Why (We) The Church Frequently Fails to Help Solve Societal Issues

I recently came across an article written in 1910 explaining why the church was indifferent to child-labor reform (working to keep children from being used in factories as labor). In it the author brings up a set of reasons why the church frequently does not help much with social issues, and I found those points to be relevant even today. The author of the article was unitarian minister John Haynes Holmes, who co-founded the NAACP and later the ACLU. Of course there is always a danger of slipping into either of two ditches– to become so spiritual that you are of no earthly use, or to let your Christianity devolve into nothing more than social activity, unmoored from Christ.

Holmes saw 5 reasons as to why the Church was not active in stopping child labor. I think these can apply to us today. The reasons he puts forward are:

1. Denominationalism
2. Other-Worldliness
3. Religion for Export
4. Church-State separation (Call nothing common or unclean)
5. Tyranny of the Pew

First, Denominationalism: Churches tend to focus on their own internal matters. Holmes says, ” Each church is so absorbed in keeping its own denominational machinery going and in solving its own denominational problems, that it has no time and strength to give to the machinery of society or to the solving of the vexing problems of modern social life (26).” This seems true today, as even with the decline of denominationalism, denominations still spend a great deal of time focused on denominational issues, structure, policy, and procedures and planning for their own church growth or development. Beyond denominationalism, large non-denominational megachurches which can spend a lot of their time focusing on their infrastructure, development of satellite campuses, etc.

Second, Other-worldliness: Holmes points out that “To-day, as for so many generations, the Church is laying the emphasis of its teaching upon the life beyond the grave, and is thus neglecting the life upon this side of the grave (27).” I am afraid that often we do focus on spiritual matters and spiritual development to the neglect of immediate societal concerns around us. We all know Jesus told us to clothe and feed the needy, and the Old Testament constantly says God wants us to help the widow, the orphan and the stranger (those in danger of oppression or neglect) and yet many Christians respond negatively to calls for social justice, assuming that the fact that we will always have the poor with us, the world we live in is full of sin and disrepair, and only a new heaven and earth to come can solve these problems, so there isn’t much point to trying to hard to put lipstick on this pig… This leads to a lot of lack of concern about earthly affairs– Christians frequently have a slash-and-burn approach to environmental concerns since “its all going to be burned up anyway at the final judgement” so why worry about trying to save the planet? God’s providence will govern anyway, and God’s will will be done, so who am I to intervene? But this other-worldliness is problematic not only scripturally (we are to be stewards of the earth (Gen 2:15), and we are called to help the orphan and widow and stranger (Exodus 22:21-24), and to pursue justice (Prov. 24:24-25)) Isaiah 1:17 quite clearly tells us “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” So of course Christians believe Christ is returning to judge the living and the dead– and that there will be a new heaven and new earth one day, but we also are clearly called in this life to live it with a strong concern for justice and redemption of the earth, to be stewards of the earth and to help bring redeeming grace to the world, especially to those who are weak and vulnerable– both spiritual and material blessings of grace.

Third, Religion for Export: Here Holmes points out how that the church was spending so much of its resources to spread its influence abroad that it was frequently neglecting concerns closer to home. The focus on foreign missions distracted people from helping in their own backyards. He says, “there is no easier way to arouse the enthusiasm of the churches than to inaugurate a foreign mission campaign, and nothing harder to accomplish than to interest the churches in a campaign for the redemption of our own society (29).” There has been a decline in a focus on foreign missions in recent years by Churches, at least long term missions (short term missions has exploded in the last 30 years of course). But again, sending our church congregation from the US to Tanzania to go help paint a schoolhouse there may not be the best use of our resources, especially if we are not very involved in local misisons close to home.

Fourth, a non-intervening approach to governmental policy or business practices. Holmes titles this section “Call nothing common or unclean” but what he describes is the Church’s focus on spiritual, rather than secular (governmental or business) matters. Such a bifurcation of one’s faith from one’s business or social practices is where the notion of “Sunday morning Christian” arose– where one practices one’s faith on Sunday, and then its back to business as normal M-F (who knows what goes on on Saturday). Holmes says the Church has frequently acted as if “religion, as such, has nothing to do with political or industrial questions of any kind. This idea has its root in that fallacious distinction which has always been made between sacred and secular, and which has consigned to the care of the Church the one, and frankly removed from its control, or even interest, the other. The Church, it is argued, has to do with spiritual, not worldly matters (30).” Of course there have been particular issues that Christians have gotten concerned with politically– one of the biggest for evangelicals and Catholics being the anti-abortion movement. Today there is so much allignment between political and religious affiliation at times that it can be a problem– when it comes to a point where a Democrat, or a Republican (depending on your Church) wouldn’t feel welcome in the pew. But it isn’t clear that we are always focusing on the most important societal issues for Christians.

Firth, the “Tyranny of the Pew” which is the problem that many in the pews who pay the pastor’s salary are benefiting from injustice in society, so they don’t want their practices to be criticized. Holmes says, “the men who are most largely responsible for the labor of children, the men who employ these children and grow rich from the wealth these children create, these men are many of them sitting in the front pews of the churches, occupying offices in parish committees, and paying the salaries of the ministers (30-31).” It is certainly difficult for a pastor to speak things to a congregation which are difficult to hear. When the sermon’s critique gets a little too close to home, people get upset.

