Category: Religious

Galatians 6:2 (Common English Bible)

     We live today in a period of considerable religious upheaval. It is not the first time in our nation’s history. I doubt it will be the last. Entire congregations are now separating from denominations for another that more closely aligns with their particular theology and reading of the Bible. People are leaving particular churches and moving to others that are either more conservative or more liberal. Apparently they have made the decision that they cannot worship with those who may hear something else from the Lord. What is unfortunate in all this division is the failure to grasp that our common beliefs and our common challenge of declining church participation – and our common experience of God’s grace – is infinitely more important than the matters that divide us.

      Reversing the unfortunate decisions of separation may not be realistic however deeply we may cherish the idea of one visible and united Body of Christ. Rather large theological hurdles have been put into place. Yet, this sentence from Galatians does speak of an immediate summons to all Christian people to seek from God a common strength to confront a world that is rapidly discarding the most basic beliefs of our common confession. Jesus Christ is the hope of the world. Therefore all Christians must exist for one another, in the apostle’s words, “Carry each other’s burdens.” Only by this will the larger church, “fulfill the law of Christ.”

     What is the law of Christ? Nothing could be plainer: “This is my commandment: love each other just as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) Here is Christ’s summons to slam the door on all recrimination and jealousy and bitterness toward one another and live for and not against one another. This present religious turmoil and spiritual angst demands it. With declining interest in the church now at a national scale, we simply cannot indulge in petty infighting and rivalry.

     This is not a request that the church abandon theological discussion and debate. Such conversation advances a robust faith. Each of us must speak our convictions as we discern God’s whisper. Yet, such convictions must be tempered with humility, the humility that acknowledges that there remains more truth to be heard by the church. Without ignoring our differences, the church must strive for a new spirit of understanding, sympathy and return to a deep spiritual communion with our Lord, the Head of the Church. Such a recovery of humility and civil discourse may prove to be a formidable force for bringing calm to the present spiritual storm. More, a distressed and confused generation may once again catch a glimpse of heaven and say together, “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, and in his Son, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, the giver of life.”

Mark 9:23 (Common English Bible)

     Why go to church? This is a question that is increasingly asked today. Decades ago there was a promise that as technology continued to advance, lifestyles would find increased time for leisure and rest. Technology has advanced – and continues at a blazing speed no one ever anticipated – but our lives have become more difficult, more stressed and terribly deficient of rest. Meaningful participation in church is simply “one more thing” in an already crowded life. Indeed, one may ask, why go to church?

     The best answer is that church will provide what is most urgently needed today, faith and hope and love. People are weary. With weariness comes fear and apprehension. Difficulties and problems result in many who live defeated lives. Meaningful participation in church and the practical application of the Christian faith has an enormous capacity to lighten our burdens, soothe our anxieties and order our lives. Those who go to church regularly discover a life that is better than they ever imagined. The reason, simply, is that through a pattern of living that applies the Christian faith, Christ takes-up residence in our lives.

     Many are not aware of this simple truth that Christ will come into their lives, into their hearts and into their minds if they simply ask him to. The answer for much that disturbs the human heart and mind today is simply the indwelling Christ. I have personally discovered Christ’s power to transform the individual by renewing confidence and hope in the future regardless of the present circumstances. Christ will guide us in the solution of our problems, whatever they may be.

     What do I mean by practical Christianity? I mean the opposite of intellectual consent to the teachings of Jesus. I mean that right belief does not change a life. Satan believes correctly in the promises of Jesus Christ. He is still the devil! What I mean by practical Christianity is living purposefully and intentionally into a relationship with the living Christ. No life will be changed, nor will they ever have victory and power, unless they find Christ personally. Such a fruitful relationship is begun – and nourished regularly – by going to church.

 Matthew 8:8 (Common English Bible)

     Living without God is not a recent invention. From the beginning of history women and men have heard the whisper, “Who needs God?” It was there in the third chapter of Genesis when Satan – having taken the form of a snake – asked the question of the woman, Eve. The question has disturbed every person since that fateful day in the Garden of Eden. How many of us can honestly confess to a desperate need for God? How real a factor is the thought of God in the common moments of each day?

     It is my experience that for many people, God resides in the peripheral rather than occupying a central place in their lives. If our felt need for God becomes only occasional we learn, moment by moment and day by day, to live without God. Eventually, it isn’t a big step to live entirely without any thought of God. Many who have moved to this place may reject having someone identifying them as an atheist but, in truth, God is no longer real. David H. C. Read once shared that some people in his New York City congregation have confessed that having missed worship and prayer for extended months, life went on much as usual. The question presses, “Who needs God?”

     Perhaps the real question in play is, “What is important to us?” If we decide in our hearts that material success, the acquiring of wealth and comfort, is to be our supreme goal, then God may be irrelevant: we don’t need God. Make no mistake; there is nothing at all wrong with success – even financial success. It is a question of what is most important. Do we seek to be caught-up in something bigger than ourselves; to be fully engaged with the purposes of God or do we ultimately live for ourselves? If we are totally dedicated to material success, asserts David H. C. Read, then we don’t need God. We have one.

