If I could pray to Saint Martin…Saturday Petition

St. Martin,

Patron Saint of earth-shattering justice, peace, and love what do you think about all those monuments, streets, boulevards, parades, and highways named in your honor? How would you like to be honored?

I offer this petition to you while reflecting on one of the seven woes given by Jesus to the Pharisees in the way they venerated the prophets of Israel’s past:

Matthew 23:29-32:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!

St. Martin I can not help but possess a bitter/sweetness in the way our society venerates you as a Civil Rights leader and prophet. It is sweet in that venerating you is a sort of invasion of the pantheon and panopticon whiteness that continues to pervade our culture. I see the foisting of your name, some of your words, some of your ideas, and symbols as an interruption of our regularly scheduled cultural broadcast. Your entering into the pantheon of American heros is an apocalyptic event that uncovers that powerful performance called race. The recognition of your presence by many seems to suggest that the ‘other’ is beginning to break through the tyrannical same-ness of Euro-centrism and white supremacy.  It also says that a level of goodness has progressed in our society.

But it is bitter as well. In the gospel story I mentioned earlier the prophets were venerated post-mortem by those interested in maintaining the status-quo. Jesus suggests that the prophets would have been killed by those same prophet-venerating Pharisees  had they  lived in their time. I see the way we honor you in this same light. There is a certain image of you that has been created by those at the center of things that has become quite comfortable. It is the Dreaming King they love. But what of the King that wanted to turn over the moneychanger’s tables of American political-economy? The King that mourned our cultural habits of thingification and crass materialism? The King that railed against a nation, in madness, in its use of violence towards others? The King that opposed the war in Vietnam and making the connections between imperialism, poverty, and racism? That King. Have we honored you faithfully?

(St. Martin responds)

Brother Anthony I can see that you have zeal for social justice. I too shared that zeal. It would culminate in my message about that Beloved Community. It would get me killed at a young age whereby I would miss out on the raising and growing up of my children and growing old with my precious wife. I know this zeal more than you know. It is like that old prophet once said, “its like fire shutup in my bones.” It is the drunkeness that comes from having tasted the goodness, mercy, and justice of God. That community that is but not yet. What Jesus referred to as the kingdom of God.

As I recall I never claimed myself to be a prophet. I just did the work of one. If you were to do a brief survey of the Hebrew prophets it was the ‘dabar’ of God (word of the Lord) of the prophet that made one a prophet. The prophet is a messenger sent by God to deliver a ‘word’. So the question is never really about are we honoring the prophet. The question is this: are we honoring the ‘word’ the prophet proclaimed before God and the people. I don’t really care if people honor ‘me’ perse. I care about whether or not people honor the ‘word’ that cost me my life.  A word that played a part in bringing about the liberation of millions of people. A ‘word’ that would inspire other movements of social change in my day.

My question to you brother Anthony and those listening in on your prayer session is this:

When they build those monuments, those street signs, special News reports, when McDonalds has a special meal deal in my honor, when the Postal Service creates a special stamp in honor of me….are they honoring the ‘word’ I was sent to deliver? If not, then I’d have to say that to the extent that they do not honor the word of the Lord I proclaimed then they do not honor me. For my life was given as a love offering to the world because of that ‘word’.

(me)

But Martin. What was that word of the Lord that was like fire shutup in your bones? What was the word that would cause you to proclaim in your last sermon, “I am not fearing any man…I am here to do God’s will.” What is that word of the Lord that may be partially honored today in our culture?  If we are not honoring the total word you preached, then what are we honoring when we say we honor you?

(Martin Responds)

I think we need to pray more on this brother Anthony. For the hour is late and you have a family to attend to. We’ll continue this prayer session tomorrow.  However, I will give you a brief answer to reflect on before our next session. Forgive me for answering a question with a question:  have mountains been made low and valleys raised?  To extent that we do not incarnate that word is the extent to which I am not honored nor the word of the Lord that I was sent to proclaim.  We’ll continue tomorrow. Shalom

If I could pray to Saint Martin…

I wonder what my prayers would look like if an Evangelical Protestant like myself was allowed to pray to canonized saints. 

I wonder what my prayers would look like if they were addressing slain prophet Martin Luther King Jr.. 

What would we talk about? 

Of course…good Pentecostal that I am I would expect two-way communication.  I would expect a response from the person I am addressing.   

But if I could pray to St. Martin what would the conversation be like?

