Thoughts from something I wrote last September…
For many Christians in America the state has become their church, capitalism has become their God, and violence has become their liturgy.
This is the wrong path…
Violence as Liturgy
The best vote is not to vote
Four years ago, in the run-up to the last presidential election, Catholic philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre wrote an article called “The Only Vote Worth Casting in November.” It is rather appropriate again this year (MacIntyre’s article is here)
When offered a choice between two politically intolerable alternatives, it is important to choose neither. And when that choice is presented in rival arguments and debates that exclude from public consideration any other set of possibilities, it becomes a duty to withdraw from those arguments and debates, so as to resist the imposition of this false choice by those who have arrogated to themselves the power of framing the alternatives.
In this situation a vote cast is not only a vote for a particular candidate, it is also a vote case for a system that presents us only with unacceptable alternatives. The way to vote against the system is not to vote.
I have some more comments. Some of you might be able to guess what they are…
I am not going to say voting is wrong, but…
I kind of like D. Stephen Long’s suggestion from the recent CACE lecture – Christians should instead meet on election day for a day of fasting, prayer, worship, and Eucharist.
Anyway, more to come…
For now, your thoughts?
More Songs:Ohia
From “The Farewell Transmission”
The real truth about it is no one gets it right
The real truth about it is we’re all supposed to try
There ain’t no end to the sands I’ve been trying to cross
The real truth about it is my kind of life’s no better off
If I’ve got the maps or if I’m lost
From “I’ve Been Riding with the Ghost”
I’m trying to remember how it got so late
Why every night pain comes from a different place
Now something’s got to change
From “Just be Simple”
This whole life it’s been about
Try and try and try
And try and try and try
To be simple again
Almost Was Good Enough; Songs:Ohia – Magnolia Electric Co.
I am still interpreting this song, but I really like it:
It’s been hard doing anything
winter stuck around so long
I kept trying anyhow and I’m still trying now
just to keep working just to keep working
I remember when it didn’t use to be so hard
this used to be impossible
A new season has to begin
I can feel it leaning in whispering “Nothing’s lonely now”
Nothing anymore in pain
A tall shadow dressed how secrets always dress
when they want everyone to know that they ‘re around
leaning in whispering “my friend over there
don’t know what he’s talking about”
Did you really believe
that everyone makes it out?
Almost no one makes it out
I’m going to use that street to hide
from that human doubt
to hide from what was shining
and has finally burned us out
But if no one makes it out
How come you’re talking to one right now
for once almost was good enough
Call me a heretic if you will…
Without undermining the liturgy I think we should amend it this week and add…
“All of our snow…We send to the cross of Christ.”
Will spring ever come?
“The Bunny told me to do it…” (just a little fun)
I pledge allegiance to the Bunny…
The Bunny told me that we should start another war…
I am so glad that Easter came and the Bunny came back to life…
I wonder if the Bunny would be a good Vice President…
CHRIST IS RISEN…ALLELUIA! ALLELUIA!
Christ Jesus our Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer, has Risen from the dead – just as he promised!!!!
The darkness and silence of the tomb could not hold him. Darkness cannot hold us.
The darkness and despair of Holy Saturday was not the end of the story. It is not our story.
The loneliness and abandonment his followers felt was unfounded. We are not alone.
For the tomb is empty – Jesus is no longer there – He has risen from the dead. Alleluia!! Alleluia!!
Easter Sunday has finally come. Lent and Holy Tridium are over – Praise be to God. Our Savior is ALIVE. Light has returned.
We waited patiently, though anxiously, in the dark of the night. But light and joy break with the morning. Jesus has defeated sin, suffering, and Satan. Evil is vanquished. Jesus has won.
We sent our problems, our difficulties, our worries, our sorrow, our despair, and our sin to the cross on Friday. Jesus took them on himself as he died. They went with him to the tomb on Saturday. But today he has left them there. We are free. We can have joy. We can set all our hopes and dreams on the risen Christ.
We can now have new life. May we all now live in the joy of the Resurrection. Sunday has indeed come for all of us. A true Sunday. The darkness of Holy Saturday and Lent is behind us. The new day is here. May we believe it, and experience it, radically today and every day. Praise be to God. Thanks be to God. Praise be to God. He is risen…He is risen indeed, Alleluia…
JESUS HAS RISEN FROM THE DEAD!! ALLELUIA!! ALLELUIA!!
