An initial reflection on Resolution 4: On Difficult Conversations

            The New Jersey Synod had our annual Synod Assembly, a gathering of ELCA members from congregations throughout the state of New Jersey. There we worshipped, attended break out sessions with useful programs and information to take back to our congregations, heard reports on what has happened in the Synod in the last year, and charted a course for the coming year.

            One of the thing ways we do this last thing is by passing Resolutions and Memorials. There were four total this year, including one by yours truly, which passed!

It reads as follows:

Resolution 4: On Difficult Conversations

Whereas, the 2016 Presidential election was very contentious;

Whereas, this partisanship has slipped into congregational and synodical life;

Whereas, we are called to love one another;

Whereas, in Christ there is no east nor west, north nor south;

Therefore Be It Resolved,

-the New Jersey Synod will continue to be a community for moral deliberation, navigating the present political realities as faithfully as possible;

-Congregations of the New Jersey Synod are encouraged to endeavor to be places where partisans may remain one in Christ;

-Members of the New Jersey Synod are encouraged to enter into difficult conversations with people with whom they disagree.

Submitted Pastor Chris Halverson, St. Stephen South Plainfield

            I’d planned on introducing it when debate over the Resolution began, but by then all 4 microphones were filled with people, so I just let things ride for a while.

            That said, if I had introduced it, I would have said something like the following:

            I introduce this resolution with a pastoral intent.

If you are a pastor here, raise your hand.

If your ministry has been affected by the 2016 election keep your hand up.

            The 2016 election has heightened partisanship to such an extent than nearly nothing is non-partisan today. This reality is deeply felt in the congregations of this synod as well; look no further than the memorials and resolutions before this assembly today.

-Over half a decade ago the ELCA passed a statement on Church in Society and we covenanted together to be communities of moral deliberation. Our social messages and statements call us to be a church engaged with the world as it is, in a public way. We are also called to engage with each other, even when we disagree. Having difficult conversations is not a new thing for us, we’re equipped for it. Our current political crisis calls for people like us to be who we are.

-I always remember the time my campus Pastor back in Eugene, Oregon, Pastor Kegel, smiled and actually kinda giggled while giving me Holy Communion. I later asked him what that was about.

I’d not noticed it, but the head of the College Republicans was kneeling not two feet from me, an active member of the College Democrats. We’d verbally jousted the day before in a ruckus campus debate, but then we both knelt at the same altar, fed by the same Bread of Life. Would that we always find our way to that altar, our baptism into Christ greater than any other identity we may have.

-What would it look like if we here in this assembly, and the congregations we represent, were to model difficult conversations to our neighbors? What if we could be salt and light—clarifying political beliefs? What if we could be seed, growing up through the hard ground of the present and bearing a fruitful future? What if we could be leaven, transforming the flatness of the present into a bountiful feast?

            What if, in short, we could be the Church for this time and place, repairing the breach that has so completely split our nation?

Sermon: Greater Works than these

          “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”

          So, (Bill?) when was the last time you fed 5,000 people? (Barbara?) when did you last restore sight to the blind? Or you might well ask me, “Pastor, when did you last raise the dead?”

          

          Jesus preached good news, healed the sick, suffered, died, and saved us from sin.

          How could my poor words match the magnificence of Jesus’ parables in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, or the spiritual heights of his discourses in John’s gospel?

          How could our actions echo our Savior’s—salve for the sick and salvation for the sorrowful? 

          Our lives and deaths, our eventual resurrection

—are these on offer?

          In short, how might we do greater works than our Lord? How might we glorify his Father and our Father?

Let us pray

          You will do greater works than these.

          These?

          What are the works of Christ?

          Well, right before this, Jesus has shown his disciples what kind of love he’s calling them to

—what kind of love comes out of following him, doing his works

—a kind of love that kneels at the feet of a friend and washes those feet

—love in humble action.

          Greater works than that… he’s kinda saying:

—look Church, you will embrace humiliation more fully than your Lord who was mocked in the midst of his torture and death…

          That’s a hard message, isn’t it? But it has always been part of the Christian message

—“the Blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Church.” 

The true escape from humiliation is humility.

          Yet, there are more works of Christ than humility. 

