Mike’s Rumblings 05-24-24

Faith Conversations

This is an audio version of Mike Murphy‘s Friday rumblings. This is a regular post on Facebook that I’ve turned into a podcast. I decided Mike’s words needed a wider audience. You may agree or disagree with what he says, but there is certainly much food for thought contained here. You can friend Mike on Facebook for the printed version or read it below

Rumblings. 5.24.24

1. Harrison Butker, the kicker for the KC Chiefs, delivered a commencement address at Benedictine College in Kansas recently. There’s one cardinal rule for commencement speakers. It’s the same rule kickers have for making field goals. Hit it straight down the middle and people will be happy. Kicking it to the right or left of the goal posts is problematic and you’ll pay for it.

His words proved to be problematic for the Benedictine Sisters who founded the school and they kindly, but with firm resolve and insight let him know they were not happy. Butker, from their vantage point, abandoned the middle and veered to the right.

“The Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica do not believe that Harrison Butker’s comments in his 2024 Benedictine College commencement address represent the Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college that our founders envisioned and in which we have been so invested.

Instead of promoting unity in our church, our nation, and the world, his comments seem to have fostered division.

One of our concerns was the assertion that being a homemaker is the highest calling for a woman. We sisters have dedicated our lives to God and God’s people, including the many women whom we have taught and influenced during the past 160 years. These women have made a tremendous difference in the world in their roles as wives and mothers and through their God-given gifts in leadership, scholarship, and their careers.

Our community has taught young women and men not just how to be “homemakers” in a limited sense, but rather how to make a Gospel-centered, compassionate home within themselves where they can welcome others as Christ, empowering them to be the best versions of themselves…”

I learned a long time ago not to ‘mess with the nuns’.

My prayer is that Butker and the good Sisters will be inspired to carve out some time to talk this all through. My hunch is that there’s a fair amount of common ground just waiting to be discovered. To get there, however, might require some heavy lifting.

2. “Christianity rooted in patriarchy will always define women first and foremost by their relationship to men.

A Christianity rooted in the gospel of Jesus, will see women, first and foremost, as human beings created in God’s image.”

May we understand the difference.” Rev. Benjamin Cremer

3. Recently, Anita and I went to a concert by ‘Musica Sacra’ based in Sarasota. The program was entitled “American Spirit” and it was wonderful, a true celebration of American creativity.

The artistic director wrote this in the program notes.

“In planning tonight’s program some of my friends began to call it the “patriotic concert”, which made me wince a little. Not because I don’t love my country, but that term has often implied unqualified approval of our past, a whitewashing of our flaws, and an air of superiority over other nations and ethnicities.

We must quickly admit that we were imperfect in our beginnings. Equality for women and for persons of color was so controversial at our founding that both of those issues had to be deferred to a later time. And yet there is something bold and wonderful about a nation dedicating itself to equality for all. This was a remarkable achievement in 1776 and we are still struggling and stumbling toward our ideal – a nation that is “of the people, for the people, and by the people” to quote Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

I am a patriot. Not because I don’t see our many places of inconsistency and injustice, but because I do and refuse to give up on us. The America I love is moving towards equality. It opposes corruption and hypocrisy and tyranny. It works to protect and perfect its democracy.”

I’m all in on the America he loves. May it continue to be so. It’s a crap shoot though cuz right now, democracy is being severely threatened by those who think injustice, corruption, hypocrisy, and tyranny are virtues.

4. In the last week how has God shown Himself to you? What was the experience, who was the person, what was the piece of art, what story from scripture, what reminder from nature did God use to get your attention?

5. ”Read. Seek intimacy with the scriptures. Read things more than once. Read across time, space, culture, ethnicity and experience. Read things that are too hard. Read things that are too easy.”~ Beth Felker Jones, Rules for Doing Theology

6. “During my theology studies, one student asked our New Testament professor about Jesus’ self-knowledge. I remember the fellow stood up to ask a series of long and impassioned questions: When Jesus thought about himself, asked the student, did he know he was divine? When he prayed, how did he relate to God the Father? How did he know what he was supposed to do? Did he know that he was the Messiah? What did he think about the miracles he performed? Overall, what was his inner life like? My professor, a distinguished scholar and dedicated priest, listened carefully, paused for a moment and said, “We have no idea.”

Still, it’s a fascinating question, and one that every serious Christian needs to grapple with.” ~ James Martin, SJ

What are your questions? Are you OK if the answer is “We have no idea?” For some of you, I know that cuts across the grain of your beliefs and/or training but, seriously, a faith without mystery is no faith at all. Attempts to make everything fit together perfectly and coherently are doomed to failure. A life of faith is defined, in part, by accepting and appreciating the many, many moments of unknowing, trusting that God is still alive and well and passionately in love with us.

7. Journalist and Presbyterian Minister Chris Hedges reminds us that “Economics dominates politics-and with that domination comes forms of ruthlessness.”

“The promise was that when the glass was full, it would overflow, benefiting the poor. What happens instead is that when the glass is full it magically gets bigger, but nothing ever comes out for the poor.” ~ Pope Francis

Trickle down economics insists that if we cut taxes for the rich and their enterprises a ‘trickle down’ effect will take place and it will be a blessing for the downtrodden.There will be less need for government subsidies and investment in programs that help the impoverished. Nope. Study after study indicates that the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

Selfishness is a ruthless habit that easily becomes a lifestyle.

8.”The wrong idea has taken root in the world. And the idea is this: there just might be lives out there that matter less than other lives.” ~ Greg Boyle, Homeboy Industries

9. “Why do we have to spend our lives striving to be something we would never want to be, if we only knew what we wanted? Why do we waste our time doing things which, if we only stopped to think about them, are just the opposite of what we were made for?” ~ Thomas Merton

Why indeed.

10. “Something beautiful,

something good

All my confusion He understood

All I had to offer Him

was brokenness and strife

But he made something beautiful

of my life” ~ Bill Gaither

This chorus has spoken to my heart many times, especially when I failed, caved in to selfishness, got mired in disappointment and walked away from what I knew was true. And then God (how sweet are those three words) breathed life into my troubled and wounded soul.

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