Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

Great-grandparents remember Word War II, when over 400,000 of their friends and family died on the battlefields of Europe and the Pacific. For the rest of us, who were not alive then, we’ve never faced a time like this, when hundreds of thousands of our friends, family, and neighbors are dying. This pandemic has forced each of us to grapple daily with our own mortality, when a visit from a chatty, unmasked neighbor can result in contraction of a deadly disease. 

Fortunately, for those of us who have worshipped on Ash Wednesday before, the church has prepared us for this moment. Each year, you are reminded of your mortality, the sin that is killing you, and the true life that goes beyond death in Jesus Christ. Usually, I will impose ashes on your forehead in the sign of a cross and speak to you the words above from Genesis 3. The sign recalls the cross in water and oil made on your forehead at your baptism; the message is that we will all die, and only in Christ will we truly live.

This year, we are joining together with St. Andrews to celebrate the ritual with an even more ancient symbol. Bishop J. Neil Alexander writes, “It was in England, in the eleventh century, that we have evidence of the sprinkling of ashes on all of the faithful, noted there in the writings of the Aelfric, the Abbot of Eynsham.” Oh, poor Aelfric, I knew him Horacio. In these earliest rituals, ashes were sprinkled on the heads of the people, deeply symbolic of the dust to which we all will return, the dirt that will be shoveled on our graves. 

Being reminded of our mortality can be bleak, but in the context of worship of Jesus Christ, it gives us hope. Our hope is not in our bodies, our capabilities, or our health. Our hope is in the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Our bodies fail us, our wills are weak, and our minds lead us astray. But by God’s grace we can hope to make a meaningful impact on the world, to touch people and show them love that makes a difference. We can have a legacy in God’s love, so that when our bodies rest under the ground, love and grace live on. And our souls rest content in the love of Christ, in blessed hope that we will be resurrected to eternal life with glorified bodies no longer made from earth, but a combination of heaven and earth together.

                                                                            

Vote for Faith, for Dignity, for Love

Once when Joshua was by Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries?” The man replied, “Neither; but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” - Joshua 5:13-14

 

Here goes the pastor, being too political again. Here’s the thing, as I see it, politics is just the word we’ve chosen to talk about how we conduct our relationships within the governments we all share. And how we conduct our relationships, whether at work or at home or in the government, is what God is all about. God repaired our relationship to him so that we can be a part of repairing broken relationships in the world.

I don’t think anyone will argue that the relationships in our political system are broken. The question is, what do we, as Christians, do about it? First and foremost, we pray. We can join in the political process, calling our representatives, participating in public meetings. We can peacefully protest. And we can vote. 

Voting is a statement within the political realm that declares all people have an equal voice, all people have an opinion that matters, and all people deserve respect and dignity. It is also a statement of solidarity with one another. As our Bishop Jonathan Holston writes, “Voting is more than simply saying what we believe. It is a sharing of faith, a tangible witness of love of God and love of neighbor. Voting is a way to acknowledge that we are one community, all in this together.”

If we are all in this together, then what side is God on? Are you one of us, or one of our adversaries? Neither, says the Lord. God fought for Joshua and the Jews at Jericho, but he was never on their “side,” as they would learn generations later when they denied justice and peace and suffered his wrath. God is not on human-created sides; God is on the side of justice, righteousness, peace, and love.

So, get out and vote, not because God is on your side, but because you want to be a part of healing the relationships that God so desires in our community, nation, and world.

                                                                 

“Don’t Trust Leaders”

Psalm 146:3–5 Don’t trust leaders; don’t trust any human beings— there’s no saving help with them! 4 Their breath leaves them, then they go back to the ground. On that very same day, their plans die too. 5 The person whose help is the God of Jacob— the person whose hope rests on the Lord their God— is truly happy! 

I’ve heard that there is a battle for the soul of our nation, that our future is at stake. God takes issue with that. Read God’s word above, read it carefully. Then go read the rest of Psalm 146. And rest assured, rest your hope on our God who is faithful forever.

It is true that leaders have a great impact on our world, especially on the vulnerable people that the Psalmist names. Plans made by leaders can help or hurt, give hope or cause despair. In our country as a representative democracy, it is not just our leaders, but everyone who votes who determines our course together as a nation. Yet, the Bible is insistent, we must not put our trust, our faith, in any human beings, not our leaders, not the parties they lead, not majorities, and not ourselves, the voters. Our call as a people of faith is to steadfastly praise and trust the Lord. That means more than voting by our Christian convictions; I know faithful Christians who vote in polar opposite ways. It means that no matter how we intend to vote, our lives and actions in the world must be defined by the Lord our God, who holds our hope, our souls, and our future, who takes up the cause of the the hungry and oppressed, the prisoners and immigrants, the widows and orphans.

Concretely, that means do not post things on social media that suggest our hope and future rests on the outcome of this election. Do read your Bible more often than your newsfeed. Do not name-call. Do pray for peace, justice, and righteousness. If you are anxious about the future of our country, sign up to read to a child at Legacy. And every time a thought of fear or despair enters your mind, especially if it is based in anxiety about the election, examine it to see if its based on trusting in leaders. Then, replace it with specific praise for the Lord, specific thankfulness for something God has done in your life. For as the Psalm says, your hope, your help, and your happiness rest in the Lord.

What Do I Know?

