Nativity

I really like nativity scenes. We have one at the rectory which is very beautiful which I'm sure someone spared no expense in buying it. I just really really really hate the fact that in almost all nativities, there is the baby Jesus with his arms outstreached. Granted, I'm not around babies most of my day, but I'm willing to bet that most of them don't hang out with their arms spread wide open. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm guessing Jesus didn't do it either. I've been on the lookout for a nativity set for a couple years now, and there are one or two out there which doesn't have the baby Jesus looking for a hug, but of course, those figures are bland and have almost no detail. Why can't anyone make one where Jesus is like any other baby? Is that so freaking hard to ask?

Caroling 2007

Pastor Jeff and gang are leading the carols from the front of the room while others are sitting among the nursing home residents. About 6 songs were sung at each of the 4 homes we went to on that Sunday afternoon, but the first one was the only place we had cookies for everyone (FYI sugarless cookies in the nursing home are hot commodities).
Here is Kris, helping out one of the residents to find the song on the page. When she got into place, she whipped everyone into shape and got things in order very quickly.
This is a great picture. It seems to capture everyone's mood this afternoon.
Here is our 2007 Morning Star soloist. She sang the first verse for this member (whose name I don't know) at the Mason's retirement community.

Confirmation retreat

This was the morning session on baptism. The afternoon session focused on communion. The sessions went fairly well with some good questions on the sacraments and what they mean for us in our lives.
The afternoon was spent on the beach in the middle of December. We then played some 2 hand touch football (my team won). We then walked on the boardwalk where some ladies sang Christmas carols on the empty stage while the gentlemen wasted their money on arcade games.
For the past month, I have been cutting out words from magazines I've been collecting. I gave them the theme of God's relationship with humanity and our own relationship with other people in light of our relationship with God. Below is what they came up with. Click it to make it bigger to try and read it.
All in all, I hope the class members had a good time and learned something about the sacraments and how they relate to them in the world.

Decorating for Advent

Moravian Candle Wrapping is usually done by the women's circle. The bee's wax is the purest of candles and is usually wrapped in red, which symbolizes the blood of Christ. At Riverside Moravian, two others colors are used, white, which symbolizes the purity of Christ (which is supossed to be the bee's wax, but oh well) and the green, which symbolizes the eternal. All in all, its done to make the tray look nice and I think they do an excellent job.

Here are two pictures of the sanctuary. The first is Jeff (my supervising pastor) and he is hanging the stars which have names of local children who need gifts this Christmas. The second picture is the back of the sanctuary all hung with garland and Moravian stars. The men's group is looking up to make sure everything is hung properly. It seems everything is in place.

Some recent pictures of the church's Advent women's breakfast.

Dale checking the breakfast meal to make sure it's done. He's careful not to let a single burnt corn flake be eaten.
What could he possibly be up to?
Some of the conversations at the annual womens breakfast.

Clothed in Christ

Carlton Pearson is the name of the man I stayed up till 2am on Thursday night to watch. He is a Pentecostal preacher, a superstar in the evangelical world. The story which MSNBC portrayed starred a pastor who started his ministry by preaching hell, fire, and brimstone and he was quite good at it. Then one day he watched a T.V. news program where he saw refugee’s in Africa, mostly women and children, whose eyes seemed to have no soul. Carlton broke down in front of the television and cried. Soon after he came to the conclusion that hell was not the traditional place he had been taught, it was no lake of fire with the weeping and gnashing of teeth. He decided that hell was something we experience here on earth and that in the afterlife; everyone was with God in heaven. Before any of your thoughts jump to the idea that I will be preaching on universal salvation, please don’t worry. That is not my intention, as this doctrine can be as divisive as any other major issue the church faces today. But I want to tell you more about the reason I stayed up so late that night.

I stayed up late watching because I couldn’t fall asleep. Truthfully, I haven’t been able to sleep very well as of late and because of that, I have been spending more and more time in my office. This Thursday, I had just finished a great meeting where a committee of lay members gives me critical feedback. I was in my office for about an hour after this meeting when a man walked into the building. He walked right past my office like he didn’t know where he was going. I recognized him immediately. It was Tom. A homeless man who had come by the church a month or so ago, looking for a meal. We went out to McDonalds and shared a meal. I bought him a gift card, gave him some money for the bus and then he left. I doubted I’d ever see him again.
Reflecting on that though, I realize it wasn’t my brightest moment. Why would a homeless man not come back to a person who had given him food and money…but this isn’t a story about my mental mistake.

This time, Tom and I went back to McDonalds and I picked his brain about his life, the people who helped him, the people who didn’t, the places he lived, we talked about his faith, the jobs he had held and the time he had spent in jail. I shared my grandiose ideas about helping him and others who found themselves homeless. I told him my dream about what I thought God’s rule on earth would look like. We ended our meal by me asking him to come back to my office in a few weeks. As we drove back to the church, Tom asked me what I was going to be doing tomorrow. My hospitality was beginning to wear out and I told him how busy I was going to be. Hoping that, as it neared 10 o’clock at night, Tom would be as anxious to leave as I was. I had $10 in my hand ready to give him once we both got out of the car…but Tom didn’t get out of the car. I waited outside in the cold wearing sandals and a t-shirt, silently cursing him to get out of the car so we could both part ways.

One minute passed…
Two minutes passed…
Three minutes passed…

Finally Tom got out of my car and asked me what was taking so long. I told him I was just waiting for him. I gave him the money I had for him and was about to turn around when he started patting his coat pockets. He said that he had forgotten his hat. We checked the car and my office to no avail. He suggested it must still be at McDonalds. He said we could leave it. Gas was so expensive; he didn’t want to make me drive the two mile round trip to get it. I wasn’t about to let him go into a cold night without his hat. But I had figured Tom out. Tom wanted something else, I just hadn’t figured out what... His hat was somewhere hidden in his coat. Maybe he wanted more fries…I don’t know…but I took pity and decided to humor him. As we started to drive back, Tom commented on how quickly the car heated up.

AH HA!!! The Truth is revealed. I fell for it. The ol’ lost my hat trick so Tom could stay warm for a few more minutes. Who could blame him though? It was definitely cold outside. When we arrived back the restaurant, I decided to let Tom stay in the warm car and go inside and “look” for the hat. I had already determined to even ask the manager if it was there, just to give Tom another few moments in the warmth. I knew it was already in the car, so what difference did it make if I didn’t find it. I walked past the table where we had sat, getting ready to speak to the manager…only to find Tom’s wool hat was scrunched in-between the wall and the seat… just where he had left it.

I felt like Balaam’s faithful steed. I picked up the hat, got back in the car and started home. I dropped Tom off at the train station and just before Tom got out of the car, I apologized for not being able to help him more. He shocked me by saying it was okay and that I had already blessed him greatly. Little did he know all the thoughts that ran through my mind as we drove that night. It was that very moment when part of today’s scripture became very real to me. Jesus had just gotten out of my car. It was quite humbling.

As it approached 2AM on Friday morning, I realized why I could not fall asleep that night. I needed the lesson that hell can be found right here on earth reinforced to me in a powerful way. Tom spends a lot of his life in hell here on earth, and in the short hour or so we were together, my own mind and bias helped contribute to that hell, even if I never acted on it.

Remember how I said universal salvation is a divisive doctrine? Well, it got that bishop kicked out of the mega church he built. He was defrocked as a Pentecostal bishop and he lost thousands of many influential friends. Life as he knew it was over and he was in his own personal hell.
Fortunately for Carlton Pearson, another pastor in California heard of his downfall and invited him to come and speak to her congregation. At the end of the service, that loving pastor poured some warm water into a basin, asked the defrocked bishop to remove his socks and shoes, knelt down, and washed his feet.

The last verse of the 13th chapter of Romans says: Clothe yourself with the Lord Jesus Christ.
The pastor who washed the feet of the former bishop was already clothed in Jesus Christ. She saw that he was in Hell and needed a bit of heaven. Tom, without knowing I was in a self imposed hell, released me by blessing me for feeding him and giving him money to ride the bus and stay warm.

What will happen to us when we decide to clothe ourselves in Jesus Christ? What will we do if we see others around us in their own version of hell? Will we remove our clothes of Jesus and give them the love of God which surrounds us?

