Thursday, December 09, 2010

Christmas Sentiments

An evangelical friend of mine recently told me: “We need to keep Christ in Christmas.” An Anglican friend of mine recently told me: “We need to return the ‘mas’ to Christmas.” [Note: The word Christmas is actually the bringing together of two words, that is, the Christ Mass or the ancient worship service welcoming the Christ child into the world.]  It is not surprising that a common sentiment this time of year is “This is the season of peace and love.”  What do all these sentiments mean?  What does it mean to keep Christ in Christmas? Is it purely intellectual? How do we practice peace in this season? How do we show love to others?
Jean Vanier is the founder of the L’Arche Community (http://www.larcheusa.org).  The L’Arche Community is a worldwide ecumenical organization that has hundreds of small community houses where people with disabilities live in a kind of monastic community.  They are an example of a new monasticism that is becoming popular in the Protestant Church. Vanier, in seeking to explain how love is pragmatically experienced, writes, “To love someone is not first of all to do things for them, but to reveal to them their beauty and value, to say to them through our attitude: ‘You are beautiful. You are important. I trust you. You can trust yourself.’ We all know well that we can do things for others and in the process crush them, making them feel that they are incapable of doing things for themselves. To love someone is to reveal to them their capacities for life, the light that is shining in them.”
This season can subtly mislead us to think that the way we show others our love is to heap gifts upon them or to patronizingly give “the needy” a meal or “needy children” gifts all in a spirit of good will that leaves them with an armful of things and a heart that is still empty.  Don’t confuse this sentiment as a minimizing of our efforts to provide food and toys through our constituent agencies (i.e. CAReS, Shelter of Hope, Salvation Army, etc.).  Rather it is an encouragement to continue our interest in others year round. Our call to love others is a demand we place on ourselves to invest ourselves in the lives of others.  How can we stand with other people of faith in our community to fight the ever growing problem of prescription drug addiction, broken families and unemployment?  How can we use the resources and opportunities present within our own congregation to make a difference in our own backyard? How can we join with Christians around the world who live in countries hostile to the name of Christ?
May God keep us from assuming that our good fortune, our congregation’s strong financial commitment, is our own doing or that our ability to serve is anything other than a gift of God. To those much has been given, much is expected.  I know you join with the clergy and elders of this congregation to thank God for his generosity.  May we claim our role as spiritual leaders in this community.  It is not that the darkness of the world is so dark, but that our light has yet to shine so that the shadows of despair and the absence of Christ are forced to flee.  As one of our elders said recently, ‘May the devil tremble when he realizes that First Christian Church is awake.”

Friday, December 03, 2010

Stewardship Campaigns

The Estimate of Giving Campaign is coming to end at the congregation I service.  In the middle of this recession, this year’s campaign is the second largest and could be the best campaign ever as late estimates continue to come in.  I have always been overwhelmed at the response from our congregation. 
 One of the purposes of a stewardship campaign is to ensure that we build a responsible budget.  Whether we like it or not, people vote with their checkbooks.  These campaigns not only allow us to plan for the most effective ministries possible, but they ensure we have our finger on the pulse of the congregation. 
I have served in previous congregations that did not do campaigns.  They felt that a better approach was to “trust in the Lord.”  I understand the sentiment, but what it generally led to was an oligarchy, or the running of the church by a few.  Many congregations that do business like that will often overextend themselves and when they find themselves in a position where they can’t make ends meet, they will extend a call to the congregation.  Since funding often requires planning, most people who had a readily available cash flow to meet emergency needs where a select group.  Soon, those families began to feel a sense of entitlement to decision making or worse, abused by the congregation.  Our Estimate of Giving campaign provides an opportunity for everyone to faithfully plan their finances for the coming year, a good idea for givers and non-givers alike.  Building a budget within those parameters then preserves the ideals of congregationalism, where every voice and every member, becomes a part of the planning process.  In short, a stewardship campaign protects the ideals and integrity of the priesthood of all believers.
Our campaign also forces us to think about what it means to be stewards ourselves.  Jesus talks about money and hell more the any other topics and yet, it is those two topics that are most avoided by the modern church.  Personally, I believe every Christian needs to give something.  It is a part of what it means to be a Christian.  In my own life, it has been proven over and over again that if we tithe, God always make sure we have enough.   Tithing reminds me that God is the source of my needs.  It also reminds me to live within my means.  Now for many throughout the world and in our own community, their basic needs outstrip their income.  Many of these folks still give through volunteering or other active ways.  For most, however, it requires us to think twice about eating out or buying items that we may not really need.  The holiday season is an ideal time to take stock of our life.  Am I living beyond my means? Could I give something to someone else whose needs are greater than my own? Can I endeavor to reorient my life and place God first…in everything, even my checkbook? 
As a spiritual leader, I am convinced that members have a right to know how much we give to the life of the congregation we serve.  If we are going to model the Christian life, including stewardship, we have to set the tone for Christian giving.  Our family tithes (10%) on our gross income, including cash gifts and extra money that comes in.  Why?  God demands and deserves our first fruits.  I also know that God will make sure I never miss it.  It is amazing how liberating a properly oriented life can be for the mind and soul.  Now, don’t get upset with me, I’m just trying to tell you the truth as I understand it and have experienced it.  However, I know my congregation understands.  Their generosity is one of the signs.

