Jesus the Master Ninja and the Secret of the Universe

When the Son of Man comes, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne and divide the gentiles before him, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  He shall say to those on his right, “Blessed are you, chosen of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you!  For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.  I was naked and you clothed me.  I was a stranger and you invited me into your home.  I was sick and you came to me.  I was in prison and you visited me.  Enter into my rest.”  And they shall reply, “Lord, when were you hungry and thirsty and we gave something to you?  When were you naked and we clothed you?  When were you a stranger and we welcomed you?  When were you sick or in prison and we visited you?”  The King will say, “In as much as you did it to one of these, my brothers, so you did it to me.”

This is a pretty familiar passage.  And we are pretty sure we know what to do with it—give food and clothes and shelter and healing to people.  To visit people in prison.  The church has been doing these things for centuries, millennia, so we don’t need to learn these lessons, right?

Well, if that’s all we get out if the passage, we still have something to learn.  We need to learn that Jesus is a ninja master.

1.       Jesus is among us, now.

No, don’t bother looking around the auditorium.  You wouldn’t recognize him.  But he is here, possibly right next to us.  Not just in spirit, either.  He is a person whom you recognize, a person you have met.  It’s just that he doesn’t have the classic Jesus look.  He might be an old man, a little girl, a smelly street person, a beautiful woman, a black pastor, a Hispanic immigrant, a single mom.  All we know is that Jesus is in need.  That’s the only clue we have.   And he is looking at our response to him.

2.       Jesus is in disguise

Jesus is not going to be who we think.  We may look at him and think he’s a drug addict, a lazy bum, a person who takes advantage of the system.  We may think he is a false teacher, a liar, an alcoholic, a party animal, a sexual deviant—because that’s what some people thought he was the first time he came, so that’s still what some people think.  Some will listen to the rumors and think he is a thief, a secret wealthy person, a con man, or the face of Satan himself.  All these rumors and speculations are part of his disguise to make you think that you need to keep your distance from him.  The fact is, he is helpless.  He makes himself helpless.  For your sake.

3.       Jesus is the master trainer

Jesus lives in disguise among us in order to train us to be people of mercy.  The weapons of our battle is free food, clothing and water.  Free rooms to host those who can’t pay.  Our time given to those in the most desperate circumstances.   And these weapons must be given to the most unlikely people—desperate drug dealers, prostituting paupers,  illegal immigrants,  travelling preachers with no shoes and a bad speaking voice,  woodsmen.   People who can’t budget, whose money runs through their fingers like water, who couldn’t make ends meet even if they had twenty feet to spare, people whom even Oprah would have a hard time liking.  Why are we helping these people?  Because they might be Jesus.  Just maybe.  Probably not, but you never know.   Because Jesus has shown up in more surprising places than these, and we can’t be too careful.  In this way, because of his disguise and his demand to help him in whatever disguise he’s in, we learn to live generously to whomever comes in need.  We learn to be merciful to the undeserving, to be less judgmental, to be open-hearted people.

4.       Jesus is a master plotter.

The odd thing, is that Jesus isn’t doing all this for the sake of the needy, although that doesn’t hurt.  He isn’t training us for our own sake, even, although he loves us and wants to see us be the best we can be.  In the end, Jesus is doing this for his kingdom.  The stunning point of Jesus’ mission is not that he is creating a whole nation of open hearted, generous people.   He separates people based on their ability to be generous to those unlikely to deserve it.  Open your mind, for a bit, and consider the imagination of Jesus. 

He has in mind a huge nation full only of the most giving, merciful, compassionate and thoughtful people.  A whole nation full of people ready to give their own plate of food at the first sign of a person in hunger.  A kingdom where every individual is open to give a space in their house, if they have it.  Can you imagine what a population like that would be? 

• A nation without hunger, because everyone is ready to help the hungry, without selfishness. 
• A nation without nakedness, because everyone is willing to give or to make what other’s need. 
• A nation without homelessness because every home is open and the owners welcoming to anyone in need. 
• A nation without sickness, because all are willing to set their own time and knowledge and power to those who are sick. 
• A nation without prisons, because the selfish are banished and the needy have all their needs met—even people to spend time with them.

