So I've reentered the life of an Ex-Patriate. I've left the country to study English things for the summer, which I then plan to reinitiate myself, upon return, into being an American by reading an American History Textbook. Not because I have to, nor because I actually will, but because it's a lame joke. And I thought it fitting to put a very lame joke right here.
Now.
There are a lot of funny things to tell about my journey to Oxford, some of which I'm afraid I can't repeat because I don't think it appropriate so I'll water them down a bit. However, Here's some interesting things that have happened thus far:
1.) When I got here, I was almost denied access into the country, because one of my friends thought it a funny prank to sticky note a really inappropriate drawing onto one of the pages inside my passport. The lady at the immigration booth thought I had placed it there, and was highly unnerved and slightly menacing because of how offensive the image was. I had to apologize nearly 4,000 times and tell her with a really worried look on my face how inappropriate I thought it was, and that it really wasn't me cause I wasn't laughing about it.
Later, although I was really upset about it initially, I laughed about it because no one else has that story (And you, Don't take so much credit for that. You know who you are. You're only apart of that story). If anyone wants more details, you'll have to find me later.
2.) I went to a sandwich shop called "On the Hoof" that I use to go to all of the time. I haven't been in over 2 years. Tuesday morning, while it was raining the way that feels like there's a pipe that's spitting out water at you when it shouldn't because a very tiny hole in the seal has emerged, I walked into "On the Hoof" with an umbrella huddled tightly over my head because of the low doors and no joke... the moment that I let the Umbrella down and shook it out, the lady at the front counter looked at me and said, "Oh, You Came Back!"
This kind of thing can make you smile.
3.) I was doing some research, finding some more sources for my paper at some secondhand book shops, when I came across a very old version of "The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis. It was a seventh edition printing from 1942 just 7 months after the first printing had happened. On the front it reads,
"A new book by the author of 'The Problem of Pain' one of the most widely read and discussed works of recent years."
I bought it for about $5.
4.) Someone asked me if I use to be the SA President at ACU.
That's a joke. A very sad, sad joke.
Real #4.) I still have a shot at seeing Coldplay for Free and I'm really hoping it'll happen.
5.) The research I'm doing is interesting, though I'm still learning to handle all of this properly. I'm heading off on Sunday to a conference in London that pertains to a good bit of what I'm researching. I'll get to stay with some ACU Alum so that'll be pretty cool.
6.) Also, I've been working out a lot. I think I'm gonna have to stop though, cause my arms don't fit in my shirts anymore and I can't afford new clothes with the exchange rate over here.
7.) I think tonight is my final bout with Jet Lag. Let's pray cause it's killing me.
8.) This is not really a highlight of anything. Just a note to say to all my friends and my family that I miss you all very much.
Feel free to write me at:
Matt Worthington
9 Canterbury Rd.
Oxford, United Kingdom
OX2 6LU
Friday, June 06, 2008
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Benazir Bhutto, Presidential Politics, and the End of the World
***(Let me preface this note by saying I'm not an expert in politics, nor am I an expert in International relations, nor am I a seasoned theologian. But I do care about the world. Oh, and I'm also not predicting the end of the world or citing that the "End is Near." So don't freak out by the title.)
I'm not sure if you all know this, but two days ago, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in Rawalpindi after speaking at Political Rally for the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). I won't go much into it because you can just read about it here:
Pakistan | An Assassin Strikes | Economist.com
However, I did want to say this. I was very disheartened when I watched the news yesterday. I was watching CNN and they were talking with Rudy Giuliani as he was responding to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Apparently no one really knows who did it. Some suggest that the President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, and his followers were behind it. Others suggest it was the Taliban or Al Qaeda. People are arguing about who how she died exactly. There's video of a man who fired three shots directly at her and then proceeded to detonate the explosives that were to strapped to himself. Despite this, officials in Pakistan say that she wasn't killed by any shrapnel or bullets or anything from the explosives. I haven't quite figured out what they're suggesting she died of, but I've only figured what they're suggesting she didn't die of.
So who knows who did it? I don't, that's for sure.
