Christmas Clothes

So, how many of you are wearing clothing gifts right now that you received as Christmas gifts? Right or wrong, what we wear says something about us. For example, if you have that gift item on right now, it says you really like it, or guilt has driven you to wear it even though you don't like it. It may say something regarding how you feel about the person who gave it to you. I know we'd heard it said that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Jesus-followers believe that God looks to the heart, and not to that which is presented on the exterior. Still, how we clothe ourselves can be an extension of who we are and what we want to communicate.

In the letters of a Jesus-follower called Paul there are numerous references to "clothing" as a symbol of what the world sees in us as followers of Jesus. When Paul uses phrases like, "put off...put on..." he's likely referring to the use of clothing in the experience known as baptism. In many early Christian communities persons preparing to be baptized shed their clothes as a symbol of putting off their old lives apart from Jesus. Then they were baptized naked, representing coming to Jesus with nothing, and depending fully on his grace. (I wonder if we'd have more baptisms or fewer baptisms in our church if we baptized people naked?!? Probably shouldn't think about it too much...) As those baptized arose from the water, they would have a new, clean robe put on them, representing their new life in relationship with God through Jesus the Christ.

As recorded in the Bible, (Colossians 3:12-17) Paul reminds Jesus-followers that they are holy (set apart for a special purpose) and beloved (unconditionally loved, chosen, and called.) As such, they should clothe themselves in compassion (affinity with those who suffer, as Jesus suffered for us), humility (willingness to serve, as Jesus came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life for us), gentleness (the opposite of arrogance and self-assertion, as Jesus yielded God-status to accept human form), patience (the ability to withstand insult without retaliation, as Jesus endured the cross), and, above all love (agape - self-sacrificing, God-like, other-focused love).

Amid the new clothes of Christmas, are those of us who claim Jesus wearing the clothing that matters? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Lynching - Revisited

On December 7 I posted that I saw what appeared to be a mock lynching portrayed in a yard alongside an area highway. Taking the same route today, I noticed that the image is gone. For a while, I ignored everything I wrote on December 7. I let myself become filled with righteous satisfaction. Obviously I was glad about the removal of this horrific reminder of one of the ugliest phenomenons in American history. I had fanciful imaginings of someone confronting the offender and forcing the dismantling of this hateful scenario. How pleased must God be with those of us ready to put a stop to this.

Then, unbidden, came a thought from the great Christian thinker and spiritual guide, Thomas Merton. He cautioned Jesus followers against assuming that our enemies are God's enemies. Yes, but whoever did this is a racist, wishing harm against his fellow human beings! So, Merton would counter, does that make him/her/them unworthy of the love of Jesus expressed in the willingness to endure the cross? No, I would have to respond. Then, no matter how fouled his/her/their heart(s) are, they are not God's enemies. They are lost children God longs to rescue.

This image came to mind, regarding all the righteous indignation I might allow myself to feel toward others, assuming that I am defending God's righteousness. When I stand before Jesus at the end of it all, do I really think Jesus is going to be impressed if the first thing I say is, "I stayed angry at those who sin against you to the very end!" I doubt it. He'll be more interested in what I did to extend his love to him/her/them.

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

You Can't Give What You Don't Have

Why are human beings so thoroughly capable of being so nasty toward one another? Road rage...hateful, hurtful comments fired out over the Internet...trampling each other in stores on Black Friday...and on and on it goes. And why does this capability extend toward and even intensify with those with whom we are supposed to be closest? Some say it's because basically we are evil creatures. Others say Satan, the enemy of God makes us this way. We pastors will go on and on about a theological idea known as "Original Sin," the explanation of which leaves most intelligent people in a fog. I think it's simply this - some folks in the Missouri Ozarks used to say, "Ya cain't give whatcha ain't got!" People who don't get love, who don't receive love regularly, have a hard time giving love. Now before the more conservative ones among say this is just liberal coddling, let me quickly say that I'm not talking about sentimental, sweetsy, Hallmark card love; the kind of love that feels all wonderful, but evaporates as soon as the going gets tough. I'm talking about a very particular kind of love. The Greek language of the first century called this agape - completely self-sacrificing, other-focused love. This kind of love is way beyond all the "it's-all-about-me" forms of love that saturate our ears, eyes, and atmospheres every day. By itself, the world knows nothing of agape kind of love. It comes from God or it does not come at all.

A Jesus-follower named John describes it as follows: "This is the kind of love we are talking about-not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God. My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this we certainly ought to love each other." (I John 4:10-11, The Message.) This is the love we need to receive, in order to give the love which is needed. It is not a concept or a feeling, it is a choice and an act. It does not start with us; it starts with God. We have to be receivers so that we can be givers.

So now we have a choice. We can choose to believe that this is all true and live as if it is true. Or we can ignore it, reshape it to suit our self-focused needs, or water it down. Then we can go ahead and follow the idea that love is personal pleasure, love is attention paid to us, love is for only those who are like us, love is a feeling, and all the other horse manure into which we step.

So what's your choice? I'll see you around the next bend in the river, which is getting a light skiff of snow on it today.

The Christmas Eve Opportunity

On December 24th the followers of Jesus will have one of the most potent opportunities for connecting with people who have yet to meet Jesus. Unfortunately, each year on December 24th far too many churches are at the point of being the least prepared to make those connections. This opportunity too often missed happens for those congregations who offer Christmas Eve services. Christmas is one of those occasions during which people who have no faith relationship are likely to venture into places of worship simply because it seems to be the right thing to do during the holiday. Church-goers, however, tend to be so focused on Christmas Eve worship as being a part of their own holiday traditions, that they miss this chance to provide radical hospitality to people who are seeking at some level.

Just a few simple steps and a few obedient people could maximize this opportunity to light a fire in disciple-making. If you are a part of a worshipping congregation and you will be in worship on Christmas Eve, consider doing any of the following:

1. If your church has a registration of attendance process during weekend worship, make
sure it happens on Christmas Eve as well.
2. Volunteer to be a greeter before the service starts. Introduce yourself to anyone you
don't know. Keep a notepad with you and write down names.
3. Before worship starts and after it is over, look around you and note anyone who is new
to you. Introduce yourself, thank him/her/them for coming, and remember names.
4. If the church doesn't have a process for doing this, you make sure that hand-written
thank-you notes are sent to first time guests on Christmas Eve. Invite them to return
for something upcoming, such as Watch Night services on New Year's Eve, or baptism
renewal on the second Sunday in January.

It just takes some attentiveness and commitment to turn Christmas Eve from an opportunity annually missed to the beginning of the discipleship pathway for someone.

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

What the World Needs Now

It's a season of loving and giving, right? Even people who don't know whose birthday some of us celebrate on December 25 can identify a "spirit of Christmas" that they somehow associate with warmth and generosity. So if December is not just about commerce and material stuff, and it really is about loving and giving, what kind of love are we supposed to give? Not all loves are healthy, and not all will last. If we're going to give something that matters, it should be the right thing.

A Jesus follower named Paul said only the love that comes from God through the one called Jesus of Nazareth transforms. Only that love reshapes lives and rescues a lost and broken world. It is a particular love called agape in Greek, which is a love that is other-focused, self-sacrificing, and God like. Paul describes it love that is tested by fire. It is a love that is not measured by how it makes us feel but by whether or not it is aligned with the the heart of God. This love enables us to stand before Jesus pure and blameless; that is, having created no stumbling block for another one to encounter Jesus. This is not one that we generate on our own. It can only come as a gift from Jesus. In addition, it is a love that glorifies God, but it is all about God, not about us.

That's not the fleeting stuff of holiday sentiment. Yet that's the very love this world needs. If this is a season of loving and giving, that's the love to give.

So how would we do that? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Lynching

Here's how deep, persistent, and radical the love of Jesus is...

Recently, while driving not far from here, I saw something that turned my stomach. An effigy-type image of a person was suspended from a large tree outside a home, with a sheet-covered image propped up by the tree next to it. I suppose the residents could claim to passers-by that this simply was a leftover macabre display from Halloween. However, the "hanged" person is clearly African-American, and the sheet-covered image has a pointed head above its blank eyes. No one in the area in which I live could mistake it for anything other than a mock-lynching.

Google "lynching" and you'll stumble into a horrific, extra-legal chapter in American history. The grisly history of lynching is particular painful for African-Americans. I was horrified by what I saw, and then angered. I imagined finding the address and writing the resident(s). I thought about putting something in our local paper. I even considered sneaking onto the property under the cover of darkness to cut down the effigy. Quickly returning to sanity, I gave up the last idea. We do have freedom of expression, I guess. Then there's all that legal private property stuff. Finally, there is a large, mean-looking dog chained near that tree, and I'm really not a hero, in spite of my imaginings.

