This gives us another option for making music together at the weekly Music Night, Tuesdays at 7 pm.
Please share your ideas for a future Music Night.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Penny Whistles Have Arrived
This gives us another option for making music together at the weekly Music Night, Tuesdays at 7 pm.
Please share your ideas for a future Music Night.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
The Vision: The "Why's" Part 2
Yesterday we introduced our new Vision for the future direction of our church: converting the church parsonage into a youth/Sunday School/counseling center. We addressed some of the "why's" of that vision by discussing the nature of, and theology behind, our youth program...the things that make it work. Hopefully by reading that you understand the difference between the kids having a home and just having a place among us.
At least half the youth gatherings currently happen in the parsonage anyway. It's more or less a necessity. Part of that is psychological. The same events that seem so natural sitting on a couch in a furnished house and an appropriately-sized room seem weird when held in a more clinical, less-comfortably-furnished, inappropriately-sized place. The Fellowship Hall is too big for the things we do, the back basement rooms too dark and small. Metal chairs are the only seating option in either, quite uncomfortable if you're spending more than a couple hours on an event. Practicality rears its head too. For example, you can't watch a movie in any of the church rooms. There's no sight lines in the hall, no space in the back rooms. Plus there's no equipment to show the Blu-Rays on which we have most of our movies and no speakers for sound. The parsonage has all of these things plus chairs, couches, a comfortable environment. It already feels like home in a way the church rooms never could.
Another quick example: you should have seen the kids beam when some of the ladies of the church got them their own fridge for pop. It was the first space that they could call their own. They couldn't believe how lucky they were and you wouldn't believe how much easier it is for them to grab pops now than it was when the soda sat on somebody else's counter or in somebody else's fridge. Even that much of a home--one appliance--made a huge difference.
For all these reasons and more, if an event is going to last more than a couple hours, if it requires any kind of technology, or if it's any smaller than a dozen people we just hold it in the parsonage.
The next natural question: OK, so that's worked so far. Why change now?
It has worked so far but we need to consider two important things:
1. At whose expense has it worked?
2. Will it continue to work?
The simple answers: at the expense of me and my family and, for various reasons, no it won't.
The first reason it won't work is a happy one. We're experiencing the same "problem" we had a few years ago. We're starting to have too many events and too many kids to contain in my house. People are feeling welcome. They're inviting friends. Those friends are discovering our church and inviting more friends. On New Year's Eve, through simple word of mouth, we had 19 people show up for a couple of movies. 10 sat on our couch, 3-4 more in chairs behind the couch, another bunch sprawled out on the floor.
This is great, but realistically my house can't accommodate that many people while remaining my house. We have too many things in the way, not enough seats, etc. In practical terms that leaves me choosing between kids, deciding who to notify about events and who to not mention them to.
To be clear, we never turn anybody away. That's a firm rule of mine. Anybody who comes can stay. But that also means that I can't broadcast certain events very widely otherwise we'll be overrun. Usually how it works is somebody will text me and ask if I have time to do something on a given day. I'll say, "Yes" and tell them about how many friends they can invite. I know, then, that I can't let anybody else know.
Obviously this is not ideal as far as youth evangelism. The people who text me most often get to come most often. Those slower on the draw get left out. Since I get texted quite often and my calendar fills quickly I seldom get to make it up to those who are left out. Not having a dedicated youth space is causing us to pick and choose who we'll serve instead of being able to take all comers. It's limiting the effectiveness and growth of this ministry.
The second reason the current system won't work anymore is my family. Before Derek came along this was easy. Careen would just join in on the activity or curl up somewhere with a book while the youth and I hung out. When Derek was a baby it wasn't so bad either, as all he needed to be happy was mom close by. Now Derek is 5 and Ali is 2. They need their space. They need their house. Ali sleeps four feet away from where we watch movies at night. Careen is just down the hall and hears youth having fun at midnight when she has to get up early with the kids. If I want to have an event in the daytime I have to ask my family to leave the house in order to make it work, as the kids can't be underfoot nor can we just lock them in their rooms for four hours. I've made this request multiple times. How many times can that happen before it starts being unfair?
I'm starting to have to reject youth events for this reason. For example, last year we had a very successful movie and dinner night for High School youth. It was fantastic and well-attended. We wanted to start it again this year, to build on that success. But I couldn't do it. I sat down and looked at having Careen and the kids leave the house every second Sunday and I finally decided I had to draw the line. So we're not doing it. The sad part is, that event was drawing kids we don't always see at the other events. But what can I do?
This may sound self-serving but I think I've earned the right to say it. For years I've sacrificed and done, by most accounts, an amazing job ministering with these kids. There's been no mystery to it. I've given them the time, energy, and space that they needed to flourish and enjoy themselves among us. But this has been on the backs of me and my family. We have been paying for this vital ministry. We've shown it can be done. We've demonstrated why it's not only good, but indispensable to our church. How long do we have to keep paying the price to show that to everybody else?
At a certain point the church has to decide whether it thinks this ministry is vital enough to support. If the answer is "no", then I've been wasting my time with this (at least from a church perspective) and I need to stop doing it. But if the answer is "yes" it's time to throw our support behind this ministry...for everybody to throw in some support for it. I'm eager and willing to continue growing the ministry and working with the youth of our town but I can't keep doing it without the right tools and space. And I can't keep making my family pay--not just financially but by sacrificing their home--for something the whole church should be supporting.
We haven't even talked about the Sunday School and counseling aspects of this Vision. We will do that next time when we lay out the floor plan and what the final product would probably look like. And you should get excited about that, because it is way...cool.
As always, feel free to ask questions and make comments in the comment section below or via e-mail.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
At least half the youth gatherings currently happen in the parsonage anyway. It's more or less a necessity. Part of that is psychological. The same events that seem so natural sitting on a couch in a furnished house and an appropriately-sized room seem weird when held in a more clinical, less-comfortably-furnished, inappropriately-sized place. The Fellowship Hall is too big for the things we do, the back basement rooms too dark and small. Metal chairs are the only seating option in either, quite uncomfortable if you're spending more than a couple hours on an event. Practicality rears its head too. For example, you can't watch a movie in any of the church rooms. There's no sight lines in the hall, no space in the back rooms. Plus there's no equipment to show the Blu-Rays on which we have most of our movies and no speakers for sound. The parsonage has all of these things plus chairs, couches, a comfortable environment. It already feels like home in a way the church rooms never could.
Another quick example: you should have seen the kids beam when some of the ladies of the church got them their own fridge for pop. It was the first space that they could call their own. They couldn't believe how lucky they were and you wouldn't believe how much easier it is for them to grab pops now than it was when the soda sat on somebody else's counter or in somebody else's fridge. Even that much of a home--one appliance--made a huge difference.
For all these reasons and more, if an event is going to last more than a couple hours, if it requires any kind of technology, or if it's any smaller than a dozen people we just hold it in the parsonage.
The next natural question: OK, so that's worked so far. Why change now?
It has worked so far but we need to consider two important things:
1. At whose expense has it worked?
2. Will it continue to work?
The simple answers: at the expense of me and my family and, for various reasons, no it won't.
The first reason it won't work is a happy one. We're experiencing the same "problem" we had a few years ago. We're starting to have too many events and too many kids to contain in my house. People are feeling welcome. They're inviting friends. Those friends are discovering our church and inviting more friends. On New Year's Eve, through simple word of mouth, we had 19 people show up for a couple of movies. 10 sat on our couch, 3-4 more in chairs behind the couch, another bunch sprawled out on the floor.
This is great, but realistically my house can't accommodate that many people while remaining my house. We have too many things in the way, not enough seats, etc. In practical terms that leaves me choosing between kids, deciding who to notify about events and who to not mention them to.
To be clear, we never turn anybody away. That's a firm rule of mine. Anybody who comes can stay. But that also means that I can't broadcast certain events very widely otherwise we'll be overrun. Usually how it works is somebody will text me and ask if I have time to do something on a given day. I'll say, "Yes" and tell them about how many friends they can invite. I know, then, that I can't let anybody else know.
Obviously this is not ideal as far as youth evangelism. The people who text me most often get to come most often. Those slower on the draw get left out. Since I get texted quite often and my calendar fills quickly I seldom get to make it up to those who are left out. Not having a dedicated youth space is causing us to pick and choose who we'll serve instead of being able to take all comers. It's limiting the effectiveness and growth of this ministry.
The second reason the current system won't work anymore is my family. Before Derek came along this was easy. Careen would just join in on the activity or curl up somewhere with a book while the youth and I hung out. When Derek was a baby it wasn't so bad either, as all he needed to be happy was mom close by. Now Derek is 5 and Ali is 2. They need their space. They need their house. Ali sleeps four feet away from where we watch movies at night. Careen is just down the hall and hears youth having fun at midnight when she has to get up early with the kids. If I want to have an event in the daytime I have to ask my family to leave the house in order to make it work, as the kids can't be underfoot nor can we just lock them in their rooms for four hours. I've made this request multiple times. How many times can that happen before it starts being unfair?
I'm starting to have to reject youth events for this reason. For example, last year we had a very successful movie and dinner night for High School youth. It was fantastic and well-attended. We wanted to start it again this year, to build on that success. But I couldn't do it. I sat down and looked at having Careen and the kids leave the house every second Sunday and I finally decided I had to draw the line. So we're not doing it. The sad part is, that event was drawing kids we don't always see at the other events. But what can I do?
This may sound self-serving but I think I've earned the right to say it. For years I've sacrificed and done, by most accounts, an amazing job ministering with these kids. There's been no mystery to it. I've given them the time, energy, and space that they needed to flourish and enjoy themselves among us. But this has been on the backs of me and my family. We have been paying for this vital ministry. We've shown it can be done. We've demonstrated why it's not only good, but indispensable to our church. How long do we have to keep paying the price to show that to everybody else?
At a certain point the church has to decide whether it thinks this ministry is vital enough to support. If the answer is "no", then I've been wasting my time with this (at least from a church perspective) and I need to stop doing it. But if the answer is "yes" it's time to throw our support behind this ministry...for everybody to throw in some support for it. I'm eager and willing to continue growing the ministry and working with the youth of our town but I can't keep doing it without the right tools and space. And I can't keep making my family pay--not just financially but by sacrificing their home--for something the whole church should be supporting.
We haven't even talked about the Sunday School and counseling aspects of this Vision. We will do that next time when we lay out the floor plan and what the final product would probably look like. And you should get excited about that, because it is way...cool.
As always, feel free to ask questions and make comments in the comment section below or via e-mail.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Weekend Announcements: Angel Needed!
Things going on in church this weekend:
--Thursday Night at 7:00 our Lutheran Basics course continues at St. John's.
--Saturday Night at 7:00 Theology on Tap meets at Alice Bevans' place. She lives on W. Pecan just a couple blocks from the church out towards the Genesee Sausage place. Call for directions if you need them!
--Sunday Afternoon/Evening will be the youth Superbowl Party at Pastor Dave's. Come at kickoff for food, games, and prizes!
Also we need an Angel on Call to give a ride to a Genesee gentleman and his wife so they can pick up groceries in Moscow. Friday or Saturday would work. Call me if you can help!
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
--Thursday Night at 7:00 our Lutheran Basics course continues at St. John's.
--Saturday Night at 7:00 Theology on Tap meets at Alice Bevans' place. She lives on W. Pecan just a couple blocks from the church out towards the Genesee Sausage place. Call for directions if you need them!
--Sunday Afternoon/Evening will be the youth Superbowl Party at Pastor Dave's. Come at kickoff for food, games, and prizes!
Also we need an Angel on Call to give a ride to a Genesee gentleman and his wife so they can pick up groceries in Moscow. Friday or Saturday would work. Call me if you can help!
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
The Vision: The "Why's" Part 1
As you've probably heard, the new vision that we talked about in Sunday's annual meeting involves converting the parsonage into a center for youth ministry, Sunday School, and counseling. My family and I would move to a different house, clearing space for those ministries to flourish. We'll talk about what such a center would look like plus the steps we'd need to take to get there in subsequent posts. For now, let's just cover the "whys" of this vision.
Those present at the annual meeting saw a short film showing some of the youth who come to our church in order to participate in its ministries. We only caught the ones who were there when we were filming our Sunday School movies. We still managed to catch 17 youth on camera. Very few of those came specifically to do the movie project. We just recruited kids who had come to hang out and do other things. That's 17 youth picked up more or less randomly in just four months of filming. We actually have contact with more.
Why do these youth come to be with us? Over the years people have attributed it to me. I'll take some of the credit, as I've made this a priority...seeing the great need. But really, it's not my personality that draws them. It's our theology meeting their need.
Our teenagers are growing up in a world we never imagined. They have more information, more choices, available to them than we ever did. Their lives are also more organized, scheduled, and goal-directed than ours ever were. This combination means they also have less real, human interaction than we ever got, especially with adults. Much of their time is spent in isolation, in front of a screen of one sort or another. They have a connection to a game or social network or what have you but it's through electronics, not face to face. They also have adults aplenty in their lives but all of those adults want something from or for them. Parents are parents...they want what's best for their children and feel the responsibility to raise them right. Teachers are under pressure to get these kids to meet standards. Coaches are under pressure to get them to win games. Bosses are under pressure to get them to learn their jobs well. None of this is wrong. But put it all together and every relationship with adults kids experience comes freighted with performance expectations.
