You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2012.
This is pretty early in Mark’s narrative. Still chapter 1. Already Jesus can’t go into town. His healing ministry has made him so popular he’s being mobbed. So Jesus was a country preacher.
Check out
Interview with Phyllis Tickle: http://churchnext.tv/2011/12/14/rev-phyllis-tickle-how-to-prepare-for-the-future-of-the-church/
If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe betide me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.
For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
I woke up in church this morning, in an uncomfortable cot. Across the room, Matt was still asleep. After starting the coffee, I went back to bed, staring at the ceiling in the dark room, listening to the coffee perk. I ran through my dream. I was running against Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination. He arrived in a two-million-dollar car. I felt outgunned in rhetoric and wealth. It was an absurd dream, as dreams usually are, symbolic in so many ways, I won’t bother trying to parse it.
Our little church that averages around 140 worshippers on a Sunday is taking its turn housing four homeless families. The program is now called Family Promise. Homeless families with children work with a social worker to find work and affordable housing. They have ninety days. Over the last eight years I have worked with this program I have gotten to know quite a few people and hear their stories. I don’t know if any of the candidates have ever spent the night in a church with a homeless family, but you learn a lot. Patti finally found the courage to report her abusive husband to the police. Good choice, but now he’s in jail and she can’t afford her apartment, let alone the grocery money to feed her two kids on the $8/hour job she’s holding down.
If you make $8/hour, that’s about $16,000/year. That’s below the poverty level for a family of three ($18,530 in 2011). Try to make it on that amount. Or if you can’t, read about someone who did, in Nickeled and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich (http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0805063897).
My part is small. I just stay overnight once in a while. But this small church is making a big difference for these families. I’ve seen huge churches that have little to no impact on poverty in their city. Some churches are righteousness clubs. They teach that God wants you to be wealthy, and if you follow God’s laws, you will be rich and successful. The absurd implication of this is that the poor must not have sufficient faith, or be following God’s laws. The prevailing mentality is that poor are poor because they are lazy. The 46 million people living in poverty in America (15%) must be sitting on their duffs. This kind of rhetoric flies in the face of the hundreds of passages in the Bible that calls us to concern for the poor. It’s almost as if we’re reading different Bibles.
Hebrew Law required landowners glean their fields only once. Don’t go back for what you missed. The stated intent was that something should be left behind for immigrants, wanders and the poor. This way, no one starves. Today some would call this an entitlement system, or a welfare state. In the kingdom of God, no one starves. This used to be a vision in our country.
“I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies,
education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits.”
—MLK (10 December 1964, Oslo, Norway)
Nobody agrees on how to measure poverty. There are many different ways, but however you do it, it becomes pretty clear that at least half the world’s population is living in poverty. It’s pretty overwhelming, and this may be why it’s so tempting for some Christians to hear only Jesus’ statement, “The poor will always be with you,” and then ignore everything else he said and did for those hungry, thirsty, naked, stranger, sick and imprisoned.
In this little congregation’s homeless ministry, the families receive a boost, but the impact on us is what grabs me. Today I held a 3-month old child for quite some time. We’re doing our part so that she can have a bright future. I had a discussion with a preschooler about the merit of several toys. A mom from Minnesota teased me about breakfast. There is a substantial difference between dropping a couple bucks in the plate to support a shelter somewhere across town, and housing families in your church, face-to-face. One involves charity. The other involves a relationship. When you sit with people and hear their stories, your understanding increases and your perceptions change. We’ve seen cars donated, and jobs offered. Lives have been altered on both sides of this equation.
Turning Sunday school rooms into bedrooms is a small inconvenience. The ministry makes a big difference. The faceless have a face. There’s room in the inn.