Matthew 6:24-36

I’ve been struggling to write this article for you, because I’m not sure what to tell you. There is so much unknown right now. Did the virus come from a market or a lab? Do our bodies gain immunity if we have it or not? When will there be a vaccine? When will our lives get back to normal? Is there a “normal” any more?

So, I’m going to try to stick to what I do know. I know that we will not return to worship in person until our community has had two sustained weeks of significant decrease in reported new cases. State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell told me that. I know we must continue to be vigilant, wash our hands, maintain our social distance, don’t touch our faces. The Coronavirus Task Force told me that. I know that we must never weigh the lives of vulnerable people against economic prosperity. Jesus told me that.

“You cannot serve God and wealth. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about you body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Jesus does not mean that we should disregard the importance of our physical lives and what we need to survive; quite the opposite in fact. Life is more than food, more than wealth, more than the stock market, more than the standard of living in this country. In the Kingdom of God, life is the most precious thing, each human life. So precious that Jesus died for every human life. True living, serving God in his kingdom and living in his righteousness, lives as Jesus lived, putting the lives of the vulnerable first, showing sacrificial love to others, and not worrying about the cost. And when we live that way, we are prepared to receive the true provision of God, the bread of life that will sustain us no matter what..

I know that we all really miss getting to be together. You all have told me that. We all want to follow Jesus; we just don’t want it to be this hard. We must endure and place the needs of our community and the vulnerable among us above our own. For when we stand in grace, “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

The Perils of Comfort

1 Samuel 3:1-18

The old priest Eli is an interesting character. His quote in 3:18 is telling; “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.” That is his response to the impending death of his sons and the impoverishment of his family? What brings a man to that point? We read later that he is old and fat. Now in those days, no one was fat. He had grown fat off the offerings of the people. As a priest and judge, he led his people and taught them the ways of the Lord, but somewhere along the way he grew comfortable. Comfortable in the good life afforded a priest, too comfortable to stop his sons from taking advantage of people and their position, too comfortable even to lament God’s judgement. Too comfortable to repent. He isn’t overtly doing evil like his sons; he’s just grown too comfortable to do good. He is passive before the Lord, blandly accepting judgment as if he has no choice in the matter. 

Contrast this attitude with the parable of the unjust judge and the widow who won’t stop demanding justice from him (Luke 18:1-8). Jesus tells us that we are called to take action, never to stop praying, never to grow comfortable with injustice. Of course, that requires getting uncomfortable. It’s much easier to chalk things up to “the will of God,” when you see injustice, close your eyes, stop your ears, and keep on in your comfort. So, where could you get a little more uncomfortable in pursuit of justice?

Molesters or Sodomites? An Issue of Interpretation

“But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ* for all who believe.” - Romans 3.21-22

*or through the faith of Jesus Christ 

The verse above, from Paul’s letter to the Romans, is critical to Paul’s theology and to the argument of the letter. And yet, in this important sentence, we have an issue of translation. In the original Greek that Paul wrote, the phrase he uses at the end of verse 22, “pisteos Jesu Christou,” is a construction that can mean either “faith in Jesus Christ,” or “faith of Jesus Christ.” Although most modern translations use “faith in” in the text, they include this difference in the footnotes. This verse is incredibly significant for our understanding of salvation, the cross, and a host of other things. Does God’s righteousness come through our faith in Jesus, or through Jesus’ own faithfulness to God? The text of scripture does not tell us here; we must use other parts of scripture and other things we already believe to decide how to correctly interpret this verse.

I am highlighting this particular verse simply to make the point that scripture is not as easy, cut and dried as it first seems. A student of the Bible, seeking to grow in faith and more deeply understand the scriptures, will soon learn of all of the decisions that must be made in the interpretation of these ancient texts. This example is linguistic; there are also cultural and historical barriers to overcome, textual variants to account for, and lots and lots of symbolism.

I want to convince you of this truth not to discourage you from reading the Bible, but to encourage you to read the Bible in conversation with other Christians who have studied it. Resources such as a study Bible can bring you into conversation with scholars and pastors. In the Sunday sermon, I attempt to help you to interpret it according to the Gospel. Ultimately, Jesus is the key to interpret scripture, so the Holy Spirit inside you is also a faithful guide.

Wise interpretation is vitally important in our current discussions about human sexuality. One side will tell you that the other side doesn’t love others and preaches a Gospel of judgment. One side will tell you that the other side has left the Bible behind to follow culture. Neither of these are true. Both sides are seeking to love others; both sides are seeking to faithfully follow the Bible. What we actually have at issue is biblical interpretation. What cultural, historical, theological, and linguistic tools do we need to understand the prescriptions of the law in Leviticus 18:22? What if I told you that 1 Corinthians 6:9 has a long history of being translated “boy molesters,” not “sodomites,” and was only changed to indicate homosexuality more generally in 1946?

But I’m not trying to convince you of my point of view. I’m trying to help you have better conversations about a deeply personal and painful issue that is ripping our churches apart. Please stop saying people are hateful because they don’t agree with your interpretation of the Bible. Please stop saying people don’t follow the Bible because they don’t agree with your interpretation of it. Please study the approximately seven scriptures that are at issue in this debate. Learn the history, learn the culture, learn the language that will help us understand what they are actually talking about. And approach your brothers and sisters with grace to listen and love.

Who Sinned?

