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The Redemption Project - Names

You've seen the pictures and heard the stories coming out of Portland, OR this week. The attention has been on the tear gas and the people shoved into vans and held, without charge, as if they live in some far-off authoritarian country. Federal officers have been called out against American citizens who the government has labeled violent anarchists. It is all so disturbing and so frightening that I have had to limit how much of the news I absorb each day.

 

But there is something that, while it has been reported, has not received as much attention. The officers in Portland wear no identification. Nowhere on their uniforms is there any insignia that identifies the governmental office they represent. In fact, none of them are wearing nameplates.

 

This, the Administration has said, is to prevent the officers and their families from being targeted online. That could be true. It could be in the officers' best interest to be anonymous, nameless.

 

But what does that do to you? What happens when your name is taken away?

 

Names are important. Scripture puts a high value on names. Humans, from the beginning, are given the power of naming all things in Creation. God changes people's names when they reach some turning point in their life: Sarai became Sarah, Jacob became Israel, Saul became Paul. It's a tradition we humans have picked up. We allow people to rename themselves when they find their own true identity.

 

But who are you if you don't have a name? More than that, what are you?

 

We know how we can change someone by renaming them against their will. People who were renamed communists back in the McCarthy era were outcasts, blacklisted from work. Black slaves were renamed after they were purchased in order to transform them from people to property. Mothers and fathers have been renamed terrorists to justify sending federal troops to subdue them.

 

But what happens when someone takes away your name?

 

I don't have an answer for that question, but it should trouble every Christian. God, we know, calls us by name. It was in saying Mary's name that she recognized Jesus in the quiet of that Easter morning. It was by name that Jesus called Lazarus back from the dead.

 

It is by name that I and others I know are called by Christ.

 

These are deeply troubled times. More than any time in my life do I see how much we are struggling with the powers and principalities of this world whose goals and agendas are so contrary to the Divine. And it troubles me more than anything I've yet seen to watch names being taken from people. Because, if you have no name, can you even hear God calling?

 

And what do we name such a place where we can no longer hear the voice of the One?

The Redemption Project - Neowise

Did you know there's a comet in our skies?

 

Perhaps I should ask if anyone's surprised there's a comet passing our way in this strange and tragic year. Back in the Middle Ages comets caused a lot of anxiety. People attributed everything from heat waves, unrest, and epidemics to their appearance. Thankfully, we know that comets have nothing to do with those things, right?

 

It's understandable why their appearance aroused such anxiety. Comets aren't like anything else in our skies. With their long tails stretching bright across the darkness, these strange visitors appear for a little while and then disappear.

 

The comet currently in our evening skies is not a bright comet. You'll need binoculars and a clear north-western sky to catch a glimpse of it.  Comet C/2020 F3, also called Neowise, is currently climbing higher in the western sky near the Big Dipper just after sunset. It's dimming as it rises; so, it will soon fade from our skies, and it'll be another 6,800 years before it passes this way again.

 

Comets, according to the current theories, originate in an area of space called the Oort Cloud, which lies beyond the orbit of Pluto. It is a dark, cold region of our solar system where millions upon millions of icy rocks orbit the sun. Once in awhile, a rock is nudged out of its comfortable orbit causing it to make the long journey into the solar system where it loops around our sun before heading back out again on its new, often regular, orbit.

 

Despite their brightness, comets appear to have a very low albedo or reflectivity. This means they have to draw close (astronomically speaking) to the source of light before they begin to shine. It also means they lose that light very quickly as they travel away.

 

Maybe this gets to why comets have unsettled people: they're a lot like us.

 

I've a very low albedo. I am very good at absorbing light, but very bad at reflecting it. I'm much closer to a dark, cold rock than someone who reflects a greater light. In fact, I only do so when I am in close proximity to the source of light. And, boy, do I fade just as soon as I begin to move away.

 

Often, when I do allow light to shine from me, it's difficult for anyone to see. When the world grows dark I am just a tiny, starlike glow and it would take a keen-eyed observer to see what little light I reflect into this world. And too quickly, I fade.

 

Our world, our country is facing a long and difficult night. There will be a sunrise, but, right now, it seems distant. There are many looking for some tiny light to look upon and know the darkness is not all there is. They are looking for the Light we follow.

 

So, in this brief time that we are seen, let us reflect that Light.

In two weeks...

Reminder that I'm publishing over at my new site publishedwiththanksgiving.com. Right now, I'm posting new stuff to both sites but after 7/26/2020, I'll be posting new stuff only at the new site.