This whole idea of treating each other, and most notably, the people who need the most compassion, as if we were already in heaven is striking. In the gospel lesson today, (Matthew 24:36-44) we realize that Jesus is talking about his return, when his reign will begin. Scholars say that the fact that Jesus doesn’t share the day or the hour of his return is a sign of grace. A sign which allows us to practice what we hope heaven to be like. As the Advent season begins today, I hope you make an effort to bring someone a piece of heaven here on earth in a very personal way. It’s the difference between feeding the homeless and staying in the kitchen while they eat and cooking for the homeless and actually sitting among them and sharing the meal. What difference will we each make because we are clothed in Jesus Christ? The possibilities are endless and limited only by those things which put in our own way.
Amen.

Great Advent Calendar

This is an advent calendar passed on to me by Wezlo (see links on right) which was made by one of his church members. Her name is Anne Goodrich, is a graphic designer and website is http://www.goodrichdesign.net/ and if you would like to print out this wonderful Advent Calendar for free (Thanks Anne!!!) you can do so at http://goodrichdesign.net/AdventGivingCalendar.pdf

The creative idea behind this calendar is to give gifts instead of recieving gifts. On December 3, you give 5 cents for every pair of jeans you own and on December 8, you give 3 cents for every light switch and on December 25, you are asked to give 15 cents for every gift you recieve. This idea is awesome. I hope my readers will print one out and comment on (at the end of the season) how much they have given. Let the giving begin!

Trying to stop being so selfish...

In the last week or two of every month, I find myself in the church secretary's office helping her (Mary) fold, staple and address the monthly newsletter. Today, we were halfway through the approximately 240 newsletters and our discussion turned to a homeless man who came to our door earlier in the month. Most of the time, anyone looking for food or shelter or just help in general are sent to the Lutheran church down the street, as they hold the money for our local ministerium to give out, but instead, Mary called me and asked me to talk to him.

Tom hadn't eaten in a day and decided to ask for help because it was the first day of the year it had gotten really cold. He was looking for money to catch a bus to the shelter a few towns away. I took Tom in my car to the local McDonalds (his choice). We chatted over the meal, and I asked him for a little bit of his life story. I asked him about how he survives, how he finds food, how he finds money, the things I deemed important to someone who has no place to live. Before we left, I bought him a $25 gift card for more food and as we were leaving (he refused to let me give him a ride) he said he might stop by the church on Sunday. I then said something rather stupid. I said no. I said I didn't want him to come back.

I didn't say it because I didn't want him in the building. I never got around to saying why, cause he started to walk away after shaking my hand. I meant to say I didn't want him to come just because he felt obligated from my generosity, I wanted him to come because he wanted to. It is a shame this moment of stupidity came across to Tom, but that is that and we have not crossed paths since.

Upon coming back, I had the brilliant idea that something needed to be done for people like Tom. He needed a way to make more than $10 a day by asking for spare change. He needed a place where he would be fed, keep warm during the day, and I think most importantly, a job which would work to accomadate his schedule.

I spoke to my supervior, and he agreed that ideas need to be looked at. I spoke to another pastor about the idea, and he gave me a lead or two. I also asked the husband of a friend in Seminary who I thought might know something about this type of thing. I was given a few places to look, but I realized something about myself which I really don't like. I realized that I want the credit for the idea. I want to be the one who gets the glory for the concept, for the work...and it feels awful. I've guarded my idea from many others because of my selfish pride and would have given only lip service to God for the idea had it ever been developed more.

I hope that will change. I hope I start broadening my idea out a little more. One to give others an opportunity to help me in the creative challenges of working on this idea. I also hope that by offering up my ideas, it helps me to release some of the selfishness that I have within me. If I truly believe in community, I really ought to give the community of God the credit for the idea. And hopefully the 7 or so people who read my blog will be able to give insight from their own God given perspectives.

So here is to being less selfish and hoping ideas will come from the communities I belong.

A conversation I had about my last sermon.

The following conversation is between me "Tjenafitta" and another pastor in NJ. It started as a comment to my last sermon, which is below this post, entitled "I AM" It was a conversation filled with a lot of learning which will hopefully make me read some stuff I had not considered.

