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

Rumblings. 4.26.24

1. “The Good Samaritan story is not just an example of compassionate spirituality. It is a critique against religious passivity. If church people won’t work for justice and mercy, God will find some other people who will.” ~ Rich Villodas 

No doubt about it, church people are and have been working for justice and mercy for a long time. But it’s not all church people. Too many are still on the sidelines. Is God looking elsewhere to find people willing and able to take up the slack? Sure. That makes sense and comes as no surprise to me that sideline Christians are miffed by that. You see, they don’t want in on the action and at the same time don’t want anyone else taking their place. 

That’s just not the way it works. When God has a mission, he finds those people willing to fulfill it. Those who say no can be miffed if they want but that doesn’t stop God from finding those who will say ‘yes’. 

2. “People often say, with pride, ‘I’m not interested in politics.’ They might as well say, ‘I’m not interested in my standard of living, my health, my job, my rights, my freedoms, my future or any future.’ … If we mean to keep any control over our world and lives, we must be interested in politics.” ~ Martha Gellhorn

How deeply we invest ourselves in politics will vary from person to person, right?  Some invest too deeply and become too absorbed with it and find their lives are out of balance. But that can be easily corrected. But to dismiss politics altogether is frankly, irresponsible.  

3. Jordan Klepper on the Daily Show asks the question -“Has Trump ever considered paying himself hush money?” 

After the ex-president seemed to fall asleep in court, Jimmy Kimmel said it was “nice to see even Donald Trump is exhausted by Donald Trump.” 

He exhausts us all. He takes up way too much space and energy. He’s noisy even when he’s being hushed. And he does it without much real effort but in the process still manages to conjure up malice towards many. 

Pray for the jurors in the trial in Manhattan. They’re between a rock and a hard place. 

4. “My life is a megaphone through which God speaks.” ~ Albert Haase OFM

This week my life as a megaphone has been saying ‘let’s give peace a chance’.

5. “The good news is that amidst our searching lives, our broken relationships, our battles with addiction, our desperate, reaching out for something more, our fractured, and hurting world, Jesus Christ reaches out to us with the compelling vision of another kind of life. He comes to us in his risen presence and says to each one of us. 

“It doesn’t have to be this way. Another kind of life is available to you. You are invited into a legitimate pilgrimage to the heart of my Abba father, who loves you beyond your wildest imaginings. As you keep company with me, my sisters and brothers will become your new family. Overtime I will reveal to you God‘s personal calling for your life. I will show you how you can partner with me in healing my Father’s world. Along the way, I will slowly transform you into the loving, compassionate, and generous person you were meant to be. My powerful spirit will set you free from whatever enslaves you and will empower you to act on behalf of the common good. Above all, there’s nothing that will ever separate you from the Father’s love with which I love you. This is the divine vision I have for your one life on earth.” ~ Trevor Hudson, Seeking God

I think all this is extraordinary good news.  Hudson reminds us that this kind of life is not for passive observers but rather “for those serious enough to ache for it, reach out for it, and turn into it …if we want to enter this life that God gives, you and I must become seekers.”

7. The Christian Coaching Network offers this perspective. 

“Christian nationalism is just plain old nationalism in which Jesus is trotted out as a mascot to endorse something that bears absolutely no resemblance to the Sermon on the Mount or apostolic Christianity.”

Mascot Jesus is essentially powerless but in the wrong hands can be used to help create a counterfeit version of Christianity.  How can we know what’s real and what’s counterfeit?  Read and reread and pray through the Gospels. Immerse yourself in the person, words, and work of Jesus. Do this consistently and in no time at all, anything counterfeit will be easy to spot. 

 8. A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good, just because it’s accepted by a majority.” ~ Booker T. Washington

Be diligent and discerning. Look for truth and proclaim it. Fight wrong. Stand against evil. Oppose the liars. Become the resistance. Don’t just go along to get along. Throughout history a committed minority challenged the status quo and became change agents. 

9. “I have come to regard with some suspicion those who claim that the Bible never troubles them. I can only assume this means they haven’t actually read it.” ~ Rachel Held Evans

Some have told me that “if the Bible says it, I believe it.” Hmmm. Here’s my take. Scripture consoles me and welcomes me. It teaches me and reminds me that there’s a God and it ain’t me. Often, I wrestle with scripture, ask questions of it and look to the heavens and say “seriously?”

Evans is right. If the Bible you read doesn’t trouble you at times, you’re reading it wrong.

10. “A system in which the power of the “good guys” is derived from opposing the “bad guys” is a bad system. A very bad system. No matter who the “good guys” and “bad guys” are.” ~ Karen Swallow Prior

‘Tis indeed a bad system. Very bad actually. There is nothing noble about it.  Immaturity and vindictiveness defines it.