How the Holy Spirit Turned Believers into Doers of God's Word, in Acts 4: 31-35

 

I gave this reflection today at a gathering of 30 pastors and religious leaders who  wanted to have affordable housing built on their church property, with guidance from our MHCH Congregational Land Committee. Our team of experts gave them aerial view maps of their property with specific information about height, density, number of units allowed, etc. Architects helped them envision different possibilities. One pastor said, "My eyes were opened!" And this sentiment was shared by many others as they envision potentials they hadn't imagined for their church property. 

Religious leaders from four states (Washington, Colorado, Texas, and Northern California) were also participating in an Apprenticeship Program to learn how to provide similar advisement for interested churches in their states. In addition to technical advisement, we provided a biblical perspective that many of the pastors seemed to appreciate. This is what I shared: 

We’re in the post-Easter time of the church calendar, with Pentecost only eight days from now. Pentecost is sometimes described as the birthday of the church, and it was a wild moment with people speaking in tongues with such exuberance some thought they were pixilated. After receiving the Holy Spirit, many signs and wonders were performed by the apostles, such as miraculous healings. What I’d like to talk about is how the coming of the Holy Spirit transformed believers into doers of the Word, as described in Acts 4, verses 31-35.

³¹ When [the believers] had prayed, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness. ³² All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. ³³ The apostles testified powerfully to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God’s great blessing was upon them all. ³⁴ There were no needy people among them, because those who owned land or houses would sell them ³⁵ and bring the money to the apostles to give to those in need.

It is clear from this passage that early Christians took seriously Jesus’ mission statement: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me….I have come to proclaim  good news to the poor, comfort to the oppressed…..” Jesus ends by proclaiming the “acceptable year of the Lord,” the year of Jubilee when prisoners and captives were set free, all slaves were released, all debts were forgiven, and all property was returned to its original owners.

Think about what our nation, and our world, would be like if we practiced Jubilee economics!

Early Christians were willing to do something that most Americans would find unthinkable: sell their homes to help the poor.  Sad to say, many who profess to be Christians place property values above human values. They not only don’t want to sell their homes to help the poor. They don’t want any poor person to live near them because it might decrease their property values. This is a myth, but this doesn’t stop people from protesting, In San Dimas, four thousand people recently gathered to protest an affordable housing project for seniors experiencing homelessness. They didn’t want the poor to be housed anywhere near their community. Blessed are the poor as long as they don’t live near my back yard!

That’s why what we are doing is so important and so deeply biblical. Jesus didn’t care much about temples built by human hands; he was interested in creating a compassionate community. He probably would be too excited about the magnificent church buildings we see in many urban centers, where fewer and fewer people are worshipping each year. What probably would excite him was seeing his followers convert underutilized parking into affordable housing for the poor. That’s what it means to be good stewards, and that’s why we are here: to learn how we can make affordable housing happen on religious land.  

Are Homeless People a Threat to Children or Vice Versa?

 

Jim Wolf, before and after makeover

By Anthony Manousos

This article is from the May 19 MHCH Newsletter. To read the entire newsletter, click here.

One of the most common myths we hear about unhoused people is that they are a threat to children and our schools. Disheveled, mentally ill people acting out on the street may seem threatening, like the man pictured above on the left. Shawn Morrisey, who lived on the streets for many years and now works for Union Station Homeless Services in Pasadena, often says, “If you had seen me when I was homeless, you would thought I was a scary person.” This above picture went viral and shows Jim Wolf, a vet from Grand Rapids, MI, before and after a makeover that changed his life.

In San Dimas thousands of people showed up to protest permanent supportive housing for seniors (elderly folks over 55 years old) who were living on the streets, claiming that their proximity to a school would endanger children. But are these fears justified?

I did a google search and found very few cases where unhoused people attacked or harmed children, and in no cases were they living in supportive housing. In 2015 in Los Angeles a homeless man grabbed a child near Disney Hall and the headline said that the child was stabbed. The article goes on to state that the boy was only scratched.[1]  There have been attacks on children and teens by homeless men on subways, none of which were fatal.  In one incident a homeless man was accused of killing a child, but the charges were dropped.[2]

All of these incidents are disturbing and shouldn’t be dismissed, but we need to also keep in mind that children are much more likely to be sexually abused by relatives or by teachers than by the unhoused. One of the biggest threats to students is being killed by fellow students toting a gun.

