Ramblings

Boom! – 8/21/2016

Sermon based on Luke 13: 10-17. At the end of a show, stand-up comedians love to celebrate with a distinctive move --- perhaps you have seen it: they drop the microphone. Boom! In comedy lingo, this means they have "killed." Done a fantastic job. Set the place on fire. Left the audience in stitches. Oddly enough, the opposite of killing is bombing. If you bomb, no one laughs. If you bomb, you don't drop the mic. Another example of how English is a bizarre language…!

Anyway, dropping the mic is older than the internet and has been around for over 30 years. The story goes that the comedian Eddie Murphy gave birth to the action when he dropped his microphone in 1983 at the end of a stand-up special. Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock then made it a part of their routines. More recently, Adam Scott dropped his mic at the end of a speech on Parks and Recreation. The funny thing was that Adam Scott was not doing stand-up comedy. He was addressing a model United Nations.

Perhaps a sign of how the practice has entered into our modern American cultural landscape, just take for example, the close of the Tony Awards, when Neil Patrick Harris didn't just drop the microphone --- he tossed it, or when after singing at the MTV Video Music Awards, Beyoncé did a microphone drop and revealed that she was pregnant. But perhaps most famously, a sure sign that dropping a microphone at the end of a talk has entered the cultural landscape is when President Obama did it as part of his talk at his last time in front of an audience at the annual White house correspondent's dinner.

In every case, though the point is the same, you drop the microphone when you think you've nailed it, "killed" it --- done a fantastic job. The mic hits the floor and you walk away victorious.

I thought about that modern interpretation of expressing an exclamation point as we gather today to worship. Obviously we have the baptism of Ethan. At baptism we celebrate God's adoption by grace, because of Christ's sake of little Ethan into the family of God. Boom! We hope and pray that over the years, Ethan will grow in faith. So we celebrate, drop the mic!

But there is another reason as well, for after reading today's gospel, in a sense Jesus kills it and reminds us how and why we do the same. Today we hear how once again how Jesus saw the kind of person --- crippled, female --- that people tended not to see. Jesus saw, Jesus healed, Jesus pointed out hypocrisy! Boom! 

Let's review. Jesus is teaching in one of the Galilean synagogues on the Sabbath day --- Saturday for Jews. Jesus is not singing or doing stand-up comedy, but he's drawing a crowd anyway. Just then, we are told, a woman appears --- she has a "spirit" that has crippled her for 18 years, leaving her bent over and unable to stand up straight. Is this an evil spirit or just the challenges of life and family? The Biblical Greek is unclear. Regardless, Jesus calls her over and says, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment." Jesus lays his hands on her, and immediately she stands up straight and begins to praise God. Jesus is victorious over the crippling spirit, and to accentuate his triumph he drops the mic. Boom!

But not everyone is impressed, just like critics missed the point when President Obama took on this cultural metaphor this past June, the leader of the synagogue is indignant because Jesus has broken a religious law by healing on the day of rest. The leader says to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the Sabbath day." He scolds the crowd for seeking healings on the Sabbath, and criticizes Jesus for performing the work of healing.

Jesus responds by picking up the mic and saying, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?" We can just imagine the people nodding their heads yes, admitting that they do this. "And ought not this woman," asks Jesus, "a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for 18 long years, be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?"

Again, we can just imagine people in agreement, realizing that Jesus is right. At which the opponents of Jesus are immediately put to shame, and the entire crowd rejoices at all the wonderful things that he is doing. Jesus has nailed it in that Galilean synagogue, set the place on fire and achieved a complete victory over his opponents.

Once again, Jesus drops the mic. That may not have been Jesus' self-assessment, but it certainly was the assessment of the crowd. Wow! BOOM! He nailed it! They were delighted.

And what again did Jesus nail --- the Sabbath day or not, there's nothing wrong with celebrating a healing as well as a victory over hypocrisy. When a crippled woman is healed, what a time to celebrate! Furthermore, Jesus is indicating that shame on anyone who gets hung up on religious regulations about Sabbath-keeping. Jesus knows that God's focus is on the needs of the woman, not on the letter of the law.

