friday after ash wednesday

I began reading Lauren Winner's book, Mudhouse Sabbath, today.  Lauren was an orthodox Jew who converted to Episopalian Christianity.  What she does in the book is give gentiles a taste of Jewish spiritual disciplines, and then reorients them for the Christian life.  The first chapter on Sabbath-keeping left me longing.  Friday is supposed to be the "pastor's sabbath".  So it says on the monthly church calendar.  But it isn't. Rarely are we intentional enough to let Godly rest break into our time.  Not even on Sundays.  She writes, "But there is something, in the Jewish sabbath, that is absent from most Christian Sundays; a true cessation from the rhythms of work and world, a time wholly set apart, and, perhaps above all, a sense that the point of Shabbat, the orientation of Shabbat, is toward GOD."  She wrote about buying and making all the food for Saturday on Friday before Sundown.  She talked about Sabbath rest transcending the Torah.  There are thirty nne prohbitions associated with Sabbath.  But keeping it is about embracing God's rhythm of life. God rested from creating.  And it is about resurrection, renewal, rebirth.  It is about the in-breaking of the new creation.  Jesus interprets sabbath prohibitions from the perspective of living according to God's redemptive and restorative mission.  It is better to heal and give life on Sabbath than to abide by legal prescriptions.  The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.

thursday after ash wednesday

So what can I say to a group of Mennonite Middle Schoolers gathering for chapel at 8:15 am, before school starts? I was invited to speak about Lent.  When I was in middle school I thought the only thing that mattered was my pimply skin, my braces, my oily hair, and food.  I liked sports too.  As for Lent?  My family went to Lenten midweek services, but I went for the potluck dinner!   So what do these middle schoolers need to hear from me?
I talked about the forty days; Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, holy week, baptismal catechesis and mystogogy. I talked about spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, and giving alms.  I suggested that people give up certain indulgences during the season.  These are the logistics.

But Lent is not these rituals. Lent is a story, a homecoming story.  I told them the story of the prodigal son, or the overly gracious father, from Luke 15. It's my favorite parable.  And I think it strikes home for middle schoolers at a private Christian school.  There are people who are far from God, who do not live in obedience to God.  They are as welcome in the Kingdom as those who are obedient.  Living the safe and comfortable Christian life is not the only way to the Father's heart.  No matter how far away we go from God, God is not far from us. And we are welcomed home.
Pray for: broken families.  

ash wednesday

"remember that you are dust...and to dust you shall return."

On Ash Wednesday, Christians intentionally remind themselves that we are mortal. And that our bodies are organic material.  The dust that collects under your bed?  Some of it is you! Your skin and hair and toe nails and stuff.  Why do we need to know this or remember this fact?  Because our other faculties can transcend this basic truth about bodily weakness and vulnerability.  So far as to reduce the vulnerability in many ways.  From protective clothing to HVAC, we create an environment that is more comfortable for our bodies. We can become too comfortable.  Not to mention, our minds and spirits take us places our bodies cannot go.  We dream dreams and have visions.  And so we exercise powers, not so much from our physical capacities but from our mental/spiritual/emotional ones. We have, of course, physical strength, which is why athletes are popular. (And so are steroids).  But it is often the athlete's mental determination and motivations that excel some beyond others. But for every athletle, there comes a time when their bodies fail.

Jesus welcomes outsiders, warns insiders

“God welcomes outsiders, warns insiders”

Luke 4:21-34

I love the ending of this story.  He passes through the midst of them.  He manages to avoid the murderous mob.  What confidence this word must have given Luke’s congregation, who may have been a suffering gentile church, tossed out of synagogue for their faith in Jesus.  God protects faithful Christians who are in danger.   

Ina surprising turn of events, Jesus escapes an angry mob of congregants in his hometown.  Why are they so angry?  Why do Jesus’ neighbors and friends, those who would have known him the best, turn on him so quickly in this scene in Luke 4? 

