Who Are We Trying To Reach?

The “Jesus answer” is everybody, but that is too easy…and too hard.  But it is a question that we need to wrestle with.  Perhaps a way of rephrasing it is “Who are the people in our neighborhood?”  Sesame Street sings about it, “Who are the people in your neighborhood?”

For them, the answer is “they’re the people that you meet, when you’re walking down the street, they’re the people that you meet each day!!”

Who are the people in my neighborhood?  Who do I meet when I walk down the street?  I don’t walk down the street too often in all honesty.  I usually hop in the car when I am headed out.  I walk in the morning, for exercise, and at night, for our dog’s exercise.  And I don’t meet too many people out there. 

But Sesame Street is a walker’s neighborhood.  Perhaps our answer is better found in the second part of the song, “they’re the people that you meet each day”.  So, who do we meet each day?  Co-workers?  School mates?  Family-maybe those who help us with our kids?  Friends?  Again, this kind of depends on the walker’s community.  Who are the people that we meet each week?  Who do we hang out with?  Who is in our social circle? 

But our work at this church is “To build a neighborhood in God’s Kingdom”.  So, the question for everyone to pray on, who are the people in our neighborhood?  And how do we build a church to serve them?

You are invited to Lessons and Carols

“One of the most beloved traditions of Advent and Christmas from England is a form of worship known as the “festival of Lessons and Carols”.  The pattern for the service is the proclamation of God’s Word contemplated in a special sequence of readings, prayers, and song.  The service of nine lessons and carols was first conceived by Archbishop Benson for use in the Truro Cathedral in the late nineteenth century.  It was simplified and adapted for use in King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, in 1918, by Dean Eric Milner-White.  Our service is an adaptation of the basic pattern from the King’s College Chapel version.  The beauty of the service is its flexibility and its musical dialog based upon the Christmas Lessons.”

This is the description that we have included in the bulletin in years gone by for our “Lessons and Carols” Service.  We have used it in different ways and different places, on a Sunday leading up to Christmas and as our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service.  We have also sought to modify it, taking it down to five lessons for a couple of years.

This year, Lessons and Carols falls on our Youth Sunday.  The readings will be done by members of the Youth Group and their families.  Mary Lu Farrell has redone the Carols for this Service, drawing on a couple of new ones from our Hymnal and a couple of old favorites outside our Hymnal.  It is one of my favorite services of the year. 

In years gone by, readers were given a choice of using the Pew Bibles, in the New Revised Standard Version of Scripture or using the King James Version.  The poetry of the KJV, especially with these verses, touches the very soul of the service.  This year, all the readings are going to be drawn from the King James Version for its poetry and to compliment the wonder of this traditional service.

Worship is at 10am, please invite your friends to join us in this wonderful celebration of the Christmas Season.

The Countdown to the Birth

There is a very interesting timeline across the Gospels concerning the birth of Jesus.  It starts in the Gospel of John, John 1.  "In the beginning was the Word (Jesus) and the Word (Jesus) was with God, and the Word (Jesus) was God."  That is a theme in John, the identification of one God in two ‘beings’, the Father and the Son.  But that’s for another time.

Jesus is at the Creation, John 1:1.  Then God promised to send His only Begotten Son into the world, John 3:16, and we are given his Kingly ancestry, Jesus’ official genealogy going back to Abraham set up in Matthew 1: 1-17. 

And the story in Matthew continues in verse 18, “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.  When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit…”

This was the sermon text this past Sunday and we skimmed the backstory of Mary to go ahead with the call of Joseph.  But you can’t leave a line like “she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit” by itself.  This is a unique event in the history of the church, in the history of the WORLD!!!

For that, we need to go over to the Gospel of Luke.  Luke 1, beginning at verse 5, that gives us the backstory.  We are looking at the sequence of events that leads to the Miracle birth of Jesus.  It starts with the Miracle birth of John the baptizer.  Gabriel sets that promise in motion, to Zechariah and Elizabeth, a Miracle birth for people, as verse 7 puts it, “both were getting on in years”.

This is all backstory that doesn’t make it into the Christmas Pageant, I am talking about the birth of John.  That story sets up what is to come in the Christmas Pageant and what is to come after the birth of Jesus.  Two pieces of the Story are for Christmas.  First, a miracle marks the coming of Jesus.  Secondly, when Mary comes to visit Elizabeth while Elizabeth is very pregnant, John leaps in the womb, excited by the power of God in the presence of the mother of Jesus.

