FERGUSON, MISSOURI

Like so many others today, my thoughts are on Ferguson, Missouri.  How could they not be?  This town has become front and center in the thinking of the nation because of a tragedy that took place there.

            At the heart of Ferguson there are two stories unfolding.  One of the stories is that of a young man, Michael Brown, and a young police officer, Darren Wilson.  The other story is that of how to place Brown and Wilson's story into a greater story of racism, justice, and equality.   

            As to the immediate story, Michael Brown was shot and killed by Darren Wilson.  Those who support Michael Brown say that Brown was innocent and that Darren Wilson murdered him.  Those who support Darren Wilson say that Michael Brown was the aggressor and that Wilson was simply defending himself against an aggressor that Wilson described as having "the most intense aggressive face ... it looks like a demon, that's how angry he looked."

            When the Grand Jury, having looked at all the evidence, chose not to indict Wilson, violence broke out in Ferguson, and led to a night of looting and burning and destroying.  Time will tell as to where all this will lead.

            Once again our country is caught in the middle.  Who do we believe?  The witnesses that saw things the way we wanted them to be seen or the witnesses who saw things the way we didn't want them to be seen?  Are the members of the Grand jury liars bent on racism or are they twelve honest people who went where the facts took them, regardless of the fallout?  Is the Prosecuting Attorney, Bob McCulloch, a racist with a mindset to hurt the black community and enable the white community?  Is violence an accepted act when a decision goes against what is wanted in a certain town? President Obama and the parents of Michael Brown don't think so, and pleaded with people to remain calm. 

Brown's parents went so far as to ask people to "channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change. We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen."  Burning cars and buildings, looted stores and businesses in Ferguson tell us that there are some folks in that community who didn't listen very well, and in their actions disrespected the life and death of Michael Brown.

            Most people in Ferguson, Missouri, by the way, were not out on the streets looting and destroying.  If we can't acknowledge this fact, then we, as a people, might just be beyond help.  There are some people among us who have looting and destroying in their blood.  It is who they are.  Either by training or choice hostility pours from them, and they seem to rise up at opportune times to take their booty and run. 

Ferguson, Missouri is not about those who loot, steal, and destroy.  Ferguson, Missouri is about a race of people in America who have been enslaved, put down, kept back, ignored, held in contempt, treated as less than human, made unequal in their standing, and who have just about had all they can take.

            I know that the African American community in Ferguson, and all throughout the land, joined by many people of other races, will never accept the Grand Jury's decision.  Justice, for them, was not a following of the facts but, rather, reaching a conclusion that made officer Darren Wilson, guilty, and 18 year old, Michael Brown, innocent.  You might as well not try to change anybody's mind on this point.  Minds are made up, wills are set, and hearts are fixed.  In this light, what does it mean for a nation like ours to move forward?  How can there be peace and justice and community, in a world where individuals still act out of the context of their own being?  Is everybody on one side always wrong in their action because they are on that side of the issue?  Is everybody on the other side always wrong in their actions because they are on that side of the issue?    

            I need to be very careful as to how I speak about these matters.  After all I am a white middle class male.  I'm pretty sure that my take on things is different than someone whose roots are buried in the dark side of the American dream.  I'm not sure my color disqualifies me from speaking into the issue, but I am sure that I don't have a corner on truth, insight, wisdom, or knowledge. 

As a follower of Jesus Christ I think I need to be very careful as to how I process Ferguson, Missouri, as well as the greater Race issue in our country.  I am thinking that maybe for today and for a whole lot of tomorrows, a lot of us need to slow down a little bit, pay close attention, listen carefully, and bring our own lives into conformity with the One who laid down His life for all of us and who was raised from the dead to show us the reality of what it means for God to be present in the human situation.

How do we go forward, as a people, in moments like these?  Rodney King was mocked a bit when, in trying to settle the situation down after the police officers were declared not guilty in their trial for beating him said, "Can't we all just get along?"  Apparently not.  Not yet, at least. 

Still, people of good will need to stand together, pray together, seek solutions together, and walk the journey together.  We need to talk to and with each other, not at each other. 

The old Sunday School song, sung in about every church in the America when I was a kid said, "Red, yellow, black, and white, they are precious in His sight."  Really?  Then let's start acting like it.  In the name of God, let's start acting like it.     

ADVENT STORY

           On a very ordinary night long ago a young Jewish woman went down into the mysterious depths of motherhood and came back with a child, a son, the Son of God, she said He was.   She was so convinced of it that she named Him, Jesus, "God saves."  His birth was nothing less than an incarnation.  His life would be lived so as to shake the foundations of the world.  His death offered to the world a new way of being.  His resurrection would shatter the stronghold of death.  His stunned, redeemed, energized, and God-empowered disciples would change the world. 

