markcovington.org

Three extraordinary events have taken place in the shadow of the horrific devastation in Haiti and it is not unlike the weeks and months after Hurricane Katrina or the Indonesian Tsunami.

First,

-       The U.S. just deployed a team of 100 Puerto Rican MDs plus their staff to Jimani
- They arrived in 3 buses + a tractor trailer
- They have taken over the 10 acre field and setup a tent hospital with 7 operating rooms
- They cleared out and reconfigured the entire Jimani medical clinic for high-thruput surgeries
- They reconfigured the entire orphanage for high-thruput surgeries
- At this point, helicopters are now bringing in large numbers of wounded and surgeries are already taking place

You can read the full story here.

Second, A group of United States missionaries including the head of UMCOR (United Methodist Committee On Relief) were rescued by a group of French workers.  You can read this story here.

Third, and I think is the most remarkable, the Cuban Government as given permission for over flight of it’s airspace by planes carrying relief supplies and personnel to Haiti, cutting at least 30 minutes off the flight time. Read about it here.

What do these three things have in common?  Let’s review.  U.S. deploying Puerto Rican Doctor’s in Costa Rica to take care of Haiti injured. French rescue Americans.  Cuba giving one of the few things they have to give and one of the things they have held tight for over 40 years.

If I recall Jesus told a story about a man on the road to Jericho.  You can read about that in Luke 10:29 ff. I also believe that love of God and love of neighbor was among the most important things he taught.

At times like this people just want to help their brothers and sister.  How wonderful would this world be if we could just bring that attitude and concept to Governments and leaders of the world.

The other day I was skating through the channels looking for something to watch.  (Isn’t it amazing that when we had three channels there was always something to watch but with 200 we can never find anything.) I stopped at some program where the people were hoarders and other people were trying to help them.  It reminded me of another time and place.

During a particularly low point in my life spiritually and mentally I entered into therapy with a man named Paul.  Little did I know at the outset that he would lead me back to the edge of sanity and the edge of spiritual health.

At one particular session he asked me a question that, at the time, seemed completely irrelevant to anything.  He asked what my spiritual house looked like.  I told him that the front was nice and neat but the back of the house was a complete mess.

During a session soon to follow Paul asked me, “If God came to your spiritual house, what would you do?”  I immediately replied that I would invite him into the living room and we would have a “sit down.”

Paul stared at me and asked me why I didn’t take him into the back part of my house where things were a complete mess.”

I sat there in stunned silence as he continued to stare at me with a little smirk on his face.

After a few minutes that seemed like eternity he quietly said: “Don’t you think God wants to go where it’s dirty and messy?”

There was nothing to further to be said, and nothing was.  I sat there stunned that I, a minister, was so screwed up.  After probably ten minutes of nothing but him sitting there with a smirk on his face, I got up and left.

Looking back however that was the start of my cleaning up my “spiritual house.”  I still don’t let God into the messy rooms sometimes though I know he knows and I know He won’t come in until invited.

The trouble comes when we learn to compartmentalize our lives.  We separate the “preacher” from the “spouse” and both of those from the back of the house where our deepest darkest secrets and sins mess up our lives. Don’t sit there and tell me you don’t do it because you know you do.

I have thought about that a great deal since.  It is true.  He came in the form of a baby born into a messy world.  He lived in the messiness of this life.  He died so that the messiness in my and your lives can be cleaned up.

Don’t compartmentalize life with God.  He doesn’t care what the house looks like.  He is there not to judge you on your messiness but to help you clean up your messiness.

Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.” When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:13-18 NRSV)

It was such a cute scene. Who can resist a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. Angels singing to him, shepherds in a field keeping watch over their flocks by night. Wise men from the east bringing him gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh and presenting their gifts at the foot of the manger. Mary gazing at her infant while Joseph kneels tenderly looking at her. The flicker of the campfire against the walls. All were snuggly warm, happy and content.

And then Matthew ruins this cute scene with this story. If it is such a cute scene why does Matthew have to go and ruin it with a story of this cute family having to run for their lives and ruin it even further by telling a story of the massacre of children? Why would he do such a thing?

I think it is because we are more influenced by the Christmas plays held in churches during this season and the nativity scenes we place on our coffee tables.

Matthew places this text in his Gospel precisely to turn our attention away from cute. I think he was concerned that we would so focus on the cute of Christmas that we would sterilize it from the reality of the scene.

You see there was little that was cute about the whole birth story.

Mary, a virgin, is pregnant and her story is that God has come to her and impregnated her. Not a cute story for sure, she probably could have come up with something better than that.

