Why So Angry?

I try to live my day to day life without getting too angry. I have a history of heart disease in my family and I do not want to die early because of a tirade at something that I basically have no control over. There are some things that I will come unglued over--someone in my house using my socks (both my sons do), my cats trying to sharpen their claws on my wife's new furniture, and someone taking the last piece of dessert pizza at the pizza ranch buffet! Other than that, I try not to get angry.

The Word Alone president, Jaynan Clark, needs to take a chill pill. In her latest diatribe of garbage, she loses her composure over Presiding Bishop Hanson's response to the Nation of Israel's response to the aid shipment. I mean she completely comes off her rocker, as if she was ever on her rocker. I think she has some pent up anger at the world, but that is really not what she is angry about, that is just her jumping off point. She is really angry that the ELCA has taken a different direction than she wanted it to go. Along with all her Word Alone, LCMC, and NALC compadres, she truly doesn't understand the polity of the ELCA. The leadership in Chicago did not force anything down the throats of the people. The people voted. The people sent representatives to the Churchwide assembly. The people have the power, not Higgins Road in Chicago. That is the truth. I just don't understand why she and her minions cannot understand that! But then again, evangelical fundamentalists need help in more ways than I can begin to fathom!

Get a grip! It is sort of like two pastors I used to work with! They both needed therapy and still do, but that is another story. I hope she learns a little anger management. Bless her heart.

The Creation

I just watched a bird dying on the gulf coast. I am ashamed of the Human Race. We have let our addiction to the easy life ruin our world, the world God created, and the world we are charged to care for. I cannot believe that with all the advances in technology in the world, we cannot cap a well 1 mile deep in the ocean! Is it that we cannot or that we will not? I think it is the latter.

All of creation is our relation! Even the dirty scoundrel the mosquito! I dislike those blood sucking little buggers, but if we did not have them, something would be wrong with the world. How many things are dying in the oil soaked coast line of the Gulf, and how many species are dying that we did not even know existed?

I am guilty. I am guilty of driving when I could have walked. I am guilty of taking the easy way instead of doing things the right way. I am guilty, but that won't change the plight of the Gulf. Will we have the will to change? Will we take this as an educational moment and do the necessary hard work and change our habits? Will we finally see that free market capitalism WILL destroy us and everything we hold dear? I hope so.

The Way of Peace

I have been reading a lot of martial arts stuff lately. I find it fascinating that many of the wisdom sayings of different traditions are the same. It is sort of like the creation stories of different ancient peoples--they all basically have the same stories in them! What does that mean? I think it means that God had a hand in all of those stories just as God has a hand in all the wisdom of different religions and traditions!


I am interested in learning the Way of Peace--The Way of The Peaceful Master. Some would say that taking things from different philosophies and different religions is heresy, but I say hogwash. If one has the eyes to see and the ears to hear, God speaks in many different ways. I love this aspect of God. I am not afraid to let the Peaceful Master teach me in the way that the Master wants.


I wish that more people could see this aspect of God. So many are afraid of a different path to the Peaceful Master. So many are afraid that maybe God speaks in different ways to different people. So many people say that there is only ONE way, but even Jesus said that he had others not of this sheepfold that are coming in. Doesn't that mean that there is more than one way? Some would say no. I would say who cares!


The Peaceful Way is a path that is open to difference. The Way of Peace is a road that can be traveled by many different people. Thanks be to God.

Reading a different way

In my home town, there are two streets that go from one end to the other. They are both one way streets, but when I was in high school, these streets were two way streets for 1/2 of the length of the streets. It was a difficult thing to change my direction of travel and change my thinking when the city changed the streets into one way the entire distance of the streets. Many times I found myself driving the wrong way on the one way street, and I was not the only one!

I believe this is the situation with the church. We have been reading the scriptures one way for so long that to change that way of thinking is almost impossible. We like it. We are comfortable with it. Why should be change? Well, I think maybe we have been reading the wrong way and that is the reason to change. As I continue to rethink the Christian faith, along with Brian Mclaren and others, I find it exciting to think of new possibilities.

As Mclaren indicates, from the time of the Roman take over of the church, we have been reading and making our theology by looking back to Jesus through other people and how they understand Jesus. Think about it, we read theologian's understandings of Jesus and think that is the way we are supposed to understand him. Our grasp of Jesus is one mediated by Luther through Augustine through Paul, but what if that is the wrong way? What if we are driving the wrong way on a one way street?

