ELCA Presiding Bishop Issues Advent Call to Pray with Pope Francis for an End to World Hunger

Pray at noon on December 10th, 2013. The prayer we might prayer in common:

O God, you entrusted to us the fruits of all creation so that we might care for the earth and be nourished with its bounty.

You sent us your Son to share our very flesh and blood and to teach us your Law of Love. Through His death and resurrection, we have been formed into one human family.

Jesus showed great concern for those who had no food – even transforming five loaves and two fish into a banquet that served five thousand and many more.

We come before you, O God, conscious of our faults and failures, but full of hope, to share food with all members in this global family.

Through your wisdom, inspire leaders of government and of business, as well as all the world’s citizens, to find just, and charitable solutions to end hunger by assuring that all people enjoy the right to food.

Thus we pray, O God, that when we present ourselves for Divine Judgment, we can proclaim ourselves as “One Human Family” with “Food for All”.

Amen.

ELCA Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton

5 Signs You are Part of a Healthy Church

It's kind of a miracle--and you wouldn't know it from social media these days--but a lot of people go to church for worship on Sunday morning. Some of them even come back mid-week for things like trombone ensemble rehearsal, intense small group hermeneutical inquiry, staffing of homeless shelters, and team building of large scale Lego models of key biblical events (okay, this last one might be more of a wish than a reality).

For all the hand-wringing about all the people leaving church these days, the truth is, in my context, I see more and more people joining church, not leaving. 

It's not just Sunday morning worship (although that's the most common). People get out together for ecumenical mission between congregations, catalytic conversations between non-profits and the church, and clicking "like" on church Facebook pages, among other activities.

There's a reason people decide to become part of a church. They do it because it gives them life, expands their horizons, brings them closer to God. It helps them rub shoulders with neighbors. Sometimes their pastor visits them in the hospital or recommends books for them to read or posts a blog they like. That kind of thing.

So what are the signs you are really part of a health church? What should you be looking for? 

Here's my admittedly non-scientific but nevertheless brilliant list of five marks of a health church.

1. Stewardship: Everyone laughs until it hurts

We all know people are willing to part with their money more quickly while they are laughing. This is why comedians like Jerry Seinfeld make so much money. Or David Letterman. But that's not why we laugh in the church. We laugh in the church because honestly, what other option is there? The church is a place for hurting sinners, and there's plenty to cry over, for sure. But a people who laugh together in the face of death, as a guarantee that God is on the side of justice even in spite of the evidence... well, that's a community that knows the etymological roots of the word "stewardship" are in the word "sty-ward," someone who takes care of a pigsty. And we all know pigstys are funny, right?

2. Faith: People ask really random questions, and everyone talks about the answers

I mean really, we all come up with the craziest stuff sometimes, and the questions other people ask are always way random compared to ours. We, it must be recognized, are consistently on topic and clear. Nevertheless, in a healthy church, people feel free to ask really random questions, and the community as a whole is perfectly willing to go off on a tangent and talk about that question for the rest of bible study. Because isn't that what bible study is for, to let the Holy Spirit guide conversation around random questions inspired by an ancient book?

3. Multiplication: There's a stroller parked next to the wheelchair

It's not quite clear how this happens, but many churches have more than one wheelchair. It's almost as if they multiply--like rabbits. If you park one next to a stroller, the odds of wheelchair multiplication increase greatly.  People in wheelchairs like people in strollers, and people in strollers like to gnaw on people in wheelchairs. It's mutually satisfying. People pushing wheelchairs and strollers often have a lot in common, and plenty to talk about. Leave them to their own devices in the narthex, and by the end of the afternoon, they will have cooked up and spun off an entire new congregation. It's a formula for church multiplication, guaranteed.

4. Growth: Newcomers make the community uncomfortable, but they like it that way

None of us like change that much (except for those of us who do), so really healthy churches anticipate that new people in their midst will actually be abrasive and frustrating in some ways. Newcomers won't know how to put away the dishes or run the garbage disposal. Which will then lead to ants. Which will remind the custodian that last weekend a group of people from the church (made up mostly of new members) cooked enough to feed eighty people at a community meal across town. And then the custodian will smile, maybe even laugh with glee, and slaughter the ants as he celebrates ecumenism.

