The Beauty of Red Cups

Every Christmas, there seems to be at least one retailer who forbids employees to wish customers a “Merry Christmas” or one municipality that removes a manger scene and as a result, bears the brunt of Christians venting a year’s worth of frustration at being marginalized by our post-Christendom culture. This year is no exception.

A normally chilly November has featured a rather heated debate, even a firestorm of resistance to Starbucks’ rollout of their plain red cups for the holidays this year. Many have taken to social media to proclaim their dissatisfaction. I have remarked to several people that this argument is misguided and actually counter-productive to the cause of Christ. I would like to go on record and say that I like the relatively simple yet elegant red cups marking the Christmas season at Starbucks…for several reasons.

I was encouraged to find that the Starbucks news blog post, dated November 1, 2015, shows an astute cultural awareness that is unfortunately lost on many American Christians who think that all cultures should revolve around them, using their language and symbols. The Starbucks cups appear after Halloween and signal the addition of special holiday drinks to their menu. While Starbucks might be trying to spin this conflict in its favor, I sensed a sincerity that needs to be heard. And that is the problem, isn’t it? Frequent readers of my blogs will recognize that this is a regular theme in my writing. Any time we respond without actually listening to the viewpoint of another (no matter which side of the argument we are on) we reveal ourselves to be unwise.

Why Did They Do It?

Jeffrey Fields, Starbucks' vice president of Design & Content is quoted in the post and I want you to be able to read his words for yourself,

Taking a cue from customers who have been doodling designs on cups for years (Starbucks held a contest to support this creativity), this year’s design is another way Starbucks is inviting customers to create their own stories with a red cup that mimics a blank canvas.  

“In the past, we have told stories with our holiday cups designs,” said Fields. “This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.”

In the nearly two decades since the first red Starbucks cup, the company has grown from 1,400 stores in a handful of countries to more than 23,000 stores in 68 markets around the world.

“Starbucks has become a place of sanctuary during the holidays,” he said. “We’re embracing the simplicity and the quietness of it. It’s a more open way to usher in the holiday.”

Creating a culture of belonging, inclusion, and diversity is one of the core values of Starbucks, and each year during the holidays the company aims to bring customers an experience that inspires the spirit of the season. Starbucks will continue to embrace and welcome customers from all backgrounds and religions in our stores around the world.[1]

While I have liked the special cups of Christmases past (I happily own some) I love the idea of the cup being a symbolic "canvas" where we can create our own stories in community with others. Past years’ cups have been almost too cluttered with seasonal themes (hope, peace, love, giving) and symbols—trees, snowflakes, ornaments, reindeer, gifts, etc. All are placed there with a marketing connection to increasing sales. None of these things are really outwardly Christian, so it is hard to see this as a credible attack on Christmas by Starbucks. The biggest danger to the western church is not the “bleak midwinter” of Christ-less secularism, but it might just be consumerism. In which case, a simple cup might point us back in the right direction… toward open engagement with others in time spent, stories shared, and all done around an open table.

A Place of Sanctuary

Are our homes a sanctuary?

Are our homes and churches known as places of sanctuary, or are they filled, in turn, with bustling acrimony or bored apathy? Not only am I impressed with the reasoning behind the red cups, but I am also personally convicted when Mr. Fields says, “Starbucks has become a place of sanctuary during the holidays,” he said. “We’re embracing the simplicity and the quietness of it. It’s a more open way to usher in the holiday.” As I have written previously (Rethinking “Don’t Talk to Strangers!”), I rarely sit in a Starbucks without speaking to a stranger, making a new friend, working on a sermon, mentoring other Christians, or just enjoying being with family and friends. I see others doing likewise. Why are we the church not more of a “sanctuary”? Why is it that we are rarely described by words like “simplicity” and “quietness”? And for those who consider “holiday” a trigger word, it literally means “holy day” so if we truly considered a day holy how would we treat others on it? I have apologized to the baristas in my local Starbucks because they have to work on Christmas, but they say they love sharing the day with the crew and the people who come in are happier than normal.

Back to the Red Cups.

What does red mean? Is it not rife with biblical symbolism? Certainly, it reminds me of the “blood of Christ” that was shed on a Roman cross to wash away our sins. But perhaps more seasonally appropriate, red is the color of humanity for Adam was made from the red dust of the ground. It is at Christmas that God the Son left the culture of heaven behind to become fully human so that he might redeem us, become the perfect advocate for us, and set us free from our slavery to the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-18). If we are going to engage the world like Jesus did, we will have to start with humbling ourselves, not grasping or demanding (Philippians 2:1-11).

