Monthly Archives: November 2012

Hoping With…

28 Wednesday Nov 2012

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Adapted from original posting on here 12/30/10.  Inspired by Grey’s Anatomy, season 3, episode 12

Hoping is a communal action.

Dr. Preston Burke says it best in a season 3 episode of Grey’s Anatomy.  George O’Malley’s father was diagnosed with advanced cancer.  We no longer see “George the doctor” but “George the patient’s son.”

As his father’s body experiences organ failure, George turns to Burke, the cardio surgeon, to discuss father’s health.  Preston alludes that George’s father probably won’t be coming back from this.  Preston tells George that what he can do is “hope with you.”

Hoping with… what a unique way to show solidarity with those in pain and those grieving. Usually, hope is something that I will do for me and you will do for you.  Hoping seems like a very private and internal journey.  But what if the journey of hope is intended to be something we do with others?  When our hope seems dwindling, what if someone comes along side of us and keeps the hope going?

Hoping with someone has its risks.  Maybe it means that we risk our emotions in hoping.  We sit in the depths of the ditch with our neighbor, and our heart is with them in that ditch.  As their hope becomes our hope, we, too, risk having hope pass us by.

If we identify with the Christian faith, we are undoubtedly in the hope business.  We are in the tomb with Christ, hoping for resurrection.  We are with the women at the tomb, hoping for a better day.

Hope isn’t just for Easter.  At Christmas, hope comes as we wait for the birth of someone who embodied God’s love.  Hope comes as we know night will not last forever, and longer days are ahead.

For what are you hoping?  How can I hope with you?

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Thanksgiving, Black Friday and… Winter’s Holy Week

24 Saturday Nov 2012

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I would like to thank my clergy friends for a discussion topic on Facebook: Black Friday vs. Good Friday.*  Because of them and the movement of the Holy Spirit, I couldn’t stop thinking about the special connection between these two Fridays.

My initial thought was that they are complete opposite festivities… one being the day people give their heart and soul for consumerism, the other that someone gave their heart and soul for justice… Wait… Not so fast… I need to get over my Thanksgiving turkey coma before really diving into this topic…

Once my coma wore off and I began to read one or two other comments in the discussion, I realized there were more similarities.

First of all, for those who believe solely in sacrificial atonement may arrive at the conclusion that these two days are complete opposites.  As I mentioned earlier, to some people Good Friday is good because they believed Jesus died to save their sins.  But not everyone believes that model of atonement.

Many of us believe that Jesus died because of our sins not for our sins.  Because of a broken system in which few had great power and many were disposable, Jesus had to stand up as a voice for the voiceless and to give dignity to the unclean.  Because of his courage and risk, Jesus was forced to face the cross.  Thus, Good Friday is a sad day in which we remember something bad that happened to someone who loved with his whole heart.  Good Friday is a gloomy day.

It’s not the only ominous Friday.

I’ve worked in retail.  While I’ve worked on Black Friday, I never truly experienced the chaos of a store opening.  I have, however, worked full-time in a department store during the weeks before Christmas.  I was exhausted.  Through this gloomy holiday memory, I experienced the disillusionment of Christmas.  While most people darted in and out of stores, some left the negativity which rippled through each of our lives.  Christmas was no longer a season of joy and sparkle but a time of dismay under florescent store lights.  (Fortunately, I found my resurrection since my retail days by working in non-profits and churches.  But I wonder where others find their resurrection while working in bleak midwinter at the mall…)

Thinking back to my retail experience, Black Friday wasn’t the beginning of the festive Christmas Season but a reminder of the somber parts of Holy Week and the despair of Good Friday.  Little did I realize that I was in need of resurrection and renewal.

By comparing Black Friday to Good Friday, I see a Christ who is in solidarity with the retail worker.  I am reminded of a Jesus who experienced the impact of a broken system.  Likewise, those in retail during the holidays experience the same brunt of a broken economic system.  I recall the story of Jdimytai Damour, a retail worker who died when opening the doors to Black Friday crowds.  Damour was just trying to do his job and earn a paycheck.  Instead, he met his demise in the cracks of an unjust and broken system.  I think Jesus wanted to be on that cross as much as the Damour wanted to be trampled in a 2008 Walmart stampede.

