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March 17, 2016

Donald Trump and a Field of Dreams

I guess the Donald Trump "phenomena" has got us scratching our heads, if not, holding them in our hands. 

I love baseball and baseball movies. There is an academy award winner called "Field of Dreams". At one point in the movie, the James Earl Jones character gets to go into a mysterious Iowa corn field to explore where old baseball players and baseball dreams end up. Kevin Costner wants to go too, but can't. The conversation ends up with Costner admitting ironically what he really wants to know down deep is, "What's in it for me?"  That say's a lot about us. But not everything.

Donald Trump is about making a big splash in the world. It is about the big "me". What I want. What I have the power and publicity to get. What it takes to get noticed and get my way. Almost, whether it makes sense or not. And surely, with little or no concern about how we are all ultimately part of the whole, the community, country, world.

Jesus and Christianity are not just a little, but a lot, different. Jesus is the opposite of a big splash. Although he ultimately ended up well known in the world, he did so by creating little ripples of kindness, justice, inclusion, and self sacrifice. It wasn't about "him"; it was about others and the goodness he found in our "better angels" and the world. He didn't deny the ugliness that can no doubt rear its head in all of us and the world. In fact, he walked right into it. But he held fast to the beauty, no matter what.

I am not sure that our country will ever be "whole" again, or whether it ever was. I don't have a lot of faith in the old saying to "fight fire with fire" and shout down the opposition. But surely the time has passed to be silent. And the time is ripe to make some Holy Week noise.

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