The World Needs to Bucket of Cold Ice Water

Have you seen the videos?  The Ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness for ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease, has caught on unlike anything I have every seen.  It matches fun, fundraising and awareness into a perfect summer sensation. 

Click here to learn more about Ice Bucket Challenge

In all honesty, I have not yet taken the challenge myself. My stewardship and charity goes to many places -- the work of God in and through Christ Church Exeter being the main recipient.  My wife and I support various institutions, give to Episcopal Relief and Development to support development work and emergency aid, support the work of the church in Cuba, assist a clergy family in Colombia, and some friends along the way who need a helping hand. 

What I hope about this summer phenomenon is that it calls us to do something that is rarely videotaped and posted online for our friends to see. Compassion. May we think and act with compassion towards a world that is looking more ominous and out of control than ever.  The news this past summer has been relentless and dire: the war in Gaza, the shooting down of the airliner over Ukraine and the loss of some many innocent lives, children fleeing violence crossing our southern border from Central America, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa that is spreading, and Iraq coming unglued and a demonic terrorist group ravaging northern Iraq oppressing Christians and other religious minorities.  It's all bad. Really bad.  The world is on fire and is in need of a cold bucket of ice water to put out the flames. 

How can we as individuals make a difference?  Isn't that always the question?  The path forward is found in the many ways that Jesus pointed to in how he promised to be present in the world.  The least, the vulnerable, the widow, the child, are forever present and near to us. We begin with those who are near and hope to touch those who are far away.  Invite a friend to lunch. Engage a stranger in line at the store. Buy a child a backpack for school. Rescue a dog or cat in need of a home. And/or donate to a worthy cause.

So if you are anything like me -- on the verge of calamity/bad global news overload and leaning in to turn off the television -- say a prayer before you do. Ask God to do what God always promises to do -- to listen to God's people and free them from oppression, fear, violence and disease.  Now and in God's time. 

Humanitarian Crisis at the Border has many Faces

First things first. This is not a blog about partisan politics: who's to blame and what went wrong.  My hope is to call your attention to the work of the Episcopal Church in one of the poorest countries in Central America, Honduras, and highlight the good work being done there.  

Matt Engleby was my classmate in seminary. I got the opportunity to spend some weeks in Guatemala with him in 1988, where he had served for two years a Peace Corps volunteer in the 80's. He and I went on to do years of parish ministry but have stayed connected with Latin America.  Matt took the plunge in a truly courageous way some years ago when he began living a great deal of the year in Honduras as El Hogar's Executive Director.  When he is back in the States reconnecting with his family in New Jersey, he is tirelessly visiting churches and spreading the news of the hope and the tragedy that fill his day. People are making a difference in many lives. 

Please read Matt's letter, watch the video, and pray for the many children's who flee such terrible poverty and crime.  And if you are able and called, I commend this vital ministry to you for your generosity.  

Mark+

Watch video here: El Hogar Vimeo Video

My dear Brothers and Sisters,

These past few weeks have seen significant and appropriate attention being directed toward the plight of vulnerable immigrants crossing the US border. We are seeing unaccompanied children and young mothers fleeing to the US at an unprecedented pace.  The attention being directed toward this tragedy has been both compassionate and condemning.

Those of you familiar with the conditions of life in Central America are well aware that what we are witnessing is nothing new. Certainly the proportions are higher than before, but this exodus has been a tragic part of the life of the tragically poor in places like Honduras for years. While I, for one, am grateful for the concern directed to this matter, I am also well aware that the attention span of the media and individuals in the United States is relatively short.  This issue may soon fade from the headlines, but regrettably, the causes that lie at the root of these immigration issues will remain for years to come. And I ask you to hold fast to these concerns and seek resolution in the US and support for organizations like ours in Honduras.

I take this opportunity to remind you all of the importance and incalculable value of the work of El Hogar Projects in Honduras. As an effective ministry of the Episcopal church in Honduras, we strive to provide a preventative approach to the concerns being addressed in the United States at this time. The children fleeing Honduras are motivated by a desire to survive. I ask you to imagine the desperation that a parent must feel when the only option for a child’s future is to send them into the wilderness. Such is life here. No one desires this outcome, but for many it is the only choice.

So, while we do what we can on the northern side of our border to create a just and compassionate response toward the unaccompanied children, in the end, these activities will only serve as a Band-Aid and not address the real causes that are the poverty and violence so present in everyday life in Honduras.  

What must happen is that children who have no hope, who have seen parents gunned down before their own eyes, must have hope restored and a new future structured before them.  That is our goal.  The work of El Hogar is to lift children out of poverty that they may become productive members of the Honduras community.  That is what we do, and we do it well.  We give children an education, life skills, and a new sense of hope such that their future does not depend upon a desperate journey into the wilderness but rests, rather, on a new community formed of loving and caring people.  