He is a miracle man—but, save the feeding of the 5,000, he’s not into mass miracles—they are individual.

          Think about it, he calls the blind man by name, 

he seeks him after his expulsion from the city. This isn’t an anonymous healing

—a one and done

It is personal… Jesus calls him by name

And it is ongoing… when Jesus hears the Blind man is lost he searches for him and finds him.

          So too Lazarus—

Think of it, Jesus weeps, Jesus calls him by name when he calls him out of the tomb, he stays with Lazarus, even in his stink!

          Yes, these works of Jesus are ongoing, involve relationship, and are personal.

          So that’s a sense of what Jesus is offering we believers as our works

—humble works, relational works, personal works, works that don’t end when the healing is done.

          Consider, for example, St. Stephen’s namesake.

          St. Stephen is known for two things, two works, to use Jesus’ word

—being the first Deacon

and being the first Martyr.

          Both of these works flow from, and follow after, Jesus’ works.

          St. Stephen was a Deacon… not in the sense that the assisting minister is a deacon in the service, but in the sense of someone who provides word and service.

          He gets his start when the Disciples are overwhelmed and unable to feed everyone who has joined the Christian community

—in frustration they say “we are not meant to serve tables, it gets in the way of serving scripture.” 

          And so Stephen steps in, feeding orphans and widows who are both residents of Jerusalem, as well as his own people—those who are foreigners who have entered into the faith.

He widens the circle of care in the earliest Christian community

—providing for people without regard to where they come from. 

Like Jesus he feeds those in need…

like Jesus he opens up relationships in unlikely places.

Like Jesus he goes beyond what the Disciples were ready and equipped to do

like Jesus he expands boundaries to reflect the boundless love of God.

          He also follows the mold of Jesus in the way in which he dies. He preaches all of scripture—goes on a long time, the 60 verses found in chapters 6 and 7 of Acts. And by the end he is stoned to death, and dies as Jesus did. 

He asks Jesus to receive his spirit, just as Jesus asked God to receive his own 

and he asks God to be merciful to his murders, just as Jesus asked the same from the cross

…the humility of it, even in death pointing to Jesus and found with forgiveness on his lips!

          I don’t know if this is a greater work than those of Jesus

—but I do know the works of Stephen were faithful, they clearly followed after Jesus

—they expanded Jesus’ message and mission, going beyond the parochialism of the Apostles by serving the unexpected, 

they followed Jesus all the way to the end

—to a humble death that defeated the power of his persecutor

—humility defeats humiliation.

          And that’s all well and good for someone whose name now starts with Saint… 

who has churches named after him… 

but what about us?

           As I asked before, how might we do greater works than our Lord? How might we glorify his Father and our Father?

          On one hand, we can look at the massive outreach we are doing

—we are after all part of a larger church, the ELCA, and we do some amazing stuff

—1 out of every 15 people in the US and the Caribbean have been helped by Lutheran Social Services.

          In the last year ELCA World Hunger has undertaken 600 projects throughout the world

—from a men’s shelter in San Bernardino, California to assisting with secondary education in Zimbabwe to working on sustainable farming in China.

          The Federal government honors Lutheran Disaster Relief regularly, because when we arrive they know we’re not going to leave once the cameras and media attention have left.

          And before we start thinking we have to go big and go international to follow Jesus, remember the strange fact that the entirety, 

the whole thing, 

all

of Jesus’ healing ministry was done within a 7 mile by 13 mile area

—he never left his neighborhood and yet had this amazing impact!

          Our own Katie’s Quilters partner with Lutheran Disaster Relief to bring comfort to those in greatest need—that’s done right here every other week.

          We join with Cross of Life to feed hungry folk at the YMCA in Plainfield, and with St. Paul’s to do the same in Edison, and South Plainfield Social Services to do the same in right here. 

          We bring joy to people at the Lutheran Social Ministry’s senior housing down the street

…you get the point, we have an impact on our world that truly is the work of Jesus.

          On the other hand, we must not forget the small works that happen every week here at St. Stephen, works that are 

personal,

humble, 

relational, 

ongoing

-friendships you won’t have, save this space imprinted with Jesus’ image

-times you learned to admit you were wrong, 

-or were allowed to forgive someone.