Well, what about us? How and when should we be celebrating, dropping the mic? Well, in a similar way, this event in the life of Jesus reminds us that not only are not to be timid about doing God's work --- but let us celebrate for freeing the bent over and speaking the truth to power as we focus on the needs of people and less on the letter of the law. As Christians, we can follow Jesus boldly and drop the mic and celebrate another day of God's kingdom. Boom!

We begin by liberating bent over people, as Jesus did when he healed the woman afflicted by a crippling spirit. As I said earlier, although Luke doesn't tell us the exact nature of her affliction, and the Biblical Greek is less than clear, we certainly know people today who are burdened by life and cannot stand up straight: Abused women, unemployed men, substance abusers, teenagers caught up in sex trafficking, children who struggle to be successful at school. For example, the United Nations recently came out with a study that there are more people in human slavery than live in the entire country of Canada. The list goes on.

All that can seem overwhelming. And the little ways that we have worked on the problems seem like a drop in a leviathan tidal wave of despair. For example, I am disappointed that we are no longer financially able to provide an afterschool program or a daycare. We know it is hard for students to stand up straight when they cannot understand their assignments and participate in class. But, now is our opportunity to consider what other ways are children bent over that are getting help?

Right next door, we have a Girl's and Boy's club who tomorrow begin a new school year. Is that one way? One-on-one tutoring is a critical intervention in the lives of needy and disadvantaged students and is happening every day. It is in line with the work that Jesus did to free the oppressed and bring good news to the poor. Christians who serve in this way are helping children to stand up straight, mount up with wings like eagles, run and not be weary, walk and not faint. Boom!

I've also had several "aha" events in this past six months regarding family members who have someone in prison. As many of you know, we have a large percentage of our population in prison for crimes. When released after paying their debt, it is a struggle for family members as well as ex-offenders for a variety of reasons. This issue keeps coming up in my life so I wonder if God is putting up a billboard telling me something. God's kingdom. Boom!

We also speak the truth to power, as Jesus did when he annoyed people who objected to his work of healing on the Sabbath. A similar kind of truth-telling was done last year when clergy members from across the state of Georgia traveled to Atlanta to criticize that state's attempt to block Syrian refugees.

Alyssa Aldape, from First Baptist Church of Dalton, pointed out that "in the gospels we have a Savior who was born a refugee child who was seeking refuge for the first years of his life." As an immigrant herself, she said to a local TV station that she experienced a warm welcome when she arrived in Georgia years ago. She wanted to provide that same comfort to refugees fleeing the violence in Syria. Likewise, clergy member Donna Mote who serves as the Episcopal chaplain at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, told how very week, she greets refugee families arriving in the United States. She made the point that "no one enters our country as a refugee, with refugee status, without having been thoroughly vetted."

These Georgia clergy spoke the truth to power, stressing the Christian task of showing hospitality to refugees. While those clergy know that our country needs a strong screening system, they also side with Jesus in wanting to ease the suffering of fellow human beings, unwilling to let one regulation crush the other. People of faith in Georgia took a stand in support of receiving refugees, and urged their elected officials to do the same. Boom!

Now obviously, laws certainly have a place in our religious and national lives as they did at the time of Jesus. On the whole, our faith tradition encourages us to be law-abiders and commandment-keepers. Jesus himself said that he came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. But the apostle Paul made it also clear that "the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself." And Jesus was additionally vibrant in reminding all of us that his mission was to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives, and freedom to the oppressed.

"Ought not this woman," asked Jesus, "be set free from this bondage on the Sabbath day?" The answer at the time of Jesus was "yes," and it is still is "yes," boom! Together we celebrate the adoption in grace of little Ethan. Boom! Together we celebrate children being lifted and refugees finding a home. Boom! Where else is God at work where God is asking for our hands? Where else can we metaphorically drop the mic?

In a synagogue in Galilee, Jesus freed a bent over woman and spoke the truth to power. His actions healed a spirit crushed woman and put his opponents to shame. In both incidences, Jesus reminds us that God's kingdom has come into being and has taken another step into our realities. Boom! Today, Jesus challenges us to do the very same, modeling a boldness that he showed to the crowd and to the leader of the synagogue. Our fears are many including finances, an aging facility, nonetheless God is accomplishing as well as providing new opportunities for all of us to bring the kingdom one step closer into being. Like Jesus, we can and do take bold stands as we free the bent over and speak the truth to power.

