Thursday, June 14, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
Goodbye, 'Sopranos': I Never Knew You...Literally
I feel that I'm part of a tiny minority today. Almost everyone I heard on the radio and many bloggers I read were talking about the last episode of 'The Sopranos.' Even Chris Matthews devoted some time to it during 'Hardball.'But I'm not mourning the passing of 'The Sopranos.' That's because my wife and I got rid of HBO a few years back. We never watched the network because none of the programming appealed to us. So, we had the cable people whack it. So, no 'Sopranos' for us.
The decision to get rid of HBO wasn't a moral one. At least not the way you might think. Some readers will likely jump to the conclusion that being a pastor and wife (or a librarian and husband), that we had moral qualms about HBO's programming. Maybe if we'd ever watched HBO--other than to see the excellent Elizabeth I just before we rubbed the network out of our cable package--we would have had moral qualms.
But the only morality involved was our moral squeamishness over wasting money. That's what we were doing by continuing to pay for a network that we weren't watching.
As to why HBO's program previews didn't lure us in, it seemed to me that most of what they offered was dark and cynical, a slightly more extreme version of the stuff you can watch on conventional TV every night of the week. I'm tired of dark and cynical, frankly. There's enough dark and cynical in the world, thank you very much.
Give me a little honestly hopeful any day. Or informative. Or just entertaining. Maybe 'The Sopranos' has been all these things. But I'll never know. And I'm okay with that.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
A Cincinnati Weekend
We had a gorgeous weekend here in the Cincinnati area. While temps reached the mid-90s, the air was, for Cincy, atypically dry, with gentle breezes.
My wife and I took full advantage of the conditions...and the breaks in our schedule. Yesterday, we took a walking tour through portions of Cincinnati's Eden Park and Walnut Hills areas.
For those unfamiliar with Cincinnati, Eden Park and its surrounding area is a gorgeous place that sets atop one of the city's many hills. It provides great views of the Ohio River. There are majestic urbanscapes rivaling anything you might see in places like San Francisco. (A city I really love, by the way.)
Walnut Hills is an area with a rich history. While it has lots of bright spots, it's also afflicted with urban blight. There are also friendly people there, as my wife and I saw yesterday when many residents, sitting out on porches and front lawns said hello.
Walnut Hills is the place where Reverend Lyman Beecher lived with, among others, his daughter, Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Beecher was president of Lane Seminary, a Presbyterian institution active in the Underground Railroad, which helped blacks escape slavery in the South.
The activities of the Beechers underscore a fact that seems often overlooked by contemporary social historians. And that's the absolutely essential role Christian faith has played in calling society to more humane and moral ways of living. Granted, many people misuse Christian faith to uphold dehumanization. But authentic Christianity always calls us to love God and love neighbor.
Close to the Beecher home, which can still be toured on three days each week, is the first African-American neighborhood in Cincinnati. Its original residents were former slaves. A prominent resident there, the son of a slave who had bought his own freedom, was Wendell Phillips Dabney. You can read more about him here.
The tour we took is one outlined in a fabulous book I've mentioned before, Walking the Steps of Cincinnati by Mary Anna DuSablon. And therein lies an interesting tale. Cincinnati is built on what appears to be hills. But as du Sablon writes:.
The steps, of course, were replaced by the automobile as a major form of transportation in the area and they largely fell into disuse, except for those used by hundreds of religious pilgrims who ascend Mount Adams each Good Friday.
Fortunately, the city of Cincinnati is committed to maintaining the more than 400 stairways that criss cross the area and they make for fabulous walking tours of city and its diverse neighborhoods.
This morning, as we prepared to go to worship, my wife, no baseball fan, suggested that we head down to Great American Ballpark for this afternoon's game between the Reds and the Cleveland Indians.
Our son went with us and what a great game we saw! It was a pitcher's duel that began as a battle between each team's ace: Aaron Harang for the Reds and C.C. Sebathia for the Indians. The game went into the 12th.-inning before the Reds won it, when Alex Gonzalez hit a single driving in Chad Moeller.
I mentioned to my wife as we drove home that we probably did more of Cincinnati this weekend than we have in years, partaking of the particularities of the core city of the area in which we've lived since 1990. It was fun!
In a world that's become increasingly homogenized, it's great to remember that communities and countries can still retain their unique characteristics and that often, it's differences that make them...and even individual people...special!
[THANKS TO: blognetews.com/Ohio for linking to this post.]
My wife and I took full advantage of the conditions...and the breaks in our schedule. Yesterday, we took a walking tour through portions of Cincinnati's Eden Park and Walnut Hills areas.
For those unfamiliar with Cincinnati, Eden Park and its surrounding area is a gorgeous place that sets atop one of the city's many hills. It provides great views of the Ohio River. There are majestic urbanscapes rivaling anything you might see in places like San Francisco. (A city I really love, by the way.)
Walnut Hills is an area with a rich history. While it has lots of bright spots, it's also afflicted with urban blight. There are also friendly people there, as my wife and I saw yesterday when many residents, sitting out on porches and front lawns said hello.
Walnut Hills is the place where Reverend Lyman Beecher lived with, among others, his daughter, Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Beecher was president of Lane Seminary, a Presbyterian institution active in the Underground Railroad, which helped blacks escape slavery in the South.
The activities of the Beechers underscore a fact that seems often overlooked by contemporary social historians. And that's the absolutely essential role Christian faith has played in calling society to more humane and moral ways of living. Granted, many people misuse Christian faith to uphold dehumanization. But authentic Christianity always calls us to love God and love neighbor.
Close to the Beecher home, which can still be toured on three days each week, is the first African-American neighborhood in Cincinnati. Its original residents were former slaves. A prominent resident there, the son of a slave who had bought his own freedom, was Wendell Phillips Dabney. You can read more about him here.
The tour we took is one outlined in a fabulous book I've mentioned before, Walking the Steps of Cincinnati by Mary Anna DuSablon. And therein lies an interesting tale. Cincinnati is built on what appears to be hills. But as du Sablon writes:.
..Cincinnati is really a City of Valleys; valleys carved in a rolling plain formed more than two million years ago. This "indented edge" of the midwest plains, higher than [the Ohio River] Basin, is the crest of an upward fold in the rock called the Cincinnati Arch...Starting in the 1800s, Cincinnatians began building stairways to facilitate going on foot from community to community in the area, putting them on the sites of footpaths that had already been established. Later, trolley cars and "eventually...five inclined railways" went up and down the Cincinnati "hills."
The steps, of course, were replaced by the automobile as a major form of transportation in the area and they largely fell into disuse, except for those used by hundreds of religious pilgrims who ascend Mount Adams each Good Friday.
Fortunately, the city of Cincinnati is committed to maintaining the more than 400 stairways that criss cross the area and they make for fabulous walking tours of city and its diverse neighborhoods.
This morning, as we prepared to go to worship, my wife, no baseball fan, suggested that we head down to Great American Ballpark for this afternoon's game between the Reds and the Cleveland Indians.
Our son went with us and what a great game we saw! It was a pitcher's duel that began as a battle between each team's ace: Aaron Harang for the Reds and C.C. Sebathia for the Indians. The game went into the 12th.-inning before the Reds won it, when Alex Gonzalez hit a single driving in Chad Moeller.
I mentioned to my wife as we drove home that we probably did more of Cincinnati this weekend than we have in years, partaking of the particularities of the core city of the area in which we've lived since 1990. It was fun!
In a world that's become increasingly homogenized, it's great to remember that communities and countries can still retain their unique characteristics and that often, it's differences that make them...and even individual people...special!
[THANKS TO: blognetews.com/Ohio for linking to this post.]
How Will I Know? (Joyful Relationships, Part 2)
[This message was shared during the worship celebration at Friendship Lutheran Church, Amelia, Ohio, on June 10, 2007. If you live in or are visiting the Cincinnati area, you're always invited to worship with us on Sunday mornings at 10:00.]
Proverbs 31:10-12, 25-31
2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1
My aim in this message is not just to help people who hope one day to marry, but also to help those who care about them, be they friends, parents, aunts and uncles, or cousins, who might want to give them sound advice. Biblical advice.
But I do feel a little hesitation. One reason for that is the fact that my wife and I didn’t follow all of the advice I’m about to share.
We first met when I was in the sixth grade and she was in the seventh. As many of know, she pretty much couldn’t stand me throughout our junior and senior high years. In college, both of us worked at a department store--me on the loading dock, she on the sales floor--and we became friends. We decided to go to a movie together one night...just as friends. Six weeks later, we decided to get married. Five and a half months after that, we were married. Nearly thirty-four years later, we’re still together and I’m grateful to God...and to my wife!
Another reason for my feeling a bit hesitant about giving this message is that as I look at some of what the Bible tells us about marriage, I become very aware that there simply isn’t one way to decide on who to marry or when to marry or even if to marry. But there are principles and I want to talk about four of them today.
The first thing the Bible sees in strong marriages are commonalities between wives and husbands. If couples have core values in common, they’re likelier to make strong marriages. In Biblical times, that usually meant being from similar cultures.
How many of you remember the Old Testament story of Samson? Before Samson met Delilah, he married a woman who was a Philistine, a people hostile to God’s people, the Jews. Delilah was also a Philistine. Both of those relationships ended badly because of diverging belief systems and loyalties. Samson was absolutely committed to God. The women he loved didn’t share that commitment. Each brought grief to Samson. Delilah, ultimately, brought death to Samson.
On the other hand, I love the Old Testament story of Ruth. How many of you know Ruth’s story?
Ruth was a woman from a country called Moab. She married a young Jewish man whose family migrated to Moab after a famine hit his home country. But Ruth’s young husband died. As did her father-in-law and brother-in-law.
With her mother-in-law, Naomi, Ruth went to live in her husband’s homeland of Israel. She had come to believe in the one God of the universe in Whom you and I believe.
In the end, Ruth married yet another man from Israel and became an ancestor of Israel’s greatest king, David. On the surface, Ruth and her two husbands may not have seemed to have too much in common. Moab and Israel were very different in their cultures and beliefs. But in fact, Ruth had two great marriages. If two people have common outlooks, they have a good foundation on which to build their marriage.
So commonalities are important. The second thing couples should have to make their marriages work is a love beyond infatuation, beyond romance, beyond sexual attraction.