5.       It is easy to mistake Jesus’ purpose

Jesus’ ultimate purpose is to establish a kingdom of generosity and mercy and love.  We can so easily lose the game, because we never understood the ultimate goal of the game.

Suppose that Monopoly had a special rule, that anyone who went broke during the game would instantly receive all the money from the current winner.  Those who played Monopoly normally would end up losing the game, because they would think the purpose was to get more money, when really they’d progress better if they had less money.

That’s how most people play Christianity—a game only roughly based on Jesus, but with a different purpose in mind.  Some people play the game Christianity as if those who believe the right things win.  Some people play the game as if those who go to the right church win.  Some people play as if they can obey the right laws, then they win.  Some actually play as if they could be successful in this life, they will win the game.  Others as if they have enough faith, they will win.

But Jesus… and the rest of the Bible, interestingly enough… say that God judges only on deeds, not on religious ritual or even faith. And the kind of deeds he judges on aren’t this or that law, but actions of mercy and generosity, especially to those in need.  The final rule of the game of Jesus is those who display the quality of mercy, compassion and generosity to the needy are those who win.  No one else does.

• So anyone who is generous only to those who are not in need, they didn't give to Jesus, so they lose.
• Those who judge those in need, for whatever reason, they judged Jesus, so they lose.
• Those who ignore the needy because they have better things to do, they ignored Jesus, so they lose.
• Those who spend days studying the scriptures, teaching them, but fails to help the poor, they failed Jesus, so they lose.
• Those who praise God day in and day out, but can’t find time for the needy, they didn't have time for Jesus so they lose.
• Those who give everything to a church who somehow fails to give to the poor, they failed to give to Jesus, so they lose.
• Those who have suffered all their lives and kept everything they had to themselves so they could survive, they kept everything from Jesus so they lose.
• Those who used their smarts and energy to build up a kingdom for themselves and those who were smart and strong enough to work with him, and never needed anything—they lose.

The only ones who win are the generous.
No matter what religion, if they used their religion to learn to be more giving to those in need, they win.
No matter what theology, if they use their theology to be more generous to the poor, they win.
No matter whether rich or poor, if they surrendered all they had to those who had less than they, they win.

Be a winner.  Use what you have been given to help those in need.

Discovering the Delicate Deception of Mammon

Jesus commands all his disciples to sell their possessions and give to the poor. He said we cannot serve our master, God and the god, Mammon. Certainly there are more 'gods' than just Mammon. But Mammon is the chosen god of America, and we find it hard to see our way outside of it. It is more often than not that we are deceived as to the level our love of wealth has corrupted us. We feel wrong in our heart unless we serve Mammon, even though the Scriptures teach us to do otherwise. This is why it is good to have some standards by which to compare ourselves to and to really do some heart-searching before God. Because the love of wealth destroys us. Every day. And we don’t even see it. We don’t know how much we serve Mammon, because we always have, as our parents and grandparents did before us. Mammon-worship is so common to the American way of life, that we don’t even know we are doing it.

If we have two coats (or the means to buy another), see a person with none and do not give it, then our god is probably Mammon.

If a poor person comes to the door and we do not even offer some food to them, then our god is probably Mammon.

If we use the local non-profit as a place to dump our garbage, then we are our god is probably Mammon.

If we have an extra room, but do not have a homeless person living with us, then our god is probably Mammon.

If we walk by poor beggars daily and make excuses for not giving to them, then our god is certainly Mammon.

If we celebrate with our family, have our Christmas and Thanksgiving parties with those whom we love, but we do not invite the poor or helpless, then we are disobeying the word of Jesus and serving the god of Mammon. If we have no relationship with the poor, but only see them from a distance, afraid and disgusted by their state, so we are separated from Christ, and so we are servants of Mammon.

If the profit of our business is more important than the survival of the poor, hungry, homeless, and outcast, then our god is Mammon. If the policy of your company is to turn away people looking for water, to evict the poor when their rent is a week overdue, to pour bleach on food when it is being thrown away, to refuse to allow someone to use the bathroom because they can’t afford to pay for your wares, then you are serving Mammon.

If there are hungry on our streets that have never known our kindness or the move of the love of Jesus from us to them, then our god is probably Mammon. If the only food we give are old cans of green beans or beets, or food that we are allergic to, then our god is probably Mammon.

