My Confession

Presbyterian Women are studying the Beatitudes this year. Following the Processus Confessionis found in the Presbyterian Women Horizon’s study guide for the Beatitudes I wrote this confession about the first two Beatitudes.

Greatly honored are you who are destitute, for yours is the kingdom of God. Shame on you who are affluent, for you have received your consolation. (Luke 6 – the Aymer translation)

Greatly honored are the mourners, for they will be comforted. (Matthew 5 – the Aymer translation) Shame on you who are laughing now, for you will weep. (Luke 6 – the Aymer translation)

1. I believe God honors the poor and destitute in the world, and will not forget the injustices of the rich when they make the lives of the poor even worse.
2. I believe God honors those who mourn, calling my attention to the injustices and ills of my society, my country, and my world. This merciful God is comforting the mourners, and will deal harshly with those who mock them.
3. I see, in the Faithful Budget campaign, an attempt to influence our government to remember the needs of the least, the last, and the lost in this country and around the world.
4. I see, in the Occupy movement, a broad spectrum of society, mourning the loss of justice, equality, and hope, as the rich grow ever richer, and the poor are mocked and put down.
5. I understand that I have not always given sacrificially to the poor, both in my community and throughout the world.
6. I know I own stock in some of the big corporations through my IRA and mutual funds. I help support the banks and corporations who, after taking public funds, have NOT dealt fairly or honorably with their customers and the public at large.
7. In order to live faithfully, I will increase my donations of food and goods to the local food bank, and to the outreach closet at the church. I will send e-mails and make phone calls to my representatives in the government to protest any attempt to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, both in our country and around the world.
8. I have removed my money from the largest and most predatory banks, and will make a conscious effort to purchase goods from smaller, local firms who do not engage in exploitative manufacturing. I will spread the word about movements for justice, and I will refrain from poking fun at political figures on all sides.

I offer this as part of this month’s Synchroblog.

Marta Layton – Fear Leads to Anger. Anger Leads to hate …

Kathy Escobar – Pawn Shops, Empty Refrigerators, The Long Hill Up

Carol Kuniholm – Wondering About Wealth

Glenn Hager – Shrinking The Gap

Jeremy Myers – Wealth Distribution

Liz Dyer – The First Step Is Admitting There Is A Problem

Ellen Haroutunian – Economic Inequality: Coming Back To Our Senses

K.W. Leslie – Wealth, Christians, and Justice

Abbie Watters – My Confession

Steve Hayes – Obscenity

 

This and That

I know, I know. I’ve been sorely remiss in updating this blog. (You’ve heard all of these excuses before.)

What I’ve been doing.

1. On Thursday I have to give a talk to a bunch of other old people about “The Turks in Dallas.” You’ve probably noticed a couple of times when I’ve mentioned that we were going to have dinner with the Turks, or I’ve talked about our Turkish friends. There’s quite a thriving community of Turks here, and they are wonderful hosts. They are mostly Muslim (about 96% of the population of Turkey is Muslim), and they reached out to the Christians in the area shortly after 9/11. Through the church, we were invited to an Iftar (the traditional breaking of the fast during Ramadan) at the home of a lovely young couple, and since then we have had them to dinner and invited them to a Christmas Eve service at the church. Additionally, their community has a Saturday-night Social a couple of times a month, and we are always on the invitation list. They serve traditional middle Eastern food and have speakers about a variety of topics. Their women’s association, TAWA (Turkish American Women’s Association), has luncheons, and gives classes in Turkish cooking. They also sponsor Friendship Trips to Turkey and the participants are hosted in Turkish homes. We haven’t ever been to Turkey, but it would be nice sometime. At any rate, I’ve been busy boning up on Turkey and writing and practicing my speech.
2. I’m still very active in the Facebook Presbyterian Women Interest Group. As one of the organizers, I try to keep track of our membership, and to send each new member a note of Welcome when they join. We’ve had an influx of new members since an article about us appeared in the PCUSA Newsletter. I also am an on-line Circle Leader, and help lead the Bible Study on the Beatitudes right here on WordPress (it’s a closed blog, so if you’re interested, leave a comment and I’ll add you to the group.)
3. I’ve started working on a darling hat for Kate for Christmas (don’t show this to her if you’re reading this). I’m doing it in purple that has sparkles in the yarn. I think it will be just perfect for an almost-10-year-old.
4. I’ve finished the current book I was reading. You can read my review on my “Books I Have Read” page. It was the newest Jack Reacher, and was pretty good, but not quite up to Lee Child’s usual standards.
5. The new “Words Matter” study for Advent (expecting the word) is out, and I will be using it for my Advent blog series (Hooray, Abbie is finally going to be blogging regularly again!) You can download the booklet in .pdf format if you want to get a jump on me. This booklet is really expanded from what we have had in the past, with photographs, poetry, and art work. I’m very impressed.
6. The current book I’m reading is Down We Go: Living into the Wild Ways of Jesus, by Kathy Escobar. It talks about how we should be downwardly mobile, rather than upwardly mobile, if we are going to fulfill Jesus’ mission. I’ll probably be blogging more extensively on this in the coming year. She draws on the Beatitudes and it seems like it is going to fit right in with where the Spirit is leading me in these days of the Occupy Movement.
7. I continue to update and work on the genealogy, and attempt to put my Legacy posts into a form that I can self-publish.

