Through the Eyes of a Robin

I remember him telling me stories why he chose the bat as his symbol. I remember pretending to understand. Truth is, I didn't. I was just a child at the time. I was not his equal. I was not him. I could not understand the pain he hid. I could not understand the pain he used to defeat his villians. I pretended to understand. How could I? How could I have known that is was a promise that drove him all these years. A promise to the deceased to avenge their souls.

I do not think the dead care about vengeance. I never thought my parents needed to be avenged. Or at least I pretended not to. Probably somewhere deep inside I did. Bruce was different. That night in Crime Alley, Bruce Wayne died and Batman was born. Alfred would always say that Bruce was more comfortable in the dark of the cave in his mask and cape than he was in the mansion.

Bruce was not one who would think was born into money. He hated to Wayne persona. He hated playing that role but he did some good things in that role. While to a few, he will always be known as the Dark Knight, to the world he will be known a billionaire who generously gave to the needy, who built housing for the homeless, who provided full scholarships to low income families at Gotham's best schools.

Batman fought against crazed criminals.

Bruce Wayne fought against a broken system.

Bruce may think the world will always need Batman. He may be right. But the world will never have another Bruce Wayne and that is the saddest crime of all.

In 10 Words or Less

“Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”

10 words.

That is all it took for Simon, Andrew, James, and John to immediately leave their boats. 10 words were all it took for them to start a journey with Christ that would lead each of them to the cross.

10 words.

10 words made a promise a promise to make them greater than fishermen. Instead of spending their time on the boat they would spend their time in the slums of Israel as they watched Christ reach out to the hurting, the lost, the broken, the sick, the hungry. Instead of casting a net, they would learn to cast a life that drew people in. Instead of leaning on their strengths they would learn to lean on the power of God. 10 words opened their lives to a possibility they had not imagined possible until the stranger called for them.

10 words.

Words carry a lot of weight with them. They have the power to create and the power to destroy. Words can renew a weary soul. Words can ruin a life. Words can empower a people to change the world. Words can cause people to demolish a civilization. Words have the power to set us free or bind us. Learning to speak is more than a right, it is a responsibility; a responsibility to edify one another, a responsibility to draw others in; a responsibility to lift up and give life to the lifeless.

10 words.

I am not sure I have the power to convict a soul with just 10 words. I am not sure I am charismatic enough to sway an audience with 10 words. I am not sure I could make a strong point in 10 words. Not sure if I could preach in 10 words, something I'm sure you wish I could.

10 words.

The scripture is full of moments in which God speaks or does amazing things with small words. In Exodus God refuses to go into a long theological argument when Moses asked, “And who should I say sent me?” God simply responds, “I am who I am.” 5 words. In Jonah, after 3 days in a fish's belly, Jonah finally decides to obey God, he speaks no more than 8 words in his sermon to Nineveh, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 8 words and everyone and thing from the king to the cattle are putting on sackcloth and sitting in ashes and fasting.

This Sermon? 419.

Words are powerful. Words have built empires. Words have destroyed empires. Words have saved a people. Words have attempted to erase a people. Words have kept a race in slavery. Words have set a race free. Words hold more power than any weapon. Words can destroy faster than nuclear bomb. Words can change a person’s life for better or worse.

10 words from a stranger led four men away from their families, from their income. 10 words changed their lives. If we took the gospel seriously we would see the power of our words. Words that we use can degrade a human being, a human being who is created by the same God who created you have no place in our vocabulary. Words that put down instead of lift up have no place in the church. The Christian should only speak words that call others to a greater life. It only took 10 words for Jesus to call Simon, Andrew, James, and John. It only takes one word from us to ruin a life.

10 Words led to action. 10 words drew 4 men from their world and took them into God’s world. Words have the power to inspire. Words have the power to cause action for the good or for the worse. Words can inspire a people to change for the better.