5. Jesus: There's kind of a mess on the organ... 

Let's face it, none of us really know anymore what the real church musical instrument is, but organs are pretty cool. I mean, Arcade Fire used one on Neon Bible, so it must be pretty hip, right? In any event, the best organ is a messy organ, because that means somebody creative is using it. And we know creative people are close to Jesus, so a messy organ is a sign of a Jesus-centered church. 

Finally, just in case five signs is insufficient for some readers, I offer a sixth. 

6. Communio-Ecclesiology: A Materialist Spirituality

This is the church geek mark, but a church committed to being a church of churches, in visible unity with other churches, including not only full communion sharing, but also ministerial sharing, and even sharing of each other's kitchens and sauna facilities, would obviously be one of the deepest marks that you are part of a healthy church. If you actually believe you belong to not just one church, but a couple of churches, or even the whole church, you are on your way. You earthy-mystic, communio-ecclesiology geek, you.

Great Female Science Fiction Novelists

Consider this exercise. Take a year, and for the primary focus of your leisure reading, imagine reading science fiction and fantasy written exclusively by women. Let's say it's a senior seminar at the crossroads of women's studies and science fiction/fantasy studies.

What kind of syllabus would you put together? What works would you assign? Here are my favorite options right now, kind of a mix between what I actually intend to read in 2014, and what I have read in the past and consider to be the best of this genre written by women.

The Ür-Text: Mary Shelley

Challenger of Middle Earth: Ursula K. LeGuin

"The grand dame of science fiction": Octavia Butler

Steampunk: Erin Morgenstern

Because (full confession) I read the first six volumes but have never read the seventh: J.K. Rowling

The books that forever changed my childhood: Madeline L'Engle

Popular contemporary: Elizabeth Bear

The trilogy, of which this is the concluding volume: Margaret Atwood

A classic steamrollered by the movie industry: P.D. James

For a real challenge: Doris Lessing

Based on the Ozarks: Suzette Haden Elgin

Did you know Virginia Woolf wrote sci-fi under a pen name?

Others I'd like to include but it begins to be more than syllabus length: Lois Lowry, Suzanne Collins, Connie Willis, Angela Carter, Kelly Link, Anne Rice, Susanna Clarke, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Anne McCaffrey, Patricia Kennealy, and more.

Finally, this one for good measure, which really ought to be science fiction: Rebecca West

How Dave Ramsey Started Blogging Like a Rich Brat

I honestly can't assess the entire Dave Ramsey industry, or Dave Ramsey himself, although readers of Lutheran Confessions can well imagine that I have more than a few concerns about the theology that undergirds his personal finance advice. He has made a lot of money offering advice on how to get out of debt. The fact that he says these are biblical principles has helped him sell his product quite successfully in our North American Christian cultural complex.

Challenging Johnny Depp for Edward Scissorhands II

Recently, however, he blogged 20 Things the Rich Do Every Day, and on this particular blog post, he tips solidly over the edge from Christian financial advice guru to "rich brat." And the post touched a nerve.

Why?

First of all, the title itself is over-the-top in its celebration of the rich. The rich don't do all the things he claims they do every day. For example, only 76% of the wealthy exercise four days a week, so that's neither all the rich, nor every day... (*grin*)

The bigger issue: Ramsey is confident he has figured out which came first, the (morally righteous) chicken or the (rich) egg, and it is definitely the (morally righteous) chicken. Dave believes if you act the right way, if you have the right habits, you'll get rich (or at least out of debt). It seems never to occur to him that most if not all the habits he celebrates in the list may themselves be enabled by wealth rather than the result of it.

The title of his blog post might better be titled: 20 Things the Rich Can Do Because, Well, They Aren't Poor.

Don't even get me started on his really weird comments about "third world" vs. "first world" poverty.

Perhaps the most unfortunately part of his post is his rejoinder, "a word from Dave," added after he received considerable pushback from readers. It's really a classic case of blowing up in public. The moment we start telling each other to "grow up..." well, yeah. 

