“Marks of the Christian” Lenten Journey – Day 10, Saturday

Gifted

When he was in grade school, my son said to me, “Dad, it is humiliating.” What he was talking about was my use of puppets for children’s sermons in worship. It was OK to use a puppet in Sunday School, but not in worship. Nope. That was humiliating.

And so I didn’t. It wasn’t until I was at my second call, eleven years into my ministry, that I finally got permission from him to use puppets in worship. As long as he didn’t have to come up for the children’s sermon, it was OK for me to make a fool of myself with puppets.

Doing the puppet thing is easy for me. In fact it is too easy. The conversations that I have with the puppets is a way that played when I was a kid. My grandmother used to tell stories in a very similar manner. And, because it is so easy for me, it embarrasses me very quickly when people gush about it. It feels like people are gushing about how I eat food or walk from one point to another. I just like having an excuse to play with the kids.

And yet, isn’t this the way that it is with gifts? It isn’t the complicated stuff. It’s the stuff that comes naturally to us. It is the stuff we are somehow born with. “We have gifts that differ according to the grace give to us . . .” My undeserved gift is doing the puppet thing. Someone else’s undeserved gift is being able to put a meal together. Someone else can run an adding machine. Another person can throw a football with amazing accuracy. Another person can make sound systems work. Etc. Etc. Etc. We are entrusted with these gifts in order to bless others, and they do indeed differ from one another, but they are all gifts of grace. All these gifts offer us the opportunity to let the light of Christ shine through us, “so that they may see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven.” And what a blessing, (a gift of grace), that these gifts come so easily to us.
Pastor Keith

“Marks of the Christian” Lenten Journey – Day 9, Friday

Needy

I feel like flipping it around and pondering the opposite for a moment, that being: “I don’t need you.” It is difficult for me, at this moment, to envision the circumstances where that wouldn’t be heard as an insult, a rejection, or a put down. “I don’t need you.” I suppose I might say that to parents who would want to take my hand now, as an adult, in order to help me cross the street safely. I don’t need their help crossing the street, but I still need them. I still need any and all people in my life, in one way or another, even the ones that drive me crazy.

“We, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” What an incredible proclamation. Because we are joined together in Christ, we don’t just “stand” side by side. We are interwoven in such a way that we are a part of one another. Therefore, your concerns become my concerns and my joys become your joys. Being joined together in the one body of Christ means that we are also a part of each other’s lives. Therefore, I weep when I see people experiencing the terror of an earthquake in Japan.

A concern that I have politically is how comfortable a growing segment of our population is with promoting the myth of individuality along with survival of the fittest. I’m glad that I’m not living like an animal on the Serengeti. I like it that there are others who are watching out for my wellbeing, like police officers, and teachers, and fire fighters and nurses. I’d like to think that I’m doing the same. Compassion is what happens when we realize that we are “members one of another,” that we need each other, that we are in this together. Sure, we will not always agree on how best to take care of one another, but I’d like to enter that discussion with the assumption that we agree on our basic need to take care of one another. Lately that hasn’t always been the case.

Yes, there is a certain joy that comes when I don’t need to have a parent holding on to my bicycle seat, or sitting with me when I drive a vehicle. I still enjoy being able to proclaim, “I did it all by myself.” And yet, that statement is the beginning of a slippery slope. Did I really do it all by myself? Didn’t someone teach me basic skills at some point? Weren’t there others who provided the raw materials? I didn’t invent or manufacture the tools. We don’t really do it all by ourselves, and that’s OK. It is OK to need each other, and it is OK to be needy. Being needy opens our eyes to the precious gift of Christ present within community.
Pastor Keith

“Marks of the Christian” Lenten Journey – Day 8, Thursday

Connection

I love this quote in today’s reading: “The fulfillment of my life is not private awareness of the immensity of your love. It is to be connected with others in a sea of love that flows from one heart to another, connecting us flesh-to-flesh so that the illusion of our separateness is washed away.”

“Me and Jesus.” That is such a temptation for us. I firmly believe this is why Jesus makes us pray “our,” “us,” and “we” in the Lord’s Prayer. Think of how much more turned in on ourselves we would be if the prayer was filled with “my,” “me,” and “I.”

Yesterday I heard someone, not quite proudly, say why he didn’t go to weekly worship or participate in the life of a congregation. He said that part of it was due to the pettiness that is so often present within congregations. Yes, there can be a lot of pettiness within congregations. We are human and we are sinners. But, we need each other, because we are incomplete without each other. Love doesn’t happen in a private bubble. We need the people we disagree with as well as those we don’t. We need the give and take. God speaks to us in the midst of and through these relationships. So even though we can be petty at times, there is much greater value in the connections we have as sisters and brothers in Christ.

