From the UCC Network: 05/03/2011 "He Appeared to Me"

He Appeared to Me

Excerpt from I Corinthians 15: 6 - 8

"Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time . . . he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me."

Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson

I've been blessed or cursed to serve congregations of the highly-educated. Usually around Easter someone takes me aside to explain to me that they just can't buy the whole Easter thing. "Really," such a person said, "you can't expect me to believe this, this business of bodies flying out of tombs, this superstitious clap-trap. I'm a grown-up, a modern man."

For some years, as a young pastor, I worked hard at explaining Easter in the face of such objections. I tried to make the resurrection fit into our modern world and our assumptions. I would say, "Well, it's a symbol, don't you think? A symbol of all our various dyings and risings. A symbol of life, of hope."   Didn't seem to make much of dent.

Finally one year I decided to change my strategy. When that year’s modern man showed up to tell me he couldn't buy it, had trouble with Easter, I said, "Well, yes, you would. I mean,  what would you want with a God who is breaking things open, creating a whole new world? But listen," I added, "stick around. I think we may be able to help you with this. With God all things are possible."

The New Testament doesn't report "sightings" of the risen Jesus. It reports "appearances." Jesus intrusions. People don't say, "Yes, it was about sunrise when I got a glimpse of him heading over the hill there."

They report, "he appeared." What's the difference? The difference is who's the subject of the verbs. The difference is who's in charge. With sightings, we are. With appearances, God is. Easter means, among other things, it's not about us. Not all about me. Not all about you. It's about God. In Jesus, God is busy rewriting our sentences, busy intruding upon us, appearing when and where we least expect him. Is that good news or bad news? I guess it depends on who you think is in charge.

Prayer

I give thanks, dear Lord, that you keep appearing, appearing to the wrong people, in unexpected places, and sometimes even to me. Thank you. Amen.

About the Author Anthony B. Robinson, a United Church of Christ minister, is a speaker, teacher and writer. His newest book isStewardship for Vital Congregations, published by The Pilgrim Press. Read his weekly reflections on the current lectionary texts at www.anthonybrobinson.com/ by clicking onWeekly Reading.

Are We Closer to Peace After Bin Laden’s Death? [cross-post]

Are We Closer to Peace After Bin Laden’s Death?

by Lindsay Branham 05-03-2011

The news of Osama bin Laden’s death rippled across social networking sites Sunday night. As I scrolled through my news feed, I witnessed my internet community express their delight and celebration over the death of America’s “enemy,” and I was surprised to see such blatant euphoria. I went down to the White House as thousands gathered in near hysteria, chanting, yelling, and waving oversized U.S. flags through the night air, tepid with the thick swell of the energetic joy of the young crowd. People switched between chanting “Yes We Can” and singing “The Star Spangled Banner” with high pitched hoots and hollers.

I stood in the midst of the fray and contemplated what this reaction meant for us as Americans, and for some of us who follow the lead of a regular carpenter who celebrated peace and justice and who had a knack for turning things inside out. Jesus said the peacemaker would be blessed, and he urged people to do such brash things as turn the other cheek, give more than what is asked of you, go the extra mile, and love your enemy.

When I heard of Osama bin Laden’s death, a man responsible for the death of thousands of lives in the United States and many more in the Middle East, I looked at this moment through the lens of my own experiences walking amongst conflict areas around the world as a documentary filmmaker and photographer.

I, like many of us, yearn for an end to despotic violence and unnecessary and senseless pain. Right now, a terrorist named Joseph Kony is ravaging central Africa with his army of child soldiers. If Kony were killed, would I rejoice? Hundreds of children would presumably be invited into freedom. Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army would potentially cease wreaking havoc.

But I hope I would respond differently. I would expect to feel relief — tempered relief that this man would not perpetrate any more violence. And I hope my next emotion would be sadness that a fuller portrait of justice was not possible.

In the case of Osama bin Laden, a man who was not currently the operational head of al Qaeda, nor responsible daily for al Qaeda’s activities, his death does not mean an end to extremist violence.

The debacle of 9/11 led to the last 10 years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden’s death does not rectify the thousands of American, Iraqi, and Afghani lives lost in this pursuit. I do not think we have achieved peace.
And certainly we are no closer to peace through our own celebrations of violence and even indulging in it ourselves. The hatred I have witnessed in people’s words and exclamations over the death of Osama bin Laden is just as riddled with violence as the violence we protest against. And until that changes, true peace cannot be possible.

Lindsay Branham lived in Central Africa for 18 months following the crisis of child soldiers while working as a writer and photographer. Lindsay is currently the Programs Director and Senior Producer of DTJ (www.DTJ.org), is an international documentary filmmaker and photographer, and is co-directing a feature documentary about two child soldiers in eastern DRC. To see more of Lindsay’s work go to www.LindsayBranham.com.

Vengeance Belongs to G-d [cross-post]

Vengeance Belongs to G-d

This article is written by Max Cater and is featured in the Washington Post. Max Carter is the Director of Friends Center at Guilford College.

