"Put Hand to Plow"

For Sunday, June 27th, 2010

(Russian icon from the first quarter of the 18th century of Saint James the Great (son of Zebedee and one of Christ’s twelve apostles); located in the Transfiguration Church, Kizhi Monastery in Karelia, Russia. Image is in the public domain.)

Lectionary Scripture – Luke 9:51-62 NRSV

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him. On their way they entered a village of the Samaritans to make ready for him; but they did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. When his disciples James and John saw it, they said, "Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But he turned and rebuked them. Then they went on to another village. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

“Put Hand to Plow”

My faith tradition’s worship resource notes that the above scripture is a call to follow Christ as well as a call to proclaim peace and proclaim the kingdom of God. Responding to these callings requires us to let go and to move forward into the future without hesitation. At times, this means that we will need to challenge cultural and even institutional understandings with which we grown comfortable. So the resource asks some very specific questions such as what ways do you and I try to “soften” the proclamation of the kingdom so it’s more “palatable” for the context or culture that makes up our lives? What would it mean if we quit doing such things and put our hands to the plow and didn’t “look back”? Lastly, what conditions would we therefore let go of in order to follow Jesus and go where he wants us to go?

For me, I deeply appreciate it when my faith tradition asks such pointed questions. Often however, I don’t know what to make of my tradition when it asks or advocates such frank and piercing things. Why? Well in my experience there are a significant number of congregations, pastors, denominational ministers and even some denominational leaders who continue a way of being that’s largely “business as usual” – this seems particularly so in terms of how precious local and global resources get used; resources which in actuality are God’s and not the property of one specific individual or group of individuals. Long and short of it, I can easily imagine a “Spiritual But Not Religious” person challenging my naiveté and saying, “What on earth did you think organized religion was about Brad. It’s mostly about ego, power, and money of a group that exists to serve itself. It’s not about your dream for healing humanity’s ills and returning the Earth to health.”

A while back I had some of these things affirmed to me during a meeting with judicatory heads from different faith traditions. As our conversations tend to go at these meetings, the subject eventually turned to the overall health and well-being of congregations in our judicatories. The concerns were numerous and weighty and centered on the subject of congregational decline. After a while I made the following comment, “I don’t wish to upset anyone but the trends of decline have been going on since the mid 1960s. At this point, it seems pretty clear to me that church as we have known it is passing away. For me, I believe that church will eventually transform into something quite different, however my sense of what that will ultimately look and feel like has yet to manifest itself.” One judicatory official responded quickly and said, “I believe you’re right and so the question for me becomes what 50 of my 350 congregations do I close in the next 5 years.” Nearly everyone nodded in agreement.

One individual then commented, “What’s capturing my interest is the Emerging Church.” I responded saying that it had captured mine as well and that I sensed God’s Spirit stimulating that movement. I also commented that in previous pastorate work I tried to communicate a vision for becoming part of the Emerging Church movement but I had failed to be persuasive in putting hand to plow and embracing the necessity of the movement’s principles and dynamics for our times. The congregation gravitated instead toward other things it thought would be helpful so it became necessary for me to move on from that pastoral role.

One other person commented that, “I have a problem with Emerging Church groups. Typically what defines them are the things about traditional church they’re against. For me, it means they’ll eventually run out of steam due to their negativity.” But another leader challenged those words and said, “Some faith movements got their start by what they were against, take Lutheranism for instance. It began with nailing a list to a church door of 99 things it was against. Look at what it eventually became.” No doubt our discussions on these things will continue as we labor, minister, and plow through to whatever transformation is coming. However the words of Christ echo repeatedly in my mind and they bear repeating for any person or faith community who thinks “business as usual” is just fine or who thinks that trying things they’ve before or tried elsewhere will save them. Regarding such situations, I think Christ’s words of, “Let the dead bury the dead,” may be their fate. Church as we have known it is passing away. Church will transform and become a new creation and “no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back” will be fit for the work that needs doing in proclaiming the Kingdom of God – a kingdom that is coming and here already if we can but open our hearts and extend the generosity of resources, both individually and collectively.

Since the time of moving on from the pastorate mentioned above, proclaiming God’s Peaceable Kingdom, and the generosity that encompasses it, has expanded from one metro area to 13 states in the western USA and nearly 100 countries due to where this blog reaches. What I can say of the experiences I’ve had in that time? First is that I must no longer “soften” the kingdom proclamation nor make it “palatable”. Lastly, I will no longer “look back” wistfully nor wish that I could return to some period in the past. Neither will I limit what it takes to live more modestly and respectfully in relation to the Earth and my brothers and sisters around the world.