The man to whom Mary is engaged decides to put her away quietly until he too is visited by an angel. Still he should have sent her away because if she stays there he has the legal right to have her stoned to death.
The Emperor Augustus orders a census be taken. He could probably care less how many people are under his rule he just wants to know how many people he can tax. All of us know that taxes are not cute.

Mary, with her very large belly, gets on the back of a donkey to make the journey with Joseph. On the way the labor pains start. Joseph doesn’t know nothing about birthin no babies continues to push on to his ancestral home of Bethlehem.

They get there late because Mary has slowed them down so much and they find that all the hotels are full. Nothing cute about that. Someone tells them that they can stay in a cattle barn and since they have no choice and Mary’s labor pains are getting closer and closer together, they decide it will have to do. They probably had to shovel some animal leavings out the door and they lay a fresh layer of straw on the floor, then lay Mary on the straw to give birth to her child. There is no mention of a midwife in any of the stories so Mary and Joseph, mostly Mary, have to give birth on straw, on the floor of a cattle stall.

You older men are lucky. When your babies were born you got to sit in a nice sterile waiting room while your children were born. Us younger guys were “invited to watch.” Once you “watch” two things happen. You get to see your baby before your wife does, and two, you discover that it is a scene worthy of any of the best slasher movies shown at Halloween each year, there ain’t anything cute about it.

When our son was born we got to the hospital early in the morning, not sun peeking over the horizon in shades of reds and yellow as a new day bursts upon the night sky. I am talking dark morning. The dark morning that the only people on the road are the drunks trying to get home and the early morning radio disc jockeys going to work.

Garland General Hospital, Garland Texas, was our destination. When we got there they were just preparing to start moving equipment into a new OB/Gyn wing of the hospital. They had to go find a bed to put Kenda in, scrounge around for a monitor, and brought a metal “church” chair for me. Kenda was going to be the first to deliver a child in this new OB/Gyn wing of Garland Memorial Hospital. She was in labor, the pain was tremendous, she kept staring at me with eyes that looked nothing like the eyes of Mary in the Manger scene on the coffee table. They gave her an “epidural.” She went to sleep. I had to sit in a metal “church” chair, turning and squirming, while my dear wife was snoring. I wanted me one of them “epidural” thingies too.

But it was O.K. because Kenda would be the first to give birth in the brand new OB/Gyn wing of Garland Memorial Hospital in Garland Texas. Now how may people can say that.

About six hours or so into labor when “we” were progressing nicely, a woman came in who was about to have her seventh or eight child. The put her in the room across the hall. She said “Ouch” and squirted her child out. Now the one thing that had kept me going while my dear wife slept was gone and that metal “church” chair was even more uncomfortable than ever.

This was Mary’s first child. There was no “ouch” and it was over with. Mary had to endure hours of labor while Joseph looked for a pan to boil some water in. Then the baby came in a rush of liquid goo, everything under her is wet and bloody, and Joseph abandons his quest for a pan, dries the baby off, wraps him in dry cloth, and hands him to Mary. There is nothing cute here.

Then some shepherds show up. Shepherds staying out in the field had little time for personal hygiene. They were dirty and smelled like sheep, campfire smoke, and body odor, mixed. Not cute.

Then some wise men stop by Herod’s house asking if he knows anything about this “king” that is born? They don’t know, they are just following a star. He lies to them and tells them that when they find him to come back and tell him so that he too can go and worship this newborn king. Lying is never cute.

They bring their gifts to the foot of the manger. Gold, a gift for a king. Frankincense, a gift for a priest. Myrrh, a gift for one who was to die. Now that last part isn’t cute.

Herod learns he has been deceived and orders a massacre of children under a certain age. He will have no “king” born while he is king. Massacre’s are definitely not cute.

The early church didn’t want to remember the Christmas story as a “cute” story so on the 26th of December they remembered the Martyrdom of Saint Stephen. Then on the 28th they remembered the children lain by Herod.

I believe they did both those things for the same reason Matthew includes this text, they wanted to remember that it was not a “cute” event.

I believe that what Matthew does is supposed to remind us that Jesus was not born into a world of “cute” but into a dirty, nasty, hard birth, hard life, world. He does it to remind us that he was born into a world of superstition that was ruled by paranoid and ruthless kings.

I believe that Matthew included this text so we would be reminded that the Savior born in Bethlehem was born for the dirty, nasty, smelly, working man as well as the rich and elegant elite.

