wonders and reflections in God's presence

So, the bible readings for today (OYB) included a lot of “rules” that God gave Moses to share with the Hebrew people. Some of them we still treasure today. Others we have dismissed because they just don’t seem to fit us the same way they used to for one reason or another … like we don’t sell our children into slavery anymore, so we don’t need rules on how to or how not to. It all reminded me of a phone call I had last Thursday … from another pastor in Houston. He asked, “how do we decide where to draw the line?” When are the rules “cultural” and no longer applicable? How do we know? How do we decide?

I felt I only had a trite answer … “pray about it”.

But when I heard the context of the question it hit me personally. He was on his way to visit someone who was trying to talk a good friend out of experiementing with new age mysticism … it says we should stay away from mediums and psychic things in the Bible, afterall. Well … little did he know he was talking to a woman who has personal experience with people close to her exploring psychic and mystical expression of truth. (My mom is a very good meduim… one who sees her gifts as a gift from God to be used for the common good.) hmmm …. this is too close to home. Everyone KNOWS the Bible condemns consulting mediums. So how do we know where to draw the line?

I deflected the direct question (something I’m pretty good at) and talked about what a great opportunity this was to engage a person on a spiritual journey … if they are interested in psychic and spiritual things we have a natural “in” to talk and walk our faith with them. That’s really good, in my opinion. Is it so important to convince her that she’s wrong to explore this other path? Why not allow her natural curiosity to help lead her to knowing Christ? Why is it that Christians want to begin a spiritual conversation with someone by explaining how they are wrong? Why can’t we just meet them and have honest conversations about our own spiritual journey in the process? And thank God for the opportunity.

OK … so I’m biased … my brother is gay and my parents are “new age”. (don’t you think we’d made a great sitcom?) Seriously, though, I’ve had years of both learning from them and, I hope, teaching them a few things, too. Could it be that my job isn’t to change them? But, perhaps to allow God to use them to change me into being a little more like Christ? Could it be that my role is to keep building the relationships of love and acceptance so that we can all experience the grace of God in real and tangible ways?

I guess I know that knowing where to “draw the line” is terribly important for most people. It just seems that everytime I seem to know where to draw it, God challenges me again. Maybe drawing the line, isn’t the important thing …. maybe crossing it is more important.

Comments are really welcome … really …

I found this on Alan’s blog and I had to post it. Don’t hit the play button if you are easily offended, don’t like bad words, or like to eat your weiners cut up in sauerkraut.

I think it says a lot about evangelism and the way we engage people in talking about the Gospel. Any comments?

Interesting, I read the latest email leadership newsletter from Christianity Today this afternoon … and there was an article from Brian McLaren talking about why we (pastors) shouldn’t answer the “homosexual question” directly.

Usually when I’m asked about this subject, it’s by conservative Christians wanting to be sure that we conform to what I call “radio-orthodoxy,” i.e. the religio-political priorities mandated by many big-name religious broadcasters. Sometimes it’s asked by ex-gays who want to be sure they’ll be supported in their ongoing re-orientation process, or parents whose children have recently “come out.”

The question itself is complex. Either it’s a political questions seeking to separate “us” from “them,” or it’s a deeply personal issue that needs to be addressed through a deeper pastoral relationship, not a quick answer. And we are trying to reach real people with Christ, not making a political statement.

Most of the emerging leaders I know share my agony over this question. We fear that the whole issue has been manipulated far more than we realize by political parties seeking to shave percentage points off their opponent’s constituency. We see whatever we say get sucked into a vortex of politicized culture-wars rhetoric—and we’re pastors, evangelists, church-planters, and disciple-makers, not political culture warriors. Those who bring us honest questions are people we are trying to care for in Christ’s name, not cultural enemies we’re trying to vanquish.

The truth is the issue of homosexuality is much more complex that most of those on two “sides” will ever admit. Read the recent comments on the Harbour Blog and we see that illustrated time and time again … it’s just wrong, no question. Well, most of us realize that to take an absolute stand for or against homosexuality only divides us from the people we are called to serve. And even more than that … Brian admits that for many emerging church leaders … they just don’t know.

Frankly, many of us don’t know what we should think about homosexuality. We’ve heard all sides, but no position has yet won our confidence so that we can say “it seems good to the Holy Spirit and us.” That alienates us from both the liberals and conservatives who seem to know exactly what we should think. Even if we are convinced that all homosexual behavior is always sinful, we still want to treat gay and lesbian people with more dignity, gentleness, and respect than our colleagues do. If we think that there may actually be a legitimate context for some homosexual relationships, we know that the biblical arguments are nuanced and multilayered, and the pastoral ramifications are staggeringly complex. We aren’t sure if or where lines are to be drawn, nor do we know how to enforce with fairness whatever lines are drawn.

He suggests we put a five-year moratorium on making pronouncements. I don’t know how sucessful that would be … the Presbyterians have been trying that … and after two moratoriums, we are still in the same bloody fight. What’s wrong with just putting aside the question for now … and focusing on building our relationship with Christ and in community with all those who want the same relationship. I believe that over time, Christ will lead us all to the answer that is best.