Brian McLaren

Brian McLaren

in advent an exile

Waiting in a line of traffic on a cloudy and late november afternoon when the air outside is crisp and damp,
listening to the din of public radio talk or the crooning of Nat or Bing singing "Chestnuts roasting..." or "I'm dreaming...", I find myself dreaming, but not of  a white Christmas.  For what do I dream?  The car creeps forward and stops, and creeps, stops, creeps...the short distance lengthened by the slow motion of my leaders.  For what do I dream as I wait in the car alone among so many others who drive alone toward a familiar or unfamiliar place?  About whom do I dream?  What longings are within me now?  What promised land do I strive to enter?  What holy place to I hope to inhabit? 

a letter to the church. Do the work of an evangelist

Dear friends,
"May Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." I wish to keep you aware of the ministry to which I am called as a servant of the Lord Jesus because we are partners in this ministry. Besides worship, the ministry of Word and Sacrament, prayer and visitation of the sick and homebound, and teaching, I am also doing the work of an evangelist. I want you to know that I could and likely should be doing evangelism work full time. (For one thing, to grow a small congregation the pastor mst be an evangelist, meeting new people all the time.) So here is the work of an evangelist:

I received a call today from  the Akron elementary school guidance counselor. She told me the stories of two single parents and their kids. These families are isolated from and do not belong to any intentional communities. They are open to going to church. But is church open to them? They are not connected to any people of faith and love, who believe it is their mission to reach out to the lonely, lost, and least among them. I believe we are called to that mission for those people in Akron. We are called to be a spiritual home and a faith family for these folks. We are being called to welcome and encourage and bless them. I intend to call them, visit them, invite them, offer what I can to them. I intend to follow up with all of the households who received food at the last Peter's Porch, too--some 62 households. In a rare and faithful expression of discipleship, I intend to go to them, rather than wait for them to come to us. What would our world be like if Christian disciples initiated relationships with non-Christians and non-practicing Christians, with the intent to serve them?

We are not a bank. I do not go to offer bailout money or other forms of financial assistance. We are quick to jump to that conclusion, that all people need and want is money for bills and stuff. But I have so much more to offer them than money. I can offer Jesus and His beloved community-- the church. We are the people who love others, when they are struggling, with a love that reveals Christ's promise to make all things new. We are light in darkness, hope in despair. There is a lot of darkness, fear, and isolation going on around us. What people need is the alternative story of the gospel, the good news of God's grace. People are starving and we have food! I intend to share it with them. Do you see that Peter's Porch is a sign to us that people need Jesus and His people? Peter's Porch is not an outreach of the congregation. It is God's mission. We are either faithful to it or not. Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few."

I am also visiting four inmates at LCP this week. I believe the fruit of at least two of these visits is the salvation of their souls---not that I saved them by visiting, but that our Lord has rescued them by giving them faith, hope, and love. One of them will be baptized and another will be welcomed to us when he is released on Easter Sunday!

And also, we will witness two Baptisms on Sunday, December 6 at 10:20 worship. I am also working on preparation for Baptism with another family. They will be baptized in the Season after Epiphany. So, you see the spirit's work among us as we serve our neighbors, welcome them into the church, and offer them God's grace? May we continue in this ministry as long as we are able with the help of God.
in peace,

Pastor Matt

Be our primary Disease: A prayer by Walter Brueggemann

Be our primary disease,
and infect us with your justice;
Be our night visitor,
and haunt us with your peace;
Be our moth that consumes,
and eat away at our unfreedom.
Be our primary disease, our night visitor, our moth
infect, haunt, eat away...
Until we are toward you and with you and for you,
away from our injustices,
our anti-peace,
our unfreedom.
More like you and less like your resistance.
In the name of the one most like you,
most with you,
most for you...even Jesus. Amen .

