Baldwin on Salvation

From the ages of 14 to 17, the writer James Baldwin served as a Pentecostal preacher. However, when he witnessed the chasm between Jesus’ teachings and so much of Christian behavior, he left organized religion. He not only left the church professionally, he left the Christian faith, only identifying himself from this point forward as a writer.

Baldwin left the church because of the way it separated people into haves and have-nots, black and white, saved and transgressors; and, because of its complicity with slavery, segregation, and apartheid.

And yet, in the last year of his life, Baldwin painted a beautiful picture of salvation in his essay, “To Crush A Serpent”. Baldwin writes:

Salvation is not flight from the wrath of God; it is accepting and reciprocating the love of God. Salvation is not separation. It is the beginning of union with all that is or has been or will ever be… There is absolutely no salvation without love: this is the wheel in the middle of the wheel. Salvation does not divide. Salvation connects, so that one sees oneself in others and others in oneself.

 Jesus taught this same understanding of salvation when he called on people to love neighbor as self and to even love the one labeled enemy.

May we find the true meaning of salvation, as we seek to live in union with God, ourselves, and all of our neighbors.

In Memory of Walter Wink

Yesterday, the theologian Walter Wink died. It is funny when your personal celebrities are people few other people know. I can’t even find out how he died on the internet.

Nonetheless, Wink shaped who I am. If I had to pay him royalties for every time I used the phrase “power, prestige and position” I would be a poor man.

Wink redefined the role of power within the understanding of scripture. For Wink, the command to turn the other cheek is no docile passivism, it is a bold counter-cultural stand. Wink writes in his book, Jesus and Nonviolence:

Why then does he counsel these already humiliated people to turn the other cheek? Because this action robs the oppressor of the power to humiliate. The person who turns the other cheek is saying, in effect, “Try again, your first blow failed to achieve its intended effect. I deny you the power to humiliate me. I am a human being just like you. Your status does not alter that fact. You cannot demean me.”

How much could we learn from Wink, to stand strong and not allow ourselves to be defined by positions of power, prestige, or position?

Unfulfilled Dreams

It has been a month since I have updated this blog.

In the interim, I spent a week in prayer at the Norbertine Center. I recently read Tavis Smiley and Cornel West’s book, “The Rich and the Rest of Us” that paints a stark picture of poverty in the United States. I spent two weeks observing and tweeting the events of the United Methodist Church’s General Conference.

Appropriately enough, last night I read Martin Luther King Jr’s sermon, “Unfulilled Dreams”.

In this sermon Dr King talks about the temples that people build that are not completed in their lifetimes: David’s heart to build the temple in Jerusalem, Wilson’s desire for a League of Nations, the Apostle Paul’s yearning to bring the gospel to Spain. None of these happened within those leaders lifetimes.

After General Conference, many of us yearn to build the temple of a church where all people are treated with dignity, respect, and sacred worth.

Amongst this burning desire, King’s words are hard to hear. When it comes to matters of offering basic human compassion, I am not a patient man. Not as patient as King.

In this sermon, given a month before his assassination, King says you may not get there in your own lifetime. For King, it does not matter who completes the temple, the things that matters are the direction you are headed, having your heart right, and having faith.

As we travel the road that leads toward the direction of mercy and justice, may our hearts stay true and our faith in God remain strong.