The Spire

On How We See Things

2012-01-26T16:27:00.000-05:00

This past Sunday I experienced the sublime and the random nature of the human experience. At morning services a long time friend told me her husband would be transitioning to a full-time care facility. It was something I think they had discussed before making their move to their current address. He has Alzheimers and over the course of the last two years he has become increasingly unconnected. with help, she has cared for him and now his needs are such that the next step must be taken. The decision was planned for but painful. As she put it, the transition will be easier for him than it will be for her. Isn't it ironic that the one who is ill is the one least aware of the progression of this terrible disease?

Later in the afternoon on Sunday, in front of 27 million TV viewers, the place kicker for the Baltimore Ravens entered the pantheon of sport anti-heroes by missing a field goal. He will live with the miscue for the rest of his life and it does not matter that it was just a game. His failure to do something he has done a hundred times without mistake, will be the subject of innumerable "What if" moments.

We know that both of these events are life altering. We know as well that in our hierarchy of value a football game is less important than a medical decision affecting end of life planning.

The other night I presented the new Episcopal chaplain a prism as a symbolic gift at her installation. Through a prism things look different than they do when seen with clear eyes. Decisions and actions such as I have described also look differently through the eyes of religion. Religious traditions that see matters of life and death as significant transitions, the significant transitions, know what is more important. Those that understand religion to be primarily about how one manages ones feelings believe that we deal with life transitions in much the way we deal with a missed field goal.

Here at MIT in the chaplaincy one thing I know for sure is that in living together we have the opportunity for seeing life and life's experiences through a grand prisim that is the collective wisdom of the traditions we represent. This prism is quite effective in shaping what we see and how we live. In contrast to the approach that prevails in the realm of science, this is a helpful corrective understanding that a kicker does not simply strike the ball wrongly or a loving spouse does not simply decide for convenience to outsource health care for a aging husband. Our world is more than facts and loss is painful no matter the context.

How to live in the aftermath is now the presenting issue. The notion that we can manage our emotions is important: lower that heart rate, drop the blood pressure, forgive the mistake! But also understand that at the heart of the universe our pain is shared, our grief borne.
"For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, "do not fear, I will help you." (Isaiah 41:13)

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

Eugene Chamberlain

2011-12-19T11:07:00.000-05:00

Tuesdays in the Chapel
December 13, 2011

First Reading

“The 120 miles of I-44 that I needed to travel, before the freeway peters out south of Lawton, are not very interesting, though I was cheered by the sight of the bumpy Wichita Mountains as I came into Lawton, an army town mostly noted for having been the last home of two nineteenth-century Native American leaders, Geronimo and Quanah Parker. Both were remarkable men, but Quanah managed more remarkable transition. He was, in his youth, a formidable war chief, leading many raids; he was almost killed at the second battle of Adobe Walls—yet he survived, surrendered, and led his people, the Comanches, into a fairly stable relationship with the White government and the twentieth century.

Geronimo, by the time he was housed at Fort Sill, really had very few people—many of the eighteen warriors who had surrendered with him in 1886 had died in captivity. Geronimo survived twenty-three years as a prisoner, nineteen of them at Fort Sill. Though he longed for his native desert and petitioned every white leader he could find to send him back, he was never allowed to return to Arizona. Finally one day he got very drunk, spent a cold night outside, and died of pneumonia. In his last years he and Quanah had formed a friendship—two men who had seen their time, and their people’s time, end.”
Roads Larry McMurtry, p. 46.

The readings for the day are eclectic. I wanted on the one hand to speak about what we do not know about historical figures as a way of illustrating what we also do not know about one another. On the other hand I wanted to speak to the difficulties that are connected to knowing God. In the season of Advent and Christmas we approach Bethlehem with both uncertainty and hope.

In real time we also grieve. My friend Eugene Chamberlain died last Thursday. I was scheduled to visit with him on Friday. He had lived 91 mostly good years; I cannot speak to the recent days. His wife of nearly 60 years had gone before him. He once told me that when he got his new contract from MIT each year he would put the unopened envelop on her pillow so she could open it to see how they would do in the year ahead. The gesture was a window into his way of being. He was a gentle and good man.

When I came to MIT he was nearing the end of a long and storied career and was serving as the Director of the Foreign Student Office. He had previously worked in Admissions. Shortly before he retired, in 1985, he was given the Billard Award for service to the Institute. The exact words are: The annual honor is bestowed on an individual working inside or outside MIT who has performed “special service of outstanding merit” for the Institute.

In about 1982 I woke up one morning to discover I was an Associate Dean of Student Life charged with overseeing the organizing of the Counseling Office. And by the way, they said, the International Student Office will report to you. I was stunned, a relative new comer, I was now in charge of Gene’s world.

He was gracious about it all even as I felt like I was drowning. He did not lend himself easily to supervision. He did things as he had done them for over 30 years. He did not type, was not computer literate, who was?, but he did not think he needed to learn. He communicated in the language of care for students, particularly international students and all over the world there were graduates of MIT who loved him for his kindness.

Love is not too big a word in this case. He had guided and cared for them in a time when MIT felt it was enough to have them here. Letting them come was the norm; care was exceptional and Gene cared. It was not enough to Gene to give them a place at the table, often his table, he thought we ought help them be successful and he did all he could to make that happen.

As my new responsibilities evolved I came to understand who Gene was in his world beyond MIT. In the growing world of international offices at American colleges and universities, Gene was larger than life. He had helped bring into being the National Association of Foreign Student Advisors (NAFSA) and served as its president. Gene was iconic and deservedly so. He did not wear his role on his sleeve, but when International Student Advisors came to MIT for their regular meetings or chance visits, they gave him homage.

If I had one thing to change about the MIT I know today, it would be for us to understand better that everyone of us has a life beyond these walls where we also have standing. And sometimes like Eugene Chamberlain we are outstanding. I was embarrassed to have him report to me; I had too much to learn, but it was his grace and patience that taught me and gave me the opportunity to learn from him.

I wish we had been able to talk on Friday. I would have told him what I had learned from him namely that work done well lives forever when done in the service of others. It is something worth remembering in this season and in all seasons.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

Second Reading

A Grace

God, I know nothing, my sense is all nonsense,
And fear of You begins intelligence:
Does it end there? For sexual love, for food,
For books and birch trees I claim gratitude,
But when I grieve over the unripe dead
My grief festers, corrupted into dread,
And I know nothing. Give us our daily bread.

By Donald Hall

If I ...

2011-12-08T17:22:00.000-05:00

Tuesday Talk at the Chapel
November 29, 2011

If I could change one thing about …

the way we determine who has something to offer, who is worthy of being visible to us in our lives, I would sprinkle some enlightenment throughout the universe that would move us toward rethinking the checklist or the metrics that shape our view of who is important to know, who is worthy of our graciousness and kindness, who we can learn from, who is deserving of opportunity, who is smart, and who has potential.

How limiting it is for me to value you on the basis of what you wear, or your academic pedigree, or the neighborhood you are from or in, the country of your birth or ancestry, the language you speak or the accent of your words, the job your parents have or the job you have… how limiting it is to deem you worthy of my attention because of the color of your skin or your eyes or your hair, because of your religious affiliation, because of whom you love.

If I choose not to see you because of what I cannot see, what opportunities might I miss? If I dismiss you as irrelevant, or at least non-essential, since you and my checklist appear incongruous, might there be some insight, some enriching experience, some priceless encounter just beyond my grasp?

Now, I am not suggesting that it’s wrong to have standards. My standards help me makes sense of how I am doing in my world; they are related to my values. Sometimes, though, standards can get in the way of forward movement; they can get in the way of openness to exploration and discovery; they can get in the way of just being in the moment. Measuring others, their value or whether they have something to offer, by the standard I’ve invented for myself may just block my blessings.

Judging another by my standards can undermine rather than support the other’s productivity. It then becomes about my agenda, my biases, and does not necessarily reflect the capacity of the other; it does, however, emphasize my limitations.

What might happen if instead of the negative judgment, I could be more open to the perspective, the style, the way of being of the other person? If I really listened to a fresh voice? Perhaps, I would learn something new, or make space for possibilities- even miracles; perhaps, I would provide an opportunity for a mutually beneficial or life enhancing interaction; perhaps with respect instead of judgment, I open the door for the other person to make a contribution or realize that which is great within herself/himself.
If I measure your worth by my checklist, I may miss your beauty, your unique gifts, your gentle spirit, the benefit of knowing the person you will become; I may miss a world of possibilities. I may miss a pivotal moment…the chance to transform or be transformed.

What might happen if I set aside the barriers, the disparities that I have either invented or bought into that distract me from or inhibit my interaction with you? What might I gain? What might you?

What are the possibilities for enrichment, creativity, development, if we shatter the walls we erect to protect ourselves and replace them with more common spaces for uncommon interactions with people who experience life differently, who think differently, or if we substitute the narrow lens through which we may have learned to view fellow humans with a multi- dimensional lens that captures the depth and breadth and complexities of our lives?

A few Sundays ago, I was watching Sunday Morning on CBS, and a young man whose job is that of a server/waiter in a restaurant was talking abut how he feels he and his work are viewed by many who depend on his service. He mentioned the demeaning way customers sometimes treat him, the comment ”why don’t you get a real job” to which he has been subjected, and the disrespect and disregard he has experienced or witnessed in his work. I thought of the many waiters/servers I’ve met, not all wonderful certainly, but most have been extraordinarily kind and caring. They have taken great pride in the quality of service and they have wanted me to have a good experience. From some, I have learned about wines, the art of cake decorating, places I have never been; I have learned about resiliency and determination; and I have walked into a restaurant and been greeted by a waiter with a huge smile and a hug just when I needed one most.
Recently, I met a former marine, a new hire in a local restaurant who had returned not long ago from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. He was so engaging, and I was fascinated by the stories of his life journey, and he is only 22. He said a few things that led me to think that I reminded him of his mom. Long story short…he brought over a napkin on which he had written a list of things to experience…He handed it to me, and told me it was my bucket list…new experiences he thought I would love and would enrich my life. He included things to do with my best friends, because he had listened carefully when I mentioned how important they are in my life.

Oh the possibilities that emerge when we let go of our preconceived notions about who we can learn from, who has something of value to offer.

I must say that I am profoundly grateful for a lesson from my father, who himself was a waiter as a young Black man trying to make his place in a world where, in the 1940’s, he was often invisible or looked upon with disdain. He would say that we should always leave a good tip and not make assumptions about who a person is because of the work he does. Treat a waiter with as much respect as we treat the folks in church, he’d say.

If I could change one thing, I would invite you to bring your checklist by which you judge the value, potential, contributions of others to a very special ceremony where together we light a fire and offer our checklists in exchange for admission into the realm of possibility.

Blanche Staton

The Value of Saying "I do not know"

2011-11-29T18:04:00.000-05:00

First Reading: On The Virtue of Admitting Ignorance
Young people, and especially young people of high ambition and learning, gain the mistaken impression as they go through school that the goal of life is to have an almost unlimited supply of secure knowledge which one can explain, defend and use in many contexts. This is a very good thing, to be sure. Not only is knowledge useful and enjoyable, but an ability to explain things precisely and lucidly is almost as important as learning to be gracious and loving towards others. I live for knowledge and I love putting it together in ways that have not yet been done.
But what I am learning as I mature is that you actually learn more and are more useful to yourself and others if you are constantly aware of what you don't know and if you are willing readily to admit to others the nature (and scope) of your ignorance. No one will ever tell you that a successful interview should consist of statements of your ignorance; but I will tell you that the most successful way to learn and develop your mind to its greatest potential is to live in your ignorance, readily admit it, and know how to use your ignorance to leverage knowledge at a deeper level.
Essayist and author, Bill Long

It’s OK to say “I don’t know”

If there were one thing I would change at MIT, it would be to be more accepting of the answer “I don’t know”. This is a suggestion that I heard from former President Bill Clinton just two weekends ago, when he came to Tufts University for the Issam M. Fares Lecture in Eastern Mediterranean Studies. I was offered tickets by a friend and eagerly agreed to go. My wife Deena was thrilled to go as well.

We had forgotten how brilliant this man is. The President talked on Middle East and world issues for an hour and a half – without notes. It was a tour de force and, at least for me, made me proud that this man was the leader of the Free World for 8 years. And what he has accomplished since leaving office! Besides being there for his incredible wife Hilary, he has devoted his talent to helping millions around the globe. Here is but one example: the Clinton Foundation was instrumental in forging a workable business model with drug companies on the AIDS epidemic. The result was drive down prices for AIDS medication worldwide and thus literally millions of lives.

After his talk, he enthusiastically addressed the many questions from the audience. He expertly dissecting some various world issues in a direct, insightful way. He has an incredible array of experience, insights, historical perspective, and friendships with people and leaders all over the globe.

Maybe it was the fourth question from the crowd that caught my attention. It was complex as all the others before it. The President easily could have snowed the hundreds in the audience with data and his own vast experience. But instead he said simply “I don’t know”. An unexpected laugh rippled through the crowd.

Then he followed that up by saying, “I try to say ‘I don’t know’ at least once each day”. And then he elaborated on how important this admission was to him.

If a proven world leader can say this, maybe I can, too. So this got to me to thinking how vital this simple admission can be. There are at least 3 ways we can use in our own lives:
First – as a check to intellectual arrogance.
Second – as a prelude to science and honest inquiry.
Third – as an antidote for ideology and extremism

First – as a check to intellectual arrogance
MIT Community has lots of smart people, and smart people can sometimes get ahead of themselves. The mastery of one discipline hardly means we know everything. Indeed, expertise in one field does not necessarily extend to another. As we age, the old saying of “the more we know, the more we realize we don’t know” really takes on meaning.

This is not a new or original observation. With some help from Google, I tried tracing this thought back in time. The search led as least as far back as the famed Greek Philosopher Socrates, who some 24 centuries ago observed that “the first step to wisdom was acknowledging how little one know”.

At its best, ability to admit that we don’t know, can add a measure of humility to our conduct, and enable us to be more open to listen and to dialogue with others. And it can set us for learning.

Second – as a prelude for real science and honest inquiry.
As Rabbi Fisher noted, science begins with “I don’t know”. We then can go on to ask “What is the why, the how, the when” and all the other questions that flow from this basic admission. People at MIT and other scholars around the globe are very good at devising research to delve into such questions. We are blessed to be in a time in history and in a community that has the will, the talent, and the resources to do so. There are something like 2,200 labs at MIT, and a large number are doing basic, leading edge research. They are not seeking the known. I think it was Einstein who put it so well when he said “If we knew what we were doing, it would not be research!”

By the way, it seems President Clinton has a really healthy interest in science. He likes to spice his remarks with some of the very latest scientific discoveries. Some of you will remember back in 1998 when he was MIT’s Commencement Speaker, and he mentioned the then new and startling experimental result that the neutrino has mass. This was the first mention I had heard of this momentous discovery – from the President!

At his recent talk at Tufts, Clinton prefaced his Tufts remarks with another profound scientific discovery, that we humans all have traces of Neanderthal genes in our DNA. But this time, I was not so surprised. Several months before, I attended one of the informative “Leading Jewish Minds” lunchtime lectures. Professor Bob Weinberg let us the audience in on this as-yet-unpublished revelation. This lecture series is yet another of those gems that we in the MIT community can enjoy. Every month or so, Joel Moses recruits an exceptional thinker and researcher, and you are guaranteed to hear something new!
Third – as an antidote for ideology and extremism
Ideologues and extremists are certain of truth. They don’t need to admit “I don’t know”, since they know the answers, and can readily fit any trend or event in their intellectual architecture. The rest of us, the people of faith, are not so sure. (That’s why our regions are called faiths).
With the increasing polarization of political discourse and fragmentation of information sources, we could use more “I don’t know”. At the least, maybe we can suspend judgment long enough to understand what the other side is really concerned about.
And we can never too smug. As social scientists have discovered, however, most of us are not immune to fitting an observation into our particular world view. We tend to selectively search and gather “facts” which support our point of view. Again, some humility seems appropriate for all of us.
So it does seem that to gain knowledge and wisdom, it really does seem we need to often step back and concede that that we don’t know.

Robert Ferrara

Concluding Readings

From the Jewish Sages
"Seven things apply … to a wise person. A wise person does not speak before one who is greater than he in wisdom or years; she does not interrupt her fellow; he is not rushed to respond; she asks relevant questions; he answers accurately; she discusses first things first and last things last; on what he did not hear, he says 'I did not hear;' and she admits to the truth".
From the Mishna, Chapter 5, Verse 10: Pirkei Avot (sayings of the Fathers) compiled about 200CE
Amidah, a Jewish Prayer
You graciously bestow knowledge upon humankind and teach mortals understanding. Graciously bestow upon us from You, wisdom, understanding and knowledge. Blessed are You Lord, who graciously bestows knowledge.

From the Amidah, the central prayer of the Jewish liturgy.

Chariots of Fire

2011-11-15T10:49:00.001-05:00

The movie Chariots of Fire tells the story of two world-class British sprinters in the 1924 Olympics, Eric Lydell and Harold Abrahams. A quotation from each represents their different motivations about racing and about life. Eric Lydell says, “God has made me fast, and when I run I feel His pleasure.” Contrast this joy with Abrahams desperate comment: “I have 10 seconds to justify my existence.” One identifies with whom God has made him to be; the other by his accomplishments. One man is free; the other is enslaved. One man lives by grace; the other by works.
This season in chapel we are addressing things that we would like to change. These quotes from Chariots of Fire represent what I would like to change for myself and for everyone else—that we would be freed from having to justify our existence in making a name for ourselves and be freed to live out our calling by God’s grace in making a name for Him.
In Ephesians 2:8-9, the apostle Paul captures these divergent ways of living, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” We all recognize that boasting has an arrogance about it, but there is also a desperation to it—and God wants neither of these to exist in his people. When we boast about something, we exaggerate our strengths and hide our inadequacies, trying to stay “one up” on others. This is what often motivates the public behavior of the school-yard bully or the domineering manager at work, but we all have a tendency to do this. Why? Because we try to build an identity based on measuring yourself against others. Someone’s success (moving “up”) or our failures being made known (moving “down”) threatens our identity. I see this in my own life by over-identifying with my children’s success or failures or by over-identifying with praise or criticism in my professional work.
But God’s grace—His loving acceptance and commitment to us—can change all that. When we learn to find our identity in him, comparison with others or living up to others’ expectations becomes more and more unnecessary. God’s grace humbles—it is a gift that cannot be earned. And God’s grace frees—it releases us from the desperate ladder of justifying ourselves to a new identification and calling. Paul goes on to say in Eph 2:10, “For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.” My hope for us all is that we walk in these good works—not out of compulsion or desperation but out of joy and freedom.

Mike Bost
Campus Crusade for Christ

Mary has chosen what is better

2011-10-31T11:16:00.000-04:00

First Reading:

Luke 10:38-42 38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Asked to speak about something I'd like to change, many things came to mind. The question reminded me of how my husband likes to ask people what they would do if they were dictator for a day. His response is that he'd ban double-wide strollers in Cambridge to make taking a walk easier, but I realized that might not be the best answer to the question. I decided that I'd talk about something that is close to my heart these days; something on which I've been trying to work for awhile.

The thing I'd like to change the most about myself is how busy I let myself become, and the passage about Mary and Martha with Jesus is a great reminder to me of what I miss when I get too busy. Our MIT community is probably missing out on quite a bit by being too busy, too. We often talk about the freshmen drinking from the fire hose, but that is the case for everyone at MIT. We are all bombarded with work, research, etc; and we take pride in being the most busy. I've often heard people bragging about just how busy they are, and when I read this Bible passage, it reminds me that there is much more to life than being the most busy.

Let's take a look at Martha.

She's focused on an important task - hosting Jesus. She obviously wants to impress him and just like her, most everyone at MIT has important work to do. But in the end, she's missing out on time to interact with Jesus. When you look around MIT, you see many people missing out on time with God, family, friends, and others because they are too focused to see what is really important

When we look at Mary, we see something different.

For this one evening, she chooses to sit and talk with Jesus, and she benefits from setting aside the busyness. She may be behind in tasks, but in the end, time spent with Jesus is far more rewarding. We could all benefit from setting aside the busyness once in a while to focus on things that have more eternal or long term impact.

I'm challenging myself to take time each day to spend more time in prayer, to put aside the busyness of my day for a few moments. The Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh said

“In modern society most of us don't want to be in touch with ourselves; we want to be in touch with other things like religion, sports, politics, a book - we want to forget ourselves. Anytime we have leisure, we want to invite something else to enter us, opening ourselves to the television and telling the television to come and colonize us.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh , Being Peace

I encourage you to take a few extra moments in your day to slow down, spend time with God, or friends, or family, or even quietly by yourself.

Second Reading:
"We must never forget that the mindful practice of daily affairs is also a path into the realm of the spirit. The Japanese have long known this, and hallowed the ordinary moments of life by elevating them into art. The Native Americans have also understood this, and consecrated everyday actions by surrounding them with ceremony and prayer.
"But ours is a transient life, lived on the run, with an endless sense of process, of movement, of chasing the future. We seldom pause to shine a light upon the ordinary moments, to hallow them with our own attentiveness, to honor them with gentle caring. They pass unnoticed, lost in the ongoing rush of time.

"Yet it just such a hallowing that our lives require. We need to find ways to lift the moments of our daily lives — to celebrate and consecrate the ordinary, to allow the light of spiritual awareness to illuminate our days.

"For though we may not live a holy life, we live in a world alive with holy moments. We need only take the time to bring these moments into the light."
— Small Graces: The Quiet Gifts of Everyday Life by Kent Nerburn

Summer Hutcheson
Daper, Special Assistant to the Dept. Head

The politics of public education

2011-10-15T20:42:00.000-04:00

MIT Chapel Reflection

First Reading: Daniel 1:1-7

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put in the treasure house of his god.
Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of his court officials, to bring into the king’s service some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility— young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well informed, quick to understand, and qualified to serve in the king’s palace. He was to teach them the language and literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king’s table. They were to be trained for three years, and after that they were to enter the king’s service.
Among those who were chosen were some from Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: to Daniel, the name Belteshazzar; to Hananiah, Shadrach; to Mishael, Meshach; and to Azariah, Abednego.

I have no doubt that in subsequent weeks I will find myself in agreement with most every topic presented wishing I had chosen that topic. Or at the very least that maybe the answer I should be giving to the question, “If I could change one thing…” should qualify me for the Miss Universe pageant and be something like…world peace.

But, my answer to the question, at least as of 9/27/2011, is that if I could change anything, I would change the politics of public education in the US.

There has been a general narrative in our country that public education, especially in our urban centers, is suffering.

Just this past week, President Obama stated in his weekly address, “Today, our kids trail too many other countries in math, science, and reading. As many as a quarter of our students aren’t even finishing high school. And we’ve fallen to 16th in the proportion of our young people with a college degree, even though we know that sixty percent of new jobs in the coming decade will require more than a high school diploma. What this means is that if we’re serious about building an economy that lasts – an economy in which hard work pays off with the opportunity for solid middle class jobs – we had better be serious about education. We have to pick up our game and raise our standards.”

The passage from the book of Daniel reminds us that with the King’s best food and wine, also comes a selection of the stories and language that will give identity to a community and a nation.

The story reminds us that with the King’s food and wine, comes a change in the language and stories that define a culture, and when you change a communities language and stories, you change their names…you change their identity.

Inherent in our funding strategy of public education has always been a concretizing of the socio-economic stratification of our communities.

The question and politics of why we educate is increasingly more complex in our multi-cultural society.

What started as religious and even sectarian education in the 18th century, had turned toward the responsibility of raising up knowledgeable citizens for a democratic society into the 19th century.

The cold-war and nationalism provided key structures for our education narrative through the middle of the 20th century, but seems to have lost their uniting vision into the 21st.

It seems that the dominant vision of education emerging is one of prosperity. We educate not for the good of humanity, but we educate as an investment into the growth of the economy, as an investment into the potential of prosperity.

But, have we thought deeply about the human story this tells? What does this communicate to our children? Your future value and human worth will be determined by your ability to contribute to the GNP?

With the kings food and wine come the stories and language…and ultimately identity.

According to the National Center for Children in Poverty at Columbia University, basing their results on the 2010 census, more than 42% of children live in low-income families, and the total number of Americans living below the poverty line is the highest in 50 years.

And most research will show that emotional and psychological stress placed on a child living in poverty has a significant impact on a child’s ability to learn.

Consequently the gap grows wider between wealthier and poor neighborhood schools in many states during economic stress in spite of growing initiatives, financial investment and emerging alternatives.

I love teachers, and have a great respect for those who enter the field. Many of my family members are currently or have been educators.

In my last fifteen years as a college chaplain, I can recall dozens of students who have entered various teaching programs with the high-minded idealism of making a difference in the future of students caught in struggling systems.

Few remain. It is emotionally taxing and there are alternative places to work to see more immediate results. Many in the field of education research project he results of education reform could take as much as 10-15 years to bear tangible results.

Our reflections for chapel, “If I could change one thing…” as Dr. Randolph reminded us last week, causes us to examine and question the notion of change itself as much as the thing we would like to see change, as well as our own involvement in seeing change happen.

The politics and conversation of education has at its core the question, “Why we educate?” But most of the public conversation has little to do with wrestling as a society with this question.

And if we were going to change the conversation, change the politics of public education, I wonder how our children would answer this question, “Why do we educate?” I wonder what language and stories are forming their identity as we debate experiment with strategies, assessment and benchmarks for new contributors to a new economy.

Tim Hawkins, Chaplain with SojournMIT

Memory

2011-09-20T11:13:00.000-04:00

Tuesdays in the chapel

The invitation of our morning gatherings is to consider change. What would you change if you could about any topic you are interested in considering. The intent is to get us all to think about what change suggests and demands of us. It is also an invitation to do something we do not often do here at MIT and that is to pause and reflect.

The readings for the day lay out the spectrum. There is the Psalmist, David, reflecting on the unchanging nature of the Divine. “The Lord is my rock.” (Psalm 18) On another occasion, he declares “the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.” (Psalm 118)

The New Hampshire poet, Donald Hall, celebrates change. There are the trees that bud and flower only to repeat the process because ‘frost will strip it raw and barren soon”. A poet who paid attention to the nature of the passions that come with living, Hall offers the insights of experience. Loves brings change and hurt but the process is curative and may be summed up by noting that:

“The young are never robbed of innocence
but given gold of love and memory.
We live in wealth whose bounds exceed our sense
And when we die are full of memory.”

Love makes us whole and the process depends on memory. It may be that is why Alzheimers is such a dreaded specter hanging over our lives for it robs us of that which ties it all together: memory,

If I were to change anything I would ask that memory remain a constant; that the links of memory remain alive and vital. But even as I say it I know that I depend on certain parts of remembering fading with time else the pain of loss and foolishness would be too great to bear. That is why Hall links memory with love:

“yet people are not mended, but go on
accumulating memory and love.
And so the wood we used to know is gone,
Because the years have taught us that we move.”

Fall reminds us that change is the order of the universe and that the dis-ease we experience each year when the days grow shorter and the darkness deepens is bearable because we remember that the tree burning with color will repeat the process come spring and so will we as blood again quickens and life revives.

The words of another New England poet come to mind:

No speed of wind or water rushing by
But you have speed far greater. You can climb
Back up a stream of radiance to the sky,
And back through history up the stream of time.
And you were given this swiftness, not for haste
Nor chiefly that you may go where you will,
But in the rush of everything to waste,
That you may have the power of standing still….

Robert Frost The Master Speed

That is what we do each Tuesday, pause and stand still recognizing the nature of change yet grounded by a love that surrounds us.

May it always be so.

Robert M Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

Courage

2011-08-31T16:25:00.000-04:00

As I prepare for 9/11 commemorations I have been giving thought to courage and how it manifests itself. The Canaanite woman in Matthew 15 comes to mind for her willingness to demand crumbs from an unresponsive Jesus. In a meditation on this passage a woman wrote a prayer: “Dear God: forgive us when we are passive or timid…Bless the quick witted, assertive woman in each of us who trembles even as she dares to speak…” It takes courage to be assertive.

It also takes courage to speak up for reconciliation and the consequences sometimes surprise. In the Call and Response blog at Duke Divinity School Allegra Jordan, wrote this: “ I found God at Harvard in Sunday School, in prayer circles, and at the feet of Peter J.Gomes, ... I came to Harvard in the 1990s from Alabama. A bitter battle had torn apart my own denomination. I wanted nothing to do with church people. But I was urged to try Memorial Church. And there I found grace, love and Christian witness. Peter deeply believed in Jesus and prayer, and helped make it safe for me to do so as well.

The turning point for me was a shocking sermon he preached in 1991, “The Courage to Remember,” where an African-American minister from Harvard railed against Harvard’s Memorial Hall because it only commemorated Union dead from the Civil War, not the Confederates. “Humanity transcends the sides and there are no victors ultimately; there are only those to be commended to God.”
He stood on a notoriously secular campus in one of the most insular towns in America and said we should love people like me: those from the south.”

Allegra closed with this benediction offered by Peter to a class graduating from Harvard: “I wonder how many of you have ever noticed the stone staircases that lead from the first to the second floor of University Hall? They are a remarkable example of the engineering skills of the building’s great architect, Charles Bulfinch, and their particular style is called ‘vagrant’ because they have no visible means of support...they are not a miracle but a marvel.

My wish for each of you is that you have useful, elegant, and efficient lives without any visible means of support, vagrant lives which will suggest to others as well as to yourselves that you are supported by an inner strength, an inner tension, a source of support that appears to defy the laws of physics but which sustains you and supports others.

In other words I wish God for you, that peace which this world can neither give you nor take away from you but will sustain you in this life and get you to the next...We have come now to the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end, and soon you will belong no longer to us or to yourselves but to the world.

Go out there, then, with courage, grace and imagination. We give you our love—a word not used much around here, and saved for your very last moments—and we commend you to the love of one another and to the greater love of a loving God. This now, at last, is the best we can do for you. This is the best that there is and it is yours, so go for it, for God’s sake, and for your own. Amen.”

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

Words for those who have fallen

2011-08-25T15:09:00.000-04:00

August 18th, 2011

We are asked today to honor the courage of brave men and women, but at the same time to hold in our hearts the grief we feel over those we have lost. Courage comes in many forms and all of us think we know what it is. There are those who speak truth to power and weather the consequences. Each night on the news we see citizens of Syria and Libya who protect the safety of family and clan and pay dearly for their actions.

When we think of family and clan we think of our own armed services and the men and women who choose to put their lives on the line for their brothers and sisters and by extension for the rest of us.

