In reading through all the newspapers online today i found myself increasingly depressed. With obvious corruption and depression and bailouts... oh my!
And here in the middle of advent, when i'm forced to reflect on the Christmas story, i have found it to be more relevant than ever before. The Jews were living in tough times. They had been through several revolts. The Romans had invaded, desecrated the temple. Now they had a corrupt and possibly insane ruler over them. A ruler who was not chosen by the Jews, but by the Romans. So on a warm spring night, Joseph loaded up his very pregnant fiancee, onto a donkey and headed to Bethlehem. ( I always found it interesting that the literal translation of Bethlehem is house of bread, but i digress...) Worse, the child wasn't even his. Joseph was facing not only a disruption in his life, but a major life change. Yet still he honored his obligations and headed back to the city of his birth to take part in the census.
Many of us are facing a similar circumstances. Its hard to find hope in the night and in winter its dark around 5pm! Today's reading for my advent devotional is Isaiah 11:1-5 An apt reading for these difficult times. There is a part of me that wonders if what we're experiencing is the hangover after a long time of partying without restrictions. Like the ancient Jews who read this passage, we are looking for a "shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse" who will
" ... will not judge by what His eyes see,
Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;
But with righteousness He will judge the poor,
And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth;
And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked."
For some that shoot is named "Barack". For those who dare call themselves Christians, we believe the shoot was named Jesus. (Christ is a title, not a name)
So where am i going with this... Well i do have hope that the new administration can change things around. But I also know that Barack is human and suffers from all too human limitations. He's just a hell of a lot smarter than me! But I also can settle into my long held belief and hope that God will interact with current events and show us not only the error of our ways, but his love and joy in his creation and moves us all safely into the house of bread.
In the meantime, i'll continue to pray for the idiots that got us here and hopefully the idiots who'll get us out!
Showing posts with label obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label obama. Show all posts
12/11/08
10/17/08
Joe the Plumber and Spreading the Wealth...
Let me open with a verse from Acts 2:42-47
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
I confess i didn't watch the debate, but instead i watched the follow up news coverage and found myself intrigued by Joe the Plumber. I found some interesting news stories on the guy and watched a clip of the exchange between him and Barak.
I'm not going to argue about who's system is good or taxes being raised. That's a dead horse in my opinion cuz both sides think they're right and can predict the future. Instead im interested in the christian/biblical response to the notion of spreading the wealth around.
Lately i've discovered i can read boring books online and have decided to delve back into re-reading the works of Walter Rauschenbusch. For those of you who dont know, he is the father of the Social Gospel movement and greatly influenced MLK and a few others. Very important theologian of whom you've probably never heard of. But in his book "Christianizing the Social Order" he points out that capitalism is neither good or bad/moral or immoral. Instead its the values that we are taught by the church and school that form the morals that are applied to our business and economic systems. There is a tug of war between the two and they are constantly influencing one another.
Back to Joe, who may not be a plumber... One thing Barak said is that he thinks we should "spread the wealth around" Which brings me to the verse above. Several times in the New Testament we are told that the people in the early church lived in sharing communities. In fact two people were killed for lying and not sharing all the had with the community. (bonus points for verse and names of those people!) The "plumber" replied that being taxed at a higher percentage for making more would be a disincentive for him to pursue wealth. Which of course the republicans jumped on and used ad nauseum in their campaign ad and apparently in the debate.
However in re-reading Rauschenbusch and going through Acts again. I found myself asking some hard questions about Christians, wealth and politics. Questions such as; Should Christians be affiliated with a particular party? (little known/forgotten fact was that in the early 20th century the majority of Christians were democrats, it wasn't until the fall out from the modernist/fundamentalist controversies and the manipulation of the abortion issue that Christians moved to the Republican party). Should Christians be pursuing wealth? If we are people of the book, how come many churches don't encourage/practice the kind of sharing we see in the New Testament?
If anything this election is a call for us to re-examine christian community and our interaction with our political/economic system. Im not arguing for moving socialist, tho i do have moments.(especially considering the blatant corruption in the markets and medical insurance systems...) As a friend pointed out, in the early church that kind of sharing was voluntary. But it does set an example for what should be happening in our churches.
Thoughts?
They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
I confess i didn't watch the debate, but instead i watched the follow up news coverage and found myself intrigued by Joe the Plumber. I found some interesting news stories on the guy and watched a clip of the exchange between him and Barak.
I'm not going to argue about who's system is good or taxes being raised. That's a dead horse in my opinion cuz both sides think they're right and can predict the future. Instead im interested in the christian/biblical response to the notion of spreading the wealth around.
Lately i've discovered i can read boring books online and have decided to delve back into re-reading the works of Walter Rauschenbusch. For those of you who dont know, he is the father of the Social Gospel movement and greatly influenced MLK and a few others. Very important theologian of whom you've probably never heard of. But in his book "Christianizing the Social Order" he points out that capitalism is neither good or bad/moral or immoral. Instead its the values that we are taught by the church and school that form the morals that are applied to our business and economic systems. There is a tug of war between the two and they are constantly influencing one another.
Back to Joe, who may not be a plumber... One thing Barak said is that he thinks we should "spread the wealth around" Which brings me to the verse above. Several times in the New Testament we are told that the people in the early church lived in sharing communities. In fact two people were killed for lying and not sharing all the had with the community. (bonus points for verse and names of those people!) The "plumber" replied that being taxed at a higher percentage for making more would be a disincentive for him to pursue wealth. Which of course the republicans jumped on and used ad nauseum in their campaign ad and apparently in the debate.
However in re-reading Rauschenbusch and going through Acts again. I found myself asking some hard questions about Christians, wealth and politics. Questions such as; Should Christians be affiliated with a particular party? (little known/forgotten fact was that in the early 20th century the majority of Christians were democrats, it wasn't until the fall out from the modernist/fundamentalist controversies and the manipulation of the abortion issue that Christians moved to the Republican party). Should Christians be pursuing wealth? If we are people of the book, how come many churches don't encourage/practice the kind of sharing we see in the New Testament?
If anything this election is a call for us to re-examine christian community and our interaction with our political/economic system. Im not arguing for moving socialist, tho i do have moments.(especially considering the blatant corruption in the markets and medical insurance systems...) As a friend pointed out, in the early church that kind of sharing was voluntary. But it does set an example for what should be happening in our churches.
Thoughts?
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