Finger Pointing

On a certain Sabbath Jesus was walking through a field of ripe grain.  His disciples were pulling off heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands to get rid of the chaff, and eating them.  Some Pharisees said, "Why are you doing that, breaking a Sabbath rule?"      Luke 6: 1-2
 
 
As I was reading this familiar passage once again, something struck me for the very first time, though it may be yesterday's news to others.  It was a question -what in the world were a bunch of Pharisees doing anywhere near a wheat field on the Sabbath in the first place?  Why weren't they at home praying or reading the Scripture or meditating on the goodness of God?  It seems to me the only possible answer is that they were spying on Jesus and his disciples (as they often seemed to do) just waiting for a slip -something they could pounce on as being counter to the religious rules by which they not only lived, but also judged everyone else's spiritual condition. 
 
The disciples were hungry -really hungry (it seems to me you'd really have to be hungry to eat what they were eating), but the Pharisees seemed to have no concern for that.  No one said, "wait, guys, that's wrong -don't do that.  Come home with me and I'll feed you. That way not only will you not be breaking the law, but the food's better as well."    If they were really concerned that the disciples were doing irreparable damage to their spiritual lives, why didn't they offer help rather than crying "aha" and pointing the finger at them?
 
The answer is because they were Pharisees and they did what Pharisees do.  And I know this because there is a Pharisee inside of me who likes to do the very same thing.  He likes to point out people who are not as "right" in their thoughts or righteous in their deeds as I surely must be. He does not to offer them any encouragement, but sits back waiting for them to wipe out, and then gloats when it does happen.  He's actually pretty religious, but he is not well acquainted with I Corinthians 13, especially the part that says "love does not delight in evil."  You may know him, in fact you may be giving a home to some of his relations.   
 
What I am discovering is, like any other unwelcome guest, the way to get rid of him is simply not to feed him.  He pretty much lives on a steady diet of self-righteousness, self pride, fear, criticism, insecurity, mistrust, and judgment of others.  Compared to all that, a little raw grain seems pretty wholesome and downright appealing.    

 

Tony Lowe is the pastor of Fancy Gap Friends Fellowship, a house church in South-West Virginia and is Clerk of Ministry and Counsel for North Carolina Yearly Meeting (FUM).

Linda's Story

While this may not be important enough to get on our website, I want to share my Feelings that if God brings you to it He will see you through it. I was married for 33 years to a very abusive husband. I suffered numerous black eyes and busted lips and teeth knocked out and scrapes and abrasions and a broken wrist and a broken leg. While I fractured the leg at work I worked four hours afterwards standing on that leg. When I got home and told my husband he was drinking and could not take me to St. Josephs Urgent Care or the Emergency Room. He got mad because I did not have my supervisor take me to the Doctor. I thought my leg was just very bruised. He kicked me in the leg that I had fractured and finished breaking the leg to the point that it would not hold me up. All night long he continued to drink and rant and rail at me, pulled me up and down the hall of our trailer by my hair and shirt, made abrasions on my body and insisted that I mix his drinks after he went to our bedroom all the way down the hall from the kitchen and bring them to him. I had to do so with the help of a step-stool. He finally went to sleep and woke up the next day around 12:00 noon and took me to St. Josephs Urgent Care where they told me that my leg was broken but it could be fixed with surgery. When I told him it was broken he said, “that's just great.” They told him they did not have crutches to fit my height at Weaverville and I needed to go to St. Josephs Urgent Care on Leicester Highway. He said he was not going to take me as we only had 5 minutes to get there. The nurse unloaded on him and asked me if there was anyone else I could get to take me, I said, “no but he will take me,” and he did. I had to deal with his drinking again that night but he did not really ask me to wait on him to much. I had to go to Blue Ridge Bone and Joint on Monday and he got up and took me. They said they could fix my leg by inserting a Titanium Rod. That was done on Thursday and I was in the hospital for three days because the swelling would not go down. I finally went home only to have to sit on my sofa and prop my leg up for two weeks. I finally got to go back to work after 6 weeks but was restricted to sitting down 15 minutes every two hours. I was allergic to the Titanium Rod and kept having Migraine headaches so they decided to take the Titanium rod back out. They went back in the original incision and I had a hard time healing. I got laid off from my job and then found out I had Hyperthyroidism and lost 20 pounds in two months, got disorientated and lost my hearing for awhile. I finally came to the conclusion that I had had enough and on February 20th 2005 I felt like God told me it is time to go. I didn't hear a Big Booming Voice; it was like it was in my heart. I called my sister and got out of there while my husband was at work and I have never looked back. After almost three years I still feel like God is leading me and guiding me.   

