Theology

Canticle for Parish Ministry: Psalm #1

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Canticle for Parish Ministry: Psalm #1

Recently in a retreat with pastors in New Harmony, Indiana, I saw again the power of music to heal and restore. Pastors gathered there told stories about sacred objects in their lives and ministry and the remarkable musician, Ken Medema, would then respond in improvising a song on the spot for each person.  Often when the song ended there would be applause, sometimes laughter and other times dancing.  On a few occasions, there was sustained silence. We knew we had come to a place of holiness, a thin place, a space where the eternal presence of the divine had touched each one present in that room.  It was a sacred time of reflection and renewal.  Music gave us space to catch our spiritual breath.  Here we begin a series of reflections we will call “Canticles for Parish Ministry.”  Below is Psalm #1.

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In the movie “From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China” the internationally renowned, Polish-born, violinist addresses students in a master class in China: “What is music all about?” Stern asks and continues, “The instrument is only a means to an end; you don’t use music to play the violin, you use the violin to play music.” 

I think of the many times I have been fortunate enough to experience the music of God’s people of faith. These stories are abundant… they will be shared in future canticles. 

I recall the time a colleague was scheduled to lead a holy communion service early one Sunday morning.  He was late; people were waiting; I was angry. Then the few gathered to receive the eucharist heard laughter approaching.  Folks were coming up the stairs from the street into the sanctuary.  Soon our small group was overwhelmed by the arrival of a dozen or so persons from the neighborhood. My colleague, a young pastor “who didn’t know any better” had shared communion with persons sitting on porches or waiting for a store to open.  He then invited them to join us in the sanctuary for the service. You see, a congregation is the instrument, not the music.

Parishes are historically set in geographical bounds but in truth are not limited by space, the clock, or scheduled times of worship. Parishes cut cross the limits of time and space. I know of many small faith accountability groups that were begun over thirty years ago that still gather for meals, support and prayer… some gather weekly or monthly on-line.

Think of the music that baptized the streets of Minneapolis during the winter of 2026. Following the tragic deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti and the shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, even then, amid tragedy, there was song.  Song from many congregations and from many with no religious commitment at all. During the terror that ICE agents reigned across the metro area, people marched and sang and laughed and gave witness as a choir that could not be muted by violence. Some of the songs had been practiced before in the pews or choir lofts of congregations. Some songs were familiar, but not all. New music was created.

The fortunate pastor knows she is doing more than “playing” an instrument (the congregation) at worship on Sunday mornings or in ministry each and every day. She knows that with enough practice, congregations are made ready to offer up a true and much needed canticle of faith in times of terror and in times of blessing.

In the movie, Stern offers: “Every time you take up the instrument, you are making a statement, your statement, and it must be a statement of faith, that you believe this is the way you want to speak…  Unless you feel that you must live with music, that music can say more than words, that music can mean more, that without music we are not alive, if you don’t feel all of that don’t be a musician.”

As pastor, as church member, if you don’t sense a congregation, a parish, can offer the music of the spheres, why be a pastor or member at all? Perhaps the primary task of pastor is to gather resources for the music of and by the parish. In my experience, the best examples of joy-filled music of faith often comes as a surprise after weeks of practice.  It is, more-often-than-not, played from the outside in rather than from the inside out.

What is God already doing all around you? Many anxious church bureaucrats seek to save the instruments (congregations) without knowing, seeing or hearing the music, the romance, and the offerings of the people. Many remain blind to the opportunities all around. 