Several years ago they buried a woman named Grace Thomas at the First Baptist Church cemetery in Decatur, Georgia. You probably never heard of Grace Thomas. No reason that you should. She was the child of a streetcar conductor from Birmingham, Alabama. She fell in love with a boy from Georgia Tech in Atlanta and she moved to Atlanta and married him, full-time wife. To support the family she took a job as a secretary at the state capitol in Atlanta. She was now full-time wife and full-time secretary.

Through her job she became very interested in politics and the law, so she enrolled at night law school. Now she was a full-time wife, a full-time secretary and a full-time law student. When she finally graduated from law school, she astonished her family by saying, “I’m not going to practice law. I’ve decided to run for political office.”

They said, “Mother, what office?”

Expecting her to say school board or library board, she said, “I’m going to run for the governor of Georgia. The highest office in the state.” Now this was 1954 and Grace Thomas ran for governor of Georgia. There were nine candidates that year: eight men and Grace Thomas.

There were nine candidates but there was only one issue. It was 1954 and Brown versus the Board of Education had come forth from the Supreme Court to integrate the public schools. And eight of those candidates for governor said that they thought Georgians ought to resist this every fiber in their being. Only one candidate, Grace Thomas, said that she thought it was the coming of justice. Her campaign slogan was “Say Grace at the polls.” Not many people did. She ran dead last and her family was relieved that she had gotten this out of her system. But she hadn’t.

In 1962 she ran for the governor of Georgia again. This time the civil rights movement was in full flower and the stakes were high. She went around the state with her message of progress and prosperity and racial harmony. She received death threats on her life and her family feared for her and traveled with her to protect her.

One day, she went to give a campaign speech in the little town of Louisville, Georgia. The centerpiece in Louisville is not a Civil War monument or a county courthouse, it’s an old slave market where human beings were bought and sold. She decided to give her speech under the canopy of that slave market. She addressed a gaggle of farmers and merchants and she pointed at the slave market and said, “This, thank God, has passed and the new has come. It’s time for Georgians to join hands, all races together.”

Somebody in the crowd shouted at her, “Are you a communist?”

“No!” she said.

“Well, where did you get those goldarned ideas?”

She thought about it for a minute. And then she pointed at the steeple of the First Baptist Church and she said, “I got ‘em over there in Sunday school!”

Words changed Grace Thomas’ life. Words showed up that all God’s children were created equal. Words inspired her, challenged her to change the policies of her state by running for Governor. Our words have the ability to do the same for our friends, our families, our churches, our sick, our lost, our needy, our hungry, ourselves.

Standing before some 250,000 people, Clarence Jones watched as Martin Luther King Jr. turned the page of his written speech over. Mr. Jones turned to someone next to him and said, “These people assembled don’t know it but they are about to go to church.” Mr. Jones understood that the words were about to be said where special words. With 4 words Dr. King became a fixed part of America’s history. With 4 words Dr. King rallied a nation for a cause. With 4 words Dr. King answered the 10 words of Jesus, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”

Jesus is standing on the shore calling to us; calling our names with 10 words. He is calling us to become a part of something greater than the reality we live in. He is giving us a promise to hold on to. Jesus is giving us the power to transform worlds with our words. He is giving us an opportunity to transform our county with words; words that inspire; words that give way to a promise; words that change lives; words that bring life.

Jesus is standing on the shore and his words, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people” are words that call us to a life of righteousness, to a life of justice, to a life of unconditional love. Jesus is calling to us. Do we have the courage to answer? Do we have the courage to stand and follow? Do we have the courage to trust in those words? Do we have the courage to believe that one day all God’s children will sing, “Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty I’m free at last”? Do we have the courage to bring forth that day?

If we do, then let us brave the icy currents once more and answer the voice of Christ, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord.

The Promise of Bat

You may not be familiar with my story. It is not one you tell to your children at bedtime. It is a story pieced together by headlines: Wayne Family Mugged. Thomas and Martha Wayne Buried. 9 Year Old Bruce Wayne Inherits Empire. The police report a similar story: Family of 3 mugged. Parents shot by suspect. 9 year old witness. Suspect still at large.