All will be thrown down

It will all fall apart. Do you sometimes feel like this? That things are just coming apart at the seams and you can’t do a thing to stop it from happening? Do you look around and think, things are just a mess. What a mess we’re in. Do you feel occasionally sick at what you see happening around you? The lack of civility, the lack of compassion, people’s indifference to others, illnesses, sufferings, depravity, the careless waste of good things…Do you think, how can people live like that? Sometimes it’s easier to bury our heads in the sand or to blame others. We are usually better at judging and commenting than at acting and doing. Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion, unless they begin to take action to confront the situation we are in. Some of you are thinking, what situation? I mean the one in which everything is falling apart. The situation in which things are not how they used to be. The situation in which what was once whole is now broken, what once had life is in decay, what once worked no longer works. You’re a soldier in training on an army base on Texas and one of your own officers opens fire in a classroom and kills 13 soldiers and wounds over a dozen others. This person’s act is linked to some extremist Muslim views, allegedly. And the implications for other Muslims in the armed services is…now the army is a diverse operation, perhaps one of the most diverse institutions we have. But we are in a war with Muslim extremists. Welcome to Chaos. Do you recall Japanese Americans being interred in camps during WWII? Diversity is risky. But sameness creates the façade of tranquility. Chaos is when the forces are at work to disrupt, dismantle, and destroy any semblance of created order. The earth was formed out of chaos, according to Genesis. And yet chaos ensues and disrupts in so many ways, personally, corporately, systemically; threatening to overwhelm us. We are living in a chaotic time. Change is happening at an exponential pace as technologies and advances in communications make it possible to take action on everything from locating friends to buying stocks from the comfort of your computer or handheld device. And yet we feel more alienated, depressed, lost. We are living in a time of great transition and flux, a time of chaos.

Attractional church

So much of what churches are about these days is driven by consumer marketing instincts.   Let's call it consumer evangelism.  Using marketing and advertising techniques, churches intend to get more people to connect to their congregations.  A flashy sign or website, postcard mass mailers and special events to attract the masses.  These all appear to be consistent with the culture in which we live.  Bigger and flashier is better.  And often these events are effective, meaning that they achieve their purpose.  What is the purpose?  To attract a crowd?  To sell something or someone?  To appeal to a broad share of the market, labeled "the unchurched"? This form of Church growth resembles the expansion of businesses, like walmart and target.  The goal is to get the biggest share of consumers, putting smaller churches "out of business."  The indepedent churches who have expertly adopted consumer marketing strategies for growth are clearly competitors, all but telling the masses that their goods and services are better, more relevant, new and improved--compared to the old-line churches and their archaic ways. 

Feast of All Saints

This is All Saints Sunday--an ancient festival commemorating faithful Christians who have died.  This morning a dissonance is created as this group of children goes downstairs for children’s church. We see the future before us, even as we bear witness to our past. These candles on the altar are symbols and reminders of our loved ones, those saints who have died. We see the past and the future intertwined in this space, our confined mortality stretching out in both directions.

B. McLaren's prayer for the earth