One thing that feels good about such efforts is how my wife and I have decided that our faith walk necessitates the smallest home we can possibly manage. And what we’ve discovered, at least for now, is that downsizing means going from nearly 2500 square feet of living space to about 1100 square feet. Our realtor asked, “What will you do with all your stuff?” We told her we would sell, donate, or recycle all we can. Main thing is that we want to live as modestly as possible so our generosity can increase toward the Earth and others for the sake of God’s Peaceable Kingdom. We’re ready to put hand to plow and not look back.

What about you? Are you ready to put hand to plow and not look back? What are you ready to give up so your generosity toward Kingdom-building can increase? A new spirituality is about to envelop us. It will be one not tainted by ego, or power needs, or the inability to face down the evil of situations or circumstances that exist primarily to serve themselves rather than help humanity heal and reconcile. As Jesus said, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." Can you be content with having less so others may have more? Dream for a moment about the life of a nomadic Peaceable Kingdom builder then drop me a line and say what that dream looks like for you. Where would you go? What would you do? Whom would you help? What generosities would you extend?

On Vacation This Week

Greetings Readers, I'm on vacation this week.  I will return with a new posting next week.  This preacher is recharging his batteries by fishing for Shad on the Columbia by Bonneville Dam on the Washington side of the river.  Have a great week!

Brad

"Deliberate Acts of Inclusion"

For Sunday, June 13th, 2010

(1973 painting titled, “Jesus absolves the penitent sinner” from JESUS MAFA. JESUS MAFA is a response to the New Testament readings from the Lectionary by a Christian community in Cameroon, Africa. Each of the readings were selected and adapted to dramatic interpretation by the community members. Photographs of their interpretations were made, and then transcribed to paintings. See: www.jesusmafa.com and www.SocialTheology.com. Used under Creative Commons license.)

Lectionary Reading - Luke 7:36-8:3 (NRSV)

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table. And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment. She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair. Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.

Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him--that she is a sinner." Jesus spoke up and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." "Teacher," he replied, "Speak." "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon answered, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt." And Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly."

Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little." Then he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him, as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.

"Deliberate Acts of Inclusion"

In 2004, I had the privilege of attending a day-long seminar at the First United Methodist Church in Vancouver, Washington, where I live. The presenter that day was Patricia O’Connell Killen, professor of religion at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. Patricia spent the day taking us through research findings presented in her then released book, Pacific Northwest: The None Zone. Patricia’s book represented an ongoing project known as the “Religion by Region Series” by Andrew Walsh and Mark Silk. Silk is professor of religion and founding director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Several things from the seminar and the “None Zone” made quite an impact on me that day. First, the most frequently claimed religious status among Pacific Northwesterners (Alaska, Oregon, and Washington residents) is “None”. Secondly, there has never been a dominant religious denomination in our region, therefore people of faith in the Pacific Northwest are either in a position of competing or learning to cooperate with each other to address the region’s pressing economic, environmental, and social issues.” Third, the publishers note that, “One cannot understand this complex region without understanding the fluid religious commitments of its inhabitants” – meaning those commitments wax and wane or change quite frequently. Lastly, Patricia shared her thoughts about the study’s implication which I thought were the poignant thing I heard all day. She said that if faith communities in the Pacific Northwest hope to survive into the future, let alone thrive, they must become respectful of diversity in all its forms (cultural, religious, spiritual) and focus on helping people to find healing for their lives and obtaining the skills they need for living in these difficult times. As I write this week’s blog posting, I think how much harder the times have become since 2004. To put it plainly, life has simply become hardship for a great many people.

For me, healing and generosity and magnanimity of spirit are what we faith communities must raise up in ourselves if people are going to make it through these hard times, let alone help them find peace for their lives and the lives of loved ones and friends – not to mention helping them develop the skills needing for living and coping in what are the worst times since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Some churches will ignore these realities and continue to their peril the mode of being a weekly social club gathering. Other faith communities will come to realize that church as we know it is passing away and a new creation is forming. The coming transformation is captured so well in this week’s lectionary scripture when one compares and contrasts the characteristics and rigidity of Simon the Pharisee with the magnanimity of Jesus. Jesus accepted the woman’s contriteness, respected her sorrow over her past, and forgave her sin simply because of her faith that a meaningful life path could yet lie ahead – a path that had come to her emotional and spiritual understanding because of Jesus’ courageous teachings. As a friend of mine said, “Jesus set her apart as an example. It was deliberate act of inclusion demonstrating what it means to accept a person for whom they are.” We must do nothing less.

