Compost Tea

Multicultural Worship Service: What Did it Mean?

For me, worshiping in a multicultural context wasn't new. I've been blessed to be a part of quite a few and have become acquainted with Christians from many different nations.

Some may say that religion divides, but I know that Christianity is the most powerful unifier in the world:

. . . for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:27-28).

What was new about the experience for me was to be in a leadership position in such a service.  That was a privilege and gave me a sense of satisfaction knowing that our participation would have a positive shaping influence on our group.

Even more personally, though, I was reminded of my brothers and sisters of Christ who are on the Youngstown's front lines. I read the headlines about Youngstown's problems and feel saddened or disturbed from the  comfort of my Columbiana home.  Many in that service don't need to read about the problems, they hear the nighttime gunshots and see the drug dealers in the alleys. Thank God for his servants in the city. May God bless and protect them as they seek to be salt and light.

WordLive

My daily Scripture reading routines have varied through the years. The method I have used most is using the One Year Bible--a printed Bible divided up into 365 daily readings. Each day, one reads from the OT and NT and also a psalm and a few proverbs.

Anymore, though, I find that I am online checking email and my news feeds several times a day. I have been wondering about using a Scripture plan that uses email or rss. I have tried a couple, but one I found out about last week holds a lot of promise. It is called WordLive and is a ministry of the Scripture Union of the UK. So far, I have found it to be very helpful and would recommend it to anyone.

Here's the link: WordLive

Thanksgiving Training

If my memory serves me, I had never preached a Thanksgiving sermon before--a sermon on giving thanks around the holiday. Why not? As I was reminded, the Sunday following Thanksgiving is often the first Sunday of Advent. Hence, I normally would be following an Advent theme. Yet, another reason stands out: what new is there to say about thanksgiving? Everybody knows he or she should be more thankful and that message is echoed endlessly around the holiday.

I wondered if the Bible might take any different angles on gratitude. I thought first about the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, where the tax collector simply goes to the temple, beats his chest, and says, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner." The Pharisee, however, is full of thanksgiving in his heart and says, "Thank you God that I am not like this sinner." A prayer of thanksgiving has never been so sinful. Point number one: some of our prayers of thanksgiving could actually be sinful. If we are thanking God for being better than others, or if we are thanking God for a huge feast while our next door neighbor is starving, our gratitude is self-centered and self-condemning.

Point Number Two: much of what we thank God for is transient. We may thank God for our new home . . . until we find out it is infested with black mold. We may thank God for the beautiful tree outside our kitchen window . . . until a windstorm blows it into the house. Not to be pessimistic, but many good things for which it is appropriate to give thanks, might just turn on us some day. So, for what can we be grateful and know that the situation won't change?

Point Number Three: We thank God for that which is unshakeable (Hebrews 12). God's goodness is unshakeable. Our past work for and investment in the Kingdom are unshakeable.

To Follow Up:

Today, I saw an article citing the work of Psychiatrist Robert Emmons:

First, the practice of gratitude can increase happiness levels by around 25%. Second, this is not hard to achieve - a few hours spent writing a gratitude journal over 3 weeks can create an effect that lasts 6 months if not more. Third, that cultivating gratitude brings other health effects, such as longer and better quality sleep time.

Gratitude is one of the highest and most fitting of virtues for Christians. Might there be a more effective way of becoming more grateful than simply telling ourselves that we should? Dr. Emmons is confirming what wise Christian teachers have been saying through the ages: Count your blessings. Many spiritual masters go further and intruct us to journal our lives before God . . . and that would certainly include a regular writing down of how God has blessed, is blessing, and will bless our lives and the world.

What's the result of such a discipline? Happiness and good rest. Instead of complaining that we are not as happy as we think we have a right to be, instead of complaining that we never get enough rest, let's pick up a pen and some paper, and nightly thank God for his goodness and his work in our lives. The result: Happiness and good rest. Ironic, isn't it?

Survivor: China

Reality shows are not my thing, though sometimes they are interesting case studies in human nature. Routinely, (especially in the case of Fear Factor) people willingly sacrifice human dignity as they quest for riches and fame.

Recently, a new season of Survivor premiered. Though I rarely watch the show, I happened to be sitting in front of a TV when it came on. With all the contestants gathered in the courtyard of a Buddhist temple complex, host Jeff Probst welcomed the contestants. He then said that the local people wanted to welcome them by inviting them to participate in some Buddhist rituals in the temple. Knowing that some might object, he said that no one is asking anyone to worship and that it's just a welcome ceremony.

The show then focuses on the reactions of several of the contestants to the rituals taking place. One was bored and another one was moved. A contestant name Leslie, though, was torn. Even with Probst's disclaimer that what they were doing wasn't worship, her conscience told her that no matter how the issues might have been couched, she was being invited to worship something other than the Triune God.

