A Call to Justice

I am grateful for the many generous responses to my report to the Presbytery of Carlisle January 2010 which called forth a renewed commitment to our tradition of Christian realism. May I suggest that one, small way to engage this question in our churches and in our preaching is by some careful consideration of a Christian concept of justice. I am sure that many, many recent sermons from Presbyterian pulpits exalted the concept of Christian love. Maybe we also need some devoted attention to the biblical concept of justice. One way to consider the contours of our tradition of Christian realism is this constant push and pull between love and justice.

I appreciate Professor David True’s referring me to a recent web editorial in the online journal “Political Theology.” Copied here is a nice definition of justice from that editorial:

Justice “is not reducible to a check list and will power. Rather, it is a way of inhabiting the world and interacting with others that embraces more than the will and more than war. It is about habits and dispositions and how one is inclined to act in the course of the quotidian tasks of life when one is not consciously thinking about or willing it. Which is to say that the justice on which the classic just war tradition is erected, by the likes of Augustine and Aquinas, is a matter of character. It is a virtue. More specifically, it is the virtue of a people whose life is disciplined in a manner that they ordinarily, habitually care for and seek the good of their neighbors, including their enemy neighbors, in times of peace as well as war.”

From the Web Editorial: The Justice of Just War and the Exceptionalism it Requires A Response to Barack Obama's Nobel Acceptance Speech on 9 December 2009; found at: http://www.politicaltheology.com/ojs/index.php/PT/announcement/view/40.

Mark Englund-Krieger

Report to the Presbytery January 2010

Peacemaking:

The General Assembly started the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program in 1980. I started in Seminary in 1982. It was time and an era when the church was seriously engaged with questions of war, peace and a commitment to peacemaking. The Commitment to Peacemaking was an idea which fostered significant support across the church, and, of course, significant debate. I remember in my first years of ministry passionate debates at Presbytery meetings about questions of war and peacemaking.

What happened to our commitment to peace? We live in a war torn world. What happened to our voice, our calling, our witness to Christ the Prince of Peace? Why are we seemingly afraid to engage these questions and these issues? Is our common life now so fragile that these debates frighten us? Questions of war and peace, questions of the ways our nation should be engaged in the world and the church’s response to that engagement are deeply controversial and difficult questions. But these are questions our church has always engaged, always debated. We have always pushed theological reflection into these realms. I am very concerned that these vital questions have simply dropped out of our conversation, out of our common life. Are we so weak and frightened, and hunkered down into the isolated life of our congregation, that we are now afraid to engage these questions of war and peace? Or, and this may be closer to the truth, have our pastors and church leaders so abandoned the hard work of theological study and reflection that we do not have anything to say, expect occasionally a trite repetition of the editorials of either George Will on one side or Thomas Friedman on the other.

In a recent edition of The Presbyterian Outlook, Professor Stanley Hauerwas, who is not Presbyterian, said in an interview that all Christians are called to be pacifists. Wow! What a provocative statement in a Presbyterian magazine. Our Presbyterian Church, and the larger Reformed Tradition, is not now and has never been pacifist. Historically and theologically it is simply wrong to say that all Christians are called to be pacifists. I know I am not. Is this not a vitally important theological and spiritual question for the church today?

In his speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, President Obama was reaching for some philosophical and theological foundation for an understanding of peace which is not pacifist and fully engages the brutal realities of our world today. I quote: “A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda’s leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism. – it is recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.”

I am not making a partisan comment for Obama; please do not hear that. What I am saying is deeper. I believe Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize speech was reaching back into the tradition of Christian realism for some foundational thinking about war and peace. This is our tradition. These are core convictions for the Presbyterian Church. Especially in the American Presbyterian tradition, Christian Realism has always been the theological framework with which we struggled with questions of war, peacemaking, international relations and law enforcement. Given the tenacious power of evil in our world today, the church is called to engage these questions, debate these issues. Remaining silent on these questions is not an option for Presbyterians. There must be public engagement. This is not a task we can abandon because it makes us uncomfortable or because the conversation always creates debate and heated conflict. We must speak publicly. We are the Presbyterians; this is our calling.