Notice the sequence of the story.  Gabriel comes to speak to Mary.  He tells her she is going to be the mother of Jesus.  Her response: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”  I am just saying that this is not the most enthusiastic response she might have given.

But when we read this story in church, we usually read to verse 37-38, where she responds with cautious optimism, then we jump to verse 46, where she sings out “My soul magnifies the Lord!”  What we miss are vss. 39-45, where Mary goes to see Elizabeth, and the baby leaps, and the Holy Spirit overcomes Elizabeth and she declares the Hail Mary, “Blessed are you among women...and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” 

But Elizabeth goes on to a second blessing, verse 45:

“Blessed is she (blessed is Mary) who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”  Blessed is Mary who bought into what the Lord told her!  That is when it clicked for Mary.  That is when she sings out “My soul magnifies the Lord!”

It was her visit with Elizabeth that made it real for Mary that she was truly blessed by what the Lord promised.

After Mary’s Magnificat, after her Song of Praise, Luke says she was with Elizabeth for another three months before returning to her home.  Luke does not say that she was there for the birth, but first babies generally start to kick between the fourth and fifth month, the reference books really don’t speculate on when babies start to ‘leap’ in the womb so she might have been there or not.  But that is not critical to the story.

Luke’s gospel does not jump to Jesus’ birth yet.  It finishes the story of John.  John was born, his father prophesied about his future, and we found out he grew up in the wilderness of Israel before his public appearance.

That is important because of the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  All four gospels agree on this point, that before Jesus began his ministry, John the Baptist (I prefer Baptizer so we don’t stick John with a denominational affiliation) came to prepare the way of the Lord.  He did it for Jesus’ ministry and he did it for Jesus’ birth.

Now we can return to Mary, after three months, she went home and she got engaged.  We are not sure if she was engaged before going to visit Elizabeth or not but “When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit…”

Joseph’s reaction was that of a good, yet injured man.  He was going to divorce her quietly, not subject her to public ridicule.  But then the angel of the Lord comes to him and pronounces that Jesus is the Son of God the Holy Spirit.  His birth is not the act of a woman getting knocked up, but the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, “a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel”, literally “GOD WITH US”.  This is the son of David, as Joseph is the Son of David.  The history and prophecy of the Old Testament are aligning by the power of God to bring the Messiah into the world. 

And, in verse 54, “Joseph took her (Mary) as his wife…and she bore a son; and he named him Jesus.”

Luke and the Forgotten Miracle

Matthew tells the story of the birth of a king.  It is framed by the Royal Genealogy of Jesus and followed by the Visit of the Magi, wise men or kings from the East.  Great things are happening. 

Luke’s treatment of the Christmas story is altogether different.

Because Luke is writing this story for somebody else.  He is running down the eyewitness accounts of Jesus and his life in order to write the best biographical narrative that he can.  He wants to put down the whole truth, verified by his own work and discovery. 

And the birth of Jesus is foretold by the birth of John the baptizer.  Just as the ministry of Jesus was preceded by John, so too is Jesus’ birth.  It is a miracle story.  But when it comes to Christmas, we systematically chop out the parts mentioning  Zechariah and Elizabeth.  Doesn’t seem to matter that the angel appeared to Zechariah before he appeared to Mary.  Doesn’t seem to matter that a woman of old age, barren throughout her life, is suddenly found to be pregnant with a child who, while still in the womb, jumps at the presence of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

We know the story of the angels appearing to the shepherds, with the multitude of the heavenly host, but their story is left out.  The drama of a man who doubts God and, as punishment, has his ability to speak taken away, is something quite novel.  In Matthew, there are seventeen verses before we get to the Birth Narrative.  In Luke, there are 80! 

So what?  What’s the big deal?

The big deal is the parallel.  John the baptizer comes before Jesus at birth as well as at the beginning of his ministry.  They were related, contemporaries, aged within a year or so of each other.  Their lives are intertwined. 

When John shows up baptizing at the River Jordan, the leaders of the Israelites ask if he is Elijah.  Gabriel told Zechariah, “He will go before (Jesus) in the spirit and power of Elijah”.  When God starts a rumor…

The take away is this.  Christmas is too often focused on the baby in the manger.  Such an image of innocence and wonder is integral to the experience of the Season, but we must also remember the grand pageantry, the design of God to create around the birth of His Only Begotten Son a tapestry of miracle and power that shall mark the life and work of Jesus.

