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A Gathering of Souls
The World Social Forum has recently been in the news, as has the World Economic Summit. Two international meetings possessed of developmental agendas, these organizations start from very different points as the central basis from which the global community should move forward. Those attending the World Economic Summit see capital as a means of strengthening countries' interactions with one another, while the World Social Forum advocates focusing on human beings as connection points. The Forum's 2002 leadership, meeting in Florence, Italy, stated their intent to be, "an open meeting space designed for in-depth refection, democratic debate of ideas, formulation of proposals, free exchange of experiences, and planning of effective action among entities and movements of civil society that are engaged in building a planetary society to this end."
Having only recently heard of the World Social Forum meetings, held annually since 2001, I am intrigued by the concept that a fair number of people believe that money does not make the world go around. Even more fascinating is that they get together to talk about their commitment to people being some of the world's finest resources, and therefore, worth consideration.
My mind then wandered on to the vision of what a world faith forum might look like, how it could feel simply to come together to talk about how we believe,and why we believe.
What popped into my mind first is what would not, could not be present at these meetings: commerce. No tables selling music, literature, Christmas ornaments or angel lapel pins. While these products can be valuable tools of the faith experience, and while shopping has become an acceptable hobby within our privileged United States culture, buying things, being about things, is also an easy distraction from being, and from interacting with one another. I remember attending retreats and conferences that were so far out in the woods that we couldn't find our way out, let alone walk the distance in the middle of winter to wherever the nearest mall may be located. Wildly inconceivable a concept though it may be, we don't have to spend money every single day of our lives. Really, we don't.
We also can live a few days without televisions, movies, video games, ipods and cell phones. Each of these electronic miracles have served humanity well, and deserve their own break now and again for their faithful service. I know that letting go of cell phones in particular creates great anguish ("What if my children need to reach me?"), but cell phones haven't been around all that long, and somehow a lot of us have still reached adulthood with minimal scarring. If participants in a faith forum can't turn off their phones for a few days, believing that nothing separates us from God's love, they may be advised to stay home where God is waiting to encourage their faith development in more concrete ways.
My vision of a faith forum would be rather straight forward and to the point: we would talk to each other about what we believe. Conversations would be shared among Christians, those of the Islamic and Jewish faiths, as well as Buddhists, Hindus, and anyone else interested in listening to the beliefs others hold, more than judging the inadequacies of religious systems unlike their own. Having spent the day investing in understanding one another, the Christians among the group might be able to offer the wisdom of our common vision of God With Us as expressed by the Apostle Paul: "Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through things he has made (Romans 1:20)." Having spent the day welcoming the mysterious ways of God's presence among all of us, we may each come to a broader, perhaps even deeper way of seeking to embody and manifest God as seen through we whom God has made.
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Sanctuary
Land is at a premium. Even Oprah is buying up property because, as she says, "God isn't making anymore." At the beginning of our nation's history, land ownership was one of the determining factors of whether or not you could vote in general elections. Not incidentally, the Western European concept of being able to lay claim to portions of the earth as one's own, completely contradictory to indigenous North American people's belief that the earth was a gift to all that could not be owned, got the United States government into many pointless wars with its own people. Land is a personal issue, a community issue, and has been for much longer than any of us can remember or research. Not surprisingly, the Bible speaks of land as promised, as flowing with milk and honey, as paradise itself.
While part of the Wisconsin paradise was reclaimed this past week, another part of the land that appeared to be promised to a congregation in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, is about to be snatched away as evidence of a new belief that projected consumerism and its societal benefits is reason enough to usurp private property in the name of eminent domain.
The Ridges, a wildlife refuge on Wisconsin's Door Peninsula, successfully negotiated for two years to reclaim a section of adjacent land to be able to expand its unique state natural area. In a quote from the Door County Advocate, "The land is vital to us," said Paul Sagen, a member of The Ridges board of directors and head of its research committee. " The parcel is in our immediate watershed area, and is critically important to the protection of The Ridges ecosystem. Protecting it is a big step toward maintaining the high water quality we enjoy in our wetlands." Guarding what God has given them in natural beauty and resources, the people of this Northeastern Wisconsin county have also preserved a natural sanctuary, a place that evokes a peaceful and creative spirit with which generations to come will also commune.
Meanwhile, a different sort of scenario is playing itself out in the shadow of a recent, highly unpopular United States Supreme Court ruling. In a New York Times interview, the Rev. Roosevelt Gildon, pastor of the Centennial Baptist Church of Sand Springs, Oklahoma, noted that, "The Lord didn't send me here to build a mini-mall." City officials beg to differ. Sand Springs is moving ahead with a redevelopment plan to make way for The Home depot and other retail stores. Tax revenue is needed for city services, and the mayor and many others see this as the way to achieve their goal. This past summer's Supreme Court ruling approved condemnation of private property in New London, Connecticut, for resale to other private interests for what the Court called, "public purpose," supports Sand Springs in its endeavors toward progress. Pastor Gildon's church is smack in the middle of the future shopping area, so his congregation's options are limited: sell their land at an amount that will not be sufficient to relocate, or be forced off by virtue of eminent domain.
