Spirituality

Little Donkey Sunday

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Little Donkey Sunday

Little Donkey Sunday: this is what pastor Dan Caldwell at the Sacred Heart congregation in Bloomington, Indiana called it.  Dan suggested this was a better name for the Sunday before Easter than Palm Sunday.  I think he is right. Dan explained the waving of palms was mentioned only in John’s Gospel, but the picture of Jesus mounting a little donkey or colt is offered each of the gospels.

The parade for Jesus took place on the east side of Jerusalem, coming in from the Mount of Olives.  The crowd gathered and shouted their hosannas.  Jesus, feet dragging the ground, was riding a small donkey.  What a picture!  Is this a sign of conquest?  On the other side of town, the Roman legions were riding their stallions and marching in columns to display their strength. The Romans were there to control any disturbances during Passover observances.  One featured a man on a little donkey, a humble king as portrayed by the prophet Zechariah (Zechariah 9:9); the other was a spectacle of might, it was the military power of empire.

Over fifty years ago, my friend, Bill Wiley-Kellermann wrote of these two parades. Bill reminded us then – and now – of these two choices.  People of faith face these today.  Two divergent understandings of power, strength and right. Some like Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth pray for “overwhelming violence” against the people of Iran. He marries the strength of empire with a half-baked-Christian-theology that suggests faith is defended by Patriot Missiles. Missiles that smash the homes and lives of innocent people, killing thousands, even children, what power do they display?  On the other side of our nation there are the little donkey people.  More humble, even silly, these people march in No Kings demonstrations. 

Pastor Dan has it right. He helps me as I struggle with the many empires of my world.  I struggle to place my faith in the love of neighbor demonstrated by Jesus, riding on a little donkey.  I struggle with more than empires of national or world politics.  There are the empires of the social service industry, of university leaders who succumb to racism and narrow ideology, of social-media-billionaires with algorithms that do harm, or of religious denominational authorities.

In our religious denominational empires, that come replete with bishops, general secretaries, synod execs, and superintendents there are too few who seem to remember the power of the little donkey.  Instead, not all – but too many, march into town parading new structures and corporate plans that are detached from common sense and grass roots relationships.  There is little or no listening to those members in the pew. With top-down stylings and business-shaped designs, they hunger to consolidate power. Frightened by a loss of market share, these religious leaders miss the glory all-around of little donkeys ridden by the faithful.

Let me close with Mary Oliver’s poem “The Poet Thinks of the Donkey”

On the outskirts of Jerusalem
the donkey waited.
Not especially brave, or filled with understanding,
he stood and waited.

How horses, turned out into the meadow,
   leap with delight!
How doves, released from their cages,
   clatter away, splashed with sunlight.

But the donkey, tied to a tree as usual, waited.
Then he let himself be led away.
Then he let the stranger mount.

Never had he seen such crowds!
And I wonder if he at all imagined what was to happen.
Still, he was what he had always been: small, dark, obedient.

I hope, finally, he felt brave.
I hope, finally, he loved the man who rode so lightly upon him,
as he lifted one dusty hoof and stepped, as he had to, forward.
+ Mary Oliver

+++++++

Too often, I am “tethered by the tree as usual.” That tree is named EMPIRE.  I miss the little donkeys and their riders all around me.  Might I be brave, along with the donkey.

Little Boys with Nuclear Toys

~ philipamerson

The Spector of Little Boys with Nuclear Toys

As I watch and listen to Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller, J.D. Vance, Marco Rubio and many others, I find myself mumbling “We have little boys with nuclear toys.” There is war in the Middle East, focused primarily on Iran, but also overwhelming nearby Gulf States and Lebanon.  We watch in horror as the war drags on in Ukraine and can’t comprehend the destruction in Gaza. 

Always quick to justify our actions we point to others who find their identities through evil actions.  Moral decision making is flattened to either them or us and violence becomes the only tool at hand.  There are so many terrorists: Hamas, Revolutionary Guard, ISIS, Hizballah, Al-Qaida or the Latin American drug cartels.  The little boys with Tomahawk missile toys leap into the fray.  They proclaim they are showing our nation how to “man up!”  Core values and truly ‘acting like a gentleman’ is being trashed in the corridors of power.

With little or no regard for the complex unfolding of history, or intelligence (military or otherwise), we watch one debacle after another.  Trust is destroyed with allies, cities like Minneapolis or Chicago see trust for local law enforcement sabotaged and more than 170 children are blasted away at a girl’s school in Iran.

Adam Serwer’s “The Cruelty is the Point” was published five years ago.  It was a warning and a window into a more positive alternative. Serwer argues that Donald Trump’s language and behaviors (the racism, bullying, January 6th insurrection, anti-immigrant actions, misogyny) are broadly misunderstood.  Trump is not the primary cause of our current challenges; rather, only a symptom of a deeper malady.  Christians have a category for this: it is SIN. 

Further, this sin, this evil is beyond that of any one individual’s moral failings.  Something more profound is at play. Individuals matter, of course. Something all too widely misunderstood and discounted is also at play. We are wrestling with our social, corporate, institutional, and cultural sins – not carried by individuals alone.  It is no wonder that the “little boys” and their followers argue there is no such thing as social justice.  Yes, they seek to avoid the law for their personal actions, but it is more critical to see there is social immorality and illegality as well. It is no wonder these little boys and their allies suggest that whole groups can be labeled as cockroaches, as dirty, as criminals. It is no wonder persons can be targeted soley on the basis of skin color or language. These social sins require a corporate confession, an admission of responsibility and a change in more than an individual’s heart. They call for social equity and justice in our institutions, our culture and in the wholeness of our moral vision.

