Friday, December 7

meditation on the violence at the Westroads, #2

There will be a brief service of prayer and remembrance of the Von Maur deaths.
Fireplace Lounge, Tuesday at noon.
All are welcome.


Also: Habitat for Humanity Saturday morning—meet at Caffeine Dreams at 8:00 am.



Meditation:

Anybody could tell things were different on campus yesterday, at least for awhile. When I walked into the food court, smatterings of conversations were about the killings at the Westroads. One woman was checking for text messages and commented, “They are supposed to release the names (of the victims) at 9:30 am.” Another student read the morning World Herald in one hand and held his calculus notes in the other. Others huddled over laptops in low volume conversations.

Over the sound system, Mav radio played Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven.” Yes, the atmosphere was considerably different.

Students who talked with me shared a variety of emotions: a sense of disruption, unfairness, disbelief, violation. Others were non-phased and working at being rational—“This kind of event has happened in other cities, why not Omaha?” And there was a grappling with a fear that an event like this might happen again. Others remained intent on their homework, seemingly oblivious to everything but exam preparations.

Perhaps you have experienced some of these emotions and thoughts. Or maybe other sensations have occurred to you and your friends. You may have also experienced a numbness, and no feelings are found at all; or there may be confusion about how people could be having so many emotions and that they are running so deep.

Personally, one word I’ve found to describe my own feelings is “unsettled.” Life as Im used to has been interrupted and continuity has flagged. I’ve been reminded of life’s dangerous side. I notice an anxiousness to want the news coverage and the effects of this event to go away and leave me alone, so I can get on with life--without difficulty or interruption. I feel a chill inside, and it’s not from the sub freezing weather.

“Wherever two or three are gathered, there I am also.” Matthew 18.20 is in a section of the book where Jesus is giving instruction on how to work through conflict in a group. In the end, healthy faith lives include getting together, in easy times and uncomfortable ones. Therefore, in response to all our perspectives and emotions, it seems appropriate to follow scripture and get together.

We’ve reserved the fireplace lounge for Tuesday at noon. We will light candles, remember the event and its victims, and pray for the families, ourselves, our city. We invite everyone to join us. All are welcome. God will be there among us.

As always, you can feel free to contact me by phone or email.

--f

Thursday, December 6

meditation on the violence at the Westroads

The city we live in became a more difficult place to understand yesterday. A man armed with a rifle killed eight of his fellow humans in what appears to be a random act of rage against the world. Words to describe this event are difficult to come by. Our pain and fear is real.

However, God is present among us today, just as I believe God was present at the Westroads Mall yesterday afternoon. God is always present. God is not a being “out there” causing random acts of inter-human destruction. This event was not God’s will or God's plan. The victims involved did not deserve this.

God is the loving presence between people when they gather. so it will be good to set some time aside today to listen to each other—students, friends, co workers, colleagues, and family. We are all seeking some kind of way to make sense of this violence, to pray, to wonder.


You can look for me at MBSC fireplace lounge and the food court this morning if you’d like to have some conversation or a time of reflection or prayer. You can always feel free to email or call as well.


May God be real in your lives today and always. Amen.

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
he makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
he restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me,
your rod and your staff—
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
you anoint my head with oil
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.

Wednesday, December 5

meditation on simple things

This generation is pragmatic: the college life is mostly about getting a job. Time after time, the answer to the question, “Why are you here?” the answer is “to become qualified for a _____ (a job).

Those in IT want to connect the world; those in education want to teach the world; meteorologists want to predict the weather for a living. The list goes on and on.

Wouldn’t it be fine if all of us would become qualified for the job of being faithful? Would we be changed if we did that? How about taking on the tenets of our faith and put them into play for the world?

In the movie, “Ghandi”, the lead character said something like this in commenting to a Christian missionary who come to Southern Africa to be with Ghandi in his struggle for human rights: “I love your Christianity. There is so much to it, especially in the simple phrases: Love your enemies, turn the other cheek. If we could all turn the other cheek, we would take the blows of the police again and again. We will fight them with our unwillingness to give them blows in return. We will break them by taking the blows. The blows they give us will hurt them. They can arrest us and put us in jail if they wish, but they will not have our conscience. We will not bow.”

That’s the kind of comment that makes faith understandable as a very practical matter. Just as students are learning how to put theory into practice, so too should we all be putting the theory of faith into practice. Putting the simple tenets of love into play is the job for which faithful people train. We must become activists in our faith and put it into play in the world. That kind of pragmatism means faith is a lifestyle, not just something to be understood.

Bill Coffin put it succinctly: “…a broken pride does not make for passivity as I had thought. “The world owes me a living”--that’s passive. “I owe the world and God a life”—that’s active.

I encourage us all to take something from ourfaith and put it into play today. We owe the world—and God—a life.

Tuesday, December 4

Meditation on planning

Not to put too fine a point on it, but sometimes our plans don’t work out the way we want them to. It’s not that things don’t work out well, it’s just that they don’t work out as we want them to.

For example, to increase our visibility as a ministry on campus, we decided to keep putting up a portable labyrinth in the fireplace lounge. Mondays and Tuesdays were selected as appropriate because students have differing schedules. Yesterday, after securing a portable labyrinth that fits the fireplace lounge, it was put down on the floor by late morning, prior to the lunch rush. Directional signs went up. Paraphernalia about labyrinths and UCMHE were all around. Invitations were issued. Hopes were up for a good number of walkers. Nope.