-having a space to wrestle with tough questions 

-or maybe just sit with them a while.

-A place to grieve

-a simple word, spoken and forgotten, yet planted in the heart and growing

-there is a greatness in the small seeds of this faith.

          The Resurrected Jesus promises, he is at the right hand of God, 

          Interceding on our behalf, building up our works,

Truly they are built on the rock of Christ

The grace of God already enough, 

Yet flowing from it,

 Works that echo throughout the earth

“Christ has triumphed! He is living!”

All of heaven resounding 

“Christ has triumphed! He is living!”

Works that repeat that glorious truth

“Christ has triumphed! He is living!”

All of it pointing to the life he gives us.

“Christ has triumphed! He is living!”

A+A

My Review of "The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love" by bell hooks

The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Short review—a great primer for any man looking to change.
Just a touch of back story. As a kid I saw the Old Boys Club antagonize my mom in all kinds of nasty ways, so I decided my way of being a man would be to “do no harm” essentially embrace a sort of neutral passivity… which kinda worked, but I’ve found passivity allows the patriarchy to still hold sway, and I am often still complicit.
So, I’ve been exploring what a healthy assertive masculinity would look like. A friend of mine recommended bell hook’s book “The Will To Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love” saying it is the only book out there addressing Alternative Masculinity.

“The Will To Change” is a broad description of what the Patriarchy does to men—Dr. hooks describes a totalized system, I have to admit I’ve not experienced all the manifestations of patriarchy described, but I’d imagine that just means I’m either lucky or have some blinders.
What follows are a few points made throughout the book:

-Patriarchy does not allow for relationship
Dr. hooks begins with the statement that women fear men, for we are a constant threat of violence to them. She uses an intense example by Barbara Deming, who describes the first time she felt true intimacy with her father, which was when she held his corpse. It was the first time there was no threat of violence in him.
Put simply, Patriarchy involves domination, and love and domination can’t coexist. So, all intimacy within patriarchal culture is pretend intimacy.

-The Patriarchy involves Domination
Men living under the Patriarchy are constantly asking where they are on the social pecking order. There can be no sign of weakness.
Instead of finding self-esteem in a man’s individual identity it is always found in relation to other men. Any sign of weakness is shamed. The question is always “who is on top?” “who is dominating who?”. One of the silly thing men often do is answer questions even if they don’t know the right answer, or were not asked the question—this is because not having the answer causes shame and shows weakness. So, mansplaining, for example, is an attempt to not be shamed.

-“Psychic self-mutilation”
Boys become men when they learn to stop expressing their emotions. This is a horrendous loss, and within the Patriarchy manhood is reaffirmed by learning to only grieve this loss in private. Dr. hooks suggests the anti-social stage of development in boys may in fact be the point at which they learn to stop expressing their emotions.
There are multiple masks men learn to use to hide this grief and other emotions. In general the mask is compartmentalization. This causes men to distrust everyone, after all if they are masking their pain, everyone is lying. Often times boys living in anti-patriachal homes lead a double life at home and at school.
Additionally, Workaholism is a mask that is rewarded and encouraged by pretty much everyone. Work is a place to escape the self. It encourages a sense of separate spheres, men work and make money, women work at home and do the emotional work for men.
Another major mask is sex. The Patriarchy has told men that sex is the only space for intimacy and release of emotions. This causes men to have a constant sense of sexual scarcity, after all they are told sex does the work of all passions, sensualities, and relationships. “All human needs are promised to us by way of sex and sexuality.” It isn’t put in its proper place as “one pleasure among many pleasures.”
Dr. hooks warns women ought not ignore the pain the Patriarchy inflicts upon men, as they too can be socialized into psychic self-mutilation.

