In case of an emergency, please tell my story

I held my grandfather’s wallet the other night. It is black leather and worn smooth from a few years’ use. Curiously, I held it in my hands a moment or two before exploring its contents. I saw his membership card to the National Letter Carriers’ Association as well as the receipts for the annual dues he’d paid. I read a notice raising his salary to just above $5,800 a year. In his own handwriting, he'd filled out the “In case of an emergency” card to say: Mrs. Hazel C. Newell. I saw pictures of her and their three sons. He also carried there his driver’s license and social security card.

I imagined it was the same wallet he’d used when buying his three sons each an Almond Joy as a gift upon his return from World War II. I wondered if that was the same wallet from which he took his tithe to the Clark Street United Methodist Church. I speculated further that this money pouch was never really used as a place to hold his money, but was used to hold pieces of his identity.

I held in my warm hands links to a person I'd never met. He died before I was born, but he was most definitely someone I knew. From my early years as a child, I was told story after story about the character of my grandfather - the veteran, the church leader, the coach. Introducing me to him, folks would say, “I played ball for your grandfather. He was a fine man.” I held in my hands something that had been in his hands the last day he lived. That day he got up, got ready for work, winded his watch and put his wallet in his pocket. He went off to deliver the day’s mail and was killed when another vehicle smashed into his mail truck. It was then, perhaps, that his wallet was taken from his pocket to notify his nearest kin.

On Thanksgiving night, the same wallet that was pulled from my grandfather’s lifeless body was now in my hands telling his stories one more time.

living alone with a stranger is no fun place to be

I continue to think that the most central question we ask or think about is one of identity. Who am I? The question has been asked in other ways. “What do you do?” or “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I might ask it this way, “Who do you want to be when you grow up?” Do you want to be who mom and dad say you should? Do you want to be who your friends say you should? Do you think in terms of “I want to be like this person or that one?” Many of us do. Our identity is wrapped up in what someone else thinks about us or wants/hopes for us. The question of identity is rooted in our decision to please them or have them like us.

The book I keep saying that everyone should read is Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, by Parker Palmer. He gets at it this way. In all of our lives, we may find that we are “wearing other people’s faces,” rather than revealing who we really are and showing our true selves. We wear the faces given to us by our parents, our teachers, our ministers, our peers. As time goes on, it becomes more and more difficult to wear our own God-given faces, to see the “image of God” in which we were created.

So, the challenge is this, begin a journey of self-discovery. As it has been said elsewhere, life is best understood as a journey rather than a destination. Along the journey you might just find a little more of who you are.

you may say i'm a dreamer, but i'm not the only one

I admire poets. No. That’s not quite accurate. I envy poets. The spring from which their work flows is the imagination. The source of the poetic is imagination. There’s no clear set of rules to be a poet. There’s no boundaries to speak of. There’s only the imagination, a pregnant world of ideas that gives birth through creativity. Poets know this. But, I wonder about those of us who read the Bible.

I think that imagination is the key to understanding such an ancient text as the Bible. While some suggest that proper interpretation requires certain theological borders, I believe the word from God comes in a “still small voice” which makes one free rather than captive. It is a voice of liberation, not oppression. It’s the difference between knowing what the Biblical text meant and imagining what it means. Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." It is one thing to “know the Bible.” It’s another thing to engage in imagining what it means.

Does this mean that anything goes or that whatever our imagination creates is justified? By no means! It is God’s voice that speaks, not our own. It is the faithful witness of a community that leads us from self-centered pride to self-sacrificing humility. Pride asks the question, “What does this mean to me?” Humility asks, “What can this mean for us?”

Imagination unlocks interpretation. Reading the Bible in the same way a poet fashions a poem opens the possibility that mere words on a page may reveal the Word of God.

Are We There Yet?

I cannot help but think that early explorers such as Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, and many others set out on their quests without the slightest idea where they would end up. Being an explorer is like that. It’s adventurous, risky, and even scary. Furthermore, as you set sail, I suspect that the primary focus is on the journey more so than the destination.

Faith is the same way. While there are many from a modern perspective who turn faith into a destination, my postmodern hunch is that there are countless pilgrims, pioneers, and explorers who do not (cannot?) have a clue where this journey called faith will end. And this poses no problems for us postmodern mariners. Let me be more specific.

Faith is about taking risks instead of finding security.
Faith is being adventurous not apprehensive.
Faith is facing the fear of uncertainty.

I have experienced people of faith who have all the answers. They know exactly where they’re going, how to get there, and how long it will take. But I wonder, isn’t it rather easy to have faith when you have it all figured out. Is that even faith at all?

Faith is hard. Faith is not knowing where we’re going, but getting in the boat anyway. Paul Tillich said, “Doubt is not the opposite of faith. It is an element of faith.” I like that. I like that because, like you, I have doubts. Like you, I have questions.

