Climate Change? Bring It On...Sort Of. (Newsletter)

          Recently I received two emails containing a link to the same video. Produced by an organization offering “Free Courses for Free Minds,” the video addressed the issue of climate change. Apparently, to be classified as a Free Mind, one must adopt, among other things, a “skeptical” stance with regard to climate change.

Free mindedness offered a thin olive branch to credentialed scientists who interpret the data differently, but dismissed all others as selfish, greedy “alarmists.”

In fairness, those of us who find climate change science not only believable but compelling often dismiss the skeptics with equal or even greater contempt.

I am no climate scientist. I do, however, claim some aptitude for observation. And it seems to me that as long as the climate change “debate” rages on as a war between competing analyses, we will accomplish little. We will vilify opponents rather than work together with neighbors. And none of us will have free minds. We will all be bound to a side, a faction, and we will have to champion our absolute cause toward an all-or-nothing, terminal conclusion.

Here’s the thing: The climate is changing. The earth is warming. Even the video’s skeptical narrator acknowledges that reality – to a point. The controversy revolves around the role of humankind’s consumption of fossil fuels in climate change, and the potential extent of the damage.

Yes, I would very much like to see governments across the planet take seriously not just the potential threats of climate change, but the potential benefits of concerted global efforts to act more responsibly. I also think that addressing any polarizing issue begins best at local levels, with neighbors working shoulder-to-shoulder to make their own communities cleaner, safer, more pleasant places to live. (A good example: While the “sides” attack each other with data, the people of south Florida, who are experiencing change now, and who stand to lose everything, are working together to make a difference. See http://www.1000friendsofflorida.org/)

So, I say, bring on the climate change! Bring on the transformation of our cultural climates of fear, resentment, vengeance. Take a Jesus-risk. Risk tension, disappointment, and rejection by seeking mutual relationships with people with whom we disagree on significant issues. Listen to their stories, and share ours. Re-humanize those whom we have reviled as idiots and fiends.

And global warming? Bring that on, too. It can be a cold world out there – people more connected to hand-held devices than the hands and hearts just inches away from them. At a recent conference, I heard Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Leonard Pitts observe that we have “seceded from each other emotionally.” How painfully true. So, let’s warm things up for God’s sake! Re-connect with civility in neighborhoods and wildness in nature.

“The first question for any convocation,” says my dad, “is, ‘Do we wish to live together?’” This is not an argument to win or lose. This is a call to live in Well-Spirited Love as an expression of our gratitude to God for the gift of life, and as an act of solidarity with the earth and all who live on it, past, present, and future.

I’m not saying to refrain from involvement on the wider scale. I’m just saying start where we live. Right here. Right now. Regardless of opinions on climate change, gracious neighboring is always a win-win – for all things.

By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:35)

A New Prophecy (Pentecost Sermon)

“A New Prophecy”

Acts 2:1-18

Allen Huff

Jonesborough Presbyterian Church

5/15/16

         Pentecost. The birthday of the church. “Divided tongues as of fire.” The litany of barely pronounceable names, and the cynics who brush it all off saying, Somebody let Drunk Uncle in.

         ‘No one’s drunk,’ says Peter. ‘It’s only 9a.m.’ And he goes on to quote the Hebrew prophet Joel who speaks of “the last days,” days when the gift of prophecy will enjoy a new beginning.

         ‘And now,’ says Peter, ‘God is revealing those last days.’

The thing about those last days, though, is that they aren’t really last at all. They’re spectacular new first days, a fresh start marked by a revitalizing emergence of God’s Spirit. As the Spirit infuses the Creation, prophecy breaks free from old confines. It’s no longer a rare gift. It’s a new way of life for “all flesh,” a new reality for sons and daughters, young and old, male and female, slave and free. And Pentecost marks not so much the arrival of something brand new, but our liberating new awareness of the eternal mystery called the Holy Spirit. And we discover, sometimes to our chagrin, that the Spirit is no slave to anyone’s group or groups. The Spirit is not bound by nationality, or language, or even theology.

         “I will pour out my Spirit,” says God, “and they shall [all] prophesy.”

         My good southern upbringing in church left with me with a very narrow but iconic image of prophets. Prophets walked around in dark robes with cavernous, drooping hoods and belts made of rope. Each hand was stuffed up the bell-bottomed sleeve of the opposite arm. Knowing God’s mind, prophets could predict the future. They could read our minds, too; and the implication was that they were not happy with their reading material. They uttered scathing judgments to scare us into righteousness. Prophets seemed to have more in common with teachers of the dark arts at Hogwarts than anything Luke. Luke and Joel both describe prophecy as a gift given much more generally, and generously, and graciously in the Creation.

