Category Archives: Church

What is God calling us to?

20 Friday Oct 2017

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This is the key question that many churches ask – or are supposed to ask.  There’s been a ton written about this question and the potential answers that come back.

Here’s another question that is just as important – Who is God calling us to communicate with?  Who is God calling be to a part of our community in the future?  Who is God moving into our lives and our lives into their lives?

But let’s be clear about this – it’s a fun question to consider, but also very dangerous.  It’s not about who is God calling to become just like us.  We aren’t called to reach out to others and make them just like us.  Every time someone new enters a community, that community changes, like a pebble creating ripples in the water.

Who is God calling on us to communicate with and share Good News with?  And how is God calling us to change to reach these people?

When God calls us to something new, there will be change.  There will be uncertainty.  There will be leaving something behind.

But there will also life.  There will be discipleship and letting go.  There will be Jesus.

Before the next Las Vegas

03 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by in Church, Society

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Before the next Las Vegas happens, and it will, can we be honest with each other for just a moment or possibly longer?

I’m going to take that as a yes.

I’m sickened by these shootings.  I’m also sickened by all the distractions that we pay attention to and claim are important, but really aren’t.  Are you?

I’m tired of responding.  If all we ever do is respond, we’ll never lead and offer an alternative.  We’ll be too busy responding to each violent action that happens.  And it will never change.

I refuse to be afraid.  Afraid of death, afraid of ridicule, afraid of having someone being upset with me over something I say or write.

This is the time for the church to be church.  To stop being a social club and to start living out the mission that Jesus sent us out on.

The culture has stopped giving preference to the church.  And that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned.  We don’t end up with cheap membership that way – a whole bunch of people who come to church, but refuse to be church.

What does it mean to be church, especially in the age of mass shootings and terror?  It means that we tell the truth – that many humans are violent and destructive when left to their own device.  It means we offer confession and forgiveness.  We can’t shy away from sin.  It is real, just like evil.  Sin is a broken relationship, or rather many broken relationships.  And these breaks aren’t just metaphorical – they are real.  They rear their ugly head in yelling and screaming, in abuse, in violence, in manipulation, in addiction, and in death.  These are very real in our society and in the world.

To be church doesn’t mean we go around pointing the finger of blame.  It means that we offer the gift of forgiveness and a changing life and world.

Being church doesn’t mean we focus our effort on making the bad good, but rather on showing how Jesus brings the dead to life.  If Jesus is just a nice guy who had nice things to say, then he’s no different from any other guru who walked the face of the earth and hawks a book on self-help.  But that’s not who Jesus is and it’s not who the church worships.

The church is a beacon of light in the midst of darkness.  The church offers a message of hope in a hopeless world that would rather point the finger of blame, throw money or legislation at the problem as the sole solution, and then distract people from the pain they are experiencing.  There’s another Tweet or celebrity break up or sporting event to talk about don’t you know.

Here’s something else – the church exists to point out the reality of pain and suffering, not change the subject.  Forcing us to deal with the pain and suffering and death is a gift that this society doesn’t appreciate, but people desperately need.

We see this in every funeral.  As a pastor, part of what I am called to do is point out the reality of death in our midst.  The body is right there in front of us – either in a coffin or in an urn.  The person hasn’t been whisked away to a magical place.  No, they are right there in front of us.  Death is real.  It’s painful for those who are looking at it in the face.  It sucks.  And we shouldn’t distract ourselves from that either.  We should look at death in the face and be uncomfortable by it.

Because it is in being really uncomfortable that we finally let the walls that protect us from reality down – the walls we build around our hearts and ears.  We are finally ready to hear that death is there and that at some point death is coming for us and will get us.  It’s at this point that we can admit that death scares many of us.  It feels so final.

It’s when we are most uncomfortable, most hurting, most suffering in life that we know the reality of death.  And that’s not the end of the story.  God is the end of the story.  God’s promise of resurrection is the rest of the story.  The amazing power of God isn’t the miracles we experience throughout our lives – although they are amazing.  No, rather, I argue that the most amazing thing is resurrection – bringing the dead back to life.  Not just picking up where we left off, but rather in a renewed life where death will be no more because death does not have the final say.

The church has a message that is truly transformative – that an encounter with Jesus changes lives.  That an encounter with Jesus means the dead will be brought to life.  That an encounter with Jesus means that the status quo isn’t satisfactory any more – Jesus presents an alternative.

Church, now is the time, if ever there was a time, for us to be church.  To claim the mantle of sinner and saint.  To live lives of confession and forgiveness.  To proclaim the reality around us and the alternative that God is unfolding before us.  To do all this in the midst of the chaos of sin and death.

