Category Archives: Theology

While I was away…

26 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by in Humanity, Politics, Theology

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We took a two-week vacation for the first time and returned back the middle of last week.  It was wonderful to get away.  It was a little disconcerting to come back though.  While away I only went through some social media notifications, but mostly just so I wouldn’t have a 1000 when I came back.  I didn’t read anything political or partisan – I didn’t want to.  I was on vacation.  I didn’t touch e-mail, even though I knew I would have a ton to go through.  I didn’t care though, I was on vacation.

Then we came back.   Going through e-mail I discovered that there was lots of chaos in the world.  Most of which I didn’t know about and didn’t want to know about.  Most of it was more than I cared to know about.

There also seemed to be a good deal of enraged people too.  Enraged over various things.  But I just couldn’t get enraged.

One thing I learned from this vacation is that when we start from a position of rage and anger, it is us that get burned…and tired…and exhausted…and irrational…and more.

Being enraged and angry all the time doesn’t help.  It doesn’t change anything.  Actually, it usually makes things worse.  That’s not to say we should just throw our hands up and surrender when we see or experience injustice.  Far from it.  From my experience an enraged response will get a reaction.  But it probably won’t be the one you want.  Unless you like anger and being enraged.

What I learned from vacation is that I need more silence and contemplation, not more news and data.  What will more news and data actually accomplish in my life?  Maybe more emotional responses.  It certainly won’t stop the chaos.  It only contributes to it.

I think that we don’t need more social media in the world.  Instead, how about more social contact – real contact – in person.  Or better yet – better social media and better social contact.

We need to start acting like what we want the world to be like, not just say “I’ll pray for you.”  Or wait for someone else to start.

If we are Christians we are each called to follow Jesus into this world and start living in a Christ-like manner.  We can start right now.  But only if we so choose.  Only if we decide to put the anger and rage aside.

Need a reminder of what this might look like – maybe start with the Beatitudes or the Sermon on the Mount.  Or Jesus’ admonition to visit the visit the sick and imprisoned, to feed the hungry, etc.  No where in the bible does it say to wait for someone else to do it, or for government to do it, or work to get certain politicians elected so they can do it, or call some non-profit so they can do it (all the while we complain at non-profit employees get paid because 100% of the donation isn’t going to “the cause.”  Never mind that without these dedicated people there would be no cause – they are doing the work of the cause, so stop complaining.  They don’t make enough.)

You want society to change, start living differently and actually impacting lives.  And take some time for silence.  We need silence in our lives.

Searching for Messiah

05 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by in Politics, Theology

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I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to make the statement that it appears that our society is in search of a messiah figure.  Too often that ends up being a search in the political realm of life – a search for a political and/or partisan messiah who will save the nation/party/etc.

I also don’t think that this is anything new.  We’ve actually been doing this for some time.  I remember when Obama got elected and all the adulation for him, with some going so far as to call him a messiah.

But this isn’t even an American sin.  Go back through history, the search for messiah and the foisting it on a human is ancient.  Emperors of old were considered gods sent to save their people.  But only their people. Everyone else is an outsider and doesn’t deserve saving supposedly.  And of course, that person died and then the search for a new messiah began.  It’s the story of human history.  And yet we think this time it will be different.

Maybe part of the reason we do this is because we don’t want to recognize that the Messiah looks far different from what we want.

The Messiah who saves us isn’t interested in nationalism or America first.  Just like the Messiah wasn’t interested in Israel first or any other nation first.  The Messiah didn’t come to save just a select few people – the Messiah came to save all of creation.

The Messiah who saves isn’t interested in advancing a political party in the 21st century.  At some point, all of these political parties and entities will die off and be replaced with some other sin-filled party or entity.  The Messiah isn’t interested in seizing and holding onto power, something that political parties and politicians live for.

Instead, Messiah has a different agenda.  It’s an agenda that calls us into a new relationship – a changed relationship.  A new relationship with one another, with God, with creation, with ourselves.