Thinking about when I spent Christmas Alone

When I was in seminary, I was privileged to serve a small rural congregation in Bourbon County, Kentucky as a student minister.  I had never been away from my parents for any major holiday my whole life and this was the first year I found myself alone on Christmas Day.  The little church had had a nice Candlelight Christmas Eve service and I was planning to fly home on December 26.  Of course, that meant I would be alone on Christmas Day.  Most of my fellow students had either already left for their respective home towns or they were spending the day with members of their own student congregations.  I awoke to a desolate residence hall at Lexington Theological Seminary and after a cheerful call to my parents with expectations for a late Christmas; I decided I was going to go to the Campbell House Inn to take advantage of their Christmas Day dinner, complete with their 15% student discount.  Upon arriving I was ushered to my table.  The restaurant was far from full, although a few families had begun to fill vacant tables.  Most of the patrons were older couples enjoying one another’s company and a spattering of widows, widowers and men like myself. I remember vividly sitting down and actually enjoying the moment alone.  After a moment of reflection on the true meaning of the day and a brief prayer, I made my way to the buffet.  I noticed through dinner that an older couple sitting at the table next to me would look over my way whispering to one another and shaking their head.  I began to allow my paranoia to take over and wondered if I was dressed appropriately or perhaps had a drop of gravy on my chin.  Moments before I was to decide I would make a quick exit to the safety of the seminary campus, the dear lady leaned over and said, “Honey, are you alone?” The question so startled me that I just stared at her.  “Why don’t you come and eat with us?” she asked motioning to the empty chair at the table.  Why is it that the seconds that pass in real time conversations seem like an eternity?
I guess I had never considered the idea that I was alone.  I knew I would be seeing family the next day and although the world saw Christmas as one day a year, I knew from my having grown up in Church that it was a season of Twelve Days (December 25 – January 5), with Epiphany (the arrival of the Magi) on January 6.  I suppose it was odd that a man in his early 20’s was having Christmas Day dinner alone at a Lexington landmark hotel.  I didn’t feel alone.  In many ways, being by myself made the holiday more sacred as I wasn’t distracted by the noise of opening presents or the blare of parades and football games on television.  No, I decided, I was fine and so I responded, “No, no thank you, I’m fine.”
The kind lady almost burst into tears.  Regardless of how I felt, she thought it too inappropriate for anyone to be alone on Christmas Day.  I can only imagine the courage it took to finally ask a stranger to join them for the holiday dinner and I had refused her kindness and chose to continue in my condition that she found objectionable.  I left soon after the request and enjoyed a near traffic less drive back to the seminary and spent the afternoon reading and packing for my trip the next day.  The image of shock and grief on the dear lady’s face stayed with me though and haunts me to this day.  I wish I could go back and change what happened.  I wish I would have accepted her invitation.  Not so much because I my Christmas was ruined by being alone, but because I think I ruined her Christmas.
This year, if you are alone, look for the opportunities being alone might provide to spend the day in the presence of God, reading the Christmas story and reflecting on the birth of our Savior.  And, if someone asks you to spend time with them, do it.  Not for yourself necessarily, but for them.  Let someone do a good deed.  For the rest of you, if you invite someone over and they refuse, don’t take it personal.  Maybe the second day of Christmas when they are with family will be just as good if they had been with them on the first day of Christmas.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

First Week of Advent

I have always heard people tell me that a painting, a song or a poem had caused them to cry.  How can looking at a picture move someone to the point of tears?  I never could understand what they meant until I stood in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.  The Uffizi holds some of history's famous paintings.  Works by Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Botticelli are world renowned.  The rooms in which they hung were crammed with people trying to get a glimpse of these works while watchful guards made sure that no one got to close and the lines kept moving.  As much to escape the crowds as anything, I walked into a near empty room with other paintings that are not so famous.  I turned and to the right of the entrance hung a painting entitled The Massacre of the Innocents by Daniele da Volterra.  You may not have heard of Volterra, but you are familiar with his work.  He was the painter hired by the Pope to paint olive leaves over the private parts of Jesus and others in The Last Judgment that adorns the Altar wall of the Sistine Chapel in Rome.  Volterra's Massacre depicts the slaughter of male children under the age of two when Herod discovered he had been duped by the Magi (Matthew 2:16).  As my eyes explored the painting, without warning I sensed a tear rolling down my cheek.  It wasn't just a painting.  In its brush strokes I could hear the voices of the pleading mothers, the scream of the infants and the angry snarls of Herod's soldiers. My tears became a sob.  My mind recounted the story and the words of the prophet Jeremiah, “a voice heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children” (Jeremiah 31:15).
Throughout Scripture, Rachel represents suffering.  Whether it is of the sufferings of the human condition or the cry of those living under oppression, Rachel's cry is the grief that only God can console.  Rachel's grief refuses consolation from false comfort and facile explanations.  She refuses to be consoled.  It is a testimony that only God can speak a true word of hope.  Only God can assure the suffering that there is a future.  We are often encouraged by culture to witness the advent, the coming, of Christ in the warmth of a natal star.  Rachel reminds us that Christ comes as the light in the shocking darkness that is sin and separation. 
Advent has often been characterized as a mini-Lent in the preparations of the festival of Christ's nativity.  It is the Nativity of God in flesh that shocks us into the awareness that the manager in Bethlehem is connected to the cross and tomb in Jerusalem.  The hands of the infant Jesus will be pierced by the nails of human rebellion. 
Upon sharing my experience with others I was asked if I looked away from Volterra's story of evil.  When I looked away the tears would stop but I forced myself to look again.  The sobs continued.  I left the empty room trying to hide the redness of my eyes from curious patrons who probably wondered about my veiled emotions. The further I walked away, the screams of the mothers seemed to fade in the distance.  Yet, their imprint on my memory is permanent.  Although the Church's responsibility to stand strong in the face of evil and sin is certain, I know that the only hope for the world, my only hope is the one whose birth we are preparing to celebrate. The cries of Rachel's grief echo down throughout the centuries and through my tears I recognize that I am powerless.  However, I am not without hope, for Christ has come and Christ will come again. May God bless you as we begin this Advent journey together.    