So you see, I haven’t been wallowing in sloth, even though I haven’t been posting here. From the stats here, it looks like lots of people have found this blog because of my posts about Maggiano’s Thanksgiving Dinner (by the way, we’ll probably do that again this year as we’ll be heading to South Louisiana for Christmas). I hope some of them were tantalized enough to read elsewhere on the blog as well.

My Confession

Following the Processus Confessionis found in the Presbyterian Women Horizon’s study guide for the Beatitudes.

Greatly honored are you who are destitute, for yours is the kingdom of God. Shame on you who are affluent, for you have received your consolation. (Luke 6 – the Aymer translation)

Greatly honored are the mourners, for they will be comforted. (Matthew 5 – the Aymer translation) Shame on you who are laughing now, for you will weep. (Luke 6 – the Aymer translation)

1. I believe God honors the poor and destitute in the world, and will not forget the injustices of the rich when they make the lives of the poor even worse.
2. I believe God honors those who mourn, calling my attention to the injustices and ills of my society, my country, and my world. This merciful God is comforting the mourners, and will deal harshly with those who mock them.
3. I see, in the Faithful Budget campaign, an attempt to influence our government to remember the needs of the least, the last, and the lost in this country and around the world.
4. I see, in the Occupy movement, a broad spectrum of society, mourning the loss of justice, equality, and hope, as the rich grow ever richer, and the poor are mocked and put down.
5. I understand that I have not always given sacrificially to the poor, both in my community and throughout the world.
6. I know I own stock in some of the big corporations through my IRA and mutual funds. I help support the banks and corporations who, after taking public funds, have NOT dealt fairly or honorably with their customers and the public at large.
7. In order to live faithfully, I will increase my donations of food and goods to the local food bank, and to the outreach closet at the church. I will send e-mails and make phone calls to my representatives in the government to protest any attempt to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, both in our country and around the world.
8. I will begin the process of removing my money from the largest and most predatory banks, and will make a conscious effort to purchase goods from smaller, local firms who do not engage in exploitative manufacturing. I will spread the word about movements for justice, and I will refrain from poking fun at political figures on all sides.

Greatly Honored Are Those Who Mourn

The Presbyterian Women is studying the Beatitudes this year, and last night at Circle Meeting we studied Matthew’s second beatitude, “Greatly honored are those who mourn.” The lesson talks about how we are called upon to stand with those who are mourning – whether it’s mourning a death, or mourning a great loss, or mourning because we are ashamed. This suggested to me the angst that is becoming so apparent in the “Occupy ???” movement that is starting to make an impact on the country. I saw this article in the Huffington Post this morning, about clergy who are joining the movement.

In our on-line circle, I posted this comment to this lesson.

“Of course (or maybe not of course) I grieve and mourn for the folks who are left unemployed and homeless because of the selfishness of the fat cats on Wall Street. And yes, I own stock and have a little pittance in an IRA, but I’m not talking about those of us who are just trying to keep our heads above water as our life savings disappear on Wall Street. I grieve for the unemployed/underemployed. I’ve already posted about my sons and my nephew – hard working, intelligent men, all – who either can’t marry because they can’t see a way to support themselves AND a family, or who are struggling in rental property, with 10-year-old cars, in dead-end jobs that suck their souls, living in fear of being unemployed. They are 45, 39, and 34 years old, and have all gone through periods of unemployment in excess of 18 months. They are educated, and capable, and only want to be given a chance to be productive, but they are terrified that they might lose even their substandard jobs. At least one of them has worked at least part of every single weekend for the last year, in virtual slavery because he is so afraid that if he doesn’t give his last minute to the company he will be let go. At least, thanks be to God, they all now have some job. I grieve for those who are older and have no prospect of ever working again. At this point, I don’t know anything to do but scream at the government, pray for the unemployed, and trust that God has some plan or reason for the inhumanity I see when I read the attacks on the poor, and unemployed in the media.”

In addition to adding your prayers to mine for all these who are homeless and/or jobless, I encourage you to call or contact your government representatives to plead for a faithful budget – one that does not balance the budget on the backs of the poorest and least able to help themselves in our society and throughout the world.

Meanwhile, I pray and I weep.

(And this quick addendum – great blog from Jan Edmiston “Questions I’d like to Ask Everybody Running for President.” )

In the News

Who are three people in history you admire most and why? (When I was making my list, I realized that the people I really admire are people who have touched me personally and currently. Historical figures don’t really impress me.)

• Juliette Gordon Low – the founder of the Girl Scouts.

I was a Girl Scout for most of the first 35 years of my life, and I really appreciate the skills and responsibility I learned. That’s where I learned it was okay to fail, and that’s where I learned I was capable of functioning alone – without my family if I had to (not that I wanted to).

• Ree Drummond – the Pioneer Woman.

She lives on a ranch, loves her family, cooks, blogs, home schools, gardens, and “works cattle.” She does it all! And she never takes herself too seriously.

• Margaret Aymer Oget – Presbyterian minister and professor at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.

She is a Greek and Latin scholar, a New Testament professor, an immigrant from the West Indies, and one of the most articulate, loving, and right-headed women I know. She is the author of the current Horizon‘s Bible Study for Presbyterian Women.

What have been the three biggest news events during your lifetime and why?

• Man’s landing on the moon.

Because we reached for the stars, and got most of the way there. It gave me hope.

• Watergate.

Because it marked my loss of innocence, and the beginning of my distrust of public figures.

• 9/11.

Because it changed the country from an open and accepting society to something closed and selfish.