Today I regret not saying this to him.

Pastor Keith

“Marks of the Christian” Lenten Journey – Day 7, Wednesday

Contentment

The author’s reflections struck very, very close to home for me, as I’m sure they do with most people. There’s not much I feel I can or want to add, except this:

Contentment can be seen as the opposite of coveting, something that is the subject of two of the Ten Commandments. When we covet, what are we assuming about God is that God has shorted us in some way; that God, for some reason, did not adequately provide for us; that we missed the boat when it came to receiving all the necessary gifts from God. Coveting assumes that God is a kind of doddering old man that misses an important detail from time to time, particularly in our personal lives. When we savor the fact that God has completely and adequately supplied us with all that we need, coveting diminishes and contentment flourishes.
Pastor Keith

“Marks of the Christian” Lenten Journey – Day 6, Tuesday

Freedom

Too many think that losing oneself into God is a form of imprisonment. It is a worry based upon an assumption that God is nothing but laws and expectations that are way out of our reach. I think the author did a wonderful job of describing the freedom that actually happens when we lose ourselves into God, when we finally let go of all the things that we try to do to make ourselves gods. “Let go and let God.” There is such truth to this and the experience is very freeing.

I’ve been thinking about my Dad a lot lately, who was cake decorator by trade. I saw him get lost in his art as he created these works of beauty for birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, retirements, confirmations, and other celebrations in the lives of those who received these cakes.. He was not thinking so much about how he was making a rose or writing a name. His overriding concern was that the people receiving this particular cake would experience the joy that comes with looking at something of beauty and meaning. By getting himself out of the way he was free to let God use the abilities and gifts that God had given him to bring to joy to others through his art. It was a way of “letting go and letting God.”

So what about the art of parenting? Or the art of conversing with a loved one, or even someone that we really disagree with? Or what about the art of explaining the mysteries hidden within accounting balance sheets, or the art of selling a quality product to someone? What about the art of being a loving spouse or the art of being a good student? How is it that we can get our selves out of the way so that God’s gifts can shine through? Doing so is the grace of living into God’s freedom.
Pastor Keith

“Marks of the Christian” Lenten Journey – Day 5, Monday

(I apologize for the lateness of this discussion starter. I need to get into a rhythm and so far that rhythm has not yet arrived.)

Discernment

For a few years that word was VERY important to me. The title of my D.Min. thesis, (before the colon), was “Discerning God’s Dreams.” During the few years I was doing D.Min studies and preparing for my thesis, I tried to get my hands on any book or article that offered any kind of insight into what I called the “art of discernment,” (which was a part of the title after the colon). Needless to say, I’ve given a lot of thought to discernment, and after all that thought I still find it somewhat perplexing.

Here’s what perplexes me: God wants us to hear God’s dreams regarding the mission of God in the world and how we, individually and corporately, are called and gifted to live into those dreams. So, God speaks these dreams and we are invited to discern them. Discernment, however, is far from being an exact science. How do we know that we have discerned God’s dreams? And yet, it isn’t a game of Hide and Seek where we must stumble upon God’s dreams if we are lucky enough or smart enough. God does not keep from us the things that would give our lives joy and meaning. And yet, in order for us to experience total freedom, God cannot reveal God’s self to us totally, so there needs to be an element of mystery to revelation that demands faith. It is the exposed and yet hidden part of God’s dreams and how we are called to discern them that still perplexes me.

And yet, by the grace of God, discernment does happen, and I have had the privilege to participate in it within this congregation. I have seen this congregation make significant decisions based upon the art of discernment. I have made decisions in my own life based upon discerning God’s dreams.

In the midst of the perplexity, I think I am learning that discernment cannot be forced in any way. God is not a vending machine waiting for us to put in the right change. It is all about an active, living relationship which, like any relationship, demands both speaking and listening, as well as patience – setting my expectations aside for a while. With God we usually do a lot of speaking, but we are often reluctant to listen. How do we listen? We listen in prayer as we read the Scriptures, and as we talk with one another, the living body of Christ. By listening we open ourselves to the possibility of being changed. Listening is the foundational piece of love. By listening we can and do hear about those dreams of God and those dreams will always transform us by the renewing of our minds.
Pastor Keith

“Marks of the Christian” Lenten Journey – Day 4, Saturday

Vision

I was taken aback today with the connection of “vision” and “repent.” I am so caught up in the word “repent” signifying some kind of change in our behavior or action that it is difficult for me to think about it in the way that the author is describing, something much more fundamental, and thus, that much more out of my hands. How do we change our way of knowing, perceiving or grasping reality? Aren’t we stuck with what we have – nature and nurture?