-Change is hard
Popular culture props up the Patriarchy, even when it tries to be thoughtful about masculinity. For example, American Beauty, Life as a House, and Monsters Ball all depict men critically reflecting upon their emotional life, and they all end up dead. Who would choose to embrace a practice that he is told will lead to his destruction?
Men are often bought off by the Patriarchy. Dr. hooks describes a gentle quiet feminist man who assumed a macho persona and was rewarded for it. Women were drawn to him, he was noticed publically and professionally, and “his feminism ceased.”
At times mainstream feminism gives men who want to change mixed messages, “Hold onto ideas about strength and providing for others… while dropping your investment in domination and add an investment in emotional growth.”
It’s important to remember that women also enforce patriarchal norms. The following conversation is a norm:
“How do you feel?”
“Like there is something missing, I’m in pain and I think society hates me.”
“Shut-up.”
Similarly, men recovering from substance abuse often have the experience of being told by their partner, “Now that you are sober you no longer need to express your feelings.”
Finally, as long as the Patriarchy is the water in which we swim, men who want to change will be left resource-less. “Men will never receive support from patriarchal culture for their emotional development.”

-But it is worth it
“Anytime a single male dares to transgress patriarchal boundaries in order to love, the lives of women, men, and children are fundamentally changed for the better.”


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A review of "The Earliest Christian Hymnbook: The Odes of Solomon"

The Earliest Christian Hymnbook by James H. Charlesworth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Charlesworth’s “The Odes of Solomon” book is interesting in many ways. Firstly, the content is fascinating, it is essentially an early Christian hymnbook from a time period when Rabbinic Judaism, Proto-Gnosticism, and Orthodox Christianity are all still decidedly intertwined, or at least can all fit in a single codex.
Secondly, the way the book is set up is interesting, it is set up as a devotional. Think of all those 40 days with Bonheoffer, Scripture for Mothers, etc… a reading, then an excerpt from the reading plastered on the other side of the page. Well, imagine that genre, except with non-canonical scripture. It’s fascinating; it gives you the feel of what an early Christian devotional practice might have been like. You can almost experience it as a living tradition.
The whole thing allows the reader to look at present Christianity sideways—it is the Faith told slanted (to borrow from Dickinson). Here are a few of the metaphors describing God, just to give a sense:
Ode 6 The Spirit plays people like wind plays a harp.
Ode 11 The author’s heart is pruned, grace flowers from it, which in turn produces fruit for God.
Ode 19 Describes the Trinity strangely, the Spirit milks the Father and pours the milk into the Son, who in turn is on offer to the believer.
Ode 24 Describes Jesus’ baptism in terrifying terms—the dove flutters over the Messiah’s head, but then soon enough untrue thoughts are threatened by the Spirit and the Messiah’s presence.
So, if you want to get an experiential sense of an alternative Christianity pick up this book and read it devotionally for 40 days or so.


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A review of Ishmael

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn


Quinn’s Ishmael is a book that really makes you think. A telepathic gorilla goes through the Socratic method with the narrator in order to think through two ways of being human—as a Taker or a Leaver.
Takers, non-tribal people, have separated from the rest of nature through ever expanding consumption, which is dangerous to all other life, and ultimately for the Takers as well.
Leavers, on the other hand, are not wedded to unstoppable expansion, and as such ebb and flow as a people in a way that matches the rest of nature, following, ultimately, the law of the World, a law as concrete and real as the law of gravity.
Quinn warns that without a change in direction, a return to Leaver culture, we Takers are doomed and the world along with us. Additionally, Leaver society is better on an individual level, as well—Leavers only work a few hours a day, have no mental illness, crime, suicide, or addictions. Additionally, their lives are filled with meaning and they have no need of religion.
I really enjoyed the book, though I’m not “sold” on Quinn’s whole program. As a person who would have died without the modern marvels of science (I have a heart condition only fixable in 1983, the year I was born) the casual way Quinn shrugs off the nastiness of natural selection seems out of place with the rest of the book. Anthropocentrism and human arrogance is a danger, I think he’s right in reading Genesis as a whole as skeptical of cities (a “Leaver” narrative), a civilization based on unlimited growth and ignoring future consequences is bad, its right in all these things, but at the same time there does seem to be a ridged dogma to the whole thing.
In sum, I recommend reading Ishmael and taking seriously its critique of the Taker status quo.


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A Review of Shaking A Fist At God

Shaking A Fist At God by Katherine Dell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A beautiful and powerful reflection upon suffering using the Book of Job as a lens (as well as works such as Waiting for Godot, JB, and Rosencrantz and Guilderstern Are Dead). Dr. Dell, like the book of Job, does not look for answers, but instead meditates on the questions and sits with them in a profound and extremely satisfying way.