I often shake my head when I read about the latest celebrity marriages. A couple of celebs meet, then head off for Vegas or Monaco to tie the knot. Three months later, the two love birds are engaged in a knockdown, drag-out divorce battle, including contention over custody of their as-yet unborn child. They get married after they've fallen in love (or in lust), but before they learn how to love one another, before they became friends as well as lovers. (This, by the way, is why I think my wife's and my decision to marry isn’t nearly as shocking as it may sound at first. We were friends before we fell in love.)
C.S. Lewis once said that falling in love is like turning the ignition key in a car. There’s a gigundous explosion. After that the car starts, you won’t help a car a bit.
To keep a car running properly, you have to do mundane things like filling the gas tank, changing the oil, or rotating the tires.
Similarly, falling in love is a spectacular start to a relationship between a man and a woman. But it may or may not be a good predictor of how long or well the relationship will last.
Real love is composed of a thousand mundane things you do because you care about each other. Real love involves a lifetime of daily decisions to give, forgive, and help one another. It’s hard work.
Nowhere is the hard work required by love seen more clearly than in our Savior Jesus, God in the flesh. When Jesus hung on a cross, the reason He did so was crystal clear in His mind. He did it out of His love for us and His desire to give life to all who will repent for sin and trust in Him. But, as I’ve said many times before, it’s hard to imagine that as Jesus suffered on the cross, that He would look at the crowd demanding His death and say, “You’re so cute when you’re mad.” Jesus loves us, even when He's less than infatuated with us!
In Jesus, we see that love is often measured not in what we feel--not in our infatuation, but sometimes in what we do in spite of how we feel. Love isn’t a feeling. It’s a commitment to what’s best for those we love.
So, how will people know that they’ve met the person they should marry? First: When they have commonalities. Second: When their love moves beyond infatuation. Third: When they put on Christ. The phrase comes from something the first-century preacher and evangelist writes in Romans. He says that we shouldn’t worry all the time about being decked out in the latest fashions. “Instead,” he says, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
Marriages have a better chance when husband and wife share a common faith in Jesus Christ. And there are all sorts of boring statistics to back that up, by the way.
But more than statistics as evidence, I can offer you my experience. You all know that when my wife and I were married, I was an atheist. I spent Sunday mornings with my head buried in my pillow and the rest of the week with my head buried in the sand, oblivious to all the ways God was reaching out to me in love, including through my wife. I thank God that He used my wife to call me to faith in Christ!
In a very real sense, today I look forward to being in heaven with Jesus because this unbeliever married a Christian willing to take a chance on me! Having a common faith in Christ has been the most important glue holding us together and making our love stronger through good times and bad. This is why in one of our lessons, Paul strongly advises people contemplating marriage to only marry those who share faith in Christ.
Marriage counselor James Christensen has written: “When couples realize they have a God-given mission here on earth and are ‘coworkers with God’ [as the Bible says of all believers in Christ], it saves marriages from the mundaneness of purely ‘secular’ living. [Couples who share faith in Christ] do not focus primarily on their own selfish...pleasures. They share a thrill of adventure; life becomes a great stewardship of giving of themselves [to each other]...”
This leads to a fourth way people can know if that someone is the right one to marry: If you’re committed to mutual servanthood and mutual respect. One-time president of Canadian Airlines Kevin Jenkins came to faith in Christ years after he’d gotten law and MBA degrees and attained success in business.
But when he came to faith, he writes of a decision he and his wife made: “We decided to to try to put the needs of the other ahead of our own.” This is exactly the lifestyle we need not only to make marriages work, but all relationships work.
It’s what Jesus did. He always put us first. And, Paul reminds us in one of the most famous passages in the Bible, this is exactly what he calls us to do in all of our relationships.
The result of Jesus putting humanity first is that all who believe in Him will live with God forever.
When couples put the needs of each other ahead of their own, they help one another become the people God wants them to be.
I’m blessed to be married to such a spouse...I only hope and pray that I can be as much of a Christian servant to her in our next thirty-four years together as she has been to me in our first thirty-four years!
Love is risky business. Marriage isn't just an act of faith, it's a radical, subversive, countercultural act!
But if we will surrender our lives and our marriages to Christ, we live with His promise that He will be with us always.
If prospective husbands and wives...
May the marriages made by all the sngle people who are part of Friendship exhibit these four critical traits. And may all the married couples already part of Friendship commit themselves and their marriages to Christ and so see those marriages become all that God intends for them to be!
Proverbs 31:10-12, 25-31
2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1
My aim in this message is not just to help people who hope one day to marry, but also to help those who care about them, be they friends, parents, aunts and uncles, or cousins, who might want to give them sound advice. Biblical advice.
But I do feel a little hesitation. One reason for that is the fact that my wife and I didn’t follow all of the advice I’m about to share.
We first met when I was in the sixth grade and she was in the seventh. As many of know, she pretty much couldn’t stand me throughout our junior and senior high years. In college, both of us worked at a department store--me on the loading dock, she on the sales floor--and we became friends. We decided to go to a movie together one night...just as friends. Six weeks later, we decided to get married. Five and a half months after that, we were married. Nearly thirty-four years later, we’re still together and I’m grateful to God...and to my wife!
Another reason for my feeling a bit hesitant about giving this message is that as I look at some of what the Bible tells us about marriage, I become very aware that there simply isn’t one way to decide on who to marry or when to marry or even if to marry. But there are principles and I want to talk about four of them today.
The first thing the Bible sees in strong marriages are commonalities between wives and husbands. If couples have core values in common, they’re likelier to make strong marriages. In Biblical times, that usually meant being from similar cultures.
How many of you remember the Old Testament story of Samson? Before Samson met Delilah, he married a woman who was a Philistine, a people hostile to God’s people, the Jews. Delilah was also a Philistine. Both of those relationships ended badly because of diverging belief systems and loyalties. Samson was absolutely committed to God. The women he loved didn’t share that commitment. Each brought grief to Samson. Delilah, ultimately, brought death to Samson.
On the other hand, I love the Old Testament story of Ruth. How many of you know Ruth’s story?
Ruth was a woman from a country called Moab. She married a young Jewish man whose family migrated to Moab after a famine hit his home country. But Ruth’s young husband died. As did her father-in-law and brother-in-law.
With her mother-in-law, Naomi, Ruth went to live in her husband’s homeland of Israel. She had come to believe in the one God of the universe in Whom you and I believe.
In the end, Ruth married yet another man from Israel and became an ancestor of Israel’s greatest king, David. On the surface, Ruth and her two husbands may not have seemed to have too much in common. Moab and Israel were very different in their cultures and beliefs. But in fact, Ruth had two great marriages. If two people have common outlooks, they have a good foundation on which to build their marriage.
So commonalities are important. The second thing couples should have to make their marriages work is a love beyond infatuation, beyond romance, beyond sexual attraction.
I often shake my head when I read about the latest celebrity marriages. A couple of celebs meet, then head off for Vegas or Monaco to tie the knot. Three months later, the two love birds are engaged in a knockdown, drag-out divorce battle, including contention over custody of their as-yet unborn child. They get married after they've fallen in love (or in lust), but before they learn how to love one another, before they became friends as well as lovers. (This, by the way, is why I think my wife's and my decision to marry isn’t nearly as shocking as it may sound at first. We were friends before we fell in love.)
C.S. Lewis once said that falling in love is like turning the ignition key in a car. There’s a gigundous explosion. After that the car starts, you won’t help a car a bit.
To keep a car running properly, you have to do mundane things like filling the gas tank, changing the oil, or rotating the tires.
Similarly, falling in love is a spectacular start to a relationship between a man and a woman. But it may or may not be a good predictor of how long or well the relationship will last.
Real love is composed of a thousand mundane things you do because you care about each other. Real love involves a lifetime of daily decisions to give, forgive, and help one another. It’s hard work.
Nowhere is the hard work required by love seen more clearly than in our Savior Jesus, God in the flesh. When Jesus hung on a cross, the reason He did so was crystal clear in His mind. He did it out of His love for us and His desire to give life to all who will repent for sin and trust in Him. But, as I’ve said many times before, it’s hard to imagine that as Jesus suffered on the cross, that He would look at the crowd demanding His death and say, “You’re so cute when you’re mad.” Jesus loves us, even when He's less than infatuated with us!
In Jesus, we see that love is often measured not in what we feel--not in our infatuation, but sometimes in what we do in spite of how we feel. Love isn’t a feeling. It’s a commitment to what’s best for those we love.
So, how will people know that they’ve met the person they should marry? First: When they have commonalities. Second: When their love moves beyond infatuation. Third: When they put on Christ. The phrase comes from something the first-century preacher and evangelist writes in Romans. He says that we shouldn’t worry all the time about being decked out in the latest fashions. “Instead,” he says, “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.”
Marriages have a better chance when husband and wife share a common faith in Jesus Christ. And there are all sorts of boring statistics to back that up, by the way.
But more than statistics as evidence, I can offer you my experience. You all know that when my wife and I were married, I was an atheist. I spent Sunday mornings with my head buried in my pillow and the rest of the week with my head buried in the sand, oblivious to all the ways God was reaching out to me in love, including through my wife. I thank God that He used my wife to call me to faith in Christ!
In a very real sense, today I look forward to being in heaven with Jesus because this unbeliever married a Christian willing to take a chance on me! Having a common faith in Christ has been the most important glue holding us together and making our love stronger through good times and bad. This is why in one of our lessons, Paul strongly advises people contemplating marriage to only marry those who share faith in Christ.
Marriage counselor James Christensen has written: “When couples realize they have a God-given mission here on earth and are ‘coworkers with God’ [as the Bible says of all believers in Christ], it saves marriages from the mundaneness of purely ‘secular’ living. [Couples who share faith in Christ] do not focus primarily on their own selfish...pleasures. They share a thrill of adventure; life becomes a great stewardship of giving of themselves [to each other]...”
This leads to a fourth way people can know if that someone is the right one to marry: If you’re committed to mutual servanthood and mutual respect. One-time president of Canadian Airlines Kevin Jenkins came to faith in Christ years after he’d gotten law and MBA degrees and attained success in business.
But when he came to faith, he writes of a decision he and his wife made: “We decided to to try to put the needs of the other ahead of our own.” This is exactly the lifestyle we need not only to make marriages work, but all relationships work.
It’s what Jesus did. He always put us first. And, Paul reminds us in one of the most famous passages in the Bible, this is exactly what he calls us to do in all of our relationships.
The result of Jesus putting humanity first is that all who believe in Him will live with God forever.
When couples put the needs of each other ahead of their own, they help one another become the people God wants them to be.
