My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. 1 John 2:1-2
It was a tough choice this week--deciding what I would be writing about. What with Duke winning the South Region and making it to the Final Four and all... But given it's Holy Week, I felt that I should probably demonstrate some discipline and offer something a little more universally applicable. The number of folks out there excited about the Blue Devils heading to Indianapolis is fractional even among the handful of people who read this blog. But those who have a stake in what happens to Jesus this week... The interest here extends from one end of this world to the other, at least according to the writer of 1 John.
The generic version of this message is pretty familiar: Jesus died for the sins of the world. This is great news. And sometimes, it is enough to break through and give us the peace and the hope to carry on. But sometimes, we need to hear the full meaning of this message with a little more oomph. Sometimes we need to hear it as it relates to us and sometimes we need to hear it as it relates to others. I am thinking here especially of those people who like to fence-off the grace. Sometimes people want us to fit a certain model before they are willing to allow us into the fellowship of the saved.
There are, of course, all kinds of problems with this. First, we need to remember that our salvation does not rest on what the neighbors say! But what might be the biggest problem with this kind of thing is that it fails to fully honor what is accomplished in the life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. When we fail to see our neighbor's redemption, we indirectly deny the saving work of Christ. Although we may not mean to do so, refusing to accept Jesus' capacity to redeem others is a refusal to accept Jesus capacity to redeem us as well.
Now that is mostly a sermon consideration. And sermon considerations are often just that--they are considerations that are considered but not necessarily heeded. So we will not want to leave this up to that neighbor of ours who always seems to be looking down at us. That is, we don't want to leave the condition of our soul up to people who hold it in doubt. So this is something that we probably will want to take on personally. Sometimes we have to assert our inclusion in the message. Sometimes we have to say, this promise belongs to me too!
And it is not just that annoying neighbor who looks down on us. Sometimes, we are telling ourselves that we're not worthy or that there is something about us that makes it impossible for our lives to be reclaimed. And it is the same thing here... We may have to assert the Gospel message even to ourselves, even against our own experience or to the demons inside of us telling us that we're irredeemable.
The Scripture teaches that Jesus has died for our sins--and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world. This is a monumental claim--a claim that might make all the difference in the life of someone. Just remember... that someone is you too.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Reaping What We've Sown
This is one of those entries that I am sort of hoping will not be read by many people. The reason for this is twofold. First, I am not an expert in the subject matter. I am liable to not only be imprecise but perhaps judgmental as well. Second, it is not going to be particularly entertaining. It is going to take some time and words to explain some of this so the entry is likely to be long. I hope this is enough to deter the playful readers. At the same time, for those who have perhaps been thinking about this stuff, I hope that my comments here make some sense.
For some time now, small towns have been diminishing across our country. Small-town businesses have lost market share to big-box stores. Local restaurants have been replaced by cookie-cutter chains. Family farms have been sold or taken over and ultimately converted into large-scale, corporate production models. Meanwhile, manufacturing jobs in America have been drying up and/or moving overseas. Initially these were primarily blue-collar jobs. More recently, however, more technical positions have been farmed out as well. All this has been going on for some time but it has gone largely unnoticed or at least unconcerned by much of the population that has found refuge and success in cities and suburbs.
So blind were many professionals to all this that they were actually surprised when the economic crises reached them a couple of years ago. I remember coming to St. Francis and hearing nothing but bullish reports. No matter how bad things were getting outside Charlotte (see the history of textiles, furniture and tobacco), the people here seemed unfazed and exuberantly confident about the future. It was only when the banks failed and the handwriting was on the wall that many urban and suburban professions began to admit that the suffering might actually reach them.
Of course, at this point, all of this is old news. There is no going back and "preparing" for what has already come to pass. However there is still a future out there. There is still something on the horizon--something that we might want to begin thinking about before it reaches us and there is no longer anything that we can do about it...