One tiny boy that Anna saw in the clinic in Haiti stuck out to me. He was maybe about 4, the same age as Jack but much smaller. His teeth were rotten; four molars and four front teeth to be extracted. If sin is the corruption of God’s good creation, then why is there this effect of sin in his mouth? In John 9, the disciples asked Jesus, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” So, who sinned, this child or his mom? On the surface, he has cavities because he drinks too much juice. Of course, then, it’s his mother’s fault; she sinned, she’s the one who lets him drink the juice. That’s how I was raised to think about sin; it’s all about individual choices. Her sinful choice to not properly take care of her child caused his teeth to rot. 

I no longer believe that the answers are so simple. When you look beneath the surface, you realize that tooth rot was not as big of a problem in Haiti until little plastic bags of sugar water became cheap and easy. Companies, some from the US, exploit the poor by selling sugar that rots their teeth to children and parents who don’t know any better. They don’t know because they have little to no education. His mom didn’t have Health Ed in school; she doesn’t see a dentist regularly. How is she to know that drinking juice causes cavities? Now deeper. Economic inequities cause her lack of education; there is no free public school in Haiti. Corruption in government and economic sanctions over the years, including a crippling debt load that drives inflation, destroyed Haiti’s economy. Racism and fear are part of that, as well as greed and abuse of power. 

So who sinned? The UN and IMF, the US government, the juice companies, the corrupt Haitian government, the mom, or the bacteria? Rather than looking for who is to blame, like the disciples and the Pharisees, we must learn to recognize the greater forces that shape individual decisions. People are caught up in destructive systems created by a thousand little individual choices of unkindness and self-interest, “systems of sin”. The Bible refers to this as “powers and authorities.” (Eph. 6:12) Systemic sin is impossible to avoid and difficult to overcome. “We are all sinners” not simply based on our choices, but also based on systems we participate in and prop up because we don’t know, don’t care, or think we don’t have the power to break. If you are involved in the system of capitalism and international free trade, like say you order things off Amazon; if you enjoy the freedom and wealth of the US built at the expense of our neighboring countries, then you are culpable in this system of sin. We are all sinners in need of grace.

Jesus derails the blame game by pointing instead to an act of mercy, “that the works of God may be revealed in him.” Jesus heals the blind man in Jerusalem and thereby reveals God’s work in opposition to the hypocrisy of the Jewish government that values safety over justice and adherence to rules over mercy. When Anna pulled this baby’s teeth, she showed that an act of mercy is more important than following systems that value safety over mercy and that say who deserves mercy. Such an act is God’s work to oppose systemic sin in Haiti. It is only possible by God’s grace. Grace forgives us for our complicentcy in sin, grace enables us to do works of mercy, and grace empowers us to work against the systems of sin in our world. A thousand little acts of mercy, made possible by God’s grace, is our best hope for overcoming sin, for joining in as God brings the reign of God on earth, as it is in heaven. 

Four Scenes From Haiti

A boy is screaming. The lady across from me in the office takes notice. Is it her child? Is he hurt? Scared? Badly injured? It turns out he is scared. A man is carrying him down the street and he doesn’t want to go. I thought She was going to help the man, but she grabs him to make him stop. He pushes past her and keeps going down the hill, the child yelling all the while. After a few more steps, one of our guys strides out into the street and grabs the man by the backpack he is wearing. He mildly but clearly restrains him as the man tries to pull away. He talks briefly to the man, not yelling but clearly firmly telling him to put the kid down. The man complied and stalks slowly back up the hill. Hertz says that he saw some guys drinking moonshine this morning. It seemed to me that this man certainly may have been drunk. He had asked me for $5 for a new phone earlier today. I had the sense that he might jump on me when I said no, but we were surrounded by our crew working on the hill. What was that all about?

I had about half a loaf left over from communion yesterday with the Pastors. I wanted to share it without causing a food riot. I found some kids that had been watching my seminar all week. They were in the school; I assume they live in the houses behind the school. I broke the remainder of the Body of Christ and gave it to them, because I’m sure they are hungry. They gratefully and playfully ate the bread and then invited us to play soccer with them. Hertz and I kicked a little inflatable ball around and had a blast. It’s the first time I’ve given communion as a feeding program. 

I hiked to the top of a hill to see Sainty and Nelson’s church. Sainty remembers going there as a child. He and the other children would take off at top speed after the service, burning off the pent up energy from sitting still for three hours by careening down the mountain to see who was the fastest today. It reminded me of the “Rambo” trail from the mountain chapel at Asbury Hills. The current church is tin; easily destroyed in a hurricane. The Foundation Patrick Charles, renamed after our friend, partner, and founder who died last year, was building a concrete church for them, but they laid it out too large so it was not complete. The church is also where Nelson passed out Bibles that we bought for him. It is stunningly beautiful at the top of the mountain; I would like to go to church there. 

At night, we stay out at the beach in Cormier. Thanks to a new road, it hardly takes any longer to get there than the beach in town, and it’s the same price. Last night after we got back from another long, hard, hot day, I took a dip in the ocean, had fresh Caribbean lobster for dinner, and played guitar on the beach until it was time for bed. The time away refreshes us to get back at it the next day. 