And here's what really cuts to the chase - whoever put that hateful, Un-American display out there is something much more than someone who happens to have upset me. He or she is a person completely and fully worth the life, death, resurrection, and promised return of God's own Son...no less than me. That's the Gospel; like it or not. There is no pecking order of who deserves the cleansing power of the blood that trickled down the cross. Period. My venom toward this unknown person is no different than his/her venom toward of particular group of God's children. It means that the only hope we both have is the cross.

In some ways it was easier before I became a Jesus-follower. Then you could just judge people, categorize them, dismiss them, and scorn them. Now you have to see Jesus in them; even the ones who make you mad.

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

Consumer

I never took a class in economics. (Most people who know me can tell you it shows!) However, I do know that we are in a holy season with regard to the North American economy - holiday shopping days. And during those days, as a citizen, I am regarded primarily in one crucially important way - I am a consumer.

The economy depends on me. Specifically, it depends on separating me from the money I have available to me, or it depends on me being sufficiently in debt that I willingly am separating myself from my money on a monthly basis, month after month, forever and ever - amen. I have to have a sufficiently high drive to consume goods and services to do my part.

Consumerism defines us in ways that are not limited to the economy. For example, many church experts say that people approach church involvement with a consumer mentality - i.e., "What do I get out of it?"

Here's something interesting...When John the Baptizer was preparing the way for Jesus, Luke the physician recalls that he had stinging words for some of the people who came to him to be baptized in the Jordan River. Specially, John said, "Bear fruit worthy of repentance!" (Luke 3:8.) When asked what that means, John did not tell people to worship more, to read scripture more, or even to pray more, as important as all those are. Instead, he told people who had two cloaks to give the spare one to someone who has none. He told tax-collectors to collect a living wage and what the Romans required, and no more. He told Judean soldiers to stop augmenting their wages by extorting from the citizens. In economic language today, he was telling people to stop defining themselves as consumers, as if life was only about what they could get out of it.

Interesting culture we live in...we use consumerism ("What can I get out of it?) to celebrate the birth of the One who came saying, "I have come to give my life as a ransom for many." Interesting...I'll see you around the next bend in the river, which is getting colder these days!

13-1

A few posts back I spoke of our local high school football team. They went 10-0 in regular season play, winning both their conference and district for the first time since the nineteen-seventies. Subsequent to that, they won three play-off games in a row, making it to the final four in our state. Then it ended. In the semi-final game they lost decisively to one of the strong private schools in our state. Taking nothing away from the victors, they have resources and capabilities that simply are not available to a public system like ours.

Still, as my father always said about championship games, "You have to be there to lose it!" Our coaches and team team took a shot for the stars. They didn't quite get there, but they had a great run. They made history and made our town proud. I'd rather see them lose a state semi-final game than not be in one.

That kind of describes my outlook on much of life. Sometimes I think our culture rewards only extremes. We revere and remember the winners only, easily forgetting the individuals or teams who challenged them. On the other hand, we condition one another to play it safe, don't rock the boat, don't take risks. Often we fail to recognize the effort and courage of those who go out on a limb and take a chance for something great or right, even if it means the chance of failure.

I'm more impressed by a Jesus follower who takes a chance on sharing his/her faith with another and gets rejected than I am impressed by someone with perfect attendance and who tithes, but who does not give witness when given the chance. I'm more impressed by a church that risks becoming more focused on making disciples than on maintaining itself and fails in the process, than I am impressed by a church that keeps itself afloat but ignores the lost people around it. I'm more impressed by servants who roll up their sleeves to address human need and risk the scorn of others than I am by those who keep a safe distance.

I'd rather try something in the will of God and fail at it, than merely stay safe or only do the things that are a guaranteed win. But that's just me. Anyway, I'm proud of our football team. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Black Friday?

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. This morning, while running, I listened to a local classic rock station, hoping to hear some kind of light-hearted banter from the morning crew, regarding the upcoming Turkey Day. Instead, in about three and a half miles at a slow, old man's pace, I heard way more about Black Friday than I heard about George Washington's vision of a national day of prayer and gratitude to the Author of life.

Black Friday. Some cultures once knew that label as an ancient way to speak of the day on which Jesus of Nazareth was executed. Now, in our culture, it has nothing to do with a sad but necessary death. "Black" refers to the likelihood and hope that most retailers will end the day in the black due to high sales officially starting the Christmas commerce season. The boldest headline in our local newspaper simply states "BLACK FRIDAY." When did this become the high holy day of this week? When did it become almost un-American not to get out and spend amounts of money that are obscene to most nations of the world? When did we decide that it's patriotic to over-indulge and watch endless football on the Thursday before Black Friday instead of pausing to humbly give praise for the endless manifestations of Grace that we've inexplicably been afforded?

I don't know the answer, and I am surely part of the problem. I am aware that the God I know is beyond comprehension in his resolute love for we who tend to define life as endless indulgence. For that I am truly grateful.

A colleague of mine says that an entire day is shaped by starting it with praise to God. I've been trying to practice that as intentionally as possible lately. She's right, it changes the way a day unfolds. I intend to practice it tomorrow, of all days. If by the grace of God I awaken to greet Thanksgiving day, the very fact that my awakening happens is reason enough to praise the God who created me, loves me, and has a plan for my life.

I invite anyone to join with me in this approach tomorrow. And if you really want to walk the ragged edge of discipleship, don't buy anything on Black Friday. Bless someone in some special way instead. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Islam

Issues in and around Islamic faith have been real disturbing to me lately. I know Islamic people who exhibit nothing but respect for me and for my faith in Jesus. Yet clearly there are those who believe Islam means death to all who are non-Islamic, all who are American, and/or all who follow Jesus Christ. There are places and situations throughout history and throughout the world where adherents to Islamic faith have been the perpetrators of violence, as well as places and situations wherein they have been the victims of violence. The terrible tragedy at Fort Hood is disturbing on several levels.

On the one hand, some people argue for tolerance in dealing with Islam. To be sure, adherents to Islam are as diverse in their beliefs and emphases as are Christians. There are extremists and there are tolerant people among them. Still, some interpret their own Islamic faith as a mandate for our destruction. If it wasn't clear before, it became crystal clear on 09.11.01. In the 1930's Chamberlain of Great Britain called for tolerance of Hitler, and look how that turned out.

On the other hand, I now constantly see and hear a complete demonizing of all Islamic people by way too many sources. In the name of patriotism, God, the Bible, or whatever, people claim Islamic people are to our era what Communists were to the 1950's through 1980's. Fear is a great motivator, and the single most effective way to galvanize fearful people is to give them a group to hate. (Again Hitler comes to mind.) I'm not saying that we don't have a real threat to face. I'm just calling into question the labeling of an entire segment of the world's population. In doing so, how are we different than those who lump all of us together and blindly hate us? Some people may have the leeway to do this. We who follow Jesus do not.

So it's a quandary for me. While not having a clear answer, I believe I heard a hopeful message. I recently learned about a young student who gave her life to Jesus Christ and was baptized a couple of days ago. She is from an Islamic background. Her parents reacted fiercely at first, disowning her and taking her possessions. Now, however, her possessions have been returned to her. Whatever relationship she is able to have with her parents from here, she has taken a brave step of faith. Hearing this story, I think the Holy Spirit reminded me that, whatever is going on politically right now, and whoever is to blame, people who live by choice or default with the Muslim label are no less passionately sought by the love of God in Jesus Christ than any of us.

That makes it harder, not easier, for we who claim Jesus. We were told the way would be narrow. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Bless You?

Someone sneezes and you quickly respond with, "Bless you!" What the heck does that mean, really? "Hope you didn't get any on you!" or what?!?

Seriously, people of every faith and no stated faith toss the word bless around like we actually know what it means. "Well, we're really blessed!" So, does that mean we have lots of good stuff, a family with no problems, friends who think we're great, good health, all of the above, or what? "Her prayers were answered; what a blessing!" So God likes her, right? Is that what blessing means.

Maybe the place to start isn't with a definition, but with personal experience. So, do you feel blessed right now? If so, why? If not, why not?

The original Hebrew means something like, "to bend the knee." That is, to give honor to someone of great worth and value. According to the faith history to which I adhere, God once told a couple named Abram and Sarai that he would bless them so that all people could be blessed through them. Jesus followers believe he is the culmination of that very promise of blessing.

