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Jules or Jesus?  04-20-2026

Number 3 of God’s top ten is “do not use God’s name in vain”. That doesn’t mean cussing when you’re 5. “In vain” is using God’s seal of approval to justify what God is against. Pope Leo 14th summed it up: “Woe to those who manipulate religion in the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth”. On the other hand, Franklin Graham grows darker with practice.

The secretary of war (a new title that has no defense) commanded worship to pray to God words he said were from God’s prophet Ezekiel. If he’d spend more time reading the Bible instead of abusing it, he’d know one line out of context was from Ezekiel 25:17. However 95% of his “prayer to God” was written by Quentin J. Tarantino for his 1994 film “Pulp Fiction.” The lines are spoken by Samuel L Jackson playing the criminal hit-man Jules whenever he murders someone in total submission to the whims of his boss (“before I pop their ass” as Jules so compassionately put it). QJT is idolized for his writing, and SLJ delivers lines as the coolest dude alive, but neither pretend to speak for God.

Whom do you follow and quote — Jesus or Jules? Jesus who full-fills the vision of trust, peace, equality, restorative justice, and love of the prophets? Jules who profits off of lying, murder, and stealing?

Number 8 of Jesus’ top 9 is: “Blessed are the Peace-makers, for they shall be called children of God.” War never leads to peace (Shalom); it always leads to a time-out until the next violent war; a pause is not peace. Peacemakers come together to live out the vision of God spoken through prophets and Jesus. 

Prophets Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 both poetically write: “God shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.” Micah then adds “but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the LORD of hosts has spoken.”

Number 1 for John Lennon is the song “Imagine.” Imagine turning weapons of war into gardening tools. Imagine every person having enough and no one making us afraid. Imagine if we followed Jesus instead of Jules. Imagine spending our money, energy, and wisdom on building up instead of bombing down. What do you imagine?

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Spiritual Convergence 

I was taught that the deep wisdom of all great spiritualities converge. Before you push back, I invite you to let it sit for a while. Does the teaching mean all spiritualities are exactly the same? Why use the word “wisdom”? What changes if we substitute “religions” for spiritualities? Apparently I’m trying questions before reflections today.

Brian McLaren’s podcast from May 15th’s “Leaning How to See: Seeing the Humanity in Everyone (no exceptions)” points out:

Jesus teaches: “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you. For this is the Torah and the Prophets.”

Jewish law in Leviticus reads: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

In the Hadith sayings of Islam, the prophet Muhammad speaks: “as you would have people do to you, do to them. And what you dislike to be done to you, don’t do to them. None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.”

From Buddhism: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.”

From Hinduism: “Do nothing to others which, if it were done to you, would cause you pain.”

From Taoism: “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.”

From Sikhism: “Love for people what you love for yourself, and you will be a believer.”

From the Baha’i Faith: “And if thine eyes be turned toward justice, choose thou for thy neighbor that which thou choosest for thyself.”

How might this deep wisdom affect a system that marginalizes, misunderstands, uses, and overlooks people? How might our eyes be opened to see the humanity in everyone? Why is this teaching often called “The Golden Rule”?

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Building Bigger Barns 04072025

On his walk to Jerusalem to celebrate the last Passover of his life, the rabbi Jesus told this story found in Luke chapter 12.

Someone from the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” Jesus said to him, “Man, who appointed me as judge or referee between you and your brother?” Then Jesus said to them, “Watch out! Guard yourself against all kinds of greed. After all, one’s life isn’t determined by one’s possessions, even when someone is very wealthy.”

As a pastor and hospice chaplain, I’m grateful for the example of Jesus not to get embroiled in a family inheritance battle. No one comes out unscathed. “Life is not determined by one’s possessions” is often ignored by religious conmen (except for relieving you of the burden of your possessions). THEN Jesus tells a parable. A parable is a story that never happened but is always true. You might notice how many times “I”,  “my”, and “self” occur after the land (not the man) produced a bountiful crop.

“A certain rich man’s land produced a bountiful crop. He said to himself, What will I do? I have no place to store my harvest! Then he thought, Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones. That’s where I’ll store all my grain and goods.  I’ll say to myself, You have stored up plenty of goods, enough for several years. Take it easy! Eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. But God said to him, ‘Fool, tonight you will die. Now who will get the things you have prepared for yourself?”