Fr. Richard Rohr writes helpfully about our failure to speak clearly about sin:

https://cac.org/daily-meditations/collective-sin-and-evil/

These are frightening times indeed.  There is a way forward – past the sin in which we all are entrapped.  The little boys with nuclear toys appear to gain pleasure from all they can destroy, whether through warfare, undermining our courts and justice systems, estranging international allies, cutting of health and food supplies formerly offered through USAID and more.

There is a better way – a way of repentance and respect for all.  We Christians pray for it every time we pray the prayer Jesus taught, which begins “Our Father.” This is a social prayer as it continues Thy Kingdom Come Thy Will Be Done On Earth.

Seeing The Unhoused: One City’s Proposal

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Seeing the Unhoused: One City’s Proposal

Like hundreds of cities across the United States, Bloomington, Indiana, my home, is a place where we face the challenge of unhoused persons surviving on our streets. Because we are a generous and caring community, our town is seen as a place of welcome. Sadly, it is also a place where the number of persons facing chonic homelessness continues to grow and our resources fail to offer hopeful ways forward.

What follows is a column for our local newspaper, The Herald Times. Perhaps there are some ideas here that could be of value as you seek to offer responses in your communities. Perhaps you have some suggestions that you can share to be helpful to us. Here is the column:

Missing Ingredients in Housing Assistance Plans

On Tuesday evening August 6th the Bloomington City Council received a “comprehensive” Housing Action Plan. It was presented by Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thomson, Mary Morgan, the director of Heading Home of South Central Indiana, and advocates from several service groups. It is an ambitious six-year plan designed to make street homelessness “brief, rare and non-repeating.”  It is indeed a dramatic and critical step in the right direction, but comprehensive?

The plan is bold.  As The Herald Times reports, it proposes “significant” investments coming from “multiple” sources.  It will require increased dollars, imagination and durable civic commitment.  The report is found at: headinghomeindiana.org/news/housing-action-plan/.   It deserves the community’s immediate endorsement and financial investment. Seeking 1,000 low-rent housing units by 2027, and 3,000 such units by 2030, is a HUGE challenge.  Adding ten additional Healthnet street outreach staff and many more case workers at existing homeless services is appropriate. We need such a commitment.

The idea of a moratorium on helping unhoused persons from out of town for a period is strong and distasteful medicine.  Even so, it may be what is required while other communities, and the State of Indiana, do not act in more caring ways for the vulnerable among us all.  A temporary moratorium to regain a balance and offer sufficient safe housing, healthcare and see an end to persons living on the streets deserves exploration.  Such a step, so long as the commitment to dramatically increase low-income housing is also accomplished, could serve as a model for other communities in Indiana and beyond.

STILL, this is not a “comprehensive” plan.  It is good.  It is bold.  It includes parties that have stood too long on the sidelines, parties like Indiana University and I. U. Health.  But is it “comprehensive”?  Nope, don’t think so.

Three elements are noticeably missing: 

  • First, how will each of us, as citizens, in Bloomington, act in new and meaningful ways to support such a plan?  More basically, how will we behave to understand that “these people” seen as “problems,” and “outsiders,” are part of us, our tribe, our social network, our family?  As Kevin Adler and Don Burnes write in “When We Walk By: Broken Systems and the Role We Can Each Play in Ending Homeless in America,” the people we see as foreigners are persons with families – often they come from nearby biological families, and all are certainly a part of our larger human family.  What reading, thinking, acting, praying might we do together as citizens to provide a witness as to a better way?
  • Second, aren’t faith communities essential in providing motivation, resources, volunteers, leadership, imagination and even shelter space (emergency and longer-term)?  Why are they not at the planning table?  Yes, a few “religious groups” are mentioned as “providers;” but I would argue any comprehensive plan would include faith communities as essential “stake holders” and critical to the designing and implementing any sustainable plan. What if this is not simply an economic, addiction or heath care issue?  What if it is a spiritual one as well? By this I do not mean to suggest a moral failing of those without shelter, but rather, a spiritual failure of our community and nation. The irony, of course, is that many, dare I say most, of homeless assistance resources in Bloomington were initiated and have been largely undergirded by faith-based vision, volunteers and financial support. A good case can be made that faith groups and leaders have been missing-in-action in recent years as we have been too focused on our own congregations with too little focus on being good neighbors. Oh, there are some fine individual congregational programs, but working with others in a coordinated way?  Not so much. 
  • Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there is no mention of how persons identified as “homeless” will be engaged in envisioning and implementing a “comprehensive” plan.  Many, many, who are currently living on the streets bring gifts, insights, connections and experience to assist in making homelessness “brief, rare and non-repeating.”  These folks without shelter have names.  Any plan needs to be imbued with an understanding that working with vulnerable persons is critically different from doing for “them.”  Rather than clients, patients or “the needy,” what might we do to act in ways that find a space where all of us can act as fellow citizens?