Before I explain what I suspect is on the horizon, I want to draw attention to something--perhaps an unlearned lesson from the past: It seems to me that the reason we are where we are now is because the people of the cities and suburbs refused to understand that their lives were connected to the people in the hinterlands and small towns of this land. That is, as long as things were going well here, they didn't give much thought to how things were going out there. In fact, it would seem that many professionals carried on as though those other places and people didn't even exist. It seemed to me very much an attitude of "as long as I get mine..." Even during the so-called "boom years," there was a lot of suffering out there but most people paid it absolutely no mind.
So what might we learn from this? It seems to me that we need to understand that a person who lives in a different place and carries on at a different pace might just be our best friend. Some people don't need a 5,000 square foot house. Some people don't need a high profile job. Some people don't want to live in the city. But they still want to be free. They still want to have a life and be able to make a living and have some autonomy in their lives.
As long as we are competing with people like this, professionals are probably going to be able to get what they want. Which is kinda nice. Some people want the small town experience; others want a more fast-paced, urban life. That's what was economically good about the twentieth century. There was enough room and enough opportunity to go around. The competition fit the variety and the labor force well enough to keep most people satisfied.
When things began to change and globalization was initially breaking in, it seemed an even better situation for those who were able to benefit from it. Though it might have been tough on the hinterlands, professionals saw the advantage of farming out all those blue-collar jobs. Cutting costs was good for the corporations and those who were able to invest in them. While once the privilege of only the very wealthy, suddenly middle-class people were able to enjoy the miracle of passive income. Capitalizing on all that labor was profitable. Globalization was good...
But here is the thing... What happens as the competition increases--not just a little but exponentially? What happens when other hungry wolves catch a whiff of all this? It is one thing to compete with a couple hundred thousand farmers and small-town business owners who don't really want what you want anyway. It is another thing to compete with a billion people who are actually more driven than you.
You see, what is happening now is that this is all catching on. It is no longer just the labor money. The people that I am talking about are not interested in cutting your lawn or saving you a couple of bucks an hour. These people have come for the real jobs. They're sending their sons and daughters over here at a pace that we have yet to comprehend. And they are coming with an intentionality that makes even driven professionals look lazy. Take a look at the lists of valedictorians. Stop by an ER or a pharmacy. Look at the students that are going into accounting and finance... These are not people who came from rural North Carolina.
My point is not racist or nationalistic. It is simply to draw our attention to the horizon. The world is moving and it is moving against urban professionals in exactly the kind of way that it once moved against farmers and small-town business folk.
It is far too late to stop all this. And it would probably be wrong to do so anyway. However, I do imagine that we need to approach the future differently than we handled the past. That is, it seems to me that our lives are far more connected to our neighbor than we might now understand. The freedom and quality of life of all those farmers and small-town business folk is intricately tied to our own.
The economic world that we have known was closely tied to a political world that offered a quality of life to the individual that was somewhat independent of how much that individual earned. I think that this is important--something that we would want to hold on to. Many of the people who are now competing for the jobs of the future are coming from places that are less like this land in that regard. I do not know that this will matter but I suspect that it will. These people are coming from places that are also less inclined to tolerance. I fret to consider a world where the people at the top have little or no regard for those at that bottom.
For some time now, small towns have been diminishing across our country. Small-town businesses have lost market share to big-box stores. Local restaurants have been replaced by cookie-cutter chains. Family farms have been sold or taken over and ultimately converted into large-scale, corporate production models. Meanwhile, manufacturing jobs in America have been drying up and/or moving overseas. Initially these were primarily blue-collar jobs. More recently, however, more technical positions have been farmed out as well. All this has been going on for some time but it has gone largely unnoticed or at least unconcerned by much of the population that has found refuge and success in cities and suburbs.
So blind were many professionals to all this that they were actually surprised when the economic crises reached them a couple of years ago. I remember coming to St. Francis and hearing nothing but bullish reports. No matter how bad things were getting outside Charlotte (see the history of textiles, furniture and tobacco), the people here seemed unfazed and exuberantly confident about the future. It was only when the banks failed and the handwriting was on the wall that many urban and suburban professions began to admit that the suffering might actually reach them.
