Reflections on Why I am beginning to Fast Today

Reflections on Why I am beginning to Fast Today

Jim Wallis, Editor and publisher of Sojourners Magazine, an Evangelical Christian Magazine that focuses on peace and justice in the world. He and other Christian leaders have begun a fast to focus prayers and attention who the efforts of Congress to balance the budget.  I share his post and invite your reflections.

Jesus talks about exorcisms and healings with his disciples when they were unable to heal a person. He remarks that “these are so strong that they can only be healed by prayer and fasting.”

Why I am Beginning a Fast Today

by Jim Wallis 03-28-2011

1. Because I am an evangelical Christian and the root of the word “evangelical” is found in the opening statement of Jesus in Luke 4, where Christ says he has come to bring “good news (the ‘evangel’) to the poor.” So to be an evangelical Christian is to try and bring good news to poor people.
2. Because some very bad news is happening to the poorest and most vulnerable people in Washington’s battle over the budget — both those at home and around the world.
3. Because budgets are moral documents — they reveal our priorities, who and what is important, and who and what are not. To address excessive deficits is also a moral issue — preventing our children and grandchildren from having crushing debt. But how you reduce a deficit is also a moral issue. We should reduce the deficit, but not at the expense of our poorest people.
4. Because it is simply wrong — morally and religiously — to focus our budget cuts on the people who are already hurting, and make them hurt more. Programs that are effectively reducing poverty should not be cut. They should be made as effective as possible, but not cut.
5. Because there is a selective cruelty going on in this budget debate. Instead of focusing on where the real money is, some budget cutters are actually targeting vital and effective programs that support and protect poor people and some initiatives that are literally saving lives. It was not spending on poor people that created this deficit, and these drastic cuts in programs that help poor people will do little to get us out of our deficit.
6. Because to really reduce the deficit, we should put everything on the table, especially the biggest public outlays in military spending, corporate subsidies and tax loopholes, long term health-care costs etc. — all of which could actually reduce the deficit, when much smaller poverty programs will not. Last night, 60 Minutes exposed $60 billion lost in revenue to corporate tax havens in Switzerland — enough to protect many programs for the poor.
7. Because there is a difference between deficit hawks – some of whom I know, respect, and work with on restoring fiscal health — and deficit hypocrites, who won’t go to where the real money is, but go instead to the poor, who have little political clout in Washington to defend themselves, and are an easy targets to score political points with a political base. We do not fast today against fiscal responsibility, but against political hypocrisy.
8. Because those of us who are Christians are bound by Jesus’ command to protect the least of these. So people of faith ask, “What Would Jesus Cut?” The extreme budget cuts proposed to critical programs that save the lives, dignity, and future of poor and vulnerable people have crossed a moral line. Politicians have only just begun to hear from the many church leaders who are ready to wage the good fight over these bad decisions. This crisis is bringing us together. Those with money and armies of lobbyists have their interests protected. They won’t bear the burden of reducing the deficit. But the work to protect the poor is a Christian vocation and obligation, and we will be faithful to it.
9. Because I am blessed to be in the company of dear brothers and sisters, Tony Hall, David Beckmann, Ritu Sharma, the 38 organizations that have joined this fast coalition, and the growing movement of people of faith and conscience who together intend to form a circle of protection around vital poverty-fighting programs. Every Christian, regardless of their political affiliation, is called to take up the cause of the poor and the needy because that is God’s heart, and we will be calling every legislator who says they are a Christian or person of conscience to listen to God’s heart as they make their decisions.
10. Because, ultimately, this is a fast before God, to whom we turn in prayer and hope to change hearts — our hearts, the heart of our lawmakers, the heart of the nation. We will pray and fast, each of us in our own ways, for mercy, compassion, wisdom, strength, and courage as we make the critical budget choices about who and what are most important. A line has been crossed in this budget debate; extreme budget cuts are now being proposed and this fast is a spiritual escalation to bring these critical moral choices to the attention of the nation, and to seek God’s help in doing so. “Is not this the fast that I choose,” says the prophet Isaiah, “to loose bonds of injustice … to let the oppressed go free?”

