love feast

I was invited to a Church of the Brethren love feast to observe World Communion Sunday.  On this day, Christians acknowledge that there has been division and strife in the church and that we are called to embody a more visible unity as the body of Christ.  I suggest, as do many Christians, that the place Christians have always embodied unity is around the table.  Since the first century, Christians have placed strong emphasis on the centrality of the Lord's supper, a meal in which the risen Christ becomes present to and for believers.  Taking bread and a cup of wine, Christians remember the death and resurrection of Christ, receive the forgiveness of sin, and unite in loving devotion to God and one another.  Christians have argued and split up over what this means, how this happens, who can be present and receive it, and how often we eat and drink.  Some have divided over the content of the meal itself.  Others over the ritual language employed to make the meal something more than a typical dinner or snack.  Lutherans have been part of these arguments since the 16th century.  Luther proposed that the mass or the sacrament of the altar was a gift from the Lord to be received by faith.  He insisted that the words of St. Paul, instituting the supper in Corinth be spoken to confirm that the meal is indeed the Eucharist (the thanksgiving meal celebrated by Jesus, the apostles, and he early church). Much doctrine has been written and discussed. I will not treat it here.
Suffice it to say, the way Lutherans practice Holy Communion or the Lord's supper is different from the way the Brethren church does.  We are sacramental and place special emphasis on the practice of the Lord's supper.  It is a weekly part of our Christian faith practice.  We do so in response to both the promise and commands of Scripture that bid us to eat and drink Christ's body and blood.  God feeds us there.  And we are hungry and thirsty for God's provision, so that we might experience unity with Christ.  They are anabaptists.  They tie the meal to the four gospels' last supper texts and the footwashing story from John 13.  For them the meal is a memorial of Christ's sacrifice.  It is an act of piety.  For us, it is the actual presence of God.
There are three parts to the love feast, which is a biannual event.  They also observe it on Maundy Thursday in Holy Week.  There is a dinner, a footwashing service, and a holy communion service combined into one continuous liturgy or worship service.  Men and women are seated separately at tables.  There is singing of old hymns in four-part harmony.  There are readings from the bible and prayers.  I was asked to give a meditation on the gospel story of the feeding of the multitudes, Matthew 14.  I said this::
Thank you, Joel for the invitation to be here tonight.  And thank you or the eloquent introduction.  I assumed you invited the Lutheran because we are known for our love of the potluck and the jello mould.  We do love those green jello moulds with the fruit in the middle.  But I digress.
I'm here to talk about food.  Food is miracle.  Food is gift.  Food is the material expression of God’s grace.  We live in a place and time that denies these truths.  We live in a place and time when food is commodity, resource, a marketed and consumed good.  Food is fast. Food is waste. Food is canned and boxed and processed.  Food comes from Giant or Weis or Walmart. We have lost a healthy relationship with food and the land from whence it comes.  I grew up on a produce farm.  I know what a cantaloupe looks like.  But many children today do not. They do not know broccoli from watermelon. They have not tasted a fresh ripe strawberry or corn on the cob.  We can do better than this. Lancaster county is home of the whoopee and shoofly pie, the agricultural garden spot, Shady Maple smorgasbords and chicken pot pie…and Lancaster is home to over 55,000 food insecure people. 

66% of Lancaster County adults are obese.  Obesity is tied to malnutrition and lack of access to healthy food choices.  1 in 3 children in Lancaster County comes from a food insecure household, where they experience hunger. Hunger in America looks different than hunger in the developing world. The root of hunger is poverty, the root of poverty is the broken and fragmented human community.      

From the garden of fruitful delight to the manna in the wilderness; the feeding of the multitudes to the eternal banquet  the biblical narrative is a feast of rich food.  Food is a sign of God’s gracious abundance.  It is sign of vitality and life.  It is promise of the life that is to come. 

We just heard the story of the feeding of multitudes.  My church, a small Lutheran congregation on Main Street in Akron lives in this story.  This is our story.  In 2008 we heard Jesus call us to His mission in this very text as he said, “You give them something to eat.”  We heard this as invitation. Our response is called “Peter’s Porch.”  We have taken up those full baskets and done what he has done; be bless the food and distribute it.  A growing number of neighbors come monthly to Peter’s Porch, Akron.  Over 190 households, 570 + people were fed a healthy breakfast and given a bag of groceries this month. 30 new families joined us in September. Zion Lutheran feeds about 5,000 people each year.  We do so with partners.  But mostly with God’s amazing grace.  Why? First, there are hungry people around us. Second, Jesus has commanded and invited us to do so.  Third, we are fed.  At the table of grace, we receive the gift of Christ’s full presence every Sunday in bread and cup.  God feeds our bodies and our souls.  Too often Christians have thought to address one or the other, but not both. One cannot receive Christ and avoid the fellowship of the Lord’s supper; one cannot love Christ and ignore the hungry neighbor.  Tonight, you are being summoned, invited to a new relationship with food. Food is God’s gift, a gift to share with those who hunger and thirst. Together, in communion, Christians are called to end hunger and restore our relationship with God the creator whose garden of grace delights and nourishes us daily. As we gather at table, let us remember those who hunger and discern the call to share until all the hungry are fed.         

A         Let us pray.

C         Holy God, gracious and merciful,

you bring forth food from the earth

and nourish your whole creation.

Turn our hearts toward those who hunger in any way,

that all may know your care;

and prepare us now to feast on the bread of life,

Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.  

So, that's it.  For Lutherans, food matters because Jesus comes to us in the breaking of the bread. We encounter God in bread and wine, in hungry people, and in communities serving them.  I love to take part in the religious traditions of other Christians.  It is meaningful to be welcomed at their table, feet washed, and dinner served.  For them, the love feast is one of their high holy days.  It was a privilege to be part of that.  I hope that they were inspired and fed by me, as I was by them.
     

Manna

Exodus 16

The whole congregation of the Israelites set out from Elim; and Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt.  ²The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.  ³The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

             ⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, "I am going to rain bread from heaven for you, and each day the people shall go out and gather enough for that day. In that way I will test them, whether they will follow my instruction or not.  ⁵On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days."  ⁶So Moses and Aaron said to all the Israelites, "In the evening you shall know that it was the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt,  ⁷and in the morning you shall see the glory of the LORD, because he has heard your complaining against the LORD. For what are we, that you complain against us?"  ⁸And Moses said, "When the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the LORD has heard the complaining that you utter against him — what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the LORD."

             ⁹Then Moses said to Aaron, "Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, 'Draw near to the LORD, for he has heard your complaining.'"  ¹⁰And as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the Israelites, they looked toward the wilderness, and the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud.  ¹¹The LORD spoke to Moses and said,  ¹²"I have heard the complaining of the Israelites; say to them, 'At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; then you shall know that I am the LORD your God.'"

             ¹³In the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.  ¹⁴When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground.  ¹⁵When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For they did not know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread that the LORD has given you to eat.  ¹⁶This is what the LORD has commanded: 'Gather as much of it as each of you needs, an omer to a person according to the number of persons, all providing for those in their own tents.'"  ¹⁷The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less.  ¹⁸But when they measured it with an omer, those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed.

The story of Israel continues with a revolution, as God liberates these slaves from their Egyptian masters and leads them safely across the sea, blocking their captors and ending Pharaoh’s tyranny.  God does not approve of rulers whose wealth and power goes to their heads.  God sides with the poor slaves.  This story of liberation has been the backbone of abolition and anti-slavery in the African American community.  In it, we hear the promise of liberation from slavery and the hope of better life. 