Leslie walked out of the Temple rituals. Afterwards, with all the contestants gathered in front of the Temple, Probst asked her why she walked out. Leslie, knowing that she might lose goodwill among her fellow contestants and thus lesson her chances of winning, told Probst plainly that she felt like she was being asked to worship someone or something other than Christ. She wasn't rude or condemning, just courageously witnessing to her allegiance.

While Jeff Probst implied she might have been rude by not going along with the "welcome ceremony," it was really Probst and the producers of the show that were rude and exploitive. The producers do research on all their contestants. They knew the chances were great that one of the Christians would object and that would make for "good TV".

While Probst said the ritual was one that the local people wanted to share as a way of welcome, I doubt that it was their idea. More likely, they were also being exploited for "good TV."  I think the Buddhists would have been more respectful of religious convictions than the show's producers and can't imagine Buddhists pushing a Christian to participate in their rituals.

So, Leslie, I affirm your gentle stand.

And to Probst and the producers . . . well, forget it, you wouldn't listen anyway!

Perseverance

Scripture gave me a boost this morning (as it often does). From the beginning of the NT Book of James,

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

I once had a vision of a Christian community of faith that owned no property, no buildings. This community of faith would be the purest form of Christian fellowship: meeting in homes, studying Scripture together, praying together, and carrying each other’s burdens.

I couldn’t have been more serious about this vision: Nancy and I left a traditional Presbyterian Church that had just added an educational wing to an already fine building. We left stability and security to move into a neighborhood in order to start some new kind of ministry in order to reach those unconnected with Christ and the community of faith.

At the beginning of what turned into Common Ground, we met in homes, pavilions, and even a barn. As good as that was, our small group sensed a call to expand, to develop a worship experience that newcomers could relate with, to have a greater community presence, and to have more programming for children and youth.

So, we moved into South Range High School, began our advertising and started to grow. Less than 5 months after our official beginning, some started talking about property and the possibilities of building.

I was far from convinced that this was a good idea. Having experienced a church building project before, I knew that enormous amount of energy and resources required to pull it off, which could shift our focus away from our mission.

Gradually though, I became open to it. Our leaders discussed very thoroughly the dangers and risks of tackling a building project so soon in our life as a church community. We were in complete agreement about several things: 1) If we were to have a facility, it would seek to reflect the compassion of Christ—that somehow our building and campus would address the needs and hurts of the community and world. 2) That any facility for us would be designed to be used more than a day or two a week. 3) That our facility would reflect a keen sense of stewardship, shunning ostentation and luxury. 4) That our facility would be children and youth friendly.

So, we decided to move forward, knowing that we would have to make some short-term sacrifices for long-term gain.

We are definitely in that period of short-term sacrifice. None of the architects or contractors with whom we consulted would have guessed that our progress would have been so slow. Personally, I have had to deal with a lot of frustration about this. Some of you may be impatient.

What are we to make of the setbacks and delays? Is it a sign that God’s not with us? Did we overreach? Surely, if God was for this, wouldn’t things go more smoothly?

These are questions that I have asked and some of you may have asked. But here’s how I answer the questions and what I want to share with all of you. Struggles come to both those in the center of God’s will and those working directly against God’s will. That things are going smoothly is no guarantee that God is blessing and affirming our decisions or lifestyles.

James was a realist—but a realist with an incredible faith in God. James knew that even our struggles are under the providence of God and that He uses those struggles to build faith and character into our lives.

To use an agricultural metaphor, we are in the soil preparation stage. A farmer could just sow some seeds and hope for the best, but if the farmer carefully tills and prepares his soil, his harvest will be much greater. Right now, we are working the soil, and frankly, I’m tired of it. I can’t wait to teach more, to spend more time in developing programming, and to lead us into hands-on mission. I am ready to plant more seeds, watch them grow, and see the fruit.

Our values and goals are good. We must persevere.

 

Miracles and Magic

Something beyond--beyond facts and figures, beyond scientific explanations and the latest statistics . . . More and more people are searching for something to believe in that goes beyond cold, detached reasoning. Science may have given them the iPhone, but not something more meaningful to hear or to say.

This dissatisfaction with a flat, mechanical, black and white, chance-governed world is a genuine impulse of our God-created human hearts. I see the increasing openness in our culture to the "spiritual", supernatural, or mystical as a great opportunity to help people find that which their hearts have been designed to seek: God.

Yet, as great as the opportunity is, it is also a time of great danger, because starving hearts can be too accepting of all the "spiritual" options on the Great American Spirituality Buffet. Twinkie faiths and processed religions abound, giving some people a short-term "fill" that leads to long-term spiritual anemia.

