A Prayer for Hard Times

Our Father which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

Amen.

I'd like to consider for a moment Matthew 6:9-13, commonly known as the Lord's Prayer.

It is a “pattern prayer,” taught by our Lord as a pattern of the priorities which we should have when we pray, the things we should all be wanting when we ask. It was given under circumstances remarkably like those we face today. In giving this prayer the Lord was addressing a group of people who held an otherworldly hope of a coming age in which righteousness dwells. This group of people, while large in terms of absolute numbers, was yet a very small percentage of the total Jewish population of Palestine at the time. They lived in a world dominated by corrupt and self-serving elites, from the rulers and agents of the Roman Empire to the self-seeking leaders of the Jewish political/religious class (Pharisees, Saducees, Herodians, tax-collectors) who had sprung up to accommodate the Roman occupiers and conquerors of Palestine. The members of these elites used their power to devour the poor and powerless who were under their reign. The Lord's Prayer was a prayer for hard times, given to people living in hard times.

Therefore it is a good prayer for today, a day in which those Christians who seek to conduct themselves as strangers and exiles on the earth must live in the shadow of a corrupt, dominating, exploitative global system – a system which has invaded every area of common life, including the religious/evangelical institutional realm. In considering this prayer, I think it may be helpful to study each of its clauses and ask what it is we are really praying for when we recite each of its requests.

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Yes, Lord, teach us reverence. Our society has so corrupted us that we mock everything and consider everything a joke. Teach us to appreciate those things that are worthy of honor, to give reverence where reverence is due. Above all, may this world learn to hallow Your Name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

May righteousness reign on earth. Lord, You see the injustices perpetrated by the powerful against the poor, and how it seems that the powerful will never be brought to any earthly justice. Lord, behold the wars started on the basis of lies, in order that rich, powerful elites may steal the resources of other countries. Lord, behold the exploitation of the poor by the rich, the unjust imprisonment and enslavement of the poor by the rich, the swaying and corrupting of earthly governments by the rich, the destruction of the earth in order to satisfy the appetites of the rich. Thy Kingdom come. Bring in a day of judgment and justice in which these evils will be righteously and swiftly stopped. And prepare us for that day by turning us away from unjust deeds in our own lives. Maranatha.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Yes, Lord, we repent of asking to be rich, of asking to be spoiled, of living as materialists, of overconsumption. We simply ask for our daily bread, our needful bread for the coming day – knowing that in the days now upon us the answering of this prayer must rightly be regarded as a miracle, for which we will give thanks.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

Lord, we know that hard times will bring out the worst in many people. May we be part of the solution and not part of the problem. Deliver us from vindictiveness.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Lord, in the coming times, may we behave honorably. May we not face a temptation so severe that we would compromise ourselves or deny You by our words and actions.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Remind us in the coming days that no matter what happens, You are still enthroned in Heaven. We acknowledge that You are still in command.

Thoughts, anyone?

People I Meet (And Run From) In My Dreams

One thing about enduring interesting times is that a person who does so spends a long time afterward processing what happened to him. That processing tends to show up at night, in the things that go through a guy's head during R.E.M. sleep.

So it is with me. It's been over five years since the last time I attended the abusive church I described in my blog, TH in SoC. For the first several months afterward, I very regularly had dreams about some of the more difficult people in the group (that includes almost all of the leaders, by the way), people that were a royal pain in the ... uh, neck to me. Most of that time I was quite angry. It finally occurred to me that I should do things to distract myself from rehashing the things I'd had to put up with during my involvement in the group.

During that time God providentially arranged for me to be assigned to a long-term consulting engineering contract in downtown Los Angeles, so I had to ride the Metrolink every day (expenses paid by my company, of course), which I had never done before. It was a welcome change of scenery and I encountered loads of new faces and new situations. During that time I also took a night class in creative writing at a local community college. Yet there were too many mornings when I'd wake up after a night of dreams re-hashing and processing old situations and encounters with old familiar faces, and I'd wonder why I never dreamed of work or school or riding the train instead.

Thankfully, the severity and frequency of the dreams has diminished quite a bit since then. I'm not really angry anymore. And if you want to talk about a change of scenery, I now live a thousand miles away from So. Cal. Yet even here there is an occasional night when old faces and old scenes insinuate themselves into my dreams.