Now consider that kids nowadays are involved in one or another of these pursuits non-stop, as society has decided that "idle hands make the devil's work". Imagine this was your life: get up, eat breakfast quickly, shuttle to band practice, school, after-school activity, sports practice or game, home, eat, do homework, try to find an hour or two for leisure (staying up late to get it), collapse into sleep, get up and do it again. Imagine every adult in your life was in the business of making sure you stay (and succeed) on this treadmill.
What would you need or want most? What would benefit you? Where would you find God in a different, meaningful way?
What if your church made God into one more demand on your time? Come on Sunday. Worship. Learn this. Serve there. Sit down and memorize, there will be a test. Would that God be meaningful to you? Likely he'd be the equivalent of your latest math assignment.
Here's what we tell the kids. Come. The door is always open. When you have free time--on your schedule and not just ours--text and you're welcome to come over. Sit down. Relax. Grab a pop...you know there's always some there for you. Now, what do you want to do? Play a board game? D&D? Computer game? Just shoot the breeze? Watch a movie? It's all good. Oh, and bring your friends too.
In the course of this the kids get a chance to relax. As they relax they open up, chat about their days and lives. There's an adult there, relatively expectation-free, just to interact with them and enjoy them. They're accepted. They're loved. They're home.
In this process, they learn more about what it means to be in relationship with each other, with me, and ultimately with God. We don't sit them down in a classroom and teach them things about God (except in Confirmation and Sunday School, where that's exactly what we do). Instead we show them God in the welcome invitation, in the gathering of friends, in the safe environment, in the unconditional love, in sticking with them through troubles and celebrating their successes.
We don't teach them about God in a classroom with a chalkboard because they won't spend most of their lives in a classroom in front of a chalkboard. We teach them where God is in the things they do every day. In this they learn that being holy and living well doesn't mean giving up everything that you love, it means finding ways to do the things that you love in godly fashion. Godliness is woven in the fabric of their actions: learning to play together, talk together, laugh and cry and fight and fear and explore together.
This method of evangelism takes longer than traditional methods. What a classroom-person tries to teach in 45 minutes takes me years of patience, listening, walking with these kids. But coming out the other side I believe we have more to show for it...not a God who lives in a building apart from their lives but a God who's with them every day just like that pastor was.
I get calls several times a year from folks who have now gone on to college and beyond, asking for advice or confessing troubles or needing help. The lesson isn't over when class ends and neither is the connection. It continues for a lifetime.
I'm firmly convinced that this is the best, if not the only, way to reach out to and nurture youth in today's environment. The fact that most of them love every minute of it, seek it out and invite their friends, bears that out. When we really get rolling I simply can't keep up with it all. At certain times during the year I'll have four separate semi-formal get-togethers with kids during a week and then one or two spontaneous ones. It's hectic, it's exhausting, it's a blast, and it's so worth it because it makes a difference.
There's seldom a single moment where you can point and say, "Aha! I see what they're doing there!" Mostly it just looks like doing normal stuff...which is the whole point. But string along that normal stuff long enough and meaningful relationships grow. A leaf just looks like a leaf, but step back and you'll see the whole garden growing around it.
That's how we do youth ministry here. That's why it works. Recently we've been given yet another opportunity, another influx of young friends knocking at our doors asking if we have time for them. We need to say yes...for their sake, for the sake of our church, and most of all for the sake of God who invited them to knock (whether they know it or not). This vision is that "YES!"
Next: The "Whys" Part 2: Why this vision? Why the parsonage plays a crucial role in this ministry, how it's worked so far, and why things are changing.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Those present at the annual meeting saw a short film showing some of the youth who come to our church in order to participate in its ministries. We only caught the ones who were there when we were filming our Sunday School movies. We still managed to catch 17 youth on camera. Very few of those came specifically to do the movie project. We just recruited kids who had come to hang out and do other things. That's 17 youth picked up more or less randomly in just four months of filming. We actually have contact with more.
Why do these youth come to be with us? Over the years people have attributed it to me. I'll take some of the credit, as I've made this a priority...seeing the great need. But really, it's not my personality that draws them. It's our theology meeting their need.
Our teenagers are growing up in a world we never imagined. They have more information, more choices, available to them than we ever did. Their lives are also more organized, scheduled, and goal-directed than ours ever were. This combination means they also have less real, human interaction than we ever got, especially with adults. Much of their time is spent in isolation, in front of a screen of one sort or another. They have a connection to a game or social network or what have you but it's through electronics, not face to face. They also have adults aplenty in their lives but all of those adults want something from or for them. Parents are parents...they want what's best for their children and feel the responsibility to raise them right. Teachers are under pressure to get these kids to meet standards. Coaches are under pressure to get them to win games. Bosses are under pressure to get them to learn their jobs well. None of this is wrong. But put it all together and every relationship with adults kids experience comes freighted with performance expectations.
Now consider that kids nowadays are involved in one or another of these pursuits non-stop, as society has decided that "idle hands make the devil's work". Imagine this was your life: get up, eat breakfast quickly, shuttle to band practice, school, after-school activity, sports practice or game, home, eat, do homework, try to find an hour or two for leisure (staying up late to get it), collapse into sleep, get up and do it again. Imagine every adult in your life was in the business of making sure you stay (and succeed) on this treadmill.
What would you need or want most? What would benefit you? Where would you find God in a different, meaningful way?
What if your church made God into one more demand on your time? Come on Sunday. Worship. Learn this. Serve there. Sit down and memorize, there will be a test. Would that God be meaningful to you? Likely he'd be the equivalent of your latest math assignment.
Here's what we tell the kids. Come. The door is always open. When you have free time--on your schedule and not just ours--text and you're welcome to come over. Sit down. Relax. Grab a pop...you know there's always some there for you. Now, what do you want to do? Play a board game? D&D? Computer game? Just shoot the breeze? Watch a movie? It's all good. Oh, and bring your friends too.
In the course of this the kids get a chance to relax. As they relax they open up, chat about their days and lives. There's an adult there, relatively expectation-free, just to interact with them and enjoy them. They're accepted. They're loved. They're home.
In this process, they learn more about what it means to be in relationship with each other, with me, and ultimately with God. We don't sit them down in a classroom and teach them things about God (except in Confirmation and Sunday School, where that's exactly what we do). Instead we show them God in the welcome invitation, in the gathering of friends, in the safe environment, in the unconditional love, in sticking with them through troubles and celebrating their successes.
We don't teach them about God in a classroom with a chalkboard because they won't spend most of their lives in a classroom in front of a chalkboard. We teach them where God is in the things they do every day. In this they learn that being holy and living well doesn't mean giving up everything that you love, it means finding ways to do the things that you love in godly fashion. Godliness is woven in the fabric of their actions: learning to play together, talk together, laugh and cry and fight and fear and explore together.
This method of evangelism takes longer than traditional methods. What a classroom-person tries to teach in 45 minutes takes me years of patience, listening, walking with these kids. But coming out the other side I believe we have more to show for it...not a God who lives in a building apart from their lives but a God who's with them every day just like that pastor was.
I get calls several times a year from folks who have now gone on to college and beyond, asking for advice or confessing troubles or needing help. The lesson isn't over when class ends and neither is the connection. It continues for a lifetime.
I'm firmly convinced that this is the best, if not the only, way to reach out to and nurture youth in today's environment. The fact that most of them love every minute of it, seek it out and invite their friends, bears that out. When we really get rolling I simply can't keep up with it all. At certain times during the year I'll have four separate semi-formal get-togethers with kids during a week and then one or two spontaneous ones. It's hectic, it's exhausting, it's a blast, and it's so worth it because it makes a difference.
There's seldom a single moment where you can point and say, "Aha! I see what they're doing there!" Mostly it just looks like doing normal stuff...which is the whole point. But string along that normal stuff long enough and meaningful relationships grow. A leaf just looks like a leaf, but step back and you'll see the whole garden growing around it.
That's how we do youth ministry here. That's why it works. Recently we've been given yet another opportunity, another influx of young friends knocking at our doors asking if we have time for them. We need to say yes...for their sake, for the sake of our church, and most of all for the sake of God who invited them to knock (whether they know it or not). This vision is that "YES!"
Next: The "Whys" Part 2: Why this vision? Why the parsonage plays a crucial role in this ministry, how it's worked so far, and why things are changing.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Music Night Begins Tonight At 7pm
Our first weekly Music Night begins tonight at 7 pm. Patrick will be there ready to sing, play guitar, bass, drums, djembe, bongos, congas, penny whistle, and tambourine. Hopefully the snow storm will hold off until later in the evening.
Patrick will bring penny whistles to next week's Music Night so join us for some whistling. If you want to purchase your own whistle, make sure it is in the key of C. Whistles are available on the Internet from Amazon. Beginner models cost around $12.
Patrick will bring penny whistles to next week's Music Night so join us for some whistling. If you want to purchase your own whistle, make sure it is in the key of C. Whistles are available on the Internet from Amazon. Beginner models cost around $12.
Monday, January 28, 2013
Monday Morning Sermon: Hearing the Call
This week brought us the Third Sunday after Epiphany as well as our Annual Meeting in which we shared the first fruits of our vision process. We're going to talk a bunch more about that vision as the week progresses but we'll begin where we always begin--where we began our vision too--with scripture. The gospel text this Sunday came from Luke 4:
Except we didn't hear the rest of the story. The rest of Luke 4 tells us how Jesus' friends and neighbors in Nazareth refused to listen when he spoke plainly. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked. When he scolded them by reminding them that the great prophets Elijah and Elisha--from their own history--weren't sent to the hometown folks but to foreigners in Sidon and Syria, the people of Nazareth got so angry that they drove him out of town and tried to toss him off a cliff. (The ancient equivalent of de-friending someone.)
How could they miss it??? Jesus was right in front of them! They knew him better than anyone, as he had grown up among them!
Those who have participated in our Thursday-night class on Lutheran basics will know the answer. The world tells you that you see and understand, then you have faith. In reality you have faith, then you see and understand.
Those Nazareth folks weren't ready to hear the scripture, let alone see its fulfillment. They were probably just fine with God as long as God stayed in his accustomed place. Come to the Synagogue on the Sabbath, hear a few things, be good people, then go back to real life. That was the pattern. When God leaped off that page and into their lives they weren't ready. They couldn't see him. They wouldn't hear him. They had a carpenter's son in front of them and that's all they wanted to see. They refused anything else.
They're not alone, of course. We instinctively feel the same way about God. Keep him in church and keep the church mostly the same and we're happy. When God steps beyond his accustomed boundaries, calls us to something different than we expect, we get nervous, annoyed. Sometimes we'd sooner toss him off a cliff than follow him.
But God doesn't settle for remaining in a book or a church, any more than Jesus settled for being the carpenter's kid and not the Messiah. He comes into our lives and disrupts them. He insists on uplifting the poor, un-free, oppressed, blind, and disadvantaged because we are those people. In the process he calls us to do the same for each other, which means dealing with people and issues we'd rather leave be. But that's not our calling.
We have begun a calling to a new mission at the Genesee Lutheran Parish. It's a calling of faith and service. It can't be proven, nor our fears over it resolved. Like Jesus standing before us, it can only be believed in and trusted.
Join us this week as we talk about that vision together. Bring your questions and thoughts. Also realize that this vision stems from scripture and the ways in which the Word of God intersects the people in our community. We have a holy calling. That calling will involve thought, work, and plenty of steps to fulfill. Pack up and get ready for the journey, then travel along with us as we begin its first steps.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.What an amazing proclamation from Jesus! "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." How often does God tip his hand like that? How many of us have wished that God would just come to us, speak plainly, tell us what we need to hear? Right here, in this gospel story, he did it! Yaaaaayyyyyy!
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Except we didn't hear the rest of the story. The rest of Luke 4 tells us how Jesus' friends and neighbors in Nazareth refused to listen when he spoke plainly. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked. When he scolded them by reminding them that the great prophets Elijah and Elisha--from their own history--weren't sent to the hometown folks but to foreigners in Sidon and Syria, the people of Nazareth got so angry that they drove him out of town and tried to toss him off a cliff. (The ancient equivalent of de-friending someone.)
How could they miss it??? Jesus was right in front of them! They knew him better than anyone, as he had grown up among them!
Those who have participated in our Thursday-night class on Lutheran basics will know the answer. The world tells you that you see and understand, then you have faith. In reality you have faith, then you see and understand.
Those Nazareth folks weren't ready to hear the scripture, let alone see its fulfillment. They were probably just fine with God as long as God stayed in his accustomed place. Come to the Synagogue on the Sabbath, hear a few things, be good people, then go back to real life. That was the pattern. When God leaped off that page and into their lives they weren't ready. They couldn't see him. They wouldn't hear him. They had a carpenter's son in front of them and that's all they wanted to see. They refused anything else.
They're not alone, of course. We instinctively feel the same way about God. Keep him in church and keep the church mostly the same and we're happy. When God steps beyond his accustomed boundaries, calls us to something different than we expect, we get nervous, annoyed. Sometimes we'd sooner toss him off a cliff than follow him.
But God doesn't settle for remaining in a book or a church, any more than Jesus settled for being the carpenter's kid and not the Messiah. He comes into our lives and disrupts them. He insists on uplifting the poor, un-free, oppressed, blind, and disadvantaged because we are those people. In the process he calls us to do the same for each other, which means dealing with people and issues we'd rather leave be. But that's not our calling.
