Mighty To Save

12/07/2021

Let's create a new model for peace, love and justice on this January 6 through the power of PRAYER! Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/pray4justice

On January 6, 2022 come to the U.S. Capitol to pray and commemorate last year's deadly attacks that threaten democracy in America to this day. Bring a battery candle (no flames allowed)--because some people obey the law and our Capitol Police! 💪

11/08/2021

Today's Forward Day by Day meditation by Robert Two Bulls, an Oglala Lakota, Episcopal priest, notes his difficulty as a native American in celebrating Thanksgiving. The "Sacred Ground" course of the Episcopal church includes a section on indigenous peoples. As "homework, participants are encouraged to research which native Americans lived on the land they identify as theres. Here's an excellent resource for doing so: https://native-land.ca/

That link gave me all the Native American tribes that originally inhabited the place we call home and links to more resources about them.

Surely we can learn from the mistreatment of native Americans. Certainly we can understand why many Native Americans do not celebrate, and actually mourn on the Thanksgiving holiday.

Yet for many Thanksgiving will always be on balance a wonderful, special and somewhat sacred time. That holiday is the one American holiday where Americans from many different backgrounds and faith traditions come together with their loved ones and unify. In a country that is rapidly disintegrating, where surprisingly large segments of the US population are openly supporting dividing our country up based on ideology (didn't we already fight that war? ), many will always cling to the unity that Thanksgiving can bring.

But even if we don't repudiate Thanksgiving as a holiday, we can understand why some do, empathize with them, and defend their right to do so. And we can join forces in helping make America live up to its original promise of creating a more perfect union. 🙏

Native Land is a resource to learn more about Indigenous territories, languages, lands, and ways of life. We welcome you to our site.

10/19/2021

Today's Forward Day by Day meditation asks: "How often do we think that we possess the absolute truth?" and then concludes by asking "What motivates you to serve others?" For hundreds of Thousands of Rotarians worldwide, service and truth are closely connected.

Rotary's motto is "Service Above Self." One of the ways Rotarians can serve is by being bridge builders. The United States of America is fracturing into two opposing sides. As we saw on January 6, the rules have changed. The number of people who would wish to break up the United States so they can be surrounded by like-minded people is staggering. Civil war is a real possibility in the years ahead. Rotarian can serve by seeing the ways that Rotary can be a force for understanding, reconciliation, respect, peace. Building peace is in fact one of the 7 focus areas of Rotary.

Rotary has a "Four Way Test" based on Truth, Fairness, Friendships, and Mutual Benefits. If Rotarians could apply the Four Way test more in their lives to bridge the gaps, Rotarians could help serve the greater good. Many Rotarians are understandably leery about "politicizing" Rotary, but that's not the idea. Rotary needs to look beyond only peace building in underdeveloped, war torn countries. Rotary needs to recognize that the United States and other developed countries have a problem with peace building internally.

It all begins with having the wisdom of Jesus. The wisdom that it takes an "infant" mind to truly see. Children, especially infants, are utterly trusting in their parents. We have a wonderful parent in God who is perfect and loves us. Yet too often we trust too much in our own opinions, knowledge, friends, families, allies, and traditions. When we recognize that God is the true Father/Mother we should trust, we are truly wise. 🙏

09/13/2021

1 Corinthians 1:10c: "That you be united in the same mind and the same purpose."

Today's Forward Day by Day meditation talks about the decline of membership the US Episcopal Church faces today and quotes Presiding Bishop Michael Curry: "In order for the sun to rise on Easter morning, we must harness all our creative resources and come together to serve Jesus, not ourselves. We must collaborate in order to serve the movement, not to save the institution.”

The FDBD author asks "What does it mean to serve the movement of Jesus first, and the institution of the church second?"

The meditation prompted a wonderful array of reactions from the FDBD brothers and sisters. Some celebrating change, others urging sticking to tradition. All shared in love and respect.

In the face of declining attendance in the Anglican churches of the developed world, To pass Good Friday and see the Easter Dawn we have to embrace both change and tradition.

Jesus summed up the long, wild Bible story: Love God, Love Your Neighbor. Too many Christians are preaching a Gospel devoid of love for their neighbors, the non-Christians or "incorrect" Christians, whom they see as an existential threat and/or doomed to damnation. On the other side, there are the Christians who see Christianity and other world religions as utterly similar, just a personal preference, so they don't feel it's important to love God by sharing God's love in the Gospel. Bad theology matters.
With some of the loudest Christians not loving enough, and the more loving Christians staying silent, the non-Christian world sees Christianity as increasingly hostile to peace and global cooperation.