Maybe I should write a song about this. Jackson Browne wrote “Sleep's Dark and Silent Gate.” Billy Joel wrote “River of Dreams.” Shawn Colvin wrote “Diamond in the Rough,” which has a memorable line, “I have lost too much sleep and I'm gonna find it.” If I have another “flashback” dream, I'll write a song titled, “Hey you! Get out from under my eyelids, man!” Then I'll have a good wry laugh. Does anyone out there from a similar background find that they're still “processing” things? How do you deal with it?

* * *

I attended Saturday evening service at the local rescue mission. Afterward, I asked one of the staffers a bit about the mission and the sorts of people they are seeing as visitors. He told me that while most of those who come to the mission are over 25 years old and dealing with substance abuse problems, there are some who come because they are victims of the current American economic mess. We talked about the needs of the residents and opportunities for volunteers to help out as he handed out bed tickets to a line of waiting men and the light rail trains rumbled by in the darkness outside. As I was leaving, he invited me back and said that I was welcome anytime. I may indeed make a return visit soon.

Tomorrow, hopefully, I'm going to hook up with some bicycle riders and go on a long recreational ride. It's more fun to do it with a group than to ride by myself. The weather should be good. And I have a post in the works which I will publish soon, titled, “A Prayer for Hard Times,” a look at the Lord's Prayer found in Matthew 6.

A Faith for Hard Times

Sometimes I work too hard at writing. I wrote a little story for my most recent post on my other blog, The Well Run Dry; I intended to just bang out a cute, quirky little allegory, but I spent way too much time doing research on Wikipedia and other sites in order to provide enough detail to make it believable. This post on From SoC to Points North will take a lot less time.

First, I want to point out a very good article, “Helps to Spiritual Renewal,” written by Margaret Irons, webmaster of the Assembly Reflections website. She came out of the same abusive church from which I also escaped. Her article is at http://www.geftakysassembly.com/Articles/Recovery/HelpsToSpiritualRenewal.htm.

It seems undeniable that hard times are ahead for our world, and particularly our nation. The most helpful thing when facing hard times is to have a clear-headed, adult perspective. This is especially true for Christians, who are supposed to be a display of wisdom in the midst of hard times, instead of clinging to erroneous beliefs that lead to disappointment and harm.

I recently finished reading the book of Numbers and am now in Deuteronomy. One thing confronted me inescapably: the knowledge that God is holy and that He punished nations which turned to wickedness. This is why He told Israel to conquer the nations of Canaan. But He told them that while, if they lived according to His law – if their deeds were a reflection of His character – He would bless them, He also told them that if they too turned to wickedness, He would punish them in the same way that He punished the nations they dispossessed.

People in the “post-modern” West don't like hearing this, and they tend to get very agitated and hostile whenever the holiness of God is mentioned. Yet that holiness is a fact, as is the fact that we have all fallen short of it. The failure extends across all lines – Left and Right, rich and poor, red, yellow, black, white. The evidence of our failure is the mess we have made of our country and of the world. “Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” But God has promised to the repentant an inheritance just as He promised an inheritance to Israel. One day, His people will inherit a new earth. The future heirs of the earth are known by this sign: that they are gentle and meek – Matthew 5:5. The first element of a faith for hard times is to acknowledge that God is holy, and to humbly accept His judgments and wait on His vindication.

There is a second element. I visited the Russian church I wrote about last week. I didn't understand everything (though I had a capable translator), but one day I'll write more fully about the parts I did understand. One thing that struck me was a hymn they sang at the end of their service. They sang it a cappella, with multiple parts, in a peculiarly Russian rhythm. I have to say that it was beautiful. My translator told me that it was Psalm 121 set to music, and since I had my English Bible, I opened it to that psalm and read it while everyone else sang. I was struck by another thought: that God has promised to keep His people. He is the unfailing Keeper of His people. “The LORD will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul. The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forth, and forevermore.”