We have begun a calling to a new mission at the Genesee Lutheran Parish. It's a calling of faith and service. It can't be proven, nor our fears over it resolved. Like Jesus standing before us, it can only be believed in and trusted.
Join us this week as we talk about that vision together. Bring your questions and thoughts. Also realize that this vision stems from scripture and the ways in which the Word of God intersects the people in our community. We have a holy calling. That calling will involve thought, work, and plenty of steps to fulfill. Pack up and get ready for the journey, then travel along with us as we begin its first steps.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Saturday, January 26, 2013
October Quarterly Meeting and Council Meeting Minutes
The October 21, 2012 quarterly meeting and October 10, 2012 annual meeting minutes have been posted.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Reminders: Busy and Important Weekend!
It's going to be a busy and important weekend at church! It starts tonight with our next look at Lutheran Basics at 7:00 p.m. at St. John's. We've had a rousing start to this study and we hope it'll continue this evening! Next up comes an uplifting service on Sunday morning followed by our big Annual Meeting and potluck. Join us for these events and experience the Spirit at work in our church!
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Asking the Right Questions
Our Wednesday Morning Women's Bible Study group dipped a toe into the book of Ruth this morning, a short interlude after the relatively long look at Corinthians we've taken. As we did so, I was reminded again of the importance of knowing what kind of literature you're reading when you take up various parts of the Bible. We did a whole study on this last fall, for good reason!
The Bible invites you to ask questions. What is faith but an exploration of the wonderful, mysterious, and very big relationship we have with God? The Bible is the field on which that exploration takes place. If we never ask a question while traversing its pathways we miss out on its meaning. It'd be like visiting a new place, walking right through it, and never bothering to stop, examine, or wonder about anything. Why did you visit in the first place?
While the potential for questions in the Bible as a whole is limited, each section is set up to answer different sorts of questions. Careful reading--coupled with a little foreknowledge about what kind of literature you're reading--will reveal what questions each book will answer best. Questions outside the scope of the story being told will be answered poorly or not at all...usually because the story itself finds them beside the point.
Contrast Ruth with the stories about King David and Solomon that follow immediately after in Chronicles and Kings. The characters in these books are connected, as Ruth and Naomi end up being related to David and Solomon. But Ruth is a narrative story, like a play or television show. Chronicles and Kings are histories, much as you'd find in a school textbook. The distinction is critical.
In a narrative story events exist to serve the characters. Think of the Star Trek TV shows, for instance. Why did that big space creature show up right in front of the ship? Well, because our good captain and crew needed a peril to work their way out of! The creature's appearance has little or nothing to do with scientific principles, though some may be used as window dressing to make the story seem more realistic. But if you start asking questions like, "Hey, there's no air in outer space to conduct sound, so how are the people on the ship hearing that creature threaten them?" you ruin the story. We're never going to get a good answer to that question. Events happen to move the narrative and its characters along...telling the greater story.
The opposite is true in a history. Here the characters only exist to illustrate the events. Consider the movie "Patton" or a documentary on that fine World War II general. Yes, we'll see some personality from him in order to make him interesting and relatable, but those personality traits only exist to hold our attention while we're waiting for the parts about the commanding and the battles and the victories. If Patton--with the same personality and all--had been a dishwasher instead of a general we'd not be seeing this film! The whole purpose of the movie is to show what he did as a general and how that affected the flow of history around him. When we ask questions like, "What did this man really feel inside at this moment? And what was his wife thinking?" we once again divert the story. We'll never get a good answer to those questions because the people in this story exist only to bring life to the events.
Going back to our Bible books, Ruth is a narrative story like Star Trek and Chronicles/Kings are histories like our Patton documentary. Knowing this, we also know what kind of questions each book will invite us to ask and what kind of questions each book will fall silent on.
Ruth and Naomi lost all the men of their family to disease, had to go back to Naomi's home town of Bethlehem, and were forced to glean the leavings of grain out of the fields until they were redeemed. How did Naomi feel about this? That's a question a narrative story will answer! In the narrative itself she says, "Don't call me Naomi [pleasant] anymore, call me Mara [bitter]." The book of Ruth will talk to you about these things all day long and invite you to explore their ramifications. But the book will fall silent if you start asking, "Which disease was it that killed all the menfolk of that family? How contagious was it? How far was the journey back to Bethlehem and how did they provide for themselves along the way? What type of grain were they gleaning? How many bushels could be gleaned by the average beggar in a day when you factor in the time to thresh and transport the finished product?" We may be curious about these things but they're peripheral to the narrative.
David and Solomon, on the other hand, built a powerful kingdom, won many battles, erected a temple, fathered children, battled over a couple of successions. These histories will be really good at answering all of those questions that Ruth ignored. "How many men were in this battle? How far did they have to march from Point A to Point B? What was the geography like? What tactics did they use to win? How many years passed between this event and the next?" But if you start asking Ruth-like questions of Chronicles--"How did everybody feel about this? What did this expression of faith mean to King David?"--the book will give you few answers. Again, these aspects are peripheral to the story the book is trying to tell.
The classic example of this phenomenon comes in the book of Job. As you know, Job lost all his children in a great disaster, the result of a cosmic contest between God and Satan. He goes through trials but in the end all of his stuff is restored along with a whole new batch of children and Job lives happily ever after. The End.
Except that every parent in the audience is screaming, "WHAT?!?" The restoration at the end is nice and all, but children aren't commodities that can just be replaced. The book is claiming this resolution as happy but to us it seems hideous. And hideous it would be if it were meant to be a history. We'd have to ask questions like, "What were the names of the children and how old were they?" Then we'd mourn them forever. The book doesn't do any of that. We don't get a single name. It just mentions that they're there, then BOOM! They're gone along with equally-mourned camels and goats. Then later a new batch of equally-nameless children and livestock have taken their place and everything's fine.
But Job isn't meant to be a history. It's a cosmic tale of good and evil, suffering and redemption, played out in the life of our title character. All the events in the story, including the loss of the children, serve that purpose...to show who Job is and who God is. It's not a manual for living life. It's not an attempt to relay historical events. It's a narrative designed to teach us about our relationship with God.
If we treat Job like a history or a manual for proper living, we end up in odd and horrible positions. When somebody loses a child we're forced to say, "Well, God decides these things and He is so big and mighty who can understand or argue with him?" Either that or, "Just be patient and you'll end up with an even better replacement!" Neither one is very comforting, nor at all appropriate. But the book doesn't mean these things. We just asked it the wrong questions and tried to use it in a way it doesn't want to be used.
Every book, every word of scripture, has its time and place. All questions are explored somewhere. Discerning the time, place, and which questions are best asked is part of the fun (and discipline) of reading the Bible. Sometimes it addresses exactly the questions we wanted to ask. Other times it forces us to ask different ones, to think in a new way. That's one of its strengths...if we let it be. When we insist upon only asking one (or one type of) question over and over we end up misreading and misinterpreting scripture.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
The Bible invites you to ask questions. What is faith but an exploration of the wonderful, mysterious, and very big relationship we have with God? The Bible is the field on which that exploration takes place. If we never ask a question while traversing its pathways we miss out on its meaning. It'd be like visiting a new place, walking right through it, and never bothering to stop, examine, or wonder about anything. Why did you visit in the first place?
While the potential for questions in the Bible as a whole is limited, each section is set up to answer different sorts of questions. Careful reading--coupled with a little foreknowledge about what kind of literature you're reading--will reveal what questions each book will answer best. Questions outside the scope of the story being told will be answered poorly or not at all...usually because the story itself finds them beside the point.
Contrast Ruth with the stories about King David and Solomon that follow immediately after in Chronicles and Kings. The characters in these books are connected, as Ruth and Naomi end up being related to David and Solomon. But Ruth is a narrative story, like a play or television show. Chronicles and Kings are histories, much as you'd find in a school textbook. The distinction is critical.
In a narrative story events exist to serve the characters. Think of the Star Trek TV shows, for instance. Why did that big space creature show up right in front of the ship? Well, because our good captain and crew needed a peril to work their way out of! The creature's appearance has little or nothing to do with scientific principles, though some may be used as window dressing to make the story seem more realistic. But if you start asking questions like, "Hey, there's no air in outer space to conduct sound, so how are the people on the ship hearing that creature threaten them?" you ruin the story. We're never going to get a good answer to that question. Events happen to move the narrative and its characters along...telling the greater story.
The opposite is true in a history. Here the characters only exist to illustrate the events. Consider the movie "Patton" or a documentary on that fine World War II general. Yes, we'll see some personality from him in order to make him interesting and relatable, but those personality traits only exist to hold our attention while we're waiting for the parts about the commanding and the battles and the victories. If Patton--with the same personality and all--had been a dishwasher instead of a general we'd not be seeing this film! The whole purpose of the movie is to show what he did as a general and how that affected the flow of history around him. When we ask questions like, "What did this man really feel inside at this moment? And what was his wife thinking?" we once again divert the story. We'll never get a good answer to those questions because the people in this story exist only to bring life to the events.
Going back to our Bible books, Ruth is a narrative story like Star Trek and Chronicles/Kings are histories like our Patton documentary. Knowing this, we also know what kind of questions each book will invite us to ask and what kind of questions each book will fall silent on.
Ruth and Naomi lost all the men of their family to disease, had to go back to Naomi's home town of Bethlehem, and were forced to glean the leavings of grain out of the fields until they were redeemed. How did Naomi feel about this? That's a question a narrative story will answer! In the narrative itself she says, "Don't call me Naomi [pleasant] anymore, call me Mara [bitter]." The book of Ruth will talk to you about these things all day long and invite you to explore their ramifications. But the book will fall silent if you start asking, "Which disease was it that killed all the menfolk of that family? How contagious was it? How far was the journey back to Bethlehem and how did they provide for themselves along the way? What type of grain were they gleaning? How many bushels could be gleaned by the average beggar in a day when you factor in the time to thresh and transport the finished product?" We may be curious about these things but they're peripheral to the narrative.
David and Solomon, on the other hand, built a powerful kingdom, won many battles, erected a temple, fathered children, battled over a couple of successions. These histories will be really good at answering all of those questions that Ruth ignored. "How many men were in this battle? How far did they have to march from Point A to Point B? What was the geography like? What tactics did they use to win? How many years passed between this event and the next?" But if you start asking Ruth-like questions of Chronicles--"How did everybody feel about this? What did this expression of faith mean to King David?"--the book will give you few answers. Again, these aspects are peripheral to the story the book is trying to tell.
The classic example of this phenomenon comes in the book of Job. As you know, Job lost all his children in a great disaster, the result of a cosmic contest between God and Satan. He goes through trials but in the end all of his stuff is restored along with a whole new batch of children and Job lives happily ever after. The End.
Except that every parent in the audience is screaming, "WHAT?!?" The restoration at the end is nice and all, but children aren't commodities that can just be replaced. The book is claiming this resolution as happy but to us it seems hideous. And hideous it would be if it were meant to be a history. We'd have to ask questions like, "What were the names of the children and how old were they?" Then we'd mourn them forever. The book doesn't do any of that. We don't get a single name. It just mentions that they're there, then BOOM! They're gone along with equally-mourned camels and goats. Then later a new batch of equally-nameless children and livestock have taken their place and everything's fine.
But Job isn't meant to be a history. It's a cosmic tale of good and evil, suffering and redemption, played out in the life of our title character. All the events in the story, including the loss of the children, serve that purpose...to show who Job is and who God is. It's not a manual for living life. It's not an attempt to relay historical events. It's a narrative designed to teach us about our relationship with God.
If we treat Job like a history or a manual for proper living, we end up in odd and horrible positions. When somebody loses a child we're forced to say, "Well, God decides these things and He is so big and mighty who can understand or argue with him?" Either that or, "Just be patient and you'll end up with an even better replacement!" Neither one is very comforting, nor at all appropriate. But the book doesn't mean these things. We just asked it the wrong questions and tried to use it in a way it doesn't want to be used.
Every book, every word of scripture, has its time and place. All questions are explored somewhere. Discerning the time, place, and which questions are best asked is part of the fun (and discipline) of reading the Bible. Sometimes it addresses exactly the questions we wanted to ask. Other times it forces us to ask different ones, to think in a new way. That's one of its strengths...if we let it be. When we insist upon only asking one (or one type of) question over and over we end up misreading and misinterpreting scripture.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
The Enemy of Faith
For years now I've been on a one-man crusade to get people to stop thinking of faith as just "belief" and frame it more like "trust". There's nothing wrong with "belief" in the abstract. We use it all the time in the Apostle's Creed, for instance. (Although come to think of it, you'd probably be just as well served by saying/thinking, "I trust in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.") But in practice our modern society has contaminated the world "belief". To us it means something we decide in our heads, something that we give credence to and therefore it exists (or should exist). When we use "belief" we mean, "Do you believe in UFO's?" or "Do you believe we should have stricter gun control laws?" Although the forms of alien spaceships and prospective laws are external to us, the importance they hold--their reality, if you will--depends on what we think internally.
By this definition, "Do you believe in God?" means the same as, "Do you think God exists? Do you subscribe enough to him that he has power in your life?" While that makes perfect sense to the world, we know those questions are wholly inadequate when applied to God. As we asked on Christmas Eve, how would you feel if someone came up to you and said, "Congratulations! I believe you exist!"? Or, "Lucky you, I'm going to choose to let you influence certain aspects of my life!" We're supposed to feel honored by this? How would your boss feel if you said those things to him or her? He'd be like, "Excuse me?!?" Now imagine how GOD...THE GOD...feels about this definition of "belief".