So obviously, 111 years later, we live in a much different world, and the Church has learned and grown in certain respects. But it seems to me that Holmes’ criticisms still ring true in many respects. Of course we have learned that there is a “Hole in Our Gospel” (Stearns, 2010) which arises from us spending all of our energy studying scripture, and not acting to apply it practically around us, But while we perhaps know that intellectually, still we frequently remain problematically inactive in living out the gospel in ways to impact our society. Some are much better at this than others of us, but it is a struggle and a deficit which seems to be all too real.

There are many societal concerns the church can help with– not only concerns of abortion or religious liberty, but also concerns having to do with the environment, racism, and fair and even generous treatment of all people. We cannot tackle all of them, and God might have uniquely positioned some of us to help with specific issues more than others, but we each need to ask ourselves if we are fully living out the gospel, and in what ways might we be shirking those callings because of the 5 criticisms Holmes offered to us back in 1910…

May God have mercy on us all.

Andy Gustafson

PS. As an interesting aside in relation to the recent hubub about Dr. Seuss, Holmes was also a pacifist, I understand, and during WWII he called on the US to remember that Japanese were people too and our ‘brothers’. Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) responded with the mocking political cartoon below.

https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb8499185p/_2.jpg

Holmes, John Haynes. “The Indifference of the Church to Child Labor Reform” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science , Mar., 1910, Vol. 35, Supplement. Child Employing Industries (Mar., 1910), pp. 23-32.

Advent 1

Adventus in Latin means “coming”. Advent is the season leading up to Christmas in which Christians remember the coming of Christ to earth– the coming of the Savior Jesus Christ. The four Sundays before Christmas are indicated by the four candles on an advent wreath, with the fifth candle being for Christmas eve.

One of the most common and powerful songs of advent is “O Come O Come Emanuel” which is a song of the expectation of the coming of the messiah:

 O come, O come, Emmanuel,

And ransom captive Israel,

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee O Israel

(To hear Enya sing this, click here)

Adventus is also the Latin translation of the Greek word Parousia, which is the word meant to refer to the second coming of Jesus Christ.  The second coming of Christ is to come at any moment,  and no one will know the day or the hour (Matthew 24:36)  Martin Heidegger said that the parousia leaves Christians with a perpetual constant anticipation of the coming– never knowing if this moment may not be the last moment of all time.  That perspective gives us an existential awareness of the moment, a view which leaves us always on knifes edge, wondering if the next moment will be the last before Christ comes.  He draws on Thessalonians, in which Paul discusses at length the importance of the second coming of Christ.

So in this advent season we anticipate in memoriam the arrival of the Christchild to bring salvation, but also the second coming of Christ.  Normally during this time leading toward Christmas we celebrate a lot of office parties and community get-togethers.  But as Christians we should especially be taking time to live in accordance with our non-worldly values– being especially concerned for the needy and the weak, those without voice and those who lack food, shelter, and friendship.

Coming of the fullness of Thanksgiving, it is important to remember all that we have, and so look for ways now to give to others, and to create ways to give to others.

May God have mercy on us all. andy

The Benefits of Tradition (and the problem with trying to attract young people to church)

A lot of churches spend a good deal of time trying to figure out “how to attract young people to our congregation”– and with good reason– many churches are lacking in 20-somethings, and nothing seems to indicate a healthy church like having some 20-something couples with kids in tow in the pews.

Some friends recently put up a great blogpost about the dangers of this approach. The title of her blog is “Change wisely Dude” and the point is simply: what attracts 20 year olds won’t necessarily appeal to them 10 years later. People often go to church because they are looking for historical rootedness. It was by a younger woman who had started Presbyterian as a kid, fell away from her faith a while, and in her early 20’s began attending a nondenomenational evangelical church with hip music and a more relaxed atmosphere– in here words, “an unchurchy church with a mix of sacred tradition and secular trend”. But eventually she found herself missing the historical-rootedness and now attends a high-church anglican service.

I know of churches who are trying to attract youth to their church– and its not a new chase. The specifics are different from case to case, but the method has generally been similar since the 1960’s– get rid of the hymns, get rid of the ‘pomp’, relax the dresscode, relax in general, do topical sermons which are contemporarily relevant, not in depth exigesis, don’t use words like exigesis, etc etc. Some really think that music is the magic bullet. Others seem to think that allowing shorts will do it. Some believe podcasts and other technologies will finally help make the church relevant to the young.