What is also disturbing is the number of unhoused people who are assaulted by teens and even ten-year-old boys.

Egged on by a 17-year-old, two 10-year-old boys joined in the attack of a Florida homeless man, leaving him bruised and bloody, police said. The incident highlights an upswing in violent crime across the U.S. against the homeless. In 2006, there were 142 attacks and 20 murders, several involving teenagers seeking a vicious thrill, according to the Washington, D.C.-based National Coalition for the Homeless.[4]

In January 2023, seven teenage girls in Toronto allegedly “swarmed” and murdered a 59-year-old unhoused man.[5] Such incidents have become so common they have even received a name: “sport killings.” Horrific though this seems, it is not surprising since many parents harbor such negative stereotypes that children see nothing wrong in attacking or even killing unhoused people. This is happening everywhere, even in Pasadena, where teens sometimes throw rocks at the unhoused residents of our city.

Some schools don’t see affordable/supportive housing as threatening to their students, however. In East Whittier, the conversion of a motel to supportive housing received a lot of community support even though it was next to a school. Monica Oviedo, Whittier Union High School District superintendent, said that the location had fewer issues as a place for unhoused individuals than when it was a motel. She affirms:

“Whittier Union High School District is committed to ensuring our students have access to the resources they need to succeed in not only academics but their personal endeavors as well. This includes having access to affordable housing. Whittier Union is supportive of Supervisor Janice Hahn’s efforts in making this a reality. She has always been a strong advocate for our District community, and we are tremendously grateful.”[6]

As people of faith, we need to remind our friends and neighbors that our unhoused neighbors are children of God, just like us, and we should be grateful when they are safely housed.  If they are given the supportive services they need, they will thrive, and our communities will be better off and safer. This is putting the command to love thy neighbor into action. And as the Gospel says, “Perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18).

[1] https://abc7.com/homeless-man-stabs-child-disney-concert-hall-stabbed-downtown-los-angeles/1118120/

[2] https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/neighborhood/neighborhood-outraged-after-child-killed-walking-home-from-school/285-202040703

[3] https://www.troyrecord.com/2023/03/26/homeless-man-charged-with-sexual-abuse-of-a-child-in-north-greenbush/

[4] www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/29/homeless.attack/index.html

[5] https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ken-lee-identified-as-victim-of-alleged-stabbing-attack-by-8-teen-girls-in-toronto-1.6224355

[6]https://www.whittierdailynews.com/2023/04/06/la-county-nonprofit-celebrate-a-re-imagined-former-motel-6-in-west-whittier-los-nietos/

How the peace movement thwarted Nixon's desire to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam: "The Movement and the Madman" this Friday at ICUJP

 I am thrilled that the next speaker at ICUJP will be my friend Robert Levering, who made this documentary about how the peace movement thwarted Nixon's desire to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam.

Please join us online ICUJP Friday Forum May 19th, 7:30-9:30 am Pacific The Power of Protest: The Movement and the "Madman" Join video conference here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88296070829 Call in by phone: +1 669 900 6833*  Meeting ID: 882 9607 0829 PASSCODE: 109155 *Meeting controls for call-in attendees: To mute/unmute yourself: *6 To raise hand: *9 Event Description:  The Movement and the "Madman" tells how two antiwar demonstrations in the fall of 1969 helped prevent a massive escalation of the Vietnam war, including the possible use of nuclear weapons. At the time, the protesters had no idea of the impact of their actions. Join the conversation with our speaker: Robert Levering is the executive producer of the film The Movement and the "Madman" which premiered on PBS's American Experience on March 28th when it was watched by more than a half-million people. He was a fulltime antiwar organizer from 1967 to 1973. After the war, he worked as a journalist, wrote 8 books about the corporate workplace, and for 20 years coauthored Fortune magazine's popular annual feature "The 100 Best Companies to Work For." He was a producer of The Boys Who Said No!, a 2021 film about the draft resistance movement. Learn More/Here's how YOU can help: Website: The Movement and the "Madman" 7:30 - 7:35  Log in and socialize 7:35 - 7:45  Welcome and introductions  7:45 - 7:50  Reflection (5 min. maximum) 7:50 - 9:15  Program and Q&A 9:15 - 9:20  Announcements 9:20 - 9:30  Closing circle and prayer Start your morning with us! Facilitator: Steve Rohde Reflector: Jasmine Hailey ** Meetings begin promptly at 7:30 am Pacific. ** ----- Here's how to join the online meeting: To join by video conference, you'll need to download the Zoom app on your computer or mobile device. Click on the link to join the meeting and then enter the Meeting ID number and passcode. You'll be able to see slides and video, as well as speakers and other attendees. If you prefer to join by phone, you'll be prompted to enter the Meeting ID number and passcode. You won't be able to see the visuals or attendees, but you can view them on the meeting video recording afterward.  If you're new to Zoom and would like to use the video option, we recommend you download the app well ahead of time. ICUJP Friday Forum 05/19/23 Time: 07:30 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada) Option 1: Join video conference  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88296070829 Meeting ID: 882 9607 0829 PASSCODE: 109155 Option 2: Dial in by phone only: +1 669 900 6833 US (California) Meeting ID: 882 9607 0829 PASSCODE: 109155 (To find a dial-in number closer to you, go here.) ----- Please note: Our Friday Forums and other events are open to the public. By attending, you consent to having your voice and likeness recorded, photographed, posted on ICUJP's website and social media, and included in ICUJP materials and publications for noncommercial purposes. If you don't want to be photographed or recorded, please let the facilitator know. ICUJP t-shirts and accessories now available for purchase online! GET YOUR T-SHIRT