So often we want change, but we want those “other” people to change to be just like us. We love hearing the Gospel, but we think that a call for repentance is a call for other people to radically reorient, not us.  However, Messiah invites us to change as well.  How can anything else change is it doesn’t start by changing us, changing our hearts and minds, and then changing what we do and how we do it.

We don’t start this change, God does.  We do however have the ability to respond.  We have been given that by the Spirit who guides us to a new life and new relationships.  How will we respond – with fear? by setting aside God in favor of a god we choose who will be more concerned with power and separation?  Will we hear God’s call and follow, or will we decide that we think we know a better way – a failed way, a way that has been tried through most of human history?

I pray that this generation responds differently.  I pray that I have the courage to respond when God calls me to ways that the world thinks are insane – to respond with love, mercy, forgiveness, and peace.  That is the way of Messiah.

 

Ordination!

02 Friday Jun 2017

Posted by in Church, Family, Theology

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Today I will be ordained.  I’ve got a lot going through my mind because of this.

Ordination marks the end of one stage in life and the beginning of another.  I could go on about this, but I won’t.  Instead, I’m going to talk about something else – or rather a few something elses.

Ordination means that I’m different.  I have a new role to live out – pastor in a congregation.  Regardless of what I want, I’ll be seen differently.  The collar is a visible sign that a person is set aside for ministry.  That means I’ll be listening to many people’s stories and struggles.  I’ll get to experience the highest highs and the lowest lows with people.  I’ll force myself to love people who I might not otherwise love.  I’ll make mistakes and those mistakes will be public.  I’ll do my best to be true to preaching God’s word and offering the sacraments.  I’ll be seen as an example.  I’ll be seen as the one responsible – especially when something doesn’t work.

Ordination means I’m not different at all.  I haven’t changed because of ordination.  Actually, I’ve been changing as a person ever since I’ve been born.  Seminary puts that process in high gear.  Ordination though doesn’t change the person – it’s more of a public recognition of the changes that God has been working in a person.  But being ordained doesn’t mean I’m somehow more special or holy than other people – even if the collar gives people the thought that is the case.  I’m still me.  I still sin and screw up.  I still get mad and swear.  Still struggle with some relationships to people and systems.  And I’ll still need forgiveness, love, mercy, and friendship.

Ordination is many things.  As I go from this day forward I’ll find out what those things are first hand.  So will my family.  They have been along for this ride for some time now and are about to start a new phase in the journey.  They didn’t take a single seminary class, but they have been being prepared for this too.  They didn’t receive any credit for the classes, but they learned.  They didn’t research about the decline of the church in the world, but they came along with me to live in a foreign land and know what it means to be strangers and others.  They didn’t go into the church each day on internship or lead worship, but they came along with me to internship – sacrificing their lives for the sake of this calling – knowing first hand what it means to serve.  They didn’t walk with me on graduation day and receive a diploma, but they did the journey with me and received so much more from God – flexibility, adaptability, third culture, patience, listening skills, compassion, relationship skills, and grace.

This evening I’ll be the one receiving a stole and a laying on of hands.  That’s what ordination begins with.  But it will be my family’s hands that will lay on me in the difficult times – hands that will remind me of God’s unwavering love, grace, and forgiveness.  It will be my wife’s hands that will hold mine when I need them most.

Ordination is many things.  I can’t wait to see what God has in store for my ministry, for our family, and for St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church in New Kingstown, PA where God has called me to serve as pastor.

Let’s do this!

The next two weeks

05 Friday May 2017

Posted by in Church, Seminary, Theology, Travel

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A lot will happen starting Monday.  I’ll be part of a group from the seminary going to Namibia to attend the Lutheran World Federation Assembly.  We’ll be there about a week and a half.  Then we’ll return and two days after returning I’ll be graduating from Seminary.  All while this is going on, I’m in the call process with a congregation, and so soon after graduation, there is a possibility that I will be called as pastor.

That’s a great amount of change in a short period of time.

