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Thursday, December 31, 2009

"Just So Much Talk?"


For Sunday, January 3rd, 2010

Lectionary Reading - John 1:(1-9),10-18

“Blah, blah, blah,” or “That’s just talk,” – those are expressions that many of us have heard in one form or another at some time or another. It’s also a criticism often leveled at the Christian church by many post-moderns in developed countries especially when reading words like those from this week’s lectionary reading in the Gospel of John. For them, the words lack relevancy and or the ability to make a connection with their lives. So in response to post-moderns, we now have faith leaders who in unique and strange ways try to break through such a barrier. Their words and accompanying actions can leave some of us scratching our heads or leave us astonished.

For instance, today’s men apparently need to ratchet up their masculinity according to Pastor Pat Driscoll of the Mars Hill Church is Seattle, Washington. Our best examples for that are the disciples who hung out with Jesus. By Driscoll’s account, those guys were so tough they had teeth missing. He doesn’t say how he knows that but last year at one of the many pastor conferences Driscoll does annually, he got pretty passionate about the issue. At that conference, according to Jesse Benjamin at www.wittenburgdoor.com, Driscoll railed about pastors being too wimpy and failing to be the kick-butt type leaders that God and people need today. To prove his point, Driscoll singled out five pastors in the conference audience and brought them on stage. He then put his hands behind his back, stuck out his chin and told each one to take their best swing. He also promised that he wouldn’t hit back.


When none of the five pastors would indulge Driscoll, he had them escorted off stage and out of the building. My guess is that Driscoll expelled them from the conference. Then followed the interesting part, Driscoll proceeded to strike himself five times in the face in front of the audience. Benjamin ended up titling the bout at www.wittenburgdoor.com as, “Driscoll Kicks His Own Ass!” For me, the last time I witnessed such an event a mentally ill man was in my director’s office at our mental health clinic. The fellow sat there punching his own face back and forth in front of the boss, I and another clinician called the police while filling out psychiatric commitment papers. The individual then spent the next three days in the hospital until he got over the urge to hit himself. Hopefully no teeth went missing.


There are faith leaders my friends who eat up Driscoll’s stuff and let’s not mince words here; Driscoll’s church in Seattle is quite successful and well attended. Apparently one of his followers, John Kinston, is an urban church planter in Louisville, Kentucky, who attends 37 Pat Driscoll conferences a year. Kinston shares that “…numbers aren’t important, but we’ve grown 81.7% a year since our launch date and I still can’t get the guys to step up and be warriors. We want to love our city and we can’t do that with a bunch of pansies that would rather play video games than go to a monster truck rally or tattoo their faces like Mike Tyson.” (Wait a minute, did I hear that right? Going to a monster truck rally and getting tats is how one shows love for their city?)


Continuing on and apparently live blogging at Driscoll’s conference, Kinston then shared, “At last year’s Converging Conference, Driscoll talked about standing up when you … [urinate]… and I got really excited. We started a men’s-only Bible Accountability Group. It was a combination of scripture study and Muy Thai Stick Fighting. It was great for a few weeks, until my worship pastor lost an eye. I had to make a tough call then and there: no more Muy Thai Stick Fighting at Kiona Community without protective face gear. I still think it might have been a spiritual compromise.”


When I read or hear the above kind of stuff as being some contemporary expression of the message, ministry, mission and vision of Jesus and God’s Peaceable Kingdom, I say to myself, “What kind of nonsense is this? Good Lord, how is wearing protective face gear a spiritual compromise at a Muy Thai Stick Church Fight? Kinston, I hope you asked the guy who lost his eye whether or not he felt that protective gear would have been a spiritual compromise.”


I never quite know what to make of stuff like Driscoll’s and Kinston’s, especially when I contrast it against a lectionary passage like the one for this week from the Gospel of John. I can see how such a passage might seem like just words or “blah, blah, blah” to a post modern individual and perhaps it does need to be dressed up to make some kind of impact, but Muy Thai Stick Fights? Perhaps I’m too ensconced in traditional ways or simply too wimpy or just another talking head adding to the noise of life, yet the words of John continue to generate awe in me even after 52 years of life.


If such words are simply lost on post-moderns or worse yet -- numbing to them, perhaps the shock factor of Driscoll’s and Kinston’s ministry is necessary for helping the scriptures seem real. In this over-stimulated world where everything is over-sensationalized so much of the time and therefore numbing people in so many different ways, maybe Driscoll and Kinston have hit on something. Who’s to say or judge that I guess. In one sense, all of it reminds me of a psychiatric symptom where people cut on themselves so they can at least feel something since they’ve lost the ability to feel much of anything. Perhaps the shock and awe of Driscoll’s and Kinston’s ministry is a spiritual or societal equivalent for a culture that’s become numb to all it’s exposed to and therefore it takes such efforts like Driscoll’s and Kinston’s to break through. My only hope is that faith leaders like Driscoll and Kinston prove that they are as equally passionate and demonstrative in their acts of compassion, pursuit of justice and peace-making, alleviating poverty, protesting unjust war, promoting universal healthcare, and advocating the worth and happiness of all persons as they are with their shock and awe approach to growing their congregations.

For as one friend put it to me, “I would like to go to a Muy Thai stick fighting bible study, it sounds fun. Seriously. I don't know what it is but I would like to watch at the very least. Those people sound fun.” Yet my friend also points out one very important distinction that’s close to my heart and which I think ministries like Driscoll’s and Kinston’s need to pay attention to, which is that, “If churches could do a better job of taking away the pain that we feel, pews would be full. If I could go to church and actually feel relief from the voices and compulsions in my head don't you think I would be there?” My friend has an excellent point and again it’s one very dear to my heart, for in any faith community where relief from pain occurs and the compulsions and ugly voices within are silenced and healed, then surely there resides in that community the power to become children of God. And friends, that applies whether your faith community is Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or whatever faith tradition it is that draws people together to heal and help the world be whole.

Have a great New Years everyone, and may the Peace of God be with you!

Brad

Personal note to my readers:

This week marks my 12th posting which means that I have been at this blog for about three months. To give you a little history as to how and why it got started, it’s basically a continuation of an email and snail-mail ministry that I provided on a weekly basis during much of the past five years while serving as pastor of a congregation in Portland, Oregon (U.S.A.). The congregation, like many in its denomination, has a tradition of a shared pulpit which means that a different lay person or lay minister preaches each Sunday. While this tradition can provide a wonderful variety of thought for a congregation, it constitutes a tremendous challenge for the pastor who’s typically expected to provide leadership and continuity for the congregation’s mission, vision, and message. I found however that sharing a written weekly message with my congregation based on the lectionary and coupled with our leadership team’s sense of where God was trying to lead us, made the challenge easier to manage. The weekly endeavor helped the congregation to know where I was in my thinking and leadership. In turn, their responses provided me an understanding of their feelings, needs, and desires. As luck would have it, our paths diverged this past April when my denominational authority requested that I join our “Funding for Mission” team to assist with planned giving. I have missed my former congregation yet I wish them all the best as they endeavor to complete discernment regarding their future.

While I am definitely enjoying my new job, I have discovered since leaving the pastoral role that I miss the weekly writing routine of my “e-sermons” as some folks called them. Furthermore, I felt a compelling need to continue my writing as part of the advocacy I feel so passionately for the cause of God’s Peaceable Kingdom, especially from the peace and justice perspective that drives and defines my life. I also learned in my new job that it was likely I would be preaching more often given the frequent travel that would be required. At the same time, I heard from some of my previous congregants and fellow disciples that they also missed my email messages. I spent a few months puzzling over these things while in the midst of learning a new job and tried to discern a means for knitting it all together in some kind of workable and useful venture. After a while, a light went on in my brain one morning and with it came a very clear inspiration, “Start a blog.” Obviously, that notion should have occurred to me earlier than it did, but I can be a little thick in the head sometimes. Just ask my wife.

So from that point to the present, there have been over 1,100 visitors to this blog from around the world. Visitors have come from the United States and Canada as well as from Brazil, Mexico, Australia, India, Germany, Latvia, Greece, Denmark, Chile, Netherlands, Spain, Singapore, Argentina, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Sweden, Sudan, Venezuela, Belgium, Norway, Israel, South Africa, Romania, Morocco, France, Bosnia And Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Philippines, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, and Poland.

Not in my wildest dreams would I have ever thought or anticipated that the readership for this blog would reach as far and wide as it has in only 13 weeks. As I shared with one friend, “I write simply because I must.” On sharing my surprise with another friend regarding the blog’s developments, he said, “Why should it surprise you, you’re a thoughtful writer.” One of my Canadian friends said it even more pointedly, “Get your head out of your butt, your message has substance. Sometimes I read your post five or six times.”

