A Psalm 148 Thanksgiving Day

 I hope you enjoy this special “Psalm 148 Thanksgiving Day” letter! As we read the 148^th Psalm last weekend, it invited us to broaden our view – not only of what we are thankful for, but with whom we can offer praise and thanksgiving. My hope is to get outside today and join with all nature in offering praise and thanksgiving to God. I never quite know how to name this particular way of the presence of God - when God is present in and through things that, in themselves, are not God. The technical theological term is “panenthism,” but who speaks technical theology these days? Some might refer to God in this way as, “The spark of life.” I like that for flora and fauna, but I need a term that see the presence of God in inanimate things as well. Perhaps, “Being itself”? That is a term often used in philosophical writings and, to me, sounds like a term often used in philosophical writings. Paul Tillich reframed “being itself” by speaking of God as “The Ground of Being.” That works quite well for me, to be honest, but it works best in Tillich’s native German language, where “ground” more commonly means something like “source” or “foundation.” I am leaning toward coining a new phrase, by thinking and speaking of this manifestation of God as “The Wellspring of Existence.” When I say that, I not only mean that once upon a time God created the heavens and the earth, or even that as the world we know came into being through the big bang, evolutionary processes, and other means that God started it all – the “unmoved prime mover,” as it were. No, I’m thinking of “The Wellspring of Existence” a little differently, as an “eternal now” possibility. In every time and place, God is, and as such God is always and ever the source of existence for all that is, from the smallest nit to the most distant nebula. 

 

So, get outside and join the cosmic song of thanksgiving and praise to the one who in whom all existence has its being, The Wellspring of Life. Thanks be to God. And now, I want to offer a couple rounds of thanks. 

 

First, I am very thankful for my family. I don’t talk about my family much, deliberately. Being a pastor carries with it a lot of expectations, therefore a lot of disappointments along the way. At the same time, being a pastor carries a lot of affirmations along the way. I think being the spouse or child of the pastor often brings the expectations without the affirmations. I think it is a much harder call to be a pastor’s spouse than to be a pastor. My spouse and my children have been wonderful sources of humility, strength, and healing for me for over 30 years of pastoral ministry. For them I am humbly grateful. 

 

Second, I am thankful for our church staff. I still cannot believe the gyrations and contortions we have learned to expect week after week since the pandemic threw a stick into the church’s spokes. We survived the initial wreckage and have learned new ways of being the church as a result, but not without bumps and bruises along the way. One brief example: We really had to up our online game when it comes to worship. Each week I have elderly or distant St. Mark members tell me how much they depend on our online presence. So, we’ve learned how to use Keynote, YouTube, Zoom, Pdf conversions (e.g. see the bulletin for Sunday attached to this message), Monitors, and Website functions, to make our worship or text studies available. What a lovely staff to make such things possible. For them I am humbly grateful. 

 

Once again, I hope you have a blessed Psalm 148 Thanksgiving! 

 

Mark of St. Mark

The Challenge of Dialogue

The tragedy that continues to unfold in Palestine/Israel is a tragedy that eschews any easy answers and brings a host of complexities into play. Even trying to describe the situation objectively is fraught with the possibility of saying too much in one direction or another, not saying enough, missing a key part of the context, or leaving a wrong impression that quickly needs clarification. One consequence of this difficulty is that college and university campuses – some of the few spaces in our country where dialogue and free speech are deliberately encouraged – have had outbreaks of intolerance and in some cases threats against others. Even organizations that strive to bring diverse religious voices together are struggling to do so. Just last month, one of the local interfaith groups cancelled a concert and annual Unity Dinner, with a note that painfully admits, “At a time of empathetic distress that is touching so many lives, we feel that it may be best for us to pause and reflect.” 

The need to pause and reflect is important and can be, in itself, an act of courage and compassion. At the same time, our commitments to peace, justice, compassion, and hope behoove us to say something, when so many lives have been lost and so much trust has been violated, with human violence as the cause. It raises the question: Can we create space to name our agreements, notice our biases, acknowledge our disagreements, and still look for ways where justice and peace can prevail? 

It is uncertain whether persons of faith and good will – much less beholden politicians, victims, and extremists – can imagine together a lasting path toward peace and justice. If such a possibility does arise, the pathway toward peace might proceed along these lines. 