The core problem, which Ramsey is unlikely to acknowledge, is that he operates out of a biblical hermeneutic that will never allow critique of his position, because his biblical hermeneutic is self-justifying. You can't criticize him, because he's just "teaching what the Bible says." Self-justifying biblical hermeneutics is in the end always about self-justification and seldom about God.

The post itself plays into the polarizing culture Dave purports to lament. It paints a far too stark portrait of the distinction between the rich and the poor. Of course many rich people have wonderful habits. I'm sure they do. There are good people among the rich and among the poor. But the post itself polarizes to such a degree, you can't get done reading it without either being persuaded by or angered by the basic erroneous point: The rich are morally superior and the poor are to blame for their own poverty.

So here we go, the 20 things Dave listed on his blog. It's a relentless and long list. By the end, responding point by point becomes somewhat tedious, even ludicrous. You'll soon see where such ridiculousness will take us. For good measure, I've inserted a few bible bullets. Let those with ears hear.

1. 70% of wealthy eat less than 300 junk food calories per day. 97% of poor people eat more than 300 junk food calories per day. 23% of wealthy gamble. 52% of poor people gamble.

Have you heard of food deserts? Many if not most of the poor in our nation live in or near food deserts. Food deserts are urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. So why do more poor people eat junk food? Because they can't afford to live near healthier food. As for gambling, I guess that all depends on whether you consider investing in the stock market gambling...

Mic. 2.2 They covet fields, and seize them;

houses, and take them away;

they oppress householder and house,

people and their inheritance. 

2. 80% of wealthy are focused on accomplishing some single goal. Only 12% of the poor do this.

Has Dave Ramsey not heard of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs? It's awfully hard to work on things like achievement and problem solving when you lack sleep, are hungry, or are not sure where you can go to the bathroom next.

Luke 10.40 But Martha was distracted by her many tasks.

3. 76% of wealthy exercise aerobically four days a week. 23% of poor do this.

Aerobic exercise is at least one of the great Shibboleths of the wealthy. If you have the leisure to pursue it, wonderful. It just so happens many who pursue it do so to offset a sedentary lifestyle. If you work on an assembly line for twelve hours a day or buss tables all day as a waitress, regular aerobic exercise may seem less desirous.

Scripture is as far as I can tell completely quiet on the topic of physical exercise. It's part of the bourgeoise bible, but not the Holy Bible.

4. 63% of wealthy listen to audio books during commute to work vs. 5% of poor people.

In order to listen to audio books, you need the equipment to do so, plus easy access to a library or the resources to purchase audio books. You need a commute to work, also, and I'm going to assume that at least some of those who are poor either a) don't have a commute, because they don't go to work, or b) have other responsibilities on their commute, such as delivering children to school. They might actually simply talk with their neighbors on the bus.

Eccl. 12.12 Of anything beyond these, my child, beware. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. 

5. 81% of wealthy maintain a to-do list vs. 19% of poor.

There's almost nothing in the bible about lists, other than genealogical lists, plus an enigmatic little thing in 1 Timothy about who to put on the list of widows, part of their communal discernment on how to provide a pension fund for widows in the burgeoning church. 

1Tim. 5.9   Let a widow be put on the list if she is not less than sixty years old and has been married only once;  10 she must be well attested for her good works, as one who has brought up children, shown hospitality, washed the saints’ feet, helped the afflicted, and devoted herself to doing good in every way.

6. 63% of wealthy parents make their children read two or more non-fiction books a month vs. 3% of poor.

I just wish Dave Ramsey would read this article from The Atlantic, from which I've grabbed a screen shot... http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/06/rip-american-dream-why-its-so-hard-for-the-poor-to-get-ahead-today/276943/

Prov. 10.15 The wealth of the rich is their fortress;

the poverty of the poor is their ruin.

7. 70% of wealthy parents make their children volunteer 10 hours or more a month vs. 3% of poor.

