Chris Yaw

Celebrating Our Diversity

2012-01-25T08:45:00.000-08:00

Home is where you get the jokes.

But what happens when no one’s home? Or, at least, home has changed so dramatically that it is barely recognizable?

The nation’s steadily rising number of minorities now makes up 35% of the U.S. population – and is headed to overtake whites by mid-century. Minorities are having more babies quicker as boomers amble beyond childbearing years. Today four states have minority populations that exceed 50% and the majority of children in California and New Mexico now identify as Hispanic. We are all realizing that the engine for future growth in our country will be younger minorities.

On the surface we may welcome and invite this rainbow mix, but deep down, perhaps even unconsciously, many Caucasians wrestle with the loss of white hegemony – the surrendering of power and status – as we see more Latinos in our neighborhoods, more Asians in our schools, even a black man in the White House.

Yet this is an unprecedented opportunity to show forth the glory of Christ through the unity we have in Him. How we ‘do’ church in this diverse and transitional environment gives us the chance to witness to our core conviction that Christ came for the whole world – not just the majority.

This Sunday, as we hear the story of Jesus’ healing of a demon-possessed man, we consider this a testimony to his Messiahship. Countless numbers become alerted to Christ’s ministry as, ‘his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region.’

We will consider this fame as not limited to skin color, economic status, or ethnicity. The wildfire message of Jesus unites all who seek healing and wholeness for the sick and broken. And it is in this unity in Christ and His power that we who transition through unprecedented cultural change, are keen to tap into. We pray to move beyond our biases and judgmental stereotypes and deeper into that unity in Christ that helps us, ‘strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.’

In what ways do we need to offer up our fear of a changing world to a God who unites all in the power of Christ?

Reading

Matterhorn – Karl Marlantes

The Witness of Preaching – Thomas Long

Labor in Detroit – Smith/Featherstone

Working at Jesus Inc.

2012-01-18T09:10:00.000-08:00

How did Jesus spend most of his time?

Preaching, healing, praying, or performing miracles?

Not if he was really human.

Consider this anachronistic proposal: The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the average person Jesus’ age spends 8.6 hours in work and related activities. He spends 7.6 hours sleeping, 2.6 hours in sports and leisure, 1.2 hours caring for others, 1.1 hours eating and drinking, 1.1 hours in household activities, and 1.8 hours involved in ‘other.’

Given the realities of first century life, Jesus may have spent more time cleaning up after sheep, sewing tent flaps, hauling wood, sleeping, and grinding out a living than he did praying, studying, and attending services in the Temple.

In other words, Jesus’ life may not have been all that different from yours and mine.

Let’s think about this as we consider the calling of the disciples, which we will hear about in church on Sunday. When Jesus calls them to be ‘fishers of men,’ he didn’t mean the disciples would never fish again (indeed, they would: see John 21:3) – what it means is that the central focus of their lives would no longer be what it once was. The calling of the disciples wasn’t about them changing what they did as much as it was changing who they were.

What this means is that their life-focus was no longer to revolve around providing food and shelter for self and family, temple worship, and tending to the duties their particular culture had assigned. The disciples would learn about, accept, then embark upon a new life-organizing theme: to be attentive and obedient to the Christ who had called them. This is the most substantial way in which they, ‘left their nets.’

Too often our culture assigns the heavy-lifting of Christ-following to the ordained, ‘professional Christians’ among us. And too rarely do we assume that Jesus and the 12 likely have a lot more in common with those of us who spend our days in front of computer screens, tending to ill patients, teaching kids, designing conveyor belts, or answering telephones. They, like us, also balanced what it means to follow God with what it means to be human.

Sure, our careers will almost always be the central time-consumer of our lives, but they must never define who we are. We are Christ’s summoned and sent, changed from within and charged with a mission. How are we allowing this to define us? How are we putting into perspective our career and our calling? In what ways do we too need to, ‘leave behind our nets’ and follow him?
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Reading

The Art of the Start – Gary Kawasaki

The Witness of Preaching – Tom Long

Banksy

Living Together Alone

2012-01-11T06:44:00.000-08:00

My friend went to prom with a guy because he was a good lover.

Another said yes because the guy was rich.

Yet another friend asked a girl to go because his mother made him.

We get into (and out of) relationships for varied and sometimes complex reasons. When we’re young we go by one set of measures that (hopefully) change as we mature.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus has matured, and he now calls his first disciples to follow him. Up to this point Jesus has led a single life, and now, following his baptism, he has reached maturity in both age and vocation. His reasons for choosing, and not choosing relationships have been honed. He is not out looking for the handsome, rich, or well connected. He chooses his friends based on one thing: mission.

As we know, Jesus didn’t come to earth to make us happy. He came to reconcile the world to God. He came to love us all out of our brokenness and into wholeness with the Almighty.

So Jesus chooses the relationships he will have and won’t have based on their abilities to further the love of God made manifest in healing, preaching, and total self-giving. He chooses faithful people who sacrifice for him whom he will, in turn, sacrifice everything for.

How do the relationships we choose help further God’s mission? How do they make us be more loving, selfless, and sacrificing? What are our motivations as we choose to get into, or maintain, our most important relationships? Are we only in it to make us happy? Or are we surrounding ourselves with good people that make us better able for the work God is doing through us?

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Reading
Everything Must Change – Brian McLaren

Pastor – Eugene Peterson

The Art of the Start – Guy Kawasaki

Marking the Milestones

2012-01-04T08:41:00.000-08:00

Call it the start of the most famous career of all time-

Or, the beginning of the end for a man who, now 30, has just 3 years left.

The Baptism of Jesus, which Barth called, ‘the summary of the essence of the Gospel,’ reveals to us that God is no longer hidden in the heavens, but has come to be with us in the person of Jesus. It is a milestone of milestones in the greatest life ever lived. But is it a milestone that points to torture and death – or is it one of great victory and triumph?

Mitch Albom famously asked Maury if he feared getting old. “Fear it? I embrace it!,” he said, surely realizing that in a society that places a decisive accent on youth, this is crazy talk. After all, the modern conception is that after age 21 we all go downhill. We equate aging with decay – failing to realize that when we age we also grow – we GROW old.

What this means for Jesus at his baptism, and for you and me at every stage in our lives, is that there is something for us to learn, do, treasure, see, and experience at every bend in the road. 21 was that enviable age in which I could still fit into those jeans – but the pitiable time of missed opportunities I was simply too ignorant to identify (imagine buying Microsoft stock in 1984?!?)

The envy of youth often stems from failed realizations of the benefits reaped from latter stages, including this one. So what is keeping us from deeply valuing where we are this very moment? What dissatisfactions are overriding our memories to make us think that any time other than the present was, ‘the good old days?’ What practices might we engage to help us truly savor and life in the now?

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Reading

Everything Must Change – Brian McLaren

Heroic Leadership – Chris Lowney

Generation Ex-Christian – Drew Dyck

The Christmas Challenge

2011-12-21T09:12:00.000-08:00

On Christmas you and I will hear a story alleging the Creator and Ruler of the Universe decided to come to earth to become human – a lofty, controversial, and near-preposterous claim, for sure.

Nonetheless, we will notice that God does not do so via the first century equivalents of satellite television, a United Nations news conference, or by rolling out a “Faith and Freedom” cross-country bus tour. The birthplace is not Rome, New York, Washington, D.C., Paris, or Moscow. The parents are not emperors, presidents, or anywhere near The One Percent.

This story must have pained early Christians, desperate for social acceptability, who were stuck with the tale of an impoverished single mom in a conquered hamlet of some backwater corner of a vast empire, putting her newborn into an animal trough where the fledgling birth announcement was entrusted to village idiots whose only other marketable skills were watching sheep.

Yet, as many scholars note, the sheer embarrassment of this narrative speaks to its verity. So does its theme: the miracle is not that God could become man, but that God could love us so deeply.

This is a God who didn’t come here to impress.

This is a God who doesn’t care about where you live, who your friends are, who your parents are, how much money’s in the bank account, how the house is decorated, or how clean the crib is.

This is a God who doesn’t care what you do, how you dress, or who you know.

This is a God who shows little concern for proving anything other than a desperate love for us – period.

This is what Christmas is about.

So celebrate, we will. Bask in His love, we will. And emulate Him – we will try. For this is the Christmas challenge: can we take that love and share it? Can we follow God’s example and give of ourselves so that others might benefit? Can we too pay less attention to the earthly trappings of the day and focus our eyes on heaven, from where our true love descends?

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Reading

The Pastor – Eugene Peterson

Enough – Roger Thurow

Generation Ex-Christian – Drew Dyck

Don't Be Afraid! Be Astonished!

2011-12-14T07:28:00.000-08:00

Times are uncertain for churches these days.

Some blame the increasing force of secularism. Established churches once frequented by society’s elite, well accustomed to favored positions in society, have been knocked down more than a few pegs. Neighborhood churches, whose demographics may have dramatically shifted, fight for survival. 80% of North American churches are plateaued or declining. And we’re seeing much of the vibrancy in rehabbed warehouses, coffee houses, and church starts in unlikely places.

What’s God doing? Has the Almighty sent an angel of disruption to the North American church? Could the forces working to confuse and unsettle be from on high?

This Sunday we hear about an angelic visitation that does something similarly disruptive. 13 year old Mary is greeted by the angel Gabriel. She hears unsettling news from this messenger of God, who proclaims Mary is favored and blessed. Yet upon seeing him her first reaction, which departs noticeably from the biblical norm, is not fear, but a sense of wonder.

The text tells us Mary was perplexed and pondered as Gabriel explained the even more bazaar aspects of God’s plans for her and the world. Yet faced with a life-altering, paradigm-shifting announcement the young girl did not recoil, shrink back, or even flinch - she calmly uttered three of the most memorable words in all of Scripture, ‘let it be…’

As you and I muddle through the desperate fears on Planet Unpredictable, the temptation to react with fear is monolithic. And we know that fear leads to control, alienation, and confusion. We do much better to respond with faith – trusting that the Lord is up to something, that God IS in control, and there is a reason. In this Advent season of wonder, how might we move past the fear and move toward amazement at the possibility that God is up to something - and it’s all going to be OK?

Reading

Generation Ex-Christian – Drew Dyck

Living Your Strengths – Al Winesman

The Pastor – Eugene Peterson

"He Came to Testify to the Light..."

2011-12-07T07:11:00.000-08:00

One of my family’s most effective cleaning weapons is not a mop, broom, or sponge.

It’s the dimmer switch.

After long days of work, then home to feed and bathe children, then to host guests, our well-trodden house is often in need of more care and attention than our schedule allows. Enter, the dimmer switch, which, with one turn hides dust, debris and dirty dishes, makes stains disappear, and gives rooms a mysterious allure as imagination fills in where the light does not.

On this third Sunday of Advent John the Baptist takes center stage proclaiming his central role, which is to ‘testify to the light.’ As we know, light is not always a welcome thing. It lets everyone see the dirt and debris, it reveals every stain, and it forces imagination to give way to truth.

In Advent you and I ponder the notion that one day everything we say, do, think, and believe will meet the light. All truth will be known. All will be revealed.

So if we know the lights will be turned on, isn’t there some tidying up we need to do? Are there unmet obligations, broken promises, and unresolved conflicts in our lives that need tending to? Advent is that season of preparation in which we’re urged to turn up the dimmer switch before someone else does.

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Reading:

Barefoot Church – Brandon Hatmaker

Pastor – Eugene Peterson

Leadership without Easy Answers – Ron Heifetz

Quit Fighting and Start Sharing!

2011-11-30T08:48:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder what John the Baptist might say were he to appear today?

After surveying the international scene, where 2,000 people die by violence every day and the gross inequities between haves and have-nots are being publicized by the Occupiers among us, we might guess that John would take on the social and moral issues of the day, loudly declaring: Quit Fighting and Start Sharing!

However, when we survey the gross negligences of modernity and compare them with those in 1^st century Palestine, things aren’t much different – John’s message to the power-hungry Romans and conniving Judean authorities could’ve also been Quit Fighting and Start Sharing!

But it wasn’t. Then or now.

On this second Sunday in Advent, we hear John proclaiming a baptism of repentance and the forgiveness of sins. For John knows, as we all do, that all sin begins in the human heart. We cannot fully address the violence of nations until we consider the aggression of the heart, we cannot fully challenge corporate greed until we consider the gluttonous spirit within. For the start of our journey to the Promised Land that John, then Jesus will usher in, begins with a call to account. It reminds us that if we really want to see violence end and sharing start it MUST begin with us. We need the same call to accountability. We need the same repentance. We need the same forgiveness.

So what’s stopping us?

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Reading

The Jews in the Time of Jesus – Stephen Wylen

Mark – NT Wright

Pastor – Eugene Peterson

Christ King Sunday

2011-11-16T17:35:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine likes to play a party game that goes like this:

When people arrive at the party someone tapes a sign on their back that says either ‘King, Queen or Servant.’

As people mingle they interact with others according to the role written on their backs. The kings and queens are pampered and given prompt attention. The slaves are hardly noticed, disrespected and talked around. It doesn’t take long for people to guess who they are by the way others are treating them.

When the game’s finished my friend asks her guests what it felt like to be treated like royalty and like servants. She also asks what it felt like to treat others according to these roles. She then asks her guests to ponder what life would be like if everyone in their neighborhood treated everyone else as if the sign on their backs betrayed their secret identities as ‘King or Queen.’

What would it be like to live in a place where everyone treated everyone else like royalty?

This Sunday is known as Christ the King Sunday and presents the challenge for us not only to reassert Christ’s lordship in our lives, but also to strengthen our own resolve to treat others like royalty. When Jesus said, whatsoever you do to one of the least of His family, you do to Him – why shouldn’t we be treating others like royalty?

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Reading

The Pastor – Eugene Peterson

Self Abandonment to Divine Providence - Jean-Pierre de Caussade
Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography – John Dominic Crossan

The Parable of the Talents

2011-11-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

It’s a story we all know by heart:

3 slaves, 8 dollars.

One gets five bucks, one gets two, and one gets one.

The first two slaves double their money and their master smiles.

The third one does nothing, so his master cans him and gives his dollar another slave.

Like all parables, this one is not perfect – every element can’t be equated to a timeless axiom – every detail doesn’t fit seamlessly into a sound, contemporary ethical conviction. Parables are intended to get across a main point and in this case, it is quite clear.

It’s faithfulness.

When we attempt to return Jesus’ love to Him we are invited to be faithful. When we say our heart’s desire is to please the Lord, then Jesus says, ‘OK, follow me.’

And so we do.

Sometimes well, sometimes not so well.

When we do it well we find we’re blessed even more. And when we don’t do it well, we find we lose.

The irony is that we resist taking steps toward Jesus even when they are always in our best interest.

As CS Lewis famously said, “to walk out of God’s will is to walk into nowhere.”

Where are we walking today – into nowhere – or into faithfulness?

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Reading

The Pastor – Eugene Peterson

Renovation of the Church – Carlson and Lueken

Matthew – Donald Hagner

Faith It Till You Make It

2011-11-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

Faith it Till You Make It

I have a friend named Steve.

He is one of the best-prepared people I know.

He carries an over-stuffed briefcase.

He is early for appointments.

And he wears a suit and tie everywhere.

When I asked him, while sitting in his faceless entry-level office cubicle, why he conducts himself this way, he said the executives he most admires behave in the same manner.

And if their world is ever going to be his world, he had better start acting like it.

On All Saints’ Sunday you and I ponder what life in that other world is all about, and the ways this affects our lives in this world.

All Saints’ Sunday purports to be a thin place, where the veil between this kingdom, and the Kingdom Come is slim at best. It is on this day that you and I are encouraged to get on the stick – to act like Christianity is really real – and really think about the ‘what if?’ questions:

What if good wins out?
What if all of our patience, kindness, and charity are rewarded?
What if there really is a God who has walked right beside us all these years?
What if, our relatives who have preceded us in glory are shouting at us at this very moment, trying to jar our cemented feet into motion, saying, ‘Yes, yes, it’s all true! Give your life away! Take up your cross! Sell it all and give your all to following Jesus!’?

All Saints’ Sunday can’t help but encourage us to ‘faith it till we make it’ – to strive to comprehend what that other world – God’s world - is all about. Because if that world is ever going to be our world, we had better start acting like it.

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Reading

Missional Communities – Reggie McNeal

The Pastor – Eugene Peterson

Renovation of the Church – Carlson/Lueken

Yep, I’m All That

2011-10-26T09:06:00.000-07:00

Our local newspaper recently ran an expose on a high-ranking public official whose impressive resume helped garner an impressive salary.

The problem was, according to the paper, the resume made claims that others could not substantiate – and the allegation – of someone taking the credit for the work of another – goes into the all too familiar annals of human misgivings that every one of us know well.

In fact, it’s something Jesus ran into in this Sunday’s Gospel – when he warns his followers that the corrupt religious elite have lost touch with who’s really in charge, and who should really be getting the credit.

After all, the temptation to take credit for something we didn’t do is one of the most alluring and pervasive enticements there is. We think we’ll improve our reputations and make ourselves the envy of others. However, it often does the opposite.

Claiming false tribute, to one degree or another, corrupts us. It can turn us into conceited, selfish, and unloving people who convince ourselves we are more than really are. We wonder how the architects of modern atrocities, from Hitler to Hussein, ever rose to power and we see, at the center, people who have convinced themselves, and others, of their invaluable self-worth.

The truth is that in relative comparison, we are nothing and God is everything.

There is nothing that has come to us that we can take credit for. Every breath, thought, new idea, and innovative business venture, is a gift from above. And the more in touch we are with the reality of our own giftedness, the more grounded, healthy, and devoted to God we will be.

In what ways are we quick to take credit and slow to acknowledge the true source of all we are and have? In what ways does our sense of entitlement, versus our sense of humility, shape our lives? How are we being called to look less at ourselves, and more at God?

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Reading

The End of Overeating – David Kessler

Growing an Engaged Church – Al Winseman

Missional Communities – Reggie McNeal

Say No to No

2011-10-19T05:52:00.000-07:00

I was once approached by a parishioner who said he was leaving the church and it was all my fault.

Worried that I may have offended him in some way, I pressed for details.

He shared that for the few years he had been attending the church the recurring themes of risk, change, and courage had hit home for him.

Hearing stories like the disciples leaving everything to follow Jesus and Peter getting up out of the boat to walk on water, had invited him to consider his own life, and a change of employment in a new city, in a new state, that would open up all sorts of bright new opportunities.

For a long time, he said he had been staying put, trying to scrape by the same way he’d always scraped by, not considering all the options, and protecting the life he’d always known.

In this Sunday’s Gospel we see Jesus’ opponents coming against him as they try to protect the life they’ve always known. They are much more willing to test, challenge, debate, argue, defend, bicker, and say no than they are to open themselves to the new possibilities that are unfolding before them. Their tone and approach betray a fear of letting go and opening themselves to God.

They are just like us.

God rarely comes to us in the same, predictable, foreseeable, and conventional ways we prefer, but God comes in God’s own way - almost always inviting us to question our assumptions, let go of our preconceptions, and open ourselves to the new and imaginative.

In what ways are we trying too hard to stay put, scrape by the way we’ve always scraped by, and closing off the options in our lives? How might Our Lord be nudging us to new places that are beyond our comfort zones? How might we find ways to quit saying no to no?

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Reading

Flickering Pixels – Shane Hipps

Matthew – Donald Hagner

A Work of Heart – Reggie McNeal

Getting Straight Answers

2011-10-12T08:01:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder why God doesn’t give us straight answers?

Sure, it happens sometimes, maybe when we prayed to meet our spouses, or to have kids, get a job, or to win a bout with sickness.

But then, there are those other times – like when an innocent baby gets hurt, a drought hits a poor country, or when we plead and plead, ‘God show me which way to go!’ and we get nothing but crickets.

Where is God? Why can’t we get a straight answer?

In this Sunday’s Gospel we get a straight answer about why we don’t always get straight answers.

In Matthew 22, pressed by his opponents on who should pay taxes, Jesus famously says ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God.’ And He leaves his opponents, as well as His friends, with the challenge and the gift of figuring it out on our own.

Jesus transcends the dilemma by articulating a fundamental life principle – that of human freedom and reasoning amidst God’s ever-presence. God’s answer to many of our deepest dilemmas is not that God is absent or elusive, but that God wants us to rely on the gifts we’ve got to figure it out.

Sure, this isn’t the answer we wanted, we’re human, we want to know all the answers! But because we’re human, we can’t know all the answers. However, we can know that the same God who leaves us to figure stuff out, is the same God who promises never to leave us alone.

So, what are the questions we have that God is just not answering? What if we’re being asked to come up with our own answers? What does it mean to serve a God who has great confidence in our ability to address our own most pressing questions?

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Reading

Flickering Pixels – Shane Hipps

Matthew – Donald Hagner

Living in the Village – Ryan Mack

Dressing for Success

2011-10-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I gathered with friends to do some committee work at a local club that had a dress code. Just as the meeting was about to begin we got a frantic call from a board member who was phoning from the parking lot. He was told he could not come inside because he’d worn blue jeans. We scrambled to make arrangements at a casual restaurant nearby where the meeting soon convened.

When our blue-jean-clad friend arrived he was apologetic and a bit embarrassed. “I’m so sorry to inconvenience you all,” he said, “But I was rushing around and didn’t stop to think about where I was going – and that I needed to change.”

In this Sunday’s Gospel we hear one of Jesus’ parables about a king who throws a banquet, inviting everybody to attend, then abruptly tossing out an improperly dressed guest. And you and I begin to see that our gracious admission into God’s kingdom does not come without some change on our part.

Sure God loves everybody, but that doesn’t mean God wants us to stay exactly as we are. To come to the banquet we all must change. In fact, not only does God want us to change, but we want to change. Some our deepest desires are to be more loving, more patient, more understanding, calmer, carefree, and caring for our friends and our enemies.