The people have escaped into the desert and wilderness of Sinai.  It is not a productive land.  It cannot sustain these 600,000 freed slaves. They will die out there without provision.  They are described to us as complaining. 6 times we are told that they are complaining against YHWH. Their real concerns for sustenance are heard as complaint.  Are not their fears justified?  

Therefore, YHWH produces water from a rock and now enough food to sustain each one daily.  Water and basic nourishment.  Daily bread and quail meat.  In this way, the Israelites learn to trust God and subsist in a harsh environment.  They learn that hard labor in Egypt was not what sustained them there. 

For they had come to believe that hard work made them useful to Egyptians and kept them alive.  They believed that sustainable meat and bread was given to them because they worked for it. They believed that they were slaves who received what they deserved.  They came to fear their masters and expect harsh treatment. Slavery is so much more psychological and emotional than physical. 

 NOW they must learn to trust God’s gracious provision every day.  They must learn to appreciate what they receive as a gift to them and not something they earned.  They do not have to impress YHWH to receive food.  They are not slaves to YHWH as they were to Pharaoh. They belong toYHWH, as a child to a parent. And they will experience blessing, mysterious and miraculous and necessary blessing.   

What are your complaints?  How are they related to your belief in scarcity and a lack of sustenance? If complaining betrays a lack of trust in God, what does real trust in God look and sound like?  How do we deny others their fair share?

What do you believe about work and prosperity?  Is the world divided into Pharaohs and slaves, haves and have nots? Is the systemic division of wealth and poverty too complex and large to change?  Do the poor deserve to receive enough food and drink for the day?  All of us are conditioned to accept that our situation in life, our needs, our deficits are a product of our own choices and behaviors. You get what you deserve.  You earn your keep.  Not so, according to YHWH.  The bible recognizes an economy of grace that sustains all life.  Neither Pharaoh’s hubris nor the Israelite’s complaints can prevent YHWH from providing enough food and drink for all. I believe that a gift economy and a government that provides for its poorest citizens is a necessary part of the abolition of slavery.  I believe the alternative to SNAP and WIC and Peter’s Porch is slavery.  You must work to eat. And  that is not biblical. God is generous. God listens. God sets us free from slavery. God feeds us. Every day.  There is enough.  Today is world communion Sunday and I am invited to speak about the feeding of the 5,000 at the Lititz Church of the Brethren love feast tonight.  This is what I know:  Food is the center of my Christian faith. Bread, wine, manna, water, holy communion, Peter’s Porch, are tied to the promise that Christ is found in the sharing of a meal.  Christ is present in the bread we break and the wine we pour.  Christ is found in the hungry person who waits in line for breakfast and a bag of groceries early on Saturday mornings. Christ is found in the church’s insistence that the table of grace teaches the world God’s economy of grace.Where Christ is found there is life in abundance.  May your complaints be turned to gratitude and your needs turned into gifts to share with others.  Amen.         

the Binding of Isaac: Promises kept and the mercy of God

Genesis proposes that one God created the heaven’s and the earth, bringing order to a chaotic, wild, and dangerous abyss; bringing the goodness of life to a barren wasteland.  This cosmic event has a capstone, the creation of humankind in God’s image.  The Spirit and goodness of God dwells in humanity, men and women.  Equally full of God.   God is a rich provider, who entrusts the gift of creation to humans. They are called to devote themselves to the care and nurture of all that God has made. 

As the story Goes, God provides protective limits to humans that they reject.  Their disobedience breaks their relationship with God and sends them out of his protective custody where they are vulnerable, exposed, and unsheltered.  They must find their way in the world.  Their population grows, as does their ability to do harm, to destroy, to kill, to disregard what God has made and so to reject God.

God chooses Noah, a righteous man, to restore the dignity of humanity.  God floods the earth and destroys the first creation.  He saves Noah, his family and a pair of every animal.  God begins creation again.  But even Noah proves to be disobedient to God. God must find another way.

let there be light. some thoughts on genesis 1

The bible begins with a longish poem/myth about the primordial event--the beginning of life. It has a sort of repetitive rhythm to it.  "God said, 'let there be_____', and there was ____.  And God saw that it was good.  And there was evening and morning, the 1st/2nd/3rd,etc...day.  The poem uses the analogy of a week to divide the work of creation.  Some people believe the poem is historical, meaning that God created everything in a literal week of time. We might call this a scientific approach to the reading. They suggest that the bible gives evidence for the mechanics of life. It is used to oppose other scientific evidence suggesting that the earth, and life on it, has evolved and changed dramatically over millions of years.  Science and biblical faith have not always walked together hand-in-hand. The church has opposed Galileo, Darwin, and other scientists over the centuries.  Genesis 1 is not a biology or geology textbook.  It is, however, an authoritative word for many religious people about the origins of life on earth.  We need not discount this story in light of science; nor ought we to discard science because of biblical faith.  But I am not writing here to deal with the debate between science and faith.
I do, however, want to suggest that the first story in the bible tells us a lot about God and what it has meant to believe in this sort of God for 3,000 years.
First, it means that the first tellers of this story included people of different backgrounds from their own in the story. It suggests that humanity has a common ancestry.  This sharing of DNA or common ancestry suggests, perhaps, that prejudice against the other is a denial of a common theological founding.  This God created men and women in God's image.  Somehow humankind in total reflects the nature of God.  It suggests that we are more closely related than we realize or think. This may have implications on our behavior toward others.  Even our enemies share a common origin, if you will.  This familial bond is, perhaps, meant to strengthen natural inclinations to live in harmony and peace with others.  Our social bonds are broader than we recognize.  
Second, this story does not depend on faith for it to be true.  It simply is.  This is not a story about faith in God for believers in God.  The bible also tells stories about people having faith in God. This story makes no claim for absolute truth.  It is not a theory.  One does not have to believe in gravity for it to be true.  One does not have to believe in God for the story to be true, either.  It does not apply as a candidate for truth in competition with other stories about the origins of life.  It is not vying to be the best or most logical proposition about the beginning.  It tells us what we already know.  This world, all of this, is not accidental.  It is not something from and for nothing.  It is because it has been willed to be.
Third, the creation poem/myth in the first chapter of Genesis tells us that God is creative, imaginative, and participatory.  The first word God speaks is "Let there be light" and there was light.  God called the light 'day' and the darkness 'night'.  The light separated from the darkness.  And it was good.  Curiously, why does the poem suggest that the sun, moon, and stars appear 3 days after the light appeared?  In a world long before artificial lighting, how does one conceive of light without the celestial bodies that emit light?  Does the poet suggest that light and "lights" are not the same thing?  I think so.  The first light may be a force of energy, a burst of power, a nuclear reaction.  It may be "the big bang".  I think it refers to something else, though.  It is the visible presence of God. Before this spoken word, 'let there be light', there was no vision, no seeing, no photographic memory capturing the unfolding of the universe in all its beauty.  This photonic event is the point where the imagination of the artist is revealed in the work of art.  The painter's imaginative use of light in depicting what he alone sees in the mind's eye.  This is the first day.  The imaginative powers of God are revealed in the physical formation of the solar system, the earth, and all that emerges upon it.
I said earlier that the poem has a rhythm, a shape. Movement from speech to formation and from darkness to light drives the story forward.  First there are the containers for life, the environments of air, water, and earth.  Then there is the emergence of life that fills each environment; sky, sea, and land.  Finally, the imagination of God develops human kind; made in God's image.  This holy rhythm; evening and morning, work and rest, saying and seeing reveals that order emerges out of chaos. Unlike other myths wherein creation is formed out of dynamic struggle and violence between gods, this story is gentle. God speaks and life emerges.  
Here are three things we learn from Genesis 1.
1.  God's existence is presupposed.  God exists.  Life emerges from the Word of God.  What emerges is good.  God's evaluation of the work, including the work of human kind, is positive.  God's creation is good. What if we evaluated the earth and its creatures this way?  
2.    Light precedes lights. The first light of day 1 is not from the sun or the stars.  It is another light---the light of clarity.  And so begins the discriminating work of God distinguishing darkness from light, evil from goodness, fear and hatred from love and peace.
3.  While the earth sleeps, God creates.  Creation is unending.  God 's work is constant.  But life ends.  We sleep.  We rest.  We die.  And there was evening and there was morning.
4.  Let us make humankind in our image.  God is relational, personal, and physical/spiritual. Monotheism is not detached deism.  There is dynamic communion between creator and creation.  We are part of a divine ecology that puts us in relationship with the earth and all creatures.  We are interdependent on every other part of life in order to live.  We need water, air, earth, plants, animals, other humans.  We do not live without all the parts. The earth is not teeming with resources for 7 bullion humans to extract and consume.  It is a complex and beautiful creation to cherish, protect, and enjoy.
5.  God rested on the 7th day.  All is gift.  Even God enjoys the gift of creation. Recreation is essential to life. We must be re-created weekly; recharged, restored, refueled, remade.  An a-rhythmic culture driven to daily work is not healthy.  Everyone and thing suffers when we are slaves to work.
Created in the image of God, we are invited to share in the rhythm and provision of the creation. God gives time; days, weeks, months, seasons, years; for the cycle of creation to be completed over and over again. We till, we plant, we harvest, we eat, we live, we give birth, we die. We are part of the constantly changing, dynamic emergence of created life.
The story of Genesis 1 tells us:  we are not God.  We are participants in the ongoing work of creation.  We are called to hours and days of work and rest.  We are invited to enjoy the gifts of this create world, not to exploit them as resources to consume, but to cherish them as gifts to share.
As Lutheran Christians, we are commended to care for creation.  Check out the link:  http://www.lutheransrestoringcreation.org/     



