A Prayer

O Lord, help us to see the world as you see. And to change what IS to what ought to be. Amen.

The Hebrew Tattoo

Not long ago we were eating at a fast food restaurant. I noticed a family standing in line, one member of which was a woman with a tattoo on her back. Now it's not uncommon to see women with tattoos these days; but this one was unusual. It was in Hebrew. I was curious enough to stare at it and try to decipher what it said. I could make out the first letter: it was an M. The second consonant was a T. But I couldn't make out the rest of the word, and since there are no vowels I wasn't sure how the first part sounded. I tried to sound it out, but it made no sense to me.

So, I did something I've never done before: I asked a woman about her tattoo. Actually I went over to her and told her that it had been a long time since I was in seminary, and couldn't quite make out what her Hebrew tattoo said. She smiled shyly and said, "It says 'Matthew,' " and pointed to the man next to her. I didn't ask; I assumed he was her husband. I looked back at the tattoo and it made sense. M...(a)...T(t)...H...(e)w.

Do you pay attention to peoples' tattoo?

house update

Houston, we have a bed.


Yes, we moved our bed from the storage unit to our new house yesterday. But that's all. They are still painting inside. Still some electrical work to be done.


The house will be cleaned tomorrow. Then, from Thursday through Sunday we will be taking stuff from our apartment over; and putting together book shelves from IKEA; then moving books from the storage unit; and dishes.


On Monday the movers will move furniture from our apartment. Then we will clean the apartment and turn in the keys. Throughout September we'll be bringing stuff from the storage unit to the house until the unit is empty. Whew.


So, we may start sleeping in the house this weekend. But once the furniture is in next Monday we'll consider ourselves moved in--though not unpacked for several days.


There is light at the end of the tunnel--and it's light coming through new windows. 

(Photos coming when they are available.)
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budget: a moral document

In the Christian Century I read this quote from the Catholic magazine called America:


Counter to mainstream American culture, the church teaches that a society should be judged by how well it addresses the needs of its poor and vulnerable members. It demands preferential option for the poor, not the Pentagon, when moral documents like the federal budget are prepared.


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The Imam and the Church

Churches have been closing down in Iraq, and Christians have been fleeing because of threats and attacks by al-Qaeda for years. But in July a new Christian Church opened up in Kirkuk. About 200 families that had fled from other regions of Iraq settled in Kirkuk and decided to establish a new church.

And do you know what the local Muslim imam did when the church began worshiping there? He joined them at their service and offered a prayer for peace and security. Why don't we hear these kinds of things on the news?

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Updating the Psalms

Last year Pamela Greenberg published a wonderful new translation of the Psalms—translated straight from the Hebrew, and done with both scholarly and poetic skill. In the introduction of her translation she discusses how certain terms have been rendered in ways that are helpful to our continuing spiritual journey. For example, the word ‘enemy.’ In the Psalms, enemies are all over the place. What does that mean for us? She says…

The word ‘enemy’ in the Psalms “also has a long tradition of being understood as a personification of one’s struggle with suffering, such as that of poverty, addiction, depression, or illness…Metaphorical readings such as this are in keeping with the psalms’ existential tone. I have sometimes, as in Psalm 23, translated the word ‘enemy’ as ‘fear,’ as that seems to me more expressive of the psalm’s intention.” 

I think that's helpful. Next time you are reading the Psalms and you come across an 'enemy,' think "cancer" or "poverty" or "cynicism" or "depression" or whatever is opposing a fulfilling life. And when the Psalmist wants 'vengeance,' think about getting back at disease or pessimism, etc. Reinterpreting Scripture is an ancient practice that we can continue to use. 

I recommend: 

Pamela Greenberg, The Complete Psalms: The Book of Psalms in a New Translation (Bloomsbury, 2010).

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elephant eye

Elephant Eye
taken at Birmingham Zoo

Children of Clergy

Here's a little ongoing project I have: influential people who had a father or mother who was a clergy. Can you add to this list?

