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| Why Go to Church?
"Why go to church?" It's a question that few people, even in the church, probably ask themselves. We might ask, "Why go to this church rather than the one down the street?," but rarely, "Why go at all." But we need to ask that, because a lot of people who once were sitting in our pews on Sunday morning have apparently asked themselves and have been unable to come up with a satisfactory answer. And when you think about it, who can blame them? To the educated consumers that most of us have been trained to be, church is a waste of time. It won't necessarily make you healthy or wealthy or even wise. You can get slimmer at a spin class, make more contacts Facebook or My Space, find your true love more efficiently on a dating site (and that based on "29 measures of compatibility"), get more affirmation from a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul, and if you really want a "Christian" experience, you can turn on your TV and beam one of hundred different televangelists right into your living room without even having to put on your pants- all of this at your convenience, on your schedule and tailored at least to some degree, to meet your needs. Church, on the other hand, makes demands, requires you to adjust to other people's schedules, is as like to challenge or even annoy you as affirm you, usually asks you for money and most definitely expects you to put on your pants. In a cost-benefit analysis, church attendance always comes up short. Its not even about you or meeting your needs per se, and yet, perhaps it is, because what the community of faith does offer is what all of us were created to seek: true intimacy with our Creator and genuine community with our fellow human beings in a community that transcends "ME" in favor of "WE." As Christians, we believe that God so loved us, so yearned after intimate communion with his wayward and willful children that he became one of us in the Incarnation, laughed and cried with us and finally went to his death as all mortal beings must, choosing a death reserved for those considered accursed of God because, in fact, no one is beyond the circle of God's love and his gift of redemption. On the third day, he rose from the dead, demonstrating the power of that love, that intimate and blessed community, even over death itself. When we come to church, we assert our kinship with God and through God, with one another. We assert the power of love made manifest in simply being present for and with each other and we demonstrate to our children and grandchildren our faith in a reality that is greater and more important than stuff and selfishness and that in meeting the needs of others is how we meet our most vital need, to love and be loved. Why come to church? Because in this "holy waste of time," we experience that connection, that intimacy in communion with our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer and because no time spent with ones whose love is the stuff of life itself is ever a truly a waste of time. Instead, that time in worship and fellowship puts all other time in its proper perspective, strengthens us and sends us out into the world, renewed, joyful, and ready to share the abundant life that Christ promises to all who would be his disciples. Come on and join us, waste a Sunday morning reveling in the love of God!! |
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"Feed my sheep." A simple, three word sentence. Like much of what Jesus says, almost maddeningly simple. Does he mean literally, for example, that we should feed the poor? Or does he mean this sentence in terms of spiritual food- something to do with the "Good News" of the gospel? On the one hand, Jesus mentions feeding the hungry and caring for the poor more than any other explicit teaching in the gospels. It seems pretty clear, then, that to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty and clothe the naked is job 1 for those who would be his disciples. On the other hand, Jesus also tells his disciples to "make disciples of the nations," baptizing them in his name. It seems then, that he expects us to do both- to feed both the body and the spirit of the people of God's creation.. Of course, we mainline Protestants are not always too comfortable with the latter. We're pretty good about responding to calls for aid and assistance, feeding the hungry and caring for the sick, but we get kind of uncomfortable about sharing the reason why we do these things- the faith that taught us that God's greatest commandments are to love with our hands as well as our hearts. We don't want to seem like we are disrespecting other cultures and religions, or that we are shoving our faith down the throats of people made vulnerable by circumstances. And those are important concerns, especially given some of the historical and even current abuses committed against others in the name of our faith. Still, Jesus told us not to hide our light under a bushel basket. If it is the light of the Gospel that inspires us, indeed commands us to be there for our brothers and sisters then we should be sharing that light, not hiding it as if it were something to be ashamed of. Human beings, after all, do not live by bread alone. Yes, we need our daily bread and we need to share that bread with those who do not have it, but we also need the gospel, the Word that connects us to the Ground of Being and it is that connection that reminds us in the first place that the need of our neighbors is not an obligation we take on out of some kind of "noblisse oblige," toward those we consider less worthy than we are, but a gift that we accept reverently and with gratitude precisely because Jesus has taught us that it is among the hungry and the outcast that he himself is found. We don't have to make accepting our faith or our worldview a condition for doing for our brethren what we are commanded and honored to do, that would defeat the purpose. But we don't have to be shy about sharing the faith that brings us to this place of caring. "This little light of mine," the song says, "I'm gonna let it shine." Our light is Jesus of Nazareth who called God's people to redeemed lived in the light of God's eternal and all-powerful love. Human beings need their daily bread and they need the Word that gives meaning to that bread beyond the simple filling of the belly. Jesus called on us to share them both.
