"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

"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.

"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?

"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.

"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.”