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. 
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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.     

         

vulnerability and risk

^{Gospel of Luke 7:11-17.  Reading for Sunday, June 9 2013.}

¹¹Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him.  ¹²As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother's only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town.  ¹³When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, "Do not weep."  ¹⁴Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, "Young man, I say to you, rise!"  ¹⁵The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.  ¹⁶Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has risen among us!" and "God has looked favorably on his people!"  ¹⁷This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

Think for a minute about the most vulnerable person you know right now. Think of someone at risk.  It could be someone in your family or neighborhood.  It could be someone elderly or very young.  An infant or child, living in unsafe or precarious conditions.  It could be a senior adult living alone.  It could be someone suffering from an illness or an addiction.  In the summer time a lot of kids become more vulnerable.  When school is out and parents are working, what happens?  Some children, whose families count on free school breakfasts and lunches face the problem of food insecurity and hunger.  Children, hungry, in this town.  You know it’s true. Think of someone vulnerable.  How well do you know them or their story?  Enough to want to do something to bring them hope, reduce their fears, increase their chances?  Have you been moved to tears or anger or a feeling of paralysis or despair  by their circumstances?   As adults we are aware of vulnerability.  The threats of life are more real as one ages.  I will be 39 this week. I’m older than I was and younger than I will be.  Not the oldest or the youngest person in the room. In the middle.  But I have experienced physical vulnerability and my own mortality.  And I have been moved many times by the suffering and struggles of others in this congregation, in this community, in the world. 

As a Christian person, as a church, we are called to recognize vulnerable people and serve them.  And we do.  Through Peter’s Porch and global ministry partners, we reach out. I am thankful for your service.  Bishop Hoover gave a shout out to my congregation (Zion, Akron, PA) in his last sermon as Bishop presiding at the annual synod assembly this weekend.  His sermon was about risk-taking as gospel servants and he named this congregation as one of the examples of this synod of a congregation taking risks to meet physical needs of people in our community.  Do you see our ministry as a risk-taking mission?

One day Jesus sees the most vulnerable person in his circle of encounter; a woman, weeping, behind the funeral procession of her only son.  She has already buried her husband and now she must bury a son.  Because there was no government safety net, no social security or Medicaid, this woman’s future is also at risk.  She could very well face her own death.  She faces her own decline and suffering, while she grieves her losses.  You know this happens every day in this world.  Every day.  We hear stories. Sometimes we are close enough to encounter, as Jesus does.  When he does, he is moved to compassion.  In the original language, Jesus has a physical reaction, his guts tighten, at the sight of this funeral.  He says to her “Do not weep.” He enters her circumstances and raises her dead son.  Fear and amazement go viral.  What were they saying?  “The child lives.”  “He’s alive.”  “Jesus raised a dead boy and restored the hope of this poor woman.” 

A colleague says that we are called as a church to get close enough to our neighbors to hear their weeping.  It is only when we risk this kind of proximity that we truly follow Jesus in mission. And we know that privacy and  personal discomfort prevent us from doing this.  We turn aside, remain silent, passive, and ignorant of people’s stories.  We fail to connect.  We experience our own vulnerabilities, our own anxieties that drive our behavior.  We professionalize ministry, expecting that the Pastor is the one who does this kind of work.  We feel weak, over stretched.   I suspect that we relate with the widow more than with Jesus.  As a congregation on Main Street, we have become more vulnerable.  The next generation has been lost to us.  They are not here.  We lament our future.  How long can we sustain this congregation full of widows and senior adults? 

As a church, as a congregation of Lutherans on Main Street, we hear GOOD NEWS.  Jesus raises up the next generation.  There were over twenty high school youth at assembly.  I saw several new, young pastors at assembly. I am not the youngest leader in our synod, in our church.  This is a hopeful sign.  Jesus enters our story and promises new life will emerge.  He comes near to us in the bread and cup, in the story and song, in the broken hearts and hopeful joy we share.  BUT, we are called to a new boldness.  We are called to risk entering into the stories of those who are vulnerable around us because we are human, we are vulnerable too.  Jesus knows our vulnerability, because he too was subject to the same weakness.  He suffered and died to know our suffering and death. And he was raised so that we might know HIS life-giving Spirit dwelling in our hearts through faith.   So let us take risks for the gospel.  Let us sing a new song.  Let us risk being joyful in the midst of suffering.  Let us risk hearing the stories and offering hope, restoration, and life where there is grief and hardship and pain.  We are being raised to life, so that God's power and love might be proclaimed and praised by the people.  

who has faith?

