Julie Clawson - onehandclapping

Good Friday

Posted on April 10, 2009July 10, 2025

Show the Way
David Wilcox

You say you see no hope, you say you see no reason
We should dream that the world would ever change
You’re saying love is foolish to believe
‘Cause there’ll always be some crazy with an Army or a knife
To wake you from your day dream, put the fear back in your life

Look, if someone wrote a play just to glorify
What’s stronger than hate, would they not arrange the stage
To look as if the hero came too late, he’s almost in defeat
It’s looking like the Evil side will win, so on the Edge
Of every seat, from the moment that the whole thing begins
It is….

Love that mixed the mortar
And it’s love who stacked these stones
And it’s love who made the stage here
Although it looks like we’re alone
In this scene set in shadows
Like the night is here to stay
There is evil cast around us
But it’s love that wrote this play…

This is what is in my head today. Not my depravity. Not guilt at killing Christ. Not pressure to repent because someone died for me. But instead I feel hopeful. Hope that the incarnation means that a better world is possible. Hope that there is a reason to fight injustice. Hope that Jesus meant what he said. Hope that his life as well as his death demonstrate the best way to live.

I look to the victory of Christ not just over personified evil, but over a way of life that denies love. In a world where injustice seemingly prevails, Jesus taught us to follow another path. His incarnation demonstrated the possibility of living a life of love, peace, and justice. And it also reminds us how the world fears and fights against such a way of life. God chose to live among us in a way that turned upside down the system of power and greed the world holds dear. He encouraged his followers to love their enemies, to serve the poor, to live in humility. This way of life was so important to him that he even chose to die for it.

Resurrection is a reminder that in the end love does win, but so is the crucifixion. It is a reminder that this way of life was so important and vital that Christ would die for it. I find that hopeful. It is one thing to know that in the end everything will work out, but it is another to believe that we can live that way already. We can live knowing love prevails – and our living so ushers in the reality. I can live into that incarnation of love. I can hope in the good and be the good that I am hoping for. Even in the seeming despair of death I must claim hope – not just in resurrection and new life, but in a way of life defined by love. For both victory and new life are hollow without love.

Book Giveaway – Mama’s Got a Fake I.D.

Posted on April 9, 2009July 10, 2025

So Caryn Dahlstrand Rivadeneira, the author of the fantastic new book Mama’s Got a Fake ID: How to Reveal the Real You Behind All That Mom, has offered to let me do a giveaway of her book here. That means all you cool people have a chance to win a FREE copy of what I think is one of the best books on parenting I have ever read.

I reviewed the book here recently – but what I love about it (besides its honesty and humor) is how it admits lies fed to moms and encourages us to live into the person God created us to be – even as a mom. And this book isn’t just for moms – but is a good perspective on parenting for dads, grandparents, pastors, teachers, and whoever might encounter parents regularly.

So if you would like to win a copy just leave a comment here by the end of Sunday April 12. One of the comments will then be selected (in a super secret scientific system created by my four year old) as the lucky winner. And if you would rather not just leave a “hi, I want a book” comment, I invite you share what you think are some of the identity struggles parents face these days.

Happy commenting, and good luck.

And if you are really observant, or just really want to increase your chances of winning the book, you’ll notice that we have the same offer up at both the Emerging Parents and Emerging Women blogs.

Learning by Questioning

Posted on April 7, 2009July 10, 2025

As we make our way through Holy Week, I’ve been considering how best to discuss Easter with my daughter. The apparently graphic lesson she heard at MOPS last week left her confused and fairly freaked out about death (gotta love the compulsion to evangelize toddlers…). I want to connect her to the story, but to help her make it her own. So I am liking the idea of exploring the Passover meal with her – especially the traditional aspects of the Seder that have the children asking questions about their faith. The purpose of these question isn’t to receive some prescribed answer as in a catechism, but simply to ask questions of one’s faith.

I like this approach to learning about the faith. I like that the children are encouraged to speak up and explore what they believe and the rituals of the faith. They aren’t told to just be quiet and learn what the teacher wants them to know. In the Seder tradition, there are no bad or wrong questions. The child who asks the tricky or even the silly questions is not looked down upon, what is worrisome is the child who asks no questions. Wrestling with faith or even attacking the faith are preferred to passively and unthinkingly going through the motions of faith.

