Resurrection and Release

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! I am rejoicing today because of the opportunity the LORD is giving me to minister to young men in prison. As you know, I regularly visit Justin Thompson and Eric Singley. I also visit a young man named Dan Wickenheiser, referred to me by Ron and Justin. David Linn has recently referred me to a young man known to his family. I will see him next week. And Marika Ramirez, who connected to us through Peter's Porch and has worshipped with us a few times, has a husband in state prison and a brother who will enter LCP next week. I will see her brother on Monday and again after he enters LCP. That means I will soon be visiting with five young men in their walk through the criminal justice system. God has called and sent me to them. And by extension, God is calling this congregation to embrace them as well. We are challenged by this Word from the gospel of Matthew to see the Lord Jesus in the prisoner. We can exercise great mercy and compassion and grace by reaching out to them, many of whom are struggling with various forms of abuse, pain, or mental illness. The stygma attached to one who is part of the criminal justice system doesn't go away. They are social outcasts, deviants, who will have a harder time re-integrating as a result of their criminal behavior and subsequent detention. 1 in 31 adults in the US is in prison or under some management by the CJS. That's five times higher than any other country in the world. Over half of those who enter the system will return to incarceration within three years of their release.

We are a people whose goal is reconciliation through forgiveness, which leads to repentance and the amendment of life. As we know repentance is not a once-and-done formula for successful avoidance of sinful behavior. We are called to repent, to reorient our lives around the ways of Jesus everyday. Some of us are more actively involved in the spiritual process of repentance and renewal. Some of us haven't connected the depth of our sinfulness with a need to be changed. None of us are yet imitating Christ. But we are called to seek His ways. Baptism is God's promise of resurrection and release from Sin that opens the way for repentance and reformation to occur in our lives. My prayer is that each of these young men will be lead by the Holy Spirit to repentance and to reconciliation with God that leads to new life. What they have taught me is that I am also a sinner in need of God's mercy and grace who seeks to be part of a community of believers who trust that Jesus offers us the forgiveness we need, and don't deserve, in order to live lives that are pleasing to God the Father. They have also shown me how judgmental and dismissive the church has been toward troubled or prodigal souls. We are as guilty as they are when we turn our backs on them, handing them over to a system that will not assure them a chance at amendment or reconciliation or reformation. I am a firm beleiver that the criminal justice system is necesary and important and that some people need to be held accountable to it. I also believe that we cannot abandon anyone to that system. We are invited by Jesus to take part in it and to bring to it the gifts of faith, hope, and love.

We must also begin to count them as part of this community of faith. They are not "members" but they belong to us. We have been given stewardship of their souls by the Holy Spirit. So I may suggest that we begin to count our weekly "attendance" differently. Whose spiritual needs did we attend to this week? In worship. in visitation of homebound, prison bound people. At Peter's Porch. In this gathering or that service. I think we would do well to observe the care of souls in these ways.

an american passion

This slideshow on the NPR site is beautiful and nicely narrated by the artist. Check it out.

resurrection and reconciliation

I don't like the feeling I get when I know that I have offended someone. I am an anxious person, I guess. I do not have tough enough skin for this calling. I take it personally. So when I am accused of some form of wrongdoing or injustice, I seek to make amends and to clear the air. I want to set it right and restore a clear conscience. I am aware that I have shortcomings that may offend or anger others. I am not neat. I am scattered. I lose things. I don't pick up. I don't always follow through. Sometimes I don't do what I say. This is the most regrettable offense. Do what you say you're going to do. I have learned the hard way that people take me at my word, which makes me the breaker of promises.
I am not passive aggressive, either. I like to talk through conflict and to resolve anger peaceably. When I discover that someone has been harboring ill feelings toward me for several weeks, months, or even years it grieves me. I cherish the power of forgiveness because of this. Being set free from the need to punish others also releases the victim from the violence. And isn't all sin, great or small, violent? Does sin not violate our sense of goodness, rightness, health, balance, etc...? Forgiveness is the first step in reconciliation, which Jeuss teaches as a central claim about God and the kingdom. Being reconciled to GOD begins with release from punishment for sin. It is advanced through an ongoing way of reconciliation, as we begin to live together for the healing of one another and for the building up of relationships toward harmony, compassion, and love.
Interject the problem: On Easter Sunday, I was threatened with a small claims law suit because I hadn't returned a meaningful item to a person in my congregation. He had offered it to me 3years ago. I had failed to return it, despite at least one prior attempt to retrieve it from me. I was a little embarassed and also anxious to find what he sought, in order to return it promptly and avoid more conflict. I was able to return it the next day. For me, resurrection is not only a future post-death reality. Resurrection is life in a perpetual state of grace characterized by a spirit of reconciliation and loving service. What I mean is: Easter is a way of life now. The church is the body of Chirst, daily dying to sin and rising as a foretaste of the new creation. We embody the risen Jesus in our relationships, in our sharing of spiritual gifts, and in our humble gratitude that fosters worship.
Back to the problem: People give me stuff. Sometimes as gift or offering or "payment" for some service. I realize we live in a transactional culture where people beleive they must pay for service. What I freely received, however, I am called to freely give.
People give me stuff as a function of the priestly office in which I reluctantly serve. People want to be approved, blessed, and endorsed. People want to be heard, they want to count, to be numbered among those in "the Lord's book of life." People need to matter and they expect their priest to mediate that need before GOD. So they give me stuff. In many forms. Books. Tapes. CDs. Movies. Ideas. Religious Kitch. Notes. Stuff. Sometimes its gift. Sometimes its not. Often its task. I am supposed to do something with or about it. Bless, affirm, acknowledge, embrace. I am not good at this. I think it is because I am not a priest. I am a prophet in priest's clothing. I am a missionary working as a manager/minister. Square peg/round hole. Only the peg is under the microscope too with expectations to fit in. People want me to be round. I am not. I can exercise priestly functions, as can all baptized Christians, called to offer service and prayer to those in need. But i am not the priest. I am not the head, the administrator, or the one who blesses. I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the LORD.
What would it mean for me to experience resurrection and reconciliation? I think about the healing of broken relationships. And I think about the need to live authentically as a follower of Jesus called to church vocation. What would it mean to cease being the Priest and live publically as the Prophet in this place? I resonate with Michael Frost's intent to recover the lost expressions of apostle, prophet, and evangelist as integral to the organic ministry of body-building for the church's maturity---as described by the writer of Ephesians 4. His chapter in "The Shaping of things to come" on the five fold leadership structure of the early community has affirmed much of my own vocational journey. Living as an apostle/evangelist in a denomination that has not affirmed or endorsed such ministry is challenging. But it is necessary in the post-Christian, postmodern U.S. So how will apostle/prophets/evangelists live out their vocations authentically and sustainably? We shall see. In the meantime, Jesus is risen and we are reconciled. May we rise to reconcile with all of creation, in its wounded, broken, lostness.

Maundy Thursday prayer and reflection

Holy God, source of all love,
on the night of his betrayal,
Jesus gave us a new commandment,
to love one another as he loves us.
Write this commandment in our hearts,
and give us the will to serve others
as he was the servant of all,
your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.
Amen.

