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Talking about death and dying by Laura Brekke
The hardest conversationFounding Father Benjamin Franklin is famously attributed as saying, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” While Franklin’s quip was likely more concerned with taxes than death, it’s a grim reality that we must face our mortality every day. In our modern world, more than 100 people die every minute, according to a recent article in The Economist. However, despite the unavoidable nature of death, American society — the church included — has shied away from addressing this difficult subject.
What’s made us so afraid of the inevitable? In her new book Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer, author Barbara Ehrenreich explores the complex world of aging and dying. Much of our modern “preventative care,” she proposes, is essentially an attempt to exert control over our bodies, which don’t always act in ways that we would wish. Exercise, healthy eating, even meditation — all prescribed as strategies to slow aging and prevent illness — may not have the effects that we believe. In fact, cells may have a degree of agency, doing what they wish to do, instead of what we want them to do. Ehrenreich writes, “If there is a lesson here it has to do with humility. . . . We are not the sole authors of our destinies or of anything else.”
This insight may signal a paradigm shift in how researchers think about health and disease. For Ehrenreich, it served as a personal reminder that despite the control she exerts now in her life, she will one day have to relinquish that control and accept death. That acceptance inevitably comes for each person, writes Victoria Sweet, doctor and author of God’s Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Healing. In a recent article for The Atlantic, Sweet writes, “I’ve noticed that everyone I’ve seen die does come to accept the inevitable loss of control. . . . At the end, something magical appears to occur — something beautiful, something Other — that seems to heal the spirit, ally all fear, and settle, finally, the struggle for control.”
This acceptance comes at different times for different individuals. Some take months or even years to accept the inevitability of death. Others take days, hours, even minutes. But, Sweet writes, “People die the way they’ve lived. . . . The brave die bravely; the curious, with curiosity; the optimistic, optimistically. Those who are by nature accepters, accept; those who by nature fight for control die fighting for control.”
A 21st-century funeral
Changing funerary rituals reflect changing attitudes toward death and dying in our world today. A 2015 study found that over 60 percent of Americans, middle age and older, would consider a “green” burial, one that excluded embalming and used a biodegradable casket. It would be inconsistent, says Jimmy Olson, a “green” undertaker in Wisconsin, “for someone who’s recycled all their life and drives a Prius to then be put under the ground in a concrete vault, plastic-sealed casket and with their body pumped full of chemicals.”
Additionally, over half of all Americans are cremated, which allows for funerals or “life celebrations” to be hosted at a variety of venues. Startup companies catering to the bereaved also offer a number of new opportunities. One company offers to spread your loved one’s ashes in space; another promises to extract a strand of DNA from a loved one’s remains to be returned to you in a stainless steel capsule. Linda Cronin, who works in the funerary industry, has earrings made out of her mother’s ashes. She says, “My Mom is in my ears, I take her wherever I go, I even swim with her.” Social media coaches are working to bring the funerary business into the 21st century. Moving away from images of coffins and hearses, these coaches advise funeral homes to advertise the services they offer, such as live-stream funerals or nontraditional life celebrations. As innovation and new technologies allow mourners to approach the physical reality of death in new ways, the question remains: How should we talk about death and dying in the meantime?
“Death cafe”
Despite the discomfort most people have discussing death, it appears that a growing number of people are hungry for places to do just that. The Death Cafe movement, started by Jon Underwood, a British website designer, has flourished over the last seven years. Built on the ideas of Swiss sociologist Bernard Crettaz, the movement seeks to “increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives,” according to the website DeathCafe.com.
Set up as a casual conversation, Death Cafes traditionally offer tea and cake along with their challenging topic of discussion. In a 2013 NPR article, Underwood said, “When people sit down to talk about death, the pretense kind of falls away, and people talk very openly and authentically.” These authentic conversations about human mortality draw people from every demographic, from aging baby boomers to middle-aged couples to young adults looking for ways to discuss death more honestly.
“In the long run,” says Angela Hennessy, mother of a seven-year-old boy, “my hope is that [participating in a Death Cafe] eases the fear and the strain for him in his understanding of what it means when someone dies.” Hennessy and her son went to a Death Cafe following the death of his great-grandmother.
Linda Siniard has facilitated several Death Cafes since the death of her son. She explains, “A lot of us had sort of put dying and death — and definitely grief — into these very secretive closets, because we weren’t welcomed into the conversation.” Death Cafes also offer a safe and supportive environment to discuss all of the different parts of life that accompany death and dying, from end-of-life care to grieving rituals.