You can keep up with the conversation and with the details of proposed cuts and how they will affect the poorest of the poor on God’s Politics blog as well as on this blog.

Yes, We Have Been Here Before

Years ago, that great philosopher, Yogi Berra, Catcher for the New York Yankees uttered those memorable words, “De je vu all over again.”  More recently another great philosopher and theologian, Jimmy Buffett put it into English for us: “yes, we have been here before.” 

As I continued my post retirement “friend re-connection journey earlier this month, I had one of those “De je vu all over again,” “yes we have been here before” experiences.  On Ash Wednesday, I left New Orleans headed west.  I spent several days in Beaumont, Texas where Lynn and I lived for a time while I was rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.  While living in Beaumont, we made many friends, (the church had over one thousand members), and maybe an enemy or two.  My purpose in going back was to visit some of these old friends (golden friends) and reconnect with a very important part of my life and with some of the people who brought and meaning to life.  I ran out of time before I saw all of those friends, but I did visit with many of them. It was exciting to catch up with their lives and to see their children who are now five years older.

Seeing second graders who are now seventh graders and eighth graders who are now freshmen in college and seniors who are now married truly made my head spin.  How wonderful and what a blessing to see young people whom I had influenced, grown up and making the world a better place for those around them.

I also worshiped at St. Stephen’s church, where many of my old friends from St. Mark’s are now members and was amazed at their involvement in making their new church a place of welcome and hospitality.  The lay preacher, Elizabeth, had been in a Bible Study which I helped lead, the deacon, Pat, was a woman who had worked for me at St. Mark’s and the new senior warden, Melanie,  had been a very good friend at St. Mark’s.  One of my co-leaders in the Bible Study at St. Mark’s, Kathy, was the Eucharistic Minister that Sunday.  “De je vu all over again!”  When we leave a town and our friends, we often wonder how things will turn out when we are no longer in a person’s life.  It is exciting to see friends who have taken their God given gifts and what little influence I may have had on their lives and done wonders for the Kingdom of God.

One of the joys for a priest is to multiply his or her influence by helping others discern their calling from God, either to ordained or lay ministry.  At a party put together by a group of friends there were three people who had spent several months in discernment during my time at St. Mark’s.  Two of the three, Pat and Tracie, had become ordained deacons and the third, John,  a bi-vocational priest.  All three have “day jobs” but give their free time to the church for the building up of the Kingdom of God.  We will never know the influence they have had on the people of Beaumont over the past five years, but I can guarantee you that Beaumont and the world are better places because of their life and ministry.

The lesson for me and I hope for you is that God calls each of us to love God and our neighbors and that the influence we have in the name of Christ will continue after we move on in both time and space.  Perhaps this is what theologians mean we they talk about “world without end, Amen.”

Blessings,

Ben

Re-Discovering Jesus and the Kingdom of God

When Jesus walked the earth, he continued to preach and teach about the kingdom of God.  Even in one of his most famous sermons, the one we call “the sermon on the mount.”  “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33-34).  For many Christians today the assumption is that this is all about a way to be rescued from this earth and brought together in God’s nearer presence in heaven.  While heaven is certainly a part of God’s Kingdom, I have come to believe that what Jesus is referring to as “the Kingdom of God begins and continues in this life in this world that we call home.

I believe that the kingdom of God has everything to do with God’s presence in the pain and suffering of this world, as well as in its joys and its celebrations.  I believe that we see this kingdom most in the teachings and actions of Jesus in this world, summed up best in the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Our father in heaven, hollowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.  Save us from the time of trial and protect us from evil.”(Matthew 6:9-13)

I believe that Jesus came not just to get us to heaven, or even to start a new religion, but rather, to start a political, social, religious, artistic, economic, intellectual, and spiritual revolution that would give birth to a new world.

“What if the message of Jesus has practical implications for such issues as how we live our daily life, how we earn and spend money, how we treat people of other races and religions, and how the nations of the world conduct their foreign policy? For most of my life I have been on a journey of doubt and faith searching for the essential meaning of Jesus’ message, which I believe is true and worth knowing—that even if it overturns some of our conventional assumptions, priorities, values, and practices, a  better understanding will be worth the temporary discomfort.” (Secret Message of Jesus, Brian McLaren). 