Anyways, this is my problem. They were talking to Giuliani about this, and he just starts going on and on about how terrorism is alive in the world and how we need to put an end to this, and how this is what he's been talking about all along. "Terrorism is our #1 priority," he said. I know this may be hard for some of you to understand, but it made me very angry that he said that. For this reason: he really didn't seem all that sad that Benazir Bhutto was dead. What it felt like was that Giuliani was capitalizing off of Benazir Bhutto's death. And while I recognize these are just my feelings, at the same time I wouldn't put it past a politician to do such a thing.
And you know, I'm not just bashing on Rudy. I would suggest that all of us pay close attention in the coming months as to how many times Benazir Bhutto's death is referred to with terrorism. Already they're having specials on the news, "Is Pakistan the new face of Global terrorism and instability in the world?" This kills me. I wonder how much people really care about Pakistanis? I wonder how much they're interested in the fact that people lost their hope of a step towards a more free Pakistan when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated two days ago? In my opinion, I don't really feel like these people are that concerned with the plight of the Pakistan people who are truly hurting because of her death. Instead, I'm sure they've got their campaign strategy managers all coming up w th ways to fit Bhutto's death into furthering the credentials of their campaign. "Look at Bhutto," they'll say. "Isn't this reason enough that terrorism is alive in this world and that we need to attack this. People, this is what I've been trying to say all along and now, because we have not given enough attention to this, people around the world are suffering."
Listen for that. I'm sure in some way, form, or fashion, you'll hear this. And I say be weary of it. Too, be aware of politicians who mud sling. Mitt Romney is becoming notorious for this. It's terrible. if you were really the best candidate for position, why would you feel the need to mud sling about other candidates. If you were the best candidate available, wouldn't you be good enough that your integrity would stand out against those who are supposedly trying to decieve of other people? Romney has been slinging Mudd at McCain and Huckabee and it's disgusting.
"But Matt, don't you know that? That's how life is. You can't avoid that. People are selfish." I'm sure this is running through some people's minds right now.
I couldn't agree more. But I say that this is a tragedy. And we shouldn't just concede to this. Instead, we need to be speaking against this manipulation of an international tragedy. I don't know how to do that. Obviously none of us have an international platform to say these kinds of things. But I do remember something that Mother Theresa said about feeding the poor and I think it applies here, "If you can't feed one hundred poor people, then just feed one poor person." Essentially, don't concede to being void of action just because you can't make an impact on a global level. If you don't have a platform, then make a commitment to be aware of these things yourself.
The other thing is that we should mourn the loss of the Pakistanis ourselves. I know that we're in America and that most of those reading this may not have any Pakistani blood in you, but this is indeed becoming a smaller world. Independence and separation are no longer an option anymore. Nor is dependence. Instead, interdependence. The idea of global brotherhood and sisterhood, this is the idea I'm getting at. If we can't learn to mourn for our brothers and sisters who live in other countries, we will surely destroy ourselves eventually. Now, I'm not one who believes that when the end of the world happens that it God will come down from the clouds and start destroying things. Instead I believe that the end of the world will come when we become, as nations, so self-consumed with our own survival that we fail to learn what it means to be a global family. Our world is growing at a rapid rate. In Jesus' time, the world population was 230 million people. At the end of the first millennium it was 270 million people. In 1820, it was roughly 900 million people. in 1950, it grew to around 2.8 billion people. Today it's around 6.8, almost 7 billion people. Also today, there are 2.8 billion people who live on less than $2 a day. Essentially, the entire world population of 1950 lives on less than $2 a day. In the next 25-50 years, the world's population is expected to double. Can you imagine if in 25-50 years, that 6.8 billion people live in poverty? It's not unlikely to me if we continue to view ourselves as independent and not interdependent.
What we need to do, whether we're polticians or artists or economists or teachers or bus drives or the people at the corner store, is we need to look at our world as a body. Our physical bodies are made up of many parts that are not parasitic to one another, nor are they independent of one another, but they are interdependent. They work to make us walk, to make us run, to make us hug someone that we love. Without all of our parts working together, the body would not function. they could not separate themselves from one another.