You and I have been invited to the grandest banquet ever, and right now we’re being asked to change. Are we too busy rushing around to think about it? What, in our lives, needs adjustment? What needs transformation? If the suitable clothes of the Kingdom are justice, truth, love, mercy, and holiness, how well are we changing into them?

Reading

Matthew for Everyone – Tom Wright

Moving off the Map – Thomas Bandy

What Would Jesus Eat? – Don Colbert

We Are What We Eat

2011-09-29T05:15:00.000-07:00

One of the more important, if not entertaining, lessons parents teach their youngsters is the difference between eating food, and everything else they might be interested in putting into their mouths. In a world of antiseptic wipes, gels, and coughs that must now be stifled in the crux of one’s arm, we take great care to teach about and model for them everything we ingest.

We do so because what we take into our bodies can change everything.

Taking something into our bodies is the most profound way there is of accepting it. Not just in the kitchen, but in the bedroom. While the mind ascents and the soul becomes stirred, it is the body that gives us the most tangible expression of what we mean to say, do, and accept.

Accepting the reign of Christ is at the center of Sunday’s Gospel – when Jesus tells us about a landowner who rents out his vineyard to some hoodlums who refuse to accept his authority. They don’t recognize who’s boss and, as a result, pay the price.

Accepting Jesus’ authority has gotten no easier. We still want to have things our way, take all the credit, and ignore the landlord. This is why Christians go to great lengths to ascent to God’s reign, not just with mind and soul – but, through the Sacrament of bread and wine that Jesus commended – we accept God’s reign through our bodies as well.

So if we are what we eat, could Communion make us anything better?

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Reading

Not Your Parent’s Offering Plate – J Clif Christopher

Matthew – Donald Hagner

Living in the Village – Ryan C. Mack

Who Says So?

2011-09-21T16:41:00.000-07:00

During the first week of my first position as a priest, a sweet,
innocent looking 13-year-old boy named Vinnie came to my office with a
question. Little did I know that Vinnie was the Dennis the Menace of
the parish when he took me to a nearby stairwell where, underneath,
sat an old decrepit safe. Vinnie said the safe used to be in the main
office but no one had the combination and he wanted to see what was
inside. So he asked my permission to open it. Envisioning Vinnie
would come prepared with white gloves, a stethoscope, and loads of
patience (he was such a clean cut boy after all), I gave him
permission.

That Sunday after services, as a crowd gathered for coffee in the
Fellowship Hall, few people paid attention to the muffled din of
hammering and banging emanating from the nearby stairwell until a
concerned parishioner came up to me and said, ‘Vinnie is tearing apart
that old church safe with a crowbar and hammer, he says you told him
it was OK.’

Questions of authority have been with the Church since the beginning.
Who gives us permission? How do we know where the buck stops? By what
authority do we say and do? This last question comes up in this
Sunday’s Gospel as Jesus is confronted by the religious establishment
of His day. These religious leaders were looking to answer
essentially the same question you and I have asked: how does God want
us to live? What code or guideline do we follow? Where does authority
lie?

For those in the Anglican tradition, we approach these questions of
authority seeking to be informed by three sources, Scripture,
Tradition and Reason. The ‘three-legged stool,’ if you will, upholds
our ethical conversations as we seek first to hear the Bible’s take,
then those of our fore bearers, then that of human intellect. Sure,
other Christians may align these differently, or even add a leg or
two, but when you and I are presented with difficult questions, the
Anglican tripos has served us well.

Not long ago the WWJD bracelet was all the rage and reminded us that
the mind of Christ comes to us nearly always through Scripture,
Tradition and Reason. So in the week ahead, as we run across
important questions regarding politics, war, economics, and even
personal issues child-rearing and medical challenges, let us engage in
a wider conversation of discernment through these ancient, yet
relevant partners.

Evangelism Boot Camp

2011-09-17T11:21:00.000-07:00

If you're in an around the Virginia Theological Seminary area, you'll want to make this event, David is a tremendously gifted scholar, and the line-up looks amazing!

Getting Serious About Religion

2011-09-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

11 years ago traveling through airports was easier, meeting people of Arab decent was less cautionary, and more of us thought that everybody loved the United States.

9/11 changed all that. And now, as we mark its tenth anniversary, we reflect on how things have changed and must change for us to move farther along the road of healing, to avoid anything like that again, and to importantly, consider what God is up to in all of this.

Of course, we can’t stop twisted people from doing twisted things. We cannot change others, we can only change ourselves, and looking more closely at our own place in the world is a good place to start.

The fact that most Americans self-identify as Christians yet cannot name all four Gospels is well documented. North American Christianity is historically, and notoriously, an inch deep and a mile wide. Reacting, then to a religiously motivated act with shallow roots in our own religion, not surprisingly yields a less than satisfactory response – of which there have been many. The solution to bad religion then, is not more bad religion, or no religion, but good religion.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, we are reminded that ‘good religion’ is about forgiveness and reconciliation. It is about turning the other cheek and forgiving 7 times 70. It is about cherishing peace above retribution and humility over vengeance. Our world desperately needs ‘good religion’ – and we are all called to spread it. So may we mark this dark anniversary with a renewed pledge to reach for the light – to get more serious about our work of reconciliation, humility, and love. Ten years later there are still evil people planning evil things – so let the good people plan good things.

Reading

Rambam’s Ladder – Julie Soloman

At the Still Point – Sarah Arthur

The Thank You Economy – Gary Vanyerchuk

image by Noel Sikes, Conyers, GA

The Sacred Meal: It's Personal, It's Real

2011-09-05T17:55:00.000-07:00

When Nora Gallagher, a talented writer and devout Episcopalian, decided to write about one of Christianity's most nourishing practices, I had to get the book. (Thankfully, the folks at Booksneeze were kind enough to offer one for free in exchange for this review.) What Nora brings to this project, as she does to most everything she writes, is an authentic voice that recounts her struggles, triumphs, questions, and mysteries. It's not so much a book as it is a coffee shop chat with a close friend about one of the most formative practices in her life.

One of the book's memorable quotes (especially for those of us who regularly receive the Sacrament) is that Communion is something we do over and over again but is never the same. Eucharist can surprise, inspire, open and reveal. How ironic that something that changes so little has the capacity change us so much.

Communion is mainly something we do together, which has ramifications of its own. When we do it successfully we don't dictate who comes, the Holy Spirit does. I've heard it said that the health of a congregation is signaled by the number of unlikely friendships it nourishes. And when Communion does what it should, it binds us in the love of Christ, wrapping us up in the warmth and joy of God.

When we participate in The Sacred Meal, then it binds us to God and to one another, reminding us about the pinnacle truth of human life: we will not be exalted for what we earn, what we own, or what we accomplish, but how much we love. And placing ourselves into a community where sacrificial love is at the center gives us a better shot at becoming who we want to be. "It helps us free ourselves from everything that keeps us from loving and being loved, from competition, constraint, self-pity, and self importance - all the things that stand between us and love."

Recommended for those who are new to the faith as well as for those who have been sitting in the pews a while.

Making Peace

2011-08-31T08:07:00.000-07:00

Years ago I confided in a close friend about my feelings toward another mutual friend. My comments were expressly confidential – so you can imagine my anger when I learned that my close friend had spilled the beans, and told our mutual friend everything I’d said. I was irritated and embarrassed - furious that my confidence had been betrayed. I wanted to write my close friend off – and I did, for quite some time. Has this ever happened to you?

As we know, forgiveness and reconciliation are at the heart of Christianity. And many times this is the hard work of the Gospel – this is what Jesus means by ‘carrying the cross’ and ‘turning the other cheek.’ In this Sunday’s gospel we will hear Jesus give advice about how we’re supposed to handle disagreements like this – that we’re to confront the issue, not let it slide, that we’re supposed to ask others to help, if need be, and we’re to realize that this is God’s work – the healing of the world starts when you and I work to heal the brokenness that’s right around us. How can we pray for world peace when we’re holding a grudge, refusing to own up to our parts in disordered relationships, and not allowing peace to rule in our lives?

So we ask ourselves these really tough questions: with whom, at the present moment, might we have an egregious disagreement – who are we mad at – what brokenness around us needs our attention - and where is the Gospel calling us to make peace, for our good, and for the good of the world?

Reading

The Thank You Economy – Gary Vanyerchuk

At the Still Point – Sarah Arthur

Pigs in Heaven – Barbara Kingsolver

The Most Important Question

2011-08-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

Years ago, in college, I was moderating a Trivia contest – and I asked the two competing teams this question: When is Flashlight Safety Day? My good friend John was on one team and, after a brief pause he blurted out ‘December 21.’ Correct. Everyone was impressed. After the match I asked him how he knew this. He said he didn’t, but he figured the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice, might be a good time to test one’s flashlight.

How quick I wish I was, not just to answer life’s most trivial questions, but life’s most important ones as well. What might that be for you and me today? What are our most pressing questions? How are my investments doing? Will I be a good parent? Do I have cancer? Will I get married? Where will I go to college? Or even more importantly, Jesus’ famous question we’ve all heard before, when He asked St. Peter: “Who do you say that I am?”

This is often called Life’s Most Important Question because everything we do hinges on what we set up as the focal point, the purpose, the ultimate concern, of our lives. For Christians, that’s Jesus – and when we respond like St. Peter, calling Jesus Lord and Messiah, we’re doing more than simply answering a question.

As we know, the early followers of Jesus were called ‘Christians’ – this means ‘little Christs’ – because their goal, and ours, is to say and do what Jesus said and did. It is to surrender to the boundless presence of Love. Which means giving ourselves away for others. Calling Jesus Lord, then, means walking with Him to the cross, knowing that we too will be raised up by God – and that our trivial questions, no matter how they get answered, won’t matter a lick when compared with life’s most important question. And since we’ve answered that, we can’t help but ask ourselves why we are worried about anything else?

Reading
Beginners Grace – Kate Braestrup
Poke the Box – Seth Godin
Matthew – NT Wright

Determined!

2011-08-10T08:53:00.001-07:00

Ever drive down the freeway and approach a highway that goes to some faraway place, and just want to take it? Maybe we’ve just come from a disastrous business meeting, a breakup with a girlfriend, or a blow-up with a best-friend – and we just want to ditch it all and get away.

No doubt the mom we meet in this Sunday’s gospel felt the same way. Her daughter was gravely ill, and she had nowhere to turn. But she didn’t run away from the problem, she ran to the solution.

At first Jesus didn’t pay any attention to this woman because she was all wrong – wrong gender, religion, race, and ethnicity – but she was determined. She knew Jesus could fix it. She knew that life trumps death, hope trumps despair, healing trumps illness, and Jesus overcomes it all.

“Ditching it all” only ever gives a fleeting moment of relief – it doesn’t ultimately help. She had to persevere, she had to be determined, she had to stay on the highway no matter how difficult and troublesome.

Every day you and I are tempted to take the easy route. That exit ramp to evasion is an enticement we often can’t resist. In our world of short attention spans, quick rewards, and the avoidance of anything painful, it makes doing the hard work of staying the course toward what’s good and right, even tougher.

But this is where the reward is – and we know it.

Each one of us have been given a project, an attitude, a relationship, a commitment, to which the completion will bring glory to God. But the road gets tough. We want to take the exit ramp, any exit ramp. Jesus’ message to us is that it pays to stick to it. There is a reward for ambition, determination, and perseverance.

What places in our lives are demanding this? Are we quitting too soon? Are we avoiding what we ought to be up to? What do we need to do to quit running away from the problem, and run toward the solution?

Reading

Matthew for Everyone – NT Wright

Not Your Parent’s Offering Plate – J. Clif Christopher

Beginner’s Grace – Kate Braestrup

Ditch the Boat!

2011-08-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

Cut the apron strings.
Toss the training wheels.
Ditch the boat.

What are our deepest passions? What are our most important pursuits? It's following Jesus – with all our heart, soul, mind, body, and strength, which we do with our prayers, our checkbooks, our patience, and every time we do something for someone else. Yes, we’ve given up everything to follow Jesus.

Yet there He is – calling you and me to get out of the boat - to come closer. Can the chaos of the raging sea be conquered? Can the mirage of self-destiny be put into perspective? Can we consider the notion that Jesus often calls us to difficult places without easy answers? Can we take that step toward Him that we really want to take?

Of course we can!
We were created to grow, to change, to risk, and to flourish! We can move beyond the safe confines. We’ve done it before, we can do it again. That’s what we were called into being to do!

And the best thing about it is that when we take that step, moving out of our safe-zones, tracking toward that place where we’re being called, before we even begin to slip - there is a hand to catch us. There is Someone there to break the fall. No matter where we go, or what we do, we are being held.

So what does ‘getting out of the boat’ look like to us? Where are we being challenged to go to draw closer to Christ? To that place of deeper generosity with our time, our money, or a emboldened quest to pursue our dreams?

Is it time to ditch the boat?

Reading:
God is Back Micklethwaite and Wooldridge
The Open Secret – Lesslie Newbegin
The Continuing Conversion of the Church – Darrell Guder

Let God Talk to You

2011-07-20T09:17:00.000-07:00

God is absolutely obsessed with us. God spends all day and all night thinking about us. There is not one moment in God’s day in which God is not 100% focused on us. God spends every waking moment contemplating what we’re doing and where we’re going.

And God’s awareness of our ups and downs has given us some of the most profound stories about how God, and the world, works. We call them parables.

This Sunday we’ll hear 5 of them. They’re anecdotes taken from everyday life that tell us how God’s deepest desire - to walk and talk with us – actually fulfills our deepest desires. Jesus’ story – about His desperate love for the world – is a story He longs to tell and re-tell through the average, the everyday, and the mundane.

What would our lives be like if we thought about God as much as God thinks about us? Or what would they be like if we looked at the everyday things all around us and let God talk to us through them? What would it be like if we understood that every arrival, departure, conversation, and interaction had a message?

Jesus found deep insight into God simply by looking around Him and letting God talk. I bet we can too.

------

Reading

Radical – David Platt

God is Back – Micklethwaite and Wooldridge

A Place Called Freedom – Ken Follett

God Waits

2011-07-14T05:16:00.001-07:00

Why doesn’t God do something?

Whether it’s about dictators who slaughter innocents, politicians who can’t find budget compromises, or media folk who condone dishonest newsgathering to pad the bottom line. Is the Almighty paying any attention? What is God waiting for?

We get some insight this Sunday when we hear Jesus tell a parable. It’s about God planting seeds during the day, then an enemy sneaking around at night and planting weeds on top of them. When the sabotage is discovered, we hear that the Lord doesn’t pull up all the plants, but allows the good plants and the weeds to grow side by side until the harvest. Judgment is not immediate. Harsh transgression is not met with instant chastisement. And that can really bother us.

How many of us yearn to see the backstabber at the office found out - and that sleazy acquaintance who’s sleeping around, finally discovered? And when it doesn’t happen we get angry, discouraged, and frustrated. But while Jesus may not offer a detailed explanation, He makes it clear that this won’t go on forever. There will be an end, a judgment, a reward for those who live for God.

To live for God, then, is to understand that God’s time is not our time. It is to be patient, faithful, and ever-mindful of the reality of God right beside us, right now. God is doing something. God is not absent. God is not missing. God waits. Can we?

Reading

Climb Higher – Kristine Miller

Beginner’s Grace – Kate Braestrup

A Place Called Freedom – Ken Follett

Cultivate Good Soil

2011-07-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

Acre after acre of knee-high cornstalks, line up in attention like white crosses at Arlington, reaching for nutrients they know they will get. Both above and beneath, the soil-water-sunshine combo will nurture the genetically modified seed whose corporate inventor still reaps the royalties, at least that’s what that Monsanto sign up front probably means.

Massive wheeled watering systems will tentacle out over the plains to sprinkle just the right amount of water at just the right time, all according to the bioengineering department’s calculations. Meanwhile the multi-million dollar fleet of combines perches like lions behind coliseum gates, ready to pounce with precision on a fairly predictable abundance.

Modern agriculture has every reason to scoff at a biblical image of a Sower whose farming techniques lack such precision - a fist-full of precious seeds on the rocks, another on the hard path, how about some in the thorn patch? But the Sower cares not about the sowing, all that matters is the reaping! ‘Be good soil!’ goes the message, ‘Be one who hears, understands, and yields 30, 60, even 100 fold, for the fickle, worldly-minded, and easily distracted yield nothing.’

Cultivate the ‘good soil’ in ourselves is the message. But how do we do that? We suspect that raking out the hard path, clearing the rocks and removing thorns are what’s needed. It may mean dealing with the bitterness, laziness, and restlessness and lifting up a mindfulness, prayerfulness, and farmer’s work ethic that enrich and revitalize.

So in these quieter summer months, how might we cultivate good soil? What does good soil look like? What needs to be cleared away, what needs to be added? What do we need to hear and understand to yield 30, 60, even 100 fold?

Reading

God is Back – Micklethwait and Wooldridge

The Third Twin – Ken Follett

How to Build an Engaged Congregation - Winesman

Trinity Sunday

2011-06-16T02:23:00.000-07:00

Is there a God? What is God like? What are God’s plans?

Questions like this have been keeping people like us searching and probing since humanity was first given consciousness. For some of us, these eternal questions carry great weight. Some psychologists describe a ‘God shaped hole’ inside humans that yearns for spiritual fulfillment. Throughout history we have found a myriad of ways of filling this void. The most popular has been Christianity, which, like many world religions, continues to grow because it provides satisfactory answers to these profound questions.

This Sunday is Trinity Sunday, the only Christian feast that is not centered on an event or person – rather a theological doctrine – a description, if you will, of who this God is that lies at the heart of Christianity. This is the Sunday many Christians ponder elemental questions of who God is and what God is like.

First, we will hear a reading from Genesis in which God’s litany to the breadth of Creation is that, ‘It is good.’ Then we hear a reading from Matthew in which Jesus promises never to leave us, but to be with us, ‘to the end of the age.’ We rightly conclude, then, that God is fundamentally pleased with Creation – with you and with me. And God is desirous of our company, never wanting to leave our sides. Though the changes and chances of life often leave us suspect of these conclusions, Trinity Sunday serves to remind us of God’s high regard for our lives – and deep desire to accompany us through whatever comes our way.

We are emboldened for our task by the witness of God’s approval of our humanity – and the Lord’s abiding friendship in our every endeavor. What task are we facing that is calling forth courage? What challenge are we contemplating that we simply cannot face alone? The nature of Our God is one that encourages us for the task ahead and promises we will not face it by ourselves. Be of good God courage then, for the One who loves us is always with us.

Reading

Faith, Reason, and Justice – Paul Tillich

Thieves in the Market – G. Jeffrey MacDonald

A Ray of Darkness – Rowan Williams

The Pentecost Problem

2011-06-08T07:56:00.000-07:00

Pentecost, the birthday of the church, when everyone wears red, and where all reds are welcome! Oh, and also yellows, blacks and whites! Or to use Bible language, Elamites, Pamphylilans, Cretans, even Ohioans! It’s Christianity’s Oscars and Emmys – a chance for us to celebrate our profession, our calling, our great institution! The Church! So we call upon our Trinity Trio to languish and luxuriate in the perfection they hath wrought!

But this can only last so long before someone figures out not everything smells so sweet in Farmville. Red is also the color of stop signs! Along with our celebration comes evaluation, even investigation – as we consider that Jesus just may be telling us what he told those first Pentecostals, “Hey, I see what you’re doing, yep it’s broken, but I’m going to fix it!”

The Church is broken? A Problem on Pentecost? Say it ain’t so!

We more than suspect that North American Christianity has become a consumer commodity. We notice that people shop for faith communities that make them feel comfortable instead of spiritually challenged. We consider that in 1955 only 4% of Americans switched religious affiliations in their lifetimes, today it’s 44%. When asked why, people say it’s because they found something they liked better. This is not to say switching is always bad, but it is to say it always has consequences.

This Pentecost we consider that the Church’s biggest temptation may be for us to become a business. While the government calls us one (501c3!), God doesn’t. We know that we are not here to satisfy wants, but to transform them. We are not here to cultivate desires, but to make them holier. We are here to help people rise above our lower natures and care deeply about higher things – like the needs of the less fortunate, and the rights of the marginalized. These are tough sells. We see why Jesus got so mad in the marketplace.

So while this Sunday is foremost a celebration it does not come without our serious consideration that we’ve become more self-indulgent than self-sacrificing - complacent and immune to the call to leave behind everything for the cause of Christ. So let us pray for a mighty rushing wind and tongue-talkers to shake us up! Let us pray for a return to our distinct calling! Let us root ourselves even more deeply in our call to be a particular people in a particular place, cultivating our own culture, living lives of sacrifice, holiness, and genuine concern for the world.

Reading

Thieves in the Temple – G. Jeffrey MacDonald

The Gospel of Inclusion – Carlton Pearson

Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths – Karen Armstrong

God's To-Do List

2011-06-02T06:02:00.001-07:00

Ever wonder what’s on God’s To-Do List?
We can imagine a big part of it is devoted to processing the millions of petitions the Almighty receives each day – from the sick in Senegal, the hungry in Hoboken, the desperate in Darfur – ethical queries from pregnant teens, detailed explanations from accident victims, and requests for winning lottery numbers from yours truly.

But not infrequently we also imagine a fair share of requests from Jesus. Yes, the Bible suggests Jesus is asking God to do things for us. And we wonder what Jesus is asking God to do for you and me? What are His priorities for us?

In the 17th Chapter of John’s Gospel, which we’ll hear this Sunday, we hear how Jesus prays for those who follow Him. And we notice He doesn't pray for healing, or Cadillacs, or even a smooth ride on life's roller coaster.