In the NPR article, Underwood said, “When we acknowledge that we’re going to die, it falls back on ourselves to ask the question, ‘Well, in this limited time that I’ve got, what’s important for me to do?’” Underwood’s perspective has become more poignant in the wake of his own untimely death from acute promyelocytic leukemia in June 2017 at the age of 44. The work of the Death Cafe movement has been carried on by Underwood’s mother, Sue Barsky Reid, and sister, Jools Barsky.Be sure to check out FaithLink, a weekly downloadable discussion guide for classes and small groups.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Laura Brekke
The Rev. Laura K. Brekke serves as Benfield-Vick Chaplain at Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, West read more…
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The mandate given by Jesus to his followers was to take his authority to proclaim the counterculture Kingdom of God, to teach and demonstrate Spirit-empowered living and to heal the sick and oppressed. As I have traveled the past 14 months consulting with churches throughout Europe and the U.S., I am witnessing some fresh alternatives to the traditional approach of getting people into our weekend worship events. Here are three among many that are faithfully breaking out of the box and accomplishing Jesus’ mandate:Recovery communities
Within months of becoming pastor of Ginghamsburg in 1979, I asked our board to approve using our sanctuary to host a local AA meeting. This seemed like a big ask for our small, rural church back in the day. I would smile though when I preached on Sunday mornings and spotted from the pulpit new cigarette burns in the carpet. Ginghamsburg went on to launch a Christian recovery support group and host other recovery groups before launching Next Step Recovery Worship on Saturday nights, 13 years ago. In 2008, Ginghamsburg member Ron Will launched Joshua Recovery Ministries, which now runs six recovery homes for men across two counties. (For more on Joshua Recovery, view this video.) Ginghamsburg’s early involvement in recovery ministry was prescient in light of today’s opioid crisis. Dayton, Ohio, minutes south of Ginghamsburg, has been named as its epicenter.
Recovery ministry is something any church, no matter its size, can initiate for moving outside its walls and addressing a tremendous felt need in its surrounding community. The addiction crisis is no respecter of persons, race, neighborhood or socioeconomic status.
“Church” for the homeless
This past March I was in Honolulu, Hawaii to consult with First United Methodist Church, Hawaii’s original Methodist church established in 1855. My favorite ministry that I experienced at First UMC was Pancakes & Praise, a hot breakfast and worship service for Honolulu’s large homeless population. (The morning I worshipped with them, the actual menu was tuna and rice, eagerly consumed by possibly 100 guests that Sunday.) Pancakes & Praise is reminiscent of Ginghamsburg’s own Soul Food Café at our Fort McKinley Campus, where the hurting and underserved are also welcomed for breakfast and worship. Three Sundays of the month, medical students from the University of Hawaii show up to take care of guests after breakfast. They take blood pressure readings, treat minor wounds or medical conditions and give health advice, among other services.
Serving with the poor in and among us creates some of the most powerful worship I have ever experienced. As Jesus noted, the poor we will always have with us. More than 2,000 scriptures make plain God’s special concern for the poor. Clearly if the gospel isn’t good news for the poor, then it isn’t the gospel.
Neighborhood communities
What I’m discovering as I visit and work with churches is that people may leave their “local church” for various reasons, but they don’t leave relationships. A church I consult with in Cincinnati has lost some of its key givers over the past year, yet those formerly active members have not abandoned their church life group. I also believe that life groups alone, although essential, are not always enough. We need to think beyond traditional life groups toward launching healthy house churches. Simple organisms multiply faster than complex ones, and the house church can be a friendlier model to unchurched people who may not be attracted to a “big box store” church model. Watch this video to grasp the vibrancy of what can be accomplished through the relationships built in small group communities.
Your church size and context are not barriers to mission and ministry. Passion, a little out-of-the-box creativity, and a hunger to reach the least and the lost are the true essentials for Kingdom growth.
Mike Slaughter, pastor emeritus and global church ambassador for Ginghamsburg Church, served for nearly four decades as the lead pastor and chief dreamer of Ginghamsburg and the spiritual entrepreneur of ministry marketplace innovations. Mike is also the founder and chief strategist of Passionate Churches, LLC, which specializes in developing pastors, church staff and church lay leaders through coaching, training, consulting and facilitation services. Mike’s call to “afflict the comfortable” challenges Christians to wrestle with God and their God-destinies. Mike’s newest book is Made for a Miracle: From Your Ordinary to God’s Extraordinary (Abingdon Press).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mike Slaughter
Mike Slaughter, pastor emeritus and global church ambassador for Ginghamsburg Church, served for nearly four decades as read more…
Our text personifies Wisdom, who wounds like the town crier or a street preacher. We are to find the way to Wisdom, which is very different from smarts and skills. We might be haunted by personified Wisdom's message — if we hear it (as God would have us hear it) — as directed to our tawdry, superficial, rancorous society: “Because you have ignored my counsel, I will laugh at your calamity." "Eat the fruit of your way, be sated with your own devices," which we ravenously do, but to our disadvantage and ruin. The wise aren't richer or higher on the food chain, but they do live "without dread of disaster."
Were I preaching on this, I would examine the foolishness of our society, the strange and wonderful way to wisdom, and then find a few samples of people I've known who are wise. One man in my first parish had an exemplary spirit about him — a brick-mason by day, stellar church member on Sunday, and a paragon of wisdom always. I asked him his secret. He, not surprisingly, did not think of himself as wise. He did report that, when he got home from work, he had some chores, and then he ate dinner with his family, they talked about things from the day and in the world that mattered, and then, every evening: "I go down in the basement, and pull up a peach crate, and sit on it and just think for quite a while." I recalled the evening before how I had, after dinner, switched on the TV and surfed for a bit.
