Quote

Quote from a seminary prof in 2004: “There’s more theology in U2’s music than in any of contemporary Christian music.”

Health Care from a Different View

I know, some of us are pretty tired of the debate already, but I wanted to share with you some thoughts I have been having lately regarding the debate.

A few days ago, I read a letter in a local paper that really got me thinking.  It was from a local pastor who talked about his health care coverage and how it affected him and his family.  While they were pretty much covered, they have a son with Down Syndrome.  He talked about the anxiousness and worry because of the ‘pre-existing condition’ if his son ever needed medical insurance of his own.

But that wasn’t really what his letter was about.  It was about some of the people in his parish.  He talked about the elderly, the widowed, the unemployed, etc.  And he lumped them all into the category of ‘the least of these’.  As you recall, Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, when you refused to help the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were refusing to help me.’  Have you ever experienced not really getting a point until someone explains it again or someone else explains it to you?  That little letter from the local pastor did just that.  I finally got the point.

For a while now I could see both sides of the issue pretty well.  And, admittedly, I was a fence walker — both sides made very good points.  The only way forward that I saw was one of constant battle and it looked to be a long one.

But then, with that one letter, the flood gates on the ‘pro’ side were flung wide open and I could view the sea of people who fall into the category of ‘the least of these’ and the conversation was over.  Not so much about how we need to fix the health care system, but the conversation about needing to at all.

As a follower of Jesus, it is my vocation to focus my life on the things that Jesus cared about, and that would include the marginalized in our society.  Sure, things may be fine for me, but I’m not one of the least among us.  The context of that quote (Matthew 25), refers to how we treat those in prison, sick, hungry, etc.  In other words, the focus is not on the souls of the marginalized, but on their physical needs.  Too often, the Church seems only concerned about the souls of people.  Well, to be fair, most of the Churches in my area only seemed concerned about the souls of people.  Your neighborhood is probably a lot better.  But I doubt it.  According to many of the things attributed to Jesus, caring for the ‘least of these’ was a top priority.  And how we treat them is how we treat him.  This reminds me of seeing Christ in all people.  Do we see that?  Do we see Jesus as the person whose down on her luck and has no health care and is in need of our assistance.

‘I barely have enough resources to cover my own needs and those of my families.  There is no way that I can help with his.’

And that’s why health care reform is needed so desperately.  Since the Church is unable to meet this need, then the government should do it’s best to do so.  It all comes down to loving others as Christ loves us.  Shouldn’t we be putting our own needs aside and making certain that others needs are met?  We do that for our children, why don’t we do that for our fellow human beings, those people who are made in the image of God — our brothers and sisters in humanity?  We are called to give more than we are asked to give — walk the extra mile, give our shirt as well as our coat, etc.  We are called to empty ourselves for others, for creation.  Are we giving ourselves for the least of these our brothers and sisters?  If not, then we are not doing so for Jesus either.  We are just playing games and it is costing us and the rest of creation dearly.

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In the Grace of the Three in One,
OD

Ubuntu Remix

Yesterday, a person from our department brought in a new Dell Latitude 2100. This is a ‘netbook’ with a touch-screen. It has no optical drive and is powered by an Intel Atom processor. I was told that I could ‘play’ for a little while. Well, as you can guess, I took Ubuntu Remix for a spin.

Ubuntu Remix is especially made for netbooks running an Intel Atom processor. I downloaded the 9.04 release and put it on a USB drive. I put the drive in an available USB (it has 3) and booted the system from it. I have never done that before and was surprised at the speed!

When the screen loaded, I was greeted with the Remix desktop. What this post is really about, however, was that, surprise, everything worked — sound, wifi, 3D graphics, and more astonishingly, the touch screen. I could just drag my finger across the screen to move the cursor and tap on an app icon to launch the app.

Once again, Open Source (in this case, Ubuntu) is fully functional with most of today’s hardware.  When are we going to leave behind the dictatorship of Microsoft and embrace FREEDOM?

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In the Grace of the Three in One,

OD

Love as Christ Loves – Part 1

Last night, we had our Men’s Bible Study group.  It was a great time.  We discussed the three commandments that Jesus left his followers:

1. ‘[Love] the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength’.
2. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’.
3. ‘Love each other.  Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.’

I think that all three of these are best understood with the caveat Jesus placed on the last one, ‘just as I have loved you…’ we should love God and neighbor and each other.  So the question that comes to the for is, ‘How does Christ love us?’  Completely.  Selflessly.  Sacrificially.  How does that play out — what does it look like — in the three commands above?  Further, is loving ‘as Christ loves’ a ‘key’ to becoming truly human?  Does it matter what the opposition is?  Does it matter how others make us feel?  Are these things barriers representative of our falseness; our sin?

‘It’s hard to do’.

True.  But does that matter?  Do we love as Christ loves?  To quote a songwriter/poet/prophet, ‘It’s not about who you love.  It’s all about do you love?’  And for the followers of Christ, it’s all about do we love as Christ loves?

Again, the first commandment is, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength’.  What does this look like?  What does it mean to love God sacrificially?  Does it relate to vocation?  Maybe.  But that seems best identified in the later commands.  It seems to me to refer to the putting away of our plans or dreams for the plan or dream of God.

Perhaps not.  Perhaps it deeper still.  This has to do with ones relationship with God.  However, Jesus did say, ‘If you love me, you will keep my commands…’  So maybe loving God is, at least in part, about action.  Does this mean going to church, giving, singing in the choir, helping with the landscaping, missions, etc.?  I think it may start there.  But it should move out from there.  Contrary to what we may believe, sacred places are not limited to ‘church’.  All of life is sacred.  All of life is holy.  ‘Church’ is to be a miniature — a rehearsal — for how all of life is to be lived.

So, again, how do we love God sacrifically?  If we look at the command, Jesus tells us to love God with everything that we are — heart, soul, mind, and strength — our total person.  While loving God may seem abstract for some, how do we love our spouces or partners that way?  For me, it’s about giving myself away for the needs of my family.  Do I always succeed at this?  Of course not.  But that is my intention.  I think the same would apply with our relationship with God.  Our intention must be to give ourselves completely for the things of God.  That may require less sleep.  That may require less food.  That may require less ’stuff’.  In fact, I would say that those are probably all a given.  It is about communication with God — of listening for God within all of life.  Of realizing that our way of seeing, doing, being is upside down.  Jesus said that if we want to keep our lives we must lose them.  I don’t think he was specifically talking about being killed for our faith (though that has something to do with it in the context).  I think it’s more about seeing our lives are backwards; upside down.  The key to becoming more human, more like Christ is to give our lives away for the things of God.  It means opening our lives — every aspect of our lives — to whatever God wants from us.  We have to be willing to do that.  That is the cost of following Christ; of having a relationship with God.  Think about God’s relationship with Abraham.  God told him to leave everything he knew and go to some place God would show him later.  Just leave and go.  Period.  We have to be that willing.  Our intentions have to be just like that.  I think that is what loving God sacrificially looks like.  It means laying aside something near and dear to us for the sake of being and doing what God wants us to be and do.

Next time we will look at the second command.

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In the Grace of the Three in One,

OD