   
 
    

communion

A young woman attended my church's Sunday morning worship a few times this month.  She is a twenty-something RN administrator at a local hospital.  She is a transplant from another town,a few hours north of here.  She has a boyfriend.  She grew up going to a Lutheran church.  After a year off, she decided to reactivate her faith life.  She googled Lutherans in akron, pa and found us. She has participated. I hope she desires to belong with us.  We have not seen her in a few weeks. I wonder if we'll see her again. I'm not sure, but she may have been the first person to find us online.  That's actually sad. We have had a website for several years now.  We have a facebook page too.  We don't get much traffic on them.
We are not a big, flashy, attractional church.  We are not entertaining.  We are surrounded by churches casting a more sophisticated net than we are.  There are churches around us with young people, big buildings, auditoriums, praise bands, coffee shops, bookstores, big screens, fancy signs, programs for every life stage and hobby, full-time staff and multi-million dollar budgets.  We don't really have those things here.
The congregation of Lutherans I serve, Zion, has been here since the late 1890's.  They reached the height of their "powers" in the early 1980s.  Their membership has been declining since then.  The decline of the mainline has been carefully dissected, discussed, announced, monitored, hypothesized about, and statistically concluded and published.  Forty years of decline in the dominating 20th century denominational protestant bodies. Lutherans and the rest.  in the past 5 years, the growing trend in American religious identification is non-affiliated.  The nones, as they are affectionately called.  (I would be resentful at being placed in a category that places me in a negative category.  As if one is either religious or not.  I think it wiser for us to think of them anthropocentric: a word which simply means humanitarian, in a broader sense.  Centering life on the present human condition.)  I suspect a lot of people are more or less on the fence about religion today. Even religious people.  Extremism has distorted the global picture and distracted from the goodness of religious faith and its institutions. So, add the computer, the sexual revolution, and the war on drugs to an ever-changing world and you get religious institutional decline. I'm not blaming these things for church decline. I'm suggesting that cultural change forces adaptation or alienation. Adaptation is harder, but the better choice.  Alienation temporarily stops decline, but it eventually leads to death.        
I have been here 8 years.  I believe that small congregations can be vital churches offering joyful worship, spiritual guidance and learning, and opportunities to serve their communities.
Zion went through an identity crisis.  An identity crisis begins with a pair of assumptions. 1. We are not yet what we will be. 2.  We can be remade, restored, renewed, redesigned by the God who made all things and has a future prepared for us.  This assumption says, God is not finished with us yet. We don't have it all figured out. We can be better than this. These assumptions challenge us to be self-reflective, self-critical, and repentant (a church word that really means, to have one's mind changed). We needed to be challenged.    
So, we asked ourselves hard questions:  What is God calling us to be and do on Main Street?  How do we remain faithful and what does being faithful mean now? What must we give up and/or take up in order to live faithfully? How must we adapt to our surroundings, given that they have changed so much?  Akron is not the same place it was 10, 20, 40, 60 years ago.  The world is not the same place.  Since 9/11.  Since the iphone. Since Obama.  Since Oprah.  Since_______(you fill in the thing that has rocked the world.)  How do we make sense of this world?  What message and work do we carry out in this world that will do the most good and be the most faithful?
I have seen many people come and go from this congregation.  I have seen disgruntled members leave out of anger or pain or grief.  I have seen people die and their loved ones hide. I have seen babies born and baptized and welcomed in.  I have seen hurting people seeking shelter from the storms they are facing.  I have seen divorces and relocations.  I have seen people worship here once, twice, four times and then never come back.  I have seen non-practicing, non-religious people find a way to live faithfully here.
What helps people to participate, to belong, to live faithful? Is it the building, the music, the leader (s), their friends, an emotional experience, the lights?  I don't think guests who come here are really looking for those things actually.  I suspect when guests come to this church they are looking for God or Jesus or peace or forgiveness or extended family. When people come here, they will find food.  They will find kindness and generosity. They will find old and young people together.  They will find a group small enough for everyone to be known, noticed, and named. They will find doubters praying.  They will find workers and those seeking rest.
We serve breakfast and distribute food and clothing to our neighbors.  We give generously to global partners, working on the end of deadly diseases like malaria and hunger.
I think what people find in a small congregation, this microchurch, is communion.  It is a deep sense of belonging to God and to one another.  It is a physical and spiritual connection to something bigger than you are.  It may not be accompanied by euphoria, as at a concert or great movie or ball game. Church is not an event. It is not pious religious expression and sentimentalism. Church is Jesus and people, making a loving, creative God visible in words and actions. Church is a way to live a God-centered life, where we become more like Christ. Church is confronting (s)injustice. To LIVE is the reverse EVIL.  Part of Jesus' own work was to cast out the demons that possessed people, setting them free to live good, healthy lives in communion with God and others.  Confronting darkness is always a part of every good story.  
I propose that we find out who Jesus is and what Jesus was like. For over 2,000 years people have said that his life is worth following and imitating.  Discover what grace and peace sound and look like.  It includes a message to learn and a simple meal to eat and drink. That is what church is supposed to be about.  Discover communion with the creator and the creation, including the creator's most precious gift, the messed up, crazy, passionate, dangerous, wild human family.  