What is the lasting truth from this ancient story? Where is the joy of love, inclusion, peace, and community for a fool who dies alone — save for his selfish possessions? If life isn’t about possessions what might life be about?

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Ich und Du… I and Thou 02252025

Within the safe walls of seminary I read Martin Buber’s book “I-Thou”. I don’t recall all the nuances but the basic idea that called me into a new life can be shared briefly. We treat other people as an I-IT or an I-THOU. I tried to image all the preventable suffering between his writing the book in German in 1923 and the translation I had from 1970.

My attitude towards an IT is transactional —how I can experience, use, manipulate, control…. another as an IT. When I dehumanize, categorize, judge, hate, exploit, define another, I am treating someone as an IT. Joseph Stalin was born a year after Buber’s book. His quote in the Washington Post January 20, 1947 illustrates I-IT: “If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that’s only statistics.”

An I-THOU is a relationship that does not objectify another but lives in a fully present relationship. When I treat others as a THOU not an it, they in turn are drawn in relationship to me. God always relates to us as I-THOU and invites into relationship. We can turn our relationship with God into an I-IT when we talk about God instead of talking to God.

Writing clergy in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” April 16, 1963 the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. writes: “Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an “I it” relationship for an “I thou” relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful.”

What I-IT treatments of people do you see today that are not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, but morally wrong and sinful? When have you experienced a profound I-THOU relationship with God, a human being or nature? How does technology impact how you relate to others?

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Martin Niemöller 02182025

The Stuttgart declaration of guilt was signed by leaders of the Protestant Church in Germany in October 1945. It confesses in part: “That which we often testified to in our communities, we express now in the name of the whole church: We did fight for long years in the name of Jesus Christ against the mentality that found its awful expression in the National Socialist regime of violence; but we accuse ourselves for not standing to our beliefs more courageously, for not praying more faithfully, for not believing more joyously, and for not loving more ardently.” It’s not too late to admit you’re mistakes.

An instigator and signer of that declaration was Martin Niemöller who had initially supported Adolph Hitler as an anti-semite. When Hitler ordered protestant churches to preach Nazi doctrine, Martin became one of the founders of the Confessing Church that said we will follow Jesus’ rather than the state. He spent 8 years in concentration camps where his views changed. When he barely survived, he became a famous speaker for protecting human rights. It’s not too late to change your mind.

As a teenager one of the posters on my bedroom was this quote from Martin Niemöller: “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.” Sometimes it’s too late.

You can’t see the poster on my bedroom wall anymore, but you’ll find the quote at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. 

What is yours to do?

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What’d I Miss? 02052025

Washington Irving’s character “Rip Van Winkle” slept through 20 years and returned to a changed village. I’ve only been out of it for 2 weeks. We’ve been in France (the French side of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin) since Jan. 19. That was the day before the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday (a day of equality, mercy, inclusion, and service to others) and the day of beginning of the end (grabbing all the money and power you can by those lusting for more). 

The historian Dom Crossan taught me this truth: “The history of civilization reveals that you can have a Republic and you can have an Empire; but you can’t have both for long.”

In Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical “Hamilton” the second act opens with the beginning of the American Republic and Thomas Jefferson returning from France. Red-faced James Madison greets his return with these words: “Thomas, we are engaged in a battle for our nation’s very soul. Can you get us out of the mess we’re in? Hamilton’s new financial plan is nothing less than government control. I’ve been fighting for the South alone. Where have you been?”

Thus begins Jefferson’s song “What’d I Miss?”…. “What’d I miss? I’ve come home to this! Headfirst into a political abyss! What’d I Miss?” 

Being unplugged for two weeks, I too wonder what’d I miss? You can speak it, write it, rap it, or think it but I’m curious what your answer would be to my question: “What’d I miss?”

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Shibboleth  103124

As a break from watching candidates’ speeches and interviews, we’ve been watching “West Wing” on HBO. That sentence may raise anxiety about my mental meds still working — they are. The season 2, Nov 22, 2000 Thanksgiving episode called “Shibboleth” is my favorite. I laugh at CJ’s turkeys; I tear up when President Bartlet entrusts Charlie with his carving knives passed from father to son; I am inspired by an obscure Biblical story from a catholic president’s character — the character displayed by the character portrayed.

