Smiles

What makes God smile?

This is another of Dave Daubert's questions - and I like this one a lot. What if everyone would think about this question before starting the day? Maybe we would start to act more civilly toward with one another.

What makes God smile?

• People treating one another with respect even if they don't agree with one another

• Raising the roof with joyful voices singing songs of praise and thanksgiving
  

• The voice that sings quietly by the bedside of someone who is dying, singing a way to heaven

• When we really put forth an effort to love our enemies
  

• The thousands of ELCA youth and advisors who helped clean up New Orleans
  

• Those who think of others first before thinking of themselves
  

• Bach and Agape, Duke Ellington and Rachel Kurtz, the Beatles and the Roches

• People figuring out how to use their gifts to serve others

• When we challenge injustice in all its forms

• When we leave the judging up to God instead of taking that role on ourselves

• Countries working toward peace

• Working to heal our neighborhoods instead of fleeing them

• When we "err on the side of grace"
  

• When we pray....
  

Tears

"What makes God cry?"

This is one of Dave Daubert's questions he asks churches as they prepare to look at mission and what God is calling us to do in this time and place.

Eight years ago around this time, I sat at a dinner table for a Lenten soup supper prior to the worship service. I was feeling melancholy because our president indicated that we were going to engage in a preemptive war with Iraq. This made no sense to me.

We were Christians sitting around the table, sharing a meal before worship. A confirmation teacher was one of them. She was agitated and in the course of our conversation, she became very animated and she rose to her feet (I'm not kidding) and shouted, "I HOPE WE BOMB THE SHIT OUT OF THEM!"

That still haunts me today - and every Lent. I remember my tears in worship that night. I remember the "shock and awe" I felt.

"What makes God cry?"

.... maybe the fact that a senator took pride in blocking a bill that would have provided a short-term extension for unemployment benefits that expired March 1 without, apparently, thinking of what this would mean to families counting on this to survive....

....maybe that one of our senators had the audacity to say, "continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work....." when I know people who have been trying, TRYING to find work in this difficult economic climate to no avail...

....maybe that people would follow the rantings of a radio host that strictly focuses on his own self interests and who, just the other day, compared the Speaker of the House to mullahs and imams that encourage suicide bombers - when she merely suggested that lawmakers think about what's in the best interest of the people as opposed to what might happen to their own political careers....

....maybe that some carry around signs comparing our president to Hitler or make him look like a monkey or use racial slurs....

....maybe the fact that we are all so quick to name call, demonize the other, and make things more difficult for those who are poor....

....maybe the fact that many who do this call themselves, "Christian...."

"What makes God cry?"

- demonizing the other without realizing our own demons -

- name calling -

- perpetuating untruths to further your own personal gain -

- misleading others -

- using Christianity as a sword -
- fear mongering -

- idolatry -

We are all guilty.

Most merciful God, we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves...

...have mercy on on...

...forgive us...

...renew us...

...lead us...

...so that we may delight in your will and walk in your ways...

(Evangelical Lutheran Worship)

May it be so.

May it be so.

Signs

Last night Russell and I met with four senior high youth to talk about our upcoming Lutheran Youth Fellowship board meeting. As usual, we began our meeting with devotions. And, as usual, our conversations got sidetracked. Reading Psalm 27, some of us were struck by the last verse, "Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!"

We thought of Haitians waiting for help - and now the people of Chile - as a result of two very devastating earthquakes which happened within 46 days of the each other. What must waiting be like for them? What kind of courage is required of them?

This, however, boomeranged into a conversation of a different sort, launching into some rapid-fire statements about the end of the world - just look at what's happening in the world....The signs are there...earthquakes, tsunamis....And we've got the Mayan calendar to back it up...

...or not.

I wonder. Does every generation look to the future with despair and anxiety?

I know I did. When I was their age, Hal Lindsey predicted that the end of the world would occur in the 1980s in his book, "The Late, Great Planet Earth." There were some who believed that the world would end because of the tensions between the USSR and the USA and with the escalation of nuclear weapons. "The Day After" was a made-for-television movie that only raised the nation's anxieties about the end of the world. In 1985, a tidal wave killed 10,000 in Bangladesh. An earthquake killed 80,000 in Armenia in 1988.

Were these signs?

There have been doomsday prophets all through history. Take, for example, the Roman priest who, in the year 500, predicted the end of the earth based on the dimensions of Noah's ark. In the year 999, there was a lot of hysteria over the year 1000. People sold their goods to the poor. Many took a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. It was nuts! In 1973, David Berg predicted with the arrival of the Comet Kohoutek in 1973, that the world would end in 1974. There were many who thought the year 2000 would bring about chaos and the end times (remember Y2K?) These are just a few....and there hundreds of similar predictions.

The world is scary enough as it is without end-of-the-world prognosticators. Thank you very much.

Doomsday predictions aside, each generation does have its challenges. I would be lying if I didn't say that I'm concerned for the future of this generation. Climate change is a concern. The tensions between Muslims, Christians, and Jews are a concern. The economy is a concern.

Then again, I remember adults telling me when I was a teen how they were concerned for the future of my generation. War. Violence and unrest in our streets. Pollution.

There will always be challenges facing each generation. The question is, how do we deal with them?

This takes me back to Psalm 27 - and another verse we were moved by (verse 8), "'Come,' my heart says, 'seek [God's] face!' Your face, Lord, do I seek."

I would say to this generation and every generation: Look to God, seek God, not to prognosticators of the world's demise. Then, with courage (back to verse 14) address the real issues and concerns of our time. And, no matter what, trust in God, remembering that no matter what happens, nothing can separate you from God's love. Good news, indeed!