My daughter is four, and is a chatterbox incessantly asking “why?”. One of her favorite shows is Sid the Science Kid, a show about a preschool boy who each morning runs into a question he has about the world and then asks that question at preschool where the day is then spent answering his question. She finds that fascinating, and loves the experimental approach they take to figuring out the answers. I watch the show with her with chagrin. No school (or Sunday school) is truly like that – allowing the inquisitive nature of kids guide the learning process. While I understand the impracticalities of such a method, I wonder at what stage kids learn that questioning is bad. Where absorbing facts, memorizing concepts, and reproducing them when asked replaces wondering about the world and wrestling with truth? Even in Seminary my husband says the professors play the poor pedagogical game of having students parrot back the answer they want to hear. Education has become about amassing information instead of learning to think.

So I want to tell the stories to my daughter and to enact the rituals of the faith with her, but I want her to know that those too can (and must) be questioned. She shouldn’t just learn about her faith, she needs to live it.

The Church vs. The Marathon

Posted on April 6, 2009July 10, 2025

This past week the Austin City Council heard complaints from a number of local churches. No, these weren’t the typical complaints about libraries having copies of “Heather Has Two Mommies” or about the schools teaching evolution or sex-ed. It was about races – as in people running, biking, skating or whatever through the town.

You see the races are destroying the churches. Austin is a huge race city. It is one of the fittest cities in the U.S. and a mecca for runners and bikers. It seems like nearly every week some other major race is being held on our iconic and decidedly hilly streets. There is something classic about running past major Austin landmarks like 6th street or the State Capital. So when races come to town, streets get shut down downtown as the athletes converge. And of course, so as not to disrupt local businesses, this all occurs on Sunday mornings.

Think about the effect on the downtown churches. The roads to the churches are blocked off. All street parking is banned. No one shows up to church. My friends who work at these churches say that church members don’t even bother trying to come if a race is going on – it is just too much of a hassle to get there. Spiritual issues aside – think about what this does to a church if once or twice a month, every month, no one shows up and therefore no one gives an offering. As churches across the country suffer as giving plummets during the economic crisis, you can see how this is a problem for churches. So they went up against race organizers and running clubs to plead their case to the city. Of course, nothing has yet been decided.

It struck me as a strange dilemma. Most of these churches are older mainline churches that are very culturally involved and provide all sorts of services to the downtown communities already. It took a lot for them to even reach the point where they stood up and made a complaint. I had to wonder what would happen if the city regularly blocked off access to some of the evangelical mega-churches around town. I figure some sort of immediate response about how the city persecutes Christians.

What bothers me is how this raises the question of what the purpose of church is. I don’t think the church is all about the building, or about standing up for its rights, or about fighting those it is called to serve. But these churches can’t gather or collect the resources to allow them to serve unless they do assert themselves. I find the whole situation odd and wonder how it can be resolved for the good of all.

Good Travelers

Posted on April 5, 2009July 11, 2025

Travel should open up our horizons. You know – expose us to different cultures, new foods, alternative rhythms of life, and diverse worldviews. The good traveler not only seeks out these aspects of other cultures, but takes those cultural elements into herself and lets them speak to her. She might appropriate new habits or ideas, or simply be forced to shift her own understanding of the world as the multiple truths she encounters are wrestled with.

Good travelers like these are the ones who change the world, or more accurately, the ones who formulate the ideas that change the world. So, for instance, during the Renaissance as war, trade, exploration, and diplomacy took men further away from their homes than their ancestors had ever thought possible to encounter lands none of them had ever dreamed existed, the world, by necessity, had to shift. New philosophies, sciences, and religious ideas challenged traditional assumptions. New experiences and knowledge necessarily deconstructs what was previously known. The experience for these men led to the Enlightenment – a necessary shift to accommodate a larger world. As the world grows smaller and we travel to other cultures more regularly (whether physically or virtually via the internet), similar shifts occur. It’s all part of being an observant, thoughtful, traveler. Or at least it should be.

