Tag Archives: Compromise

Common Blame

blameLiving in the Spirit
October 15, 2016

Scripture Reading: Luke 18:1-8

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.”’ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’

An Oklahoma state senator staffer told me once that it, in general, took ten years to get a needed piece of legislation passed. The staffer and I were working on vital changes that would upgrade our child care system. It did take at least ten years. The need for universal health care was recognized when Medicaid and Medicare were enacted in the mid-1960’s. Monumental steps, these two programs were just a beginning. Lots of vested interests create the environment for extensive negotiations. Gridlock result when we the people do not encourage our elected officials to compromise. Sometimes I wonder if gridlock is a goal as maintaining the status quo leaves expensive, inefficient systems in place which continue to produce healthy profits, not healthy people.

We all share common blame as we fail to meet the Common Good. We want the government to be there when we need it and provide fast effective responses. We do not necessarily want to pay for the services we demand or we do not want to pay for services someone else might need.

No matter who is elected on November 8, our job does not end with our vote. We need to emulate the widow in our scripture today and demand justice until we get it. Such work requires us to understand what is just and what is not. It demands that we try to see issues from the eyes of the others involved and search along with our elected officials for new and innovative ways of meeting the Common Good.

Prayer: God of Justice, Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the facing of this hour*. Amen.

*Phrase from hymn God of Grace and God of Glory by Harry E. Fosdick see at http://www.hymnary.org/text/god_of_grace_and_god_of_glory

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.

That Which Divides Us

DiscernmentEastertide
April 18, 2016

Scripture Reading: Acts 11:1-18

Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, ‘Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?’ Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, ‘I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, “Get up, Peter; kill and eat.” –Acts 11:1-7

One of the greatest tasks we have as persons of faith is melding together each day what is essential in our relationship with God and what is not. It is possible in my understanding of God that what is a priority for me may not be as important to another simply because of who I am and who they are. I am blessed by music another may be blessed more by the reading of the word. My skills at service are more in administration than in one on one contact. It does not mean that I only want music in worship or that I am not blessed by sharing one on one. It does mean that every community of faith rides the wave of shared talents and traits deepening the oneness we share individually and collectively with God.

Problems arise when our discernment of the sacred (that which is set aside for God) is what God discerns as sacred and thus must apply to all. The movie Fiddler on a Roof dealt with this very subject. Teyve, the father in the story, must deal with one daughter who breaks the tradition of the family and wants to marry for love rather than the person chosen by the matchmaker, another daughter who chooses a relationship with one of the rebels challenging the Russians, and finally the third daughter who actually ask for her father’s blessings to marry a Russian rather than a Jew. The story asked the age old questions how much is too much compromise. I think it also raises the issue of understanding God’s role in discerning issues of what is sacred.

We live in a society that is divided by the issue of who decides what is sacred. The result is an unwillingness to compromise on many things. It seems we are leaving God out of the discernment process altogether. Just as with Peter in welcoming the gentiles or Teyve in opening his mind to moving away from long held traditions, we must seek guidance from God in the justice, mercy, and humility of our understandings to find God’s way together.

Prayer: Lord, open our hearts and minds to your leading. Nudge us forward as you did Peter to step out in faith in sharing your love. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.