* * *
Psalm 116 is a favorite; it was one of the songs Jesus and his friends sang at the Last Supper. But the lectionary lops it off after verse 9, foregoing some of the Psalm's very best lines. In the included section, though, we do have a preachable moment: "I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications." Not "because he answered my prayers" or "I love the Lord because he made my life smooth," but just "He inclined his ear to me." We hear a lot about people wanting to be heard — the downtrodden in society, coworkers who aren't in the power positions, children at home, a spouse who's lonely. Being heard: it's gold, it's at the heart of what Gospel living is about. I suspect being heard is the ironic key to what our Epistle reading commends regarding talking.
* * *
Two items interest me in James 3:1-12, one for the clergy's personal reflection, the other with preaching potential. Jesus' brother interestingly declares that “Not many should become teachers.” I thought, in our Sunday School, with joint teachers in a room and rotations, we probably have 200! You can be one if you just sign up. This deeply troubles me, but what to do? James's reason "not many should teach"? Because: "We who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” That thought would diminish our already semi-desperate sign-up schedule... but then I think of myself and of fellow clergy. We dare to teach, and so is there a more stringent judgment on us? Or does it work in a different way?
In my autobiographical collection of "memories of God," Struck from Behind, I confessed that being in ministry has its pressures. For the most part, I am grateful, as that pressure to behave and that pressure to study God thoroughly have helped me to be a little holier than I might otherwise have been. So instead of fretting constantly over the "fishbowl" (which I do at times), I try to be grateful for the additional, if ridiculous and hypocritical, accountability.
"Weak Enough to Lead: What the Bible Tells Us about Powerful Leadership" (Abingdon Press, 2017). Order here: http://bit.ly/2rYxHac
James 3 will preach though; it would be a word about our words. What picturesque images: the bit in the horse's mouth, the tongue, a fire! How we talk as Christians receives insufficient attention; the world is likely to think we talk either sweetly or meanly. Speaking well, speaking faithfully, speaking in a holy manner, speaking truthfully: these are incumbent on us all. It's light years from avoiding cussing or inappropriate remarks. We have Dietrich Bonhoeffer's lovely rule (from Life Together): never speak of someone who is not present. I have the Howell improvement on the Bonhoeffer rule, which is: never speak of someone who is not present, unless you are praising her, or him.In premarital counseling, couples always tell me they communicate well (or want to). Communication, I suspect, while enormously important to any healthy relationship, won't in itself win the day. Some couples communicate quite openly... and wound one another. James's clever image captures the peril and opportunity: the tongue blesses, and curses. Sometimes, what we think is a blessing is actually a curse. A critical remark, masked as constructive helpfulness, can degrade. Saying I'll do it for you! might imply Because you'd probably mess it up. Vapid talk about God, parading as piety, quite often takes the Lord's name in vain. Consider all the chatter from various religious groups supporting guns or wicked politicians or policies that are loathsome to Scripture.
* * *
And then we come to the Gospel, the high water mark, the turning point in the narrative of Jesus' saving mission: Mark 8:27-38 Here's a sermon I preached on this recently.Years ago, I stumbled upon an audio recording of Henri Nouwen’s A Spirituality of Waiting (which I can’t commend highly enough). In it, he expanded upon the work of W.H. Vanstone’s profound book called The Stature of Waiting, in which he directs our attention to the peculiar plot of the Gospels. In the opening chapters of each Gospel, Jesus is in control, he is an actor on the stage of history, dashing off miracles, wowing the multitudes. Then, in the middle of the story, everything changes. At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus has ventured far to the north, then turns his face toward Jerusalem, explaining he will be “handed over” to suffer and die. From this point forward, Jesus is pretty much passive, with only a minor miracle left to do, one now acted upon, no dazzling (except by the powerful vision of compassionate, suffering love).
This stuns Vanstone and Lewis (and me, too). We think life’s plot should be toward increasing control, independence; we loathe any turn toward dependence. A few years back, on the week I was preparing to preach on this text, a friend who was gradually losing his battle against colon cancer told me with immense sorrow, “Today they handed me over to hospice.” We shudder, we pity — but Jesus invites us to respect and relish this backwards plot to our lives, for it was the plot of his life. Jesus was amazing in his first weeks of ministry. But the real glory came when he let himself be betrayed, beaten, tried unjustly, when he “never said a-mumblin’ word,” when he refused to come down from the cross or strike his enemies dead but instead forgave them. Even his resurrection was passive. He didn’t bolt from the tomb and knock the guards aside; God raised him.
Everything in us, especially as can-do Americans who cherish our independence above all else, rebels against and shrinks back from this. But this is God. We struggle when the 'normal' plot of life takes us from being active, in-control people to what feels like being reduced to passivity, say in a nursing home or confined to bed, where we depend on others. Jesus glorifies this way. Yet Peter, like us, chides Jesus for even thinking of such a path. But Jesus says “Get behind me” — which, ironically, is precisely where we need to be.
* * *
In Philippians 2, Paul explains God’s ultimate nature: “Though he was in the form of God, he emptied himself." I concur with those who translate this not as although he was God he did this humbling thing, but rather because he was in the form of God, he emptied himself. Jesus isn’t play-acting or pretending for a short time to be humble, vulnerable, and suffering. Jesus shows us the very heart of God, God’s truest, most core nature when he turns his face to Jerusalem to be mocked and gruesomely killed.
