Monty Python and the Sermon on the Mount

Posted on January 30, 2017 by Fr. Peter

I am a fan of British comedy. I do not know why, most of the time I do not understand the type of humor, but there is something about it that I guess refreshing. They do not take themselves very serious, and they are not afraid to laugh at themselves. I am especially fond of the comedy of Monty Python. I was introduced to this troupe at a very young age and their comedy; I guess you would say had formed my sense of comedy in my life. From time to time we have to deal with rather serious topics from this pulpit, and we will get to that, but I use Monty Python today as an illustration of how what we think we hear we do not hear.

Without going into a defense of their movie “The Life of Brian” which is a story of a man called Brian, who lives in first century Palestine, and gains attention and a following. All Brian wants is to be left alone, but the harder he struggles, the more people follow him. I will not tell you how the movie ends so I won’t spoil it for you.

So picture this. The opening scene of the film. We are transported to first century Palestine. We are in the desert. It’s hot, lots of sand around, and a large group of people has come together at the foot of a small mound. A top of that mound is a man, dressed in white. Long hair and beard, not uncharacteristic of a man of his age and position. We are not told who the man is, so I will let your imagination run with it. He is speaking “Blessed are this group” and “Blessed is that group.” The camera pulls back through the crowd, back some 50 to one hundred yards. People are straining to hear what is being said and then someone yells out, “Blessed are the cheese makers?” It’s a question; the man is not sure he has heard correctly. Someone, who is dressed in fine linen with a slave boy holding a parasol over his head to shield him from the sun, obvious a man of great importance and learning. The man replies, “It’s not meant to be taken. Literally, he means all manufacturers of dairy products.” It’s much better with a British accent. The crowd seems content with that answer, and they continue to struggle to listen.

Next someone mentions the Greeks and that they are going to inherit the earth. Well, this sets off a fire storm of conversation, why the Greeks? Why not us? Then someone yells out, “the meek,” he said “the meek.” Ah, well that changes things.

The point of this illustration and the point of the scene from the movie is the further away from the actual event you get the more open to interpretation we become. The people listening were a hundred yards away, and they were only getting part of the story, so they filled in the parts that they needed too with what they wanted to hear. They were indeed listening the problem was they were not hearing.

When we approach any passage of scripture, it is important for us to leave our bias at home. This is not an easy task, and yes, we all have bias we are human after all. The Scripture passage we read this morning was spoken by an actual person, Jesus, to a real crowd of people standing in the desert in first century Palestine. But let’s go back a little further in time. Back to another mount and another speech.

Moses stood at the foot of Mount Saini and gazed up. The people who lived at the foot of the mountain believed that the mountain top was where God lived and if the mountain glowed red God was angry. We have all watched the Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston; you know the scene I am talking about. Moses feels a calling to climb this mountain, to see this God they speak of. He arrives to find the bush burning, now we Christian look upon this Bush as an image of the Trinity, but Moses did not know this. God speaks to Moses and gives him the Law written by the very finger of God. The man climbed a mountain to receive the law of God.

Now, standing years later on a dune in the Palestinian Desert is the fulfillment of that law, not some burning bush, but the very, living and breathing Word of God. No longer is this Word contain on stone tablets to be carried around in a golden ark, this living Word of God is to be carried around in the ark of our hearts! And what he is about to share with those listening is how to fulfill that law.

Scholars agree that what we read here in Matthew’s Gospel and also what is written in Luke’s Gospel was not proclaimed at one time but is rather a summation of the teachings of Jesus. Be that as it may, these are still vital words from the Word himself. It is a list of the Blesseds or the Beatitudes, the way of life.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger for righteousness sake, merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those persecuted for righteousness sake, and blessed when people revile you and hate you because of me. We have all been here at one point in time or another.

This chapter goes on to describe those listening as salt but cautions us not to lose our taste. Salt is bitter to the taste but is also an important part of life. Sure low salt is all the rage, but one cannot completely remove salt from one’s diet. When salt, us, loses its taste, faith, we become useless and should be cast out. We cannot lose faith; we must keep fighting for what is just and what is right.

Jesus then makes reference to us being the light of the world. I have used this illustration with you before so it should come as no surprise. We must be that light now more than ever. The forces of darkness are all around us, and we must be the ones that carry the light for justice and mercy for all people regardless of where they are from or what religion they are. Our job, and I have said this before as well, is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted no matter who they are and no matter what color their skin happens to be. Blessed are the merciful, why? Because they will be shown mercy.

To be a flower of Jesus is to work to break down barriers, artificial and physical, between people. We are to work for justice and peace in the world, not just right here, but around the world. Blessed are the peacemakers, why? Because they will be called the children of God. In Verse 42 of this chapter Jesus says, “Give to everyone who begs from you and does not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.”