 It seems that most people of faith and good will agree that … 

-       The Hamas attack against unarmed non-combatants, was wrong.

-       Using hostages as human shields is wrong.

-       The killing of youth and children is wrong. 

And it seems that most people of faith and good will agree …

-       Militaries bombing civilian populations is wrong.

-       Shutting off a nation’s supply of water, gas, electricity, and phone lines is wrong. 

-       The killing of youth and children is wrong. 

The six uses of the word “wrong” above will strike some people as insufficient. I do not disagree entirely, but would point out that “wrong” can include sharper descriptions such as “hideous,” “atrocious,” and “evil.” The word “wrong” can provide a gathering point for those who may not agree on whether the harsher terms could apply to all six observations. Even trying to name things we agree on demonstrates immense challenges the current conflict brings with regard to context, rhetoric, and strategy.

When it comes to the contexts – the ongoing stories of Israel and Palestine, the conditions within each country that have been in play to this point, the geo-political alignments in the Middle East and around the globe – many different narratives are at play. Each of them can be defended from one angle and each of them can be questioned from another. That is not to say that they are equally valid, but it does speak to the difficulty of finding some kind of path forward. Even bywords of newscasts remind us of the extremely troubling context that has been in place for a long time. When we hear of a breach in the barrier separating Palestine and Israel, it reminds us that a barrier exists and has been a matter of debate for a long time. It has been defended as a necessary security measure by some, decried as a dehumanizing measure by others. When we hear that the Jabalya refugee camp was bombed with airstrikes, it reminds us that refugee camps exist and that there have been thousands of displaced persons within Palestine before the current iteration of the conflict. The struggle over the context is a huge challenge. If, for example, Palestinians and Israelis want to follow the “truth and reconciliation” path that was forged in post-Apartheid South Africa, the first questions might be, “Whose truth?” and “Which context?” 

Speaking of post-Apartheid South Africa, there is also a tremendous challenge of what rhetoric is appropriate to describe the past, present, and future possibilities for Palestinians and Israelis. Words like “occupation” or analogies to South African “apartheid” are highly contested in themselves. Likewise, common terms like “civilian” and “innocent” have been qualified in the current violence. Some voices from within Palestine have argued that, since every Israeli is required to serve in the military, there are no true “civilians” or “non-combatants” among them, even among their youth and children who will one day be soldiers. Some voices from within Israel have argued that since Hamas has embedded its fighters, weaponry, and logistics within local neighborhoods, that Hamas has obliterated any notion of “innocent bystanders” in their cities. Even the word “ceasefire” has been debated – does it signify a humanitarian act or a concession that leaves the attack of October 7 unpunished? That question is partly why President Biden has chosen to speak of a “humanitarian pause,” rather than a ceasefire. If Palestinians and Israelis reach a point where there is some kind of dialogue – even the minimal communication of a surrender, a ceasefire, or humanitarian pause – the essential act of finding a language to which all sides could agree would be extremely difficult. 

And speaking of “all sides,” there are challenges of strategy, beginning with who actually represents whom. Hamas was voted into power in 2006 by a plurality, not a majority, of Palestinians. Palestinians have not had elections since then, begging the question of whether Hamas can genuinely represent a majority of Palestinians. For its part, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is under indictment for corruption, has been under fire for trying to disempower the judicial branch of Israel’s government, managed to maintain power by aligning with the most anti-Palestinian parties in Israel’s parliament, and has admitted that there must be accountability on the governments part for being caught by complete surprise on October 7. One of the effects of the October 7 attack has been to stave off immediate accountability for Netanyahu’s government – as one would expect in a time of grief and anger. If or when the “two sides” sit down to make even the smallest agreements, who speaks for whom? Who can be trusted to have ordinary Palestinians and Israelis best interests in mind? 

If representative voices can be identified and trusted enough to pursue a future course, there are some things that are clear and there are some things that are murky. What is clear is that even by the minimal definition of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, there are innocent lives that have been and are being lost in both Israel and Palestine. What is clear is that the current situation is unsustainable. What is clear is that a wider regional conflict would be disastrous for many countries, including our own, and could easily trigger a global conflict. Those who are working for peace are facing daunting work even before deciding whether a “two-state solution” or some other long-term vision is possible. 