Brian McLaren

Rest is NOT a four-letter word

I'm exhausted this week. Our oldest started Kindergarten and we are all up and running by 6:30 am. We need to adjust. It'll take awhile. And then, just as we bein to setle into the pace, we will leave town for a week of retreat/vacation in the Adirondacks. We are so fortunate to have been led to Silver bay, a YMCA facility on Lake George in Upstate NY that offers special hospitality and respte for pastors and their families. We will spend a week. Its an 8-hour drive, but it takes four hours just to realize we're heading for rest. It takes a couple of days before we sink into the rhythm of rest. And its clear that in order for us to really rest, we have to go away. Far away, into isolation, off the grid, unplugged. “The apostles gathered around Jesus and told him all that they had done ands taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile.” Mark 6:30-31.
I don’t vacation very often. We took no summer break this year. The last time I took a week off was in the winter. Jesus, Justice, Jazz New Orleans was pastoral ministry with its own kind of service and responsibilities. I’m also not an office-bound parish administrator. I spend my time meeting people, planning for mission with various partners, learning and teaching, helping and praying. I have at least four meetings a month in Harrisburg. I am invited to teach and lead groups in various locations around the synod. Toss in Peter’s Porch, prison visits, various committee meetings, and sermon/teaching preparation each week and I have an active schedule. Most nights I work on the computer and read from 8:00 until 10:00 pm. And that is taking into consideration that my first vocation is to be a husband and a father. The rhythm of my week always begins with Sunday worship. But every week has its own character, experiences, opportunities, and challenges. Sometimes I feel more like a human doing than a human being. You know what I mean? I think this is a dangerously unhealthy aspect of American culture. Our value and our livelihood is based on how productive we are. Isn’t there something flawed in our obsession with work and production? What if there is a better way to be human found in the life of Jesus? What if we are called by grace to rest, to God's time that is not urgent and harried, but slow and gentle.
We leave for the Adirondack mountains on September 25 and return October 5. We love this special time of family retreat. We canoe on the lake, take hikes, go on leaf hunts, make apple sauce, visit friends in Vermont, and rest! As a child my congregation offered annual winter retreats to the Lutheran Camp. These were special weekends with out church family that blended worship, fellowship, play, and rest. I still feel that we need an occasional reality check and a spiritual recalibration by way of retreat.
Dr. Marva Dawn wrote a book called, “Keeping the Sabbath Wholly.” It is a book Cherie and I have read and cherished. Though we often forget the gracious implications of the chapters found in it, the book is a reminder to us of our need to cease, rest, embrace, and feast. Dawn wrote, “One of the ugliest things about our culture is that we usually assess a person’s worth on the basis of his or her productivity and accomplishments. One of the first questions we ask when meeting a stranger is, “What do you do?” She continues, “The need to accomplish also leads to a terrible frenzy about time. The criterion for everything in our society has become efficiency.” Sunday mornings are like races for me anymore. The tyranny of getting it done on time has detracted from my desire to worship. I know that I need a break.
Is Sunday a Sabbath for you? How does that time become holy, connecting you to the endless and eternal God? How much of retirement do you spend doing things to stay busy? Does Jesus invite us into a healthier rhythm of life by seeking solitude and rest in the grace of GOD? May we listen to Jesus, who gives rest to our souls. Amen.

