Reflection - How the Irish Saved Civilization – Thomas Cahill Sunday, March 06, 2011

First, I did not know that civilization was particularly doomed at one certain point in history. I know civilization always seems to be on the brink but I never figured there was one point in time where history as I know it would not exist. Now that I think of it there are many times where my current context hung in the balance. The battles between the Greeks and Trojans, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Korean War, I guess these are all things that have shaped my context and made my world what it is today, but the fact that historical Christianity would have been totally lost if it were not for the people of Ireland it quite remarkable.

An image I picked up early in the book and something that I believe effects my ministry directly is the example, or non-example, of Ausonius. Churches, like Ausonius and more recently the financial institutions of America, sometimes become too big to fail. Not even the churches themselves, but their ministries and ideologies get so comfortable with what they do that two things happen: they lose touch with the climate of the outside world and they become embedded in their methodologies. I my short life time I have seen church after church fall victim to self important mentality (Children's security? Why would we need that? Everyone knows everyone!), disregarding their direct physical community and surroundings and just feeling like they have it made. No church, no individual, no ministry ever has it made. The first lesson I learned from this book was more of a warning: Never think you've got it.

Something that I found quite interesting on page 151 was the line “Ireland is unique in religious history for being the only land into which Christianity was introduced without bloodshed.” This is quite interesting to me. As an American, Christianity is as much a part of my roots as violence. I also find it fascinating how Patrick evangelized Ireland - he took the Roman system but made it the country's own. Truly, the story of Patrick is one that really pulls at my heart. Abducted at a young age into slavery; one day able to escape only to return to the land that held him captive to set them free! What an incredible story. Speaking of story, it was the Irish oral tradition, their desire to keep important stories going, which helped save civilization. What an incredible story that is!

I feel that part of this story, the part about the lack of bloodshed in the spread of Christianity to a people, is so strange. Why? Why is Ireland not the norm when it comes to the spread of Christianity and violence? How is it that a religion of peace has been perverted to such an extent that it is acutely used to justify war and bloodshed and in turn war and bloodshed is used to expand this religion of peace? Maybe in the world that we live in the military is a just means of security, but how can Christianity be so intertwined with that means? I think it was because of Patrick's persecution and emission in the native culture that he was able to state his case in a display of good example and compassion. Maybe it is that we have not been persecuted that we do not know how to sympathize, or maybe we as Christians have for song long held places of privilege that, like a bratty child, when it comes to getting our way the only thing we know how to do is lash out. I personally never wish to be persecuted but to know the depths of despair, to be able to fully empathize with the lowly, the other, to know a culture and be aware of my surroundings to such an extent that I just breath it in and breath out Christ; That is what I want.
To sum this book and how it will impact my life, I have come to a few conclusions: I need to keep a more watchful eye on my life to make sure I am not getting to comfortable and susceptible to attack. Always be learning, always grow and never think I have it made. I need to love my culture, to be absorbed in art, in music, in my traditions and in scripture; to never miss out on the things that are shaping me. I need to steep my foundation in Christ more and more. As Greg said in class, “If you are struggling, you have already fallen.” If and when I fall like Rome, I want to know Christ and his mission so well that I will have something to hold on to; not fall back on but to shield me from the storm. I don't believe I will be the one who single-handedly saves my civilization, but I want to be someone on watch, someone with the hunger and wisdom to help stop the downfall in the first place.

Reflection - The Church and the American Experience – by Askew and Spellman Friday, March 04, 2011

This reading was quite eye opening. I have always had a good idea of the American connection to Christianity, but I was very surprised to find how deep that connection ran. The main revelation for me through this book was seeing the where the idea “America is a Christian Nation” came from. Some of the founders of this country may have been Christians but the church tradition they established was somewhat more organizational in purposes than religious. Ethnicity was almost as important as theology when it came to religious groups defining themselves from one another. In Europe the church was very institutionalized and so it would have been very normal for these people to adopt a similar structure in this new land. The beginning of the American church was basically a complex process of multiple transplant European cultures recreating and reestablishing their former context. The early church structure was for religious reasons as much as it was for community structure and survival. That structural desire combined with the pioneer spirit that kick-started the U.S., cause the church to evolve rapidly. While some religious communities did see much growth, in many cases, such as the settlements that started for economic purposes, it is amazing that the church continued on at all. While the purely communal nature of the early American church may be seen as a negative, these churches were rallying points for the communities of the new world – a place to gather and socialize. But is this Christianity? Maybe the early American church got it right on the community aspect of Christ's message but there is a sense that they were missing something.