Give to everyone who begs from you. If someone comes banging on your door in the middle of the night and tells you people are after them and are going to try and hurt them, I hope you would let them come in your home and shelter them and try, as best you can, to assist them. There are people begging at our doors right now, and we have slammed it shut and turned our backs on them, and this is not the first time this has happened. Blessed are the merciful, why? Because they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the peacemakers, why? For they shall be called the children of God!

The end of this chapter Jesus tells those listening, and yes that is us, that we are to love not only our neighbor but we are to love even those who hate us and want us dead. He goes on to say that it is easy to love those who love us back he tells us the reason why we need to do this in verse 48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heaven father is perfect.” To find perfection, we have to love everyone, and that means we have to care for them, help them, seek justice for them, work for mercy for them and treat them as if it was Jesus Christ himself standing right in front of us. Remember what he said, for what you do for the least of these you do it for me!

Friends, where are we in the crowd? Are we close to the front where we hear the words of Jesus clearly? God is still speaking I know this as certain as I know my name, but the question is, are we listening and are we hearing? We listen with our hearts, and we hear with our hearts and with our minds. When we listen and hear God speaking, we will hear His voice on our hearts that will compel us to do what is right, not what is popular, but what is right. Being a follower of Jesus requires risk, it is not safety that we look for when we say yes to Jesus. Mary said yes and that that yes could have cost her her very life. Peter said Jesus and that yes got him crucified upside down in Rome. Countless numbers of people have said yes, and it has cost them dearly, but the crown is worth the cost and the crown is worth the cross!

I know that we all come from different backgrounds and represented in this room are people all along the theological and political spectrum, but this transcends all of that. I hope that whether I have made you happy today or whether you are getting ready to nail me on that cross we can agree that love is the answer, love is, in fact, the only answer. It has to start somewhere so why not let is start right here and right now.

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Why I Still Have Hope

Posted on January 20, 2017 by Fr. Peter

Today is the day, January 20th, 2017, inauguration day when the peaceful transfer of power will take place here in the United States. I will be honest; I was not looking forward to this day. It is my firm belief that Donald Trump represents all that is wrong with America. I was angry at his election, and I was sad, but I got over it.

We had an election and my candidate lost. I should say, candidates, since I voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary and Hillary Clinton in the general election. So I guess that makes me a two-time loser. We had an election and at 12:01 pm today we will witness the peaceful transition of power. At the same time, in the African country of Gambia, the former president, who conceded the election, refuses to leave office and the military has now been called in. Although President Obama and President-Elect Trump stand on opposite sides of the political spectrum, the power will transfer peacefully, and the sun will rise tomorrow.

I will not join the chorus of people who call Mr. Trump’s election illegitimate. I will not join in on the whole Russia got Trump elected nonsense. Maybe all of that will prove to be true, and there is a process in place to deal with that when and if it happens, that it how we do things in America. We have survived bad presidents, we have survived numerous wars, including a Civil War. We endured the Great Depression and many recessions, and we survived the worst terrorist attack on our nation on that morning in September of 2001. What makes America great is what we are witnessing today.

I will also not join in the chorus of people who say Trump is not my president. I am an American; I spent most of my adult life in the United States Army defending what we see today. Like it or not, Donald Trump will be the President of the United States and as such, will be my president.

I will also not join the chorus of people who say they will treat Donald Trump with the same respect that some in the GOP treated Mr. Obama. There needs to be an end to opposition simply because the president is from the other side. Loyal opposition opposes what they feel is wrong based on the needs of the country not just the needs of the party. We need a sense of doing what is right not just what is popular.

But, I support people’s rights to boycott the inauguration, they have to do what they feel is right and it happens every four years. I was not going to watch today, but I decided that I had too, this is a historic moment not only in the history of the United States but the history of the world. After all, we have been through as a country; we are still here.

Do I hope Donald Trump fails, on some things I certainly do? I hope his planned Muslim registry fails, I hope his wall across the Mexican border fails, I hope his plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement fails, and I hope his tax breaks for the rich fail. I hope many of his sections for Cabinet positions do not get confirmed, but do I hope Donald Trump fails; I do not. Do I hope he is a one term President? Yes, I do, but I do not want any physical harm to come upon him nor do I hope he fails. For America to succeed, everyone needs to work together.

But let me be very clear, I will resist the policies of President Trump with every fiber of my being on the issues that I feel need opposing. This is what the opposition does, it is what the Tea Party did the last eight years, and it is now what we will do the next four years. My faith drives me to care for those less fortunate and to be their voice, and that is what I have done, and I will continue to do. I did not always agree with the opposition these last eight years, but they have their beliefs, and I have mine, again, that is what has made America great.