We read that over 1,400 lives were lost in the October 7 attacks, and over 10,000 lives have been lost in the retaliatory strikes. Our tendency is to keep score, whether it satisfies us or horrifies us, whether we think it is self-defense or disproportionality. We read that many of those who have been killed are not direct combatants. Nonetheless, their deaths have been justified by their killers in some way or another as casualties of the struggle. We continue to make distinctions between this people and that, of deserving victims and the innocent victims. We recognize that not all violence is the same. Still, one thing we can say is that, since October 6, over 11,400 human lives have been lost due to deliberate human violence. Perhaps the way forward needs to begin with that gathering, stark truth.  

Alternative Christmas Market

Every year, St. Mark hosts an "Alternative Christmas Market" on a Sunday following worship in November. This year our market is on November 12. It is a beautiful and meaningful event.

The number of organizations, volunteers, and even children from St. Mark who have been working hard to make this year’s market a success is remarkable. Under the skillful leadership of Diana Light and Denise Christensen, with able assistance from Sue-Ann Wichman and Judith Hug, and a lot of extra effort by Alex Cardenas and Jeremy Smith, in addition to the volunteers, and guest organizations, this event is an “all hands on deck” phenomenon. The beauty of it all is this: All the preparation, activity, and purchases are signs of our commitment to justice. We will have a chance to purchase fair trade products, products that benefit those who do the work more than those who monopolize the industry, and products that are created with the earth’s safekeeping in mind. This Alternative Christmas Market allows us to participate in a new way of being, even if just for a day. 

There is a large grocery store in Iowa where I know of two different people weeping in the aisle. The first was a guest from El Salvador who was simply overwhelmed with the plethora of choices, meats upon meats, vegetables upon vegetables, processed foods upon processed foods, all stacked neatly, with constantly rotating stock, in shelves, refrigerators, display buffets, and endcaps. The sheer enormity of the choices for someone who’s morning usually began by walking in the dark to get water from a well, was simply too much. So, she wept. 

 

The second person was someone I did not know, whom I saw weeping was in the cereal aisle. It’s no small thing that there is a “cereal aisle,” but this person was not weeping due to the overwhelming excess. She was holding a box of a corn-based cereal that cost $3.69 for puffy cereal that actually contained a small amount of corn. As I was trying to be politely present but not interfering, she looked up at me and said, “The difference between what this company pays us for this corn and what they charge for it is just criminal.” 

 

Those two sobering grocery store encounters displayed something about the system of production and sales in our marketplaces that we easily take for granted. And that was before an app could ensure that we can have goods on our doorstep within minutes. The convenience, choices, and ease of the market is admirable, a gift that serves us well in many ways. But it also hides the hands that create, harvest, and prepare the goods we order. It hides the exploitation of those who work with raw materials and the enrichment of those who exploit them. My suspicion is that if either of those two persons who so prophetically wept in the grocery store were to enter our Alternative Christmas Market, they would weep tears of joy. And that’s what I invite you to do this weekend. Come see the faces and hear the stories of those whose products we can purchase. It is a way of doing justice together. 

 

Mark of St. Mark

EcoPreacher Cohort

 During the last year I have been engaging in a monthly educational webinar with other pastors called the EcoPreacher Cohort. Through a variety of presenters, reflection, reading assignments, and small group discussions, we have explored how to integrate our concern for the environment with long-standing Christian theological beliefs, liturgical practices, and decisions that affect church life more generally. Before her life took a vastly different turn, Jennifer McCullough was in the cohort also, offering me a great local sounding board after our monthly webinars. It has been a very worthwhile commitment and next month will mark the end of the yearlong Cohort. 

 

The EcoPreacher Cohort is produced by a cooperation between The BTS Center and Creation Justice Ministries (CJM). The BTS Center was formerly a seminary, Bangor Theological Seminary, affiliated with the United Church of Christ, which closed in 2013. While it does not award degrees, the BTS Center provides ongoing Christian education and spiritual formation, like the webinar I took. Creation Justice Ministries was formerly the National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Program, and continues to work across many Christian denominations for racial, economic, and environmental justice. Together, the BTS Center and CJM have provided a marvelous reflective and educational opportunity for me to think and feel more deeply what it means to live responsibly on and in harmony with the earth, within a tradition that begins with a creation story that calls each part of creation “good.” 