God is changing our lives as we speak.  Are we going to respond in doubt because we can’t see it and so we don’t live out this faith that is given to us because we just aren’t sure?  Are we going to respond in doubt because God isn’t doing it the way we would prefer and because God is messing up our comfortable lives?  Or are we going to respond in trust, not knowing what the path forward will look like, but knowing full well that God’s unfolding reality is far better than the alternative that this world offers?

Are we going to respond by trying to be safe?  Or are we going to risk it all?  The safe choice leads to more of the same.  It leads to certain death.  The risky response means we recognize we aren’t in control.  That God has a mission for us.  And that it is costly.  We’ll experience death – death of control, death of certainty, death of egotism, death of safety, death of more.  But in those deaths, Jesus will bring new life – life so much better than anything we try to hold onto.  Life in the Spirit, life in love, life in community, life in forgiveness, life in mercy, life in grace, life in care, life in peace.  Life.

God promised life.  God invites us to participate in that life.  How will you respond?

The church is like…

27 Wednesday Sep 2017

Posted by in Church, Theology

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How would you answer the question – The church is like…?  I’ve heard a variety of answers for this question.  I think the answers reveal a great deal about the person and the church they are a part of.

There’s two answers that I want to highlight though today.

The church is like a family.  The church is like a community.

These sound the same, but I argue that they are two different answers that convey two different sets of ideas.  Neither one is better than the other.  But the answer to the question has consequences.

If the answer is that the church is like a family, then here are some things to consider – how big is a family?  Usually smaller than other groups of people.  Is it easy to become part of a family?  Not really – you usually have to either be born into a family or marry into one.  A family also has some very positive things – strong relationships, sticking together through thick and thin, coming through for one another in a time of crisis.

If the answer is that the church is like a community, then consider some things.  How big is a community? If depends.  It could be small or large.  In a community, it is relatively easier to join in, but also to leave.  Some strengths of community is that a community is typically made up of many different families – but it is where people come together for a common purpose.  And the amazing thing is that they come together willingly.

There are positives and negatives to both of these answers.  Which is why the right answer is probably that the church is both a family and community.  Sometimes a church leans in on its family nature more than its community nature. And other times it sways the other way.  The challenge is for the church to take the positives from both and weave them together to carry out the mission of the church.

How lives get changed

12 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by in Church, Health, Humanity, Politics, Society, Theology

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Yesterday I watched this video and you should too!

It’s a TED talk from the Mayor of Albuquerque on how the city is successfully dealing with homelessness and panhandling.

Mayor Richard J. Berry is doing the right things – empowering people, tapping into people’s value, treating people like human beings, and the results are impressive – huge reductions in homelessness, and getting people the help they need for drug and alcohol problems.  Go figure that when you actually treat people like people, then lives improve.

Even though this is a government initiative, it sounds like the Gospel message in which people’s lives are changed.  Yes, the Mayor doesn’t actually say anything Christian, but if he isn’t living out the Gospel with his “Better Way” program, then I’m not sure how you could.

Imagine if we took this same attitude to other cities.  Imagine if churches took this same attitude with their own ministries.  Imagine how lives could change if we actually took people at face value, we tapped into their value, we connected them with services that can work with them on challenges, we built relationships with people, and treated people as people who have potential for so much more.  Add in a Gospel message in which grace, mercy, love, peace, and forgiveness abound, and you’ve got yourself the makings of something incredible that people would want to be a part of.  Not because it would be really cool and cutting edge, but because it would be a message and activity that people desperately needed to hear and experience.  And once you have that – look out.  Lives would be changing.

Jesus on dealing with difficult people

11 Monday Sep 2017

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Here’s the Gospel reading from this past Sunday:

15 ‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. 16But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. 18Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’

(Source – Matthew 18:15-20, NRSV)

First let me say, I’m not crazy about this translation.  When you look at the Greek, you wouldn’t translated the world adelphos as member of the church like the NRSV does.  Instead brother or sister is more accurate. The point is that this is someone close that Jesus talking about – someone with which the disciples would have had a long-term, on going interaction/relationship with.

Secondly, the term for sin needs some clarification.  The term here is translated as sin, as in missing the mark, bad action, etc.  However, it’s a bit off of what Jesus probably would have understood as sin – the same could be said for Paul and other Jewish Christians of the time.  In Hebrew, there are nine words for sin – six of which are nouns and three are verbs.  And the vast majority of the usage is with a noun.  The focus of sin is the broken relationship, the turning away from another/God, revolt, wandering, etc.  It’s about a state of being.