You see, Jesus uttered these words about turning his face to Jerusalem to be passive, vulnerable, and to die, not in a church or with a beautiful sunset in the background. He was in Caesarea Philippi, a place sacred to pagan deities for centuries, then more recently dedicated to the emperor, who was increasingly viewed and treated as a deity strutting the earth. Figuring out Jesus' true identity reshapes ours. We, like him, find ourselves in losing ourselves, in sacrificial love, in donating our most precious selves to God and others.
Everything in our nature and in society drives us into the self, to ask Who am I? The riddle is only answered by learning the answer to Who is God? Shortly before his death, Dietrich Bonhoeffer famously wrote, “Who am I? This or the other?” — taking note of his cheerful disposition he presented to his jailers, while knowing inside he was impotent and weak. The only way he could resolve the dissonance and the struggle to be in horrific circumstances, came like this: “Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine.”
"What can we say September 16? 17th after Pentecost"originally appeared at James Howell's Weekly Preaching Notions. Reprinted with permission.
"What can we say September 16? 17th after Pentecost"originally appeared at James Howell's Weekly Preaching Notions. Reprinted with permission.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James C. Howell
Dr. James C. Howell has been senior pastor of Myers Park United Methodist Church since 2003, and has served read more…
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A con artist of biblical proportion
It’s hard to beat Frederick Buechner’s description of Jacob.
Jacob was, among other things, a crook … Jacob was never satisfied. He wanted the moon, and if he’d ever managed to bilk heaven out of that, he would have been back the next morning for the stars to go with it.
It was a turning point in Scripture when Esau, Jacob’s first-born, fraternal twin brother, came in from working in the field and found Jacob mixing up a batch of beef stew. Esau was starving and asked Jacob to serve up a dish of it. Jacob said, “Let’s make a deal. I’ll trade you some stew for your birthright.” Without giving it much thought, Esau said, “I’m starving! What good is a birthright if I’m dead?” Esau enjoyed the stew but later regretted what he traded for it. (Genesis 25:29-31)
Some older translations referred to Jacob’s stew as “a mess of pottage” which became a metaphor for “something immediately attractive but of little value taken foolishly and carelessly in exchange for something more distant and perhaps less tangible but immensely more valuable.”
A mess of White House pottageI remembered the bargain between Jacob and Esau when I read the reports of the “evangelical” leaders who went to dinner at the White House a few weeks ago. That’s big deal. I remember how important you feel when you walk into the Oval Office and get a picture taken with the President. It’s no small thing to be invited to dinner with the President, Vice-President and First Lady.
Sadly, as Esau learned, it doesn’t come cheap. In his remarks, the President was perfectly clear that they were there for what they are doing for him. There isn’t space in the East Room for any Nathan-like prophet who would hold the President accountable for his behavior. (2 Samuel 12:1-17)
My evangelical birthright
I grew up on the evangelical branch of the Methodist family tree. I was diapered on church pews where evangelical preachers proclaimed an evangelical gospel and challenged me to live an evangelically-defined Christian life. Along with teaching me to sing hymns, pray and listen for the Spirit, they taught me the meaning of honesty, sexual morality, respect and compassion for others. My evangelical forebearers placed a high value on American democracy and opposed anything that looked like authoritarian or dictatorial rule.
It’s because of my evangelical birthright that I made my earliest commitments to follow Christ, started tithing my income, heard God’s call to ministry and have been faithful to the way the United Methodist Book of Discipline defines sexual morality as “celibacy in singleness and fidelity in marriage.”
Jacob’s bargain
I still consider myself to be “evangelical” in the original sense of the word. But as hungry for political power as Esau was for supper, today’s “evangelicals” have made a strange bargain with their birthright.
They traded their commitment to truth for a President who lies with such ease that it’s hard for fact checkers to keep up with him.
They traded their commitment to sexual morality for a President who trades wives as if they were used cars, described himself as a sexual predator and whose attorney openly acknowledged that he paid a porn star for her silence.
They traded biblical compassion for immigrants and children for an immigration policy that separates children from their parents. They traded “Give me your tired, your poor…” for “Build a wall!”
They traded their commitment to democracy for cozy friendships with dictators.
There is a sad history of this kind of bargain. Whenever the church has gotten too close to political power, it has always ended up being the loser. Don’t forget the way the church in Germany sold its birthright to Hitler.
The true birthrightBy contrast, here’s the way Martin Luther King Jr., described the church’s relationship with political power in his book, The Strength to Love. We need to be reminded of his message, regardless of which party holds the keys to the White House.
The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority … But if the church will free itself from the shackles of a deadening status quo, and, recovering its great historic mission, will speak and act fearlessly and insistently in terms of justice and peace, it will enkindle the imagination of [humankind] and fire the souls of [people], imbuing them with a glowing and ardent love for truth, justice, and peace. (Strength to Love, 1963)
I hope my “evangelical” brothers and sisters enjoyed dinner at the White House as much as Esau enjoyed Jacob’s stew, because like Esau, all of us who represent the Christian faith will pay a high price for it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James A. Harnish
James A. Harnish is a retired United Methodist pastor who most recently served Hyde Park United Methodist Church read more…
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In 2008 while I lived in Dallas, I had the opportunity to see firsthand the General Conference and how delegates navigate through its businesses. Since I was not a delegate, I pretty much went to see what each group was doing: Good News breakfast, Reconciling Ministries Network, and the African Central Conferences delegation.
