Mike’s Rumblings 12-08-23

This is an audio version of Mike Murphy‘s Friday rumblings. This is a regular post on Facebook that I’ve turned into a podcast. I decided Mike’s words needed a wider audience. You may agree or disagree with what he says, but there is certainly much food for thought contained here. You can friend Mike on Facebook for the printed version or read it below

Rumblings. 12.8.2

1. “If our Christianity is somehow offended by the idea of everyone having food, shelter, drink, and a livable wage, not only does this  paint a deeply uncaring picture of  our faith, but it also reveals that capitalism informs our beliefs more  than the gospel of Jesus. ~ Rev. Benjamin Cremer

“The number one cause of atheism is Christians. Those who proclaim Him with their mouths and deny Him with their actions is what an unbelieving world finds unbelievable.”  ~ Karl Rahnr, SJ

When the talk isn’t walked, an already skeptical world shrugs  its shoulders and says “No surprise.” 

In some ways, I’m glad we’re (Christians)  being held at arm’s length by the world. It’s good to hear the critiques and to be asked to look in the mirror. We do have some explaining to do. Our witness is tarnished and our allegiances are suspect. Our tribe needs to be humbled and the consequences of our sins needs to be reckoned with.  In many respects we are not the ‘hope for the world’ that we bragged about for so long. 

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t bright spots. There are congregations, ministries and individuals who live life faithfully, compassionately and winsomely. Not every pastor is an ego driven monster, and not every church is consumed by more success and status but is rather consumed with the desire to love people and to love God. 

2. Since Trump left office and  Biden took over, the whole country has had to get used to  a different set of policy outcomes and behaviors. The good news is that democracy is once again being cherished and authoritarians are seen for what they are. Hate filled  morning tweets (or whatever it’s called now) from the former Chief Executive are but a painful memory and monetizing the White House for personal gain appears not to be a thing. And there’s music again at The White House. 

How can we live like this? Quite nicely, I think, quite nicely. It’s amazing what can happen when character and competence work together for the common good. 

Is Biden perfect? No, he’s not. And he’s facing issues he has no real answers for. There are tons of things needing his attention. But when push comes to shove, he at least tries to do what’s right. He looks for solutions and surrounds himself with smart, capable, men and women who are all in on a government that’s of the people, by the people and for the people – all the people. 

Biden is a man who has been deeply wounded in his life and he has allowed the suffering he experienced to become his teacher. He is a reflective man.That’s so different from his predecessor who quite obviously carries deep wounds of childhood and beyond. In his own way, he’s suffered but he hasn’t allowed that suffering to teach him. Thus we see someone who is reactive, impulse driven, a man lashing out, afraid of looking inward. He tries to heal himself  by passing his suffering on to others. It doesn’t work that way. 

3. During Advent we are asked to wait, patiently and expectantly, for the birth of Jesus. There’s a tendency to jump immediately, at warp speed from Thanksgiving into Christmas, perhaps forgetting that God just might have plans for us ‘in the between time’.  I happen to think God wants to slow us down a bit and to discover what those plans are. 

4. I heard a story a few years ago about a couple whose young son had an incurable disease. Someone remarked to the father that he and his wife seemed to be dealing with this calmly and without complaint. The father’s response blew me away. 

“Well, it seems to me that we have three choices.  We can curse life and what it does to us at times and look for some way to express our rage.  We can grit our teeth, worry like crazy and merely endure.  Or we can accept our life as still a gift, somehow, from God.  The first alternative is useless.  The second is exhausting.  The third enables us to go on, truly living.”  

I don’t  know about you but worrying like crazy, just gritting my teeth, and cursing life has never really served me all that well. At times, it’s part of the process of working it all out, but at the end of the day it doesn’t resolve anything. I’m sure that couple went through many a day when they were overtaken by grief, hurt, and anger. But they needed peace. By and through the grace of God they found it, even as they continued to carry their heavy burden. May it be so in my life and yours. 

5.  “We can control our boundaries, our thoughts and actions, our goals, what we will give our energy to, how we speak of ourselves and how we handle challenges. What we can’t control is the past, the future, the actions and opinions of others, what happens around us, what other people think of us and the outcome of our efforts.” @mindfulenough

How much time have I wasted trying to control the uncontrollable?  

6. “It’s weird watching people still direct their hate towards people telling the truth and not those who lied to them.” ~ The Clergy Network

It’s probably not wise to direct ‘hate’ towards anyone but when we try to destroy the truth tellers and instead lift up the liars, something is really wrong.

 “Compulsive liars shouldn’t frighten you. They can harm no one, if no one listens to them. Compulsive believers on the other hand: they should terrify you. Believers are the liars’ enablers.” ~ Nick Cohen 

Yah, it’s the true believers who scare me. A lot. They keep playing what I perceive to be a no win game of follow the leader, clinging to those who are devoid of ethical restraints. 

7. I chuckled for a moment when Mark 13:24-37 was read aloud at church last week. It ends with these words: “And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

I journaled: “Jesus gets it. To keep awake means to stay woke , to be expectant, cherishing and inhabiting the moment. Our good God doesn’t want anyone to miss the sacredness of the right here, right now.”

8.  “No more apologies for a bleeding heart when the opposite is no heart at all. Danger of losing our humanity must be met with more humanity.” ~ Toni Morrison

9. “Let’s state it clearly: One great idea of the biblical revelation is that God is manifest in the ordinary, in the actual, in the daily, in the now, in the concrete incarnations of life, and not through purity codes and moral achievement contests, which are seldom achieved anyway.” Richard Rohr, Falling Upward

A desire to be pure and moral is a good thing. Rohr suggests, however, that we’ve taken what’s good and made it into a contest in which we keep score, measuring ourselves against each other. That kind of  striving distracts us from being in the very presence of God. 

10. “The U.S. is sleepwalking into dictatorship.” ~ Liz Cheney 

I’m afraid she’s right but I pray, as a nation, we wake up and prove her wrong. That wake up depends on ‘us’ sounding the alarm. Seriously, it depends on you and me beating the drum of freedom. I still choose to believe there’s more of us than there is of them. I think we can and should make a big noise for what is good, beautiful, honorable and true. And that ain’t a dictatorship. 

Einstein once said: 

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”

The post Mike’s Rumblings 12-08-23 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.