Yet, when I turn inward, I’m not sure what I feel about all of it.  I’m mixed about traveling.  I enjoy traveling.  I’m not thrilled with the long flight to get to Namibia though.  I’m sure once I’m there I’ll love it.

Part of the issue is that I’m in the process of finishing up my class work for the semester – so this has taken most of my attention.

I’m excited to graduate.  This was my fifth year of seminary.  That’s long enough.  It’s time to get out and get going and doind ministry.

I’m excited to complete the call process.  It’s gone great and I look forward to serving the church and God’s people.

I’ll see you on the other side.

What’s the point of war?

04 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in Politics, Society, Theology

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What is the point of war?  To win?  To show that “our” side is right?  To show that the other side is wrong or evil?  To defend our way of life?

To make peace?  How does that even work?  How does killing and causing destruction – things that are in complete opposition to peace – bring about peace?  Is peace just the absence of war?  Or is it a different way of living?

What is the point of war?  To make a profit? To reduce a population? To conquer? To destroy?  To show how masculine a country can be?  To show how much a leader is in charge?

What’s the point of war? To eradicate an enemy?  But why? What will have been accomplished?  Do we really think that nothing will take its place?  Do we really think that life will be better when the other side is eradicated?

What’s the point of war? To rally around the flag? To rally around the leader? To defend a set of values?

When is war necessary? When attacked? Prevention?

When do we know that it is time to end the war? And what happens to our relationship with those who were our enemies while we were at war?

What about nations that have gone out of existence?  What was the point of them going to war? To preserve their nation? But they are gone.  Was it worth it? What did it accomplish?

Rome, and many other empires built their very existance on war and crushing their enemies. It is how they brought peace to their rhelm.  Yet, they are all gone to the ashes of history. What was the point of it all?

Maybe, just maybe, there’s another way.  With a different set of answers and questions.  One that doesn’t rely on power struggles for things that will eventually fade away.

Aren’t you tired yet?

02 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Humanity, Theology

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Aren’t we tired?  Tired of war?  Tired of the mother of all bombs?  As if the mother of all bombs will actually bring peace.  It won’t.

Aren’t we tired of the killing.  Tired of the killing of a Muslim judge who was found a couple of weeks ago?  Killed because she was Muslim.  What was the point of killing this woman?

I’m tired of the irrationality.  I’m tired of knee-jerk judgements.  I’m tired of people being afraid and anxious.  I’m tired of people being upset at a whole group of people, just because. I’m tired of the scapegoating.  Aren’t you?

I’m tired of people being afraid of “others” without even knowing anyone who fits into the “other” group – ever, in your life.

Or anyone in any other group for that matter.

Get out.  Live a bit.  Travel.  Go to a foreign culture and spend time there.  Learn the language.  When you learn a foreign language in a foreign culture, you learn a great deal about other people.

Go to a religious service of another religion.  Do it just once.  Not to be converted or to convert someone, but simply for educational purposes. Do it see that these are human beings.

To see that these aren’t “others,” they are people, just like you and me.

I’m tired of people deciding that they are better than other people.  I’m tired of the dehumanization that goes on that makes it alright to kill other people.  We should have to tell the families of those we kill what we did.  We should tell the families of those we dehumanize what we are doing and why.  I imagine the killing and dehumanizing would end pretty quickly.  This should be a human law – applies to everyone.

Bigger bombs don’t get bigger results.  They just create more damage and death and anger and violence and revenge.  More of the same crap that humanity has been doing to each other since Cain killed Abel.  How long until we have an even bigger bomb?   And what’s the point?  So we can kill more of “them?”

Great.  Then they get mad and go after us and kill more of us.  Then we kill more of them.  Then they kill more of us.  Then we kill more of them.  Then they kill more of us.  Etc.

Anyone tired of this ride?  It’s insanity.  Literally.  Humanity has been doing this so long we think it’s normal.

I’m curious – if someone dropped a bomb on us, all in the name of getting rid of “bad guys”, how would we react?  How would we feel about that?

Oh that’s right, we’re the good guys.  Self-defined good guys…just like the people we kill.

