Pastor's Notes

Response to Chauvin/Floyd Verdict

April 20, 2021

I feel compelled to comment on the verdict pronounced on officer Chauvin in the George Floyd case. This is not at all politics; this is something deeply affecting all Americans and if the church is silent it is also therefore irrelevant.

There was celebration at the verdict. I did not celebrate. I was sad. There were tears. While celebration is understandable it seems to me more relief than happiness. I saw many tears: MANY! What an appropriate response. The lives of two families have been horribly altered by what happened to George Floyd. The Floyd family must go on without him. The Chauvin family will see their loved one off to prison. Who celebrates families destroyed?

Tears. Sadness. Not just for families horribly impacted but for the entire situation. Tears for policing that gives one race an understanding pass while clamping down with no mercy or understanding for another Tears that too often such verdicts have gone in different directions.

Tears that you and I as privileged whites just do not “get it”. Certainly I confess to not fully understanding the experience of people of color in our culture. Just today prior to the verdict I was made aware of the experience of a Latino intern pastor in our own synod….not at all my experience…..not at all!! Tears indeed!

I am not happy with the jury’s verdict, but I am in agreement. That is it was a correct verdict in my opinion, but not something of which we can be happy. Who can be happy such a verdict was necessary and appropriate?

Commentators seem in agreement this is now a milestone. Is it? Did we not think the election of an African-American president was a milestone? Instead it was a much catalyst for a rise in racism and racist groups as it was progress. Progress always brings opposition and, as Rabbi Edwin Friedman labels it, sabotage.

I have never understood why some think to give to another means something must be taken from someone. Do we believe in a God of scarcity or abundance? Giving to God’s people of color does NOT mean we must take from another. Do we as followers of Jesus know nothing about sharing? Giving and yet continuing to have? Why must I think/feel to give another their due means taking from me? Is God’s love and care in a quantifiable limited supply?

So what will today’s verdict be? What will it lead to? Progress in race relations and understanding? More backlash? Will people learn and grow from this? Will I ? Will you?

Our reactions will determine what the impact of this verdict will be. It is not about “those” people…it is about us…you and me…all those professing to follow Jesus. None of us have done a perfect job. Tears are in order. Where will we go once we wipe them from our eyes?

Gary N McCluskey
Pastor, University Lutheran Church
Lutheran Campus Ministry
Arizona State University

Purple Reign?

April 12, 2021

The purple is gone. White and gold now hold sway. The penitential church season of Lent is over and the rejoicing of Easter has commenced! No more sober faces as we worship. Texts about crosses, sacrificing, and suffering have been succeeded by stories of appearances and surprising disciples behind locked doors, at a fish bar b que, the comforting message of a shepherd called good.

All of this coincides with a time in our country that things may be looking up in terms of vaccinations and some economic rebound. Yet, public health experts are cautioning us to be careful. Doing well and headed in a good direction does not guarantee it will remain so. Keep wearing masks, socially distance, wash your hands, and avoid crowds. Do the things you were doing before the numbers began moving in a favorable direction.

There is a good lesson here for us. Easter is not carte blanche. That is, Easter does not mean sin no longer matters. Easter means we can deal with our sin. Sin does not need to hold us back from doing the things we were called to be doing even prior to Lent.

But sin still matters. Serving, loving, caring, advocating, proclaiming, worshiping, forgiving, repenting, and growing. These are not seasonal for followers of Jesus. These are for all the church year. They are a major part of our discipleship tool kit.

Wear your spring colors, enjoy the warmth and sunshine, live as a “sent forgiver” ….one who has been forgiven. In Lent and Holy Week, you and I did not earn this, Jesus earned it. We are simply those to whom it has been bequeathed. In our joyful Easter living we cannot forget this. The dose of reality that is Lent need not be over us like a cloud. Neither should it be forgotten. Remembering who we are is always a call to remember whose we are. Easter triumph, Easter joy, this alone can sin destroy! From sin’s pow’r, Lord, set us free, newborn souls in you to be!