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A Night of Light

What comes to mind when you hear the word Halloween?  Throughout our community, decorations of witches, ghosts and devils abound.  Some enjoy the adrenalin rush of the unknown.  Scary movies, ghost stories around a campfire or walking through a cemetery at night causes our hair to stand up and heart to beat fast.  Some preachers will rant and rave about the demonic beginnings of Halloween while others will simply scoff and say that it is purely a fun celebration for kids.  I suppose I am somewhere in the middle.  First, the word “Halloween” is an old English word that means “All Hallows Eve.”  It is a the vigil before All Saints’ Day, much like Christmas Eve is the vigil before the Day of the Nativity or Christmas.  Does All Saints’ Day fall during the time the ancient pagans would celebrate their pagan day of the dead?  Yes.  For thousands of years, Christians, as they evangelized the world, would assign new holidays to replace old pagan holidays.  Christmas replaced the Celtic Winter Solstice and Resurrection Sunday replaced the celebration of the ancient goddess Ester during the Spring Equinox.  The word “Easter” actually comes from the original celebration of Ester’s Day.
When the Church’s missionaries encountered the Day of the Dead (called Sawain) of the Celtic people of the British Isles, they told them death was not something to fear and we should remember the lives of Christian people, or as the Bible calls us, Saints, who had passed from this life into the Kingdom.  For the past 1500 years, the Church of Jesus Christ has remembered the power of Christ over death and sin in the lives of those who have entered into the presence of God.  This victory over darkness was celebrated by placing lights in windows and at the doors of homes.  The pagan customs of carving pumpkins was augmented by putting lights inside of the gourds to remember that the light of Christ is in the heart of the believer. 
As has been the challenge for other holidays, culture has tried to reclaim some of the pagan symbols without the Christian influence.  Some of these reclamations have been rather modest.  Decorated evergreen trees from German mythology still bring cheer to one’s heart during the long dark winter season.  The pagan symbols of eggs and bunnies have found their way back to the Easter season.  Unfortunately, the focus on gore and evil myths of vampires has become a mainstay for Halloween.  Are they dangerous?  Anytime we allow the darkness of sin to extinguish the light of Christ, we run a certain risk.  Some of my colleagues in the faith feel we should completely ignore the celebrations going on around us or even speak out against them.  My fear is that when the church falls silent about certain aspects of culture or rails against what is generally understood as a time of fun for children, we run the risk of being ignored.  My approach has been to remind the saints and the culture of the Christian perspective of the season.  Celebrate the light of Christ during this season.  Pick a great saint of the Bible and learn more about his or her life.  Dress up as a Bible character or a character that symbolizes justice and honesty, like Superman or other appropriate “hero.”  Take some time at the family dinner table to talk about a saint in your own family.  Thank God for the life of a grandparent or other important family member who has died.  Place a light in your window to symbolize that your house is a Christian home.  Wear white on All Hallows Eve and All Saints Day (October 31 and November 1) as a symbol of allegiance to Christ as our light.  May your All Hallows Eve be a great day of celebrating Christ’s victory over sin and darkness.  Happy Halloween!

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Church Politics in a political season

I suppose we are all looking for heaven on earth.  Of course, as a faith that had its beginnings rooted in the eschatological, that is, the unveiling of God’s Kingdom of perfect peace and justice, we Christians either look forward to or are working toward the establishment of utopia.  Since we naturally assume that God is perfect and that heaven is perfect, it isn’t such a leap to assume that everything related to God and heaven should also be perfect.  The problem is that such a mindset sets us up for disappointment.  I am often told by many people that “church politics” are the worst kind of politics.  With the recent display of blatantly misleading ads from candidates of both parties on television, I’m not so sure.  Nevertheless, I wonder if it isn’t that “church politics” are worse than any other “politics” but that “church politics” are so counter to what we expect to be in the “church.”  Shouldn’t church be a place where we all just get along, each working for the proclamation of the Gospel?  Recently, a friend of mine who is a Regional Minister remarked that it is the pastor’s call to remind the “church” what is and what is not the Gospel; wise words from one of our “bishops.”  However, such a charge can be difficult to do faithfully, especially in our contemporary politicized and polarized culture. 
More and more I am seeing and hearing manifestations of personal and community problems as a result of victimization, abuse, a host of “isms,” (sexism, racism, etc.) or “phobias” (homophobia, gynophobia, etc.).  It may be, what some term, my odd fascination with the past and tradition, but whatever happened to the word and concept of sin?
The church, as every other organization on this side of the Eschaton (the Return of Christ), is composed of humans who are by nature, sinful.  Even when I am at my earthly best, I have still fallen way short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).  Sin is not something from which I can be healed, only redeemed.  The results of the grace of God given through Jesus Christ, does not wisk me away from the context of a fallen world.  God’s grace urges me on to holiness.  It begins the process of my work toward perfection even as God is perfect (Matthew 5:48), but it does not make me God.  The church is, in part, the community of Christians who worship and praise God.  The church is not God.  It is, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Body of Christ that continues the work of Christ until he comes again.  That does not mean that Christians or those who claim the title “church” fully embody Christ’s perfection in all things and at all times.  Where the body acts justly and with peace, it serves as a glimpse of the Kingdom. 
However, the church is what Christ established to continue his work of teaching, healing, convicting, and calling the world to God’s self. To abandon the church is to abandon Christ’s plan for his followers.  To give up on the church is to give up on the means that Christ established himself as the vessel through which his grace is made known.  Perhaps the problem is not that the church so often falls short of God’s glory, but that our perspective has been skewed and our expectations are unrealistic.  Human experience is messy, difficult and at times, painful.  The pervasiveness of human sin will always be with us.  The effects of sin, sickness, disease, anger, hatred, are always looking for opportunities to exploit humanity to its own dark ends.  Christ has given us not an easier path on which to travel, but a companion for the journey.  Mountains must be crossed and rivers must be forged and these challenges are inescapable.  However, it is easier for a group to conquer these challenges than it is for an individual.  Even our failure to be in worship or to be active in the church not only sets us on a journey of failure when we arrive at these challenges alone, but it says to the rest of those on this journey, “I won’t help you either.”  Only when we travel together, knowing that at times the darkness of human sin will seek to extinguish the light of Christ, will we stand together on the mountaintop and get another glimpse of the Kingdom soon to come.  “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Thinking about Bad Things

Bad things happen to all of us.  Much of the ministry that clergy do is in response to bad things.  Most of the time, the bad events are sickness, divorce and death.  We talk about God’s healing.  God does heal.  For those who are sick, they get better.  For those who divorce, they hurt but in many cases, learn to find love and live life again.  For those who die, it is the survivors who remember and mourn.  Eventually mourning leads to healing for most people.  For those who lost loved ones in tragedy, that mourning can take longer.  These are all bad things.  These are events that are hard, but they are by and large, part of the human experience. 