Some turn away from an intended democracy of voices among members toward top-down management to control – for the short term.  Or they may try quick fixes imported from elsewhere. Maybe they turn to consulting services and coaching projects for “congregational development.” Theseoften completely miss, or filter out the music, that to be heard all around. A false hope for preferring the instrument rather than the music of the surrounding parish.  (See Geraldo Marti’s “The Church Must Abandon its Search for the Perfect Formula.[i])

I remember attending meetings where those around the table were asked to share a “glory sighting” experienced in recent days. I understood the purpose. However, it seemed so contrived.  It seemed an invitation to limit the real and abundant gifts all around. It was too small in theology, too trivial in scope. One glory sighting only?  Each time I was asked for my “glory sighting,” I thought of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s words:

“Earth’s crammed with heaven,And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”

We are experienced in turning congregations into instruments to be played while missing the continuing glory all around. There are benefits to “glory sightings” I guess – asking for one sighting may be a start, but it also too often turns into a narrow focus suggesting the pastor is a fixer and the coach is the expert. Congregational revitalization too often is sold as a solution to worried investors (denominational and congregational leaders). It seeks to better play the instrument, without asking what God’s music is, already in the hearts of those beyond these walls. It ends as a selling of premature funeral plans to those deaf to the music of the spheres.

Yale Divinity School theologian Willie James Jennings speaks of visiting a place where despair and futility was the accepted institutional analysis of members. Jennings spoke then of the joy of the discovery of the newness of God’s mercies discovered as the future was seen in new opportunities.  He reports that the members came to understand they had been “leaving a whole lot of unused Gospel lying all around!”

When I saw the movie about Isaac Stern’s visit to China, I thought of a comment made by Robert K. Greenleaf, who wrote about Servant Leadership. Visiting with Greenleaf many years earlier he said that being a leader is a little like playing the violin, if you can’t hear the music, you shouldn’t try to play the instrument.

Communities contain the essentials of the ongoing human/divine encounter. They are sustained by people who weave and reweave common lives. These are the ones who live the music. These are the music makers because they hear the music of lives shared in harmony. They welcome an ongoing rebirth of a commonweal, suffused with songs, shared stories, timely rituals, friendships, brokenness, tears, language, homes, economic and social artifacts and so much more. These are canticles of human co-existence. Here is the conviviality of abundant life… lived even in the most horrid of settings. 

Our vocations have been often updated by sighting the gifts of reciprocity and mutuality – dialogue, laughter, some tears and the gift of abundant joy and friendship. We have benefitted from the wisdom found in the approach known as Asset Based Community Development and our friendship with many practitioners, especially modern-day prophets like John McKnight and Jody Kretzmann. 

We will say more in future Psalms, from The Canticle for Parishes.  Stay tuned.  Share your thoughts at philipamerson.com.

Attached Below are images from the April 2026 We Belong retreat in New Harmony, Indiana. We weere learning the practice of Accompaniment. If you would like to know more about future events you may contact me at phil@belongingexchange.org.

ENDNOTES:

[i] Marti, Geraldo, “The Church Must Abandon its Search for the Perfect Formula,” in American Blindspot <reply+37rv9h&kxukl&&1d2ba7865550e339e32ead945ffe565f0f8adf82dc1dda3a827884f314f90eec@mg1.substack.com>

Little Donkey Sunday

~ philipamerson

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

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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.

That Which Cannot Be Razed

~ philipamerson

That Which Cannot Be Razed

Admittedly naïve, the Christians at Broadway Church in Indianapolis in 1986 wrote: “As followers of Jesus Christ, responding to God’s love, our mission as the people of Broadway Church is to be a multicultural, Christian community that in its ministry seeks, welcomes, and values ALL people.” We knew it was a challenging aspiration, none-the-less the choice was to be a church that said it welcomed everyone – and acted like it.  No matter. Everyone.  

That congregation hasn’t done it perfectly, but over the decades it has claimed this mission.  Still does.  Yes, we were naïve, about our society, our world and the human condition… or were we? 

A stone church building with a tall tower and large windows, surrounded by trees and greenery.

Life would teach many lessons, some hard ones.  The power of tribalism and fear-stoked resentment has too often overridden respect for all. It has even undermined alliances among western nations.  Today we see bigotry and discrimination, dressed up as ICE agents with masked faces and camouflaged outfits, terrorizing our cities.  Such threatening realities appear to trample on that simple mission statement. 

