Learning to love the questions

I am appreciating the deep and wide discussion going on over at "On Faith" about atheism. Though I was raised in a fairly religious family I attended a liberal arts college where expressions of faith were rare and most often viewed with concern. I miss the regular late night discussions full of passion, humor and dare I say love (agape).

Fortunately, I have been blessed with friends old and young, religious and not who also "love the questions" as the poet Rainer Rilke says in Letters to a Young Poet. I know that God is present in the midst of those discussions. At best the Episcopal Church is a community where people (those who are sure and those who are doubting) may find a place to discover the gifts of faith and community. Where the big and small questions are respected and truth is pursued with humbleness.

Here's what I had to say about Katharine Jefferts Schori's post at "On Faith".

Thank you Bishop Schori for articulating a strong yet respectful way of bridging the gap between believer and atheist. I am particularly grateful for this sentence,

"People of faith understand compassion to be rooted in God, but that understanding is not necessary to its expression in caring for one’s neighbor."

So often those who reject religious faith do so because of the hypocrisy and arrogance displayed by adherents. Rather than bashing nonbelievers, our focus as people of faith ought to be on being (and bringing) good news to the poor by living lives of compassionate service, justice and mercy. For too many the old hymn, "they will know we are Christians by our love" fails to describe nonbelievers experience of many Christians. As the Hebrew prophet Micah said of what the Lord requires "do justice, love kindness...walk humbly with your God." My close friends who question rigorously the existence of God are passionate about justice, are kind, gentle and humble in their living of the questions. May we Christians learn from all those (religious or not) who embody compassion.

Words & Witness in Bethlehem

While on a pilgrimage to the town where Jesus is believed to have been born, the Archbishop of Canterbury said some important words. For more on the wall the Archbishop is describing click here.

The Archbishop of Canterbury's Remarks at the International Peace Center in Bethlehem
Anglican Communion News Service
December 21, 2006

Your excellencies, dear brothers and sisters we are I think a little overwhelmed by the welcome that we have received here. And although we are used, we have visited here before to be welcomed with this generosity today has been exceptional.

We are indeed here to say to the people of Bethlehem they are not forgotten. We are here to say that what affects you affects us. We are here to say that your suffering is ours also - in prayer and in thought and in hope. We are here to say, in this so troubled, complex land, that justice and security is never something which one person claims at the expense of another or one community at the expense of another. We are here to say that security for one is security for all. For one to live under threat, whether of occupation, or of terror, is a problem for all, and a pain for all.

The wall which we walked through a little while ago is a sign not simply of a sign of a passing problem in the politics of one region; it is sign of some of the things that are most deeply wrong in the human heart itself. That terrible fear of the other and the stranger which keeps all of us in one another kind of prison.

In one of the hymns which we sing in English during the Advent season we sing about Jesus Christ as the One who comes the prison bars to break. And it is our prayer and our hope for all of you that the prison of poverty and disadvantage, and the prison of fear and anxiety will alike be broken. We are here on pilgrimage because we trust that 2000 years ago an event took place here which assured us that these prisons could be broken, broken by the act of a God in whose sight all are equally precious: Palestinian, Israeli, Jewish, Christian and Moslem. A God for whom all lives are so equally precious that the death of any one is an affront to all. That is why we are here.

We are not here to visit an ancient and interesting site. We are not here to visit a museum and we are not here to visit a theme park. We are here to visit a place and people whose very existence speaks of the freedom of God to set human beings free. That is a truth which remains day after day, year after year, millennium after millennium. It is that good news that has driven us here. It is that good news which has teaches us not to despair even in the terrible circumstances in which so many of you now live.

Thank you once again for what you have done to make us feel at home here. We who are now fellow citizens with you here in this place. Pray for us in the western world, for us in England, that our faith may be strengthened by yours. That you are a gift –- remember -- to us. Unlike the wise men who came from the East 2000 years ago, we not very wise men from the West have not come to pour out our gifts. We have come to receive the witness of your faith, your endurance and your hope. To receive the gifts of God from you. So pray for us. Pray that we may be strong. Pray that we may be loyal friends to you and to all the peoples of this land and we shall pray for you also.


For more on the Archbishop's visit click here.

-- Canon James M. Rosenthal is director of communication at the Anglican Communion Office in London, from which the Anglican Communion News Service (ACNS) is published. He wishes all a "Merry Christmas from Bethlehem."

Sweet Christmas Music

There's been a lot of change in my life recently --- a new job, new city, new coast. So this Christmas, as something familiar, I'm playing an album that brought me joy and comfort at Christmas last year --- The McGarrigle Christmas Hour. My favorite is Rufus Wainwright's "Spotlight on Christmas" and his sister and mother's cover of Jackson Browne's "Rebel Jesus".

Here are the lyrics to Rufus' Christmas song:

People love the working man
Who does the best that he can
But don't forget all the horses and toys
Never could fix the poor little rich boys
People say they love the maid
Who sweats and toils just like a slave
But don't forget all the diamonds and pearls
Never could fix the poor little rich girls

You can measure it in blood
You can measure it in mud
Let us say for these twelve days
Put the measuring away

Cause it's Christmas
And the spotlight's shining on Christmas
And the spotlight's shining on us

People love and people hate
People go and people wait
But, don't forget Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
Once were a family poor but rich in hope, yeah
Don't forget Jesus, Mary, and Joseph
Running from the law, King Herod had imposeth
And they were each one quite odd
And mensch, a virgin, and a God
But don't forget that what kept them aflow
Floating through the desert doesnt take a boat no
Don't forget that what kept them above
Is unconditional love

And, you can measure it in blood
You can measure it in mud
Let us say for these twelve days
Put the measuring away

Cause it's Christmas
And the spotlight's shining on Christmas
And the spotlight's shining on us
And the spotlight's shining on Christmas
And the spotlight's shining on

People love the working man
Who does the best that he can
But, don't forget all the horses and toys
Never could fix the poor little rich boys

You can also watch Rufus singing this on YouTube.

Episcolypse Now

Jon Stewart mentioned the Episcopal Church recently on the Daily Show. Sad but funny. Check it out.