baptistwes: nonononononononononononononononono
baptistwes: the Trinity has no "parts"
TjenaFitta: What do mean the trinity has no parts?
baptistwes: I read in your blog - Father, Son, Holy Spirit are different "parts" of the Trinity
baptistwes: my prof at college would scream, NEIN!!!! at anyone who said that
baptistwes: freak people out
TjenaFitta: as opposed to?
baptistwes: Persons
baptistwes: there's no parts in the Trinity, as that would divide the ousia
baptistwes: 1 ousia, 3 hypostasis
TjenaFitta: I don't know greek
baptistwes: roughly interpreted, "1 essence of being, 3 centers of personality"
baptistwes: It sounded like what your friend was doing was modalism
TjenaFitta: Thats what I said. They are all part of the same essence. I don't like the word persons because it implies that they are actual persons and I don't believe them to be
baptistwes: nonononononononononoooo
baptistwes: they are persons
baptistwes: just not (with the exception of the incarnate Son) human
baptistwes: parts means that the Trinity can be divied up
baptistwes: it was one of the huge fights in the early Church
TjenaFitta: So different persons means it can't be divided up, but parts can?
baptistwes: yup
TjenaFitta: don't buy it
baptistwes: that's why the language came down the way it did
TjenaFitta: Yes well, language is a bitch and doesn't always work out the way we hope
baptistwes: because if you have "part" of something, you don't have the something - you have part of something
baptistwes: but if you're encountering the Son, you're not encountering part of God - but God
baptistwes: that's the reason for the language
TjenaFitta: Well see...now thats the first time you made sense
baptistwes: sorry, needed to work to get there
baptistwes:
baptistwes: but that's the reason for the langauge
baptistwes: it's also why modalism doesn't work
TjenaFitta: modalism?
baptistwes: umm
baptistwes: saying that God isn't truly tri-une - he just interacts with Creation in different "modes" we call "Father, Son, and HOly Spirit."
baptistwes: Your statment here is why I was saying "parts" divides the divine essence: "And Tony told me that when we look at the Greek text, we see that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are things belonging to God. It is similar to saying my arm is its own separate thing, but it is still a part of my overall body."
TjenaFitta: eh, I don't know. I mean, I can't remove my arm as a part
baptistwes: Rigth
baptistwes: but the Holy Spirit isn't a part - the Holy Spirit is God
baptistwes: The metaphor of applying "parts" to the Trinity is incorrect, for exactly that reason - an arm isn't human - it's part of a human
baptistwes: that's not True for the Trinity
TjenaFitta: right, but my overall point is not that at all. I'm saying that God isn't any of these names. Any of the words we attempt to use are not really discriptors of what God is
baptistwes: right, but when you're dealing with Trinitarian and Incarnational issues you have to be REALLY careful with language
baptistwes: Because "God the Son" is a fundamentally different metaphor than "God is peace"
baptistwes: or "I AM justice..."
baptistwes: One is a descriptor of essence, the other is a descriptor of an attribute
TjenaFitta: perhaps. But at this point, I would switch your positions. I would say that justice is essence and son is an attibute
baptistwes: Yah, the jumps language
baptistwes: it goes back to the term "hypostasis" when the Trinitarian formula was developed
baptistwes: "essence" is how God his relational nature to us in the persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
baptistwes: "justice" is an abstract - The Holy Spirit is a communicative hypostasis
baptistwes: a person
TjenaFitta: My entire hope is that we as humans do not do that. If we are "doing unto the least of these" and God is within us, then justice, peace, love, etc are the essence of God by which we are doing them
baptistwes: again, you're using language different
TjenaFitta: Well of course I am
baptistwes: OK, switch "essence" to "nature" in your sentence, then it works
baptistwes: when you're talking about the Trinity - you do NOT want to use the term essence loosely
baptistwes: I'm drilling you on this because this is at the very heart of what makes Christianity distinctive from other religions...
baptistwes: when we're talking about the Trinity - it's best to play the language game with the rules the Church worked out over it's history
TjenaFitta: Ok...well, I can totally say that I just used a wrong word on the 'parts v. persons' cause I have never heard that argument, but I agree with it. How I work out for others that they are not actually humans is not going to be easy, but ok...
baptistwes: say "personalities"
TjenaFitta: but otherwise, I don't think God gives a hoot over essence or nature
baptistwes: my Orthodox friends would cringe but say, "OK"
TjenaFitta: if God is omni-everything, then it all works
baptistwes: eh
baptistwes: God is Shiva?
baptistwes: nah
TjenaFitta: Thats not what I'm saying. I'm saying that if God is essence and nature, then what difference does it make in how it's said?
baptistwes: Soteriology
baptistwes: what Protestantism seems to have forgotten is that the language of the Trinity and the Incarnation took play entirely in the context of "How has this God, revealed in Scripture saved us?"
TjenaFitta: ok
TjenaFitta: So all I'm saying, in the long run, is that God saved us because God loves us.
baptistwes: sure
baptistwes: but that love is Revealed in the very essence of the Trinity
TjenaFitta: And I would still argue that the essence of love is revealed in the nature of Christ
TjenaFitta: I realize that the pervious comment is either mind blowingly genius or mind numbingly stupid, but it's all I've got
baptistwes: yes, but the nature of Christ is contingent on the Trinity too
TjenaFitta: But we just got done discussing that the nature of Christ and the nature of God and the nature of the HS are all the same thing
baptistwes: essence are the same
baptistwes: or...well nature too depending on how you're using it
baptistwes: Jesus is the Incarnate Son - the idea that he's fully God is dependant on Trinitarian theology
baptistwes: the Trinity is "one essence/three centers of Personality" the Incarnate Son is "two essences/one center of Personality"
TjenaFitta: First, I really like this idea of personality over person
baptistwes: k
TjenaFitta: and none of the things I believe seem to be contridictory to the ideas you've described...
baptistwes: that's get's weird too - say "center of personality"
baptistwes: what's that?
baptistwes: I'm describing Calcedonian orthodoxy - it's the theology of the creeds
TjenaFitta: but I want parishioners (as well as myelf) to focus more on doing Godly things for others, not worry about the nature or essence of God
baptistwes: Matt, orthodoxy and orthopraxy have to be intertwined - if you don't have them together you veer off into various culdesacs and heresies
TjenaFitta: I agree completely, but right now, I don't see much orthopraxy, which I deem to be the more important of the two
baptistwes: Think about it, "Godly things for others" is a command which comes from Jesus - the Incarnate Son - who demonstrates that calling by doing what? Taking on human flesh and not considering equality with God as something to grasp on to
baptistwes: You don't have orthodoxy either - ask someone in your church is Jesus' soul was human or divine...
baptistwes: braid them together
baptistwes: Orthodoxy is the boundary-markers of the Church....we let it go at our own peril and we make it into something else (intellectual spirituality) at out own peril
baptistwes: Part of the problem is that when we hold on to the Trinitarian language loosely, or pick it apart to figure out "how it works," we loose the mystery of God.
TjenaFitta: Ok. I get that. But I don't think I loosened the boundaries of orthodoxy by saying God is love or God is peace by asking people to remove human constructs like father, shepherd, lamb, etc. I think God being truth or love enhances the mystery of God, not the other way around
baptistwes: Right, but you equated it with Trinitarian language - and that's where you loosened up
baptistwes: it's different
baptistwes: put it this way
baptistwes: when you're dealing with Justice, are you dealing with the fullness of God?
TjenaFitta: I think so
baptistwes: (actually, that's a bad one because "Justice" is actually a greek goddess...)
baptistwes: Really? then what about mercy? or forgivness? or love or hope, or creativity or...
TjenaFitta: Yes to all of those
baptistwes: but creativity isn't the fullness of God
baptistwes: becuase God is also just and loving and kind and vengeful
TjenaFitta: exactly
baptistwes: but when you deal with the persons of the Trinity you deal with the fullness of God...
baptistwes: Because the Son is just and loving and kind and vengeful
TjenaFitta: No, when we deal with the fullness of God, we put them in the persons of the trinity
baptistwes: right
baptistwes: because the persons of the Trinity are each all those things as they are in eternal relationship with each other
TjenaFitta: wait...you can't agree with what I said because I meant it to be contradictory to what you said
TjenaFitta: let me rephrase
baptistwes: go ahead
baptistwes: Have you read Pelikan?
TjenaFitta: I mean that when we deal with the fullness of God, which is all joy, peace, vengence, love, etc, all bundled up...We just happend to put them in the persons of the trinity because that is easy for us to do.
TjenaFitta: No
baptistwes: no
baptistwes: that's not what we do
baptistwes: Because mercy and vengance and love and justice don't each describe the fullness of God
TjenaFitta: wait
TjenaFitta: I'm not saying that one individually does at all
baptistwes: but when you start talking about "fullness" in conjunction with the Trinity - that's what you end up saying
baptistwes: The Father is "fully God"The Son is "fully God"
baptistwes: the Holy Spirit is "fully God"
TjenaFitta: No
baptistwes: justice is....an attribute
TjenaFitta: love is fully God, justice is fully God, vengence is fully God...plus all other "attributes"
baptistwes: no, see you're using the langauge like, "Love is fully of God"
TjenaFitta: no, there is not a "of" in my statement
baptistwes: love is fully God....no - love is a descriptor of God
TjenaFitta: In your way of thinking yes
TjenaFitta: but not mine...
TjenaFitta: because I am saying that God is both fully love and vengence and joy and fustration
baptistwes: but you're talking about attributes again
TjenaFitta: I don't think so. I think father is the attribute
baptistwes: "fully God" in Trinitarian language deals with the persons
baptistwes: I want you to pick up Pelikan's history of the Christian Tradition series...I'll read it with you
TjenaFitta: Oh wait...I did read part of that...but it's in PA
TjenaFitta: Sorry, I read your name wrong
baptistwes: The problem is that I'm playing the language game according to the rules the Church has set out - you're playing a new game
TjenaFitta: I realize that and that is part of what I wanted to highlight
TjenaFitta: I think God cringed when the fathers first started to describe who God is
baptistwes: Yah, see - the only way I can say that is if I didn't think the Holy Spirit has guided the Church
TjenaFitta: In my mind, I can balance the two. I believe they were acting out of intelect and not love. Otherwise, they wouldn't have had those conversations
baptistwes: Don't cringe at the Fathers - they weren't the abstractors sitting in ivory towers that the West has imaged them
baptistwes: No, that's not a fair reading of them at all
baptistwes: not at all
TjenaFitta: Well, I would have had to read them a lot more to give them a fair anything
baptistwes: These were people who make our piety, love, and charity to the world look like plastic jewelry - they did what they did because they believed in the in-breaking Kingdom of Jesus and wrestled with the Scriptures as they did so
TjenaFitta: All I'm saying is that they were doing unto others because that is what God calls us to...but then they stopped and tried to figure out the nature of such things, and got lost from actually doing the things that got them there in the first place
baptistwes: No
baptistwes: see that's exactly what they didn't do
baptistwes: that's a modern division
baptistwes: the statement you made can't be historically supported
TjenaFitta: of course not. I just said I can't treat them fairly
baptistwes: but then why make the statment?
TjenaFitta: Cause you're trying to bring in stuff I have no reference to and I'm only trying to work with what I know of the scriptures and how I feel God wants us to act
baptistwes: But the only way to read the Scriptures is within the communion of Saints - you gotta spend time with them before you dump them
TjenaFitta: Ok...let me type a bit...
baptistwes: k
TjenaFitta: The fathers had piety, love, charity... and then got together to figure it all out in terms for everyone to understand. Yes?
baptistwes: no
baptistwes: The two were concurrent, always, even the New Testament reads that way
TjenaFitta: Ok, even better actually
baptistwes: why?
TjenaFitta: All I'm trying to say about what I understand about myself and the people in my congregation via my sermon is that they need to actually realize that God is those things and that is how we need to start living if we really want to figure out the nature/essence/personality of God
baptistwes: sure, but what I'm trying to point out is that part of that discovery has to be a deliberate process of looking back through history and listening to the folks to did this before us
TjenaFitta: Yeah, but I have this insane idea that we can all be church fathers and mothers by traveling the same path. Instead, I feel as if we (people in my congregation) act as if we need not take the journey because it has already been walked
baptistwes: Yah, but I'm not sure your "cure" is any better than the "disease"
baptistwes: we're not all church fathers and mothers, but we're still on the same journey - and the rituals and sacred language of the Church are supposed to bind us to that path - the problem is that somewhere in the 20th century the Church kept doing all the same stuff and yet no longer had a clue WHY...
baptistwes: dead ritual
baptistwes: the best cure is to reinvigorate, concurrently, a passion for being the hands and feet of Christ and a passion for being incorporated back into story through the ritual practice of the Church
baptistwes: with things like...the labyrinth
baptistwes: or communion, or catechism, or baptism, or the church year, or feasts...etc...
baptistwes: but you gotta do them both at once.