Near to us all are those members of the Navy Seals who died in Afghanistan as they returned from a rescue operation involving Army Rangers and Afghan fighters. Today we think of those who died and remember that courage is not simply a trait called upon in moments of danger. Courage is a quality we all call upon as we live these difficult days.

It is bittersweet to be asked to celebrate courage and to mourn loss. MIT is good at lots of things, but we are not good at living with the contradictions of life and death. We solve problems; this is a problem that eludes us. What we are called upon to do today is to live with loss while honoring courage. We live with the aches we feel for the faces unseen. To wince at the memories we cannot talk about with the familiar other who has gone on.

How to do that? It may be that it is time to celebrate by completing the projects begun with others, taking the long planned trip, finishing the deferred dream. We honor those who have gone on by remembering them, but we do more than honor them when we complete their work. To finish things undone is sacred work. This is our challenge today, to hold in tension appreciation for courage and our grief over loss while completing good work begun by those who now cannot complete it. That is our challenge.

Let us pray:

God, hear our prayer for those we have lost.
Grant them peace and give us the courage to carry on.
This is our prayer.

Amen!

Last Words

2011-08-11T10:37:00.000-04:00

At the Renaissance Week-end over July 4th, I was asked to offer Last Words as part of the final session, i.e. what would one say if they knew these would be their last words. The meaning is ambiguous, but provocative. My comments follow:

Last Words

I am the first chaplain to the Institute. That I was appointed speaks to the fact that religious sentiment has not ceased to be a force in our world as many thought might happen when we moved into the 21st century. In fact we live in a time when the search for spiritual sustenance seems to be on the rise. At the same time, new data tells us that young adults are also turning their backs on traditional faith expressions in an alarming rate. So we are living in a time of great paradox.

My biases tell me that the Religious Right is to blame for the rejection of religious sentiment. My head tells me that my generation has not made a very good case for staying engaged in the search for meaning. We suffer as a result.

So my last words are to call for reengagement with the values and virtues of the religious faiths we have inherited. My office at MIT stands/sits between the Muslim Prayer-room and the space created for religious observance by the folks from Hillel. The young people from these two communities of the Abrahamic traditions have found sustenance and strength in their faith. They are challenged to heal the world and engage in acts of charity as a major commitment expressing their beliefs. They are not a majority of their peers, but represent a bit of leaven in a very large loaf.

Christian students are scattered in their seeking having suffered from the curse of being the establishment. They expect the benefits of status without the work needed to understand how they got where they are. Self-understanding is needed before meaningful service can occur.

I paint with a broad brush and I am not suggesting that at the end of the day Christianity, Judaism and Islam are essentially the same thing. I know the strengths of other religious communities as well. What I am suggesting is that it is worth our time to become reacquainted with the values and virtues of our faith traditions. To know what is demanded if we love God and neighbor and to know the value of a self-correcting community will give us the substance needed to ask the next great question: How then shall we live?

So I challenge you to draw from the deep wells we have inherited. It is not enough to be smart, we must be wise. Reengagement allows us to ask the hard questions about differences. It also means we are setting an example for those who look to us for guidance and wisdom. Trust me, they are watching.

Robert M. Randolph

On Science and Religion

2011-05-16T15:19:00.000-04:00

Opening readings:

O SON OF SPIRIT! The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.
–Bahá’u’lláh

All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. The Almighty beareth Me witness: To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man. Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving-kindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth.
–Bahá’u’lláh

Scientific knowledge is the highest attainment upon the human plane, for science is the discoverer of realities. It is of two kinds: material and spiritual. Material science is the investigation of natural phenomena; divine science is the discovery and realization of spiritual verities. The world of humanity must acquire both. A bird has two wings; it cannot fly with one.
-‘Abdu’l-Bahá

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.
-Galileo

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
-Einstein

How can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought which is independent of experience, is so admirably appropriate to the objects of reality?
-Einstein

Some of you who have served on the Board of Chaplains with me have heard me say that the topic of science and religion is my favorite topic. Today I’d like to share with you a little bit about how this has defined my journey of faith. But I would also invite you to consider a simple proposition: the vitality of our civilization will depend on these two great knowledge systems working in concert rather than fighting each other.

When I was in eighth grade at a Catholic school, I was given a poor grade, the equivalent of a D, in religion by a parish priest who had been brought in to teach us the fundamentals of Catholic doctrine. He claimed to my parents that I had not completed the homework assignments. I believe the real reason was that I was asking questions – quite skeptical questions – in class that were a challenge to the dogmas he was teaching us. It became clear that I had questions to which the Church had not given answers that made sense. For example, why would a just and loving God hold us blameworthy for the sins an ancestor had committed? Why would He reveal Himself exclusively to one particular tribe out of the whole world?

This priest had clearly showed an opposition to critical inquiry when it comes to spiritual questions. The reaction against this as I progressed into my high school years was to categorically reject religion as intrinsically superstitious, and to embrace reason as the ultimate arbiter of truth. This ethic was best expressed by Bertrand Russell, who stated that “a habit of basing convictions upon evidence, and of giving to them only that degree of certainty which the evidence warrants, would, if it became general, cure most of the ills from which the world is suffering.”

Of course, as my experience of the world and of the scientific method expanded, I realized that reason cannot by itself provide values. Even Euclidean geometry, which is the most rigorously logical thing you’ll ever encounter, starts with postulates, which are unproven assumptions. There is no way to prove through reason alone that a society rooted in compassion is better than one based on harsh social Darwinism. You need to start out with some basic moral postulates that accord with our experience of the universe we live in.

So what kind of universe do we live in? One whose physical constants are finely tuned to mandate intelligent life, to allow for the existence of beings who ask questions about purpose, who yearn for transcendence, who find the mere satisfaction of survival needs unsatisfying. A universe that is described by exquisite mathematical laws. This brought me to the conclusion that consciousness is not an artifact resulting from the firing of neurons or the buzzing of particles; if anything, it’s the other way around. Mind or Spirit is the cause; matter and energy are the effects.

This leads, of course, to the question of purpose. I ultimately came to the conclusion that when the religions of the world are shorn of superstitious accretions, they reveal a unity of purpose. They enable us to fulfill the greatest commandment of love, but also to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization based on forbearance, compassion, and the other virtues Baha’u’llah mentions in the opening quotes. From my Catholic upbringing, my journey brings me full circle. I love Jesus Christ because He suffered on the cross to set me free from the grip of sin. I also love the Buddha because He taught me that we make ourselves unhappy by craving those transient things that don’t really satisfy the human spirit. I love the Prophet Muhammad as a great peacemaker and one who elevated the status of women. I see no conflict of loyalties here.

That’s my personal journey, how my scientific self reconciles with being a person of faith. I want to return to the proposition that reconciling science and religion is important for our civilization. As a society, we are now embroiled in shouting matches. The great issues that require insightful discussion are instead reduced to slogans and sound bites. Disagreement degenerates into rancor. Partisan ideologies inspire a blind loyalty that has a life of its own, and becomes the greatest obstacle to solving our problems.

This is why the dialogue between science and religion is so important. We need the greatest commandment and the Golden Rule. We also need to listen to each other, to investigate reality in a spirit of fair mindedness, to be willing to test our ideas. Only then can we build an enlightened civilization.

Closing readings:

The virtues of humanity are many but science is the most noble of them all. The distinction which man enjoys above and beyond the station of the animal is due to this paramount virtue. It is a bestowal of God; it is not material, it is divine. Science is an effulgence of the Sun of Reality, the power of investigating and discovering the verities of the universe, the means by which man finds a pathway to God.
-‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Religion is not intended to arouse enmity and hatred nor to become the source of tyranny and injustice. Should it prove to be the cause of hostility, discord and the alienation of mankind, assuredly the absence of religion would be preferable.
-‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Religion must conform to reason and be in accord with the conclusions of science. For religion, reason and science are realities; therefore, these three, being realities, must conform and be reconciled. A question or principle which is religious in its nature must be sanctioned by science. Science must declare it to be valid, and reason must confirm it in order that it may inspire confidence. If religious teaching, however, be at variance with science and reason, it is unquestionably superstition. The Lord of mankind has bestowed upon us the faculty of reason whereby we may discern the realities of things. How then can man rightfully accept any proposition which is not in conformity with the processes of reason and the principles of science? Assuredly such a course cannot inspire man with confidence and real belief.
-‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Brian Aull
Baha'i Chaplain

Lavender Graduation

2011-05-04T17:26:00.000-04:00

Lavender Graduation
5/4/2011

Abigail Francis suggested when she asked me to do this that I try to be inspirational. That is the challenge for all of us at this time of the year who are marking transitions. How can we say something worth hearing at a time when everyone is talking and everyone is trying to do the same thing? It is a hard task.

So I decided to be serious and if inspirational, it will be the by-product of taking this festive occasion as important enough to try and say something that might be worth hearing and remembering. I have been concerned that graduates arrive at this point as whole men and women. There are lots of things you learn here, but nothing is more important than knowing ourselves and being comfortable in our own skins. That is what being whole means. I hope that is the way you feel this evening and I know that what I hope may not be true, but it is a goal worth working toward as you prepare for the next step in your life.

If you are whole, then the next concern has to do with the quality of the life you are setting out to live. And it is important that there be some intentionality as you move on. Spontaneity is a good thing, but when it comes to setting life goals, it is better to think seriously about the consequences of your decisions. I say that to you as someone who moved to Boston planning to be here for one year. That was 43 years ago on the 4th of July. We did not think of the implications of our initial decision.

When I talk about the quality of life, I am talking about the values you are willing to live for. What are they? What are the values that will inform your lives? Common to nearly all religious traditions in our world is something like what we call the Golden Rule. “Do to others what you would wish them to do to you.” We call it the Golden Rule and living up to its expectations is not as easy as it might seem. It is a difficult challenge because we are often able to deceive ourselves and if we are honest, looking back we may note that we often “Do unto others what is good for me.”

So my hope for you is that if you are whole people who wish to live whole (holy) lives that you take the Golden Rule as your bench mark. And it follows that if being whole, comfortable people is our lot, and if living by the Golden Run is our intentional mantra, what are the virtues I wish you would cultivate in order to be quality people. Notice, I did not say happy people. I did not say successful people. I said quality people, people of worth. Success may elude you; pain may be your lot, but if you are person of quality, you can manage failure, and sustain life in the presence of pain.

Let me suggest four things that will make a real difference. They are in the words of Carter Heyward, “overlapping pieces of a whole cloth, the tapestry of creation itself.” The Reverend Carter Heyward was in 1974 one of 11 women ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church paving the way for the acceptance of women as priests two years later. The four virtues she endorses are: wisdom, passion, justice and prayer.

To be wise means to see the whole. It is the perception of wholeness, it is an aspect of the Divine. It is not the same as being smart because knowing the answer to a question may well mean having only a piece of the picture or puzzle. Those who are wise know that there is more to life than their corner of the world, more to living that pursuing happiness. The wise person sees life for both its beauty and its terror and is able to deal with the nuances of the experience. For the sake of your health and your future, seeing the wholeness of the world, is terribly important. May you be wise.

May you know passion. You need to dive deeply, to dive into creation the very realm of God to express your passion; may you be immersed in the whole of life and may you be able to cut to the heart of matters and in so doing find God.

Value justice; make it one of the qualities that you embrace and are willing to go to the mat for. Justice means that people know right relationships whether they are rich or poor, well educated or rustics. Just as smart people are not always wise, powerful people are not always just. Justice presupposes community as fundamental to human life and the wise, passionate person knows that.

Finally I wish that you will cultivate prayer. You may want to call it meditation or centering; you may engage in your own form of reverie but it is only in opening yourself to the other that socially active people can gain the perspective they need. Prayer is opening your life to that which is beyond the intellect; it helps us ground our passion, avoid the disillusionment that comes when we are not just and the hollow intellectualism that counts angels on the head of a pin rather than the hungry on the streets of Calcutta.

So I wish for you lives that are whole, intentional in your ethics and lives that cultivate wisdom, know passion, love justice and are willing to pause and ask for the help and perspective you need. If you can do that you do not need my inspiration

May God bless you!

May 4, 2011

My Journey

2011-04-21T14:50:00.000-04:00

First Reading:
Praised are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe,
Whose word brings on the dusk of evening.

Your wisdom opens the gates of dawn;
Your understanding regulates time and seasons.

The stars above follow their appointed rounds,
In response to Your divine will.

You create day and night;
You alternate darkness and light.

We call You “Lord of the heavenly hosts”…
The heavens proclaim your glory.

And we, Your creatures on earth,
Behold in wonder Your endless miracles.

Help us recognize Your guiding power
In distant galaxies and in our own souls.
Teach us Your law of righteousness and love,
So that Your spirit may govern our lives.

May our gratitude for Your wonders
Lead us, in love, to Your service,

So that, like the changing seasons, the days, the nights,
Our lives, too, will proclaim Your glory. Amen

Selections from Maariv Aravim, the first blessing of the Jewish evening service

This Chapel is home to many faiths and people of all faiths. So I am going to add something about one. And I have to tell it as a personal story, because that is how I experienced it. I wish I could easily explain how an Italian kid from Chicago came to become a Jew. Indeed this was the last thing on my mind growing up in a heavily Catholic city neighborhood. If my Dad’s faith was not always his defining characteristic, my Mom’s certainly was. She was always saying novenas and praying for people. Her faith was a great source of strength for her. My twin brother Ray and I, plus our three sisters all went to the local Catholic parochial school and Catholic high schools. All of us have many fond memories growing up. In fact, the summer before last we had a hugely enjoyable 50th grade school reunion with a lot of those kids we grew up with in St. Ita’s parish.

The key event though that started me on the current path toward Judaism occurred in this building back on August 1, 1971 when my wife Deena and I were married. In those days, nobody supported mixed marriages between a nominal Catholic and a Jew. But MIT was welcoming and Deena found a Unitarian minister who would preside.

Neither of us expected the other to convert. She knew my cultural background and I respected her deep commitment, especially since many of her relatives had died in the Holocaust. Her mother was smuggled out of Warsaw in a sack, and all the relatives left behind died. She never said much, but that reality was there.

So we raised kids, went through our ups and downs of marriage, and she thought we should move to Acton because of its schools. So we did in 1977. I was not terribly religious, but she began to become more involved in the local synagogue because she loved singing in the choir. So I found myself going more often, frequently to hear her sing.

In the late 1980s, she somehow got elected maintenance chair of the congregation, a job to which she was not particularly adept. Then I really got more involved, getting to know the HVAC, heating, and other creaky subsystems. One thing led to another and I moved up over the years from Assistant Maintenance Chair to be the Vice President of Operations, a job I did for a number of years. In fact, we had to expand the synagogue and it was my privilege to head that effort. We created a beautiful building for Congregation Beth Elohim, one that served us well. In any event, as I got to know the building, I inevitably got to know the people and the religion also. And I really grew to care for and respect both. My wife never pushed me to convert, she knew it had to be my choice. Also you have to put some effort into conversion, which requires over a year of study. Once I discussed the idea with my mom and knew she was OK, I proceeded and converted in May, 1998. Mordecai Avraham Ben Avraham is my Jewish name. Several years later, along with nine others, we all had our Adult Bar Mitzvah in March 2004.

So what is that I love so much about this faith - besides a building and some nice people in Acton? A lot. The history, development, the folk tales and its durability are inspiring. But for today, I’ll pick three aspects that I find especially appealing: First is its true respect, and wonder, for nature; next is its living traditions, making each person a part of Jewish history; and thirdly is the sense of community and communal responsibility.

Let me try to give some examples of each.

1) Respect for Nature: I hope the first reading captured some of that. I am often stunned by how compatible the core beliefs of Judaism are with modern science. If anything, they promote and embrace the inquisitive, searching science that characterizes MIT and its sister institutions. Some of you might enjoy how Gerald Schroeder, a MIT-trained physicist describes a world where both science and religion reinforce each other. His book is called “The Hidden Face of God”. The science alone is absolutely informative and encouraging.

2) Respect for traditions, but with the living tradition being an active part: In the Judaism I know, revelation and understanding the meaning or Torah and why we are here is an ongoing process. Every generation must participate. Moses’ job was to get it started, not provide the final answers. And if fact, this current generation is doing pretty well at this task. Jewish studies and scholarship are flourishing, in the US and other spots around the globe. In fact, one of the great thinkers of 20th century Judaism, Joseph Soloveitchik, lived next door in Brookline. Another great Jewish author and thinker, Harold Kushner, was the rabbi in Natick, MA, where my wife grew up.

Another aspect of this living tradition may be familiar to those of you who have participated in a Passover Seder. It is not when Moses and the Israelites escaped Egypt, it is when we did so and became free, when we escaped slavery. This quest for freedom is not something that happened once in the distant past, it is intended to be part of our own experience.

While Jewish tradition may respect antiquity, there is much more going on than simple linear progression of time. In a moment we will read a section from the Talmud, which has to be, on first encounter, one of the most confusing books ever created. The page layouts are like nothing before seen, and then you find out they illustrate a conversation among rabbis and sages over many, many centuries – all trying to answer the question of how to live a good life.

The Talmud is itself an expansion of an even more basic but comprehensive work, the Mishnah, completed about 200 A.D. It codified, in 66 tractates, Jewish practice and guidance up to that time. We will also see a brief section from it as well.

3) Sense of Community and Communal Responsibility:

You can certainly see this communal idea in the next two selected readings. And in many, many other aspects of Jewish life. For example a proper service requires 10 people – a minyan. You can see another aspect of communal responsibility on Yom Kippur, when prayers mentioning “confessing for our sings” and “forgive us” are said in the plural. Forgive “us” not “me” for a transgression. Communal responsibility extends to charity towards others. It is a mitzvah – a command, not an optional act – to extend charity. Rabbis talk of this as “tikkun olam” – fixing the (broken) world. Each of us has a role in fixing the world – and an obligation. I think our two following readings express this.

Second Readings, taken from the preliminary blessings before the morning service :

The following are commandments for which there are no prescribed measures: the crops on the border of the border of the field to be left for the poor and the stranger, the gift of the first-fruits, the pilgrimage offerings brought to the ancient Temple on the Three Festivals, deeds of lovingkindness, and the study of Torah.
Mishnah, Tractate Peah, Chapter 1:1

In fulfilling the following commandments one enjoys the yield in this world while the principal remains for all eternity; honoring father and mother, performing deeds of lovingkindness, punctually attending the house of study, morning and evening, showing hospitality to strangers, visiting the sick, helping the needy bride, attending the dead, praying with devotion, and making peace between individuals. And the merit of Torah study is equal to all of these.
Talmud, Tractate Shabbat 127a

Robert V.Ferrara

On Prayer

2011-04-04T14:28:00.000-04:00

First Reading:
Henri Nouwen in Reaching Out

Prayer, therefore, is far from sweet and easy. Being the expression of our greatest love, it does not keep pain away from us. Instead, it makes us suffer more since our love for God is a love for a suffering God and our entering into God's intimacy is an entering into the intimacy where all of human suffering is embraced in divine compassion. To the degree that our prayer has become the prayer of our heart we will love more and suffer more, we will see more light and more darkness, more grace and more sin, more of God and more of humanity. To the degree that we have descended into our heart and reached out to God from there, solitude can speak to solitude, deep to deep and heart to heart. It is there where love and pain are found together.

Tim Hawkins:
To lead a reflection on prayer for an interfaith chapel gathering, I started to wonder last night, might be navigating too close to theological shores.

But, on the other hand…when most surveys of American religious life indicate that between 95-99% of people would describe some part of their engagement of the spiritual life as “prayer” (I’m sure there is not consensus on what this means exactly), it certainly would seem that prayer would offer a deep place for us lower the anchor for a moment.

So, think less about this reflection as having a thoughtful takeaway, and more of this as prompting a conversation.

Dallas Williard, Professor in the School of Philosophy at the University of Southern California in LA, has described prayer this way, “Prayer is the method of genuine theological research.”

I wish I had known that before going to seminary, I would have saved a lot of money and time.

And that is the ongoing tension of prayer…it is both as simple as that…and as complicated as that.

It is at the same time, profoundly personal and effectually public.

It carries our most ecstatic shouts of gratitude and our deepest groans of sorrow.

It anchors us in troubled waters and disturbs our selfish tranquility.

It is both sounds that we cannot speak, and articulate words spoken and written by others that say what we feel.

So, when I think about prayer…and our ongoing theme of whole or holy lives, I do find, at least in my own life, tension over prayer.

I remember being in second grade at Linn Co. R-1 playground with my friend Shane and Ray. Shane and Ray were as cool as they came in my book. And, Shane and Ray could swear as naturally as the adults around me…without reservation or hesitation.

I remember thinking, “I wish I could swear like Shane and Ray.” At which point I remembered something I had heard in Sunday School. “Whatever you ask in Jesus name shall be given to you.” At least that is how I remember tucking that prayer away in my head.

So, I did what any 2nd grade boy wanting to be more like his buddies would do, I prayed. “God, please help me to swear like Shane and Ray.”

And, God answered that prayer.

Before I knew it, swearing was as natural to me as Shane and Ray, and flowed in inappropriate places that left me questioning why God would answer a prayer that would get me in so much trouble.

The story is true, and I would like to think that this many years removed from being a second grader that my prayers reflected a maturity from the 2nd grade playground.

And at times, I suppose they do…and then the tension of prayer reminds me of that 2nd grader.

Like many who grew up in our around the Christian tradition, we have tucked away in our head…at least a general outline of something called The Lord’s Prayer or the Our Father.

I sometimes resonate with the comedian Jim Gaffigan who complains that church is too much memorization and he confesses, I’m not very good at it. “I'm always like, 'Our Father who art in heaven without the approved written consent of Major League Baseball.”

Which, is not exactly how that prayer goes.

It is certainly one of the more well-known prayers and goes like this:

“This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10 your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,[a]
but deliver us from evil.

When the gospel writer tells us this story, it is that Jesus is telling his disciples, “This is “how” you should pray.

And, I’ve been stuck on that word for awhile, because this seems like a “what” to pray.

And maybe there is not much difference.

But, I also know that “how” I speak to others is radically different than “what” I say to others.

The word “how” is full of potential!

What we pray is limited to a reflection on language.

How we pray brings the fullness of life experience to the conversation…and that life has been shaped by and continues to shape the world around me.

How we pray, calls for an integration of language and orientation to the world around us.

It is in this sense, I think about Willard’s words that prayer is our personal theological research. And maybe the extension of that research is that our lives become the published biographies of holy prayer.
Second Reading:
Shane Clairborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hargrove in Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers

The first word of the Lord's Prayer is Our. That's important. The prayer Jesus taught us is a prayer of community and reconciliation, belonging to a new kind of people who have left the land of "me." This new humanity is an exodus people who have entered a promise land of "we", to whom "I" and "mine" and "my" are things of the past. Here our God teaches us the interconnectedness of grace and liberation in a new social order. Here we are judged in as much as we judge, and forgiven as we forgive.

Tim Hawkins
Sojourners Collegiate Ministry
MIT

Peter Gomes

2011-03-08T17:13:00.000-05:00

March 7, 2011

The death of Peter John Gomes of Harvard marks the closing of a chapter at America’s oldest college. Peter and Archie Epps, the last and long time Dean of Students at Harvard, were the vanguard of racial change at the University. Beginning in 1970 they were the face of what we now talk about as “diversity” in the academy. Good friends, they touched the lives of thousands of students during their time as officers of Harvard. Epps died in 2003. For Peter his passing was a great personal loss. Peter felt he was witnessing the passing of a revered old guard. With Peter’s death the inclusion mantel is given to others; beyond the classroom few will have the impact on student life at Harvard that The Reverend Professor had.

A graduate of Bates College, Peter came to Harvard Divinity School in 1965, graduated and spent two years at Tuskegee Institute (now University) learning the ways of the South and returned to Memorial Church as Assistant to Charles Price. When Price left and Derek Bok assumed the Presidency, Peter navigated a time of uncertainty and emerged as Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Minister in the Memorial Church. Pictures tell the story. Price, monochromatic, pale and dour, Peter, youthful, black, a modest afro complemented by facial hair that in retrospect is noteworthy as the only time he ever tipped his cap to contemporary trends. The times had changed.

He was not a radical, but he was a Christian and sometimes those things go together. He preached regularly to large crowds, mostly white, each Sunday during the school year. He challenged them by reminding that being Christian meant more than going to church on Sunday. He encouraged them by telling truths that others often ignored. Being mighty was not always being right; being at Harvard did not mean you did not have much to learn. Privilege was a grace and to whom much was given much was expected. In return they loved him with a broad affection that allowed him to be one of Harvard’s premier fund raisers. He would tell Harvard audiences across the country that he knew their secrets and they believed him. They needed, he said, to give back and they did.

In the pulpit he had the support of Harvard Presidents, the advice of Divinity School professors who reminded him that they needed to be told they were sinners as well as saints, and the love of students who listened to him as they prepared to leave Harvard. He could tell them what they needed to know and they heard him at Senior Chapel. When they came back as alums he celebrated their fallen and as the years passed he was the constant presence who remembered who they had been. An old alum asked the other day “Who will do that now?” That is a tough question to answer.

As an author he wrote a number of books widely read. His sermons travel far in print and are good for a sharp insight or barbed quip. The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart changed the lives of many for its practical theology that made the Bible relevant again for many who had forgotten its wisdom. The Good Life: Truths that Last in Times of Need argued that sometimes failure was a great teacher. For those who had cut their teeth on only success, it was a lesson needed.

For all of his wisdom and for his pastoral skills, he will be remembered, but it is for his courage that he rises above the crowd. At a moment in 1991 on the Harvard campus when homophobia was pulsing, Peter had the courage to tell people he was gay. It was not thought to be a career enhancing move. His words shocked his more traditional Christian friends who were forced to deal with a man they knew to be Christian, but who now told them he was gay. Celibate himself, he supported the right of gay men and women to enjoy the pleasures and burdens of marriage. His stature and measured words were heard by many who otherwise would have tuned him out. His reputation grew.

A son of Plymouth, Massachusetts, he called himself a black Puritan; born to Peter Lobo and Orissa White Gomes, she the daughter of a Baptist minister, he was nurtured in the Baptist Church of Plymouth on Sunday morning. But he went as well to the small African Methodist Episcopal congregation. He was always a bit puritanical in the way he noted rules and traditions. Immersed in the waters of baptism as a young man, he always was wary of other baptismal traditions fearing he might drop a squirming infant. He would remind me that he had learned to baptize the right way! The rules of dress also mattered. The decision to wear a straw hat in his presence before Memorial Day or after Labor Day was not a decision to be made lightly. The economic argument did not carry much weight and he had no experience with western heat in May or September. It was simply not done.

His memory will fade but he will not be forgotten. He has joined the line of Harvard immortals called up over sherry and on moments of reflection and celebration. To be remembered with the likes of Nathan Pusey, Mason Hammond, Elliot Forbes and Zeph Stewart would surprise and please him. The awkward little boy from Plymouth who went from being an outsider to the President of the Pilgrim Society is now at rest and at home. Harvard is better, we are all better for having been in his company.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

Saying Thank You

2011-02-18T11:25:00.000-05:00

Tuesdays in the Chapel
February 15, 2011

Be Thankful
Be thankful that you don't already have everything you desire,
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?
Be thankful when you don't know something
For it gives you the opportunity to learn.
Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.
Be thankful for your limitations
Because they give you opportunities for improvement.
Be thankful for each new challenge
Because it will build your strength and character.
Be thankful for your mistakes
They will teach you valuable lessons.
Be thankful when you're tired and weary
Because it means you've made a difference.
It is easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those who are
also thankful for the setbacks.
GRATITUDE can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles
and they can become your blessings.
~ Author Unknown ~

The Power of Saying Thank You
So as I contemplated what I might say today I reflected on Bobs charge of talking about the things in our lives that make us Whole, like the , family, work, friends
So like any modern person I turned to Google for inspiration.
My search for being whole led me to links on, “Prepare and Believe – Gods words makes us Whole - to Whole foods makes us lazy cooks.
So having my inspiration somewhat jump started by the internet I turned to the next best thing my own thoughts
Recent incidents made me begin to think about gratitude and in fact the act of saying “Thank You” as important elements in making our life whole.
With this inspiration…. I tried Google again and found that saying thank you is indeed powerful. The links I found this time ranged from “fulfilling yourself and those you praise”, to becoming a more powerful sales person”.
Needless to say my comments today will be around how saying thank you helps us become whole
For this moment I want to make the distinction between being grateful and saying thank you. Again for this moment , the act or art of being grateful has profound effect on how you live your life day to day.
Gratefulness ranges from being thankful for what you have and what you don’t have both views can lead you to contentment. Being thankful for peace as well as adversity can lead to contentment, and wholeness.
But saying thank you is both self fulfillment as well as an empowerment of others which in turn helps to make you whole
I have been struck lately by the simple acts of kindness that I have seen in traffic letting another driver navigate a snow drift and then letting them move “ahead” in Boston no less, and the return of a “thank you waive” is, Amazing.
Since I have been thinking about this topic of thank you I have taken the time to listen to my own “thank yous” and to those who thank me rather than just letting it disappear in the normal discourse of the day.
I often would tell my teams, and my children that if someone gives you a complement you must say “thank you” (humbly) because it takes great strength, energy and commitment to give a compliment and as you take that energy in you want to give it back balance.
They become whole you become whole.
So my message today is that wholeness which is a journey and not a destination can begin with grateful contemplation and saying “thank you”
I suggest that we all take a moment today to think about who we may not have thanked most recently and maybe begin with our family members and work out from there.
because it is those who are closest to us that we all too often take for granted but if we believe in the power of thank you we must begin with those that mean the most to us.
Then look outside your family circle and find that person who says hello every day that performs every day , day in day out that we hazard to take for granted let them know how they make a difference in your life.
We all have a person in our life like that, find them tell them thank you.
And remember…The power that is given……….. is also received…………..
=========================================================
So it is impossible for me to end this morning without sharing a sporting quote or two of inspiration
My first is from John Wooden who said about gratitude–
Things turn out best for people…………. who make the best
of the way things turn out.

