Author Archives: Marie Noelle Duquette

• If you don’t know, now you know

  Posted at 6:56 pm by Marie Noelle Duquette, on June 16, 2018

  

  I am increasingly aware that there are many people who simply do not follow the news. At all. There are many others who only follow one or two sources, and that one source is not what those who care about facts and truth would call reliable. There are still others, who are trying to follow the news, but find it overwhelming, confusing, and difficult to discuss for fear of looking ignorant. They are concerned and they want to engage in our democracy, but they are also well aware of how much they don’t know, so in the end, they speak about these things that matter, to no one.

  I have, at different times in my life, been all of these people.

  But today, I find myself in an odd place of wanting to speak to these same groups to help them better understand. To help them engage. To tell them, your heart matters and your voice matters and we need you in this conversation. And it’s okay if you don’t fully know all the issues, all the facts, all the lies, who said what, when what was signed, and what we do about it now.

  Wednesday night, I saw the musical, Hamilton, in Chicago. It was stunning — visually, musically, spiritually. And in all that bigness, there was this one tiny moment I’ve been thinking about ever since. In the second half, a couple of politicians decide to tell Alexander Hamilton what they know about his indiscretions. What they tell him is painful…and true. It also begins an avalanche of heartache for him and his wife.

  And yet, the story of Hamilton is about both politics and faith. It is the story of how our democracy was formed, and it is the story of how redemption is found in the wake of deceit, betrayal, and death.

  It is that belief in redemption that inspired this writing. Because I am certain some who read it will be enraged; some will be horrified; some will become defensive. But for those who read it for whom this is new information, it will hurt. The only solace I can offer is that the first step in a people finding redemption is talking about what they are afraid to talk about.

  So, if you are one who avoids the news, doesn’t trust it, or doesn’t feel competent to discuss it, this particular piece is for you.

  You need to know that the United States Government has separated 2000 immigrant children from their parents, and put them into detention centers without telling either the children, or the parents, where the other is, or when they will see one another again. Some of these children are less than a year old.

  You need to know that they are adding an estimated 45 children to this number every day, and that the detention centers include an empty Walmart building with blacked-out windows.

  You need to know that the president has just approved moving 360 of these children to Tornillo, Texas, where a tent city has been set up, and where the temperatures are frequently between 90 and 100 degrees.

  You also need to know that many of these immigrants are coming to the U.S. seeking Asylum which is LEGAL, and that the majority of those being called “criminals” are charged with first-time misdemeanors including not entering the country at the proper checkpoint, despite the fact that many seeking Asylum are being turned away from the proper checkpoints without cause.

  You need to know that your tax dollars are supporting these actions, and that the president of the United States, is, in effect, using the children as hostages to get democrats to agree to building his wall on our southern border.

  You need to know that one father who was separated from his 3-year old son was so distraught he committed suicide.

  You need to know that the U.S. government is paying another family one-million dollars because our border patrol beat a man to death for no reason whatsoever.

  You need to know these things because if you do not know what is happening, you cannot speak out against it. And if you are not speaking out, you are allowing children to be tortured, right here, in this country, and you are risking that people you know and love will be next. Because make no mistake, this policy, as horrific as it is, is only one indicator of a deeper, more insidious evil that is playing out in our country. This is about White Nationalism and the end-game for many elected officials is to create a country in which people of color, immigrants, the disabled, children, LGBTQ people, and those with “pre-existing conditions” are no longer protected. In fact, they may be persecuted, and our elected officials will justify their persecution by laws and policies they continue to create for this very purpose. It is already happening.

  Jack Jenkins, National Reporter for Religion News Service, who often writes about both religion and politics, posted a series of tweets yesterday listing faith organizations and individual faith leaders who have publicly condemned either the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy that separates families, Jeff Sessions’ argument that the Bible supports its enforcement, or both.

  When I read Jenkins’ list, I was flooded with relief. Not because the list immediately ends this inhumane policy by the U.S. Government, but because the narrative that has been receiving an inordinate amount of coverage was of evangelicals who either support this administration, this policy, or both. And this one-sided coverage has left many people of faith who support neither wondering: why don’t people know that we do NOT support the actions of this administration in the way its leadership is enacting policies that justify mistreating people who did nothing to deserve it?

  At the end of this article is the list, thus far, showing all the faith organizations who have spoken out against these new immigration policies because of their inhumane treatment of children and families. The list is noteworthy in both its diversity and in the number of organizations who see these policies as so deeply unjust and immoral that they are publicly opposing them.

  Yet, even presented with this list of faithful, educated, respected organizations and religious leaders, who are speaking out against these policies, there are many people in this country who continue to defend the actions of our government.

  And that has made me wonder: are people continuing to defend the indefensible because they don’t fully know what is happening? Or are they doing it because they believe that the U.S. is so lacking resources that we have no other choice but to pay to imprison people rather than allow them to integrate into our society, where they contribute their talents, their taxes, their blood, sweat, and tears to this land of the free and home of the brave? Or, are they doing it, because they honestly agree that money, the driving force behind these practices, is more important than the people whose lives are being destroyed?