Jesus prays that we would be one with Him. His priority is that our wills would be the same as His will. He prays that our goals and aspirations and life focus would be on knowing God – and, thus, working for the reconciliation of the world. Many of us wonder why our prayers for that bad ankle, that new job, or more civilized children, never seem to get answered. Maybe it's because that’s not the priority – rather, prayers that move circumstances that better shape us into the kinds of people we, deep down, truly desire to be, may be carrying the day.

Jesus is listening to our prayers – He is closer than a brother – when our desires aren’t met – when our prayers aren’t being heard – we may want to ponder God’s priorities and our priorities, where they meet, and how we might work to bring them together.

Reading
Love, Power and Justice – Paul Tillich
Tattoos on the Heart – Greg Boyle
Radical – David Pratt

Walk in Love

2011-05-26T02:47:00.000-07:00

One day, during our courtship, my wife and I were walking along the shores of Lake Michigan – headed back from a weekend in Chicago. It was a gorgeous fall day – empty beach, but still sunny and warm. And as we walked hand in hand, the lapping waves at our feet, we turned to each other and I said to her for the first, but not the last time, “Honey, you’re my soul mate.”

This is often considered a more powerful comment than simply ‘I love you’ because it implies is a depth of oneness that could only have been achieved after a monumental separation. It is a way of expressing a depth of love based on a reunion, of sorts, in which souls knitted together at one point, separated, but then found one another once again. Paul Tillich famously said that love is the drive toward the unity of the separated – or as the country singer riffs, ‘how can I miss you if you never go away?’

And this aspect of love is an operating theme in this Sunday’s Bible passage from John’s Gospel. In it, Jesus is trying to reassure a skittish and anxious band of followers – that He is leaving, but has gone ahead of them to prepare a place, to send His Spirit, and that their forthcoming separation bodes well for them – as love manifests its greatest power by overcoming its greatest separation.

In other words, when you and I walk in the commandments of God, in word and deed, continuing in our faith that love is at the core of the universe, we stay faithful to this separation knowing that, the estranged strive for reunion, that one day that day will come, our eternal oneness will be fulfilled, and everything we do in love, in the meantime, will only make that blessed reunion sweeter.

Reading
Love, Power and Justice – Paul Tillich
Tattoos on the Heart – Gregory Boyle
How They Did It – Robert Jordan

Judgmental Christianity

2011-05-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

Not long ago researchers claimed that the most frequently used word non-Christians use to describe Christians is judgmental. And a Bible verse we’ll hear on Sunday doesn’t help matters.

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” – says Jesus - and in our increasingly secular society it sounds downright judgmental for us to claim these familiar words. How do contemporary, conscientious believers, who value acceptance, tolerance, and openness deal with an exclusivistic verse like this? Is Jesus really saying that the billions and billions of people who have not known or followed Jesus have no access to God – or the afterlife? Is God’s first nature really as a judge? Then doesn’t it make sense for ours to be as well?

1 John 4:8 has another take, the writer simply says, “God is love.” If God is love and Jesus is God then here’s another way to make sense of this verse:
“Love is the way, love is the truth, Love is the life. No one comes to the Father except through Love.” The implications are worth pondering.

And so is humanity’s primeval attraction to exclusivism as no more than a by-product of our own latent fears and insecurities – rather than a reflection of the central message of the Bible. Let’s leave the judging to God and get on with the more difficult work of the Gospel, loving God, and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Reading:
How to Deal with Difficult Behavior – Cindy Hampel
Branded Nation – James Twitchell
How They Did It – Robert Jordan

Sheared

2011-05-11T13:22:00.000-07:00

The notion that Christianity is all about a soft-focus Jesus who
protects, feeds and shelters the fragile is one of the predominate
images we find every spring when Good Shepherd Sunday comes around –
just Google it and see. It’s become an attractive picture for us to
see Jesus’ work in the world as nothing more than footprints in the
sand as He carries us when we cannot carry ourselves. But we suspect
that any notion of a comfy, cushy Jesus without a cross to carry or a
burden to take means there’s something missing – something essential
missing.

After all, shepherds don’t raise sheep for fun - they raise sheep for
wool. They lead them, feed them, and protect them because they expect
something from them. When the sheep pass through the sheep gate it’s
not always to get a good night’s sleep. Once a year, it’s about
getting sheared. It’s about getting pinned down, shocked, scared, and
forced to give up their most valuable possession. Then being
released, dazed and confused, to try to put their lives back together
again. Sure the Shepherd knows every sheep by name and obsesses over
the humane treatment of His little ones, but the Shepherd’s love is
equally given to those who are not in His flock - those shivering in
the cold, quivering on the margins, in desperate need of the gifts his
flock might give.

Following the Shepherd, then, isn’t mainly about personal fulfillment;
its about universal sacrifice. We are called to play a laboriously
vital role in God’s redemption, reconciliation, and provision for the
world. How are we getting sheared today? Can we see that it’s part
of following the Shepherd? How are we being called to move beyond
Christianity as therapy – and into the depths of self-sacrifice that’s
essential for being counted as one of the sheep?

Reading
Branded Nation – James Twitchell
Bird by Bird – Anne Lamott
The Gospel of John – NT Wright

Can a Terrorist's Death Inspire Peacemaking?

2011-05-02T14:32:00.000-07:00

The death of international terrorist Osama bin Laden has evoked a breadth of emotions among Americans. The architect of the 9/11 tragedy inspired a legacy of fear that continues to affect every one of our lives. Friends or friends of friends died in the Twin Towers, countless soldiers and innocents have been killed in his pursuit these last ten years, and I can't go through airport security without blaming him for the hassle. We have all been affected by him - his twisted theology and the ruthless violence he has committed or inspired.

Today we find ourselves at a unique time in history where our brothers and sisters in many Arab countries are seeing the deep hunger for freedom, and the rejection of those who would take advantage of others, fuel a renewed vision for the triumph of good over evil. We are realizing anew our mutual convictions. We are rediscovering that our shared preference for liberty, peace, and progress are not necessarily mediated by those whose means include terror and hatred. We also share grief over the death of any human being - that there is no rejoicing in heaven over bin Laden's death, where all life is precious. We are awakening anew to the universality of humanity.

It is amidst the flag waving and cheering of the 'ding dong the wicked witch is dead!' variety (see photo) that we must then take pause and realize that this 'victory' is a shallow one. A terrorist has died, but terrorism and evil continue.

So maybe this event can remind us that one of the most productive ways we can honor the dead is to continue our labor for peaceful resolutions to conflict. As we sort through the array of emotions we're feeling may Christians and all persons of good will commit to working anew for an end to terrorism and the furtherance of peace, justice, and charity among all people.

Doubting Thomas

2011-04-27T16:12:00.000-07:00

Comprehending a resurrected Jesus who walks around with open wounds and has ready access to a Star Trek ‘Transporter’ is certainly one of the biggest challenges we face as we unpack this Sunday’s Gospel.

But the bigger challenge goes much deeper. As we know, Christianity is not about believing 6 impossible things before breakfast, rather it’s about a living, breathing, relationship with Jesus – something that the story of Doubting Thomas tells us all about.

After the resurrection, Jesus’ disciples were scared – locked up – fearful about what their allegiance to Christ might mean. Would they lose their families, their jobs, their lives? All because of Jesus? They feared the answer was ‘yes’ – as they sat, cooped up in some safe house, tired, hungry, and desperate - trying to figure it all out.

We all know that place. We’ve all lived in that place.

We modern day disciples also face the fear of going deeper with Christ. It’s not arrest and torture that scares us, it’s the loss of those things that brings us security, comfort, and peace. If we devote more of who we are to Jesus, will we too have to give up everything?

Maybe the question scares us because we don’t consider the whole answer. Christ appeared to Doubting Thomas to assure him that everything he’d heard about Jesus was true - that the powers of fear, worry, trepidation, death, and every evil force you and I can imagine, will lose. And that hope, mercy, compassion, love, and every good and perfect word and deed that we will ever witness, wins. The locked doors and safe houses of our minds are what Christ breaks into today to tell us that following Him may be scary, but that everything is going to me OK – that the Jesus way means that when it’s all over we will not discover that we lived our lives in vain, but that every sacrifice we’ve ever made for the sake of the cross, has been worth it

What’s keeping us from believing today?

What worries do we need to surrender?

In what ways might we move past doubt and go deeper with Christ?

The Misunderstood Jew – Amy-Jill Levine

Bird by Bird – Anne Lamott

How They Did It – Robert Jordan

The Birth of a Daughter

2011-04-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

The Feast of Catherine's Nativity began with the not so subtle corporeal alarms that routinely awaken expectant mothers who are past their due date. Mother was happy to have time to shower. Father was disappointed that the early morning race to the hospital prevented a more blatant (and widely witnessed) disregard for traffic laws.

Once at the hospital it was clear dear Catherine wanted out but a suitable exit route had not yet been established. A walk around the premises, an infusion of medication, and the sterling perseverance of her landlord would all play important roles. But first there was the matter of getting her untangled. In one of Mother Nature's macabre ironies, the very cord that gives life can also threaten to take it.

A rush of doctors, who had been remotely monitoring things, unexpectedly burst into the room. They began manipulating the dear girl in discomfiting ways, reporting on an alarming drop in heart rate, explaining emergency surgical options, and reminding us all of the fragility of bringing a child into the world, an exercise that, in too many countries, continues to kill more women than anything else.

Endlessly thankful for our place in the world, surrounded by the best in technology and medical training, the professionals got to work unbinding Catherine. Even more startling than the array of dreadful outcomes that pop into one's mind at times like this is the paucity of time needed to dream them up. Dear Catherine, however, soon decided to turn our urgent worry into needless concern when she graciously heeded the prompts, rolled over on her own, and freed things up to renew her life and ours.

On Holy Tuesday clergy traditionally take time to be with their bishops and colleagues in an annual renewal of their ordination vows. In preparation for the grandest feast in the Christian calendar is the idea that one's vocational identity be affirmed and renewed. We must regularly remind ourselves of who we are called to be and what we are called to do. What is good for priests is not a bad idea for everyone else, especially dads.

So as Catherine squirmed and squirreled her way into the new world, and seasoned priests processed down a cathedral nave, a mom and dad were given an unforgettable reminder of their call and responsibility - to nurture, cherish, safeguard, and love the gift of a precious little girl whose bright eyes, curious hands, and delicate smile just made this the best job in the entire world.

Minister's Emergency Kit!

2011-04-18T08:26:00.000-07:00

It's finally here!

You may find the Minister’s Emergency Kit helpful if you’ve ever prayed for healing for someone who died, seen someone nod off during one of your sermons, been hopelessly stranded in the Land of Unrealistic Expectations, or publicly dished out a heart-cringing spoonerism (ie “The ass is mended, go in peace”).

Simply print out the Kit, card stock is recommended, chop into 4’s, and you’re prepared for whatever old slewfoot throws your way.

Feel free to share this link with your minister/ministry buddies!

Get more copies at www.chrisyaw.com.

Thanks to Keri Smith for her awesome inspiration. Check out her ‘Artist’s Survival Kit’ at www.kerismith.com.

Minister's Emergency Kit

Why I'm Passionate About Church

2011-04-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

My wife and I recently watched a movie on the last days of Hitler.

It showed his life in an underground bunker as he tried to keep his nihilistic vision of world domination from collapsing. I sat awed as Hitler grew increasingly paranoid and out of touch with reality. He refused to believe reports that his armies had been defeated. He blamed the German people for bringing defeat on themselves. He was so convinced of the betrayal of his officers that he spent his last days ordering the deaths of his own loyalists.

But what was more disturbing than this was the people around him. More than once my wife asked, ‘Why doesn’t someone just shoot him?’

Simple.

They couldn’t.

Hitler had constructed such a complex and convincing web of reality that those closest to him refused to leave his side, and some even joined their Fuhrer in taking their own lives. We left the film not just overcome by the unfathomable tragedy, but also utterly chilled at the impact one’s surroundings can have on otherwise sane minds. It’s stunning to think about the impact one’s worldview, culture, and immediate relationships can have on one’s life.

We can be poisoned to do unspeakable evil.

But we can be also inspired to do immeasurable good.

While the world that surrounds us today has little in common with Germany during the War years, we do find ourselves faced with the same conviction - that the worldview we choose to embrace makes a huge difference in our lives.

This is why I believe in the Church.

This is why I believe churches are so important to our lives.

This is why I believe that the redevelopment, restoration, and reigniting of the local church is our best and greatest hope for the world.

Since the beginning, Jesus’ followers gathered together on the weekly anniversary of His resurrection to worship, to learn, and to remind themselves of a worldview that is good for them and good for the world. They formed this vital community, with Jesus in the middle, that served to remind them that the secret to life was not getting, but giving. The Scriptures they read and the Sacraments they took, deeply shaped and formed them. And so they went out, and they helped their neighbor, who helped their neighbor, who helped their neighbor - until this movement had an unprecedented impact on the world.

Of course, church is boring, it’s full of weird people, songs I don’t want to sing, and meeting at inconvenient times when I’d rather be doing something else. We all have excuses for not committing to a faith community. We all have a reason why the deepest impressions on our souls, week in and week out, are not coming from a church. But if the story of Jesus is really the story we believe, is this how we want to treat our lives? Is this how we want to treat the world?

For the sake of our souls, for the sake of everyone else’s, find a church, go to church.

We are profoundly shaped by the things that we choose to surround us. Let’s surround ourselves with good.

We Crucified Jesus

2011-04-13T09:09:00.001-07:00

We crucified Jesus.

That's the truth we grapple with every Palm Sunday and Good Friday when we hear the story called The Passion, which comes from the Latin word passio, - it means suffering.

In this epic story Jesus isn't the only one who suffers. We do too as we contemplate our own complicity in His trial, scourging, and crucifixion.

Are we the conniving Judas, an intimate friend of Jesus' who is willing to sell out if the price is right? Probably not. Are we the corrupt Judean authorities who are so interested in keeping things the way they are that we'll do anything to prevent change? Probably not. Or are we zealous Peter, who's given up everything to follow Jesus - but is unable to go that last mile, to the Cross? Probably not.

Most of us are probably more like Pilate - who didn’t harbor hatred, envy, malice, or rampant zeal. He was just a Roman administrator trying to keep the peace. Yet Pilate had the power to change things - the money, influence, and resources to protect and care for Jesus. Pilate also had a conscience - and a wife who told him to do the right thing. Yet Pilate chose not to listen to them, and to stand idly by, apathetically washing his hands, and putting the blame on others.

30,000 children will die today due to senseless poverty, innocent women will be raped, bright inner city kids will go without education. None of that is our fault. We're not advocating it or actively supporting it. However our silence says something.

Yes, Jesus is still being crucified today. Matthew 25 says whatsoever we do to the least of our brothers, we do unto Him. Like Pilate, we can do something about the injustice, the suffering and the painful death. We have the ability and the knowledge - but will we?

Reading

The Misunderstood Jew - Amy-Jill Levine

Three Weeks with My Brother -Nicholas Sparks

The Last Week- Borg/Crossan

Sixty Second Sermon

2011-04-06T18:43:00.001-07:00

Going Blind

2011-03-31T04:09:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine is a weatherman.
You should see his office.
On one wall there’s a bank of computers.
Another wall is filled with TV monitors that give him live shots of every part of town.
He has these huge printers that are constantly churning out data-
-forecasting models, dopler radar, National Weather Service alerts, and historic trending data-
Everything chugs along with unbelievable efficiency until that one day, when the power surge hits, and the whole thing goes down.
That’s because the one thing my friend the weatherman does not have in his office is a window.

This Sunday we hear about something similar. We hear about religious experts, people who’ve dedicated their lives to knowing God, to following God, to setting up endless guidelines to keep them close to God. Yet we hear how, when the power surge comes, when their framework fries, they can’t tell that God almighty has shown up.

It’s something that happens to us all – as we try to lead our lives dedicated to loving God and our neighbors. We form opinions, cultivate virtues, and get into habits. We do the best we can to make ourselves more aware of, and enhance this vision of eternal life, of boundless love that has embraced our hearts, of the utterly hopeful picture of life we’re given as disciples of Jesus.

Yet, when the power surge hits – a divorce, job loss, bad investment, sickness, you name it – and these frameworks of church attendance, being a good person, or the number of times we’ve read the Bible are all we’ve got – this is when we, too, can lose faith. It’s because it’s not about the things that point us to God, it’s about God. It’s about that living, breathing relationship we have with Jesus.

In what ways have we allowed our well-meaning habits, opinions, virtues, and practices to keep us from the heartbeat of God? And what do we need to do, in this Lenten season, to get back to it?

Reading:
The Last Train from Hiroshima – Charles Pellegrino
The Celtic Way of Evangelism – George Hunter
The Future of Faith – Harvey Cox

Belonging Comes Before Believing

2011-03-23T20:07:00.001-07:00

One of the scariest words in Christendom is ‘Evangelism’-

Tainted as it is with notions of slick salesmanship, in which, the innocent and unsuspecting are hoodwinked by glad-handed, overly reassuring, questionably motivated Christians with seemingly permanent smiles plastered on their faces.

Evangelism has become a word with such creepy overtones that even many Christians don’t like to use it. But just as the remedy for bad theology is not no theology – it is good theology. The same is true for evangelism. And we get no better lesson in good evangelism than by this Sunday’s reading from John’s Gospel when Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well.

‘Give me a drink’ says Jesus, as he strikes up a conversation with a woman who will soon begin following Him. This conversation goes on for some time, becoming one of the longest dialogs in the Gospels. This is done on purpose: Jesus is building a relationship, making a friend, and will end up spending a few days in this woman’s village laying the foundation for a new community and winning an entire town over to follow Him.

Not long ago the United Bible Societies polled 500 Christian converts – asking how they came to faith. Researchers concluded that in most cases it wasn’t done overnight - that “belonging comes before believing.” Establishing friendships, building community, is where faith takes root and grows. The still-popular model of ‘Presentation, Decision, then Fellowship’ does not hold a candle to the format presented here by Jesus of ‘Fellowship, Conversation, then Commitment.’

‘Belonging comes before believing.’ That’s why many churches baptize babies, welcoming them into the fellowship of God’s people, nurturing them into community, believing that a time will come for adult commitment.

People aren’t projects that serve as tallies on some TV preacher’s tote board. People are a crown of creation, of inestimable worth, and value to God. In what ways are we seeing our churches as sacred communities to show forth this love, compassion, and hospitality for those around us to come to know Jesus more deeply? When was the last time we invited someone to experience our faith community? Who might we bring to church, and deeper into relationship with Jesus, this weekend?

Reading
The Celtic Way of Evangelism – George Hunter

Faith of the Future – Harvey Cox

Radical – David Pratt

Belonging Comes Before Believing

2011-03-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

One of the scariest words in Christendom is ‘Evangelism’-

Reading
The Celtic Way of Evangelism – George Hunter

Faith of the Future – Harvey Cox

Radical – David Pratt

Don't Blame God for Japan's Earthquake

2011-03-14T07:55:00.001-07:00

My friend Leah was talking with her pals the other day about the earthquake in Japan when one friend said, 'I think it's a sign that God is really mad at us.'

I couldn't agree more with the sentiment that the Almighty looks down with distress at a world of devastating polarity between the few obscenely rich and the billions of desperately poor; the alarming proliferation of nuclear arms that gives us unprecedented power to kill, maim, and destroy; and the blatant disregard humanity has for the environment, which we continue to treat as a hotel room mess left for someone else to clean up. However, the idea that God punishes imperfect behavior with a vengeance far worse than the most despicable Nazi prison guard is not only hard to swallow, but doesn't easily jibe with the biblical record.

Leah has an adorable 3 year old who's a perfect angel most of the time, yet like all toddlers, has her moments. When her disobedience turns to tantrums Leah's first reaction is to lovingly correct, and to take her daughter into her open arms until a more suitable mode of behavior emerges. And when that doesn't work the occasional Time Out, and even a spanking may result. To act otherwise, to even suggest a more effective course might be to smote, with even a fraction of the capricious force seen in an earthquake or tsunami, would be to condone child abuse of the worst kind.

Let's be clear, God does not punish bad behavior with natural disasters any more than the Almighty rewards good behavior with winning lottery tickets, perfect health, jobs or marriages; "for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous" (Matt. 5:45). It is understandable why the notion of God and retributive justice increases in appeal in the wake of unexplainable disasters (remember when Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell famously attributed some of the 9/11 terrorist actions to immoral behavior?). Answers like this offer easy ways out of very complicated theological mazes, they try to provide answers to answerless questions.

So why the earthquakes and tsunamis?
Why the warrantless terror and suffering?
Why the innocent deaths?
We don't know.

Our minds are simply not able to grasp the complexities of life's circumstances. We are cats trying to learn algebra; puppies trying to comprehend Nietzsche. We strive for answers too lofty and labyrinthine for our limited gifts.

It is in times like this we may find it more helpful not to busy ourselves with the breadth of God's smiting hand, and instead look at depth of the Lord's hand of protection: that Tokyo, with its incredible dense population was relatively unscathed, that the devastation wasn't worse; and that compassion and mercy has been inspired from nearly every nation in the world, including China.

If God's love excels that of even the most doting parent, we may fairly conclude that such tragedy escapes our powers of reasoning, yet opens us up to be the hands and feet of the Almighty whose love and compassion has found a place in our hearts. Let us live our faith in faith, believing that there is a purpose, and for now it is to help.

Donate to help those in Japan via Episcopal Relief and Development today.

It Takes More Than Tiger Blood

2011-03-10T07:56:00.000-08:00

Individual exceptionalism- the temptation for us to think we are smarter, prettier, cooler, better, special. To think that by virtue of nothing more than our own natural awesomeness, we command more than others – more attention, more pay, more privilege, more power. It is one of the most attractive and deeply flawed beliefs we can entertain.

