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!