What if the plan of God was to understand Jesus by reading the scriptures from Genesis through Exodus through the prophets to Jesus? What if Jesus did not fulfill the prophets words but lived the prophets words? Doesn't that make more sense? To understand Jesus in the context of his own religion and his own background and his own life? Instead of trying to make Jesus fit with a theological system that has been tainted with other philosophical and theological garbage and allow Jesus to speak to us on his own terms, in his own way, and through his own love of God? It just seems so natural to me!

I think I have been driving the wrong way on the streets of life. Maybe we all have!

Tearing Down and Building Up

I am reading a book by Brain Mclaren. It is called "A New Kind of Christianity." This book is over due. I have read Mclaren's books before, but this book particularly speaks to my soul. I finished the book this afternoon and started re-reading it this evening because I what to digest exactly what he is trying to propose.

It seems to me that Mclaren is speaking for many in the church who see how the soul of the Body of Jesus has been stolen. It happened a long time ago when the movement that took upon it the name of Jesus of Nazareth also took upon it the organizational structure of the Roman Empire. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan have spoken of this in some of their books, and the more I read about this, the more I see it is true.

What started as a movement to help people see how the Roman rulers were missing the point, i.e. sinning, how people were following the wrong path and needed to turn around, i.e. repenting, turned into something alien to its founder. Rome was violent and Jesus was non violent. Rome was turned in on itself and Jesus was turned out to others. Rome worshipped power and financial gain and sex, and Jesus worshipped the LORD.

The church even took into itself the Greco-Roman theology--Neoplatonism mixed with a little of Aristotle. The immortality of the soul, the fall, heaven or hell are products of Greek philosophy and theology and not Hebraic. I have always wondered about this being since my undergraduate studies in Greek reasoning and Philosophy. What we need is a revolution in Christian thought, and it is on the way. I am excited to see what happens next!

Learning to Dance in the Rain

It seems like every time I turn around, there is another fire to put out. I am on a volunteer board of directors for a local non-profit organization, and every day, someone at the center has a crisis! We need a new day care worker. We need money. We need money! WE NEED MONEY! I wonder why so many people say no when asked to be on a board of directors?

It seems to be raining metaphorically every where. Someone needs a new car to get to work-light rain. Someone is having problems as a single parent-thunder storm. An infant in the NICU needs, well you can only imagine--hurricane! I find many people like to hole up in their houses when it rains. Many people do not like the problems that attend a rain storm. People like to stay dry. People like to watch the rain as it pounces on the ground. People like to let others take care of the weather and only worry about their problems and their concerns and their immediate family. People like to wait for the storm to pass before coming back outside into the bright sun shine.

I don't mind rain. In fact, rain is good for the earth. We need rain to have the growth of the fields that I so enjoy in the Northern Great Plains. Without rain and storms, we would not have the bounty of the Earth. Don't get me wrong, I am terrified of major storms, but a good down pour is beautiful.

I think we need to learn how to dance in the rain. I think we need to waltz in the snow. I think we need to Fox Trot in the wind, Rumba in the sleet, and Tango in the slush, that way if we get tangled up we just tango on! Life is full of storms and unless we learn how to dance, we sit on the benches and let life stream on by. Sure the rain can be dangerous, but so can in activity. This winter has been terrible. Storm after storm causes my mind to wonder if green grass will ever show up again, but I trust God. God will again bring resurrection from death. God will again bring heat from cold. God will again give me the strength to continue.

Do you hear the music? Let's dance!!

The Art of Peace

As I continue to work on myself, to find a way of life in this crazy world, the way of peace draws me! Some people would say that I am drawing from many different traditions, but I find truth in many places. The way the American Indian cares for creation, the way Eastern martial arts cares for creation, the self, and others, and the way a Christian does all of these things and works for peace just makes sense to me. I think Jesus would look to many different ways of being in the world today and bless them. Paraphrasing Carl Rahner, I find truth in these words: God reveals God's self to each person in a way that that person can understand God's self.

Morihei Ueshiba says "one does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the Art of Peace. Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train," which is similar to what Jesus says, "the Kingdom of Heaven has come upon you."



To be a disciple of Christ for me means to practice the Art of Peace. Peace with myself, with my family, with creation, with others, and most importantly with God through Jesus. How are we doing with this practice?