Those comments plus many others have been humbling for me. Your sharing and responses to blog postings have filled me with gratitude for you as we arrive to the end of 2009. So I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continuing interest. Your comments and reflections, whether communicated via the blog or by email or in person or by phone, have been helpful and encouraging. My writing and your sharing have been insightful and enlightening to me for my own spiritual journey just as my Buddhist sister-in-law said it would be. I hope you’ll continue to share your thoughts with me and share this blog with others as we seek together for what I call “God’s Day of Peace for every living soul upon the Earth.” Once again, thanks for visiting and thanks for sharing.

May the Peace of Christ be with you always!

Brad

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

"Giving Equals Surviving"


For Sunday, December 27th, 2009

Lectionary Scripture - Colossians 3:12-17 (NRSV)

A close friend recently told me that this time of year is especially important to him. He loves the festive nature of it. People are in good spirits. The holiday music buoys up most anyone. Folks are typically more generous and compassionate. For me, the landscape of life pretty much resembles the words of scripture from this Sunday’s lectionary scripture in Colossians. So on that note and trying to keep things simple right before Christmas, I have a couple of stories to share that will buoy you up during these challenging times.

The first is from an older adult individual I began working with this past September during the course of my ministry as an estate planner for my denomination. The individual has given me permission to share her thoughts related to a significant gift she’s making to the church. Likely that gift will be completed either by Christmas or year-end. For me, her generosity and selflessness and spiritual perspective are conveyed through these eloquent and poignant words,

"It does feel quite good to be making this contribution. I wanted the church to have a portion of my estate prior to my death. I trust that you are equally excited about this any time someone makes a gift to the church. Over my lifetime, I have experienced the goodness which flows forth every time a gift is given. Giving may be, in my humble opinion, the most important lesson we learn in this life. All the other doctrines or dogmas to which we subscribe have little meaning outside of what it is that we give away of ourselves and of our properties.”
The donor then shared with me the following story regarding a woman in her congregation:

"I have a dear friend who will be 81 on the 30th of this month. Just over one year ago she lost her home of 50 years to a fire. She had been slowly working at cleaning it out and making the eventual decision to sell it and move into a care facility. The fire made that decision for her. In a matter of minutes everything she had accumulated in a lifetime was gone! All, that is, except what she had given away.
She had given away a two manual organ to a university student who wanted to learn to play. She had given away some very old antique Irish music. She had given away some other items as well. Only those things which she gave away survived the fire. Everything that she had kept tucked away for safe keeping was suddenly gone! What an amazing life lesson she learned from that experience! Of course church friends resupplied her with blankets, beds, dishes, clothes, etc. That is a whole other story of goodness and giving. But, the lesson she talks about is how only the things that she gave away were able to be saved!
The other amazing lesson she shares is that the only items in her home which survived the fire were those which had already been "fired" before. There were some porcelain and antiques which survived because they had withstood the firing process and were prepared for and could withstand the intense heat again. I am trying to remember that regardless of how difficult a situation may be it is always preparation for some other experience that can enable me to grow. A hard lesson but I have had it shown to me so vividly that I cannot deny it.”
Adding my two cents as blog author, the above stories from the women prompt me to skip the usual commentary this week and adapt the Colossian scripture into a Christmas prayer for you:

As God's chosen one -- holy and beloved -- clothe yourself with compassion, kindness, humility, generosity, and patience. Bear with others and forgive and be forgiven just as the Lord forgives. Above all, clothe yourself with love towards all others which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly and with gratitude sing psalms and hymns to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of Jesus giving thanks to God always and forever. Amen.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

"Spiritual, Not Religious..."


For Sunday, December 20th, 2009

Lectionary Reading - Luke 1:39-55 (NRSV)

More than a few of the faithful have been wringing their hands this past week. Why? Well, perhaps you’ve read the news about a study completed by the Pew Research Center. It found that most people are no longer dogmatic about religion but tend to mix different faiths together. One other finding is that more people report encountering spiritual experiences than at any other time since 1962. This was the case in nearly half of the people surveyed. And most of those individuals self-identified as non-religious, non-church attending types. Lastly, there occurred another kicker from Gallup Polls regarding one of its annual surveys. The poll found that respect for ministers is at a 32 year low.

For some, the news above may seem to be one more nail in the coffin of organized religion. What it calls to mind for me is a time 16 years ago when Al Franken (now a U.S. Senator) had a religion scholar/author on his radio talk show. During the show, the individual told Franken that we’re seeing the birth of a new era wherein people choose to be their own priests, monks, and spiritual teachers.

Given all the preceding information, it appears that people, for one reason or another, do not trust or want organized religion. In short, they’ve decided to manage their spiritual lives all on their own. From the findings in other sociological work that I’ve researched over the past several years, the reasons for this are many. They range from church being boring, too structured, too traditional, and asking too often for money, all the way to it being oppressive, ignorant, toxic, resistant to change, and bankrupt morally, ethically, spiritually, and intellectually. Long and short of it, we’re in a situation where many in North America have concluded that organized religion has failed. It’s failed them personally and failed society in general. Yet the polls are pretty clear about one thing, i.e. that people do not feel that God has failed them. Nor do they feel that God has abandoned them. Indeed, more people than ever claim that they are spiritual but not religious and that their spirituality is providing them meaningful experiences for their lives.

So let’s step back in time to look at another period in human experience that might have some parallels to our current circumstance. Organized religion in the time of Mary, the mother of Jesus, was bankrupt morally, ethically, spiritually, and intellectually. It was oppressive, toxic, and utterly resistant to change. It chose to live in ignorance rather than responsiveness to the leadings of God’s Spirit. Things got to a point where even God couldn’t work with the system any longer. And what it took to change that system and re-open its heart and spirit involved nothing less than phenomenal intervention. As we also know, God determined that the system’s overhaul had to be initiated through the voices of poor, the disadvantaged, the brokenhearted and oppressed, the mentally ill, and even the untouchables. In short, God rebooted the organized religious system through people who were the most forgotten and despised.

The liberation effort began with Mary’s acceptance of God telling her that she would birth an amazing child. The life of the child would lead in turn to great blessings for all humankind. Being a poor unwed pregnant teenager, it was a phenomenal spiritual experience for a young girl in such circumstances. Despite that Mary’s experience heralded a bold and frightful departure from the organized religion of her day, she found reason for joy and voiced a song known in the scriptures as the Magnificat. In that song in Luke’s Gospel, she utters joys of liberation even before liberation had begun, let alone been realized. As Jim Rice, the editor of Sojourners put it, “This is Mary, the prophet of the poor, the champion of the downtrodden, proclaiming the overthrow of the social, economic, and political order of things. This Mary doesn't sound quite so soft-spoken, praising God for "routing the proud" and "putting down the mighty" and sending the rich empty away. God shows his power, Mary proclaims, by filling the hungry with good things and exalting the lowly.” In closing, Rice says, “She sounds more like Mother Jones than Mother Teresa!”

Ultimately, we know that the organized religion of Mary’s time changed and changed quite dramatically. It took about three hundred years from when Mary gave birth to Jesus, through to the persecuted beginnings of the early Christian church, to when Christianity became the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. Along the way, there was horrifying intolerance beginning with Jesus’ crucifixion to the infamous slaughter of Christians by lions in the Roman Coliseum.

So my question to you this posting is simple and I’d certainly like to hear from you your thoughts, “Are we also in a time where God is overhauling organized religion? What does the combination of declining numbers in many congregations and faith communities say to you, especially in the face of a huge uptick in the number of those choosing to mix and match faith traditions and be their own priests, teachers, and monks? What does the future of faith look like when you consider all these things together? What do you think God is trying to get through our thick skulls and say to us?”

For me these days, I look increasingly for the small messages God is trying to send me through loved ones and friends and seemingly insignificant things in order that I can find and understand the answers. In a sense, it’s an effort to recognize when a Mary’s Magnificat is happening in my own life. I think one such incident took place a couple of weeks ago in my local congregation. It followed after observing that my congregation is about half the size it was 15 years ago. My guess, in that moment of reflection, is that it will be down by half again in another 15 years. Perhaps the congregation will be gone altogether. As I looked around at my church family that morning, I felt and knew the love for them as I had always had. I realized it was the feeling I’ve had for people in any congregation where I have attended. Yet, I realized that we struggle for a future we’re unable to figure out. And quite possibly we’ll simply keep bumping along until there’s no energy or human resource to do that any longer.