Yesterday, Mr. Trump tweeted in all caps “the movement continues – the work begins!” He is right, the opposition movement continues, and the work of resistance begins.

So why do I have hope? I have hope because America is bigger than any one person or political party. I have hope because there is opposition, and I have hope because I have to have hope, I will not give up on America!

As I finish writing this, all of the players have assembled at the Capital, and the prayers have just started by the various religious leaders that have been invited. I offer my prayer for you, as I will for the next four years. Celebrate today, and get to work tomorrow for I will be watching.

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Christian Scholarship in the Age of Trump

Posted on January 20, 2017 by Fr. Peter

Messiah College history professor John Fea drew my attention to an article by Scott Culpepper who teaches history at Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa on the subject of Christian Scholarship in the Age of Donald Trump. Scholarship has always been important but, in the age of fake news, scholarship is going to become crucial.

Since religion played such a significant role in this past election, it will be important that a moral voice remains active in the years that come. Reminders of our Christian responsibility to love one another and to care for one another and creation will be needed. The Evangelical voice that aided in the election of Mr. Trump is not my Christian witness and will continue to make my voice heard.

I am undecided if I will participate in the local march here in Boston the day after the inauguration. I firmly believe in protest, and that it does, in fact, change things, I am just not sure this particular march is for me. I was recently reminded that those of us who write also protest, and so I will continue to use these pages, and others, to voice my opposition to the policies of the Trump administration.

Here is just a selection from the article, follow to end for a link to the rest.

The times call for renewed conviction, creativity and courage on the part of Christian scholars. The masses may not know they need us, but they need us. The endorsement of popular influence as a virtue in the framing of our American republic was predicated on the hope that education and character formation would equip people to exercise their rights intelligently. No one is better prepared than Christian scholars and the institutions they serve to provide this kind of education infused with serious attention to character formation.

In a time when forces abound that pressure Christian scholars to adopt a posture of compliance to fit in, we need more than ever to stand up and stand out unapologetically. All clouds pass in time. When they do, a new generation will build on either the ruins or the foundations of the past. That generation sits in our classrooms today. We have the opportunity to model something very different from what they are seeing on the national stage in both church and state. May Christian scholars in the age of Trump have the courage to give the masses what benefits them rather than what has been mandated in their name.

The Rest

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Dianna Butler Bass, Grounded: Part 2

Posted on January 18, 2017 by Fr. Peter

In Part 1 of this series, I opined on the question of where is God as raised in the book Grounded by Diana Butler Bass. In this part, I will explore dirt, yes dirt, since it is so central to the human condition and creation itself. I continued to be amazed at the depth with which Bass writes and how she not only makes one think but makes one think differently about everything including the very nature of creation.

The chapter about dirt makes up a trilogy of chapters in the first part of the book that centers on our understanding or lack of understanding as I found out, about our natural world. Water and sky will be dealt with in subsequent chapters of the book, but for now, we turn our attention to dirt.

Before moving back to the city I maintained, poorly might I add, a small garden behind the house where I was living. Each spring I would make my way out to the garden plots and work the dirt. I was once corrected that dirt is what you get under your fingernails, soil is what we plant things in. I quickly learned that that dirt I was using was not great. Sure things would grow, but the plants would not reach their full potential, and when you are growing for food this becomes necessary. The dirt needs to be worked, it need have the sun’s warmth beating on it, and it needs some amenities added to it. So the dirt needs to be studied to find out just what it needs, but once the secret is unlocked, boom, stuff starts to take off.

Bass reminds us that there are two creation stories in the Book of Genesis that look very different. In the first story, humanity is created last, but in the second story, humanity is created right after the waters rise, and clay can be formed. In both stories humanity is created out of the soil, or dirt, that is right there. All that is needed for our creation is present, and God fashions humanity from those essential elements. We are primarily dirt!

Dirt is essential to life! Sure technology now exists to grow plants in soilless environments, but that is the exception to the rule rather than the norm. I grew things in the dirt, the dirt nourished the plants and provided stability, for the most part, for the plants that were growing. Dirt provided me with nourishment for my body and dirt provided the elements necessary for God to create humanity.

In the time of Jesus, the people were farmers, shepherds, and fisherman, for the most part, they made their living off the land. Jesus stepfather, Joseph, was a carpenter and the wood he used for the building came from trees that grew in the dirt, dirt was essential to their everyday life. There are several examples of Jesus using dirt to illustrate a point.

