More Than Stone

Ok, so I have 3 people that check my blog and it has summarily inspired me to post something witty and clever. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything. An update will have to suffice. I am currently going back to school for nursing and am having to retake all my sciences since it has been longer than 5 years since I was last in college. “5 years!”, you say, “How could that be? You couldn’t be a day over 25”. Ahh, my friends, alas, I am a bit over 25.

As I age, (ever so gracefully), the aforementioned sciences are kicking my young looking behind. Frankly, if I were to make a solution containing 33.6 g KCl with a total volume of 250 mL, I don’t care what the molarity of the solution is. Perhaps you do. If you find that question intriguing, maybe you’d like to take my final for me. My email contact info is below. Amidst my sciences, I am also taking a survey of the Old Testament and wish I had more brain power to dedicate to this class, as I’m really enjoying it. In the meantime, I’d like to leave you with perhaps the most blasphemous lament in the Scriptures. I find the honest humanity of Jeremiah in this text absolutely intriguing.

A brief history: Israel had already been crushed. Judah was on the way out with the Babylonian storm clouds right over the horizon. Yahweh has demanded that Jeremiah speak truth to Judah, who has her head in the sand. Now his friends want to kill him for raining on their parade. So, Jeremiah, takes Yahweh to task. Amidst his railing against God, Jeremiah praises God, then promptly wonders why God didn’t just kill Jeremiah in the womb. I love the raw nature of this lament.

Jer 20:7 O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.
Jer 20:8 For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.
Jer 20:9 If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
Jer 20:10 For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” say all my close friends, watching for my fall. “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.”
Jer 20:11 But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
Jer 20:12 O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.
Jer 20:13 Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.
Jer 20:14 Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed!
Jer 20:15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, “A son is born to you,” making him very glad.
Jer 20:16 Let that man be like the cities that the LORD overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon,
Jer 20:17 because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great.
Jer 20:18 Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?

A benediction

My brothers and sisters
When you are confronted with your own inadequacy, may you be reminded that Christ is enough.
When you are confronted with your own weakness, may you find strength in Christ.
When you are confronted with your past and all the ways in which you are not good enough, may you be confronted with your present and your future and all of the ways in which Christ is good enough.
When you are confronted with despair, may you have the hope of Christ.
May you truly come to see that, in Christ, you ARE a new creation.

I’ll never forget April 20th, 1999. The day of the Columbine shooting. My children were all in elementary school. I sat in front of the television all day crying. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing. Though Colorado and high school children seemed eons away, that day’s tragedy is burned in my memory for all time.

Yesterday, at about 10 am, my daughter called me to ask if I’d seen the news. I hadn’t, so I switched it on. At that time, the news channels were saying there had been a shooting at Virgina Tech, one dead and 7-8 wounded. I couldn’t believe it. VT is right down the road. We know loads of kids there. We know plenty of parents that have kids there. We know tons of alumni. Within 10 houses of ours, we know 3 kids that currently attend VT. Virginian’s tend to go to Virginia schools, and VT is one of the top schools of choice for kids in our area. As my daughter and I continued to watch the news and talk on the phone, the death toll rose. By early afternoon, some news channels were saying 32 dead.

Rescue efforts had been hampered by high winds and injured kids could not get life-flighted out to trauma centers. Shortly after the reports of 32 dead, my cable went out. An hour later, the power went out, as a transformer blew up just 3 doors down. My husband left work to pick up our youngest from school, as the fire department had our road closed. As the four of us sat there, without electricity, we began to talk about the day’s events. My 2 youngest daughters (freshman and junior) recounted their day at school. My youngest had a friend whose sister went to VT and she cried all day. The teachers at my middle daughter’s high school would not let them see the television, but news traveled anyway. They reported how they too, heard the death toll rise as the day went on.

At one point, we went outside to see what was happening with the live electrical wire in our street. A neighbor recounted a story of a son of a family friend. Apparently, he’d been shot in the arm, and was one of the few that survived in the classroom. Most of the kids were dead, and at some point, he decided to pretend he was dead too. I later found out that the boy was Derek O’Dell, who is currently all over the news. He graduated from my middle daughter’s High School in 2005.