My questions are simple: How many shopping malls do we really need? How many more opportunities will we have to preserve the earth's gift to nurture and support us as God intended at creation? How much stuff do we really need, balanced against the desire to live on land in which beauty and grace still reside? Why does our government still not understand that stealing land from its own people is wrong?
My understanding of these question, and their answers, rests on part of a song from Moses and the Israelites to God: "You brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your own possession, the place, O Lord, that you made your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established (Exodus 14:17)." The earth has been given to us, both as a richly beautiful home, and as a sanctuary, a place for worship of the Giver. These two concepts cannot be separated or uprooted from our faithful use of the land. Simply put, we are each as a generation only holding this land in trust for the next, and as an historical people, we are only renting. How much do we want to jeopardize our security deposit?
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God's Voice
Pat Robertson, 700 Club host, and Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, publicly shared their faith perspectives in the past few days in succinct statements regarding recent foreign and domestic events. Robertson felt compelled to express his belief that Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel, had been struck by God with a massive stroke because he is carving up the State of Israel in a way that is displeasing to God (Mr. Sharon is still healing and is unavailable for comment). Nagin is very clear that God is angry with America for a variety of reasons, including our involvement in the Iraq War, which is by we were plummeted with multiple, fierce hurricanes this past season.
While God has indeed chosen prophetic voices throughout history to speak what is frequently unpopular and uncomfortable, and God has also used personal and natural events to get our attention and realign our purposes with Divine intent, I am unsure as to whether God is communicating to us what Robertson and Nagin believe God is communicating to them. Very clearly, listening to God, and speaking on God's behalf, requires discernment and faith.
Considering both men's comments, I wonder why they believe God has such a mindset as to damage and wound the very creation that came to be by God's own hand. Why would a parent want to debilitate their own child in the name of national boundaries? Why would an architect, landscaper, painter, sculptor or writer choose to destroy their own works out of anger or frustration, taking along with the mangled debris the hopes and lives of those using their creations? That perspective of God makes no sense to me, although it seems quite common among most people in our country. Romans 8 speaks of God being for us when everything and everybody else is against us, but somehow the communal belief persists that God is usually angry, agitated, or at the very least, miffed with us to the point of needing to make us miserable. When everyday moments irritate us, we assume God has it in for us because we didn't do what we were supposed to, whether or not we can define what "supposed to " entails. Missed parking spaces, lost promotions, ill-fated romances, and weight gain, all get blamed on God because we feel guilty, whether we are or not. So many of us assume that what we would do to someone or something based on our own feelings is what God would do too. Punishing ourselves for poor choices we've made around busy shopping times at the mall, work opportunities, relational options, and lifestyle choices, has nothing to do with God.
In fact, these are indications that we have disconnected from God. It becomes more difficult to believe the words from Genesis, that,"God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good (Genesis 1:31)." God's creation includes us, and although none of us is perfect, we are each loved, and continuing to believe that God has a need to shame, wound, and outright destroy us to make us more obedient or faithful is counterproductive to God's loving purpose. Sooner, hopefully rather than later, we as people of faith will need to draw on our God-given creativity and realize that there are more faithful ways to understand God's activity in the world than as one big game of tag in which we are maimed or dead at God's whimsy.
"By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against such things(Gelatins 5:22)." Believing that God's loving Spirit is still alive, well, and moving among us, I hear instead the voice of God speaking through the peaceful exchange of power in Israel as Mr. Sharon now recovers from his illness. Two of his protégées are working together for the good of their country, as opposed to their own political ambitions. Even through New Orleans struggles to clean and bind its wounds, the media has made strong efforts to keep us updated on its progress, and remind us of the needs of our fellow citizens. Stories of volunteers going to offer assistance in any way needed, and others of people continuing to send material aid, resonate as God's kind, generous, gentle, faithful Spirit.
God's voice is not always leveled at us in rage, but often arrives as a meaningful exchange between Creator and created. Sometimes it is all about being aware of our perspective, and listening for what we need to hear, not what we fear most.
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What Do You Hope For In Your Life?
What do you hope for in your life?
It's a simple enough question, but one I find most people are at a loss to answer, or are very uncomfortable considering. I sometimes hear people hope for good weather for an event or a trip, or a sports victory, or even a good parking spot at the mall. I rarely hear people hope for anything large or having substance, as if to do so is a voodoo curse.