And finally an anonymous quote that I like very much –
People don’t care how much you know……………..until they know how much you care……….
Show someone how much you care today………….tell them ………Thank You

Thank you for joining me today.
John Benedick
Assistant Director of Athletics

READING 2:
When we face the fact that every life worth living has its discouragements, its own “unfairness” if you like, we have then taken a giant step towards happiness.
We are no longer crushed or consumed by the injustices and discouragements of life. We expect them. We learn not to let those discouragements distract us from focusing on the great goals we have set for our lives. When I asked a varsity football player this fall if he was discouraged by a nagging injury, he said to me, “Yes, sometimes it gets to me. Then I think, well, this is football, you have to expect that you’ll be hurting a lot of the season, and then I think about getting up for next Saturday’s game and it really doesn’t bother me that much.” In any life worth living, we will be hurting much of the time. But as we mature, we acquire the faith, the perspective, that the discouragements, the injuries, cannot break us, cannot make us lose sight of the great things we are determined to achieve. With our minds on the goal of winning Saturday’s game, we are able to endure the injury. That faith grows stronger and stronger every time we overcome discouragement and pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and go on. That’s why Sanderson could write at the end of his time as headmaster of Oundle School: “Faith is the belief in the ultimate triumph of right-doing, [faith is] not a formal assent, but a living belief acquired by endurance, by ‘hardness’ of life. It is belief which is forced slowly upon the individual; it is the result of experience, of actions tested in the past. It becomes the basis of his future.”

~ F. Washington (Tony) Jarvis, former Headmaster, Roxbury Latin Academy, from With Love and Prayer: A Headmaster Speaks to the Next Generation ~

//Wholly (Holy) Presence//

2011-02-10T11:22:00.000-05:00

Tuesdays in the Chapel
February 8, 2011

Opening Reading

Occupation and not empty space is what most of us are looking for. When we are not occupied we become restless. We even become fearful when we do not know what we will do the next hour, the next day or the next year. Then occupation is called a blessing and emptiness a curse. Many telephone conversations start with the words: ‘I know you are busy, but…’ and we would confuse the speaker and even harm our reputation were we to say, ‘Oh no, I am completely free, today, tomorrow and the whole week.’ Our client might well lose interest in a man who has so little to do.

We indeed have become very occupied people, afraid of un-nameable emptiness and silent solitude. In fact, our preoccupations prevent our having new experiences and keep us hanging on to the familiar ways. Preoccupations are our fearful ways of keeping things the same, and it often seems that we prefer a bad certainty to a good uncertainty. Our fears, uncertainties and hostilities make us fill our inner world with ideas, opinions, judgments and values to which we cling as to a precious property. Instead of facing the challenge of new worlds opening themselves for us, and struggling in the open field, we hide behind the walls of our concerns holding on to the familiar life items we have collected in the past.

~ Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out, pp. 50-51

Defining the term culture is a lot like defining the term “love”. Definitions are varied, complex and sometimes personal. So, at the risk of oversimplification…I offer a couple of broad definitions to anchor what it means to speak about “culture”.

Culture, as a body of learned behaviors common to a given human society, acts rather like a template, shaping behavior and consciousness within a human society from generation to generation.
University of Washing Dept of General Education

Culture is a shared, learned, symbolic system of values, beliefs and attitudes that shapes and influences perception and behavior -- an abstract "mental blueprint" or "mental code.
Eastern Oregon Dept of Education

Though thorough and academic I prefer the more evocative definition offered by Philip Bock, Prof. Emeritus, NM Univ.
Culture is what makes you a stranger when you are away from home.

Culture is the framework, or the mental blueprint that makes one place familiar and easy to navigate and another place that almost holds us out…keeps us at a distance. The first we feel at home, like we are belong, like are presence is welcomed. The latter we feel like a stranger, and often unwelcomed.

Which brings me to an intersection of our topic this morning.

What does it mean to be wholly/holy present?

The Gospel writer, Luke, chronicles a story of Jesus visiting the home of a woman named Martha and her sister Mary.

It is a relatively quick story…so, I’ll read it to you from Luke’s gospel in chapter 10.

38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

That the template of our modern Western world is one that values production and commodies is reflected in an experience I had as a young minister serving in my first church. (And, I found this church is not the only one.)

Churches, appreciating the work ethic of Martha created “Martha’s Meetings” to attend to the hospitality work of the church. It tells us something that these churches did not have Mary’s Meetings.” I don’t mean that as a criticism of great people, but a reflection of our cultural template. Valuing production and commodity over presence.

Hospitality and presence become jobs of the head and hands…problems to solve and things to do, which quickly becomes a service to offer.
Hospitality, presence, helping someone be at home when they are a stranger, is no longer a way of orienting our lives, it is an industry. And once there is money to be made, once a virtue becomes a commodity doesn’t it change the way we think about offering it?

Now, Martha does not have money to make…but a reputation to uphold…much like Nouwen describes. What would happen if I spent the next week answering the phone saying I had nothing going on and nothing to do?

Having worked as a chaplain for 14 years, I’ve witnessed students lives dramatically changed when professors and administrators go beyond providing a service for students and allow themselves to be present WITH students.

Often conversations about life/meaning/vocation/family/depression are relegated to the counseling center or spiritual care-givers who have a limited amount of time and are being present as part of a system of care rather than out of a virtue of presence.

It is easy for us to be somewhere and not be present.

Often, I’m in one moment but thinking about the next meeting. Often while I’m with people I have access to text messages, emails and Facebook messages and Tweets from others. I do believe social networking can increase the quality of presence, but they are often a diversion from presence.

Jesus emphasized the holiness of our presence with others when He says, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

This is a compassionate and personal presence.

To talk of the spirit, the heart or faith in a science and technology context…may not always be the language of currency in the classroom…but our lives are not lived within the confines of the classroom or lab guarded by formulas and equations.

Eventually, we will face issues of the heart and soul that cause us to ask whether or not the head and the hands can solve all of the world’s problems without the heart.

Will global justice prevail, will compassion prevail, will mercy or peace prevail because we have stumbled upon an algorithm for them or because, (even in academia) we begin to create a culture of personal presence that celebrates solidarity over production?

Closing Reading

We cannot truly care for those who are oppressed without being moved by their suffering. But mercy as a principle also requires closer proximity to those who suffer. We must struggle alongside of the suffering in the pursuit of justice-making, knowing that by being in closer proximity relationally and physically more may be asked of us than we had anticipated.

~ Brita Gill-Austern, Injustice and the Care of Souls

Tim Hawkins,
Chaplain, SojournCollegiateMinistry

FRIENDSHIP

2011-02-03T11:57:00.000-05:00

February 1, 2011

Friendship

A friend of mine wrote the other day to tell me of an illness he was dealing with. We have known each other for over 50 years and our parents had been friends before we were born. My life has been enriched by his friendship and I can remember several times when his wisdom and thoughtfulness has had a qualitative impact on actions I have taken.

I am sure you all have had similar experiences and I invite you to think about them this morning. With my own sensitivity to the topic heightened, it seems recently that every time I turn I have been touched by comments and insights about friendship. Weather and cold has given all of us a bit of time inside and as a result I have watched more than my share of new and old movies. In Kevin Costner’s film Wyatt Earp (1994) the occasion of his meeting with the legendary dandy, gambler and alcoholic, Doc Holiday is framed by Holiday asking Earp, “Do you have any friends?” and Earp responds, “Not many.” Holiday tells him he will be his friend and a thread in this dark retelling of a legend is that whatever else he may be, Holiday, is a friend to Earp.

But over the holiday break we also go to movies and see a few films before they go to Netflix. One of the films we saw was The King’s Speech a tale I had never heard about the travails of George VI dealing with his stammer. The threads are many: the relationship of fathers and sons, the burdens of leadership, the love of family, the developing friendship between Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) and the King (Colin Firth).

“What do I call you?” asks Logue? “Your Highness, “ says the King, “then Sir.” “What about Bertie?” asks Logue. “Only my family uses Bertie”, says the King. “Bertie it is then” ,says Logue. His notion is that for the treatment to be effective they need to be equals working on the same problem. The treatment is effective, friendship grows despite travail and the power of relationships is clearly depicted. It is an inspirational tale in the time of The Social Network.

The Social Network is, as many of you know, about the founding of Facebook. It may well make you think twice about friending anyone. Both The King’s Speech and The Social Network are nominees for the best film of the year. As a tale of how to make money, as a story about randy escapades up the street, the film succeeds brilliantly. But would you want to be friends with any of the main characters? We probably all know folk like the characters in the film. My favorite scene is when Mark Zukerberg learns he is being sued by his friends.
The take away from the tale is that friendship is fragile and costly and finally that it can be bought if you have enough money. But in fact it is clear that such friends do not have your back nor your best interests in mind. It is a cautionary, if entertaining tale.

Emily Dickenson wrote: "True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island….to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing."

It will not surprise you that I find Dickenson compelling. My best friends are folks with whom I can begin conversations in mid-sentence where we left off the last time we visited. Life it seems to me is made whole by good friends who both watch our backs and enrich our futures. Good friends tell you what you do not want to hear and what you need to know. May you be blessed with such friends.

Readings:

Friends
by J. Barrie Shepherd from Diary of Daily Prayer

Friends were with me today, Lord,
people I love,
and who love me,
people I trust,
and who trust me,
people I enjoy being with,
no matter where, or how, or why.
Friends were with me today.

I thank you for my friends
and for all they bring to my living.
For the way they give of themselves to me,
for the way they help me give of myself,
and even be myself, and more than myself,
I give you my deepest thanks, Father.
I thank you, Lord, for the simple
but real kinds of support,
and comfort, and strength I can draw
from my friends.
But most of all I thank you
for the ways in which you reveal yourself
to me through friendship,
for all of the moments in which,
through frail but wonderful human instruments,
you sing to me of grace and mercy,
of the risk of commitment
and the challenge of response,
of the strong, sure knowledge of acceptance
in the heart of a true friend,
in the heart of a true father,
in your heart, my God and my Redeemer.

Grant me now a restful night,
that grace to rise refreshed tomorrow,
and the faith to be a friend to all I meet.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute
at Tuesdays in the Chapel

Tucson

2011-01-14T15:27:00.000-05:00

Mark Miller recently wrote in The Washington Post: "Sensible responses to senseless violence come more from preachers than pundits. I suppose that's because clergy are called on routinely to comfort their flocks in the face of life's inexplicable horrors and loss. Wisdom, they seem to know from experience, lies in accepting that there are few answers, only questions and fears."

Miller offers a worthy challenge for those of us in the God game. Response does not come easily. It is a mark of our world when violence touches us. It is always been that way. We have just passed through the season when Christians point to the coming of one who promised peace on earth and yet we do not experience such. In fact the followers of the Prince of Peace often justify violence as a means of advancing their agenda. You have only to remember a Sunday morning in Kansas to know what I mean.

I for one am inclined to the notion that the Divine Presence we seek to discover and understand is a bit beyond our reach. We see God's hand in the journey of Abraham, the ministry of Jesus, the message of Mohammed and maybe even the work of Joseph Smith. There are others reaching out with mind and hand and we are left always still looking. Note the doctor who recently reminded us that we needed to have room for miracles in our understanding of the world.

I affirm the notion that the presence of God in our lives is in fact best seen in our willingness to give miracles a place in our world view. We are not all powerful. What we will and wish we often cannot make real but we continue to try--and to know--and I believe that in so doing we walk anew with Abraham who left father and kin to pursue a dream. We learned in Tucson that like the ministry of Jesus, suffering is part of our lives.

There is much to know and part of learning is living. And living sometimes hurts terribly. It is not enough to say there is no meaning nor is it enough to say we are not God and therefore will never understand. We must role back the edges of mystery, and by living well, creating a world worthy of our children. That is, as our President reminded us, good work. It may even be God's work.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

Year's End

2011-01-06T17:40:00.000-05:00

When the year ended it struck me that I had just come through some moments worth thinking about. The first was a funeral for a woman who died at 88; we had buried her husband earlier in the year but as the year wound down this good wife, mother, grandmother died. She had come to Boston 44 years ago and made a good life with her husband of 56 years. They were from Barbadoes. She loved to travel, to dance and to shop; and she enjoyed a good walk around Jamaica Pond.

I left the funeral service to attend a Comic Relief benefit here at MIT; there were over 600 people in the audience and the money collected for tickets went to support flood relief in Pakistan. The comics were funny, sharp and self-deprecating. Change a few phrases and you could have been in the Catskills or in Nashville at the Opry.

Both experiences gave me insight into what it means to become an American. You have to work hard and you have to keep a sense of humor. And in both cases it pays to remember your religious roots. Our faith traditions help us make sense of what it means to be a stranger in a foreign land. Sometimes we laugh; sometimes we cry and in the end we move forward into the new year. Now may be time to examine anew our spiritual resources and to think about how we use them for good or ill.

In my experience one of the strongest components of the Christian tradition is the call to self-examination. We often confront it around the new year when we think about resolutions we might wish to make and keep. We resolve to change behaviors or attitudes that leave us lessened in their presence. On Tuesday mornings when we at MIT gather in the chapel for a few moments we often talk about matters that help make us whole human beings. Resolutions and introspective reflections keep us honest and moving forward.

There are moments in our lives when our religious traditions do not serve us as well. These moments include those times when our religious views cause us to expect less than their best from friends who might be different from our norm. "You know how those people are." Maybe here is a time for some serious introspection; do we really know how "they" are? I doubt it and the new year is a time to share our common humanity and expect the best of one another.

That could be a loud resolution or simply a quiet commitment.

Remarks at the Memorial Service for Dr. Omar Khalidi

2010-12-07T11:49:00.000-05:00

Memorial Service for Dr. Omar Khalidi

Let me welcome you to the MIT chapel. We gather to honor and remember Dr. Omar Khalidi. He was a friend, a mentor, a scholar, a librarian, a father and a husband. He was also much more. In the days following his death, I have read the words of people across the world who have responded to his passing.

“India has become a little poorer with the passing of Dr. Omar Khalidi.”
“(His) voice will be sorely missed.
“I lost a dear mentor today. And the Indian Muslim community—one of its intellectual guiding lights.”
“(He was) the voice of the Indian Muslims during some of their darkest hours,…”

I do not doubt the truth of these words because on of the things I wanted from Omar was to learn from him. We had been talking about something that we might do together as he stitched the next chapter in his life. It was an intriguing possibility for me; for him it was a chance to do what he had done for a long time, a chance to teach someone who needed to learn what they did not know about a corner of the world he knew very well.

As is often the case here at MIT Dr. Khalidi was better known beyond our walls than he was here. That is a sad reality for many who labor in realms removed from science, engineering and related disciplines. Belatedly today we remind one another how much he was loved, how highly he was regarded. We do that because human kind is often left with limited weapons in our contest against our mortality.

Our best response to Omar’s passing is to share with his family the grief we all carry. Their burden is even greater than ours for they knew him in so many different ways: beyond professional accomplishments, beyond words on paper and we will realize I believe that what have lost with Omar’s death is much more than we thought. We lost a friend, but also a teacher; we lost a window on the world that we cannot replace.

Our time together today is a time to reflect on what has happened and a time to begin thinking about the holes we must fill. What happens here will help; what happens after we leave and gather over coffee and tea in W-11 is part of the process and that is what it is: a process that will go on for along time and always hurt. I am reminded of Emily Dickenson:

THEY say that “time assuages”,—
Time never did assuage;
An actual suffering strengthens,
As sinews do, with age.
Time is a test of trouble, 5
But not a remedy.
If such it prove, it prove too
There was no malady.

And in this case there is a malady; time will not assuage but we who carry on will do our best work in honoring Omar’s memory by having eyes that see a larger world, and hands that do greater work.

Benediction:

How Can We Understand Death?

What can we know of death, we who cannot understand life?
We study the seed and the cell, but the power deep within them will always elude us.
Though we cannot understand, we accept life as the gift of God. Yet death, life’s twin, we face with fear.
But why be afraid? Death is a haven to the weary, a relief for the sorely afflicted. We are safe in death as in life.
There is no pain in death. There is only the pain of the living as they recall shared loves, and as they themselves fear to die.
Calm us, O Lord, when we cry out in our fear and our grief. Turn us anew toward life and the world. Awaken us to the warmth of human love that speaks to us of You.
We shall fear no evil as we affirm Your kingdom of life.

Gates of Prayer, 624

December 3, 2010

Family

2010-12-02T16:51:00.000-05:00

Living Holy (Whole) Lives—Family
This semester in chapel we are in a series entitled, “Living Holy (Whole) Lives”. Today we will focus on the family.
The family begins with the marriage relationship. We see God’s intent for marriage early in the Scriptures in Gen 2:24—a passage often quoted in weddings, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
God shows us in this passage a number of things:
• that in marriage a man and a woman begin new life together—and this new relationship is even closer than that of the parent and children,
• that this relationship is not temporal but permanent,
• and that sexual intimacy is approved by God in the marriage relationship.
There is much wisdom here that if followed will bring wholeness. Even while newly married couples would be wise to seek counsel of their parents, this new relationship needs SPACE AWAY FROM their parents to thrive—there ought to be some physical distance, and financial and emotional independence. The umbilical cord needs to be cut and both parents and their adult children who are marrying need to be ready for this new kind of independence.
Also, sexual intimacy is intended to be experienced in a committed relationship—the husband is to “hold fast” to his wife. “Hold fast” can be translated STICK, FASTEN ONESELF or CLEAVE. Without the security of a committed relationship, intimacy of any kind will be short-circuited. Without an assurance of stick-to-it-ed-ness in the marriage relationship, the real self—fears and weaknesses—can never be fully disclosed because the relationship is continually vulnerable to the threat of one partner leaving for greener pastures.
So, there is wisdom here in living by Gen 2:24. I’m reading a book right called Sex, Romance and the Glory of God by C.J. Mahaney and he notes that this passage is interpreted in a distinctly Christian fashion in the New Testament. In Ephesians 5:22-23, the apostle Paul quotes Gen 2:24 then says, “This mystery [of being one flesh] is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” The remarkable thing about this passage is that marriage between a man and a woman is meant to reflect the relationship between Christ and the Church and not the other way around. That is, the relationship between Christ and his people is the proto-type. Christians should seriously consider this God-given, holy design for our marriage, and mirror it. We should resist the designs for marriage that we are offered by Hollywood and by our culture that based on self and it’s not based on our needs. Happiness is a wonderful by-product of marriage, but it is not the main purpose for it.
In my own marriage, I as a husband am instructed to love my wife, Michelle, as Christ loved the church. What does this love look like? Christ loved his people by coming to earth, by modeling a life of perfect devotion, by dying for our sins, by praying for us and by one day returning for us. Christ’s love was an intentional love, an initiating love, a sacrificial love and a caring love. Does Michelle experience this kind of love from me? Does she feel more like a wife or a mom? Does she feel pursued by me? Do I know what she likes—the places she hopes to see, the books she would like to read, the gifts she would like for Christmas, the ways I could help with the kids and around the house? I need to proactively ask and learn these. What are 10 specific ways that I could love my wife this week? I need to make these happen and be as intentional—even more intentional—with her as I am in my professional life.
Prayer: Father, I pray that our marriages would grow in oneness—that our marriages would grow in unity of purpose and of love. I pray that they would be marked by a humility rather than pride, by mutual submission rather than subjugation. Father, may our marriages serve as relationships that promote wholeness in both partners and in the children who live under these marriages. Amen.

Mike Bost
Campus Crusade for Christ

Failure

2010-11-03T11:26:00.000-04:00

Tuesdays in the Chapel
October19, 2010

From The Good Life, by Peter Gomes

For most people, the time of failure is the most important time of testing in their lives. Margaret Thatcher once said that “Failure is not an option,” by which she meant to imply the inevitability of success, but the truth of the statement transcends even her own meaning: we do not willing choose failure, but our moments of testing and maturity will be determined by how we choose to deal with the failures that are inevitable. We might say that where there is failure, there is life; and it is failure in life, as in science, that will help us to redefine what success is, and what success can be.

Failure

Jno. 13:5 “For I have set you an example, you should do as I have done for you.”
Matt. 23:11 “The greatest among you will be your servant.”

Our words today are about failure. How do we integrate failure into our lives if we wish to be whole? I think immediately of Brooks Conrad, the infielder for the Atlanta Braves who committed three errors in a game against the San Francisco Giants and cost his team the game. He will be remembered for his failure and more significantly he will have to remember what happened.

The topic is not an easy one and one not dealt with explicitly in the Christian tradition as I knew it growing up. “If at first you do not succeed, try, try again.” is not found in the Bible. It is a maxim from the early 19th century used to encourage students to do their homework.

And the difficulty is that there are failures and there are failures. When you fail to jump from one flat roof to another in an urban setting you have a failure that you may not get another chance to redeem. When you fail to be on time picking up your children at the movies you may hear about it for the rest of their lives, but you will not lose your children. You just keep apologizing. When you fail to do a problem on a P-set you learn to do it right and you can.

So failure may or may not be terminal And you can learn something about yourself when you fail. “You are what experience makes you.” says Brian Wilson the reliever for the San Francisco Giants comment on the experience of watching doctors fail to cure his father’s cancer when he was was 17. That is also the message from J.K. Rowling.

But there is a more fundamental problem with failure. It is un-American. Our job is to make things happen not live with the incomplete and flawed. There is as well another notion that runs through our religious traditions: the notion that we are called to serve. And service is for many of us just another way of making peace with not being the best. There is a little book that has influenced many and shows up in surprising places called Teacher as Servant: a Parable by Robert Greenleaf. Early in the account, the protagonist tells the reader, and the Housemaster of the dormitory where he wishes to live, that the notion of being a servant bothers him and the Housemaster, a physics prof, tells him that the key to understanding what it means to be a servant has to do with doing things without being concerned with getting credit. Being a servant does not mean not accomplishing anything or being second rate, but simply not worrying about who gets the credit for what is done.

To serve is not to fail or to settle for second best, but rather to enable to process of doing to continue without putting ourselves front and center. It is a challenging task but one made easier by remembering the text from the teachings of Jesus. We are called to serve the common good. We are called to serve our university, our community, our family, our work and this remains true no matter where we are or what our vocation is.

This is a difficult notion to get our minds around. It is easier seen in how Christina does the jobs I ask her to do. She can say to me, you asked me to do such and such and I have done it. But each week she also pursues her work as a vocalist in a variety of venues where the measurements of success and failure are less clearly defined and often she serves others by not so quietly helping them be better than otherwise they might be. Often she shines and draws attention to her own work, but not always and often her own standards are higher than the audience’s standards.

In our efforts to be whole, we will be better for thinking through this difficult topic.
How do I manage the inability to not do something or simply not do it to my own measure of success?
Does my willingness to fail make me more compassionate when working with others who are learning what they cannot do?
Do I measure success by the attention it brings me or by the work that is done regardless of who gets the credit?
Brian Wilson is right: we are what our experience makes us, but we also hear the voices of our teachers the examples they leave us.

Closing Reading

J.K. Rowling
Harvard Commencement
June 5, 2008

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above the price of rubies.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

On Work

2010-10-19T21:05:00.000-04:00

The following readings and comments are from Tuesdays in the chapel for October 5, 2010

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – The Village Blacksmith

UNDER a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.
His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate'er he can,
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.
Week in, week out, from morn till night,
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
When the evening sun is low.
And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,
And hear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from a threshing-floor.
He goes on Sunday to the church,
And sits among his boys;
He hears the parson pray and preach,
He hears his daughter's voice,
Singing in the village choir,
And it makes his heart rejoice.
It sounds to him like her mother's voice,
Singing in Paradise!
He needs must think of her once more,
How in the grave she lies;
And with his hard, rough hand he wipes
A tear out of his eyes.
Toiling,---rejoicing,---sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close;
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night's repose.
Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,
For the lesson thou hast taught!
Thus at the flaming forge of life
Our fortunes must be wrought;
Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
Each burning deed and thought

In some ways, I suppose, we might say that Whole or Holy Work is embedded in the very mission of MIT as an institution.

If you do not know it, let me read it to you and draw a few reflections for us this morning.

Mission
The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century.

The Institute is committed to generating, disseminating, and preserving knowledge, and to working with others to bring this knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. MIT is dedicated to providing its students with an education that combines rigorous academic study and the excitement of discovery with the support and intellectual stimulation of a diverse campus community. We seek to develop in each member of the MIT community the ability and passion to work wisely, creatively, and effectively for the betterment of humankind (emphasis mine).

It is this last phrase that seems particularly applicable to our topic today.

In many ways, I’m not sure I could write a better mission statement for the work of a chaplain at any institution or write a better theology of work.

This mission to develop in each member of the MIT community the ability and passion to work wisely, creatively, and effectively for the betterment of humankind echoes an encouragement of the Apostle Paul in the Christian scriptures to how Christians should be diligent about, “…doing something useful with you own hands, that you may have something to share with those in need.”

This seems like Holy Work – educate for the betterment of humankind.

But, as I visited this pas week with a student entering the Institute to pursue his doctorate in electrical engineering, I was reminded that our mission in theory does not always meet our mission in practice. Because there are competing missions that are at work to fragment the Wholly/Holy intention.

As this student reflected about their current job, there was a sense of dissatisfaction because there was nothing left to discover, nothing left to create…only continue to take what exists are and make it more efficient. Over and over.

Where excitement began to pour out was in the description of what lies unknown at the crossroads of genetic mapping and electrical engineering, the reason for entering The Institute. It is likely that the “work” he will get paid for when he is finished has yet to be discovered. But, he wants to be a part of that discovery, something stirs him to be part of making something for the future.

I tell the story because whether we serve in the chaplaincy, as instructors or we are engaged as students I’m sure that we frequently experience this tension, whether in conversations with students or colleagues, but just as likely a wrestling within ourselves… a tension that divides us. Working a job for good money, or something with a deeper satisfaction.

It is a related tension I hear when visiting with entrepreneurs who speak of bottom of the pyramid and developing markets as both those who can be helped with access to new technology as those who also become consumers, new markets for larger profits.

Although working for the betterment of humankind is a lofty goal, and one might even say holy, the experience of my own life (and I would say likely most of us) and my experience as a chaplain is this lofty goal of work is often hijacked by two other equally powerful forces:

• Identity/Status
• Wealth

Work is holy or whole when what we do and who we are does not create fragmentation.

There is a weariness found in fragmented lives. When work is simply a means to an end.

In the Christian narrative man is created in harmony with work in the garden, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”

There is a harmony between God, His creation, and the work of taking care of the earth. Holy work, is work that integrates our soul rather than satisfying fragments over competing missions.

Working for Status/Identity and wealth often competes against our work for the betterment of humankind.

The result is not simply a wrestling with what is right/wrong or a concerns of unethical practices. The result runs much deeper. It creates internal conflicts. Conflicts that cannot be worked out in an ethics class that is distant from the praxis of our work.

When I work for status/identity, when my work defines me, when success defines me…what happens when I do not reach the goal? No one I have ever met has entered The Institute to become mid-level management at a mediocre company.

Quickly we must split the soul to deal with our lack of success…work becomes a means to an end, we lose our passion for what we do.

When wealth becomes part of the equation…and no doubt…when millions of dollars for R&D are being spent with an expectation of results and way of life is connected to this dependent chain…we are more likely to compromise…to use others…to falsify results.

We are more likely to split the soul, to convince ourselves that the end will make the means pure. We must compartmentalize and fragment to move ahead.

But, what we witness in this fragmentation is a weariness that comes with unwholly/unholy work. We see weariness of work often. Not because we are physically incapable of the labor, but because our soul wearies at the battle.

There is a great story told in the New Testament, in the gospel of Luke about a man named Zaccheus, defined by Luke as a tax-collector…by others as “a sinner”. The story is short…Luke doesn’t tell us the nature of the conversation between Jesus and Zaccheus…only that there was a dinner party. In the midst of which Zaccheus stands and says, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount."
9Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house…”

I’m struck by the story, because my contemporary ears and my own journey wonders at the relief that Zaccheus must have felt as he reintegrate his life…to re-align his life…and not just to give back what he may have fraudulently taken, but 4 times that amount! That is moving toward the betterment of humankind. Zaccheus could fragment and justify his work.

“It is for building roads to connect commerce.”
“I’m looking out for my family.”
“My position allows me influence into civic life.”

Wholly/Holy work compels us on an individual level, as well as an institutional level, to reflect on whether our work is accomplishing the mission…for the betterment of humanity. Or whether competing missions, identity, status, wealth, prestige, etc. only give nod to our real mission and leave us fragmented in our soul.

Timothy Hawkins

A Celtic Blessing

May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work that you do
with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light
and renewal to those who work with you
and to those who see and receive your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of
refreshment, inspiration and excitement.
May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in bland absences.
May the day never burden.
May dawn find you awake and alert,
approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your soul calm, console and renew you.

On Families

2010-10-11T12:12:00.000-04:00

Holidays/Holy Days

2010-09-27T14:09:00.001-04:00

Opening Reading

"But there is something in the Jewish Sabbath that is absent from most Christian Sundays: a true cessation from the rhythms of work and world, a time wholly set apart, and, perhaps above all, a sense that the point of Shabbat, the orientation of Shabbat, is toward God.

Pick up any glossy women’s magazine from the last few years and you’ll see what I mean. The Sabbath has come back into fashion, even among the most secular Americans, but the Sabbath we now embrace is a curious one. Articles abound extolling the virtues of treating yourself to a day of rest, a relaxing and leisurely visit to the spa, an extra-long bubble bath, and a glass of Chardonnay. Take a day off; the magazines urge their harried readers. Rest.

There might be something to celebrate in this revival of Sabbath, but it seems to me that there are at least two flaws in the reasoning… We could call the second problem with this current Sabbath vogue the fallacy of the direct object. Whom is the contemporary Sabbath designed to honor? Whom does it benefit? Why, the bubble-bath taker herself of course! The Bible suggests something different. In observing the Sabbath, one is both giving a gift to God and imitating Him. Exodus and Deuteronomy make this clear when they say, “Six days shall you labor and do all your work but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.” To the Lord your God.
Lauren Winner, Mudhouse Sabbath, pp 11-12

One of the reasons we are gathering each Tuesday is because it is important to give attention to what matters and to talk about it. It is a form of discipline. Broadening the conversation helps us grow. Our readings this morning reference Shabbat and the Christian Sabbath, both Holy days. It is not a mistake that the authors are Christian women trying hard to carve out sacred space in busy lives. Protestants seems not to do that very well.

Here at MIT we have a particularly difficult time in this regard. We are a place that seldom slows down. I was a bit taken aback the other day when my wife described me as having a very ordered life. By that she meant things were planned out in advance, scheduled. I immediately took offense thus proving her point because I have a very long list of things I do not get done and wish to do. If ordered, I am always behind.

I may be disciplined but I do not always get things done as I would wish and I seldom celebrate holy days. My style is holiday. Your know that the words have the same root and you also know as well the difference between Shabbat and the 4th of July. One celebrates us; the other points to God.

