"On Thinking Beyond Tomatoes"

Read all about it! In the recent crisis involving the spread of Salmonella scientists believe that it's time to change their perspective on tomatoes. "They aren't off the hook," the scientists reported, "It's just that we have to start thinking beyond tomatoes."

Last week Christina Villa, long time staff person of the national UCC Stewardship Ministry Team, wrote a helpful meditation in the daily UCC Stillspeaking Devotional. She wrote of a childhood trip to the Statue of Liberty, how she and her family took what seemed to be hours in climbing the (what seemed to be) endless stairs to the top. Tina wrote that all she found herself thinking about was those stairs. She stared at the stairs. Her entire experience of this central symbol of what it means to be "American" involved thinking about the stairs.

"Some years later," Tina continued, "I saw the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island ferry on a brilliant late summer day. This time was different. I couldn't take my eyes off it. There it is! The Statue of Liberty! From half a mile away, its meaning was arresting."

She went onto observe, "'Give me your tired, your poor.' That's the meaning of the Statue of Liberty. Our political arguments over immigration policy are like the stairs inside the statue. They are what you remember while you're missing the point. God's regulations about who can eat the Passover meal are like that, too. See God's pronouncements from a distance and from some vulnerable and hopeful position, like that of an immigrant approaching at last a harbor. That's how you get the point."

What's the point? Yes, tomatoes are the immediate cause of the spread of salmonella poisoning. And, warnings should be broadcast and tomatoes removed from grocery store shelves and restaurant menus. But, maybe it's not the tomatoes' fault alone. Maybe there are other vegetables or fruits that also are infected. Maybe it's a matter of where they're packaged or the materials with which they are packaged, or the place whence they are being shipped.

The price of gas in the U.S. is finally reaching international fee levels, and we don't like it. So, what's the point? Does it mean that we should increase oil production (including drilling in areas within wildlife preserves)? Does it mean that we should limit those whose speculation on Wall St. are causing prices to spike? Does it mean that we engage more intentionally in producing alternate fuels and adjust the technology of our cars and other toys accordingly? Does it mean that we just grin and bear it all? (A most recent Pew Survey reported in this morning's paper suggests that a majority of people approve of drilling for oil in wildlife reserves, by the way.)

Reports from Moscow are that another city landmark will be renovated. The huge toy store, Detsky Mir (Children's World), will be gutted and modernized. Said one official, "It has become both morally and physically obsolete." So, what's the point? In what way can a toy store be morally obsolete? Does it sell toys laced with led? Are the employees unfairly treated by management? An interesting comment, nevertheless. There are those who fear that the renovation will destroy an historic aesthetically distinctive and pleasing landmark. So, where is the point at which becoming physically state of the art crosses over into aesthetic immorality?

I can think of many of our church buildings that can be described as physically obsolete. It might also be true that their physical obsolescence has moral implications. (Handicapped accessibility comes to mind!)

One of our churches needs a new roof over the sanctuary. This church has also identified the need for new, more comfortable chairs for the sanctuary. Sometime this winter a couple of families paid for the chairs. The church council has just asked the congregation to embark upon a fund drive to pay for the new roof. The council also noted that worship and Sunday school attendance has stagnated somewhat recently. (Hopefully, there will be no heavy rains that will leak through the old roof onto the new chairs, filled by fewer people!)

The national setting of the UCC is debating whether or not to undergo a modification of the recent restructure. Some leaders have felt that making the relationship of the different covenanted ministries more streamlined and efficient, with clearer lines of leadership and authority, and reducing the unwieldy size of the various volunteer administrative boards will make the national setting more faithful in its calling. If this doesn't happen (especially reducing the size of the boards) there will be little alternative other than reducing the already bare bones paid staff. Those who stand against the proposed modifications fear a loss of voice for traditionally under-represented groups.

So, what's the point? The point is that it's all a matter of perspective. So often we become so immersed in the details that we miss the point (as Tina Villa put so well). We read in the scriptures that God's thoughts are not our thoughts, and that God wishes that we see things like God does.

The United Church of Christ is a covenantal church. We love God, we follow Jesus, we seek to grow together in all God's ways. We propose to live out this calling by extending a radical welcome to all God's people, working for justice where there is oppression, grace and peace where there is violence.

Our local congregations are called to be the church in their locations: to proclaim the Gospel in word and in deed; to share fellowship with Christians everywhere; to respect all people especially those whose pathways to God differ from our own; to identify and serve the needs of the community, especially those that are the most vulnerable.

The United States of America has as part of its oath of allegiance that we are "one nation under God with liberty and justice for all." Many of our fellow citizens hear the words "under God" and feel that we need to get prayer back into the schools and allow sculptures of the Ten Commandments in our state houses.

While these maybe worthy pursuits, my view is that God is probably much more concerned with liberty and justice for God's children than with public prayers dutifully stated by rote or badly executed statues. God is more concerned with providing for the poor, the homeless and the oppressed than with building walls to keep them out. God is more concerned with one world, than with one nation over against the others.

That's the problem with thinking beyond tomatoes. Things get more complicated. But, just maybe, like the Statue of Liberty from a half mile away, we might just get the point.

"The earth is God's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it."

(Ps. 24:1 NCH)

Blessings,

Rick Cowles