CLERGY OFFSPRING….

Adams, Abigail

Austin, Jane

Darwin

Dulles, John Foster

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

Holmes, Olive Wendell

Jeffers, Robinson

King Jr, M L

Lessing

Merwin, W.S.

Muir, John

Nietzsche

Stowe, Harriet Beecher

van Gogh, Vincent

Wilson, Woodrow

Roosevelt and Eisenhower

I'm about finished with Eleanor Roosevelt's autobiography.
Quite a controversial figure in her day.
She couldn't sit still;
she was constantly traveling to all parts of the world.
She spoke her mind and roiled consciences.
I also viewed a 1965 documentary on her life.
It won an Academy Award, and has now been put on DVD
with a new introduction by Hilary Clinton.
Well worth watching.


I'm also reading a book that I've had for several years
and just never picked up and read.
Written by Harold Stassen and  Marshall Houts, it's entitled,
Eisenhower: Turning the World Toward Peace.


My main professor in college was Glen Stassen, the son of
Harold Stassen.
It was many years after college that I found out 
about Harold Stassen's career.
He was elected Governor of Minnesota at the age of 31!
In the Eisenhower administration he was 
called 'Secretary of Peace' and had
other official titles, and was part of Ike's Cabinet.
He had been appointed to serve on the commission that
created the charter of the United Nations,
a charter which he signed.
He was at the ceremony of surrender of the Japanese
aboard the U.S. Missouri at the end of WWII.
He was a main force in bringing General Eisenhower
into the 1952 campaign as a candidate for President.
He wrote the main draft of the first Inaugural speech for Ike.
He served as a negotiator with the Russians for arms reduction.
He considered himself a 'progressive Republican' and disagreed
with the right wing of the party.


I'm only half way through Stassen's book, and I'm enjoying
the stories of behind the scenes events in the Republican party
during those post-WWII years.
Harold Stassen's emphasis on peace through negotiation
came to me through his son, Glen Stassen, my college teacher.


Ironically, Eleanor Roosevelt also had a strong emphasis
on sitting down with adversaries and talking things out.
She had a rather direct conversation with Khrushchev in Russia
about the possibilities of disarmament and cooperation.


I think Jesus would have liked Eleanor and Harold.

Sonnet on the Theology of Weather

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SONNET ON THE THEOLOGY OF WEATHER

            (June, 2011 – Birmingham, AL)

The loud thunder roared

a few drops to the ground.

Right now rain is by all adored,

but rein of drought rules the town.

In Arizona the forests burn

while the Mississippi spills over land.

If each to the opposite turned

we would praise God’s loving hand.

Weather patterns are not evidence of

divine sovereignty of all details.

It seems that if the heavenly Dove

really does fly, She stealthily sails

right over our heads and out of sight.

The weather vane points to godless night.

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Quotes from poets

Edward Hirsch: “We’re involved in mystery. Poetry uses words to put us in touch with that mystery. We’re always going to need it.”

Garrett Hongo: “I do want things to be better somehow, at least within myself, so that I might be more like the stillness that smooths the surface of a pond rather than the bullfrog that jumps into it.”

Jim Harrison: “I’m a poet and we tend to err on the side that life is more than it appears rather than less.”

Gary Snyder: “A life that is vowed to simplicity, appropriate boldness, good humor, gratitude, unstinting work and play, and lots of walking, brings us close to the actual existing world and its wholeness.”

Ellen Steinbaum: “I used to think that creativity and boredom were mutually exclusive. Now I wonder if they’re not inextricably intertwined.”

May Swenson: “Poetry is based in a craving to get through the curtains of things as they appear, to things as they are, and then into the larger, wilder space of things as they are becoming… Not to need illusion—to dare to see and say how things really are, is the emancipation I would like to attain.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: “In character, in manner, in style, in all the things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.”

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