Linda is a lifelong resident of Buncombe County and a member of City View Quaker Church. She has volunteered with aiding homeless women and currently works part-time with the Housing Authority.

 

 

My Secret

As I sat in the meeting listening to the comments around me, I felt the burden of my secret.  It was a secret because I haven’t told many people, and apparently God hasn’t told many people (or else people aren’t listening).  The people discussing it made it seem so dirty.  They never called it by name.  All they would say is that we need to stand with Jesus against it; that those who love the Lord need to stand with him against those who don’t.

With this subject there is so much pain and hurtfulness.  There is the pain of the people who, like those in the meeting, feel threatened by it.  There is the unbelievable pain of those who are “it,” especially if they are also followers of Christ.  And there is the pain of those of us who love the Lord and stand with him in all things, including believing that Jesus loves, accepts and yes, even created “them.”  It hurts to be accused by fellow believers of not loving Jesus and not following his teachings, when you feel, no, you know, that it is Jesus himself who led you into this place of burden and discomfort. 

That place of burden and discomfort is the place of loving and accepting all people the way that God made them.  I and many fellow believers got to this place from the belief that Jesus’ message was one of love and acceptance; that he embraced the people that the “church” shunned; that he was the embodiment and fulfillment of the Law; that the only people that Jesus condemned in his ministry were the Pharisees – the “church” people who thought they knew the will and mind of God better than God Himself standing before them.  We believe that Scripture is the sacred Spirit-breathed word of God and should never be wielded as a weapon to judge and inflict pain on others.  And we believe that judging others is God’s, and only God’s, responsibility.

By now you have guessed my secret:  I love gay and lesbian people.  I believe that Jesus loves gay and lesbian people.  And after years and years of prayer and struggle over this “issue,” I believe that the Spirit has led me to understand that gay is ok.  It isn’t a deal-breaker for salvation.  It isn’t even a person’s identity, but rather a part of how they are wired.  And as the Psalmist tells us in Psalm 139, God did the wiring.  While each of us was in our mother’s wombs, God formed us “fearfully and wonderfully.”

Some say Scripture is clear in condemning homosexuality.  I believe that a reading of the Bible in context and in the light of Jesus’ teachings and the Spirit’s leading leaves some significant question about the meaning of the passages seeming to deal with homosexuality.  And it wasn’t even on the radar for Jesus who never mentioned it.  He spent a lot of time talking about loving our neighbors and honoring God and didn’t mention once that we should judge anyone.  In fact, he says that we should not judge anyone. 

What the Bible does and doesn’t say about homosexuality is a lengthy and complex discussion, but here is the bottom line for me:  if I am wrong, if homosexuality is an “abomination” to God, then I have erred in love.  And maybe my error has brought some gay and lesbian folks to a Jesus who loves and redeems them.  If I take the attitude of “hate the sin but love the sinner” (which, incidentally, I supported for many years), then I am conditionalizing the gay or lesbian person’s relationship with the church and with God.  I am marginalizing people already on society’s margins.  I am pushing them away from the Christ who died to save us all.  So I choose love.

And I choose to believe that God’s Spirit still moves and works in the hearts of those who seek it.  The hallmark of Quakerism is the belief in continual revelation.  I think that at this time in history, God has revealed new truths.  Truths that never contradict Scripture but that are an extension of Jesus’ teaching and exemplary life.  Before he was arrested, Jesus told his disciples that there was much more to say to them than they could then bear, but that the Spirit would come to guide them.  Since Pentecost, that spirit has continually revealed truth and error in the company of Christ’s believers.

As I am moved from living by the letter of the law to experience the Spirit of the law (kicking and screaming as I am a rule-follower and because it is so much easier to live in a world of clear do’s and don’ts than in one of Divine justice), I find myself caring much more about how people treat one another with kindness and about spreading the peace of Christ and lessening hatred than about with whom people share love, life and respect.  The love and peace of Christ is my burden, but it is my secret no longer.

Margaret Vestal along with her husband Jimmy have begun a church in Asheville for a new generation of Jesus' seekers and followers who want to experience genuine worship and live as Jesus did in radical faith. 

