praying

Lord Jesus, teach us how to pray.  Amen. 

Lake George from Inspiration Pt.

My family loves the Adirondack mountains.  It is our place for retreat twice a year. We hike to this place; inspiration point.  It’s not a hard climb, takes 45 minutes to get up there.  But the view is awesome.  On a beautiful spring day, we can sit up there for an hour in complete silence. Serenity, beauty, fresh air, Lake George, peace.  It is our semi-annual high.  It energizes us, brings clarity of thought, reduces stress and anxiety, and gives us time together in God’s presence. We are free to be.  It’s never hard to go there, always hard to leave. I often say I could live there.  Retire there one day.  Buy a cabin. Sit on the porch. It’s a dream.  If you have a place like this, you know what I mean.  If you don’t, I recommend you find one.        

One of the recurring themes in Luke’s story about Jesus and his disciples is the theme of prayer.  It is mentioned more than in the other gospels.  In major scenes, Jesus prays:  At his baptism.  Before he chooses the 12 disciples, on the mountain, and on the cross.  Jesus prays.  He tells a parable, only found in Luke’s story, about a friend who knocks on a friends’ door at midnight, seeking some bread so that he might offer food to a guest who has come to his house.  Prayer, he says, is like asking a friend, at an inopportune time, to give you a gift so that you might give that gift to someone else.  Prayer is like obtaining food for someone else.  Prayer is like being in between someone who has what someone else needs.  Prayer is a point of access.  Prayer is advocacy, speaking up for someone else, being their voice.  Prayer is inconvenient, too.  It is the midnight cry in a crisis moment.  It is the “sorry to have to bother you with this, but…”  Prayer is, “I need your help, so that I can help someone else.”  It’s knowing where to turn in a moment of need.  It’s knocking on the door.  Prayer is not relaxing meditation apart from the world on inspiration point.  It is an action verb. It is movement. It is an intervention, a confrontation.  

Many of us pray.  In times of trouble, need, confusion, fear, grief.  We pray for help.  And in times of joy, celebration, and blessing we pray in thanksgiving.  I suspect we have been taught to pray at meals, maybe at bedtime, less likely in the morning.  Maybe you have a few prayers memorized.  Maybe you fold your hands and bow your head and kneel at your bedside.  Maybe you pray out loud, alone in your car.  Maybe you just don’t pray.  If God is God, doesn’t God already know what I’m going to say, what I’m thinking?  What’s the point?  Prayer can seem passive, verbal, cerebral—in my head. Prayer is sort of nice, but not messy or dangerous. We don’t think of prayer as risk.  We think of it as duty or comfort. 

Lent begins Wednesday. So, it’s Confession time. I’m not sure about prayer in my own life. I don’t know if I pray enough. I keep trying.  Prayer sometimes feels more like a chore or duty and something I skip or forget to do. I rarely know for certain that a prayer I prayed is answered.  I don’t even try to make those connections. I have been a student of prayer for a long time. I’ve read about prayer, talked and taught about prayer, practiced various kinds of praying.  I’m not sure I understand it much better than when I was a child, though.  Is it effective? If not, is that a reflection on me or God?   I’m still learning. Sometimes prayer has been intimate and profound, spiritually energizing, exciting. I have prayed in groups, with a partner, on behalf of one person or many people.  I have prayed in front of large crowds and in a small, dark, silent space.  Pastors  are invited to and expected to pray.  But I don’t always have the words. 

Psalm 51. for Lent

Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your steadfast love;

according to your abundant mercy

blot out my transgressions. 

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,

and cleanse me from my sin. 

For I know my transgressions,

and my sin is ever before me. 

Against you, you alone, have I sinned,

and done what is evil in your sight,

so that you are justified in your sentence

and blameless when you pass judgement. 

Indeed, I was born guilty,

a sinner when my mother conceived me. 

You desire truth in the inward being;

therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. 

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 

Let me hear joy and gladness;

let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. 

Hide your face from my sins,

and blot out all my iniquities. 

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and put a new and right spirit within me. 

Do not cast me away from your presence,

and do not take your holy spirit from me. 

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

and sustain in me a willing spirit. 

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

and sinners will return to you. 

Deliver me from bloodshed, O God,

O God of my salvation,

and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. 

O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth will declare your praise. 

For you have no delight in sacrifice;

if I were to give a burnt-offering, you would not be pleased. 

The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;

a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;

rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, 

then you will delight in right sacrifices,

in burnt-offerings and whole burnt-offerings;

then bulls will be offered on your altar.

forty days.

Lent is forty days.  Seven weeks. It starts tomorrow, Ash Wednesday.  It ends on the night before Easter. But you don't count Sundays. Every Sunday is a little celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. So, Sunday is always a feast day.  Christians don't fast on Sundays.  Ash Wednesday falls in a different week every year, because Easter moves.  Easter is determined by the lunar calendar; it falls on the First Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.  Winter's darkness is coming to an end. Life and light return.  
Ash Wednesday is not about cigarettes, but you might quit smoking.  One of the disciplines of Lent is fasting; abstaining or giving up certain habits, foods, etc...Discipline is hard.  If it weren't, it wouldn't take discipline. Ash Wednesday is the ritual marking of the forehead with ashes in the sign of the cross.  It symbolizes our mortality, our creaturehood, that we were all "made from the dust" and will one day return to the dust of the earth. It is good to know this. Transiency and mortality means today is the day. Seize it. Live today as if it could be your last or most important.
Ash Wednesday is also a visible reminder that there is dirty, black darkness---sin---in our hearts and minds, in the world. We make a mess of things. Every now and again I need to be reminded that I am not just a good person trying to live a good life.  I benefit all the time from many privileges that I take for granted; from my skin color to my education, I have received good things that others have not.  Not by my own doing.  I am not self-made. Also, I take advantage of those privileges in ways that negatively affect others, in ways that are too often hidden from me.  I have money to buy things I don't need, while my neighbor does not have enough money for heat,food, or shelter. I should try and rectify that in some way. A bible word related to Lent is "to repent", a verb which has to do with self-transformation, changing directions, turning around. Sometimes, we need a do-over, a second change, a U-turn.  Lent is a reboot, a fresh start.  
Also, Ash Wednesday remembers the cross.  Jesus died.  God died with him. But life continues. Because death is not final. It need not condition the way we live. We are not the walking dead.  We are alive with potential for goodness and love. We can avoid destructive, toxic things and embrace life-giving things.  
So, for forty days Christians reflect on what it means to be a creature in the world.  They do so in physical ways.  Because for Christians, being spiritual is a physical experience.  We connect to God, not through transcendental meditation, but through physical means. And that is what Lent is about; restoring a connection with God. God, according to the bible, loves us. We call  relationship with God communion.  A lot of Christians observe Ash Wednesday with a service of worship. You could go.  Many churches welcome guests, especially for Lent. Whether you attend or not, here are forty ways to do Lent and restore communion with God and others.

