Father's Day Prayer

Eternal God,
Father of all mercies,
Mother of all love.

Grant to all fathers this day your abiding mercies.
Flow through them, I pray, that they might love this world.
To love their biological children, for sure.
Their spiritual children, as well, and that's all the children of the world.

Because love cannot be selective.
Love cannot say: "My own, and not yours."
Love cannot turn a blind eye to the child at our border.
Love, if it's love, is expansive and welcoming and dangerous.
Dangerous for those who dare to love.
Dangerous for those who tell lies about our world.

The children at the border cry out.
Let no father, this day, go unmoved by their sadness and tears.
Let no father find joy isolated from reality.
Joy without the tempering of a child's cry for help.
Is no joy at all.
But only pretense and avoidance.
A game played by the privileged, a game no one can ever win.

Eternal God, the Father of our LORD Jesus Christ.
Eternal Mother of the Nations.
Father/Mother of all that is right and good and just.
Bless the fathers of the world.

That fathers everywhere would say.
"All are mine."
"Every tear a child sheds I will dry."
"Every little one belongs to my dear family."

"I am the father of all the children."

My prayer, O God.
For this Father's Day.
Amen!

33 Languages

33 languages ... that's what the sign said for the California written driver's test. And when I began my test, there was a long list of options from which to choose.

I thought: How comforting to tens of thousands of first-generation immigrants who are working hard, making a living, supporting a family, and building a life for themselves. They need to drive, and there's no sense making life more difficult for people who are offering a solid contribution to the wellbeing of California.

I thought of those who are all fussy and fidgety about "speaking English." How silly of them.

If the history of immigrants shows us anything, it's this: first generation immigrants cling to their native tongue. That was true with Germans, Swedes and Norwegians, and if they were Lutheran, they worshipped in their native tongue for several generations, until English won the day.

By the second, and for the sure, the third generation, English is spoken, and the native tongue retained only by Gramma and Grampa, or the few cuss words that get handed down for a few more generations.

That's true for the Italians, the Poles, the Russians, the Chinese and the Japanese, and every other tongue that's come to America.

Some advice to those who abuse folks who have a tongue other than English, or at least can speak English only haltingly, take a breath. Your ancestors, if from anywhere other than the English Isles, went through the same process.

With all our immigrants, we're a bigger and better nation, and those of us who speak English owe some kindness and understanding to our neighbors. Is this too much to ask? I don't think so. 

Yup. 33 languages. For me, a wonderful thing.

Presbyterians, Prophetic Tradition, Slavery ... and Nazi Germany

As difficult as it is, the history of Nazi Germany reminds us of how easily German Christians were suborned by Hitler, either to openly support him, or retreat into pious quietism. Many a German Christian believed that Hitler was god-sent to cleanse the nation of immoral and unclean elements, and that the church might once again regain a status of influence and glory lost after the defeat of WW1.

Within my own Presbyterian History, these elements are present - as we have seen in the South, when slavers made sure that the "spirituality of the church" kept pulpits silent on the evils of slavery, and rather spent their time lamenting booze, card playing, theater attendance and cussing.

Thankfully, as with Barth and Bonhoeffer in Germany, the tradition of prophetic critique and protest also exists. They clearly saw the difference between loyalty to Christ and an idolatrous nationalism of Germany First.

While much of the Southern Church remained quiet in the antebellum period, and after the war, with the emergence of Jim Crow, Northern pulpits attacked the evils of slavery, and many a Christian leader decried the evils of voter suppression and school segregation.

During the Civil Rights era, when some preachers in the South touched the topic of segregation, they immediately lost their pulpits. While others were encouraged to "bide their time, give it more study and prayer."

So, what shall we choose?

Support for the powers-that-be, to "make American great again"?

Quiet piety?

An ill-begotten patience?

Or clear-headed critique of the rising tide of evil besieging our land? 

While many a German leader saw Hitler as a clear and present threat, others believed that the rising economy, the laws against Jews, and dreams of lebensraum, were all for the best.