This reading from my prayer guide touched me this morning. Today, once again, I will strive to make my home in God and invite God to be at home in me.
You will find the living God in the pages of the Bible. You will find him also just exactly where you are. When Jesus knew that he would not have much longer with his disciples he knew that they were sad at heart and he said to them: "It is for you r own good that I am going because unless I go, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I do go I will send him to you...I still have many things to say to you, but they would be too much for you now. But when the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to the complete truth." (John 16:7 ,12, 13).
Jesus does not break his promise. God has sent the Spirit of truth, he dwells in your heart. You have only to listen, to follow, and he will lead you to the complete truth. He leads through all the events, all the circumstances of your life. Nothing in your life is so insignificant, so small that God cannot be found at its centre. We think of God in the dramatic things, the glorious sunsets, the majestic mountains, the tempestuous seas; but he is the little things, too, in the smile of a passer-by or the gnarled hands of an old man, in a daisy, a tiny insect, falling leaves. God is in the music, in laughter and in sorrow too. And the grey times, when monotony stretches out ahead, these can be the times of steady, solid growth into God.
God may make himself known to you through the life of someone who, for you, is an ambassador for God, in whom you can see the beauty and truth and the love of God; anyone from St. Paul and the apostles through all the centuries to the present day, the great assembly of the saints and lovers of God. It may be that there is someone who loves you so deeply that you dare to believe that you are worth loving and so you can believe that God's love for you could be possible after all. Sometimes it is through tragedy or serious illness that God speaks to our hearts and we know him for the first time. There is no limit to the ways in which God may make himself known. At every turn in our lives there can be a meeting place with God. How our hearts should sing with joy and thanksgiving! We have only to want him now at this moment-and at any moment in our lives- and he is there, wanting us, longing to welcome us, to forgive us all that has gone before that has separated us from him. "If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him." (John 14:23)
God makes his home in you. They are not empty words. It is true. "Make your home in me, as I make mine in you." This is prayer. Isn't this the answer to all our yearning, our searching, our anguish, to all the longing, the incompleteness of our lives and of our loving? Until we dwell in him and allow him to dwell in us we shall be strangers to peace.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
A Fine Point
It is not normal to wake up at 4 am with a sick stomach. Yet, once again at the conclusion of an American election, my body speaks more forthrightly than I can find words to express.
But not finding words has never been a reason for me to stop speaking. Or writing.
I would be dim to pay no attention to last night's vote. Republicans won the House and nearly won the Senate. Americans overwhelmingly have spoken in favor of fiscal conservatism. Including a loud and braying call to repeal "Obamacare."
I've got to figure this out and I can't do it abstractly. I can only do it concretely.
Meet Marie. She is the church's full-time custodian. She has no insurance. Her son, Matt, has insurance through the state of Illinois' KidCare. (which I guess technically we hate, since it is a program supported by tax dollars). To purchase insurance for Marie will cost in the neighborhood of $500 per month for a program with a $1000 deductible, 80% coverage and no dental. So, $6000 per year on a roughly $28,000 salary, or an additional 21% in cost to the church on top of her salary.
With our vote we have declared: No National Healthcare. No "socialized" medicine. We want to keep doing it the way we've been doing it. So I'm correct to assume the responsibility for her insurance rests squarely on the shoulders of her employers, the church?
I arrive at this conclusion making the following presumptions:
1. People who work full-time (not those slacker, unemployed welfare people who have socialized health care coverage through Medicaid) but people who are holding up their end of the American bargain, which is to be employed and pay taxes, should reasonably expect America to uphold its end of the bargain, which is to provide healthcare.
2. Employers in our country, by and large, have been the primary providers of healthcare. (except for all the retired people who also have socialized health care coverage through Medicare).
If Point 1 and Point 2 are true, then it is my church's obligation (and every other small business) to provide insurance for their full-time employees, right?
But, our current economic climate says small business should be exempt because the high cost of health insurance would seriously threaten a small business' economic viability.
So, my former conclusion is wrong. What we have voted for is this: Marie, who makes about $28,000 per year, should go without insurance or pay her own annual premiums of $6000.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but after taxes and insurance premiums Marie will take home about $1483 per month. No worries. A mortgage on a modest home will run around $600. Food for two will be about $400 per month. Car payment of $200. Gas in the neighborhood of $100. Utilities for $100? That leaves $83 for dental care, or clothing, or a car repair, or public school fees, or school supplies, or a movie with her son, or a birthday gift for her mom or her grandson. She'll be fine, right?
Meanwhile, the congregation, the compassionate followers of Jesus Christ who stand on the side of justice and the marginalized are off the hook, while we trot off to the doctor with our insurance cards in hand because our full-time employment, which pays more to start with, also provides health insurance.