There are other bad things that are a part of the human experience.  War is bad.  Some of our friends and neighbors have seen the horror of war.  It is an evil that every generation has had to endure.  Sometimes war is fought to prevent the spreading of evil.  Other times it is fought because of human greed or arrogance.  The majority of us do not live with the day to day reality of war.  We do not live in Sudan, Lebanon, Baghdad or Kabul.  We hear the stories, we see the news reports, but for the most part, the reports are just words.

Genocide is another bad thing.  When we think of genocide, most of us think about Hitler or the Holocaust in WWII Germany.  In 1994 genocide took place in Rwanda with a death toll of 800,000 in 100 days.  Where were you in 1994?  I was in my final year of Seminary.  I remember hearing the words when the news began to report about the violence in Rwanda when one tribe rose up in an attempt to exterminate the other tribe.  They were all just words to me.  It was one more bad thing in a world of bad things as I was preparing to minister to folks right here in the United States who were enduring bad things.

When the movie Hotel Rwanda came out, I watched it.  I began to read articles online.  The internet is a powerful tool.  It even allowed me to see photographs that had not been screened or filtered by the network press.  They were raw photos of the bad things.  I saw photos of women who were being mutilated after they had been raped.  Men hacked to death with machetes.  Children dashed on the concrete and left to die in the streets.  I cried. I became enraged. I cried again.  Using the word “bad” seemed to trivialize this epic example of human brutality. 

In the midst of the slow spiritual recovery, Dr. Pauline Mukeshimana, whose young son was poisoned by a woman in the other tribe, is teaching survivors about forgiveness and helping plan for a future both in Rwanda and with immigrants living in Louisville.   Dr. Mukeshimana will be with us on Sunday morning, October 3, for morning worship with a Rwandan choir.  She and Gate of Hope ministries are raising awareness and support for their mission.  Come to be encouraged.  Please come to help. Come to learn about real bad things that might help us in our bad things.  Come ready to see that all Christians around the world are truly bound together by the blood of Christ.

To Donate to Gate of Hope Ministries, working with survivors of the genocide, please email RevIke@fcc-ashland.org or contact the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Ashland at 606.324.5335.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Epiphany


(James Tissot, Journey of the Magi, 1894)

Today is the Feast Day of the Epiphany.  It is the celebration of the arrival of the Magi who paid homage to the Christ Child offering to Him their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The word "epiphany" in our current culture carries a meaning of "a sudden realization or awareness of an idea or concept."  The word, when broken down to its roots, "epi" or "heavenly apparition" and "phan" or "appears," means "the appearance of a god."  In the case of the Christian Faith, it is the coming and recognition of Christ as the Son of God, God the Son.
Over the years, the arrival of the Magi and their adoration of Christ have been relegated to the final part of a typical Christmas pageant in any congregation across North America.  The irony of the pageants is that Jesus was no longer a baby and no longer in the stable when the Magi arrived.  The text is quite clear and very specific.  "On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother..." (Matthew 2:11)  Greek is very specific.  This is no longer a baby, but a child.  They are no longer in the stable, but in a house.  This is further supported by the fact that Herod orders the death of every male child under the age of two years old when he realizes that he has been ignored by the Magi.  (Matthew 2:16)
It is incredibly unfortunate that this perplexing story with its unusual gifts has had its radical elements romanticized to meaninglessness.  The first thing that grabs our attention is that we have this story in Matthew.  It is in no other Gospels.  Matthew, the Gospel that seeks to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, the Gospel that is written to appeal to the Jewish community about the "jewishness" of Jesus has a story about three Gentiles being the first to recognize and pay homage to the One who is anointed by God. It is a statement by Matthew of the radical inclusion of all people into God's Kingdom.
The second momentous revelation is the gifts brought by the Magi.  Gold is the currency of kings.  It is a sign of Christ's Kingship not just in Israel, but over the entire world.  As we read through the Gospel, we are reminded of this gift of gold from the Magi as Jesus denounces the false Jewish leaders in Matthew 23:17.  It is not the gold that is valuable, Jesus teaches, but the one who makes the gold sacred.
Frankincense, often used in Temple worship, was commonly used to rub on the bodies of those who had died.  It is, for a modern observer, the ancient world's version of embalming fluid.  Used in the death rituals of the day, it is a foreshadowing of Christ's death.  Ironic that a Gentile from Persia brings the same kind of spice most likely used by Mary Magdalene and the other Mary brought with them to prepare Jesus' body on the first day of the week. (Matthew 28:1)
Myrrh, also used in Temple worship, was anciently mixed with  bitter wine (vinegar) as a pain killer.  It may have been the ingredient, the "gall," mixed in the wine given to Jesus while he was on the cross. (Matthew 27:34)
It is interesting that these three gifts find their way back into the story of Jesus' life and crucifixion.  Yet, it is not the gifts that are so important.  It is the one who makes these gifts sacred in His receiving of them.  It is not even the Magi, who though they had strange ideas about the stars yet recognized a new cosmic order, but it is the one to whom they pay homage.  I wonder, if for Matthew, the visitation of the Magi do not diminish Jesus' heritage as Son of David, as some might consider, but encourages the people to recognize God's ultimate will for humanity.  In this stony valley where Bethlehem [which means "city of bread" from which came the Living Bread (John 6:51)] is nestled, a faint echo can be heard.  From across the centuries, a promise made to Abram: "...and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 12:3c)   Paul reminds us again of the promise given to Abram only a few verses later (Genesis 12:7) that it is to the "offspring" of Abram, a forebear of David, who is a forebear of Jesus, through which this blessing will be extended to all the earth. (Galatians 3:16)
Come, stand with the Magi and look at this child.  Don't be distracted by the garments of ancient scholars, the look of foreign Magi or even the gifts of odd presentation.  See the Christ Child.  It is He who makes the garments we wear the vestments of wisdom.  It is He who make the nations and races of the earth brothers and sisters.  It is He who makes the gold, the signs of wealth and power, sacred.  It is He who makes us sons and daughters of the Most High.  Did you get it? Did you have your Epiphany?  And suddenly the Epiphany comes.  It is not about us.  It is not about the Jews or the Gentiles.  It is not about depths of wisdom or positions of power and prestige.  It is about Jesus who is the Christ.  Suddenly, it happens.  The Body of Christ, the Church, is not here for me or my pleasure, but I am in the Church, I am, with you, the Body of Christ.  Together, we are the continuation of the revelation of the Son of God, God the Son, whom the wise still seek and the arrogant and pitiful powers of temporal existence still seek to kill.  It is Epiphany.  Do you get it?