I love infomercials. They are so addicting to watch. I enjoy the naivete of the host or hostess as they “learn” about the product along with the viewers. You know, the one with all the oversimplified questions, “ This vacuum doesn’t really pick up a bowling ball does it? These knives won’t cut through metal, right? That machine cooks chicken that fast? Are you kidding? That machine won’t really get that dirty rug clean, now will it? How many times will it take before that floor shines like new? If I use this everyday, I’ll have a body like his or hers? I love the sappy false skepticism and the fake surprise when everything goes just as the demonstrator said it would. I also like to go to home shows and see demonstrators with new products. Secretly, however, I would love to see a demonstration go south, get all fouled up, and the product break or turn the carpet puke green or make his hair fall out or her skin turn bright orange. My wife hosted a pampered chef cooking show a month or so ago. I wish I could’ve been there, but it was clearly not for me. I was not invited. As much as watching a demonstration can be interesting, I prefer a more hands-on approach to products. Of course that’s the idea of the informercial, to place a product in the hands of an amateur and see how easily they begin to use it effectively. Products are always safe, easy to use, and effective.
Jesus is not selling anything to his disciples, but he is inviting them to embrace a way of life that is new and improved. He is inviting them to accept a truth that is very difficult; Only his death will rescue them from the sin of the world. He must suffer and die at their expense in order that they might realize the intensity of God’s love. He relinquishes, what to them, was a promising political and religious future as Messiah and King, to be crucified. On Maundy Thursday, we recall how Jesus demonstrated his way of life, his way of love. He invites his disciples who are reclining with him for the meal, to receive a gift of hospitality from their master. Rather than typical self-service or rather than expecting a slave to perform the task of cleaning their dirty, scabby feet, Jesus kneels down with a basin and towel and washes them all one by one. He does so without prior commentary or ceremony. It is no ritual. This is not a repeatable act commanded by Jesus to be done in remembrance of him in every time and place. He will break bread and offer the cup for that. The ancient Passover meal is forever changed by Jesus into a remembrance of His body and blood, his dying and rising. And so we share the meal every week as a sign of Jesus’ life-giving presence. But tonight, we see a demonstration of Jesus’ love for his disciples. A love manifest in the washing of their feet. Maybe today, Jesus would wash our cars. We could sing, “Shine Jesus Shine, while he polishes our hoods. Actually, what Jesus does is he washes away the tired, dirty, achiness of a lifetime on the road. And he prepares them to walk on. He readies them to walk in his footsteps, to invite others to follow theirs, and to keep on going.
Jesus offers all of us that same love; cleansing us of our sin so that we can start anew. And that love and forgiveness is meant to be demonstrated for us as we exercise compassion for each other in the church. In the ways you encourage each other, hold each others’ hands, weep with one another, pray for one another, and just show up. Jesus’ demonstration is not possible if the disciples are not willing participants. Because Jesus’ love is physical! Bodies are required! The same is true now. Jesus’ love is demonstrated to us in and through the church’s mission. We cannot demonstrate love for each other, if we are not present with and for each other. When someone is absent from our life of discipleship, call them, invite them, encourage them. Speak the truth to them. How can we love you if you won’t let us? How can you love us, if you’re not with us? When Peter refuses to accept Jesus’ humility and love as a demonstration to be embodied in his own life, Jesus rebukes Peter. Sit down, take off your sandals, and stick your stinking feet in the basin Peter. If you don’t, you don’t get me, my mission, my way of life, and you won’t get my gifts either. Love is the mutual expression of humble self-giving service. Who was Jesus to you this week? Who served you? Who are you going to serve? In obedience to His command, you are invited to demonstrate His kind of love to someone. Because followers of Jesus, who love him, who have been washed by him, are also obedient to Him. Love that is authentic is like this: it cares for the hurts, struggles, aches, and pains of the other. Love washes off the dirt and provides respite from the road. Love is gentle and gracious. And it applies equal value and worth to everybody, regardless of who they are or what they’ve done or where they’ve walked. The one’s who need washed are the one’s who are the most dirty. Love is not love unless it is demonstrated in an intentional act of mercy. Disciples of Jesus don’t talk about love, they embody it in real ways. In their way of life as neighbors, strangers, coworkers, students, parents, husbands, wives, friends, enemies.. May you love Jesus. May you see Jesus’ love for you. May you believe it. And may you love someone with a real, intentional, caring, physical Jesus kind of love.

Easter hams and other strange cultural phenomenon

This is Maundy Thursday and I've been invited by our local state Senator to receive two Easter Hams in thanksgiving for the ministry we offer to the hungry in our community. I intend, of course, to give them away.
Ham is not kosher. Why do Christians eat hams on Easter? is it a snub, in-your-face, gesture to our Jewish cousins? Do we intend to offend, to break kosher laws as a sign that we are not Jews. We'd do better to eat lamb. But we will eat ham. I am not a ham lover, although I have become a huge fan of ham loaf---a delicacy native to Lancaster county, I guess. I'd never had ham loaf gromwing up, never even heard of it. Sort of like pig stomach, scrapple, whoopie pies, shoofly pie, chicken pot pie, and chicken and waffles. Waffles are breakfast food where I come from, topped with butter and syrup. Not chicken. I have learned to adapt to this culture, where horse drawn buggies travel on busy highways. But it hasn't been easy. There is a sense here that an outsider is always an outsider. I think this is changing generationally. Especially as this homogeneous community is infiltrated by people of other races and ethnicities. Nevertheless, I am not native to Lancaster County. Muy children are, though. I wonder what that may mean as they grow up, if we remain here during their childhood years. Will they adopt some of the ways of thinking inherent in the culture here? Or will they adopt the cultural ways that we bring? I realize that second generation immigrants often speak the language of the surrounding culture as fluently as their native language. But their parents are rarely as ocnversant in the adopted culture. Will the same be true of my kids? Some of you might think that we have moved from the U.S. to Tanzania, with all of this talk about cross-cultural immersion. But such is the case for us. Even though my wife is native to central PA and I have lived in central PA for around 12 years, we feel like strangers in a strange land. We feel like sojourners, nomads, refugees sometimes. On certain matters we realize we must defer to local folk ways.
There is much to love about Lititz. The beautiful park, downtown, the neighborhoods, easy access to everything and evreywhere. We're less than five hours from five major east coast cities! But I wonder, are we settlers or pilgrims? Are we farmers or shepherds? Are we owners or renters?
In Holy Week, I am thinking about the brevity of life. And about place with respect to that. I am here. here I am. I am not in Chicago or NY or London or Baghdad or Jerusalem. I am here. Now. What am I called to here and now? or maybe to whom am I called? Jesus and I are about the same age now, I guess. If he is risen and continues to live a crucified/resurected life with GOD, does Jesus have an age? Or does he now transcend the limits of how we mark time? That's speculative thought. But I am pondering this week what it means to fulfill one's purposes in life. In his mid-thirties, Jesus was crucified. And that death someone sets to rights, justifies the world's What does it mean to die? And what does it mean to submit one's life to the will of God by faith? God used me to give away two Easter hams, making two families happy this holiday. For that reason, I am here. Today. But tomorrow is unknown. And tonight is a night of remembering and doing what is most difficult with one's life. Loving others by serving and suffering without regard for one's self. Whether we are wasking each other's piggy toes, as Jesus demonstrates, or giving away Easter hams, the thought is the same: What we have, who we are, where we live, all of this is the work of GOD. Given that reality, why aren't we more content?

this hymn that I love

"Lord, who the night you were betrayed did pray that all your church might be forever one: Help us at every Eucharist to say with willing heart and soul, "Your will be done." Tht we may all one bread, one body be, through this your sacrament of unity.
For all your church on earth we intercede; Lord, make all our sad divisions soon to cease; draw us all closer, each to each, we plead, by drawing all to you, O prince of peace; so may we all one bread, one body be, through this blest sacrament of unity.
And hear our prayer for wand'rers from your fold; restore them too, good shepherd of the sheep. Back to the faith your saints confessed of old, and to the church still pledged that faith to keep. Soon may we all one bread, one body be, through this blest sacrament of unity.
So, Lord, at length when sacraments shall cease, may we be one with all your church above---one with your saints in one unbroken peace, one as your bride in one unbounded love; more blessed sill in peace and love to be one with the Trinnity in unity." William Turton, 1856-1938.

Sacraments. That the sacred is found in certain practices or rituals, to many, is a rejection of the spontanaeity of the Holy Spirit at work in peoples' lives. Especially as the sacraments were coopted by Christendom to centralize spiritual authority and power in the papacy and in an exclusive priesthood. Luther and the reformers sought to correct medieval abuses of the sacraments, but the result has been a Protestant rejection of them. maybe rejectin is too strong a word, but clearly a departure from their centrality. The result has been deep fragmentation of the body of Christ, without a center to unite us. We can't even share! When were you taught to share? As a child, right? The church's lack of devotion to sacramental unity has been responsible, in part, for the spirtual infancy of most Western Christians.
Sadly, the sacraments divide us into our personal theologies and kingdoms where we avoid the other or judge them unworthy to be called brother or sister. Often people seek peace and unity in their own terms and with conditions. Conditional grace is not grace. This Easter, when we gather for ecumenical easter dawn worship in the park I will lament that we are not gathered around the sacramental presence of Christ in the Eucharist. I will lament that the visible, edible expression of Christ's love for us and our love for one another will not be offered. I respect the theological assertions of other Christian traditions and don't seek to impose a way of understanding the gospels, Jesus, or the church on anyone. But the mystey of the meal as the locus of His presence among us, inviting us and nourishing us, is a significant part of my faith and an aspect of the way of Jesus we simply cannot avoid or ignore any longer.
Some friends of anabaptist roots and I gather monthly for eucharistic fellowship. We believe we are transcending sad divisions by living into a table fellowship that is strengthened by ecclesial diversity. May others join us in this endeavor to be an open and hospitable table, where Christ is revealed at the center, in a culture that is decentered, unhinged, and spiritually fragmented.