If the annual amount we spend on clothes or our car exceeds that which we spend on the poor, then we probably serve Mammon.

If our tithe goes to a church that spends large amounts on Christmas pageants and a large, gorgeous building, but has a “benevolence ministry” that is only open once a month, with a pittance for the poor, then we are serving Mammon. If our church is left empty in the winter when there are poor people sleeping in the freezing cold, then we are serving Mammon. If our church’s retreat or youth budget is larger than our benevolence budget, then we are serving Mammon.

If we support with our vote or our finances or our volunteer time the politics of Mammon, which takes from the poor and uses their power to kill the poor of both the nation in which we live and nations far away, we are certainly serving Mammon. If our candidate demonizes the poor, calling them “lazy” or “a burden on society”, then we are a servant of Mammon. If our candidate demands that the wealth of our country not go to the poorest of the world, whether in our country of origin or outside, but to be fed to the god of the Military, or the god of Government Bureaucracy, then we are serving Mammon.

And if we, the Christian poor, are ungrateful to those who sacrifice to give us what they can, but we demand more than they can give, more than our fellow poor people receive, then we too are looking to greed rather than the God who gives us abundantly more than we need, we too are serving Mammon.

The only answer to any of us is the word of Jesus—let us take what little or much wealth we have and give it freely to those who have greater need than we. Let us be people who are characterized by generosity, not bitterness, nor stinginess. May we not seek for our own first and the needy second. Rather, let us truly do as Jesus said, and love our needy neighbor as ourselves, no less than we love ourselves.

Three Meditations on the Death of a Friend

Tim Bass by Tinidril

Last week, in the middle of the night, my son, my wife and I did our best to save our friend's life and then watched as the paramedics did the same with all they had for forty five minutes. To no avail. Tim was a quiet man of few words, but when he did speak, it was with wisdom and humor and usually with a slight grin through his hairy face. My friends will want to tell me that he's in a better place. And I'll tell others that he's in the rest and peace he so deserves. But for me right now, it's not about that.

Every person we get to know creates a shadow of that person in our minds, connected, as if by an umbilical cord to the real soul we experience. Every time we bump into that person, laugh with that person, work with that person, mourn with him, fight with him, suffer with him, love him-- that shadow of the person grows in our soul and the more often we see or spend time with that person the cord grows stronger, and the connection is deeper.

When a person dies, or leaves us or suddenly disappears that cord is cut, and we are severed from the soul that is an essential part of who we are. And that shadow, that part of ourselves, begins to shrivel, to starve. When we grieve, we aren't so much grieving for our loved one who is now doing better than we will for a while. We cry because a part of us has been carved out of our soul, and he's still there, but we know the memory won't last for long. The feelings of being with him are going to fade. We have lost, are losing, a part of ourselves.

* * *

Each body is a tiny universe
Each soul its own nation.
Complexity, contradiction, conflict
Wrapped within a weakened unity.
Who dare unravel the depths of a person?
What book written completes the hidden?
The death of one is a genocide,
A grave tragedy the angels decry.
Who dismisses such a loss?
Who among the wise dare take it lightly?
Mourn with me this intricate maze,
Not because it is no more,
But because the world lacks the richness
Once taken for granted.

* * *

Beneath the tree
Beside the road
Lay the sign:
       "One coin helps."
No one steals it.
Worthless cardboard
All that remains
       But fading memories.

The Short Version of Jesus' Teaching for Agnostics (and others)

Yesterday a person in my church said to me, "I just don't get it.  There's all this stuff that I just can't accept in the Bible and it just doesn't make sense.  I believe that there is whatever that created us and that's God.  But the rest of it doesn't make sense."

He makes a good point.  There are so much nonsense in Christian Theology.  We can get caught up in details that are just silly.  Specifics about eschatology, heaven and hell, the nature of God, Christology, soteriology and worship certainly can easily block people from a simple understanding of the basic truth of Jesus.

So I am going to make an attempt to get Jesus' message down to the very basics.  This isn't the message of the Bible, nor the message of Christian theology.  Rather, these is the most important truths Jesus expressed that agnostics might appreciate.