So, please reset your favorites and join me over at publishedwiththanksgiving.com.

Thanks for reading.

The Redemption Project - Death

We need to talk about death.

 

Saying that might seem strange. Hasn’t death dominated our conversations, our thoughts for months now? Aren't we still speaking of the deaths of black bodies like George Floyd's? Doesn't the news speak daily of those taken by this virus? Yes, but...

 

We’ve been talking about the dead, not about death.

 

Mind you, I don’t think we’ve talked enough about the dead. This country needs a period of national mourning for the dead. We are desperately in need of a pause, a moment when bells are rung, silence is kept, and the weight of the lives lost are allowed to settle heavily on our hearts and souls. We need this for our emotional, psychological, and spiritual health.

 

But talking about the dead is not talking about death.

 

Death is a reality, one of the most real things in our lives. It is the cold, unforgiving moment that comes for each and every one of us. No matter our profession, our wealth, our position we will one day be overtaken by death.

 

Yet, we deny death.

 

As a nation, we have done nothing better this year than deny this reality. Why else would anyone dare to state that the risks of this disease are acceptable for the poor, the service-industry workers, our elders, or our children? Why else would you refuse to keep a safe distance from those around you on the off chance that you or they might carry this virus?

 

Why else would you not wear a mask when you go out among people?

 

As Christians, it is part of our sacred calling to speak of death; because, it is part of our central story. God incarnate was killed and overcame death. The love that unites us, that changes us, that flows through us is the love that conquered death. It is why Paul declared that death no more has lordship over Christ.

 

Death, we claim, has been conquered.

 

This does not mean that facing it is easy. This does not mean that we are not left empty and aching when someone we love dearly dies. We know it is not easy. We know it is frightening. We know it is painful.

 

And so we speak of death.

 

We say again and again these harsh realities; because, there are those who serve death. They do so in the hopes that they might not face death.

 

Death's servants offer others as sacrifice so they may be saved.

 

Death is the price of doing business, they claim. Death is the price of educating our children, they say. Death is something we just need to learn to live with.

 

We, then, must speak honestly of death.

 

We need to tell the story of death defeated, the love that was not conquered. We must speak of the reality of death, which comes for all. We must speak against those who offer sacrifices to this false lord.

 

And we really must wear masks.

New Address...

Hi there, I'm now posting at my own site publishedwiththanksgiving.com. Please change your links, favorites, and whatever else you use and join me over at the new site.

I'll continue posting here through the end of July. After that, I'll stop posting new items here and, before fall, shut this site down.

The Redemption Project - Revelation

Where are we in Revelations?

 

One of my co-workers asked me that this week. He meant it as a joke, but with a hint of seriousness. There's a plague. There's unrest in the country. Maybe this is the beginning of the end of all things and, before long, Jesus will return to Earth.

 

If you've read what I've written on this site, you should find it no surprise that I welcome that long-awaited return. I'm wanting to do whatever I can to speed that day along, to inch us just a moment closer to when all tears are washed away and death is no more.

 

But that wasn't what this discussion was about.

 

I grew up on the idea of Rapture and Tribulation. It was as certain as Jesus' birth that the world would continue to grow worse. Wars would increase. Famines and, yes, plagues would become common, all as part of the great preparation for the moment when Christ takes his Church out of the world and leaves the world to suffer as none ever have.

 

It is a comforting theology when things are bad. As the cases and deaths continue to mount from this pandemic, as the news is full of turmoil, as the world once so familiar becomes so strange, it's a consolation to believe that this is the way of things must be before Christ makes this world his own.

 

The problem with that belief is that it takes the responsibility off of us. It leads us do doing nothing. Who are we to interfere with God's plan?

 

Things...are bad. This virus that has disrupted our lives is poised to continue doing so. We lack the courage and leadership to deal with it properly. Add to that the damage we continue to inflict on our environment, the impacts of which, due to greed, are growing worse. And we find that the country we have built has not held up the idea that all are created equal.

 

But none of these things are signposts on the road to the Redemption of All Things. There is nowhere in the Book of Revelations or any other book to which we can point and say soon. These are things, Jesus told us, that no one knows.

 

What I do know is that if we do nothing, if we choose to believe that our world must become hell before heaven descends upon it, then that day on which we wait will never come. We have been given the opportunity to help realize the dream of the Holy One. The dream where all are one as the Trinity is one. Where we act not as an exercise of our liberty, but for one another for their liberation.

 

Then, before we know it, we will find ourselves beside a crystal stream where we can drink and rest from our work as we hear the One declare that it is done.

 

And what a revelation that will be.