Along this journey I have become convenienced that Jesus’ message is personal but not private.  That it has everything to do with public matters in general and politics in particular.  Just the fact that Jesus was called Lord, just as Caesar was called Lord makes this a political and not a religious statement.  Jesus’ first sermon in his hometown synagogue (which turned out to be a complete failure) in which he lays out his message pretty clearly tells us how Jesus sees the Kingdom of God.  “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. . . . Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”(Luke 4:18-19, 21) 

This is the kingdom I believe we as Christians are called to look for today.  This is the journey I believe Jesus has called us to be a part of today.  This is an invitation from Jesus “to seek first God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness and everything else we need, will be given to us.”  It is Jesus’ reminder to focus on how we treat others, how we treat God, how we go beyond superficial words to substantive action.  As Jesus reminds his disciples at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, “everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on a rock.” (Matthew 7:24-25).

I leave you with a question: What would happen in our world if increasing numbers of us were to practice living this way.  What would happen in our individual lives and what would happen in the life of our nation if we did not just hear Jesus’ words, if we did not simply say Lord, Lord!, but rather heard His words and acted on them?

Blessings and Peace,

Ben

Final Sermon and Challenge to Trinity Episcopal Church, Wetumpka, Alabama

Epiphany 7, Feb. 20, 2011

No Love, No Nothing

O Lord, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Amen.

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23: According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, & someone else is building on it. Each builder must choose with care how to build on it. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one that has been laid; that foundation is Jesus Christ.

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person.  For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.

Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written,

"He catches the wise in their craftiness," and again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile." So let no one boast about human leaders. For all things are yours, whether

Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future--

all belong to you, and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

Last week we reflected on the 13^th century Russian Icon of the Trinity and its implications for Christian hospitality.  I would like to pick up today where we left off last Sunday.  I believe it is the church’s task to show hospitality to the world.  

“Welcome one anothe just as Christ has welcomed you,” St. Paul exhorts us (Rm 15:7).  We must welcome one another with the same mercy and unconditional acceptance that we have received.  This is our timeless mission, to invite All people to feast on the infinite generosity of God.

          An African-American spiritual sings of sitting at the Welcome Table: “I’m gonna sit at the welcome table. I gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days, hallelujah!  All God’s children gonna sit together…one of these days.”  Springing from the vision of God’s inclusive grace in Christ, this old spiritual invites us to radical hospitality.  
The Altar of this church—and of all churches—is the welcome table, where the bread of life is shared and where all are meant to find the unconditional welcome of God.’

          “A Chinese blessing/curse states: May you live in interesting times.” Certainly the world and America and the Episcopal Church have received both the blessing and the curse of this statement in the past few years:  9/11 and global terrorism, wars and rumors of wars, Katrina, the Haitian earthquake, severe economic swings and a Great Recession, and, of course, the on-going debate aboutsexual ethics in th Episcopal Church, in fact in all churches.  Interesting times, indeed.”

Through all of these challenges and changes in our lives and in our church, we, at our best, have kept our focus on worship and mission.  It has not been easy, but we have largely kept our balance and maintained “the unity of Spirit in the bond of peace that joins us together.”

During these years together we have strengthened our Sunday School Program for all ages, we have brought together one of the best youth groups in the diocese and hosted a Happening Weekend for High School youth.  We have staffed Summer Camp and lead Christmas Conference.  We have built a New Nave and Sanctuary and we have grown by 25%. 

Unfortunately, the financing of our ministry has remained static and our outreach ministry both locally and through our giving to the diocese has been reduced.  One of my prayers for Trinity is that your giving will grow in proportion to your commitment to our Lord’s ministry and that outreach ministry will grow to 25% and more of your time and money.  It was Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple who said that “the church is the only organization in the world that exists primarily for those who are not members. It is important for us to remember that at Trinity,  the Gospel has been preached, lives have been transformed by the love of Christ, and God has been joyfully worshipped and faithfully served.

Looking to the future, I believe that Trinity is well positioned to take in stride the diversity of our wonderful Episcopal Church.  Change is inevitable and being in communion is always far more important than being in agreement about everything.  We will inevitably have different views on issues such as committed same sex relationships.  We will not always be in step with one another.  This is the nature of the church.  As the old hymn states, “there’s a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea.”