 
 
            

what a microchurch is

A microchurch is a gathering of people, seeking to be faithful to God by following Jesus.  It has fewer than 70 people.  In some places, a microchurch is called a small missional community or SMC. A microchurch is missional, meaning they are participating in God's mission to emancipate the world from (s)injustice. God's good creation has been corrupted, distorted, broken by an enemy force. BUT, the goodness of GOD sustains and renews creation with the promise that God will make all things new.  Jesus' death and resurrection begins the restoration of the whole creation to become what God made us to be---beloved children, loving caregivers, good stewards, faithful and holy priests of the new covenant. God's mission is to heal wounds, release those imprisoned and enslaved, feed the hungry, reconcile enemies, and bring peace.      
MIcrochurches begin by:

• Listening to the Word of God. God speaks to us in the bible.  Creation itself speaks God's word to us. Martin Luther, doctor of theology and bible (1483-1546) said this: God writes the gospel not in the bible alone but also on trees, and in the flowers, the clouds, and stars. So, a microchurch must be acquainted with the bible and the natural world that God has made. Also, we listen to the whole bible and not discreet verses or passages that confirm our thoughts about God. 
• Listening to our neighbors.  According to Jesus the neighbor is someone who shows compassion and mercy to someone who suffers.  Listening to the neighbor means becoming sensitive to others' hungers, thirsts, vulnerabilities, weaknesses, longings, diseases.Not to exploit or take advantage but to serve them.
• Listening to one another .  Building Christian community means living vulnerably and transparently with people we come to know and trust. 
• practicing justice with and for people struggling on the margins, at the bottom of the human pyramid, or outside the accepted center.  justice is love setting right the things that threaten to dehumanize and destroy us. Justice is healing and reconciliation in public. 
• Missional incarnational expression. Microchurches live to serve locally, promoting the common good, restoring the beauty of creation, and building bridges to heal divisions in communities.
• microchurches are sacramental communities of prayer and action. Baptism and the eucharist, the means of grace, draw us into relationship with Jesus and the creator. We gatheraround font and table to be refreshed, nourished, and remade in the way of Jesus.  His way is the way of the cross and resurrection.  We learn to die, togive freely, so that we can live for our neighbors who need us. Our prayers emerge from our experiences and from the Psalms, the ancient prayer book of God's people. 
• 
  

microchurch and worship, part 2

There is an ancient greeting or welcome that Christians say to one another:  "The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you." It is a biblical phrase found in the New Testament, at the end of the 2nd letter to the Corinthian church.  It expands another greeting common to Paul's writing:  "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."  Grace and peace.  Who doesn't want more of those in their lives?  Peace instead of anxiety, worry, fear.  Grace instead of debt, scarcity, slavery to unjust systems.  I know people who are worried about their growing debts.  They need grace and peace.  May it be so, not only in our speaking, but in our living with one another.
We say the longer, three person greeting every Sunday morning to begin worship.  The communal response is: "And also with you", which becomes a Lutheran joke. What happens when a group of Lutherans watch "Star Wars" and hear the phrase "May the force be with you?"  They all say, "And also with you."  Reciprocity build relationships. We do not only receive, we also give.

I want to suggest something important about microchurch worship that must not be overlooked or underestimated.  Something happens at worship that begs description for a general audience.  If someone asked me why I go to worship I would have a three-fold response.  I worship because of the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit.  And this is what I mean:
First, Jesus was and is God's free gift to the world.  Jesus reorients and reconciles God's people with God.  He teaches people what it looks like to live a life with God at the center.  Jesus was crucified, a form of public execution. He was raised  So I worship God because of Jesus.
Second, God is love. I experience that love everyday in the abundant fecundity and beauty of the earth. I have been raised with love by parents, grandparents, and other caring adults.  I am married with children.  I know what love is because of them.  God is love.  Love produces life.  I worship God because of love.
Third, I worship because of the communion of the Holy Spirit.  The Greek word for 'communion' is koinonia.  It means to hold in common, to become one, to share.  In worship, where the Word of God is spoken and heard, where faithful people gather around a common table, something happens. In the microchurch, a gathering of 70 or less, Communion happens.  It is not an emotional response. A lot of people confuse their emotional responses with communion.  Communion is not only when some experience feels good or produces euphoria.  I have been to great concerts and experienced a kind of euphoria.  But I did not experience communion.  Communion binds one's heart, mind, body to others.  Some people describe it as becoming like "family".  I know that families are not always places of communion for people; of peace, of love, of grace. Jesus himself recognized that one's family of origin, one's blood relative or ancestors, could very well prevent someone from encountering God or experiencing the good life. Communion transcends familial bonds and establishes another kind of relationality.  We become bound to the life of another person.  Marriage is a place where communion can and ought to happen.  But it is not the only location.  Bonds of mutuality, friendship, kinship occur among people that transcend family ties.  We may call it community formation.  Mutuality to accomplish a common purpose or intent.  More and more, however, we see the erosion of communities.  Because of dislocation, fragmentation, and transiency, neighborhoods and porches no longer function as communities.  People dwell anonymously and privately in big houses with back patios.        
People need and want communion today.  What they are getting is Facebook. Social media through technology does not give us basic, authentic human interaction.  Its always like peeking in a window at someone else's life.  It is not sharing, even though there is a 'share' function that allows you to 'share' videos, pictures, stories, etc...I have used the share button many times. But it is not spiritual communion. It isn't because a sound bite, a video clip, a tweet do not allow us enough access to each other to know and be known with grace and peace and love between us.  We need more.  And increasingly people do not know how or where to get what they are missing.  We are thirsty.  We long for communion, but have lost our way to it.  
Many churches assemble for worship, but do not experience communion. A big gathering can feel euphoric, powerful, emotionally charged. Billy Graham Crusades led the way toward the kind of megachurchianity that has emerged in the last 30 years in the U.S.  Where Christian faith has been equated with a personal, emotional response to two basic anthropocentric ideas: humans are sinful. God punishes sinners.  But God forgives sinners who confess, and welcomes us into eternal life because of Jesus Christ.  One is invited to respond to the divine offer by pledging faith and rejecting sins. Music has been used to draw out the emotions that prompt conviction.  Increasingly video and image is used to prompt emotional responses, too.  I went to a Crusade once.  I felt manipulated.  I believed I was saved as a baptized Christian. But that wasn't enough. I had to feel different, too.  No communion in an auditorium full of people.  Only private faith between me and God.
But that was not the way of the first Christians or of Jesus.  The way of salvation was always communal.  It was always about formation as a community, an assembly or following.  Jesus called disciples (plural) to feed and heal people (plural).  He commanded them to make disciples of all nations (plural).  The multiplying effect of the church's witness was accomplished through a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic outreach that included non-Jews.  The first Christians learned to be less prejudiced and discriminatory.  Communion often occurred when different people, enemies or factions, came together around the Word and the table.  So it is today.
Communion.  Koinonia.  It is what is missing for so many of us.  It is what the microchurch offers.  More than a feeling, it is a sense of being knit or bound together with God and one another.  Of the Holy Spirit means that we breathe together the very breath of life.  It happens when 2 or more are gathered in the name of Christ to bring resolution, peace, and reconciliation to human relationships.  It can only happen because of the Word and the table of grace and peace.  You can't make it happen.  But it does. What we say and what we do together matters. Microchurch begins with this promise and gift: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.  
 
