Today the ELCA in assembly voted to allow gay and lesbian people in faithful, monogamous, lifelong relationships to serve on the roster of this church. Many people are opposed to this policy change as a sign of our departure from Scriptural and traditional norms with respect to homosexuality and marriage. This could not be further from the truth. It is possible to believe the homosexuality is a sin, is antithetical to biblical teaching or to created intentions for men and women and at the same time believe that the gifts and calling of these people into rostered leadership in the church is consistent with the work of the Holy Spirit and the will of GOD. That is about where I am. If I were not there, I could not serve as a rostered leader. Why?
Because my sin is just as contemptible as anyone elses. Who am I to serve the Lord as a proclaimer of His Word and as n ambassador of His grace? If me, why not them? If not them, why me? That's been my thinking all along. The nature of sin makes us equal, even as the nature of grace reconciles sinners to GOD.
So, I affirm the assemblies action and rejoice in the work of the Spirit there. I hope and pray that this church will find ways to live together in respect for bound consciences that have discerned another way of understanding this issue.
All of this is really about a new ecclesiology that is emerging. This ecclesial expression seeks to engage the culture we find ourselves in as gracious guests in a host culture that has become resistant to the dominant churchianity of the past, a dominance that ended forty years ago and the church is only now realizing. Part of our engagement in the culture is to realize how complex sexuality has become here. To ignore this nuanced approach to sexuality is to live in the past!
So we'll see what happens in the weeks and months ahead. I believe that this is a minor issue compared to the real theological earthquake that is occurring globally.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Lutheran Yacht Club
Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson of the ELCA rides bumper boats in new orleans. I stole this pic from another blogger, who stole it from Facebook. So kudos to the photographer and original post-er. ELCA Bishops clad in clerical attire are the funnest Bishops I know!
the Spirit gives life
How do we know what GOD is doing? How do we know what God is about in our place and time? How do we know when we are living in obedience to this GOD?
Most Christians would say that all three of these questions are answered by Holy Scripture. And thanks to the modern mind, interpretation of Holy Scripture is inconsistently applied. Literalism and truth must somehow dance together. What is truth, Pilate's question before Jesus, is essentially the question we must ask Scripture? If it is indeed Word of GOD, than we must ask God what God means to say when God says we God says in the Good book. Does God mean to tell us that creation was a six-day orderly, miracle of divine organization and design? Or does God mean to tell us more than that? For there is more in that creation poem of Genesis chapter ONe than a simple literal, historical reading renders.
Some might say that Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience together shape our understanding of God's work. It is often unclear whether we are interpreting Scripture or Scripture is interpreting us. In our search for clarity, do we not sometimes deny mystery and the unknown?
For example, my Father told a story at my wedding that I had not acknowledged as pertinent to the day. He said that on account of two Lutheran neighbors in Rockford, Illinois inviting my parents to worship, Cherie and I would not be together. My parents were Roman Catholic and nominally United methodist. They sought to become more faithful together. They found no home aong either of their respective traditions. The Istad's invited them to Our Saviour Lutheran in Rockford. They attended and became connected. I was baptized at the age of two. We retained a Lutheran identity, even after moving from Illinois to upstate New York. On account of a clergy family who joined our congregation in the late 80s I was introduced to Susquehanna University, a school I had never heard of before Kristen attended there. They convinced me to check it out.
I met Cherie at SU in 1994. Fifteen years later we have three boys, I am a Lutheran Pastor, and we serve together in Lancaster, PA. How did I get here? How did I come this far? From farming in Upstate New York to preaching in central Pennsylvania, how did I arrive here? Why me? Why Cherie? Why Lutheran? Why three boys? Why do I believe what I believe, knowing that others believe something quite different than I and have a convincing story to tell. If God is responsible for all of this, then God must be devoted at a very personal level. Or else all is random coincidence, environmental conditioning, and biology. I suspect that God is at work in, with and under those things. Genetics, environmental conditions, happenstance---perhaps God is present in all of these ways. God's ways are mysterious. "Its alright, its alright, alright, she moves in mysterious ways," sings Bono. Does he sing of the Holy Spirit?