I’m blessed to be married to such a spouse...I only hope and pray that I can be as much of a Christian servant to her in our next thirty-four years together as she has been to me in our first thirty-four years!
Love is risky business. Marriage isn't just an act of faith, it's a radical, subversive, countercultural act!
But if we will surrender our lives and our marriages to Christ, we live with His promise that He will be with us always.
If prospective husbands and wives...
- share common values,
- have a love that goes beyond childish infatuation,
- hold a common faith in Jesus Christ, and
- adhere to a commitment to mutual servanthood and mutual respect,
May the marriages made by all the sngle people who are part of Friendship exhibit these four critical traits. And may all the married couples already part of Friendship commit themselves and their marriages to Christ and so see those marriages become all that God intends for them to be!
Thursday, June 07, 2007
The Call of Christian Believers: Fill 'Em Up When Their Tanks Are Empty
On her ShoutLife blog, singer-songwriter Hoi recounts how, during a trip on California's coastal highways, her car's gas tank plummeted toward E . As a friend prayed confidently that they wouldn't be stranded in the middle of nowhere, Hoi said she sensed a voice trying to convince her that all was hopeless.
It made me think.
Life is a road trip and the devil pounces on us whenever our tanks are low. (See Martin Luther's explanation of "Save us from the time of trial" in the Lord's Prayer, here. Hopelessness can be a sin. It can also be a thorn sent by Satan to rob us of life and joy.)
But, thankfully, God is bigger than the devil or our fears.
And therein lies the ministries of Christians.
There are people in our world who are running on empty all the time. They have empty bellies, empty hearts, empty spirits, empty pockets, empty emotions. They need Christ and the love of Christ shared with them in practical ways. The call of all Christians is to fill others with the mercies and the love of Christ, encouraging them with the hope that can only come from a risen Savior!
Paul writes:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who consoles us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)I think that God sometimes allows believers to have empty feelings so that we can empathize with those who have little...and be spurred and empowered by the Holy Spirit to fill others up.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Pray for Joe Gandelman and His Family
The father of Joe Gandelman, editor-in-chief at The Moderate Voice, recently died. Pray God's comfort and peace for Joe and his family as they mourn.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Wearing Faith on One's Sleeve
Last night, Hillary Clinton gave a laudable answer to CNN correspondent Soledad O'Brien's question on whether Clinton's Christian faith had helped her weather the very public storm occasioned by her husband's various infidelities. "I'm not sure I would have gotten through it without my faith," Clinton said.
She also commented that she came from a tradition that didn't feel comfortable with wearing its faith on its sleeve. That passing comment by the candidate evoked a round of applause, which in itself made me feel less than comfortable.
Here's why.
Christian faith is an inherently public thing. "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others," Jesus says in Matthew 10:32-33, "I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven."
Jesus calls His followers to "make disciples" by sharing the Good News of forgiveness of sin, a reconciled relationship with God and others, and a new and everlasting life to be had by all who believe in Christ. This is what Christians call the Great Commission.
Christians, even those who are reticent or shy, believe that to hide our faith in Christ is like refusing to help someone who's drowning. Life, the Bible teaches us, comes to all with faith in Christ and once one has appropriated the new life that comes through faith, Christians want to go public and help others know Christ.
To not be public about our faith then, is something which Christians believe is wrong. Jesus teaches: "No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light" (Luke 8:16).
Nonetheless, I think I understand why the audience who heard Clinton say that she came from a tradition uncomfortable with public discussion of faith applauded.
I believe it's because for twenty-eight years now, spokespersons for the so-called Religious Right have hijacked the good name of "Christian," advancing their own particular political philosophy and claiming that all good Christians agree with them.
Well, I'm a fairly conservative evangelical--albeit a Lutheran--Christian. I believe that the Bible is the definitive Word of God. I believe that there is salvation in Jesus' Name alone.
But I don't believe that there is a clear Christian political agenda. As I've said before, it's impossible to draw a straight line between the Bible and a particular political philosophy.
For example, there are Christian people who agree that the Bible condemns homosexuality as a sin but don't agree on whether the states should institute some sort of civil union or even gay marriage laws.
There are Christian people who agree that abortion is a great evil. But not all of them want to make it criminal for a woman who's been raped or whose life is in danger to seek an abortion.
There are Christians who believe that Genesis is true, but don't think that the Bible is or ever claims to be a book of science.
Above all, there are Christians who pray, worship, read God's Word, and seek God's guidance and don't agree politically with James Dobson or Pat Robertson. (Or with the liberal Christian pastor, Jim Wallis, either.)
I believe that Christians should go public with our faith in Jesus Christ. And I hope and pray that Jesus Christ guides me in all my decision-making, including in how I vote.
But, except when it is incontrovertibly clear which candidate God might prefer or what legislation God likes, Christians who speak out on public issues should be quick to say, "This is only what I think. God may not agree."
Political idelogues who claim to speak on behalf of God or Christian faith are making it difficult for those of us in the Church who are trying to do the real work Christ gave all Christians to do. Jesus described our task very simply:
She also commented that she came from a tradition that didn't feel comfortable with wearing its faith on its sleeve. That passing comment by the candidate evoked a round of applause, which in itself made me feel less than comfortable.
Here's why.
Christian faith is an inherently public thing. "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others," Jesus says in Matthew 10:32-33, "I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven."
Jesus calls His followers to "make disciples" by sharing the Good News of forgiveness of sin, a reconciled relationship with God and others, and a new and everlasting life to be had by all who believe in Christ. This is what Christians call the Great Commission.
Christians, even those who are reticent or shy, believe that to hide our faith in Christ is like refusing to help someone who's drowning. Life, the Bible teaches us, comes to all with faith in Christ and once one has appropriated the new life that comes through faith, Christians want to go public and help others know Christ.
To not be public about our faith then, is something which Christians believe is wrong. Jesus teaches: "No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lampstand, so that those who enter may see the light" (Luke 8:16).
Nonetheless, I think I understand why the audience who heard Clinton say that she came from a tradition uncomfortable with public discussion of faith applauded.
I believe it's because for twenty-eight years now, spokespersons for the so-called Religious Right have hijacked the good name of "Christian," advancing their own particular political philosophy and claiming that all good Christians agree with them.
Well, I'm a fairly conservative evangelical--albeit a Lutheran--Christian. I believe that the Bible is the definitive Word of God. I believe that there is salvation in Jesus' Name alone.
But I don't believe that there is a clear Christian political agenda. As I've said before, it's impossible to draw a straight line between the Bible and a particular political philosophy.
For example, there are Christian people who agree that the Bible condemns homosexuality as a sin but don't agree on whether the states should institute some sort of civil union or even gay marriage laws.
There are Christian people who agree that abortion is a great evil. But not all of them want to make it criminal for a woman who's been raped or whose life is in danger to seek an abortion.
There are Christians who believe that Genesis is true, but don't think that the Bible is or ever claims to be a book of science.
Above all, there are Christians who pray, worship, read God's Word, and seek God's guidance and don't agree politically with James Dobson or Pat Robertson. (Or with the liberal Christian pastor, Jim Wallis, either.)
I believe that Christians should go public with our faith in Jesus Christ. And I hope and pray that Jesus Christ guides me in all my decision-making, including in how I vote.
But, except when it is incontrovertibly clear which candidate God might prefer or what legislation God likes, Christians who speak out on public issues should be quick to say, "This is only what I think. God may not agree."
Political idelogues who claim to speak on behalf of God or Christian faith are making it difficult for those of us in the Church who are trying to do the real work Christ gave all Christians to do. Jesus described our task very simply:
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20).[Go here to find the eight installments of my series, How Christians Might Think About the 2008 Presidential Election.]
Am I Being Too Sensitive? (Column Version)
[This is the column version of this post. I write a column for a local editions of a suburban Cincinnati newspaper chain.]
I hadn't really listened to ESPN radio personality Colin Cowherd since January, 2006. That was when he cracked that Peace Corps volunteers are losers and declared that life isn't about serving others, but pleasing oneself. It hit me wrong on so many levels.
But I listened to Cowherd one recent Mondy. I was driving from Good Samaritan Hospital, where a friend had just undergone surgery. I flipped on my car radio. Unable to find anything to listen to, I scanned through the stations until I came to the faint signal of the ESPN affiliate in Hamilton. Cowherd was on.
I listened for maybe half a minute. That was all I could take.
This is what got to me. Cowherd talked about his kids. Apparently, he spent more time than usual with them over the preceding weekend and the munchkins exhausted him. A few seconds into a rant about the experience, he said something like, "I love kids and stuff. But sometimes the best thing to do is duct tape them and stick them in a closet."
Maybe at one time I would have laughed at that statement. I mean, nobody really would duct tape a kid and stick him in a closet, right? And, in fairness to Cowherd, his crack isn't much different from one attributed to Mark Twain with regard to teenagers. You know the one: "When a child hits the age of fourteen, he should be put in a barrel with a hole in it. At eighteen, the hole should be closed."
These are the sorts of exagerrated remarks that frustrated--but loving--parents have made for centuries.
But, last year, in a well-kempt middle class home one-quarter of a mile from where I live, David and Lisa Carroll, with the apparent help of Amy Baker, wrapped three year old Marcus Feisel in duct tape, threw him in a closet, and left him there to die while they went to a family reunion in Kentucky.
All of us in the Tri-State have been dealing with the tragedy ever since, of course. The Carrolls are in prison. As I write this, Amy Baker awaits extradition to Kentucky on charges of tampering with evidence related to the case. Also as I write this, the state is attempting to revoke the license of the agency which placed Marcus in the Carrolls’ home.
Some have used the tragedy as incentive for doing something positive. For example, our congregation has gotten involved with CASA for Clermont Kids!, an organization that advocates for and serves foster children. Our youth pack duffel bags with items donated by our church members. The bags are then given to children taken into foster care.
I didn't laugh at Cowherd's comment. Both literally and figuratively, it hit too close to my Clermont County home.
After I turned off the radio, I wondered, "Was I being too sensitive?"
Maybe. But I don't think that the image of duct taping a child and throwing him into a closet will ever be funny to me.
[Mark Daniels is pastor of Friendship Lutheran Church.]
I hadn't really listened to ESPN radio personality Colin Cowherd since January, 2006. That was when he cracked that Peace Corps volunteers are losers and declared that life isn't about serving others, but pleasing oneself. It hit me wrong on so many levels.