So, again, what does it mean to be blessed? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

The Good Samaritan Revisited - Part Two

Jesus told a story to a Jewish legal expert, seeking interpretation of the command to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves. It was a story about a Jewish man, robbed and beaten while travelling. Two Jewish men of high esteem pass him by without helping him. A Samaritan, though, rescues him. In hearing, sharing, or interpreting this story, we tend to overlook the details Jesus gives about this man's actions. First, he risks a great deal. He risks violent reprisal for touching a Jew, and he risks the anger of his own people for helping a Jew. Also, the Samaritan sacrifices a lot. His oil and wine medicate the man's wounds. He would have had to use his own clothing as bandages. He gave up his own beast of burden and walked so the wounded man could be transported. The Samaritan sacrificed his time and his money.

However, we don't get any sense that the Samaritan viewed his own actions as sacrifice. As Jesus tells it, the Samaritan didn't do what he did grudgingly. Instead, Jesus paints a picture of someone willing to do whatever it takes to rescue the wounded man. He practiced eager sacrifice.

How much of what I do in Jesus' name is a sacrifice I'm so eager to offer that I don't even think of it as being a sacrifice?

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

The Good Samaritan - Revisited

The phrase "Good Samaritan" has become a part of our lexicon. Even people who know nothing about faith in Jesus or the Christian Bible have a general idea of the concept of a "Good Samaritan." (Good Samaritan Laws, etc.) If you don't know the actual story, that's good, in a way. It saves you from presuming the messages it contains, and therefore not hearing it in a fresh way.

Those of you who know the story, (see Luke, Chapter 10), know that it's a story of someone travelling on a dangerous road who gets robbed, beaten, and left for dead. To people of Jewish faith pass by him and don't stop to help, for a variety of reasons. A person known as a Samaritan stops to help. In its original context this story told by Jesus is scandalous. Jews and Samaritans hated one another worse than Yankee fans and Redsox fans, or Missouri Tigers and Kansas Jayhawks. For a Jew to tell a story in which a Samaritan was the hero was unthinkable.

Yes, there are some basic messages in the story. There's the message of being a neighbor to those in need; obeying the commandment to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. There's the truth that the good news of Jesus is for everyone, not just for people who are like us. But I believe there's another message in this story that goes unnoticed, and it's in the actions of the Samaritan himself.

More on this on Friday. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Cheers

In the 1980's, if you said, "You want to go where everybody knows your name," most television watchers knew you were talking about a tavern in Boston called "Cheers." Every Thursday night on NBC a motley group of broken people gathered at Cheers for a half hour of laughs.

"Cheers" was well scripted and acted for its time. It was unique in style, and more than a little edgy for the day. I think the real appeal of Cheers, however, was the concept of actually having a place where everybody knew your name. Each week the character played by George Wendt would enter the bar and everyone would call his name in unison - "Norm!!" Sam Malone, or Coach, or Diane, or Carla, or Woody, or Rebecca or somebody at the bar would ask Norm an innocent question, and Norm would fire back a witty response. All this would happen while Norm headed to the bar stool that was clearly his. And for at least a little while, this perpetually out-of-work barfly with no discernible goals or direction in life would be somewhere where people recognized him, where they called him by name, and where he belonged.

Most people seek that. Some find it in bars, I guess. Some, though probably not many, experience it on the job. The fortunate ones find it in family. Some find it in activities or shared interests. Some find it in ways that are not healthy or even destructive. Sadly, some never find it at all.

Cheers didn't last. Not much in this world does. For Jesus-followers, I suggest that people aren't necessarily seeking great preaching, glitzy presentations, engaging programs, or even just purposeful involvement. In their heart-of-hearts they just want a place where everyone smiles and shouts "Norm!" when they enter; where everybody knows your name.

An 8-0 Team

Sorry I've been erratic in posting. My wife and I have both been battling some upper respiratory illness off and on for a couple of weeks.

Tonight our local high school football team is playing the most important game of their season. They are 8-0 for the first time in decades, and they've travelled 50 miles west to play their toughest opposition to date. The result of tonight's game will likely decide our district's champion.

School was out today, so a few folks at our church offered to feed the team in our facility before they headed out. I went there just to hang out for a bit, and I think I know why the team is successful. True, they are talented and deep, and their conditioning and weight training has been stellar. Beyond that, though, I sensed a major intangible element. Looking over the coaches and the players, I just had an awareness of a great deal of focus and unity. Everybody knows the objective, and each one seems to understand and accept his role, from the starters to the third stringers on the bench. The team exudes an atmosphere in which everyone is valued and everyone contributes and everyone matters.

Due to lingering illness, I won't be at the game, which is underway now. (It's 7:07 p.m., CST.) But this team has already won, in that which will last. Focus...unity...common objective...everyone contributes...everyone matters...not unlike Jesus' vision for the Church.

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

I Want to Be Like You

A Jesus-follower once told me he wanted to be like me. It was one of the most disarming things I've ever had said to me. My instinctive response was to say, "You need to set your sights way higher!" If he only knew the mess that is really me. Sure, on the outside I can project a pretty good image of faith and level-headedness. Inside I am a quagmire of mixed motivations, selfishness masquerading as righteousness, uncertainties, and competing loyalties. Sometimes it's as though I hold on to faith in Jesus by a thread. In fact, I hold on to it by the grace of God only.

Thomas Merton says we have a false self and a true self. The false self is the image we work hard to present to those around us. It is a person that is the product of tireless effort to shape and project. The real self, he says, is that which we fear the most - one that is utterly nothing except for the image of God lovingly infused in us, and the one that is completely without hope were it not for the infusion of an incarnational God. Health and salvation, Merton asserts, is facing and accepting the real self, and thereby being open to the complete embrace of God.

If that's what another person sees and seeks in me, that's good. I don't want people to see me; I want them to see Christ in me. The only way that happens is for people to recognize that my only hope is in Jesus. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Would You Die For This?

For what or who would you die? That's a disarming question. I recently read of a business expert serving as a consultant for a company. He helped them to come up with a mission statement and a vision for fulfilling that mission. (Mission and vision statements have been the rage in business for some time. Churches are kind of johnny-come-latelies in utilizing them.) The consultant led the company through a retreat-type experience in which they examined the company's core values and common aims. They brainstormed, word-smithed, trail-ballooned and did all the things that groups do to create mission and vision. Finally they had a mission statement and vision that created a fair amount of collective enthusiasm. In the midst of mutual congratulations over the achievement, the consultant looked at the final product and asked the disarming question.

"Would you die for this?" Stunned silence followed. Work for it, promote it, support it...but die for it?!?

It's one thing to get excited about mission and vision. It's a whole other matter to pay a price for it. Two millenia ago a small group of people embraced a vision of making Jesus-followers of themselves and all people. They didn't just rally around something with popularity and momentum. They saw their mission as something for which to die, and thousands of them did. And, in spite of all sociological, economic, and politic indicators otherwise, their movement would not die.

For what would you and I die? Not a pleasant thought, perhaps...but maybe a centrally needed thought. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Connecting

I'm an off-the-chart introvert. That doesn't mean that I don't like people; I really do. It just means that I tend to draw life energy from within rather than from folks around me. I can be perfectly content with my own company. (When I lived in the Kansas City area I had an extroverted associate who was stunned that I'd get up at 4 a.m., drive three hours south and east to a state trout impoundment by myself, fish alone for three hours, and drive three hours back, and be happy as a clam!)

In spite of this, however, I have a basic need to connect. Two recent events in my life accentuated this truth. During my wife's extended illness late last year I came home night after night to an empty house. I really wanted other people around. I spent two months this summer apart from the congregation in which I served. I missed them, and I felt lonely away from them. Even the most introverted among us have a fundamental need to connect.

How do you think we're doing at connecting? I remember when personal computers first hit the market in businesses and homes. We were told that a cyber world would streamline our work lives and we would have more and more leisure time to enjoy each other's company. I think it's gone the other way. We're 24/7 busy and barely have time to say "hello" to one another. We say that cyber-communicating, Facebook, texting, Twittering and all the rest have expanded our capability to communicate in an exponential way. Maybe it's helped us to move data and images without limits, but is it helping us to connect? Are we any better at sharing time and space in the physical presence of another human being?

Jesus followers believe that we are wired for connection. They say that the God in whose image we are made is relational, and we are created for relationship with the God and with each other. Without that we are creatures failing to live the purpose for which we are made, they say.