God works in mysterious ways. Right now we see anger and division in America. But in truth a major evangelical opportunity exists, including in the Episcopal Church of the USA and the Anglican community worldwide. Christians must unite to show the courage, faith and humility to work together to bring a Gospel showing love for God and our fellow man into the world. In uniting on the core values of the Jesus Movement, we can tap into a deep yearning in America for lowering the partisan tensions that divide and cripple us.

In the time of Jesus, like now, we have to start by redefining who is our "neighbor" and learning to love people who are radically different from us. Even people who voted for another President!

09/12/2021

Psalm 19:8b: "The commandment of the Lord is clear and gives light to the eyes."

Today's Forward Day by Day meditation asks "Do you like the psalms? Why or why not?"

It's easy to be troubled by the anger and the vindictiveness of the Psalms, the clear contrast with the "love thine enemy" of Jesus. But in fact we can love the Psalms because they show God loves all of, just as we are. We can realize that God MEANT for the psalms to trouble us, to challenge us. To see in ourselves the very human flaws caused by suffering and lack of understanding in the writers of the psalms. God loves ALL of us, all our love, all our hate, all our hopes, and all our fears.

The psalms remind us not to worship (idolize) the Bible like an inerrant, perfect God, or seek answers to our problems with a Magic Eight Ball ("Signs Point to Yes"). The psalms remind us to see the Bible not as some perfectly clear, understandable owner's manual with a crystal clear troubleshooting guide and summary index guide at the end, instead of an ancient mixture of wisdom and folly that ends with raining fire, angels spitting swords, and terrifying dragons and beasts. The psalms help us see the Bible as a beautiful, mysterious expression of people like us in their constant, two steps forward one step backward struggle to understand, fear and love an all powerful and perfect being that made the entire universe, the very fabric of time and space.

We need to see the Bible as a total picture, as an ever-unfolding story of God’s love for us.

And we can love Psalm 19 like our FDBD author does. So may the words of our mouth and the meditations of our Facebook and FDBD posts be always acceptable in thy sight, Oh God, our strength and our Redeemer. 🙏

09/05/2021

Isaiah 35:6b: “For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.”

Today’s Forward Day by Day meditation talks about trusting God in our wilderness moments. We are still in the wilderness of a radical change in America. Sometimes it’s hard to believe that we will ever find our way to a safer place. We are so bitterly divided and have stopped listening to each other.

Today’s meditation from Father Richard Rohr tells us an important part of finding peace in this time when we are lost is to know that we are being guided.

“A participatory theology says, “I am being used, I am actively being chosen, I am being led.” It is not about joining a new denomination or having an ecstatic moment. After authentic conversion, you know that your life is not about you; you are about life! You’re an instance in this agony and ecstasy of God that is already happening inside you, and all you can do is say yes to it. That’s all. That’s conversion and it changes everything.”

Here’s to walking blindly in the wilderness!

09/03/2021

Today’s Forward Day by Day meditation asks “How can you step further into community and be a part of the plan?”

A lot of the reader comments relate to mask wearing. Of course mask wearing is a burden and a nuisance. For some it actually can be scary because they don’t breathe right. Some people even take it to the extreme of saying that wearing a mask is the first step to being a subjugated slave people.

But the one thing about mask wearing that science tells us is that the greatest benefits are given to the other people when someone wears a mask. A mask doesn’t really protect you perfectly from a pandemic. But it does prevent you from spreading disease in a pandemic very effectively. So because it’s a burden, because it helps others more than yourself, wearing a mask is a sign of love, a sign of community.

So perhaps to be part of Jesus’s slave community we wear a mask. 🙏

08/30/2021

Today's Forward Day by Day meditation asks "Do you give more credence to the words of the wealthy than those of the poor? What would Jesus say about your answer?"

We are all probably guilty of giving more credence to the wealthy rather than the poor. Part of this error is understandable and aspirational since we hope the wealthy will use their wealth to advance what we believe can make our world better. But mostly our error is grounded in the false assumption that the wealthy know better as they are wiser and smarter. That may be somewhat true for rags to riches stories, but many of today's wealthy didn't pull themselves up by their bootstraps. They just kept on cashing in the silver spoons given to them.