 

“Thinking more deeply” about things is what I’m comfortable with, even though education is largely a process of challenging former certainties in order to live into new awareness. “Feeling more deeply” is not as easy for me, but when it comes to the environment is it absolutely essential. It has been widely recognized that “climate anxiety” can be a debilitating condition that people suffer when they look honestly at climate change, rising sea levels, losses of species and habitats, air quality, overstuffed landfills, toxic wastes, and so forth. For millennia, people imagined that the earth was simply capable of absorbing our habits and that there was always somewhere “out there” where we could store our leftovers. To some extent, “climate anxiety” is a step forward from “climate apathy,” which continues that presumption, as well as “climate arrogance,” which assumes that human ingenuity will solve the problem before it becomes too acute. The fragility of the eco-system on which we depend for living, as well as the awareness that other life forms are suffering because human ingenuity is typically anthropocentric, are behind much of our “climate anxiety.” At least “climate anxiety” acknowledges the problems we face and the severity of them.  

 

For the Christian believer, it matters how we encounter “climate anxiety” with, among other things, our doctrine of hope. For that reason, I want to share an opportunity with you that The BTS Center is co-creating. It is called Lament with Earth, five hour-long seasonal events beginning in November and ending in June 2024, each of which is on a Wednesday from 4:30-5:30pm. Drawing on the tradition of lament, these events will enable participants to name the loss and pain of environmental destruction honestly, within a context of hope. These events are hosted by The BTS Center as well as the creative and justice-building music group, The Many. You can find more information by visiting here. 

 

In peace, 

Mark of St. Mark

The Inadequacy of Words

Throughout this week, I have really felt the poverty, inadequacy, and potential emptiness of words. This is coming from someone who "proclaims the Word" for a living! I am sure that each of us have cherished or perhaps begrudgingly accepted silence as we have had occasion to sit with someone who is grieving. The events in Israel and Palestine have been one of those occasions where some of us are required to say something, yet anything we say leaves so much more unsaid. 

-       The PCUSA office of the stated clerk issued one statement - as they are expected to do - and almost immediately it evoked outrage from those who felt that it needed to be more full-throated. Still, it was an attempt to speak truthfully. 

-       Churches for Middle East Peace issued a statement, which some of my friends found too slanted in one direction. Still, it was an attempt to speak truthfully.

-       Presbyterian Peace Fellowship has issued a statement, which I would reckon would receive the same critiques. Still, it was an attempt to speak truthfully.

-       President Biden and others have issued statements, carefully crafted to appease as well as to express. Still, they are attempts to speak truthfully.

As one insightful writer said last weekend, finding a way to address an incident as well as its context is always hard. When there are atrocities involved – and the attacks and hostage-taking by Hamas are atrocious – it becomes pretty near impossible. 

 

One attempt to address the fullness of the context in Palestine and Israel, as well as the depth of horror of the moment, was a Facebook post by Ori Hanan Weisberg, which SueJeanne Koh and Susan Thornton (among others) shared on their page. It is long and it is pointed and nobody can come out of it feeling easy about their involvement in the Middle East. Even so, it could have been twice as long and still would not have addressed all the human nonsense and evil that has contributed to the horrors of this week. Words simply cannot get it done sometimes. 

 

So, for those of you who struggle to offer your condolences, to say your piece, to offer your perspective, to speak truth to power, to proclaim the Word, or even to voice your prayers - it's not you, it's life and death, which is often unspeakable. May you experience a still small voice that lets you know that it's okay if your words seem inadequate to the moment. 

 

I think the most profound text of scripture might be Revelation 8:1, "When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour." The next reference to sound comes when prayers are offered mixed with the smoke of the incense. Perhaps that is the best we can do. 

 

Mark of St. Mark

Isaiah 5:1-7 and Matthew 21:33-46 interwoven reading

Friends, 

The following is an attempt to weave the Song of the Vineyard from Isaiah with the Parable of the Vineyard from Matthew. See if it is helpful to read them side-by-side. I think the first influenced the second, but in any act of imitation/repetition/echoing a text, there is always new content that can bring out the best of both texts. 

