Time: Redeeming the Gift – Br. Geoffrey Tristram

We are probably more aware than any previous generation of how we have polluted and exploited our beautiful planet. Every day, the news brings fresh evidence of the ravages humans have exacted upon the spaces we inhabit. We recognize now that we are in the midst of an ecological crisis.

What we are, perhaps, slower to recognize is that our ecological crisis also reflects a theological crisis. The earth we have polluted is none other than God’s creation. The Book of Genesis expresses in unforgettable language the great act of creation: With power and love, God brings forth dry land from the watery void, and in successive stages creates a wondrous world filled with every kind of plant and animal, and at creation’s climax, makes humankind. To these humans is entrusted the incalculably important task of caring for this dazzlingly complex and precious work of God. “Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”(1)

But Genesis goes on to describe in tragic verses humankind’s Fall from grace and its dire consequences. Humans, who were created to live in harmony with the whole of creation, were doomed to experience a profound sense of rupture and alienation: “cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.”(2) They would now live in a fundamentally ‘disordered’ relationship with all of creation.

Looking around us now, it is not difficult to see traces of this disordered relationship with creation in our lives. On a global scale, we see how our greed and insatiable appetite for more have encouraged us to plunder and exploit the earth’s resources in irresponsible and unsustainable ways, as we live with the consequent pollution and global warming. And in our individual lives, we are becoming aware that our disordered and unsustainable relation to the created order is a cause of malaise and great suffering.

Now, there is another gift from God, given in creation, which is equally fundamental to our well-being as our relationship with the Earth. This gift, too, has been abused and polluted, although the destructive effects of this abuse may be less immediate for us to discern. This is the gift of Time.

Read it all here.

Respecting the #BlueLivesMatter WITH Accountability

Across the country, 50 officers were killed by guns in 2014 compared to 32 in 2013, according to the website of the non-profit fund, which aims to increase safety for law enforcement officers.  The most deadly states were California, Texas, New York, Florida and Georgia, the group said. "Fifteen officers were shot and killed in ambush, more than any other circumstance of fatal shootings in 2014," the website said.

This is taken from an article: Gun deaths for U.S. officers rose by 56 percent in 2014: report

I have a friend who is a police officer who feels quite discouraged by what has happened in 2014.  I don't blame him.  Good police officers have been treated as if they were bad police officers.  Laws are passed that put police on the defensive.

Myths and Misconceptions About Indiana's New Self-Defense Law 

I can't imagine what it is to put on a badge (and gun), knowing that your duty to serve and protect, may put you in harms way.

http://www.abqjournal.com/520552/news/flagstaff-officer-killed-on-duty-laid-to-rest.html

That is what we ask of our police officers.  And we should pray for them:

O gracious God, watch over all police and law enforcement officers everywhere. Protect them from harm in the performance of their duty to serve and protect all citizens. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Even as we pray for them, police officers must be held accountable.  For too long, deaths at the hands of police officers were ignored or excused as being in our self interest. And yet, as the chart shows, police officers kill at least once a day in our nation.

Smug television broadcasts in Russia and China have wildly exaggerated the sickness of which Ferguson is a symptom. But it is real enough. The police in and around Ferguson have shot and killed twice as many people in the past two weeks (Mr Brown plus one other) as the police in Japan, a nation of 127m, have shot and killed in the past six years. Nationwide, America’s police kill roughly one person a day (see chart). This is not because they are trigger-happy but because they are nervous. The citizens they encounter have perhaps 300m guns between them, so a cop never knows whether the hand in a suspect’s pocket is gripping a Glock. This will not change soon. Even mild gun-control laws tend to fail. And many Americans will look at the havoc in Ferguson and conclude that it’s time to buy a gun, just in case.

This is from the Economist:

The Ferguson riots: Overkill Police in a Missouri suburb demonstrate how not to quell a riot

Not every person shot is a bad shoot.  But the old adage, "shoot first, ask questions later," seems to be the modus oprendi for many police forces. To use your gun should be the last resort not the first. In a country that seems gun crazy, it is up to our police officers to lead the way in responsible use of a weapon.   

I pray the numbers of death from guns goes down, way down, and we have some common sense brought into this very violent nation.