Please note that this is the only viable solution to the issues being played out at the US borders.  Please remain faithful to us and these vulnerable children.  I know for many of you, these summer Sundays are less engaging and lower in attendance, but please convey this hope to your communities as best you can.  

I am attaching a few links for you to see.  First is the presiding Bishops response to the immigration crisis.  The second is a recent article written by Lynette Wilson of the Episcopal News Service about El Hogar, a link to our video on El Hogar and finally a New York Times article about the desperation in Honduras.  Read them, learn them, inwardly digest them.  As the salvation of these children depends upon such.  As does yours.

The Rev. Matthew Engleby

Executive Director

El Hogar Projects

Tegucigalpa, Honduras

www.ElHogar.org
mengleby@elhogar.org

Presiding Bishop Letter

ENS article on El Hogar Honduras

NYT refugee Crisis

No Turning Back

Vacation in Acadia National Park in Maine 

For anyone who knows me, the picture above is a head scratcher -- for I am famously afraid of heights. I mean palm-sweating, nearly unable to speak afraid. Thus I can barely ski anymore because of my fear of getting stranded on the lift. Which means I do not climb ladders and will never bungee jump, nor parachute, nor even go up in a nice tranquil hot air balloon at sunrise over the plains of Africa.  

So why did I hike up the Beehive Trail last week at Maine's gorgeous Acadia National Park with my wife Leslie?  It's not like I didn't research the hike. I went online and did hear that one should stay away if one is afraid of heights, but it was "doable" and six year old reportedly easily did the hike.  I told myself: I could do this.  Yet I walked right by this sign at the base of the climb... Bad first move. 

When we ask for signs from God, we don't always expect to see visual signs... (Note to self: read warning signs next time!) 

So Leslie and I made our way up the mini-mountain -- only 520 feet high but straight up. At one point we did say to ourselves that this was a foolish idea: how could we reach the top with our nerves so frayed? We were actually near the top -- about 50 feet away -- when we paused and questioned ourselves.  And then an angel appeared in the form of a hiking park ranger.  She saw our misgivings, yet also our determination and hope to find a way to reach the top. She warned us of the dangers (i.e. asked us if we saw the above sign!) and gave us a choice: head back down or move forward. She also told us that if we wanted to keep going that, "I'll go with you."  THE sign!

She was the encouragement we needed, but also the assurance and the company that sealed the deal. When she learned of what I did for my job/career/vocation, we joked that a few sermons would come out the day and I'm sure she's right. 

For now, this is what I learned:

1. Obstacles, and fear, are real.

2. It's hard to know when it's time to pause, re-assess and perhaps head home.

3. Sometimes we only need a little encouragement, especially when we are so close to our goal. 

4. It sure helps if someone walks with us and we are not alone.

5. Psalm 121 is true: I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where is my help to come? My help comes from... 

6. An angel in the form of a park ranger. 

7. The view is pretty nice from "up there."  

From Good to Great... a different take

Jim Collins wrote the management theory classic Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don’t in 2001.  He writes about “Good is the Enemy of Great,” leadership and confronting the brutal facts. There is much insight. 

Ronald Rolheiser in Sacred Fire also takes up the subject of going from good to great. And not surprisingly he takes a different route.  He shares a story of a group of struggling priests coming to terms with the realities and challenges of their vocation.  One priest (pg. 143) offered this image: “I sometimes picture my soul as a mansion with thirty rooms. I had given twenty-seven of them to God, but I had kept three for myself. Conversion for me meant giving up those final three rooms.”

Going from a “good” follower of Christ to a “great" follower of Christ involves negotiating the self-imposed boundaries and borders of our lives.  We play this game with God, which God must find amusing.  And frustrating. For how can we ever truly hide from the One who knows all and who loves us because and regardless of it. 

A beautiful poem by Margaret Halaska is offered to illustrate the point. And our takeaway, for our reflection: God likes what God sees in us, so why do we hold back?

Covenant

The Father knocks on my door

seeking a home for his son.

Rent is cheap, I say.

I don’t want to rent. I want to buy, says God.

I’m not sure I want to sell,

but you might come in to look around.

I think I will, says God.

I might let you have a room or two.

I like it, says God. I’ll take the two.

You might decide to give me more some day.

I can wait, says God.

I’d like to give you more,

but it’s a bit difficult. I need some space for me.

I know, says God, but I’ll wait. I like what I see.

Hm, maybe I can let you have another room.

I really don’t need that much.

Thanks, says God, I’ll take it. I like what I see.

I’d like to give you the whole house

but I’m not sure…

Think on it, says God. I wouldn’t put you out.