The good news is that those actions of Jesus lead to celebration, not condemnation; to rejoicing, instead of rejection. Luke tells us that the healed woman immediately began praising God! Likewise, the entire crowd rejoiced at all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing and saying. Today we can and do the same. Ethan is baptized! Children are tutored! Refugees are welcomed! We too can drop the microphone, for we ourselves have been healed and can stand tall, and walk away victorious ---Boom! A very grateful thanks to http://www.homileticsonline.com for the illustration and sermon help from a tired pastor.

What if… 8/7/2016

Sermon preached at Good Shepherd Lutheran based on the gospel: Luke 12: 32-40. I once met a young woman who told me the story of her painful divorce. She spoke of how difficult it was to raise a child alone. She told me that she hoped one day to marry again, but she feared that she would never find someone to love or love her in return. She concluded her story with, "But I just have to accept that this is all part of God's plan for me."

It was at the last statement that I bristled. Really? God's plan for her was have her go through a divorce? God's plan for her was to be a single mother? God's plan for her was to be single the rest of her life? Would the God revealed in Jesus Christ intentionally lead a woman through a painful divorce, shattering her hopes and dreams?

I remember a former congregational member who shared a story in her life similar to that young woman's statement regarding God's providence. When this member was recently married, she and her husband lived in a part of the United States with many, many tornadoes. One year was particularly bad and a tornado came through and destroyed several homes in an area where they were living. Later that day as everyone was out looking at the rubble, a neighbor whose home was spared said to her matter of fact "It was God's plan to spare my home." This member years later was still bothered by that statement. Was the God revealed in Jesus Christ intentionally and capriciously destroying some homes and sparing others? For her, that would be a God unworthy of our worship, our love and our lives.

Divine providence is sometimes thought to mean that God directs all things in the universe. This thinking goes that God is in complete control of all things. God plans our lives in advance and all the experiences of our lives have divine purpose behind them. In this thinking, all things happen for a reason. While that may be a comforting thought at times, I don't buy it. Divine providence means something else entirely.

Why bring up the topic --- because of our interesting gospel lesson for this Sunday. I have found over the years, that those who tend to believe that God is a divine puppeteer, look at this lesson and focus on one verse: "You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at unexpected hour." But that is not the focus of this gospel and furthermore if we look at it more closely, paints a different picture regarding divine providence. Let's review.

Today lesson follows last week's regarding the parable of the rich fool who in response to a bountiful harvest discusses with himself the opportunity to build a bigger barn, not knowing that the evening he would be dead. Worrying about food or clothing is unnecessary in light of God's providence, that is to say, people who think and act in light of faith need not worry, so work and build always upon God first. Today that line of thought continues with Jesus reminding us "Do not be afraid, little flock."

The reason we are not to fear according to Jesus is because "your Father took good pleasure in giving you the kingdom." In other words, God wanted to do something good for the "little flock" and so freely gave the kingdom --- the reign of God --- in which the tables are open, status is upended, and all people are treated with respect.  In God's kingdom --- on earth as it is in heaven --- there is no scarcity: we have food, we have clothing, we have human dignity. What interests us is according to this passage, God has already given this kingdom.  It is not something that kicks into effect after we die or when the world ends, or coming after some supposed rapture, but something that is present right now. God's kingdom has already been "given."

The practical implications of that of course, is since we have received the gift of the kingdom, what are we to do? Build upon living without fear and anxiety. One way to do that is to return a gift to God. But Jesus says gifts to God are not needed rather give to the poor. Therefore, according to Jesus because of the God's gift of the kingdom, our response is to "sell our possessions and give alms." Do we want to thank God for all that God has done? Unlike our world, God's kingdom does not operate on a "suck up/kick down" principle. Want to impress God?  Give to the weakest and most vulnerable, but would that no also place us among the weak and vulnerable? Not to worry for we live in God's kingdom. Jesus follows this up with, for if our treasure is within ourselves, our hearts are directed toward ourselves.  If our treasure has been given to the poor, our heart is with the poor --- or, in other words, with God.