Interestingly enough, history does not record the date of His birth.  All history tells us is it wasn't until the early-to-mid 4th century that the Western Christian Church placed Christmas on December 25, a date later adopted in the Eastern Church.  Also, according to the calendar the actual day of Jesus birth was probably six years earlier than history declares.  Apparently, in the mind of the Spirit of God the date isn't as important as is its reality.

The truth is Christmas isn't on the minds of most serious believers in Christ.  They will have fun with the celebrations and gift exchanges but the true heart of the season is Advent – the Advent of God into human history.  Some will be preoccupied with the secular invasion of materialism into the storyline but believers know that even though cultures have hijacked the true meaning of Jesus' birth, they stand clueless and silly-looking when it comes to the Advent of God into human history.

True believers in Christ start their new year each year, not on January 1 but on the fourth Sunday before December 25.  The first Sunday in Advent marks the beginning of the Christian calendar.  Followers of Jesus don't rush into December 25 grabbing for presents under a tree.  Instead, we humble ourselves and worship our way through the staggering story of God that brings Him into history and all the way down into the very human story of us.  This year the first Sunday of Advent is November 30.

To know we are embraced by the self-giving, triune God of the universe, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, shocks the imagination. Advent and the Christmas event draw us to a Middle East manger where we stand, maybe kneel, in awe and wonder, stunned that God would dare do such a thing. The old Gospel song says it well,

That God should love a sinner such as I,

Should yearn to change my sorrow into bliss,

Nor rest till He had planned to bring me nigh,

How wonderful is love like this!

("Such Love," C Bishop, R Harkness © 1926, 1956, Lillenas Publishing Co.)

How Wonderful is love like this!  That God should love a sinner such as I.  As John Newton wrote, it is Amazing Grace. 

Brennan Manning said it this way,

Christmas is the promise that the God who came in history and comes daily in mystery will one day come in glory. God is saying in Jesus that in the end everything will be all right. Nothing can harm you permanently, no suffering is irrevocable, no loss is lasting, no defeat is more than transitory, no disappointment is conclusive. Jesus did not deny the reality of suffering, discouragement, disappointment, frustration, and death; he simply stated that the Kingdom of God would conquer all of these horrors, that the Father’s love is so prodigal that no evil could possibly resist it.(-- Reflections for Ragamuffins by Brennan Manning)

Dr. Seuss said it this way,

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,

stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?

It came without ribbons. It came without tags.

It came without packages, boxes or bags.

And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.

What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

 (Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow said it this way,

And in despair I bowed my head;

"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep!

The Wrong shall fail,

the Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men!”

("Christmas Bells," written on Christmas Day in 1863, after  the death of his son in the Civil War and the death of his wife in a house fire. It was first published in February 1865)

Frederick Buechner said it this way,

“It is impossible to conceive how different things would have turned out if that birth had not happened whenever, wherever, however it did … for millions of people who have lived since, the birth of Jesus made possible not just a new way of understanding life but a new way of living it. It is a truth that, for twenty centuries, there have been untold numbers of men and women who, in untold numbers of ways, have been so grasped by the child who was born, so caught up in the message he taught and the life he lived, that they have found themselves profoundly changed by their relationship with him.” 

            Gabriel said it this way,                 

“Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” … Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 
                                (Angel Gabriel, Luke 1:28-33) 

            Jesus said it this way,

I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:9-10)

How wonderful is love like this! 

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound. 

God is not dead, nor doth he sleep! The Wrong shall fail, the Right prevail. 

What if Christmas…doesn't come from a store?  What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”  

Christmas is the promise that the God who came in history and comes daily in mystery will one day come in glory. God is saying in Jesus that in the end everything will be all right.

"For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;

And the government will rest on His shoulders;

And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace" -- Isaiah 9:6

BRENNAN MANNING'S STORY

My son asked me the other day if I had ever written anything about Brennan Manning.  He asked to read it if I had done so.  Truth is, I’ve not written about Brennan Manning, and for the life of me I don’t know why.

  I’ve read just about everything I know Manning wrote.  I quote him often in messages and articles and conversations.  A thousand times God has drawn near to me through the heart and mind of this man, so much so that I call him one of my literary mentors.  I heard him speak once, and thought about meeting him at that time, but the line was so long and he was so busy I decided not to join the crowd but simply to hear what he was saying in his messages, articles and books.  Now, because of technology, I turn to YouTube often just to see him and hear about what God was saying to him in the midst of his very real, very human, and very broken, life.