              

                

microchurch and worship, part 1

Since its inception, Christian worship has been liturgical, following a pattern that established a tradition.  Much of Christian worship comes from the Jewish synagogue and temple. The reading of Scripture and interpretation or preaching of it for the gathered assembly certainly comes from the synagogue tradition.  Oral telling of the story of Jesus and,subsequently, the reading of authorized sacred texts that formed the New testament dominated the work of the assembly.  The Lord's Supper, Holy Communion, or Holy Eucharist was an innovative twist on the Passover meal celebrated by the Jews annually. Jesus reconstituted the Passover meal, symbolic of the Exodus journey out of Egypt, as a memorial of his death.  After His resurrection, meal time and the breaking of bread came to signify His eternal presence as Lord of heaven and earth for the faithful.  Early Christians believed that Jesus was revealed to them or present with them in both a physical and spiritual sense in the sharing of the common bread and cup.
The church understood divine worship in the context of a holy rite for God's chosen people, for the fellowship of believers.  One had to be baptized in order to fully participate in the Eucharist.  Proper teaching preceded one's entry to the table fellowship.  Over time, access was limited to the priesthood and those under holy orders.  Lay people had limited access to both the Word of God and the Lord's table until the 16th century reformation.
Music has been a cherished part of worship for centuries.  Always taking on the particular local culture's musical inclinations, it became an essential part of the assembly's collective praise of God.  Western culture produced a lot of sacred music; from gregorian chant to classical music, southern gospel to jazz Christian worship music has evolved over the centuries.  Christian music has told the stories of oppression in the Negro Spiritual.  It has told the story of western triumphalism.  It has brought hope to those despairing and healing to those who are in pain.  For as long as there has been Christian music, however, there has been musical innovation in worship.  Worship music has not been stagnant.  It evolves.  And, at its best, it is inclusive.  That is, worship music ought not to be monocultural.  It ought to help worshipers transcend their cultural location to connect with Christians around the world.  Worship music can give us a sense of what it means to be one choir with one voice singing in many languages.
Now, Christian worship music in a lot of the most popular and growing congregations in the U.S. has become very monocultural.  It is primarily pop rock music with biblically-inspired lyrics.  A lot of hymns emerged this way too.  Well known tunes and popular instruments were utilized to tell the biblical story or share the emotions pious believers attached to the work of Christ.  But today's popular Christian worship music is professional and made for the entertainment market as much as it is made for Sunday worship.  It tends to ignore other musical genre in favor of pop rock music.
A renewal movement like taize, however, has swept through the church and seems to transcend cultural borders.
I am a Gen Xer.  I grew up listening to the Beatles, James Taylor, and the Rolling Stones.  I listen to country, classic rock, R & B, classical, jazz, and pop.  I do not discriminate musically, because music is a gift that conveys meaning to people.  Empathy draws me to listen to music I would not personally choose, because I know what it means to someone else.  This is the future of music in worship.  Eclecticism.  Not because nothing matters, but because everything does!
Microchurches will be musically innovative gatherings; where worship is not monotonic but diverse and rich in musical expression. I have led a coup in my church around weekly worship and music.  We have developed four worship settings that we seem to enjoy here; one musical setting employs worship music from the global south, African and Latin American.  Another setting employs taize chant and Celtic hymns.  We have a setting that is an homage to classic 18th-20th century hymns (often pietistic, from the great awakenings and revival movements). And we sing contemporary worship songs, the pop rock variety. We do not do a jazz service here,although we've had a New Orleans jazz sound in worship before complete with a dixieland band.
Microchurches will embrace music that transcends culture and invites participation from diverse peoples.  Worship will not be vanilla music but 31 flavors of praise and prayer and vocal communion. We will sing a new song to the Lord. Tune in for part 2 on microchurches and  worship...   after  post on microchurches and mission.
   

the microchurch

Some time ago, I wrote a blog entry suggesting that the future for the church will be found in smaller, mission-focused gatherings called microchurches.  I used that descriptor in contrast to the megachurch phenomenon of the past 30 years.
Megachurches are found in many denominational and non-denominational forms throughout the U.S.  They record an average worship attendance of over 500 people. They are products of this American culture.  Mostly led by baby boomers, they are known for pop rock worship music, a large staff of hipsters with cool tattoos and blue jeans from the Gap, and cafes to rival Starbucks.  They have cool websites, visual media in worship, and big buildings that look like auditoriums and/or malls.
Now, I'm not just going to mock megachurchianity.  It is to the second half of the 20th century what a lot of mainline denominations' congregations were in the first half.  The center.  The big show. The top game in town for religious consumers of the Christian persuasion. Many Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodist, Presbyterian, and UCC churches grew during the war years.  Large unified bodies,denominations, emerged during this period too.  Corporate structures were adopted as beneficial organizing functions of the growing churches.  Unifying denominational worship books, publishing houses, church buildings, centralized governing offices (HQ), and seminary education developed as the beams and pillars of the church triumphant.  And then the 1960's and 1970's happen.  What was built up, begins to crumble. This may sound like basic circle of life stuff.  The Church as an organic reality has a life cycle, from birth to death.  Congregations and larger church bodies are not immune to it.  But that is not the only reason why I think megachurchianity is a short-lived phonomenon.  
Megachurches have a limited appeal in an ever-changing cultural landscape that prizes innovation and novelty. Business models tell us that quantifiable growth, more of something, is better than less of that thing.  For church, more "saved" or faithful people becomes the positive metric for justifying one's brand.
Nevertheless, we cannot deny that large churches have contributed to the continuing presence of Christianity in North America.  Large churches can and are generous.  One large Lutheran congregation gave a substantial gift to the denominations campaign against Malaria, a preventable and treatable disease that continues to kill over 600,00 people every year.  Large churches have resources to share.  But it is not the only way to be Christian.  And increasingly disenchanted megachurch worshipers are seeking another way to live faithfully.
It turns out, people don't want to be nameless, unknown quantities paying for religious services rendered. They don't want the concert or the caffeine.  They don't want to be counted.  They want to count.  They don't want a message from God that sounds like an infomercial.  They are hungry or thirsty for things like reconciliation and restoration and healing and peace and meaningful engagement with the hurting world around them.  They want to be known and loved.  They want to contribute something important to the world while they can.  They want to follow the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. And they want to do so in the company of others.  They appreciate diversity and an openness to varying opinions.  They recognize that religion and politics are interconnected in this globally-shrinking age.  They want to know the truth, so that they can be truly free.  Because they feel bound, trapped, and squeezed by social structures that are buckling under their own weight.
So, an alternative.  I call it microchurch.  It is simple.  The first Christians did this together;  "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." Acts 2:42.  I admit this passage follows on the heels of a story that begins with preaching about Jesus and ends with 3,000 people being baptized.  That sounds like a megachurch. But bear with me.  The book of Acts is more about the scattering of the church of Jesus Christ than the gathering of any large group. One of the key principles to Acts is that multiplication of the message about Jesus requires division of the labor.  The church was sent.  It was sent before establishment religion takes over.  It was sent as a change movement to the ends of the earth. The church was not bound or tied to place.  It was bound to a person; Jesus of Nazareth.  And as a resurrected and ascended heavenly being, Jesus became available to them in every time and place though His words and through a simple meal of bread and wine (dietary staples in the region).  The church became available wherever his people went. And the church was sent wherever there were people who did not know, hear, or see the living God made known in Jesus. They were missionaries.
So, in a context of growing skepticism, institutional mistrust, and ubiquitous marketing of sexier alternatives, the church emerges.  It emerges small. No more than a dozen people coming together to listen and become.  Here's how to begin:
Listen to God speak in Scripture and prayer; Listen to our neighbors.  Listen to one another, as members of the family of faith.  I will unpack these in my next three blog posts.
 

