From the UCC Network: 06/28/2011 "Things are Not as They Seem"

Things are Not as They Seem

Excerpt from Psalm 20

"Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses, but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God." 

Reflection by Ron Buford

If the Bible teaches us anything, it is that might and power do not always win the day – even if they seem to for a while. Moses led the children of Israel across the dry ground of the parted Red Sea with chariots and soldiers in pursuit -- soldiers who, when the waters began to suddenly flow back, drowned under the sheer weight of their armament.  Using a mere slingshot and a smooth stone, the small shepherd boy David assuaged the trembling and paralyzing fears of the Israelites, slaying the giant Goliath who had long terrorized the Israelites with booming voice, size and armor. Jesus, a poor peasant carpenter, ultimately disestablished the powerful Roman and Jewish authorities who, thought they could end his influence and power by executing him.  But God resurrected Jesus and made him a force more powerful than his enemies or followers could ever have imagined.

Is there some situation or power causing you anxiety or grief today? Know that it is subservient to the power of God and your ability to overcome your own fear of its power in your life. Embrace God’s love for you, God’s willingness to get involved on your behalf – even if you've made mistakes. Expect results.

Prayer

Gracious God, I am afraid in this situation. Help me to put my trust in you. Help me do everything in my power to change things in positive ways. Help me act, not out of powerlessness, immobility, anger, fear, gossip, or retribution. Instead, O God, help me to plan and live for victory and success. Oh, and until it comes, please give me the strength to wait for it. In the name of Jesus, the resurrected One by whom and in whom we are all continually resurrected. Amen.

About the Author Ron Buford, former coordinator of the UCC's God is still speaking campaign, consults with religious and nonprofit organizations, leads workshops, and preaches in churches across the U.S. and U.K. Ron also appears in the DVD-based progressive theology series, Living the Questions 2.0.

A Hero for Our Time [cross-post]

A HERO FOR OUR TIME

By Steve Goodier

An American tourist in Tel Aviv was about to enter the impressive Mann Auditorium to take in a concert by the Israel Philharmonic. He was admiring the unique architecture, the sweeping lines of the entrance, and the modern decor throughout the building. Finally he turned to his escort and asked if the building was named for Thomas Mann, the world famous author.

"No," his friend said, "it's named for Fredric Mann, from Philadelphia."

"Really? I never heard of him. What did he write?" the tourist asked.

"A check."

There are many kinds of heroes, and Fredric Mann may be considered a hero by concert goers in Tel Aviv. But you don't have to be famous (or wealthy) to be heroic. Nor do you have to pull a child from a burning building or throw yourself atop a hand grenade. Heroes come in many varieties. In fact, you may have never imagined yourself much of a hero, but you could be wrong. I'm not talking about comic book super-heroes, but real people making a real difference.

Heroes should not be confused with celebrities. Fame is fickle. Former American football coach and broadcaster Lou Holtz knew how fleeting fame can be. He once said, "I've been on the top and I've been on the bottom. At Arkansas my first year, we won the Orange Bowl. Then everybody loved me. They put me into the Arkansas Hall of Fame and issued a commemorative stamp in my honor. The next year we lost to Texas and they had to take away the stamp because people kept spitting on the wrong side of it."

Celebrities come and go, but heroes last. Some celebrities are far from heroes, and some heroes are far from famous. But well-known or not, all heroes have something in common. They make a difference.

To my way of thinking, Kenyan runner Kipchoge Keino is a hero. Keino won a gold medal in the 1,500 meters at the 1968 Olympics, in spite of suffering from a gallbladder infection. At later Olympics, he would add another gold and two silvers to his medal collection. Kenya later chose Keino to serve as the running coach for its Olympic teams from 1976 to 1986. Under his guidance, Kenyan runners continued to distinguish themselves in the world of sports.

But that is not why I consider him heroic. He was an outstanding athlete and one of the world's best in his field. His accomplishments are enough for Kenyans, and the world, to celebrate him. But celebrities and heroes are not always the same. Kip Keino is a hero.