Mark 7:24-31
In last week’s gospel story (Mark 7:1-23) Jesus terminates purity religion. Keeping yourself clean to keep the offensive out would not be part of his kingdom message or way. This is not a sectarian holiness movement, like the Essenes, who were keeping themselves undefiled out in the desert. Jesus is not forming an exclusive group of “holier than thou” religious purists, self-righteous in their good works. Jesus has declared kosher laws dead and cleanliness rituals obsolete. Because the kingdom of GOD is not about purity laws that exclude. It is about pure hearts that bless and include and serve the weak and the poor.
But Jesus is put to the test in our gospel for today. Will he embody the new rules of the kingdom he is establishing as he goes along teaching and healing and walking to the cross? He is on a mission to reorient the Jewish community to love God by loving the neighbor; even the sin-sick, poor, wretched Gentile. But he is met by a woman, a stranger, a foreigner, a syro-phoenician woman---a Gentile. Whose daughter is possessed by demons! A single mom at her whits end—her daughter is using drugs, hanging out with this awful boy doing God knows what. Her only little girl curses at her almost every time she sees her. And now she is in real trouble. 16 years old. Sick. In danger. After a night of drinking and who knows what else, she comes home and calls for her mom, “mommy help me” she hears her say softly. Her daughter is lying on the floor convulsing. When she comes downstairs she finds her unresponsive, tremoring, vomiting. She calls 911 and the ambulance comes. She hears the medics begin CPR; she isn’t breathing. Oh my God. She says. Oh my God. No. As the ambulance speeds away, she falls on her knees in the front yard crying and she prays, “Lord, help me, I beg you. Save her. Please. I’ll do anything. Don’t let her die tonight.” No answer. And then the overwhelming self-doubt. Its my own fault. Her mind is racing. She thinks of her divorce and her alcoholic ex-husband’s abusive temper and how long her daughter had endured him. And she thinks of her own sins, her own missteps, her own sicknesses. She curses the damn cigarettes and the weight she has gained since the divorce. She curses the house in disrepair and the money she has spent on herself. She curses the second shift nursing job that prevents her from seeing her daughter in the evenings. She curses her distance from her sisters, who seem to have it together, and clearly judge her a failure. She is a failure. She curses her loneliness in the world. She is so angry with herself. She does not deserve God’s help. Would God even listen? Had God not turned his back on her, after all she had turned her back on GOD. She hadn’t been to church in 20 years. Her daughter had never been. And now she is on her knees begging for her daughter’s life. She dared to beg God. Why should God care about her or her messed up daughter? She clutched her stomach and sobbed and sobbed in the grass. This was it.
Why should God care? A purity religion might say, God doesn’t. God takes care of those who take care of themselves. Or God blesses those who are worthy, God-fearing, religious, faithful, etc…A sign of God’s blessing is prosperity, health, harmony. She is obviously cursed. Punished. God does not work on behalf of the ungrateful, on behalf of the sinful or the wicked. God does not care for those who reject God’s commands and laws. They are left to their own devises. They get what they deserve.
Jesus was in no way obligated to speak to this woman, in no way obligated to help. He could have ignored her. Jewish custom and religious habit, actually obeying God’s commandments, would require that he ignore her. She has three strikes against her: the wrong gender, the wrong race, and the wrong religion. Jesus was supposed to let this one go.
So why does Jesus help her? Is it not love? Not his, but hers. She loves her daughter enough to face rejection and humiliation, scorn, prejudice, misogyny, abuse. She could’ve been hurt or killed. And then where would her daughter be? She takes a bold risk in fear and trembling because she loves her daughter. Like all of us. She loves. Love is boundless. Ask anyone, who do you love? And they will tell you.
Jesus recognizes this maternal love. It is how he understands God the Father. Love. It is why he has come to teach and to suffer for sinners. Love.
The Kingdom of GOD has been opened for all who will hear this message of grace and tell its wonders. When have you begged God? When have you felt unworthy and yet somehow blessed? How has God saved your life or the life of one you love? This woman is out there. I met her. She is a neighbor. And God loves her too much to let her suffer alone. Jesus knows its safer and easier to hide, to ignore her, to walk away. There’s only so much I can do. Her story is overwhelming and her needs are too great. She is offensive to me and undeserving. God’s work. Our hands. Amen.