 
 


   

solving problems

There are big problems in the world.  We don't often concern ourselves with adressing them, unless our daily work requires that we do.  For some people, biblical faith inspires engagement in such problems.  For others, humanitarian goodness encourages their concern to fight the good fight. However you come at these problems; faith, ambivalence, or genuine humanitarian concern; they are real.  Here's a starter list:

• Hunger and food insecurity
• Affordable housing
• Access to health care
• Access to clean water and sanitation
• racial and gender inequality
• Growing disparity between wealth and poverty
• religious/ideological extremism that leads to violence

If we take these as massive global problems, we might ask ourselves what role does the individual play in solving these things?  I don't mean, how can each person do their small part to ameliorate the suffering caused by these problems.  (Although that may be part of the solution).I don't mean how does one person stick a bandage on a massive, bleeding, open wound.  I mean what role might an individual play in solving these problems for good? I know one person can lead a movement that brings real change.  Think about Gandhi in India or Desmond Tutu in South Africa or Lech Walesa in Poland or Liu Xiaobo in China or Leymah Gbowee in Kenya.  These individuals found ways to address real problems with direct action.  It is possible to be a catalyst for substantial change, an instigator, a mobilizer who inaugurates and activates latent desires for justice in the hearts of humankind.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about problem solving in his ethics.  It is an invitation to the church to be about the work of solving massive global problems.  In the 1940's he saw the world coming apart.  He saw an apathetic, indifferent church, unwilling to confront the problems with creative and meaningful action.  He saw the church stand idle or contribute to genocide.  He suggests that the church cannot avoid the injustice and brokenness that wounds the world and threatens our annihilation.  We must seek to end it together as a global movement.  He wrote:
 
"What is behind the desire, which is awakening in Christendom throughout the world, to hear a message from the church to the world that offers solutions? It is essentially the following ideas:  the social, economic, and political, etc., problems of the world are out of hand; the ideological and practical solutions being offered are all ineffectual; the world of technical progress has thus reached its limit; the car is stuck in the mud, the wheels are turning at top speed but cannot pull the car out; the problems are so universally human, both in their scope and their nature, that some quite fundamental remedy has become necessary; with respect to social, economic, political, sexual, and educational problems, the church has thus far failed; through its own fault it has given offense, which hinders people from believing its message.  "Woe to those who give offense to one of these little ones..." (Matthew 18:6.) A theologically correct Christian proclamation is not enough; neither are general ethical principles.  What is necessary is a concrete directive in the concrete situation.  The strength of the church's spirit is not yet exhausted.  Christians throughout the world have grown closer to one another than ever before.  Jointly we must tackle the task of proclaiming a message from the church.  In short, the church is supposed to offer solutions for the world's unsolved problems, thus fulfilling its commission and restoring its authority."

I know there are churches that believe in the cure of souls and the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins as the only locus of action for the church.  The church has been relegated to the spiritual realm.  Church is a private institution for believers and members. Church exists for Christians. The evangelical Christian worldview has abandoned the world to hell, sought to save a remnant of chosen faithful believers, and centered their work on weekly worship of God.  They have failed to see the connection that Jesus makes between salvation, the forgiveness of sins and real, physical healing!  Jesus did not only announce the forgiveness of sins.  He healed people, brought enemies together around a common table, restored dignity to the poor and the mentally ill,  advanced the role of women, confronted the wealthy and powerful with a vision of a common humanity in which all were fed, housed, etc...
Many people are skeptical and do not believe global problems like poverty and hunger can be solved.  Actually, the money and resources are there.  The will to exercise power to mobilize resources in order to effectively address these problems is what prevents them from being solved.  Human will.  I believe that we have been offered freedom from the mistakes of the past in order to live better now. The New Testament story is about becoming free from that which prevents us from being fully human, enjoying the fruit of creation, and living in harmony with others.
I think Bonhoeffer is right.  The church is uniquely poised to meet the challenges of the 21st century with imagination and hope.  As the church in the west loses authority and power we gain the trust of those who long for health, peace, and dignity. We gain their trust by listening and serving them in real,authentic ways.  We gain their trust by sharing generously.  We gain the world's trust by standing with those who bear the burden of global injustice and telling the world that this must and will come to an end.
I am the pastor of a small congregation of Lutheran Christians in a small town in Pennsylvania.  But we are working together to end hunger, to end the deadly threat of Malaria, to repair broken relationships, to heal the sick, to bring dignity to those trapped in poverty, to care for the elderly and the young.  I believe that we are called to solve the world's problems because it is our faith in God's goodness, power, and love that will save us,heal us, and set us all free.
    
  

who am i

"Am I really what others say about me?
Or am I only what I know of myself?
Restless, yearning and sick, like a bird in a cage, struggling for the breath of life,
as though someone were choking my throat;
hungering for colors, for flowers, for the songs of birds,
thirsting for kind words and human closeness,
shaking with anger at capricious tyranny and the pettiest slurs,
bedeviled by anxiety, awaiting great events that might never occur,
fearfully powerless and worried for friends far away,
weary and empty in prayer, in thinking, in doing,
weak, and ready to take leave of it all.
Who am I?  This man or that other?
Am I then this man today and tomorrow another?
Am I both all at once? An imposter to others, but to me little more than a whining, despicable weakling?
Does what is in me compare to the vanquished army, that flees in disorder before a battle already won?
Who am I?  They mock me these lonely questions of mine.  Whoever I am, you know me, O God.  You know I am yours."  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from A Testament to Freedom.
In my devotional reading for today.

worry that distracts us

Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.  She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying.  But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me."  But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things;  there is need of only one thing.

            Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her." Gospel of Luke, 10:38-42.

You are worried and distracted by many things.  Jesus is right about that.  The worries of life that distract us are real.  They grow in time.  They weigh us down.  They keep us busy, don’t they?  Worries that distract us are those things that command our attention and time, such that we forget God.  Work, family, health, home, money, relationships…Every day we are faced with the things we must do.  But are all those things needful ?  How do you prioritize?  What worries are distracting you from the truth about yourself and your life? 

One thing is needful.  But we multitask.  We are doers.  We are defined by what we do, our work life or our extracurricular activities.   We are not focused on one thing; we are involved in many things at one time.  We keep busy schedules.  We exhaust our minds with all that we are trying to accomplish.    As a Lutheran congregation, we are caught up in our doing.  Campaigns and porches and meals.  We are active servants.  Church is about what we are doing for others.  Like Martha, we offer our labor.  We practice hospitality and there are chores. We cannot ignore the chores of preparation for Peter’s Porch or community meal. 

The more we accomplish, the better we feel about ourselves.  Like a drug, we can become addicted to the payoff for our actions.  The payoff may by actual income or it may be the adrenaline or the euphoria we get from achievement, from success, from the value we subscribe to accomplishments.

Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken away from her.  Sitting at Jesus’ feet.  Mary is not ignoring the necessary chores hospitality demands.  She is making a choice.  Stillness and silence before the master.  What I must do is not as important as what Jesus has done and said. I must reorient the truth about myself and my life in Jesus. For he invites me to sit at his feet and listen.

What did he teach Mary?  How beloved and precious she is to God.  How close God is to her in times of joy and times of sorrow.  How much God will provide for her when she calls out to him in need?  How she can trust God to carry her, to bear her burdens, to lift her up, to rescue her from trouble, to keep her safe?  That God is a healer with power to raise the dead.  That she is invited to patiently wait for the Lord to act on her behalf?   Set aside your worries that distract you from the truth that you need to hear.  Hand over your worries, you pain, your fear to Jesus.  Worrying cannot add a single hour to your life.  But God can.  God knows what worries you.  He sent his son to give you peace.  Peace in knowing that what you have done, failed to do, will do  tomorrow does not define you . You are defined by the God who made you and loves you.  You are sons and daughters of the one God of creation.  You belong to the God of love.  Stop.  Sit. Listen.  Take it in.  Your life is gift.  Receive it.  Give thanks.  Trust God.  That’s enough for today.  Amen.    