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Easter Sermon 2.0

          Because I knew about an upcoming memorial service during Holy Week, which eventually became 2 memorial services after Holy Week, I put my nose to the grind stone, reading commentary after commentary weeks in advance—plotting out the 6 sermons and 9 services all ahead of time.

          And, for today, I had a simple formula I thought would carry the sermon:

(Fear + Great Joy) + Be Not Afraid = Great Joy

          I talked with a mathematician

—I knew he was a good one because he called it maths instead of math

—the equation checked out, fear added to be not afraid cancel one another out. We are left only with Great Joy.

          I was going to have us go through a spread-sheet, noticing the fears and joys in Matthew’s Gospel and then move to the fears and joys of our own life.

          Finally, I was going to tell you all that the resurrection shifts the balance—that beyond the command to be not afraid, there is the action which makes it so

… Jesus risen from the dead, that we too shall do the same.

          

          But it doesn’t work… don’t get me wrong… it works… the equation is right and the point is, ultimately, true—fear and joy are transformed by the promise of resurrection… 

but it doesn’t work.

          Easter, at the end of the day, is not an equation.

          Resurrection is not something to put on a spreadsheet.

          It isn’t planned out weeks in advance.

          It isn’t a dogma to drill into your head, not a systematized something to be easily defined, digested and disseminated.

          No, it is always a Surprising Resurrection, a Jagged Easter.

Prayer

          A Surprising Resurrection and a Jagged Easter.

          Think of Easter Baskets…after the ravenous kids get hold of them.

          Think of a time when you did something important and you didn’t know how it was going to go

—you couldn’t tell if you were excited or anxious.

          Think about the line from that Script’s song, “When a heart breaks, no it don't break even.”

          All these things, point to particularity, point to messiness—each of our lives, each one of us… particular, 

and particularly touched by Resurrection and by Easter.

          Easter is jagged, because it is the story of God acting among human beings. 

          Resurrection isn’t something we plan for, it is always a surprise, because it involves the experiences of people, in all their magnificent strangeness!

          Where our hearts are most broken, there we will most clearly find God healing us and raising us with Christ. Those broken places are intimate and strange, regions unmapped and sometimes known only to us, yet they are where resurrection takes place.

          

          What I’m saying is: Easter is for you. Resurrection is for you!

          Turn to your neighbor and say, “Resurrection is for you.”

          For you Mary, there at the tomb

—having met Jesus 

and followed him 

and followed after him even when the male disciples left

—seen him to the end, 

seen his last breath.

          You don’t have the 20/20 hindsight we have

—ultimately we know too much about Easter to easily get hold of Easter

—but not you, this was nothing you planned for…

          Mary, there at the tomb—metaphorically as well as literally.

          There quaking earth and quaking guards.

          Stone removed and frightening angel. 

          Do not be afraid, the resurrection is for you!

          Go, tell someone, “the resurrection is for you!”

          Mary if you didn’t believe the words when they came from the lips of an angel, well, here come the words again, this time from the Resurrected One, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell!”

          Mary resurrection is for you.

          For you, Pastor Chris, there at the pulpit, trust not the words of your own lips, but instead that the Spirit will use them. The generalwill become particular, not in your speaking, but in the congregation’s hearing.

          Do not be afraid, the resurrection is for you!

          Go, tell someone, “the resurrection is for you!”

          Pastor Chris resurrection is for you.

          One of our longest time members—Willie Meisnest, died last week.

          For you, Willie, there in the grave—trust now the words you’ve trusted your whole life long. Willie, resurrection is for you.

          On Maundy Thursday Logan and Leah took their first communion.

          For you, Leah and Logan, there at the rail. Your young lives already intersecting with the promise of God “Body of Christ, Blood of Christ, for you.”

          Do not be afraid, the resurrection is for you!

          Go, tell someone, “the resurrection is for you!”

          Logan and Leah, resurrection is for you.

          Sharada, in a few moments time you’ll be baptized into Jesus’ death and resurrection.

          Do not be afraid, the resurrection is for you!

          Go, tell someone, “the resurrection is for you!”

          Sharada, resurrection is for you.