In one story, Jesus encounters a blind man. To heal this man, Jesus stoops down, spits in the dirt, and makes clay that he puts on the man’s eyes. He then tells him to wash in the ceremonial pool. The dirt was used as the vehicle for the healing, perhaps it was a poultice or something along those lines, but using the basic elements of creation, as related in the second chapter of Genesis, water, and dirt, Jesus restored the man’s sight.

In the parable of the sower, Jesus reminds those listening that the condition of the soil was essential if the seed was going to grow. Too hard and the seed will bounce off, to soft, and the seed will drown. All the necessary elements must be present for the seed to take root and grow to its full potential. Now this story is not about gardening tips, the dirt is us, and the seed is the word, as Jesus explains, but just as the soil conditions need to be right for plants to grow so does the soil of our humanity. If our soil is too hard the seed, the word of God will just bounce off. The soil needs to be worked by a skilled gardener, and we have to allow that gardener to work the soil that is inside each one of us.

Returning to this idea of the creation of humanity Bass quotes theologian Norman Wirzba from his book Making Peace with the Land: God’s Call to Reconcile with Creation.

“God fashions the first human being by taking the dust of the ground into his hands, holding it so close that it can share in the divine breath, and inspiring it with the freshness of life. It is only as the ground is suffused with God’s intimate, breathing presence that human life – along with the life of trees and animals and birds – is possible at all. God draws near to the earth and then animates it from within.”

What the image is drawn from this quote is a loving creator that cares for creation. This is an intimate scene of creator and creation sharing in life, built from the very elements of that creation. The creator fashioned humanity out of creation itself and then placed that humanity as the caretaker of the very creation humanity was part of. Caring for each other means caring for the creation we were created from!

Humanity has a cosmic relationship with the dirt and an intimate relationship that makes us human. This chapter has taught me many things, but the most basic of them is that I need to get my hands back in the dirt and work that dirt, so it becomes fertile. Not only the dirt in my backyard but the dirt of my mind.

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Sharing in Christ’s Baptism

Posted on January 16, 2017 by Fr. Peter

I have called this sermon “Sharing in Christ’s Baptism” as a sort of a way to illustrate what is happening in the Scripture passage we heard read this morning. Let’s set the stage here a bit. In the previous passages, we have Jesus coming to the Jordan River to be baptized by John, who also happens to be Jesus’ cousin. John was a few months older than John and no doubt they knew each other and perhaps even hung out together. Although they were on different paths and even from different classes, John’s father was a priest while Jesus’ father was a carpenter.

In today’s passage, the story picks up as Jesus is walking and he is spotted by John. Now John was standing with several of his disciples, and he tells then that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah they have long been waiting for. This is an interesting bit here, John says, in verse 31 “I myself did not know him.” How can this be? Jesus is John’s cousin, after all, how could he not know him? Well, he knew him of course, but he did not know what he was. Until John saw the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, descend upon him, it had not been revealed to John what his cousin was, the Messiah, and the Son of God.

So what is baptism? In the Statement of Faith, we read each Communion Sunday we read that “He (God) calls us into His Church… to share in Christ’s baptism and eat at his table.” So baptism is a way of calling us into the church. Our church recognizes two Sacraments, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. These actions are outward and visible signs of the Grace of God in our lives. Through baptism, the person is joined with the universal Church, the Body of Christ. Through Baptism God works in us the power of forgiveness and the renewal of the Spirit. So we become a new creation, not in the physical sense but the spiritual sense. This new life is the life of discipleship with Christ.

So Baptism then marks us as members of the Body of Christ, it is the first step in discipleship in the Church. At the service of baptism, our parents promised to instruct us in the word of God and by their example to teach us the principles of the Christian religion, to pray with us, and to rear us up in the fellowship of the Church. But the community present also makes some promises. “Do you, the members of this church as of the whole Church of Christ, receive this child into your love and care, and do you promise that so far as in you lies you will uphold and encourage the parents in the fulfillment of their covenant?” To which we all answer “We Do.” We agree to assist them and support them.

Baptism calls us to discipleship; we become new people, set aside for the work of God in our lives. When Jesus was baptized by John, it was the beginning of his public ministry. In a sense, it was the public acknowledgment of what Jesus had come to do, and it was the public acknowledgment that he was ready to begin his ministry. In baptism, we die to our former selves, and we rise to be new creations willing to do the work of God in the world. But there is a cost to being a disciple.