We Interrupt This Life to Bring you Jesus

April 6, 2021

April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee, Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to General U. S. Grant. Essentially now the Civil War was over. The North had prevailed.

April 10 President Abraham Lincoln addressed a huge crowd that gathered around the White House. There was great festivity and celebration both the night before and this day. Normalcy was returning! The Union had been saved! The crowd hung on Lincoln’s every word. What a grand and great day!

April 14, Good Friday, Lincoln was met once more with cheers and adulation. The crowd at Ford’s Theater gave him a standing ovation as he entered his private box to watch the play, “American Cousin.” Moments later John Wilkes Booth, an actor who was also in the crowd at the White House to hear Lincoln speak just four days prior, pulled the trigger of his Deringer pistol to assassinate the president.

The war is over! We love you, Mr. President! The President has died! From the pinnacle of emotion to emotion’s depths in such a short time. Life can come after us that way, can’t it? Multiple emotional rugs will get pulled from under us in a lifetime often without warning.

Imagine those who followed Jesus. A triumphal Jerusalem entry with palms and cloaks paving his way. Then it all turned. I wonder if this was the discussion between the two on the road to Emmaus that Easter day. How to come to grips with all that happened in such a short time punctuated with great joy and turning to grief and hopelessness?

Soon the travelers had a companion. Those of us hearing this story know the outcome and we watch like parents seeing their children opening gifts Christmas morning. We know what they will discover in their packages and watch to see their reactions. We know how the Road to Emmaus story turns out, yet we watch in anticipation of the surprised response of the two grief-stricken travelers.

Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. Christ is risen! Jesus lives and is present! In the Emmaus story we see how this risen Jesus often appears: without warning as a surprise and frequently in disguise. We have no idea the risen Christ was at work in and through us or in and through some others until the gift of hindsight makes us aware.

Among many things, resurrection means be prepared for the possibility of being surprised. Difficult moments can become crucibles, turning points of transformation and change. We can be made stronger or more aware or empathetic. We can become at least one tiny step closer to the person God created us to be.

With a Jesus who lives still, we can continue our walk on the roads life puts in front of us. We never know what might lurk just around the next turn in the road. Yet despite the often abrupt turnarounds that can strike us, we can continue to follow, serve, forgive, and love even as we also fail to do these things. We can walk in hope with a faith that trusts Jesus to interrupt us from time to time and never leaves us the same.

Christ is risen! Christ is risen, indeed! Lookout!

Timely Thinking

March 30, 2021

We have three clocks in our Campus Center. All three have vastly different times displayed on their face. It is because all three have stopped. They are powered by battery and, with such little use of our building, I have seen no reason to change batteries. Except for staff, there are very few in need of knowing what the current time might be. I guess we could say that at University Lutheran Church/Lutheran Campus Ministry time has stood still.

Of course this is not really so. With our without properly working timepieces, time moves on. We are not in need of any devices to tell us so.

I find it interesting; strange, even, that during our pandemic that forces us to be home and venture out only rarely, time seems to be going by faster than ever. At first I thought this was just my experience, but every time I mention it to someone else they, often emphatically, agree.

I would be interested in your theories as to why tempus is really fugiting* during a time we spend an inordinate amount of time at home. Let me know your thoughts.

In the New Testament there are two words for time: chronos (chronological) and Kairos (God’s time). Kairos is used 86 times in the New Testament. St. Paul is a fan of the word. Kairos is a time of opportunity, a time to act, a time, even, of conversion or transformation.

Why might this be so? I don’t think it is because we are fixed on some future time period when all this will have passed. At least that never worked for me as a kid anxiously awaiting the arrival of Christmas. Is it because our lives and routines are so changed we are not stuck in the rut of routines we have lived out for many years? One day would look much like the previous day and the one to follow. I’m not certain of that, either. Pandemic living has brought some boring moments and have developed their own routines.