Today I heard testimony, very clear testimony from scripture and from tradition, that both affirms and denies the blessing and calling into rostered leadership in this church (ELCA) of people in same-gender relationships. Should gay poeple living in confirmed monogamous relationships be allowed to seve as rostered leaders? Should their calling to the ministry of Word and Sacrament be endorsed and recognized by this church? Can we affirm the gifts and not the call of GOD? In denying the call, do we deny the gifts? What does Jesus show us about God's grace and its implication in the human community? In affirming the gifts and call, what will the witness of this church be in the world, both among fellow Christians, other faith traditions, and non-adherents or unbelievers? In the book "UNChristian" by David Kinnaman, research by the Barna group shows that the number one perception of Christians by nonChristian people under the age of 30 is that Christians are anti-homosexual (91% of those polled), and that they view this as inconsistent with what might be considered good news.
So here's where I am today. I am not sure exactly why I am a heterosexual man, living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with a house, a wife, and three kids whom I adore. I don't know why I have enough. I don't know why I have not died yet. I don't know why I know who I know and meet who I meet and think how I think. The complexities behind such matters are far to vast for me to articulate and understand. I also know that right now somehwere someone's being born, someone is dying, someone is falling asleep, someone is firing a weapon, someone is buying fast food, someone is walking a long way to get food for her family, someone is having sex, someone is crying, someone is playing golf, someone is writing a blog. If we are somehow open to the nowness of life as it is happening to others, then we will see beyond ourselves a world formed and re-forming, organic and changing, evolving and yet ever the same.
My dad saw some connections on my wedding day that I had not put together. Maybe its in relationships with others that we see more clearly. All I know is that I don't know. Will we (ELCA) be damed if we affirm policy recommendations 1 thru 4 in Minneapolis this week? Will the church split, fail, die, fall, incur God's wrath?
..."Yet I trust in your unfailing love, my heart shall rejoice in your salvation."---Psalm 13.
Life with Jesus means taking bold actions into unchartered territory with a limited but realistic knowledge of the risks and costs in so doing. It also means leaning on God's mercy and grace every step of the way. If you are not making choices that require Jesus, what kind of choices are you making? Easy ones? Comfortable ones?
If you do what you always did you'll get what you always got. I think the message of the cross is absurd because it means being right requirs that you know you are wrong. Surrender to the wind, to the flood, to the heat, to the fire, to the death approaching us all. IN there somewhere is life complete and whole.
Most Christians would say that all three of these questions are answered by Holy Scripture. And thanks to the modern mind, interpretation of Holy Scripture is inconsistently applied. Literalism and truth must somehow dance together. What is truth, Pilate's question before Jesus, is essentially the question we must ask Scripture? If it is indeed Word of GOD, than we must ask God what God means to say when God says we God says in the Good book. Does God mean to tell us that creation was a six-day orderly, miracle of divine organization and design? Or does God mean to tell us more than that? For there is more in that creation poem of Genesis chapter ONe than a simple literal, historical reading renders.
Some might say that Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience together shape our understanding of God's work. It is often unclear whether we are interpreting Scripture or Scripture is interpreting us. In our search for clarity, do we not sometimes deny mystery and the unknown?
For example, my Father told a story at my wedding that I had not acknowledged as pertinent to the day. He said that on account of two Lutheran neighbors in Rockford, Illinois inviting my parents to worship, Cherie and I would not be together. My parents were Roman Catholic and nominally United methodist. They sought to become more faithful together. They found no home aong either of their respective traditions. The Istad's invited them to Our Saviour Lutheran in Rockford. They attended and became connected. I was baptized at the age of two. We retained a Lutheran identity, even after moving from Illinois to upstate New York. On account of a clergy family who joined our congregation in the late 80s I was introduced to Susquehanna University, a school I had never heard of before Kristen attended there. They convinced me to check it out.
I met Cherie at SU in 1994. Fifteen years later we have three boys, I am a Lutheran Pastor, and we serve together in Lancaster, PA. How did I get here? How did I come this far? From farming in Upstate New York to preaching in central Pennsylvania, how did I arrive here? Why me? Why Cherie? Why Lutheran? Why three boys? Why do I believe what I believe, knowing that others believe something quite different than I and have a convincing story to tell. If God is responsible for all of this, then God must be devoted at a very personal level. Or else all is random coincidence, environmental conditioning, and biology. I suspect that God is at work in, with and under those things. Genetics, environmental conditions, happenstance---perhaps God is present in all of these ways. God's ways are mysterious. "Its alright, its alright, alright, she moves in mysterious ways," sings Bono. Does he sing of the Holy Spirit?