  The U.S. has sufficient resources. We waste as much as we use every single day. We have vast expanses of land still undeveloped. We have committed people working together to develop programs aimed at helping us all more efficiently use the resources we have. When it comes to the things that are required to live: food, water, shelter, and community, we are not a land of scarcity. We are a land of abundance. The problem is not that we don’t have enough, it’s that we don’t protect it and distribute it efficiently. And that is a sign of a people who have plenty. Which is why what we need, what we really need, is people. All people. People who have lived in other countries. People who come from different traditions. People who have overcome horrible adversity. These people are invested in helping us protect, multiply, and share what we have. Their coming to the United States is not something to fear, it is something to embrace.

  The current immigration policies being enforced do not embrace these people we need. The truth is, they are attacking them. Terrorizing them. And promoting untrue stories that paint them all as violent criminals whose goal is to take over are country.

  Now if you are thinking, stop! I can’t take in any more! This is why I avoid the damn news! Trust me, I get it. Those of us who have been following this news are limping from the sheer weight of carrying it. So here is some relief…

  You don’t need to know all the heartbreaking details about what is happening. Perhaps, instead, you could simply choose to trust the recommendations from this list of faith leaders whose life’s work is tied to the care of all of creation, and especially, the people put here by God to care for it. And you don’t have to agree with many of these faith leaders on many topics. I sure don’t — not at all! But on this one topic of what is happening to families who come here for refuge, we all agree.

  I hope you will choose to stand with us in opposing this inhumane practice. For if we do not come together to address this problem, those who manage to live through it will surely live with deep shame, heartache, and regret for not having spoken up when they could. And one day, we will be asked about what we did – or didn’t do – to stop it. Those who ask, will be our own children and grandchildren.

  The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have condemned both policies and individual bishops have called for inspection of detention centers, protests, and possible “canonical penalties” for those who enforce the policies.

  The Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution Tuesday at its gathering in Dallas calling for immigration reform that maintains the “priority of family unity.”

  Franklin Graham, a longtime supporter of this president, said of the practice, “It’s disgraceful, and it’s terrible to see families ripped apart and I don’t support that one bit.”

  The African Methodist Episcopal Church said Sessions’ attempt to justify the practice “in addition to being sad and sinful, shows a deep misunderstanding of the transforming truth of scripture.”

  The Friends committee on National Legislation (Quakers) has been vocal about their pushback on these policies. Here is their response to a recent New York Times article in which the White House tried to use a 1997 court settlement to justify its current practice of separating migrant children from their parents at the border. “Don’t buy into the taking points. #FamilySeparation isn’t upholding the law – it’s a choice that the administration is making. A cruel, unnecessary choice. Congress has to speak out now.”

  In addition, the Quakers publicly criticized Jeff Sessions’ misuse of scripture to justify this practice.

  The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America joined 19 other interfaith leaders to directly criticize the policy.

  Bishop Michael Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (and preacher, whose sermon from the Royal Wedding in May you might have heard), signed the same statement.

  Other denominations who signed the statement include:

  Armenian Church of America

  Islamic Society of North America

  United Church of Christ

  Moravian Church Southern (and northern) Province

  Mennonite Church USA

  Disciples of Christ

  Union for Reform Judaism

  Islamic Relief USA

  As well as leaders from:

  Presbyterian Church (USA)

  Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

  Reformed Church in America

  Christian Methodist Episcopal Church

  International Council of Community Churches

  A separate group of evangelical leaders condemned the practices in a letter which included the signatures of Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, who read scripture at Trump’s inauguration, as well as Leith Anderson, President of the National Association of Evangelicals, as well as:

  Scott Arbeiter, President of World Relief

  Shirley V. Hoogstra, President of Council for Christian Colleges and Universities

  Hyepin Im, President & CEO of Korean Churches for Community Development

  Jo Anne Lyon, Ambassador for The Wesleyan Church

  Russell Moore, President of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

  Richard Stearns, President of World Vision

  26 different Jewish organizations sent this letter condemning the policy.

  Over 2500 women faith leaders sent this statement demanding the policy be brought to an end.

  The Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church (in which Jeff Sessions’ claims membership) called for an immediate end to the policy here . Also, The General Board of Church & Society (also United Methodist Church) issued this statement which names these policies as a shocking violation of the spirit of the Gospel.

  Other faith organizations that have issued statements condemning these practices include:

  The Unitarian Universalist Association

  The head of the Washington Cathedral

  The Jewish Orthodox Union

  World Vision, an evangelical Christian organization

  The American Baptists

  And Rev. William Barber and Rev. Liz Theoharris of the Poor People’s Campaign responded to Jeff Sessions’ remarks as “an anathema to any person of faith” and called out any politician who supports Sessions’ position as “an accessory to these crimes against children and humanity.”

   

   

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  Posted in Big Questions | 4 Comments

• Earth Day 2018

  Posted at 7:18 pm by Marie Noelle Duquette, on April 20, 2018

  

  Because it feels like the world is

  Spinning either crazy-ass fast,

  Or in a wobbling way,

  as if it could abandon the sun,

  And leave this neighborhood atmosphere,

  Drawn by some grass, so chloro-full, it fairly glows,

   

  Because it feels like that,

  I find myself taking unusual pleasure every time

  I go outside

  And pick up sticks camouflaged by dried leaves

  Leaves I intended to rake,

  Rake before the winter,

  Winter, which lasted.

  Until yesterday.

   

  On days like today, when Spring shows up,

  And shoots break through,

  And sun clicks on,

  I am drawn to the sticks in my yard

  Like a drummer, long-silenced,

  happening upon a room,

  where sticks, and surface, and soul

  slump in a corner,

  hungry for use.