Your house would be mine and my son would live in it.

You’d have more space than you’d ever had before.

I don’t understand at all.

I know, says God, but I can’t tell you about that.

You’ll have to discover it for yourself.

That can only happen if you let me have the whole house.

A bit risky, I say.

Yes, says God, but try me.

I’m not sure—

I’ll let you know.

I can wait, says God. I like what I see.

Summer Read: Another gem by Ronald Rolheiser

Ronald Rolheiser, a Roman Catholic priest and noted author, is one of my "go-to" sources for wisdom.  

Like Richard Rohr, Rolheiser is very attentive to the season of life. He breaks down the three great struggles of our lives:
     Essential discipleship: the struggle to get our lives together
     Mature discipleship: the struggle to give our lives away
     Radical discipleship: the struggle to give our deaths away.  

Having "gotten my life together" in terms of family, career, house/home, my phase in life is undoubtedly in the middle phase. Giving my life away is a daily happening. 

Yet one clear by-product of the mature phase is a certain restlessness, when as Rolheiser writes: this life cannot give us everything for we which we yearn. 

So we live with frustration and restlessness. 

Question: Consider where and how you might be restless in your life?  


More about Sacred Fire: 
Beloved author Ronald Rolheiser continues his search for an accessible and penetrating Christian spirituality in this highly anticipated follow-up to the contemporary classic, The Holy Longing. With his trademark acuity, wit, and thoughtfulness, Rolheiser shows how identifying and embracing discipleship will lead to new heights of spiritual awareness and maturity.  In this new book, Rolheiser takes us on a journey through the dark night of the senses and of the spirit.  Here, we experience the full gamut of human life, pleasure and fervor, disillusionment and boredom.  But, as Rolheiser explains, when we embrace the struggle and yearning to know God we can experience too a profound re-understanding to our daily lives.

“What lies beyond the essentials, the basics?” Rolheiser writes. “Where do we go once some of the basic questions in our lives have been answered, or at least brought to enough peace that our focus can shift away from ourselves to others? Where do we go once the basic questions in our lives are no longer the restless questions of youthful insecurity and loneliness? Who am I? Who loves me? How will my life turn out? Where do we go once the basic question in life becomes: How can I give my life away more purely, and more meaningfully? How do I live beyond my own heartaches, headaches, and obsessions so as to help make other peoples’ lives more meaningful? The intent of this book is to try to address exactly those questions: How can we live less self- centered, more mature lives? What constitutes deep maturity and how do we reach that place? And, not unimportantly, what constitutes a more adult, Christian discipleship? What constitutes a truly mature following of Jesus?”

In Sacred Fire, Rolheiser’s deeply affecting prose urges us on in pursuit of the most holy of all passions—a deep and lasting intimacy with God. 

Not a blog about gun legislation

When my daughter returned from 10 days out of the country in Germany, she asked what had gone on in the news. I said: more shootings. I am literally losing count. A couple at some schools. Police gunned down in Las Vegas. 

This not a blog about the need for tighter gun laws.  Just a call to reclaim our mission as people and communities of faith. Something is going drastically wrong in our nation that is not happening in the same way and in the same numbers in other developed countries. "Moving to Canada" -- the off-hand slogan of protest -- is not an option. 

I agree with the Bishop of Nevada, who writes in his blog: 

Click here to read Bishop's blog

The Release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl

Why do I think the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl this past week from captivity by the Taliban is a harbinger for an even more complex and troubled end to the war in Afghanistan?

And what is a Christian to think in the echo chamber that is today’s 24-hour news cycle? -- Beyond partisan politics and debates over Rose Garden optics…

Should it matter if Bowe Berghahl walked off his post? Did he? 

Should it matter if he began to question the war? What was his mental state?

Is there a process in place to adjudicate his case and have him answer to potential charges of desertion? 

What was it like to be his parents during this time?  What is like to be parents of others who serve in the military?  How do they feel and what emotions do this all kick up?

Did other soldiers die searching for Bergdahl? 

Why did the military promote him from private to sergeant if they believed he deserted?   

What should we do with prisoners held in Guantanamo?  Will they or can they ever be released?  How should we think of and treat any prisoner?

What are we to think of others help captive around the world that we do not know about?  Praying for the kidnapped school girls in Nigeria…

It seems to me that the more we walk through this recent news event/controversy, it might be a good time to check in with the core values of our faith.

How is God present on our battlefields and in our prisons?

How is God present in parent’s anguish? 

How do we pay for mistakes we make? 

Is reconciliation possible? Ever?  (Yes, but it's not easy) 

As you can see, I have more questions than answers.  And I pray for an end to war, the safety of those who serve in the Armed Forces, and peace around the world.  No small thing. 

Comments welcome.