Do you think we’d be all in support of it because this foreign power was going after what they are labeling as bad guys?  Or would we be at least a little worried that some foreign nation stepped all over our sovereignty to bomb our land with the mother of all bombs. How do you think we’d respond?

When will it end?  Aren’t we tired of doing this?  Aren’t we tired?

Why are we looking to fight North Korea?

01 Monday May 2017

Posted by in Politics, Theology

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This is a serious question that I don’t have an answer for.  Are we looking to puff our chest to show just how serious we are?  Are we the world’s police force?  Are we being provoked?  Are we trying to put Kim Jong Un in his place?  What place is that?

What do we gain from this little adventure?  Is the point to raise the polls at home?  A war usually has a good effect for that – time to rally round the flag and president.  Will that work if we end up in war this time?  Who knows?

Lots of questions.  I just don’t get it.  But then again, I’m not into seeking power.  I’m not into telling people what they “have to” do or “must do.”

Of course, I’m finishing up seminary and hope to be a pastor soon, but really, being a pastor isn’t about going around and telling people what they “have to” do.  I don’t/won’t have that kind of authority – ever.  Plus as a Lutheran, our focus is on what God is doing anyway.  We can’t do anything to bring about our own salvation.  We can’t even go and decide to accept Jesus.  We can respond to what God is doing in our lives, but we can’t initiate the relationship.

So what about international relations.  What would be Lutheran way of looking at these things?  I’m not sure actually.  Maybe it would be a different approach.  It probably wouldn’t sit well with people who think “America first!” Maybe it would involve grace and mercy.  Maybe it would involve wiping the dust off our shoes in relation to them.  Maybe it would be confrontational.

I don’t know.  I do know that our actions are raising a level of anxiety around the world when it comes to North Korea.  What they do seems to be predictable.  Tyrants have a way of being predictable – they do what keeps them in power.

Raising anxiety is not a good solution to the challenge.  Raising anxiety probably means we are trying too hard, that we are looking to save something.  Are we looking to be the savior of the planet?  Sorry, the job has already been taken.

Funeral in advance

28 Friday Apr 2017

Posted by in Society, Theology

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This week at the seminary was Academy Week – we get to hear several speakers come and talk about a variety of topics.  One of the speakers talked about Revelation and how it wasn’t about predicting the future so much as being written in opposition to the Roman empire – you know, the empire that was crushing people in the known world, that promoted the idea that peace came through crushing one’s enemies, and that everyone must bow and worship Rome.

At any rate, the speaker went on to tell us that a good part of Revelation is actually a funeral for Rome.  It’s the idea of insulting Rome by showing that if it continues on the path it is heading, it will lead to its own demise and death.  And so Revelation is a funeral pronouncement on Rome and everything that goes with it.  It’s also casting an alternative – the reign of God and everything that goes with it.

This got me thinking about the idea of writing a funeral in advance.  It’s a powerful notion.  The whole idea of writing a funeral in advance is a direct smack in the face of whoever/whatever the funeral is for.

It got me wondering, who or what would I write a funeral for in advance?

That’s not an easy question.

Maybe it would be for partisan politics.  The message would be that if partisan politics continues on its path, then it will inevitably lead to its own demise and death.  The power that parties seek will be the same power that crushes them.  But there is an alternative.

Maybe it would be materialism.  The message would be that if materialism continues on its path, then it will inevitably lead to its own demise and death.  The stuff that materialism seeks will finally just bury us alive.  But there is an alternative.

I think you get the idea.

What would you write a funeral in advance for?

What is church? part 2

27 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by in Church, Theology

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Yesterday I took a stab at the question of What is church?  I received some great comments from that post – both in person and online.  Thank you.

Today I saw a beer ad that I think pretty much sums up what church should be like.  It’s an ad for Heineken.  Instead of explaining it, click the link, and scroll down to the video, or you can watch the video directly here:

This is a powerful ad.  And I think very honest too – which makes it powerful.