I am talking about the Christian realism of the Barmen Declaration of Faith in our Book of Confessions. The most profound American voice in this tradition of Christian realism is Reinhold Niebuhr. Like the Barmen Declaration, Niebuhr was also writing in the World War II era. Niebuhr was very critical of the churches reluctance to engage these questions. Niebuhr was pushing the churches and our nation to understand the reality of the world we live in.
Writing in 1941 Niebuhr published a paper which is relevant today titled, “The Christian Faith and the World Crisis.”

I quote: Too many American Christians, Niebuhr argued, believed that “war could be eliminated if only Christians and other men of good will refused resolutely enough to have anything to do with conflict. In our opinion this utopianism has contributed to the tardiness of the democracies in defending themselves against the perils of a new barbarism, and (in America at least) it is easily compounded with an irresponsible and selfish nationalism. Love must be regarded as the final flower and fruit of justice, however, when love is substituted for justice it degenerates into sentimentality and may become the accomplice of tyranny. We are well aware of the sins of all the nations, including our own, which have contributed to the chaos of our era. Yet we believe the task of defending the rich inheritance of our civilization to be an imperative one, however much we might desire that our social system were more worthy of defense.”

I believe we must stand in this long tradition of Christian realism, powerfully articulated by Reinhold Niebuhr for example, which does not flinch at the power of evil in our world, is not afraid, and boldly proclaims the sovereignty of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

We live in a day when the evil of al Qaeda is a contagious virus trying to infect our very souls. I am not arguing for some kind of pro-American militarism; I am often appalled by our American arrogance. I am arguing against the often fear-filled silence in our churches which is afraid to even discuss these issues. “Blessed at the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God.” What does that mean in a world increasingly scorched by the power of evil?

NOTES:
See interview with Stanley Hauerwas, “The Presbyterian Outlook”, Dec. 7, 2009.
See President Obama’s “Nobel Peace Prize speech” now available via Google search.
See Reinhold Niebuhr, “Christian Faith and the World Crisis”, first published in Christianity and Crisis, February 10, 1941 and now available via Google search.
On Reinhold Niebuhr see Jon Meacham, American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation, (Random House).

Mark J. Englund-Krieger
January 2010

An Advent Pastoral Letter to our Churches

December 15, 2009

Dear Friends,

The themes of the season of Advent always move me into prayer and reflection. My wife encourages our family to gather regularly around our Advent wreath for Bible reading and prayers. Our boys have grown beyond their childish reluctance, and our family prayer time is important to us all. We are grateful for the good health and abundance in our family.

But my prayer this Advent also turns to a litany of recent news from our churches. This news from many places, all over our presbytery, burdens me and nags at my sense of comfort and ease. I am very concerned about the ways this nagging economic stress burdens our Pastors and discourages our Elders. I run through my mind and lift in prayer a list of reports and stories which have come to me: the note from one church saying they are using up their cash reserves which may be gone in a year; the elimination of staff positions in several of our churches; drastic cutbacks in Per Capita contributions due to financial stress; a little blurb in a church newsletter asking for donations to their heating oil fund which is now depleted; a pastor struggling with a proposed cutback from full to part-time status; one church struggling to pay their mortgage; several churches already forecasting significant decreases in Basic Mission Giving in 2010. . . And our Presbytery is looking for ways to manage a $150,000 deficit in 2009. And of course, the ripple effect of this economic stress strains the bonds of our connectionalism as our shortages are passed along to the General Assembly. I am also acutely aware of the financial stress in many of our mission agencies, social service organizations, and feeding ministries which are on the front line of meeting basic human needs. I know the burden is heavy in many of our congregations, but I must ask, if you are able, please be attentive to your Per Capita contributions and Basic Mission contributions as we approach year end. Please do not hunker down in fear and trepidation. Please do not turn in on yourself. Let us walk this journey together.

It is time to be faithful. Do not fear. Do not lose heart. The name of our God is NOT Dollar. We know the name that is above every name. “He is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” Like no time I can remember in my ministry, it is time to be bold in Christ, be strong in proclamation, be constant in prayer, and walk together in love.


Blessed Advent and Merry Christmas!

Emerging Church and Karl Barth

Our missional church study group is studying a collection of essays published as An Emergent Manifesto of Hope, Edited by Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones. Baker Books, 2007.