We Do What We Can

We wrapped up the seminar today. I engaged the Pastors on topics that they told me they wanted to discuss. The big one that has been a theme throughout the week is the interplay between faith and grace. We particularly discussed the status of Israel. I led them through Romans 9-11 with the conclusion that God’s promises will not fail. Some of the pastors liked the emphasis on grace and some did not. We then worshipped together. The pastors are great singers, and we sang a few tunes I knew, “Blessed Assurance,” and “I’ve Got the Joy Down in my Heart.” I played “Amazing Grace” and a Crowder tune for them. Then pairs of pastors prayed out loud for us while the others sang. It was very spiritual. We shared testimony next. One pastor testified about God saving him from from a grave illness. Another testified about God calling him to ministry. I also told my call story. Then the final pastor took the cake with his tale of being attacked and God saving him by draining his attackers energy to strike or stab him. After that we took communion together with bread and wine I brought. I was surprised that they all didn’t mind the wine. It was a great ending. 

Anna felt much better today. She pulled 32 teeth. People have serious infections in their mouths and nothing to do about it. It causes pain, sleep loss, and at worst, the infection can get in their blood and kill them. Anna works in the hot, cramped conditions, bent over her patients sitting in a reclining lawn chair for 7 hour days. She is a rock star. Since she works with the local dentist, who mostly does cleanings using her ultrasonic scaler that she taught him to use, he tells us that the people wouldn’t get treatment otherwise. They cannot afford his services. 

Overall I realize I’ve become comfortable with the scene in Haiti, almost too much so. It takes some mindfulness to open my eyes to the poverty and difficult living conditions. There is so much need and so much difficulty. We deal with impossible situations, a child who needs an x-Ray, a man who needs a computer for college, another who wants to build a church, every day. I get tired of saying no. We can’t help everyone. Do we help enough? Do we bring hope? I don’t know. 

Today in Haiti

I’ve been busy writing this longer theological piece on Haiti and I’m missing the chance to simply write about our day to day, so I’ll get to it. I’ll work backwards. Today was rough, certainly the roughest we’ve had in Haiti. We both woke up with upset stomachs. That’s a first for us. Usually we always go to the same place for lunch, but it was closed so we tried something different. We all said the hamburgers tasted a little funny, some kind of seasoning. Apparently, the special seasoning was bacteria. I had diarrhea, but got it stopped. Anna felt nauseated but powered on. Eventually she puked and rallied to see more patients. Hertz felt pretty terrible all day, too. We weren’t sure Anna would make it through the second half, but after some Gatorade and a lunch of white rice, she got back in the saddle. She’s so tough!

She’s helping a ton of people. Dr. Benoit is cleaning teeth and she’s mostly pulling them, 23 yesterday. Dr. Benoit is the local dentist. Normally he sees 50 people in a year he said. He will see 50 people this week. He seems very happy. The clinic is in our office in the Bon Aire community of Cap Haitien. 

I am teaching a class in the morning for pastors. They requested that I teach. We are discussing Acts 20:28-32, “What does it mean to be a Pastor?” Today we talked about taking care of ourselves. They seemed very excited about that, and my translator Sainty agreed. We broke into pairs and prayed together. Afterwards, they talked about trying to meet together on a regular basis to support each other. It was pretty cool. We also talked about the Shepherd image from the passage. We agreed that we must love our people, and that can be hard sometimes. Tomorrow I’m going to try to answer some of their questions, which may be pretty hard. Please pray for us. 

It’s going well. We are building steps to help the community access the mountain, plus the clinic and the seminar. Not bad for 4 people! Of course it’s not just 4, but our whole Haitian team that works very hard to see all the work done. It’s great to work with friends. 

Body, Mind, and Soul

It’s hard to relay everything that happens in a week in a few short blog entries. I hit the highlights in my sermon on Sunday, which if you are interested, is in my podcast, sermons. But someone asked me if we saved a lot of souls in Haiti. I understand where that question is coming from, and it wouldn’t have served any purpose at the moment to say, “no, that’s not really what we are doing,” so I’ll use it as a spring board to a larger question, and the one I think this person really wanted to ask, which is, “Did your trip really make any difference?”

This is a very fair question, and one every mission should ask itself if you are going to spend $1000s traveling to a foreign country and working there. I’ve done enough reading to be convinced that trying to help people is not as simple as, “we did something and got something out of it, so it must be good.” Steps wash away, rooves get blown away, teeth get rotten again. In fact, if you take away the opportunities for locals to take care of themselves, you can actually hurt more than help. And the old, “I got more out of it than they did,” may be true, but hardly validates all the time, money, and effort in my opinion. Nothing we did this week physically will improve the lives of people in Haiti beyond a few weeks or years. 

I am convinced that what matters the most is the relationships you build. The world tells people in poverty that they live in a shithole, that their lives don’t matter, that their future is hopeless. We go to empower, a little with our resources, but more with relationships. Over his 12 years, Hertz has discerned and Patrick agrees that the Haitian culture is largely individualistic, with people unwilling to help each other. Hertz and Patrick’s Work together, their relationship, Hertz describes as brotherhood, empowers people to work together for the common good. Yes, people work for money; they deserve to get paid. But they come together while we are not around and decide to build stairs for their community. 

