Gathering for July 30

"Greetings True Believers," to quote Stan Lee, I'm back from a blogging hiatus (read: a combination of business and much needed laziness). This Sunday's lesson presents two areas for conversation: faith's relationship to politics & the necessity of suffering. Here is this week's reading.

Faith and Politics: For all of our talk today about the seperation of Church and state or religion and politics, here we find Jesus dying at the hands of a politician (not even a powerful one!) and for political reasons (crucifixion was a death reserved only for enemies of the state, Rome). For some reason nowadays people wrongly make faith a private matter and politics a public one. Why do we have a privatized faith, a faith that is all about my relationship with the Lord (nothing wrong with this), but rarely speaks truth (meaning, speaks out against or challenges) to power?

Faith and Suffering: "You know what really grinds my gears," to quote that Family Guy Peter Griffin, is the current popularity of the Prosperity Gospel. What is the Posperity Gospel? Well, watch nearly any (insert your favorite popular preacher here) of (insert your favorite mega-church here) on your TV. These preachers usually present Christianity as a sound business proposition, "come to Jesus and you'll be richly rewarded..." Personal Rant: If wealth is a blessing then does this mean God curses or hates 2/3 of the world's population? Wow, in all my readings of the New Testament the only thing Jesus promises us is a cross! I am not surprised that such preachers are in front of mega-sized congregations. Who wants to hear about suffering for what you believe? No one! Yet, a faith that suffers nothing is also worth nothing! So consider the comforts we enjoy each day and the suffering we avoid. Consider also that the world is so interconnected that my comfort may cause others to suffer. To do this try this thought exercise: Add up the cost of all the clothes you have on while you're reading this blog. Take that sum and then visit any grocery store webpage that allows for online shopping (Lowe's Food offers this service) and see how much food you can buy for that sum and then consider how many people with no clothes on their back that could feed.

Gathering for May 28

There was a flood...no, a hurricane...no, a swarm of locusts, or was it just another class that needed a teacher? OK, it was the latter, so please accept my apologies for combining our class with the Faith & Friendship class on such short notice (short notice meaning the last-minute-sticky-note on the door of our class). To spark some discussion this week visit National Public Radio's "Speaking of Faith" website for a conversation on creeds called Need for Creeds. Download it as a podcast! Listen to it online! It talks about why we have creeds. Last week I mentioned the Nicene Creed, of recent Da Vinci Code fame, and "Need for Creeds" talks about this creed (as well as offering some notes on the Apostles' Creed). One of the interesting points that comes out of the discussion (at least for me) is the fact that there are so few creeds in Judaism (the Shema, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God") and Islam (There is no deity worthy of worship other than God [Allah] and Muhammad is the messenger of God [Allah]."), but that there are so many in Christianity. Why is this? Furthermore, the majority of lines in most of our creeds are devoted to detailing the identity of Jesus. Why is this? Oh yeah, here is a link to this week's reading. The image posted with this week's entry is an illuminated version of the Nicene Creed (this one is in Latin, but you can read it in English any Sunday in our Hymnal...it is #880)