Pray Without Ceasing

 "There is a river whose streams make glad...." For anyone who has been frustrated the past few years with ultra-conservatives in the political arena whose only purpose seems to be to incite and inflame, it is heartening to note that the tide of public sentiment has turned against their hate-filled invective. Compare the soaring strains of President Obama's Tucson memorial speech , the truths of which resonate more deeply with the passing of time, to the hollowness of the rhetoric advanced at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, summed up tartly in Frank Rich's NYT opinion piece this past weekend. The qualities of hope and confidence in the human spirit which reside at the heart of his presidency are embodied in his lyrical quotation from Psalm 46 which opened this speech:  "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will h...

Now is the time for the Egyptian people to "Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against the enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, aginst the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:11-12) In this case, the two would seem to be one. Perhaps it is hyperbole to say that Hosni Mubarak is the devil, but what else would the masses seeking freedom from his oppressive rule think, when their peaceful protest was turned upside-down by armed, well-organized hired pro-Mubarak thugs who arrived en masse in Tahrir Square yesterday in buses and on camels and horseback to begin firing on the protesters and creating chaos (and then to hear that the government was accusing the protesters of creating that chaos)? All this is well documented by independent news sources . It is a dark time for thos...

"....the desire of the wicked comes to nothing." (Psalm 112:10b) This verse from the end of Psalm 112 is reiterated in various ways throughout the Book of Psalms. We are witnessing its truth once again in the unfolding events in Egypt. The repressive 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak is about to be overthrown by a popular uprising which seeks freedom, justice and the right of the people to protest and express themselves. Whatever glories Mubarak envisioned as being his political legacy will be swallowed up by the revelation to the world, through these events, of the true nature of his regime. Nobel Prize laureate Mohamed EdBaradei has emerged as a powerful spokesperson for the uprising. “This is the work of a barbaric regime that is in my view doomed,” he said in today's New York Times. “They are completely desperate. We have been walking in a peaceful demonstration. This is our basic right. And I hope the pictures will be everywhere to see how barbaric, h...

  From Psalm 15, appointed for this coming Sunday: "O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart...." Has there been a better public example of this in recent memory than Kansas City Royals pitcher Gil Meche, who just walked away from a $12 million contract because he believed he was not holding up his end of the bargain? This fine story details his decision to simply walk away from the incredible wealth that was due him under the terms of his contract, because his contributions to the team, he contended, were not worth it. The story, one virtually unheard of in the suffocating wealth of professional sports, offers a heartening reminder of the indelible power of truth-telling. Of course, Meche is hardly destitute, having already taken in $40 million from the Royals to date. But it's a far cry from Mo Vaughn of the Mets, who made $15 million in 2004 even th...

 It is impossible to come to terms with the horror of this past Saturday's shootings in Arizona, for there is no way to comprehend such an act. But thoughtful reading of news reports since then has affirmed the truth proclaimed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:5: "Therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, for he will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart." In this case, many of the "things" in question have been known to those who follow Arizona politics closely but are now being articulated on the national stage. These include the general political climate in Arizona, a state with a long and troubled history of opposition to the celebration of Martin Luther King's birthday; Arizona Governor Jan Brewer's harsh anti-immigration stance ; the state's scarily permissive gun laws ; and the ways in which conservative talk radio in Tucson has fanned the flames of anti-im...

  This past week's Wall Street Journal carried a fine piece by its books and culture editor John Wilson on "Why Christians Overemphasize Christmas." His thesis is not what one might expect, a rant about how Christmas trumps Easter and shouldn't, but that "Easter is implicit in Christmas, and Christmas is implicit in Easter. When we celebrate the one, we celebrate the other, looking forward to the restoration of all things." Today's Epistle reading, Hebrews 2:10-18, reminded me of this in a powerful way.Verses 14 and 15 read,  "Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death. " That is really what Christmas is about, isn't it? God came to us in human form, and became like us in every way except that he was f...

Today's newspapers are carrying the story of the cancellation of Christmas in parts of Iraq, where the threat against Christians continues to escalate following the devastating church bombing on October 31. To many of us this is unthinkable: No decorations; no lights; no church services. “We cannot find a single source of joy that makes us celebrate," said Chaldean Archbishop Louis Sako in Kirkuk. "The situation of the Christians is bleak.” The State Department estimates that one-half to two-thirds of Iraq's Christian population has fled the country since the start of the Iraq war. This drives home the reality of this coming Sunday's Gospel reading, Matthew 2:13-23, to be heard in all Christian churches which use the Revised Common Lectionary: Warned by an angel about King Herod's evil plan to kill the newborn Messiah, who the magi told him was king of the Jews, Joseph at once gathers Mary and Jesus and flees to Egypt. Flight is the only option; to s...