I’m pretty sure I didn’t save any souls last week. I do think I reflected Jesus to people in poverty by reaching out with love. I do think I strengthened relationships with friends I’ve met over the last two years, and I got to know some new friends. I think I told some kids that they mattered in the world and they mattered to God with my actions, not just words. I think Anna returned a measure of God given dignity to people by treating them like she would any patient paying thousands of dollars, with respect and care. I think her relationship with Dr. Benoit, over time, could lead to improved dental Care for the whole community. In the end, I think God is concerned with the whole package, body, mind, and soul. And I think God worked through us to build up bodies, minds, and souls for the kingdom, both for the good of my own soul and for those whom I served. Thanks be to God for this indescribable gift!

Game Changer

My wife is a game changer. Most dentists would come to Haiti and say I’m gonna pull teeth because I think that’s what people need. But Anna listens to the local dentist, Dr. Benoit, and decided to do cleanings. In the morning, they pull teeth, and in the afternoon they do cleanings. And the people love it. It’s great service because it’s what they people want, not what we Americans think they need. 

Anna is beginning the process of expanding dental care in the community. She wants to work with and educate local dentists to improve their craft. If she can help them be more gentle, then more people will seek their care. They get more business and the community gets more care. Dr. Benoit improved his ability in just the four days they were working together. The goal is for people to have overall better health year round, not just acute care once a year. But acute care is good, too. Anna pulled 12 teeth on one lady. We met with the team last night and they shared their favorite parts of the week. One of our drivers, Owe Owe, shared that the woman had been seeking dental care all over the city, and could find no one who would pull her teeth for less than $800, money she did not have. His favorite part of the week was seeing her get the care she needed. I think that tells you about the impact we make, and also about the people we work with. They love their community, and they want to see it improve. 

We think that community thinking is a rare quality in Haiti. We have experienced a very individualistic culture, where people don’t volunteer and won’t work without direct benefits to themselves. The people we work with say that they love their country and their people, and they want to see life improve for everyone. Pierre expressed that he loves having work, and I am certain that he meant more than just making money. He loves having a mission, a purpose. In a life where most of the year he is simply trying to survive, he has a purpose that is bigger than himself when we come. He is part of an organization that is making a difference in his community, not just a part but a leader. Pierre, Jean, Santi, and the others are rare human beings. Their hard work, determination, and resilience show me Jesus in a way that I don’t experience much in the US. 

I went to Pierre’s house up on the side of the mountain. He doesn’t have a toilet, and when it rains, water runs through his house. He built a chicken coop, but has no chickens. I gave him $11 to buy 2 chickens. The stairs we are building will make the walk home shorter and safer for him, especially when it rains. It will really be a game changer, too. 

Fighting Demons and Pulling Teeth

The last two days have been great. Yesterday, we went to the Free Methodist church of Pastor Costume (kos-tu-ma). Cynthia and I were both offered the chance to preach, but she had a migraine and hadn’t slept. So I preached on Luke 15, the lost sheep. It is the passage we are focusing on for the Bible school for the children. Pastor translated, and I got into a pretty good rhythm of call and response with the church. I told them, “No matter what you have done, no matter how lost you are, Bondye benu (God loves you)!” Then I played guitar and we sang “Amazing Grace” us in English, the congregation in Creole. After worship, we had a fantastic afternoon on the beach. We sat on the sand and played and sang songs with Patrick, the Hertzes, and Anna. 

Today, Anna stole the show, rocking out her clinic. Everyone was impressed with her system, her skills, her bedside manner, and her leadership. Heather and Janice worked in with her, cleaning instruments and moving patients around like a well-oiled machine. Archibald kept things flowing and Dr. Benoit and Dr. Goldston saw 50 patients. In the morning they pulled teeth and in the afternoon they did cleanings. Cleanings are not Anna’s plan or desire, but all the Haitians she has talked to are sure that people want cleanings. People were lined up to get their teeth cleaned, so it must be so. 

In the meantime, I had possibly the best experience I’ve had in Haiti. Cynthia and I gathered with five Haitian pastors to study scriptures and talk pastoring together. We began with the easy stuff, Christ died for us and all that, and then it got really interesting. We bounced all around reading scriptures and talking about progressive salvation and sanctification. I would have thought that they would have been more about baptizing people and being done with it, and I couldn’t have been more wrong. They were very concerned about creating deep spiritual lives for their people, and building them into communities of love and care. Pastor Louisnar read Acts 2:41 about the early church and said he was teaching his people to give to the needy. Pastor Joshue agreed and told this story. One of his members starved to death. He brought the news to the church and they were horrified. They decided to do something about it, so everyone who can brings $1 Haitian (about 8 cents) every week. When they have enough, they give the money to the neediest member to use to buy some goods, sell them, and begin a business. Since this initiative began several years ago, no one has starved to death. That is an effective stewardship campaign. 

After this, several pastors asked me theological questions about once saved, always saved and about communion. At first, I thought they were evaluating my theology, but upon further reflection, I think they were using me as a resource to help them respond to difficult questions. The younger pastors were asking the questions, who likely had very little theological education or reading. Not a ton of books are translated into Creole. So, I was able to offer some theology for them. I say me because Cynthia sensed that they were uncomfortable with her as a female pastor, so she did not reply much. 

Finally, we shared testimony of God’s power. It was incredible to hear the miracles God was working in their communities. Just to share one, Pastor Costume testified that God sent him to serve in a neighborhood with a very small church. The church was weak because a voodoo priest set up shop next door and a demon had possessed her. Pastor led his church in a community prayer ministry to fight the demon. Long story short, the prayer ministry drove the demon out of the community, and the church is now thriving. Every story was that incredible. 