The nativity genealogy puts Mary in the lineage of Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheeba, and Ruth (yes, the one who snuck in to the rich Boaz’s tent at night while he was sleeping to seduce him). Jesus’ genealogy is not cute.
If you look at the story as it was we find little that was actually about the events so long ago that was cute.

I guess the closest to cute we have in the whole story is God giving up heaven for a cattle stall. God coming to earth so we can know him. God descending from on high to break into a dirty, troubled, not cute world.
Now that I think of it, that is not cute, it is a good gift from a loving God.

Our society has worked hard the last couple of decades trying to break down stereotypes of one sort or another.  In some areas we have done quite well while in others there is still work to be done.

Recently I was reminded of one of the areas where we seem to have made little change.  In the course of researching a topic for a sermon I started chasing rabbits.  What I mean by that is that sometimes I read an article that mentions another article that I go read that then mentions something else that I go look at. On a sidebar of some blog that I am sorry I don’t remember was this headline: “Perceptions of Serious Mental Illness in the Local Church.”

I have long been interested in mental illness and mental health.  At one point eons ago I ran a website called Mental Health Advocacy and Information.  Back then I spoke several times around the south on the topic of mental illness and mental health and how the church responds to it.  There wasn’t a lot of information available and few studies that referenced those topics that was available for research.  Now the internet makes researching this or any topic much easier.

When I read about this study, which was published in the Journal of Religion, Disability & Health (Vol. 12(2), 2008) I was quite unsettled at what I read.

Matthew Stanford, PhD and Kandace McAlister studied 85 people who were self identified as mentally ill Christians.  They were asked to participate in an anonymous online survey.  A call for participants was issued from several prominent Mental Illness websites.  I’ll give you the results later.

The writers of the study state that “clergy, not psychologists or other mental health professionals, are the most common source of help sought in times of psychological distress.” (Journal of Religion, Disability & Health (Vol. 12(2), 2008, page 144 ff).

Psychologist have a tendency to view clergy as mental health gatekeepers.  In this role clergy are thought to function as a referral source for psychologist, who then provided mental health services to the client. Clergy tend to have a limited knowledge of serious mental illness, usually limited to Pastoral Care courses or general reading on the subject.  Up to his point there is nothing particularly new in this study.  Most clergy are not trained, even to a working knowledge, of mental illnesses.  My undergraduate degree is in Counseling Psychology (University of Southern Mississippi, 1978).  I took the requisite courses in Seminary (Southern Methodist University, 1982) and even a few extra courses along the way.  I have read extensively on the subject.  I am not new to this.  I do “pastoral” counseling.  I know my limits also.  I am familiar with the mental health/mental illness resources in the area and will quickly refer someone to a “professional” before I get in over my head.  I can comfort someone in grief and help them make some sense out of their loss.  When it crosses the line to a major depression, I refer.  All clergy should recognize the limits of their ability in this area.  If you don’t, you can cause a lot of damage.

Now, let’s look at some numbers.  First, who participated in the study?

• 85 - Number in the study
• 68 - Number of women
• 17 - Number of men
• 39.5 - Mean age of people in the study.
• 71 - Protestant
• 14 - Catholic
• 87.1 % - Caucasian
• 89.4% - From the United States
• 43.5% - Married
• 73% - at least some college

What psychological disorders were present in the sample?

• 87.1% - Anxiety disorders
• 85.9% - Mood disorders
• 28.2% - Borderline personality disorders
• 24.7% - Eating disorders
• 15.3% - Schizophrenia and psychotic disorders
• 15.3% - Dissociative disorders
• 14.1% - Substance abuse disorders
• 8.2% - attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

How can those numbers add up to more than 100%?

• 64% - number of participants that have more than one disorder

How are these people being treated?

• 77.6% - being treated with medication, psychotherapy/counseling or both
• 22.4% - presently receiving no treatment for their illness

Here comes the numbers that disturbed me.

• 41.2% - number told by someone at their church that they did not have a mental illness even though they had been diagnosed by a mental health professional.
• 28.2% - Number who reported that someone at their church suggestedthey stop taking their medication.
• 36.5% - number who reported that someone at their church suggestedtheir mental illness was the result of personal sin.
• 34.1% - number who reported that someone at their church suggested that their mental illness was the result of demonic involvement.

These numbers are troubling for several reasons.  There is a basic misunderstanding of the origin of mental illnesses.  While I have no studies to back this up, I suspect that a far smaller percentage would suggest that a diabetic does not really have diabetes; or a diabetic should stop taking their insulin; or a diabetic is a diabetic because of personal sin; or even that a diabetic is a diabetic because of demonic involvement.

So why do we do it with mental illness?  I believe it is because we understand so little about it and clergy are not trained properly.