Suspect still at large.

That is the story. That is the story that has bore this story, my story.

I have struggle these past 14 years to reconcile their deaths. I have not been able too. That night still haunts me. It awakens me in the dark of night. Sweating, I fear the criminal who took my life is taking the lives of others. In the dead of night I made a promise. I swore on the spirits of my parents that I would avenge their deaths.

This is not about my vengeance. No. This is vengeance for the voiceless; those whose lives have been destroyed by senseless violence. Tonight I began my own war on crime. Tonight I learned a hard truth. Bruce Wayne cannot avenge their deaths.

Bruce Wayne is a man. . Man is corruptible and unfrightening. Man can be defeated. Man can be hurt. Man can die. I know this now. I sit here bloodied. I sit here defeated. I was unprepared tonight. I thought I was ready. I thought my skills would save me. I thought they were all I needed. But I need something more.

I must become something more than a man. I must become greater than a man. I must...

As if on cue I look up to see a bat clinging to the wall. It must have come through the chimney in the study. Or was it sent. Was it sent here to show me what I am to become?

Bats frighten me. When I was a boy, I fell into an old well. As I laid there holding my broken arm, I heard a noise and felt fear for the first time. Suddenly they were on me. The bats hovering over my face, not attacking but letting me know they were there. The intense fear I felt would be a fear that I would never overcome. The intense fear I fell...will become my enemies fear.

Yes. I see it now. I understand now. I understand what it is I must do. I understand who I must become. I understand now the sacrifice. I understand now the promise I made to you. Yes, father, I understand.

I will become vengeance. I will become the night. I will become a bat.

Memoirs of a Hero

Alfred brings me a cup of coffee as I sit behind Bruce's desk. On the desktop lies a worn out leather book with a letter I have been instructed to read. I have been avoiding reading it since Alfred first delivered to me in Blüdhaven earlier this month. Now, in Gotham, in a home I left at 17, I look at this book wondering if there is anymore I could learn about Bruce Wayne...Batman.

Dick,

You know my story better than anyone, at least some of my story. The parts I would share. I regret not having shared more with you. You were so young when you came to live me. I never felt like a father nor felt you were like a son. Our partnership...our relationship was on a deeper level. You were my partner, my brother, my family. I should have shared more. I should have done a lot more but such is our lives bound to role of our masks. And if you are reading this note then you know that Bruce Wayne is no more.

You know how the story begins. You've pieced it together by the police reports. A family of three leave a showing of the Mark of Zorro. Man robs them in the alley, suspect named Joe Chill. During robbery, victim Thomas Wayne steps forward and is shot followed by the shooting of Martha Wayne. 9 year old son Bruce witnessed the events.

It is true, one single instant in a person's life can change their entire lives. My life was changed that night. As a boy, my mother and father were murdered before my eyes. I dedicated my life to stopping that criminal, regardless of the forms or faces he wears. I remember the first night I put on my mask. I went out into the streets and received a beating as I tried to stop a mugging. When I returned, Alfred shook his head and began to stitch me up.

As I sat there in my father's chair, a bat flew through the window. It was as if my father had sent it to remind me. Remind me of the fear I felt when the bats from the nearby cave swarmed me as I laid in the bottom of a well. I remember saying, "Yes, father. I shall become a bat." Criminals are not a hard group to understand. They are a superstitious and fearful lot. And Batman is their fear.

Yet, as time marched on I became what all criminals, all humans fear, I became alone. Then you came into my life. In you, I found a chance to change. A chance at redemption. A chance to put right what I could never put right. I knew one day I would be happy. I knew one day, because of you, I would win this fight and not have to fight anymore. Because of you.