searching

search

Google.  Bing. Yahoo.  We search. We are searching all the time.  For recipes.  For answers to questions.  For knowledge.  For news.  For images. For friendships.  We are searching in a new way today, using amazing tools that give us access to an ever-expanding world of information.  We are searching.  What we find may or may not be what we are looking for. We find what is out there, because when we search something inevitably pops up.  All of us have searched for a thing and found something else. We are aware that one must be careful what one searches for, lest you get something you don't want to find.
I read a story about searching this morning.  It is a bible story.  From the Gospel of Luke, New Testament.  It is the only story in the New Testament that features neither an infant nor an adult Jesus. It features a 12-year-old Jesus and his parents, Mary and Joseph.  They have gone up to Jerusalem for the Passover festival.  Passover is the cultural and religious festival celebrating that story of Jewish liberation from Egyptian slavery recorded in the Hebrew Scriptures, book of Exodus.  It is the story of Moses, the ancestral God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (YHWH, by Hebrew name), the Egyptian Pharaoh, and the enslaved people of Israel.  It is a story of political power and a coup d d'etat, through which GOD overcomes the power of Pharaoh and liberates His people.  It is the story of God's compassion for an oppressed people and their release.  They become refugees and asylum-seekers. They spend 40 years in the wilderness before occupying the land of Canaan, where Israel is established through war.  The Passover story is the heart of Jewish faith, believing in the liberating compassion of GOD for God's people.

gun violence and the common good

I have said nothing about the gun violence issue. I am not a gun owner. I don't believe I will ever own a gun. I don't think I need one. I do not hunt. I do not participate in shooting sports. I trust the police for my protection. I've never been robbed. I'm not afraid.
Since the public consciousness has been reawakened by the shooting of children in an elementary school in Connecticut, a debate has ensued. I have stayed out of it. I have an opinion like everyone else, but I'm not sure it matters all that much. As a Pastor, I have not used the pulpit to address the issue. But I am glad that I am part of a church with leaders who are speaking to it. There was a rally in the state capitol in Harrisburg last week about gun violence and one of the Bishop's in our region (Claire Burket, Southeastern PA synod) was a speaker. I am glad she was there. Her faith compelled her to speak out against gun violence and in favor of increased government regulations to reduce it in PA.
Here's my two cents today. Gun violence is a problem in this country. I don't think there is one solution that will satisfy and eliminate it. I'm concerned about guns. But I am equally as concerned about violence. What causes it? How can we reduce/prevent it in civil society? The peoples' right to own firearms is protected in the Constitution. This freedom comes with a tremendous cost, as do all freedoms. One of the costs is the possibility that people will die a violent death at the hand of a lawful gun owner. We must count the costs as a nation. Thousands of people die by gun fire in the U.S. every year. When two dozen children are slaughtered in a first grade classroom in a small town, everyone pays attention. I am the father of a first grader. I wept for those families who lost children in the week before Christmas. 

The Sign in the Wine

Signs, signs everywhere signs. We are inundated with signs.  Signs point the way, give direction, tell us where we are, where we aren’t.  Signs welcome us or tell us to keep out.  Signs bear messages, some favorable, some unfavorable.  Signs are visual cues, reminders, and attention- grabbers.  Signs advertise and entice.  They provoke or they seek to console.  They convey a public message.  We see so many signs, we ignore them.  Sometimes with consequence.   Signs organize us, give order to things.  Keep us moving along.  People say, “it’s a sign” when they mean that something means something else—that an occurrence is pointing to another reality altogether. People sometimes look for signs—signs of change in the seasons of life.  Signs signal when something is about to happen or when something has happened to which we ought to pay attention. 

When Jesus Came to the Jordan River

When Jesus came to the Jordan river to be baptized by John he did not follow the crowds.  They came for a show.  They came to be aroused from their spiritual slumber.  They came for a sign of hope that God had not abandoned them in their plight.  They came for healing, for forgiveness, for cleansing from the sin that separated them from the salvation of their God.  They came because John cried out and they heard his voice crying and they heard their prophets’ voices in his voice and they believed that in His baptism they would find faith and the promise of God for God’s people.  They came because they needed to come.  They came because of a longing---a longing that escapes us in this culture of immediacy and access and now and comfortable living.  They longed because they lacked, they longed because they tasted hunger and thirst and death.  They longed because they were weary from oppression and abuse.  They longed because that’s all they could do.

When Jesus came to the Jordan river to be baptized by John he did not follow the crowds.  He did not come to join the community in the wilderness.  He did not come to make amends, get his life right with the LORD, if you will.  Jesus came to reveal Himself to the world.

there will be signs

On the first Sunday in Advent, the gospel of Luke has Jesus describe a series of global crises, political and ecological, that signify the end of the world.  Far from disastrous,however, they represent redemption and peace for God's people. These were people who experienced the dark side of these disasters.  They were the vulnerable ones, like the Haitians in Hurricane Sandy. They were the ones already beaten down, acquainted with suffering. But Jesus insists that life may get worse before it gets better.  Ah, good news for the new year.  We, on the other hand, disregard the tragic news we see. We have come to believe that the end is no nearer now than it was then.  Signs?  Not really. Just more of the same on planet earth.  

We have seen natural disasters and floods, tsunamis and super storms.  We have witnessed nations at war.  We have experienced terrorist attacks, hijacked planes, suicide bombers, death squads, drone strikes, covert operations, and all manner of violence.  Israel is still at war with its neighbors.  For thousands of years.   What we see every day:  These are not signs for us of an impending global theological crisis.  We do not wait expectantly for divine intervention.  We seriously doubt the Mayan prophecy or any prophecy about a coming end.  We have seen catastrophe on the nightly news. Jesus was not as well informed as we are.  They did not have mass media attention to every daily crisis that occurs on planet earth.  Now there are climate scientists, Bill McKibbon and others, who believe that global warming is fundamentally altering ecology.  Polar ice melt, record heat waves, droughts, floods, etc…all signs of a human caused disaster.  More doom and gloom.  And yet, we are still here.