open plea

April 21st is the date before the judge. Eric will plead guilty and will sit for a summer in county jail awaiting sentencing. He could get 20 to 40 years, given what the DA is requesting. He could go to trial, get destroyed, and spend the rest of his life in prison. He could plead guilty, take the DA's deal and go to prison for 20 years and a few more. Or he can make an open plea, take his chances with the judge for a lesser sentence. He says he's throwing himself on the mercy of the court, given that his priors and his past are non-violent, drug related. I am amazed at his kind of surrender to that. I'm not sure I could do that. I'd want a lawyer to get me less time. Instead he puts his future in the hands of one judge. Will he show mercy?
Eric wants a chance to tell his story. He's even writing a book in prison about his life. It's cathartic, real, and inspired by his sobriety. He's written 180 pages. Of course, he lives in jail where productivity is measured by how few fights broke out in a given week. Eric has made some bad choices in his life. Why? Why do people do what they do? Why did Eric, knowing what he knew about his own siuation and his own weaknesses, exercise such horrible judgment 18 months ago? The reasonable thing to do would have been to call his parole officer, connect with someone who cared, and stay clean enough to stay rational enough to not steal a car, rob some stores, and shoot enough heroine and cocaine in his arm to kill anyone else. He was not reasonable. He went the other way, the path of destruction.
We asked ourselves two questions; why do people commit crimes? And why is Eric still alive? He's been in hell. he's hit the bottom, the pit of self-despair, self-loathing, and selfish pleasure seeking? He has been hopelessly hurting and helplessly waiting for deliverance for a long time. So we read Ephesians 2, "You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desire of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. but God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ---by grace you have been saved---and raised us up with him..." Wow, Paul. You nailed it. Dead, but made alive with Jesus. A cleaned-up mess. A disaster that has experienced relief. Living in that new knowledge of how God has rescued us from our own hells, he canmake an open plea for mercy.
So the book he intends to write and publish is meant to reveal a raw truth about the human condition. It is that all of us are broken, flawed, hurting, hungry, and capable of destructive behaviors. And that we need to be saved or we perish. Salvation becomes real when you're in hell, when you need help, when you are in pain, when you are depressed, alone, imprisoned in your own body and mind.
I asked Eric about the big risk he is taking in an open plea. What if the judge gives him more time than the DA is asking? What if his risk is a fool's errand that will reap a fool's reward? What if he won't leave prison? His son will be five in August. He will grow up with a father in prison. What will be the implications of that for Eric's son? It is complicated. All you can do is surrender to it. If he could control the outcome, predict it, or avoid it, he would. But he can't. So he goes before the judge with an open plea. Don't we all? We face GOD everyday with an open plea. I wake up. I'm alive today. I'm given another chance. I deserve wrath. I'm disobedient. I'm not living a life consistent with the way of Jesus. And yet, I believe that GOD is rich in mercy and imputes onto me the love God has for a son. By grace. freely given, no strings. because of who God is and how God chooses to be toward me. Not because of what i've done, what improvements I've made. And God does the same for Eric, in or out of prison. Will God rescue Eric from the criminal justice system? Can we pray for his release? Eric is doubtful of prayer's affect on his sentencing. Can God persuade the judge? Or is God's work saving Eric, even while he is serving out his sentencce, more important than whether God miraculously gets Eric released earlier? What is salvation? May God be gracious with Eric, with his family, and with all of us. May we make our open plea everyday trusting in God's unending mercy given through Jesus. He took the place of a criminal named barabbas, in order that a criminal might be set free. Barabbas means "sonof a father". Aren't we all children of a parent? Is Barabbas "everyman"? Is Jesus judged in our place? Is not his execution, meant for us? What if we lived in that knowledge, within the beauty of that grace?

Holy Week contemplations 2009

Lent is coming to an end this week. And although I am grateful to celebrate the resurrection on Sunday, I will miss it. Lent feels more natural to me than other pars of the church year. I think its because I am at home with a theological anthropology that is Augustinian or maybe a bit Calvinist. I believe people suck. We are not good. We are in a mess that we have made. We are responsible for the unholy crap that occurs everyday. So lent allows me to feel the depth of my moral depravity, to wallow in my personal muck, and to be truthful about my weaknesses.

Yesterday we observed Palm/Passion Sunday. We used Eoc-friendly Palms from Lutheran World relief---meaning that theydid not contribute to deforestation, while we did contribute to the sustainable economy of a Mexican Palm tree farmer. That was a good thing. It always amazes me that the gospel narrative for Sunday holds together this schizophrenic nature of people; one minute the crowds are following Jesus the Messiah King into Jerusalem shoutin "Hosanna". A week later they are accusing him of treason and shouting "crucify". Fickle, aren't we Jesus? Thing is, I doubt any of us would be in that crowd, so passionate and bold. Not us, not the privileged. We couldn't follow Jesus on the grounds that he would turn our safe and happy worlds upside-down. We maybe required to give up our lives in order to declare allegiance to him. Better to back Rome and the powers- that-be. been I think we would have abandoned Jesus well before the Passover march on Temple jerusalem. And by the time the crucifixion occurs, we would have been back to work. Its amazing that his followers interpreted the cross as the divine salvation event considering how many crucifixions they would have witnessed already. I propose that the truth about Jesus' life and death would have escaped us as it did Roman history and the annals of antiquity for the most part. Were it not for those who beleived in his resurrection, we would not have a single story about Jesus life and death.

Lent offers forty days of spiritual formation and continuing education for those of us whose lives are caught up in the story of Jesus. Prayer, fasting, giving, and studying become hallmarks of the season. I fast from coffee for the season because coffee is a sign of my dependence on earthly things, rather than on the things of GOD. (Not saying that coffee is not a gift from GOD, because it is. Its just that I take it for granted and I depend on it as daily bread.) I also try to reada good book or two. This lent has been challenging though. I have been doing the work of an evangelist and the inefficiency of that kind of ministry takes its toll on my time. I continue to visit people in prison and have made hopeful connections with three men there. I'm also involved in a prison ministry task force, the church in society committee of our synod and our advocacy council. We have been making innovative plans to infiltrate our annual synodical assembly this June. I will be wearing a prison-issue orange jump suit with stats on incarceration in PA and the U.S. I hope we raise awareness that inspires mission to the prison population.

We explored "The Jesus Creed" by Scot McKnight this Lent. I recommend it for anyone who has read "The Purpose Driven life" by Rik Warren, because I think the former is a smarter alternative to the self-help guidebook that Warren wrote. "The Jesus Creed" asks about spiritual formation in the time of Jesus. His suggestion is that Jesus was spiritually formed by the Shemaand by the Levitical command to the love the neighbor. These two commandments from the Torah shaped Jesus' messianic/rabbinical ministry. What I'm learning again is that my assumptions about Jesus ought never to become rigid and unchangeable. McKnight offers another way in which we might look at Jesus, come to know him, follow him, and love him.
In the Easter season I will blog. We will be exploring what it means to care for creation and its renewal.

Bread for the World

Bread for the World's offering of Letters is a way in which we can speak on behalf of the global poor and hungry to those with power and money and means to change the global economic landscape so that a billion people can eat. Because of the rise in gobal food prices 115 million more people are experiencing hunger in 2008-2009. And the U.S. continues to have one ofthe highest rates of poverty among developed nations and one of the lowest percentages of GDP devoted to poverty relief. This will only change when people with the will and the heart to change it, speak together. "What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your GOD." Click on the link above to connect with the resources and education you need to turn the world around. Are we not stewards and partners with GOD in the ongoing work of the kingdom? Are we not called to be a sign of the in-breaking reign of GOD revealed and announced in the life, death,and resurrection of Jesus? Are we a city on a hill or a lamp under a bushel basket? Send a letter today that inspires leaders to devote more time and more resources toward compassion for the most vulnerable in the world. And find a way to give a meal, a room, a coat, a hand to someone else.

Loving Lent

Loving Lent
I love Lent. I need a time of intentional self-reflection, a reality check, and a time to refocus my spiritual life by committing anew to the basics: prayer and fasting, reading God’s Word, worship, and serving others. And this Lent, we are on a journey together toward a deeper love for God and our neighbors.
“Is not this the fast I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?” Isaiah the prophet declares that God is in the liberation business. God liberates us from isolation from others, especially those in need. God liberates us from our need to secure our own lives, to sustain ourselves while our neighbors suffer without. God frees us from selfish pursuits and a lack of concern for the family next door. This is LENT: a time when GOD prepares us for death and resurrection. Dying and rising, daily renewal, daily cleansing, daily rebirth is the way of Jesus. In Lent we will hear gospel stories of how Jesus overcomes the powers of evil, injustice, corruption, deceit, and suffering in order to bring goodness, justice, light, and hope. He is tested, as we are, to deny GOD by denying others access to the life we have received. Will Jesus retreat from the world to live a pure and blameless life before GOD? Or will Jesus commit to love this world with a divine and holy love that serves all people according to their needs by giving his life away? And will we commit to this same sacrificial service through acts of prayer and generosity?
This Lent we are exploring “The Jesus Creed” by Scot McKnight. We are asking, “what does it mean to love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength; and to love our neighbors as ourselves?” How do we express this kind of love everyday as a community of faith? Does our worship service reflect our love and devotion for GOD? Does it invite an out-pouring of love that is personal and joyful? Does worship direct you to give every thought, every moment, every physical action, every emotion and affection to GOD? Scot McKnight wrote, “I can think of no better illustration of what genuine Christian worship is all about: Worship happens when I comprehend (1) who I really am before God---a love-violating sinner, (2) how faithful and gracious God is to his sacred commitment of love for me, and (3) how incredibly good God is to open the floodgates of that love to me.” This Lent, consider how your worship life reflects your affection and gratitude toward God the Father. Consider what it means to forego or avoid worship, what it means to worship only when it suits your own schedule or plans. Its sort of like skipping Thanksgiving dinner or the family reunion or the weekly phone call to “that one you love”, isn’t it? Worship is an act of love, no less significant that your wedding anniversary or your child’s birthday. At least it’s that significant to GOD. Isaiah and the Psalmist and even Jesus would agree, however, that how you worship is less important than that you worship GOD. For the worship of GOD includes loving our neighbors, loosing the bonds of injustice, and feeding the hungry poor. This Lent, may you become faithfully devoted to Jesus’ creed to love God and love others.