Not a Shithole

We made it to Haiti and had a good first day. It’s so good to see our friends and catch up with everyone. Patrick is very sick. He will be getting a new kidney soon, which will hopefully save his life. Everyone else seemed about the same. They all look skinnier, but I’m not sure if that is just my memory failure. They are all good men, trying hard to feed their families and to improve their community. 

Pastor Comeye invited me and Cynthia to preach at his church tomorrow, a Free Methodist church. I’m looking forward to sharing the Gospel with people who are hungry for good news. The next day, we will meet to discuss the scriptures together with the pastors that work with Empowering Haitians. I’m eager to learn from them. 

Anna got the clinic all set up and ready to go. Dr. Benoit, the local dentist, is great, ready to help people in his community who need dentist treatment. He helped us to know that people want deep cleaning as much as getting teeth pulled, so we adapted our plan. 

Tomorrow is worship and beach. This is a beautiful country with wonderful people that needs a lot of help. It is not a shithole. 

The Hard Way

On the way to work, I often see an old man standing by the side of the road. He carries a cane and stares with a vacant look, often waving to the car as I drive past as if he remembers me in a blurry, half-forgotten way. The road has a hill and blind curve, and I'd become concerned about the prospect of him being hit by a car. Recently, I have seen him walking IN the road instead of standing beside it, so I decided to take action. I called the police and reported him. They said they would send a car by and get him out of the road. But, I didn't think that would be enough, because he would probably just be back in the road again tomorrow. So I called the Department of Social Services to see if they could get him some help. The computer gave me several options, none of which seemed adequate, so I chose "report neglect of an adult." But, when I began talking to the operator, it became clear that I had made a mistake.

"What is the neglected adult's name?"
"I don't know, I just see him walking in the road."
"Ok, what is his address?"
"I don't know."
"Sir, it will be very hard for us to go evaluate the situation if we do not have a name or address."

And it hit me; I didn't know anything about this man. I had driven by him hundreds of times, been concerned about his safety, tried to act as a "Good Samaritan." But, I had never actually stopped to talk to him, to learn his name and his situation, to help him get out of the road. I didn't ever stop because I was always busy going somewhere. I had an appointment to make, kids to pick up, a sermon to write. So, he tickled the back of my mind with concern until today I decided to DO SOMETHING. But, rather than the obvious Samaritan thing to do, to stop, find out what the situation is, and help from there, I did the American thing, call the professionals and let them handle it. When I drove back, he was gone, but luck would have that the neighbor was pulling into his driveway. I pulled over and asked if he knew the man I'd seen in the road. He said yes, that was his father. The man in the road was 85, senile, and ornery. His son was doing his best to take care of him, get him where he needed to go, make sure he had heat and food. But he couldn't keep him out of the road. He had tried to get him into a living facility, but a judge had blocked it, declaring the man to be fit to handle his own affairs.

What I had almost done was report this man, who was trying his best to take care of his father, to DSS. Who knows what the implications of that may have been. He said, "Hey, next time you see my dad, why don't you stop and talk to him? He'd like that; he'll rattle on about 1944 cars." Good question, why don't I? Too much in a hurry, too many other things to do, too many important priorities. There is a huge problem with our society and our Christianity. We don't have enough time for relationships, when Jesus tells us that relationships are what it is all about. We don't want to stop and talk to a man on the side of the road; the easy way is to call the police. We don't want to stop and talk to the lady asking us for money on the street; the easy way is to pretend we don't hear. We don't want to learn about the problems people face in other parts of the world by actually getting to know some of them; the easy way is to click the next article in our news feed. And we miss the human face of all the problems that we face. We want the professionals, the government and the police and the social service agencies, to solve the world's problems while we lock our doors and go about our business.

Here's the way of God. God didn't fix our problems from afar. God came as a baby in a manger. God initiated relationship with us, stopped to help us. In our broken world with our screwed up priorities, this way of living, to stop and talk to people, to initiate relationship, has become the hard way to live. But I think it's the only way to help each other and help ourselves, to really understand the problems that each person faces and find real solutions out of them. God convicted me today of my sin, and showed me another way, the way of Jesus, the way of relationship.

True Faith is not in a Hurry

Saw this on the side of a kiosk. They must have deeply true faith in Haiti, because no one is in a hurry! Seriously, it's good to think about, because we prize efficiency and hustle so much in the US. Here we have a different pace of life. Relationships take time. 

We have been building a church this week. First, we laid the concrete floor In the church we built last July. Since then, we have been in a very poor neighborhood near the airport, Fort Saint Michele. We started pouring the foundation, then laid a band of concrete, then laying concrete block 12 high. Through it all, I've learned all of the uses of a 5 gallon bucket. First, 5 gallon buckets are used to move water to a cistern. The water is mixed with sand, which is sifted from the rock, and cement to form either concrete or mortar, depending on the ratios. Then 5 gallon buckets move the concrete  from the place it is made to the place it is poured poured. When a new load of sand comes in on a truck, 5 gallon buckets move it to the concrete-making place. Need rocks from one place moved to another? 5 gallon buckets. Move them back again because we moved too many? Pass the 5 gallon buckets. Mortar is brought to lay the block walls in, you guessed it, 5 gallon buckets. I can't imagine how the Egyptians built the pyramids without 5 gallon buckets. 