Twelfth Day of Christmas



Today is the the last day of Christmas.  We made it.  In many ways, it was more difficult than Lent.  Today, my true love gave to me Twelve Drummers Drumming.  It is the consummation of the essentials of the Christian faith.  For the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and other self described "non-creedal" churches, this may be the most difficult day.  The word "creed" comes from the Latin word "credo" and simply means, "I believe."  To call the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) "non-creedal" or worse, "anti-creedal" is incorrect.  We do believe in something!  Our creed is that which most scholars believe is the basis of all creeds.  Peter responds to Jesus' question of who he is with the statement, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." (Matthew 16:16)  From that, we ask all converts this question: "Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God and do you accept Him as Lord and Savior?"  This questions may differ from congregation to congregation, but it is essentially our creed even though we call it the Good Confession.  The founders of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) were never opposed to creeds.  They were opposed to creeds being used as a test of fellowship, although our Creed or Good Confession is used as such.
The twelve drummers remind us of the twelve points of the Apostles' Creed. Below is the Apostles' Creed divided into the 12 basic parts with the Scripture references that speaks to the points.

  1. I believe in God, the Father (Ephesians 4:6) almighty, creator of heaven and earth (Genesis 1:1ff; John 1:1ff; 1 Corinthians 8:6).
  2. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord (John 3:16-18).
  3. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35) and born of the virgin Mary (Mathew 1:18).
  4. He suffered under Pontius Pilate (Mark 15:15), was crucified, died, and was buried (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). ["He descended to the grave" was added much later and is not in the earliest manuscripts of the creed.  It is often omitted by Reformed Protestants. Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Lutherans argue that Ephesians 4:8-10 proves this phrase.]
  5. On the third day he rose again (1 Corinthians 15:4).  He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father (Luke 22:69; Acts 1:9, 2:32-34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1).
  6. He will come again to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42).
  7. I believe in the Holy Spirit (John 15:26),
  8. the holy catholic (universal) Church (Romans 12:5; Colossians 1:24),
  9. the communion of saints (Acts 2:42)
  10. the forgiveness of sins (Mathew 26:28; Acts 2:38; 1 Corinthians 15:3; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 9:22),
  11. the resurrection of the body (Matthew 28:6-7; 1 Corinthians 15:13-14)
  12. and the life everlasting (John 3:15; Jude 1:21).
Legend proposes that the Apostles' Creed was written by the Apostles themselves on the Tenth Day after Christ's ascension.  The truth about the Creed is that the Apostles never wrote or contributed anything to the Creed.  Many, both inside and outside of the Church, believe that the Creed is of equal authority or supersedes Scripture.  The Creed was never intended to be the only statement of the essentials of the Faith.  However, from the earliest years of the Church, local assemblies outlined what was essential to the Faith that was confessed by all candidates for baptism.  As is the case in most human communities, these statements were often applicable to the local context of issues.  If a Christian community was dealing with a particular heresy in or near where they lived, their statement of faith might focus more intensely on countering those teachings.  As the Church began to grow and an understanding that a rule of faith needed to be standardized, many influential elders or bishops would draft a Rule of Faith that would be in conversation with other Rules of Faith.  One of the earliest creeds we have is attributed to Hippolytus who lived at the end of the third century.  Hippolytus was a disciple of Irenaeus who was a student of Polycarp who was a student of the John the Apostle.  Hippolytus' creed is called the Interrogatory Creed.
Dr. Joe Jones (a Disciple of Christ), retired Professor of Theology from Christian Theological Seminary, makes the case that the Creeds in general and the Apostles' Creed in particular, are not so much tests of fellowship but serve as a grammar of faith.  That is, they teach us how to talk about the Faith.  In the early Church, complete copies of the Scriptures were rare.  The Apostles' Creed served as a brief statement of the essentials of the Christian Faith.  As humanity went through the Enlightenment with further education and available copies of the Scriptures, more and more people were able to read for themselves the written revelation of Jesus Christ.  However, in today's society, Biblical illiteracy is at epidemic levels.  Perhaps the creeds serve as a starting point for the new believer.  Perhaps they give us a "grammar of faith." What do Christians believe? What does the Church teach as true about Jesus Christ? The best solution would be to sit together and read through the New Testament. As we are doing that, perhaps the creeds help us to begin to consider what Christians before us have taught for almost 2,000 years.  Augustine said that the Apostles' Creed was the first and greatest statement of the faith.  Tertullian said that the Creed was not something different from the Gospels, but as a summary of the Gospel.  Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther said, "Christian truth could not possibly be put into a shorter and clearer statement." Protestant Reformer, John Calvin, said that it was an admirable and truly Scriptural summary of the Christian faith.  Even our own founder, Alexander Campbell, based his Christian System outline on the Apostles' Creed.
What do Christians believe? We believe what the Bible teaches.  What does the Bible teach? One place to begin is the Apostles' Creed. It is the oldest statement of what Christians have believed.  What do you believe?