As those thoughts rolled around in my brain and I became distracted from the worship service, I turned to look out the window by the pew I sat in that day. To my surprise there was a road sign perfectly framed in the center of the window. It read, “Dead End”. It seemed again that God was trying to say something, trying to get a message through this thick head of mine about the present circumstances in organized religion.

In that moment, I responded to God and said, “So what am I suppose to do about it? What is anyone suppose to do about it. You’ve not put the resources into my hand that are necessary for achieving change. Only a few people seem to truly care for let alone want the Peaceable Kingdom journey you’re advocating for. Most seem to want “church” to be a social club in terms of their congregation, the up-line judicatory, and their worldwide denomination. And come hell or high water, that’s how it will be.” But then I stop and remember that God halted organized religion in its tracks and scared it to death through the person of Jesus via the poverty-stricken unwed pregnant teenager who birthed him. Eventually a new course was charted and initiated. So I guess I’ll wait a bit until the path ahead becomes clearer. I’ll wait upon the Lord, knowing surely that more light and truth are bound to come forth and break through this thick skull of mine.

So what about you?

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

"Be Your Own Proclaimer"


For Sunday, December 13th, 2009

Lectionary Scripture - Luke 3:7-18

If you were called of God, like John the Baptist, to proclaim a message of good news, what would it look and sound like? To who and what and where would it be calling you? Those questions lie behind the lectionary reading for this coming Sunday from Luke 3:7-18.

Now most of us know that John was a pretty eccentric guy even by accounts from people in his day and time. Those accounts tell us that his food was insects and wild honey. He spent most of his time hanging out in the wilderness by a river baptizing people. He wore little more than camel hair. Last of all, he was pretty much a name-calling loud mouthed guy who said what he wanted when he wanted to. And while most people today might be turned off by such things, people came in droves to hear John preach at them, criticize them, call them names, and press them to repent. Go figure.

In our present day world, if a minister began his or her sermon by angrily lashing out and yelling insults at their faith community, it’s likely that a number of folks would get up and walk out. If they didn’t do that then they’d probably wonder if the minister was having a nervous breakdown and might try to get the individual some help. Others might simply fire the minister and terminate their employment.

Such behavior in our time might well be seen as abnormal and most likely it wouldn’t be tolerated. But then again, we do have our talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, Ed Schultz, Bill O’Reilly, Jon Stewart, Randi Rhodes, Glenn Beck, and Michael Savage. Each one has their own unique and eccentric way of chastising the world and calling it to live in the manner they think is best. Depending on which camp you’re in, one of these colorful characters may be your secular modern day John the Baptist. And at the close of their latest broadcast, you may be feeling pretty good about the chastisement delivered and hope that others learned the lesson for the day. Or perhaps something caught you unawares and so you decide to spend some time reflecting about the person’s latest rant. Or possibly you’re ticked off and wish you could have the person’s head on platter. We certainly know that John the Baptist met such an end after a rant about King Herod’s lack of morals. So in one regard, I guess that venues for “John the Baptist” types still exist.

Our gatherings of the faithful have however become so sanitized and orchestrated for providing comfort and good feeling that we’ve lost the ability to experience chastisement or controversy within them. Unable to be comfortable in the presence of such things, we may take offense to such experiences as it feels we’re being pushed or pressured into behaving in a manner we don’t care to or taking a stand on something. When it comes to taking a stand on something, say a particular social issue, some are concerned that those troubled by the controversy will quit their financial support or leave the community altogether. In short, such faith communities never get challenged and often they achieve little more than being a weekly social club. In some of these situations, the faith community has oppressive unspoken rules like in dysfunctional families -- therefore a lot of things never get talked about or brought up simply because the consequences of doing so are too painful and costly.

I don’t know about you, but for me, I like it when you’ve got a John the Baptist hanging around. I like it when there’s someone in my faith community who doesn’t play games, who isn’t a snake in the grass slithering around undermining others in order to preserve their own selfish interests. I like it when someone speaks out plainly and forthrightly. I like their anger and indignation especially when they’ve learned the skills for sharing such feelings without making things personal or stooping to personal attacks. I particularly like it when such a person, despite differing views and opinions, continues to be a close and trusted friend because they know you and they know what’s in your heart and that your heart is a genuine and caring one that only wants the best for all. I have had several such friends over the course of my life and as far as I am concerned, they are worth their weight in gold.

I think that’s the kind of person that people saw in John the Baptist despite all his eccentric behaviors and intense way of expressing himself. People could see that he was answering God’s call to share a particular message and he did so in his own unique way and people loved him for it. And as we know, Jesus loved him for it and held him in the highest regard. Should you choose to answer God’s call and convey the message you’re commissioned to bring the world, you need to know that despite how others see you or react to you -- the form of that message/ministry and the character of that message/ministry are all your own. And know this, Jesus’ is going to love you for sharing it and will hold you in the highest esteem even when others lack the generosity in their hearts to do so.

For the prickly folks with thin skins and selfish hearts, John was a threat that needed to be removed. In one sense, it’s rather interesting they felt threatened since John was a person of truly limited means and often so strange that a lot of folks were probably dismissive toward him. He also had few methods available for broadcasting his controversial message. There was no Internet, no such thing as blogs. Few people could read and John didn’t have the luxury that religious authorities and public officials had. For those folks, they had their own system of town criers in the public square who proclaimed their messages for them. Yet, John managed to reach a huge number of people through a compelling, persuasive, passionate, even engaging message from beside a river out in the wilderness. The message caught fire simply by word of mouth from one person to another. Let’s face it my friends, John wasn’t about to let his voice be silenced. Only a corrupt official with a scheming spouse could do that, by then it was too late even for their efforts because John’s message was out and “it went viral” as some folks put it in this digital age.

And despite how irritated John’s rants made the religious leaders and public officials, John shared his message so effectively that people came from every walk of life to hear him and be baptized. Some went even further and asked about how they should live their lives. Tax collectors asked John for his input about their work and he counseled them to collect no more tax than what they were supposed to. Soldiers asked him what they should do to live more ethically and godly. John replied by urging them to be satisfied with their wages and not threaten or falsely accuse people. To others in a more general way, he told them to share their clothing and food with those who have none or haven’t enough. To those who came to hear his message in order to undermine him or get rid of him, he publically called them out identifying them as poisonous snakes, making clear that they would not escape God’s judgment.

John was but one person. There have been many others since him who the Divine has called to proclaim a message of good news. Each of those proclaimers had their own unique character and means of invading the world’s consciousness. It’s not too difficult to identify a few of those persons are such Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Mohammed, Martin Luther, Joan of Arc, Thomas Merton, Nelson Mandela, Buddha, Henri Nouwen, Dalai Lama, Martin Luther King Jr, and last be not least -- you and me.

So I put to you the question again, if you were called of God to proclaim a message of good news – and you most certainly are -- what would it look and sound like? To who, what, and where would it be calling you? Never mind how others might perceive that message or what kind of box they want you in for conveying your message. Simply do what John did. Set those kinds of things aside and be your own unique proclaimer. Do that even if it means moving on to friendlier pastures. In short, that’s how you provide leaven for God’s Peaceable Kingdom heaven.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

"The End of Religion...."


For Sunday, December 6th, 2009

Lectionary Reading - Luke 1:68-79

“The end of religion as we know it,” was Zechariah’s message of hope in Luke 1:68-79. While he may not have used those exact words, it was the meaning behind them in the event Luke recorded. To elaborate on the passage, I’ll draw upon commentary from Chris Haslam at the Anglican Diocese of Montreal (http://www.montreal.anglican.org/comments/cadv2m.shtml)

Haslam’s commentary notes that Zechariah is a priest who has been on duty at the Temple. While serving in the most sacred part of the Temple, an angel appears to tell him that his wife, Elizabeth, will bear a child in her old age. The child is to be named John. Zechariah questions how such a thing can be. For doubting, the angel renders him mute and unable to speak.  Speak loss will be his life until his son is born.

Eight days after their son’s birth, Elizabeth and Zechariah take their child to a rabbi to be circumcised and named. When Zechariah is asked for the child’s name, he motions for a tablet to write on as he is still mute. On writing that his son will be named John, Zechariah’s powers of speech return. He is then filled with God’s Spirit and foretells that his son will prepare the world for a blessing God plans to bring. The blessing is Jesus who will save people from sin.

Zechariah then says that people will learn through God’s blessing that they can love God and no longer fear God’s wrath. And through John’s ministry of proclaimation, he will foster an ethical godly way of living that prepares people for hearing Jesus’ message and teachings. For in Jesus, all will experience a new “dawn” for humanity. The new dawn will be that when our hopes run low and we stand in great need, Jesus will be the light guiding us forward into peace -- peace that will bring wholeness, harmony, well-being, prosperity, and security for all.