That’s all the foundation of what’s going on in this passage.

So what does it mean when it comes to dealing with difficult people?  First, Jesus isn’t saying put on rose-colored glasses and walk into something that is going to go bad all on your own.  Jesus is emphasizing the importance of community – close-knit community.

Secondly, taken out of context, this passage of Scripture looks like Jesus just made a check list of actions to take followed by the endorsement of casting someone out at the end if they just won’t listen.  The problem with that is this is not what Jesus is saying because that would contradict everything we know about Jesus.

How many times did Jesus eat with tax collectors?  Tough to say exactly.  We all know the story of Zacchaeus – Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’ house.  Jesus called Matthew, a tax collector to be one of the 12.  Jesus wasn’t taking the typical approach towards tax collectors.  Instead what Jesus is saying is that love knows no bounds.  If a person who is in a long-term tight-knit community has a broken relationship with others within that community and they won’t listen to correction, Jesus is saying continue to offer love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness, just as you would a Gentile or tax collector.

In other words, the point is not to let the other person dictate how we respond to them.  Because we had a broken relationship with God, yet Jesus radically reorients us towards God again, we are called on to offer grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness to others who are close to us – even those that are close and have hurt us.  Jesus invited many into his close-knit community.  The response varied.  We invite people to be closer, but we can’t control how they respond.

In the next section of Matthew 18, we’ll hear Peter ask how many times we are to forgive someone who breaks a relationship with us – seven times Peter asks.  No Jesus says – 77 times.  In other words, we keep offering.  Always moving towards others.  That’s what love does – it brings people together and moves them in the direction of one another.

 

Death

06 Wednesday Sep 2017

Posted by in Church, Humanity, Theology

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It’s a subject most people don’t like to talk about.  We live in a culture that has a difficult time even saying the word.  We’d rather avoid it and say “passed away” or “fell asleep.”  Yet, it is the one thing in life we’ll all face.

Death is inevitable.  Yet, we don’t know the day or the time.

Our culture has a weird relationship with death.  When we see death in entertainment, we don’t shudder or fear it.  Is that because in entertainment, we know it is fake?  The actor will just get up and go on with life?  I wonder what kind of effect this has on how we deal with death.  Does it cheapen death or push the reality of death even farther away from us?

Yet death is inevitable.

But it doesn’t have the final say.  God has made sure of that and made a promise to us that death does not have the final say.

On Sunday I spoke about why we say the creed.  There are many reasons to say the creed in worship, but I focused on one reason.  During a funeral, you have a body – a dead body or the ashes of a dead body present.  Death is there – very present.  The people who show up to pay their respects have to deal with death.  There is no escape, there is no way to distract from the reality of death.  And it is at this very moment when the promises of the creed become very relevant – the promise of the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.  We say the creed in church in preparation for times when it might be difficult to belief what we claim.  Yet, the promise is there.

Death is inevitable, but the promise of God is sacred.  And God doesn’t ever fall back on God’s word.  That is a certainty.

We may not know the time or the means, but we have the promise.  The promise that we will not be forgotten.  The promise that death will not have the final say.  The promise that God will resurrect and restore life and all of creation.  The promise that God wins.

 

How not to read the Bible

01 Friday Sep 2017

Posted by in Church, Politics, Theology

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I was going to write a nice long piece on how to read the Bible.  Then I read this.  And it was good.  And I would encourage you to read the post.  The author suggests several important elements to reading the Bible.

And then I read this wonderful article by Brian Zahnd and found this gem of a quote:

If we suggest to serious-minded, good-hearted people that the Bible is a word-for-word, verse-by-verse perfect revelation of God and God’s will, thoughtful readers will eventually run into some serious problems. At that point the Bible, instead of being a nourishment for Christian faith, can become a deadly toxin to Christian faith.

Oh so true, Brian!  Oh so true.

The other day while I was driving, I scanned through the radio and stopped on a “Christian” radio station.  Two guys that I presume were pastors of independent churches were having a conversation about the Bible.  I stopped scanning to listen.  It went downhill pretty quickly.  I started yelling my usual “It doesn’t say that…” at the radio when they started making claims that the only way that Christianity can be saved is through the preservation of certain American attributes and ways of living.  Yes, they were equating America as essential to the survival of Christianity. I can’t make this stuff us.

Why not throw in an endorsement for a political party and leader on top of it just for good measure?  Since when did Christianity’s survival rely on human made political arrangements?  Yes, even American ones.