Belief in God has little to do with fixing things up a certain way in your head. It has nothing to do with choosing what kind of influence a deity will have over your life. It doesn't even have much to do with what you agree or disagree with. The simple word "trust" comes closer to describing our right relationship with God than all of those other ideas combined.
One of the biggest problems with equating faith with belief instead of trust is that it causes us to mis-identify faith's enemies. In the past we've mistakenly set up faith as a contest between "believers" and "unbelievers", sacred and secular, church-goers and atheists, members and non-members, good folks vs. bad folks, moral elements of society vs. immoral, and so on. Those battles never resolve, nor do they bear any faithful fruit. We just move on from one to the next, finding new criteria in each generation to divide "us" against "them".
The enemy of faith isn't some crowd of "unbelievers" somewhere. The enemy of faith isn't someone who disagrees with you, is different than you, or any of those things. Those perceptions come directly from a misunderstanding of faith itself. When you define faith as trust, the true enemy becomes clear:
It's fear.
Fear and trust cannot abide in the same place for long. We experience both in our moments of indecision but one or the other will soon win out. Fear will do everything it can to convince you that trust is a bad idea. What bride or groom, standing in fancy clothes preparing to walk down the aisle, has not said, "Whoa. Maybe I shouldn't be doing this"? Is not the classic reaction upon discovering you are going to have a baby soon, "YES!!! WHOOOO!!! Ummm... Errrr....uh oh. What have I gotten myself into?" Whatever the promise is, even if it's the most glorious you can imagine, fear will try to convince you not to trust/believe in it.
This is totally understandable...totally human. Fear has been a valuable tool in our evolution. Without it we wouldn't be here, as our ancestors would have all been crushed while smiling stupidly at oncoming, charging mastodons. Fear kept us safe, triggering our fight or flight instincts whenever we were threatened.
Fear is a valuable tool even today. Fear of what people will think keeps me considering my public words and actions. Fear of having my children grow up into a non-productive life keeps me raising them well. Fear of several things encourages me to work out every day. But the key word here is tool. Fear can be useful when employed skillfully as part of our bag of tricks to get through life. Fear is a horrible master. 99% of life's problems--and 99.99% of faith issues--cannot be solved by either the fight or flight option. Fighting and fleeing don't preserve the good things in life, they take us away from them.
When fear encourages you to do something well, making sure it's fit for others, then it has served its purpose. When fear discourages you from doing the thing at all, then it has made the leap across its proper boundary and become your new faith. And like true faith, fear is jealous. It will brook no rivals. Head down the path of fear and you will find the ability to trust slipping from you. Along with that trust go love, hope, confidence, and all the good things that they bring. Ironically enough, losing these things is what most people fear in the first place. By catering to that fear, they make it come true.
As we walk through our daily lives, most of our decisions can be broken down to this basic question: Fear or Trust? Fear or Faith? Which one will you live by?
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
By this definition, "Do you believe in God?" means the same as, "Do you think God exists? Do you subscribe enough to him that he has power in your life?" While that makes perfect sense to the world, we know those questions are wholly inadequate when applied to God. As we asked on Christmas Eve, how would you feel if someone came up to you and said, "Congratulations! I believe you exist!"? Or, "Lucky you, I'm going to choose to let you influence certain aspects of my life!" We're supposed to feel honored by this? How would your boss feel if you said those things to him or her? He'd be like, "Excuse me?!?" Now imagine how GOD...THE GOD...feels about this definition of "belief".
Belief in God has little to do with fixing things up a certain way in your head. It has nothing to do with choosing what kind of influence a deity will have over your life. It doesn't even have much to do with what you agree or disagree with. The simple word "trust" comes closer to describing our right relationship with God than all of those other ideas combined.
One of the biggest problems with equating faith with belief instead of trust is that it causes us to mis-identify faith's enemies. In the past we've mistakenly set up faith as a contest between "believers" and "unbelievers", sacred and secular, church-goers and atheists, members and non-members, good folks vs. bad folks, moral elements of society vs. immoral, and so on. Those battles never resolve, nor do they bear any faithful fruit. We just move on from one to the next, finding new criteria in each generation to divide "us" against "them".
The enemy of faith isn't some crowd of "unbelievers" somewhere. The enemy of faith isn't someone who disagrees with you, is different than you, or any of those things. Those perceptions come directly from a misunderstanding of faith itself. When you define faith as trust, the true enemy becomes clear:
It's fear.
Fear and trust cannot abide in the same place for long. We experience both in our moments of indecision but one or the other will soon win out. Fear will do everything it can to convince you that trust is a bad idea. What bride or groom, standing in fancy clothes preparing to walk down the aisle, has not said, "Whoa. Maybe I shouldn't be doing this"? Is not the classic reaction upon discovering you are going to have a baby soon, "YES!!! WHOOOO!!! Ummm... Errrr....uh oh. What have I gotten myself into?" Whatever the promise is, even if it's the most glorious you can imagine, fear will try to convince you not to trust/believe in it.
This is totally understandable...totally human. Fear has been a valuable tool in our evolution. Without it we wouldn't be here, as our ancestors would have all been crushed while smiling stupidly at oncoming, charging mastodons. Fear kept us safe, triggering our fight or flight instincts whenever we were threatened.
Fear is a valuable tool even today. Fear of what people will think keeps me considering my public words and actions. Fear of having my children grow up into a non-productive life keeps me raising them well. Fear of several things encourages me to work out every day. But the key word here is tool. Fear can be useful when employed skillfully as part of our bag of tricks to get through life. Fear is a horrible master. 99% of life's problems--and 99.99% of faith issues--cannot be solved by either the fight or flight option. Fighting and fleeing don't preserve the good things in life, they take us away from them.
When fear encourages you to do something well, making sure it's fit for others, then it has served its purpose. When fear discourages you from doing the thing at all, then it has made the leap across its proper boundary and become your new faith. And like true faith, fear is jealous. It will brook no rivals. Head down the path of fear and you will find the ability to trust slipping from you. Along with that trust go love, hope, confidence, and all the good things that they bring. Ironically enough, losing these things is what most people fear in the first place. By catering to that fear, they make it come true.
As we walk through our daily lives, most of our decisions can be broken down to this basic question: Fear or Trust? Fear or Faith? Which one will you live by?
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Monday, January 21, 2013
Monday Morning Sermon: Miracles of Transformation
Our sermon text for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany was the first 11 verses of John, Chapter 2:
On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, 2 and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
4 “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”
6 Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. 8 Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.” They did so, 9 and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.
Then he called the bridegroom aside 10 and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
11 What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.On Sunday we talked about how important this text is for our church at this particular time, with our Annual Meeting/Potluck coming up next Sunday following worship. If you know anything about the Gospel of John (as opposed to his friends Matthew, Mark, and Luke) you'll know that what actually happens is less than half the story. John is all about what events symbolize and mean. An otherwise simple story about a wedding being saved by the miracle of water to win carries plenty of significance for us today.
You know John is starting out big when the event happens "on the third day". On the third day of what, exactly? He doesn't say specifically--likely the week--but it hardly matters. You just need to remember that other thing that happened on the third day: Jesus rising again to announce our salvation and a new beginning. Jesus' first miracle--this wedding event--is the sign of a new creation, a new time, the beginning of the world changing.
We, too, stand at that time as a church. We've spent the last few years gathering energy and confidence, getting to know each other, exploring the Spirit. We've done well, I think. But it's time to start looking forward instead of just backwards or inwards. We have this energy, creativity, this wonderful, percolating community. What are we to do? This is our third day.
If we shy away from that journey in favor of staying safe--slinking away from the wedding, so to speak--we'll not be able to preserve what we've discovered. Turned inwards, that energy dissipates. It becomes more about us as individuals--our generation of church members or whatever--than it does about the space between us and the ideas and service that happen in that place. In scientific terms, the potential energy of of church needs to become kinetic energy, expended in service to God and community.
But note that Jesus' first miracle didn't begin with a bang. It began with an, "Awwwww...we're out of wine." Every change happens this way. We perceive a need, a lack, and we have a choice how to act. Like the Israelites in their wilderness journey we can complain or we can move.
The natural response to the shortcoming at the Cana wedding would have been grumbling. Wine prices are too high, nobody can get enough anymore. The steward should have planned better. The bridegroom is too cheap. The bride invited too many people. We deal with life's imperfections by finding someone to blame for them and then moving on.
Instead Mary and the servants called upon God and laid out their issue. He said, "Trust me and fill up those jars." Then he made it better. We are called to see shortcomings in our life--individual or communal--as an opportunity and/or challenge. Otherwise we never see God's miracles even when they occur. They're drown out by the chorus of moans. (17 kids, most of which aren't associated with our church, show up for an impromptu youth event, for instance, and we complain about the snow tracked onto the entryway carpet. And so on.) Shortcomings aren't a cause for complaint, they're a sign we need to move.
And notice that the move in John's gospel here is forward, not backwards. The jars in which Jesus worked his miracle were meant for a specific purpose: the ritual of transformation. That was set in stone...literally! (The jars were stone, you see. Ha ha? Never mind.) Jesus did his thing and all of a sudden they became the world's biggest wine decanters. How in the world did they even pour the stuff anyway? Did they have to get wooden buckets? Something else to complain about, I suppose...
Our human instinct tells us to look backwards for answers. Whenever creativity is called for in a church setting the first answers our of our mouths always involve, "Well, we used to..." That's great, actually! We used to do many wonderful things! But the implication of this kind of answer is that our former community had nothing to do with the people participating in it, its time, its culture, the surrounding circumstances. The whole reason things used to be good was this awesome trick we used to employ, some program or method which made everything perfect just because it existed.
Obviously this was not the case. Those "used to" ideas really were great...probably the best ideas possible at the time. It's not like newfangled ideas are automatically better. They're just different. And they're different because all of those other factors--people, relationships, culture, needs, circumstances--are also different. Programs and ideas don't work because they're magical or even right. They work because they fit with the environment in which they operate. Something that was absolutely proper--ideal, even--30 or 10 or 5 years ago may not be right anymore. That's why we're called to look forward in our vision, considering our goals and who we're serving today instead of looking backwards at all the successes we used to have in a completely different environment.
There was nothing wrong with those stone jars, nor with the ritual of purification. It was just time to put them to a new use.
What's more, this new thing turned the expectations of the world upside-down. Note the steward saying, "Everybody serves the good wine first, then the inferior when the palate is dulled, but you've done it backwards!" This was probably not a real practice. Likely it's in the story to make this very point. If you just go by your own expectations or those of your society you will not be led to the same place that trust in God will lead you. In fact sometimes trust in God means doing the opposite of what "makes sense".
Naturally all of this evokes fear and nervousness in us. And for good reason! These miracles are not without cost. If the transformation into WINE--foreshadowing Jesus' own blood poured out on the cross and through communion--isn't enough for you, note his response to Mary's request: "My hour has not yet come." When John says, "my hour" he means his death, his crucifixion. Note the famous prayer in John 17 which begins, "Father, the hour has come..." The very next thing that happened to him was his arrest.
The emphasis in his statement here falls on the "yet". He knows his hour is coming. He knows these steps forward lead into sacrifice and cost greater than anyone could imagine. That's what moving forward means and that's why we fear it. But he also knows that this is God's calling. To refuse the miracle in order to keep himself feeling safe and secure would be unthinkable, a retreat into a slow, inertial death in order to avoid the sacrifice that leads to new life. So Jesus follows God, pays the cost, takes the chance, performs the miracle.
Plenty of churches end up like those Olympic show horses, running just fine until they get to the bar they have to jump. Then they balk, shy away, and their rider goes flying. Sometimes we'd rather get God off our back (and out of our church) than change. This will not do. Yes, steps forward involve cost and sacrifice...sometimes great sacrifice. But they're not optional if we're to fulfill our calling. We, too, pay the cost, take the chance, follow God, and live out the miracle.
We do this because we know how the story ends. This particular story in John ends with the wedding going on, not just with a few cups of wine but with somewhere around 150 gallons of the best wine imaginable! THAT is a party! God gives us more than we ever anticipated. We also know that Jesus' own story didn't end in death but in life everlasting and the redemption of the world. That's the ironic thing about the show horse refusing to jump. The other side of the bar holds wonders so great as to make this side look like a wilderness desert. Being human, we're always tempted to hold onto the desert we know instead of finding the lush valley we can only see through trust. But that's a temptation we must resist.
It's time to run. It's time to jump. It's time to journey onward to our next incarnation of the promised land in Genesee. The annual meeting begins after worship next Sunday. There will be a potluck and plenty of news and excitement. Please come and begin to explore your part in the next big thing at the Genesee Lutheran Parish. See you there!
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Domestic Violence Training
I just got back from helping conduct a clergy training on Domestic Violence in Moscow. As always, it was good to hear people's thoughts on the issue and to get a refresher course from the folks at Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse.
It's also good that we remember to pray for the victims of domestic violence and all those who need help in their relationships. 22 people died in the State of Idaho in 2011 as a result of domestic violence and those headline-grabbing deaths are just the tip of the iceberg. This issue affects all of us, yet it's still seldom talked about. We need to let people know that we, as a community of faith, believe control and violence aren't healthy ways of conducting relationships, that nobody deserves to be threatened, abused, or battered, and that anyone experiencing domestic violence will find somebody to listen and a gateway to a broader world of help at our church.