do you wish to go away?

John 6:56-69. “Do you also wish to go away?”

Jesus ministry resulted in a spiritual crisis in 1st century Judaism. This crisis was deep and wide and divided Jew against Jew. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke the crisis was between the average lay person who seemed to gravitate toward Jesus, and the religious leaders who seemed to oppose his mission. In John’s gospel, it is this very chapter we’ve been reading from that creates a spiritual crisis among the hearers. All of this eating of his flesh and blood to receive the eternal life of fellowship with GOD was too much for them to endure. How can Jesus, a man, give us his body and blood? And how would this eating and drinking affect a change in the covenant relationship with GOD, a covenant broken in Sin? According to John, many turned away and stopped following him. Jesus’ ministry divided his own people. In Matthew Jesus tells the crowds he came not to bring peace but a sword to divide the generations in the one household of the Jewish faith. And so Jesus’ mission brings a crisis because God’s presence on earth is a crisis. Our sinfulness is a crisis. Death is a crisis. Hunger is a crisis. Fear that leads to violence is a crisis. Malaria is a crisis. War is a crisis. Global climate change and the affects it is having on food shortages in sub-Saharan Africa is a crisis. We need not look far to see the crises of this world unfolding. It doesn’t get better or worse; it just is what it is. And we have a part in it all. Because we have been given this one life, this one moment, and this one planet on which to live and move and have our being. So, the crisis for us is a spiritual one! How will we live given our limitations and mortality? How will we treat ourselves and others? How will we understand the nature of life?
For us, the creed we recite is a response to the spiritual crises we face. Because the creed is about GOD. Creator, savior, giver of life. And not about us.
We must not take for granted that we profess a theological existence. First, there is GOD. Then us. Then the power of Sin. Then Jesus, the forgiver and savior. Then the Holy Spirit, who gathers, sanctifies, and advocates. Then there is church, ecclesia. People of GOD, forgiven, restored, made alive with Christ.
The ELCA is a church divided. But this is not news. Churches all over this planet are divided about GOD, Jesus, how we treat others. Have been for as long as there has been church, starting in Jesus’ own lifetime. We need not fear division in the church. Some will use it as a weapon to control and force conformity. Some will say that unity is more important than divisive change. Some will say that the church's witness is being coopted by a liberal society. Some will say that the church's openness is about political correctness in our culture, rather than biblical faithfulness. But the good ol' days weren't always good. They may have been good for some people, but always at the expense of others. So where is the justice in that? God's justice insists on a better way than we can muster ourselves.
We are a divided church. After nearly 20 years of study, prayer, and conversation the ELCA churchwide assembly adopted a social statement on Human Sexuality last week. And we adopted four policy recommendations. These recommendations allow for the public recognition and affirmation of people living in lifelong, monogamous same-gendered relationships—gay couples. And it allows for the rostering of leaders who are engaged in such relationships. Gay people can be ordained pastors, Bishops, etc…in this church. Over a third of this church, I suspect believes this is inconsistent with the teachings of Scripture. Some individuals, some congregations, and maybe even entire synods will defect from the ELCA and form a traditionalist synod currently called Lutheran CORE. They are assembling in Indianapolis next month. They will invite congregations to discern their consciences in this matter and decide if they want to support an ELCA that, they believe, has departed from scripture in this matter.
This for many is a crisis in this church. I believe it is. And I believe that the Holy Spirit has called us in the gospel to a engage this crisis. I also believe that this is not entirely about sexuality. Sexuality is the cultural war in which an ecclesial issue is being hammered through. The real issue is: Who does GOD call and send in gospel ministry? Who are the called? Who are the chosen ones? Who are the elected officials of this religion? Who does this GOD assign? Who is valued, gifted, eligible for holy office? I am a baptized child of GOD and a sinner. Jesus has saved me and promised me real, authentic, good and eternal life with GOD. I have been called and sent by God as an apostle and teacher in this church. I believe that every baptized believer is a sinner and is gifted and called by the Spirit for service in Jesus’ name. I believe that if God can call and send me, God can call and send anyone: male or female, gay or straight. Fifty years ago divorce was the dividing wall for clergy. Thirty years ago, gender. Now I have divorced female colleagues in ministry, who half a century ago would not have dreamed of serving a call as a rostered leader. Are they to be denounced, defrocked, maligned, ignored? Will God's calling be mocked? This is not a liberal, “the times they are a changin’” speech. Because these decisions have been spiritually discerned in a community of the whole---an exercise in humility lost in so many American Christians whose biblical interpretation is more about their personal political ideologies and personal feelings than about GOD. ONe does not submit to a whole or a community, but is bound to a free conscience and a personal choice. So again, the bigger issue is not sexuality, but how do we read and understand Scripture as God’s inspired Word for us in this place and time. How do we bridge the cultural distance between us and the world in which Scripture was written? How do we bridge the cultural distance between the context of antiquity and the 21st century context? How do we prayerfully discern God’s Word for us without getting in the way?
I know that there are folks who believe the ELCA is abandoning Scripture and tradition. I am sorry that this spiritual crisis is wounding them and breaking relationships. Jesus was crucified because the religious authorities in his day refused to recognize that he was the anointed son of GOD and the Messiah of the Jewish people. Their faithful adherence to the law became a stumbling block to the spirit of truth found in the unlikely form of Jesus of Nazareth. Who ought not to be called by GOD? An illegitimate carpenter’s son. Fishermen. A tax collector. A prostitute. A Samaritan. A man born blind. A Pharisee and persecutor of “the way of Jesus”. The biblical witness is full of witnesses whose witness is disqualified, rejected, unauthorized. From Moses and the Prophets to Jesus and Paul; the damned and the condemned are the priests of this God. Inviting the outcast to share the good news is biblical. Because God is gracious, reconciling our broken sinful souls with Christ. Finally, It is at the cross where sinful divisions are finally healed. Jesus himself offers us forgiveness in the midst of this crisis. We trust in Him.
Many turned back and stopped following him, John says. Many will indeed walk away. A choice is offered. To follow Jesus to the cross, or to go another way. May Jesus question to his disciples cause a spiritual crisis in us all: Do you wish to go away also? Let our answer be Peter’s: Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Amen.

in one body through the cross

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.

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.