Maybe the people on the radio missed this past Sunday’s Gospel lesson in which Jesus asks Peter – “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter responds by saying, “You are the Messiah, Son of the living God.”  (Matthew 16:15-16) Peter didn’t say, “you are Jesus, but our faith is really in the nation and certain political leaders.  Don’t worry Jesus, they have your back.”  Maybe that version is in another book – say Wisdom of Sham where Jesus gives his Polititudes.  Most of the Polititudes start off with Blessed are the politicians, for they shall save everyone, not Jesus.  You know, good wholesome stuff that Jesus never said.

Maybe the guys on the radio aren’t aware of this coming Sunday’s Gospel reading in which Jesus says “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24)  I don’t see anywhere in that verse where Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny the basic foundation of following me and take up the platform of a partisan political ideology and follow it.”

It’s becoming a lot easier these days to hear really bad theology for what it is.  When the Bible is used as a political tool, that’s bad theology.  That’s a poor reading of the Bible.  When the Bible is used as a support for a nation, then that’s bad theology.  It places the nation as the foundation and the Bible as a mere support of that foundation.  It’s mixing something human-made with something divinely inspired.  No where in the Bible is America.  Or our partisan political parties.  Or our Constitution.  They aren’t divinely inspired.  People can debate how good the country is and what direction it is heading in – that’s fine.  But please don’t use the Bible as a political tool to advance your own beliefs.  That’s just poor theology.  We have enough really bad theology that is mass consumed already.  We don’t need to wrap it in the flag on top of it.

Who do you say that I am?

28 Monday Aug 2017

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This is the phrase taken from Sunday’s Gospel reading.  It’s Jesus asking the disciples the question – who do they say Jesus is?  Jesus wants to know – do they think of Jesus as just a nice guy who makes people feel good about themselves?  Do they think of Jesus as just another spiritual teacher?  Maybe Jesus is a prophet?  Or maybe they see Jesus as someone who has some good advice to give?

There’s hesitation in the answer – no one wants to answer.  But Peter makes the bold declaration – “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.”

Ut-oh.

I wonder if Peter even knew what he was doing when he said that.  If Jesus is Messiah, son of the living God, then there are consequences for that. If Jesus is just a nice guy with some wisdom to teach, there are consequences for that too.  It’s a lot easier to smile and nod and pretend to take in something that is said from a nice guy with good life advice.  You can’t do that though if we’re talking about God.

If Jesus is God, then that means Peter’s whole life is about to change.

This is what happens when Jesus encounters someone – lives change.

Jesus isn’t just asking Peter – “Who do you say that I am?”  He’s asking us this same question too.

What is our answer?  If our answer is similar to Peter’s then are we prepared for the consequences of the answer?  If Jesus is Messiah, then it impacts what we do.  It impacts our relationships.  It impacts our work.  And yes, it impacts our finances and our identities.  If Jesus is Messiah, son of the living God, then we can’t just cherry pick what Jesus says – we are called to live it out, we are called to imitate Jesus.

Jesus asks us – “Who do you say that I am?”

What’s your answer?

Battle of the sexes – church edition

24 Thursday Aug 2017

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Every so often I come across articles like this that argue that the church is becoming feminized!   Oh the horror!  We need to make it more masculine is the refrain.

Here’s the problem with this – it becomes a battle of the sexes.  It becomes focused on the differences between the sexes and ends up being a no-win argument in which people get ticked off and start pointing fingers at one another for why the church is in decline.

I just don’t see how this helps.

Is Christianity, at it core, masculine or feminine?  My radical answer is both and neither.

Where do I draw this from?  There are lots of places I could point to in the bible.  There’s Jesus describing God like a mothering hen.  There’s Paul talking about putting on the armor of God.  The list goes on and on.

But here’s the verse that matters for this discussion as far as I’m concerned.  It’s Paul’s letter to the Galatians (3:28) in which he writes: “In Christ there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female.  For you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Christianity is radical in the sense that it isn’t about moving a religion towards one sex or the other.  Rather, it’s about a radical inclusiveness that has no problems with both sexes as they are.  Christianity sees the sexes as a part of our deeper identity – God’s children.  That’s our primary identity.  That’s who we are.

Pretend to be a pastor…

24 Thursday Aug 2017

Posted by in Church, Travel

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…at the LWF Assembly.  One of the booths in the Assembly village gave visitors the opportunity to put a tab in their shirt and pose for a picture.

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I did just that with my friend David who I met during my time in Finland.  Considering that at the time of the picture I was just weeks away from being ordained, it was very timely – and as you can tell, we had fun too.