Today I heard testimony, very clear testimony from scripture and from tradition, that both affirms and denies the blessing and calling into rostered leadership in this church (ELCA) of people in same-gender relationships. Should gay poeple living in confirmed monogamous relationships be allowed to seve as rostered leaders? Should their calling to the ministry of Word and Sacrament be endorsed and recognized by this church? Can we affirm the gifts and not the call of GOD? In denying the call, do we deny the gifts? What does Jesus show us about God's grace and its implication in the human community? In affirming the gifts and call, what will the witness of this church be in the world, both among fellow Christians, other faith traditions, and non-adherents or unbelievers? In the book "UNChristian" by David Kinnaman, research by the Barna group shows that the number one perception of Christians by nonChristian people under the age of 30 is that Christians are anti-homosexual (91% of those polled), and that they view this as inconsistent with what might be considered good news.
So here's where I am today. I am not sure exactly why I am a heterosexual man, living in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with a house, a wife, and three kids whom I adore. I don't know why I have enough. I don't know why I have not died yet. I don't know why I know who I know and meet who I meet and think how I think. The complexities behind such matters are far to vast for me to articulate and understand. I also know that right now somehwere someone's being born, someone is dying, someone is falling asleep, someone is firing a weapon, someone is buying fast food, someone is walking a long way to get food for her family, someone is having sex, someone is crying, someone is playing golf, someone is writing a blog. If we are somehow open to the nowness of life as it is happening to others, then we will see beyond ourselves a world formed and re-forming, organic and changing, evolving and yet ever the same.
My dad saw some connections on my wedding day that I had not put together. Maybe its in relationships with others that we see more clearly. All I know is that I don't know. Will we (ELCA) be damed if we affirm policy recommendations 1 thru 4 in Minneapolis this week? Will the church split, fail, die, fall, incur God's wrath?
..."Yet I trust in your unfailing love, my heart shall rejoice in your salvation."---Psalm 13.
Life with Jesus means taking bold actions into unchartered territory with a limited but realistic knowledge of the risks and costs in so doing. It also means leaning on God's mercy and grace every step of the way. If you are not making choices that require Jesus, what kind of choices are you making? Easy ones? Comfortable ones?
If you do what you always did you'll get what you always got. I think the message of the cross is absurd because it means being right requirs that you know you are wrong. Surrender to the wind, to the flood, to the heat, to the fire, to the death approaching us all. IN there somewhere is life complete and whole.
Monday, August 17, 2009
which side are you on?
Have you noticed how narrowly this culture defines people and ideas? Its amazing how dualistic Americans have become. You're either conservative or liberal, republican or democrat, pro-reform or anti-reform, pro-government or anti-government, pro choice or anti-abortion (the label pro-life is too broad, because who among us is anti-life?). These narrowly defined labels create thoughtless, baseless debate between parties who refuse to seek clarity somewhere outside their own interests. There is no boundary crossing here, no consensus, no unity. Only fences and walls, divisions and departures.
I confess to you all now: I have defected from this old, tired dualistic debate born in the age of modernity. try to define me. label me. go ahead. i am already labeled. i know. but i am not who you think i am.
What is so enlightening about categorical imperatives? The biblical narrative is messier than the kind of simple truth so many people apply to it. Defining right and wrong is not the essential character of the biblical narrative, though some would argue for the bible's use as such a tool. They might argue that the Bible is a simple answer book for every human problem, no matter how complex. But is that true? The center of the biblical narrative is not humanity, is it? Where does GOD's intent get clarified in the bible narrative? Exclusely in Genesis and the creation story? in the ten commandments? In the Levitical or deuteronomical law codes? is not God's intent expressed in a variety of ways by a variety of voices through a vast expanse of time? Prophetic books, historical books, gospels, letters, poems, songs, laments, wisdom sayings---all these things convey the will or intent or hope of the GOD whose people are responsible for and responsive to this sacred writing. Special self-interests tend to operate out of a monotonic expression of the bible, self-selecting passages, books, or rules that fit their personal criteria. One can argue in favor of war and in favor of non-violence against the enemy. So which is right? Is that the bible's purpose? To guide us into the right answer?
