Monday, November 21, 2011

Christ the King in This Skeptical Age.

We have celebrated the Sunday of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the Christian year. The scripture, from Matthew, speaks of Christ who will be seated on high and who will separate the sheep from the goats. We spend much of our faithful lives trying to line up with the sheep, even though it's much more fun to act like a goat. The scene of that final judgment can send chills through the most ardent sheep, because it tells us that, whatever we have done to the least of God's children, we have done to God. I cannot help but think of the gathering of polarized goats we refer to as Congress. Many of the Tea Party darlings speak eloquently of "family values" while cutting programs that aid the marginalized of society. We have many on the left who chide believers as being in love with a fairy tale, and who go so far as to state, with seeming certainty, that Jesus of Nazareth never existed. How does one prove a negative, I wonder? For the record, any serious scholar worth his or her salt has studied the evidence closely and all agree that Jesus is a real person from history. Obviously, what cannot be proven is the certitude of his divinity. We live in a time when there is no real respect given to the idea of religious belief, when a sabbath day is present only in memory, and when immediate personal gratification is the order of the day. No wonder that there is no interest in hearing of a "King" of any type being a standard bearer for the faithful. It takes a lifetime, or at least, it has for this writer, to begin to understand the magnitude of what Christianity claims as its central tenet: God became human and identified with the least and the lost. What passes for Christianity in many parts of the world, and certainly in America, has little in common with that original vision. Christianity has became synonymous with winners and power brokers and people "like us." Working on college and university campuses for the past twenty-five years, I have seen the proportion of students who avail themselves of the services of the religious and spiritual life programs shrink continually. Students arrive at college with no religious "memory," that is, they have little or no experience as a part of a faith community, so why would they choose to affiliate with a program now? So, this is the situation out of which we proclaim Christ as King. Well, this writer will continue to do that, because we need the vision of a great and powerful leader who sides with the poor and dispossessed. When it comes right down to it, every one of us has felt dispossessed, even if we have not been financially poor. More and more of us are at risk of becoming financially poor, and risk falling through the cracks as social programs are cut in favor of tax cuts that curry to the wealthy and powerful. In Advent, Christians have the audacity to proclaim that a baby will be the symbol of a new world order. For a few moments, people will come together to sing carols and light candles. Meanwhile, we will be chastised for failing to spend quite enough on gifts to boost the economy, and the King will again be placed on the shelf until next year. But the image of God as loving the dispossessed will not be hidden, and it will continue to make us uncomfortable and to feel embarrassed when someone asks us if we really believe that stuff about Jesus. And the sheep and goats continue their journey along the road that meanders to the Kingdom of God.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Writer's Block, During This Time in Our History?

My posts have fallen off as of late. I have been puzzling over that fact for the past few days. Are there fewer problems in the world about which to lament? No. Are there no inspirational stories to be found in scripture? Of course not. After the October snowstorm, have we not had the most gorgeous fall weather imaginable? Yes, we have. So, what is going on in this addled brain of mine? Ah, glad you asked. I have been laboring in the field of academia for twenty-five years now, and my moods and energy levels seem to follow the rhythms of the college calendar. We are sloshing through that odd period after midterm and before finals. Thanksgiving is a mere two weeks away, and, after that, there is barely a whisper until the semester will end. Our whole family will be together at Christmas, which is indeed rare. I am in that in-between place, you see, and sometimes the ideas and originality are slow to percolate through the substrata of my inner sanctum. It's difficult, sometimes, to focus on the present when the end is in sight! However, I will offer a commentary on an event here that was not new, but that did serve to renew my flagging spirit. Our Muslim Student Association hosted an Eid - al - Adha this past Sunday evening. They opened with prayers, some corny jokes and a sincere welcome to all. Then we feasted on some of the best Indian food to be enjoyed on this side of the Atlantic. The evening was fun and the place was jam-packed with people. Imagine a large hall, filled with Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus and people of no particular faith tradition. And imagine all of those people being very glad that they have come there. Well, that was our event. And it is the norm around here, and also at other campuses where we have hosted interfaith events. Though nothing in my background and formative years would have laid the foundations for an inclination towards interfaith work, it is there that I feel most useful and most fulfilled. I cannot help but feel that God rejoices as much as we do when we gather together. It should be stated clearly that interfaith gathering does not imply that we forget our differences and just celebrate an amorphous amalgamation of watered-down faith traditions so that no one is made to feel that any one tradition is on display. This gathering was for Eid - al - Adha, celebrating Abraham's offering of Ishmael for sacrifice, and God's deliverance of Ishmael before it was too late. What's that, you say, you thought it was Isaac who was offered? Well, it was, as it was Ishmael. You see, the various traditions represented at the gathering are not of one mind regarding the dramatis personae in the story. We do not try to ignore our differences, but affirm them. Truthfully, it is after midterm, and I am tired and we still have several weeks of the semester to go. But even during this strange time, I am keenly aware of how fortunate I am to share in the life of this multi-faith community. My Christian faith would be so impoverished without it. God is never more real and authentic for me than when I am in the midst of a group such as I was Sunday evening. Even in the dips in energy past mid-semester, there are mountaintops that never cease to surprise and energize.