How do we discern between "spiritualities" that are truly nutritious and those that merely taste good?
While studying for my preaching series in the Book of Acts, I ran across a short article in one commentary by Ben Witherington III on the difference between miracles and magic, since Acts depicts a number of miracles and also addresses issues of magic and sorcery.

Before I go on to list the distinctions, let me reaffirm something: it's a good thing that people are searching for something "beyond". The impulse is good and God-given. People involved in what might be characterized as magic are not to be condemned. Instead, we affirm their desire for something more and gently share with them what we have found to be the true food for the hungry human heart.

Witherington says,

What characterized magic is the attempt through various sorts of rituals and words of power to manipulate some deity or supernatural power into doing the will of the supplicant.

He goes on to list features found in ancient magic:

(1) complicated rituals
(2) magic spells and recipes
(3) the reciting of various names for various gods or even nonsense syllables
(4) the reliance of a professional technician who demands payment and relies on secrecy
(5) syncretism [the mixing of different religions]

The miracles in the Book of Acts are totally different. While "something beyond" is certainly happening, rituals, symbols, and formulas are never used. And when Simon the Great tries to buy the ability to do miracles from Peter, Peter rebukes him sharply: the gifts of God are not for sale. God and his powers cannot be controlled or manipulated.

Another very important point Witherington makes is that the miracles always occurred in an evangelistic context:

"Luke is not interested in miracles for their own sake . . .  but he is interested in them insofar as they punctuate the central message about the spread of the word and the conversion of the various sorts of people that make up the Greco-Roman world. This also means that miracles in Acts are not seen as means of mere benevolence, making a person whole but without changing his or her own worldview, but rather they tend toward the transvaluation of the healed one's values. In Luke's hierarchy of values conversion is the primary value, and others, such as health, are subservient to it. Nevertheless, wholeness, involving the entire person, is a real concern for Luke, and both body and spirit are seen as a part of salvation. (p. 579, The Acts of the Apostles).

So, there are some things on the Great American Spiritual Buffet that may taste good, but will not bring spiritual health, but spiritual disease. How is one able to identify the nutritious from the malnutritious?

Ask yourself these questions: Does it involve complicated rituals? Is there a paid professional technician who requires secrecy? Is it not a part of a larger effort to lead people to Christ? If the answer is "yes" to any of these questions, then one has reason to suspect that the activity is of questionable spiritual nutrition. There is only one trustworthy feast--and it's prepared by our Lord, around his table.

The Suffering Servant

Read Isaiah 52:13-15; Isaiah 53:1-12

As we are preparing ourselves for Good Friday and then Easter, this passage is a must read. For in this passage, we hear how Israel no longer yearns for another King--Israel was fed up with the way their Kings had misguided and betrayed them. Now, Isaiah speaks of one who indeed will change the world, but he will do so in a strange and unanticipated way: he will be a suffering servant.

As you look through the passage, go slowly, very slowly. After each phrase, look for an echo in the New Testament and in the life of Christ.

What connections do you see?

What surprises you most about this passage?

What is the hardest part about reading these words?

What does it do for your faith to see the fulfillment of this passage in the life of Jesus?

More on The Secret

There's still a lot of discussion about The Secret. Here's a very good article.

Fabric of Faithfulness Conclusion

I finished Garber's Fabric of Faithfulness a couple of days ago and feel no need to do any further chapter reviews. What I do feel the need to do is to give some final thoughts.

First, the book caused a lot of welling--the welling up of a grateful heart for having been blessed to have wise mentors and role models during my college years, and to have had college friends to explore the depths of faith together. The eyes welled up to as I thought about how it could have been without those experiences. But they also welled up because the faith integration process within me is still going on--and at a pace slower than I want.

Second, as a pastor who longs for people entrusted to my care to make the connections, I know that an hour a week won't get the job done. A six week confirmation class won't get the job done. So much more is needed. May God help us all figure this out in the congregational context.

Rend the Heavens

In Isaiah 64:1, we read "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!" Isaiah's plea could not have been more heartfelt. He knew the sad history of leadership among God's people, how power unchecked led to corruption time and time again.

During many earlier times of crises in Israel's history, the people clamored for a human leader to rescue them out of their mess. They wanted a king in order to be like all those other "real" nations. So, God gave them what they wished for: human kings that would raise the nation's hopes only to later disappoint.

By Isaiah's time, hope in human leadership had disappeared. Their kings had failed them. Their priests had failed them. And the prophets . . . well, the truth they told got under everyone's skin. Better to get rid of the prophets, than to address the reason for the itch.

Isaiah's Spirit-fired heart knew the nation's hope had to be in God alone--a hope that he would come down and fix the problem himself. So much about Isaiah anticipates Christ's coming.

Read Isaiah 42:1-9 and consider how this passages matches up to the life of Jesus.