   

  I pick each one up, these sticks, only snapping them in two if one

  Tries to compete with my height,

  Which I seem to remember hearing is equal

  to the breadth of my outstretched arms.

   

  When I deem I have enough,

  I walk down the hill to the place that I collect

  the sticks that I gather.

  And then ascend.

  And do it again.

   

  In this repetitive, methodical activity,

  Which requires so little brain,

  And so much breath,

  I feel the Spirit of the Living God,

  Restoring,

  Reflecting,

  Reviving

  Like an invisible dancer,

  luring me into the sway.

   

  There’s an order to things

  Even in chaos.

   

  It is another day of creation.

  And it is good.

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  Posted in Big Questions, Creation, Gospel, Holidays & Traditions, Holy Ground, Poetry, What I've Learned | 0 Comments

• The Fuel is Fear

  Posted at 12:40 pm by Marie Noelle Duquette, on April 9, 2018

  

  In David Joy’s eloquent essay, “Gun Culture Is My Culture. And I Fear What It has Become[i],” he writes: “As sad as it is to say, the silence is easier. While the two of us sat there sipping coffee, there were kids on the television in the background, high school survivors who were willing to say what we are not, and I was ashamed.”

  Later he names the thing these students are willing to say, the thing that is harder than the easier silence: “Fear is the factor no one wants to address – fear of criminals, fear of terrorists, fear of the government’s turning tyrannical and perhaps more than anything else, fear of one another.”

  I couldn’t agree more.

  I want to talk about fear that is always pushing against my skin. It resides just behind the thin skin that covers the bone between my breasts. I press on that bone trying to push it farther inside and clear my throat because, even thinking about my fear, makes my airway feel narrower.

  It is a fear that has taught me to be environmentally aware. To notice people in my periphery: not just his Chicago Cubs 2016 baseball hat, but the lifeless hair, the color of dirty straw, that hangs below it, and the tattoo on his neck that symbolizes something I’m certain is a threat.

  To know, before I accept a table at a restaurant, where the alternate exits are located and which one is preferable based on the table I will borrow and its proximity to the front door.

  To wonder about shooting ranges and the cost of the lessons I would need and the fact that with that same amount of money, I could take a decent vacation and for a few days, try not to think about guns and the fallout of their creation.

  It is a fear that taunts me, because I am a leader of people, and a bringer of hope, ordained into the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and currently serving my fourth congregation in a town that is as blue as the last town was red. It is a fear that morphs into a skittish sadness that can not settle on what to do next and requires that I keep lists, calendars, plans, alarms that move me through my day like an invisible robot that seizes my waist, lifts me to my feet, and guides me to the table, opening my tablet and placing my hands on the keyboard.

  It is not a fear of death. It is a fear of life, damaged.

  It is a fear that fills my head with visions beyond students crouching under desks, and shots ringing out in hallways lined with metal lockers, making the sounds of shots sharper. It is a fear that imagines the weight of the individual and communal PTSD carried by everyone affected by gun violence, decades into the future, crashing down on the world like an endless avalanche.

  It is a fear that began in David Joy when he was 14 with a gun placed on his temple and continued in me the day I watched the news of Columbine High School unfold as I was making grilled cheese for my young sons.

  I have actively lived on the other side of the tracks from this culture in which David Joy writes my entire life. As he owns his place in Gun Culture, I ask myself, what is the name of my Culture that I too might name my place in it?

  Peace Culture is too pretentious. Idealist Culture is too narrow. Fear Culture is incomplete because, as he so eloquently points out, Fear Culture is the overarching one that gathers both sides against its breast.

  Yesterday, a man from Saudi Arabia came to the church wanting to inquire about becoming a Christian. This is the week our church prepares for a Garage Sale that functions with no garage and yet takes over every square inch of our sacred space. The community will be lined up before the doors open Saturday morning and by 2:00 tables once holding mountains of coffee makers and blue jeans and chopping appliances bought after dark from QVC, will be gone.

  So when this 20-something student from a country in which Islam is the state religion and in which the legal system is based entirely on Sharia law, and the government has stated that the Holy Quran and the Sunni school of Islam are the state’s constitution[ii], asked me: “What must I do to be certain I will go to heaven?” my immediate thought, “sell all you have and give it to the poor,” was laughably inept, and completely informed by the culture within the building in which we were sitting.

  I talked to him about baptism. He asked me where and when this could be done. I told him it was customary to baptize new believers within worship on Sunday morning, surrounded by community that would walk with him as he practiced his faith. He dropped his voice and asked, “Could you make an exception? Could I be baptized privately?” I asked him why he would not want to have the community rejoice with him on this occasion. He said, “because when I return to my country, if anyone were to find out, they will kill me.” He emphasized this by drawing his index finger across his throat.

  When he left, I felt the fear that had been in the room with us begin to pulse in my chest. I wondered: Was he sincere? Was he genuinely seeking information on becoming a Christian? Or was he trying to find out if this pastor would do a private baptism for a man born in a country where the practice of a specific religion was tied to his right to live?

  I thought about what he had been wearing and how I had looked for telltale signs of a gun before I invited him into my office. I thought about how I had done this as naturally as I once might have welcomed him with open arms.