I was surprised to witness gift donations taking place. For instance, Good News donated cell phones to many delegates from African conferences. Some of the people did not understand why they were given cell phones. Through some leaders among delegations, those from Liberia, DRC, and Angola were the among the coordinators of this machine. Similar events took place in Tampa, and worse happened in Portland during the 2016 General Conference, where a WhatsApp group was created, and Good News would tell delegates how they would vote on each issue, including the Palestinian Christians petition.
The interesting thing is, each time before Annual Conference session in several African Annual Conferences, Good News would send someone to speak and tell people how they should vote. These things happen without any discussion on the things brought forward. In addition, this week, leaders from various African countries were invited to attend an event in Nairobi, Kenya. This event was called Africa Initiative UMC: Prayer and Leadership Summit. While the title suggests something initiated by Africans, it is something organized and sponsored by a U.S.-based caucus group. The intent: let’s tell them how to vote during the special General Conference 2019.
One then asks, while U.S. groups come to tell some African delegates and leaders what they need to support, when do our leaders ask U.S. groups to make priority the issues African church contexts are facing? When would Good News come to listen the challenges facing Zimbabwe with oppressions or the DRC with political instability and how the church can be an agent of peace and stability? Or why isn’t African migration, both internal within the continent and beyond, not included in an African summit? Or how about climate change, the consequences of which affect much of the African population? Good News is a U.S. group using African UMC leaders to manipulate many of our laity and clergy, because they fear if they question things our leaders allow, they may get in trouble.
We need to remember that the African church started growing even during colonialism because our own African Christian leaders began to question European imperialism. Like Kimbungu in the DRC, Harris in Western Africa, and many others. The collusion between western missionaries and the colonialists hindered the proclamation of a holistic gospel among our ancestors.
The fact that European Christians during colonialism overlooked some aspects of the gospel and favor only spirituality caused serious damage for generations. Not only does overlooking some dimensions of the human experience pose serious problems to the Christian community, but such an act does affect the way Christianity is perceived by many around the world. For instance, many people in the continent of Africa and some parts of Asia over many decades have thought of Christianity as a western tool to conquer the world through militarism and colonialism. While this assumption does not present the whole reality that took place several decades ago, it has left observers to wonder why Christians who were moved by love, compassion and zeal to see the whole world avoid “hell” would close their eyes when their countrymen and women slaughtered children, women, and the most vulnerable where colonialists occupied.
It is important to note that there are also stories of western missionaries who stood against colonialism, slave trade, racial discrimination and apartheid, but the media has not popularized these stories. Some of these persons did preach against slavery, colonization, or apartheid to the point of sacrificing their own lives. These brave and compassionate Christians did so for the love of the people they were called to serve and be in ministry with. A good example is that of the Anglican priest Fr. Trevor Huddleston, a British missionary to South Africa, who continually opposed and challenged the brutal treatment of majority black South Africans until he was kicked out of the country.
However, the sad story of Christianity is that the majority of missionaries did not seem concerned that their governments brutally mistreated, tortured, and eventually killed the local people without the missionaries condemning such acts of violence. In fact, in some places Christians misused the Bible to justify the mistreatment of others based on their skin color or ethnic background. The reason why many Christians did not stand up against such violence is that they did not view the gospel as a means to address injustice and oppression. The gospel for them was simply a spiritual tool that had to address the people’s spiritual life. In my view, this is similar to the technique the Good News U.S. group is using to manipulate many African delegates. The African contexts have their own social concerns that the church needs to address, and this should be the focus of African leaders getting together, not some U.S. groups with the intent of using financial resources to manipulate others. African leaders who engage in international gatherings should use that platform to raise questions about the western foreign policies that are inhumane, like sanctions imposed upon different countries that affect millions of innocent people.
It seems to me some are using The United Methodist Connection to reintroduce colonialism, whereby religion this time goes ahead of militarism. We have seen this in Uganda, for instance, where the Uganda Parliament had a group of U.S. evangelicals tell Ugandan MPs how they should craft the laws of their land. It is humiliating to see our leaders, for purely self-interests, make it a priority to do what a religious group from another country wishes them to do. These events in The UMC and among other African countries should concern all of us Africans.
Jehu Hanciles has written about how western mission organizations over the years, especially during the colonial period, have had similar intent: that of dominating local peoples. There are reports of European mission organizations advocating for the increased of the presence of European government authorities and troops. One example is the Wesleyan Methodist Missions superintendent who is remembered most for his statement with regard to the idea that God was wedded to the British military. He notes, “I should consider myself worse than despicable if I failed to declare my firm conviction that the British Army and Navy are today used by God for the accomplishment of his purposes” (Porter 1977).