Pride, the first sin, the deadliest sin, and today more common than cameramen in Charlie Sheen’s driveway - who’s the latest and most sorrowful example of the devil’s temptation, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written; ‘His angels will catch you!’

Because if we think this highly of ourselves – that we’re fireproof, immune to old age, cancer, divorce, bad luck - that there’s tiger blood flowing through our veins, then we are not downright delusional and living a fairy tale, but we are only opening ourselves up for a fall – which is something we all have in common with Charlie Sheen.

The subtlety of pride doesn’t have us casting ourselves off mountains as much as it has us scanning the room behind the person we’re talking with, looking for someone more worthy of our time. Pride makes us take cuts, fib on our taxes, and talk more than listen - after all, my time, and my money, and my opinion are worth more than yours.

That’s why we need the ashes of Wednesday and the kneelers on Lenten Sundays to bring us back to our senses – to help us do the reality check - to look deeply in the mirror at the lines and the bags and the flaws – so when Jesus says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test’ – we don’t even want to try. Lent asks us to ponder the thin line between confidence and arrogance as we claim our great worth-ship in Christ that sends us out into the world to clean the toilets.

In what ways are we thinking too highly of ourselves? How might we use the 40 days of Lent as a reality check?

Reading
The Last Train from Hiroshima – Charles Pellegrino
The Faith of the Future – Harvey Cox
Fasting – Scot McKnight

Free to Fast

2011-03-09T11:04:00.000-08:00

Fasting is the most misunderstood spritual discipline.

While it appears several times in Scripture, was practiced by David, Isaiah, John, Jesus, and Paul, its purpose is clothed in mystery and innuendo, rarely explained in ways that make sense to the modern Western mind.

That is, before Scot McKnight's new book 'Fasting' came across my desk.

McKnight defines fasting as, 'a natural response to a grievous, sacred moment.' In other words, it is what we naturally do in some instances - for example when a spouse dies, a child goes into the hospital, or we lose our jobs. These grievous, sacred moments frequently accompany a loss of appetite and/or attention to matters of such weight that we simply forget to eat. We already fast, we just don't call it that.

Compare this to what we often call fasting - giving up chocolate, coffee, or Facebook, and we realize abstaining may be a better term. Abstention is not bad, it is also a spiritual discipline, but it is not fasting.

Now that Lent is upon us, and the challenge to partake in fasting (the Episcopal Church recommends members fast on this day and on Good Friday) McKnight has provided a good blueprint to challenge myself to fast not for myself, but for others for whom I am more deeply paying attention, ie Libyans being slaughtered, Haitians dying from curable diseases, and inner city kids joining gangs because there's no other family around. These are deeply grievous events, and our invitation to take on the burdens of those suffering during Lent couldn't be more helpful.

Yes, I am a member of Booksneeze and have been compensated to review McKnight's book, but as many of you know that does not influence my review. What has influenced it is McKnight's clarity. While many people fast to get - a word from the Lord, direction, or a deeper sense of connection with Jesus - we cannot fast to get. We fast to give, by taking on the burdens of others and looking to improve their lot, not our own.

If you are curious about fasting and are longing to understand it in a 20th century context, McKnight's book is an easy read, practical (there's a study guide in the back), and just may be what you've been looking for to help you redeem this ancient discipline for yourself.

Churches Age with their Founders

2011-03-06T17:14:00.000-08:00

"According to Rainer Research 70 percent of youth leave church by the time they are twenty-two years old. Barna Group estimates that 80 percent of those reared in the church will be ‘disengaged’ by the time they are twenty-nine years old." Drew Dycks, 'Generation Ex-Christian'

Finally a couple of stats to back up what we've been noticing for some time : churches age with their founders. So what do we do to reverse this?

1) Understand them. This 'lost' age group is not homogeneous. There are several reasons they leave. Check out this review of Dyck's book for a synopsis; http://tiny.cc/kspmc

2) Realize that devout parents have devout children. The best way to improve your kids spirituality may be to improve our own.

3) Be intentional about keeping your kids. Set up a group of people whose job it is to keep college kids connected: getting care packages at test time, emails/notes on the first day back, etc. Love spans generations like nothing else.

How (and how well) does your faith community pay attention to this age group?

Another World is Possible

2011-03-03T05:21:00.000-08:00

The rebel cries for freedom, liberty, and a brand new world have been filing our TV screens for weeks – as the Middle East roils in confrontations between oppressive regimes and an energized populace that has grabbed a glimpse of the notion that another world is possible.

Hope, longing, and desperation have taken to the streets – as change takes over changeless places, hope rises above hopeless places, and the possibility of potential – untapped and inert for so long – now brims and boils – and is turning the world into something brand new.

1500 years ago a quiet, monkish, man from the wilderness now known as Wales took to this same notion. David in our language, Dewi in theirs, caught the same wave, took on a mantle of leadership, and in a disorganized time, organized the heart and soul of a nation.

Dewi’s deepest inspiration was the word of a Jewish peasant, 5 centuries before, who was so taken with the notion that another world, outside this one, was breaking through. Jesus announced, to an oppressive, dangerous, and fragile world, that something was coming, and that people could help it along. The great Shalom of a quiet, gentle, fair, and fulfilling age was here to trump corruption, oppression, and inequality. Error could give way to truth, sin to righteous, life to death.

Bringing that world into this one, as Dewi and his followers knew, means living in this world as if we were in that one – treating one another with honesty, respect, and dignity, striving for justice, fairness, equality, and oneness with God – because that’s what this new world is all about. That is the world that is breaking into this one. That is the world that is taking over this one. That is Jesus’ world that has been prepared for us, as we prepare for it.

Reading

The Future of Faith – Harvey Cox

Mark – N.T. Wright

Mark – William Barclay

No Worries

2011-02-24T05:14:00.000-08:00

Most heart attacks occur between 8 and 10 on Monday mornings, leading doctors to believe it’s not diet or exercise that are to blame as much as it is stress and worry about what’s ahead.

The fear surrounding the things we care most about – our kids, our homes, and our lives – fuel a life-threatening cocktail that we’re surprisingly willing to drink again and again and again.

This primal activity, worry, be it an addiction, a disease, or simply part of the human condition, was something Jesus was keenly attuned to, as the single most common piece of advice He offered his followers was, ‘Don’t worry.’

But Jesus doesn’t just leave it at that. In this Sunday’s Gospel He makes several other points about handling fear:

First, what good is worrying, because everything’s going to be OK. We’re in God’s hands and there is nothing that can take us from there. God cares deeply and intimately about birds and flowers - even, and especially, us.

Second, worrying is not worth it. All the worrying in the world won’t add one hour to our lives, in fact it is more likely to take hours and hours and hours from our lives.

Third, keep things in perspective. Most of our worries pale in comparison to those of the billions of people living in hunger, sickness, and homelessness – that we are challenged to do something about. This is what striving for the Kingdom is about, bringing God’s heaven to so many people who are living in… another place.

And finally, with this in mind, who’s got time to worry? Birds don’t, lilies don’t, and when we get busy with everything we called to be and do, we find that worrying is something we just don’t want to pay for.

The famous slogan is ‘you are what you eat’ –
The famous anxiety is that we become what we worry about-
And the famous antidote is that Jesus loves and cares for us more than we’ll ever know, uniquely calling us to do things only we can do, which leaves very little time or reason to worry.

Reading:
Faith for the Future –Harvey Cox
Fasting – Scot McKnight
Matthew 1-13 - Donald Hagner

Ethics 2.0

2011-02-17T06:41:00.000-08:00

When someone hurts another, the base, human default setting is ‘revenge.’

When we’ve been hit, we not only want to hit back, but with more force, punitive force, whether we’ve been cut off on the highway, or seen planes flown into skyscrapers - our knee jerk reaction is to strike back – hard. To teach the other a lesson, sure, but also because, as Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris, and Steven Seagal all know, revenge feels so good.

Ethics 1.0 revolutionized this default setting with something new called “justice,” ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’ Punishment could no longer exceed the crime – and civilized institutions thrive, even today, on the legislative principle of equivalent restitution. However, as Gandhi once noticed, an eye for an eye, very soon, makes the whole world blind.

Enter Jesus, with Ethics 2.0. Tucked neatly inside this Sunday’s Gospel on the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus now replaces justice with love. Turn the other cheek, give your creditor not just your shirt, but your jacket, go the extra mile, pray for your enemies.

This isn’t just good advice. The idea of loving one’s enemy is the only hope this world has. It’s the only hope marriages have, corporations have, and nations have – for we have all committed wrong, and we have all suffered wrong. We all need forgiveness, and we all need to forgive. If the whole world did this, we would find heaven on earth. And when we do this, we bring a bit of heaven to earth.

Which enemies are we praying for? Which persecutors are we working toward forgiving? Is there someone around us that’s hard to love? -maybe not an enemy, but an annoying person? In what ways can we work toward loving them?

Reading

Matthew - RT France

Fasting - Scot McNight

The Future of Faith - Harvey Cox

Diluted

2011-02-02T12:49:00.000-08:00

It doesn’t take a Top Chef to tell us a few obvious things about salt. It tastes delightful in pea soup and on roast chicken. It comes in a number of varieties, from fleur de sel to bamboo salt, depending on the combination of mineralities. And salt, which is simply Sodium Chloride, will never, ever go bad.

So what is Jesus talking about in this Sunday’s Gospel when he famously tells his followers, “You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lots its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.” Those of us who were shoveling snow this week know that a little salt under foot is far from a bad thing… but ‘bad salt?’ Is there really such a thing?

Because salt can never lose its taste or become contaminated, as microbes and parasites simply can’t live on salt, the only way it can lose its saltiness is if some other agent is introduced. Add rat poison to salt, or 10 gallons of water. If you want to make the soup less salty, add more soup.

The same holds true for us – when we get watered down, diluted, and the essence of who we are is drowned out by anything and everything else that’s been thrown into the pot. No, salt will never lose its taste, but unless it is liberated from the things that water it down, it will never be what it could.

The essence of who we are is a beloved, cherished, and invaluable member of God’s family. We are redeemed, forgiven, reconciled with God, and the inheritors of vast possibility. Yet, how this essence is diluted! We languish in the waters of self-doubt, self-criticism, and unforgiveness. Our saltiness becomes washed away by waves of self-limit, fear, and frustration. Many of us need to get back to who we are – allow the water to subside and toss aside the things that are watering us down. How might we do this?

Can we imagine the impurities that impede us evaporating like new rain on a sunny sidewalk? Can we marvel at the nuggets of gold left in the prospector’s pan after the river water is strained away? Can we see the Christ in us rising as we allow all that seeks to lessen us fade away in the glory of His presence?

Reading:

Made in Detroit – Paul Clemons

Matthew – R. T. France

Matthew for Everyone (Vol. 1) – NT Wright

The Beatitudes

2011-01-26T12:28:00.000-08:00

My friend Tim is a store manager for a huge, multi-national company.
He’s bright, energetic, and will never, ever get promoted.

Tim has always made it a practice to hire single moms, who desperately
need the job, but whose low pay makes arranging reliable childcare
nearly impossible. That means, at the end of each year, when Tim goes
in for his evaluation, his bosses point out the high tardiness and
absenteeism rates of his employees. They tell Tim he has to improve
or he won’t move up. Tim always promises to do better, though he
knows next year will be the same thing.

In this Sunday’s gospel you and I will hear some of Jesus’ most famous
sayings: the Beatitudes. These describe God’s World. And what living
in God’s World is like. In God’s world, there are a lot of people
like Tim – who would rather help single moms, than use them as
stepping-stones on a career path. There are a lot of people who
choose to take the nondescript, unexceptional, and often unrewarded
path of backing down from arguments, letting the guy in a hurry go
first, and giving the neediest person – who might not be the best
qualified – a break.

When we follow Jesus, we know we’re headed to God’s world. We find,
like Tim, that it’s a world where making names for ourselves,
increasing our social stature, climbing the ladder, padding the bank
account, and putting ourselves ahead of others, all seem to fall short
of the much more fulfilling activities of forgiving, accepting,
reconciling, and deeply connecting with a God and a world that were
meant for each other.

How might you and I live with more intention, into God’s world? How
might we re-evaluate some of our goals and see how they might, more
closely align with God’s? How might we begin to show others that
God’s world is our true home?

Reading:
Made in Detroit – Paul Clemens
The Liturgical Year – Joan Chittister
This is Not Your Parents’ Offering Plate – Clif Christopher

Book Review: The Liturgical Year

2011-01-26T03:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks Thomas Nelson for this wonderful installation in 'The Ancient Practices' series. As frequent readers know, I am a part of a book reviewing team for this publisher that has provided the book gratis in exchange for this review.

Truth be told, I may have purchased the book regardless as Joan Chittister has yet to write anything not worth reading. The theme is laid out at the beginning (p. 8), "This book is about the role of the church year in bringing each of us to a fuller understanding of the Christian life - and, most of all, it is about explaining precisely what it means to live a Christian life." This is stated in various forms throughout, perhaps to assure the liturgically suspicious who stumble upon this book that it's OK to put the guard down and let the spirit breathe new life into holy traditions.

Chittister weaves her way through the seasons with wit, charm, scholarship, and her characteristically obscure quotations that often inspire pause and ponder, taking great care, at every corner, to relate ancient practices to contemporary conditions.

As a Roman Catholic nun Sr. Chittister carves up the year a bit differently than other liturgical traditions, ie. there are two periods of 'Ordinary Time' whereas Anglicans traditionally talk about 'Sundays after Epiphany' and 'Sundays after Pentecost' but not to get bogged down here, her insights are helpful whether you celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25 or Jan 7.

Readers are helped along by large print, wide spacing, short chapters, and few words per page, it is, in many ways, an easy read, and one recommended for those curious about how the ancient themes, colors, and customs of the liturgical year help us live more Christianly today.

Light Has Dawned

2011-01-20T16:08:00.000-08:00

When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.
Or, they go out to eat.
Or out to drink.

When the road gets dark and narrow and we can no longer see where are, we lighten things up with a new shirt, a nice meal, or a binge at the bars. These things can lighten our hearts and provide a flicker of joy - before the Reality Check Repo Man comes - and the darkness we’re so trying to avoid, inevitably descends.

The shadows many of us find ourselves in are cast by mountains of bad decisions, forests of broken relationships, skyscrapers of worry, and glaciers of dashed dreams and repressed self-realizations: is this all there is?

We long to be among those mentioned in this Sunday’s Gospel who have had an amazing encounter: “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light,  and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death, light has dawned."

In Matthew 4, Jesus had just been baptized, spent 40 days in the desert, and heard his forerunner had been arrested - all this, effectively paving the way for the initiation of his ministry now, for the first time, revealed: to bring light to dark places – which are still around today. For we often find ourselves in the dark. Whether we walked there, were led there, or simply woke up there.

Matthew seems to say that the end to our darkness is at hand – we no longer need linger because the light that chases away the dark is here. The light that reveals who we really are; beloved, cherished, valuable, even invaluable. This light longs to envelop us in promises of the reality of love and assurance – that there is no room dark enough, no shadow big enough, no night long enough to keep away the light.

No matter what the source of our darkness, it cannot, it will not persist. That dense blanket of sadness, gloom, and despondency is not permanent. The night tremors and hopeless insomnia will pass – not because of what we do, but of who we are, a people called out of darkness into a marvelous light.

Reading
Not Your Parents Offering Plate – Clif Christopher
Crush It! – Gary Vanyerchuk
The Liturgical Year – Joan Chittister

What Are You Looking For?

2011-01-12T14:11:00.000-08:00

The first words of Jesus, according to John’s Gospel, might be mistaken for those of a hardware store clerk, a produce manager, or a father who inadvertently discovers his 12-year-old rummaging through the liquor cabinet.

‘What are you looking for?’ Jesus asks two strangers, who had started tailing him at the behest of the much better-known, and admirably self-aware, co-reformer John the Baptist. It is a question whose subject – you – betrays the heart of a man and of a father whose main concerns lie beyond them.

This first question is soon followed up with Jesus’ first command. It is not to bow down and worship, it is not to go to church, or even to be nice to your mother. Jesus first command is actually a gracious invitation, “Come and See.”
These first words begin to paint for John, and for us, Christianity’s picture of God. This isn’t a god who’s out to test, torture, or frustrate us – though it may seem so at times – No, this is a God who desires, above all, to serve and to love – to invite and to welcome you and me.
At this time of year, called Epiphany, which means ‘manifestation,’ this Sunday’s Gospel manifests God’s nature to us. We are reminded that God is, at the core, self-giving and kind-hearted. And when we sign on to follow Jesus, we are asked to behave in the same way.

In what ways might our interaction with the world be characterized by service and love – by gracious invitation and radical welcome? Christmas is the seminal proclamation that the monopoly of love is being broken. The world no longer relies solely on God’s grace and kindness – but on the grace and kindness God has put into our hearts to go out and share with the world.

Reading
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work - Alain de Botton
The Liturgical Year - Joan Chittester
Crush It! - Gary Vanyerchuk

Holy Innocents

2010-12-29T16:42:00.000-08:00

Holy Innocents

I remember when my young friend John died – in a car wreck.

I remember rushing to the hospital to join his parents and grandparents.

I remember praying the last prayers he’d ever hear.

I remember presiding over the packed funeral - where we all brushed up against the elephant in the room - who was wearing a huge T-shirt that said; ‘Why God?’

Parents aren’t supposed to bury their kids – they’re not supposed to make coffins that small - where’s the justice? Where’s God?

Every December Christians commemorate the Feast of the Holy Innocents. It’s based on a Bible story about jealous King Herod. In an effort to eliminate the newborn baby Jesus, King of the Jews, Herod ordered a mass slaying of all children 2 years old and younger. It is a story of dubious provenance, yet one that is true regardless of whether or not it ever happened – because every day you and I witness to the same thing – the slaughter of the innocents.

Our world abounds with flagrant and unspeakable injustices – evil tyrants who murder, bosses who cheat, spouses who betray, close family members who insult and backstab. Our losses drive us to lament like the mothers of the Innocents as quoted by the prophet Jeremiah;

“A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel… refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.”

Our misery consumes us. There is no daylight. We wait for the dawn to break –and when it does we wonder: But are they really ‘no more?’ Might there be a purpose? Might there be a Presence somehow lingering, preparing, and pointing?

Jeremiah continues “Thus says the LORD: Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for there is a reward… they shall come back from the land of the enemy; there is hope for your future.”

My friends, what has been taken shall be restored. What has been wronged shall be righted. What has been lost shall be found.

What are we grieving today? What stolen innocence is stewing inside of us? The Lord says we will be restored, things will be made right. Can we put it in Jesus’ hands? Can we move toward living as if this were true? Can we accept His peace – and walk in the confidence that through it all, God is with us?

Reading

God is Not Good - Christopher Hitchens
The Liturgical Year - Joan Chittister
Crush It! - Gary Vaynerchuk

Christmas

2010-12-23T04:21:00.000-08:00

It is Christmas once again – that wondrously rich Christian holiday that’s always meant different things to different people.

For example, many little kids take it literally; leaving cookies out for St. Nick, dressing up as angels in the Christmas pageant, and even singing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

Teens often take it pejoratively; like one churlish adolescent who changes the words on Christmas Eve from, ‘Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again’- to Christ has lied, Christ is in prison, Christ will come at 10.

Then, there’s us adults – who have survived all that – and who still choose to commemorate this holiday - not seeking to take it literally or pejoratively, but seriously.

These past four weeks of Advent have taken us on a journey of preparation and readiness to look for the Christ Child. And when that little porcelain baby is placed into that crèche on Christmas Day, we are reminded of the central message of the season: that this child is with us – Emmanuel – God is with us.

There is no place we can go where God is not. Every situation we encounter, no matter how random or haphazard – is part of an endlessly complex orchestration – and has not happened by accident. Every person we meet, as tempted as we are to chalk it up to the accidental or arbitrary, is part of a divine plan to reconcile all of Creation.

And it all starts with that little baby – God permeating creation - and it continues with our quest -
For we realize that every person we meet has that presence in them – and the wonderful thing that happens when we treat others as if Jesus is in them, is that Christ becomes more present in our lives as well. When we take care to intentionally look for Christ in every person - we will find Christ in ourselves.

And there’s no better Christmas present than that.

Reading:
God is not Great – Christopher Hitchens
Made in Detroit – Paul Clemons
God is Back – Micklethwaite and Wooldridge

Rear View Mirror

2010-12-16T03:08:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder why rear view mirrors only take up a small part of the windshield?

Carmakers know that the driver’s most important view is what’s ahead. They make sure drivers can see the road clearly - to the side, and even above and below so that the road in front, is most obviously seen. While the view of what’s passed is important, the view of what’s ahead is the most significant.

On the Fourth Sunday of Advent we hear the story of Joseph as he gets the news that his fiancé, Mary, is pregnant – and not by him. Joseph has a choice. The Bible calls him a righteous man, one who knew the well-established laws and traditions of his faith and obeyed them. So now Joseph can follow the rules he’s known all his life, dismissing or even exposing Mary, opening her up to severe punishment. Or Joseph can obey an incredible vision that’s opening up right before him.

Should Joseph seek the security of the seasoned faith of his forebearers, which he can see clearly in his rearview mirror – or might Joseph trust what’s unfolding right in front of him – a dream - that God is doing something amazing and new?

Every day you and I meet people and run into situations that we want to quickly categorize and stereotype – we want to judge what’s in front of us through a lens that’s behind us. We forget that every person, every encounter is new – and has never come across our path in the same way before. When we look at new things through old lenses we rob them of their distinctions – and we block out what God is trying to say to us – and the world.