Christ the King Sermon

Anyone care to guess at the most well known Shakespeare quote of all time? “To be or not to be” is one of the questions which seem to speak to the very nature of who we are. It speaks about life itself.

This week is Christ the King Sunday. During worship, we are to celebrate the reign of Christ. It can be celebrated in a number of fashions. One might understand this celebration in the future tense, that Christ WILL BE king after Armageddon or whichever end times scenario one might chose to believe and then a new world is created. Or you can celebrate this day as Christ was the King of the Jews… giving place and power to what he accomplished during his lifetime on earth. Or perhaps you can celebrate the day as it is written, without a tense…Christ THE King. Just leave it at that and not give it much thought.

But to simply do any one of these is an offense to the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of life.
My roommate during my second year of Seminary is one of my best friends. One afternoon while we were writing papers, he frantically called me into his room. As I rushed down the hall, I saw him jumping up and down at his window, looking at the sorority house across the street. Two Jehovah’s witnesses, dressed in their traditional white shirt and black pants, were on our neighbor’s porch talking to four or five girls. You could tell by their body language that they were not looking to convert that day, and we presumed that these two men would be stopping at our house next.

We rushed downstairs to the living room to our big bay window and peered excitedly out the window. If you haven’t caught on already, this is a seminary student’s dream… Two unsuspecting people trying to convert you walking into the home of two theologically trained students. It’s the thing dreams are made of. Never in my life have I been so excited about a theological conversation. When we saw the two men leave the sorority house without getting past the porch, my roommate and I fixed the curtains and pretended to watch a TV that wasn’t on, waiting patiently for the knock on our door. Tony was frantically tapping his foot and I had already chewed off three fingernails in the excitement. A minute passed and still there was no knock at our door. We both looked out the window only to find that they had crossed the street and were getting into their car and driving away. Tony and I were heart broken. We had, in two short minutes, prepared for the biggest event of our seminary careers. Neither of us got any work done the rest of that day and we never brought up the moment again.

Then, in early September of this year, I called my former roommate, who had moved back to North Carolina, to see how he was doing. He told me that a few days ago; two other Jehovah’s witnesses had come to his door. It didn’t turn out to be as exciting as what we had originally hoped for that afternoon, but it did make him stop and do a bit more research about the trinity. (In case you didn’t know, Jehovah’s witness’ believe that Jesus was not God, but just a holy man.) Well, Tony looked up in his Greek bible one particular verse from Matthew 28. Verse 19 says “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And Tony told me that when we look at the Greek text, we see that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are things belonging to God. It is similar to saying my arm is its own separate thing, but it is still a part of my overall body. A different part of the same essence. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are different parts of the same thing.

Now, the question you must all ask yourself is why did I just spend the last five minutes explaining the concept of the trinity on a day which should focus mainly on Christ the King? Every English teacher knows the answer to this question. It is because Christ the King is not a complete sentence. It needs a verb…it needs action.

I told you that story because calling Christ, and by proxy, God, a king severely limits the true essence of the divine. Calling Christ merely a king usurps the power of the Holy. One whose power is displayed in weakness; glory in humility and exaltation in transforming suffering[1]. Instead, there is only one time in the whole Bible where we learn the true essence of the trinity and the answer, surprisingly, does NOT come from Jesus, but instead it is God speaking to Moses. When Moses speaks to the burning bush and asks the name of God, the reply is simply “I AM.” The answer that humanity first receives from God is not Father, King, servant, lamb, or shepherd. Those are all useful names, but they are not the true being of God. Instead of using names, nouns, if you will… we must realize that we belong to a God of action. We belong to a verb. God says “I AM” because it opens up an infinite amount of possibilities to which we have very few words for. When we speak of God or Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit, we are speaking to all that is within the realm of possibility. When we say God is love, God responds with “I AM love.” When we say God is hope, God replies with “I AM Hope.” When we say God is justice, God replies with “I AM Justice.” When we say God is peace, God exclaims “I AM Shalom”.
What action do you associate with when you are in the presence of the Holy? When you take off your shows and stand in front of the burning bush, what words does your heart place in your mouth?

Right now, I would like you to stand if you are able and as I speak the words which God spoke to Moses, I invite you to then fill in the rest with the responses that your heart gives. Feel free to repeat a response if that is what you feel called to respond with as the same word for a different person has many different meanings. If your heart doesn’t lead you to any words, it is always acceptable to stand quietly in humble adoration.
I AM...
I AM...
I AM...
I AM...
I AM WHO I AM says God.
So be it.
[1] Otto Dreydopple Jr. Back of Moravian Bulletins for Sunday, November 25, 2007.

First picture!

This is my first attempt at uploading a picture to my blog. This is the the church in which I am currently serving as student pastor. First Moravian Church of Riverside NJ.

Common actions, radical ideas

When I was younger and went to Camp Hope[1], I realized that there were very few times in which I as a camper had control over what went on during the week. But there was one or two times during the week in which campers got to have a feeling of control. The meals where your cabin set up the dining hall were the times when you as camper had a lot of power. You decided who you get to sit with, who gets to be the “hopper” (For those of you who have only attended Hope’s Buffet period, the hopper is the person who goes and gets the platters of food.) and you had the ability to save seats for your friends that were not in your cabin and if you were lucky, you got one of the coveted seats in front of the fan. All this time at camp and I never realized that doing this was going against Jesus’ teaching about places of honor. In fact, when I really give it some thought, almost every single time I’ve had people over to my home, I rarely invited people over whom I didn’t want there. Perhaps this is simply something we might overlook because it is not something we engage in anymore; having huge banquet where the whole town is invited is a relic of the past. Who would want to have a party where they hung out with people they didn’t like? I know I’ve never liked eating a meal at Camp where I wasn’t surrounded by people who made me feel good.

Instead, Jesus calls us to surround ourselves with four different people when we find ourselves in a moment of celebration. The people we ought to be celebrating with are the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind (Luke 14:13). Now, just by a show of hands, does anyone in here think if they were to have a party this afternoon that they could honestly find four these four people without considerable effort? The problem which we run into if we really want to follow Jesus’ words is that we live in a country where our taxes and charities are already tending to the poor, lame, crippled and blind and although we can always do more to care for them, I’m not sure that we can live out the meaning of this gospel message if we seek to live this out literally. Instead, we need to realize that Jesus wasn’t just talking about people who were physically impaired but people who were spiritually impaired…people who have extra obstacles in their lives which they need help in overcoming if they are to eat a meal with Christ Jesus.
On Tuesday night, those of us on the outreach committee are going to meet to discuss how we can invite the spiritually poor, the spiritually blind, to begin a journey to meet a God who cares about who they are. We on the committee are going to be getting to know the families of the Vacation Bible School students who do not have a church home. Those on the committee are going to spend the next few months eating meals and getting to know those families, with the intent of sharing the love which only Christ can put in someone’s life. Some might consider this to be evangelism, and I guess if you think of it in the strictest sense of the word, it is, but part of the reason which we prayed the liturgy for Thanksgiving was because it is thanksgiving which is at the heart of the gospel story. We are able to give thanks by living the gospel by sharing something as simple as a meal, but more importantly, it is communion with God. Jesus isn’t asking us to fix everything in their lives; he just wants us to treat the people we don’t normally interact with like they are the most important people we know. We are being asked to be friendly, generous, gracious, and comforting to people who might never repay the favor. This sort of hospitality is a sign of acceptance, it tells us that we see other people as equals; it is a way of cementing fellowship.

