Boy, it’s been a while. With the start of a new quarter, I can always find time for a “study break”. I’ve been enjoying this unique band, The Welcome Wagon, off Sujan Stevens label, Asthmatic Kitty Records. There’s not much evidence of them in video form on the internet – at least not of the songs I’ve been especially enjoying (“But For You Who Fear My Name” & “He Never Said A Mumblin’ Word”). I did find this nice contribution by someone who was better than me and actually did something about that lack of video presence (thanks!). It’s “I Am A Stranger” – enjoy:

John Poole/NPR

NPR posted the first long interview with Roxana Saberi today since her return home from Iran. It sounds like the “buying alcohol” and espionage charges were all untrue. She made a false confession to being  a U.S. spy and talks about then recanting and why she recanted:

“so I made a false confession and I said, “Yes, I’m a U.S. spy.” But because my conscience got the better of me and the God that I believe in — the God that I thought had abandoned me when I was first in prison — I realized [he] was always with me. And I realized that he was not pleased with what I had done by making this false confession. I recanted my confession, knowing full well that I would jeopardize my freedom.”

It’s fascinating because by recanting she knew the prosecutor would be mad and sure enough they were and she went to the one hour trial that initially ended with an eight year prison sentence:

“And indeed, that’s what happened: The prosecutor got upset with me for recanting my confession and sent my case to trial instead of freeing me, and that’s when I was sentenced to eight years in prison. I knew this was going to happen when I recanted my confession, but I told myself, I would rather tell the truth and stay in prison instead of telling lies to be free. And I didn’t want to set an example for people to come after me, that they have to give confessions in order to be free. Because even if you become free after telling lies, I felt, my conscience would always remain behind bars.”

“Because even if you become free after telling lies, I felt, my conscience would always remain behind bars.” Impressive woman.

Working in ministry means you get invited into some of the most intimate times in people’s lives – both the joyous and tragic, and sometimes they overlap. I had the honor of doing the funeral earlier this year for Walt David, an older man I admired greatly from my home town. It truly was a bitter-sweet time of honoring the man and seeking to encourage his family and friends. Yesterday, Eugene Cho posted a poignant entry on his blog about the recent death of his congregant and friend, Craig Wong. When Kristi and I were attending Eugene’s church, Quest, after leaving the Seattle Vineyard, I would hear reports of Craig’s battle with brain cancer, though I did not know Craig or his family.  Throughout his treatment, writes Eugene, Craig began sharing “life lessons”:

Over the past 15 months, rather than wallowing in self pity, Craig had been preaching, teaching, speaking, calling, writing, emailing, and blogging to as many of his friends and family and anyone else who were willing to listen.  He wrote on his blog and called them “Craig’s Life Lessons.”  I believe that the Holy Spirit was impressing such things upon his heart and so in a desire to honor Craig’s life and faith, I want to share Craig’s 7 LIFE LESSONS with you:

Life Lesson #1:
None of you should fear death either. What you should fear is “not living” Make sure that you truly live during your life. Don’t just coast through life. Don’t just go through the motions. If you do, you will miss out on the gifts that God has provided for us. Make an effort to spend quality time with your kids everyday; Spend regular quality time with your family and friends. Don’t miss out on what life has to offer.

Life Lesson #2:
Don’t put things off. If you’ve been wanting to take a trip with the family or If you’ve always wanted to do something – do it now. Don’t put it off – there might not be a tomorrow.

Life Lesson #3:
Don’t take anything for granted. Live a good life. Be thankful to God for everything that you have. Be thankful for your family. Cherish the time you have with them. Be thankful for your health. Be thankful for being able to be carefree. Be thankful for every moment that you have on this Earth.

I’ve posted the first three here but you should head over to Eugene’s blog to read the others. It’s a wonderful list and a great testimony to Craig’s life.

I spout a lot of fan-atic words about Bono and his band U2. But my appreciation of him goes beyond his status as front man for the greatest rock band in the world. I also realize he does more to debunk his neo-messiah and straight-laced Christian status than anyone ever could – he is not perfect. But he has had his mind altered by a love for Africa and a passion for the plight of many Africans. And he gets the biblical concept of justice – its power and its demand to not be ignored – better than most 52-week-a-year-church-attending Christians. As Bono puts it about 1/2 way through the talk below:  “It’s a pain in the arse, this equality business.” So this study break is a little headier but just as melodic in it’s own way with a message as powerful as “Pride (In the Name of Love).” It’s Bono’s 2005 acceptance speech for the TED award.

“He loved the picture, don’t get me wrong, but he just couldn’t get over
the war,” his mother, Maureen Dwyer, said by telephone from her home in
Sunset Beach, N.C. “He wasn’t Joseph anymore. Joseph never came home.”

Dwyer’s parents said they tried to get help for their son, appealing to
Army and Veterans Affairs officials. Although he was treated off and on
in VA facilities, he was never able to shake his anxieties.

Dwyer became the ‘face’ of the rebuilding efforts in Iraq four years ago. Today, may the story of Dwyer’s life and struggles increase the aid returning soldiers who are battling PTSD deserve. You can read a full obituary on Dwyer here.