Monday, January 04, 2010

Eleventh Day of Christmas



Today is the Eleventh Day of Christmas and my true love gave to me Eleven Pipers Piping.  The Eleven Pipers represent 11 of the original disciples or as it is sometimes called, the eleven faithful disciples.  This would include Simon Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot (a Canaanite), and Judas the son of James or Thaddaeus.  Judas Iscariot is not included in the list as he was the one who betrayed Jesus.  These eleven disciples (listed in Acts 1:13-14 after the Ascension of Jesus) were not Jesus' only disciples, but they were the inner group who would later become the apostles.  Joined by Matthias (Acts 1:23-26), these twelve (later joined by Paul who declared himself an apostle in 1 Corinthians 1:1 [his third letter]) became the original patriarchs of Christ's Church.  The word "apostle" literally means "one who is sent."  What could these men actually teach us as we wind down the Christmas season.
Several years ago, I was a student pastor of a congregation in a small community in Bourbon County, Kentucky.  There were five congregations in that community: a Baptist Church, a Presbyterian Church, a United Methodist Church, a Disciple of Christ Church, and a Christian Methodist Episcopal (historically African American denomination) Church.  The community decided to celebrate the observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day hosted by the CME Church.  The pastor of that congregation assembled the pastors of the other four congregations just moments before the service to go over the liturgy. The CME pastor began telling each of the other pastors where they would be preaching in the service.  This, of course, was the first time I was aware that we all would be preaching.  I interrupted the CME pastor to tell him that I had not come prepared to preach.  A silence fell on the room as he stared at me in disbelief.  The United Methodist pastor chuckled under his breath as the CME pastor looked over his glasses at me and remarked, "You mean you have to prepare to preach?" The other pastors in the room all looked at me and back at the CME pastor as if they were watching a tennis match.  I stuttered and stammered.  "No, I'll preach, don't worry about it," I exclaimed with false confidence.  We finished our planning and I reached into my pocket where I kept my New Testament.  As we walked toward the chancel with the organ playing to begin the service, I uttered a brief prayer.  "Lord, I promise I won't ask for anything else if you help me to come up with a sermon before I reach the chancel."  As we sat down in our assigned pew, I flipped through the Gospels and landed on Matthew 10:2-4.  At that moment, the CME pastor introduced me and asked me to take the pulpit to bring the word.  I stepped to the pulpit, took a deep breath and read the the three verses.  I closed the text and began to speak.  I don't remember the words I said, but essentially I spoke about how Jesus took these 12 men from varied backgrounds to be his closest disciples.  Through preaching, teaching, miracles and walking the hills of that ancient land, these 12 people were joined together as Christ's Apostles.  From these 12 very different people, God began the work of building His Church and began the evangelism of the world.
These 12 men were fishermen, a tax collector and an anti-Roman revolutionary.  Ethnically they were diverse ranging from a Greco-Roman Jew, a Canaanite and hard working Jewish fishermen.  These were men who would not have socialized together and the tension between Matthew and Simon the Zealot would have been intense.  Matthew would have been considered a collaborator with the Roman occupiers of the land as Simon's friends would have engaged in what would be considered terrorist actions against the Romans and their sympathizers.
The call of these 12 very different men reminds us that the Church is not monolithic.  We are a people who share a faith, not an ethnicity, a nationality or a culture.  Worship, music and organizational structure may differ, but our faith is one, holy, catholic (universal), and apostolic.  If we confess Jesus as the Christ we are a part of the one Church.  To leave a congregation, a denomination or to split and divide over cultural or political issues is essentially impossible.  We can never divide ourselves from those who are also a part of the Body of Christ.  We are a people who are very different but we do share one thing in common.  We share Christ. We share our faith.  Tomorrow will be the last day of the Christmas season.  We will receive 12 drummers drumming tomorrow.  How fitting to end this festive season looking at that one thing the entire Church confesses as the essentials of our unified faith.  Incidentally, I now always have a spare sermon or two in the margins of my Bible.  I am grateful to my first lessons taught to me by that CME pastor on always being prepared to preach and the unified diversity of Christ's Church.