And of course there is nothing sacrosanct about suits, hymns, or low level technologies– changes in these habits or expectations can be perfectly fine. However, what many churches fail to understand is that one thing many young people are looking for, and which many humans of any age are looking for, is sustained tradition, a sense that in going to church I am a part of something bigger than myself, and a transcendence which goes beyond me and Jesus, and even beyond me and these people in the pew beside me.  If you doubt this, you aren’t paying attention to what is going on nationwide with young evangelicals leaving for Catholicism and Anglicanism.  (I can think of countless personal examples and others i know of from a distance in Omaha and Lincoln who have gone to the Roman Catholic or Anglican or another high church.  See what I wrote a while back about that.)***

I teach sunday school once in a while at First Baptist Omaha, and a couple weeks back I’d been asked to teach on Ezra chapters 1,2, and part of 3. For those who don’t know, these chapters are primarily about three things: a. a list of the people who left Persia to return to Jerusalem to build the city, b. a list of temple artifacts Cyrus let the Jews bring back with them, and c. how the Jews focused on rebuilding the temple, and starting up their ritual sacrifices and practicing the feast of booths.

On the face of it, this isn’t a lot to work with. But what I saw in these verses was a concern with tradition. We talked about the importance of having a place to worship– a temple, or church building. And we talked about traditions, rituals and liturgies which we have. Baptists are typically non-creedal and are usually low church, meaning that they don’t have a lot of pomp and ritual in their service– no one is burning incense, the pastor isn’t wearing vestments, there is no public confession together, etc. HOWEVER, baptists have tons of rituals. Our sunday school class is full of tradition. Every week we have a set format of 3 hymns (the first one is always the very same one), then prayer, then devotional, then lesson, then we pray together a closing blessing. Our church service is similarly formatted– we always have a meet and greet, always have a set time for pastors prayer and offering, a hymn at the end of the service after the sermon, and although we don’t have communion every week we do have coffee and cookies each week right after church, and the majority of people stick around for that, etc. We have tradition, because human beings are creatures of habit. It would be absurd to try to change the format every week, just to mix things up. That would be like driving a different route to work every day, or getting up at different times each day, just to keep things fresh.

The Jews wanted to build a temple, because that was a concrete means of establishing their religous practices and worship of God. First Baptist has a fantastic building, and they use it well. Its an important part of the congregations identity, and its just a great building. The Jews wanted to set up their sacrifices as soon as possible, because those were important to their spiritual habits and spiritual life. And they wanted to practice the feast of booths. During this remembrance, they would build small temporary shelters out of sticks, etc, and live in them for a few days. It was a way to remember when they wandered in the wilderness– to help remind them of the transitoriness of this life, and remind them of how God has providied, and what is really important.

Traditions help us in these ways, and so trying to get rid of tradition and history is like trying to get rid of help. We cannot escape the fact that we are not merely spiritual beings, we are physical beings with bodies who live in a concrete material world. We aren’t just spirits trapped in bodys. Our body will be ressurected, and our bodies are important. Certainly as long as we are in this life, we can not pretend to be disembodied spirits, and the bodily habits which we incorporate into our spiritual practices will have an impact on us. Spiritual traditions and habits can be good, and should be pursued. And many people are in search of just these kinds of habits and traditions at church. To think that peopl want to come to church which has not habits or traditions is short sighted, and possibly wrong headed.

But what kind of habits? That probably depends. There is no magic bullet. But I know that when Celeste and I first went to First Baptist, we were impressed with the longevity and faithfulness of some of the people. My first time at Sunday school class, I asked one of the couples there how long the sunday school class had been going. They looked at each other and one said, “well, how long have we been married? 64 years?” and turned to me and said, “well, I guess, 64 years then!”. You don’t find that kind of tradition or longevity of faithfulness at a church plant startup, normally. The meet and greet time (which is basically similar to ‘passing the peace’ at other churches) is encouraging as well. And the coffee time after church is a fundamental tradition at 1st baptist.

Of course many churches are much more scheduled on the traditional church calendar, which is divided into 7 segments: advent, christmas, epiphany, lent, easter, pentecost, common time (after pentecost). Many churches use a common lexionary, or set of verses. So if you are in a lutheran or catholic or methodist or presbyterian church, there is a good chance you are looking at the same verses that week as people in a lot of those other churches. Many churches sing the great hymns of the faith, some of which have been around for hundreds of years, some even over 1,000 years. Many churches recite creeds together– together confessing what they believe (“I believe in God the Father, Jesus Christ his Son…” etc) Many use prayers which have been in practice since the time of Christ (Lord’s prayer, prayer of Mary (from when she was told she would birth the messiah), the prayer of Simeon, etc) In these ways, you find a sense that what you are doing in your particular church is part of something that is bigger. We aren’t just all making these things up weekly on our own, disconnected from the greater body of Christ and the Church.

This has great appeal to some people. And for churches to intentionally avoid these practices is kind of like a family deciding to quit celebrating Thanksgiving or Christmas with dinner together or presents, because they want to avoid getting in a rut. Rituals and practices are not bad. They can often be quite life giving, sustaining, and essential to the spiritual life of a believer and the church.

***I do want to close by pointing out that it would be naive and foolish to think that evangelicals who become Roman Catholic or Anglican do so simply because they are looking for more history.  That can be a reason, or one of many reasons.  Some are drawn to the Roman Catholic church, for example, because of convictions they have regarding theological or ecclesiastical concerns.  This is probably obvious to most, but it is important for people to not mistake the conversion to Roman Catholicism as merely a pursuit of tradition.

May God have mercy on us all.