Naïve?  Surely so.  Wrong as a witness to the love your neighbor message of Jesus?  Not so then, not so, now. The Apostle Paul wrote of this in the earliest years of the church: “In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. Also, since you are Christ’s family, then you are Abraham’s famous “descendant,” heirs according to the covenant promises.” (3:28-29 as rendered in The Message).

Twenty years ago, columnist David Brooks wrote of the coming death of multiculturalism. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/27/opinion/the-death-of-multiculturalism.html. Brooks spoke of what he saw as the excesses of multiculturalism where diversity was too easily celebrated and sometimes prevented true openness to all voices.  He predicted multiculturalism would pass and we would see a “rebirth of liberal American nationalism.”  I wonder what Brooks would say today of the trajectory he offered then? 

Whether one points to the multiculturalism displayed in the Ruth and Naomi story, or to the multiple ways Jesus of Nazareth broke and transformed deep patterns of race, class or religious exclusion, or to the Pentecost events, multiculturalism and faithful Christian practices are intertwined.

At Broadway, shortly after that mission statement was written, a longtime member told me that grand old building of stone and stained glass might one day be gone, it might be razed, but the gift of knowing others who differed in a community of acceptance could never be erased.  Perhaps that congregation at Broadway was not so naïve.  It continues today as faithful to its mission.  So do thousands of other gatherings and activities in the name of Jesus around the world.  Naïve?  Perhaps, it appears so, in the short term.  However, as Eugene Peterson suggested, Christians are called to “a long obedience in the same direction.”

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.

Crowd Size, Not So Much

~ philipamerson

Crowd Size, Not So Much

I know the tyranny of numbers. How many?  How much? In my work-life there were always such questions: What is the average in worship attendance, pastor?  How large is your enrollment, seminary administrator?

Counting is deeply embedded in our culture; math is essential for a strong citizenry. I recall my children delighting in Sesame Street’s Muppet Count Von Count. Even so, the oft overlooked and more critical understandings are based in asking “what should be counted and to what purpose?”  What are the essential measures for the health of a congregation, school, government program or social service agency? A hospital can report the number of beds, or the financial bottom line, but what of the morale of the staff, or trust patents have in a nurse or physician?

My dear colleague, Walter Wangerin, Jr., first alerted me to an overlooked theme in scripture. Reminding me that the fourth book of the Christian Bible is the “Book of Numbers” Walt noted that throughout the narratives, when the focus shifts from knowing the people to numbering them, danger is ahead.

In an astonishing fabrication, former President Donald Trump, claimed “No one has spoken to crowds bigger than me.” He said more people attended his January 6th, 2020 event prior to the attack on the capital building, than attended Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.  Truth is 250,000 gathered on the Capital Mall on August 28, 1963. It was a crowd five times larger. Think on this: how do these two speeches differ in purpose? Crowds gathered to do what? Was it to enrich and extend our democracy or to upend it?

The Gospels are filled with stories of crowds following Jesus, anticipating his every move. Some first century census taker reported 4,000 and 5,000 at meals. One of these stories breaks open the myth that size matters, as a small boy gives his lunch of five barley loaves and two fish (John 6) toward the feeding of everyone.

There is no doubt that crowd size is seen as an indicator of popularity and power.  Adolf Hitler loved to brag about the size of his crowds in World War II Germany. However, there is another way to think of the gathering of people around a leader. Jesus of Nazareth, who often faced the press of crowds said: “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them (Matthew 18:20 KJV).  As to power and authority, this Jesus said, “You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around, how quickly a little power goes to their heads. It’s not going to be that way with you. Whoever wants to be great must become a servant” (Matthew 20:26, MSG). 

Those in our time who suggest Mr. Trump is God’s choice, have a problem bigger than his persistent lies; they have a Jesus problem. Jesus spoke of small gifts, shared in hope, as core indicators of God’s true purposes. God’s realm often was understood as yeast, seed, salt and light. Jesus looked out on the crowds with compassion and taught that love of God and neighbor was the highest good. Everyone counted. Bragging about crowd size and seeking division and fear for personal gain, not so much.