Similarly, the Mozambican experience is one sad example of this marriage between the Christian church and the colonialists. Here the Portuguese missionaries made it an obligation for the local people to learn Portuguese language, important Portuguese events and history, and Portuguese culture. When one examines the conquista system used by the Portuguese, one realizes that the Christian Church and state (colonialists) were tied together with the conquista ideology (John Wesley Kurewa 1997). What this means is that they were civilizing the Mozambicans, whom they thought did not have any culture and tradition and referred to as an “inferior race” (Bengt Sundkler & Christopher Steed 2000). African people were considered uncivilized and backward. So, evangelism meant both civilizing the people and introducing them to a new religion.
I am afraid that religion is again used to take away the power of our people. What is happening in The UMC, particularly with the Good News U.S. group, mirrors many ways in our history how our people’s power was taken away because of religious zeal.
We are to learn from the brave and courageous African Christian leaders who preached a prophetic message that challenged the colonial powers. It was this awakening by African Christians that began the rapid growth of Christianity throughout the continent. The message preached by African prophets in independent churches considered the social and political realities. The African people regarded their fellow preachers as prophets and liberators. They viewed the preachers as persons who came to announce the gospel in its fullness by addressing issues in their context and questioning their sufferings in light of the gospel. Their preaching emphasized hope through God’s intervention and liberation from the oppression of which they were the victims. This was the time for Africans to respond to Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?” as Recinos puts it in his book entitled Who Comes in the Name of The Lord? Their response was based on the current cultural, social, economic, and political situations that they were experiencing (Recinos 1997).
I think today, our sisters and brothers from the mother continent should answer the question for themselves, considering our own socio-economic, political, and religious realities. We can do this without anyone coming to tell us what to do. African delegates: use the power of vote you have to address issues of the people back home, to challenge international systems that impoverish our people, and to do mission in our own contexts without being the scapegoat for U.S. groups fighting. Draft your own petitions to bring forward that speak for African contexts and the ways our people suffer the consequences of western governments and how The UMC should make us a priority.
This article originally appeared at Reconciling Ministries Network. Reprinted with permission.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kalaba Chali
Rev. Kalaba Chali, originally from Zambia, grew up in the DRC and went to school at Africa University in Zimbabwe and read more…
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Is prayer crazy? by David Staal
Crazy ideas change the world.The Bible contains story after story that began with ideas that likely seemed far-fetched. Fight the giant warrior with just a sling? Leave the family fishing business? Gather together in Jerusalem and simply wait—for what?
Fortunately, the people in those stories had just enough faith in God to take crazy ideas seriously.
A couple decades ago, someone shared a wild option for our organization to consider. We do just one thing: we partner local churches (many are UMC) with local schools and equip the churches to mentor at-risk students at the schools. One mentor with one child. Simple. The new idea: Add a prayer partner to each relationship, someone willing to feel a burden and pray behind-the-scenes specifically and consistently for the student, the mentor, and their relationship. In other words, ask churches to recruit two people for every one student. In a single word: Crazy. Finding one volunteer is hard enough.
I’m so glad we went with the far-fetched idea.
Twenty years later, data arrived that demonstrates the value of this “different” approach. Specifically, evidence that points to passionate, specific, persistent prayers as delivering something amazing. Yes, I realize that this should not be new news. But before you suddenly stop reading this column, please answer this: Do you have well-researched data that shows prayer works?
I do. And it’s crazy-exciting.
A two-year evaluation of our program by a highly-credible, external researcher showed that the existence of a highly engaged prayer partner serves as the single greatest predictor of a positive outcome in a student. In fact, twice as much impact as the next highest factor. In the clearest of terms: Students do far better when a persistent and passionate prayer partner joins efforts with a mentor.
The researcher, a secular expert on measuring mentoring’s effectiveness, asked me to explain the prayer partner role because he had not seen such compelling data before. Today, when he consults with other mentoring organizations, he boldly recommends they add another role to their program—an “accountability partner.”
Calling it a “prayer partner” must be a bit too crazy for some.
Full disclosure: Our organization did not originate this idea. Possibly the most effective, yet unheralded prayer partner was Pearl Goode, a little old lady from Pasadena.
When the 1949 Billy Graham crusade came to Los Angeles, Pearl volunteered to work the event and felt compelled to appeal to heaven for the ministry team. "That night God laid those boys on my heart as a burden," she explained in a 1963 issue of Decision magazine, "and I have been praying for them ever since. I went to the Crusade every evening as long as it lasted, and began talking to God about them, asking him to anoint them individually and to give them boldness in proclaiming the Word."
Following the L.A. event, she began to pray for every crusade, traveling to cities across the country without attracting attention. On buses, starting in the 1950s. Just her. Very crazy. Very behind-the-scenes. Eventually, crusade organizers noticed that her name consistently appeared on volunteer lists. Arrangements were made for her to travel with the crusades so she could continue this critical role.
At Pearl’s funeral service, Ruth Graham paid her very public tribute with these words: “Here lie the mortal remains of much of the secret of Bill’s ministry.”
But Pearl wasn’t the first in this role either. Go back in time to a hill overlooking Rephidim, found in Exodus 17. The Israelites battle the Amalekites, and the Israelites prevail whenever Moses raises his hands. This is man-to-man combat, so Israel’s success required individuals to do well. Eventually, this keep-your-hands-up-behind-the-scenes support becomes too much for him to continue and Israel suffers when his arms collapse; he needs a prayer partner or two. So Aaron and Hur stand beside him and prop up his arms.
