wonders and reflections in God's presence

(from my xanga)

I have never seen the city more crowded than it was yesterday. I feel so bad for Rahel. Everything she wanted to do … the lines were prohibitive … a three hour wait to buy the ticket for the ferry to Liberty Island, and then another four hour line to get on the boat! Unheard of … the line went out of battery park and was reaching up to wall street! There were lines to get into stores, and even to just to look at the windows of Saks Fifth Avenue. Remind me … never visit New York City during Christmas week again. All in all, we had a day filled with seeing some of the sights … from a distance at least. We waited at the tip of battery park for the circle line ferry to pull away so we’d get a decent view of the backside of miss Liberty. We walked from the South Street Seaport to Battery Park by way of the World Trade Center Site. I enjoy seeing how it changes every time we’ve seen it … new construction, etc. It looks like the subway station there is scheduled to open in February 2006. Four and a half years … and finally the subway will be open.

Then we subwayed up to Times Square … bought tickets to see Andrew Lloyd Weber’s new musical The Woman in White, after finding out the only tickets for Spamalot were $350 per person. The weather was cold, but not unbearable. We walked up Fifth Avenue, to the park, past Saks and Tiffanys and Cartiers and FAO Schwarts. Then back down 6th Avenue and across 47th Street to meet my parents at the Olive Garden for dinner.

The show was surprisingly good … the music was good, but not particularly varied. The story is set in Victorian England and it is somewhat of a mystery. Somewhat “dark” but the story keeps you involved. The most amazing part was the set. Relatively simple in design, the set changes took place through projected images on the circular walls. Between the moving of the movie images, and the rotation of the stage, the set changes were remarkable. There was even a place where the train came by and I jumped to the right to avoid being hit (or so I was convinced). All in all, it was a good show.

Today we sleep in. We have no plans … and I am pretty sore from the walking yesterday.

I know that Dwayne and Rahel already mentioned it, but if you haven’t had a chance to see the new movie version of The Producers, treat yourself today. We went on Monday and it was great. We haven’t laughed that much or that loud in a long time. It was helped by the fact that the theater was full of people responding. I know it’s a good show when the audience applauds for a movie …. that’s always a good sign. Oh, and like they said, take the time and stay to the end of the credits … you’ll be glad you did.

(from my xanga)

Thank you all for supporting Eklektos … we had a wonderful time of worship last night. I really felt the presence of God. Thank you. Thank you.

We are leaving in a while for New York … Dwayne’s bringing his computer, so I’m sure we’ll log on daily. See you next year! Merry Christmas!

(from my xanga)

I’m praying that God will use eklektos and the gathering tonight to heal and bless those who attend. Please pray with me.

(from my xanga)

It’s not that I don’t like Christmas. I love Christmas! Even the secular stuff … my favorite is seeing the lights on the houses … I remember getting bundled up in my pajamas as a kid, packing into the car with a jug of hot chocolate … and we’d go out for the evening looking at the lights on the houses. Please don’t hear me as a “bah humbug” sort of person. I like singing Christmas carols the day after Thanksgiving.

But I want to raise awareness about the fact that most of what we do around Christmas is NOT really related to the birth of Christ … it’s a cultural celebration of goodness and mystery (at its best) and consumerism (at its worst).

I feel the same way about most of the religious/political controversies these days. They are more cultural issues than Christ issues. A few years ago the paper called to ask me my opinion on prayer at football games … they were surprised by my answer and didn’t publish much of what I said (they already had the story written and were just looking for quotes that fit their thesis). I am not in favor of it … partly because I don’t care for football (sorry, I’ll never be a real Texan) … but, really, it’s because I think prayer is being used for the wrong reasons in that context. It often comes down to “pray so God is on our side”. And it seems trivialized to me. Do we really mean, Christ enter into our playing so that all players treat each other with compassion and kindness, generosity and sacrifice … of course not. How is the prayer at football games really Christian? It’s the same with prayer in school, the Bible or ten commandments at the courthouse. We’re fighting the wrong battle. These things are merely facades which keep us thinking we are a Christian nation. And that’s why they are such hot political issues. As long as we keep thinking we’re a Christian nation, the church loses its prophetic voice in society.

This is why it is so vitally important that we continue to fight for the separation of church and state; that we fight for all marginalized voices to be given the right to be heard and respected. Christ speaks through those marginalized voices.

This was all written in response to Anne’s post … canceling worship on Christmas Day because it happens to fall on a Sunday … that is the epitome of the Church acclimating to culture and giving up its power and influence on one of the most holy days of the Christian calendar.