In what Zechariah prophesied, he meant nothing less than a complete transformation of religion as it was known and lived in his time. As many of us know, the religious system of his time had been carefully crafted over numerous centuries and even millennia. Life in the system meant complying with hundreds of different religious laws and spiritual expectations. According to the system, one did so if one hoped to find favor in the eyes of God rather than anger. The end result is that the laws and expectations micro-managed people’s lives so severely that they feared God and feared any religious authority representing God.

Their religious system, initially intended by Moses to help people structure their lives and find relationship with a loving God, devolved into abuse and neglect. At its worst, it placed heavy burdens on its followers emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, and financially. Over time, it became a system of maltreatment rather than a system of uplift. Even its leaders were corrupt and idolatrous and so full of ego that they chose to maintain their institution and its survival at any cost.

In doing so, they closed themselves off to God’s Prophetic Spirit. Even Zechariah, for all his goodness, had lost touch with God’s Spirit. It would take an angel’s visitation in the Temple to begin his restoration. And so that he had time to fully reconnect with God, the angel rendered Zechariah mute until his son’s birth. The reconnection would be critical for the spiritual discernment Zechariah needed for supporting his son and wife in helping John grow to be the courageous man God needed -- the one we know as John the Baptist.

Nearly two thousand years later, God’s Spirit is trying to break through with a message of hope not unlike that which Zechariah experienced. It is a message that everything must change and that the end of religion approaches, at least the end of what we have known as religion. Does that strike terror in you or give you cause for celebration? Maybe you feel something in between, like anxiousness or worry? Perhaps like Zechariah you wonder how this can be and even doubt it. Possibly you’re in a different space altogether and come hell or high water, you’re determined that religion will remain exactly as it is. Well, it’s certainly your right to try, but the cocoon that’s encased you is aging, cracking and fragmenting, falling into pieces here and there. Before long, it will be dust.

How do we know this? Well, let’s look around. In most of our long established faith communities, the hair is pretty gray. Fewer and fewer people are available to help with ministry. Those remaining have poorer health and less energy for doing the things that need to be done and they have many needs. Along with it, there’s an increasing leadership vacuum. Those studying that vacuum project that most of the 300,000 congregations in the United States will close within the next twenty years due to the diminishing number of people willing and able to be leaders.

Two other important measures are the median age of your congregation and the fact that congregations lose 12% of their active membership every year.
Regarding the median age of active members, if half or more of your gathered community is not under the age of 30, then your congregation is in decline and will probably be gone within a generation, perhaps sooner depending on your church’s median age. Regarding the 12% annual loss, a congregation must bring in as new members the equivalent of 12% of its active membership just to maintain its present size. As one might guess, most established congregations have great difficulty doing that these days. Most are losing ground in terms of these two important measures and they’re losing it fast.

So why do the religious find themselves in these situations? Well, it has mostly to do with the inability to change and being open to change, especially the change that Christ wants now for making justice real and the Peaceable Kingdom real. After leading three congregations and serving as a denominational field officer and congregational support minister during much of the past 25 years, I find this to be the case. A lot has to do with people being uncomfortable with change and the pain that change requires and not wanting others in the congregational family to feel pain. So the congregational boat is never rocked nor are its sails put into the wind.  And people who rock the boat are typically put ashore.

Often a band-aid for discomfort is applied to the situation when something more drastic is needed. For my own experience, I know young adults (largely missing from our churches) who have shared very deeply their pain and distress over their churches and denomination’s inability to redeploy precious resources so missional winds could fill congregational sails. Their discouragement runs deeps at seeing important assets lie idle for decades, often resting in the hands of a few churchgoers here or a few churchgoers there. They feel helpless to effect change that’s needed in their larger communities as the local church typically sees its resources existing for its own needs. When two of these young adults asked a denominational official to explain why such things are allowed and why someone doesn’t do something about it, the official’s response was that the issue calls for patience and gentility.

The young adults pressed back that they saw no sense in such an approach. Furthermore, it represented poor stewardship which would fail to attract members of their generation, thereby leaving the denomination little hope for the future. Reflecting for a moment on their words, the official noted that perhaps it’s kinder to rip off a band-aid quickly like at the doctor’s office, rather than taking it off slowly and supposedly gently which serves only to prolong pain and discomfort. Makes sense to me.

The problem is that religious leaders often prefer not to risk the positive regard they’ve built up through the years.  So they fail to speak plainly and forthrightly as Zechariah did. One can bet that in Zechariah's case, he risked a great deal uttering his prophetic words. No doubt he lived those words out since his son became a powerful, even eccentric, spiritual leader. What can be said of prophetic leadership other than is never easy and often it’s full of heartbreak and hardship; the lives of John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ stand out as examples.

So while it seems that religion’s end is upon us for a variety of reasons, an entirely new movement of the faithful is taking shape and form. They are persons who refuse to sit passively on a pew or commit their time to congregational maintenance. Years ago they lifted their eyes to the horizon and the Spirit gave them phenomenal -- even eccentric -- vision of extraordinary possibilities for healing the world, ending suffering, and reconciling humankind. Nearly one million of them lifted their eyes in the early 1990s. Today, they number 20 million and in another decade or two they will be 40 million strong in the United States.

Who are they? They are today’s generations of young adults and baby-boomers missing from established churches. They are the persons from those generations who saw the need for change and welcomed and embraced it as part of their daily life. They are independent-minded people who are unwilling to let churches or denominations dictate how they will follow Christ or what they will do on behalf of the Peaceable Kingdom. They are the ones who say, “I’m spiritual but not religious.” Openly, they welcome and work alongside brothers and sisters of any faith who seek for the world to become whole, where all will have enough, and none will fear for their safety at any moment of the day or night.

Many of them work toward these ends through being the church in their private homes, cramped apartments, and coffee shops, bar taverns, auto repair centers, places of work, or a Habitat for Humanity build. They know no limit to the possibilities or opportunities for being the church --- doing so when and where and how it best suits their sense of calling. Worship for them is no spectator-sport but an experience they have in the midst of hands-on work relieving pain and suffering and injustice done to others.

As these individuals prefer to do ministry rather than manage real estate, existing church buildings will be repurposed as was done with one in my community. Where there had been a diminishing number of worshippers huddled together in a deteriorating building the congregation couldn’t keep up with, there is now a non-profit agency that serves more than 10,000 people each year in the course of eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. Where there had been no vision for the future, there now exists a completely renovated facility supporting victims of domestic violence, homelessness, sexual assault, oppression, child abuse and neglect. At such a place, on most days of the week, you’ll find the company of the committed and faithful. There, they have rebuilt lives, fostered positive life choices, and rebirthed self-esteem; all because of innovative services provided in a caring and compassionate environment.

Yep, it’s the end of religion as we know it. So I ask again, does that strike terror in you or give you cause for celebration? Do you feel something in between, like anxiousness or worry? What I pray is that you feel hope. In fact, I pray that you feel an abundance of hope. The church will always be with us. It isn’t going away. Jesus will make sure of that. It will simply look and act a little different. Eventually we’ll get the hang of it and learn to embrace the change we need to be. In time, we will become valuable and necessary to the change that's taking place.

Perhaps one young adult said it best to me this past week while relating a conversation with his grandfather. He asked his grandfather who is an evangelist how he felt about the church dying and going away, i.e. the church that’s been his whole life. The evangelist said, “It has to die if there’s to be what God wants next.”

Saturday, November 28, 2009

"Out of the Wild......."



For Sunday, November 29th, 2009


Lectionary Reading Luke 21:25-36

"Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment" is a Discovery Channel reality show.  It involves a group of people dropped off into the Alaskan bush. Subsequently, they hike their way back to the civilized world which takes nearly a month. Their means for accomplishing such a feat relies upon a compass and map that shows the path they’re to follow. Laden with make shift backpacks, a small amount of food, and other survivalist gear, the group begins their journey. Wisely, they take basic survivor training prior to the trip. Of the nine who begin the journey, only four or five complete the experiment. Those who opted out utilized a button box device that summoned a helicopter. The helicopter would rescue the overwhelmed person and get them back to civilization.

Now I must admit that I watched all eight episodes of the show’s first season. By the end of the season, I felt considerable admiration for the participants who completed the trek. I admired what they endured and achieved, particularly the close sense of community and family that developed between those who stuck it out. I also admired their resourcefulness in the face of adversity. I admired what each person discovered about themselves as a person living under great hardship due to lack of food, inadequate shelter, no transportation or medical services, and life in extreme weather. I appreciated what each individual learned about the person they became because of hardship. Lord knows I couldn’t have made such a journey.