(Based on two bible readings for Sunday June 2nd, 2013.  Galatians 1:1-12; Luke 7:1-10)

What is faith?  What does it mean to be a faithful person?  In general, we may define it as one who is a devout adherent to a religious system of belief. A faithful Muslim prays five times a day; a faithful Jew learns the Torah and observes the Sabbath; a faithful Hindu prays to the gods and goes to temple.  A faithful person is someone who practices a religion. One can be a faithful spouse, too.  Synonymous with faith, a person of integrity, trustworthy, loyal, committed.  The U.S. Marine corp. are always faithful, “semper fidelis.” --To the corps., its principles, duties, and national defense calling.  To be faithful is to adhere to an ideology or to love what one has been taught.  One can be a faithful democrat, a faithful bigot, a faithful shopper, a faithful friend, a faithful anything really.  To devote one’s self to something or someone is to be faithful.   To whom or what are you most faithful? Who is faithful to you?

More specifically now, what does it mean to be a faithful Christian?  There may be some confusion about this question.  Why?  Because Christians have made it difficult to know what it means to be a faithful one, because there are so many kinds of Christians who exercise faithfulness in so many different ways.  Christians have defined themselves in a variety of ways, and by defining who they are have defined who they are not. We call that dogma or doctrine, human interpretation of belief. Some have defined Christianity too narrowly, choosing an issue or a moral opinion as the defining matter. As a result we have drawn distinctions and separated ourselves from other Christians and even more so from non-Christians.   The diversity of religious expression and our compulsion to be right has meant that Christians do not live in unity with one another. This is a hurtful scandal. Christian faith excludes, establishes certain boundaries, and develops systems to uphold those exclusive boundaries.  Congregations are the end product of private individuals practicing faith with like-minded individuals.  Often, churches have a circle-the-wagons mentality that divides the world into faithful insiders and unfaithful outsiders. We have chosen to be part of the church, chosen how to be faithful here together.  What does faithfulness look like here?  To be moral, follow biblical rules, go to church regularly, pray, give, be baptized, take communion, show up on Sunday, and contribute in some way?  Sometimes we confuse being faithful to a congregation or a pastor or a liturgy or a biblical tenet with having faith in Jesus. And when we do, we suggest that our ways are the only ways, our ways define faith. We get stuck in traditions, in rituals, in behaviors, with people that may not help us mature in faith in God, in Jesus.  So what is Christian faith?

if the earth...a poem by Joe Miller

If the earth

were only a few feet in 

diameter, floating a few feet above a

field somewhere, people would come from

every where to marvel at it. People would walk

around it marveling at its big pools of water, its little

pools and the water flowing between the pools. People

would marvel at the bumps on it, and the holes in it, and they

would marvel at the very thin layer of gas surrounding it and the

water suspended in the gas. The people would marvel at all the

creatures walking around the surface of the ball, and in the water.

The people would declare it precious because it was the only one,

And they would protect it, so that it would not be hurt. The ball

would be the greatest wonder known, and people would come

to behold it, to be healed, to gain knowledge, and to know

beauty and to wonder how it could be. People would love

it, and defend it with their lives, because they would

somehow know that their lives, their own

roundness, could be nothing without it.