One of the trickiest things about domestic violence is identifying what it is. Often victims themselves don't realize they're experiencing it, as perpetrators make violent behavior seem normal. Here's one of the resources we used in the training, a short-hand explanation of the forms domestic violence can take.
Domestic Violence is the systematic exertion of power and control by one member of a partnership over another without regard for dignity, welfare, or sanctity. It can take many forms:
Sometimes Domestic Violence involves physical contact…
--pushing and shoving
--holding down or restraining
--slapping and biting
--kicking and choking
Sometimes Domestic Violence involves the threat of such contact…
--brandishing fists or weapons
--threats to hurt or kill
--threatening friends or family
--using other objects (pets, dishes, etc.) as substitutes for the victim, breaking or
destroying them to send a message
--attempts to hit or force off road with the car
--abandonment in unsafe places
Often Domestic Violence involves verbal abuse…
--repeated, demeaning name-calling
--ridicule/criticism of practices, beliefs, appearance
--loud shouting or loud silence
Sometimes Domestic Violence involves sex…
--rape/forcible/unwanted sexual contact
--coercion into non-consensual sexual acts
--body humiliation/degradation
Often Domestic Violence involves other means of control…
--separation from family, friends, social contacts
--constant monitoring of place, activity, and company
--constant jealousy/suspicion/accusation of affairs
--limited access to/control over money, cars, other property
Children sometimes become pawns to ensure control…
--kidnap/custody threats
--punishing children so mom will give in
--tells children that mom will send him to jail
--using the kids to send threatening messages (“If your mom doesn’t stop I’m going to…)
Domestic Violence is almost always minimized or denied by the perpetrator
--“I wouldn’t have hit her if she hadn’t made me…”
--“I was just stressed…”
--“It doesn’t happen that often…”
--“It wasn’t that bad…it’s no big deal”
--“She needed to be taught a lesson…”
--“It’s only because I care so much…”
Domestic Violence is a learned, chosen, systematic behavior designed to maintain power and control.
--It is not caused by drinking or drugs
--It is not caused by anger or stress
--It is not caused by low self-esteem
--It is not caused by poverty or financial hardship
--It is not caused by mental illness
--It is not caused by a history of abuse
Many people experience these things and yet do not perpetrate domestic violence.
Domestic Violence happens among all races, all classes, at all levels of education, social standing, and faith.
--Doctors, lawyers, psychologists, and pastors experience domestic violence
--College graduates, community leaders, MENSA members, and faithful church attendees experience
domestic violence
--Caucasians, Hispanics, African Americans, Laotians, old folks, young folks,
and middle aged folks, rich folks, poor folks, and middle-class folks experience
domestic violence
--Urban folks, suburban folks, and rural folks experience domestic violence. In fact
domestic violence can be more insidious in the latter two areas. In suburbia
nobody thinks it happens. The relative isolation of rural areas makes it easier to
cover up.
--Both women and men can be victims of domestic violence. However it is worthy to
note that 95% of domestic violence involves male perpetrators and female
victims.
Domestic Violence is not the fault of the victim. It is the choice of the perpetrator…a way to maintain control.
If you or somebody you know is experiencing domestic violence, we can help. Conversations are confidential. You can also find help at the Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse website (ATVP.org) or by calling the local help hotline at 208-883-HELP (4357) or (509) 332--HELP (4357). The national domestic violence crisis line is 877-334-2887.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
It's also good that we remember to pray for the victims of domestic violence and all those who need help in their relationships. 22 people died in the State of Idaho in 2011 as a result of domestic violence and those headline-grabbing deaths are just the tip of the iceberg. This issue affects all of us, yet it's still seldom talked about. We need to let people know that we, as a community of faith, believe control and violence aren't healthy ways of conducting relationships, that nobody deserves to be threatened, abused, or battered, and that anyone experiencing domestic violence will find somebody to listen and a gateway to a broader world of help at our church.
One of the trickiest things about domestic violence is identifying what it is. Often victims themselves don't realize they're experiencing it, as perpetrators make violent behavior seem normal. Here's one of the resources we used in the training, a short-hand explanation of the forms domestic violence can take.
What Is Domestic Violence?
Domestic Violence is the systematic exertion of power and control by one member of a partnership over another without regard for dignity, welfare, or sanctity. It can take many forms:
Sometimes Domestic Violence involves physical contact…
--pushing and shoving
--holding down or restraining
--slapping and biting
--kicking and choking
Sometimes Domestic Violence involves the threat of such contact…
--brandishing fists or weapons
--threats to hurt or kill
--threatening friends or family
--using other objects (pets, dishes, etc.) as substitutes for the victim, breaking or
destroying them to send a message
--attempts to hit or force off road with the car
--abandonment in unsafe places
Often Domestic Violence involves verbal abuse…
--repeated, demeaning name-calling
--ridicule/criticism of practices, beliefs, appearance
--loud shouting or loud silence
Sometimes Domestic Violence involves sex…
--rape/forcible/unwanted sexual contact
--coercion into non-consensual sexual acts
--body humiliation/degradation
Often Domestic Violence involves other means of control…
--separation from family, friends, social contacts
--constant monitoring of place, activity, and company
--constant jealousy/suspicion/accusation of affairs
--limited access to/control over money, cars, other property
Children sometimes become pawns to ensure control…
--kidnap/custody threats
--punishing children so mom will give in
--tells children that mom will send him to jail
--using the kids to send threatening messages (“If your mom doesn’t stop I’m going to…)
Domestic Violence is almost always minimized or denied by the perpetrator
--“I wouldn’t have hit her if she hadn’t made me…”
--“I was just stressed…”
--“It doesn’t happen that often…”
--“It wasn’t that bad…it’s no big deal”
--“She needed to be taught a lesson…”
--“It’s only because I care so much…”
Domestic Violence is a learned, chosen, systematic behavior designed to maintain power and control.
--It is not caused by drinking or drugs
--It is not caused by anger or stress
--It is not caused by low self-esteem
--It is not caused by poverty or financial hardship
--It is not caused by mental illness
--It is not caused by a history of abuse
Many people experience these things and yet do not perpetrate domestic violence.
Domestic Violence happens among all races, all classes, at all levels of education, social standing, and faith.
--Doctors, lawyers, psychologists, and pastors experience domestic violence
--College graduates, community leaders, MENSA members, and faithful church attendees experience
domestic violence
--Caucasians, Hispanics, African Americans, Laotians, old folks, young folks,
and middle aged folks, rich folks, poor folks, and middle-class folks experience
domestic violence
--Urban folks, suburban folks, and rural folks experience domestic violence. In fact
domestic violence can be more insidious in the latter two areas. In suburbia
nobody thinks it happens. The relative isolation of rural areas makes it easier to
cover up.
--Both women and men can be victims of domestic violence. However it is worthy to
note that 95% of domestic violence involves male perpetrators and female
victims.
Domestic Violence is not the fault of the victim. It is the choice of the perpetrator…a way to maintain control.
If you or somebody you know is experiencing domestic violence, we can help. Conversations are confidential. You can also find help at the Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse website (ATVP.org) or by calling the local help hotline at 208-883-HELP (4357) or (509) 332--HELP (4357). The national domestic violence crisis line is 877-334-2887.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Monday, January 14, 2013
Annual Meeting January 27th: A New Vision
Our congregation's annual meeting will be held Sunday, January 27th following worship. A couple things to know:
1. It's a potluck this year. Bring food if you can.
2. This will be the most important annual meeting we've had in a while. We're going to discuss some ideas, visions really, for moving forward with our mission.
It may not seem like it on the surface, but we're at a critical juncture at our church. We've spent the last few years figuring out who we are, building up energy, supporting each other. We've done a good job of that, I think. We've got vibrant things going on in youth, music, Sunday School, and small-group ministries. Worship is diverse and interesting. Most of all, we've got a warm, family feeling. People enjoy seeing each other and doing ministry together. Our church family has discovered that we're strong and Spirit-filled.
Add together all of that and you've got a big ball of energy sitting in our midst. But unless that energy is directed towards something, it will eventually dissipate. This is the mistake many churches make. They go through a feel-good cycle and assume that feeling good is its own purpose. They don't make the connection that we're given Spirit and energy so we can go out and do something with them, channeling God's gifts into service. Failing to follow the Spirit into vision, they begin to associate the good feeling with themselves: their people, their programs and projects, their "church". Those people and programs, the church as an institution, become the center of mission. People end up doing church for its own sake, trying to protect what they have instead of letting it evolve. But then people move away, programs get old, the good feeling slips, and all of a sudden everybody's living in the past instead of anticipating the future. The energy departs. Sometimes there's another boom cycle but sometimes the church just dwindles.
The corrective to all of this is a vision for the future...a place to invest the energy, a purpose beyond ourselves. Vision unites us--and many more people beyond the borders of the congregation--through what we do together. That's not only a better use our Spirit and energy, it's a stronger bond. Without vision we're stuck in the present, looking towards the past and keeping it alive. With vision we're always moving towards God's future.
We've done well over the past few years, but it's time. We're gathered, we've been equipped, we feel strength from each other. Our work over these years has not been to make ourselves feel better or to look good. We've been preparing for a journey. The first steps will hopefully come from this annual meeting. Adopting a new vision will be the tipping point that frees us from what was, gets us looking beyond what is, and propels us into the things God would have us be. We have plenty of work ahead of us. It's time to take it up and follow God's Spirit into the future.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
1. It's a potluck this year. Bring food if you can.
2. This will be the most important annual meeting we've had in a while. We're going to discuss some ideas, visions really, for moving forward with our mission.
It may not seem like it on the surface, but we're at a critical juncture at our church. We've spent the last few years figuring out who we are, building up energy, supporting each other. We've done a good job of that, I think. We've got vibrant things going on in youth, music, Sunday School, and small-group ministries. Worship is diverse and interesting. Most of all, we've got a warm, family feeling. People enjoy seeing each other and doing ministry together. Our church family has discovered that we're strong and Spirit-filled.
Add together all of that and you've got a big ball of energy sitting in our midst. But unless that energy is directed towards something, it will eventually dissipate. This is the mistake many churches make. They go through a feel-good cycle and assume that feeling good is its own purpose. They don't make the connection that we're given Spirit and energy so we can go out and do something with them, channeling God's gifts into service. Failing to follow the Spirit into vision, they begin to associate the good feeling with themselves: their people, their programs and projects, their "church". Those people and programs, the church as an institution, become the center of mission. People end up doing church for its own sake, trying to protect what they have instead of letting it evolve. But then people move away, programs get old, the good feeling slips, and all of a sudden everybody's living in the past instead of anticipating the future. The energy departs. Sometimes there's another boom cycle but sometimes the church just dwindles.
The corrective to all of this is a vision for the future...a place to invest the energy, a purpose beyond ourselves. Vision unites us--and many more people beyond the borders of the congregation--through what we do together. That's not only a better use our Spirit and energy, it's a stronger bond. Without vision we're stuck in the present, looking towards the past and keeping it alive. With vision we're always moving towards God's future.
We've done well over the past few years, but it's time. We're gathered, we've been equipped, we feel strength from each other. Our work over these years has not been to make ourselves feel better or to look good. We've been preparing for a journey. The first steps will hopefully come from this annual meeting. Adopting a new vision will be the tipping point that frees us from what was, gets us looking beyond what is, and propels us into the things God would have us be. We have plenty of work ahead of us. It's time to take it up and follow God's Spirit into the future.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Sermon: Baptism of Our Lord
This Sunday brought the celebration of the Baptism of Our Lord. The gospel reading came from Luke, Chapter 3:
Remembering Jesus' baptism, we also recalled the baptismal gifts each of us receives from God. We highlighted three.
God forgives our sins through baptism.
The most immediate gift of baptism is also its most important, at least in this life. Baptism washes away our sins. Though the waters of baptism touch us for only a moment, the cleansing continues through our entire lives. Each time sin touches us--a sin we've committed, a sin others have perpetrated on us, or just the general sin of the world--that baptismal water washes it away. We turn to God to forgiveness and the answer is already a huge, "YES!"
So much of what we learn about God early in life is a variation on, "Be good so God will love you." Baptism is the ultimate cure for that mistaken lesson. Baptism is an admission that we can't be good on our own, without God. We come to the font to be drowned. We leave the font a new, clean person. That story of drowning and rising repeats again and again throughout our lives. We don't drown ourselves. We'd never have the courage to do so. The old, fearful, sinful self would always hang on to one last scrap of life. Neither do we raise ourselves, for we haven't the power. Instead God works this miracle upon us.
This forgiveness also affects how we see and forgive each other. The world says we should treat other people as they treat us. Baptism allows us to be stronger than that, treating other people as God would treat them: forgiving them as we have been forgiven, being open and honest with them as God has been open and honest with us.
God gives us eternal life.
With forgiveness of sins comes life eternal, for the only thing keeping us from living forever is our sin. Here again our traditional lessons fail us. Most of us have been taught that eternal life only starts after we die. It actually starts the moment we're baptized and continues on through aging, death, and beyond. We are citizens of heaven right now. God's grace and life are in us right now. We are the most amazing, powerful, beautiful people...right now.