Understanding Our Values Statement

This is going to be a blog post that is ‘advertised’ only to you who are members of our Unified Board.  It will be there for anyone who follows the blog, but it won’t get the usual ‘facebook’ plug and it won’t be part of the general four-day process.

There are five basic purposes for a church seeking to operate on the model of the New Testament.  Acts 2: 42-47 sets up the basic of the New Testament church.  There were five basic things required.

1.      Fellowship.  First and foremost, the members of the church came together to be with one another.  They were a community of believers, trying to get the Word out about Jesus.  They befriended one another, supported one another, and built one another up.  That is what every church is supposed to do.

2.      Worship.  They came together to praise the Lord.  They prayed, studied God’s Word, reached up to heaven to thank the one who gave His life to save us.  The service of worship is still the centerpiece of our weekly church gathering.

3.      Discipleship.  Learning to become a follower-which is what ‘disciple’ means.  The message on Sunday morning is in part a teaching tool and an instrument of praise.  But people in our church are hungry to know more of what Jesus has to teach us, more of how we give our lives more fully to him.

4.      Apostleship.  Learning to serve.  An ‘apostle’ is ‘one who serves’.  This service can be anything done in God’s name for those in our neighborhood.  Matthew 25: 31-46 gives the relationship of service to eternal life or punishment.

5.      Joining the Ship.  You might call it evangelism, you might call it sharing your faith, it is the invitation you render to someone else to try out Jesus.  That might mean bringing them to church.  That might mean asking their permission to give your own story, of how Jesus has helped you. 

I know that last one is awkward compared to the rest, but I cannot resist a pun.  We are the City on the Bay and there are Ships that define what it is we do.  But what this means is that our ‘ships’ have been inadequate.  The Program lists Worship, Discipleship, and Apostleship.  We need to add Fellowship and Joining the Ship.

But what struck me were our value statements.  There are five of those.  Those came together as a natural progression from our Vision of ‘becoming a neighborhood in the Kingdom of God’.  They connect eerily to these five.

1.      I am a member of the church, and I shall take time for my neighbor, so I may grow closer to them.  This opens a relationship with our neighbor by providing fellowship, company between neighbors.

 

2. I am a member of the church, and I shall take time to pray for my neighbor, that I may surround them in God’s love.  This begins the cycle of worship, a cycle we begin by coming to God about our neighbor through the gift of prayer.

3. I am a member of the church, and I shall take time to know my neighbor so I may create community.  So begins the process of discipleship, as you engage with your neighbor as a child of the living God.  This may sound simply like more fellowship, but we come to know our neighbors with a greater purpose, the Kingdom of God.

4. I am a member of the church, and I shall take time to serve my neighbor so I may be Jesus’ minister.  Service, apostleship, plainly defined.  The Lord will give us the opportunity to be of service to others as we are equipped and prepared to do so.

5. I am a member of the church, and I shall take time to share my faith with my neighbor so I see belief grow.  This is the offer to join the ship.  It is not our lead in, but it is the summary of what we seek to do in the lives of our neighbors. 

We are going to talk about this more and develop it more at the next meeting of the Board.  This is by way of preparation, to offer time for questions, for communication, for setting out real reasons for the things we do as the Board of the church.

Response can come by way of comments on the blog, or directly to me via email.  Peace and blessings.

 

And WE Think Christmas is Stressful!

God stepped in and asked a man to accept that his young bride was knocked up with God’s own offspring.  He was probably an older man marrying a virgin bride, it was how the culture ran back then.  When she was discovered to be pregnant, he could have, at the very least, had her disgraced in public.  At most, he could have had her stoned to death for cheating on him.  He had a lot of power, Divorce Court, Corporal Punishment, even Capital Punishment.

But Joseph was just going to go away quietly.  Until God intervened.

What would the neighbors think?  What would his family think?  What did HE think?

The bible stories include Joseph in Jesus’ life at least to the age of twelve.  He probably died some time before Jesus began his ministry, some twenty years later, because there is no further mention of him. 

He was the man who raised God's son.  No expectations there...

Husbands, think back to the time before you were married.  If you found your fiancé pregnant-and you knew it wasn’t yours-and she told you the Holy Spirit did it…  What kind of vision from God would bring you around to God’s mind to care for that baby as your own? 

Wives, more on Mary next week, but what would Gabriel have had to say to you?  