I understand that if you are a Christian reading this I will have certainly skipped your favorite theological axiom(s).  I'm not really sorry about that.

1. There is a God no one knows
Jesus says that everyone has got their own ideas about God, but the only one who knows God is the one who has been up to heaven, which discounts pretty much everyone we have met.  God is ultimately mysterious, and much of what we understand about God is understood in the negative.  (There is nothing God cannot do, for example.)  The main relationship between a human and the unknowable God, according to Jesus, is active respect to God and following the correct ethical path.

2. Some agnostics are on the right path.
Jesus wasn't opposed to people questioning the truth.  Questions are good.  In fact, the people who seem to have the most mix-ups are those who don't question that which they should question, those who are so caught up in tradition, doctrine and ritual that they can't see the truth when it's right in front of them.  Jesus believes that there will be some agnostics praised by the Creator who didn't even know they were on God's path.  Jesus doesn't separate people by Christian or otherwise.  There are those who do what is right and those who do wrong, whether they are agnostic, atheist, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian or otherwise.

3. The World is full of injustice
Many people are without clear ethical direction, and this causes deep suffering and oppression in the majority of humans. Almost every human being is both the victim and cause of suffering.  We are in need of direction, a place to escape oppression, and the power to enact change.

4. There are two kinds of human ethics
Jesus calls these two paths Mercy and Judgement.  Mercy is the path that is found through our brain's mirror neurons, in which we see the other as ourselves.  Judgement is the path of anger and enmity, which our mind places certain people so that we see their opinions and ideas as always in antithesis to our own.  Jesus says that the main ethical task of humanity is to always choose the path of Mercy over the path of Judgment.

5. Judgment
There is a place for judgment.  Our brains understand this as karma, or reciprocation.  Every human deserves either good or bad, according to whether they do good or bad.  Jesus affirms that reciprocity exists, but that it is the place of the universe to hand out reciprocity, that our human minds are too limited to property see even one human beings place in the scale of reciprocity.  While we need to recognize and correct the bad, we should not do this by acts of harm or hatred.  To enact our rage upon another is to place us into the "bad" category of karma, and so the universe must act to punish us.

6. Mercy
Jesus says that we should instead focus our efforts to love others, which should be the ethical atmosphere of all of our actions.  To "love" is to benefit those whom we have contact with (directly or indirectly), and this benefit will differ depending on the specific context we are in.  The most basic form of love is to do all one can to meet a person's need, especially if they are harmed or oppressed.  The extent of love is without limit, even enacting mercy to those who do not deserve it, or those whom we do do not wish to give it.  To live a life of mercy is to ultimately be delivered from harm and oppression.

7. Sacrifice
Even as there are people who seem to only wish to enact harm, bringing oppression and suffering wherever they go, so there must be people who do the opposite, enacting mercy to all, no matter what the cost to themselves.  Most people live harming some and helping others, but if the world is to escape the cycle of suffering and oppression, we must have more and more people willing to give up everything they have, do and are to give mercy to more and more people, especially those who desperately need it.  Without these people, the world cannot escape being a place of suffering.

8. Power
No human is able, on their own, to be a person who always enacts love and refuses to harm.  Jesus claims that the power to escape one's own suffering and to be a person who loves is found in prayer to the Creator and accepting invisible gifts of energy to be applied to a life of love.  In the end, release from suffering is discovered in mysticism.

In summary, this is what Jesus said is "good news".  Do you agree?  How do you see the universe differently?

Dear Pope Francis

Hello, this is Steve Kimes, a Mennonite pastor among the homeless in Portland Oregon.

I just want to let you know that I'm a fan.  I'm a fan of anyone representing Jesus by speaking to power about the needs of the poor.  And not only do you speak, but you act.  Visiting the homeless, establishing shelters... you're my kinda guy.  Great that you've got such a megaphone to speak the true word of God.

I'm sure you've noticed, though, that some people are representing you but don't have your same heart, or vision for the needy.  There are churches that I know where the congregation has to hide the homeless from their priests so the priests won't call the police to get the homeless out of their area.  There are bishops who block funds to help the poor to support building and other projects instead.  I know times are financially hard for the church.  But you know that the poor should always be priority, otherwise why should our doors be open?  We should not be dissuading the poor, but giving them respect and hope.   But you know all that.  And from your position, you can't solve all the issues of your church.  I get it.