Diversity at Church

First Baptist, where Celeste and I go on Sunday mornings, has two joint congregations.  One meets at 11 and there you have about 100-150, depending on the Sunday.  The second meets at 12 and had about 200-300 Karen (Care-in) who come from Burma (Myanmar).  We go to the 11 oclock service, and you have a wide variety of people– from all kinds of different socio economic backgrounds, age-ranges, and education levels.  Many of us live nearby, and some come a distance.

Sometimes, we have our joint-service (which happens a few times each year) where both congregations meet together.  The church is packed.  At the most recent joint service, it started with each of the pastors opening in prayer (ours in English, the Karen’s in their language).  Then the children sang a couple of songs from the front– Karen and non-Karen kids singing together.  Then the congregation sang a few hymns– in English, and two Karen dialects– simultaneously.

This was one of the most moving experiences I’ve had in church for quite a while. All of us, very different in so many ways, all unified and filling that church with music.  The Choir Celeste and I are in did a song– a slave spiritual, and then a Karen choir of about 45 went up and sang.  Their pastor preached, and it was interpreted (last time our pastor preached and it was interpreted).  We closed with a hymn together– again, in three languages at once.

When Celeste and I were in Milwaukee the fall of 2011, we attended her little Lutheran church, which also had a wide variety of people attending– some with family members in prison, others with good jobs, others retired, and a spectrum of ethnic backgrounds.  Every week, we would all line up and go to the front to take communion together, and that was one of the most moving spiritual experiences for me– watching that line, and being in that line, knowing all the different people there with all their various backgrounds, all going forward to participate together in Communion.

This sort of Christian communal activity is often perceived by some Christians as secondary to the most important focus of proper doctrine.  On this somewhat gnostic Christian view, what matters is what I know, and what I profess (and what I do only secondarily, and what I do in particular church practice on Sundays as a distant third– much distant).

The difficulty with this view of Christianity is that it focuses too heavily on the head, and not enough on the heart and habits of the Christian.  We are habitual beings, and the habits we have make us smarter or dumber, fatter or more healthy, more focused or less focused, more kind or less kind, etc.  Habits and practices do matter– they are not merely secondary unimportant activities which really don’t matter, any more than actually exercising is somehow less important than what I profess and believe about healthiness.

When I worship in a church full of people with broadly diverse socio-economic, educational, relational, ethnic and other backgrounds, I have opportunity to be impacted in ways I would never be able to in a homogeneous congregation.

When we take communion together, or sing together, or say a prayer together, we mutually encourage each other and shape and form our own souls in community and purpose focused on the life Christ has called us to in community.

When I take time to read the scriptures, and pray for others, and meditate on what God might want to convict me of or prompt me towards, I will be impacted through this practice, in quietness before God.

Our practices are important.  They do impact us.  That is not to say that a proper understanding and a robust knowledge of scriptures and Christian living is not important, but as human beings, our in-the-world behaviors and practices, such as kneeling, breaking bread together, confessing out loud what we are struggling with or praise God for, and our singing and praying in unison together are fundamentally important to our lives as Christians in the world.

This is why it is so important, as Paul says, that you “not neglect the meeting together, as is the habit of some….”

May God have mercy on us all….

 

Howard Street Project: Acting in hope, without knowledge of the end.

In March of 2009 we bought a building near downtown Omaha which had been condemned.  It was an 8-plex and had been vacant since a 2005 double homicide.  We spent 3 years working on it, and finally satisfied the city and got tennants to move in. 

Directly behind that building, 10 feet away, was another derelict condemned building, on Howard street.  That building was full of junk.  A hoarder had been filling it up for years, and that hoarder, Joe, often came in and out of that building, bringing more stuff, taking some things out, etc.  It was a personal warehouse of sorts for his hoarding habit. 

The  owner of the building, a lawyer, had gotten the building in exchange for some legal work, but did nothing with it.  Eventually the city threatened to put him in jail for neglecting the building.  He owed 4 years backtaxes on it, and was not interested in going to jail.  I approached him and asked if he wanted to get rid of it.  The city had mentioned he could tear it down, but that would cost 20,000, which he was not interested in spending.  He said he’d give it to me if I took over responsibility for it, legally and financially.  That was August.

Although I didn’t have any legal documents saying it was mine, and wasn’t sure what I would do with it (or could do with it) I decided to start to clean it up.  I hired some friends and we took about 11 dumpsterloads of stuff out of the building in September.  It was a messy dirty job.  It involved getting rid of literally tons of things, including refrigerators full of rotten food. 

The begining of the project seemed somewhat overwhelming.  Each bit of progress helped encourage us about what we might be able to accomplish.  Finally, we got the entire thing cleaned out from top to bottom.  But I still didn’t have any legal right to the building, and I still didn’t know what the city would make us do with it if I did.

In late December the owner contacted me and said he wanted me to get the deeds transfered over into my name by the end of the year.  So I did, December 31, 2012. 

Throughout this process we haven’t been quite sure what we will do with this building if we can redeem it, or if we may have to tear it down.  What we did know was that cleaning it out would be an improvement, and that the building was fundamentally solid and with a great deal of work could probably be a pretty good place for someone to live. 