  I thought about my friends at the local sheriff’s office and wondered whether I should let them know about the visit. Then I wondered whether that conversation might lead to this man’s deportation before his degree was secured in May.

  I asked myself: What would Jesus do? I imagined Jesus continuing to move through the crowds, healing some, avoiding some, teaching some, and always trying to find a quiet place to rest. I noticed there was no record of him ever going to authorities.

  David Joy is right. While we are debating the practicality of guns in our country, we are ignoring conversations about the one thing that is driving people on both sides of this issue to become increasingly adamant about their position: Fear. We are all afraid and because we do not know how to extinguish the fear, we are each blaming the other side for the fact that it is already inside the walls of our bodies.

  Those who live in Gun Culture fear a reduction of their ability to own the things that give them a sense of safety and keep their fear at bay.

  Those who live in Put Down Your Weapons Culture fear the things that make some feel safe will ultimately extinguish the lives of those we love or cause them irreparable harm.

  I wonder: what would happen if we were to talk more about our fears. Might we gain a better understanding of one another? Might the wall that we have so carefully constructed between our two cultures begin to weaken? Might we collaborate better on solutions to address the fear itself, and might our collaboration yield more effective solutions than anything we have thought of to date?

  I don’t know. What I do know is that these words from James Baldwin ring true: “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

  And I do know that the thing those on both sides of the gun divide are not facing fully, is Fear.

  [i][i] The New York Times Magazine, April 8, 2018

  [ii] USA Today, Culture and Religion of Saudi Arabia, March 21, 2018

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  Posted in #blacklivesmatter, Being a pastor, Big Questions, ELCA, Gun Control, News commentaries, Newtown, Orlando shooting, Social Justice, Terrorism, What I've Learned | 1 Comment

• Freedom’s just another word…

  Posted at 4:51 pm by Marie Noelle Duquette, on February 27, 2018

  

  My Curious App today tells me:

  On this day in 1971, Janis Joplin’s Pearl peaked at #1 with a song that reflected the troubled musician’s many ‘hurts and confusions.’ The tune Me and Bobby McGee, had actually been written and released by singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson months earlier, around the time he and Joplin had been lovers. His original version of the ballad began with a tale of two seemingly platonic drifters, only to reveal that one of them – Bobby – is a woman and the lost love of the other, the narrator.

  It goes on to say that while Bobby McGee brought some success to Kristofferson, it was Joplin who made it a hit. In fact, I think it was her defining hit. Its melancholy story became one of those many creations in which art imitates life: Janis would die of a heroine overdose months before Bobby McGee topped the charts.

  It’s a simple song, really. Just 274 words if you don’t count the la da das.

  I’ve often tried to figure out exactly what it is about this song that makes every word memorable to me and many of my peers.

  Maybe it’s the imagery: succinct, clear to envision, relatable. “feeling nearly faded as my jeans…” describes not just any jeans but your favorite jeans. The jeans you were wearing when. The jeans that haven’t fit since the internet disrupted our communities. The jeans you worked forever to fade, not realizing how quickly the time in which you rocked them would also fade.

  Maybe it’s the fact that she died long before we were ready to let her go. Before she had a chance to get the help she needed and we had time to hope she would get through rehab and stay clean and sober. And in her death, she joined too many whose art that might grace our days, was lost with them.

  Maybe it’s that one line that does NOT conjure up an image, but instead, invites us to contemplate the full meaning: Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose. In a time of history in which we can see up close and personal a diverse population of people dying for freedom, being denied their freedom, and celebrating newfound freedom, it’s a bit of a puzzle to consider the way it is framed in this song.

  Now that I’ve been  to Baton Rouge and New Orleans, busted a flat, and waited for a train. Now that I have the precise sound of windshield wipers slappin’ embedded in my memory sound vault. Now that I live in a world where the gender of Bobby matters little, and my collection of bandanas represent mile markers along my lifelong road trip, I have a full memory bank of images that play automatically like a Netflix binge whenever I hear this song.

  It also seems kind of eerie, that shortly after recording “I’d trade all my tomorrows for one single yesterday,” she did, in fact, cash in all of her tomorrows.

  Sometimes when I think about who I might reunite with when my time here comes to an end, I imagine myself walking into that place where life springs anew, and finding her there. She is alone, usually, sitting cross-legged on a big rock, holding a pick in her mouth while tuning her guitar. As I approach, she begins to play the familiar intro and I start to sing. She laughs in her distinctive rasp, and then she says to me: “So you’re the one who went on to sing my song even better than I did!” And I reply, “shoot, Janis … I bet you say that to every one of my sisters when they find you here.”

  She motions for me to join her on the rock. I do. And we sing every song that driver knew.

  [You can find out a little more about Joplin and hear some of Me and Bobby McGee here.]

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  Posted in Aging, Big Questions, Music, What I've Learned | 0 Comments | Tagged Curious App, Janis Joplin, Me ‘n BobbyMcGee

• Allegiance Pledging

  Posted at 1:40 pm by Marie Noelle Duquette, on January 30, 2018

  

  The Pledge of Allegiance has been in the news a lot lately. People are arguing over whether or not the Democrats are being disrespectful by not reciting the pledge in session, or whether they are simply exercising their rights. Students have been reprimanded for not reciting it; other students are told they need not recite it, but they do need to stand.

