ding dong, the witch is dead...

I found out that Osama Bin Laden had been killed last night as I was crawling into bed.  It has been a long week, I was tired, and my husband came in and announced the big news.  My husband!  Who normally isn't all that concerned about world politics/situations. 

The first thing I thought of was - "no way!" And then - "hmm... I wonder what that means?"

Today, I had a congregational funeral to deal with.  No time to think about it... although a few people here and there mentioned it and I caught a few clips of stories on NPR.

This afternoon, I was knee deep in reciepts and deposit slips trying to account for donations and reimbursement items from a month of busyness and a couple of youth fundraisers.

And when I got home at 5pm, I really didn't want to think about it.  I plugged in the headphones, turned up the music, and mowed my lawn for the first time of the year.

I found a few stray plants - an iris that was in the middle of the yard, a few ferns that started growing outside of their beds - so I moved them to better locations.  I raked up the grass clippings and I put them underneath the strawberries. I sprayed some turf builder on the grass until it ran out.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that nothing in my life has changed. Probably nothing in most of our lives has changed.

I listened here and there to various stories as I made a quick trip to the gas station for lawn mower gas and then again after I was finished to pick up some spaghetti noodles.  And everyone was talking about how this one guy created so much destruction.

My first thought is - we probably are giving the guy too much credit.  The organization he was the head of is not a one person show.  Yes, he was the face and figurehead of so much terror that has occured in this world, but I'm not going to let one person scare me or turn my world upside down. I'm not going to concede and give him that power.

My second thought relates to that strange mythological status that we have given him.  Kind of like the Wicked Witch of the East... at her sudden death, the people started singing and dancing in celebration.  Suddenly they were freed from the fear and the frustration, the anger and the pent up revenge and hostility... they burst forth in song in relief.

I can't help but see images and hear audio from those crowds that have gathered to celebrate without transporting myself to Oz.  It is surreal, it is strange, it is funny and yet... not really.

As a Christian, the only reason that I celebrate the death of another person is because I believe in the power of resurrection.  I believe in the grace and mercy of God that takes what is perishable and makes it eternal.  I believe in the new creation.

I don't believe I have been given the ability to judge another person's life. It is not for me to determine their eternal destiny.  And... I cannot put a limit on God's power to transform and renew and restore even the darkness itself. 

I find no reason at all to celebrate the death of a man who killed many.  It doesn't make me happy or feel good.  It doesn't bring me joy.  It just reminds me that we are mortal.  That our grabs for power and our bent towards hatred and evil are real and that they are destructive.  This reality sinks me farther into the human condition.  We are broken.  All of us.  And we need help. 

If we can turn back towards God and seek peace...

If we can remember that justice and revenge are God's work and not our own...

If we can love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us...

Maybe then, I might be able to celebrate. 

But for now, I'm going to get my hands dirty and plant some irises.

Bible and Newspaper #2

Recently, we have wrestled in various states surrounding Iowa, and now in our own state with the rights of workers. I watched the situation unfolding in Wisconsin over the last month and was appalled at how it has all turned out.

The United Methodist Church has had a long history of supporting labor reforms and the labor movement.  From advocating against child labor to supporting the improvement of working conditions for laborers to advocating passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act and the National Labor Relations Act, we have been at the forefront of this issue from the very beginning.

Part of our support for all working people includes support for collective barganining.  This is our current position:

¶ 163 B) Collective Bargaining—We support the right of all public and private employees and employers to organize for collective bargaining into unions and other groups of their own choosing. Further, we support the right of both parties to protection in so doing and their responsibility to bargain in good faith within the framework of the public interest.


In order that the rights of all members of the society may be maintained and promoted, we support innovative bargaining procedures that include representatives of the public interest in negotiation and settlement of labor-management contracts, including some that may lead to forms of judicial resolution of issues.


We reject the use of violence by either party during collective bargaining or any labor/management disagreement. We likewise reject the permanent replacement of a worker who engages in a lawful strike. From The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church - 2008. Copyright 2008 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Used by permission.

Biblically, we come at our views of labor through a number of scriptures... beginning in the beginning. The creation of the Sabbath and the command to respect and honor the Sabbath was radical for its day - it was a counter to other nations that forced their laborers to work 7 days a week.  Time and space for rest, renewal and our spiritual relationships is a fundamental part of God's intention for creation and the people of God.