          Sisters and brothers, wherever you are at in this moment, all the particulars of your life

—the breaks in your heart, the unique jaggedness of your soul. 

You, in your whole self and whole history

—all the things that make you you, and not someone else

—in all of that, I want you to know that Easter is for you. Resurrection is for you.

Resurrection is for you.

Amen and Alleluia! Christ is risen! (Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia!)

Maundy Thursday: Teaching the Faith

Welcome friends.

         Welcome to Holy Week.

         We step into this Church from a typical Thursday, maybe school or work or home-life, maybe you had dinner before you came here to celebrate Jesus’ last dinner,

we step out of these ordinary things into a different space

—into an extraordinary story.

         We enter into the story of Holy Week.

         A story we get to share with Leah and Logan today!

Prayer

         Now, one of the things I love doing is passing on the faith—getting to tell the story of the faith in a complete and ongoing way to those for whom it is fairly new—I love teaching Confirmation and First Communion.

         And I’m not alone in this act of—passing on the faith—teaching the faith—scripture is thick with it.

         In the Exodus we read of Passover—the people are being taught to never forget their escape from Egypt and its implications for them even today. They are given a ritual—the Passover meal—which they repeat and re-live through that ritual.

         The Apostle Paul is faced with a congregation in Corinth who has forgotten the meaning of the Lord’s supper—in their community the rich feast and the poor brown-bag it.

Paul teaches them that when Christ is at table, there may be no division. He fixes the way they eat so that they remember Jesus rightly, the words he teaches them with we still repeat this very day.

         Jesus leaves his disciples teaching them one last thing—how to love one another. He repeats his command three times “love one another” (3x) and ritually enacts what he means by love by washing their feet.

         Just hearing these examples of passing on the faith you might have caught two techniques for teaching. Ritual and Review.

         Ritual—if you sit in the same seat for a test that you did during a lecture, you’ll likely remember more than if you sat in a different seat—it’s just how our brains work. Muscle memory becomes brain memory.

         Conveniently, today’s service is chock-full of ritual—individual absolution, foot washing, communion, and the stripping of the altar. In fact, I would venture a guess that all of you will remember those actions long after every word I speak today from this pulpit has evaporated into the air.

         As for review—repetition, repetition, repetition. That’s the key. And Logan and Leah have, at this point, heard from me about Holy Communion twice—so we’re going to make this sermon the third time and hope it sticks!

         And, for the rest of you-lot, it is worth remembering again what it is we do each week at table in remembrance of our Lord.

         Holy Communion involves Memory, Thanksgiving, a Physical Thing, and a Promise by Jesus.

         Memory—Every Sunday we remember the Apostle Paul, remembering Jesus, remembering the Passover meal, remembering the escape from Egypt. Each of these moves of memory re-member the meal, put it together differently, make it a fresh and new thing—a living meal every time we eat—it becomes part of who we are—you are what you eat.

         Giving Thanks—Communion is a thanksgiving meal, and as you’ll see in a few minutes, we take time here at St. Stephen to think through the things we’re thankful for as part of Holy Communion.

         A Physical Thing—one of the stories I tell the first communion students is of my first week of internship—someone broke into my mailbox with a crowbar, I was robbed by knife-point, and witnessed a shooting. After that week in which I experienced plenty of physical examples of hate and hurt, it was so good to receive that small yet profound example of God’s love—The Body of Christ, broken for you, the Blood of Christ, shed for you! Bread and Wine reminding me of God’s love.

         A Promise by Jesus—as Lutheran Christians we give a pretty simple explanation for how Jesus is truly present in bread and wine—he promised to be there, and when Jesus promises something, he delivers…

if  he says he’ll be at the train station at 3:21 to pick you up, he’ll be at the train station at 3:21 to pick you up—you can trust Jesus—so too, he promises to be in this meal—you can trust he’ll show up at Holy Communion.

         And Leah, Logan—please trust this to be true

—on this typical Thursday after school or spending some time at home,

in this, your ordinary life,

stepping into this, an ordinary church,

in doing the normal act of eating and drinking, a little wine and a thin wafer of bread

—in all of this you can trust that Jesus is show up for you today, bringing to you his promise of forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Amen.