April Fool's Day Reflection: Jesus Preaches the Gospel of Prosperity and Union Carbide Repents of Its Sins

 

For April Fool's Day, I'd like to share some stories I’ve heard from Bert Newton's podcast "Parody and Subversion in the Gospel of Matthew." 

First, I’d like to first share with you a new paraphrase of the Gospel by James Martin, a Jesuit Priest. His dynamic, paraphrase translation really makes this text come alive in a way that gets right to the heart of the matter, so I’m going to begin by reading his translation, beginning with verse 16 of Matthew 19:

The Rich and Therefore Blessed Young Man

1. As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to him and knelt before him, and asked, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  2. And Jesus said to him, “What have you done so far?” 3. And he said to Him, “Well I was born into a wealthy family, got into a good school in Galilee because my parents donated a few thousand talents for a building with a nice reed roof, and now I have a high-paying job in the Roman treasury managing risk.” 4. Looking at him, Jesus felt an admiration for him, and said to him, “Blessed are you!  For you are not far from being independently wealthy." And the man was happy.  Then Jesus said, "But there is one thing you lack: A bigger house in a gated community in Tiberias. Buy that and you will have a treasure indeed.  And make sure you get a stone countertop for the kitchen.  Those are really nice."  The disciples were amazed.  5. Peter asked him, “Lord, shouldn’t he sell all his possessions and give it to the poor?” Jesus grew angry.  “Get behind me, Satan!  He has earned it!”  Peter protested: “Lord,” he said, “Did this man not have an unjust advantage?  What about those who are not born into wealthy families, or who do not have the benefit of a good education, or who, despite all their toil, live in the poorer areas of Galilee, like Nazareth, your own home town?”  6. “Well,” said Jesus, “first of all, that’s why I left Nazareth.  There were too many poor people always asking me for charity.  They were as numerous as the stars in the sky, and they annoyed me.  Second, once people start spending again, like this rich young man, the Galilean economy will inevitably rebound, and eventually some of it will trickle down to the poor.  Blessed are the patient!  But giving the money away, especially if he can’t write it off, is a big fat waste.”  The disciples’ amazement knew no bounds.  “But Lord," they said, "what about the passages in both the Law and the Prophets that tell us to care for widows and orphans, for the poor, for the sick, for the refugee?  What about the many passages in the Scriptures about justice?” 7. “Those are just metaphors,” said Jesus.  “Don’t take everything so literally.”

Maybe this isn’t exactly what Jesus intended, but I’d like to share with you something that actually did occur.

On December 3, 2004, Jude Finistera, spokesperson for Dow Chemical, the new owner of Union Carbide, appeared on BBC World to announce Dow’s plan to liquidate Union Carbide to raise $12 billion to compensate the victims of the 1984 Union Carbide disaster gas leak in Bhopal, India

In 1984, a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal suffered a massive leak which exposed hundreds of thousands of people to toxic gases. The official immediate death toll was 2,259, but estimates are that upwards of 16,000 people eventually died and over half a million sustained injuries, many of them permanently disabling.