Of course, at this point, all of this is old news. There is no going back and "preparing" for what has already come to pass. However there is still a future out there. There is still something on the horizon--something that we might want to begin thinking about before it reaches us and there is no longer anything that we can do about it...
Before I explain what I suspect is on the horizon, I want to draw attention to something--perhaps an unlearned lesson from the past: It seems to me that the reason we are where we are now is because the people of the cities and suburbs refused to understand that their lives were connected to the people in the hinterlands and small towns of this land. That is, as long as things were going well here, they didn't give much thought to how things were going out there. In fact, it would seem that many professionals carried on as though those other places and people didn't even exist. It seemed to me very much an attitude of "as long as I get mine..." Even during the so-called "boom years," there was a lot of suffering out there but most people paid it absolutely no mind.
So what might we learn from this? It seems to me that we need to understand that a person who lives in a different place and carries on at a different pace might just be our best friend. Some people don't need a 5,000 square foot house. Some people don't need a high profile job. Some people don't want to live in the city. But they still want to be free. They still want to have a life and be able to make a living and have some autonomy in their lives.
As long as we are competing with people like this, professionals are probably going to be able to get what they want. Which is kinda nice. Some people want the small town experience; others want a more fast-paced, urban life. That's what was economically good about the twentieth century. There was enough room and enough opportunity to go around. The competition fit the variety and the labor force well enough to keep most people satisfied.
When things began to change and globalization was initially breaking in, it seemed an even better situation for those who were able to benefit from it. Though it might have been tough on the hinterlands, professionals saw the advantage of farming out all those blue-collar jobs. Cutting costs was good for the corporations and those who were able to invest in them. While once the privilege of only the very wealthy, suddenly middle-class people were able to enjoy the miracle of passive income. Capitalizing on all that labor was profitable. Globalization was good...
But here is the thing... What happens as the competition increases--not just a little but exponentially? What happens when other hungry wolves catch a whiff of all this? It is one thing to compete with a couple hundred thousand farmers and small-town business owners who don't really want what you want anyway. It is another thing to compete with a billion people who are actually more driven than you.
You see, what is happening now is that this is all catching on. It is no longer just the labor money. The people that I am talking about are not interested in cutting your lawn or saving you a couple of bucks an hour. These people have come for the real jobs. They're sending their sons and daughters over here at a pace that we have yet to comprehend. And they are coming with an intentionality that makes even driven professionals look lazy. Take a look at the lists of valedictorians. Stop by an ER or a pharmacy. Look at the students that are going into accounting and finance... These are not people who came from rural North Carolina.
My point is not racist or nationalistic. It is simply to draw our attention to the horizon. The world is moving and it is moving against urban professionals in exactly the kind of way that it once moved against farmers and small-town business folk.
It is far too late to stop all this. And it would probably be wrong to do so anyway. However, I do imagine that we need to approach the future differently than we handled the past. That is, it seems to me that our lives are far more connected to our neighbor than we might now understand. The freedom and quality of life of all those farmers and small-town business folk is intricately tied to our own.
The economic world that we have known was closely tied to a political world that offered a quality of life to the individual that was somewhat independent of how much that individual earned. I think that this is important--something that we would want to hold on to. Many of the people who are now competing for the jobs of the future are coming from places that are less like this land in that regard. I do not know that this will matter but I suspect that it will. These people are coming from places that are also less inclined to tolerance. I fret to consider a world where the people at the top have little or no regard for those at that bottom.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Right Brain; Left Brain
I took a series of psychological tests as part of my candidacy for ministry--a good idea I think. It can be annoying to spend three hours getting your head examined but if you have a need to get up in front of people every week to talk about God, then it seems a reasonable request... I heard somewhere that Jim Jones wanted badly to be a United Methodist pastor but he got derailed somewhere in the process...