That three-person team on a hill, Pearl’s willingness to own a burden, and our army of prayer partners all share a common passion: to see God move.
Do you have a Pearl? Seems crazy if you don’t.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Staal
David Staal is the CEO of Kids Hope USA and author of Show Up: Step out of your story and into someone else’s and read more…
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Widows in ScriptureIn Deuteronomy 24:17, God prohibits taking a widow’s cloak as collateral for a loan. The chapter continues in verse 19 by commanding farmers to leave food in their fields so that widows, orphans and immigrants could pick the leftovers. In the Psalms, God is described multiple times as a defender and helper of widows. In Mark, Jesus denounces the scribes because they “cheat widows out of their homes” (12:40). In all, there are more than 80 direct references to widows in the Bible.
Even a quick read of these texts gives us a clear understanding about why widows are mentioned so often in Scripture. They were one of the most socially and economically vulnerable groups in biblical times. In fact, the Hebrew word for “widow,” almanah, comes from the root word alem, which means “unable to speak.”
Like other surrounding societies, Jewish culture at this time didn’t allow women to speak for themselves. Instead, their male relatives possessed the legal authority to speak for them. Because widows had lost the male relative who served as their protector and provider, they were at particular risk of poverty, hunger and ostracization. Those who were also without sons were at even greater risk.
Although Scripture provides some protections for widows, God’s people often forgot to pay attention to their care. The Law, the Prophets and the Gospels therefore frequently call for justice on behalf of widows, along with other groups of marginalized people, especially orphans and immigrants.
Despite these calls, the Bible doesn’t always see widows as powerless. In Luke 18:2-8, Jesus tells a parable about a bold widow who refuses to stop pleading her case before an unjust judge. The early church even established an order of widows, referred to in 1 Timothy 5:9-16. In a 2006 article, Christian bioethics professor Cathleen Kaveny points out that these widows had important responsibilities, which included visiting the sick, prophesying and helping to receive repentant sinners back into the fellowship of the church.
Financial challenges for widows today
While a lot has changed for modern widows, especially in the United States, they continue to face a number of challenges. For instance, losing a spouse still leads to financial challenges for many women. According to a 2015 New York Times article, the typical widow in the United States sees her household income decline by 37 percent after a spouse dies. In comparison, men who lose a spouse are hit with an income drop of 22 percent. The assets of widows also tend to decline faster than widowers. Since women typically live longer than men, they must also stretch their finances to cover a longer time frame.
When Janice Eiler’s husband died, she was surprised to find they weren’t in the stable financial state she had imagined. “We had not sat down and planned,” Eiler said. “We should have done it in our 40s, but, you know, you just get lazy.”
In some parts of the world, widows today face legal and financial problems that have much in common with widows in the Bible. When interviewing dozens of widows in Zimbabwe, the organization Human Rights Watch found that many women were forced off their land after their husbands died. A 58-year-old Zimbabwean widow named Deborah was harassed and threatened by her in-laws, who tried to take the land she had worked for over 40 years. Other widows reported that courts sent documents about their land disputes only to their male in-laws, who would then keep information from them that caused them to lose their cases. Deborah was able to keep her land through help from a legal aid organization, but many widows aren’t able to get that kind of support.
Social and emotional challenges
Frustratingly, the immediate legal and financial consequences of death can get in the way of the grieving process. Bea Schwartz’s husband had done many things to prepare their finances in case he died first, but Schwartz still found herself overwhelmed. “You can’t take even a few days to process what’s just happened to you because the business demands taking care of, and the business is not simple,” she said.
Benilda Pacheco found that after she lost her spouse, she experienced a separation from other people like nothing else in her life. “Unless you talk to another widow, no one really understands you.”
New York Times columnist Jane Brody said that after her husband’s death, she felt an urgent need to get projects done around the house. While others told her those things could wait, she knew the impact of each accomplishment on her own feelings of empowerment.
Another aspect of the grief many people experience when a spouse dies is the loss of touch. After her husband’s death, Laurie Burrows Grad craved his touch the most. Burrows Grad encourages us to ask widows if it’s all right to give them a hug. “Even a gentle squeeze of her hand or a pat on the back will be of more use than anything you can say,” she writes.
Caring faith communities
How can churches support widows in our congregations and in our communities? First, we can begin by looking at the pastoral care we offer to those who’ve lost a spouse, especially after the first few weeks following the death have passed. Are our programs and small groups truly welcoming of single people (of all ages), or are they primarily geared to couples? Many widows may find it hard to return to their social circles, including those at church, when they’re the only ones without a spouse.
Do we think of widows as potential leaders, like the order of widows in the early church? Or do we primarily look to those with spouses as potential leaders?
If we listen to scriptures about widows, we must also be concerned for their security. This includes speaking up against injustice that leaves women more economically vulnerable than men, both in the United States and around the world.
Widowers
While Scripture focuses primarily on widows because of their social and economic vulnerability, God certainly desires for us to care for all people during their time of loss.