For 20 years, little had been done to compensate the victims of that disaster. But now, Finestera proclaimed on BBC World, Dow would use the $12,000,000,000 from the liquidation of Union Carbide to pay the ongoing medical bills of 120,000 people who would need medical care for the rest of their lives. In addition, he said that Dow would also clean up the disaster site in Bhopal and release the full information on the chemicals that had leaked into the community, two things that Union Carbide had never done. And on top of all that, Finestera declared, Dow would also pressure the U.S. government to extradite Warren Anderson, the CEO of Union Carbide in 1984, to India to face charges for manslaughter.

Finestera optimistically predicted that although the share-holders of Dow stock would take a hit, they would be proud to be part of this massive compensation plan for the people of Bhopal because it was the right thing to do.

And, as a result of Finestera’s announcement, Dow stock plummeted by $2 billion.

But, then Dow issued a retraction…well, it wasn’t really a retraction because Dow had not sent Finestera to make that announcement on BBC World in the first place. In fact the man making the compensation announcement on BBC World was not really Jude Finestera. His real name was Andy Bichlbaum, a member of the prankster group called “The Yes Men.”

The Yes Men have been pulling these sorts of pranks for 20 year now. They often masquerade as spokespersons for large corporations that need to be held accountable for crimes against humanity.

The Dow Chemical/Union Carbide prank forced Dow to tell the world that it had no intention of paying for the medical care of the victims of their disaster or fully cleaning up the site or fully disclosing the list of chemicals released into the community, or allowing any Union Carbide executive in the U.S. to face justice.

In addition to forcing Dow to admit these things publicly, the Yes Men had also presented, if only for a few hours, a vision of what could happen if people choose to do the right thing, how we might be able to turn our world around and make it a world of justice and mercy rather than one in which the powerful get away with mass murder.

You can read more about the Yes Men and even see videos of them in action at TheYesMen.org.

Through their antics, the Yes Men participate in a long tradition of tricksterism. Tricksterism stretches back through and before antiquity and has been documented in many societies around the world. In the tradition of tricksterism pranks are played in order to reveal something that has been concealed by the powerful.

I hope that on April Fool’s Day, we remember that what seems foolish to the world is really the wisdom of God.

Unforgettable Journeys to Greece - Part 1 (1973)

 

                                Part I: Nostos in 1973

 

Growing up in a Greek family, and majoring in Classics, I always dreamed of going to Greece, the homeland of my imagination, but until I graduated from college, I lacked the means and the time. My father made his nostos, his homecoming to Greece, in 1970 and saw his mother for the first time since leaving Greece as a teenager in 1923. This was, I’m sure, an incredibly moving experience for both of them. My mother and sister went to Greece after my father died in 1971. They were all warmly welcomed with heart-felt Greek philoxenia, hospitality.

Two years after my father died, and after I graduated from Boston University, it was my turn. I was determined go to the place where my father was born and “pay homage to my ancestors,” as my  Greek cousin  Phaedon put it recently. I brushed up my modern Greek at NYU and worked painting houses to raise money for this trip since I hadn’t yet found my vocation as a teacher.

I flew to Athens on an historic date, November 17, 1973, just as martial law was imposed following a student uprising at the Athens Polytechnic University.  Soldiers with automatic weapons patrolled the airport and prevented visitors from entering Athens. The chairs and benches had been removed for some reason so there was nowhere to rest but the baggage conveyor belt. After a sleepless night, I was picked up the next day by my Uncle Johnny and Aunt Angie who drove me to their apartment. We saw tanks and soldiers on rooftops when we passed through Syntagma (Constitution) Square.

We all gathered on the street the next day—my Uncle and Aunt along with thousands of others. The military imposed a 4 pm curfew and meant it. Precisely at 4 pm, they started firing tear gas to disperse the crowds. I was standing next to my aunt and looked for my uncle but he was long gone. I walked back to my apartment arm-in-arm with my sweet brave angelic Aunt.

The next day I had to go to the nearest police station to be registered as a foreigner. The 4 o’clock curfew prevailed. We were told it was illegal to gather in groups of three or more or talk politics. The newspapers were censored so we didn’t know what was happening. This was my first taste of a dictatorship, and I didn’t like the flavor.  I decided to take the ferry to Andros, the island on the Cyclades where my Dad was born. This proved a smart move. There were no politics and no curfew on Andros, just a loving family, and lots of splendiferous food!