The Darkest Time of the Year
The feet have been washed. The bread and the wine have been eaten. Jesus has been taken away…
Tomorrow is Friday – the day in the church calendar when the church remembers the crucifixion of Jesus. I wonder if sometimes we fail to really grasp the meaning of Good Friday. After all, we know the end of the story. We know that even though today we celebrate the death of Jesus in just a few days we will gather to celebrate his resurrection. However, over the past few years I have tried, on Good Friday, and this year more so, to put myself in the place of Jesus’ followers. If you do that it drastically changes your perspective.
How would you respond to the death of Jesus if you did not know he rose again? How would you feel if your leader and friend, one that you followed around for three years – you saw him heal the sick and raise the dead. You heard him teach. You watched him challenge the Pharisees, Herod, and Pilate. You heard Peter confess, “You are the Christ, the Son of God…” You experienced his love – a love such that you have never felt before. You thought he was the new Messiah, the new King. And now he is dead and buried. And you have fled with the others…
You thought you could have faith in Jesus, but now it seems he has failed you…
Can we even begin to place ourselves in this situation? Can we even now begin to experience the darkness of Friday? Is it really “good” if you know only Friday, and do not, at the same time, know Sunday? Do we, even though we have “Sunday” really know Sunday? Or are our lives stuck in a perpetual Lent…A Lent waiting on the joy of Sunday?
The preacher says, “Friday’s here…but Sunday’s coming…” Maybe Sunday is coming soon, and maybe for some people it has already come, and of course in a couple days we will celebrate Easter and the Resurrection, but now we feel stuck on Friday, or even more trapped in Saturday.
Soon we will also remember Holy Saturday. The dark day of the Christian year – a day of silence and mourning. A full day without the presence of Jesus. A day of darkness and despair. A day when the death of Jesus has finally become real. The feelings of Holy Saturday are feelings that many experience for most of their lives. They are feelings many will return too after Easter Sunday. They are, after all, the feelings of this life.
For many “Saturday” is where we are. We remember the resurrection, and even on Sunday will joyfully sing, “Christ the Lord has risen today, Hallelujah…” But it probably won’t change anything. In many ways, it doesn’t seem true for us. We try, and sneak into the joy of Sunday, but something keeps pulling us back to Saturday. Our Hallelujah is cold and it is broken. It is a Hallelujah that hopes, not a Hallelujah that believes.
In Real Presences, the literary critic George Steiner writes of this broken Hallelujah, of this hope and this longing, of this life lived in some sort of sorrow…It is “a long day’s journey of the Saturday. Between suffering, aloneness, unutterable waste on the one hand and the dream of liberation, or rebirth on the other.” Saturday is the in-between day. A day when Jesus is gone and buried, but has yet to rise again. The day when the disciples thought it was hopeless, that it was over. It is a day where it almost seems that again he has failed us. He has left us singing a broken song to an empty cross to a dead, and failed, god, and not a joyful anthem at an empty tomb to a risen Savior.
But even in the darkness of our Saturday, a small light shines forth from afar…Though it is small it is a light of joy…A light of hopes fulfilled…A light that will make our Hallelujah one that believes…It is the light of Sunday. However far away it may be we are able to glimpse it. It is a light we are drawn too. A light that keeps us going, and makes everything meaningful. That shines through despair and sorrow to joy.
So even now, as we are stuck in Lent we can know that one day Sunday will come. I pray that this Easter will be the day when suffering and sorrow will break. That we will send our problems and concerns to the cross on Friday, that Christ would take them to the grave on Saturday, and leave them there on Sunday. I pray that Sunday will really and truly come for all of us.
But maybe Sunday will not be “Sunday” for us. Maybe Easter will only be a small glimmer of light. Maybe this year all Easter will do is rekindle the hope that Saturday is trying to kill. It will give us the strength to go on for a little bit longer. But maybe that is all that we need in order to continue singing, even if the song is cold and broken. Because even broken praises are beautiful to the ears of a God that loves us. He is the God of the broken and the weary. He yearns for us to be whole. May we all be willing and humble enough to accept the healing when it comes.
Forty Weight (The Violet Burning)
Oh God be merciful to me
Lift me from the earth and cover me
I wait for you.
Lord, my cup is empty
Won’t You come now and fill me up
Oh, my Lord
I love Your ways
I lift my heart
I sing Your praise
I wait for You
I wait for You
Lord, my cup is empty
Won’t You come now and fill me up
Your love is forever
And Your mercy is forever
Your love is higher than the heavens
I reach up, I reach up
I wait for You to hear me
Won’t You come just a little bit closer
Your love is deeper than the oceans
I go down, I still breathe
And wait for You to fill me up
Fill me up
Won’t You come now and fill me up.
Come just a little bit closer
I will wait for You