  Frances Bellamy, the ordained minister who originally wrote the pledge in 1892, did not include the words “Under God” in the original, and at that time, the posture children were taught to use when they recited it looked like the photo at the top of this post. Fortunately, that posture was soon abandoned for today’s more humble stance, standing, hand over one’s heart.

  Bellamy wrote the Pledge of Allegiance hoping it would be recited by students in any country, which is why the original read, “I pledge allegiance to MY flag…” You can read more about the history here:

  I know that in classrooms across the United States, there is no one way that teacher or students respond to the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. I know one high school teacher whose students routinely stand quietly for the pledge, but do not say the words. Most of the students in that school are young men and women of color. One day after the pledge, he wrote a prompt on the board asking the students to write a response to this question : “’with liberty and justice for all.’ Is this true for you?”

  The students wrote more on that writing prompt, an activity he gives them daily, than any other prompt to date. They were also more willing to speak, to read their writing, to engage with the conversation that followed. The question itself seemed to make them feel freer to speak about an issue they had carefully remained silent about until they were specifically asked their opinion.

  Many controversies are swirling right now about the Pledge. Some say it should be rewritten. Some say it should be abolished. Some say those who do not show proper respect (standing, removing hats, placing one’s right hand over their heart, reciting the pledge) should be punished.

  I have not been in the situation to have to say the pledge for some time. When I have been, I’ve opted to stand, put my hand on my heart, but not say the words. This is because I do not take pledging allegiance to anything or anyone, carelessly, and if there is anything that I do pledge my allegiance to, it is to my maker and redeemer.

  Today I looked again at our Pledge, and I read many articles debating its value and the value of those who do or do not recite it in the way that was originally intended. And I decided to try to write a pledge that I could say – one that reflects the world today, my hopes for it, and my allegiance to participating in valuing and caring for it and its inhabitants.

  Here’s what I wrote. You might try to write your own. It was an interesting experience.

  My Pledge of Allegiance

  I pledge allegiance to the earth,

  And all of life upon it.

  And to all creatures,*

  For which it was made

  One world, divinely created,

  Striving to live united,

  With Freedom, dignity,

  and justice for all.

  *Note: there are many creatures I would prefer to not pledge any protective allegiance to, but I consider the pledge something we hope to attain, even if we aren’t there yet.

   

   

   

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• Justice & Joy

  Posted at 6:11 pm by Marie Noelle Duquette, on November 19, 2017

  

  (Sermon from Nov. 19, 2017, King of Kings Lutheran Church, Ann Arbor, Michigan)

  The headwaiter called the groom ¹⁰ and said, “Everyone serves the good wine first. They bring out the second-rate wine only when the guests are drinking freely. You kept the good wine until now.” –John 2, The Wedding at Cana, Common English Bible

  New Things. New Beginnings. A New way to express who we are, as we work together through changes that have come upon us as if in a wind-tunnel. The news in our lives as a community, as a country and individually have come on so hard and fast in the last year that at times, it takes our breath away. Every day it seems we have to accommodate something new. We even have a name for this phenomenon: the New Normal.

  We have new people with us today. We did not have long to anticipate their arrival, and yet their presence gives us an opportunity to demonstrate hospitality.

  New wine. That’s what Jesus produced, out of ritual water that was likely used to ritually wash one another’s feet. A distinct sign of servanthood. THAT’s the water, he transformed into something like an Inglenook Cabernet Sauvignon 1941 – $24,675. Talk about a new ministry!

  I wrote this sermon using a new method of research, new to me anyway. Old to most biblical scholars, that is I dove headfirst into the original Greek, and came back up having secured the sparkly toy at the bottom of the pool.

  Because what I found in the Greek included some treasures that speak to this new thing we are about to do here today, witness the marriage of two men, during our regular Sunday morning worship.

  The Gospel today begins: On the third day, a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

  This is the ONLY time that John uses “on the third day.” Up until now, John was all about the hours, or the next day.

  And since there is no Christmas story in John’s gospel, this is also the moment we meet Jesus’ family. That’s who he traveled with, to Cana, for a wedding—family, friends, disciples. We can imagine that.

  If you translate the original Greek word for word, it reads like this:

  And the wine having run out the mother of Jesus says to him, “They have no wine.” One way to interpret this odd phrase, “the wine having run out,” is that the wine was lacking; inferior; insufficient. But another interpretation is something like this: the wine, was not–to have or to hold.

  It was Jesus’ mother who said it directly: “They have no wine. Note, she did not say, “They have no wine – fix it!” Unless of course, her tone might have conveyed…We could imagine.

  And then we hit this: Jesus says to her, “What to me and to you, woman?  My hour does not arrive yet.” In our culture today, we might think that Jesus’ calling his mother, Woman, was disrespectful. But that’s not necessarily true. More likely, his words here were something like: “C’mon m’lady, this has nothing to do with us. We need not get involved. No one expects us to provide the wine.”

  It wasn’t that someone else’s wine fail was not their business, the issue was more like: Jesus is not ready to address matters like this yet. There’s too much happening all at once. This serious miracle will be the very first the disciples witness according to John. In changing water into wine, Jesus essentially came out in a way that might have made him feel somewhat vulnerable. I mean, if you could do miracles, and you know that the political climate of the day was anxious, and quick to anger. If you knew that laws that offered the most vulnerable protection were being rolled back, wouldn’t you too be nervous about drawing attention to yourself with something as noteworthy as changing water into wine?

