I Feel Like Throwing Down the Gauntlet

 It is easy to sit back in a lazy chair and pass judgment down on others when you can just click past the offending image by moving your thumb a fraction of an inch.  What happened to compassion, to Love to care for your fellow man ...just because they need to be cared for?  Just because you may be afraid or angry or unsure of what is happening NEVER gives you the authority to abdicate the fact that you are a member of this human race just as the undesirable person is, as the black, the white, the yellow, brown and red, immigrant (illegal and legal) the slave the free, women and men.

In Michigan they are looking to pass the same type of bill that has caught fire down in Arizona...stopping suspected people and questioning them over their immigration status.  No matter how many onuses you put on this it still smacks of racism, bigotry and a wholesale denial of civil rights to me.  In Savannah, a Homeless person can be stopped at any time for any reason just because they LOOK Homeless...and now we want to stop people who LOOK illegal?  It is odious when it is done to any group and people don't seem to realize what a slippery slope this puts a nation on. 

We also have a Congressman questioning whether the Muslim community is doing enough to stop the spread of radical Islamic theology.  As if the community can be held accountable for what a kid sees on the Internet, or decides, after reading news articles and propaganda, to strike out and strike back at "The Great Satan".  When did we start blaming entire communities for the actions of a few or one (or wait, I forgot about Japanese Internment camps, McCarthyism and Rosewood)

I gave a more reasoned argument in a previous note...you may read it on my facebook notes page if you choose, but today I feel like cutting heads.

We have an expression at Grace House, "If it is good for one, it is good for all."  so lets see....

Jihadi Jane was an American citizen...and there seems to be a large push in European nations to radicalize non-assuming citizens into Jihadist.  So we should probably have the police pull over everyone who has a European flag bumper sticker on their car.  After all Al Qaeda is insidious don't you know, no stone must stay unturned to make sure that we are safe.

And since many African nations are being targeted as proving grounds for terrorist training camps, I suppose that every black person here should be pulled over and searched as well, oh wait, doesn't that already happen in too many cities (Dade County, I'm talking to you).  I wonder how the courts would stand up under that mountain of law suits.

And since we are poking the finger at communities...I expect hearings to take place anytime now to address why the Catholic community has let pedophile priests operate with almost near autonomy for the last 50 years...what could be more of a danger to the children of America.  Come on Catholics, what are you doing turning a blind eye for so long?  I am sure that would make things interesting on Capital Hill...I wonder what Congressman would sponsor these hearings?

I'm sure if nothing else it would make for some interesting television...

You see the slippery slope...America; can we please, for the love of God and each other, stop trying to roller skate uphill?

Form follows Function

We have been studying this fact for the last few weeks at my church.  It is imperative that we never lose focus of the "why" we do things vs. the ritual, the action, the tradition.  If there is a traditional thing that you are doing and you never stopped to ask yourself "Why am I doing this?"  Then it may be time for some self examination.

Eld. Robert Martin Jr. of Zion Temple Church in Denver used to say this all the time "Know what you know what you know!"  If you are doing and have no knowledge of why, you may be setting yourself up for a "Values Battle", where what you believe comes into direct conflict with what you are doing.  I have had several internal knock down drag outs as I tried to make a shaky foundation look solid.  God help me I am trying to be consistent, which is difficult in an inconsistent world.  I find that most people expect a measure of hypocrisy in their fellow man now a days.  That grieves my soul...especially when I am the one failing to live up to my own standards.

Form follows Function...the great thing about this attitude is that it allows a much more flexible attitude in personal interactions than when we have reversed the two.  I am one of those people who feel equally at ease with white people as well as black.  I can talk with and like either group when I am with them and I do it, not as imitation, but because that is how I was raised.  My extended family flowed in an interracial community though we lived in the poor side of town.  We adapted naturally to changing environments and to those in them.  It is a gift, and there is nothing phony about it, it is just what we do...how we were raised...adaptability in our form to get across our function. 

