John Fischer The Catch

There was a time in my life when the term “free radicals” would most certainly have referred to a campaign to extricate student protesters from unfair incarceration. Today, “free radicals” would most certainly refer to bad guys in our bodies like unpaired electrons that damage cells, aiding in the natural aging process and giving rise to a number of anti-aging products on the market that boast the power of antioxidants to neutralize the effects of all those radicals running around free. Instead of a jailed radical in cell, we have a free radical looking for one.

Once we were clamoring to stop a war and secure the equal rights of a whole race of people (that was radical), now we are just trying to keep from growing old.

I’d like to free some real radicals today – the former kind; I’d like to induce some new followers of the rebel Jesus. For starters, try reading the Sermon on the Mount (The Gospel of Matthew chapters 5-7) and see how radical Jesus looks in comparison to today’s version of His message. Turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, love your enemies, return good for evil… these are radical concepts yet to be embraced by many who claim to follow Christ.

And how about love and forgiveness, mercy and justice, and that boundless freedom of grace Christ Jesus brought us on the cross? It would be radical to express that all the time.

How about sticking it to a few modern Pharisees? That would be radical.

How about those followers of Jesus who are going to gay and lesbian parades wearing “I’m sorry” T-shirts and passing out literature apologizing on behalf of evangelical Christians for the way that segment of society has been treated by the church? That would be radical. Or those Christians in Chicago who are helping their Moslem neighbors build a mosque so they can have their own place of worship? That would be radical. And I would call radical what Marti and the Women of Vision have been doing at Isaiah House. And anything that would be the modern equivalent of going to the highways and byways of life and bringing in whoever you find there to the feast instead of keeping all that food to yourself, would be radical, too.

Tomorrow is Independence Day in America. Tomorrow we celebrate what a bunch of radicals set out to form – a more perfect union – that has resulted in a country none of them could have imagined and some don’t like – a country open to anyone and everyone who has a hope and a dream of freedom and opportunity.

We’ve got a gospel open to anyone, too. Let’s put out the welcome mat and treat everyone who crosses it with dignity and equality and embrace them in the name of Jesus. That would be radical.

Happy Fourth of July.

In observation of Independence Day here in America, there will be no Catch tomorrow and no Teleconference Bible study.

Did it ever occur to anyone that most of the founding fathers didn’t sound like Americans? They most likely sounded British or Irish or Scottish.

Last night, as representatives of Women of Vision we served our last meal to the women of Isaiah House at least for the summer. The last two years someone has called for a summer break from this obligation and I’m not sure why. Surely for the women of Isaiah House there is no such thing as a summer break from homelessness. Perhaps it was this that gave last night’s event a sense of finality about it, but even as Marti set out to prepare the Women of Vision volunteers for the event, she wrote what I think is the most relevant, concise, true explanation of homelessness I have read. I pass it on to you for you own edification, though merely reading this, and even understanding it, is no substitute for experiencing it. Certainly we, the “servers” are the ones who have received the most from this experience. They have received nine free meals this year, entertainment and hopefully a sense of dignity from us, but we have had our lives and our vision forever altered.

Over the years, we have celebrated the women of the Isaiah House for a number of reasons. Our hearts desire has been to document their presence, to bear witness to their lives, to leave a tangible record of each of them so that they will never disappear again from our memory, and so that they will not forget how truly valuable they are to us.

You and I have been the benefactors. Once their appearance and their actions made us uncomfortable. We pretended we didn’t see them. While it was once easier to turn away, we now allow ourselves to see. We don’t look away, or through them, or beyond them. We now see the Isaiah House women and their sisters on the streets everywhere.

After really seeing them, nothing made sense anymore. As we entered into their lives we found that the Isaiah House women are distressed, calm, disoriented, rational, incoherent, articulate, clean, angry, forgiving, pretty, plain, resigned, hopeful, brave, afraid, and unspoken to.

They write poetry; they paint. Their families don’t know where they are; their families kicked them out; their families want them to come home. They come from far away; they are homegrown. They appreciate the kindness of strangers. They want to be left alone. They are ex-cons. They are churchgoers. They are old and they are young. They hate the cold, the rain, the wind, and they stay out of the heat of the sun. They don’t trust the police.

They had a job once; they never worked. One grabs at us as we walk by. Another howls silently. Many talk to themselves when they think nobody is listening. They are always poor. Many have a hard time knowing what they think, much less saying it, because their thoughts are muddled and their words don’t come out right. Some hear extra voices in their heads, see things the rest of us don’t see, and believe things the rest of us don’t believe.

How did so many women end up homeless? In many cases, the conditions that caused them to slide into homelessness are constants: poverty, serious chronic physical or mental illness—separately or in combination—complicated by addiction and their social, economic, and political environments. Many have been deteriorating for years.

Homelessness is one of the pressing topics of the day. But soon something else will compete for our attention while so many homeless women continue to sleep outside under a blanket of stars. The women of the Isaiah House represent homeless women everywhere. The women of the Isaiah House have made themselves visible – just for us. They have chosen to become visible so that the next time we see a homeless woman, she is visible too.

