BUDDY CHRIST

Normally, I am not a big fan of sharing the spotlight, but the following is one of the best blog posts I have read on the Christian faith in a long time.  It was composed by a friend of mine and we have been talking about his crisis of faith for awhile now.  His words are important and need to be shared.  I am sharing without his permission, but with full credit.

From DWB at castlechurchdoor.com  ...

Buddy Christ

28October2011

by castlechurchdoor

 

It has been so long since I have written to any of the blogs I write for, that I almost forgot how to log in to compose today’s entry. If I am being honest I had to take a break from the blogosphere because I was burned out, my faith was floundering, and I owed myself a break to try to decompress and to be able to provide quality to my friends and colleagues here at the door and to those who grace us by taking time out of your day to read our musings and meanderings of theological wanderings.
Also, my faith was/is in crisis. That’s right, shock of shocks, Pastors, Priests, Rabbis sometimes have times of doubt and questioning – times of fear and failure – times when we aren’t sure what we believe and if we believe. During one of my sleepless nights of questioning I even stumbled over an invitation only support group online for clergy who have become atheists but because of the economy can not leave the ministry. You can find the link to that info here. http://richarddawkins.net/articles/643520-announcing-the-clergy-project-support-for-pastors-and-priests-leaving-the-pulpit Also, NO I haven’ t joined that group.

I read articles about men leaving the church, found here. http://www.antiochian.org/node/17069
What I have discovered is that I haven’t lost my faith in Christ – perhaps in what I think we have been seeing a great deal of in recent years, since the movie “Dogma” first hit theaters – a peddling of ”Buddy Christ.” A soft Messiah, a cuddly Messiah, not a man who walked into smelly tombs to bring friends to life, not a savior who was so intense he sweat tears of blood, not a Lord who made whips and cleansed the temple, not the Christ who refused to answer Pilate – thus assuring that He would be nailed to the tree.

I question if the modern church has given the modern culture what they have demanded, this is a market driven economy. Joel Osteen tells folks that God wants them to be rich or wealthy and his congregation is packed. Others have “worship” *cough* that is much more about entertainment than worship – we, and yes I include me, have given the world what George Carlin mocked us for – Buddy Christ.
This is not the Jesus of Scripture. This is not the Christ that withstood the tests and temptations of Satan in the wilderness. This is not the Son of the Living God that tells us that it’s okay to enter the darkness of the valley of the shadow of death, for His rod and staff comfort us. This is not the Holy One that descended into hell, that took on the sin of the world, that defeated sin, death, and the devil.

My faith began to be restored by talking to a Jewish friend. He laughed when I talked with him and said, “My people are known for crisis of faith and screaming at God, maybe I can help.” He did, he listened, he laughed, he wept with me and for me and he said, “My friend, you have not lost faith, you have lost sight – lost sight in the Jesus of Scripture – the charismatic leader that walked on water and healed the sick.” Then he laughed and said, “If Jesus saw his image today, he’d roll over in his grave – then nudged me and said, Oh that’s right, he already rolled the grave away.” We both smiled and he got a twinkle in his eye and gave me the best and most beautiful advice. ”Return to the story, forget the myth, forget what culture and the church are peddling – return to your first love.”

Amazing, faith restored from a Jew quoting Revelation. He never referred to Buddy Christ, he said, “The man Jesus I have studied does not drink mocha lattes, wear pink fuzzy bunny slippers, and wax eloquently over the next marketing plan for the church – he rolls up his sleeves, spits in the mud, and helps people see.” He then spit and said, “There’s your mud, open your eyes.”

This may not apply to you in any way, if not I apologize for wasting your time. But if your faith is fragile, forget the myth and return to the One – Jesus the Christ.

Blessings

DWB@CCD.

Unexpected Surprises

THIS IS A REPEAT OF A PREVIOUS ENTRY ON ANOTHER BLOG TO WHICH I CONTRIBUTE, SO IF YOU FOLLOW CASTLECHURCH DOOR, YOU WILL PROBABLY RECOGNIZE IT. 

This evening I encountered one of the most amazing miracles of all creation. I held a newborn baby – less than two hours old - in my arms. That may not seem like such a big deal to many people, but to me it is incredible. I am a 54-year-old woman who has never been blessed with the experience of bringing a child into the world. I have held nieces and nephews, and the newborn infants of congregation members but never have I held a baby that newly born. As the family and I stood in the hospital room, tears of joy at the miracle that is life trickled down more than one set of cheeks; my own among them. I looked down at the wee little baby in my arms, the loving family gathered around in that comfortable albeit institutional – hospital room and was struck by a moment of profound clarity.

