Delta's Customer Disservice

It's hard to know whether Delta or Northwest has worse customer service. With their merger, I suspect the two employ a scorekeeper to mark which representatives have not helped the most customers. Today my guess is that Delta is in the lead.

Dónde está el amor?

“Dónde está el amor?” This was the question posed by a priest in mass today outside Chiapas, Mexico. “Where’s the love?” he asked us – when some control so much and manipulate those who have so little; when some limit education to the wealthy only; when some restrict the flow of natural resources, such as water, to others.

Where’s the love?

Now I’ve read some boring books in my life. Of that, there is no doubt. But at least I can say that most, perhaps all, of my boring reads were assigned, not selected.

Not so for my neighbor on a flight today. He, by choice, was reading Robert’s Rules of Order: All You Need to Know. “Why?” I inquired, secretly hoping he was the new board chair of some worthwhile nonprofit or needed a quick refresher before leading an influential meeting.

After a brief pregnant pause came the reply: “Just wanted to see what it said.”

We had no more conversation.

Who will do God’s will?

Imagine the following scene. In a hurry, as usual, familiar words rush from your mouth: “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on Earth as it is heaven.”

Suddenly, abruptly, almost curtly, a voice responds: “Are you sure?”

Shocked, you reply, “Sure of what?"

The voice continues: “Sure that you want my will to be done, my desires to be made actual.”

You: “Well, yeah, we could always use a little more heaven on Earth!”

The voice: “My will: No more children dying of hunger. No more extreme poverty. No more allowing the greed of a few to trump the need of many. Peace among nations, even religions. People truly loving me and each other. These are my desires. This is my will. Is this what you want?”

You: “Yes, sure. Absolutely. All of that sounds exactly right. It sounds very good, in fact.”

The voice: “Then what are you doing to make these things happen?”

Wondering how to finish this now uncomfortable dialogue, you mumble: “Em. Well. Me? What am I doing, you ask?”

The voice, in a calm yet firm tone: “Yes, you. If not you, who? Who else would do my will?”

The dialogue ends.

Wow. Try to catch your breath. If that dialogue happened to you, what would you think, feel and do? Would you ever dare to pray those words again?

After all, the voice — which we assume to be God’s voice — has called you out. You claimed to want God’s will on earth. And the voice met your claim and raised you one: What are you doing to make that claim become reality?

That’s a tough one. In fact, it is so tough that I think we ought to back up and blame it on Jesus. After all, he’s the one who used this phrase in his model prayer.

It’s true. Jesus was big on kingdom of God talk. Line up 100 New Testament scholars and ask what is most central to the message of Jesus, and I bet nearly 100 will say it is this idea that the kingdom of God can transform earthly kingdoms.

Or if you don’t like scholars, just open the Bible. Kingdom of God talk is all over the place, especially in the first three Gospels.In Mark, which is the oldest Gospel, Jesus uses the phrase in his inaugural address: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe this Gospel.” (Mark 1:15) Matthew and Luke both include kingdom talk in their beatitudes and many parables.

So, what did this phrase mean for Jesus? For Jesus, God’s kingdom had a present and a future meaning at the same time.

In the present, right now, you can claim the presence of God within you and among you within community. The future meaning aspect for the kingdom of God envisions a transformed world where relationships are deeper and the Earth and its fullness are rightly recognized as belonging to God. (Psalm 24)

There is more to say about this, but not today. After all, today I am thinking about your prayer to want things ordered the way they would be if God were king and other rulers were not.

It’s a big claim. Are you sure we want that?

Questioning the prayer

Questioning the prayer
By Nathan Day Wilson

How many times have you said The Lord’s Prayer? A few hundred times? Many thousands? Never at all?

The prayer is a work of beauty, especially Matthew’s version with its pleasant cadences and well balanced couplets. Try reading this aloud so you can feel the pulse: “Our father in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. They will be done.”

Did you feel it? Whether it means anything to your faith or not, you have to admit there’s wonderful rhythm to the prayer, smooth and melodic.