NoiseTrade Widget

Ministry to Prisoners

Ministering to those in Lancaster Co. Prison
This ministry of visitation to which I have been called has shown me that the Lord Jesus can be found there, in the broken lives of young people. I’ve seen and heard stories of pain, anger, and grief. These are people who have broken the law, are facing the consequences, and also need to be shown love and compassion. There is little reform and rehab available for them. Shouldn’t people come out of prison better than when they went in? Shouldn’t that be a social goal? Repentance and transformation of life is characteristic of the Christian life before GOD.
I invite you to become an encourager and spiritual friend by sending mail to one of the men I have been visiting. The mail cannot include items such as, cash, newspaper clippings or photo copies. All mail is searched for unauthorized items prior to the inmate receiving it. You may not drop off any correspondence to inmates, it must go through the mail. Please sign only with your first name. If you wish to receive a response, please use the church’s address for a return address and we will forward responses to you. Thank you for sharing your faith in GOD with these children of GOD, who need the compassionate justice of Christ in their lives.

Address mail to inmates as follows:

Daniel Wickenheiser, pin #07-5617
Lancaster County Prison
Drawer C
625 East King Street
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17602-3199

Justin Thompson, pin #08-5274
Lancaster County Prison
Drawer C
625 East King Street
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17602-3199

Eric Singley, Pin # 07-4196
Lancaster County Prison
Drawer C
625 East King Street
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17602-3199

Evan Gardner, Pin #08-5689
Lancaster County Prison
Drawer C
625 East King Street
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 17602-3199

On Lepers and Bodies and Walls that divide us

Who are lepers? It is not fair to say that a leper is anyone we exclude, either deliberately or unintentionally. It is also not fair to say that a leper is one particular group of alienated peoples relative to our own day and age. So, to say that lepers are black people or gay people or ugly people or “you fill in-your own personal outcast” people is not fair. Lepers were cast out in Jesus’ day because they were considered physically diseased. The sores on their bodies were sometimes open sores, oozing blood or fluid. This was forbidden in God’s law. I suspect as an early form of quarantine for the sake of public health. The assumption was that people with this kind of disease were contagious. Blood diseases were particularly frightening and dangerous. Women were basically excommunicated monthly because of cyclical bleeding. And such was the concern for lepers. Because the law stated that these people were to be cast out for a period of time to be determined by the priests. Timing was important. If you leave someone back into the community too son, others may become sick too. If you wait too long the outcast may die or become so estranged as to have not economic place in a household or village.
Religion does become a purity cult sometimes, excluding others to propagate ones own identity and value. So it is troubling when religious communities exclude or reject people based on a consensus about what is good or normal or safe. And it is always a good experiment to look around and see who is in our communities and neighborhoods but is not in our religious community. Lutherans have struggled with race matters. Less than 10 % of the ELCA is non-white. The problem is not that we exclude people of color overtly based on some prejudice or opposition to the presence of non-white people in our churches or communities. Although that may be the case in some places. I should hope that many of us are beyond that in this day. But the issue is a cultural one. Racial issues are cross-cultural issues and require that we learn and accept a different cultural heritage, a different historical viewpoint, and a different language.
In college chapel people from the state mental hospital came to worship with us. They were noisy and required a lot of attention, sometimes distracting, but participatory in their own way. You know how sometimes a children’s sermon gets out of hand? Imagine that happening randomly throughout worship. And then there was Eric, mentally ill and very faithful. He sat in the front row, a characteristically unlutheran move. There was a desire on the part of some to quell his enthusiasm, to silence his mannerisms, to move him to the back of the nave. He insisted on being part of our pre-worship prayer in the sacristy and insisted on a pastoral hug, too.
I wonder what it will be like when Dan and Justin start coming to worship and showing up for things after they are released from prison? Will people feel unsafe enough to leave this congregation?
Jesus chooses to declare someone clean before his time is up. He pardons him early, releases him from his imprisonment to a disease or ailment he did not choose not could he control. The results of his leprosy must have been cruel because he begs Jesus to heal him. He was ready to resume life on the inside of the community, to be part of a living and sustainable economy with food and family and friend and faith. Things the “clean” take for granted. Clean and unclean is not a thing of history. It is a way people perceive people, how we organize ourselves as communities, how we live. Hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, group homes…But Jesus touches him, making himself potentially unclean. He is saying something here: GOD is unclean. GOD is not in favor of any rules written or unwritten that render some people normal and others abnormal. GOD is not in favor of rules that remove those who are different from the benefits of community life. GOD embraces us all. To the chagrine of the clean among us and to the absolute joy of the unclean. Privilege is a wonderful thing that provides security, essential resources, and the viewpoint from above that requires keeping the underprivileged or the less fortunate at arms length. If we let them in, what will happen to us?
Jesus doesn’t care. He lets them in. he loves them all. And he expects them same of us. Jesus was not religious, no purist. But he demanded a new kind of religion that was just and hospitable and inclusive and compassionate toward the very least and most vulnerable and he knew that laws that did not embody that same spirit were meant to be broken. No wonder they crucified him. His love was broader and stronger than their dividing walls. Whatever separates, whatever breaks down, whatever dismantles and destroys relationships—these are powers Jesus came to abolish. 21 centuries later, Jesus Christ has overcome time and distance and human failings to come to us, to welcome us in ,to make us God’s own children. May the walls in our hearts be torn down. May we meet the leper and welcome him by joining him wherever he is and may we create a community that looks like the Kingdom announced by Jesus, the one who reaches out for us and chooses us. Amen.

"Everyone is Searching for you"

“Everyone is searching for you”. They were sorely lacking many things in th first century. None mre noticeable that GOOGLE and GPS. If only they had had these gifts, this statement would never have been made. We are searchers. Seekers. Lost and longing for direction. And we have created devices to help us along. Too bad they don’t get us closer to the one who can truly find us. “Everyone is searching for you.” This is a powerful statement that the disciples say to Jesus. After a night of the deepest human needs beating down their door, a night in which Jesus announcement of the Kingdom of God is realized in the most profoundly real ways through miraculous healings and release from demonic spirits. After a night in the darkness of human anguish, when the world began to see God in the hands and eyes of this Galilean preacher. They come to the desert, to the desolate and lonely place to find him alone in prayer. And they say, “Everyone is searching for you.” I suspect their goal was to get him back at it, return him to work, keep the healings coming. As his popularity grew, they could see the plan unfold. He wins over the peasant population, who are so enamoured by his work and ingratiated by his generosity toward them that they marshall the human resources to mount a legitimate offensive against Rome. They see him as a grassroots organizer, able to arouse the passions of the masses and foment the anger of their rivals into an ultimate battle that they will surely win with the Messiah with them. Like most powerful leaders in our world, Jesus will experience the two ways in which they become famous. He will be both the hero and the scapegoat. People love to praise the leader. People love to blame the leader. It’s the best way to deal with our own sins. Crown the leader; then hang the leader. “Everyone is searching for you,” could be said of people in every time and place. We want to anoint someone, a savior and a martyr to do our living and our dying for us. This search for Jesus is powerful and poignant, mostly because its true for so many people. Not only in Capernaum, but in the world. The world is searching, groaning, fighting, and dying for someone to help us. Obama and the congress are just the most recent examples of a never-ending search for salvation. Save us from extreme poverty and from obscene wealth. Save us from diseases that kill and weapons that maim. Save us from past resentments and future uncertainties. Save us from broken families and broken hearts. Save us from planetary catastrophe and from personal crises. Save us from the false deception of security and from the truth about death. Save us from loneliness and save us from the din of text message, cell phone, email, and facebook overload. Save us from an irrelevant life and save us from self-centeredness.
On Sunday mornings our disciple class has been wondering about grace. What is the grace of GOD? Jesus teaches us grace today; grace is not self-important. He was not the local medicine man/faith healer. He was the embodiment of a global message of salvation. He did not operate under the false assumption that he could fix every problem in their community. He did not operate without retaining the source of his power and identity as son of God through prayer. His actions required reflection and prayer. There is no bodily healing, no physical hope for salvation that is not accompanied by a spirit life. Just as there is not only spiritual salvation and healing, but Jesus came to redeem and heal the physical world, the whole creation. He teaches us that the rhythm of human life requires that we submit ourselves to a time of solitude and silence before God, as well as time immersed in the sea of human need. Evening and morning is the rhythm of the poem of creation in Genesis one. From the darkness of disease and demon-possession to the dawn of God’s glorious presence. That is the rhythm to which Jesus calls us. It is a holy rhythm and one are invited to connect with in order to receive the salvation he offers. Grace is submitting or surrendering to the wonder of all that God is and all that God gives. We live in a can-do,do it yourself culture. We live in a culture of independence and entitlement where everyone deserves an ipod, a flat screen, and an SUV. We live in an age where the self is idolized as the ultimate good. If its good for me than its good enough. We live in an age of self-doubt, when we assume life is as good as it gets and no one is gonna rescue anyone from the mess we’re in. Your life is your problem, your situation, and miracles are rare.
And then Jesus heals many. And not just anyone. He heals Simon’s mother-in-law, showing us that his ministry was not just general goodness, but had personal consequences for families familiar to the Christian community who first heard this gospel. He didn’t just heal anybody, he healed Simon-Peter’s mother-in-law. And trust me, I know how relieved Peter felt. I can’t do what I do if its not for my mother-in-law. Obviously Peter and his wife had children. And mother-in-laws are critical to the sustainability of a household, especially when the man of the house is exercising discipleship ministry in the church.
Everyone is searching for you, though many do not know it. They don’t know that you are the one whom they seek. So they look in the wrong places, at the wrong person and many are disappointed and leftAnd those of us who know you and what you are about and what you seek to do and be for this world have not shared you with them, either. We have kept you hidden and placid and stained-glassed and pure and have not unleashed yo on this broken and needy world crying out for justice and mercy and love and healing and freedom. But we know you will go, whether we are with you or not. You go. You show up. You offer. You bless. You touch and heal and raise up. Because you are grace. And we need grace. We seek you. Be our Lord and Savior. Amen.