UnFlagging Jesus

~ philipamerson

UnFLAGging Jesus

I once was joined for lunch by two friends. One was head of a theological school. Our conversation was amicable enough. Although the seminary president took up much of our visit promoting a wide array of initiatives focused on leadership. Future pastors, chaplains, counselors and social service providers were being trained to be leaders! It appeared an effort to impress the other friend at the table — John McKnight. 

John is one of the founders of the Asset Based Community Development approach to community organizing, (often abbreviated as ABCD).  A primary assumption of ABCD is that good leaders start by listening to others and discovering gifts, passions, assumptions and assets. After lunch as we were saying our “good-byes,” John took the hand of the seminary president and kindly offered, “Maybe we should focus a little more on connector-ship and a little less on leadership.” 

Connector-ship! That’s a missing ingredient in so much of human exchange. Universities, businesses, denominations and governments spend tens of millions of dollars and valuable personnel time training for leadership. This is not without merit and benefit. Still if one begins with a belief that energy and initiatives all flow from a top-down direction, a needed element for change is missing. Too often, there is the assumption that if the leader just has the right idea, program, language, skill set or practices, success will inevitably follow. McKnight, understands and teaches that human connection is a critical initial step in developing effective institutions and civil communities.

Don’t start identifying the needs of others you plan to fix without listening. First, listen to find the gifts, the capacities, the assets that folks already possess. Secondly, find that inner moral compass that must continually be developed throughout life by study, seeking fact-based reality, and interacting responsibly with others. This is a more enduring pathway forward.  

I know a remarkable corporate leader who upon arriving at a troubled firm, went to folks on the picket line, the hourly workers, not just upper management and he listened. A follower of Jesus, he continued in prayer, study and worship. Leadership meant connector-ship, listening, learning and finding a moral compass. Shortly thereafter, he gathered the employees in the parking lot. Taking a copy of the company’s unfair policies and procedures manual, he dropped it into the flames of a barrel used those standing in the cold. It was not a concession; it was a modeling of connection. Hard work followed.  He was saying, “We are listening, let’s talk.”

Recently I wrote a piece titled “Jesus Wrapped in a Flag.” Today’s Christian Nationalism promotes a fraudulent version of Christianity, and profoundly flawed revision of American History.  Lovett Weems offered a set of counter recommendations titled Leading Amidst Christian Nationalism.  While helpful, these are overly cautious words and appeared to assume there is only one paradigm for congregational life. It is a soft version of the very American Civil Religion that the author critiques. It is more of a starting point than a guide.

I thought of all the congregations and courageous religious leaders who are doing much more. They listen and share the hard truths discovered in their study and prayers about our responsibilities as Christians. They offer a more robust response to the profound dangers and misinformation widely dispensed by White Christian Nationalism and American Catholic Integralism.

The American church, Protestant and Catholic, needs to remove the American Flag from the shoulders of Jesus. It doesn’t belong there; never has. If U.S. policies and practices aren’t held under the judgement of the Gospel, why be a Christian at all?  Why not just pledge primary allegiance to anything our nation does and forget Jesus?  Just diminish our discipleship. 

Some U.S. “leaders” have done just that. Congresswoman Laureen Boebert said, “Jesus didn’t have enough AR-15 rifles to keep the government from killing him.”  What? Jesus is remolded into a grievance filled, revenge seeking and bully. What does the congresswoman do with the Sermon on the Mount, the words, “Love your enemies” or in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Nevertheless, thy will be done”?  The paradox, of course, as Reinhold Niebuhr argued, while international ethics are messy, they begin with morality in human expression.

The witness of Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ, isn’t limited to the foolish, mean-spirited and ill-informed theologies of some in congress these days. Jesus of scripture says “Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.[iv]” 

The witness of Jesus is UnFlagging!  It is persistent – enduring. It calls leaders to leave their C-Suite offices and learn from the folks in the parking lot.  It calls on congregations to speak with and learn from folks not in the pews on Sunday.