  His mother says to the servers, “That which he might say to you, do.” 

  Which means, honestly, Mary has no idea what Jesus might or might not tell them. Yet she trusts that whatever he says or doesn’t say, will be divine.

  Yet six stone water jars were there being situated according to the purification of the Jews, each yielding two or three measures.   

  There being situated … is about leaving space, space which is held for another thing, or another person. It’s about making room for something that is not yet there.

  And these stone jars? These are large vessels, not small pitchers. They were intended as a source for ritual washing–not for drinking.

   ⁷ “Fill the water jars with water,” and they filled them all up. And says to them, “Now, draw out and carry to the head of the table.” Then they carried.

  Yes, this means to carry water. And it means: to carry a burden, physically, or, to carry a spiritual burden, possibly of another person. We do that for one another. We help carry grief. We help carry anger. We carry one another’s tears.

  Then when the head of the table tasted the water that had become wine, and is not having known from where, but the servers who had drawn the water having known, the head of the table addresses the bridegroom…in the mix of all these words, one of the translations for the Greek was this:

  Taste, and see …what you think of it.

  Taste and see.

  The means by which the water transformed into the finest wine is not really the point. We know: that it happened: yes. How it happened: no. What it means? absolutely. What it means is that a new ministry is being revealed. God is doing something new. And doing it in a way that cannot be missed.

  And he says to him, “Every person serves the good wine first, and when they are drunk, the inferior; You have retained the good wine until last. 

  Retained. to set out, to put in place. And also, to lay down. To lay one’s burden down.

  In the end, this story that begins, On the third day, is a story of resurrection. Whether a foreshadowing of the resurrection of Jesus, or a story about the resurrected life in general, it is about new life. What if resurrection is to life as we know it, as fine wine is to inferior wine?

  Jesus and his family traveled to Cana, because of the tension Jesus was experiencing between public and private ministry. Cana would have been a safer place to do ministry until the hour was right…to be in Jerusalem, or Galilee, or his hometown of Nazareth.

  But what happened was anything but private. The miracle at Cana brought out into the open something that had been hidden: Jesus’ capacity to work miracles. To transform the shame of the wedding hosts’ running out of wine, by turning water for washing into new wine.

  And THAT, brings us to today. To this new thing that we are about to do. A wedding. In worship. Of two men, for whom this is not their hometown. Therefore, we do not really, know them, nor do they know us. And for those who might not yet have heard the story, this is how it came to be that Michael and Mark and their family (friends) travelled here, to be married today.

  Mark sent me an email. It began “this may be the strangest email you’ve ever received.” And it was from a guy I’d never met. Which ordinarily would have caused me to hit, Delete.

  Except I didn’t. I read his request in which he explained that he and Michael had been together 4 years; engaged for several months. But James, Michael’s brother was dying of cancer. And he had just died. Now, wrote Mark, they wanted to get married. To share a new beginning; to have a new commitment to the future, based on where they had been – bearing one another’s grief.

  They wanted to get married on the 19^th, because it was Mark’s beloved Grandpa’s birthday. Grandpa Narker, known for his love of all people, and his understanding that love is love no matter who it is that loves.

  And then they realized that the 19^th was a Sunday. And because their home congregation is not yet a Reconciled in Christ congregation, they didn’t want to ask their home pastor to bless what that congregation was not yet ready to bless. Yet they had hoped to be married in the church, surrounded by the body of Christ who would bless them with presence, and prayer; affirmation and hope.

  I called him.

  Then I ran to our worship committee, excited by the possibility that we might be exactly what they needed. Then I took the idea to Mutual Ministry. Both groups blessed our planning this wedding to be right here, right now.

  Michael and Mark traveled here, the day after they commended Michael’s brother into the arms of our Savior.

  We began pre-marital counseling, which will extend for a year as is my custom.

  And soon, it was now. This very moment. Thanksgiving for our community begins in about 5 hours, and with it, the sense of many things we “have to do” which is why it is good especially today, to reframe our “have tos” into “get tos”and see how different the picture is. We get to do these things.

  We were found. We, all of us together, were found first by God, and then, we found one another through our faith. And what God joins together, let no one put asunder.

  So, imagine with me … this new way of thinking about this experience we are sharing:

  • We get to show radical hospitality in a new way. A noticeable way. A way that these men needed to find, when they found King of Kings.
  • We get to step into the role of the servants, who followed Jesus’ commands, and filled the heavy, stone jars, and carried them, that Jesus’ might, in transforming the wine, carry the burden of the wedding couple whose wine had run out.
  • We get to share the good wine, the wine that is lifegiving, and to live into our Reconciled in Christ identity that welcomes and includes all people, no matter their race, or how they are differently-abled; or their gender; or their age; or their economic position; or their sexual orientation. As followers of Jesus Christ, this is who we are.
  • We get to witness a new beginning, to testify to the grace of God, by helping to transform the story of these two men, who have not always experienced hospitality or welcome; into a story in which a faithful community made room for them, trusting the Spirit’s presence in our midst.

  And while I know this change in our worship today caught some of you unawares, the moment in which I knew the Spirit was telling me to lead into this new moment, was while I was listening to the Hamilton Soundtrack: Who lives, who dies, who tells your story? And I imagined the story Mark and Michael might tell someday about the day they were wed. Like the story of the wedding at Cana, it could have ended two dramatically different ways.