But I listened to Cowherd one recent Mondy. I was driving from Good Samaritan Hospital, where a friend had just undergone surgery. I flipped on my car radio. Unable to find anything to listen to, I scanned through the stations until I came to the faint signal of the ESPN affiliate in Hamilton. Cowherd was on.
I listened for maybe half a minute. That was all I could take.
This is what got to me. Cowherd talked about his kids. Apparently, he spent more time than usual with them over the preceding weekend and the munchkins exhausted him. A few seconds into a rant about the experience, he said something like, "I love kids and stuff. But sometimes the best thing to do is duct tape them and stick them in a closet."
Maybe at one time I would have laughed at that statement. I mean, nobody really would duct tape a kid and stick him in a closet, right? And, in fairness to Cowherd, his crack isn't much different from one attributed to Mark Twain with regard to teenagers. You know the one: "When a child hits the age of fourteen, he should be put in a barrel with a hole in it. At eighteen, the hole should be closed."
These are the sorts of exagerrated remarks that frustrated--but loving--parents have made for centuries.
But, last year, in a well-kempt middle class home one-quarter of a mile from where I live, David and Lisa Carroll, with the apparent help of Amy Baker, wrapped three year old Marcus Feisel in duct tape, threw him in a closet, and left him there to die while they went to a family reunion in Kentucky.
All of us in the Tri-State have been dealing with the tragedy ever since, of course. The Carrolls are in prison. As I write this, Amy Baker awaits extradition to Kentucky on charges of tampering with evidence related to the case. Also as I write this, the state is attempting to revoke the license of the agency which placed Marcus in the Carrolls’ home.
Some have used the tragedy as incentive for doing something positive. For example, our congregation has gotten involved with CASA for Clermont Kids!, an organization that advocates for and serves foster children. Our youth pack duffel bags with items donated by our church members. The bags are then given to children taken into foster care.
I didn't laugh at Cowherd's comment. Both literally and figuratively, it hit too close to my Clermont County home.
After I turned off the radio, I wondered, "Was I being too sensitive?"
Maybe. But I don't think that the image of duct taping a child and throwing him into a closet will ever be funny to me.
[Mark Daniels is pastor of Friendship Lutheran Church.]
Am I Being Too Sensitive?
I haven't really listened to ESPN radio personality Colin Cowherd since January, 2006. That was when he cracked that Peace Corps volunteers are losers and declared that life isn't about serving others, but pleasing oneself. It hit me wrong because of all the Peace Corps volunteers I've known through the years. They've been competent, caring people. I thought particularly of a late member of Friendship, the congregation I serve as pastor. Karen was bright, funny, tough, successful, and loving. She was no loser.
So, it'd been a year-and-a-half since I listened to Cowherd. But yesterday, I was returning from Good Samaritan Hospital, where a friend had just undergone surgery. Driving home, I flipped on the radio, and couldn't find anything to which I wanted to listen. I scanned through the stations and came to the faint signal of the ESPN affiliate in Hamilton. Cowherd was on.
I listened for maybe half a minute. That was all I could take.
It could just be me. Cowherd's humor may have been harmless and funny. But I couldn't laugh. So I quickly punched the radio off.
This is what got to me. Cowherd was talking about his kids. Apparently, he spent more time than usual with them over the weekend and the munchkins exhausted him. A few seconds into a rant about the experience, he said something like, "I love kids and stuff. But sometimes the best thing to do is duct tape them and stick them in a closet."
Maybe a year or so ago I would have laughed at that statement. I mean, nobody really would duct tape a kid and stick him in a closet, right? And, in fairness to Cowherd, his crack isn't much different from one attributed to Mark Twain with regard to teenagers. You know the one: "When a child hits the age of fourteen, he should be put in a barrel with a hole in it. At eighteen, the hole should be closed."
These are the sorts of exagerrated remarks that frustrated--but loving--parents have made for centuries.
But you see, last year, in a well-kempt middle class home one-quarter of a mile from where I live, two foster parents, with the assistance of their jointly-experienced live-in lover, wrapped a little boy in duct tape, threw him in a closet, and left him there to die while they went to a family reunion in Kentucky.
Here in the Tri-State area of southwestern Ohio, northern Kentucky, and Indiana, and particularly, here in Clermont County, we've been dealing with the aftermath of Marcus Feisel's death ever since.
The two parents, on the strength of testimony provided by their lover, are now in prison.
The lover, herself the mother of three children, is awaiting extradition to Kentucky on charges of tampering with evidence. Hearings are ongoing to decide what will happen to her kids.
Just yesterday, a hearing began on the state's determination to revoke the license of the Butler County agency that negligently placed Marcus in the hands of the Clermont County couple who killed him.
(By the way, after returning from that reunion and finding Marcus dead in the closet where they'd left him, the foster parents and the lover hatched a plan to burn Marcus' body and make it appear that the boy went missing during a visit to the very park where my wife and I walked last night.)
Because of Marcus' death, our congregation has gotten involved with CASA for Clermont Kids!, an organization that advocates for and serves foster children. Our youth have packed duffel bags with items donated by our church members, which are then given to children taken into foster care. It seems like a good and important thing for us to do in light of the tragedy that so recently happened in our midst.
I didn't laugh at Cowherd's comment. I remember the Sunday I fought off tears as I talked about the tragedy during my sermon.
I turned off the radio and wondered, "Was I being too sensitive?"
Maybe. But I don't think that the image of duct taping a child and throwing him into a closet will ever be funny to me.
[THANKS TO: The Big Lead for linking to this post.]
[THANKS TO: One of my favorite bloggers, Matt Brown, of Good Brownie, for linking to this post.]
So, it'd been a year-and-a-half since I listened to Cowherd. But yesterday, I was returning from Good Samaritan Hospital, where a friend had just undergone surgery. Driving home, I flipped on the radio, and couldn't find anything to which I wanted to listen. I scanned through the stations and came to the faint signal of the ESPN affiliate in Hamilton. Cowherd was on.
I listened for maybe half a minute. That was all I could take.
It could just be me. Cowherd's humor may have been harmless and funny. But I couldn't laugh. So I quickly punched the radio off.
This is what got to me. Cowherd was talking about his kids. Apparently, he spent more time than usual with them over the weekend and the munchkins exhausted him. A few seconds into a rant about the experience, he said something like, "I love kids and stuff. But sometimes the best thing to do is duct tape them and stick them in a closet."
Maybe a year or so ago I would have laughed at that statement. I mean, nobody really would duct tape a kid and stick him in a closet, right? And, in fairness to Cowherd, his crack isn't much different from one attributed to Mark Twain with regard to teenagers. You know the one: "When a child hits the age of fourteen, he should be put in a barrel with a hole in it. At eighteen, the hole should be closed."
These are the sorts of exagerrated remarks that frustrated--but loving--parents have made for centuries.
But you see, last year, in a well-kempt middle class home one-quarter of a mile from where I live, two foster parents, with the assistance of their jointly-experienced live-in lover, wrapped a little boy in duct tape, threw him in a closet, and left him there to die while they went to a family reunion in Kentucky.
Here in the Tri-State area of southwestern Ohio, northern Kentucky, and Indiana, and particularly, here in Clermont County, we've been dealing with the aftermath of Marcus Feisel's death ever since.
The two parents, on the strength of testimony provided by their lover, are now in prison.
The lover, herself the mother of three children, is awaiting extradition to Kentucky on charges of tampering with evidence. Hearings are ongoing to decide what will happen to her kids.
Just yesterday, a hearing began on the state's determination to revoke the license of the Butler County agency that negligently placed Marcus in the hands of the Clermont County couple who killed him.
(By the way, after returning from that reunion and finding Marcus dead in the closet where they'd left him, the foster parents and the lover hatched a plan to burn Marcus' body and make it appear that the boy went missing during a visit to the very park where my wife and I walked last night.)
Because of Marcus' death, our congregation has gotten involved with CASA for Clermont Kids!, an organization that advocates for and serves foster children. Our youth have packed duffel bags with items donated by our church members, which are then given to children taken into foster care. It seems like a good and important thing for us to do in light of the tragedy that so recently happened in our midst.
I didn't laugh at Cowherd's comment. I remember the Sunday I fought off tears as I talked about the tragedy during my sermon.
I turned off the radio and wondered, "Was I being too sensitive?"
Maybe. But I don't think that the image of duct taping a child and throwing him into a closet will ever be funny to me.
[THANKS TO: The Big Lead for linking to this post.]
[THANKS TO: One of my favorite bloggers, Matt Brown, of Good Brownie, for linking to this post.]
Monday, June 04, 2007
Prayer Updates
Yesterday, I asked for prayers for Vic and for the father of my blogging friend, John Schroeder.
Vic underwent surgery this morning and the surgeon reports that it went exceedingly well. Three, not just one, chip from the spine had lodged in the sciatic nerve. Vic should feel great relief from the severe pain from which he's been suffering.
John Schroeder's father passed away. John was with his dad at the time and was able to hold his hand when the end came. Please pray that God will comfort John, his sister, his mother, his wife, and their family. John's father was a believer in Jesus Christ; so, one day, there will be a blessed reunion of father and son.
Vic underwent surgery this morning and the surgeon reports that it went exceedingly well. Three, not just one, chip from the spine had lodged in the sciatic nerve. Vic should feel great relief from the severe pain from which he's been suffering.
John Schroeder's father passed away. John was with his dad at the time and was able to hold his hand when the end came. Please pray that God will comfort John, his sister, his mother, his wife, and their family. John's father was a believer in Jesus Christ; so, one day, there will be a blessed reunion of father and son.
Sunday, June 03, 2007
The Great God Debate
On Tuesday, June 5, my buddy Hugh Hewitt will be hosting a debate between philosopher John Mark Reynolds and journalist Christopher Hitchens on the existence of God and the impact of religious belief on daily life. It will be on Hugh's national radio program, airing from 6:00 to 9:00PM, Eastern time.
Hugh has asked me and other "Godbloggers" to suggest propositions for this debate. So, here are a few he might want to consider:
1. The research compiled and presented by physician and medical researcher Larry Dossey, Jr. has demonstrated a strong connection between prayer and higher success rates for medical treatments. Proposition: Prayer is a legitimate tool of medical treatment.
2. Recent works by several historians have documented the positive impact Christian faith has had on the development of Western ethics and socieities. Proposition: In spite of horrible things done "in the Name of Christ," Christianity has had an overwhelmingly positive effect on its adherents and on the societies it has touched.