Something the early American church struggled with would be the issue of attendance numbers and converts verses theological and traditional integrity. This was especially problematic in Puritan communities where new generations who were baptized as infants but did not profess the faith along with unconverted members were allowed to partake in the sacraments. The motivation for this was to draw in new converts and member in a time where people started to drift away from these religious communities. The Puritans were just trying to adjust to the cultural and contextual issues relative to the time. But does intention to grow numbers justify watering down the theology that has established the tradition in the first place? How often in our churches today do we sacrifice right practice and belief for the sake of accessibility? I do not believe that a government institutionalized religion is the way to go, people should be allowed to make their own choices on where and how they worship. I also understand the purpose and importance of evangelism but there has got to be a better way to draw people to the church without sacrificing integrity. Many of the early attempts to adjust ritual were meant to keep the younger generations around and this is an issue I see churches dealing with every day. We grow up watching our patients do church but then we also grow up seeing them live life and sometimes we harshly judge their inconsistencies. It is really the parents that give the younger generation a reason to participate in the church. There seemed to be inconstancy in that early church that caused the younger generation to steer away from an institution that they found to be insincere an inauthentic. To preach love and holiness only to experience pain, legalism, and strife – between other Christian communities no less - it should be of no surprise the religious ups and downs and the revivals and awakenings that America experienced. Maybe I am just reading my personal experience into the text, but it is an observation I have noticed time and again throughout history and especially throughout the church.

Another issue that I noticed in the American church is that it is almost fully built upon social action and reaction. Over and over again I have seen the swing from liberalism to conservatism, from social gospel to hard core evangelicalism, and there never seems to be a middle ground. Neither side is fully good or bad, right or wrong, there is definitely some fuzzy theology going on at times (and some groups are actually more wrong than others) but these groups just seem to be reacting to a void left by the current pattern of religious thought and action. I was shocked to read some of the quotes from the evangelists of the 19th century when talking about this issue. The issue was poverty and D.L. Moody was quoted as saying “It is a wonderful fact that men and women saved by the blood of Jesus rarely remain the subjects of charity, but rise at once to comfort and respectability.” Intentionally or not this is just another case of sacrificing the Good News of Christ for the sake of gaining conversion. It also clearly shows how the thread of White Privilege has been a significant ingredient in American Christianity.

What is the most amazing thing to me is that there is a contemporary American church at all. When I read books like this and I see all of the animosity and infighting I just know that God's Spirit is real and at work as the glue holding us all together. What man tears down over and over for selfish gain God makes new, rebuilds, strengthens and restores to do his work in the world. The church is the body of Christ – the agent of God's story. The body of Christ was sacrificed once already to reconcile the world to him, I don't think it needs to happen again. As sad as this book may be at times it is amazing to see how through history, the church, by the grace of God, continues on.

I have issues (No one is safe...) Saturday, February 05, 2011

I haven't written lately because I have been deeply involved in life. Not an excuse to not write... but good enough for right now.

In reading for MWS 502 I have been studying the history and spirituality of Christianity. It is incredibly interesting to see the ebb and flow of strength Christianity has held in the world and it is also astounding to see the insane amount of variation and variety not just in the world but in the US alone. Some may say that God will keep his religion pure, but at a closer look it seems that every incarnation/denomination/sub-denomination, even the ones that think they are keeping it pure all have an aspect of personal preference. Every turn has their own beef, their own agenda and looking through out early American history it seems like all these different splits were motivated by reaction against some other group. Others involved economy, other politics, etc. The other thing that bothers me is that no one seems to be hitting the center of Christ's message. You have one group that has some good things but they go way overboard on the right. Another group will have some other great aspect but they jump overboard on the left. Why can't anyone get it right? (This is a loaded question because every good believer of a church should/probably believes that they are right.... no one can win...)

So, my first beef is with Methodism/Holiness. Methodism started by the Wesley brothers as a wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel with the people of the fronteer. These were rough dudes out in the wild. Working in ridiculously harsh conditions, some were ex-cons, some had lost everything back East. Pretty much all of them were undereducated and were looking for ways to start a new life - and hit it rich along the way. The Wesleyan emphasis was on deeds. Deeds don't save you, but deeds are how you know God and how people know you know God. Again, deeds don't save you but deeds are a measure on how close you are with God and if you really are a true believer. So, to the uneducated rufians; don't chew, spit, drink, play cards, rollerskate, dance or go to the circus. There are things that bad people do, you aren't bad people any longer, so don't do them - Just live a good life. The issue I see in this is that this message gets the priority/message of Christ out of order. We are told to be holy as Christ is holy, so we try, but we can't. So, what do we do with that? Is God asking us to preform an impossible task of perfection? No. this path of thinking isn't even in the right direction. Is it bad to murder? Yes. Is it bad to not help a friend? yes. But not doing these things doesn't make you a good person. in is sin. But, to be holy as Christ is holy is to be in Christ. When we are in Christ, when God sees us, he sees Jesus - his Son and his sacrifice over death and the Devil. We are holy because Jesus was holy. Methodism and the idea of Holiness creates a problem where we think that good works make us good/more spiritual. But since we are all in the same spiritual, sinful boat how can this be true? The real answer is to start in the other direction, the direction towards spiritual discipline. Instead of our works making us spiritual, how about our spirituality compelling us to do good works? In this manner we lose the pressure of having to earn blessings or grace or proving to the world that we are Christians by doing good deeds because we have to. Now, because we are free in Christ, because we have been given the opportunity to take part in God's story for the world we are free to be Christ in the world - instead of being held over the barrel of Hell, we are now compelled, and given the opportunity through the Holy Spirit, to live lives of thanksgiving to a gracious God who has reconciled the whole world to himself and himself to the world.