Both workers and shoppers have been hurt in the name of great sales.  And each year it gets bigger.  Rarely do people challenge the way the system works.  In fact, more sales are desired by the “powers that be.”  Hours are expanded.  Sales are promoted greater than the prior year.  Corporations understand that having a few items that many people want (and couldn’t otherwise afford) will drive people into the stores.  Because dignity comes with owning certain items, people will forgo time with their loved ones to make purchases.  (I highly recommend reading this article by Diana Butler Bass.)  The value of Thanksgiving lessens while the value of Black Friday increases.

The way that I would like to explain how much Black Friday has grown is through this analogy: what if Good Friday was celebrated at the exclusion of Maundy Thursday?  What if we stopped celebrating Maundy Thursday, the supper and the words of institution?  What if we removed the story of Jesus celebrating Passover with his friends and just focused on his arrest and death?  Corporate’s decision to veil Thanksgiving by adding store hours is the equivalent of Jesus being arrested before celebrating Thursday’s Passover meal.  It’s hiding the sacredness of our annual meal-sharing.  Time specifically set aside to sit at the table, relax and enjoy family, friends and food has now been taken away to worship the almighty dollar and a very broken system.

I find it interesting that both Black Friday and Good Friday arrive after the day of meal-sharing.  In Jesus’ time, it was the Passover meal.  In our time, we share the Thanksgiving table.  Peaks of kindness hover over the food.  Prayers given in gratitude for the incredible blessings in our life.

Yet the warmth of the food and love at the Table begins to drift away.  In the midst of the night, Jesus begins to experience the chills of abandonment and hate.  Workers all around our country travel to work as the moon lurks overhead.  As doors open to the whirlwind of coveting hearts, the loving energy of Thanksgiving is drained from the retail workers souls.  Rarely does someone find their death at the hands of a broken system like Damour did.  However, souls are crushed and spirits begin to die through the exhaustion and heartlessness that a retail worker can experience throughout the holiday season.

When does the resurrection come?  For Good Friday, it was the “third” day.  They needed to experience only two restless nights and resurrection was experienced.

Yet after our Thanksgiving Thursday and Black Friday, resurrection is rarely seen on the following Sunday.  Shoppers still fight the crowds, hoping to find a parking space and getting grumpy when they can’t find what they are looking for.  Workers continue to work the expanded hours and feel the ripple effect of negativity.

If we believe that Christ is in solidarity with the retail worker, resurrection is needed.  Since it probably won’t come on the Sunday after Black Friday, or for another three to four weeks, some kind of hope is needed in the lives of retail workers.

What does this look like?  How can we bring renewal, grace and hope to those working in the retail business?

First of all, we can stand for the dignity of the workers.  This may include writing to corporate headquarters to let them know if their employer practices do not seem fair.

Secondly, we can be aware of how we treat the retail workers.  They are on their feet five to eight hours per day.  Many are making little over minimum wage.  On top of all of this, they are encountering lots of shoppers each day, many of whom are grumpy.  We can bring smiles and joy to their day and help them see the love of Christ whose birthday we mark with the purchase of these gifts.  We can ask them how they are doing and treat them as humans, not servants.  Retail workers are God’s children and made in God’s image.

There is very little joy in either Black Friday and Good Friday.  Because of greed and selfishness, people hurt.   Yet helping people find resurrection sooner rather than later will assist them in finding the presence of God in their midst.

*Special thanks to Désirée Hartson Gold and Chris McArdle

A crafty resurrection

18 Sunday Nov 2012

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Everything old is new again.

Yesterday, I perused the artwork at the semiannual Crafty Supermarket event in Cincinnati.  This is not your grandmother’s craft show.  Prints of all sorts, edgy drawings, fabric art and a variety of photographs filled the halls of the show.  The pieces that greatly resonated with me were the antique and retro items turned into useful modern-day wearable crafts.

What happens when a number of pieces from your favorite childhood board game or collectors cards go missing?  The remaining pieces become the next generation of crafts.  Those items which seem like trash is no longer rubbish.  The broken typewriter key has been attached to a ring.  The spare lego is made into a tie clip.  A crystal from a chandelier is now hanging from a pendant.  A card from the Uno or Clue game is the new cover of a mini notebook.

Life isn’t over for the pop piece of yesteryear.  Whether New Kids on the Block or Alf filled your eighties dreams, those memories still linger in new form.  And as the memories remain, how can we see ourselves as old pieces being renewed and given resurrection?

