Anita Lustrea

This is an audio version of Mike Murphy’s Friday Rumblings. This is a regular post on Facebook that I’ve turned into a podcast. I decided Mike’s words needed a wider hearing. You may agree or disagree but there is certainly much food for thought contained here. You can friend Mike on Facebook for the printed version or read it below.

Rumblings 6.3.22 

1. The message from the NRA last weekend was loud and clear. It sounded like this to me: “As long as there are Democrats and other creepo leftist enemies of the 2nd amendment, assault weapons will be needed.” 

A NY Times opinion piece offered this gem:  “During Trump’s address to the NRA, all guns, ammo, firearm accessories, knives and other scary items — including laser pointers and selfie sticks — were prohibited.” 

 “There are 50 senators…who refuse to vote on HR 8, which is a background check rule that the House passed a couple years ago….ninety percent of Americans, regardless of political party, want universal  background checks…. We are being held hostage by 50 senators in Washington who refuse to even put it to a vote despite what we the American people want…because they want to hold onto their own power.” ~ Steve Kerr, Golden State Warriors

Let’s be honest. We do have a gun problem. There’s no denying that. We also have a people problem. Too many of us have lost sight of goodness, perhaps even the desire to be good. We have lost sight of caring for the other. We have embraced me-ism. Selfish people + easy access to guns is a problem. When character is forsaken, when common sense is devalued, when legislative cowardice becomes normal, and when we embrace all the absurd Wild, Wild West narratives, is there any doubt that we are in trouble as a nation?

It certainly doesn’t help matters that one political party and its subsidiary, the NRA, seemingly doesn’t exist as a force committed to making democracy viable, serving all the people of this country and solving problems. It has devolved into a conspiracy driven, anti-democratic force, more inclined towards authoritarian rule. 

Of course, on the other side of the aisle, strains of smugness and self-righteousness are quite evident. That party has its own subsidiaries that one dares not threaten. They have their own version of  ‘selective listening’ and it doesn’t serve them or us well. 

We are a mess as a nation at the moment. Corporately and individually – a hot mess. Prayer, some deep interior work, activism, getting out the vote, calling out hypocrisy, standing against evil, standing up for the good, and continued efforts to build bridges of understanding are the tasks before us.  

2. If you set the bar low and over excel – that can be a good thing I guess. I’m attracted to people who set a higher bar even though they know there is a chance they’re not going to hit it. I love their effort and dogged determination as they continue to try. That effort and determination is the real prize.

3.“There’s three things you need to know in life. What you desire, what you believe, and what you have to do. They don’t always line up.” ~ The Lincoln Lawyer (terrific Netflix series) 

This is a riff off of Thomas Aquinas who suggested that the alignment of desire, belief and action make for a more satisfying life and is the pathway towards redemption. I agree with Aquinas and identify with the Lincoln Lawyer – sometimes alignment is tricky.

4. “My home is in Christianity but I have cottages everywhere.” ~ David Hayward 

Hope you do too. Those who are curious need them.

5. If you play fast and loose with the biblical narrative you could make a pretty good case for genocide, slavery, patriarchy, retributive violence, segregation, polygamy, prostitution, etc..  

Of course, playing fast and loose with scripture is not what we’re asked to do. I find it helpful to consider the life and teachings of Jesus. Doing that helps curb my enthusiasm for making a case based solely on my current preferences which can be profoundly suspect. 

6. “Everything hurts,

Our hearts shadowed and strange,

Minds made muddied and mute.

We carry tragedy, terrifying and true.

And yet none of it is new;

We knew it as home,

As horror,

As heritage.

Even our children

Cannot be children,

Cannot be.

Everything hurts.

It’s a hard time to be alive,

And even harder to stay that way.

We’re burdened to live out these days,

While at the same time, blessed to outlive them.

This alarm is how we know

We must be altered —

That we must differ or die,

That we must triumph or try.

Thus while hate cannot be terminated,

It can be transformed

Into a love that lets us live.

May we not just grieve, but give:

May we not just ache, but act;

May our signed right to bear arms

Never blind our sight from shared harm;

May we choose our children over chaos.

May another innocent never be lost.

Maybe everything hurts,

Our hearts shadowed & strange.

But only when everything hurts

May everything change.” ~ Amanda Gorman

7.“ … Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, and insipid. When faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain, when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion – its message becomes meaningless.” ~ Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel 

8. “In America you had the forced removal of the natives onto reservations, coupled with slavery, followed by segregation. Imagine all three of those things happening to the same group of people at the same time. That was apartheid.” ~Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

If we stop long enough to process something like this, our lives could change. We just might move from being nonchalant to ‘holy crap, we can’t allow things like this to ever happen again.’ If we remain nonchalant, then we reveal who we really are and it’s not pretty. And it will happen again.

