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. 12.15.23

1. “It should tell us something about her home country that a mother is willing to travel 2000 miles with her 4-month old son to come here. How we respond when she arrives tells us something about ours.” ~ Beto O’Rourke

“If your response is, “The parents should not have brought their children here illegally,” know this:  I pray to God that you never have to flee violence or poverty or persecution with your children. And if the day comes that you must and your babies are forcibly removed from your arms,  I will fight for you too.” ~ Brene Brown

People of faith might be well served, during this Advent season, to consider what the Holy Family’s mad dash from Herod to safety in Egypt was all about and what it required. It’s layered with unsettling themes of Roman occupation, community misunderstanding, persecution, murder, and unbridled ambition. If we dismiss this kind of grittiness our Christmas story becomes more fairy tale than truth and actually quite unbiblical. But when we enter into the fullness of the story it will change us in profound ways. 

Perhaps, we might even start seeing those seeking  refuge at our border in a far different light. I think that would please God. 

2. ‘Come to the edge’, He said. 

They said, ‘we are afraid’. 

‘Come to the edge’, He said. 

They came. 

He pushed them, and they flew. ~ Guillaume Apollinaire

I know what fear is all about. I bet you do too. And every time I nudged myself or had someone nudge me to the edge of my fears and I took the risk of letting go something of value happened in my life. What about you?

3. “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the lowly, to heal the broken hearted, to  proclaim liberty to the captives,  release to the prisoners, and to announce a year of favor from the Lord.” 

This was  the OT scripture Jesus read, early in his ministry, in the synagogue in Nazareth. He claimed it was speaking about Him and that claim almost cost Him his life. Jesus had a way of rubbing religious folks the wrong way. But if you were broken hearted and at the bottom rung of the ladder, you found a champion. 

“When the gospel has become bad news to the poor, to the oppressed, to the brokenhearted and imprisoned and good news to the proud, self-righteous and privileged, it is no longer the gospel of Jesus.” ~ Beth Moore

4. What I saw and heard from the State of Texas this week made me shiver in a Handmaid’s Tale kind of way. 

And then when Elon Musk opened wide the doors of his social media platform to Alex Jones, I think I saw the devil dancing a jig and the Sandy Hook parents searching the heavens for an explanation. 

5. “ … Jesus did not come to create an elite country club with an arbitrary list of requirements for who’s in and who’s out. Jesus came to reveal something that has always been true everywhere—for everyone—and for all time. Otherwise it is not “true”! ~ Richard Rohr 

Do you know anything about religious clubs with an “arbitrary list of requirements for who’s in and who’s out?”  I sure do. I’m sure I’m on more than a few ‘do not invite’ lists. There’s a certain sadness in knowing that. And yet, it’s also freeing. To go along in order to get along is no way to live. 

6 “And by the way, I can’t believe I have to say this, but ‘Are you going to be a dictator?’ is not a normal question you should have to ask a presidential candidate. If you have to ask your babysitter, ‘Are you going to eat my kids?’,  it doesn’t matter what their answer is. The fact that you needed to ask them means you should get another babysitter.” ~Jimmy Kimmel, referencing Hannity’s interview of Trump

There’s a whole lot of not-normal questions being asked these days in all kinds of places. It’s sad really. Expecting moral norms of conduct used to be a thing.  Now people  are having great success  persuading us that a crooked line, is in fact, straight. And we fall for it. All our  life we’ve  known the difference between crooked and straight. Now we have doubts? I don’t get it.

7.  “The Bible does not leave us with one  consistent portrait of God, but a collection of ancient and diverse portraits of how the biblical writers understood God for their times. These biblical portraits of God are not there to test how clever we can be in making them fit together nicely. They illustrate for us the need to accept the sacred responsibility of asking what God is like for us in the here and now.” ~ Pete Enns/How the Bible Actually Works 

What is God like for me these days?  I’ve been stretched and prodded to reexamine my faith and to specifically admit that the God I thought I knew was much too small.  ‘Tis a good journey to be on. Feel free to join me.

8. “Being chosen is the greatest gift you can give to another human being.” ~ Trevor Noah

We all desire to fit in, to have someone say “I choose you.” We can be that someone. In big and small ways we can do this. 

9.  I have had the good fortune to travel to and then through Israel three times. It was not at all uncommon to see two villages, one Arab – the other Jewish, sitting together on a plain or hillside 200 yds. apart. They shared a common geography but the land between them spoke volumes about the deep divides that can separate people in the Holy Land. Those divides have and continue to lead to war and sorrows beyond measure.

In our country we are at war with ourselves. Our divides are real and exacerbated  by finger pointing, lies, rumors, all sorts of different  ‘isms’, and various forms of grievance.The space between us grows. We can see, feel, and taste the polarization. Will we end up choosing to live in separate villages on a hillside? In many respects, we already have.

“Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus told us. Now, more than ever, we need them. 

10. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said that he would not seek reelection next year, expressing disappointment that many fellow Republicans continue to push the “big lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

“Our nation is on a collision course with reality, and a steadfast commitment to truth, even uncomfortable truths, is the only way forward. Too many Republican leaders are lying to America…It is impossible for the Republican Party to confront our problems and offer a course correction for the future while being obsessively fixated on retribution and vengeance for contrived injustices of the past.” ~ Amy Wang, WAPO

The good ones are being forced out of politics. And the people who need to hear why they’re leaving have absolutely no interest in listening to anything that’s sane and truthful.