Perhaps the Indigo Girls put it best, “There’s more than one answer to these questions pointing me in a crooked line.” I don’t imagine that the explorers sailed all that straight. Why do we expect to do so? Maybe more than once, the crew would ask their captains, “Do you have any idea where we are?” And the captain might say, “I know exactly where we are. We’re on a journey.”

Faith is an exploration.

Just to be Clear

When it comes to communicating the gospel, I wonder if we provide a message that is blurred, thus often misunderstood. I am speaking here not just of “preachers,” but any of us who attempt to say something, anything, about God, Jesus, the Bible, or the Christian faith. Just how clear or even appropriate is our rhetoric when our motives are more concerned with winning than loving.

“If I speak in the tongues of…angels,” perhaps only angels will understand what I am saying. Furthermore, it is often the case that what we speak isn’t the real problem. “If I…do not have love,” what I am saying might be the noise of arrogance, pride, or selfishness. But, love transcends. Love goes deeper. Love clears the muddy waters. Love translates our foreign words into the native tongue.

Frederick Buechner puts it this way.

“English-speaking tourists abroad are inclined to believe that if only they speak English loudly and distinctly and slowly enough, the natives will know what’s being said even though they don’t understand a single word of the language.
Preachers often make the same mistake. They believe that if only they speak the ancient verities loudly and distinctly and slowly enough, their congregations will understand them.
Unfortunately, the only language people really understand is their own language, and unless preachers are prepared to translate the ancient verities into it, they might as well save their breath.”

Communicating the gospel takes more than just preparing our words, what we think, what we believe, and so on. We must prepare ourselves to love perhaps even before we speak.

Who knows? Maybe that love will translate our words into gospel.

What can you do that you’re not doing?

The lack of action to meet the needs of others is sometimes astounding. We play off acting responsibly as something that can’t be done because of our lack of ability. When it comes to serving others, we often ask the question, “should I?” I think a better question is “can I?” If the answer to the latter is “yes,” then action must be taken. I think this is the general idea of Bono’s commencement address to the 2004 graduating class of the University of Pennsylvania entitled “Because We Can, We Must.”

What can you do about the situation in Africa?
What can you do about poverty in America?
What can you do about politics?
What can you do about anything?

What's "more?"

One day this summer, I was driving to pick up my daughter from day camp. On any given day, you can find the radio dial in my truck set to listen to WUNC, my source for NPR, Car Talk, Prairie Home Companion, and Back Porch Music. This day was different. Having become bored with the news that Republicans and Democrats cannot get along, I switched the station to the Triangle’s "Hit Music Channel." I found that the cure to boredom is inspiration.

The song that rocked me back to my teenage days was “Meant to Live” by Switchfoot. The next day a friend gave me a copy of their CD, “The Beautiful Letdown,” and I have been inspired ever since. (My daughter has even enjoyed some head-bangin’ to these tunes and, like her dad, she likes it loud!)

Beyond their stimulating rock and roll music, their lyrics are deep and insightful giving (at least me) a glimpse of a postmodern perspective.

We want more than this world’s got to offer.
We want more than the wars of our fathers.

Critics of the first postmodern generation, Gen X, label us as the “me” generation. By this they mean that we are self-centered and only interested in getting more and more and more for ourselves. And one might see that message in these lines. I do not. The desire for “more” is qualitative, not quantitative. We want a deeper life. We want life that has more meaning. We want something better for the world than buildings that crumble, companies that are unjust, and institutions that corrupt. What’s “more?” One answer could be community. Community that is strong, just, and incorruptible.

What’s “more?” You tell me.

All Christians...

The basic premise of a course I took on Christian ethics in divinity school was “Ethics is the Essence of Christianity.” Without giving you even the slightest glimpse of the nature and direction of this class, I must say that this statement is a radical one. On the most basic and foundational level, Christianity is about what we do, our ethics.** This stands in contrast to the position that espouses Christianity is (only?) about one’s system of beliefs. What we as Christians believe is vitally important to how we describe ourselves or how we invite others to be a part of our faith communities. Furthermore, it might determine what is unique about us. However, what often happens concerning our beliefs is that they are used to divide us from others. This is neither a good description of who we are, nor is it inviting to others who may be seeking some kind of faith community. The question, then, becomes: “What is unique about Christianity?” A wide range of responses are the result.

What if it were easy to complete this sentence: “All Christians…”?

I do not suppose finishing this sentence is an easy task. But, I do suggest that a good place to look would be Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:34-36. Maybe then we could finish the sentence.

All Christians…feed people who are hungry.
All Christians…give a drink to the thirsty.
All Christians…welcome strangers.
All Christians…clothe the naked, take care of the sick, and visit those in prison.

This describes Christianity as driven more by ethics than beliefs.

It strikes me as ironic that even as Christians are dividing themselves based on beliefs, Jesus divides based on ethics.

Just what did those sheep believe that made them different from the goats?

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**I prefer a simple definition of “ethics” to mean one’s actions, values, morals, politics, etc., rather than another term for what one believes or what doctrines are held.