The Beat of Hope

The death of Davy Jones of the Monkees had a much greater impact on me than Whitney Houston's death, or some of the other losses to the music industry in the last year or two. Perhaps, as I told one friend on Facebook, that is because my age is showing. Certainly that 60's pop sound is what I grew up with, and it has helped shape who I am. The Monkees, the Beatles, the Stones, the Animals, and many others. They sang love songs, yes, but they also sang of social ills and addressed issues that needed to be changed. It could be very dark music, but it also could be light-hearted and even when offering a social critique, it could be upbeat.

Since Jones' death, I have found myself revisiting much of this music that speaks nostalgically of my youth and my formative years. I have dusted off old CD's, LP's (vinyl records for those who do not know the term) and found myself hitting old presets on my radio to visit stations I haven't been to in a while (yes, they call them 'oldies' stations).

And while we were very aware of racism, the Red Scare, nuclear threats, Viet Nam, drugs, and other issues, there is still something to this music that is uplifting. I believe it is hopeful. It speaks of the fact that we can overcome our problems, we can learn to love one another, we can build a better world. It encourages us to dream of what is possible, even when it seems to be patently impossible. It was the rhythm of change and it was set to the beat of hope. It challenged us to dream about possibilities and called on us to envision a better world and a new tomorrow that we could create if we could only all get together. It didn't deny the problems, but in naming the issues, it often suggested that there was hope. I admit that I don't listen to a lot of contemporary music and perhaps it does this as well. But as I look at the landscape of contemporary culture and modern politics, I am not so certain that the message of hope is still present. In fact one political person asked the President in a speech some time ago about how the hopey changey thing was working out.

I was disturbed by that remark. It almost suggested that hope is somehow not part of the process. Unfortunately, in the modern political process that might be true. I listen to the political hopefuls and the incumbents suggest all the things that are wrong and then add all the things that the other party is not doing to fix them. We get a laundry list of the problems and the ills, we get a recounting of the broken promises and broken issues, but I am not hearing positive solutions - I am not hearing hope.

There is a growing presence on the internet that promotes fear - fear of the President, of his politics, his ideology, and of his faith beliefs, and fear of the liberals who align themselves with him. There is fear of the conservatives, of their ideologies, policies and faith beliefs. But where is the hope?

As Christians we are called to be a people of hope. Does that mean we bury our heads in the sand and ignore what's wrong? No, but it does mean we are called to work for hope in a world lost in hopelessness, to work for peace in a world filled with war and violence, and to work for wholeness in a world that is broken by racism, poverty, ignorance, and oppression. We cannot do this by spreading fear and hopelessness. We must recognize that these things are the antithesis of God (reference 1 John 4:18ff). We are called to be agents of love and hope in the name of Jesus Christ.

I continue to be drawn to the music of my youth, not because it avoided the difficult challenges and problems (and today's music may confront them as well), but because even as it identified the issues, it sought to be hopeful. I would welcome a political process that avoided fear and hopelessness and offered ways to embrace positive and hopeful change. I would welcome a political process that stopped drawing lines and picking sides and sought compromises that would promote social change and economic growth and unity. I would welcome a politician who stood up and said, "I don't agree with _________'s agenda, but I see promises of hope in it" instead of one who denigrated the very idea that we can hope, or who opted for repressive social policies that solve economic problems but belittle people.

And I would welcome my brothers and sisters in Christ who would put aside their party loyalties and ideologies long enough to quit spreading fear and embrace our calling to be a people of "faith, hope, and love." No, we don't need to ignore our problems, racism, economic struggles, pollution, greed, violence, and war, and on and on, but we need to work together, as followers of the Way of Jesus, to build compromise, love, and above all, hope. I believe it was Tony Campolo who said, "It's Friday, but Sunday's coming!" As we approach Easter it is time for those of the Way to reclaim it's promise to build hope. Sunday's coming - let's march toward it to the beat of hope.

Extreme Politics

We seem to live in an age of extremism. Extreme sports, extreme cooking, extreme home makeover, and so on. I have a family member that goes for extreme sports: hang-gliding, bungee jumping, parasailing, and more. He loves the adrenaline rush. Me, I see it as highly risky. I see that in the recent debt deal as well; it has become a game of extreme politics. Throughout the debate, polls reflected the disappointment and distaste of the American people for the partisan extremism that kept the process in the throes of debate for such an extended time. These polls and the disappointment of the people were ignored to enhance the ideological stands of party politics. Extremists in both parties, refusing to give, have moved our nation to the brink of disaster. This whole process and the ensuing compromise, that no one seems to be happy with, have left me to pose again the question, where has the middle gone - what has happened to the moderate voice in our politics?