Finally, speaking for myself, I can draw a straight line from Joseph Dwyer’s story and Barack Obama’s Op-ed piece, “My Plan for Iraq,” in yesterday’s New York Times. Maybe you can too.

Must be my blue-collar ‘Jersey roots…dragging in my ‘72 Camaro, cruising down to the boardwalk in my convertible with Mary , Roy Orbison playing too loud…oh wait, that’s not really me. But today in class at Fuller, I was reminded of a somewhat dormant love I have for Bruce Springsteen’s music – I still wince when I remember how my ‘87 powder-blue Ford Escort ‘ate’ 2 of the 4 Springsteen Box Set cassettes.

From articles in Catholic periodicals to multiple Mystery Science Theater 3000 references (one of the little robots called these lyrics the greatest ever in rock n roll: Wendy let me in, I wanna be your friend, I wanna guard your dreams and visions. Just wrap your legs round these velvet rims and strap your hands ‘cross my engines!), Bruce is everywhere. We heard a good lecture from Jeff Keuss today entitled “Darkness on the Edge of Town: The Gospel of Hope According to Bruce Springsteen”. Gotta love it – and tomorrow is U2 day! If i were on the College of Cardinals I’d nominate Keuss for Pope.

Now Wendy and those “Born to Run” lyrics above might be a little racy for catechism, but Bruce grounds many of his lyrics in dense imagery of faith, sin, redemption and resurrection. This is part of why, having seen U2, Dylan and Van Morrison, The Boss tops my musical ‘Bucket List’. Springsteen gets a bad rap as “the poor man’s Bob Dylan”, and while I understand this sentiment, I say y’all need to dust off your Flannery O’Connor books and give the Jersey boy another chance (he did endorse Obama after all). Plus, Clarence Clemons inspired one nerdy anglo 5th grader named Ryan Beattie to pick up the saxophone! From an America: The National Catholic Weekly article in February, 2003:

“The loss and search for faith and meaning have been at the core of my own work for most of my adult life…Those issues are still what motivate me to sit down, pick up my guitar and write.”

So, send your iTUnes gift cards to me so I can buy my lost Springsteen music and tell me who’s on your list of “wanna see live” before you cross over The River.

Here it is, your daily dose of Reinhold Niebuhr – this from his essay Idealism and Reaslism:

“The good news of the gospel is not the law that we ought to love one another. The good news of the gospel is that there is a resource of divine mercy which is able to overcome a contradiction within our own souls, which we cannot ourselves overcome. This contradiction is that, though we know we ought to love our neighbor as ourself, there is  a law in our members which wars against the law that is in our mind,’ so that, in fact, we love ourselves more than our neighbor.”

                                                            –p. 302 in War and Christian Ethics: Classic Readings on the Morality of War

If you’re a protestant living in the western hemisphere, odds are you’ve heard of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. German theologian and pastor; Nazi resister; martyred on special order from Adolf Hitler on April 9, 1945 for his involvement in a plot to assassinate Hitler. One of the best Christian book I’ve ever read is his treatise on community, Life Together. For a long time that remained the extent of my exposure to him. My current course at Fuller Seminary however, has given me the opportunity to read his writing on ethics and the Christian response to violence and war. He died at 39 a brilliant, passionate Christian who had an understanding of obedience to God (obedience that brings true freedom) that blows my mind. At the beginning of his ethics book, there’s listed the brilliant “Stations on the Way to Freedom”. Here they are:

Stations on the Way to Freedom

Self-discipline

If you set out to seek freedom, you must learn before all things mastery over sense and soul, lest your wayward desirings, lest your undisciplined members lead you not this way, now that way. Chaste be your mind and your body, and subject to you and obedient, serving solely to seek their appointed goal and objective.

Action

Do and dare what is right, not swayed by the whim of the moment. Bravely take hold of the real, not dallying now with what might be. Not in the flight of ideas but only in action is freedom. Make up your mind and come out into the tempest of living. God’s command is enough and your faith in him to sustain you. Then at last freedom will welcome your spirit amid great rejoicing.

Suffering

See what a transformation! These hands so active and powerful now are tied, and alone and fainting, you see where your work ends. Yet you are confident still, and gladly commit what is rightful into a stronger hand, and say that you are contented. You were from from a moment of bliss, then you yielded your freedom into the hand of God, that he might perfect it in glory.

Death

Come now, highest of feasts on the way to freedom eternal, death, strike off the fetters, break down the walls that oppress us, our bedazzled soul and our ephemeral body, that we may see at last the sight which here was not vouchsafed us. Freedom, we sought you long in discipline, action, suffering. Now as we die we see you and know you at last, face to face.

Put in context of his fight against Nazism and a church that largely acquiesced to Hitler in Germany; his struggle to mentor young seminarians amidst persecution; his decision to remain in Germany with the people he felt called to ’shepherd’; his participation in a plan he saw as a sin (murder) because of an even greater evil (Hitler); his eventual unjust hanging just days before the WWII’s end – all this makes these words even more striking.