Jesus does not end there. Since we are living in the Kingdom of God already, not tied down, without fear or anxiety, we can be ready for action. The reference to girded loins recalls the Passover experience of the early Hebrews in Egypt. Girded loins means fastening our clothes in such a way that we wouldn't trip over them if running, or get caught up in them if working.  So, when it finally came to drop everything and leave, the Hebrew people were ready.

In other words, we are to be like those who wait for "their lord" coming from the wedding banquet always ready to live in the kingdom. Now remember this Lord is not grim-faced as he "comes and knocks." The Lord is coming from a wedding banquet; coming from a party. The Lord has a spring in his step and a song in his heart.  To those who are watching for the Lord, the Lord will not come with a fearsome accounting of one's misdeeds.  The Lord will not come with pious appeals to try harder. The Lord will not come to put anyone in their place, but will "sit down with them, and drawing near, will serve them."

Doesn't that sound great! To recap, we are live without fear, for we live in the Kingdom of God, living freely, giving rather than taking, ready to respond, for God and the kingdom is with us serving and drawing us near.

And how does this serving come, this kingdom. Curiously, Luke gives us an image of this kingdom as "thief."  He is not alone in doing so for the other gospel's do so as well.  The thief is sneaky and clandestine, like Jesus, like the kingdom.  The thief quietly breaks in, like God will do, like the kingdom will do.  Most of all, we don't know when the thief is coming, and all our defenses are no match. This kingdom in other words comes in ways we do not expect, and in those times God doesn't bother trying to tear down our puny defenses.  God sneaks around them instead, even into our deepest closets where our skeletons' lie.

Isn't that great news! The root of the word providence means "foresight". So, what if, rather than thinking about providence as God controlling all things and all things happening for a reason, we thought about God's providence as living in God's kingdom, living in God's freely given grace providing for us no matter what today or tomorrow may hold for us? Oddly enough the words providence and provide share the same origin.

And, what if, rather than God scripting our lives, rather as this lesson suggests, God has the foresight to meet us at our point of need with God's kingdom --- grace, love and forgiveness --- no matter where our life and our choices take us? What if as this lesson suggests, God's kingdom has already come, present to help us overcome our fears? What if as this lesson suggests God and the kingdom is filled with joy, like God has been to a wedding party? What if as this lesson suggests, God is so sneaky that God is able to get this kingdom to us around all our defenses, through even our most excruciating barricades to get us the kingdom that is already here?

That's the kind of divine providence I can put my faith in. That's a God worthy of our worship, our love and our lives.

But there is something more that is being taught about God's providence. You see, we are not perfect.  As you well know, we don't have all the answers. We are not better than anyone else. We are not folks that can give the perfect theological answer to every question.  Rather we are those who have learned, like Abraham and Sara, that God can be trusted.  That God can be trusted to give peace in the midst of the storm.  That God can be trusted to take what is discouraging and transform it into positive.  That God can be trusted to empower us in the midst of trouble.  That God can be trusted to receive us when you die.

And that paints a different picture. More like what the late great spiritual writer Henri Nouwen came to understand about divine providence at, of all places, the circus!  Nouwen went to see the German trapeze group "The Flying Rodleighs" perform.  He was mesmerized by their breath-taking performance as they flew gracefully through the air.  Well, at the end of the show, he spoke with the leader of the troupe, Rodleigh himself.  Nouwen asked him how he was able to perform with such grace and ease so high in the air.  Rodleigh responded, "The public might think that I am the great star of the trapeze, but the real star is Joe, my catcher...The secret is that the flyer does nothing and the catcher does everything.  When I fly to Joe, I have simply to stretch out my arms and hands and wait for him to catch me.  The worst thing the flyer can do is try to catch the catcher.  I'm not supposed to catch Joe.  It's Joe's task to catch me."

When trouble comes, so often we try to grab on to God.  We think if we do enough mental gymnastics or enough fanciful praying, we can somehow catch God and God's kingdom. It's not our job to catch God and God's kingdom. God has caught us! We don't have to wait for anything. Furthermore, even if we don't feel held on to all, we can trust God that no matter how much we may have the sensation like we are falling, God does all the catching. That is divine providence: that is the God we worship. Amen.