We serve our students best when we model behaviors that point beyond ourselves to the things that shape our lives. N.T. Wright has written:

"We honor and celebrate our complexity and our simplicity by continually doing five things. We tell stories. We act out rituals. We create beauty. We work in communities. We think our beliefs. No doubt you might think of more but that’s enough for the moment. In and through all these things run the threads of love and pain, fear and faith worship and doubt, the quest for justice, the thirst for spirituality, and the promise and problem of human relationship. And if there’s any such thing as “truth,” in an absolute sense, it must relate to, and make sense of, all this and more...
Take away any of these elements, as frequently happens—take away stories, rituals, beauty, work, or belief—and human life is diminished.”

From Simply Christian by N.T. Wright, pp. 49-50.

When you are always in holiday mode, you do not give attention to the substance of life. We fail to tell stories; we may act out rituals, but they are the rituals of self indulgence. Too much booze, to much food, too much sex; beauty is eroded and community destroyed by our self-indulgence. I see it most often in students who do not know that alcohol has more than one purpose, getting wasted.

Holy Days stop us in our tracks and ask of us that we think about what is finally important. I have found it touching to watch the Jimmy Carter family come to grips with their legacy as a political force. When he left the White House, it was clear that Jimmy Carter was wounded by the way things played out. His presidency was in the eyes of many a failed presidency. Carter has come to grips with what he did and did not do and seems now to feel comfortable with what he accomplished. His public wrestling with the past should give us all some comfort as we do the same. And Wright gives us a way of thinking about the process. Let us tell stories, act out rituals, create beauty and work in communities while thinking about our faith. We can never give too much attention to why we do things.

Let me offer a modest suggestion: Let each of us each week or month, tell a story, and make a record of it, that illustrates what we value. Carter spoke into a tape recorder, we may not have that luxury but if we consciously try to illustrate what is important to us over time a picture will emerge of who we are and what we value. The effort will make part of each day holy, and the sum will help us be whole.
Robert M.Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

Closing Reading

"When I was a junior in high school, my boyfriend Herb played on the varsity basketball team. He was not the star player, however. The star player was a boy named David, who scored so many points during his four-year career that the coach retired his jersey when he graduated. This would have been remarkable under any circumstances, but it was doubly so since David did not play on Friday nights. On Friday nights, David observed the Sabbath with the rest of his family, who generously withdrew when David’s Gentile friends arrived., sweaty and defeated, after Friday night home games.

David would sit there in his kippah, openly delighted with the blow-by-blow description of the game. While the Shabbat candles still flickered….

I still remember the night someone asked David if it did not kill him to have to sit home on Friday nights while his team was getting slaughtered in the high school gymnasium. “No one makes me do this,” he said. “I’m a Jew, and Jews observe the Sabbath.” Six days a week, he said, he loved nothing more than playing basketball and he gladly gave all he had to the game. On the seventh day, he loved being a Jew more than he loved playing basketball, and he just as gladly gave all he had to the Sabbath. Sure, he felt a tug but that was the whole point. Sabbath was his chance to remember what was really real. Once three stars were visible in the Friday night sky, his identity as a Jew was more real to him than his identity as the star of our basketball team.
When I was seventeen years old, I had never heard anyone my age say anything like that before. Thirty-seven years later, I remember that living room as clearly as if I were looking at a photograph of it, with David sitting on the sofa like a rabbi teaching the rest of us the way of life…. Sabbath was not a burden for him… Sabbath was who he was.”
Barbara Brown Taylor, Leaving Church, pp. 136-137.

New Year

2010-09-19T19:53:00.000-04:00

We began our Tuesdays in the Chapel last week. David Thom gave us a good start. Each week we will add the chapel presentations to this site.

Coming to the Chapel each week offers us the opportunity to experience this sacred space. The chapel is lovely and the organ played well offers music that raises the spirit and is heavenly to hear. Occasionally Brian Aull will offer music on the piano for reflection.

When President James Killian set about to build the chapel, it was his intent that the space be used for only a few purposes: simple gatherings for baptisms, and other rites of passage, weddings,and memorial services. Private space for meditation was also important and people have told me their lives had been saved by having the chapel as a place to retreat. Killian would have been pleased that the Chapel is used as a setting for beautiful music.

As the number of people who come here grows each year, it is less common that people tell me that they did not know MIT had a Chapel. After a half-century of use it is about time!

Our gatherings on Tuesday have another benefit that is less obvious, but also important. These times of reflection give us a chance to think and write thoughtfully about important matters in our community. Last year we focused on responding to difficult times. This year the focus is on living whole (holy) lives. We need to be reminded to be thoughtful about such matters. Our gatherings give us the opportunity. It is a perfect blending of space and purpose. I hope you will take the time to join us.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

Beginnings

2010-09-15T16:38:00.000-04:00

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. John 1:1-5

Now the LORD said to Abram,
“Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives
And from your father's house,
To the land which I will show you;
And I will make you a great nation,
And I will bless you,
And make your name great;
And so you shall be a blessing;
And I will bless those who bless you,
And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him; and Lot went with him. Now Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his nephew, and all their possessions which they had accumulated, and the persons which they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan; thus they came to the land of Canaan. Genesis 12:1-5

In beginning a chapel series that intends to explore living whole or holy lives, I am impressed by the thought that God would love it if we understood His wholeness, and leave our lack of wholeness to Him. Focus on Him and the effect can’t help but be good. Focus on ourselves? Nothing but misery. We hate our holes. God is at work to fill in those holes and like an expert mechanic, He’ll make you pay more if you insist on helping. When God chooses “the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong” (1 Cor. 1:27), that means that God starts His work on us by using people in our lives whom we think that we’re better than. God’s going to use people with holes you can see a mile away to show you holes in yourself that you don’t want to see. And the only way to recover from that ugly sight? Stop gazing at yourself and start gazing at Him.

So here’s God and Abram. God wants to bless all the families of the earth through a married man who has no children because his wife is barren. Now, I am no scholar of Hebrew, or of Genesis, I’m just telling you what I see: Abram looks to me like your average good guy. I’m not sure when he got married, but let’s assume it was somewhere between the time he was 25 and 50. So at 75, he’s known for about 25 to 50 years that his wife is barren. And as we begin his story, we know of no other children by any other wives or mistresses, so one thing we can say is that he’s kept things honorable over the many years he’s been married. Has he been hopeful? I think so. I think The Lord speaks to him in answer to his own very specific prayers about his very specific situation: I don’t think God appears randomly out of the blue deciding to just bless some random guy: I think that God has chosen just the right strong and wise man to shake up.

Has Abram been frustrated about all this? That’s gotta be true too. Abram seems delighted that God is going to answer his prayers, but it seems like he thinks things are going to happen the way he wants them to happen. And how does he want things to happen? I think he wants them to happen without Sarah. See, I think it’s possible for him to have been walking in integrity, committed to fidelity in their marital relationship, but I don’t think there was any real relational harmony. My bet is that they were both terrifically discouraged over Sarah’s barrenness and they probably stopped having any kind of a relationship. That could explain why it was so easy for Abram to give up Sarah to Pharaoh, one of the first things that happens in what we know about Abram. I think that for all intensive purposes, relationally, they were divorced. In Abram’s case, I think he would be happy to move on and unite with someone else and be able to have those children that God was talking about. In Sarah’s case? She doesn’t seem to argue with the arrangement.

Well, if we read the text together, we’d see that Sarah is returned to Abram, and the relationship seems to continue to be frozen. When do things actually begin to change? When is the relationship between Abram and Sarah repaired to the extent that a child is even possible? In Genesis 20, it happens again: a king named Abimelech takes Sarah. With Pharaoh, I think Abram was just trying to speed up God’s plan. But this time, I think he’s so frustrated with things that he’s actually giving up. His name is now Abraham, and now God uses Abimelech to get Abraham to stop gazing at his and Sarah’s problems and start looking at Him, The Lord. God wants him to begin by verbalizing or as we might even say “confessing” his utterly inexcusable behavior for letting Sarah go. My impression is that in Abraham’s so called confession in Genesis 20, instead of being a man in his marriage he persists in excusing himself and blaming Sarah for all their problems. When asked why he gave up Sarah, first Abraham says, “I was afraid you’d kill me” ~ Wrong! Abe’s a first-class warrior. Second he says, “And she’s really just my sister” ~ Wrong! She’s his wife. And third he says, “And besides, it’s God’s fault I’m even out here in the first place and she agreed to this arrangement anyway.” ~ Wrong! The arrangement was a cop-out for both of them. How does God respond to Abraham’s lame confession? God has His man Abraham witness a tremendously authentic and sincere confession by a weak and desperate Abimelech as he confesses his own sin in taking Sarah by giving an enormous reparation to Abraham for taking her and then Abimelech also gives Abraham even more reparations meant to vindicate Sarah and clear her name of any wrong-doing before all men, including Abraham. That is huge! The potentially adulterous couple? They look great. Their holes are filled in! The only person left who still looks like a total schlep? Abraham.

What happens next? The best line in the whole story: “So Abraham prayed to God.” Up until now, The Lord has initiated every conversation between Him and Abe, and Genesis records every word Abraham ever says to The Lord up until this point, and he’s a talker (!), telling God this and that, even arguing with Him, but this is the first conversation He initiates with God. And it isn’t recorded: I think that there must have been some very personal words exchanged between Abraham and The Lord. I can’t prove to you how this was a turning point, but I don’t see how God could have used a man to bless the nations of the world if he hadn’t begun to deal with a broken relationship with his wife. So what happens? Abraham finally looks to The Lord and healing takes place in Abimelech’s household and children are being born again, and then healing takes place in Abraham’s household: in due time, Sarah bears Abraham a son: Isaac.

It’s been 25 years since God promised Abraham that he was going to have a family. Why’d it take so long? Well, I think that since it took Abraham and Sarah 25 years to build up animosity toward each other it was going to take 25 years before they could learn to accept one another. After running away from his problems not just once, but twice, Abraham finally looked to The Lord, and healing began. Isaac isn’t so much the miracle as much as their restored relationship is.

Today is my last day at age 49. I can barely bring myself to say the F-word that I can hardly bare to hear. A lot can happen in 50 years. The foolishness and weakness of Abraham has properly shamed me in my wisdom and strength more times than I can count. Join me in being thankful to The Lord that He loves us so much that He Himself promises to fill our holes, knowing that no one else, not our spouses, not our children, not any of our creations, not even ourselves or our best intentions, can fill our holes. We will always suffer from poor motives and poor understanding. Accept your wife and accept your life: perhaps things will go better for you. And even if your first confession sounds awful, it’s a start. God bless you on your journey.

Closing reading:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
— C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

Dave Thom
Coordinator
The Cambridge Roundtable
on Science, Art & Religion

Remembering

2010-08-05T17:36:00.001-04:00

Memory is a terrible thing to waste. I have just returned from Israel. It was a brief visit, but long enough to get a sense of the country and the concerns of the people. It is not Eden and the nation is not perfect. A common concern among Israelis was that their best friends, the American people and the American government, were forgetting them. Many Americans do not realize the reality that shapes Israel: 36 million Arabs, many of whom will not acknowledge their right to exist, surrounding 5.4 million Jews. That is an unknown fact for many; it is not a forgotten fact.

What has been forgotten is the Shoah, the Holocaust. Israel was founded on a wave of repulsion at what had been seen in the death camps. People remembered and acted. Today there are those who have forgotten and there are those who are intellectually challenged who think it never happened. Israel looks ahead to peace, but it also does not forget. Their neighbors remind them from time to time with rockets aimed at civilians that forgetting is perilous.

Yesterday a judge in California ruled that the ban on same sex marriage was unconstitutional. The case will continue through the court system with judges responding to the notion that the values of marriage may be shared between partners of the same sex. Today the cries of judge made law are heard. The will of the people who voted against same sex marriages was cited as of more importance than the rights of a few.

Forget that the best way to strengthen the institution of marriage is to better educate those who wish to marry about the values and virtues of the institution. Remember that Americans would not have ended racial segregation without being told to do so by those who held to higher moral standards and those who interpreted the law as serving all people in our nation. Look ahead and understand that health care for all makes us a better and healthier people. Sometimes we need to hear what needs to be done even if it pushes us beyond our comfort zone. This is especially true when there are those who play on our fears and exploit them. When folk have to resort to lies to make their point there is something terribly wrong. Just ask Shirley Sherrod.

Memory is the key. We know where we have walked and by the grace of God we have a chance to be better. Let us not forget.

Drink Responsibly?

2010-07-01T11:40:00.000-04:00

Living in the land of the forever young, I try to avoid being a curmudgeon, i.e. a cantankerous person. Occasionally, however, someone needs to play the role.

As we move toward the 4th of July, I am wrestling with a sermon for Sunday. I fill a symbolic role in a local congregation, Senior Minister, in addition to my role at MIT. Once a month or so I preach. The challenge on the 4th is to say something that will be heard beyond the music of the Pops and the bluster of the day. In my hometown on the northshore one small church has opted for a Patriotic Hymn Sing. I think I know what they mean, but my cantankerous side bristles a bit. But this is not about my sermon. Nor is it my sermon.

Drunk drivers on the holidays we celebrate get our attention. Drunk driving anytime leads to tragedy as we were reminded recently in the aftermath of the defeat of the US in the World Cup. Those who sell alcohol ask us to drink responsibly. I'd like to believe they mean it. The current Bud-Light campaign makes me wonder if they really do. The end of the world? Grab a six pack and party away. The Declaration of Independence? It is better with Bud.

We at MIT know what a real concern drinking responsibly is for young adults. How do we teach moderation and self-control when we also wish to encourage passion and creativity? For Budweiser bad decisions lead to passion, some good laughs and sell more beer. Their concern, like other corporate entities of late, seems to be with the bottom line.

Here in Boston we also hear a lot about the Sam Adams Brewery and their desire to craft beer that teases the palate and complements the season. On Saturday night when I have hard conversations with small groups of students with large amounts of beer, they are not drinking Sam Adams. I think I know why. Selling a beer that complements food does not have the cachet of diminished inhibitions.

It is time to ask Budweiser if they really want to be the Goldman-Sachs of the beer industry.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

Invocation for MIT Graduation

2010-06-05T10:37:00.000-04:00

MIT

Almighty God, known by many names, called by many voices,

we invoke your presence with us on this day of celebration.

We celebrate the accomplishments of students who have learned and grown as they have longed for this moment.

We celebrate the accomplishments of families who have supported their sons and daughters in ways that transcend the checks to the bursar.

We celebrate the accomplishments that are the result of teachers who went beyond expectations of peers and demanded the best of the students in their care who did not know how good they could be.

We celebrate the accomplishments made possible by mentors who led by example; of spouses who held up tired arms and encouraged flagging spirits, of children who waited.

In these hard days when we are reminded often of what we cannot do, help us to remember what we have done. Let angry words not be our mantra, but rather words of celebration, words of joy and words of hope. Tomorrow will be better because of what we celebrate today!

This is our prayer,

Amen

thoughts from the Koran

2010-05-26T10:16:00.002-04:00

Assalamu alaykum=peace be with you, an Islamic greeting in Arabic.

I am truly delighted to be among the believers of God. The Islamic scripture Qur’an says, “Do not despair of solace from God. No one despairs of solace from Allah except for people who do not believe. (Surah, ie. Chapter Yusuf, no. 87). In these stressful times, I find the particular passage from the Qur’an as a source of strength for us all. As we approach Mothers’ Day, I am thinking of a Hadith.
saying of the Prophet Muhammad. It says: “Paradise lies under the feet of mothers.” I am sure all believers will agree that mothers deserve our love, respect, and admiration.

Omar Khalidi

Are We Listening?

2010-05-13T10:35:00.000-04:00

First Reading:

Together, one with one, we can build the new Earth, a place of wholeness in diversity. We can transform our organizations into communities, places of compassion and care.

Our leaders will focus on affirming and renewing values, building community, and releasing human possibilities. Connection, not acquisition, will be seen as the primary human motivator. The core question will be, How can I help?

Together, we will build spaces of renewal, creating safe places in dysfunctional organizations, seedbeds for a new world. We will advocate a new leadership based on service above self. We will replace the leader on top of our pyramid with a leadership circle, moving beyond the rhetoric of participation to shared governance in fact.

In calling forth this new day, let us be guided by our hearts to be the vessels for the light that powers the Universe, to be a chord in the one song of our healed and holy Home

- John Jacob Gardiner, Professor of Leadership, Seattle University, Washington

Good morning. My name is Abigail Francis, and I am the Director of Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Transgender Services at MIT.

Sometimes I think I may have been called to this position. Have you ever had that feeling…like you were somehow in just the right place at just the right time with just enough experience, skills, and knowledge for the situation? Was it luck…effort…planning…fate…God…that helped you get there - maybe some combination of these things?

I like the idea of a calling because it implies that I have the awareness and the ability to listen. Listening is a skill that I think could use some sharpening at MIT. We have no problem sharing our ideas, our innovations, our solutions. But sometimes I think the real answers lie in our ability to just be…still…quiet…patient…and to hear from those whose voice has been left out. In essence, this is the true nature of my work, and I argue that it is in fact, all of our work.

As a community we share a collective responsibility to create an environment where everyone is valued, where all good ideas matter, and where all are invited to be their very best. Unfortunately, that is not always the case.

Sometimes it takes some digging for me to see the good in people who actively hate others or in a situation where a student faces a deep despair. Imagine that after saying just three little words - you loose all emotional, spiritual, and financial support from those who are supposed to love you the most. All your community, history, and sense of self-worth - gone - after saying “mom”, “dad”, “fraternity brother”, “sorority sister”, “athletics teammate”, “I am gay” or “I am transgender”. Or imagine living your life in hiding because coming out as LBGT in your home country or home state could have you arrested or even killed. Imagine having your spouse die in the hospital while you and your children aren’t permitted to see them because you are the same gender. Imagine being fired from your job simply because of your gender identity.

Every day I hear from those who are silenced, oppressed, discriminated against, assaulted, isolated, and neglected. Their stories are real, and their negative experiences are a constant. So I wonder, as a leading institution, how can we “build a new earth” as John Jacob Gardner describes? What would it take to reach a place of “wholeness in diversity”? And as an institution, do we all care to reach for that place? Is it worth the journey to a place or time where everyone feels included and valued as equals? Can we even imagine the possibilities if everyone at MIT were able to operate at their peak performance? What would happen if we could eliminate all forms of power, privilege, and oppression? Do you agree with Nelson Mandela that “the time for the healing of wounds has come”, that “the time to build is upon us”? And if so, then how might we get there?

I’m afraid that these questions are without a scientific formula. The problems of achieving equality for all people, of transforming an institution, are not a quick fix. Yet, progress is possible. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It may very well get messy. Mandela says, “there is no easy road to freedom”. But as with science, we can learn from our mistakes. We can think about our own forms of privilege, and we can improve on multiple forms of cultural competence.

The real challenge is that in order to succeed we must act together. We must ask about what we are called to do as a community, as a society, as a department, as a laboratory, as a board, and as an institute. If it does take a village to raise a young person, then what role will we play collectively, to help this generation of students grow and develop? And how can we ensure that they all have an equal chance at success?

I think we all have a calling to be part of the “birth of a new world”. The real question is: are we listening?

Second Reading:

The time for healing of the wounds has come.
The time to build is upon us...
We pledge ourselves to liberate all our people
from the continuing bondage of poverty, deprivation,
suffering, gender and other discrimination...
There is no easy road to freedom...
None of us acting alone can achieve success.
We must therefore act together as a united people,
for reconciliation, for nation building,
for the birth of a new world.

- Nelson Mandela

On Prayer Dottie Mark

2010-05-06T18:17:00.000-04:00

"Accept , O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for
us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty
of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.
We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving
care which surrounds us on every side.
We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and
for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.
We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to
acknowledge our dependence on you alone.
Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of His
Word and the example of His life; for His steadfast obedience, by which
He overcame temptations; for His dying, through which He overcame death;
and for His rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of
your kingdom.
Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know Christ and make Him
known; and through Him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks
to you in all things. In Jesus name we pray, Amen"

When asked by Bob Randolph to give a short talk on my dreams for the future, I first wondered just what could I, the wife of an MIT professor, mother of 4 incredible young adult children and their spouses, Gram of 9 wonderful children, possibly have to say that could offer some words of hope. Here are my thoughts.

Roger and I live at Sidney-Pacific, a graduate residence for 700 students, half of whom are internationals. We have been involved in SPICE (Sidney-Pacific Inter Cultural Exchange) groups which meet over dinner to discuss such topics as their families’ origins, cultures, histories, religious beliefs and inter-cultural marriages to name a few. As I watch them talk and learn to listen to one another, I realize that my dreams and hopes for peace and justice, as well as overcoming poverty, illiteracy and racism, in this world can happen through these young people as they become leaders in their countries, in universities and large companies. How can this happen you might think? Well, my answer is through the mighty power of prayer.

So, why pray? Simple, Jesus prayed! Even as the Son of God, He prayed while He was on this earth. If the Son of God needed to pray, how much more do we stand in need of prayer?

Jesus began his ministry on earth with prayer. Before He chose His 12 disciples, He spent a whole night on a mountainside in prayer (Luke 6:10). Before raising Lazarus from the dead, He prayed (John 11:41-43). Jesus also gave thanks to God before blessing the five loaves and two fishes and feeding five thousand folks who had come to hear Him (Matthew 14:19).

We also have significant decisions to make in life, but do we pray about them? Having been a Christian since high school days, I remember praying about where to go to college, what to study, what job to take, whether to marry or not (and then I met Roger and knew the answer to that prayer!). When we had our children, I felt so strongly that we needed to pray about them from the moment of conception…and still we pray for them! In fact, prayer has been a vital part of my spiritual journey. I’m not sure how I could have raised our family, reached out to elderly parents and friends, without being under girded by the strength and wisdom one gets from prayer.

Stanley Hauerwas, professor at Duke Divinity School, opens all of his classes with prayer. In one he said, “Lord of all Wisdom, we thank you for your Word, Jesus Christ. Illumine our minds and bodies by that Word so that we might see every part of your creation as a reflection of your glory. In particular help us not to miss the small and contingent rocks, plants and animals in which children so delight. Make us like children so that we might enjoy the sheer giftedness of your creations. Amen.”

Where does one pray? One example that Jesus gave was to get alone to pray. It is in such undisturbed quietness that our souls will be ready to listen to God. Often He does not shout His messages to us but gently whispers them. Being alone and silent is often not enough .We need to spend time with God in talking to Him and reading His Word, the Bible.

Oswald Chambers, in his book, “My Utmost for His Highest,” says “If we think about prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts, we think rightly. The blood flows ceaselessly and our breathing continues ceaselessly, even if we’re not conscious of it, but it is always going on. We are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect union with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not an exercise, it is the life. Beware of anything that stops spontaneous prayer. ‘Pray without ceasing’ (I Thessalonians 5:17), keep the childlike habits of spontaneous prayer in your heart to God at all times.” In other words, you can pray to God where ever you are, even while driving your car, sitting on the T or walking across campus. We should also remember to give thanks for each day, for food, shelter, and good health…, but most importantly, we must remember that nothing pleases God more than to see us pray for His will to be done (Matt 6:10).

Our lives should be such that we glorify God. Our work and our deeds should be aimed to glorify God. Therefore, when we pray, we should pray for that answer to prayer which will bring glory to God. Jesus knew that when he prayed alone in the garden of Gethsemane, just before He was crucified. “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). Oswald also said, “It is not so true that ‘prayer changes things’ as that prayer changes ME and I change things…prayer is not a question of altering things externally but of working wonders in a person’s disposition.”

Therefore, as I look to the future, at our MIT students and their potential for serving others and God, if they so choose, and at my family as they work to bring peace and justice to this troubled work, my prayer continues to be that their lives will bring glory to God in whatever they do and where ever they will be in this world.

Let us close by reading together the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, “Lord make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us show love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.” Amen

Dottie Mark
Housemaster
Sydney and Pacific

For Mother's Day

2010-05-04T11:57:00.002-04:00

The Lanyard

Billy Collins

The other day I was ricocheting slowly
off the blue walls of this room,
moving as if underwater from typewriter to piano,
from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,
when I found myself in the L section of the dictionary
where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist
could send one into the past more suddenly—
a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp
by a deep Adirondack lake
learning how to braid long thin plastic strips
into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard
or wear one, if that’s what you did with them,
but that did not keep me from crossing
strand over strand again and again
until I had made a boxy
red and white lanyard for my mother.

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,
and I gave her a lanyard.
She nursed me in many a sick room,
lifted spoons of medicine to my lips,
laid cold face-cloths on my forehead,
and then led me out into the airy light

and taught me to walk and swim,
and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.
Here are thousands of meals, she said,
and here is clothing and a good education.
And here is your lanyard, I replied,
which I made with a little help from a counselor.

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,
strong legs, bones and teeth,
and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,
and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.
And here, I wish to say to her now,
is a smaller gift—not the worn truth

that you can never repay your mother,
but the rueful admission that when she took
the two-tone lanyard from my hand,
I was as sure as a boy could be
that this useless, worthless thing I wove
out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

The Blind Side

2010-04-13T11:20:00.000-04:00

Tuesday’s in the Chapel
April 6, 2010

William Hurlbut when he was on campus for the Veritas Forum shared his notion that: “The central challenge of our age becomes the search for an integrated understanding of human life that draws on both our scientific knowledge and our spiritual traditions while providing the foundation for progress, global cooperation and the defense of human dignity.”

In my own way I have been grappling with that challenge for as long as I can remember and Hollywood has once again come through by helping me understand what I have been struggling with. The other day I finally watched The Blind Side with my daughter and wife. I had not wanted to see the film convinced that the movie would not do justice to the book. Besides, I thought Sandra Bullock was a light weight as an actress. I was wrong on both counts. Bullock deserved her Oscar and the movie is a good film. It finished a story begun for me long ago and in so doing answered a question that has long haunted me.

Let me tell you the story. In 1945 my family moved to Memphis; we lasted only a few months and I never went to school there. That happened because of a church business meeting. My grandfather was the minister of a large, downtown church and at a business meeting of the church the issue of the janitor’s house came up. It was infested with rats and the business meeting concluded that it was good enough for niggers. Dad concluded that was not good enough. He did not want his children to grow up in such an environment and we returned to California. I have always been grateful.

The Blind Side helped me learn how the story turned out. Michael Oher, the central figure in the movie, is a casualty of the Memphis School System. That system was decimated by the good Christian people of Memphis who created the segregationist academies profiled in the movie. Good people can do terrible things when the only thing they feel is fear. Christians ought to be able to surmount their fear, but often they cannot. In Memphis they couldn’t. The Blind Side is inspirational if your God is football and the money that can be made playing sports. Otherwise it is an unvarnished tragedy.

I grew up thinking that the influence of Christians in a community would make the environment better. The Blind Side reminds me that that is not necessarily so. Certainly the Tuohy family made a difference in Michael’s life, but their Christianity is muted at best. The only overt appeal to Christian values is made by the football coach who is really concerned with his own job and his football team. The Tuohy family made their contributions because they were able and willing to go against the system. “.... the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light.” (Luke 16:8)

I may be naïve, but I still hope that the presence of values, values that put people first, values that commit us to the long term good of society and not the short term ends of the moment, will prevail. I take heart in the recent health care debate, not because a flawed bill was passed, but because I like to see our leaders do what is right even when it is not popular. I say that knowing that some will argue that that is what W did when he invaded Iraq and I will counter by arguing that war is always easier to wage than peace. What I wish for the future is that we can find the courage to wage peace and I am grateful to Hollywood for reminding us all what happens when we lack courage.

Robert M.Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

Ecstasy in Living

2010-04-03T14:19:00.000-04:00

I find ecstasy in living, the mere sense of living is joy enough
~Emily Dickinson

These weekly reflections on Tuesday morning asks us what about tomorrow?

So I asked myself in preparing to write for today – so what about tomorrow?

I think about tomorrow through the possibility of today

This came to light one day on my way into work on the T….

As like every T rider, you read, sleep, put your headphones on, zone (or meditate) out, this particular day I was reading (for pleasure). When I read, I can also ‘zone out’ and intuitively know when it is about ‘that time’ for my stop. Well this day, as I was reading I, all of a sudden lifted my head from the book (before my stop was near) and heard a conversation of a pair standing to my left---I am not sure why I heard them, yet as I went back to my reading – This twosome said aloud what I then read in my book…..Of course this was a very odd experience, but what made it a message and more of a powerful experience was the words shared, “when one door closes, a window opens” This reminded me of the power and possibility of each day.

Allow me to share with you my joy in the day

I wake each morning – warm under quilt and a light on as I pull the chain on the lamp or pull the shade of the window, I step into slippers (a funny pair of shoes – just for morning & again later that night) – rubbing the blur from my eyes and my mouth wide open to capture oxygen to fill my lungs – i wake from a dream place to begin at another dream place– a place of living. I turn on the faucet for water, turn it again for hot water – splash my face and a reach for a dry, clean towel to pat off the morning dew – I push the button or light the stove for caffeinated water that smells so good and feel so satisfying as it travels down

– simple life habits – simple life tasks – all with the lens of appreciation.

Valuing life, valuing abilities, valuing capabilities – our lives – living life as a dream to help put the difficult days behind.

Friends who support us family who loves us work who pays us Legs & cars (and public transportation) who transport us smiles that greet us, birds that sing to us

Spring is coming, cold days behind – be present

See my daily tasks as joy in the living
I dream of the day that each of us appreciates each moment on earth.

And that is reflected in our practice.

Smile to strangers – pick up litter- take baby steps and leaps of faith
Watch the crocus peeking up through the ground, smell the fresh brewed coffee – feel those warm slippers – share laughter with colleagues – start the day with reflection ~

dream deeply, live simply
Donna Denoncourt
Associate Dean, Residential Life

Reading for the Morning

Book 1: The Twelfth Chapter

THE VALUE OF ADVERSITY

IT IS good for us to have trials and troubles at times, for they often remind us that we are on probation and ought not to hope in any worldly thing. It is good for us sometimes to suffer contradiction, to be misjudged by men even though we do well and mean well. These things help us to be humble and shield us from vainglory. When to all outward appearances men give us no credit, when they do not think well of us, then we are more inclined to seek God Who sees our hearts. Therefore, a man ought to root himself so firmly in God that he will not need the consolations of men.

When a man of good will is afflicted, tempted, and tormented by evil thoughts, he realizes clearly that his greatest need is God, without Whom he can do no good. Saddened by his miseries and sufferings, he laments and prays. He wearies of living longer and wishes for death that he might be dissolved and be with Christ. Then he understands fully that perfect security and complete peace cannot be found on earth.