9. “There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve.” ~ Miroslav Volf

All the thoughts and prayers lately, offered to the Lord God Almighty, might result in our good God saying “Go, be the answer to the problem you’re asking me about. Yes, you.”

10. “ … At a lecture in Israel, I heard one of my favorite rabbis, Donniel Hartman, say, “A life of faith isn’t just about walking with God, but how one walks with humanity. The core feature of a moral life is to see. Choosing not to see is immoral. The goal of religion is to improve our willingness and our ability to see.” A spiritual life is supposed to help us see better. 

The aim of Love, and any God worth worshipping, is improved sight . . . See your neighbor suffering and do something about it. See a stranger laboring under a heavy load and help out. See lies spoken and shared in social media and call foul. See a friend soaring, and say, “I see you, beautiful creature! …” ~ Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, Center for Action and Contemplation

The post Mike Murphy’s Friday Rumblings – 06-03-2022 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

This is a weekly release of the spiritual practice Lectio Divina. I hope you’ll listen and ponder the scripture passage offered and let me know your thoughts.  You can email me at [email protected].

If you enjoy the beautiful guitar music underneath the spiritual practice you can learn more at Steve Wick’s website. Check out his music and see how to purchase it here.

The post Lectio Divina 2 – John 1:35-39 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

Different generations communicate differently. Every teenager of Gen X parents will tell you that’s a fact! If you are speaking across generations, Pastor Darrell Hall says you need to understand how different generations hear. On this week’s podcast we take a look at generational science through the lens of a pastor who has done the hard work of research ending with Doctoral work focused on generational intelligence and effective intergenerational communication. I think you’ll enjoy our conversation centered on Darrell’s book Speaking Across Generations.

Find Darrell Hall in the following places:

• Facebook

Note: When clicking through on links to products on Amazon, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The post Darrell Hall – episode 323 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

This is an audio version of Mike Murphy’s Friday Rumblings. This is a regular post on Facebook that I’ve turned into a podcast. I decided Mike’s words needed a wider hearing. You may agree or disagree but there is certainly much food for thought contained here. You can friend Mike on Facebook for the printed version.

Rumblings. 5.27.22

1. “It always amazes me that many, if not most, white supremacists consider themselves to be devout Christians, when their main message is hatred and rejection of those they consider to be “other.” Jesus says, “This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13).

And you wonder what today’s white supremacists would make of a Middle Eastern man, most likely dark-skinned, speaking Aramaic, whose family had once been refugees, who was asking them to “welcome the stranger.” And in fact telling them that this was one of the litmus tests for entrance into heaven (Mt. 25).

Or what they would make of that same man’s Parable of the Good Samaritan, where the salvation of the beaten man lying by the side of the road depends on the one he considers as “other,” “different,” “foreign” (Lk 10).

Actually, it’s not hard to imagine what white supremacists would do to someone like that: the same thing that the Romans did.” ~ James Martin S.J.

Preach Fr. Martin, preach. Preach about the heart of Jesus and against what we’re doing to dishonor Him.

2. “Christian Nationalism can be messy to define, but it’s critical to recognize its three animating impulses: freedom, order and violence — the ideology’s holy trinity. The freedom belongs only to Americans these nationalists see as like them (White men). The order is to be imposed on all those they don’t (everyone else). And righteous violence is to be deployed as necessary to achieve this twisted vision… White Christian nationalism …is anchored in a mythological version of American history that goes something like this: America was founded as a Christian nation; the founders were traditional Christians; the founding documents are biblically based; God has therefore bestowed immense wealth and power on America and given it a mission to spread freedom and religion around the world; but that mission and those blessings are now threatened by the presence of non-Whites, non-Christians and non-native-born people on American soil…” ~ Samuel Perry and Philip S. Gorski,WAPO

This is at the epicenter of the battle for the heart and soul of our country. Will Christian Nationalism end up ruling the day? I sure hope not. I like a country that values cultural, racial, ethnic, gender, and religious diversity. Don’t you? You gotta work a little harder in a diverse culture but it’s well worth the effort. And when that culture is under attack, good people have to rise up in defense of it. That’s us, right?

3. Archbishop Cupich in Chicago (on NPR): “”The Second Amendment did not come down from Sinai. The right to bear arms will never be more important than human life. Our children have rights too. And our elected officials have a moral duty to protect them.”