Hospitality is something I’ve always been quite curious about. Last summer when I was working as a chaplain in the hospital, the word hospitality was used almost every day. One of my fellow chaplains used the word quite often and made it a goal to be as hospitable as possible. To be honest, I had no idea what the word meant. I thought it was being as nice and welcoming as possible to the people who were in the hospital. Sometimes it was something like getting an extra blanket or pillow, or other times it was getting a nurse or something along those lines. It always struck me as odd that this person was trying so hard to work on hospitality because she was already the most hospitable person I knew, at least when it came to being a good hostess. Then, just yesterday, I finally read a definition of hospitality that made sense to me. It wasn’t so much about an action as it was a way of life. Hospitality literally means in Greek, love of a stranger[2]. It doesn’t seem like an outrageous thought, but it really is a radical action.
There is another radical idea in the first half of the story today which I find extremely interesting which I always seem to fail at doing. Again, it’s another common, biblical concept which is fairly hard to live. It’s the idea of the first shall be last and the last shall be first, it is the idea that we are to live humble lives in order that we may be lifted up to places of honor by those who notice such humbleness. As I was studying some of the scholars about this text, I was extremely surprised to find a quote by a Greek historian by the name of Plutarch. I was surprised because I was supposed to read this text for my first semester in college, but I never got around to it. In fact, it stayed by my bed for all four years and I still never finished it, as I only read it when I had trouble sleeping. As far as I was concerned, Plutarch was the better than any sleeping pill on the market. But Plutarch said that “it is the small, apparently trivial act in which character is most accurately reflected.” And Jesus is calling us to be humble instead of choosing things which honor ourselves.

I know I used to try to do such things, but secretly, I was hoping for recognition. I was trying to outsmart others by being humble. I would try to be the last person to receive food in a community meal, and unlike in Jesus’ example, I did not receive recognition for it. Not that it’s such a bad thing, because now looking back, I’m much happier that I did not receive positive reinforcement for something I was doing selfishly. But around the same time as I had the idea to be the last in whatever line I was in, which I rarely do anymore, I started doing something which seems to work much better for me. I started holding the door open for people whenever I could. I started holding the door open for people at church, and then moved out to stores and restaurants. I’m almost always the last person to enter a building and I have to tell you, you learn amazing things about people when you do something as simple as holding a door for them. You learn who knows your name and whose name you know. You learn who is truly appreciative of small acts of kindness as well as who doesn’t want to look or speak to the person doing such a simple act. You also learn the people who you admire because they’re either willing to stand outside in cold or hot weather with you, or will hold the door open for you when you’re able. I did this at my home congregation for 3 years, every Sunday…and the last thing I learned is that if you do something for three years and suddenly leave, the church will soon buy an automatic door opener. (True story)

The challenge for all of us is show someone hospitality, to love a stranger this week on the simple grounds that God loves them too. Hold a door open for the rude person who knocked into you in the store… share a meal with someone that you know doesn’t belong to the family of God; do something, even if you know in your heart that you’re not doing it for the right reasons. Fake it till you make it. It doesn’t always matter why right now so long as it makes a difference in your life at some point and I hope that you come back to me next week and tell me a story about what you did, because even if it didn’t make a difference now, it might someday, and that is when we learn that our love is worth it. Amen.

[1] http://www.camphope.org/
[2] Fred Craddock. “Luke” Interpretation Biblical Commentary series. John Knox Press: Louisville. 1990. Pg 178

A new idea of education

Today is a day in which we as Moravians are called to pray for public education as well as our Moravian educational institutions, lifting up students and educators that their minds, bodies and spirits be open to the many things they will experience in the upcoming year. While this is something we all as Christians ought to be doing regularly, I found it very interesting that today’s Gospel lesson has both teachers and students playing a prominent role. In fact, verse ten tells us right away that Jesus was teaching in a synagogue. And it is a verse that most of the time we normally overlook to get to the more interesting parts of the story, where Jesus is healing a woman on the Sabbath. But it seems to me, that the reason the Moravian church has survived for as long as it has is mainly due to the importance placed on both teachers and students.

One of my favourite figures in our Moravian heritage is Jan Amos Comenius. I spoke a little bit about him earlier in the children’s message. He did more than simply add pictures to textbooks; his passion was education for all people throughout their whole lives. While that isn’t exactly the most exciting concept to us today, in the 17th century, very few people had access to education. It was mostly reserved for only the wealthiest males with very few females. Comenius’ revolutionary concept said that learning should be fun, for everyone, from the youngest children to the oldest adult.

Now, I would be shocked if this once radical idea was something any of you disagreed with. Education has become so common that we take it for granted, and our Moravian run schools have become so popular that they are considered some of the best private schools around. The fact that education has become the norm is a good thing, but the influence we have as people of faith is becoming weaker every year and I think it is time that we need a new radical view of education which is meaningful to everyone involved.

So the question we must ask ourselves is what exactly is it that we as Moravians can do to change the way people learn? I think the answer lies by simply rearranging the words in this congregation’s mission statement. Instead of teaching all by reaching all, perhaps we all ought to be thinking of how we can reach all by teaching. I believe that this can be done not by establishing schools or just hoping to bring more people into our churches by fancy programs. Instead, we need to work on building relationships which can enrich both our lives and the life of those we teach.

There is a man at the church where I am currently serving who is 82 years old. For the past four or five years he has designed the set for VBS. Normally, this isn’t exactly the hardest of tasks except he paints 12 cardboard panels which are four feet wide by ten feet high all by hand. He spent the next two weeks painting this huge scene that looked absolutely fantastic. Unfortunately for the church, this is the last year in which he will be doing all of this hard work, and I asked him what he would be doing with his free time. He answered me by telling me that he wasn’t really sure. One of the things I’m going to suggest to him, because he still wants to be active, is teach some of the kids who are interested in art to do some of the amazing art work which he has spent countless hours on. Its something where education isn’t measured in the number of things learned, it’s where education is the time spent with people and building meaningful relationships.

One of my own personal pet peeves with the modern culture is that we pride ourselves on how individualistic we can be. And even though I like to spend a lot of time alone, the times in which I have learned the most about anything are the times when I have been mentored by someone who gave me the gift of allowing me to be around then when they were doing things I admired. It is because of this type of education that I am speaking to you today, and I think it is this type of education that is going to make us better disciples of Christ.

There are more than just practical things that can be taught and learned. And as important as it is to learn practical things, such as art or sewing or how to do woodwork, we must be all be students of people who have deep spiritual roots. Who is it in your life that you have admired in you’re life because of their love of God and their love for others?

When I first thought of this question, I thought it was rather smart. Of course, I was asking it from my own perspective, but when I started asking people who were a few years older and wiser than me, I realized that most of the people they looked up to had already gone to the more immediate presence of our Lord. So the question we need to ask ourselves is who is it in this room that we admire for their devotion to God? Look around…really… taking a second to look at your brothers and sisters in this room and let your heart tell you what it is which you admire about them. Have you ever appreciated the way someone read the scripture or the liturgy, how they brought a bible story to life because they’ve read it so many times? Have you been moved when a person in your bible study prayed such a wonderful prayer and perhaps thought to yourself that you could never say such beautiful things to God? Have you ever been impressed with how someone always seems to be at worship, week after week, year after year, because you know they really love Jesus Christ? Well, the thing that you need to do next is find the courage to find that person after the service and share with them that gift from the Holy Spirit which you see in them. And when someone comes up to you and says that they notice the Spirit working within you, the greatest gift that you can ever give someone is to ask them to be a part of what God has already given you. If they have noticed that you are gifted in prayer, ask them to join you for your next time of devotion. If someone notices how good you are with tools, invite that person to help you the next you fix something. If someone says you have a gift for teaching, invite them to teach a Sunday school class this year.

Starting this type of education is difficult in its own right. Having the courage to point out the gifts that God gave other people is not always the easiest thing to do, but it’s a good first step. The second step is that mentoring relationship where you share your knowledge with the person who seeks it, and in the process, you get to know each other better, as you will get to know God better. The third step, in my opinion, is the hardest of all. I got this idea from the last place I would have ever imagined to bring into the church…my fraternity. We had four responsibilities which we were to follow, and I think that three of them fit in. These three were to spend time, take pride, and replace yourself. We already spend the time doing things which we feel bring us closer to God. Taking pride in those things means that are willing to share it with others because we know that it is all because of God that we have those gifts. But replacing our self is usually the most difficult. It is taking the things we have learned from others and then finding someone else who is receptive to the things you are going to share with them. That is the most difficult part of the learning process…starting the third generation of student teacher interaction is the one that means you are doing it right.