War in Libya: 3/11
Last week, President Obama authorized air strikes as part of a multi-national response to the civil war in Libya- one in which the Libyan dictator, Ghadaffi had already promised to turn into a blood bath or vengeance against those who had sought to liberate their nation from his iron-fisted rule. President Obama then went on TV and made his case for US involvement in the conflict, indicating that our purpose was to "save lives," and that our role would be limited to air support and humanitarian aide, as a member of a coalition of nations, concerned with allowing the people of Libya a chance to determine their own destiny. It was, I believe, a thoughtful and eloquent plea with much good and moral reasoning behind it. Having said that, I remain deeply concerned with our decision to get involved in yet another middle eastern conflict, with the lives lost by the missile strikes and bombs that our forces are dropping, and by the potential for another protracted conflict with its accompanying loss of life.
There is probably no other issue more difficult for a Christian to deal with, than that of war. We, after all, are the disciples of the One who is called the "Prince of Peace." Even in defense of his own person, Jesus chose the path of nonviolence, submitting to torture and death rather than raise his hand to inflict harm on another and reprimanding his disciple Peter, when he did so saying: "He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword." How history has borne that out! Every war, no matter how just or noble the cause, cause the death of innocents, blaspheming against God's sovereignty over life and death and setting into motion forces that seem to take on a destructive life of their own, leaving in their wake the bitter seeds of conflicts yet to come. War itself is a failure of human beings to live by God's commandments to treat one another as the precious, unique children of God that we are, war makes murderers and victims of us all.
And yet, there are times when even the choice to go to war does seem to be the only choice. When the armies of Hitler rolled across Europe and Africa, bringing with them the death camps of the Holocaust, could we really have faced our Creator secure in our morality if we had simply turned away? Like many good Christians, believer in non-violence that I am, I burned with shame when I read about the slaughter of innocent men, women and children in Sebrenica, Bosnia in the 1990's as UN soldiers simply stood by. Do we not, after all, have an equally binding obligation to protect the innocent even if force is required to do so? I think we do and that is the dilemma we face when we are faced with the terrible decision about going to war- a decision that is never made with cheering, but always in sorrow and repentance for the inevitable cost and the sin against God we are about to make. And when Augustine, the church father of the 5th century developed what has become know as the "just war doctrine," these some of the things he had to consider. For many of us, as Christians, as imperfect as it is, "just war" gives us at least some things to consider, when we look at the possibility of going to war. It requires, (among other things) that the decision to go to war to be reactive, (not preemptive), defensive, proportional and to utilize every means possible to minimize the loss of life, innocent and otherwise, calling on us to seek peace and reconciliation as early and as often as we can.
I confess that in this instance, as horrified as I am by the decision to go to war, and as adamantly as I have opposed our invasion of Iraq and our continued involvement in Afghanistan, as a Christian I am deeply conflicted over this involvement. I believe that war is always an evil, even in a noble cause, but I also believe that we have an obligation to use the great power of our nation to prevent genocide. I am praying for guidance on this, as well as for the safety of those who we have once again asked to put themselves in harms way in yet another combat zone, and of course for the people of Libya, in their hour of trial and suffering. I think we all, whatever we believe concerning this conflict can do that. We can pray that this is over soon and with a minimal loss of life and that we at Bethany will be ready to contribute what we can to help those in need with food, medicine, and whatever else that they may need. We can all let our president know as well that as Christians and patriotic citizens that we will hold him to his promises to minimize our involvement and to keep us out of yet another protracted conflict and we can ask for forgiveness for all of God's children on all sides of this conflict, because for once again finding ourselves resorting to war and ask God to guide our president, our pilots and our people as well as all the people of the world on the path of peace in Libya and across the world.