"Love is the highest virtue.  It is neither called forth by anything that someone deserves nor deterred by what is undeserving or ungrateful. And no creature toward which you should practice love is nobler than your neighbor---that is any human being especially one who needs your help. This person is not a devil, not a lion or a bear, not a stone or a log.  This is a living creature very much like you. There is nothing living on earth that is more lovable or more necessary.  The neighbor is naturally suited for a civilized and social existence. Thus nothing could be regarded as worthier of love in the whole universe than our neighbor. But such is the amazing craft of the devil that he is able not only to remove this noble object of love from my mind but even to persuade my heart of the exactly opposite opinion. My heart regards the neighbor as worthy, not of love but of the bitterest hatred. The devil accomplishes this very easily suggesting to me: "Look, this person  suffers from such and such a fault. The neighbor has chided you, has done you damage."  Immediately this most lovable of objects becomes vile. My neighbor no longer seems to be someone who should be loved but an enemy deserving bitter hatred.  In this way we are transformed from lovers into haters.  All that is left to us of this commandment are the naked and meaningless letters and syllables: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  Martin Luther. Lectures on Galatians. 1535.

How do you relate with your neighbors?  Callous indifference.  Ignorance.  Fear.  Rational rejection.  Self-absorption.  These are some typical ways in which we relate with neighbors. We may also be friendly, generous, kind, supportive, and respectful. Our disposition toward others is determined by many factors. The behavior, attitudes, and actions of others along with personal prejudices of varying kind and degree trigger our reactions.
Today, I think ambivalence toward our neighbors is more prevalent and more deadly than hatred itself.  I do not hate anyone, but I am ambivalent about them.  I am apathetic toward their life circumstances.  As they are to mine. I am unaware of my neighbor's needs. I prefer not to know them.
As a Christian, I am invited and expected to acknowledge and show compassion for my neighbors.  Another word, used by Luther, is help.  I am encouraged to help my neighbor.  In his small catechism, a teaching tool, Luther writes about the ten commandments; in response to the commandment, "You shall not murder," he writes, "We are to fear and love God, so that we neither endanger nor harm the lives of our neighbors, but instead help and support them in all of life's needs."  I am afraid that,as a people, we have chosen to ignore both the negative and affirmative aspects of this commandment. Basic morality has denounced murder for thousands of years. But television and film continue to glorify violence and murder.  We are bereft of an ethic that truly values the life of another.    
As a Christian, any morality is grounded in the person, teaching, and work of Jesus.  Jesus, in the gospel of Matthew, rejects both "an eye for an eye" and "you shall not murder" as sufficient standards of respect for human life.  He rejects retribution of any kind and he suggests that anger (the underlying potential cause of violence) is itself a murderous act.  Intention to act violently is as deadly as the act itself, according to Jesus. Self-defense at the expense of the other is replaced by self-sacrifice and denial. One is encouraged to give one's life for others.
So, church, we are expected to exercise a counter cultural high esteem for other persons to the extent  that we must condemn violence and demonstrate a concern for the neighbor that can be characterized as love.  Love does not harm.  Love helps.  Churches are commanded to help people.  When Christians have been helpful, really helpful, they have experienced changed lives that might be understood as conversions.  Demoralizing ambivalence and apathy have damaged the reputation of Christians in the U.S. and around the world.  To turn this around, churches in the U.S. must begin to find ways to care for and help their neighbors in real, tangible, authentic ways.  People are hungry.  Feed them. People are anxious and afraid.  Give them peace.  They are sick.  Bring healing. They are grieving.  Bind their wounded hearts.  Be present.  Do what no others will do.  Bear their burdens.  Stand with them in time of trial or suffering. Pay what they owe.  
There are many churches out there that do nothing to care for their neighbors or neighborhoods.  They are content to assemble for worship in whatever form they deem right. Their religious habits and piety blind them to their Christian vocation.  They receive from their pastors the gift of cheap grace.  They are encouraged to reject sin and enjoy the free gift of forgiveness.  But they are neither invited nor challenged to take up the cross of Christ, to love and serve the world.  They are eager to sing beloved hymns  and songs, to enjoy the means of grace, and to embrace one another with the peace of Christ.  But they care not for those who do not assemble, for those outside of the church's walls of sanctuary.  Martin Luther again admonishes the church in this way:
"Humans do not live for themselves alone in these mortal bodies to work for their bodies alone, but they live also for all of humanity on earth; rather, they live only for others and not for themselves.  They cannot ever in this life be idle and without works toward their neighbors.  People, however, need none of these things for their righteousness and salvation.  Therefore they should be guided in all their works by this thought and contemplate this one thing alone, that they may serve and benefit others in all that they do, considering nothing except the need and advantage of their neighbors." From "The Freedom of a Christian, 1520.  
I am convinced that where love is given away, Christ is present.  Where Christ is present, there is salvation and peace.  
      
    
 

    

George Zimmerman and the Good Samaritan

GO and DO LIKEWISE, says Jesus.  Be merciful, as the Good Samaritan was merciful.  Be a Good Samaritan.  We know this.  Be a helper.  Be a good neighbor.  Let’s say we all want to do the right thing.  Give each other the benefit of the doubt.  Even this lawyer here wants to do the right thing.  At least he is concerned enough with the law to want to do the  right by it.  He believes the law is from God and so obedience to it is not an option.  He wants to be compliant.  What he gets from Jesus is unsatisfactory.  You know the law, do it and live.  Love God.  Love your neighbor. So he asks, “But, who is my neighbor?”  To whom am I responsible?  Who must I love? And this is where the good Samaritan story comes from. Because we all want to do the right thing, don't we?   

But I don’t love all of my neighbors, do you?  I don’t dislike them.  I also don’t intentionally harm them or help them.  I live near them.  That is why they are my neighbors.  I suppose I am good for an emergency.  One time, one of our neighbor’s daughters got hurt and was bleeding.  We helped her, cleaned the wound, stuck a band aid on her.  I guess we were good Samaritans that day.  But in the case Jesus’ presents, I’d say most of us are not involved at that level.  I’ve witnessed a few accidents on the road and not stopped.  I called 911 once.  We have actually made the world better and safer.  Thank you 911.  Thank you first responders.  Thank you paramedics.  Thank you police.  Thank you military personnel.  Thank you Emergency room doctors and nurses.  Thank you Good Samaritan Hospital.  We have systematically samaritanized a work force around public safety and emergency medical assistance.  This is great. Most of us are off the hook.  We are not responsible.  Now occasionally you here of the citizen hero; found someone and brought them to the hospital, delivered baby in walmart parking lot.  You know the stories.  But as for you and me, we needn’t go vigilante in order to go and do likewise.  None of us is batman. We can be thankful for the professionals and get out of their way.    

Of course the other aspect of the story Jesus tells is the inherent racism and prejudice between Jew and Samaritan.  You see the story has a punchline and that is that a Samaritan is the good guy.  Two of the most religiously observant Jews, no. But a Samaritan.  Yes.  He’s the one.  It betrays a certain logic though.  To have any connection, one must assume prejudice, maybe even hatred.  Of course this still exists.  But do we like to admit it?  What contemporary prejudiced to you hold?  That is the person to insert in the story.  A more familiar version of the story might be:  a southern white cotton plantation owner was attacked and beaten and left for dead today.  You know who saves him? This negro boy. Can you believe it? Tune it at 11 for this story of an unlikely hero.  Doesn’t that sound ridiculous now?  Now, in the Middle East Jews and Arabs don’t get along. But there are Jews married to Arabs.  There are Muslims and Jews and Christians working and living together as neighbors, too.  The Good Samaritan story falls apart if we first confront racial and ethnic hatred. We know better by now.  This is not a post-racial America, but don't we know that racial prejudice is unjust and ought to be confronted and rejected?  Everyone knows that the heart of the Good Samaritan story says that a good neighbor does not allow racial or ethnic prejudice to prevent one from doing what is right, merciful, good.  