A boatload of Chinese evangelical Christians arrive in California seeking asylum for being persecuted for their faith. How does anyone determine if they are sincere in their life-threatened beliefs or just saying pre-scripted words to get into this country? Bartlet cites the metaphor of “shibboleth”. In Judges 12:6 it was not just knowing the word meant “corn” or “river”. It was how you pronounced the word tested trust. The dialect difference between saying Shibboleth instead of Sibboleth let you know whose side you were on. 

There’s a man who bragged on tape he grabbed women’s genitals whether they like it or not because he’s the star…. who owes five million dollars to E. Jean Carol because an impartial jury believed legal evidence he sexually assaulted and defamed her whether she liked it or not….  who tried to use lies, intimidation, and violence to steal an election whether the majority of  voters liked it or not. Last night I heard that man promise: “I’ll protect women whether they like it or not.” That was the wrong speech — autonomous women needing autocratic patriarchal protection to make decisions for their lives. Maybe Sibboleth is a bunch of corn that floats down a river of shi…..bboleth.

Nine days ago, as a pastor and hospice chaplain I was interested in hearing the Vice-President’s answer to the CNN town hall questions on grief and her faith. “I pray every day; sometimes twice a day. I was raised in church to believe in a loving God, to believe that your faith is a verb — how you live your life, how you can serve in a way that is uplifting other people, caring for other people — that guides a lot of how I think about my work and what is important.” 

How do I know if that’s genuine or a script used to get in? Soon she said she called her pastor Amos Brown, the Sunday the president announced he would no longer seek the nomination. She said, “I just called him. I needed that spiritual kind of connection. I needed advice. I needed a prayer. There’s a part of the scripture that talks about Esther, ‘such a time as this,’ and that’s what we talked about. And it was very comforting for me.” Citing the Bible’s book of Esther and knowing Mordecai said to her, “Who knows if you’ve been placed here for such a time as this?” — that was true shibboleth for me.

What is your shibboleth? How do you determine who is genuine and trustworthy in your life? How do you measure yours and other’s words and actions?

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Tommy 102924

The first opera that spoke to me was “Tommy” by the Who. The wonderful words and moving music were in my native language of rock. In grade 7, after 6 nights of basement-blasting four sides of the LP, I’d spend 1 day in church and youth group. I noticed the same themes. Tommy, a “deaf, dumb, and blind boy”, seeking healing through the connection of “see me, hear me, touch me, feel me.” Jesus, healing the blind, deaf, and lame to open their eyes to see, unstop their ears to hear, get up and walk to follow and do something. Deaf/dumb/blind — blind/deaf/lame were drummed into my head by Keith Moon and the Rev. Dr. Bill Arnold.

Two sleeps ago, Michelle Obama helped me, a man, see, hear, touch, and feel the silent shamed struggles that all women go through. She opened her mouth to open eyes and ears to see and hear the cries of women who are suffering and dying today and whose healthcare is threatened by the future. She invited those with lame excuses to get up and do something. It’s not too late to spend the time of one quarter of a football game watching her full speech on YouTube.

If you have two football games of time, YouTube the same night’s radical rally at Madison Square Garden. To save time, the nine-minute 2017 documentary “A Night at the Garden” will be a revelation of the same words, themes, and location on Feb. 20, 1939. I learned from “Tommy” that power corrupts morality long before I learned it from Lord Acton.

A white christian nationalist called the Vice-President of the United States of America the anti-christ without any sense of earned respect or the two letters of John in the Bible. Another revealed how he sees all women: prostitutes supported by pimps. Tucker revealed radical racism without a border of decency. A deaf, dumb, and blind boy was too dumb to stay mute when he insulted 6 million American citizens from and in Puerto Rico days before an election that might be decided by a few thousand votes in a few states. A decade of indecency created this; when did this become ok?

The deception that he didn’t say it tries to blind us to the fact that the man who created, fomented, and sent this rhetoric into our land is same one who created, fomented, and sent an armed mob to violently overthrow our republic. The black maid Aibelene says to Miss Hilly in “The Help”: “Ain’t you tired, Miss Hilly? All you do is scare and lie to try and get what you want. You a Godless woman. Ain’t you tired, Miss Hilly?”

Two sleeps ago, when a squirrel was darting across the road back and forth as our car neared, my wife yelled, “Choose a side before you get run over!” Do you think it helped?