To make matters worse, once Joseph obeyed God and took her as his wife, he had to obey Caesar and move halfway across the country, becoming homeless in the process, all for the opportunity to pay the Romans more taxes!

And we think our Christmas Seasons are stressful now!

Is it Desecration or a Typo?

Costco marked the Bible as Fiction when they were price-tagged.  Tick, tick, tick, tick… Is that time passing or is that the countdown of a bomb about to explode?  It was enough to make Good Morning America!  For about 30 seconds…

To get a measure of the potential devastation, I googled “Costco Desecrates the Bible” and did not get a hit until the fifth search page.  The lead on the Google search was “Satanists Troll Westboro Baptist Church, Hold ‘Pink Mass’ Ritual To Turn Fred Phelps’ Mother Into A Lesbian” * with a reference to the Costco story in the little summary paragraph beneath.  However, when I searched the page at www.inquisitr.com, I could not find the Costco article mentioned.  And I don’t care enough to do a separate search on inquisitor.com to learn more. 

 

* I kid you not!

Oh dear, I think I tipped my hand. 

There is a real danger of overreaction in moments like this.  Christians in this country will ‘hold Costco accountable’.  My hope is that there will be so few that this will just slip away for more important things.  Like the future of American troops in Afghanistan.  Real negotiations over the Iran nuclear program.  Fledgling democracy in Kazakhstan.

There is also a real danger of under-reaction in moments like this.   Guilty as charged.

But let’s play it out for a moment.  Worst case scenario for the over-reactors…somebody put on the wrong tag.  The biggest trouble at that point would be if $14.99 were less than the real cost of the Costco Scriptures.

Worst case scenario for the under-reactors: Some subversive Jesus-hater snuck into the ranks of the God-fearing employees of Costco (unless Costco is actually a devil-worshipping place like Walmart…), and they decided to perpetuate a grand gesture on the futility of Christianity.  Cross burning is so passé, desecrating a Crucifix is really, really Catholic in its hatred…NO…LET US BRAND THE BIBLE AS FICTION!!!!!  Dan Brown, your next thriller awaits!  Not since Jesus had…no…I won’t give it away…even now…

You want to know why I am even commenting on this?  Because it made the news.  It made the news for the ‘uh oh’ factor, just in case a disaster comes, we want to film it.  My honest reaction is this:

It was a slip of the pricing machine.  But God forbid it wasn’t, my honest reaction is this:

Call it fiction, call it demonic, call it boring, call it stupid, call the bible anything you want, burn it, bash it, flush it down the toilet if you want.  You really think you can go head to head with God?  I would pray for someone with that much anger that the Spirit of God would lead them to open the book instead of abusing it. 

Then we are starting something good.

They Buried Jesus in a Tomb, Shall We Bury Him in Tinsel?

You are going to get bombarded…are getting bombarded.  And it’s only going to get worse.  The advertisements haven’t geared up fully as yet.  It is my annual call to beware the avalanche that will threaten to bury our holiday in tinsel.

I am a personal proponent of the Ideal that Christmas Season starts at Thanksgiving.

My ongoing response to tinsel overload is to treat the joy and glitz of the Season as the party Jesus never got when he was born.  Yes, there were angels, but they appeared to the shepherds, not mom and dad and the stable crowd. 

But we need to be very, very prepared to understand the real story beneath all the celebration, or it will get buried. 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son.”  This is the introduction to the Christmas story.  This is the Reason for the Season.  Mary and Joseph, Bethlehem and the shepherds, the Wise Men and the gifts, all of it flows out of God’s love.  I know, it sounds obvious.  But it’s going to get lost, unless we are prepared.

As I reflect on my Christmas experiences, in childhood, as a pastor, the ‘church piece’ was integral to the entire experience.  I still have a sore point, as a child, of securing the role as the narrator at our church’s Christmas pageant only to have to give it up, because we were going to visit relatives YET AGAIN for the stupid holidays.

Ghosts of Christmases past aside, what many good Christians manage is to have their Jesus compartment in the Christmas Season.  There is the Jesus dept., the gift dept., the tree dept., the traditions dept. (which could include who you go to visit, what special foods are made, what rituals your family undertakes, what movies, what music, and the list goes on), the shopping dept., the dept. in our minds that continues to reflect how overblown Christmas has become.  Are you familiar with these departments?  Collectively, theses departments form our Christmas Experience.

I get the shivers just thinking about it, preparing for the tumult that is the Christmas Experience.