To me, ideally, pluralism expands us and blesses us. It forces us to constantly examine ourselves and our world, changing our assumptions and developing our worldviews as we grow. I want to be like that, I want to be the good traveler. My problem is that I grew up in and exist in a world of Texas tourists. If you’ve never encountered an actual “Texas tourist” consider yourself lucky. You can easily spot them when you’re abroad as the fellow travelers who pay almost no attention to the culture they visit. They ride in tour buses with others just like them, wear tennis shoes, cowboy hats, fanny packs and rhinestone embroidered shirts, stay in American hotels, eat American food, and assert their opinions loudly to whoever they can get to listen. I cringe when I run into them while traveling (and double cringe when it’s obvious they are from my home state of Texas). I’ve heard them telling shopkeepers in Mexico how to run their business, yelling at French security guards for not speaking English, complaining that there is no normal food to eat in Spain, and mocking offered hospitality in Russia. They don’t want to be touched by the other culture. If anything, they simply want to impose their own culture onto others as the only right way to exist.

This is the church world I know. The world where missionaries return from the field and compare the people they are working with to mindless monkeys (I am so not kidding). Where participating in martial arts is forbidden because of the “Asian” influence. Or where to participate in certain ministries I had to swear I didn’t dabble in occult practices like yoga. Where friends don’t celebrate Christmas, Easter, or Halloween because they are too pagan. Where it is too cosmopolitan and liberal (and therefore suspect) to eat Sushi or Indian food (or Ethiopian, or Persian, but Tex-Mex is of course okay). Where we were told not to move into certain neighborhoods because they were too Asian, or too Hispanic, or too Black. (And that’s just cultural issues, nevermind theological or philosophical diversity.) This is the world of Texas tourists – never engaging the world, rejecting and mocking it on occasion, but never letting it speak to them and help them to grow.

Preparing for Palm Sunday – Den of Robbers

Posted on April 3, 2009July 10, 2025

Matthew 21:12-17
12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, ” ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

As we have seen so far, Palm Sunday is all about the inclusion of all in worship. Jesus came to proclaim peace to all the nations and to welcome even the despised fully into worship. His indignation at the charade Temple worship had become led to him sending a powerful message as to what true worship involves. He proclaims that not only should the Temple be a house of prayer for all, but that it should also not be a den of thieves. In other words, that true worship not only upholds justice (in demanding the fair and equitable treatment of all), but it also opposes injustices that oppress the other. Once again, we need to take the “den of robbers” quote in its original context.

Jeremiah 7:1-11
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Stand at the gate of the LORD’s house and there proclaim this message:
” ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. 3 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!” 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. 8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.
9 ” ‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.

So the people have strayed from true worship because of their sins – which include oppressing the foreigner and not dealing with each other justly (or fairly). They assume the Lord favors them (notice the “we’re number one!” chant), but they miss the point of worship. When Jesus quoted these phrases, in this oral culture the people would recognize the context and place the phrases in these prophecies about worship and treatment of the foreigner. So as Jesus comes upon the temple full of “foreign” Jews who are being taken advantage of he loses it. Israel apparently hadn’t heeded the call of the prophets to reform worship. They thought they could just continue going through the motions and rituals of worship without participating in the worshipful way of life God insists upon. But when the rituals support (or simply ignore) the oppression of the poor, then they are no longer true worship.

In many ways it is easier to participate in the fun parts of worship – the singing, the rituals, the bible studies, the gatherings than the demands to serve and welcome the other. The crowds gathered to sing praises as Jesus entered Jerusalem, but even his closest followers deserted him when things got difficult and dangerous later that week. The crowds liked the pageantry, the miracles, and the healings but when demands were made of their lifestyle and their treatment of others they walked away. How often these days is serving the poor mocked within the church – or written off as “just the social gospel”? We deceive ourselves into believing that showing up, singing songs, and hearing a sequence of words equate with worship. But the Bible tells us that God detests all that if we are not also doing whatever we can to care for the poor and the foreigner. Worship is not about us – it is about God and the other, the ones God instructs us to love. Following Jesus and participating in true worship is hard.

So do we choose just to follow the palm strewn path – full of exuberance and passion, excited and joyful? Or do we also follow Jesus all the way to the Temple – even when it is dangerous, or uncomfortable, unpopular and demands something more than us than singing songs, hearing stories? Are we just as excited about changing our lives, standing up against oppression, and following the commands God has given us as we are shouting “Hosanna”? Worship encompasses it all.