On Ash Wednesday last week, we read from Isaiah and remember that:

they also complain, 'Why do we fast and you don't look our way?  Why do we humble ourselves and you don't even notice?'

"Well, here's why: "The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit. You drive your employees much too hard. You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won't get your prayers off the ground. Do you think this is the kind of fast day I'm after:  a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face  and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting,  a fast day that I, God, would like?

"This is the kind of fast day I'm after:  to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. Isaiah 58:3-6, The Message

We have a parable where all people are paid what they need to survive that day, no matter how long or hard they have worked (Matthew 20:1-16) and we have numerous prophets and epistles and proverbs that talk about the relationship between the worker and their employer (1 Cor. 9:7-11, James 5:4, Deut. 24:14-15)

But there are also verses and sayings directed at the worker.  They must work hard, honestly, respecting those they work for and the task at hand (2 Thess. 3:10, Col. 3:23, Prov 12:11).

So how do we look at this situation in light of our tradition and our scriptures? 

I think my first response is that at times, workers have abused the system.  Sometimes workers have pushed to get more of what they want, rather than what they need. Yet, if we look at numbers and statistics being thrown around in Wisconsin.... well, there are so many numbers from so many sides that I don't even know what to believe.  Some talk about the burden on the tax payers, others talk about how all of the money that goes into the pensions and health benefits comes from the workers themselves in a salary deferrment agreement, and so it is actually budget neutral. 

Whatever the case, the public employee unions were in the end willing to compromise, lower their expectations, take the cuts to their benefits... but it didn't matter.  The collective bargaining was what the government wanted to strip.  And it did. As United Methodists, we clearly and unconditionally support the right of workers to organize and to bargain in good faith. That is now gone in the state of Wisconsin.

In Iowa, this issue is also before us. It has come up both in Governor Brandstad's Executive Order 69 which prohibits project labor agreements and in the House bill which limits the power of unions in layoff decisions.  These are slightly different ways of handling the problems of imbalance between the government and workers, but as we talk to our own legislators, and as we pray and think about these issues, keep the scriptures and our tradition in mind.  There are positive and negative implications for workers and for our lived reality together in both of these bills. 

At the core, we need to be mindful of the public interest, our debt load and budget - but balance that alongside the needs of the actual workers. If the PLA's cause our building projects inflate the costs, that is one thing, but if they ensure fair and good wages for the ones who are doing the work, that is another. Should they be mandated?  Should they be prohibited?  Should they be an option?  This is a conversation we need to have. Those who work, whether in the public or private sector, whether unionized or not, all contribute to our wellbeing.  Good wages help support the economy by putting more money in consumer's pockets. This is a balancing game... and our scriptures and tradition have some good advice about how we find the right balance.

Pray, read, and if you feel led, call your state representantive. As a citizen of this state, you have a voice... as a person of faith, you have something to say.

Bible and Newspaper #1

Coming home from a recent conference in Washington, D.C., I'm trying to be more courageous. But I'm also faced with the reality that being a pastor, and ministering to a diverse group of folks... I can't always link and share and say everything that I want to...

So, here is what I am going to do.

I'm going to continue to encourage us to look at the world with the bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. And when stuff comes up that affects us all, I'm going to try to point out where our church has spoken on the issue and how we have interpreted scriptures.

So, for the first one, we might as well dive right in to the hard stuff: Abortion.

I do not believe abortion can be seen as a starkly black and white issue - all are bad or all are good... real lives of real people are bound up in these life and death decisions. And no matter what choices we have made, our task as Christians is love and care for one another - to help people heal and to be whole.

For those of us who are United Methodist and from Iowa, I encourage you to read House File 153 and to hold it in light with our own denominational position on abortion and our best understandings of scripture. Both Exodus 21 and Psalm 139 come to mind... one does not hold embryos, fetuses, or any unborn child to the same standard of life and the other does.

And perhaps, also think of the implications of such a law.  How would it affect birth control which in part prevents the implantation of fertilized eggs?  How would it affect emergency contraceptives? How would it affect the decision making process when the life of the mother is at risk if pregnancy is carried to term?

And not related to the issue, what does it mean for checks and balances that included in this bill it is written the Supreme Court has no jurisdiction over a portion of our legislation.

Pray, read, and if you feel led, call your state representantive. As a citizen of this state, you have a voice... as a person of faith, you have something to say.