Sitting at lunch this week with judicatory heads of different denominations, I commented that I thought church as we know it is passing away. Most nodded in agreement and some commented on the heartache of being the administrative officer trying to serve their judicatories during such times while trying to come to grips with the phenomenal ambiguity of what “church” is yet to become. As one individual put it, “People want to know what you believe and what your faith tradition is about and they want your affirmations about it. Do not expect things of them however or attempt to control them for if you do, they will quickly part company from you.”

I think if we faith communities are going to develop relationships with our non-affiliated non-churched friends that go the distance and last a lifetime, we’re going to have to tap into a generosity and non-agenda way of being full of random countless “acts of inclusion” unlike anything we’ve ever seen. At first, the experience may be a whole lot of feeling like Simon as he watched Jesus’ feet being washed with a sinner’s tears. But here are a few things I sense we’ll need to be open to. First off, our non-affiliated non-churched friends will want to see that we walk our talk when it comes to peace and justice and doing right by people. Secondly, they will be very hands-on in their individually unique way for what they seen as the contribution they want to make to the mission of God’s Peaceable Kingdom here on Earth. Third, they will expect to be fully in control of what they do to help others in that regard. Fourth, they will want to see that people directly benefit from the charitable efforts they provide. Lastly, for a good many of our non-affiliated non-churched friends, one single engagement in their chosen form of charitable endeavor will probably mean more to them than a year of Sundays sitting in a pew; particularly if our “act of inclusion” is being right alongside them in the helping and healing they seek to do. As one of the judicatory officials put it, “It’s then when we can do theology together.”

A conversation earlier this week enlarged my vision regarding the above. The person I spoke with had quit attending church long ago. She then told me what “mission” had become for her. She said that she and her husband had downsized from their 3,000 square foot home a few years ago. They had downsized to a 2,000 square foot home but increased their land area to two acres. They did so in order to have as many raised garden beds as possible and become Master Gardeners. Their passion is donating one third of their produce to the Oregon Food Bank each year. Last year, the couple donated fifteen hundred pounds of produce. The other two thirds went to supporting family and friends and themselves. The woman said, “That’s my mission Brad.”

I marveled as I began to understand her passion and generosity. Nothing had been hoarded. No judgments had been made about who should or shouldn’t get food. It simply went to those in need. By this couple’s example, I’m left in the emotional and spiritual space of Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna who felt inspired and then supported Jesus and his mission out of their resources. So I think I would like to get to know this woman and her husband better simply for the inspiration, healing, empowerment, and therefore peace they’ve provided me.

“Grateful, Fruitful, Generous unto You”

For Sunday, June 6th, 2010

(Graphic is of a painting in 1569 by Lucas Cranach the Younger in the town church in Wittenberg, Germany.  Painting is titled, "The Raising of the youth of Nain". Used under Creative Commons license)

Lectionary Scripture – Luke 7:11-17 NRSV

Soon afterwards he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went with him. As he approached the gate of the town, a man who had died was being carried out. He was his mother's only son, and she was a widow; and with her was a large crowd from the town. When the Lord saw her, he had compassion for her and said to her, "Do not weep." Then he came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, "Young man, I say to you, rise!" The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized all of them; and they glorified God, saying, "A great prophet has risen among us!" and "God has looked favorably on his people!" This word about him spread throughout Judea and all the surrounding country.

“Grateful, Fruitful, and Generous unto You”

The above scripture is the focus of the Lord’s Supper this Sunday in my faith tradition. With it being Communion and given this particular scriptural focus, my faith tradition observes that like the widow’s son whom Jesus raised, our lives can also be resurrected through God’s touch. In turn, we’re drawn to be prophetic and touch those who need to be raised up as well. Long and short of it all, as shared through inspired counsel from the president of our denomination, we’re to “courageously challenge cultural, political, and religious trends contrary to the reconciling and restoring purposes of God.” A good question in response to that counsel would be, “What trends need to be challenged so parents have less fear of losing their children?