Trying to move forward by looking behind us has its obvious difficulties – which is why Advent calls us to lift up our heads – and look, in watchful expectation – to see anew at what’s unfolding before us. And as tempted as we are to stereotype - and to think that this Christmas will be just like all others – it won’t be. When we pay attention to every store clerk, slow driver, and unfavorite relative – with the expectation that God has put them in our lives for us to value, respect, and love – we can find gifts more precious than anything that fits under a tree.

So let’s move on toward Christmas with hope and expectation, valuing what’s behind us, but wholly embracing the magic, the mystery, and the wonder that’s before us.

Reading:

God is Not Great – Christopher Hitchens

Made in Detroit – Paul Clemens

Changing the Conversation – Anthony Robinson

When God Disappoints

2010-12-09T05:52:00.000-08:00

I remember getting fired from a job.

I was just out of college, and I worked as a personal assistant for a rather difficult man. He was gruff, demanding, and could be rather rude. I didn’t know at the time that he had gone through personal assistants like paper towels – unfortunately not treating them much better.

My naturally naïve and affable demeanor meant that I had gone a few months before actually being offended by my boss. And the work got harder. That’s when I unconsciously started to do what most people do. I pulled back and distanced myself. I thought I was doing my job – I had certainly continued to do what was expected in the job description. But I was disconnecting – and before I knew it, I was stunned to find out I was out of a job.

"Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" asked John the Baptist in this Sunday’s Gospel reading. John had started his ministry, which we heard about last week, calling people to repent. Entire towns turned out to be baptized. We remember John’s harsh predictions that the Messiah would chop down trees that don’t produce, and burn away chaff with unquenchable fire.

This is what John was expecting Jesus to do. But this wasn’t what Jesus was doing.

So cold, hungry and awash in disappointment, we imagine, St. John, as he tried to figure out what went wrong. How could God have failed him? You and I, in the comforts of 2,000 years of hindsight, can see the disconnect – we can see where John went, and where Jesus was going. And we know well from personal experience – when God fails to meet our expectations, perhaps its time to ask ourselves how well aligned we are with God.

Are we looking for a God who will do what we want and not what God wants? How do we open ourselves up to the Lord in a way that doesn’t surprise or disappoint us? Easy, we get on board with God’s program. So how can we use this Advent season to do that?

Reading

God is not Great – Christopher Hitchens

Radial – David Platt

God is Back – Mickelthwait and Woldridge

Abandon Yourself (Advent II)

2010-12-01T13:09:00.000-08:00

The greatest Christian who ever lived was a man who simply pointed to Jesus.
John the Baptist was not known for his great intellect.
He wasn’t known for his money or possessions.
He wasn’t known for his buff body, clothes, or cracking good looks.
John was known for putting himself aside and letting the Lord take center stage.

The Church has always held the highest esteem for those who do this –
who abandon themselves, letting God take over, throwing off the
security blankets of wealth, family, safety, political correctness,
and public approval – acknowledging that of all the Christian virtues,
this is the most admired - and least imitated.

What John did for Jesus, is so hard for us to do today – awash as we
are in our acquisitive and narcissistic culture – that brainwashes us
into thinking that our deepest fulfillment lies in focusing on our own
keep. But the message of the season is that living a good Christian
life is difficult but not impossible. We can cut through the things
that bind us. We can get a fresh start. We can go down into the
River Jordan and come back better.

This Second Sunday in Advent is about the power of abandonment. We
see a man – a bedraggled and undernourished heckler – whose only
concern was for the One who came after him. This is what made John
great. The source of his power was his weakness. The place of his
exaltation came in his lowliness. How ready are we to abandon
ourselves – to step aside, and let the Lord take center stage?

Reading
God is Not Great – Christopher Hitchens
The Sorrows and Pleasures of Work – Alaine de Boton
Matthew – Donald A. Hagner

Spoiler Alert: Jesus Wins!

2010-11-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

Two escaped slaves huddled together in front of a small campfire - as the full moon greeted the chilly sky and their night's work lay before them. Stealing away, across field and forest, and the checkerboard of safe havens called 'The Underground Railroad' that would take these fugitives to freedom. The words of Sister Harriet carried them through; 'If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If there's shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.

The Gospel reading on the first Sunday of Advent always gives us a snapshot of the apocalypse - or the 'last days' - where similar images of quest, danger, risk, and reward play out. Matthew’s version (24:36-44), that we get this year, compares these times with the days of Noah - a righteous man told to prepare for a flood, which would wipe away the sinfulness of humanity. The world stood idly by as Noah built his boat, and even once it started raining no one believed. But Noah knew what was coming, and salvation awaited him and his family.

‘Why do you go to church?’ is a question I’ve been asked. And my answer is, quite simply, because, like Noah, I know what’s coming. I know where the world is going and who’s in charge of it all. That’s why I pray, that’s why I read the Bible, that’s why I not only go to church, but support the church. I try to live life with the end in mind, not living in fear but in faith. Temptations to live differently abound. Temptations to cut corners, stretch the truth, and do way too much out of my own self-interest. But the words of this passage - to keep awake and be ready come to my aid, sometimes through the words of Sister Harriet; when you hear the dogs, keep going. When you see the torches in the woods, keep going. Never stop, but know that a taste of heaven lies ahead, keep going.

Reading
The History of the Book of Common Prayer - Percy Dearmer
The Sorrows and Pleasures of Work - Alain de Botton
Healing Light- Agnes Sanford

Christ the King

2010-11-16T13:40:00.000-08:00

One of the ironies of the Christian faith is that the One who was born in a manger, claimed no earthly wealth or position, and died a criminal’s death, is frequently known by a title He neither requested, sought, nor claimed: King of Kings.

This Sunday Christians around the world will commemorate the various ways Christ’s Lordship is remembered, as King of Israel, (John 1:49), King of the Jews (Mt. 27:11), King of Ages (1 Tim 6:15), and King Eternal (1 Tim 1:17). Formalized by the Pope in 1925, as the Church’s reminder to earthly rulers of the Lord’s preeminence, this Sunday, Christ the King Sunday, reminds us of the ways God desires to rule in our lives today.

And despite the continued success of Christianity, which has been described as the largest, most vibrant faith in the world and is expected to continue growing, we are wise to point out that the reason behind the royal title is not wealth, power, bragging rights, or the prospect of world domination: but just the opposite, Christianity flourishes as it bows its knee in service. Christ is King because Christ loves, sacrifices, and gives all of himself for the sake of the world.

This week, in rainy West Cornwall, Connecticut, a conference with Episcopal clergy, played host to a renowned theologian, who reminded us of the preeminence of this love and sacrifice. Yale University’s Miroslav Volf says the most powerful way to preach Christianity is not by well-worded arguments, but by generous living. The kingship of Christ is found in the ways His followers imitate Jesus by giving freely of themselves. Christians live out this kingship when they decide not to pursue the love of pleasure, but to seek the pleasure of love.

Not long ago a group of people was given $50 to spend on themselves, a second group was given $50 to spend on others. Researchers measured their satisfaction and found those who shopped for others came out happier. We’re not surprised that when we give, when we sacrifice, we are better off, we are happier, we become more of who we were created to be: heirs of a king, who is high and lifted up, only after coming low and bowing down. May we seek out and find ways that we can do the same.

Reading

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work - Alain de Botton

God is Back - John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridg

Radical - David Platt

It Gets Better

2010-11-11T03:14:00.000-08:00

One of the more inspiring movements that’s been sparked by current events surrounding teen suicide and bullying has been the ‘It Gets Better Project’ – a venture that features short videos by famous and not so famous people who struggled with their gender identity (www.itgetsbetterproject.com) and want to encourage vulnerable young people who are hurting.

Many of these confessional video biographies are highly emotional as they recount stories of persecution, harassment, suicide attempts, confrontations with family members, and deep, dark depression. However, the message is clear, that despite the torment of the student years - there is a light at the end of the tunnel, life is worth living, it gets better.

Jesus often talked about persecution and harassment – like in this week’s Gospel reading from Luke 21. Jesus warned those who followed Him that a big part of the journey involved going against the grain, being singled out, and persecuted. We here in the comfy and civilized West, can have a hard time relating to these stories – as the only times we hear about serious religious persecution seem to come from far away places.

While it’s encouraging to think that modern society has evolved to a place of civil, religious tolerance – we can’t help but ponder the criticism Jesus’ words inspire: that the problem with Christianity today is that no one wants to persecute us. Standing up for the oppressed, the hurting, the starving, the marginalized – confronting economic systems and powers that make more people poor than rich, favor those who have enough, and take away from those who have too little – is controversial, unpopular, and uncomfortable stuff.

But if those who follow Jesus make their central goal avoiding persecution, can’t we also ask ourselves: how well are we really following Jesus?

In what ways are we being called to go against the grain, confront the powers that marginalize, stand up to bullies, and endure for the sake of what’s right – the cross? Jesus never said that following Him would be easy – but just the opposite - He promised us pain and heartache, when we do it right. But He also promised He would be with us, He would help us, and that we should never, ever forget, that the persecution doesn’t last forever - it gets better.

Reading

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work – Alaine de Botton

Changing the Conversation – Anthony B. Robinson

Strength for the Journey – Peter Gomes

All Saints Rising

2010-11-04T03:01:00.000-07:00

After buying tickets months in advance, getting to the show early, then waiting in line for half an hour to get in – that cringe of angst comes over us when the usher says, ‘Tickets please’ – and we suddenly remember that we left them on the dresser. We can’t get in. The drive home and back is too long. And there we are, stuck outside the doors we’d planned on being on the other side of - for months.

That’s how the most famous words of Jesus, the Beatitudes, often leave me. When I hear them, ‘Blessed are the poor, for yours is the Kingdom, Blessed are the hungry, for you will be filled,’ etc., I can’t help but think that they don’t fit - what’s needed to get in, I just don’t have – and it’s much too late for me to acquire it.

Many Western Christians feel this guilt, shame, and remorse – even though most of our circumstances were and are dictated by factors beyond our control. We beat ourselves up for not suffering more - for not being, poor, sorrowful, meek, and humble. Or we simply avoid thinking about it figuring that if we just live the best lives we can, we’ll be OK. We tend to take these harsh words as prescriptive of what we need to do to be God’s blessed people – but perhaps what we should be doing is looking at these words as descriptive instead: the Beatitudes tell us who God is and what heaven’s like. Both are accepting and comforting of those most in need – neither forgetting nor abandoning anyone at the end of life’s rope. Also, both are condemning, in the harshest of terms, of the hoarding, self-centered and uncharitable.

If they’re descriptive at all, the Beatitudes reinforce Jesus’ main understanding of who Christians are: Those who trust their lives and well being to loving and serving God and others over the long haul – as opposed to resting their hopes in the self-interested and short-lived gains of the present world. One of modern Christendom’s biggest challenges is getting over the guilt - of privilege, prosperity, and affluence - and getting on with the work we’re called to do. It’s about seeing the big picture. It’s about getting our minds on heaven. How might we put aside the guilt and embrace the call to follow Christ more sincerely and completely?

Reading

The Joys and Sorrows of Work – Alain de Botton

Radical – David Platt

Strength for the Journey – Peter Gomes

Breaking Out

2010-10-27T08:26:00.000-07:00

What’s holding us back?

What’s keeping us from moving?

What’s preventing us from discovering, reaching beyond, and breaking out?

There’s that flash of light.

It’s got our attention, even for a moment.

But it’s only a flash in the middle of the day - so quickly washed away and enveloped in the brighter lights that surround us.

So must it have been for Zacchaeus - that flash of light came to him.

But he did not let it go.

He would not let it go.

He dropped everything to move toward that light, and allow it to envelop him.

So Zacchaeus hurried up a tree.

He hurried down a tree.

He gave half his money to the poor.

He paid back the people he’d ripped off.

Jesus said salvation had come to his house.

Jesus had sent His light - and Zacchaeus let nothing in the world prevent him from finding it.

Jesus is still sending His light.

Every now and then it gets our attention.

It’s a flash in the middle of the day - that can be so quickly washed away.

But its desire is to be so much more.

It wants to envelop us – to fill us so completely with all the things for which we most deeply yearn.

It wants to make all the other lights around us become darkness.

What’s holding us back?

What’s keeping us from moving?

What’s preventing us from discovering, reaching beyond, and breaking out?

Reading:

Reimagining Detroit - John Gallagher

Unbinding the Gospel - Reese

God is Not Great - Hitchens

Lord Have Mercy

2010-10-21T03:15:00.000-07:00

It doesn’t take long before the new guy in the office to become the
center of attention. Some people will talk about how handsome he is
or isn’t. Some people will talk about how smart he is or isn’t. Some
people will engage in endless banter on the ties he wears, the lunches
he brings, or the looks he gives the receptionist. We will make
conscious or unconscious comparisons between him and us as we seek to
win the approval of peers – the lower our self-esteem, the more
critical we can be. It is the condemnation of others for the shoring
up of ourselves. It is the foundation and the joy of gossip.

As we all know, our shared tendency to define ourselves by defining
others is as destructive as it is unhealthy. It drives lepers into
colonies and gay teens to suicide - it is at the heart of bullying.
And at the center of this imprudent behavior can be a theological
conviction – that shapes the way we see the world.

In Luke 18 we hear the parable of a proud religious man who goes
into the temple to pray. He says, ‘God I thank you that I am not like
other people; thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like that tax
collector’ – for in another part of the temple stood a tax man, who
was also praying – but whose prayer contrasted quite starkly with the
religious man’s. All the taxman would say was, ‘God, be merciful to
me, a sinner!’

Jesus uses this story to say that the tax collector, not the
religious man, was in the right. We notice this man who refused to
use comparisons or put downs, or push himself up by beating others
down. Instead he centered his attentions on his own shortcomings and
failings.

As we talked about last week, it’s been said that there are two
types of prayer, ‘help’ and ‘thanks!’ However, here, Jesus reminds us
of a third, which may be more difficult, more important, and not
insignificant to the challenges Christians face today it’s the prayer:
‘Lord, have mercy.’ In a culture cacophonous with judgmental voices,
especially religious ones – we do well to remind ourselves that the
heart of Christianity is a gift – not discovered or improved upon by
our own activities – but by contrite recognition of our own
shortcomings before God. There is no reward in our feelings of
superiority, only in the discovery of God’s inconceivable mercy.

In what ways do we judge, gossip, and seek to put ourselves above
others? Why do we do it? And how can we make the prayer, ‘Lord have
mercy’ – our prayer?

Reading
The Sins of Scripture - John Spong
Reimagining Detroit - John Gallagher
A Stroke of Genius - Jill Bolte Taylor

Prayer

2010-10-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

They say there are two kinds of prayer: ‘thank you, thank you, thank you!’ and ‘Oh God, Help!’ The former bursts forth on those rare occasions of unbounded glee, the latter comes out during those hopefully rare moments of white-knuckle peril. When we’re honest with ourselves, many of us don’t spend near enough time between these two extremes doing what Jesus seems to expect from His followers in Luke 18 – that they, ‘pray always and not lose heart.’

Luke, more than any other Gospel writer tells us about prayer – about how we’re supposed to do it all the time and believe in its unwavering efficacy – if for no other reason, because Jesus did it – sometimes all night, and sometimes to the point of sweating blood. But how, and why do we moderns, who spend most of our waking hours working, driving, parenting, worrying, and generally trying to keep up with life, ‘pray always and never lose heart?’

Certainly Jesus didn’t expect us to take this literally, lest Christianity become a religion of hermits – or very bad drivers. What Jesus may have been getting at is that prayer is not so much an activity, as it is an attitude – an attitude that is formed by God when we spend time contemplating the mysteries, meditating on the promises, and simply talking to the One person who always wants to listen.

This doesn’t have to be done with formal liturgies, on kneelers, or even in quiet places. God knows we can pay attention to ball games in bars, certainly we can think about the Lord as our Shepherd in the subway. Jesus stresses the importance of prayer because it’s good for us. It reminds us of who’s in charge, who will take our burdens, and where life is ultimately destined to go. When we pray we remind ourselves, and God, or our positions in life – as the Lover and the Beloved – and how we’ve been made channels of that affection for all that surrounds us. These are the things that matter. This is why Jesus wants us to do it more often. Let’s take a moment this week and figure out a way to make prayer a more central part of our lives.

Reading
Enough – Adam Hamilton
Sins of Scripture – John Spong
Radical – David Platt

Hospitality

2010-10-06T07:08:00.001-07:00

Churches can think they're doing a great job at being hospitable, when, many times, they're not. Here's a parable, set in a coffee shop, urging us to be more mindful of our visitors.

Reading
Enough - Adam Hamilton
The Book of God - Walter Wanergin
Radical - David Platt

Got Faith?

2010-09-29T07:47:00.000-07:00

‘Got Faith?’ It was more than just a cheeky t-shirt slogan for Jesus’ excited disciples when they came to him in Luke 17 asking, ‘Increase our faith!’ But instead of laying hands on them, re-baptizing them, or teaching them a secret ‘faith prayer’ – Jesus said something we find curious, ‘If you had faith the size of a mustard seed you can tell a tree to plant itself in the sea, and it will.’

It’s a funny answer, and it’s a funny request.

Funny request, because as you and I have previously read in Luke, the disciples already had a lot of faith. In fact, they had pretty much turned into super heroes – In Luke 9 they had ministered to the multitudes - casting out demons, healing people. and their preaching had met with great success! What more ‘faith’ could the disciples want? What more could Jesus give? - which helps us understand Jesus’ answer.

When Jesus points out the amazing power of faith – that a mustard seed is all that’s needed to displace the elements – He’s not so much saying that it’s faith they don’t have – as much as he’s saying, it doesn’t take much of what they already have to do what they want to do.

Every day we go about our lives – living God’s life for us – and we find our fears threatening to over take us – will we get sick, lose our jobs, lose our houses, be bad parents, continue destructive habits – and we cry out, ‘Lord give us faith!’ What Jesus tells us is just what he told the disciples - we already have all we need to do what we’re supposed to do. Jesus lives inside of us. We have the ability to take whatever comes our way and live through it to the glory of God.

Jesus wants to affirm us, just as He did His disciples, that we need not be afraid of taking on what we’re being called to take on. We have the ability in us to be good workers, good parents, to lead Godly lives – we can get through our sicknesses, our unemployment and whatever catastrophe comes our way. It’s because we don’t walk alone. We don’t need a new book, a special prayer, or another seminar. We need to look to the One who dwells in our hearts – and concentrate on His presence and purpose for which He’s already given us more than enough faith.

Reading
Sins of Scripture – John Spong
Radical – David Platt
Wild Swans – Jung Chang

Sharing

2010-09-22T10:23:00.001-07:00

Who’s going to heaven and who’s going to hell?

In a nation fascinated with end times and the judgment day – that birthed the Millerites in the 1800’s and put the ‘Left Behind’ series atop of the New York Times bestseller list today – it can be easy for Americans to read one of the most popular parables in the Bible, the one about the Rich Man and Lazarus, and get so caught up in the eschatological details that its plain message becomes obscured.

Our desire to seek religions that clearly tell us who’s in and who’s out may be an expression of our fear. It may be our pride. It may be our lack of self-esteem. Or it may be our unconscious desire to preoccupy ourselves with conflict as a way of avoiding the difficult demands that Christ puts on us – not the least of which is the point of this parable: sharing.

This well-known story, unique to Luke, tells about a well-fed and well-dressed Rich Man, and a very poor, suffering man named Lazarus. The latter lay at the rich man’s gate while he sumptuously feasts on and ignores Lazarus. So after they both die, Lazarus is in heaven and the Rich Man is in hell. We note the freaky features of this arrangement; the two are able to talk but not visit, the great patriarch Abraham is readily on call to chat, and not a pitcher, bucket or cold water hose is preferred as relief from hell’s fires, but a finger dab of water will do just fine.

Libraries full of imaginative speculation and theological generalization about heaven, hell, and judgment have emerged from these details, but precious little gets hammered home about the main point. The Rich Man was condemned for being indifferent to the plight of the poor. With more than enough opportunity, but not nearly enough concern for his neighbor, the Rich Man found himself in unbearable suffering. While some take this literally, others metaphorically, Jesus seems to be saying that the place this indifference takes us is not a happy one.

This week, as world leaders and aid workers flocked to the United Nations to give glowing updates on the Millennium Development Goals, we are reminded that the Lazarus’ of the world are still sitting outside our gates. And the Church has no option. We are not a body of indifference, but a body of hope, the Body of Christ, called to plunge itself deeper into the center of the world’s suffering and anguish, where the rich see, hear and share. In what ways are we fighting back indifference and heeding the voices of those laying outside our gates?

Reading
Radical – David Platt
Wild Swans – Jung Chang
My Stroke of Insight – Jill Bolte Taylor

A Wise Investment

2010-09-14T13:34:00.000-07:00

The atheists who once lived next door used to say that Christianity is one of the poorest investments anyone can make. You awaken each morning to pore over an incomprehensible book and talk to an invisible friend, tie up hours a week in frivolous fellowship, and give away 10% of your income. Life is short, why waste so much on fairy tales and worthless investments?

For them, Sunday’s Gospel reading, and the Parable of the Dishonest Manager, holds great appeal. A corrupt caretaker learns he’s getting canned so he cuts deals with customers further shafting his boss, yet endearing this embezzler to his clients who, we gather, will return the favor down the road. Smart cookie. I guess there’s one Bible story worth reading.

While I share with my neighbors a great deal of their appreciation and interpretation, we would take different turns at the fork when we compare our notions of wealth and its purpose.

For Christians, our wealth lies in things not seen – love, relationships, honesty, reputation, community, peace, hope, and resurrection – we have nothing more valuable than these. We understand Jesus to be commending the proper use of money when it’s invested in these things, like the ones our dishonest manager chose; relationships, community building, and bolstering his master’s reputation (after all, how much would we love our credit card company if it cut our bill in half?).