The availability however of the button box device was an interesting touch to the show. It’s ability to summon a rescue chopper amounted to a modern day manifestation of, “Swing low, sweet chariot, coming for to carry me home!” With a press of a button a person could be whisked away from their misery to a comfortable hotel, a hot shower, plenty of food, or to a doctor if the need required it. Wouldn’t it be great if each living soul on the earth had such a device? But then I must remember that “Out of the Wild” is a reality show, which means that it’s contrived life, not real life. Its contrived life since no one – at least to the best of my knowledge -- is handing out button box rescue devices to the 6.7 billion persons who comprise our world population.

It would be nice if there was such a device for the 1.07 billion of us who go hungry every day. It would be nice to have such a device for the 2.5 million individuals displaced by violence in Darfur. It would be nice to have such a device for the women and girls who have been sexually violated due to Darfur violence. And such a device would have been a huge life saver for the six million Jews tortured and murdered during World War II by Hitler and his Nazi following.

Jesus once said that when hard times are upon us, it is a sign that God’s Peaceable Kingdom draws near (Luke 21:25-36). During such times leading up to then, he counseled that we hold fast, that we pray for strength, and that we not let our hearts and spirits be weighed down by worry, or allow various distractions, compulsions, or addictions to rule or entrap our lives. He counseled these things so we’re able to see and act for the cause of the Peaceable Kingdom here on earth.

The German pastor theologian, Dietrich Bonheoffer, once described in a sermon his sense of what these times are like. He described present-day life as being a worker in a mine. Day after day a person toils away in unpleasant circumstances. Then one day, the worst happens. The mine caves in. The worker knows that those above ground are aware of the cave-in. He knows and believes they’re doing everything possible to rescue him and his co-workers. He knows there’s no magic button to push to rescue him from his dangerous circumstances. So along with his fellow miners, they follow their protocols for treating and assisting the injured, preserving oxygen, readying and conserving their emergency resources if rescue takes longer than expected. Everyone works together to keep each other’s spirits up. Slowly, the rescuers draw closer. Soon the trapped miners hear equipment working through the devastation and debris of the cave-in. Rescuers call out reassuring the trapped persons that help is on the way and soon they’ll breakthrough and all will be saved. The trapped are told to have courage and hold on and there may be need for help from their side of the cave-in. Finally the breakthrough is achieved and all are reunited. Treating the hurt and injured becomes the priority, but eventually everyone is freed from the nightmare and brought up and out into the light of day.

Shortly after Bonheoffer preached this sermon in England, his countrymen requested his return to Germany to help rescue a citizenry trapped by Hitler and his Third Reich. Despite the urging of many that he not go as returning to Germany would be suicide, Bonheoffer ignored his friends’ concerns and went back to his native home. In essence, he joined the company of the trapped, trying to support and encourage them while the rest of the world worked from the other side of the moral cave-in wrought by the Third Reich. Bonheoffer did so while the world worked to clear out the devastation and debris that resulted from the Nazi tsunami. Bonheoffer worked diligently, even feverishly, from his side of things but in the end the Nazis robbed him of his own life’s breath by hanging him for plotting against Hitler. In Bonheoffer’s case there was no button box device summoning some chariot to whisk him away from the gallows. What a blessing it would have been to Bonheoffer, his family and friends, the world, and his native country had he possessed one. But once again, that’s not real life is it.

The answers to our problems and difficulties, challenges, and evils of this world will not go away with the press of a button. Yet some things can be more easily achieved than others such as committing and spending the $13 billion dollars the United Nations estimates as needed for basic health and nutrition for all the world’s poor. Given the hundreds of billions of dollars the United States gladly spends to maintain military domination over the rest of the world, thirteen of those billions seems a small price to pay to alleviate the suffering caused by hunger. It also seems a very small price to pay rather than sitting helplessly by the side of every child who dies horribly every five seconds from starvation – a total of 3 million children who die so terribly every year. How many of those bedsides could anyone of us sit by before we ourselves would need to press the button box device? That we allow anyone to suffer in such ways is a testament to the dark cave we’ve mined out together with our fellow human beings.

There’s a saying in my faith tradition that we hold quite dear. Many of us have it memorized. It’s inspiration that came through one of our leaders several decades ago. It’s written upon our hearts and into the fabric of our beings. For the benefit of discussion here I will paraphrase it by saying that “God’s Peaceable Kingdom is no closer or further away than our spiritual condition justifies.” And lest you think that such a condition means spiritual navel gazing, let me disabuse you of that right now. Let me also disabuse you of the notion that in some singular moment of a day known only to God, you’ll suddenly have some sweet chariot whisking you up and away from the injustices and challenges we face. That’s not real life, its fantasy life.

Real life means there are no magic answers, no magic buttons. Real life is often dirty, cruel, and far more about indifference and satisfying one’s self-interests than we want to think about or acknowledge. Frequently, real life pits us against people who never learned two of life’s basic lessons and often those individuals are little more than wolves in sheep’s clothing. What lessons didn’t they learn? Well, they didn’t learn to love God with all their heart and mind and strength. And they didn’t learn to love others as much as they learned to love themselves. I’ve seen quite a few of them in my time --- some even call themselves ministers --- and it never ceases to amaze me what they get away with and how others allow them to do so. This is the moral cave-in of our time. This is the extreme weather and hardship and deprivation that are ours. What will change it? The answer is you and me and the end of our passivity and collusion with such persons – no matter how minor their behavior seems to be. The next healthiest step any of us can make is joining a solidly self-aware community that’s proactive for justice and the fruits of justice such as peace itself.

Tell the indifferent, the cruel, the greedy, the self-absorbed, and even the wolves that you’ve had enough. Tell them you’ve had enough of a world that they think exists to service them rather than the common good. Don’t be surprised that they’ll resist you, diminish you, and even subvert you. It’s what their cowardice does in the face of a good their selfishness cannot control. Had Hitler been so convinced of the rightness of his path, why didn’t he stick around on the world stage after his defeat to defend his point of view at Nuremburg? He didn’t because the monster’s cowardice required suicide instead.

So if you’re caring or compassionate, selfless or generous, visionary or dreamer, ask yourself what you can do to aid the rescue effort. What is the Spirit of Christ urging you do from our side of the cave-in to usher in God’s Day of Peace for all? Please forego living into life’s intoxications and distractions, letting yourself be trapped there unable to do anything useful. Come back from out of the wild my friends, you’re needed more than you know for helping us dig out of this mess.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

"For This I Came.."


Lectionary Scripture:

John 18:33-37

December 14th, 2005, a group of 115 faith leaders took up a position outside the U.S. House of Representatives Cannon office building in Washington, D.C. On that frigid blustery morning, men and women and young and old went down on their knees to block an entrance to that building. They did so “to testify to the truth” that federal budgets are moral documents. What prompted their civil disobedience was Congress' plan to pass a budget making deep cuts to services and support for the country’s most vulnerable and needful citizens. They planned to do this while also giving generous tax breaks to the country’s wealthiest people. It was nothing less than a case of robbing the poor to reward the rich.


The anticipated budget called for funding cuts to food stamps, student college loans, healthcare for the poor, enforcement of domestic violence no-contact orders, and resources for child foster care. In short, what Congress planned to do was immoral. So faith leaders from around the country assembled to protest. Peacefully but with one loud clear voice, these faith leaders proclaimed to Congress, “Shame on you!” Before the protest was over, all of them were arrested. I know because I was one.

Unlike Jesus in his encounter with Pontius Pilate, we were treated respectfully duirng and after our arrests for speaking the truth we came to proclaim. For proclaiming his truth, Pilate mocked Jesus and then humiliated and tortured him.  Pilate did so to placate the religious authorities who arrested Jesus on dubious grounds of treason for claiming kingship over the Jews. Pilate found no basis to those charges and it's likely the religious authorities could have cared less about the claim as well. What actually terrified them was the message Jesus had for his people.  It was a simple yet straightforward message that God loves us unconditionally and calls us to create an earthly kingdom wherein we love one another as fully and completely as God loves us.