In the mid-1980s my family lived in a low-wealth neighborhood in Evansville, Indiana. One fall, fear gripped neighbors as vicious rapes were reported. The assailant was said to be African American in our multiracial community. Soon we learned the Ku Klux Klan was sending patrols to protect our white citizens, especially the women.  What should our small core-city ministry do? How might we offer a safe alternative to this violation and the hate-based response?

Someone suggested we talk with Will Campbell. Mississippi born, Baptist minister, graduate of Yale Divinity School, author, and Civil Rights advocate, Will was known for friendships with a wide range of people, including members of the Ku Klux Klan. Will took this dwelling together stuff seriously!

I called and left phone messages for Will. It took a few days, and he returned my call. Hearing of our situation, he said, “First thing you need to say to the Klan is “no, your activities are not welcome.'” That sounded good to me — We had already done that. Then, Will, stumped me, surprised me. He asked, “What are their names?” 

NAMES?  “What do you mean?” I responded, “Whose names? Our neighbors?”  “No.” Will said, thinking I would already know the Klansmen. Their names.  I confessed that I didn’t know any of those folks.  He said, “Well, then, what the hell you been doing?  Who are they?”  Interesting, our need to limit where repentance, reconciliation and renewal might occur. Perhaps some changes, some weaving of new relationships could happen in my own life, not only in the lives of Klan members. Might there be a bridging to new relationship, even there? A renewal larger than my imagining?

South African Methodist Bishop Peter Story noted that “America’s preachers have a task more difficult, perhaps, than those faced byus under apartheid. We had obvious evils to engage; you [on the other hand] have to unwrap your culture from years of red, white and blue myth, You have to expose and confront the great disconnect between the kindness, compassion and caring of most Americans and the ruthless way American power is experienced, directly and indirectly, by the poor of the earth. You have to help people see how they have let their institutions do their sinning for them.“
























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[i] Weems, Lovett H. Jr. Leading Amidst Christian Nationalism, LEADING IDEAS, Lewis Center for Church Leadership, June 25, 2024).

[ii] Matthew 5:43-48.

[iii] Luke 22:42

[iv] Matthew 11:28-30.

[v] Storey, Peter, Sojourners Magazine, Oct. 18, 2006.

UMC and PTSD

~ philipamerson ~ 1 Comment

UMC & PTSD

A research psychologist friend told me about epigenetic trauma a couple of years ago. Can the traumas of one generation be genetically passed on to the next? Not just environmentally but biologically? Might there be some influence/alteration on the DNA of offspring following extreme stresses on the parent?  I thought it improbable, fantastical even; then began to discover the scientific research and was amazed. Rachel Yehuda writes in the Scientific American (July 1, 2022) of “How Parents’ Trauma leaves Biological Traces in Children.” The article makes modest claims, even suggesting some potential benefits; still it is clear this phenomenon is rooted in a growing body of research. Some report significant inherited vulnerabilities among children, as gene functions are altered by violence and trauma to a parent. 

My research friend notes that over the past seventy years, generation after generation have lived in a time when foreign wars never ceased for long. For decades now gun violence and mass shootings have become a staple in our information diet.  He conjectures that well over 60% of our societies’ population lives with some degree of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Depression.  Significant increases in suicide rates and treatment for severe depression stand as evidence something has changed.

This has left me wondering about the United Methodist Church. What has been the impact of decades of disinformation and disagreement on the denomination and leaders?  Following the decisions of the 2024 General Conference in Charlotte, removing the harmful language excluding LGBTQ persons from congregational care and leadership, the question of institutional epigenetic trauma weighs on my mind. Sociologists have long understood the phenomenon of “structural effects” or “institutional effects.”  Persons are shaped, restricted, influenced, limited, or open based on the ecologies in which they reside and work. This has been evident in the responses of denominational leaders following General Conference. An ecology of abuse and division has prevailed in the denomination for decades. Much of it is carried out by well-funded advocacy groups like the so-called Institute for Religion and Democracy and Good News Movement.