That first generation of Christians expected Jesus to come and usher in the final judgment, the end of the age, the new creation.  They expected divine intervention, a miracle of biblical proportions, salvation, rescue.  When those first Christians experienced the destruction of the temple, and the death of the first generation, a new crisis emerged.  The crisis of when?  The previous crisis, the identity of the Messiah, had been resolved by Jesus.  But then they had to address his absence and the delay in his return. They had the stories of Exodus and exile to give them consolation and courage.  Those stories told them they had forty to seventy years.  That’s how long their ancestors had waited.  But even longer still:  Between the Exodus and reign of David—five hundred years.  Between David and the Exile, about  five hundred more. Between the exile and Jesus about five hundred more.  The Jews were not unaccustomed to waiting.  Much scripture commends them to wait.  From one crisis to the next, from generation to generation, they wait for the Lord.  They wait with hope.  Hope that God’s promises will be fulfilled.  Promises to end hunger, thirst, suffering, and death.  Promises to bring an end to violence and war.  Promises to bring peace and justice for the least and the greatest.  The promise of a Kingdom ruled by God’s anointed Son.  The Promise to be fully present, visible, accessible, real.  The promises of order, beauty, abundant provision, work and rest, friendship and love---promises made in the beginning and affirmed again and again. The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel.   I think the Jews brought the gift of patience and an unyielding hope in God to the earth.  They brought the possibility of divine/human relationship, through prayer and the written word, to life.  They survive because they wait with hope in a day that is yet to come. So, too, the Christian people continue in hopes of a coming day of salvation, of peace, of new life. But I fear we grow weary and weak with time.   

We do not wait.  We do not hope. We fear.  We demand and we expect, but do not trust.  We want what we want when we want it and we want it now. We try to secure ourselves against the threats of the world. And when we fail to do so, we despair. We are anxious, in an age of worry. We shop to acquire things to fill our restlessness. We toil away at trivial things.  We make much ado about nothing.  We major in minor things. We protect ourselves.  We fear dying and death, because we do not trust what is yet to come.  We must begin to hope again.  We must begin to hear and trust God’s promises again. Christ will come to us.  Christ will raise the dead.  Christ will end the wars.  Christ will feed all people at a banquet that never ends.  If death and destruction must come first, let them come.  For God will finally act.  God will save us. 

So, what shall we do?  Wait. Practice patience.  Pray. Give and share, forgive and right wrongs because these are kingdom of God activities. Boldly bless people by your words and by your works. But mostly, I invite you, I challenge you to wait.  Wait for God.  Expect God to show up in your life, in your days, in your ordinary and extraordinary moments. Pause.  Breathe. Enjoy silence.  It is enough that you are chosen and loved by the creator. It is enough that God waits on you, waits for you. Jesus is waiting for us.           

   

Advent

Advent is a Latin word meaning “coming”. We do not use this word in normal speech.  No one says, “This Friday is the advent of my sister, who will be visiting from Rochester.”  One does not say to a potential guest, “When shall we expect your advent?”  The arrivals gate at Philadelphia airport does not announce the advent of flight 5143 from Phoenix.   No, Advent is a church word.  And a very good one at that.  A word that ought not to be relegated to the church’s ancient past, to the history of our religion, or to the catholic and apostolic churches like ours who stubbornly insist on following this old calendar of seasons and feast days. It is the beginning of the church’s year, the four Sundays before Christmas, December. This word, Advent, is a Christian word, part of the Christian lexicon.  It is part of our speech because it describes a particular event or events to which we find ourselves inextricably bound as believers.  “Advent” is always and forever pointing us to the story of a peculiar coming, an extraordinary arrival, a surprising visit.  For the Advent that we announce to the world is the Advent of GOD.  The divine creator, YHWH, the LORD, the Savior of Israel, comes.  GOD comes to us.  Once, long ago, in the town of Bethlehem of Judea, a son was born to a Virgin named Mary and her betrothed Joseph.  His birth marked the Advent of GOD.  And of course, one must ask a good question; from whence did he come?  Where was GOD before the Advent of this child?  What about this particular moment establishes God’s Advent in a way that distinguishes it from God’s coming before or since?  For surely, Christians have proposed that this Advent was exclusive, unique, special, and unequivocal (a word which here means, without equal comparison).   According to the Gospels, the birth of Jesus marks the Advent of God’s coming to God’s people in an unprecedented way.  This” Advent” was anticipated by Israel, God’s chosen people, and announced by the ancient prophets.  We must acknowledge that the Advent of God in the birth of Jesus was, at least initially, an exclusive Advent.  God came to God’s own people, in a way that was anticipated by their prophets. And yet God’s own people failed to recognize it.  (So said someone who had not failed to recognize it.)  Certainly, some people recognized Jesus as God’s Son, as the Messiah, as the Savior long promised. Failure to recognize God in the Christ, we are told, was a sign from God that validated the Advent experience, precisely because the coming of God in Jesus was NOT globally decisive.  One did not expect the Messiah to come in the vulnerable form of an infant.  One did not expect the Messiah to die on the cross at the hands of the very government Messiah was supposed to usurp.  God’s Advent was hidden and revealed in the flesh of a man.  Advent was subtle, yet not totally unnoticed. 

God’s coming to us in the infancy of Jesus gives us due pause; not in the powerful storm or the mighty army does he come, but in a baby boy wrapped in strips of cloth, lying in an animals’ feeding trough.  In poverty. In vulnerable mortality.  In human family and political controversy.  In Israel, but to the earth.  God’s Advent requires a context, a container, a place.  But it is not containable or limited to that place.  God’s Advent became a global reality over hundreds of years.  Because God’s Advent in Jesus Christ continues…it happened once and continues to happen.  Because somehow, some way, during this season of the year, God makes His way to you and me.   The peculiarity of Advent, the unprecedented and divine nature of it as that one cannot predict what it might do to you.  This year, perhaps, you may experience Advent in a way you have not before.  As if something new were about to begin, as if a birth was about to occur in your own life.  This Advent may mark a beginning for you, a way of experiencing God that you have not had before.  It is forever possible that Advent might happen to you or for you this year.  We anticipate, we hope, we expect.  We worship.  We give.  We receive.  We celebrate.  We sing.  We pray.  We wonder.  Advent is so much more than a countdown to Christmas.  It is the announcement of God’s arrival in Jesus of Nazareth.  It is the announcement that God has come for you and for me.  God has sought us out.  God has invaded our privacy.  God has visited our homes.  God has met us on the road.  God has shown up, disguised as one of us.  This Advent we will hear the remarkable story.  We will travel with Mary and Joseph.  We will gather with shepherds and angels.  We will witness the birth.  We will tell the good news.  God will come to you.  May you readily receive the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Amen.

                                                                                                                                    

why I hope the world comes to an end

Fiscal cliffs, wars in Israel and Palestine, Black Friday.  12/20/2012. The end is coming, I declare it!  Or not.