I don’t agree with everything Starbucks does nor with all the values that they profess…like when they spell my name wrong. Yes, coffee drinks are often too expensive, though I usually drink the less expensive iced coffee. Having said that, Starbucks has been a blessing to the church as a “third space” in the community to talk, listen, laugh, study, and share with believers and those who don’t—even without reindeer on their cups.

Finally, I don’t need to fib about my name to force baristas to write "Merry Christmas" on my cup and then have to call out “Merry Christmas, your tall non-fat iced coffee with mocha is ready!” I am more interested in talking to them while they take my order and make my coffee…treating them as fully human and even as friends. So hopefully, when I wish them a "Merry Christmas!", and I will, they will believe I mean it and agree that it has been merry indeed.

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[1] Pasted from https://news.starbucks.com/news/the-story-behind-the-design-of-starbucks-red-holiday-cups-for-2015

Fighting Fire With Fire

This post is an assigned response to Paul Louis Metzger’s post, Fire Fighting and Religious Conflicts

I am intrigued by the use of this firefighting metaphor in the context of religious conflicts. With four young men and women in my family pursuing careers in firefighting, I can relate to the metaphor. Are we ignoring the burning tree in the room? [All fire photos used in this post were provided by my fireman brother, Steven Dueker]

Dr. Metzger is not using “conflict” in the sense of violent outbreaks but in the sense of identifying and addressing real points of disagreement between religions. While we can find areas of mutual concern between major religious groups, at their roots, they are very different. When we take time to consider it, we realize that it takes conflict on the cellular level just to stay alive. The immune system depends on the right balance of conflict within the body to remain healthy. A forest is much the same.

Just one tree?

A healthy forest can usually survive natural lightning-started fires. The problem comes when the forest is not healthy. Summer heat and extended periods of drought can produce tinder-dry fuels. Insects can damage or kill large swaths of forest, and ironically, fire can be a natural way of controlling the damage and promoting new growth.

Smoke over the Fire-camp in Washington

Recently, when commenting on a classmate’s writing on this subject, I agreed with her first paragraph, “Fighting fires is hard, exhausting work…So it is when speaking with someone who disagrees with you on religious issues. It can be exhausting, hard work before we reach a resolution.” While I am not a fireman, I am a pastor and have fought a lot of relational fires over the years. It is hard and often frustrating work. Sometimes such fires, like those in heavy timber, will not be extinguished until the winter rains come.

Setting a Backfire

While compromise is not a satisfactory answer in discussing religious differences, we should not grow rigid and defensive at sincere questions and doubts, but welcome them, listening deeply before we answer. Often, such discussions, which Dr. Metzger calls “conflicts”, are a natural way of cleaning out the brushwood and undergrowth of man-made ideas and non-essential practices on both sides of the table. If so, then the fire lines cut can be beneficial to overall relational health and religious understanding. If there is a problem with their reasoning, then carefully setting the backfires of logical questions can be effective in slowing the spread of wildfire. In any event, earnest listening and active loving-kindness make an effective relational fire retardant.

I must confess to being a little hesitant to stir up conflict through aggressive over-engagement. I once had a professor whose approach to teaching a marriage enrichment course was to provoke couples to fight over various topics (even where there were no differences to work through) because “what didn’t kill you made you stronger.” Such an approach is foolishness. My experience reminds me that we need to be careful to balance properly our communication (10 positive comments to each negative or critical remark), or like the Santa Ana winds in Southern California, it will make the relational forest dangerously dry and susceptible to combustion. However, on the other hand, we should not withdraw and under-engage, assuming that the quiet and the calm mean we are in agreement, because it doesn’t. 

The Bible teaches that while followers of Jesus need not run from such relational and multi-faith “conflicts,” we are not to be quarrelsome. St. Paul made this clear by writing to the young pastor Timothy, “not to quarrel about words” (2 Tim. 2:14); and again, “Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.” (2 Tim. 2:23-25a)

While it is true that there is a season for everything, including “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak” (Eccl. 3:7), we would do well to follow St. Paul’s guidelines for those times when we should speak. For, as James, the brother of Jesus, wrote,

“How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 

And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.

The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.” (James 3:5-6) 

If our tongue is not controlled by the cool fire of the Spirit of God, then we may blacken more than a meal with our inflammatory words.

As I write this, I am reminded that 30 years ago this week, I wrote the following poem that still fits this subject very well. I have resisted the urge to edit and revise it, in order to preserve its “Greg’s early works” vibe!

Conflict, Growth & Perspective

Conflict

Norm of the day.

Key to strength

Or, to death.