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis

Reflections on the Prodigal

2010-03-30T11:30:00.000-04:00

The Spire
From Luke 15

We learn from the experience of the Prodigal the power of the desire to explore the new, the distant, the exotic. We learn as well that the exotic may be less than we expect, the new far from satisfying. We learn from the older brother the tragedy of a dream deferred, of hope unshared. And the father remains always waiting. There is Desmond Tutu’s sermon again: God loves us and desires us to be drawn to him.

Tutu tells a story near the end of his book, No Future Without Forgiveness, that we all need to hear. He recounts the first time he flew in a plane piloted by men like himself. They were Nigerians and he was delighted to see them and felt a shared pride in their professionalism and then the plane encountered weather that caused it to jump and buck and he was terrified. He thought to himself: "I wonder if they can manage the plane." and then he was horrified by his thought: “I could never have believed I was so radically brainwashed…I would have denied it vigorously…I had accepted a white definition of existence, that whites were somehow superior to and more competent than blacks.”

He goes on:

“We should never underestimate the power of conditioning. That is why I hold the view that we should be a little more generous in judging perpetrators of human rights violations… And it might make us say to ourselves a we sit in judgment “there but for the grace of God go I.”

“All of this says that there is hope. There is hope because (people) are revealed as human beings, frail but with the capacity to do better if they (we) get out of the self-justifying mode, the denial mode, and are able to say quietly, humbly, ‘I am sorry, forgive me/us'.”

God waited for Israel. God came near in Jesus and made things new. God waited for the Prodigal and the brother. As we move toward Easter are we open to the offer of God to be reconciled? I think we are.

Happy Spring

2010-03-18T16:44:00.001-04:00

Dream for the future

In most respects, the new year begins for me in the Fall. Like I suspect many of you, I’ve spent most of my life on an academic calendar. So the Fall is when I think about my work accomplishments and goals. I am also a Reform Jew and, therefore, religiously mark the new year at Rosh Hashanah, usually sometime in September. And I am a Virgo, with a late August birthday, so that’s when MY new year literally begins.

All of those new beginnings get marked pretty ritualistically. Whether it’s organizing my work “stuff” for new projects, participating in Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur observances, or celebrating the date of my birth with family and friends. I even take an annual retreat during the time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to more meaningfully reflect on and mark these transitions.

But there is for me a subtler new year’s celebration which occurs in THIS season and in which I invite you to participate. It is called Spring. And it is a wish for more Spring in our lives that is at the heart of my Dream for our Future.

We don’t literally hibernate during the New England winters, but we do spend a good part of our lives effectively in a cave, surrounded by familiar objects and people, comforted by our routines, lulled by the belief that all we need is within our reach. In our cave, we are not aware of the outside world, not aware how small our world is, not aware that we are missing anything.

And then comes Spring.
During the first days of spring, we breathe deeper, we let our skin feel the air, we walk a little slower, we might smile a bit more easily. Did you have a moment like that this past weekend? Can you bring back that feeling right now?

In early Spring, we have an awakening awareness of the outside world and, perhaps, the visceral remembrance that we are part of a larger whole, that the world, and our place in it, is bigger than our cave.

My dream for the future is for us to stay alive to that moment, to, in fact, WAKE UP from our frequent dream state, to see through what is petty and unimportant about our day to day existence and focus on the reality beyond our routines.
My dream for the future is to spend less time dreaming and more time being; less time protecting myself from the uncertainties of the outside world, and more time embracing the adventure. My dream for the future is to experience the dawn of spring in the midst of every season, every moment

So the question, the challenge, I give myself and offer to you is this: What would it take? What would it take to carry that sensation of early Spring, of awakening to a life bigger than our own, into the rest of our lives?

And with that, I wish you “happy Spring.”

Francine Crystal
Organization Development Consultant
Human Resources

Tuesdays in the Chapel

2010-03-09T16:17:00.003-05:00

Tuesdays in the Chapel
March 2, 2010
Luke 13:31-35

1. The season of Lent comes to us with a large stop sign! It is like someone stepped in our path and crossed their arms on their chest. Wear the ashes that remind us of mortality; put frivolity aside and think about the journey we are on.

The metaphor of a journey is important because we all are on several journeys but we often do not think about them. There is first the journey of life itself. The poet, Alison Apotheker captures a bit of the journey in her poem Ground Water. Pregnant, playing with her 2 year old son in the snow, she concludes:

 "But now, as we walk home in the dusk, my two-year old riding my hip, patting my cheeks with his mittened hands, I never want to leave this earth. Inside the baby tumbles and reels, already knowing where the body will take us, that we have no choice but to follow its lead."

Life is what happens between the infinities of birth and death or as my favorite actor, Robert Duvall, says in one of his roles: “We live between the sweet grass and the slaughter house.”

There is a moment after the Christmas season when this sense of mortality becomes especially important for me as I look at the pictures that come in the mail over the holiday: the children who are another year older. When we see each other regularly, we do not notice how we change, but when the cards come at Christmas you notice. I go through my address list and change the addresses of those who have moved and remove the names of those who have died. The poet notices; Jesus was on such a journey on his way to Jerusalem during this season. Luke from Chapter 9 on in his Gospel has Jesus on a journey to Jerusalem. That is why it is a serious time.

2. But everything does not need to be taken seriously—or so seriously. Our Jewish friends know this; that is why Purim is such a sweet break in this season. Remember too that we are also on a journey toward spring. You saw the news this week and the young woman who repeated on several networks: “I am so ready for spring.” I was in Chapel Hill last Sunday. Daffodils were blooming. Forsythia was blooming. It was a good reminder of the progression of the seasons. On March 14th we will welcome daylight savings time. It the morning it will still be dark when we get up but at 6 pm the sun will be up. The Red Sox will be coming north shortly thereafter and once again we can breathe; we have survived winter. We may not always admit it, but that is also why we take this season seriously. We know where it leads us.

3. There is also the more personal journey for each of us. One of you had a birthday last week. Others made progress on a paper you were writing, on a project at work. These are our modest personal journeys not marked by life and death but the daily accomplishments by which we mark progress. With eyes open we go forward and we coordinate our journey’s with these other journeys—the cosmic journey between infinities, the turn of the seasons, our own progress in life.

4. AND then there is Easter.

It is a story we have heard before and sometimes it is confused and distant; we hear the rituals that some have at Easter and wonder what in the world they are doing. A friend mentioned a trip she likes to take to Guatemala during this season to observe the rituals leading up to Good Friday. They sound very interesting and exotic. You have to wonder, however, how others hear of our traditions: we celebrate Easter when a large rabbit appears and then we hide eggs. It is another way we make light of serious stuff. If you cannot deal with the mystery of Easter, make it humorous.

But it is serious business and with Luke we turn our eyes toward Jerusalem; we reach beyond the Bible to claim the story of the people of God who lived through a tragedy that brought new life. It is a story that began in a dark stable, was revealed by Wise men who came from far away to proclaim that something important had happened. It is a story that has at its heart promises; there are disappointments and ultimately triumph. God has, we believe, reached out to us and brought us close. That may be a blessing, but It can also be our challenge. The Lenten season helps us journey to where we need to be.

Dr. Robert M. Randolph

About Love

2010-03-01T16:50:00.000-05:00

February is as good a month to talk about love as any. We have just passed Valentine’s Day, it is National Women’s Heart Health month, and for those who follow the Christian liturgical calendar it is also the start of the Lenten Season. Matters of the heart are thus much on the mind. They are also central to my hope for the future, a hope grounded both in my own Christian faith and also in my humanitarian (if you will) desire to live in a world free from the violence, sorrow and destruction that plague us when love fails.

Unfortunately, what we hear about most often in the news are the failures of love: the powerful taking advantage of the weak; the rich reserving for themselves excess while the poor go without any; trust repaid with cruelty; children abused by the very adults who should be caring for them; nations that believe their differences are best settled by war; individuals who believe that their frustrations are best resolved at gunpoint; the list could go on and on.

But this is not our calling – our exempla cannot be found in the newspaper. We must look instead to our scriptures, and the example of God inscribed therein. What we find is that it is not enough that we should love that special person who makes our heart skip when they enter a room, and which we celebrate so enthusiastically on Valentine’s Day. Nor is it enough to love our children or our parents or others we have known long and deeply, with a love which brings comfort and encompasses companionship. No, we are called to a love for every one of God’s children whether they are lovable or not; whether they bring comfort or not; nay, whether they are even known to us or not.

Indeed, love is not even ours if we do not give it away. It only has existence in the act of dispensation. Love that would be internal to ourselves can only be self-love; it is opposed to charity, and without charity we cannot truly have faith. St. Maximus the Confessor (early 7th c.) puts it this way: “As memory of fire does not warm the body, so faith without charity does not effect the illumination of knowledge in the soul.” Love that is not directed outwards is not merely diminished in substance and in volume, but it is actually oppositional to the love that God has in mind for us. It would be like a fire that does not warm us, that is to say, like no fire at all.

So my hope for the future is that we would throw caution to the wind, and try real love the way God intended it for us, that we would show our world that we have been called to live another way. To this end I call you, and me to:
Weep alongside someone you do not know. Rejoice in the beauty – yea, the very likeness and image of God – in every person. Pray for those who thwart you as assiduously as you pray for your daughters and sons. Lend a hand, or a foot, or a mind. Be patient with those who slow you down. Hear someone out, even if you suspect they are crazy. Return fury with calm, violence with peace. Laugh with abandon – with others, at others, at least when the alternative would otherwise be anger. Most especially, laugh at yourself – there is no easier way to practice the art of forgiveness than to see your own foibles for what they are. Open your pantry, your purse, your treasure chest – a small meal shared with others is so much more filling than a feast eaten alone; for “You are as prone to love as the sun is to shine.” So says Thomas Traherne, 17th c. Anglican poet and priest who had much of eloquence to say about love.

We can also rest assured that our love will not run out. Like the sun, it can shine on all without being diminished for any. Indeed, the sun would only be diminished if you insisted that it shine just for you.

So in this month during which we think so much about matters of the heart, I would urge us to spend our love recklessly, prodigally. We will be transformed by it; our world will be too.

Prof. Anne McCants

Do What You Can

2010-02-26T11:59:00.000-05:00

Do What You Can: A parable for our time

This morning on my “joyful” jog around Cambridge, I came upon a blue Toyota waiting at red right turn arrow. A large Mercedes came up behind the Toyota, honked loudly (is there any other way to honk?) and received from the driver of the Toyota a gesture in the direction of the red light. The Mercedes paused and then quickly pulled out of the lane and turned in front of the Toyota. At the same moment the arrow turned green giving all the option to turn right.

The moral order did not shatter. This was no occasion to invoke proletarian conflict. After all, I covet a large Toyota Land Cruiser. No clash of cultures here. The Teutonic Mercedes and Asian Toyota were oblivious of the rising tension.

Here was a parable for our time—too blind, too impatient, too rude to be civil. I am reminded of the mantra of Forrest Church, the late minister of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in New York City. “Be content with what you have. Know who you are. Do what you can.” If we want a more civil society, we can make it happen and it begins at red no turn arrows when impatience grabs hold of us.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

Four Lessons

2010-02-10T12:29:00.000-05:00

Lessons for Life
These stories have been around for quite a while. Their message, though simple, can still be a cornerstone for the way we see those around us.

Lesson 1
During the second month of a small college, a professor gave a pop quiz. One very conscientious student breezed through the questions until the last one: "What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?" Surely this was some kind of joke. The cleaning woman was often around at the end of classes. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50's, but who would know her name?
The student handed in the paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward the total grade.
"Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say "hello."
The student never forgot that lesson or her name: Dorothy.

Lesson 2
In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.
"How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked.
"Fifty cents," replied the waitress.
The little boy pulled is hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it. "Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired.
By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied.
The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have the plain ice cream," he said.
The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies… She realized, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

Lesson 3
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.
Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand!
Every obstacle presents new opportunities.

Lesson 4
Many years ago, in a hospital, there was a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare and usually fatal disease. Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.
He hesitated for only a moment before taking a deep breath, "Yes, I'll do it if it will save her.
As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as did all the staff, seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away".
Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor: he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

Final Thought

Akavia ben Mehalalel said, “Consider three things and you will not miss the mark. Know from where you have come, to where you are heading, and before whom you will give justification and accounting.” Pirkei Avot 3:1

Rabbi Samuel Seicol

Jacob: On Wrestling with God

2010-02-03T16:42:00.000-05:00

As our semester series theme asks “What about tomorrow?” I think of Jacob, spending the night alone on the bank of the river Jabbok, and wrestling; a word whose root is pronounced awback, or pretty close to that. Y’think there might be something to these words sounding similar? The irony of the man at the river’s crossing engaged in wrestling is that it befits his name in two ways. “May He – God – protect” is a dimension to Jacob’s name because even though the sound and sense of it is similar to the noun for heel, “aw-kabe,” a sense that never lets us forget that he came out of the womb holding on to his older brother’s heel, the verb means “to watch from behind,” something that God was doing through-out Jacob’s life even while Jacob was doing so himself: watching from behind. So here is Jacob, watching from behind, watching out for his family, in the fear of running into his brother Esau.

Jacob has just left town with two wives, their two servants, children he has had with all four women, and a zoo full of livestock. It has been said, unsympathetically, that the man has been living by the skin of his teeth, conniving his way through life, from his youth, like a con-man on the lam. Heel-grabber; supplanter; trickster. I respectfully disagree. But we’ll get to that. Where we find him is in anticipation of his brother Esau’s murderous vengeance for Jacob’s claiming and taking of Esau’s first-born birthright inheritances and blessings. Knowing that Esau has an army of men with him, Jacob has arranged for three overly-abundant wagon-trains full of livestock to be given as gifts to hopefully placate his brother’s wrath. Three droves of gifts have been sent on ahead a day’s journey while Jacob and his family spend the night at the river’s crossing. But Jacob spends the night alone with his thoughts. What might he be thinking?

You have to start from the beginning to know where Jacob’s coming from: how would you feel if you knew your grandfather was destined to have descendants as numerous as the sands of the sea, and your dad has only two sons, and even though it’s the oldest to whom the destiny of blessing falls, it’s your mom who tells you that you’re the one whom God told her was to receive the blessing. How would you feel? God didn’t tell that to your dad, or your granddad; He told it to your mom. But honestly, who listens to women? Well, we all should; but you, Jacob, listen to her because it’s about you! So in your youth, you try out her theory: and you watch from behind. And your mom’s right: wow, your brother really would give up the blessing of his birthright for a little stew! And then your mom deceitfully accomplishes arranging circumstances to lock your brother out of his own blessing by your father’s own hand, hijacking your father’s approval in the process. If you’re mom was right then she was right, and she wasn’t lying or deceived, why did your blessing have to come at the risk of cunning and deceit? I would imagine that you’d spend the rest of your life watching from behind, wondering whether or not it was all really true. And along the way, you may as well put God to the test, after all, it’s His blessing that you’re destined to be blessed with one way or the other! And blessings DO keep happening to you, but the strangest problems develop all along the way too! Jacob ends up sleeping with his wife’s sister – and it is such a Hollywood mess. I think he finally comes to the end of his rope: the blessings multiply, but so do the problems, and his own brother is in a position to end it all in a blood-bath. Is he really blessed?! Or isn’t he?! Here’s what I think: he’s really not sure, but he really wants to know.

So does he really wrestle with God, or doesn’t he? I think he does. It’s the strangest conclusion: he prevails against God. Now, who in the world could ever actually beat God in a wrestling match? God throws the fight and lets him win. But it’s not enough! Jacob doesn’t want a win, he wants an answer. Am I blessed or not?! I’m not letting go until I get an answer! Jacob gets his answer, and God gets His answer. This time, He knows that Jacob isn’t content to just get an earthly answer. Jacob isn’t satisfied with his brother’s consent, or his mother’s approval, or his father’s blessing. He demands, and gets his answer: from God. And now, God knows He has a man he can work through: someone who doesn’t blow with the wind: Jacob is now tuned into the approval of God, and not the approval of men.

And he’s re-named Israel: What’s that mean? Take your pick: God fights, fights with God, God fights for…hard to say. But suffice it to say, it’s no longer Jacob who fights. God touches his hip in such a way that it cripples him for life, and with that ever present reminder, there’s no more need to watch from behind. The issue is settled for Jacob. Is the issue settled for you? If you’re looking for accountability, affirmation, assurance, and approval from man, you may find it, but it will never completely satisfy. Do you need to know for sure that someone else isn’t jerking you around? You could hire video crews and private detectives and you still couldn’t be 100% sure. Do what’s right, do what’s real, and let the chips fall.

“Needing the approval of men syndrome” is a double-edged sword: not only are you insecure about yourself, but you’ll also be insecure about others. Others are a threat to you because you don’t know whether or not you approve of them! The vicious cycle of distrust ends when you trust God: if you really don’t trust God, you’ll always be insecure about yourself and others.

I think it may be routine to say that we wrestle with God: we all wrestle with God. But that raises the question: what kind of wrestling? Are you wrestling with thoughts about God, or feelings about God, or ideas about God? Maybe you are, but try this: demand to wrestle with God face to face and God will take you on: chin to chin, nose to nose, eye to eye. He is not just an idea, or a thought, or a feeling. He is not an it. Can you imagine wrestling without any emotion? Anger, joy, those things come to mind as why two persons will roll around on the floor with one another. Try it some time. God will meet your emotions feeling for feeling: reflecting your anger, doubling your joy. Jacob was fed up with not knowing, when it came to tomorrow, whether or not he was truly blessed, whether God really approved of him. He got his answer. How about you?

Chaplain Dave Thom

An Epiphany

2010-01-07T17:38:00.002-05:00

The story of the wise men coming from the east to visit the birthplace of the Christ child is one of the staples of the Christian story. It is an account replete with unintended consequences. They are astrologers who ponder what they see in the sky; they come to Jerusalem to ask about the star they have seen and give Herod sleepless nights as a result. They arrive in Bethlehem and lay the foundations for modern gift giving by dropping off gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The story concludes: “When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them went the star they had seen at its rising (or, in the east) until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped they were overwhelmed with joy.” Matthew 2:9-11 At Christmas we sing of that joy.

This story told in the 21st century gives us pause. What exactly is going on? We might conclude that it gives credence to the astrologer’s speculation. Maybe there is something to their pondering the course of stars and planets. That is not a very comfortable conclusion for those of us in this bastion of reason.

Maybe it is simply best to focus on the gifts that were brought and to develop a theology of gift giving to undergird what has become an exercise in capitalist frenzy. I have often thought that the whole of the Christian story might be recast in terms of gifts given and gifts received. We learn to give to others out of our gratitude for what we have been given. I am often struck by how little I understand how much of my life depends on the generosity of others.

The broader Christian community has concluded that this story is an epiphany. The word is defined as a “sudden manifestation of the essence or meaning of something”. I have always had trouble with the word and often needed to be reminded of what it means. I think it is because when folk use it, it always sounds a bit judgmental. To be told you have had an epiphany has always seemed a reminder of my failing as in “I should have known that.”

In this tale, the sudden insight into meaning speaks of the notion that the birth of Jesus means something for the Gentile community, i.e. Jesus is not simply the promised one of Israel, but he is the salvation of the Gentiles; his birth has implications for the whole of humanity. This insight has become the foundation of the feast of Epiphany which is traditionally celebrated on January 6th.

It is a provocative insight and one that ought to give us pause in this day when we talk about diversity as a good that is difficult to achieve and is a goal that occupies much time on college and university campuses. At the beginning of the story which demands much attention from both Christians and Jews, we have a reminder that the human family is one and of concern to the Creator of heaven and earth.

My dream for the future as we step into this new decade is two fold and captured in the poems we share this morning that are printed on your program. Call it an epiphany for the New Year if you wish! First, I want us to reaffirm the sacred nature of the work we do with the people in this community. What we put our hands to in the educational endeavor is sacred work. On the laboratory bench, in the classroom, on the playing fields, we are shaping lives that will have profound impact on the course of our world. It is not too much to say that we are shaping eternity. My dream for the New Year is that we will have a renewed recognition of the importance of what we are about.

Secondly, we are valued. If you must, think of it simply as a sense of self worth, but as a Christian I would like for us all to know that beyond the worth we affirm, we are objects loved and cared for by the one who called creation into being. As a result our ability to love has given us the opportunity to love others and in so doing to shape humankind. My dream this new decade is that we will begin here and now, on this day in this place, to make this work real here at MIT.

Let us pray:

God give us wisdom to use our gifts in the service of this community.

Amen

A Chapter in the Life of David

2009-12-07T14:30:00.000-05:00

1 Samuel 20:41-22:3

We have come to an episode in David’s life where he has fallen on hard times. The solitary life of the hillside shepherd became so easy for David that not even lions and bears could keep him from success on the job. But now he was far from the comforts of that routine. Pulled out of that routine he was put in another: in charge of an army. That was probably okay, and it was probably also okay to have freedom to roam the palace as the best friend of the king’s son.

But now the king wants him dead and David is on the run. And though he was capable of raising up an army to launch a coup, or just as capable of assassinating the king, or though he could count on the heir to the kingdom as an ally, instead, David resorts to what he knows best: get out of Dodge for the solitary life. Probably an okay move all things considered. But in search of relief, David does what we all tend to do: either in fear or in ignorance, he goes out of his way to add things to his life that he really doesn’t need.

He journeys away from the palace to Nob and where the priest Ahimelech, trembling, comes out to meet him. There’s no way this VIP travels alone and the priest knows trouble when he sees it. The first thing David does that he really doesn’t need to do is he adds a lie to his identity. Ironically, he does so in order to protect himself. And yet Ahimelech might be a citizen who probably wants to protect David just the way he is, as a fugitive from the king whom everyone knows is a tyrant. In this first instance of an opportunity to trust God, in order to protect himself in the present, David instead trusts in himself, by making a false claim to strength rather than trust God with an honest claim of weakness.

The second thing David does, that he really doesn’t need to do, is he asks Ahimelech to compromise the law and give him an abundance of bread: far more than he needs, but enough to maintain the lie he has started. In this second instance of an opportunity to trust God, David again trusts in himself. David constructs another false identity, and this time, projects it into the future.

The third thing David does, that he really doesn’t need to do, is he asks the priest to give him the weapons he used in the slaying of Goliath, weapons he himself gave up in memorial to the Lord. In this third instance of an opportunity to trust God, David again trusts in himself. David constructs another false identity, and this time, projects it into the past.

So how far did David get with these false identities? David’s unnecessary manipulations are laughable and it is God who has that last laugh. After deceiving others, David even manages to deceive himself into thinking that he can truly save himself by deceiving his enemies that he’s on their side. However, his enemies are not deceived. This would likely have been the end for David, but in beginning to come to his senses, David actually does save himself. Instead of claiming things, now he’s giving them up: feigning insanity, he gives up his present identity, the bread he was counting on, and his weapons of glory. Dribbling down his beard, David has given up everything, even his self-respect.

Giving up everything you have, even if it’s to your enemy, is safer than keeping anything for yourself. With nothing left, David escapes to the cave of Adullam. And then rather than having nothing, he now has more than he can handle. 400 men who would not submit to the corrupt administration of a tyrant are now his companions, including a family of brothers who never thought much of him in the first place, but now see David as all they’ve got.

The strength and resources of 400 men would be a significant source of relief for any man, especially one trained in statecraft and warfare. The loyalty and guidance and support of a family are often enough to encourage a man through any difficulty, especially when they’re relying on you. This is a collection of ordinary, reasonable people who have suffered loss and want just one ordinary, reasonable solution: to get back what belonged to them in the first place. And now David is captain over 400 ordinary, reasonable angry people.

What more is there to pray about and what more is there to do except to prepare yourself to bring about what’s fair and what’s right and what’s just? But David is not just any ordinary, reasonable man. David has seen God strip him of the serenity of the hillside, a friend who was closer than a brother, his rank, titles, and privileges, and even his honor, having surrendered to sins of lying and deceit. Where David finally arrives at is in the place God wanted him to be from the very beginning: David says to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and my mother come and stay with you until I know what God will do for me.”

It’d be nice if he knew that from the beginning: to wait until he knew what God wanted to do. But David, like many of us, are too talented for that. In these hard times, what’s ordinary and reasonable for talented people like us is to do what David did at first: trust in no one but yourself, glory in the past, and prepare for the future. No one wants to be in a cave with 400 angry men and wait on God. Hard to imagine? It’s probably like waiting in front of Macy’s with 400 angry women on Black Friday, or in front of Best Buy with 400 angry teenagers. Maybe those images make a smelly cave sound not so bad? Quite plainly, David re-learned the only lesson that really matters: when in search of relief, whether alone or as captain of 400, it’s time to trust in the Lord.

David Thom

Christian Hope

2009-11-24T10:51:00.000-05:00

This semester in chapel we have been looking at the importance of having hope during hard times. Last week, I watched a PBS special about how deregulation policies led to the fall of our economy. The economic experts placed too much confidence in the market to correct itself, and so advocated for a strong separation of state and the economy. This confidence in the market was based on a hope that there were large amounts of money to be made. Greed and a lack of accountability led to fraudulent activity, so we find ourselves in a recession.
God’s intention for His creation, this world and society, is described by the beautiful Hebrew word shalom. It is translated into English by the word “peace,” but it is much more than just the absence of violence. Shalom means flourishing at every level, economically, agriculturally, ecologically, psychologically and spiritually. But this is not a picture of our world and society today, is it? Things are not the way they are supposed to be and the problem doesn’t just lie in global forces that affect the economy. In the early 20th century, the British newspaper The Times invited several eminent authors to write essays on the theme "What's Wrong with the World?" One of the invited authors was G.K. Chesterton. He responded:
Dear Sirs,
I am.
Sincerely yours,
G. K. Chesterton
As a Christian, I think Chesterton rightly understood that problems of the world lie ultimately within each of us. This resonates with me. When I place other things in my life—even good things like financial security, professional success, my children’s welfare—above God, shalom is broken. My kids resent me when I try to live my life through them. My ministry to college students becomes a means to make a name for myself rather than God. Service becomes self-oriented, a means of justifying my existence rather an overflow of joyful desire to serve God. When we put secondary things in Gods’ place, we become out of tune with God’s intent. We become like instruments in a symphony doing their own thing, rather than following the lead of the conductor. Now, economic, political, social and technological solutions are needed in the world, but the human heart needs to be re-oriented so that the right solutions are applied for the right reasons and in a right manner. Most essentially, we require a spiritual solution.
One of my favorite passages from my Christian tradition that gives me hope for the human condition (especially my own) is found in Hebrews 6:19-20: “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever.” Jesus is personified as hope because of two essential roles he plays. One is that of high priest. By his life and death, he paid the penalty we owe for how we have vandalized shalom. In Israel, a high priest would make atonement in the temple for the sins of the people annually. Because this was a continuous cycle had no end, the question remained, “Are my sins forgiven?” But Jesus died for the sins of the world, once for all. God wants us to know that in Christ, we are forgiven and have free access to Him. This brings me levity, because the guilt and burden of my sin is gone. But there is more.
Secondly, Jesus plays the role of forerunner. That is, he has gone before. He is very much like the character Andy Dufrense in the movie The Shawshank Redemption. Andy, played by Tim Robbins, befriends another inmate Red, played by Morgan Freeman, in Shawshank prison. Red has been in prison for the majority of his life and he struggles with hope. Andy repeatedly attempts to give Red hope, but he fears hope will let him down. Andy tells Red of his plans of restoring a boat and sailing it in Mexican waters. He tells Red that he will leave a stash of money hidden under a stone in local field. If Red were to make parole, he could pay for the bus fare to Mexico. One day, Andy escapes from prison and eventually crosses the border of Mexico. Andy sends Red a blank postcard, post-marked from a particular border town, letting Red know that he has found freedom. Red finally does make parole and the end of the movie, pictures Red walking down a Mexican beach towards Andy, who is sun-tanned and working on restoring a boat. Andy was Red’s forerunner. The Christian hope is that Jesus is our forerunner. He has conquered death and returned to the Father’s presence. Because he has gone before us, he can guide us, helping live not only without the burden of sin but with hope—a hope that recognizes that the restoration of shalom is at work now, within us and around us, and that this hope will be realized at a future time when shalom will be fully restored when Jesus ushers us into God’s presence. Then, we will flourish at a global level and at a personal level as God intended.

Mike Bost
Campus Crusade

Community=Hope

2009-11-16T17:22:00.001-05:00

Morning Prayers * MIT Chapel * November 10, 2009

In the fall of 1995, I arrived at the seminary I was to attend excited to meet my classmates. As it turns out they were an impressive bunch: lawyers, professors, a professional calligrapher, most graduates of fancy universities, most accustomed to succeeding at whatever they set out to do. We studied Church history together, we ate together, we prayed together in the chapel three times a day, we planned Holy Week services together, we did service work together, and we socialized together.

By the middle of our second year of seminary, none of us were speaking to one another. We were entirely fed up of one another. Rivalries had bred resentments
and disagreements had festered into deep irritations. We had frustrated one another's project (which was, generally, to shine like a star wherever we went). The ego is the last idol, as Anglican theologian John Macquarrie writes, and we were each clinging to ours like a life bouy.

The mutual, seething silence didn't last forever. Eventually, by the grace of God, we let go of those idols, we forgave one another for the sin of being
human, and we slowly helped one another recompose themselves as a more authentic human being. By the time we graduated, each of us had survived the shipwreck and were able to look back, see how far we had come, give thanks for one another's role in building up one another's capacity to love, and move out into our ministries much clearer about what we had to offer and what we didn't. We spent the next year and a half traveling all over the Midwest attending one another's ordinations, so committed were we to one another's ministry.

Community is the frustration and the fulfillment of the individual (John Macquarrie). We become who we are in community, and that is by design. My Christian faith teaches me that we are created by love, for love, and so we are necessarily relational. Our very personhood is never autonomous, and it is in the rough and tumble of real families, real friendships, real communities that we are shaped into the fullness of ourselves. It is unusually much less romantic than it sounds. But it gives me hope.

One of my favorite things, as a chaplain, is seeing how community mentors a student. In our Lutheran Episcopal Ministry community, we have lots of mountain-top
Experiences -- winter hikes, hymn sings, deeply moving sharing of stories, healing prayers. And all of that is great. But what is even more great, I think, is when things go wrong, when heated words are exchanged or anger voiced, when students are tempted to give up or walk away, but by the grace of God they stick with it, they stick with one another, they are honest about
their feelings and they work back towards relationship, a relationship that feels different now, bringing a self that feels different, too. This process helps them to be less fearful, to trust their voices, and to trust that they will be loved regardless.