         In Harper’s Bible Dictionary, the first sentence under the entry “Prophet” speaks of “a person who serves as a channel of communication between the human and divine worlds.”¹ In terms of potential, that leaves no one out.

         If the Church is us, and if Pentecost is in some way the birthday of the Church, then at some level Pentecost must reveal something of the entire Creation’s new birth into prophetic life. Remember Paul’s prophetic words to the Romans: “We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption…” (Romans 8:22-23) And to the Galatians he says, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son…so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our heart crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Galatians 4:4ff)

Selfish and idolatrous motives often corrupt our intentions, so in no way does this allow for self-aggrandizement. Still, if we are called and equipped to serve as “channel[s] of communication,” then in some thoroughly prophetic and relational way, God is choosing, through us, to see, to listen, to speak, and to act in and on behalf of the created order.

         I think that the big difference in this new, Pentecostal prophecy lies in what we look for at the very core of ourselves and others.

         The church has taught for millennia that the core reality of a particular human being and of humanity as a whole is that of sin. And sin is real, of course. We need to recognize it, name it, and consciously resist its wiles and seductions. But I do take issue with manipulating hearts, intellects, and actions by telling people that they were born dirty and depraved, that their fundamental identity is one of guilt before God. It seems to me that such an understanding of self and of our relationship to God almost always creates a kind of factory farm approach to discipleship. Prophets serve as cowpokes who ride herd on the Church. They brand us and drive us across the dangerous, desolate miles toward, they hope, a profitable death.

         The message is clear: Only in death do we have real value. And so the proclamation revolves, very tightly, around the posthumous reward of “heaven.” In the meantime, we’d better say and do “right” things lest we earn not heaven but the fate reserved for foxes, wolves, and other predatory pests.

         All of this works well for cows, for sheep and goats – beasts who survive by adhering to a strict herd mentality. Well, I have good news: We’re not cows, or sheep, or goats. We are human beings, and at the core of our human essence beats the very heart of God. And the essence of God is holy, dynamic, creative, grateful relationship – Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit.

You and I, we are created by relationship, for relationship. Community is our home. On top of that, icing the cake, is the gloriously complicating wonder of our own uniquenesses, incompletions, and vulnerabilities. We bring all of these things to every relationship. So, just as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist as an inseparable whole, we need each other. We find our wholeness, our true selfhood when we enter relationships that nurture us, that ask much from us, and offer much to us.

A distinction is helpful here. Individualism is the depleting, destructive fiction that I am absolute, whole, and full outside of some level of mutuality. Even hermits need the earth.

Individuality is much different. I express my individuality by seeking out your strengths so that I might enjoy them and benefit from them while, at the same time, celebrating and developing my own unique set of gifts and experiences, so that I might enjoy them and offer them gratefully to you.

Pentecost happens when we both realize that in holy and spirited relationship we draw closer to God even as we draw closer to each other and the earth. We claim our blessedness. We claim ourselves as blessings. We receive the blessings of others. And so we become prophets. We become “channels of communication between the human and divine worlds.” We communicate stewardship of the earth, and Loving empowerment of fellow human beings to live new lives. And we do that by recognizing and relating to the holiness within each other – whoever we are, wherever we’re from, whomever we vote for, whatever we believe.

The point of prophecy is not a “profitable death.”

The point of prophecy is a life of Spirited fullness, mystery, and Love.

¹Robert. R. Wilson, Harper’s Bible Dictionary, Paul J. Achtemeier, General Editor. Harper & Row Publishers, San Francisco, 1985, p. 826.

Verbs of Grace (Sermon)

“Verbs of Grace”

Acts 16:16-34

Allen Huff

Jonesborough Presbyterian Church

5/8/16

         Paul and Silas are in the Macedonian town of Philippi. Geographically, Philippi represents the halfway point of Paul’s second journey. And Paul develops a very close relationship with the Philippian church. Demonstrating genuine openness to the gospel, they go beyond adopting beliefs about Jesus. They truly follow him. They visit and care for Paul as a stranger, as a prisoner, and as one who is stripped, beaten and left for dead. Does that sound like a parable?

         Jesus, you see, is not always alive where people simply declare belief. But he does seem to be tangibly alive and active where people care for one another out of Gratitude and Love for the generous gift of the Creation itself, whether they use Jesus’ name or not. Such deliberate care for “the earth…and all that is in it,” (Psalm 24) can rattles cages, though. It can shake cultural foundations, especially in places like first-century Rome, cultures built on the entitlements of wealth and power.

         A slave girl who has a “spirit of divination” belongs to a couple of folks in Philippi. Under more gracious circumstances, the girl might have claimed her unique capacity for insight as a gift, and offered it for the sake of others. And even if thanked or compensated in some way, the transaction would have been one of mutual gifting. Instead, those who claim the girl as private property treat her spiritual intuition as a commodity, something to be monetized for their own self-interest.