What terrified the religious authorities about the message was its immense popularity; a popularity which threatened to unravel their carefully controlled system of rewards and punishments and ritual purity; a system which garnered them incredible influence, power, wealth, and control over the people.  It was therefore a message the chief priests and scribes weren’t going to allow.  So on trumped up charges they took Jesus to Pilate. Believing that only death could stop Jesus, the priests threatened Pilate with appeals to Caesar unless he executed Jesus.  With Pilate being the only civil authority possessing power to issue a death sentence, Pilate literally washed his hands of the situation.  He did so out of fear for the loss of his political capital in Rome should appeals go forward to his superiors in Rome.  Pilate then complied with the chief priests and through their complicity as "the powers that be", Jesus was then put to death.

Nearly two thousand years later, we’re still struggling against the powers that be to proclaim and bring to life the truth that Jesus was called to proclaim. The dynamics of domination and empire-like control over the world continue to preoccupy so many of our political and religious leaders.  At times, it seems a form of psychopathology and dysfunction all its own.  For me, the worship service the night before our arrests in December 2005 served as a reminder regarding how critical it is that we continue to proclaim God’s love and pursue the cause of the Peaceable Kingdom, especially when our government forgets itself and those for whom it exists to protect and serve.  Leading out with such a witness at that worship service was the Reverend Barbara Williams-Skinner of the Skinner Leadership Institute. She immediately captured our attention as she spoke of God’s imperative to overcome poverty.  She then admonished that we don't know who we are anymore. We may call ourselves Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists, or whatever, but all that is immaterial she said, "....for what we are is Kingdom People and that means we strive to free the world of poverty, war, sickness and disease."  To do that, Barbara said we must get a grip on the fact that first and foremost we are children of ”the most high God and as such we are warriors for the poor and voices for those who've been silenced by our culture and society."

Following Barbara, the Reverend Ray Riviera of Latino Pastoral Action spoke and counseled that when the empire and its laws sacrifice the poor, then it cannot expect continued support.  He then urged that while not supporting the empire’s decrees may offend some of our constituencies, we should take courage and place our trust in God remembering that within the workings of the empire we're to keep first and foremost in our minds to whom we ultimately belong.

Perhaps the oldest minister speaking at the service was John Perkins, Chair of the Christian Community Development Association. A young man during the 1960s civil rights movement he had participated in numerous acts of non-violent civil disobedience. At the beginning of his remarks he said, “I’m getting too old for this.” Everyone laughed and applauded.  John then followed with quotes from Matthew, Chapter 25, which says that when we care and respond to the least of God’s children then we have ministered to Christ himself.  John then witnessed of growing up on a plantation as a share cropper, a life which he said wasn’t any different from slavery and how that life caused his mother’s death from starvation while she tried to nurse him as a seven month old baby. John then closed his sharing with these words, “You serve God when you serve those who are broken in our society.”

Jim Wallis followed as the last speaker at the evening. He summed up the spirit of the gathering and encouraged us for the events to follow the next morning.  He said, “Any gospel that doesn’t bring good news to poor people is not the gospel of Jesus.”  Bolstering our resolve for the prayer vigil and arrests to come the next day, Jim shared emphatically that Jesus always stood with poor people and that we confuse them if we fail to do likewise.  He spoke passionately that the real scandal of Christmas that year had nothing to do with forcing Target and Wal-Mart to greet customers with “Merry Christmas.”  The real scandal he said are those who would send away the hungry to fill the rich -- they are the ones living in total contravention to the love of God.  Jim then asked us to pray for changed hearts and changed votes in Congress and to remember that the following morning we’d enact a Christmas Pageant of our own as the police picked us up and carried us off to jail. Keenly aware of the distress we’d feel at being arrested, Jim closed the service with a text from Hebrew Scripture in Habakkuk. It’s a text that he carries around at important times and it reads as follows, "Then the Lord answered me and said: Write the vision, make it plain on tablets so that a runner may read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay." After the scripture, we joined hands and sang the spiritual, "We Shall Overcome." Following a benediction, the worship presider asked us to turn to each other and wish one another a good night by saying, "Hope to be arrested with you tomorrow."  Laughter and hugs followed as we left the church sanctuary.

The next morning following a press conference with the media outside the House of Representatives office building, we went to the nearest entry of the building. We took up a position blocking the building entrance and then knelt in prayer and sang songs. Before long where we knelt, I found the feet of a Capitol Police officer before me.  A few moments later I was arrested for unlawful assembly and refusing police orders to leave the area.  My arrest happened early into our protest likely because I evidenced signs of exposure. We had been out in the cold for several hours and I was trembling uncontrollably from its effects.  I was certainly grateful to the officer for taking notice.

Handcuffed and then bused to a makeshift jail inside a large garage at Capitol Police headquarters, we finally had a chance to warm up.  Officers searched and documented us and ordered us to give up our coats and any other belongings we had, the items would be returned upon our release. Officers then removed our handcuffs and instructed us to sit on plastic chairs that had been set up in long rows. We were not to move from the chairs at any time unless an officer gave us permission and escorted us by the arm. Even a trip to the washroom required an officer escort who maintained line of sight upon us at all times. It was clear that we were under arrest and detainees, but there was always an air of respect and even admiration from the officers. One sergeant said to a small group of us, “We’ve never had such a pleasant and polite mass arrest as this one.” As the last of our group cleared the initial processing and police began to release us one by one after paying a $50 fine, we sang Christmas carols to keep up each other’s spirits. We were a choir of angels all our own.

The whole experience yielded an important lesson for me which is that the truth which Jesus came to proclaim continues to need ardent proclamation now. In the week which followed my arrest, I felt led to write this adaptation of the Magnificat which is also known as the Song of Mary, the mother of Jesus. You can find the original version in the Gospel of Luke (1:46-55).  My adaptation reads as follows: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior who has looked with favor on our lowliness. Surely, from now on all generations will call us blessed; for the Mighty One has done great things for us, and holy is God’s name whose mercy is from generation to generation. For God has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts and has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; filling the hungry with good things. The servants of Israel are in remembrance before you, O God, praising your mercy according to the promises made to our ancestors and descendants forever and ever. Amen."

As to the success of our protest and its goals of changing hearts and minds and votes, there was a bit of success with Congress. Publicly some House of Representatives members shamed Congress with the knowledge of the arrests of faith leaders from around the country who had felt it necessary to leave their houses of worship and pastoral duties to go to Washington and protest.  In response, Members of the House decided not to cut food stamps as deeply as they had first planned, but they still cut everything else and gave a big hand up to the rich.

So the proclamation must continue my friends and it will surely remain a long hard slog toward God’s Peaceable Kingdom for all, but as a Canadian friend tells me, “Sometimes as persons of faith we have the honor of raising our voices together in protest. At other times, it takes courage to speak in a lone voice above that of others.”

If you’ll be the voice in your community helping God to heal and reconcile and bring about the kind of justice that respects and uplifts all human life, then you like Christ will know the reason for which you were born. Like him, you too will speak your truth to the powers and majesties of this earthly realm and say, “For this I came...”

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

"Sorry Pastor Rick, but...."



Lectionary Scripture - Mark 13:1-8

          Sorry Pastor Rick, but I’m in a completely different place than you. Ever since 2004 when I read part way into your book, "A Purpose Driven Life", I’ve had to swear off the “purpose-driven” sauce. It’s due to particular comments in your book. Most of those comments revolved around one specific condition for joining the family of God. The condition? A person must accept Jesus Christ. Sorry brother, but my spiritual journey went beyond that a long time ago.  Now I’m sure that countless lives have been blessed by your book and for that I am grateful.  For me however, I set your book down and haven’t picked it back up. I simply haven’t the time for religious exclusion or theological segregation.

When I heard however that you spoke at the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America in Washington, D.C. this past Fourth of July, I wanted to find out more. So I watched a brief video of your remarks (Rick Warren at the ISNA Conference - July 4th, 2009).  It touched me to hear you confess your love for your Muslim brothers and sisters and neighbors. It also touched me to hear you acknowledging globalization and how it’s drawing people from different faiths closer together. And I loved hearing you ask about how we can live and work together in greater harmony for the benefit of the common good. Lastly, you asked a really important question in that address. You asked about how we can deal with our deepest differences in order to achieve these things.

By that point Rick, you had me on the edge of my seat. I listened and hoped intently for some new insight you’d had, but then you said really disappointing stuff. You asked your Muslim brothers and sisters how we might pursue such things yet maintain “our separate traditions without compromise.” You lost me there brother and I bet you lost some of your Muslim participants at the convention. You lost me because I will not, and cannot, accept the family of God as a “Christians Only” club.