There are a lot of tests out there. You take them for work or for personal growth or curiosity. Now some of these are a little invasive for me. [Hmmm, Mr. Evans, tell me more...] But I find the personality tests interesting. They're just about everywhere today. They range from complicated, detailed and expensive to simple, ten-question forms that you can fill out on the Interet. BTW, you kinda get what you pay for here. If you really want to know what makes you tick, it will probably cost you at least a little time and money.
I am not promoting the tests here but I am often fascinated by the realities that they seem to reveal. If you're fairly honest in answering the questions, you can learn a little about the wiring and the preferences that drive you. There are, of course, a handful of groupings and many subtle subcatagories but generally all this takes place across a continuum revealing our need and/or appreciation for structure. Some of us like our desk orderly while others of us have yet to notice that we have a desk. [Did you notice that I just took a pretty complicated subject (human personality) and reduced it to a yardstick.]
Like most people, I do not fit entirely on one side of the yardstick but I certainly have tendencies. I am a word guy, an idea guy. I can talk about four things at the same time and seemlessly fit them all together. But ask me to do something with them... Let's just say that I struggle a bit with the romance.
Nevertheless I've come to appreciate those on the other side of the ruler. I may not get excited about the process itself but I do see the value of the person who plans and I am fascinated by their capacity to turn goals, objectives and drawings into something that actually appears in the world. That's a very cool thing!
Of course, we need each other--we dreamers and doers. I am grateful for the many people who have to put up with me on their road to accomplishing things. And I hope that in some way I am making their trip a little more meaningful or enjoyable or at least funny.
There are a lot of tests out there. You take them for work or for personal growth or curiosity. Now some of these are a little invasive for me. [Hmmm, Mr. Evans, tell me more...] But I find the personality tests interesting. They're just about everywhere today. They range from complicated, detailed and expensive to simple, ten-question forms that you can fill out on the Interet. BTW, you kinda get what you pay for here. If you really want to know what makes you tick, it will probably cost you at least a little time and money.
I am not promoting the tests here but I am often fascinated by the realities that they seem to reveal. If you're fairly honest in answering the questions, you can learn a little about the wiring and the preferences that drive you. There are, of course, a handful of groupings and many subtle subcatagories but generally all this takes place across a continuum revealing our need and/or appreciation for structure. Some of us like our desk orderly while others of us have yet to notice that we have a desk. [Did you notice that I just took a pretty complicated subject (human personality) and reduced it to a yardstick.]
Like most people, I do not fit entirely on one side of the yardstick but I certainly have tendencies. I am a word guy, an idea guy. I can talk about four things at the same time and seemlessly fit them all together. But ask me to do something with them... Let's just say that I struggle a bit with the romance.
Nevertheless I've come to appreciate those on the other side of the ruler. I may not get excited about the process itself but I do see the value of the person who plans and I am fascinated by their capacity to turn goals, objectives and drawings into something that actually appears in the world. That's a very cool thing!
Of course, we need each other--we dreamers and doers. I am grateful for the many people who have to put up with me on their road to accomplishing things. And I hope that in some way I am making their trip a little more meaningful or enjoyable or at least funny.
Monday, March 1, 2010
here comes the sun... right?
Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right...
(G. Harrison, et al)
Weather.. It's a legitimation for complaining, right?
I talk to my mother almost every day (...golf clap...). Usually I call her on the way to work or traveling from one place to another during the day. Cell phones are great for things like this--it makes it very easy to stay in touch. Of course, the downside is that we used to use this time for thinking... Anyway, no matter how short the conversation, we always mention the weather. Part of this is because my mom lives in Iowa and people in Iowa have earned the right to not only talk about but complain about the weather. Of course, I live in North Carolina so I am generally countering my mom's pain with "No, actually it's blue skies and perfect here again today."
Less so lately though!