It keeps the living alive

Causes the rest to die.

Growth,

Birthed only of conflict.

Subject also to the curse;

`Thou shalt have pain,

In Childbirth!'

Growth,

It is painful

Indeed.

Christians struggle

Toward Jesus

Unto life,

Then sacrifice their gain

For the world,

That some might be saved.

Those of the world

Struggle into self

Or,

In moments of platonic thought,

Each other,

Only to die in the grinding collision.

© 1985 Greg K. Dueker

Together

This is an assigned response to Paul Louis Metzger’s important post entitled Lessons from Baltimore and the Bible: Work with the People, Not for the People.  Dr. Metzger quotes Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed to support his position, and while taking issue with many of Freire’s concepts I will offer a couple valuable Freire quotes of my own.

Are outside experts and problem-solvers the answer or part of the problem? In many places around the world, this is more than an academic question. From Baltimore to Bangladesh and beyond there are people suffering injustice. Will we be moved by compassion to advocate for them or with them? It makes a difference. 

Jesus sent his disciples out two at a time to establish the truthfulness of their witness, but also perhaps to teach us something about kingdom work—that it is to be done together. A partnership between those sent and the people of peace in each place to which they are sent. Hospitality and a "dwelling with" that mutually honors and respects the other as the kingdom of heaven breaks out in their midst.

God in the Trinitarian community of himself does everything as one and yet together as three, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…’.” (Gen. 1:26). Jesus, God the Son, did nothing on his own, but only what he saw the Father doing (John 5:19-20) and was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:22; 4:1).

Too often, those with the privilege of resources, education, and mobility, try to fix the circumstances of suffering experienced by those without privilege alone. There can be a bit of a messiah complex about our efforts if we think we are the answer. While it is right to show compassion to those who are oppressed in one way or another, we should not make the assumption that the person needs our help more than we need theirs. Our western, dominant-culture, problem-solving approach has a tendency to minimize the strengths and knowledge already present in an oppressed, under-resourced, or marginalized community. In our defense, we realize that we have freely received and desire to pay it forward by freely giving. Yet, despite good intentions, this may result in maintaining our own power and privilege at the expense of those whom we seek to help. Freire calls this false generosity and contrasts it with the true,

In order to have the continued opportunity to express their "generosity," the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well. An unjust social order is the permanent fount of this "generosity," which is nourished by death, despair, and poverty. That is why the dispensers of false gen­erosity become desperate at the slightest threat to its source… True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity.  False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the "rejects of life," to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these hands—whether of individuals or entire peoples-need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work and, working, transform the world. [1]

Listen First, Help Second

Why do we assume that we know best? Why do we presume that our answers are better than what others might come up with on their own? How can we diagnose a situation accurately when we don’t listen well and connect symptoms with historical and contextual causes?

The man or woman who proclaims devotion to the cause of liberation yet is unable to enter into communion with the people, whom he or she continues to regard as totally ignorant, is grievously self-deceived.[2]

In a recent sermon, I likened judgmentalism to a type of spiritual king-of-the-mountain game, where we try to climb to the top—the supposed place of God’s favor—by criticizing and judging others. At best such behavior is merely an emotional sleight-of-hand for certainly, God’s kingdom doesn’t play by such rules. I mention this here because if we are going to truly help others and work for the peace and justice that pleases God, we have to start by humbling ourselves and considering others as inferior no longer (2 Cor. 5:16), but as equals… or betters (Philippians 2:3).

Another of Dr. Metzger’s favorite sources (and mine), Dr. John Perkins wrote,

There is an old Chinese poem that illustrates the felt-need concept very clearly:

Go to the people

Live among them

Learn from them

Love them

Start with what you know

Build on what they have:

But of the best leaders

When their task is done

The people will remark

“We have done it ourselves.”

Felt needs are different from person to person and place to place, and in order to do ministry effectively, you will need to discover and identify these needs.[3]

Jesus did not complete his work of redemption from a distance, but to use Perkins’ term “relocated” and became one of us, taking our problems upon him, to set us free from ourselves so that we might be able to live free together.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

I wonder about something else. Without denying the omniscience of the Lord, were the first 30 years of Jesus' life spent listening to and experiencing the human condition (together with us) before he began speaking the good news of God's solution?

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[1] Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 44-45.
[2] Freire, 61.
[3] John Perkins, Beyond Charity: The Call to Christian Community Development [Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition], 35.

Judgment in 3-D

[This post was originally posted on my Psalms blog, to read more devotional posts from Psalms, follow this link Honest2God.]