For me, the prayer evokes many memories. I’ve prayed it with close friends and with complete strangers. Those words have celebrated new lives and consoled recent deaths. In rooms where all spoke the same language, and in rooms where languages were as numerous as people, I’ve claimed and clamored this prayer that Jesus taught his followers.

Yet for a prayer so beautiful, so evocative and so central to whom and whose I am, rarely have I thought about what each phrase in the prayer means or why Jesus decided to include it. So I asked myself some questions.

For example, I asked myself, “Self, why did the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray? After all, prayer was a pillar of Jewish piety. Public prayer, spoken aloud in the morning, afternoon and evening was common.”Then I thought, “Hmmm, Self, that is a good question.”

Then I considered rewarding my good question with some mint chocolate chip ice cream, but decided I should ask more questions instead.

What do you think? Why did the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray? Or what’s your answer to these questions: Why did Jesus organize the prayer the way he did? After the beginning invocation, is there anything significant about the order of his six requests? How was the prayer radical at the time when Jesus taught it?

And the big one: Does this prayer have relevance for you; or, do you just say the prayer now because that’s what others have always done?

Not to be rude, but if you’re not going to speak up with some answers, I’m going to ask one more question: Of all the images or ways that Jesus could have addressed God at the beginning of the prayer, why did he start by saying “Our Father?”

After all, Jesus could have said something like, “Holy One who loves us more than there is water in the deepest sea.” It would have been true, and poetic if I may say so. God does love us, and all creation, more than there is water in the deepest sea — or even all the seas combined.

Or Jesus could have addressed God as “Ground of all our existence.” Or even, “One whose strength surpasses the strongest boulder.” Both are true statements; both are apt descriptions.

But Jesus did not start the prayer with any of those. Instead, he started with the Aramaic word, “Abba.” Why?

Those are the sorts of questions I’ve been asking myself. The good and exciting news for me is that this weekend I’ll be sharing some answers to the questions. The congregation I get to serve, First Christian Church, is beginning a worship series about The Lord’s Prayer this Sunday at 10 a.m.

One of the most requested worship topics, I think and pray it’ll be a good series. I guess I’m not the only one interested in deeply experiencing this much loved prayer.

Light of truth in healthcare

The Shelbyville News

Light of truth in healthcare
By Nathan Day Wilson

First of all, thank you for the many emailed, telephoned and in person compliments on last week’s column. And, thank you for the complaint: a good reminder of the difficulty of writing hyperbole. I appreciate them all.

It was a fun column to write.

This week’s column, I’m afraid, is every bit as important but not as much fun. In fact, this week I write with a sad and heavy heart.

Here’s why: The past couple weeks have been very difficult for the soul of all Americans. In the midst of discussing important healthcare issues that will affect your family and mine for generations, too many of our fellow citizens have decided to resort to lies and uncivil behavior.

Whether they support reform or the status quo, their misinformation and divisive tactics sadden me, embarrass me and concern me for the well-being of our country.

You may have received some of their emails. Usually without the names of authors or supporting citations, the emails claim such ludicrous lies as healthcare reform would force families to receive care ordered by a government panel instead of qualified, trained doctors and their staff.

Another popular email claims that elderly would be left to die if healthcare reform passed. This is also untrue, and sickening that anyone would even write such a lie.

Why are some people doing this? I’m not sure, and I pray they stop. My guess is they benefit from the system as it is – a system that delivers the best health care to the wealthiest and leaves 46 million fellow Americans with no health insurance at all.

My guess for why people circulate intentionally untrue emails and act in violent ways is that they want us to be afraid. I never appreciated bullies, and I still don’t.

I think it should stop. For those of us who are Christians or belong to other faith groups, it should stop. For all of us who embrace the Golden Rule, it should stop. For us who seek justice and fairness, it should stop. If for no other reason than just our common identity as Americans, it should stop!

Let’s ask for, even demand, a healthcare discussion that is factual. Let’s demand one worthy of your family and my family; a discussion that brings our communities together instead of fragmenting us further.

Proverbs 12 says that “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue lasts only a moment.” Well, special interests, your moment is up. Now we want real healthcare discussion, not misinformation. We want the light of truth, not the heat of your fear-mongering.