I struggled reconciling the need for a partner and that partner being you. I desperately wanted for you a life that did not require a mask. I wanted you to live freely. I did not want you bound to the same promise I was. I swore on the spirits of my parents to avenge their deaths by spending the rest of my life warring against all criminals. You were not sworn to that oath. But you were cut from the same cloth.

I knew the loss of your family would come to haunt you. I knew you would seek vengeance. I knew you would become like me. I knew you would take on a mask. But you're mask was different than mine. I created your mask but you became your own. You kept it light. While you became a man you never left your childhood behind. You were never childish but you remembered the joys of childhood. You kept those joys with you. You helped remind me of what I was so anxious to rid myself of. Yet, I wonder if I robbed you of a normal life. Was it right for me to create a Robin? I still recall the fear I felt when the Joker shot you

I took on a task much larger than myself. My promise to my parents became greater than vengeance, greater than Thomas and Martha Wayne. Greater than Bruce Wayne. My promise became Batman and Batman has become a symbol. Not a bright symbol of hope as Superman is for the people. No. Batman has become the symbol of fear for the criminal because of his promise. Batman is more than Bruce Wayne. I was once vengeance. I was once the night. I was once Batman. But I am Batman no more.

I am hesitant with what I am about to ask. As you read my story. As you recall our history. I hope and pray that you will see what took me 31 years to see. There will always be a need for Batman. The world needs Batman.

With Love and Respect,

Bruce

In Brightest Day

http://bible.oremus.org/?passage=Genesis+1:1+-+2:4&vnum=yes&version=nrsv

As a youth minister I despised the annual Lock-In. Every year it was the same: everything is fine; kids are enjoying themselves until the clock strikes 3 am. At the 3 am, all the Red Bull and energy drinks have worn off, the novelty of the games have worn off, and the kids are in danger mode. They’re looking for something to break, something to get into, and someone to sneak off with, all because they do not want to fall asleep. At 3 am I am fighting the devil, which is sleep, saying to myself, “I just have to hold on for 4 more hours.” At 3 am the darkness of the Lock-In sets in and I am desperately clinging to the hope of daylight and getting some sleep.

Genesis 1 asserts that the world is ordered, good, belongs to God, and is therefore reliable. No matter if the earth was void and darkness covered the face of the deep, the wind from God swept over the face of the waters. The darkness is given away to light and God separates the light from the darkness. God does not remove the darkness. The darkness stays. While the light becomes Day, the darkness becomes Night. The text asserts that God is both in light and in darkness.

According to critical study, these first few verses were written in Babylon during the exile. During a people’s darkest hour, the text asserts that the world belongs to God not Babylon. Against this setting, we see creation as a reminder of God’s presence in both the light of day and the dark of night¹. They are reminded that chaos and darkness do not go away. Light is formed within darkness. God tell us that light is good but God does not remove darkness. Instead God names the darkness. God gives the darkness a place in the world but God gives the people hope in the light. As Harvey Dent told the people of Gotham, “The night is darkest before the dawn. And I promise the dawn is coming.”

In the setting of a people in exile, the creation narrative takes on a greater meaning. To speak of creation, then, is to state that the cosmos do not simply exist; it was created by God. More so it outlines the creative activity of God, including the work originating, continuing, and completing creation. Creation then becomes a statement that this world is not our world and all that is in it do belong to us. No matter how silly it sounds, this exilic setting reminds us that God has the whole world in his hands.

Creation does not end in the darkness; it begins. The light is a part of the darkness. God is in the midst of both Israel’s golden eras and her darkest nights. God is in the positive and in the negative. All belongs to God and all comes from God. In calling the light good, the people are given a great sense of hope. With each new day brings with it a new hope. There is no evaluation of the darkness. It is not called good or bad. It is what it is. The separation of the light and dark into day and night remind us in creation is difference, separation, and distinction, but always in relationship. Difference, separation, and distinction do not deny, negate, or compromise relationships. There is night (darkness) and there is morning (light).