Sunday, January 03, 2010

Tenth Day of Christmas



Today is the Tenth Day of Christmas.  As we begin to look toward the end of the Christmas season, we receive Ten Lords A-Leaping.  The Ten Lords remind us of the Ten Commandments.  Traditionally, the Ten Commandments are listed in Exodus 20:1-17.
  1. You shall not have any other gods before God. (Anything that would prevent God from being first in your life.)
  2. You shall not make any graven images. (Presumably this means for the purpose of worship, as this could be rather stringent if taken literally.)
  3. You shall not use the Lord's name in vain. (This would include any use of the Lord's name without proper respect and awe as well as claiming to be a follower of God yet not attentive to the call of God on our lives.)
  4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. (The word Sabbath in Hebrew literally means, "to cease, to rest.")
  5. Honor your father and mother. (This is the only commandment that includes a promise. Paul expounds on this commandment in Ephesians 6:1-4.)
  6. You shall not kill. (This is obvious or is it? We assume this refers to people.  Does the prohibition include those who have killed? The unborn? The aged? The terminally ill? Jesus discusses this further in Matthew 5:21-22. This is an application of Leviticus 19:17.  John addresses the issue again in his first epistle, 1 John 3:15.
  7. You shall not commit adultery. (Again, this is obvious.  Jesus addresses this commandment too in Matthew 5:27-28.)
  8. You shall not steal. (According to the Code of Conduct for the United States Military Academy, if it doesn't belong to you, and you take it, it is stealing.  Therefore, even to pick up a penny on the sidewalk is stealing.  Cadets have been discharged from the Virginia Military Institute for such an infraction.  What do you think?)
  9. You shall not lie about your neighbor. (Generally, this is universally applied as a "do not lie, period" commandment.)
  10. You shall not covet. (To covet is to have an inordinate desire for something that belongs to another.  It is closely related to the definition of the word envy.  Well, there goes the American work ethic.)
The first four commandments outline our relationship with God.  The final six outline our relationships with others.  The Early Church Fathers suggested that the fullness of the Law is found in the teachings of Jesus, who said, "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no other commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:30-31 ESV)
Again, we are confronted with how we love God and how we love our neighbor.  One Early Church Father, Irenaeus, a second century bishop in Gaul (modern day France), answered the question of how we love God by simply quoting Moses.  "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul..." (Deuteronomy 10:12 ESV)  The Prophet Micah reminds us again of what the Lord requires of us but to do justice, love kindness or mercy and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).  It is not a matter of experience or emotional validation that shows our love to God, but rather a clear admonition that sometimes it is just as simple as acting justly, loving mercy and being humble.  
How might we love our neighbor? Augustine, a 5th century Bishop in North Africa, wrote, "'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' You love yourself best when you love God better than yourself.  What you aim for yourself you must aim at in your neighbor, that is, that your neighbor may love God with a perfect affection.  For you do not love your neighbor as yourself unless you invite him to the same good that you are pursuing.  For this is the one good that all have room to pursue along with you. From this precept comes the duties of human society." (my paraphrase, Augustine, Of the Morals of the Universal Church, chapter 26)
After the Reformation, especially in England, it was required that the Ten Commandments be read at the start of every worship service.  I like this! However, we need to be cautious at relegating the Ten Commandments to only a list of rules that we raise as a standard of a just society.  Across the United States the debate of whether or not the Ten Commandments should be posted in courthouses or schools rages on.  I agree that the Ten Commandments are important concepts that were integral in framing our culture's understanding of justice.  Consider for a moment that perhaps our application of the Commandments have been misappropriated.  As a colleague of mine, who was once a lawyer and is now a preacher, pointed out, American jurisprudence assumes that one party is telling the truth and the other is lying.  In criminal law, the effort is to discern one's guilt or innocence and if guilt is proven, a punishment is applied that fits the crime.  The context of the Ten Commandments, Jesus' teachings and the writings of the Early Church Fathers gives us another perspective.  Perhaps God's Law is not so concerned with who is right and who is wrong, but about relationships.  
What re-establishes relationships that have been broken?  As the Mosaic Law continues to be outlined, it is often understood as a complex outline of proper punishment for particular sins.  What if the Law is an outline of how relationships might be healed?  The healing of our relationship with God began with Jesus Christ and is professed by our confession and openness to His transforming Spirit.  
Our relationships with others are made right when the effort on behalf of the offender to rectify the wrong is coupled with the victim's call to show mercy.  True justice among the human race will never be truly known through punishment and recompense.  Only when mercy and kindness are as aggressively applied as punishments will the fruits of the final six commandments be known.  I am thankful that the only thing that is greater than God's justice and holiness is God's mercy freely given.  Let us live into God's vision for our relationship with Him and with others.

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Ninth Day of Christmas



[Sorry for the initial post before it was complete]

Today is the Ninth Day of Christmas.  Nine Ladies Dancing reminds us of the nine fruits of the Spirit.  Paul outlines these fruits in Galatians 5:22-23.  Paul lists these fruits immediately after he lists the works of the flesh, 15 works of the flesh actually, to which he adds a 16th "and things like these."
Scholars debate why such fruits are listed.  Many suggest that as Christians were having to live in the midst of persecution and detractors from all sides, these gifts served as a model of life that no one, not even pagans, could disagree.  Other scholars argue that Paul is outlining a manner of life that stood in contrast with both the practice of pagan religion that was rampant with sexual immorality and the contemporary lifestyle that hasn't changed much in 2,000 years.  Things like enmity, strife, anger, envy, and division were, and remain, common to our human experience.  Our contemporary culture today thrives on envy (wanting what others have) and division (us against them, culturally, politically, religiously and ethnically).  What would be common in a contemporary reflection is an outline of how we (Christians) should live and an admonishment to start "living right."  No doubt, "holiness" preachers and other such Christians interested in cultural transformation articulate how we might implement and even legislate how we ought to live.  I agree that this desire is rooted in a positive desire.  That is, most of us want our culture to be transformed.  Jesus' teaching to remove the beam out of our own eye so that we might see the speck in our neighbors' eye (Matthew 7:1-5) gives us another perspective.
Yesterday was New Year's Day.  Let me ask you a question?  What kind of person do you want to be?  I think most of us want to be good people.  We want to be kind, slow to anger, gentle, gracious people who focus on positive things in life.  Now, not to sound too preachy, although I am a preacher, I am convinced that our lives can change, who we are can change, only if we allow the Spirit to transform us.  It isn't that we work to be what the Spirit is, rather we allow the Spirit to work through us so that we might become who God knows and wants us to be.  The Reformed Protestant heritage is that it isn't us who does that transformation, but that we allow ourselves to be open to God's Spirit so that the Spirit can transform us.
Unfortunately, we Protestants have allowed the Spirit to be that One who hangs out with us and does some magical tricks from time to time.  It is not that we are spectators to God's transforming Spirit but that we are the clay that is re-molded into a new creature.  Like clay, this transformation will take time, it will require God's hands to push, squeeze and bend us into this new vessel.  The heat of life, like the potter's oven, sets and cures us to be useful.  One Christian perspective is that the world is changed because we are changed.  Let me share a few things with you, things that I need to be reminded of myself from time to time.
  1. We we can not be godly apart from the Spirit.  The power is from within us only when the Spirit is within us.
  2. Left to our own devices, we are determined to have things our own way.  Even the best side of us can be self serving.  Outside of the Spirit, even when we do good works, we can often become focused on the credit we receive or become frustrated when we do not feel appreciated.  The Spirit calls us to desire goodness regardless of who gets the credit and even to celebrate when it is only God who knows our good deeds.
  3. God's way is a very different way of living.  God's way is radical.  It requires all of you, your heart, mind, body, and soul.  It is God's Spirit that grabs you, cleans you up, grows the fruit in you, and makes you in the image of Christ.
  4. Where there are fruits of the Spirit, the Spirit of God is at work.  Trust in that truth, regardless of who, what or where it might manifest.
  5. Each person bears the same fruit as outlined in Galatians, but each bears that fruit differently.  However, the fruits will show themselves as God cultivates your heart and brings you to fruitfulness.
  6. Finally, even though we are talking about individual fruit, remember that God's Spirit works corporately too.  As fruit trees are only productive when they are cross pollinated by other fruit trees, so will our fruits be plentiful only when we are in relationship with Christians, in relationship with Christ's Church.   
On this Ninth Day of Christmas, today is the day to resolve to open yourself to Christ and allow Him to make you into an integral part of His Body, His Church. Offer this prayer: God, make me into a new creature.  Mold me into the image of your Son. Give me strength to be the person you know I can be.  Give your Church the strength to be the Bride that you are calling us to be. In the name of Christ, your Son, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Friday, January 01, 2010