I went to a church planting seminar at the end of May this year and I believe that Pastor Sayward attended the same conference a year before I did. One of the stories that the presenters told us was of a pastor who challenged his church of half a million people which were broken up into small groups to grow by 50,000 people within the next 6 months. It didn’t seem like the easiest of tasks, until you realized that each small group had about ten people in it, and all each group had to do was to find one person to share the love of God with. Now, as Moravians, we don’t work with such large numbers, but if we spend the time with people, first with our own brothers and sisters, and then actively seek out one other person to share our gifts and love with, we will have a movement which will fill our hearts until it overflows.

Radical Interpretation

My first sermon at First Moravian Church of Riverside NJ. August 19, 2007.

As I sat at my desk on Tuesday afternoon, trying to relax a bit after an exhausting morning of Vacation Bible School, I was checking to see if anyone had commented on my latest blog entry. Once I realized that no one had left me any comments, I began to poke around the blogs of strangers whom I had never heard of. The name of a person’s blog will come up on the screen for maybe two seconds, and if the title sounds interesting, I try and click it before it disappears. The first blog that I clicked that day was called “A Roman Thought.”[1] And I checked it out, hoping it might be thought provoking. Luckily for me, it had a video posted from an apparently well respected atheist. I watched a ten minute clip of this man attempt to deconstruct the concept of religion. To be honest, he did a pretty decent job of getting his point across, but as I listened to what he had to say, I couldn’t help but think how wonderful it was to hear his argument on a week when the Gospel lesson is about Jesus’ message spreading division among the people.

If you think about it, very few of us want to believe that the work of God is one that divides people. Instead, we tend to recall some of the nicer scripture verses. Blessed are the peace makers, for they will be called children of God (Matthew 5).Or perhaps we like to think of Jesus saying “my peace I leave unto you, my peace I leave with you” (John 14:27) Both of these verses, plus many others, talk about the peace that Jesus brings. So when we read verses about how Jesus’ message is going to bring division, it seems quite easy to dismiss them and not bring them into our lives. But it’s my own belief that it is these hard to swallow verses which challenge us to be the disciples God wants us to be.

The real question then is, how do we view such harsh words in a way that conveys the love and grace which comes from Jesus Christ. It is not an easy task. Perhaps we need to first ask if we can find love and grace in passages in which Jesus is, to be quite frank, pissed off. Jesus is warning us about a crisis, but this crisis is not an emergency, but instead is an occasion of truth and a precise time to make a decision about life.[2] How amazing would our lives be if we viewed all of our moments of crisis as moments of the truth of God? The truth of this passage is that Jesus is not simply calling us to be agents of division for the purpose of causing trouble, but instead we will inevitably cause division because we are speaking truth in love which most people do not want to hear.

If you remember the last song we sang, Obey-O, we sing about obeying God, even when it’s hard. I think this is one of the most important lines sung during VBS this week. When Jesus calls us to love God and love our neighbor, he isn’t trying to simplify the 10 commandments into the 2 easiest, instead, these laws of love are the hardest to live by. They will bring disunity, division, judgment, even destruction, as well as the Fruits & Gifts of the Spirit.[3] I wonder if such gifts will be evident in the kids that went through vacation bible school this week. I wonder if they’ll remember to obey the law of love, even if it causes disunity in the family. Will the students remember to love illegal aliens when their parents blame them for all of our countries problems? Will they love someone different from them when the world tells them to hate? Will they share everything they have when common sense tells them to covet as much as possible?
This is a radical interpretation of the law of love. Too often we choose to love only when it is of benefit to us. I love the word radical because it often conjures a negative image of what religion can do to the world. We use the word radial Muslim to describe terrorists, and when we hear about radical Christians, our thoughts go to fundamentalist Southern Baptists, very rarely do we say that radically living a life of love is a positive thing.

Instead, the great temptation of Christianity is always to have sugar coated Christianity with a sugar coated gospel, with a sugar coated cross, and to eliminate this great call to discipleship for the world. Our greatest temptation is that the cares, riches and pleasures of this life become more important than the call of Jesus Christ. And so the security of family and friends, jobs and homes and vacations become more important to us than Christ and his mission. The result is watered down wine; it is watered down whiskey; it is middle class Christianity; it is complacent Christianity; it is comfortable Christianity. Come and sit in our soft padded pews and worship Jesus Christ with your personal style of music and comfort.[4]

When we become comfortable with discipleship, when we strive only for unity in our beliefs, we do not grow as Christians. As Moravians, we pride ourselves upon the fact that when it comes to the non-essentials, we have the liberty to think and act as we believe best, but too often we neglect to concern ourselves with the Essentials, the things which should be of utmost concern in our daily lives. What are those things which we believe to be essential? The grace of God the Creator, the saving work of God in Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as the faith, love and hope on part of humankind, are all central in our beliefs. If we are not living out these things which we say are central to being a disciple, we are not living the radical life to which we are called.

Now, I need to say, that I gave a lot of thought and prayer to the scripture verses that were read today. It is certainly not the verses I would have picked to share my first sermon, but I did feel the need to preach about the radical message of love with Jesus brings us. Radical isn’t something we need to stay away from, its something we need to embrace. I challenge you to go home from this time of worship today and read the whole 12th chapter of Luke. Read it to figure out why Jesus was so upset. Read it to find out how pointless storing up our treasures are, how silly it is to be greedy. Read it with an open heart as to what it means to live a life of radical love. It’s a really simple concept really. But simple doesn’t mean easy. It doesn’t mean that loving the way Christ calls us to love will be an easy road, it will be filled with people who stand in our way, it will bring division in our family when they don’t understand that we are choosing to love others instead of doing something which pleases only ourselves.
Please don’t think that I’m saying that I’m better than anyone else. In fact, nine times out of ten, I’m one of the biggest offenders in not loving as Jesus calls me to love. But I figured that I’d use this first sermon to have all of you help me to do a better job at it. And it is my hope that we will all keep it in the front of our minds to share that grace which God has so freely given us with others. If that isn’t radical, I don’t know what is.

[1] http://www.aromanthought.com/
[2] Fred B. Craddock. “Interpretation: Luke.” John Knox Press, Louisville. 1990. Pg 166
[3] Laterally Luke, by Brian McGowan, Anglican priest in Western Australia
[4] "Christ Brings Division," Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington.

The Difficulty of Faith ~ July 22, 2007

The first word that Abraham hears from God is the word leave. Leave your home, leave your country, leave your family, leave everything you have ever known to be true in your whole life. Leave, for an unknown land, and I will then make your family great. Abraham gets this message when he is 75 years old. He doesn’t get a visit from God either, he just hears a voice. If this happened today, most of us would probably just dismiss Abraham as a crazy old man. We would say that he should be put in an old folks home. We’d say all sorts of strange things about him, the people that knew him probably laughed at such a notion, that Abraham was going to follow the voice that was in his head is absurd. There is only one thing more absurd than telling people that you believe God is talking to you, and that is acting on it. How many of us actually act on the strange thoughts that run through our heads? Even if we think about acting on some of the things we think about, we run them by other people, making sure that our ideas aren’t as crazy as they might seem. Abraham doesn’t do this. He just accepts the fact that God is going to make him the father of all generations.

This is when we pick up in the story of Abraham and his wife Sarah. Sarah is almost 100 years old and has still not born any children for her husband. Obviously, she believes that she cannot have a child, and quite frankly, who can blame her? Is there anyone in this room today over the age of 60 that would still want to do all the work that comes with having a child? My guess is that very few of you, if any, would want such a thing. The faith that had originally sustained Abraham and Sarah was long gone. So much so that when this stranger stops by to visit, they laugh at him, they laugh at the idea that the God they once believed in would actually fulfill the promise made so many years ago. It is my guess that Abraham and Sarah didn’t actually believe the stranger until she started to show the signs of pregnancy. And understandably so, because as we grow older, we think that we are wise enough to know when someone is telling the truth or not.