Yesterday at jury duty a young woman, after find out that I was a pastor, asked what I thought of all the “holiday” vs. “christmas” stuff. If I thought that a Christmas tree was really a Christian symbol I might be more upset about it being called a “holiday” tree. Most of what we call Christmas these days is more a celebration of the secular consumer holiday. And much of what we call Christian tradition was an acclamation of the older pagan holiday rituals surrounding the winter solstice. Consider this from the Encyclopedia Britannica Online:

“One of the best-known festivals of ancient Rome was the Saturnalia, a winter festival celebrated on December 17–24. Because it was a time of wild merrymaking and domestic celebrations, businesses, schools, and law courts were closed so that the public could feast, dance, gamble, and generally enjoy itself to the fullest. December 25—the birthday of Mithra, the Iranian god of light, and a day devoted to the invincible sun, as well as the day after the Saturnalia—was adopted by the church as Christmas, the nativity of Christ, to counteract the effects of these festivals.”

My opinion is that most of what American culture portrays as Christmas is much more like Saturnalia than it is a real “Christian” holy day. The Christian Christmas, for instance, doesn’t really begin until December 25th. Then the celebration continues for 12 days until Epiphany with the coming of the wise men. The four weeks before Christmas are a time of fasting and prayer, devotion, confession, and service, not parties, lights, cards, and cookies. When we celebrate the Christmas season beginning on the day after Thanksgiving … we are celebrating a secular holiday. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if we call it a Christmas tree or a Holiday tree. What really matters is whether we are living and celebrating the Coming of Christ in our lives and into the world.

Thanks for putting up with my Sermon for the day.

God was with me that day.  Not only did I manage to get on an earlier flight, but it appeared that the two seats next to me would be empty for the trip … for me, that’s heaven.  Just before the hatch door to the jet way closed, a young man stumbled onto the plane.  We made eye-contact as he made his way down the aisle; I knew he was heading to the seat next to mine.  He asked me to hold his venti-sized cup of Starbucks while he found the last inch in the overhead bins.  Then he climbed over me into his window seat.

As I handed him his coffee, I commented that I might have stolen a sip if it had been mocha.  He laughed and we began a conversation that lasted all the way from Chicago O-Hare to Bush Intercontinental.  He was one of the top sales people for a large software company in Houston, and I was the third pastor he sat next to on a flight in the previous two weeks.  Maybe God was trying to say something to him, he wondered.  His wife who was 7 months pregnant with their first child was Catholic and he was raised by a Catholic mom and a Unitarian dad.  That introduction led us to a lively discussion about the role of faith in the life of a child, and in his life, and in society in general.

He finally confronted me with a snicker; he and I were really in the same business … sales … and that the bottom line was we both had to be master schmoozers and manipulators.  He understood why he did it – to sell his company’s product and to ultimately support his family.  But, why did it really make a difference to me whether he had faith in God or not?

Gee, nothing like getting to the point.  Why does it matter to me?  I thought about that question for weeks afterwards.  Why does it matter?  Why do evangelism?  Isn’t it really just sales?  And isn’t this one of the real struggles Presbyterians have with evangelism?  We consider it to be little more than sales and marketing.  And who wants to be a sleazy schmoozer or manipulator?

If we are going to take our vision 2010 seriously … growing congregations that passionately engage their community to make disciples … we will need to grapple seriously with that question.  Why does it matter to us whether our community has faith in Christ or not?

If our primary answer has to do with the survival of our particular congregation or denomination, our style of worship or our great Sunday School, then perhaps we are only marketing, because these things are ultimately self-centered.  Evangelism has to be Kingdom-centered, not congregation-centered or pastor-centered or, even, denomination-centered.  For me, personally, evangelism is about the Kingdom of God being at our doorstep.  It’s about a glorious future which already exists in Christ.  It’s about moving from a self-centered society filled with “to each his own” and “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” to a God-centered world filled with compassion, hospitality, generosity, and prosperity.  Can you catch a glimpse of that life?  It’s what Jesus refers to as the Kingdom of God coming “on earth as it is in heaven.”  That’s the answer I gave the young Chicagoan on the plane to Houston.

I told my seat-mate that even in the short time we’ve been talking, I have already grown to care about him and his family.  I believe that having a faith that’s centered on Christ will influence his family in ways far greater than we can begin to imagine.  More than just “doing good,” a Christian life is living each day deeply connected with pure goodness.  It may not bring them riches or guarantee them health, but it will bring them a deep peace and joy.  I want that for them, not me.  That’s the difference between what I do and what he does; if there’s a flavor of manipulation or sales, it’s not my intent.  I, personally, gain nothing.  And as we de-planed I realized, I didn’t even know his name.

I had a sense when we left that I was one of a string of people God would use in this man’s life over the next few months and years.  And, I even had a sense that one day God would be using him not only to challenge people like me about the purpose of sharing our faith, but in even greater ways.  He’d make a great new church planter one day.  I continue to pray for him and his family. Yes, God was with us both that day.

Published in the January 2006 edition of Connections