 

Homelessness and  Our Community

Homelessness in Buncombe County is an issue that affects each of us on a daily basis, regardless of our proximity to those who are homeless. Tax dollars, and church dollars, which might serve other areas are directed to the problem. Even local employment is affected because it is difficult to maintain a job if you have no stable residence. And employers have difficulty delivering products when their labor force attendance is sporadic due to erratic sleeping patterns in the search for shelter. Hospital emergency rooms are affected, and even the cost of working with the homeless is expensive because of the difficulty in maintaining contact, and delivering consistent, effective services. Frequently police must spend hours of their time in homeless related difficulties because there is simply no one else to help. There is a financial cost associated with the drain on local providers such as mental health providers, hospital emergency rooms, substance abuse treatment centers, where this relatively small segment of our population requires almost 20% of resources.

The plight of the homeless in our community is one that affects men, women, and children. While men comprise almost 60% of the homeless population, the fastest growing segment of the population is women, and children. And while we traditionally think of homeless as those who stand in lines outside shelters, there is a significant population of homeless who are “doubled-up”, living in cramped space with friends, or relatives, or kind strangers…many of whom are generous, but ill equipped to share space.(Imagine a mother and three small children sleeping in the living room of a grandmother’s two room apartment). 

Surveys have shown almost 600 people in our community are homeless on any given night, and that does not include many of the “hidden” homeless.  Chronic homelessness usually involves many people with mental health issues, substance abuse, and physical disabilities. Their homelessness compounds the problem, making it even more difficult to deliver service because of their lack of fixed residence, and even a way for physicians to call and make medical appointments. 

A significant obstacle for reintegrating the homeless back into our community is often the homeless themselves. It has frequently happened that one of our homeless clients has decided to attend a local church, and utilize church participation as a healthy activity to reconstruct a new life. It usually happens that even a small church gathering is intimidating, so our men enter the church at the last moment and sit on the last row, as close to the door as possible, hoping no one will notice they are not as well groomed as might be the case. Then at the end of the service, they are quick to make an exit, almost hoping no one will make a big “to do” over their visit. They usually beat a hasty retreat to the more comfortable confines of our shelter. Then we hear them report that the service was a good one, but the people there weren’t very friendly! The truth of the matter is that our clients often make it hard for others to befriend them. Unsure of themselves, apologetic for the condition of their clothes, the homeless often try to be invisible. One task in breaking the cycle of homelessness is to make them welcome in the House of the Lord, where even a sparrow finds a home.

Sometimes we Christians ponder the complexities of social problems like homelessness, and we feel hopeless in the face of such widespread dilemma. In addition to supporting causes that address homeless needs, perhaps the greatest contribution is for each of us to recognize the value of hospitality…the value of our personal hospitality in dealing with those who are the “least of these”.

Sam Everett has served our homeless community for twenty years as director of the ABCCM Homeless Shelter.

 

 

Confession is Good for the Soul

A younger Quaker minister called me this week with a pretty awesome idea about putting an apology (not as in the apologetics kind, but as in the I’m sorry kind) in the local newspaper to the world at large for all the wrongs the church has done in the name of Christ.  Those of you who have read Blue Like Jazz will no doubt recall that this is what Donald Miller et al were led to do in their ministry to students at Reed College.  They set up a “confession booth” on campus, only rather than hearing confessions from students, they invited students to sit in the booth and listen to them try and confess some of the wrongs the church has done in and to the world.  My friend said that among the ministers he had shared his idea with thus far some had been somewhat enthusiastic, some had been absolutely horrified, and others had advised him to proceed with caution, that this was pretty dangerous stuff.   And I confess, I was pretty annoyed myself, but mostly because he thought of it before I did.   Actually, that’s probably not true. What is true is that he had the faith and courage to act on what he was thinking and I didn’t. 

With all due respect to my friend and Donald Miller both, however, this is not an original idea.  Jesus actually did the same thing on more than one occasion.  One of these was when he called Matthew the tax collector to follow him.  Matthew gave a big party at his house and invited a lot of disreputable types to meet Jesus, other tax collectors and people he was used to hanging out with.  When the religious folks saw Jesus going in and freely mixing with “crooks and riff-raff” (The Message) they had a fit and jumped on Jesus’ disciples wanting to know why he would have anything to do with people like that.  Hearing what they were saying, Jesus asked them a question, “who needs a doctor, the healthy or the sick?”  He then uses the Scripture they pride themselves on knowing so well against them.  “Go and learn what this means,” Jesus tells them, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

So with just a few words Jesus invites the religious folks to admit that they are sick as well, worse off actually because the regular sinner types know they need help, while these people think they have it all figured out.  And time after time they resist Jesus’ efforts to break through their wall of self-righteousness and see themselves as they really are.  I always found it pretty interesting that within the space of two chapters in the book of John, Jesus tells one of the most scrupulously religious people of his day that he needs to go back to the drawing board and start over (you must be born again- the only time Jesus actually uses that phrase) and then turns a Samaritan hooker loose after one conversation to go and tell people he’s the messiah. Again, one of these is much sicker than the other, but according to the way Jesus dealt with them, it’s not the one we think.