Doctrinally, Lutheran Christians believe in the end of the age, the return of Christ, and the final judgment.  But we don’t talk about it much, it's not our central message.  Of course, we believe in heaven.  Most Americans do.  About 80%.  Fewer Americans believe in hell.  About 60%.  I guess, when it comes to God and the afterlife, Americans are optimistic.  So, an afterlife is in the future.  But what happens after that is less clear.  As is the way to access the afterlife.  Many believe it is a given, regardless of religious affiliation.  Others believe something quite different. That your beliefs guarantee your future after death.  If you were to ask ten people the question; do you believe in heaven and how does one get there, besides that you have to die first; I would guess you would get ten different answers.  If someone asked you that question, what would you say?  If they asked you if you believe in hell and who goes there, what would you say?  What do you believe in your gut about these things? Will the world end?   I suspect most of you do not believe in the “Left Behind” fundamentalist Christian story line---a story that is about divine punishment and destruction, more than salvation.  I, for one, believe that we are saved.  And I hope that God’s salvation includes those I would exclude.

talents, parables, and Wall-E

For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. After a long time the master of those slaves came and settled accounts with them. Then the one who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five more talents, saying, “Master, you handed over to me five talents; see, I have made five more talents.”His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” And the one with the two talents also came forward, saying, “Master, you handed over to me two talents; see, I have made two more talents.” His master said to him, “Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.” Then the one who had received the one talent also came forward, saying, “Master, I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed; so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.” But his master replied, “You wicked and lazy slave! You knew, did you, that I reap where I did not sow, and gather where I did not scatter? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him, and give it to the one with the ten talents. For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. --St. Matthew, chapter 25.  Jesus' parable of the talents.

all she had to live on

As he taught, he said, ‘Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and to be greeted with respect in the market-places, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honour at banquets! They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.’

 He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.’  Mark 12.

The widow’s mite. This gospel story is often used as the prime example for religious giving.   Used to inspire financial stewardship.  Christians ought to give like her.  100%.  All she had to live on.  In other words, she was broke.  She was as good as dead.  She could not support herself. She would depend on God and others to help her live, or she would die.  It seems to me that this is an unwise way to live.  She is choosing to become dependent.  We would never suggest to someone that they give away what meager income they had in order to become dependent on others to survive.  Dependency is bad.  Independence, self-sufficiency is good.  Government assistance, for example, continues to carry a negative stigma in this country.  Despite the original and continued intent of such programs, which is not to create a lazy dependent nation of takers, but to lift the poor out of poverty.  Food stamps and Medicaid are disparaged by conservatives as an economic burden the federal government and tax payers ought not to bear.  Are people entitled to food and shelter?  Or must everyone earn what they have?  Unfortunately, these matters have been politicized so that people who talk about poverty and the poor are liberals.  And we are inundated with economic news these days, making our heads hurt. Things like fiscal cliffs and tax policy and pre-Black Friday sales.  Money, money, money.  It’s our obsession.  We grow weary because so few of us seem to have enough.  We never have enough.  Because we make choices we can control and things happen that we can’t control that impact our household finances.  And talking about that is almost as bad as talking about your faith.  So it’s better not to speak about it at all.  After all, it is not appropriate to discuss personal finances.  I have noticed that what poor people do with the money they do have seems to interest people a great deal.  Example: yesterday, a friend was asking me what it means when they brought a low income family food from the warwick community chest, but they noticed the people smoked and had cell phones and a television.  Anytime I mention poverty and the poor among friends, the conversation goes that way.  Maybe there should be certain rules that restrict people in poverty from having access to certain things.  Of course food stamps and other government programs do impose restrictions, but there should be additional restrictions.  Like no tvs or cell phones or cigarettes if your income is below a certain amount.  I met a Vietnam Veteran this week, a proud man who needed food.  His income had changed recently.  He lived alone.  He could no longer work.  He collects no government assistance, but he was food insecure.  So we gave him food.  A veteran making less than $14,000 a year.  I don’t know his whole story. I saw a kid, a teenager, standing on Fruitville Pike with a sign that read;  I am Broke  out of gas.  Anything will help.  God bless.  I gave him $5.00.  Maybe he’ll buy food or gas or drugs or cigarettes.  I don’t know his whole story.        

Jesus suggested that the religious rulers, whose pockets were lined with peasant offerings, literally devoured widows by requiring them to give to the temple treasury. His observation of the widow is an indictment on the wealthy givers, whose proportionate giving is small compared to the widow.  They give out of their abundance.  Truth is:  That’s what all of us do.  On average, Lutherans  give about 2% of income to religious institutions.  Few practicing religious groups do better.  Southern Baptists and Mormons do better.  Most Americans give less than 4% to charity.  67% of US households made financial gifts totaling 289 billion dollars in 2011.  67% of Americans who make less than $100,000 give to religious organizations.  Only 17% of Americans who make over 1 million dollars give to religious organizations.  But households making over 500,000 give nearly 4% away, while families making $50,000 or less give 2% away. Nevertheless, the idea of the 10% religious tithe is more or less a myth.  Americans are generous because Americans have abundance.  Americans have discretionary income. We buy things we do not need and justify them.  Yesterday we participated in scouting for food, annual boy scout food drive.  We handed out plastic bags that we hope will get filled with non-perishables to donate to the Warwick community chest.  We were in a trailer court, putting bags on doors of households that may need food from the community chest.  The adults began debating about which Ipad is better, the regular size or the mini.  A whole conversation ensued about these devices.  They already had iphones and ipods.  Logically, the Ipad is next.  But, which one?  I was thinking, how can they afford these things?  We don’t have a working television right now.

I believe we are confused about money and wealth and poverty.  I believe Jesus took a simpler approach to the conversation.  Here is a poor widow.  She gives her last two coins to the temple treasury.  Her gift is greater than the tithes of all the wealthy.  She gave all.  This poor, dependent, dying widow becomes an example.  Because she becomes Christ.  She gave her life to God and to others.  She did not judge them worthy of her money.  She did not withhold for herself.  She did not worry about tomorrow, her next meal, her own body. She gave herself away.  Was she wise in doing so?  No.  Does her self-imposed dependency make her a social burden?  Yes.  She gave a gift.  A gift to God.  Because God gave her life.  She returned to God the full amount of what God had given her.  Without thought.  There are no makers and takers in the human community, only takers, only recipients.  Everyone of us takes what God gives us.  What we do with that is the basis of economics.  God gave His Son for us.  That we may have life with God.  Give thanks.  Amen.            

all the saints

On Sunday, my grandmother, Shirley Lenahan, joined the saints at rest.  She died at the age of 89 from Alzeimers disease.  