We’ve even considered making it a hostel, or grouphome, or band-practice space.  But we don’t know for sure what its end will be– we just keep acting with hope, not really knowing for sure where this is all going.

Last week we started ripping into the walls a bit– taking off plaster and panelling, and getting into the walls to see what we are working with.  So far we are encouraged.  A slight leak in the roof, but most of the building appears to be in good shape.  Who knows what it might become?

Its sometimes overwhelming to have projects like this.  But it is exciting.  Taking responsibility for a building can be a time-consuming affair (just ask my wife) and so one has to count the cost, although not being entirely sure just what that cost will be. 

A lot of things in life are like this though.  We don’t really know how that marriage will work out, how this home will suit us, how this church will fit us, how these children will turn out, what our life decisions will bring us.  We make decisions with as much wisdom as we can, and leave the rest to God. 

Of course most people wouldn’t take on buildings like this– because they have more sense than I do– and they wouldn’t enjoy it.  But this redemptive process is fun to be a part of, although sometimes its a dirty smelly job.

May God have mercy on us all (especially my wife).

More pics of before and after cleaning:

                                                                                                     

Looking for Goodness

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Phillipians 4:8

One of my favorite songs by the 80’s band “The Police” is ‘King of Pain’ because its so melodic and catchy.  In the song, the author has eyes to see the pain around him in the world:

There’s a little black spot on the sun today
It’s the same old thing as yesterday
There’s a black hat caught in a high tree top
There’s a flag-pole rag and the wind won’t stop

I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running ’round my brain
I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign
But it’s my destiny to be the king of pain

There’s a king on a throne with his eyes torn out
There’s a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt
There’s a rich man sleeping on a golden bed
There’s a skeleton choking on a crust of bread

Whatever the specific meaning of these lyrics (there is some debate) one thing is clear: this person sees pain and ironic suffering and badness in the world. 

And while I think this song is magnificent, and melodic, its a no-go as far as a philosophy of how to live ones life.  We feel like this sometimes– like all is bad and dark around us, like everything is getting worse, like we’ve reached a tipping point and the sky is falling.  But at that point when we are in the valley of the shadow of death, we are encouraged in Scripture to ‘fear no evil’. 

Actually, the Bible doesn’t encourage us to stay positive– it commands us to stay positive.  

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Phillipians 4:8

From beginning to end, the letter from Paul to the Phillipians is just one long encouragement letter– asking them to keep the faith, to keep their spirits up, and continue to act in hope.  He asks them to love each other, stay unified, and not let the troubles of this world get them down. 

Its good advice, I think, to actively apply this verse to our own lives.  There is so much that is not true, not noble, not right, not pure, not lovely, and not admirable to think about and focus on.  The cynic may say that such advice is advice for ostriches who prefer to keep their heads in the sand– but that is not true. 

Every day true things happen which are better not to focus on and discuss at length.  For example: bowel movements and zit popping.  Others:  moments of anger, unguarded lustful thoughts.  Still more: false political string-emails that get forwarded on, dirty jokes and porn, the discouraging perspective on any topic at all.  None of these things are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, or admirable.

Each of us is just one person.  But if you’ve ever been in a discussion where everyone is piling on with discouraging assessments, and one person speaks a positive good word of encouragement and hope, you know what a difference something like that can make.  If you’ve ever been in a situation where the conversation is going a direction it shouldn’t, and someone steps in and says a good word to stop it and turn things around– you know how much difference one person’s positive obedience to this command from Phillipians can make. 

For some reason, it sometimes feels good to speak a discouraging word.  And sometimes a group of discouragies get together and seem to like to wallow in despair.  To them the one focusing on the good, noble, and lovely may seem hopelessly naive– or perhaps naively hopeful.  Either way, Christians are called to be this– and to act accordingly. 

God, it seems to me, is hopelessly hopeful.  Even in the face of these great and discouraging odds that humans may somehow not make a mess of their lives, God sent his Son to give transformative hope to all people.  With very bad odds, God makes a bet on us.  He acts with faith and hope on an unfaithful hopeless cause– us. 

Christians are to live a life saved from ourselves– from our despairing hopeless habitual stupidity and sin.  And we are to live these lives not for our own stupid selves, but for the sake of others– because of Jesus.  That is what we are about.  So to muddle around wallowing in the hopeless, the ugly, the painful, the tragic and the false and impure is not only stupid- it is wrong of us. 

And its a pretty nice command to follow, when it comes down to it.  God is asking us to have eyes to see the good in the world– to have gracious eyes that can see past the ills to the pure, good, noble, lovely things.  What a beautiful command to be told to follow!  We are to be people who encourage others, who help others to see the goodness of God in the world, in the midst of the confusion.   Its up to us to decide to follow this way of grace.

We have a choice.  Get with it. 

May God have mercy on us all.

-AG

Sunday School — Why Don’t You Go?

This morning I went to a Sunday School class which has been ongoing for 64 years– and 3 of the original members were in attendance!  One of the staples of  Church practices since the 1700’s is Sunday School.  They are a relatively recent phenomenon.  Some of the early Sunday Schools arose in England, with the efforts of William Fox and Robert Raikes.  Sunday was the one day that children were not working in factories, and so they tended to get quite rowdy on those days.   Sunday Schools were designed to focus these young minds on religious instruction instead of on secular things and tomfoolery.   Maybe the same is true of you– maybe you need some Sunday School.