If the earth were only a few

feet in diameter.---Joe Miller.

vulnerability and protection: The biblical image of the Good Shepherd

 The biblical image of the shepherd, though not a common contemporary reference point for us, still speaks to the faithful in meaningful ways.  The 23^rd psalm and the images of Jesus the shepherd are most often associated with death, with funerals.   The image and the Psalm bring comfort to those who mourn.  Shepherd images for God were long part of the story of Israel.  Some 500 years before Jesus, Ezekiel the prophet spoke of God as a shepherd when he said:

 “For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. ¹²As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. ¹³I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. ¹⁴I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. ¹⁶I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.” Ezekiel 34.

b i b l e

This is not a column about the history channel's miniseries, "The Bible" which aired in March. I commented about that in an earlier blog entry.  I shared my opinion on it. I have shared it since with people in and outside of church, who have asked me what I thought. I have a relationship with the bible. I read it. I am a Lutheran pastor, a person of faith. I hear God speak in the bible.  I hear my own story, the human story in the bible too.  I also hear both the Jewish story and the Christian story tied together by a first Century prophet named Jesus of Nazareth.  The bible says he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, died, and was buried.  On the third day he rose from the dead and appeared to his followers in and beyond Jerusalem for a period of some 40 days.  I have read the bible in many different ways; for personal faith and theological understanding; for moral guidance; for historical/literary education; for linguistic/cultural meaning; for pastoral care and counsel, for preaching and teaching; for prayer and conversation with God.  The bible is many things to me.  It is not God.  It is not perfect,but it is holy.  God's Word is heard through it.  I don't believe in biblical inerrancy.  People wrote it and translated it and rewrote it and copied it and rewrote it.  But God inspired it. It tells the world the truth about ourselves and the God who made all things by love for love.It is self-contradictory, violent, and oppressive.  It is mythological and supernatural.  It is ordinary and human.  There are universally applicable truths and there are highly contextual, culturally premodern, middle Eastern stories, norms, and values that must be understood as such.  To confuse the latter with the former has caused suffering.  It bears interpretation, to say the least.

easter

Why do you look for the living among the dead?   Why do we get stuck in bad habits and unhealthy patterns of behavior?  Why do we let nostalgia and fears hold us back from experiencing the present in its fullest?  Why do bad memories haunts us? Why do mistakes, regrets, secret sins, failures, and losses prevent us from enjoying the life God has given us?  We are haunted by pasts we cannot change and an unknown future that ends in death.  The older we get the more life is behind us.  More memories, fewer hopes.  Harder to make amends as time goes by.  Why do we look for the living among the dead?  Because we have learned what to expect.  We have learned that life is a journey from birth to death. We have learned that we cannot survive death.  It is inevitable. So we live as best we can. And along the way there is both joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure. We seek the pleasure and the joy where we can find it.  We lament “Why me?” when pain or grief overwhelm us. We swing between the pendulum, from the joy of living to the fear of dying.  We avoid the latter as much as we are able by sheltering ourselves in our small, comfortable worlds. We keep the threats at a distance, taking few risks, preferring to watch death on television as entertainment or distant news. Why do you look for the living among the dead?  Because we know that life is lived in one direction, a direction that leads to the grave. But Easter tells another story. It is the story of what happens when the sun came up. But Easter began in the hours before that…in the darkness before the dawn.

the sixth day. a meditation for the night

It is Good Friday.  The Sabbath has already begun, for darkness has fallen here tonight.  But at the hour of his death, on the day of preparation for the Sabbath, on the day when the Passover lambs were slaughtered in Jerusalem, it was still Friday and the sixth day of the week.  According to the story of creation, the sixth day is the day we were born.  On the sixth day, God said let us create humans in our image.  In the image of God, God created them.  Male and female.  And God said, “it is very good.”  On the sixth day, human kind comes into existence.  It is the final creative act, according to Genesis.  For on the 7^th day, God rests.  The work of creation is completed and yet, there is a deeper reality at work that threatens; the darkness and chaos press against the goodness and the light.  They threaten to drown what God has made in the struggle for power and control.  Made in God’s image, we imagine ourselves too much like gods. Selfishly greedy, with insatiable appetites for more than our fair share that must be protected by violent opposition toward any human threat to our liberty.  The current debates in our culture over guns and gays is about power and control. Who has it?  Who should have it?  Me, you, them, us, the government?  In our superior egotism, we forget our vulnerability, our fallibility, our mortality collectively earned and evenly distributed to all.  We forget that what we do unto others, we are doing to ourselves.  We let the chaos and the darkness in.  In our politics, in our private thoughts, in our foolish games, we let the darkness overwhelm us.  We let the chaos of a thousand mass shootings, of unending war, of intractable poverty, of tyrannical injustices too many to name, too painful to ignore and too entangling to fight overwhelm us.  To avoid the nakedness, we cover ourselves in shame.  We say “there is no God” while we play and work and self-medicate with toys and sex and food and drugs and treadmills and unworthy, vain pursuits.  We run from the light like blind moles emerging from winter’s earthen depths only to retreat at the touch of the sun’s rays.  We shop and watch and drive at the expense of hungry, dying children.  We take sides and blame and judge to protect ourselves and hold our own power over them.  We cast out, we oppress, we abuse and neglect.  We lash out and ignore.  What have we become but the shadows of our true selves? No longer innocent babes.  We have grown up, but we have not matured. We have not embraced the truth of our identities.  When faced with the reality of the God who dwells with and in us, we put him to death.             