Eighth Day of Christmas




Finally, no more birds.  Today is the Eighth Day of Christmas.  The gift for today is Eight Maids A-Milking.  The Eight Maids refer to the Eight Beatitudes as found in the Gospel According to St. Matthew (Matthew 5:3-10).  Sometimes called the 10 Commandments of the New Testament, they open what is a rather long sermon by Jesus on a mountain. A similar sermon (The Sermon on the Plain) is found in the Gospel According to St. Luke (Luke 6:20-26). Read the eight beatitudes again here one at a time, slowly.  Think and feel each one and as you do, consider both where you see yourself and where you see your worst enemy:

(from the English Standard Version)

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
2. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.  
3. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
5. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
6. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
7. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons (and daughters) of God.
8. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

How can we tangibly consider implementing the beatitudes in our daily lives?  That would make for a series of articles of their own, so for today, let us focus on the fifth beatitude, "Blessed are the merciful."  Although we aren't sure when the following teaching developed, St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) outlined them definitively in his writings. In an effort to help people understand the fullness of what it meant to be merciful, the early church outlined two types of mercy, corporal acts of mercy and spiritual acts of mercy.  These were considered obligations or more accurately stated, marks of the true Christian.  It was not things you must do to be a Christian, but things that Christians naturally did.  If one was lax in these points, it was a marker for them to consider the fervency of their faith.  Most of these acts of mercy were outlined from Scripture.  Using Isaiah 58:6-10 and Matthew 25:37-40, the points become both obvious and very biblical.

Corporal Acts of Mercy are:
1. Feed the hungry.
2. Give drink to the thirsty.
3. Clothe the naked.
4. Shelter the homeless.
5. Comfort the imprisoned.
6. Visit the sick.
7. Bury the dead.

Let me give you some statistics:
  • 150 million children under the age of 5 years old will go to bed hungry tonight and 13 million of those children live in the United States.  The world produces enough food for every human being to have 3,000-4,000 calories per day. The problem is that it would require the entire world working together...Feed the hungry.
  • 2.3 billion people are presently suffering from a disease they acquired from poor drinking water...Give drink to the thirsty.
  • It is estimated that of those convicted of a capital offense, 7% of them are innocent....Visit the imprisoned.
  • Worldwide, 42 million babies die in the womb every year. That is equal to the population of Canada.  The United States accounts for 1.6 million each year....Bury the dead.
 Spiritual Acts of Mercy are:
1. Admonish sinners. (Luke 15:7)
2. Instruct the unbelievers. (Mark 16:15)
3. Counsel the doubtful. (John 14:27)
4. Comfort the sorrowful. (Matthew 11:28)
5. Bear wrongs patiently. (Luke 6:27-28)
6. Forgive offenses. (Matthew 6:12)
7. Pray for the living and the dead*. (James 5:16) [*Protestants generally argue that they do not pray for the dead, even though the funeral commendation done by most Protestant clergy asks God to "Give the departed an entrance in to the land of light and joy" or words to that affect.]

Now, with all of that, I'm still sitting here thinking how any of it helps me to be more merciful.  So, consider this.  In each situation in life, how would you want to be treated.  If you were hungry, thirsty, committed a crime, were sick, alone or close to death, what would you want others to do for or with you?  If you were questioning your faith, had insulted someone on purpose or by accident or were slipping into a life of destructive habits or behaviors, what would you want your best friends to do?  Now, go and do likewise.  Consider that the guy who cut you off  at the intersection wasn't paying attention because he can't stop thinking about the fight he had with his wife last night or that his child has entered a rebellious stage and is flunking 9th grade.  The store clerk is slow and you are in a hurry, but she has worked 7 and 1/2 hours a day for 14 days straight and still has no benefits because she isn't considered full time.  Listen for the people's attempts to hide their hurt or fear by getting angry, or there lack of self confidence by always criticizing others.  It IS still Christmas.  Let that spirit of Christmas, that spirit of mercy, fill each day.  In doing so, you too, shall receive mercy.