Take the health care debate raging throughout the U.S. right now. Ultimately, the debate is not about health or healing at all. Its about power and privilege. Does power and privilege reside in the free will of every enlightened individual or does it reside in the emperor or the king or the elected official? In our system power does not reside in the hands of the biblical GOD. At best, a god exists from which all powers came into existence. But this god no longer exercises dominion over humanity or the earth because free will and the power born in the individual has superceded divine right. See Thomas Jefferson and many of the framers of the declaration and the U.S. constitution. Freedom of religion is a central tenet of the bill of rights because the framers sought to reject the tyranny they associated with theocentric beliefs. The separation clause is meant to protect the enlightened democracy from the tyranny of belief in a single religious,moral philosophy. So the god we follow is not the biblical one. It is the self-appointed god, the electorate, the enlightened dissenter, the free individual is god here!
The point is that the arguments we are having today are a direct result of the framers' determination to elevate the powers of an enlightened people exercising their free will over and above any sense of submission to a divine power or authority. To reject centralized powers of kingship is a post-Christendom, enlightenment assertion that developed the modern secular state we know as the United States. To claim that the U.S. is not a modern secular state is absurd. At best those who seek to claim a role for Christianity in our national identity must align themselves with medieval Christendom, colonialization, and the crusades. The last administration embodied this perspective to the enth degree. Is not the Iraq war, justification for torture, and the long-term presence of American military outposts in the Middle East a modern replication of the medieval papal state? Bush was a Christian who believed that he was God's warrior king.
We are, however, experiencing something like a Copernicun revolution in our culture. That's why some people have defected from the narrow definitions of the culture wars to take a nuanced or alternative position. What is a nuanced position on government? Empires will be empires and the powers and privileges inherent in the imperial dominance narrative benefits those who prosper by it. But in that narrative, poverty and powerlessness embodied in the most vulnerable parts of the population are ignored, marginalized, and rejected as superstition by the powerful narrators. What does this mean. We live under imperial rule, but the empire is democratic so that the emperor is the majority. And the majority is represented by the oppressor, the powerful and the privileged. The voices from the margins are rejected, villified, demonized.
So what is truth? I have defected from this flawed narrative of dominance. Jesus is LORD. not me or you or obama or congress. And Jesus' lordship is characterized by a radical reorientation of justice in community that lifts up the oppressed and humbles the powerful. Jesus inflates the weak and deflates the strong. He raises the dead and calls the living to die. No narrow self-interests, but rather an other focus that begins with worship of GOD, the creator. What do I say to the health care debate? You're debating the wrong issue. The question is who is your god and who is your neighbor? Where does power reside and how does the use of that power affect others. I would suggest that the current system of transactional benefit and consumer-spending capacity severely limits the way necessary goods and services are offered and received. if you can't afford it, you can't get it. if you can't afford it, you don't deserve it. If you can't afford it, you cannot access it. Wealth defines health. power resides in the hands of those with wealth of resources. And they decide who lives and who dies. All the time.
So how do you defect? Ask these questions. How does your belief about individual freedom and choice relate to your beliefs about GOD, the world, your friends and enemies? Who does Jesus heal? Where does power reside in the gospel narrative? How does Jesus embody an alternative power dynamic in his world? What might a community who embodies those power dynamics look, talk, and act like? How would we think about health care as a result? "My first allegiance is not to a flag, a country or a man. My first allegiance is not to democracy or blood. Its to a king and a kingdom."---Derek Webb, "A King and a Kingdom", from the album 'Mockingbird'.
I confess to you all now: I have defected from this old, tired dualistic debate born in the age of modernity. try to define me. label me. go ahead. i am already labeled. i know. but i am not who you think i am.