On the sixth day, the man of God, the son of God, the Word of God who was with God in the beginning, is put to death on a cross.  It is no surprise. He is shamefully executed by the government and religious powers. Their authority was established by the will of the people who cried out, “Crucify him.” He was betrayed and abandoned by those who knew and loved him best. On the sixth day, the crowning achievement of God’s good creation goes the way every single one of God’s children has gone; by the way of death; death that is the fruit of human sin; turning away from God to serve ourselves.  “We have no king but Caesar,” is to admit total infidelity to the creator God and full allegiance with Tiberias—who called himself son of God.  On a Friday afternoon, the sixth day, darkness and chaos close in and push God out, swallowing Him up and ending His life.  They extinguish the light of the world.  They lay waste the bread of life and pour out the living waters.  And as he hangs on the cross, life draining from his broken and pierced body he says, “It is finished.”  That which God started on the sixth day of creation, divine fellowship with humankind,  is completed in the death of Jesus. God enters creation and loves creation so completely that God dies with creation; so that creation can be fully restored, healed, made whole.  On the cross, God makes peace with us.  The darkness and chaos, so close at hand, has been overcome by the one who is closer; for God is in the breath, the water, the food, the human bonds of kinship and love we give and receive every hour of this mortal life. We are not alone in our living or our dying.  Jesus finishes the work of creation by claiming death as the portal out of the darkness and chaos and into the light and life of God. Tomorrow, we must rest.  Because, on the 8^th day the new creation begins.  

this is holy week

This is Holy Week.  A week set apart by the church to observe Jesus' last week in Jerusalem; his last supper, betrayal, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and death  We will hear the passion story twice this week.  On Palm Sunday and on Good Friday. In my congregation, we will gather three more times between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday.  We will observe old rituals, tell old stories, do strange things together.  We wave palm branches, lay hands on heads and anoint them with oil for healing, wash feet, sing old hymns and pray in the dark.  We will observe corporate silence. Why do we do these things in the same manner that they have been done for 20 centuries? Why do we focus a week on Jesus' suffering and death? Is it our fascination with morbidity?  A lot of entertainment revolves around death. According to A.C. Nielson, the average child will see 8,000 murders on television before they reach age eighteen.  I've not seen it, but the hit show "the walking dead" is all about a sort of zombie apocalypse. In a violent culture, the crucifixion of Jesus is not shocking.  It is also not a deterrent.  Neither the death penalty nor the violent nature of humanity has been swayed by the crucifixion of Jesus. Are Christians called to nonviolent resistance to injustice or to protect the vulnerable by whatever means are necessary?  This is a good question for another post.   In a country that makes heroes everyday of soldiers who risk and give their lives "for others", Jesus' death is not that courageous or valiant either.  Jesus, according to many, was innocent and suffered as a substitute for the guilty--you and me, sinners that we be. He imputed our guilt before God and the state of Rome, so that we might impute his innocence.  He takes on our nature, that we might take on his.  In this way, he atones for our sin and reconciles us with God. Somehow Jesus'death involves us. It's significance is not understated. Over a billion people profess some form of Christian faith in the world.