Category Archives: Spirituality

Of Apples, Honey, and the Sound of Shofar

by Rev. Kelli

L’ shanah tova!

This is the traditional Hebrew greeting for the Jewish New Year.

As one of the founders of Women Who Speak In Church, I would to wish all my Jewish and Rabbi friends “L’shanah tova“! Yes, here at WWSIC we are not only ecumenical, but for those of us who are chaplains we are interfaith as well!

I can not pretend to present a Jewish understanding of the Jewish New Year, but I can share an experience I had some years ago related this day. At the time I was working as a program coordinator for a Jewish Senior Center. I learned a lot through working in that position, a briefly as I did. But I will not forget the day we took several seniors, some of who no longer drove, to the local lake to participate in the ritual practices related to the Jewish New Year. It was a nice sunny day that year and the local Orthodox Rabbi joined us for the ritual of Tashlikh or “casting off”. My understanding of the ritual is that the Jewish New Year brings a time of casting away the old and welcoming the “sweet” New Year. The Jewish practice of Tashlikh  is one in which individuals write their sins down and then cast them into the water. My experience of seeing the Tashlikh practice first hand touched me because so often we forget to let go of the sins in our past and as human beings we have a tendency to pull those things forward with us until they weigh us down so much that they are holding us back. Being so weighed down by the past that one can no longer move forward is something I encounter as a hospice chaplain. So to know that there is a religious practice that ritually helps us let go of the past intrigues me.

Last night at sun down, marked the beginning of the Jewish New Year. A holiday marked by letting go of the past. A holiday celebrated traditionally by dipping apples in honey to taste the sweetness of the New Year, and the blowing of the Shofar in the synagogue. A holiday that may have a lot to teach us all–regardless of our personal religious traditions.

So happy New Year to all our Jewish and our Rabbi friends. May this day be a sweet new beginning for us all!

The website holiday2.htm was consulted in composing this blog.

I Used To Be A Murderer

by Pastor Mary Jo

Yes, that’s right: I used to be a murderer. That probably comes as a shock to most of you. I mean, this is Pastor Mary Jo, champion of non-violence and believer in the holiness of all life–Pastor Mary Jo, who doesn’t even eat meat, for crying out loud! Besides, how can someone who was a murderer stop being one? Once a murderer, always a murderer, right?

Let me tell you a story. It could be a parable or a fairy tale… but it isn’t. It really happened, but because it involves people who probably don’t want their personal business bandied all over the internet, and because the details aren’t important, I’m only going to tell you that I was convinced that someone was such a threat to my family that I designed a detailed plan to commit murder if I thought it necessary.

I knew that even contemplating murder was sinful. I knew that it would cause God sorrow, that it would tear my family apart and cause them even more hurt. I knew that I would either be killed myself or go to prison for a very long time; I was willing to pay the price–even though I knew how evil it was.

Fortunately, that “someone” disappeared from the picture and I came to my senses in pretty short order… although I can’t say for certain which came first, his departure or my repentance.

The point is I am not the same person I was when I plotted to take a human life, the life of someone who had value as a child of God and who had people who loved him every bit as passionately as I loved my family. I am not even the same person I was when I felt angry at my spouse earlier this week.

You have heard that it was said to the men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire.
(Matthew 5:21-22, RSV)

People who physically commit murder have a possibility of being rehabilitated. In the years that follow sentencing an individual may come to realize the wrongness of what they’ve done, to repent, to “find God, ” to become a better person, to grow. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ” (1 Corinthians 13:11, RSV) When the switch is pulled or the poison injected all of that potential for positive change is destroyed.

Troy Davis may or may not have killed a police officer in 1989. Lawrence Russell Brewer was unquestionably involved in the brutal and racially motivated murder of a black man ten years later. What they have in common is that both were executed on September 21, 2011–one in Georgia, the other in Texas. Their deaths did not serve to resurrect the men who were murdered–Mark MacPhail and James Byrd, Jr. Their executions were not acts of justice; they were acts of retribution.

Thank God, I didn’t act on my sin of the heart. I had a chance to change, to grow, to contribute to the world in a positive way. With just a few different choices… it could have been me. I used to be a murderer.