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'.

making a joyful noise

"Sing Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in yuor hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." Ephesians 5:19-20. Marva Dawn once commented about music in worship, interpreting Ephesians 5:18 and 19 in light of life in the post-Pentecost Christian community. She said that Paul's allusion to the spiritual singing of Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs was an indication of the kind of musical life they ought to have. Had they been arguing about what songs or music was befitting worship? Had they been arguing about the use of language in music, the use of scripture in music? Had they been gathering in reverent silence and thereby cooling the joyous spirit that had warmed their hearts? Had they reduced their musical expression to a few familiar hymns, which became the exclusive expression of the Ephesus congregation? Familiarity breeds contempt, because it naturally excludes anyone who is unfamiliar.
Marva Dawn says that Psalms were the old chestnuts, the old songs that everyone knew. Ancient texts, ancient carols, Chants. Hymns were those songs found in the New testament, like the Magnificat and the Kenosis hymn from Philippians 2. And spiritual songs were indigenous to the contemporary gathered community. Marva suggested that Paul suggested music in worship that was both ancient and familiar and traditional; and also new and ocntemporary. Of course the primary goal was to tell the story of salvation through music. The bible was their songbook, but so was their experience in life. Someone might have a song to share on their hearts that glorifies the Lord. And that kind of spontaneous expression ought to be welcomed in the context of the Word being proclaimed.
The implications of this for the gathered community today are many: Worship music ought to be rooted in Scripture, tell the story of salvation, talk about GOD and talk to GOD, and it ought to reveal the joyful hearts of those present. Worship is about the heart open to God's heart, the mind open to the mind of Christ, the spirit inspired by the Holy Spirit.
I so often leave traditional Lutheran liturgy wondering where the awe, the mystery, the love, and the joy are. And although much of the liturgy is biblical in its language, the musical medium by which this language is carried does not connect. So often, classical and organ-based music seems so out of touch with the world in which we live that I scarcely can listen. Its not fun anymore. Fun ought not to characterize every worship experience, but as fun is connected to joy, shouldn't orship sometimes be fun? Fun is a strange word here. I mean the kind of fun that can be had together in the company of others; like a wedding party with dancing and merriment.
I love music. I am somewhat of a musician. And I love many genres of music; from reggae to rock, jazz to folk. I even appreciate some rap and some country music. But church music is not connecting me to GOD the way it can and should. Does it convey the gospel? If its singable. And when is it singable? When its melody and rhythm grab us. When it is beautiful, lovely, poignant, real.
At the ELCA Youth gathering in New Orleans we gathered in the Superdome for worship and inspiration every evening and Sunday morning. The house band was led by Peter Mayer, the lead guitarist for Jimmy Buffett. I enjoyed their music. And the crowd sang together. But I was even more struck by something else that happened musically. At the end of each night's gathering, as we exited, a song was cued up and played in the dome. It is the song, "i'm yours" by Jason Mraz, a simple four chord tune with a reggae beat. Lyrics about love and belonging to one another. "Open up your mind and see like me, open up your plans and then your free, look into your heart and you'll find love, love, love. Listen to the moment come and sing with me, we're just one big family, and its our God forsaken right to be loved, loved, loved, loved loved." Everyone sang this song as we exited the superdome. People gathered in small circles to sing it. Its a popular song, has been for a year or so, I bet. And it moved them. It seemed to connect and set a mood of love, joy, friendship, kindness. I was as moved by the response to this pop song as I was to any music we heard in worship that week.
Music in worship can convey adoration for God and for creation. It can inspire us to mission and call us to discipleship. It can help us to cry out in the face of injustice, poverty, and sin. It can unite and build community. And worship music can be sacred and secular; is there really a division in God's world? All of it is God's isn't it? Even the crap. What if worship and the music of our souls was all about GOD and not about me or us? What if it really was about the message, remembering that the medium, the art, the lyric must contextualize that good news for listeners/musicians/singers.
"We do not think about worship so much in terms of what we do. Worship is fundamentally about what God is doing and our response to God's action. Worship is an encounter with God, who saves us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus." This thinking is contrary to consumerist worship, where the important question is, "What did I get out of it?" Worship does indeed feed the soul because God feeds us there. But GOD is the one being worshipped. Not me. Not the band or the singer or the organ or the hymnal or the pew or the ritual act. We worship GOD. So, as emerging Christian people seek to worship the trinity, may we be centered on God's Word and the Eucharist as the point of contact with Jesus' forgivng love. And may we sing our guts out.