koinonia 21c beach retreat conversations

Koinonia 21c
Beach retreat February 6-8, 2009.
Conversations (PLEASE READ AS A GROUP)

Spend some time together. Enjoy the gift of rest and friendship.
And be spiritually formed as followers of Jesus and lovers of GOD and one another. Spend some time thinking about these things. Because you are here. And this is a Sabbath time for holy conversations among friends. The following is a way for you to go. You may do this as a large group, in small groups, in your rooms with snacks at 2 am. You may do something else. Decide together. Everyone will retreat in their own way. There’s more here than you’ll need for the weekend. What you begin, we will continue…and so…
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and deep and long and high is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge---that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of GOD.” Ephesians 3:14-19.

GOD
· Read Psalm 148.
In the BIBLE GOD is known for creating all things, choosing a people/tribe/nation (Abraham), delivering a people from slavery and political oppression (Moses), the torah (law), the prophets (interpreting the law through the spirit of divine grace, mercy, love), priests and kings. The biblical GOD is intimately involved in human community-from families to nations, the poor to the wealthy, the weak to the powerful. This GOD is before and beyond space and time, yet is available and somehow near. GOD’s transcendence inspires awe and worship. GOD’s proximity inspires devotion and desire to be where God is.
A. GOD creates with intention for humanity. What is it? How are we part of God’s ongoing creative work? What is your role in that creativity? What do you make? What would you like to see this community (koinonia 21c) create? Share an experience that you would describe as beautiful.

B. What enslaves you? Who are the slaves in our world? What does deliverance look like and how do we announce it?
C. There are over 600 laws in the Old testament. Jesus summed them all up with two. What were those two laws? How did Jesus enact those laws? How can we?
D. Prophets remind us that being religious is not enough. God wants our hearts to be changed. God desires mercy, not sacrifice. God calls us to justice, to set right what is wrong in human community. God wants us to be holy. What does it mean to be holy and be human? What is divine justice? Read Matthew 18:23-35 to hear a story from Jesus.





US
· Read Psalm 51.
a. Humans are screwed up. Genesis 3 describes the fall or the emergence of sin. Is sin an act of disobedience or an act of freedom? How might you describe sin?
Name a way in which you are vulnerable. Name a weakness. Name a failure. What is tragic about “the human story?” What, in history, must we not repeat? How have you/ we/ all of us contributed to the destruction of creation? What needs healing, reconciliation, and forgiveness in your world?

b. Humans are made in GOD’s image. What do you love about yourself? What is the most amazing thing about humans? What is the best thing humans have invented, done, thought up? What is divine about you and the person next to you? What is beautiful about people? What relationships do you cherish?

JESUS
· Read Mark 16:1-8.
Why did Jesus die? What did he teach? What was the coolest thing Jesus did? Why did he rise from the dead? Where is JESUS? How does Jesus feed us, save us, love us? What does it mean to be fully God and fully human? What does JESUS hope for this world? Baptism and the Lord’s supper are the places/experiences through which we get connected to Jesus and His way of love/life. How can bread and water become a way we share Jesus with others? .

CHURCH?
· Read John 17:20-26.
Koinonia 21c is a way we live Jesus’ prayer. What is difficult about unity? As a social networking community that may include people from various locations, backgrounds, and generations how do we embody unity? (In the NT, The Acts community did not become “Christian” until after they were scattered to various parts of the empire.) What does it mean for koinonia 21c to be church? If you could dream together: How might we become a living, active church? What might the local cluster groups be like? What might large group worship be like? Who is connecting? What is our mission as church? How can we be spiritually formed for this mission? Will regular clusters be the place for formation and mission?

NEXT?
As I said this is part of an ongoing conversation that happens on line, in congregations, at events, among friends over coffee or tea or pepsi or beer. And we are part of it. It is a larger movement in our culture and in the church that has emerged in recent years which is changing the way in which we understand and embody the message of Jesus. It is exciting, especially when conversations lead to generous service and inspiring worship.
May we be faithful, even as GOD is faithful to us in the Spirit of His Risen Son, Jesus the LORD of life. AMEN.

emerging vs. emergent

Click on the above title to read an excellent interview/article with Brian McLaren that comes from the emergingchurch.info website. Also a good resource for ongoing thought inspiration and conversation about where we are as church, where we're going, and what is emerging among us.
One thing is certain, when the culture shifts the church does too. Phyllis Tickle's book, "The Great Emergence", identifies the seismic cultural shift of our time and connects them to previous eras in history. Every half millenium there is such a shift and the result is a sifting of theology and ecclesiology to respond to the changes. The Great Reformation in the 16th century was the last of these shifts. And we are experiencing another one. Think of the difference: Printing press--computer. Mass mail---email. Neighborhood---internet. Television---YouTube. Telephone---Iphone. 90 years is rather short to experience the kind of incredible shift that we have in communication and community. Tickle expertly identifies the shift and begins to answer the question, so where are we now and where are we headed? Since this is the time in which we are sifting out these answers, we live in ambiguity and some tension between what was and what will be. Some us us on the emergent front are pressing for a new sense of center, authority, identity and praxis. McLaren seems to point toward clarity. So, read the article and the book. And ask yourself, "Where are we as a church? Are we able to engage and address the situation we are in or are we still disassociated from the context that surrounds us Where am I in the midst of that question? What are we coming to believe about the church, Jesus, GOD, the world, religion, politics, money, etc..."

task force or forced into another task...?