Today we have examples of wealthy people pledging to use their wealth for the greater good. We see the Bill Gates and the Warren Buffets who go so far as to pledge half of their personal wealth to charity. Why don't we encourage and even STRONGLY encourage the wealthy to donate more to public causes. Especially those wealthy persons who spend billions on dubious efforts, like those who rocket their masculine, Freudian aspirations into space.

As for our leaders, who should beware the leaders who scream their undying love of the little guy while unfailingly supporting policies that favor the rich, especially the richest "persons" (according to the Supreme Court) of all: Corporations. Even when those policies don't benefit or even hurt the little guy.

We should all support policies that help all of us, especially the little guy, especially the poor. Jesus would like that answer. 🙏

08/23/2021

Today's Forward Day by Day meditation asks: "Which psalm has particular meaning for you?" Psalm 22 in many ways encapsulates all the soaring joy and deep sadness of the Psalms. Christ quoted Psalm 22 on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

It’s one of the most wonderful examples of how the Old Testament foresaw the coming of Jesus.
“Dogs surround me,
a pack of villains encircles me;
they pierce my hands and my feet.”

The psalm ends on a much more hopeful note with God coming to the rescue and the entire world believing in the God of the Bible. The commentary makes it seem that Jesus was in perfect control when he quoted this psalm.

Maybe he was. Jesus consciously quoted the psalm knowing that it ends in hope and victory. But in that moment perhaps the human nature of Jesus truly understood the feeling of utter abandonment, pain and hopelessness. That was probably the most perfect moment when Jesus was both human and God at once. 🙏

08/19/2021

Psalm 131:2: "I do not occupy myself with great matters, or with things that are too hard for me."

Sometimes our first reaction when we read the Bible, including the Psalms, is to be judgmental. Like today's Psalm quote. We read it and say "No!" We MUST worry about the big things beyond our control like climate change, clean water, clean air, a healthy democracy, human rights, the devastation in Haiti and the chaos in Afghanistan. Even if we can't do anything by ourselves we must work together and not turn our backs on a problem. We think the instinct to cop out and not care is wrong and selfish.

But then we remember that the Bible is a beautiful combination of God and humanity. God inspired people of more than a thousand years and the result is the crazy, confusing, flawed, powerful and wonderful book we have today. We remember that the person who wrote this Psalm was thinking like the every day Jew of King David's time. A time without social media, mass media, and the ability to project our voice beyond our little village, much less around the world.

This Psalm is about trusting God, the classic Let Go and Let God feeling of confident love in our Father that Jesus told us he wanted us to have if we wanted to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Today we have to walk that fine line between caring about the big problems and doing our tiny part to fix them while we still trust that God is piloting this great big voyage called life, no matter how stormy the seas. 🙏

08/09/2021

Mark 9:50b: “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Today’s Forward Day by Day meditation notes “In Jesus’ time, when desert people working outside sweated away their electrolytes and no one could buy a container of Morton’s at the corner store, salt was so important that it was considered an essential element of hospitality.”

Salt gave life in many ways in the times of Jesus Christ. Another way it gave life was preserving food. In days without refrigerators and freezers, salt was used to preserve meats so they would remain nutritious and could be stored for later. So salt was key to making us healthy and full of life. Salt makes us patient so that we can keep the best of us alive. C. S. Lewis also said that putting more Jesus in us is like putting more salt in us because salt can bring out the true flavors of any food. So Jesus can bring out our true selves. And unlike salt we can’t have too much Jesus! 🙏

07/25/2021

Today’s Forward Day by Day meditation tells the story of a group of Missionaries to Asia who started in Williams College called “The Brethren.” Today many Christians and especially Christian missionaries have a bad rep in secular society. This is understandable because some of the loudest Christians are also the angriest and least loving. Their light is black light that distorts reality in a neon lie.

So many Christian Missionaries like “The Brethren” went abroad to share the Gospel as well as health, education, and well-being. They truly loved and were one with the people they served. They were washers of feet like Christ.

Others disdained the people and this disempowered them. Often these missionaries had a vision of “the White Man’s Burden.” A former missionary once confessed with sadness and some shame that someone in his group had nailed a brown paper bag to the wall of their group home. On that bag the other missionary had written “When this bag starts looking white it’s time to go home.” The implication was there should be no hope of meeting a potential spouse among the non-white natives.

May we all shine the light of Christ’s love in this broken and beautiful world. 🌎🙏