This is the difficulty of faith. That faith used to fill us, and yet, as we age, it seems to disappear from view. It is quite similar to when we are children, believing in something like Santa Klaus or the Easter Bunny. At a young age, we are naïve enough to believe anything we are told. Then as we grow older, when we have had more experience at all that life has to offer, we become jaded, so much so that we start to not believe anything that we once thought might have been true. Have you ever gotten to the point where not only do you not have faith in something, but you begin to believe that anyone who believes in it is disillusioned? I’m pretty sure that this is what Abraham and Sarah were feeling. They know that God keeps most promises, but maybe one or two are forgotten, or perhaps fulfilled in different ways, like Hagar bearing Abraham’s first child. Maybe the promise changed, maybe it wasn’t meant to be, so many different maybes, that they were not sure what to believe.

When I look at the situation with Abraham and Sarah, I am reminded of our Moravian church and the long history that we have had. As the oldest protestant church in the world, we have been around quite a long time. In most non Moravian circles, we are described as a church that was important a pretty long time ago, but in modern times, seems to be pretty irrelevant. Sure, we have moments of goodness, we do some good out in the community, we have some mission work, but we aren’t anywhere close to where the church was when Zinzendorf was around. We are missing something that the church once had, and I think that thing is faith.

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke with your pastor about this congregation. He was telling me about all of you, and about how loving a congregation this is. We spoke of his hopes for the congregation as Gordy will be ending his interim position. When I was reflecting back on our conversation for this sermon, I realized that as a whole, most of our churches are filled with loving people, we have a lot of hope for the future of the church, but something tells me that we are generally lacking in the faith department.

That begs the question, what is faith? Earlier in the liturgy we made a profession of faith, saying that we believe in God, the father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. We professed belief in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, all things that we as Christians must have faith in. To me, it seems that we have gotten too comfortable with the thought that saying those words together means that we have faith. What good is a public profession of faith if we are only doing it in the presence of fellow Christians? While it does have some good, I must say, believing that such a statement is sufficient to call us people of faith is misleading.

True faith though, is more than a statement, but it something I have found extremely difficult to define in words. One of my favourite quotes on faith is from William Sloane Coffin. He writes in his book Credo: "I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings." That is the essence of what Abraham and Sarah do in the story today, they took a leap at the age of 75, and it took them nearly 25 years before they grew those wings. Abraham showed that faith is more than words, it is an action. That leads us to take a look at everything we do in our lives and see if it is something we are doing out of faith or something we are doing merely because we ought to do it. Are we walking off cliffs and letting our wings bring us down, or are we merely taking the stairs down, descending at our own pace? One of my favourite stories about the early Moravian mission movement is how the missionaries who came to the Caribbean islands brought very little with them, but when they did bring something, one of the few things they took with them was their headstone. That, my brothers and sisters, is a faith that very few of us are living today.

I wish that I could tell you that such a faith is possible if we just pray for it to happen. Of course we need to pray for such a dynamic faith everyday. But just because we pray for it doesn’t mean we simply receive it.

About few weeks ago, I was listening to the radio and heard the following quote. This person said that when we pray for something like patience, we do not simply get our patience meter refilled so that the next time we are in a tough situation, we will not be anxious, instead, God when we pray for patience, God grants us more situations for us to be patient in, thus learning as we go. I believe that the same is true of faith, we do not simply receive faith every time we pray for it, but instead, God grants us more times for us to radically live out the faith that we profess.

This last January, we had a class on Evangelism where we did a little bit of role playing. If any of the church members are here who went to the last synod meeting, you’ll remember what I’m talking about. Two people were given a situation in which one person could attempt to show their faith by talking to the person across from them. My friend got the role of playing a poor person on the bus who was asking for money, and I was the person who he was going to ask. Apparently, the scene was supposed to take place with me giving the person only a few dollars, maybe the spare change from my pocket, and then hoping he would go away. Instead, I pulled out my wallet and without looking at what was in there, pulled out a hundred dollar bill. Now, I knew it was a hundred dollars because of where I keep my money in my wallet, but completely threw my friend off guard. Now, perhaps I only gave him the money because I knew I would be getting it back, or because I wanted to impress my friends by whipping out a hundred dollar bill. I wish that I could tell you that I was carrying that much money when someone came up to me and really needed it, but I can’t do that. But I do know that someday, when someone does ask me for something, when God shows me an opportunity to live out my faith, that I am able to give more than just the spare change in my pocket, that I am willing to do something big, to do something reckless, that my faith in Christ comes through.

In the coming days, weeks and months, allow for God to speak to you. Allow God to guide you in a way in which you are uncertain of the outcome. Allow yourself to leap without looking. Next time a stranger asks you for money, think less about how they might spend it on booze and think more about how your generosity will shock what they think about Christians. Living our lives as people of faith is difficult. Abraham and Sarah did it, even in their old age. I’m pretty sure that we can do the same thing if we simply see the opportunity in front of us. Amen.

No Excuses ~ Sermon for Palmyera Moravian Church tomorrow.

Country Roads, take me home, to the place, I belong, West Virginia, Mountain Momma, take me home, Country roads…

When I was in the 8th grade, my mother’s favourite singer switched from Harry Chapin to John Denver. Every long trip my family took to New York, every day after soccer practice, anytime I was in the car, there was a pretty good chance that my mom had a John Denver CD playing. I remember the day my mom bought her first John Denver CD, the first few songs I thought were slow and boring. It took me a while before I began to like his music, but now, after listening to his music over and over and over again, I have a real appreciation for his lyrics. In fact, I spent many trips in the back seat of the family van daydreaming about hitch hiking across the country and just seeing where the road would take me. But, no matter how many times I listened to one of his songs, no matter how many times I wanted to just pick up and go, I never did. I have tons of excuses, it would be very dangerous, I didn’t have any money, it would make my family scared not knowing if I was safe, for all those reasons, plus a few others, I never had the nerve to just up and go.

It’s because of John Denver that I understand the responses that the two people gave in the Gospel lesson today. They want to go, they want to follow Jesus, but they’re not quite ready, there is something holding them back. Two of them have pretty good reasons for not leaving just yet. Heck, they probably thought that the reason was commanded by God, honoring their father and mother was an extremely important value in their society and because of that, surely Jesus would understand their thinking. Even more, in the lesson from the Hebrew scripture, we hear about the prophet Elijah calling Elisha. When Elisha is called, he first asks if he can go in from the field and say goodbye to his parents, and he is granted permission. After saying his goodbyes, he sets out following Elijah. It’s pretty safe to say that these two “want to be followers” would have known the commandments and the story of Elisha. I’d even go so far to say that these two felt confident that Jesus would see how much they desired to honor the scripture and be truly impressed.

Today, we have the benefit of knowing the answer that Jesus gives. Jesus tells these two that they can’t make excuses if they really want to follow him. Jesus even tells them that if they decide to go and then look back, they are not fit for the service of God. Perhaps this is Jesus reminding the two men of Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt, proving that just having knowledge of the scripture does not translate into doing the right thing in the eyes of God.

A few nights ago, in my own personal time of study, I was reading up on some of the differences between our Moravian church and that of other Protestant churches. There is a term, coined by Martin Luther, which is considered by most people, whether they know it or not, to be one of the basic principals for being a Christian. The term is “SOLA FIDE” and it means, “By faith alone.” Most churches, even most of our own, preach and teach that all we need is faith and we will be saved. While it is a lovely concept, the truth is that the early Moravian church did not believe this to be true. What our ancestors believed is that faith without love is not faith at all.[1] Listen to that again… “Faith without love is not faith at all.” If we look closely at the gospel lesson for today that is the heart of what Jesus is saying to these would be followers. He is calling them to the carpet for their beliefs. Jesus realizes that they have faith. They have probably been waiting their entire lives for Jesus to come to them. They have been expecting it, but when they are called to action, called to love, they fail. Jesus doesn’t say that their faith has saved them. He says that when they are called to action, to love Jesus by literally following him, he will not listen to their excuses.

This is not the Jesus most of us think of when we tell others about our Savior. We like to think of Jesus as a kindly fellow who forgives us our trespasses, who has infinite patience for our impatience, who is not annoyed when our actions fail to live up to our faith. The Jesus that we read about is a bit darker. We don’t hear Jesus with a “my way or the highway” attitude. “Such a pushy, authoritative Jesus is not popular today.”[2] You either put your faith into action or you don’t. It is that simple.