I met a dozen people today. A few clergy people. And several priests or ministers who live out their vocations in non-ordained or non-rostered lives. We were brought together by a common passion for prison ministry to form a "prison ministry task force" for this synod. The initiator of the group is a woman who is passionately called to prison ministry, is seeking financial and institutional support to more fully engage in it as a newly ordained pastor. (I am suggesting that some of her motives are selfish ones, but her heart is planted in the liberating justice/mercy of GOD.) As for me and my prison visits, I can hardly call my weekly venture a passion. I am devoted to it. I enjoy going. I feel a sense of calling to it. But passionate? I'd rather not have a calling to go to prison every week to be honest. I'd rather not feel compassion for these guys and their families. I'd rather not feel compelled to go and tell them the good news. I'd like to be that guy I was last year. Dad. Husband. Pastor. Trying to survive parish ministry. Thinking about mission development, synodical transformation, etc...but not prison ministry. Missional, incarnational, cruciform ministry is harder to practice. And it is counter cultural and counter to the institutional church. I now spend more time engaging non-members than members. I wonder what the members think of this? Whose Pastor am I? I guess that is a question that needs to be asked by me, this congregation, the ELCA. The vocational ministry of the ordained clergy has been narrowly practiced. GK Chesterton said, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried." Is the pastor's ministry exclusively congregationalist? To preach and teach, to pray and serve the congregation to whom he is called? Or is the pastor the leader of a movement of spiritually formed missionaries sent to bear witness to the transforming grace of the gospel in the neighborhood/world? Is there a balance to strike? Is it possible to serve two masters---the ones who pay our salaries and the ones who don't? I lean toward the latter and seek not to strike a balance but to increasingly engage in gospel ministry outside of congregational life. To whom are we called and sent? I am not being questioned about my weekday ministry. And I am relatively transparent about it, too. I share on Sunday what God is doing Monday-Saturday. All this is to say that I have undregone a spiritual/vocational transformation in the past two years that has been profound, ground-shifting. And it is hard to embody this transformation weekly because I am being called to dark and complicated places where there is brokenness, pain, fear, grief, anxiety, shame, and a lack of spiritual maturity. I see two men every week and I should see at least two others. but I don't want to take on another two guys' stories and struggles and spiritual needs.
Because there is also more local family ministry calling me. I met two families this week. Both facing their own challenges. Economic, social, spiritual, relational. And I wondered in both circumstances, as I wonder when I go to prison. Am I what or who they need? What can I possibly offer them that will seriousl make a dent in their daily lives? I'm broken too. A "cracked eikon" to borrow Scot McKnight's language (in his book "Embracing Grace", cracked eikons refers to the broken state of sin and death we are in, even though we are icons of God, made in His image and called to reflect His grace and glory as children and heirs and followers of the Christ). So what can I bring them? I met Gary and Deanna and their three kids. I met Sierra and her three kids, too. I know that this is a privilege to be invited into their lives. Even when there are challenges, struggles, and truth to be told in love. Even when we can't solve the promblem ,can't erase the debt, fix the cracks, etc...Maybe all we do is trust GOD. Let the rest go. Hope for the Kingdom. Pray for peace and reconciliation. And stay out of the way. I am reminded of how little of the daily work of ministry is about me and my intellect or generosity of spirit. God does it all. We just showed up for it.

why i like mondays

I like Mondays. It's one of my favorite workdays anymore. On Sundays I share the gospel with people and I often wonder if what we heard and saw changed anyone. Not so on Mondays. Monday afternoons have become significant. I find that one of my favorite things to be is their guest. Not in a selfish sort of way, seeking the hospitaity and good graces of another, but in the sense that I like to be on other people's turf. I like to be in the unfamilarity of a new place that is not my own. Befriending prisoners was not part of my sense of call until last winter. They are why I like Mondays.
I have had the amazing opportunity for the past few months to visit with people in county prison. I see two guys every week now and will likely add another guy to my weekly visitations soon. I love going there and being their friend. It started when I started visiting a couple of folks connected to my congregation, but quickly evolved into a calling to go and share good news with strangers. Strangers who sometimes become friends. Like Dan. I found out yesterday that Dan's celly is the brother of another guy I had been visiting a few months ago. Small world. I guess I've visited 6 people in the past year. I tend to keep my circle small so I can devote attention to them over the course of their time inside. I have only been able to stay connected to two people after their release. But I expect that will change.
What is it like in there? I don't really know. But I know it's home for too many young men and women. The recidivism rate is like 50%---that's the percentage of incarcerated who return to prison with 3 years of release. Justice and mercy is an organization devoted to systemic reform. Visit their site to learn more. I also know that prison does not correct or reform, because most prisoners do not take advantage of the few opportunities offered to them. And the programs that are offered are just that; institutional programs. They are not transformational. So much of what our culture does with people is superficial and impersonal, programmatic and routine. Jesus' ministry building relationships by crossing boundaries. Going to the prisons. Jesus quoted Isaiah and said that he was proclaiming release to the captives. He also declared that visiting prisoners was tantamount to visiting the Christ.
When we visit, we talk about life inside and outside. We talk about next steps, fears and hopes. We have been been able to talk about Jesus, to pray together, to dream and hope together, to suffer together, to tell the truth to each other, and to sit in silence. I like to prescribe a spiritual practice for the guys. Read this psalm everyday. I had prescribed psalm 13 and the Sermon on the Mount for Justin. This week he shared how he was being shaped by those words. He shared the words of jesus thatstood out to him,moved him, struck him, challenged him. Few congregation members have shared such insight and excitement about Jesus'words. Perhaps they are too familiar.
When I leave now I have a little guilt. Being free is not something to take for granted, especially if you begin to identify with prisoners. Am I so different that they are? Why I am out here? The law is a tricky thing. We all break the law. We've simply weighted the law in such a way that certain breaches are penalized and others are not. Nevertheless I always look forward to Monday.

Carefully Taught

After the November election or maybe before it, someone in the black community said, “Rosa sat so Martin could walk. Martin walked so Barack could run. Barack ran so our children could fly.” Tracing the election of the first biracial President to the civil rights movement. I don’t care what any of you think about the election results, the President-elect, or democratic politics. We must acknowledge as a people that the ability of a nation to elect a leader whose racial profile situates him within a community whose history includes slavery and oppressive poverty, segregation, and disenfranchisement is a revolutionary act. And an act that could not have been accomplished had it not been for the sacrifice of many leaders who demonstrated for Barack Obama and the black community that they are human, divinely made, and worthy of equality, respect, and the best of what this nation, this world, and our GOD have to offer. Demonstrated by Rosa Parks, by those in Alabama who participated in the bus boycott, by Dr. King and those who marched on Washington, by Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson and Hiram Revels the first African American US senator. How can we name all of those people, historical public figures and personal relationships who demonstrated for the world how to exercise compassionate justice toward all people. Being human is demonstrated to us, behaviors are learned and acquired through relationships with other humans. We are socially and relationally taught to behave in ways consistent with those around us. In the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific, a musical about race relations, my favorite song is You’ve got to be carefully taught the lyrics are poignant for us today.
You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

As for race, so with faith. Faith is demonstrated to us through the lives of faithful others. We come to know, see, hear, recognize GOD in the ordinariness of daily life only in so much as others have demonstrated their own belief and trust in that GOD’s presence. The story of the call of Samuel the prophet is a fine example of many call stores in the bible. Samuel did not know the LORD, did not hear God’s voice or see God’s glory before. He was an unconverted child of religion. He was being trained by a priest, Eli. And then the LORD spoke to Him. His ability to understand, recognize, and respond to GOD was contingent on Eli’s realization that God was speaking. Eli’s faith directed Samuel to listen. It makes one think, does God speak to us in ways that we are unable to hear because we have not paid attention to other faithful listeners who demonstrate for us how to hear GOD?
And then in the gospel, we hear the call of Philip to Nathaniel to come and see. IN John’s gospel Jesus’ divinity is demonstrated through signs or miracles and ultimately in His willingness to suffer and die for his disciples, for the world. Nathaniel is invited to come and see, but his ability to recognize in Jesus of Nazareth the very image of God is contingent on Jesus’ demonstration of his identity and on Philip’s capacity to share what He believes. Without Philip’s testimony, Nathaniel does not come, does not see, does not believe. Without Philip Nazareth remains the town out of which come uneducated bandits, prostitutes---salt of the earth, not light of the world. Our faith is contingent on the demonstration of others who in word and deed show us the way. Christ is indeed revealed to the world in the behaviors of the church, in our corporate witness, in our actions and speech. People learn about Jesus through our demonstration of the His way of life. We have to stop thinking about Christian education as something that you attend in Sunday school, a program of the church. Christian education is what we do that demonstrates to others that we are in relationship with the God who raised Jesus from the dead. We have to be careful about what we are teaching others in our silence toward injustice, in our own prejudices unresolved, in our unforgiving attitudes. Do our homes, our checkbooks, our relationships, our work and leisure lives reflect the gospel? Are we teaching others how to love God and the world, and our neigbors as ourselves? Are we grateful for having received it ourselves?
Who first demonstrated for you what it means to follow Jesus, to be a disciple, to live in the presence of God. Who carefully taught you how to love others, including people who are not like you? Who taught you how to give generously, how to care for creation, how to pray? Who taught you how to worship? Who taught you how to serve others? And who are you teaching? Who is your Samuel? Who is your Nathaniel? All of us have been Samuel and Nathaniel—coming to know and grow in faith toward this GOD who speaks and calls us and commands us and forgives us and leads us and suffers with us. All of us have been carefully taught. Some us are still learning. Some of us are also teaching. May you learn and teach the way of Jesus as if the world depended on it, because maybe it does. Amen.