I had to ask myself whether I really believed this. It's easy to distort Biblical promises of God's care and safekeeping to mean that He will give each of us a Mercedes-Benz, a lifetime supply of gasoline, a McMansion all paid for, perfect health, and a trophy spouse. Then when things don't work out according to our greeds (as opposed to needs), we get “disillusioned.” I don't believe that God has promised an easy life to anyone. In fact, when the Bible mentions people who have an easy life, they are usually numbered among the wicked. But God wants His people to trust Him – even in the times now upon us – that He will be our Keeper. What that means, we will all find out shortly. But whatever the shape of His keeping, it will be evident in the end that He did the right thing by us.

I'm thinking of heading over to a local rescue mission tomorrow for Sunday service. I'll come bearing gifts for the offering box – not money, but things like toothpaste, toothbrushes, shaving gear and the like. (Things like clothes and underwear also go over very well.) I'll tell more about it next week.

P.S. This is slightly off topic, but today I read a major news article about several states illegally purging voters from their voter registration rolls prior to the November Presidential election. The Republican party is trying to take advantage of this to influence the election. The news article is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/09/us/politics/09voting.html?em. Please let others know about this, if you would. Fellow bloggers, let's do what we can to ensure that this election is honest. Thanks!

Perils and Promise of Christian Community

On my other blog, The Well Run Dry, I have been writing about how the present global system known as the “official economy” is breaking, and how it is necessary for those who are not rich or powerful to begin building safety nets of alternative systems. One such system that I mentioned in a recent post is cohousing as a form of communal living in which community members could provide mutual support to one another.

After I wrote that post, I started thinking to myself, “What have I just written??!” Two things came immediately to mind: the relatively smooth experiences of some members of a secular cohousing community I recently visited, and my experience with communal living many years ago while a member of an abusive, unhealthy church. It seems from reading the Lord's commands in the Sermon on the Mount and the Upper Room discourse (Matthew 5-7; John 13-17) that Christians should have no trouble living communally when necessary, and that in the midst of widespread uncertainty and economic hardship, Christians should be a model for others to imitate. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just like I have loved you; that you love one another. By this everyone will know that your are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Why then was my experience of “Christian community” so screwed up? I know the answer: I was hoodwinked into joining a fraudulent organization that was not a genuine church, but merely one man's personal empire established to exploit its members. But I found after leaving this “church” that the founder's attitude was typical of many leaders and would-be leaders in modern evangelicalism. It is an attitude that loves hierarchy and domination, and the culture of that attitude is widespread in many parts of the American church.

So I guess I have a question: can Christians associate regularly with each other in a non-hierarchical way? Could Christians form cohousing communities in which every decision was reached by mutual consensus? Or are we doomed to be forever looking for popes to rule us? Will we always be easy prey for would-be religious empire-builders? I'd like to think we can get beyond that. (By the way, I'm not protesting the Biblical prescription for leadership in the Church. But I am protesting the obsession many wanna-be leaders have for trying to establish a pecking order in every situation where Christians come together.)

I ran across a Wikipedia article describing an encouraging example of a community that seemed to get beyond that. According to the article, “Clarence Jordan was a Baptist scholar and theologian who founded Koinonia Farm, a small but influential religious community in Southwest Georgia” in 1942. Koinonia was a radical community whose members regarded each other as equals, shared possessions, and practiced ecological stewardship. They were also racially mixed, which swiftly brought them into conflict with their neighbors, including the KKK. From Koinonia Farm arose organizations like Habitat for Humanity.

Mr. Jordan is an intriguing character, and I intend to find out a bit more about his life. One other thing about him is his “Cotton Patch Gospel” translation of the New Testament from Greek into early 20^th Century American English, Southern style. Check out his translation of Matthew 21:12-13: “Then Jesus went into First Church, pitched out the whole finance committee, tore up the investment and endowment records, and scrapped the long-range expansion plans. 'My house shall be known for its commitment to God,' he shouted, 'but you have turned it into a religious racket!'” I like the sound of that!

I checked out the small elderly church I wrote about in my last post. This weekend I think I will check out a Russian church. (Imagine that – a black man visiting a Russian church. And why? Because the American church seems so vacuous!) I know how to say good morning, good afternoon, good evening and farewell in Russian, but after that I'm lost. The week after next, I may attend Sunday service at the local rescue mission. (Why there? I'll explain in another post. I'll just say for now that I think I'd be more likely to meet the Lord among poor people than at a glitzy megachurch.) After that, I'll take a Sunday off to go on a long bike ride and do some thinking and evaluating.