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23
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7 Although I am free in regard to all, I have made myself a slave to all so as to win over as many as possible.
20
To the Jews I became like a Jew to win over Jews; to those under the law I became like one under the law--though I myself am not under the law--to win over those under the law.
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To those outside the law I became like one outside the law--though I am not outside God's law but within the law of Christ--to win over those outside the law.
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To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak. I have become all things to all, to save at least some.
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All this I do for the sake of the gospel, so that I too may have a share in it.

Here we see the perfect example of changing his form to follow his function.  Beloved, never let what you do supersede why you are doing it.  Great men and women let their work show what was in their heart...Go and do likewise :)

The Quality of Mercy

It has been a while since I have written anything here.  Toward the end of my blogging, I kinda felt that I was just putting content out there that wasn’t really my voice in saying what I felt needed to be said.  So with sickness came the time to reflect and read what others were saying and to begin to feel the need to bring something fresh to the debates, and hopefully now to return to edifying many, not only on the plight of the Homeless, but to offer something enlightening to us all.

We live in a judgmental society, so many are filled with the pain of indignation of the shameful acts of others.  It is a seriously understandable reaction to state of this world.  Crimes against our humanity and our souls are taking place daily and upset over them is a reasonable response.  With molestations, abuses, rampant greed and suffocating apathy threaten to drain the last drops of compassion from our hearts with each new news report.  Man seems to be wholesale wallowing in a pit of his own manure and relishing it.  Yes, you have ever right to be appalled, upset and angry.  But, no matter how tempting it is, is passing judgment over even the most base and low down of our society a productive thing to do?

The place where I live is called Grace House, and Grace means ‘unmerited favor’, you can do nothing to earn grace, grace is given like the smile of your child, out of the blue and freely.  Her twin sister mercy is just like that many times.  Mercy can not be given to those who earn it for it to be real and perfect; mercy needs to given to the ones that are the least deserving to get the most from it.

One can not save when and where to apply mercy, and there are two reasons for that.  1.  The arbitrary use of mercy for those deemed the most ‘worthy’ of its receipt, cheapens the quality of mercy.  Putting some sort of caste system in the judgment centers of our brains, ranking the most deserved to the least deserved (by our own questionable standards) puts us in the unnatural position of Lording over someone else.  The crack addict who steals and kills the grandmother of four on her way to Wednesday night Bible study does not deserve mercy, but the woman who kills her abuser does?  (I am talking here of personal judgment, judgment of the heart and mind not the judgment reserved within the confines of our legal system – that use of judgment is for ethical (societal) use and is very necessary to ensure the rights of all…what we are discussing here is intimately more personal and can breed the seeds of bitterness and hatred in our hearts)  

2. And this reason is the ultimate qualifier… Has anyone ever showed you mercy when you real REALLY didn’t deserve it?  Did anyone defer judgment on you when you should have been cast out, locked up or trodden under?  Christ did that for you.  He gave you grace and mercy when you not only deserved but were already slated to die.  He only asks us one thing…to Love others as He has loved us…and He loved us filthy, He loved us funky and foul, He loved us past our disgusting and  murderous ways (did you know that gossip is murder?  Who have you ‘slain’ in your heart today?).  He loved us to the point that when we were still his enemies he died on the cross for each and every one of us.  (Romans 5:8).

I can’t say this is easy, it is crazy hard to hear of a child molester destroying the innocence of a four month old baby and not want to lash out in ‘righteous indignation’.  I will, but ask you to remember one thing.  No one acts in a vacuum…those that hurt were first hurt by someone else…and though they do deserve to be tried by the courts and suffer the penalty for their actions, let us be careful not to throw a one such as this into the prison of our minds , under the bars of bitterness and anger.  Remember, someone loved you past your pain…even when that pain hurt others.  I am no saint, I struggle with this to…I am just asking us all to remember…

From Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, 1596.

PORTIA: The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That, in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.