Thursday, May 29, 2014

A few thoughts on soccer and oppression

Just after the World Cup in South Africa, I was already anxiously awaiting the World Cup in Brazil. Soccer or football as it's called in the rest of the world has always been one of my favorite sports. When I traveled to Germany I was fascinated by the way football was a religious experience for the spectators, players, and other involved parties. Even more, football serves as an organized, structural religion throughout all the habitable continents of our world. Football serves a predominant religious role in Brazil (after Roman Catholicism) so it seems fitting that the World Cup, the Easter of football, would be celebrated in Brazil.

It is impossible to understand the implications of the World Cup's presence in Brazil without hearing voices outside of the mainstream media outlets. These mainstream outlets paint a picture of capitalism. The picture tells us how much money will come to Brazil as tourists and athletes from all over the would attend the football matches. If one thinks from the American Colonial Consumer Capitalistic framework, it is impossible to see the negative consequences.

Voices have been calling out from the wilderness as the streets of Rio de Janeiro and other places in Brazil are being targeted with art motivated by the World Cup. This art is not in favor of the World Cup's presence, but instead, this art is a call for justice. The people of Brazil are starving while their country pours millions of dollars into hosting the World Cup. Brazil, though independent since 1822, is expressing their colonial roots. They are expressing the capitalistic obsession which is often only seen as plaguing the West and the geographical North.

Because of the World Cup, Brazil is exploiting its people to be the center of the universe, to be football's Jerusalem for a short time. Unfortunately, Brazil is also expressing the same tendencies of Jerusalem--occupation and oppression. All of this simply to appeal to the money hungry. The art popping up around Brazil is similar to the art the is scattered about the apartheid wall in the West Bank/Israel. It seems that there is nothing more to utter than, "How long, lord". We as humans cannot help but offend human rights--it's one human rights violation after another with us!

Despite my deep love for soccer, even the religious experience that I experience in the soccer community--family--I will abstain from watching the World Cup. I encourage others to advocate for the least, the last and the lost and to set aside capitalistic colonial tendencies to seek justice and love mercy. As Bp. Tutu has said, "If we don't stand on the side of the oppressed we are on the side of the oppressor."

Viva Humanity

Thursday, May 8, 2014

The United Nations and Our God (A Reflection)

This blog comes as a response and reflection after spending three days with staff from the United Nations and church offices. 

The thing about God is that you can never be quite sure what God is up to… As people of faith, we look at the entire world through theological spectacles even when we don’t try. It’s not a conscious recollection of what God has done in our lives or a realization of what God is doing in our lives. This is just how we see the world and how we see God. That is not to say that we don’t get angry or throw our hands toward the heavens in exhaustion and wonder at times why God has yet to make things right. We expect quick answers, we expect our infinite and intimate God to topple the systems of oppression in our society, but that is not quite who our God is…Our God is a God who shows up in the suffering. Our God shows up in the last reasonable place we would ever think to look. Our God shows up in a stable, walking the dusty roads, and on a cross to die the death of a criminal.

What is more, our God shows up to fight for justice with us. Our God accompanies us as we consider the evils of our society. Our God opens our eyes and breaks our hearts when the least, the last and the lost experience great upsets—Suddenly we realize that WE ARE the least, the last, and the lost. We realize that we have nothing more than the marginalized, the downtrodden, or the heartbroken. We have what they have, namely Jesus the Christ.

Over a three-day stint we met with members of the United Nations community. We met with people affiliated with faith-based organizations, and we met with individuals who worked on a strictly secular basis. We heard speakers from across the world and within various different disciples. We heard about apartheid in the Holy Land, the reconciliation efforts in South Africa, the global food crisis, and many other important topics. We were exhausted, not simply because we were jam packed with speakers, but because we were moved and propelled by the Holy Spirit to consider action. Our hearts were moved by God through the mouth of every speaker to seek justice and love mercy, all the while knowing that Christ walks with us in our times of great triumph and immeasurable pain.