The decisions in Charlotte, long overdue, offered a time of relief, celebration, joy.  I was there – and found myself laughing and sobbing all at once. As some sang and hugged, there was a muted quality to the celebration. A good thing, I thought. It was not a time of gloating or retribution. As Steve Harper puts it, we need to be an “Un-reviling Methodist Church” to become, in truth and fullness a “United Methodist Church.” This spirit of forgiveness and opportunity was reflected in persons who spoke in favor of making space for congregations who had disaffiliated to return in the future. 

Still, it seems, many denominational leaders were careful not to engage in too much celebration in Charlotte and upon returning home these “leaders” were more inclined toward defense. Many who quietly supported welcoming all into the church, returned home (to their local context – district or conference) with a more muted response. Their main theme became, “If you disagree with the decision in Charlotte, don’t worry, your local church doesn’t have to change. You can keep behaving the way you always have.” Meaning keep excluding as you will.  This is to my understanding much more a PTSD response than imaginative leadership.  The violence done by groups specifically organized to do damage has left its generational marks.

I can easily ask “Where is the courage?  Where is the imagination for the future?” And I do. Even so, I am mindful that for decades groups organized to do damage on the UMC continue at their work. Even before we left Charlotte, there were forces publishing and on social media seeking to bully and diminish the joy that should otherwise accompany the new day of openness and welcome for United Methodists.  

I don’t have an easy remedy to this institutional epigenetic trauma.  My research friend recommends meditation, prayer, music, seeking calm, new collaborations, reaching out to others who have been wounded. In my experience imagination will require finding time for laughter and celebration. It will require an end to seeking to placate those who have been a part of the damage inflicted. Now is time for generational healing and for the imagination that will follow. 

We are passing through a season of Ascension and Pentecost in the liturgical year.  The fires of Pentecost continue to burn. Willie James Jennings of Yale Divinity School says of this season, “The revolution has begun.”  Time to focus on the future.  Time to admit our institutional PTSD and find care in one another and in our core and gracious identity as United Methodist.

The “Good” in Good Friday

~ philipamerson ~ 1 Comment

The “Good” in Good Friday

Perhaps I was six or seven when the question first came.  What is “good” about Good Friday?  Our lives are full of questions; or at least mine is.  These days most of my questions are about more mundane things, like “How did those spots get on my shirt or on my necktie?”  Any man over seventy-five will understand.

After more than seven decades, the more profound and intellectually jarring theological question about the goodness of Good Friday still stirs in my spirit. I don’t have the one right, true answer as many of my conservative friends suggest they have.  The soup stains on my necktie are so much more easily explained.

Other friends, more secular searchers, ask, “Why a focus on the cross? Isn’t there a better, less violent, symbol?”  Without answering, I think of all the modern-day crosses people bare. I have been with families after a painful death, a murder, a rape, or a drowning.  There are realities of starvation, war, captivity, and financial ruin. Abuse and discrimination are crosses of a different sort. Sin is woven within the human condition.  Evil is present. No matter our desires for something less violent and more velvet — there is brutality and death.

Catehdral de San Isidore in Argentina

I recall the historic theories of the atonement.  Jesus’s death is portrayed as Ransom, Substitute (suffers for), Penal (suffers instead), Example, and Victor. Each theory today is understood in decidedly individualistic ways.  It is a quid pro quo formula as in Jesus did this and I get some reward. Such theology appears deeply embedded in St. Paul’s perspective (I Corinthians 15 or II Corinthians 5).  