Tying this all back up, when people get assassinated, we really need to spend some time mourning and in silence with our brothers and sisters. We need to ask ourselves how they are hurting. We don't need to speedily respond to the circumstance by citing our political agendas, suggesting that if people would just vote for us, that these kinds of things would not happen. We're human beings, we can't fix it all. Surely not alone. We need to learn what it means to be interdependent.
When I read the Bible, I feel that what God is not saying is, "You've gotta learn to get it right or I'm gonna come down there and destroy all of you with supernatural disasters." I don't see him as a cosmic policeman waiting to implement his wrath. He is not a cosmic sadist. Instead what I see him saying to people is, "You've gotta get it right, or you're going to destroy yourselves. And this is what it'll look like, (insert some prophetic image)."
I think we should pay attention to the suffering around the world. I think we need to learn to love those who are suffering around the world, and try to understand their pain. I do not think that pain and suffering is a commodity for America to capitalize on. If we don't learn to understand this, we will surely ruin not only our own country, but we will, without a doubt, ruin our world.
***(It's also a kind of ramble, but if I told you that in the beginning, there's a greater chance you wouldn't have given me the time of day.)
I'm not sure if you all know this, but two days ago, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in Rawalpindi after speaking at Political Rally for the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). I won't go much into it because you can just read about it here:
Pakistan | An Assassin Strikes | Economist.com
However, I did want to say this. I was very disheartened when I watched the news yesterday. I was watching CNN and they were talking with Rudy Giuliani as he was responding to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. Apparently no one really knows who did it. Some suggest that the President of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, and his followers were behind it. Others suggest it was the Taliban or Al Qaeda. People are arguing about who how she died exactly. There's video of a man who fired three shots directly at her and then proceeded to detonate the explosives that were to strapped to himself. Despite this, officials in Pakistan say that she wasn't killed by any shrapnel or bullets or anything from the explosives. I haven't quite figured out what they're suggesting she died of, but I've only figured what they're suggesting she didn't die of.
So who knows who did it? I don't, that's for sure.
Anyways, this is my problem. They were talking to Giuliani about this, and he just starts going on and on about how terrorism is alive in the world and how we need to put an end to this, and how this is what he's been talking about all along. "Terrorism is our #1 priority," he said. I know this may be hard for some of you to understand, but it made me very angry that he said that. For this reason: he really didn't seem all that sad that Benazir Bhutto was dead. What it felt like was that Giuliani was capitalizing off of Benazir Bhutto's death. And while I recognize these are just my feelings, at the same time I wouldn't put it past a politician to do such a thing.
And you know, I'm not just bashing on Rudy. I would suggest that all of us pay close attention in the coming months as to how many times Benazir Bhutto's death is referred to with terrorism. Already they're having specials on the news, "Is Pakistan the new face of Global terrorism and instability in the world?" This kills me. I wonder how much people really care about Pakistanis? I wonder how much they're interested in the fact that people lost their hope of a step towards a more free Pakistan when Benazir Bhutto was assassinated two days ago? In my opinion, I don't really feel like these people are that concerned with the plight of the Pakistan people who are truly hurting because of her death. Instead, I'm sure they've got their campaign strategy managers all coming up w th ways to fit Bhutto's death into furthering the credentials of their campaign. "Look at Bhutto," they'll say. "Isn't this reason enough that terrorism is alive in this world and that we need to attack this. People, this is what I've been trying to say all along and now, because we have not given enough attention to this, people around the world are suffering."
Listen for that. I'm sure in some way, form, or fashion, you'll hear this. And I say be weary of it. Too, be aware of politicians who mud sling. Mitt Romney is becoming notorious for this. It's terrible. if you were really the best candidate for position, why would you feel the need to mud sling about other candidates. If you were the best candidate available, wouldn't you be good enough that your integrity would stand out against those who are supposedly trying to decieve of other people? Romney has been slinging Mudd at McCain and Huckabee and it's disgusting.
"But Matt, don't you know that? That's how life is. You can't avoid that. People are selfish." I'm sure this is running through some people's minds right now.