4. The Sarasota Herald Tribune reports that “The Florida Department of Education is accepting bids from companies …to provide social studies books for a five-year period starting in 2023. The department posted a 29-page document that lists criteria for what is expected to be included in the books – and what’s expected to be left out.

Critical race theory, social justice, culturally responsive teaching, social and emotional learning, and any other unsolicited theories that may lead to student indoctrination are prohibited.”

Florida is not a healthy place for educators, My guess it’s also not a healthy place for people like me who write things like this. But, if the Governor gets his way, it will be a haven for anyone who wants to bring back the dark ages.

5. Everything has changed. Is this a time of opportunity? I think it is. This might be the time of our greatest impact, the time where our voice is desperately needed, and where our silence just might be a detriment to the cause of Christ.

7. “Our religion is not working well: suffering, fear, violence, injustice, greed, and meaninglessness still abound. This is not even close to the reign of God that Jesus taught. And we must be frank: in their behavior and impact upon the world, Christians are not much different than other people.

Many Christians are not highly transformed people; instead, they tend to reflect their own culture more than they operate as any kind of leaven within it…

Let’s be honest: religion has probably never had such a bad name. Christianity is now seen as “irrelevant” by some, “toxic” by many, and often as a large part of the problem rather than any kind of solution. . .

Most Christians have not been taught how to plug into the “mind of Christ”; thus, they often reflect the common mind of power, greed, and war instead. . .This is getting us nowhere.

Throughout the history of Christianity, it would seem Jesus’ teaching has had little impact, except among people who surrendered to great love and great suffering. Could this be the real core of the Gospel? Such people experience God rather than merely have disconnected ideas about God…

We must rediscover what St. Francis of Assisi called the “marrow of the Gospel.” It’s time to rebuild from the bottom up. If the foundation is not solid and sure, everything we try to build on top of it is weak and ineffective. Perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise that so much is tumbling down around us. It’s time to begin again …” ~ Richard Rohr

Order. Disorder. Reorder. That is the pattern imbedded in all of Creation. Much is tumbling down. That’s OK. It’s time. Something new is about to be birthed. Do we want in on it or not? If yes, we will have to do some deep interior work.

8. Not sure what happened at your place of worship, as a response to the shootings in Buffalo and SoCal, but I pray something happened that reminded people of their responsibility in a world spinning off its moral axis. This was our Senior Pastor’s response. Spot on from my perspective.

“This past week on behalf of Church of the Palms I expressed to our sister congregation Light of the World Church via their pastor our sadness and our outrage over the murders of 10 African-American people in Buffalo. It is understood that these shootings were racially motivated and fueled by racist conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories profile people. Conspiracy theories dehumanize people. Conspiracy theories kill people. Each of the 10 was a human being with a name and story and the image of God planted within them.

Far too quickly events like this turn into political and Media Theater that turn into naming and blaming and more conspiracy theory and more killing – not to mention unjust legislation and bias.

Followers of Jesus have no business in these theories. Followers of Jesus have one theory – to love one another. And with that comes grace and mercy and hearts that break. We weep with those who weep. We grieve with those who grieve. And we stand up for those who are being put to the ground. And we must leave no doubt that our greatest concern is the justice given to and the well-being of all people. If you have any other theory it is probably wrong – the only thing that is right is for us to love our neighbor enough for our hearts to be broken when any neighbor, any group of neighbors, is deemed unworthy of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If you wonder why we talk about race here and racial justice. This is why. We must unequivocally seek out justice and equity for all as the only antidote to madmen. And here is a place to start – seek out a person of color in your life and tell them about your broken heart and ask them about theirs. And if you have no person of color in your life then figure out why that is and do something about it.” ~ Pastor Steve McConnell

We also lifted up, by name, all those killed in Buffalo as well as Dr. John Cheng from the Taiwanese church in California. This week we will have new names. This time from Texas. Lord have mercy.

9. Jesus replied, “Come and see.” So, they went and saw. It changed everything. It still does.

10. “I am so tired of waiting,

The post Mike Murphy’s Friday Rumblings – 05-27-2022 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

This is the first release of what will be weekly Lectio Divina spiritual practice experiences. I hope you’ll listen and ponder the scripture passage offered and let me know your thoughts. You can email me at [email protected].

If you enjoy the beautiful guitar music underneath the spiritual practice you can learn more at Steve Wick’s website. Check out his good work here!

The post Lectio Divina 1 – Mark 4:35-41 appeared first on Anita Lustrea.