Seven whole days

Several years ago, I worked closely with a Muslim man. Over our time together, we talked about our faiths quite a bit. I still treasure a copy of the Qur’an he gave me. One day I was sitting in his office talking, absent-mindedly munching on candy that he always had sitting out on his conference table. After a few minutes, I said, “Oh, I’m so sorry! I forgot it’s Ramadan. I didn’t mean to eat in front of you.” He replied saying something like this, “Oh, there’s no need to apologize. I could put away the candy. But instead, this reminds me that I am fasting. It’s a gift, this time of spiritual focus and fasting.”

He was not one of those people (often Christians) who glory in suffering for its own sake. Rather, he realized that sometimes it is in seeing what we can’t have that we realize what we do have. Absence can be a gift. I think of that exchange quite often as Lent rolls around. The Muslim practice of Ramadan has impressed me, with its focus not only on fasting, but on charity. When Christians stop to listen, we have much to learn from Muslims not only about their faith, but about our own faith. We can learn something about ourselves through the eyes of others.

On a related note, Big Picture has a fantastic collection of images of Ramadan online. Go check it out.

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A few weeks ago, there was a great piece in Leading Ideas by Ed Stetzer and David Putman. They write,

Being missional does not mean doing things the way we like them. It means to take the gospel into the context where we have been called … and, to some degree, to let the church take the best shape that it can in order to reach a specific culture. However, the problem is our preferences. You can’t be missional and pick what you like at the same time.

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In a (pleasant, I hope) diversion from recent ecclesial squabbling, I bring you the latest tech toy…

Have an iPhone? Use Facebook? Then you’re going to want this. That’s right, Facebook 3.0 for iPhone is out now. You can read all about it over on TechCrunch. They do leave out one key problem: this new version displays quiz results (argh!) in your news feed, which I find annoying. I’m sure there will be a workaround soon. Well, other than un-friending all your quiz-happy friends.

The new application brings a slew of new features, making it what may be the most useful app on the App Store (be sure to read this post) for our full review. Among the additions are Events, which have frustratingly been omitted from previous versions. Now you’ll be able to look up where your Events are, and you can also respond to them and see which of your friends are attending (for anyone who has ever had to boot up the web version of the site just to look up an Event address, this is a big deal). You can also post video directly to the site if you have an iPhone 3GS — a feature that will likely see the number of videos on Facebook increase dramatically.

So if you are on the high-speed tech bandwagon, go install this one today. Hey, unlike most tech toys, this one is free. Enjoy!

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If you haven’t been over to visit the MadPriest today, you should go there now.

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Conservatives in the US keep evoking the specter of “socialized medicine” in any discussion about health care reform. Sure, I could point that that France has healthier, longer-living people at half the per capita cost of health care in the US. But that would require abstract thought and the comprehension of data.

For your narrative friends who oppose health care reform, I give you this story of one man’s sustained encounter with Britain’s National Health Service. Stephen Bates writes in the Guardian…

Of all the thoughts that flashed through my mind as I fell from 15ft up a ladder one morning last May, the potential financial cost of my unexpected descent was not one. I had been trying to paint the weatherboard above the bedroom windows of our house; a whim that had occurred to me in the middle of the night (as these things do) while working out chores for my week’s holiday. Unfortunately, I reached just a little too far on a ladder just a little too short, and suddenly felt it slide from under me. Bouncing off the wall, knocking off the guttering and a carriage lamp in the process, I eventually collapsed in an inelegant heap on top of the ladder.

Read his whole story for the good and the bad of his encounter. It’s quite an honest story, with some allowance for ways in which care in the US excels. Mostly though, it undercuts every one of the horror stories that Republicans want you to believe about national health systems.

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The airwaves are full of completely ridiculous commentary and flame-stoking rhetoric about plans to reform US health care. Most Americans don’t seem to want “facts”, preferring to stick closely to Colbertian “truthiness.” Well, the Washington Post has a great op-ed piece called “Five Myths About Health Care Around the World.”

Go read the whole thing, and pass it on to your friends too. Share it with your friends who start babbling about “death panels” and “we don’t want to be like France”. Here’s a sample.

4. Cost controls stifle innovation.

False. The United States is home to groundbreaking medical research, but so are other countries with much lower cost structures. Any American who’s had a hip or knee replacement is standing on French innovation. Deep-brain stimulation to treat depression is a Canadian breakthrough. Many of the wonder drugs promoted endlessly on American television, including Viagra, come from British, Swiss or Japanese labs.

