Folds - and Life Questions

I was blown away by "Between the Folds," a 54-minute documentary about origami. Ah, but don't let that stop you from reading further! You have NEVER seen origami until you have seen this film.

The experience that turned me onto origami in a minimal way happened in the 1980s. It was the height of tensions between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Both countries were amassing huge numbers of nuclear weapons. The congregation for which I was working at the time joined other congregations around the United States and worked to achieve the goal of making 2,000 paper cranes as a symbol of our wish for peace between the nations. These were to be mailed to the USSR. I remember teaching children how to make them - and that, basically, is the extent of my paper folding career.

But, this film shows that there are so many amazing things one can do with a single, square piece of paper - without scissors or glue. There are an infinitesimal number of things one can make with just a simple piece of paper - from the uncomplicated to the intricate.

Some origami artists can do some amazing things with 500 folds or more, turning paper into realistic looking animals or people. Others are more minimalist in style and create beautiful things with just a single fold. Others can make their creations open or close on their own. Here are just a few samples of how folding can transform a piece of paper:

From this series of simple folds....

....to this (a few more folds)...

...to this - hundreds of folds!

This documentary had me asking questions:

1. How is life like origami? Is all of life about "folds?"

2. What does this film say about creation? How do the not-so-obvious messages in the film address what it means to be the body of Christ?

3. What does this say about the church in these times? In some respects, I almost feel as though the church has allowed itself to be limited to a single square sheet of paper and has not allowed itself to be folded. And if it did allow itself to be folded, the possibilities for ways of doing ministry, for ways of being church would be limitless! What possibilities does the artist-creator "see" in the yet unfolded sheet?

Advent is a time when we look for Jesus to come again. Each day, Jesus enters our lives. Will I pay attention to the folds that Jesus is making in me? What are the folds I need to make in my ministry?

The film inspires visions - Happy folding!

Oxymoron Christians

Oxymorons for 2011:

• Loving Christians
• Generous Christians

How would you use these oxymorons in a sentence? Here are a couple examples:

As "loving Christians," members of the Florida Family Association are doing everything in their power to "educate people on what they can do to defend, protect, and promote traditional, biblical values" and by doing so they are getting companies to boycott the TLC show, "All-American Muslim."

Hate and mistrust are Christian values.

Members of the House of Representatives, many are whom would call themselves "generous Christians" (especially in election year) voted to pass HR 3630, "the misleadingly named Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act. The bill extends the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance, but it cuts benefits by 40 weeks."  In addition to that, it also "adds qualifiers designed to slam the door on the jobless, like requiring a drug test before the unemployed can receive benefits." Nothing like kicking someone when he or she is already down.

Class-ism is a Christian value.

NO!

We need a reminder, Jesus, to show us what it is like to truly follow you - to be loving and not judgmental, to be generous and not greedy. Help us to get away from being "oxymoron" Christians.

Come, Lord Jesus. Come!

Do Not Be Afraid

Today, my older son boarded a plane and headed to Bogotà, Colombia for a ten day vacation to stay with a friend he met while working at a local amusement park this past summer. I have never met this friend. I have never met his family. I only know what I have heard about Bogotà over the past several years. And I also know what I read on the state department's website about conditions in Colombia. I could rattle off a list of warnings that I found on the website - and I did rattle them off to my son - as he made his plans to go. Here are just a few gems:

• Watch out in the airport. Pick pocketers are looking for passports - especially at Christmas...

•  "Violence by narco-terrorist groups continues to affect some rural areas as well as large cities..."

• DO NOT take a cab. If you do, only take the cabs that are located in this particular area....

• Be careful what you wear; people have had jewelry ripped off from around their necks...

• US government officials and their families are only allowed to travel to major cities by air..."they may not travel by road outside urban areas at night..."

I could list about a half dozen more things.

My son just looked at me as though I were crazy. But, I told him, it is important to be aware of these things so that he can be wise.

Fear - What an interesting creature that is. It prevents us from meeting new people, from having conversations with members of the Tea Party and/or participants in the Occupy Wall Street movement, from seeing another person unlike ourselves as a child of God.

During the Bush years, fear was always at our doorstep and it made me angry that we were made to feel frightened. I fought this tooth and nail. Our conversations around the dinner table often addressed this problem. We saw people in our country giving up their rights just to be "safe." We discussed the fact that God is with us no matter what happens - and that means we can live with less fear in our lives.

I did a search of the phrase, "Do not be afraid" in the Oremus Bible Browser and discovered that these words appear 67 times in the Bible. The fact that these words are spoken so frequently in the Bible says something about our human condition. In the Old Testament, it's mostly God  and the prophets who issue this command, although the angels, Moses, Joseph and others say these words as well. Angels and Jesus are the primary ones speaking these words in the New Testament. Sixty-seven times! Imagine that!

It is Advent and I hear the story of Joseph and young, pregnant Mary. In Matthew, an angel appears to Joseph and tells him "do not be afraid." When Mary learns the news of her pregnancy, it is an angel who shares this news with her in Luke, starting with these same words. An angel appears to Zechariah as well to let him know that Elizabeth will have a child, too. Again, the angel's greeting begins with the words, "do not be afraid."

I am trying to hear the angels speak to me in this moment, in my experience of Advent -  as my idealistic son wanders off into a strange country that he doesn't know. I smile to myself knowing that he must have taken our family conversations to heart. And oddly, I am thankful for that, even now as I struggle myself to not be fearful. My son is teaching me again, "do not be afraid." He makes me proud.

So for now, I will keep him in my prayers and give thanks to God that nothing separates us from the love of God; that we are all held in the palm of God's loving hand. And, I will try to think about how the parents of my son's friend must have felt when he came to the United States to work for the summer. I bet they were afraid as well. (I wonder what their state department said about travel to the states!)

As I wait for my son to come home, I will also pray for the day when we all can live without fear:

Come, Lord Jesus. Come!

Advent II Prayer

Come, Lord Jesus!
You can't get here fast enough for me.

I don't mean Christmas
And everything this season brings.

I mean you - now - here.

I grow weary of turning on the television
Only to hear
Wealthy leaders blaming people who are poor of starting class warfare -
Only to see
Examples of hate among people who supposedly love the same God -
Only to know
That these kinds of things will continue into the next year.

Come, Lord Jesus.
Or, at the very least -
Turn us into people of justice and peace and
Help us all to remember your commandment
To love our neighbors as ourselves -
To want the very best for our neighbors
Even if it means giving up something for ourselves -
Out of love for, concern for
Our neighbor.

Turn our hearts, Lord Jesus
And come.