How many Maries in the US face this bleak future?
Really? This is the plan? This is what caused Americans across our great nation to rejoice? What am I missing that I cannot rejoice?
My stomach hurts and my faith is challenged. Not my faith in God; my faith in the goodwill of a nation to ensure that the basic needs of all its citizens are met.
But not finding words has never been a reason for me to stop speaking. Or writing.
I would be dim to pay no attention to last night's vote. Republicans won the House and nearly won the Senate. Americans overwhelmingly have spoken in favor of fiscal conservatism. Including a loud and braying call to repeal "Obamacare."
I've got to figure this out and I can't do it abstractly. I can only do it concretely.
Meet Marie. She is the church's full-time custodian. She has no insurance. Her son, Matt, has insurance through the state of Illinois' KidCare. (which I guess technically we hate, since it is a program supported by tax dollars). To purchase insurance for Marie will cost in the neighborhood of $500 per month for a program with a $1000 deductible, 80% coverage and no dental. So, $6000 per year on a roughly $28,000 salary, or an additional 21% in cost to the church on top of her salary.
With our vote we have declared: No National Healthcare. No "socialized" medicine. We want to keep doing it the way we've been doing it. So I'm correct to assume the responsibility for her insurance rests squarely on the shoulders of her employers, the church?
I arrive at this conclusion making the following presumptions:
1. People who work full-time (not those slacker, unemployed welfare people who have socialized health care coverage through Medicaid) but people who are holding up their end of the American bargain, which is to be employed and pay taxes, should reasonably expect America to uphold its end of the bargain, which is to provide healthcare.
2. Employers in our country, by and large, have been the primary providers of healthcare. (except for all the retired people who also have socialized health care coverage through Medicare).
If Point 1 and Point 2 are true, then it is my church's obligation (and every other small business) to provide insurance for their full-time employees, right?
But, our current economic climate says small business should be exempt because the high cost of health insurance would seriously threaten a small business' economic viability.
So, my former conclusion is wrong. What we have voted for is this: Marie, who makes about $28,000 per year, should go without insurance or pay her own annual premiums of $6000.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but after taxes and insurance premiums Marie will take home about $1483 per month. No worries. A mortgage on a modest home will run around $600. Food for two will be about $400 per month. Car payment of $200. Gas in the neighborhood of $100. Utilities for $100? That leaves $83 for dental care, or clothing, or a car repair, or public school fees, or school supplies, or a movie with her son, or a birthday gift for her mom or her grandson. She'll be fine, right?
Meanwhile, the congregation, the compassionate followers of Jesus Christ who stand on the side of justice and the marginalized are off the hook, while we trot off to the doctor with our insurance cards in hand because our full-time employment, which pays more to start with, also provides health insurance.
How many Maries in the US face this bleak future?
Really? This is the plan? This is what caused Americans across our great nation to rejoice? What am I missing that I cannot rejoice?
My stomach hurts and my faith is challenged. Not my faith in God; my faith in the goodwill of a nation to ensure that the basic needs of all its citizens are met.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Coming Out
Mondays are my trip down memory lane. I shuffle through my memory's snapshots and look for one that is especially clear.
To set the stage for today's post, I need to tell you about two things that have happened recently.
First, I had the privilege of receiving the gift of a confidence regarding a friend's sexual orientation. (Clearly, if it is a confidence, they are gay. Otherwise, they'd have no hesitation in telling me they are heterosexual, right? Straight is easy. Gay is complicated.) Second, I just found and friended Wes Brown on facebook. I know Wes from my time at Duke Divinity School.
Which led me to rummage around in my mind's Div School memory box. Rummaging unearthed this memory:
I was sitting on the steps of Duke Chapel with a woman I had recently met and with whom I shared an immediate and vibrant connection. A rare moment of deep kinship. As part of our deepening trust and vulnerability, Beth shared with me that she was a lesbian. I was very young. The sun was very bright. The look on her face was hard to read. I was unprepared.
To set the stage for today's post, I need to tell you about two things that have happened recently.
First, I had the privilege of receiving the gift of a confidence regarding a friend's sexual orientation. (Clearly, if it is a confidence, they are gay. Otherwise, they'd have no hesitation in telling me they are heterosexual, right? Straight is easy. Gay is complicated.) Second, I just found and friended Wes Brown on facebook. I know Wes from my time at Duke Divinity School.
Which led me to rummage around in my mind's Div School memory box. Rummaging unearthed this memory:
I was sitting on the steps of Duke Chapel with a woman I had recently met and with whom I shared an immediate and vibrant connection. A rare moment of deep kinship. As part of our deepening trust and vulnerability, Beth shared with me that she was a lesbian. I was very young. The sun was very bright. The look on her face was hard to read. I was unprepared.
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