Granted we don't always remember this, nor do we always act like it. Understanding this, you understand the power of sin. Sin doesn't beat goodness. Sin makes good people forget who they are. Sin tempts us to regard our inheritance as nothing, to chase things that look better.
Knowing that, you also understand the fight we engage in on this earth. The cosmic battle between good and evil isn't fought with weapons and armor. The cosmic battle is the people of heaven fighting every day to see God's goodness in themselves, in their neighbors, and to bring it out in the world as well even when sin and circumstance tell them something different.
So many people think the battle with evil means going out and vanquishing something, defeating other people. That's not eternal life. That's just more death. The battle with evil means going out and uplifting people, loving them with every fiber of your being, doing good no matter what may come. That's the difference eternal life makes. It's a difference enacted not just after death, but every day of our lives.
When people come to church we don't put them through an inquisition about their history, lifestyle, theology, philosophy, or what have you. I don't have all of those things perfect in my life and you don't either. The only question we ask can be boiled down to, "Will you fight this battle with us? Will you hold onto goodness and love no matter what?" It's couched in more subtle terms, but it's there in every sermon, every class, every interaction.
God makes us his family.
Cleansed and set on the path of eternal goodness, we are made family with each other. This doesn't happen through biology, being blood relations. Nor does it happen in the more modern sense of having common interests or beliefs. We're made family because we're on the same walk together, bearing a name and a Spirit given by the same Lord who loves us all the same infinite amount. Our lives may be radically different but our last name, "Child of God", is the same. We find the same flaws and annoyances in each other that we do in any other folks. But we also find the waters of baptism washing those away, the light of eternal life shining from hearts and eyes. In this we find comfort, hope, reassurance, and an ever-renewed call to mission. We are made one by a love big enough to encompass everything and everyone.
Give thanks for the gifts God has shown you--and continues to show you--through your baptism. Remember it every day and share its fruits with the world!
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
15 The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with[b] water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with[c] the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 18 And with many other words John exhorted the people and proclaimed the good news to them.
21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Remembering Jesus' baptism, we also recalled the baptismal gifts each of us receives from God. We highlighted three.
God forgives our sins through baptism.
The most immediate gift of baptism is also its most important, at least in this life. Baptism washes away our sins. Though the waters of baptism touch us for only a moment, the cleansing continues through our entire lives. Each time sin touches us--a sin we've committed, a sin others have perpetrated on us, or just the general sin of the world--that baptismal water washes it away. We turn to God to forgiveness and the answer is already a huge, "YES!"
So much of what we learn about God early in life is a variation on, "Be good so God will love you." Baptism is the ultimate cure for that mistaken lesson. Baptism is an admission that we can't be good on our own, without God. We come to the font to be drowned. We leave the font a new, clean person. That story of drowning and rising repeats again and again throughout our lives. We don't drown ourselves. We'd never have the courage to do so. The old, fearful, sinful self would always hang on to one last scrap of life. Neither do we raise ourselves, for we haven't the power. Instead God works this miracle upon us.
This forgiveness also affects how we see and forgive each other. The world says we should treat other people as they treat us. Baptism allows us to be stronger than that, treating other people as God would treat them: forgiving them as we have been forgiven, being open and honest with them as God has been open and honest with us.
God gives us eternal life.
With forgiveness of sins comes life eternal, for the only thing keeping us from living forever is our sin. Here again our traditional lessons fail us. Most of us have been taught that eternal life only starts after we die. It actually starts the moment we're baptized and continues on through aging, death, and beyond. We are citizens of heaven right now. God's grace and life are in us right now. We are the most amazing, powerful, beautiful people...right now.
Granted we don't always remember this, nor do we always act like it. Understanding this, you understand the power of sin. Sin doesn't beat goodness. Sin makes good people forget who they are. Sin tempts us to regard our inheritance as nothing, to chase things that look better.
Knowing that, you also understand the fight we engage in on this earth. The cosmic battle between good and evil isn't fought with weapons and armor. The cosmic battle is the people of heaven fighting every day to see God's goodness in themselves, in their neighbors, and to bring it out in the world as well even when sin and circumstance tell them something different.
So many people think the battle with evil means going out and vanquishing something, defeating other people. That's not eternal life. That's just more death. The battle with evil means going out and uplifting people, loving them with every fiber of your being, doing good no matter what may come. That's the difference eternal life makes. It's a difference enacted not just after death, but every day of our lives.
When people come to church we don't put them through an inquisition about their history, lifestyle, theology, philosophy, or what have you. I don't have all of those things perfect in my life and you don't either. The only question we ask can be boiled down to, "Will you fight this battle with us? Will you hold onto goodness and love no matter what?" It's couched in more subtle terms, but it's there in every sermon, every class, every interaction.
God makes us his family.
Cleansed and set on the path of eternal goodness, we are made family with each other. This doesn't happen through biology, being blood relations. Nor does it happen in the more modern sense of having common interests or beliefs. We're made family because we're on the same walk together, bearing a name and a Spirit given by the same Lord who loves us all the same infinite amount. Our lives may be radically different but our last name, "Child of God", is the same. We find the same flaws and annoyances in each other that we do in any other folks. But we also find the waters of baptism washing those away, the light of eternal life shining from hearts and eyes. In this we find comfort, hope, reassurance, and an ever-renewed call to mission. We are made one by a love big enough to encompass everything and everyone.
Give thanks for the gifts God has shown you--and continues to show you--through your baptism. Remember it every day and share its fruits with the world!
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
There's Something About Mary
This question comes from some of the fine folks who participated in our pre-Christmas Bible Study:
Mary has long been revered as the mother of Jesus. As you've identified, the Roman Catholic church holds her in high esteem. Truth be told, we Lutherans do too. The hows and whys of that are determined by one question: Are the reasons to call Mary "blessed" distinct, peculiar to her over and apart from the rest of us, or are those reasons for blessing more communal?
The "distinct" angle is pretty easy. Mary was the Mother of Our Lord. Ain't nobody else ever done that! That distinction makes her special. As such, we should revere her above ordinary folks. The distinction of Mary's calling is certainly behind the Catholic reverence of her. It immediately calls to mind the questions, "Why her? What about her was so different or special? There must be a reason, right?" That reason has to be internal. After all, if the selection was just random there would be no reason to reverence her. So you get a whole canon of descriptions surrounding Mary: pure, noble, meek, mild. (Hmmm...now that I read those my feminist leanings are causing me to itch. Isn't it suspicious that the Ideal Woman keeps her mouth shut and doesn't offend you any more than Ivory Soap does?) In 1854 Pope Pius IX formalized a long-held belief that since Jesus was untouched by sin, his mother, too must have been without it. Otherwise he would have been contaminated by her. Therefore you have the Immaculate Conception, which says that after Mary's mom and dad created her in the womb, all of her sin was wiped away. What's more, Mary's Mother (Anne or Hanna depending on who you talk to) was made a saint, mostly because she gave birth to Mary.
That's some reverence!
It's fair to point out that we Lutherans don't go this far. It's also fair to point out that this is how far you have to go if you regard the reason for Mary's blessing as being distinct and inherent in her. If this is the answer then we should have statues, parades...more than just the occasional feast day we hold in her honor.
But what if there's another answer?
Look at the entire text of Mary's song:
This song isn't about how great Mary is. By her own admission, she's just a servant. She's a servant that people will call blessed because of her particular task, NOT because of her particular internal, inherent qualities. The task, God's mission, God's work, God's miracles for his people...Mary is praising those things, not herself.
This is also what we reverence. We do hold Mary apart somewhat because of her unique job. We tell her story at Christmas. We sing about her. She does have her own feast day as the church year progresses. We understand and celebrate that she got to do this special thing, which is why we talk about the Virgin Mary and not, you know, just "Jesus' mom". But all that is only about 10% of the story.
The real heart of the story--the cause for celebration--is that God worked this wondrous thing and Mary had a chance to serve him through it. That story isn't peculiar to Mary. It's true for all of us. Mary gave birth to Jesus. Jesus died on the cross and rose again to claim us, redeem our lives, make us his brothers and sisters. We are now God's folk. We are vessels for his Spirit. We are servants. We, too, bear God. We hear his voice in the voice of our neighbors. The REAL miracle in Mary's journey was her giving birth to the Messiah, the Savior who opened God's family to us all. The miracle is not one of exclusive distinction for her, but the radical inclusion of all of us. Take away that radical inclusion and you've lost the purpose of the story itself, and therefore all reason to praise Mary.
Every time we claim we bear God's Holy Spirit with us, we are honoring Mary. Every time we fulfill our tasks as God's servant we honor her too. Every time we, too, claim that God is merciful, powerful, transforms the world, feeds the hungry, and continues his story of salvation to this day, we show true reverence to Mary as well. It's not in pointing her out and putting her on a pedestal that we truly honor her, any more than doing so would honor your own mom. It wouldn't, at least in any permanent way. How do you honor your mother? You live out the things she showed and taught you. You become like her, treating the world with the same love and care that she showed you.
We don't just honor and praise a removed Mary up on a wall. Every time God's Spirit pours out of us to fill the world, we have become Mary...not the physical mother of Jesus, but the spiritual mother that gives the world the goodness of God's presence.
And that...is reverence.
We have to be careful in these matters. Sometimes the kind of reverence that looks the strongest and most obvious actually pushes the figure we're revering away from us, breaking the whole reason for reverence in the first place. No statue of your mom can ever take the place of living out her mission. Even attempting the statue route is, in a way, a confession that you either don't want to do the "living out" thing or you just don't trust that this is "real" reverence. But it is. Ask any mom which she'd prefer? She'll tell you to save money on the statue and do the daily things that reflect her life instead. And this is what we do. It's less obviously reverential but it's not any less reverential. In fact it's more, because both embrace and remembrance are tighter.
So, now, go and do as Mary did. Bear God to the world. Help him lift up the poor and humble. Fill the hungry, embrace the lonely, raise God's children. In this you honor her. Because of this people will call her, and all God's children, blessed.
Keep those questions coming!
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Dave,
During our Bible Study last time, we read about Mary's encounter with the angel and the news that she would be giving birth to the Messiah. We were all touched by her response! We have a question, though: She says in her song [Luke 1: 46-55] that:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name...."
So the question is this: have we, as a church, forgotten about Mary? When the Protestants broke away from the Catholic Church, did we leave her behind? Is there a way to honor her more without being guilty of worshiping her?Great question! We'll try for a decent answer.
Mary has long been revered as the mother of Jesus. As you've identified, the Roman Catholic church holds her in high esteem. Truth be told, we Lutherans do too. The hows and whys of that are determined by one question: Are the reasons to call Mary "blessed" distinct, peculiar to her over and apart from the rest of us, or are those reasons for blessing more communal?
The "distinct" angle is pretty easy. Mary was the Mother of Our Lord. Ain't nobody else ever done that! That distinction makes her special. As such, we should revere her above ordinary folks. The distinction of Mary's calling is certainly behind the Catholic reverence of her. It immediately calls to mind the questions, "Why her? What about her was so different or special? There must be a reason, right?" That reason has to be internal. After all, if the selection was just random there would be no reason to reverence her. So you get a whole canon of descriptions surrounding Mary: pure, noble, meek, mild. (Hmmm...now that I read those my feminist leanings are causing me to itch. Isn't it suspicious that the Ideal Woman keeps her mouth shut and doesn't offend you any more than Ivory Soap does?) In 1854 Pope Pius IX formalized a long-held belief that since Jesus was untouched by sin, his mother, too must have been without it. Otherwise he would have been contaminated by her. Therefore you have the Immaculate Conception, which says that after Mary's mom and dad created her in the womb, all of her sin was wiped away. What's more, Mary's Mother (Anne or Hanna depending on who you talk to) was made a saint, mostly because she gave birth to Mary.
That's some reverence!
It's fair to point out that we Lutherans don't go this far. It's also fair to point out that this is how far you have to go if you regard the reason for Mary's blessing as being distinct and inherent in her. If this is the answer then we should have statues, parades...more than just the occasional feast day we hold in her honor.
But what if there's another answer?
Look at the entire text of Mary's song:
46 And Mary said:About whom does Mary sing? This song isn't about her, it's about God and all the mighty things he has done. And for whom has God done these things? 6 of the 8 passages describing his work talk about things he's done for his people. Only the first 2 talk about what he's doing for Mary herself. Those acts for her as an individual are quickly put in context with the entire salvation story. In other words, even though this particular thing (bearing God's Son) is happening only to Mary, it's not a wholly new thing. Instead it's the continuation--culmination, really--of the work God has always done for his people...the work he's been about since the moment of creation and which he will continue to do until the very last day.
“My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
This song isn't about how great Mary is. By her own admission, she's just a servant. She's a servant that people will call blessed because of her particular task, NOT because of her particular internal, inherent qualities. The task, God's mission, God's work, God's miracles for his people...Mary is praising those things, not herself.
This is also what we reverence. We do hold Mary apart somewhat because of her unique job. We tell her story at Christmas. We sing about her. She does have her own feast day as the church year progresses. We understand and celebrate that she got to do this special thing, which is why we talk about the Virgin Mary and not, you know, just "Jesus' mom". But all that is only about 10% of the story.