Are we made that way? How are we doing at connecting? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Got Secrets?

Do you have secrets? Things of which you don't speak; you'd rather not have anyone talk about them? If you're a card-carrying human being, you probably do. They can be light-weight, silly things we hide, like being a rugby player who secretly likes opera. Or they can be serious matters, such as hiding an addiction or a crippling phobia. Sometimes we work hard to hide the things of which we don't speak, for fear of risking ridicule, a damaged reputation, compromised power and influence, the loss of relationships, or even risk to life and limb.

There's a story about a powerful woman who kept a powerful secret. Several centuries before the birth of Jesus, the ruler of the Persian empire (known as Xerxes or Ahasuerus, depending on your source) chose as his queen a beautiful woman names Hadassah or Esther. (Seems like everybody had two names in Persia then!) Esther was an orphan, basically raised by a kinsman named Mordecai. (Only name I know of for him.) At some point, Mordecai incurred the wrath of a high ranking official in Ahasuerus' court named Haman. (Okay, not everybody in the Persian empire went by two names!) Anyway, Haman engineered things so that the king decreed that all of Mordecai's people should be exterminated because of disrespect for the empire. Modecai was a Jew; there were many still left in Persia. Obviously Esther was also a Jew, but she had kept her ethnicity a secret. As queen, she might be able to approach her husband, the king, and seek for a reversal of the edict. That, however, would reveal her own secret, and how would he react to that?

Secrets. Tough to protect them. Some of us say that the one known as Jesus knows all about us and passionately seeks us anyway. If the Church is the Body of Christ, should that Body be a place where any secret may be revealed and the one doing the revealing would be not only safe, but embraced? Not many places like that in the world...I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

An Alternative Greatness

It doesn't get any plainer and more bizarre than this...

We live in a world that urges us to strive for greatness, and well we should. We know what greatness looks like in achievement, success, leadership, power and influence, appearance, etc. Nothing wrong with that, in and of itself. However, enter Jesus and we enter a completely new definition of greatness. Here it is...not my words, but the words of one infinitely greater in faith than me:

"Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead he lived a selfless, obedient life, and then died a selfless, obedient death - and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion." (Philippians 2:6-8, The MESSAGE; emphasis mine.)

Self-emptying as a path to greatness? And Jesus didn't do this for us just so we could be saved and also enjoy the blessings of success by the standards of this world. We are to be like him, and seek the same kind of alternative definition of greatness; a "first shall be last, last shall be first" greatness. What do you think about that? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Deputy Fife

This will date me, but some of us are old enough to remember Deputy Barney Fife from the old Andy Griffith show. Barney was a wiry and nervous little character played by the late Don Knotts. Deputy Fife was famous for unsolicited advice and expertise, ("Nip it! Nip it in the bud!"), and pretending to be greater than he really was. Barney always made a bigger deal out of himself and situations than either really were. Deputy Fife became a stereotype for over-inflated egos and sense of self.

Of course for Barney to be funny in pretending greatness, we who watched Andy Griffith had to have a clear sense of what greatness is. We knew and we know what it takes to be great, whether that greatness is expressed in success, popularity, leadership, appearances, or whatever. We're taught to strive for greatness and well we should. Some achieve greatness, some don't, and some live in pretentious illusions of greatness, like Barney Fife.

However, the more we allow the one called Jesus to inform our lives, the more our life definitions will be broadened, stretched, challenged, and sometimes changed. For a real shocker on Jesus' view of greatness, find a Bible in print or on-line, and locate the gospel of Mark, the 9th chapter of that book, verses 33 through 39.

More on this in the next post. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Not a Sitcom Ending

David, the son of Jesse, did not live a situation comedy life...a life in which problems come in a manageable sequence, are more amusing than serious, and are solved in some whimsical way before the credits roll. King Saul of Israel, who once thought the world of David, came to be jealous of David. Saul sunk into paranoia and forced David into a life as a rebel chieftain. During warfare between the armies of Israel and Philistine aggressors both Saul and Saul's son,
David's covenant blood-brother Jonathan died. David was plunged into unspeakable grief. Not a sitcom ending...

But David discovered something greater. As he expressed in Psalm 23, God is not found in maneuvering the circumstances of our lives in ways that we, in our limited thinking believe they should be. Singing of non-sitcom situations in existence, David expresses what God really offers in the middle of verse 4 of Psalm 23 - "...for you are with me. With us...God promises to be with us not just when life is like a sitcom, but even and especially when it is not.

God does not promise sitcom lives and sitcom solutions. God promises to be with us. That's what the Jesus person and the Jesus event are about. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Life Is Not a Sitcom

What situation comedy defines your era? I grew up on I Love Lucy, with Lucille Ball, Desi Arnez, William Frawley, and Vivian Vance. Which of the following were your favorites: Father Knows Best, The Andy Griffith Show, the Dick van Dyke Show, the Brady Bunch, the Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family, Good Times, Happy Days, Cheers, Taxi, The Cosby Show, Friends, Frasier, Home Improvement, Roseanne, Married with Children, The Simpsons, Scrubs, the Office, South Park. And, of course, there are dozens of others.

Most situation comedies followed a basic formula. In a simple plot, a problem arises that is more amusing than serious, at least to the audience. Problems come one at a time in situation comedies, or to each character one at a time. Somehow the problem is solved in an amusing and/or surprising way. In the Cosby Show of the 1980's, for example, Cliff Huxtable's wit, wisdom, or whatever always saw whichever kid through whatever predicament. Even in the later, more edgy, rougher sitcoms, some sort of resolution or closure ends the episode. In South Park, for example, if Kenny gets killed in this episode, he'll be back in the next one.

Maybe we like sitcoms so much because we wish our lives were like that - lightweight problems more amusing than threatening, problems coming one at a time in an orderly fashion, and entertaining solutions before everybody has a good laugh and the credits roll. Some even think that if God really liked us he give us a life like that, or that those who have lives like that are the ones God likes the best? Do you know anyone who has a life like that? It's not me.

So do you think God promises us a sitcom life or owes us that? More on this in a post on Sunday. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Trusting God...Seriously?!?I'l

We who are Jesus-followers have our own jargon. Sometimes that's helpful. More often it becomes a communication barrier. One of the things you'll hear us say is, "Trust God." It's advice I've given myself, frequently. The problem is that my words don't always match my actions. I may say, "I trust God," but I really mean, "I trust God as long as he operates in ways that make sense to me, in ways that stay within my abilities and control, and in ways that don't make me uncomfortable." For heaven's sake, God, don't take me to the edge and beyond!

How many of us really trust God fully? How many of us would cling to God at an edge-of-the-Red-Sea-with-chariots-bearing-down-on-you moment? This weekend a friend and colleague shared with me this impacting thought from an unknown source: "We are never ask close to God as we are when we are at the edge of our abilities and trusting God to provide an enable us."

Trusting God. Great concept. A lot of us say it. How many of us do it?

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

Serve

On Monday I posted some suggestions for today's 8th annual recognition of the events of September 11, 2001. I neglected one of the most appropriate ways to commemorate the day.

Serve.

Many people have recommended that we all find a way to do something that helps another human being. This is in the tradition of the thousands of law enforcement persons, fire prevention and public safety persons, military persons, and private citizens who answered the call to respond to the crisis of 9/11, many at the risk and even loss of their own lives. I think this is an invitation to turn this day of tragedy into a day that celebrates the coding buried deep within us that comes from the One whose very nature is an uncommonly sacrificial, grace-driven love. The image of God defines us, stained by our self-driven separation from God as it is. Grace-gifting another person is the God-image in us at work.

On the 26th of this month many Jesus-followers in our area will be involved in a "Mission Blitz," a creative grace-driven service idea pioneered by one of the dynamic churches in our region. Simply put, Jesus-followers will fan out into communities to do acts of grace, with no thought or reward, and no seeking of praise. No strings will be attached; that's what service and grace are all about. Some of the ideas are phenomenally creative....Carrying a roll of quarters to a Laundromat to pay for every one's washing and drying...going to gas stations to pump gas and wash windows, just like full service days...door-to-door collecting of canned food items for food pantries...surrounding schools and praying for students and teachers...cleaning high school stadiums after football games, so custodial personnel won't have to do so...you get the idea.

Serving; without thought of reward, honor, or praise...merely to offer a love so without conditions and measurement that it can only be the frontier of the unimaginable love which is God. That might just make some folks wonder about this Jesus thing. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

What's Your Vision?