Last night, each woman received a “Blanket of Stars Award” certificate signed by three chairs of the Orange County Women of Vision with their name on it and the following inscription: “In recognition of her profound and lasting contributions to many through the strength and dignity found in her character and by her willingness to become visible so that all women who continue to sleep under a blanket of stars will never go unnoticed again.” They cheered when Marti read that to them, and then they whooped and hollered at each other as each one came forward to receive her award and new blanket. Some cried. And then I sang my song, “Vanguard” (lyrics below), and they gave me a standing ovation. I couldn’t have been prouder if I’d gotten a standing ovation from a roomful of CEOs.
 
Vanguard!
Words and music by John Fischer
 
She’s a rebel
She’s a lady
She’s a ticket to a Broadway show
There’s no doubt that
She’s a winner
No beginner you have got to know that
 
She is walking into all situations
She is working hard
She’s a leader in a new generation
Vanguard!
 
She’s a servant
Of the people
She’s a sentry of the human soul
She’s a heart of compassion
She can see the highest goal
 
She is walking into all situations
She is working hard
She’s a leader in a new generation
Vanguard!
 
Keeping all her fears down under
Against the flow
The price she pays is high no wonder
Only a few will know
 
There’s a purpose
In her posture
There’s a wisdom in her widening eyes
She makes a pathway
With her footsteps
And with her hand she takes the prize
 
She is walking into all situations
She is working hard
She’s a leader in a new generation
Vanguard!
Vanguard!

It’s Graduation Day at Isaiah House.

For those of you new to the Catch, Isaiah House is a home for 60 women who have no other home in Santa Ana, California that many of our Catch members in partnership with the Orange County chapter of Women of Vision have supported once a month over the last two years with gifts, clothes, tea cups and any number of things to help them feel something special instead of just a free meal (which they get as well). Tonight will be no exception in that all 60 women will be receiving a new blanket and a certificate that reads: “In recognition of her profound and lasting contributions to many through the strength and dignity found in her character, and by her willingness to become visible so that all women who continue to sleep under a blanket of stars will never go unnoticed again.”

The goal all along, as it should be with everyone we encounter as followers of Christ, is to treat each woman with profound dignity – a dignity that belies their current station in life. For this reason we have used every neighboring event in the year, be it Christmas, Halloween, Spring Day, and now Graduation Day to bring something special that will remind them of who they are and to Whom they belong. It’s a graduation into a new way of thinking – a Commencement of Hope and hope does not disappoint because it is shed abroad in our hearts through Christ Jesus.

Along with each blanket will come a reminder that sleeping under the stars is sleeping under God’s covering, that their new blanket represents a blanket of stars – a symbol of God’s covering of love over us. Stars are God’s way of telling us that He is there even in the darkness… that even behind the clouds the stars are always shining.

And when God does shake out the stars like a blanket on a clear night, they become a covering of love. Stars tell us, “God is here, even though it’s dark,” and when the night is darkest, that’s when God’s stars shine the brightest.

As nighttime falls and darkness comes,
This blanket speaks of your love.
I am safe and warm tonight,
And the Stars are my nightlight above.
 
When in darkness look up high,
See! The Stars shine in the sky.
Stars are saying, “Child, don’t fear.”
God is saying, “I’m still here.”

“But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” – Jesus Christ (Luke 6:35)

If you want to get a little taste of what God is like, try loving your enemies, lending money to those you know won’t pay you back, and then try being kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. What does this do to one’s sense of justice and fairness? What could this possibly be about? Jesus can’t be serious about this, can he?

Here’s what I think. I think Jesus is getting us to think this way because he wants us to see something important about ourselves.

After all, what are we thinking here… that we are God’s friends, that we always pay back what we borrow, and that we are most certainly grateful and holy, and that’s why it’s so hard for us to understand why God would ask us, the holy ones, to be kind to all these wicked and ungrateful folks? Gee, somehow we’re going to have to find it in ourselves to love these awful people. But I suppose that if God can do it, we can too. It will be a stretch, but we will try… Is that what this is about?

Hardly. Here’s what I think it means:

There is relatively little difference between the most ungrateful, wicked people I can think of and me, and I had better be deeply grateful that God is, in fact, “unfair” in this way, because otherwise there would be no hope for me. I know this is what Jesus is saying because the very next verse is: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful [to you].” And that is followed up with: “Do not judge and you will not be judged.” See where He’s going with this?

When you look at it this way, it changes the whole picture.

Love your enemies and be kind to those who, like you, have received the kindness of God when you didn’t deserve it. And if you are ever tempted to think of God as being unfair, then go all the way and rejoice in the glorious inequity of grace that has made unlikely room for you and me, and in that same spirit of “unfairness,” make room in your heart for others.

