“Are You Coming In or Going Out?”

Some thoughts for the 4^th Sunday of Easter (Year A, 3 May 2010) 

As I read and pondered the lectionary readings for this Sunday, I was struck by the contract between them.  The reading from Acts speaks of a welcoming community; the reading from the Gospel speaks of a welcoming Christ.  And yet, in the 2^nd lesson, Peter talks about the suffering one is going to receive for being a Christian. 

And as I thought about that, I continued to think about how the church today is going to respond to the issues that society faces today. 

Like so many people today, I have quite a few friends on Facebook.  Of course, there are members of my family.  But there are those whom I went to either high school or college with them or I knew them before Facebook existed.   

I share something in common with each of my Facebook friends.  But I have found that I do not necessarily share the same beliefs that some of those on my friends list have.  I suppose the proper thing to do would be to drop those with whom I do not share a common belief set and whom I have never met. 

But then I would only have a distorted view of the world on Facebook.  For example, I would not know that I am being persecuted for being a Christian or that other religious groups are receiving preferential treatment.  Apparently, I didn’t get that memo.  I also didn’t get the memo detailing the various and sundry conspiracy theories that lurk beneath the surface veneer of society. 

It is interesting and somewhat frightening to see what many of these will post.  But is what more frightening than the hatred they preach, the false information and conspiracy theories that they push is that they claim to be Christian, believing in the power of Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. 

And in today’s world, I cannot see how one can espouse a doctrine of hatred and ignorance and claim to be a Christian.  Perhaps you can but I don’t share that view of the world.  How do you explain someone who proclaims to be a Christian but hates the world?  How do you explain someone who attends church on Sunday and is a pillar of the church but who ignores the cries of the needy during the week or even, as I discovered growing up in the South, works against the goals of Christianity during the week? 

There are, perhaps three types of Christians in the world today.  The first can be called a separatist.   

A religious separatist is one who separates their religious life from their secular life. They wear their faith as if it was pure and they will not allow anyone or anything to disturb that purity.  For these individuals, if it is not clothed in Christ, it is not part of their lives. They will be at Christian groceries, eat at Christian restaurants, shop only at Christian stores, and listen to Christian music. It is a life separate from others.  But they turn off people to the true faith because they, the separatists, cannot relate their faith to the world around them. And when you ask them to integrate their faith into the culture around them, they panic. 

The second type of Christian is a conformist.  These individuals adapt their thoughts to the world, making sure that no one knows that they might go to church on Sundays. And it is quite easy to see that many of their friends would be surprised to know that they are Christians because there is no evidence to suggest. Religious conformists use religion when it is convenient for them. Christianity is something done on Sundays; Mondays through Fridays, one must be a realist and you cannot be a realist if one is a Christian. 

The third type of a Christian is a the transformist. Such individuals seek to make faith a part of the prevailing culture; they use their faith to change the culture, not for the purpose of a self-proclaimed religion but for society. John and Charles Wesley could easily be thought of as transformists.  

Transformists understand that you cannot categorize faith, love for God, and love for people into separate and independent categories. Their faith is integrated with their live and their love for God is shown by their love for people. (Adapted from “the Journey Towards Relevance” by Kary Oberbrunner; first published in “A Door That Swings Both Ways”) 

For me, those who say that they are being persecuted for their beliefs are quite easily separatists.  Theirs is the only world that counts; as I have written before, they see the sanctuary as a protection from the outside world. 

And yet today, we do not meet in the sanctuary.  The sanctuary now extends beyond the walls of the church into our homes and yards and throughout the world.  These must be frightening times for separatists and conformists alike.  For the separatists, the outside world which they don’t want to enter their lives is now very much a part of their lives; for the conformists, the lessons of Sunday now become the actions for the week.   

If I am not mistaken, the community of believers that formed the community outside Jerusalem did not prevent anyone from entering or being a part of the community.  Yes, they did “throw out” some who did not want to follow the rules of the community, but they also realized that some were not able to do that.  Theirs was a community of hope and promise. 

I am not interested in building a new community; I am interested in making sure that the community in which I live is one in which all can live.  I want a community of hope and promise.  I know that it will not happen tomorrow or even within the next few weeks.  But there will be a time in the next few months when our gatherings will be in person rather than online.  It will be a moment when we must decide the future of our faith community. 

As I looked at the lectionary readings for today, my focus was on Jesus is the Gatekeeper.  For the separatists and the conformists, He stands at the Gate, letting only a select few, locking the Gate to keep the sheep safe.  But if Jesus taught us anything, it was that the traditional view doesn’t always work. 

Yes, Jesus stands at the Gate but not letting us in but directing us to go out into the world, to transform the world.  Locked behind the Gate, we are protected from the ravages of the world, but we cannot begin to transform the world. 

God does not expect us to venture into a world unprotected, but He does expect than when it is time, we will leave the safety of the sanctuary.  Between today and that time, we must decide if we are going to go in or come out. 

Finding The Way For Ourselves And For Others

A Meditation for 17 April 2016, the 4^th Sunday of Easter (Year C). The meditation is based on Acts 9: 36 – 43, Revelation 7 :9 – 17, and John 10: 22 – 30.

Two things to note – I am more and more convinced that modern Christianity has lost its focus, lost its way if you will. It seems, at least to me, that too many individuals today claim the mantle of Christianity without accepting the duties and responsibilities that come with the acceptance of the mantle of Christianity. In fact, and again this is my opinion, too many people claim to be Christians but whose thoughts about humanity expressed through their words, deeds, and actions are in complete opposition to what it was that Jesus said and did during His three year ministry.

And I also think that there are too many people who claim to be spiritual but not religious do not understand that it is through religion that one finds or clarifies their spirituality. I am aware, as a recent CBS story indicated that

Humans are spiritual beings before religious. Religion means to bind back (re-ligare). Religion is a method. Spirituality is inherent in our being. Religion teaches us how to access and guide our spirituality, by providing story and ritual that speaks to our whole person – mind and heart. It “binds us back” to our nature as spiritual beings in relationship with God and with each other. Religion and religious community are designed to help us integrate our mind – bodies – through spiritual awareness; our thinking, feeling and doing in balance and wellness. And this is the ideal goal of all authentic religions (http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/faith-spirituality-the-future/).

You many know that you are seeking some sort of spiritual level but without some sort of framework, you cannot reach any sort of spiritual level.

The church today is very much aware that there are those who seek Christ. As the Gospel reading for today points out, people have sought Christ from the very beginning of the Galilean ministry. And like those who sought Him then, many who seek Him today do not know who or what to look for. And when you don’t know what to look for, it is very hard to reach that spiritual level that something inside you, which for the lack of a better term we shall call your soul, is pushing you to find.

I will admit that I used to dread preaching or writing about the Revelation of John. There was a part of me that just couldn’t accept the idea that a world that began with hope and promise, a world in which God cared about what happened to His children, would end in death and destruction. But, as I read more about what John the Seer was writing and what was the basis for the apocalyptic vision that so many people utilize today, I could see that there was a difference in the visions offered.

But John the Seer wasn’t offering an end to the world but a new beginning. But if one is to see it as a beginning, the achievement of one’s spiritual quest, then one must know who Christ is, was, and will be.

And the only way that one can reach this ending, the only way we can help people find Christ in today’s world is to do what Peter and the other disciples did, show the work of Christ in the world. Granted this may be a little difficult to accomplish in a world where so many people work and live in a matter that says you can only find Christ if you walk on the same spiritual journey as they do.

Let us begin today to find the way. It requires that we first renew our commitment to Christ, to say that we will through our thoughts, words, deeds, and actions, live a life that shows Christ. It is a life that says that we have chosen a new way to walk and we invite others to walk with us. We understand that even though we all seek the same destination, each journey is unique and that we can only help others continue on their journey. And we help by showing them the way.