Although I do not believe in praying to saints (no disrespect to my Catholic brothers and sisters) I wonder what a prayer session with St. Martin would be like. 

Can you imagine that? 

This weekend on the eve of observing Dr. King’s b’day I will be hosting three prayer sessions with Saint Martin. Each day I will begin with an opening petition.  I will begin tomorrow.

What will he say to me?

Saturday Opening Petition:

St. Martin,

Patron Saint of earth-shattering justice, peace, and love what do you think about all those monuments, streets, boulevards, parades, and highways named in your honor? How would you like to be honored?

Sunday Opening Petition:

How do we preach and give witness to the gospel today?

Monday Opening Petition:

How should we Dream today?  

Advent Reflection: Salvation Came From The Cut

 

 A Postcolonial Advent Meditation 

The Jews of Jesus’ day were waiting for the coming Messiah.  Like the Jews of Jesus’ day we are waiting as well.  We are also remembering the coming of baby Jesus and the anticipation surrounding his advent.  Along with waiting we are asking for both a personal and communal advent.  During this season we are longing to be renewed and reminded of the old, old Story.  We ask God to trouble the stagnant waters of our souls. 

As we meditate on this story we may hear a call to participate in this Story: 

And Mary said:  
   ”My soul glorifies the Lord  
    and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,  
 for he has been mindful  
      of the humble state of his servant.  
   From now on all generations will call me blessed,  
    for the Mighty One has done great things for me—  
      holy is his name.  
 His mercy extends to those who fear him,  
      from generation to generation.  
 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;  
      he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.  
 He has brought down rulers from their thrones  
      but has lifted up the humble.  
 He has filled the hungry with good things  
      but has sent the rich away empty.  
 He has helped his servant Israel,  
      remembering to be merciful  
to Abraham and his descendants forever,  
      even as he said to our fathers.”  

Mary gives expression to a hope shared by many Jews of her day: a deliverer will come to defeat and plunder the powerful while simultaneously lifting up the poor, the humble, and the tortured victims of Empire.  In my experience such a reading is not commonplace in our North American Churches. Usually the advent is rehearsed as a celebration of the mechanical fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. There will be many sentimental performances of the Nativity scene throughout the country this week.  There will be readings from the prophet Isaiah and the Gospels pointing out how Jesus ‘fulfilled’ prophecy.  There will be little mention of the very real historical situation of Mary and Joseph’s world.  A world ruled by the Roman Empire.  A world where 5% of the inhabitants owned 95% of the land and resources leaving the scraps to the other 95%.  Where the Romans reigned victoriously over its colonies.  The news of victory called the gospel. 

Are we being called to participate in the story laid out by Mary?   

In our meditation maybe we will remember that Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus were numbered among that 95%.  That these were folks who lived in the forgotten places of Empire.  In a word, baby Jesus was born in what would be a historical parallel to the ghetto.  It would take a book to lay out the development of ghetto life in connection to North America’s imperial reality. The story of Jesus’ birth tells us that Mary gave birth to him in a manger.  A manger was the last place a person would want to have a baby.  It would have been extremely unsanitary for a new born child.  We have heard this all before.  We get it.  Jesus was born of low estate.  What of today?  What are the parallels today?  If Jesus were to be born in our time and place locus imperiium where would he be?   

He would have been born in the cut.   

What is the cut you may ask?  The cut is a space between houses in the projects (i.e. the ghetto).  It is a space where all kinds of inhumane illegal activities take place.  It is also a space where the homeless sleep.  A landscape of broken crack pipes, heroine needles, nihilism, despair, and many other domestic symptoms of Empire.  It is a space in the urban imagination, at least mine, where you are reminded that this is a forgotten place.  A place at the bottom.  But even in the midst of the bottom and despair resides hope and community.  It is not completely overtaken by nihilism and the many other leftovers of Empire.   

I believe Jesus would have been born in the cut.  The Word of God, God Incarnate, King of Kings, Lord of lords, Emmanuel would have been born in a space we drive by everyday in our gentrifying communities.  Those spaces we either know nothing about or care little for.   

Is this where your imagination takes you when you celebrate Advent?  If not, then I am afraid your imagination has been disciplined more by the story of Empire than that of the Advent. It is truly a subversive thought:  the salvation of the world came from the cut!

   

Thinking about the ‘war’ on terror…

Ideas are often bulletproof.  However, they are rarely immune to good rhetoric, persuasion, and integrity.

Lectio Divina: Luke 4:18-21

 

Meditation.  Initial thoughts: Jesus is hopeful.  I am too cynical.  Lord deliver me from this overly-cynical body of death!

