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Mother's Gift
Not my favorite occupation is politics. It’s that time when we need to reshuffle or re-enforce those who have the responsibility of running our city, county, and country. And they hope you will not only like them, vote for them, but you will also donate the minimum so they can make a whole bunch of placards with their faces and names hoping that when one goes into the voting place, you’ll remember to vote for someone - at least because you saw their name somewhere. Hopefully you will have investigated, researched, met, and asked questions of those running for powerful positions. Your Mom would insist on that. Because, when they are in, they are in, and it’s too late to change the page if you don’t like what you voted for. Something about politics makes me think of Romans 7. It sounds like it came straight from the mouth of Memphis and Shelby County politicians. Here is my interpretation.
 I read: I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want but I do the very thing I hate. (But it gets them elected.) Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me (Is that passing the buck?). For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh - and that’s what we are told to believe. But, apologizing - What we dress in is flesh. That’s from the very material man/woman were made.
I can will what is right, but I cannot do it (Sigh). For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. (Remember the Devil made me do it?? that’s a truth.) Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Failure to make proper credit. Sin is Sin and it embraces us, and we embrace it.) So, I find it to be a law that when I WANT to do what is good, evil lives close at hand (next door neighbor, that person over there, or opponent in the race or competition.) But I really do delight in the law of God in my inmost self (really? politicians think that?) - but I see in my members (body parts?) another law at war with the law in my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in those members. (Whew? My members?).
Wretched man that I am, wrote Paul (ignoring females, thank God.) who will rescue me from this body of death? This body, which is mine day and night, which does what it wants to do often, be it getting a virus, a cancer, or gets chubby because I load it with good things, I think. But who will rescue me from this body at death? The Electorate? The doctor? or dentist? ‘Will I be able to continue doing what I do not want to do, but do anyway, because there is something bad within me that I cannot control, like a temper or a curse? Now who is going to say that something within is something to be proud of, to have fun with, or that is really me?? I am a slave, one way or the other to the law of God - by choice; I am slave to the law of sin - because, just because, I am human.
It is just the time that eternal war between flesh and soul comes around every so many years dressed in politics. After the wrestle between flesh and soul, soul must win, but sadly, and in political plans and promises, it's flesh that is the victor. I say, we need to “man up’ all over ourselves and do what Jesus would have done, quoting the Book of Mormon on stage.
Then as if cut and paste as a follow up for this plea from Paul, we read Matthew 11: Can’t you hear God tossing this around in the heavens today? “To what can we compare this generation?” He sounds as exasperated as I do. We don’t follow the rules - we don’t dance at the flute or wail at funerals. We wield Glocks and jam on sidewalks. We prefer to judge others, even though most of the time they think they deserve what they want and are entitled to have it. I guess they did when Jesus lived. Today’s Kids think they deserve what they want and are entitled to have it. Nothing has changed much in 2000, but electronics.
Matthew recorded: the innocent son of man came eating and drinking and he was charged with being a drunkard and a glutton, and he was admonished for being friend to tax collectors and sinners - and yet Jesus was trying to convince the powerful, the intellectual, the wealthy, the powers of religiosity that EVERY man and woman, rich or poor, precise or sloppy, honest or fake, filled with faith or aesthetic, is reasonable somewhere, is worth something. A glass of wine does not a drunkard make. A dinner with the homeless or a criminal does not a criminal make. It is true, not all our youth are stained by prejudices in their personalities. Their slates have not been colored in tattoos or evil or sin, and so they don’t look for that in others. But in contemporary culture, these are who are open and loving in nature, cannot freely trust adults, and sometimes not even their own parents. How do we raise a child to be congenial, polite yet in constant defense of self against the unknown so anxious to hurt, abuse, and rob him?
In those days when so many freaks thought “I do what I don’t want to do because I cannot control the sinful desires within me,” Jesus opened his arms for all to come to him, all of us weary with heavy burdens, and even today, he still saves us. He will take away the worry, the fear. He is gentle and humble of heart. But how can we, once we leave the pews of this church, trust anybody else? My gosh, for centuries children and families trusted catholic priests, holy men and look what happened? Priests are politicians too. They must sell the church and keep it alive and functioning. Our police officers trusted the city government which hired them, and many lost everything a few years ago because their savings were spent by the city and nothing was left, not insurance or pensions. Our elected officials who often dress well and put on a good show, are not whom they pretend to be nor live where they are supposed to. Who today are our heroes, where are the good men and women who are role models for our youth?
At the movies? On the basketball courts? In the dangerous hood?
Those of us who believe in good love and the forgiving God must continue to build trust through prayer. And we need more and more to make prayer our best friend day and night. It’s amazing how prayer in a moment can stop us from doing that thing we know we should not do, but we do because we cannot stop doing it, blaming it on our sinful nature, our dark side, our uncontrollable urges, our ADHD. What we need is some sort of light. Light, not darkness, gives hope. And I thought in that moment, when we had nowhere else to turn, we can go into a church and light a candle and with that light, we can ask God to save us all, from war, fear, and loss.
I guess I missed lighting candles for those in trouble, for those sick, for those leaving for a new adventure, for ourselves when we have a dilemma or are about to do something that we should not do and don’t have the power to stop our sinful nature. Light a candle. Say a prayer. Let our little light shine. Lighting a candle is a way of prayer and worship that shows up in every religion in this world. Latin America, where most faith has the Catholic bent, lighting a candle is always a comfort. Some people have altars in their homes to honor certain virgins and saints which have appeared over the years in time of desperation, such as Virgin of 33 in Uruguay, the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico, Virgin of Lourdes in France, the Virgin of Walsingham in England, or saints like Mother Teresa, and we ask them to intercede, to carry our needy prayers before the Lord. So, we light a candle to thank them on their holy days or every day, for that matter. The more the merrier, I guess. Others ask for help with a problem in the family, or a worry about friends, or to toss out disappointments from our own lives.
In Thailand or Tibet or Bhutan or India or Jerusalem or Dubai or Moscow lighting a candle is part of daily ritual before anyone steps out to work. The Buddhist, the Hindus, the Daoists, the Taoists, the Shintoists, the Catholics, the Orthodox, the Muslims, the Jewish - all have a tradition of lighting a candle in prayer. I lit candles all along the route going to Mount Everest, and circumnavigating Mt. Kalash in Tibet, show me a temple or Tori gate to walk through and I’m in line lighting a candle, even the smelly butter ones. Lighting candles becomes the energy boost in any ritual. Lighting a candle is asking God to pay attention to your needs or another’s salvation, healing, or angst.
I like being able to light a candle for my mother every time I go into a church, and for my husband and for our police department. Often, I want to speak to my mom. I would like to have that delight of remembering her by lighting candles in our church, some holy place, and I believe she knows where I am. A candle is a heart passed between her and me and Jesus who takes care of her now. And I like being able to light a candle for my grandchildren as they go into their lives, and before I go to the cancer doctor or when a friend has been rushed to the hospital or when it’s time to vote for politicians I don’t know or trust. One way or the other, I’m so grateful Calvary Church in Memphis has given us a place to light candles.
~ Rev
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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
www.audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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