Frankly, I am hesitant to complain. I've seen lousy weather and this ain't it... Even so, here some interesting facts that I have learned this week:
• In the month of February, Charlotte had 4 days at or above average temp for this month and 24 days below average... I couldn't find reliable precipitation data but it seems safe to say that the drought is over...
• My sister lives in Sand Point, Idaho where the annual rainfall average is 34" and the annual snowfall average is 71". They have had next to nothing this winter...
• Meanwhile, Iowa is enuring the second worst winter on record and it might reach #1...
Of course, all this means next to nothing. But it does give us something to talk about.
When I was serving a parish in Watauga County, there was a woman in the church who used to get physically sick during the winter. The cloudy days would literally make her depressed. She would typically lock herself in her home for much of December and January. I think she probably had the money to spend those months in Florida but it never seemed to dawn on her to do that...
So I guess the point here is that if you are getting a little sick of all this, don't be surprised. And hang in there. I suspect that it will be warming up here one of these days. Although not this week--the weatherman said that there is another cold front coming to North Carolina this week...
One final complaint. It's not weather related... The Olympics are over. They were good as always... But NHL players, really? Who wants to see professional Americans playing professional Canadiens for the championship of what used to be amateur competition?
I was 15 in 1980 when USA won the gold. I played hockey and it was great to see college kids competing against the world's best. Seeing NBA and NHL Dream Teams just makes me tired. They could at least make them play outside or something. Now that would be interesting, how about they get a firetruck out to the Field of Dreams (there really is a place btw) and have those guys go at it in a frozen corn field. Or get Kobe and Lebron to play the Summer Olympics on a dirt court in Kenya. I'd watch that...
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right...
(G. Harrison, et al)
Weather.. It's a legitimation for complaining, right?
I talk to my mother almost every day (...golf clap...). Usually I call her on the way to work or traveling from one place to another during the day. Cell phones are great for things like this--it makes it very easy to stay in touch. Of course, the downside is that we used to use this time for thinking... Anyway, no matter how short the conversation, we always mention the weather. Part of this is because my mom lives in Iowa and people in Iowa have earned the right to not only talk about but complain about the weather. Of course, I live in North Carolina so I am generally countering my mom's pain with "No, actually it's blue skies and perfect here again today."
Less so lately though!
Frankly, I am hesitant to complain. I've seen lousy weather and this ain't it... Even so, here some interesting facts that I have learned this week:
• In the month of February, Charlotte had 4 days at or above average temp for this month and 24 days below average... I couldn't find reliable precipitation data but it seems safe to say that the drought is over...
• My sister lives in Sand Point, Idaho where the annual rainfall average is 34" and the annual snowfall average is 71". They have had next to nothing this winter...
• Meanwhile, Iowa is enuring the second worst winter on record and it might reach #1...
Of course, all this means next to nothing. But it does give us something to talk about.
When I was serving a parish in Watauga County, there was a woman in the church who used to get physically sick during the winter. The cloudy days would literally make her depressed. She would typically lock herself in her home for much of December and January. I think she probably had the money to spend those months in Florida but it never seemed to dawn on her to do that...
So I guess the point here is that if you are getting a little sick of all this, don't be surprised. And hang in there. I suspect that it will be warming up here one of these days. Although not this week--the weatherman said that there is another cold front coming to North Carolina this week...
One final complaint. It's not weather related... The Olympics are over. They were good as always... But NHL players, really? Who wants to see professional Americans playing professional Canadiens for the championship of what used to be amateur competition?
I was 15 in 1980 when USA won the gold. I played hockey and it was great to see college kids competing against the world's best. Seeing NBA and NHL Dream Teams just makes me tired. They could at least make them play outside or something. Now that would be interesting, how about they get a firetruck out to the Field of Dreams (there really is a place btw) and have those guys go at it in a frozen corn field. Or get Kobe and Lebron to play the Summer Olympics on a dirt court in Kenya. I'd watch that...
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