Ronnie McBrayer

"You Never Ask Questions, When God's On Your Side"

Jesus' message from Luke 14 is simple, but start: "Violence will only lead to more violence. Compromise will only lead to more compromise. It’s death and destruction down both of those roads, as it has been for all of history. If you want a different outcome, you’re going to have to try something different!” Jesus could be accused of channeling Abraham Lincoln when he said, "My concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God's side For only God is right.”
God isn’t a mascot; God isn’t a badge you wear or a slogan you recite; God isn’t the big man on the playground that you get to pick to be on your team. God isn’t on anybody’s team, because God doesn’t play our games. God doesn’t take sides. God calls us to that "something different." What is it? Nothing new. It’s as old as the core tenet of the Jewish Prophets; for if one could distill the moral and spiritual demands of the entire Judeo-Christian ethic into a single practical phrase, it would be this: “O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: To do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Justice. Mercy. Humility. These three together appear as love being practiced in the world. Such love is the only chance any group of people will ever have at experiencing anything that resembles a future.

"Unnecessary, Unlawful, Ungodly, and Unchristian"

In this talk on the "Temptations of Jesus," Ronnie centers the reformer Roger Williams and his critique of corrupting power. Williams, the eventual founder of Rhode Island, rejected the use of abusive power as a means of religious ends; as a power-holding, power-wielding church would always become an oppressor of conscience. Williams wrote forcefully from his exile among the native tribes of New England wilderness: "I feel safer among these Christian savages than I do among the savage Christians." This savagery was fueled by the false - but forced - requirement of religious uniformity. Roger Williams said: "God does not require a uniformity of religion to be enacted or enforced; and does not need a sword of steel to assist the sword of the Spirit. To enforce uniformity is to deny the very principles of Christianity. It is the greatest occasion of civil war, a raping of the conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus, and makes hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls. It is unnecessary, unlawful, ungodly, and unchristian.”

Genesis at the Movies, Part 9: The Shawshank Redemption

Last in the series on Genesis: "'The answer is in the story, and the story is still being told.' That story - your story, our story - will keep being told as long as we live and breathe - and then long after we have lived and breathed - even as Joseph’s story is still being told today. And while there’s no magical place that can take away your suffering or erase your painful memories or immediately rescue from whatever troubles you at this moment, there remains the next page to be written; the next chapter to be drafted; and the next act, still to be composed. 'The answer is in the story, and the story is still being told.'" 
(Apologies for the sniffles in this episode - this was recorded as I still had the flu! RM)

Genesis at the Movies, Part 8: The Wrestler

God asks Jacob question: “What is your name?” It is an invitation to confess.  He answers, of course: “My name is Jacob.” I’m a rascal - trickster - a fraud. Never had the man been so honest. And that honesty - that confession - changed his life. God says in response, “Not anymore. You have wrestled with God and you have prevailed. Your name is now Israel.” Jacob wasn't blessed because he had worked so hard for it. No, he had worked so hard, he was now so exhausted and so at the end of himself, that finally he could received what only God could give him. His moxie took him all the way to the door, but only an unclenched fist could open that door; only an open and empty hand could accept what was on the other side. It didn’t just happen on this one night: For years God let Jacob just wear himself out with the struggle - using up all his strength, strategies, and craftiness. And now - finally - Jacob was done. Spent. Deeply wounded. Now completely incapable of getting what he wanted with his own power; only then could he receive what was needed.

Genesis at the Movies, Part 7: The Village

Ronnie's exploration of Genesis arrives at one of the book's most difficult passages: What Jews call, "The Binding of Isaac." Ronnie says, "All ancient religions were built on the same foundation: 'God is angry…We stand in constant danger of being destroyed…Only the blood of the most precious - the most innocent - can save us.' So, when God comes to Abraham with this sinister demand, it wouldn’t have sounded all that unusual to Abraham. Child sacrifice was a customary and common practice of the time. But this God - Yahweh - was not the fickle, unpredictable, bloodthirsty gods worshipped in Mesopotamia or Canaan or in MesoAmerica. This God had shown himself to be steady - trustworthy - gracious and good to Abraham.
"Abraham’s understanding of God should have been cross examined, for this was an opportunity to listen more closely - to test the spirits, as the Apostle John said - and demand better answers, better instructions; to hear the better word of a better God. Of course Abraham believed in God, but did Abraham believe in a good God? Of course Abraham had faith - we know he did - but did Abraham truly understand in whom his faith was placed? Abraham could be counted on to do as God told him - of course, it’s Abraham But could Abraham be counted to see that the God he had come to know, was far better than any God he could imagine?"
 