Community like this is the real deal. It gives me hope. More than that, I need it. Living as I do in our "Bowling Alone" culture, I need social capital
that will not disappear if I dare to cry or yell or mess up. Communicating as I do in a Twittering world, I need people who will listen to me blather on from
time to time. Working as I do in a time when employers demand super-metrics and double overtime, I need people who will affirm that my value as a person cannot
be measured on a spreadsheet. Bear one another's burdens, Paul wrote to the Galatians. That's really what Jesus was talking about. That's really what
Amos and Hosea were talking about. That's really what God has always been talking about. That gives me hope.

I want to end with an excerpt from one of my favorite essays by one of my favorite authors. This is from Anne Lamott's "Why I make Sam go to church." It's not really about church; it's about communities and hope.

"[My son] Sam is the only kid he knows who goes to church -- who is made to go to church two or three times a month. He rarely wants to. This is not exactly
true: the truth is he never wants to go. What young boy would rather be in church on the weekends than hanging out with a friend?

You might think, noting the bitterness, the resignation, that he was being made to sit through a six-hour Latin mass. Or you might wonder why I make
this strapping, exuberant boy come with me most weeks, and if you were to ask, this is what I would say.

I make him because I can. I outweigh him by nearly seventy-five pounds.

But that is only part of it. The main reason is that I want to give him what I found in the world, which is to say a path and a little light to see by. Most of the people I know who have what I want -- which is to say, purpose, heart, balance, gratitude, joy -- are people in community, who pray, or practice their faith; people banding together to work on themselves and for human rights. They follow a brighter light than the glimmer of their own candle; they are part of something beautiful. I saw something once from the Jewish Theological Seminary that said, "A human life is like a single letter of the alphabet. It can be meaningless. Or it can be a part of a great meaning." Our funky little church is filled with people who are working for peace and freedom, who are out there on the streets and inside praying, and they are home writing letters, and they are at the shelters with giant platters of food.

It's funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox, full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools -- friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty -- and said, Do the best you can with these, they will have to do. And mostly, against all odds, they're enough."

Created from the same dust

2009-11-04T17:04:00.007-05:00

Tuesdays in the Chapel
October 27, 2009
O CHILDREN OF MEN! Know ye not why We created you all fromthe same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the tree of wondrous glory.
-from The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh

In this passage, our redemption as spiritual beings is linked to our realization that we who live on this planet are indeed one family. And yet how far we seem at times from heeding His counsel to live as one human family.

Today I would like to share with you some insights from my tradition, the Bahá’í Faith, on why we should have hope when there is so much going on that can be cause for despair. The Bahá’í writings propose that the human family, collectively, has passed through stages of maturation analogous to infancy and childhood in the life of an individual. The “adulthood” will be a world civilization that functions according to principles of justice and unity. Right now we are passing through an adolescent stage, which is an extremely turbulent period. Teenagers, as we know, often learn the wisdom of adulthood the hard way; so it is with humankind. In this phase, we see both constructive and destructive process. Institutions that function
according to archaic values decline and collapse; this leads to hard and painful times. But it also clears the ground for the building up of new institutions and the cultivation of new ways of life. The processes of decay and destruction grab the headlines, while the constructive processes often go unnoticed, at least in the short run.

Consider race relations in the United States. I live in Cambridge, a city with an African-American mayor in a state with an African-American governor in a country with an African-American president. 150 years ago, slavery was a legally sanctioned institution in the US. Many back then, I am sure, thought that slavery would be around for a long time, that it’s abolition was a “pie in the sky” idea that does
not really accord with human nature. 150 years. Think about that! On a historical time scale, that’s blazingly fast and profound social change. This did not come about through some smooth and orderly progression of rational reforms. There was a lot of turmoil and struggle and sacrifice. But the point is we did succeed in moving forward, not only in terms of the outward legal and social changes,
but also in terms of our inner struggle against prejudice and alienation.

Now we are experiencing an economic crisis. I suggest that this is a blessing in disguise. Indeed the word crisis means a turning point; the Chinese character for crisis is a combination of the idea of “danger” with the idea of “opportunity.” Where is the opportunity in this economic crisis? For one thing, it makes us ask important questions that we would otherwise not be motivated to ask. How can
we devise an economic system that has the dynamism and flexibility of the market, while at the same time fostering the pursuit of something greater than a myopic and narrowly defined bottom line?

How can we learn to talk about such issues in an atmosphere of mutual respect and open-minded investigation, rather than rancorous debate among adherents of rigidly defined ideologies? I obviously don’t propose to answer such big questions in a seven-minute chapel talk. My point is we are asking such questions. And each of us, motivated by the enobling teachings of our faiths, has the power to make a difference and to help the world get to the right answers.

In it’s 1985 statement on peace, the international governing council of the Bahá’í community makes the case for having hope in hard times: A candid acknowledgement that prejudice, war and exploitation have been the expression of immature stages in a vast historical process and that the human race is today experiencing the
unavoidable tumult which marks its collective coming of age is not a reason for despair but a prerequisite to undertaking the stupendous enterprise of building a peaceful world. That such an enterprise is possible, that the necessary constructive forces do exist, that unifying social structures can be erected, is the theme weurge you to examine.

Brian Aull

Richard Yamamoto Memorial

2009-11-02T17:06:00.000-05:00

I wanted to talk today about the word “grace”.
When we see something sublime or beautiful, we say it is graceful.
But, as a noun, a grace is a favor granted us by the world.
All around us, every day, there are hundreds of graces, large and small. Little beautiful things everywhere.
We stop and look at them if we have the time; sometimes we are too busy to notice them.
Richard Yamamoto was seldom too busy – he saw the wonderful things around him, appreciated them and gave thanks.
I will always remember that my conversations with him inevitably began with a remark about some little grace: a tree, the well executed experiment in Junior Lab, frequently a car. There was always something he had just seen or done that had made an impression.
He always seemed grateful for the graces the world had given him and was always ready to share them.
And now, today, I see his life as a grace granted to me and the rest of us.
And today, with you, I am grateful for the life of Richard Yamamoto.

Prof. Peter Fisher
Physics

Tuesdays in the Chapel

2009-10-22T17:49:00.001-04:00

We’re looking at finding hope in hard times. In this parable (The Prodigal Son) that Jesus told, certainly this younger son has fallen upon hard times. But it is the father, too, who has fallen upon hard times. What mother or father does not know the pain of witnessing a son or daughter make poor choices? Those poor choices sometimes throw into question the quality of the parents, resulting in shame or dishonor. What about a spouse who is unfaithful or who has given up hope? Or a friend who now doubts or rejects you? What do you do when those who are dear to you make choices which reflect poorly on your reputation?

Much has been made of the notion that because the father saw the son from a long way off, that the father has been anticipating or hoping for his son’s return. I think this may be true. But when you consider the hard times that the father might have been going through, any notion of joyful anticipation and hope is counter-intuitive. In a culture of honor, the son has not only wasted an inheritance, he has brought shame to his father and his household. Surely, a good father wants to restore a wayward son, but a proud father would certainly have difficult feelings about such a son.

Why do people look in the direction of another from a distance? We can well imagine the son standing in a tavern doorway at night, looking toward his father’s estate half-way through his indulgent excess saying, “Take that, old man.” What drove the son to such prodigal excess? That is the definition of a prodigal, by the way: to be excessive. The parable is known as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. But it may as well too be known as the Parable of the Prodigal Father. The Father is himself excessive. And his excessiveness may be behind how the boy ended up in his own excess.

If you really had a father who was genuinely graceful and giving in every way, embodying both love and truth, justice and mercy, such excessive goodness would be too much to behold. Such incredible love should drive you insane. Such love does not fit our realities. We need a whole lifetime to grasp the unconditional love of God. How can anyone be so genuinely good? As a child, you simply receive such goodness. But as you mature, your response is that you can’t possibly deserve such goodness, so you work hard to justify the goodness that you are surrounded by. You’re not working to earn it ~ you’re working to feel good about having it. You begin to feel justified in being so blessed because after all, you’re good too, by golly. That’s the state of the older brother in the parable, though I regret that we don’t have time to stop and try to understand him today.

But then that feeling gets old. Working to justify the goodness that you are surrounded by is unsatisfying because you weren’t designed to satisfy yourself. You chafe and you twist and you wriggle but you can’t shake the feeling that you now feel even more distant from the source of goodness in your life. When you can’t take the pressure you put on yourself to assure yourself of your worthiness in stoic excess, you turn and begin to assure yourself of your worthiness in nihilistic excess. When that too proves unsatisfying you have nothing left except one thing: to go back to work. To be productive. To serve and to help others. Is that wrong? No. But it’s fruitless and unsatisfying if it’s meant to give your life meaning because nothing you can do will ever give your life meaning. Only God Himself gives you and your life meaning.

Let’s cut to the last scene. The young man has a speech prepared. It sounds very nicely religious, he would get an A in Sunday school for it, but it’s really designed as an instrument of self-justification: “Dad, you have to take me back because I’m sorry and I’m willing to earn my way.” Chances are the boy has refined this speech in anticipation of a disagreement with his dad. One word out of his dad’s mouth and this boy would surely ramp up the speech to twice the intensity with twice the finely tuned arguments.

So what happens? The dad does indeed totally disagree with his son. How? He runs to him, embraces him, kisses him, and doesn’t say a word about his son’s speech. The robe, the ring, the sandals, the calf, they’re all loaded with symbolism about the restored relationship the son now has with the father, in total rejection the son’s proposition. In hard times, when you have been shamed or you have been deeply hurt by another, and that person turns to you, forgive.

You can’t offer an expression of forgiveness until there is readiness to receive. Sure, you have forgiven someone from the moment they turned away! Or, maybe not! But now you have. But if you have to use any words to convince someone that they’re already forgiven, they’ll argue you into the ground that they don’t need your forgiveness or want your forgiveness or deserve your forgiveness. Not once did Jesus expressly say to anyone that they are forgiven except to do so by healing them at the same time. His healing was an expression of His forgiveness that was already true. God’s forgiveness, His excessive prodigal grace, is already yours. He awaits your turning to Him to receive His love and mercy. He doesn’t need your words, He doesn’t want your words; He wants only you.

Dave Thom

Finding Hope in Hard Times

2009-10-16T10:58:00.000-04:00

Finding Hope in Hard Times

Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi

Hope is in the acceptance of the fact that things change. Hope is in the acceptance of the monsoon after the scorching heat of summer; the accepting of autumn before the winter’s serene snow covers the ground in white velvet; hope is in the dormant stages of the green grass ready to come up in the spring; and the flower encased in a bud ready to blossom at the right time, not hastened by the expectations of the observer. Hope is like the sun that shines in the sky, at times covered with layers of clouds, but one knows that it is there at all times. Hope is in letting go of things that have withered away and in embracing the new. It is not a matter of “finding” hope but a simple gentle act of reminding oneself that it is always there—just beneath your feet, within your heart, and on the horizon.

Buddhists do not dismiss or overlook the hard times but simply accept them as part of the unfolding cosmic drama, a drama that we all take part in. However, we do have a tendency to harden our heart during hard times by giving in to our “primal” sense of fear, insecurity, jealousy, anger, and low self-esteem. In some ways this hardened attitude just magnifies our experience of difficult times and reinforces our negative destructive emotions, thereby weakening our emotional and physical immune system as we face into challenges that lie ahead. Imagine walking on a dark rainy night and trembling with fear as you see what appears to be a coiled snake in your path. Lightning strikes and you see that it was just a coiled piece of rope and with a deep out-breath your fear vanishes. This flash of lightning is hope.

Hope is not just a matter of faith for the blind but requires us to cultivate courage and strength. There are several unknown factors in one’s life. The very fact that we go to sleep every night hoping to wake up the next day is an act of faith. Hope is just a natural way of being human—it is the foundation for “eternal” optimism of the religious or the realistic sanguinity of the secular. There is no other way to look at another moment or another day but with this sense of emerging hope. It is possible with every fresh breath to gain a new sense of hope and of confidence within oneself to do just the right thing with the time and energy one has-- right here, right now.

Be in gratitude; develop a sense of humor; smile often; be kind to others, and compassionate to oneself—all of these cultivate hope and give this life of ours a wonderful sense of meaning.

Second Chances

2009-10-02T11:13:00.003-04:00

Tuesday in the Chapel
September 29, 2009

(1 Samuel 13:13-14 NIV) [13] "You acted foolishly," Samuel said. "You have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. [14] But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD'S command."

Lately I have been thinking a lot about second chances. Last evening I sat through a discipline hearing for a student and felt the old hope that the young person would be given a chance to try again. Living in a dormitory we often deal with students who need a second chance, but the voice in my head also lets me know there is little sympathy for bleeding hearts. “You always want to give them another chance.” it says.

This sentiment has come to the fore because of the conduct on at the national level by John Edwards, but the problem of bad behavior seems to be an occupational malady of public officials who seem never to note that their sense of invincibility is seriously compromised and they never seem to note the impact of their behavior on others. In Edwards case his attractive and dying wife stands out as do the images of his young children. And of course there is the other woman and the child resulting from their liason. I think I would prefer to shoot those who behave as he has, but I cannot. I hope he has a chance to live a long and redemptive life.

We also have stories that remind us such a life is possible for public figures. Such is the tale of Ted Kennedy. His story should be a gospel text for those who believe in redemption. For many of us his pubic career should have ended at Chappaquiddick. It didn’t. It could have ended after the incident in Florida with his nephew imitating his bad behavior. It didn’t. When he died the stories told made us realize his contributions to the story of our Repubic and we were forced to rethink his life. He was more than many of us thought as his peers and critics were quick to to tell us. He lived long enough to achieve public redemption that some only find in memory when the edges are worn down and the wounds healed.

In the Bible there are lots of second chances. King David stands out for his ability to lead a long and convoluted life that could be described as redemptive. Condemned by his own prophets, guilty of adultery and the abuse of power he came to be known as one who was beloved by God. His story is instructive.

The point is that his hard times gave way to hope and constructive actions. He was able to redeem his time. The Bible is a book of second chances and it is appropriate on this day after Yom Kippur that we give attention to clearing the deck and starting over. When I think of strategies for coping with hard times, difficult outcomes, hard decisions, the notion that tomorrow can be better than today is important. Equally important is the notion that we do not need to go into tomorrow bearing the sins and failings of yesterday.

Let us pray: God may we be wise enough to believe in second chances; strong enough to offer them to all.
Amen.

Finding Hope

2009-09-22T10:26:00.002-04:00

Tuesdays in the Chapel at MIT is a new weekly morning period of reflection and meditation led by members of the chaplaincy and the MIT community. These are the words of the Chaplain to the Institute, Robert M. Randolph.

Thoughts for the day:

Romans: 8:38 and 39: “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any thing else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As a Christian this text is a concise statement of what often gets me through the day. I believe that in the presence of death and when overwhelmed by the challenges of life, God remains with me/us. We cannot be separated from the love and care of God. The loss of family members, the deaths of good friends- I have done a memorial service a month this year and often more than one- the loss of jobs, declining savings, hopelessness is not surprising. Graduation in June, usually the most hopeful of moments, was marked by the anxiety of those who had not found jobs.

Yet I have been shocked by the hopelessness that has translated into anger and incivility in our country as people have attacked one another at town meetings and vilified our elected leaders in ways that would have been unthinkable in recent memory. The radical left seems to have been not as creative as they thought. Alfred E. Neuman as President does not hold a candle to our President being likened to Hitler.

As we go into fall many for good reason feel despair. Religious people are not unfamiliar with that emotion. Think for a moment of the Israelites on the edge of the wilderness, the Christian community pre-Easter morning. Christianity grew out of a hopeless situation. The Easter experience is the experience of finding hope in the most dire of circumstance. The Christian response shaped the world. In Paul’s words in 2nd Cor. 4:8 “We are afflicted in everyway but not crushed, perplexed but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed…
Christians believe that Jesus conquered death; therefore there is nothing the world can do to us that can destroy hope. So it is a paradox that those claiming to wear the name of Jesus, find their hope in anger that pits friend against friend rather than in dialogue that allows for conversation and compromise. Peter Gomes likes to say that Christian hope is less about Jesus than it is about us. If Jesus has taken the sting of death away, how are we to live? And for Jesus I do not think the answer to that question is that we are to live as mean-spirited, frightened, foolish folk who wear side-arms to demonstrate that we are not afraid.
Christians know that death is not the end of the story; they learned that their struggles ere not the end of the story. So too with us. We live in this moment called to make a better world, to heal its broken places so that our children and their children will not inherit fear, but the hope of problems solved and good will triumphant. Peace is possible; do not listen to those who say we must always give into our fears. Reform in health care is doable; the economy can be reborn. As a child I grew up knowing the fear of the stranger who did not look like me; I was taught to fear those who were of different color from my family , those who talked differently were to be avoided. Time and hard work has changed that world; there is no reason why the problems we face will not respond the hard work of reasonable men and women. This is God’s work and God is at work with us in remaking our world.

Let us pray: God give us courage as we face the challenges of our time; give us hope that will sustain us.

Hear our prayer.

Robert M. Randolph

Tuesday's In the Chapel: Hope in Hard Times

2009-09-08T17:38:00.002-04:00

On September 22, 2009 we are going to do something at MIT we have not done before--or at least I do not think we have done it before--we are going to begin a series of weekly gatherings in the chapel. There will be a theme for the year. This beginning series will have as its theme: "Finding hope in hard times". We will gather each Tuesday morning when MIT is in session at 8:30 AM for 20 minutes. There will be music, words of inspiration and an opportunity to find focus for the week.

To some it is counter-intuitive to add another "meeting" to already busy schedules, but some of us believe that we can find inspiration in the shared thoughts of friends, students, and the great religious traditions of our world. I invite you to send me your favorite resources for inspiration so that we might draw on them to shape our time together. In turn, I will let you know what happens with this modest experiment.

The Chaplain to the Institute will speak on the 22nd and the 29th. Other chaplains and members of the community will follow. Come and join us!

The School Year Begins

2009-08-28T15:33:00.002-04:00

The summer is nearly over. You can tell it is nearly September. Early in the day, should you be up , the sun has not risen and the Globe awaits on the edge of darkness. Come November the morning will be light and the evening dark but now the sound of travel cases is heard on the sidewalk as frosh arrive. They come from every corner of our world and they bring with them the stuff of their lives: clothes to wear, music to listen to, phones to connect them with family and friends, faiths to live by, with and over against. The Chaplaincy begins to stir and W-ll is alive with activity.

On August 28 Hillel Shabbat Services at 6 PM followed by a community dinner.

On August 29 Hillel Orthodox Shabbat Services will be held at 9:00 in W-11 with lunch at 12:00 pm.

On Sunday, August 30th, Orientation begins and services will be held across campus. Some are surprised by the amount of religious activity on campus; they shouldn't be. MIT is a diverse community with a plethora of faith communities represented. W-11, on the corner of Amherst Street and Massachusetts Avenue is the center of religious activities.

On August 30:

The Tech Catholic Community will gather for at 9 AM for Mass in Kresge.

A Welcome Worship Service will be held at 9:30 AM in the MIT Chapel sponsored by the Lutheran Episcopal Ministry and the Protestant Student Community.

The Baptist Brunch and service will be held in W-11, the Main Dining Room at 9:30.

These services precede the President's Convocation at 11 AM in Killian Court (Rain location, Rockwell Cage).

In the afternoon, the Chaplain to the Institute will officiate at the wedding David Griffith and Emily Huhn. Their wedding will be the eighth wedding I have officiated at since school ended in May.

In the weeks ahead, many activities originating with our religious communities will take place. For example:

The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values

The Attention Revolution
a multimethod inquiry into meditation, cognition, emotion, and motivation

Speakers: Cilfford Saron and B. Alan Wallace

September 11, 2009 at 6PM
Venue: MIT (TBA)

Addir Fellows
"From Womb to Tomb: Cultural and Religious Practices of Life Cycle Events among World Religions"
Main Dining Room in W11 on Tues. 9/22 7:30 PM

The Chaplain's Seminar
October 21, 2009
7:30 PM
"Searching for God in Godforsaken Times and Places"
Dr. Hubert G. Locke
Location: TBA

Watch for other events in this vibrant world wide community of faiths.

May by Garrison Keillor

2009-07-10T11:35:00.002-04:00

With July 4th past, it seems time to note this sonnet.

We're here to honor those who went to war
And did not mean to die, but did die, grievously,
In eighteen sixty-one and in two-thousand four
though they were amiable as you or me.
Young and hopeful, knowing little of horror--
Singers and athletes, and gently bred.
Good sergeants turned them into warriors,
and at the end, they were moving straight ahead.
As we look on these gravestones, row on row on row,
See the men as they were, laughing and joking,
On that bright irreverent morning long ago,
And once more, let our hearts be broken.
God have mercy on them for their unhappy gift.
May we live the good lives they might have lived.

Keillor, 77 Love Sonnets, p.115 (2009)

The Dalai Lama was here!

2009-05-02T10:33:00.003-04:00

This past week on Wednesday and Thursday the Dalai Lama visited MIT. He blessed the Mandala in Simmons Hall, planted a tree to remind us of his visit and then spoke in Kresge Auditorium to an admiring audience. He is 73 years old, self-deprecating, thoughtful and wise. He is a symbol of the aspirations of the Tibetan people for their homeland. He seems to realize that what is desired will more likely be gained through greater freedom within China rather than through the freedom of Tibet itself.

Here at MIT, however, he focused on the establishment of the Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values. As the Center claims its place here at MIT it will complement other programs that give our students opportunities to ask "Why?" questions along with the "How?" questions they are so good at answering. If all goes as plans the Center will partner with others to interject into the MIT experience a clear component of moral reasoning. This has been a concern here since the Institute was founded, but it took on special significance in the aftermath of World War 2 and during the presidency of James Killian. Killian built the MIT Chapel and Kresge Auditorium, The Meetinghouse of MIT, to encourage dialogue about matters of meaning. His dream was deferred by the Cold War, but efforts like the Technology and Culture Forum have keep the flame alive. Now complemented by the Center a rising tide of concern for ethical behavior should raise all our efforts in this realm. It is appropriate that the Center resides in Religious Life for it draws on the great teachers of the religious world while speaking to all of human kind in a voice that is shaped not only by religious tradition, but also by the voices and wisdom of non-believers.

What will be accomplished? If we are true to our intent, we will be part of the effort to prepare MIT students for intentional, moral lives in a world sorely tested by greed and the lack of compassion. His Holiness reminded us of our purpose and we are grateful that he passed this way.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

this week-end

2009-04-09T16:03:00.002-04:00

This week the Religious Activities Center lives up to its name. Passover began last night. Christians will observe Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. The Muslim community will have their regular noon prayers on Friday overflowing into the main dining room. The Christians in our community will be moving back and forth to the chapel as Catholics and Protestants observe Good Friday. On Sunday St. Paul's AME Church will have it's Easter Service in Kresge and that evening Dr. Heidi Baker will hold a worship service at 7:30 in Kresge.

It is a vital and respectful time as all of these traditions observe important rituals and intersect as they meet each other. The space we share at MIT means that there is a foundation of respect that fosters civility and humility before differences. In these difficult times, economically and religiously, observing this interaction may be the best sermon one can hear on Easter.

This is also a time for families to come together. My wife and I will be in Denver with our daughter for Easter. While single, she has a community of friends and family who join her for a celebratory meal. It is a good time of the year as the world tilts a bit toward warmth and we observe rebirth all around us.

For students this is a time of renewed focus as they point toward the end of the school year. Observed religious traditions for many make the final push more palatable and friendships often cross religious boundaries once thought impermeable. It is a good time to remember that things do change.

blessings,

Robert M. Randolph

Maundy Thursday

2009-04-08T09:46:00.002-04:00

I thought some checking this blog would enjoy knowing what is going on in the MIT chapel this week; here are the plans for the Lutheran Episcopal Ministry for today.

Maundy Wednesday FAQs:

Q: Why is LEM celebrating Maundy Thursday on a Wednesday?
A: Habit -- We normally meet on a Wednesday night, so we decided to keep to that
during Holy Week.

Q: Where is the service tomorrow?
A: In the Main Dining Room of W11 at 5:15 pm, because we'll be eating dinner as
part of our worship service.

Q: Sounds weird. Why would we do that?
A: Because Maundy Wednesday commemorates the Last Supper, so like Jesus and the
disciples on that night, we will gather at the table to bless, break, and share
bread (and olives, fruit, cheese, other simple foods).

Q: Why is it called "Maundy" something?
A: The Latin word for "commandment" is "maundatum," from which we get "maundy."
The whole evening centers around Christ's commandment to his disciples that we
love one another as he loves us.

Q: Can we love one another without washing one another's feet?
A: Yes, but Jesus washed his disciples' feet on the last night of his life as a
sign of love for them. Following his example, we'll be invited to participate
in footwashing.

Q: Do I have to?
A: No, you can do so if you'd like, or you can simply pray, meditate, and sing
while other's participate.

Q: Will the water be warm?
A: Yes.

Q: Will there be a collection, like we usually do on Wednesdays?
A: We will take up a collection, but this one will be special. It is an old
traditions (like, centuries old) that the collections during Holy Week go to
support the work of the church in the Holy Land. Our collection from Wednesday
and Friday this week will go to Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem and the
Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, both of which do amazing work supporting those
in need.

Q: Will there be a sermon?
A: Nope. But there will be a time for sharing a story or remembrance about a way
that you have experienced "agape," or unconditional love. You might think about
that ahead of time & consider what & whether you might share something.

Q: How will tomorrow's service end?
A: We will end in silence, leaving without chatting with one another, without a
dismissal or blessing. The service will continue on Friday at noon in the
Chapel.

Q: What if I have a class on Friday at noon?
A: Good Friday is a recognized religious holiday; if you let your
instructor/professor/advisor know ahead of time of your plan to attend the
service, Institute policy is that you should be excused.

Veritas Forum at MIT

2009-03-03T14:53:00.001-05:00

The Veritas Forum at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
March 11-14, 2009

Presenters
Mia Chung
World-class concert pianist
Mia Chung is a world-class concert pianist, described by the New York Times as "Uncommonly insightful, individualistic, lively" and "technically dazzling". In 1997, she received the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the highest recognition for young concert artists in the United States and her debut recording on the Channel Classics label was selected as "Best of the Year".
An active recitalist, known for her combinations of performance and engaging talk, Mia has performed in major concert halls around the world. Chosen as an Artistic Ambassador by the United States Information Agency in 1993, Ms. Chung toured Thailand, Singapore, Tonga and the former Soviet Union, becoming the first American pianist to perform in Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan and Turkmenistan.
Mia grew up in the Washington, D.C. area. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and received a master's degree from Yale University and a doctorate from the Juilliard School. Mia is currently Artist-in-Residence and Professor of Music at Gordon College.
Gerald Gabrielse
Leverett Professor of Physics at Harvard University
Gerald Gabrielse has been a Professor of Physics at Harvard University since 1987 and chaired the physics department from 2000-2003. He has given nearly 345 invited talks at scientific conferences and university colloquia, and is the author of more than 135 scientific publications.
Gabrielse has been honored by Harvard, both for his teaching and for his research. In 2000, his "Reality Physics" course for non-science students earned him the Harvard's Levenson Teaching Award for exceptional undergraduate teaching by senior faculty. In 2004, Gabrielse received Harvard's George Ledlie Prize for his scientific accomplishment of creating and observing antimatter atoms -- a prize awarded every two years to someone affiliated with the University who "has by research, discovery or otherwise made the most valuable contribution to science, or in any way for the benefit of mankind."
Gabrielse’s physics research activities are currently focused upon antihydrogen experiments, upon measuring the electron magnetic moment and the fine structure constant, and upon precise laser spectroscopy of helium.
Kevin Gosa
Award-winning saxophonist and Conference Director for the International Arts Movement
Kevin Gosa is a progressive saxophonist and two-time co-recipient of the DownBeat Magazine Award for Best Collegiate Instrumental Chamber Ensemble. He challenges people’s preconceptions about how the saxophone should sound and what it should play, by performing what is generally considered 'classical' music in places where it's not often heard. Based in New York, Kevin has performed at The Knitting Factory, the Bitter End, the Joyce SOHO, the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the Bowery Poetry Club, the Stain Bar, as well as Grace Church Van Vorst and the Brennan Courthouse in Jersey City. Kevin has turned his attention recently to composition. One of his original compositions for solo saxaphone – “The Number One” – will be of particular interest to students at MIT!
Kevin received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Saxophone from the University of Kansas. He is an active member of and Membership/Conference Director for the International Arts Movement, attends the Village Church; enjoys writing poetry; and ran the 2007 ING New York City Marathon in just over 4 hours. For a little extra fun, Kevin plays guitar, bass guitar, and mandolin.
Eric Gregory
Assistant Professor of Religion, Princeton University
Eric Gregory joined the faculty of Princeton in 2001. His teaching and research interests include religious and philosophical ethics, theology, political theory, bioethics, and the role of religion in public life. In 2007 he was awarded Princeton's President's Award for Distinguished Teaching. A graduate of Harvard College, he did graduate studies in theology at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and received his doctorate in religious studies from Yale University. He is the author of Politics and the Order of Love: An Augustinian Ethic of Democratic Citizenship (Chicago, 2008), and various articles on religion and social ethics, including “Before the Original Position: The Neo-Orthodox Theology of the Young John Rawls” (Journal of Religious Ethics, 2007). He has received fellowships from the Erasmus Institute, University of Notre Dame, the Safra Foundation Center for Ethics, Harvard University, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His current project examines secular and religious perspectives on global justice in light of the reception history of the parable of the Good Samaritan.
John Hare
Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School
John Hare is a British classicist, ethicist, and currently Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School. Educated at Oxford and Princeton, he was Professor of Philosophy at Lehigh University from 1975 to 1989. He was Professor of Philosophy at Calvin College from 1989 to 2003. He has been Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale University since 2003.
Hare's best-known book, The Moral Gap, develops an account of the need for God's assistance in meeting the moral demand of which God is the source. In God's Call he discusses the divine command theory of morality, analyzing texts in Duns Scotus, Kant and contemporary moral theory. In Why Bother Being Good? he gives a non-technical treatment of the questions, 'Can we be morally good?' and 'Why should we be morally good?'. He has also written a commentary on Plato's Euthyhphro in the Bryn Mawr series, and Ethics and International Affairs, with Carey B. Joynt. His interests extend to ancient philosophy, medieval Franciscan philosophy, Kant, Kierkegaard, contemporary ethical theory, the theory of the atonement, medical ethics and international relations (he has worked in a teaching hospital and for the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives) and aesthetics (he is a published composer of church music).
Ian Hutchinson, Moderator
Head of Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT
Robert Randolph, Panel Moderator
Chaplain to the Institute, MIT
Peter Singer
Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University
Peter Singer is Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University and Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne. He first became internationally known after the publication of Animal Liberation in 1975, which had a significant impact on the Animal Rights Movement. Singer has been described by The New Yorker as “the most influential living philosopher” and named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. His work dealing with ethics and aspects of human life has generated intense debate within the academy as well as in the wider community.
Singer was educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford and has taught at the University of Oxford, La Trobe University and Monash University. He was the founding President of the International Association of Bioethics and, with Helga Kuhse, founding co-editor of the journal Bioethics. His many books include: Democracy and Disobedience; Practical Ethics; The Expanding Circle; Marx; Hegel; The Reproduction Revolution, Should the Baby Live?, How Are We to Live?, Rethinking Life and Death; One World; Pushing Time Away; The President of Good and Evil; and, with Jim Mason, The Ethics of What We Eat. His latest publication is entitled The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty.