Afghanistan’s Anti-Woman Law

Posted on April 3, 2009July 10, 2025

I have a new post up at the God’s Politics blog about Afghanistan’s new Anti-Woman Law and I ask why we don’t do more to help bring freedom to oppressed women around the world.

–

Last month Afghanistan’s Parliament passed a new law that severely restricts the rights of women. Although the Afghan constitution calls for equal rights for men and women, this new law imposes standards that some say are worse than what the Taliban demanded. This law forbids women to leave their homes except for emergencies; it forbids them to work or receive education without their husband’s express permission; it strips mothers of custody rights to their children in case of divorce; it makes it impossible for wives to inherit land or houses from their husbands; and it even permits marital rape, saying that women cannot refuse sexual relations unless they are sick.

And if those violations of women weren’t enough, it appears that President Karzai approved the law in an attempt to win more votes during an election year. Apparently guaranteeing men the legal right to rape their wives scored high on the felt needs survey for his key swing demographic. This isn’t simply cultural, or a way to “protect” women, as defenders are saying. Expressions of conservative Muslim faith do exist that don’t treat women as pawns to be used by men for their own selfish ends. This is about stripping women of their identity and humanity – controlling all aspects of their lives, including (especially) their bodies.

I’ve heard similar reports out of Iraq. Since the fall of Saddam and the creation of the U.S. approved government, the rights of women have been restricted. Many say that things are worse for women these days in Iraq than they were under Saddam. This seriously bothers me. In all of our attempts to spread freedom and democracy we seem to actually be making things worse for women. And while the U.N. is calling for a repeal of this human rights violation and the British press is reporting on the outrage surrounding the law, I’ve heard very little about it in the U.S. press. Why aren’t we outraged? Why aren’t we standing up to defend the rights of Afghani women?

I have to wonder if we have been so indoctrinated by the anti-feminist rhetoric of pulpits and politicians that as a culture we instinctively shy away from doing anything that might make us seem like man-hating, bra-burning activists. Women in our country can be educated, vote, have a bank account and a job, and yet somehow still think the term “feminist” is a bad word. Freedoms and human rights were fought hard for by our predecessors, who didn’t fear the negative attitudes or hurtful words thrown at them by those who disapprove of equality. We reap the benefits of those pioneers, but are too constrained by cultural ideologies to help bring those same freedoms to other women.

Sometimes though, outrage and activism are exactly what is needed.

Preparing for Palm Sunday – House of Prayer

Posted on April 2, 2009July 10, 2025

The Temple was the center of worship for the Jews. But in the OT we are reminded over and over again (see Isaiah 58:3-8 and Isaiah 1:13-17) that true worship is more than fasting and sacrifices – it is also about helping those in need, treating people fairly, and welcoming all. So after “triumphally” entering Jerusalem and reminding people that the Messiah comes to serve and welcome all nations, Jesus proceeds to the Temple. But as he enters the temple he sees systems set in place for aiding in sacrifices that apparently were taking advantage of the poor – overcharging them, cheating them on exchange. I’m sure as the scattered Jews trickled in for Passover some saw them as easy targets to be exploited – all in the name of worship. This did not go over well with Jesus. He comes in, turns over the tables, and says that stuff about how this should be a house of prayer but it has turned into a den of thieves. Those are strong words in themselves, but once again we need to look at the remez Jesus was implying with those phrases (connoting fuller scripture passages than just what is quoted). Each of those phrases is a quote from the OT prophets speaking directly to how believers should treat others. Today I’ll look at the first, tomorrow the second.

Consider Isaiah 56:1-8 –
1 This is what the LORD says:
“Maintain justice
and do what is right,
for my salvation is close at hand
and my righteousness will soon be revealed.
2 Blessed are those who do this—
who hold it fast,
those who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it,
and keep their hands from doing any evil.”
3 Let no foreigners who have bound themselves to the LORD say,
“The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.”
And let no eunuch complain,
“I am only a dry tree.”
4 For this is what the LORD says:
“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths,
who choose what pleases me
and hold fast to my covenant—
5 to them I will give within my temple and its walls
a memorial and a name
better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
that will endure forever.
6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD
to minister to him,
to love the name of the LORD,
and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
and who hold fast to my covenant—
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain
and give them joy in my house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations.”
8 The Sovereign LORD declares—
he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
“I will gather still others to them
besides those already gathered.”

