July 4th—The Revolution is Far from Over…

You might find this picture of this wounded flag offensive. I display the painting as a symbol of a very divided country. We have been here before. Hopefully the madness and divisions will pass and we can recover the flag as it should be. All the fireworks and all the political posturing cannot hide the fact that we are a people in trouble.

I leave you with the words of Ursula Solek. She was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1933 as Hitler came to power she grew up in that terrible time in Germany. Her family hid in the woods a long time to escape the Nazis. I first heard Dr. Ernest Campbell then Pastor of the Riverside Church in New York share this poem during another time in our history. 

July 4th should make us touch again the rock of patriotism. I share this poem with you because it speaks to our time, too.

What, finally, shall we say 

In the last moment

When we will be confronted

By the Unimaginable,

The One

Who could not be measured

or contained

In space or time

Who was Love

Unlimited?

What shall we answer

When the question is asked

About our undeeds

Committed

In his name—

In the name of him

For whose sake we promised

To have courage

To abandon everything?

Shall we say

That we didn’t know—

That we couldn’t hear the clatter

Of hearts breakin—

Millions of them—

In lonely rooms, in alleys

     and prisons

And in bars?

Shall we explain

That we thought it mattered

That buildings were constructed

And maintained

In his honor—

That we were occupied

With the arrangements

Of hymns and prayers

And the proper, responsible way

Of doing things?

Shall we tell him

That we had to take care

Of the orderly definition

     of dogmas

So that there was no time

To listen to the

     sobbing

Of the little ones

Huddled in corners

Or the silent despair

Of those already beyond

     sobbing?

Or, shall we say this, too:

That we were afraid—

That we were keeping busy

     with all this

To avoid confrontation

With the reality of his

     meaning

Which would lead us to

     repentance—-

That it was fear that

     kept us

Hiding in church pews

And in important boards

     and committees

When he went by?

                     —Ursula Solek

"There never was a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope."

                                                                                                     --Bill Coffin

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com

Whose Table Bishops?

                                               photo courtesy of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston / flikr

"Hunger in the midnight, hunger at the stroke of noon

Hunger in the mansion, hunger in the rented room

Hunger on the TV, hunger on the printed page

And there's a God-sized hunger

underneath the laughter and the rage."

  --Jackson Brown

I have been thinking a lot lately about the Catholic Bishops that will be voting soon on if the Catholic President of the United States will be turned away from Holy Communion. Because of the President’s stand on abortion and a woman’s right to choose the American church may well deny him the Holy Sacrament.

Senator John Kerry years ago was denied access to the Table for his stand on abortion. Conservative BIshops even criticized the Massachusetts’  Archbishop for presiding over former Ted Kennedy’s funeral mass. 

When I first read where a Priest in Florence, South Carolina denied former Vice-President Joe Biden the Sacrament I was horrified. The Priest said, “Any public figure who advocates for abortion places himself or herself outside the church’s teaching” As the Catholic bishops meet they will probably agree with the Priest in South Carolina. They may turn away all those who break the abortion and homosexual rules of the church. 

I wondered if the Princes of the church think standing for a woman’s right to choose is the unpardonable sin. And I wondered about all those other sins. Divorce, except for the well-heeled who had gotten an annulment after years of being married. The church's public stance against homosexuality. Many Bishops have turned their eyes away from the pedophile priests that helped destroy the lives of so many children. And then some of these same Bishops have shuffled these sick priests to yet another parish. Some of these sick Priests hold up the Sacrament weekly as if they themselves were innocent.

My complaint is not to bash the Catholic church. There are many dark chapters in their history.  But we Protestants have our own shadow sides. But let us not forget all those Priests through the centuries who kept the faith and help change the lives of so many. Pope John Paul II. Thomas Merton. Dorothy Day. Mother Teresa. Richard Rohr. Pope John XXIII. Cardinal Newman. G.K. Chesterton. Pope Francis. These are just a few that helped their church live up to its name. Let us not forget out there serving in nameless places are faithful Priests seeking to bring acceptance and affirmation. Not only to desperate women but all those frightened and burdened by many things. They come down the aisle and kneel reaching out for hope in the broken body of the crucified.

Whose Table is it, priests? Pope Francis understands this when he said: “communion is not the reward of saints but the bread sinners.” He reminds us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. 

I wonder what goes through the mind of President Biden if he is turned away from the Table that has given him sustenance all these years. And what could all those others say that read this painful saga and know deep in their hearts they too are unworthy.

This is not a political matter. Everything is not politics. But it is the bed-rock essence of the gospel. Those nail-scarred hands reach out to all and say, “Come unto me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” No qualification.

Bishops this is not your table and not your church. We ordained ones must remember the faith that has carried so many through the centuries. It is not about doctrines or rules. The church is still to be a lighthouse for those in peril on the seas—which includes us all.

                                              photo by Michael Swan / flikr

--Roger Lovette / rogerlovette.blogspot.com