One of the better essays in this book is:
Digging Up The Past: Karl Barth (The Reformed Giant) as Friend of the Emerging Church
by Chris Erdman

It is remarkable to me to see the new conversation about emergent church connecting with some old, classic theological reflection from Karl Barth. When I see the old and the new connecting in fresh ways I pay attention. For people of my generation, Karl Barth was a very important theologian in our education. Indeed, Barth was a revolutionary thinker who had a giant impact on the post-World War Two generation of pastors, especially in the Reformed Tradition. This quote from Barth, in a book on Emergent Theology, is very relevant today:

This quote is from Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, volume 1:

"How disastrously the Church must misunderstand itself if it can imagine that theology is the business of a few theoreticians who are specially appointed for the task.... Again, how disastrously the Church must misunderstand itself if it can imagine that theological reflection is a matter for quiet situations and periods that suit and invite contemplation, a kind of peace-time luxury.... As though the venture of proclamation did not mean that the Church permanently finds itself in an emergency! As though theology could be done properly without reference to this constant emergency! Let there be no mistake. Because of these distorted ideas about theology, and dogmatics in particular, there arises and persists in the life of the Church a lasting and growing deficit for which we cannot expect those particularly active in this function to supply the needed balance. The whole Church must seriously want a serious theology if it is to have a serious theology."

Report to the Presbytery Nov. 17, 2009

Can we do this together?

The technology that we have available to us today is remarkable. If you use the “Google Books” search engine you can find almost every book you can imagine. What for me is fascinating about Google Books are the full electronic versions of books that are now in the public domain. For example, working with the University of Michigan, Google Books now has available many of the very earliest records of our Presbyterian Church. For someone like me who likes to study our church history, I feel like a little boy on Christmas morning.

On Google books I found a book that was published by our General Assembly in 1820. In that year our General Assembly published a Digest of all previous General Assembly action going back to the start of our Church in America. Within that very long Digest, there is a shorter article titled, “A Short Account of the Missions Conducted by the Presbyterian Church.” In the introduction of that “Short Account of Missions” we find this sentence: “Our church has always considered missionary labours an an object of importance; which has been pursued sometimes with greater, and at other times with a less degree of zeal.” I learned the earliest Presbyterians in this land put some real teeth into this commitment to “missionary labours.” I quote: “The late Synod of New York and Philadelphia, as early as the year 1766, directed that a subscription should be taken, or a collection made, in all their congregations, vacant as well as supplied, for the purpose of raising a fund for sending the gospel to destitute places. The next year they determined on an annual collection, and adopted other suitable measures for the accomplishment of their benevolent design.” From our very earliest days in America, our congregations were each contributing to a common Presbyterian mission work. As our churches grew in those early days, this common commitment moved right into the work of the General Assembly. Again, I quote: “The General Assemby, which was constituted by that Synod, met for the first time in Philadelphia, in May 1789. During the session of that year, the Missionary cause claimed their particular attention. They directed the four Synods, then existing under their care, to recommend each two missionaries to the next Assembly and that funds might be prepared to meet the expense to be incurred, it was enjoined on all the Presbyteries, to take measures for raising collections in all the congregations within their bounds.”


The missionary impulse flows in our veins. In 1766 the Presbyterians found the conviction and the inspiration to work together in a common mission. Is that conviction still with us? Can we do this together? In the early days there seems to have been this natural, divinely inspired commitment to work together. The gathering of the presbyteries, and then the connecting together of the presbyteries into the first synods, and then, of course, the first meeting of the General Assembly in 1794 all happened very quickly, naturally for our ancestors. What about us? Can we do this together? Is there any inspiration and conviction to do this together? Or has the spiritual energy shifted completely so that we are now being drawn apart, and each congregation does their own thing?

What I am asking is not simply a financial question. I am asking a spiritual question. Where is the spiritual energy? Where is the Holy Spirit calling us and leading us to connect together, be together and work together? Can we do this together? Is there any spiritual energy for connectionalism? There are three large areas around which I would like us discern the spiritual energy in our churches. Again, these are spiritual questions, not first of all financial questions:

Per Capita: This is a very strong Per Capita Presbytery. But I believe spiritually there is no energy or future in the concept of Per Capita. We need to talk about this. I have not asked for or advocated for any increase in Per Capita since I started here in 2005. But with an expected $30,000 budget deficit in 2010, we could simply raise our Per Capita by $2.00 and that deficit would be funded. But I do not discern any spiritual energy there. I know some congregations are redirecting Per Capita to cover other expenses. Is there any spiritual energy for Per Capita? What should we say to churches that cannot or will not contribute their Per Capita?