Waiting on God
FIRST READING
After 39 chapters of ranting prophetic doom on Judah (and on other nations, to be inclusive), this book changes voice to the hopeful promise of a new creation and a new kingdom in chapters 40-55. First Isaiah prophesies Judah’s destruction and exile. Second Isaiah, written perhaps 200 years later, in the exile, prophesies the return from Babylon. Then in chapter 56 we change again to a third author writing after the exile. Isaiah is a collection of pre-exilic, exilic and post-exilic writings. Verse 21 is a continuation of the answer to the question in verse 18: “To what will you liken God?” God is not an idol that you can cast and guild, or carve so that it won’t rot or tip over. The God we’re talking about sits above the earth. We’re like grasshoppers to this God, who created the universe and spread out the heavens like a curtain. Implicitly: If this God could bring you into exile, this God could bring you out. This God could give you strength for the journey. Empowering the powerless, the young, the old.
Those who wait on the Lord will have their strength renewed. They will soar with the eagles. Those who wait on the Lord are the יֵוְק (u·qui). They are “those expecting” that God will show up and do what God does: give life and create out of nothing. This is the new creation.
1 Corinthians 9 takes on a different theme. It is a common Pauline logic: I have the right to charge for the gospel, but I do not make use of that right, like Christ who was in the form of God, but didn’t exploit that status. I have the right to be free, but I give up that right to be a slave to all. I become all things to all people for the sake of the gospel, so that I might share in its blessings.
In Mark 1, we return to a “waiting on the Lord” theme, but first Jesus heals Simon’s mother-in-law of a fever. I wonder what she had. Could it be malaria? Whatever it was, word spread fast, and by sundown all the sick and possessed were brought to him. ἦν ὅλη ἡ πόλις: “The whole city” plopped down on their doorstep, and he healed their sick, casting out demons. How do you recharge from such an exhausting ministry?
We’re told that Jesus got up in the morning while it was still night. Know that feeling? (πρωi ἔννυχα, pro-ee enucha, morning/night.) What for? He went to a lonely place (ἔρημον τόπον,eremon topon – lonely, deserted, desolate, alone place), to pray. He went to wait on the Lord, who renews our strength, so that we can mount up on wings like eagles. We use this God-given strength, not for self-aggrandizement, but in service to others. We use it to bring good news and healing to the world.
PASTORAL REFLECTION
The preacher may wish to use this week to talk about prayer, not as a laundry list of things we want from God, but rather as a time of silent waiting upon God, the wellspring of life, who brings hope and strength. The good news is that God gives, even when we don’t ask. Our very lives are an unrequested gift. And even when in old age our strength wanes, and our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed. God gives.
Where is your lonely place where you wait for God? The life and ministry of the church grows out of a life of prayer. We cannot sustain our strength for ministry in this world without returning to the well for the water of life.
We have all known well-meaning activists who have set out to change the world, only to run out of steam mid-course. Perhaps you have been that person. Without a spiritual source, we lose altitude quickly. The rigors of public ministry – exposing evil to the light, serving in Jesus’ name, going the extra mile, loving the unlovable, touching the untouchable, healing the sick, casting out evil spirits – are simply too difficult. We run out of gas. What fills your tank? How might the preacher seriously engage the congregation in pondering this question?
Pastor, former bishop and Coordinator of the ELCA Malaria Campaign, Andrea DeGroot Nesdahl suggests that it is quite likely Simon’s in-law had malaria. For those participating in the effort to contain malaria by 2015, this could be a great Sunday to splash the campaign. Go to www.ELCA.org/malaria and click “resources” for envelopes, posters, bulletin inserts, videos, youth materials, worship materials and more.
When we trust that God will refresh, renew and restore, we are free to give ourselves away for the life of the world. We can give until we have nothing left, because we know that lonely place where we can wait upon the Lord who renews strength. We know the more we give, the more we will receive, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing. And we long to be emptied, for the joy of being refilled. We need to be filled. As Mother Teresa said, “God cannot fill what is already full.”
I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings. – 1 Corinthians 9:23
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” –Luke 15:1-2
Who was Jesus hardest on in the gospels? Jesus was a magnet to outsiders, and he took a lot of heat from the insiders. He loved them all, but seems to be exasperated with the insiders. When I ask people, church folk and unchurched folk, “Who was Jesus hardest on in the gospels, “sinners” or “Pharisees?”, they all know the answer. It’s funny. Everyone knows.