First Baptist Church, where Celeste and I attend here in our neighborhood on Sundays, has 4 adult Sunday school classes, despite having little more than 100 members in attendance at the morning service most weeks.  This morning I went to one of the classes– “home-builders”.  One of my older couple friends were there, and I asked them how long the class had been running.  “64 years” they said, adding that that was how long they had been married! 

In an age when churches change up their groups and classes on a quarterly basis, and reorganize and change the names of groups more often than one can keep track of (core groups, home groups, signal groups, cell groups, home communities, etc), this class has been faithfully going for 64 years.  One of the long-standing class members was Jack, who was the voice of the College World Series for over 20 years.  89 years old, he opened the class this morning with announcements and prayer.  Then there was a motion that the class give $25 to the music director in appreciation for his playing the piano for them at their openning quite often.  It was a democratic vote, but madam President gave a brief scowl as she asked, “are there any nays?” and everyone laughed. 

One of the women members of the class talked today on John 1, and Jesus as the light of the world.  She did a fine job, and there was some nice discussion and personal stories shared.  What was evident was that this was a group who knows each other, and they together care about living out their faith.  The responsibility for teaching gets passed around, and each person has a turn.  They have a book that they use as a guide to study. 

When I grew up in church, there were always at least three different classes (again, at a church with little over 100 people).  My father recounts how that, when he was just married and the new young Christian Education chairman for the church, decided to switch up the sunday school program.  There had always been a ‘traditional’ sunday school class (where they often spoke in Swedish) and a ‘young people’s’ sunday school class.  But as my father stepped into his new role, there were a number of 65+ single women and men in the ‘young people’ class, and so he thought perhaps it was time for a change.  But some of these people had been in their class for 40 years, and weren’t too keen on the change, but it ended up working out fine (although it didn’t make my dad very popular at the beginning). 

Sometimes change is good, and things need to morph and develop over time.  But sometimes we seek novelty because we are no good at sticking with things.  These faithful Sunday-School goers at First Baptist, who have been going to the same class for 64 years were an inspiration to me for their faithfulness and I plan to join them regularly from here on out.  Not because they have a rock-start teacher, but because they are a group of authentic believers seeking God together in a simple and faithful way.  What I really enjoyed was the community of believers there interacting with each other around some common questions raised by the teacher.   And I am convinced that that sort of faithfulness results in more real spiritual results than the most ingenious and sexiest of strategies.   

Sunday School is sometimes taught by hired leaders, which is fine and often quite good.  But one of the benefits of Sunday School in my mind is that lay-people (non-professional staff) have opportunity to be challenged to develop their God-given gifts.  In churches where all the work of teaching is done by paid staff, the lay person has less opportunity to be challenged to take responsibility personally for strengthening the church.  In the church where I was raised, few if any of the Sunday school teachers had formal training, but they all knew their Bible well and were challenged to know it well because they were expected to help share the burden of teaching their peers. 

And Sunday School is not just for Protestants.  I have found many sites giving advice for putting on Catholic Sunday school (although the focus is usually on children, not adults– whereas Adult sunday school has been a mainstay tradition in Protestantism for well over 200 years).  

Many times people don’t go to Sunday School, and just attend the main service.  The problem with that is that you don’t really get to be part of the body in the same way.  There is something more intimate about Sunday School classes, and there is somehow more ownership when you join them– its a step up in commitment on your part, and that is both encouraging to the church you are in, and also good for you spiritually.  The reasons people don’t go to Sunday School are usually pretty weak– I know this from personal experience!  I would encourage you, if you have the opportunity– go to Sunday School– not only because you might learn something, but because it will likely be an encouragement to those who have been faithfully going for years before us.  Its a fairly simple way to be an encouragement to fellow Christians. 

May God have mercy on us all. 

Andy

“Loving the Orphan, the Widow, the Stranger… but not my brother”: On (naturally) taking those near us for granted

I find that I’m often quite gracious with strangers, but find myself quickly annoyed at times when someone close to me expects grace from me– particularly Christians.  It is heroic to make sacrifices for strangers who don’t deserve it.  When you do outwardly impressive acts of selflessness towards those outside your circle of family and close friends, there is a degree of public acclaim to be had.  And its a lot easier to do a random one-off act of kindness, with no strings or future expectations attached.  But sometimes when we are wronged by someone close, when grace is asked of us by someone we depend on closely, we can feel especially annoyed and frustrated with them. 

Being human, and having a tendency to see our point of view and interests above those of others, we put those close to us in a double-bind which makes it our tendency to act with love towards them even less than those we are distant from sometimes.  On the one hand, we expect them to put up with more of our shortcomings.  On the other hand, we expect them to give more to us than an acquaintance or stranger.  So: we expect to get more, and give less in these relationships sometimes.  Of course this is unfair.  Of course this unjust.  But of course the grace which overlooks this injustice is exactly the sort of love we sometimes expect of those we are closest to. 