Why do we work? – 7/31/2016

Sermon preached at Good Shepherd Lutheran based on the gospel: Luke 12:31-21. So why do we work? I ask that question in full knowledge that we are in the middle of summer! Well, we work for a variety of reasons don't we: survival, money, achievement, security, power, success, or to make a difference. And I suppose some people are working to get to retirement as fast as possible!

Of course not everyone feels so positive about work. For instance, I once heard a rather depressing answer that went something like this: "We get a job so we can buy our kids shoes, so they can go to school, so they can get a job someday, so that they can buy their kids shoes, so that they …" In other words, work is meaningless. In fact, from that perspective life itself becomes --- simply an endless cycle.

But have you ever wondered why we work from the perspective of faith? In short, in scripture we are reminded that we all are made to work. And the reason we are made to work is do the work that God would have us do to help the world flourish. Based on that faith perspective, we are not fully human unless we are occupied. In other words, if we do not make an effort, we are not living the lives that God means for us to live.

Now just to clarify, because I know many of you are wondering if I actually have it right. Where might we see that? Well, let's just take the first book of the Bible. If you remember there are two stories of creation. One where all creation is created in seven days, with the seventh inning being a time of gratitude and appreciation; "And on the seventh day God finished the work that God had done, and God rested on the seventh day from all the work that God had done." We also, have the second creation story, that more fully explores the topic of sin, our task as co-creators and our broken relationship with God.

This creation story has two famous characters, Adam and Eve in a Garden called Eden. Eden was in this story a perfect place on earth, where all relationships work as God intended. If you remember, in that creation story, these tow have been created to till and manage the garden: "The Lord God took the man (and woman) and put him (them) in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it." And what that means is that these two characters were given work to do to contribute for creation to flourish, to create beauty. God gave these first people jobs to name animals and classify things. God made them as creators in God's image, with the ability to cooperate with God in the sense of --- "work."

But, as you may remember, in this second creation story these two are also a mix of free will, desire, and pride and want more, and ending up bounced outside the walls of this paradise, with these words, "'Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return.'"

What that means is that what Adam and Eve had been doing in the garden has been changed. In Eden humanity tilled, but outside the walls, the tilling --- using the imagery of Genesis --- includes, "thorns and thistles" and not more than a little sweat. This brokenness with God, has changed everything including the intrinsic nature of work.

For example, we may know someone who find that work they are doing isn't a good fit or doesn't contribute in a meaningful way. It could be because that person truly is not prepared for the realities of sin, the realities of brokenness in the world. In other words, using a later scriptural image, "we are not in Jerusalem anymore, we are in Babylon." What that means is that God has called us to work in a world that doesn't honor God. Therefore, our efforts, even at their best, may frustrate us.

So, why go into a quick overview of the meaning of work from a faith perspective. Well, because of our gospel lesson. We need to remember God's view on work as we approach this interesting event in the life of Jesus.

It begins around a question. "Someone in the crowd" interjects with a question. In Luke, Jesus has just come out of house having had dinner, a contentious dinner at a Pharisees home. Then outside Jesus had another discussion with more teachers. But while all this was happening, a large crowd had gathered and it is from this crowd that someone shouts, addressing Jesus as "teacher," basically wanting Jesus to tell his brother to give him a portion of his inheritance.

Presumably, this man making the request in this paternalistic society is a younger brother.  Remember, that in society of that time, the oldest brother would have inherited the lion's share of his father's estate. This younger brother seems to assume that Jesus would decide in his favor.  Perhaps the man has been listening to Jesus' egalitarian sermons and supposes that family inheritances should be treated in a similarly egalitarian way.

However, Jesus responds by saying that he is not in a position to render a judgment on inheritance law: "Friend, who set me to be a judge." Jesus could have stopped there but includes a comment on the theme of greed. Although out editors have done an excellent job to make the statement flow nicely, it is convoluted sentence. Literally, by word order, the phrase would read something like this: "not in the abundance, a certain one, his life, is out of his possessions."