What's your vision for the future? Winning the Lottery? Getting out of debt? Finding the "right" person? Getting your 15 minutes of fame?

Some people see a vision of aligning with a movement in which folks know Jesus not just as a word or a name, but as a living, come-alongside-us person. Some vision journeying through life with Jesus as a travelling partner. Some see and endless reservoir of power and impact in the book that gives testimony to Jesus - the Bible. Some envision Jesus followers gathering together frequently to share the road of discipleship, encouraging and aiding each other on the way; practicing the sacrificing love of Jesus. Some see a joyous wave of followers meeting all manner of humanity wherever they experience need, pain, or even just an aimless searching; and doing all this without judgement or superiority, but in pure humility. Some see a picture of worship that is not a duty or habit, but a privilege and an opportunity to celebrate who and what God is. Some envision tithing not as an obligation or badge of piety, but as a gift and a concrete way to say, "I love you," to the one who gave us life and who gave us Jesus. And some see no greater privilege than the opportunity to introduce other human beings to the One who created them, loves them, and has a plan for their lives.

What's you vision? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

9.11.01

It was a Tuesday morning. I was in the office of the church I was serving at that time. The chairwoman of our church's Board of Trustees called sometime around 8:30 a.m., CDT. She said she would not be able to be present for a scheduled meeting that night. She worked for a company under Federal contract, and the building had been locked down because some unidentified aircraft had hit one of the towers at the World Trade Center, and there was the possibility of a hostile attack on American soil. The next call I received came from our daughter, who was doing her student teaching at that time. She wanted to know how she should explain to little children what was happening in their world that day. It was September 11, 2001. We all remember where we were and what we were doing when the news hit.

Eight years later the impact of the event continues to unfold. Some say we are in a safer place, since no event of that magnitude has taken place since. Others say life is more precarious, as anti-terror warfare continues, with no end in sight, and 9/11 has redefined how we do travel, large crowd occupancy, and so many other things. Thousands of people still deal with the unbelievably shocking loss of loved ones that day. We saw the very best and the very worst of humanity's capabilities in a short few hours, and in the days to come. And we were reminded of the utter precariousness and fragility of this thing we call life.

It' s important to move on, but it's important to remember as well. Remember that there are people whose grief continues, while the world has rebuilt and gone on about its business. Lives continue to be lost as people are deployed throughout the world trying to protect peace and justice, and to prevent such things from happening again. They need our prayers and support as well. For those of us who are Jesus-followers, a central part of our calling is to pray for those categorized as enemies. They are worth the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as well.

Pause this Friday to reflect on the meaning of the day. Look to the only One whose presence makes sense of the most senseless directions humans take. If you have an American flag, maybe display it at half-staff. September 11, 2001 - a defining day in our lives. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

More Than Enough

Why did Jesus draw the attention of so many people deemed "not enough" by the powers and values that imbued the first century world? I suggest is was the draw of Jesus telling them, "You are enough." You are enough for God to love like a one and only child. You are enough to seek and long for, no matter how far you have drifted away. You are enough to die for. You are enough to rise and live for. You are enough through whom to do great and marvelous things, the likes of which you cannot imagine. Because Jesus was and is enough, you are enough for God. As recorded by John Mark in his gospel's fourth chapter, Jesus told a parable about this. In those days, poets and storytellers described great kingdoms and empires using the metaphor of great, strong trees. Even the glory that was once Jesus' native Israel, and that one day would hopefully be again, was described as a mighty cedar. By contrast, everything else was insignificant and not enough. However, Jesus pointed to one of the smallest things in horticulture of the day, the seed of a shrub known as a mustard plant. The seed was minute, Jesus noted; by all indication not enough for anything great. Yet the seed gave birth to a strong shrub of the region, growing to ten feet tall or better, even provided habitat for birds as actual trees did.

What gives Jesus the authority to state this - that insignificant, "not enough" people are more than enough in the hands of a grace-filled, transforming God? The ultimate "not enough" message for humans is death. "You are not enough to overcome your mortality!" Jesus is the only one to have succumbed to the "not enough" of death, then to break forth as more than enough through the resurrecting power of God.

Small, "not enough" things made "more than enough" in the hands of God...I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Not Enough

It would probably scare us to tabulate how many times in a week we hear the phrase "not enough." There's not enough money; there's not enough time; there's not enough information, whatever. Advertising depends on convincing you that you don't have enough. However many television options you have on your DirectTV, you need more. However many applications you have for your Blackberry, you don't have enough. And the worst of the "not enough" messages come when they're applied to people. You're not pretty enough, you're not smart enough, you're not good enough, you're not well enough informed, you're not interesting enough, you're not appealing enough, you're not old enough, or you're not young enough. There is no shortage of "you're not enough" messages.

Jesus wasn't enough, when you think about it. He was an unemployed carpenter from a backwoods, nowhere town, with no pedigree, no formal education, and no wealth. He wasn't enough of anything. So why did so many people defined by "not enough" respond so willingly to his simple invitation to "follow me."

Consider these questions:

What was the latest "not enough" message you heard or the latest "not enough" conversation you had?

When have you felt as though you were "not enough" in some way?

What "not enough" messages surrounded Jesus' contemporaries during his pre-crucifixion ministry?

Have churches sent "you're not enough" messages to people? If so, how?

What was Jesus' appeal to those who felt they were "not enough"?

More on "not enough" on Friday. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Detachment

During my time apart in the summer I read several Jesus-following authors who all pointed toward the same spiritual territory. They all said the same thing, essentially. My paraphrase is as follows: To know the freedom God seeks for us we must reach the point at which the praise of others does not elate us, nor does the criticism of others send us into despair. Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, and Brennan Manning all point to a kind of healthy attachment to God alone and a healthy detachment from the people and circumstances that surround us. This does not mean disengaging. Jesus calls us to love others precisely in the sacrificing way he loves us. And we must find ways to challenge circumstances that inhibit the Kingdom justice for which God longs. However, we must not let people and circumstances define us or determine our value and purpose. That is God's territory alone. To give that kind of power to anyone or anything other than God is...well...a form of idolatry!

The point at which the praise of others does not elate us, nor does the criticism of others send us into despair... Okay, that's great in a book or in theory. Can anyone really come to that point, or can God bring us to that point? Is it possible to trust so fully in the presence, power, forgiveness, and love of God that no other evaluation matters? Can anyone become so lost in aligning with God's heart and loving those whom God loves that no high praise or stinging critique really matters? Is this idealistic or realistic, or is it something else?

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

Yes; They Can Win Without Him

On Wednesday I asked if the St. Louis Cardinals baseball club could win their division and content in post-season play without their prolific first baseman Albert Pujols. I would say they can. Here's what I observe...Before the All Star break the Cardinals had much unsettledness in their line-up. Manager Tony LaRussa used fifteen different rookies to plug various holes throughout the first three months of the season. In those days the Cardinals very much depended on the stability and performance of Pujols. Knowing this, opposing teams and pitchers often utilized an easy strategy with Albert - don't pitch to him. Don't give him any pitches he can hit; even if you walk him, the odds are better to put him on base and work to hitters with less strength. It had some effect. By the All Star game, the Cardinals were clinging to a slim, tenuous divisional lead.

After the All Star break Cardinal management made some bold decisions and changes. Knowing that opponents were pitching around Albert, they intentionally put strength on the other side of him, acquiring veteran hitter Matt Holliday to hit right behind Pujols, among other significant moves. Now if you pitch around Albert, you have to face the strong and hot-hitting Holliday. With that kind of strength in the heart of the line-up, strengthening hitters lower in the line-up, like Ryan Ludwig, rookie Colby Rasmus, and Yadier Molina have less pressure and more freedom to be aggressive at the plate. The result is a nine game first place lead for the Cardinals, nearly twenty games over .500.

Basically the moves insured that the Cardinals could win without depending solely on Albert. True, their odds may be better with him. Goodness knows he's a monumental contributor to the team's success, and heaven forbid they would have to play without him because of injury or illness or something. But if they had to, they could. I believe Albert would be the first to say that the goal is not for him to be indispensable. The goal is for the team to win, and for Albert and all the team members to do their part to meet that goal. It's tempting for any of us to want to see ourselves as indispensable - to our team, to our family, to our work, to our church, or whatever. The truth is that there is only One who is indispensable - the One who gave life, the One who seeks to bond with us and transform us, the One who is not dissuaded by all the complexities with which humans entangle and strangle ourselves, the one who comes into the very middle of the entanglement in Jesus. God makes it happen, not me. God doesn't need me, but God certainly wants me and wants me to join in what God is doing.