So, no holds barred, what would you hope for if there were no restrictions, no limits? Health, the perfect job, a comfortable home, an opportunity to travel the world? I encourage you to take a deep breath, exhale, close your eyes and try this exercise. Try to remember the very best, most magical day of your life. What was it like? Who was with you? Where wee you? What were you doing? Remember the sounds, the smells, the flavors of each moment as you revive these memories in your mind and being. Cherish each smile, each reflection, each thought as you recall each detail. What did that experience feel like?
No, take another deep breath, exhale and close your eyes. Imagine that tomorrow is all yours. You have the opportunity to create a perfect day, just the way you want it to be. No one else creating your life or calling the shots. No one laying claims on any of your time. No financial restrictions. What would you do with tomorrow? Would you get up early to watch the sunrise? Would you take a quick trip to the seashore? Would you clean out your closets? Maybe plant a new flowerbed in your front yard? Ready a favorite book, cover to cover/ Perhaps fly to New Orleans for a walk down Bourbon Street? Would you work a few hours in a soup kitchen before taking off for the opera in New York?
Open your eyes and jot down everything you might like to do. There's no point in pretending you can't do everything on that list because you can. Not all in one day, but there is no reason to believe that the desires of your heart cannot be realized. The first step is to practice hoping in concrete forms. Small, medium or large hopes are the fabric of our lives. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God's Word is hope, and our imagining this hope alive is the first step to making this hope, our desires and God's desires for us and the world, manifest.
Hope small, hope medium and hope large. Hope often. Keep a hope journal and see what comes of actually believing that God hopes with us. Live your hope and see what that does to shape your life anew.
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Three Faces of Hope
Recently I returned to my Oxford Dictionary to refresh my memory on the definition of hope. I've grown uncomfortable with how easily we as a culture use the word hope to dismiss the very essence of what the word is intended to convey. How has the word hope come to be its own worst enemy? Do we as a culture still have hope? What does it mean to hope? Oxford offers three words that define hope as a verb in our culture: Expect, desire and confidence. I believe these words are the keys to understanding hope in our culture, as well as defining this understanding as three faces of hope.
To expect something to happen usually means one of two things: an event is going to take place because it has been planned to occur; or an expectation has been set apart from any connection to reality, and it may or may not occur. To expect the birth of a child is to anticipate an event that is planned to occur. Circumstances may sway how that event happens, but the expectation and the event are both concrete, real. To expect that same child, three years later, to automatically put her/his toys away because they have been told to once is a false expectation. New skills take time and encouragement to develop. To believe otherwise is to have false hope, and to set oneself up for disappointment and frustration.
To expect something based in reality is to hope for something that can actually become a reality. To expect something that likely will not be is to hope falsely. I believe this is where we have turned hope against itself, pretending that hope is a last ditch piece of magic to reconcile our realities like an out-of-balance checkbook. If we hope, even falsely, then God will hear us and life will be perfect, by our standards. When life doesn't become perfect, whole, fixed, we generally blame God, a God who doesn't listen and doesn't give us what we want. Our hopes are dashed, we put a little and still have to manage our lives. Our false hopes translate to a false accusation against God, and we are no where but where we started.
Desire. It's a fantastic soap opera word. Images of great romances, passionate love affairs and love-gone-wrong-made-right are all evoked by the word desire. I have nothing against the usage or the soap operas. I can tell you the story lines from Days of Our Lives right now. My only complaint is how limited our use of the desire has become. Dream is a much safer term, more ethereal, and like false expectations, easier to pretend with ourselves about. Desire is about passion, commitment and a zest for living.
Can you envision hope in such a dramatic, powerful way? If you can you can see that this kind of hope is big, strong and every ounce of real that is possible. Desirous hope speaks of faithful abandon, a joyous celebration of what you can see coming, and you can zero right in on it with a great shout of, “Hallelujah1” Do we as a culture still have hope? We say we do. I'm not sure our culture does know this kind of hope, this treasure of delight that can move us forward and deepen our resolve for a better future. We are a tenuous people, not quite wanting to invest in and develop something we don't believe we can touch. To dream is an ethereal, individual experience. To desire is to lay claim to the passion of living and forge ahead.
We are missing this kind of hope in our culture, but I believe we can begin to dot the landscape with potent doses of this kind of desirous hope that faith in God inspires. Openness to that infusion of power and grace is the conviction for things we can't see yet, but can survey with our hearts and souls. What it means to hope is to have confidence in God as our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Our expectations and desires are based in reality, we are confident in them because we have every reason to be.
More than anything, these three faces of hope – expectation, desire and a feeling of confidence – give us the framework out of which we see god ahead of us, beckoning us forward with one hand, and reaching back with the other to grasp us firmly with love.