I couldn't agree more. But I say that this is a tragedy. And we shouldn't just concede to this. Instead, we need to be speaking against this manipulation of an international tragedy. I don't know how to do that. Obviously none of us have an international platform to say these kinds of things. But I do remember something that Mother Theresa said about feeding the poor and I think it applies here, "If you can't feed one hundred poor people, then just feed one poor person." Essentially, don't concede to being void of action just because you can't make an impact on a global level. If you don't have a platform, then make a commitment to be aware of these things yourself.
The other thing is that we should mourn the loss of the Pakistanis ourselves. I know that we're in America and that most of those reading this may not have any Pakistani blood in you, but this is indeed becoming a smaller world. Independence and separation are no longer an option anymore. Nor is dependence. Instead, interdependence. The idea of global brotherhood and sisterhood, this is the idea I'm getting at. If we can't learn to mourn for our brothers and sisters who live in other countries, we will surely destroy ourselves eventually. Now, I'm not one who believes that when the end of the world happens that it God will come down from the clouds and start destroying things. Instead I believe that the end of the world will come when we become, as nations, so self-consumed with our own survival that we fail to learn what it means to be a global family. Our world is growing at a rapid rate. In Jesus' time, the world population was 230 million people. At the end of the first millennium it was 270 million people. In 1820, it was roughly 900 million people. in 1950, it grew to around 2.8 billion people. Today it's around 6.8, almost 7 billion people. Also today, there are 2.8 billion people who live on less than $2 a day. Essentially, the entire world population of 1950 lives on less than $2 a day. In the next 25-50 years, the world's population is expected to double. Can you imagine if in 25-50 years, that 6.8 billion people live in poverty? It's not unlikely to me if we continue to view ourselves as independent and not interdependent.
What we need to do, whether we're polticians or artists or economists or teachers or bus drives or the people at the corner store, is we need to look at our world as a body. Our physical bodies are made up of many parts that are not parasitic to one another, nor are they independent of one another, but they are interdependent. They work to make us walk, to make us run, to make us hug someone that we love. Without all of our parts working together, the body would not function. they could not separate themselves from one another.
Tying this all back up, when people get assassinated, we really need to spend some time mourning and in silence with our brothers and sisters. We need to ask ourselves how they are hurting. We don't need to speedily respond to the circumstance by citing our political agendas, suggesting that if people would just vote for us, that these kinds of things would not happen. We're human beings, we can't fix it all. Surely not alone. We need to learn what it means to be interdependent.
When I read the Bible, I feel that what God is not saying is, "You've gotta learn to get it right or I'm gonna come down there and destroy all of you with supernatural disasters." I don't see him as a cosmic policeman waiting to implement his wrath. He is not a cosmic sadist. Instead what I see him saying to people is, "You've gotta get it right, or you're going to destroy yourselves. And this is what it'll look like, (insert some prophetic image)."
I think we should pay attention to the suffering around the world. I think we need to learn to love those who are suffering around the world, and try to understand their pain. I do not think that pain and suffering is a commodity for America to capitalize on. If we don't learn to understand this, we will surely ruin not only our own country, but we will, without a doubt, ruin our world.
***(It's also a kind of ramble, but if I told you that in the beginning, there's a greater chance you wouldn't have given me the time of day.)
Sunday, March 04, 2007
The Third Verse
In sharing some stories tonight, I came across this poem I wrote some time back. Brent said he liked it, and I respect Brent as a writer (in light of the fact that we're all amateurs-though I am the chief of them no doubt). So here, a poem I wrote a long time ago...
The Third Verse...
I know not if yet you stroll by the waters,
By chance you do, open your eyes for ripples.
I’ve tried so hard not to, but I still sail boats.
If ever you still search my verse,
Worry less. Wake your eyes and look on the trees.
I’ve tried so hard not to, but I still scribble these silly poems.
If you’re cold and shivering in a night,
Take your jacket off. Your embers have not burned out.
I’ve tried so hard not to, but I still warm your story by fires.
I know not if you think I’ve long said goodbye,
By chance you do, search in a distant memory on your desk.
I’d bet I’m not too far away.
The Third Verse...