That is why Eklektos is not making pronouncements saying homosexualty is good or bad any more than we say sexuality is good or bad. We realize that there are layers of complexity which go beyond our understanding, there are Biblical and pastoral issues that are beyond giving the “right” answer, and too many of us just don’t know for sure.

I took the spiritual gift inventory and “hospitality” was NOT one of my gifts!  But there were people in my church who were off the charts in hospitality!  You know who they are – the ones who are always preparing table decorations for the next church dinner.  They are the ones who love to cook, bake, decorate, and entertain – the Martha Stewarts of your church.  Now, I love being with people; and I actually love to host parties at my house.  But, for me, hospitality amounts to the following: “There’s the refrigeration, and there’s the pantry; when you’re hungry, help yourself.”

Most recently I’ve been reading that hospitality is a key to successful church growth.  The experts make a distinction between merely being a “friendly church” and a church that shows “real hospitality.”  We’ve all heard of the jokes about the frozen chosen.  Perhaps you’ve even visited a church one Sunday and had no one say a word to you the whole time you were there.  Even churches that consider themselves “friendly” are warm and open to each other, but relatively cold to the stranger.  You know that a sanctuary that is only 60% occupied on a Sunday morning, can still feel “full” and closed to an outsider.

To our credit, most of our churches have become much better at appearing friendly.  We have greeters are placed strategically at the door to meet visitors with a smile.  Information desks and Welcome Centers are geared especially for newcomers who are seeking information on the church.  We wear nametags so we can greet each other by name.  More and more, there are genuine smiles and welcomes come from people in the pews, and sometimes even invitations to join new groups in the church.  But real hospitality, radical hospitality, is even more than that … and it doesn’t have much to do with table decorations either.  Radical hospitality has to do with making room in your life for someone.  To be a growing church, we need to make room not only in the church, but in our lives, for new people.

For centuries (even millenniums) hospitality has been a moral mandate.  It involved welcoming the stranger.  Not just smiling at them and saying how happy you are to meet them, but really welcoming them into our homes and offering them food, shelter, and protection.[1]  Remember the condemnation God had for the city of Sodom when they were not hospitable to the strangers in their midst.  As Christians, too, we are called to welcome the strangers into our homes.

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

In some post-evangelical conversations there is a distinction being made between the Gospel about Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The latter being the Good News that Jesus, himself, proclaimed in his teachings and that he sent the apostles out to proclaim.  In the sending of the seventy, for instance, Jesus tells the apostles, “… say to them, ‘The Kingdom of God has come near to you.’” (Luke 10:9 NRSV) Or, as Eugene Peterson translates it in The Message, “… tell them, ‘God’s kingdom is right on your doorstep!’”

As Kevin Boyd led the presbytery staff in mid-week prayer and Holy Communion the Wednesday after Katrina hit, he shared with us the response St. Paul had been offering a handful of families stranded in a hotel nearby the church.  He said they literally started showing up on their doorstep family after family after family.  A few families from New Orleans grew to over 100 people within days.  Each one had a similar story.  They had sought refuge in an inexpensive hotel for a night or two; but their money was quickly running out.  They needed food; shelter; and many other daily necessities.

Kevin said, “We felt called to do what we could.”  They started by paying hotel bills for the stranded families; then they began offering a hot supper each night for those who were displaced.  Some nights they fed 40; other nights they fed over 100.  The dinners turned into wonderful times of fellowship.  The people of St. Paul helped the families by providing prayer, friendship, clothing, Bibles, gas, and personal items.  They helped them sign up for food stamps, gave them job leads, sat together with them in hospital rooms, and shared all the latest information on hurricane relief as it became available.

On Sunday over 35 of the evacuees from New Orleans came to worship with the people of St. Paul, and just prior to communion they heard one of the guests sing the spiritual, “God Has Been Good to Me.”  God’s kingdom was right on their doorstep alright.

I think of all the churches in our presbytery that have similar stories to tell.  And all I hear in my mind is the echoing phrase from The Message “God’s kingdom is right on your doorstep!”  One thing is clear to me – our churches have been changed by what they gave and by what they received in answering God’s call.  Whether it was a sheltering people in their fellowship hall or providing money for the feeding of the thousands at the Astrodome … all we have to do to see the awesome majesty of God’s kingdom is open our eyes … it’s right here on our doorstep, in our emails, in our connectedness, in our oneness and compassion.

In an email about a week after they began caring for their neighbors in need, Kevin writes, “We began this process by saying, ‘we can’t!’ God answered quietly, ‘No, but I can!’”  He went on to share all of the miraculous ways people of faith came together and provided for these people.  The result was far greater than anything the people of St. Paul Presbyterian could have hoped for on their own.  To me, that’s the essence of the Gospel.  “No, you can’t, but I can, and I will.”

My prayer today is that as we continue responding to the needs of those impacted by Katrina, we will all pause and remember … the kingdom of God is right on our doorstep!

printed in the October 2005 issue of Connections, a publication of the Presbytery of New Covenant