3. Proposition: It requires greater blind faith to believe that the universe has just happened into existence than to believe that an intelligent being created it.
4. Proposition: Jesus Christ is God-in-the-flesh and God's ultimate self-disclosure.
5. Proposition: Grace is the unique concept which indicates that Judea-Christian teaching about God is either true or false.
I may have more. But those seem like good ones with which to start.
Hugh has asked me and other "Godbloggers" to suggest propositions for this debate. So, here are a few he might want to consider:
1. The research compiled and presented by physician and medical researcher Larry Dossey, Jr. has demonstrated a strong connection between prayer and higher success rates for medical treatments. Proposition: Prayer is a legitimate tool of medical treatment.
2. Recent works by several historians have documented the positive impact Christian faith has had on the development of Western ethics and socieities. Proposition: In spite of horrible things done "in the Name of Christ," Christianity has had an overwhelmingly positive effect on its adherents and on the societies it has touched.
3. Proposition: It requires greater blind faith to believe that the universe has just happened into existence than to believe that an intelligent being created it.
4. Proposition: Jesus Christ is God-in-the-flesh and God's ultimate self-disclosure.
5. Proposition: Grace is the unique concept which indicates that Judea-Christian teaching about God is either true or false.
I may have more. But those seem like good ones with which to start.
Prayers Are Needed
(1) Blogging friend, John Schroeder, and his family face a difficult decision about his father. His Dad and Mom were recently involved in a car crash. John's mother, in the early stages of dimentia, is well enough to be back home in Indiana. But his father is hospitalized in Mississippi, where the accident occurred.
Initially and even just days ago, there were high hopes for John's father. But now, doctors are advising that the family may have to remove him from life support.
Please pray for this family as they go through the decision-making promise. Ask God to give them peace.
John knows that his father will follow Christ into eternity. But that doesn't make any of this easier.
(2) Please also pray for Vic. He's the husband and father of members of our congregation and a wonderful man. He has a bone that has chipped away from his spine and is agitating his sciatic nerve. He's scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning. We're praying for complete healing and a reversal of the nerve damage Vic has already sustained. Your prayers with us would be appreciated.
Initially and even just days ago, there were high hopes for John's father. But now, doctors are advising that the family may have to remove him from life support.
Please pray for this family as they go through the decision-making promise. Ask God to give them peace.
John knows that his father will follow Christ into eternity. But that doesn't make any of this easier.
(2) Please also pray for Vic. He's the husband and father of members of our congregation and a wonderful man. He has a bone that has chipped away from his spine and is agitating his sciatic nerve. He's scheduled for surgery tomorrow morning. We're praying for complete healing and a reversal of the nerve damage Vic has already sustained. Your prayers with us would be appreciated.
How to Have and Be a Friend (Joyful Relationships, Part 1)
[This message was shared during the worship celebration of Friendship Lutheran Church, Amelia, Ohio, on June 3, 2007. If you live in or are visiting the Cincinnati area, you're always welcome to worship with us on Sunday mornings at 10:00AM. It's the first of a four-part series on Joyful Relationships.]
Galatians 6:1-2
Luke 17:1-4
Church historian Martin Marty once broke away from his usual pursuits to write a handy little book called Friendship. He begins it with this simple sentence:
But there’s a deeper, spiritual reason to agree that we form friendships in order to avoid being killed. The Bible shows us that we were made for friendships with God and other people. Without vibrant friendships and other relationships with God and others, we die, literally and figuratively.
When humanity fell into sin in the Garden of Eden, it represented a distancing from their relationship with God on the part of Adam and Eve. They separated themselves from the very Source of life! And the second result of that first sin was a breach in the relationship of Adam and Eve, each blaming the other for their sin. God's sole object from that moment to this has been to repair and restore our broken connections to God, to one another, and to our true, joyful, God-selves.
It's because relationship is central to God that the Ten Commandments are divisible into two tables, the first three dealing with our relationship with God and the second, our relationships with one another. And it's because relationship is central to God that Jesus says that the greatest commandment has two parts: to love God with our whole beings and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Through our friendships with God and others, we are to have and give life to one another.
According to the Bible, there are lots of ways to die that don’t involve the physical end of this life. Jesus says that whenever we speak ill of others or curse them or ignore them, we inflict death on them and we violate the Fifth Commandment: “You shall not kill.” Having and being a friend is truly a life-giving thing. And no one is as alive as the person whose life is enriched by close friendships!
But having or being a friend isn’t an automatic thing. Friendship is a gift, but for the gift to keep giving, friendship must be nurtured.
So, how can you and I have and be friends?
First: We love our friends with the tough love of Christ. Christ kept loving His disciples, even when they misunderstood Him, even when they betrayed Him. He didn’t always approve of the things they said or did, but he never stopped loving them.
He has the same attitude toward you and me today. He loves us with the same tough-minded, tender-hearted commitment with which He loved His first followers.
Just before Jesus went His cross, He said that the greatest act of love comes when a person lays down their life for a friend. Then He said, "You are My friends!" Think of it: In spite of our sins and faults, God-in-the-flesh, Jesus Christ, calls us His friends!
In our relationships, we must realize that sometimes we will be hurt and disappointed by our friends. And sometimes we’ll hurt and disappoint them.
These things are true even when our friends and we are Christians. As Christians, we are saints and sinners, after all. We’re forgiven sinners recovering from our addiction to self-centeredness, still tempted to want to be little gods ourselves. And though forgiven and granted everlasting life for our faith in Jesus Christ, we’re still subject to the temptation to self-centeredness for as long as we live on this side of the grave.
But to have friends, our love must be tough. Paul writes in our lesson from Galatians: “My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted...”
If your friend has gotten into a drunken stupor, you don’t hand him the keys just because he’s your friend or he grows belligerent. Because you care about him, you confront him. Friends sometimes have it out! And if you see your friend engage in behaviors that are clearly self-destructive or are harmful to others, whatever they may be, love commands you to confront.
Confront, but not condemn! Martin Luther retold the story of an early church saint who was told about a friend who had fallen into adultery. Instead of condemning, the saint said, “He fell yesterday; I may fall today.”
Jesus Christ has shown compassion for sinners. He confronted those who knowingly sinned and He was quick to forgive and restore the repentant. His combination of straight-shooting toughness and gracious, forgiving love is what He wants us to display in our relationships. This is exactly what Jesus is talking about when he tells us in our lesson from Luke, that if someone sins against us seven times in one day and they repent, we are to forgive.
Now, if you fear that you’re not tough enough to forgive like that, I have a simple confession to make. I’m not tough enough to forgive like that either. That’s why I go to Christ in prayer each day. In Him, I find the strength to love others as He loves me. I ask Christ to love the other person through me in ways that I can’t.
A second Biblical principle for having friends is expressed by Paul, writing in our lesson from Galatians: “Bear one another’s burdens,” he writes, “and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
Bear one another’s burdens! You’ve heard me tell the story before of something said to me by a woman whose husband just died. I was visiting with her and her family. Our visit was punctuated by frequent knocks at the door. Each visitor brought more and more food. Between her tears, the widow dabbed her eyes and told me, “There’s a lot of love in that refrigerator!” People were doing what they could to help her with her burden!
And they were doing it in a way that fulfilled the law of Christ that Paul talks about. The only new commandment Jesus ever gave came when He told Christians to love one another. Let love be the cement that holds the church together, Jesus was saying. We clearly see that sort of love when we bear one another’s burdens.
A third principle for friendship is this: If you want to have strong friendships, follow Christ and be part of His Church. I was at a convention of the church district to which I’d just been assigned as a graduating seminarian twenty-three years ago. Weeks before, I’d interviewed to be the associate pastor of a thriving congregation. The interview had gone well and my wife and I awaited word on whether the congregation and the senior pastor wanted me there or not. I knew that the senior pastor would be at the convention. But every time I saw him, he seemed to walk the other way, as if he were avoiding me. I wondered if it was all my imagination. But then, immediately following a worship celebration during the convention, this pastor approached me.
“I’ve been avoiding you, Mark, and I’m so sorry," he began. "I couldn’t even bring myself to receive Holy Communion just now because I realized how much I’d wronged you. You see, we decided to call another candidate to the position, someone who worked at our church before. I was avoiding you because I couldn’t think of a good reason for turning you down. Can you forgive me?”
Well, of course I could forgive him! And truth be told, things worked out for the better since I ended up at a wonderful parish I was privileged to serve for six years before coming here to start Friendship seventeen years ago. That pastor, by the way, became a bishop and by all accounts, a terrific one! I could have guessed that he would be from our encounter that night so many years ago.
In the fellowship of the Church, we remind each other that we are all sinners in need of God’s free gift of new life that comes to all who repent--that is, who turn from sin--and entrust their lives to Jesus Christ. The New Testament word for grace is charitas, which is the root of our word, charity. God’s grace, His charity for sinners in need of forgiveness, is amazing, as we often sing. Through the Church, Jesus Christ teaches us that He can forgive us all our sins. We need to forgive others as we’ve been forgiven. When we do that, we clear away the debris that makes friendships hard. We can have and be friends.
Three principles for having friends:
Galatians 6:1-2
Luke 17:1-4
Church historian Martin Marty once broke away from his usual pursuits to write a handy little book called Friendship. He begins it with this simple sentence:
We have friends, or are friends, in order that we do not get killed.Anthropologists and psychologists would agree with Marty. They say that human beings formed communities early in our history in order to fend off attacking predators or other human beings.
But there’s a deeper, spiritual reason to agree that we form friendships in order to avoid being killed. The Bible shows us that we were made for friendships with God and other people. Without vibrant friendships and other relationships with God and others, we die, literally and figuratively.
When humanity fell into sin in the Garden of Eden, it represented a distancing from their relationship with God on the part of Adam and Eve. They separated themselves from the very Source of life! And the second result of that first sin was a breach in the relationship of Adam and Eve, each blaming the other for their sin. God's sole object from that moment to this has been to repair and restore our broken connections to God, to one another, and to our true, joyful, God-selves.
It's because relationship is central to God that the Ten Commandments are divisible into two tables, the first three dealing with our relationship with God and the second, our relationships with one another. And it's because relationship is central to God that Jesus says that the greatest commandment has two parts: to love God with our whole beings and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Through our friendships with God and others, we are to have and give life to one another.
According to the Bible, there are lots of ways to die that don’t involve the physical end of this life. Jesus says that whenever we speak ill of others or curse them or ignore them, we inflict death on them and we violate the Fifth Commandment: “You shall not kill.” Having and being a friend is truly a life-giving thing. And no one is as alive as the person whose life is enriched by close friendships!