Let us return to the Reason for the Season once more.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Thank we all our God!

That is our cross-over.  Thanksgiving.  A date set aside to give thanks, nothing else.  (CLOSE THE STORES!  CLOSE THE STORES!)  It is built around our Christian forebears coming to America and giving thanks that God was not going to leave them to starve.

So, for many, Jesus gets buried in the Season.  For others, Jesus is one department among many in their Christmas Experience.  But I am telling you that we MUST make Jesus preeminent in this Season.  God GAVE Him to us out of love.  I don’t think there is one of us who doesn’t know that, who hasn’t wrapped their brain around that. 

Thanksgiving is the way to wrap our hearts around it.  Thank God for all that is great and wonderful.  Thank God that He loved us!  Thank God that He gave us Jesus.  Thank God for all that is wonderful this Christmas.  Thank God that all the stores celebrate the birth of Jesus (even if they don’t quite get that).  Thank God that He saved our Pilgrim ancestors and, centuries ago, set in motion an opportunity to keep Jesus at the front of the Holiday, not tucked away somewhere in the middle, not forgotten.

 

ABC Family has started their countdown to the countdown for Christmas.  Count down with them, every day giving thanks for the gift of Jesus.

If Christmas Ain't Merry, then the Holidays Ain't Happy-Just Expensive...

I overheard a conversation last night talking about the rapidly approaching December Calendar.  The perennial debate of “Merry Christmas” versus “Happy Holidays” was the center of the conversation.  It got me to thinking, and reflecting.

It never used to really bother me before; the slow conversion of “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays”.  For me “Happy Holidays” included Hanukkah and Kwanzaa in our collective merry-making.  And if I believed Happy Holidays was truly about including them, I’d still be okay with it.

But I am coming to believe this is not what it is all about. In “A Christmas Carol”, Scrooge said “If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding.”  How many of you have met people who have that same sentiment in their eyes when you dare to say, and then defend, “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”?  I have met a fair number.

Maybe I am slow, or maybe I have not been watching, but there is something more going on here.  The press for “Happy Holidays” pushes our faith-based celebration to the fringe.  The world has been trying to push Jesus out of everything.  And maybe that is where it should be.  Maybe Christmas should be on the fringe, because the Reason for the Season-the birth of Jesus-has been consistently pushed out to the fringe for generations.

 Maybe, if Santa Claus is really going to take over completely, if it’s going to be all about the gifts, and the magic, and the movies, and the glitz and glamor, if Christ is being evicted from even the stable and the manger, maybe “Happy Holidays” is the appropriate title for the Season, from Dec. 25 on back to Thanksgiving…no…Halloween…no…Labor Day…  If we let the world win…

If you want some real perspective on the whole Holiday Spirit of Christmas, go back and READ Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol”.  Don’t watch the movie or television adaptations (although George C. Scott and Mr. Magoo are PILLARS in the role of Scrooge).  When you read the original (and the English is not THAT old), what Dickens keeps coming back to as the story unfolds of one man’s redemption, are ongoing references to the birth of Christ, and the spirit of that birth being foundational to Scrooge’s redemption, and to the whole holiday.

Christmas is about the birth of Jesus.  Christmas is about gifts, because of the goodwill at the birth of…Jesus.  The glitz and the glamor and the magic, trees to angels, Santa to fruitcake, all of it is a Celebration of…the birth of Jesus.  And while the world may not want it, Jesus came down to save that world.  So, Merry Christmas to all!

Prepare with Thanksgiving

We prepare for Christmas with Thanksgiving.  That is as true for the spiritual and emotional beginning of the Season as it is for the calendar.  And how better to prepare than to remember why Christmas happened at all.

“For God so loved the world, that He sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” 

The story of Thanksgiving is a powerful story.  The Pilgrims being saved from starving to death by the sharing of the peoples who already lived on these shores.  The parallel can be made obvious.  As the Pilgrims gave thanks to God for their very lives by the sharing of food, so we must give thanks to God for our very lives returned to us from death by the gift of His Son.

It will take discipline to hold onto that message.  The glitz and glamor of Christmas creeps further and further up the calendar each year.  I’ve fallen victim to it myself.