The reality is, no, by God’s grace Jesus is “repenting” us. By the Spirit of God we are being transformed. We are being changed, and God is doing this in so many wonderful ways. God is changing us through God’s living Word in worship, Scripture, the gathering of the community of believers, the sacraments and through words of forgiveness. Through these things God gives us a new way of seeing, knowing, and understanding the world, a vision that is more like God’s. When God transforms us by the renewing of our minds, we can’t help but see things a little more like God sees them.

And, what God sees is not all roses and cupcakes. God also sees the brokenness, the trauma, and the evil. I wept yesterday as I saw items flying off the shelves at a grocery store in Japan as the earthquake was occurring. I felt the terror that they were going through and it broke my heart. This comes with acquiring God’s vision. Not only do we see the wonder of God’s presence in the world, but we also feel the pain that is present as well. This vision, as wonderful and as difficult as it can be at times, is what accompanies being God’s love in the world.
Pastor Keith

“Marks of the Christian” Lenten Journey – Day 3, Friday

Worship

Although I certainly felt the author’s envious desire to worship as the cardinal does or the trees, I also feel forced to acknowledge that they cannot help but worship. We, on the other hand, having been given freedom of choice, are not bound to worship. We are able to limit our worship to the point of having it barely exist at all. Like the author, I know that when I limit my worship, my life has less joy in it. Therefore we end up envying the beings that are caught up in the joy of endless worship.

A friend of mine recently called her work on behalf of the downtrodden “liturgy.” I was thrilled to hear this work given such a name. I think it is exactly what the Apostle Paul is aiming at in this verse. The word, “liturgy,” comes from the Greek and it means, “work of the people.” What we do in weekly worship as a congregation is the work of the people, but this is not and cannot be our only work. Informed by our weekly worship gatherings we must see all that we do as an extension of that liturgy. Working on behalf of those who are downtrodden is the natural extension of “The Lord be with you. And also with you.”

And this is my deepest prayer, again reflecting the envy present in the author’s reflections for today: That as we engage in the liturgy outside of corporate worship as a congregation we might discover the deeper joys of a life dedicated to praising God in all that we say in do.
Pastor Keith

“Marks of the Christian” Lenten Journey – Day 2, Thursday

Sacrifice

For a long time I have been concerned that sacrifice is becoming increasingly more distasteful in our society. How is it that we as a country can be engaged in two wars but only ask our volunteer military personnel to make sacrifices for the rest of the country? I think we should all be asked to make sacrifices as we did in World War II with the purchase of War Bonds and with rationing. Everyone stepped up to make a sacrifice, willingly or not. Why can’t we be asked to make sacrifices for the sake of the world, our country, or our neighbor living next door? I think we are becoming more sacrifice averse as a people.

Love is all about sacrifice. Being patient and kind, not insisting on one’s own way, bearing all things, etc., (1Corinthians 13), these are the sacrifices that love willingly makes. To be bearers of Christ in the world means we willingly sacrifice our interests for the wellbeing of others.

I love how the Apostle Paul calls this a “living sacrifice.” Having the ritual sacrifices of the Temple in the back of his mind, Paul is saying that what we do is more than just burn up something of value. It is about giving life to the world. Yes, we let go, as with the Temple sacrifices, but the letting go is for the purpose of creating life. It is for the purpose of being God’s love in the world. This is what we hunger for as God’s people. We ask God to use us as a living sacrifice for the world so that we might be the presence of God’s love wherever we are.
Pastor Keith

“Marks of the Christian” Lenten Journey – Ash Wednesday

Remembering Mercies

As I write this my neighbor has just blown the extremely heavy snow out of my driveway. About a half hour earlier my other neighbor plowed out the parking area in front of our house. I do not know what I would do without these neighbors. I had no time today to shovel, and it would have been shoveling because my snowblower is broken. I did not ask them to do this, but I’m so grateful that they have mercy on this neighbor of theirs.

As I ponder each of these gifts in light of today’s reading, I’m moved by the countless number of mercies that visit my life each day. Most of these mercies, of course, I am blind to. The few that I may notice I do not usually appreciate with adequate reverence. That God continues to flood my life with these mercies, whether or not I offer even a modicum of thanks, leaves me numb with gratitude and awe. To be so loved and so blessed. How grateful I am to be able to have this moment today to remember and celebrate this.

Again, please be sure to share your thoughts, questions, concerns, reactions, etc., using the comment opportunity found at the bottom of each of these postings.
Pastor Keith