Some people I talk to don’t get it.  They wonder what the church has done that anyone would find it necessary to apologize for it.  The Pharisees didn’t get it either.  They were sure they were on God’s side, taking a stand against everyone and everything that was contrary to their religious tradition.  But, if like Jesus, they had spent a lot of time with people outside the religious establishment, they would have gotten a completely different picture of themselves.  Their legalistic standards and harsh judgment turned people away from God rather than inviting them to draw closer.  And the same is true for us.  If you really don’t understand what the church has done wrong, ask some folks on the outside, but don’t do it unless you really want to hear the truth.   You’ll hear words like racist and sexist because throughout much of our history we have been both of those things, and in many ways continue to be so.   I heard a lady just this week talking about a new pastor in her community who told the congregation he would only accept a position with their church if they agreed that other than teaching children in Sunday school, that women would not be allowed to hold any kind of offices or engage in any kind of public ministry in the church. 

And then there’s the whole issue of colonialism, where missionaries with the best of intentions, believed that Christianity and western culture were tied together in such a way that the one could not be spread without the other.  I was visiting with an elderly Cherokee gentleman on the reservation a few years ago who was telling me how when he was a child the white missionaries would wash his mouth out with soap as a punishment for speaking his native language rather than English.  Then there were the people from Jamaica who told about how the missionaries there had required them, in spite of the oppressive heat,  to wear white shirts and ties because that’s how you dress to go to church. Not too long ago I was a part of a church that was supporting some missionaries in the Philippines.  When they were home on furlough, I politely asked if they had a hard time learning the language.  “We don’t know the language,” one of them said to me incredulously, “if they want to understand us, they have to learn English.”  I stopped giving to them that day and have even put a block on their e-mails.  I don’t even want to know what they’re doing.

But most of this is history now and we can’t change it.  The only thing we can do is follow the example of the Southern Baptists who just within the past few years have finally acknowledged they were wrong in using Scripture to uphold slavery in the antebellum South and apologized to the African American community for what they did.  We know that we have been wrong about some things and the world knows it as well, so why not acknowledge it?

And maybe learn from it as well.  Last year we got some folks together in our community to read and discuss Brian McLaren’s book The Secret Message of Jesus.  One couple who have spent most of their adult lives outside the church really got into it, but when I invited them to visit our worship group, the guy politely but firmly declined.  “I like Jesus’ message a lot,” he told me, “but I don’t want any part of organized religion.”  He basically went through most of the things I’ve already mentioned, and then added,” if you could just believe in Jesus and be a part of it, that would be ok.  But you and I both know it’s not that simple, churches won’t let you do that.  You’ve got to agree with their position on abortion and homosexuality and a whole bunch of other stuff.  They don’t think you can disagree with them about anything and still believe in Jesus.  I think you even have to vote Republican for crying out loud.  It would just never work for me.”

I think about that conversation every time I hear Tim Russert or one of the other news commentators talk about “evangelical Christians” as a major support base for George Bush and the Republican Party.  That seems to be a pretty far cry from how Jesus said his followers would be known and recognized.  In a few short years, we have invaded a nation, plunged it into a civil war that has cost thousands of lives, and gone from being probably the most admired and respected nation on the earth to arguably the most hated, all seemingly with the support and blessing of the majority of Christians in America.  How is it that Christian people can be so passionate about the right to life for the unborn babies in America but care so little about all the other children around the world that are dying every minute from starvation, disease, and acts of violence?  How will we explain that the fact that we put our own desires for comfort and even luxury above our concern for the future of our world? Will the fact that we paid a little less for something at Wal-Mart justify allowing people to work in unsafe places for less than subsistence wages?  Yes, we as Christians do need to apologize for how un-Christ like we have been in the past, but I also wonder if years from now somewhere down the road some young minister will be writing letters asking the world to forgive us for what may be the greatest wrongs the church has done to date.

Tony Lowe is the pastor of Fancy Gap Friends Fellowship, a house church in South-West Virginia and is Clerk of Ministry and Counsel for North Carolina Yearly Meeting (FUM).

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