Category: Blog

Holiness Endures

I’m reading about the great Jewish texts these days, and find that the Rabbis often say beautiful things. This is from Qid 72b: “Mar said… No righteous person goes out of the world before a similar righteous person has been created. For it says, ‘The sun rises and the sun sets (Eccl. 1.5).’ Before Eli’s sun set, Samuel’s sun rose at Ramah. (Referring to the opening of 1 Samuel)”

Evil does break into the world, yes. But God does not let that stand in the way of holiness. For generations, the story tells us, the high priests descended from Aaron were faithful. Then, the high priest Eli’s sons turned toward selfishness and abuse of power. God did not let that end the presence of goodness and beauty in Israel. God raised up Samuel, a miraculous gift to his mother Hannah, and and placed his Spirit on him instead.

This is what God does. Sometimes, acting with integrity, standing for truth and love, sowing seeds of joy— All this can seem like nothing in the face of all the insanity and evil. But Rabbi Mar’s saying is sure: Every time we foster holiness, however small, God ensures that tiny drop of good will never leave the world. We may die, but our holiness lives on.

Injustice cannot endure. Love always does.

Watching

The events, according to my poor recollection are here. Skip them if you know them:

Late last summer, the Sierra Pacific Synod of the ELCA, my beloved Church body, met to elect a new bishop. I tuned in, excited they might elect Rev. Dr. Meghan Rohrer as not only the first transgender bishop of the Church, but more importantly—having met them—as a very good, forward-looking leader. Rev. Nelson Rabell-González, pastor of Misión Latina Luterana, was also on the short list of candidates. Amidst the assembly, allegations of misconduct were brought against Pastor Rabell-González. He addressed them by saying that the timing was racist, and that they should be ignored. He quickly fell off the ballot. Rev. Rohrer was elected as Bishop, to less celebration than hoped.

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117th House, Resolution 1155

The first legislative bill I’ve ever read was today’s Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. It was introduced by Rep. Jim McGovern from my past home state of Massachusetts, and Rep. Marco Rubio of Florida helped to rewrite it so it could pass through the House. This bill treats foreign economic policy with the People’s Republic of China, and I would think this would make it a highly contentious piece of legislation. But while I have no doubt there was some contention behind the scenes, all 435 representatives in my nation’s Lower House, regardless of their political party, voted in favor of it. In such a polarized time, it is surprising to me to see this kind of unanimous decision. It is now expected to pass the Senate, and President Biden’s administration has indicated his promise to sign it.

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Holy Saturday

Friends in Christ,

Holy Saturday is perhaps my favorite day of the Church year. I’m not sure why. It should be a day of sorrow, of shock, when hope is lost. Not a day we celebrate in the church very often, mostly because it is a day filled with pain.

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Who Are We?

There are many things about the Church here in Southeast Asia that are surprising to me, and quite different from my Northeast United States of American context back home. I expected that. I did not expect what those things would be.

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The Light of Christ

Wednesday, I visited for three hours with a group of Muslims who were studying world religions in order to become more sensitive to diverse peoples as they carry out various social justice works.

Today, gunmen opened fire in two mosques in New Zealand, wounding dozens of people and killing 49.

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Politics [Not] in the Pulpit

Not very long ago, at the height of public awareness of the incarceration of undocumented Latin and South American migrants near the United States border, I just couldn’t help myself. I was talking about the unexpectedly abundant joy in the Kingdom of God, the mustard seed parable, and slipped a few sentences about the current events into my sermon. Sometimes supply pastors are able to address things that a seated pastor cannot, because they don’t have to face those congregation members Monday morning. And besides, it was a community just outside of New York City, so I expected it to lean a little further left than most. I did it in the most innocuous way, a sort of, “If I knew your congregation, I’d talk about this, but I don’t, so I won’t (even though I guess I just did).”

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