Scot McKnight over at his fantabulous blog, Jesus Creed, has a regular post: Friday is for friends. My family’s version of this has become “Sunday is for studying”. Some Sundays, church is in there. It’s been an interesting season as we try and sort out a ‘place of worship’. I left my job as an assistant pastor at The Seattle Vineyard laaaaaast April – a great church in a sweet old building about 2 blocks west of the University of Washington. That marked the end of an almost 12 year relationship at the church (not a bad ending) where I became serious about my life as a disciple of Jesus, got my feet wet in ministry, preached my first sermon, dedicated my first baby, performed my first wedding – and heck, even tried to plant a church (“Along the Way”). The last year there I had the privilege of reading the bible with homeless and street-involved young adults and starting a youth group. In being with the street kids, I became exposed to the rich and worthwhile challenge of reading scripture with those whose life circumstances are unbelievably different and more challenging than mine. I drew a lot from the veterans of that ministry and Bob Ekblad’s “Reading the Bible with the Damned“. I think all Christians should experience reading their sacred text with folks who live a very different life. I could say so much more about that but I’ll pause there.

All that to say it’s a funny thing to have been immersed in a faith community participating and leading in virtually every level of administrative and pastoral work and now find that…Sundays are for studying (I must get some credit, it is Christian ethics right now!). Pray for us as we continue to sort out where we’ll land and what’s next in store for yours truly in or out of a traditional ministry post.

One of my assigned readings for Christian Ethics this quarter is The Massacre at El Mozote by Mark Danner (it’s in book form, but you can read the initial full article here). It is the horrific account of one of the largest massacres in Latin American history. It’s set against the backdrop of the battle between leftist guerrillas and the U.S. backed El Salvadoran army. On December 11 (day after my birthday), 1981, a unit of ‘elite’ government soldiers tortured, raped and massacred hundreds of campesinos (peasants) from infants to the elderly. It’s a story of truth-telling, cover-ups and some redemption (hope for more). Today, there is a medical clinic in El Mozote named after the only survivor of the massacre, Rufina Amaya. This article is the single hardest thing I’ve ever had to read. It’s horrible and you should know about it but be warned about reading the article – it’s graphic in its description. I think from now on, when I celebrate my birthday on December 10th, I’ll always remember that in 1981, a group of innocent men, women and children were about to experience living hell. The irony is, I’ll be thankful my family lives in a place free of such military violence but angry that my government supplied the M-16s, money and training that helped fuel this atrocity. May God have mercy on all of us.

Here is a passage towards the end of Danner’s article which includes quotes from the United Nation’s Truth Commission’s report, From Madness To Hope: The 12-Year War in El Salvador:

“Finally, in October, the experts began to dig. And there, on the third day, in the silence of the ruined hamlet of El Mozote, all the words and claims and counterclaims that had been loudly made for nearly eleven years abruptly gave way before the mute force of material fact. The bones were there, the cartridges were there; the sleeping reality of El Mozote had finally been awoken.

They dug and sifted and charted for thirty-five days, and soon the cartridges and the clothing and the bones and bone fragments, all labelled and packed away in bright manila envelopes and fresh new cartons, would depart El Mozote and travel by car to a laboratory in San Salvador, where the experts worked away into December. The following March, when the United Nations made public the Truth Commission’s report, entitled “From Madness to Hope: The 12-Year War in El Salvador,” the analysis of the evidence was there, laid out for the reader in clear, precise language, each successive sentence demolishing one or another of the myths put forward during the previous twelve years. Of the hundred and forty-three skulls found, all “were deposited during the same temporal event,” which is “unlikely to have occurred later than 1981.” El Mozote could not have been a guerrilla graveyard, as some had claimed, especially since all but twelve of the one hundred and forty-three remains identified turned out to be those of children under twelve years of age, including at least one fetus, found between the pelvic bones of one of the adults.

The cartridges recovered in the sacristy showed that “at least twenty-four people participated in the shooting,” and the distribution of the shells indicated that they fired “from within the house, from the doorway, and probably through a window to the right of the door.” Finally, of the two hundred and forty-five cartridge cases that were studied — all but one from American M16 rifles — “184 had discernible headstamps, identifying the ammunition as having been manufactured for the United States Government at Lake City, Missouri.”

From this evidence and from a wealth of testimony, the Truth Commission would conclude that “more than 500 identified victims perished at El Mozote and in the other villages. Many other victims have not been identified.” To identify them would likely require more exhumations — at other sites in El Mozote, as well as in La Joya and in the other hamlets where the killing took place. But the Truth Commission has finished its report, and, five days after the report was published, the Salvadoran legislature pushed through a blanket amnesty that would bar from prosecution those responsible for El Mozote and other atrocities of the civil war. In view of this, Judge Portillo, after allowing two American anthropologists to work in the hamlet for several weeks with inconclusive results, in effect closed down his investigation. The other victims of El Mozote will continue to lie undisturbed in the soil of Morazán.”