It was my beloved New Testament professor, Robert Lyon, who challenged me to think beyond this; to think more deeply and widely.  The word study he assigned me was on the word λύτρον, meaning either redemption or ransom (Mark 10:45 and Matthew 20:28).  I can still see the twinkle in Bob’s eye as he said, “And the context? Who is this ransom for and why?  What is the larger Biblical frame?”  These were the years of the Vietnam War and Civil Rights struggles over racism and sexism.  Bob wasn’t dismissing classic atonement theories out of hand; he was asking for more – for a deeper grasp of the whole of the scriptural story.  What does “ransom” have to do with justice?  What if this is bigger than an individualistic transactional act? What if it is transformational for the entirety of God’s purposes?  What if it is not primarily about one’s personal “free of sin” credit card?  What if it is for ALL and for the entire Creation!

Walter Brueggemann suggests we speak of the execution of Jesus rather than his crucifixion. ALL THINGS are seen as potentially redeemed and redeemable: corrupt institutions, the violence of every empire, the despoiling of creation.  Brueggeman speaks of God’s purposes as displayed in the life of Jesus as prophetic imagination.  He speaks of “the alternative world that God has promised, and that God is birthing before our very eyes.

For me, even with food stains on my shirt, the questions in my spirit find greater meaning. This is the GOOD in Good Friday – God’s promise displayed for all persons and all creation.  If we have eyes to see it and the will to live into it.

Pick-Up Theology

~ philipamerson

Pick-up Theology

It happened again, recently.  A public gathering, I prayed or presided in some fashion.  A reception follows. All seems “normal” until one of the folks nearby starts to share a story and stops, “Woops, I forget, a preacher is here.” Often, I could anticipate what was going to be said. I have heard the story or off-color joke previously… I do not have “virgin ears”… but, somehow, I represent a purity zone. Clergy are thought to reside in the “Area 51” of polite conversation.

At times it is even worse. I am cornered as “an expert?” Some long-stored-up theological questions are brought forward. Many are just silly.  Some would require a semester course in seminary, or perhaps the completion of a dissertation. Many are qustions that require attention throughout a lifetime. Some questions are asked as a “gotcha.” They are meant to make the preacher squirm.

Often, it begins with the words, “Pastor, I am not very religious, but I am spiritual and am troubled by some things; can you help me understand?”  Here are a few I have encountered:

  • “What kind of fish swallowed Jonah?”
  • “Did Jesus really walk on water, or did he know where the rocks were?”
  • “If Jesus was alone when tempted in the desert, who knew to write about it?”
  • “Do you believe in Hell?”
  • “Do dogs go to heaven?”
  • “Did Adam and Eve have belly buttons?”
  • “In the Prodigal Son story, doesn’t the older brother get a bad rap? What did he do wrong?”
  • “Is everyone forgiven no matter what they do?
  • “Where did Cain find a wife? Isn’t marrying a sister incest?”
  • “Wasn’t Catholicism invented in 1054 so political leaders could break with the Eastern Church?”
  • “Does U.S. House of Representatives Speaker, Mike Johnson, have a Biblical Worldview?”
  • “Don’t you think Pope Francis is a Socialist?

Only a sample of the queries are here, some serious and knowledgeable, others an effort to be cute, too many with monistic (either/or) assumptions that miss the discovery and value of paradoxes within the theological task. (e.g., “If one would be master he/she must first be servant.”) I have learned the value of the rabbinic method of answering a question with a question.  This is not the time for an overview of differing Biblical texts and literary scriptural devices. Much as I would like, there is little time to teach about the call to live in terms of the realm of God. (And there is certainly not time to speak of my preference for Kindom of God rather than Kingdom.) Often personal faith-journeys, current events or some family disputes are at the core of the seriously asked questions. 

I find it a little like the “pick-up” basketball games played while growing up in Indiana. You call your own fouls and get to choose your team mates. The game unfolds “on the spot” but there are certain moves and shots that need to be tested against the other players. Could I make that hook shot now? Could I guard that more experienced player this time?

If possible, when these “questions for the pastor” spontaneous moments come my way, I invite folks to do their own study, later, and suggest a book or two to read. Then, I look for JOY. Is there a way to find in this moment the wide and wonder-filled sense of holiness carried within a smile or even a light chuckle?  Perhaps thereby, faith is made more durable, understood with a richer complexity, and invitationally rather than a collecting up the right set of answers.  So, when recently asked “Did Adam and Eve have a belly button?” I paused for a moment and said, “O yes, I think so, and I am certain God continues to have stretch marks from such births.” I was rewarded with a smile.