It is interesting to me that tennants who I am more generous towards sometimes tend to be the ones who then end up being most likely to take that for granted, and to ask for even more exceptions and concessions.  This is why it can be risky (some would say unwise) to make exceptions or provide special grace to tennants.  And of course, some people will use however much rope you give them to just get more tangled up in their tangled noose and still come out hanging themselves.  But it is just as dangerous, if not more so, to give special grace to those close to us.  As the saying goes, ‘never lend money to friends or family’.

We see this in our churches as well, when it comes to helping the needy.  Churches get quite excited about sending help and aid to Haiti, Africa, or wherever else far away they can find a need.  But it gets more dicey when you have an actual needy person come to your church, and potentially need ongoing help, and a ride, and your time, and  a real commitment of yourself beyond a monthly or semi-annual financial contribution.  That kind of grace is more costly to us, because it is so close, and commits us to a real ongoing responsibility and commitment to someone who may (probably) take you for granted.

But I have been thinking lately that Jesus certainly has called us to a dangerous life of living especially for the sake of those who are most likely to take you for granted.  We humans are a needy bunch, and a stingy bunch.  We need grace and mercy on a regular basis.  I need mercy and grace constantly.  And then I usually turn around and note with severity how I have been shorted and wronged by the very people I expect to bear my own shortcomings.  I wish I would expect the best of those closest to me, and do my best for them.  But instead I expect a lot from them, while doing less for them than I would someone I am not close to, precisely because I think they should be more able to absorb my deficiencies than the stranger or acquaintance. 

Good fences make good neighbors– because we need boundaries.  There is no doubt we do.  And growing up in rural Nebraska, I know full well that there is a tendency to not get too close to your neighbors, in part because you have to live down the road from them for most of your life, more likely than not.  The same can happen with family and friends– where we avoid potentially vulnerable or difficult issues, and so avoid deep relationship– in part because of our fear of somehow screwing up the relationship– because these are people we are ‘stuck with’ for life! 🙂

So the challenge then, of being a faithful Christian– someone who is full of faith, expects the best, hopes all things, believes all things (despite being let down)– is not just to do this heroically for those we are not especially close to.  That has its own reward.  The challenge instead, is to do this on a day-in-day-out basis with those who we are closest to– to allow ourselves to be taken for granted at times, overlooked at times, to love unconditionally those with whom we know yet more and more will be expected and accepted from them.   Of course sometimes this will come quite naturally, because these are, after all, our dear friends and family that we do love.  But in the moments when those charms of family and friends are lost on us, we need to remember that this is our calling– this is what God has us here for– to be the ones who make up the difference, fill in the gap, and provide the mercy and grace that we needy humans need from each other.  If we don’t provide this to our family and friends, we may have outward heroic appearances, but in the reality of our hearts which few can see, we will know that we are stingy bean counters, keeping account of wrongs and deficiencies with those who most need love and hope from us. 

But we also need to stay alert to our own tendency to take others for granted.  During this season of Thanksgiving and Advent, as we approach the celebration of the birth of Christ, its a good time to reflect on the ways we are blessed, and to make sure that those who bless us know that they are a blessing!

I need mercy.  And I need grace to provide that mercy to those in my tight circle even more than to do one-time acts of random grace to strangers and walk-bys. 

May God have mercy on us all.

Atheism or Advent?

Atheism is always a temptation.  There is a certain relief that can come from finally giving up hope that what is expected simply isn’t, and won’t come.  Particularly if you find yourself in the company of people who you don’t necessarily relate to on many levels.  Atheism is at its core a desire for peace– peace from the ongoing effort to have faith in the face of challenges and struggle.

This seems clear from the fact that many people become atheists because they can’t square or reconcile the fact that God exists with all the apparently meaningless and painful things that seem to happen to them, or in the world in general.  At some point it begins to make more sense to simply let go of the premise that God exists, because then the apparent randomness and apparent failure surrounding them seems to be more natural.  Atheism is, in a most generous interpetation, a way to get God ‘off the hook’ for all the bad things that happen in the world.  If God doesn’t exist, then its no wonder all this stuff happens…

The hope of Advent flies in the face of this atheistic rational tendency.  It is the time of hope in the Christian calendar which remembers a hope that Jews had for many centuries that a messiah would come to bring salvation to humanity.  And Christian Advent remembers this hope of expectation with a full knowledge that even after the fact of the messiah’s coming, it seems in some ways to be absolutely incredible– that one man/God, come in the form of a child, could provide a means of peace with God through his death.  All of this strikes normal people, at some level, as incredible.  If it is true, it is surely a very strange way for salvation to come to all of humanity.

And so the way of faith– of believing in this very strange means of bringing us close to God– is not so simple as a baby in a manger with sheep and straw.  And to go past this bizzareness as though it is everyday normality is to ignore the fantastic craziness which is at the root of our faith.