New Lutheran Chaplain at MIT

2009-02-24T12:01:00.002-05:00

Installation of Timothy Seitz
Lutheran Chaplain at MIT
February 18, 2009
Texts: Isaiah 6:1-8
Job. 32:1-10
Gospel Lesson: Luke 6:276-38

As the Season of Epiphany draws to a close, we turn our attention next week to the beginning of Lent and journey to the cross. The rhythm of the seasons reflect what is going on outside as the light lengthens. In our bones we know that spring is nearer than it once was and there are cautious blades of hope emerging from the dark of winter. Just do not talk about it. This next Sunday we will celebrate the Transfiguration of Jesus and share with Peter his valiant effort to make sense of the world in which he found himself living.

Like Peter we are sometimes a bit confused. We are at the end of one season and the beginning of another. In all of this transition here is Timothy Seitz, well named, well thought of, inviting us to formally recognize his new role here at MIT. It is not as if he has not been working with Amy and the troops of LEM for months, but even at MIT we sometimes stop and look at what we are doing and intentionally say: “God help us”. And that is what we are about today: we are asking God to bless in a special way the ministry here that is Tim’s.

Given the season, the timing, we might frame the question this way: "Tim, are you a light to the Gentiles or a cause for penance?" I have, you see, listened to the texts for the evening and they give me pause. The words of Isaiah are well known reminders to the faithful of the need to go and serve where God calls us. We have seen these last months Tim’s willingness to do just that. Chalk up one for “light”

Job’s friend, Elihu, is quick to remind us that youth is not a hindrance to service. It was Garrison Keillor who noted that “Many say wisdom comes with age, truth be told sometimes age comes alone.” Tim may be the youngest of our current chaplains, but we do not hold his age against him. Tim is after all not Elihu. But I will just note the facts and chalk one up for the possibility of penance.

Our Gospel text has offered familiar comfort to both young and old with the charge to love, to serve, to practice mercy and to refrain from judgment. This is important stuff if one wants to be a chaplain at MIT; it is important stuff if one wants to be a whole human being. I spent some time recently with a student who had become a Christian only a few years ago and as she came to the end of her academic career, she found herself drawn closer to the Christ she had found in the Bible, the Christ who could suggest to his followers “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.” But, why, she asked, are Christians so judgmental of other Christians? It is a good question that we all must answer.

But Tim, let me move from the reflective to the directive. It is appropriate to be clear that you come to this community as light, but it is also not inappropriate to shift the focus: you have answered God’s call by coming here. There are many gods at MIT, but you come as the servant of the God of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. That is an important distinction. Sometimes you will wonder who you are serving.

MIT is a place where problems are solved, puzzles completed, progress defined. The covenant is often very personal: “There is a mountain and I can climb it. There is a problem and I can solve it.” The “Why” questions: why climb the mountain? Why solve the problem? are not often asked. Having discovered new life forms and being asked on NPR how they felt when they thought about what they had done, some MIT students recently drew back in silence finally offering in response that they really had not given it much thought, they were after all only problem solvers. To paraphrase the Apostle Paul, “You can do anything you want to do, but not everything you do is helpful.” Your task, Tim, is to help this community ask the big questions: why are we here? Who do we serve? What is helpful?

Tim, as a chaplain who has answered God’s call to MIT, you have the chance to help us all reorder our lives around those things that are true, honorable, just and pure (Philippians 4:4). You must in Sharon Park’s words speak of “God as the gift of faith…an orienting consciousness that is both transcendent and immanent, both ultimate and intimate. (Parks, p.23) Such a God calls us away from the covenant of one into community and our commitment to one another will help us make a better world.

Now about your relative youth, Tim! It is a cause for penance only when it creates envy in those my age. You bring to us experiences in ministry elsewhere; you have zeal that is commensurate with your age, but that I am sure you do not always feel given that you are a new parent. I would like to tell you that you will get over it, but the truth is, you will never get over it. You will simply adjust. As the new chaplain you do not know what you cannot do and that means for the rest of us you can ask questions that we cannot ask since we are supposed to know the answers. Put another way, we can all benefit from your fresh insights. It is a great blessing to offer to a community a new set of eyes through which to see the world.

Even as you ask hard questions, listen carefully; there are some things that only experience can teach. If you do not listen you cannot measure the effectiveness of your work. I tell people that you will need time to get things in perspective and before you can measure how effective you are so do not be too hard on yourself. Your predecessors have served lengthy terms and done good work. You will do well to follow their example.

Finally, the Gospel text reminds us that we live in a diverse world that makes unique demands. As God’s person you do not have all the answers to the questions you will face here; you are not called to have all the answers. You are called to show up, to listen and to draw on your training, your experience and to lean on your peers. In your cooperative ministry Amy is a gift beyond measure; I suspect you already know that.

This is not a one size fits all circumstances kind of place. You will have to improvise, to think on your feet, to draw deeply from your prayer life, your devotional resources. You will not always know what to say or do; there are people at MIT who do not think you belong here. That is true in the church as well, but here they are not bashful about telling you their feelings. Be willing to be quiet and to listen.

You come to us well trained and I believe it is a blessing for you and for us that you will also serve a parish. That environment will help keep you grounded in the concerns of people some of us seldom see. They will tell you how “awesome” it is to be a chaplain at MIT and you will remind them it is “awesome” to be a pastor at Faith Lutheran.

Finally, Tim, let me remind you that your immediate predecessors here at MIT have been women of great faith and great ability. You stand on strong shoulders and I know their prayers join ours in support of your ministry.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

The Shoulders We Stand On

2009-02-13T15:16:00.002-05:00

William Weed Kaufmann died in December. He had retired from MIT's department of Political Science twenty four years ago. He then spent time at Harvard. He was 90 when he died. Sitting in the quiet of the chapel and listening to the words spoken about him, I thought that it would have been nice if every MIT student could have heard about Dr. Kaufmann and his willingness to speak truth to power. John Deutch called it "speaking facts to power". Kaufmann served every defense secretary from 1961-1981; the list ran from Robert McNamara to Harold Brown. He was not afraid to criticize even policies he had helped formulate as he did with the notion of mutual destruction. He argued for a more nuanced policy that offered chances to step back from the edge of war. William Kaufmann was a man of courage who taught a generation of analysts who shaped American nuclear policy.

He had outlived friends as well as enemies, but his legacy gave me pause as I remembered how it had been to work with him on the Committee on Academic Performance in his last years at the Institute. He brought to the work of an involved faculty member the same kind of low key courage; he was interested in doing the right thing and it did not matter who got the credit. He wanted the facts to speak for themselves and they did.

MIT is a heady place and it has an impact on the wider world. That impact is more humane because of Bill Kaufmann and those of like mind. I see in our current community people he could relate to because they value the things he valued: virtue over visibility, right over might and a sense of realism that allowed bromides to mean something. As the chaplaincy evolves I think William Kaufmann would have been pleased.

Good Religion/Bad Religion

2009-01-14T14:24:00.002-05:00

Last night we gathered on the steps of 77 Massachusetts Ave. to show our support for peace in Gaza. It was a small group of students, Christians, Jews and Muslims and probably a few uncommitted fellow travelers. Amnesty International was represented. Having been asked to speak, here is what I said:

January 13, 2009
Vigil for Peace
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge

My Friends, you are not gathered here to hear me, but rather to show your support those who support the peace process in Gaza. We are gathered here because we value peace. There is a bumper sticker making the rounds these days that contrasts the costs of war with the cost of peace. Peace is priceless. We believe that.

This does not mean that we are naïve. But it does mean that Israel should not have to deal with Hamas rockets targeting its cities and towns. The citizens of Gaza, Christian, Muslims and Jews should not be caught in the crossfire. For peace to be achieved we need leaders who are willing to bear the burden of peacemaking. We look to Washington to support the peace process, but closer to home we take upon ourselves the burden of being those who support peace.

We are here this evening to bear our witness to that noble cause.
We are here to say to Israel that a war that puts civilians at risk—current casualties put the dead and wounded civilians, men women and children at an unacceptable level—cannot achieve the purposes Israel seeks.

We are here to say to Hamas, that the destruction of Israel is not a viable goal and the willingness to use civilians for political purposes is inhumane.

We are here to say: stand down, step back, learn forgiveness.

Let our prayer be:

We shall not rejoice when our enemy falls;
We shall not exult when our enemy stumbles.

Never shall we say: I will do to them as they have done to me; I will repay them according to their deeds.

We shall not hate one another in our hearts; we shall love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

Amen

The religious sentiment that sees the value in all of human kind, that cares for our world because it is our home and we bear responsibility for its well being, is a sentiment worth endorsing, commending and practicing. I think of religion as portrayed in two recent movies: Charlie Wilson's War and The Kite Runner. In both films Islamic Fundamentalism is offered as a counterpoint to those who care for the stranger, and are willing to live with the ambiguity of modern life. There are Jews and Christians who could just as easily have played the role. Last evening here at MIT I was privileged to stand with young people whose religious commitment opens them to the world and calls for peace. These young people will change the world.

Religion and the Election

2008-12-11T18:04:00.003-05:00

Those of you who are having trouble coming down from pre-election highs will find the new MIT World offering, Religion and the Election: What do we think we know?, worth a peek. Go to the MIT home page and click on Videos. Shaun Casey of Wesley Theological Seminary and Alan Wolfe of Boston College talk about how things were playing out in the run up to the vote. This was the second annual Chaplain's Seminar.

On campus things have quieted down as exams approach. Last evening the Lutheran-Episcopal Ministry held their annual Lessons and Carols. It was a lovely, candle-lit evening followed by caroling and dinner. Earlier in the week MIT paused for cider and cookies in Lobby 7. Hard work seldom gives way to reflection at MIT, but this week a lot of people are doing a lot of thinking about what is important. The weather is contributing as it is cold, wet and dark. It will be better come Christmas. This Sunday at Harvard's Memorial Church you can attend a traditional Lessons and Carols at 5 PM. On Monday the time is 8 PM. Come early!

This season is also a good time to give thought to the topic of Kathleen Norris' new book: Acedia and Me: A Marriage, Monks and a Writer's Life (Riverhead, 2008). Acedia is the spiritual aspect of sloth, often mistaken for depression, and treated by spiriitual disciplines. Norris knows depression and acedia. Her skill as a writer makes this part memoir, part theological reflection a restorative read for a holiday known for its emotional highs and lows.

Let me also point out for you a class to be offered in the spring--24.S10 Undergraduate Ethics Seminar To contact those involved go to web.mit.edu/tac/ethics This is a small step taken to introduce students to the need for ethical reflection in the work they do in and beyond MIT. It is a slight beginning, but one with great promise.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-04T09:59:00.002-05:00

Now that the holiday is past, I find myself dealing with the implications of its passing. For example, in an academic setting such as MIT, we are on the edge of final exams. Usually when Thanksgiving comes earlier, we have three weeks to get ready for finals and then a few days to wrap up details and exams follow. This year, no such luck. There are ten days, the wrapping up, and finals begin. That means everyone is about a week behind.

For students, especially frosh, it is jolting. The good news is that most adjust and my sense this year is that the trajectory of the year is ok. For faculty and staff, there is a the recognition that it all comes pretty quickly, but given the economy the pressure seems off on the gift giving: light and easy is the mantra.

The economic downturn balances out the normal hopeful sentiment that follows an election. The news at MIT is 5% cuts each year for the next three and the fear is that this is just the beginning. This is where thinking about Thanksgiving comes in handy. To give thanks for what we have pulls us away from our fears--even if for a moment. Let me suggest some of the things we are thankful for:

That we live in a nation where the transfer of political power occurs without disruption and danger.

That we are at an institution where hard times are manageable--even if painful--and the values of the institution remain constant.

That we are in a region of the country known for its beauty and the depth of cultural opportunities.

That we live aware of divine presence and purpose; from the Pilgrims until today Bostonians live in the presence of the sacred. We joke about it, i.e. God dangles the Red Sox over our hearts each year. We see it when we visit Plymouth Rock. We hear it when we walk near Park Street Church on Sunday afternoon or Symphony Hall.

Each of us has blessings to be grateful for: family, friends, work that draws out our best, projects that give meaning. We have needs as well: for health, for friends, for meaning.

This time of year challenges us at MIT to do something we find hard: to be introspective. To ask why is harder than simply solving a problem. It is a process we need to practice so we can do it better. I am grateful to be so challenged and I hope you are as well.
Robert M. Randolph

A new offering for the spring: The Technology and Culture Forum at MIT offers an Undergraduate Ethics Seminar 24.S10
see web.mit.edu/tac/ethics

World Aids Day

2008-11-20T17:14:00.001-05:00

The AIDS crisis . . .

AIDS is the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time, leaving an entire generation of orphans and vulnerable children in jeopardy. Around the world, another person dies because of AIDS every 15 seconds.

Mothers. Fathers. Children. Farmers. Teachers. Gone.

Nearly 33 million people live with HIV.

Last year alone, more than 2.5 million people were infected.

6,000 people die every day because of AIDS.

. . . another person dies every 15 seconds.
Source: AIDS Epidemic Update, UNAIDS, December 2006

By 2010, more than 20 million children will be orphaned due to AIDS.

By 2020, AIDS could kill up to 12 percent of Africa's workforce - as many as 58 million people.

. . . this crisis will not go away by itself.
Sources: UNICEF, August 2006; International Labour Organization, November 2006

Monday, December 1 is World AIDS Day. Many in the MIT Community have been planning ways in which each of us could be involved in this campus wide and global wide effort. MIT has been doing research for years on eradicating the AIDS virus and many of you have directly or indirectly contributed to this ongoing effort. One of the UN Millennium Development Goals is aimed at the issue of AIDS.

Listed below are several ways for you to participate on 12/1:

11:00 am – 5:00 pm: The MIT Board of Chaplains will host a "time of reflection" in the MIT Chapel. Pick up material for reflection in learning about the AIDS pandemic; light a candle for some one you know who is suffering or may have died from AIDS; Write a note of compassion to a friend who has HIV; meditate on prayers submitted from various religious traditions; ask a chaplain for comfort and encouragement.

11:00 am – 3:00 pm: Stop by Lobby 10 and pick up your World AIDS Day commemorative ribbon to show your support for those suffering from and affected by AIDS. Sponsored by lbgt@mit and MIT Medical.

5:30 pm – 7:00 pm: Two Brave Lovers – South Park Sparks Conversation on HIV/AIDS, which will take place in the Rainbow Lounge, Bldg 50-005. Sponsored by lbgt@mit, CHPW, and MIT Medical Center.

7:00 pm: The Technology and Culture Forum is bringing Elizabeth Pisani, author of "The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS" at the MIT Museum.

The MIT Sloan Fellows are supporting an ongoing effort called World Vision Boston AIDS Africa. This effort is to build kits to provide to caregivers to AIDS patients in the poorest areas of Africa. (www.BostonAIDsAfrica.com). They are trying to raise enough money for 1000 kits, at $30 apiece. For information and to donations, visit: www.firstgiving.com/irisbombelyn.

More information on these and other events:

http://web.mit.edu/worldaidsday/2008/

New Lutheran Chaplain at MIT

2008-11-13T15:26:00.001-05:00

New to MIT

My name is Tim Seitz and I a pastor in the Lutheran Church (ELCA) and I have recently been appointed Lutheran Chaplain to MIT. I am married to Kathryn Lohre and we recently had our first child, John. I have been serving at Faith Lutheran Church in Cambridge for two years as the assistant pastor. This summer I was invited to come and work for the Lutheran and Episcopal ministries at MIT. Amy McCreath is the Episcopal priest that I have the great privilege of working with. I have been serving as the Lutheran Chaplain for just over two months now and I have yet to figure my way around MIT.

Aside from getting turned around in the infinite corridor, there are so many different groups, events, faculty, staff, and resources available at MIT that it is impossible to keep them all straight in my mind. I absolutely love it! I have never served as a chaplain in campus ministry before so I have little to go on; that said, I believe MIT has one of the greatest chaplaincy programs that one could find. We have full time chaplains and part-time chaplains to represent basically any faith and/or denomination you could think of. How incredible to live and work in a real pluralistic environment. I engage people from other faith traditions in conversation merely by walking to my desk – while many others strive to find ways to start pluralistic dialogue. For me it is as simple as saying good morning and I have bridged the communication gap between Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist communities!

The greatest epiphany however has been how amazing our students are! Whether involved in our ministry LEM (Lutheran Episcopal Ministries) or another group or no group at all – I have been awestruck by the depth of my conversations with students and their ability to ask incredibly poignant and insightful questions. I have been blessed and challenged by this appointment and I know that I will continue to strive to communicate the Gospel according to MIT standards: to live, serve, and love God in ways that are relevant, mission oriented, and fun. LEM worships in the Chapel at 5:15pm each Wednesday evening – I hope you will worship with us if you get the chance.

Dalai Lama Center

2008-11-06T11:33:00.002-05:00

As Chaplain to the Institute I am pleased that we have been given the opportunity to develop the The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT. This program will complement our leadership programs coming out of the Dean for Student Life Office. These programs now include The Technology and Culture Forum, a program begun over 50 years ago by the Episcopal Chaplain at MIT and still supported by the Episcopal Church and led by the Episcopal Chaplain, The Reverend Amy McCreath. The Public Service Center led by Sally Susnowitz is the third program. Each program offers students opportunities to learn and to sharpen their leadership skills as they prepare for careers beyond MIT.

The Dalai Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT is dedicated to inquiry, to dialogue, and to the creation of programs that affect the ethical and humane dimensions of life. This nonpartisan center is a collaborative think tank focused on the development of interdisciplinary research and programs in various fields of knowledge from science and technology, to education and international relations.

The Center is founded to honor the vision of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and his call for a holistic education that includes the development of human and global ethics. It will emphasize responsibility as well as examine meaningfulness and moral purpose between individuals, organizations, and societies.

The Center invites distinguished thinkers, educators, researchers, social innovators, entrepreneurs, policy makers, artists, and other leaders from diverse cultural, religious, and educational backgrounds to contribute to its objectives.

Web URL: http://thecenter.mit.edu

Robert M. Randolph

Visiting Messiah College

2008-10-31T16:05:00.002-04:00

I just spent two days on the campus of Messiah College. Messiah is a small, 2800 undergraduate students, college in central Pennslvania near the capitol. This time of year, and I suspect, at all times it is a lovely venue. It is a college founded by the Brethren in Christ, an Anabaptist church related to the Mennonites by history if not by organization. i was there to celebrate with the editors, Rhonda and Douglas Jacobsen, their new book The American University in a Postsecular Age (Oxford, 2008). The event was held in the Boyer Center named for Ernest Boyer famed for his many thoughtful inquiries into the educational process. Boyer was a graduate of Messiah College.

With its religious roots, Messiah is awash with Christian language and focus, but witnessing to the broadening of the evangelical movement in America, Barack Obama signs were ubiquitous. On the day I visited, representatives from the Obama campaign were on campus meeting with Falcons for Obama, or to be more precise, there met with students who were supporting Obama.

I was pleased to tell the folks at Messiah that the community at MIT is wider than theirs is, but that it is also no less religious. There are more communities here and some wear "we haven't figured it all out yet" signs. That is what the Jacobsen's have written about in several volumes. It is good for us to be reminded that out in the heartland of Pennsylvania there are those who are grappling with the place of education in formal religion and vice versa. The conversation is lively at Messiah just as it is here at MIT. We live in a new time! I think Ernest Boyer would be pleased.

A New Book

2008-10-09T15:29:00.002-04:00

Let me tell you about a new book edited by Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen and Douglas Jacobsen. It is called The American University in a Postsecular Age (Oxford, 2008) and it grapples with the place of religion in the contemporary university/college. The conversation is balanced and comprehensive talking about students and faculty and the myriad of ways religion impacts the university environment. The authors recognize that no institution is without religious threads that tie together otherwise divergent patterns of belief and practice and with honesty reveal some of those threads, e.g. "Why Faculty Find it Difficult to Talk About Religion" and "The Religious and Spirituality Journeys of College Students".

There are those who do not think matters spiritual should be the object of concern on campus; my response is that we cannot ignore such matters. Our residence halls, our classrooms are shaping lives, molding futures and not to recognize the importance of fundamental questions such as "Who am I?", "What am I about?", "How shall I live?" would be to abdicate responsibility. I am reminded of Reb Saunders in The Chosen who worries that is son will have a well developed mind but have no soul. Saunders says " Because this is America, Reuven. This is not Europe. It is an open world here." It is an open world here, but that does not mean that we are not concerned with the quality of the minds we are educating.

We are preparing the next generation of world leaders. At this time of the year I am particularly mindful of the things we have left undone. It is a good thing to be reminded of what we can do better in the future. The Jacobsens have given us a challenging recipe for educating minds and souls.

Time Away

2008-10-02T16:52:00.002-04:00

Lately it is hard to get away during the summer. People come to see us. This past week, however, Jan and I went west for a transfusion of scenery and dry air. While New England prepared for fall, we dried out, saw golden aspens and enjoyed New Mexico. I read The American University in a Postsecular Age (Oxford, 2008) edited by Douglas Jacobsen and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen of Messiah College. It is always nice to read something that confirms what you sense you are seeing. This book does that as it surveys the conversation about the place of religion in contemporary education. The message, "PAY ATTENTION There may not be a clash of cultures, but there is plenty of pushing and shoving as religious inclinations nudge their way back into the academy. I see it here at MIT.
Another book, Progressive and Religiousby Robert P. Jones (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008) was the object of conversation last evening after dinner with the Lutheran and Episcopal Ministry. Jones was here and argued strongly that there is emerging a movement in the public sphere uniting the religious left with progressive causes that will break the hold on public religious life by the religious right.

Both books are worth reading and in this season of holidays (Ramadan ended yesterday, Rosh Hashanah last evening) books on religion and the public sphere will take your mind off your 401K or retirement plans revised once again.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

The New Year

2008-09-18T09:28:00.009-04:00

For most the new year begins in January, for those in academia it begins in September when the new school year starts. There are milestones of change all around. Stressed trees begin to change color; clouds shift from summer's billowing thunderheads to the ominous gray slate banks of cloud portending rain and cold. New faces grace our community here at MIT and each class has its own personality. The Red Sox wind down and the Patriots and Bruins begin anew their pursuit of glory or redemption.

I walked yesterday to Massachusetts General Hospital to donate platelets and noticed that the nameless "They" have finally finished the T Station at Charles Street and MGH; the Liberty Hotel has had a summer to get it's act together and the Charles Street Jail and Buzzy's Roast Beef fade into memory. We have also said good bye to people here at MIT. Robert Hulsizer, Alex D'Arbeloff, Robert Seamans, Jr., Joe Kuchta, Jack Howard, Laura Capone, Michael Hammer, Lucian W. Pye. There will be a memorial service for Alex on October 17th at 3:30 PM in Kresge Auditorium. Bob Hulsizer will be remembered on October 19th at 3 PM in the MIT Chapel.

Bob Hulsizer brought new life to Ashdown House, the graduate dormitory on the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Amherst Street where he and Carol presided. But even Ashdown has changed moving to the northwest corner of campus where it has been reborn with a new Hulsizer Room. The old Åshdown is now called W-1 and is in the process of being reborn as a home to undergraduates.

Some find transitions difficult, and the pace of MIT makes it even more important that we pause and note what we have gained and what we have lost. It does not balance out, but remembering allows us to enliven our community by holding close the contributions of all to our collective memory.

I like to think that MIT folk were more familiar with Buzzy's than they were with the Charles Street Jail. I know that the gifts to this community given by Bob Seamans , Bob Hulsizer and Alex D'Arbeloff were enormous and the contributions of others made us all richer. Because things change does not mean that we forget. That is a good thing to be mindful of at the beginning of the year.

Religious and Progressive

2008-08-15T10:36:00.003-04:00

E.J. Dionne,Jr. of the Washington Post writes "Throughout American history, religious voices have played a central role in progressive politics, but we seem to have forgotten that in the past two decades. Robert P. Jones is one of the most searching, thoughtful, and practical thinkers in the revival of religiously rooted progressivism and his book is a great blessing for that cause and for the country. Anyone-left,right, or center- who wants a guide to this new movement would do well to spend some time with this book. " This book is Progressive and Religious How Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Buddhist Leaders are Moving beyond the culture wars and transforming American public life.

Robert P. Jones will be at MIT on October 1 speaking about his book at 7:30 PM in W-11, the main dining room.

The Crab Grass Factor

2008-08-08T15:22:00.002-04:00

At this time of the year crab grass becomes evident. In April the ads talk about putting down a pre-emergent product to keep crab grass from germinating. Now it is clear why. Given moisture and space the tentacles of grass will spread and crowd out other desirable grasses. Then when frost comes the plants die and the lawn appears to have a multitude of spaces where grass used to be. The key is to fertilize the lawn and plant new seed thickly so the crab grass plant cannot take over.

In politics, a lie if not answered will grow to expand all the space it can fill. That is why politicians often spread wild accusations hoping that some of them will stick. Equally, those attacked often appear to be simply responding with answers even though it prolongs the shelve-life of the accusation. Untruths ignored grow just like crab grass until they are forgotten and disappear leaving only a gaping hole where truth might have resided.

Religious communities often spread lies about one another; sometimes they do not have to since the behavior of the group, be they Christian, Muslim or Jewish, makes telling lies unnecessary. When i was growing up the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a scurrilous anti-semitic bit of propaganda often made its appearance in one form or another in our church. No one knew enough to call it a lie until finally one day someone spoke the truth. The same was true with notions about Catholics; we just knew they were out to destroy the Protestant world we knew. Such notions had been around America since the founding of the nation and were partially blunted by the election of John Kennedy.

In this political season rumors and untruths about Islam abound given the fact that Barack Obama will be the Democrat's nominee for President. I like to think we are wiser than we were in 1960, but the evidence suggests otherwise. Barack Obama is not a Muslim no matter what some people say or think. Knowing the truth is important; telling the truth is even more important. Not to speak out when we know untruths are being passed around is cowardly, but often excused because many people do not know better. By November the crab grass will be gone; let's hope the lies are too answered by courageous people will to speak out.

RMR

Robert M. Randolph

Change Comes

2008-08-01T16:11:00.003-04:00

This past week I was with a group of black and white Christian ministers in Nashville, TN. The occasion was the 40th anniversary of a gathering in Atlanta after the death of Martin Luther King. In 1978 we lamented the separation that existed between black and white Christians. Now with a new generation we noted how complicated the world has become. Divisions between black and whites seem almost simple against the backdrop of ethnic and religious strife common today.

I have just finished reading Drew Gilpin Faust's This Republic of Suffering Death and the American Civil War (2008). Faust, now the president of Harvard, opens a door into understanding the shaping of the South in the post war period. The anger and hatred of blacks who dared challenge the peculiar institution boiled over and the cowardly retreat by the North is better understood when you realize the breadth of loss suffered by North and South in the Civil War. The enormous cost of the war in human terms came to overshadow the commitment to equality.

We live today with the implications of the divide between black and white and the new challenges of ethnicity and race are difficult to meet because we have not really understood that the human community is the only game in town. What diminishes one, diminishes all. Those who sell policies based on fear look backward to the bad old days and last week-end I was reminded how bad they were. But in the Nashville Public Library's Civil Rights Reading room we caught a glimpse of hope and were reminded of an idealism that changed America. It may be that we have come farther than we have thought.

Que Sera, Sera

2008-07-23T11:30:00.002-04:00

Here is a reminder that sometimes out of the worst of situations good can come.

Que será, será
Language lesson for today: “Cullen Murphy, author of the book Are We Rome? The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America (Mariner), muses about how the war in Iraq might leave us a new word to match a new sense of our own limitations:
“Not long ago, in a Q&A on the website of the New York Times, an Iraqi trans¬lator was asked to explain the points of difference he saw between his own people and the Americans he encountered in Iraq. He brought up the Arabic phrase inshal¬lah. The Americans, he said, ‘have respect for time’; Iraqis, in contrast, ‘use the word inshallah, which means “if God wishes,” to postpone things.’ ”
“It may be that this point of difference won’t be a distinction much longer. An American colonel in Iraq, writing to the Washington Post’s Thomas E. Ricks, recently observed: ‘The phrase inshallah, or “God willing,” has perme¬ated all ranks of the Army. When you talk to U.S. soldiers about the possible success of “the surge,” you’d be surprised how many responded with “inshallah.” ’ The phrase seems to have permeated all ranks of the diplomatic corps, too: Zalmay Khalilzad, when he was the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, once stated at a press conference, ‘Inshallah, Iraq will succeed.’
“For better or worse, philosophical acceptance has rarely been America’s default frame of mind. As the Historical Anal¬ogy Police might hasten to note, here’s one place where analo¬gies with a previous superpower, imperial Rome, break down badly. The Roman elites were a supremely self-satisfied lot whose motto might well have been the old advertising slogan ‘It doesn’t get any better than this.’ With a faith that’s sometimes messianic, sometimes endearing, and often very destructive, Ameri¬cans believe they can always make it better than this. From diets to diplomacy, we’re suckers for regime change. Is it possible that a little less faith in our convictions, and a little more skepticism toward our capacities, would itself be a form of self-improve¬ment? It may yet be a while before Waking the Tiger and Getting to Yes are knocked off the shelves by If It Happens, It Happens and The Seven Habits of Humbly Accepting People. What we can say for sure is that many hundreds of thousands of Americans have endured tours of duty in Iraq. They are writing blogs and e-mails with a new word at their fingertips. They are returning home with a new word on their lips. It
will have an impact on the American Experiment, inshallah.” Now it’s available for use in villages and hamlets everywhere, places which have never been host to
a Muslim.
—The American Scholar (theamericanscholar.org/
au07/inshallah-murphy.html), Autumn 2007

On marriage

2008-06-21T12:40:00.002-04:00

I have just officiated at another wedding. There have been two each month since April. All have involved men and women. As we prepare, we talk about what they want the marriage to mean, why they are getting married in a chapel and why they have a minister. In some ways the last is the easiest to answer. The MIT Chapel and Memorial Church do not invite public officials to officiate at weddings.
I have talked here about the changing nature of the partners: already living together, often interracial, often Asian. What they hold in common is that they take marriage seriously. Tears still flow when vows are exchanged whether they are in English or Chinese.
Some wonder if same sex marriages take away from the institution of marriage. I find it an odd question. Most would think if an increased number of people wanted to participate in a ritual, it mean that the importance of the ritual was increasing. If more people bought fishing licenses few would declare the future of fishing imperiled. The protections marriage as a legal state offers couples are important and should be granted if not by marriage, buy some other recognition. Religious folk who have objections to same sex ceremonies do not have to bless, officiate or even attend, but they do need to think about the message they are sending. Given the emotion these ceremonies elicit, I suspect many do not think much about things; they should.