Worship is: Thanksgiving Sunday, October 10, 2010

Why does anyone worship? What is the purpose? Some say that even if there was nothing in this Christianity for them they would still choose to worship God. That sounds so great but it isn't even a conversation worth having. Why? Because there is something in it for us, for me, for my life now and after - a better way to live, a loving Savior and communion with his Spirit. In return we are only asked to be thankful. Thankfulness, a life of gratitude, is the only thing required of me. Why do we worship? Worship is not only the highest point of thanksgiving but in the end all giving of thanks is worship. I would say if I am not creating an atmosphere of thanksgiving in corporate worship there is no point to what I am doing and I should probably do everyone a favor and find another job.

In the story of the Ten Lepers (Luke 17:11-19) it is told that only one of the Lepers came back to thank Jesus for being healed. Christ doesn't say that the others are bad for not returning but he does commend the one who come back to give thanks. On a large scale, like how Christ healed all ten, God has already blessed the world. How do we respond? The returning Leper does five things that we especially associate with contemporary worship - he saw what had been done for him / Came to the Lord / praised Jesus with a loud voice / fell on his face infront of Christ / and thanked him. What if the tenth Leper had gone through the motions of the first four actions and never got around to actually saying thank you? He might as well not have come back at all.

Thanksgiving is a paradigm shift. It is saying that nothing else compares to the gift of Christ and that I am complete in that gift alone. Thankfulness is the pinnacle of losing my self - losing my life, goals, plans, dreams and placing them in the hands of God and giving thanks for where I am.

As it turns out worship is a bit harder than I first thought. But the reward of worship and the gift of thanksgiving are new eyes and a new heart in which to see and love myself, God and the world.

Prayers of the People - Worship and Spiritual Formation Sunday, September 26, 2010

This is the meditation on prayer I gave today as our church begins exploring spiritual disciplin and formation through corporate worship.

"We have a rich tradition of prayer here at Pope UMC as seen in the Pastoral Prayer element of the service. Every week we take a moment to make our requests known to God (Phil 6:4). We are going to shift things a bit today. Your prayers are important but they aren't my prayers and they aren't Pastor Robert's prayers. We do pray together these requests as a community but these prayers are yours. Just because someone is a pastor doesn't mean God listens to them more.

We see that prayer is very important even in Jesus' ministry. Jesus initiated his ministry by going into the desert for 40 days to pray and to fast. Near the end of his ministry in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus came before the Father in prayer saying "If you can Lord, take this cup. But when it comes down to it let your will be done and not mine." Christ knew that prayer is how we align our heats with the will of God "... your will be done."

Prayer brings us to the heart of God and it also gives us a venue to listen and hear his plan for us. Prayer is not just about making requests but God's requests are also made known to us. It warms our heart to Him. Not only that but prayer is just talking to God.

So we are going to start the next few moments with silence to focus our hearts and minds on God. To clear out the busyness and really listen for His voice. After our time of silence we are going to go through the Prayers of the People as listed in the hymnal on page 877. I will start by praying "Lord, in your mercy hear our prayer. Together we pray for... the people of this congregation..." Either out loud or in your heart take a moment to pray a sentence prayer for those people. After a few moments we will move onto "...those who suffer and those in trouble..." You can see how this flows in the hymnal. After our prayers for the church universal I will close our time of prayer. Again you can choose to pray silently or openly. But I encourage you to pray a loud so that we may agree and pray with you.

Now don't think of this as a strange or odd thing. Think of this as an exercise. Like walking for heath or practice for proficiency at your job or something like that. I want to challenge with with a spiritual workout. This is also something tangible and practical you can integrate into your everyday lives as we desire to be apart of God's plan for his world and our own lives. So, let us pray together. "