And we have a particular danger to our souls around Thanksgiving, my fellow Presbyterians.  We may easily fall into the danger of the FOOD…  Turkey for four days running….  All the traditions of the meal…   Getting together with family, whether you want or not…

Saying thank you is easy.  Giving thanks is hard.  The glitz and glamor disguise the frailty of our lives and belongings.  The man who was truly starving knows thanks for the food he receives.  The woman homeless and stranded truly knows thanks for the roof over her head.  The children who truly believed they were alone in the world give thanks for the gift of family.

At the beginning of the year, Larry came to our door.  He and his family lost their home to Hurricane Sandy.  They are believers, and they were living in a motel.  He needed one night’s motel payment to see them from the end of their cash to the first paycheck.  I can’t remember meeting a nicer guy.  I went to the motel to pay the bill for that night.  I was a little uneasy at the environment.  We don’t give cash as a rule here at church, we will pay bills or provide vouchers for services for people in need, when we can.

He came back today, while I was pondering thanksgiving.  I’d like to say it was while I was thanking God for what I have received in my life.  Not so much.  But his family is about to move back into their home, about to take delivery on furniture, about to get their lives back.  He needed help filling the tank of his car.  And I could do that.

You want to give thanks this season, help somebody out.  I came back to my study and I gave thanks to the Lord for my family and for my home and for my church.  The Lord has truly been so good to me and to us. 

Preparing for Christmas?  Start with giving thanks.  Give thanks for all the blessings you have received.  If you need a reminder, help those less fortunate than yourself.  But begin with giving thanks to God for the gift of His only Son, because He so loved the world. 

What Your Unified Board Has Done

Last night, we met for our first meeting of the unified Session and Deacons of our Church.  We started something new.  Uh oh.

It was the deliberate and direct implementation of our Vision as a church, to become a Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God.  We focused on two things of particular note. 

 

The first was a ‘how to’ on creating Strategies for implementing our Vision.  They will provide us with plans, with focus, with compelling ways and means to mobilize our church to do Jesus’ plan for us.

The second piece was to begin to strategize.  What grand objectives?  What would we focus on?  What directions would we move in to become a Neighborhood in God’s Kingdom?  That answer came in three broad considerations.

1.      How do we, among the people already in this Neighborhood, advance God’s Spirit to see the Jesus increasing in their lives?

2.      How do we build a place where we would want to invite our friends to worship and participate with us?

3.      Among those who do not worship with us any longer, could we go back and speak to them, to see what drew them away, to see what lessons we could learn?

What follows from here is to focus on the systems that make up a church.  We are going to define those systems, realizing that they are already at work as we ‘do church’, create strategies to improve them, piece by piece, and transform the gift of our church for the community that surrounds us.

There is something wonderful to be done here.

 

Jesus in Your Blood

Hypothesis: When you enter some churches, they just smell like mission. Like pizza, it's a smell hard to describe, but we all know what it is when we enter a room. In a church that "smells like mission," mission is the organizing factor, the central principle that guides everything it does. Our church, in contrast, has a couple mission projects in which some people participate.

I have spent the last couple of days home with a sick son.  He has a fever, and the official diagnosis is ‘something viral’.  That puts his cure and recovery outside the hands of modern medicine.  That means Jesus has to take over.  And quite frankly, that is nothing but frustrating from where I sit.

And if that is so very frustrating here at home, in the pastor’s home, how much more could it be at the church?  You see, we pay lip service to what Jesus says in the Great Commission, “All authority in heaven and on earth have been given to me.”  But we don’t really surrender ourselves to the power and control of Jesus when we do church things.  You know how I know that?

Because when I go to church meetings, it doesn’t feel like it does right now.  It doesn’t feel like I am out of control.  At church, it doesn’t feel like what is happening is truly in God’s hands, because I can still put my hands into it.  I work with the Session to call the shots.  We’ve never been forced into a choice that leaves us frustrated because we have felt we are not in control.

The hypothesis talks about churches that ‘smell like mission’.  I think that smell is churches that have gotten to a place where they’ve given over something fundamental to the control of Jesus Christ.  And it bugs me that the closest I can get to that smell in my life and ministry is when my son suffers from fever that I can’t get my doctor to control.

My God, what a comparison!

What these two situations have in common is a lack of trust in Jesus.  I want to be able to go to my doctor and know that he can do this and that to implement a healing plan to get my son’s temperature back to normal.  This is not a life threatening thing, but it is a few days of school missed, sidelined from active intervention except some treatment of symptoms.  I CAN’T CONTROL IT.