In reflecting on this passage I realized where my postmodern sensibilities stop. I believe one of the most dangerous temptations of living in a postmodern age, believe it or not, is not moral relativism (a danger to be sure…but one that needs qualification…the relativist still believes in something!).

It is cynicism. A quote from African-American poet Maya Angelou is apropos:

“There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.”

There is a fine line between being prophetic and being a cynic. The cynic can easily fall prey to a world void of hope with no possibility of a better day. Being suspicious of absolute truth claims can be a profound moral practice. Being overwhelmed by suspicion to the point where no ‘truth’ speaks and no one can embody the ‘good’ can easily lead one down a path of apathy…apathy towards life, the journey, walking closer to God, and participating in projects that make the world a better place (even if it is a small corner of the globe).

No! We can not let cynicism rule us. Be prophetic! Rail against the Powers! Imaginatively hope beyond the present boundaries erected by varied interests. Let us be hope-filled realists…not hope-less idealists.

“A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.” - H L Mencken

…and this too

1. We believe that the triune God is the origin and the ultimate goal of all things; and that, through Jesus Christ, we are called to give our allegiance to God and to make the Church our true dwelling place. We believe that the claims of Christ have priority over those of the state, the market, race, class, gender, and other functional idolatries. “You shall have no other Gods before me” (Ex. 20:3). 
2. We believe that communal worship is the heart of the Christian life. We seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit to bring our everyday practices into greater conformity with our worship, such that our entire lives may be lived to glorify God. Similarly, we pledge to give and receive counsel about how we might better embody the Gospel in its individual and communal expressions. “Praise the Lord; praise the name of the Lord; give praise, O servants of the Lord” (Psalm 135: 1). 
3. We believe that the church undercuts its own vocation when it compromises with the institutions, allegiances and assumptions that undergird the “culture of death” in our world. We remind all Christians that, in rejecting the sword and other lethal means to advance His goals, Jesus set an example for all of us who seek to follow Him. While accepting rather than imposing death may still be foolish and scandalous in the eyes of non-Christians (cf. 1 Cor. 1:23), it remains central to what it means to follow a crucified and risen Messiah. We believe that the process of renewing the church in our day requires Christians to rethink all those values and practices that presume a smooth fit between killing and discipleship no matter how disturbing or divisive this reappraisal may be (cf. Matt. 10:34-8). Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). 
4. We do not accept the ultimacy of divisions imposed on the Body of Christ — whether they be national borders, denominational divides, cultural and social stereotypes, or class divisions. We seek to restore the bonds of ecclesial unity and solidarity that are always under threat from the powers and principalities of the present age. “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, . . . nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38-39). 

From Ekklesia Project 

Super-King Returns

I saw this Boondocks episode on this past MLK day.  Sometimes black folks have to be self-critical.  I am convinced that King would say something like this if he returned.  Me thinks.

I’ve been tagged!

My brother Glenn over at Glorious has tagged me! 

He's sent me a Faith Reflection Meme:

1.  List three words that describe your faith.

Improvisational, tried, and child-like

2.  Describe one belief about which you are very certain and one belief with which you struggle.

One certain belief? I'll be dead one day.

One belief I struggle with?  I'll be dead one day.

3.  What is your mission in life?

Love God, love neighbor.  To be soul-ful.

4.  Describe one thing that interferes with you authentically living out your faith.

 The feeling that I have nothing to offer the world.

5.  What is your favorite story from the Hebrew Scriptures?  Why?

When a group of youth are eaten by a bear for making fun of the prophet Elisha.  Why?  I don't know but that story always gives me a sadistic chuckle.

6.  What is your favorite New Testament story?  Why?

Pentecost.  Why? God did it then…surely God can do it now.

7.  Describe a meaningful action you took because of your faith.

I drove all the way across the country (from the Seattle area) to plant a church in Charlotte, NC…with a wife and (at the time) 3 kids, no health care, no job prospects, and as we were driving across the state line in to NC we had about $25.00 in our pockets.

8.  Does your faith differ from that of your parents?  If so, how?

Honestly, I don't know.

I9.  Who or what was most important in the development of your faith?

I white brother named "Paul"  from the hills of West Virginia.  This was back in my pre-Jesus days.  He wasn't an 'intellectual' but was bright with the love of God.

10.  Pass it on!  Tag at least two other religious/faith bloggers .

Rod Garvin and Xyborg.