Like fish in water, you and I are surrounded by notions that our wealth is really in something else; the things we can see, our cars, homes, IRAs, jewelry and pantries. All too often I fail to remember that this wealth is best used to build the other kind of wealth – the things I cannot see - and truly value. Yes we, like the dishonest manager, need to use all of our resources to secure our future. How can we invest the things we see in the things we don’t see? In what ways are we investing too much in this life, which is temporary and passing away, and not enough in the Kingdom of God, which is eternal and coming into being?

Reading
A Stroke of Insight – Jill Bolte Taylor
Radical – David Platt
Luke – N.T. Wright

Saving Sheep

2010-09-08T08:54:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while we get the chance to really dislike someone. Maybe they are famously discourteous, like Simon Cowell. Maybe they give the impression of being spoiled, dim-witted and egotistical, like Paris Hilton. Or maybe they have done enormously hurtful things, like Kim Jong Il. However history shows that if we really want to inspire loathing, there should be an element of religion in the mix. Perhaps that’s why we’re so incensed at Florida pastor Terry Jones.

Jones is the small church pastor in Gainesville who plans to burn 200 copies of the Koran in front of his church on Saturday. He has been denigrated and criticized by nearly everyone. The White House, the Secretary of State, and the military say it’s a stupid idea that will inspire Anti-American violence and harm U.S. soldiers. Muslims have threatened Jones’ life. And Christians have urged Jones to cancel the event, and asked him to see what he’s doing in the light of the Gospel as brainless, divisive, incendiary, and hateful.

Yet Jones is (at least at the time of this writing) standing firm in his conviction that he is called by God to burn the holy books, to send ‘Radical Islam’ a message, and to carry out his understanding of the Christian faith. We can call him what we want, but at the very least Pastor Jones is a lost sheep.

This Sunday we will hear the Gospel story of Jesus welcoming sinners and outcasts as pious religious leaders look on and grumble. Jesus tells a story of a shepherd who loses a sheep, leaves 99 alone in the wilderness, and goes off to search. The shepherd is so happy to find his missing sheep that he calls his friends to celebrate. The implication being that Jesus came, not to impress the religious, but to go to incredible lengths to save the lost.

After all, a lost sheep is one who has, for whatever reason, wandered away from the flock. Perhaps they weren’t paying attention, got distracted, or were ambushed by an enemy. A lost sheep may be content on its own and not even know its lost, for a season, but it is in a sheep’s nature to ultimately want to go back home - to be with the flock, the shepherd, and a place of security and warmth.

Despite Pastor Jones’ twisted theology and dangerous practice, when we ask the question, ‘What Would Jesus Do?,’ we cannot doubt that the Lord would drop everything to find a lost pastor, hug him when he found him, and throw a party for him when he got home. This is not to say Christians should hold their tongues and passively stand by as Pastor Jones spreads his hateful convictions. Christians must stand up and set the record straight. However, we must do so in love, remembering that just as God is more merciful than judgmental, God’s followers must be also. It is quite a temptation to join in on this feeding frenzy, but we must remember that just as the world watches Pastor Jones’ actions, it also sees Christendom’s reactions. Pastor Jones’ enemy is radical Islam, which he is choosing to attack. Our enemy is the Pastor Jones’ of the world, who we must choose to love.

Reading
My Stroke of Insight – Dr. Jill Taylor
Wild Swans – Jung Chang
The Four Day Work Week – Timothy Ferriss

The Everyday Adventure

2010-09-01T08:41:00.000-07:00

Imagine we’re involved in a plane crash in the snowy mountains. We survivors on one side of the mountain suspect there are injured passengers on the other. A doctor organizes a search party over the dangerous, blizzardy terrain and says in order to come you’ll have to leave behind your family, your possessions, and realize there are no guarantees of comfort, safety or even survival.

In this scenario it’s not hard to understand Jesus’ terse words to his disciples in this Sunday’s Gospel reading, after all, Jesus is headed to Jerusalem to take on the most important work in the world. He says that in order to follow we must have a willingness to put our families in subordination to the Gospel, a commitment to self-denial by taking up our cross, and then we have to give up all of our possessions. We wince at the idea of following through with this, and we suspect that the vast majority of Christians throughout history haven’t been able to do it either.

Then we remember that the vast majority of Christians haven’t plucked out their eyes or cut off their hands when they’ve sinned either. Yes, there is a fair amount of hyperbole going on here, which, through the years has not been helpful to the Christian cause. It has been fairly argued that the language of cross bearing has been corrupted by overuse. It’s got little to do with severing family ties, willfully seeking out suffering, or seeking to live in squalor. Carrying the cross is what we do voluntarily as a consequence of our commitment to Jesus.

Sure, our everyday life with Christ is not the adventure it was for the early disciples, but, our commitment to voluntarily follow – to offer up all we are and all we do – opens up this same world of possibility. This means mothers and grandmothers who work hard to provide and care for kids and spouses, your dedication to the Christian virtues of devotion, commitment, and loving-kindness do not go unnoticed. On this Labor Day weekend we remind ourselves that our work as accountants, teachers, engineers, salesmen, lawyers, doctors, bus drivers, librarians, musicians and retirees is our way of offering the whole of our lives to Christ, and offer their own unique opportunities for us to carry the cross. How we conduct our everyday lives matters a whole lot to God and makes a difference in the world.

Name the crosses we’re facing in our vocation. In what ways can we bear them as Christ would?

Reading
Genesis – Karen Armstrong
Wild Swans – Jung Chang
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work – Alaine de Botton

Kingdom Etiquette

2010-08-26T08:19:00.000-07:00

There we were, just in from the wedding, standing in line at the reception hall to pick up that cute little pink and white placeholder – the one with our calligraphied names on it, and with a little number next to it. Of course the number never means anything. As we all know, given the varied constellations reception table arrangements take, table number one could be next to the kitchen and table 17 might be the head table.

So we walk into the hall trying to find the table numbers, which usually fight a losing battle with the centerpieces, but after a few minutes of scouting, there it is! Hmmm, we wonder, how close is it to the head table? The bar? The restrooms? What’s it mean to be assigned to sit at this table and not another? Then, who else is at the table? Is it empty? Will it stay empty? Who’s going to join us - The Cool Cats, or someone’s smelly uncle? And what were they thinking by putting us with them?

Few social customs have withstood the test of time, remaining just as tricky for the ancients as they are for us, as that delicate business of who sits where! Ask any bride, mother of the bride or wedding consultant and they will tell you how stressful making seating assignments can be. Where one sits shows status and power. It denotes accessibility, social rank, and affection. Arranging seats at a big dinner is much more than simply putting people in chairs.

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading Jesus uses table etiquette to say something important about God. Jesus is invited to dinner at a religious leader’s house. He notices the guests jostling for the best seats and he makes a few comments. First, when you’re invited to dinner don’t assume you’re better than anyone else. And second, when you invite others to dinner, don’t assume they’re better than anyone else.

It’s not that Jesus wants to do away with class, rank and stature – it’s that He wants to put it all in context. One of humanity’s primal struggles is with significance. Our deepest, most strenuous endeavors have to do with our desire to see ourselves and our children do better, be better, and succeed. God knows this – and we forget this. We fail to realize that no one wants better for us than the Lord. As the Psalmist says, the Lord rejoices in the joy of His children.

Jesus is telling us that this joy is not found in social climbing and class jumping, no matter what the Real Housewives of Paducah have to say about it. It is found in God, where the kingdom etiquette of generosity, humility, charity, and altruism trump political cunning and self-promotion. The struggle for earthly status is a fool’s errand, especially when it keeps us from cultivating kingdom etiquette.

So we ask ourselves, how are we nurturing the values of generosity, humility and self-giving? In what ways can we work to value and respect the dignity of every human being?

Reading
What Every Church Member Should Know about Poverty – Ehlig/Payne
Changing the Conversation – Anthony Robinson
Wild Swans – Jung Chang

Shock Therapy

2010-08-19T08:08:00.001-07:00

I once called a radio talk show. It was a religious show so I thought I was in for a rather balanced, civil conversation even though my contribution was sure to differ from the opinions of the host. After a few minutes on hold I was live on the show, albeit a few seconds delay (was it in case my language needed to be censored? How many people called into Christian talk shows planning to use the Seven Dirty Words?!?).

No sooner had I begun making my point when the host cut me off, began criticizing and telling me just how off base my comments were. He had not finished listening to me, nor did he allow a rebuttal before he thanked me for calling and hung up. What became clear in the exchange was the role of callers in talk radio – secular or religious. We are the stooges, the patsies, the pawns. The hosts are the manipulators, the attention-getters and the shockers who simply use callers to make their points and bolster their images to entertain and attract the vast majority of listeners who, wisely, never call in but who do listen to the commercials.

This Sunday we will hear the story of Jesus healing a crippled woman – in order to make a point let’s call her the stooge. The stage is set, on the Sabbath in the synagogue, packed with people, regular Jews looking to hear Jesus and at least one religious leader looking for a way to object. This is when Jesus calls on this poor woman who has been crippled for 18 years. She does not ask to be cured nor present herself for healing. Jesus simply pulls her out of the crowd knowing very clearly what day it is and who’s watching.

In the exchange that follows, the woman is cured, the religious leader objects to healing on the Sabbath, and Jesus says just as you will untie a donkey to water it today I have untied this woman and given her living water that has made her whole. This is when we begin to see that Jesus the Shocker, has used this woman to make a much larger point. Jesus has come to unbind not just this women, but all of Israel. Jesus has come to unbind a people, a nation, you and me.

As we see in this story the existing power structures and religious frameworks don’t make this easy. Despite all of his training and devotion, this synagogue leader does not recognize that God is standing right in front of him. This religious man would rather see the afflicted woman continue to suffer, the multitude of religious rules that penalize the poor stay in place, and his religion go unchanged. For the one thing the religious establishment must accept – Jesus’ message and Lordship – is the very thing it will not accept.

Even though Jesus has tried reasoning, healing and miracles, he does not give up. On this day He tries shock therapy. Jesus takes them by the shoulders and tries to shake some sense into them. He so desperately wants people to see what’s really happening. What will it take them to leave behind the comforts of their old system and embrace something better – something new?

How about us? Jesus sometimes uses shock therapy - for we too are stuck in religious systems that limit and bind. The North American church somehow goes to sleep each night knowing a billion people are hungry, women make 75 cents on the dollar, and the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. Jesus has tried reasoning with us, even the miraculous. How might He be trying to shock us into embracing a new reality? How might the dramatic situations that we have seen been used to form us? And how might the Lord be using them now?

Reading
Rediscovering Values – Jim Wallis
Unbinding the Gospel – Martha Grace Reese
Changing the Conversation – Anthony Robinson

Was Jesus Sent to Annoy You?

2010-08-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

This Sunday in church many of us are going to hear Jesus say some very strange and unusual things. He’s angry. And he almost seems to be shouting when He says, “Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” He says family members and households will be divided. Then he yells at his audience for not understanding that this is a big part of what He is about.

The notion that Jesus came to upset me upsets me.

One reason I choose to follow Christ is because of the peace I’ve experienced – through prayer, meditation, and at church – after all, He’s called ‘The Prince of Peace.’ But there is a side to the Journey that is all about exasperation, irritation, and annoyance.

I’m annoyed when people ask me to give more. They need more time, more money, more of me. And I’d rather... not.

I’m annoyed when my friends get together to dish the dirt and just when I’m ready to chime in that little voice inside my head says, ‘Nope...’

I’m annoyed when I see that thing that I want finally on sale at that place that I love and I wonder if I really should be racking up more debt when there are hungry and hurting people all over the place?

The notion that following Jesus leads to annoyance - even division and strife - is no better seen than in the Civil Rights struggle, when Martin Luther King, Jr., locked up in a Birmingham jail wrote a long letter defending his struggle – and it wasn’t addressed to white supremacists, but to a different set of antagonists: his fellow pastors. The work Jesus wants to do in us and in our world cannot come about without upsetting our personal moral order, as well as the larger status quo. Jesus didn't get executed because he made too many fish sandwiches. He died because He was just too annoying.

How is Jesus annoying you today? And what’s it mean?

Reading
Changing the Conversation – Anthony Robinson
Rediscovering Values – Jim Wallis
Bodies at Motion and at Rest – Thomas Lynch

Where Your Treasure Is...

2010-08-03T08:42:00.000-07:00

After spending half the night worried about my job, my home value, my IRA, my last checkup – finally I opened the Bible to this Sunday’s Gospel reading and got some relief! “Do not be afraid,” Jesus says. And I feel like I’ve been heard – l am not alone in this thing, God cares for me! What’s more Jesus comes right out and tells me what God’s will is: it’s to have it all, “for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” God doesn’t want me in pain, suffering or want – it’s not all a test – it’s about God loving me and taking care of me better than I can ever imagine taking care of my own child.

So I’ve ordered the cake and the ice cream and I’m blowing up the balloons when it dawns on me: What do I do now that I’ve inherited this kingdom? Jesus is speaking here to his disciples – of which I am one – so what are disciples supposed to do? This leads me to the next line in the reading – which takes all the air out of my balloons: “Sell your possessions and give alms.”

Are you kidding me? If you want me to stop worrying then pay off my mortgage and credit cards, get me a new car, and fully fund my IRA! How could you possibly ask me to cash out when what I really need is cash in?

All summer HBO is running a documentary called ‘Lucky.’ It’s a compendium of stories about various people who win the lottery. Some live the life they’ve always dreamed of. Some give it all away. Some spend it as quickly as they got it and end up with nothing. One of the winners sums it all up when he says this, “Winning the lottery is like throwing Miracle Gro on your character – everything is magnified.”

This passage is about changing our character. If we can’t balance a budget on $50,000 a year, we won’t be able to balance a budget on $500,0000 a year. If we are not generous on $30,000 per year we won’t be generous with $3 million per year. What keeps us from being generous and kind is not what’s in our bank account, it’s what’s in our hearts, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Jesus’ call to discipleship is to drop all the worry about what we’ll eat, where we’ll live and what we’ll do for work. God is on that. God has it covered. What Jesus wants is to get our eyes off of the idols that clutter our lives and realize that we’ve already got what we’re most actively striving for. Accumulating things is dangerous – it’s not that we have the possession, but that the possession can always have us. We're asked to make our treasure the pursuit of God and set our hearts upon that for this is the best strategy against the worries that keep us up at night.

Reading:
Changing the Conversation – Anthony Robinson
The Appeal – John Grisham
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides

Wildly Disheartening

2010-07-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

Here's another reason North American Christianity is in decline - John Eldredge's 'revised and expanded' Wild at Heart - a free copy of which was furnished by the publisher for review on this blog. This me-centered, fringe interpretation of the Christian Gospel aims to bring men back to the faith by reclaiming the 'real' message of the Bible, which apparently had gotten away from us for a few millennia. The book's overwhelming drawback is its misunderstanding of adventure and human fulfillment. Eldredge's take has its roots in his fundamentalist piety and its Himalayan peak: a deeply personal ongoing and inner experience with Jesus. Eldredge blatantly ignores the main Gospel message which is outwardly focussed - it is mainly about giving, not getting - giving ourselves up to engage in the mission of Christ and the healing of the world.

I'd first heard of this book when it was mentioned in a New Yorker article, then again in Wikipedia. Apparently its Spanish translation is used as a textbook for the notorious Mexican drug cartel/cult La Familia. It is attractive to them, and to many North Americans (more than 500,000 copies of the original edition sold, published 10 years ago) because it is 'muscular Christianity.' It is not 'be nice' Christianity which, in Eldredge's mind equals 'boring' Christianity. Rather Eldredge wants to show us the 'He man' Jesus who knocks over tables in the Temple and tells Peter that carrying a sword is OK (Luke 22:36). What Eldredge neatly skirts is the main message of Jesus and his blatant pacifism. Jesus did not complete His work by mustering a militia, calling down scores of armed angels to beat back the Romans, or by punching Pilate. Rather Jesus went by the name 'Prince of Peace' for good reason. Violence, aggression, and anger are of the most limited vocabulary in Jesus' dictionary - however Eldredge would have us believe they are Christianity's long buried headline. Nowhere does the author mention the ban the early Christians put on military participation as a requirement for conversion. Rather Eldredge goes the other way, condoning the use of weapons, swords, knives and guns, even at one point claiming that women emasculate men by not letting boys learn to shoot guns. (p. 67 )

Eldredge seems to ignore one of the central claims of the Bible - that the heart of man is desperately wicked - this is not to be celebrated, or even toyed with but understood that urging men to kindle their base feelings of anger, aggression, retaliation and conflict is downright dangerous when the goal is to build Christian character. His twisted theology, then, finds heroes in World War II soldiers and movie characters - who seem to dominate the book - and not the real 'men' of contemporary Christianity who did the more difficult work of avoiding and healing conflict like John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., or Desmond Tutu.

Of course, these men would not be widely accepted heroes to Eldredge's conservative flock, like his neatly divided notion of human sexuality certainly is. Eldredge makes it clear that we are born either male (who desire only females) or female (who desire only males). The recent row over female track athlete Semenya Caster which brought to light the ambiguity surrounding sex determination is a notion certainly ignored by this crowd, as are the millions of gay Christians in North America - of course they would not be considered Christians by these folk and would not be reading much of this book anyway.

My brother John Eldredge does a wonderful job reminding us that the Christian life is the world's great adventure. However he does great injustice by assuming that adventure ends with personal fulfillment in a Macho Jesus. The Gospel is not about us - it is about God and God's mission to save the world. The greatest adventure is found in giving our lives away - standing up for the oppressed, fighting racism, ending poverty and hunger. Eldredge paints the picture of the 'real man' as one who climbs a mountain or fights a bear when it's the real man who does something about the 2 billion people who get by on $2 a day or less. It's the real man who learns how to avoid fights and practice peacemaking.

The wild popularity of this book feeds into the wild individualism that has crept into the Church and made it as irrelevant as it is today. A generation ago our Christian bookstores primarily contained commentaries and exegetical studies to help people more deeply understand the Christ of the Bible. Now they are nothing more than self-help stores mainly kept afloat by fundamentalists where this book was bound to be a bestseller.

Martha, Martha...

2010-07-14T07:48:00.000-07:00

Every day I greet the morning the same way billions of other people do – with hope and a prayer. Through the rising mists of my pre-dawn consciousness I offer a vague invitation to the Almighty to take me, take the day, come inside and be present.

And then I get up and go about my business.

As a professional Christian (someone who gets paid to do this), the day has started well before I have. There are hospital patients to hunt down, volunteers to corner, sermons to bootleg, couples to talk down off ledges, sages to memorialize and screaming babies to baptize – do you want to hear more?

The invitation that started my day has become more ritual than real world - piety not verity – I have opened the door for the Guest then promptly left Him all alone in the living room.

Yes, it’s the Martha/Mary syndrome that we will hear all about in this Sunday’s Gospel. We know the story, Martha invites Jesus in, then gets so caught up in the work of hospitality (ever wonder if her last name was Stewart?) that she turns into a whiny tattletale – complaining to Jesus that her sister won’t help… wah, wah, wah. Jesus stays cool and points out it’s not her, but her sister who’s spending the time most productively. Zing.

It’s a lesson that speaks volumes to Christians of all times who have fallen victim to doing so much for God that we forget about God.

In this A.D.D. age, when our skills of attentiveness, concentration and discipline are more challenged than ever, we do well to ask ourselves what we really meant when we invited Him in in the first place? If we’re going to welcome our Guest, ought we not pay proper attention? What keeps us from doing so? How might we brush aside the distractions and be more attentive to the Holy Presence that’s right next to us?

Reading:
Wild at Heart – John Elredge
Mountain Reign – Joe Lacy
The 4-Hour Workweek – Timothy Ferriss

Being a Neighbor

2010-07-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

I have a friend who gives really over the top Christmas presents to people she barely knows. As the holiday season approaches she spends hours poring over catalogs and roaming the aisles of some pretty high-end stores. She buys ties and games and dresses and belts and electronics – you name it. She carefully considers everyone on her list and does her best to buy the most thoughtful, appropriate, and generous gifts she can. When she gets home, she painstakingly wraps them in the most attractive (and expensive) papers and tissues and ribbons she can find – no store-bought wrapping for her. Then she puts on the nametags. Some presents go to her kids, others go to friends and co-workers, and there’s always a fair number that sit carefully wrapped up and ready for pick up by the mailman, the newspaper guy and snowplow man. While acknowledging the overtones of self-interest that influence every aspect of our gift giving, I figured my friend was simply trying to impress people when I asked her why these great gifts were going to near-strangers. I’ll never forget her immediate and sincere response: she was trying to love her neighbor as herself.

Giving great gifts to those we love happens all the time. Giving great gifts to those we hardly know is rare. What impressed me about my friend was the sheer practicality of it all – how she brought this Good Samaritan lesson down to earth. ‘Loving your neighbor as yourself’ has always been one of those grandiose, BHAG goals that perhaps goes without deep reflection because of its octopi complexity. But my friend’s Christmas giving made me think. How might I bring this most important of all Christian commandments down to size?

I walked into my backyard to turn on the sprinkler and thought about ways I could water my neighbor’s parched lawn. I went to the supermarket where I walked up and down the aisles thinking about my neighbors, downtown, who don’t have enough to eat. I passed the basket at church thinking about all of the people who look to my church for strength to get through their lives.

One of the most stark expositions of this commandment is offered by St. Paul who opines in Philippians 2:3-4, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” How might we take the spotlight off of ourselves and shine it on others? What one practical thing can I do today to be a neighbor?

Reading
The Prophets (Vol. I and II) – Abraham Heschel
Blood and Thunder – Hampton Sides
Wild at Heart – John Eldredge

We Are the 70!