As the day progressed, we had little news, due to our power outage. We began to light candles to give us light in the house. It had been an odd day. When the transformer blew up, my daughter and I had both been outside and it was really frightening. We had no power and were, at least for a time, trapped in the neighborhood, with police tape blocking our way out.

It seemed appropriate to have the electricity out. It seemed appropriate to lack access to our normal ways of life. It seemed appropriate, on this day, to recognize how helpless we really are. How fragile our constructed, systemized notions of civilization really are. To realize that our dependence on our modern way of life, is not only is an illusion, but is a hindrance to our recognition of our only true source of consolation and confidence.

Virginia Tech and college kids are not eons away, as Columbine seemed that day 8 years ago. They are both right here….in my house….in my neighborhood…..in my community.

Today, as Virginia Tech, the community, and the nation grieves, I hug my kids a little more. Life is momentary. Life’s comforts are a trick of the light. Safety is a figment of my imagination.

Today, my prayer is simply this:

Now may the God of endurance and comfort give you unity with one another in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(Rom 15:5-6)

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have. Friends have bound me to earth; enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world.

Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless and do not curse them.

They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world. They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself. They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments. They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself. They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance. Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish. Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a [fly].

Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background.

Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand.

Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep.

Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out.

Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of your garment.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me:

So that my fleeing will have no return; So that all my hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs; So that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul; So that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins: arrogance and anger;

So that I might amass all my treasure in heaven; Ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.

Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself. One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends.

It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies. Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and my enemies. A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand. But a son blesses them, for he understands.

For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life. Therefore he freely steps among them and prays to God for them. Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

By Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic

Abot 5:10 There are four sorts of people. ` He who says, “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours” —this is the average sort. `And some say, “This is the sort of Sodom.” ` “What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine”—this is a boor. ` “What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is yours”—this is a truly pious man. ` “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine”—this is a truly wicked man.

The ancient Jewish sages, in the above quote from the Mishna, state that the run of the mill individual has the mindset of “what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours.” They also liken this attitude to the Sodomites.

There are two words in the OT that are frequently translated righteous or righteousness. One is ‘tzedek’, the other, ‘yashar”. The word translated righteous in the above verse is tzedek. Tzedek (Hebrew: צדקה) in Judaism, is the Hebrew term most commonly translated as “charity”, though it is based on a root meaning “justice”. The word charity in Hebrew, ‘tzedakah’ comes from the root word ‘tzedek’ or justice.

Allow me to take a moment to compare the definitions of just/justice to righteous/righteousness in English before comparing the words tzedek and yashar in Hebrew.

Righteous:
1. Morally upright; without guilt or sin: a righteous parishioner.
2. In accordance with virtue or morality: a righteous judgment.
3. Morally justifiable: righteous anger. See Synonyms at moral.

Just:
1. guided by truth, reason, justice, and fairness: We hope to be just in our understanding of such difficult situations.
2. done or made according to principle; equitable; proper: a just reply.
3. based on right; rightful; lawful: a just claim.
4. in keeping with truth or fact; true; correct: a just analysis.

Yashar
1. upright
2. straight
3. right
4. upright behavior

Tzedek
1. justice
2. equity, balance
3. to have a just cause

So often, when Christians throw around the term righteousness, we are referring to being morally upright, when often, scripture is talking about justice and fairness to others. ‘Tzedek’ is more than legal justice. Perhaps ‘tzedek’ is the practical attempt to return things to a better balance in which power is restored to those who do not have any because of the imbalances that human activity inevitably produces. Perhaps righteousness includes just and proper social order to the helpless, the poor, the oppressed, the widow, the orphan, the resident alien, in legal procedures, in worship, all effected by God’s “Tzedek-Tzedekah” (justice and charity).

Lord, may we pursue tzedek, and not be led astray. Amen.

Who Am I?

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

March 4,1946

John Smulo says:

“I could develop a list of things to say sorry about that could go on until tomorrow. But over the last few weeks I’ve been thinking through a few different ways for the Christian community as a whole to say “we’re sorry”.”

If you’ve ever regreted the way you’ve acted, or things you’ve said “in the name of God”, take a look at John’s website and join the chorus of apologies.

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