Monday, December 14, 2009
Tiger Woods: A person, not a brand...
Read the article about Tiger Woods written by Gaye Jones on her blog. What an eye opener, reminding us of how we are called to repond as Christians, rather than as media hungry consumers.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Forgive the terrorists, are you serious?
Brad Sullivan
2nd Sunday of Advent, Year C
Sunday, December 6th, 2009
Emmanuel, Houston
Malachi 3:1-4
Canticle 16 (Luke 1:68-79)
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6
John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. By repenting, people turn their lives around and re-orient towards God. Through the forgiveness of sins, people can receive peace. Re-orienting towards God and finding peace seem like two good ways to prepare for Christmas, the arrival of Jesus, the prince of peace.
So, in order to illustrate how we might reorient ourselves towards God and find some peace, I’d like to share an email I was forwarded earlier this week. It was a joke email of a communication from a control tower to a couple of landing planes which read:
Tower: "Tower to Saudi Air 511 -- You are cleared to land eastbound on runway 9R."
Saudi Air: "Thank you Atlanta ATC. Acknowledge cleared to land on infidel's runway 9R - Allah be praised."
Tower: "Tower to Iran Air 711 --You are cleared to land westbound on runway 9R."
Iran Air: "Thank you Atlanta ATC. We are cleared to land on infidel's runway 9R. - Allah is Great."
Pause...
Saudi Air: "ATLANTA ATC - ATLANTA ATC"
Tower: "Go ahead Saudi Air 511."
Saudi Air: "You have cleared both our aircrafts for the same runway going in opposite directions. We are on a collision course…instructions please.”
Tower: "Well bless your hearts, and praise Jesus. Y'all be careful now, and tell Allah "hey" for us."
I had a pretty dim view of the email when I read it and replied, asking the person not to send me emails like that again. I didn’t find it funny, and I thought advocating murder, especially in Jesus’ name to be rather deplorable.
Fortunately, this person wrote me back and we had a really good discussion about the email and the reasons for sending it in the first place. While this person would never actually advocate violence against anyone, he is still feeling angry and afraid after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. We both assumed this person is not alone in feeling that way, angry for the attacks, afraid similar attacks might happen again, afraid for the lives of soldiers who are now fighting because of terrorists.
The killings at Fort Hood give us reasons to be angry. The increase in troop deployments gives some of us reasons to be afraid and for some, reasons to be angry. I’m guessing there are many who are living with anger and fear, if not because of 9/11, then because of something.
In light of such anger and fear, sending the email that I just read is not as horrible as I initially thought. Rather than seeking to incite violence, such an email is really a form of catharsis, of trying to let go of some anger and fear. We need outlets for our anger. We need outlets for our fear.
We even see such outlets in scripture. The last verse of Psalm 137 reads: "Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!" (137:9) Psalm 137 is a lament psalm prayed during the time of Judah’s deportation to Babylon. Jerusalem had been destroyed, and we find in the beginning of the psalm that Israel’s captors were even taunting them saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 'Sing of how great Jerusalem is, being that we just destroyed it,' they said. So, in the midst of captivity, destruction, and torment, the Psalmist prayed, “Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” Like email about the planes on the runway I read earlier, this too was an expression of anger and fear. The beauty of the Psalm is that it doesn’t deny the feelings of anger and fear, rather, it offers those feelings to God (who knows we feel that way already).
Who among us can honestly say we’ve never felt anger toward someone and even had some thoughts of wanting vengeance? At our best moments, we might not actually want to exact vengeance, but we still might feel that desire. God knows we have anger and fear and desires for vengeance, so offering our anger, fear, and desire vengeance to God is the best thing we can do with them. The idea is to be able to release the anger and fear by offering them to God, rather than acting with vengeance on those feelings.
The joke about the planes crashing into each other on the runway expresses a similar sentiment as the Psalm. People still have anger over 9/11 and fear about terrorist attacks. The challenge with the email for me is that it might serve to fuel anger and fear rather than to release them. Depending on who reads the email or how they read the email, it could provoke hatred rather than catharsis.
By offering our anger and fear and even hatred to God, we leave those feelings where we know they will be safe. As we know, God answers all prayers, he just doesn’t always say “yes”. Just because we ask God for vengeance doesn’t mean he’s going to oblige, or he does, it might not be in this life. God will bring justice. Our challenge is to trust him and to live lives of love and forgiveness rather than lives of fear and anger.