  • This is rebirth

The refurbished item did not find its demise in the bottom of a recycle bin, on a mound at the dump or in a bin at the yard sale.  Even if the card or broken item found its way to the trash, someone had faith in this piece for something greater and yanked it out of the garbage.

Likewise, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes or a retro greeting card being pulled out of the recycle bin, we are invited to rebirth.  There is new life in us.  Even when we are “slightly used” or broken, God calls us out of brokenness into new life.

  • Finding new life means finding new abilities

The beautiful typewriter key that is now adhered to my ring filled its duty imprinting commas on sheets of paper.  During its time as a key, the comma dutifully brought sense to sentences and pause to thoughts. After the typewriter ceased to work and lost relevance in our culture, one person had faith that this key would add flavor to a piece of jewelry.

Losing a job or an ability doesn’t mean the end for us.  It often forces us in a new direction.  No longer are we significant to our society in a way that we are used to.  But we have other God-given gifts to contribute.  We have other ways God is calling us to use these gifts in our world.  We may no longer be as significant to one segment of our society, but we haven’t lost our splendor to our culture as a whole.

  • We can take what works from the past and make it part of the future

A typewriter has little function in our society nowadays.  So do cassette tapes.  But can we take what still works from these items and carry them along into our future.  The typewriter keys looks amazing in a ring setting or as part of a magnet.  I’ve thought about transforming cassette tape cases as credit card or business card holders.  We may not need them in their original function, but we can take a piece of the past with us into the future.

Memories are still part of who we are.  Often we keep to much of the past in our homes and in our churches.  Our lives become cluttered with things that no longer work in the present.  I wonder if we can use the lesson of the typewriter key ring in transforming our churches.  For instance, what if the pews were removed from the sanctuary but were given the opportunity to live as seating in the fellowship hall?  Or what if the pews could be repositioned in the sanctuary to add dimension to worship?  What if we sang the words of older hymns to new tunes or singing newer words to older tunes?

Yes, all of these “crafty” ideas include change.  However, the past is honored in a way in which the future can relate.  I may not need a typewriter or type fast while using one, but having the key on a piece of jewelry reminds me of yesterday’s writers.  Through the wearing of this key, I honor the fingers that typed many words and the passion of former essayists, playwrights and authors.

What broken item in your house can you modify into a stylish new accessory?  What is something older in your church that can be reformed and used to transform worship?

What bubbles up…

12 Monday Nov 2012

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Grey’s Anatomy – Episode “Beautiful Doom”

“What bubbles up?”  That’s what our pastoral care teacher would ask us when diving into a case study.  It was expected that we would experience some rogue feeling from our past while ministering in the present.

So when watching Meredith Grey on last week’s Grey’s Anatomy, all I kept wanting to say to her was “Something’s bubbling up Meredith… Ok, Meredith, step away from the patient… Meredith, your sister’s death is clouding your mind… Meredith, should you really be in the OR?”

In the season finale last May, Meredith’s sister, Lexie, succumbed to her fatal injuries from a plane crash.  Since the episode, it seemed as though Meredith continued to delay her grief.  Feelings had been pushed further and further down into her soul.  Her residual anger that seeped out of her mouth was aimed at the new interns.

This week, Meredith’s feelings finally bubbled to the surface when she tended to a young girl pinned under a car.  Her mind raced back to her sister.  She denied her feelings to Dr. Weber and continued treating the young woman.  Yet, Meredith’s judgment was teetering on the brink of dangerous.  Fortunately for Meredith, she was able to stay away from the cliff of murky judgment and save the life of the young woman.

Ah.  Fiction.  If only we could keep our past feelings under lock and key when it is convenient.

You see, for the rest of us, we aren’t always as lucky.  Any time we listen to someone speak of a similar traumatic experience, feelings of our terrifying past has the potential to “bubble up” and cloud our thoughts.  Decisions we make and advice we give can be based out of our fears and anxieties rather than lucid thought.  Our friends, families, strangers, etc. may take our advice based on our flawed judgments.

It’s in my firm belief that God understands that feelings bubble up during our new experiences.  As God is in our previous pain with us, God is calling us to new ways of healing.  This could be counseling/therapy to understand why feelings continuously “bubble up.”  God is opening our eyes to the triggers that cause us to revert to yesterday’s feelings.  And God is call us to differentiate between our past pains and our present experiences.

We shouldn’t be afraid to ask ourselves “what bubbles up for me?”  By doing so, others may avoid our faulty advice, and we may understand ourselves and transform in ways we never believed we could.