The greatest danger to marriage is not gay marriage, but the serial monogamy that has become common place in our nation. Those who wish to commit their lives to each other until death parts them remind each of us of the vows we have made to spouses family and friends. My hope is that over the next few years this issue will fade and we will give our attention to those issues that do affect the quality of life in our nation and the world: poverty, endemic violence, war and the need for peace.

Marriage is an important topic of conversation, maybe more important than most realize. If we devalue marriage, by claiming it is only for some and not for all, then the harm we do will be far greater than we suppose. We will also need to think about other matters related to marriage, e.g. would we endorse polygamy? I think not. We have been there and done that and the picture was and is not pretty, cable TV not withstanding.

More importantly, we need to give attention to what marriage is about and how we can bolster its power to create new communities across lines previously impermeable. Religious communities need to think again about what their ceremonies say and mean; when they do it may be that a a conversation about the broader notion of marriage will break out. That would be a good thing!

RMR

Upcoming Event

2008-04-30T11:46:00.000-04:00

Topic: Reason, Experience and Search for Happiness
Speaker: Monsignor Lorenzo Albacete
Date: April 30, 2008 7-8:30pm
Venue: 3-270

Campus Preview Week-end

2008-04-10T11:38:00.002-04:00

Today is the nicest weather we have had in weeks. Maybe it has something to do with Campus Preview Week-end. We are entertaining over 1000 admitted students and their parents. There are over 300 events planned during the next few days and if past history is a guide, many if not most of these students will conclude that MIT is the place for them.

Late in March we entertained Jenny Small about her doctoral dissertation at Michigan where she looked at College Student Religious Affiliation and Spiritual Identity. The chaplains serving MIT talked with her about her work and results. She has done some good work that can inform our varied ministries here at MIT.

Jenny noted early in her research that the model for faith development among college and university students was primarily based on research done among white Christians. Her questions began there as she sought to tease out what it meant to have a religious or spiritual identity in college/university. It became clear to her early that faith matters and as she looked as Christians, Jews, Muslims and non-believers. She noted the evolution of increasingly more complex thought about religious/spiritual matters. Early on groups understand their place in the hierarchy of religious/spiritual organizations. For example Jews know early they are a minority; Muslims understand they are "other" and Christians carry the burden of being entitled. Non-believers feel themselves to be really on the fringes. In some ways the outsiders are clearer about their self-identity than the Christians who often know only that they are in the majority, but have little sense of why or what that means. This is a bit odd given the rhetoric we sometimes hear about the threats to Christianity perceived by some true believers.

As the Chaplains know, the MIT experience modifies these perceptions and if our endeavors do their work, the students graduate as thoughtful, grounded young adults who know better who they are and where they stand. I look forward to seeing Jenny's work in print and to the ongoing conversation it should precipitate.

This week-end we will see some of our students at the very beginning of their journey and it is good to remember that it is a journey they are beginning. They are growing quickly and we are blessed to be part of that process.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

I Guess it Depends

2008-03-27T15:42:00.003-04:00

I guess your level of outrage at religious rhetoric depends on who is doing the talking. Jeremiah Wright has gotten lots of press because of who he has mentored. I get a good deal of mail from religious publishing houses and various church groups. Today I heard from one and the minister concludes his appeal for support: "All thinking Americans are greatly concerned about the religious and moral conditions of our nation. We Christians, ought to be especially concerned. .... (the denomination the minister represents) must address these issues. We simply MUST stand up and speak up for Christ in these matters. Pray for us that we can do so with a stronger voice!"

This is in print, but you can imagine the minister pounding the pulpit to make his point in dramatic fashion not unlike Wright's "No, No, No" phrasing on the You Tube snippet. Not much difference it seems to me. Wright is concerned about the "religious and moral condition of America" but he happens to be part of the minority community and feels that some of the moral failings of America have affected those he serves. That is not an unreasonable sentiment and it is also not unusual for members of the minority community to express such sentiment.

The rather bland minister who speaks for all "thinking Americans" is not likely to offend many. So I wonder why Wright seemed to draw such heat? is it because he suggested that America might not be perfect? For those of us who remember singing "O Beautiful for Spacious Skies" this is not news. We sang "God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law." No one said much about it so it may be that it is not sentiment that is being faulted but the one doing the faulting.

Jeremiah Wright's ministry in Chicago is probably not with out fault. Whose is? But when you scare people in power you need to be ready for the backlash. And when you influence those who may wield power in the future, then you are really dangerous. That may be the problem here. I like to think that "all thinking Americans" do exactly that; if so, this flap will pass.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

Good Friday at MIT

2008-03-21T15:04:00.004-04:00

It is Good Friday in a week where the Dalai Lama had to remind his followers what the way of peace might look like. For those who think the influence of religion is all negative, it is not a "good" day. Outside my office students are returning from Good Friday services, others are preparing for the Sabbath meal and Friday prayers have just let out. The voices of the Muslim community are loud, friendly and just like coffee hour at any white suburban congregation in Atlanta. A young friend has just dropped in to vent about his advisor and to tell me what is being done to fund Muslim relief efforts. We both think there is a lot of good work that can result if more resources can be developed for our shared religious enterprises here in the Religious Activities Center.

As Good Friday draws to a close, I will be home in Rockport with my wife; we will spend Saturday preparing for Easter. In the evening we will return to Cambridge and Easter Vigil Services at Harvard's Memorial Church. I will assist with communion at mid-night. The usual crowd is about 300 and there is comfort in knowing that Easter begins for us at the heart of Harvard. Growing up in a serious evangelical community Harvard was always preceded by "Godless". It is not.

Here at MIT we are not Godless either; we are a community of many traditions and sometimes it is unclear if our notion of the divine is but a reflection, but I take comfort that the conversation is vital and the voices are loud. Out of the cacophony meaning can emerge! Easter will be celebrated and for a brief time for Christians there will be clarity. On Monday we go back to reflecting the diversity of our world. That is the way it is.

May your Easter be blessed.

The Way Things Are: Losses and Blessings

2008-03-13T11:16:00.001-04:00

To the MIT Community

Over the past weeks we have lost several members of the MIT family. Robert Wells died in a fall from his place of residence. J. Mark Schuster Professor of urban studies and planning lost a valiant battle with cancer. We said good-bye to emeritus faculty Louis Menand of political science and Frances Reintjes of electrical engineering.

At one level this is the natural order of things. At another, death always comes too soon. What we are reminded of, however, is that we are bound together in a shared enterprise. We are all touched by loss no matter whom, no matter when and no matter why.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who have suffered loss. Members of the DU fraternity traveled to be with Robert’s family at a service in New York. Later this week and next month we will celebrate their lives. This is as it should be.

As the same time, our community is also blessed. On March 6, Prof. David Mindell and his wife Pamela, Housemasters in Edgerton Hall welcomed Lucia Flora Mindell to their family and we welcome her to ours; we celebrate with them.

Sunday morning our clocks turned forward, the sun stays with us later in the day and prospects of spring seem more real. Spring break is around the corner. Let us all find new energy for our work together, and for the ties of friendship and family that knit our community ever tighter. With time healing will come, but as the days pass let us resolve to be better friends, colleagues, workers and companions. The ties that bind us are wonderfully strong and should be celebrated each day.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

Musing in February

2008-02-25T19:00:00.003-05:00

As the day comes to an end, I have just returned from hearing MIT students talk about their trip to the Middle East and to Africa telling other students about what it is like to study in America. The College Admissions Arab Mentorship Program (CAAMP) is now two years old. This year students spoke to 3500 students and their parents in eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa. They report great interest on the part of young people who want to train so they can return to make a difference in their country of origin. This desire cuts across the ethnic and religious boundaries that divide the region. I am encouraged by this program and by the enthusiasm of students who take their time to make sure that others benefit from the opportunities they have had. CAAMP is one reason to have confidence that our future will be better than our past.

Another reason is an article recently in the New York Times noting that Dr. John H. Thomas, General Minister and President, of he United Church of Christ has called for a dialogue between science and religion. Google the United Church of Christ to see their home page. The theological notion behind Thomas' call is the belief articulated strongly by the UCC that God is still at work in our world. In their phrase, "God is still speaking." You will see this banner on some of the UCC buildings in New England and I suspect elsewhere. The conversation Thomas call for is important for all involved if we are to be whole human beings. I hope that Dr. Thomas will visit MIT inviting our students to be part of the conversation.

The UCC's notion is in stark contrast to the position of many Christians who while holding to the notion that God is alive and well, suggest that most of the conversation stopped when the Bible appeared in the King James translation. Some will find of interest a recent book by Frank Schaeffer, son of Francis and Edith Schaeffer of L'Abri fame. For evangelical Christians everywhere the Schaeffers as as near to royalty as you are likely to get. Frank, a novelist, sometime artist, and self described spoiled son, puts them and many of those who found their way to L'Abri in context in Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All or Almost All) of It Back. It is a good winter read.

Schaeffer lives near by. Maybe we can coax him to engage John Thomas in a conversation modeling the kind of civil dialogue our CAAMP students had in the Middle East and North Africa and the sort of conversation so valued here at MIT.

Blessings as daylight savings time draws ever closer.

2008-01-24T17:24:00.001-05:00

This week over the Martin Luther King Holiday MIT hosted the Religion and Violence seminar from the Trinity Institute in New York City. Sponsored by the Technology and Culture Forum, the Addir Fellows and the Chaplain to the Institute, and part of the IAP schedule, the program registered over 65 people and included a stellar group of speakers, small groups and lots of good conversation.

For me it was a good way to reengage MIT. I had spent the week in Guatemala a few hours from Guatemala City at a health clinic with a group of doctors doing surgery. Those served were often from local communities scheduled as a result of diagnosis at the regular mobil health clinics. Over 70 individuals were seen and there were 93 surgical procedures performed. Patients ranged from children to very elderly men and women. For many the clinic provides the only medical and dental care available.

The motivation behind the clinic and the work being done very day of the week, is that it is the responsibility of Christians to live up to the best intent of their religious convictions, i.e. to love others asas they have been loved and as they love themselves. Nothing more and nothing less. The group was quietly ecumenical, drawing on Christian communities across the Protestant and Catholic spectrum. It looked a lot like MIT.

At the same time 7 students from MIT were in the Middle East encouraging Muslim students to come to the US to continue their education. Apart from some difficulty getting into Israel, the group had little trouble. In Jerusalem 250 students attended the session with the MIT students.

From Beruit one guidance counselor wrote: "Getting students to apply to the US is always a challenge. Getting those who can to apply to MIT is even a greater challenge. When you are at the top, realistic applicants tend to shy away, or at least my kids. Of course you always have the unrealistic applicants who are ready to apply regardless. I work hard to screen. So your initiative is very helpful as is all face to face contact."

The religious communities at MIT are all active during IAP in many ways. It is a vibrant and living community expressed in many forms. To be involved is to be blessed and to see beyond this corner of the world to what students often call "the real world". The surprise is that many find that what is real often looks a lot like the MIT they know and love. That is the way it should be.

One more week of IAP and then a new term begins.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

2007-12-12T10:43:00.000-05:00

Still waiting? Six reasons why Advent is important
Matthew 21:12-22
“MY house shall be called a house of prayer”; ‘but you are making it a den of robbers’

(2) Advent reminds us that religious sentiment can sometimes be exploited.

Advent reminds us that religious sentiment can be exploited. The folk at the Temple were not evil people. They were offering services for those coming to make sacrifices, to meet their obligations. Certainly they might have been more judicious but in a church such as you have here in the middle of Harvard yard we understand the nuances involved in making books and compact discs available to those who pass in and out of the doors. It might be different if we had a plethora of other offerings including a booth where you could exchange your euros for dollars at a discounted rate, but we do not.

It is not needed in this community to remind us that at Christmas we all are a bit vulnerable to manipulation. Otherwise reasonable people for the best of reasons spring for purchases far beyond what they can reasonably afford. I have some first hand experience. The other day Jan and I left Morning Prayers to purchase our Christmas Tree; I said as we began walking into the field that this was the year to be more modest in our aspirations. And we walked by several modest expressions of Balsam Fir-ness and when we arrived back at our truck the professional at the gate said: “My, that is a big tree.” Reasonable people do foolish things at Christmas. We took a foot off the top so it could fit in the room and it took the neighbor to help hold it in place.

As we venture toward the Temple of Christmas, our escape is to seek meaning and scale in what we give. Recently the Chief Rabbi of London, Jonathan Sacks, was my guest at MIT and he pointed me to a story told by Loren Eisely, the anthropologist and son of Nebraska who told of a young man on the beach observed by another. He was throwing starfish back into the sea. When asked why, the young man patiently explained that if left on the beach the starfish would die. The observer being of a practical bent, made the point that there were miles of beach and thousands of starfish. “What difference would one make?” The young man replied that the observation was true, but that it made a difference to the starfish he held in his hand and he went back to making a difference one starfish at a time.

Rather than another sweater for Dad, you may want to make a gift to relief in Darfur. Looking at the landscape of need out there, many of us are paralyzed. It is easier to bear the groans of children who once again have received something they do not need, or did not want, than it is to find some place where our gifts are met by need. Let me suggest to each of you that this year you find a concern in the world that matters to you and on your Christmas list a corresponding individual for whom you will make a contribution in their name. Give locally to those who are homeless and served here in Harvard Square by the shelter at University Lutheran Church; give regionally to environmental causes such as Friends of the Reservation-the Fells, Alewife, Breakheart—are all organizations locally that could use your support. Or you might reach out to Darfur, the West Bank, to our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Use the occasion to become knowledgeable about what you are doing. Turn exploitation into education and make a difference one starfish at a time.

Thoughts for Advent

2007-12-05T17:21:00.000-05:00

December 3, 2007

Matt. 21:1-11

Still Waiting? Six Reasons why Advent is Important

(1)

A funny thing happened on the way to advent this year, the texts chosen to be read during the weeks leading up to Christmas take us on the road to the crucifixion. Today we begin with the text usually associated with Palm Sunday. Donkeys, tree branches and blankets get in our way as we try to think about the Christ child. I might have made an executive decision to shift the texts, but I thought better of it.

I did so because the texts help us move beyond the feel good Christmas story of a babe in the manger no crib for his bed. From the beginning this story is going to end badly and that it begins badly would not be a surprise had we not been fed on memories of “old fashioned Christmases” to deflect our attention. So the first reason Advent is important is that it reminds us that being a follower of Christ is serious, sometimes tragic business. Over the stable there is a cross. We do ourselves no favor when we forget that truth.

Jesus, the heir of David comes to his moment of glory on a donkey. “Look your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey.” Humility is not a seasonal virtue but for many Americans it is a learned virtue. Many of you may have noticed that the virtue of humility seems to be a hallmark of the New England Patriot football team. And it makes people very uncomfortable to be told that the prerequisites for playing for this team are than you be smart and that you be humble. Defeated or undefeated, their coach reminds them to be smart and to be humble giving them recently tee shirts extolling the virtues of “Humble Pie”. The message is simple: do not take your accomplishments too seriously, you are only as good as your last game and another one is coming up.

Many in New England are basking in the reflected glory of successful sports teams; some are ready to declare New York road kill in our on going tussle with the Evil Empire. But our text reminds us of weightier matters. It is not the old Puritan mind set that majored in the dour and self-effacing that warns us not to be deceived. This is not a call for more bah humbug at Christmas, but simply a reminder that at the heart of our Christian affirmation is the notion that it all began in a stable—not a king’s palace or the locale of the power brokers—and that it ended so it seemed on a cross.

Advent is important because it reminds us of these realities. I grew up just a road trip away from a segregated South. Everyone I knew had come from somewhere else—Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee. That was a long time ago but the perspective the experience gave me has stayed with me and came home when we recently caught up with the film Babel. Consciously citing the story of the Tower of Babel and the decision to scatter human kind less they become like Gods, the story however disjointed tells parallel tales of folk scattered and yet connected by a weapon and a foolish act. All of us share the lonliness of loss, the alienation from those we love, the economics that foster and feed conflict. The film offers a rough challenge to embrace our common humanity and care about the other.

At Advent we hear a similar appeal, we hear of a love for us so great that is has been clothed in flesh; it is a love that has made our world its home. When we receive great gifts it is behooves us not to proclaim how rich we are but rather to in gratitude and in humility to celebrate how blessed we are.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

2007-11-23T11:28:00.000-05:00

November 23, 2007

Giving Thanks

Yesterday we gathered around our tables here in Bexley Hall and did what many good Americans do, we ate well. The group included friends and students from China by way of Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, and Wisconsin. It was an eclectic group. Hungry, a bit faint and definitely not poor, we were grateful for our blessings. It would have been perfect had our girls been able to join us and had I not clogged the sink with the remnants of turkey. The day reverberated with the sounds of Thanksgivings past and the hope of those to come.

While there are religious and political overtones to this holiday, it has become for many the favorite holiday of the year. It lacks the political fervor of the 4th and the religious fervor of Christmas. It is a time to be thankful, to take stock and to begin to prepare for the New Year in ways that are appropriate.

We paused Thursday and gave thanks; I have no idea what others gave thanks for, but I know that I gave thanks for good health, an extended and loving family and the opportunity to do meaningful work here at MIT.

Twice in recent days we have celebrated lives that have come to an end. One died on the edge of possibilities; another at the end of a long and fruitful career. The challenge we are left with is what difference will our lives make? That opportunity is a great blessing in itself and one we can be thankful for as well.
To paraphrase Mary Oliver:
“I woke early….
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

But the challenge remains: What difference will we make in our world? Now is a good time to be thankful for the opportunity to answer that question.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

I have seen the future

2007-11-06T13:26:00.000-05:00

One of the virtues of being a minister/chaplain is that you are often present at important moments in family life. Weddings and memorial services are the most obvious such occasions. The officiant is sometimes the lightening rod for the emotions of the moment. I tell couples that at weddings I can help deal with the anger that will from time to time crop up. If the bride's family really does not like the groom, they can dump their anger on the minister since they generally do not know me and will feel better having vented. More often the gesture of offering a place for anger is all that is needed. It is painful what we do to one another at our most important moments. Memorial services are easier since the center of attention does not speak back.

That is why at a recent wedding, I felt myself fortunate to be given a gift by the groom's family. The wedding was lovely and afterward I broke my habit of avoiding the reception to have dinner. I sat with the grandparents and aunt of the groom, put another way, the really old folk were at the same table. They were lovely people, long retired cultivators of skills that make retirement meaningful. From the mid-west, the church was the social center of their lives as was their family. Their gift to me was the description of their grand-children and the spouses they had brought into the family: Asian, Hispanic, African-American, Anglo, they loved and accepted them all and were proud of them.

I have had half a dozen weddings this fall. All have been traditional male and female unions; all have been inter-racial. One recent wedding was marked by a portion of the ceremony being in Mandarin so that the bride's family could hear this important ceremony in the language they were most comfortable with. Such gestures are not unusual and are very important.

In a time when marriage is increasingly seen as transitory, I am not sure what saying "Until death parts us" means to those repeating vows. I know what I would like it to mean. But I do know that marriages that bind together diverse cultures with vows and commitments made before communities of friends and family can have a profound impact on the world we live in. The harsh edges of ethnic pride will be ground down as the "other" become part of the family. Disappearing as well is the stereotype of the narrow mid-westerner. Not all the gifts at a wedding go home with the bride and groom.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

Installation of Chaplain to the Institute

2007-10-05T18:10:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday evening the Chaplain to the Institute was installed. Several have said that they did not know what to expect and were pleasantly surprised. Those who did not know what to expect and were disappointed have not talked with me. If you would like to view the proceedings you may do so at

http://techtv.mit.edu/file/326/

At the Chaplain's Seminar on October 1, speakers dealt with the challenge of Samuel Huntington's clash of cultures thesis. Dr. Richard Hughes of Messiah College offered this conclusion:

Ironically, no one has made that case any more strongly than Samuel Huntington who cites approvingly the Venetian nationalist demagogue in Michael Didbin’s novel, Dead Lagoon. “There can be no true friends without true enemies,” the Venetian says. “Unless we hate what we are not, we cannot love what we are. These are the old truths we are painfully rediscovering after a century and more of sentimental cant.” In response to this affirmation, Samuel Huntington comments, “The unfortunate truth in these old truths cannot be ignored by statesmen and scholars. For people seeking identity and reinventing ethnicity, enemies are essential.”
Maybe so, but if there is any chance that Christian leaders might lead us toward peace and not toward war and conflict, those are precisely the assumptions they must challenge. Put another way, so long as Christian leaders assume that the imperial vision is both normative and true to life, and so long as they assume that the biblical vision of the kingdom of God is finally unworkable and irrelevant, there is no chance that they will offer leadership any different from the standard imperial leadership that has driven the world for centuries.
The truth is, Christian leaders of tomorrow must embrace a new paradigm for thinking about war and peace—a paradigm that is at the very same time an ancient paradigm, embraced both by Jesus and the early church.

Let me offer just one example of what that paradigm might mean. David Lipscomb was a religious leader in the American South from the Civil War through the early twentieth century. After the Civil War, he reflected on his own role during that conflict. “In the beginning of the late strife that so fearfully desolated our country, much was said about ‘our enemies.’ I protested constantly that I had not a single enemy, and was not an enemy to a single man North of the Ohio River.” Lipscomb’s statement stands in stark contrast with Samuel P. Huntington’s assumption that “there can be no true friends without true enemies” and that, when all is said and done, “enemies are essential.”
And when, in 1896, the United States employed the Monroe Doctrine to threaten war against Great Britain, Lipscomb offered leadership on other grounds. He wrote, “When the leading lights among politicians begin to advocate war in defense of the Monroe doctrine, it is high time . . . to commence preaching peace on earth and good will among men in defense of the doctrine of the Sermon on the Mount.”
You may object that what I have said in this presentation is far too visionary to be workable. But religious leaders are not called to embrace and sanction imperial assumptions. They are called, instead, to offer a vision grounded in their religious traditions. And deep in the Christian tradition lays a vision for peace on earth and good will among all humankind—a vision that has rarely been tried. This is the vision I commend to Christian leaders of the future, and a vision I commend to you today as we celebrate the installation of Robert M. Randolph as the first Chaplain of MIT.

Dr. Ronald B. Sobel, Senior Rabbi Emeritus from Temple Emanu-El in New York City and Suheil Laher, Muslim Chaplain also offered their perspectives. Excerpts will appear here in the coming weeks.

On not being afraid.

2007-09-28T16:49:00.000-04:00

Star Simpson a junior here at MIT got her 15 minutes of fame last week. On the front page of the Boston Herald she looked bemused. Those who know her say she feels like she was hit by a train. Wearing a name tag from an event at the Media Lab, she went to Logan Airport to meet a friend, a circuit board was on her sweat shirt with wires dangling. A few unanswered questions later she found herself the object of more attention than she wished. "So smart, so dumb." lamented a critic. Others took shots at MIT where they perceive a permissive environment that abandons commonsense. We all breathed a sigh of relief when the attention shifted to John Harvard dressed to participate in Halo 3.

I have been watching Ken Burns' The War. I am old enough to remember the times, to have felt the emotions and to have celebrated VJ Day. Watching the documentary, listening to contemporary conversations of those among the Greatest Generation, I have been reminded that we are often only a step away from high heroics and mind-numbing villany. The stories of the Japanese Americans who fought in Italy while their families were in camps behind barbed wire remind of both extremes.

Victor Frankl once remarked that being human means to be conscious and to be responsible. Now is the time to be responsible. What happened on 9/11 has made us fearful and some have used that fear to advance agendas and create climates where a college girl feared for her life in an American airport. Others decry entrepreneurial creativity as a luxury we cannot afford.

I worry more about a time where fear is our first emotion, and our default response to the unknown. That does not leave much room for building a better world and that is, what we are about. Star should have known better. So should we. Churches, synagogues, mosques and universities are meaning making communities. We offer a context in which we take the stuff of living and make sense of it. Now at the end of an eventful week we have a lot to work with. I pray we will do our
work well.

An Invitation

Join us at 5:30 PM on Sunday (September 30) for the Installation of the Chaplain to the Institute.
On Monday (October 1) at 4 PM in the Wong Auditorium (E-51) you are invited to join us for The Chaplain's Seminar where we will reflect on Religious Leadership in the 21st Century: How Are We to Avoid a Clash of Cultures? The Seminar will feature Dr. Ronald B. Sobel, Rabbi Emeritus Temple Emanu-el, NYC, Dr. Richard Hughes, Messiah College, Dr. Elizabeth Parsons, Quincy College, The Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi, Buddhist Chaplain at MIT and Suheil Laher, Muslim Chaplain at MIT.

Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute

2007-09-20T17:26:00.000-04:00

Changes

This morning as I finished my run around the Charles River change was all around me. I obviously have changed. My arms are smaller, a bit flabby. I run slower and my joints creak. When I mention that I run I am told I am foolish and need to consider low impact exercise. It used to be that when I talked of running folks thought it was cool. “You ran how far?” they would ask.

The trees are beginning to change; the air is a bit more brisk than in August. My fellow runners are different too. Used to be all men, but now from my perspective there is additional beauty to be seen. Women outnumber men 3-2 or thereabouts. I don’t count. I guess that is not a surprise now that there are more women than men in the college/university. Most must run and in taking care of themselves they once again outdo the men. I run because it allows me to think, to put things together in helpful ways. These days that has become more difficult. Some things don’t change.

Next week (September 30th) we will install the first Chaplain to the Institute. It marks a change at MIT. Attention is being paid here to the role of religion in the human experience. I will be Chaplain to the whole Institute, believers, non-believers, the uncertain. This change reflects recognition that religion contrary to expectations seems to be more important today than ever in our world lurking as it does on the edges of both conflict and comfort.

Last Sunday, The Boston Globe announced another wave of change. More young adults are declaring themselves non-religious. I might have done the same if I had to suffer through the smug God talk of many politicians without the perspective of age. We are always a bit behind the curve. I expect that before the godless become a majority another trend will develop. In any case, on Saturday at the close of Yom Kippur, Muslims observing Ramadan and Jews who have observed a Day of Atonement will break fast together on our campus. In this world of conflict and tension, that is a change for the good which we all should celebrate. Still today something good can come out of Jerusalem.

Robert M. Randolph

New Beginning

2007-09-07T18:06:00.000-04:00

Just over a week ago the Class of 2011 arrived on campus. They are an eclectic lot, bright eyed and able. The mood on campus is electric; the Chaplains hosted a PB&J Bash inviting those interested in their ministries to drop by and get acquainted. The annual Duck Float, close now to a tradition, invited frosh to choose a yellow duck from those floating in the moat. Over 500 were taken. Having your own yellow ducky might not have the cachet it once had, but they do get attention.

Johanna Kiefner, the Lutheran Chaplain for the last seven years, leaves this month to complete her Social Work degree. she has been a valuable, caring member of our community. Her interim replacement, Diane Ranson, has the challenge of following a compassionate professional. At the same time, we are welcoming back Amy McCreath from a summer sabbatical. She and Diane will lead this year's iteration of the Lutheran-Episcopal Ministry. Known at LEM, the program has a storied history here at MIT.

While we celebrate what Johanna has done and welcome Diane to our community, we also must deal with the absence in our midst of James Albrecht '08. A former President of Baker House, James died in New York City this summer. He was a campus leader, a math major with enormous talent and intellect, and a friend to many. Services have been held in his home town, but on campus we are just now back so today led by Fr. Richard Clancy we celebrated James' life.

Our year begins celebrating the promise of a diverse and talented new class. We say good by to a good friend and caring pastor who knew how to foster and support faith in both thought and action. As well we come together to grieve and to begin to heal. It is a new year and a new beginning, but already we are reminded of the fragility of life and friendship and the value of a caring community. It is ever so.

blessings,

Robert M. Randolph

From the Chaplain to the Institute

2007-08-24T11:16:00.000-04:00

Dear Friends:

In 1955 when Kresge Auditorium and The Chapel were opened there was a good deal of conversation at MIT about having a Dean of the Chapel on the model of Duke University. The names tossed about in good MIT fashion were noteworthy. Ultimately, however, nothing came of it. When President James Killian left Cambridge to become Science Advisor to President Eisenhower, the notion died quietly. In the subsequent half-century there were always chaplains on campus serving established religious traditions. They were an outstanding group. Mike Bloy, John Crocker, Scott Paradise, Bernard Campbell and Jessica Crist come to mind.

At the same time, the Institute was well served by Dean Robert Holden, an ordained Unitarian minister, who was de facto chaplain to the Institute. He kept an eye on the religious communities on campus and on just about everything else that went on here. He was proud of the chapel and a quarter century after his retirement, there are those who call his name with a bit of reverence. In 1981, I moved onto campus with my family and became the Dean in Residence trying to fill the large shoes that Bob Holden left behind.

Now it is a new day and Dean Larry Benedict approached me last fall to ask if I would take responsibility for religious life on campus. After 28 years of service as a Dean dealing with often difficult situations, to be challenged by this new role was very attractive. On January 1, 2007 I became the first official Chaplain to the Institute.

The title is intentional. The role will serve the entire community: students, staff, faculty and research staff. In addition to the symbolism, the goal for the Chaplain to the Institute is to foster dialogue across religious boundaries while at the same time supporting the communities of faith that exist at MIT. I am an ordained Christian minister, but my role is not to advocate for one community or another, but to help create a wider community that has room for all shades of belief and unbelief, a community that nurtures and supports the healthy development of interior life during the university years. It is a daunting task.

This blog will appear regularly. On my web site information about upcoming events and activities will appear also. There will be links to articles about different ministries on campus. MIT remains a vital community drawing the best from all of us. We covet your support and encouragement.

Dr. Robert M. Randolph
Chaplain to the Institute