<html><body><div>Here's the second part for Sunday</div><div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2"> Writing on this continent, a woman described as a “Groundbreaking President”, the first African-American President of an Ivy League University, wrote, “Universities must tell the truth. Other institutions are not tied as closely to transparency and veracity, because it’s not their tradition, legacy, or expectation. To hold on to the trust of the public, and sometimes to even earn it or reclaim it, universities have to be associated with this kind of disclosure.</font><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“When they fail to do that, they become just another corrupt institution that should be challenged in every dimension of its enterprise. It does not simply pertain to slavery; it pertains to everything we do.”<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><sup>1</sup></span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>I agree with what she said. It seems to address this same issue of dealing with darkness and chaos, and how to combat them in our daily lives. We know that she was talking of how higher education is or is not functioning right now, but what I find disturbing is that she makes mention of “other institutions” and doesn’t hold them to the same high standard of resisting chaos.</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>What of the church – both local and denominational? Does the church get a pass? Or its individual constituents? Is the church free to descend to using the tactics of chaos? Or should it talk and operate out of the clarity, the justice, the compassion with which Jesus was bathed in the Jordan, and with which He was raised out of the water?</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>If we do <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>NOT</u></b>, as our baptismal promises demand; if we do <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>NOT</u></b> live for all that is clean, and just, and honest; if the church will not listen, and debate, and show respect, and call for repentance as both John the Baptist and Jesus did, repentance in the church and in society, then, in Ruth J. Simmons’ words, surely we have “become just another corrupt institution.”</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Both our creation by God and our Baptism into the life of Jesus demand more than that.</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It’s curious that within a day or two of these comments of Dr. Simmons, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote from Britain on the same general theme.</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“I have become increasingly concerned about the assault on free speech taking place throughout the West, particularly in university campuses. This is being done in the name of ‘safe space,’ that is, space in which you are protected against hearing views which might cause you distress, ‘trigger warnings’ and ‘micro-aggressions,’ that is, any remark that someone might find offensive even if no offence is meant. …</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“Undoubtedly this entire movement was undertaken for the highest of motives, to protect the feelings of the vulnerable. That is a legitimate ethical concern. Jewish law goes to extremes in condemning <i>lashon hara</i>, hurtful or derogatory speech, and the sages were careful to use what they called <i>lashon sagi nahor</i>, euphemism, to avoid language that people might find offensive.<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“But a safe space is not one in which you silence dissenting views. To the contrary: it is one in which you give a respectful hearing to views opposed to your own, knowing that your views too will be listened to respectfully. That is academic freedom, and it is essential to a free society. As George Orwell said, ‘If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.’ …<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“What is striking about Judaism, (and I would add Christianity also) … is that <i>argument and the hearing of contrary views is of the essence of the religious life.</i> Moses argues with God. That is one of the most striking things about him.” <sup>2</sup></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>The same holds true for Abraham, before Moses, and Jeremiah, and Habakkuk, and Job and many other of our Hebrew Covenant friends. In fact, as Lord Sacks pointed out, arguing with God is giving a specific name: it is “</span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>argument for the sake of heaven, defined as debate for the sake of truth as opposed to victory.” Truth as opposed to victory – darkness and chaos aren’t interested in that. For many in society, victory at any cost is the only criterion, not renewal, not raising to new life, not compassion, not dignity.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>And why should we worry about this?</span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> “First, because only God can see the totality of truth. For us, mere mortals who can see only fragments of the truth at any one time, there is an irreducible multiplicity of perspectives. We see reality now one way, now another.”</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>We learn this from God, who chose to bring everything into being, who deliberately made this a place where we may live and prosper, who called Jesus to the water and raised Him to ministry; God, who called us through our own baptismal promises to reject chaos wherever we find it.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Rabbi Sacks concludes, “</span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>When you learn to listen to views different from your own, realising that they are not threatening but enlarging, then you have discovered the </span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>life-changing idea of argument for the sake of heaven.”</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Jesus wasn’t baptized to shut people up. Jesus was baptised, and acknowledged as God’s Son, to renew us and to draw us away from anything which creates or propagates the darkness of chaos. Jesus was baptised to make each of us, as individuals, whole. But there’s more. Jesus was baptised so that we would confront chaos in all of its forms while not stifling dissent and discussion. The only condition, at least on the part of Jesus’ followers, is that we are to confront out of respect, to honour differences, to listen, and, yes, as Rabbi Sacks pointed out, even to argue with God.</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>This is what we are about: </span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>(wrote <span style="background: white; margin: 0px; padding: 0in; border: 1pt windowtext; border-image: none;">Bishop Ken Untener</span><span style="background: white; margin: 0px;"> of Saginaw, about </span>Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was murdered by government forces for confronting chaos)<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>We plant seeds that one day will grow.<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>We lay foundations that will need further development.<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities. <br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>We cannot do everything<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>This enables us to do something,<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>and to do it very well.<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>an opportunity for God's grace to enter and do the rest. <br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>We may never see the end results,<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>We are workers, not master builders,<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>ministers, not messiahs.<br><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>We are prophets of a future not our own. <sup>3</sup></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>NOTES:</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>[1]</span></span></span></span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Career Advice From a Groundbreaking President”</span></i><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>by Adam Harris </span><span style='margin: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>JANUARY 01, 2018 <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(63, 63, 63); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Career Advice From a Groundbreaking President - The Chronicle of Higher Education </span><span style='background: white; margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 117, 66); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><a href="http://www.chronicle.com/article/Career-Advice-From-a/"><font color="#0000ff">www.chronicle.com/article/Career-Advice-From-a/</font></a>...</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>2</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"> “God Loves to Argue, Shemot 577b” by </i>Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. 3<sup>rd</sup> January, 2018 </span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><a>info@rabbisacks.org</a> rabbisacks.org > covenant and conversion</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>3</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“Prophets of a Future Not Our Own”</i> <strong><span style='background: white; margin: 0px; padding: 0in; border: 1pt windowtext; border-image: none; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal;'>Bishop Ken Untener</span></strong><span style="background: white; margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> of Saginaw, drafted for a homily by Card. John Dearden in Nov. 1979 for a celebration of departed priests.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><b><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiV94DP3r7YAhUS9WMKHew3BrUQFggnMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usccb.org%2Fprayer-and-worship%2Fprayers-and-devotions%2Fprayers%2Farchbishop_romero_prayer.cfm&usg=AOvVaw1ZPuzGMIzoN3fx1fCMdOLN"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(102, 0, 153);">Archbishop Oscar Romero Prayer: A Step Along the Way</span></a><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></b><cite><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 102, 33); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-style: normal;'>www.usccb.org › Prayer and Worship › Prayers and Devotions › Prayers</span></cite></span></p></div><div><b><br></b></div></body></html>