  They might say … we wanted to get married on the 19^th to honor grandpa, but we ended up waiting until the 22^nd, and going to the courthouse, because we couldn’t find a church that could help.

  Or they might say … it was so unexpected that it HAD to be the Spirit guiding us all, and we ended up finding this chick pastor, and driving to Ann Arbor to King of Kings Lutheran, where for just a few hours, we experienced together what it was like to fall into the arms of mercy and be part of the beloved community.

  And right there, off Packard Road and Eisenhower, it was as if Jesus once again made himself known. And in his presence, through the Spirit gathering us into one, we, all of us, created and witnessed Justice.

  Justice and Joy.

  

   

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• Cupcakes, Cages, & College / DC Travelogue, Day 2

  Posted at 9:46 pm by Marie Noelle Duquette, on November 10, 2017

  

  Rahim Buford spoke to us, at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday, from within his 3’ cage in the corner of the conference room. His poetry traced the path that led him to an unprotected place where his do-over childhood met our for-profit prison system. His 26 years in a cage began at age 18. For some of those years, he was cellmates with 3 of his brothers.

  “2.4 million Americans are caged today, and yet, we are a nation of faith.”

  Rahim was released in June 2015.  A poet, restorative justice facilitator, advocate, organizer, and founder of Unheard Voices Outreach, his book: Save Your Own Life offers his reflections on how the conditioning and environmental influences in his youth prepared him to go to prison in the same way that other children are prepared to go to college.

  Today, Rahim works for the Children’s Defense Fund, and is studying theology at American Baptist College.  His work includes leading seminars to increase awareness of the pipeline to prison phenomenon in the United States. At its most simplistic, pipeline to prison refers to the system of punitive justice in the United States that hinges on money that is made when prisons are full. Put another way, because there are big financial returns to those in power in the United States, for every person who is incarcerated, our prisons are and will be kept full; Someone is going to fill the cages.

  Inside the cage from where Rahim delivered his poem were two orange prison jumpsuits. The chicken-wire with which they were stuffed enabled the artists who created them to bend them, to represent prisoners. These generic orange bodies were formed in postures those of us who have never feared incarceration try to avoid: one lying on its side, stiff arms raised to block blows to the face; one kneeling, handless arms reaching to cup a face hung in despair.

  As Rahim rhythmically recited Who Am I, he  gripped the bars, alternately squatting down next to the jumpsuits, then pulling himself up, hand over hand as he described his grappling to understand who he was and how that was inconsistent with who he was created to be. In the end, he told us:  “Because of where I had been, I needed to dedicate my life to liberation.”

  Ndume Olatushani is the artist who designed the orange jumpsuit art. Ndume spent 28 years in prison, 20 on death row, for a crime he did not commit. In his case, those who sent him to prison knew that he was innocent. The authorities needed to put someone away for the crime, and they did not have the one who committed it.

  Ndume was finally released in June 2012. He has educated groups in Norway, Switzerland, France and across the United States. Somewhere in a collection of news articles at home, I have the story from the day he was released, along with the stories of others whose life stories include this horrific chapter.

  Olatusahni is an artist, a teacher, an organizer, and an advocate. He is explaining another orange jumpsuit sculpture in the middle of the room. This one contains no chicken-wire; it has no body; it is lifeless, deflated, seated in an old school desk. On the desk is a bible open to the book of Proverbs. The bible is torn, frayed, and latched to the top of the desk with handcuffs. It was created with input from incarcerated youth.

  
  In the next few hours, we will gather around these phantom jumpsuits, discussing what they represent, and how their presence affects us. Three more leaders who were wrongly convicted or who received sentences well beyond what is reasonable for their crime will add their voices to our experience.

  Noura Jackson is one of them. She spent 11 years in prison for a crime she did not commit. The Innocence Project is currently working on her exoneration. Noura tells us about “cupcake Christians,” that is, those who show up at prisons with cupcakes and happy words about Jesus that have absolutely no connection to the injustices suffered every day by those they visit. “They bring us cupcakes,” she said. “And then they can go home and feel good about checking off the Christian to do list: visit those in prison.”

  It is not that the prisoners dislike the cupcakes; it is that the cupcakes are like putting a Band-Aid on a few, in a system in which thousands need major surgery.

  The harder truth to swallow is that until well-meaning people begin to fight against the system that cages young men and women for convenience and profit, the cradle to prison pipeline will continue to systematically enslave children in a place we call the land of the free.

  Cadeem Gibbs was first caged at age 12. He spent all of 2009 in solitary confinement. He is featured in a documentary about Riker’s Island that interested participants were given to take back and show their congregations. When we watched a brief clip from the film, I could feel the tension increase around all our leaders, and especially Cadeem.

  At the end of the day, we asked specifically how we could help. Every former prisoner said the same thing:

  Go and tell our stories. Use whatever platform you have. Join us in working on behalf of those still in the pipeline.

  I looked at these beautiful, gifted teachers who had suffered through some of the worst that life can dish out, and who were sustained by the courage and persistence of a few committed people, and power well beyond this broken world, and I wrote:

  1. Schedule a screening of the documentary.
  2. Skip the cupcakes.
  3. Bring the Jesus who flips the tables and sets the prisoners free.