On a few occasions I have had the privilege of experiencing dolphins at play. The one I will never forget was a time we were motoring from Newport Beach to Catalina Island in southern California and were met by a huge school of dolphins that decided to accompany us for a portion of our trip.

Every direction you looked, the water was teeming with these beautiful creatures, and as they caught sight of our boat, they joined in the chase, like a dog after a car, except these “dogs” were not going to be outdone. Playful. Adventurous. Reckless. They took your breath away.

But by far the most incredible sight was watching from the bow of the boat as five or six dolphins were running just ahead of our boat and vying for position as if they were having a contest over who would be first. How did they know how fast to go and still stay ahead of us, but so close?

As I watched this, it was impressed on me how impossible it would be to explain the behavior of these dolphins as anything but simply having downright fun. There is no practical explanation other than this. They’re doing this just because they can. And when you see this, you can’t help but give glory to the Creator with a big smile on your face. Apparently fun is a part of God’s agenda for His creation and that would most certainly include us.

So do something today for the sheer joy of it. It’s godly. It’s been sanctified by dolphins.

Cathy writes: “I was going through some old emails (yes, I keep everything it seems like) and came across this “Catch” from 2008.  I really liked it and forwarded it to everyone at work (they’re all worth forwarding – but I have to pick and choose!).  It’s pretty timely 4 years later…” So it is, and the fact that it is says something about the stagnation of the Christian presence in the marketplace. Written at the end of the Summer Olympics four years ago, I thought it would be good to reflect on it as we look to the 2012 games beginning in 37 days in London.

So the Summer Olympics are over for another four years. People all over the world are already getting ready for 2012. The commitment and dedication it takes to compete in these games, much less win them, is astounding. The Olympic games show what human beings are capable of, and part of that is all about athletic ability and achievement, but another part of it is the ability to get along with representatives of countries whose governments are not exactly friendly. Over and over you will hear it cited as the most indelible mark of these Olympic games — their ability to emphasize what we have in common with other nations and ideologies versus what we so often focus on as our differences. This was especially evident this year, with the host being a country with a totalitarian form of government.

In his concluding comments on the Olympics, Cris Collinsworth captured this aspect of the games when he wishfully reasoned, “If we can get along for two weeks, why not three? Why not four?” And it does appear to be almost achievable when you think about it that way.

We have elections coming up in America, and it’s going to be hard to think about what we have in common when everything will be geared to emphasize our differences. Even when candidates or their supporters agree on something, the media will be trying to manufacture disagreement because this is what an election is supposed to be all about — pitting forces against each other, and if there isn’t a battle, someone has to make one up. Otherwise, why do we need two candidates and two parties?

While we all can understand why a two-party system is important to a democratic republic, we can also be aware of the distinction between disagreement and animosity. What makes America great is the friendliness and good nature that goes on in Washington between differing lawmakers. These elected officials represent two different parties and at the same time they represent a system that requires them to serve together in order to make it work. That is, in fact, what makes it great. Common ground has to be found. We can’t be enemies forever. A nation divided against itself cannot stand.

So in all our discussions and deliberations and for some of us — our activism — on behalf of one party over another, let’s not forget what makes us great. For this you will have to rise above the rhetoric, the debate, and especially the media, to truly express a Christian attitude towards all. When you encounter those who disagree with you, there needs to be respect and admiration for a country and a system that allows them to. This is a great opportunity for Christians to rise above the partisan fray and manifest something greater. Christians need to be setting the mark at civility, not rudeness. Remember, at all times, what we have in common. And if for some reason you are having trouble finding common ground, remember this: the greatest need of all, whatever difference presents itself, is for a Savior.

One of our readers once wrote that she had bought a number of books to help inspire her along the way but none of them had done the trick. “These writers are good Christian people,” she observed about the authors, “and are helpful to so many people… I just wish I were one of them.”

I bet everyone has felt this way at least some of the time, and I bet others feel this way almost all the time. That book, devotional, study guide, seminar, retreat, or church service was helpful to so many people; I just wish I were one of them.

Here’s what makes this even worse. A lot of people are acting like they are one of them for whom it is working, when deep down inside, they know they are not. This is when playing Christian can be so damaging.

Being around real Christians should be a little disarming, like being in the company of a whole bunch of people who can’t believe they got in, know they don’t deserve to be in, and can’t wait to find out what happens next. This kind of astonishment and anticipation is the permanent possession of a true believer.

Church is not a building full of beautiful people who hide a secret that the Christian life is working for everyone but them. It’s a community of folks who know they shouldn’t be there in the first place, and yet they got there through no merit of their own, and because of that, they are ready for anything.

There is power in conformity; we just need to decide to what we will conform. Will we all conform to being something we are not, or will we make a corporate decision to be who we are, whatever the cost, and let Christ be the one who conforms us to His image as He sees fit?

You don’t have to wish you were anything other than what God wants you to be. Jesus found you the way you are, and He works on you from there. No book, devotional, study guide, seminar, retreat, or church service can do what the Holy Spirit is already doing in you.