You see, for most of their lives together, Kip and his wife Phyllis have been running an orphanage out of their home. In addition to their own seven children, they have raised and nurtured hundreds of other youngsters who needed a loving home. Still, every child is treated like family. And on top of all of this, Kip Keino's new foundation has built a primary and secondary school in Eldoret, Kenya, to give kids the most important gift a young person can ever receive -- a chance.

Make no mistake. Kip Keino is not a millionaire. But I appreciate what he says about his work: "I think I have been lucky. Now what is important is how I use what I have to help others."

I know that what he says applies to me, too. What is important is how I use what I have to help others -- no matter how little or how much I think I have.

American celebrity Ben Stein put it similarly. He said, "I came to realize that a life lived to help others is the only one that matters."

You see, that is what it means to be a hero. Real heroes are not always famous. Real heroes may not be flashy. They may have never saved a life nor shown extraordinary bravery. But they ardently, even obsessively, live their lives to help others. And they make a difference.

-- Steve Goodier

From Your Gas Tank to World Hunger: [cross-post]

From Your Gas Tank to World Hunger: The Dangers of Speculative Futures

by Elizabeth Palmberg 06-28-2011

Wall Street may seem far away, but it’s actually as near as your gas tank — and as widespread as global hunger. That’s the message of activists holding vigil today in downtown Manhattan to mark the release of a study that shows Wall Street speculation is driving up the price of gas — to the tune of $41 per U.S. car owner in the month of May alone. The study, authored by two economics professors at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, says that the average U.S. consumer paid a 83-cent-per-gallon premium in May for their gasoline purchases due to the huge rise in the speculative futures market for oil.

Those holding vigil, led by a Catholic responsible-investing group, met at the Irish Hunger Memorial in front of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It’s a poetically appropriate setting: a quarter-acre of Irish countryside imported (plants, 200-year-old stone cottage, and all) to memorialize the million slain by the Great Irish Famine of the 1840s. That famine was at least partly due to natural causes — the potato blight.

But to the extent that oil prices have risen due to speculation, that problem is entirely human-made — and our current food system translates the rise into higher food prices which the world’s poor can ill afford. Fossil fuels ship food around the globe, run machinery, and is made into fertilizer, tying oil and food prices together at every step. (Today’s report covers only the results of short-term speculation, not the long-term “index funds” which are also a big part of the speculative-bubble problem).

The activists in New York today — and at sister rallies in Boston, San Francisco, Baltimore, Cleveland, Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, and elsewhere — are reminding us that there are also human solutions to the speculation problem. In fact, last summer’s financial regulatory reform gave the CFTC power to limit commodity speculation, but the CFTC recently announced it won’t even start doing that until the year’s end.

Elizabeth Palmberg is an associate editor at Sojourners.

Baby Smiles and Life Truisms [cross-post]

Baby Smiles and Life Truisms

by Tony Campolo


They say a smile is a baby’s first “human response.” It’s smiling that makes the child more than an animal. Despite what some animal lovers might say, animals don’t smile. This is a call that in the name of Christ you are to put on a smile and demonstrate your humanity.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explicitly says that when you pray and do your spiritual exercises, you should not look dour and sad or even distraught. He calls upon us to have shining faces. People should not look at us and see by the heaviness in our eyes and in our mouth that we are doing something pious.

True spirituality claims Christ and requires a joyful countenance. No wonder the church father, Irenaeus, once said, “The glory of God is a human being who is fully alive.”

Here are a few truisms that are worth remembering:

1. You have no control over what you get; only over what you give.
2. You have no control over how long you live; you only have control over how well you live.
3. Play the hand that you are dealt. If you look at it closely, it’s a better hand than you think you were dealt.
4. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. In other words, it’s never too late to become what you might have been.
5. “It’s not what you do that makes you great,” said Henri Nouwen, “it’s how you do it.”
6. Mother Teresa said, “We can’t all do great things, be we all can do small things with great love.

In ministry and in life we can wear our work and our accomplishments on our sleeve or we can keep them in secret, revealing them only to God. It is the latter that we find in Scripture and the latter that should guide our thoughts and actions.