Women tend to be left in more difficult financial situations after the loss a spouse than men. When it comes to matters of health, however, it seems that men who lose a spouse are more likely to be at a disadvantage. A study by the Rochester Institute of Technology found that men are one-third more likely to die after being recently widowed. Professor Javier Espinosa, who led the study, says, “When a wife dies, men are often unprepared. They have often lost their caregiver, someone who cares for them physically and emotionally, and the loss directly impacts the husand’s health.”
Although precise statistics aren’t available, men are also more likely to remarry after a spouse’s death than women. Some of this may simply be demographics and the fact that since women tend to live longer, there are more eligible, age-appropriate women than men.
On the other hand, some sociologists believe it may be because of differences in how men and women grieve their losses. These researchers highlight that women are more cautious about a new relationship, while men often place a higher value on finding someone who can help them with organizing their life and providing companionship.
Be sure to check out FaithLink, a weekly downloadable discussion guide for classes and small groups.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rebekah Jordan Gienapp
Rebekah Jordan Gienapp is a United Methodist minister, writer for FaithLink and blogger at The Barefoot Mommy. read more…
The ninety-five bodies are a small percentage of the more than 3,500 black Texans who were exploited and died in the convict leasing system between 1866 and 1912. For more information, visit reclaimedpodcast.com/shownotes.
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Constance died at the age of thirty-three.A Yellow Fever epidemic swept through the city of Memphis in 1878; at one point, seventy people were dying each day from the disease. Eventually, the population was so diminished that the city lost its municipal charter.
Residents swarmed the train station to escape. In their panic, the jostling crowds crushed the life from at least two people. Along with her fellow Anglican Sisters of St. Mary, Constance stayed behind to tend the sick and the dying.
We know today that mosquitos carry Yellow Fever. But in 1878, the prevailing opinion was that the disease spread through human contact. No one wanted to touch, or even to breathe the same air as, infected individuals.
Fear was so great that undertakers had to be forced by the police to remove corpses from now empty houses. Constance found children fending for themselves in one disease-stricken home. The Canfield Asylum—an orphanage mainly for black children—lost its management, so the Sisters took charge.
Along with Constance, the fever took Sister Ruth, Sister Thecla, and Sister Francis. Together with others who traveled to Memphis to provide aid and to offer comfort, these women are often referred to as the Martyrs of Memphis.
Many of us understandably associate the word “martyr” with persecution. For instance, early Christians refused to show devotion to Rome’s Emperor, so they endured terrible suffering and harrowing deaths. That’s why some would define martyrdom as dying for the faith.
While I don’t quarrel with that definition, I urge you to consider adjusting it slightly. Martyrs are those who die in the midst of living for the faith. In other words, placing our emphasis on the living instead of the dying will broaden our understanding of martyrdom. Martyrs live in the way of Christ, and that way transforms the meaning of death.
"A Resurrection Shaped Life: Dying and Rising on Planet Earth" (Abingdon Press, 2018). Pre-order here: http://bit.ly/2K2M3wB
The way of Jesus is the way of love, and Jesus could not have been clearer about what that would look like. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13) Following the way of Jesus involves giving our lives away for the sake of others.Jesus frames this differently elsewhere. He says that you have to lose your life to have a life. As Matthew’s Gospel puts it, “Those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:39)
As you may know, our English word “martyr” derives from a Greek word that also means “to witness.” Or better, to give or be a witness to something. A Christian martyr’s life embodies the way of love taught and exemplified by Jesus. What we do is what we believe.
James was getting at this same idea when he said, “Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” (James 2:17) And he was explicit about the works he had in mind. James directs us to recognize and to surrender our economic and social privilege.
For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, ‘Have a seat here, please’, while to the one who is poor you say, ‘Stand there’, or, ‘Sit at my feet’, have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:2-4)
Contempt for or indifference to the poor, the homeless, and the hungry contradicts the example Jesus set for us. Sympathy does not go far enough — to follow Jesus is to do something about it.
James puts it like this:
If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? (James 2:15-16)
Jesus himself never taught us to ask why someone is hungry or lonely or hurting. He just told us that if we know how to look, we will find him in the outcast and in the downtrodden. And that when we serve them we serve him.
To use Jesus’s familiar words, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:40)
The Martyrs of Memphis faced a horrifying crisis. They responded with remarkable selflessness and stunning courage.
And yet, we will appreciate their actions most fully when we recognize that they were acting from deeply engrained habit. By serving the people of Memphis in time of great misery, they were continuing to walk in the way that had become essential to their very being.
Constance and her companions stepped into the world every day listening for the needs of others and responding to those needs. That’s how Jesus taught them, taught all of us, to live. He taught us the way of love. When we walk that way, we give our lives away for the sake of those in need.
We don’t have to wait for a deadly epidemic to follow the example of the Martyrs of Memphis. The shabbily dressed, the hungry, and the homeless wander our streets every day. Addicts are dying. The sick go without proper medical care.
Following Constance begins with hearing these needs and recognizing them as Jesus' call to give our lives away in response. That is the way of ordinary martyrs like you and me. That is the way of love.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jake Owensby
Jake Owensby is the fourth Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Western Louisiana. Jake is the author of several books read more…
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