I was warmly welcomed by my Greek relatives in Andros and stayed with my Aunts. I can’t remember whether I stayed with my Aunt Maria or Evangelia or both,  but I do recall that they both spoiled me with their kindness.

The weeks that I spent on Andros were golden. Life on the island was much simpler back then. Hardly any cars or TV. People traveling mostly by bus or donkey. Few phones and of course no cell phones. Life was very basic.  Eat, drink (wine or coffee), talk, sleep. Just what I needed. One highpoint was taking part in the slaughter of a pig, a ritual that brought everyone together. We rose before dawn, drank raki (Greek moonshine) and went to work. It was a party that went on for two days that I’ll never forget!

When I returned Athens, things had settled down more or less to normal. The dreadful dictatorship was still firmly in place, but there were no curfews.

During this time of relative calm I had the pleasure of meeting some of other Greek relatives, such as Melina, Rena, Ismini, and others pictured below. (I’m looking forward to seeing Ismini, Melina and others when we return to Greece in August of this year.)

In addition to visiting relatives, I went to the Acropolis and museums in Athens, took a bus trip to Delphi, and  sailed to Crete. I can’t begin to describe what a feast for the mind and spirit these excursions were for me--the culmination of years of studying Greek antiquity and immersing myself in Greek literature! To see with my own eyes what I had studied and dreamed about since I was a child was an unbelievably powerful experience.

Seeing Greek statues (instead of Roman copies) filled me with awe at the ilife-affirming power of Greek sculpture. Seeing the amphitheater at Delphi made me realize how amazing it was that the dramas of Euripides, Sophocles, Aristophanes, and others were staged in this awe-inspiring outdoor setting. And visiting Crete, I fell in love with the Minoan civilization—a matriarchal culture of beauty and art that was celebrated in Judith Hand’s brilliant (but little known) novel The Voice of the Goddess. And don’t get me started on Nikos Kazantzakis, one of my all-time favorite novelists!

Memories keep flooding my mind as I write this but I want to keep it short. I also don’t want to paint too rosy a picture since I did have some painful misunderstandings with some of my relatives. I didn’t feel led to return to Greece for 30 years. But during this time I had a wonderful experience attending the wedding of my cousin Alexandra and her husband people, two of the most delightful people I’ve ever met. When I did return, with my wife of blessed memory Kathleen Ross, a Methodist pastor, it was also an unforgettable experience. We traveled in the footsteps of St. Paul with a boat load of Methodists and other Christians just as the United States was about to bomb and invade Iraq. I was the lone Quaker and the only Greek in this group of religious pilgrims. In the midst of yet another futile war, I had the joy of connecting with my Greek relatives. Thereby hangs a tale I’ll save for my next trip down memory lane.

 

"The Jesus Revolution": a personal perspective

A week ago my wife Jill and I went to see "The Jesus Revolution," a recently released film about the Jesus movement which had a profound influence on many Christians, including my wife. She was in high school when this movement started to sweep through California and the nation and eventually the world. It attracted tens of thousands of young people, many of them hippies. Most gave up drugs but not their flamboyant lifestyle--their long hair and colorful clothes and unconventional ways. Jill wasn't a hippie. She was a lonely high school kid living in Orange County and looking for community and meaning in her life. She found Christ and the Bible, and her life was transformed. Then she starting attending Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, where the Jesus movement was birthed, and heard the preaching of Chuck Smith. She loved the contemporary music and excitement and joy of being with like-spirited young people. When she went to college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, she was baptized in the ocean at Avila Beach along with hundreds of others. She became a campus minister and devoted her life to sharing the good news of the Gospel. As I watched this movie with her, I saw tears in her eyes as she recalled golden moments when she came to Christ and experienced the power of the Holy Spirit.

My life was "revolutionized" by Christ at about the same time (1971), but in a very different way which I will talk about later. Let me first describe how I responded to this movie.  I didn't know much about how the Jesus movement got started so I was fascinated to learn about significant figures like Chuck Smith, Lonnie Frisbee and Greg Laurie.

The movie begins with Greg Laurie, a nineteen-year-old sitting on the beach watching hundreds of young people being baptized in the ocean by a hippie named Lonnie Frisbee, who has long hair and a beard that makes him look like Jesus. (He is played by Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in a series Jill and I love called "The Chosen.") A reporter asks Greg how he came to this place, and he recalls his journey to faith. 