Before the last election cycle, then chair of the RNC, Michael Steele commented on one of the morning talk shows that he believed the GOP needed to get back to its conservative roots. Meanwhile liberals in the DNC continue to suggest that the President must be careful to keep his base happy. I am not an expert in politics, but I believe they have both missed the point. President Obama, by all accounts, won the election because of independent voters (who are most typically moderates) because he promised change. The Republicans flourished in this last election because the independents supported them. Both parties have seen this as an ideological victory, but I believe the recent polls and the feelings of disdain generated by the debt debate suggest that both parties won those election cycles because the people were disgusted with the politics as usual incumbents. The voters that are moving the politics of our day are moderates - and unfortunately we are the least represented.

Allow me to offer a modest means to help achieve the goal of reduced deficit - let us cut the highway department. We no longer need to do maintenance on all of the nation's roads because no one uses the blacktop anymore, they are all on the shoulders. Extremism and the selfish insistence that our ideology is correct, therfore yours must be wrong, these are not only dividing us as a people - they are handicapping us as a nation and have become the stone that has created ripples across the pond of global economics as well.

Extremism is opposed to everything Jesus stood for. I listen to representative after representative talk about their faith. I listen to people proclaiming their certainty that we are a Christian nation. Yet, extremism seems to flourish in our culture. It is endimic on the highways, it is obvious in the malls and superstores, and it is apparent in our rude and absolute disregard for one another. In John 14:6, Jesus proclaims, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." But do we understand that the three are connected? Eugene Peterson writes, "We cannot proclaim the Jesus truth but then do it any old way we like. Nor can we follow the Jesus way without speaking the Jesus truth. But Jesus as the truth gets far more attention than Jesus as the way. We cannot skip the way of Jesus in our hurry to get the truth of Jesus...the way of Jesus is the way that we practice and come to understand the truth of Jesus, living Jesus in our homes and workplaces, with our family and friends" (The Jesus Way, p. 4)

Too often today we want to proclaim the truth of Jesus as an exclusive commodity. Too often we add the word "only" to John 4:16, and continue our practice of extremism. But to share the Jesus truth, we must be willing to use the Jesus way (love) and live the Jesus life (community). And the enemy of love and community is the very types of extremism we see in our culture and reflected in our political processes.

Now I am not suggesting that all of our elected officials have to be Christian. What I am suggesting is that those of us who are Christians must influence our leadership, not with divisive words and ideologies but through love. Jesus began his ministry by proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was at hand (Mark 1:15). He instituted in his person and in his ministry this new kingdom; it was radical in nature and communal in arrangement. And the bond that held the community together was love. And what does that kind of love look like? See Paul's first letter to the Corinthians in the 13th chapter. How would politics look if we lived this kind of love? Now I know - some of you are suggesting that sometimes we are right and the other person is wrong and we have to stand up for what's right. Really? To paraphrase Paul in 1 Cor. 13, I may have all knowledge, I might be right, I might have the necessary wisdom and understanding of the universe - but if I do not have love, I am simply making noise. Love, Paul says, doesn't demand its rights and it doesn't demand its own way. It seems to me that this sounds a lot like compromise - seeking to know and understand what the other person needs so we can do what's best for the entire community and not just for part of them.

As I listen to our political discourse and as I live and work in our small community, I am struck more and more by how we continue as a people to choose up sides and demand that others align themselves with us. We want to know how to fix Washington, we say. We don't want politics as usual, we say. We want change, a balanced budget, prosperity, jobs, we say. I suggest that Washington is reflecting the extremist nature of our culture - this incessant demand that we must be right. I suggest that if we truly want to embody the notion of being a Christian nation, we must live out the the life of Jesus - the Kingdom of God, a community - and we must live out the way of Jesus - a way of love that seeks what is best for the other. The extreme politics we have just witnessed is a reflection of a nation that lives on the extremes - competing for everything and winning at all costs. But how do we as a nation win, when 1/3 to 1/2 of the population loses? Jesus calls us to community - a community that shares with one another - a community that loves one another. A community shaped by these things is a community that is not separated onto the left and right shoulders of the road, but is driving down the center of the highway, together.