I suppose a headline news story that addresses what it means to be a good Samaritan is the George Zimmerman/ Trayvon Martin case.  A man on neighborhood watch carrying a firearm sees a suspicious black boy and follows him.  He calls 911 and ignores the dispatcher’s suggestion that he not give chase.  At some point a confrontation ensues between the armed man and the unarmed black kid.  In the end, the kid is killed.  Zimmerman was acquitted yesterday.  I don’t know all the facts of the case.  I don’t know the law in Florida giving someone the right to self-defense.  But here’s one implication of the verdict; you see someone you don’t like in your neighborhood, chase them out.  Use deadly force if necessary.  Even if the person is an unarmed black kid.  You are justified in doing so.  This is as close to saying to hell with the Good Samaritan story as we can go.  Zimmerman’s shooting is not the way of Jesus

What does Go and Do Likewise mean for us? Don’t shoot?  Call 911?  Avoid conflicts?  Stay safe?  Our question is not the lawyer’s Who question. Ours is How? How do we show mercy to others?  That is our question. What is mercy?  How might I be merciful to someone? Figure that out and out will imitate Christ and you will have life.  Amen.   

Making Disciples

Talking about disciples and discipleship is characteristically bible-speak, churchese.  We rarely use the words to identify other learning experiences.  We don't say, "I am a disciple of Mr. Smith, my math teacher."  We may talk about apprenticeship or training, but not discipleship.  I dare say students and teachers in our context are not as close in relationship as the biblical rabbi/disciple was.  I don't have evidence to support this at all.  But I would say that most formal education happens in classrooms.  And the goal of teachers is not to make disciples to a way of life, but to teach content and processes of thinking that may be applied to a productive career.  The goal is usually productivity in the west.  Relationships are secondary, at most.  Not so, I suspect,in the eastern world of antiquity.  Productivity was important, as it pertained to sustaining life.  But, healthy relationships were more essential than career aspirations.  
Discipleship was an essential part of 1st century Jewish culture.  Their religious life, centered around the observance of Torah (a word meaning teachings, law, or way), was passed down by teachers or Rabbis to students or disciples.
Disciples were apprentices, training to become Rabbis or observant teachers of Torah.  One stood within a particular rabbi's school of thought or teaching. Rabbi's held different points of view, opinions, and interpretations of Scripture and its application.  Some gifted students were trained or apprenticed to become Rabbis.
Jesus began his own rabbinic teaching, calling disciples to follow him.  His interpretation of Torah was a radical departure from traditional, normative teachings.  He was accused of disobedience and teaching disobedience.  His disciples did not fast or observe cleanliness laws.  He did not respect Sabbath prohibitions.  He did not abide by social, economic, or ethnic prejudices.  He treated women and children with love and respect.  He had compassion on those suffering from illnesses that dehumanized and segregated from community.  He subverted social structures of power and authority, suggesting that pedigree and position and prosperity did not equal divine blessing.
He taught that dying, self-emptying humility, and service were keys to meaningful, lasting life.  Sustainability was found in giving away one's possessions and wealth.
Disciples followed Jesus. They intended to live like he did.  And die like him to.  Many of them did. Peter was crucified upside-down to avoid being too much like the master.
So what is a disciple of Jesus like today?  One who reads the bible and believes that it is holy, inspired by God, and good news for people.  A disciple is learning about healing, reconciliation, and a balanced life with God at the center of it.  Disciples pray.  They are compassionate.  They serve people.  They are concerned for the welfare of people at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder.
How does one become a disciple of Jesus?  Disciples are a community of learners/practitioners.
Disciples are caught.  They are invited.  They experience a thirst or a hunger in their lives to know God.  They seek what they have not found.  Listen to the song "I Still Haven't Found what I'm looking for" by the Irish band U2.  It is the anthem of the postmodern disciple.
I am a disciple.  Not a very good one.  But I'm learning. Not a Jedi Master, but a paduwan learner in the language of "Star Wars".  I am also a Lutheran Pastor.  I have a Masters degree in divinity from the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg.  I do not think I am a master yet.  I am studying the work of Christians who believe that making disciples of Jesus is essential to the church's DNA.  They suggest that a process of formation in the teachings of Jesus makes a more compassionate, just, and balanced human being.  Humanity is better when the teachings of Jesus are known and practiced.  Selfless concern for others, generosity, and peace-making are three characteristics of disciples.
Why is discipleship important?  Because the 21st century world lacks a cohesive narrative that examines and articulates what it means to be human.  The Christian story, the story of Jesus, is about the human condition in relation to the God who created life.  We need a carefully developed, tested, enduring, and meaningful narrative to become better at life in this world as human beings.        

balance

Do you live a balanced life?  From Jesus to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a spiritually formed person is someone whose life is coming into balance.  It is difficult today, in an arrhythmic, 24/7 world, to maintain a healthy balance.  We do not often have daily, weekly, or seasonal routines or rituals that strengthen our relationships, nourish our souls, rest our bodies, and calm our anxious minds.  My spiritual director used to begin our conversations by asking me, “How do you feed you soul?”  It is challenging to strike a balance, to honor all of your relationships; especially the primary relationship with God.   

Balance is about our use of time.  But more than that, it is about our relationships.  As a Christian person, there is always a relational triad or a triangle of relationships that we strive  to keep in perspective, in healthy balance. Jesus is our example. He struck this balance by spending time apart and alone with God the Father; by developing a small or core family group with whom he lived and moved. Known as the twelve, they were not his only disciples, but they were his closest friends. According to Luke’s gospel, Jesus and the twelve men were accompanied by several women; Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Suzanna and some others.  He spent time developing personal relationships with men and women along the way.  Finally, Jesus ‘ primary work of teaching, healing, and feeding people put him in contact with larger groups of people.  Synagogues, villages, and whole communities are affected by Jesus’ work.  He maintained a balance among these three relationships; God, family/friends, and community.  Before key moments or decisions in his ministry, Jesus prayed.  He also seemed to spend equal time between small groups of disciples and large crowds.

As a church, we may think of these three relationships as our IN, UP, and OUT relations.  UP= God; IN= family/friends; OUT=community.  IN and UP without OUT makes an insulated congregation of worshipers with no time for the world.  A lot of larger, program churches focus on these two relationships and ignore getting out.  IN and OUT with no UP makes a nice civic group, like the Kiwanis club.  A lot of congregations became social clubs with occasional service projects, neglecting their relationship with God.  Worship became dull and monotonous. Prayer and bible reading are not encouraged or practiced. Behavior is self-centered, rather than God-centered.  UP and OUT with no IN makes a congregation of active, productive doers.  But there is no time for friendships, community formation, personal care, or ministry of presence.  Worship and service without fellowship makes entry and belonging difficult for newcomers.  These congregations employ worker bees, but may not enjoy time together in small groups for social reasons.  

How balanced is your life?  Are you making time for God, for family/friends, and for others every day?  Every week? 

If you would like help strengthening one relationship area, call or email me. As we seek a balance, we must remember that God is gracious with us. Sustained, perfect balance is not possible.  But we can have fun working on these things together. May the summer be fruitful in your life of faith and in your many relationships.