  
   

   

   

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  Posted in Big Questions, ELCA, Gospel, Holy Ground, King of Kings, News commentaries, Progressive Christianity, Social Justice | 1 Comment

• Trip to DC Travelogue / Getting There

  Posted at 5:23 pm by Marie Noelle Duquette, on November 7, 2017

  

  November 7, 2017

  I am on the Trinity Amtrak train #30, car 3001, cabin 9, headed east to Washington DC for the Unity Conference. Unity is a conference sponsored by the National Council of Churches.

  I boarded a greyhound bus in Ann Arbor last night at 8:00; arrived in Toledo at 10:30 after stopping in Livonia and Dearborn to pick up more passengers, and in Ecorse to refuel. The Toledo station greeted me with a poster stating that it is one of the busiest Amtrak stations in the United States. Its bigger attraction was the Subway, which was still open, and I was first in line. Pretty much every person who was between a bus and a train trip got in line behind me. We ate our 6″ Subways with assorted cheese choices in a quiet contentment. Train stations are, like trains, a place set apart; they have a culture all their own. It is like hiding, in the best sense of the word. Continue reading →

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• Hijacking Trumped

  Posted at 10:57 am by Marie Noelle Duquette, on October 17, 2017

  

  I was reading a story from the BBC News, about the unholy alliance between the United States President and “Evangelicals.” You can read the story here. If I was not a member of a mainstream Protestant church, or if I had not ever been introduced to the concept of Evangelical, I might avoid anyone who links that word to their faith.

  Evangelical comes from the Greek word meaning “Good News.” It was originally used to describe the act of proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ in word and deed; in writing and in speaking; in working for justice, in serving one another in the way that Jesus modeled while walking the earth.

  As a pastor in the ELCA [Evangelical Lutheran Church in America], one of the largest Christian denominations, with about 4 million members across the United States, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, it is deeply disturbing to read and hear the word Evangelical being used to describe Christians who continue to blindly support our current president, despite the fact that his words and actions directly contradict the call of Jesus to those who would identify themselves as his followers. You can read more about the ELCA here.

  For example:

  Regarding the pursuit of peace:

  Jesus: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God.” [Matthew 5:9]

  Trump: [On North Korea}: “”They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen.”

  Regarding refugees:

  Jesus: “I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ [Matthew 25:40]

  Trump: “I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country. And now I am agreeing to take 2,000 people, and I agree I can vet them, but that puts me in a bad position. It makes me look so bad and I have only been here a week.”

  On Truth:

  Jesus: “And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” [John 8:32]

  Trump:  “I’m a person that wants to tell the truth. I’m an honest person, and what I’m saying, you know is exactly right.”

  According to the Washington Post, as of August 23, 2017, Trump has made more than 1,000 misstatements since being sworn in as president on January 20.

   

  For me, and for thousands of my colleagues that represent both the ELCA and other Protestant denominations as well as the Roman Catholic Church, the word Evangelical refers to the action of proclaiming the Good News in the life and teachings of Jesus. Jesus himself, summarized it this way:

  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [Matthew 22:38-39]

  My point is this: the Christians I know who describe themselves as Evangelical, either in the name of their denomination, or in the doctrine of their faith, vehemently disagree with those who follow Donald Trump and others who spoke at the recent Values Voter Summit, a conference that draws and gives a platform to hate groups as categorized by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

  I do not personally know even one pastor in the Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Moravian, United Church of Christ or Episcopalian traditions who:

  • is not in favor of welcoming refugees
  • does not oppose violence
  • is not concerned about Trump’s irresponsible talk of war
  • does not weep that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is being used as a weapon by many who call themselves Evangelicals, to justify their own hatred, violence, and oppression of other human beings

  Evangelical is now one of many words that has been hijacked for use by people who live in ways that contradict its meaning. Another expression that has been similarly hijacked, is one for which I have yet to find an alternative. It is: trumped, a verb, which use to mean, winning.

   

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  Posted in Big Questions | 2 Comments | Tagged Evangelical, Southern Poverty Law Center, Values Voter Summit

• Congress: The Time is Now

  Posted at 6:36 pm by Marie Noelle Duquette, on October 12, 2017

  

  If you asked the people of Santa Rosa–When they knew it was time to abandon their homes and escape the flames bearing down on their lives with a fierce focus and disturbing tenacity, they might have said, “when we could feel the heat.” So far, 29 people waited too long.

  If you asked those who have had loved ones ripped from their lives from mass killings in this country since April 20th, 1999–When they knew it was time to work to address the issue of the mentally unstable having arsenals in the United States, they might have said, Before this tragedy occurred.

  If you ask people in the United States when they will know that it is time to do something about the fact that our future is in the hands of  a president whose mission is vengeance, whose disposition is hostile, whose impulse control is non-existent, and whose connection to reality or any kind of moral compass is questionable–When it is time to limit his ability to cause irreversible damage to the lives of people the world over, they would say, Now.

  The time is now.

  Those who missed the window of Now in history, were unable to flee, or work for change, or derail an evil empire rising until after it had taken countless lives and caused unspeakable pain for entire generations.

  Now has a short shelf-life.

  Congress, you don’t need thousands of phone calls from your constituents on every single issue into which the president has injected his sadistic, reckless twist, to do the right thing, right now.

  This is your moment. Please, just do it.

  Now.

   

   

   

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