Psalm 28:3-5
Do not drag me off with the wicked,

                                      with the workers of evil,
            who speak peace with their neighbors
                           while evil is in their hearts.
        Give to them according to their work
                      and according to the evil of their deeds;
        give to them according to the   work of their hands;
                                        render them their due reward.
       Because they do not regard the works of the Lord
                                               or the work of his hands,
                                he will tear them down

                                    and build them up no more.

This passage starts with the psalmist expressing his dependence on the mercy of God for deliverance, then turns toward prayer for the Lord to judge the wicked in the sure knowledge that God will do so, and by verse 6 he is once again praising God for answering his prayer.

Dragged Off (v. 3)

David's request, "Do not drag me off with the wicked," can only be depended on if we are not the same as the wicked workers of evil.  We should not be self-deceived into thinking that we can be wicked and not suffer the wrath of a holy and loving God. Verse three's use of the word "drag" reminds me of several scenes in the old Whoopi Goldberg movie "Ghost." 

It powerfully depicted the moment when an evil person died and demons came up out of the sidewalk and dragged their screaming soul off to hell. It was a graphic and memorable image in the midst of an otherwise forgettable movie. A more wholesome illustration is the scene from the Muppet Christmas Carole in which the late Marley brothers appear to Scrooge...wrapped in the chains of their own misdeeds and warn him to repent. David's request to not be dragged off was not a request for an exception in God's justice, but a poetic commitment to follow in the ways of the Lord by faith.

God is our saving refuge, our shepherd! To paraphrase Romans 8:37-39, nothing can drag us away from his love. Similarly, Jesus made it clear that if we hear and respond to his voice, none can snatch us from his hand! As it is written,

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. (John 10:27-29)

Due Reward (v.4)

The Lord’s cycle of reward and recompense is sure…though it may not come full circle in this life. What remains will be settled completely in the next. This reward (or recompence in this case) is just because it is “according to”. God will match his response to the person “according to” the three synonymous phrases “their work”, “the evil of their deeds”, and “the work of their hands”, the bill of sin is due, and judgment will come.

However, if we think we can approach God and demand justice to be meted out, we may be setting ourselves up for a fall, since what we need personally is mercy. Our own righteousness is insufficient, and we can only fall before a holy God and ask for forgiveness. Jesus taught that “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). However, those who refuse the mercy of God and show no mercy to others but instead oppress and abuse them will receive their due reward. It will not be one that anyone in their right mind wants to collect, and in fact, many spend their life self-medicating to forget for another hour that such a judgment is coming. It is so much easier to cry out to God like David did and allow God to call forth the response of faithful love in our hearts.

So, should we advocate for justice? Absolutely. However, the justice we should work for as flawed human beings is restorative rather than retributive. It is not our place to condemn others to an eternal fate but to call them to repentance. It is a merciful justice that advocates for mercy to be extended to those who are oppressed and marginalized by the selfishness of our society.

Downward Destruction (v.5)

God will not regard the work of the wicked and proud person but will oppose it. Verse 5 says,

      Because they do not regard the works of the Lord
                                                or the work of his hands,
                                he will tear them down

                                    and build them up no more.

Some people don’t value what God has created, sustained, and redeemed. They deny the existence (or at least the relevance) of God in the creation of the universe. They mock the redemptive work of God in the lives of former sinners. Their actions, attitudes, and words work to tear down what God has raised from the dust. But God will finally respond in kind by opposing their work and tearing it down.

Throughout ancient history, we can see God tearing down empires, nations, and social structures that do not regard his works: Babel, Egypt, Canaan, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and even Israel at times. Is it not still the way of things...that oppressive regimes are judged as God raises up a justice movement from within or by other nations from without? 

While it is easy to see sin in the lives of other individuals, other churches, other cities, and other countries, we need to take a second look at our own lives, etc., and make sure that we approach God and others in the humility of faith and the purity of merciful justice.

Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:5b-7)

If we don't, then we will collectively be at risk of receiving the kind of message from God that Pharaoh once did...

Locust Swarm in Australia

So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if you refuse to let my people go, behold, tomorrow I will bring locusts into your country, and they shall cover the face of the land, so that no one can see the land. And they shall eat what is left to you after the hail, and they shall eat every tree of yours that grows in the field, and they shall fill your houses and the houses of all your servants and of all the Egyptians, as neither your fathers nor your grandfathers have seen, from the day they came on earth to this day.’” Then he turned and went out from Pharaoh. (Exodus 10:3-6)

If we lift ourselves up, then God in his love will bring us down, and if we are low in our own eyes, then God will lift us up…higher than we would ever have imagined. We can trust him with our lives! And in that trust, we will pursue justice on behalf of others.