But having or being a friend isn’t an automatic thing. Friendship is a gift, but for the gift to keep giving, friendship must be nurtured.
So, how can you and I have and be friends?
First: We love our friends with the tough love of Christ. Christ kept loving His disciples, even when they misunderstood Him, even when they betrayed Him. He didn’t always approve of the things they said or did, but he never stopped loving them.
He has the same attitude toward you and me today. He loves us with the same tough-minded, tender-hearted commitment with which He loved His first followers.
Just before Jesus went His cross, He said that the greatest act of love comes when a person lays down their life for a friend. Then He said, "You are My friends!" Think of it: In spite of our sins and faults, God-in-the-flesh, Jesus Christ, calls us His friends!
In our relationships, we must realize that sometimes we will be hurt and disappointed by our friends. And sometimes we’ll hurt and disappoint them.
These things are true even when our friends and we are Christians. As Christians, we are saints and sinners, after all. We’re forgiven sinners recovering from our addiction to self-centeredness, still tempted to want to be little gods ourselves. And though forgiven and granted everlasting life for our faith in Jesus Christ, we’re still subject to the temptation to self-centeredness for as long as we live on this side of the grave.
But to have friends, our love must be tough. Paul writes in our lesson from Galatians: “My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted...”
If your friend has gotten into a drunken stupor, you don’t hand him the keys just because he’s your friend or he grows belligerent. Because you care about him, you confront him. Friends sometimes have it out! And if you see your friend engage in behaviors that are clearly self-destructive or are harmful to others, whatever they may be, love commands you to confront.
Confront, but not condemn! Martin Luther retold the story of an early church saint who was told about a friend who had fallen into adultery. Instead of condemning, the saint said, “He fell yesterday; I may fall today.”
Jesus Christ has shown compassion for sinners. He confronted those who knowingly sinned and He was quick to forgive and restore the repentant. His combination of straight-shooting toughness and gracious, forgiving love is what He wants us to display in our relationships. This is exactly what Jesus is talking about when he tells us in our lesson from Luke, that if someone sins against us seven times in one day and they repent, we are to forgive.
Now, if you fear that you’re not tough enough to forgive like that, I have a simple confession to make. I’m not tough enough to forgive like that either. That’s why I go to Christ in prayer each day. In Him, I find the strength to love others as He loves me. I ask Christ to love the other person through me in ways that I can’t.
A second Biblical principle for having friends is expressed by Paul, writing in our lesson from Galatians: “Bear one another’s burdens,” he writes, “and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”
Bear one another’s burdens! You’ve heard me tell the story before of something said to me by a woman whose husband just died. I was visiting with her and her family. Our visit was punctuated by frequent knocks at the door. Each visitor brought more and more food. Between her tears, the widow dabbed her eyes and told me, “There’s a lot of love in that refrigerator!” People were doing what they could to help her with her burden!
And they were doing it in a way that fulfilled the law of Christ that Paul talks about. The only new commandment Jesus ever gave came when He told Christians to love one another. Let love be the cement that holds the church together, Jesus was saying. We clearly see that sort of love when we bear one another’s burdens.
A third principle for friendship is this: If you want to have strong friendships, follow Christ and be part of His Church. I was at a convention of the church district to which I’d just been assigned as a graduating seminarian twenty-three years ago. Weeks before, I’d interviewed to be the associate pastor of a thriving congregation. The interview had gone well and my wife and I awaited word on whether the congregation and the senior pastor wanted me there or not. I knew that the senior pastor would be at the convention. But every time I saw him, he seemed to walk the other way, as if he were avoiding me. I wondered if it was all my imagination. But then, immediately following a worship celebration during the convention, this pastor approached me.
“I’ve been avoiding you, Mark, and I’m so sorry," he began. "I couldn’t even bring myself to receive Holy Communion just now because I realized how much I’d wronged you. You see, we decided to call another candidate to the position, someone who worked at our church before. I was avoiding you because I couldn’t think of a good reason for turning you down. Can you forgive me?”
Well, of course I could forgive him! And truth be told, things worked out for the better since I ended up at a wonderful parish I was privileged to serve for six years before coming here to start Friendship seventeen years ago. That pastor, by the way, became a bishop and by all accounts, a terrific one! I could have guessed that he would be from our encounter that night so many years ago.
In the fellowship of the Church, we remind each other that we are all sinners in need of God’s free gift of new life that comes to all who repent--that is, who turn from sin--and entrust their lives to Jesus Christ. The New Testament word for grace is charitas, which is the root of our word, charity. God’s grace, His charity for sinners in need of forgiveness, is amazing, as we often sing. Through the Church, Jesus Christ teaches us that He can forgive us all our sins. We need to forgive others as we’ve been forgiven. When we do that, we clear away the debris that makes friendships hard. We can have and be friends.
Three principles for having friends:
- Love people with the tough love of Christ;
- bear each other’s burdens; and
- find the power to love and forgive others by maintaining a relationship with Christ and His Church.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Friday, June 01, 2007
"I Don't Like Spam!"
According to Wikipedia, the earliest point at which the term spam was used of unwanted email was sometime in the 1980s. Inspired by the Spam song as presented on the old Monty Python TV show, the term is a perfect designation for unwanted correspondence, especially one mass-blasted to its unsuspecting victims.Of course, this phenomenon didn't begin with the Internet. If you're like me, each delivery day your snail mailbox is crammed with "junk mail," third class advertising. We didn't (and don't) call junk mail spam. (At least, I haven't heard anyone use the term for junk mail yet.) But it's spam, nonetheless.
All of which makes the latest usage of the term I've seen so interesting. One of the books I'm reading right now is Walter Isaacson's new biography of Albert Einstein. Isaacson speaks of the young Einstein's efforts to find a job just after completing his undergraduate work at the Zurich Polytechnic. He also mentions that shortly after graduating, Einstein published a paper which he later dismissed as inconsequential. But it was handy for the applicant to be published. Writes Isaacson:
...[Einstein] now had a printed article to attach to the job-seeking letters with which he was beginning to spam professors all over Europe. [italics added by me]Now what so interests me about this is that Isaacson writes substantial books, weighty with research. (Yet accessible to general readership, of which I am definitely a member...I don't get physics at all!) In other words, Isaacson writes things that he hopes will do more than just sell today. He wants future audiences to read his studies of people like Henry Kissinger, Benjamin Franklin, and Einstein. Isaacson must feel very confident not only that the term spam as unwanted correspondence will be around a long time, but that will also be applied to more than emails and other unwanted electronic intrusions.
He may be right to use the term in an ex post facto way to describe the pesty job seeking of an early-twentieth century college graduate. But it's always interesting to watch a word evolve.
And I can't help but wonder, will some future writer describe the Declaration of Independence and preceding petitions from the colonies that formed the United States as spam?
They were certainly unwanted and unsolicited by their recipients, Parliament and King George. Who knows? Some future film by that devotee [NOT] to historical accuracy, Oliver Stone, might show George III looking at the document penned by Thomas Jefferson and make his own declaration: I DON'T LIKE SPAM!
You never can tell how a word will evolve.
[THANKS TO: Joe Gandelman of The Moderate Voice for linking to this post.]
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Focusing on 'Joyful Relationships'
On Four Sundays in June and July, my sermons during worship at Friendship Lutheran Church will deal with the topic of relationships.
This coming Sunday's message is about what it takes to have and be a friend. Two Biblical texts will be especially important, both from the New Testament:
I suppose that the sinful Mark too enjoys the feeling of superiority that comes when I see someone else stumble, particularly in an area in which I myself have stumbled and subsequently recovered. In these moments of self-righteousness, it's important for me to remember that while, by the grace of God, I'm a saint, I'm also a sinner, constantly beset by the same temptations that afflict the rest of the human race. This should make me feel, not smug and self-righteous, but compassionate. Forgive me, Lord, for forgetting that I'm a sinner saved by Your grace and teach me what it is to be a true friend!
This coming Sunday's message is about what it takes to have and be a friend. Two Biblical texts will be especially important, both from the New Testament:
- "My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care that you yourselves are not tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:1-2)
- "Jesus said to his disciples, 'Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come! It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, "I repent,"’ you must forgive.” (Luke 17:1-4)
1. The love of a friend is loyal.Speaking for myself, the life style entailed in these simple principles is impossible to maintain...without the help of God! As Paul puts it elsewhere in the New Testament, I need "Christ in me."
2. The love of a friend is tough. It doesn't shy away from confrontation.
3. The love of a friend forgives.
I suppose that the sinful Mark too enjoys the feeling of superiority that comes when I see someone else stumble, particularly in an area in which I myself have stumbled and subsequently recovered. In these moments of self-righteousness, it's important for me to remember that while, by the grace of God, I'm a saint, I'm also a sinner, constantly beset by the same temptations that afflict the rest of the human race. This should make me feel, not smug and self-righteous, but compassionate. Forgive me, Lord, for forgetting that I'm a sinner saved by Your grace and teach me what it is to be a true friend!
Monday, May 28, 2007
Memorial Day: Choked Up with Gratitude
It happened again yesterday, as my wife and I traveled to Columbus to celebrate the high school graduation of our nephew, Jameson. As has been the custom for most of our married life, my wife was behind the wheel and I read to her. Our selections are usually histories or biographies.
Not always. When our kids were young, I read all seven volumes of The Chronicles of Narnia during a family trip to and from Walt Disney World. And one year, I read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
I remember that when reading the seventh of the Narnian books, The Last Battle, the most sublime writing I have ever read, I had to stop more than once. I was overcome with emotion by the beauty of Lewis' description of the "new Narnia," a fictional representation of the "new heaven and the new earth" all believers in Jesus Christ will one day experience.
And there were times when I read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever that I had to stop: first, from laughing so hard at the antics of the Herdmann kids and then, from getting misty over their understanding of what Christmas is really about.
Through the years, there have been books that have often caused me to choke up and stop to regain my composure. They're the onese that describe or allude to the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, when the largest amphibious force in history began the liberation of Europe from the tyranny of Nazism. It happened to me the first time when I read Stephen Ambrose's biography of Dwight Eisehnower and later, while reading Ambrose's book Citizen Soldier.
Every time I think of those young soldiers and paratroopers assaulting the beaches of Normandy, facing almost certain death--similar in some ways to the Union soldiers depicted in the Civil War epic, Glory--I get weepy. Gratitude wells up inside of me and I have to compose myself.