Friends, when I hear faith leaders professing love for others as Rick Warren did, I wonder why they haven’t taken the next and so obvious step in their faith journey. What’s that step? Well, it’s the step which says that everyone is part of God’s family, particularly if they hope, desire, pray for or seek after a just and peaceful world. The only people not part of the family of God are those who choose otherwise. No “ifs” and or “buts” about it as far as I’m concerned. If this world is to heal and become whole, folks who take a “Christians Only” view to the family of God truly need a “come to Jesus” moment.

Wonder what that moment’s about? Well, in the words of Catholic theologian Hans Kung, he writes in his book "Global Responsibility" that there can be no genuine world peace until there is peace among the world’s religions. So what that means for me is that as long as any persons of faith maintain a mindset of exclusionary criteria for being part of the family of God, then our world will never find its way to peace. In this day and age, such mindsets within the Christian faith serve only to increase society and culture’s dismissal of the Christian path, which in my opinion is too important a path to lose.

For those of us needing to maintain religious and theological segregation, I think that spending a day at Jesus’ side a couple of millennia ago might be a good thing. You probably know the day. The Apostle Mark reported about it (Mark 13:1-8). It’s the day Jesus and his disciples walked out of the Jerusalem Temple and he found them awestruck by the impressive buildings and sights surrounding them that heralded the religious system of their time.

Seeing his followers caught up in awe and possibly intimidated by what they saw, he confronts them and tells them, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” In time, what Jesus prophesied came true when the Temple as a symbol of religious empire was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. But that wouldn’t be all, Jesus said, for the end of time would also include wars and rumor of war, friends and family betraying one another, kingdoms and nations and empires rising up against each other, and even famines and earthquakes. Even then, Jesus said, these things will not be the end, but rather the “birth pangs” of what is about to come.

In my playbook, the birth pangs Jesus spoke of will be what herald the birth of a new enlightenment -- one that will be long and slow and painful in coming about. One realization of that enlightenment will be that no single group of individuals has the right of ascendancy over any other. Furthermore, humanity will finally commit itself to the ideal that war shall be no more and that any resource capable of benefitting the common good will be a resource that all have access to. In my opinion, it doesn’t require much imagination to identify what those blessings will be my friends, but let’s name a few just so we get the idea, e.g. 24/7 security throughout all the earth, housing, universal healthcare, living wage jobs, safe and healthful food, clothing, education, and the list goes on and on. In short, we’re talking no less than God’s Day of Peace for each and every living soul. Some of us like to call it the realization of God’s Peaceable Kingdom.

As we haven’t arrived yet to that time, it says to me that more empires will fall. For me, I think there’s one empire ideal in Christian thought which needs demolition for sure. It’s the notion that “only Jesus saves.” You might ask, “Well Brad, don’t you believe that Jesus saves people into the family of God?” Well of course I do and following Jesus has definitely worked for me. Jesus is my brother, my friend, my confidante, my guide. I don’t know what I would do without him. But I know far too many other people who are Jewish and Muslim and Buddhist and Hindu who devote themselves completely to what they experience as God. Not only that, but they are humble, peace-loving, caring, devout individuals who sacrifice regularly for the betterment of the common good and a healthier world. Will a loving God simply cast those persons aside or say, “Get Jesus, otherwise it’s hellfire and damnation for you!” I doubt it. So it’s here where my experience of God and Jesus differ greatly from those who want the family of God to be a “Christians Only” club.

For my Jesus tells me one simple truth: All are loved by God and all are within the family of God. Hopefully that means that even the vilest person who ever lived will have the possibility for redemption in God’s Peaceable Kingdom. They will have it because whatever contributed to bringing about their evil will have a chance to be healed, even as Jesus healed and cast out demons during his earthly walk. In the end, the only souls casting themselves into oblivion will be those who decide that such is what they want. Long and short of, I guess I side with Native American Nez Perce Chief Joseph who once said, “We were taught to believe that the Great Spirit sees and hears everything, and that he never forgets, that hereafter he will give every man a spirit home according to his deserts; if he has been a good man, he will have a good home; if he has been a bad man, he will have a bad home. This I believe and all my people believe the same.”

So what keeps great faith leaders like Rick Warren and others from taking the next step in their spiritual journey? I frankly don’t know. Perhaps they are worried that if they do their followers will abandon them. Well possibly that could happen. They have built their empires -- stone upon stone -- on the back of a principle that the family of God is an exclusive “Christians Only” club. So people wanting that kind of club huddle by the masses in their huge mega-churches, but time marches on and society and culture grow weary and dismissive of such things. There’s a fray developing at the edge however and a single thread could undo it all for them. It’s a thread with a voice that’s quite familiar to most of us today. It says, “I’m spiritual but not religious.”

Faith leaders and their churches rail away at that thread and voice, but it’s too late to cut the legs out from beneath it. And if faith leaders try to befriend it, they rightfully worry that their empires will begin to crumble stone by stone, particularly if that friendship leads to the logical next step in their faith journeys which is that all belong to the family of God. Maybe such leaders worry that they’ll be labeled heretics and one follower after another will head for the exits out of their mega-church empires because it won’t feel like their church anymore. Yes, maybe some of that will happen particularly for folks who like to gorge on the notion that God favors one faith tradition over another. I certainly know what it’s like to be part of such a club since I was raised in one. Thankfully, we moved on from that notion.

My guess however for those of us still struggling with the “one true church” or “one true faith” ideal is this: If we can take the next logical step in our faith journeys and let our minds acknowledge and our spirits confess a broader understanding of God’s love, there will still be plenty of folks willing to hang out with us. In fact, it will be a bigger and even more delightful family of God than we might have ever imagined. It probably means however that what we call – or think of as – church will change and change quite dramatically. I suspect that through the life course of our two youngest generations, we will get some pretty clear notions of what’s to come.

So my counsel for great guys like Rick Warren is this, “Keep a familiar hymn close to heart.” It’s the one with a couple of wonderful lines in it such as, “We limit not the truth of God to our poor reach of mind,” and, “The Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from his word.” If we can grab hold of that, through and through, I’m sure it will make God’s day and Jesus will have one big bear hug waiting for us at the Pearly Gates. Heck, I’ll give you one right now. Have a great week my friends!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Wraparound! What a concept!


Lectionary Scripture - Nov 8th - Mark 12:38-44

Wraparound! What a great means for people helping other people in their community. Its healing benefits for one’s community could increase its well-being a thousand fold. How so? Well by faith groups wrapping their heads around it to provide it, that’s how. Seriously! In fact, I believe that if they did so it would foster a new revival for faith all across the country. Furthermore, I think my politically conservative friends would love it to pieces. Why? Because of the savings it brings to the public dollar.


Wraparound, in a nutshell, is focused on helping individuals and families get unmet needs met and met sustainably. It involves bringing together a group of people for the purpose of support. The group often consists of loved ones, friends, relatives, and professionals as needed. The group forms into a care team. Their work is driven by the voice of the person or family the group seeks to support. A mission and vision develops out of the group’s work for getting unmet needs met. Subsequently, the unmet need involves a brainstorming process. Creatively and resourcefully, the team identifies and pursues means of getting the need met. Once the needs have been met and met sustainably as evident through a review process, life for the individual or family often takes on new meaning and purpose. Life becomes more satisfying often with fewer and fewer crises occurring. Initially, care teams meet frequently. But as life becomes more healthful, the care team meets less frequently. Eventually, persons or families manage on their own. If there is more than one need to address, the team works on the next need until that need is met and so on. The beauty of wraparound is seeing lives take on a radiant glow as a new vision for the future takes hold and comes into being.

I had the good fortune of being trained years ago by one of the nation’s leading experts in wraparound, Carl Schick. At the time, I had no idea that Carl was a member of my denominational church family. Carl’s training left quite an impression on me. I then spent much more time in training with his associate, Pat Miles, also a leading expert. At the time, I worked in the publicly funded mental health system in Clark County in Washington State. Having oversight and care management roles for the adult part of that system, I witnessed service providers billing the daylights out of Medicaid and Medicare. Sometimes people spent years in services achieving little headway. Little hope seemed to exist for recovering from the devastating impact of mental health crises and unmet needs. Expensive psychiatric hospitalizations consumed vast sums of tax payer dollars with little benefit apparent for the patient, their loved ones, or the community they lived in. Hospitalizations focused mostly on medications and keeping a person from harming themselves or someone else. When the person appeared safe towards self and or others, hospital discharged persons as quickly as possible back to the community. This often occurred without adequate support in the community. Long and short of it, the system was broken. Even to this day the system struggles mightily for resources it needs. It does so because there is little public will to see that mental health care is provided at the level that’s needed in our communities.