I know not if yet you stroll by the waters,
By chance you do, open your eyes for ripples.
I’ve tried so hard not to, but I still sail boats.
If ever you still search my verse,
Worry less. Wake your eyes and look on the trees.
I’ve tried so hard not to, but I still scribble these silly poems.
If you’re cold and shivering in a night,
Take your jacket off. Your embers have not burned out.
I’ve tried so hard not to, but I still warm your story by fires.
I know not if you think I’ve long said goodbye,
By chance you do, search in a distant memory on your desk.
I’d bet I’m not too far away.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Greg's Advice for my Sermon
So I was telling my brother about how I've been telling people that if they wanted tips on Valentine's Day, that they should come hear me preach at Highland on Wednesday. Greg immediately interrupted with this,
"Oh dude, I'm telling you man. From what I've seen on chick flicks, girls like to be spontaneously kissed. You can't tell them, you just do it. That's what you should tell them on Wednesday in your sermon."
Ha! My brother... Best preaching advice ever... all from the school of chick flicks.
"Oh dude, I'm telling you man. From what I've seen on chick flicks, girls like to be spontaneously kissed. You can't tell them, you just do it. That's what you should tell them on Wednesday in your sermon."
Ha! My brother... Best preaching advice ever... all from the school of chick flicks.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Highland, Preaching, & Hip Hop
Well I found out that I'm speaking at Highland Church of Christ in Abilene, TX on Valentine's Day (February 14th for those who are feeling clueless.) I hope you'll come check it out, as I will have very depressing things to say since that day is entirely too happy. I'm just kidding, but there's a chance I may not be.
I'm not gonna lie though, I'm pretty excited about it. Not just cause I get to be in front of people. If that were the case, I would have gladly stuck to the stage. There's a great difference between acting and preaching... yes, that's right, preaching. I guess for me, and this is not to discredit the actor, I have to be in front of people with a purpose and a message. The actor, of course, has a message and a purpose, but it is one authored for him by someone other than himself. When you preach, you get to have a message and purpose that is completely unique to the design that God has formed you. That's why I like it. It gives me the opportunity to tell where I've been and how God has been there with me through all of those places, no matter how dark or dim lit they may have been.
p.s. I was trying to think of another word besides preaching, but I guess that's what it is. I feel weird now. Oh well.
In other news,
I'm not gonna lie though, I'm pretty excited about it. Not just cause I get to be in front of people. If that were the case, I would have gladly stuck to the stage. There's a great difference between acting and preaching... yes, that's right, preaching. I guess for me, and this is not to discredit the actor, I have to be in front of people with a purpose and a message. The actor, of course, has a message and a purpose, but it is one authored for him by someone other than himself. When you preach, you get to have a message and purpose that is completely unique to the design that God has formed you. That's why I like it. It gives me the opportunity to tell where I've been and how God has been there with me through all of those places, no matter how dark or dim lit they may have been.
p.s. I was trying to think of another word besides preaching, but I guess that's what it is. I feel weird now. Oh well.
In other news,
Friday, January 26, 2007
Divine Madness
Plato once said that the nature of a poet is some sort of Divine Madness. That when the poet does what he does, he's possessed by a muse who inspires him to create with its Divine Madness. That's one of the things that stood out to me when I took Lit Crit, and I really like it. As creepy as it sounds, I like it.
Watching Homer Hiccolm is like a religious experience for me. Those guys really love what they do, and because of that, watching them make music is incredible.
Thank God for the artist.
Watching Homer Hiccolm is like a religious experience for me. Those guys really love what they do, and because of that, watching them make music is incredible.
Thank God for the artist.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
The Chapel Speech From Last Thursday
[*Note: I've refrained from posting this for a while, because I fear that some people will bring their own meanings to my text and pervert it's original intention which I think is clearly stated in the last paragraph. It was a legitimate concern for me after some of my encounters (though not all). After hearing Steven Moore in Chapel today, and talking with him after Chapel, I thought it might benefit some people who were really interested in re-reading what I said last thursday. I hope that this is a blessing to some of you. Peace!]