In 1937 Germany had become a very secular state. People had stopped going to church, and there was a growing amount of anger amongst the populace and between the classes. There was an increasing feeling that Germany had been treated poorly at the end of the First World War and she was coming of age again. Hitler and his party were on the rise, and things were about to change, drastically in Germany. Into this period came a Lutheran Pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer who wrote this little book called the Cost of Discipleship. Bonhoeffer was hoping to spark a revolution, not a political revolution but a spiritual revolution. Bonhoeffer could see the direction his beloved Germany was heading, and he was hoping to change the course. Bonhoeffer was calling people back to the spiritual life, not necessarily Church life, but the spiritual life.

Bonhoeffer believed, as did I, that there is a cost to being a follower or a disciple of Christ. I don’t just mean that we have to give up an hour or so on Sunday and come to Church; there is a cost to our very lives if we are going to be authentic followers of Jesus Christ. Again I turn to our Statement of Faith, turn to the back page of the hymnal with me; it is the sixth statement:

“He (meaning God) call us into his Church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be his servants in the service of men (this means love your neighbor), to proclaim the gospel to all the world (this is done by how we live our lives outside of the Church, and how we live it inside the Church) and resist the powers of evil, to share in Christ’s baptism and eat at his table, to join him in his passion and victory.”

It is right there is the second line, “to accept the COST and joy of discipleship.”

For Bonhoeffer, this being called to true discipleship would cost him his life, not so much for what he was preaching, but his preaching led him to action to resist what he saw as evil, Adolph Hitler, and was part of a group that was plotting to assassinate Hitler. Bonhoeffer felt so strong that the only way to resist evil was to chop off the head of evil after all other options had failed them, and that would render evil harmless. For this, he gave his life. That was the cost of grace for Bonhoeffer, but that may not be the cost of grace for us.

But the other side of this was what Bonhoeffer called Cheap Grace. He defined Cheap Grace this way:

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

Cheap Grace requires nothing! No confession, no cross, no discipleship. Cheap Grace means we can say we belong to the Church, we come to Church, we pay it lip service, but it costs us nothing. We take no chances, we stand for nothing, we support nothing, and we do not live out the Great Commission to preach the Gospel and to make disciples. Cheap Grace is just that Cheap.

Costly Grace means we have to confront evil wherever that may be. Costly Grace means we have to take a stand, even when that means we stand alone. Costly Grace means we care more about what is outside the Church building than what is inside. Costly Grace means we see Church not just as a building but as the People of God. Costly Grace means we have to love those who are unlovable. Costly Grace means we have to die to our will and take on the will of God; this is what Jesus did that day in the Jordan River he died to his human will and he be said yes to God’s call. He received the grace of God, and that grace cost him his life spiritually but also physically.

In his book “Confessing our Faith, Roger Shinn writes about the Statement of Faith. Shinn was one of the authors of the original Statement of Faith adopted in 1959. In the chapter that deals with this section of the Statement he writes the following:

“It was a costly mission. Jesus lured nobody with promises of prestige or affluent living. At least once he rebuffed an enthusiast who thought he wanted to follow Jesus but did not realize what a radical venture he was about to walk into. Discipleship meant discipline, commitment, and danger. According to tradition, the first twelve disciples (excepting Judas Iscariot) became martyrs for Christ.”

There is a cost to becoming authentic followers of Jesus Christ. If our faith costs us nothing, then it is not genuine, and we are just paying it lip service. As followers of Jesus Christ, we have to be willing to die to our will. We have to admit that maybe the way we have been doing things is the wrong way. We have to be willing to trust that God knows what is best for our lives. We have to be willing to stop judging others and start loving them. We have to be willing to speak for those on the margins and maybe sacrifice all that we have for them, not only a church community but personally. We have to be willing as a church community but also as individuals to speak the truth to power and stand up for what is right not just for what is popular. We have to be willing to lay it all on the line and expect nothing in return.

I recently watch the movie “Entertaining Angels.” The movie is a depiction of the life of Dorothy Day who found, along with many others, the Catholic Worker Movement in New York City during the time of the Great Depression. Her ministry fed, clothed, and housed people at a time in our history when all hope had been lost, and she did this in the face of adversity. Her life was threatened, she faced massive fines by the government, and her own Church told her she had to shut down operations or take the word “Catholic” out of their name because she was helping those who needed help. She refused and kept on going. She landed in jail a few times, but she kept on serving those who needed to be served to sacrifice her will to that of God. She lived the Gospel every day.

Tomorrow our nation will pause to remember another servant who gave his life for what he believed in. Dr. Martin Luther King. King gave us an example of speaking truth to power and his constant message of love and equality would eventually cause a change in the very fabric of our nation. It was not easy, and it still is not easy, but Dr. King sacrificed his life, as did many others, to make life better for someone else.

We are not all called to be Dorothy Day, and we are not all called to be Dr. King, but we are all called to sacrifice our lives for something greater than ourselves. Being followers of Jesus is costly, but it is also joyous. He is calling each of today as he called those first followers. He is calling us to follow him, and he will show us the way.