When asked how their church interaction had affected their personal faith, 14.7 % said it had weakened their faith while 12.6% said they were no longer involved in the faith because of this incident.

The study by Stanford and McAlister goes on to say that these “results are troubling because they suggest that an initial negative interaction with the local church may cause hurting and wounded individuals to isolate themselves from potentially beneficial support system, the religious community.”

Remember this, my friends, “. . . whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)

Crossposted: markcovington.com

Today President Obama will speak to the school children of America.  I have no problem with that as long as it remains a conversation with children and not some indoctrination speech.  As a matter of fact, I think the President SHOULD do this at least once a year.

The political right (of which I am a part) has raised its’ collective voice in indignation at the thought of THE President talking to school children.

I remember when George Bush I did it, though I don’t remember what he said.  And I remember when Ronald Reagan did it, though I don’t remember what he said either.

On both those occasions I remember the political left raising its’ collective voice in indignation at the thought of THE President talking to school children.

It is my opinion that this reveals a much larger problem than just the President speaking to school children.  It reveals both hypocrisy and arrogance. Neither of these are good traits for our political leaders to have.

When either party is in the White House the opposition lays it wait for some statement or policy that is put forward.  Then rather than attacking the statement or the policy there are cries of outrage.  In a few years the other party will be in the White House and the opposition will use the same words to express their outrage.  They always seem to forget that it was their rhetoric of just a few years ago.

For instance, the same “concerns” being leveled against President Obama were practically the same “concerns” being expressed by Democrats just a few years ago.  They have simply forgotten as will the Republicans a few years from now.

Hypocrisy is hypocrisy any way you cut it.

And, by the way, arrogance is arrogance, and Washington is full of that.

It seems to be the belief by those who have been elected public service that they are somehow the elite or the chosen ones, and they know better than the people who elected them.  They move inside the beltway and become insulated to the problems that effect their constituents back home. The problems are not the problems of those “back home” but the problems that the leadership of their party says are the problems.

Newspapers and television clamor for their words.  People line up to give them money for their re-election.  They like the job, they like the perks, they like the attention, and they will do or say what they need to say in order to get elected or re-elected.  Once their position is secure for either two or six years they forget what they said to the people who elected them and return safely to the fold of the party.

As much as I would like to lay all the blame at the feet of the politicians, I can’t.  I can’t because it is me and you that let them get away with hypocrisy and arrogance by not reminding them of what they say and not holding them accountable.  It is you and I that are as much of the problem as those inside the beltway.

Could it be that we like “our” hypocrites while disliking “their” hypocrites. That looks a lot like hypocrisy to me.

It’s how I feel about my dog.

Sometimes it takes an unusual twist on something routine to remind me that God loves everyone as much as he loves me.  Today was one of those twists.

Had I seen many of the people almost anywhere I would have tried not to stare.  Leather and denim vests with their colors boldly emblazoned on the back.  Boots and sleeveless shirts and fingerless gloves were more abundant than coats and ties.  There were more tattoos than I had seen in one room since I wandered into a biker bar years ago.  Harley Davidson, Star and other insignias were everywhere.

Sitting there in my coat and tie I somehow knew that Lynyed Skynyrd’s Free Bird would be played before the service was over.  It was.  These were his friends and they turned out to say farewell to their friend and riding companion.  It was his funeral.  He was fifty one.

I have stood in that very room at Memory Chapel Funeral Home having a funeral for a long standing church member and there was barely a dozen people there.  Yet here was a man, who the “preacher” obviously didn’t know, with between seventy five and a hundred people in attendance.

They were reverent and respectful people who, at the end of the service, walked out, mounted their bikes and lead the procession to the cemetery.

It reminded me all over again that God loves all people.  He loves people who are like me and those who are not.  He loves those who I like and those I do not.  He loves the men with pony tails and the women with short bobbed hair.  He loves the leather and the colors and the roar of motorcycle engines. And it reminded me that these are precisely the people John Wesley would have stood on a tool chest and proclaimed the Good News to.

I know that as they were riding off they were all humming Free Bird, cause this their friend, was free.

I have intentionally left street markers off the map so as not to identify either the congregations or Conference.  I have done that to save the parties involved embarrassment.

In the photo, what is the difference in property A and property B?  You could say, “They are on different streets” and you would be correct.  You could also say that one has a bigger parking lot than the other, and you would also be correct.

Now, let me rephrase the question.  “How are property A and property B the same?”  If you gave any answer other than “they are both United Methodist Churches you would be wrong.