It's amazing to build a church for the community. At first, I was conflicted, because I felt like the Doctors and the feeding ministries were much more useful. But Patrick said our feeding ministry and our church building ministry are one and the same. We are providing for the feeding of their bodies, minds and spirits. It is a wholistic feeding, helping Haitians bring shalom to their own community. We provide a place for worship, for people to be strengthened in their faith, hope, and love. When you have very little and when we as a group can do very little,  the people can hold on to God as their courage and refuge. God acts in and through us to bring hope. 

A little girl at the Bible school came to hug me and would not let go. It was a weird feeling until I realized that it was not me, but Jesus in me she was clinging to. May we all have that true faith, to cling to Jesus like a lifeline in the flood. 

Jesus to the Rescue

I saw that saying on a tshirt someone was wearing. I don't know if the guy knew what it said, but it struck me profoundly. I believe Jesus is coming to the rescue here in Haiti. But do there have to be so many malnourished kids first? 

I do believe in God's preferential option for the poor, and I think Jesus will be coming here pretty close to first when he comes again, because Jesus says the last shall be first. And almost never do a yearn for that day to come sooner than I do here. There are great, wonderful people, sweet, fun children here and they are suffering. Kids are hungry, people have no work. Both kids and there parents have nothing to do, and idleness is mentally crushing for people who want to work and play. 

We do what we can. We are building a church. People need a place to worship, to hear words of hope. We can give some hope, too, give a few toys and a little candy. But even that has its limits. Someone let extra kids into Toulouse's house when we were doing the vacation Bible school, and we ran out of lollipops. It stinks to turn away delighted children because you run out. It's so easy to focus on the physical needs of people. Everyone is hungry, everyone needs clothes, everyone needs a buck. I gave away six pairs of shoes today, which means I encountered six children in eight hours who had no shoes. But just as we help a few, there will be dozens more who need it. 

Everything we do here has limits, which is why I long for the day when Jesus brings abundant life without limits. A place like Haiti needs Jesus to come to the rescue. We cannot do it on our own. The whole Body of Christ acting together could do it. Jesus will do it. For now, he has sent us to give just a little taste. Our driver has Psalm 34:8 on his windshield. "O taste and see that the Lord is good;

happy are those who take refuge in him." It's true. The Haitians we meet are all suffering, but for a short time at least, they are happy to see us coming and spend time with us

Santa Is Dead

That's what came of our efforts to explain to Mary Grace about who Santa Claus is, why some people believe that he comes to their house on Christmas Eve to bring presents, and why he does not come to our house. That's right, we don't do Santa. No need to judge, I've already heard it all in the last month. The worst was from Mary Grace herself, when she found out the guy at the tree farm wasn't Santa, "Why did you put me on that guy's lap and let me tell him what I wanted for Christmas?!" Good question; it snuck up on us and we weren't ready yet.
So here's what we came up with. Odd that we have to "come up" with a story to explain the truth that there is no man sneaking into our house in a few days. But, I digress. Santa is another name for St. Nicholas, who is also called Father Christmas, or in Haiti Papa Noel. St. Nicholas lived a long time ago and he loved Jesus very much. He knew that God gave us Jesus, and Jesus gave everything for us, so he gave gifts to the children and people in his community. He died and went to be with Jesus in Heaven with God, where he is still alive. So Santa is real and alive, but he is not coming to give us presents, because he is with God. Other people pretend that he gives presents, and some people think they are not pretending. But we know that we get to give each other presents because we want to be like St. Nicholas, like Jesus, like God.
To you get it, Mary Grace? Yes, Santa is dead. Now, this doesn't present any real problems for me, except I'm not trying to ruin Christmas for everyone else in Easley. And where as I don't think moving away from an idea of only getting presents when you are nice and making a list of all the things you want to get ruins Christmas, there are a lot of people who disagree with me here. First, there is everyone, her teachers, church members, random people on the street, who ask her what Santa is going to bring her. If she tells them Santa is dead, well, people tend to get upset. Then of course, is the bigger concern of all her friends who believe that Santa will be coming to bring their presents and would be upset to find out that old Kris Kringle had turned up his pointy boots. Again, I don't want her to make people sad and upset.
So this has led to what I think is an even more fruitful conversation. Mary Grace, we know that Santa is not going to bring presents, that we will give each other presents on Christmas. But other people don't know that. And it is not our job to tell other people what they should think and believe. We can't control other people. We aren't the boss of other people. And we don't need to tell other people they are wrong. We need to be kind, respectful, and loving.
So yesterday some guy asked her if she had been good for Santa to bring her presents. And she just said yes. And she turned to me with a huge smile and asked me to bend down and whispered in my ear, "Daddy, I didn't tell him about Santa." Can you imagine a world where we all spent less time trying to be right and tell others where they are wrong? Can you imagine living in your convictions in a way that was thoughtful to the feelings and needs of others? Mary Grace can. Merry Christmas.