Greg (who later became a highly successful Evangelist) started off life with a  troubled family situation. He was raised by a single mother who had seven marriages, often moving to vastly different locations such as New Jersey and Hawaii. Greg was attending a military academy in hopes to have some discipline in his life when he encounters some "hippie" students who draw him into their liberated world. He  revels in the freedom and the joy of the hippie drug culture, but it isn't satisfying his deepest need for meaning and purpose. Cathe, a girl that he falls in love with (and eventually marries), is drawn into the Jesus movement and she invites Greg to check it out.

Cathe is friends with the daughter of Chuck Smith, a pastor whose church is dying. He is very critical of the young generation and sees him as lost. Her daughter brings home a charismatic barefoot hippie named Lonnie Frisbee who has become a Christian and Smith is intrigued. He invites him to  his church to preach and soon hippies are flocking to hear him. Smith embraces this movement and Calvary Chapel becomes the epicenter of the Jesus movement.

The movie describes the rise of this movement as well as the tensions that developed between Lonnie Frisbee and Chuck Smith. It also depicts the relationship between Greg Laurie (who comes from poverty) and Cathe (who comes from wealth). This human drama is what makes the movie compelling. 

The movie received mixed but mostly positive reviews. The audience loved it (99%), but they are probably a self-selecting group of Christians. The critics were 62% favorable, not bad for a niche religious movie. Dennis Harvey of Variety summed up the positive reviews by describing the movie as "one of the most appealing faith-based big-screen entertainments in a while, polished and persuasive without getting too preachy."

My Journey to Jesus 

I was never part of the Jesus movement, but I did experience the Jesus revolution on a personal level in 1971.  After graduating from Boston University, where I studied poetry with Anne Sexton for two years, I felt led to go "on the road" and took the trans-Canadian railroad across Canada, stopping in various locations along with way. When I stopped in the prairie city of Saskatoon, Saschachuwen, I wandered into a church and walked over to the pulpit, where a Bible was open. I started reading the words of Jesus and felt my heart open up and began to cry. I realized that these words could revolutionize the world, and me. For the first time in my life, I felt the presence of a power greater than myself--a power I have come to know as God or the Holy Spirit.

I felt led by the Spirit to became a hippie poet, writing for underground newspapers, and living mostly in Vancouver, British Columbia. I hitchhiked across the country and experience the joy and freedom of being "on the road," guided by the Spirit. I did have one encounter with the Jesus people in Oregon. Here's how this "came to pass."

I was hitching to Eugene, Oregon, to write for a magazine called "The Bullfrog." I was dressed in a Canadian mounted police coat that made me look like Sgt. Pepper, with long hair and bellbottoms--the full hippie regalia. I needed a place to "crash" so I went to the campus and knocked on a dorm to ask for help. A nervous student responded: "Don't you know that a coed was murdered here a couple of weeks ago. People are very uptight." He recommended that I go to the Newman Center, a pleasant home on the outskirts of the campus. 

However, it was midnight and the Newman Center was closed. There was a chair on the front porch so I sat down, propped up my legs, and prepared to sleep. Before I did, I prayed a simple but heart-felt prayer. "God, please take care of me."

A little while later, after I had drifted off into sleep, I was awakened by a light shining into my eyes. I looked up and saw two police officers pointing a flashlight into my face. As soon as I saw them, I said words that I am convinced were inspired by the Holy Spirit. They were simple, heart-felt and effective.

"Am I glad to see you!" I said, smiling.

The police relaxed when they heard my unexpectedly cheerful response and asked me to come with them to their car. They asked for my ID (I had none) and asked about me. I told them I was a poet and wrote article for underground newspapers. What kind of articles? Oh, lots of things, politics, religion....

They soon decided that I was "harmless" and asked if I'd like to be taken to the house of the local Jesus people. "Sure," I responded. 

They dropped me off and I was welcomed into a large house crowded with hippies like me, and I was given a bunk bed to sleep on.

The next morning at breakfast, an earnest young man asked me if I knew the Lord.

"Definitely," I replied, smiling. "He saved my butt last night."

Over the next year or two I became a seeker and explored various religious paths--Hinduism, Bahai, Buddhism--but I eventually opted for Christianity and began attending various churches. During my graduate school days, I joined the Presbyterian Church in Princeton and adopted a more academic approach to religion. I am deeply grateful for what I learned about important Christian theologians like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Paul Tillich. But the more I immersed myself in academia, the more I drifted away from the spirit of joy and freedom I had experienced while "on the road." 