Church “A” has been there for a long time.  It used to be a white middle class church located in a white middle class neighborhood.  Church “B” used to be somewhere else, I’m not sure where.  It was, and is, predominately black.  In 2003 property “B” was purchased and the congregation moved there, in the shadow of property “A”.

Let’s just quit pretending!  Let’s stop acting like we care about racism.  We don’t.  Oh, we do on paper.  We confess we do at Annual Conference.  We carefully select people to be on our conference and district boards to demonstrate our diversity.  But if we really did, would we have created a situation like this one?

I could possible see it if somewhere in the distant past both churches existed at those same locations, one white, one black.  If it dated back to a bygone era when we were segregated by race I would find it easier to accept.  This situation was created in 2003. Why?  Where were the leaders, both black and white, that let this happen?  Why didn’t someone stand up and say that this is unacceptable?

If we really cared about racism somebody could have, and should have, said that this was not going to happen, that we were not going to have but one church there and those who didn’t agree could find somewhere else to go. Sometimes, somebody has to stand and make hard decisions even in the face of unpopularity.

One of these churches has as a slogan: “************ United Methodist Church, consecrated October 5, 2003, is a worship community in which all
God’s children fellowship together regardless of race, color, national origin, or religious affiliation.”

Yeah, right!

Now, if anyone involved in this situation want to explain to my readers the reasons behind the decision to let this happen, or the reasons that it continues, I will be pleased to post the response here. Let me hear from you.

(The jewels found below are said to be written by actual students and are genuine, authentic, and unretouched… Compiled by Richard Lederer. They appear in the 12/31/95 issue of National Review.)

“In the first book of the Bible, Guinessis, God got tired of creating theworld, so he took the Sabbath off.

Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree.

Noah’s wife was called Joan of Ark. Noah built an ark, which the animals come on to in pears.

Lot’s wife was a pillar of salt by day, but a ball of fire by night.”

“The Jews were a proud people and throughout history they had trouble with the unsympathetic Genitals.

Samson was a strongman who let himself be led astray by a Jezebel like Delilah.

Samson slayed the Philistines with the axe of the Apostles.”

“Moses led the Hebrews to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread without any ingredients.

The Egyptians were all drowned in the dessert. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten ammendments.”

The first commandement was when Eve told Adam to eat the apple. The fifth commandment is to humor thy father and mother. The seventh commandment is thou shalt not admit adultery.”

“Moses died before he ever reached Canada. Then Joshua led the Hebrews in the battle of Geritol. The greatest miracle in the Bible is when Joshua told his son to stand still and he obeyed him.”

David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. he fought with the Finklesteins, a race of people who lived in Biblical times.

Solomon, one of David’s sons, had 300 wives and 700 porcupines.”

“When Mary heard that she was the mother of Jesus, she sang the Magna Carta.”

“When the three wise guys from the east side arrived, they found Jesus in the manager. Jesus was born because Mary had an immaculate contraption. St. John, the blacksmith, dumped water on his head.”

“Jesus enunciated the Golden Rule, which says to do one to others before they do one to you. He also explained, ‘a man doth not live by sweat alone.’”

“It was a miracle when Jesus rose from the dead and managed to get the tombstone off the entrance.”

“The people who followed the Lord were called the 12 decibels.”

“The epistles were the wives of the apostles.”

“One of the opossums was St. Matthew who was also a taximan.”

“St. Paul cavorted to Christianity. He preached holy acrimony, which is another name for marriage.”

“A Christian should have only one spouse. This is called monotony.”

Sometimes I wonder, if the truth could be known, how many people in the pews don’t have any better grasp on the Biblical story than these children do.

I believe that I learned about God the Father, not from reading the Bible or in some theology class.  I learned about God the Father, when I became one. Only then could I really relate to what God did for me.

The idea of God sacrificing his Son for me was another matter. I looked at my children and I knew that there was no way I could ever sacrifice one of them for anything.  And so I struggled but always in vain.

One of my children has had a an illness since he was fourteen years old.  It is a devastating illness that he gets better from and then it rears it’s ugly head again and off we go.  When he was first diagnosed I was distraught and in the midst of this distress I prayed, “God, give it to me and let him be well.” My request was not granted.

Then, in one of those “Oh” moments I understood that it was not God sacrificing his Son but God sacrificing himself.  I would have gladly sacrificed myself for my son, taking on this disease so that he might not have to live with it.  God sacrificed himself so I that I don’t have to live with the disease called sin.

I was reminded of this revelation a few weeks ago and I thought back to when it first occurred.  I would still take it from him if I could because I love him.  Just as God loves me.