As a parent of two young adult daughters, I am deeply concerned for the well-being of their futures and for natural environment needed to support them and the families they might have. In that regard, I sense so many things needing challenge – needing to be raised up -- that it’s just not funny! To put it frankly, I’m angry. I’m angry because what too many things that happen demonstrate a thorough disrespect of life, a thorough lack of generosity, and a complete detachment from what constitutes doing right by God, doing right by human life, and doing what’s right for this precious fragile planet we live on. Soon that note, whatever fell dormant or lifeless in us that allowed a catastrophe like the Gulf Coast BP oil well calamity has got to stop! Fouling the environment we live in and on which we depend will one day mean death for all of humanity’s children if we do not change our ways. And if that should happen, guess what? There won’t be a snow ball’s chance in hell of resurrection from the filth we’ve caused, generated, and with which we ultimately poisoned ourselves.

Drill baby drill! It’s the mantra of greed and antithesis of generosity. It’s the oil-person’s version of, “Damn the torpedoes -- full steam ahead!!” It’s nothing more than obtaining riches and a desired end no matter the costs – no matter who lives or who dies. It’s a frame of mind so completely devoid of God that nothing hallowed or sacred can break through save what the oil industry perceives as “divine” riches gleaned from their endeavors.

Where does such disregard for peace, justice, and generosity toward God’s creation come from? Well according to CNN opinion article by Julian Zelizer (Princeton University Professor of History and Public Affairs), political and governmental authorities have waged war on environmental protection infrastructure the past four decades. In that war there has been a systematic onslaught seeking to weaken environmental protections established in the 1960s and 1970s or eliminate them altogether. According to Zelizer, the Reagan Administration had the aim of eliminating the protections altogether but it ran up against a strong environmental movement and therefore the administration was successful only in weakening things. Through subsequent Republican administrations the weakening effort continued. Even now, Zelizer says, news reports indicate that the Democratic Obama Administration has been as negligent as the previous Bush Administration in its oversight of oil drilling.

What it all has led to is probably reflected best in the self-serving self-absorbed effrontery and arrogance of BP Oil chief executive, Tony Hayward, when he recently whined that no one wants the Gulf Coast oil disaster to be over more than him. As he put it, “I’d like my life back.”  Go to the YouTube video to get the full flavor of Hayward’s remarks. Anderson Cooper of CNN had little sympathy for Hayward’s comments and noted that the man earns a million dollars a year, more than most Gulf Coast residents ever make in a lifetime and now many of them will see their livelihoods decimated by this oil spill. Vanity Fair reporter, Juli Weiner, wrote in her June 1st online article that the disaster could cost Hayward his job as well, which would mean that he, like many, many other people may never have his life back either. Weiner also comments that “even if B.P. doesn’t fire Hayward, the U.S. government’s new criminal probe of BP’s policies and practices could mean the end of Hayward’s (possibly environmentally unsound!) life as he knows it.”

During the worship service at my church last Sunday, a music video ran praising and adoring God for the earth and creation given us. While watching it, I felt great sadness come over me. All I could say during the flyovers of pristine beaches and majestic snow covered mountains was, “Lord, I am so sorry. I am so sorry for what we’ve done. I’m so sorry for how we’ve treated the Earth. I am so sorry for being such poor stewards over what you placed in our care.” Repeatedly those thoughts went through my mind but then I heard a young child’s voice singing behind me with ardent zeal and passion for what we were watching that I couldn’t help but turn to look at her. The innocent passionate happiness in her face left me knowing that for her and for every other child who walks the Earth -- now or in the times to come -- that we must raise up again in ourselves whatever has fallen asleep or resigned itself to some comatose state in the stewardship we have for this precious planet. So for that young girl and any other child like her they can have a future without toxins and poisons like that enjoyed by any generation that has preceded them.

The only way I can see our poisoning of the environment turning itself around so that future generations have hope is that we make a realization like Jesus did regarding the widow’s son whom he raised. Simply put, Jesus realized the son was the widow’s only child. We in turn must care for the Earth as if she were our only child. Therefore, we must be overly protective of her and willing to go to any lengths necessary to ensure her well-being.

Become the parent of an only child today, become a parent of the Earth. Change your ways and do what’s right by your child and what’s necessary to ensure her well-being. And then challenge and help other parents change as well. The Earth will be ever grateful, fruitful, and generous unto you.