But today I hear the news that for your visit in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, the city that was named after the persecuted and poor church in the book of Revelation, the mayor is planning on sweeping out the homeless who are sleeping on the site that you are speaking.  In your name, they are going to get rid of the poor from your presence, from the presence of Christ in the mass, because they are unworthy to be there.  They might allow "a few" of the homeless to remain, but be rid of the majority of those who, more than any, belong there.

I wouldn't say anything about this, but they are doing it for you, and this is opposed to everything you have said about the poor.  I am hoping that you won't stand for it.

I also want to point out one other item:  This photo of the mayor of Philly helping his security guard hold down a homeless man.  The homeless man just wanted to talk to the mayor, and to let him know how unfair it is for him to force the homeless out of their sleeping spots for your visit.  And for his boldness, he was abused, and the mayor helped.

This is a symbol of the homeless in America.

In every major city in the US, the homeless are abused, not by the states or by the federal government, but by the cities, by the mayor and the police.  The homeless have their tents and sleeping gear stolen from them on the orders of mayors.  They are forced to move from their location, and given no other place to be, for it is illegal to be homeless in almost every city in the U.S.  And in many cities, it is illegal for the homeless to sit, to lie down to sleep, to ask for money.  Because these women and families and men are poor, they are being abused and harmed.  This picture of the mayor is exactly what is happening to all the homeless of the United States.  We have a secret third world here in one of the wealthiest nations of the world, and for our troubles we are being abused by the local governments.

Dr. Susan Fiske, a highly respected sociologist, explains it this way:  The homeless is the social group that is most put into the category of "disgust."  She says that when the average American sees a homeless person, they see, not a human being, but "a pile of garbage."  And so the cities of the United States treat the homeless as garbage.  As something to be moved, not a human being to be cared for.

I want to ask you this: Please speak to the plight of the homeless.  A Red Cross worker called the homeless situation the constant state of emergency that isn't treated like an emergency.  But if you could take your megaphone and call our cities to justice.  To support us would mean a lot.  I don't expect an overnight turnaround, but if you could speak to the issue, we would all appreciate it, here in the foxholes.

In Philadelphia, could you have a special mass for the homeless?  Could you invite them into your presence, invite them into the presence of the body and blood of Christ?  Could you show the mayor and all the mayors how the homeless should be treated, with dignity and opportunity?

I write this with tears in my eyes because over the last twenty years I have seen the homeless beaten, attacked by dogs, tased multiple times, lit on fire, their corpses abused and left without burial for months, and arrested not only by the local governments but by the community and the church.  All for the "crime" of being poor.  Please, help us in our fight against oppression.

Thanks, Steve Kimes

Low-Hanging Fruit

"Racism is low-hanging fruit"-Henry Rollins.

The evil that occurred by the hand of Dylann Roof could have been avoided. A teacher that took interest in him, a set of friends who got him interested in games (even on the internet), a parent who filled his time with something positive... but instead he was isolated and left on the internet to find evil. A club that he felt he was welcomed in, because racism is welcoming to any young white man. And then he has a group to blame his isolation on.

Do we want to stop evil from taking over? Then we need to make sure our young people are connected with positive people, doing positive things. I'm not saying it comes easy, but ignoring them doesn't work.

Give or Teach or...

The proverb "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime" is, like most proverbs, inadequate because it sets up a false dichotomy.

First, we need to remember that the "fish" is simply any person's need, whether it be food or a skill, or an occupation, or health.

The two options in helping someone in need aren't just giving or teaching. In both those options, someone knows how to live life and other doesn't. But we might also: 

Give people who already know how to fish the opportunity to. 

Fish with someone who is too afraid to fish because of past experiences.

Give someone a fishing hole, because they've been kicked out of all the other ones.

Give them an opportunity to help you give fish to the community as a partner.

If all you want to do is give or to teach, then you are assuming the person in need is less than a person than you.  Because somehow, you think they can only be fulfilled if you do are over them in some way. The best way to help a needy person is to come alongside them and support them to do better as an equal, not as a philanthropist or a mentor.