2010-06-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

Bolstered by our baptisms – strengthened by the Sacraments - sent forth in faith! To the far off and the far flung! Off to every place where he himself intends to go -for there is no place where He isn’t!
He’s in our car drive, our food drive and our hard drive

Look at the fields! So ripe for harvest! There they are, peeking out through the unstable soils of these lost and disorienting times –
Did anybody really think a Russian spy might live next door?
That a high-ranking general would give the benefit of the doubt to Rolling Stone?
Or that Larry King would ever retire?

So there they are! Thrusting forth gentle shoots seeking truth and stability and a peace which passeth all understanding. Bearing a countenance of innocence - of the just-born, beaming with new inquiry reaching for the heavens – stretching and searching for nourishment, fulfillment and the answers to life’s most pressing questions.

“Off to the fields!” is the command, as we pair up, two by two – forming a community just like God’s - community personified, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We cast off worries about where we will stay, what we will wear, what we will eat, and how we will ever be able to do such a thing – for the One who sends us knows what we need well before we do. Consider the lilies.

Then, surprise, surprise, success!
We are welcomed beyond our wildest dreams!
And when evil, doubt, and distress are sent packing our churches fill up, we break ground for another addition, and build a steeple that touches the sky. Then we are reminded that this is not our reward. For the One who sent us does not pay us with property or cash, always subject to foreclosures and Great Recessions. But we are paid back by something we already have.

The message is clear: rejoice. Cast off the worries, refuse to glory in anything more than the Promises, and keep our eyes peeled on those endless waves of golden grain.

Reading
Explosive Preaching - Ron Boyd-MacMillan
Healing Light - Agnes Sanford
The Slate Roof Bible -Joseph Jenkins

7 Habits to Feed Your Spiritual Life this Summer

2010-06-21T05:45:00.000-07:00

Deciding to get more serious with spiritual life? Looking for some good habits to bring you closer to The Light? Wanting to draw closer to Jesus? Thanks to an old pal from Seminary days, Scotsman Ron Boyd MacMillan, who offers a form of these to preachers, but they're helpful to all of us who are looking to jump start our spiritual lives.

1) Make up your own 'daily liturgy.' No matter what your Christian heritage, you have a certain way of organizing your daily quiet time, why not begin your renewal by mixing it up a bit? Sure it'll contain the usual bits, Confession, Praise, Reading, Praying etc., but set it out in your own words - perhaps including poetry, fine art contemplation and meditation on sacred music. Write it down, give it a go, adjust as necessary.

2) Write down a 'verse of the week' and meditate on it for seven days. Choose a text that has made a particular impression on you. Use a notebook or PDA to jot it down and return to it frequently throughout the week ruminating on why it has particular resonance with you at the moment.

3) Find suffering people to teach you the faith. When Jesus said 'the poor will always be with you' he very well could have been saying that the mark of Christ-followers is that they will recognize the value of 'the least of these' in becoming better Christians. Henri Nouwen had L'Arche, Mother Teresa had her homes for the dying. I regularly visit a homeless shelter. Don't do this to feel good about yourself for volunteering - you'll miss the point - but learn how they rejoice in their sufferings, how they gain Christ in the midst of pain. Encounter the suffering and you will get to know how the Christian faith works.

4) Read a great book each week. Find a reading list of great books and work your way through it. Sure, start with the Christian classics, but include the great books of the world. Also, at the very least carve out an hour a week to do this. Intentionally say you are going to get through the book in that time period and you will be amazed at how much you can remember even if you have to skim parts of it.

5) Take time to write. Even if it's 20 minutes a week. Even if it's just a paragraph. But choose a subject - an encounter with the book you just read, Scripture, a neighbor, your significant other and ask yourself these questions: How did the Lord speak through ________? What might God be trying to who me through it? You will be amazed at what fruit this can yield.

6) Find a phylactery. Maybe it's a rosary, maybe it's a pocket cross - one rabbi keeps a piece of paper in each pocket, one that says 'I'm a desperately wicked sinner' and the other that says 'I'm a beloved child of God.' Yes, the body often forgets God which is why a tangible memento can be so valuable. What would yours be? What might it say?

7) Build yourself a cell. Sure the contemporary 'man cave' may not be an update of the monk's cell, but the idea's the same; to find a retreat from the pressures around us. With the fast pace we're all pretty much forced to keep, we can lose sight of the fact that we serve a 3 mile per hour God (that's the pace of an average walker - remember, Jesus walked). Your cell can be a hut in the garden or a corner in a room, but make it a time of nothing but silence. You'll only share your cell with one other - the Lord. Use this time to listen, not for the earthquake, the fire, or the wind - but the stillness of God's presence. Out of this kind of practice unparalleled inspirations appear.

Summer: Time to Consider Change

2010-06-16T17:13:00.000-07:00

For many of us summertime is the best time of year: vacations, free time, catching up on reading, home maintenance, videos, sports, gardening and friendships. We finally get a break from our increasingly complicated, busy and changing world. It’s time to recharge our batteries (re-creation). And I would suggest we also take some time to look at some ways we can remain steady and even flourish in our increasingly chaotic society – that we might learn anew how to grow in our Christian faith and make significant progress in Christ’s work of reconciling all things to Him.

First, let’s take some time this summer to consider, or reconsider, our relationships with technology and new media – the Internet, Facebook, blogs, Twitter and wireless communications. As we all know human knowledge is increasing exponentially. Our brains and our waking hours are not. How do we keep up with it all? How do we manage this information in ways that feed, inform and nourish us rather than confusing, frightening and frustrating us? Information technologies help us do that. They help us search, retrieve, collect and manage this new information like nothing else. While critics bemoan these innovations as brain-altering and attention-span-shortening, this is not the case. As Harvard’s Stephen Pinker argues, “Far from making us stupid, these technologies are the only things that will keep us smart.”

Second, let’s take some time to look at how we’re honing the skills we need to keep steady – like self-discipline, self-control, and concentration. While distraction is nothing new, we have more things by which to be distracted and those same skills we learned in grade school - of organization, prioritizing and boundary-setting - are becoming more and more valuable. Temptation is taking on new forms. The solution is not to demonize technology, but to put it in its place. Only check email at certain times of the day. Turn off Twitter when you work, put the cell phone away at dinner. It is much less productive to criticize iPads and Google Voice than it is to hone our skills of critical thinking, deep reflection and intellectual rigor.

Third, let’s do some thinking about ‘change’ - life’s only constant. We rarely like change because it means we take on something new and trade in the old. And many of us liked the old. So with change there is loss, grief and often, conflict. It is both bittersweet and inevitable. But change also means possibility. When we welcome change we open ourselves to new things that may fulfill us in ways we never dreamed of. The Scriptures describe God as a 'consuming fire' which paints a picture of morphing movement, drama, and uniqueness. So change means acknowledging and grieving the loss, then handling the conflict, before finally assessing the new landscape and deciding how best to fit in, chart a new course, and open ourselves to newness.

Finally, let’s take this summer to reaffirm the greatest asset Christians bring to a changing landscape, perhaps best put by St. Matthew when he quotes Jesus’ final words, “And remember I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 29:19) We do not sail through uncharted waters alone. Someone has gone before us and remains with us. In the midst of the swirling chaos that surrounds, we have peace and Presence. It is a Presence that has a plan, and is working in amazing ways to bring it to fruition. So relax, we go through this storm griping a steady hand. And we ask ourselves how we might more deeply cling to the peace of Christ, the conviction that Jesus is at work in and around us, and more intentionally focus on how He is asking us to be His hands and feet in a broken world, in deep need of healing.

Reading:
Can Our Church Live? – Alice Mann
Explosive Preaching – Ronald Boyd-MacMillan
Healing Light – Agnes Sanford

I Love You Just the Way You Are

2010-06-10T06:52:00.000-07:00

When you look in the mirror do you absolutely love what you see? Are you satisfied with every aspect of who you are? Have you finally reached perfection?

Of course not.

We all spend the majority of our time and resources trying to improve ourselves. Many of us want to live healthier, get smarter, look better, make more money, and push ourselves into newness - discovering and fulfilling our deepest beings.

One of the things that compels us is our dissatisfaction with what we see in the mirror. It can drive us to do devastating things (as illustrated in the above photo, courtesy of a bulimia foundation). The theological pothole this can create is it can alter our understanding of God’s love. Since we are not satisfied with who we are, we can think that God isn’t either. We forget that God loves us just as we are, not as we should be.

We see this in Sunday’s Gospel when Jesus is having dinner at a Pharisee’s house and a ‘sinner’ comes to the door. She is obviously enamored with Jesus. She washes his feet with tears, dries them with her hair, and anoints him with perfume. Jesus’ host objects. He doesn’t understand what’s motivated her – that it’s the miraculous revelation that God loves her just as she is. Despite her sins and shortcomings God is willing to forgive and accept her for who she is.

The Pharisee, who is the one I most resemble, is stuck in the erroneous thinking that God somehow favors him because he does religious things – dressing, talking, socializing, praying and behaving in certain ways. We do well to remember a former Archbishop of Canterbury’s wise words, ‘It is a great mistake to believe that God is chiefly interested in religion.’

What God is chiefly interested in is love. In loving you, me and all of creation relentlessly, completely, and unceasingly. God is chiefly interested in healing, restoring and reconciling. This is what Jesus did and who Jesus is. Faced with this reality, what would we do if Jesus suddenly appeared before us? And what do we do knowing that Christ is present - especially in the needy and marginalized around us?

Reading
Can Your Church Live? – Alice Mann
Miracles of Kathryn Kuhlman – Harold Castroph
In Memoriam: A Guide to Modern Funeral and Memorial Services – Edward Searl

The Blessings of Church Size

2010-06-03T05:40:00.000-07:00

It’s been said that the person who belongs to a small church lives in a much larger world. Seeing the same people week after week leads to friendships, many times with folk whom we wouldn’t ordinarily get to know – indeed, whom we might initially have so little in common with that we would’ve never met anyplace other than at church. This diversity can be rewarding. It can open our minds and make us deeper, more thoughtful and less rigid human beings.

Small congregations force us to get along with one another. They compel us to understand where other people are coming from and civilly settle our differences, which can be of immense value in the larger world.

Small congregations keep us accountable. You can’t miss too many Sundays before someone calls or drops by just to make sure everything’s OK. We think twice about skipping Sunday services – not just because we miss out on worship, but because of the people who will be disappointed if we’re not there.

Large churches get this - as attested by their emphasis on small groups. In fact, the biggest trend in the mega-church world is multi-site congregations – the establishment of much smaller satellite campuses that promote intimacy and closer relationships.

The Episcopal Church is a small church haven. 80% of our congregations host 150 people or less on Sunday mornings. The vast majority of Episcopalians are converts (70%), and a great many of us came from much larger churches. Many of us joined because of the size. We realize we are created for relationships. We were made for deep, intimate and sacred relationship, not just with the Lord, but with each other. Christianity isn’t just about me and Jesus. It’s about me and Jesus and you.

This is not to say that small churches are meant to stay small. The Great Commission teaches otherwise, plus we were created to grow in all sorts of ways. Some churches grow and stay together, others plant new congregations so that size remains manageable. The key is to understand our community, whatever the present size may be, as a gift from God to draw us all closer to the Lord. In what ways do we take advantage of our size to build the kinds of relationships, with Jesus and others, that might draw us closer to Him?

Reading
Can Your Church Live? - Alice Mann
Blood and Thunder - Hampton Sides
The Heart of Christianity - Marcus Borg

The Most Adventuresome Day

2010-05-26T07:58:00.000-07:00

Easter and Pentecost are gone and while we may have earned a well-deserved summer vacation, Mother Church is saying, ‘Not so fast…’ Hey, the temperatures are warmer (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) and we’re downright tempted to do what the mice do when the cat’s away (leave at 3:15), but that’s just not going to happen yet - we’ve got Trinity Sunday this weekend.

For the uninitiated, Trinity Sunday may seem like the Church’s annual exercise in futility – it’s when preachers mount pulpits and take their best stab at explaining the unexplainable: who is God? The best two thousand years of Christendom have been able to do is come up with an idea we call ‘The Trinity’ – one God in three roles or offices or persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What this means is that Sunday’s feast is the only day of the year when we ponder a teaching of the Church rather than a teaching of Jesus (the word Trinity is actually not found in the Bible).

And while taking a stab at answering an unanswerable question certainly seems pointless, I think this is actually one of the more important feasts of the year. After all, if we never attempted to climb unclimbable mountains, build impossible buildings or swim impassable rivers we would not be all that we were created to be. This is the most adventuresome day of the year for Christians as we ponder the “Is-ness” of God – the very being of God.

Like our Jewish ancestors, we realize this can be dangerous. We resist making images of God (statues and the like) because we don’t want to violate the second commandment. So we go for metaphor, ‘God is like…’ which can be helpful (God is like a chord made up of three individual notes...). However, we soon realize that whatever proofs, formulas or explanations we can drum up fall short. If God exists outside of Creation then how can we attempt to understand Him (or Her) by using only those things available within Creation? What’s more, for any ‘proof’ to be valid necessitates the neutrality of the observer, which is simply not possible.

One thing we often learn from this exercise is the utter complexity of God. We look at the evidence that surrounds us – the natural world of ocean rhythms, interstellar order, and the incredible intricacies that make up the simple beauties found in budding plants and the eyes of a newborn. And while Trinity Sunday may remind us of our inability to understand God, it also reminds us that we are able to know God. Just think about how many things you and I know but don’t understand (I know my car works but will never understand how). We also remember what scientists tell us – that most discoveries are preceded by hypotheses; a belief in what’s happening before it is actually proven. Don’t we sell ourselves short (and display no small amount of hubris) when we conclude that we can’t believe in God because we don’t understand God?

So this Trinity Sunday, when we contemplate the adventure of going deeper into the unknown of God, we know that it involves doing nothing more than taking the hand that is reaching for us. It is the One that beckons us to forgive that wrong, reach out to that needy neighbor, and take a stand against injustice. In doing this we are saying what we believe. May we be granted faith so to do, in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Reading
The Great Emergence – Phyllis Tickle
The Slate Roof Bile – Joseph Jenkins
Governance and Ministry – Dan Hotchkiss

Holy Comforter

2010-05-20T05:53:00.000-07:00

In the Bible there are many names for the Holy Spirit and his (or her?) ministry to the world. This Sunday our translation will render this third member of the Trinity as 'Advocate.' Other Biblical references include Holy Ghost, Spirit of God, Spirit of Truth and a favorite which is Paraclete (loosely: 'one who comes alongside'). What I like about this translation (which is really no translation at all) is the underlying assumption, 'Well we don't really know exactly what it means in Greek so we'll transliterate it into English and let you figure it out...'

This Pentecost Sunday the most helpful understanding of the Holy Spirit's work and ministry in my life is 'Comforter.' The Gospel text assigned to us, John 14:8-27, has the disciple Philip sitting in for you and me as he asks, 'Lord, show us the Father!' And a somewhat frustrated Jesus (I'm sure) chiming in to say, 'Have I been with you all this time (insert your name here), and you still do not know me?' We, like Phillip, are often in places where we simply cannot recognize God. We live in an age where anxiety disorder diagnoses are through the roof, worries about a dwindling middle class are well founded, a slushy and unpredictable economy keeps us awake at night, and a worrisome national security landscape haunts us (did someone really plant a car bomb in Times Square?).

Yet in the middle of it all, Jesus calls us to go out into the world to continue His work - not just healing, restoring and reconciling, but smiling at the busboy who brings us water, letting the jibe from that passive aggressive co-worker go unanswered, and taking a moment to stare deeply into the eyes of our beloveds to say, 'Ya know, I really love you.'

But in order to do this, we need to find a place to put all that crappy worrying.

And this is where the Holy Spirit - the Comforter comes in.

When my 9 month old is in his activity saucer near my desk (that's him in action, above), furiously rattling rattles, pushing buttons and ringing bells every once in a while he'll suddenly stop and look over at me - as if to say - 'Are we cool?' I look over at him and smile (like, who cannot smile at a smiling baby?) and let him know, 'Ya, we're cool.' And off he goes again, in a tornado of fury. If I don't look at him he'll speak up to grab my attention and when I leave the room there's usually a wail. He wants to know I'm nearby and everything's cool.

Pentecost is like that. Jesus tells us, relax, keep up the good work. The Comforter is here and never leaves.

Everything's cool.

Reading
Governance and Ministry - Dan Hotchkiss
Giving it Up - Maggi Dawn
The Fidelity of Betrayal - Peter Rollins

Book Review: Change Your Church for Good

2010-05-16T13:13:00.000-07:00

For churches with fundamentalist convictions this is an interesting testimony of church growth and offers useful tips for 'transitioning' your church from small and declining to big and growing. However, for the rest of us it offers much less.

Mega church pastor Brad Powell tells a glossy and rather simplistic rags to riches story of church growth, insisting that the growth he piloted (his church now hosts thousand of people each Sunday) is something every church can do; 'He (sic) just needs His people like you to believe in His power and to embrace His purpose and passion for your church.' Brad begins with an archtypically evangelical story of being brought to his knees at a pastor's conference and, all alone, hearing from God and having the Bible speak directly to him as he received his marching orders.

Brad tells us about his church, Temple Baptist Church in Detroit, one of the largest Baptist churches in the country in the 1950's. He mentions several times that the congregation had lost two thirds of its membership in the ten years before his arrival. He blames it on irrelevant music and worship and tells how he did the difficult work of transforming it into NorthRidge Church. What Brad leaves out is the fact that racial division played perhaps the biggest role in Temple's decline, and that the decision to leave its historic location meant moving out of a declining neighborhood into tony Plymouth, a white middle to upper class suburb where his particular brand of theology would be better received and much better funded. Thus leaving behind a declining area, and its residents, and adding to the Balkanization of the Detroit metro area.

Brad, like other mega church pastors, gives us the impression that his congregation's growth came mainly through new converts, whereas church growth statistics show that more than 90% of mega church growth comes from piquing the interest of other Christians who have either stopped going to church or who, more often, have simply switched churches - which is very common in his evangelical world. Brad rightly points out that there are a lot of Baptists in the Detroit area. His church has had obvious appeal to many of them.

Also common in evangelical circles is the overuse of anecdote and the underuse of academic and outside sources. This book has no footnotes, bibliography or even suggested reading. Like Rick Warren's 'Purpose Driven' best seller, the only go-to literature it commends is more of the author's, in this case, Brad's blog, church website and church address. I expected something with more academic rigor, but again, the tradition isn't known for commending it.

Brad hits home when he talks about church governance models, and the importance of updating them to meet current trends. This is one of the significant reasons dying churches continue to decline. 80% of America's churches are not growing, many of them because they continue to use antiquated organizational models that promote navel-gazing and inhibit change and newness. Temple's transition is a testimony to Brad's leadership and a willingness of its deacons to embrace a new kind of organizational leadership that empowers the laity and gives permission to members to get involved in ministry. NorthRidge members believe they have something vital to share and deserve kudos for allowing that conviction to drive their decision to embrace its leadership model. Would that every church would share the conviction that what they have to offer is worth this kind of sacrifice!

Brad also offers credible advice when he explains how he rooted these changes in mission - to reach the lost. He tells of how he reminded the congregation of the important paradigm that the Church is the only institution that exists primarily for those who are not its members and that doing this kind of mission requires change. He gives a helpful tip when he urges congregations to use 'testimony' of changed lives during the transition - to remind the congregation that the changes they are making are bearing fruit.

However, Brad leaves many of us (me and my more liberal churchmen and women) out of his equation when he implies that a conservative approach to theology must stand at the heart of church growth, as if the only way to grow a church is to embrace his slant on Christianity. Certainly he is aware that many liberal churches are growing and that they also have much to offer in leading others to Christ (by liberal I mean those that read Scripture more flexibly, do not claim a monopoly on salvation and believe, as the United Church of Christ advertises, that 'God is still speaking’).

What left me wanting is any mention of how NorthRidge is making a significant dent in improving Detroit. The biggest challenges this geographic area faces are racial reconciliation, unity among churches and social justice. Half of Detroit's children live at or under the poverty line. What would it look like for a church of this size and influence to partner with an inner city community organizing group and work not just at feeding the homeless (as NorthRidge certainly does, out in the suburbs) but, as Jesus did, taking on a corrupt power system that enables the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer? Mega churches emote images of comfy suburbanites sipping lattes, being entertained by upbeat music and ‘challenged’ by Dr. Phil messages. Sadly, Brad’s story left me with little evidence to the contrary. Shouldn’t growing churches like this provide the leadership and challenge to do the gritty work of reconciliation in the most racially divided region in America?

I received a free copy of Brad's book as a member of a scheme called 'Booksneeze,' that gives away books to those who will review them and post them on their blogs. We can assume that the books made available will be those needing blog publicity because they're not able to carry much weight on their own. This book, at the time of this writing was ranked around 400,000 on amazon.com, and hence, certainly qualifies.

I Can Be a Christian All by Myself

2010-05-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

Years ago a Christian singing duo named Avery and Marsh penned a musical parody about American Christendom called, ‘I Can Be a Christian By Myself.’ Here’s the first verse:

I can be a Christian by myself.
Leave my dusty Bible on the shelf.
I'll sing a hymn and pray a bit.
God can do the rest of it.
My heart's the church, my head's the steeple. 
Shut the door, I'm all the people.
I'll break some bread and drink some wine.
Have myself a holy time.

Of course this would be much more amusing if it didn’t hit so close to home. As someone who prides himself on his independence, and is equally proud to live in a country founded by (and loaded with) rugged individualists, my sense of discomfort is widely shared. I feel a tug of competing loyalties – to a heritage and lifestyle of individual freedom and the pull of a Savior who is constantly calling me into selfless relationships with others.

This Sunday many Christians will hear a famous reading from the Bible - a portion of Jesus’ last prayer before his crucifixion. On the eve of his betrayal, punishment and death Jesus takes a moment to pray for you and me. And what he prays is for us to take our relationships really seriously. What I find so fascinating about this prayer is not the ‘what,’ but the ‘how.’ We are not asked to unite around a football team, ethnic heritage, profit-making venture, or even a form of altruism (although those might be infinitely easier!) but we are asked to unite around Him.