         Like it or not, we must confess our own culture’s idolatrous bent toward monetizing not only spiritual gifts, but even the most agonizing brokenness of the human condition.

         One day a few years ago, I was idly channel-surfing and came across an episode of a show about the war in Iraq. It was neither a dramatization nor a documentary. A commercial interest had embedded itself with a medical unit. While one camera filmed men at some base camp gathered around a radio, another camera filmed a crew of medics in helicopter. They were hunched over the bleeding, semi-conscious body of a young man whose life had just been violently and permanently altered. The air bee-hived with bags, and tubes, and syringes, and bleeped-out expletives. The fuzzy oval covering the man’s face preserved as much dignity as a fishnet G-string. A grim-voiced narrator described in time-running-out language what anyone could see. As the tension reached a crescendo, the scene cut away to make time for advertisers to sell beer, pickup trucks, and breakfast cereal.

         How does humankind get to the place of monetizing not just the brutality of war, but the particular suffering of a particular individual whose body, mind, and spirit are in the very process of being wounded, perhaps even destroyed? How different are we from the crucifying fields of ancient Rome?

         I wonder what actually “annoys” Paul. Is it really the girl’s constant chatter about “slaves of the Most High God”? Or does his annoyance reflect a brokenhearted disgust with her owners who allow her to keep this up “for many days.” Because they use Paul’s presence to advertise the girl’s gift, they are monetizing both her and the gospel. This does not sit well with Paul

         Remember, in his letter to the Philippian church, Paul thanks his friends for some unspecified gift saying that he does not “seek the gift, but [rather] the profit that accumulates to [their] account.” He treasures what he receives, but even more so he treasures what the givers discover about giving freely and gratefully for the sake of others. In the free exchange of grace, a gift received becomes a gift given. In a similar way, perhaps, a gift removed can also become a gift given. When Paul releases the girl from that which had kept her objectified and monetized by her “owners,” he grants her the chance to live freely and gratefully in the world.

         Now, such an act threatens the cultural foundations. So, Paul and Silas are charged with public disturbance and heresy. They are arrested, humiliated, beaten, and thrown into prison. And yet more foundations shake. The earth itself shifts. Prison doors swing open. And the jailer, an expendable cog in the graceless Roman machine, prepares to fall on his sword.

         ‘Don’t do it!” says Paul. ‘We’re still here.’

         The terrified jailer rushes into Paul’s cell, falls to his knees, and says, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

         ‘Trust in Jesus,” says Paul.

I have to imagine the jailer looking up and thinking, ‘What are you talking about?’ He isn’t worried about that kind of salvation. He’s worried about being crucified, literally, for failing to keep the jail in proper order.

         The jailer listens to Paul, though. And his life changes. Paul cannot promise deliverance from the brutal impulses of the state’s political self-interest. He can only invite the man into a new way of being alive in the world – freely and gratefully alive, even in the face of violent fear.

Paul doesn’t ask the jailer for anything, either. He doesn’t try to monetize the gospel. He simply offers it. And this Gentile’s reception of the gospel and his thanksgiving act of healing and feeding Paul and Silas are inseparable. Does that sound like a parable?

         Love and Gratitude: They are all about action. In today’s bitterly divided, self-referential world, we seem to be all about nouns and adjectives. In the public square the most popular nouns and adjectives are things like idiot, liar, xenophobe, fraud, scary, ridiculous, embarrasment…I could go on, but the words quickly become things I won’t repeat in here. And many who wield these nouns and adjectives sit in pews on Sunday mornings less than a stone’s throw from people at whom we sling them. One of the new currencies by which many of us “monetize” fear and judgment is the “Likes” we get on Facebook. And I’m not claiming high ground here. I readily confess the nouns and adjectives I catapult with angry abandon, even when I do so in private or at least select company. I also remind myself that in a world of 6 billion people, 43 Facebook Likes does not constitute a revolution.

         Foundations are shaking in so many ways right now. It seems to me, though, that the faithful response to shaking foundations is to live as verbs of Grace, to live as ones through whom shaking foundations are transformed into the seismic rumblings of the Christ. God is calling us to open prison doors, to liberate captives. Isn’t this what it means to be saved? To Love as we are Loved. To give and receive, to thank, to embrace, to trust, to feed, to heal, to forgive, to sing, to hope. These are the means of grace and redemption. To try to profit from them is to deny them. They can only be shared in free, and generous, and well-spirited gratitude.

“The kingdom of God is among you,” says Jesus (Luke 17:21b) We enter it through shared relationship, through our actions, through the life we live together.