When I was seven, Grandma was my next-door-neighbor.  I had a new bike without training wheels that I could not ride.  Mom and dad’s idea of bike training was to push me down a small hill in our front yard and hope I didn’t hit a tree. So, after falling a few times, I became frustrated enough to suggest we sell the bike.  I also packed a bag and ran away from home.  My journey as a homeless and angry 7-year- old ended at Grandma’s house.  At Grandma’s there were wafer cookies and milk, and count chocula cereal, which turned the milk into chocolate milk. Grandma always had sugar cereal and cookies. Grandma and I did a puzzle, played a board game, and then dad showed up.  I’m not sure what happened next, but I ended up going home with him.  Eventually, I learned how to ride the bike.   All the way to Grandma’s house.  If she was home, the door was open.  And she always had sweets, cookies, cake, pie.  She could make entire buffets appear out of nowhere.  Her house was a curiosity shop with trinkets and old pictures and religious Kitch; you know, Mary’s and Jesus’s. A house from some other decade.  The 50s or 70s.  She watched Lawrence Welk and Judge Wopner and Wheel of Fortune.  She liked to play Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Chinese checkers, and Parcheesi with us. She was our babysitter and her house was an occasional refuge. Grandma was a quiet presence. Never too stern or scolding.  But you knew what behavior was acceptable.  She was a devout Catholic; prayed the rosary daily, went to mass weekly. She loved to play bingo.  She enjoyed her grandkids and liked when we visited her. I have childhood memories of grandma.  In adulthood, I moved away.  But she was still there.  Until the disease took her away, little by little. 

Grandma was a significant part of my childhood.  And no doubt she influences my adult life, in ways I have not known until now.

Grandma and I never talked about faith or God.  But she came to my ordination to the Lutheran ministry in 2001 and she received communion from me the first time I presided in worship at the Lord’s Supper. She, a devout Roman Catholic, her grandson a Lutheran pastor. We shared something deeper than a devotion to empty religious habits, contrary to what some may think about the Christian life.  She had faith, a gift from God that she passed to her children and her grandchildren. I am faithful, because my parents are, because she was.  This is what we mean when we say, "we believe in the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting."  Something invisible is happening within us and for us that transcends our experiences and our reason.  God has become present to us in our lives.In her life, as in mine, she found comfort and peace in the promise of eternal life with God; that death does not separate us from God’s love or from one another.

All Saints Day is not about ancient saints or their miraculous deeds.  It is a day to celebrate ordinary saints---the baptized holy one’s, God’s chosen people, the faithful.  So we remember those who have died. It is through the demonstration of their faith in God, in loving service, worship, generosity, and prayer that Christ is made known to the world.  

The story of Lazarus in John 11 is a sign to us of the future that awaits all who believe. All the ones we remember today, will rise again to a new and glorious life. In the story of Lazarus is the confirmation of our hopes; death cannot bind God’s people forever.   “He will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all people, the sheet that is spread over all nations, he will swallow up death forever…” “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.”

It takes faith to accept these things. A mystery, faith.  Who gets it and how?  Why do some embody faithfulness and others cannot?  Why do some share their faith and others hide it? It is a gift from God.  But faith is not exclusively a personal connection with God either.  Even in the story of Lazarus, he does not unbind himself or tear off his own grave clothes.  Nor does Jesus unbind him. Lazarus’ family and friends are invited to unbind him and set him free. Faith in God binds us to one another and calls us to life, beckoning each of us from the grave, from the darkness, from the abandoned loneliness and silence. "With a loud shout he commanded, Lazarus, Come out!"Out we must come, if we are to be the church.  Out from fear and insecurity and self-protection.  Out from comfortable systems and behaviors that benefit some and hurt others.  Out from family systems that wound us. Out from addictions that overwhelm us.  By faith, we are being called out.  Out of this life and into the next.  Some of us are already there. The rest of us are on the way...Amen.  

My name is Matt and I am a Lutheran Pastor

My name is Matt and I am a Lutheran Pastor.  If that sounds like the beginning of a 12-step recovery meeting, fine. I'm in a kind of recovery, I think.  I have been a Lutheran Pastor for 11 years now. At a recent meeting, my clerical identity was pinpointed as a stumbling block for church renewal and change.  Now, the person was not attacking me personally as a pastor, but was raising a point of contention.  He suggested that the pastoral office gives a perception that those who wear a black shirt and collar are spiritually aloof, haughty, distinctly above the laity. He claimed that Pastors are part of the problem, because we are not one of the people. We don't have to work in the world like everyone else. We are sheltered by church life.  By title and uniform, we "outrank" our parishioners, giving us more power or votes when it comes to decisions. We are set apart by virtue of a seminary degree and a special wardrobe. Anti-clericalism is as American as apple pie, so I'm not shocked that it was tossed on the table as a source of the problems we face as a church.  I'm just not convinced its the real problem.  It may be symptomatic of the bigger problem, redefining what it means for us to be Church in the 21st century. I think we are in recovery as a church. Our habits and behaviors must change in order that we might flourish again. Recovery is hard work, accomplished by the grace of God and a surrender of the self.  So, I am a recovering Lutheran Pastor, whose life is being re-formed somehow.

Lutherans and Mennonites Worship and Serve Together

In 2011, the local mission work of Zion Lutheran Church and Akron Mennonite Church around two symptoms of poverty, affordable housing and food insecurity/hunger, drew them together at the Mennonite church’s annual Mission Fest weekend.  Typically, the weekend highlighted the global mission work of the Mennonite congregation and its deep relationship with Mennonite Central Committee, headquartered in Akron.  But the growth in local mission through the proclamation of a “local theology rooted in Scripture and community life” encouraged the Mennonite congregation’s leaders to consider a local focus for the mission fest weekend. 

whoever is not against us is for us

Gospel of Mark 9:38-50
John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’ But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
Temptations to Sin
‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell., And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
 ‘For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’

I received a letter from the church of the Latter Day Saints this week, on official letterhead.  It was directed to me and the ministry of hospitality we call "Peter's Porch".  At Peter's Porch we serve breakfast and give out food, clothing, and other essentials to financially-struggling families in our community.  The letter from the Mormons offered to partner with us in our ministry by donating $1,000 worth of food to our food pantry.  My first cynical thought was, “What is this? The Mormons?  Are they trying to improve their reputation or give an impression for the sake of their candidate?”  Awful, I know.  Maybe they want to be generous. Maybe they want to help.  