Now, I could very easily tell a story of a person whose love and devotion to Christ made them to follow Jesus when the times were tough, when push came to shove, they left everything they ever knew and followed Jesus, even to martyrdom. I wish it were the truth that I could tell you I was able to live out my John Denver inspired dream of just hitch hiking across America, following God where ever the Spirit took me. But that story ends with me spending a year in Sweden where I did more running away from God than following Jesus. What I do know is that when Jesus calls us to ministry, when we feel something put on our hearts, to do the work of building up the body of Christ, we need to follow that call.

One of the biggest frustrations for me are people who say the phrase, “Yes, But.” Yes, that’s a good idea, but we’ve tried it before and it didn’t work out as we had hoped. Yes, I want to follow Jesus, but I have some other things that I need to take care of before I can go. There was a woman in the last congregation I served who’s heart was just like that of the would be disciples. She wanted to do so much, but she never thought she was ready. The intriguing part of this gospel story is that Jesus doesn’t care if you are 100% ready to follow. He just wants you along for the journey. When I read about the calling of Jesus’ disciples, I believe that most of those followers had very little idea about what it is that they were going to do. They became faithful disciples by going around town and telling people about the awesome work of God. Then, I imagine, at night, they came back together, ate dinner with each other, and talked about what happened that day as they did God’s work. That’s when the true discipleship happened. When they were together and learned from each other about what God had done in their own lives that day. Theoretically, that is why we are here today. We have come together to worship God and share our stories of how God is working through us. If you don’t feel like God is doing such a thing in your own life, Jesus is telling us today that there is no excuse. We must follow, we don’t have to do it well, but we must follow, because that is all that Jesus asks of us.

Now, I want to end with some selected words from another song by John Denver. The lyrics are from Rocky Mountain High. Listen to the words, and see if you can make a connection between the young man in the song and what God really wants us to be like when we accept the call to follow Jesus.



He was born in the summer of his 27th year,
coming home to a place he’d never been before,
left yesterday behind him, might say he was born again,
might say he found a key for every door.

Now he walks in quiet solitude the forest and the streamsSeeking grace in every step he takesHis sight has turned inside himself to try and understandThe serenity of a clear blue mountain lakeAnd the Colorado rocky mountain highI've seen it rainin' fire in the skyYou can talk to God and listen to the casual reply.
Rocky Mountain High.

Amen.
[1] Craig Atwood. International Theological Dialogue. Issue No 4, May 2005. Pg 47.
[2] Spencer, F. Scott, "'Follow Me,' The Imperious Call of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels," Interpretation, 2005.

Unity Sermon

The following sermon is being entered into a contest after I brush it up a little bit.

Each denomination does or did something particularly well. In my studies at seminary, I have come to realize that Methodists are great at revival, Baptists are extremely familiar with the bible, and Pentecostals are well known for their manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The denomination that I belong to, the Moravians, are known for their mission movement that started in the late 1720’s. Over the next half century, missionaries were sent from Germany to remote parts of the world like South Africa, Nicaragua, Labrador, and the Caribbean Islands. I could tell you the whole mission movement story, but I’m really not concerned about that this morning. I want to tell you the story behind the Moravian mission movement, and it fits perfectly with the Scripture theme for today.
What exactly does it mean to pray without ceasing? I looked for direction from a number of biblical scholars, theologians, pastors and lay people. Almost every single one said that the reality of prayer without ceasing was impossible. We have to sleep, we have to work, we have to do the things that need to get done in order to live our lives…that is our reality. We cannot pray without ceasing! Because of that impossibility, the great thinkers of our time, or at least the people who have enough time to write things down, say that we do our best to live prayerful lives. When we love our neighbor as our self, when we are feeding the poor, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and those in prison, that is when we are praying without ceasing, even when we sleep. I must tell you, that for quite a long time in my life, I really thought that this was true, if I could just give my life over to God’s mission work, then I could achieve a life that kept me connected to God every hour of every day. God would be so happy because I was doing everything that was asked of me and thus I would live a great life. I would meet a wonderful woman to share my life with, have two and a half great kids, and maybe even win the lottery, if God really wanted me to. Heck, I’d even give more than 10% of those winnings to the church.
There is another school of thought on how to pray without ceasing. It’s a literal way of thinking, and that we utter prayers to God through our whole day, which is only possible if we were living in a monastery or living out in the woods by ourselves. The problem then is that we have no Christian community or Christian mission. We take the idea of praying every moment we are awake so far that we neglect our duties as servants of Christ.
So far, these ideas haven’t met my ideal for what I think pray without ceasing ought to look like, and I hope that they don’t satisfy you either. I think the answer lays a long way back at the beginning of the Moravian mission movement. Those people living in Germany did something that most of us might find impossible to believe. The community of Christians there prayed without ceasing for over 100 years, stopping only because of the First World War. It started with about 48 people, most likely 24 men and 24 women. Two men or two women would go into a room together for an hour and pray. They had personal prayers, prayers from the community, prayers for the world, for those who were sick, for their leaders, for people who had yet to encounter God, and for everything else they could think of. Over the course of time, the number of people praying increased, but the fact of the matter is that the community never stopped their prayer to God and because that community lived the scripture, amazing things happened, things that could not have happened if it weren’t for the power of prayer.
Now, there is a very important person missing from the story I just told you. I doubt that many of you know much about him, he isn’t one that history seems to look favorably upon. In fact, one of the most under-rated lessons that I ever learned in all my years of school is that history is written by the winners in life. The man that is missing from the story which takes place in Germany lost a battle just 60 miles from here. You have all probably heard of the winner, and his name is Heinrich Muhlenberg. Towns, hospitals and schools have been named after him, but nothing is named for the loser, Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf.
Prior to my research about the fight that these two gentlemen had, I only knew the story from the losing point of view. When I read up on what Muhlenberg and others had to say about Zinzendorf, I realized that the reason Zinzendorf lost was not due to what he was fighting for, but more the way in which he went about it. Since Zinzendorf was a nobleman, I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say that he was probably a bit snobby, stubborn, and intimidating man who didn’t realize that the fact that he was of noble birth meant absolutely squat on this side of the Atlantic. It seemed that Muhlenberg just wanted to argue for the pure sense of arguing, and it would appear that the Count really wasn’t too interested in winning the argument that day, and decided to drop the issue.
What is that issue? It is the same issue gathers us here today. Christian Unity! You see, back in Germany, that small group of people who started praying 24 hours a day had now been praying for about 15 years straight. With the knowledge that God was working through those Moravians in prayer, Zinzendorf had come to Pennsylvania with the intent of uniting the many different denominations into the broader banner of Christianity. That movement failed. Pennsylvania was supposed to be a place where any religious group could come and find freedom to practice, why then would they want to lose the things that make them unique? Now, I’m not saying that if Zinzendorf had won that verbal argument, we would no longer have denominations today and I don’t think that Muhlenberg was against Christian unity. What I am saying is that these two men’s personalities and ideas about the future of the church made them to be enemies.
I only tell you that story because in this gathering of Christians today, I see something different. I see a desire for unity between Christians, a desire for a bond that says our differences are less than our hope. Our hope to live out the mission of Jesus Christ. Our hope to worship God together, not as Lutherans, Episcopals, Pentecostals, Methodists, or Baptists, but to unite as Christians. Our hope not to be known for our differences in theology, but to be known as Christians by our love. (PAUSE)
Brothers and sisters, the question we must then ask ourselves is how important is prayer in the interfaith community? Do you pray for one thing while the person next to you prays for something completely different? Do you pray in hope that the person next to you might be praying the same thing? It is my belief that individual prayer is not enough, just as prayer in the midst of our worship gatherings is not enough. We need to pray without ceasing as a community, we need to place our collective hopes and fears at the alter of the Lord in prayer.
Now, I don’t know how many of you know this, but I have asked some of the leaders of this group to find a number of people to begin 24 hours of prayer for this community and for the future that this ecumenical group might have. My hope is that this group here today can turn those 24 hours of prayer into a full week. There will be a sign up sheet in the back of the sanctuary. See what happens when you put your prayer life on the line, see what happens when the community spends all their time with God.
As the choir sings our last hymn, if you so desire, I ask that you come forward, take a stone from the ushers up front, and lay it down on top of mine. Let us build join together as Christians and build an alter to God in the name of our risen Lord and Savior. Then I will open in prayer, and as the spirit moves, we will share our prayers with each other and with God. Let us to begin a prayer that will continue on for a full week, and let our lives be open to the work that Holy Spirit will lead us towards. Amen.