Unlike the other days of creation, which are summed up by reference to their place in sequence, the first day has no meaning until there are more days. Before there is a second day, in other words, this day is not the first day, but simply day—evening and morning, a day; that day; this day; any day².

Under the setting of exile the creation story becomes a gift of freedom to the nation of Israel. They do not need to be anxious or frantic to become secure or please the Babylonians, but rest assure of God’s sure rule. Thus, the text offers a world of well-ordered stability in which Israel is invited to live in. That well-ordered stability is not neutral but is a countercultural invitation that invites Israel to break with seductive Babylonian offers of stability that cannot be true because the world does not belong to them³. The world belongs to God and Israel is given the freedom to live outside the Babylonian definitions of reality. By act of imagination, the text then gives them the creative freedom of civil disobedience.

But what does this part of the creation story mean for us in our setting?

“Why does evil exist” is a question that both Christians and non-Christians like to ask. For the Christian, the question is usually posed when tragedy strikes or when they are wrestling with their faith or they generally want to know why evil is in the world. For the non-Christian the question is posed when, like the Christian, tragedy strikes or when they want to disprove God’s existence^* or they too, like the Christian, genuinely want to know why evil is in the world.

As a minister and youth minister, I have been asked the question by teenagers and adults alike. During my third semester in seminary I discussed St. Augustine’s the Problem of Evil in the five classes I took. By the time final papers came due I had written on the same subject 8 or 9 different times in 5 different classes. My response on the subject is this: I do not know.

The scriptures do not give us a clear picture of why evil exists in our world. Over time we have developed theological reasons for evil’s existent, ranging from the fall of man to the devil to there being a rock so heavy that God couldn’t lift it. For me, there is not a theological reason that satisfies me, at least in the defined realities of the ones I’ve mentioned.

While the creation narrative does not give us reasons, the relationship between light and dark remind us that our brightest days are followed by our blackest nights. The light comes out of the darkness. Without the darkness God is unable to speak light into the world. God is not absent in humanity’s struggles. God is fully present in the void of life and in the deepest despairs of our world. What matters is what the scriptures teach us, this earth and all that is in it belongs to God. In other words, our blackest night will give way to our brightest day.

This leads me into the other meaning for us in our setting: We are not bound to the realities of our world.

The freedom that is given to the Israelites is the same freedom that is given to us. We can choose to define our lives by a different reality. We have the freedom to choose to live in reality that is defined by the character and nature of God. We have the freedom to break from the definition of reality that America offers. By act of imagination we have the freedom to live outside the realities defined by America and her government. We have the same invitation of the Israelites, the invitation to break free from the seductive American offers of stability that are not true because the world does not belong to America; the world belongs to God.

The scriptures tell us that we are to be a part of this world but we are not of this world. The Christian reality is not defined by governments but instead by the commandments of our God through Christ Jesus. We have the power to change the lives of our neighbors, not because of who we elect, but because of who we are. We do not have to wait on the government to feed the hungry, cloth the naked, care for the sick, or give to the poor. We have the freedom to do so ourselves. We have been given the freedom to live a sacrificial life because this world belongs to God. This freedom allows for civil disobedience. So I say, freely pray where you wish to pray. Freely give to those who are without. Freely feed those who are hungry. You have the freedom to do this without legislation and without the permission of authorities.

The creation narrative reminds us, all that is on earth and in heaven belong to God. Because of such a reminder, we no longer have to live in fear. Our lives are invited to be lived with a sense of great peace and great hope because our blackest night will be followed by our brightest day. Because of such, from life to death our lives have the ability to be a beacon of great light to the hurting, the lost, the forsaken, the abused, and the lonely, that will lead them all to the light which the darkness could not overcome, Christ Jesus. Amen.

1 Walter Brueggemann (pg. 101)

2 John Ballenger (p12)

3 Brueggemann (p101)

*Note: Non-Christian in this context refers to those who lean towards a more atheistic view of God.