The Disciples Eat Wheat on the Sabbath (painting by James Tissot)

Mark 2:23-28: One Sabbath he was going through the cornfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?’ And he said to them, ‘Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.’ Then he said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the Sabbath.”

Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty made news recently by saying that gay marriage devalues traditional marriage. This is, of course, far from a new argument against legalizing same-sex marriage, but it has always struck me as a curious one. Proponents of this argument can never say clearly and coherently how exactly people in opposite-sex marriages are harmed by same-sex marriage – only that marriage itself is somehow devalued, tainted, or offended. And let’s face it: marriage doesn’t care what happens to it. Marriage is not a person or a being; it is an institution. Institutions don’t get their hearts broken. They don’t sing with joy. They are not treated humanely or violently. They don’t protest for their rights. They are, simply, social practices writ large.

Parable of the Leaven (etching by Jan Luyken, photo by Phillip Medhurst)

This sermon was preached at the High Plains Church, Unitarian Universalist, on Colorado Springs Pride Day, 2011. The sermon has been modified somewhat to fit the current context.

Luke 13:20-21: And again he said, “To what should I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

In 2009, I went to theannual conference for my Unitarian Universalist district, where singer and activist Holly Near gave the keynote speech, which was really more of a keynote sing with brief stories between the songs. We all sang along and had a marvelous time. When Holly got to “Singing for Our Lives,” which we often sing during pride services, she introduced it with an explanation for a recent change of words in one of the verses.

Robert Kessler (photo by Janet Lincoln)

Three generations of us sat at the Café Figaro on Bleecker Street in New York City. My grandfather sat there with his son. My father sat there with me. I sat there with friends, boyfriends, girlfriends. All of us drank cappuccinos and ate pastries and fixed the world, in our conversations at least.

This Father’s Day I remember those coffee drinks and pastries but mostly I remember those conversations. And this Father’s Day I want to honor both my father and his father for making me the left-leaning progressive I am today.

Jesus teaching ("Sermon on the Mount" by Carl Bloch)

And he said to them: once there was a country, an Evangelical social justice organization, and a Protestant denomination. The country considered passing a law allowing people to be put to death or imprisoned because they loved people of the same sex. The social justice organization refused to run an advertisement supporting full inclusion in churches for same-sex loving people. The denomination, after struggling with the issue, changed its laws so that same-sex loving people could be clergy members if they were of good morality and character, and loved G-d and neighbor. Now, I ask you: which of these three was enacting the Kingdom of G-d?

And one disciple said, the country that was eager to follow to the letter Leviticus 20:13, indicating their utter commitment to G-d’s Law. And he said, the Kingdom is a realm of life, not death; of love, not hatred; of binding up the broken, not breaking the despised. The country was not enacting the Kingdom of G-d. And the disciples muttered among themselves and fell silent.

Mother's Day Cake (photo by Xurble/Gareth Simpson)

When I was younger I feared becoming my mother. I saw her foibles without really seeing either her strengths or graces, and from time to time, when I caught sight of those foibles in myself, I thought, “Oh darn. I am becoming my mother.” (Well, I thought something stronger than that. But this is a public blog.)

Then, this morning, I caught myself talking to our cats as I got out of the shower. A little context may be helpful here: my mother has lived alone for most of the years since I went to college, which is longer ago than I care to admit. And I know she has talked to her cats all that time since she did it when I lived at home and she still does it now. And while I have a partner, my partner has been in Africa for more than four months and so for all intents and purposes I live alone right now – for another week anyway, till she comes home. So I watched myself have a conversation with the cats and I thought: I am becoming my mother. But without the expletive. And with a sense of gratefulness. So I thought it was time, in honor of Mother’s Day tomorrow, to give thanks for some of the ways that I am becoming my mother.

I’ll get right to the point: in the wake of Osama Bin Laden’s death, the US desperately needs a national day of mourning, a solemn affair in which we acknowledge our need for broken-heartedness, humility, and compassion in the wake of almost ten years of human anguish.

This is going to be a controversial post. Read on at your own discretion.