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Diana Butler Bass, Grounded: Part 1

Posted on January 13, 2017 by Fr. Peter

I have a bit of a confession. I have just started to read Grounded by Dianna Butler Bass. I know it came out last year, and yes it has been sitting on my shelf since my advanced ordered copy arrived, but I have just begun to read the book and I have to say, and I am only 26 pages in, I am blown away. As a way for me to wrap my head around what she is saying, I hope to write a series of reflections on each chapter. I cannot guarantee that these will come with any regularity since I cannot get past the introduction, but I am going to try.

In the introduction, Bass asks the question where is God? As one who works in fire chaplaincy as well as disaster ministry, I have heard this question asked on many occasions. In fact, I have asked this question on many occasions. However, what Bass is asking us to do is to think about the question of where God is in a horizontal rather than a vertical way. Let me try to explain.

In my Roman Catholic theology, which I call theology 1.0, and my Eastern Orthodox theology, which I call theology 2.0 I was taught that God was in heaven, which was above the clouds, and the evil one resided below the earth in the lake of fire. Humanity existed in-between here on earth, and the church was the mediator between humanity and either up into the clouds or down into the lake of fire. So this is vertical theology, it is a straight line if you will. We even have the image of the cross to illustrate this. The cross is pounded into the ground and stretches upward to heaven with Jesus in the middle. Even the way we think of the realms of good and evil there is the illustration. Heaven is up in the fluffy clouds and hell is below the dirt.

So in my now Reformed theology, which I will call theology 3.0, I am being asked to look at this relationship in a different way, horizontally. Bass is suggesting that God is not in some far off place but rather God is right here with us in our everyday lives of ups and downs. God is not some tyrant that gets his jollies over tormenting his creation but God is with us as we experience the ups and down of our lives and God shares these with us. Yes God was present in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. God was present in Connecticut after Sandy Hook; God was present in Charleston at the Mother Emmanuel AME Church. God was present with creation.

So this begs the question if God was there why didn’t God stop it? Well for the same reason God did not start it. This idea of why God did not stop it is where I still need some head wrapping and why for the past three days I have not been able to get past page 26. I have to divorce my thoughts from the vertical sense of things, this idea that God required the death of his Son exact payment for some eons old blood feud. So, for now, I am sticking with God is here, right here, with all of the creation. Not controlling things, but walking alongside and feeling what we feel. Yes, I said it, God has feelings!

I know the argument, and I understand that the more we try and explain God using our human terms the more we box God in and that is something we simply cannot do. But I like to think that God has the same experience that I do and that way can comfort me in those times.

There have been many times in my life that I have felt the presence of God in such a powerful way. This presence came in thought, or a song, perhaps even another person, but no matter what the medium I sensed the very powerful presence of God. There were also times when I felt the absence of God, the cold, sometimes scary feeling that I was alone. Perhaps the way Jesus felt hanging on the cross when asked why God had abandoned him. Well God did not abandon Jesus on the Cross nor did he abandon me in my dark times, I just could not feel God’s presence, not because of something God did or did not do, but because I was so mired down in my stuff I had shut God out. God was still very present I just refused to acknowledge God’s presence in my life.

I have often said that as much as the Reformation was necessary it throughout the baby with the bath water and there are some of the past that needs to be reclaimed; Mysticism is one of them. Bass quotes from John 10:30 here, “the father and I are one.” Sure we have used this passage to describe the Trinity, and it rightly does, but it also describes the mystical relationship of Jesus with God this “connection and intimacy” as Bass describes it of us, humanity, and our God. Again this is only possible if we understand that God is not located on some far off cloud but right here, sitting next to me as I write these words, as well as with me in the dark places of my life. What Bass is speaking of here is “Divine Nearness.”

“When the Bible is read from the perspective of divine nearness, it becomes clear that most prophets, poets, and preachers are particularly worried about religious institutions and practices that perpetuate the gap between God and humanity, making the divine unapproachable or cordoned off behind cadres of priestly mediators, whose interest is in exercising their power as brokers of salvation.” Grounded, Page 13

It is my belief that this is what the reformers had in mind. God does not just exist in the Holy of Holies, in fact, I think Jesus showed us that when he was born! God does not just exist in the walls of the church, and the priest or minister is not the only one to guide us towards salvation. However, we define that. We need to regain this sense of a divine closeness.

In my book, Listening to the Heartbeat of God, I use the image of the Apostle John, the one Jesus loved, leaning against the chest of Jesus at the last supper listening to his heartbeat. As John reclined against Jesus, ear pressed to his chest; he could hear the heartbeat of Jesus, the very heartbeat of God. There is an intimacy here, a closeness with the divine that we need to recapture is our world.