Jesus enters Jericho and he immediately gravitates to the most disliked person in town. It just so happens he is up in a tree. Zacchaeus is drawn to Jesus as well. He has become rich collecting taxes for an occupying army. Zacchaeus admits openly to fraud. Jesus goes to his house for dinner. Reading the story carefully in Luke 19, “all” begin to grumble. If you pay attention to outsiders, the insiders will grumble. Expect it. Love the insiders anyway. Pay attention to the outsiders anyway. Live in the tension, knowing that it leads to a cross.
What does it mean, to become focused on reaching outsiders? No one can give you a checklist. There is no recipe. One cannot spell out what it means to love the “other” in every context and every place. There simply are no shortcuts. Here it is: You simply, honestly, really, really have to care for the outsider in your context. If you care for the outsider, you will get to know the outsider. Once you know the outsider in your context, what you need to do in your place will start to become clear.
An analogy. Someone may say: “The key to a successful marriage is to love your spouse.” It’s obvious, but true. Then you might ask, “What do you mean by love your spouse? Be specific.” But no one can tell you exactly what things you need to do to love your spouse. What does your spouse need? You have to get to know your spouse, know his or her needs, joys, hopes, sorrows. There is no shortcut. People can give you hints, but you simply have to know the one you love, in order to love fully.
There are, however, some basic human needs which you could meet for your spouse. Begin with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Food. Shelter. Gifts. But what kind of gifts? There is work to do. Love takes effort. It is the same with outsiders. You can begin with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, but you will have to get to know the stranger in order to reach out to the stranger.
Once someone starts making suggestions we move from gospel to law, and it gives the illusion that you don’t have to do the hard work of getting to know the other. Just do this list of things. It doesn’t work that way. The truth is, there are no shortcuts to becoming totally invested in the well-being of the other. There are no shortcuts to getting to know your neighbor, those outside your walls, the marginalized on the fringes, the outcast.
After talking about focusing on outsiders, one caring and committed church member said to me, “But we already give to the food pantry.” She was saying, in essence, “Look, we already do care for the outsider and it hasn’t improved our membership.” Several responses:
First, the needy are not just the hungry. There are a lot of people out there who have few material needs, but are hemorrhaging from spiritual needs. Every church should support a food pantry, or become one. Feeding the hungry is part of Jesus’ agenda if one takes Matthew 25 seriously. But people are also lonely, grieving, searching, broken and in debt up to their eyeballs. They are wounded from divorce. They are trying to figure out how to make blended families work. They are trying to find meaning. So, while we start with Maslow, we can’t leave it at that.
Second, loving the outsider is not a membership strategy. Loving your neighbor may or may not grow membership. It must, however, be our priority. Proclaiming and living the gospel is about following Christ, regardless of the consequences. Peter preached and three thousand were baptized. Stephen preached and he was stoned to death. Churches that really care about the world are magnetic, just as Jesus’ ministry was magnetic, but there are no guarantees. Context matters.
Third, taking food to a food pantry, while a very kind thing, is not getting to know your neighbor. One can give to a food pantry without even meeting the neighbor. Giving to someone else’s food pantry could even be a strategy for avoiding meeting the neighbor. We can feel good about ourselves for being “charitable,” without actually having to get into the messy business of engaging the other. It also affords us the luxury of giving to those in need without questioning the underlying realities that lead to poverty.
If we don’t care enough about the outsider to get to know him or her, then anything we do will be patronizing. It will seem like a hand-out. It will seem like we are just trying to feel good, or pad our rolls. Outsiders can smell that a mile away. If the purpose for doing evangelism, to use insider terminology, is institutional survival, if it is to feel better about ourselves, to find people to sit on our committees, or to pay our bills, they will not experience this as the Christ who comes to save. If we do not care to know those outside the church, they will not experience the “love that will not let me go,” the love that draws me irresistibly, the hope of the world.