Genesis at the Movies, Part 6: Field of Dreams

In Part 6 of Ronnie's series on Genesis, he arrives at Abraham - and Ray Kinsella, portrayed by Kevin Costner in "Field of Dreams." Both mean hear the Voice, and heed an inexplicable calling - an intuition, a vision, a dream - emerging from out of the ether. They "go the distance," to quote the Voice, displaying a tenacious faith that simply keeps going. 

Genesis at the Movies, Part 5: The Empire Strikes Back

The Dark Side, that monstrous, powerful energy from the Star Wars universe is, per George Lucas, "grasping, clutching, greedy desire. It is to want; to control; to have supreme power.” And so, we arrive at Genesis 11 and the remarkable story of the Tower of Babel; something I will refer to this morning as, “The Empire Strikes Back,” for that is exactly what happens here.  The whole post-flood population gets together to do something that not even their ancestors would have dared. They begin building a tower into heaven. This was a siege tower.
Their goal was clear, as the Babylonian word for "babel" means, “gateway.” Babylonia means, “gateway to the gods.” They intended to storm heaven; to throw down the Creator; and put themselves in God's place. A line from Bob Dylan summarizes the "Dark Side" - not only of the Force - but as a constant of human nature: “God is in his heaven; and we all want what is his. But power and greed, and corruptible seed, seems to be all there is.”

Genesis at the Movies, Part 4: Castaway

Part 4 of Ronnie's series on the Book of Genesis highlights Noah and the Flood: "There are a lot of reasons the story of Noah and the Flood is told as it is. To show the superior powers around the nation of Israel that Yahweh remains supremely in command; to show that the Hebrew God is not capricious - that God is capable of emotion, regret, even change; to show that God ultimately commits himself to human flourishing: But above all it is told to embolden a washed-up, washed-over, and washed-out remnant of survivors who are barely hanging on by a thread. For they were at a crossroad with a choice to make: They could give up their faith and be assimilated into the faceless mass of that Empire - or - resolutely, courageously, rebuild on the fresh mud of the freshly inflicted disaster they had suffered. 
"This isn’t really a story about animals marching two by two. It’s the test of one family’s persistence. It’s not a story to ferret out historical facts. It’s intended as a lesson in survival. This story is the second option: 'We will not be assimilated. We will not forfeit our hope - not even in a world washed away - not even with a God we don’t fully understand.' This story is written as an act of holy defiance - against their circumstances, against their sufferings, against easy answers, against those who had imprisoned them - and against God himself if need be. They refused to quit believing, and chose to survive for their own sake and the sake of all others.”

Genesis at the Movies, Part 3: The Counselor

From talk three of Ronnie's series on the book of Genesis: "We can’t really deny this gift of free will. We can only wrestled with it, because as a gift, it is the most problematic one God has given us. We have freedom, but it has its limits. Those limits make our choices in life extremely important. As El Jefe said to the Counselor: 'You are the world you have created.' What kind of world will it be? For yourself…your future…your family…your community? It’s a heavy responsibility, but it’s inescapable." 

Genesis At the Movies, Part 2: Gravity

In Part 2 of Ronnie's series entitled, "Genesis At the Movies," he takes on the chaos of the pre-ordered universe; how God overcame darkness and confusion; and how we as God's creatures and Earth's inhabitants are called to foster, cultivate, and otherwise to cause Creation to flourish. Ronnie says, "This isn't  'environmentalism.'  No, this is stewardship of all: Natural resources, pristine landscapes, a thriving population, food for the all who are hungry, water for all who are thirsty, peace for all who are at war, justice for all societies and people. It is a call of responsible caretaking, to make Creation all that God intends - and equally - a call to forsake our self-centeredness that threatens God's good world. F or in the irony of all ironies, the only species with the ability to safeguard the world and cause this world to flourish, is the same species with the capacity to destroy it - and almost everything living on it."