Into this dark world came wraparound. The training I received offered new vision and hope for struggling lives. Gradually, in my care management role, I identified opportunities in the Clark County system for wraparound. As a licensed mental health professional with a strong clinical reputation among my peers, I persuaded adult service providers to start care teams for persons in services but for whom those services yielded little benefit. Teams, as previously described, formed up. The results astounded us all. Expensive hospitalizations dropped dramatically. People’s lives stabilized and found new meaning. Above it all, I heard one need expressed more frequently than others. It was this: “I need God and my faith community back in my life.”

Stepping back to a few years earlier, an amazing psychiatrist supervised me in the Clark County system. He was and is the most gifted and caring doc I ever knew in 16 years of public practice. Once during supervision, Dr. George Mecouch, shared these amazing words, “Churches could be marvelous places of healing for our clients. The only problem is that their Judeo-Christian God isn’t big enough.” George’s words struck home. I resolved from that time forward that my God would be big enough. My God would be big enough no matter how hard I had to press faith communities over their resistance to change and the dysfunctional way they existed mainly for themselves. And my God would be big enough no matter how hard I had to press the public in terms of its dysfunction. It’s dysfunction you might ask? Yes, it’s dysfunction. It’s dysfunction of closeting mental health issues and stripping funds away from related services nearly every chance it gets. As for the mental health system, its dysfunction involved resistance to means and methods other than what it traditionally used.

Experience teaches me however that the battle, fraught with challenges and disappointments, has never been easy. Despite a bit of headway here and there, it seems as though things are always on the losing side. At points, I wonder why bother anymore. Why throw one’s all into the task only to encounter huge resistance or outright efforts to dismiss, discredit, or be cast aside all together?

I sense that Jesus must have felt that way at times. He struggled mightily against a bankrupt religious system, bankrupt in ways obvious to him yet lost on many others. Yet Jesus chose to stay the course in ministry and mission. He chose that path because small and seemingly insignificant events demonstrated that all was not lost. Small and seemingly insignificant events indicated progress towards the Peaceable Kingdom. All of it depending however upon loyalty, sacrifice, and commitment to service.

One of those seemingly insignificant events involved a widow making her offering at the temple. Nearby her, the scribes and wealthy made their public display of impressive offerings at the temple catching everyone’s eyes. By contrast and with much humility, this poverty-stricken widow places two small copper coins into the offering, an amount not even worth the value of a penny. The moment escapes everyone but Jesus.

Turning to his disciples after witnessing her offering, Jesus counsels them not to be swayed by the spectacle of the scribes and the wealthy. Instead, he tells them, “This poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on." In short, though the religious system is bankrupt and does not serve the needs of the widow, let alone serve her well, she continues her faithful giving. She continues giving her all believing that one day God will work all things out for the common good of everyone.

It’s nearly two thousand years since the widow dropped her coins into the temple offering. Despite all the time gone by, God still works for the common good, especially through seemingly insignificant events. God does so through human beings because we’re all that God has for turning things around. It’s a task we must do; otherwise we never learn the guiding principles that are truly important for our world to arrive at being just and peace-filled. In this great undertaking, faith communities and their leaders need to learn about, and deal effectively, with mental health needs and the related social issues. Yet faith groups often dismiss that which does not fit neatly into their evangelism program or favored church growth models. Often those things get viewed with doubt and suspicion or worse yet, “It’s not the church’s responsibility to do social work. We don’t put our money toward that sort of thing.” When I hear such statements, it’s as though people think that God’s Peaceable Kingdom will magically happen in some way or another. The mental health system for its part is so strained, overworked, poorly resourced, and fragmented that people have little energy or vision or inclination to work more closely and directly with the community. In short, little happens that advances the common good toward a just and peace-filled world as mentioned a bit ago.

In response to this dark circumstance, let me offer one story of wraparound that involved people of faith coming together with social work and mental health professionals and family and loved ones to support a struggling individual. It’s simply one of many stories that I and others who’ve participated in wraparound could tell you about it as a tool for ministry. Jean (not her real name) was a quiet, passive, dependent older adult. She lived a lonely life especially during and after her husband’s long and troubling illness. During those years, Jean served as the primary care giver. She continued her isolated lifestyle long after her husband’s death. She knew little else. She came into the mental health system following discharge from the local psychiatric inpatient unit. Admission occurred due to suicidal feelings with plans to kill herself by overdose with Tylenol. Subsequent medication monitoring and outpatient therapy failed to achieve relief from her symptoms. As a result, Jean continued to experience rapidly repeating psychiatric hospitalizations; that is until she participated in wraparound. With her care team consisting of family members and professionals concerned that she might achieve suicide given the severity of her depression, Jean identified several needs that might help her get better. The one need she identified above all others was this, “I need God and my faith community back in my life and I don’t know how to do that.”

Feeling guilt that she had been away from those things so long, Jean shared that no one in her church would probably remember her or care to be involved with her. Jean allowed a team member however to go to work on the need. The team member contacted the pastor at Jean’s old church and explained the situation. The pastor subsequently discovered three women who remembered Jean. The pastor reported back to the team that the ladies would gladly attend Jean’s next team meeting. Meanwhile they would contact Jean to reconnect and bring her to church if she wanted.

At the next team meeting, the three ladies from Jean’s church were there. The team and Jean talked further about an unmet need of what to do when Jean felt anxious and thought all was lost and that she should die, all of which led to expensive hospitalizations. Together with Jean, the team decided that someone participating with Jean in different things she liked to do might be sufficient to distract her from the suicidal feelings. The activities which Jean identified as potentially helpful included anything from playing cards to talking on the phone to going shopping or to a movie or attending church.

Bless their hearts, the three church ladies -- at that team meeting -- said they’d be glad to help with that need. So the next time, Jean felt anxious and suicidal she called one of the ladies from church. And guess what? The plan worked!! Jean’s hospitalizations fell to zero over the next six months. At care team meetings, Jean took on a glow of happiness that loved ones hadn’t seen in years. For her part, Jean found confidence in her new abilities to deal with the world and the losses she’d had the past few years. In short, she found new meaning and purpose in life, all because of wraparound and three church ladies who extended themselves to help with Jean’s need. They gave of themselves like the widow gave her coins. Despite others who gave up on Jean long ago, the church ladies didn’t give up on her or consider her a lost cause.

So many faith communities suffer decline these days. Many face the likelihood that their best days lie behind them. This need not be. Faith communities simply need to rebirth. They need to rebirth into something relevant and capable for making God’s Day of Peace possible for all. Sometimes that means dying to a past way of being that’s no longer achieving much. Sometimes it means becoming something new altogether.

For me, I know of one very small congregation trying to do the hard work that’s needed. I’m sure there are others. So I want to say that my hat is off to the Anchorage Community of Christ in Anchorage, Alaska. They are a congregation whom I had the pleasure and privilege to support over the past several years. My hat is off to the nurse practitioner pastor there, James Williams, who caught the vision of wraparound for his struggling flock and how that vision is being supported by Carl Schick, a close personal friend of Jim’s. My praise goes to the congregation members themselves for their willingness to use wraparound as a means for reaching Anchorage’s young adults and their families in this phenomenal new way in hopes that a future can yet be realized for the congregation. My hat is especially off to the congregation selling their building so they could realign their assets in order to provide wraparound’s powerful process to serve the common good of Greater Anchorage. Lastly, my hat’s off to John Smallwood, Missionary Coordinator for the Greater Pacific Northwest Mission Center of the Community of Christ (www.cofchrist-gpnw.org) who’s hoping to offer wraparound through the faith communities he supports in Central Oregon.

Perhaps nothing else gives a sense of what the future could become than if we open and extend ourselves in service and sacrifice and monetary support through new possibilities despite other parts of the system that struggle and seem broke. At a family camp the same summer that the Anchorage Community of Christ decided to sell its building, one of the mothers with a young child shared her testimony of a dream she experienced one night. Concerned with the plan to sell the church and feeling quite against it, the dream changed Laura dramatically. For in her dream, God showed her how the congregation would be renewed and revitalized and how powerful and substantive the ministry of the congregation would become over time to families and individuals and children in the whole of Anchorage. From what she experienced in her dream, God told her how necessary she would be to the wraparound work and most of all her support for the work. She then experienced a brief moment of fear for her young son, Wesley. “What about Wesley?” she asked. The Spirit replied, “He will be part of this as well. He will be fine.”

I want to share the above as far as widely as I can. I hope you will pass the story along. Some persons hear the story and the Spirit that’s moving within it. Others do not. There are also those who continue their denial that the church doesn’t need be anything other than what it already is. Their words are to the effect of, “It was good enough for me and my children. So it will be good enough for all who come along after us.” You be the judge, what do you think?