emergence

“The seemingly coordinated movement of a school of fish or a flock of birds is not controlled by any leader. Instead, it emerges naturally as each individual follows a few simple rules, such as go in the same direction as the other guy, don’t get too close, and flee any predators. This phenomenon, known as emergence, may someday help experts explain the origin of consciousness and even life itself.”  Nova Science Now website.  I was listening to radio labs on NPR yesterday when I heard them speak about emergence.  It is the phenomenon described above. For example: How does a leaderless ant colony of tiny, small-brained creatures accomplish such coordinated, organized efforts at colonization and sustainability?  Individual ants are not particularly interesting.  Two of them have been observed pulling the same twig back and forth for months.   But a colony of ants is a complex organism that can do many things; ants farm, they have livestock; they make gardens; they organize wars with generals and soldiers; they take slaves; they nurse young; they tunnel; they engineer and orchestrate massive public works projects.  How can so many tiny stupid creatures organize in such a way as to accomplish very complex tasks? This is the science of emergence.  I was fascinated by this idea.  If you take a jar of jelly beans and ask a group of people to guess how many beans are in the jar, do you know what will happen?  As a group, the average of all the guesses will be closest to the actual number.  That means, that as a group, the guessed amount will be closer than any individual’s guess.  Unless of course someone guesses the actual amount.  Nevertheless, when tested, a group’s estimate is typically closer to the actual amount than any individual.  What all of this means is that living things organize and that collectively we are smarter and better than we are individually.  In other words, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts-a saying attributed to Aristotle.  Since the 18^th century, we have seen and experienced the world in terms of its smallest parts.  Atoms and particles and the building blocks of energy, reducing life to its smallest component in order to discover its simplest or most elegant expression.   Biology, chemistry, and physics—the High School sciences, basically have a reductionistic approach to knowledge.  To understand something, separate it into its smallest parts. You may have heard of the God particle, the Higgs Boson, a tiny subatomic particle that scientists believe gives mass to the universe. This summer, physicists looking at the smallest micro level of existence seemed to discover a subatomic boson that slows down other particles and gives them mass.  Turning energy into mass is the building block for all matter, according to this theory.  And yet, there are things that happen at a macro level, like an ant colony or a city that cannot be understood by reducing it to a micro-level.  A single ant is nothing compared to the accomplishments of the colony. 

Enough with the science.  What’s the point?  We are better off when we organize into communities; when we share; when we work and think collectively; when we follow a rule of life that brings order and purpose to things.  We are not made for isolation, for personal independence.  Our society is more fragmented, individualistic, and reductionistic than ever before. Like two ants pulling a twig back and forth for months without purpose or progress, our political system is stalled by two parties at odds with one another; neither of which has the greater good as a primary objective.  Our religious life is fractured as congregations struggle to survive in a world where the individual consumer is replacing institutional values with self-interests.  The result is apathy toward others, selfish accumulation of things, political strife, violence, war.  Even the “United” States is reduced to red versus blue states.  We are not so much one nation as we are a loose collection of the many.  When we break everything down, everything breaks down.  Church ought not to mimic the brokenness of the world.    

What if church was a proposal to the world to live organically as a united body made up of individual members?  What if we were called to be a people living together with a unity of purpose? What if our mission was to participate in the flourishing and growth of life for all?   The fullness of God’s presence, complete shalom, the kingdom of God, the body of Christ cannot be reduced to a single person, a single congregation, or a single denomination.  It is always bigger than the sum of its parts. That is why I believe that an independent church is not church. It is why I believe we need to be a synod, and a catholic church.  The church gives dignity and value to every individual living thing by seeing it and cherishing it as part of the organic whole that is God’s creation. The triune God is one God with three distinct persons precisely because the very nature of things is a unity of diverse things.  Reconciliation, forgiveness, healing are all necessary for alienated persons to rejoin community. Jesus and his followers draw the marginalized and the vulnerable into community because they cannot flourish alone.  As church today, we are lacking this organic oneness, this organized communal expression that gives purpose and definition.  We will not survive like this.  Finding ways to come together, to share a common life, to worship the God who made us, to serve others and draw them into the bigger picture—that is the future of the church in Akron, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the U.S., the world.  The independent congregation must come to an end as the primary expression of the gospel (the gracious and loving presence of God found in Jesus Christ).  In its place?  An organic movement of believers gathered together  to accomplish God’s work of justice and peace for the sake of all living things.                      

Competition in the Church

Dear Church,
We are a people obsessed with winning.  I enjoyed the Summer Olympics in London as much as anyone, I suppose.  I rooted for the USA and enjoyed watching some amazing athletic performances.  More than a few times I wondered aloud, "How did they do that?" Competition is fun.  But it is also a way of life for a lot of people. It is how they view the world.  It is the mechanism that drives progress and builds empires.  It weeds out undesirables and favors the strong, the beautiful, the intelligent.  When there are winners, there are losers.  We know which team we prefer to play on or cheer for.  
I get that we live in a competitive, market-driven world. I get the temptation that comes with success in the market place.  I see how churches connect to this view and adopt it as a strategy for successful growth.  For us, our share of the market has to do with the number of people connected to our respective religious assembles. If a congregation is successful numerically, that may also be a sign of divine endorsement, which becomes a useful marketing tool.  Sort of like restaurants posting awards or recognitions like "voted best burger in Washington DC".  Churches boast about attendance, programs, and charismatic leaders in order to increase their marketability.  Churches use language like "relevant", "progressive", "innovative", and "awesome" to attract others.  But is this the language of Jesus and his first followers?

Five More Things Jesus Actually Said

1.  "The Kingdom of heaven is like a man who went out and sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping,an enemy went out and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away." Matthew 13:24.
What Jesus meant:  The problem of evil is a problem precisely because we cannot understand why a benevolent God would permit evil to happen.  We assign blame. We say that evil is a sign of God's judgment on an individual, a community, a nation. We say that God is responsible for the good and the bad.  We say things like "The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away."  Jesus' story about the kingdom of heaven says otherwise.  There is an opposition force at work and a rebellion taking place in God's kingdom(the heavens and the earth).  God is loathe to stop it because of the negative implications that would have on what God has "sown".  The enemy is stealthy and does his work "while everyone was sleeping." According to Jesus' story, the ending involves the fiery destruction of the weeds and a gathering of the wheat. God's purifying love allows for a fruitful harvest despite the weeds that grow up in the "garden".   God is good.  Bad things happen.  They do not have the last word, the final say.  There is a good future in store. This is not saying bad people go to hell and good people go to heaven.  Jesus is saying that all wickedness will be destroyed, burned away.What will remain in the end is goodness in the garden.
2."Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life"...  "For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him." John 3:15, 17.    Everyone knows John 3:16. Not everyone knows John 3:15 or 17.  The context of these verses is a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a Jewish biblical scholar and religious leader who was perplexed by Jesus' teachings.  John, the gospel writer, is saying that Jesus' death on the cross was analogous with the story of the serpents from the book of Numbers.  A rebellion against God inthe wilderness leads to suffering and death, until God gives the people an antidote.  The rub is this:  People rebel against God's ways. The result is death.  God's intent is life.  God's agency alone saves us from ourselves.  God comes to us, participates in our suffering and death, and therefore infuses death itself with God's own life.  God attaches himself to death so that no barrier exists between us and God; neither our rebellion, nor the consequences result in separation from God.  When we see that God is present to us in suffering and death, we are saved.  Because faith is believing in things that have been hidden.
3. "Go and do likewise." Luke 10.  Mercy means to sacrifice one's own self to come to the aid of another. Mercy is most Godlike when it is offered to a stranger, an enemy, an outcast.  Mercy is expressed in one-to-one relationships between people divided by race, culture, ethnicity, or language.  The Good Samaritan is a story about how a Palestinian Arab from the west bank illegally crosses a border into Israel to help a victim of a crime (a crime I imagine is perpetrated by other Israelites).  The Arab provides medical attention, lodging, and additional care for the man before fleeing back to the safety of the west bank. When he arrives at the border, the guards stop him and ask him what he is doing in Israel.  When he tells them the story, the guards do not believe him. So they arrest him for illegally crossing the border and he is thrown in jail.  This is the Jesus' intent.  His command to go and do likewise shows that mercy is more important than personal safety.
4.  "Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined and a house divided against itself cannot stand." Mark 3, Matthew 12, Luke 11.  Quoted by Lincoln in an address on slavery in 1858 at the republican convention.  In its original context, Jesus was addressing people who sought to damage his reputation by claiming that the source of his power was malevolent, satanic, evil.  If you are combating evil with goodness, hatred with love, discord with peace, sickness and injury with healing and restoration, hunger with food, and death with life then you are not responsible for the cause of suffering.  God does not cause suffering in order to resolve it. Bad things don't happen for a reason.  They do not serve God's purposes. Jesus and God are united in a common mission to restore order, beauty, and peace to God's creation.
5.  "If anyone of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."  John 8:7.  The law demands retributive justice, condemnation, and punishment.  Jesus demands forgiveness and freedom.  A law that condemns a woman for sexual sin and does not condemn the man for the same crime is misogynistic and ungodly.  Grace releases us from punishment under the law.  No one is without sin.  We cannot uphold God's justice, God's demands, God's intentions.  We fail.  Because of Jesus our failures are not counted against us.  Jesus' kind of justice sets us free from condemnation and punishment.  As such, we ought to set others free from punishment and condemnation.  In so doing, we give people a chance to be human again, more than the sum total of their mistakes.
 