We began to recognize the myth that our church is dying—that all churches are dying. We were moved to realize that our God is doing something amazing in this world, our God is doing something incredible in this world, our God is doing something in this world—it is so bright. God is not finished with this world, and our God loves us more than anything we could ever imagine. Our God is a God of abundance—abundant love, blessing, perseverance, and above all abundant accompaniment—our God will never leave us.

The author of the Gospel of Luke writes (referring to Jesus), “We had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel…” There is nothing that gets to the heart of disappointment, the heart of what it meant to be human than to say, “We had hoped”. It refers to the disciples’ hope that Jesus was the one that they had waited for throughout history—the one who would finally take away the pain. The disciples knew what it was like to live in a world of sin and death. Even after Jesus is raised from the dead, it is clear that the disciples and the rest of the human populace still live in a world of sin and death—they still live in a field of crosses. Each and every one of us is still hanging on the cross because we have not yet been raised. A life lived for Christ, a life propelled by Christ, is a life that is lived cruciform. We live in relationship to God (vertically), but the only way that this relationship works is through the relationships that we have (horizontally) with our brothers and sisters on earth. It is through our love for our neighbors that we are able to love God. When we realize that Christ is in every person our hearts burn in the knowing, but our hearts also burn with justice—knowing that the grace that God has given us is one that demands a response. This response remains separate from our salvation, but it is a response that happens when the grace of God overflows from our cups.


The reality of the United Nations is one that we, as Christians, and as humans can be proud of… like Mother Theresa writes, “We have forgotten that we belong to one another”. We belong to each other. We are all one. We must take action against sin, death, and the devil—we must take action against injustice because every human has inalienable rights that reflect the human’s relationship to God. We are made in God’s image and because of this reality we are bearers of God. God resides in us, our faces reflect the face of God, and actions against humanity—crimes against humanity, against human dignity are against God. There is much work to be done in our world, and we recognize how easy it is to throw our hands in the air after pure exhaustion, but the reality is that our God calls us to action. To steal the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s phrase, “It’s God’s work, our hands”.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia?

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith,” Romans 1:16
During this season of Easter, Christians greet one another with an exclamation of the good news—
Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed!
Another variation of this greeting is adds the word “Alleluia!” During Lent, we abstain from outbursts of “Alleluia!” both in anticipation of the joyous feast of Easter and in penitence that is characteristic of the Lenten season.

The word “alleluia” is what linguists call a “loan word.” It’s a word that comes into one language from a foreign language and keeps almost an identical form in both languages. “Alleluia” comes into English through Greek and Latin from Ancient Hebrew. In Hebrew, it quite literally means “Praise the Lord!” When we shout, sing, or simply say “Alleluia!” we’re literally saying “Praise the Lord!” That “alleluia” is on our lips all throughout Easter is especially appropriate because, indeed—God be praised for delivering us from death to life!

There can be confusion for some folks, though, when to say “alleluia” and when not. One such place there’s some confusion is when we say things such as “Christ is risen!” We know there’s a response to this greeting, but does that response include the “alleluia” or not? That is the question…

During this season of Easter, the response in our prayers of the people during worship is “Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!” Invariably, I hear a few people in each service ending their response with a muffled “alleluia,” with what I’m sure is followed up with an inward sense of shame for not reading the bulletin for the “proper response.” “Oh, I’m not supposed to say ‘Alleluia!’ right now,” I’m sure is what some are thinking.

The more I ponder just what we’re saying when we say “Alleluia,” though, the more I come to believe that this addition, even if not liturgically “correct,” is anything but shameful. In fact, I could even go so far as to call it a movement of the Holy Spirit. When we hear the words “Christ is risen!” how can we keep from responding in kind, and then for good measure, adding a hearty “Praise the Lord?” It’s not only appropriate, but it’s also admirable and commendable that “Alleluia!” pour off our lips, without thinking, when we hear the good news of Christ’s victory over death!

The next time you hear someone say “Alleluia!” at the “wrong time,”—or even still, the next time you say “Alleluia!” at the wrong time, don’t be ashamed, but see it as God’s Spirit moving you to reflexive praise in response to the good news!

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
-DS