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Abortion Silence Oct 28, 2024

My public church sermons center on the Bible. Since the Bible is silent on abortion, so was I. My leading inquisitive youth groups included “God’s gift of sexuality” materials. Our safe sharing focused more on committed relationships (plus STD and pregnancy prevention) than abortion; however, any written submission to the “question box” was discussed. In private counseling I walked with christian women through problem pregnancies. My questions helped them make their best choices because I trust women to do what is right. These writings have been called “Reflections and Questions” because in my experience, good questions help people discover the best answers for their lives within them.

When I was an associate pastor, I befriended a female associate rabbi. We had most of the Bible (and issues playing second fiddle) in common. She asked me, “Do you know a reason rabbis don’t protest women’s health clinics?” I said, “I guess rabbis ask questions rather than scream shameful statements.” She said, “Nice try. It’s because we study Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures).” I asked, “What do you read there?” She taught me……

In the second story of creation, God forms the “earthling” out of the “earth” (Hebrew: Adam/man out of Adamah/ground). Genesis 2:7 — then “God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being.” Life begins with the breath of life and ends when God’s breath leaves. In fact the name for God, Yah-weh (I am who I am), sounds like breathing. Yahweh — we breathe God’s name as long as we live. The possibility for life may begin at conception through gestation, but God tells us when life itself begins — the first breath of life.  

She then filled my silent reflection with more mundane Torah… Exodus 21:22-24 “When men who are fighting injure a pregnant woman so that there is a miscarriage, and the woman is not harmed, the one responsible shall be fined what the woman’s husband demands, paying as much as the judges determine. If the woman dies, then you shall give life for life.” Back when patriarchy viewed wives and children as property, causing a miscarriage was a monetary fine for the loss of a future possible child (not murder); the death of a woman was punished as taking a life; other harm to the woman was punished by equivalent recompense. The difference makes all the difference.

If you live in Missouri how will you decide on Amendment 3 to our state constitution that restores the reproductive rights an old law removed? How much do you trust women and physicians to make good decisions? How much do you trust outsiders seeking the power to control you? When have you experienced good intentions result in bad consequences?

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Project 1525  Oct 16, 2024

As a follower of the actions and teachings of the Jewish rabbi Jesus of Nazareth, my denominational flavor by birth and by choice is Presbyterian. “Presbyterian” is the New Testament Greek word for ELDER – “Presbuteros”. Elders seek together to discern God’s will in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Elders are not just old men; elders are men and women elected by churches because of their wisdom and their servant leadership to discern and do the ministry and mission of the church with others.

500 years ago, John Calvin of Geneva wrote his playbook. It was not called “Project 1525”; it was “The Institutes of the Christian Religion”. Because of sin, he did not trust one person with too much power. In his day the papal institution had total immunity to arrest and persecute any enemy who disagreed with their autocratic authority. They didn’t need the supreme court; they had the Holy Roman Empire – the First Reich (before Hitler’s Third Reich). 

Even more, because of sin, Calvin did not trust the masses to make informed decisions. His masses could be conned to believe anything. Before printed copies, they were told by their church in Latin what the Bible said without reading it themselves. Yet I don’t think he’d ever imagine social media today convincing the masses that outlandish lies are true. (Joseph Goebbles showed, “repeat a lie enough and a mass of people will believe it’s true”).

Rather than a top/down or a bottom/up system of church government, Calvin proposed something new. Elected elders would pray, share different perspectives and ideas, and come together to discern the best way forward. Our American experiment was so similar that King George III wrote “sister America has run off with a presbyterian parson.”

For 67 years I’ve been amazed how true those ideals are. As the pastor, I’ve had bad ideas that were corrected by the wisdom of teamwork. I’ve been against ideas our elders adopted that I was persuaded to support with transparent and transformative discussion and a majority vote. Brilliant ideas that weren’t there when we gathered came from a team of rivals working together. It would have been disastrous if I alone were in charge, or if we polled people on everything. 

Because we had a team of strong and wise elders, the church thrived when I went insane 17 years ago. I wonder, what would happen to our American experiment if a man with psychological problems, possible dementia, and a history of abuse to get his way became the sole autocrat? Who has been a team of wise elders of all ages discerning the best way forward in your life?