Beelzebul in Baltimore?

This post is an assigned response to Paul Louis Metzger’s post, Baltimore and Beyond: Cities that Wait for the Storm Cloud to Blow Over May Blow Up about dealing with the racialized economic structures in many large cities.

Dr. Metzger quotes at length from then-Republican Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech in his failed campaign against the Democrat Stephen A. Douglas regarding the problem of America's division over the issue of slavery. Lincoln quoted the Bible, Matthew 12:25, “A house divided against itself cannot stand” to make the point that being half slave and half free would not allow the United States to long survive. Lincoln’s conclusion is interesting in that he doesn’t predict the fall of the Union but for the issue to be decided one way or the other. He wasn’t reading off of the establishment's political teleprompter at the time. He lost the senate campaign but won the next presidential election. Perhaps his theology of the Union was galvanized in this early speech that would give him the iron will to fight a very long and devastating war to preserve the union.

Let’s look a bit closer at the passage Lincoln and Metzger referenced.

But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.” Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? (Matthew 12:24-27)

In context, the Pharisees were annoyed because Jesus kept healing the sick and delivering the demon-oppressed, and often it was on the Sabbath. People were now giving voice to the idea that Jesus might be the messianic “Son of David.” Since the Pharisees couldn’t dispute the historicity of the miracles (they could see the dramatic results for themselves) they had to contest the source of Jesus’ power. They demonized him—literally. Beelzebul, meant “Baal the lord” a name that originally had been changed to “Beelzebub” referring to “the Lord of the flies”, but had come to be a nickname for the source of personal evil, the accuser, Satan. As R. Kent Hughes comments,

“The heart of the Pharisees and scribes was so hard they said in essence, ‘Yes, Jesus has done a miracle, but only because he is in league with Satan, the Lord of the flies, the God of dung and carrion.’ It was a calculated blasphemy of immense perversity.” (Hughes, Luke: That You May Know the Truth Vol. 1, 426)

This verse makes me think because sometimes being single-minded as individuals can produce a divided household, divided city, or divided nation. Jesus uses this argument not to defend the unity of Satan’s kingdom but simply to point out that it would be a stupid strategy for Satan to use. Ultimately Satan’s kingdom is divided and the kingdom of God is not. So how do we move from our individual wholeheartedness and move toward a greater unity that befits the kingdom of heaven?

What if all our particular callings are supposed to fit together to form one complete multi-faceted gem through which the nations enter? If this is to happen we must learn to give space for the passions which God has placed in the hearts of others. We can and should remain energetic and enduring in whatever lentil field the Lord has placed us (2 Sam. 23:11-12) even if not glamorous. At the same time, we can extend care, respect, and much-needed encouragement to others in their respective fields. Isaiah 5 says that the rich add field to field until they dwell alone in the land. What if we did the opposite, giving away fields until we dwell together with our brothers and sisters in the land of promise?

Israel had its share of inter-tribal conflict and misunderstanding. Some conflicts were unavoidable (Judges 19-20 War against the Benjaminites) where righteous action needed to be taken, while others were not and could be resolved through gracious speech and merciful listening (Joshua 22's Altar of Witness). My point here is that there are some convictions that divide and will always divide. But much division comes from fear and misunderstanding and needs to be worked through. Often such fear can arise when we sense we are losing power and control through the advocacy efforts of others. But there is nothing to fear from the pursuit of justice so why do we get uptight?

So how do we advocate for others instead of being apathetic or even resistant to their efforts? How do we support and encourage the work of others without becoming ineffective in our own fields? Well for starters, let's stop rebuking or demonizing those who are doing the work of God outside of our control (Luke 9:49-50).

In John 8:49-51 we see Jesus answering this charge,

Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon, but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it, and he is the judge. Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

We need to seek to glorify God in all areas of our lives and communities. Metzger challenges us to consider those structural injustices that we at best often fail to notice and at worse seem to support.

Do we believe Jesus is who he said he was? There is no escaping his claims. Do we take his social justice commands seriously? We can't be neutral or undecided.

“Given the massive claims of Jesus, neutrality is a self-deceiving ruse. His claims are so great that protestations of neutrality are in fact declarations of disbelief. Further, no one’s life is neutral in its effects.” (Hughes, Luke, 429)

Is it possible that justice claims are that clear?

Beelzebul may be at work in Baltimore...but it is not in the way that we might think. Jesus was for everyone, and we should be as well. It may not be our context or experience but we should consider how we can carry one another's burdens (Gal. 6:2),