Now some of you may not know this, but I’m kinda famous. You see, when I graduated High School, my brother Greg and I (He attends University of Texas at San Antonio) were sitting around discussing how Great Texas was, and how Texas was so independent. Listing all sorts of accomplishments and proud medals that we could boast to other Nations. And building off of each other, we came up with this idea that Texas should Conquer the United States and Name Them Texas #2-50. When Facebook came out…. Of course, I mean, Who isn’t Going to Make that a Facebook Group? So we did. And now, we boast 100s of members…until Facebook went Global and people were having groups with hundreds of thousands and all of a sudden… 750 people wasn’t that big of a deal. The bottom line is that, a lot of people liked the idea that Texas would become independent and sort of… well not sort of…. We would become Independent and Conquer everyone else and then give them our name.
And I think to myself that as foolish and fun as this facebook group is… This idea is more familiar than I’d like to admit because I am, after all, a son of Independence; a child of America. And many of you are also children of America, who is renown for being the Ultimate Model of Independence. I recall reading in the Economist Last year issues of Developing Nations and throughout the article they spoke how America always serves as the “Cowboy”, the Lone Ranger, who walks into uncharted territories and immediately has the solution to fix the problem, and that solution requires America… and America only, and not anyone else.
At Urbana, Oscar Muriu contextualized 1 Corinthians 12 and spoke to us of the importance of the Global Church and how if we, as Christians, were to function properly as a body, then we would recognize the need we have for each other. That we would recognize that we should not be independent, but interdependent. Amidst his speech, he questioned whether America should be an exemplary model for the 2/3 world when we are ranked, according to Leonard Sweet’s “Soul Tsunami”, as the third largest Pagan Nation in the world only after India and China. That because we are unable to engage our own culture and break down walls of racial segregation, that perhaps to follow the Western Model of Christianity is to drink from a poisoned chalice. I think that Ronald J. Sider best sums it up in his book “The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience”, that
“To say there is a crisis of Disobedience in the evangelical world today is to dangerously understate the problem. Born Again Christians divorce at about the same rate as everyone else. Self Centered Materialism is seducing evangelicals and rapidly destroying our earlier, slightly more generous giving. Only 6% of born-again Christians tithe. Born-Agains Christians justify and engage in sexual promiscuity (both premarital sex and adultery) at astonishing rates. Racism and perhaps physical abuse of wives seem to be worse in Evangelical circles than elsewhere. This is scandalous behaviour for people who claim to be born-again by the Holy Spirit and to enjoy the very presence of the Risen Lord in their lives.”
And this led to me thinking, how in America, we as states, as cities, as neighborhoods, as churches, as ethnic groups, and even as individuals…. We have adopted the same mindset as our nation. How we truly are children of our Father, America. As ethnic groups, even on campus, we have fooled ourselves into believing that we do not need one another. We have seen groups like the KKK, and the Black Panthers, and though we do not adopt their hate and anger… we do adopt their separatist behavior, that says, “As long as I am comfortably surrounded by my caucasian friends, or my black friends, my latino friends, or my Asian friends… That I am not in need of my other ethnic brothers and sisters.” How, as denominations, we say, “As long as I am surrounded my Church of Christ friends, my Baptist friends, my Anglican friends, my Catholic friends… That I am not in need of my brothers and sisters who worship any differently than I do.” And that as socio-economic groups, we say, “As long as I am surrounded by my upper white collar friends, my hard working blue collar friends, or by my lower income minimum wage friends… That I do not need anyone else.”
For people who behave as dangerously as Ronald Sider has pointed out, we would be very foolish to believe these lies. And as someone who is Multiethnic, like Carla, and myself, who is half latino/half anglo, I certainly know that I need all of my parts in order to function properly. Otherwise I might go crazy. For indeed, the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the Caucasian should say, "Because I am not black, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the Latino should say, "Because I am not Asian, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were Caucasian, where would the sense of soul and rhythm be? If the whole body were Latino, where would the sense of silence and a healthy diet be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The Baptist Church cannot say to the Catholic Church, "I don't need you!" And Church of Christ cannot say to the Anglican Church, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
Go In Peace!