That's what I think about indispensability. Your thoughts? I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Can the Cardinals Win Without Albert?

Albert Pujols is the starting first baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball club. Arguably, he is the most feared hitter in major league baseball. Albert is a one man ulcer-factor and blood pressure-raiser for pitchers and opposing managers. At the end of the 2008 major league season Albert led all active hitters with a .334 batting average. He's the only player in major league history to hit over 30 home runs in each of his first nine seasons as a player. Albert is currently tied for the all-time National League record for number of grand slam home runs (home runs with the bases loaded), and we who are Cardinal fans hope he'll break that record before this season is over.

For those of you who are Cardinal fans or just baseball fans in general, do you think the Cardinals could win without Albert? If for some unforeseen reason he was no longer in the line-up, could the Cardinals win the National League Central Division, the National League Pennant, or even the world series without him? Do they need Albert Pujols? Is he indispensable?

How do you feel about indispensability? Are there some people without whom we cannot get along? Are you indispensable to your team...to your family...to your place of work...to your community...to your church, if you have one...to God?

As to the latter, if you have a Bible, read Mark 4:26-29. What does that say about who needs who?

I'll have my answer about Albert Pujols in my Friday post. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Mortality

Our area has been rocked with a number of untimely deaths over the last several weeks. These range from an athlete who collapsed and died at the beginning of a morning practice, a small child who drowned, a well known area businessman, and local youth, the latest having passed away just yesterday. Mortality is making its presence known in a fierce way.

In the midst of grief, people are asking the questions common to such pain. Why did this happen? Why would we lose someone so young? Some people may use faith language, asking why God would allow this. In a genuine effort at comfort, folks may say that it's part of God's plan, that it was the person's time, or that we'll understand it better by and by. There may or may not be truth in any of these statements, but I don't think they do much more than provide momentary relief.

If there is a God, where is God when tragedy strikes? I vaguely remember a story from Elie Wiesel's piercing book, Night. The book is about Wiesel's experience in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. As I recall, camp inmates were being forced to watch the execution of a boy for some infraction or another. He was executed by hanging; not by letting him drop, thus breaking his neck, but by hoisting him up by the next. Thus his death was excruciatingly long and painful. Someone in the crowd either cried out, "Where is God now?!?" Either that, or Wiesel thought those words.

How would you have answered that question? Where is God when inexplicable, unjust, or "untimely" death (when is death ever "timely"?) takes place? Let's all wrestle with that before I finish the story in the next post. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Welcome Aboard

I've had a chance to spend time with several different churches over the last two months. I encountered things to learn from each of them. Some were better at hospitality than others. As an introvert and a first time worshipper in virtually each place, I was especially alert to this. With great preaching, energetic and creative worship, state-of-the art technology, and everything else churches add to perfect what they offer, I've had the sense that most churches are, at best, just above adequate as hospitality.

So I considered what exactly I'm seeking as a total stranger that would counteract that awkward, isolated state of feeling like the one unknown person in a large room full of people who know each other, or who at least come often enough to feel some sense of comfort. Then I realized where I've felt the welcomeness that overcomes my uneasiness and makes me more open to the experience being offered...the Branson Belle.

Yes, the dinner theater showboat experience on Table Rock Lake near Branson, Missouri. The "welcome aboard" experience starts on land, extends through the walkway leading up to the boat, then to the captain's welcome on deck, on to the welcomer outside the dining area, and finally to the waiter or waitress who guides you to your seat, thanks you for coming, explains what's coming up, and serves you. The staff of the Belle assume that everyone is there for the first time, whether it actually is your first time on the Belle, or you take the dinner tour every time you go to Branson. That creates a level playing field, with no one favored and no one left out. Even if you have been on the boat before, you've never been to that particular show performed that way with that group of people there. So, everyone is a first time guest.

One church I have experienced creates this same environment. You get the feeling that they assume everyone is there for the first time. Even if you've been there before, they act as if no one has ever been to that worship, done in that way, with that particular emphasis and message and that certain opportunity to meet Jesus. So, everyone, from the lifelong member to the shy new person is a first time guest, and everything in their greeting, facility, and worship reflects that assumption.

That's hospitality. Welcome aboard. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

A Different Spin on Despair

How do you experience despair? I guess despair is reaching the point where no good options exist, and doom seems inevitable. To look at YouTube videos of health care town hall meetings, some folks act as though they're close to despair. A terminal illness diagnosis can result in despair. The genocide victims of Darfur in the Sudan may feel despair, as their plight seems completely to have gone off the radar of international politics. I guess I've felt times when I was close to despair in my ministry. I suppose I've always assumed that despair is a legitimate experience, often.

However, this morning I encountered a stop-dead-in-your-tracks different spin on the experience of despair, courtesy of one of my sabbatical travelling companions, Thomas Merton. (I've been slowly working through New Seeds of Contemplation, a revision of his classic work of 1961.) Get this..."Despair is the absolute extreme of self-love. It is reached when a man deliberately turns his back on all help from anyone else in order to taste the rotten luxury of knowing himself to be lost...Despair is the ultimate development of a pride so great and so stiff-necked that it selects the absolute misery of damnation rather than accept happiness from the hands of God and thereby acknowledge that he is above us and we are not capable of fulfilling our destiny by ourselves." (page 180.) Wow...

I don't think Merton referred to those who experience despair because of violence and oppression, or any kind of circumstances over which they have no control. More so, I think, he targeted those of us who have much, but who fail to see it, and spend more time lamenting what we do not have than giving praise for what we do have. I'm still mulling all this over. What do you think?

I come off of my sabbatical leave in two days. It's been an impacting two months. The sabbatical has been restful, renewing, challenging, gut-wrenching, Jesus-focused, and hopeful. I'm anxious to get back in the saddle. I miss the folks in my congregation. I hope the resume the blog posting rhythm of three times a week, starting Monday. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Thomas Merton and Albert Pujols

I'm a big fan of the St. Louis Cardinals, who are currently fighting to stay in contention in the National League Central Division. One of their signature players is first baseman Albert Pujols. Normally an opposing pitcher's nightmare, Albert has been in something of a slump lately. (Thankfully he has strong batting support on either side of him since the All Star break.) The press and fans started to worry about Albert. Then last night, August 4, his two home runs led the Birds in a 12-7 come-from-behind victory over the New York Mets. After getting panicky over Albert's cold at-bats, we suddenly realized that he has tied the all-time National League record for grand-slams in a single season, and we still have August and September to go. (Today he went 2 for 3 in a losing effort in New York.)

I'm not going to be able to quote him directly, but when asked after last night's game how he handled his recent slump, Albert shrugged his shoulders and said something like, "Stay humble and trust God." That's unique, in a cultural that deifies the grandstanding of individual effort and achievement. Albert recommends accepting a lowly role, refusing a victim mentality, and connecting with the One who puts our frenzied drive for significance in eternal perspective.

During my sabbatical I've been reading the updating of Thomas Merton's groundbreaking 1961 book, New Seeds of Contemplation. In this work, Merton insists that we find our genuine identity by dying to all of our self-engineered, manufactured establishing of importance and influence. Only in embracing our utter insignificance before the Eternal, only in losing ourselves in God, only in decreasing ourselves so that Christ in us increases, do we find our true selves.

That may be biblical, and we may give lip service to it, but few of us who are church people really believe it, much less practice it. We all want to convince the people around us that ours is the church they want and who will meet all their needs. I don't know of any church that says, "We're pretty much a mess here; only in God do we have hope."

Long after Albert Pujols' records are buried in a data bank somewhere, it will be his humble heart and his connection to God that will matter. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

We Have Met the Enemy

Here's one of those things that's going to date me. When I was a kid of the popular and sometimes controversial comic strips was one called "Pogo," done by Walt Kelly. Pogo was both funny and political, doing for the 1950's what "Li'l Abner" did for the 60's, what "Doonesbury" did for the 70's and 80's, what "Bloom County"did for the 90's, and I guess "Non-Sequiter" and who knows what is doing now. "Pogo" hit its stride in the so-called "McCarthy Era," Specifically, Walt Kelly's strip poked fun at the uniquely American brand of fascism; the very fear-and-hate-mongering type of politics that many Americans had just given their lives in Europe and Asia to overcome.