Thanks to Quakers, with their contemplative and open worship, I was able to reconnect with the Holy Spirit and Inward Christ. I was also able to put my faith into action in life-affirming ways and was led by Spirit to go on peacemaking missions to the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan, Israel/Palestine, and Australia and attend world-wide Quaker conferences in Kenya, Peru and Mexico. I am grateful to have been part of a world-wide movement to promote peace and justice led by the Spirit. I also found among Quakers (and also among Methodists) the joy and freedom I experienced while "on the road." Most importantly, I found a beloved community that has sustained me and my efforts to be a faithful follower of Jesus. 

                                      The Need for a New "Jesus Revolution"

What the "Jesus Revolution" captured best was the yearning for a new way of life, and a new kind of society,  that inspired the hippie movement of the 1960s.  Young people rejected the materialism and individualism of American culture and were seeking a life of freedom and joy. Rock music and psychedelic drugs seemed to offer what we were seeking, but this lifestyle proved a dead end (both literally and figuratively) for most of us. What the revolutionary Jesus offered was something more real and enduring. As it says in the Gospels, he "came to bring life, and to bring it more abundantly" (John 10:10).

Flash forward to 2023, and many young people are turning away from Christianity because of right-wing Christians and Christian nationalists who have embraced Donald Trump, who is the antithesis of everything that Jesus stood for. To Jill and me, it is clear that we need another Jesus revolution--one that will help a rising generation experience the joy and excitement of creating a new world of compassion and justice for all--what Jesus called "the kingdom of heaven." Dr. King called this "the beloved community" and it is the heart and soul of the true Jesus revolution. Young people are abandoning churches in droves, but they are still hungering and thirsting for meaning and community. Many see themselves as spiritual but not religious. Perhaps they are ripe for a new "Jesus revolution."

Loving God, we so need the joy and power of your Holy Spirit to transform our broken nation world and to guide our young people to the path of abundant life and loving service. Help us to be instruments of Your transforming power so that your beloved community can be here on earth as it is in heaven!

Say His or Her Name: A Spiritual Practice Worth Taking to Heart

Thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." --Isaiah 43:1.

"To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out." --John 10:3

One of the profound truths I have learned from the Black Lives Matter Movement is how important it is to say someone's name. When a Black person is shot and killed by police, we are urged to "say his or her name" loudly and publicly. The act of "saying his/her name" affirms that this person has worth and is precious in God's sight.

Jews also value names and refer to the "God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." According to Jewish tradition, the names of righteous people are inscribed in the Book of Life and are remembered during Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

I never fully appreciated the saying of Jesus that the shepherd calls his sheep by name until I visited Maia, a Quaker woman who has a farm in Washington where she raises ducks, goats and sheep. She took us to the sheep pen,  opened the gate to let us in, and then  introduced us to her sheep. She had given each of them a name, and each responded when she called them. Names matter, even to sheep!

One of the practices about the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP) that I love is how it helps people to remember each other's names. Each person is asked to come up with a positive descriptive adjective that alliterates with his or her name. For example, because my name begins with an A, I often describe myself as "artistic Anthony." This simple exercise not only helps us remember names, it also helps us connect with each person's characteristic trait. This name game helps to create a safe and friendly community.

What I love about the God of the Bible is that God calls each of us by name because we matter to God. The series "The Chosen" about Jesus and his disciples opens with the story of Mary Magdalene. She is portrayed as a demon-possessed prostitute suffering from PTSD who is given the nickname "Lilith" by those in the tavern she frequents. This nickname is degrading because Lilith is a Mesopotamian she-demon who, according to Jewish folklore, was Adam's first wife (the one who tempted him to sin). When Jesus encounters "Lilith," he calls her by her real name,  Mary. Jesus quotes  from Isaiah:

The Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

When Mary hears her name and these redemptive words, she is deeply moved. Jesus then holds out his arms, and she welcomes his embrace and is healed. Such is the power of calling someone by their true name. Watching this scene brought me to tears and reminded me how healing it can be to affirm people by name. 

I hope that  we can come to realize that acknowledging someone by name is a holy act when motivated by love. Affirming each other's names, and honoring the Spirit that leads us to serve, can help to build a loving and beloved community. 

Loving God, you call us by name because each of us is infinitely precious in Your sight. Let us remember to honor others by name and to lift them up to You so we can be a loving and beloved community where everyone is honored, respected and loved.