     Here in Matthew’s Gospel a centurion realizes a need for God. One of his servants is desperately ill and there is nothing that the centurion’s wealth, position and power can do for the servant. The centurion realizes that he is without the resources that are required. The centurion approaches Jesus and asks for a word of grace, a word that would do for the servant what the centurion is incapable of doing. When the centurion declares to Jesus, “Lord, I don’t deserve to have you come under my roof,” it is a declaration that the centurion has been living without God. Now he has awakened to the need that has been there all the time. The centurion needs God. And at that very moment the servant was made well.

Joy,    

Psalm 4:6 (Common English Bible)

      If there remains anyone who argues that the Bible isn’t relevant for today they have demonstrated that they haven’t paid attention to the Bible – not close attention anyway. Is there anything more timeless than the agonizing cry, “We can’t find goodness anywhere?”  Each morning our minds are disturbed by the growing threat of the militant Islamic group, ISIS, the conflict between Israel and Palestine and the racial unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. Beneath these attention getting headlines is the less mentioned but continuing concern of the growing wealth gap in our country and the millions in our nation who struggle daily to simply have enough. There are no snappy answers to the painful question of human struggle.

     It is well that the Bible does not offer a quick and pre-fabricated answer to this despairing cry. And it is best for us to refrain from such a temptation. First, we are not free to indulge in any cynical or dismissal attitudes such as, “Well, that’s life,” or, “Bad things just happen.” As followers of Jesus we are baptized into the common confession that our lives are in the hands of God, and that this God is a God of love. Second, we don’t occupy some place between God and the struggle of humanity. Not one of us has some special insight into the mysterious work of God in the midst of our common difficulty. Each of us must sweat it out with everyone else.

     What remains is a prayer: “Lord, show us once more the light of your face.”  This is the prayer of the Psalmist and nothing new can be added. The prayer is the same today as it was yesterday, fresh and urgent. It is as new as the earthquake that shook the San Francisco Bay Area a few days ago and the agony that kept someone awake last night. It is new when we utter it personally, today. No devotional, not one inspirational book can answer the plea, the emotional depth of that prayer.

      On our knees we pray. If we listen in the silences between our words the Holy Spirit reminds us that God was never absent in the horrors of human life in the Bible – nor will God be absent today. On the Via Dolorosa – the way of the cross – in Jerusalem, God was very present in the heart of human misery giving, giving and giving himself, so that after this there would be no fear, no despair and no doubt of God’s love. The cry, “We can’t find goodness anywhere,” still sounds in the streets of our communities. We live with it and we hear it echo in our souls. But the Spirit helps us recall the suffering of Christ – a suffering accepted out of Christ’s love for us. It is a love that will work for the good of all those who love him.

Joy,   

Hebrews 11:1 (Common English Bible)

     Look again at what Paul says about faith here in Hebrews, “Faith is the reality of what we hope for.” This isn’t wishful thinking or a striving to get something that we don’t possess. We don’t possess faith; we are possessed by it.

     Faith is a pure gift from God. Often the “faith” difficulty isn’t that we don’t possess it but that a relationship with God has been so neglected that the gift is no longer noticed. Take love as an example. When we are “in love” with another we don’t seek to obtain love or ask for an assurance, we simply know that it is there by the quality of the relationship. We are “possessed” by the love of another. Similarly, Hebrews teaches us that it is in the quality of a relationship with God that we are “possessed” by faith. It is an unmistakable reality. Just as the knowledge of someone’s love for us is often intangible, so the knowledge of God’s good desire for us is often intangible.

     This understanding of faith is one that provides confidence that come what may, God is with us. Gone is wishful thinking. The faith spoken of here becomes our proof that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. We don’t know the future but we know who holds the future. And that frees us from fear of the unknown.

Joy,

Colossians 2:9, 10 (Common English Bible)

     Every serious Christian today, aware of the struggle for building authentic disciples of Jesus in the present generation, must be troubled by the spectacle of a splintered church. Anyone well acquainted with the teaching of Jesus knows that the present divisions of the church are not His will. The prayer of our Lord in John’s Gospel is, “that they may all be one – so that the world may believe that you have sent Me.” The Apostle Paul advances the same in his first letter to the Corinthian Church, “Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement that there be no divisions among you.” Divisions simply distract the church from its primary purpose of mobilizing people for the mission of Christ.

     The theological divisions of the church are troubling. If we are concerned about this situation, as we ought to be, how is the church to proceed? The Apostle Paul suggests here, in these two sentences, that we seek our separated sisters and brothers not in the valleys of the doctrines that divide but on the mountaintop of a common confession that “All the fullness of deity lives in Christ’s body.” Affirming with renewed vigor this common confession can heal the theological divides that plague the church. It is living into the conviction that good Christians sometimes disagree but are held together in one confession that Jesus is Lord.

     Naturally, this is accomplished when we silence the questioning of our sisters and brothers as to the sincerity of their faith. Such questioning only exacerbates the hurtful divisions. What is better is reclaiming our theological center that professes that the Church in every age needs continual reforming by the spirit of the living Christ. It is being deeply persuaded that there is still more truth to be revealed. From this juncture we may discover that our theological debates, which can often be fierce, can be transformed into a conversation where each of us strives to really hear one another, and hear another point of view.   

     Faith is not assenting to a set of propositions, or following a religious code. Faith is trusting Christ with our lives, as we would trust a friend with our most precious possession. Any hope for a splintered church will not be by abandoning our deepest convictions, nor an apathetic tolerance of another point of view. Rather our hope will be found in a firmer grasp that in Christ, and Christ alone, will our differences be reconciled. As we pursue a deeper intimacy with one another – in the midst of our differences – the church may well arrive at a deeper intimacy with God.

Joy,

John 12:36 (Common English Bible)

     “As long as you have the light.” Jesus urges those who follow Him to take advantage of the light while it is present. The brilliance of the light is not constant; the illumination that provides clarity comes in intervals in the midst of grey moments and the dark nights of life. In the moments of light we have a glimpse of God’s presence and the certainty of God’s power and work. These are the moments when God’s Kingdom is traced with vivid colors and God’s purposes seem clear. In these moments Jesus asks that we believe – or live into – the light so that our lives are changed. The light does not always remain. So take advantage of the moment when the light shines.

      Recently my wife and I spent a few days of vacation on Sanibel Island. The first night I was restless. When the bedside clock shared with me that it was now midnight and sleep still was far away I left the bed for a walk on the beach. After nearly a half-hour of walking, clouds rolled over the moon and the well-lit beach became very dark. In the darkness I could not find my way to the path that led back to the hotel. For a moment I considered the possibility that I would remain on the beach until morning light and Grace would come looking for me. It was not a preferable situation nor was it a frightening one. I felt safe on this resort beach.

     I sat on the beach prepared to wait out the dark of the night. After about twenty minutes the clouds moved past the moon and the shore was lit-up once again. Not only was the beach once again visible in the moon-light but also evident was the movement across the sky of more clouds that would again hide the moon. In the few minutes I had the light, I quickly sought-out the path that would take me back to my room. I took advantage of the light while it was present.

     As it is in the realm of nature so it is with the soul. We have moments in our walk with Jesus where the brilliance of our faith cast a certain light upon the path before us. Each step is a deliberate one; a confident one. We are privileged to have the way before us clear. We have the light! In these moments our faith is given a glimpse into the mysterious work of God in our lives. These are the moments that Jesus urges us to direct our lives according to God’s purposes for us. For the light will not always remain and darkness will once again prevail.

       We never know when a concealing cloud cover will hide God from us. Sickness, estrangement from loved ones, betrayal by a friend or financial difficulties all move into our lives from time to time. Each of them has the capacity to envelope our lives in darkness. Jesus asks that we direct our way while there is light – “believe in the light.” The light gives opportunity to direct our bearings, and by this find our way through our ever changing days, particularly after the darkness has come.     

Revelation 3:8 (Common English Bible)

     Increasingly today people go to church when their lives are uneasy and other resources for restoring calm and order have been exhausted. What they seek from church is a healing balm; they look to be soothed with inspirational music and drugged with holy words that promise security. This romanticized notion of church must be confronted with the facts. Church was never intended to be a stable, smug and conventional purveyor of religious sedatives. The prophet Amos corrects this polished impression of God’s gathered people, “Doom to those resting comfortably in Zion! (Amos 6:1a)

     If the church is called to be uneasy, the Presbyterian Church (USA) is doing something right. There is a deep divide in the present leadership of the church over the Palestinian and Israeli conflict and the question of divesture from companies that are abetting Israeli violation of Palestinians’ human rights. The recent Authoritative Interpretation concerning marriage is viewed as not only an act of dishonesty but as unfaithful to the Church’s own polity while others celebrate the correction of injustice toward persons marginalized by the church. Absent is the stability and assurance many seek within the walls of our sanctuaries.

     The author of Revelation is well acquainted with uneasy worship. Church as an amiable and undisturbed place of comfort is unknown to John. Present is a deep and pervasive uneasiness. It is in the midst of this angst that God speaks a word to John, “Look! I have set in front of you an open door that no one can shut.” God’s people must now decide. They can withdraw from the present discomfort of the church and seek some physical or mental drug to relieve the distress or accept the challenge to new life and hope; to walk through the open door at the invitation of our Lord.

     Acceptance of the Lord’s invitation must begin with a new commitment to spiritual formation. If our shared worship and ministry is to be a springboard for a revival of faith and a renewal of the church, we must place our parched lips once more to the springs of spiritual power that flows from a growing relationship with Jesus. It will be the renewal of what the church only occasionally now calls “piety” that will give rise to a new dynamic for engagement in the secular world. The future of the church depends upon the renewal of faith in the living and active Christ and an uneasy worship that recognizes that the kingdoms of this world are in conflict with the Kingdom of our Lord. God sets before the church an open door that welcomes us to a deeper understanding of God’s will and a greater reception of God’s grace. Moving through that door will demand honestly facing the present uneasiness of the church and the trust that God’s Word is true; that what God opens before us can never be shut.

Joy,