Is it Just Me?

      Every once in a while I come across a picture or image that makes me stop and wonder.  Here's one that made me stop and wonder what the architects of this church were thinking.  Do you see what I see?

    Is this church designed to look like a chicken or am I seeing things?  I suppose it was visible only from a certain angle and I suppose it looked great on paper, but you have to wonder if they don't just refer to themselves as "The Chicken Church."

What Would Martha Mullen Do?

I can't believe how behind the curve I am on this blog.  My apologies.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar, are accused of planting two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The April 15 explosions killed three people and wounded more than 250. They're also accused of killing an MIT police officer on April 18 and of engaging in a gunbattle with police the next day. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died from injuries he sustained during that firefight. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured later that day. He's been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.

As this newspaper account puts it so succinctly, we know many of the details about the Boston bombings.  The newspapers have also reported how difficult it has been to find a funeral home and cemetery willing to receive Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s body and inter it. There were those who hoped that body would be shipped back to Russia, those who hoped that it would be left to rot, and those who were afraid having the body of this widely hated man in their cemetery or community would create a backlash or acts of vandalism against them.

Enter Martha Mullen of Richmond, Virginia who was troubled by all the threats, bullying, and anger surrounding what to do with the bomber’s body.  Wes White, in Sunday’s Joys and Concerns, made me aware of this rather ordinary woman’s rather extraordinary act of moral faithfulness.

Mullen told NPR reporters: "I was listening to NPR and I heard the story ... that he was unable to be buried and that people are protesting him. And it made me think of Jesus' words: Love your enemies.”  Mullen then emailed the Greater Richmond Islamic Society and other related organizations and became instrumental in getting Tsarnaev’s body quietly buried in her state.

         Mullen is someone who knew that in helping facilitate the burial of this generally reviled and hated man she would come in for her fair share of ‘criticism.’  And from what I can gather, that is putting it mildly.  All Mullen did was take Jesus seriously when he calls us to love our enemies, to treat others as we would want ourselves or loved ones to be treated, and face persecution for standing up for Jesus and his teachings.

    Like Wes, I was touched by this woman’s simple obedience to the call of becoming like Jesus, and her willingness to live with the consequences that come from allowing God to work through your life.  I believe that Martha Mullen thought what she thought and did what she did for no other reason than that, but it is also a powerful witness to those of us who also follow Jesus.  I sit up and think, I want to be more like Martha Mullen, I want to be that kind of Christian, I want to belong to a church that has a Martha Mullen kind of spirit.  And the reason I want to emulate Mullen is because I believe she has done a bang up job of emulating my Lord and Master.

   There is an important added bonus of Mullen’s actions.  It tells the rest of the world that not all Christians are vindictive, angry, punitive people.  I was struck by one of the commentators who responded to the newspaper article online.  He wrote:  I hear all these awful comments about hanging the body from a tree and letting it rot, or defiling it in some way. We should not stoop to the level of the bombers. We are better than that. I am an atheist, yet I seem to have more Christian charity in me than all the so called Christians who are reacting this way. Let it go. Move on. Heal.  Martha Mullen is a wonderful of Christian charity who has gone a long way to offset the bitterness and bile of folks who derive so much glee from damning others (some of which claim to do so in Jesus’ name). 

     In a time of so much religious sectarian strife and violence it’s a powerful witness to forgiveness and a convincing testimony of acceptance to be able to lift up someone like our sister from Richmond.  As a matter of fact, in today’s world, being like Martha Mullen may be the key to evangelizing a war weary generation that is looking for a third way:  not diplomacy, not armed conflict, but something deeper and more lasting—something like a peace that passes our human understanding.

Protecting Those Who Protect Us

The following is a newsletter article that was published as a quest column in the Journal and Courier.

Muzzles, Defibrillators, and Body Armor

I sat and looked at the front page of the Journal and Courier, mesmerized by the image of the first responders rushing to assist and protect those who were hurt by the bomb blasts near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  It amazed me how quickly the police, EMT, and fire fighters were able to sort through the carnage and get the most injured medical care.  It’s been a while since September 11^th and it is easy to forget one of the important lessons we learned there:  we are surrounded by everyday heroes who put their own safety on the line in order to insure ours.

Then I heard a comment by a news anchor who said that the last mile of the Marathon was dedicated to the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School.  And I remembered how so many police chiefs, police commissioners, and mayors came out after Aurora and Sandy Hook asking for reasonable restrictions on things like assault rifles, extended magazine clips, armor piercing ammunition, as well as other kinds of lethal military-style equipment.

If I’m not mistaken, it was only days after the Connecticut mass shooting that someone set a fire near his home and shot down the first responders who showed up to put that fire out.  Yes, he had an assault rifle with extended magazines, and yes, he killed/injured several of those whose job it was to save lives and the destruction of property.

         There is a simple verse from Deuteronomy 25 that says: “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain.”  In other words, if the oxen are working to help you sort grain, they should be given the chance to eat some share of that grain.  The apostle Paul quotes this verse several times to the early church essentially underscoring this as a biblical principle:  Provide for those who help provide for you—give the servant what they need, especially when they are in the process of giving you what you need.

What I don’t hear a lot of in the debate over gun violence is the common sense plea by us citizens to protect those who already put themselves in harm’s way to protect us.  There is a lot of talk is about guarding my rights with very little conversation about stepping up to my responsibilities.  I think the faithful response is to ask: What would you and I be willing to give up; what privileges would we be willing to curtail; how willing would we be as a community to put our responsibilities on equal footing with our rights especially if doing so would help save the lives of those who regularly risk their lives for us?

If a shooter had to change magazine clips more frequently, and in so doing, provided a chance to get an injured officer to safety or to drag a wounded firefighter out of danger—wouldn’t that alone be worth restricting their availability?

What possible use would someone outside the military need for armor piercing bullets?  Since they are specifically designed to penetrate the protective body armor our police officers wear—why do allow them to be sold in the first place?

And by opening up more and more public places to conceal and carry licenses aren’t we just adding more confusion and danger to situations where sheriff’s deputies, school security guards, or police try to quickly discern the good guys from the bad guys?

Maybe I’m just a naïve head-in-the-clouds pastor, but there isn’t a lot I wouldn’t consider giving up if it meant that those who are charged to protect my family and my church family would be more likely to return—unharmed—to their own families at the end of the day.  I guess I’m also naïve enough to suggest that followers of Jesus take whatever position they have on this important issue and weigh it against the witness of scripture, as well as lay it humbly before God in prayer.

         And as long as we are on our knees it wouldn’t hurt to pray for the safety of all those who have committed themselves to keep us safe in what has increasingly become a difficult and dangerous world.