When it comes to the church, it is another scenario.  For the last five years, there have been falling into place a number of significant pieces of the Lord’s plan.  Trainings and personal development, faith opportunities, community opportunities, a tele-coaching network on the form and function of church.  The Lord has been spoon-feeding this stuff to us, giving it to us as we can accept it.

I CAN’T CONTROL IT.  But I can get in the way, I can NOT trust Him, I can ignore what He has done.  But it is time to trust the Lord and go where He is calling us, it is time to change how things smell around our church. (And boy, is that an awkward ending!)

  

The Dangers of Condemnation

A Methodist minister married his son and his son’s male fiancé some six years ago.  He did so in the full knowledge of his superiors.  Six years later, a parishioner finds out about what the minister did.  The minister is now on trial in the church courts.  He says, if I have the quote right, that he would pick his family over the church any time.

This was the verbal summary I received of a news report on GMA this morning.  If I messed up the facts, I apologize.  This blog post presupposes the information above.

So, how do you react to the story?

“Crucify him?”

Which one, the minister or the parishioner…or the son?

“None of his ***** business?”

The parishioner?  The church hierarchy?

“Well, the Bible condemns homosexuality…”

The Bible also condemns taking the Lord’s name in vain, adultery, theft, and being jealous of your neighbor’s stuff-and those are in the Big Ten condemnations.  And we usually close our eyes to all that!  None of our business or some such...

For example, when was the last time someone was dragged into a church court for damning someone in God’s name for their driving habits?

If we want to get issue-oriented, we can focus on the fact that Jesus never talked about homosexuality, that we have to draw our condemnation for it from ‘secondary biblical authority’.

I was never taught about ‘secondary biblical authority’ in church or Seminary, never found it in my own studies of Scripture.  Jesus is the center of Scripture, the focal point of all of it, and there may be degrees of relevance of how the Bible relates to any given situation, but the authority is uniform.

But it is really, really hard to draw lessons from what Jesus didn’t teach. 

However, there are powerful lessons to be drawn from what Jesus DID teach.  And He taught a powerful lesson on Condemnation.

They dragged a woman before Him condemned to death for adultery.  They wanted Jesus to green light the stoning. 

(The Jews were not allowed to impose the death penalty without Roman approval.  Apparently, they were looking to Jesus to be the replacement authority-but that is another post.)

Jesus response: “You who are without sin cast the first stone.”  He was without sin, and He did not.       

I don’t know if that Methodist minister did a ‘cost/benefit’ analysis for himself before he agreed to perform his son’s wedding.  He let the denomination know.  They apparently had a ‘don’t ask-don’t tell’ policy.  Being a father, there is always a part of me weighing costs and benefits for my children.  I don’t want them hurt, I want to protect them forever, against everything, and it hurts that I can’t, even when its “good for them”.  But where my children are concerned, the cost/benefit is not about me, but about them.

He acted out of love.  And it appears that he would do it again.  And damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.  I would do that for my kids. 

“You’d pick your kids over Jesus?”

Let's consider that question: Would I pick my kids over the condemnation of my church?  No brainer.  Would I pick my kids over Jesus?  The Jesus I worship wouldn't ask that. 

The person most damaged by this news report, in my opinion, is the parishioner who brought the charges against the minister.  It could be argued that he did nothing wrong, that he was within his rights, that he did what the church should have done six years earlier.

You could argue that.  Six years ago, a father presided at his son’s wedding.  Six years later, the parishioner finds out and gets the minister charged. 

Six years have passed and how many other sins have gone by ignored because the world pronounces them “okay”?  Six years have passed and how many other sins have gone by forgiven by Jesus because that is why Jesus died on the cross?  Six years have passed and something in the parishioner has so sharpened in his soul that those years of relationship with the minister are suppressed.

Jesus looked at the assembled leaders of the Jews and told them, “You who are without sin, cast the first stone.”  He was without sin, and he did not.

You Are the Face of Jesus

It struck me today while I was working with the Youth.  I was spending my time trying to convince them that if Jesus were here, he would do amazing and wondrous things for them.  My fear is that the Jesus we claim isn’t powerful, but a thin gruel in the presence of our lives.

We talked about Jesus as the Good Shepherd.  Every time we did it, somebody “‘baa’ed”.  No, it was me.  The lesson was about seeking to connect Jesus to the world where they face people who do drugs, who tempt them to do drugs, who may commit acts of violence upon their persons because of drugs. 