Another one of my prayers for Trinity is that in these often fractious times we must not succumb to the seduction of polarization that seems to be the standard of our day.  At the Welcome Table of our Christian faith there is room for different points of view as expressed in our creeds and prayer book.  It is my hope that Trinity will continue to be a place of welcome for “all sorts and conditions of people in God’s varied family and a beacon of unity in the midst of diversity and of balance in an age of extremism.  God needs all of us together.

          Even though hospitality is natural for we southerners, we know that Gospel Hospitality is much more radical, even than our Southern Hospitality.  Jesus’ hospitality extended not just to his friends but to the sinners and outcasts of his day.  He shared table fellowship with those on the margins and those considered unrighteous.  He spoke about the feasts of God’s kingdom where everyone was welcome.  Remember the Wedding at Cana and the Prodigal Son, and the wedding guests from the highways and byways.  Jesus said, “love your enemies,” as well as “love one another”(which sometimes can be more difficult than loving our enemies!). 

On the cross we beheld his life-transforming love as he stretched out his loving arms to all, even those who crucified and rejected him.  The cross is God’s ultimate hospitality, a saving embrace of mercy and loving kindness to the whole world.  Perhaps Desmond Tutu, retired Archbishop of South Africa said it best:

There is a movement at the heart of things to reverse the awful centrifugal force of alienation, brokenness, division, hostility and disharmony.  God has set in motion a centripetal process, a moving toward the Center, towards unity, harmony, goodness, peace and justice; one that removes barriers.  Jesus says, ‘when I am lifted up from the earth I will draw everyone to myself; as he hangs from his cross with out-flung arms, thrown out to clasp all, everyone and everything in a cosmic embrace; so that everyone, everything belongs.  None is an outsider, all are insiders, and all belong in one family, God’s family, the human family.

“You Have Heard It Said, But I Say”

Often we as Christians get caught up in the same struggles and, dare I say sins, as everyone else in the world.  We, like others, are also good at rationalizing and justifying our sins and our actions.  I have even heard myself, and others, say, “well, that may be true, but at least I haven’t murdered anybody.”  This is, in fact, a good thing, BUT, Jesus calls us to a higher standard!  When I feel angry at others or jealous of others, I often turn back to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount” for Guidance.  Here is what Jesus calls us to in our relationships with others.

"You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, `You shall not murder'; and `whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.' But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, `You fool,' you will be liable to the hell of fire. So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:21ff)

“First be reconciled to your brother or sister,” and then be reconciled with God.  This is one of the hard sayings of Jesus.  Sometimes those who are closest to us really get under our skin, and if we are honest, we get under theirs.”  We disagree about how to raise our children, or politics, or how we understand the Bible and whose understanding of God is better, and many other things.  It is important for us to know that Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbor as our selves does not require us to agree on everything, it simply requires that we love one another as God loves us. 

As members of the Body of Christ, the Church, God calls us to continually forgive and be forgiven.  Being forgiven may be the most difficult part of the equation because it requires us to first admit that we have hurt another human being.  Once we have forgiven a brother or sister, or been forgiven, it may still take time for reconciliation to take place and sometimes, we may never be reconciled to the other.  Even when reconciliation is not possible, the act of forgiveness liberates us to return to the “household of God,” and move forward into the future of God.  Jesus reminds us in the scriptures that He “came into the world that we might have abundant life.  The gift of forgiveness is an important part of this abundant life.

The writer of the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy records God’s message to us this way. “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days." Deuteronomy 30:15-20

Blessings and Peace

Ben

If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans

As human beings, particularly American human beings, we have been taught that we have total control over our lives; that we can be anything we want to be; that if we set goals and work hard enough to accomplish those goals, no one can stop us.  I am here to tell you that what control we seem to have is mostly the illusion of control.  At least this has been the case in my life.  Today I want to share with you a way to acknowledge that God actually has that control in the first place and that he will give us the control, wisdom, knowledge and courage we need to order our priorities and live into God’s will, and thus, have all the control we need.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?  And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?” For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.   But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew6:25-34).