Pogo himself was an opossum, inhabiting the Okefenokee (sp.?) swamp with an alligator, an owl, a turtle, and a host of other characters bearing striking and intentional resemblance to political figures of the day. Ostensibly an innocent bystander to the "politics" of the swamp, Pogo was in fact the voice of wisdom in the midst of madness. Arguably, Pogo's best known quote, issued in a story line of ridiculous paranoia and blame-gaming, is this: "We have met the enemy, and he is us!"

True. All of us are quick to assign blame when things go sour for us in our life journey, starting with the one at the keyboard now. In fact, though, more often than not we are at least the co-authors of our circumstances. In no way am I discounting the reality of spiritual warfare (attacks from the evil one) or real disturbance and damage caused by people acting on harmful motives. Still, especially for those of us who enjoy circumstances the rest of the world would regard as "privileged," few of us are pure victims. Jesus spoke about guarding our own hearts first, removing the mote in our eye before we go after the speck in the eye of someone else, etc. Too often what incites us in others is in fact a reflection of what we hide and/or deny in ourselves.

Change in others starts with change in us. Just my thoughts...I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

The Dark Place

It is a circumstance/setting/time that goes by many names. St. John of the Cross called it, "The Dark Night of the Soul." Henri Nouwen referred to it as "a place of solitude." Some would call it retreat, though that word has been pacified and candied to mean nothing more than temporary respite.

For retreat is not a place to rest and recharge our batteries so we can charge back into the fray, doing the same things the same way, and dealing with the same draining frustrations. Retreat is transformation, and transformation necessitates a journey to the dark place. The place of solitude can be a battleground; literally, the site of spiritual warfare. It brings us face to face with the real darkness within each of us...a darkness that no amount of positive thinking, determination, or slick veneer can erase.

It is the place where we can no longer depend on the scaffolding we have carefully constructed to prop up the illusion of our lives. No achievement placards adorn the walls. The people who smile, slap us on the back, and glad-hand us at parties are utterly gone. The appearance we have carefully sculptured in ourselves, in those around us, and in the adornments that frame us have disappeared. The familiar sound of affirming voices is replaced by deafening silence. The fastidiously preserved foundations of our cherished past no longer matter, for they have vanished. We do not even have access to the family and friends whom we love the most, and whose presence fills our lives with joy and purpose. All the surrounding "lights" of our lives are out, and we stand just as we are - the good, the bad, and the ugly that is us - in utter darkness. It is a darkness so complete, that, like a frightened child, we are to terrified to take a step in any direction.

It is in this place, the dark place, that faith becomes real, and not just verbiage and show. For at this point, there are two choices. We can give in to despair, believing that life is nothing more than staving off the reality of nothingness as long as we can. Or, we can leap into the arms of Jesus, who is the only light against whom the darkness cannot prevail, and who is relentlessly, furiously reaching to us in the dark night.

Scary...few people journey intentionally to the dark place of the soul, for good reason. But those who do find a light worth living for and a faith worth dying for. And that transforms the world.

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

Bonding and Bridging

As I enter the second half of my sabbatical leave I'm reading some fascinating books. One of them is UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. This is a must-read for any Jesus followers who are serious about offering a relationship with Jesus among those born after Vietnam. If you don't digest and take seriously the findings of these two accomplished culturalists and researchers, don't even bother with trying to "get those young people in church."

The other is Bowling Alone by Harvard professor and researcher Robert D. Putnam. This book was given to me by a friend, and it tracks the decline of a sense of "community" in American culture. It's a little dated; written in 2000, before the emergence of MySpace/Facebook/Twitter-type social networking. Still, the overall data is telling. We don't make direct social connection like we once did, and social connection itself is being redefined.

Many of you may have already encountered this book and/or Putnam's findings and projections.
One thing that's important is the concept of "social capital" - the fact that social groupings have value and power, that affects people both individually and collectively. Putnam notes the difference between groups that are designed for BONDING (which are exclusive) and groupings that are designed for BRIDGING (which are inclusive.) He says, "Bonding social capital is...good for 'getting by,' but bridging social capital is good for 'getting ahead.' ...Bonding social capital constitutes a kind of sociological superglue, whereas bridging capital provides a sociological WD-40." (Page 23.) Both have value, and human beings gain from both. One leans toward stasis, though, while the other leans toward growth. Bonding says, "We're happy with who we are and who we have," while bridging says, "We exist to bring more in."

It seems to me that many established churches have done the bonding thing real well, but are now struggling to swing the pendulum to the bridging side. That's my two cents for the day and week. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Musings from a Worship Newcomer

During my sabbatical I've had the chance to worship with several congregations other than our own. I'll be with five more before the leave is over. I'm enjoying them all, but I'm remembering just how hard it is to go to a worship service as a complete stranger. And in the last several weeks I've attended churches that do pretty well in the ministry of hospitality.

It's hell-on-wheels for a first time visitor; particularly people like me who lean introverted. The distance from your car to a safe seat might as well be the distance between New York and Los Angeles. It's an eternity going from the parking lot to the place of worship. On the one hand, as a newcomer, I hope that someone will welcome me and help me find my way to the right location. I pray to experience more than that lingering once-over you get from some church folks, just before the lean toward the person next to them (while still looking at you) as ask, "Who is that?!?" It's nice to get some level of attention or recognition. At the same time I cringe at being pounced on like the only person walking on to a used car lot. It's possible to be over-attentive to a new person, creating discomfort with choreographed hospitality.

Two things I realize as a guest in worship...First, many church folks put all their eggs in the wrong baskets in their hopes of attracting new people. We assume that the right music, the right worship style, the right preacher, the right technology, and the right innovation will seal the deal with a newcomer. In fact, the deal is already sealed before worship begins. It happens between the parking lot and the seats. Second, hospitality isn't about technique. It's about atmosphere. Either a church pulsates the desire to welcome people into the arms of a loving and saving God or it does not. Newcomers can smell an atmosphere, one way or another. In fact, they are the best gauge as to whether or not hospitality is present and/or genuine.

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

The Michael Jackson Tragedy

If I was an invested student of pop culture I'd be watching the coverage of Michael Jackson's funeral today. Instead, in my continuing laziness of the last three weeks, I've finally rented "Spiderman 3." How's that for shallow?!?

It's not that I'm an antagonist of the alleged King of Pop. It's true that I'm an aging hard-rocker. I came of age as a music fan with the Jimmy Hendrix Experience, Eric Clapton, Iron Butterfly, and Grand Funk Railroad, and I've disdained the sweetsy-pop stuff since the days of the Jackson 5. Thus, I've never been a fan. Still, I recognize that Michael Jackson broke open the genre of music video, and created a style that's been emulated for over three decades. I appreciate the millions of dollars he has put into charities. And, though I have my concerns about some elements of his character, I cannot cast stones of judgement, due to my own faith values.

Mostly, I just find it all terribly sad. In Michael Jackson I see a person constantly trying to remold himself. And I never saw this remolding as a positive thing. Rather, it seemed to be some kind of desperation fueled by self-loathing and/or craving for approval. With all his obvious gifts and talents, Michael Jackson never seemed settled with himself. We all joked about the alleged plastic surgeries and his freakish appearance changes. Behind it all was some kind of inner tragedy. And we've turned this tragic figure into an icon. (Supposedly, seats for Michael Jackson's funeral today were sold on Ebay for as high as $10,000.) In death, the King of Pop is at god-status for many people who probably struggle with their own desperation to rebuild themselves into something other than who they are.

It's a stark contrast with the One who shows us that we cannot change who and what we are, but that the God who made us and loves us longs for us and seeks us as if each of us was the King of Pop times infinity! And it is this God who will make us new creatures - the creatures we were created in love to be all along. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

He Wasn't Poor so We could be Rich

As I observe the history of the Jesus-following movement, I believe that vibrancy and effectiveness in the movement tends to be accompanied by two circumstances. First, the movement is not sanctioned by the ruling government and societal values, or it is outright opposed by these factors. Second, the movement becomes attractive to people of limited means. I realize that humanists might claim that this is due to people needing means of escape when under stress. However, in a number of historical situations, revivals and renewal resulted in significant positive change in the lives of people. Employment improved, family stress stabilized, health care gained ground, the needs of the poor were met, and injustices were challenged. (There are those who claim that the Wesleyan revival in England saved that country from a revolution similar to that which ravaged France, due to living improvements among England's working class that accompanied the revival.)