The real heart of the story--the cause for celebration--is that God worked this wondrous thing and Mary had a chance to serve him through it. That story isn't peculiar to Mary. It's true for all of us. Mary gave birth to Jesus. Jesus died on the cross and rose again to claim us, redeem our lives, make us his brothers and sisters. We are now God's folk. We are vessels for his Spirit. We are servants. We, too, bear God. We hear his voice in the voice of our neighbors. The REAL miracle in Mary's journey was her giving birth to the Messiah, the Savior who opened God's family to us all. The miracle is not one of exclusive distinction for her, but the radical inclusion of all of us. Take away that radical inclusion and you've lost the purpose of the story itself, and therefore all reason to praise Mary.
Every time we claim we bear God's Holy Spirit with us, we are honoring Mary. Every time we fulfill our tasks as God's servant we honor her too. Every time we, too, claim that God is merciful, powerful, transforms the world, feeds the hungry, and continues his story of salvation to this day, we show true reverence to Mary as well. It's not in pointing her out and putting her on a pedestal that we truly honor her, any more than doing so would honor your own mom. It wouldn't, at least in any permanent way. How do you honor your mother? You live out the things she showed and taught you. You become like her, treating the world with the same love and care that she showed you.
We don't just honor and praise a removed Mary up on a wall. Every time God's Spirit pours out of us to fill the world, we have become Mary...not the physical mother of Jesus, but the spiritual mother that gives the world the goodness of God's presence.
And that...is reverence.
We have to be careful in these matters. Sometimes the kind of reverence that looks the strongest and most obvious actually pushes the figure we're revering away from us, breaking the whole reason for reverence in the first place. No statue of your mom can ever take the place of living out her mission. Even attempting the statue route is, in a way, a confession that you either don't want to do the "living out" thing or you just don't trust that this is "real" reverence. But it is. Ask any mom which she'd prefer? She'll tell you to save money on the statue and do the daily things that reflect her life instead. And this is what we do. It's less obviously reverential but it's not any less reverential. In fact it's more, because both embrace and remembrance are tighter.
So, now, go and do as Mary did. Bear God to the world. Help him lift up the poor and humble. Fill the hungry, embrace the lonely, raise God's children. In this you honor her. Because of this people will call her, and all God's children, blessed.
Keep those questions coming!
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
All Things Working for Good?
I got a nice question in response to the Epiphany sermon right below this post. The source was the following paragraphs:
The gist of the question was, "Does saying that 'all life's journeys ultimately lead to the Messiah' mean that all paths in life are inherently good?"
Extending the metaphor of the journey of the Magi a bit further, we find that this is not so. The journey from the East culminated in Bethlehem with the Messiah but that does not mean that every step of that journey was sweetness and light. The Bible doesn't describe the trek, but one may assume that it was hard and long with plenty of missteps, pointy rocks, reluctant camels, inclement weather, and what have you. Those things weren't inherently good in themselves just because the destination was right.
More to the point, the Wise Men took a rather unfortunate detour into Herod's arms in Jerusalem and then were warned against returning to Herod on their way back. These events precipitated the murder of many young children. The path to Herod wasn't "good" and we may assume a return path to him would have been even worse, since the Magi were warned against it.
Our lives (and deaths) ultimately lead us to the Messiah. That is righteous and proper. It does not follow that any path we take in this life is good any more than every step the Magi took to the baby Jesus was equally good. We make mistakes, get lost, step on those sharp stones, wade in weeds, experience all kinds of detours and distractions. That doesn't stop God from bringing us to him in the end, but that act is as much deliverance and rescue as it is a happy homecoming.
Therefore it's perfectly fine to look at a path we, or someone we know, is taking and to say, "This does not seem like a good one." The knowledge of our ultimate destination frees us from the burden of considering that judgment infallible and all-powerful. God will decide our fate, our conceptions of good and evil paths notwithstanding. Because we know God has the final say no matter what we decide, we are free to converse and even critique in our search for the best path forward. Indeed, sometimes we are called to do exactly this, even to the point of intervening in difficult situations. If you suspect your child is addicted to drugs, "Oh well, all paths ultimately lead to God!" is not the called-for response. Rather it's, "All paths ultimately lead to God and goodness so why are you so invested in heading down this evil and destructive one that's just going to end up empty and powerless?"
Our ultimate destination does make a difference in how we perceive the world irrespective of good and evil, though. We may not always be able to see the right, best, or even good path forward. Most of the really difficult situations in life obscure our vision to the point that discernment of a "right" way is impossible. But if we know that we are headed towards God no matter what we also trust that God is present no matter what. Even when we can't see the path forward, we trust there is a path forward. More to the point, we trust that God will accompany us as we take the next steps forward even if they ultimately end up being the wrong ones.
In this way we experience the truth of the oft-misused quote from Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Not all things are good, but God will not let non-good things have the last word. He will ultimately work goodness for us even when we're on the most misguided paths.
The more "experienced" I've gotten in life the more I've come to understand this truism. There are two kinds of people in the world: those who trust in God's presence--and thus see/experience/share him--even in the most desperate of circumstances and those who cannot bring themselves to trust in God's presence no matter how ideal the path they're on. The first type of person believes, hopes, endures, and walks with his or her neighbor through trial and tribulation, bringing comfort. The second type of person always finds something to complain about. The first person finds the potential for God and goodness in every moment. The second wouldn't know goodness if it bit them in the behind.
All of us fall into both categories somewhat. We will all find strength and we will all find the capacity to complain and find wrongness. But when push comes to shove, one or the other of those traits will win out and guide our lives, particularly our lives of faith. Not all paths are equally good, but each path has the potential to teach us something about life, love, faith, and God if we are the type of person to regard it so. We have no choice over our ultimate fate and destination. We do have the power of interpreting the circumstances of our daily lives and paths. Will we believe that God works in, with, and through them (that they lead us to him) or will we deny him at the end, beginning, and on each step in between?
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
As annoying and sometimes traumatic as [life's] journeys can be, they're the only way our lives grow beyond our own stunted vision and self-will. They're also the only way we ever get to see and understand the Messiah who, in the end, is too large and glorious to be contained in the static understanding of any individual.
God is sending your Epiphany star in many ways every day. Do you see and do you follow or are you in the business of shutting out, shutting down, and killing off anything that's going to change the life to which you have grown accustomed?
Our life's journey ultimately leads to the Messiah.
The gist of the question was, "Does saying that 'all life's journeys ultimately lead to the Messiah' mean that all paths in life are inherently good?"
Extending the metaphor of the journey of the Magi a bit further, we find that this is not so. The journey from the East culminated in Bethlehem with the Messiah but that does not mean that every step of that journey was sweetness and light. The Bible doesn't describe the trek, but one may assume that it was hard and long with plenty of missteps, pointy rocks, reluctant camels, inclement weather, and what have you. Those things weren't inherently good in themselves just because the destination was right.
More to the point, the Wise Men took a rather unfortunate detour into Herod's arms in Jerusalem and then were warned against returning to Herod on their way back. These events precipitated the murder of many young children. The path to Herod wasn't "good" and we may assume a return path to him would have been even worse, since the Magi were warned against it.
Our lives (and deaths) ultimately lead us to the Messiah. That is righteous and proper. It does not follow that any path we take in this life is good any more than every step the Magi took to the baby Jesus was equally good. We make mistakes, get lost, step on those sharp stones, wade in weeds, experience all kinds of detours and distractions. That doesn't stop God from bringing us to him in the end, but that act is as much deliverance and rescue as it is a happy homecoming.
Therefore it's perfectly fine to look at a path we, or someone we know, is taking and to say, "This does not seem like a good one." The knowledge of our ultimate destination frees us from the burden of considering that judgment infallible and all-powerful. God will decide our fate, our conceptions of good and evil paths notwithstanding. Because we know God has the final say no matter what we decide, we are free to converse and even critique in our search for the best path forward. Indeed, sometimes we are called to do exactly this, even to the point of intervening in difficult situations. If you suspect your child is addicted to drugs, "Oh well, all paths ultimately lead to God!" is not the called-for response. Rather it's, "All paths ultimately lead to God and goodness so why are you so invested in heading down this evil and destructive one that's just going to end up empty and powerless?"
Our ultimate destination does make a difference in how we perceive the world irrespective of good and evil, though. We may not always be able to see the right, best, or even good path forward. Most of the really difficult situations in life obscure our vision to the point that discernment of a "right" way is impossible. But if we know that we are headed towards God no matter what we also trust that God is present no matter what. Even when we can't see the path forward, we trust there is a path forward. More to the point, we trust that God will accompany us as we take the next steps forward even if they ultimately end up being the wrong ones.
In this way we experience the truth of the oft-misused quote from Romans 8:28, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Not all things are good, but God will not let non-good things have the last word. He will ultimately work goodness for us even when we're on the most misguided paths.
The more "experienced" I've gotten in life the more I've come to understand this truism. There are two kinds of people in the world: those who trust in God's presence--and thus see/experience/share him--even in the most desperate of circumstances and those who cannot bring themselves to trust in God's presence no matter how ideal the path they're on. The first type of person believes, hopes, endures, and walks with his or her neighbor through trial and tribulation, bringing comfort. The second type of person always finds something to complain about. The first person finds the potential for God and goodness in every moment. The second wouldn't know goodness if it bit them in the behind.
All of us fall into both categories somewhat. We will all find strength and we will all find the capacity to complain and find wrongness. But when push comes to shove, one or the other of those traits will win out and guide our lives, particularly our lives of faith. Not all paths are equally good, but each path has the potential to teach us something about life, love, faith, and God if we are the type of person to regard it so. We have no choice over our ultimate fate and destination. We do have the power of interpreting the circumstances of our daily lives and paths. Will we believe that God works in, with, and through them (that they lead us to him) or will we deny him at the end, beginning, and on each step in between?
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Monday, January 7, 2013
Tuesday Morning Sermon: The Epiphany Star
This Sunday's gospel came from the second chapter of Matthew. It told the Epiphany story, the tale of the wise men from the East visiting King Herod of Jerusalem and finding the baby Jesus, following a star to pay him homage.
The rest of the story in the verses following is quite sad. Herod, furious that he's been outwitted by the Magi, orders all boys in Bethlehem 2 years of age and younger killed. Jesus' first welcome into this world came from cows and shepherds. His second greeting was genocide. Only a quick flight to Egypt let him escape...until he turned 30. Then he was hunted once again and eventually killed.
We're familiar with, and accepting of, the story of the Magi themselves. It's part of our Christmas pageant. Everybody knows "We Three Kings". The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh foreshadow our own Christmas gifts of Hello Kitties, Hot Wheels, and iPads. We're less sanguine about Herod, his kin, and their pronouncements. We skip over that part of the story, never answering the clear and resounding question: WHY?
Why in the world would Herod and the people of Jerusalem, upon hearing news of the long-awaited Messiah, be disturbed (frightened)? Why did they react the way they did?
The obvious answer, for Herod anyway, is that any new king threatened his power. Heavy weighs the crown, as they say. Kingship is only good if you can hold it. Any number of people, including some of his closest family, would have been more than happy to depose Herod and take his place. Between internal schemers and having to answer to the ruling Romans, Herod's lofty perch must have seemed quite tenuous. Now news of a new king arrives? No matter who sent him--even God himself--this guy has to go! He threatens the structure. He confuses the issue. He makes everything unsafe, at least by conventional definition.
Therefore it's not surprising that Herod reacted the way he did. Eliminate the threat! Preserve life as you know it. Stay in control, keeping your eye on the outcome you desire and not letting anything get in your way. Is this not the very definition of strength?
The historical event is disturbing enough. The sad lesson here, though, is that the gospel reveals far more than just history. It shows us something about us, about our relationship with God and the world, that isn't pretty.
As we've mentioned several times before, most of us draw the circles of our lives very small. Especially in this day and age when technology has given us power and choice over nearly everything, we only associate with the people and things we select. Once upon a time we had to listen to 82 songs on the radio before the one we were waiting for came on. Now it's 99 cents at a downloading service and the exact song is on our .mp3 player, repeated to our heart's content. We never have to hear anything else. Once upon a time we had to socialize in groups, often of semi-random makeup. Our familiar friends would bring their annoying spouses and distant cousins to dinner parties. Now we have Facebook friends, private messaging, and the rest of the world on "ignore". What purpose do the walls of our houses have, let alone the slats of our fences, except to define who is in our inner circle and who is out, what is ours and what is beyond our concern?
We allow people and things into our lives based on three criteria:
1. That which we can control.
2. That which we love and/or are interested in enough that it appeals to us despite our lack of control over it.
3. Things we've gotten used to over time so that we don't feel the need to control them, as they don't threaten our basic way of life.
Consider your spouse or anyone you've had a long-term relationship with. Serious reflection will probably tell you that at different times they've fit into all three of these categories. When you first met them you had to decide if you were compatible, which is another way of asking if the edges of their life fit with the edges of yours well enough that getting together wouldn't disturb you in a way beyond your control or desire. After a while you progressed to Category 2, wherein you discovered that you loved the person enough to find their differences and faults appealing in an odd way. After 10 years of marriage that changed and you once again found those faults annoying, but by this time you've become so used to them that they don't threaten to spin you out of control anymore. When you pick up dirty socks off the floor for the 632nd time you just sigh, you don't run in fear. You'll never change this, but it's not going to change you either. Had those dirty socks been a prominent feature of Stage 1 of your relationship, however, you probably never would have gotten married!
Most everybody and everything in our lives goes through this process. If at any point something doesn't fit--if the changes are too great or the differences too dramatic--we simply leave and find something else more acceptable. We shop at a different store. We attend a different church. We get some new Facebook friends. Welcome to modern life.