You see, whatever control we do have comes when we order our priorities with God’s priorities.  When we seek God’s Kingdom and God’s righteousness, then God is in control and we can see the order that our life can take. Then all those other things that we need: food, clothing, shelter, friends, family and love, and meaningful work and meaningful relationships will flow from the abundance of God. 

This does not mean we do not have to work for them or prepare ourselves to be ready to receive them, it simply means that God’s priorities become our priorities and that we are then able to receive through the Holy Spirit, the vision of our call and the wisdom, knowledge, courage and strength to do God’s will.

When we look at life in this way, the lack of total control ceases to be a problem and becomes an opportunity for us to become co-creators with God.

Blessings and Peace,

Ben Alford

Make New Friends but Keep the Old

Strength for the Journey

March 16, 2011

Friends are God’s Greatest Gift

“Make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold.”  My wife, Lynn, and I taught this rhyme to our son Seth when we were young and moving on a fairly regular basis.  My profession as a Boy Scout professional as well as our move to seminary and career change to the Episcopal priesthood, kept us on the move.  Seth, in his first eight years of life lived in eight different places.  We hoped this rhyme when the continual losing and adding of friends.

As it turns out, it not only helped him grow up with an appreciation of friends and friendship, it helped us, his parents remember and re-learn this lesson as well.  Again, “make new friends, but keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold.”

When I retired two weeks ago yesterday, I asked myself the television question, “now that you have retired, what are you going to do.” Instead of the typical “I am going to Disney World” answer, my answer was, “I am going to Mardi Gras in New Orleans.”  The reason: first I love Mardi Gras and how ready it makes one for Lent; secondly, having lived in “The Big Easy” for sixteen years, I have a lot of those “gold friends” there. 

While in New Orleans I spent time with many of those friends, many of whom I had “married” or baptized, or both.  I saw “babies” I had baptized who are now twelve and fourteen and sixteen years old.  I spent time with their parents, many of whom came to our church to be married and never left.  Many other wonderful things happened while in the Crescent City, and many golden relationships were renewed. One of these stories touched my heart in such a way that I want to share it with you.  Friend, Carols Zervigon, one of the first people I met when I moved to New Orleans in 1987 had died suddenly in December of last year.  I was saddened at his death and that I had not been able to attend his funeral.  Friends Karen Mackey and Mitch Bourque found out that the marching Krewe of “Kosmic Debris,” with which Carlos had paraded for thirty years was going to end their Mardi Gras parade by scattering his ashes in the Mississippi River. 

Karen, Mitch and I “joined” Kosmic Debris, put on costumes and walked with them, behind the brass band, through the French Quarter to the Moon Walk, where retired Bishop, Joe Doss, said a prayer, poured the ashes into the river and then as if to remind us that God’s gift of friendship goes on forever, performed a betrothal ceremony for a young couple, new friends, as they were beginning their new life together.

As the writer of the Gospel of John says at the end of his book, “if all the stories about Jesus were put together, this book could not contain them.”  The same is true of the stories of God’s gift of friendship.  This column cannot contain them.  So, stay tuned.  I just bet more will appear, not only from New Orleans, but from Beaumont, Texas and Bunkie, Louisiana, and the many other places God has blessed me by giving me friends, new and old, silver and Gold.

Blessings,

Ben Alford

Change, an Invitation to Life, a New Begining

As I "retire" and leave the parish ministry of the Episcopal Church, I have taken this opportunity to begin a new blog that will focus on the intersection of faith and life and the changes that this interaction always brings about.  I have always believed that with every ending comes a new beginning and an invitation to a new and renewed life.

In this blog I plan to keep abreast of the changes and challenges in our political, economic and religious life and reflect on the meaning of these. I also invite you to follow this blog and share your reflections as well.  It is always in the interaction of people and ideas, of joys and sorrows, of struggle and resolution that hope and new life appear. 

I invite you to join me in this conversation with one another and with all that is around us: visible and invisible, known and unknown as together we learn to live faithfully and think critically.  For those of us who are Christians, Jesus reminds us that he came into the world so that we might have life in all its fullness.  Not a bad gift to all of us.

Peace,
Ben