Our Lord, Jesus was once this tiny. His little mouth would have pursed hoping to suckle just as this wee one was doing. He would have let out a hungry cry of discontent. As I left the hospital and returned to my vehicle, I couldn’t stop pondering that thought along with the reminder that there was no comfortable hospital room, but a stable – most likely a cave instead. The tears began to trickle again, for an entirely different reason altogether. Suddenly I was overwhelmed by the surprising absurdity of the whole idea of the Incarnation. I thought of that hours-old baby I had just held. This, THIS was the way that the God of all creation chose to reveal himself to the world – in human form. Yes, I know that this is not news. We all KNOW this. But the surprising absurdity of the incarnation became amazingly, well, incarnate to me as I held that baby tonight.

The Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of God, the Long-Expected One - no one would have expected such an inauspicious arrival. God promised that something new was about to be underway, but what a surprise it was when it began. And if the absurdity of Jesus’ birth is one incredible surprise, consider the reality that it is only the beginning of the surprises which God has in store for us through Jesus. Consider the surprising and unexpected people he chose to be his disciples. Fishermen? Tax collectors? Seriously? Consider the surprising twists that generally conclude his parables; the way he turns the questions of his challengers back on them with questions of his own. Even his closest companions and disciples found themselves surprised as Jesus ministry unfolded. It was never quite what they expected. From his ignoble birth to his ministry – just about everything about Jesus could probably be described as unconventional, particularly in light of who he was and who Israel expected the Messiah to be. And that final trip to Jerusalem – the predictions of his own death. The apparent end to the story one tragic Friday and then one last surprise on a Sunday morning when tragedy becomes good news. Jesus says to his followers “the kingdom of heaven has come near.” The kingdom of heaven is a kingdom full of incredible surprises. 

Looking for evidence of the kingdom and the presence of Jesus around us? Better expect to be surprised, because if God is at work, the unexpected and surprising are bound to be the norm. 

Prince of Peace, King of Kings, Messiah, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God – a baby; an unconventional human full of surprises? Seriously? SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Thanks be to God for failing to meet our expectations and miraculously surprising us with the kingdom.

Be surprised!

PK (+)

NEVER FORGET: Thoughts on 9/11

September 11, 2011 - I turn 54 years old today.  At this age, birthdays are pretty much a non-event.  After all, I am just one day older than I was the day before.  I have 'celebrated' in pretty typical fashion for me.  Picked up around the house a little, did some laundry, talked to my family, and received well-wishes from so many people that I wonder how God could have blessed me with so many wonderful people as a part of my life.

For those in the U.S. reading this, it is not just another day.  Ten years ago today in a startling attack, the effects of terrorism made themselves devastatingly felt on U.S. soil. (The first time since Pearl Harbor, Dec.7, 1941 when Americans were so vulnerable on their own soil.)  Far too many lives were lost, and the climate of life in our country was dramatically changed.  It is a tragedy that will leave its mark Americans and American society for decades to come.  I have seen many television commercials and Facebook posts that say "Never forget."  I doubt that any of us who watched with horror as the events of that day were broadcast over and over again across the media will ever truly forget the tragedy, as much as in many ways we may wish we could.

But there are other things that I hope that we NEVER FORGET.  Other things that I believe, in fact, are more important to remember.   

#1:  I hope we NEVER FORGET 9/12/2001 and the days, weeks and months that followed when strangers became united in prayer and courage, standing and working side by side in the arduous labours of rescue, recovery, and healing.  I hope we NEVER FORGET the miracles of survival, the miracles of unity, and the bonds of kinship that were forged from the fires and the wreckage of that day. It is in those stories, those moments, those miracles that our truest identity is formed and the promised hope of the future peeks through the smoke and ash to remind us that tragedy - even tragedy of such epic proportion as 9/11/2001 - will NEVER be the final history of our world. 

#2:  I hope that we NEVER FORGET that the final history of our world has been written already.  It is written in the blood-soaked words of Jesus Christ as he gave up his Spirit on the cross.  "It is finished."  God's work of reconciling the world to himself was completed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  I hope beyond all hope that we NEVER FORGET that we are moving toward and growing into that new reality every single day and every single time we shine a light of hope into another person's darkness, or forge bonds of unity and kinship built on care and compassion.  It does not take a tragedy the proportion of 9/11 for those miracles to occur and shape our identities and our society's identity.  I hope we NEVER FORGET that the cross of Christ and His resurrection DO make a difference - in the aftermath of 9/11 and in the every day trials, temptations, tragedies, and troubles that plague our human existence.

