes of grieving show the extent of the personality cult build around Kim Jong-il, in spite of severe economic hardship and a massive famine that killed hundreds of thousands.

At the same time as this event the global community shared the Czech people’s sense of loss at the death of Vaclav Havel on December18. Havel, a poet and playwright, was also a dissident who refused to keep quiet during the years of communist rule. During that time Havel was in and out of prison and lived for two decades under secret-service surveillance. Though Havel’s plays and essays were banned he refused to keep quiet and ultimately became the behind-the-scenes negotiator who brought an end to 40 years of communist rule. This was a peaceful transfer of power, known as the Velvet Revolution, and was accomplished in just two weeks without a single shot being fired. “It was extraordinary the degree to which everything ultimately revolved around this one man,” wrote the historian Timothy Garton Ash.

Havel, self-described as a reluctant politician, became the first post-communist president of Czechoslovakia. After the country split in 1993, he became president of the Czech Republic, forging links with the West and enabling the Republic to enter NATO and the European Union. In his native country, Havel was regarded with both deep affection and ambivalence, even scorn. Foes mocked his slogan during the revolution that truth and love must prevail over lies and hatred, accusing him of being naïve. But Havel never lost his idealism and would sign his name with a small heart.

Explore…1 Samuel 3:1-10, (11–20)

• What message for our times do you find in this week’s focus scripture text?
• When have you experienced what you considered a call? What did it require of you?
• How do you judge the authenticity of “call” for yourself or others?

Prayer links…
Gracious God, we sometimes both await and fear your call. We pray that we may keep our minds and hearts open to the possibilities you offer for serving you. May we have the courage to accept the call to live out your ways of love, compassion and service. Amen.

Read more...

Vaclav Havel

• Article in the New York Times, December 18

• Article the New York Times, December 24

Kim Jong-il

• Article in the New York Times, December 19

• Article in the Washington Times, December 28

From Fraser Macnaughton

There can be few clearer senses of new beginnings than that of the Kalahari Bushmen of Botswana in southern Africa. In 2002 the Bushmen were evicted at gunpoint from their desert villages and re-located to camps outside of their ancestral lands. Soldiers prevented their return and vandalised wells, blocking their water supply. An intensive campaign by organisations such as Survival International led to legal challenges to the Bushmen’s eviction, and the eviction ruling was overturned in 2006.

The Botswanan high court ruled that the Bushmendid have the right to live on their ancestral lands; three judges stated that they had been deprived of possession of the land “forcibly, wrongly, and without their consent.”The court also found that the government’s refusal to issue the Bushmen with special permits allowing them to be in the reserve was unconstitutional, while its failure to give them special hunting licences was both unlawful and unconstitutional. Lawyers for the Bushmen called the decision a “resounding success.”

More than 1,000 Bushmen had been evicted from the giant Central Kalahari reserve, amid scenes some described as ethnic cleansing. The Bushmen claimed that they were thrown off the land because of diamonds.By an unfortunate geological chance, the central Kalahari game reserve lies right in the middle of the world’s richest diamond-producing area. The diamond deposit at Gope, in the centre of the reserve, was valued at $3.3billion. The Bushmen’s leader, Roy Sesana,said, “They were drilling in an area that people have as their ancestral land. Our ancestors are buried in that land. The Bushmen were chased off their ancestral land because of diamonds.”

In the ruling of 2006 the Bushmen appeared to have won a famous legal victory in their long-running battle to hang on to their ancestral lands. However the court’s ruling met with only partial success. In 2010, when a group of Bushmen brought another case before the courts because their well remained sealed in concrete, the high court ruled in favour of the government this time. Finally, in a decision in January 2011, the Botswanan appeals court found that the Bushmen did indeed have the right to use the well, and to sink new ones. The court said that the government’s conduct towards the Bushmen had been “degrading.”

Hundreds of Bushmen have now returned from the resettlement camps, and a South African organisation, Vox United, plans to drill more wells next year. Mining for diamonds will start in 2013, but Gem Diamonds, which bought the rights from De Beers, plans to work with the Bushmen. Even the Botswanan press, once fiercely against the Bushmen, has changed direction.

The Bushmen of Botswana have been terribly damaged, but new beginnings now seem possible. Mr. Sesana said he was heading back to the Kalahari: “My ancestors need my presence in the reserve, they are waiting for me.”

Explore…Mark 1:4–11

John baptized people as a sign of their repentance, a choosing to go in a new direction. Mark presents Jesus’ baptism as a starting point in Jesus’ ministry.

• Where in the story of the Bushmen are there starting points, new beginnings? For whom?
• What are some other examples of indigenous peoples receiving justice for past wrongs and being enabled to make a new beginning?
• What systems in your community, your country, and the world do you think need to be challenged in order to bring about change and new beginnings?

Pray…
A new year is a time both to reflect and move on. New beginnings happen all the time. May we be more aware of the opportunities in our community to make fresh starts and to see how life can flourish in new beginnings. Amen.

Read more…

• Article in The Guardian, December 13, 2011