Jesus goes all New Age on us - asking us to imagine Him in us, and us in Him, then us and Him together emptying ourselves for those who don’t know Him. It’s pointed, direct, and more than a bit eclectic. And who would ever have guessed it would become the foundation of the largest and most influential religion the world has ever known?

At the heart of Jesus’ final words is an imploring for us to get rid of all the distractions and focus on Him. In this time of Ascensiontide (these ten days between Ascension Day last Thursday and Pentecost next Sunday), which Karl Barth called, ‘The Significant Pause,’ how might you and I renew our focus on the valued relationships around us - our Lord, our family, our friends? How might we use this hour, this day and this season of significant pause, to revive friendships, renew significant relationships, and reach out to those to whom we are called?

Reading
Governance and Ministry – Dan Hotchkiss
Can Your Church Live? – Alice Mann
The Five Most Important Questions – Peter Drucker

The Sniff Test

2010-05-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Like many people, I watched with great interest as the head of the Wall Street class, Goldman Sachs, was hauled into the principal's office last week to answer for its part in The Great Recession, and more specifically, the housing market collapse that triggered it all. Goldman is being accused, in a civil suit filed by the S.E.C., of essentially misrepresenting a mortgage-based product it was pushing. Apparently it involved a heavy investor who helped construct the product - and he was betting it would fail. One commentator likened it to helping a bookie pick the horses and jockeys allowed in the race.

Whether or not Goldman violated the law - we suspect that had the company done so we would see criminal charges versus a civil suit - the spotlight is on the propriety of it all. What sorts of ethical frameworks are at work here?

Years ago Augustine of Hippo posited a simple axiom to help Christians maneuver an increasingly complicated world. He famously instructed; 'love God and do as you please.' As the reasoning goes, in loving God one will engage in the sorts of behaviors that would be pleasing to God - honesty, integrity, self-denial, charity, peace-making, etc. Last Sunday those of us who attend liturgical churches heard Jesus say, 'I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should also love one another.'

What would Wall Street, or our street, look like if we approached ethical questions from this vantage point? Can I love God and make that comment, purchase, or business deal? What ethical decision am I facing today in which this advice would be good advice? Would that decision pass the sniff test?

Reading
Empire Falls - Richard Russo
Blood and Thunder: The Story of Kit Carson - Hampton Sides
Governance and Ministry - Dan Hotchkiss

Listening

2010-04-22T07:22:00.000-07:00

Five years ago a Welchman named Howard Stapleton was getting irritated at the loitering going on in front of the local grocery store. Young teenagers would hang around and harass customers as they went in and out of the store. So Howard built a device that would keep the pesky teens away. It was a box that emitted an irritating sound that only young ears could hear. It was a loud tone, of a certain frequency, that adults, because of the natural deterioration of the human ear, can’t pick up. The device had immediate results – and sent kids scurrying like roaches at sunrise. While some youth advocates protested, Howard’s invention wasn’t banned and continues to be marketed as a way to keep annoying teens from congregating.

However, Howard did not have the last laugh. Some enterprising teens decided to turn the tables – and use Howard’s special frequency as a ring tone on cell phones – which means that only kids can hear it ring in class, not teachers – so the talking and texting can go on behind the backs of older authorities and the teens get the last laugh.

In Sunday’s Gospel we hear about something similar when Jesus talks about a voice that’s heard by some and not by others. In a standoff with the corrupt religious power brokers of his day, they ask Him, ‘tell us plainly – are you the Messiah?’ Jesus says that he’s told them – and they haven’t heard. He’s used words and He’s used deeds, but still, they just haven’t heard. Jesus says only his sheep hear his voice – and the reason they hear it is because they follow Him.

We Christians like to think that we’re those sheep – as if we do such a great job hearing and heeding Jesus’ voice. But like the critics of Jesus’ day, and the adults who strain to hear high frequencies, we have to admit that we, too, have a hard time hearing His voice. We plead for healing and get no answer, we ask for guidance and we leave puzzled and depressed when it doesn't come, and we ask for a sign – any sign – then throw our arms up in frustration because we just can't see it.

Then we note that Jesus makes this link between hearing and following – and it makes us pause to think about the depth of our own endeavor to follow: like the image above, if we draw closer to the voice, might we be able to improve our hearing? For we remember that following Jesus means putting aside our own road maps and our own personal priorities. It means allowing Him to take the reigns - and for us to grow in prayer and devotion and self-offering and drawing closer in the ways we know how, but may allowed to drift aside. For we understand quite naturally that if someone is speaking to us the only way to hear them better is to draw closer. What can we do in the week ahead to move closer to that voice?

Reading
The Five Most Important Questions – Peter Drucker
The Faith of the Future – Harvey Cox
Thieves in the Temple – G. Jeffrey MacDonald

Furnishing Our Souls

2010-04-17T06:44:00.000-07:00

In Alain de Botton’s fascinating collection of observations on the statements and meanings of aesthetics, called ‘The Architecture of Happiness,’ he seeks to remind us that where we are affects who we can be. de Botton strongly suggests that what surrounds us matters – and that we do well to choose our surroundings fully conscious of the meanings they invoke. For example, the self-image of one raised in an overcrowded and run down orphanage will drastically differ from that of a youngster raised in a place like the Le Corbusier home above where great care has been taken in tending to home and garden. Sure educational, recreational and social opportunities all play enormous parts, but the continual contact with forms, images and spaces that bespeak great possibility also has great impact of its own.

Just as architecture seeks to invoke a state of the soul, so too does Christianity. However it is the furniture of the heart to which Jesus pays special attention and the great spiritual writers of the ages have encouraged. In writing to the church in Philippi, the apostle Paul urges, “Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” Passages like this remind us that the interior aesthetic has a potential of its own to form and shape our lives. While we all dwell in homes, on blocks and in neighborhoods that bespeak status, safety, beauty and possibility, the make-up of our interiority can, ultimately, play an even more important role.

This resonated anew with me as I was reading the results of a recent World Values Survey, which is conducted every four years by a non-profit led by a University of Michigan professor. These studies gauge the happiness of people in different countries. And it is curious to observe that the nations that dominate this list are not first-world countries flush with wealth or even known for great architecture - Nigeria, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador and Puerto Rico round out the top five. In fact, the world’s richest country, our beloved U.S., ranked 16th, behind countries like India, Ghana and Croatia.

This brought two things to mind. First, the concluding chapter in de Botton’s book, which ruminated on the purity and possibility of the unspoiled and the pure that every nation has on offer – the open field. The random beauty of nature’s unspoiled design offers a simplicity and inspiration all its own and given the economic restraints we all face, it also offers broad accessibility. Second, it brought to mind the critical interior aesthetics that influence the contentment of our souls. When we look at the priorities some nations place on family, community, deep relationships and free time it bespeaks an interiority of values and convictions with which the Bible finds resonance.

As another Michigan spring unfurls in our midst, and we begin to venture out of our frosty hibernations, we do well to fill our surroundings both with our favorite manmade aesthetics as well as those of equal or greater value found in the nature that surrounds. Yet even more importantly, as Pentecost comes to us on May 23, we are reminded that the Holy Spirit that indwells each of us is nudging us anew to pay attention to the way we arrange the furniture of our hearts. In what ways are we conscious of the ways we are shaped? How might we do better at paying attention to the things that sculpt our souls? What aesthetics might we tap into that can truly nurture us and others?

Reading
The Architecture of Happiness - Alain de Botton
Have a Little Faith – Mitch Albom
The Five Most Important Questions – Peter Drucker

Doubting Thomas

2010-04-08T05:34:00.000-07:00

Where’s Doubting Thomas when you need him?

Where was he on the board of Lehman Brothers when all that cosmetic accounting was going on?
Where was he in all those bank branches when subprime mortgages were being handed out like ice cream at the day care?
Where was Doubting Thomas in all those car dealerships, appliance stores, and rent-a-centers as the national savings rate turned negative and everyone just kept on buying?

When William Shakespeare wrote that doubt is the beacon of the wise, he was touting the value of healthy skepticism – that voice inside each one of us that hesitates when something just doesn’t add up. The unfortunate side to Thomas’ story is that it has painted Christianity as a choice between faith and doubt. They’re seen as polar opposites: if Thomas had simply believed, checked his mind at the door, and blindly accepted the unreasonable he would have been commended and not singled out as the lone loser who has no faith.

However, as Paul Tillich famously said, doubt is not the opposite of faith; it is one element of faith. And this is why I think the Church, down through the ages, has cherished Thomas and his story.

Doubting Thomas stands in for all of us who certainly respect the claims, creeds and testimonies of others, but need a bit more before we’ll bite. Doubting Thomas shows us that the heart of the faith is not believing six impossible things before breakfast - but a personal encounter with the Numinous. Christianity is not about believing what the Church, the preacher, and even the Bible tells us – but it’s about meeting Christ in such a realistic and genuine manner that all we can say is, ‘My Lord and my God.’ As the old country preacher says, ‘God has no grandchildren, only children, whose challenge it is to discover faith on their own – to ask questions, search their heart, and find their own Thomas moment of belief.’

Reading
The Heart of Christianity – Marcus Borg
The Architecture of Happiness – Alain de Botton
Rediscovering Values – Jim Wallis

The Palm Sunday Marathon

2010-03-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

Palm Sunday is the longest service of the year. The procession is long, the readings are long, and the liturgy is long. Yet year in and year out you and I find ourselves right here, preparing for the marathon. We don’t take shortcuts. We don’t shorten it. We don’t condense it. We don’t edit it. We clear our minds, weed out the distractions, and open our hearts. We become truly present.

We take a deep breath and let this story – this living story - breathe new life into us - for we are about to enter into the most momentous events in human history.

In Word and Sacrament we will witness:

-The Institution of the Eucharist
-The Dispute over who’s the Greatest
-Jesus’ Prayer at Gethsemane
-Judas’ betrayal and infamous kiss
-The Trial Before the Jewish High Priests’
-St. Peter’s Denial
-The Sentencing by Pilate
-The Crowd demanding crucifixion
-Jesus’ excruciating Walk with the Cross
-The gruesome Crucifixion
-The Thief on the Cross
-The Centurion’s Admission
-The Burial by Joseph of Arimithea

This is a story that’s changed lives. This is a story that’s changed our lives. This is a story that wants to change us today. What are we bringing to the story this year? Which aspect of this tale will speak to us? How will we be shaped even more into the Cruciform image we so desire? We don’t know. But we do know that God is at work -and all we need to do is to be present.

Reading
The Heart of Christianity - Marcus Borg
A Story of Shalom - Philip Cunningham
Understanding Poverty - Ruby Payne

A Great Gift

2010-03-17T05:55:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the most significant gift our parents give us is a general outlook on the world - a structure for how things all come together, a worldview, if you will, that serves as a foundation for the way we view everything else.

Marcus Borg likes to say that we generally inherit one of three paradigms. The first is the idea that the world is a scary and frightful place. Reality is hostile, death will get us, we must be about protecting what is ours and safeguarding all that is precious. How do we respond to life? Defensively. We are wary of new ideas and hold fast to the time-tested and familiar.

A second view is that the world is indifferent and without care to its surroundings. Life is random. There is no final purpose. All that we are and see are the results of evolutionary accidents. In this world we think mostly of ourselves, grab what is ours, live for the moment, fulfill our needs without undue care for that which is outside the immediate and the accessible, or what will happen to and for those who will come after us.

A third view, and the one I am most thankful to my parents for passing on to me, is that reality is gracious. All that surrounds us is potentially nurturing and life-giving. Wonder and beauty speak of a purpose to life and a deep meaning to reality. We can let go and jump into the fray because we know that we are held. We can seek adventure and take risks knowing that it will all somehow be OK. We can approach life like a survivalist who falls into quicksand: relaxing and letting the bog carry us, knowing that if we flail about gripped by fear, we will surely die.

Which paradigm do we lean towards?
Which paradigm do we want to lean towards?
Which paradigm are we passing along to our children?

Drawing Nigh Unto the Poor

2010-03-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

How we treat the poor is how we treat God.

It’s the plain message of Matthew 25, much of the Gospels as well as a strong theme of the Old Testament. If we want to see the human face of God, we have to look no further than the, ‘least of these.’

During Lent many of us try to draw closer to this Bible truth, in almsgiving and increased volunteer work. Together we look for new and deeper ways of identifying with the plight of the poor. While this might sound altruistic and ‘other centered’ the real beneficiary in all of this is us.

What’s your attitude toward the poor look like?

If you’re like me, you rarely think twice about clicking past a TV ad drumming up aid for the hungry, telling a beggar on the street, ‘No thanks,’ or even tossing out letter after letter of ‘urgent appeals’ that I find in my mailbox each week. I am not happy with myself when I do this and I know that the conditions of modern life can callous my heart to the degree that, as Thomas Merton once put it, I no longer have possession of it. I can become unable to have my heart broken by all the starving children, their distraught and helpless parents, not to mention countless earthquake victims.

Then there’s my competitive way of living that can draw my focus toward my own strategies and gains and far away from the dire needs of most of the rest of the world. The swift and varied gales of change keep me preoccupied and diverted.

A tortoise shell heart and a distracted mind are not the most helpful accoutrements of a budding disciple. They keep me from following the path of Christ. I am no longer fully human or fully alive.

In John 10 we hear Jesus talk about his mission to bring humanity, ‘life and life more abundantly.’ That abundant life is all about fulfilling our humanity. When we tend to the plight of the poor we reclaim that part of us that has calcified and we bring our attentions round front and center. And we discover anew that in the face of the poor, we see God, and thus are made new again.

We know this instinctively. Psychologists will often recommend that the depressed seek out some sort of volunteer activity, that they move the focus off of themselves and onto an area of need. Now that Easter has come, we have accepted this new light of the resurrection, how can we too move forward like those early disciples in continuing the work of Christ? How might we be called to answer the cries we are now that much more familiar with? How might we use our newfound humanity to fall deeper in love with the Christ we see in the faces of the poor?

Good Reads
The Politics of Jesus – Obery Hendricks
The Misunderstood Jew – Amy Levine
Saving Jesus from the Church – Robin Meyers

Coming Home

2010-03-11T06:27:00.000-08:00

It’s no wonder the Prodigal son ever came to his senses. After all, he was returning to one of the most dysfunctional households in the Bible. The mother is awol, the father has less pride and fewer clues than Homer Simpson, the brother treats him like toxic waste, and we can imagine family meals around that house having more drama than a season’s worth of The Kardashians.

But the money had run out and the hunger had set in. For the Prodigal son, the trip home was out of desperation and not sentimentalism - coming home was his best option. Coming home was his only option. Coming home was the smartest thing he would ever do. Coming home was the hardest thing he would ever do.

And in this fourth week of Lent you and I are invited to look for the parallels - and the ways we choose avoidance over reconciliation. How many times have we screened phone calls, skipped outings, and filled our lives with distractions rather than facing up to and grappling with forgiveness? Sometimes it’s only when our backs are against the wall and we’re forced to forgive that we finally do. And when we finally do, as difficult as it is, we find that we experience a little slice of heaven.

Coming Home makes for one huge metaphor. It stirs up uncomfortable relationships and situations we may have buried years ago, but that deep down inside we want to make right. Could this be the time? Is Lent 2010 calling us to ponder the ways we need to come to our senses and make peace with someone else - a family member, a neighbor, a co-worker, a friend, a church, or even God? In what ways are we running, in what ways do we need to come to our senses? In what ways have we distracted ourselves with dissolute living in order to avoid the tough stuff, the real stuff, of making things right?

Reading List
Explosive Preaching – Ron Boyd-McMillan
The Source – James Michener
The Politics of Jesus – Obrey Hendricks

Second Chances

2010-03-03T10:10:00.000-08:00

My wife finally had enough of the kitchen rug.

It was one of these cheap sisal numbers that we bought at IKEA for about $40. And after a few years of muddy boots, splattered spaghetti sauce, splashed coffee, and drippy chocolate syrup we knew it was only a matter of time before it would take on a life of its own and rise up to greet us some morning.

So she finally rolled it up and carted it out of the kitchen. It sat on the back porch for a few days waiting for me to put it in the garbage can, but each time I walked past I just couldn’t bring myself to it. What I decided to do instead was put the rug in the garage and wait for spring. I’ll wait for a sunny day, hose it down, take a scrub brush to it then let the sun dry it. I’m sure it won’t go back in the kitchen, but I think I can find a place for it in the basement or at least in the workshop. Sure, the carpet is pretty spotty now, but I think it deserves a second chance.

Jesus seems to be saying something like this in the Gospel lesson we’ll hear on Sunday. It’s a parable of second chances. In it a man who’s planted a vineyard sees that his fig tree refuses to bear fruit. He orders it destroyed. However the gardener makes an appeal and asks for time to put down fertilizer, pay more attention to it, then, if there is still no fruit next year, he will agree to cut the tree down.

The gardener sees something in the fig tree that no one else is seeing. It’s potential, it’s possibility, it’s the prospect of a turnaround. Can the underdog, perennially impotent fig tree deliver the goods? Details at 11.

What’s curious about this story is that 11 o’clock never comes – we have no idea if the fig tree ever bore fruit. What we do know is that getting and giving second chances seems to be something rather important. Is there someone in your life who needs a second chance? Is there some situation happening around us that we need to be more patient with? Is there potential and possibility we are overlooking? How are we being called to give a second chance?

Reading
Empire Falls – Richard Ruso
The Five Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Organization – Peter Drucker
Mountain Reigns – Joe Lacy

The Lament of God

2010-02-25T07:07:00.001-08:00

When you worship inside the chapel pictured above, Jesus’ words in Sunday’s Gospel come to life, ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets… how I have desired to gather your children… and you were not willing.” The name of this place is Dominus Flavit (‘The Lord Wept’) and it sits across the valley from the Holy City, on a plot of land pilgrims swear Jesus once stood to voice his famous lament in Luke 13. This chapel holds something very important, not just for Holy Land visitors, but for all of us who grieve.

Every day you and I lament over missed opportunities, unrealized potential, and the crippling reality that things don’t always go according to plan. We scream into the night, ‘Why does this always happen to me?’ and ‘It’s not fair!’ The drama of our lives can seem like it’s played out inside a shaken snow globe, where an invisible hand, subject to unpredictable spasms, exercises complete control over every aspect of our world. And here we are, flopping around inside, trying to hold on to the furniture or at least stand up straight and keep from getting hit in the head by a flying candlestick.

Sure, on our good days, when the world is settled and all is at peace, we can lean back in our recliners and take it all in – feeling utterly breathless by the glory of it all. And on those days perspective comes as we find places for the joys and the smiles, the disappointment and the lament. Ecclesiastes says there is a time for all of this. And Jesus sounds a New Testament echo by reminding us that we’re not the only ones who grieve. God does too.

‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem…’ How Jesus puts words to feelings we all experience when we long for something we cannot get. Or we yearn to protect someone we cannot protect. Or we seek to warn someone who will not listen. It may come as a shock to some of us who believe everything that happens on this earth happens just the way God wants it to. But it is apparent that the imperfection that surrounds us also has a place in God’s economy.

So as we contemplate the subjects of our own grief we understand that this is not a solitary enterprise. Jesus understands and shares our lament. And, perhaps even more importantly, we remember the balance of life, and how lament will give way to laughter, as the Psalmist says, ‘mourning comes at night but joy comes in the morning.’ For we can never forget that one of the purposes of lament is to lay the groundwork for new beginnings. Something fresh and new will be born. There is death, but there is resurrection.

Further Reading
Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths – Karen Armstrong
From the Holy Mountain – William Dalrymple
The Jews in the Time of Jesus – Stephen Wylen

Temptation

2010-02-18T06:48:00.000-08:00

At first hearing the story of Jesus ‘temptation in the desert’ sounds about as pertinent to my life as crop yields in the Outer Hebrides. Sure it’s important to somebody, somewhere, but it’s simply too far removed from my time and cultural context to say much to me. Jesus’ dialog with the Diablo sounds more Dickens than Gospel – as the pair seemingly float through a dreamland of time and space from one temptation to another. At least Ebenezer Scrooge got Christmas dinner – Jesus won’t even cave for a loaf of bread.

Maybe it’s because my biggest temptations don’t seem to be Jesus’. I get angry, frustrated, and worry too much about having enough. I want to honk at slow people in the fast lane and call the manager when a check-out lady opens up a new register and the people behind me get to go first. Why didn’t Jesus get tempted by a telemarketer calling at dinnertime? Or a mechanic who told him he needed a new transmission? Or a corporate bean counter coldly informing him his pension was being cut? Let’s see how Jesus handles those temptations!

But when I hear this story again and again, as you and I do on every first Sunday of Lent, we begin to see the shades and nuances that make this encounter more relevant than we might think. I begin to see that these temptations really are my temptations.

They boil down to self-doubt, idolatry and skepticism about the Divine. When Jesus is challenged to make a stone into bread, I too need to deny the impulse to prove myself. When Jesus is offered all the riches of the world if He will only bow down to another, I too need to fight against the desire to make worldly goods my real gods. And when Jesus is asked if God really does care for Him, I too must put to flight notions that God doesn’t care about me either.

Jesus handles this by actually speaking to each temptation. I have found this a helpful strategy, employing not the same words but the same tactic. With a nonchalant indifference I tell whatever tempting notions that come my way, ‘I simply don’t have time for you.’ Like Jesus, we are on a mission to do greater things, and as we set our sights on those things, we might also see the devil departing somewhat swiftly from us.

Reading
How (Not) to Speak to God – Peter Rollins
Empire Falls – Richard Russo
Missional Renaissance – Reggie McNeal