#3:  I hope we NEVER FORGET that tragedies like this happen every day in places around the globe - Norway, London, Northern Ireland, the countries of the Middle East, South America, and Africa to name just a few.  I hope that we NEVER FORGET that a tragedy like 9/11 which was a day of infamy in the United States is a just the normal way of life for far too many of our brothers and sisters around the world.

FINALLY:  I hope we NEVER FORGET that the only way that #3 changes and we have a chance that something like 9/11 (or Dec 7, 1941 for that matter) does not become our every day reality is by making sure we NEVER FORGET the inside-out reality of #1 and #2.

Many have asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I haven't really been able to give a good answer.  I need nothing and have more than I deserve.  Today I finally realized what I want -

I want us to NEVER FORGET!  NEVER FORGET the important things that the tragedy and rubble of 9/11/2001 can teach us if only we will open ourselves to the possibilities of new life in the Spirit.

May the grace and peace of our Lord, Jesus Christ be the source of our remembrance.

Peace -
PK (+)

Grace: Abundant and Unchanging

There is a new ministry starting up in our congregation - a food pantry for folks in the school district.  We live about 10 miles from a larger town that has a food pantry.  It serves the entire county, but as always, there are those that fall through the cracks.  So a group of folks in our congregation got together and are starting a food pantry, aptly named "Grace's Table."  I say aptly because our congregation's name is Grace Lutheran. 

As we were first getting started, plenty of people stepped up to offer advice and ideas.  One piece of advice was offered repeatedly by almost everyone.  "You will have to do something to make sure that you screen people so that they don't cheat the system or try to get food if they do not really need it.  We can't have people abusing the system.  WE have to make sure that the people coming to the pantry really deserve the food."

The organizers and I all agreed.  No screening, no one turned away.  That doesn't sit well some people.  They are convinced that we (the congregation) will be taken advantage of.  I have given some thought to that understanding of helping our neighbor.  I keep coming back to that apt name  - GRACE'S Table.

When I think of God's grace, I never think of it as being in short supply.  Grace is the relationship that God enters into with us through the waters of baptism.  The relationship is initiated by God because of Jesus' death and resurrection.  Now we can abuse and take advantage of that relationship.  We can ignore, reject, and take it for granted.  We can repeatedly walk into the same pattern of sin over and over again and sometimes we will do it intentionally because we know we are forgiven.  Martyr and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer refers to that as "cheap grace." 

But from God's end of the relationship, the grace is always there waiting for our response.  We may ignore the relationship and take advantage of the grace God extends to us, but God is a relentless God.  God continues in the relationship.  Nowhere in scripture do we hear that God sent his only Son into the world to save ONLY those who were not going to abuse the relationship of grace or try to cheat the system. Nowhere does scripture tell us that God offers the relationship of grace to ONLY the deserving.   No God offers us the relationship of grace through Jesus to ALL, never takes it back, never suggests that we need to earn it or deserve it.  In fact, St. Paul is very clear that it was while we were still sinners that Christ died for us.  In other words, God comes to us in grace when we are most undeserving, playing no favorites, keeping no score of the number of times we take advantage of the relationship or fall short on our end.  God's grace is abundant and unchanging.  The relationship is begun in Christ not because we deserve it, but exactly because we could never deserve it or earn it apart from Christ.

So I think that if God's grace keeps no count of sins, but instead is abundant and unchanging, based not on our deserving, but on God's mercy and love, then Grace's Table ought to operate under similar principles.

Will someone take advantage?  Possibly.  But I'll let them answer for that when their day to face God comes.  In the meantime, the folks at Grace's Table know what it means to receive what we do not deserve with no fear of it ever being taken away no matter how many times we fall short.  So they have chosen to to do the best they can to let Grace's Table mirror God's grace - abundantly giving without making judgments about who is deserving or not. 

I think they just may be on to something here!  Grace's Table: Food Pantry and More - a place where the hungry are fed; plain and simple. 

It what ways does your life reflect the abundance of God's grace?

Come to the table of mercy ...  Grace: abundant and unchanging 

Blessings -
PK

Soulful Slowdowns.

We sat in a circle in a small, sunny room at a nearby retreat center.  Five of us whose lives had reached the point where we felt so in need of a respite that we actually payed $25 and scheduled a formal "Summer Sabbath Day."  The facilitator was speaking briefly, reading from some article she had found in Christianity Today about a new 'sickness' that is infecting society.  I admit that I felt frustrated - she was cutting into my sabbath time.  I started to check out, but then I mentally chastised myself for being so impatient and began to listen better.  That was when her words landed on me like a hammer.