Nonetheless, Jesus proceeds --- according to Luke --- to a parable regarding "a certain rich man." It seems that the "region," the location of the "land" of the rich man "produced abundantly." In other words, the increase in production wasn't because the rich man was such a great agriculturalist, but because it was a good crop year in the whole region.  Credit should go to God.

But this abundance prompts an internal dialog in the man. He has so much produce that his existing barns aren't big enough to contain it.  This means that he will be storing, and not selling, his crop. Why? Well as any good capitalist knows with a bumper crop throughout the region, and supply and demand, the price is probably depressed. Why sell now? Why not build a bigger barn, store the produce, and sell next year when crops might not be so plentiful and their market price will be higher?

Jesus was telling this story, keep in mind, in a world where over 90% of the people lived at the level of bare subsistence.  Although we don't know the makeup of the crowd, more than likely, this parable of a big landowner with big barns holding "much goods" is not likely to have generated much sympathy in a world where many people were losing what little land they had and many others were driven into destitution and homelessness.  

Perhaps that is why Jesus has the rich man talking only to himself, and, thinking only of himself.  He spends no time thinking of his neighbors. Instead, rather comically, Jesus has the rich farmer not only talking to himself, he's actually addressing himself, as if he were outside his own body.  He's not only disconnected from his neighbors; he's also detached from his own self!

Regardless the farmer is set.  He has many goods laid up for many years, and he can "rest, eat, drink, be merry" --- which is not a bad thing, incidentally.  It is, after all, the position of the book of Ecclesiastes: "So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat, and drink, and enjoy themselves, for this will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the sun."

God, however, calls him a "fool."  He's not an evil person, but rather a blockhead, a nitwit. The reason the rich farmer is a fool is not because he's enjoying himself, or wealthy or a good capitalist, but rather because he's going to die in just a few hours "this very night your life is being demanded of you."

Interesting isn't it? What is overlooked is that God gave the man life in the first place, just as God gave the increase in produce throughout the land.  Now, God is "demanding" life back. Turns out the rich man, for all his self-centered strategizing, wealth and capitalistic skills does not run all the details of his own life after all.  And what about the things he had "prepared?"  God says out loud what everybody should know already: "There are no U-hauls behind hearses."

So, what can we glean from this that may help us? Well, as we know it is naïve for us who live and work to cling to Eden, to think that this world should be more like heaven than earth. Certainly there may be moments, momentary glimpses of things as they should be, "blessings." Nonetheless we live in a broken world. The challenge for us Christians it seems to me, is to enter into that brokenness and glorify God, or point people to God, to bring the hope and love of the God, through Jesus Christ into that broken world. We are in hard spot that requires of us faith and for us not to be foolish; to be as wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

So, think back at the parable. Why is the rich farmer foolish? That he was going to die? Or was it because he was not sharp with his bounty? Rather, from my perspective the rich farmer was foolish because, in pursuit of his work, he has acted in disregard of God and his neighbors. All life comes from God who may "demand" it back at any time, meaning that in our life and in our work, we are to remember that we are co-creators with God in our community.

At one level, if God gave us the ability to paint and we never try our hand at it, we are not fulfilling what God made us to be. Likewise, when we are exerting in life and simply focus on ourselves we forget that life is also about God, and neighbor. That is a very different place for our hearts to be than if we are always thinking: "Wow, look at me --- I get to build bigger barns!"

It is not easy however, because if we achieve any level of success in our toil, we are all vulnerable to pointing to ourselves rather than to what we have received. Certainly, it's not like we are to be grim at the wheel, rather the image of work as what it can be is what gives us hope.

Thankfully, God uses work as a crucible to shape and refine us. It is a place where God can be lifted up, and where we can co-create with God in a broken world. To not be reminded about that aspect of our faith lives, misses about 80% of what we do.

Faith is not about us being better people in faith communities alone. Rather, the Good News of Jesus Christ is that God saves and we get to live in that grace, faithful in a broken world, operating out of gratefulness that God is the one working on it all. Again, why do we work? We work as co-creators, responsible to and with God, in God's grace and love, with hope in a broken world. Amen.