           

Like so many other people I was introduced to Brennan Manning through his book Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out.  It was then I started following him from a distance.  I read his work, followed his life, agonized in his setbacks, rejoiced in his victories, and always stood amazed that in this very human man Jesus kept showing up, revealing to us a love and grace that staggers the imagination and sets one’s soul soaring.

Mind you, Brennan Manning was no hero to me.  To make him a hero I think would have distressed him.  He didn’t want to be seen that way.  Instead, he was a man who couldn’t seem to break free from certain aspects of brokenness but who also refused to let his brokenness be the final word.  He kept drawing near God, refused to walk away from God, and kept coming to Jesus, as the old song says, “Just as I am without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me.”

Manning was an author, a priest, a contemplative and a speaker. His heart identified with the marginalized, the disenfranchised, the lonely, the outcast, the abused.  If I had one word that best described him it would be, authentic.  He was weak, he knew it, and he didn’t hide from it.  He did desperately need God, and every time I’ve read his words through the years, I've felt I was in the presence of somebody who modeled being a recipient of God’s amazing grace.  He never seemed to be anybody other than who he was.

            Manning wasn’t a saint.  He was sinner saved by grace.  He was a man who had a heart for God.   It was a broken heart, a wounded heart, a searching heart, but it wasn’t a perfect heart.  He staggered, slipped, fell, and struggled.  He did it all, however, in the presence of God.  He did not run from God when he stumbled.  He ran into the arms of God.

            I think this is what most attracted me to him.  In The Ragamuffin Gospel Manning wrote,

We should be astonished at the goodness of God, stunned that he should bother to call us by name, our mouths wide open at his love, bewildered that at this very moment we are standing on holy ground. 

Over the years every time I came to his books or articles or sermons, I felt like I was standing in the presence of a man who was really “astonished at the goodness of God.”  I think he was stunned that God called him by name and bewildered that at any given moment he was standing on holy ground. 

Truth is that in Brennan Manning’s astonishment I was drawn to God in new ways so that I began to be astonished, too.  He help me to see that God really does love sinners right where they are, that he really does know their name, that they matter to Him, that each one is his child, and that it is okay to be open, truthful, honest, authentic, even broken, in the presence of God and each other.  In Abba’s Child he challenged his readers to “define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.”

It was through Brennan Manning, and others like him, that I began to see God not in some abstract theological way but as up-close and personal.  I came to a place where I began to experience Jesus in the sense that John wrote about him in I John 1:1, “What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of God.”  I couldn’t experience Jesus exactly as John did, but I began to get Jesus out of black words on white paper and into the messiness of the world in which I lived.  Jesus really did become an incarnational Savior. 

           

Brennan Manning helped me to see Jesus, to experience the love of God in the reality of my own life, and to see that God is passionate about His creation, about each one of us who have been created in His image.  Like Brennan Manning I am no saint.  Still I have and am, even in this moment, experiencing the poured out and lavished grace of God.

In his memoir, All Is Grace, Manning speaks of God’s grace as God seeks to draw near sinful, broken, and hurting humanity.  He candidly says what each one of us believes deep down inside our lives, or at least, wants to believe.   

     My life is a witness to vulgar grace -- a grace that amazes as it offends. A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wage as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five. A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him up and decides to throw a party, no ifs, ands, or buts. A grace that raises bloodshot eyes to a dying thief's request -- "Please, remember me" -- and assures him, "You bet!" A grace that is the pleasure of the Father, fleshed out in the carpenter Messiah, Jesus the Christ, who left His Father's side not for heaven's sake but for our sakes, yours and mine. This vulgar grace is indiscriminate compassion. It works without asking anything of us. It's not cheap. It's free, and as such will always be a banana peel for the orthodox foot and a fairy tale for the grown-up sensibility. Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try and find something or someone that it cannot cover. Grace is enough... He is enough…Jesus is enough.

            Even at this late date in my life I'm not sure I know how to get my head around a grace like that.  Then, maybe I'm not supposed to.  Maybe I'm just supposed to stand amazed, awestruck, stunned, and bewildered as I look into the face of Jesus and realize I am looking into the face of God.  Maybe it is okay to just be still and sing

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see.

            Brennan Manning help me to see that if God is really about grace, then I really can't earn a place at His table.  It has to be given me.  In the words of Augustus Toplady, given to us in 1776, maybe it really does come down to one thing,

Nothing in my hand I bring,

Simply to the cross I cling;

Brennan Manning passed away on April 12, 2013, at the age of 79 (April 27, 1934 – April 12, 2013).  I mourned his passing but I still celebrate his life.  I celebrate not because he was a saint but because, broken though he was, he refused to cover-up his life and live in secret.  He laid it out for God and for all the world to see.   “All is grace. It is enough.  And it’s beautiful.”