 1. Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard:

1. “Listen to another parable.

2. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it;
2. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower.

 

3. he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. 

3. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce.  But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.” So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 

 

4. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? 

4. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

 

5. And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 

5. They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.

 

6. This ends the reading. 

6. Thanks be to God. 

Climate Change and All the Things

There have been many reports lately about Climate Change in local, regional, national, and worldwide news. Some reports have been passing references, where an unusual weather event is attributed to climate change. Some reports have been in reference to agricultural practices, with aquifers drying up or different groups contending over water rights. Some reports are focused on animal life, with different species disappearing or migrating to new places due to heat or melting ice. And some reports are about businesses, such as major insurance carriers moving away from insuring homes in areas endangered by wildfires or flooding. Referring to climate change as a reality with real, every day consequences is a relatively new phenomenon in some circles. By and large most sources of information are no longer speaking of climate change as a “theory” or a fringe idea, but simply as a reality, even if the precise relationship between human activity and climate activity continues to be understood differently. 

 

Years ago, I used to listen to a show on Iowa Public Radio with a bright radio host in conversation with a Political Science professor from one of the state universities. It was informative, but the show had one habit that bothered me to no end. They would offer, as a prize for whoever answered the week’s trivia question, a copy of The Worldwatch Institute’s annual State of the World publication. That, in itself, was fine, but they would speak of the publication dismissively, as being too alarmist, too pessimistic, and unrealistic. In fact, much of the language about climate change that is now taken for granted is precisely what the Worldwatch Institute said would result if we did not lessen our dependence on fossil fuels and reduce wasteful practices. The biblical proverb is “no prophet is accepted in one’s own country,” but it is equally true that “no prophet is accepted in one’s own time.” What the Worldwatch Institute foresaw is largely what we now hear every day as news. 

 

In our moment, there are some subtle nuances that I think we ought to be aware of. For example, we should be aware of the difference between prevention and reaction. We may be past the point of preventing humanly-exacerbated climate change. John Cobb is one of the few theologians willing to raise that possibility in his book, Is It Too Late (and he wrote that book initially in 1972!) Most of us hold to hopes that we can change our behaviors enough, and perhaps develop new technologies along the way, to lessen the effects of climate change enough to pull the world back from catastrophe. However, there is a shift taking place from preventing climate change to reacting to it. The decision by corporations to quit offering new home insurance in danger zones is one such reaction, as are building codes, raising seawalls, and requiring smart planting. It takes a fairly advanced economy for a country to take such reactionary measures. Poor island nations, like the ones described in this UN report, struggle against the twin challenges of climate change and poverty. I worry that climate change will ultimately cause us to lean into competition more than cooperation, “each nation for itself” thinking. We fall into competitive thinking over cooperative thinking when we feel threatened when things like water, crops, and energy are seen chiefly as matters of security. When that happens, we can expect that competitive penchant to kick in. As we move from trying to prevent climate change to reacting to climate change, we can expect our language to change from ‘world’ to ‘nation/state/community’ and from cooperation to competition. 

 

Another nuance of climate change was highlighted in a story entitled “Chilly Times for U.S. Climate Movement?” that was originally published in “Boiling Point,” an email newsletter about climate change and the environment in California and the American West. The story pointed toward the different visions of environmental activists and clean energy businesses over some aspects of the energy policies of the Inflation Reduction Act. Traditional environmentalists wanted to focus on reducing fossil fuels entirely, while some market-friendly approaches to environmental change wanted to focus on market competition that would ultimately help green technologies and squeeze out fossil fuels. It is something of a question of trusting legislation or the market to address climate change more effectively. A similar tension lies between technologies that produce green energy at the cost of upsetting the balance of flora and fauna, and whether the point is to reduce fossil fuels or to make the earth greener in a wider sense. One large challenge facing environmentalists is whether we are anthropocentric in our approach or whether flora, fauna, even the earth itself have value beyond the degree to which they benefit humans. 

 

When the psalmists say, “The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,” we hear a call to be environmentally invested in some way or another. We need each other in times like this, to bring clarity, encouragement, and some sense of community in days that can be frightening and disheartening. One benefit that you and I have is our trust that God’s love endures forever, as well as our joy of having one another as companions on this journey. 

 

Mark of St. Mark