Kingdom of GOD

It was inspiring, moving, and unprecedented in the course of human events. It would mean something, a promise fulfilled, a hope realized, a dream come true. To some, it was just another speech, another spiel, another stump. To others it was life-affirming, and life-changing. It was so compelling that people came. A few at first, then a lot. Millions over time. The first ones who caught the spirit of change and the winds of revolution were not the educated or intelligent, not the wealthy or the politically savvy, not the strategist or the leaders, not the innovators or the worldly. The first were everyday folk, hard workers, struggling to survive, a little angry at the way things were, a little helpless and hopeless in the face of systemic oppression. People ready for change.
The implications of the bold words he spoke would have resonated with the lowest of the low and the highest and mightiest. His words were politically charged, not just rhetoric to gain approval or attention or support. Real words with real weight. Words that could be and would be refuted and rejected by many, even as so many others believed in them, devoted themselves to them, saw them lived out and embodied in the man’s actions.
And it was the actions, as much as the words that truly inspired. He crossed boundaries, broke rules, rejected old divisions, animosities, and grudges. He refused to play by the cultural, social, ethnic rules. He invited local politicians and local law-breakers to one table. No party politics. He was neither conservative, nor liberal. He was not an elitist, but he could rival any educated teacher with an authoritative voice. He reached out to communities that had been written off, rejected, isolated, and devalued. He offered an alternative way, another system, a different take on the notion of progress and the project of civility. He was willing to sacrifice his own life so that others might be embraced by someone lovely and good. He came among his own and they rejected him.
When Jesus announced that the Kingdom of God was at hand, he announced that an eternal reality was being revealed and opened to the world. He announced that the rules and rulers of this world would no longer control and oppress the truth about life. He announced that the deceptions and false assumptions people had made about God, about the earth, about themselves, and others were being fully disclosed and uncovered. He announced that the world’s story was about to be retold from a new perspective. He announced an end to captivity, a deliverance, a renewal, a healing, an emergence of new life, a light in darkness, a way through suffering and death to a forever life and a more perfect home. He announced that the cosmic forces for evil were being crushed, bound, gagged, cut off at the knees, imprisoned, overcome. And they were being overcome by goodness and peace and mercy and compassion and grace and love and beauty and freedom. All powers we will possess as he does, when we are possessed by GOD’s Spirit and will.
The implications of this announcement often go unrecognized and undetected. Largely because we are dust, weak, children. And we are living in deceit, denial, and dehumanizing systems impoverished by the depths of human history. For 2,000 years people have been arguing and killing over the meaning of this phrase, kingdom of GOD. But he came with no military force, no economic stimulus package, no bailout monies, no debt free future solutions, no 50% off sales, no simple solution to lose weight in 30 days. He didn’t immediately put an end to all strife. He didn’t reduce carbon emissions or nuclear warheads. He didn’t slow the aging process or promise your best life now. He didn’t teach us how to make millions or how to win the praises of friend and enemy alike.
He taught us how to live and how to die. He gave us a way to follow and the necessary forgiveness and healing to keep on following in spite of the danger one will face when one tries. He taught us to turn the other cheek and to reject retribution and revenge as an option. He taught us to be content with what we are given and to give away what we have. He showed us that suffering and sorrow that come from entering the life of another human being and offering to serve is beautiful and worthy of praise. He gives us hope that dying, surrendering, freely offering yourself is to live a life that is redeemable and will be resurrected.
If you are impressed with the life you have made for yourself or you are content with the world as it is, if you believe that humanity is a flawed project at best and at worst just a cosmic accident with no better future. If you believe that the only end to come is death or annihilation of the species or the planet as a whole, then the message announced by and lived fully by Jesus is going to be a hard message to swallow.
But if you are ready for change, renewal, hope, a reevaluation of life’s meaning, and a way forward that will change everything on this planet from the way you shop to the way you relate to your neighbors then it is time to begin. Following this way has never been easy. It is demanding and requiring of you. Its symbol is a cross, after all. The hangman's noose. So let me announce this to you as plainly as I can: Repent, turn around, change your mind, reorient your life, for the Kingdom of GOD, God’s life and power and rule and hope and dream and will and way in this world is at hand, in front of your face, within you, around you, over you, and visibly here. If you are wondering wghere or how or when or why...why you, why now, why us, why, then...See Jesus for details. Amen.

Inauguration

It is a new beginning of sorts, a "new era of responsibility" is what he called it. As we turn another page in the annals of human history, this time a new volume begins. It signals the end of an age and the beginning of another. Indifference to or paralysis in the face of unjust and dehumanizing systems that subtly or overtly oppress and devalue others on the basis of human distinctions can no longer exist as the default position of Americans in the world.

On Tuesday, January 20, 2009 we witnessed an historic and revolutionary act of redemption and transition in the global social-political arena. Barach Hussein Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. He is the first African American President, raised in Hawaii and Indonesia. He is the son of a Kenyan immigrant and a midwesterner. He was raised with his maternal grandparents and mother, in the absence of his father. he is extremely well-educated and a product of postmodernity. He is struggling to give up his blackberry. He is married to Michelle, also a successful lawyer. They lived in Chicago, where he sought to revitalize struggling communities. He was a state Senator and spent four years in the U.S. Senate. His intellect and capacity to understand complex issues of history, politics, economics, and human relationships makes him a highly capable leader. He is charismatic and bold. He inspires confidence and hope for a generation of people increasingly frustrated with modern institutions, special interest politics, and a consumption-driven economy that privileges the few. He will be paid $400,000 a year to lead our nation out of war, out of economic recession, out of a cultural poverty that lacks beauty and innovation, industry and compassion. We pay entertainers and athletes 100 times what he makes in a year. He was sworn in on Lincoln's inaugural bible.
148 years ago Lincoln, the proclaimer of emancipation, was sworn into the Presidency by the chief justice (Robert Taney) who wrote the decision in the Dred Scott case that stated: "States do not have the right to claim an individual’s property that was fairly theirs in another state. Property cannot cease to exist as a result of changing jurisdiction. The majority decision held that Africans residing in America, whether free or slave, could not become United States citizens and the plaintiff therefore lacked the capacity to file a lawsuit. Furthermore, the parts of the Missouri Compromise creating free territories were unconstitutional because Congress had no authority to abolish slavery in federal territories." ----ruling of the court in Dred Scott vs. Sanford, March 6, 1857. In 1865 and '68 the thirteenth and fourteenth amendmants would guarantee full rights and citizenship for people of African descent. 140 years after the fourteenth amendment is passed, Barack Obama swears to preserve and protect the very constitution that guarantees the equality and freedom essential to our national identity and to rehumanizing the other in our midst. We have lived in deep deception, blindness, and fear. The people who walked in darkness...After Tuesday, isolationism and terrorism--the two actions produced by absolute fear---cannot remain the default mechanism by which humans operate in the world. "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself," said F.D. Roosevelt. And what he meant holds true today more than ever before. Fear is a root cause of suffering. "Perfect love drives out fear," wrote John. To love the other is to engage them, to see them, to welcome them, to feed them, to offer gifts, to embrace as one embraces a friend. We are being called to corporately embrace people. Jesus called this neighbor love. To let love drive one's actions toward the other, rather than fear. Someone said that Obama's presidency means that people will be less afraid of a young black man walking down the street. After all, he could likely be a doctor or a lawyer or a president; as well as a criminal or a gang member. Our default assumptions about people are being reconstructed and this is God's doing in and through history. It shows us that God's work of redemption through history is characterized not by immediate, swift seismic displacement. But by the gently moving wind that moves through the ages. Redemption itself is timeless and eternal, transcending our own agendas and dreams. Dr. King had a dream. He expected it to be realized one day. And that dream is being realized in our lifetime; but there is more work to be done. The twin sister of racial inequality is economic injustice. So with race, now with poverty.

"Time moves on and redemption happens in history. Dry bones are re-assembled, held together by sinews and flesh. Dry bones in the psyche of young African-American males who lack a sense that there is a legitimate place for them at the table. A place where they can express their own voice with pride and dignity. Because Obama embodies this, a healing shift has happened in the African-American story–in the American story.

Time moves on and redemption happens in history. The redemption of past wrongs is a good thing. An African-American president is part of the healing of history. It is part of the healing no matter what your individual political perspective. It is part of the healing because it is flesh being put to dry bones. It is the inclusion of the other. It is the peaceful revolution of hope in which those who have been trampled on by history now come to the table of privilege."---Excerpted from Just an Apprentice; a blog by my friend and co-conspirator Brian Miller.

embracing grace

Scot McKnight is one of my favorite teacher/authors. We are going to explore his book "The Jesus Creed", paraclete press, 2001, for Lent in 2009. That book is about the Jewish Shema and Jesus' summation of the torah that includes the addition of "Love your neighbor as yourself" from Leviticus. McKnight fleshes out the way of Jesus as it pertains to this creed, which is how he understands the use of the Shema in Judaism and in Jesus' spirituality and teachings.
I am now reading McKnight's book "Embracing Grace:A Gospel for all of us" for the Sunday disciple group who asked to spend some time and energy talking about grace. he writes this by way of introduction, "This generation wants an authentic gospel, one that is both proclamation and performance, a gospel that deals with the world they live in: a world that is full of images of people dying and starving and being put to death by goons, a world where there is a profusion of tensions, a world where the Christian faith isn't the only faith in town, a world where one particular deonomination doesn't own the market on everything, a world where neighborhoods don't look like the one in the waltons .
A good question to ask is what sort of gospel story do we need, what sort of news is good news? What story is honest enough about who we are and brave enough about who we are not that it shocks our hearts and at the same time invites us into the truth about life, God, the world, everything? Is the story of Jesus that kind of a story? Does it shock and confront us, does it also welcome us? I think Scot McKnight is right that this generation is not satisfied with sentiments about life after death or with a gospel told from the perspective of the rich, the fortunate, the powerful, the secure. Joel Osteen's gospel just doesn't resonate with a world that is akin to suffering, injustice, abuse, and all manner of sin.
Grace is shocking too. Because it is given freely but comes with a great cost to the giver. Relationally, God's grace includes the betrayal, suffering, and death of Jesus-the anointed son. So, God is exceedingly generous. We are recipients. Hopefully grateful, willing, obedient, and honest recipients who may become an offering in response to such grace.

