The Blame Game

I posted this a few days ago on the Emergent Houston blog.


It's amazing what you don't care about when something as shocking and amazing as Hurricane Katrina happens. Just a few weeks ago, the news was filled to overflowing with Cindy Sheehan's campout/protest at Crawford, TX and her bus ride to Washington, D.C. You have to look hard to find any news about that right now. Katrina has stolen everyones headlines.

Every so often something happens--something out of the ordinary; something so magnificently terrible that the moment defies words. It's not that people don't try though. Just flipping on CNN, MSNBC, or FOX News will let you know that people can throw around words.

Interestingly, so many of those words have been about blame. "Where was the aid? What took FEMA so long? George Bush doesn't care about black people! The local mayor and Governor wasn't prepared" On and on it goes.

The real blame belongs to me--and people like me. People who are too busy with their own jobs, families, interests and pursuits to notice people in desperate physical need. As I watch TV and visit with evacuees here in Houston, I'm struck--not so much with the level of need they now have--with the level of need they had BEFORE Katrina. I'm embarrassed that it took Katrina before I went through my closet to see what I no longer wear, or look through my wallet to find what was excess. What went wrong in my own spiritual formation to be so busy with ministry that I have forgotten to help people?

My prayer is that through this horrific happening God will raise up in me and His church an awareness if the least of these. May God so invade our hearts that when we see people without the basic necessities of life that we would be so moved as to take the blame.

Reading the Text

Over the past year or so, I have been rethinking the way I read the Bible and how the Bible "should" be read. Like many of you, I suppose, I was raised to view the Biblical text as God's answer book or a book of laws. If there was a question about life--any question--there was some surefire proof-text to tell me what to do.

I can flip to "right" text concerning baptism, music in the church, polity, you name it. However, as my life, and the lives of the people around me started to become more complex and complicated, I began to realize that the Bible doesn't really unravel itself as a rulebook. I guess if you live long enough you will find that there are no easy answers on a checklist, but rather Scripture tells the story of God and his interactions with His people. It is through these interactions that we come to know God and understand what it is that he asks of us.

Tom Olbricht's book "Hearing God's Voice" put it better than I can. Olbricht writes, "I was brought up to view Scripture as God's handbook of rules and private channel of information...I came to believe that, in fact, the Old Testament as a whole did revolve about the mighty acts of God and their interpretation...the opening of the Red Sea did not disclose its own meaning. The raw event may have been a freak accident of nature; no more, no less. Only because of the interpretation of the event--also an act of God--do we confess that it was Yahweh, coming to the rescue of His people (Exodus 15.1-5), who parted the sea. The Scripture is a report on the mighty acts of God and what they mean. Scripture discloses and act-interpretation event. 'I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the Land of Egypt' (Deuteronomy 5.6). The law of God which follows is based on God which follows is based on God's prior love and its concrete form. The proper interpretation of Scripture, therefore, first identifies God's loving action for His people and his profession of why He acted. Only then does the focus shift to the manner in which God's action is to be translated into human action."

Family of Faith

In the midst of so much bad news and heroic stories surrounding Hurricane Katrina, I was blessed with some personal joy. This weekend my mother was able to score a fast, cheap plane ticket from Atlanta to Houston. She flew in at midnight Friday, but I was glad to pick her up. I suspect that my mom was motivated by a desire to see her granddaughter over and above seeing me or Rochelle.

It was a good weekend. It was fun to see my mom playing with blocks on the floor and repeatedly reading tales about Pooh and Christopher Robin. I have to admit that it was a kinda weird seeing the woman who gave me life holding my daughter.

As many of you know, when grandparents come to town gifts come with them. This weekend I ate a restaurant twice (which Ro and I never do anymore), and Malia made out with several of her most coveted items: shoes. About a month ago, Malia's other grandmother came to visit. She walked in overloaded with toys and dresses. But it's not the gifts that we like most about when grandmothers come to visit.

The best part is the reminder that Malia is part of a legacy of faith that reaches back generations. When our family comes to visit we sit at table with people who share and have helped shape our deepest devotions and convictions.

I love and am proud of my family; both sides of it. And I'm pleased that Malia will enjoy a life under the guidance of the faith of her family.