"Do you find yourself speeding through the day; multi-tasking in order to get everything accomplished?  When you attempt to schedule a meeting or event, do you look at your calendar and not know whether to laugh or cry?  Do you experience sunset fatigue - the desire to do nothing but sit after the end of the day, energy depleted, compassion expended, ability to engage in meaningful relationships with your loved ones non-existent?  Are you surrounded by clutter - your office, your, home, your mind?  You probably have hurried sickness."

I would like to say that it is a bunch of b.s. that some psychologist or somebody made up, but she was describing my life.  And I FELT sick - physically, spiritually, and emotionally.  That was what had prompted me to pay $25 to come here this day when I really had no time to do so (or so I thought) to take a sabbath day.  The looks on the faces  and the gently nodding of the heads of those around me assured me that I was not alone.

The thing is, I think we were the lucking ones.  We had the opportunity to get away for a day and breathe.  And someone to affirm that we were doing a good thing by caring for ourselves.  I think very few people get those luxuries.

But I do think that more people than I would have imagined suffer from hurry sickness and do not even realize it or imagine any alternative.

One of the most common symptoms of hurry sickness is clutter. Let me tell you, there is a LOT of clutter in our lives.

Our congregation had a rummage sale this past weekend, a fund-raising event for a food pantry we are getting started.  I was amazed by the amount of stuff that filled our fellowship hall.  I was even more amazed on Sunday morning when I walked into the fellowship hall before worship.  The fellowship hall looked like we were getting ready to have a rummage sale, not having just finished one.  "How," I thought to myself, "could we have sold enough stuff to raise over $600 and STILL have a fellowship hall full of stuff?"  It took several women in the congregation and the better part of an afternoon to clear out the leftovers.
The 'after' version of that fellowship hall, has been nagging at me.  All of that stuff that was cluttering up our fellowship hall, where did it come from?  And if one family no longer needed it, but it didn't sell in the rummage sale, then was it really necessary in the first place?   How much unnecessary clutter is there in all of our lives?

If clutter is one of the most common symptoms of hurry sickness, then one of the most deadly symptoms of hurry sickness is superficiality in relationships.  Too busy, too tired to engage in meaningful relationships - especially with the ones who love us and need us the most, and whom we most need we can actually lose our capacity for love - the deep connectedness that is rooted in God's love for us.

As I reflect on my own life and listen to the tales of the lives of those around me, I know this to be so.  I hear of families who are continually on the move split in three directions, flipping a coin to see which parent takes which child where.  Shared meals are almost non-existent. 

I am not sure what we are doing to ourselves or why, but I left the retreat center that day convinced of two things.

1)  I need to slow down - every day. 
2)  I need to nurture relationships with those I love.  It takes time - and I need to MAKE time to make it happen.
2)  I need a sabbath day - a day set apart to nurture my relationship with God, because if I do not do this, then the first two are utterly impossible.

Because I believe that hurry sickness is neither a cultural phenomena nor a bunch of psychological hooha.  It is a significant spiritual sickness.  It is all things in life conspiring to separate us from God and love.  Some would call it the devil.  Whatever you want to call it, there are forces at work in this world keeping us from focusing on the most important and essential things - a relationship with God and relationships with others that grow out the first.  Without those two things, life isn't really living at all.

There is only one cure for hurry sickness - SLOW DOWN.  It can be difficult.  It can be emotionally painful and we tend not to do well with that.  But in the end - it is soul-restoring and life-giving.  That is something we could all use.

"Be still and know that I am God." says Psalm 46.  Jesus says, "I came that they might have life and have it abundantly."   The two are not disconnected, my friends.  One tends to lead to the other.

Try a soulful slowdown.  Experience the healing that happens.

I am trying to schedule a sabbath day at the retreat center once a month as a result of my revelation.  It won't cure everything, but it is a start.  And we have to start somewhere.

Where  and when will your soulful slowdown begin?

Peace -
PK  (+)

B-I-B-L-E

As a pastor, I get more than my share of inspirational or humorous 'religious' e-mails forwarded to me.  Most of them I appreciate.  A little extra inspiration or levity is often a welcome addition to my day.   There is one e-mail that I get quite regularly.  It is the one where a little boy tells his father that he knows what B-I-B-L-E stands for: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.