What is so enlightening about categorical imperatives? The biblical narrative is messier than the kind of simple truth so many people apply to it. Defining right and wrong is not the essential character of the biblical narrative, though some would argue for the bible's use as such a tool. They might argue that the Bible is a simple answer book for every human problem, no matter how complex. But is that true? The center of the biblical narrative is not humanity, is it? Where does GOD's intent get clarified in the bible narrative? Exclusely in Genesis and the creation story? in the ten commandments? In the Levitical or deuteronomical law codes? is not God's intent expressed in a variety of ways by a variety of voices through a vast expanse of time? Prophetic books, historical books, gospels, letters, poems, songs, laments, wisdom sayings---all these things convey the will or intent or hope of the GOD whose people are responsible for and responsive to this sacred writing. Special self-interests tend to operate out of a monotonic expression of the bible, self-selecting passages, books, or rules that fit their personal criteria. One can argue in favor of war and in favor of non-violence against the enemy. So which is right? Is that the bible's purpose? To guide us into the right answer?
Take the health care debate raging throughout the U.S. right now. Ultimately, the debate is not about health or healing at all. Its about power and privilege. Does power and privilege reside in the free will of every enlightened individual or does it reside in the emperor or the king or the elected official? In our system power does not reside in the hands of the biblical GOD. At best, a god exists from which all powers came into existence. But this god no longer exercises dominion over humanity or the earth because free will and the power born in the individual has superceded divine right. See Thomas Jefferson and many of the framers of the declaration and the U.S. constitution. Freedom of religion is a central tenet of the bill of rights because the framers sought to reject the tyranny they associated with theocentric beliefs. The separation clause is meant to protect the enlightened democracy from the tyranny of belief in a single religious,moral philosophy. So the god we follow is not the biblical one. It is the self-appointed god, the electorate, the enlightened dissenter, the free individual is god here!
The point is that the arguments we are having today are a direct result of the framers' determination to elevate the powers of an enlightened people exercising their free will over and above any sense of submission to a divine power or authority. To reject centralized powers of kingship is a post-Christendom, enlightenment assertion that developed the modern secular state we know as the United States. To claim that the U.S. is not a modern secular state is absurd. At best those who seek to claim a role for Christianity in our national identity must align themselves with medieval Christendom, colonialization, and the crusades. The last administration embodied this perspective to the enth degree. Is not the Iraq war, justification for torture, and the long-term presence of American military outposts in the Middle East a modern replication of the medieval papal state? Bush was a Christian who believed that he was God's warrior king.
We are, however, experiencing something like a Copernicun revolution in our culture. That's why some people have defected from the narrow definitions of the culture wars to take a nuanced or alternative position. What is a nuanced position on government? Empires will be empires and the powers and privileges inherent in the imperial dominance narrative benefits those who prosper by it. But in that narrative, poverty and powerlessness embodied in the most vulnerable parts of the population are ignored, marginalized, and rejected as superstition by the powerful narrators. What does this mean. We live under imperial rule, but the empire is democratic so that the emperor is the majority. And the majority is represented by the oppressor, the powerful and the privileged. The voices from the margins are rejected, villified, demonized.
So what is truth? I have defected from this flawed narrative of dominance. Jesus is LORD. not me or you or obama or congress. And Jesus' lordship is characterized by a radical reorientation of justice in community that lifts up the oppressed and humbles the powerful. Jesus inflates the weak and deflates the strong. He raises the dead and calls the living to die. No narrow self-interests, but rather an other focus that begins with worship of GOD, the creator. What do I say to the health care debate? You're debating the wrong issue. The question is who is your god and who is your neighbor? Where does power reside and how does the use of that power affect others. I would suggest that the current system of transactional benefit and consumer-spending capacity severely limits the way necessary goods and services are offered and received. if you can't afford it, you can't get it. if you can't afford it, you don't deserve it. If you can't afford it, you cannot access it. Wealth defines health. power resides in the hands of those with wealth of resources. And they decide who lives and who dies. All the time.
So how do you defect? Ask these questions. How does your belief about individual freedom and choice relate to your beliefs about GOD, the world, your friends and enemies? Who does Jesus heal? Where does power reside in the gospel narrative? How does Jesus embody an alternative power dynamic in his world? What might a community who embodies those power dynamics look, talk, and act like? How would we think about health care as a result? "My first allegiance is not to a flag, a country or a man. My first allegiance is not to democracy or blood. Its to a king and a kingdom."---Derek Webb, "A King and a Kingdom", from the album 'Mockingbird'.
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