5 more things Jesus actually said

1. "Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven." And like it: "Take heart, daughter, your faith has made you well." Matthew 9:2 and 9:22.
What Jesus meant.  Healing is intimate and personal. It starts with an acknowledgment of one's identity.  Jesus sees a man, not as a paralytic, but as a son.  He sees a woman, not as someone with a blood disease, but as a daughter.  Disease can become one's identity. Think of cancer or HIV/AIDS.  Jesus restores personhood, childhood, relationship.  And he releases them from the root cause of their suffering; alienation, guilt, abuse.  How can we restore someone's dignity and humanity when they are suffering with illness or injury?  Tell them they are God's children. See them as children.
Also, healing seems to have a lot to do with one's capacity to trust God. When one trusts God, the giver of life, nothing threatens you.
2.   "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile." Mark 6:31.
What Jesus meant.  Life is more than the sum total of one's achievements and accomplishments.  Work and productivity do not alone give life meaning.  Rest that is granted after a day of labor is an essential part of a healthy rhythm.  Sabbath-keeping, according to Jesus, is not about legally forcing people to take a day off and go to church.  Sabbath is a gift to replenish the weary body, mind, and spirit. And we all need it.  We need to rest daily and weekly. And we all need to engage in some meaningful work; work that benefits others and promotes well-being.  Work that affirms and gives dignity to others.  Work that provides for the needs of others.This work may be professional or paid work.  But for many people, meaningful work will be volunteer service.  Jesus invites people to rest with him. How can we develop a rhythm that includes rest for our bodies, minds, and spirits every week?
3.  "You give them something to eat." Mark 6:37.
What Jesus meant.  You look at the world's economy and see scarcity.  You have been trained to believe that there is not enough for everyone and that one must acquire more in order to survive.  You have been taught to consume first and share second.  Jesus looks at God's world and sees abundance.  Jesus sees more than enough for all.  He invites us to share first and consume second, because he knows that there will always be more.  Those of us who have food are obligated to share with those who do not have food.  As a rule, never eat alone.  Always find company and share.  Life is better (and food tastes better) when we do.
4. "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who does not take his cross and follow is not worthy of me." Matthew 10:37.
What Jesus meant.  In Jesus's 1st century world, the family was the source and center of a stable and sustainable life.  Without one's family, you had nothing.  So, this message is a radical departure from common sense and conventional wisdom.  Does Jesus invite people to abandon family life?  I don't think so.  But Jesus is creating a new culture and a new kind of community.  Life with Jesus is demanding and requires one's full attention and allegiance. We allow so many other people and things to place demands upon us, to which we readily submit.  We are surrendered to many systems that demand our allegiance and loyalty.  Those systems, however, are not as forgiving and gracious as Jesus. (Try not paying your mortgage and see what happens to your house.) So, if you serve Jesus do not expect life to be easy, heavenly, or more prosperous.  Jesus does not promise blessings.  He promises the cross.  If you like a challenge, an adventure, and a way to live that promises a few surprises, join Jesus. A new kind of family, community, culture and sense of belonging emerges when one connects to Jesus.
5. "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Matthew 8:26. Jesus calmed storms that threatened his disciples.  While they tremble in fear because of the storm, Jesus slept on a cushion. He seemed fearless. We have been taught to fear so many things.  Invisible threats; from diseases to terrorists.  We fear death.  We fear poverty.  We fear suffering.  Jesus claims that faith diminishes fear.  How does Jesus experience calm in the midst of a storm? Is his reality different from ours?  What does he see and know that we do not?  Eternal peace?  A love stronger than death?                

Chick-fil-a and the Bread of Life

What are you hungry for?   Have you ever stood in your well-stocked kitchen or sat at a restaurant to decide what to get on the menu and asked that question of yourself?  What am I hungry for?  Sometimes when we offer a certain meal or snack to our children they respond, “I’m not hungry for that.”  I think we are confused about the difference between hunger and self-indulgence.  For many of us, access to more than enough food is not a problem we face.  But this church has met the face of food insecurity here. We know people who struggle to put food on their tables.    If Christianity were the Olympics, fasting would not be not our best event.   We are told that it is not healthy to skip meals. So we don’t.  And we don’t think it’s right if anyone is forced to skip meals because of their circumstances here. So we feed people.  This church is a food relief site inspiring other churches to become food relief sites, too.  Jesus fed hungry people and so do we. 

This week food and faith made the news.  Some Christians or Republicans decided to make chick fil-a some more money by eating there on Wednesday as a sign of moral unity with the COO of the restaurant chain, who spoke out in opposition to same sex marriage in an interview last week.  Apparently there were crowds at chick fil-a on Rt. 30. On Friday a counter protest was launched. Apparently one man from Quarryville quietly picketed the same chick fil-a.  He is a gay man and he carried a sign that said choose empathy.  One man against the crowd. I ask you: Where was Jesus in that story?

what Jesus actually said

People say things in the name of Christianity all the time.  Some of those things are not true.  Some of them are slanderous.  Some of the things they say hurt the gospel, because their words are not good news. Today I am posting five things Jesus actually said. Then I am commenting on them by saying what I think Jesus meant. If you read my comments and wonder how I know what Jesus meant, especially if you disagree with me, all I can say is that I have known Jesus for a little while. I don't know exactly what he meant. I also do not fully understand the context and culture in which he said them, being that Jesus original audience was 1st century Palestine/Israel and I am a 21st century American. What I hope you hear, though, is Jesus speaking from a place of compassion and mercy, with a heart for the least, the poor, and the oppressed minority of his day. Not everyone claiming to speak in His name does the same.