The Message of Reconciliation

2 Corinthians 5:18

We've been back now for five days, and it is amazing how quickly things go back to normal. The first day or so, I was amazed by the smallest things: smooth roads, green grass, houses of brick and shingle, new cars and new clothes. I took the kids to the park in Greenville, which was also amazing, and on the way there, we drove down East Parkins Mill Road. I noticed, as if for the first time, the size of the houses and the property there. I guess its the American dream, big house, two car garage (or more), nice yard with green grass, maybe a boat, if you're into that. The thing that struck me was that this is not the Haitian dream. I don't think you're average Haitian wants all of that. I mean, sure they would take it over living in a shack with a leaky roof and starving. But the Haitian dream is probably a little simpler: a job, a two room house with solid roof, food on the table. What I'm struggling with is what is the standard of living that we should expect, not as Americans, but as citizens of the world?

Now, if you live on East Parkins Mill, please don't take this as a condemnation. I'm not trying to say we are evil for having so much when others have so little. What I'm trying to come to grips with is the statement people often make when we get back from Haiti or Salkehatchie. "It makes you thankful for all the blessings we have, doesn't it?" I don't ever say this to anyone, but what I always think is "No, it doesn't." It doesn't make me thankful for what I have. It makes me think I have way too much. It makes me question whether or not our wealth in the US is actually a "blessing from God" or a curse of our sinful greed, nationalism, racism, and casual disregard for the people of the rest of the world. Remember, Jesus says its super-hard for a rich person to find the kingdom of God. Maybe we aren't individually making evil decisions to hoard wealth while others starve. Maybe we are caught in systems of sin, set up long before any of us were born, that perpetuate the status quo while our broken theology gives us peace of mind by making us "thankful for the blessings we have." One way to talk about this is white privilege. Basically, that means that for the last 600 years the dice have been consistently loaded for white people to accumulate wealth at the expense of people of color, from slavery to colonialism to voting laws and property laws to redlining and unfair loan practices to educational opportunities and segregation. I'm not saying people didn't work hard, invent things, and use their God-given gifts to make a good life for themselves and their children. All I'm saying is that it is very questionable to assume that the accumulation of wealth propped up by systemic sin is actually the way God blessed us and intends us to live. Somewhere between Haiti and the American dream lies the truth of God's intent for us as a species.

Now I'm guessing that after you read that paragraph, you either already agreed with me before and are now nodding your head self-righteously, or you sniffed out a "liberal agenda" in what I wrote, already disagreed with me before you started, and are shaking your head at my lack of patriotism and judgmentalism. I didn't write the above to make you feel good or bad about yourself. I wrote it to try to bring you in to this new vision of the world God has given me through my trip to Haiti. I want to give you a glimpse of what our world looks like post-Haiti. All I can give you is a glimpse. If you want to gain clearer vision of the world as God sees it, you have to come with me to Haiti. And you can't go to Haiti just to "do some good" or "help some poor people," although those are noble pursuits. If you want to really do some good, you must go to build relationships with people in Haiti. Relationships take time and effort. And they are the only thing that really matters, that can really change the world.

That's what I understand the Gospel to be. God is saving the world by restoring our relationship with God, through forgiveness of our sins and restoration of our broken nature. God is doing this by restoring our relationships with one another, through peace and love. When this happens, faith replaces fear and hope replaces despair. The power of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, unleashed into the world, the church, and each one of us by the Holy Spirit, is the power of reconciliation. That's the litmus test for everything a Christian says, thinks, or does: does this further the ministry of reconciliation? Does it improve my relationship of love and peace with God and my neighbor? The good news is that God has not abandoned us in our wealth or the people of Haiti in their poverty. God is bringing us together so that we may find a more excellent way to live. Thanks be to God.

For the Sake of Ten

Genesis 18:32

Haiti is beautiful. Palm trees frame the moon rising over the Atlantic. Tropical plants rise from the concrete. The people are beautiful. They smile through the dust and the dirt. The kids sing and laugh and play soccer. Their moms watch over them, keeping them in check. The men work and sweat and talk and laugh. Many people here have asked me, "Do you like Haiti?" I say yes. Then they ask, "Why?"  "Because Haiti is beautiful, and the people are beautiful."
Today was a rough day. We went to the prison to visit the people there. I confess I have never visited the prison in Pickens County, but I plan to remedy that when I return. Here, men are kept in cages about the size of our hotel room, with 15-20 men crammed inside. We also saw a cell for young boys that was the same, the youngest being 14. The warden said some of them murdered people and are in for life. Our interpreter said that men will put the kids up to the murder because people don't expect children to be a threat. The women were out doing the wash. Here's the real kicker; they all have to buy their own food with whatever people bring them. So we gave the boys some money for food, and we bought purses from the men. The misery was overwhelming, because here was something we could truly do nothing about, and people had brought it upon themselves, to some extent. It was humbling.
We had two Bible schools. Here is hope; children who have not been discarded and locked away, whose lives have promise. I have been telling the story of Jonah through an interpreter with a lot of physical animation. I finally got a laugh today for Jonah riding his camel, indicating that these children had more to eat than some of the others we had visited, and therefore more energy. I've had fun playing soccer with the boys. We went to the souvenir market for more depressingness. The people say, "Come, look, buy my stuff, because I'm hungry and I want to eat!" It's a very fine line to avoid getting ripped off, while not negotiating away all of their profit.
Anna took mattresses to the children in the orphanage who had 30 kids on a concrete floor. They were happy, but mostly they wanted food. She also went to the site where the church is almost complete. We will worship with the congregation there before we leave.
Haiti is beautiful; Haiti is hard.