(The thoughts and views reflected in this blog are the writer's own and do not reflect either those of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) or of First Christian Church, Neosho.)

Capture the Flag

One of my favorite activities as a young Boy Scout was a game called "Capture the Flag." Part of its attraction for me was its competitive nature, its activity level and the requirement of stealth. It was also played in the dark. The idea of the game was to divide into two teams, each having a flag. The playing area needed to be large and was divided into two sections, one for each team. Your team would place its flag somewhere in its area and put some defenders to guard it. The rest of the team, by stealth and speed, would try to sneak into the opponents territory and capture their flag and return it to your own territory, thereby declaring victory. If you got caught in the opponent's territory you were captured (by being tagged) and then you could only be freed if a teammate tagged you without getting caught. The distinguishing feature of the game was the center line that divided the two teams. There was no gray area, there was no neutral area, no rest area, you were either in your territory or you weren't.

As the health care bill has passed Congress and been signed into law by the President, I listen to the rhetoric coming from several different groups, including the two political parties and an abundance of commentators and I am reminded of my boyhood game of capture the flag. A colleague suggested to me the other day that we had lots of politicians in Washington, but very few statesmen. What he meant by that was that he felt like we had lots of people who would take up their party's ideological positions but no one who could construct a viable compromise in the heat of ideological battles. I am inclined to agree with him. There is no gray area, no neutral area, there is only one or the other with a line drawn down the middle. And those of us who are in the middle are left out. We come to elections looking for statesmen who will negotiate legislation that is good for America and what we get are party loyalists whose decisions are shaped by how well their party will fare in the next election.

As I listened to the White House summit on health care I heard repeatedly, from both parties, the statement, "We're not that far apart." Yet neither party and none of the individuals present would consider moving off of their respective side. Somehow they are worried that they might cross the center line into the opposition territory and be "captured." What I did hear was statements about "ramming a bill through" and "let's scrap this bill and start over." Neither idea was palatable to me. The line was drawn and no one is willing to cross over.

A person recently posted a comment on Facebook saying that they supported health care reform, but didn't like some of the things in the law. I agree. For seven years I have worked with various groups, state and federal government officials and representatives, and interfaith groups for health car reform, and there are some things in this law I don't like either. But we will never have a perfect bill in this country. The two extremes are not ever going to come together with anything that everyone can agree on. We continue to draw lines that divide us on global warming, the economy, jobs, and yes, even now that it is law, health care reform. We cannot continue to debate while people go without health care. We cannot continue to scrap everything and start over. This is too important

"We are a Christian nation" is a statement that I hear frequently. And if so, then I ask us to consider, what would our Lord do, what does God require of us. Micah's answer is "to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly" with our God. And even though Jesus did not agree with the Pharisees, when Nicodemus came to him, Jesus was willing to talk. I see no places in the life and ministry of Jesus where he drew lines that excluded people. I see no places in the ministry of Jesus where ideology or culture overrides the precept of love and grace. The provision of health care in our country has become a business, a for profit, in most cases, business. And while that may be either good or bad depending on your ideology, I ask us to consider how we sacrifice someone's health and health care for money. Now you may say that if someone in our country needs care they can get it. And I agree - emergency care. But why do we insist on spending untold millions of dollars to pay for emergency care much of which could have possibly been prevented if that person had access to regular and routine medical care? And I wonder how Jesus reacts when we tell someone that they must surrender their home to pay for medical bills, or that they will not longer have insurance coverage because their condition is too costly to the insurance company.

I hear Jesus proclaiming his mission in Luke (4:16-21) to be,at least in part, about healing. I hear his testimony in the 25th chapter of Matthew suggest that we are doing the work he has called us to when we provide healing for those who are sick. I hear his command to Peter and the disciples in John 20 to feed and tend his sheep and I wonder what will become of us as we continue to draw lines that separate us. It is difficult to read the New Testament, especially though the Old as well, and not hear the call to be a community in God through Jesus Christ. And I wonder what will become of our faith and our nation as we continue to draw lines that separate and divide. Government should not be a giant game of capture the flag. Government that is of by and for the people should be about finding ways to make laws that all of us can live with together - as a community.