There are marvelous progressive analyses of where we stand today at commondreams.org, and Rabbi Lerner and Peter Gabel have written a superb account for the online Tikkun magazine (separate from the daily blog). Much of what might be said from a progressive and indeed a spiritual progressive perspective has already been said. But I have not seen a call for a national day of mourning. Here’s why I think we need one:

"Happiness" (photo by Sabrina from Baronissi, Salermo, Italy)

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything, mostly due to life difficulties and a sense that Tikkun was not really the venue for the things I felt called to write. I’m sorry about that. I’ve missed all of you.

In any case, I certainly can’t let Easter go by without posting something. So here is a liturgical reading for the day that I just wrote; think of it as a responsive reading:

Some Other Resurrections

Despair is sapping our spirits, damaging our souls, hurting our hearts.
We need to be resurrected into hope, faith, and trust.
Today, may we be resurrected.
Violence is shortening our lives and robbing us of our joy.
We need to be resurrected into peace and its many blessings.
Today, may we be resurrected.
Selfishness is tearing our social fabric, hiding us from one another, turning us inward.
We need to be resurrected into generosity, compassion, and open-heartedness.
Today, may we be resurrected.
Fear is pitting us against each other, stripping our delight, poisoning our relationships.
We need to be resurrected into courage and connection.
Today, may we be resurrected.
Injustice is devaluing and dehumanizing us all, punishing some terribly, frightening others deeply.
We need to be resurrected into justice and healing.
Today, may we be resurrected.
Hatred is breeding despair, violence, selfishness, fear, and injustice among us and among our children.
We need to be resurrected into love.
Today, may we be resurrected.
Amen.

Peace, grace, shalom, tikkun olam, Amanda

Westboro Baptist Church protest (photo by JCWilmore)

Given the events happening around the world and in our own country, this may seem like a strange time to pause and ask questions about what kind of religion would heal the world now. To me, it is a perfect time. Our religious and spiritual commitments are undoubtedly influencing how we respond to the news each night; we could do worse than make that point explicitly.

Two weeks ago I proposed that we desperately need religions of grace and compassion right now. This week I would like to add another criterion for world-healing religion. This is extremely hard to live out but I think it is worth our consideration, and particularly worth some conversation given the state of our own society right now.

Church of the Pilgrims, Washington DC (photo by Drama Queen)

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says that homosexuality is “against the human spirit” even as several Iranian men are hanged for “sexual offenses.” A gay activist is murdered in Uganda and Christian preachers disrupt his funeral so viciously that the townspeople won’t bury his body. A Utah legislator introduces a state bill that would require all publicly funded programs, laws, and regulations to exclude families headed by same-sex couples; his reasoning is based overwhelmingly on his religious values. On a different but not entirely unrelated topic, Roman Catholic bishops strip hospitals of their Roman Catholic affiliations because the hospitals are willing to perform abortions to save the mothers’ lives. Less related but still painful to me, a Huffington Post columnist points out that many conservative Christians see Obama’s health care plan as the work of the devil.

How does one even begin to respond to the above list? Religion is not supposed to be death-dealing; it is supposed to be life-giving. If the only way it can be experienced as life-giving by some people is to deal death to others, whether social death or physical death, something is very wrong with that religion. The blame cannot lie entirely with sacred scriptures; every major world religious tradition, after all, has a version of the golden rule. No, this must be human frailty at work, painfully stripping people of their life chances and even their lives.

Dr. King Portrait (by Betsy G. Reyneau)

Somehow the timing of Dr. King’s birthday falling so close to the Tucson shootings haunts me. All tragedy happens close to some holiday or other, but this one seems made to order. On King’s birthday I happened to be meeting with one of the ministers who is guiding me along my ministerial training path and she opened our time together with King’s quote about the need to be maladjusted to those elements of our social order that harm people or interfere with human flourishing.

King said that we should be maladjusted to segregation, discrimination, militarism, and physical violence. (Elsewhere he added religious bigotry and the gap between rich and poor.) Certainly, all of these still exist to disheartening degrees in our society and around the world, and we should still be maladjusted to them in thought and action. But concerted maladjustment today should probably also include the following: