Ever since September 11, 2001 the words “bravery” and “courage” are spoken out loud once again. That’s a good thing. But since we use those words, almost exclusively, to pay tribute to rescue workers and soldiers, real heroes, we sometimes forget what Jesus said to his disciples during their last meal together, "Be of good courage, for I have conquered the world" John 16:33.
Courage is a word that Paul frequently heard from the Lord, and spoke boldly to his believing companions. Paul understood clearly that what Jesus stood on and stood for required courageous acts. So Paul, and others whom God called to be early followers of The Way, took courage and en-couraged one another.
Since so few of us take the daily risks that rescue workers and soldiers do, we may not think that what we do, and how we do it, requires courage. Or, if we think of ourselves as needing courage, we think we have to dig deep within ourselves and "tough it out on our own."
But I'll bet that if you take five minutes to name three people you know, a cousin, a co-worker, and a friend, you'll be able to see at least seven acts of courage. You may know someone who is raising children alone; "How on earth does he do that?" You may see someone who, each day, struggles through the unexpected loss of a loved one; "I don't see how she carries on." You may know someone who keeps a home, gets to work, goes to school, keeps up with friends and volunteers in the community; "How can one person keep all that up?"
Because you're able to spot courage, naming it and claiming it when you see it, look in the mirror. I'd be willing to bet that God has given you power to not only make a difference in the world, but to join Jesus in making a new world. That's what's happening at First Trinity.
Like Paul and those early disciples, people who worship here are not only hearing a word of courage, we're sharing and en-couraging one another. That's not only making a difference in how we speak to God, it's making a difference in how we hear from God. There are very few heroes in our midst, but the courage displayed by those who wait on the Lord comes in a variety of amazing "packages." And that's a good thing.
It would be our honor to share and celebrate God's gift of courage to you.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Changed "Priests" Change Worship and Church
The time between worship services at Christ Church, Zionsville was set aside for a conversation among our members who attended this pulpit exchange event, adults from Christ Church, and me. It was a good opportunity for us to get to know each other in a small-group, semi-formal setting. (No matter how relaxed, I find Q & A sessions to be not quite informal.)
Someone offered that “all the advice” he’s read about how to grow churches, by attracting new members, suggests the veterans will have to change more than a few practices to make new-comers feel welcome. What, the questioner wanted to know, is First Trinity prepared to do to make that happen?
I’m not completely pleased with my response. I recall rambling on about ministry in a multi-cultural setting. But there were a few points worth thinking about more thoroughly.
I noted, first, that worship needs to be relevant to those in attendance. Relevant is much different than trendy. Trends follow fads, like using power point computer presentations during the sermon. Relevant means that what’s done at worship must connect with those who would worship God. Somehow, the “natural” ways they speak, act, dress, sing - or not, have to have a place of honor if their worship is to be authentic and genuine (both a gift to them [from God], and a gift from them [to God].
Second, I said, while worship “forms” might be new / different, and / or unfamiliar, the point of worship is all about giving God thanks and praise for the ways God keeps making us new (creating); getting us through (saving); and, bringing us over (blessing) - over into the ways of God’s will and God’s work. Who we worship and why we worship isn’t new at all. That is, this is what God has been doing from the beginning, and what God will keep doing forever. (That’s what we mean when we say that God is unchanging, always the same.)
Of course, change always involves both loss and gain. Often, the gain is less easy to see. Sadly, especially in communities of faith - and particularly about worship - the gain is measured against some “cost-benefit analysis” that’s personally owned rather than broadly shared.
I heard a DJ tell his audience, “You really need to hear the sounds we’re playing during the noon hour. Just tell the folks you had church on the radio today.” Well, you can have a lot of experiences over the radio - meditation, entertainment, uplift, powerful praise, but you cannot have church - and you definitely cannot have worship.
Looking at the latter, worship is the public activity / work of the community of faith who are called, gathered and equipped by the Holy Spirit. Radio, even in a crowded room lacks both of these. In its place a community offers God thanks for all who God has been and all that God has done in the week just past. In a second counter-cultural move, those gathered thank God - in advance – for who God will be and what God will do in the week ahead.
I’m eager to be led by God’s Spirit to find folks who are being called by God to explore how worship might happen among homogenous groups – like jazz musicians; 20 – 30 something’s into hip-hop; poets; even public intellectuals. These folks, either maintaining their focus identity, or mixing it up, have much to teach about how God wants us to join God’s work in our everyday worlds, fueled and fed by our gathering together in worship.
Luther believed that the work of a pastor’s "priesthood" is easy. Folks expect us to break-open the Word and speak a prayer. The harder “priesthood” to make real occurs in worldly settings, by those who hold regular jobs. Luther said it something like this: The shoemaker’s awl (needle) is his Gospel (text); his sanctuary is his shop.
Once we’ve changed the way we worship together, changing how we BE and DO church together will be quite natural.
Someone offered that “all the advice” he’s read about how to grow churches, by attracting new members, suggests the veterans will have to change more than a few practices to make new-comers feel welcome. What, the questioner wanted to know, is First Trinity prepared to do to make that happen?
I’m not completely pleased with my response. I recall rambling on about ministry in a multi-cultural setting. But there were a few points worth thinking about more thoroughly.
I noted, first, that worship needs to be relevant to those in attendance. Relevant is much different than trendy. Trends follow fads, like using power point computer presentations during the sermon. Relevant means that what’s done at worship must connect with those who would worship God. Somehow, the “natural” ways they speak, act, dress, sing - or not, have to have a place of honor if their worship is to be authentic and genuine (both a gift to them [from God], and a gift from them [to God].
Second, I said, while worship “forms” might be new / different, and / or unfamiliar, the point of worship is all about giving God thanks and praise for the ways God keeps making us new (creating); getting us through (saving); and, bringing us over (blessing) - over into the ways of God’s will and God’s work. Who we worship and why we worship isn’t new at all. That is, this is what God has been doing from the beginning, and what God will keep doing forever. (That’s what we mean when we say that God is unchanging, always the same.)
Of course, change always involves both loss and gain. Often, the gain is less easy to see. Sadly, especially in communities of faith - and particularly about worship - the gain is measured against some “cost-benefit analysis” that’s personally owned rather than broadly shared.
I heard a DJ tell his audience, “You really need to hear the sounds we’re playing during the noon hour. Just tell the folks you had church on the radio today.” Well, you can have a lot of experiences over the radio - meditation, entertainment, uplift, powerful praise, but you cannot have church - and you definitely cannot have worship.
Looking at the latter, worship is the public activity / work of the community of faith who are called, gathered and equipped by the Holy Spirit. Radio, even in a crowded room lacks both of these. In its place a community offers God thanks for all who God has been and all that God has done in the week just past. In a second counter-cultural move, those gathered thank God - in advance – for who God will be and what God will do in the week ahead.
I’m eager to be led by God’s Spirit to find folks who are being called by God to explore how worship might happen among homogenous groups – like jazz musicians; 20 – 30 something’s into hip-hop; poets; even public intellectuals. These folks, either maintaining their focus identity, or mixing it up, have much to teach about how God wants us to join God’s work in our everyday worlds, fueled and fed by our gathering together in worship.
Luther believed that the work of a pastor’s "priesthood" is easy. Folks expect us to break-open the Word and speak a prayer. The harder “priesthood” to make real occurs in worldly settings, by those who hold regular jobs. Luther said it something like this: The shoemaker’s awl (needle) is his Gospel (text); his sanctuary is his shop.
Once we’ve changed the way we worship together, changing how we BE and DO church together will be quite natural.
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Getting Cross-Ways with Conventinal Wisdom
Conventional Wisdom (CW) is a term coined by the economist John Kenneth Galbraith. He meant the phrase to describe certain ideas or explanations that are generally accepted as true. So-called Conventional Wisdom may be either true or false. Many urban legends are accepted as true based on CW. Often, urban legends are little more than rumors. For example, that the USPS is halting production of African Heritage stamps, or KFC no longer uses chicken and now fries up genetically altered life form.
Conventional Wisdom can be a barrier to new ideas and explanations. Meaning, despite new and different information CW gets “set in concrete.” In the end, CW can make us closed-minded. What we already know is convenient, appealing. CW often creates energy, an opposite force, which hangs onto the old belief, sometimes to the point of absurd denial of the new information. We’ll hang onto CW at all costs, often doing silly things to do that.
Last week I fell victim to a bit of CW. You know what a fan I am of politics. When I heard that both New York Congressman Charlie Rangel and California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi criticized Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for calling George Bush the devil himself, I refused to believe it. I was sure these two rabid partisans would be jumping for joy that an outsider had done their dirty work for them. It wasn’t until I went on-line and read their criticism myself in the Washington Post that I could trust the report. Wait. It gets better.
Charlie Rangel was a perfect gentleman. He said, “No one comes to my country, in my district, from another country and criticizes my president.” I was shocked. However, my faith in CW was restored when I read what Ms. Pelosi said, “She said, Chavez thinks he’s a new Simon Bolivar, but he’s just a thug.” To me it looked like an Italian thing – maybe we’ll have to send her to charm school!
This text from Mark’s Gospel (Mark 9:34-37) is riddled with CW the Holy Spirit wants us to see. Some of it Mark put there because of his own experience. Some is based on testimony of Jesus’ early followers. A little is there, likely, because Mark needed to address issues going on his own church community. But much of the CW that still operates here does so because we keep bringing it. We need to sort all that out. If we don’t, we’ll miss the wisdom, the new and contrary ideas, that Jesus intends we hear and bring to bear in our own church and in our own worlds today.
Notice that the disciples ignore Jesus’ second prediction of his passion and death. Earlier we heard Peter challenge this very same prediction (Mk 8:27-38). We also heard Jesus call Peter out in front of a whole crowd and the other disciples, for arguing his CW against Jesus’ new wisdom. So we shouldn’t be surprised to hear the disciples ignore Jesus’ second prediction and change the subject.
Their new subject - which of us will sit in what high and mighty places - operated out of their CW. If Jesus is messiah, when he rules, they rule. They have created an opposing force, an alternative story, which ends differently than Jesus’ sees it.
To get them to let go of their old CW and adopt his new
vision, Jesus tells them, as plain as possible, a new rule. He says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” He has their attention, but he must have seen a whole lot of blank stares. Maybe stares that betrayed a feeling like, “Yeah, Riiiight.”
Not flinching, Jesus meets force with force. He grabs up the lowest life form he can find - a child - and says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
I didn’t misspeak. I said Jesus scooped up the lowest life form he could find. That’s our CW that’s keeping us from seeing Jesus’ new vision. Our culture values children. This early Middle Eastern society did not. Children were lower in this honor / shame culture than either shepherds or lepers.
Oh, their bible said children are a blessing, but their CW said children were a burden. Kids couldn’t work. When you had them, you worked harder to feed them. You knew your investment might never pay off since they couldn’t be counted on to stay healthy, or alive. If you had a girl-child, you needed to make sure you had money for a dowry. If you had a boy-child, just about the time he became productive he got his own wife, made more babies. You needed to work harder and get a bigger house. You also had to pray that they would not turn you out when you got too old to take care of yourself.
Jesus is launching extremely innovative wisdom, Kingdom vision. If we’re willing to give up our CW, we might just see it.
We’ve been trained to see, hear, read and believe the Bible as
a “how to” manual. It’s really a “why for” manual. Before the Bible is about anything at all, it’s about God. It’s only about us as we are objects of God’s love. It’s God’s love and regard for us that makes us subjects, otherwise we’re no different than any other creature, loved but not aware of it. We’re made in God’s image. The Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit living and loving in its own holy community has made us in God’s image.
Let’s face up to our CW that keeps us misunderstanding a why for book for a how to book, in the order Mark gives it to us.
Look at Jesus’ new rule, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Let’s admit that, at best, we turn this life orientation into a proverb, sometimes. Since it’s spoken to the apostles, some folks think it only refers to church leaders. Often, when we get passed that, we hear it as referring only to individuals. But it’s clearly spoken to Jesus’ first gathered community. We’ll do this personally, alone, only to the extent that we do this together. And if Jesus thought we could pull this off, individually and alone, he wouldn’t have spoken it to the group.
Let me show how our CW is operating here. When was the last time you heard this verse quoted, and the speaker meant it to be anything but a joke? Have you ever been to a church meeting and heard a member say, “I’d like to add an item to the agenda: how can this congregation be last of all and a servant of all”?
Jesus' embrace is another jolt to our CW. What Jesus is doing, by embracing a lowly child, is what God has been doing since God stooped to meet us in the mud. What Jesus is doing is the rest of God’s story, suffering for us, staying with us, embracing us, even when we stray, fall into sin, miss the mark. Stooping to us; suffering for us; staying with us, it’s the servanthood of the God who chooses to be the servant of us all.
The only thing that can keep you from seeing, hearing and accepting Jesus’ Kingdom vision is your CW. Claim your shame. Let go of your conventions. Lay hold to your lowliness. Let go of your wisdom. Then Jesus has you right where he wants you, deep in the arms of his redeeming embrace.
Be so welcomed there that you can not only say Jesus’ name, but also speak in Jesus’ name. Speak to someone a welcome in Jesus’ name and let them meet the God who stoops to you, suffers for you, stays with you.
That’s what becomes the “how to,” the identity and relationship we have as image of God, children of God. That’s when the text describes the reality, the vision, the true wisdom that God’s desire prescribes for all God’s people. It’s a life orientation that will always put us crossways with the world’s CW and it’s God’s best way - our only way - into the only greatness that matters.
Conventional Wisdom can be a barrier to new ideas and explanations. Meaning, despite new and different information CW gets “set in concrete.” In the end, CW can make us closed-minded. What we already know is convenient, appealing. CW often creates energy, an opposite force, which hangs onto the old belief, sometimes to the point of absurd denial of the new information. We’ll hang onto CW at all costs, often doing silly things to do that.
Last week I fell victim to a bit of CW. You know what a fan I am of politics. When I heard that both New York Congressman Charlie Rangel and California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi criticized Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for calling George Bush the devil himself, I refused to believe it. I was sure these two rabid partisans would be jumping for joy that an outsider had done their dirty work for them. It wasn’t until I went on-line and read their criticism myself in the Washington Post that I could trust the report. Wait. It gets better.
Charlie Rangel was a perfect gentleman. He said, “No one comes to my country, in my district, from another country and criticizes my president.” I was shocked. However, my faith in CW was restored when I read what Ms. Pelosi said, “She said, Chavez thinks he’s a new Simon Bolivar, but he’s just a thug.” To me it looked like an Italian thing – maybe we’ll have to send her to charm school!
This text from Mark’s Gospel (Mark 9:34-37) is riddled with CW the Holy Spirit wants us to see. Some of it Mark put there because of his own experience. Some is based on testimony of Jesus’ early followers. A little is there, likely, because Mark needed to address issues going on his own church community. But much of the CW that still operates here does so because we keep bringing it. We need to sort all that out. If we don’t, we’ll miss the wisdom, the new and contrary ideas, that Jesus intends we hear and bring to bear in our own church and in our own worlds today.
Notice that the disciples ignore Jesus’ second prediction of his passion and death. Earlier we heard Peter challenge this very same prediction (Mk 8:27-38). We also heard Jesus call Peter out in front of a whole crowd and the other disciples, for arguing his CW against Jesus’ new wisdom. So we shouldn’t be surprised to hear the disciples ignore Jesus’ second prediction and change the subject.
Their new subject - which of us will sit in what high and mighty places - operated out of their CW. If Jesus is messiah, when he rules, they rule. They have created an opposing force, an alternative story, which ends differently than Jesus’ sees it.
To get them to let go of their old CW and adopt his new
vision, Jesus tells them, as plain as possible, a new rule. He says, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” He has their attention, but he must have seen a whole lot of blank stares. Maybe stares that betrayed a feeling like, “Yeah, Riiiight.”
Not flinching, Jesus meets force with force. He grabs up the lowest life form he can find - a child - and says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
I didn’t misspeak. I said Jesus scooped up the lowest life form he could find. That’s our CW that’s keeping us from seeing Jesus’ new vision. Our culture values children. This early Middle Eastern society did not. Children were lower in this honor / shame culture than either shepherds or lepers.
Oh, their bible said children are a blessing, but their CW said children were a burden. Kids couldn’t work. When you had them, you worked harder to feed them. You knew your investment might never pay off since they couldn’t be counted on to stay healthy, or alive. If you had a girl-child, you needed to make sure you had money for a dowry. If you had a boy-child, just about the time he became productive he got his own wife, made more babies. You needed to work harder and get a bigger house. You also had to pray that they would not turn you out when you got too old to take care of yourself.
Jesus is launching extremely innovative wisdom, Kingdom vision. If we’re willing to give up our CW, we might just see it.
We’ve been trained to see, hear, read and believe the Bible as
a “how to” manual. It’s really a “why for” manual. Before the Bible is about anything at all, it’s about God. It’s only about us as we are objects of God’s love. It’s God’s love and regard for us that makes us subjects, otherwise we’re no different than any other creature, loved but not aware of it. We’re made in God’s image. The Triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit living and loving in its own holy community has made us in God’s image.
Let’s face up to our CW that keeps us misunderstanding a why for book for a how to book, in the order Mark gives it to us.
Look at Jesus’ new rule, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Let’s admit that, at best, we turn this life orientation into a proverb, sometimes. Since it’s spoken to the apostles, some folks think it only refers to church leaders. Often, when we get passed that, we hear it as referring only to individuals. But it’s clearly spoken to Jesus’ first gathered community. We’ll do this personally, alone, only to the extent that we do this together. And if Jesus thought we could pull this off, individually and alone, he wouldn’t have spoken it to the group.
Let me show how our CW is operating here. When was the last time you heard this verse quoted, and the speaker meant it to be anything but a joke? Have you ever been to a church meeting and heard a member say, “I’d like to add an item to the agenda: how can this congregation be last of all and a servant of all”?
Jesus' embrace is another jolt to our CW. What Jesus is doing, by embracing a lowly child, is what God has been doing since God stooped to meet us in the mud. What Jesus is doing is the rest of God’s story, suffering for us, staying with us, embracing us, even when we stray, fall into sin, miss the mark. Stooping to us; suffering for us; staying with us, it’s the servanthood of the God who chooses to be the servant of us all.
The only thing that can keep you from seeing, hearing and accepting Jesus’ Kingdom vision is your CW. Claim your shame. Let go of your conventions. Lay hold to your lowliness. Let go of your wisdom. Then Jesus has you right where he wants you, deep in the arms of his redeeming embrace.
Be so welcomed there that you can not only say Jesus’ name, but also speak in Jesus’ name. Speak to someone a welcome in Jesus’ name and let them meet the God who stoops to you, suffers for you, stays with you.
That’s what becomes the “how to,” the identity and relationship we have as image of God, children of God. That’s when the text describes the reality, the vision, the true wisdom that God’s desire prescribes for all God’s people. It’s a life orientation that will always put us crossways with the world’s CW and it’s God’s best way - our only way - into the only greatness that matters.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