As I say, it happened again yesterday. During our recent road trips, I've been reading Andrea Mitchell's fine memoir, Talking Back. Yesterday, I came to Mitchell's narrative of Ronald Reagan's moving tribute to those who lost their lives on D-Day, June 6, 1944. It was, writes Mitchell, one of the few times in her journalistic career when she had allowed herself to take off the necessary lens of reportorial observer in order to feel the event she was covering. I wasn't expecting to be so moved by what she wrote:
Whatever your feelings about the current war in Iraq or any of the wars our nation has fought since World War II, the necessity of which almost nobody I've known has ever questioned, every military person in our country's conflicts has done so from a sense of duty to us. This Memorial Day, be thankful for such people.
[You might also want to read this.]
Not always. When our kids were young, I read all seven volumes of The Chronicles of Narnia during a family trip to and from Walt Disney World. And one year, I read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.
I remember that when reading the seventh of the Narnian books, The Last Battle, the most sublime writing I have ever read, I had to stop more than once. I was overcome with emotion by the beauty of Lewis' description of the "new Narnia," a fictional representation of the "new heaven and the new earth" all believers in Jesus Christ will one day experience.
And there were times when I read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever that I had to stop: first, from laughing so hard at the antics of the Herdmann kids and then, from getting misty over their understanding of what Christmas is really about.
Through the years, there have been books that have often caused me to choke up and stop to regain my composure. They're the onese that describe or allude to the D-Day landings on June 6, 1944, when the largest amphibious force in history began the liberation of Europe from the tyranny of Nazism. It happened to me the first time when I read Stephen Ambrose's biography of Dwight Eisehnower and later, while reading Ambrose's book Citizen Soldier.
Every time I think of those young soldiers and paratroopers assaulting the beaches of Normandy, facing almost certain death--similar in some ways to the Union soldiers depicted in the Civil War epic, Glory--I get weepy. Gratitude wells up inside of me and I have to compose myself.
As I say, it happened again yesterday. During our recent road trips, I've been reading Andrea Mitchell's fine memoir, Talking Back. Yesterday, I came to Mitchell's narrative of Ronald Reagan's moving tribute to those who lost their lives on D-Day, June 6, 1944. It was, writes Mitchell, one of the few times in her journalistic career when she had allowed herself to take off the necessary lens of reportorial observer in order to feel the event she was covering. I wasn't expecting to be so moved by what she wrote:
The summer of 1984 marked the fortieth anniversary of the Normandy invasion and my first trip to cover the commemoration of D-Day. With American and Allied veterans gathered on a promontory over Omaha Beach, Ronald Reagan delivered one of the most poetic and powerful speeches of his presidency, written by his elegiac speechwriter, Peggy Noonan. As Reagan described the daunting feat of the Army Rangers who had climbed the cliffs in a hail of gunfire, he gazed at the aging veterans assembled in front of him and said, "These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc." The words were largely Peggy's, but in Reagan's unique way, he gave them life. In that one speech re-created the past, celebrated the present, and memorialized the achievements of the D-Day veterans for all future time.It hit me again as I read that passage. I had to stop. "That gets me every time," I told my wife.
Whatever your feelings about the current war in Iraq or any of the wars our nation has fought since World War II, the necessity of which almost nobody I've known has ever questioned, every military person in our country's conflicts has done so from a sense of duty to us. This Memorial Day, be thankful for such people.
[You might also want to read this.]
Sunday, May 27, 2007
How to Fill the Church Every Week!
[This message was shared during worship celebrations with the people of Friendship Lutheran Church, Amelia, Ohio (near Cincinnati), on May 26 and 27, 2007. If you live in or are visiting the Cincinnati area, you're invited to worship with us any time.]
Acts 2:1-21
A few years ago, somewhere in the Upper Midwest, a disturbed man heard a Pentecost sermon about the need for the Church to be on fire for Jesus Christ. He decided that a fire was just what his church needed to attract people to Christ. So, he torched the church building, burning it to the ground. After the firefighters had come to battle the flames and much of the town showed up to watch the unfolding disaster, somebody from the congregation commented, “This is the best attendance we’ve had in years!”
On this Pentecost Sunday, I want to tell you that the best way for a church to attract people to Christ is for the whole church to be on fire. But that definitely doesn't entail barbecuing church buildings! It means something altogether different.
We see something of what it means in the life and words of a man named Charles Spurgeon. The simple sermons of this nineteenth century English preacher attracted thousands of people to his church. People wondered why. What was his gimmick or his secret? Spurgeon’s answer to such questions was as simple as his preaching: “God sets me on fire and people come to watch me burn.”
Last week, one leader of our congregation commented, “There’s no reason why every seat in our sanctuary shouldn’t be filled every week.” Now, we don’t live in nineteenth century England. In this age of...
We have so many distractions, in fact, that it's easy to lose sight of what's of fundamental importance in life. We forget God and we allow all our modern conveniences--what I call the crutches of our denial--to delude us into thinking we don't need God!
I was reminded of this a number of years ago when my first bishop, Reg Holle, told a group of us about his experience preaching and ministering on a trip he took to Namibia, in southwestern Africa. He arrived early one Sunday morning for worship with a Lutheran congregation in a remote Namibian village. "Bishop Holle," one of the church members told him, "when you preach today, don't give an American sermon!" Bishop Holle wondered what the man meant by "an American sermon." The member explained that some months before, another American preacher had come to their church and only preached for twenty minutes. They expected no less than an hour-and-a-half of preaching of God's Word when they gathered!
Bishop Holle was stunned by the dedication to Christ and the Church he observed in these Namibian Lutherans. Many of them walked by foot some two hours over dusty roads in order to arrive for a worship celebration that often lasted four-hours. They filled the simple building where they worshiped with their bodies and their praises of God! Afterward, they walked the two hours back to their homes. We're so distracted that, God forbid, on Super Bowl Sunday, no preacher dares to eat into people viewing the hours and hours of coverage given to that game on TV!
Where are our priorities?
Where is the fire of the Holy Spirit?
It sometimes seems that our lives here in America are too full to let God in for more than an hour a week, that we're too busy to be on fire for the Holy Spirit.
But I believe that that Friendship leader was right. Every seat in this sanctuary should be filled with people every week...even on Memorial Day weekend.
How can that happen?
Our Bible lesson for today, recounting the events of the first Christian Pentecost, when the Church was born, may help to answer that question.
But first, a little background. Even before the events in our lesson happened, Pentecost was an important holiday on the Jewish calendar. It was a harvest festival that fell fifty days after the Sabbath that came during the Passover. As with other Jewish festivals, pious Jews from all over the Mediterranean basin tried to get to Jerusalem for the Pentecost celebration. Many were in Jerusalem on this particular Pentecost. It came fifty days after Jesus rose from the dead and ten days after He ascended to heaven. In the events of that first Pentecost Sunday, I find many principles showing us how every seat in this sanctuary can be filled every time we gather for worship. But today, I want to talk about just one. One single principle that can change our lives, giving us purpose. One single principle that can transform Friendship Church.
It’s this: We let the Holy Spirit set our whole congregation on fire for Christ.
We let the Holy Spirit fashion our willingness to trust God into living faith.
We put ourselves at God’s disposal and let His Spirit work in and through us.
The first followers of Jesus were a lot like you and me, except that they were a lot poorer than us. But, like us, they were ordinary people. Most weren’t from the highest rungs of society. They weren't people of great influence.
On top of that, they were afraid. They’d taken the risk of following Jesus only to see Him brutally beaten and executed. Both the religious authorities and the government had opposed Jesus and promised to make life unpleasant for anyone who spoke a good word for Him.
And yet, just before He ascended to heaven, the risen Jesus told these fearful people to wait for the coming of His Holy Spirit. The Spirit, Jesus told them, would make it possible for them to tell people that if they turn from sin and trust in Jesus, they will be given new lives with God forever.
The crazy thing is that these first Jesus-Followers believed Him. They gathered together and waited for the Holy Spirit to come to them. The Spirit, our Bible lesson tells us, showed up like tongues of fire filling each believer. Their speech was inspired by the Spirit. And all of them hit the Jerusalem streets to tell people the message of new life through Jesus Christ!
This same miracle can happen in and through us, too. We can share Christ's love boldly and humbly if we will dare to want to do it!
I have seen this happen in believers in Christ in my own lifetime. I've seen people set on fire by the Holy Spirit share their faith with others! A few examples...
Years ago, I taught the Witnesses for Christ class on intentional witnessing, created by Pastor Ed Markquart, to groups of folks from all three of our area Lutheran congregations --Friendship, All Saints, and Resurrection. As I told those who recently took the class here at Friendship, I told those groups that not only has Jesus commanded all of us to be His witnesses, the Holy Spirit has also given us the power to be His witnesses. We simply need to be willing to witness.
Not everybody believed me when I said that. One man in the class--we’ll call him John--was a quiet person. “I never want to witness,” John told me at the outset of the class. “But for some reason, I felt like I should be here.” Back then, when I taught the course, I did the full ten weeks of material. Along about the seventh week, John showed up and with a tentative smile on his face, said, “I think I witnessed this past week.” He told me about a conversation he’d had with a coworker. Listening to her problems empathetically, he shared the comfort, hope, and peace he got from relying on Christ. After years of thinking he could never be a witness for Christ, he realized that, like the first Christians on the first Pentecost, he simply needed to let the Spirit set him on fire.
Another true story...
A friend of my family when I was growing up--we’ll call him Bob--came to faith in Jesus Christ when he was in his late-40s. This was a great surprise to us. Even though Bob didn’t feel he could do it, he volunteered to be part of a group of people who went into their neighborhood and invited people to worship. One man Bob visited proved to be especially receptive to learning more about Christ and the Church. Bob couldn’t believe it when he found himself witnessing, telling this elderly man, who had never had any connection to Christ or the Church, about how Jesus could change his life. Long story short, the man Bob visited became a follower of Christ. Several years later, Bob died suddenly. I’ll never forget the moment at the end of the funeral when the man to whom Bob witnessed approached Bob’s casket. Even in his posture, you could see the many emotions felt by that man. Among them, grief, of course. But also, gratitude. He was grateful that Bob had shared the Good News of Christ with him!