--
Wilson is senior pastor of First Christian on West Washington St, which this week will celebrate all students, teachers, administration, staff and school board members at the 10:00 worship.

Custom made or cookie cutter religion

My wife Janice likes to bake, which is good since I like to eat what she bakes! It’s one place where our universe aligns and everything works out peachy.

Cookies are her specialty. Her cookies may be tried and true, such as chocolate chip or my favorite monster cookie, or they may be new and experimental. Her cookies may be round and chewy, or they may be flat and crisp. They may be loaded with chocolate, or sans chocolate but chock full of nuts and berries.

When our daughters were younger, Janice would sometimes bake with them using cookie cutters. Sometimes the molds were metal, sometimes they were plastic; their job was always the same: mold the cookie dough into identical shapes so that the cookies would look the same.

If you promise to keep a secret, I’ll tell you that I liked the Christmas tree shapes the best, though the Halloween pumpkins were swell too. Yes, I said “swell.”

There are definite good reasons for using cookie cutters. First of all, they are convenient. Baking cookies with a preformed shape is much more convenient, much easier than baking cookies that are shaped by hand.

Cookie cutters are also good because – at least in theory – the end result of using cookie cutters is a batch of cookies that looks the same.

And finally, cookie cutters help with quantity. You can produce a lot more cookies in a shorter amount of time when you are just stamping them out than when you take the time with each and every cookie.

But there are downsides too. Cookies made with cookie cutters are not nearly as creative as ones that are handmade. They don’t tell you as much about the personality of their baker. The shape imposed may not fit the cookie dough very well either: after all, whoever heard of a Christmas tree with a big raisin sticking out of it!

Religious communities are similar. Some are like cookie cutters, trying hard to stamp believers all into the same mold. Their approach to worship and education and service is more of “one size fits all” approach, rather than a customized, open approach.

Sometimes faith communities of this sort demand conformity of thought and action. At their worst, they shout, “My way is the only way!” and demean those who disagree.

Other religious communities – churches, synagogues and mosques – realize that faith is handmade. Sure there are absolutes, and they should be known. But there is much more that God shares with us in ways appropriate to each of us. There’s much more individual shaping that God does in our lives so that we complement, not conform to, each other.


It takes time and care to shape a faith of this type. You have to get your hands messy to make this kind of cookie.

How can you tell one type from the other? Listen to the language used. Does it encourage deeper thought, more genuine reflection and authentic engagement? If so, it is more of the handmade faith variety.

Or is the language closed? Does it duck the hard questions? Is there a pretend attitude that the world is of two shades with simple choices, rather than multicolored and complex? If so, then you have yourself a cookie cutter approach.

So now you are wondering which type is better? In my opinion, it is the handmade, open ended, willing to ask difficult questions and trust more in God’s mysterious grace than our definite understanding type. But I’ll say again that both types of religious communities have their positives.

The main thing is for you to consider which one you prefer – custom made or cookie cut.

True Freedom

My latest newspaper column:

http://www.shelbynews.com/articles/2009/07/04/news/doc4a4d764d87bfe777292734.txt

What means much to you?

Father never accepted any gift from his students, but when his daughter became a teacher, she never refused any gifts from her students.

The father was upset by this practice, so one day he reproached his daughter: "I do not accept any gift because gifts mean nothing to me. It pains me to know that you grab all that your disciples bring to you."

The daughter replied: "Father, if gifts mean nothing to you, why are you bothered whether I accept them or reject them?"

In my life, what means much to me, even when I think it doesn't?

Words That Create Community

This is from Henri Nouwen's Bread for the Journey and is titled "Words That Create Community."

The word is always a word for others. Words need to be heard. When we give words to what we are living, these words need to be received and responded to. A speaker needs a listener. A writer needs a reader.

When the flesh - the lived human experience - becomes word, community can develop. When we say, "Let me tell you what we saw. Come and listen to what we did. Sit down and let me explain to you what happened to us. Wait until you hear whom we met," we call people together and make our lives into lives for others. The word brings us together and calls us into community. When the flesh becomes word, our bodies become part of a body of people.