I can attest to the fact that when you get people who would normally disagree with each other (or worse) to sit down and eat together or have a drink together, something happens.  Food and drinks have a way of leveling equalizing people.  They have a way to drawing people together.  They could have nothing else in common, but the mere fact that two people eat or drink together means that they do have something in common – basic humanity and the needs of living – food and drink.

Church should be like this.  I think there is precedent for this too.  Jesus ate his way through the Gospels.  He ate with Pharisees and with tax collectors and a whole host of other people.  One of most remembered moments is the Last Supper.  Jesus knew the power of bringing people together and sharing a meal with them.

I have pastor friends who have started dinner churches and speak about the amazing things that happen at these gatherings.

When I was in Finland, I used the analogy of going to a bar to describe what the liturgy was all about.  A friend at the University didn’t understand church and what went on, so I explained it this way – we came together looking forward to spending time together in this bar.  That’s the gathering section of the liturgy.  Then we’ve been talking about God and life.  That’s the Word section.  Now we are sharing some drinks and food together.  We don’t agree about everything, yet we’re able to be here together sharing food and enjoying each other’s company.  That’s the Meal portion.  From here we’ll leave looking forward to the next time we can gather.  That’s the Sending.

What we saw in the ad was the liturgy in a very practical form.  What they experienced was God’s grace and without the words being said – forgiveness.  They saw the humanity and the frailty and the guilt in the other person and chose to look past all of that without judgement.  It that’s not what church is all about ultimately, I don’t know what is.

 

What is church?

26 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Church, Theology

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Yesterday I was a presentation on Re-Formation in the church that is occurring during the Spring Academy at Gettysburg Seminary.  It was a great presentation that a friend gave.

In it she asked the question – what is church?

In other words, how do we define it?

Is it just the bricks and mortar?  Is it the people? Is it a way of life?  A mission?

I had to think about this a bit.  I wonder if the answer will depend partly on the context.  In some cases the church is the building.  In others, it certainly is not.

In some cases it is the people, a way of life, and a mission.

But really, what is the essential essence of church?

I think it is based on relationship.  I think it is our relationship with God, with one another, with ourselves, and with the rest of creation.  But I think it starts with relationship with God and spreads out to the other three relationships.  This is what makes it unique and different.

Maybe this is too broad though.  Maybe we need more boundaries on the definition.

But I think church is also a living organism as well.  It is living in the sense that to be church means to be dynamic and open to change.  To be church means to honor traditions, but not be held hostage to past generations either.  To be church is to recognize that the core doesn’t change – just how we go about living out that core depending on the context.  Also, how we communicate that core will change with the context as well.

If I had to summarize church, I go back to what I learned from my research on the church in Finland (that I argue also applies to the church in the US) – the church is approachable, enjoyable, and relevant.

The church is approachable in that questions and doubt are welcome, where grace abounds and judgement is left at the door. So is shame.  Church lives out the idea that the curtain in the temple was torn – the separation between God and creation was ripped.  God is approachable.  That’s what being in relationship means.

The church is enjoyable.  I’m not talking about entertaining here.  In the presentation the presenter talked about worship being like a party.  It is something that people are enjoying and people want to come to.  We shouldn’t be bored out of our mind with church or worship.  Why go, why be a part of something that is boring?  Healthy relationships are enjoyable – you want to be around the person you are in a relationship with.

The church is relevant.  I’m not talking about being hip, changing things to fit the current trends, or adopting whatever slang is popular.  No, I’m talking about this – are we talking about what is going on in people’s lives?  Or are we too afraid to do that?  The church has the opportunity to talk about the struggles and challenges that people face and offer something that no one else can offer – grace, forgiveness, belonging, mercy, love.  There are plenty of people who struggle with addictions (drugs, sexual, porn, workaholism, alcohol, medical addictions, exercise, food, etc.) and yes, even people in the pews of churches around the world.  If we can’t talk about these struggles with the people who are living with them, and do it with grace and mercy (and no shame), then where are we going to talk about them?  The answer is no where.

So, what is church?  I say church is an approachable, enjoyable, and relevant relationship between people, creation, and God.