God is all around us and desires that we know him as much as well as he knows us.

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The Nature of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit

Posted on January 11, 2017 by Fr. Peter

Editors Note: This reflection is taken from a theological paper that was written as partial fulfillment of the requirements to gain standing in the United Church of Christ. Over the next few weeks I will be posting highlights from that paper.

a. God: Creation, Providence, Judgement, and Grace

God is the creator of all and as such everything that is created is inherently good and it reveals the very image and nature of God. I used to think that things had a definite order to them and that there was absolute right and there was absolute wrong. The Orthodox theology I learned did not leave any gray area and was a theology of absolutes. Spiritually I have a different view of things, and as much as I like to put things into little boxes and categories, this is not the case in reality. Our God does not wish to condemn us but seeks to love us and asks that we love him back. God desires that we all know the way, and we find that way through his Son.

God is absolute perfection and absolute love and has promised us that we will have eternal life.

I often think that our particular theological position gets in the way of seeing the great mystery of God; we have to have everything figured out. But I am coming to love the mystery and not needing to know all the answers. It has been said that “God moves in mysterious ways” and I have been witness to that mystery first hand. God’s judgment is grace-filled and hopefilled; God offers us forgiveness and redemption, peace and justice, reconciliation and deliverance.

I had this vision of God as this old man with a long white beard sitting on a throne smiting people, but now I know that God’s love is redemptive, and God works to heal us and our relationships through love. I have often said that the entire message of the Gospel is love, well the whole work of redemption is love, and it is sacrificial and unconditional.

b. Person of Christ: Incarnation, Atonement, Salvation, and Resurrection

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” John 1:14. God sent Jesus Christ to take on humanity: sometimes I have a difficult time wrapping my head around this thought. The one who created all things became a creation! This is the supreme act of love, the love of God for creation. God did this to heal the world’s wounds caused by our selfishness our hatred, violence, injustice, and divisiveness. There is no promise that the world would be freed from suffering or evil but that a new way would be shown to us as a new way of living with God in and through

2. Jesus Christ.

“Christ did not come to condemn the world, but to save it.” Romans 8:1. Jesus came to offer life and to fulfill the promise of God to humanity; this was not a plan to allow evil but a way for an intimate relationship between the creator and creation. There is a commitment to care and love that comes through the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and a willingness of the creator to enter into our vulnerability and suffering as a way of redemption.

God’s atonement is a way or reordering the chaos as well as suffering and evil. God’s love overpowered evil, death did not win; the stone was rolled away, and after the long dark night morning came and we saw the brilliant light of the resurrection. The death of Jesus gave us a way, a new way for humanity to be reconciled to God and gave us hope of our salvation and redemption. The atonement provides the path and the example for forgiveness and love through grace.

3. Holy Spirit: Revelation and Scripture

The Scriptures offer us a way to learn about the nature of God and how we follow God and the desires that God has for us in our lives. Scriptures connect us with our ancestors in faith so we understand their story and how they lived their lives also as examples of God’s grace and love in the world. I am of the opinion that the Scriptures were written by individuals to promote their own limited understanding of the world around them and their evolving spiritual belief.

However, many of the authors were severely limited by their tribal culture and by their lack of scientific knowledge. The Holy Spirit helps us to discern in our lives how God speaks to us and works in and through us. The Scriptures invite us to be part of the story of God’s redemptive love and seen through the lives of the people of history. But we have to constantly remind ourselves that the Bible was written some 2,000 years ago and has a place in history and we need to understand that history to fully grasp what was going on at the time. We see God mystery in the Scriptures, and we need to allow room for grace to work in our lives and for revelation to come, through the Holy Spirit, to guide us.

One of the things that drew me to the United Church of Christ was this sense that “God is still speaking.” My previous theological understanding was that God has said all that he is going to say. The Scriptures are the final scene in the movie of creation, and that is all. I do not believe that to be the case; God is still speaking and moving, and we need to be open to the unfolding nature of God and what God has to say to all of us.

I was once asked if the Apostles knew the entire story of what was going to happen. Did Mary, the Mother of Jesus know what was going to happen? My answer was it was revealed to them as they grew in their faith and we need to be open to the challenge of Scripture and God’s revelation and we need to accept the invitation to serve God and help to change the world.

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Predictions of the Future Church

Posted on January 9, 2017 by Fr. Peter

As a follow-up to my last post, I am reaching back to a post from February of 2015 written by pastor and blogger Carey Nieuwhof. I mentioned in previous posts that one of the jobs of pastors in the 21st century is to be able to read the trends and try to stay ahead of the curve of shifts in the social fabric of the community in which we serve.