I suggest that this kind of spiritual surge doesn't happen when the good news of Jesus is privatized to nothing more than what we get out of it. "I get to go to heaven." "Jesus solves my problems." "Jesus gives me peace." These motivations are important, but incomplete by themselves. Jesus main invitation to his first disciples was, "follow me." Essentially that means, "Join me in what God is doing in and through me in this world." Brennan Manning says it better than me. "He was not poor that we might be rich. He was not mocked that we might be honored. He was not laughed at that we might be lauded. On the contrary, he revealed a picture meant to include you and me...We are to strip ourselves of earthly cares and wisdom, all desires for human praise, greediness for any kind of comfort, spiritual consolations included... The gospel is a summons to be stripped of those fine pretenses...the gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand new creations." (The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning. pp. 116, 117, 125.)

Your thoughts on this...?

Just enjoyed a relaxing, peaceful, and fun week on Kentucky Lake. Hope your summer is going well. I'll see you around the next bend in the river...probably sometime during the 4th of July weekend.

The Furious Longing of God

I'm a week into a two month sabbatical now. It's been very good so far. Our three year old granddaughter spent the week with us, which was great fun. Then on Saturday my parents hosted a family reunion, which gave us a chance to spend time with our children and spouses, as well as our six month old granddaughter, who is a real charmer. In addition we got to see my two sisters, their husbands, and our two nephews and two nieces. All in all, a great week.

My wife gave me a bookstore giftcard for Father's Day. Heading into a bookstore with a giftcard is a peak adventure for me. I browse around the shelves and sort of wait for some title or author to leap off the shelf into my radar range. Bookstores never let me down. The book that made the leap was Brennan Manning's latest - THE FURIOUS LONGING OF GOD. Brennan Manning is a genuinely heartfelt, blindingly candid, crystal clear veteran follower of Jesus. Over the years, Manning's works have kept me focused and sometimes kept me sane. Most of all, they have drawn me close to the heart of God. Within the area of ministry that ignites my passion, the growing of disciples, Manning keeps me aligned with God's deepest desire. Manning is not at home in a church that is most concerned about meeting protecting the comfort and the needs of those already within the church walls. Nor is he at ease with a congregation in a frenzy of market-driven, high attraction, "cutting edge," number inflating. A church and a believer's greatest motivation to reach beyond themselves, Manning believes, is a passionate and real relationship with a God who is passionate about us.

He writes, "The furious longing of God is beyond our wildest desires, our hope or hopelessness, our rectitude or wickedness, neither cornered by sweet talk nor gentle persuasion...It cannot be tamed, boxed, captivated, housebroken, or templebroken. It is simply and startingly Jesus, the effulgence of the Father's love." (THE FURIOUS LONGING OF GOD, page 24.)

Manning will be my water-side reading for the next week or so. I'll see you around the next bend in the river; probably early next week.

(Other recommended titles by Brennan Manning: THE RAGAMUFFIN GOSPEL, RUTHLESS TRUST, ABBA'S CHILD.)

T-Minus One Hour to Sabbatical...And Counting

Tomorrow I begin a two month sabbatical time for rest and renewal, spiritual formation, and study and learning. This is part of the process known as the Healthy Church Initiative for our congregation, of which I've written in previous posts. It will be an interesting journey. I have to admit that work is my drug of choice. In spite of what I verbalize otherwise, it tends to be the way I measure my own value. It's important for me to reconnect with a sense of worth that I cannot accumulate or control, but which is determined and given by God alone. I am both apprehensive and eager about the days ahead.

During that time I will continue with blog entries, just observing what happens, what I experience, and, most important, how I see God at work. Posts likely will be somewhat haphazard, but will probably take place about once a week or so.

I hope you all are off to an awesome summer. I especially hope you live in expectation for what God is unfolding in and around you. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Reaching Out for the Fringe

She faced a crowd of people. Normally, she would go nowhere near such a gathering. The woman had some sort of a health condition that resulted in what was likely a chronic vaginal bleeding. It was discomforting and embarrassing. She'd had it for years, and no medical process available in her culture or her era offered any kind of help. The effort to eradicate her condition drained her financial resources. By the laws and practices of her people, she was known as "ritually unclean." This not only kept her on the fringes of religious and social activity, but it also threatened others whom she might touch.

Somehow, though, she was emboldened by the one who was at the center of the crowd - a carpenter turned healer from a place called Nazareth. At risk to herself and others, the woman was moved by a fleeting hope that if she somehow touched the fringe of his outer garment his power to heal might come to her. Sometimes desperate circumstances evoke desperate measures. Hoping to not be noticed by Jesus, she moved into the crowd, approached from behind him, and reached out to touch the hem of his clothing.

If you have access to a Bible, read Luke 8:40-50 to see how the story ends. As Jesus followers, our mission is to introduce Jesus to people who are or feel far from God, just as this woman did. Consider the following questions:

Describe a time in your life when you felt so down and out, that you would have liked to just touch the hem of Jesus' garment.

How have you helped people to reach out to connect with Jesus? How have you thrown barriers in their way? How has your church helped and/or hindered such people?

This weekend in worship our congregation will have the opportunity to confess the ways we have not helped people who are reaching out for the hem of Jesus' garments. We will repent of these things, relinquish them to God, and seek new life and purpose in Him. I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

Well, I had great plans for today's post, but I ran out of time getting ready for our state's annual denominational gathering this weekend. So, maybe this is a good opportunity not to inflict more of my musings on you and quote someone who really knows what he's talking about. Here's some good food for thought from Quaker spiritual formation writer, Parker Palmer. He's speaking about the passing of the seasons as a metaphor for life.

"If we lived close to nature in an agricultural society, the seasons as metaphor and fact would continually frame our lives. But the master metaphor of our area does not come from agriculture - it comes from manufacturing. We do not believe that we 'grow' our lives - we believe we 'make' them. Just listen to how we use the word in everyday speech: we make time, make friends, make meaning, make money, make a living, make love.

I once heard Alan Watts observe that a Chinese child will ask, 'How does a baby grow?' But an American child will ask, 'How do you make a baby?' From an early age, we absorb our culture's arrogant conviction that we manufacture everything, reducing the world to mere 'raw material' that lacks all value until we impose our designs and labor on it."

(Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. 2000. pp. 96-97.)

Interesting...wonder if it has implications for "making disciples" or "growing disciples." I'll see you around the next bend in the river.

In the last two centuries, Christians sent missionaries from Europe and the "New World" to many places around the globe. Africa was one of the targets of missionary efforts. Genuine desire to offer Jesus drove many of those efforts into the African continent. Unfortunately, some missionary movements were nothing more than a support system or cloak for Western colonial interests. In any event, by design or default, Jesus found his way into Africa over the last 300-400 years.

In a profound twist, as we enter into the 21st century, no continent on the face of the globe has fewer Jesus-followers per capita than Europe. North American trails not too far behind Europe in terms of lukewarm practice of the faith. Conversely, evangelical growth in commitment to Jesus spreads like wildfire in many places in Africa. In some places, Christians cannot organize new churches and build new places of worship fast enough. In several instances, African Christian movement now send missionaries to Europe!

A fascinating irony...in the places where the standard of living is highest, where health care is the best, and where security seems the most stable, the movement which is the Church of Jesus Christ struggles for renewal and vitality. Conversely, on a continent where poverty abounds, where health crises are rampant, and where violence and instability can be the norm, the movement grows and thrives. We North American Jesus followers have much to learn from our African brothers and sisters.

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

Churchese

What do the following words have in common: sanctification, narthex, doxology, hymn, acolyte, sermon, and introit? They are words that the vast majority of the North American population do not use or understand. They are among the many words familiar to pastors and members of mainline churches, that mean nothing to the sea of humanity around us who are unfamiliar with Jesus. They make up our unique language, which I call "churchese."

This upcoming Sunday is a special Sunday for Jesus followers, which also goes by a churchese name - Pentecost. This special day celebrates the sending of the Holy Spirit following the risen Jesus' return to God. (In the Christian Bible, see Acts 2:1-11.) Lots of signs and wonders happen in this story. There's a great sound like a mighty wind. Some kind of appearance of flame appears atop the heads of Jesus-followers. Unlettered Galileans speak of the mighty acts of God in languages they had not previously learned. The greatest miracle of Pentecost, though, is that people heard the mighty acts of God in a language they understood.

If we're serious about being obedient to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19) we need to find ways to drop "churchese" and speak to people about Jesus in a language that makes sense to them.

Consider the following:

Look at the "churchese" words above. How would you define them to someone who has no knowledge of Jesus or the church? What are other "churchese" words that need definition or purging?

Try talking about your own faith in Jesus without using "churchese" words. Have someone else check you on this.

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