The Tsunami in Japan 3/11
"...the universe languishes in bondage to the 'powers' and 'principalities' of this age, which never cease in their enmity toward the kingdom of God... (Still) at the heart of the gospel... is an ineradicable triumphalism, a conviction that the will of God cannot ultimately be defeated and that the victory over evil and death has already been won.'When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive" (Ephesians 4:8); 'having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them, openly triumphing over them" (Colossians 2:15). But it is also a victory that is yet to come."
(David Hart, Doors of the Sea).
How do we respond to those voices who, in their grief and rage over the horror and devastation such as the on-going disaster, cry out that "there is no God!" How can we ease their pain without resorting to the kind of unsatisfying banalities and platitudes that are too often heard from people of faith when like Job are tempted to "open(ed) his mouth and curse the day of his birth?" (Job 3:1)
Perhaps we cannot be too quick to try. In the face of such terrible grief, a respectful silence may be what is called for rather than a platitude or a spirited defense of the Almighty- that perhaps, and a ready ear and a helping hand. Perhaps the most Christian response right now, as the people of Japan courageously and desperately struggle to keep a natural disaster from turning into a nuclear meltdown is to pray for them as we are opening up our checkbooks to get what needed relief we can to those who are suffering. We can do that by writing checks to OCWM (Our Churches' Wider Ministries) which is right now rushing aide to Japan. Just send the check to Bethany made out to OCWM with "Japan relief" in the memo line. One can also send aid to the Salvation Army and/or to Doctors Without Borders or Mercy Corps, all of whom have "boots on the ground" in the affected area. Maybe, we can answer the question "Where is God in this disaster?" with "Right here, with the hands and hearts of his people reaching out to our suffering neighbors in their hour of need." There's a lot more to say on this subject, but for now, let's say it with our prayers and our wallets. May God be with our neighbors in their hour of need.
1/31/11
What the Lord Requires: Civility, Courtesy, Kindness
"He has told you, O mortal, what is good: and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God..."
The terrible shooting in Tucson, Arizona, earlier this month has inspired a great deal of discussion about how we talk to one another and what influences that might ultimately have on how we behave. So much of our rhetoric these days is violent and angry with a kind of "take no prisoners" attitude. It as if we equate a willingness to pull out all the stops with the courage of one's convictions and/or with plain speaking honesty.
The truth is, however, the violent, all or nothing kinds of rhetorical overkill that has come to characterize so much of our political, civic and even personal speech does not promote honest dialogue it shuts down dialogue, eliminates any chance for a common ground and instead pushes us into our respective corners by challenging our person-hood and our safety as well as our ideas. It is, in fact, a kind of bullying that makes a thoughtful exchange of ideas impossible and it is decidedly un-Christian because it is unjust and unkind.
The prophet Micah indicates a simple set of instructions for being in the simple sentence above. What is good? What does the Lord require of his people? That we do justice, allowing the other person the same courtesy and the same respect that we would want for ourselves, especially the person with whom we disagree. Demonizing those who see the world differently from us, no matter who they are, is unjust, because the truth is that God alone determines who is and is not worthy and by the gift of his Son our Lord, Jesus Christ, he has made that determination. We are all of us worthy, unique and precious and that judgments about our opinions are the province of our Creator alone.
Just as importantly, the prophet calls upon us to love kindness- not just to be kind, but to love kindness, to raise it up among the most important of all things. To be kind is more important than to be sure, or right. God reserves the word "love" after all, for his greatest commandments- those on which salvation itself is based. Micah is not then, simply telling us to try to be kind, or to be kind when it works out for us- he tells us to love kindness, to put being kind in the same category as loving our Creator and our neighbor, on whom all the law and the prophets rely.
Finally, he tells us to "walk humbly with {our} God." Humility reminds us that other people are as important as we are and that as deeply held as our views might be, they could be wrong. All of us, humility reminds us, fall short of the glory of God. Without the ability to recognize that we are not God, it is impossible for us to put anyone or any thing above ourselves- we become idolators of the self and incapable of love, justice or kindness. Courtesy and civility are the result of our recognition that the world is not all about us, that other people matter too and that human life, and the human community are more important than being right. Civility then, is an imperative of our faith, something that takes great courage in this world of "my way or the highway," and we Christians, with what we have been given in Jesus Christ, need to be leading the way to a more civil, more just and kinder public discourse. |
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Meeting Christ in Queens (who'd have thought?) 12/30/10
In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, the writer tells us that God came to his own in Jesus Christ but his own "knew him not." How, one wonders, could the religious leaders stand in the presence of Christ and not recognize him? What kind of blind, sinful people they must have been. Blind? Maybe. Sinful? Well, aren't we all. So many of us go through life, our noses to the grindstone, our eyes focused on the ground- even those of us who are supposed to know better, we so easily get so caught up in the crazy minutae of our daily existence that we can easily miss the miracles that God is making all around us.