Basic Mission Giving: In my opinion, the most significant structural flaw in our Presbytery is that no group, and no committee, has taken responsibility for the interpretation of and celebration of Basic Mission Giving. We have done a poor job celebrating what is, in my opinion, the best work in the Presbyterian Church: our World Mission Program. Can we do this together as Presbyterians? Why are so many of our congregations offering greater financial support for Habitat for Humanity, Worldvision and Compassion International than for Presbyterian World Mission? Why can we, within our congregations, raise tremendous support for a one week mission trip while we often have no, ongoing relationship with any of our fulltime Presbyterian missionaries? Can we do this together? Is there spiritual energy for the theology of Basic Mission Giving in your congregation?

Designated Mission Giving: I believe this may be the future of our church, and will soon define the funding patterns of our presbytery. You will notice on our budget report that we now have an income line for Designated Mission Giving to the Presbytery. This category has been growing. There is a lot of energy around designated giving. What does that mean? There are increasing numbers of our congregations who designate mission giving to the Presbytery. Let’s talk about this. Is this the future? What kind of conversations do you have at your session meeting to determine your mission giving designations? Can we do this together?

Please be very clear about my intentions. I am advocating for and calling a very activist and robust Presbytery. I see a Presbytery, maybe through the concept of Regional Associates, that is intentionally linking and connecting congregations to walk together in ministry. I see a Presbytery where pastors and church leaders relate to one another with high levels of trust, prayer and collegiality. I see a Presbytery that has made a commitment to create a holy space, a sacred place where our church leaders and our children can go to connect with God and with one another. We call it Camp Krislund. I see a Presbytery where every congregation has a relationship with, a friendship with, at least one of our Presbyterian world missionaries. I see a Presbytery which working with our World Mission office sends out full time missionaries to serve on our behalf. I see a Presbytery that has connected congregations together in international mission networks. I see a Presbytery which supports evangelists within our bounds to reach out to all the people who will never walk into our churches. I believe the Presbytery is the key link in the connectional commitment of our Church. My friends, can we do this together?

Presbyterian World Mission: Listen to the gentle ones!

As I reflect on the fabulous World Mission Celebration which was held this October 21 to 24 in Cincinnati, I believe I have discerned something of the challenge we face. Our Presbyterian Church needs to celebrate and support the work being done all around the world, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, by our full time, professional missionaries. These are our people! They are serving on our behalf around the world and at the invitation of our partner churches. I have been very involved with our World Mission work for several years; I have learned something of the spiritual paradox of our missionaries. Almost to a person, including the director of World Mission Hunter Farrell, every Presbyterian missionary I have met and talked with recently has a very gentle, humble, quiet personality and presence. Our missionaries are not gregarious, loud and life-of-party personalities. They are not flashy. Our missionaries are humble servants. At times these missionaries are difficult to personally connect with because often they do not initiate conversation or broadcast their stories. But these are the people who we are asking to sing from the mountaintops, to proclaim abroad the good work of World Mission. There is a paradox of personality here. Our missionaries are the gentle servants of the church, who work in humble partnership with our church partners all over the world. But we are also asking them to be the cheerleaders for our World Mission work. We must listen carefully. We must pay attention. Our missionaries are not going get in our faces and buttonhole us at the coffee break with their stories. These missionaries are not loud. Often, I have noticed, they are uncomfortable with public speaking.

We need to listen to these gentle ones. We need to open our hearts to their stories. There is a spiritual lesson for us here. It is often the loud, flashy, polished and sexy noise of our world that gets our attention and, too often, our devotion. But maybe God is not in all the noise which attracts us and seduces us. We need to listen to the still, soft voices. We need to listen in and through the silence of deep prayer. Indeed, let us celebrate and applaud the work of World Mission around the world today and hear the quiet, gentle voices of our missionaries. If you are not listening with an open heart and a focused attention you may miss the good news. Let us listen! Let us hear the story of Mark Hare working so far out into the rural area of Haiti that few mission teams ever visit. Mark will tell the good news of the moringa tree. Let us hear the story of Tricia Lloyd-Sidle who works in partnership with the Presbyterian Church of Cuba. If we listen, Tricia will breakdown many of our stereotypes and polarized perceptions. She tells the story of Presbyterians who have been faithful, devout, and persevering through all the years of the Castro regime. Let us hear the story of Gloria Wheeler who knows what happens when poor women are inspired and come together around the task of community development in rural Honduras. Let us hear Jim McGill’s story about the social and spiritual domino effect which unfolds in a rural Malawian village when a new well provides fresh, clean water for the first time ever. Listen to the heartbreaking story of the Roma people. They were in the crosshairs of Nazi Germany, and the victims of prejudice and discrimination throughout the ages. Now there are glimmers of a new tone, a new message and the breaking down of the strong walls of hatred. Our missionary Burkhard Paetzold is there. Are we listening? A quiet, deep truth is being proclaimed. It is the story of Presbyterian World Mission. Please listen to these gentle ones.