But the strangeness and grace of the world we live in is often lost on us.  It is easy to ask why this one abberation (pain, loss, harm, hurt) happened to us this one time, and to never ask why in the world normally we continue to live and breathe, enjoy and prosper in this strange amazing existence in the world.  When we get cancer we ask, “why did this happen” while we had lived for 25 years prior without cancer never asking “why don’t I have cancer?”.  We expect the good, and are surprised by anything other, and our anger is quickly turned towards the giver of all good things, despite our general lack of thankfulness for the good we get.  We are surrounded by daily amazing miracles which we begin to accept as normal and commonplace, thereby becoming unaware of the miraculous fact of our existing at all.  Our hearts become dull and our eyes blind to the miraculous which envelopes our lives.

In the same way, our sin and the need for reconciliation is severe and important– although it, too, can become so commonplace that we do not notice its radical importance.  We lose our edge, our sense of brokeness and unnaturalness, as we become used to the unusual, accustomed to the dull deadness of our sin and hopelessness.  We expect the broken, instead of the ideal.  We mock perfection, as our lives themselves seem to be a mockery of the pure and good.

Most of us humans live our day to day lives in a haze of random muddle, struggling to get through to the next, doing the best we can sometimes, and other times aiming low.  To have the hope of the infinite power of God invested in our lives through a free means of grace often seems so counter to the reality we live in that it seems fanciful– farcical even.

But advent calls us to this hope.  To this fantastic incredible love of God which has come to us in the birth of Jesus Christ, somehow.  Christians are called at this time of year to remember that we are called to the hope of a messiah, and the transformative power of Christ to bring this world back into full fellowship with Creator God.  We are looking to the second coming of Christ– the Parousia– and we are called to participate in the regenerative restoration of the kingdom of God on earth– not through politics or propoganda, but through our living out our hope with abandon in the face of the apparent hopelessness which we encounter daily.

It is hard to be a Christian– to live our our Christian hope– somedays.  But it is also an exciting challenge and our worldview is indeed radically different than the view of the atheist who often sees life through the lens of threat and burden, not through the eyes of grace and gift.

May God give us eyes to see and ears to hear– with hope.  May God have mercy on us all.

Ezekiel, Bodily Posture, God’s strange mercy, and cooking with manure…

“Very well” God said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow manure instead of human excrement.” Ezekiel 4:15

Few have a life like Ezekiel, or are called by God to do the strange things God asked him to do.  In Chapter 4 of Ezekiel, God wants Ezekiel to get the point of the seige God is going to let happen to Jerusalem by acting out physically to represent the sin of Israel and Judah.  He is to lay on his side for 390 days “the same number of days as the years of their sin” to represent Israel’s waywardness, and then turn over and lay on his other side for 40 days (Judah hadn’t been in existence long enough to sin as many years).  While he is on his side, he was allowed to eat 8 oz of multigrain bread and 2/3 quart of water.  That is quite a fast, and it wouldn’t allow him to do much else.  This shows us the very important gravity of sin in God’s eyes.  We often don’t take our sin very seriously. 

But these reqired practices also remind us of how God often asks us to use our bodily posture to allign with our hearts.  Sometimes getting into a particular posture can make us feel a certain way.  Crouching in a football stance can make one feel ready to pounce at someone, curling up in a fetal position can make one feel helpless, bowing down on the ground with your face to the ground makes you feel submissive– this is why so many people around the world (especially muslims) pray with this posture. 

We can see this importance of physical in other ways as well– it is important, according to the Bible, to get together with other believers on a regular basis.  That person-to-person contact, and the frustrations and joys it brings, are important to us spiritually.  Singing out loud with our voices can help our heart and head allign in the right way.  Praying together in unison prayers of liturgy allows us to physically display the unity that we know we should be feeling with the Body of Christ (the Church).  Fasting (like Ezekiel) makes our sin real, and makes us discipline our body to be subservient to our wills and spirit. 

So God asks Ezekiel to lay on his side and eat next to nothing for 430 days.  Most of us could already think of reasons to object…but not Ezekiel.  What really gets Ezekiel is how he is to cook his bread in the sight of all the people of Israel: “Eat the food as you would a barley cake’ bake it in the sight of the people using human excrement for fuel.”  The Lord said, “In this way the people of Israel will eat defiled food among the nations where I will drive them.”  But this is just too much for Ezekiel– “Not so, Sovereign Lord!  I have never defiled myself.”  Ezekiel can deal with the laying on his side and eating little barley cakes and little water for over a year.  But please– no cooking with Human excrement!

So, God, mercifully– relents.  He compromises with Ezekiel.  That alone is an interesting fact.  We think that to be Godly is not to compromise, not to relent, not to alter what once we have committed to.  But God here, as he does in other situations (Abraham, Lot, Moses,  David, etc) is willing to give Ezekiel a break and cut a deal– (would that our politicians could discover the godly practice of compromise).  “Very well,”God said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow manure instead of human excrement.”  Sometimes, as the famous popular Poet and Songwriter Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones said, “you can’t always get what you want– but you get what you need.”  Evidently, Ezekiel is happier with this compromise to cook with cowpies instead of the human-kind. 

Stories like these are why I love the Old Testament so much.  If you don’t spend time reading in the first 2/3 of the Bible, I would strongly encourage you to give it a shot.  Its very interesting, and there is a lot to learn here. 

May God have mercy on us all…