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The Problem is Guns

We continue to argue the merits of gun control in this country while too many people die because of the proliferation of guns and how easily criminals can get their hands on those guns.  Sadly we see this in the headlines:

Tracing the Gun Used to Kill 2 New York City Police Officers (from a Pawn Shop)

West Virginia felon, accused killer of 4 bought gun on Facebook

Matthew Warren Bought Unregistered Gun Online To Use In Suicide, Rick Warren Says

Too many see guns as a right rather than a privilege with responsibilities. And yet the purpose of guns is to kill, plain and simple.  We must ensure as a society that those who bear arms are:

1) Background Checked
2) Licensed
3) Trained
4) Weapons bought/sold traced

We do this with cars, we should absolutely do this with guns.  Sadly, though, all this will not prevent accidents and tragedies with guns:

The inside story of how an Idaho toddler shot his mom at Wal-Mart

How often do children in the U.S. unintentionally shoot and kill people? We don’t know.

And let us stop blaming it all on mental illness:

Stop blaming mental health for gun violence. The problem is guns.

Coming this Lent...

Advent Online Courses

St. Peter’s on the Blackboard
Online Courses

Take them anytime! No need to do it all in one setting!
We are offering (courses are roughly 30/45 minutes in length) this Advent:

Learn about economic inequality and what we can do about it this Advent in an informative series of courses. In partnership with Trinity Institute and their upcoming 2015 conference called Creating Common Good, we've just launched four courses, the latest taught by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Wells. Here are the courses - one for each week of Advent:

· Economic Inequality with Julio Murray, Anglican Bishop of Panama
· Christian Responsibility with Rachel Held Evans, Evangelical blogger
· Educational Inequality with Nicole Baker Fulgham, Education advocate
· A Christian Response with Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

Other Advent offerings include:

· Introducing Advent with Tim Schenck
· Advent for Families with Heath Howe

For those new to the blackboard, there is a free “How to Take a ChurchNext Class” that will guide you through a practice class before taking your first class.  Take any of the courses at your own pace!

http://stpetersmonroe.pathwright.com

Please contact Rev. Kurt if you are interested in any of these!

Is Feeding the Homeless a Crime?

Yes. In many places.

Here's one story:

More laws target feeding the homeless in public, but advocates say it won't stop their work
By KELLI KENNEDY Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- To Arnold Abbot, feeding the homeless in a public park in South Florida was an act of charity. But to the city of in Fort Lauderdale, the 90-year-old man was committing a crime.

Arnold and two South Florida ministers were arrested last weekend as they handed out food. They were charged with breaking a new ordinance restricting public feeding of the homeless, and each faces up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

"One of the police officers said, `Drop that plate right now,' as if I were carrying a weapon," Abbott told South Florida television station WPLG (http://bit.ly/1qpgywd ).

The arrests haven't deterred the group. Ministers Dwayne Black and Mark Sims were back at church Wednesday preparing meals for a feeding at a public park later that night.

Read the whole story here.

A prayer:

Heavenly Father, in your Word you have given us a vision of
that holy City to which the nations of the world bring their
glory: Behold and visit, we pray, the cities of the earth.
Renew the ties of mutual regard which form our civic life.
Send us honest and able leaders. Enable us to eliminate
poverty, prejudice, and oppression, that peace may prevail
with righteousness, and justice with order, and that men and
women from different cultures and with differing talents may
find with one another the fulfillment of their humanity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.  (For Cities, BCP)

Bible Study: The Fast that I Choose

A Bible Study on Hunger

Key Scriptures Week 1:

Genesis 1:29-30
Exodus 16:1-12
Deuteronomy 15
Micah 6:8
Matthew 14:14-21
Luke 6:20-26
John 12: 2-8

Hunger is a God issue
• Why is there hunger?
• What does the Lord require?
Global Hunger Map at World Food Programme at www.wfp.org 

Key Scriptures Week 2:


Genesis 4: 1-11
Leviticus 19: 33-34 & 25: 35-38
Matthew 25:31-46
Luke 10:25-37
Luke 16: 19-31
1 John 3:11-18

Hunger is a global issue
• Who are my brothers and sisters?
• Am I my brothers’ and sister’ keeper?

http://www.whyhunger.org/