Take me, for instance. I was in the presence of salvific grace only this week, and I didn't even realize it until I was sitting in the lobby of a car repair shop hours later and stopped sputtering about the cost of replacing a tire on my car long enough to realize the gift that had been given to me. You see, I was on my way up to Rockland County to my part time job up there, weaving my way down an un-plowed avenue in Rosedale toward the Cross Island Parkway when I got stuck trying to get around a livery van that was also stuck. By the time I realized I wasn't going anywhere, a young woman in an SUV was stuck behind me, followed by several other cars and another livery van. I called my auto club only to be told to try back at noon (this was 7:30 or so in the morning). As I stood knee deep in the snow cursing my bad luck, stranded in a strange neighborhood trying to figure out what I was going to do next, I noticed the men with the shovels who were offering to help and who cheerfully began working together to shovel the strangers out.
It was at about that time that I noticed my right front tire had gone flat. "I got this," one man said and trotted off to his car, returning minutes later with a battery powered generator which he promptly hooked up to my tire all the while extolling its virtues and telling me where I could get one on sale (Strauss' auto parts- $79.99 :)). He asked me to keep an eye on it as it inflated my tire because he was busy shoveling. Finally, the cars were free, as was the van, but the street was blocked so we all went down and pushed everyone out onto Hook Creek Blvd in order. When it was my turn, I was pushed the two blocks and sent on my way with a refusal of any kind of thanks and an admonishment to "pay it forward" and "have a good day." A little thing perhaps, in the grand scheme of world events, but maybe it is in those undramatic acts of unmerited grace that Christ makes himself known to those with eyes to see. In this country where racism is the "elephant in the living room," always present, but rarely acknowledged, this aging white man, along with the young white woman, an Asian man in a stuck Toyota, a Hispanic van driver and a Afro-Caribbean immigrant from Jamaica found their saviors in a group of African-American men who, unable to get to work themselves, decided to work instead at saving the day of people who happened to fall into their laps on a snowy Tuesday morning. What would have been a nightmare turned into a day in which I knew God's love in the kindness of people who owed me nothing, but apparently saw being a neighbor the way Jesus did- as a friend in need. Frankly, it annoys me, perhaps now more than it did before this past Tuesday, that the city finds a way to clear the streets of wealthy Manhattan-ites and tourists while working people in southeast Queens are left for days to fend for themselves. But that's a problem for another day. Today I'm still in awe because today I realize, I met Christ on 135th Avenue in Rosedale , Queens.
The Christmas Spirit
What is this so-called "Christmas spirit" about anyway? We know its not the gifts we exhaust ourselves buying every year (not to mention paying for). It's a family time of course, but for many of us, we hope that's not all it's about because frankly, families aren't always easy, especially around the holidays. Christmas specials are nice, but once the misfit toys have found a home, Snoopy's done his dance and the Grinch has grown his heart a couple of sizes, well that's great, but there's got to be more to it than that.
And there is- because Christmas is about a lot more than a toy or a TV special. It's about more even than a simple story about the birth of an infant 2000 years ago, as wonderful as that was. It's more because with the birth of Christ comes comes an assurance that life itself was brought forth by a God whose love is infinitely powerful and personally concerned with all that he has made.