Now some of you may not know this, but I’m kinda famous. You see, when I graduated High School, my brother Greg and I (He attends University of Texas at San Antonio) were sitting around discussing how Great Texas was, and how Texas was so independent. Listing all sorts of accomplishments and proud medals that we could boast to other Nations. And building off of each other, we came up with this idea that Texas should Conquer the United States and Name Them Texas #2-50. When Facebook came out…. Of course, I mean, Who isn’t Going to Make that a Facebook Group? So we did. And now, we boast 100s of members…until Facebook went Global and people were having groups with hundreds of thousands and all of a sudden… 750 people wasn’t that big of a deal. The bottom line is that, a lot of people liked the idea that Texas would become independent and sort of… well not sort of…. We would become Independent and Conquer everyone else and then give them our name.
And I think to myself that as foolish and fun as this facebook group is… This idea is more familiar than I’d like to admit because I am, after all, a son of Independence; a child of America. And many of you are also children of America, who is renown for being the Ultimate Model of Independence. I recall reading in the Economist Last year issues of Developing Nations and throughout the article they spoke how America always serves as the “Cowboy”, the Lone Ranger, who walks into uncharted territories and immediately has the solution to fix the problem, and that solution requires America… and America only, and not anyone else.
At Urbana, Oscar Muriu contextualized 1 Corinthians 12 and spoke to us of the importance of the Global Church and how if we, as Christians, were to function properly as a body, then we would recognize the need we have for each other. That we would recognize that we should not be independent, but interdependent. Amidst his speech, he questioned whether America should be an exemplary model for the 2/3 world when we are ranked, according to Leonard Sweet’s “Soul Tsunami”, as the third largest Pagan Nation in the world only after India and China. That because we are unable to engage our own culture and break down walls of racial segregation, that perhaps to follow the Western Model of Christianity is to drink from a poisoned chalice. I think that Ronald J. Sider best sums it up in his book “The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience”, that
“To say there is a crisis of Disobedience in the evangelical world today is to dangerously understate the problem. Born Again Christians divorce at about the same rate as everyone else. Self Centered Materialism is seducing evangelicals and rapidly destroying our earlier, slightly more generous giving. Only 6% of born-again Christians tithe. Born-Agains Christians justify and engage in sexual promiscuity (both premarital sex and adultery) at astonishing rates. Racism and perhaps physical abuse of wives seem to be worse in Evangelical circles than elsewhere. This is scandalous behaviour for people who claim to be born-again by the Holy Spirit and to enjoy the very presence of the Risen Lord in their lives.”
And this led to me thinking, how in America, we as states, as cities, as neighborhoods, as churches, as ethnic groups, and even as individuals…. We have adopted the same mindset as our nation. How we truly are children of our Father, America. As ethnic groups, even on campus, we have fooled ourselves into believing that we do not need one another. We have seen groups like the KKK, and the Black Panthers, and though we do not adopt their hate and anger… we do adopt their separatist behavior, that says, “As long as I am comfortably surrounded by my caucasian friends, or my black friends, my latino friends, or my Asian friends… That I am not in need of my other ethnic brothers and sisters.” How, as denominations, we say, “As long as I am surrounded my Church of Christ friends, my Baptist friends, my Anglican friends, my Catholic friends… That I am not in need of my brothers and sisters who worship any differently than I do.” And that as socio-economic groups, we say, “As long as I am surrounded by my upper white collar friends, my hard working blue collar friends, or by my lower income minimum wage friends… That I do not need anyone else.”
For people who behave as dangerously as Ronald Sider has pointed out, we would be very foolish to believe these lies. And as someone who is Multiethnic, like Carla, and myself, who is half latino/half anglo, I certainly know that I need all of my parts in order to function properly. Otherwise I might go crazy. For indeed, the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the Caucasian should say, "Because I am not black, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the Latino should say, "Because I am not Asian, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were Caucasian, where would the sense of soul and rhythm be? If the whole body were Latino, where would the sense of silence and a healthy diet be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The Baptist Church cannot say to the Catholic Church, "I don't need you!" And Church of Christ cannot say to the Anglican Church, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
Go In Peace!
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