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Last week, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America held its biennial Churchwide Assembly. This is much like the General Convention of the Episcopal Church (full comparison post coming soon!). At the Assembly, Voting Members approved a statement on sexuality and some implementing policies. Among these, the ELCA will now make provision for the appointment (or “rostering”) of gay and lesbian clergy in same-sex relationships. I’m simplifying, but keep with me. (You can read more here, among other places.)

On the Sunday at the end of the week, the Charleston Daily Mail reports that parishioners at one Lutheran church in West Virginia arrived to find their church sign defaced. Who was responsible for this vandalism? None other than the pastor, who said, “I’m ashamed of what the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has done to a church I’ve loved for 40 years.”

What’s interesting to me is that there was great effort in the Assembly to make provision for those whose “bound conscience” would not permit them to accept the ministry of gay and lesbian clergy. This pastor might have gone the rest of his career without actually setting his eyes on an openly gay pastor, but still he felt the need to ratchet up the anxiety in his congregation.

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It’s tempting to think we know almost everything. After all, we have high-resolution spy satellites to peer down at us. We have instruments to detect subatomic particles (or something like that, I never really paid attention in physics). We’ve got supercomputers, massive archeological digs, ubiquitous exploration, and deep sea submarines. Oh, and don’t forget Google.

And, yet, we’re not even close to understanding some of the most basic things about nature — about our own planet. I love these reminders, these things that knock us out of our hubris zone. Here’s a great example. Wired has a great photo of “Morning Glory” cloud tubes that appear every fall in Queensland, Australia, and a few other places on earth. They can be 600 (!) miles long. And no one knows why or how they’re formed.

If we can’t explain how some clouds are formed, why do we continue to think we know everything? More important, why do we behave as if we know everything?

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My friend Craig sent this along today. Wow.

Is your church on Facebook? If not, you’d better get there soon — and start rethinking communication. Time to rethink all that money and energy on newsletters involving dead trees. Time to rethink ideas that church meetings should always happen in person. Time to rethink the idea that having a crappy website is good enough.

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I have grown weary of people — both conservative and progressive — who authoritatively claim to know what God wants. ASBO Jesus has once again got it just right.

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Perhaps this reveals me as a creature of the 80s. Or perhaps I’m trying to prove that 7WD is diverse in its musical taste, offering everything from Westminster Abbey to Toto. Whatever it is, I think is is an eminently enjoyable video. The singing is just good (not outstanding or excellent), but the “rain storm” at the beginning is sensational and the arrangement is extraordinary. Enjoy!

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A few weeks ago, I received the following comment from a regular reader of 7WD: “You’re a terrible blogger! I come to your blog every day, and sometimes it doesn’t change for weeks!”

In order to stave off another one of these comments, I thought I’d proactively post a bit here. It’s been one of those weeks in parish and personal life. Nothing individually has been overly dramatic, but there’s been lots to do. On my normal days off (Monday and Tuesday), I often spend 2-3 hours blogging up entries for the rest of week. Sadly, there was no time this week. So, for now, please know that I haven’t forgotten about 7WD. In fact, my blogpile has grown quite large. If I get to it before everything’s hopelessly outdated, I might have some good stuff here.

Here’s my “top of the hour” roundup of recent news:

• The USA is full of chuckleheads who apparently will believe anything that spews from the right, as evidenced by the large number of people who are now worried that Barack Obama is setting up “death panels” to off grandma.
• People are still pronouncing, with boring regularity, the death of the Anglican Communion. And yet Anglicans throughout the Communion are still going about their parish business, caring for people in countless ways all the while glorifying God. How can something so full of life be dead?
• The Eastern Pope of the Episcopal Church is no longer a major threat. He’s locked in an epic struggle to find the perfect coffee shop, and so the folks at 815 should be able to wrest control from him.
• USAA continues to be one of my favorite companies ever. Now they’ve outdone themselves. I will be able to ditch Bank of America (which must be run by Dr. Evil’s mentor) at last. How is that, you say? How will this work, since I live in Rhode Island and the bank is in another state? How will I deposit checks? USAA has developed an iPhone app that will let me deposit checks by photographing them! I am not making this up. If you are eligible to be a customer, I recommend USAA as the definitive company for every line of business in which they operate. Read more »

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