"Precariousness"

Well, again I've been out of the saddle for a while. My wife had another surprise on her road to restored health, which she has successfully addressed. (I won't go into detail here. If you're interested, contact me at poseg8@sbcglobal.net.)

This has been quite a journey for her over the last two months. It's a journey she's handled faithfully and well. As I've said, she and I have been reminded of a truth which we too often try to ignore in comfortable cultures. The truth is this: life is precarious. There is an unpredictability to life that all of our efforts at control cannot factor away. In Western cultures, among those of means and privilege, we like to convince ourselves that we can, in fact, manage or overcome unpredictability. If we just get enough insurance, take enough vitamins, lose enough weight, secure enough protection, amass enough money, put enough safety devices on our children, learn enough science, etc. etc., then nothing in life will surprise us. We give light-hearted lip service to one another, chuckling and saying, "Well, you never know...", but we actually feel a subtle entitlement to buffered safety. We even build our theologies around this, assuming that God's primary job is to protect us from all ills.

I'm not saying we should abandon those elements of life over which we've had control. Over the last two months I've prayed for, longed for, and waited for every shred of medical knowledge and procedures that are under human control. However, from a faith standpoint, I wonder. I wonder about those of us who live lives of material comfort. Could our illusion of control be the very thing that keeps our spiritual hunger high, but keeps our actual embracing of the truth which is God very low? Other cultures that have a head-on awareness of the "precariousness" of life may have less difficulty banking it all on God, believing God to be the available and active constant in a world full of unpredictable variables.

What do you think? I'll see you around the next bend in the river, hopefully.

A Membership Requirement

I think any gathering of people who claim to be Jesus-followers should add a requirement of all participants...

Resolved that all members of this church must complete the following: Once a year you must attend worship at a church other than your home church. You must go to a church worship gathering that you have never attended before, where you do not know anyone. If this particular congregation worships in a permanent facility, it must be a place you have never entered.

You will discover that your experience does not depend on how eloquent, dynamic, entertaining, or motivating you find the speaker(s) to be. Nor does it rise or fall on the quality of the music. It matters not how many or how few people will be there. Your experience will be a good one or a negative one depending on this - how welcomed you feel within the first five minutes of entering the building and how at-home you feel throughout your time there.

Do you think that idea would sell in most congregations? Yeah...I doubt it, too. If it happened, though, I guarantee you it would change a fellowship of Jesus-followers forever, and it would change the lives of many who would be drawn to that congregation.

I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Whose Job To Learn Whom?

In our worship services here we just finished a message series on the Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, based on the book by United Methodist Bishop Robert Schnase. The five practices include: Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, Risk-Taking Mission and Service, and Extravagant Generosity. We now have a group of people examining each of these practices in depth on Sunday mornings.

We've just started our look at Radical Hospitality. Each of us have been asked to recall what it was like to attend a church worship service for the very first time. That's a little hard for me to measure, as most times I've attended a congregation's worship for the first time I am coming in as the new pastor. However, I did remember an occasion quite a while back when I attended a worship service at which I would preach for the first time. Of course, people were very cordial. (What choice did they have; I was the new guy in the pulpit, like it or not.) I was welcomed warmly, and I appreciated that. I do recall, though, that I felt something very noticeable. I got the sense that it was my job to learn and understand them, rather than their job to learn and embrace me. I remember thinking at the time, "If I wasn't assigned here as a pastor, if I was just a person looking for a place to connect with Jesus and to be accepted by those who follow Jesus, and I was made to feel this way, I doubt if I'd come back."

I don't think anyone in any fellowship of Jesus-followers intends to send a message like this. However, life is hard enough, and we have to grasp for attention and work our way into being recognized and approved-of in more than enough ways. It would be nice to walk into a worship service of strangers and get the sense that they're saying, "We don't know who you are, but it's our job to learn you and embrace you, because that's what Jesus calls us to do."

If you are a Jesus-follower and you are a part of a congregation, what was it like the first time you showed up there? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Ouch!

A Bible study I'm leading on Sunday nights have come to the point of experiencing the prophets of the 8th century before the birth of Jesus. In Israel and Judah, prophets were persons who spoke on God's behalf. Specifically, they warned God's people of the consequences of failing to keep their covenant with God to be a people set apart for the purpose of bringing God's light to all nations. To the chagrin of kings, leaders, and priests among the descendants of Abraham, prophets brazenly would point out examples of unrighteousness and injustice, covered over with a thin veneer of religiosity.

Last night we looked at the prophet Amos, who ministered in Israel at a time when there were rampant inequities and injustices, while the comfortable in the land went through the motions of practicing religion. Assuming that they were favored by God, Amos told them otherwise. Probably the most noteworthy section in Amos' words are found in Chapter 5, verses 21-24. Sight unseen, we read it from The Message, a current paraphrase of the Bible. God is speaking through Amos. He speaks as follows:

"I can't stand your religious meetings.
I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice - oceans of it.
I want fairness - rivers of it.
That's what I want. That's all I want."

Ouch! Does that sting anyone else besides our little Bible study group last night?

Sometimes the river is rough. Sometimes it takes that to get us back in the mainstream. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

A Trustworthy Mainstream

Okay...I'm finally paddled enough to catch up. My wife's health situation continues to improve. My thanks to all who have offered prayers and encouragement; you have been the channels of God's healing power. If you're interested in specifics about her present condition, e-mail us at poseg8@sbcglobal.net.

We're been through the kind of circumstance over the past few weeks that reminds us all of how precarious and unpredictable life can be. Some of us in our culture live with a dangerous illusion about how much control we think we have over our circumstances. In fact, we manage and maintain less than we think.

That's scary to those of us who are control freaks. Or, in an odd kind of way, it can be a freeing thing. I think back to the image with which I started this blog months ago - the image of floating an Ozark stream. A canoe trip on a river has risk associated with it. Obstacles in the water can be hidden until hit. Rapids can take us right into dangerous circumstances. An upright canoe can become a tipped trap in a heartbeat. Snakes dropping out of overhanging branches...well, you get the idea. The river has a power and a force of its own. We don't control it, it controls us.

However, the mainstream is trustworthy. The mainstream of a river moves resolutely downstream and ultimate to another river, then to an ocean somewhere. It will achieve its goal. If we stay with it, we will travel where we need to and want to go.

God is not necessarily a safety net, protecting us from the tips, turns, and bumps in life. God is the mainstream, carrying us through the hazards and the hits, moving us toward the mainstream's destiny - as individual followers of Jesus, as congregations, and as the whole Body of Christ.

Sounds good in theory...sometimes tough to buy into it when the waters get rough and the boat is battered. What do you think. It's good to be back with you. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.