2nd Sunday of Advent, Year C
Sunday, December 6th, 2009
Emmanuel, Houston
Malachi 3:1-4
Canticle 16 (Luke 1:68-79)
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6
John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. By repenting, people turn their lives around and re-orient towards God. Through the forgiveness of sins, people can receive peace. Re-orienting towards God and finding peace seem like two good ways to prepare for Christmas, the arrival of Jesus, the prince of peace.
So, in order to illustrate how we might reorient ourselves towards God and find some peace, I’d like to share an email I was forwarded earlier this week. It was a joke email of a communication from a control tower to a couple of landing planes which read:
Tower: "Tower to Saudi Air 511 -- You are cleared to land eastbound on runway 9R."
Saudi Air: "Thank you Atlanta ATC. Acknowledge cleared to land on infidel's runway 9R - Allah be praised."
Tower: "Tower to Iran Air 711 --You are cleared to land westbound on runway 9R."
Iran Air: "Thank you Atlanta ATC. We are cleared to land on infidel's runway 9R. - Allah is Great."
Pause...
Saudi Air: "ATLANTA ATC - ATLANTA ATC"
Tower: "Go ahead Saudi Air 511."
Saudi Air: "You have cleared both our aircrafts for the same runway going in opposite directions. We are on a collision course…instructions please.”
Tower: "Well bless your hearts, and praise Jesus. Y'all be careful now, and tell Allah "hey" for us."
I had a pretty dim view of the email when I read it and replied, asking the person not to send me emails like that again. I didn’t find it funny, and I thought advocating murder, especially in Jesus’ name to be rather deplorable.
Fortunately, this person wrote me back and we had a really good discussion about the email and the reasons for sending it in the first place. While this person would never actually advocate violence against anyone, he is still feeling angry and afraid after the terrorist attacks on 9/11. We both assumed this person is not alone in feeling that way, angry for the attacks, afraid similar attacks might happen again, afraid for the lives of soldiers who are now fighting because of terrorists.
The killings at Fort Hood give us reasons to be angry. The increase in troop deployments gives some of us reasons to be afraid and for some, reasons to be angry. I’m guessing there are many who are living with anger and fear, if not because of 9/11, then because of something.
In light of such anger and fear, sending the email that I just read is not as horrible as I initially thought. Rather than seeking to incite violence, such an email is really a form of catharsis, of trying to let go of some anger and fear. We need outlets for our anger. We need outlets for our fear.
We even see such outlets in scripture. The last verse of Psalm 137 reads: "Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!" (137:9) Psalm 137 is a lament psalm prayed during the time of Judah’s deportation to Babylon. Jerusalem had been destroyed, and we find in the beginning of the psalm that Israel’s captors were even taunting them saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 'Sing of how great Jerusalem is, being that we just destroyed it,' they said. So, in the midst of captivity, destruction, and torment, the Psalmist prayed, “Happy shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!” Like email about the planes on the runway I read earlier, this too was an expression of anger and fear. The beauty of the Psalm is that it doesn’t deny the feelings of anger and fear, rather, it offers those feelings to God (who knows we feel that way already).
Who among us can honestly say we’ve never felt anger toward someone and even had some thoughts of wanting vengeance? At our best moments, we might not actually want to exact vengeance, but we still might feel that desire. God knows we have anger and fear and desires for vengeance, so offering our anger, fear, and desire vengeance to God is the best thing we can do with them. The idea is to be able to release the anger and fear by offering them to God, rather than acting with vengeance on those feelings.
The joke about the planes crashing into each other on the runway expresses a similar sentiment as the Psalm. People still have anger over 9/11 and fear about terrorist attacks. The challenge with the email for me is that it might serve to fuel anger and fear rather than to release them. Depending on who reads the email or how they read the email, it could provoke hatred rather than catharsis.
By offering our anger and fear and even hatred to God, we leave those feelings where we know they will be safe. As we know, God answers all prayers, he just doesn’t always say “yes”. Just because we ask God for vengeance doesn’t mean he’s going to oblige, or he does, it might not be in this life. God will bring justice. Our challenge is to trust him and to live lives of love and forgiveness rather than lives of fear and anger.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)