Vengeance belongs to G-d
By:Max Carter

Shortly after the attacks of 9/11, footage was beamed around the world of people allegedly dancing on rooftops and in the streets, rejoicing at the news. Americans (and others) were rightly appalled. As it turns out, those were isolated incidents, overwhelmed by the more typical response of candlelight vigils and expressions of sympathy. I hope that the jubilation in the streets shown following the announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s death was similarly just a “snapshot” of responses and that the majority of people have a more measured reaction. As Gary Cooper, playing Jess Birdwell in “Friendly Persuasion,” said to his little boy, who had told him to go “kill a Johnny Reb for me, papa” - “Don’t ever talk that way about a man’s life.”

Or as a number of students here at Guilford College - one of the places where “jubilation in the streets” was not the norm - have said: “Our battle is against powers and principalities, systems of injustice, and not flesh and blood,” referencing scripture.

Interestingly, on the same day as the announcement of bin Laden’s death, our local paper carried a review of David Goldfield’s “America Aflame,” a scholarly look at the enormous cost in human life and treasure of the Civil War. Goldfield calculated that the war was not inevitable, that the goals of the war could have been achieved by less costly means - but that the prevailing political and religious climate made it difficult to solve the matters peaceably. 

I wonder if we are not seeing a similarly sad situation now. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost trillions of dollars and countless human lives. That certainly should temper our “jubilation” at the death of bin Laden. In a mural exhibit on our campus entitled “Windows and Mirrors: the human cost of the war in Afghanistan,” sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, a panel depicts the numbers of Afghan civilians killed at wedding celebrations alone. Six separate air strikes on people expressing their own jubilation at the marriage of happy couples had killed nearly 400.

I am not personally celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden. My religious faith tells me that vengeance is the L-rd’s and that I am to follow in the way of Christ - letting love be my first motion. I don’t condone what Bid Laden did or preached, but I cannot justify killing thousands upon thousands in order to exact justice on one person. I think G-d expects better of us.

From the UCC Network: 05/03/2011 "A call to prayer for the pathways to peace"

A call to prayer for the pathways to peace

Written by Geoffrey A. Black
May 3, 2011

The Rev. Geoffrey A. Black, UCC general minister and president.

The news that the United States military has located and killed Osama bin Laden at his compound in Pakistan comes as the nation prepares to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the downing of United Airlines Flight 93 over southwest Pa. These tragic events left Americans and people throughout the world in shock and grieving the senseless loss of life resulting from this intentional assault planned and carried out by al-Qaida under the leadership of Osama bin Laden.

From that moment there were those in this country who felt a need for revenge that could only be satisfied by bringing bin Laden to justice, which in the minds of many meant killing him. As of today, that goal has been achieved. Yet, while many celebrate this event and feel that it has provided the nation with a fitting response to the horrific and brutal attack on citizens of the United States, there are others who see no reason to rejoice and instead feel a deep sense of disquiet and unease.

For the past 10 years we have mourned the loss of those who perished in the 9/11 attacks. We mourn, too, the thousands around the world – Muslims, Christians, Jews and others – killed in numerous indiscriminate attacks by al-Qaida. We have been made all too aware of the cost of waging the "war on terror" both in human lives lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the financial toll it has taken on our country. We lament that our troops often have returned to lackluster care for the healing of their physical and emotional wounds. Few, if any of us, are without a personal story of loss that connects us to this conflict.

There is no joy in this moment for us, because first and foremost we understand ourselves to be the disciples of Jesus. Jesus calls us in his teachings to do the difficult thing of loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us. If nothing else, Osama bin Laden was an enemy of the United States and other governments around the world. His death at the hands of our military brings his life as an adversary to an end, but it does not bring us any closer to our ultimate goal – a just peace, healing of the human spirit and reconciliation between human beings and with God. We know that revenge does not lead to healing and reconciliation. It does not move us any closer to peace.

Our disquiet and unease also grows out of the realization that the achievement of the military goal of capturing and/or killing Osama bin Laden may fuel the next round of violence by his followers and only encourage others to join the ranks of al-Qaida or related organizations that share the same violent agenda.

It is likely that the violent death of Osama bin Laden was inevitable, given that he was engaged in an ongoing campaign of violence and threatened violence against the U.S., its allies and leaders in the Muslim world who in his eyes were enemies of Islam. With so many organized forces arrayed against him, it is conceivable that his demise was but a matter of time, even if that time period was almost 10 years. However, as those 10 years passed, the U.S. and its allies have been engaged in two theaters of war in West and Southern Asia. In that time our nation has alienated many in Muslim majority nations, and that reality remains.

Yet, we now have an opportunity to pursue international goals that the United Church of Christ has long advocated: a troop withdrawal and end to combat operations in Afghanistan; the continued hope of a just resolution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians; engaging in meaningful relationships with people of other faith communities, including Muslims; and to use the gained political capital to promote a just peace on many fronts.

Above all else, it is a moment for prayerful reflection. Our United Church of Christ Statement of Faith reminds us that God reconciles the world to God's self and that God promises courage in the struggle for justice and peace. For people of faith committed to seeking peace with justice in our nation and the world, turning to God in prayer is most appropriate.

Let us engage in prayer that we might have that kind of courage – a prayer that includes listening deeply and patiently for God to guide our thoughts and actions along the pathways to a just peace, healing of the human heart and reconciliation. I believe our prayers will be a fitting response to the violent death of an enemy, whose cause still lives as a challenge and a threat.


The Rev. Geoffrey A. Black is the UCC's general minister and president and a member of its five-person Collegium of Officers.