Well, what counts as volunteering? My response to this one is purely anecdotal, but honestly, I know a lot of people who are poor, and quite a few who are rich. Both sets of parents make their children volunteer, or even volunteer with them, but often in different ways. Rich parents send their kids on mission trips. Poor parents ask their children to babysit the neighbor children on the playground. One is typically labeled volunteering. The other is simply being a friendly and helpful neighbor. 

1Th. 5.14 And we urge you, beloved, to admonish the idlers, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patient with all of them. 

8. 80% of wealthy make Happy Birthday calls vs. 11% of poor.

Really? Don't we all do this on Facebook now? What?

9. 67% of wealthy write down their goals vs. 17% of poor.

See #5 above.

10. 88% of wealthy read 30 minutes or more each day for education or career reasons vs. 2% of poor.

Again, I'm highly skeptical of this comparison. Many careers that pay minimum wage or less do not require much reading for advancement in that type of work. I know a number of people in the service industry who make what would likely amount to poverty wages, and they read, quite a lot in fact, but they read for intellectual inquiry itself rather than career advancement. They read novels. They read books to their children.

As for reading the bible, the most frequent readers of the bible in my experience are the poor and those in prison, not the rich.

11. 6% of wealthy say what’s on their mind vs. 69% of poor.

What? Since when is silence in the face of injustices a virtue? If you're comfortable, there's very little reason to speak up or complain.

Rom. 12.6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith.

Hab. 1.13 Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,

and you cannot look on wrongdoing;

why do you look on the treacherous,

and are silent when the wicked swallow

those more righteous than they? 

12. 79% of wealthy network five hours or more each month vs. 16% of poor.

Do the rich network among the poor? One of the bigger problems, as illustrated by Shane Claibourne, "isn't that wealthy Christians don't care about the poor... it's that they simply don't know the poor."

Is. 5.8 Ah, you who join house to house,

who add field to field,

until there is room for no one but you,

and you are left to live alone

in the midst of the land! 

9 The LORD of hosts has sworn in my hearing:

Surely many houses shall be desolate,

large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant. 

13. 67% of wealthy watch one hour or less of TV every day vs. 23% of poor.

I concede this point. Watching TV is a waste of time and probably causes poverty. Unless you are watching college football or Game of Thrones. Then it is clearly wealth producing and an avenue to success.

14. 6% of wealthy watch reality TV vs. 78% of poor.

Lord have mercy. We all know the wealthy watch opera, which is just like reality TV, with vibrato.

15. 44% of wealthy wake up three hours before work starts vs. 3% of poor.

Psa. 127.2 It is in vain that you rise up early

and go late to rest,

eating the bread of anxious toil;

for he gives sleep to his beloved.

16. 74% of wealthy teach good daily success habits to their children vs. 1% of poor.

Interestingly, discussion of "habits" only occurs in the the apocrypha. By "good daily success" I assume Ramsey means being wealthy and not poor.

4Mac. 1.28   Just as pleasure and pain are two plants growing from the body and the soul, so there are many offshoots of these plants,  29 each of which the master cultivator, reason, weeds and prunes and ties up and waters and thoroughly irrigates, and so tames the jungle of habits and emotions. 

17. 84% of wealthy believe good habits create opportunity luck vs. 4% of poor.

Prov. 3.5    Trust in the LORD with all your heart,

and do not rely on your own insight. 

18. 76% of wealthy believe bad habits create detrimental luck vs. 9% of poor.

At this point, I've become completely exhausted by my own blog post, so I'm quoting from my favorite epistle from Paul.

Gal. 5.13   For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. 

19. 86% of wealthy believe in lifelong educational self-improvement vs. 5% of poor.
Education also only appears in the inter-testamental texts. As noted above, if lifelong education doesn't necessarily pay off for the poor, the incentive to pursue it may lessen. On the other hand, the prophets do emphasize life-long learning, it's just towards the establishment of justice rather than the acquisition of riches.

Is. 1.17 learn to do good;

seek justice,

rescue the oppressed,

defend the orphan,

plead for the widow.

20. 86% of wealthy love to read vs. 26% of poor.

I like books, too, but I think this is the third item on reading in this list. If reading was how you get rich, I would be richer than Bill Gates. Who reads a lot, so I hear.

I'm exhausted. How about you?