In this essay, Carey states that the gathered church is here to stay and I believe that. Recently I was asked about the future of the church and my role in it. I stated, quite emphatically, that I think the brick and mortar church will always be with us, but it is going to look much different in the next decade than it does now. The church of the next decade is going to be smaller, leaner, and ready to take on the world. However, we will also need to come up with alternatives to the Sunday morning worship serve that many of us grew up with.

The other point being made is that consumer church, this is the church where we ask the question about “what can we get out of church?” and “what’s in it for me?” will change. Carey rightly points out that the entire idea behind the Christian message is that we die to ourselves, but we cannot do that of we try and make it all about us. If you are in search for a church that meets your needs you are doing it wrong. The church and church members need to focus more on what is outside the walls of the church rather than what is inside.

Points eight and nine of the essay were remarkable considering when the article was written. These points deal with the online church and community. I agree that the online community will not replace the face to face community we endeavor to create, but it will supplement what we are presently doing. As church leaders, we need to get past this idea that meaningful ministry can only take place face to face. The next generation is online, and we need to be online.

Read the Article Here

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Thom Rainer’s Major Trends for 2017

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Fr. Peter

The church of the 21st century is going to require pastors to acquire a new set of tools. The church, and by that I mean all churches, has never been very good at reading the trends in society. Sure we can yell and stop our feet that the church should influence society but that ship has sailed. Pastors need to be equipped to look at such things as demographics shifts and sociological studies of their neighborhoods. Nothing beats boots on the ground work but they days of opening the church doors and watching the people flood in are gone, for good. I do not think the brick and mortar church will ever completely go away, but the church of the next five to ten years is going to be radically different than it is today.

Church leadership blogger Thom Rainer has listed his major trends that the church needs to be aware of and focused on and we start to move through 2017. How the church responds, not reacts but responds, to these trends will determine the future of the church and the effectiveness of the church. The time to start watching these trends was yesterday, so we are already behind the curve a little.

One of the interesting points is this idea of multi-site churches. Multi-site could be a way for multiple churches to come together to share resources such as pastoral staff. Rather than merge churches, where ultimately one church loses its identity, why not cluster for lack of a better term. Multi-site is a trend that bears watching.

Read the rest here

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Live Long and Prosper: The Spirituality of Star Trek

Posted on January 4, 2017 by Fr. Peter

On Christmas night I was looking for something to watch. I had my fill of Christmas movies, which seem to start earlier and earlier each year, so I needed something different. I was cruising through Netflix, and I came across the documentary, “For the Love of Spock.” Now I fancy myself a Trekkie but I admit I had not heard about this documentary made by Leonard Nimoy’s Son. The film is a beautiful tribute to a father from a son, but it is also a glimpse into the mind of the man that took us to the stars and back.

I do not always look for links between spirituality and movies, but I always felt that the Star Trek universe was very spiritual. The Prime Directive always seemed like the Love Your Neighbor bit, and there always appeared to be this general way of dealing with the spirituality of others. But very often, especially in the Star Trek movies and later series, Mr. Spock was often depicted at prayer. As more was revealed about the people of Vulcan the more of the Vulcan spirituality was revealed.

But I was the most fascinated with Leonard Nimoy’s discussion of how the Vulcan greeting was created for the program. Nimoy felt that there needed to be some greeting that would be exchanged between Vulcans that was more than a wave or simply saying “hi” as one passed by. Nimoy, who speaks Yiddish, harkened back to a time and place of his childhood for the creation of the now famous “Vulcan Salute.”

The now famous “V” of the salute comes from the shape of the Hebrew letter shin. Shin is the first letter of such Hebrew words as Shaddai, the name of God. For Shalom and for Shekhinah which is the feminine aspect of God who was created to live among humans. Not unlike Spock who was an “alien” but lived among humans.

But the Shekhinah is also the name of a prayer that Nimoy witnessed as a young boy. In a 2013 interview, he describes experiencing this prayer for the first time.

“They get their tallits over their heads, and they start this chanting. And my father said to me, ‘don’t look.'” At first, he obliged, but what he could hear intrigued him. “I thought, ‘something major is happening here.’ So I peeked. And I saw them with their hands stuck out from beneath the tallit like this,” Nimoy said, showing the “V” with both his hands. “I had no idea what was going on, but the sound of it and the look of it was magical.”

The men holding their hands in the “V” shape were, in fact, blessing the assembled people while they were praying. Below is a video clip from the interview. Listen to Nimoy describe the creation of the Vulcan Salute in his words.