One other true story--one some of you have heard before--has to do with someone whose name I can use, that of my son, Philip. When Phil was in the first grade, we were living at our former parish and about to have a Friend Day in the fall. We were encouraging our members to invite their non-churchgoing friends to worship with us. Philip asked me if it would be okay if he invited someone from his school, a boy who didn’t go to church. He did that. At first, only the boy and his little sister came to worship and Sunday School. Later, his mom came with them. That was pretty much where things stood when we moved here to start Friendship. But sometime later, we learned that because his whole family was going to church, the dad thought it might be a good idea if he did, too. Being Roman Catholic by background, he asked his wife and kids if it were okay if they started going to the local Catholic church. The wife and kids were thrilled to say yes. A few months later, the wife, the son, and the daughter, who had never previously had any connection to Christ and the Church, were baptized!
On that first Pentecost Sunday, after Christians shared the Good News of Jesus and Peter preached a simple message, three-thousand people begged to be baptized. The power of the Holy Spirit set those first Christians on fire!
For two-thousand years now, the Holy Spirit has been using ordinary believers like John, Bob, and Philip, on fire for Christ, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Even today, the flame of belief in Christ is spreading like a wildfire. On any Sunday, around the world tens of thousands of people are being baptized. And on any Sunday around the world tens of hundreds of new congregations are being started...and we need more of them!
The Bible teaches that every believer in Jesus Christ has the Holy Spirit as their companion. That means that every one of us can share Christ...
The bottom line: Friendship, like every other church in the world, has the power to grow so that every time we gather for worship, every seat is filled. Every time we gather for worship, every seat should be filled. That will happen when we let God set our lives on fire for Christ and let the world around us see the light of Christ burning in us!
[THANKS TO: Eric Jones, filling in for Andrew Jackson at Smart Christian, for linking to this post.]
Acts 2:1-21
A few years ago, somewhere in the Upper Midwest, a disturbed man heard a Pentecost sermon about the need for the Church to be on fire for Jesus Christ. He decided that a fire was just what his church needed to attract people to Christ. So, he torched the church building, burning it to the ground. After the firefighters had come to battle the flames and much of the town showed up to watch the unfolding disaster, somebody from the congregation commented, “This is the best attendance we’ve had in years!”
On this Pentecost Sunday, I want to tell you that the best way for a church to attract people to Christ is for the whole church to be on fire. But that definitely doesn't entail barbecuing church buildings! It means something altogether different.
We see something of what it means in the life and words of a man named Charles Spurgeon. The simple sermons of this nineteenth century English preacher attracted thousands of people to his church. People wondered why. What was his gimmick or his secret? Spurgeon’s answer to such questions was as simple as his preaching: “God sets me on fire and people come to watch me burn.”
Last week, one leader of our congregation commented, “There’s no reason why every seat in our sanctuary shouldn’t be filled every week.” Now, we don’t live in nineteenth century England. In this age of...
the Internet,people’s interest in seeing and hearing a simple preacher burn for God may be minimal.
video games,
DVDs,
outdoor shopping malls,
Interstate highways,
$89 round trip airline specials for your favorite getaway destination, and
three-day weekends...
We have so many distractions, in fact, that it's easy to lose sight of what's of fundamental importance in life. We forget God and we allow all our modern conveniences--what I call the crutches of our denial--to delude us into thinking we don't need God!
I was reminded of this a number of years ago when my first bishop, Reg Holle, told a group of us about his experience preaching and ministering on a trip he took to Namibia, in southwestern Africa. He arrived early one Sunday morning for worship with a Lutheran congregation in a remote Namibian village. "Bishop Holle," one of the church members told him, "when you preach today, don't give an American sermon!" Bishop Holle wondered what the man meant by "an American sermon." The member explained that some months before, another American preacher had come to their church and only preached for twenty minutes. They expected no less than an hour-and-a-half of preaching of God's Word when they gathered!
Bishop Holle was stunned by the dedication to Christ and the Church he observed in these Namibian Lutherans. Many of them walked by foot some two hours over dusty roads in order to arrive for a worship celebration that often lasted four-hours. They filled the simple building where they worshiped with their bodies and their praises of God! Afterward, they walked the two hours back to their homes. We're so distracted that, God forbid, on Super Bowl Sunday, no preacher dares to eat into people viewing the hours and hours of coverage given to that game on TV!
Where are our priorities?
Where is the fire of the Holy Spirit?
It sometimes seems that our lives here in America are too full to let God in for more than an hour a week, that we're too busy to be on fire for the Holy Spirit.
But I believe that that Friendship leader was right. Every seat in this sanctuary should be filled with people every week...even on Memorial Day weekend.
How can that happen?
Our Bible lesson for today, recounting the events of the first Christian Pentecost, when the Church was born, may help to answer that question.
But first, a little background. Even before the events in our lesson happened, Pentecost was an important holiday on the Jewish calendar. It was a harvest festival that fell fifty days after the Sabbath that came during the Passover. As with other Jewish festivals, pious Jews from all over the Mediterranean basin tried to get to Jerusalem for the Pentecost celebration. Many were in Jerusalem on this particular Pentecost. It came fifty days after Jesus rose from the dead and ten days after He ascended to heaven. In the events of that first Pentecost Sunday, I find many principles showing us how every seat in this sanctuary can be filled every time we gather for worship. But today, I want to talk about just one. One single principle that can change our lives, giving us purpose. One single principle that can transform Friendship Church.
It’s this: We let the Holy Spirit set our whole congregation on fire for Christ.
We let the Holy Spirit fashion our willingness to trust God into living faith.
We put ourselves at God’s disposal and let His Spirit work in and through us.
The first followers of Jesus were a lot like you and me, except that they were a lot poorer than us. But, like us, they were ordinary people. Most weren’t from the highest rungs of society. They weren't people of great influence.
On top of that, they were afraid. They’d taken the risk of following Jesus only to see Him brutally beaten and executed. Both the religious authorities and the government had opposed Jesus and promised to make life unpleasant for anyone who spoke a good word for Him.
And yet, just before He ascended to heaven, the risen Jesus told these fearful people to wait for the coming of His Holy Spirit. The Spirit, Jesus told them, would make it possible for them to tell people that if they turn from sin and trust in Jesus, they will be given new lives with God forever.
The crazy thing is that these first Jesus-Followers believed Him. They gathered together and waited for the Holy Spirit to come to them. The Spirit, our Bible lesson tells us, showed up like tongues of fire filling each believer. Their speech was inspired by the Spirit. And all of them hit the Jerusalem streets to tell people the message of new life through Jesus Christ!
This same miracle can happen in and through us, too. We can share Christ's love boldly and humbly if we will dare to want to do it!
I have seen this happen in believers in Christ in my own lifetime. I've seen people set on fire by the Holy Spirit share their faith with others! A few examples...
Years ago, I taught the Witnesses for Christ class on intentional witnessing, created by Pastor Ed Markquart, to groups of folks from all three of our area Lutheran congregations --Friendship, All Saints, and Resurrection. As I told those who recently took the class here at Friendship, I told those groups that not only has Jesus commanded all of us to be His witnesses, the Holy Spirit has also given us the power to be His witnesses. We simply need to be willing to witness.
Not everybody believed me when I said that. One man in the class--we’ll call him John--was a quiet person. “I never want to witness,” John told me at the outset of the class. “But for some reason, I felt like I should be here.” Back then, when I taught the course, I did the full ten weeks of material. Along about the seventh week, John showed up and with a tentative smile on his face, said, “I think I witnessed this past week.” He told me about a conversation he’d had with a coworker. Listening to her problems empathetically, he shared the comfort, hope, and peace he got from relying on Christ. After years of thinking he could never be a witness for Christ, he realized that, like the first Christians on the first Pentecost, he simply needed to let the Spirit set him on fire.
Another true story...
A friend of my family when I was growing up--we’ll call him Bob--came to faith in Jesus Christ when he was in his late-40s. This was a great surprise to us. Even though Bob didn’t feel he could do it, he volunteered to be part of a group of people who went into their neighborhood and invited people to worship. One man Bob visited proved to be especially receptive to learning more about Christ and the Church. Bob couldn’t believe it when he found himself witnessing, telling this elderly man, who had never had any connection to Christ or the Church, about how Jesus could change his life. Long story short, the man Bob visited became a follower of Christ. Several years later, Bob died suddenly. I’ll never forget the moment at the end of the funeral when the man to whom Bob witnessed approached Bob’s casket. Even in his posture, you could see the many emotions felt by that man. Among them, grief, of course. But also, gratitude. He was grateful that Bob had shared the Good News of Christ with him!
One other true story--one some of you have heard before--has to do with someone whose name I can use, that of my son, Philip. When Phil was in the first grade, we were living at our former parish and about to have a Friend Day in the fall. We were encouraging our members to invite their non-churchgoing friends to worship with us. Philip asked me if it would be okay if he invited someone from his school, a boy who didn’t go to church. He did that. At first, only the boy and his little sister came to worship and Sunday School. Later, his mom came with them. That was pretty much where things stood when we moved here to start Friendship. But sometime later, we learned that because his whole family was going to church, the dad thought it might be a good idea if he did, too. Being Roman Catholic by background, he asked his wife and kids if it were okay if they started going to the local Catholic church. The wife and kids were thrilled to say yes. A few months later, the wife, the son, and the daughter, who had never previously had any connection to Christ and the Church, were baptized!
On that first Pentecost Sunday, after Christians shared the Good News of Jesus and Peter preached a simple message, three-thousand people begged to be baptized. The power of the Holy Spirit set those first Christians on fire!
For two-thousand years now, the Holy Spirit has been using ordinary believers like John, Bob, and Philip, on fire for Christ, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Even today, the flame of belief in Christ is spreading like a wildfire. On any Sunday, around the world tens of thousands of people are being baptized. And on any Sunday around the world tens of hundreds of new congregations are being started...and we need more of them!
The Bible teaches that every believer in Jesus Christ has the Holy Spirit as their companion. That means that every one of us can share Christ...
- You don’t have to be a preacher.
- You don’t have to be an adult.
- You don’t have to know all the answers or have the Bible memorized.
- You don’t even have to go through the Witnesses for Christ training, although it will give you good tools for sharing your faith if you do take it the next time the class is offered.
The bottom line: Friendship, like every other church in the world, has the power to grow so that every time we gather for worship, every seat is filled. Every time we gather for worship, every seat should be filled. That will happen when we let God set our lives on fire for Christ and let the world around us see the light of Christ burning in us!
[THANKS TO: Eric Jones, filling in for Andrew Jackson at Smart Christian, for linking to this post.]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)