The question I have posed concerning time seemingly flying by is a time of chronos, chronology. Naturally pandemic time is such. Yet it can also be a time of Kairos; a time of God, a time of opportunity and a time to act. Maybe, just maybe, time is zipping by because we have been forced to recognize what things are really most important. We have been forced to realize how even the ordinary and routine have their own importance and even a hint of sacredness in them. Maybe, just maybe what moves us along is that this has been in a more obvious way, what time has always been: God’s time; Kairos.

No pun intended, but this is a timely message for Easter. The events of betrayal, arrest, torture, trial, and crucifixion were not able to stop time as they were not able to stop God. As difficult as this pandemic has been, it has not prevented God from coming to God’s people and finding ways to use God’s people however differently.

Let your fugit tempus. Not even pandemic time has been a waste of time. Our lives this past year may not have been as full as we would have preferred, but there was a certain fullness in them. A shut-down of our normal lives was not able to shut out God. All Chronos is Kairos. All time belongs to a God who refuses to be stopped.

*Years ago clocks would often have “Tempus Fugit”, Latin for “Time Flies” written on their face.

Tigger or Eeyore?

March 23, 2021

Are you a glass half full or a glass half empty kind of person? Is life a grand and glorious experience or one difficult thing after another? Do you lean toward pessimism or optimism?

We all know someone who constantly seems to have a smile on their face whistling through life. We all know someone who can find struggles in the best of situations. I remember saying about one person: “If they won millions in the lottery, they would complain about the penmanship of the one signing the check.”

Try to put Jesus in either of these categories. I don’t think it will work. Jesus pointed out the good even in the hated enemy. Jesus also called Herod a fox, uprooted tables in a temple, and was said to sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane.

It seems to me Jesus is not someone who looked at life through any philosophical lens or constant attitude. Jesus looked at life as it was. Jesus called life what it was: the good, the bad, and the ugly. This gives you and I license to be who we are in all the circumstances that life throws our way. Want to shout and dance with joy? Go ahead. Feel like crying, complaining, or whining? Woe is me is permissible in some of life’s experiences.

Reading a book on Abraham Lincoln’s last speech, I am struck by the context. The speech was delivered April 11. The North and some of the South, especially the slaves, were celebrating. The awful war was over! There were fireworks, parades, and loud cheers. Yet just days later, April 14, Good Friday, the same Lincoln cheered during his speech, was the victim of an assassin’s bullet, delivered by one who was on the White House lawn listening to the speech.

We are nearing the end of Lent. Lent began with ashes, continued with temptations, marched on with stories concerning the cross, and will soon have its own parade, Palm Sunday. Lent goes downhill from there. How many times in life have you had some great experience, only to be struck with something quite difficult almost immediately following?

Which is life? The parades or the great difficulties? Both are. Lent is something to be endured, not celebrated. It is something to go through. Lent is also a teacher. It teaches us that many things cannot be overcome but they can be endured. We can go through them. Few of us can get over the death of a close loved one. Yet we can get through it. We can endure grief to come out on another, better, and, perhaps, stronger side. Maybe you and I ought to think of this pandemic experience as one lonnnngggg Lent. It has had its teaching moments. It has had some good things. It has had many difficult challenges and sad moments. I don’t know anyone who wants to repeat this experience except, perhaps, our dog. Is one of the lessons learned that we can endure? Do we feel like maybe….just maybe….we are going to come through this?

It is hard to go through life like Tigger and even harder, perhaps, to go through life like Eeyore, both characters in Winnie the Pooh. Life does not provide a consistent experience where either of these attitudes would always be appropriate. God, however, provides us with Jesus and a scripture that runs the gamut from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows and a lot in between. That is, God provides us with an awareness that life doesn’t always offer a level experience. If God, then, is with us ,if God, then, knows about life’s hills and valleys, you and I can endure. We can go through and come out on some other side.

Fill your glass, empty your glass, or leave it sit. We can have a realistic approach to life trusting we have a God who also has a very real understanding of us and of our life.

Whistle joyfully or trudge along with head bowed. There is one whistling with us and one despairing with us. We learn in our Lenten trek we are not without God. We can endure. We can go through to the other side. Good news for those caught up in a pandemic. Good news for those caught up in life.