My first call was to a congregation in Iowa, St. Paul Lutheran Church in Davenport. I was privileged to serve there. I learned volumes with these folks. One thing this congregation did each winter was shovel the sidewalks of the houses adjacent to the property. They also shoveled the driveways of any widows nearby. If this brings a tear to your eye, it should. This is the kind of thing a caring community ought to do. But it was also serving a purpose. It was caring, but it was also a very conscious witness to the community. It’s not easy to live next door to an active church. People are always parking in front of your house, sometimes in front of your driveway. There are cars everywhere, youth group kids prowling around the neighborhood doing all kinds of crazy things, you name it. This church understood they needed to be an asset to the neighborhood, not a liability. There ought to be some benefits to living next door to a church.
This wouldn’t work where I live. We have no snow. You have to know your neighbors, and be attentive.
No one can tell you what to do, exactly, but a few ideas on how to get to know your neighbor might be helpful.
1. Do a survey of your community once a year. It really doesn’t matter what you ask, it just matters that you ask. Show some interest. Maybe it looks like a door-to-door survey in the old-fashioned way, with the clipboard. Don’t ask people churchy questions, but questions like, “What do you perceive to be the top three problems people in our neighborhood/community are facing?” Or questions about family life. Take time to learn. Listen. Remember names. Leave a card or a brochure. Caring conversations will happen. Train your callers.
2. Reroot in the community. Invite a few neighbors to the church for a conversation about life. Also invite the mayor, if you’re in a community small enough that the mayor might come. Invite the local police chief or precinct officer. Invite a public defender and a few teachers from the school system, and so on. Gather these folks together and talk about the assets and challenges they’re facing. You will learn volumes, and position yourself as a healing center of the community. Here’s a question I read once: How effective would Jesus’ preaching of the Kingdom of God have been had it not been accompanied by his ministry of healing in the community? One church in our neck of the woods noticed the astronomically high divorce rate, and began a series of divorce care groups/classes. Their electronic marquis on their sign lists the time the Divorce Care group is available. They are announcing to the community that this is the place where you will find healing for the sorrows in your life. This is a place where you will not be judged.
3. Minister to your visitors. Getting to know outsiders begins with connecting with those who show up on your doorstep. When someone visits a church, they are telling you “We’re looking for something.” By visiting, they have already shown interest. Every person who walks through your doors is looking for something. Why did they come? Have they just moved? Moving is near the top of the list of stressors. Are they looking for friends? Are they survivors of a church fight elsewhere? Have they recently been through a divorce? What’s going on? Care enough to find out. Organize for this. Contacting the visitors is more than recruiting. It’s ministry. Callers need to be attuned to the spiritual needs of those they’re calling. Whether the pastor calls, or trained lay callers, the point is someone cares.
At some point, there has to be human contact with a real, live, human person. There are a lot of churches where this is not the case. You can visit a church and not talk to a single person, and not receive a visit or a phone call after. I know it seems inconceivable, but it’s happened to me. As a visitor, I was even ignored at the passing of the peace at one church my family and I visited.
Loving our neighbors means getting to know our neighbors. Survey. Listen. Reroot in the community. Follow up with the visitors that show up at your church’s doorstep. But don’t stop there. There are many ways to get to know the outsider. Engage, and the God stuff will happen in the mix.
At the end of the story in Luke 15, Zacchaeus gives away half of his stuff, then agrees to repay those he has cheated fourfold. Then Jesus says something astounding: “Today salvation has come to this household.” Jesus had to endure the grumbling, but in so doing, a life was transformed. Evangelically-minded people live for this. Transformed lives are what make this worthwhile. Lives turned from being inwardly focused to being outwardly focused, by churches that have been turned from being inwardly focused, to being outwardly focused.
8“Food will not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. 9But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
1 Corinthians 8:8-9
There is a humorous conversation going on the ELCA clergy Facebook group about this 15th century woodcut. I don’t think this is metaphorical. Things like this actually happened in Europe. Bucket: Holy water? Note the chamber pot under the bed. Bride in hat. 
This week I sat down with the new (six months) President of Texas Lutheran University, Dr. Stuart Dorsey. This twenty-minute podcast will tell you how things are going.
Listen to the podcast at http://bishopmike.libsyn.com/rss
For iPhone and iPod users, podcast will eventually be posted here as well: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bishop-mike-rineharts-podcast/id444755686