The story of Christmas tells us that we are so deeply loved and so precious, that our Creator became one of us, shared our humanity and even our mortality just so that we could become one with him; every bit of the precious, beautiful and powerful people he made us to be. It proclaims that because of love every moment of our lives is rife with redemptive possibilities and that because we can trust in that love, (even in the face of all evidence to the contrary), we can rise above those things that diminish that gift of life for ourselves and our fellow children of God. Because God loves us so passionately, so personally and so powerfully, we can offer ourselves unafraid to one another and because God decided we were worthy of this of gift of himself, our lives, (despite our bumps and flaws) are precious and meaningful. Christmas then, is about gifts- because it's about the miraculous power of the gift of love. The spirit of Christmas is here where we gather to share in that gift as we worship the One who gave it to us. Come and see! |
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Is Christianity in Crisis? (12/10)
One cannot be tuned into the so-called "culture wars" without hearing voices claiming that Christianity is in crisis, especially from the more conservative side of the faith spectrum. We have heard about the "war on Christmas" in which greeters at malls and department stores were seen as persecuting Christians and demeaning the holidy by switching to "Happy Holidays" as a greeting, in order to be respectful to the many non-Christian shoppers this year. The same concern is voiced when village and town halls no longer have creches on their lawns or when the Ten Commandments are removed from court houses as religious symbols not appriopriate for legal arenas in a perse and secular society.We Christians are used to dominating the culture of our society and it is natural to feel we are losing something when the privileges that come with that domination are challenged by the increasing number of non-Christians who share this land with us.
It's no wonder then, that some folks see Christianity as under seige, and frankly, I agree with them. I think our faith is in crisis, a crisis that has been a long time coming. But that crisis doesn't have to do with the greeters at the mall saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," quite the opposite. Our faith is suffering and declining because for too long it has been culturally dominant and because rather than transforming our culture with the redemptive values of Christ's gospel, we have allowed the culture to transform the church, to make us a "rubber stamp" for values and beliefs that are contrary to the message of our Savior- like the desire for cultural domination for example. Jesus told Pilate that his kingdom was "not of this world," and many believe that he was abandoned by many of his followers precisely because he called upon them to embrace their enemies, not destroy them, and not only to tolerate, but to love those who were different, with different beliefs. "He who is not against us, is for us," Jesus said when his disciples expressed anger at someone casting out demons and doing good works without "official" sanction from Jesus. Christianity is in crisis because it has failed to challenge the "greed is good" disease that is killing western culture, extolling excessive wealth while billions suffer in poverty and want. Christianity is in crisis because too many Christian churches are more worried about trying to exclude God's people, for their sexual orientation, or their lack of orthodoxy,to church teaching than they are about a culture of violence that has put military might before meeting the needs of our own children and tax breaks for our mpost privileged citizens ahead of medical care for those who risk their lives as first responders or those who go to bed hungry every night.
We are in crisis because the church has failed to be the "voice crying in the wilderness" that we are called upon by God to be. We are crisis because when our young people look at what is wrong in the world with eyes unclouded by fear and the jaded cyncism of their elders, they see a church more worried about its privileged place in the world than it is about following the express commandments of our Savior to embrace our enemies, to be the voice of peace, the champion of the oppressed and the source of sustence, spiritual and physical for those in need. Many of our evangelical as well as our more liberal brethren are waking up to this reality and Bethany is one of those. It doesn't matter what your politics are, your sexual orientation, your income level or whether you are evangelical or liberal- what matters is, do you trust in Christ's message enough to commit to a life of love? Are you willing to give it a shot? Even fake it til you make it? Come and let's be Christians together! |
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Happy Thanksgiving! (11/10)
Thanksgiving comes this year during some tough and confusing times. Many folks are struggling financially, out of work, looking at the state of the economy and of the world and maybe even wondering what there is to be thankful for. Of course, the celebrants of the first thanksgiving might well have been wondering the same thing. More than half of this tight-knit community had perished in the preceding year- their first in this strange new land that they had come to. The winter to come promised to be just as harsh. But things had changed for them in the course of their struggle to survive that first winter and in the that struggle, they had changed as well. In their desperation they had been forced to reach out to the native people, people whose kindness to these new immigrants no doubt saved their lives. They had learned, at least for the moment, to put away some of their own preconceived notions about their hosts, and to appreciate the gifts that they brought. They leaned to work together, to share all things in common for the good of all, to pray with renewed energy to their Creator and Sustainer and to be grateful for what they did have, the things they had once taken for granted: their daily bread, the dawn of a new day, the people whose compassion brought them through the worst trial of their lives.
We might think about that ourselves as we go forward into the future as inpiduals and as a community of faith. We too can be grateful for the gifts our neighbors bring as well as for the grace of God and we can embrace our circumstances, as difficult as they are, with an eye toward seeing the blessings that they bring. We can decide to work together and help each other through these tough times, to pray with renewed vigor and with gratitude for all that we have been given and trust that God, (as he always does), will fashion something redemptive out of our struggles, just as he did for our ancestors at the first thanksgiving. Have a happy! |
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