Here's the problem: God doesn't fit any of these stages. God can't be controlled. God doesn't always do things in ways that we expect or that appeal to us, ways that leave our lives untouched and bother-free. And God won't settle for us getting used to him, packing him away in our little, closed lives. Instead his whole purpose is to open up our lives, to transform them, to transform us. God's grace doesn't await our convenience. God's grace shakes the world in a most inconvenient way, revealing how little of it we've seen and understood so far.
Knowing God is like having the most amazing, annoying friend ever...the kind that shows up on your doorstep without warning and says, "We're going to that new Guatemalan restaurant that just opened!"
"But I had spaghetti warming on the stove."
"Well turn it off! My car's running!"
"Wow," you say. But also, "WOW!!!" You know? That's God.
The question is, how will we react when God sends us a message unexpectedly? How do you respond when your child says, "I'm not going to Law School, I want to be an artist"? How about when your spouse says, "We've been married 20 years and I've always had this dream. I know it's going to change our lives, but I want to pursue it"? Sometimes best friends say, "I feel very differently about this issue than you." Other times you read a passage in scripture that you have a hard time agreeing with, or meet somebody in church you just don't get along with.
We know how Herod and the people of Jerusalem would react. "No, son, you're going to Law School. Too bad, honey, we can't disrupt the family. Goodbye, best friend, I'm going to find someone who agrees with my point of view. I don't care if the Bible says this, I make up my own mind. And by the way, I'm finding a different church because I can't stand that person." They would view these things only through the lens of their own comfort, prerogatives, privilege, plans, and will. Too often that's what we do too.
You know what we're supposed to see instead? The Epiphany Star, taking us on an wholly unexpected journey. It's hard to see such inconvenient things as a message from God, let alone a guiding light from him. It would be much nicer if he only spoke to us in ways we could easily accept. But then we'd never move.
Our reaction to the unexpected, inconvenient, and even (from our view) occasionally wrong-headed is not supposed to be, "No! Stop! Get this out of my sight!" Rather it's, "Grab the frankincense and camels, honey. We're going on another journey." (Memorize that phrase now, those of you who have teenagers.) As annoying and sometimes traumatic as these journeys can be, they're the only way our lives grow beyond our own stunted vision and self-will. They're also the only way we ever get to see and understand the Messiah who, in the end, is too large and glorious to be contained in the static understanding of any individual.
God is sending your Epiphany star in many ways every day. Do you see and do you follow or are you in the business of shutting out, shutting down, and killing off anything that's going to change the life to which you have grown accustomed?
Our life's journey ultimately leads to the Messiah. The only question is whether we'll walk it with eyes open, enjoying and marveling at the strange and lovely trip, or whether we'll shut our eyes tight and deny we're taking it at all. Which world will you walk in, the safe and confining one you create for yourself or the glorious, infinite, and somewhat scary one into which God is calling you?
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written:
6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”
7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”
9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
The rest of the story in the verses following is quite sad. Herod, furious that he's been outwitted by the Magi, orders all boys in Bethlehem 2 years of age and younger killed. Jesus' first welcome into this world came from cows and shepherds. His second greeting was genocide. Only a quick flight to Egypt let him escape...until he turned 30. Then he was hunted once again and eventually killed.
We're familiar with, and accepting of, the story of the Magi themselves. It's part of our Christmas pageant. Everybody knows "We Three Kings". The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh foreshadow our own Christmas gifts of Hello Kitties, Hot Wheels, and iPads. We're less sanguine about Herod, his kin, and their pronouncements. We skip over that part of the story, never answering the clear and resounding question: WHY?
Why in the world would Herod and the people of Jerusalem, upon hearing news of the long-awaited Messiah, be disturbed (frightened)? Why did they react the way they did?
The obvious answer, for Herod anyway, is that any new king threatened his power. Heavy weighs the crown, as they say. Kingship is only good if you can hold it. Any number of people, including some of his closest family, would have been more than happy to depose Herod and take his place. Between internal schemers and having to answer to the ruling Romans, Herod's lofty perch must have seemed quite tenuous. Now news of a new king arrives? No matter who sent him--even God himself--this guy has to go! He threatens the structure. He confuses the issue. He makes everything unsafe, at least by conventional definition.
Therefore it's not surprising that Herod reacted the way he did. Eliminate the threat! Preserve life as you know it. Stay in control, keeping your eye on the outcome you desire and not letting anything get in your way. Is this not the very definition of strength?
The historical event is disturbing enough. The sad lesson here, though, is that the gospel reveals far more than just history. It shows us something about us, about our relationship with God and the world, that isn't pretty.
As we've mentioned several times before, most of us draw the circles of our lives very small. Especially in this day and age when technology has given us power and choice over nearly everything, we only associate with the people and things we select. Once upon a time we had to listen to 82 songs on the radio before the one we were waiting for came on. Now it's 99 cents at a downloading service and the exact song is on our .mp3 player, repeated to our heart's content. We never have to hear anything else. Once upon a time we had to socialize in groups, often of semi-random makeup. Our familiar friends would bring their annoying spouses and distant cousins to dinner parties. Now we have Facebook friends, private messaging, and the rest of the world on "ignore". What purpose do the walls of our houses have, let alone the slats of our fences, except to define who is in our inner circle and who is out, what is ours and what is beyond our concern?
We allow people and things into our lives based on three criteria:
1. That which we can control.
2. That which we love and/or are interested in enough that it appeals to us despite our lack of control over it.
3. Things we've gotten used to over time so that we don't feel the need to control them, as they don't threaten our basic way of life.
Consider your spouse or anyone you've had a long-term relationship with. Serious reflection will probably tell you that at different times they've fit into all three of these categories. When you first met them you had to decide if you were compatible, which is another way of asking if the edges of their life fit with the edges of yours well enough that getting together wouldn't disturb you in a way beyond your control or desire. After a while you progressed to Category 2, wherein you discovered that you loved the person enough to find their differences and faults appealing in an odd way. After 10 years of marriage that changed and you once again found those faults annoying, but by this time you've become so used to them that they don't threaten to spin you out of control anymore. When you pick up dirty socks off the floor for the 632nd time you just sigh, you don't run in fear. You'll never change this, but it's not going to change you either. Had those dirty socks been a prominent feature of Stage 1 of your relationship, however, you probably never would have gotten married!
Most everybody and everything in our lives goes through this process. If at any point something doesn't fit--if the changes are too great or the differences too dramatic--we simply leave and find something else more acceptable. We shop at a different store. We attend a different church. We get some new Facebook friends. Welcome to modern life.
Here's the problem: God doesn't fit any of these stages. God can't be controlled. God doesn't always do things in ways that we expect or that appeal to us, ways that leave our lives untouched and bother-free. And God won't settle for us getting used to him, packing him away in our little, closed lives. Instead his whole purpose is to open up our lives, to transform them, to transform us. God's grace doesn't await our convenience. God's grace shakes the world in a most inconvenient way, revealing how little of it we've seen and understood so far.
Knowing God is like having the most amazing, annoying friend ever...the kind that shows up on your doorstep without warning and says, "We're going to that new Guatemalan restaurant that just opened!"
"But I had spaghetti warming on the stove."
"Well turn it off! My car's running!"
"Wow," you say. But also, "WOW!!!" You know? That's God.
The question is, how will we react when God sends us a message unexpectedly? How do you respond when your child says, "I'm not going to Law School, I want to be an artist"? How about when your spouse says, "We've been married 20 years and I've always had this dream. I know it's going to change our lives, but I want to pursue it"? Sometimes best friends say, "I feel very differently about this issue than you." Other times you read a passage in scripture that you have a hard time agreeing with, or meet somebody in church you just don't get along with.
We know how Herod and the people of Jerusalem would react. "No, son, you're going to Law School. Too bad, honey, we can't disrupt the family. Goodbye, best friend, I'm going to find someone who agrees with my point of view. I don't care if the Bible says this, I make up my own mind. And by the way, I'm finding a different church because I can't stand that person." They would view these things only through the lens of their own comfort, prerogatives, privilege, plans, and will. Too often that's what we do too.
You know what we're supposed to see instead? The Epiphany Star, taking us on an wholly unexpected journey. It's hard to see such inconvenient things as a message from God, let alone a guiding light from him. It would be much nicer if he only spoke to us in ways we could easily accept. But then we'd never move.
Our reaction to the unexpected, inconvenient, and even (from our view) occasionally wrong-headed is not supposed to be, "No! Stop! Get this out of my sight!" Rather it's, "Grab the frankincense and camels, honey. We're going on another journey." (Memorize that phrase now, those of you who have teenagers.) As annoying and sometimes traumatic as these journeys can be, they're the only way our lives grow beyond our own stunted vision and self-will. They're also the only way we ever get to see and understand the Messiah who, in the end, is too large and glorious to be contained in the static understanding of any individual.
God is sending your Epiphany star in many ways every day. Do you see and do you follow or are you in the business of shutting out, shutting down, and killing off anything that's going to change the life to which you have grown accustomed?
Our life's journey ultimately leads to the Messiah. The only question is whether we'll walk it with eyes open, enjoying and marveling at the strange and lovely trip, or whether we'll shut our eyes tight and deny we're taking it at all. Which world will you walk in, the safe and confining one you create for yourself or the glorious, infinite, and somewhat scary one into which God is calling you?
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
Sunday, January 6, 2013
We're Back!
It's a new year and time to renew writing on-site. I needed a break for a few months to recharge and to spend more time with folks in person. Now we're back and ready to go.
We'll talk about this week's sermon tomorrow, but first...three announcements.
1. Theology on Tap will be at Eric and Amy Peterson's place on N. Pine St. in town this Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Join us for all the usual fun and discussion!
2. We're looking for a couple of people to help enrich our Lenten experience this year. You'd meet for an hour with me talking over the season of Lent, it's meaning and purpose, etc. Then you'd go home and think about ways to enhance our Lenten journey inside and outside of worship. You wouldn't have to think up stuff whole cloth (though you sure could if you were inclined). We have helpful materials, especially for the in-worship stuff. Then we'd meet and figure out one or two special things to do for Lent this year, which you might also help organize. Let me know if you want to delve deeper into the meaning of Lent before it gets here.
3. I'm going to do my best to post every day here to keep up interest. You can help me with that. Over the years I've learned that theology (i.e. "God Stuff") is a cooperative endeavor. It doesn't do much good for one person to speak in a vacuum all the time, even if that person is good at speaking. To discover God you need back and forth, two or more gathered...even if that gathering is in virtual space like this one.
I've also had plenty of experience with online community. That other blog I write totaled 21 million page views in 2012. That's a lot of eyes. But those eyes come not just because of what I say, but for entertaining and intriguing questions and discussion.
Part of the reason I needed recharging is that it's hard to write every day here without much response. I don't mean that I need the gratification of knowing people are reading. People do read here. Also I get plenty of that kind of gratification at the other place. I don't need to be a superstar with billions of followers. But occasionally I do need some good questions or thoughtful conversation to keep me going, to feel like I'm not under pressure to come up with something all on my own every single day.
If you like reading here, if you missed it while I was on break (which several folks said they did), leave a comment every once in a while. We don't have filters up anymore so you can just leave it and see it right away, as far as I know. (If that's not happening, e-mail me and let me know.) Either talk with me or talk with each other, but just provide another voice from time to time. That'll restore my energy for the work here.
Looking forward to chatting with you about all things theological!
Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
We'll talk about this week's sermon tomorrow, but first...three announcements.
1. Theology on Tap will be at Eric and Amy Peterson's place on N. Pine St. in town this Saturday at 7:00 p.m. Join us for all the usual fun and discussion!
2. We're looking for a couple of people to help enrich our Lenten experience this year. You'd meet for an hour with me talking over the season of Lent, it's meaning and purpose, etc. Then you'd go home and think about ways to enhance our Lenten journey inside and outside of worship. You wouldn't have to think up stuff whole cloth (though you sure could if you were inclined). We have helpful materials, especially for the in-worship stuff. Then we'd meet and figure out one or two special things to do for Lent this year, which you might also help organize. Let me know if you want to delve deeper into the meaning of Lent before it gets here.
3. I'm going to do my best to post every day here to keep up interest. You can help me with that. Over the years I've learned that theology (i.e. "God Stuff") is a cooperative endeavor. It doesn't do much good for one person to speak in a vacuum all the time, even if that person is good at speaking. To discover God you need back and forth, two or more gathered...even if that gathering is in virtual space like this one.
I've also had plenty of experience with online community. That other blog I write totaled 21 million page views in 2012. That's a lot of eyes. But those eyes come not just because of what I say, but for entertaining and intriguing questions and discussion.
Part of the reason I needed recharging is that it's hard to write every day here without much response. I don't mean that I need the gratification of knowing people are reading. People do read here. Also I get plenty of that kind of gratification at the other place. I don't need to be a superstar with billions of followers. But occasionally I do need some good questions or thoughtful conversation to keep me going, to feel like I'm not under pressure to come up with something all on my own every single day.
If you like reading here, if you missed it while I was on break (which several folks said they did), leave a comment every once in a while. We don't have filters up anymore so you can just leave it and see it right away, as far as I know. (If that's not happening, e-mail me and let me know.) Either talk with me or talk with each other, but just provide another voice from time to time. That'll restore my energy for the work here.
Looking forward to chatting with you about all things theological!
Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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