Something remarkable has been happening in Fresno and other cities. Businesses, community benefit organizations, government officials, faith-based organizations, pastors like me, and ordinary citizens have been rallied and have cooperated to show community support for a great cause.
In the metropolitan area of America with the greatest level of concentrated poverty, with staggering unemployment, and with profound homelessness, there is also an exceptionally strong community base of people who work together to make a difference. Fresno is that city. Walmart has offered a million dollars to the community that shows the strongest demonstration of community support. We have been working to show that.
But it has not been enough so far. The numbers are very impressive, but we have been up against some confusing rules, some automated posting software, and the clock. We need to broaden our community to include our friends around the globe.
What is in it for you and your community? A sense of mission and an opportunity to see how social media can provide a platform for your message and a means of collaboration like nothing we have ever seen before.
Churches, NPOs, businesses, watch. I don't think any of us understands the full extent of what has been happening here, but we are on tiptoe to find out. Watch the video and lend us your support.
Visit our Walmart support page on 12-31 to "Like " and spread the word! Be sure to leave a comment and let it post to your Facebook page: http://fightinghunger.walmart.com/city/Fresno-CA
The story of the Magi is the message of Jesus' coming as a break-out movement, a preview of the universality of a message that could not be contained by culture, geography, language, or even religion. God sought out strangers to come and worship the Son and is always calling us as strangers to come and become friends and family.The Emmanuel Moment is, was, and always shall be bigger than anything we think or suspect.
""I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God's hand reaching down to pick me up. I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home. I won't be here much longer. I can't do anything about it. My heart is too weak. I want to say goodbye to everyone. In the past you have generously supported me with prayer and finance and we will probably still need financial help. My plan is to be buried in a simple pine box with some flowers inside. I'd like to push back the darkness with my bravest effort. There will be funeral information posted on my website, in case some of you want to attend. We are not sure of the date when I will die. Goodbye, farewell, we will meet again.”
"“Goodbye, farewell, we'll meet again Somewhere beyond the sky. I pray that you will stay with God Goodbye, my friends, goodbye.""
"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country." - Abraham Lincoln
Discussion Questions:
Which dogmas are now inadequate and why?
What are the difficulties, the real difficulties we face?
In what ways must we think and act anew and what would that look like?
What does it mean to disenthrall ourselves?
I can tell you this, Lincoolns words, spoken today, would be no less shocking then they were in his context. New thinking, fresh each morning, is almost too big a challenge for most of us. Old dogmas, to which he refers, are never the core, unchanging truths; they are those that were adequate for their time and quite situational.
We need fresh situational thinking that is constantly reconnecting to timeless truth.
I am most moved by the call to disenthrall myself because I am not entirely sure what he meant. But I do know i must be disenthralled WITh myself and come unglued from my static self-absorption and cloistered attitudes.
I think that there is much entralling that needs to be corrected at every level and layer of the body politic (meaning all of us). Self-interests and narrow, contextualized views of the world have us looking at each other and not seeing, talking at each other, but not hearing, and seeing our opponents as enemies.
Maybe the dancers "get it" more than some of the rest of us who contemplate and pontificate.
God is inviting us to a dance and whether or not we are skilled or talented, we can join in and, as we do, He will teach us the steps.
After listening to Peter, Paul, and Mary singing, "Don't let the Light Go Out" in honor of Chanukah, I was thinking about light and oil and miracles and how we gravitate toward celebration in singing, dance, and giving.
Every spark, every glimmer, every ray of light in my life has been a miracle and a gift from God.
In my tradition and faith, we celebrate Advent and Christmas. Though they are different and unique events from Chanukah, I have always appreciated that they come at close to the same time each year. My Muslim friends have recently ended a long fast with Eid, a joyful three day celebration which includes gifts and charity.
What is this human urge to celebrate with light and laughter and generosity of spirit?
There is gravity and solemnity in much of what we do religiously, but there is also celebration and joy.
Religions are different. If I were not convinced that God had spoken and visited us in Jesus, I would be something other than a Jesus follower. I state my beliefs, humbly, as truth because I am convinced of their truth. I don't apologize for that and never expect my friends who are convinced of their beliefs to apologize for them either.
However, my conviction that I am settled on Jesus does not negate the common elements of our experience. They are present because truth is universal and because the God who fashioned us in His image is always reaching out to us and touching that something in us that makes us want to stand up and dance.
We are made for something more, something "Other," something eternal. All of us! We are all created by and for God and with a deep urge to embrace what Nehemiah called, "The joy of the Lord," and described as "your strength."
The oil in the temple was just not in ample supply for the days of dedication when the first candle was lit. Yet, there kept being enough ... enough for each day. The description of the event was and remains, "A great miracle happened there."
Our lives are miracles. The oil of joy, healing, and anointing for significance does not seem to be ample for the demands we face. Yet, each day, if we will light the candle in faith and celebration, there seems to be just enough ... and enough ... and enough for each day.
And our hearts desire is to celebrate, to give gifts, to light candles, to be charitable and jolly and gracious.
This is a God-connector. It is a sign. It is a message through us and back to us that we are loved, have been visited by the God who made us, and are invited to join the song and the dance of time and eternity.
Jesus said, "seek and ye shall find." It is an open invitation to keep our hearts open to the One who loves us. Joy, grace, giving, and gratitude are all different facets of the same diamond in my faith and language in which it was expressed.
I am not a "Dancing With the Stars" fanatic like most of America and my own household, but I do "get it." We are made to sing and to dance. It is intrinsic and one of the ways God woos us.
Back to my own faith. There were Magi. They did not practice the same faith as Jesus' family or my traditions. In fact, we might find some of their beliefs at real odds with our own - like astrology for instance. But they most likely lived in a place where the influence of the Jews had been strong and they were acquainted with Jewish scripture.
They longed for the divine moment and the appearing of One who would be worthy of their worship. The scriptures I embrace say that the Eternal One crossed the barriers of race and religion and drew them to the place where they could see and do what they longed to see and do.
I am talking about the longing we share.
We can wish each other well in this common quest and encourage the seeking. If I believe my Master, and I do, seekers find. Those who knock get doors opened. Those who ask, receive.
Why do we share some common experiences when we have such differing beliefs? Without arguing for one universal religion or watering anything down, I can say with confidence that there really is only One God and whether we describe Him correctly or incorrectly or somewhere between, that God is always reaching out to all of us to supply the oil and light the candles within us,.
To the extent that we respond to that, it ignites something within us that wants more and more and more.
So, let's dance! As you dance, you might just learn the steps and get to know the Choreographer!
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