beth0329

I have a lot to write about but don't really feel up to it at the moment so here's some stuff that I've been watching/listening/reading that's been making me think.

The Struggle

She just can’t believe.
She can’t believe there is a God
who made her poor.
She Can’t believe God
doesn’t want her 8 children
to eat tonight.
She can’t believe. she won’t.
As she looks back on her life
full of broken years
she just can’t believe.
She can’t believe there exists someone
somewhere
something
who is at the same time
all-powerful
and all-loving
because she has no power
and she has never felt loved
and so she can’t believe, she won’t.
it would be far too painful to believe

But she has to believe
she must, she needs to believe
to get through the day
she has to believe that
the future of her 8 kids
isn’t hanging on her ability to provide
She has to believe because
she knows she can’t do it alone
she has to believe
she must
She has to believe that
in each tough break is grace
that each good thing is a blessing
and that there is a reason to hope
for things to get better
she has to believe
she must, she needs to believe
it would be far too painful not to believe.

This weekend almost everybody in the work force and in schools around the country get a three day weekend for...Memorial Day. A day supposedly meant to commemorate the U.S. men and women who died in military service to their country. But it seems to me that it's become a day full of shopping! Great deals, best buys and long lines. Strange that military service and shopping are linked on this great day.

Anyways, I get Jesus Manifesto which is a sort of blog for different writers to post their ideas about faith, the country, the world and things like that (per what Jesus says). Yesterday I received the following blog entry and I was very impressed. I've been struggling with some of the things he focuses on, so please read this with an open heart and mind and feel free to comment your agreement or disagreement.

Faith Half-Mast

It’s that time of the year again; that blessed calendar season in which I always find myself annually infuriated and simultaneously guilty. Most people look forward to the advent of summer, meanwhile, I’m always trying to sleep through the entire first weekend. Four hints that my religious life is about to take a turn for the worse:

(1) The Indianapolis 500

(2) Click-it-or-Ticket Campaigns

(3) Picnics and BBQ’s

(4) Mass amounts of American Flags

That’s right, it’s that beacon of American civil religion, that last Monday of the month of May…strike up the John Phillip Sousa kids, it’s Memorial Day!

In years past, I’ve reacted to the infiltration of this holiday into our churches in what some would call bad taste. This usually involves a cynical blog post and spending the Sabbath day before Memorial Day in solitude and contemplation outside the walls of the local church. Last year, I bucked my own trend and sluggishly attended the United Methodist Church in the small town near the college I was enrolled in. Not to be confused with my brothers and sisters who were drunk on nationalism, I made sure to excuse myself from the choir, who on that day would be belting out The Battle Hymn of the Republic, followed only by Lee Greenwood’s civil religious anthem God Bless the USA (which was ironically re-released after the invasion of Iraq and rose to #16 on the singles chart). When everyone was shouting and standing during the key change reprise, there I was, sitting triumphantly in the pew. Sure it was lonely, but at least I was being a witness to the solitary Kingdom allegiance I had been called to. My legitimacy was proven by my haughtiness.

And this is all well and good (well actually, it’s quite pretentious and self-righteous) when I am just another visitor to just another church. But what happens when I assume a ministerial position? What happens when I am the pastor, who is expected to honor Memorial Day just like every other year, in the church I serve? Am I to send a letter to the many veterans who faithfully chair committees and take up the tithes and offerings, explaining why we won’t be honoring the troops before we take communion? Do I completely ignore the obvious holiday season? Or do I take the exact opposite track, find a Biblical text to use at my disposal, and proclaim the eradication of the idol of nationalism (but in the process, crush the hearts of my most dedicated sheep)?

If there was ever a time for the buzzword of all postmodern Christian buzzwords—imagination—it’s on Memorial Day weekend in a traditional church setting. The ground is sensitive. Any treading must be done lightly. But we also must be faithful witnesses to our residence in the Kingdom of God. The answer is rarely as simple (and destructive) as detuning the piano so Stars and Stripes Forever is left off the bulletin. There is a creative tension that exists between being prophetic and being edifying. Using Jesus Manifesto as my open-air confessional, I admit that although I usually strive to live in this tension throughout the course of the year, I dismiss it on Memorial Day and often opt for less constructive protest.

But I want this year to be different. This year has already included a switch in my thinking similar to what I’m looking for out of this, as I went from being a faithful Buy Nothing Day advocate, to being challenged by the idea of Make Something Day as a more creative alternative.

So how will your faith communities celebrate Memorial Day, if at all?

What creative solutions can you bring to the table for frustrated pastors like myself?

- Michael Cline

Blessings!