Kindergarten

So my oldest son will be five in March. He has been attending preschool at a local Lutheran church for two school years. That has been good for him, for my wife, and for our second son. He goes three mornings each week.
Last night my wife and I went to our school district's Kindergarten Expo! We learned everything there is to know about kindergarten. We are not unawares. My wife is an elementary school teacher on extended parenting leave. She does not have a permanent position with a district, but will eventually return to full-time teaching. We get it. We know the drill.
And yet, I was a little freaked out. Its hard to adapt to the idea that our firstborn is old enough already for school buses and math and recess and tests and homework and friends and desks and school supplies and peer pressure and science and reading and writing and teacher conferences and gym class...I may be ahead of myself a little, but h's going to be five. I remember five. not four so much,but five. I remember my bus driver for God's sake! And Paul and Amanda and Amy and sidewalk recess on wet spring days and chalk boards and erasers and standing agains the wall at lunch after being accused unjustly. And the Principal's office and the nurse's office and Mrs.Boyer-Yardley the art lady and Mrs. Franklin--my teacher. And If I can remember these things, then he will too someday. More than anything else, the idea that we are now making memories for him is significant. That's not to say that you get a free pass on bad behavior as a parent of kids below the age of 3 or 4. But now the stakes are higher.What will he remember about his childhood? About his school? His teachers? his friends? his first bus ride? Bullies? Math? Books? The reality that he is increasingly aware of his own past is an integral part of the human experience. isn't it? And we take it for granted. Our deep memory potential. And science tells us we only tap the surface of our mental recall capacity.
There have been stories on the news about people whose brains are wired to remember everyhing that ever happened in their lives. Dates, times, days, faces, names, hurts, etc...all available all the time.
I think forgetting is also a gift sometimes. Even as memory holds great power, for within it lies the possibility of real change. To remember may mean to repeat or to reject what was before. Just as to forget is to allow for the possibility of the same.
WhenJeremiah says that God promises to blot out our transgressions and remember our sins no more, this is no small thing. For God to promise to forget how we act is necessary, isn't it? Were it not so, God would be full of regret. Instead, God chooses not to look at the past but to see us in the present and to move us toward His future; a future I believe that holds more promise for us than does our human past of destruction, chaos, cruelty and the rest of the forgettable stuff of humanity's ugliness. God forgets and God forgives. A free gift for both God and us. Without these things we might all be stuck.
I know this: I will not forget the day Jonah gets on that bus. It will be a sad day and a happy one. And it will be an end and a beginning as so many changes are in life. Inherent in it is the gift of public education, the gift of friendships and community so often found there, and the gift of memories to be collected as part of the journey of life. I will remember and so will he.
Do you remember kindergarten?

emergence in our place

Some respected religious scholars are calling the current redefinition of church or ecclesial reformation 'emergence'. It is an opening up, an unfolding or arising of something new within the ancient form of Christian community. A reframing of the church's story that considers the deep rootedness of the kerygma, both in the 1st century church and in 1st century Judaism; as that kerygma addresses the situation we find ourselves in today. It is a recontextualization of the significant matters of our faith through engagement with 21st century postmodern culture. We seek to hear and live this good news, but through the framing narrative of postmodernity. Churches are still trying to embody a gospel for a situation that no longer exists. Its like we're still trying to feed people food high in saturated fats and cholesterol when we know the health risks inherent in such a diet.

As some of us in our synod begin to explore what it means to belong to church in the 21st century, we might seek some inspiration from the above web community. Emergent village has been at this for about a decade. Click on their link to "cohorts" to watch a youtube video about these local, missional/theological conversations being generated around the country by people who are seeking a deeper intentionality about their spiritual formation as people of GOD. I think we are leaning toward this new social, public spiritual conversation as we foster local cluster group formation among Lutheran Christians,our friends, and neighbors. If you are wondering how you might connect with others who are searching for a safe place to talk about God, Jesus, church, ministry and vocation in the world, faith and relationships, etc...then comment on this blog entry. We are trying to get people connected. There is a social networking component to this at a Facebook group called "koinonia 21c."
Church is becoming something other than it has been in the modern,Constantinian, institutional model. It is being redefined and reshaped. And it is sparking interest where interest in these things had lost momentum or priority. Church is shedding its buiding, budgets, and boards business model and realigning with a simpler way---a way characterized primarily by authentic relationships held together by the mystery/presence and story of Jesus the Christ, the Son of GOD.

Baptism of Our Lord

What is Baptism?
She was surprised at first. Almost next expecting what she had been expecting for months when it happened. Water broke! Time to go! Oh my God! grab the bags, wake him up, call someone. Call everyone. Check the...ouch, never mind. Get in the car. And it hits her, like that. As she dries off wet legs (yuck). She was born for this...to be a mom. It was a God-given gift and her calling in life and in less than 24 hours she wuold be living it for the rest of her life. And then another contraction hits.
It surpristed him at first, those words from the doctor. Cold words in the dim hallway outside the busy intensive care unit in the too familiar hospital. "Less than 24 hours now". With her. Afte r59 years in the same house, the same bed. And now it was coming to an end or changing. The first tear rolled down his cheek. It was cold. And then hey came out like an uncontrollable flood---weeping, sadness, pain in the gut, in the heart. And he sat on the floor clutching his 80 year old knees. He wasn't thinking any particular thought. Just her. Flashes of a life. Their wedding day, that trip to California, their first new Buick, the kids, the house, the grandkids, the cancer she beat, her smile, her voice, her hands. And the tears fell. He would live without her for the rest of his life.
It was no surprise and she shouted and laughed and jumped and kicked the couch and grabbed the dog and threw her wet coat on the kitchen floor. The rain had made the envelope damp and her hair dripped from the four minutes she stood holding it at the mailbox with the butterflies dancing in her stomach. Open it. Read it. YES! I'm in! Accepted. Med. School. In 2 months. As water droplets stained the letter that told her future, she sat on the floor and remembered her daddy said, "You can be whatever you want to be, baby, because we love you." She was 9 then. 15 years later , she was on her way to becoming a doctor. Call dad. Now. On this rainy summer night fter a long shift in the restaurant, she is wet and happy and ready to start the one thing she has always wanted to be---a healer of sick people.
As the sun emerged behind gray clouds, he sat alone on the one dry bench under the canopy of green and watched the cars splash through the flooded streets spraying water to his shoeless feet. Will he eat today? Sleep inside? See a friend? Wlll he survive? A storm had passsed but the one he livs in keeps raging in his head. Are the clouds ever going away? How did he let them gather over him, consume him, wash his life away? How did this happen? His disease, job loss, wife leaving, foreclosure. No job, no money, no car. Nothing. No one. Just himself. His better days now were either drunk or in jail. He walks, then. Crosses against the light, bare feet wading through four inches of runoff. he;d sat on the steps of that building before. Never daring to go up, open the door, go in. See. But somethign aboutt he sun peeking under the clouds said, "its time." As he took the first step up, the door opened. A young man sees him and smilies. They are both surprised for a few seconds. And then he says, "Hi I've seen you here before. Is your name Tom? I'm Peter. Come on in. Coffee's hot. Join us. Supper is in 20 minutes, if you like. Welcome to St. Paul's."
Baptism--it happens once and it happens over and over and over again. Moments when God comes ot us, calls to us, inspires us to our next best selves. Rescues us from our worst selves.
Baptism is not fire insurance or a guarantee. It is divine adoption and life vocation rolled into one. I was adopted at the age of two at Our Saviour Lutheran in Rockford, Illinois. And God has called me to this life ever since, the life of the Son, the life of Jesus. The one who teaches us how to live washed and wet and willing to be who God wants Him, needs Him, loves Him to be. Who does God love you to be? What does God love you to do? What makes God say, "This is my boy, this is my girl. I love you so much. Your life pleases me." Jesus' baptism is a sign of his identity and an anointing into a vocation. His life is an authorized mission from God to the world, a single man devoted to live the perfect life, die a humble and sacrificial death,and rise as a sign of the timeless, transcendent, eternal,power of God with us.
My you be drenched in the love of God. May you soak up God's grace and compassion. May you pour it out in holy, gracious, sarificial living and giving. You are baptized.Like him. You are children. Born for God's love and born for God's world. May love be our gift,Jesus our way, and baptism our delight. Amen. ---Sermon for Baptism of Our Lord, 2009