November 28, 2007
Dear Friends,
Thanksgiving is over and doesn’t it seem that Christmas already looms ahead.
I am thinking about the marvelous movie our own Donald Gallagher is in which opened at the Cinema Village (22 E. 12th Street in NYC, www.wwjbmovie.com ). It’s called “What would Jesus Buy?” I hope you can see it. It’s about the money we spend and the people whose lives are affected by all the products we buy. It’s about he people who paint the toys and who sew the towels. It’s also about a courageous group of people (The Reverend Billy and the Stop-Shopping Gospel Choir) who cross the country in a bus, stopping off at various Wal-Marts and malls and then finally joining the parade at Disneyland (where they are arrested). The movie attempts to make us conscious and to present us with the possibility of not participating in this consumer madness. It also makes us aware of the gap we try to fill in our hearts with all this stuff – the byline “Joy to the world, debt has come” announces the film.
The point is not “Now, nice people don’t spend a lot of money at Christmas.” The point is this: We are people who have intense and strong needs for love, for comfort, for play, for each other. We are made that way. And when it does not work out (which it never completely does…I mean never forever) we get angry…we scavenge for anything that can fill that need. And our scavenging actually hurts real people. In the movie it’s the people who are paid less than a living wage to make the crap which lasts us only moments. But in our lives we hurt the people we use to fill needs they can never fill. We ask too much of our broken bothers and sisters. “Be here for me whenever I need you.” And who can live up to such a need? Here’s my question: As we march towards Christmas, who or what have we targeted to meet our need?
This would all be so hopeless if there were no Jesus. What I love so much about the message of Jesus is that he understood this deep hunger – and he never said “ Oh just control yourself…want a little less…” He never forgot about the people being hurt and the ways we have been hurt. So he goes to the cross. Maybe you think I am saddening the moment to think of the cross at this time of year. It should be a baby in a manger. But this was a baby who was sent to fill all the hunger this world ever had. This was a baby who would fill our hearts and give us what we are really looking for. That’s why he looks like a grown-up in all the old paintings even when he is sucking from his mother’s breast.
August 8, 2007
Dear Friends
I am back from a wonderful vacation in Ireland where I swam, rode horses, hiked and had hours of time with my daughter Hannah and many friends. It was a peaceful and restful time and more so than other vacations I have had. I think it was peaceful because I guarded the time, I didn’t take paperwork with me and I didn’t place expectations on myself to accomplish anything. It was also peaceful in part because I knew Nick Lannon, our new assistant minister and Chrissy Beyer our new full-time administrator would handle anything that came up with grace and thoughtfulness and care. I knew that our leadership would be ready to give time and energy to any problem, and I had the feeling of being lifted up by this Grace Church community to rest and relax.
When I was younger I thought such rest was easy to come by. After years of having left for vacations only to return to resentment and upset and sometimes even real destructive behavior I now know what a gift the peace is. Analysts, who often go away for August, say there patients spend a few sessions just being furious in September, furious that they have been abandoned, left, snubbed by their August break in treatment. Many teenagers find themselves compelled to provoke a fight with their parents in order to leave for college.
You think about all that went on when Jesus left to die on the cross. Peter acted out, he said “I’ll die for you” and then just days later “I don’t know the man”. The disciples slept, went unconscious. A bogus trial, a crowd of insanity screaming “crucify him” … That was the departure scene with Jesus.
Yet there is Mary. Wonderful blessed Mary, anointing his feet and feeling the whole truth of his leaving. Letting herself love him and at the same time experiencing her heart break. She showed real love. The kind of love I had this summer allowing me to rest. Maybe the kind of love we all have from Jesus allowing us to rest.
I remember the first time I knew this truth. Departing 8th grade. The door closed now comes High School (which felt like complete adulthood). I walked down the street and thought “if these last years have meant anything then they will never leave no matter where I go, I will bring all I have learned with me.”
So it is with all of us…No?