This is the greatest challenge because it forces us to open our minds, our hearts and our souls to see Christ in many ways. But when we see Christ, we can easily help others. And as we help others see Christ, we also see a new world, a new beginning.

“Thoughts On Good Shepherd Sunday”

Some random thoughts on this the 4^th Sunday of Easter, often called “Good Shepherd Sunday”.

I happened to, because of the way the day works, listen to two different messages that focused on today’s lectionary readings. In both cases, the speaker spoke of encountering a herd of sheep while traveling in Ireland.

In the Gospel reading for this morning, we hear Jesus say that all the sheep know His voice (echoing words from Isaiah where we are called by name). Now, there are some who are going to feel that God has somehow forgotten them, that they call out and no one answers.

For them, God does not exist. But is it that God doesn’t answer or that we don’t hear the answer? Could it be that we are so wrapped up in troubles that it creates a blanket of noise that keeps us from hearing the quiet, almost inaudible voice of God saying that He loves us and that He will never abandon us?

Both speakers that I listened to also spoke of the need to envision the Gospel reading, of Christ calling us by name, as something that we needed to do as a community. This call for a community offers a way to remove the noise that prevents us from hearing God and continuing God’s work.

Two closing thoughts – Back in 1995, when I was living in Pittsburg, Kansas, there was a cemetery across from my apartment complex. Within its boundaries were graves that may or may not have been the graves of family relatives. The sad part is that because of our family history, or rather the lack of records for the family history, we will never really know if there is a link between our present family and the family there.

I also saw several graves in this cemetery with lambs atop the grave stone. Such markers tell us that a child was buried there and it tells, in one way, the story of a community that struggle to make a go of it in southeastern Kansas. That particular part of Kansas used to be a mining area and families from the Balkans came to build a new life in the soil of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. The lambs tell us it was not an easy struggle to build that new community.

Finally, if one speaks of the Good Shepherd, one needs to remember the song that Jefferson Airplane and Crosby, Stills, and Nash sung back in the late ’60s – “Good Shepherd”. This song has its origins in the Gospel of John 21: 1 – 19 and was originally written by a Methodist minister in the 1840’s (see my notes on this song in “A Rock and Roll Revival”).

We have been called by the Good Shepherd and we have been asked to help others find the Good Shepherd.

Passing the Torch

I preached at Diamond Hill UMC in Cos Cob, CT, this morning. Their services are at 10 am and you are welcome to attend.

The Scriptures for this Sunday were Acts 4: 5 – 12, 1 John 3: 16 – 24, and John 10: 11 – 18.

On January 20, 1960, John Kennedy stood before the American people as the new American President and proclaimed that a torch had been passed to a new generation, my parent’s generation, your generation. In his inaugural address, President Kennedy opened by saying,

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God.

We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. (http://www.bartleby.com/124/pres56.html)

I cannot help but think that his words were a rebuttal to his critics who said that he was too young to be President. But his address was more than simply a rebuke of his critics or a comment on how things had been and possibly could be; it was also a vision of the future for the next generation, my generation and perhaps your generation as well. It spoke of challenges that we as a country and a society faced.

It was a vision that equality was more than a concept envisioned during the American Revolution but a reality of life, time, place, and society. It was a vision that spoke of going beyond the boundaries of time and place, of going beyond the boundaries of the earth and reaching far out into space. It was the challenge to get things done.

It was, in some sense, a good time. The country seemed alive and intelligence and aptitude were demanded by all. The President spoke in complete sentences (in part because the sound bite hadn’t been invented yet) and he could references things that people understood.

Three years before, in 1957, the Soviet Union had launched its first Sputnik satellite. This launch created within the American public a view that there was a crisis in science and mathematics; that American children were under- or ill-equipped to deal with the vast Soviet menace that now threaten our skies from outer space. If nothing else, in what became known as the Space Race, the United States was a distant second in a two-country race to the Soviet Union.

Many who grew up during that era will recall that the beginnings of the U. S. space program were often marked by failure and disappointment. All we knew is that the Soviet Union launched satellite after satellite while our missiles and rockets seem to blow up on the launching pad every time we tried to launch one.

In retrospect, the crisis was a bit overstated. We were trying to develop a new technology while the Soviets used essentially brute force to launch their rockets. And while our failures were open and visible to the entire world, the veil of secrecy that the Soviet Union hid behind prevented us from knowing how many failures they had experienced.

But we rushed and stumbled into the space race and we created a myriad of science and mathematics programs that would help my generation become proficient scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. And it would, at least in the chemistry courses that were developed then, teach us how to think. The focus of these new science courses would not be the memorization of countless facts and figures but on methodologies that would enable us to explore and find the facts. It was a methodology that required going into the laboratory and actually do science, not simply reading a textbook and writing down what the instructor wrote on the blackboard. It meant analyzing information rather than simply regurgitating back on the test.

But over the years, teaching science has reverted back to the old ways of memorizing and regurgitation, though now instead of facts and figures, we memorize concepts and ideas. Our students only know that the important stuff to know is that which will be on the test and anything else is superfluous. If the answer to the question is not in the back of the book, it is not an important question to know and should not appear on the test. And teachers know that they should never ask questions that hasn’t been discussed in class or requires analysis and/or critical thinking.

Today, we face a new crisis. But there are no Soviet satellites beeping away while orbiting the earth every 90 minutes in this crisis. No, it is a crisis of complacency and expectation that permeates both the secular and sectarian aspects of society.

It is a society in which questioning is not encouraged because questioning only leads to change and change is not welcomed. We live in a world where what we did yesterday worked so that is what we will do today and what we will do tomorrow. And we have come to expect that there will be someone available to continue doing tomorrow what we do today.

It is, in part, a spiritual crisis. The evil that seems to be ever present in this world, the crime, the hatred, the violence, the war all seem to say that there is no God and if there is a God, why does it seem like he has turned away. We hear cynics tell us that religion has outlived its usefulness and that there is no role or place for the church in today’s society. In fact, when we turn to the church for such answers, it often seems as if the church is part of the cause and not part of the solution.

And so, when we look at so many churches today, we see physical emptiness. We hear of churches closing and wonder which church will be next. The demographics tell us that many churches are getting older and the youth and the young are walking away from the church, seeking their spiritual answers somewhere else.

Some will say that this all occurred because we no longer have a moral society. Their solution is to create a society with a series of purity laws, much in the vein of the laws of the Old Testament, that would dictate who could come into church and who could not. But it was these purity laws, laws that said women, children, the maimed, the lame, and the blind could not enter the temple that Jesus worked against.

It was the healing of someone on the Sabbath that got Jesus in trouble with the religious authorities; it was the situation that was in the first reading today that brought Peter and John before the religious authorities.

What we fail to realize today, perhaps because we only want the facts and care not to analyze what we read, is that every time Jesus healed someone or dealt with someone considered ritually unclean, He became unclean. If we were to impose those same set of purity laws today, would we allow Jesus to come into our church?

When we hear the words of the John the Evangelist telling us that Jesus called Himself the Good Shepherd, we have to understand how revolutionary and world changing this statement was. In Jesus’ time the general populace considered shepherds to be generally untrustworthy and ceremonially unclean. This was because they were in daily contact with the carcasses of animals and came into contact with all sorts of unclean animals.

The level of cleanliness that we are talking about in this case goes beyond the cleanliness that we are dealing with right now. The division between clean and unclean was a fundamental part of Jewish life. They were commanded by the Law to be physically clean, ritually and ceremonially clean, as well as morally clean. And when you became unclean, you had to wash yourself until the religious authorities deemed you clean again. It was a process that we have encountered time and time again in the Gospel readings. (Adapted from http://holyordinary.blogspot.com/2007/12/shepherds-of-sheep-and-lamb-advent.html)

In some circles today is commonly called “Good Shepherd Sunday” because of the Gospel reading and use of the 23^rd Psalm as the psalter. (See notes about this at http://bobherring2009.wordpress.com/2012/04/23/good-shepherd-sunday-thoughts.)

While shepherds held an esteemed status in the time of David, it was a status that was quickly lost in the time between David and Jesus. As the people settled into Palestine and acquired more farmland, pasturing and the shepherd lifestyle of the ancient Hebrews decreased. Shepherding became a menial vocation for the labor class.

And while shepherds were the symbol of judgment and social desolation in the days of the Prophets, shepherds in the days of Jesus were despised and mistrusted. People were told not to buy wool, milk, or a baby goat from a shepherd because it was most likely stolen. Legal documents show that shepherds were deprived of all civil rights, could not hold judicial office, or be admitted to courts as witnesses. And for someone who grew up in the segregated south, that sounds all too familiar.

In the Jerusalem of Jesus’ day, rabbis would ask with amazement how, in light of David’s words of Psalm 23, God could be called the shepherd of His people. (Adapted from http://www.epm.org/artman2/publish/holidays/Shepherd_s_Status.shtml)

It must have been that way when Jesus told the crowds “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd puts the sheep before himself, sacrifices himself if necessary.” These were words that did not fit the image of a shepherd in that society. They were words that challenged the people to think in a new and different way; they were words that suggested a new order to life.

In the same way, Jesus proclaimed a new life and a new way. To a people who saw a life of rules and regulation as the only way to Heaven, Jesus offered an alternative. He rejected ceremonial and external observances of religion to stress that religion was an inward matter of the heart, of a direct encounter with the Father through Jesus Himself.

What does it say about us then when we say that so-and-so cannot come into our church because of their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or even economic status? Are we not all created in God’s image? Are we not somehow saying that such persons are not children of God? How then can we even think to say that any person is to be denied access to the God because they do not meet society’s image of what is right and righteous?

It must bother those who seek the imposition of Old Testament purity laws that Jesus would speak of others outside the fold who He was going to bring in.

Of course, there are those who would really like to know who those missing sheep that were mentioned in the Gospel reading for today are? The more people that can be brought in, the better things will be. In this way, they can show others the numbers that say theirs is a vital and active church. I have no desire to get into a numbers game, even if my minor was in statistics.

The church is in the people business and, to be exact, in the saving of souls. It is not about how many people are there but how many souls are saved and I have no clue or idea how that will ever be measured. To be honest, the only way that anyone is going to know how successful, how vital their church was will happen long after they are dead and buried and they are standing outside the gates of Heaven, hoping to be among the sheep and not the goats (referring to closing verses of Matthew 25).

But we live in a world driven by the bottom line so we create other measures of vitality. We look at the size of the church, its average attendance and membership.

It looks nice when you have say 1000 members in a church but I also know that programs that work for mega-churches will not necessarily work for churches with, say, only 100 members. So I am not interested in the size of the church.

It is important to know how many new members a church receives but it says something about the church. Notice, I said new members, because members received by transfer mean another church lost someone.

The number of individuals baptized or confirmed is an important number to know. But how many of these individuals continue in the church after they were baptized or confirmed? How many couples have been married in the church with great ceremony but never step foot inside the sanctuary again? I remember an situation several years ago where a mother proudly announced that her son was going to be married in the church and coming home that night and getting an e-mail from the son telling me that he was leaving the church.

I am not saying that we should not baptize infants, children, or adults. But we do need to remember that when that happens, we, the congregation, join in the vow to raise the child in Christ. If they do not come to church, we cannot say that it is their entire fault.

And we still live in a world where we think that our children will be members of the church where they were confirmed. But children leave the home and go away, to school and to work, so to expect them to be members of the same church as their parents is a little presumptuous on our part.

And a church that focuses totally on the bottom line, the numbers and the dollars, cannot see that it is losing people who seek answers to the questions that the church is supposed

I have heard the argument that the church has to pay its bills and I agree that the bills must be paid; it is a part of good stewardship. But when that is the church’s focus, it drives away the people who are more interested in finding out who God is and what God means.

It means that measuring the vitality, the life of the church is far harder than we think. How do you measure the heart of the church? How do you measure the care and concern that the church has for its community? What is the impact of the church on the community? Do the people of the community hear the Shepherd through the efforts of the people of the church? Or do the people of the church even know there is a community outside the church?

How does one practice real love? Answering that question will be how one determines the measure of vitality and life in a church today.

An alive and vital church would be one that reaches out beyond the walls of the sanctuary. It is one that knows what talents lie within the members of the church and finds ways to utilize those talents. What was it that Paul said? Some teach; some preach; others heal; others exhort. Some will lift up others in prayer; others will offer comfort. How are the talents of the church used for the church and for the community? Are they doing it because they want to do it or do they think that it somehow enhances their standing in the church?

Are they the hired hand mentioned in the Gospel reading for today, who does a job because it is a job? Or are they doing it because they have experienced the Love of Christ and wish to share that love with others? It is this difference that will tell others if a church is alive, vital and thriving, or simply existing in the present waiting for the final toll of the bell.

If we view our role as that of the hired hand, it is probable that we would not give our best. But we are not willing to give our best, where then, as John wrote in the letter that we read for today, where would we be?

We are faced with a crisis. But it is a crisis that can be faced, perhaps not with traditional solutions. Jesus saw life for the people outside a structure that had chosen to exclude people, not bring them in. Any solution that an individual church proposes has to 1) be related to their community, their surroundings, and their environment and 2) reflective of what Christ did and what John Wesley did. I know that it is a worn out cliché but one must occasionally think outside the box.

John Wesley saw a church dying because it would not see beyond the walls of sanctuary. How many times did people in churches throughout England in John Wesley’s time hear those same verses of the first letter from John that were read today but ignored the moment that the people left the church? How many times have people today read those words that say that we should just talk about God’s love but practice it? If I am interested in knowing if a church is alive, I am going to look for the evidence that the church has, in some way, responded to the needs, not just of its own members, but of those in the community around.

On Saturday mornings at my home church, we operate “Grannie Annie’s Kitchen.” Part of the feeding ministry of my home church, we offer a breakfast to all, no matter their circumstances.

What separates this ministry from other similar ministries is that we serve the breakfast on plates and use silverware instead paper plates and plastic utensils. The food prepared is prepared fresh and while it may be bought in bulk, it is of good quality and, wherever and whenever possible, bought from local producers.

While some may say that this is a waste it is good stewardship. Using plates and silverware instead of plastic utensils and paper plates is more environmentally friendly since you are not generating bags and bags of trash that must be hauled away. And when you buy from local producers, you support the local economy.

But more importantly, if you believe that Jesus will be one of those who served at breakfast, on what would you serve Him and what would you serve Him? If we use the finest plates and utensils, the freshest food for Our Lord, what do we use for the least of these?

But too many churches today see serving the homeless, the street people, and those less fortunate in the manner that we do is a waste of resources. If they have a church feeding ministry (not a food bank), they are apt to serve lower quality food and do so in the manner of a soup kitchen. It is the attitude of the hired hand and not the child of God.

I began by noting that the torch of leadership had been passed from one generation to the next when John Kennedy was elected.

But I was thinking of another torch, the one that has been handed down from generation to generation from the very first days that Christians gathered together, sometimes openly but many times secretly.

At the beginning of the every service, we light the candles on the altar to represent the presence of the Holy Spirit. When I began my journey to and with Christ, I was taught that as I took the light from the altar at the end of the service, I was taking it out into the world as a symbol of each one of us entering the world as Christ’s representative.

The torch of the Spirit, the presence of the Holy Spirit, has been handed to us from generations of believers before us. Our challenge today is to place Christ in our heart so that the torch can continue to glow and then to accept the Holy Spirit so that we can others to come to know Christ.

The torch has been passed; will you continue to pass it on?

A Door That Swings Both Ways

Here are my thoughts for the 4^th Sunday of Easter, 15 May 2010. The Scriptures for this Sunday are The Scriptures for this Sunday were Acts 2: 42 – 47, 1 Peter 2: 19 – 25, and John 10: 1- 10. Next Sunday, May 22^nd, unless something really dramatic happens on the 21^st, I will be preaching at Rowe United Methodist Church in Milan, NY (location of church) at 9:30 and then traveling down the road to its partner, Red Hook United Methodist Church (Location of church) to preach at 11:00.  You all are invited to either service (or both). The title for my message is “Did I Miss Something?”

The other day Andrew Conrad posted a question on his blog concerning the Gospel passage for today (John 10: 1 – 10) – from “Scripture Monday: John 10:9”

I was stumped with this question. If Jesus is the gate . . .

• What does it mean to come in and go out?
  
• Where is the pasture found?
  

I replied by saying

“Can we assume that we are free to enter into a relationship with Christ and just as free to leave the relationship? The pasture would then be the world outside the sanctuary of God’s kingdom. The challenge, of course, is that we can stay within the sanctuary of God’s Kingdom but nothing would ever get done. When we venture outside the Kingdom’s walls, we risk the chance that we will be sidetracked by the voices of others. We can easily be lead astray by those voices.

Andrew’s response was

The freedom to enter and leave (the) relationship with God makes good sense. Perhaps it is related to the encouragement to be in the world but not of the world.

Now, as I thought about this, I thought about how one develops a relationship with God. Our own relationship is, by nature, a private one but we live it in a public way (or at least we should). How many people in this world today want Jesus to be a true gatekeeper, letting only certain ones into the safety of the sanctuary? These individuals want the gate closed and locked so that all those inside can be safe and secure.

There are many, perhaps more, who do not want to come it. Oh, they seek the safety that being inside brings but they also know that they those who are inside will not welcome them. They are not welcome because there is something about them that the people inside don’t like.

But it isn’t just who comes in and who stays. If the gate is closed so that no one comes in and no one goes out, how does the business of the church get done? How is a relationship with God developed if no one can come in or go out? Remember, if you lock the door so that no one can come in, you have prevented yourself from getting out.

Kary Oberbrunner, in his book The Journey Towards Relevance, speaks of three kinds of Christians today. There are the separatists, individuals who live a life separate from society. For these individuals, if it is not clothed in Christ, it is not part of their lives. They will be at Christian groceries, eat at Christian restaurants, shop only at Christian stores, and listen to Christian music. It is a life separate from others.

A religious separatist is one who separates their religious life from their secular life. They wear their faith as if it was pure and they will not allow anyone or anything to disturb that purity. But they turn off people to the true faith because they, the separatists, cannot relate their faith to the world around them. And when you ask them to integrate their faith into the culture around them, they panic.

There are conformists, individuals who adapt their thoughts to the world, making sure that no one knows that they might actually go to church on Sundays. And it is quite easy to see that many of their friends would be surprised to know that they are Christians because there is no evidence to suggest. Religious conformists use religion when it is convenient for them. Christianity is something done on Sundays; Mondays through Fridays, one must be a realist and you cannot be a realist if one is a Christian.

Fortunately there is a third type of individual, the transformist. Such individuals seek to make faith a part of the prevailing culture; they use their faith to change the culture, not for the purpose of a self-proclaimed religion but for society. John and Charles Wesley could easily be seen as transformists. Transformists understand that you cannot categorize faith, love for God, and love for people into separate and independent categories. Their faith is integrated with their live and their love for God is shown by their love for people. (Adapted from “the Journey Towards Relevance” by Kary Oberbrunner)

Now, when one reads the passage from Acts for today, one might get the opinion that the members of that early church were separatists. But separatists would have nothing to do with the world outside the church and it is very difficult to grow when you cut yourself off from the world. An examination of Christian communities in this country would tell us that if you are not constantly recruiting members, then your community will slowly die. And the history of the early church tells us that the way that they lived (why is the early church was called “The Way”?) brought people in and did not keep them away.

For the church of today to grow, it must go out into the world. But it must be careful that it doesn’t become a part of that world. Rather, it must find ways to transform the world, utilizing the teachings of Christ.

Yes, it will be difficult. Not only does the world not want to be transformed, too many Christians do not want to be the transformers. There are times with our feeding ministry that it is easy to get depressed. But then when you see lives transformed, when someone whom society has cast aside says to you, “Thank you for a wonderful breakfast”, then you know that a change has occurred.

You have to ask yourself where you are in this process. Is your church like the early church, filled with celebration and harmony? Is every meal a celebration of life and God’s presence in the world? Or is your church worried about the bills that have to be paid? Is every meal that the church offers seen as a means of getting extra income so that a particular bill can be paid?

Is the door to the church closed so that those inside are protected and safe? And while it may keep people safe and secure, when the door was closed, was Jesus left outside, unable to get in?

Or is the door to the church open so that people can come in to find God and people can go out to take God into the world? The door to the church, like the door to the soul can swing shut or it can swing open? Which is it to be? The door swings both ways and you have to make a decision about the direction you want it to go.

“Why Do It?”

This is the message that I gave at Tompkins Corners UMC on the 4th Sunday of Easter, 17 April 2005.  The Scriptures for this Sunday were Acts 2: 42 – 47, 1 Peter 2: 19 – 25, and John 10: 1- 10.

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Why do it? Of course, the question should then be “do what?” In light of the Scripture readings for today and what is going on in the world, why would anyone want to be a Christian? Well, if current research is correct, regular weekly attendance at a religious service will result in increased survival and a boosted immune system. It is not clear just exactly how this works but it does seem as if something in religious attendance, be it the group interaction, the worldview or just getting out of the house, is beneficial to the health of many, especially the elderly. (From “Hit the pew and live longer” in Context, May 2005)

Of course, this could explain in part why Peter writes about the pain and suffering that early Christians had to endure. It does seem ironic though that while there may be a correlation between attendance and health, we are not always willing to let people know that we attend church and consider ourselves Christian. Even today, the mere act of professing to be Christian is apt to cause one to be ridiculed and possibly persecuted.

For many, I guess, the secret is not to publicly profess one’s faith. That way, you can keep your health. But it is sad that many Christians today, especially those that believe in the power of the Gospel as a message of hope and promise, don’t speak out. This means that the only words that those seeking Christ are likely to hear are from the spectrum of life which come from individuals who preach hatred, division, and exclusion.

It was interesting to hear Jane Fonda speak of becoming a Christian but being afraid to tell her husband, Ted Turner, for fear that he would talk her out of it. She made note of the fact that he did not care for Christianity. But like many who seem to have a strong appearance on the outside, the demands of life wreck havoc with the inside. And we are often shocked when someone so strong on the outside collapses under the pressures of life. So despite what she knew would be pressure from others, she made the journey to Christ.

Similarly, one of the most influential items in the journey of our own John Wesley was his trip to and from America. He could not endure the trip across the Atlantic, despite the public appearance of a strong faith. Even he could not understand how the Moravians, through simple prayer, were able to endure the hardships of the crossing. It is that seeking of peace that brings people to church. But why do they not stay?

They find churches such as the Baptist Church in Florida, that ask members, such as the judge in the Terri Schiavo case, to leave simply because they did something that the congregation disapproved of, in this case it was because they did not like his ruling on the issue of the feeding tube. Each day we hear of other Christians who claim that the only solution to the problems of the world is a return to an Old Testament life. While the laws of this land may have been derived from the laws of the Old Testament, we must also realize that Jesus came as a fulfillment of the law, not the enforcer of it. Jesus came as an embodiment of the law because of those who were more concerned about the law than they were about the lives of those who must live under the law. It was this dichotomy between what was preached and what was lived that led John Wesley to break away from the structure of the Anglican Church and begin the Methodist movement.

Those seeking a church home find that all churches and denominations profess the same belief but say that the other churches are not true believers. It seems that as the number of churches in a given area multiply, the weaker each individual church’s ministry and witness becomes. One pastor noted that the more he and members of the congregation visited homes in the area where the church was located, the more resistant to evangelism people became because another evangelism team from another church had visited with them not more than ten minutes before.

What should be a great opportunity for the presentation of the Gospel has quickly become nothing more than marketing for the masses. Each visitor to the church does not want to hear the message of the Gospel in terms of how they can help others but rather how the church can help them? It turns pastors from preachers of the Gospel message to peddlers of the Gospel. Like Jacob, who found ways to trick his uncle Laban out of his sheep, pastors today have to resort to a variety of marketing techniques in order to entice people into the church.

It should be noted that Jesus warned us that the road would be difficult. The little flock that formed when they heard His voice in the wilderness would be frequently assaulted by thieves and misled by hirelings. He even prepared us for the likelihood that there would be a few goats mixed in with the sheep. (Adapted from “Flocking together” by Edgardo Antonio Colón-Emeric in Living the Word, Christian Century, April 5, 2005) But because the road is difficult, we sometimes do not want to walk it. We do not want to hear the truth that accepting Christ as our Savior is sometimes a hard choice to make; we do not want to hear the truth that the road we must walk is not one paved with gold (in fact, it is likely to have more potholes than anything else); we do not want to hear the truth.

Think about it. What were we asked to do after September 11, 2001? We were asked to go shopping? Shouldn’t Christians have said, “That seems awful silly to me.” We have spent the last three and one-half years telling everyone that the world changed on 9/11/2001. But the world changed that first Easter Sunday back in 33 A. D. Our lives as Christians should be focused on the changes in the world in the light of that Sunday morning some two thousand years ago, not vice versa.

We have lived with death as a common part of life for three and one-half years and as a result, we are a nation living in fear. We do not want to think about death or the prospect of death. The last few weeks have reinforced that.

We did not stop to think about what happened on September 11^th or what was happening in Florida. We saw the attack on the twin towers as war, when it was simply murder. If we had treated Osama Bin Laden as a murderer rather than the commander of an army, we would have ended this thing three years ago. Instead, we have allowed a war against terrorism to expand into a war in Afghanistan and then a war in Iraq. Now, the dead are coming home and we are afraid.

A young woman lies dying in a hospice in Florida and because her family could not agree, we as a nation are now afraid to die, for fear that we will not be allowed to or because we might be forced to die. And the politicians and the preachers with the loudest voices are saying that it is all because we are not a Christian nation.

Is it no wonder that those who seek Christ cannot find Him? Another recent study that was mentioned in my reading noted that while the majority of teenagers in American consider themselves religious and believe in God, they cannot explain the basic tenets of their faith. While there is an absolute historical centrality to the belief of salvation by God’s grace in Protestant churches, including the United Methodist Church, many conservative Protestant teens show no understanding of that concept. It also appears that other historical doctrines about the nature of God and revelation are unknown to teenagers.

Teenagers also feel that nobody is actually required to be religious. They can do whatever they want. Religion is presumed to be something that individuals choose and must reaffirm for themselves based on their present and ongoing personal felt needs and preferences. Religion becomes something interpreted from the view of modern culture; it is something that is quickly becoming a vision of “divinely underwritten personal happiness and interpersonal niceness.” God is not needed in this approach to life.

Such a formation of a belief comes because people do not know where to look or who to ask for information about God. They do not know where to look, and like the disciples who could not understand Jesus when he talked of the shepherd and the flock, they do not understand how there can be one church but many denominations.

But if we go back to the beginning, we see that we are called to follow Christ, not out of fear of bandits or from frustration with His hirelings, but rather out of love. This church was founded by the love of t he shepherd for His ship and it is held together by the love of the sheep for the shepherd and for each other.

It is understandable that the way of love, as expressed by Christ, is hard, especially since it does not appear to be enough. This is particularly true when the word is bandied a bout so carelessly and in such a way that it has no value. Sayings of the Bible become trite and banal. We cannot see love in the church because we are convinced that there is no love in the church. But the church was founded on the simple fact that God loved us and our love is based on that one simple fact.

We also are convinced that it is not possible to find love in the world, let alone the church, because it is a long process. It is easier for the thief to climb over the wall than it is to walk around and open the gate. Getting to know and love Jesus, to hear His voice, takes time.

This process is also hard. Peter’s commission to become the shepherd was contingent on his three fold declaration of His love for Jesus. It was a love that would ultimately require that He be willing to lay down his own life. (Adapted from “Flocking together” by Edgardo Antonio Colón-Emeric in Living the Word, Christian Century, April 5, 2005)

So why do it? Why should we seek to find those who are seeking Christ? Why should we even think about publicly professing our faith more often? Why should we spend time this week saying hello to strangers and inviting them to be a part of this community? Because, as Oscar Romero, the Salvadoran archbishop who was murdered for standing up and facing oppression and evil, wrote,

This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are the workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. (From the May, 2005 issue of Context)

So why do it? Because it is the calling of Christ to bring the good news of the Gospel to the world so that others may hear it as well.

“Why Are We Here?”

This is the message that I presented at the Neon (KY) United Methodist Church for the 4th Sunday of Easter, 25 April 1999.  The Scriptures for this Sunday were Acts 2: 42 – 47, 1 Peter 2: 19 – 25, and John 10: 1- 10.

At this point, I had served Neon for six months but the situation required a change in my life and a move to New York at the end of May.  As I wrote and spoke in this message, I was trying over the course of the next five weeks to prepare for the change and pastor and a possible renewal of the church.

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Two weeks ago, after I learned that Pam Ison would be my replacement, I had an opportunity to call her and talk about a number of things that I could do to help her. And I was flying to New York later that week, I began to think about how the next five sermons would go. From one standpoint, I have to look at the sermons almost as one item because, with everything that is going on, I almost have to work on the last three sermons together.

The vision that Pam has for Neon United Methodist is one that I have and one that I am sure that every one of you has as well. And I found out yesterday that this vision of building the church in Neon is one shared by both the District Superintendent, and Bishop.

So it was that I as flew to New York last weekend, I was thinking about what I could say to make that vision clearer. Then when I came home from school Tuesday evening I found out about the tragedy in Littleton, Colorado.

I suppose that these shootings were a little closer to home because I was a freshman in high school in Colorado at a school probably about 30 miles from Columbine. And as a teenager, the son of a career Air Force officer, I knew some of the loneliness that the shooters felt.

In my case, I moved from school to school each year. That made it very hard to develop friendships that would last. And because friendships are a central part of the high school experience, not having them makes one very lonely.

Why those two students decided to take such violent action is something that I don’t think we will every truly understand. But I think it is important that we know what we can do, even here in Neon, so that no one, child, youth, or adult feels the need to take such drastic action.

In the Epistle reading for today, Peter speaks of the persecution that Christ endured and asked us how we would respond?

“For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval.

If we are aware of God, then we can endure all that others do to us. What those students did was wrong and anyone who feels that the only way to get attention is to do something violent is also wrong. Doing something wrong just because others do you wrong is never a justification for actions.

So what are we to do? There are those who decry society’s impact on students saying that it is because society has allowed violence to be such a part of our day to day life that violence is seen as the only alternative. Yet, in condemning society, these critics fail to realize that we are society. It is the easiest thing in the world to criticize. Now is not the time for criticism; now is the time for action.

I keep meeting people who say that the problem with schools today is that we took prayer out of the school. But I wonder about that. Schools are continually being asked to do that which the parents should be doing. I also question how valid a prayer in school can be, especially in today’s diverse society. After all, with all the denominations, can we agree on a prayer? And with the possibility of Jews and Muslims, how can one prayer be from the heart? The problem is not within the schools but within each of us.

Keep in mind that every time a sinner came to Jesus for forgiveness, Jesus asked them to change their lives. Be it Nicodemus, the tax collector, the Samaritan woman at the well, or the woman about to be stoned, after meeting Jesus, they changed their life. Jesus did not criticize; He asked that they sin no more.

In the Gospel reading today, John writes “that sheep follow him because they know this voice.” In this parable, the sheep “will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not the voice of strangers.” But in today’s society, how do we hear the voice of Jesus? How do we come to know Jesus?

Last night, Ann and I spoke about our growing up and we both agreed that it was because we knew God as a loving father that we were able to endure the loneliness that came from being “different” from our classmates. Back in February, I told you that I came to Christ as a freshman in high school and I know that it was that single decision that provided the strength and foundation that I needed later in life.

When I started college in 1966, the first decision I made was to have my church membership at First United Methodist Church in Kirksville. That was because I knew that I need Christ in my life, especially at times when I would be alone. As I look back on my life and the wandering through the wilderness my soul endured, I know that it was Christ’s presence that made the difference.

The responsive reading for today, the 23^rd Psalm, was very much appropriate for today. David wrote of the comfort that the shepherd provided to the lambs, “he makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.” And in a time when many dangers existed, David knew that God would protect him, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me, your rod and staff comfort me.”

Why is Neon Church here? What are we to do? In the reading from Acts today, the new Christians “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” The reading speaks of them being together and having all things in common.

The saving of souls, as described in Acts, was a result of the people of Christ coming together for the common good. There are two questions that kept coming up as I thought, prayed, and prepared for this sermon. How can those who felt left out hear in the din of today’s society the voice of Jesus calling them home? Society is loud and as hymn #348 tells us, Jesus is softly and tenderly calling. There must be a place where people can hear that call. This is the place. There must be an alternative to feeling alone and left out. This is the place.

As we go out into the world today, I want you to think about what Neon United Methodist Church can do. I want you to think about the question that this sermon is about, “Why are we here?” And I want you to spend time in prayer each day, asking for God’s support for this church. Lastly, you know someone who has been searching for a calmness in their live, you know someone who should be coming to Neon United Methodist Church. I would like you to invite your friends to join us on May 23^rd, as we gather together on the Day of Pentecost like the early church did some two thousand years ago.

Seeing the World from Our Own Neighborhood

Here are my thoughts for the 4th Sunday of Easter, 25 April 2010. The Scriptures for this Sunday are Acts 9: 36 – 43, Revelation 7: 9 – 17 and John 10: 22 – 30.

A couple of things are going on this weekend. It is Consecration Sunday at my home church, a Sunday where we think about our individual contribution to the church and its budget. It is more than simply a financial drive or a glorified fund-raiser (which, if you have read some of my past sermons/thoughts, you know I think is a terrible idea for churches to get involved in). It is more than an exhortation by the pastor or a speaker to fund the church’s budget.

It is a call for each individual member to consider how God is calling them to respond to the needs of the church. I think, as I write this in advance of the outcome, this is a difficult thing to do, if for no other reason than most people see the church in terms of the building and not the spirit. It is very hard to imagine the spirit while it is very easy to imagine the building. I still believe, from my own experience, that each United Methodist Church should make it a policy to set aside 10% of the weekly offering for apportionments. It brings to the front the need to think of the church in terms of its mission and purpose rather than as a building with activities inside it. My own experience tells me that it works and when churches say that paying the building’s bills is more important than funding the church’s mission, it is a church that is dying and will die. Fortunately, my church is not at that point and I pray that our focus on giving from a spirit direction will make sure that it never does.

But on this weekend when my local church is focusing on its own future, the United Methodist Church as a whole is focusing on the world and its future. There is a phrase that I have seen that goes something like “think globally but buy locally.” It is a phrase that is most often used in terms of green farming and basic ecological thinking but I think it applies to the ideas of this weekend; in fact, it is something that should apply to the mission of the church in general.

On this weekend, we as United Methodists around the world are invited to participate in Change the World, a weekend event that coincides with World Malaria Day. One outcome of my own home church’s work this weekend would be the strengthening of our local ministries. World Malaria Day is a day to focus on a disease which kills one child somewhere in the world every 30 seconds. It need not be that way because malaria is treatable and preventable.

From our own history, we know that the French failed in their efforts to build the Panama Canal because of yellow fever and malaria. Our own efforts were stymied because of the same diseases. But, in the end, with a better understanding of the disease and how it is transmitted, we have eliminated it from much of the world, but it is still very prevalent in Africa. And that is the focus of the worldwide church’s efforts.

And, well it should be. As John the Seer writes in the passage from Revelation for today, what he saw were more people than anyone could count, from all the nations and all the tribes and all the languages being spoken. It is very difficult to see a church which thinks that it can survive without some involvement outside its own walls. Yet, too many churches today preach a message that is, if you will, for internal consumption only and which makes a church that should be open exclusionary.

It is meant to stay inside the walls of the congregation and it is taken to mean that those outside the walls shall never enter. Now, some may say that Jesus’ message was such a message. Even in the Gospel for today we hear Jesus speak of those who hear His message and understand it. But could it be that those who heard but did not understand were the church members; after all, how many people that were shunned and excluded by the church sought Jesus and His ministry?

And it was more than simply a ministry of words but one of action as well. As Jesus himself pronounced in the Nazareth synagogue, one of the tasks of His mission was to heal the sick. And we see in the passage from Acts for today, the disciples continue to heal after the Resurrection.

We see clearly in the words of the Bible the thoughts of this weekend. We have a responsibility, no doubt, to the church that we attend. But it is a meaningless and futile responsibility if we do not think about the community in which it resides and in which we live. And it is equally meaningless and futile if we do not see the global community as an extended version of the local community.

We are called to a great task. It began when we answered the call to follow Jesus; it continues as we work in our church with our local ministries and it continues as we work to move from the four walls of the church to the street corners of the neighborhood and then beyond to the world. We can see the world from our own neighborhood but we must first move beyond the walls of the church.

“They Hear His Voice”

This is the message that I presented at Tompkins Corners UMC on the 4th Sunday of Easter, 2 May 2004.  The Scriptures for this Sunday are Acts 9: 36 – 43, Revelation 7: 9 – 17 and John 10: 22 – 30.

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This is, as the cliché goes, an interesting time. We are well into the third great industrial revolution of this civilization’s history. (From a speech by Mary L. Good, past president of the American Chemical Society, to the Minnesota Section of the American Chemical Society on 18 September 1991 at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN.)   The first industrial revolution was one in which man-made production was replaced by machine-based production. The second revolution of our society was the manner in which we think. (Look at www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook2.html)  Our view of the world changed from one of gods and myths to one of rational thought and self-enlightenment.

This third great revolution is one of technology and information rather than machines or methods. As our society becomes more technology-oriented, we gain more and more information. Our resources for processing this information become strained and more and more of what we gain becomes nothing but "noise." We simply are not in a position where we can process all the information in front of us.

These changes in how we work and, possibly even think forced changes in how we live. We first lived in small tribes, where our contacts with others were limited to our family and immediate relatives. We then progressed to small towns, places where friendships and relationships went beyond kinship but were still limited by provincial boundaries and family loyalties.

We are now in the period of the great city or technopolis. This is a society in which people come together for functional reasons rather than traditional ones. These type of societies should be open, free of tribal or racial, class or caste boundaries and allow people to associate freely solely on the basis of the functions they perform in society.

The problem with this evolution in society, both in terms of the way we work, the way we think, and the way we live, is that there is a movement away from God. As the emphasis in the Scientific Revolution forced a change in our thinking, forced us to think things through, the presence of God became less and less important. Now, with the machines being developed that can think faster than we can or even independently, there is a thought that mankind is becoming less and less important. More and more of what we call information is perceived as noise to be filtered out and removed as extraneous.

But at the same time, as the importance of God is diminished by increasing reliance on thought and logic and as the importance of man is diminished in a world growing increasingly complex, the rationale for having God in our lives increases.

Some would say that this is a perfect time for the Second Coming, a time for the Messiah. Those who preach His Second Coming see a world devoid of God, a world in which God has disappeared. For those, this is a good time for the end of the world, for Armageddon.

But I would say that God has not disappeared. Rather, mankind has pushed God aside hoping to save Him for when He is truly needed, when the ground shakes and the sky opens wide, when the graphic dreams of John become reality. But God is, was, and will always be. If anything, now is a chance for liberation and greater freedom. It is a time when mankind can increase the range of freedom and responsibility, deepening the maturation of civilization.

This time gives us more opportunities to see God at work, to hear Him calling us to respond to new possibilities, calling for a new open society of persons. But we must also be careful that we do not become prisoners of our own making, imprisoned by the very technology that we developed, limited by the very thought processes that allowed us to developed the technology that threatens to imprison us. We must see where God is at work and we must be open to myriad possibilities that arise from this time. Literally we must be ready to respond to God’s call; we must hear God’s voice calling to us.

There are those today who see the church as a refuge from the noise and trouble that dominates the world around us. That is a role that the church has long played and a role that it should continue to play. But these people want to shut out the world; they want to leave the noise, the distraction, the troubles behind and escape inside the walls of the church. But if that is all a church does, then nothing will happen. There will be no response, we will become prisoners of our own technology, of our own thought processes.

Yes, there must be places where people can hear God’s call; there must be places where people can hear the voice of the shepherd bringing them home. But such places must also be places from which people can go out into the world, working to remove the noise and the distraction.

The Gospel passage from John that we read this morning is pleasant enough. It is Hanukkah and Jesus is enjoying the feast. But his opponents challenge him to declare whether He is or is not the Messiah. This is not an innocent question for his challengers will shortly attempt to kill him. But his answer shows that those who follow him and believe in Him know that the work that He is doing is the manifestation of God, not an usurping of God. The followers know that there is protection in being the sheep of the fold where Christ is the Shepherd.

The image of sheep is also written in the passage from Revelations for today. But in both cases, the sheep are not the meek and timid creatures that we imagine. Rather, they are images juxtaposed with darker realities. They are images intended to show the trust one finds in God when confronted with terror, enmity and death. (From "Sheepish?" by Mary Schertz – "Living the Word", Christian Century, April 20, 2004)

The sheep of these passages are not mindless or timid. Rather, they are protected, able to go out into the world and minister to the people of the world. I have said before and I believe that the one thing missing in many churches today, especially in those churches who emphasize the caring only for their own members, is the fulfillment of the Gospel, of taking the Gospel message out into the world. It is right and necessary to take care of the members of the flock. But you cannot enclose them in one pasture. It will soon be overgrazed and die; and then the flock will die. The flock must go out to other pastures and then come back to a place where they can hear God’s voice.

Peter is ministering in the area north of Jerusalem that we now call Jaffa. While in the area, one of the early disciples Tabitha (or Dorcas as it can be translated) becomes ill and apparently dies. Her friends, knowing that Peter is in the area, send a messenger to him and ask that he come to their aid. It does not say in any of my resources but I would suppose that Peter’s response was quick and decisive, for that was his nature. As we read, through his prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit, he is able to literally raise Tabitha from the dead. His actions, along with the faith of those who called him, brought others to know Christ.

In the midst of gloom and sadness, those who believed in Christ were able to show others the power of Christ. But it does not have to be at such times that the miracle of Christ be shown. In part that is why we are here today. We are celebrating the baptism of an infant. In the midst of all that may be gloom and death and destruction, there is a hope and joy in the birth of a young child.

The baptism of the child is not a solitary event. It is a community event as well. It is not an event in which the parents and immediate family take place with the community only watching. The community also has a stake in the raising of this child. We, as a congregation, will make a vow to raise this child, to see that amidst all the noise and distractions of this world this child will see and know who Christ is.

Despite all that we have tried to, we have allowed the noise and distractions of the world to dominate the church. Instead of doing the work of God, instead of taking the Gospel message into the world, we have allowed the noise and distractions to come into the church. We could find ways to shut out the noise and take away the distractions. But then we would be like the monasteries of old, shut off from the world, protecting what was but not knowing what will be. And if we were to do that, then the vows that we take to shepherd this child and other children like her, to welcome new members into this community of believers will be a false vow. For we have said that we would take the Gospel out into the world, to let people hear God’s call through us.

The church of today must be a place where the noise and distraction of the world is shut out so that people can hear the word of God, so that people can hear God calling to them. But it must be a place where they also hear God telling them to go into the world, acting in accordance with the scripture and message of the Gospel. The people will hear the word because they see the Gospel in our lives.

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The Order of Things

This Sunday, the 4th Sunday of Easter, I am  at Dover United Methodist Church in Dover Plains, NY (Location of church).  The service starts at 11 and you are welcome to attend.  The Scriptures are Acts 4:5 – 12, 1 John 3: 16 – 24, John 10: 11 – 18. 

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Updated on 18 November 2017 to include reference to measurement of parallax

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In “A Study in Scarlet” Sherlock Holmes tells Dr. Watson that “it is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence.” A corollary to this is that you cannot and should not make the facts fit the theory. Too often, I am afraid we do just that; force the facts in front of us to fit our pet theories and common concepts about life.

It would have been far easier for Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler if they had looked at the evidence that they had gathered on the motion of the planets and not tried to make it fit into their own ideas about the solar system as well as those of society, that is, the geo-centric or earth-centered solar system.

Brahe is best known in history for the detailed observations that he made of the planets and the stars prior to the invention of the telescope. His observations of a supernova in 1572 contradicted the accepted notion that the cosmos (or universe) was fixed and unchanging. His observations of the movement of a comet in 1577 showed that comets were further away from the earth than was the moon, a conclusion that also contradicted the teachings of Aristotle.

In his observations of the heavens, Brahe determined that there was no parallax for the stars. Parallax is the apparent movement of something when you look at the object with one eye open and the other shut and then change the eye which is open and the eye which is shut. As you blink your eyes, the object you are looking at appears to move; that is what is known as parallax. (see http://www.digitalsky.org.uk/lunar_parallax.html or http://spot.colorado.edu/~underwod/astr/para.html for a demonstration) Brahe showed that the stars did not exhibit such movement and this meant that either 1) the stars were very far away or 2) the earth was motionless at the center of the universe.

Like so many other instances of human thought, Brahe correctly formulated the responses to his thought but choose the wrong answer. He did not believe that the stars could be as far away from the earth as his observations suggested so he concluded that the earth was motionless and at the center of the universe. (adapted from http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/history/brahe.html)

Kepler took the observations that Brahe had collected and worked on the orbit of Mars. Unlike Brahe, Kepler accepted the Copernican view of the solar system that placed the Sun at the center of the solar system. But the Copernican system had the orbits of the various planets in circles, a relic of Aristotle’s ideas about the motion of planets, and the description of the motion of the observed planets (including Mars) required a manipulation of the data to fit the model.

Try as he might, he could not make the observations fit the theory of circular orbits. Ultimately, Kepler was forced to throw out the idea of circular orbits in favor of elliptical orbits and formulate the correct theory of the solar system. We know where this revelation led. In 1633 Galileo Galilei was tried and convicted of heresy for his public support of the Copernican view of the solar system.

See Annual Parallax and the debate over whether the Earth moves for further information about the measurement of parallax

But even today, with our knowledge of science greater than it was some four hundred years ago, we still have difficulty with scientific concepts, as the recent outbreak of H1N1 flu would suggest. The use of the popular term “swine flu” has lead to problems for the pork industry and there are cultural implications where some may have the virus but whose beliefs require that they avoid pork and pork products. It has been demonstrated that you cannot get the H1N1 virus by eating pork but the use of the term is causing problems not related to the virus.

It is also clear that many people today would rather hold onto a mythological explanation of the world and the universe while denying the truth of observed evidence. There is nothing in this statement about the role of a Supreme Being in the creation of this world and this universe. But the efforts of many today to deny the observed truth and force the teaching of altered truths to fit mythological explanations suggests a path that can only lead to a new “Dark Ages.” I would offer as evidence that we are on that path as our responses and reactions to this latest flu outbreak demonstrate.

I do not deny the existence of God and I believe that He did in fact create the world in which we live and the solar system of which we are a small part. But as I have said many times before, God created us in His image and He gave us the ability to think. If we did not have the ability to think, it would be very difficult for us to be created in His image.

In this month’s issue of Connections, “Curiosity that led to Growth”,Julie Fuschak tells her faith story and how she has grown in the church and her understanding of what it means to believe. She indicates that

I now understand that the Bible has been written by people of faith, out of their faith experience, their world view and their culture, as they felt led by the spirit of God. With that understanding, I find God speaking to me through their faith stories. I am free to question, doubt, ponder, experience, and listen to my heart and mind for the leading of the spirit.

The world in which we live and the church of which we are part is in the midst of a struggle right now; a struggle for the hearts and minds of the faithful and those without faith struggling right now. It is a struggle between a fundamentalist version of a faith and its prophetic vision. It is a struggle between a religion that promises easy certainty and one that prompts a deeper reflection. One version attacks all those outside the circle of faith while the other seeks a dialogue that does not compromise its sacred ground. One version seeks to maintain the status quo, just as it did some two thousand years ago; the other version seeks to root out the internal hypocrisy and religious dysfunction that so dominates our church and faith today.

Too often, we are like the sheep that the shepherd watches over. Or perhaps it is the idea of sheep as meek and mild creatures that follow the shepherd unquestioning where they are going and why they are going that way. We too often accept the ideas in the Bible at face value and do not think about what it is that we read. Now, there are those who will tell you that the words in the Bible are the inerrant words of God, fixed and unchangeable.

To be sure, the words of the Bible are true and they are a fine description of what this world was like some two thousand years ago and they are a fine basis for how we are to live in this world today and in the years to come. But if we are to walk the path that Jesus, the disciples, and the early church walked then we must understand that path and the direction it leads us.

And I am as guilty as the next person when it comes to not understanding the words that I have read in the Bible. I know that I have stood in the pulpit on many occasions, most notably during Advent, and pointed out that presence of the shepherds in the manger was a statement that there was a new order in the world. I just never understood how much the order was changed by their presence.

When we hear the words of the John the Evangelist telling us that Jesus called Himself the Good Shepherd, we have to understand how revolutionary and world changing this statement was. In Jesus’ time the general populace considered shepherds to be generally untrustworthy and ceremonially unclean. This was because they were in daily contact with the carcasses of animals and came into contact with all sorts of unclean animals.

The level of cleanliness that we are talking about in this case goes beyond the cleanliness that we are dealing with right now. The division between clean and unclean was a fundamental part of Jewish life. They were commanded by the Law to be physically clean, ritually and ceremonially clean, as well as morally clean. And when you became unclean, you had to wash yourself until the religious authorities deemed you clean again. It was a process that we have encountered time and time again in the Gospel readings. (Adapted from http://holyordinary.blogspot.com/2007/12/shepherds-of-sheep-and-lamb-advent.html)

And while shepherds held an esteemed status in the time of David, it was a status that was quickly lost in the time between David and Jesus. As the people settled into Palestine and acquired more farmland, pasturing and the shepherd lifestyle of the ancient Hebrews decreased, shepherding became a menial vocation for the labor class.

And while shepherds were the symbol of judgment and social desolation in the days of the Prophets, shepherds in the days of Jesus were despised and mistrusted. People were told not to buy wool, milk, or a baby goat from a shepherd because it was most likely stolen. Legal documents show that shepherds were deprived of all civil rights, could not hold judicial office, or be admitted to courts as witnesses. And for someone who grew up in the segregated south, that sounds all too familiar.

In the Jerusalem of Jesus’ day, rabbis would ask with amazement how, in light of David’s words of Psalm 23, God could be called the shepherd of His people. (Adapted from http://www.epm.org/artman2/publish/holidays/Shepherd_s_Status.shtml)

It must have been that way when Jesus told the crowds “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd puts the sheep before himself, sacrifices himself if necessary.” These were words that did not fit the image of a shepherd in that society. They were words that challenged the people to think in a new and different way; they were words that suggested a new order to life.

In the same way, Jesus proclaimed a new life and a new way. To a people who saw a life of rules and regulation as the only way to Heaven, Jesus offered an alternative. He rejected ceremonial and external observances of religion to stress that religion was an inward matter of the heart, of a direct encounter with the Father through Jesus Himself.

He will tell Nicodemus that one’s inner rebirth is a matter of love, not law. He will tell the Samaritan woman that worship will no longer be determined by the place one worships but by the attitude that one has when they worship. Jesus will contrast the Bread of Life with the “clean” foods on the Holiness Code. He will tell the adulteress that her life is not forfeited to the external law if she has a saving love. And Jesus will engage the Temple authorities about their conduct in maintaining the Temple as the House of God. (Adapted from “What the Gospels Meant” by Gary Wills)

The proud religionists of Christ’s day should have faded from view and into obscurity but they are still with us today. They are the ones whose actions, words, thoughts, deeds, and inability to see what the Gospel means are driving people away from the church. People are leaving the church, not because they have something better to go to or because they do not believe but because the church’s actions, words, deeds, and thoughts do not match what they see and hear and what they know and feel. Those who are leaving the church are not dumb; they have heard the Gospel, they just do not believe that it can be found in many of the churches of today.

We know that there were those in the religious and political establishment of Jesus’ day who had the same thoughts. We remember the story of Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, who came to Jesus in the middle of the night so that society would not see him.

But he left that meeting confused about what Jesus told him about being reborn again. But we know that he must have thought about what Jesus said because, at Jesus’ trial, he suggested to the other members of the Sanhedrin that they should perhaps hear what Jesus had to say before condemning him. They are said to have responded “Don’t tell us that you are from Galilee, too.” Keep in mind that for the elite and powerful, Galileans were only one step above the shepherds so this was meant to shut up Nicodemus.

But Nicodemus, along with Joseph of Arimathea, would see that Jesus’ body was placed in the tomb after He died on the Cross, even if it meant violating the very codes of cleanliness that so dominated his own life. In doing so, Nicodemus proclaimed that he believed in what Jesus was saying and doing and that there was a new order in his life.

It was that same new order that would allow Peter to proclaim that Jesus Christ was the cornerstone of the new faith and the new kingdom. It was this new order that allowed John to write to his followers and proclaim that our lives must be lead by love; that our lives must be identified by our actions and by the truth of the Gospel.

The order of life changed when Jesus came into this world. It seems to me that the church today must begin to think about what it has become and how it has forgotten what it once was. We have heard the words and we have seen the evidence. We can ignore what we have seen and heard and nothing will change. We can struggle to put what we have seen into place in the old order but we know that cannot work. Or we can open our hearts and our minds to the power of Christ to change the world, to bring a new order of things.