I have to apologize right now to everyone who has sent me that e-mail, because I do not intend to offend you and I DO appreciate the fact that you think of me and send the e-mail.  But I also have to admit that I find that one more annoying than I do cute. 

You see, that just isn't the way that I see the Bible.  The Bible is not a "how-to" manual for humans.  It is a collection of stories about God and God's relationship with us.  When taken together, the collection culminates in THE great story of God - the God who is faithful to us, has mercy on us, has compassion for us, and loves us enough to become one of us.  Having become one of us, God becomes one with us and shares our life.   What I find so amazing is that by dying and rising from the dead, Jesus alters our human reality.  Through Jesus, God set in motion the restoration of the nation of Israel and the redemption of the entire creation.  Now THAT is one heck of a story.  In fact, there is no other story like it.  It is a life-giving and life-transforming story.

Sometimes I simply read the Bible; sometimes I study it.  Other times I read it in a way that can only be described as completely devouring the words I am reading.  It is then that I am absolutely enraptured by this amazing God and the stories of faithfulness, steadfastness, mercy, grace, and love that I encounter in their midst.

When I read the Bible, what I encounter is the life-giving story of a loving God.  What I discover are not so much instructions and as ways in which my life-story, with all of it's sub-stories, intersects with that live-giving God's story.  My life is transformed in the process, not because of any basic instructions which I am following, but because it is opened up to being a part of God's story.  And God's story is all about giving and transforming lives.


May you be transformed -    
PK(+)

Blood Brothers

Memorial Day is celebrated in the United States on the last Monday of May.  It is a day when the country honors those who gave their lives in military service to the country.  It began in the aftermath of the bloody U.S. Civil War and has continued since.  Sadly, each year brings more lives lost. 

It is not uncommon to see business and homes routinely flying the American flag outside their premises.  The trend picks up considerably as Memorial Day weekend approaches.  An American flag flying from the flag pole of the home next to the church where I serve is common.  However, as Memorial Day weekend was drawing near, I was met by a very uncommon sight.  Flapping from the flag pole next door, hanging alongside the U.S. flag, just as proudly as could be was the flag from Germany.  Now THAT was a curiosity at best.

When I asked our neighbors about the significance of flying the flag from Germany, they shared with me the final chapter in what was already a remarkable story of hope and healing.

Several months previously their son, a young man in his 20's, had a recurrance of lymphoma.  Our congregation and community had grieved with them and prayed for them.  Many words of update and encouragement were shared across the church parking lot between them and me as I came and went each day.  It was a typical roller-coaster of hope and disappointment, promise and fear, as treatments were attempted without favorable results.  At long last, there was no alternative but to attempt a bone marrow transplant.  Finding a donor proved to be exceedingly difficult.  At long last, a donor was found.  The transplant was successful and eventually, their son was able to come home.

The culmination of the story was told under the sound of the two flags whipping in the breeze on a sunny May day.  What I had not realized was how exceedingly miraculous finding a donor had truly been.  It seems that of all registered donors world-wide there were only two that had a close enough match to even attempt a transplant.  The most likely candidate was a 20-something young man from Germany.  He had registered some time before when a co-worker needed a transplant, but was not a match.  Still, his profile was on file with a global donor registry concern and years later, some stranger whom he had never met, a continent away, would end up needing some of his bone marrow for a transplant.

That weekend, Memorial Day weekend, donor and recipient would meet.  They would celebrate, spend time getting to know one another, and from a little bit of shared DNA a friendship that will span an ocean and connect two continents would take root and blossom.  I have no doubt it will be a friendship that will last a lifetime.  How could it not?

I was blessed to be invited to the picnic to celebrate the meeting and meet the donor.  As I stood there and watched the two young men, the joy and laughter of all those gathered, and two flags flapping in the breeze, I could only shake my head and smile at the irony of it.  On a day when we were honoring our war dead, we were also gathered to celebrate life.  Two young men, strangers with nothing in common, share LIFE.  They are blood brothers in the most miraculous sense of the word.  Nationality, politcal ideologies, liberal-conservative  - all of the labels that we can concoct to put barriers between humans fall away in the face of the connecting of these two young men.

I think that is just a little slice of what God is up to in the world.  Teaching us humans to understand that what we have in common is so much richer and more deeply life-giving than any differences we may experience or create. 

I am deeply grateful for the reminder that day.  Here's to Memorial Day - and blood brothers, and life. 

May the Spirit keep us grounded and connected in the one thing we all have in common - God's breath of life!

PK (+)