A Letter from Honduras

This letter is from Mark and Ashley Wright, new Presbyterian missionaries in Honduras. This letter may also be found at the Mission Connections website: http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/letters/wrightm/wrightm_0910.htm

October 14, 2009
Friends,

Moving to a new country isn’t easy. Even though we talked about it at orientation this summer, and even though I had traveled a lot in foreign countries before, I wasn’t really prepared for the reality of it. What made this time different was that I knew I wasn’t going back home. This strange place was supposed to become my home.

I did great at first. I was so excited to finally be here, excited to be answering God’s call and thrilled to be sharing my knowledge with other people. But things started to get a bit tough when it started to set in that I wasn’t going to get to go home anytime soon, and all the frustrations started to really gnaw at me.

One day, as I was making a mental list of all the things that bugged me in Honduras, I had a sudden realization of all the things that weren’t bugging me, and I had to laugh and say, “Glory to you, God, for how you have prepared me for this, and I didn’t even know it.” In a flash, God showed me how He has been preparing me step by step for this adventure. Jesus says, “Behold, I make all things new.” And indeed, by Him and in Him, I am a new creation. My old life has gone, and a new life has begun.

Over the years, God has met me and changed me in very practical ways—from our honeymoon on the Greek islands where (like Honduras) old and inadequate plumbing means that toilet paper goes in the trash can, not the toilet; to learning to live with the nightly window-rattling “boom-boom” cars in our neighborhood in Cincinnati, which prepared me for the incessant noise of Tegucigalpa; to the culture shock of our first pastorate in the Appalachians, where mountain ways were much more different than we expected, and we learned what it meant to be outsiders. Coming to Honduras, we expected major cultural differences, but through those early pastoral years God sharpened our sensitivity to the subtle cultural norms and values that are so important, but rarely discussed.

Last spring, when we first got the chance to meet with the pastors here in Honduras and hear how they had been praying and planning for PC(USA) mission coworkers, it became so clear how God had been preparing us—all of us, in Honduras and North America—for something that we can’t even begin to understand yet.

I know that living and working here in Honduras will bring many difficult challenges. Even the smallest things we take for granted can become mountains to climb. Right now we live day to day, not knowing what the political situation will bring: Will there be a demonstration blocking the road to the kids’ school? Will there be more curfews and disruptions of daily life? What about the people who are in such need even when things are “normal?” They need to work every day just to have a bit of food for their families. I don’t know the answers to these questions, and I can’t change them. I can’t fix them. I don’t even always know how to be faithful in the face of them, but I do know that God is with us all of the time. And I know that God has called us here, to this place, at this time. And looking back, I can see how God has been patiently preparing me and my family for this very thing. Scripture tells us that even when we am faithless, God will still be faithful with us: “If we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).

There are still days when I ask myself, “Why are we here? What possible good can we do? And though we don’t know fully how we will be used down here, Mark and I have felt that something big is happening here in Honduras. This sentiment has been echoed by other people here as well. The young and old here are so hungry for God’s word. And they are not afraid to share the hope they have in Christ. When you meet a person who knows what the good news of the gospel is, you can tell right away by the smile on their face, or the happiness in their eyes. Yes, they may have tragedy in their lives, but they know that what they see before them is not God’s final say on the situation.

When I am faithless and think that nothing will ever change, I have to remember the people we have met here who carry the promise of the gospel inside them—how they are a blessing to us, and how, somehow, just by being here without a political or economic agenda, we seem to be a blessing to them as well. Together we live in expectation of the things that God has been preparing, whatever they may be, and in thankfulness and humility that God has been preparing us for this very time.

I hope that you will pray for Honduras during this difficult time, for the political leaders and for the people.

Grace and Peace,
Ashley and Mark Wright

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you.-Peter 1:3-4