The house of prayer passage is one of inclusions – of welcoming the nations. Not just the scattered Jews, but all nations. This is an echo of what we were reminded of earlier in the “king on the donkey” passages. The Messiah extends his grace to all – tearing down barriers of nationality, race, gender, sexuality and ability symbolically in the rending of the curtain in the Temple and literally in the tangible acts of his kingdom. In his indignation, Jesus affirms this idea that the place of worship be a “house of prayer” that welcomes even those society typical rejects (like the foreigner and the eunuch). Those who seek to worship should not be excluded on any account.

But in truth it was more common for exclusions to be upheld. Jesus saw the discrimination against poor and foreign Jews and showed his displeasure. But others were regularly not allowed to fully worship in the temple either. Only Jewish men were allowed inside the Temple proper – women, children, and gentiles were only allowed in the outer courts, and eunuch’s were not even allowed to step foot on temple grounds (Deuteronomy 23:1). But Jesus welcomes even the most despised into the Temple – giving them a special place. A practice which his disciples followed.

Take for instance Philip’s encounter with the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8). Philip was all about breaking those barriers and welcoming all – his four single daughters all prophesied (i.e. spoke the word of the Lord, i.e. preached – Acts 21:8-9). He encountered the eunuch on the road as the eunuch was leaving Jerusalem. The eunuch had attempted to come and worship and study at the Temple, but (most likely) had been barred from entry because of his sexual status. He wanted to understand the scriptures, but having been rejected by established religion cynically replies, “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” Philip immediately joins him, discusses theology with him, and welcomes him into the way of Christ through baptism on the spot. Philip understood Jesus’ Palm Sunday rant – that all should be welcome into the Lord’s house of prayer and he wasn’t afraid to live that out.

So I wonder – do we display the same outrage on Palm Sunday when we see churches excluding those Jesus said should not only be included, but given a special place?

Preparing for Palm Sunday – The Entry

Posted on April 1, 2009July 10, 2025

Matthew 21: 1-11
1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
5 “Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ” [a]
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna [b] to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” [c]
“Hosanna [d] in the highest heaven!”
10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Sometimes in the waving of branches and the shouts of praise we forget that there is a political significance of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He entered in a way that directly evoked and in a sense mocked the entry of Pilate and his soldiers into Jerusalem around that same time. Jesus was coming to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. During any of these large Jewish holidays when in essence the nations (some estimate 200,000 scattered Jews would return) would be gathering in the city to remember (at Passover at least) the time when they were released from oppression from an empire, the Romans would put on a show of their strength. This involved a military procession into the city culminating at the Palace. The message it sent was – we are in charge, we have the power, acknowledge us as leaders and don’t try anything stupid. It was all about might and power and oppression and exclusion of the other.

Jesus on the other hand entered Jerusalem humbly on a borrowed donkey as the Bible says according to prophecy and this image/reminder caused the people to worship and celebrate. This situation would have reminded the people of the words of the prophet Zechariah. –

See, your king comes to you,
righteous and having salvation,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

And indeed as Luke’s gospel tells us, the people were calling Jesus King as he rode in – much to the chagrin of the Pharisees who were well aware of the political fallout that could cause at a time when the Romans were extra alert. But in reading this passage, we need to remember that in Jewish teaching there’s a thing called a remez, which is device that when a person quotes or evokes the first part of a verse, what they really want is for their hearers to remember the second part of the verse, or the next verse. So to get Jesus’ point for riding in on a donkey we can’t just look at Zechariah 9:9 about the donkey, we have to keep reading. Verse 10 says:

I will take away the chariots from Ephraim (another way of saying “the Jews”)
and the warhorses from Jerusalem,
and the battle bow will be broken.
He will proclaim peace to the nations.
His rule will extend from sea to sea
and from the River to the ends of the earth.

What we begin to see is that Jesus is about something bigger than the Roman oppression, bigger than being referred to as King, and perhaps much bigger than an impromptu worship service. It is about the nations, about his rule extending to the ends of the earth. It’s a lot bigger than the systems and assumptions of the day. Following him involves including and welcoming the nations. Palm Sunday starts with a fun moment of worship, but quickly expands to address larger issues and, as we shall see, more holistic worship. To see more of that though we need to look at what Jesus does next. (to be continued tomorrow)