1. ‎"In everything do to others as you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets."Matthew 7:12. 
What Jesus meant. As a rule, your behavior toward others ought to be determined by an honest self-assessment of the ways you wish to be treated by others. Do you wish to be assaulted, maligned, rejected, slandered, humiliated, cursed, forgotten, ignored, misinterpreted, falsely accused, scoffed at, demonized, and abused? I doubt that very much. The entire message of the bible comes down to whether or not your treatment of others reflects the way you expect to be treated. 


2. "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and wealth." Matthew 6:24. 
What Jesus meant: you are fully devoted to one thing. What or who is it? To whom do you answer, who do you serve? Yourself? Your bank account? Your household? Your job? Where does your time, energy, and loyalty lie? If you say you are devoted to God, how would anyone know it?  


3.  ‎"Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" Matthew 6:25. 
What Jesus meant: You spend a lot of time shopping for food and clothing, don't you? I suspect you are more consumed by the questions about food and clothing than about any other thing. Thoughts about them pervade your mind all day long. What will I eat? Where will I get it? What will I wear? You know. STOP IT! Do you not have enough already? If you are truly lacking these things, seek God's kingdom and you will find them. And where is God's kingdom found? In generosity, compassion, loving service... 


4.  Jesus said, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." Matthew 4:19.
What Jesus meant: Your skills, your abilities, your preoccupations, your hobbies, your passions, your interests can be put to use in the ongoing work of God's creation. Through your daily work, you can draw others closer to God. When what you love to do enhances the lives of others, you are doing the work of God. When your skills are put to use to bring health, peace, relief from suffering, joy, and/or beauty to people, you are following Jesus.


5.  Jesus said, "I do choose. Be made clean." Matthew 8:3.
Healing and health care is more than a physical act.  Curing disease is good.  But it is not the only way to achieve a healthy life.  Health is also about belonging and acceptance into the larger community and its benefits.  Isolation is the root cause of a lot of suffering.  We live in an isolating culture. We isolate the sick, the elderly, and those whose skin is different from "ours", even if we do not consider ourselves racially biased.  Jesus, on the other hand, chooses to connect with and offer healing to the very people we neglect, abandon, or discard. He chooses to touch people, because in so doing they are reconnected to humanity, both theirs and ours. When Jesus heals, their humanity is acknowledged and restored. Even more than physical healing, people need to be touched by someone else as an act of corporate solidarity. We are more alike than different.  We are more alive together than we are apart.  We need each other in ways we rarely recognize. Jesus chooses to make us clean, whole, complete people.  When we choose to do the same for others, we embody the compassion of Jesus.        

an either/or Christian

I am not an either/or Christian. Luther said Christians are 100% Sinner and 100% Saint all the time. This describes both my moral failures and my moral goodness. At the National ELCA Youth Gathering last week, Lutheran Pastor Nadia Bolz Weber said that it describes her enormous capacity for self-destruction and her enormous capacity to be kind and generous too. I know that within myself; I make huge mistakes and I do really good things for others. I cannot escape this lived reality. There is good and bad in me. Nevertheless, Jesus death and resurrection restores my true self and my relationship with God the Father. Christians with an either/or morality mentality do not get Jesus yet.  They think that one's behavior defines one's relationship with God.  They think "salvation" is a personal state of reality contingent upon my willingness to believe and do the right things. I believe that I cannot believe in Jesus Christ without the help of the Holy Spirit in me.  In other words, I cannot get to God, but God can get to me. There is something so powerful and good knowing that God chooses to love us, even though we are messed up. Unconditional love is the power behind Christianity, not moral rectitude.       

a steady stillness

In order for a 2,000 year-old story to speak to us today, we have to look for consistencies, points of connection.  The first and 21^st century have a few things in common: Chaotic times characterized by political and religious turmoil, a widening gap between the wealthy and the poor, war, negative stigmatization of certain diseases, illnesses, or social behaviors, suffering caused by poverty---all things we see addressed by Jesus in the gospels.  All things that continue to plague the world.   Knowing that there are similarities begs the question, has anything changed?  Sure, there has been a lot of progress.  But that progress has not always reduced suffering, sometimes causing greater suffering in the world.  In 2 millenia, what difference has Christian faith made?  What has Jesus accomplished?  We have to admit that sometimes it seems like God is asleep at the wheel, that God does not care about the circumstances of life that threaten to overwhelm us, to drown us, to destroy us.  Sometimes God’s invisible presence is not enough, God’s silence is inadequate, God’s ambivalence toward evil and suffering is downright disturbing.  There are days when we feel like life is out of control and no one is steering.  When people of faith are engulfed in fear, we turn from God in search of safer waters. We isolate. We shop.  We eat.  We self-medicate.  We seek entertainment to distract.  Rarely, do we pause and reflect on the state of anxiety or fear in which we find ourselves.  We are avoiders.  

At the end of the book of Job, the man whose life was characterized by meaningless suffering endures a verbal assault from God the creator, who has heard Job’s cries, his laments, his quest for meaning.  This book is about a man who cannot avoid His sufferings, but seeks to address the cause of them with His God and a few friends.  In the end, God tells Job that there is an important distinction to be drawn between Job’s mortality and God’s immortal presence.  Job is a creature, subject to all of the qualities of creaturehood—good and bad.  God is not subject to the powers of mortality, the fear and anxiety that accompany vulnerability and the fragility of life.  And yet, God is not unmoved by our suffering.  The bible consistently tells us that God is a deliverer, a healer, a redeemer, and help in time of trouble.   The bible claims that God is personally invested in peace.  And yet we remain vulnerable and afraid. 

the third way. church for the rest of us, part 1

I live in a beautiful part of central Pennsylvania.  Lancaster County is known for the anabaptist community, especially the Amish.  It is known for farm preservation and conservative politics.
In Lancaster County, there are two primary ways of religious expression: Conservative American Evangelicalism or non-practicing, non-religious.  I am neither of these two things.  I am a practicing religious Christian and I am not a conservative evangelical.  Sometimes I feel that I have more in common with non-practicing peers than with my religious friends.  There are a few progressive mainline churches, even within the Mennonite community.  But these are not the most prominent religious identification  in the county.  First, I intend to unpack some things about the religious community.