Fewer walked this time than on any other day I can remember. One was an international student struggling mightily with pressure for an outstanding grade to keep a scholarship. This research paper must yield an A. This person wanted to walk and wanted me to lead, and went the exact pace I did. It turns out this person was missing family members, was feeling lonely, isolated, fragmented and useless, and quipped, “I am so afraid (of failing) and I am so alone (no family).” This student had already been to see the writing lab people several times. I offered words of encouragement and prayer.

One walker came as a skeptic, so he walked it backwards with a flair and a smile.

Another student came accompanied by fear of physical illness. “Every year before finals I get something: an injury, a cold, a sinus problem, and now this. And my grandmother died this fall. That’s thrown me for a loop. I’ve got no grandparents left on either side.” More prayer, more encouragement, more practical conversation. This person walked.

Another student brought a friend, and they walked and talked about the experience. This, by the way, is the model that was supposed to go on all day!

Except for me, that was it for walkers that I saw.

However, holy things did happen. I had conversations with students almost non-stop from 11 am to 4 pm. Love lives, student organizations, computers and internet installations, big screen TV evaluations, finals, papers, weekend trips, plans, workweek, more papers, more exams, more, car expenses, calls from jail, work schedule, tattoos, money drain, “confidence in the face of the end of the semester though there’s lots to do and staying up all night isn’t good because my children need someone to get them up and get them to school.” Conversations were held by students sitting around , reading the material about labyrinths and our ministry. Some put the information down. Others put it in their pockets. Hundreds walked by and looked, wondering what this thing was. Others walked by knowingly and smiled. Most walked by in tunnel vision combined with hunger. I learned to sign the words “good” and “bad”.

As it turned out, this ministry of presence took place with the labyrinth being a very large piece of art as a backdrop.

The fact that more people didn’t walk became secondary. The primary point was God’s availability in the here and now. We all figured the labyrinth would work as planned. It didn’t. It worked in a completely new way. It’s not that things don’t work out well, it’s just that they don’t work out expected.

That’s a biblical concept. It happened to God’s followers.

I Kings 19:4-8
Elijah went a day's journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He prayed for death saying: "This is enough, O Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my father." He lay down and fell asleep under a broom tree, but then an angel touched him and ordered him to get up and eat. Elijah looked and there at his head was a hearth cake and a jug of water... ... He got up, ate, and drank: then strengthened by that food, he walked forty day and forty nights to the mountain of God, Horeb.

It’s a good thing to plan and work the plan. It’s also a good thing to know God is with us anyhow!

Monday, December 3

meditation a poetry slam; and schedule

This week at UNO:
Monday: Peer ministry meeting, Monday 2:30
Tuesday: Beth Katz at 1PM, Dinner at Panera's at 6:30 PM, ISS at MBSC Tower Room, 8:00PM; sometime today the Difficult Dialogues Team meets to decide on our proposal for Spring Semester: the Faith Club gatherings for women.
Thursday: Bell Ringing for Salvation Army; 4PM UMMJ Board Meeting
Saturday: Habitat for Humanity; meet at Caffeine Dreams at 8:30 am.


Meditation on a poetry slam


Poetry Slams share lots of energy, and they are very personal. I did not know this.

On Saturday night I went to my first poetry slam and became a judge at Midland College in Fremont, NE. The last time I was a judge it had to do with bodies doing flips off a diving board into a pool. One key there is to see how much splash the diver made. The less splash, the better the dive. Poetry slams are the reverse—the bigger the splash, the higher the score.

The poets were young, energetic. Well, some were more frenetic than energetic. As the poets got close to the microphone to begin, they entered a trance. Some closed their eyes for a moment to get them close to their emotional outpouring. Others grabbed the mike stand like it was the last friend they had. Taught fingers grabbed the skinny black tube and it looked like they were choking it. There was no chance of letting it go.

The topics were highly charged and personal. There seemed to be no discernable quiet distance between the poet and the situation being analyzed. The poet quickly jammed the accelerator and went from zero to sixty with a high pitched frenzy. I liked it, frankly. Energy was one thing we could count on. I gave higher scores to topics and presentations that made me more uncomfortable and were more difficult to access: “the more uncomfortable I am, the more in touch the poet is” was my motto.

After a while, though, the shock value wore off. It seemed like all the poets had been on drugs, in jail, were HIV positive, or were involved in a torrid and one sided, self seeking love affair. It was all very potent, and it was all very transitory.

The poets became the dispensers of pain and wisdom, and it occurs to me these descriptions of pieces of life were hung up in front of us to evaluate and appreciate. The poems were offerings of instant glimpses of depth. This comraderie of expression gave us mutual appreciation of the human condition. While the words did not offer absolution, they did offer some understanding.

This sharing of life’s depthy joys and depressions was a magnet of hope. Joining with others and being provided an avenue of access to a slice of life was wonderful. And we did not feel we were better for not having suffered with the poets. We felt priviledged for being allowed in.

It was a reminder that Jesus takes anybody, no matter their life experience:

Luke 6:37

He also told them a parable. “Can a blind person guide a bind person? Will not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully qualified will be like the teacher. Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor. ‘Friend let me take out the speck in your eye, when you yourself do not see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.


Rev. Dr. Fred Richart
UCMHE at UNO
402-659-5795
www.unocampusministry.blogspot.com