I found myself saying, “If Jesus was here, he would get you out of …”

But what then dug into my gut was that there is no “if”.  Jesus is here, in the face of every person who calls Him Lord and Savior.  Trust me, that is not always a good thing.  I am reading a book on Teddy Roosevelt, specifically his policies in the Pacific during 1905.  As background, the author talks about the opium trade to China.  The opium was called Jesus Opium because it was the “Christian nations” of the west that were bringing it in. 

But being the Face of Jesus can be the most powerful thing we have.  Because, until Jesus comes back, we have two things to present to the world.  One is the Word of God and the other is our living it. 

A Neighborhood in the Kingdom of God is designed to be a neighborhood where people are seeking to be the face of Jesus. 

What does it mean to seek to be the face of Jesus?  It means that you do for others because of your caring and your love for them.  What motivates you?  The caring and the love you have already received from others who are seeking to be the face of Jesus.  It is not about heaven or hell, because Jesus was not about heaven or hell.

That will get me into trouble in some circles!

Because Jesus died for us on the cross, but was it just about heaven and hell?

 

Did Jesus want to die for us?  Not if you recall his words in the Garden of Gethsemene, “if this cup may pass from me…”  Did he have to die for us?  Like by some divine command?  Not according to John 10:18.  “Nobody takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.  I have the power to lay it down and I have the power to take it up again.”

No, he chose to die for us.  Why?  To go to the place of our ultimate weakness, our ultimate fear, our ultimate fate, and our ultimate punishment.  He went there and he conquered death, for us.  He conquered our ultimate weakness and ultimate fear-that death is something we CANNOT escape, that it will ultimately finish us off.  Through him, death is no longer our fate.  Death is not the end, death is the beginning.  No longer is death, the end, the separation from God, punishment for our sins.  Because in His death, Jesus took that punishment on himself.  He opened the way, the truth, and the life for us.

And what He has given us, we can give to others.  It is the promise of new life, if we dare to grab hold.  Then, we can be the Face of Jesus in turn, if we dare.

Why can church fights turn so vicious?

Why can church fights turn so vicious?  I have been in extended meetings over what color the paint should be for the stairwell, whether or not the beloved dessert social should happen, and when a minor line item in the budget becomes all-consuming.  Time is consumed on trivialities and the sides drawn up on the issue can come close to excommunicating each other.

These are not moments from the Session at our church, but moments I have witnessed.  Thankfully, our Session meetings, although at time contentious, have never been at the level of people hoping for the personal destruction of their opponents.

How can people get so excited about what happens at church?  What is it about religion that ranks it with politics and sex as topics that are taboo for polite conversation?

These debates are not marks of the present church.  In Galatians, Paul talks about going head to head with Peter himself when Peter backpedaled on participating in worship with the Gentiles.  He did it to appease members of the Jewish side of the church-when Peter was the disciple to initially break ranks with the Jewish side of the church to receive Gentile believers.

I believe we can get so worked up about religious stuff because it is God-dependent.  It’s not like a lively debate over just how bad the Giants are doing this year.  A church debate, no matter how ‘trivial’, has a piece of the eternal built into it.  It’s about God, who controls the doors to heaven and hell.  When we are deciding for Him, at whatever level, there has to be a ‘correct’ side to the decision, right?  And the incorrect are quickly viewed as somehow subverting the divine.

These kinds of disagreements can also mark a church that is more competitive than cooperative.  What makes a church competitive?  Maybe the cycle of change.  A pastor brings in new ideas, new ways of doing things, maybe attracts new members.  The ‘old guard’ may get defensive, seeing their way changing.  There’s an old saying that the only place for change in the church is in the collection plate. 

If a contingent in the church feels like other people in the church ‘have it in’ for them, it can breed anxiety, which can in turn breed anger.  And it takes a while for the anger to come center stage.  It usually starts on the periphery, arguments about trivial things, small battles that the embattled feel they might win when the bigger battles seem lost.

There could be any number of motivations for a church getting competitive within itself.  But what it does to the church is suck up the energy that could be channeled into new and bold accomplishments for the Lord. 

This is not to say that there aren’t good and legitimate arguments to be had, things that need to be heavily and hotly debated.  But these arguments need to respect the rule of God and Neighbor.  Your love for God has to be the fuel of your passion in standing up for your beliefs.  And your love of neighbor must always control, contain, and configure how you act towards your fellow Christians.

Because they will know we are Christians by our love, not by how many debates we’ve won.