I am told that Thomas Langford, the former Duke Divinity School Dean, enjoyed driving a red pick-up truck around Durham and especially on the university campus.  The license plate on the truck read “JOY N IT.”  Folks who didn’t know Tom, might have mistakenly thought he was expressing his joy in driving that pickup.  Others knew better.  He was perhaps speaking of the joy of the truck, but I suspect he was also talking about the joy of a life of faith, of living and leaning forward into the questions, of imagining the joy of a life of gospel relevance… filled with gratitude and delight.

The poet John Keats wrote “Call the world, if you please, the Vale of Soul-making.”  This task of “Soul-making” involves asking good questions and establishing habits of the heart. Habits of study, meditation, observation and being open to new imaginative insights, and yes, humor.  It is the keeping of these patterns, until these patterns keep us. 

So, I look forward to the next set of “questions for the pastor.”  Maybe I can do better next time.  Until then, I will remember the words from correspondence that is included in the Bible, James 1:2-5: My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. (NRSV).

The Wilderness of Bullies and Victims

~ philipamerson ~ 2 Comments

The Wilderness of Bullies and Victims

Whether national politics or elementary school, we observe bullies and victims. It is not a new phenomenon.  Seventy years ago, at West Spring Street School in New Albany, Indiana – I saw it – and felt it – on the playground. This ancient human reality goes all the way back to Cain and Abel, Joseph and his brothers, King David and Uriah, Pharoah and the Israelites, or King Herod or his wife murdering John the Baptizer.  Bullies and victims are forged deeply into our emotional and moral foundations.

Literature is built on the anti-hero, victim, and hero motiff.  It is a delicious formula that fits well in literature, movies, and television series.  Still, this easy pattern is missing something critical and complex.  It is the place of responsibility. It is the paradox of the cross. As H. Richard Niebuhr noted in his classic “The Responsible Self” (1963) ethical behavior requires sorting through the ambiguity and distortions of real life.  Ethical behavior requires attention to a universal community and honest observation of the best intentions and failures brought by each and every actor.

A victim can often turn into the bully; the research is clear.  The story of the man bullied at work who comes home to kick the dog is a familiar one. Most adult abusers were abused as children. Limiting our frame to either bully or victim is a gestalt that has gained a wide purchase in our society. It is the core “stuff” of the MAGA movement. It plays out in the courtroom, city halls and, even in the church. Politicians market in meanness. Tough talk and threats are confused as “strong leadership.”  On the other side many can only see themselves as victim. So much of our social service efforts and congregational life assumes a primary task to rescue the victim from the bully – and, of course, we are to be cast as heroes rescuing the victim.

In the wake of the trial of United Methodist Bishop Minerva Carcaño there are persons on each side suggesting they have been victimized – and “the other” was a bully.  What’s missing? I would argue it is responsibility to the larger community. Was it a struggle over power, gender, culture, money?  Perhaps all of these, yes. How did we arrive at the point when good folks on each side are to be sorted into the “bully/victim” divide?  Perhaps one party was unwilling to seek a responsible remedy before going to trial. Perhaps both parties were unwilling.  But here we are… still living in the bully/victim wilderness.

There are many ways forward.  (Many will point to Matthew 18 counsel on how handle a dispute. It is a good place to begin.)  However, I will start by borrowing from Robert Greenleaf’s notion of Servant Leadership.  He writes of a servant leader’s responsibility in this way: “The best test, and difficult to administer, is: do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?  And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will he or she benefit, or at least, will he or she not be further deprived?” (The Servant Leader, p. 7)

Might it be that while dollars, publicity, trust and energy were put into a drama of victimhood or bullying, the opportunity to act on the behalf of the least privileged among us has been lost?